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Our Daily Thread 7-1-13

Good Morning!

On this day in 1847 the U.S. Post Office issued its first adhesive stamps.

 In 1862 Congress established the Bureau of Internal Revenue. 😦  Boooo. 😦

In 1874 the Philadelphia Zoological Society zoo opened as the first zoo in the U.S.

In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt and his “Rough Riders” waged a victorious assault on San Juan Hill in Cuba.

In 1905 the USDA Forest Service was created within the Department of Agriculture.

In 1909 Thomas Edison began commercially manufacturing his new “A” type alkaline storage batteries. 

In 1943 the U.S. Government began automatically withholding federal income tax from paychecks. Again, Boooo. 😦

In 1946 the U.S. exploded a 20-kiloton atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

And in 1980 President Jimmy Carter signed legislation that provided for 2 acres of land near the Lincoln Memorial for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

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Quote of the Day

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Winston Churchill

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First up today, a man called the “father” of gospel music, Mr. Thomas Andrew Dorsey.

And it’s Fred Schneider’s birthday as well.

What an odd bunch. They make David Byrne seem normal. 🙂

And the next birthday singer needs no intro if you’re more than 40. 🙂

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Anyone have a QoD for us?

56 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 7-1-13”

  3. Good Morning! Today, I am part of the annual Texan invasion of Colorado. The poor natives of Colorado are hunkered down in Denver. I’m off to see the sun come up on the Sangre de Christo range.

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  4. You guys sure are early today.
    I came to say good night to Jo before she hit the sack.
    Or, is she going to Australia today? She talked about it.

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  5. Good morning, all. Chas, Jo is Anonymous today, saying hi from Cairns. Hi Jo! Enjoy the videos while you’re there. I haven’t watched today’s yet. I’m going for a run soon, and will watch them later.

    QoD: Who is the oldest person you’ve ever known? My dad (who is 83) was telling me this weekend that one of his former Sunday School teachers is still living. She will be 113 in October, Lord willing. She is the oldest person living in her state, and the 9th oldest in the U.S. She lives by herself, and still manages quite well — physically active, mentally sharp. Someone tried to convince her (I’m not sure how recently) that she should hire someone to help with the housework, and she simply responded that would cost too much. My dad also said he’d heard that she was supposed to go somewhere one time, I think when she was 110, but had to call with her regrets because she’d gotten a swollen ankle while she was out weeding the garden. 🙂

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  9. Good Morning…
    Ricky there is just nothing like a Colorado sunrise over the Sangre’s….it just takes your breath away at times…We so loved the mornings at Horn Creek when we attended family camp over Labor Day….enjoy!
    It’s been an emotional week…going to the burnt out homes of my dearest friends..and then learning of the deaths of the firefighters in AZ….may our precious Lord watch over and comfort the families….

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  10. Good morning all. Is it really July 1 already? The year is half over!

    My brother-in-law’s great grandmother was 106 when I met her on 1978. She remembered being on a wagon train from Minnesota to Wyoming with Buffalo Bill as the guide when she was 4 or 5 years old. She died at 109.

    Otherwise, my grandfather died at 102, though I last saw him when he was 100. And working in a nursing home back in the day, I met a woman over 100, but I forget how old she was.

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  11. Like Kim, I don’t know the oldest person I’ve known. The oldest person I know today is a lady who will be 100 in December.

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  13. Not to reopen the discussion about churches and taxes, but someone once said the ability to tax is the ability to destroy. There is truth in that.
    And if contributions to a church are not deductible, neither should any other organization be exempted.

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  14. Chas, I personally don’t think any contributions should be tax-deductible. It doesn’t really matter much either way, but I’m inclined to think the government should not favor one use of your money over another (owning a house vs. renting, giving to your church as opposed to putting money in the bank or taking a vacation). But church property should absolutely not be taxable (property taxes). Of course, I don’t really think property taxes are a good idea, anyway. I know a family who had lived in the same house for 60 years, but when the parents died, the children had no choice but to sell. I forget exactly how much property taxes were, but I think it was something like $2,500 a month. It was a fairly large house, but by no means a mansion. But there hadn’t been a mortgage on it in decades (if ever!) but the cost of property tax was more than most mortgages. That is wrong.

