Quiet three days

It has been a pretty quiet three days since last post. Friday I did music at the senior center. This is a regular Friday night gig. Me and my drums and six guitars. We play from 6 to 9 pm.

Saturday worked on some music and got a haircut. Spent the rest of the day relaxing. Today went to Mass and had an enjoyable lunch with Dan & Susan.

Have to work tomorrow the last day of the year. We are having Ray & Linda Smith over for New Years Eve. Will probably play pinocle and have some shrimp , pizza and BBQ chicken wings. Pretty low key but we will feel great on New Years Day.

So much for 2007. We will see you next year. Meanwhile

Live Long, Laugh often and Love a Whole Bunch

Where have I been ?

Christmas has passed and it is now Dec 27. It has been almost 2 months since my last post. I am sure a lot has happened since then but most of it has probably skipped my mind. We have just celebrated another great gathering of much of the Collier family. Those who were not here were sorely missed. It has not been that long since the gathering at Thanksgiving but each one is special.
We have had an addition to the family. Valerie and Nick presented us with the first great, great granddaughter joining Ethan in the Great Great category. How long will it be until they can both join us at the family get togethers along with number 3 great who will be another great great granddaughter, daughter of Amanda and Erik. The 4th generation is off to a fine start.

Once again I promise to try and be more faithful to my publishing. I suppose that could be a New Years resolution.

This is where I attended K and 1st grade. It is on Robbins Ave just down the street where all the Colliers lived

This is where I had my first job. I think I was about 12 or 13 and this was a drive in restaurant. This is not the original however. It burned down and was rebuilt. It is actually next to the garage Dad owned seoarated by a creek where we used to shoot rats with BB guns.

This is where the family moved after I went is the Air Force. The house was built by my Grandfather with the root celler in the front being dug by hand. Grandma Collier (Margaret) lived upstairs until she died. I was 14 then and that is the only place she lived during my childhood. My grandfather died when I was one year old so I never knew him. Immediately to the right of this house was another small house separated by a eight foot driveway. This house was rented by my Aunt Regina and Uncle Teak.

This is the house I lived in when I went in the Air Force. It was a small house with a full basement. We moved here after Dad lost his garage.

This is the garage Dad owned. It was Colliers Auto Repair and there were two gas pumps out front. I remember selling gas for 19.9 cents a gallon. Dad had a tow truck which was his pride and joy. It was a 1946 ford truck and he was known to travel all over Missousi to tow cars for his customers. He kept the tow truck for many yeard after he left the garage.. He had to go into the hospital for something, I think maybe a ruputred appendix but in any case he was off work for a long time. Having left the garage in the care of one of his mechanics, who was not a good manager so I understand, when Dad returned the business was in such bad shape financially that he had to sell it. He then went to work for a good friend of his who he had worked with in earlied years and who now owned a garage. He kept and used the tow truck and became a front end specialist. All he did was work in the pit repairing front ends. He did this until he was 75 and died when he was 76.

Living in this house was where I got one of the worst whippings I can remember. It was a Sunday afternoon and Dad was putting up a fence around the back yard. He had a tar pot heating up for the fence posts and all the fencing laid out with the posts. Little Sonny (me) developed a tootache. Mom started calling around to see if she could find a dentist to take me. She finally did and Dad came in and took a shower and took me to the dentist. Upon arriving at the dentist little Sonny (me again) would not open his mouth for the shot. No amount of threatening or cajoling or prying could get little Sonny to open his mouth. I din'really remember what happened to the toothache but I do remember what happened to my butt when we got home. It was sore and hurt like hell. I have not cared for dentists for the rest of my life !

This is actually the first home I have any memories of. I think we moved here shortly after I was born. This is on the same street where grandma lived and two aunts and uncles lived across the street. Another aunt and uncle lived two or three doors away. Actually Grandma and her three sons and one daughter all lived within one block of each other. My main memory of this house was where I saw the first woman I fell in love with. I think I was about 5 or 6 and she was a friend of Moms so she was probably29 or 30. I had gotten a pair of boots and a train for Christmas and I think she visited on Christmas day. I remember her as being a beautiful lady. I do not remember her name or ever seeing her again. I guess its funny the things we remember.
First love. Aint it grand. To my sweetie, don't be jealous. Remember I was only 5 or 6 and my vision was probably somewhat still clouded

Avery good day!

I have been remiss in posting. It has been a good week culminating in a very good day.
Joan and I went to Metamora over the weekend to help Steve and Brenda with Canal Days. This is always a good time for us and we hope we are of some help with the store.
Today I went to the food pantry in Indianapolis. I read about their work and it sounded interesting. I visited with the intent of seeing what the work was all about and found myself , after about one hour of training, registering clients who came in to pick up food. It was a very interesting and rewarding 3 and 1/2 hours.
When I came home Valerie , Nick and Lucianne were visiting. GGMaw Joan was holding Lucianne and after a while I got to hold her. I cannot describe the feeling of having that little child laying on my chest and shoulder for over an hour while sleeping the whole time. I know it was some sort of one of God's little miracles that she was crying when given to me and did not make a sound for the next hour or so. Her head was close to my ear and all I heard was her breathing for the rest of the time. Thank You Lord for this blessing.

