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             Well, getting back to those days of old when I was courting a pretty , skinny young lady who lived at 704 East Gerhart Street, there were a lot of times when we would just take off and drive all over the county , talking and laughing about some stories about what happened  there on that street. And many times we would just sit there in the car while parked in front of her house, listening to the music coming out of the radio, until Mom and Pop McKee would come out and tell us it was time to stop our visits and another great evening of spending time with my girlfriend was over for this day. It was time to go on home and be with my family and enjoy telling them about the pretty girl that someday would be my wife. Of course Mom was always interested in what her children were doing and she enjoyed hearing that I had it in my mind to one day ask my lady for her hand in marriage. And Dad was one of those fathers that wanted the best for his family and  although he never said so, he was pleased with my pick.

            I remember one day when I brought her home to have a meal with my family and it was the first time that she had met my parents and she was  sort of shy, and when we sat down to eat, she sat there afraid to eat much and when we left to take her home, she wanted to stop somewhere  to get something to eat.  I told her that my family was just common people who didn’t waste any time when it came to eating one of Mom’s meals and that she needed to try it once more. The next time that I took her to spend the day with my folks, she was the first at the table and it made Mom proud to see that slim girl put the food down. From then on I knew that this little lady of mine was in good with my family and that when the time came to ask for her hand from her parents, I had a little pull from her.

          From day one , this young fellow was a part of the McKee family and the Budd family, and to this day, they have always treated me as if I had been born into their families. On March 17, of next year we will have been together  47 years and it has been a great ride for this writer, and both sets of our  parents are buried there in the Memorial Park Cemetary next to one another. So the north end of Kokomo lies near to my heart in that there are a lot of memories there on Gerhart Street and always will be because that is where I met a young lady of 17 years, who weighed a  little over 100 lbs, on a 5 ft. 8 inch frame, and who is still my lady of old. A great wife, mother, and friend. What more can I ask of  The Great Father, except His love, and I know that I have that. Until later, I say so long.

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day

            I received a nice letter from a young lady of 91 years old. She stated that she reads my column each Sunday morning and she  likes what I write about. The times that she has had  could be written in a book and be a great one. She has memories that only someone her age or older could remember. She and her husband moved here from Bloomington Ind. And they were owners of a store that was lost due to the depression. She lost her loved one of those many years and she lives right here in Kokomo, because her daughter is close by.  She told me of the times of the depression and the hardships that resulted from it. She said that her husband was the kind that would never use the escape of  filing  bankruptcy , and he made sure that all the people he owed got their money, even though it meant that they would have to barely get by on what was left. As she talked, I looked at this lady of 91 years young, and I saw more life in her than what I see in a lot of people half her age. She seems like she is very satisfied with her life as it is and while there, her daughter and son-in-law came in and I met them. It was a nice visit to a nice lady who is a loyal reader to this column.

            Now I get a lot of e mail and also letters from my readers and I try to let each one know that I appreciate them and I have made some great friends through my column. One that really caught my attention was from a lady who’s husband was an employee of the steel mill and she wondered if I knew him. And she also said that she hoped that I wouldn’t mind if she wrote me. That is typical of my readers as they all are very considerate of another. As I stated to her in a reply, the workers at the mill were all family and although we didn’t know each other by formal names, all of us had nicknames and that is what we used when addressing each other. I try to reply to as many as I can but sometimes the writer doesn’t leave any address to reply to. I get a lot of phone calls just to tell me thanks for the column as it strikes home with a lot of my readers.

           One nice gentleman of 80 years old said thanks to me for the column about memory loss as he has a wife that has Alzheimer’s , and it is a terrible thing to watch a loved one going through it. I received several e-mails about how to treat a customer when they come into a store and just want to look around. Several said that they hated to go into a store and be watched all the time they are there. I had a few that stated that when they went into a store they could never find someone to help them. Many of my readers told me that when I was in sales, they felt the respect that I gave them and I felt good hearing that. And as I go into the restaurants, there is always someone that will say that they liked what they read in the latest column. And I get a lot of people who will come up to me and ask if I am the writer in The Tribune.

           So I get a lot of satisfaction  writing my column each Sunday, because I know that it is reaching those  many readers who are having the same problems that I am writing about. If  I, though my column, can make just one day of each reader’s life a happy one, then I have made myself happy. Many times we sort of drift off into another world and we forget that others need our love as we need theirs too. And too many times we look the other way when someone needs a little help because they are down with sickness or they are hungry. As I have stated many times, it doesn’t matter where you live or what your belief is or what race you are, we are all brothers and sisters in the eyes of  The Great Father, and your problems are our problems.

           If you were fortunate enough to be born in the good old USA and you value the freedom and the rights we have, then you will feel that closeness of one to another. If you come to this country and you want to be free and you want the same rights that I have, then you should be ready to protect them. We do have those who would try to take us down from within, but freedom will prevail to all who treasure it. Take a good look at what we have and say thanks to those soldiers who fought for it. See you later.
Ray "Uncle Ray" Day

                  Suddenly I noticed that I really don’t feel that bad after all and the beauty of nature has an effect on me as I say to myself that the yard needs a little work on it, the plants that remain need to be watered, and my woodwork will keep me busy afterward.  Such is a view of my mornings each and every day. No matter how bad I feel, once I go outside and see what The Great Father has in store for me, I start feeling a lot better. That is pretty good medicine if you ask me.  Those retirees who say that there isn’t anything to do, ought to get on my bandwagon and visit  the beauty of this world as I see it. You see, I and my brothers and sisters came from the old school where you learned to appreciate all the things of nature whether it is extreme heat or cold, rainy or dry weather, because it is part of the great package from The Great Father. If we were to have the same great weather all the time, we wouldn’t know how to appreciate it.
 

                     Take the weather this year, where we had the most rain for about ten days that we had ever seen, yet we survived it. The crops we planted had a poor season due to the weather, but another year will probably be better. In  1978 and 1979, we had the blizzards where life was at a standstill, for several days but we survived it and since then the winters really haven’t been too bad except for Jan 1st of 1999 when this writer was laid up after having heart bypass surgery. That was the hardest for me as I wanted to go outside like before and play in the snow while shoveling it out of the driveway. Last year the hot weather sort of got me down but that was because of the way that  the air conditioner was working. So there are a lot of things that get in my craw but the weather isn’t one of them. What The Good Father gives to me, I will accept with thanks, because I know that He only gives us what we can handle. We can sit there and cry our heads off because things are not going our way, and we won’t be any better off than if we accept that which is given to us.

                     That is why I like to write this column. The ones out there who read my words let me know that they are out there and that they like what they read. That in itself is a gift that has been given to me from The Great Father, where I can in my own words and not those of another can reach  out to someone and just say hello, I’m Uncle Ray, and I love to write. I sometimes go right to my column on Sunday morning and start reading it and I feel like there are millions out there doing the same thing. That is a wonderful feeling and I relish in it. Am I stuck on myself? No, I feel this way because I know that The Great Father wasn’t ready for me in 1998 because I still had work to do here. That is my reason for this column. I hope that you continue to look for my words and I am open to your comments.
Ray “Uncle Ray” Day

It is that time once again, when we go to the polls and we elect those people to their spots in our government ,so that they can serve us in the city, state and federal governments. We try to vote with our desire to have those people to be ready to take on the world in order that we can get the most out of a little . What we don’t realize or maybe we don’t want to realize is the fact that regardless of all the promises that our elected officials make while he or she were out for our vote, most of the time things remain as they were for most of that time that the elected one serves. You can’t turn things over and get results in just a short time. You have to implement the matter into the system and then watch it take a back seat until ready to go into the system as time and money allows it to. In other words all those promises that our people running for office make will ,not be looked at until the time when we are ready once again to go to the voters booth to either re-elect the person serving or to elect a new person to take the reins and take us on another two or four year trot around the block ending where we started from. That my friends is a fact.

