Silver Anniversary 2013

All that I am and hold dear are largely the result of this photo twenty-five years ago today:

Dave the Cat, Sen. Bob Graham and Mitch lead the 1988 Springtime Tallahassee Parade

Photo by Jamie Butcher

Story here

I found a courage inside myself I had not known before that inspired me to do many things.

Today, we are March on the 2013 Leon County Humane Society calendar.

I am very grateful to those who made it all possible and worthwhile:

Dave the Cat (1987-2004);
Dr. Hall and the Westwood Animal Hospital, Dave's lifelong healthcare provider;

My wife Donna, and my friend Charlie, who have always supported my endeavors;
My children, Heather and son-in-law Dave, and grandchildren, Alicia, Dylan, Gabriel and Caleb;

Jamie Butcher, The Photographer;
Karl Filsinger, for being there that day, and attending many of our parades;
Allison Davis and Kelly Rigsby, who brought me Tigger and Elliott;
Peter Holtmann, who brought me Dave the Cat;
Our biographers:
    Julianne Hare, "Tallahassee: A Capital City History", 2002;
    Jan Annino, "Florida's Famous Animals", 2008;
The Museum of Florida History, "Pets in America", 2008;
Springtime Tallahassee,
and the hundreds of thousands of people we met along the way.

Thank you.

Jasper: March 1999 - September 29, 2012

Jasper was the first kitten we acquired after the Fire. Since Dave the Cat had been the conflagration's only survivor, we intended for Jasper to be a companion kitty for Dave.

Donna and I answered an ad in the newspaper for a free kitten and only had to pick up a small orange and white tabby and then bring him to the vet. We called him Jasper because it was his traditional birthstone, and his eyes were green.

Heather brought us Clyde a few months later, who became Dave's buddy and did and still does all Dave did, except for riding a bicycle, and Clyde only leaves the property to see the vet. Clyde has probably spent at least as much time on my shoulders as Dave did, but indoors, and at his every opportunity.

Jasper was a well-mannered cat and lived with us for thirteen years before seriously beginning to lose weight, and so we took him to the vet, where tests confirmed a diagnosis of hyperthyroidism, a common geriatric feline ailment. We were prescribed a pill a day for him for the duration of Jasper's life, which unfortunately was only another three months.

Jasper passed away on the way to the vet Saturday morning, in a topless short-sided cardboard box on the front passenger seat of my car while driving on Ocala Road. We made a slow turnaround toward home and I called the vet to let them know.

It was the first time I didn't have to do all the digging. Dylan did most of the excavation in the back yard, and Donna and all three of our grandsons, Dylan, Gabriel and Caleb, attended Jasper's final farewell.

Dr. Hall called to express condolences and we received a nice sympathy card from the Westwood Animal Hospital, where Dave always went.

Rest in peace, Jasper, and thanks.

Lighthouse for Sale

OK, it's a Halloween costume, but it's an impressive adult-sized working lighthouse, and I've won more costume contests in it than with any other of my wild, personally crafted Halloween costumes.

In October 2000, I took my lighthouse to the Halloween party at Salty Dawg on North Monroe Street in Tallahassee, and it was immediately apparent I had brought the right costume to the right place at the right time.

I was the only one wearing a lighthouse, but lighthouses were all I saw. Prints on the wall, menus on the tables, and the blackboard outside with daily specials all had lighthouses on them.

The Salty Dawg's owner approached me shortly after we arrived and complimented me on my creation. She told me that she was especially fond of lighthouses and asked me how much money I wanted for mine.

Without even thinking, I replied, "A THOUSAND dollars."

I regretted saying the words even as they came out, and have no doubt that her derisive "Let me know when you have a serious figure," response saved my career.

As in My Grandmother's Pennies, I would have realized a windfall that would likely have ended any further personal Halloween costume aspirations. I would have been content with the lowball value I had assigned to my costume, and spent the next several years bragging about how much my Halloween costuming career had been worth.

I won the Salty Dawg's costume contest that evening, and all other contests I entered that Halloween. Before I suited up as the "Pinball Wizard" with pinball machine and wizard suit next Halloween, I had amassed well more than a thousand dollars' worth of prizes, and got to keep my Lighthouse.

I won several other costume contests with the Lighthouse over the years, including at the Two Nichols Family Restaurant in the very shadow of the St. Marks Lighthouse. I won in Monticello, Florida, and the Monticello News carried our story first across the top. I have done especially well at beach and coastal communities. I won first place at Schooner's Last Local Beach Club in Panama City Beach, and I know we would be a major attraction at any of the "Save the Lighthouse" efforts I occasionally read about.

It is my signature Halloween costume, no longer for sale.

As of 2015, my Lighthouse Costume, with all my other costumes, permanently resides at the Tallahassee Automobile Museum.

Brad Lewis and Emma Nutt Day

Emma Mills Nutt became the world's first female telephone operator on September 1, 1878, when she began working at the Edwin Holmes Telephone Dispatch Company in Boston, Massachusetts. Emma worked for at least thirty-three years until her death, and Emma's sister Stella was the world's second female telephone operator.

Many websites proclaim today to be Emma Nutt Day, although none can tell us when it first became a day of importance. Wikipedia cites other websites for its veracity.

One hundred years to the day after Emma Nutt began working for the telephone company, my family and I moved to Tallahassee, Florida from East Brunswick, New Jersey. I was born in Florida and have never regretted returning home.

Brad and I enjoyed many adventures during the years we worked together with Keith, Kal and Brent in the late 1980s, and we share a lifetime of memories and friendship. Brad's band the Engines that included Zollie and J.D. played at my 25th birthday party as told in Birthdays, and Brad inspired me to begin performing when he gave me my first of many gigs.

