National Dictionary Day

 National Dictionary Day

Noel Laflin

10-16-21

It's National Dictionary Day, as it celebrates the birthday of Noah Webster - a man who studied 26 languages, in order to better understand English.

A friend of mine, who recently died, had made it a youthful goal to read every single word in the dictionary.

I don't know if he accomplished the task in his seventy-two years of life, but he was the most well-spoken man that I have ever met, bedazzling one with unfamiliar words with every turn of phrase, or in this case, turn of page

So, maybe he did make it to the end of his book.

And I bet he'd be pleased with me making use use of the word bedazzled too.

October 9, 1967

 October 9, 1967

Noel Laflin

10-9-21

It was fifty-four years ago today.

With Scoutmaster Dale Wilcox and my folks in the basement of the old First Christian Church on Broadway in Anaheim.

The church is gone, as are my parents, but the former boy and his mentor (as well as my Eagle Pin) are still here.

Homecoming

 Homecoming

Noel Laflin

10-11-21

They patiently listened to my tales of seeing frolicking whales, playful otters, and bald eagles, but only wanted to know about fellows like themselves.

They had all flown south for the winter I said.

Good, they replied, as we don't want you having some short lived vacation romance with strangers.

No worries there, I assured them.

Then be so kind as to top off the feeder, I was instructed.

Which I did, with great haste.

Shock Top

 Shock Top

Noel Laflin

10-11-21

As I sat in a folding chair in front of the beer cooler at our local CVS this morning, waiting the prescribed fifteen minutes following my COVID booster vaccine, I couldn't help but notice that Shock Top was on sale.

Sitting in such close proximity to such tasty temptation, and knowing that David was going to prepare a juicy tri-tip shortly, and fully aware that we were out of beer, I grabbed a twelve pack when the time was up.

An older, wiser gentleman also waiting for his orders to leave, remarked that my selection sure beat Tylenol.

Indeed, I concurred, paid up, and smiled all the way home.

Up and Adam

 Up and Adam

Noel Laflin

9-27-21

When I was a kid my dad would open our bedroom door and declare, 'Up and at 'em, boys'. I always misheard and thought he was talking about two other brothers named Up and Adam.

Consequently, I was inclined to to just go back to sleep and let my father eventually find the right boys to rouse.

Time and Money

 Time and Money

Noel Laflin

9-26-21

My friend Tom would have turned 64 today.

A Beatles song comes to mind.

He was just twenty when we met, so for his twenty-first birthday, four months later, I took him out for his first official drink, as well as hid twenty-one Eisenhower dollars around our room, making him hunt each one down. They were big and shiny coins – fresh from the bank – hard to miss really – unless the coins are hidden and the hunter has had a few drinks.

“You’re getting hot – you’re getting cold.” You know the game.

The last one discovered took a while as it was atop the cuckoo clock. The clock struck a late hour when he reached out to finally, and happily, retrieve it.

Cuckoo! Then the little bird retreated and the tiny door slammed shut.

The coins were stacked and counted.

Twenty-one.

Time and money …

Both pale in comparison to an old man's youthful memories.

Water Gods

 Water Gods

Noel Laflin

9-11-21

We had some rain the other night, and the summer storm that carried in both thunder and lightning along with it was a doozy.

Summer storms are rare here, so their arrival, as unexpected as this one was, was gratifying, especially since we did not lose power or experience any damaging lightning strikes. I know others did and I feel badly for them.

The only concern in our home was to run around in the dark and close all windows and doors for an hour.

And while doing so, I swear I could hear every plant in the garden singing a song of praise to the water gods above