We cannot expect someone to enter into a position of serving us without realizing that things do not change overnight. And we have to realize that most of those who run for office do so as an application for employment and not really to be a servant of the people. Believe it or not my friends, there are and always have been people in all the fields of our government, that have never done a actual day’s work in any other field of employment. They sort of grow into the field of government because a parent or grandparent was in the world of politics. In other words, they were born into the field of politics. The word politics is not a word that I like to use much except to say something about those who do not know of any other field to get into. I am not political.

I like to think that my vote for someone is my confidence in that person to try and work for the better of the people he or she represents. And if you remember what happened in the spring of this year, you know that my vote and yours too are very important. We as the public think that the right person will be elected and as such we don’t get out for those few minutes to cast our vote, and that isn’t really a good way to think. If you as a potential voter decides not to vote, then you as the person to reap the benefits have no call in your opposition to what the representatives votes on. In other words, if you don’t vote, you can’t holler.

Most want to let others do the voting instead of doing it themselves, and then expect things to fall their way. It just doesn’t work that way my friends because the number of votes determines the winner of the election. It only takes a few minutes to jump into the car, head out to the polling place, and cast your ballot. If you don’t, it takes two or four years to suffer for it. You and I can make that difference in who we have to serve us.

Now to get to the political side of the elections, we as the people who will be represented have the right to expect our servants to be for the city or state and not that of the party. Too many times we see positions in our government given to those who stick together and run their office as a party office instead of one that represents the people. Once the election is over, that person who won the election is now a representative of you and me and not that of the party. Now I am not down on the parties , but they as a party need to keep their noses out of the running of our government. Sorry if I am stepping on some toes but that is the reason that I will never be able to hold an office . I would be a representative of the people and not of a party. .My only advice to you is to get out and vote for the person who will represent you and me and not a group. Find out where and then exercise your right to vote. Remember that you can make an difference in who will be your elected official. Holler if you hear me. Until later when I see you at the polls.

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day-

             As far as school , I went to Willard and most of my friends went to Douglas. When we got to Junior High, we went to school together. Why wasn’t it ok for all of us to go to the same grade school? I have heard stories of those who said that they had to sit in the back of the bus and the movie house. My friends, who were both white and black, sat with me in the first row when we went to the shows. At no time did we encounter any abuse from the managers of the movie houses nor did we get it from the others attending the movies. We went to all the department stores and eating places and never did we as a group experience the abuse that once was rampant in the southern states and in many places still is. My friends were not separated as to color of the skin nor to the beliefs of each of them. In my end of town we gathered together to have fun, play sports, and just being friends.

             As most of the older folk know, this writer was the first person to shoot a basket on the Carver Center floor due to a nice gentleman by the name of Mr. Bowman, who was the first director of the center. He didn’t do it because I was of the fair skin, he did it because he wanted a smile to come across the face of one of the kids who would be playing there from now on. Our group of friends went to all the parks in town on our bikes and we never encountered any opposition as to race or belief. To this day, my friends of that time in my life are still my friends. We played together, we are together, and we enjoyed each others company .

             So in this column where I have told you about friends without barriers, I wonder why is there still the hate going around, where one group denies another group of the rights that all of us as Americans should experience together. And this isn’t just on one side of the fence as there are still the bitter truths of how one group treated another. Those truths are embedded so deep in the minds of some that they cause problems with the young people growing up now. What we as the people of the greatest country in the world need to do is to bury the past and embark on a journey of peace between all that live here. Sure I know that there was a time of turmoil when one group wanted to be superior to others. I also know that Hitler wanted to have a supreme race and he killed a lot of good people before finally being stopped. We don’t need another terrible thing like that to ever happen again. We are all brothers and sisters in the eyes of The Great Father and we need to finally close the book on hate bigotry, and violence.

              We need to once in a while climb over the fence and take a good look at our own , before we pass judgment on our neighbor. Love of each other can be an everlasting effect on the lives of those who will follow us. So what I would like to know is this; were my friends and I in a world all our own or were we just an exception to the rule? If we got along as friends, why can’t everyone do the same? It sure would be nice if we can walk together on the same side of the street, sit across from each other at the table, and live as one. When will we brings our hands together instead of fists? Do we have to wait until the end of time to come together? In my case and that of my friends, we are there. You can join us by just saying that it is time to forgive and forget.

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day--

It is that time of year when the cold air , snow, and ice is just around the corner. I have done my time in the cold winters at the mill where you worked in below zero temperatures if you were outside and cold mixed with heat if you worked inside. If I was to tell you that if you took your gloves off and touched a piece of cold steel, while outside in below zero weather, your fingers would stick to the steel, you probably would laugh about it. But it happens and you just have to keep your gloves on when outside.  If I was to tell you that a red hot piece of steel on the mills was running between ice layered on the outsides of the machine, you would probably laugh at that too. But it is true and on those machines you were hot on one side and cold on the other. Such is what those people who worked in the steel mill put up with each day .

This writer has worked 16 hours straight out in the cold weather and still here to talk about it. I remember one night one of the locomotive cranes broke down and it was only one of two that was in any shape to feed the melt shop with the scrap they needed. It was 10 below zero and a main cable needed to be changed on it. That meant that the crew on the other crane had to keep working without stopping until the other crane was repaired. My crew on the crane that was down decided that it would be a lot faster to change the cable than it would be to go find another crane and get it repaired. My crew worked like the great people they were and after about an hour and half, they had the second crane running and believe it or not, there was only about a half hour delay given to us .

That my friends, was because these guys were good workers who knew that the rest of the mill was counting on them and they knew the importance of keeping delays down as much as possible. That morning when we walked out pass the time clock, we knew that we had performed our jobs well. The steel making business did not take any days off since it was a 24 hour- seven days a week job. If someone reported off, the person on the job was asked to stay. If no one was available, a lot of the times the crews worked short handed until someone could be called in early. Many a time, you would see one of the foremen helping out until help arrived. Oh sure, the steel mill was a union shop but you don’t stop the mill for anyone not showing up. Many times a foreman worked his backside off and then had to pay someone who wasn’t called. It was cheaper to do it that way because a shutdown of the furnaces meant a great loss in revenue for everyone. Sometimes the situation is greater than the greviance, and you just have to do what is needed . That is just common sense, that is put to use by those in command.

This writer has seen people badly burned, explosions caused by the mixture of water and steel, and men while doing their job getting killed. I have seen large trucks turning over with people running away from them and you still wonder where everyone is until accounted for. Working in a steel mill was no picnic for all those who worked there but it was a job and you knew that it just had to be done.

In the fifties when I first hired in the mill, the job most hated was working in the soot tunnels , clearing out the debris of slag and dust under the checker chambers of the furnace of the old open hearth. The tunnels were about 3 feet wide and almost four feet high. The furnace would go down for repair and that was one of the jobs needed done. These tunnels were below everything else and they were hot and they were dusty. You worked in two crews working as long as you can and then turning it over to the other crew. It didn’t take long before it was your turn to go back down. Someone who didn’t like close places didn’t last long there. All in all, the mill was a good place to work even though you were paid every two weeks, which sort of put you in a pinch if not on a budget. If there was ever a chance to go back to working at Continental, most of us would jump at the chance. But as time went by, that chance went away. So this winter, by being retired, I am staying inside . The memory is all that’s left.

Ray “"Uncle Ray"” Day

         I personally have my own feelings about Angels, who make my days more bearable. Having spent much time in the hospital, either as a patient or a relative of someone else who is a patient, I have witnessed another version of an Angel. We call them "nurses", and many times we think of them as hard-nose workers ,in a medical place and no more. Nurses , as I have witnessed, do have a heart. They are very compassionate, and I have even seen them cry. Nurses in our world ,are one of the most valuable resources we have. They work long hours, and they perform jobs that most of us could not do. One job they do is of the clean-up nature of a patient that has an accident, or spills something ,that needs to be cleaned up right away. They sometimes have to take abuse from unruly patients and even visitors, that you or I would not take. In the hospital, there were times when I felt helpless, because I was confined to the bed. But any time I needed something, all I had to do was ring for one of those Angels, and just as soon as they could, they took care of my needs. Many times, when visiting hours were over, and it was lonely, there was always one of those Angels peeking their head in to ask if I needed anything. There were times when they had time to just talk, and this sure made you feel good. And when you were visiting a friend, or a family member, they would give you a few extra minutes to be with the patient. Believe it or not ,folks, these ladies and men in white are Angels.