It's Brad's birthday. 

Thank you, Brad, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Jethro

Max Baer, Jr. played my favorite character "Jethro Bodine" on The Beverly Hillbillies television show for all 274 episodes. Jethro was known for being willing to undertake just about any career known at the time, and for his "bottomless pit" stomach. Jethro was always hungry.

In Spring 2006, a neutered adult orange-and-white tabby cat began coming by our house asking for food. He would rub against my palm and meow like our cats do when they think they are past due for dinner, and I readily brought him a share of theirs that evening, and most nights thereafter for a couple of months. He seemed to be in good shape, but was invariably hungry, so I called him Jethro.

Dave the Cat had been gone for two years. We had very recently acquired two dogs and fenced the yard, and had four other cats at the time, including an orange-and-white tabby named Jasper, but I was willing to accept Jethro as our outdoor cat, and he was very friendly to us.

It was when I took Jethro to the vet for vaccinations that I learned he belonged to someone else.

Since so many pets are now routinely implanted with identification chips, veterinarians commonly scan new patients, and in Jethro's case, determined that he had a registered human. Due to professional concern for private pet ownership, the vet could not treat Jethro, or tell me who belonged to him.

I sought help from the Leon County Humane Society and was then able to contact Jethro's person Michelle, who brought her two daughters by to pick up "Jinx". I had gotten the first letter of Jethro's name correct. 

Michelle thanked me and said that Jinx had been missing for several months, and I told her that the last two had been spent with me, and that I had fed him well and given him treatments for fleas. Michelle insisted on paying me ten dollars for Jinx's incurred expenses. I said goodbye and they all drove away.

Jethro returned the next day.

I called the Humane Society and asked how transfer of ownership was done for a pet, and they advised me as to what wording to use for a signed statement by the former owner. I crafted such a statement with a blank for signature and sent it with a note to Michelle offering to continue to care for Jinx because he had returned so quickly. I enclosed a self-addressed, stamped envelope and a check for ten dollars.

Michelle's assent arrived a couple days later with my uncashed check and I became Jethro's person.

Jethro was one of the most loving cats I have known, good-natured to all, and he passed on six years later on May 16th, three months ago. I often mistakenly call Jasper "Jethro" and even the neighbors' orange-and-white tabby reminds me of Jethro. 

Famous or not, they never quite really leave us. So long, Jethro.

 

Jethro at his favorite spot on the bird feeder

Election 2012: The Half Percent Solution

"Sherlock Holmes is playing the bad guy!" is what I recall saying as a child when I first watched "The Adventures of Robin Hood" on black and white television. 

I was an adult by the time I saw Robin Hood in color and learned that Basil Rathbone, despite losing two epic sword fights in the 1930s to Errol Flynn in "Captain Blood" and "Robin Hood", was the more experienced and better trained swordsman. I read all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and watched many of Rathbone's cinematic portrayals of the famed detective, before eventually reading Holmes' 1976 return in "The Seven Percent Solution".

In 2002, Leon County Florida voters approved an additional half-percent sales tax for ten years, affectionately known as the "Half-Penny Sales Tax", to benefit Leon County Schools. In Leon County, Florida, the sales tax on all taxable goods is 7.5%, and the marginal .5% sales tax expires December 31, 2012.

Loss of tax revenue due to declining property values and the recent economic downturn have alarmed school officials, who decided not to pursue a quarter-millage increase in property taxes that would only affect homeowners, and are instead in favor of a continuation of the 7.5% sales tax, that would be paid by all residents, visitors and guests doing business in Leon County.

On November 6, Leon County voters are being given the option whether to renew the half-percent sales tax increase for another fifteen years. Leon County Schools employees are forbidden to directly ask for a vote to extend the additional sales tax. I have been a Leon County Schools volunteer for more than ten years, and will also not advocate a particular vote.

So that we may make an intelligent and informed decision at the 2012 general election, Godby High School Principal Shelly Bell has provided us with relevant sales tax facts and budgetary concerns in this presentation.

Please choose wisely!

Pro Fitness Competitor Jenny Worth Returns to Godby

Association of Godby Graduates (AGG) Hall of Fame member Jenny Worth is coming to town from Long Beach, California to put on a fitness show at Godby High School.

On October 19 and 20, 2012, Jenny, with FitSpaceLive.com co-founder Jason Giardino from South Florida, are holding both national collegiate competitions, and competitions that are only open to Leon County residents. Local Leon County residents may also compete in the open division Tallahassee championships.

This event will be a qualifier for the 2013 Collegiate Nationals, and only the Top 3 from each class will qualify.

A scholarship donation will be presented to the school that the overall winners from each class attends.

Student or General admission begins at $20. Seats and registration are available here.

Jenny was once known as the youngest female professional bodybuilder, and has achieved titles including NPC Florida Fitness Champion, Ms. Florida and Ms. USA. Now, she and Jason train professional athletes and clients from all walks of life.

The AGG is an academic booster club founded by Godby graduates in 2003 to foster, recognize and reward lifetime community service and academic achievement, and to raise money for graduating Godby seniors.

The annual AGG Hall of Fame Induction Banquet is our primary fundraiser of the year, and all proceeds benefit the AGG Scholarship Fund. On March 9, 2007, Jenny attended as a guest of honor, along with Patti, Bob, Bart, Sharon, Chris, and Karen, and I met Jenny and her mom Sylvia for the first time.

Jenny is the first Godby graduate I nominated for the AGG Hall of Fame. Membership is based upon exemplifying the ideals and mission of the AGG, and Jenny continues to well represent her Alma Mater and the Association of Godby Graduates, and we are proud of her.

Photo by Mitch