    It’s probably better if nonprofit organizations are tax free overall, but I don’t really care either way. But the government does not have the authority to tax churches, any more than churches have the right to tell the government what laws to pass.

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  15. The oldest person I have personally known lived to be 97. He had been our church’s organist for some years, and wasn’t doing quite a reliable job with it for the last year or so. (Sometimes he did great, but once in a while he’d announce one song and play another, or play an accompaniment in a different key than the song was written and that had been used in rehearsal, fairly trivial things considering his age. And his hearing wasn’t very good, so he had a hard time hearing if the pastor asked him to play a specific song or change keys or something.) In the last few months they had taken him to playing every other week (his wife said that more than that would wear him out), but he was still officially our organist.

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  16. I’m not sure if I ever met my dad’s SS teacher I mentioned above, but if I didn’t, then I think the person who lived the longest that I’ve ever met was my first piano teacher, who died a week or two before she turned 98. She was probably in her 60’s when I studied with her, but I think the last time I ever saw her, she was probably in her early 90’s and was doing quite well.

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  17. I remember my mom once saying she had no desire to live to be 100. I thought it was sort of a morbid thing to say at the time (I was probably in my early 30s). But truthfully, now that I’m older than I was then, I’m beginning to understand her perspective. 😉

    And I don’t believe there should be property taxes, either. California homeowners were facing a crisis in the 1970s when Proposition 13 was passed (though now the state government is making noises about rescinding at least parts of it) — the taxes were galloping up so high and fast back then that many older people were having to sell their homes.

    People should never lose or have to sell a home because the “taxes” on it are too high for them to pay. At least with Prop 13 there’s a cap on how much property taxes can be raised each year. They still go up regularly and (to me) at a pretty good clip. But at least the sky’s not the limit anymore. For now, anyway.

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  20. One of my grandparents was 95 when she died.

    We have had people in their nineties, who still come to music jams in weather that would keep me away.

    PeterL, interesting story about the wagon train. I knew a man whose mother lived to 105 or 106. She talked about seeing the tents of the Indians when she was younger. It is amazing to think of the enormous changes in that woman’s life. Anyone who lives that long has seen amazing advances in technology.

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  21. As far as taxes go, I think we should get back to the reason we have them. We should also teach the history of why churches have been exempt. When we do not learn our history, we fail to learn some important lessons.

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  27. I have not had time to catch up on all I have missed. Basically I am doing without internet connection at home so I am not on it so much. I miss keeping up with everyone and doing prayers here, etc. I hope everyone is well. At least I am doing better than I was early in the year when my knee was having such a problem. I felt like going to the altar and kneeling yesterday for my pastor’s version of Call2Fall. I would not have been able to pray kneeling earlier in the year.

    My pastor made a good point in his sermon yesterday when he said that people wanting homosexual marriage to be considered the same as traditional marriage is like water saying it is orange juice and must be called by that name or its feelings would be hurt,etc. He said it is not the same and never will be no matter what this current culture demands it to be called. Y’all may have covered this before now, but I have not been here and wanted to put in .02 worth of commentary on the subject.

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  28. Oldest people in my family were my husband’s parents. MIL was 94 when she died and FIL was 87. I have known a few other olders at church. One lady my mom had as a roommate in rehab was maybe 101.

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  29. Just read through yesterday’s comments about places people have enjoyed camping. I liked Yellowstone, Tate Branch (headwaters of the Tallulah River), the park at St. Mary’s, Georgia in the midst of Palmeto palms (we stayed there before taking the ferry over to wonderful Cumberland Island), and a campsite by the inland waterway near the Outer Banks when we went to see “The Lost Colony” outdoor play. I also camped with a friend at a KOA along the way to Virginia Beach and the highlight (not!) was waking up to the odor of skunk (that thankfully had not sprayed the campground but had still left a lingering odor after its hunt for food in the night). I like camping but have not done it in years. We also camped in the back yard when we were children. I do remember running a cord out the window so we could bring a small tv into the tent. Times were really different back then.

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  30. A Happy Canada Day to you, Kare!

