My Mother's family about 1910-11. My Mother and her sister
are sitting on the table, the one on the right is my Mother, Velma Lyon Dodd.
When my daughter figures out who they all are, I'll revise this.
RHD

Today my daughter took me along for my first of many [ I hope ] kayak trips on one of "Her Rivers". I knew how old I am when Deb and "Mr. Bob" had to help me in and out of the Kayak.
But once in, I was fine, and even contribuated in a small way to the paddling!
When my wife made her first trip, Deb said she paddled like a young Turk, not an advanced age
Grandmother. I on the other hand, had to rest the arms after a few strokes, but I did get better!
It was a wonderful day, and here are a few shots.
RHD

One of the many wonderful views we saw today.
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One of the "denizens".
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Debbie said the river was more crowded than usual,
but there was plenty of room, and everyone we saw
was both friendly and polite.
RHD

A typically beautiful view of the river.
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He owns the river, we are just visitors.
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One of the many spectacular views.
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The only alligator we saw today.
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The launching pad for the beatiful Wacissa river.
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My daughter and "Mr. Bob" who sorta owns the Wacissa,
and was instrumental along with my dauughter in getting
me in and out of the kayak.
RHD

The start of a kayak ride with daughter on the Wacissa
RHD

Wish I could find a picture of the first bird feeder Deb put up about 3 months ago. No birds!
I kept saying they'd come. Well, they never came! Deb finally convinced me to try a "bird friendly" feeder. These pictures were taken yesterday after the new feeder was up about
a week. Obviously she was right!
If I get any unusual birds like the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, I'll post them.
RHD

One of the successes

I am finding it hard to illustrate how pervasive rce prejudice was when I was a
young man,nd we didn't even know it!
My mother was head of the volunteer blood bank in Detroit before and during the war.
It was a big job and she had a big staff that worked well. One day she and her crew
were setting up a bank in an automobile factory. She was almost ready, and she needed
something moved. She looked at the waiting employees, and said " boy, will you give me a hand" There was a great commotion, and most started to leave. The point is,
she didn't even realize she had used a racial putdown. This was the way about 90% of the country felt! When I got older, and understood the horrers of the holocaust, I began to recognize and hate racial intolerance. It's still here of course, but far less than 70 years ago, which is a heartbeat to me.
I am a lifelong Republican, and will vote for McCain. However I believe if O'bama is elected we'll have a fine, intelligent president, but one lacking experience if only because of is age.
I hope I'm getting thru to illuustrating the profound change in one lifetime, that has covered about 3 1/2 generations.
This long dissertation should have preceeded the one below
RHD

Race reflections

All the publicity about race because of O'Bama makes me realize how old I am. A whole
genaration that I was raised in has virtually disappeared. I became an adult when Pearl Harbor happened and I was a freshman at the University of Michigan. In this era, we had Father Coughlin for instance.Look him up on Google. He was finally stopped from his weekly broadcast by Pope Pius. His talks consisted of constant abuse
of Jews, and to a lesser extent, Blacks. He was listened to by a vast audience of adults, like my parents, on the radio. Several points need to be made. He was not vilified. His medium was radio.Think about that. There was almost no other medium for entertainment or information. Cell phones had not even been imagined except possibly beca;use of Dick Tracy's wrist radio! No television,The movies showed newsreels, and you read the newapaper, either the aft. edition or the morning editon.
I'm a slow typist, I'll add to this in a few days.
RHD

 

Klondike got a haircut,and looks like he lost ten pounds!

 
Klondike got a haircut!