         There was a time in our life when we really depended on those Angels. For five months, we were a family with the fear of losing our daughter. But you know what? That is where I really found out about the Angels here on earth. They have been here all along, and we call them "nurses". From day one, I saw the dedication of the nurses to the patient. I saw all the hard work that each and every one of them do for the patient. I know that it is their job to take care of the patients, but I saw other things that they do. They not only took care of the person there in the bed, they did many things for the family too. Our daughter would always say that they were like family to her. There were times when I would ask them how she was doing and got a answer that was truthful and tactful. And looking them in the eyes, you could see that moist tear starting to come out. These great ladies and men really care about that person lying in bed with a terminal illness. But they have to be professional, and they can't show that moist eyes in front of the patient and sometimes in front of the immediate family. There is a part of the hearts of those nurses, that goes with the patient as they slip away. There is another part of that heart that goes home with the family too. It takes many hours of training and schooling for those nurses to be as good as they are. It takes dedication to stay at that job. And it takes love of your fellow man to go to work each day and perform those many duties, that you and I would not, and could not do. Only someone with the name of a Angel does this day after day. May we always be blessed with them here on earth. And may we always have time to stop and tell them thanks for being there for us. I hope that through this article, you have been blessed, and I hope that you will be able to witness the great work , performed by the "Angels Among Us". When you get a chance, tell them “Thanks".
 

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day

               There is a time when this writer has to go stand on the soapbox and do some speaking about the things that I don’t usually argue about. Anyone who really knows me will attest to the fact that there are two subjects that this writer will not put on the table in order to sway someone to my way of thinking. One is religion and I will not say anything about anyone else and their preference of belief and how they go about making it a constant in their daily lives. Each person regardless of how they worship is still one of God’s children and thus able to worship any way they want. It doesn’t matter where they attend church or if they decide to go one on one with God in their own way to talk with him, because He does listen and He does hear you. So for all those who are reading this on Sunday morning, I give you credit in the way that you decide to worship, and I honor you for doing it your way.

                I now will move from that subject to another one that really needs to be looked at in every possible way, in order that someone or everyone wakes up to the fact that we are slowly placing our cities, states and country in a position that one day we will wake up and find our country taken over by forces that will take all our rights away and we, instead of being a free country will be one of oppression and a future of a domination by a dictator. How might this happen asks all of you? Well, here is my answer and I hope that you heed the warnings that this writer who normally would keep my mouth shut is about to bring forth, and it is deep from my heart that I decide to discuss it with you. Just recently and also last spring, and many elections before, we who are members of the greatest country in the world had a chance to use a freedom that each of us have and that is voting. There are not too many countries that allow the common people the right to choose who they want as a leader, but we are one of them. That right given to us by those brave people who fought over two hundred years ago for that right, is slowly being put on the back shelf and getting dusty. We are not exercising our right to vote and we expect others to vote as to who will lead us. We don’t realize that there is that little crack under the door that will one day allow the sudden realization that we are no longer free and no longer do we have any say in what we are allowed to do. No longer will we be a free nation “UNDER GOD”. No longer will we be able to go where we want and do what we want to do. No longer will we be safe in our homes, and no longer will we have the protection of the various laws set down to keep us a safe nation.

               Now here is the way that it might be done and I caution you that this is not a funny joke as I don’t joke about something as important as this is. If you as a possible voter don’t get off your backsides and start casting your vote, then you don’t have any say in how your government is run. That is where the small crack under our door comes in. Slowly the ones who would take us down are sneaking in and lying there ready to jump at the chance to take over. And the one way to do it is to do it from the inside, because we don’t look for that to happen, but it can. This year only a little more than a third of the possible voters voted in our election, and that my friends, stinks. Why can’t you get off your backsides and take a few minutes to go and cast your vote? You can’t say it is because you are working as there are many ways that allow you to vote. You can’t say that you have no transportation as there is always someone who will take you. There really isn’t any excuse except death or just downright laziness. And that my friends is a fact. So now that I have stepped down from my soapbox, I will leave you with this thought. I believe and I voted. I used the two most important rights that I have, and glad of it. Don’t ask me who I voted for or how I worship. That is my right too. The Great Father will one day call me Home and I hope that He will be content with me. The only thing that He will say is “Welcome Home, My Child”. Hopefully I covered that crack under the door before then.

Ray “"Uncle Ray"” Day

               They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that if you look hard enough, you will find that there is some beauty in everything. Well, this old man doesn't have to look too hard, because everything that I see , whether it is nature, or it is something man-made, is beautiful. That is just the way that I look at life.
               One of the most beautiful sights that I have ever seen, has to be ,when the morning starts turning from dark to light. This is something ,that I would like every man, woman, and child to experience once in their life. Make plans to take one night, to stay up and spend it outside, and at about three am, start watching the sky. Eventually, you will start seeing the change of darkness to light. It doesn't happen too fast, so you have time to see in slow motion, all the changes. The different colors, that come forth to you ,are just wonderful. The sun, that starts peeking over the horizon, just makes you want to see more, and you start really watching, as the light starts getting brighter. And if you want to make a whole day of it, you can stay out there and see blue skies with puffy clouds and the green grass growing under your feet. If it is spring, you see the new flowers starting their rise from the earth, and if it is getting into summer , you see the full bloom flowers with all the colors of the rainbow there to savor and enjoy. If it is the fall season, you start to see the change in the colors of the leaves and those plants that will go dormant for the cold season.
             And then the cold winter comes about and the pretty snow and the ice forms to make a scene of glory brought to you by The Great Father. The birds that might decide to follow the others to the warm part of the world get themselves ready for a trip that only they will make each year. And the dew that forms , the sounds of crickets, and bullfrogs, the cooing of the doves, all are things that you can see or hear before the sun sets in the west. Where else except in the world that was created by The Great Father can you see the beauty set before your eyes in an array of ways to please just about anyone in the world? The beauty is there and the way it looks to you is the way that you look at it.
            From sunrise to sunset there is beauty in the land. And every season has it good days as well as those days where you might just want to sleep through it. It might be too cold, or it might be too wet. It might be too hot or it might be raining too much. Those are all parts of the things that are given to us each day. Sometimes you have to take the bad in order to know what is good.
            I remember an old blessing that tells my feelings and here it is. “May the warm winds of heaven blow softly upon your house. May the Great Father Bless all who enter there. May your moccasins make happy tracks in many snows. And may the rainbow always touch your shoulder“.
           Sometimes I get a little free with my feelings and I hope that you the reader know that I enjoy expressing myself in the column I write each week. Maybe I get a little too sentimental and maybe I remember the past too much, but that is what I like to do. I don’t live in the past, but I use my life in the old days as a way to find my way in the present and just maybe in the future if God has that in His plan for me. My past is my blueprint for the future and it can be amended so that the paths of time will co-inside with any other path decided by me to follow. I know that my path is one of a narrow nature due to the way that I believe and I know that the end result of such a path can be a great one. There will be some blockages in that path where I can decide to walk around or to detour. That decision can only be made by me. So at that time, I know that with all the beauty that has been given for me to witness, I will be ready to walk around that blockage and continue on my original path . That is an easy decision for me to make.
To live our lives with love of our fellow man and to observe what is given to us each day, we are truly blessed. To let one day go by without saying thanks is a wasted one. Enjoy what has been placed before us. Visit with you next week over coffee.

