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After 76 years on the job, it’s time to retire!
Rain poured down outside and it was colder than it should be for late March. This was the kind of day that I might not have gone to work. My bed felt so-o-o good, but the story I was assigned to do was of Arthur Winston, a man who, on his 100th birthday, was just retiring after 76 years on the job with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
During that time Winston had missed only 1 day of work. So I slung my feet from under the covers, hit the floor, stood, stretched and thought about all of the things in 76 years that might have stood in the way of Arthur Winston going to work --torrential rains, blackouts, riots, mudslides, earthquakes.
Regardless Winston went to work. I looked in the mirror and said “Shame on you” to myself. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” I slapped my face.
I felt it was an honor to give readers a look into the life of a man like Winston, who started cleaning trolley cars for the for the Los Angeles Railway Co., which morphed and merged until it finally became the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. No matter what you feel about your job, you’ve got to love this guy.
West Virginia is Wild and Wonderful too!
I am one of those New Yorkers who seldom goes outside Manhattan. Walking on grass in Central Park is about as close as I come to getting out in nature.
I certainly never would have gone to the mountains if this woman I wanted to date said that she would date me if on our first date I took her to Harper’s Ferry.
I would have flown with her to Rome paying all expenses. I would have taken her to Paris, but on the first date between the Diva of all Divas and the city guy of all city guys we dropped over a hill on highway 9 out near the place where Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia meet and saw one of the most beautiful vista I had ever seen.
Preparing for the trip I had read the slogans of these “country bumpkin” states -- More Than You Can Imagine for Maryland, Wild and Wonderful for West Virginia and Virginia is for Lovers, but I had applied the slogans to the time we were going to have making love. I didn’t know that the slogans would mean rafting, tubing, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, biking and rock climbing –Give me a break.
Diamonds - fake is just as good; and in some ways better.
The songs says: "there’s nothing like the real thing, babee. . ." but with diamonds "fake" might be better –socially and politically in the diamond mining regions of the world.
Of course fake is a bad word, but attach the word faux to simulated, or lab-created diamonds and you’re good to go. A lot of people are wearing them. When a presenter at this year's Oscar ceremonies announces: "and the winner is . . ." the person who comes to the stage might well be wearing faux diamonds." There’s no way to tell says Peter Winslow, who has worked for jewelry companies for more than 45 years in the San Francisco area.
“They’ve gotten the process so perfected that only a trained eye can tell the difference between the two and then you might have to use a microscope or a jeweler's loupe."
Many things, natural and created, are here for our happiness. We’ll bring stories about these enjoyable things just to show how wonderful it can be to be alive.