Cancun Jan 11 Terracotta Soldiers

   Near the Island of Mujeras, MX There is  underwater Terracotta soldiers, I will write about soon. PICS coming!!!!

Third Grade Arithmetic that BACKFIRED FORWARD

          Third Grade Arithmetic that BACKFIRED FORWARD

   When you first start grade three you are just coming out of second grade. It seems like your still thought of as a first grader, and if you flunk  you're a big first grader. By the time third grade is ending you want to be older, so if someone older ask what grade you are in you say "going into fourth".

   Third grade math is addition, subtraction and multiplication and division (long-hand). Homework in long hand division is time consuming. The end of third grade is late May, at least at St Richards and long hand division would interrupt going to Archer Park and playing baseball.

   If I did not do my homework  I couldn't go out and play. Ma was making sure I did my homework. Guess to many missed asignments.Her not knowing my assignment except for chronologically in the math book, I devised a way to get out of doing long hand division. It was to pick the wrong assignment. I could pick homework from ahead in the math book deemed easier

   Walla!!! I found addition of fractions in the back. It looks simple enough! I added top and bottom and I was done with ten question in five minutes. I would show my ma and be out playing baseball as soon as she approved it.

  Ma checked my math home work and I found out it was all wrong. Verne sat me down and taught me fractions until exhausted. It took three days. Two of the days were weekends. By Mondays I could do fractions in my sleep. I could even divide fractions. I turned in  the assignment and proved I really did the work to my teacher Mrs. Lewis (Golly Green Giant) and it was counted for my assignment.

   I can still feel how my head hurt learning fractions. I always emulated to my father and this was the first time my mother really spent time with me, (other than womb) that I remember. Being slick and trying to pass one off on Verne didn't work.

   The same reason I needed my home work checked was the same reason toward the second half of fourth grade I was not called on when I raised my hand when the teacher Ms. Farrell asked if anyone knew how to do fractions. I was considered a very good student, plus Ms. Farrell and I were not on the best terms. Plus she was nuts!!! NUTSS!!!

   With all the best and brightest students getting a crack at the fractions on the chalk board and failing, me holding my arm up with my other arm I  was finally given a shot. I worked the chalk board as if I were a tenured teacher. I did addition then multiplication and division of fractions, and to Ms. Farrell's astonishment I got them all correct. I found out that we did not need to know fractions until fifth grade.

   The end of third grade seemed a lifetime away, for I was on my way into fifth. It made me happy to know my mother. It made me proud I was first in my class in fractions, at least until middle of sixth grade. Although considered a slow learner I could learn and learn well.

   in sixth grade I  won the science fair and that included competing against eighth graders. I attribute this to realizeing it takes me more time to prepare and learn for me than most, but when I learn something I know it inside and out.     THANKS MA !!!

Poem I hope Nancy would be proud of.

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Michael J Apke I was looking at the falling leaves and thinking of the cycle of life. If
there is an appropriate season to die, I think there can be no better date than
November 20th. It seems to coincide with the season. The winter seems to affirm
the bleakness of the fall. I am sure spring the rebirth, my favorite part of the
cycle... is true in all life. Details of how we are reborn are unknown, but all you
have to do is open your eyes and it is a fact.

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Lucky to be alive and Gods Hand

Lucky to be alive and Gods Hand.

I was out on a beautiful hot Sunday in the summer of 1993. We had my son's Vince  9 and Ted 4 my nephews John 11 and Nick 8.also a friend Danny. We cruised lake Michigan. It was so hot everyone wanted in the water so we stopped and swam off the boat to cool off a couple times. Latter we traveled down the Calumet River for a couple hour tour. The calumet is carved out as a partial canal. Smelly industry is on both sides the temperature on the river felt like a hundred and ten. All of us could not wait to get back to the cool breeze of the lake and swim. We got through the tributary of the Calumet and headed out about seven miles into clean fresh Lake Michigan water.

