EVERYBODY CAN USE AN EXTRA LITTLE PUSH NOW AND THEN!

Chances are, you’re a lot like me - not necessarily as regards age, gender, background, education or even personal interests - and I sure do hope you’re not as an irascible old duffer like me(!) but . . .

. . . I’d hazard a guess that we have many important traits in common, else why would you even be here chatting with me?!

Therefore, like me, you probably are keenly concerned about providing a significant degree of financial security for you and yours . . . an abundance of funding for whatever you feel your family unit needs and wants . . .

. . . and perhaps, you have also discovered the huge personal reward of helping others less fortunate . . . and of course, any altruistic overtures along those lines can require monetary resources - although, in some cases, a sincere morale boost, a thoughtful suggestion or even just a fresh idea may suffice.

That’s basically the kind of ‘’action we got going on here'’ (as my favorite big-time teevee cook, Rachel Ray, would say it. By the way, I am 100% faithful to my wife in all ways, but SuEllen knows that if Rachel ever comes a-knockin’ on my door with a platter of food in her hand and says, ‘’Come here big fella . . . !'’ - I MAY be gone! At least until the platter is licked clean . . . )

Anyway, let’s see if we can find something of value for you in the articles that follow: A bit of inspiration, motivation or perhaps, that one little spark that may get YOU kick-started toward your goals!

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 Totally ELIMINATE Your Student Loan - Legally!

You may think it odd that I placed the following piece in the KICK-START category because the latter is generally reserved for inspirational and motivational ‘’pearls of wisdom,'’ but . . .

. . . when you think about it, IF you are one of the many millions of young (and middle-aged!) college graduates still bearing the weight of a too-heavy load of student loan debt, you not only NEED some inspiration/motivation - you may also need an ‘’out.'’ Cheer up - there truly IS one - but first, a bit of data for you:

In the forty years since 1966, over 40 million students have borrowed in excess of $270 BILLION in federal student loans to fund secondary education, according to Erin Love, the media rep for the Student Loan Marketing Association.

Tuition costs today are astronomical so it should come as no surprise that 82% of medical and law students, for example, graduate with a debt averaging $80,000.00! Many graduates leave school with a sheepskin in one hand and a huge debt in the other - often compounded with several years worth of accumulated credit card debt, as well. Indeed, the average monthly balance of all student credit cards is nearly $600.00.

The upshot of all this? With a minimum of 8% of the graduate’s income being required to service such debts the anxiety level can grow to a point where some find it difficult to function.

BUT THERE IS RELIEF

Many hapless graduates, laden with debt, are unaware of several remedies - and I’ll guarantee the final one we will show you is unknown to just about everybody in the land including the highest-priced attorneys!

It is possible to have a student loan either cancelled or deferred. For example, teachers who serve certain populations that include low-income or disabled students - may well qualify to have their student loans cancelled.

Communities in desperate need of health professionals will often pay off student loans if the person agrees to a minimum of two years service. A prime of example for that was the young doctor on the old ‘’Northern Exposure'’ teevee show:

He had to move to Alaska and practice in a small community to qualify, but his loans were waived entirely for doing so. The National Health Service Corps is the organization that oversees that. The total benefits are capped at $50,000.00, but hey! - a ‘’free'’ fifty grand IS fifty grand, after all! For more data on that go to: www.bphc.hrsa.gov

In a ‘’tight market'’ it is not unusual for a well-heeled company, eager to get the services of a really great graduate student - to pay most or all of any outstanding student loan balance. They recognize that a debt-free employee will be worth far more to them in the long run or, it may be just that one final incentive to recruit the ideal candidate.

Most people at this level of education, intelligence and integrity will be self-reliant and may not even consider that another entity would consider paying for their obligation - especially, one so large - but that may well be the case and is certainly one worth investigating.

Finally: You won’t believe this - and again, most lawyers and all others neither know about it nor will believe it BUT: It is 100% possible to discharge a Federally guaranteed student loan through bankruptcy!

YES, ’tis true! Most anyone you contact will not have the details so it would require a fair bit of searching to find someone to handle it but it can be done - and it IS totally legal!

And I have personally known good people, financially strapped, because of burdensome student loans, to be totally freed of that debt (over $100,000.00 in the case of one doctor) via personal bankruptcy!

Banks, loan counsellors, etc., will not rush to fill you in on the details - and if pressed, may actually declare that it’s impossible or they have never heard of such a thing. But it is available as an absolute last resort and should not be overlooked if that is the only alternative.

