THE FUTURE OF SENIOR CENTERS

After having a grand total of only six meals served today at noon, the North Brookfield Senior Center reveals a sign of the times: APATHY. THE IMPASSIVE attitudes prevail. Not good.

Senior Centers evolved several decades ago bringing about a new respect for Aging Americans. Senior-Citizen Discounts including Tuesdays at Hannafords brought people together ( in saving a buck whether it was needed or not.

Johnny Cash sings about the Lonely Old with not much gold. Well, I submit the old folks are missing the boat! "Vainglory Chicks" are more concerned about their curves than their souls. What about intellectual growth? Never mind BINGO and the like!

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink?"

One octogenarian a while back retorted the words of her Late Husband:" USE IT OR LOSE IT!" Why do folks endorse McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts over local Senior Centers? There's no logic to it in my opinion! Friendships and good banter are two good reasons. Senior Centers need a REBIRTH! It's not just for old ladies it's for all citizenry in s given community!

WAKE UP! Stay alive all of your lives!

ROBERT LOUIS POTVIN
Age 75.75
Box 11
West Brookfield, MA 01585

LIVING ON THE EDGE

Brinksmanship is defined as the art or practice of pushing a dangerous situation or confrontation to the limit of safety esp. to force a desired outcome!

 

Credit makes enemies. Overspending seems to be indigenous in our electronic worlds of 2018. I'm no different!

 

Circumstances don't make the man.. they reveal him. Yes, I'm in debt and that's all there is to it. Badly bent but not broke!

 

ROBERT LOUIS POTVIN

 

 

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES CORRECTED

Sometimes it is good to "break-down" as other things can be attended to besides blogging. I am constantly reinventing myself.. and that's good. The cold weather allowed me to further tweak all of my extraneous stuff and most of all, I am having fun doing it !

Discoveries of my past life are most revealing and continue to delight me. No lower teeth or gold watch found.. but paperwork from years ago. My LIVING CLEANOUT will not be left to Ben and Josh! I even have enough to consider publishing a book " BOB POTVIN - THE AMBULANT AUCTIONEER." I have tons of salient photographs from May of 1943 showing "Baby Bobby" with blonde curls. She saved them in a jar until I was 18 years old.

Photographs are the essence of the way we were. Many are happy moments. "Photographs inform and instruct. Television informs. Photographs help people understand almost every aspect of life (and death.)

"A PHOTOGRAPH IS A MIRROR WITH A MEMORY" so wrote Mary Lynn Ritzenlerater in her book 'PHOTOGRAPHS.'

It is 47 degrees right now (7:37 PM). The grass is growing as are the weeds.

Ran out of printer ink....a maaaajor expense": over $100.00. This HP 8600 is a godsend allowing me to be my everything. Author, publisher, editor, etc. And to think I FLUNKED typing!. BIDDY BURKE!

The NASCAR Race today was terrific. I enjoy all aspects of speed and color and replays.

Mount Washing is enjoying more snow and 29 degrees.

Yankee Baseball tonight. "Here come da JUDGE!"

All in all mu Solitary Sunday was swell!

75 & 3/4 today..183 lbs soaking wet.

KEEP THE FAITH!

ROBWER LOUIS POTVIN
Your Ambulant Blogger
"I've Been Everywhere"
Box 11
W.B

 

"I LOVE MAN NONE THE LESS..BUT NATURE MORE!"

The best resolve to living a hectic life is to return to nature! At dawn today, with a fresh cup of brewed coffee from Country Corner I took the first exit before heading home. Foster Hill beckoned me only for me to stop at the bridge at Coy Brook. Here I sat in silence in my Honda. No lights, no radio, no kidding!

As I sat pensively the rhapsody of Mother NAture began. The pollywogs peeped as two mallards demonstrated their affections in the water. This Coy Brook is where, once, Sarah Do

ucette Potvin did her weekly wash for six young Potvins! Dad was born in 1913.. Uncle Al in 1918..and Pepe Potvin in 1883. Nature was the same then but human nature wasn't.

Electricity came in from transmission lines from Palmer around the same time and gradually their worlds changed for the better. Kerosene lamps, as dirty and smelly as they were, saw the lite from Tommy Edison's invention: The incandescent lamp. Dad always referred to WINE VILLAGE as being "Down on the Farm!"

I don't think any of us Potvins have ever left the farm in our hearts. Primative snapshots show dad with a new-born calf, Nipper his dog and Uncle Al petting the tiny cow. Everything about living down on the farm was innocent. French was spoken and the traditions of the kitchen revealed pea-soup, blood sausage  and pan fried "quen."

Clothing was fashioned from printed grain bags. Toys were few, and the simplicity of the moment revealed sophistication unimaginable in today's Smart-Phone existences.