   Vince jumped in  just after I stopped then Danny, I tossed Ted in with Danny. I had a throable in the water. What was unknown is the wind on the  had changed on the lake in the couple hours were on the river. The current was going toward the southeast, but he wind was blowing from  the south to the north and the boat developed what is called sail. In these conditions the boat and the people in  the water separate from the boat very fast. A good swimmer has a hard time to make it back to the boat.

  I was on board, and immediately Ted was hanging on to Danny and were getting in trouble. I tried to prepare a line with a float, but it was too short to keep connected to the boat, so I jumped into help with Ted. Vincent was on the throw able. As soon as I got in the water I knew we were in trouble the boat was floating away fast.

   Nick and john were on board and thank God they stayed on-board. I hooked up with Ted and kept him up, while all of us were trying to hang on to this tiny throw able. Outlook seemed grim, and my thought was that Vince could make it with the throw able but not likely with Ted. I did my best to swim to the boat with Ted, but eventually became exhausted. I kept Ted up while I was under water. I had no strengh toswim anymore and eventually it was like I fell asleep under water. I succumbed to the peacefulness of being inside your mind under water. Nothing hurt any more . Things I thought were incredible like did I make a payment on my life insurance, or what kind of trouble would I be in with my wife if I drowned.

    The Boat was a 27 foot with twin 350 Chevy's  with in-board engines. I may have let the kids steer  but I never taught them how to start the boat or reverse it.

With Danny and Vince yelling at the boat Nick figured something was wrong  and convinced John we were not playing. John being taught on grandpa's outboard, figured out how to start one engine on the boat and shift it into reverse. This was no easy task and only one engine worked the power steering. Remember John was 11.

 John came straight back at the group of us propeller coming toward us.

   I came out of my underwater sleep when I heard the engine start. I remember thinking that I was already dead and that the prop won't hurt.

    John got the big boat close enough for us to grab the swim platform and he shut the engine off. After everyone got back on board I dragged myself up the ladder and fell onto the back deck.

   Danny and I,not openly religious got on our knees to pray, a sincere prayer of thanks. After we settled down, I drove the boat with some pain back to Burnham Harbor. I docked the boat and drove  home.

   After I got home to Willow Springs the  pain around my center intensified. It hurt so bad that I had my wife Judy drive me to Mc Neal Hospital, in Berwyn. At the hospital the doctors checked me out, and told me that I  got water on my lungs, gave me a shot of morphine and sent me home by 10pm. By 3 am the morphine wore off and the pain tripled. I had Judy drop me off at emergency. After I entered Mc Neal I laid down on the cold marble floor trying to turn someway to be comfortable.

   Being on the floor attracted the interns attention. Doctors finally did some scan and put me in intensive care for 4 days.

   Prognosis was that when I was sleeping underwater, my body started to shut down. This is called infarction. To keep the blood to your brain the body automatically shuts blood flow in sequence,  kidney first then liver then heart then brain or something like that.

   When the blood flow stops to part of the kidney it dies like a shriveled fruit, (according to the doctor) I lost probably about 25 percent in one kidney, I did have people stop by my hospital room to audit my near death experience.

   The experience always has been very hard to talk about let alone write. I learned  the info you learn in safety class can never replace real experience. When things go bad they happen so fast and there is very little time to react.

   It was a time in my life when even breathing was not my choice. To me the doctors were wrong , it was not infarction that hurt my kidney. It was God grabbing me by the kidney and dropping me back on board the boat,

   This was a life changing experience. I knew every day shouldn't be taken for granted. And I knew it wasn't my choice and "God Existed".

 

Silver anniversery and the 48 Ford

Parents 25th wedding anniversary and a 48 ford Oct 17th 1972.

   I was fourteen and three quarters years old and sophomore in high school A classmate had this car without a front clip with leopard skin interior and a 51 Mercury flathead, that he wanted to off for twenty-five bucks. Of course I had to have it. So Ray Kaszuba and I schemed how to get the car home. Devise a plan to make it acceptable with a place to work on it.

   It was three months until my parents twenty fifth wedding anniversary and the car was the same year they were married. The plan was we would get the car running and give it to my parents, mainly my dad on that momentous day. How could they refuse, I would be driving my own wheels soon. Yes one year minus fifteen days from October 17th 1972.

