Double Murder in Mercer County/The Grizzly Details Emerge, Sam's latest OSU Gig

Some 24 hours after the discovery of the wheel chair bound 70 year old man and his caretaker/daughter who was 47, dead in their home, the Sheriff's Office release more details of the horrific murder in rural Mercer Country....:

http://www.dailystandard.com/archive/story_single.php?rec_id=16670

The End of Innocence____

Some sort of sick son of a bitch required to execute two innocent people like this...it now appears law enforcement is nowhere near close to solving this case....but you can be sure, in this small nit county, if they are here, they will be caught....problem has been over the years, in the few murder cases, mostly domestic, some limp wrist judge will let them off light or nullify the jury.  Fortunately the former liberal judge who coddled criminals, Dean James, has assumed room temperature and can no long go against the law and decisions of the seated jury...thank gawd for small favors.

Getting ahead of myself to say the least....hopefully a suspect or suspects can be captured quickly...but I suspect even if that happens, the citizens around here will remain cautious and even fearful after that tragic event.  This once naive populace is getting a wake up call.  When I moved to Celina with the family back in late 1962, Mercer County, with the exception of Celina, was 100% white, mostly Catholic, and crime free, at least from violent type criminals..  Celina had it's "wrong side of the tracks", but even that was limited to "Friday Night Fights" at the local pubs.  Not the case these days...Celina, and even the smaller towns to a degree, have been infested by trash.  Welfare seekers from the larger cities, Mercer County has always been an easy touch, and others...the days when everybody knew everybody else are gone, probably forever.  These days in Mercer County, instead of beer and pot, Heroin and Meth usage has soared, and crime, especially rural robberies and break-ins at small business are a weekly event.

Nope, this is no longer the Celina or Mercer County of my childhood....our kids move on to other areas, and the trash, which begets trash, moves in.....

Sam's latest gig___

Oldest son Sam is moving through his Senior year at "The" Ohio State University....still maintaining, at least the last I looked, a 3.3 GPA in the math heavy, very difficult, major of Actuarial Science...Hell I can't even spell it....but it does have to do with equations and quotients for the Insurance Industry.  But while he heads for his degree in that, he is working for the Ohio State Athletic Department.  And despite the trials the football program has seen over the last year,the OSU Athletic Budget is still the largest around.  Sam, while attending OSU-Lima for a year, hooked up with the Athletic Department, so when he transferred to the main campus, he got a gig there, to help him pay his way through school...along with grants, loans, and his officiating work in Football, Baseball, and Basketball.  Thus saving mom and dad big bucks...of course since he turns 30 later this month, I'm thinking it's the least he can do....

So this weekend, Sam gets a TV shot with the Big Ten Network...now he has done some play-by-play on the network for the student productions, but tomorrow, he gets to work p-b-p for the TV Network it's self On~Line....Sam will do the calling, while his color commentating partner will be big brother of Ohio State All American Jared Sullinger, JJ Sullinger, a former Buckeye Roundball star in his own right, from previous years.

Here is the information:

http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/120111aaa.html

and here is the all access channel for the game:

http://video.btn.com/allaccess/

Sad to say I'll miss the live version, because the old man will be working a double header at the Van Wert County Tip Off Classic at Crestview tomorrow, beginning at 11am.

State finals in Football begin today, with Coldwater in D5, Marion Local in D6, and Kenton in D4 from this area...

back later>>>>

Photos-The Victims, photo from Hometown Stations in Lima, Ohio, and Sam gets a chance to broadcast Thad Matta's 300 win on Saturday on the BTN.com

Back to Normal....after the Reunions, Bonding, and Sunshine!

The Daily Routine, the weather, whatever, things appear to be sliding back into the normal realm, for the semi-retired.

The VSPA Reunion in Dayton is but photographs and memories, as is the Kokomo Vietnam Vet Reunion. The 10 straight days of outstanding weather, with temperatures running from the low 70s to low 80s, without a cloud in the sky, are also coming to and end.  High School Football, while the playoff season will stretch into December, is winding down, as the regular season has but 3 weeks to go...time flies this time of the year, but it will surely drag come winter.  As for me, today at least, is a day of rest....

