The Parade

J.R. Martinez is the winner of Dancing With The Stars. He is also a Iraq veteran who was wounded by an IED (improvised explosive device). J.R. was on All My Children in a story about wounded veterans. He was such a good actor they kept him past his original storyline. J.R. and his mother moved to Dalton when he was 17. He went to Dalton High School and played football for the Catamounts. Now J.R. is a motivational speaker and a real American hero. Dalton is very proud to claim his as a citizen. That is why they gave him a parade after he won on Dancing. This is his second parade. The first was to honor him for his service and sacrifice in the Iraq war.

Daddy asked me to ride with him in the parade for J.R. Martinez in Dalton. Momma has been sick and didn't feel like going. I've never been in a parade before so I was kind of excited. We got there early.

This was a neat looking 1951 Chevrolet that was in the parade. It was a beautiful day.

 Daddy made friends with the man with the white Chevrolet and other people who came over to admire his Model T. I was excited to be in the parade. Daddy drove. My job was to wave.

Model T's aren't made like cars are made today. The gas throttle is on the wheel. There are three pedals on the floor. The middle pedal is for reverse. 

We had to creep along slowly in the parade. Everything was going okay until people started pointing and shouting something to us. The radiator started overheating and leaking. Daddy's friend from the car club walked up to us and told us that something was wrong. We pulled over on the first turn and parked because we weren't sure what was wrong.

Daddy had remembered to buy gas and checked the battery but he forgot to check the radiator before the parade. He also forgot to bring a jug of water with us. His friend pulled over with us and kindly went to get us some water.

Well, half of the parade was fun. We got to see J. R. whiz by on a convertible so it wasn't a total bust. I wish we were able to complete the parade. I would have taken more pictures. Better luck next time, if there is a next time.

AS ALWAYS

PIO

All My Children

All My Children went off the air after 41 years on American Broadcasting Company last Friday. ABC is owned by the Disney Corporation so you could say the house of Disney killed All My Children. What had been a rich and entertaining serial drama became a shell of itself as stories focused on the younger demographic. 

Older, more mature characters were displaced by vapid, young, attractive performers with little legitimate experience. Their acting skills had to be honed on the set and in front of the cameras. Instead of giving us stories with substance 'the powers that be' started recycling storylines. It seemed like an attempt to drive long time fans away from their beloved soaps. 


When they weren't able to drive the fans away with shallow storylines, they moved the entire production from the east coast to the west coast. I've no doubt they were hoping the top stars (i.e. Susan Lucci, Cameron Mathison, Alicia  Minshew, etc.) would refuse to relocate. Then they would have blamed the stars who didn't go for the failure of the show. I believe Susan Lucci surprised them by signing on and commuting to the west coast to film each week for a year and a half. She went on a book signing tour for 'All My Life' and promised her fans that All My Children wasn't going to be cancelled. When Miss Lucci came back to AMC from her book tour in April the mouse pounced. 


ABC finally announced they were pulling the plug on two of their soap operas and going to replace them with low budget programs. All My Children was being replaced by The Chew, a cooking show. One Life To Live is going to be replaced next year by The Revolution, a fashion show. I've read rumors that Katie Couric was going to have her own talk show on ABC soon. That would probably knock General Hospital off the air.


A great cry went up from the fans and they sent letters and emails to ABC and Disney protesting the demise of their beloved soaps. The fans raised such a ruckus Prospect Park made an offer to buy the rights to produce the soaps online. ABC had declined other legitimate offers. The deal from Prospect Park is a total unknown. Soap operas have always been on radio, first, and then television. The transition from television to the internet is shifting it into a completely new genre. Nobody knows how this will work. Nobody knows if this will even work!


Now I am surfing the channels looking for something interesting to replace my hour of All My Children. I would rather do that than spend every day angry because I lost my show. Today I am watching Days Of Our Lives. It shouldn't take long to get interested in that. I've already seen a couple of familiar faces from my soaps. 


I don't know if the Prospect Park venture is a ploy to divert all the All My Children fans or if it will really come to fruition. Even if it does go online that is no guarantee that it will survive. They will have to draw back enough fans to make the show viable. I've already heard grumblings about having to buy a box to convert the programs to our computers. If it's going to cost a lot of start up money and paying a subscription fee I doubt I will be interested in watching soaps online. That is sad and depressing.


I don't know why ABC sold out to Disney. It appears the executives at Disney want to micromanage daytime TV and don't care for or respect the daytime audience. Soaps haven't failed over just the past few years. They were being destroyed for decades. I have seen so many 'who's the daddy' and 'dead baby' stories that I am conditioned to accept it without question. You wouldn't believe how many 'back from the dead' characters I have seen resurrected over the years.


It's hard to explain to people who don't watch soap operas why we are so invested in them. The characters become familiar like family members. I've watched Erica Kane evolve and grow over the years. I used to hate her and her pompous attitude. Over the years I have grown to understand her and accept her for who she is. 


Although the writers have been dismantling and sabotaging the characters over the years, I remember when they were more innocent and likable characters. That is owed to the incredible actors who shine through and make you root for them even if the writers seem to be making this crap up as they are smoking crack.


I want to thank the wonderful actors and crew for producing such a wonderful show over the years and for their dedication to the fans. They have gone above and beyond the call of duty when they were forced to relocate and film the program in California. Many actors on soap operas used their down time to work on Broadway when they weren't on the show. Moving to the west coast changed their ability to perform in theater. Despite all that, the actors and some of the crew went with All My Children. 


