Stanelle on Xanga

Stanelle on Xanga

Xanga seems to be unavailable in my area so I have moved to blogger again and will be putting out the same blog here as I do at my two other blog sites. I will have another entry, here, soon today!

My goodness! I been hiding at Xanga for such a long time!! I guess that I find it necessary to come back here to Blogger for awhile!!

Quite a few things have happpen since I left for Xanga,..my sister-in-law passed away from lung and kidney cancer,..the book,..WALKING FREE: THE NELLIE ZIMMERMAN STORY,..is still selling like "hot cakes' at the borders in on the Strip in Canton and..is scheduled to become a museum exhibit at Mckinley Museum in Canton,.Ohio,..and the anthology,..A GATHERED STILLNESS,..is on sale at the Berean Book Stores in Canton Ohio!! Things change! People change!!

As I said in my other blog,..this time I don't have to "peddle" the book!! The publishers are taking care of that little detail, and I am not crying about that at all!

Still,..Heh! I will miss the book tours like the ones we used to take to Kentucky, Indiana, and surrounding states. And,..I did enjoy the sight seeing and the visiting involved with the trips!!

I saw the new TV show,.."I Want To Be a Hilton," last night on TV and found yet again what it is that I dislike about about folks, who like to set other folks up for what I call "The Big Fall." Some young folks, who are politely termed "contestents," are for the amusement of the "upper crust" set up in situations in which they are sooner or later doomed to fail as they have no experience as to how to deal realistically with those situations.

I have a feeling that the longer that these "contestents" are in the contest,..the worse its going to get for them as they try harder and harder to compete to "please" their judges, who will set up even more difficult situations for these young folks to overcome until they get down to the "lucky" individual, who will finally get to live the "good life" for a period of time.

Last night's test was based on a lie. The whole group of contestents thought that they were going to get to eat dinner with a group of "the upper crust" at the "21" Club in New York. This was supposed to be a great treat and all of the young folks had to get themselves dressed up in their best clothes for this "great honor." They had a crash course in manners and got on their fancy clothes,..all set to go out and eat dinner in a wonderful restaurant and show off what they had learned.

You should have seen their faces fall when they found out that they were not to be REALLY included at the "banquet." They had spent the entire evening waiting for this great outing only to be told that they were to pass the time giving instructions via microphone to the one member of their little band,..who had not been taught manners,..but sent out to buy a gift for the "hostess," and who would have no idea as to how to act amongst "society" folks at dinner.

The young fellow, who got to go eat in the "dining" room at the "21" Club,..probably had a sense of the fact that he was not there to enjoy dinner but to provide amusement for a wealthy woman and her friends. To me, he had more dignity than the whole crowd of the "people" who came to be amused.

As the group of young folks, who "Want To Be Hiltons,..met to decide just who would be the first person to be kicked off the show would be,..the bickering reached new heights among the contestents even for a "reality" show. One was supposed to feel suspense, I guess,..as to who would be judged "most unworthy" to live out the extent of the contest in the posh contestent pad.

The "loser" was a young man, who didn't seem to have much to say about anything. The whole show, he had seemed to have been more stunned to have even been included among the contestents and included in the competition. When he was told that he no longer qualified to "continue,"...he took it with a sort of "stunned" good grace.

I had to battle with my husband the whole time to get to watch the show to the end. He was totally digusted.

O-K! The heighth of the ridiculous has been reached. Some "nimnil" did a creative writing workshop at a certain local college and GUESS WHO was included as an example of "unexpected authors,..surpassing expected potential!?????!"

Crikies! The things that kids are studying in college these days!

Heh! (The "nimnil" has a PhD. I guess that I shouldn't question his academic authority!)

As I have said in past posts, now you can read about Walking Free: The Nellie Zimmerman Story in Russian. Here's the link:

www.workersforjesus.com/dfi/955rus.htm

I found it a few weeks back and then,..I lost it again and the FOUND it and finally kept it long enough on the "puter" so I could get the link down here and at my other blog at

www.xanga.com/Stanelle

Heh! Another funny,.."Please autograph my book!" story! Decoration Day is coming up on Monday,..so the hubby and I got flowers for the graves and went to the local cenetary here in town and put flowers on his parent's graves with little or no incident. We, then,..went to my home church,..which is known in local circles as the "Friendly White Church on The Hill" and put flowers on my parents graves and on my family graves.

We had just finished putting out the flowers..when a car came speeding up to the front of the cemetary where my people are all buried. A flush faced lady stopped the car and rolled down her car window and blurted out, "I know you! I know you! You spoke at our church once!! You're Emily,..the lady in the book!"

My husband raced off to camp out in our car as I turned to face the woman and smiled at her and asked, "How did you ever guess!"

She looked quite seriously at me and said,.."I was told your family was buried in tis setion of the cemetary so I've been watching it! I knew sooner or later that you would show up to put flowers on the graves! Oh my God! So now I've met you!! Oh my God! And I forgot to bring my book with me!!"

I smiled at her and listened to her story of how I must have gone to school with her sister's husband's brother's best friend when I went to the little grade school up the street from where I grew up. We parted with friendly words.

The people that I've met in the last three years..have given me a LOT of things to think about!

The lady sat and watched this section of the cemetary so that she would be able to met me?

Why didn't she just try and call us on the phone and talk to my son or even me..(under the right conditions.)

Why didn't she just come to the May 13 Book Signing in the village that Rosezelle and I had during the World's Largest Yard Sale days? That book signing was very well advertised!

Human nature,..I guess! I really don't know!

After a wonderful weekend with a lot of chatter and fun with my own friends,...I was saddened to read in the news about the death of two young girls,..not even ten years old,..by the hand of one of the childrens' father! How cruel! The little girls' lives were taken away because this man's daughter told him,.."I will not leave the park with you!"

The brute was not satisfied with killing the one little girl but also took the life and innocence of the other little girl, his daughter's playmate,..because SHE had the courage to come to the aid of her little friend. Picture this in your mind as I do,..there must have been a reason that child did not want to leave the park with the man, who a few second later, stabbed her to death. Was that what the child was afraid of? Why couldn't the other people in her life see what she saw at that moment and do something about it?

The death of the second child, victim of her own selflessness,..is what really strikes me the ultimate cruelity and failure of our society to protect its' weakest members: the second little girl,..intentionally gave her life for her friend. She tried to protect the man's daughter..even as he knifed to death his own flesh and blood. She..watching him,..brutalize her little friend,...came to her friend's aid against him. For that,..this little one paid with her life.

Don't adults have better things to do in this life than kill and brutalize their own children? Does innocence have any value in this life any more? Why do we not value innocence? Is it because we cannot put a price tag on it?

I wonder!!