2014 is the 30th Reunion for S.S. Seward (Florida, New York) Class of 1984! So, I’ve been rummaging through stuff and found some interesting school related documents and photos, mostly related to my days in the Florida School System (a few are related to college).
Please enjoy this hodgepodge of materials. Next uploads will be more vintage pics of my grandparents and the like!
Enjoy!
A fantastic poem from my cousin John! Check it out!
Please check out the website of my new public policy organization, Farmroot! It focuses on agricultural issues connected with “Specialty Crops,” mainly vegetables and fruits. Though many of the issues impact the rest of the ag spectrum.
This event was my first event where I formally spoke as a representative of Farmroot:
Here are two blog postings about it:
https://muckville.com/2014/01/24/tpp-tpa-event/
https://muckville.com/2014/02/21/two-fairly-new-media-pieces/
The title of the post speaks for itself … the S.S. Seward Class of 1984 (Florida, N.Y.) Yearbook …. ENJOY!
The post title speaks for itself … a bunch of old photos I have scanned and uploaded of family photos! Most are of me, some with other family members.
Check them out!
Below is my grandfather Mark Kurtz (to the left) at his place of employment.
Below is me with my dad and his dad, Jack Pawelski, shortly before his passing.
Below is me and my mom’s dad.
Below I am James Bond, 007, on an early Bond vehicle prototype supplied by Q.
4 generations of my family on my mom’s side, my brother and I, my mom, her dad and his mom.
Dinner at my grandmother’s house. I still remember that telephone.
4 generations on my dad’s side, my brother and I, my dad (and mom), his mom and her dad.
We have our third winner in the:
Well … once again someone else has entered and … THEY WIN!
The new winner is:
Donald Guy Wilson III
Donald is a very bright and very funny young man who is also the son of Don Wilson. His dad graduated 3 years ahead of me in high school at S.S. Seward and worked on our farm as a teenager for many years back in the 70’s and 80’s! He was a great worker and good friend.
Here is the latest winning entry:
Many people feel most content in their rooms, or perhaps doing an activity they most enjoy. Weird it may seem, but I feel most myself while being locked inside of a three-drawer office filing cabinet. My marred childhood led to what seems like a strange discovery, but it led me to an epiphany: everyone is just a file.
When I was nine years old, my parents passed away at a rave due to an overdose of MDMA ecstasy. My only memories of them are that of abuse and neglect due to their abhorrent drug addictions, not only to ecstasy, but to heroin and crack as well. My worst memory was when my father was in a crack-induced rage and swung at me with a metal folding chair, thinking I was an opponent in an upcoming wrestling tournament, breaking three of my ribs. I was rushed to a hospital, where I stayed for twenty one days.When I got the notice that my parents passed, I felt bittersweet, knowing that the years of abuse had finally ended, but a void was created where my parents used to be. The void was quickly filled by my uncle Tertius, who took me into his household without question. However, Tertius proved to be just as abusive as my parents, and I quickly turned to codeine, having a supply to alleviate the pain of the injuries my dad gave me. When I turned twelve, I got a job working at a local three-story office building, sorting office supplies in the storage rooms. The manager of the office, Tria, became a mother figure to me, giving me not only a place to work, but guidance in life. She even helped to cure my addiction to codeine. However, after three years of working at the office complex, Tria passed away. To cope, I ran away and fell back to codeine. I was walking down my town’s Third Street, and found an aged, beat up three-drawer filing cabinet. My mind was cast back to three years ago, where I first got the job working with Tria at the three-story office complex. I quickly jumped inside the cabinet, knowing that the three drawers would offer me the comfort and solace that codeine could not. As I lay inside, remembering the how at home I felt working for Tria, I decided that this cabinet would be my new home. For forty days and forty nights, I wandered the streets, but I always came back to the three-drawer filing cabinet.
As the fortieth night began, I climbed inside the cozy cabinet, and it hit me: I was a file. We are all files, trapped inside the filing cabinet that is life. I wrote a three-page paper to the Triad Record, describing my thoughts on the situation. We enter the filing cabinet little files with nothing in them. As time goes on and on, our files grow, until one day, they are removed from the cabinet. That is, we die. These realizations brought me the epitome of tranquility that I always hoped for, inside my new home, the three-drawer filing cabinet.
In short, I should get a free Bloomin’ Onion coupon.
CONGRATULATIONS DONALD!