You will need to be persistent - call a number of lawyers and do NOT confine your search to long-established ones, because in the cases of which we are aware, the knowledgeable attorneys ready, willing and able to make this work were fresh out of law school! (Sorry - but as has been our hard-fast policy for nearly 45 years now, we can NOT refer or endorse any particular person or firm to you. You’ll need to put to use those research skills you learned at University and find a legal-beagle on your own, sport!)

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‘’A BAD T’ING FOR A GOOD T’ING'’

I’ve mentioned my paternal grandfather, Noah Du Vall, to you a couple times over the years. He was one of those people whom everybody liked - young, old, men, women, children.

He was a commercial fisherman on Lake Erie in his earlier years, as well as a professional mason and carpenter. He had a great and sparkling personality and family members still talk about his dancing blue eyes and great lusty guffaws some 4 1/2 decades after his death.

He was just about my current age when I was born in 1940 and he would go on to live a total of 77 years - sort of a record in our family - at least for males. Just my opinion, but I attribute his longevity to a life filled with great gusto - including wine, woman, (Tiger) baseball, a keen sense of humor - and pretty much doing whatever the heck he felt like - including making wooden toys of all kinds for children, those windmill type things you see on fenceposts in the Midwest and other such crafty-types of items.

I learned a lot from ‘’Noahie,'’ as all his friends called him. I’d spend every summer at ‘’Castle Farm,'’ a remarkable edifice he built on 24 acres with his own hands during the Great Depression. The place was fascinating - with two actual towers:

The south one had a tall conically-shaped roof whilst the north one had cut-outs for armaments just like you see in the movies. That’s where he had his workshop - and that’s where he and I spent a lot of time making all sorts of things over the years.

Anyway . . . he was also a philosopher in many ways and one of the most enduring things that he oft times said that remains with me today is this: Whenever anything ‘’negative'’ would occur, he always observed that from such an event would probably - sooner or later - come something ‘’positive.'’ He summed that up (in his broken English) as, ‘’A bad t’ing for a good t’ing!'’

Oh yes - another ‘’Noah-ism'’ that I fondly recall: I would often, back then, (and I hate to admit it - still do, today!) whack my thumb or finger with a hammer whilst building something. He would just smile and say, ‘’Sure, it hurts now - but just think how good it will feel when it’s done hurting!'’

Back to the ‘’Bad t’ing for a good t’ing!'’ philosophy: This recent International abhorence that we have all been subjected to really begs the question, ‘’What the heck good can come from such a horrible thing, Grandpa?!'’ Well, THIS grandpa has (maybe) come up with a couple worthwhile observations, to wit:

Just prior to the September 11 disaster(s), we as a country were about as milk-fed, bloated and pantywaisted as a society can get, methinks. The concerns of the time ‘’pre 9.11.01′’ were mostly . . . ‘’Gee, I don’t really think that color cell phone is something I can live with every day for very long . . . do you have something just a bit less mauve, perhaps?'’ ‘’Oh, did you hear that President Bush just mispronounced another word in a speech today?'’ ‘’That nasty Gary Con-did-it, I’ll bettcha!'’

Re-bump-licans and Damn-o-crats were constantly at each other’s throats - just because that’s what they liked to do. The general populace was nit-picky as all get out - always looking for the nasty, evil, bad, dirty or sick crap in others - and of course, ignoring any such failings in themselves.

Not all of that has changed, of course, but most Americans (and probably, most citizens of our allied countries) have been forced - REALLY FORCED - to come to grips with certain realities that heretofore may have just been ignored (by the younger folks) or forgotten (by us oldsters).

Certain traditional values, traits and goals that were once important enough to cause ordinary people to eagerly ‘’rally ’round the flag'’ - to defend what was near and dear to them - if not lost and forgotten, were certainly placed in some obscure hidey-hole for a couple recent generations. No more! We are now seeing and experiencing genuine patriotism on a scale most of us never thought again possible!

It would appear - and maybe this is putting too fine a point on it (I hope not!) - that at long last, most of us Americans are starting to GET OUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT! If still here, ol’ Noah would take a big drag on his pipe and intone, ‘’Oui - like I say - a bad t’ing for a good t’ing, no . . . ?!'’

A MAGNIFICENT GIFT FOR US ALL!

