MooreTheBetter

Dick Moore's Memorial Video

2009-10-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

For those who did not see this during the memorial service on 9-29-09, here's Dick Moore's memorial video:

The Battle's Over and the Victory's Been Won

2009-09-22T08:52:00.001-07:00

Dick Moore

April 16, 1934 - September 22, 2009

I'll have more later.

UPDATE from Dick's son Rick, and crossposted at HolyCoast.com:

I've had some time to regroup after a very long night and I'd like to bring you a little more information about Dad. This morning ended a very tough months-long battle with Pulmonary Fibrosis, a terrible disease that robs you of your ability to breath. His last months were very difficult, especially following a fall he took on August 14th after blacking out during a coughing spell. After seven days in the hospital he came home a very weakened man.

It required us to get a full-time caretaker to live with my parents (mom has mobility issues and couldn't really care for him - he'd been caring for her), and it got to the point where even a short walk across the room left him winded and often coughing. This was a guy who only a year before had been walking a mile or more around his hilly neighborhood every day without any problems.

The disease was diagnosed after a lung biopsy on St. Patrick's Day, and despite trips to UCLA to visit specialists and work with a pulmonologist near home, this disease pretty much defies treatment. They don't know how you get or how to fix it. The only question is how long it will take to run its course. In Dad's case, it was very quick.

Last Thursday he was not looking good at all. The doctors told us to call the paramedics and he was back at Mission Hospital. We thought it would be a few days and out, but the disease continued at a fearful pace and by noon yesterday it was clear the end was a matter of hours away. We spent a fitful day and night in the Intensive Care Unit as Dad struggled, but as the dawn broke this morning he peacefully passed away, surrounded by his family, including his wife of 54 years and his two children. He's now free from the pain and the struggle and home with the Lord he served all of his 75 years.

If you would like to honor his memory in a way that would really please him, go read the blog he started a couple of years ago. He wanted a place to put his memories and cherished stories, and MooreTheBetter became the place.

The last entry he posted involved the night he handed the keys to his "Little Red Chevy" to his first grandchild, my daughter, so she could have it at college. That was August 13th. He realized he could no longer safely drive because of coughing spells, and he couldn't play golf anymore, and that car was his golf car. He fell the next day and the real downhill slide started.

He had also been an accomplished singer, and if you work your way through the blog you'll find videos of him singing at various events, including just last December when he played the Angel Gabriel in a children's production with two of his granddaughters. He was also the one who got me in the quartet business. He co-founded The Watchmen Quartet in 1971, I joined in 1974 as bass player, and when he retired in 1982 I took over his bass singing spot. One of the great joys I had as a teenager and 20-something was spending 8 1/2 years traveling and singing with my dad. Here's the first publicity shot I took with the group back when I was a long-haired 18-year old. Dad's on the right.

One of the frustrations with this disease was he could no longer sing. As the long day and night progressed yesterday the hospital chaplain, who is a family friend, brought in a CD player and we played favorite recordings of his non-stop. One was a recording he had done, another from a live concert he and his cousin did one year ago this month, one from his Uncle Ray who had taken him in when he was a teenager, and one of flute performances by my daughter. It was all very moving and difficult for us, but hopefully helped him as he moved on.

Well, he's singing today, and with a choir made up of many friends and family who have gone on before. Heaven can always use another bass.

Goodbye Old Friend

2009-09-03T15:03:00.000-07:00

My 1992 Chevrolet Cavalier

In June 2000 I saw a 1992 Chevrolet Cavalier on a Chevy dealers lot and fell in love. I had a 1985 Chevrolet Celebrity that was going to the shop for repairs for the last time under my care. I saw this car on the lot and told the salesman to look at the 1985 and tell me if he would take $1500 for her and $3500 additional for the red Cavalier. He liked the deal and we brought her home for the first time.

I can’t say that she hadn’t cost me a lot of money because she really did. But I was willing to keep her in running shape and spent what was necessary to do that. In June 2007 my grandson and I went to an Angels ball game which was sold out. They had fireworks that night and instead of being wise, we stayed for the fireworks. Then all 43,000 of us went to the parking lot and created another parking lot -- the 5 freeway. CalTrans decided to repave the freeway and took us down to 2 lanes going south. Came to a stop and stayed there. The car overheated but we didn’t have any choice but to stay with the car and hope it doesn’t burn up. I finally got the car home at 1:00 a.m. and the next day filled the radiator and drove the car to the dealer - about 4 miles.

The car overheated again and I left it for repairs. I believe I spent another $600 and they pronounced it well again. Didn’t ruin the engine and everything was fine now. I took it to Newport Beach for a luncheon with former co-workers at State Farm and on the way home it overheated again. Drove it directly to the dealers and this time they did $300 worth of work before they declared the engine is toast. A rebuilt one could be installed for $3,100. I said no and had it towed home where it sat in my garage for 14 months. After calling a friend of mine in the repair business, he had me tow it to his shop and after looking it over said I had blown the head gasket. A labor intensive job of $900 plus some other things I okayed. Total cost $1200.

This was the car that I used when I was alone like running errands and going golfing. Otherwise it sat in the garage. I am the only driver in the house with two cars so it came to the time to consider parting ways. Our granddaughter, Emily, is a Junior in Sonoma State University and needed a car. I wish I could have just said you can have it but I agreed with her dad for him to buy it for $1000 plus money in her account we saved up for her which came to roughly $1500 total.

Rick took the car back to my friend who has a car repair shop to check out if anything needs to be corrected before Emily takes possession. It did! New brakes and a new radiator and it is like new once again and ready for a Junior in college. I helped pay for the repairs from my “car repair savings account” so the car is a real bargain dollar wise.

On August 13th my friend had a new owner and I had a tear in my eye. Rick drove it up on August 22nd to Sonoma as his wife drove another car with Emily’s things packed away and a way for Rick and Anne to come home. I am very happy that the car stays in the family and that Emily will get some use out of it. She is excited and that makes her Papa happy. But it still is hard parting company. Here are some pictures of the changeover of owners.
　

Granddaughter Emily Moore and Papa standing by her new car!

Papa turning over the keys to his first grandchild Emily.

Emily ready to go one her own for the first time! Papa with a tear!

Post Celina Ohio Trip Contacts

2009-08-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

I had mentioned that my only known contact in Celina was Karl Allmandinger before the trip. I made a new friend in Norman “Whitey” Klosterman who I met on Saturday June 13th because of his 1946 Buick 4 Door Sedan. You can read that story here.

I never knew Whitey before but after meeting him he seemed like an old friend that I had known all my life. Whitey called me on Friday June 19th to tell me the article about Brenda and me was in the local paper, The Daily Standard, along with a picture of the two of us.

I had sent Whitey a cassette tape of me singing sacred and secular songs. He is active in the Celina area but grew up in a town five miles away called Coldwater. There is a group of people who get together on occasion for lunch and he was sharing the tape and newspaper article with a person he was giving a ride to the luncheon. She said “I know this fellow! He was in my 9th grade class and lived a block and a half from me! His grandfather used to come to our garage and talk to my dad who repaired lawnmowers.” (Grandpa ended up repairing lawnmowers).

In a few days I received a letter from Marcieta Edmiston Brookhart along with pages out of the 1949 Celina High yearbook which was called ANILEC (Celina spelled backwards). On the Freshman (9th grade) page was my last class I attended in Celina. She marked her picture and mine along with a fellow I had mentioned in the newspaper article named Paul Shiverdecker. Paul was a newspaper boy like me and I sold my Whizzer Motor Bike to Paul when I left Celina. She also sent the Junior (11th Grade) page which had my brother Ben and our mutual friend Helen Howell (Ben’s former girlfriend). Ben also left Celina in 1949 which broke the relationship. Helen married Karl Allmandinger. See the connection?

Her letter prompted me to call her and get some information on my classmates. She seemed to know a lot about this group and I asked her if she was on the reunion committee. YES! I sent her my autobiography and a couple of music items I recorded. She will have them on display along with the newspaper article at the October 11th reunion of the class of 1952.

Marcieta went picture by picture giving me what she knows of each person. It is surprising to me that many have already passed away. Some by accident. I asked about Jim Wagner. She told me that he is a retired Methodist pastor. Jim was a friend of those years and we haven’t had any contact in 60 years since I moved. She gave me his phone number and I called him. He is living in Galloway, Ohio. Dr. James Wagner was home and came to the phone. I mentioned who I was and he couldn’t recall by name our connection. I told him I didn’t call him ’Jim’ but ‘Red’. He laughed and said he did have red hair then. I also told him I took a picture of him and his very good friend Jackson Cole in 1948 next to Grand Lake with my box camera. He hasn’t thought of Jackson since those days as Jackson had moved away as I did. I sent a copy of the picture to him along with some music cassettes and CDs that I had made. Also sent the autobiography that I wrote on my life just to bring him up to date on me.

Dr. James K. Wagner has written a number of books on The Healing Ministry Of The Church published by Upper Room Ministries in Nashville, Tennessee. He was on staff there from 1984 to 1993. Something he specialized in doing in his churches. He sent me a couple of his books. Something I will treasure. He sent me a summary of his personal and work life that was prepared for the 50th Anniversary Reunion of his college graduation in 2006 (same year I celebrated my 50th Anniversary College Reunion). Jim has had an interesting life. It was nice to reconnect with him. We will keep in touch.

We met Whitey who knew Marcieta who remembered me and gave me Jim’s phone number and the beat goes on. Interesting how “Divine Appointments” happen, isn’t it? I am interested in whether or not there will be more contacts from the October 11, 2009 reunion where some of my things will be displayed. I’ll keep you posted.

My brother Ben - his Junior Class picture in 1949.

Helen Howell - Her Junior Class picture in 1949.

Marcieta Edmiston - Her Freshman Class picure in 1949.

Marcieta Edmiston Brookhart church picture taken in 2008.

Jim Wagner and Jackson Cole by Grand Lake taken in 1948.

Dr. James K. Wagner - picture taken off one of his books.

This is my Freshman Class picture taken in 1949 - my last class in Celina.

54 Years And Counting

2009-07-21T22:54:00.000-07:00

This is our Wedding Portrait taken for our wedding July 22, 1955. Who are these young kids?

On July 22, 2009, Ann and I will celebrate our 54th wedding anniversary. This is a special one as it followed our 53rd anniversary! They are all special!

When we started out together on July 22, 1955, we had no idea how long the union would last -- no one does. You just go one year at a time and before you know it 54 of them have come and gone. We are very fortunate to have a marriage that has lasted this long. So many don’t. Some end by death of one of the partners, some end in divorce. Since divorce wasn’t an option when we signed on for this ride, the other reason will have to do.

It’s been an interesting trip. On our 25th anniversary in 1980 we took our first cruise. One to Alaska on “The Love Boat” - the Pacific Princess. We’ve taken 8 more cruises since then. Our last one in June 2008 with our daughter’s family on the Disney Cruise Lines to the Mexican Riviera.

On our 50th anniversary, we took the entire family back to Oklahoma to visit relatives on both sides of the union. Rick, Anne, Emily & Eric Moore. Scott, Brenda, Hannah, and Rachel Ostrander. It was a wonderful time. I’m so glad we did it.

Anniversaries are special. We plan on celebrating as many as the good Lord gives us.

Happy Anniversary, Ann. I’m glad you included me in your life.

Back To My Roots - The Daily Standard - Part 7

2009-07-17T17:02:00.000-07:00

This is the last of a multi part story of our quick trip to Ohio in June. If you haven’t read the other parts, do so now before this one. That way you will read in order. Thanks.

When I was 9 years old I moved to Celina and soon was offered a paper route with The Daily Standard. I kept that job for 6 years leaving it 60 years ago in September of this year. I was 15 years of age then and moved to Kansas City to live with my Uncle Ray and Aunt Edith Moore. As mentioned earlier, Grandmother was failing in health and I needed another place to live for my last three years of high school.

Since I lived at my uncles and aunts parents home, they came back to see their parents as often as they could. Ray and Edith were there in August of 1949 along with their 18 month old daughter, Kathy, and wrote me a letter after they got home asking me to consider coming to their home to live. I still have that letter in my memory box. That was a big decision and one that had to be made quickly. Grandpa said the decision was mine. Whatever I decide was fine with him.

When I decided to take them up on the offer I had to resign from my paper route and turn it over to my substitute Bob Stein. Bob had subbed for me a number of times over the years and was familiar with the route. I don’t know how long he kept it. I also had to resign from my janitor job at the newspaper office. I asked Parker Snyder for a letter of recommendation and he gave me a nice one. I still have it in my memories. Leaving Celina and the newspaper was very hard for me. Practically all my memories were tied up in both of these places.

My paper route was 150 customers and I delivered six days a week. We didn’t have a Sunday paper then. To my surprise, they still do not issue a Sunday paper. I remember collecting each Saturday morning 20 cents for the week from each customer. Sometimes I would be paid $1 for 5 weeks and had to budget my money paying the bill each week. I took good care of my customers delivering their paper to the porch or behind the screen door in bad weather. Rarely got a missed paper call. In fact, I don’t recall one. Christmas was very good to me as many customers would give me extra money or a gift that a boy would enjoy having as a gift.

When this trip came up I knew I wanted to visit the newspaper office as they have built on twice to the original building. I wrote an email to the paper telling them who I was and that I was taking a trip back to my roots. I worked for Parker Snyder who was the owner publisher at that time. The newspaper was family owned. I didn’t know who would be in charge now but I asked them for a tour of the buildings for Brenda and myself and an interview with a reporter. I felt there was a story in our trip back there that they might want to publish. I received an email response from Frank Snyder who is Parker’s son and the current publisher. Frank has a sister and a brother also working at the office. I got to meet his sister but not his brother. Frank said his family would meet us with someone from the news staff. I made arrangements with them to come over around 8:00 a.m. on Monday June 15th which was our last day in Celina.

We arrive at the office at 8:15 a.m. and were graciously met by Frank Snyder and his sister. I brought my autobiography which had a picture of the The Daily Standard newsboys taken behind the original building. Also an article from Reminisce magazine that I submitted concerning the April 12, 1945 issue of The Daily Standard which was the only paper I kept during my 6 years as a carrier. This was the day that President Roosevelt died and Harry Truman became president. Someone in Celina read the magazine article and took it down to the paper in 2002. On the front page of February 8, 2002 issue of the paper there is a story about me and the article in Reminisce.

I also gave them a couple of music solo recordings that I made in recent years as a gift for their time.

Frank then took Brenda and me for a tour of the buildings. When we got to the old original part I was telling him what were in certain rooms at the time I was there. I could see them in my mind and he was impressed that I could remember so well. I told him about his dad’s office and the collection counter and the line-o-type machines on the next floor up. This was the area that I kept clean during my last year with the company. I earned 50 cents an hour doing that! The old press room is storage now and the line-o-type room holds the archives of the papers issued each year going back many years. We toured the new press room and a picture of that is below. I mentioned that the newspaper boys had a room where we prepared the papers for delivery and he showed us the room. On the outside wall I had taken a picture of four of my fellow carriers with my Ansco Box Camera.

I told Mr. Snyder that I was about to learn how to drive on the 1948 Studebaker pick up truck so I could deliver papers to nearby towns to carriers that would home deliver them. He said that is a job he did when he got started with the company. I moved before I could have that opportunity but his dad really wanted me to do it.

Frank turned me over to Betty Lawrence who is a reporter and has been with the newspaper for 41 years. She knew Parker very well and we talked about him. Parker liked me and kept giving me jobs. Betty spent a lot of time talking to me and taking notes. We went outside for pictures by their staff photographer. The article and picture appeared in the June 19, 2009 issue of the paper on page 3. If you would like a copy, just ask. I don’t have room here to write it out for you. Betty did a nice professional job with the story.

Brenda and I left after doing a video of remembrances outside the building. That was included in my DVD that Brenda and Scott did for me of the entire trip. We left about 10:15 a.m. and headed West to Indianapolis. We allowed plenty of time for the trip to the airport and found that we would be able to meet my brother Bob for lunch around Muncie. I called him and arranged for lunch at the Cracker Barrel in a town near Muncie. Bob, Mary Lou and their son, Bobby had lunch with Brenda and myself. One more time to get together. Since we didn’t do a video remembrance when we were with them on Friday evening and Saturday morning we took the time to do it after lunch. So they are included in the DVD as well.

After lunch it was on the road again for the airport. Turn in the rental car and check in for the flight to Dallas and on to Santa Ana. We had smooth flights coming and going. One reason on the way back was the pilot went between two large storms altering his normal route.

This concludes the stories of the trip. We had a wonderful time and something I will never forget. Thank you Brenda for the idea and flight plans. I made up the itinerary as to where we would go. We worked together very well.

Hope you enjoyed the trip. I did.

We woke up to this scene of sunrise over Grand Lake. This was taken from our room.

Dick standing in front of the new office of The Daily Standard.

This is the original part of the building. The bricked in part behind my head was the original door to the building. The window is the original office where Parker Snyder worked.

Dick with Frank Snyder and his sister. Looking at my book and recordings.

The current press room. Quite different from what I remember.

Dick being interviewed by Betty Lawrence, reporter.

Dick and Brenda in front of the newspaper office. This is the picture that they used in the paper with my story.

Back To My Roots - Sunday Afternoon Tour - Part 6

2009-07-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

Once again - this is a many part posting of the trip to Celina taken June 12, 2009 through June 15, 2009. If you haven’t read the other parts, do so now and be caught up to date. OK?

When I emailed Karl Allmandinger that I was coming to Celina with my daughter, Brenda, he responded that he would be happy to be the driver for a tour of the city and allow us to take pictures of the various places we visited. So after church Sunday morning, we met with Karl and had lunch with him first at a place he likes to visit. Karl picked up the tab on this one. It was a buffet and had everything you’d want to try. Of course, we tried a lot of entries and was ready for an afternoon nap but had many places to visit first.

When I originally planned this trip I knew I wanted to have the family at home see us on the Celina Web Cam at the corner of Market and Main Streets. We did that when we arrived on Saturday afternoon but I had scheduled on my BLOG a 2:00 p.m. Ohio time Sunday appearance for family and friends. So first off would be the web cam appearance. Carl drove us there and people told me that they saw the car drive up and three people get out. Of course we were pretty small on the screen at home but Brenda, Karl and I waved to the camera while talking on the phone to home. Then someone on the phone at home suggested we cross the street and get closer to the camera to allow those watching a better view of the three of us. So we did. Both pictures taken off the internet by our son Rick are below.

Two of the three schools I attended from 1943 to 1949 were torn down and the land was used for other purposes. The schools were replaced and we were amazed at the beautiful schools that replaced all the buildings I once knew. A new K-4 Elementary School replaced The West Building which had 1-4 grades when I lived there. I attended 4th grade only at the West Building. It was a few blocks from the parsonage where I lived. The Celina Mutual Group Insurance Company now occupies the entire one block square where the West Building once occupied.

We drove to the location where East Building was located which had grades 5 and 6. That is now a church location. A new Intermediate School for 5-6 has been built at a different location. The Junior High (7,8,9) was located in the High School (10,11,12) building. We were two different schools located within the same building. A different principal for each school. I attended all three grades of Junior High before moving to Kansas City to finish high school. That building has been replace with a Middle School (7-8) and a new High School (9-12). The former High School building still exists but is used for school offices and a Head Start School. A picture of the old high school is below.
　　
We next located the first house that I lived in which was the parsonage since grandpa was the pastor of the Nazarene Church. This was at the corner of Warren and Sugar. A brick building that was old when we lived there 1943 to 1946. I don’t believe that anyone lived there for many years as it appears to be in pretty bad shape outside. A closer look through the windows showed us that the building was being remodeled inside with walls being moved, new electrical unit on the back to supply the building, a small section of the original building taken out and a new part being built. Quite a remodel and I expect the wood on the outside of the house will be replaced in time. I think maybe a lawyer’s office will be there some day soon.

The second home was at 630 Brandon Avenue. I lived there from 1946 until I left in 1949. Grandpa had to buy another home since he retired from active preaching and was living in the parsonage that belonged to the church. This was another old house. Had only cold water to the kitchen, no bathroom (used a little house out back) but a large home on a large lot. One of the first things he did was to install a bathroom where the pantry was off the kitchen and get hot water. Our heating stove was in the dining/front room and used coal which had to be brought in from the garage a half city block away from the house. Good thing he had two grandsons to do that job! Before hot water and a bathroom with shower, the Saturday Night Bath ritual was done in the kitchen using hot water off the stove.

This home had a large upstairs section which was turned into a bedroom for Ben and I and a guest room. The rest of the upstairs was remodeled as an apartment that was rented out to help with expenses. Before that could be done a kitchen, bathroom, outside entrance with stairs had to be built. Grandpa was very handy in doing anything like that and did the work himself. In the pictures below of this house as we saw it in June shows the outside door on the second level but no stairs! They apparently rotted away and were removed. The door remains. Someone was living there at the time and I wanted to see if we could get in to see the house but nobody answered the door.

Both houses I lived in had a “front room or parlor” that wasn’t used in the winter. That room was closed off and the heat turned off in those rooms during the cold months to conserve heat and keep costs down. Of course, no homes at that time had air conditioning so all rooms were open for air ventilation during the summer.

On the same property grandpa built a small house for himself after I had left Celina. Grandmother had passed away the following year and he didn’t want to live in the big house much longer. That new home is sitting on ground that I used to mow. Right next to it at the alley is the original garage that I used to put my bike, motorbike and motor scooter. Ben also had a motor bike and his was kept there too. We didn’t use the garage for the car then. Grandpa had machine equipment in there. I was surprised to find the garage had survived all the years. Probably not for much longer.

After the tour of Celina, Karl took us back to his home and served us the biggest bowl of ice cream I’ve ever had! After that, we said our goodbyes as we were leaving Celina in the morning after our visit to The Daily Standard where I used to work as a news boy and janitor. That story coming up.

We went back to the West Bank Inn to get some rest and then over to an Italian place on the grounds for dinner. It was right across the highway from the Spillway which was new since I lived there. This keeps the water level and avoids floods. It was interesting to see the birds sitting on top of the spillway looking for fish that fell over. I thought they were fake but they flew away after a while. The birds were evenly spaced around the semi circle of the top of the spillway.

On our way back to the Inn I saw a cream colored old Buick convertible coming our way. It was Whitey! He wanted to show us his other Buick and knew we would be leaving in the morning. So we got another ride and some time to chat with Whitey.

We had a full and interesting day. One more day on this trip as tomorrow it is a quick stop with the newspaper office and then off to Indianapolis for our trip home.

Karl Allmandinger at home. I regret that I got only one picture of Karl. He was our tour guide for Sunday afternoon. I've known Karl since school days there.

Celina Web Cam at the corner of Market and Main. The three people you see in the lower right corner is Dick, Karl and Brenda.

This is a close up of the three of us taken off the internet. Dick, Karl and Brenda.

Brenda talking to home during the web cam appearance.

The old Celina High School building. I attended 7, 8, and 9 grades there.

The Celina Bulldogs football stadium behind the old high school. Saw many football games there.

Dick next to the parsonage at Warner and Sugar Streets. The upstairs corner was Ben and my room.

Back of parsonage. Note the new construction with new electrical unit. I used to mow that yard.

This is a winter picture of the Brandon house as I remember it. Grandpa's new house was built on the yard that I used to mow!

Brandon house as it appears today. Needs a lot of work. I would expect it to be torn down and replaced with a modern home sometime soon.

Side view of the Brandon house. Note the upstairs door with no stairs! Also stone steps going nowhere.

Grandpa's new home he built on the property. I've never seen it before.

The original garage that I used 61 years ago. We had a half city block lot. The garage is on the alley.

Cousins Norman Reynolds and Dave Ummel on my Whizzer Motor Bike in 1948. Note the garage behind them and Ben's motor bike.

Back To My Roots - Celina Church of the Nazarene - Part 5

2009-07-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

This is the Nazarene Church building that I remember. Taken in 1948.

As stated before , this is a multi part posting of our trip To Ohio. If you haven’t read the other parts, do so now so you will be caught us with all of us.

When I lived in Celina from 1943 to 1949, I attended the local Church of the Nazarene -- why? Because my grandfather was the pastor and I lived with my grandparents! The picture above is the building as I remembered it. A current picture of the building follows this article.

The last time I was in this building was during the summer of 1952 after I graduated from high school. I took a trip in my brother’s car that he left with me when he was overseas in the Navy. I stopped in Muncie, IN to pick up my younger brother Bob who was living with our mother there. He was 12 or 13 at the time. Together we drove over to Celina to visit Grandpa and attend the church on Sunday. Grandma had passed away a couple of years earlier. In the morning service we were introduced as Rev. Moore’s grandsons. After the service the pastor came by to see me and I have written about that encounter before. It is also included in the “talk” I gave the church which is below.

It was 57 years later that we took this current trip to Ohio to revisit my roots. I found the church’s email address on the web and wrote to the pastor. I didn’t know his name or how long he had been the pastor. I gave him all my history of that church and told him my daughter Brenda and I would be in their Sunday morning service June 14th. I asked if I could address his congregation to let them know what had happened to me in the years since my last visit and what an impact this church had made on my life.

I received an email response back from Dr. Larry Hamilton. He said he was going to be gone that week prior to our visit to attend the District Assembly and that he would be back for Sunday. He didn’t respond to my request. Just said he was looking forward to meeting me and my daughter.

On Sunday morning we arrived at the church during Sunday School and looked around. The pastor was busy with a class and we would have to wait to see him. We had time to go over to the Sugar Street building (the old church building) and took pictures and video there. I showed Brenda where we used to farm the land next to the church and the story about raising cane. You can read that story here. The building has changed some as they took off the front entrance and made it a side entrance. I didn’t get inside the building to see what they had done to it. Would have liked to but didn’t have time then. We found out that the church membership relocated to another building between the old one and the current one which was built in 1981.
　
We returned to the new location for the service and met the pastor just before the service was to begin. He gave me the order of service which included an item named “Testimony”. That was where I would talk to the congregation. That was the first Brenda heard about it and asked if she could video this part of the service. The pastor said yes and she got the video camera. She included the entire talk in the special DVD that she and her husband Scott made for me of the "Trip Back To My Roots”.