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day

                    This writer believes in freedom for all people here in the USA and for the people in the countries that are ran with an iron fist by those demons of power. Our world is made up of all kinds of people and all colors with even the language different than ours. But they still are all God’s children regardless of their beliefs and their culture. The main difference between them and us here in America is the fact that we will fight to defend our country and our freedoms. We will not stand and watch our country be torn down to it’s core and left in a rubble of dead bodies and homes burning. We will not stand still while those roaches crawl under our doors and lay in wait to pounce on us. We will not give up without a fight because we can fight back and we can give those who want to take us down a defeat and a trip back to the lands that grows such filth, and breeds the demons of war. We won’t stand still and let our families die in front of us because of the fact that over two hundred years ago a group of freedom fighters decided that this nation would be free and ready to fight for it. And ever since then we have been blessed with those brave men and women who would fight to their deaths to preserve that freedom.

                    This country has been through many wars in it’s lifetime and many men and women have died in them. War is not the answer to preserve our freedoms and to give other countries the opportunity to be free, but it seems that it is the only one at this time. The bad part of all this is that most of those countries that our brave men and women fought for do not appreciate it and just as soon as we rebuild their countries, they turn on us and run us down. That is because we are free and because we fight for it and most of them are just too scared to take down their rulers and work toward a free country of their own. It is a known fact that we here in America are hated because of our freedoms and of our wealth and our way of government of the people and by the people. We are not so lazy that we will stand there and watch our country fall without a fight. Those in the countries that have been ruled with that iron fist just sit back and let their families be torn apart by the evil ones in power. I am not saying they don’t care, but what I am saying is that they are too afraid to make their own move to be free. This writer usually will not run down other countries because they have the right to believe and to be run by whoever they want but they don’t have to hate us and be ready to take us down because we are free. How many countries have we here in America sent food and clothing to? How many countries have our religious leaders sent their people to build hospitals and churches so that they could have the chance to get well and to believe? And how many of those countries thank us for the help given to them?

                 The reason that I ask all these questions is that we are in a war in Iraq and trying to create a democracy of freedom for all those who have been under the complete domination of an oppressor, and who’s lives are in doubt each day. We are sending our brave men and women over to fight their fight and it would be nice if they appreciated it. Just this week, one of our family members has left for that area to help bring peace to Iraq. He is like my own son and has been a loyal member of the armed forces for 23 years. He has seen the bad with the good and I know that he will do the job that so many of our young folk has been doing since the war began. We fear for him and we praise him for being ready to fight so that others might be free. He will be in our prayers each day as the war goes on and we wish for a speedy return home just like we do for each one over there. Do we like the war? No we don’t ,but we realize that we have the finest soldiers in the world ready to fight so that we might never have to do it on the homeland. We have to fight not only over there but here also in our attempt to keep America free. We have to support not only those brave soldiers but also our leaders who will carry a heavy burden until that war is over. Praise our military for keeping us free. Hopefully it wont be long until they are done and home.

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day

          There are times when I have to unload my thoughts that at this time of life dwells deep in my heart and soul. We here in America , even though we don’t like to admit it, are on the verge of another terrible war close to and even touching our shores. We as Americans, who have opened our doors and our gates to all who wants to be free, have gotten to that stage of life of being in fear of what will happen today and what will be the result tomorrow. With all the countries in this world, built by The Great father, trying to get the jump on each other in the manufacturing of nuclear weapons and with the countries in the far east who can’t get along with each other since the day one, we fear for the time that will suddenly come that bring the hand of God down to tell us that enough is enough and if there can’t be peace among man, there will be no more world.

          That , I feel is the possibility that we might find at our doorstep soon. I have never been one to judge nor one to believe that I am any better than any other, but I have to unload this heavy weight from my shoulders and drop it in the laps of all the others who soon might feel the same way. We here in this great country have closed our eyes to the facts and we have allowed those people to enter our country under the premise of wanting to be free and yet they plot from within to overthrow our government and abolish our freedom all in the name of their god. It is time that we close our doors to those who hate us so much , that they feel killing themselves and thousands of us all in the name of their god is right. My heart and my soul and my belief in The Great Father tells me that we are His children and we were made to live in peace with each other. Using logical sense and not just a theory, if we are to keep this world from being destroyed, we have to be able to live with each other and not in fear of each other.

           I am not one of the fanatics who tell of the world coming to an end because there is only one who knows when that day will come. None of the children of The Great Father knows when that day will come about, but they can do something to delay it from happening. We can learn to live in peace with each other and we can share with each other all the goods of this world. I have lived through several wars that our country has been in and I was never called to fight for my country. But if it had come my time to fight for what is right so that this world might soon be free of the eyes of Satan, I would have been proud to do so . Now you might say that I have spoken out of both sides of my mouth, by knocking the fighting and then admitting that I would fight but there are two arms sticking out there that means two different things. To be free you must first acquire it. To do that you would have to fight someone for that freedom.. And that takes me to this declaration that we have many young men and women being sent over to fight along side our people who are already there in order to bring peace to a country that has been damned with the eyes of Satan and which has people there who hate us even though we are trying to free them. Those men and women are leaving their families to fight a war that might never end. But then that is what an American is. He and she is a fighter for the freedom and peace of the world. They don’t feel that they have to blow themselves up to take out the evil ones. They will stand and fight for what they believe in and that is peace in the world and the continued path of freedom in the USA. So here in a nutshell is my declaration. When those great men and women come home, they ought to be able to buy with a discount, they should pay less taxes, and they should be able to live in peace for the rest of their lives. And that goes for anyone who has served our country as fighters of peace and freedom for all. We really don’t do enough for our people of the armed forces and it is time that we wake up to the fact that they have kept us free for over two hundred years, and without them where would we be. If you think that this column was a little out of my way, just wait for the next ones.

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day
 
 

            A friend told me the other day that I should share my everyday thoughts with the readers of my column as there are many and just maybe one that needs help with his or her everyday life. Well, first of all , I try not to interfere with the everyday life of others and I would never try to force my thoughts on someone who doesn’t want it. But as my friend suggested, maybe if I help one person, then I did good so here today, I am going to just give you my thoughts and you can do what you want with them. If  I do make a difference in your life let me know because then my life will be enriched with that difference and my heart will be pumped with joy of the stream of giving and praise. The thoughts that you will read today are the ones that I try to go by each and every day of my life and being able to know that I might be able to help someone makes my narrow road to The Promise Land a easier one to walk. So sit back with your coffee and walk with me as I relate my thoughts with you.

           Habits are part of our being and some can cause the most severe problems in our lives as we go about our everyday routines. The worst habit is “worrying”. We worry about just about everything and where does it get us? Over in a corner, hoping that we might make it through the day without something happening to us. I try not to worry about things that I can’t do anything about. With worry you have fear and that is the greatest problem to overcome, but you can get around it at least for today and then you have to be ready to fight it tomorrow. If you don’t try to combat fear then you lose your self-respect, and that is a great loss to you. This takes you on the path of self pity which is a long and wide road with holes and blockages to make you fall to the side and decay. To make excuses on why you don’t respect yourself, is to say that you have no hope . That is where faith comes in. You use your faith to get you through. You learn how to smile and you learn to use enthusiasm in your everyday tasks. You receive and use integrity in everything that you want to do with your life. You find out how to say “I can” and you learn to be unselfish to others.  You find that giving is a blessing, and helping others gives you peace of mind. You learn to not listen to the gossipers as they spread their thoughts with you and others. The tongue at times can be a weapon so dangerous that it can take you to the lowest levels of humanity. You encourage others to live their lives to the fullest, and still follow that narrow road to The Promise Land. You decide to be a leader or you find the right person to follow and you apply this to your daily life. Our youth needs someone to follow and if it can’t be the parents, it could be you who will watch over them and lead them in the right direction. And you learn to talk to The Great Father who is right beside you at all times. He has given you the greatest computer of all, “the brain” to use and fill with knowledge and hope. He gave you life which is the greatest gift of all, and you should use it wisely and with respect to yourself and to others.