The events starting on 9-11 have been awful - downright evil - BUT you and I have also been given a GREAT GIFT, as a result: Suddenly, we have a true understanding of WHY we are ‘’Americans'’ and more to the point, what it means to be such - whether we are of the home-grown variety or from another land but (now) accepted by our peers.

With that renewed understanding we have an awareness of just how precious our ‘’way of life'’ IS in a world of some 6 BILLION other people - most of whom do not enjoy our unique opportunities.

As a result, you may well become even more successful, happy, generous - or whatever else YOU want. However, (and here is a definite ‘’WARNING!'’): Be on guard that you do not allow yourself to (again) become complacent.

In time, all this feel-good stuff will probably subside. Others may no longer have or express the ‘’good thoughts.'’ The GREAT GIFT we now share will no doubt start to lose its original luster and may well be relegated to a back shelf in the garage or basement.

So . . . lets make a conscious effort to protect not just our safety and welfare as a society and as individuals, but also to be watchful to preserve the sanctity of this GREAT GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE we were presented with and make that the true legacy of our greater number against the dastardly acts of a tiny minority. And that, my friend, is NOT a sermon - just a recognition of FACT!

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IF YOU’RE SO DARN SMART - WHY AIN’T YOU RICH?

Recently, whilst doing a bit of record house-cleaning I came across some copy that I developed to market subscriptions to this very newsletter in late 1992 - when we first started the marketing process. In the materials was this statement, ‘’we will help you in all phases of achieving Personal Success - not just as regards the financial aspects - but in all other areas, as well.'’

I believe we have gone the distance in that regard - relating all sorts of personal anecdotes that could have an effect on you and other readers. Here’s another one, which I recall, and as with most such things, the stimulus FOR recall was rather mundane: On a whim, I decided to throw a few shelled pecans on a plate, spray with fake butter and sprinkle a bit of fake salt on ‘em and then pop in the microwave for 30 seconds. Tasty!

As I munched away on that afternoon treat I recalled how, some 45 years ago, when I was but a lad of 16, Mary, the mother my first wife, Linda, used to prepare just such a treat for me and others on a cold winter’s eve after a hard day’s work in the construction business. THAT, in turn, reminded me of Linda’s older brother, Ivan - ‘’mean old Uncle Ivan,'’ as my late son, Dean Jr., would come to call him in later years.

Both Deanie and I always pretty much disliked Ivan - he was a drunken wastrel who sponged off his parents for thirty years, was meanier than a snake and delighted in harassing ME unmercifully until one day when I’d had enough and popped in squarely in the nose.

Anyway, before that fateful day (a day in MY memory as exciting and important as the day, years later, when I realized I’d made my first million!) - ol’ Ivan learned that a recent test I’d taken revealed that my I.Q, was 150. He found that a particularly interesting point of scorn, for some reason (I don’t know why - despite his lousy attitude, he was quite intelligent, himself) but he started saying to me, ‘’If you’re so darn smart, why ain’t you rich?!'’ Not an original thought - you’ll see that little saying on numerous calendars, plaques and such.

In due course, I began to ponder that: After all, even though my father-in-law was paying me two bucks an hour - a full 100% more than I’d been making as a cashier at the grocery store - eighty bux a week WAS a long way from ‘being rich.’ It didn’t take too long to figure out that I’d never get rich at that rate, so before long, I started a series of businesses of my own that in due course (and really, not all that much later - about 12 years) brought me to that ‘’First Million!'’ TA-DA!

Sure, I may well have become inspired in some other way to become successful, but I gotta believe that ‘’mean old Uncle Ivan'’ and his personal hatred for life, people and everything else - and his never-ending taunting of ME - certainly, put a spur under my saddle and in the end, helped immeasurably to ensure my perseverance towards ‘’getting rich.'’

The message here? Pretty pedestrian, actually: There will never be a lack of people trying to pull YOU down - any time that you decide to better yourself - especially, when you let others know of your intentions. Should you be the target of someone else’s wrath - be thankful for it! It may be exactly what you need to encourage forward movement: After all, you wouldn’t want to fail and validate that person’s spurious assessment, would you???

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THE BOOK OF QUESTIONS 

Was recently scanning a small, old (circa 1985) book called, ‘’The Book of Questions,'’ by Gregory Stock, PH.D. The purpose of the work is to prompt folks of all ages to communicate with one another via asking unusual or provocative questions such as:

‘’If you knew you would die within one week what would you do?'’ {or} ‘’If you could use a voodoo doll to hurt anyone you chose, would you?'’ (Hey! that hurts! Get that pin outta my butt!)

