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Showing posts from March, 2020

In the Big Middle

We set the alarm now to go to the grocery store.  Being in the older more vulnerable group, it's easier when the store first opens.  Still, there are days when there are no bananas.  Forget about paper products and hand sanitizer.  Maybe someday.  Some day when the pandemic is over. In Oregon, we are among the last few states where someone pumps gas for you.  No longer; any attempt to social distance will not be overlooked. Some folks are hyper concerned, while others could step up their game and get with the program.  Still, others are simply confused.  It's not uncommon now to push your grocery cart down an aisle only to find someone heading in your direction and turned around and suddenly felt the need not to pass. On days when the weather permits, I walk around the long block where I live just to get some exercise.  It takes about 7 minutes for a brisk walk.  It totals 608 steps.  Occasionally I walk around twice. ...

Quarantine Blues

cBLGreene 2020 Pandemic is on I can't go out no more, the pandemic is on I can't go out no more, Had to rise at dawn just to go to the grocery store. Went down to the market, not much on the shelf, I went down to the market but not much on the shelf, No food or TP, I'm worried about my health. They closed the library, closed the public schools, Closed the library, closed the public schools, Shut up the restaurants, locked all the bars tight too. Got the quarantine blues, I'm home all by myself, Got those quarantine blues, home all by myself. Stock market goin' crazy, but I never did have much wealth. Called up my baby, said honey let's have some fun, Called my woman, said baby let's have some fun, She said no way mister, 6 feet's as close as you can come.

Forever in My Mind

*It's mid-March and the country is self-quarantining.  Schools restaurants, bars, movie theaters are closed.  There is no baseball or basketball on the horizon.  The Kentucky Derby has been postponed from the first Saturday in May to the first one in September.  Strange days indeed.  Life is anything but normal right now. I just wanted to note that here before we go on. Psychologists tell us that memory is tied to emotion.  That stands to reason.  We remember best what we are emotionally involved with and what affects us emotionally the most.  Ask someone what their first memory is and you might find that some folks have a very specific memory from the first few years of their life, while others can't retrieve anything until about the age of 5.  Big differences there. I can recall being in a crib with my sister in another one across the room.  We are only a year apart, so this must have been when we were about 2-3 years of age. I...

Accustomed

"The first thing you want to do is to get a Sears catalog."   That's what she told me.  Her name was Pat, as I recall, and she had been teaching ESL for the past couple of years at a local night school. I knew Pat from my graduate teaching program.  The one we both had just completed.  Pat was off to Europe with her family and offered me her classes for the summer of 1973.  Having never taught ESL, I took her advice and quickly procured a Sears catalog.  It was all about the pictures.  The catalog would provide endless illustrated vocabulary lessons.  Beginning ESL was square one.  Lots of vocabulary building, recitation, and learning verb tenses. Being my first paying teaching job, and having no solid prospects for the Fall, I was eager to make a good impression.  I knew how to teach an English class but this was going to be a bigger challenge because my students were not fluid English speakers. That class was about as diverse...