MY OLD "DAM-GUD" BAG IS NOW ONLY A MEMORY

MY OLD "DAM-GUD" BAG IS NOW ONLY A MEMORY

It was the coolest bag you ever saw.

Visualize a "thermos" bag about 14 

inches long, with a shoulder strap:

it'd hold six or seven sodas and

a frozen block...it zipped right around

the top. Made of white plastic 

interior and light canvas exterior.

In your mind's eye, see it as being

rather rugged and very masculine;

practically crying out "Let's go 

fishing!" Almost like a faithful dog!

Oh, oh! The biggie. It was made 

in CAMO. "Woodland" camo. You

could lose it iffen you got careless.

The "DAM-GUD" Company made 

these fridge bags and I bought ours

in about 1962. Where I can't recall;

"the mists  of time" have taken their

toll.

Depending on the season, 

temperature, weather--like a duck-

hunt or a catfishing  trip (with a 

lawn chair)' it would keep coffee 

and soups hot and sandwiches 

and sodas cold. Big time!

One look at it, hanging upstairs on 

my cozy "escape attic" wall brought

back...um..glorious memories of

times spent in the wild, with good

companions, and oft nice solitude.

Who can forget quail hunts, like

down around historic Claunch....

In the chill fall air, sitting and

leaning against the right front tire 

of the pickup, with the warm fall

sun shining , and rummaging thru

your Dam-Gud bag for sandwiches 

and drinks ...all in that clean red

sand in the  country road ruts--

well, there is nothing like it    on this

earth!

People used to see the trade mark

tag on the bag and say "Ha-Ha, is

it really 'damn good?,' "  I'd say, "My

brother, you don't even know the

half of it!"

Now today, I wish I had bought two

of them, and stored one in a vacuum

bag, protecting it from aging. For

though time has limited my outdoor

excursions, it'd be nice to have a

another brand new bag, like the old!

It seems the DAM-GUD Company 

is no more. Remember, mine was

purchased sixty years ago. When 

I searched the internet to order a

replacement, the displays all said:

"Did you mean damn good bag?"

There is a big empty nail and spot

on the attic wall, over in the corner,

where the old DG bag,  all brittle 

and cracked a bit, hung.....for years.

Then one day, it was gone.What 

happened to it...nobody knows.

Gone.

It was the kind of thing a wife does...

you know...gets a cleaning urge and

spots old stuff of husbands, ("that 

needs to go,") but no one will own up.

Maybe I myself, did it and then 

blocked it out…mercifully.

Someone once said, and it was maybe

in "PATTON,"  

           "All things are fleeting."

-----------

MIL

10 FEBRUARY 2020

A BIRTHDAY MESSAGE

A message for Mil on his birthday, January 31, from B.E. (Beloved Editor):

Happy Birthday to hubby, Mil: excellent writer, avid reader, great photographer, historian, singer, choral director, hymnologist, humorist, sportsman, and generally brilliant fellow!

'THAT THING"

"THAT THING"

WWII...D-DAY 6 JUNE 1942

"That Thing" kept turning up

    around my writing desk and

      here and there and everywhere

and I scooted it around.  

   outta the way   ad infinitum...

What it was    and where it 

   came from     no one seemed

to know     and   even BE 

   tidying up my Place said:

      "What's this little silver

metal thing   that's about 

   two inches long    that's

always turning up   around here?"

ThEN she...who sees better'n 

   me      said: "Wait, there's

something stamped on it!"

   "WHY IT'S D-DAY." she said.

"Just says D-Day."

And then I took it   and I knew.

     Then I clacked  it  several times

"clack-clack...clack--clack..." 

     and handed it back to her

and in respectful reverence  said--

"You are holding a small and serious 

    of piece of history ...in your

hand---it is a duplicate of the

    signaling clackers the 

U.S. Airborne Division carried.   

     when they jumped into the 

dark unknown night sky 

   over St. Mere Elise, France...

early morn...on D-Day."

-------

Our kids had visited Normandy

   in April of 2019    and had

brought us this meaningful

   souvenir from a museum

near the beach.

--------

MIL

20 JANUARY 2020

A DRAFTY OLD HOUSE IN WEST TEXAS....AND EGGS, SUNNYSIDE-UP

The big old drafty eight-room house

with the hall right through the middle,

stood there on a foundation of blocks,

on a sandy uppaved, uncurbed street 

on the east edge of San Angelo. The

lawn and trees (if there ever were any)

were blown long ago by the relentless,

merciless Texas winds.

Gone with the top soil-- maybe once

ten inches deep.  As far as the eye 

could see, there was nothing but packed

reddish clay, baked into a "hard-pan"

like surface by the merciless summer

temperatures of over 100 degrees.

When the old house had been built

nobody likely knew. In sense it had 

been cared for, to some extent, as

the siding clapboards were painted

and the roof didn't leak.

There were no rooms in it with fancy

names...like "parlor, study, den, sewing

room, library or family room." Not much

imagination had gone into it. What you

saw was what you got. A hall through

the middle...a door at each end...and

eight rooms, (I think---four to a side )

but then---I never was in them all...

The heat of choice for just

about all those old Texas domiciles

of the earlier twentieth century---was

not central heating...with vents in

every room---it was often un-vented

radiant stoves or so-called space-

heater stoves... which were also not

vented. (At least wood stoves were 

normally vented in those times.)

It is a wonder anyone in civilization 

lived through all the carbon monoxide.

But to continue my story...when I was

about twenty, I spent a night in that

house...one cold February. It's true.

Right there in the front bedroom, off

the hall. Near the front door..unlocked.

I'd like to tell you that it was a big fine

plush bedroom, with a Tall Boy Bed

(I was a full 6'3" in those  tines), but

it had an old radiant stove, a worn 

linoleum floor, an old couch, maybe a 

chair, and a small modest bed with a 

worn mattress.