Anyhow . . . one of the questions was inspirational to me: ‘’What was the most exciting thing that ever happened to you?'’ The question forces one to be very introspective and I personally enjoyed revisiting dozens of seminal positive moments in my life and at last, realized there really could not be just one that rises above all others. I’ve had some truly terrific experiences over the aeons! My question to YOU, then: What was your greatest life experience to date?

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‘TIS TRUE! AGE IS JUST A STATE OF MIND!

‘’Aging'’ is no one’s favorite subject. But I must tell you I believe I have cracked the age-old secret of HOW to get to a ripe old age! It started with SuEllen’s late Grandpa Z who darn near made it to 100. More recently, S.E. and I have become good friends with a gentleman by the name of Floyd who built our 1050 acre lake out of mostly scrub farmland and a few gnarly little lakes and marshes. That project took him 20 YEARS to complete - and that came after a highly successful career owning a chain of feed stores.

His wife of 51 years died and subsequently, he set out to find and marry another woman (almost at the exact same time as did yours truly - in 1990). Lucky for him, he found Marie, a widower herself. She is now 85, runs outdoors about three miles every morning and is healthier than I am, for certain. We all just celebrated his 91st birthday at one of our mutually favorite restaurants which is situated in the middle of some farmland, marshes and . . . you guessed it:

He’s now talking about buying up the surrounding land and making another huge lake! Daily, he trades in soybean contracts - has since 1943! Recently, he and his wife took us in a brand new 4-place golf cart (he drove) to view his 500 acre golf course which adjoins the lake - ranked 17 in the country by Golf Digest. When I say ‘’his golf course'’ - that’s exactly what I mean: He also built that and it’s now owned by his son and daughter-in-law.

SO, WHAT’S THE BIG SECRET?

You already know it, I’ll bet. Grandpa Z used to keep his mind stimulated and his time occupied by research and trading in the stock market. Our other friends, Floyd and Marie, keep equally busy ‘’working,'’ travelling, reading and in general keeping involved, productive and in as good health as possible and . . . happy! As I write this, they are planning another tour of Europe to take place about the time you’re reading this.

Methinks, therein lies the key to longevity: Staying mentally and physically active! Not just theorizing about it, or talking about it, or wishing you might - but actually DOING IT! I do NOT have a patent, trademark or copyright on the secret nor does anyone else. Thus, you are welcome to use it to your best advantage - as I am doing.

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WISDOM FROM THE AFTERLIFE?

I recently came across the following, as originally penned by my late brother, Wellington, circa 1974. To be exact, ’twas on March 10, 1974 - just about a month after our father died on MY birthday, Valentine’s Day.

‘’If I should die, don’t for me grieve, but rather, help those that I leave.

From fear of death I’ve been relieved - ’cause, I trust HIM whom I believed!

Mourn, if you must, for those still here - who, thinking things on Earth so dear, have nothing for the end but fear.

(Could be, my friend, that YOUR time is near . . . )'’

For what it’s worth (probably, not a pence!) shortly before his death, my brother and I discussed such things AS death . . . religion . . . art and other things. You may know that (factually) he was a certified nut-case - in and out of mental institutions all his life. But he also was a true genius in several ways:

As an artist, his works were/are haunting - especially, those colorful renderings of Roman Gladiators. He also wrote many insightful articles on life, philosophy and so forth. Regarding religion, I asked him if he truly ‘’believed.'’ He said that not necessarily, but thought it wouldn’t hurt to hedge his bets - just in case there IS a God and an afterlife. I guess, that’s not all that bad an approach.

If I learned one thing from the ‘’Duke'’ (as everyone except my parents and myself called him) it would be this: He once worked with a fellow who constantly swore a blue streak which I guess, disturbed him.

He said to me, ‘’It seems like it is a pretty ignorant person who must make a point by swearing instead of using plain old clean English to do the job.'’ Since then, MOST of the time I make an effort to use good descriptive words to get my thoughts across - and seldom resort to cussing. Damn it . . .

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WE HAS MET THE ENEMY - AND HE IS US! (Pogo)

When I was young I’m fairly certain that most of my problems were caused by none other than myself. I tended to dwell on them and fret over obstacles. ’tis normal, and most people might agree we are, at times, our own worst enemies. Now that I’ve matured however, there’s no doubt in my mind whatsoever that virtually ALL of my angst is the result of all sorts of other nincompoops - and not of my own doing.