When it came to my part in the program, the pastor gave an introduction of who I was and when I was a part of that church membership. I took the platform and was concerned if I would be able to deliver the two pages I had typed. If I couldn’t, Brenda would have to finish it for me. Fortunately, I was able to get through all of it without coughing. I’m including the two pages in this posting which makes it a long one but one in which you can see why I wanted to deliver it. I told them about the reason for the trip and that currently there was no cure for what I have with my lungs. I told them I needed the Lord to heal me.

Following the message by the pastor, he pulled out a small bottle of oil from his pocket and said that he didn’t know why the Lord asked him to take this to the service but he now knows -- to anoint and pray over Dick Moore! We had a healing service which included a couple others that came forward. As you can imagine, this brought tears to my eyes and to Brenda’s. Whether the Lord wants to heal me or not is up to Him. But all of us were faithful to His Will.

After the service several came up to talk to me remembering my grandparents. This was a good way to start off Sunday.

Talk given to Celina Church of the Nazarene, June 14, 2009

Thank you, Pastor for allowing me this time to talk to your church. My daughter, Brenda Ostrander, is with me on this trip.

I was an active member of this church from 1943 to 1949. Part of this time my grandfather, Rev. J. Irwin Moore, was pastor. He retired from active preaching in 1946 and moved out of the parsonage. We had to buy our own home which was located at 630 Brandon Avenue. Grandpa moved from being pastor to being the janitor. So I was still involved in keeping the church clean and the yard mowed. The church allowed us to farm the land around it and we raised a lot of our own food. I told people we were able to raise cane behind the church and get away with it.

I have a box of “Celina” things and found these two certificates from this time. The pastor then was H. J. Maish. Alva Keifer was the father of my best friend, Tom Keifer and his brother Dick Keifer who used to be your treasurer. Harlow Fetters and I shared the same month and day for our birthdays.

In September 1949 I moved to Kansas City Missouri to live with my Uncle Ray and Aunt Edith Moore because grandmother’s health was failing. Ray was the music director for the “headquarters” church - First Church of the Nazarene. I attended my last three years of high school in Kansas City. Upon graduation from high school, I took a trip back to Celina to visit my grandfather one more time before leaving for college at Pasadena Nazarene College in California. Grandmother had passed away in 1950. Grandpa lived to be 101 years and 11 months old.

This church started me on my way to living a Christian life. And in 1952 it started me on my way of singing solos in church. That is an interesting story -- "I was introduced in the church as Rev. Moore’s grandson. The present pastor and I had never met. He came up to me after church and asked if I would sing a solo in the evening service. I had never sung a solo in church! I had done so in youth group in KC but never in church. The pastor had guessed that since my name was Moore and there are a number of singers in the Moore family that I could do it too. I figured there probably won’t be 50 people here that night so I agreed to work something up. I was talking to Helen Howell who used to be my brother, Ben’s, girlfriend. The pastor knew that Helen sang and asked us to do a duet also. We looked at each other and said why not. Then he asked me if I would lead the singing for the evening service. I asked him if he wanted me to preach also -- he said “Could you?” No I can’t preach so he had to do that."

I graduated from PNC in 1956. Was married July 22, 1955 to Ann Edwards who lived down the street from my home in KC. Spent my working life at State Farm Insurance in management retiring in 1996 with 37 years of service.

I have spent my life in churches and been actively involved in their music programs in choirs, quartets, duets, and solos. In 1971 I helped form the Watchmen Gospel Quartet which traveled around the state singing southern gospel music. I was with them for 11 years. The quartet continued with my partner and they just retired at the end of 2008. They were in to their 38th year of singing the gospel.

I have planned this trip many times over the years and couldn’t find the time to take it. It’s been 57 years since my last visit. Recently I have been diagnosed with Ideopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis - a lung disease, for which at this time there is no cure. I would appreciate your prayers for a miracle healing by the Great Physician. My daughter Brenda said it was time for that long awaited trip back to my roots. She planned it for this weekend and I told her we had to come to Celina Church of the Nazarene even though it is in a different building.

My wife and Brenda’s mother is handicapped and unable to travel so she is at home. We have our 54th wedding anniversary coming up next month. We also have a son, Rick Moore and each of our children have two children of their own. Rick and Anne have Emily and Eric - Brenda and Scott have Hannah and Rachel.

Thank you for allowing me to share my story. If you would like to read more about my life, you can visit my web site where I am writing my memories for my family. You can read it too! Ask me for a card with the web site address.

This is the "old Sugar Street Nazarene Church " building.

Dr. Larry Hamilton, Pastor and Dick Moore

Present Celina Church of the Nazarene opened in 1981.

Pastor Larry Hamilton and wife with Dick Moore.

Sign by the road announcing the services.

Dick talking to the Nazarene congregation.

Another picture taken during his talk.

Dick showing the certificates he kept from 1948 for attendance and promotion.

Back To My Roots - Norman "Whitey" Klosterman - Part 4

2009-07-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

This is a many part story of my recent trip back to my home town of Celina, Ohio. If you haven’t read the other parts, please do so now. Then you will be caught up with the rest of us!

Have you ever met someone that you were immediately friends with and felt that you have known them a long time? That is what happened when Brenda and I met “Whitey”.

On Saturday afternoon June 13, 2009, we were walking on Market Street heading for the corner of Market and Main. I noticed an old car going our direction and waved to the driver. He waved back. I caught up with him at the corner and asked him what year was this Buick? He said “it’s a 1946 and I am going to park around the corner. I want to talk to you”. So Brenda and I turn the corner and find Whitey in the alley with his 1946 Buick 4 door sedan. It is a stick shift straight 8 beauty. We met and instantly felt that we had known each other in the past. We hadn’t but felt like it. Both of us were born in 1934 - graduated high school 1952 and are now 75 years old. Whitey graduated from Coldwater High School which was about 5 miles from Celina. I would have been in the 1952 Celina High School graduation if I had stayed there but moved in 1949 to Kansas City where I graduated from Southeast High School.

After a while of admiring his car he asked if we would like a ride in it. YES! And off we went to take a tour of the area. I asked him if he knows where the West Bank Inn is as we were to check in there for the next two days. He did and proceeded to take us there so we will know how to get there later. Great tour and conversation. We told him why we were there in Celina and that our stay would end on Monday morning. I told him we would be visiting the Celina Church of the Nazarene on Sunday morning and he said he lived right next door to the church. He has another old Buick he wanted to show us and we could stop by after church. We didn’t have his address and didn’t see signs of the cars so we thought that we would not have a chance to see his second car.

On Sunday evening Brenda and I had dinner in a restaurant that uses the same parking lot as our motel. After dinner, we walked across the highway to see the Spillway which controls the water level in the lake. Interesting watching the birds catch fish there. Then we started back to our room and here comes a cream convertible towards our motel. It was Whitey! He had to show us the car. It was a 1948 Buick Convertible also with a straight 8 engine. This one was an automatic. I told Whitey he can’t get by just showing me this car -- we needed a ride in it too. So we got a ride in his convertible.

It seems that everyone in the town knows Whitey and are calling out to him as we were driving along. Brenda and I felt like celebrities and started waving back when someone waved and called “Whitey”. Another fun ride! What makes this even more interesting is that cars that were new in 1946 and 1948 were new cars when I lived in Celina!

We chatted for a while and shook hands telling each other that we were glad that we had the chance to meet. Whitey and I exchanged addresses and phone numbers for later contact. All three of us had a tear in our eyes when we parted.

That was on Sunday night. On Friday I got a call at home on my answering machine and it was Whitey. He opened the local paper The Daily Standard and there on page 3 was his two new friends. I called him back and talked for a while. The story about the article will be coming in a later posting.

Whitey is one in a million. You know you like him the moment you meet him. I had only one friend in Celina that I knew of and that was Karl Allmandinger. Now I have two!

Whitey's 1946 Buick when we first saw it at Market and Main Streets.

Dick and Whitey with his 1946 Buick in the alley.

Dick in the 1946 Buick ready for a ride and a tour of Celina and Grand Lake.

Whitey and Dick with his 1948 Buick Convertible by Grand Lake.

Whitey's 1948 Buick Convertible at West Bank Inn on Sunday 6-14-09.

Brenda sitting in the back of the 1948 Buick Convertible. After our ride by Grand Lake.

Back To My Roots - Return To Celina Ohio - Part 3

2009-07-04T15:25:00.001-07:00

This is a many part series that I am writing about a quick trip to Ohio to return to my roots. If you haven’t read the other items, please do so now before you get into this story.

June 13th started in Muncie, Indiana with breakfast with my brother Bob and his wife Mary Lou. Then off to Troy, Ohio to visit Riverside Cemetery and pay respects to my dad and my grandparents.

Then came the short trip to Celina, Ohio where I spent my youth from age 9 to 15 years of age. On our way from Troy we drove through Piqua which is where I was born. Celina has always been considered my home town. I left there in September 1949 to move to Kansas City, Missouri to live with my Uncle Ray and Aunt Edith Moore for my last three years of high school. I returned to Celina a couple times - once for a family reunion while grandma was still alive in 1950 and then later that year for her funeral service.

The last time I visited Celina was just after high school graduation in 1952. I have made many plans to come back to Celina but none ever matured. Then with a diagnosis of Ideopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, my daughter said “enough dreaming about going back -- let’s go now!” So this quick trip to this area was hurriedly planned and we packed a lot into four days.

With Brenda driving, we came upon the sign welcoming us to Celina (see below). We were entering Celina from the East on Market Street. We drove by The Daily Standard where I was a newspaper carrier and came to the corner of Market and Main -- downtown Celina. We parked and started taking picture of the area. Downtown hasn’t changed -- just got older.

The corner of Main and Market is where the City Web Cam is located. There is a tall tower southeast corner which has the camera that is on 24-7. I look it up every day to see the activity of that corner. I told my wife, Ann, that we would be on that corner Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. Ohio time and will be waving to her. I had mentioned it on my BLOG and have been told by several people that they also had tuned in to see us. Well - here we are on Saturday afternoon and decided to give her a call anyway to see us. She did and we talked and waved. Just a warm up for Sunday appearance.

We walked down to The Daily Standard building which was closed and took a couple of pictures. On our way back to the corner of Main and Market I saw an old Buick driving toward the corner going our way. I waved and the driver waved. I caught up to him and asked what year this car was -- he responded “1946 and I’m going to park around the corner and want to talk to you”. That was our introduction to a very interesting person named “Whitey”. He deserves his own story on this trip so I won’t say anymore about him now. Stay tuned.

After walking down Main street to see the downtown area, we got into our car and found our motel (thanks to Whitey) and checked in. We stayed there for two days and nights. It is the West Bank Inn located across the highway from Grand Lake. The Inn has 5 rooms up and 5 rooms down. Each has a view of the lake. We were down in 105. After unpacking and resting for a while, I called Karl Allmandinger who was the only person I knew living in Celina.

Karl and I knew each other in Junior High. He was one year ahead of me. He married Helen Howell who at one time was my brother Ben’s girlfriend. She attended the same church that my grandpa was the pastor. Actually lived a block from the church. Helen and I were friends for the 6 years I lived there.

My cousin, Eileen Nixon, went back to Ohio in 1999 for a family reunion on her dad’s side. Her mother Doris was my dad’s sister. I asked Eileen when she stopped in Celina to visit our Uncle Carlan to take some pictures for me. She did and those pictures appeared in my autobiography as “current” pictures of places I knew. I asked her to find Helen who had married Karl. She called the home and found that Helen spends time volunteering at the city library. So she met Helen there and we got re-connected through the email system. A couple of years ago, Helen died ending their 56 year marriage. Karl kept the emails coming and a connection with Celina. During my last visit to Celina in 1952, Helen and I sang a duet in the church. You can read about that here.

Karl, Brenda and I went out to one of the towns better eating establishments called “CJ’s HighMarks” and enjoyed the evening talking and enjoying too much good food. In fact, Karl and I had pork chops and he got to take two home for later. Karl is a good representative of people who live in Celina. He was born in the farmlands surrounding Celina and has lived there all his life. I read the obits on The Daily Standard web site daily and a good many of them were born in the area and lived their entire lives there whether it would be 60 years or 95 years.

After dinner, we got a tour of Karl’s home and looked through a photo album of their 50th wedding celebration. That ended our Saturday - second day of our trip.

Dick standing by the Celina Welcoming Sign.

Downtown Celina from the corner of Market and Main.

Mercer County Court House. Celina is the county seat of Mercer County.

Dick standing by The Daily Standard office building.

Celina City Web Cam Tower at Market and Main.

Dick waving to the web cam Saturday afternoon June 13, 2009.

Dick Moore and Karl Allmandinger - old school friends.

Back To My Roots - Riverside Cemetery Troy Ohio - Part 2

2009-07-01T19:24:00.000-07:00

This is a series of a number of postings concerning my trip back to Indiana and Ohio. My daughter, Brenda, and I took this trip to visit mainly Ohio places that I remember and haven’t been to since I left Celina, Ohio in September 1949. If you haven’t read the previous posting, please do so now. This will get you up to date with the stories about this trip of a lifetime.

Brenda and I had breakfast in Muncie, IN with my brother Bob and his wife Mary Lou on Saturday morning June 13th. Our next stop was Troy, Ohio to visit relatives grave plots.

Why return to the cemetery? My dad died in 1940 and the last visit I had at my dad’s grave was in 1948 when my grandparents took Ben and me there. I had Grandpa take a picture with my Ansco box camera of me, Grandma, and Ben standing behind dad’s grave marker. The picture is below. Two years later in 1950 my grandmother died and was buried about 35 feet behind where I was standing.

She was 64 years old and had 12 children and helped to raise two grandchildren. When Brenda and I arrived in Troy we had no idea where Riverside Cemetery was located. First we would get lunch and then locate the cemetery. On our way through the town to find a place to eat, we drove right by Riverside Cemetery! Beginner’s luck! So we stopped at a local eating establishment and then went back to the cemetery. Of course, the first place you would visit would be the office to locate the plots of Leonard Moore and my grandparents Jesse I. and Mattie Moore. We found the office and they were closed on Saturdays. Ok - now what do we do. This is a big place. Brenda said she was saying a prayer for guidance and I decided we would drive slowly around and see if we couldn’t find a section that had markers of 1940 - 41 - 42. We found one and I said “that has to be it”. We got out of the car and Brenda took the left side of this section and I took the right side.

About 10 minutes later I found my grandparents plots and called to Brenda to look down by the road for M. Leonard Moore as he should be next to the road. She found it! Prayer works! One thing you will notice in the more recent pictures of dad’s marker is a tree. That tree wasn’t there in 1948 when I last visited this spot.

I was able to introduce my daughter to her grandfather and to her great grandparents. This is the first time to “meet” my Grandma. She had met my Grandpa before at our home in Huntington Beach when we had his 95th birthday party for relatives in Southern California. Grandpa was on a trip west to visit a couple of his children who lived in this area. It happened right around his birthday so we honored him then. Grandpa lived to be 101 years and 11 months old before his death in December 1984.

Something that Brenda did on this entire trip was to pull out her video camera and let me talk about memories at every place we visited. This was put into a DVD for me to remember this incredible trip. She and her husband, Scott, are able to do wonders with video and still pictures for memory purposes. So I was able to give my memories about visiting dad’s grave before and about living with my grandparents.

I don’t remember my dad at all. I was 6 years old when he passed away and that is when my memories start. I know he remembered me.

Entrance to Riverside Cemetery in Troy Ohio. As you see, it started in 1867.

Dick, Grandmother, and Ben in 1948 visit to dad's grave stone.

Grandpa Moore in Celina, Ohio after his wife's passing in 1950.

Dick at his father's grave stone on June 13, 2009.

Brenda at her grandfather's grave stone June 13, 2009.

Dick at his grandparent's grave site June 13, 2009.

Brenda at her Great Grandparent's grave site June 13, 2009.

Dick near his dad's grave site - notice the tree that wasn't in the 1948 picture.

I was at my grandmother's funeral service in Celina and Troy in 1950. So I must have come by this spot for grandmother's burial. I don't remember it. Very glad I was able to revisit this cemetery and introduce Brenda to her history!

Back To My Roots - Travel Day and Muncie - Part 1

2009-06-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

Why did we take this quick trip back to the Midwest? I have been writing about my home town of Celina, Ohio and how long it has been since I was there. I left Celina at age 15 in 1949 (sixty years ago) and moved to Kansas City, Missouri to live with my Uncle Ray and Aunt Edith Moore. My grandmother’s health had taken a turn for the worst and I needed another place to live for my last three years of high school.

Our daughter, Brenda, was reading the stories about Celina and thought it was time for a “quick trip to Ohio” since I had recently been diagnosed with Ideopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Ann and I had planned to take a trip there to show her where I grew up but every time we planned a trip, something came up to stop our plans. The last time I was in Celina was just after graduation of high school in 1952 when I made another “quick trip to Ohio” to visit my grandfather before I left for California to attend college. My grandmother passed away one year after I left Celina and I didn’t know when I would get to see grandpa again. We didn’t know that grandpa would live to be 101 years and 11 months old. We were able to see him at his 90th, 95th, and 100th birthdays as his family planned parties to celebrate.

In 1952 I stopped in Muncie, Indiana to pick up my brother, Bob, at our mother’s place and take him with me to Celina and up to Elkhart, Indiana to visit our sisters, Faye and Lenna. It had been a while since Bob had seen them so I wanted a little “family reunion”. Ben was in the Navy overseas and couldn’t be there. I had Ben's 1939 Pontiac for the trip.

Brenda came up with the plan for the trip. She and her husband Scott had American Airlines miles that could be used for our flight. When they got them transferred together, it left a balance of $112.50 each for a round trip to Indianapolis, Indiana. Plan was to go to Chicago from Santa Ana and another flight to Indianapolis on Friday, June 12th. The return flight on Monday June 15th would be from Indianapolis to Santa Ana via Dallas. The trip would be just Brenda and me as Ann was unable to travel at this time. Brenda’s daughter, Hannah, stayed with Nana while we were gone.

Brenda and I rented a Lincoln Town Car in Indianapolis and drove to Muncie, Indiana where my brother, Bob and his family reside. The last time we saw each other was in June 1984 at our mother’s funeral in Covina, California. That was 25 years ago! We have talked on email and the phone but not in person. We spent the night at Bob’s home with a dinner out to a nice establishment with his two son’s Bobby Jr. and James and their families. A neighbor of Bob’s joined us as he is the Executive Pastor of the local Church of the Nazarene and knows our background. Great time - great food! Then back to Bob & Mary Lou’s place for fellowship and pictures.

On Saturday morning we had breakfast together at another eating establishment before continuing our trip. We were able to have lunch with Bob, Mary Lou and Bobby Jr at Cracker Barrel on our return trip to Indianapolis on Monday June 15th. We had a nice reunion after 25 years. Here are some pictures of our time in Muncie.

Dick & Brenda ready to go to Chicago - then transfer to Indianapolis.

My limo and driver -- Our Lincoln Town Car with daughter Brenda.

Dick with his "little" brother Bob (he's 5 years younger).

James, Gwen (Bobby's wife), Bobby and Dick at dinner.

Bob's family - James, Bob, Bobby and Mary Lou.

C.A. Dalton (Bob's neighbor and Executive Pastor of a local Nazarene Church) and Bob.

Breakfast on Saturday morning - Dick, Brenda, Mary Lou, and Bob.

Dick Sings "O Holy Night" In StarPak Production

2009-06-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

Before I get into the Celina, Ohio trip stories, I want to share with you the last time I sang in public. This was with the StarPak production at Coast Hills Community Church in Aliso Viejo. Two of my grandchildren were in the production. I was the only adult in this childrens musical/play. I wrote about it in December and you can read it here.

I played Angel Gabriel who spent some time with young angels telling them about the first Christmas since I was there. I had an acting/speaking/singing role and interacted with my two youngest grandchildren. A wonderful experience. The song I sang was "O Holy Night" which I want to share with you now.

This video is on YouTube and will be in the side bar to the right of this BLOG for future viewing.
My son, Rick, did the technical work to put this on. Thanks, Rick!

WOW! What A Quick Trip To Ohio!

2009-06-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

My daughter, Brenda, and I took a very quick and very active trip to Ohio last weekend. This will take a number of postings to tell you everything about the trip and how special it was. I will list some of the topics that I will write about over the next two weeks. I have many pictures to help tell the stories.

We flew from Santa Ana, CA to Chicago, IL to Indianapolis, IN. Rented a Lincoln Town Car. Brenda and I shared the driving.

1. Saw my younger brother Bob and his family after 25 years. The last time was in 1984 at our mother’s funeral here in Covina. Bob lives in Muncie, Indiana. We stayed with him Friday night and also had lunch with him on Monday on our return trip.

2. Trip to Troy, Ohio Saturday morning to visit Riverside Cemetery where my dad was buried in June 1940 when he was 31 years old and I was 6. Bob was one. Bob has never been to the cemetery but plans to go soon. Our grandparents are buried there about 30 feet from our dad. Interesting story coming up in a posting.

3. Celina on Saturday afternoon:
A. Web Cam at Market and Main. (Unplanned) We called my wife Ann and Brenda’s family so they could see us waving to them on the internet.
B. Meeting “Whitey” Klosterman and riding in his 1946 Buick.
C. My friend, Karl Allmandinger, who I knew in Junior High and who married a friend of mine. Complete story later.
D. Dinner out Saturday night with Karl.

4. Celina Church of the Nazarene visit
A. Different building than when I attended in 1949. In fact, this is the second location since the one I remember.
B. I got to address the congregation concerning my background with this congregation and what I have done with my life.
C. Met some people who knew my grandfather who was pastor of this church from 1943 to 1946. He retired from active preaching and had to buy his own home since he was living in the parsonage. He continued to attend this church and became the janitor -- yes, my brother Ben and I cleaned the church, kept the lawn mowed, and the snow off the sidewalks.

5. Sunday afternoon tour of Celina with Karl:
A. Visited both houses I lived in from 1943 to 1949.
B. Two of the three schools I attended were torn down and the land has new occupants.
C. My Junior High School (7,8,9) was also the Senior High School (10,11,12) building. It now has school offices and a Head Start school. New Elementary K-4 school, new Intermediate School
5-6, new Middle School 7-8 and new High School 9-12.
D. The planned Web Cam appearance at 2:00 p.m. Ohio time which was mentioned to others so they could look in and see us wave! My son, Rick took pictures off the internet of us and wrote an article for his BLOG (HolyCoast.com).
E. Dinner near the West Bank Inn and Spillway Sunday Night. Here comes Whitey Klosterman to see us in his 1948 Buick Convertible. Another ride.

6. Monday morning at The Daily Standard newspaper offices meeting the publisher and staff. Two hour tour and interview for story with pictures. They will send me copies. The photo and story was in Friday June 19th edition. Whitey called me from Celina and Karl emailed me about the newspaper article and picture.

7. Lunch with brother Bob, his wife Mary Lou, and their son Bobby at The Cracker Barrel in Muncie.

8. Indianapolis Terminal, return rental car and flight home to Santa Ana, CA Monday afternoon via Dallas.

So you can see there are many stories here and I want to split them up to make them more interesting to you.

Stay tuned!

Taking Your Dad To His Home Town - Priceless!

2009-06-05T12:16:00.000-07:00

I have written about my home town of Celina, Ohio several times on this BLOG so you know where I spent my youth from ages 9 to 15 years. I left Celina in September 1949 which will be 60 years ago this September. My last visit there was in 1952 just before I left for California to begin my college days at Pasadena Nazarene College in Pasadena.

I have planned, with my wife Ann, to make the trip back there so many times but things just didn’t go right for us to visit my home area. She wanted to see where I grew up and I wanted desperately to show her. We planned trips by car and during my working years, vacations were used up quickly for other family needs. So I never got the chance to go back. Now it is difficult for her to travel.

My daughter, Brenda, wrote me an email and said -- Dad - it’s time for you to take that long awaited trip to your roots - your home town of Celina. She said we could go on Friday June 12th and return home Monday June 15th. She had American Airline miles that could be used and both of us would pay a small fee for the trip.

My first thought was about Ann who is handicapped and needs someone here with her and provide a lunch out daily. Our son, Rick, will help there along with our son-in-law Scott. A granddaughter will come and stay with Nana so the home front is taken care of by family.

I am required by my pulmonologist to take an oxygen compressor for the “in flight” use only. Do you have any idea what a hassle this has been to get that approved by the airlines? I think we finally have it worked out.

We will fly from Santa Ana to Chicago and change planes for Indianapolis arriving there about 5:30 p.m. Indiana time. A car rental is waiting and we will drive to Muncie, Indiana to see my younger brother who I haven’t seen since 1984 at our mother’s funeral. He is arranging dinner plans for us and we will stay the night there with Bob. In the morning we will leave for Troy, Ohio to visit a cemetery that has my dad (died in 1940) and my grandparents. I want Brenda to “meet” them.

Then it’s off to Celina, Ohio where I spent my youth. We have reservations at a lakeside hotel. A friend from my school days there married a friend of mine named Helen Howell. She was my brother, Ben’s, girlfriend when we lived there. I knew Karl Allmandinger from my time in Celina schools. He was a year ahead of me. We will be with Karl who will “show” us the sights around Celina. I expect to take a lot of pictures.

On Sunday morning Brenda and I will visit the Celina Church of the Nazarene where I used to attend -- new building and a different location. Grandpa was the pastor of this church for a number of years. You can read about my last visit to this church in 1952 by clicking here. The afternoon will be spent seeing the sights and locating any people that I might know. At 2:00 p.m. Celina time (11:00 a.m. California time) Brenda and I will be standing in front of the Mercer County Court House talking to Ann on the phone while she sees us wave on the Web Cam the city has set up. You can read about the web cam and how to access that by clicking here.

Monday morning I hope to be able to visit The Daily Standard office where I used to work as a paper boy and janitor. Then it is off to Indianapolis for our return trip home. A hurried trip but will be worth the effort.

