David Long

Phenomenal Pictures everyone.  I will try to find some sunsets and post shortly.  It's 12:30pm in Kansas and I'm just sitting down to the computer.  Dorothy beat up on me again in SCRABBLE by starting out with a 50 word.  I lost by 65+ points.

WHILE GETTNG MY 1ST CUP OF COFFEE TODAY, I CAME UP WITH A THEME FOR TOMORROW - 

HERE GOES:

A PICTURE TO START AND A PICTURE AT THE END.  YOU ARE PICKING 2 PICTURES FROM THE THOUSANDS THAT YOU HAVE ONLINE.  THE CHALLENGE IS NOW THE NARRATIVE.  BETWEEN THE TWO PICTURES, TELL US WHY THESE PICTURES ARE SO IMPORTANT TO YOU THAT YOU'RE HAPPY TO SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS.  

Are they pictures of you starting and finishing hiking the Appalachian Trail: scuba diving for the 1st time; Marv had a good one today after hiking up from the bottom of the Grand Canyon; how about a great trip you took - a buddies trip or a family trip or a 2nd or 35th Honeymoon trip.  The Possibilities are endless and are up to you!

David Long

Sunset with our daughters wading in the Pacific - La Jolla, Ca

Sunset from somewhere north of Santa Barbara, CA

Sunset taken from Turkey - empty tanker?

Sunset from Assisi, IT taken just before boarding our train back to Rome

Terry (Max) Maxwell

Hello all...  

Sitting here in lockdown, I was curious to see how much our website has "come alive" since Dave Long made the suggestion to start posting pics of the "daily subject".  From March 29, 2019 to March 29, 2020 there were 389 posts.  Most were probably Suzi wishing everyone Happy Birthday, which takes much dedication on her part and I thank her much for keeping the website active.

From March 29, 2020 until this morning, still less than a month, there are 341 entries. By the 29th we will most likely have more posts in a month than we did in the previous year.  That's quite a feat!  Great job everyone.

Mel tasked me with picking a subject for Monday.  I noticed when looking back, one of the first subjects was flowers 🌺.  There weren't many photos of flowers posted back then so I am suggesting that we give it another try.  "More flowers" for Monday.  We need 48 more posts in the next 3.5 days to do a year's worth in a month.  Your participation is needed to put us over the top.  Sorry if I sound like a fund raiser.  If anybody can do it, the Class of '64 can!  Go Raiders!

Gail Hempstead (Uphoff)

Some of you are so lucky to have traveled the world.  I have rarely been out of IL.  I am really enjoying the photos.  I tried to post pics at Easter of Romero and Julie my ducks that came from Livingston's or Rolands.  Remember when they gave them away?  I also had a chick that grew to a rooster and chase my mother from the yard when trying to hang laundry. 

I also tried to post pics of four raccoon babies eating the peanuts.  The first year I had raccoons was in the loft of my shed.  Since we took off the top I don't know where they come from but I had a family yearly.

I also do as many monarchs as I can.  One year I was sure I had 12 but could only find 11 until I found it  made its chrysalis on the edge of my kitchen sink window.  I did a couple of shallowtails one year but they eat soooo much dill!  Going to rethink my gardening this year.  Took out the strawberry bed and herb bed.  Putting that into grass.  Just finished putting down 2 pallets of sod in the rain!!  Am I crazy or what?!?  

Stay safe  Gail 

Melvin (Mel) Theobald

Boo and Gail, I would love it if you could post your photos. Any chance you could email them to me or Marv from your phone? If so, we could post them for you.

Max, ditto about Suzi. We are all grateful to her. Dave's idea has caused me to wake up every morning with  renewed excitement while sitting out this virus. Many thanks to both of them and all of you for posting, looking and responding. If we could get others involved, we could double those numbers next month.

SUNSETS For the past 25 years I've lived on the 10th floor of a condo in Chicago's South Loop. The views are spectacular, but as Marv said, there has been a lot of new construction and my sunsets have been compromised by several new hi-rises. All these were taken from my living room window.

Jack Keefe

Dusk at Dawson Lake, 2009. 

Marvin Theobald

Boo emailed a few pics for me to post for her. There is always a way to beat the system. Feel free to do the same as Boo if you are in need of assistance.

Sunset harvest in Illinois.

Total eclipse August 21, 2017 in SC.