The really good thing is that at this age, I truly do not care much, and the carrying-on of most idiots bothers me not. The moral: Learn the virtue of ignoring negative stuff when possible or at the very least, make a wide berth around it . . . (Do mamma whales make large berths . . . ?)

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FIRED BUT WITH A CERTAIN PANACHE

Sometime, should you find yourself discouraged with your place in life as you know it and perhaps, start longing for Utopia, consider that the word, literally translated, means, ‘’nowhere.'’

Sort of reminds me of a personal old favorite: As a young man, I worked in an office with a bunch of other people who loved to nitpick everyone else’s activity (obviously, this was before I was the boss!)

One day, a do-little employee strolled up to my desk - which per usual was covered with all sorts of bustling activity and declared accusingly, ‘’You know what they say: A cluttered desk equals a cluttered mind!'’ I glanced over at her totally cleared-off desk and said, ‘’Must be then, an empty desk equals an empty mind?!'’

That was the last time she wasted MY time - and soon after, I bought the company and brought her into my office and said, ‘’You know, I don’t know how we could possibly do without your services around here - but starting next Monday, we’re going to find out . . . ‘’

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‘’Nothing bad ever happens to a writer: Everything is just more material.'’

-Garrison Keillor

{Hey, Garr - don’t be revealing my big secret! I’ve made a pretty comfortable living for the past half century - just a-writin’ about stuff that happens to me and mine every day - good, bad and otherwise!}

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HALF YOUR BATTLE IS ALREADY WON!

Virtually anything that you could possibly want in this life already exists and is just waiting for you to grab it. It doesn’t have to be dreamed up, invented, produced or marketed nor does it need to be set aside until some great new technology makes it possible.

Thus, your task is not to ‘’reinvent the wheel,'’ but rather, to follow the path of those who have come before you and successfully found the means to acquire whatever they truly wanted from this life.

If it’s a brand new Rolls-Royce that you want - it has already been created and it sits there all shiny and new in a showroom somewhere waiting just for you - with a definitive price tag on it. You are clearly informed as to what it will take to make it your own.

All you need to do (if you really want it) is to find a means of gathering the sum of the price tag. It really is that simple in concept - and oddly, not all that much more difficult in actuality! So . . . Go For It!

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FIND A NEED -V- CREATE ONE

The following was attributed to the late Henry J. Kaiser, a fascinating and highly successful industrialist, builder of military ships for WWII and also a car manufacturer for a spate (remember the Kaiser-Fraiser automobiles and the first ‘’compact car,'’ the Henry J? Incidentally, did you know that little car could also be bought from the Sears catalog in the early 1950’s and was called the Allstate?)

‘’To succeed, one must find a need and fill it!'’

Years later, yours truly here enhanced that thought (at least in my judgment!), thusly:

‘’To succeed, one must create a need and fill it!'’

It seemed to me that by then, everyone pretty much knew what the world needed - or a least, they thought so. But I noticed that many entrepreneurial types were becoming successful by virtue of either pointing out or simply inventing concerns and flat-out worrisome situations that folks had not previously considered. And then, of course, offering the perfect solution . . . ‘’for a price,'’ naturally!

Examples: Under-arm deodorants. Now, most people could benefit from using something (my mother used to say, SOAP AND WATER are pretty good, for starters!) but smart marketers came up with all sorts of anti-perspirents and odor-blockers and such and got consumers to buy and use ‘em based on the notion if you don’t, you’ll smell up the place, everybody will hate you and your life will be ruined, etc., etc. They CREATED an urgent need, in that case.

How about electric toothbrushes?! The first time I heard of that I literally thought someone must be nuts. All I could envision was an electric cord attached to the end of my regular tooth brush and sticking it in water and my mouth and . . . whoa, baby! Today, the various versions of the ‘’created, needed product'’ constitute an important industry and cuts way back on the need to visit the dentist as often. (Our tests still show SONICARE to be preferable).

Was the automatic transmission an absolute necessity? After all, once IT became popular, a whole lot of people decided they preferred the original manual transmission and not only THAT, they wanted it ‘’on the floor'’ - just like the old-fogey cars that many of us started with decades ago!

Do we really need a McDonalds and a Starbucks on every street corner of the world? Well, billions of dollars in sales proves that untold numbers of consumers strongly believe so! Were those needs that were FOUND or needs that were CREATED? You decide . . .

