Once again I spent two days going through photos for this post. I was taking a shot wide enough to crop it to downsize it for the web. Then my dumb ass did a search on downsizing with windows 8 and I went to the photo gallery and there it was all the time one button to downsize for the web I used a couple more features. So now the mystery is solved and I can move on.
This is the house I was born and raised in. My parents bought it new in 1949 the year they were married. It was a two bedroom with a large living room and a kitchen-dinning area with a utility room. This is the first time in probably 20 or so years I have been back in this neighborhood and a lot has changed. The front porch and roof over head, sliding doors and siding were added. We had one floor furnace in the corner of the living room close to the bedrooms. My earliest memory was my parents would turn the heat down at night, in the mornings my brothers and I would squat barefoot on this hot ass metal furnace to get warm and it would leave little square marks on our feet from the way it was made. Most of my memories of the times in this home were found ones. When I was 7 or 8 I think my sister was born, prior to that the three boys lived in the one bedroom on a set of bunk beds. My youngest brother Don, who is now gone had a bed that rolled out under the bottom bunk bed. My middle brother and I would always jump out of our beds on to his and use it as a trampoline with Him in it. He was the youngest of the boys and we would pick on Him all of the time. Kids can be cruel without realizing it. When my sister was born my Dad and Grandfather built the extension to the right side of the house that used to be the garage. The three boys moved into there and my sister got our old room. I still recall very well when my sister was born all of the boys were waiting and watching out the window. We didn’t have a clue what a baby girl looked liked.
When I started grade school I had to walk the four blocks to get there. For a 5-year-old starting school that was a lot of steps. The first year my Mom made me walk to school with the neighbor girls who were a couple of years older. I recall this was embarrassing because I thought I was to big for that. Through the 5th grade I got all A’s and B’s. Recess was always my favorite part of the day we would have one in the morning and another in the afternoon. The boys went to their area and the girls to theirs. My favorite game was dodge ball. Back then you could throw that ball at a kids head and knock him off His feet and get nothing but praise. If you went home without a few bruises or scrapes you weren’t playing hard enough.
When I started 6th grade I had my first male teacher, Mr. Russel. That’s the year my grades fell and my life started to change. My Mom always said it was because of the teacher. I think it was because that was the year I realized girls were good for more than pulling their pigtail !! I tried to take a photo of my grade school but it is no longer there. I forgot to mention the grade school I went to was an all white school. In the 50’s all the African-Americans lived north of Douglas and the small Hispanic group lived north and west of Broadway. There was no busing everybody walked to school rain or shine.
I took this because it used to be a full service gas station about a block and a half from where I lived. My mom used to send me up there with a note to buy cigarettes for her at 25 cents per pack. After a while Frank didn’t even want to see the notes, something that allowed me to buy my cigarettes at the ripe old age of 13. A filthy habit I wished I had never started.
It’s hard to read the sign but I was surprised to see this laundromat was still there. I used to spend endless hours in they’re playing the old pinball machines. Five balls for a nickel. There was only one machine in here and a lot of kids that weren’t my friends wanting to play. This is where my friends and I learned to hustle, I would play most of the day for free and walk home with a pocket of nickles. An art that would later serve me well in the pool hall that is no longer there
children
Think you dont need a Will, read this and see
I don’t know of many people who like to think about death but it is something we can’t escape. There used to be an old saying about death and taxes, you can get around some taxes but not death. It can strike the very young as well as the very old. A drunk driver can smash your car when you and you spouse are going out to a movie or dinner. All you have to do is look at a paper and see how many young couples are killed in accidents all the time. Have you ever wondered what happened to their children or their assets?
Everything I am going to briefly write about is from first hand knowledge the most important thing to remember is that the laws very quite a bit from state to state. I realize this is old hat stuff for most of you but if can get the attention of one person it was worth my time.
Wills: I think everyone should have a will no matter how small their estate. If not when you die if a blood relative does not come forward or is hard to find the state gets to keep your entire estate. A will is also one way you can choose guardianship of your minor children if you are a single parent or in the case where both of the parents die. This choice must be done carefully and with much discussion with your spouse. You want to pick some one around your own age who has the same values as you do and if you are not leaving behind a sizable life insurance policy or a large estate that person will also have to be financially capable of raising your children. Don’t pick one of your parents, you may have liked the way they raised you but if you are sticking a 50 pus year old with a young child. That person will be in their 60’s raising a teenager. Always discus this with the person you pick before you do anything don’t just pick someone and hope it never happens to you. I know of two people that got 2 and 3 kids dropped on their doorstep and one of them refused to take care of them for finical reasons. If you are still awake don’t think that just because you are married and one of you dies and you don’t have a will your spouse gets every thing. If you have individual assets like so many young couples do now, in the state of Kansas individual assets are split between the spouse and blood relatives. One last thing on custodial issues if you don’t have this spelled out in a will or a power of attorney and both of you should die the children become wards of the state until a judge can sort through all of the relatives that want to claim your children. This usually takes months. A will normally takes between 30 days to 6 months or more to go through probate, it doesn’t happen overnight. If you have named some one to take you children the judge normally grants a temporary custody to that person within 24 hours until the will is probated. One last thing on wills you can download the forms online and do them for free, all you need then is two witness and a power of attorney. But all of the experts recommend if you even own a house spend a few hundred bucks and get one done by a lawyer.
I just got through telling you that everyone should have a will, guess what I don’t. I went a different way because all I have is two kids in their 30’s. Everything I own from my car to my bank accounts, cd’s and mutual funds are in my daughters name with the understanding that it be split with my son. This way when I die is is perfectly legal for her to close out all of my accounts since she is the joint owner and escape Uncle Sam and his taxes.
I apologize for the size of this and wanted to cover some specif power of attorneys but I will save that for the next post.
Xbox2121's Random thoughts and ramblings 