by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Today marks the end of my first decade writing Pa Rock's Ramble, an effort that I began on November 4th, 2007, shortly after moving to Phoenix, Arizona, while I was looking for a mental challenge to occupy my evening time. During the ensuing ten years, I have posted something almost every day, and multiples on many days, with today's posting being number 3,768. (I tried skipping occasional days early on, but Tim, my youngest son, would always telephone and check on me when there was no daily entry - so I decided it was less bother to just get something posted!)
The first blog article was entitled "Obama '08!," and I used it to discuss why I lean strongly toward the Democratic Party and why my preference for the 2008 nomination was Senator Barack Obama over the front runner at the time, Senator Hillary Clinton. Obama went on to capture the nomination, and he won the presidency exactly one year after that first blog posting appeared. Over the intervening decade I have written many positive pieces about Barack Obama and his family - and I am still not a fan of Hillary - a fact for which I take regular criticism from some readers of this blog.
The early blog postings contained what I refer to as "writing scraps," things that had been stuffed in desk drawers gathering dust over the years. There are some sonnets and other poetry that I had written hidden among the earlier entries, along with a few original short stories. My "Rusty Pails" collection featuring the adventures of the bard of Sprung Hinge, USA, and his ne'er-do-well buddies made it into The Ramble along with several new episodes that revealed themselves to me over the years. There are more that fifty odes to Rusty and the gang scattered around in this blog. I also included some assignments that I wrote in grad school including a couple of book reviews - and several articles that I published in national historical and genealogical journals.
At one time during the early years of the blog I began penning a fictitious account of a homeless man living under my mobile home in Phoenix. I meant it to be humorous and obviously fictional, but it threw two of my children into panic mode! (As if I couldn't handle a derelict sleeping under my house!) There were lots of other grins along the way!
The blog also became home to some letters to my children and grandchildren, especially on their birthdays, as well as several remembrances to friends that I have made and cherished over the years. Some of my favorites include memorials to my parents, sketches of the lives of my maternal grandparents, and remembrances of old friends like Lee Nida, Fred Blue, and my best friend of a lifetime - James S. Carroll.
I wrote this blog from a hospital in Amarillo, Texas, every day for a couple of weeks as members of our family gathered around the bedside of my nephew, Reed Smith, after he was nearly killed in a car wreck on New Year's Eve in 2009, a wreck in which his father, Bob Smith was killed.
Over the years this effort followed me along to several states beyond Arizona including Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Indiana, and Alaska. It has been typed on foreign soil as well in places like Okinawa, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Guam, Canada, and Cuba. Most of those overseas postings occurred without incident, but once, when I tried to get on the blog at a U.S. Army hotel in Seoul, South Korea, I was denied access because the army deemed my blog a "hate" site! That was rich, I thought, coming from the army!
Ten years have flown by and this would probably be a good time to retire the effort - and some days it is a major effort! But I think I will give it ten more years just to see if I begin to mellow. The first step in that process will be living beyond the god-awful Trump presidency!
Thanks for the feedback over the years, positive and otherwise. It was always heartening to see a response to something I had written and know that somebody was out there reading my efforts and reacting. Also, I really enjoyed making so many new friends through this blog. You all are a diverse and very spirited group!
So, bear with me as I keep typing - and be sure to check in tomorrow as I begin the second decade of Pa Rock's Ramble with an introduction Miss Patti, the best thing to happen to my life in the past several decades - or forever! She is slowly but surely turning me into a human being!
My very best to you all!
Citizen Journalist
Today marks the end of my first decade writing Pa Rock's Ramble, an effort that I began on November 4th, 2007, shortly after moving to Phoenix, Arizona, while I was looking for a mental challenge to occupy my evening time. During the ensuing ten years, I have posted something almost every day, and multiples on many days, with today's posting being number 3,768. (I tried skipping occasional days early on, but Tim, my youngest son, would always telephone and check on me when there was no daily entry - so I decided it was less bother to just get something posted!)
The first blog article was entitled "Obama '08!," and I used it to discuss why I lean strongly toward the Democratic Party and why my preference for the 2008 nomination was Senator Barack Obama over the front runner at the time, Senator Hillary Clinton. Obama went on to capture the nomination, and he won the presidency exactly one year after that first blog posting appeared. Over the intervening decade I have written many positive pieces about Barack Obama and his family - and I am still not a fan of Hillary - a fact for which I take regular criticism from some readers of this blog.
The early blog postings contained what I refer to as "writing scraps," things that had been stuffed in desk drawers gathering dust over the years. There are some sonnets and other poetry that I had written hidden among the earlier entries, along with a few original short stories. My "Rusty Pails" collection featuring the adventures of the bard of Sprung Hinge, USA, and his ne'er-do-well buddies made it into The Ramble along with several new episodes that revealed themselves to me over the years. There are more that fifty odes to Rusty and the gang scattered around in this blog. I also included some assignments that I wrote in grad school including a couple of book reviews - and several articles that I published in national historical and genealogical journals.
At one time during the early years of the blog I began penning a fictitious account of a homeless man living under my mobile home in Phoenix. I meant it to be humorous and obviously fictional, but it threw two of my children into panic mode! (As if I couldn't handle a derelict sleeping under my house!) There were lots of other grins along the way!
The blog also became home to some letters to my children and grandchildren, especially on their birthdays, as well as several remembrances to friends that I have made and cherished over the years. Some of my favorites include memorials to my parents, sketches of the lives of my maternal grandparents, and remembrances of old friends like Lee Nida, Fred Blue, and my best friend of a lifetime - James S. Carroll.
I wrote this blog from a hospital in Amarillo, Texas, every day for a couple of weeks as members of our family gathered around the bedside of my nephew, Reed Smith, after he was nearly killed in a car wreck on New Year's Eve in 2009, a wreck in which his father, Bob Smith was killed.
Over the years this effort followed me along to several states beyond Arizona including Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Indiana, and Alaska. It has been typed on foreign soil as well in places like Okinawa, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Guam, Canada, and Cuba. Most of those overseas postings occurred without incident, but once, when I tried to get on the blog at a U.S. Army hotel in Seoul, South Korea, I was denied access because the army deemed my blog a "hate" site! That was rich, I thought, coming from the army!
Ten years have flown by and this would probably be a good time to retire the effort - and some days it is a major effort! But I think I will give it ten more years just to see if I begin to mellow. The first step in that process will be living beyond the god-awful Trump presidency!
Thanks for the feedback over the years, positive and otherwise. It was always heartening to see a response to something I had written and know that somebody was out there reading my efforts and reacting. Also, I really enjoyed making so many new friends through this blog. You all are a diverse and very spirited group!
So, bear with me as I keep typing - and be sure to check in tomorrow as I begin the second decade of Pa Rock's Ramble with an introduction Miss Patti, the best thing to happen to my life in the past several decades - or forever! She is slowly but surely turning me into a human being!
My very best to you all!
1 comment:
Congrats, Rock. Your efforts are much appreciated by this fan of your daily posts.
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