After two straight days of football officiating, I get today off...I lifted weights and mowed mom's yard yesterday, so today, I can drop those off the agenda as well.  My lawn will need one more mowing at least, sometime this week, but for today, other than a good long walk, perhaps uptown or to the fairground, rather than the treadmill is probably in the works.  My desk is a cluttered mess of ball caps, pins, and other memorabilia from the VSPA get-together, so I will clear that off, and perhaps, if the sun appears, get some final photos of the leaves turning around Grand Lake, before they are gone until next May...but in general, the agenda is free and clear.  I believe Patricia told me she would be at school late, so I'll fix a late supper of Rib Eye Steaks, Baked Potatoes and some Green Beans...and that will be my day.

I have sorted through and sent out some of the photos from last week at Dayton...the collection is not as varied in number or quality as I would have liked...but some of that comes from me not being used to the indoor functions on the Nikon, and from the folks I gave it to to take photos, only doing what I showed them...thus, despite some great outdoor shots, the indoor photos left something to be desired.  I do have some requests out however, and expect Al, Tony, and Harry, my Nha Trang cohorts to feed me some good quality shots, in the next days and weeks....

So we head towards the late fall and early winter...my football will end in a few weeks, then basketball beckons.  I've got a State Meeting to attend on-line, I may do that today, then again, I might not...the Van Wert Rules Meetings for roundball begin October 26th, then my first scrimmage comes sometime in mid November.  After the banquet circuit, I hope to lose the 8 to 10 pounds I have gained since last season, before the tip off of the 2011-12 basketball campaign.   Sure I'm still down 25 or so from the Summer of 2009, but want the basketball outfits to fit nice and loose.

First though I finish up football....and although being off tonight, tomorrow I work a game under the lights at Spencerville...a JH game, and it appears the rains may have an effect on that one.  The weather and time will tell...

Speaking of sports...oldest son Sam, majoring in Actuarial Science, continues to work for the Big Ten Network and OSU.Com....yesterday he was working the color for the OSU/Northwestern Men's Soccer game...after all the years broadcasting I never worked a nationally televised game on TV or Radio...  here Sam has already worked a few national games, plus got a Big Ten Award last season for Student Production.  Not sure what he plans on doing after he graduates from Ohio State next spring, but with the Act-Science degree and broadcasting as a side lite, he has a couple of options.

back later....

Photos-The sun over Grand Lake, having shown for the past 10 days or so, is covered with clouds.  My Antique desk is a cluttered mess of Reunion Memorabilia....back to English Muffins with my morning coffee, now poured into my new Nha Trang 14thSPS Mug, purchased at the reunion...Basketball is just around the corner....seems like football just kicked off yesterday.  And finally Sam's award from last season at the Big Ten Network, for Sports Direction/Production....

Bachelor Party Rewind and awaiting the Snow/Ice Fall...

A Rare Late Sunday Post.....

Usually I don't post on the weekends, but on occasion I want to get things posted and out of the way....

Hal's Bachelor Party____

After finishing up the Junior High games at St. Marys yesterday, I showered and headed south down 127, then crossed into Indiana on US 36 and steered towards the Perfect North Ski Area near the Ohio River, not far from Cincinnati.  Hal, Sam, and a half dozen or so other guys, were already there when I arrived just before 4pm.  Most had spent the day skiing, or tubing(in Sam's case)...and some were doing it for the first time in their lives.  The place was crowded and the weather for skiing was picture perfect.  Warm sun coming down, light winds, and highs in the 40 range.
  
It's been 30 years or so since I last donned the boots and grabbed the ski poles, as I had choose to let that sleeping dog lay.  I worked at a ski hill in Wisconsin back in the late 70s, and learned on the slopes of upstate New York at Snow Ridge in Turnin, along with my buddy, the late Jack Friedl, in the winter of 70-71.  I liked skiing, but at 61, and the back feeling pretty good these days, no way am I trying that anytime soon, if ever again....I'll let the younger guys go for it.

When done on the slopes, we jumped into our various vehicles, headed for I-275 and backtracked north on I-75 to Covington, Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati.  There, 15 of us, gathered in our rooms at the upscale(we had great rates because one of Hal's future brothers-in-law works for the corporation) Marriott RiverCenter, located on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, right at the river front.  Once in our rooms, the skiing guys grabbed their showers...meanwhile I walked downstairs to bar areas, and see none other that West Virginia Basketball Coach Bobby Huggins walking through the lobby with his bags...I greeted him, he said he was doing great.  It ended up just that, as his Mountaineer team, staying at the same Marriott, defeated his former Cincinnati Bearcat squad later last night.

