Dad Working

Since I have already addressed this topic on Plinky, I will tell a bit more about another really good teacher I had while in 5th and 6th grades.

Mrs. Blackstock was the teacher I wrote about the last time we were asked to comment on this topic. She was my first grade teacher, and she still holds a special place in my memory and in my heart.

Mr. Raymond K. Funk was also a very special teacher. This was in Los Alamitos, CA, during school years 1956-1957 in 5th grade, and 1957-1958 in 6th grade.

Mr. Funk was a retired Navy man, and was well prepared to keep the class clowns under restraint, and even help him learn, as well. Mr. Funk was absolutely a great teacher, who helped children with slower learning processes actually learn in school, instead of just giving them the answers to get them through his class and the grade.

Mr. Funk utilized the skills and abilities of we who the better students, to help guide them, and actually help them during recess, when the other students who might tease them, were playing outside, thus removing a good bit of stress, and removing the embarrassment they would otherwise have to deal with.

Now that I look back, I think many of these kids were dyslexic, but these were the times when no one ever heard of such a thing. Even sounding out the letters for them, made little difference in their ability to spell even simple words, but they were not so limited in speech. These students really did appreciate the time that Mr. Funk took to try to help, and they also really appreciated that I never belittled them when they just could not grasp what I was trying to help them with, when Mr. Funk asked me to test them for spelling, etc.

I really liked this man as a teacher, and as a father to his children. For 6th grade graduation, our class had a beach party, and a good time was had by all. Since I usually avoided many of the more rowdy students, he asked me to keep an eye on his children, while he refereed games the wild ones were playing. I didn't mind, as I just had very little in common with many students and their lifestyles.

I have already mentioned in another posting on Plinky how years later, I ran into Mr. Funk in Westminster, CA. My mother had asked me to run to a local fruit and vegetable marked, which was only about a mile and a half from home, for a few things she needed for dinner. When I got in my car to return home, something caught my eye across the parking lot. There was this man, of average hight, wearing one of his dark suits, which was just a little loose, standing, holding a transistor radio to his ear. He was looking away from me, but I recognized him immediately, as Mr. Raymond K. Funk. It was the way he stood, with his head slightly tilted, and holding the radio to his ear. I knew he was listening to the baseball game. I approached him, tapped him on the shoulder, and said. "Mr. Funk?" He turned around and just smiled that smile Mr. Funk had, and said,"yes?" He seemed as happy to see me again, as I was to see him. It was a short conversation, as I certainly did not want to intrude, and I knew he was intently listening to that game, as he always did, when I knew him from 5th and 6th grade.

I am sure he has long since passed, for he would be in his 90's at least if he is still living. Mr. Funk will always hold another special place in my heart. He cared about his students, and made sure I was always OK with my health concerns, as well. He was a kind man, and yet, he knew how to keep unruly kids under his thumb, too. Maybe it was all those years in the Navy, but I tend to think he also had a natural ability to understand children.

http://pkhawk.blogspot.com

Smokers have 10 times more wrinkles than non-smokers.

I cannot understand, for the life of me, why anyone would risk their life smoking anyway. How many of you remember what people younger than just about everyone of us looked like when we were growing up? Why right now, I could show you someone who is about four years younger than I am, and she looks like she is probably ten to fifteen years older than me. I have known her for about twenty-seven years, and watched her age, and all four of her children also smoke, mostly because they grew up with their mother smoking.

My father-in-law died from lung cancer, and he had smoked like a train for decades. He also drank too much. He was a kind person, but he just kept smoking. By the way, he was a Pharmacist, too. I had neighbors when I was about six years, who also smoked, and then, there were no filters on cigarettes. Mr. and Mrs. Spillers looked like they were a hundred years old, and I know they weren't. I recall that they lived quite a few years after we moved to California, and had been here for a few years when we heard they had both passed away.

