An ordinary Joe still looking upstream

… but if you’re still reading this blog, allow me to explain the rude admonition above.

I know some may think someone who writes about himself as often as I have lately, must be endowed with an out-sized ego. This is an especially valid point when considering the facts: my life’s had no real generational impact, I’ve performed no heroic deeds, and I’ve displayed no attributes of outstanding merit.

So, in sum, my accomplishments is as meager as my treasure chest. I’d say my skills are above average and below unique. Ditto goes for my brain power.

Many of my friends and acquaintances have personal stories far better than mine. Many are far richer, far smarter, far wiser, better golfers and better looking.

However, and in spite of all my personal quirks, my moral shortcomings, my blasphemous propensities and my too often rude behavior, blessings have streamed my way … something for which I daily offer heaps of non-blasphemous thank you’s.

I have a loving wife who cares deeply for me. She even figures out ways to moderate my occasionally immoderate temperament … but I guess that should come as no surprise to anyone. After all, she’s smarter than the Harvard Library.

My children have grown to become caring, self-sufficient parents, talented artists, crackerjack students and good citizens … not to mention my grandkids who I’m sure will bring their light to shine on the world that lies hidden to us behind an impenetrable veil called the future.

Howdy buckaroo!

And it’s for that reason I write this blog … for as they navigate uncharted waters, the seas in which we swim will become lost to them.

Of course some the big events and big names will be remembered, but few, precious few. They’ll not know what our daily lives were like … how we earned our way, the mistakes we made, the successes we enjoyed and some of the things we did for sport and entertainment.

That’s what this blog is about. It’s about what it was like to be alive in the glory days of the American Republic. To be honest I think of it as a gift to my descendants.

I ask myself, “How would it feel to find scattered recollections from an ancestor!” and I write with that in mind.

And that’s the reason for my rude admonition in this post’s headline … I want to encourage you to write your own remembrances! The small, seemingly insignificant incidents in your life that stick fresh in your memory. Those are the best stories from our past, as they will be in the future … for they’re the building blocks of a life.

Oh, and if you should find my blog with a sliver of time … welcome!