Thanks, Brenda, for making this trip possible. Something that was on my “Bucket List” can now be scratched off!

We will have the story and pictures on our return.

Town & Country Manor Concert Videos To View

2009-05-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

I wrote an article about a concert that I did for Town & Country Manor in Santa Ana, CA on September 7, 2008. You can read the story by clicking here.

A DVD has been produced by my daughter and son-in-law and videos are available on YouTube (done by my son Rick) for you to see and hear. One of them is listed here for you to view. The others are on my BLOG on the right hand column. Please feel free to share this information to those who you think would enjoy songs of yesteryear.

This video features two songs related in subject. That One Lost Sheep / The Ninety and Nine.

Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Celina, Ohio -- My Home Town - Part 2

2009-05-19T16:16:00.000-07:00

This posting is a continuation of the story concerning my home town. Enjoy!

Celina was a small town of about 5,000 people. It was next to a large lake called Grand Lake. That is, Celina called it Grand Lake. Ten miles away was Saint Marys and they called it Lake Saint Marys. You will find both names on maps to this day. The lake was 12 miles long and 3 miles wide. Lots of fish and we spend many evening catching our next days meal. Grandpa liked to fly fish - drag a line through the water and have fish grab it. Grandma enjoyed cork fishing -- just throw a line in and watch the cork. When it went under, you had a fish! We used to sit there and chat while waiting on the fish to act.

Grand Lake was our swimming hole during the summer and a place to ice skate during the winter. I had clamp on ice skates and we would skate at night to car lights shining on the ice. I remember a fellow with a Crosley car driving the ten miles to Saint Marys on the ice. Ohio was cold during the winter. I learned to swim there. Mainly by doing it. No one taught me.

We lived in three houses while I lived there from 1943 to 1949. The first one was on Sugar as I had mentioned before. I don’t remember the inside of the house. I have a picture of the outside with Uncle Gary in army uniform on the porch. The second house was at 230 West Warren Street and was a two story brick house. Had a half city block lot so there was some yard to mow. Houses back then had a “front room” that was closed off during the winter to save heating costs. Hardly ever used during the winter. Everything was open for summer including the doors as it was hot and no air conditioning. We slept next to an open door that had a screen to keep out the flies. We were in the Warren Street house until Grandpa retired from being the minister. Had to find a home of our own for the first time.

Grandpa bought a large lot that had a two story wood frame house covered with an imitation brick siding. The address was 630 Nickerson (later named Brandon) Avenue. The house had one cold water pipe to the kitchen -- no bathroom and no hot water. We had a path outside to the outhouse. Believe me, that was a cold trip during the winter. Fortunately, Grandpa built a bathroom off the kitchen using the pantry and extending it out for the shower. Added hot water heater and we were like normal people again. Prior to this we had to heat water on the kitchen stove for our Saturday night bath. Baths were taken in the kitchen.

Downstairs we had the kitchen, dining room, front room, bathroom, and master bedroom. Upstairs we had a guest room and one bedroom that Ben and I shared. The rest of the upstairs was turned into a small apartment with outside stairs. Grandpa was very good at building and did all the work himself. We rented that out to help with expenses. We had a number of fruit trees on the property and a grape arbor. A large portion of the land was farmed for food. So this land and the church land was farmed for everything but meat, eggs, and milk. Those we bought. We even grew our own popcorn!

The dining room was our social place. That was where the heating stove was that kept the house warm in the winter. We used coal that had to be brought in from the garage. Listening to the radio and playing a board game with Grandma was a highlight. A porch swing got a lot of attention during the warm evenings.

I’m a collector of things that don’t seem to be important to others but to me they mean something. Things of my past. I had a postage stamp collection in a book for that purpose and it is interesting to see the countries that no longer exist as that name. For instance - Ceylon. I stopped collecting stamps when I left Celina in 1949 and the book remains in the condition it was when I moved to Missouri.

I'm including a paragraph from Part 1 concerning the webcam:

Celina has a webcam at the corner of Main and Market showing the Mercer County Court House. You can check it as I do daily to see what is going on there. Here is how you can access it: http://www.dailystandard.com/ , click on Community, then Celina, then webcam, and you can enlarge the picture for better viewing. With high speed internet, you can watch cars go by, people walking, see if it is raining, snowing, etc. Since it is my home town, I check it daily just to see what is going on. This corner is right down the street from The Daily Standard which is to the right of the picture. Check it out.

Celina, Ohio -- My Home Town - Part 1

2009-05-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

As mentioned before, my grandfather was the pastor of the Nazarene church in Celina, Ohio, in 1943 when we moved there. The church provided a house (parsonage) for the pastor and the first one I can remember was on Sugar Street near the church. We could walk to the church from that home. I was nine years old at the time.

The church bought another parsonage at 230 West Warren Street which was on the corner of Warren and Sugar about a mile from the church. This house I remember very well. Ben and I shared a corner room on the second floor. Grandpa had a printing press in the back of the house where he printed the church bulletin each week.

I had 4 uncles in the army serving the United States of America during World War Two. I can remember a flag that was placed in the window with four stars on it representing each of the four uncles. Uncle Carlan served in Peru. Cecil made a career of the Army serving 20 years. He was in Europe and was involved in secret work for our government. Cecil met his wife, Francis, who was also in the service of our country. Dale served in Patten’s 3rd Army in Europe and related to me how he came upon an airfield where planes without propellers were there. Germany had the first jet aircraft but fortunately ran out of fuel for them keeping the jets on the ground. Dale met his wife, Leyla, in Paris, France. Uncle Gerald (Gary) served in Okinawa in communications.

During the war rubber was hard to come by for bike tires and Grandpa wanted us to have a bike. So he bought one (1) and Ben and I shared it. You can imagine how successful that was. It wasn’t long before I bought my own bike from money I earned on the paper route. I bought a Schwinn bike from my Uncle Carlan.

From 1943 to 1949, I had a paper route with The Daily Standard. This was a 6 day a week job as they didn’t publish a Sunday paper. I had about 150 customers and collected every Saturday for the week. I think it was 20 cents a week for the paper then. Sometimes people would give me a dollar and I would punch their card for 5 weeks. But I had to budget the money and pay for the papers every week even though they were paid up on my books. The paper route taught me a lot concerning finances. Christmastime was great as many would give me a tip or a gift for my service throughout the year. Because of the job, I was able to save money and buy things that I wanted without needing to ask for help.

Besides the bicycle, I bought a used Whizzer Motor Bike. I rode this motor bike all over Celina and the surrounding area getting 35 miles per hour and about 125 miles to the gallon. Pretty cheap transportation. When I left Celina, I sold the Whizzer to another news boy for $100. A reconditioned one in 2000 sold for about $5,000. Whizzer is back in business again and you can read about it here.

One day in 1949 I found a 1948 (P48) Powell motor scooter for sale -- one year old. They sold for $300 new and he wanted $50 for it. I told my grandpa and he thought it was a mistake but we went to see it. He asked the man what he wanted for it and he said $45. Grandpa said sold! I paid for this one myself as I had for the other modes of transportation. The P48 got about 50 miles to the gallon and could travel at 70 miles per hour. Had a 7 horsepower motor and was belt driven using a centrifugal clutch (no gears to shift). That motor scooter went with me to Kansas City in 1949 when I moved there.You can read about my teen modes of transportation here, here, and here.

While we are on the subject of transportation, I rode solo only once on a motorcycle - a 1937 Indian whose controls were opposite those of a Harley Davidson. This belonged to my Uncle Bob. We visited him at his home and he saw me admiring it. He asked if I wanted to ride the motorcycle. I had never been on one so he showed me the foot clutch, hand gear shift, speed control on the left handlebar and said have fun. Bob lived in the country so there was very little traffic. The Indian had a clutch that wouldn’t stay down when you came to a stop. That added a little excitement when you had to slow down and turn around. But I managed and found this to be a fun experience.

During my last year in Celina and at the newspaper, I served as janitor of the office after my paper route. The publisher and owner, Parker Snyder, paid me 50 cents an hour to do that job. Mr. Snyder was getting ready to have one of the employees teach me to drive the Studebaker pickup truck so I could take the papers to other cities. I moved before that could happen. Besides I was 15 at the time. Probably could get a license that limited me to the job.

In the six years I served as news boy I kept only one Daily Standard. That was April 12, 1945 Extra that we sold when President Franklin D. Roosevelt died and Harry S. Truman became president. Because of that paper, I was shown in one of the Reminisce magazines holding the paper with a short article about it. The story appeared on the front page of The Daily Standard as one of the subscribers to Reminisce lived in Celina and showed the article to the newspaper. So -- former Celina newspaper boy makes good!

In 1948 I decided to buy a box camera to record my adventures and friends. It was an Ansco Box Camera and my daughter currently has the original. I have one just like it that I found in an antique store in Oklahoma. The camera took eight (8) pictures to the roll and didn’t have a flash -- all pictures had to be taken in daylight outside. I took pictures of our home, my grandparents, brother who lived there and relatives who came to visit. I have a picture of Grandpa’s 1938 Hudson Terraplane, my Whizzer Motor Bike, Ben’s motor bike, a 1948 Tucker on tour that stopped in Celina, Uncle Gary’s 1937 Reo Coupe, and Uncle Cecil’s 1948 Frazer Sedan. I regret that I did not take a picture of my P48 Powell motor scooter.

I have pictures of a few friends, especially my best friend Tom Keifer. Tom and I were the same age and attended the same church. He lived a few blocks from me and we would go bike riding often together. We built a trailer that was attached to the back of my bike and there is a picture of that in my scrapbook. Tom was at the train station when I left Celina. After a few years, I lost track of Tom. He came to visit me in California in the early 1960’s and we lost contact after that. When my name appeared in the paper, his brother, Dick Keifer, called me to chat. He told me that Tom had passed away about 1989.

The church we attended was Celina Church of the Nazarene where my grandfather was the pastor. I took a picture of the church back then but the congregation has moved to another location which I have never seen. The building had a basement where all the Sunday School classes took place. Up stairs was the auditorium for services. There were approximately 125 who attended regularly. Some names that come to mind were Harlow Fetters (had the same birthday) and Bill Baer (led the music). Mr. Fetters bought a new 1946 Plymouth and I rode in it a few times. My first car was a 1947 Plymouth that I bought in 1954. The Keifer’s attended the church. Ralph Grapner was my age and attended.

Beside being the pastor, it fell to our family to mow the yard and remove the snow on Sundays when necessary. The church gave us a large plot of land surrounding the church building for farming. We grew a lot of our food there. Many hours were spent planting, hoeing, harvesting the food. You name it -- we grew it. Including sugar cane that was turned into molasses. We used to say we raised cane behind the church and got away with it!

When Grandpa retired as pastor, he continued to serve the church as janitor. So we spent a lot of time there taking care of the building and yard. They allowed us to continue to farm the grounds surrounding the church as well.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this story.

Celina has a webcam at the corner of Main and Market showing the Mercer County Court House. You can check it as I do daily to see what is going on there. Here is how you can access it: http://www.dailystandard.com/ , click on Community, then Celina, then webcam, and you can enlarge the picture for better viewing. With high speed internet, you can watch cars go by, people walking, see if it is raining, snowing, etc. Since it is my home town, I check it daily just to see what is going on. This corner is right down the street from The Daily Standard which is to the right of the picture. Check it out.

Where Do We Go From Here? Health Update.

2009-05-07T18:31:00.000-07:00

On April 29th Ann and I, along with our driver, son Rick, had our long awaited appointment with the UCLA Medical Center specialists in lung diseases. After a review of the many test results they both came to the conclusion that I had a rare form of Ideopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. It is so rare that they do not have anything that they can do for me at this time. Some forms of fibrosis can be treated with steroids but not this one. They said that my condition will not get better but they hope to be able to slow down the progress of the disease.

We had one pulmonary function test to share with the UCLA doctors. They want me to take one every three months and return to them with the results. They will review the results comparing the current one with previous ones. Our next appointment with UCLA Medical Center is June 24th. It will take a couple of these visits before they will consider any direction that might be of benefit to me.

The UCLA doctors said that I could resume playing golf. We talked to our regular doctor today and he said that I could -- as long as I rode in a cart, had someone else along with me, and took my portable oxygen system in case I would need it during the game. This is going to cut down my golf playing time. I can take a cart and have my oxygen system there but I can’t always have someone with me. Most of the time I play alone or join someone who happens to be there and ready to play at the same time. I used to have a regular golf partner but that stopped a couple of years ago. If I have someone and they are playing too, they can pay their own way. If I take someone along to drive the cart and keep and eye on me, I will have to pay double for the cart and pay their green fees as well. That is the rule. No one is allowed on the course unless they pay for playing even though they will not have clubs with them. As I stated, this will cut down on the number of times I can go out and enjoy a round of golf.

Ann and I have been taking walks at Santa Margarita Lake which is one mile around. I pull my portable oxygen system as it is on rollers. Ann is in her electric scooter. One time around each time. We have done three of these walks this week so far and will probably go out tomorrow.

We had many blood tests recently and have checked back with my hematologist yesterday because the results have varied. He checked them and said that everything is fine. Stress will cause the tests to vary and you know I have been under a lot of stress lately. So the blood is fine!
I am still coughing more than I want to and out of breath on occasion. As Ann has stated in her last update, “All in all, it is now up to God to determine his days.”

UPDATE: Our meeting with Jim Barnett at Mission Hospital Pulmonary Rehab went very well. He is the most upbeat person we've met in this struggle to get some answers to this health problem. He is a golfer - in fact a ranger at a local golf course and says that I could go out golfing without anyone with me as long as I use a cart and take the oxygen machine with me. He said that he has had some of the patients who are much worse off than me out on the golf course with him and they didn't have any problems. He feels that when I get into the June 22nd rehab group that I will be able to learn how to handle most situations and live a normal life. I like this guy!

Events That Change Your Direction In Life

2009-04-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

I often marvel at the events that came into my life to get me where I am today. So many things had to fall in place in order for me to have the life that I now enjoy.

I was born in Piqua, Ohio in 1934 to Leonard and Evelyn Moore. I was their second child as Ben was born in 1932. I don’t have any recollection of living with my parents. Nothing seems to have stuck in my memory of those years. Some people can remember when they were two years old and I can’t remember anything prior to six years of age. During that time we had Faye join our family in 1937, Bob in 1939 and Lenna in 1940.

Two months prior to Lenna’s birth, our dad passed away from an infection that is curable today but was not in 1940. The next two years are a blur as well. Our mother moved us a couple of times as I do remember living in a farm house but we didn’t farm the land. Just rented the home. Another house was a portable temporary housing that was available during World War Two. I believe this was in Troy, Ohio which is about 10 miles from Piqua. Our dad worked at Hobart Manufacturing in Troy. It was at this home that we were picked up by the authorities and was headed for Foster Care had our grandparents not intervened. Grandpa didn’t want any of his grandchildren in Foster Care. So he went before the judge and requested permission to place the five kids into homes of his family. Our grandparents had 12 children. One died at 6 weeks and my father died at age 31. So 10 were left to help.

Faye went to live with our Aunt Ruth Reynolds in Elkhart, Indiana and was raised as one of Ruth’s children. Robert Lee (Bob) was first sent to our Uncle Bob Moore’s home in Covington, Ohio and later to Aunt Doris Wright’s home in Los Angeles where he stayed for a short time. This didn’t work out in Bob’s life and he opted to move in with our mother in Muncie, Indiana. I don’t recall when he did this but he was living there in the summer of 1952 when I visited him and took him on a trip to Celina and Elkhart to visit our siblings and relatives.

Lenna was a baby under two years of age when she went to live with Aunt Betty Ummel near Elkhart. Lenna and Faye grew up near each other and were able to be together often. Lenna really didn’t know her father and mother. She had little contact with her mother.

Ben and I went to live with our grandparents, our dad’s mother and father. Our grandfather was the pastor of the Nazarene church in Coshocton, Ohio at this time. Shortly after that, he was asked to be the pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in Celina, Ohio. Ben was 10 years old and I was 8 when we began our lives with our grandparents.

In 1949 after completing his junior year in high school, Ben left the home to live with our mother in Muncie, Indiana. That left me alone for the first time at age 15.

Our grandmother’s health was failing in 1949 and as had been the practice of the Moore children, they came to see their parents as often as they could. One of those visits in late August was from Ray and Edith Moore with their 18 month old daughter, Kathy. They spent a few days with us and then left for home in Kansas City, Missouri. A few days later I received a letter from Ray which I still have in my Memory Box. He asked me to consider moving to Kansas City, Missouri to live with them since grandmother was having difficulty in caring for me. I showed the letter to Grandpa and he said the decision would be entirely mine. I was welcome to stay there with them if I chose or take Ray and Edith up on their offer. My choice.

The decision had to be made very quickly as September was right around the corner and I was headed back to school for my 10th grade. I would be leaving everything that I knew and friends that have been pals for several years. I also had my job at the Daily Standard delivering papers for the last six years and my janitorial duties at the newspaper to consider. I would be starting over at a new place, new family, new church, new school and hopefully new friends. I had a Whizzer Motor Bike and a Powell Motor Scooter to think about. I sold the Whizzer to a fellow newspaper friend and shipped the Powell to Kansas City.

The decision to move from Celina to Kansas City was not an easy one. But it was the right one. Grandmother passed away in 1950. I met a girl of 14 years of age just one and a half blocks from my new home who I married six years later. This July 22nd will be our 54th wedding anniversary. Ann Edwards went to the same high school and church and later to the same college in California.

This story is a great example of what Romans 8:28 says -- “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose”.

Have You Ever Re-read An Old Letter You Wrote?

2009-04-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

Ray & Edith Moore - my "parents" in Kansas City, Missouri

Our home in Kansas City, Missouri on 67th Street

My last three years of high school were spent living in Kansas City, Missouri with Uncle Ray and Aunt Edith Moore. After graduation in 1952, I moved to California to attend Pasadena Nazarene College.

My High School graduation picture - 1952

Communication between us was through letters to each other. Postage was 3 cents and we wrote each other on occasion. My Aunt Edith passed away some 15 years ago and Uncle Ray died a couple of years ago. His second wife, Nelda, was recently going through some of Ray’s possessions and found seven letters that I had written them that he kept. The dates of the letters were January 11, 1954, February 18, 1954, October 7, 1954 ( all written in my Sophomore and Junior years of college.)

The next one was written April 13, 1959 three days before my 25th birthday and three days after our son, Ricky’s, 3rd birthday. Ann was very pregnant with Brenda who was born 11 days later on April 24, 1959. [This year she turned 50.]

I wrote a letter on October 4, 1959 that Ray kept. Ricky was 3 ½ years old and Brenda was soon to be 6 months old. Ann was enrolled in what became California State University at Fullerton taking night classes.

The sixth letter was written March 23, 1962. The next month Ricky will be 6 years old and Brenda was coming up on her 3rd birthday. I had written about the passage of time -- 10 years ago I graduated from High School, 6 years ago from Pasadena Nazarene College, and I came to live with them 13 years ago. Time was flying.

The last one I received from Nelda I want to comment on some items. I will publish most the letter and add comments to some of the items. This was written June 19, 1965 when we were living in our first home that we bought on Marty Lane in Santa Ana. That is almost 44 years ago. Comments will be in brackets [ ]. This was to Ray only as it was in a “Father’s Day” card.
***************************************************************************
Dear Ray,
This card is coming to you a little late. I bought the card early enough but wanted to write a letter to you at the same time the card came. Consequently, the card is late waiting for this letter.

I wish to say “Happy Father’s Day”, as you have been one of my fathers throughout my life and I am very glad that you were. I don’t consider myself as a kid that had bad breaks in his life. On the contrary. I feel that I had many good breaks and feel very fortunate to have been born into a family of Moore’s that are interested in helping each other out when things don’t go according to plan. [I was one of 5 children born to Ray’s brother, Leonard. Our dad died suddenly in 1940 and the family floundered for a couple of years before being split up by court order. Instead of Foster Care, we were moved to homes of our dad’s family. My brother, Ben, and I went to live with our grandparents. The other three kids went to uncles or aunts in the Moore family.] [I moved to Kansas City in September 1949.]

I am very proud of you and the family that I was associated with during my teen years. You were understanding when it was needed and also stern when it was needed. Thank you.

Dad [Ann’s dad Robert Edwards] is visiting us now and has been for a few days. He returns to Kansas City next Thursday. That is, he leaves then on the train. It sure is nice to have him here. He attended Ann’s graduation from college. She finally did it! And she did it “With Honors”. We are proud of her and her hard work that she has had to put in in order to attain this. One item of note -- Cecil Miller [who Ray knew] is registrar at the college that Ann graduated from -- California State College at Fullerton. He was in that capacity at Pasadena [Nazarene College] when I graduated 9 years ago. [Cecil signed both of our diplomas.] We got to talk with him on graduation day. I guess he was a victim of the last purge at Pasadena. He has a very good position with this college as Ann was only one of 502 that graduated. Incidentally, she was one of 18 who graduated “With Honors”. How about that?

I hear by the grapevine that you will be leaving Kansas City and have accepted a position at Olivet [Nazarene College - Kankakee, Illinois]. The way things were going in KC I imagine this is a great load off your mind and a better chance to do what you are really interested in. I also hear that you may set up a radio station at the college. When things are such that you can write about it, please let me know. I hate to see you leave KC as it is very nice to stop in one place and see all relatives on both sides. You seem to be a permanent fixture there. I know the kids and particularly Kathy are probably upset and it has been her only hometown. This will be a new experience for them [Kathy, Philip, & Harlan] and I know they will adjust. I’ve had quite a few hometowns now and find it just as easy to live in one town as another. Perhaps on those rare occasions that I may have to visit our home office, I can drop in on you at Olivet. It’s not far from Chicago and we have to go via Chicago. [State Farm Insurance home office is located in Bloomington, Illinois.]

Since you are moving and I have some items at your house yet, would you please box them and give these to the Edwards for me. I haven’t driven back that way yet and haven’t had a chance to pick them up. I believe I have my stamp collection, and memory box [still have these in the garage] plus anything else that you may find that was mine. I’m not interested in the ice skates if you still have these. Let your kids have them. It would be interesting to know just what I do have there. Even after 13 years in California I guess I’m not settled down. I expected to come back there after college but that didn’t work out. Things here are looking good for both of us work wise and unless there is something drastic, we will be here for some time to come.

We’ve been considering buying a different home and getting settled but the prices of homes now is terrible. I paid $13,250.00 for my 4 bedroom home. I can get about $16,500 for it now. But then buying a different one would run $25,000 to $30,000 and that is too much at this time. My mortgage is under $12,000 and by investing a little I could fix up my house to make it quite livable. We don’t know exactly what to do. [Can you relate to any of this? We ended up buying a new home in Westminster that cost $28,000 and I thought I‘d lost my mind!]

Ann just finished teaching the first semester of her career. She is teaching 1st grade and loves it. [She spent 30 years in 1st grade with 25 years in the same room.] She has a ten month contract for next year at $590 a month. [WOW!] Not bad for a teacher. Of course California is probably the highest paying for teachers. This next year should be easier for us financially. We will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary next month [In July 2009 it will be 54 years] and all ten years have been pretty rough. Things are looking better.

Ricky has been promoted to the 4th grade now and Brenda will start 1st grade next fall. These kids are growing up too fast. More and more people are noticing how gray I’m getting too. I guess that is part of life.

Love to all,
(signed) Dick

*****************************************************************
I mentioned in the letter that time was going by so fast. That was 44 years ago! I have no idea where it went but I can remember so many things that took place in all those years in between that letter and today. I guess this is what “getting old” is all about. I thought you’d enjoy making comparisons to today from things in this letter. Perhaps some of you can relate to this as well.

My BLOG in Vietnamese

2009-04-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

I have a service that tells me where inquiries to my postings are coming from as far as City & State in the United States and City and Country from outside. It is called "StatCounter". I check it often to see where people are from that have found my BLOG and what posting they were reviewing. I have had "hits" from all over the world and all points in America and Canada.

Yesterday I checked the list and found one from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I clicked on the entry and it referred me to what they were looking at in the postings. Here was my item written in Vietnamese! They had translated it (through Google) into their language. I thought it might only be this one posting but all had been translated. When you move the curser over a word or phrase, it turns into English. I copied it off and send to some relatives and friends and when that happens, it is in both English and Vietnamese.

I have some Vietnamese friends that worked with me at State Farm and thought it was interesting that someone had taken the time to view my work in their own language. We also support a charity called Giving It Back To Kids that was started by a friend of ours about 6 years ago and does a great work in Vietnam.

If the person from Ho Chi Minh City comes back to this BLOG, I would like them to contact me through the "Comment" section on this blog. I would like to know what they thought of my writings and why they found it in the first place. Google had key words and Labels referring people to this BLOG and maybe they found it that way.

It is interesting that they are able to translate it so they can read it easier.

Classic Car Museum Tour

2009-04-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

I used to work for State Farm Insurance as a Auto Supervisor. I was asked to pull together a committee called the Stated Value Committee of car enthusiasts who either worked on collectible cars or was knowledgeable in this field. I told people then that my expertise was that I owned a lot of old cars - just not classics or collectibles!

From our Claims Department I found three fellows that all had an interest in classic and antique cars and attended shows all over Southern California keeping up with the latest trends in this field. Some were in the process of rebuilding for instance a 1940 Ford. One had a 1936 Chevrolet Coupe that was modified (not original) and he showed the car in various shows. Dave, Jim and Nelson took me to some of these shows to help educate me in the fine art of assessing value to these vehicles.

This committee ran for two years and helped our underwriters establish values for insurance purposes. We gave seminars to employees and to agents to help them in this process. This interest has grown for me as time went on and anytime I can see one of these shows or museums I’m there.

My son, Rick, went to a wedding reception at a place that actually was a Classic Car Museum owned by Lew Webb, a now retired owner of many auto dealerships in Southern California. He had about 35 classic and antique cars that were kept in running condition by Ron Hitter who works for Mr. Webb. When Ron saw Rick, he mentioned that he has seen him sing with his gospel quartet, Crimson River. That got them talking about the museum and Rick stated that his dad (me) would love to see this collection of cars since he had something to do with classic cars with his former work. Ron said, ok, let’s find a time and we’ll give him a private tour.