I had anticipated a resting place with

quilts galore, for no matter what comes

in life, if I've got some quilts, I can make

it. Long-quilts, covering me top to 

bottom!

This bare and sparse little room had

that undersized bed with a skimpy 

electric blanket. (I have ever-since

detested electric blankets...of any

ilk!) 

To make it worse, I had to sleep with

a preacher! Just kidding a little, but

it's true. We two guests got the bed and

the host got the old couch. 

But to hasten on with my story giving

you a slice of life from college boys

of the early fifties...I was a junior at

Hardin-Simmons U., Abilene Texas,

and a vocal/choral student. I had

dedicated my life to singing the 

Gospel of Jesus Christ...to the world.

Several of us boys, including the HSU

young preacher students, already had

Sunday churches where we served every

week. Some directed the music...and

others, at other venues, preached.

My church was at Ozona, 150 miles

from HSU, there southwest of San

Angelo. The trip very early every Sunday 

involved my arising at 5 a.m., driving

three hours in my old beloved 48 

Chevrolet. Then three hours back,

after youth fellowship at the church,

after the evening service. It was a 

killer trip...60 mph was my top speed.

So my preacher friend Charles said

to me one week, "Now Roy (a young

preacher), is a freshman from San

Angelo and lives with his grandparents.

He goes home every weekend, and

we can drive down relaxed-like on

Saturday and stay at his house! He

has invited us!!" Charles had a church

down there somewhere and he went

every weekend, like I did.

So we did it! One weekend. We tried

it. Roy took the couch, and I froze in

the bed...with Charles. Drove separately.

Now I don't remember anything about

hot showers or bath facilities but I can

relate to you my unfaded memory of

my first-ever Sunny-side-up Fried Eggs.

We dressed and went down that long

hall to the next-to-the-last door on 

the left, or north end of the house.

There was Roy's nice old grandmother,

in that warm bacon-aroma-ed sparse 

kitchen, with the red-checked oil cloth

covering the plain table...she had a 

big iron skillet full of grease...which she

was sloshing over those eggs with the

big yellow yokes...until they were...kinda

done! Nice folks, warm welcome...sharing

what they had. Nice of Roy to invite us.

And what a memorable slice of life. "We

are a part of all we have met." Charles

and I became life-long friends and he

passed several years ago, having 

preached his whole life.He had met

Jesus in a motel room, from a Bible.

So my friends, THAT was my first 

encounter with "Eggs, Sunnyside-up"

There was one more later on...and that

was it...for me.

---------

MIL

23 JANUARY 2020

HARDIN-SIMMONS UNIVERSITY A CAPPELLA CHOIR - 1955

HARDIN-SIMMONS UNIVERSITY A CAPPELLA CHOIR - 1955
                                  Dr. E. Euell Porter, Conductor

Beautiful Savior  (traditional closing)

"Fair are the meadows

 Fairer the woodlands

Robed in flowers of blooming spring...

  Jesus is fairer

Jesus is purer

  He makes the sorrowing

      spirit sing.

Beautiful Saviour

  Lord of the nations

Son of God and Son of Man,

  Truly I'd love Thee

Truly I'd serve Thee

Thou my soul's

    Glory, Joy and Crown...

Glory and honor,

   Praise,  adoration

Now and forevermore...

   Now and forevermore!

Be Thine."

-------

MAY OUR SPRITS SING JOYFULLY

 THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON...

     and FOREVERMORE...BECAUSE

       JESUS CAME.

-------

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS  from

   Mil and Donna to all our friends!

--------

"Beautiful Savior:"

        https://www.google.com/search?q=concordiaChoir+BeautifulDaviour&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

THINKING BACK...ON CHRISTMASES PAST

                  

   Thinking Back....on Christmases Past

by Billy Gilbreath, Guest Writer

Seems that tonight I am thinking of old

Days when waiting for the Christmas catalog

Containing the many brightly printed pages

Trains, Cars, puzzles, games, all designed for boys

Girl things, seems the pages were always more

Many dolls, miniature kitchens with real ovens

Don’t forget the inclusion of dress-up stuff. 

                         Christmas

With anticipation that final day at school

Letting out for Christmas and those times

Wondering who drew my name for this event

Hoping that I didn’t get a comb or yellow pencil

Times were hard as the old folks would say

Now realizing that the exchange gift may have

Been a great sacrifice for others in the family

                         Christmas

Home for a while and the searching begins

That tree in the woods, hoping the perfect shape

Not a blue spruce, or artificial but a real cedar

Decorating with ornaments from years past

Icicles, rope chain, red and green, maybe lights

Wishing and hoping they would all put forth light

Unlike today, toss and head to the nearest store

                         Christmas

General merchandise store, the five and dime

Now replaced by Amazon, Walmart, and the mall

Is that the smell of that famous cake baking?

The family traditional Yankee Layer Cake

A secret that remains and must remain, the recipe

Travel was limited but always to Papa and Grandma

                          Christmas

Now travel is simple as we look forward to the East

Seeing Son, Daughter, In-laws, (now family)  those

Little ones now grown, grandkids, and great  one

A contrast from Over the Hill and Through the Woods

                          Christmas

In spite of all the changes, observed in over 8 decades

The meaning of the Christmas Celebration, Joy, remains:

        “The Angel said to them, I bring you good news,

             Of great joy that will be for all the people.

    Today in the City of David, a Savior has been born, 

                   He Is Christ the Lord.”   

          Without Christ there is no Christmas    

                   Billy and Annalon    

******************************************************************************

for MIL'S, December, 2019

Billy Gilbreath,  Hardin Simmons University, Class of '57