After the clean up crew was done, we gathered, grabbed 4 cabs and headed the 10 minute drive to the Riverfront "Hooters" Restaurant, where we had plenty of beer and chicken wings, watched Ohio State survive against upstart Northwestern, by a point, and I took plenty of photos.  We let the "Hooter Girls" tease Hal as well...leaving there, we again grabbed cabs and headed to Newport...where we spent the rest of the night, downing beer, shooting pool, and riding the Mechanical Bull....

We kept it pretty well together, with me, as the oldest(and dad) keeping an eye on Hal, so he wouldn't get too many spirits.  I did well until the last bar, when the boys poured a few shots into him, while I was shooting pool....but we made it back to the Marriott in one piece, once there, Sam and Matt, one of Hal's baseball and high school buddies, decided it was time for a White Castle run.  They came back with $47 worth of White Castle products...including 40 "sliders" 20 with cheese, 20 without...a dozen orders of fries, and some chicken rounds.  Talk about revolting!  This morning, I think there were still a dozen or more "items" left.... because some of the guys never made it back to the hotel last night...but by the time we headed out of Kentucky through Cincinnati this morning, a full head count was made, everybody accounted for...and I think the hangovers were minimal.

All-in-all a safe and good time...we did our share to help the local economies of the Tri-State....between $70 lift tickets, several hundred in hotel bills, over $300 at Hooters, cab fares, and gawd knows how many beers and shots at the local bars?  I say we did more for the economy than that asswipe Obama has done in his 2 miserable years in office.

The Iceman Cometh____?

Now with one of three phases of the upcoming marriage of my youngest out of the way, we can concentrate on the next 2 portions.  The wedding in West Virginia next weekend, and the reception in the Dayton area on February 19th.

But first off it appears we will have a major weather problem on our hands starting late tomorrow night, and lasting into the mid and late mid-week.  Hopefully if the predictions are correct(and we are hoping they are not), the mess that appears to be coming will be gone by the time we head east and south towards the mountains of West "by god" Virginia on Friday.

For right now however, they are calling for up to 20 inches of snow north of Celina towards the Michigan line and in Northern Indiana.  We are on the border of snow and the predicted Ice, looking like more ice at this time, which could cause power outages and much worse.  Once the ice/snow storm is finished, brutal cold and winds are expected.  As of now it appears that West Virginia may miss the worst of the storm...our problem is getting through the mess in Ohio and getting there by Friday night, with the wedding set at the lodge for 6pm Saturday.

Stay Tuned....

Top Left:  Hal, 3rd from left, with two of his future brothers-in-laws and his future father-in-law Tim.  The table at Hooters when the night was still young, Hal gets his own "hooters", Hal with Powell and Stump two old school mates from Celina.  Sam, taking his turn on the "Bull". And Stu, Hal's Celina and college buddy, who helped get this party together riding....but all good things end,   Turn out the lights, Hal's Party is just about over!

Below, more photos:

Stump Gets Tossed....











I take my one and only ride of the night... and below the Marriott RiverCenter in Covington, Kentucky

More December Milestones

A light snow is falling, with temperatures in the low 20s early this Friday morning.  It appears we are guaranteed a "White Christmas" for 2010....as it appears we will not get above 30 for the foreseeable future.  Hopefully we will get another inch or two to cover up the grit and grime and the snow cover of the coming holiday season.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xubmk_bing-crosby-white-christmas_music

I put out the daily ration of feed and seed for the birds and squirrels about an hour ago...and I noticed the squirrels and Cardinals are nowhere to be seen...and Sparrows are skittish and tend to hide in the Raspberry bushes this hour...making it my guess our winter resident Marsh Hawk is in the area, looking for his morning meal as well.  It's going to be an interesting winter in the PRH backyard.

December Milestones____

As I wrote about a few days ago, December, of all months, at least in the Houseworth and adjoining families, has more anniversaries, births, deaths, and other milestones than any of the others, by far.  Mom reminded me that my Uncle Bill(her brother) was December born(4th), and others I had missed as well.  Bill DeVore, as I have written about before on this blog, was a Battle of the Bulge survivor from World War II.  I lived part time with him and his family in Wilmington, Delaware, back during my days stationed at Dover, before I headed across the big pond to South Vietnam in 1968 and 69.