My birthday is April 16th and this year I reach 75 years old. So Rick got in touch with Ron Hitter and they arranged a time for our family to come and see the private collection of Lew Webb which is not opened to the public. He didn’t tell me where we were going or what was there. Just the time to be at a certain place. When we arrived, a man met me at the door and gave me a bear hug wishing me a happy 75th birthday as he had just turned 75 this year also. It was the owner, Lew Webb. We got some pictures taken and then he turned the tour over to his employee, Ron Hitter. Mr. Webb left and we went inside to see these fabulous cars. Packards, Rolls Royce, Buicks, a 1948 Tucker of which only 51 were made. This one was number 29. I took a picture of a brand new 1948 Tucker that visited my small town of Celina, Ohio in 1948. I was 14 at the time and had an Ansco box camera. That picture and story can be seen here .

Center picture -- 150 years of living. Dick Moore and Lew Webb - both 75.
Main picture - our family on a private tour of the museum.

There was a Cord, an Auburn, a Deisenberg all of which are from the same car family. Several cars that had to be driven by a hired driver and the owner sat it the back. One of those was a car owned by a movie star named Joan Crawford. Here are a few of the collection that will give you an idea of what the museum contains.

Joan Crawford's car. Driver in front - star and guests in back.

Mr. Webb’s collection also had a 1919 Model T Ford. The oldest car I ever drove was a 1913 Model T Ford and the story of that event can be seen here. Lew and his wife came to California in a 1953 Chevrolet. He has one of those in his collection. One of the dealerships he had was a Toyota new car shop and he has a couple of Toyota’s on display. One is listed as a 1935 but was really made in 1995 when Toyota brought out a remake of that special model.

1919 Model T Ford. Notice the "center" door. Only model done this way.

Ron Hitter keeps all these cars in running order and he gave me his cell phone number to call when I can come over and take a ride in one of these classics. That is something I will definitely do.

This private tour was an incredible birthday gift and to actually meet the owner was special too. Thanks, Rick, for arranging this tour.

Sweetie Pie - An Unexpected E-Mail

2009-04-06T11:32:00.000-07:00

For five years I was a co-host of State Farm Insurance Retiree’s luncheons held four times a year. The first three were for the men only and the ladies held their own retiree luncheons. The one in November was a combined luncheon with the retired men and women of our company and included spouses or significant others. We would have 100 at this luncheon.

As co-host it was my job to organize the luncheons and send out email flyers announcing the details of the luncheon. I worked with the committee members of the ladies luncheons for the big combined one a few years ago. We offered a choice of two entrees and people were to email me back with their selection.

One of those e-mails was sent from an address I did not know. She made the selection and signed it “Thank You Sweetie Pie”. I searched my address book and couldn’t come up with anyone named Pat Fisher with that address and finally had to write to this person and ask how they got the information on the luncheon and who are they?

Although I didn’t see her face on the e-mail response, I could tell it was red in color. It seems she meant to send it back to her friend Fred Bruno who is one of the men retirees. She sent it to me instead. Pat finally met me when she and Fred came to the luncheon and checked in. Fred had told her that Dick won’t let this go so be prepared for anything.

I was master of ceremonies of the luncheon and after our meal, I got up and told the story of receiving an order for lunch from someone I didn’t know and this person called me “Sweetie Pie”. Everyone got a chuckle out of it especially Pat Fisher and Fred Bruno. Whenever I see them at the November luncheons, I remind them of the incident. After all, I don’t let situations like this just go away! Ask Fred.

Jasper & Jesse - An Easter Tale

2009-04-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

My brother, Ben, and I lived with our grandparents in the little town of Celina, Ohio from 1943 to 1949. We didn’t have much of this world’s goods but what we did have were “parents” that loved us and wanted to share what little they had with us to make our lives interesting.

During this period of time living in a farming community we had available colored chicks at Easter for our amusement. They hadn’t figured out yet that this was cruel and unusual punishment of these little chickens to have them spray colored and given out as play things for Easter. Grandpa got us two of them - one red and one green. Ben chose the red one and named him Jasper. I got the green one (my favorite color) and named it after Grandpa - Jesse. Grandpa’s first name was Jesse but he never used it. Always went by J.I. Moore.

It was our job to feed and take care of these little chicks. They were fun to play with and watch grow. In time they grew up to be normal looking chickens and lost their color. Chickens are only good for one thing and I can tell you they were delicious! Grandma fixed them up for Sunday dinners. We had no trouble separating the idea of them being our pets as little chicks and our meal as grown up chickens. We lived in a small town surrounded by farms which grew animals for food. It was a natural progression.

Colored chickens for Easter is a thing of the past but they were a part of my past.

How To Impress Your Famous Pastor

2009-03-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

In April 1998 we were between churches and attended a mid week bible study at Saddleback Church because our son, Rick, was singing a solo for it that night. Tom Holladay was leading the study every Wednesday night to about 1,800 people and we decided to start attending Saddleback Church. Tom is Rick Warren’s brother-in-law. An excellent teacher of the bible.

It is not easy to find a time to meet Rick Warren and let him know who you are. At the time probably 15,000 people attended the weekend services. Mr. Warren had not yet written his book, “The Purpose Driven Life” which made millions of dollars for his personal use and made him known world wide.

A few years later we were asked by the Executive Pastor, Glen Kreun, for a favor. Pastor Glen’s in-laws lived on our street and he asked us to bring his mother-in-law to a wedding reception of his step-son’s as she was the grandmother of the groom. We weren’t invited to the wedding but he wanted us to bring the grandmother who we knew. We said ok and made arrangements for taking her to the party.

As you can imagine, most of the guests were from Saddleback Church and we didn’t know most of them. But we can fit in just about anywhere and was assigned a table with some of the staff of the church including Pastor Warren's daughter Aimee.

I wanted to check out the buffet line and while there, Senior Pastor Rick Warren also checked it out. We were alone and I went up to him and introduced myself. I said “Hi - I’m Dick Moore and I attend Saddleback Church. Who are you?” He doubled over with laughter and so did a number of guests who heard what I said. Mr. Warren then introduced himself to me and we had a nice chat.

Everybody knows who Rick Warren is because of his high profile as founding pastor of one of the nations largest churches. He is even more known since his book has been published. As we all know, he was asked by Barack Obama to offer the invocation at the inaugural of the new president of the United States this year.

I know who Rick Warren is but he still doesn’t know who Dick Moore is. Small world isn’t it?

Here I am - Back On Line!

2009-03-22T12:16:00.000-07:00

UPDATE #2 - 3-27-09

Yesterday we received a call from the surgeon's office to say that he wanted us there at 9:30 a.m. this morning. He usually isn't in the office on Friday but he wanted us to get the information as soon as possible. The doctor told us that I have Usual Interstitial Pneumonia which basically says that they don't know what I have. This is not a definitive diagnosis but a collection of diseases that don't have answers. Both the surgeon and the pulmonologist that we saw at 1:30 p.m. are wanting me to go to UCLA Medical Center to a specialized clinic and doctors who do nothing but work with these type of diseases. They have already faxed the tests and will be sending the slides that were returned from Mayo in Arizona. From now on, UCLA will be where his lung doctors are located.

I was quite allergic to the tape that was used and my chest looks as though it has been badly burned in places. This certainly added to my discomfort.

The pulmonologist did find that my oxygen blood level is higher than it was before the surgery.

The surgeon told us that some of these diseases can be helped with treatment and some cannot. Neither doctor tried to sugar coat anything but they did stress that they just don't know what it is or how to treat it until a lot more tests can be taken and those will be done at UCLA.

For those who know how to pray, I'd appreciate your prayers for a quick appointment at UCLA and peace as we make the decisions necessary in the future.

UPDATE # 1 - 3-25-09

I had an appointment with my hematologist this morning. (I have had low red blood platelets for over a year.) Today, my counts have risen to 161 which puts me in the low normal range. (It came up from 140 three months ago.) The hematologist was pleased that my immune system seemed to be kicking in.

The hematologist called the surgeon and got the results of my biopsy. I have been diagnosed with Usual Interstitial Pneumonia. When we arrived home we had a call from my pulmonologist to move my appointment from April 1st to this coming Friday, March 27, at 1:30 p.m. We are very glad that I could get in sooner.

Tomorrow I have another test at Mission Hospital. The appointment to remove the bandages at the surgeon's office remains April 1st. More UPDATES as we get more information. Thanks for checking in on this BLOG and for your prayers and concern.
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First of all, I want to thank my wife, Ann, for updating you about what has been happening in the surgery and recovery. If you didn't get one from her, it's because you weren't on the huge list of emails that Ann has been sending out daily. That is the reason for the BLOG updates - to get those of you who aren't on her list. Ann has been faithful in letting you know just what has been going on. She's just returning the favor that I did in 2004 after her brain surgery and long recovery. I was updating email and even printing out the update and mailing to those who didn't have email. A lot has changed since then and many have joined the email list. So we aren't doing a mail list.

I asked our son, Rick, to update the BLOG since he has one of his own and is familiar with how it works. Thanks, Rick, for keeping it going until I could get back on. I'll take it from here.

Rick and Anne with Brenda and Scott have been wonderful in helping Ann and me through this tough time. Being with us at the hospital and now at home has been very helpful. Both families have done some shopping for us and getting our meals at home. It is great to have Hannah and Rachel with us at home to keep our spirits up by watching "Get Smart!" DVD shows. Hopefully, we can take over again in the near future and they won't have the full responsibility of helping both parents.

I came home Thursday afternoon and have had a couple of rough periods but mainly doing fine. One thing you shouldn't have is a leg cramp at 4 a.m. when you are trying to get out of the bed for a short trip. I couldn't move fast anyway but a leg cramp has a way of speeding up the process. Painful - but faster!

I won't be seeing the surgeon until April 1st (hummm - something about that day) and hopefully we will have the results of the biopsy then. They sent it out to Arizona to be analysed and figure out how to best treat what I have in my lungs. I hope they will be able to get the bandages off then. Immediately after the visit, we see the lung doctor who is one floor down from the surgeon.

This week we see our regular family doctor on Monday and my blood doctor on Wednesday. So many doctors! These are routine and not particularly related to the surgery. In fact, the blood doctor doesn't even know about it yet. I see him every three months to keep the counts in the right place.

I am able to get around the house now by myself and even did a lot of the breakfast set up today. Any updates I will have on this BLOG will be done here on this posting. Check back to see if there are any new information as we go along.

Thanks for your concern and your prayers. They mean a lot to me and to Ann. We'll get through this.

Dick's Surgery Update 3

2009-03-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

This is Dick's son Rick again. I should have posted this earlier but Dad came home from the hospital on Thursday afternoon. He's still pretty weak but is slowly recovering. He's not happy about being limited in his activities for a bit, but that's the way it goes after surgery.

He'll probably post the next item in a day or so.

Dick's Surgery Update 2

2009-03-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

This is from Ann Moore:

It was a long day today but Dick was looking better tonight. He was able to get up and take about three little walks today. He is off of the morphine which will help a lot. He was very tired all day and slept quite a bit because they woke him up about every hour during the night.

He is on breathing treatments every four hours and every hour he has to use the little breathing machine that many of you are familiar with if you have been in the hospital. It is to keep him from developing pneumonia. He coughs a lot when he uses it but the surgeon said it was what was expected and needed.

The doctor decided to take him off of oxygen because he wants him to consciously take deeper breaths even if they hurt. His color was greatly improved tonight.

We may not have the results of the biopsies until next Wednesday because the pulmonologist said that it would be sent to Arizona for a final decision regarding what he is dealing with.

He will be unable to drive as long as he needs to take pain medication. Rick and Brenda are helping me a great deal. They both spent the better part of today with me. Rick takes me there and brings me home. He drives our car so that he has access to my wheelchair.

They are making sure that I have meals and they are a great source of comfort to Dick. I felt MUCH better about his situation tonight. He has some wonderful care givers. We really like the surgeon and the pulmonologist.

He knows that people are praying for him and it means so much to him.
Thank you so much for being there for us.

I will probably not be able to answer all of the emails but please know that they are read, appreciated and sent on to Dick's computer for when he gets home.

Thank you for being there.
Ann Moore

Surgery Update

2009-03-17T17:23:00.001-07:00

This is Dick's son Rick. He asked me to update you on his surgery this morning.

All seems to have gone fairly well. The surgeon found that his lungs are pretty inflamed as expected. They took three biopsies from his right lung and we're now waiting to hear what the cause of the problems might be.

The surgeon was fairly optimistic that based on past situations like this that a treatment regime could be identified, and that there was a good chance for a full recovery. We'll know more once the final diagnosis comes in.

Dad finally got to his room at 3:30 pm. He's in quite a bit of pain and is very tired, but all of that is expected. Hopefully he'll have a restful night tonight and will be able to go home tomorrow. He probably won't be moving much in the coming days, but home is better than a hospital bed.

CORRECTION: He won't be going home on Wednesday. The pulmonologist will make the call but it's looking more like 3 or 4 days in the hospital.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Doctors!

2009-03-12T21:38:00.001-07:00

Well - it wasn’t really funny. We went to see the pulmonologist regarding the symptoms that I have been having for some time. In the last couple of weeks I have had a CT SCAN, Pulmonary Function Test, a lot of blood tests, saw my eye doctor and he wanted me to see a specialist because he saw something in my left eye that didn’t look right.

The eye is no problem. Everything came out on the pictures fine and I don’t have to worry about that at all.

However, the pulmonologist reviewed the CT SCAN and wanted me to see a surgeon right away for a biopsy of my lung. He is concerned with pulmonary fibrosis or something of that nature. There appears to be a lot of inflamation and the lungs also have a lot of apparent scarring and other problems.

He sent us to make an appointment with a thoraxic surgeon and we will see him Friday at 10:30 a.m. The surgeon is not normally there on Fridays but agreed to come in to see me. The pulmonologist said that I will be in the hospital for 4 days. They need to go through my side to make the biopsy.

I am also dealing with a problem with my throat that is not related to the lung but has been caused by the coughing. I am not to talk and I have some medications to help this situation.

I will use this posting on my BLOG for updates as we go along. Please check it often to see what is going on. This is the best way to keep all of you up to date.

Yes, I would appreciate your prayers and Ann would also. Rick & Brenda will be taking care of Ann during my time of recovery.

UPDATE # 1 (3-13-09) Just got back from a day of meetings for the surgery. Met with the surgeon, Dr. Ledford Powell, who came in from surgery just to give me the counsoltation. Surgery is set up for Tuesday 3-17-09 at 9: 30 a.m. at Saddleback Hospital. He said the stay will be only overnight and I should be released by noon on Wednesday. Then had the pre-registration for the surgery. More blood lab work and an EKG. Then a talk to the admitting nurse covering all the fine points of visiting the hospital. We got there at 10:30 a.m. and was out about 2:00 p.m. So a long day. Our son went with us to help with the wheelchair for Ann and to listen in on what is going on. I will have three lung biopsies all on the right lung. They are entering with two incisions - one for the camera and one for the surgery. Through the ribs. Sounds like fun! Of course I won't know anything. More updates when I am able to write.

I Know I Know Him! But How?

2009-03-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been in a crowd and see someone who you think you know but can’t bring forth his/her name or circumstances that you know them? This happened to me a couple of weeks ago at a memorial service at Saddleback Church. In the Plaza Room where the service was to be done Ann and I went to the far side in order to get room for her electric scooter next to the rows of chairs. Just before the service started, I looked at the row behind me and over to the aisle. There was a man sitting on the aisle that I knew I had seen him and thought maybe I had even met him somewhere but couldn’t bring it forward. I asked Ann and she said he sure was familiar too but couldn’t think who it might be.

All during the service I kept going through my “filing cabinets” of my brain trying to figure this out. So when the service was over, I made tracks to catch him and find out how I knew him.

Well, his name is Bob Johnson and he was the football coach at El Toro when the son of the deceased was there. He moved over to Mission Viejo High School and has been there for a number of years. How did I know him? By seeing him on the field through my binoculars! I told him I didn’t think I had met him but he was very familiar and I needed to know where I had seen him. He was very nice about it. I told him my connection to the football games was through my grandchildren who played in the Marching Band. We attend all the games because the band did the half time show.

Another related story happened a few years ago. At one of the football games, I was standing in the back at the top of the stairs in the stadium and started talking to a man just making conversation. I told him I had a grandchild in the band and asked if he was there because of the band or football. He said football. I guess I should have known who he was because of the number 6 on his cap but it didn’t register. He was Mark Sanchez’s dad. Mark was the quarterback who eventually went to USC and last year was the quarterback for that great football team. Mark has since let himself be eligible for the football draft and will undoubtedly be picked up by a team for many bucks.

You never know who you are talking to!

Would You Like To Be A Part Of History?

2009-03-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

This BLOG is about my life and is being written for my family and long time friends to remember Ann and me. Do you know your great grandparents? Most know their grandparents but not their great grandparents.

My grand kids will be coming into the time they will have families of their own and I want their kids to know who their great grandparents were. That is my motivation to write these stories. It's OK for you to read them too even though you are not family or have known us a long time. Some of these stories will bring back memories of yours that you may wish to share with others.

Now about that history part -- if you have a comment, please feel free to write something on any of the stories whether it reminds you of something in your past or you just enjoyed it. All Comments are printed off as well as the stories for the book I am making for the family. So -- you can be a part of that history!

If you want to set up a Google account it is very simple. On the Comment page you can follow directions to do that. Posting a picture with your account will show you and your comment whenever you write something. If you do not want to set up an account -- that's OK too. Just move the dot to the Anonymous line and click publish. Be sure to type your name at the end of the comment so I will know who wrote it.

I'd love to hear from you. And you can be a part of history in the process.

Small College Advantages - Part D 1955-1956

2009-03-03T11:28:00.000-08:00

This is the last of a series of five postings. If you haven’t read the previous four, please do so now before reading this story.

D. Senior Year 1955-1956

The summer of 1955 up to July 22nd was spent working full time (wasn’t I already doing that?) at the book store. I took my earned vacation and drove back to Kansas City to be married. I left on a Friday night after work and drove continuously until I could no longer see straight. Stopped in Kansas for a three hour nap and continued on to Kansas City. It’s a wonder I got there at all. But we do crazy things sometimes and this I can chalk up to one of those.

Dick & Ann Moore - Married July 22, 1955 in Kansas City, Missouri

After the wedding, we spent our honeymoon driving back to California by way of Colorado. When we arrived back home in Pasadena, we began our life in a duplex at the corner of Carmelo and White. This was owned by one of the teachers at the college and Ann’s traveling sponsor/speaker the previous summer. The duplex was furnished and water paid. It had a kitchen (small), living room, bedroom, and bath. No garage. But it was home to us and we loved it. Paid $45 a month which was a lot considering I made $200 gross a month.

Dick Moore standing at the door of our duplex on Carmelo in Pasadena, CA.

Ann Moore at our front door of the duplex 1956

Ann had a job lined up to work for an insurance company office to help support as I continued to work at the book store. Well, she actually worked for one half a day! Came home very sick and was unable to return to work. Seems that she was pregnant with Ricky and for the next 3 months was too sick to do much of anything. So our married life is off and running at a much slower pace than we had planned. We thought I would be making $200 a month at the book store and she would be making $200 a month at the insurance agency. Now that is cut in half and an addition to the family was going to make an appearance within a few months.

I was in my senior year of college and taking 16 units to complete my studies for graduation. With a very sick wife and a baby coming, my thought went to supporting my family instead of finishing college. Ann’s parents, Robert and Mildred Edwards, came to our aid and told me they would pay the last year’s tuition if I would work and support the family. So that is how I was able to make it financially through my last year of college. We will be forever grateful to them for helping us get through this difficult year.

To me, college was my passport to the future and I needed to complete that if I was ever going to accomplish anything in this life. With taking a full load of studies and working full time as well, this left little time to be a part of the college community. I was not in sports or any clubs. I was living off campus and had little time to socialize outside of our home.

Dave Cole had a part time job of music minister at Central Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena. He got three other guys and a piano player forming a church quartet that sang every Sunday evening. I was the bass and Dave was the first tenor. Each of the guys (except Dave) were paid $5 a week for that one song. Dave got more since he was in charge of the entire music program. The $5 came in very handy and we enjoyed singing together.

My yearbook that year had no signatures or comments written by other school attendees. Apparently I didn’t have time to stick around after I got the book. Since I lived off campus and was married with a child here at the time the book was available, I had things to do that didn’t include finding people to sign my book. I regret that I didn’t get any but that’s life.

My sister, Faye, was a freshman this year at PNC. She appeared in three pictures in the yearbook other than her class picture for activities she was in. She was at the school only one year, my senior year. She attended Whittier College but didn’t graduate. Ann appeared in one of the pictures of the crowd at a basketball game. I was sitting next to her but wasn’t in the picture. Ann was wearing maternity clothes. I just had my senior class picture in the book. At this point I was ready to move on.

Richard Robert Moore born in Pasadena, California. Picture taken in hospital.

On April 10, 1956, our family grew by one with the addition of Richard Robert Moore. This was two months before my graduation. I attended the Senior Retreat in Big Bear as my last social contact with the college students before graduation.
Graduation Day picture of Dick Moore June 1956

Attending and graduating from Pasadena Nazarene College was a highpoint of my life. I met many friends that have become life long friends. Being in the Nazarene church for many years and singing in the Watchmen Gospel Quartet in Nazarene churches, brought me in contact with many of the people I knew at college. Last year I wrote an article about what my freshman year was compared to my granddaughter Emily’s 55 years later. You can read that article here.

Through the years we have attended a number of class reunions held at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. The first one was our 25th. Other reunions were the 30th, 35th, 45th, and the big one - 50th. In November 2006, Dave and Marlene Cole and Dick and Ann Moore attended together the Golden Anniversary of Dick & Dave’s graduation. There were 27 of the 111 in the graduating class of 1956 that attended. It was great to see them again and remember “The Good Old Days” of college. Many of these people had changed so much they didn’t even recognize me!

Here are some pictures from the 50th College Graduation Anniversary held in 2006.

Old Friends - Dick Moore and Dave Cole. Spent four years in college together and a lifetime keeping in touch with each other's families.

Dick Moore, Ross Irwin and Lyle Pritchard. Ross was very active with the college alumni.

Dave Cole, Keith & Sheila Holly. Sheila was still working for the university then.

Dave & Mert Jones. Dave was a member of the Shoremen Quartet from Long Beach for many years. Mert was my first date in my freshman year and a regular at our morning breakfast.

Years ago the alumni sold bricks for the "Alumni Walk" with your name and year of graduation. Here's mine.

Thanks for coming along with me on this memory tour of my college days. Hope you enjoyed reading these postings.

Small College Advantages - Part C 1954-1955

2009-02-28T08:21:00.000-08:00

PERSONAL NOTE -- THIS IS MY 100TH POSTING ON THIS BLOG THAT STARTED FEBRUARY 2008! I didn't know I had this much to say! On to number 200.

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This is a series of five postings. If you haven’t read the previous three stories, please do so now before reading this current posting.

C. Junior Year 1954-1955

Ann spent the summer traveling with an Endowment Ladies Quartet for the college which paid her first semester of school expenses for the following year. But the trip was long and tiring. Besides singing in churches they were counselors in church camps. No trip home but her folks did come down for a weekend in New Mexico to give her a break. I drove up to Salinas for a surprise visit. The pastor’s wife was the sister of my Aunt Edith where I spent the last three years of my high school. So I arranged to stay there with them and gave Ann another break from her routine.

My summer was spent working at the Nazarene Book Store and writing letters! Wrote to her every day and she wrote to me every day. Yes, some of those letters still exist but will have to be destroyed before my kids get to them! There is a story about her receiving these letters which will be in another posting some day.

This is my junior year. Two down and two to go. Checking my yearbook, there is only one picture of Ann and I besides our class pictures. We were part of a picture story done about one of our friends about writing a term paper. There were twelve pictures going about his day finishing with the paper done. We were in one of those pictures with Gene Rice. Ann was pictured with a ladies trio for the college endowment. I didn’t get many signatures or comments written in this book but two that stand out are Dave Cole and Marlene Webb. They were getting married in 16 days, just one month before Ann and I were. As stated in a previous post, Marlene and Ann were born the same day but didn’t know each other until they came to college and sang in the Endowment Groups. You can read about that story here. Dave also sang in a quartet for the college.

This year the people owning the house that we rented a room in asked us to move out of the room. But instead they gave us the entire upstairs apartment for the same price! We had a bedroom, living room, partial kitchen (no sink), and a bathroom all to ourselves and furnished. The bedroom and kitchen were partitioned off with a free standing book case cabinet full of dishes. When Dave was to leave for a two week choir tour, he set two clocks so he wouldn’t oversleep. The one in the living room went off and so did Dave -- right into the cabinet knocking it over with a loud crash. Remember this is early in the morning. Then he was gone for two weeks. The people thought we had fought and he left. We straightened them out.

Since this was my junior year, the school had a Junior Ditch Day when all the juniors skipped classes that day and this year the trip was to Catalina Island and the city of Avalon. One catch -- the juniors always captured the Senior Class President and took him and his girlfriend along. My roommate, Dave Benson, was the Senior Class President. So naturally the job was mine and we got it done without any problems. His girlfriend, Ginny Curl (later his wife), also went and we all had a great time skipping our classes that day. That was the first time Ann and I had been to Catalina Island which became later in our lives our R & R destination.

Dave Benson, Virginia Curl, and Ann Edwards waiting for the boat. See my 1947 Plymouth behind them.

Taken on Junior Ditch Day in Avalon Catalina Island. Count the ribs! I weighed 120-125 pounds at this time.

In December 1954 during the Christmas Break, I had a life altering experience when I decided to live my life for Jesus Christ and turn my life over to Him for guidance. No bells went off - whistles didn’t blow -- I didn’t hear anyone speaking in a “God like voice”. Just a decision that actually changed me from living for myself to living for Him. I had been in a Christian atmosphere most of my life having lived with my grandparents who were ministers and an uncle who was very involved in music ministry. But living around Christianity is much different than living as a Christian. This was a decision that I have never regretted.

