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Taxes are nothing here like they were in our townhouse in Glen Ellyn. They taxed the water on the way in, and they taxed it on the way out! Then, when we sold the house two years ago, they charged us $1,000 to LEAVE!

Now, when I hose off the decks with abandon (ya, I know, not with abandon, but with water), I just SMILE. The lake is 20 feet from the deck; the water is free, and there's lots of it.

07/22/13 01:33 AM

#1177

Melody Jones (Parker)

But Garry, I miss the thunder thingies. Our CA rain has no character! Sorry, but it is true. No thunderbolts and worst than that no lightning...I LOVE lightning! I don't miss the wind, though. That can stay away. LOL!

07/25/13 11:23 AM

#1178

Garry Sellers

What happened to the days of Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews hitting bombs at County Stadium? Warren Spahn and Lou Burdett throwing seeds to Del Crandell? Joe Adcock at first, Red Schoendienst at second and Johnny Logan at short? And speedy Billy Bruton chasing down would-be doubles in center? I remember taking several buses and a street car with my glove rarely leaving my hand to sit in the bleachers to watch in awe! Now, "I-swear-I-never-do-drugs" Brewer MVP fessing up. Cheaters, cheaters, cheaters! We'd never do anything like that in SF. Barry Bonds was clearly set up by jealous competitors ... and Melky Cabrera thought he was taking cold medicine!

Where have all the true heroes gone? I guess they land planes on the Hudson river. (You know we were surrounded by them as kids, WWII heroes. Even Ray Michalak was a major in the war. Did we notice them?) Can we be sure of any sports "legends" these days?

(Rhetorical question folks ... not looking for a debate. Just sad and frustrated.)

07/25/13 03:35 PM

#1179

Jeanne Zinser (Gottschalk)

On behalf of the SF Giants, I nominate Buster Posey as baseball hero of the year. He's so skinny, he couldn't possibly be taking any performance enhancers, yet he comes through for the team every time! And he's a nice guy, too - out there in the community. I remember all those Braves players names you mentioned, Garry - permanently etched on my brain. Perhaps as a sign of better future social consciousness to come among the "Boomer Generation", I remember my great uncle asking me who my favorite Braves player was. I told him Hank Aaron - and he said, well - don't you know he's black? (In German, as I recall "Schwartze"). I looked at him incredulously - so what????! We sent Hank a telegram when he broke Babe Ruth's home run record.

07/26/13 10:19 PM

#1180

Melody Jones (Parker)

Johnny Logan showed up at my grade school and signed autographs. He was my favorite. Eddie Mathews lived just down the street from us. Saw him mowing his lawn one day. Regular people, no pomp or haughty attitudes.

I was fortunate to have tickets to the 1957 World Series game 5 between the Braves and the Yankees. Sat in the bleachers, of course. (where else?!) Saw a spectacular catch by Hank Aaron who had to leap in the air to catch a hommer batted by Yogi Berra.. Hank landed on one knee but held the ball up in the air and Yogi was "out". That ended the game which the Braves won 1-0

08/05/13 11:34 AM

#1181

Lauren Dieterich

When the Braves left Milwaukee; I helped set a Major League record; during their last season. The lowest paid attendance, ever, at a Ball game. 980 something. The Braves figured that Milwaukee is a baseball town; and, the people would still come; regardless. WRONG !

I prefer Tavern League softball anyway. We used to watch the games at Smith Park. We only lived a block away. Mr. Peterson; gym teacher and coach at Custer; umpired the games. We really heckled him. Some of the people watching wondered how we could get away with it. He recognized us from gym class; and, he would turn around and say " Just you wait until school starts. "

08/05/13 12:19 PM

#1182

Garry Sellers

In 3rd or 4th grade I saw Mr. Kranz, a teacher from Browning, playing softball at Smith Park in a summer beer belly league and was shocked. How was I suppose to know that teachers had a life outside of school? He actually talked to us like we were real people! Amazing.

08/06/13 08:40 PM

#1183

I spent grades 1-3 at St. Mary's School in Elm Grove. St. Mary's was (and probably still is) run by the Notre Dame nuns. I'll never forget the day I went into the girls' bathroom, closed the stall door, and noticed nun shoes peeking out from the adjacent stall. Suffice it to say that I then learned that nuns actually went to the bathroom...just like REAL people!

08/06/13 09:31 PM

#1184

Cogitationis poenam nemo patitur.

08/06/13 11:27 PM

#1185

Oh Jim, you are going to make me get out my Latin book (which I still have - you never know). Unless it means the same as "Cogito ergo sum'"

What a shock that must have been, Jeanne. When I was teaching the little ones, and nature called, I always told them I "had to go to the office to get more paper". When I retired, my drawers & cabinets contained LOTS of paper!

08/07/13 08:27 AM

#1186

Oh Terri, thanks for giving me tacit permission to admit that I still have my copy of Virgil's Aeneid. And still intact are my memories of Mr. Marino guiding us through those ancient lessons on the value of courage and virtue .....once we had wrestled through the wretched ablative absolutes, the reflexive pronouns (which everyone now mis-uses), and the subjunctive (which no one seems to have heard of these days). It finally came true...."forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit".

08/08/13 11:25 PM

#1187

OK, so how are our Custer alum teachers holding up in the currrent Jeopardy teachers' competition?

08/08/13 11:37 PM

#1188

Pretty well. Especially since I already saw most of the episodes several months ago when they first ran, and I actually remembered some of the answers. That combined with all the answers I used to know . . . well, I might have a chance. Oh, but they don't count those, do they?

08/09/13 12:01 AM

#1189

Ah hah, You saw the test in advance Teri? . . .tsk, tsk.

The art of a good teacher - convince them you know the subject, even if you don't know the answer?

08/09/13 12:23 AM

#1190

Ah, yes! The art of good teaching: not to know all the answers, but to model what to do when you DON'T know the answers - so our students learn how to FIND the answers. And that bit about modeling not knowing the answers gets easier the older the teacher gets!

08/09/13 06:37 AM

#1191

What about the answers one knows, but has to push the "pause" button to think about it for a few extra seconds because it just takes longer to FIND it (rooting around in that incredible collection of minutiae) ?

08/09/13 08:24 AM

#1192

Lauren Dieterich

I went to Catholic schools for all 8 grades. Holy Redeemer, through 4th grade; then St. Albert's; School Sisters of St. Francis. That knotted clothes line that they wore around their waists; really hurt, when you got hit with it.

I took Latin at Edison; because, after 8 years of it in grade school; I figured that it would be a breeze. Boy, was that a mistake. Church Latin and the real thing aren't even close.

08/09/13 10:32 AM

#1193

Jeanne Zinser (Gottschalk)

You are so right, Nancy. We just know too much at our age. It's like Paul McCartney's album title "Memory Almost Full".

08/09/13 08:52 PM

#1194

To all you Custer alums who were Milwaukee Braves fans "back in the day"...sad news just broke. Braves shortstop, Johnny Logan, died today at the age of 86. What great memories his name evokes!

08/11/13 10:22 PM

#1195

Jeanne Zinser (Gottschalk)

Jim,

Are you thinking of PERINI'S WOODS?

08/11/13 10:37 PM

#1196

Straightaway center field - maybe officially Perini's woods, but because Adcock would hit so many balls there, including completely over them, I remember the announcers calling them 'Adcock's Woods'.

08/11/13 11:03 PM

#1197

We all get heavier as we get older - because there's a lot more information in our heads.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

08/12/13 12:39 PM

#1198

John Leopold

Strange...my advisor never told me Latin was even an option. Et tu, Brute?

08/12/13 01:24 PM

#1199