On this date in 1981, the first Houseworth male in our immediate family was born in St. Marys, Ohio....our son Sam, was the first male born since March of 1949, when I was born in Van Wert, Ohio.  In the proceeding 32 years, 5 girls from the mom and dad's kids had been born, plus my two younger sisters...but no males until Samuel William Houseworth were born 29 years ago this morning.  Hal Stanley, after another girl to one of the sisters, came along in 1984.                                                    

Speaking of Sam, he just left for Columbus this morning, then with a couple of friends, will head to Atlanta, to party with a friend who graduates from Georgia Tech this weekend.  Sam, is midway through his Junior year at The Ohio State University, and is on course to graduate in the spring of 2012, at the ripe old age of 30.  Carrying a 3.4 GPA in Actuarial Science, his grades are fine, and sometimes the later you head off to college, the better.  I know I finished college at 28 and then went to broadcast school, finishing that in 1978 at 29 years old.  Patricia, with a degree from Bryant and Stratton in Milwaukee, she finished that at 20 before moving to Ohio...but her teaching degree and accompanying Masters Degree from Wright State, came along in her mid 30s, after the kids were all born.  Hal was the only member of the clan to actually get his BA and Masters at a "normal" age, and that seemed, at times, like he was swimming upstream.  But after taking 6 years to get his BA in Social Sciences and History, he quickly got his Masters to teach, and was finished with college at the age of 25.

December 18, 1976_____

Sam came along a day before Patricia and my 5th wedding anniversary...so she spent the 5th in the maternity ward of Joint Township Hospital....

Patricia Callies and I met in late 1973 after I had moved back to Celina from upstate New York.  3 years later we were married in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.  Like any other couple married for this long, we have had our ups and downs, but have survived my days in radio and locations like Wausau and Merrill, Wisconsin, Kokomo, Indiana, and Dodge City, Kansas.  We made it through her working 2 jobs and attending Wright State University, while we raised 3 kids...one, Anissa, with multiple handicaps....it's been an interesting ride, and it certainly doesn't seem like the wild days of the mid 1970s was all that long ago.  Time, indeed, does fly by at a lighting pace.

So with Sam out of town, we will have a dinner with him on Tuesday of next week...as for Patricia and my 34th year....we still have an Outback card from last year to use, and a movie to see this weekend...not sure what the schedule is, or how we can work around our time with Anissa, and my basketball games, which start tonight in Paulding, and tomorrow with games at Spencerville....but I'm sure we will find the time.  Who says retirement means having the time to relax?  I haven't seen that yet!

enjoy the weekend....back later>>>>

Photos-Patricia and me on 12/18/76, Sam at Riverfront Stadium on his 7th Birthday in 1988...the temps were near zero and the Bengals thumped Houston's Oilers 61-3 on the memorable day.  Sam with a can collection, beer and other cans he collected after local fisherman had tossed them along the farm house on Coldwater Creek Road....I suspect some of those cans(but not that Red, White, and Blue crap) were dad's as well.  Another of us at the church in Oconomowoc on the wedding day...and then Patricia and me in front of the Defender Fortis Statue at Wright-Patterson at our Vietnam Reunion last March in Datyon.

Happy Birthday Sam!/Fallen Bengal/Obama Blackmail

Sam and I headed the 60 mile trek to Bellefontaine to the southeast...He needed to get one more basketball rules meeting in to stay eligible for next season, I went along for the ride and to help the Top of Ohio Association out by signing us both up for it's association. We are already members in Van Wert, but these guys are a good group and being in the Southwest District{Van Wert is in the Northwest}, it gives us more contacts for seasons to come.

We returned around 9pm....and I watched a couple of Bogart movies on TMC. Wednesday in December is Humphrey Bogart month on Turner, and last night featured The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and Treasure of the Sierra Madre...3 Classics, and 3 of my favorites.

Sam turns 28 today....more on that after a look at news:

Obama The Blackmailer_____

Yep, it appears that our Kenyan-in-Chief is a low down dirty blackmailer....and it has nothing to do with his race, like all things Obama it's about power and politics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5NZ0bEfu80

And Glenn Beck isn't the only one talking about this....it appears these sons a bitches will do anything to get his Marxist/Socialist Agenda rammed down our throats.