Sunset at the Wid Dunes, SC - grandgirls.

David Brock

Sorry folks, my mind must have a wrong turn with the sunrise shots. Following is a sunset shot from Leech Lake, Mn.

Judith (Judy) Winquist (Neal)

Sunset Park,  Key Colony Beach, Florida, 2016

David Long

Good Morning All,

This is not a picture post, but is instead a way to enjoy a Cafe Mocha at home.  The Breakfast Guys always accuse me of liking a little coffee with my cream - I actually don't like coffee but am addicted to the French Vanilla Creamer - anyway, I found an old container of Chocolate Malt Ovaltine in with the coffee containers and began messing with it.  Here's what I've settled upon:

XL coffee (Keurig) 

3/4 scoop for Ovaltine

1 Tbls creamer

1 packet Stevia

Brew the coffee and add the rest of the ingredients - stir well - enjoy and pocket the $3 you saved instead of going to Starbucks.

Happy Trails!

Steve Jetton

Classmates, your photos have been terrific & you've caused me to peek at the site more frequently lately.   Been busy with some other stuff but got a chance to look through some picture files this morning.   Poorly organized and so tedious to grind through. 

So .... I will give Dave's latest suggestion a try, beginning and ending with  narrative.

Lee's Ferry, setting off for a week on the Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon to Phantom Ranch.  Whereupon, we will hike up Bright Angle Trail and reenter civilization.   This is October, 2007 I believe.  That's the time to go because they've kicked motorized boats off the river by then.

Steve Jetton

Floating.  This was a "white water" rafting trip but no pics when we were going through that.  Turned out we never got dumped, though.

She made the hike!  Pueblo caves.  Grain storage, I think.  Can't remember for sure.

The happy campers.  One my friends wanted to make sure I understood it was "dude camping."   They fed us and took care of us pretty well.  Still, you had to use the river for bathroom and personnl hygeine activities

Steve Jetton

End of a great trip.  After tough hike I was rewarded by my introduction to Fat Tire in the bar up top.  We vowed to go back and take the second half.  You'd hike down and after another week on the water they'd helilcopter you back.  But here I sit, maybe too many years later.

Anybody else ever take this trip?

Marvin Theobald

Boo post as requested!!!

Giant pandas in Chengdu, China.

Canola fields in Tibet.

Yak dung piled to dry for heating in Tibet.

Jack Keefe

Dave's topic for today was a head scratcher at first, but methinks he had some gems up his sleeve before he put it out there. 

1965: The photo above is a downtown street corner in Columbus, Ohio, where I lived for many years. This was taken iwhile classmate Paul Hansen and I visited the city for a couple of days. (attention Dave Long -- we're just two blocks east of The New WCOL here.)

Fifty years later: More new buildings, and some of the old ones are gone. For example, the iconic (round) Christopher Inn in the foreground in 1965. The hotel was not named for Christoper Columbus, but for St. Christopher, the patron saint of travel. It was owned by the Catholic Church. 

Marvin Theobald

Dave's Challenge for today: A PICTURE TO START AND A PICTURE AT THE END WITH NARATIVE

There were a dozen possibilities I considered and my final decision was to post a series of photos from the biggest project I ever attempted. It will take seven photos to give a minimal picture of the scope of this undertaking.

In Jan 1980 I bought 28.5 acres of heavily wooded land in a very remote but beautiful part of East Texas 25 miles S.E. of Palestine adjacent to the Davy Crockett National Forest. It was my intention to build a house which had become a long time desire. With the exception of the plumbing, heating and A/C everything was done by me with no help. I spent Jan and Feb designing the house and developing a material list. The first construction steps were to lay out the foundation location, hand digging and wheel barrowing a lot of sandy loam dirt and setting forms for the foundation footings (ref first photo). Construction started in early March 1980, moved in about July and reached the point in the final photo in November. Having dedicated the first 10 months of the year to building the house, I did not look for a job until November. During the bulk of that summer temperatures were consistently 100° to 105° and I was drinking at least two gallons of iced tea daily. My son was ten then and one day he rode his bike over to visit. He arrived as I was moving a pile of lumber. I was just about to put my hand under the pile when he started yelling “copper head”. Sure enough it was and he most likely kept me from getting bit. There was a natural spring about 200 feet from the house and I dug a reservoir, set up a pump house and supplied the house with delicious, cold spring water. It was an amazing experience. I have since designed and built two more houses, each with increasing amounts of contractor help, and built two two story garage-barns and numerous other structures with minimal assistance. It is my hope that there are still more construction projects in my future.