In February of 1955, I asked Ann for her hand in marriage. So that you don’t have to wait much longer, she said yes. Then I asked her father, Robert Edwards, for permission to marry his youngest daughter and he didn’t hesitate in saying yes to my request. Our wedding date was set for July 22, 1955. This was during the summer between my junior and senior year at Pasadena Nazarene College.

Ann left school for Kansas City, Missouri, and to prepare for the wedding. I stayed in Pasadena in our rented duplex and continued my work at the book store.

Small College Advantages - Part B 1953-1954

2009-02-25T10:50:00.000-08:00

This is a series of five postings. If you haven’t read the previous two postings, please do so now before reading this current posting.

B. Sophomore Year 1953-1954

I spent the summer before my second year in college working in Sears Mail Order in Kansas City, Missouri. This was the last summer I spent in Kansas City. I didn’t have a car as my brother returned from overseas in the Navy and picked up his car at the college. So my transportation was by street car and bus to get around.

I returned to Pasadena, California by Greyhound bus which is a two day continuous trip sitting up. Not the best way but the cheapest way. I remember sitting next to a girl my age who lived in Las Vegas, New Mexico and when we reached there, we had an hour layover. She wanted to show me her town and we walked for a number of blocks to see it. Don’t remember the town or the girl - just the fact that we got off the bus and walked around.

When I returned to Pasadena Nazarene College, my roommate Dave Benson and I decided to move off campus one block to a room in the back of a house. The people there rented out two bedrooms that were separated by a bathroom which we shared with two other college students. For that year this was our home base. Walked up to the college everyday in time for our breakfast with the gang.

Pasadena Nazarene College Main Building

Dick at entrance of our off campus room.

Dick on a Sunday outing. Was I really that young then?

During this year, Dave got a 1937 Plymouth coupe which he let me use to take my laundry over to Aunt Doris’. Something I didn’t mention in Part A is that my aunt did my laundry for three years -- I just brought it to her and waited until it was done. Never learned to use the facilities on campus. She spoiled me! The Wright’s lived about 15 miles from the campus so the trip wasn’t far to drive.

I returned to the Headliner Coffee Shop resuming my usual hours. One of the perks was I got free food. Since I started at 5 p.m., dinner was provided. During the shift I was allowed to drink as much coffee as I wanted but no soft drinks. At the time I started there, I didn’t drink coffee. But it was free and why not. So I learned to accept the taste of coffee. I don’t drink much of it now but did acquire a taste for the beverage. This entire school year, I worked at the coffee shop. Again, I was able to put myself through a private college and supporting myself on these meager wages. Something you couldn’t do today.

Ann Edwards came to the school this year and since we were friends we would find ourselves out on many weekends seeing the sights or just enjoying miniature golf. She was involved with an Endowment Trio that traveled many weekends to raise money for the school. If she would do this for the entire school year, the second semester would be paid - room, board, and tuition. If she did it during the summer, the first semester of the coming school year would be paid. This is how she helped pay her college expenses. She also worked in the Dean’s Office several hours a week.

Ann Edwards at Mount Wilson on a Sunday in 1954.

One of the things Ann enjoyed doing was bringing a male student friend to the coffee shop while I was working to get my reaction to her being out with someone else. Do girls really do that? Boy - did I have a lot to learn! I only dated one girl once my freshman year so I didn’t have much experience in dealing with the female human being.

There was a place we could get a Pepsi and a taco for 50 cents which comes to $1.00 for a date! We did that a lot of times just to sit and talk. We would also find ourselves sitting under a tree on campus by the hour just talking. Other students would remark about that since they saw us earlier at the same place.

The current university in San Diego puts out a quarterly publication which include notes from alumni. A recent issue had me listed as writing a BLOG which includes stories about my time at Pasadena Nazarene College. One of the former students looked my BLOG up and left a note in the comment section of the latest posting. She signed it “Pat Miller Forney”. My first thought was “Gooch”. That was her nickname that everyone knew her by. We haven’t had any contact since college days when she and Bud Johnston used to double date with Ann and myself. We got in touch with Pat and found out she married Ken Forney who was in my freshman class. I didn’t remember him but looking through my first year book, he signed and left a note for me. So I did know him then. Gooch wrote a note in my second year book as she was one year behind me.

During the second semester a fellow who lived across the hall from me in the dorm the first year offered his car for sale. It was a 1947 Plymouth two door Special Deluxe Navy Blue with 50,000 miles on the car but with a rebuilt engine. John Stinnette wanted $500 for it. SOLD! I gave him $500 cash and he gave me back $5 because it needed an oil change. That car was in my care for the next 10 years. Now Ann and I had wheels!
Dick's 1947 Plymouth with sister Faye in front.

One of the things we enjoyed doing was to attend radio and TV shows in Hollywood. We attended the Bob Hope radio show, Peter Potter’s Platter Parade TV show, The Life of Riley TV show, Our Miss Brook’s radio show, and a few others. We were just part of the audience but saw some stars that made Hollywood what it was then.

Ann and I were pretty much going steady by the summer of 1954.

At the end of the school year I was hired by Ed Speakes at the Nazarene Book Store one block from the college campus. Ed was Ann’s uncle. Of course he became my uncle in 1955. Ann’s mother and Ed were brother and sister. My job was to run the shipping and receiving section of the store and stock the shelves with new books and school supplies. I would take the mail to the post office at the end of the work day. Then when the store closed, I was the janitor mopping and buffing the floors. I worked 40 hours a week during the summer and that continued through the next two school years adjusting my work schedule around my school schedule. Still carried 16 units of school work.
Nazarene Book Store where I worked my last two years of college.

Ann joined five others and traveled all summer covering the school district for the college raising endowments. This included California, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. A hard job but paid the first semester of the coming year. They were involved in church camps as counselors as well. More about her summer in the next posting.

Small College Advantage - Part A 1952-1953

2009-02-21T11:53:00.000-08:00

If you haven’t read the previous posting that started this series off, please do so now before reading this new posting.

A. Freshman Year 1952-1953

I had my brother Ben’s car (1939 Pontiac) for my first year on campus. He was in the Navy overseas. I drove it from Kansas City, Missouri by myself when I was 18. As related in a previous story (click here), I had to keep the speed under 55 miles per hour and covered all 1,700 miles at that top speed. Gives you a chance to see some scenery as you go along.

I stayed a few days with my Aunt Doris and Uncle Orval Wright in Los Angeles before leaving for college. The only freeway in Southern California at that time was the currently named Pasadena Freeway. It was about 10 miles long ending in Pasadena. I pulled up to the campus and was met by a student named Ramon Cortines who was called “Peanuts”. Ramon disappeared for two years and returned my senior year because of time with the U.S. Army. Ramon is still in demand today as Interim Superintendent of Schools in Los Angeles. I see him occasionally on TV news. He had quite a career in education before retiring and has been called back into service a couple of times in LA to be Interim Superintendent.

Students were assigned the task to help freshmen get settled in campus life when they arrived. So Ramon helped me move the personal items from the car into my assigned dorm room. He noticed that I had a small TV and told me that it was not allowed on campus. Pasadena Nazarene College (PNC) had a rule that no TVs would be allowed. I didn’t know that when I left Missouri. So I put it in the closet and watched it there when time was available. A related story about this is found on the BLOG here under the title of “Forbidden Entertainment”.

My roommate was Dave Benson who was from Kansas City and a friend for the past three years. Dave and I attended the same high school and church. He asked me to be his roommate for his second year at the college. We ended up spending three years together.

I needed a job to pay for college expenses and applied at the local Sears store. I worked for Sears Mail Order in Kansas City which helped me get the job. My duties were to price and stock items. I wasn’t there long and got a job close to the college at the Headliner Coffee Shop as dish washer/busboy. My hours were 5 p.m to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday and 12 noon to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. The college had a curfew and bed check but I was exempted because of my hours. They didn’t know when I worked so they didn’t check on me at all. I spent two years working for the Headliner. Paid all my expenses including college costs. Couldn’t do that today.

I bought a breakfast pass from the college and had breakfast with about 8 people every day. You get to know them that way. Two of them (Sharon Lamkin and Sheila Lawlor) ended up spending their careers with the college retiring recently from Point Loma Nazarene University. PNC moved to San Diego in 1973. Both of these ladies married students from my graduating class year - Ross Irwin and Keith Holly.

Looking through the 1953 La Sierra yearbook is an interesting adventure. You see many people that signed your book that you have forgotten. Also many that have been life long friends. On page 121 you will find a full page picture of me driving a 1913 Model T Ford for a school rally. That story is also in a previous post on this BLOG here.

This was the year of “The Fire House Five” basketball team that were state champs in N.A.I.A. small college basketball. They played in Kansas City representing California. John Davis, Ralph Leech, Ted Cummins, Doyle Cozzens, and Bob Hopkins were coached by Ken Keoppel who happened to be the Business professor that taught many classes of mine.

Two of our next door neighbors were Clyde Rose and Ken Robinette. When I went down to change my driver’s license from Missouri to California, the observer wouldn’t get into the Pontiac because it had a cracked windshield. So I borrowed Clyde’s 1946 Ford to take the driving test. Ken and I did a lot of things together over the weekends including driving up to Mount Wilson, attending car races in Compton, etc. Guy things.

A requirement at this church college is to attend chapel services. We had assigned seats and attendance was taken. This is another place that you get to know people around you. This provided many laughs and close friendships.

Classes were small and you got to know the other students. The teacher got to know you. This is a big advantage over the larger universities where you become a number. In order to place you in some classes, tests were given at the beginning of the year. I must have aced the English exam as they put me in the top class that only wrote themes. This was taught by a man who attended Olivet Nazarene College and sang in a quartet with two of my uncles. So naturally I thought I would ace this class too. NOT! He worked our tails off writing and re-writing themes. I can recall working hours and hours on stories and getting a very low grade on them. I can also recall writing a story on the day it was due and getting an “A” on it. I guess he was preparing me to write this BLOG.

Christmas vacation was only two weeks long and several of us from the Midwest wanted to go home. So five of us and luggage got into the 1939 Pontiac and drove straight through changing drivers. The road in Kansas was slick with ice and snow and we went into the ditch. Almost immediately a farmer came along with his tractor and hooked up a chain pulling us out of the ditch. Nothing said and he didn’t charge anything. We were on our way again. About 7 miles from home the transmission gave out. During the time home, it was repaired for $125 and we made our way back to the college in time for classes. Toward the end of the school year, my brother came back from overseas duty for his car.

The summer between my Freshman and Sophomore years I returned home to Kansas City (Dave’s dad drove us in his new 1953 Dodge) and worked at the Sears Mail Order warehouse. That was the last time I spent the summer in Kansas City.

Small College Advantages

2009-02-19T16:15:00.000-08:00

First of all, let me tell you that I am not a student -- wasn’t interested in school and unfortunately only did what I needed to do to get through. Southeast High School in Kansas City, Missouri wasn’t very interesting to me. I had moved there in 1949 leaving my small town of Celina, Ohio behind. I wasn’t involved in any activities or sports. Most of the time I had a job and that fulfilled my life. So I wasn’t known on campus by many kids.

To add to that, I wasn’t interested in going to college either. However, Uncle Sam was involved in a conflict in Korea and was drafting guys when they turned 18 years of age. That definitely didn’t interest me. The government would exempt anyone who went to college and maintained a “C” average. I can do that! So I applied to a church related school called Pasadena Nazarene College located in Pasadena, California. I thought going that far away from “home” would make me work harder on my studies. I applied for the draft exemption and left for college in late summer of 1952.

Pasadena Nazarene College probably had 1,200 students in the entire college. We had 200 pictured in our Freshman Class of 1952-1953. Living on campus in the East Dorm helped me get acquainted with guys living there and attending some of the same classes I did. Colleges this size are still available but most of you who attended college did so with a large State University ranging from 8,000 to 20,000 students. Hard to get acquainted with other students and especially with the faculty.

I am going to relate my experiences through the four years in four additional postings writing about what happened in each of the years of college to my graduation in 1956. Of course, this is for my family and college friends. But you can come along on the journey if you like. Might bring back some memories of your college days.

The Day I Made My Daughter Cry

2009-02-10T09:44:00.000-08:00

My daughter, Brenda Ann Moore, was born April 24, 1959. She was our second child having joined her brother, Richard Robert Moore, three years after his birth. Yes, she was a daddy’s girl! Very special to this dad right away. We seemed to have a mutual admiration society going on.

Throughout her life there were the usual pictures taken on events and non-events. Posed shots and unaware shots. Back in 1959 and the early 60’s, the film we used was black and white with flash bulbs to light up the darkness of night and indoor pictures. Quite different from today.

As she grew and understood what we were saying, she would question discipline or my actions concerning her. I would always respond “it’s in the Daddy’s Handbook”. She would disagree with that and always came back with “there is no Daddy’s Handbook!”. I would always reassure her that there was and I consulted it often to find the best path to choose in raising a daughter. After all, it was the first time I had a daughter and I wasn’t sure exactly how to be the best dad in forming her life. This went on for a number of years with our disagreement on whether or not there was a “Daddy’s Handbook”.

In 1980 Brenda was preparing for her wedding to Scott Douglas Ostrander. I began to think back over the years about her life and organized the pictures of her into the various years of her life. Then it hit me! Time to show that there really was a “Daddy’s Handbook”.

I found a beautifully bound book with blank pages engraved in gold marked “private pages”. I would imagine it was intended to be a journal. I had this book engraved in the middle of the cover with the words “DADDY’S HANDBOOK”. At the bottom was engraved “Brenda 4-24-59”.

My wife, Ann, Brenda’s mother, scrolled on the first page “The Daddy’s Handbook”. The next page she scrolled “For the raising of a daughter Brenda Ann Moore Born 4-24-’59”.

On the third page I typed on a card to be fastened to the page the following:

The Daddy’s Handbook contains the wisdom and guidance that a daddy needs in raising his only daughter. It is to be consulted often, sometimes into the early hours of the morning. It takes a daddy with that special sparkle in his eye to be able to read, understand, and use the valuable information contained on these pages. Although some pages appear to be blank to the casual eye, each page can be read very well by that special daddy.

The fourth page starts the pictures with captions giving sage information to help a daughter on her way to a wonderful life. For example, the first one is a picture of her laying in her brother’s arms and is dated May 59. The caption is “A daddy is to provide a loving big brother for a daughter to look up to”.

Page after page shows her development through life with captions to match what the picture may be telling us. Here are a couple to illustrate:

Picture: Big brother and little sister on a couch all dressed up for church. They are looking at each other. Brenda is wearing a bonnet.

Caption: A daddy is allowed to pass pearls of wisdom on to his eldest son so that he may share them with his adoring sister.

Picture: Six kids at a wading pool with Brenda as the only girl. She has only bathing suit bottoms on.

Caption: A daddy is not to encourage topless bathing in mixed company.

This goes on through 65 pictures. At that point I had to put in a card to tell her that from 1965 on was not included in pictures since her daddy was taking slides then and would review the slides to complete the book for her wedding.

The book was then wrapped nicely and a letter was included from me to inform her that “Yes, Brenda, there really is a Daddy’s Handbook”. This was one of her gifts at her bridal shower. You can imagine what happened when she opened that gift. Tears flowed and this has been a cherished possession of hers.

There were 43 more pictures added to the handbook. The last one is of her “husband” and the new bride at their wedding reception. That caption reads “A daddy should provide the best example he can for a daughter to follow and be sure she selects the right person to spend the rest of her life with”. Her mother and I have been married for 53 years now and Brenda and Scott will soon celebrate 29 years together.

On the last page I typed a card which reads:

Dear Brenda,

This chapter of your life is now complete. You will have many exciting and interesting events ahead of you which will make memories that will be remembered for a lifetime.

You have given me great memories which I share with you in this book. There are many that are not included in this handbook. You have given me many occasions to be proud to be your dad. I thank you for being such a wonderful part of my life.

Yes, Brenda, there really is a “DADDY’S HANDBOOK”! How else could I have done such a great job?

Have a great life.

Love,
Daddy (signed)

I did a great job, didn't I?

I Married My College Roommate's Fiance

2009-02-05T17:15:00.000-08:00

I know what you are thinking -- you dog you! But it isn’t quite the way you may have thought.

Dave Benson, Ann Edwards, and myself were a part of the teen group in Kansas City, Missouri that attended First Church of the Nazarene. All three of us happened to attend Southeast High School also. As I stated before, I wasn’t into girls at that time and only dated two during my three years in Kansas City which didn't include Ann. She told her mother on the day we met that “he is the man I’m going to marry”! She was 14 years old and I was 15 at the time.

Since I wasn’t interested in girls during high school, Ann had to go another direction. She and Dave started dating and were boyfriend/girlfriend before Dave left for Pasadena Nazarene College in Pasadena, California in 1951. At this time Ann was a junior in high school. Most of the kids from our church attended Bethany Peniel Nazarene College (now Southern Nazarene University) in Bethany, Oklahoma as this college served our district in the Nazarene denomination.

I graduated in 1952 and decided to go to Pasadena Nazarene College. Dave asked me to be his roommate. He and Ann became engaged and off to college the guys went leaving Ann to her senior year of high school. My first year of college I had my brother’s 1939 Pontiac to use as he was overseas in the Navy. I had one date to a party held at a local church. That was it on dating for me.

David Benson - my roommate for three years in college

Dave had two pictures of Ann and we each had a dresser to put them on. So I got used to seeing her picture daily! At the end of the school year 1953, Dave and Ann broke their engagement. This was awkward for Ann as she had applied and been accepted at Pasadena Nazarene College. She decided to attend there anyway instead of the school in Bethany, Oklahoma.

Dave and I rented a room a block off campus my second year. Ann was living in the girls dorm on campus. That year Dave had a car and I didn’t. So I got to borrow his car when needed. Not to date - but just errands that I needed to do. Dave and I were roommates for three years.

Since Ann and I were friends from the same city, high school, neighborhood (she lived one and a half blocks from me) and church, I told her that if she didn’t have a date on Friday nights, maybe we would do something as friends. Funny, how she didn’t have many dates on Friday nights. So we would do things together over the weekend like miniature golf, visiting sights around Southern California, going up to the mountains for a couple of hours, etc. I bought a 1947 Plymouth before my junior year so we had wheels when we needed to go somewhere.

Dick Moore & Ann Edwards on a mountain trip on a Sunday 1954

Dick Moore, Ann Edwards, and college friend, Dave Cole - Mt .Baldy 1954

As you can imagine, this blossomed into going steady and then engagement for our wedding between my junior and senior year of college.

My favorite picture of Ann - going steady 2-21-54

No - I didn’t steal my college roommate’s fiancé. He had moved on leaving me to step in to find my life’s companion. 53 years and counting now! Thanks, Dave!

Words You Don't Want To Hear In The Same Sentence

2009-01-28T09:15:00.000-08:00

For instance ---- I need to see your driver’s license, registration and insurance.

Yep -- I was pulled over last night and the policeman was perfectly right in doing so. I was caught blocking an intersection at Bristol and Irvine. I was in the left turn lane for the on ramp of the 73 Toll Road going home from playing golf at Newport Beach Golf Course. The light changed and I went forward expecting room but the SUV in front of me stopped leaving me out in the intersection. The light changed and here I am without a place to go. I took the next lane and soon lights were flashing behind the car.

The policeman said those words and told me why he pulled me over. I told him I knew why as I was caught in no man’s land at a busy intersection expecting traffic to move and it didn’t. He took the items to his car to check them out and I knew I had no violations on my driver’s license, the car was registered to me, and the insurance was current. He came back and gave me the items and then another piece of paper -- “Written Warning Of Violation”. He said this will go nowhere, will cost nothing, but is just a warning not to do that again. I said “thank you” and offered my hand. He shook my hand and smiled and it reminded me of the Sergeant on the Hill Street Blues television program -- “Hey, let’s be careful out there!”

This is the fourth time I have been stopped by the police in 59 years of driving. The first was when I was 17 years old and was stopped because I was driving 36 mph in a 25 mile zone. The cost? $11 - one dollar a mile over the limit! I would imagine it is a lot more now.

The second time was when I was 25 years old - Rick was 3 and Brenda was a baby. I went through a “yellow” light and the nice policeman said it was “red”. So did my wife, incidentally. Rick was really excited because the nice policeman was going to come and talk to daddy!

The third time was about 15 years ago when I made a U turn and was pulled over immediately. He asked me if I knew why and I said I just made a U turn and I don’t know why he stopped me. He pointed to the very large sign that said “No U Turn”. I told him I didn’t see the sign but I saw him. I said “Do you think I would do it knowing you were there?” He said “No - I don’t think you would. Don’t do it again”. A verbal warning that time.

The police were right in pulling me over for the blocked intersection. I was in the wrong -- just got caught in thinking the cars would be moving and they didn’t. I appreciate the “Warning” and the professional way the policeman handled the situation. It doesn’t hurt to be nice to the authorities and to have a clean record on your driver’s license also.

Remembering Faye Moore Johnson

2009-01-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

Faye Moore Johnson -- July 2, 1937 to January 24, 2009

Faye Johnson passed away Saturday evening (1-24-09) at 6:40 p.m. Kansas time at the age of 71 of liver failure. Faye wasn’t known to a lot of people but she was to me -- she was my sister. By that I mean we had the same mother and father. We weren’t raised together as you would think of as a family.

Faye is three years younger than I and was born on July 2, 1937. She was the 3rd child of Leonard and Evelyn Moore. She had two brothers older than her. Ben was born in 1932 and Dick in 1934. Her younger brother Bob was born in 1939 and sister Lenna came along in 1940, just two months after our father had passed away from illness.

Our family was split up by court order among relatives of our father in 1942. Faye was 5 at the time. She went to live with our Aunt Ruth Reynolds in Elkhart, Indiana. They raised her as one of their own. She always called Aunt Ruth “mom”. I got to see Faye often as I lived with our grandparents in Celina, Ohio and her new parents came to see Ruth’s father and mother on occasion. Ernie and Ruth moved to California in the early 1950s and Faye was able to attend one semester of Pasadena Nazarene College while I was there. She was unable to continue college and married Russ Johnson who she met through our brother, Ben, who settled in California after his time in the Navy.

Russ and Faye had four children. Jeannette, Lynette, Leonard and Jim. Jim preceded her in death a few years ago having taken his own life during a difficult time. Russ and Faye divorced after many years together and ended up in the same town as their children. They both moved to Stafford, Kansas and kept in touch through activities with their children who had moved there separately.

Russ passed away a couple of years ago. Through Russ, Faye was able to meet Les Carter, a cousin of Russ’ who lived in Nebraska. They had a relationship until Les also died in 2008.

Faye is the second of our family to pass away. Ben, the first born, died suddenly on April 22, 1963 of a heart attack. That was one day after his 31st birthday.

Although we weren’t raised together, we were family and kept in touch. Faye is now with the Lord and free from pain. The following pictures tell some of the story of our “reunions”.

Dick, Ben, Lenna and Faye at the 1948 Moore Family Reunion

Lenna, Dick, Faye and Bob -- 1952 Elkhart, Indiana (After Dick's HS Graduation)

Faye leaning on Dick's 1947 Plymouth - Whittier, CA Dick, Faye, and Bob at their mother, Evelyn's memorial service 1984
Faye and Bob (in driver's seat) with Bob's 1930 Model A Ford - Muncie, IN

Faye and Les Carter 2008

Pictures help keep memories alive. I'm glad we have these to remember Faye in healthier times.

New "Home " Church In Kansas City, Missouri

2009-01-22T15:15:00.000-08:00

My New Home Church - KC First Church of the Nazarene

When I moved from Celina, Ohio, to Kansas City, Missouri, I changed from a small church of 125 to a large church of 400 or 500 attendees. Uncle Ray was the Music Director of Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene which was located at 41st & Harrison.

The first thing I noticed about this church was the number of kids my age. My last church might have had 3 or 4 my age but this one had 40 within a year or two of me. This was to become my social group and many hours would be spent together doing what kids do. We had hayrides, horseback rides, ice skating, swimming, ball games, taffy pulls, banquets, picnics, marshmallow roasts, and other great times.

The NTO group (Nazarene Teen Organization) met every Sunday evening at 6:30 p.m. before our regular Sunday evening service. We had our own program and sponsors. Officers were elected and a paper was printed giving all the chit chat and gossip about the teen group. It’s fun to re-read these now and remember what being a teen was like. I kept 3 or 4 of these papers and found myself listed in them. We had our own distinctive car honk that was used whenever any of the group drove by another member’s home.

Some names in the group that come to mind are Don Cory, Donnell Whitcanak, Norma Dell Smith, Gloria Ramquist, Tom Ramquist, Delbert Gish, Barbara Gish, Chuck Harper, George Harper, Ralph Earle, Ann Edwards, Oletha Ludwig, Carolee Swim, Maylou Williamson, Joe Williamson, George Moss, Richard Davis, Evelyn Milburn, Charles Jones, David Benson, Ron Benson, Baylor Edwards, Shirley Edwards, Barbara Edwards, and Bud Bunnell to mention a few. In the Nazarene Teen Odes (paper) they are mentioned quite a bit.

Every year this group had a dress up banquet complete with music and program. One year four of us got together and sang a male quartet -- my first one. The members were Ralph Earle (Tenor), Chuck Harper (lead), Del Gish (Baritone), and Dick Moore (Bass). We sang “Dry Bones” and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We got together to do a few more songs and then took our group “on the road”. We sang at the mission for those less fortunate. That was a lot of fun for all.

Ralph Earle, Chuck Harper, Del Gish, and Dick Moore - NTO Quartet 1950

It was at this banquet that I had my first date. That was with Gloria Ramquist. Gloria had been dating Elbert Willingham who was in Bethany Peniel College (now Southern Nazarene University) in Oklahoma at the time. She eventually married Elbert. But he wasn’t there and I was, so we went to the banquet together.

Joyce Burr, Oletha Ludwig, Maylou Williamson, Barbara Gish, Gloria Ramquest, (don't know), Norma Dell Smith.