Chris Henry Dead_____

Troubled Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry did not make it this time:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4749165

What a waste of talent and a tragic figure....Henry had been given multiple chances by the NFL and the Bengals...26 years old, with 3 young children, the man had it all on his fingers, but like a floating Carson Palmer pass, it appears that he finally dropped the ball for good.

And the update...it is confirmed Chris Henry dead at 26:

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2009/12/bengals-chris-henry-dies-after-falling-from-truck.html

Sad indeed!

--------------------------
Sam Houseworth turns 28______

Samuel William Houseworth was born on this date in 1981...1 day before Patricia and my 5th wedding anniversary.
Sam was the first boy on our side of the Houseworth family since I was born in 1949, some 32 years earlier...mom had 2 daughters and 5 granddaughters before Sam came along. Since that time, only Hal has broken the string of girls in the family...mom has a total of 6 granddaughters, 3 great-granddaughters, plus her youngest children, Marty and Kelly are both girls, then there are Sam and Hal. Men in the Houseworth and extended family are few and far between these days.

I remember that night in December when Patricia went into labor...and heavy snowed was blowing in when I made the 15 mile trek from Coldwater Creek Road south of Celina to the Hospital in St. Marys. Patricia worked at that hospital at the time, and thus her doctor worked there, so we made the long trek rather than the 2 mile route of Coldwater. When Sam came down the chute, with me in the delivery room, I thought to myself..."the drought is over...finally a boy in this clan". Not that there is anything wrong with women...but in this family, the string of females born was bordering on bizarre.

Sam could read and write by the time he was 2...he would spend hours in front of the TV watching game shows and writing down the answers on his small chalk board. The kid was amazing to say the least.

In school Sam was a decent student, but had his share of battles, and his grades suffered due to them. He however did excel in Math, winning many awards in 5th and 6th grade, and taking home state honors in Junior High and the early days of High School. He however never warmed to the High School settings, and once he graduated in 2000, he was fed up with school.

That winter after graduation Sam headed to Daytona Beach where his grandma Houseworth wintered, and took the 6 week $3000 Harry Wendelstadt School of Umpiring course. Sam had been umpiring since his junior high days and umpired youth ball when he didn't have games himself...he seemed to enjoy that more that playing the game. Although not getting a professional assignment upon graduation, he did return home to begin his work on the High School Diamonds....he has been at it ever since, and has added football and basketball as well...I credit him for getting me back into the swing of things, and I re-fired my officiating career in conjunction with Sam back in 2000.

After a year at Wright State Lake Campus, Sam still was not ready for college dropped out...and went to Truck Driving School in Van Wert, where he got his Class A CDL. He joined me in driving RVs back and forth around the US and Canada....over the next 5 years he logged hundreds of thousands of miles. When the bottom dropped out of the RV World Sam decided he was mature enough and ready to head back to college....his major of choice was Actuarial Science, something I had no idea what the Hell it was? Heavy in Math it is, and Sam breezed through the pre-testing at Ohio State University/Lima Campus. He was eligible for grants because of his math skills, and that eased the burden of any paybacks he would have to do....after a successful year at OSU-Lima, where he made the Dean's List each Quarter and play on the OSU Lima Baseball team, Sam headed off to the main Campus at Columbus this fall...getting his Fall Quarter grades yesterday with As in Physics, Accounting, and another small elective, to offset the C in Calculus #3...he finished with a 3.1 dropping his cumulative to 3.6 before entering his Junior Year....

Not Bad at all....plus he continues to officiate all 3 sports and works part time as a cameraman for the Big Ten Network and OSUAthletics.com.....

Happy Birthday Sam, Keep up the Good Work!

Back Later>>>>>

Photos-top left/Sam Houseworth behind the plate in the summer of 2009. The Tragic Chris Henry, Bengals wide receiver, dead at 26. Sam with younger brother Hal at Hal's Wright State Graduation in 2008. And on his collection of cans he collected walking along Coldwater Creek in the mid 80s. At 15 with his Trophies from the Ohio Math Competition...some 1st place and 3rd place hardware in the Statewide Challenge. And finally Sam the entrepreneur in 1993...a successful Lemonade, pop, and candy stand that summer.