           Learn to love yourself and others too. And while we are in the season , lets  put forth some thoughts about what we can be thankful for. Be thankful that you don’t have everything, because there would not be anything to look forward to. Be thankful when you don't know something, because that  gives you the opportunity to learn. Just be  thankful for the good things, because a life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are also thankful.  Be thankful for your mistakes, because that way you  learn valuable lessons.  Be thankful for each new challenge, because that will build your strength and character. There are many ways that you and I can be a better person. You try to listen and react with responsibilities. You do what is good for all and not just a few.   You go into the forest to see one tree instead of outside where you see a lot of trees. You stop to smell the roses and at the same time you look up to see others doing the same thing. Look around and you will see others with smiles on their faces. Take a good look at yourself and then correct that which is wrong, and then follow that long narrow path Home. As I said before this is my way at looking at my life. Talk with you next week.

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day

           Mom lived three years longer than Dad did and although she had all the kids to love her, it just wasn’t the same without her man. She told me many times that she missed him so much and one day they would soon be back together. Such was the love of two people in the days of old when the vow meant something to both. So the memories that I have of my parents is a lot more than they had of their parents. Those memories rest in my heart and are very precious to me.

          Lets take a little trip back in time to those days of old and see what we as children and they as parents had to put up with . First off my Dad was a hard worker who knew that the family depended on him to feed , clothed, and have a home to live in. He never asked for anyone to thank him and he worked a lot of overtime to bring in as much as he could. He didn’t have too many change of clothes because the money was used to live on. He would do his own shoe repair putting on new soles and new heels using the tools given down to him from his days as a kid. Mom always was there to patch and darn his socks so that he didn’t have to buy new ones.

          Dad’s one bad habit was the use of chewing tobacco and he got as much as he could out of the wad before finally spitting it out. He smoked a pipe but I never saw him with a cigarette. I guess he sort of deserved to have a few habits since he did all he could for us and Mom. Now Mom was the chief cook and bottle washer so to speak in that she was the one to keep house for a bunch of kids that she loved very much. She knew that her man was out there slaving on the job to bring the money in and she did her part raising the kids, cooking for us, doing our laundry, and making sure that we did our homework and that we were in the house safely under her watchful eyes. So you might say that they both gave their lives to taking care of us until that time when we would leave the nest to build our own lives.

          The main things that they did was to teach each of us that to be able to be out there on our own, we needed to be able to survive. Mom taught us to cook, sew, do the laundry, clean house and respect others. I would have to say that my life would have been a loss without having them to train us and to love us. Were we poor? We might not of had the best but the love that we received with what they could provide, was all that can be asked for. Do I miss them? I sure do but they were tired and their bodies were ready to make the trip Home. How did we turn out? Well I can’t speak for the others because they can do their own talking, but my life was enriched by the two of them and I hope that they knew that while they were still here. How many times did we thank them? Not really enough because you can never say it too many times to those two people that raised you from day one. If I was to pick out the most important time in my life it would have to be the day I was born to Mom and Dad.

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day

The only real good news about our quest in Iraq is the capture of Saddam who was found in a hole in the ground alive . We saw on  television where he was found and rightfully so he was like a rat in a hole with no place to go. What gets me is here is a demon who expected his loyal people to commit murder while killing themselves and he was too scared to take his own life when found. Of course my belief is that according to scripture, you should not kill and most of all yourself. This world in it’s lifetime has seen many an animal of power try to take all of us to the lowest depths in order that they might be the only power in command. And as the world reacts that animal is taken down and sent to their deaths so that The Creator can pass final judgement on them. Hopefully their rightful spot is down in the fire below in eternal suffering.

In 2003 we saw the forces of the USA go over and in just a few days take control of a very sticky but war torn Iraq with many nations telling us that they would not help us. Countries that we thought were our friends have turned their backs to us and walked the other way. Such is our world in a look at what others think of us. Yet when they need help, who is the first they go to. Yes, you are right. They knock on our doors and with their hands out they ask for us to help them with money, our armed forces and our voice in asking others to help them. Such is what the good old USA means to the rest of the world. We are their puppets draped around their hands doing the dirty work for them. I am a proud American who lives in the USA because it is free and it is the best place in the world to be.

My thoughts about some of the other countries can’t be put in print and that is ok. But now that the demon in Iraq has been captured and when he is finally tried and convicted, we  will find that the door to these countries will be opened to us so that we might give our money to them as always. It is in my deepest part of my soul that I say that we as Americans living in the greatest country in the world take heed to that possibility and we keep our money in our pockets taking care of only the poor in this country. Too long have we been the guardians of humanity only to have it shoved right back in our faces. Too long we have taken upon ourselves to help those who hate us so much that they would attempt to tear us down with our own resources. And too long we have been dependent upon the oil producing countries to rob us blind when we should be attempting to find a way of using our own resources that are laying beneath our feet here in our own country. Is this the thoughts of one who is supposed to turn the other cheek? Well, The Great Father only gave each of us two cheeks and sometimes we have to resort to the possibility of fighting back. I was taught to dislike the idea of war to solve our problems. I was taught that many times it is better to walk away from a fight and live another day. I was taught that we all are God’s children and we should treat each other with respect and to love thy brother. In my lifetime, I have tried to follow the teachings of our parents and grandparents, but as my life begins to get close to that final step in my walk towards the Promise Land, I do have thoughts about why should we let the demons of war take our children down and leave a legacy of oppression by the evil ones. We must prepare our children for the time when they will have to make that decision of turning the other cheek, or to fight back. Such is our destiny, and such is our gift to those who will follow us.
Ray “Uncle Ray” Day

I guess that we here in the good old USA are people ,who once we get what we want, we don’t want to give it up. Back in the days of old when they were just starting the venture to the new land of freedom and independence, they had no way of knowing just how hard it would be to gain and maintain a gift of freedom and the various degrees of that freedom. They were just one group that had ventured onto the soil that until now was the sole home of the American Indian. By migrating here they had the opportunity of being free if they could use their bodies to fight those who didn’t want them to leave their dominance and live as human beings instead of ones held back by the oppression of others. As time went by, they found that in order to be free and to order to be treated fairly, they needed to band together instead of trying to hold up by themselves. A group of men and women who came to the head of the class as ones who would be their voices decided on building what they now call a government of the people , by the people and for the people. That group decided that one day they would finally have to fight for the right and they did so thus gaining their independence from those countries they came from. In order to make our government binding upon all, there was a bill of rights enacted that told everyone that they had those rights and were ones that would hold up in the highest court and honored by all others here in this great country.

For over two hundred years we lived by those rights and we prospered by those rights and our faith was honored by those rights. But in the last few years we have been witnessed to those rights being slowly taken from our grasp and given no backing by our courts and it’s system. We have the freedom of the press yet if we voice our opinions, we are liable to be sued. We have freedom of religion, yet there is always someone who wants to sway you over to their way of worship thus creating the very visable gaps in our churches that keeps getting wider each year. We have the freedom of placing our children in classes that would pledge allegiance to our flag and we have the right to honor our God with His words upon our money and our buildings of government only to have someone that is in a very small minority try to take those rights from us. It seems that if one person does not want something then he or she can take it away from all the others. Our Supreme Court takes one look at what these roaches want and they tell all the rest of us that we can’t have it because it is in the conflict of the church and state.

I for one am very tired of looking at our televisions and our newspapers and seeing that once again one person can dictate over the vast majority. Take a look, people, and that is why all those countries in the so called third world are where they are now. Being ruled by one instead of by representation. We here in the USA need to wake up and say that those roaches who creep under our doors and live in the walls until they find that one spot of infestation, need to be packed up and sent to those countries of oppression and made to live as slaves to that ruler until they wake up too late to change their ways. No one is going to tell me how I can worship, how I can express myself, and how I can vote. That my friends is what I was born into and I sure as heck am not going to give up what is rightfully mine. Every man , woman, and child should be very proud of being an American and being proud of all those who have been and still are fighting so that you and I will remain free. It doesn’t matter what race you are, what church you attend, or where your families came from. If you are born here, you are an American. If you came here as immigrants and you took the vows of becoming a citizen, then you too are an American. Is there any other country more inviting to live in because of the rights of all the people? Not in my sense of being as I am one proud American who wants to remain free of the roaches of Satan, In my love of living with the rights fought for by our brave soldiers of the past, I will not allow someone to take them away from me. It should be the love of each one living here to keep our freedoms high enough so that no one can take them down. Walk with me on the road of life with the rights most richly deserved

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day

As this year of 2004 has started, and we look back to where we were and then back further to the time of our parents, we wonder just how did we get this far, and how much further will we be able to go before there is no more. As time in the old days of our grandparents and our parents is just a memory that we use to talk and write about them, we wonder just how much they were able to see ahead and hope for the best of the next generation. Not too many lived as long as we do now, as their day started out with work and it ended in the same way. To be able to put out a garden to eat from and to raise their chickens and cows as well as hogs, it was a full time job with the only rest being that which they got from their sleep. Most tried to leave Sunday as a day of rest and church going, but even then the chores were there to do and you just can’t let it wait until the next day. The people in those days of old had to do with what they had and the everyday things like washing the clothes, keeping the house clean, cooking and yes, the needed facilities for waste removal were what the people could make of it.