One couple that were sponsors for us were Don and Dot Farrand. Dot was a cousin to Ann and we became relatives later. Don was in the Nazarene Theological Seminary and became a pastor in Palo Alto, California. Don and I keep in touch by E-Mail now after re-connecting a few years ago.

I sang in the church choir next to Bob Edwards who later became my father-in-law. The church organist (Mildred Edwards) later became my mother-in-law. See the connection here?

Paul Martin was a popular evangelist who held services all over the country and came to our church several times. He had a radio program in Porterville, California, and had to record it on the road sometimes. He had me produce one of them and we became friends. Rev. Martin was in Kansas City when I graduated from Southeast High School in 1952 and he came to a party for me.

Ron Lush was a traveling music evangelist whom I became acquainted with there and later our paths would cross in California. Ann would tutor his son in reading. Interesting how things work out.

As you can guess from the above, I married Ann Edwards, daughter of Bob and Mildred Edwards. Dave Benson was my roommate for three years at Pasadena Nazarene College in Pasadena, California. I still keep in touch with Don Cory who lives in Palmdale,California. I was an attendant in his wedding to Angie. Barbara Gish is now Barbara Dickens and lives in Texas. We correspond at Christmas. Ann and I reconnected with Elbert and Gloria Willingham at my Uncle Ray's burial service in Kansas City a couple of years ago. Oletha Ludwig married Gary Hart who became a Senator from Colorado and ran for president at one time. Oletha's (Lee) mother made Ann's wedding dress. Ralph Earle is a psychologist in Arizona and we saw him a few years back when the college we attended in Pasadena sold their land and we gave it a proper sendoff. Baylor Edwards, Shirley Edwards, and Barbara Edwards became relatives of mine through marriage to Ann. Carolee Swim and Chuck Harper were in our wedding party.

The church at 41st and Harrison burned down a number of years ago. Our wedding on July 22, 1955 was held there. Ah -- memories!

A Celebration Of Thanks (4-8-84)

2009-01-16T15:58:00.000-08:00

This coming April, I will be celebrating my 75th birthday! But, just 25 short years ago I celebrated the BIG ONE -- number 50. Ann and I like to celebrate milestones in a big way and she planned a concert in my honor at the church we were attending at the time -- South Coast Community Church in Irvine. I wrote up the story for my company paper as it was unique.

She called the concert “A Celebration Of Thanks”. Here is the story as it appeared in my company paper (edited).

Bulletin insert for South Coast and Liberty Baptist churches.

It’s true -- you don’t turn 50 every day! But it is one of those times of your life that need to be celebrated. Just think -- a half a century!

My wife, Ann, started planning for my party several months in advance and was making it a surprise. However, at one point close to the event, she had to tell me about it since I needed to prepare for my participation. She gave a concert in my honor with a reception following it. For 11 years, I sang with a quartet called The Watchmen Gospel Quartet traveling up and down the coast of California with a couple of trips to Idaho. I left the group in November 1982, turning the bass singing part over to our son, Rick, who did it for 8 years and carried on the Moore tradition. He later started his own quartet called The Crimson River Quartet which is still going though not as active at this time (2009).

Ann wanted to feature The Watchmen in this concert along with other specials. She wanted me to join them so I needed to get together with the fellows and practice once more. It had been 16 months since I sang with them and, frankly, I was a little rusty on the words. Ann also wanted me to sing a solo which is why she had to tell me about the concert ahead of time and not make it a complete surprise.

We had been attending South Coast Community Church in Irvine for about a year when she approached the Board of Directors with a proposal. Could she have the use of the 1850 seat auditorium for a concert to be given in honor of my 50th birthday and invite the church next door, Liberty Baptist, to join us. We’d call it “A Celebration of Thanks,” uniting our two congregations following our Sunday evening Bible study. She also requested the use of the fellowship hall for a reception with cake, punch and coffee. The board thought it was so unique that they gave the use of the auditorium and fellowship hall for no charge. Normally there is a charge for that even though it is only the charge for janitorial services.

Over 300 engraved personal invitations were mailed to friends, neighbors, co-workers, and relatives. A special insert was printed and placed in the church bulletin for three Sundays preceding the concert. The insert was given to Liberty Baptist church also and they used it in their bulletins. An ad was placed in the Orange County Register newspaper featuring The Watchmen Gospel Quartet. A friend who is a caterer was hired to provide the cake and other items needed for the reception.

The Watchmen Gospel Quartet featuring their former bass singer.

One of the reasons we wanted to involve the church next door was the lead singer in the quartet attended there. Also, our church had moved in to this location about six months before and we needed to get better acquainted with them. The music director at Liberty Baptist was a friend of our daughter, Brenda. He and the lead singer for the quartet used to sing with Brenda at La Quinta High School. The two fellows also prepared some musical numbers for the concert.
Ann and I sang in a small group called The Madrigals at South Coast. They were to sing in the concert also. So you see, I had three things to get ready for, and no one would want that just to happen without any practice.

The South Coast Madrigals - Dick Top left -- Ann 2nd from left front row

My uncle and aunt, Ray and Edith Moore from Oklahoma, surprised me and joined us for the celebration. Ray was in music all his life and sang a song for the concert. I had lived with them my last three years of high school.

Uncle Ray Moore singing a solo -- Dick Moore featured on a solo also.

So the big night arrived and, believe it or not, we had about 1,000 at my 50th birthday concert party. And I knew most of them! The quartet sang, invited me to join them, the Madrigals sang, I soloed, Uncle Ray soloed, Danny and Dave from Liberty Baptist performed, a trio called The South Coasters sang, and a good time was had by all. The reception followed with cake cutting, pictures, etc. Ann had a professional photographer and also had the concert put on videotape for my future enjoyment.

Dick & Ann cutting the cake with daughter Brenda looking on.

Relatives that attended the concert and reception.

Looking at the pictures I see many of my relatives who are no longer living. I’m so glad that they were able to participate in my special night of celebration.

Moore Family Reunion Of 1993

2009-01-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

The Moore family (my uncles and aunts - dad’s brothers and sisters) have had a Round Robin going for many years. One who receives it takes out their last letter and writes a new one. Then it is on to the next person to do the same. It takes about five months for the robin to make it’s flight and return to you. My dad, Leonard, had passed away in 1940 and when the robin was started, his family was not represented. Uncle Dale asked me to represent the Leonard Moore family in the robin about 1988 or so. I joined it to bring them up on our family and what my brother and sisters families were doing. I knew all the aunts and uncles very well as I had contact with them while living in their parents home in Celina. So I was a natural to join and was glad to do it.

After a few years I thought it was time for this family to get together once more. We had most of the family together for grandpa’s birthday parties but not all could make it. I wanted to honor the original members of my grandparents family with this reunion. They were all getting up in years and before too long wouldn’t be able to make a trip to whatever location was chosen for the reunion. Everyone was all for the reunion but no one wanted to step forward to plan the event. So I took charge and became the Director of the Moore Family Reunion of 1993.

Director and Master of Ceremonies Of The Moore Family Reunion Of 1993 - Dick Moore

It took 18 months of planning to get this organized and done. My superintendent at State Farm was a computer whiz and he helped me design a letterhead for communications that included two pictures -- grandpa and grandma! I had copies make and used them in all requests and information that I needed sent out to the family. We had to choose the time and the place for this reunion. I lived in California and we have a lot of things to do here but some were coming from the east coast which made it a long trip. I decided to hold it in Oklahoma City over the weekend of July 30, 31, and August 1, 1993. This was Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We wanted to spend as much time together as we could. Uncle Ray and his family could help me because they live nearby. Ann’s sister, Helen, also lives there and could recruit her family to help in the details of the reunion.

Phil Moore helped me with the talent show. Linda Comingdeer registered everyone and handed out packets of materials that we had for all. Ron Comingdeer took pictures at the program so we could enjoy the family and not be concerned with documenting the reunion. Perry Gering handled the video portion of capturing the reunion on film. Ron also ran the golf tournament for me. Others had a role such as securing the locations of our gatherings and entertainment. A lot had to be done and the family helped when given an assignment.

I took a week’s vacation during Ann’s Spring Break and we went to Oklahoma to handle some details. One of the things I did was to meet with the Mayor of Bethany, Oklahoma, and explain what we were doing. I went to City Hall and found that he doesn’t office there. He was a Farmers Insurance Agent and handled his mayor duties out of his insurance office. This was interesting as I worked with State Farm, a competitor. I asked him if he would declare July 31, 1993 as “Moore Family Day” in Bethany. He said he would be happy to help in making this a memorable day for all. He would come to the main program on Saturday and present each honored guest with a proclamation declaring the special day. He did a wonderful job on this and made everyone welcome. He didn’t want to leave the program as he was having as much fun as the rest.

We started with a picnic in a local park. Dick standing by the sign.

We would first meet at a local park in Bethany for lunch on Friday. Uncle Ray organized this for us. At this time we would share pictures of the past and present for each family. We had a banner that a friend made for me to identify the actual place for the picnic. It was great to see everyone and talk over “old times”. We met again that evening after dinner for a concert at the First Church of the Nazarene in Bethany given by one of the professors at Southern Nazarene University. He did a program on the piano like Victor Borge which was hilarious. Also demonstrated the various styles of church pianists which had everyone laughing very hard.

The next day was Saturday and we had suggestions for get together opportunities. The golf tournament was held at the University of Oklahoma. Uncle Ray had his brothers and sisters over for brunch. The zoo and several museums were available for meeting someone and enjoying the morning. The packets we had given each family contained many suggestions for use of this time.

Our main program would be at 3:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of Oklahoma City First Church of the Nazarene. My cousin, Phil Moore, was the Minister of Music there and arranged that room for us. Here we had the Mayor of Bethany proclaim the day as ours and he handed out an individual proclamation to each aunt and uncle or family member if they were not there. I accepted the one for Leonard Moore. Aunt Betty had passed on and her daughter Donna accepted for her. The only living member of the original family that wasn’t there was Carlan. He was unable to make it that weekend. But the other eight living members were there and what a time they had. Each one was able to relate a story of their childhood living in the Moore household. We talked about the “Humor of J. I. Moore” relating some funny things that grandpa had said or done. We had the talent show with many participating in it. Uncle Gary and his daughter Becky sang a duet. Ray, Dale, Bob, and Gary sang a quartet. Doris and her daughters Eileen and Carolyn sang a trio. Eileen and Carolyn did a funny sketch about two cats. Phil, Harlan, Rick and I sang a quartet number about “What A Meeting” relating our reunion in Heaven. Rick sang a solo. I was scheduled to do one but time got away and I decided not to do it. Ray and Gary did a duet. It was a great time.

Uncle Dale had prepared “The History of the Moore Family” which was printed in the program and he delivered it orally as well. Uncle Cecil was a pastor in Georgia and he delivered a sermonette on “Family Values”. I brought a clock momento to each of the honored family members which had a picture of their parents on the inside cover. The clock was engraved with their name and date. I had several nieces and nephews call each one up and give them the gift.
The ladies of the church prepared the evening meal for us. So we continued the conversation around tables and food. Ernie Reynolds was the first grandchild of our grandparents and we asked him to pray for the family.

On Sunday morning we gathered back at the Oklahoma City First Church of the Nazarene to worship together. The Moore Family sang a special number for the congregation as most of the family are singers. This was a wonderful experience. We had lunch together at the church and bid everyone farewell. Of the nine living members at the time, eight have gone on to their reward in Heaven to this date. Bob, Doris, Dale, Cecil, Ruth, Carlan, Ray and Pauline have reached their eternal destination and are rejoicing with their family members who have gone on before them. We have pictures and video of them participating in the reunion which I believe was Heaven inspired. I am so thankful that I took the time and effort to get the family together and share this one last time enjoying each others company.

Front Row: Pauline, Doris & Ruth

Back Row: Gary, Cecil, Ray, Dale, & Bob

The Moore Round Robin continues to fly with cousins taking the places of those who have passed on. Gary is the last remaining of the 12 siblings and still participates in this letter exchange. The family continues to keep in touch and we hope it will continue for many years.

In Memoriam -- Patches 2006/2007-2009

2009-01-07T14:37:00.000-08:00

Patches having fun on one of his exercise toys.

The following story was written six months ago and just never published. Now the subject of the article has passed away. If you know anything about hamsters, they have a very short life - usually two years at the most. Patches just passed that time and has left a hole in the hearts of it’s owners and playmates.

He was the second hamster this family had taken into their home. Twister was first and spent his brief life with this loving family. Both will be missed as they were loved as pets. Ann wrote a book on Twister complete with pictures for the girls to have as a reminder of his time with them. The book has been read in the girl’s elementary school classes.

Here is a story about Patches written last summer.

Patches Escape

Our daughter’s family has a hamster named Patches. Hannah and Rachel (ages 12 & 10) take Patches out of his cage often to play. Being nocturnal, hamsters sleep during the daylight hours and have their fun during the evening and early morning hours. One of the things the family does each evening is to check the cage before going to bed and say goodnight (good morning to Patches) making sure he is secure.

Patches loved going through tubes to see what was on the other end.

Some six months ago the check found that one of the openings was left unlocked and there was no Patches to talk to that evening. A quick tour of the house didn’t turn up any clues as to where he was either. Our daughter, Brenda, remembered that during the day they cleaned the carpets and left the doors open to air out the house to help the drying process. Naturally, she thought that Patches had made a bee line to the door and beyond! All kinds of thoughts went through everyone’s mind but they held on to hope that he was still in the house. But where?

Food was left out to lure him from hiding and to confirm that he was still in the house. During the next early morning hours Brenda got up and went downstairs about 3:30 a.m. and saw Patches in the kitchen. She called all members of the household to come down and help catch him. Hannah had noticed a dust bunny trail that wasn’t there before (they had the house cleaned the day before his escape) and finally caught him trying to escape once again. The mystery was solved and he was securely locked in his case once again. A sigh of relief was heard from the family --- and from Patches!

Their family and Nana and Papa (us) prayed for Patches to be found. Papa dreamed that he was found. In the morning Brenda called to tell us that Patches was found and securely back in his cage. She mentioned the time that he was caught. When I went into the office in my home I noticed a battery operated clock on my desk was stopped during the night. It stopped at 3:50 a.m. Could that be an angel confirming my dream?

Hannah was leaving for camp soon and Nana makes interesting cards for her to receive while she is there. This time it was a story of “Patches Escape” trying to get to Hannah‘s camp. Naturally, she didn’t want Hannah to receive a number of cards with Patches’ picture on them if he wasn’t found before she left.

Patches was a good pet and will be missed by the family.

Christmases Past

2009-01-01T11:59:00.000-08:00

Intentions are great but they must be carried out to be effective. Like New Years Resolutions! Ann and I started out married life together on July 22, 1955 and celebrated our first Christmas together that year. We thought -- wouldn’t it be great to purchase a special ball each year for the Christmas tree and in 50 years we would have a tree with a special ball for each year! Great idea you think? We intended to do just that.

After Christmas was over, Ann would write about what we did and interesting things that year. This paper would be rolled up and attached to a string which will make it possible to pull it out of the ball and read in years to come. That lasted just four years. Balls 1957 and 1958 have broken but we still have the paper with her thoughts. Balls 1955 and 1956 were on our tree again this year -- 53 years later! Ann was “in a family way” for our first Christmas in 1955 and Rick joined us in 1956.

Our first Christmas ball ornament 1955

Our second Christmas ball ornament 1956

Our daughter came along in 1959 and she thinks it was because of her that we stopped the tradition. Maybe just being a busy family did it. I don’t know or remember why that tradition stopped. Brenda has carried on the tradition with her family.

Another tradition we have is Christmas music. There are lots of records (yes the vinyl type), CD’s and cassettes, Video and DVDs that get played every year starting on the first day we decorate the house for the season. We have six weeks of Christmas music going at home and in the car. The very first recording we purchased for Christmas is still being played 53 years later. It’s a favorite and was put together by RCA Victor with the current entertainment singing stars of that time. Of course, Perry Como is on it!

To Wish You A Merry Christmas
The RCA Victor Family
Copyright 1954, Radio Corporation of America

Other artists on this record are Eddie Fisher, Eddy Arnold, Eartha Kitt (who just passed away and is still known for her rendition of “Santa Baby”), Tony Martin, Dinah Shore, Vaughn Monroe, The Three Suns, and a few popular orchestra leaders like Hugo Winterhalter.

Traditions are wonderful if carried out. Kind of like New Years Resolutions.

Year In Review - OR - What Happened To 2008?

2008-12-28T10:48:00.000-08:00

Does it seem like a few days ago that we welcomed 2008? On December 31, 2007, none of us knew what was in store for us in the brand new year of 2008. It’s like that every year. A clean new slate to see what we can do with 365 days to make our life and lives of others better. It’s a mystery out there in front of us waiting to see what adventures we will about to endure.

And now 2009! Here are a few things that 2008 brought us that had an impact on my life. You can add to the list through the Comment section at the end of this post.

1. Since June of 2007, we have planned and saved for our 9th cruise and the first one since 1999. Our daughter’s family wanted us to take this with them since it originates in San Pedro which we can easily drive to because Ann needs her electric scooter to get around. A seven day trip to Mexico. This happened at the end of June. You can read about it and see many pictures on postings written in July.

2. In May we drove to Fresno to attend a Tribute to the Watchmen Gospel Quartet who announced their retirement for the end of 2008. I was privileged to be a co-founder of this group in September 1971 and sang bass for 11 years before turning it over to my son, Rick. Dennis Zimmerman kept the group going through many personnel changes and finally after 38 years of spreading the gospel through quartet music, they are retiring. Congratulations Dennis.

3. July 22, 2008, Ann and I celebrated our 53rd wedding anniversary. Talk about time passing quickly!

4. On Sunday evening, September 7th, I performed in a musical evening at Town & County Manor in Santa Ana. My cousin, Eileen, lives there and she and I put together a pretty good program for the residents of that retirement community. Lots of great comments. You can read about that in September’s offerings.

5. In November we as a nation participated in an election year that didn’t quite go as I had hoped but we have to deal with disappointments as they come. A lot of factors combined to bring about the results in the Congress and the White House. Now we will have to pray for those in leadership that they will use good judgment in handling our national and international affairs.

6. Another highlight in my life came on December 5th as I appeared as Angel Gabriel in a Star P.A.K. production at Coast Hills Church. This was the first time I have performed with my two youngest grandchildren in a program. What an honor! This has also been in a previous posting this month.

7. If you want to watch time pass swiftly, just be around grandkids. I can’t believe that we have a granddaughter in second year of college. Emily is home for the winter break now and we’re very glad to see her again. Her brother, Eric, is now a Senior in Mission Viejo High School and will be graduating in 2009. Hannah is in Middle School in the 6th grade and Rachel is in Elementary School in the 4th grade. Gee - I can remember when all of them were born! And I can remember me being in all those grades - has it really been that long ago? I guess I must be having a lot of fun because time is flying by very fast.

8. Things to look forward to in 2009:

A. My 75th birthday in April. WOW! Three quarters of a century!

B. Son-in-law Scott's 50th birthday in March!
C. My daughter’s 50th birthday in April! She’s always been exactly 25 years behind me. I wonder why that is?
D. Eric’s high school graduation in June.
E. Many school programs and plays my grandkids will be doing.
F. Ann and my 54th wedding anniversary in July.
G. New opportunities to sing and perhaps some acting as well.

I imagine there will be many other interesting things that we will do but that will be noted in future postings. Thanks for being along for the journey this year and let’s all hope for a great year in 2009.

My family all wish you a wonderful and Happy New Year. May it be your best year ever!

Dick & Ann Moore - 53rd Wedding Anniversary Portrait

Anne, Emily, Eric, and Rick - Christmas photo 2008

Hannah, Brenda, Rachel, and Scott -- Christmas photo 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009 from the Dick & Ann Moore Family!

Maxine & The Christmas Spirit

2008-12-19T16:27:00.000-08:00

She knows how to say it. Merry Christmas to all.

Kiss Their Noses As Greeting

2008-12-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

Emily about the age of this story and Papa

For a number of years our family had annual Disneyland passes with parking and could go any time we wanted and stay as long as we wanted. Sometimes it was just for dinner together in the park followed by the fireworks show.

Our first grandchild, Emily (now 20 years old), was three weeks old when she visited Disneyland for the first time. As she grew, we could watch her relate to the Disney characters and enjoy meeting them. Her big thing was she wanted to “kiss their noses” as her way of greeting and meeting. The characters all allowed her to do her thing and she became a hit with the cast members.

One day when she was still quite small, I was holding her on Main Street when we turned the corner and there was Br’er Bear standing next to the building wall frozen in space. Not a hint that anyone was in the costume. He about 7 feet tall and it would be difficult for Emily to do her normal greeting. I was talking to Emily and stating that I was not sure that anyone was in this costume and that he was too tall for her to kiss his nose.

Without hesitation, the cast member inside the costume slowly started lowering himself until he was at the height that Emily could give him her greeting. Emily planted one on the nose and then the “bear” slowly rose to his normal height. Never saying a word. No indication that he acknowledged her greeting.

We had a good laugh at that. It was wonderful for the cast member to recognize that this was important to Emily and he did what was necessary to keep the tradition going for her. It’s things like what he did that will bring you back for another day in “The Happiest Place On Earth”.

Dickens Christmas Carolers

2008-12-12T18:53:00.000-08:00

For six years at two different churches, Ann and I were in a group of singers that dressed in the Dickens era costumes and sang Christmas music for various functions.

We started this in 1979 at Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim, California. The Melodyland Singers sang throughout the year in evening services and during the Christmas season rented Dickens costumes singing wherever we could arrange a concert. We were with this group for three years.

The pictures below were taken at South Coast Plaza Mall in Costa Mesa at Nordstroms with David Feit-Pretzler as our director. Following David was Art Ortiz for one year. Under Art’s direction we sang on television on the PTL Club at Trinity Broadcasting Network Channel 40 in addition to our appearances in the Malls.

Ann - Far Right
Dick - Middle Back Row

Ann - Back Row 6th From Left
Dick - Back Row 2nd From Right

Melodyland had Christmas drama and music productions over one or two weekends with 5 to 10 performances and the group sang to the waiting crowd prior to their entering the auditorium. We left Melodyland in February 1983 and that ended our special singing so we thought.

We started attending South Coast Community Church in Irvine the same month and joined the choir under the direction of Steve Nichols. Steve then held auditions for the Madrigal Singers which was basically like the group we left. That Christmas we dressed up in Dickens costumes and sang in a number of places including private parties. We did that for three years also. All our songs were memorized and unaccompanied by any instruments. The director used a pitch pipe to start our song.

These times are fixed in our memories as wonderful experiences that enhanced our singing years. We will never forget those many nights that were spent singing the carols to an appreciative audience.

Angel's Christmas

2008-12-08T11:33:00.000-08:00

For a number of years, Ann and I have attended programs called Star P.A.K. written and directed by Kathleen Chapman with choreography by her daughter, Nancy Matossian. Our granddaughters, Hannah (now 12) and Rachel (now 10), were in these productions. The children are taught how to act, sing, dance, and do choreography in front of an audience which is very valuable training for their future. And it builds confidence.

We spent our time at these productions taking pictures of the program as it went along and tried to enjoy the event in between snaps of the camera. Afterward, we took a lot of pictures of the girls with Kathleen and Nancy. Ann is a genius on the computer making multi-page cards using the pictures we took. A set was also made for Kathleen and Nancy for their files.

Eventually, Kathleen gave us a front row seat for taking pictures which helped get the best shots of the entire production. We were a fixture on row one right next to the director, Kathleen Chapman.

As reported in May on this BLOG, our daughter, Brenda, went on a charity trip to Sumba, Indonesia for two weeks in April. She wrote up the story and gave me some pictures to put in the article that I posted. She told Kathleen about the BLOG item and when she looked it up, she saw two videos that I had made using what musical talent I have and this was a shock for her. She had no idea that I had done any acting or singing. She told me that I had to be in her next production.

Well, it happened on December 5, 2008 at Coast Hills Church in Aliso Viejo. I was Angel Gabriel and the only adult in the production of Angel’s Christmas. The angels were all dressed in white and I was in a white tux and white everything else. My two granddaughters were in it with major speaking parts and even sang one of the songs on the mikes. They had to interact with Angel Gabriel (me) which was a thrill for all of us. The story is about young angels wanting to know more about the birth of Jesus and they knew that Angel Gabriel was there that night - that Holy Night! So when I came over to discuss the event with them, they hit me with a lot of questions which I attempted to answer. I sang “O Holy Night” to them and they sang it with me after my solo.

Dick singing "O Holy Night" to the "angels" from his elevated chair!

Angel Gabriel listening to questions from the young angels.

As you can imagine, this was an event in my life that I will never forget. I was first to take the bow at the end and then the kids. Hannah and Rachel came over to me and we took the final bow in front of the cast as a favor to me from Kathleen.

Hannah, Dick, & Rachel taking our final bow with the cast.

Hannah, Kathleen Chapman, Dick, Nancy Matossian, and Rachel

Yes, lots of pictures were taken and some of them are here in this posting. The kids dad, Scott, takes video of these productions and he and Brenda take many digital pictures. This time Ann had to do the picture taking as I was on stage. Ann will make us all memory cards to remember the night Hannah and Rachel was in a production of Star P.A.K. with their grandfather.

Hannah, Dick (Angel Gabriel) and Rachel on Gabriel's chair.

The entire cast of "Angel's Christmas"

The kids in the production were very kind and warm to me and some even asked for my autograph on the program. I guess they thought of me as a celebrity. Thank you, Kathleen, for giving me the opportunity to be in one of your fabulous productions.

Early Television - Part 2

2008-12-02T16:05:00.000-08:00

When television started in the late 1940s, the sets had channels 2 through 13 - no remote - and you “clicked” through the channels to find the one you wanted. No instant going to a channel like we have today. In most TV markets, this was enough channels to satisfy the demand. In Kansas City, Missouri, for instance, we had one channel at first and then quickly grew to three. Channels 2, 4, and 7 became CBS, NBC, and ABC as time went on in major markets across the United States. Independents carried programs from all networks depending on what they wanted to show.