Mustaches and Car Crashes

When I returned to Celina after our weekly basketball officiating meeting in Van Wert last night, Patricia had informed me that she had called and left a message on my cell phone....which I had turned off for the meeting...that Sam had been involved in a car wreck down in Columbus, while heading for a officiating meeting in Bexley himself. She said he was OK, but his Dodge Stratus was apparently "totaled". About that time, the house phone rang, and here it was oldest son, asking the old man what he should have the wrecker do with the car? "Was it Totaled?" I asked...he proceeds to tell me he was t-boned on the passenger side, and if he had a passenger, they might not have survived. As it was, he only had a scratch, and a ticket.

As Sam told it, he was turning left onto the Interstate ramp when another drive put had her turn signal on, and as he turned, she didn't...well at least that's his story, so he got t-boned, and is facing a ticket and court date of November 13th. The family has AAA Plus, and I told him not to have the car towed the 100 miles to Celina, just to take it to the wrecker's home lot and we would deal with it later.

The main thing is, he and the other driver are OK...the next few weeks I will probably make a few trips to Columbus{starting tomorrow}, to get him to enough basketball meetings to keep his license current, and to get him home this weekend for our final football weekend for the season...we both are scheduled to do 5 games on Saturday, which should keep us busy. In the meantime, he doesn't have a big need for a car, so until Winter break, he can use the bus and shoe leather express, to get around.

Biding ado to the facial hair___for now

Since I left the Air Force, I can count on one hand the times I have been without facial hair. Whether the almost always present Mustache, a Goatee for the past decade, and the occasion winter beard...I have usually had some form of facial hair for almost all of the past 37 or 38 years.

I shaved it all off in the late 1970s when living in northern Wisconsin, that lasted about 2 weeks, then the "stash" was back. In late 1981, around the time Sam was born, I went clean shaven for a few weeks. Then I started growing a goatee off and mostly on back around 1998, I finally shaved that off a few years ago, when I screwed up trimming it, on a RV run to the west coast....so I went with the clean shaven look for a few weeks. Since that time I have alternated between the goatee and mustache.

When viewing a few photos of my recent Michigan trip, I noticed that along with the weight loss, my facial hair, as well as the hair on my head, was pretty well snow white...making my ego feel a little aged. So yesterday I trimmed it down to a 3 day growth, this morning, I shaved it completely off...marking 4 times since I hit my mid 20s that I have been "bare". Not a big deal, but it always seems like a milestone since I seldom go without some sort of hair on the face.

How long will I keep it off? Who knows...A week, month, forever? The last I doubt, but you never know.

Tomorrow afternoon I will travel to Columbus and Ohio State and bring back "Captain Crash", and return him Sunday....other than that, the week ahead looks pretty quite. I hope!

Photos-through the years...The top left is me this morning after "coming clean" {shave that is}, then a week or so ago with the graying goatee, 1974 from the Red Door days, the wedding in December 1976, and finally with the semi-graying goatee in 2000.

That's the Hair Business for today...

back later>>>>

What ever happened to Halloween?

I remember growing up in Venice, Florida, where our Halloweens consisted grabbing a bag for candy, grabbing some wax for writing, and one time on Halloween 1960 a boatload of "Nixon for President" bumper stickers.

I was 11 in 1960, the family being Republicans we were naturally for "Tricky Dick"...most of my friend's families were as well....so it began, with the election just a week or so away, we as individuals headed up to GOP Headquarters and collected as many Nixon Bumper Stickers as the workers would give us. The other crowd, the low life's(as we called them) from the other side of town, collected as many Kennedy bumper stickers as they could as well.....and the battle began.

Venice at that time was a town of maybe 3000 folks and just starting to grow...so you could walk the entire town in one Halloween night, not stopping at each place for "treats" mind you, but we did get our share....the main emphasis of the night however was bumper sticking as many cars and business windows as we could along the length of Venice Avenue and Highway 41(The Tamiami Trail).

From the Barber Shop on East Venice Avenue, all the way to the Myaka Lanes on 41....we did our dirty work....if we saw a car of store with a Kennedy sticker we would slap a Nixon one over it....problem was, the Kennedy guys did the same thing....some car windows(front, side, back, didn't matter)...had three or 4 layers of sticky glue slapped on them...that had to be a pain in the ass to get off, but such was fun 1960 style for a group of 11 year old 6th graders.

The fun ended in short time however, not because of the cops, we never saw them, but because when we reached the bowling alley...a group of "thugs"(13 and 14 year olds as I recall) had stepped up the action, while we were plastering bumper stickers on cars....they were taking bricks and large rocks and putting them through the windshields....that ended the "fun" for us....we hauled ass and headed back to the Edgewood Subdivision and back to hitting our neighbor's houses up for "treats".