Imagine one of you having to go to the bathroom outside in the woods or even as they became fashionable, the outhouse.. Try to visalize yourself doing the washing of your clothes in the creek and then hanging them up in the cold air of winter, only to have to bring them inside and prop them on hangers near the old heating stove. Think about the meat you would have to eat after it was cut up in front of your eyes, or the water from the creek that just the day before was used to bathe in , Think about sleeping on a straw mattress that sunk down where you lay and the blankets made as quilts made by Mom or Grandma that kept the heat inside so that you wouldn’t freeze during the night. Waking up in the morning to find ice on the top of the blanket would be very scary but it was possible and it did sometimes. Think about having to go stand near the heating stove just to get yourself and your clothes warm enough to put on. And remember in order to cook breakfast, you had to get the kitchen cook stove going with coal, wood, corncobs and matches. This is just a typical day starting out and we wonder why our grandparents didn’t live as long as we do now.

Now in my childhood days, it was Mom running the house, Dad working his backside off to earn the money needed to live on, and the kids enjoying the family way of living. But even then as soon as the children were old enough to do their chores around the house, they were told that they had certain duties and they were expected to do them each day as they were told and there wasn’t any excuse except being sick. And you better never try to fake an illness in our family as Mom was a very smart mother and she could get you well very fast. The chores in my day were bringing the coal in every night before dark, cleaning the ashes out of both the heating stove and the cook stove, chopping wood for both stoves, and helping with the dishes after that great lady we called Mom fixed the best food in the land for her kids and her man. We were taught to cook, sew, doing the laundry, hang out the clothes after they were washed, and any other thing that Mom thought we needed to know before we left the nest. Most of us never really thought that one day we would be on our own with families depending on us as we did with our parents. We felt secure with having someone to lead us and to be there always. But life is not like that. Life goes on after the parents are called Home. And you better be prepared for it because it happens in just one wink of the eye. Mom won’t be there to soothe your pains. Dad won’t be there to work his backside off for you. They will only be there in your heart and what you do in your life is out of memories and respect to them. Take the training that they gave you and use it to enrich your life.  Make their existence in your life meaning-full. Follow the path they started for you. Most of all remember to tell God “THANKS” for giving you to them to raise. Then as you go in life they are still with you in memory. Thanks Mom & Dad for a life of love and precious memories from your son. And Thank you God for MOM & DAD.

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day

Time once more for my opinion. You know what? This writer just like many others who believe in the freedoms we have here in this country have just sat back and let those things happen that will one day take all of our freedoms from us. We have just sat on our backsides and watched the family authority taken from the parents and the schools unable to enforce their rules.. I have watched the youngsters tell their parents that they will have them arrested if they discipline them. This is so sad to know that it can happen. The police department are doing their job so you can’t blame them. They are just obeying the statues of law. The fault lies in the court systems. Mostly in the Supreme Courts who back up the roaches of Satan . It is the courts and the people who we put in office to represent us in the state and federal seats that come up with these laws. Also we sat back and we watched as prayer was taken from the schools and the children attending just because some lowly small group decided that they didn’t not want it in the schools. Then we watched as we allowed the courts to back up that same lowly groups of backenders telling us that we couldn’t have the ‘Ten Commandments’ on the same ground as our buildings of government. And in the pledge of allegiance, they didn’t want the words “UNDER GOD” in it. And to top all this off our supreme courts backed them up, thus allowing a small group the say-so over the majority.

Every day we see something that was fought for and died for taken away from the majority to appease the lowly group of people that also has the backing of that group of lawyers that was formed under the disguise of protecting rights but they take them away from us. We need to do several things and the first step is to step forward and tell everyone that we are tired of being run over and we are not going to take it anymore. Then we need to get our elected officials together and tell them that if they won’t fight for those rights to be given back, then they can be recalled. Then we need to clean the supreme court of those people who will let a small group dominate the majority. Retire their backsides to the park benches where they can see what they have made possible to happen. Then as a final step, we need to dismantle that group of lawyers who pretend to be working for good while making it possible for the roaches of satan to dictate to all the good people on what they can do and what they can’t do.

I remember many years ago while communism was trying to take over the world, and their bald-header leader saying that they would take America down without a shot being fired. Take a look folks and see if that is not happening today right in front of our eyes. We have had great men who led our soldiers in the wars who believed that in order to take someone down you had to work from within. Think about that because that is slowly happening to the best country in the world, the good old USA. How long must we as a free country subject ourselves to intervention by other countries sneaking their spies into this country right in front of our eyes? When are we as a free nation “Under God” going to finally say that it is time to fight for all those rights that our beloved ancestors fought for and those children we have right now fighting for?  I for one, even though I try to solve problems by talking and reasoning, say that it is that time when we must make that move to search and arrest those roaches that are attempting to infest our country and our government..

Some might not think so, but we here in AMERICA have the best government and the most rights and the most freedom of anyone else in the whole world, but we can’t just sit there on our backsides and watch them slowly disappear. As a believer, I know that we need to get along but I also know that is not possible unless both sides are willing to do so. Also as a believer , I know that God above watches all this going on and He waits for the time when we finally have peace in the world and love of the fellow man is the word of the day. This can’t happen as long as there is fighting between countries and the abandoning of His name. It is time my friends to wake up to the fact that to be free we have to want it. And in order to keep all those rights that our forefathers fought for, we have to take out those roaches that want to tear down our use of God in our everyday lives.
 

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day

One of my readers sent me a letter the other day, telling me that she reads and likes my column that each Sunday is there for her to read and remember the things that are in her bank of memories. She said that each spring her mother would fluff out the straw mattress in her bed, by opening one end of it and reach in and move the straw around and up to get a more even mattress to sleep on. While doing this one spring, her wedding ring came off and she was very distressed about it. She and the kids emptied the straw tick onto the floor and everyone sifted through the straw until they found the ring. Mom and the kids rejoiced about finding it.

She said that she was ten years old before they had electricity. They used the old kerosene lamps for light. In order to iron the clothes, they would heat up the iron on the cook stove and then proceed to iron with it, many times having to heat it up on the stove to keep it hot. They tried to do this with three irons. She said that the old days were real nice but there were some that she could do without . She has just turned 92 years young and still does things that most her age couldn‘t. It is memories like the ones she has that I like to read and write about..

Now here in this column today I am going to pass on to you the reader, some words to live by, if you want to.
If you can’t be kind, have the decency to be still.
If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you don't have a leg to stand on.
Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
The early worm gets eaten by the bird, so sleep late.
Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
Birthdays are good for you; the more you have, the longer you live.
Ever notice that the people who are late are often much jollier than the people who have to wait for them?
If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?
You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person. Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
Happiness comes through doors you didn't even know you left open.
Most of us are like crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have odd names, and all are different colors, but they all still have to learn to live in the same box.
A pessimist complains about the wind, An optimist waits for it to change, and a realist learns to adjust the sails .

These are not my words but they are the words of people who look at life as a gift and a challenge.

