The milepost reads 08.11.2021 on this journey of ours. For some reason, I woke up this morning remembering a family road trip in the early 1950s. When it was time for lunch, dad pulled up to a small grocery store somewhere in Western Kansas and came out with a loaf of Wonder Bread, a pound of baloney and some yellow mustard. That was lunch. I’ve always liked that simple sandwich. Moving on. Today is Annual Medical Checkup Day. Presidential Joke Day, Play In The Sand Day, National Raspberry Bombe Day and National Raspberry Tart Day. In this highly polarized America, it’s best to celebrate something Raspberry. Now to history: This date in 3114 BC marks the first day of the Mayan Long Count calendar. That was 5,135 years ago if you’re counting. On this day in 1866 the world’s first roller rink opens in Newport Roade Island. This is the day in 1885 that $100,000 was raised for the pedestal for Statue of Liberty. The French gave us the statue but didn’t give us anything to put it on. In 1919 on this day, the Green Bay Packers football club founded by George Calhoun and Curly Lambeau and was named after its sponsor, the Indian Packing Company. This is the day in 1934 that the 1st federal prisoners arrived at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay. On this day in 2014 that we learned that Robin Williams had committed suicide. We now know that he took his own life because he had Parkinson’s disease and Lewy Body dementia and decided to end his journey a few years early. I’ll end this post with a few of his observations: “Seize the day, make your life extraordinary”. “Please, don’t worry so much. Because in the end, none of us have very long on this Earth. Life is fleeting.” “Sometimes you can have a whole lifetime in a day and never notice that this is as beautiful as it gets.” What fun it would be to spend an afternoon with him. Enough. Abide.