David Long

Fantastic Memories, Jack!  Brought back memories of the NEW WCOL when I did part-time work on air while still being active duty in USMC (don't tell anyone).  The biggest fear at that time was I'd get a causality call and have to leave mid broadcast to go make a call - in uniform - still can't believe I used to show up in "Marine Corps Summer Dress" - dress blue slacks, Khaki shirt and tie, spit shined shoes, et al in case I was called out.  Hadn't thought of that in 4+ decades.

Marvin Theobald

An additional Boo photo post!!!

Prayer flags in Tibet.  Red represents fire, white represents air, blue represents sky, green presents earth and yellow represents the soul (consciousness).  Seen many places in Buddhist cultures.  

We have been fortunate to travel many places, Tibet was one of the more unique places.  The people are genuinely friendly and very faithful.   Many travel for days on foot  to come to the temple in Lhasa and bring barley and yak butter as gifts to the temple.  China has tried to suppress Buddhism, and has succeeded in some ways.  Many Tibetans have moved to India, including the Dalai Lama.

David Long

Just an FYI - I've spent the last 4 hours working on a video to upload to YouTube to share with everyone.  I HAVE FAILED, but will keep trying.  Untortunately the video has lots of film of me, but also contains clips of MAX winning some dashes, Bess and Beloise standing together arm in arm, Bill Walton putting the shot, Wayne beating me in the mile, Rich (Streach) running a leg of the relay.  Plus a couple of shots of MAX's dad in the grandstands.  I'll keep working on it and try to get it posted so I can share.  Later.

Wendy Stephens (Cullen)

I don't have any photos that fit the category, it am enjoying the ones posted.

Melvin (Mel) Theobald

Before I post my photo essay, I thought you might like to know I called Linda (Bristow) Elias today. She is well and sends her love to all of you. She is working from home and made a decision to cancel her Internet service to gain some peace of mind. However, she plans to take a look at the photos you've all been posting. I wouldn't be surprised to see her back in here soon. 

Well, I was stumped today, but trying to follow Dave's theme, I came up with something that I want to share that has a Beginning and Ending that lasted from 1994 to 2004.

After graduating from BHS, I studied at the Art Institute and finished my MFA degree in 1971. For a long period of time I stopped painting and started a graphic design business to support my family. In 1990 I was invited to Russia to curate art exhibitions for the Ministry of Culture, which steered me back to painting. By 1994 I served on the Board of the School of the Art Institute Alumni Association and was one of the founders of a scholarship fundraiser called BareWalls. I chaired the event for 10 years and was elected president of the association until 2004. By the time I left, we had over 150 artists participating, over 1,000 people attending, and some very prominent artists as guests. We raised over $1,000,000 and still have a $600,000 scholarship endoment at the school. Our guest artists included Ed Paschke, Leroy Neiman, Cynthia Rowley and many others. In keeping with Dave's topic, this event had a challenging beginning and a highly successful ending and I am very happy for the opportunity to share it with you.

We hung 3 x 5 foot canvases in the empty gallery before the artists arrived, which is why we called it BareWalls.

The artists began working at noon, the public arrived at six. Food and wine were donated. The artists painted until eight while the audience watched, asked questions, and bid on the work.

As chair of the event, I donned a tuxedo, emceed the proceedings, and monitored the bids as the silent auction closed.

Throughout the ten years of doing this I got to meet people like David Schwimmer, Congressman Danny Davis and others, but nothing compared to working and being in the company of all those wonderful artists.

I also managed to get a few paintings done during those amazing events. This is my ending. Hope this fits Dave's concept.

David Brock

Flowers on steroids I guess.  A couple of shots from the Rose Parade-2014??

David Brock

Marv--thanks for the complimewnt on the 'sunrise'.  Mostly, you have be at the right time, at the right place, then be LUCKY.

Karen Sue (Suzi) Denton (Merritt)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEVERLY L. B.

HAVE A FANTASTIC AND FUN DAY!!

🎂🎁🍮🎊🍰🎉🥂

Marvin Theobald

Another great pic posted for Boo!

Giant pandas in Chengdu, China.