Throughout the days of my childhood, I have heard a lot of great sayings, but the best ones that thrills me are the words that a loved one can give you. Those words are “I Love You” . Nowhere in any language are there words of expression, that mean so much in such a small amount of words. The mothers and the fathers in the old days showed their love for the children with actions more than words. Oh sure they told you that they loved you, but without the actions of showing that love through their sacrifices of doing without so that you didn’t do without was a love without words. Only Mom and Dad could do that. A little pat on the head, a big smile as you looked their way, and the way that they watched out for you without you knowing it.

I miss my mother and father very much but as I look back and I see all the things they did for me , I know that Heaven was the final place for them, and that makes me feel real good, knowing where they are. I remember one day while visiting my dad in the hospital with mom by my side, he slipped me a note and then looked toward mom. After leaving the hospital, mom asked me about the note. I opened it up and let her read it. It said that dad was going to have some tests where he would be put to sleep and he didn’t want me to miss a day at work because of it. That was his way of asking me to be there. Now that my friends is love between father and son. Isn’t it wonderful?
 

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day

                 I can tell you about a young lady of 34 years who was dying of cancer and drugs were used to give her more time. I remember her saying that here she was taking the drugs to stay alive and the kids out there are taking them to die. That was my daughter Patricia, and she loved the young kids. Her last job was being a school bus driver and she loved it because of the kids on her bus. Another person who takes drugs to stay alive is me, and I never take anything that isn’t prescribed by my doctors. They are in charge of my living, and I am in charge of my dying.  If I don’t do as they tell me, I will die.

                When are we, as a civilized nation, going to realize that our lives can be fruitful, or it can be one of agony? When are we going to say we have had enough and rid our cities of the narcotics pushed by those people who could care less about their fellow man? They are in it for one reason and that is an easy fast buck at the expense of out young people. Just remember that the reason it is called dope is because only a dope would use it for getting high.

               Think about this if you will. If you take something that will get you high and put you on cloud nine, just remember that the higher you get the harder and faster you fall. If you try taking it just to show your so-called friend that you are cool, then  remember that the cool is there for a short time as your friend will move on to get someone else to show you he or she is cool. And if you spend your last cent on a fix so that you can be there in space, remember that your friend will let you have more if you do what he or she wants. Remember that once you are no good to your so-called friends , they will hang you out to dry with agony mixed with a burned out brain that won’t ever do you any more good. So you are the one that has to make that choice because you have already shut the door to the real friends that could have been there to help you if you wanted to let them. A friend that is clean in his or her heart is a friend that you need, and the friends that you make on down the line of life are ones who will use you as a role model.

              Get out there and tell the people who are trying to fight this war on drugs that you want to enlist and help someone walk that straight line to glory. If you don’t want to join, then that is ok too, but you still need to know that it is you who will determine what kind of a life is waiting for you. It is you who must either walk away from your so-called friends, or join them for a ride that will send you through the bowels of hell.  It wouldn’t be hard for me to decide what ride I would be getting on. And remember that the choice you make will affect not only you but your family and friends. It’s not easy, but who ever said that life would be easy.

             Take it from a man who wants you to have a good life and a very happy one too. You just can’t have that using dope. Get on the new ride in town called the “AGAINST DRUGS EXPRESS”.  Stay away from those who would get you to join them in their ride through what they think is cool, even though they know the heartache and agony  it causes. Life is too short to throw it away on one thrill. Go sit down with Mom and Dad and ask for their help if you can’t say no by yourself. Or find that one person who will help you through the right door in order to walk the path of pure thoughts and deeds.

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day
 
 

                            Living back in the days of old, I had a dream. Given a scholarship to Indiana University, I wanted to be a lawyer. But that grant wasn’t enough to pay for everything, so I went to work in the steel mill to get the rest of the money needed to go to IU. As time went by, the reasons for not going seemed to get more and more and finally my marriage and the births of my two daughters, brought me to the fact that life had to be taken as it is dealt to me. Although I still look back to what it might have been, I have no regrets because my life with Ramona and the blessing of our two children, has been a great ride and although we lost Patricia at the age of thirty four, we still have that pretty daughter named Deborah to love each day of our lives. So the uncertainty of life is what you make of it. You do what you can and you don’t worry about the part that you can’t do anything about.

                            Wars will always be a part of those countries that we are helping now. I really don’t think that what we can do will make a difference in their lives but it will in ours. We will lose our youngsters and we will grieve the losses, but God was waiting for someone who would try to bring that peace that no one wants. So what do we do? Or better yet, what can we do? If those people who live under oppression don’t have the courage to stand up and be counted, then we as a country built by truth and by hard work along with our belief in God and all else that is good, cannot stand still and wait for that oppression to make it’s way into our lives. We need to believe in our system and if someone crawls under the doors or through the cracks in order to infest our belief, then we should take whatever measures that is needed to send them running away, back to their lives of poverty and danger of being taken down by those leaders who don’t believe in the human rights of others.

                           For many years we as the free country have tried to save other countries from hardship and death only to be spit upon in our faces. God does want us to turn our cheeks and walk away but then He gave us only two cheeks. Maybe it is time that we as a free country pull all of our armed forces from the other countries, place them along our borders and dare anyone to attack. Maybe it is time that we as a free country start saying no to all the other countries, and saying yes to our own people when it comes that they need assistance to live. Just maybe if we do this then those people in the other countries will decide to fight for their rights and build themselves up to the level of humanity that God wants in his people. Will it ever come to pass that all countries will be safe for their own people? Will it ever come to pass that all of us can live without fear of our fellow man? It could and it should because that my friends is what God intended to have when He created mankind. When is God going to get what He wants? Have I opened some closed eyes. I hope I have.
 

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day
 
 

Enough of that as this week the word is to be happy as to what we do and how we do it. Too many times we go hide in a corner afraid of what lies ahead, instead of taking care of our problems as they come about in our everyday life. We worry about the weather and how to get out and go to the places needed, instead of just maybe going out the next day when it is better. We worry about going to bed hungry when we have all the things needed to make our bread and the water is there waiting to be used. No one, if they try, can go hungry in just a short time. We worry about getting newer clothes to wear even though the ones we have are still ok enough to wear. And we worry about how others will look at us even though they probably feel the same way. Too many times we worry about things that can’t be changed and we have to either live with it or go bury our heads in a deep hole until it goes away.

So here are my words to you if you want to hear them. If you don’t then maybe it is time to turn the page because there are a lot more interesting things in this newspaper to read if you desire. Now, there is no reason to worry about those things that you can’t change. As far as what to wear, are you trying to impress someone with your choice or is it you that is not comfortable in what you have. To many times we dress the way that others want us to and this writer feels that you should dress your way as long as you are clean about it. As far as going hungry, there are a lot of places that you can go get groceries that won’t break your pocketbook and you still get all the nutrients needed. If you are a two member family, and if you wanted too, you could get by with a cost of less than two dollars , and have enough to eat that day. In my family if we wanted to we could feed the both of us at a cost of less than twenty dollars per week, using our way of saving the leftovers for the next day or freezing them to eat at the end of the week. You don’t have to pay top dollar for food if you are willing to buy the generic brands which with the proper seasoning, taste good enough. Why go to a movie when all you have to do is to change the channels on your television. Or take a look at the books that have been gathering dust and you might find something you passed up in the past. Or you could even find Sunday’s paper and you could read my column again maybe getting a little more out of it than the first time. Life, as it is with each of us, is different according to how we feel about ourselves and not worrying about how others think of you. My life has been enriched because of this newspaper giving me the room to write my thoughts down, and knowing that people care about what I write about , makes me determined to give them the very best , and sometimes the topic hits home. I get a lot of positives letters and e mails from the readers and that makes my day. My thanks go to you, the reader, and to this paper.
Ray “Uncle Ray” Day

If you young people out there think that your pension will be enough for you to live on, you my friends are in the dark without a light switch to turn on. Social security was not designed to give you full piece of mind, as it’s purpose was to supplement another source of income, such as a company pension, or an investment that would pay you after you retire. Ok, now here you are with your pension from the government, your supplement income from your place of employment and you start a budget so that the money coming in will stretch enough, so that at the end of that month you have survived and you see that pinching the penny turned out to be the stretching of the dollar. You wonder why in the world did I think that this time in our lives would be full of roses and bright skies with the warmth of the air keeping you feeling good? Was I misled or didn’t I realize that life changes and the price of things needed would change too? Oh sure there are those who throw caution to the wind and they sell out their home and they go live somewhere else where they have always wanted to live but work did not allow such a move until that time of retirement. Many of my friends have gone south to the warm air and the retirement villages and more power to them. They deserve every little bit of joy that they can get. In my case Kokomo has been and always will be my home until the day that God calls me home. Am I in bad shape as far as having the money to live my life to the fullest? No, I’m not because I did pinch that penny and I have stretched that dollar. I did prepare myself to that time when I or my health decided that it was time to hang it up. But even I wasn’t prepared for those things that keep stretching our pockets to the point of having holes that would not hold the change for a rainy day. Your utility bills are going up and did you see what your gas bill was? That my friends is a thing of agony as each and everyone of us depend on that gas to keep warm in the winters.

