Pa Rock's 2023 Holiday Newsletter

Pa Rock's 2023 Holiday Newsletter

by Rocky Macy

(The last (and perhaps only) time I wrote a lengthy holiday update was in 2011, an effort which I recently reposted in the blog.  2011 was a very good year, and I believe that 2023 has also been a positive one for this old codger, so I have seated myself at the computer and will see where the effort takes me.)  

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The West Plains Macys are all staying busy and doing well – and would love to hear from our old friends!  This is what the past year had to offer out our way:
 
January was fairly uneventful until early on the morning of the 30^th when I fell on some black ice and managed to break my left arm just below the shoulder.  Three years earlier I had fallen and broken my right arm just below the shoulder, so I knew the routine:  a ride to the emergency room in an ambulance and a ride home in an Uber, dealing with an orthopedist, and several weeks of physical therapy.  Neither break could be cast, so each time I had to deal with a sling.  The right arm healed fairly well, but the left roved to be more problematic.   Nevertheless, I survived and am still typing with two hands.
 
My son, Tim, came to West Plains three days after the fall and took me to my first orthopedic appointment and then drove Rosie and I back to his home in the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City where we spent most of the month of February.  Tim’s wife, Erin, who works out of the home, also took on the added responsibility of waiting on Rosie and I hand-and-foot and catering to our needs.  One big highlight of that trip was being there for Tim and Erin’s Super Bowl party on February 12^th when the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles – and then rushing out in the yard and watching the fireworks going off in the surrounding neighborhoods.  Kansas City was fired up!  
 
The highlight for March was another trip to Kansas City, this time driving myself, where I spent my 75^th birthday with Tim and Erin and their family and then attended a sold-out performance of “Hamilton” with my granddaughter, Olive, at the Music Hall in Kansas City.  We had front row seating in the balcony, and Olive, who was eleven at the time, still talks about it and listens to the soundtrack.  It was a very special birthday indeed!
 
I was back in Kansas City in April to attend a concert by John Mellencamp.  The Indiana native, who was just a kid of seventy-one at that time, rocked the house for two full hours with the soundtrack of my young adulthood, along with quite a bit of new stuff.  The place was packed, and everyone in the entire theatre, young and old alike, knew the words to “Jack and Diane!”
 
My oldest grandchild, Boone, graduated from college in May with a teaching degree, and though I was headed that way and really wanted to be there, an unfortunate event interceded and caused me to miss it.  It was a sad day for me, but a great day for Boone, and I know that he is going to make our family proud.  Boone turned twenty-four this year.
 
Serious medical problems became evident during the spring when I developed breathing issues and suspected an underlying heart condition.  I had had major heart surgery in Phoenix in 2013, and it is common for things to start heading south again after about a decade.  An appointment with my cardiologist in early June led to an almost immediate appointment for a “heart cath” procedure which resulted in two stents and a night in the hospital. One more stent was planned for several weeks later after I had had time to complete two summer trips which were already in the works.
 
One of those trips (and a definite highlight of the year) occurred later in June when the Spotlight Theatre Company of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina, did a production of “The Shine from Dead Man’s Bottom,” a hillbilly comedy that I had written more than thirty years ago.   (The same group had performed another of my plays, a drama called “Crimes in Desolation,” two years earlier at the theatre on the airbase.  They did this year’s production at a very nice theatre downtown, and I could not have been more pleased with the result.   The acting was impeccable, the set superb, and the sound – often a problem in large theatres – was flawless.  I attended two rehearsals and both performances and could not have been more pleased.  Thanks again, Director Janelle Donovan and the Spotlight Players, you guys are the best!
 
My second summer trip happened in mid-July when my sister, Abigail, and I traveled (separately) to Kansas City and spent a night with Tim and Erin – and Olive and Sully – and then flew to Oregon where we spent several days visiting my daughter, Molly, her husband, Scott, and their three children:  Sebastian, Judah, and Willow.  We saw quite a lot of their city, Salem (Oregon’s capital), and even drove to the coast for a day.  It was a lot of fun.  On the way back we spent a night in Portland where I was able to check a big item off my bucket list by visiting “Powell’s Books,” a multi-level bookstore and iconic Portland landmark that covers an entire city block!
 
Near the end of July, I checked into the hospital in Mountain Home, Arkansas, for that third stent which turned out to be two.  So I am up to four – but feeling much better!
 