Either way - via finding or creating a ‘’need'’ - that masses of people believe will benefit them, one stands a good chance of becoming and staying successful.

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DEDUCTIVE REASONING

If two or more of those throaty-type things are called larynges, but only one is a larynx . . . and two or more of those sort-of-looks-like-a-big-cat animals are sphinges - but only one is referred to as a sphinx . . . or phalanges is the plural of phalanx . . . then, with oranges, why isn’t just one called an oranx?

Sort of reminds me of the old saw: ‘’Why do we drive on a parkway, but park on a driveway?'’

Our thanks to Roger Dean Rose’s wife, Maxine, for sending us the above. RDR, as long time DAXERS know, originally hired ME on July 10, 1963 as a bill collector - one year into my quest to succeed in the publishing business, when I still had much to learn and was essentially, starving! Later, he became our State Manager at Du Vall Associates Collection Specialists (DACS) - a large network of debt-recovery agencies. ‘’DACS'’ ultimately evolved into ‘’DAX.'’

Now, there’s a capsulized recap of a very long and interesting story! (A further fascinating element of the saga: On November 4th of that year, to celebrate my new-found $-success, as well as a wedding anniversary, I purchased a new black-with-burgundy-leather 4-door Lincoln convertible. Two weeks later, on the 22nd, my excitement was tempered when JFK was assassinated in a nearly identical automobile in Dallas . . . )

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UP, UP AND A-WAAAAY . . . !

When I was four years old, my mother and father took my older brother, sister and myself to the circus in Pontiac, Michigan. That was the one and only time I was ever to go to a circus anywhere, although many years later, I would invite my youngest daughter, P.C., to one that was touring Lansing, Michigan, but she was not interested.

Two things stand out about my big trip to the circus that day in 1944 - a year or so before the end of World War Two (or as tv’s Archie Bunker used to call it: ‘’W-W-Two - you know, the big one!'’ For starters, it was there for the very first time in my life that I had ever seen real balloons.

During the war - at least that war - basic commodities such as tin, copper, steel rubber and so forth were very scarce - and in most domestic cases, non existent. For instance, all tin cans, once free of their load, were carefully rinsed out, the ends cut off, inserted into the cavity and then someone of heft would step on the thing to squash it down.

Each week all such cans - together with any other metals found and gathered - would be put out on the curb and a volunteer would come by to haul away to some mysterious place where it was all melted down and converted into helmets, tanks, planes and other such things.

I’ve also mentioned before how folks would grow little ‘’Victory Gardens'’ (that’s what President Roosevelt had everybody calling them - pretty good P.R., if you think about it) - to augment the nation’s supply of vegetables and other staple items - because the war effort really required such extraordinary measures, I assume.

For example, it was extremely difficult to buy meat, ice cream, milk or other such normally common items unless one had the proper (and hard-to-come-by) ‘’ration stamps.'’ And as I recall my father telling it, it was totally impossible to buy tires for the car and indeed, many people (including him) actually bought other entire automobiles that ‘’had some rubber left on ‘em'’ JUST to acquire that rare commodity.

Thus, kid’s balloons (then made of rubber - not latex, as they are today) were rarely seen. But on that memorable day at the circus I certainly saw them - five or six - all different bright solid colors: Red, blue, green and yellow. And boy oh boy did I REALLY, REALLY want one!

When the fellow hawking the things came past, I put up my usual fuss that heretofore had gotten me an ice cream cone or other such trivia, but this time, there was a brief exchange of quiet words between my mother and father and then the pronouncement:

‘’Sorry, but no . . . ‘’ Naturally, (or at least I suppose) I threw a fit - but no balloon of any color was to come my way that day. I later learned that the things were priced at 50 cents - a considerable sum at that time - literally, a full 1% of the average man’s weekly salary! Think of that.

Well, over the years I have thought of that and I must say now - nearly 60 years later (ouch!) I have a great deal of retrospective respect for my father because he decided two major things were blocking the purchase: One, he was indoctrinated along with everyone else to feel that such frivolous use of a critical war-time material such as rubber was, well, un-American.

Two, that fifty cents was an exorbitant sum to shell out for an item that would bring only momentary satisfaction to one small person. Simply was not worth it - he was responsible for conserving the hard-earned family resources at a time when many people were out of work and the basic stuff of life - like food - was difficult to come by.