ABC deserted AMC after 41 years. OLTL has been on the air 42 years. They are like two old divorcees who were dumped by their uncaring and unappreciative husband for a new, upgraded model. The fans will not forget. 


I plan on boycotting ABC after OLTL goes off the air in January. I will never support Disney again. No more Micky Mouse lunch boxes. No more Disney toys for the little kids in my life. No more Disney what-so-ever. No matter what, I am not going to be a watcher of The Chew or The Revolution. They are too lame for words. Yuck!  

The 100th  Edition

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

Please don't forget to vote for J.R. Martinez on Dancing With The Stars on ABC. He is a wounded veteran who had a storyline on AMC. He also went to Dalton High School in Dalton Georgia. He is a real sweetheart. 1-800-868-3410

AS ALWAYS

PIO

I Can Feel It

Does anybody else feel like me? I feel like a balloon that is slowly leaking, losing my energy. When the sun was blazing, temperatures dancing around the hundred degrees Fahrenheit (37.77 degrees Celsius) mark on the thermometer, everyone was complaining about the heat but I felt alive and cheerful. The weather took a U-turn and dipped around seventy degrees Fahrenheit (21.11 degrees Celsius) after a couple of rainy days and cloudy skies. I don't know where my energy went. I need the sun! 


Scout came over and we sat on the carport enjoying the beautiful fall weather. Scout said he felt bad today and had a headache all day long. He was wondering if his headache stemmed from the change in the weather. I reminded him that Kim hadn't been feeling good, as well. She had been having headaches. 


I told him it could be the weather, or it could be a cycle. Sometimes people are sick because of allergies. It seems like people will become sick in cycles. Sometimes people will share similar symptoms and it could be a virus or something else those people were exposed to. I'm always wondering where some flu or virus or headache or other communicable disease came from. I am sort of germaphobic that way. Then I got to thinking, it might be the weather after all. 


What if the weather all over the world is fluctuating because of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the radiation leak at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant in  Japan? What if it is affecting the entire world? I know you might be saying I'm a kook but think about it, the weather has been extreme across America this year. Climate change is affecting locations around the world.


I read an article about the government monitoring radiation levels in the soil and in the livestock across the USA. Radiation levels have risen drastically since the tsunami damaged the plant which leaked toxins into the atmosphere for weeks before they were able to contain the damage. 


Air currents carried radiation across the globe, raining down on the earth and sea, contaminating everything. Radiation levels near the nuclear plant were too high in vegetation and livestock for human consumption. Since the wind currents shifted to the east, the radiation fell in the Pacific Ocean and the west coast of America first. Radiation levels have increased across America. Rising radiation levels were detected all the way to  the east coast.


Radiation poisoning is a horrible deadly form of energy and mankind doesn't have the power to prevent natural disasters like tsunami's and earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. Until they can predict those things I don't think we're responsible enough to control a meltdown. I prefer not to fry from radiation poisoning, but that's just my opinion. I'm not entirely convinced that microwave ovens are safe, either. 


Imagine an invisible microwave. cooking on high, with the door open. That's how I imagine the nuclear power plant meltdown. Between the radiation leak from Japan and the BP Oil Leak in the Gulf of Mexico, I can imagine all the shrimp and fish and sharks cooking in black oil at the bottom of the sea. Yum, yum. 


No wonder the shrimp from Red Lobster is so small. All the good ones are all gone because of the toxic combination of petroleum and radiation poisoning. I shudder to think of the quality and quantity of seafood in the future.


I wonder how the people in Japan are surviving and if all their food and water is being shipped in from other countries. I hope they are receiving generous aid from around the world. They were crushed in the tsunami and it will take a lot of help and time to recover.


I hope the world reconsiders their desire to harness nuclear power and rejects it. There are so many renewable sources of energy that we should explore instead. I don't know why we don't utilize solar energy, among other things. I'd like to have solar panels on my rooftop making electricity.


I feel like somebody has flipped a switch. It was summer. Now it's fall. The rain knocked down loose leaves, carpeting the ground. The frogs and crickets are singing their summer songs in the night. The sound drifts on a breeze through my window.


I'll try not to worry too much about nuclear fallout and global warming if you promise to think about it a little. Don't you think we humans are bad about soiling our own nests? Earth is our global nest and I think we are fools and small minded when we don't consider the greater good of the planet. It's our only home. 


People have such short attention spans that they forget about the damage to the Gulf of Mexico and they have probably already put Japan's nuclear disaster out of their minds but it would behoove us all to pay attention and realize the damage we have done to the earth. Mother Nature is forgiving and, over time, things will probably eventually right itself but wouldn't it be nice to save the earth for our children and grandchildren and their future children, too.


Like Hootie the owl says, "Give a hoot. Don't pollute!"

(I guess I'm just an old worry wart.)

**********

On another note, I'd like to announce that J.R. Martinez is going to be a contestant on Dancing With The Stars. He was a wounded veteran who was injured  by an IED in Iraq.  J.R. moved to Dalton Georgia when he was a teenager and attended and graduated from Dalton High School.  

J.R. Martinez beat out scores of contestants for the part of 'Brot' on ABCD's All My Children soap opera when they were featuring a story about wounded veterans. J.R. Martinez is a real American hero and he has proven to be a talented actor. I admire his spirit and his character. He is a motivational speaker for wounded veterans and others.  Please consider giving him your vote if you watch Dancing With The Stars. I'm sure he'll give his all.

AS ALWAYS

PIO

(Who knows what this means?)


Please consider becoming a follower of Resaca Rose