Not much happened in August.  I hung around the house in the air-conditioning and spent too much time at the computer.   My broken arm from January, a couple of months of physical rehab, major trips both east and west, as well as the heart issues and four stents pretty well pulled me off of the lawnmower, my primary entertainment over the past nine summers, and my son, Nick, stepped up and took over the mowing – a huge help!  I still got up at the crack of dawn each morning to let Uncle Guinea out of the chicken coop and to feed the neighbor’s cat who thinks he belongs to me at breakfast time.   Rosie and I did make a trip to Kansas City at the end of the month where Tim installed an Amazon Echo in my little Kia – and now we are three on those long road trips to the Kansas City area and back:  me, Rosie, and Alexa!  (It’s great to have a support group!)
 
September saw me starting cardiac rehab at the hospital here in West Plains.  I was assigned 36 sessions – and the clinic is only open three days a week and never on holidays like Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year’s.   I do twenty-five minutes on the treadmill and twenty-five minutes on a recumbent stepper.  I wear my pedometer watch during the workouts, so I always manage to complete my 10,000 steps – and then some – on days when I am in cardiac rehab.  It has been an enjoyable experience and a good opportunity to meet some area residents that I would never have encountered otherwise.  Today (December 22^nd) I will be completing session thirty-four of thirty-six, and I will do the final two next Wednesday and Friday – just prior to the New Year.

My father's best friend in the Army during World War II was a fellow named Joe Spake from Memphis, Tennessee.  Joe and his family came to Missouri to visit our family when my sister and I were small, and the Macys made at least one tricot Memphis to see them.  But Joe died young and the remaining Spakes and Macys lost contact - until I accidentally heard Joe's musician son, Jim Spake, on the radio one day a dozen years or so ago while I was living and working on Okinawa.  Since then I have had contact with all three of Joe's grown children, and in September Joe's daughter, Carrie, and her husband (also named Joe), stopped by the house for a brief visit.  It was a very nice reunion, one that I know would have pleased our fathers very much.
 
Rosie and I (and Alexa) made another trip to Kansas City at the end of October, the highlight of which was seeing my granddaughter, Olive, act and sing in an exceptionally good production of “James and the Giant Peach, Jr” based on the work of Roald Dahl.   Olive, who is twelve, has been involved with a very good theatre group for a couple of years, and acting seems to be where her heart is at – and she is exceptionally talented.  Her cousin, and my other granddaughter, Willow Files (also 12-years-old) is a talented performer, as well, and she seems to have a knack for comedy.  Both girls play musical instruments, too.
 
The big highlight from November was a day trip that my college roommate from the sixties, Ranger Bob Randall, and I made to my hometown of Noel, Missouri, where we searched in vain for a time capsule that I buried around 1964.  It was cold and rainy, and at one point I was down on my hands and knees digging when I discovered that I could not get back up, but Bob stepped up and somehow got me upright.  I’m sure if anyone saw us, they were probably thinking, “Look at those old coots.  I wonder who let them out of The Home!”  
 
The Kansas City Macys and I went to see the KC Rep’s wonderful annual stage production of “A Christmas Carol” in December.  We have been taking Olive to see the play since she was five and Sully has been old enough to attend the past couple of years.  Both kids seem really engrossed by the performances, and Olive now gives running commentary on things that she notices about the acting.  
 
There was sad news this month when “Uncle,” my pet guinea who followed me around the farm like a faithful dog for three years, was killed late one night by a predator while roosting on the rafters of his coop. Over the years Uncle had become an enjoyable companion, and I miss him every day.  But life constantly evolves in a farm setting, and a few days ago a dog stopped by and now refuses to leave.  She is a beautiful, young adult pit bull who acts like she is here to stay.  She appears to have been very well cared for.   Nick has been trying to find her previous family through Facebook, but so far has had no luck in his search.  He is calling her “Gypsy,” and I suspect that she believes she is home – but what the heck, it’s almost Christmas!   Welcome to your new home, Gypsy – there’s always room at the inn!
 
May your holiday season be the absolute best ever, filled with joy and laughter, and in the New Year may the world finally heed the advice of John Lennon and “give peace a chance!”  
 
Have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
 
With love,
 
Pa Rock. (and Nick, Rosie, and Gypsy)