So . . . NOW methinks, they definitely made the right decision - and should I find myself wanting a balloon one of these days (as well I might - I really enjoy my second childhood, you know!) I’ll just go out and buy a whole bunch of ‘em. (I wonder if some similar childhood event has caused the ‘’Billionaire Steve Fossett'’ - as the press always likes to call him - to keep trying to fly HIS balloon around the world . . . )

Oh yes - the other thing that I recall (rather fondly) about that day at the circus: Towards the end of the primary events (and truly, I do not recall what they were - probably some tired old animals parading around or something) another hawker came to the center ring and started telling the audience about the terrific AFTER show that was scheduled, whereby anybody paying an extra ten cents would be treated to a phenomenal presentation by ‘’a tribe of genuine, authentic Indians.'’

We were all promised that, among other things, the Indians would do a rain dance ‘’and work themselves into a frenzy!'’ The guy went on and on about how exciting the after-show would be and frankly, most of those in attendance decided to pony up the dime - including MY old man, believe it or not! After all, two adults and three kids - that’s a half a buck. Again, consider the time and circumstances.

Well, we all sat there transfixed - anxiously awaiting the earth-shaking event about to occur before our very eyes - and sure enough, presently (after the circus employees had made sure all the non-paying guests were out of the arena) - about a half dozen Indians (well, let’s assume they were Indians) came out from the back of the tent and into the center ring. Two were wearing the traditional (I guess) headdress - the others were, well, just sort of standard-grade Injuns, I suppose.

Anyway . . . someone started beating on a drum a little bit, and then all the Indians started hopping around UNenthusiastically in a circle. We all waited in anticipation of their working themselves into that promised frenzy but they just murmured, ‘’Hii, Yii, Yii'’ a few times, lackadaisically hopped a bit more and left the center ring and headed for the tent flap.

There was a stunned silence and soon many of the folks in the audience started to BOO! Even my mother, who was seldom ever vocally critical of anybody was heard to say, ‘’I think one of ‘em may have fallen asleep.'’ But my father just started to laugh - and laugh - and laugh! He knew he’d ‘’been took,'’ but the irony and ridiculousness of the whole non event really tickled his fancy - and I believe the belly-laugh that he got from that was worth every dime that he really could not afford.

Over the years, I do not recall very many other occasions when I saw my father laugh - I mean really seem to have an enjoyable time. But I do remember that day at the circus, when I was just four, the whole world was at war (and even us little buggers were keenly aware of that fact), money was tight, the basics of life were difficult to come by - but my father darn near laughed his head off.

I also learned that day that if you come up with a good enough sales spiel you can pretty much sell anything to pretty much anybody - for whatever the traffic will bear - whether it’s a dime, a dollar or a small fortune. A fact entrepreneurs and crooks alike know and benefit from. ’tis preferable however, not to abuse that knowledge - and besides, one sleeps better . . .

A postscript: Lest some cynic think that ol’ MFD didn’t buy me the balloon ’cause he just didn’t care - that’s not the case. True, I came as a big shock in his life (and probably even more so, my mother’s) when I arrived on the scene in their mid thirties - with two older siblings already in place and looking hard at the teen-age years.

But not only did everyone treat me quite well, my father went out of his way to devote a lot of time and effort every night after work for several weeks building a special Christmas present - a good-sized wooden fire truck - complete with detachable ladders, etc. On each side of the hood he carefully painted the letters ‘’D.F.V.D.F.D.'’

I do know some of what went into that, because many years later I devoted an equal amount of it to building from scratch a large doll house for P.C. - with individual wood shingles, strips of hardwood floor, electric lights, etc. Unfortunately, neither my big red fire truck nor the doll house were to survive the rigors of time and moving.

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THE EXTRAORDINARY IMPACT OF JUST ONE PERSON: YOU!

My late mother was born in Eling, a suburb of London, England in 1904 - the same year that , also in England, my favorite automobile, the Rolls-Royce was ‘’born!'’ They named my mother Grace Daisy. She would die nearly 90 years later in April of 1994. So what, you might logically ask?

After all, she was not an international celebrity or someone who was missed by millions upon her demise - such as the likes of the late Katharine Hepburn, Mother Theresa, Princess Diana, the Queen Mum and so many others. That be true, yes . . . but . . .

When one looks at the life of any one person - it doesn’t have to be MY mother, which in this instance, it is - the process becomes very revealing in the larger sense of just how each of us - you and myself, I’m talking about now - is affected by single individuals and in turn, just how we (you and I, again!) immeasurably affect the lives of many other people. Perhaps, untold numbers of people.