If you now look at the difference in the appearance of people who do and do not smoke, it is simply amazing. Smokers, for some reason don't seem to think about the fact that smoking constricts the capillaries in their skin, depriving their tissues of much needed oxygen, and causes their skin to wrinkly much sooner, and much deeper. Nowadays, I know many people who are in their seventies and eighties, who either never smoked, or stopped some time ago. They all look much younger, and have supple skin and almost no wrinkles, unless they heavy coffee, or cola drinkers. Too much caffeine also constricts the blood vessels which also promotes not only poorer skin, but also can raise the blood pressure, and leach calcium from a person's bones.

Different states, such as California ban indoor smoking all together, except in your own residence. I remember many years ago, going with my father to the employment office, in Fullerton, California. That place was so full of smoke, I could barely see across the room, and I am not exaggerating. I could hardly breathe. Today, I have rather severe bronchial asthma, which I did not have until we moved to California. In most states where we lived before coming to the west coast, we did not have to live really close to other people, and no one smoked inside our home. Of course the smog in southern California was also worse when I grew up than it is now, too. My parents never smoked, and neither have any of their offspring, including my grandchildren.

To be honest, I used to kind of like the smell of smoke, but I also like the smell of fire in a fireplace, or a brush fire, but I don't deliberately stick my face in the smoke, and inhale as deeply as possibly as possible, either.

People and governments make and break many laws throughout history. They also make laws which are unnecessary, as there are many laws in place that cover the problem they are just trying to make more illegal than it was several decades ago.

I make sure I don't sit near anyone who is smoking, inside or out, and it has been my experience, that many more people are avoiding tobacco in all forms. I could tell you more stories from personal experiences, but I don't think that would make any difference in how you already feel, whether pro or con about lighting up a cigarette, pipe, or cigar. You just can't reach some people, so they sometimes, just have to find out for themselves.

How many of you claim to be Christian? Did you know that God's word, the Bible says we should not deliberately ingest, or otherwise take in anything that is harmful to our bodies, including marking our body in any way.

It's strange how so many people claim to believe in God and in Christ, and still don't do as they say, if it interferes with something they just want to do. Sure, you do have freedom of choice, but we are also responsible for the effects or results of the choices we make. Then, they blame God for not saving or fixing them. This behavior makes no sense to me, at all.

http://pkhawk.blogspot.com

Photo of pets, from left to right: Snow Bear, Peanut, right: Sequoia Dawn, and her puppy, Sierra Rose, and on the bottom, it's Pookie, the little Chihuahua that a neighbor turned in to me for adoption. She was placed with a Chihuahua Rescue and has been adopted into her new loving, forever home.
Photos ©PK Hawk

My pets seem to pretty much understand practically everything I do, or want them to do, as I have had two of them since 2001, and the third since 2008. That one, I am still working on, as she is the little brindle in the collage photo. This is Sequoia Dawn, with her puppy, Sierra Rose, who came with Sequoia as rescues, when their original "Mom" had to give them up when she moved out of the country, so her blind husband could be near his parents when she was away at work, which is as a long-haul truck driver.

That little brindle dog happens to be half Chihuahua and half Basenji, which makes her sort of at a disadvantage, since Basenjis are known as vocal dogs. This one finally actually learned to bark, which Basenjis are not supposed to do. Her previous "Mom," said that she never barked, but yodeled for the first three years of her life. Then, one time, while she was on the road, she left Sequoia Dawn with her mother for a few weeks. Well, her mother happens to have a lovely, Champion Yorkshire Terrier. Well, "Pocket," is a barker, and Sequoia finally learned to bark from being with him for that period of time.

My wish is that her learning time would be shortened, so she would better grasp the fact that she doesn't need to bark as everything she sees or hears, when she, Snow Bear and Peanut are outside from time to time during the day.

Then too, she has a very high pitched whiney voice when she wants to communicate, even if she isn't barking. That tiny, tinny little voice goes through me like driving a serrated knife through my head. She tries. She really does, as she has learned that I don't like the whining, and she has certainly shortened the duration of the whining, but just the very tiniest bit, just really is painful to my ears.

Don't get me wrong, I adore that little doggy, but I adore her more when she isn't whining, or barking excessively.

My dogs and my kitty are about as close to perfect as is possible for animals, and I love each and every one of them.

Happy pet time to you all,

http://pkhawk.blogspot.com