Peace, Happiness and Joy to this child and all. Live long, Love much and Laugh often

Anniversary

Missed posting it yesterday but it was the 25th anniversary of my retirement from the FAA. I am now looking at the certificate I was given which states:
Federal Aviation Administration
Certificate of Service
presented to

Frank B. Collier Jr.
on the occasion of retirement after 29 years and 9
months of service to the people of the United States of America.

It did not even state meritorious service or anything like that. So much for being a public servant. Lots of water under the old bridge since that.

It's been a busy 10 days !

Today is Sunday. It really has been a busy 10 days since a week ago last Thursday. We left Thursday and drove to St. Louis. Upon arriving we stopped and visited with Marsha and Jerry Buterin. We had lunch and a really nice visit. Some of you may not know that Jerry was best man at our marriage, We have kept up with each other for the last 30 years or so. While waiting for them to get home (we were early getting there) I decided to drive to Pagedale, the old home place. Several years ago I vowed to never go back as the area had turned very run down with many homes not being kept up and the area just became very depressed. I was quite surprised as there were many homes that had been remodeled or rebuilt with some new one also. I wanted to go back at a later date which we did on Saturday. We took picture of the four houses I had lived in growing up. The kindergarten and first grade school I attended still stands and is for sale.. My grade school, original parish church and school and high school have all been torn down. We visited with the man who owns the garage that Dad used to have. He let us inside and it was very nostalgic.

On Friday afternoon we went with Joan's class to a casino for a little play and lunch. This was the main reason for our trip. The class now gets together once a year for a picnic. This is a very close nit group of people. Even though I was not a member of the class I really feel like one. It is a time of much reminiscing and fun with this group.

On Saturday morning I decided I would try to look up John Guittar. John was the chauffeur for our wedding driving my 1937 Lincoln Zepher. I have not seen John for 54 years. I found his address and drove to his house and parked in front. I then called him and asked if this was the same John Guittar that used to live in Pagedale. He said it was and I told him that this was someone out of his past and before I could finish he said " is this Frank Collier?" I said it was and how did he know. He replied "caller ID". So much for my surprise. Thanks modern day technology ! I then told hom waht he did'nt know was I was parked outside. He and his lovely wife came out to meet us and we had a very nice visit for a few minutes. They both had something else they had to do and we had to get to the casino. We promised to get together at a later date with Marsha and Jerry. Little did we know we would see them on Sunday at Mass. Sunday after Mass we had lunch with Judy, Rich and Sue and then drove back to Indianapolis.

Mon Tue Wed were pretty normal. Thur. I was out in the yard working pulling weeds etc. and I felt like I had exerted myself quite a bit. I thought I would go inside for a rest and take my vitals to see if I had worked hard enough to qualify for cardiac exercise. My pulse was 161. I did not feel bad but called the Dr. office and told the nurse what it was. She said I was having Tachycardia and I should get to the emergency room right away. To make a long story short ( but not tjis missive) I spent the next two days in the hospital while they got my heart back to normal rhythm and now am back home.

It's now 11 am and time for church. Dan is the acolyte at Mass this morning. This is his current office in his study for the Lay Diaconate.

Happy birthday to Mike and Kris coming up this week. Two of the six greatest kids in the world

Peace, Happiness and Joy to all. Live well, Love much and Laugh Often

Little Sisters of the Poor

Took the Karaoke set to the Little Sisters today. This is my third month doing this and everyone seems to enjoy it. Took four ladies from the parish with me. They had a good time also.

I was asked two nights ago to do the drums and percussion at Footlight Musicals for one performance for a friend of mine. She needs someone for one night she cannot be there. I have never done a musical score before. My first inclination was to say no but she was convinced I could do it. She brought the score over to me last night and we went over it. It is 80 or so pages long. My main fear is that I will loose my place and not be able to find out where I should be. It is a lot different than playing from sheet music which may be 3 or 4 pages to a song. Will let you know how this turns out. The show is Children of Eden. It would help if I was familiar with the music but I have never heard it.

One week later

Well it has now been one week since we departed Nags Head to return to theroutine of daily life. I am keeping my picture of me sitting in the hot tub with a cup of coffee at 6:30 a.m. watching the sunrise (a beautiful one I might add) to remind me of what a really good week it was. Being with the family, or parts of it, is always a memorable time.
The past week was pretty normal. It was nice receiving a paycheck on Wed. from the week I left (payday was on Fri and we left on Thur) and then getting another two days later for the two weeks off for vacation. I could dig that getting paid every two days !
I am really amazed at the attitude of some of the people I transport in my job. I had a really plesant lady yesterday who I took to the cancer center for treatment. She has finished chemo and is now on radiation. Her attitude was really uplifting to me. I have a number of people I take to dialysis treatments. These folks go three times a week for three to four hours each time. It gives me an opportunity to both pray for these people and give thanks for my good health.
Looking forward to our trip to St. Louis next weekend. We will leave on Thur. afternoon and spend Fr. afternoon and evening with Joan's clessmates at the Boat trying to get rid of some quarters if you know what I mean. Probably the wrong attitude but isn"t vacation all about spending money.