As the demand grew for more channels, another frequency was developed called UHF - Ultra High Frequency. These would be channels above number 13 and you had to have a converter attached to your set with a special antennae to receive these channels. These stations were “dialed in”. No clicking - just turn the dial like you did on the radio to the position that brought that station in the best.

From September 1971 to December 1982 I sang bass with the Watchmen Gospel Quartet mostly in Southern California. Our first TV appearance came on October 15, 1973 on a new station which appeared on UHF Channel 46 called Trinity Broadcasting Systems. It was a two and a half million watt station located in Santa Ana with call letters KBSA. This was a religious station that used our kind of music. Paul Crouch was General Manager and Jim Baker was President and Pastor On The Air. Their evening program was called PTL (Praise The Lord) and features gospel music along with speaking and interviews.

Another local quartet, The Californians, had recommended our group to the station and they had us on several times. In fact, we were the featured group on their Open House when they moved into better quarters. We provided the music for a banquet for Melodyland Christian Center and the event was videotaped for later broadcasting on TBN. Ann and I went to Catalina Island for a couple of days and stayed in the Zane Grey Pueblo. They had one (1) television and that was in the lobby. I knew the program was going to be on one night and we went in to the lobby to see it. Another couple came in to relax and I had the program on. I told them this quartet was very good and they would enjoy it. He looked at the screen - then to me - then back to the screen realizing that it was me on the tube! That was fun!

Dennis Zimmerman, Miles Collins, Roy Scott, Dick Moore, & Rick Moore (guitar)

This television company changed channels from 46 to 40 later and is now known as TBN, Trinity Broadcasting Network.

An Orange, California church called Brean Baptist Church took over the UHF channel number 46 and The Watchmen sang on it several times also.

When cable came to our homes, Channel 46 became Fox News and TBN is still on Channel 40.

For those who still use an antennae, your days are numbered. In February 2009, a converter is needed to receive programs on that set. Or you can go modern and get cable. Think of all the antennas on the roofs that will be coming down!

Thanksgiving Thoughts For 2008

2008-11-16T15:28:00.000-08:00

As we approach the Thanksgiving Season for this year of 2008, I want to leave some thoughts of thanks that I have been given.

I am very thankful to have been born into the Moore Family. Yes, I had a rough beginning as my father died when I was six years old. I don’t remember my life up to that point but I would imagine it was pretty good. Two years later my siblings were split up to several of the brothers and sisters of our father’s and I and my older brother, Ben, went to live with our grandparents.

Rev. Jesse I. and Mattie Moore had 12 children in 20 years time and now have taken on grandchildren of ages 10 and 8. You’d think they had done enough. Grandpa petitioned the court to allow him to place the five children into homes within his family instead of the foster homes we were headed for if he hadn’t intervened . He didn’t want any of his grandchildren to go to foster care and was willing to take on two of the five to raise as his own. He was a pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in Celina, Ohio and was nearing retirement. Think about his situation and see if you would be willing to do the same thing!

I am very thankful for my Uncle Ray and Aunt Edith Moore who lived in Kansas City, Missouri. They came to visit Ray’s folks one week in August 1949 and when they returned home they wrote a letter asking me to come and live with them for my last three years of high school.
Grandpa said it was my decision. Grandma was ill and he told me that if I decided to stay, that would be OK with him. I decided to go Kansas City to finish my high school years. Because of that, I met my future wife, Ann. I often wondered what my life would have turned out to be if I had stayed in Ohio.

The Korean Conflict was going on when I graduated from high school making me very ripe for the draft into the army. If I would attend college, they would defer my draft until I graduated as long as I maintained a “C” average. Thankfully, I did. I was not a “student” and wasn’t planning on going to college except for the push from the government.

I am thankful for Pasadena Nazarene College for accepting me and for helping me get a college degree which made a big difference in my working years. I am very thankful for Bob & Mildred Edwards who prepared their daughter Ann for adulthood and who I married after my Junior year. She has added so much to my life that it would take several more stories to tell it correctly.

I graduated in 1956 two months after our son, Rick, was born. As a matter of coincidence, President Ike Eisenhower signed a bill exempting fathers from the draft. So I am very thankful for Rick joining our family and for the president’s timing. I am also very thankful for Brenda coming along three years later completing our family.

I am very thankful for C. F. Braun & Company and the Fluor Company for laying me off during the recessions of 1957 and 1958. That gave me an opportunity to join the State Farm Insurance family and spend 37 years with them retiring in 1996 with a pension.

Then we added in-laws -- Anne Jennings married Rick and they have Emily and Eric which gave us our first two grandchildren. Brenda married Scott Ostrander and they have Hannah and Rachel giving us a total of four grandkids. Aren’t we lucky?

I have lived a different life but a blessed and thankful one. I never considered that my life was any different from the normal. So many things had to happen to put everything in place to bring me to this time. I’m a lucky fortunate man! Somebody up there likes me!

Happy Thanksgiving Season!

Peter Potter's Platter Parade

2008-11-08T08:55:00.000-08:00

In the early 1950s, I was in college at Pasadena Nazarene College in Pasadena, California. I put myself through a private college working as a dishwasher - bus boy for the Headliner Coffee Shop. There was not a lot of extra money in my pocket during those years!

Ann came to the college in 1953 and since we knew each other from Kansas City, Missouri, we would spend some time doing things together. Anything that wouldn’t cost much was a plus to us.

We were within 20 miles from Hollywood where radio and television programs were made - some live and some filmed or recorded to show an audience so laugh tracks could be put on the show when it actually was aired to the public. We saw a bunch of radio and television shows which were free to attend.

One such program was a local television show that was shown only in Southern California called “Peter Potter’s Platter Parade”. Peter Potter was a local celebrity who had a program that asked the question “Will It Be A Hit - Or A Miss?”.

Hollywood was also the place where records were produced. We didn’t have Cds or cassette tapes then. Records were 78 rpm vinyl discs with one song on each side. Most times the “A” side was the main song and the “B” side was just another tune they recorded. The “B” side sometimes was the actual hit.

This live TV show was on Saturday nights in Hollywood with a live audience enjoying the show. It involved the host (Peter Potter) and a panel of guests who were mostly stars in the area who would listen to a new recording and vote whether it would be a hit or a miss. The fun part was when the actual artist was behind a curtain that the panel couldn’t see or didn't know that they were there and they voted it a “miss”. Talk about backpedaling! It was all in fun though and many of the songs they thought wouldn’t make it actually did.

We attended that show a few times and always thought it was a night well spent. The show was only local and didn’t make it out of the Southern California area. I have no idea how long they were on the air as nothing is on the internet concerning the show.

Peter Potter did have a national show called “Jukebox Jury” which aired from 1956 to 1959. It ran along the same theme as the local show.

A Musical Night At Town & Country Manor

2008-11-01T14:46:00.000-07:00

I have spent my life singing in church - solos, duets, trios, quartets, ensembles, choirs. In 1998 I switched churches and went to one that has only contemporary style music which left me out of performing.

My cousin, Eileen Nixon, lives at Town and Country Manor which is a retirement living community. A couple of years ago she asked me to join her and her sister, Carolyn Hesson, in a music program for the people who call this their home. Carolyn was visiting from Baltimore. Eileen has done a lot of solos in church and so have I. Carolyn does mostly harmony with Eileen or singing in choirs. The three of us put on a nice program using background tapes. The people loved it.

There is a church on the grounds called Community Bible Church and one of the residents is the pastor. Robert Witchey asked Eileen to put on a pre-Easter program with family for March 2007. That program involved the three of us again along with my son, Rick, and his daughter, Emily. Rick sang a solo and Emily played the Irish Whistle. This program was also well received.

After the program, the pastor came up to me and asked if I would do a couple of numbers for their upcoming Good Friday Service in April. I agreed and once again sang for the residents of this community.

Pastor Witchey asked Eileen if Dick (me) could put together a program of music and do it for an evening service on September 7, 2008. She asked and I agreed to do it. This will be the most I have sung in a long time but these people think I am a young man compared to them and they like to hear me sing.
Dick - Concert at Town & Country Manor - September 7, 2008.

Dick Moore and his cousin Eileen Nixon put on this program.

Eileen and I did a duet to start off the program using a pianist, Eunice Crooks, to assist the music program. Eunice lives there and is very good on the piano. We did an old song called "I've Discovered The Way Of Gladness" which was sung a lot 50 years ago. Eileen led the congregation in several hymns and introduced me. I sang three numbers and she introduced Bob Blaustone, another resident, who plays a jazz piano. He never had a lesson but did a great job.
The four participants of the musical night -- Dick, Eileen, Bob, and Eunice.

Eileen then sang a solo and a duet with me. I related a story of my last visit to my home church in Celina, Ohio in 1952. That story is in a previous post on this web site. I completed the program with two numbers that worked well together to form one song. They were "That One Lost Sheep" and "The Ninety And Nine". Most of the residents have come from a background of either being a pastor or a missionary or part of the family of one of those. This community is run by The Christian & Missionary Alliance Church. They understood all the songs and enjoyed the kind of music that isn't done in most churches anymore.

(When I have time to get the DVD to my son, Rick, he will help me post the song listed above so you can hear it. I don't know how to do that and have to rely on him to get it posted.)

I received a nice letter of thanks from Pastor Robert Witchey and he said "the one question they have asked is --when is he coming back?" That makes a person feel real good that some people enjoy his kind of music. I think we will be doing a Christmas program with the family sometime near Christmas. If we do, I will write that up too!
Reception line after the concert joined by granddaughters Rachel & Hannah.

It's nice to feel wanted!

My Friend - The Money Pit

2008-10-26T12:43:00.000-07:00

In 1999 I had a 1985 Chevrolet Celebrity that broke down on the way to my golf game. I was able to drive it into the MacPherson Chevrolet in Irvine (off the 5 Freeway at Lake Forest) and told them to fix the problem. It was my second car as we had newer car that we drove most of the time. Ann drove the newer car and the Chevrolet was my car to use for errands and golf.

I needed a ride home and Ann wasn't there. So I called my neighbor Ted and he came to get me. While I was waiting for him to show up, I visited the used car lot and spotted the car pictured above -- a 1992 Chevrolet Cavalier. They wanted $4,995 for it. When Ted got there, we took the car for a test drive and I fell in love! Got to have it! I pointed out my car to the salesman and said if he would give me $1,500 in trade for that I will buy this one for the balance.

He agreed. But -- I needed to get Ann's approval first. After I got home, Ann and I went to the dealer and test drove the car once more. She agreed with me that it would be a big improvement on what I was driving and we made the deal.

Yes, the car has had problems over the years -- haven't we all! But every time I spent some money on it, I appreciated the car more and wanted to keep it. I have bought this car a couple of times with repairs but still wanted to keep it. One day while I was getting gas at a local Shell station, a young girl drove up behind the car and got out to ask me where I got it. I told her and she said that it used to be her car and the dealer said they would have to get rid of the car as it would be too expensive to bring up to standard. Of course, they gave her very little in trade. Now she finds it out on the street! Car dealers!

In June 2007 I took my grandson to an Angel's ball game with the New York Yankees and you know it was sold out. Over 44,000 people there and the parking lot filled up. After an exciting game they had fireworks. I usually leave the game about the top of the 9th and get out of the lot before the others. This time we decided to stay for the fireworks. Big error! By the time we got to the car, the lot was jammed with cars trying to leave and it took 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot. Once on the 57 freeway we thought we had smooth sailing and then everything came to a halt. They (Cal Trans) decided to repave the 5 freeway leaving only two lanes open going south. We were literally on a parking lot for a very long time.

Guess what happened? The car overheated and actually pegged out - as hot as it can get! We couldn't get off and we couldn't go forward. I finally got him home about 12:45 a.m. and drove the car (hot) home. I had a feeling that I had fried the engine and took it to the Chevrolet dealer near me. After a day or two, they told me that the engine was ok but the heater core had to be replaced as that was where the coolent was going out. A labor intensive job since the dash had to be removed -- mucho dollars. I took the car on a trip to Newport Beach to a luncheon and on the way back home, it overheated once again. I drove right into the dealers service area and they had the car for a couple more days.

This time they replaced some things (at my cost) and then called me to tell me the engine was too bad and had to be replaced at the tune of $3,100. I told them I would think about it and get back to them with a decision. After about a week, I told them I am having it towed home and not fixed at this time. When I was waiting for them to bring the car out, they drove it to me! So we drove it up on the tow truck and got it home. I could drive it in and out of the garage so I could get to things behind it. But it couldn't be driven on the street as it would lose water.

I placed it on Non-Operation status with the DMV and dropped insurance to only Comprehensive. It sat for months with me going back and forth in my mind as to whether to have the car fixed or not. If not, I was going to give it to a charity or sell it for parts. I was told about a company that would give you $500 for any car working or not. That was going to be my choice if I was not going to fix it.

I internet searched for rebuild and used engines thinking the dealer's mechanics knew what they were talking about. Finally in September of this year I called the owner of A-Z Tech Automotive in Mission Viejo who I knew and discussed the situation with him. He said for me to tow it to his shop and he would look at it personally for free. He would let me know what the problem was and what it would cost to fix. It's my decision as to what we do. One more attempt to get it fixed and have a second car for errands and golf.

The owner called me the same day and said that the engine was fine - just had a blown head gasket. The fix is labor intensive and I agreed to have it fixed. He recommended a couple of other items when getting into the job. I trust him so said ok. The total cost was $1,265. A little less than I was quoted by the Chevrolet dealer! Not bad for a used car. Where could you go to get a used car in this shape for that price?

Something funny happened on the day I drove it home. In the mail was a letter from the Chevrolet dealer saying they missed me -- 14 months had passed!

I love having the car available. It will take miles off the newer car and allow me to drive it for a few more years. I don't have to rent a car when the good car is in the shop for repairs. I recently had to do that before I got the Chevrolet running.

Cars are a money pit -- but could we do without them?

I Want You To Meet My Uncle Ray Moore

2008-10-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

I lived with my Uncle Ray Moore for my last three years of high school. He passed away January 7, 2007, just before he would have turned 89 in February. Here is the obituary that tells of his life.

Bethany, Oklahoma

Monday, January 08, 2007

Renowned Nazarene educator and minister of music Ray Howard Moore passed away January 7. He was 88.

Moore was born on February 17, 1918, in Bronson, Michigan, to Jessie and Mattie Moore. A 1941 college graduate of Olivet Nazarene College, Moore earned his Master of Arts degree from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in 1956. He was honored with a doctorate in music from Olivet in 1980.

Moore faithfully served as a minister of music and educator in the Church of the Nazarene for more than 60 years. He served churches in Detroit, Kansas City, and Bethany, Oklahoma. He was also a professor at Olivet Nazarene University, Nazarene Theological Seminary, Southern Nazarene University, and European Nazarene Bible College.

For 20 years Moore was music director of the radio broadcast, “Showers of Blessings” and “La Hora Nazarena,” which were broadcast around the world from Nazarene Headquarters in Kansas City. He also led Ambassador Ministry Teams to Central and South America as well as Europe. He started radio stations in Kankakee, Illinois (WKOC) and Kansas City, and built communication equipment for missionaries around the world. Moore (W5RSL) was an avid ham radio operator, beginning at the age of nine.

Moore’s life of distinguished service was marked by numerous awards and recognitions, including the Heritage Award from Southern Nazarene University, the “O” Award from Olivet Nazarene University, and the Cathedral Choir Heritage Award from Bethany First Church of the Nazarene.

He is preceded in death by his first wife Edith, granddaughter Amanda Moore, stepson Mark Rawlings, and nine brothers and sisters. He is survived by wife Nelda, daughter Kathy (Ron) Johns of Tulsa, son Phil (Donna) Moore of Bethany, son Harlan (Barbi) Moore of Oklahoma City, special nephew Dick (Ann) Moore of Mission Viejo, California, stepson Mike (Micki) Rawlings of Dallas, and stepdaughter-in-law Kelly Rawlings of Wichita. Surviving grandchildren include Lindsay Moore (Ken Marshall), step-grandchildren Ron (Brenda) Johns, Jr., and Michelle, Jessica, Shelby, and Gunnar Rawlings. Surviving siblings are sister Pauline Alexander of Covington, Ohio, and brother Gary (Marge) Moore of Kansas City.

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

The mention of "special nephew Dick (Ann) Moore of Mission Viejo, California" is me. This is very special to me as Ray had 33 nieces and nephews and he mentioned me. Of course, it was because I lived in his home for three years and the others didn't. But Ray was special to me too. He was my 3rd dad. My father (his brother, Leonard) passed away in 1940. From 1942-1949 I lived with Ray's mother and dad, Rev. and Mrs. J. I. Moore. In September 1949 I joined Ray's family.

I thought you'd be interested in reading about Ray's life. His sister, Pauline, has since passed away leaving only his brother, Gary Moore, still with us of the 12 kids.

The Name Is The Same

2008-10-12T12:04:00.000-07:00

Dick Moore meets Dick Moore at the Moore Family Reunion

Ever meet someone with the same name as you? I had the occasion to do just that at a family reunion of the Moores this last weekend.

My cousin, Eileen Nixon, set up a Moore Family Reunion at her retirement home in a special room for just such a purpose. Lunch was provided as we got a chance to chat with close and distant relatives from the Moore branch.

Go back two generations and you have the grandfathers of most of the ones that were there. Kids not included as I am a grandfather to two of the girls that attended this event. My grandfather was one of 12 kids in his family and he had 12 kids in his own family. So there are a lot of Moores out there. We had two of my grandfather's brothers represented at this reunion. Issac Pearl Moore, Howard Moore, and Jesse Irvin Moore (my grandfather) were part of that large family and had descendants at this luncheon.

Here is where the duplicate names come into play. Howard's grandson is Dick Moore. Jesse's grandson (me) is Dick Moore. Both of us were at this luncheon and met for the first time. I had heard of him before but never had an occasion to meet him. The other Dick Moore's dad was also Dick Moore. Getting confusing? I guess my name is more common than I thought. But when you have a lot of members of a family, they tend to use the same first names down the chain.

I'm Richard A. Moore. My son is Richard R. Moore. His son is Eric Richard Moore. Get the picture?

To add to the name confusion Richard R. Moore and Richard A. Moore are both married to Ann Moore except my son's wife spells her name with an "e" - Anne. Both couples live in Mission Viejo, California. He has received calls for me and I have received calls for him. Rick and I both sang bass in the Watchmen Gospel Quartet with Rick following his dad.

Sameness runs in our family.

Everything's Up To Date In Kansas City

2008-10-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

I was 15 years old when I moved from Celina, Ohio to Kansas City, Missouri. I had lived with my grandparents from 1942 until September 1949 and my grandmother's health was failing. My brother, Ben, left right after his Junior year in high school to live with our mother in Muncie, Indiana. So I was alone for the first time in my life and needed another place to call home.

Uncle Ray and Aunt Edith Moore lived in Kansas City and was visiting Ray's parents which were my grandparents. They had a daughter, Kathy, who was 18 months old at the time. Kathy and I got along great and on the way back home to Kansas City, Edith asked Ray if they should take Dick into their home. Ray wrote me a letter which I still have in my memory box asking me to consider moving to Kansas City and finishing my high school years in their home. Ray was my dad's brother.

Uncle Ray and Aunt Edith - my new parents in Kansas City

I accepted their invitation and before I knew it, I was on a train to Chicago where I met up with another uncle, Dale, who accompanied me to Kansas City. I arrived in my new home just a few days before the school year was to start. My wardrobe was lacking in decent clothes and we went shopping. What I wore in Ohio just didn't work in Missouri!

Their home was a single story, two bedroom, one bath home. Kathy was sleeping in their bedroom and the music room (Ray taught voice) became my bedroom.

My new home on 67th Street in Kansas City, Missouri

It was obvious that something had to be done as Kathy was needing to be moved out of their bedroom and into one of her own. Ray began plans to "raise the roof" and add a second floor to the home. He became the contractor and the hired hand to do the job. He needed help on raising the roof but everything else he (and sometimes me) did the job. In time three bedrooms and a bath were added upstairs. They would need all three bedrooms after I left for college as Philip and Harlan were born to the family. Kathy, Philip, and Harlan had their bedrooms upstairs.

I spent my last three years in high school attending Southeast High School which is pictured below.

Southeast High School - attended there 1949 to 1952

I graduated from there in June 1952 and was off to Pasadena Nazarene College in Pasadena, California in the fall. I returned to Uncle Ray and Aunt Edith's home for the summer of 1953. When I returned to college, I never went back home for anything other than a short visit. I stayed in the "old" home when I went back in July 1955 to be married to Ann.

Early Days Of Television

2008-10-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

I was born before television was a household word. We marveled at radio! How could they send the sound from New York City clear across the states to Los Angeles? Now add the picture and you can imagine our amazement.

Television was introduced to the general public at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City on Sunday, April 30, 1939. This is just before World War II started. So it had to take a back burner for development until after the war ended in 1945. The first station was in New York City and basically served a few people in that city. Not many sets were available elsewhere but time brought many manufacturers all over the USA to develop this unique entertainment vehicle.

At the World's Fair, visitors crowded together to watch NBC broadcasts or internal closed circuit demonstrations. Frequently, volunteers were escorted outside to the cameras and encouraged to wave at the folks inside. Television was such a novelty at the time that "I was televised" cards were handed out as a souvenir of the experience.

I lived in Kansas City, Missouri in 1949 when TV came to that city. Of course, the picture was in black and white only at that time. You had certain hours that you could watch anything. Programming went off the air with the National Anthem being played and sometimes a prayer by a local pastor. Then you got the test pattern which was used to adjust new sets. The first station there started just after I arrived in Kansas City. It was WDAF-TV Channel 4 and had it's start on October 16, 1949. Radio stations that started TV stations just added "TV" to their call letters. NBC radio station WDAF was the first to get a license to broadcast TV in that area. As there were few TV stations, they weren't affiliated with just one network but chose programs from all networks. WDAF-TV was affiliated with NBC, CBS, ABC and an independent called DuMont Network. The station later became the FOX Network station for that area. Randell Jessee was the first anchorman for the station and well known in the Kansas City area.

In early 1950 I caught double pneumonia and was bed fast at home while the doctor made daily house calls to save my life. Our teen group at Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene (NTO) rented a 7 inch round tube TV to keep me occupied. The only TV in the home! I later was able to buy the first TV for my aunt and uncle that I lived with there. A store was selling a few sets for a very low price if you got there in time and Uncle Ray did.

There were a few shows like Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theater in 1948. He kind of pioneered the variety comedy show idea. In fact, NBC gave him an unheard of contract in 1951 for 30 years at $100,000 per hear to do 360 shows. When his TV show was cancelled, NBC had the obligation for the balance of his 30 year contract. But Milton Berle couldn't appear on any TV show on any other network during the contract. He was tied to NBC which he tried to get out of but they wouldn't let him. Minor players now get that amount or more per show and he had to settle for a yearly payment. Contrast his earnings with the last year of "Friends" where all six players received One Million Dollars per half hour each for 22 episodes ($22 Million per actor). What sounded great in 1951 became a noose around Uncle Miltie's neck.

When someone got a new television set, they also got a lot of visitors stopping by for a visit. It was so new that people couldn't get enough of television. What in the world did we do with our time before television came available?

Some of new television shows were:

Ed Sullivan's "Toast Of The Town" (variety show)
Your Hit Parade (countdown to the top songs of the week)
Arthur Godfrey (daytime talk show with guests)
Your Show Of Shows (Sid Caesar & Imogene Coco - Variety)
The Honeymooners (Jackie Gleason situation comedy)

There were some radio hits that moved to television:

Red Skelton, Jack Benny, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Fibber McGee & Molly, Bob Hope, Amos & Andy, and The Lone Ranger. These were just a few of them that I could think of quickly.

It was an exciting time in the entertainment industry. Television gave the movies a boost because the movies could be shown again in another medium. Think of all the actors who took a flat fee and didn't get residuals because they didn't know the movies would be shown again.

What's Happening To Television?

2008-09-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

EDITORIAL - One Bloggers Opinion

Recently we had the Emmys and I didn't watch it - neither did millions of others as they have lost their glow and interest. I checked the paper the next day and not ONE of the shows or the actors/actresses of those shows had I seen! This is a big departure from TV shows of the 50s, 60s, and even the 70s.

I can remember watching live shows in the 50s that were very entertaining and you didn't want to miss one week of those shows. We didn't have videotape or TIVO/DVR then so if you were out and missed it, you'd have to wait until the summer for the rerun. Did you know that shows had 39 new programs a year? Did you know that they were sponsored by ONE company which you related the product to the show/star? Remember Dinah Shore and "See the USA in your Chevrolet"? TV breaks didn't have 10-12 commercials each time which made it difficult to attach the product to the program or stars.

Another thing I noticed is that TV GUIDE pushes the shows that I don't watch or care anything about. It is becoming a Celebrity magazine with TV listings. I don't watch 90 percent of the shows they feature each week. That is why I am not renewing my subscription that I've had with them since the 1960s. I will write a letter to them returning their renewal form stating the reasons why we are parting company.

It seems to me that the writers of the shows now have to "push the envelope" on every moral issue trying to influence the general public to their way of thinking. Mostly in the gutter. Sex scenes are common place now. This is with anybody on the show - definitely not with a spouse. Nudity is being common place now. They are trying desperately to include foul language and make it acceptable as the normal talking that the average citizens do with each other. I guess I'm not average.

Every show now must have the token homosexual or lesbian and make it appear as "normal". Once I see that, I turn the channel and never look at that show again. This is why the shows that are popular today are not on my viewing list.

What do I watch? Golf and pro Lakers basketball. Some A&E channel shows like "The First 48 Hours" and "Dog, The Bounty Hunter". Some History channel shows like "Shockwave" and shows involving World War II stories. I love "Monk" and "Psych" on the USA channel. We watch "Little People, Big World" on the TLC channel. We enjoy "Dateline" and "48 Hours". I watch "The Unit" which is an exciting show. We enjoy "So You Think You Can Dance", "Dancing With the Stars", "American Idol" and "America's Got Talent". The only family type show we watch is "Everybody Hates Chris". I hope it stays as good as it is now but it is written by Chris Rock who is not known for this type of humor.

