TOM T. HALL, KENTUCKY'S STORYTELLER

Tom T. Hall was born May 25, 1936 in Olive Hill, Kentucky. He was the son of a Baptist minister. Tom was 11 years old when his mother died. He joined the Armed Forces and spent most of his time in Germany during his four year stint. He attended Roanoke College and is known as a storyteller and songwriter.

Tom went to Nashville in 1964 with very little money and a guitar and quickly made the charts with his songwriting talents. Artists such as Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Alan Jackson, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Faron Young, Jeannie C. Riley, and many others have recorded his songs.

Tom T. Hall wrote such hits as Jeannie C. Riley's, "Harper Valley P.T.A" and Alan Jackson's, "Little Bitty" but his biggest money making song has been, "I Love".

He is also an author and has written several books including The Storyteller's Nashville (1979) and the novel, The Laughing Man of Woodmont (1982).

Tom was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in February 2008.

My favorite song of his is, "Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine. You can hear it playing in the background.

REMEMBER THE HULA HOOP!

Remember the hula hoop craze in the late 50s? I used to love to hula
hoop when I was younger. I once entered a contest sponsored by a Frisch's Restaurant when I was in my early teens and went five hours and twenty minutes. I won a big boy and a malt for all that work! The girl that won went for 8 hours and won a transistor radio.

According to some sources the hula hoop originated in Australia. The 50s hoops were hollow plastic tubing. It is estimated that Wham-O sold over 100 million hoops in 1958 alone.

I recently read an article in Prevention Magazine that "hooping" is making a comeback and they are no longer for the playground but a way to burn calories and tone your stomach muscles.

Today, there are web sites such as http://hooping.org/ and http://yourhoop.com/ where you can purchase custom hoops, collapsible hoops, do-it-yourself hoops and instructional videos if your are interested in "hooping". They can range in price from $15 to $50 and more. It seems adults need one based on your body weight if you are using it for exercise.

So guys and gals if you want to tone up, get yourself one of these new "hoops", turn on the music and start "hooping" it up! I am seriously considering trying it out.

Do you have any memories or past experiences about the hula hoops or do you think this would be a good way to lose weight and tone up today?

OUR SICK HEALTHCARE SYSTEM!

This show aired a couple nights ago on PBS and I thought it was very interesting. I know this interview is long but I think it's worth it. I would love it if you would consider it and share your thoughts about it with me.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html

Many of you know that I recently lost my niece Faye to cancer. Along with having to deal with the disease, Faye had to deal with the insurance companies that refused to pay for many of her procedures she needed to fight this dreadful disease. Faye's sister also has cancer and is going through the same process and trying to deal with insurance companies, too.

The greed of these companies and our hospitals and doctors has caused our people not to be able to afford health care. Our Senators and Representatives are being paid off by lobbyists and the people are suffering.

Recently, I had a bout with colitis and ended up in the emergency room. I am lucky enough to have insurance but the bill was $7100.00. The lab work was another $400 and I have not even received a bill from the doctors yet. They told me to see my regular doctor on Monday and gave me 3 prescriptions. When I visited my regular doctor, one of the prescriptions was disagreeing with me. He changed my medicine, they weighed me, and took my blood pressure. They did not take my temperature. He was with me all of five minutes. The bill was over $100 for that office visit.

Our people cannot afford health insurance. They don't have it because they can't afford it, not because they choose to not have insurance.

Something has got to be done in this country about this situation. It becomes worse everyday.

Please give me your thoughts and opinions on socialized medicine, insurance companies, our elected officials, etc.

Also, I would love to hear from other countries about your healthcare and how it works and how you feel about it. Do you wait for months without healthcare or do you receive the attention
you need?

June of 70 Plus and Still Kicking resides in Australia and has posted on her blog about healthcare in her country and linked to this one.

All comments appreciated.

DO YOU NEED WASHING?

A friend of mine sent me this. I love it. This is something we all need to stop and think about.

A little girl had been shopping with her Mom in Target. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence.

It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout. We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Target.

We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall.. I got lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child came pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.The little voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in "Mom let's run through the rain," she said."What?" Mom asked."Lets run through the rain!" She repeated."No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit," Mom replied.This young child waited about another minute and repeated: "Mom, let's run through the rain,""We'll get soaked if we do," Mom said."No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said this morning," the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom's arm.This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?"Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, 'If God can get us through this, he can get us through anything!

"The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes..Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say. Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith."Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If GOD let's us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing," Mom said..Then off they ran. We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes, through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars..And yes, I did. I ran.. I got wet. I needed washing.

Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories...So, don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories everyday..To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.I HOPE YOU STILL TAKE THE TIME TO RUN THROUGH THE RAIN.

This brought back memories of one rainy afternoon about fifteen years ago when a friend and I walked about three miles in a warm, summer afternoon's rain. We were soaked to the skin but it was one of the most exhilarating and fun things I have ever done.

Do you have memories of walking in the rain???

TREES, TREES, AND MORE TREES!

I have been offline for a few days due to some stuff I am having done around my house. Many of you that follow my blog have seen the posts in the past about all the huge pin oak trees that surround my house. In fact, there are about 25 of them and they are all about 80 feet tall.

Some of them had grown out over my home and I am afraid with all the windstorms we have been having here in Kentucky that I am going to end up with one on my house. The trees are getting pretty old, too, and some of them needed to be taken down.

I called up the tree service that took one of them down during the ice storm and he is in the process of removing seven of them. My yard looks like a disaster area with a bucket truck, two pickup trucks, a wood grinder, and all kinds of limbs, logs, etc. covering the entire back yard. The trees were wonderful for shade but now I will be able to have a garden and plants some flowers that require sun to grow.

This morning they took down one tree that was hanging completely out over my roof. It is amazing to watch these people work. They can drop a tree exactly where they want it to go and wench the top out, tie it off, and swing it away from the house before releasing it. I could not look at times, it would scare me so much.

That is Danny Bay, the owner of Bay's Tree Service, here in Frankfort getting ready to cut the top out of the tree. You can see the roof of my house at the bottom of the picture.

In the next picture, he is lowering part of the top to the ground.

This crew really knows what they are doing.

I am going to have my work cut out for me during the next week trying to clean up the mess out of my yard.

They do a great job of cleaning up the limbs and big stuff but there will be lots of saw dust and leaves and levelling of the yard to do. Can you believe I still have 18 trees this size in my yard??????

I hope everyone has a wonderful July 4th. Thomas Wyatt will probably spend the night with me that night so that his parents can go to the lake. Bob, TW and I will have a celebration of our own!