Til next time peace, joy and happiness to all. Live well, Love much and Laugh often

Dateline Nags Head

We are here at Nags Head NC and have just finished the best fish dinner. The fish was caught by Mike, Earl and Teri and prepared by Renae. This will have to be the highlight of the week.

Hey there this is Renae, the fish cooker. We have been having a great week. Everyone here is relaxing and engaging only in those activities that please us at that particular moment. Today has been a perfect day for me, a little shopping, a nap, a walk on the beach and frolic in the Atlantic, then a swim in the pool. The best part of the week is the fellowship, though.

Hi there! This is Kristin, the oldest daughter of Frank and Joan! I am the one who manages to find and book these houses almost every year. My husband, Earl, has been coming to the Outer Banks for 35 years. I have been coming for 20 years, as long as we have been together. Our daughters, Molly and Brigette, have been along for the great ride also. I think the best part of this particular trip has been the relaxation factor. Lots of naps, lots of sun, lots of water. I would definitely be happy to not have to go shopping again!! The definite draw back is the fact of the missing family members. I remember lots of trips with Steve, in particular, and although I miss EVERYONE, Steve is closest to the memories of times with friends (remember Diane and TC?) and times with the rest of the family around (remember Susan's story of her and Dan and Eagle Creek???) Good times, for sure.... Y2K-Family portrait year, everyone here except Ellie, Trav and Abby... BIGGG house, private pool... when are we going to do that again? Soon, I hope....

Kris has made reference to following in Dad's footsteps working in a bowling alley.
One of my first jobs as a youngster was in a bowling alley. I was a pinsetter, That was when the pins were set manually in the rack and then you pushed the rack down to release the pins. You then had to sit on the back of the pin box with your feet in the air as the ball came back and knocked the pins down. Pin boys were routinely getting hurt by not getting out of the way. I did not do this very long.

My next post, if I don't forget will be to tell you of my first love.

Sweet wife comments

Sweet wife just came in and said she did not know what she was going to find in reading the blog. Said she thought I might say something about selling papers on the corner or something like that.

As a matter of fact I did sell papers on a main corner in Pagedale MO when I was 10 years old . In those days (1945) papers were not delivered to homes. They were sold on street corners by paper boys shouting out the headlines. I remember vivadly standing on the corner shouting out WAR WITH JAPAN ENDS. Cars would stop and the driver would hand out his money and the paper boy would give him his paper. This was probably my first job. I do not remember how much the paper cost or how much I made.

I think my next job was at the corner root beer stand as a car hop. This meant serving customers in their cars. I think I was around 13 when I started this. Only a couple of years let before I entered the real workforce at 40 hr. per week. That was at age 15. I had quit school and lied about my age to get a job at St. Louis Car and Foundry insulating the electrical compartments of street cars.

Bad storm

We had a bad storm Sunday night and Monday morning. Took down a lot of trees just 3-4 blocks from us with damage to houses and cars. The only damage we had was the door was blown off of my vertical smoker. Easily fixed.

Yesterday (Mon.) was clean up day. Pretty routine day. Went to work in the morning. Did not start until 9 o'clock which is somewhat unusual. I usually start driving at 6 am. Had exercise in the afternoon and K of C meeting in the evening

Anxious to leave for Nags Head on vacation. Hope we have good weather.

Restarting the blog

Here it is Aug of 07 and nothing has been published since Sept of 06. How dedicated is that. I have decided that I am going to come out and go public ! Does that scare you ?




Now that you are over the shock what I mean is that I am going to make the blog public. I really doubt that anyone who comes here besides family is not likely to return. Here is how you get to it: www.startingat70.blogspot.com.

As you can see I was 70 when this all started. I did not have any real objective in the beginning. For some time now I have been thinking how neat it would be to read something my grand father was doing on any particular day in his life, or that of my great great grandfather. I never knew either of my grandfathers. One died before I was born and the other when I was 1 year old. I have decided to chronicle some of the days of my life so that in the year 2056 when Ethan is 50 years old ( I will either be gone or 121 years old) , you can stop laughing now, if he wants to he can see what was happening in his grandpas day.

The only problem with this is not knowing what will be the medium of communications then. Will this computer thing have gone the way of the cassette. Will they be asking "what was a vcr tape". I guess it will be up to you Moms and Dads to preserve whatever is written in these pages.

If Ethan is able to read this when he is 50 that would be the same as my being able to read something my great grandfather wrote in 1915. He was John Wesley Collier b:1855 I do not have the date of his death. He would be Ethan's GGGG Grandfather.

Well I guess thats enough for a new beginning. Talk with you all later. Next week NAGS HEAD. Hooray.