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Hope that you and yours have a safe, healthy and Happy Thanksgiving.
-------------------- Kimberly Zanetti Purcell www.amethystProductivity.com Folsom, CA email: Kimberly@AmethystProductivity.com
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” AA Milne Posts: 3723 | From: Folsom, CA | Registered: Dec 2001
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Thanksgiving. I sure hope that you all have a very wonderful day with your family, your friends, or any way that makes you feel good. This is a picture of an old man named "Si" that was one of the first people to stop into my shop when I had purchased the building and was in the process of doing some remodeling. He wanted to know who I was and what I was planning to do here. I told him and he has been a frequent visitor ever since.
I imagine Si is around 70 or so, was in the Korean war (in California) as a tank driver. I don't have any idea what he did all of his life, he does have distant family and some friends but mostly Si lives day to day. He is always in a good mood. Once in a while he "borrows" a couple of bucks for the VFW and then a few days later he brings back a couple of bucks. During the holidays, Si gathers "freebies" from the local merchants and re-distributes them around town... calendars for the most part.
Anymore, if he does not wander by the place for a longer than normal period of time, I begin to worry and wonder if I'm goig to see him again, or see his name in an obituary.
He came in yesterday. I said "Hey Si, take a look up on the wall". He looked up, saw this picture and went silent. Then he let out a high pitched "HEY... THAT'S MEEEEEE!" He wondered how I did that, then he remembered that the last time he repaid a couple of bucks I took a couple of pictures of him. He asked what I was going to do with pictures of him... I said that I needed something to do in my spare time so I would try to sketch him.
I told him to take the picture with him. I thought he was going to cry. I did not know if I was doing a good thing or not for a moment. He told me that I was "a very nice sign professional". No kidding, that's what he said.
He must have felt obligated to me because later in the day he brought me a "Wisconsin Badgers Camp Randall" picture to hang in the place of his sketch.
I told the story to my wife, she did not know if this meant that I was really nice... or somehow twisted. All in all, I felt pretty good and was glad that I could bring some pleasure to this guy's life and get some back at the same time.
The letterhead website is similar in this way... I hope that I can provide some enjoyment or information while I am here. Everytime I log in I get much much more than I could possibly ever give.
-------------------- Jeff Vrstal Main Street Signs 157 E. Main Street Evansville, WI 53536 1-608-882-0322 Posts: 670 | From: Evansville, Wisconsin | Registered: Sep 2001
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Hey Jeffrey....I just wanted to add.... that is a nice story. I had an older friend named Loraine. She was like your friend Si. I bet you have a special spot in his heart. I love old people.
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Washington, D.C. March 30, 1863 By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.
And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6817 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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It was a wonderful Thanksgiving day. I hope everyone else can say so too.
Jeffrey, I could not let this post go without mentioning something about your reply. It's stuff like that, that puts a big ole bright spot and some good meaning into each day.
As the aussie's would say ... "good on ya Jeffrey". One of the perks to being on this board is meeting folk like you!
Cheers, Nettie
-------------------- "When Love and Skill Work Together ... Expect a Masterpiece"
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