Fast forward 100 years to the moment.. Nature remains constant. How nice. Want to return to your roots? Just take the first exit off Route 9 to Foster Hill.. West Brookfield!   

HOME DECORATING AS A LABOR OF LOVE

In a rut? Why not change how you look at your four walls!? More than 6 gallons later, my abode will be ready for your inspection early next week. It is exciting to have a new lease on life especially when digging into your past reveals where you've been in life.

My back room was my catch-all. In the absence of an attic or a basement things were thrown back and forgotten. TODAY I made DISCOVERIES worth reporting! First, I found a college term paper written by me in April of 1963m entitled:GOTHAM IN THE AIR AGE.  I wrote on h

ow the City of New York's airports evolved. My 20, page paper earned me a "C." Better yet my efforts and discovery today gives me an "A".

Next I found all of my meteorological writings of Winter storms dating back to 1957. Mom and Dad always encouraged me to "write things down" and that I did. These will be cherished in review and perhaps an idea for Chase, Lily, Maddie and Evie? Imagine finding such manuscripts 60 years later? Some of my writings on the weather while living at 33 Birch Hill ROAD, WB, tell of winter storms at their finest.

Best yet was the Boston Globe obituary of DON KENT who died at age 92. Mr. Kent and I had chatted on several occasions over the years.. most recently the year before he passed away. Ken's candor was his credibility. People loved his weathercasts with a piece of chalk and blackboard. My Don Kent Instrument has taken on a new shine. New anemometer cups and mast WILL be obtained from CAPE COD WIND AND WEATHER Indicators. Recently my college friend PAUL V> POWER related 'You would have been a good meteorologist, Bob!" Never too late, you know! LOL.

ERIK - THE RED-WHITE-AND BLUE Painter wrapped things up today for the most part. As Ralph Cramden said on the Honeymooners How Sweet It Is." My blue wall in the office is a pale "Hen-shit Green." I haven't decided how things will be portrayed on all rooms: Office, Bedroom, Blogging room, Kitchen, Bathroom and Backroom? The Breezeway and entryway is now firnished. Classy..indeed with a white wicker bench and new cushions. The color contrasts are good.. thanks to the "Painter." A+++.

I improvised with a massive leak of cold air on the porch floor. ERIK-The-Carpenter nailed it nicely. I improvised with a door casing strip found in my back room. Now I must get a calking gun to seal it once and for all.

Today's cold weather didn't bother me one bit. right now it is 51 degrees. It's "the satisfaction for a job well done"  that poises me for CINQUO DE MAEO. SP?

It was Macaroni & Cheese for supper. Now it's a hot-tub for desert!

How was your Friday? Exciting like mine?

ROBERT LOUIS POTVIN
YOUR MAN ABOUT TOWN
Box 11
West Brookfield, MA 01585

 

 

THE DAFFODILS OF SPRING

Isn't it nice? The yellow flowers of late April reverberate in my soul! Spring is here and I embrace it to the fullest by doing what I'm supposed to do: Throwing myself into the season! FROM WASHING DIRTY LAUNDRY IN THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING ..TO RAKING PINE NEEDLES WITH MY NEW ACE RAKE MADE IN MEXICO..IN THE AFTERNOON.. Thursday was the best!

I shot into the VA in Worcester for some drugs then returned by the back roads. This is my tonic to absorb Mother Nature in its glory. The next two weeks will be wonderful... and I plan on planting seeds.. fertilizing my weed-infested lawn and getting on with things. Let's go!

KLEMS in Spencer is an incredible enterprise! This store is unique satisfying the needs of "just plain folks." No pretentions about the store across from Sally's Boutique. On Saturday there will be an auction of farm equipment. I previewed it today. I am glad I am over the hill!

After raking pine needles I "broke in my new beach chair" by having a nap in the sunshine. I like VITAMIN D from the sky. It is the sign of health. After being cooped-in all winter some folks are as "white as ghosts." I recall the Vietnamese shading their faces from the hot Tropical su with their conical straw hats. I guess my European hue allows me to tan nicely.

No ERIK The Red-White & Blue today. Tomorrow, for sure. We should wrap things up tomorrow in Phase 1. The expansive blue wall will become tan. It is exhilarating to have a fresh coat of paint. It is my MENTAL SHAMPOO!

My Jet-Setting son and wife are in Florida.

Forecast looks good for now until the first killing frost. LOL.

I prepared an amazing supper just now: Garlic mashed potatoes, CHUCK-EYE STEAK, broccoli, fresh tomatoes, olives, strawberries and a dash of 'Mrs. Salt." Total cost..about $3.77... and yes, a glass of 1% milk. No desert.

An early tubby will relax my masculine physique.

More bills paid and squared away. Badly bent.. but not busted!