Television will not get better and you will have to be selective on what you watch on the main Network Channels like CBS, NBC, and ABC. A media watchdog called Parents Television Council is trying their best to improve quality of "Prime Time" shows but it is an uphill battle. We have been supporting them since they began soliciting support by a comedian named Steve Allen. Steve knew how to put humor in TV that was actually funny. He was disgusted with what was happening to his media and wanted to help make it better again.

I will be posting a story about my recollections of the early days of TV soon. Stay tuned.

Nice Topping Of The Day

2008-09-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

We used to attend a church called Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim right next to Disneyland. At the time, it was a large church with perhaps 3,000 regular attendees on the weekend. Ann and I were in the choir of 120 voices.

We were able to take a number of trips with this choir and this story is about one of those. The choir went to New York City and to Washington, D.C. in 1976, two weeks after the 200th anniversary of our country. We had opportunities to sing on the Capitol steps, at the Pentagon, and visit the White House lawn for a reception of the German Chancellor given by the then president, Gerald Ford.

But one thing stands out in my mind -- a thoughtful act on the part of a taxi driver on a rainy evening. We had some down time to do whatever we wanted and some of us went to the Smithsonian Institute. We visited the Centennial Building which housed the gifts to the USA from countries around the world on our 100th birthday - 1876. Fascinating place to see what was "new" in 1876.

Smithsonian Institute Centennial Building shown new in 1876.

It was raining when we came out of the building and we needed a cab to get us back to our sleeping quarters. There was a cab sitting right outside the building and I asked if he was for hire. He was. We had five of us and we asked him to give us a quick look at the capitol city as we didn't have much time there and wanted to see things -- like the Lincoln Memorial. He started the meter running and we went around the town seeing the sights from the cab as it was still raining.

Then he asked, "do you like ice cream? I know this great place in Georgetown that has the best ice cream!" I could just see the bill going higher but didn't notice that he had turned off the meter. So we went to an ice cream store and all of us including the driver enjoyed some great ice cream.

The driver engaged us in conversation all through the tour and enjoyed himself with us having some great ice cream. One of the gang. When he stopped where we were staying, I asked him what the charge was -- NOTHING! He said he had a great time sharing his city with us and we were the last fare of the evening for him.

Were we visited by an angel?

9-11 Thoughts & Remembrances

2008-09-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

It has been seven years since 9-11-01 and the attack on America in New York City. I don't believe the people involved thought the Twin Towers would come down - just cause a panic and some loss of life and damage to buildings. I think they were surprised at what a group of 19 could do with hijacked airplanes by giving up their lives for 72 virgins each! Why punish the virgins too?

I have visited New York City twice in my lifetime and on both occasions have stood on top of one of the Twin Towers. In 1973 they were built. I was on a choir tour ( along with my family including HolyCoast.com Rick) on the East Coast in 1976 with Melodyland Christian Center choir. We had some down time in NYC and some of us decided to take the subway to the World Trade Center. The observation deck at that time was on the building with the TV tower (first one hit and second one to fall). It was outside on the roof with fence to keep you safe. It was night and we saw the Statue of Liberty lit up in the harbor. Quite a sight!

The second time was at the end of a cruise from Montreal to NYC in 1997. We hired a limo to take us to the various sites of interest including the World Trade Center. This time the observation deck was enclosed and at the top of the second tower hit and the first one to fall. This was during the daytime and we had a beautiful day to view Manhattan and the harbor with the Lady holding the torch. It's a sight that is forever etched in my mind. Picture taken from that position keep the memory alive.

View of the World Trade Center from the city and from observation deck.

On 9-11-01, I was called by my daughter to turn on the TV. The hole in the side of the building with fire and smoke coming out didn't compute in my head. How could a plane just fly into that building? At the time it was thought an accident but soon we found out the truth when the second tower was hit by a passenger jet airplane. We knew there would be loss of life and property damage but never dreamed those buildings would collapse due to the fire and weakening of the superstructure. I cannot imagine what the people felt when they knew they couldn't be rescued from that burning infernal and knowing they would meet their Maker soon. Thoughts of family and friends would have been paramount and not the things of this world that we accumulate. Puts life into perspective.

I'm very glad that I had the opportunity to visit those magnificent buildings before they were demolished. Put your memories of 9-11 in the Comments section.

Do You Want Me To Preach Too?

2008-09-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

High School Graduation Picture 1952 Kansas City, MO

I grew up from age 9 to 15 in a small town of Celina, Ohio. My brother, Ben, and I lived with our grandparents and Grandpa was the pastor of the local Church of the Nazarene. In June of 1949, Ben left the home to live with our mother in Indiana. Grandmother's health was failing and in September I moved to Kansas City, Missouri to live with Uncle Ray and Aunt Edith Moore. I graduated from Southeast High School in 1952 and was making plans to attend Pasadena Nazarene College in Pasadena, California.

Rev. J. I. and Mattie Moore, my grandparents

My grandmother had passed away two years earlier. I wanted to visit my retired grandfather and my hometown one more time before leaving for California. I had my brother Ben's 1939 Pontiac (he was overseas in the Navy at this time) and I stopped in Muncie, Indiana to visit my mother and my younger brother Bob. I took Bob with me to Celina and up to Elkhart, Indiana to visit our sisters, Faye and Lenna who were living with other relatives.

Celina Ohio Church of the Nazarene 1948

We were able to spend a couple of days with Grandpa and visiting friends in Celina. On Sunday, we visited my former church and the then pastor who I had not met before asked me to sing a solo for the evening service. I was introduced in church as the grandson of Rev. J. I. Moore. The Moores had a reputation for being singers and he thought I was a singer also. I had never sung at that church and had sung solos only for the teen group at the church in Kansas City. I agreed to do it because there probably wouldn't be more than 50 people there that night. Then he asked me to do a duet with Helen Howell who I was talking to and who used to be my brother Ben's girl friend. OK we said. Then he asked me to lead the singing for the service and I asked him if he wanted me to preach also -- he asked "Could you?" I drew the line on that.

But my last visit to the church included participating in the entire music part of the evening service. Something I will never forget.

Cornelius Richard Van Mattimore

2008-09-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

WHO? Ever hear of that person? I haven't either but I was named after him! Actually he changed his name when he became a movie actor. He is know as Richard Arlen. Born on this day in 1898 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

During World War One Richard served in the Royal Canadian Flying Corps as a pilot. He never saw combat. After the war he drifted around and eventually wound up in Los Angeles, where he got a job as a motorcycle messenger at a film laboratory. When he crashed into the gates of Paramount Pictures and suffered a broken leg, the studio provided prompt medical attention. Impressed by his good looks, executives also gave him a contract after he recovered. How's that for an entrance?

He started in silent films as an extra. His big break came when William A. Wellman cast him as a pilot in the silent film "Wings" (1927) with Charles 'Buddy' Rogers and Clara Bow. The story of fighter aces would win the Oscar for Best Picture. In "Wings" he had a scene with a young actor named Gary Cooper. In 1929, he again worked with Cooper in the western "The Virginian" only this time Cooper was the star and Arlen was the supporting actor. These two films were the high point of his career. He made many 'B' pictures but nothing worth noting.

Married three times, he spent most of his life with Margaret Kinsella from 1945 to March 28, 1976 when he died of emphysema. He lived in North Hollywood, California.

My mother loved the name 'Richard Arlen'. So I became Richard Arlen Moore.

Radio -- Television Without Pictures

2008-08-29T15:22:00.000-07:00

Television came into being in the late 1940s but few people had sets to receive the programs. I'll write about that in another post as this one is concerning radio.

Our entertainment in the 1930s and 1940s came from a small box that sat on a table in the living or dining room. Some had large radios that were floor models and more powerful to pull in stations far away. I remember our family radio in the dining room which became the center of our evenings. We could play games and listen to our favorite radio show at the same time.

We had only AM stations as FM hadn't been invented yet. All sets and car radios were tube types which took a little time to warm up before you could hear anything. Tubes had to be replaced when they burned out.

The "stars" of radio then were Fibber McGee & Molly, Lum & Abner, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Fred Allen, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Milton Berle, Perry Como, many Big Bands, and others. You never lacked for anything to listen to and wouldn't be embarrassed by anything said on the air. Each radio program was sponsored by ONE (1) sponsor. You identified with the star and the sponsor. Lux, Kraft, Chesterfield, Jello, Texico, Chase & Sanborne, etc. Now on television we have 10 commercials at every break and you really don't know who is sponsoring the program. Stars salaries have risen so much that it takes a lot of companies to put on one program.

There were dramas and adventure shows. One of my favorite was "The Lone Ranger". I remember sending off 10 cents and a box top for a map of the area he worked his magic so you could follow him through this place and that -- like you'd see on TV.

The picture was in your head. They would describe something and you'd come up with the picture. Imagination! You lost a lot and gained a lot when television came out.

When I was in college at Pasadena Nazarene College in Pasadena, California, we went to Hollywood on weekends to see TV and Radio shows by being in the audience and putting laughs on the program. The last radio show I went to was "The Bob Hope Show" at NBC. He interacted with the audience after the show. One person mentioned that his friend Bing Crosby wore a hair piece and wondered if Bob did. Mr. Hope asked him to come up on stage and each would pull the hair of the other. Brought some laughs on that one. "Our Miss Brooks" was another radio show we attended and got a chuckle out of Eve Arden playing a single person prominently pregnant at the time.

Radio now is mostly music and you listen most of the time in your car. Lots of types of music to choose from - your pick. Those were the days, my friend. I thought they would never end. But everything does.

Powell P-48 Model Scooter -- 1949/1950

2008-08-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

Transportation Item Number 3

At the end of the school year in 1949, my brother Ben decided he would forgo his senior year of high school and move to Muncie, Indiana, to live with our mother. For the first time in my life, I was not living with a member of my immediate family. Ben and I had always been together. Faye, Bob, and Lenna went to other relatives homes and I saw little of them. Sometimes they didn't feel like family as we weren't raised together.

So, here I am alone with my grandparents in Celina, Ohio. One day I met an adult who had a P-48 Powell Motor Scooter for sale. This scooter cost $300 brand new in 1948 (a lot of money then) but he wanted to get rid of it. He offered it for $50. I told Grandpa about it and he said that wasn't possible and that I didn't understand what he wanted for the scooter. He said he wanted to see it and we'd decide if it was worth the amount he wanted. This scooter was perfect. When Grandpa asked him what he wanted for it, the man said $45. SOLD!

Now I had a Whizzer Motor Bike and a P-48 Powell Motor Scooter to get around on. Let me tell you about the Powell. This scooter could really go. I checked the speed with a friend driving a car (no speedometer on the scooter) and got it to 70 miles an hour! It had a 7 horse power motor that was kick started. No key for this one either - a switch to click and you kick start the engine. You could take this scooter if you knew how to ride it. A centrifugal clutch meant no shifting gears. Just give it more gas and away you go. It has a two gallon seat shaped tank (you sat on it with a cushion) and the scooter got 50 miles to a gallon of gas. 100 miles to a tank.

The Powell was made in Compton, California. Here I am in Ohio with a product that was made a few miles from where I now live in California. They are no longer in business. I think they made scooters through 1950 or 1951 and stopped business.

I never took a picture of this scooter. Another regret! So a few years ago I wrote to Reminisce Magazine to a feature they call "Can You Give Me A Hand?" and asked if anyone had a picture of the P-48 Powell. I got seven or eight responses and one even sent me the Parts List of this model which included the picture below. I corresponded with a fellow from Northern California by email for a while. He had a 1950 model which looks more like a small motorcycle. He sent me a picture of it. We exchanged stories of our riding memories and I lost contact with him. If any of you reading this had one of these scooters, let me know in the Comments section at the end of this story.

That summer, Grandma became ill and it was difficult for her to be responsible for a 15 year old as well as her husband. So another home was needed for me. (Grandma passed away the following summer.) In September 1949 I moved to Kansas City, Missouri to live with an uncle and aunt. I had to decide what I was going to do with the two items of transportation that I had. I sold the Whizzer Motor Bike to a fellow Daily Standard newspaper delivery boy named Paul Shiverdecker for $100. He was happy and so was I. I shipped the Powell to my new home and used it around Kansas City. I rode it in the winter and got double pneumonia which nearly took my life at age 15. Another story - another post. I rode the scooter to school and parked it on the street. Again, no one ever took it without my permission. Something that couldn't happen today. During 1950 the scooter broke down and I gave it to Uncle Bob who lived in Indiana. He was very handy with machines. The last thing I heard it was in his garage still not fixed. I don't know what happened to it.

I was very fortunate to have the funds to afford these items for my personal pleasure. Grandpa was supportive and helped me to keep them in working order. I had freedom to get around the town and into the surrounding countryside. It was handy in Kansas City as well. I never had a license plate on either of my toys or registered with the DMV as you now have to do. Of course, at age 15, I didn't have a driver's license either. That is needed today. Too much bureaucracy now! A kid can't be a kid anymore! Oh yeah - no helmet!

Whizzer Motor Bike -- 1948-1949

2008-08-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

Transportation Item Number 2

I lived with my grandparents in a small town in Ohio named Celina. Probably had no more than 5,000 people in it then and you could easily get around the entire town. Before I got my bicycle, I used to walk everywhere.

Something about a little town in the 1940s -- no one ever thought of putting locks on their bicycles. You could leave them anywhere and they would be there when you were ready to go again. I never had a key to the house. We may have locked it at night when we went to sleep but I don't recall that. People respected your property.

I bought a magazine called Popular Mechanix probably for 15 cents or so and used to look at the ads in the back. I saw that someone in Pennsylvania had a Whizzer Motor Bike kit for sale - used. Total cost $60. You had to supply the bike and install it yourself. Since I had the money, Grandpa sent the $60 to the address and in a couple of weeks the motor and accessories arrived. I traded my Schwinn bicycle for one that the kit would fit and Grandpa and I put it together.

The Whizzer didn't have a key for security. Anyone who knew how to start it and ride the motor bike could do so. We never gave it a thought that anyone would do that without permission. I kept it in an unlocked garage seen behind my cousins in this picture.

My Whizzer with cousins Norm Reynolds and Dave Ummel. Their mothers were my father's sisters. We used to get a lot of company stopping by for a day to visit my grandparents (their parents) so I got to meet a lot of my cousins. There were 12 children and 36 grandchildren which meant I had 31 cousins. There were 5 kids in my family.

The Whizzer could go 35 miles an hour and get 125 miles per gallon of gas. It had a one gallon tank. Gas was probably 15 cents a gallon so that was not an expense to worry about. I remember one day my best friend, Tom Keifer, and I rode to a town 5 miles away and went to a motion picture show to see "Pride Of The Yankees" about baseball player Lou Gehrig starring Gary Cooper. This is my favorite movie. I have it on tape. The Whizzer was parked outside the theater unlocked and was there when we came out. Imagine that today!

I directed the Moore Family Reunion of 1993 held in the Oklahoma City area. The planning took me 18 months and about $2,000 of my own money but I felt it was worth the effort to get the family together one last time. I will write about this event in another post but there really is a connection to this story. After the long weekend reunion, I needed some down time. Ann and I drove over to Branson Missouri to see some of their shows and relax. One afternoon we were walking through a very interesting store of "things of yesteryear" and I remarked to Ann that the only thing this store lacks is a Whizzer Motor Bike. I turned a corner and there it was -- a beautifully restored Whizzer with the original price tag on it -- $100. The current price was $4,995. I remember selling mine for $100! The Whizzer company had been out of business since the early 1950s and the only way you could get one of these then was to find a restored one.

The company has been back in business for a few years now and you can check it out on http://www.whizzermotorbike.com/ . A new one with up to date technology runs about $2,000 today. They would be great for a small town with little traffic but not practical for a city of any size over 25,000 people. Too dangerous. Not enough power. But great to ride!

This is a picture of a new Whizzer from their website.

My Teen Transportation - Schwinn Bicycle

2008-08-09T07:52:00.000-07:00

This was not my Schwinn bicycle - just a picture of one I found on the WEB.

Transportation Item Number 1

I mentioned in an earlier post that my brother, Ben, and I shared a bicycle during the early 1940s. That was because skinny rubber tires where hard to get making bicycles hard to get also. Our grandfather was fortunate to buy a new bike for us to share.

I was a newspaper delivery boy from 1943 to 1949 for The Daily Standard in Celina, Ohio. I was able to make money to support my "habits" and help pay my own way. I saved everything I could during these years in order to buy tangible things that would last me and make my life more enjoyable.

Right after World War II ended, my Uncle Carlan came home from the service to Celina and later offered me his Schwinn balloon tire bicycle for $30. I grabbed at it as I needed my own bicycle to do the paper route that I had walked up to this time. It was used, of course, but in excellent condition.

Recently a Teaching Pastor of Saddleback Church, Doug Fields, mentioned in a sermon that he had a bike from Montgomery Wards and then asked how many in the crowd had a "Schwinn". Of course there were a lot of us and he then made some remark about the "rich kids" had Schwinns. He was from the other side of the tracks! Schwinn was a very popular brand and was more expensive but not that much.

I had that bike until I bought a kit for a Whizzer Motor Bike that needed a different design than the Schwinn in order for the motor to fit. So I traded it for one that we could put the engine and accessories on. That story is next in my "Transportation" series.

Say Cheese! Big Smile Everyone!

2008-08-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

Disney Cruise Item Number 6

Formal Night Family Picture - Dick, Ann, Hannah, Rachel, Brenda, Scott

One of the features of a cruise is that you will have your picture taken a lot of times. You don't have to buy even one of them. But they are hard to resist especially when they are great shots of everyone in the picture. I wonder how many pictures are thrown away after each cruise.

The ships photographers are busy all day and evening long. Taking and printing pictures and posting them on screens for you to look at and buy. Some are informal like at your table in one of the restaurants. Some are formal settings that they put up backdrops in the main lobby and you can stop and have the picture taken or not. Up to you. The formal pictures on Formal Night are keepers if you have dressed up for the occasion. Many do for that night. It is also the night you can get your picture take with the Captain. He's dressed up -- why not you?

Formal Night With The Captain.

Theme nights also provide a reason for picture taking by the professionals of your family. We had Pirate Night, Formal Night, and Informal Night. The rest were Casual Nights with some picture taking going on. Since this is a kid's cruise, we had a Character's Breakfast where the Disney Characters came to your table and got their picture with your kids taken on your camera - no professional pictures. I'll post some of our pictures later.

Included below are several formal and informal pictures taken of our family.

Pirate Night - A lot of people dressed up for this one!

Formal and Casual shots of the family. It's nice to have these to remember your cruise by and share with others.

An Evening With Richard Sherman

2008-07-31T06:44:00.000-07:00

Richard Sherman with his two Oscars for Mary Poppins.

Disney Cruise Item Number 5

We were fortunate to have been on the same cruise as Richard and Elizabeth Sherman. He doesn't take these that often but Richard had a working vacation cruise with his family which happened to be the same one we were on. One of the evening shows featured him at the piano demonstrating and telling stories about his career in songwriting.

Who is Richard Sherman? The soundtrack of our childhood resonates with beloved songs written by the Sherman Brothers. Richard and his brother Robert. Their career spans almost 50 years and includes two Academy Awards for Walt Disney's "Mary Poppins" - Best Score and "Chim Chim Cher-ee" - Best Song. Other musical honors include three Grammy Awards, 24 gold and platinum albums, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and introduction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

1960 marked the start of a phenomenal multi-year association with film producer Walt Disney, during which time they composed over 150 songs for his films, TV shows, and theme parks. Their Disney credits include the films "Jungle Book," "The Parent Trap," "Bedknobs and Broomsticks," "The Sword in the Stone," "The Aristocats," "The Happiest Millionaire," the "Winnie the Pooh" films, and of course, "Mary Poppins," among many others.

The Sherman Brothers worked directly for Walt Disney until Disney's death in 1966. Since leaving the company, the brother songwriting team has worked freelance on scores of motion pictures, television shows, theme park exhibits, and stage musicals. There is always Sherman Brothers music playing somewhere on the globe through such beloved attractions as "Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room," "It's a Small World" (whose unforgettable and often parodied title song is considered among the most translated and performed songs on earth), "The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh," and "Carousel of Progress".

In 2000, The Sherman Brothers wrote the song score for Disney's blockbuster film: The Tigger Movie. This film marked the brothers first major motion picture for the Disney company in over 28 years.

Since 2002, Robert Sherman has lived in London, England. He moved from Beverly Hills while Richard remained in California. Surprisingly however, the separation has not impeded the brothers collaborative process. The brothers have credited this to the technological advents of fax machines, email, and low cost international telephone service. Also, both brothers travel between Los Angeles, New York, and London frequently which also facilitates their work. Since Robert's move, the brothers have continued to collaborate on various musical plays. Richard Sherman said that he would "never" retire! He loves what he does and that keeps him a young 80 year old.

One afternoon he gave a question and answer meeting where the audience could ask him anything and even get a musical rendition of the song they asked about. One of the most asked question was "How did you make up the word Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Here is his answer:

"That's a word we sort of concocted from our childhood when we used to make up double talk words. In the screenplay version of Mary Poppins we wanted her to give the children a gift they could bring back with them from inside the chalk drawing when they came out into the real world. If it was a tangible thing like a seashell or pine cone it would disappear. So we said, 'Remember when we used to make up the big double talk words', we could make a big obnoxious word up for the kids and that's where it started. Obnoxious is an ugly word so we said atrocious, that's very British. We started with atrocious and then you can sound smart and be precocious, we had precocious and atrocious and we wanted something super colossal and that's corny, so we took super and did double talk to get califragilistic which means nothing, it just came out that way. That's in a nut shell what we did over two weeks. All together you get Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."

(The above information was found on the internet but he discussed all of this in his meetings.)

Our family had the privilege of running into the Shermans several times and they began to consider us friends. They would stop and talk to us when we met up and even consented to be included in our family picture in our Pirate's makeup for Pirate Theme Night.
Richard & Elizabeth Sherman with Dick & Ann and the Ostranders being pirates!

His last working public appearance on the ship was an autograph session which was scheduled for 45 minutes. It ran 1 hour and 45 minutes. Our granddaughters, Hannah and Rachel, stayed in line holding number 80 (out of 100) until they could get him to sign his autograph and get pictures with him. He took all the time you needed and was very gracious to everyone. His wife, Elizabeth, was there waiting and came over to talk to us once more. They are a very humble couple and someone you would like to know.

Hannah & Rachel with Richard Sherman at autograph session.

The latest DVD version of Mary Poppins has a long addition with Richard Sherman talking, demonstrating, and interviewing giving viewers and insider's look at making the film. Worth picking up for the additional information.

Let The Chips Fall Where They May

2008-07-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

Disney Cruise Item Number 4

One of the afternoon activities they offered on this cruise was a golf chipping contest. In the main lobby they laid out a rug designed with several point values on it. Sometimes it is plus 15 and sometimes it is minus 3. You get three shots a round and a couple of rounds to get your final score and then they declare a winner. The day before this contest I wasn't able to make the time for the chipping contest and heard that a 12 years old girl had won. The cutoff age for this event was 12.

The ball was one of the whiffle balls with Velcro strips around them. The yellow one was for double points. That strip made the balls hit and stick. No rolling at all. where you hit it, that is where it stayed.

Check out that form! We got to practice a few before hitting for good.

On this contest day that 12 year old girl was there again! Her name was Lexie (probably for Alexis) and was an athletic person who played soccer and other active games in school but not golf. There were probably six contestants for this test of your skills and take a wild guess who won? Well, it wasn't me! It was Lexie again. Then they had a "chip off" for the two next highest scores and that was Lexie's dad and myself.

We both got one shot. The highest score got second place. We both hit the same spot! So a tie was declared and we each got a prize of two Disney Cruise golf balls and some tees in a case. We also won a medal to hang around our necks that said "I'm A Winner" in the shape of (be surprised) Mickey's head and ears. I wore mine the rest of the afternoon. Why not brag a little?

Dick and his prize winnings. I know exactly where I can lose them!

Lexie's Dad, Lexie, and Dick. Organizer of the contest is in back.

Lexie and her family live in the San Francisco area. Nice family.

53 Years And Counting

2008-07-22T07:07:00.000-07:00

Today (July 22) is our anniversary. Our 53rd anniversary! Where has the time gone? How come I can remember so many events and place years to them during these 53 years? I'm too young to be married this long!

But the truth is -- Ann and I were married on July 22, 1955 in Kansas City, Missouri at our home church. Ann was born in Kansas City and started attending Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene when she was able to go to church. Her father, Robert A. Edwards, was the treasurer for over 40 years. Her mother, Mildred Speakes Edwards, was the organist for as long.

I came to Kansas City from Celina, Ohio in September 1949. My Uncle Ray and Aunt Edith invited me to live in their home. I was at my grandparents home from 1942 to 1949 and grandmother was in failing health when I was asked if I would move to Kansas City to live with an uncle and aunt. They had one child -- Kathy -- age 18 months. I accepted their invitation and began a whole new life. Moved from a small town of 5,000 people to a very large city.

A day or two after I arrived, I went with Ray & Edith to the Edwards home which was one and a half blocks from them. Ray had to see Mildred Edwards about some music (Ray Moore was the Minister of Music) and I sat in the living room being uncomfortable as their daughter, Ann, was there. I was 15 years old and Ann was 14. I was not into meeting girls at that age. Not interested at all. But -- Ann had different plans. After the visit she told her mother "that is the man I will marry"! How did she know?

I dated a couple of girls in the next three years but only a couple of times. Again, I was not into that. I went to Pasadena Nazarene College in the fall of 1952 and Ann came there in 1953. We had a "standing" agreement that if she didn't have a date on Friday, we'd do something like miniature golf, go out for a hamburger, go see one of the Radio/TV shows in Hollywood, etc. Funny how she happened to not have any plans on Friday evenings.

We started going steady in February 1954 and engaged a year later. It's been quite a journey and I wouldn't change a thing.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, ANN. Thanks for being my wife and the mother of our kids, Rick and Brenda.
53 years and counting!