    I was surprised that the creation of the Dominion of Canada was left out of the trivia list. I guess The Real is still distracted 🙂

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  32. QoD: The oldest person I have met? Well, I have worked in a old-age home, so it’s not really fair to answer the question. I think the oldest person there was around 110. There were several others around 100. The words of one will stay with me for a long time. I was handing out the evening medications, and this lady was waiting for her sleeping pill. As I gave it to her, she told me how old she was. I said something in reply but she went on to say that she had lived too long. Then, she looked up at me and said, “It’s like that old song, Tired of living and scared of dying.”

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  34. I also received words of wisdom from an old person in a nursing home. He told me, when he heard I was getting married, “Save time and effort on dish washing, just flip them over after the meal.” Wise man. Anybody want to come over for dinner?

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  37. Lots of red and white, parades, definitely birthday cake (usually decorated with the flag), picnics in the park, fish fry and fireworks. That’s my Canada Day.

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  38. yup, that was me saying hi from Cairns. I was using my ipad. I posted a couple of prayer requests over on the prayer thread. Blessings, Jo

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  39. Our family usually spent Canada Day quietly. We used to do a puzzle of the map of Canada, while listening to the Canada day celebrations broadcast on the radio. Occasionally, we had sparklers or a few fireworks, but not often.
    I’m the only Canadian here, so today I just put on a little Canadian flag pin, sang the anthem to myself (in English and French) while I did housework and prayed for my homeland.

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  40. A tribute to our Northern neighbors:

    Lyrics O Canada (English version)

    O Canada!
    Our home and native land!
    True patriot love in all thy sons command.

    With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
    The True North strong and free!

    From far and wide,
    O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

    God keep our land glorious and free!
    O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

    O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

    (French version)

    « O Canada! Terre de nos aïeux,
    Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux!

    Car ton bras sait porter l’épée,
    Il sait porter la croix!

    Ton histoire est une épopée
    Des plus brillants exploits.

    Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,
    Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.
    Protégera nos foyers et nos droits. »

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  41. My sister just brought up some great memories of my grandpa’s farm in the summertime. Grasshoppers getting in where they shouldn’t, playing in the great big black poplars, making forts, climbing the haystacks, kittens in the barn, shelling peas under the spreading willow, swimming in the irrigation canal… hot days like these bring those memories streaming back. Oh yeah, mourning doves calling, my uncle’s cutting horses, sleeping in the tent with the cousins, grandpa’s salad dressings (alway past the expiration date), driving with my grandpa who was almost legally blind, the outhouse with the actual birdwing to dust off the seat! Oh and “my” first dog, Joe, the border collie who loved to snuggle…

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  42. Is there any special fish that is used for the fish fry? That sounds really nice to me. I love fish, fried or broiled or grilled! I had some grilled trout for lunch today at Cracker Barrel. We can sit outside for a few moments in their rocking chairs and pretend we are on vacation on a work day.

    I have never been to an outdoor fish fry. Do you do the fry outside in a picnic atmosphere or is it an inside activity for Canada Day?

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  45. I have no idea about the fish fry. I’ll have to ask Tim when he gets home from work. I got tired and headed home for a nap. I’m sure the fish will be walleye, pike, or lake trout, but I’ll ask him that too.

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  47. Well! What a nice surprise! I was given my anniversary present early. Tomorrow is thirty four years for us and we don’t generally remember it, let alone get each other anything. But husband brought me eight bags of dirt! I do love my life and am so grateful for the man God put in it.

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  48. Happy Canada Day! It sounds like your celebration is much more refined than ours (which is basically blowing up fireworks in the streets).

    JanceG, thanks for the Echo Park link — it’s a part of “old” LA that really is becoming, in some ways, trendy. A few of my younger colleagues have lived there.

    And the lake was recently cleaned by some state moneys approved by voters in 2004 — we have a big lake (runoff water, but it “looks” beautiful) down in our section of LA that’s also supposed to get some of that money, but it’s slow-going.

    Our lake has long been a dumping spot for everything from illegal water snakes bought by teen-aged boys on the black market to alligators and heaven knows what else.

    As part of the cleanup, they’re going to dredge the lake in sections. We figure a good number of LAPD’s cold cases might be solved as a result.

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  54. BTW, the delay in cleaning our lake was because someone found an endangered bird there. That set things back, oh, probably about 3 years and moved Echo Lake up in line.

    And as you might guess, our area isn’t threatening to become as trendy as Echo any time soon, clean lake or not.

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