My white "mop" continues to grow. I look like DOC WIGHT!

"Open Wide!!.' Still no lower dentures!  No problem!

ROBERT LOUIS

 

 

 THEN

 

NOT NOW

THE POOR IN AMERICA

There will always be the poor in the United States of America!

Poverty is rife even in our own back yard of the Brookfields - Warren - Ware and Spencer! "Ghettos in Disguise" are evidenced by run-down real estate. Poor-In-Spirit is revealed by facial expressions. These folks live in different worlds. "WE'RE POOR"  is their cry!

From generation to generation the Poor suffer from malnutrition. In the Land-of-Plenty they  live "In the poor side of town." Middle and Upper Class ATTITUDES thwart hopes for a better tomorrow. These maligned-minds feel entitlements are a sin. Sorry, but they are not.

• Poverty in America has many implications:
• Older, run down vehicles : constantly in need of repairs
• Older, dilapidated rents; SLUMS.
• No sense of a happy, meaningful life
• Attraction to booze, gaming, tobacco and drugs.
• Other vices: kleptomania, crime, obesity.

Throughout the USA pockets of poverty exist.

THE RICH CAN BURN IN HELL IF YOU ASK ME!

GRANDIOSITY  (MEGALOMANIA) - AN UNREALISTIC SENSE OF SUPERIORITY - A SUSTAINED VIEW OF ONESELF S BETTER THAN OTHERS THAT CAUSES THE NARCISSIST TO VIEW OTHERS WITH DISDAIN OR INFERIOR AS WELL AS A SENSE OF UNIQUENESS: THE BELIEF THAT FEW OTHERS HAVE ANYTHING IN COMMON WITH ONESELF  AND THAT ONE CAN BE UNDERSTOOD BY A FEW OR VERY SPECIAL PEOPLE.

The poor fight the American wars as evidenced by all of the Vietnam veterans now in their twilight years. Sad.

ROBERT LOUIS POTVIN

YOUR "MOVER AND A SHAKER" BLOGGER, BOB POYVIN

A nice lady from Sturbridge proceeded to give me a brief neck massage today at the North Brookfield Senior Center! Sybil Sandman ( age 89) delivered me a gift of a book she won: BOSTON RED SOX ..YESTERDAY AND TODAY! Sybil and her friend made the table banter interesting, to say the least.

This lady from Sturbridge said to me "You are a mover and a shaker!" So I looked it up! .."A PERSON WHO IS ACTIVE OR INFLUENTIAL IN SOME FIELD OF ENDEAVOR." Thanks,my Lady!

Despite the dismal weather of this Wednesday, my accomplishments were formidable. From two calls to WTAG talk shows, I had a chance to tell of my French-Canadian-American peruasions regarding the fate of Notre Dame des Canadians in Worcester.

It is no longer a church; IT IS THE STATUE OF LIBERTY OF US FROGS! Call us Dumb.. call us Puddle Jumpers and the like.. we are endowed with great energies, have overcome language barriers, and today are leaders as evidenced by my being called a "Mover and a Shaker." Ben and Josh,, too are "shakers!' and 5 grandkids alike are 'salt and pepper shakers' of their classes.

ERIK-THE-RED-WHITE-AND BLUE painter WAS GIVEN AN INCENTIVE  BONUS TODAY. I tell you...Eric Laine - Painter since 1990 has transformed my Poodle into a Palace! Wow.  Kinky in every respect,my PAD reflects me in every way. The breezeway, too, has been painted two coats beige and the concrete floor is Chocolate in color!

My décor is shaping up nicely. Family, friends, estranged cousins, the whole enchilada are revealed in my galleries.My walls come alive with the Sound of Photography. ELVIS has entered my abode and will be featured!
I like graphics and may even wallpaper my bathroom walls with sheets of U.S. Postage..AGAIN! Nothing will be more interesting as one "sits and thinks.".. or shits and stinks! I have a box of wooden matches available if you chose not to use the aerosol.  PHEW!

Our FRAGILE MIRACLE continues. Worms have surfaced. A can of worms is a different story! LOL.

My "S" roll top desk has a new assignment: My bookkeeping is dome there now. I even have a Trial Balance done for the month. Mrs. Jeannette Morin taught me bookkeeping 100 years ago at NBHS. Bob's bills....funny you ask?! LOL.

Food was bought at Hannaford Bros. NB. "Ship-Shape" store. 3 meals of CHUCK EYE STEAK, etc. V-8..Cereal..same old same old.

Dry cleaning PU at TONY"S Closet is standing tall...Yes, perfection in what counts. Very little junk in my brain.

BOB POTVIN   THE REAL DEAL!

vty,

R.L.P.
(REAL LOVEABLE PERSON)
Box 11
West Brookfield, MA 01585