Trucking to Teaching “Paving People Paths” is a term that can be interpreted both literally and figuratively. It represents my early truck driving days hauling materials for paving roads and highways. Providing transportation pathways in our country. “Paving paths” can also mean to assist and guide people to successfully determine their own best roads to … Continue reading “Grounded in the Grit and Guts of Life”
Category: Braidwood
Braidwood home stories
Trucking and Teaching: Paving People Paths
Spending a considerable part of my early life in a truck cab gave me a perspective that was vastly different than most of my colleagues in education. Professional educators like faculty and administrators live in an antiseptic, intellectual environment absent physical labor and grungy human sweat. Dust builds on bookshelves while brains give birth to … Continue reading Trucking and Teaching: Paving People Paths
Little Black Sambo, Uncle Remus, Amos and Andy
"I know that I am not the only person who heard the stories during early childhood. About the little black boy who is chased by tigers around a tree until the tigers turn into a syrup. Uncle Remus telling tales about Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, Brer Fox, and the briar patch while singing “zippa di … Continue reading Little Black Sambo, Uncle Remus, Amos and Andy
Celebrating Two Years of braidwoodguy.com
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates It was two years ago when I published my first blog article: https://braidwoodguy.com. I had kept journals for many years prior to that time when it occurred to me that my handwritten documents might be worth saving for my kids and grandkids. I knew that any letters written … Continue reading Celebrating Two Years of braidwoodguy.com
Water with a Personality
“I was still water, held by my surroundings. I am now a river, carving my own path.” Scott Stabile Kankakee River Dam, Wilmington From my earliest days I was aware of two bodies of water: the strip mine pits (lakes) in Braidwood and the Kankakee River in Wilmington. My whole world revolved around these two … Continue reading Water with a Personality
A Parent’s Nightmare: Better Not to Remember
The haunting memory of being tragedy's accomplice lies dormant in a parent's psyche until sleep is again tortured by that scene. A child is lying 'neath the car tire. Dead? Maimed? "My God! You ran over him." Selective memory is a human trait that exists in all of us. We sometimes hear or see what … Continue reading A Parent’s Nightmare: Better Not to Remember
Grandkids: Get involved in Community Organizations!
Grandson Declan asks: “You have demonstrated the importance of becoming an active, valuable member of your community. What goes into becoming that?” Dear Decky: At the present time, you and your cousins are still in the early stages of your lives. Seven have recently graduated from college, four are presently in college, and three are … Continue reading Grandkids: Get involved in Community Organizations!
Brought Up By Baseball
"I really had no choice in the matter. My parents had made the decision to move from Roundhouse Street in Braidwood to Walker Street when I was three years old; from a normal small-town neighborhood to a house adjacent to the baseball field. It was only 90 feet from my bedroom to the field, the … Continue reading Brought Up By Baseball
“Don’t tell Mom! She doesn’t need to know.”
Grandchild asks: “What was something as a kid that you could spend hours doing and never get tired of it?” Dear Grandchild: Now, you first have to realize that we didn’t have all the distractions you kids now have. Life for a youngster was fairly simple with a lot of free time. I had no mobile phone … Continue reading “Don’t tell Mom! She doesn’t need to know.”
“Grandpa, what was school like for you when you were 7?”
"Was it a lot different then now?" Claire, age 7 I had made the choice to share 80 stories that I thought that the grandkids needed to know about life as seen through the fading eyes of an old man. This is not the same as telling stories that I think they want to know. … Continue reading “Grandpa, what was school like for you when you were 7?”
Braidwood Beginnings 