And at the top of each one of those companies is a CEO who does no more than being a figurehead and getting paid a salary that is so far out of reach by the common man, and for nothing that warrants such a salary. No man or woman is worth getting the salaries of those people who sit at the top and wait for some youngster to advise him or her on the next move. Now here is where I must say that there are some at the top that if not there the companies would cease to exist. They make decisions that actually do make profit for the company and not just filling up their pockets. So as I leave you today, it is with these words . Save for that rainy day, or retirement time. Don’t knock the social security program because without it you are doomed to poverty in it’s worst way. Figure on having enough so that you can survive. Start asking your utility companies why are they milking us dry. Tell your representatives in Congress to quit asking for more pay raises. Instead of raising taxes, hold them at a frozen level for the next twenty years. If we don’t need things don’t vote them in. Will I survive? Yes I will because I watch for every bit of savings I can. And when I and the good woman pass on, our kids will have what we want to leave to them.
Ray “Uncle Ray “ Day
 
 

                         Time to talk about Mom and Dad. My memories of Mom and Dad are subjects that I enjoy writing about and according to the mail from the readers, they enjoy reading about them too. I remember my mother who with her real dark hair and eyes that glowed and who never really got too mad at anything, would always be there to protect us from anything that might cause harm to us. You might not think she was anywhere around, but if you hurt yourself or if someone else hurt you, she was there in a fast minute to give you peace and harmony and the protection of a parent like it is supposed to be. She was there to make sure you were fed , kept warm in the winters, and cool in the summers. She was there to play her music on the piano, and she was there to tell you stories about her days of old, and boy she could bend your ear with some stories about our grandmother, and what she had to go through bringing up her children. Many times mom would get us all together with our friends in the neighborhood, and she would leave us spellbound with some stories about whatever subject you wanted to hear. And if there was goodies to be had, she made sure that there was enough to go around, so that sharing with your friends was always number one. Mom was one of those ladies that knew no enemies, and loved everyone. Everyone in the neighborhood liked her and that made all of us kids very proud.

                        When you talk about Mom, you have to talk about her cooking. Our mother could take a piece of bread or a cracker and make a great snack with it. She could take a sack of cornmeal and do things with it that kept our bellies full. The same with flour, as she could make the best biscuits ever . I remember watching her as she would make her dough , roll it out and then use the glass jars to press down into the dough to cut those biscuits out and then place them in the pie plates , then into the oven. She would keep a close check on them because Mom didn’t want her man and her kids to eat any burnt ones. Then you could take that biscuit, slice it open and smother it with some of her oleo butter, and with it running down your chin, you would eat like a king. Many of the mornings you would find Mom making her biscuits, and Dad making the gravy, putting some meat in the gravy while stirring it until the right thickness came about.

                      Dad was never one to do the cooking in the house except for that gravy making. He left the rest up to Mom to make and feed her children each day. Dad was the breadwinner and he worked out in some very bad weather on his job, doing it well so that the paycheck kept coming every two weeks. I never really knew how hard he worked and how dangerous his job was until I started working there. I say to all my friends that until you work with your Dad at his place of business, you never really know what he has to go through. And that is true in whatever profession your parent is in. You just don’t have any idea what he is going through each day to earn that paycheck. Dad worked out in some lousy weather both in the winter and the summer. His job was to keep things running on the electric side and he did his job no matter if it was 80 in the shade or 15 below in the cold. Many times, I wanted to tell my Dad that I would do it for him, but he knew that it was his job and that is what they paid him to do. He was tired each day when he got home and you knew that he was to be left alone so that he could rest. When Dad finally retired, he was so tired that he just sat down and that was the coming of the end for him. You work hard all your life and you want to rest but you can’t just stop everything. You have to do something each day so that the old bones don’t go out on you.

                     When Dad passed away, Mom lost her friend, her lover, and her protector, and she started downhill from there on. She missed that grouchy old man that she had spent her lifetime with. Fifty three years with him was her life as was her children. Mom and Dad are in Heaven now and they sit there in the clouds at reunion time and they watch their brood having fun. Life without them is something we never wanted to see, but it happens to all of us. Do something for me. Give your Mom and Dad a big hug today. Tell them that you love them and mean it.
Ray “Uncle Ray” Day
 
 

          But the one thing that I haven’t really done is to single out one person and tell you what he means to me. I have a neighbor who also is my younger brother, and today you will learn about the things that make me proud to call him my brother and my best friend. His name is Russell, but those close to him know him as “Rut”. Here is a brother twelve years younger than I am and he treats me like he is the oldest in that he looks out for me and he does things for me without me asking him to help. Many times I can look out and see him mowing my yard, putting fertilizer on it, cleaning up my area of trash that might of blown into my yard. Just about everyday, he checks on me and asks if I am ok. If I need to go to the doctor or hospital in Indy, he is there parked in front of the house waiting on me. He works on my car, whenever he has time. He goes to the ballgames with me and we have fun together. And one thing that he does is to honor my opinion just like I honor his.

          So here is what I want to say to everyone. You should be lucky enough to have a brother like him. If there were a day to honor brothers, I would enter his name as the title of it. Wouldn’t be nice to have a day that all brothers could have to honor each other? And to top that off with him being your best friend puts icing on the cake. And you ought to see him around his two kids. His daughter Kelly and his son Michael have one great father. And if you watch him around his two grand-daughters, you can see that gleam of satisfaction, of being a grandpa. And you can walk into his home and see everything in it’s place with him doing whatever housework needed to keep it that way. I would say that here is a man who deserves more out of life, but I better not because this man is one who does not covet the life of another. He is content in how he treats others, because he treats them like he wants to be treated. Just about any of his friends will attest to the things that I am saying about him. His brothers and sisters love him as I do, and they would stand on the soapbox and tell the world that here is one heck of a nice man who just happens to be a family member.

          I didn’t have to write this about him because his family and friends feel the same way. I just have the combination of a neighbor, best friend, and a brother all wrapped into one. I know when he reads this, he will wonder why I am doing it. Well, the reason is that I love you and I will tell the whole world about it.

          And that my friends is what we need in the world today. We need to tell each other that we are friends always and that all you have to do is ask for a little help and that one person who is in the shadows will come forward with the help needed. How many friends do you have that would be there for you if you needed help? And would they expect you to shell out for that help? Is it too much to ask if you need help for that person to assist you in whatever you need done? I guess I am one of those lucky ones who came from a family that included this wonderful brother, that means a lot to me.

          If you see “Rut” anytime, mention to him that you read this and that Ray sure told the truth about him. As I stated before “Rut” is special to me as a younger brother taking on the role of an older one. I know that if you asked Mary, Neva, Wanda, or John, what they think of “Rut”, they would say that they too are very proud to have him for their brother. Dad named Russell Leon after two of his best friends at the mill, because they were always there for him. I guess what goes around comes around. When Mom gave birth to that fat little baby sent down from God, He must of told her that here will be that son, brother, father, grandfather, neighbor, and friend to all who knows him. Lets start the “Salute to my brother day” so that you out there can enjoy the same friendship with your brother, like I do now.
Ray “Uncle Ray” Day