Now I will admit that was taking the "Tricks" a step too far....what has happened to Halloween the past 15 years is just plain sad....instead of younger kids being walked by their parents, and older kids dressing up as Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, or "Freddy", and having a little fun on the evening of October 30th at night when Halloween was meant to be celebrated, we now(and have for the past dozen years) been reduced to having "Beggars Night" on the Sunday before Halloween, from 2 to 6...a parade first, then a 2 hour hand out run.....gotta be off the street by dark though, wouldn't want anything bad to happen, can't have those 10 year olds soaping up windows.

This is in a small city mind you, 11,000 folks with little major crime......and the smaller towns in the county(populations from 1 to 3 thousand) have done the same thing.....

Just another case of fear from the public and media...and another sad case of our kids and grand kids "childhoods" being stolen from them....sad, sad, sad!

Here is a Halloween Video, a blast from the past: Bobby "Boris" Pickett with the "Monster Mash" complete with some great old movie clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0thH3qnHTbI

{photos: The Houseworth Kids, Anissa, Sam, and Hal, a couple of Halloweens in the late 80s and early 90s, when you could actually go out and "Trick or Treat" at night....and a Jack O' Lantern giving his thoughts on what Halloween has become}

Nappanee, Indiana

7:00pm

Nappanee, Indiana, is a small Amish village(about 4000 folks) located in north central Indiana, about 20 miles south of Elkhart and 30 miles southeast of South Bend. Like much of Elkhart County, the Nappanee area is rural and the main industries are recreational vehicles and farming.

When I retired in the summer of 2002 as Environmental Health Director at the Van Wert County(Ohio) Health Department, I needed another income(besides baseball umpire work) and knew or at least hoped that I would be able to find a job or jobs that I could be an independent contractor, and do something I enjoyed.....I had always wanted to travel more and work less....RV Delivery driver seemed to be a good idea. I contracted several RV manufactures and transporter companies around the area(within 200 miles), sent them my driving records and qualifications....the first to contact me back was a company out of Nappanee called Hoosier Transit. Hoosier worked hand-in-hand with Gulf Stream RV Manufacturing...Gulf Stream builds all sizes of RVs and Motor Homes, and Hoosier delivers them around the country to dealers and various large shows.

Since August 2002 I have delivered to 46 states doing the job on a part-time basis....my oldest son Sam, began driving for Hoosier full time in 2003 and has logged more miles and many more locations than I...being single he pretty much lives most of his time(except baseball umpire season)on the road delivering various Gulf Steam models.

Last week Sam was on his way to Dallas, Texas, with a 40 foot Diesel when Hoosier dispatcher Shawn called and asked him to bring another back from Texas for some sort of repair(usually cosmetic)....he was glad to take that, even though he had "eat" his $200 non-refundable airline ticket to Chicago...the return payment was much greater so he took it. Sam made his way back to Nappanee through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, where he managed to run into last week's tornado and severe thunderstorm outbreak. After contacting me near Bremen, Indiana(about 10 miles from Nappanee) we discussed the storms and which route he would take after delivering his unit.

As luck would have it, Sam got out of Nappanee in his car at about 8PM...the first of the storms had hit....the second storm would arrive about 2 hours later, and would take out Fairmount Homes, Gulf Stream's sister outfit, which is located right across the road....Gulf Stream lost several buildings and some RVs sitting in the lot....the entire east side of Nappanee received heavy damage...but thank God no one received major injuries.....the town of Nappanee will be months in the rebuilding mode....Gulf Stream will reopen tomorrow, Fairmount will be a long time in getting back to "business"....it is Nappanee's larges employer with 600 workers, Gulf Stream has about 125, Hoosier has another 100 drivers and employees.

With my back, I was going to hold off on going back for awhile....that decision is now made easier for me....Sam will try to get back on the road this week sometime.

Power, electric, and the roads into and out of Nappanee are still down as I type.

Video and story can be found here:

http://www.wsbt.com/home/video/10675611.html?video=pop&t=a

photos{A Gulf Stream trip...me, dropping off a 40 footer at Yuma, AZ.....and Sam on our way back(2000 miles in a Jeep Wrangler no less) taking the mountain route back through northern Arizona near Sho Low}