Sunday, November 15, 2009

The Sabbath Day, Sunday, November 15, 2009



Exact Middle Of The Month.


Where did the month go? Already it is the middle day of the month, with 46 days left in this year of 2009. And, it's a Sunday, the Sabbath day of the week. Sundays are good days.


As a child, I remember my dad on Sundays. He hardly ever went to church, but he insisted that his kids go to church. But, on Sunday, he always listened to the church services on the radio and then, he would put his work clothes on and went to the basement to stoke the old coal furnace and then out the door to do the farm work. I knew when he stoked the furnace, the warm air would begin flowing through my heat register and soon I could get up to a warm room. But I never said goodbye to my dad as he left to go do the farm work. He went by himself and with no other family member. I didn't thank him for doing everything he could to raise his family. He just worked hard to do it. The thing I remember most being a child was that I was scared to death of my dad....always afraid that I would anger him, even though now that I think about it, I doubt that he would have done anything. I never got even one spanking....he only had to look at me with his staring eyes to make me know I had done something wrong.


When I first saw the following poem, I thought it described my dad exactly. It always makes me think of my dad, the farmer who plowed the earth and grew the crops with not much rest....even on Sunday. Sure he was sometimes a very critical and cranky man, with not much thought for others, but he was my dad.




Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden


"Sundays too my father got up
And put his clothes on in the blueback cold,
then with cracked hands that ached,
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I'd rise and dress
fearing the chronic angers of that house.


Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices."






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Here Are Some Things Which Happened On A November 15th In History.


~~ 1926. National Broadcasting Co (NBC) launched with a radio network of 24 stations.
~~ 1942. The American Fleet during the Naval battle of Guadalcanal, had a decisive victory over the Japanese.
~~1956. Elvis Presley's first movie, Love Me Tender, opened in New York.
~~1969. Peaceful protests against the was in Vietnam were conducted in Washington, DC and San Francisco. These attracted about half million people.


Famous Birthdays on this date:


Ed Asner - 1929 (Mary Tyler Moore Show)
Petula Clark - 1932 (Pop Singer Who Sang "Downtown")
Judge Joe Wapner - 1919 (People's Court)
Bill "C.W. McCall" Fries - 1928 (Sang Trucker's CB Song Called "Convoy")
Kevin Eubanks - 1957 ( Tonight Show's and Jay Leno Show Band Leader)



Happy Birthday if today is your birthday.


**************




May Your Day Be Bright And Full Of Grace
May You Be Blessed With Good Tidings
Peace And Goodwill To All



I pray for a cure for cancer and heart disease.


Amen.


































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