Faith and Belief
Adoption Was an Unwed Teenage Mother’s Option Before Out Patient Abortion Became Available
#adoption #1950s #teenagepregnancy Adoption was a commonplace practice in the 1940’s and ‘50’s before the introduction of the pill and outpatient abortion service. The children who lived next door to my family when I was a boy were adopted, all four of them. Kids in the neighborhood thought nothing of it. If questioned, parents responded…
Read MoreWhen a Million Is Not Enough — Part II ( Margin is not the Answer)
Everyone saw it coming except my client. Big Dan pulled up stakes and left. My client had backed him until her million dollar nest egg was severely depleted and her own well being in jeopardy. The margin loan (See Part I) was not being repaid. It was on the books at a rate of 8.50%.…
Read MoreInflation Persists as a Concern for Folks in Retirement on a Fixed Income.
I worked in the financial services industry for over 40 years, the last fifteen of which as a Financial Advisor for Merrill Lynch in Winston-Salem, NC. My novel, Deadly Portfolio, builds a story around Matthew Wirth, a retiring financial advisor who, in preparing for his own retirement, is turning his practice over to junior partner,…
Read MoreEpiphany, the 12th Day of Christmas, Ended the Season in My Boyhood Home.
#epiphany #chrsitmasseason #holidays Another Christmas season is history. When I was a boy, it felt as though the high point in the year was over and the long uneventful winter stretched out as far ahead as I cared to imagine. I longed for summer when the festivities of the holidays were a distant memory, and…
Read MoreChristmas Once Again. An Agnostic Salute to Its Passing
#christmas #agnostic Agnostics can rejoice at Christmas. Christmas is one brief period of the year when Christians at least pay lip service to establishing peace on earth. They do it, of course, against a backdrop of carnage in the Middle East where life for the ordinary citizens in several countries is a never-ending nightmare, where…
Read MoreDecorating the Christmas Tree Signaled the Start of the Season.
#christmas #1950s #decorating #christmastree My earliest memories of Christmas, reinforced by family movies, include decorating the Christmas tree, a task that sign. “You can bring the tree in now, Daddy,” mother would call after she had spread an oilcloth on the carpet in the living room where it was to be placed. In the 1940’s, Christmas…
Read MoreDeath and Taxes — Life Certainties
Life contains its certainties. Gravity is one. Death is another. Recently, the GOP majority proved that taxes are not, at least for the wealthy few in the nation. Most everything else is open to further investigation. Life certainties would seem to be the province of science. But theories are advanced only to be disproved and…
Read MoreSilence About Sandusky’s Sexual Abuse Tantamount to Condoning His Behavior.
The scandal at Penn State has the media all fired up these days. Understandably! If you were raised Catholic, you may not be quite as surprised or outraged as your non-Catholic friends and acquaintances. I had never heard of sexual abuse nor had I experienced any as a boy. I had not, that is, until…
Read MoreTeenage Pregnancy a la 1956. My How Things Have Changed.
In 1956, terminating a pregnancy for any reason was not an option. So when a high school girl told her steady boy that she was pregnant, his life entered free fall. Until his parents intervened, he would have no idea what to do next. At 17 or younger, he was not equipped to take charge,…
Read MoreReflections on Growing Older. Retirement and Its Rewards
#growing older #aging #retirement I don’t consider myself as “elderly” at age 72. The rest of the world may, but anyone who is at least 72 will still see me as I see myself—young, vital, and engaged with life. At times, of course, a reminder works into my awareness. Yesterday, for example, I got down…
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