Link to first winner: https://muckville.com/2014/01/24/we-have-our-first-bloomin-onion-winner/
Link for the second winner: https://muckville.com/2014/01/29/we-have-another-bloomin-onion-gift-certificate-winner/
As I have mentioned multiple times previously my campaign to raise funds for an editor will be featured in an upcoming episode of the new Crowd Funder Show.
https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/1efvb/ab/61mkb2
My campaign has now been modified. Since I now have a literary agent I no longer need to raise funds for an editor for my memoir. Now I am exploring the creation of a tv show based on my life and experiences, the same experiences detailed in my yet to be published memoir “Muckville!”
What is the Crowd Funder Show and what does it mean to appear on the show? According to their website:
The Crowd Funder TV Show highlights various ideas that have been selected based on their merit for creativity, social relevance, and commercial viability. Each episode focuses the spotlight on six or seven inspiring projects and personal goals that give the viewing audience insight into the campaign, its principal, and the reason(s) why it should come to fruition. The Crowd Funder TV Show highlights various ideas that have been selected based on their merit for creativity, social relevance, and commercial viability.
What is so neat about their crowd funding method, versus Kickstarter’s, is that it is not “all or nothing.” Further, the rewards are much more exciting. Again, from their website:
Viewers can choose to support the projects they watch by contributing directly to the campaign website or by calling a toll-free number. The Crowd Funder Show rewards contributors with sponsored gift cards for the same amount of money they contribute, up to $100. Supporting people and their projects has never been easier so it’s no wonder you can’t help but feel like you’re a part of something special. The Crowd Funder TV Show is an interesting, inspiring program that highlights human ingenuity and co-operation.
When you go to my page you will see locations once can choose from for the gift card include: Sears, Best Buy, Home Depot and Toys R Us. So, if you plan on doing any shopping at any of these locations anyway you are essentially donating to my cause for free. A total win-win!
So … in the last month or so I’ve appeared in two pieces on Time Warner Cable, interviewed by the very intrepid reporter Meredith Zaritheny. The first was for an event dealing with the TPP-TPA in Newburgh. That event I blogged about:
https://muckville.com/2014/01/24/tpp-tpa-event/
The other was recording the recent passage of the very late Farm Bill. I’ve blogged a great deal about the Farm Bill, here are links to some recent entries:
https://muckville.com/2014/02/12/new-article-im-quoted-in-regarding-the-farm-bill/
https://muckville.com/2013/07/03/new-article-on-the-farm-bill/
https://muckville.com/2013/05/23/hv-biz-article-on-the-farm-bill-that-i-am-quoted-in/
Well, here are the links for the videos. Be sure to click on the “show more” tab beneath the video to learn all the details about it! And hat’s off to Meredith and her channel for fantastic farm related coverage!
One of the most poignant, saddest and in the end hopeful blog postings I have ever read. I have to share it with my readers.
Here is the link for the blog posting:
http://dogtorbill.wordpress.com/2014/02/15/she-wasnt-being-rude/
Please, check it out. You will not be disappointed!
My receptionist Ericka was in tears. The caller had said some pretty mean things, and she’s sensitive to what people say to her. She thrust the phone towards me, and pleaded for me to deal with it, “She doesn’t understand we don’t have any appointments available and, anyway, we’ll be closed in 45 minutes.” Some lady’s dog hadn’t “eated” in 4 days, and so she thinks she’s really pretty sick, and what was I gonna do about it? On such a hectic afternoon, I was glad to take the load off the front desk, and proceeded with the best defense being a good offense. “So he hasn’t eaten in 4 days? Wow, you rushed right in! What makes you think it’s serious now” The colloquialism of her words and accents made it difficult to understand, even for a small town Missoura hick like myself, but I did make out something…
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Back on January 22, 2014 I posted about how wonderful my wife Eve is:
https://muckville.com/2014/01/22/the-wonderful-and-famous-eve/
The following is one example of why she is “wonderful and famous!”
Back in 2002 our State Senator at the time, sadly the now deceased Tom Morahan, selected Eve to be one of his two “Women of Distinction” to be honored by the NY State Senate. The following are segments of the official program for the event as well as a few photos. It was quite the honor!
We got to have dinner with the Senator, staff and his other selection. The Senator truly was a down to earth person who viewed his constituent as “the customer” and in his words, “the customer is always right.”
Enjoy!
I have now formally signed with Elisabeth B. Dabney Literary Services and Elizabeth Dabney for my memoir “Muckville: Farm Policy, Media and the Strange Oddities of Semi-Rural Life!”
Muckville is a book that details life on our onion farm and my public policy activities over the years! Very exciting news!
Mucking it up in Muckville 