   A neighbor was nice enough to us use his garage, and keep the surprise gift a secret. Actually the whole block was in on the rouse. My dad actually drove by the garage when he parked his car. Amazingly the secret was kept.

    We put hot rod fenders on the front we fixed the driveshaft. We cleaned the leopard skin interior and did manage to get the old 2 door Ford running a few times. One of our compatriots Dan Wolski worked at a  platting plant and had a bunch of the engine parts chromed. We also sat in the car and drank beer.

   This was about the same time the movie American Graffiti came out. A lot of people notice the resemblance to the lead cars in the movie. If I could have only painted the rust yellow. Me not being a movie go-err, I did not know this until I saw the movie at the Starlight Drive In a few years later.

    October 17th 1972 came and the car would not start. To live up to the original plan and to keep our dignity, we pushed the car in front of my parents house.

   When Verne my mother saw the car I thought I was going to get hit with the broom. This was alleviated by John my dad laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes.

Speach and Drama A E I O U a e i o u A E I O U a e i o u cha cha cha

Speech Class             A_E_I_O_U

In Third grade my Ma and Pa , whom had high hopes for my political career sent me to Miss Smith on 59th and Kedzie on the very top corner of the Colony Theater.

She was a drama instructor and a speech therapist. I have a ch's  lisp. I have a problem saying Charlie Chipmunk chider and chattered on the way to church chewing a chunky down China Street.

I did tongue exercises, such as trying to touch my nose with my tongue. Like the French Movie the diver, A_E_I_O_U-A_E_I_O_U-A_E_I_O_U.

Miss smith was this 5 foot late sixty year old aunt type, who was actually the aunt to one of the Beach Boys.

I would take the Archer bus to Kedzie, then the Kedzie electric bus to 59th street by myself. Safe traveling for a 10 year old. I did have a few friends in class. My first realization of Vietnam was when a girl missed class when her brother was killed in Nam. Tough for a third or fourth grader.

I did not want to be there and I do not believe any one else did for speech, although some kids may have been there for drama class. To be in speech class Miss Smiths requirement was you partake in drama also. I think she needed bodies for her plays.

After months of tongue and mouth stretching exercises and also participation in drama Miss smith put on a play. My family and a few relatives came to see me perform. I do not remember the play but I do remember my mother being embarrassed by my costume attire. I left my zipper, or barn door open on my pants.

Thank God for small accidents. I believe I only had to go to two more lessons before I was allowed  to quit.

It's amazing what things that seem so small and unimportant become beneficial to your being and who you are. I felt  some regret leaving my fellow actors behind.

LOST FOR 27 CENTS

Lost for 27 cents

   When I was 4 and a half years old my mother sent me to the corner store for milk. She sent me with 27 cents 1 quarter and 2 pennies. I got to the store and did not have the money. I turned around and looking down toward my shoes I tried to retrace my steps hoping to find the money.

   I got lost. I ended up 4 blocks away quite a time latter crying and having no clue where I was. I felt like I was walking in circles. a gentleman  in a Restaurant saw me and it was obvious I needed attention.

   Luckily I knew my address, or about where I lived. He settled me down gave me a  quarter and a ride home.  He told me I don't have to tell my mother about the quarter .I remember fearing I would be seen being dropped off. Got home late and with no milk.

Ma  asked me what happened. I explained I got lost after losing the money but I found the money while looking for it.

   Unbeknown to me the money was already found on the garage floor, 27 cents.

   I was as lost as anyone lost in a big city could be for a couple hours. I was an 4 and a half year old emotional wreck. I could have never been found, I thought.

   The focus was not on how happy I was to be home and not lost. The focus was on that I lied about the 27 cents, and where did I get the quarter. I eventually  told the warden (ma) about the restaurant owner giving me a ride and the quarter. We figured out in the car where he was by luck and the phone booth type entrance on the side of the building on 47th and Kostner. We thanked the man and gave the money back.