For instance: Grace Du Vall (as she would later be known for the greater part of her entire life - and since) was the youngest of a whole bunch of brothers and sisters. Her father, Walter, was a London policeman known in those parts as a ‘’Bobby.'’ 

He would at some stage in his career be honored by the King of England for his good works, by the way, and many medals were bestowed upon him - how about that!

Anyway, her mother died when she was very young, and her father emigrated with her to Canada when she was just four. (The ship that brought them sunk on its return trip to England. My father used to quip that had it sunk on the way over, boy, would things be different! Yes, they would - that’s the crux of this article!)

As a young woman, she moved to the U.S. and got a job at The Monroe Evening News where she met my father, who was assigned to train her how to run a linotype machine - the precursor of modern day marvels that can whip out the copy for an entire daily newspaper in less time than it used to take just to melt the huge ingots of lead required for the old linotypes to function!

They married - both in their mid twenties at the time - and would have two children within a few years and many years later yours truly came along. (Yes, no doubt I was a great shock to all then - as I have tried valiantly to be to all others ever since!)

Well, I shan’t detail every facet of my mother’s entire life, only to say that because of her innate nature, and willingness and passion for assisting others - always placing their life interests and welfare before her own, she influenced many, many people. She helped many others - in all ways.

No doubt that she influenced my father, as well, as evidenced by the fact that once, when I was around eight or so, he heard that a minister in Ohio - a man he did not know in any way - desper-ately needed a car for his ministry, thus, without batting a headlight, he gifted the man with our new Chrysler automobile! WE walked everywhere for the better part of a year until he could afford to buy another.

Now, all the foregoing is all well and good, but does not draw to the heart of my thinking which is: My mother (and father, of course) produced three children, who in turn, produced a melange of children of their own, let’s think . . . 11, I believe . . . and they in turn produced, oh gosh - who knows how many more children - and naturally, those people have gone on to do likewise and, well now, this is starting to sound like, ‘’And Joseph beget so and so and he beget still more so and soes . . . ‘’ (And that’s why we now have a cotton-pickin’ world full of ‘’so and soes!'’)

And THERE is what this is all about: None of those particular people - as produced by whatever universal force you believe in - none of them would have existed ‘’as is.'’ Thus the deeds (good, bad or otherwise) of each of those individuals in the ever-growing ‘’line'’ of Grace Daisy Du Vall never would have occurred.

Sure, others emanating from a different lineage would have come forth to fill the void, but not THOSE people - not ME. Hence, there would not be three ex-wives of mine to complain about nor to complain about ME! SuEllen would not be in my life - nor I in hers - because I would not exist.

YOU, my friend, would not be reading these words (and right about now you may be thinking, THAT’S okay!) but you would also not have several million OTHER words that I’ve written over the decades to read and hopefully, benefit from one way or t’other. There would be no du Vall paintings gracing(!) the walls of collectors here and abroad . . . a whole lot of people during the past half century or so would NOT have gotten rich in one way or another and . . .

. . . well now it’s starting to sound like I’m only tooting my own horn, here - but I needed to mention those things to illustrate how just one solitary individual person - amongst the (now) 6 1/2 BILLION souls on the planet - can make a difference in a significant number of ways. Does that mean that in order to be productive, remembered or to feel fulfilled one needs to produce children? Certainly not!

Indeed, a couple of the very people mentioned earlier who have passed away never had any offspring of their own - and you can look throughout history and find that often, the more accomplished of our species elect not to reproduce.

But again, it is their own persona, their sense of self-worth and their ability to positively influence those about them - whether ‘’their own'’ or other’s - that’s what it’s all about when we study the lasting value of another human being - or frankly, even the value of NOT so human beings - but then, that would be another story - for perhaps, ‘’Animal World Weekly.'’

So, the next time you wonder if YOU will be remembered after you’ve shuffled off this mortal coil . . . or will you, yourself ever feel that you’ve accomplished much of anything in this life . . . or perhaps, be considering just ‘’ending it all'’ - realize that without YOU on this planet, the rest of us simply would not be ‘’the same!'’

With your absence there would not be just one tiny hole in the atmosphere, but perhaps, a vast void that might cause a great many folks to stand around slack-jawed, wondering, ‘’What the heck is wrong here - something’s missing, that’s for sure . . .'’

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