MEMORIES OF EVERGREEN

    We didn’t have NCIS when I was growing up.  We didn’t even have TV.  TV didn’t come to town until I was in the 5th grade.  We had ‘The Shadow’ and ‘Dragnet’ on radio… and personally, I had THE GLOBE DETECTIVE AGENCY just across the street from my house!

    On the corner of Peabody and Evergreen, at 801, resided the Welchels, a middle aged couple who operated the detective agency from their home.  They were, wording it thoughtfully and respectfully, ‘different.’

    I live at 802 for the first 19 years of my live.  Mrs. Welchel was a semi-friend type of person, who ventured out of the house to shop, or for what ever purpose.  But I can’t say that I ever once witnessed him leaving the premises, or even venturing onto the front porch for that matter.  There were however, frequent ‘visitors’ there, who parked either in front of the house, usually, around the corner on Peabody.  The Welchels owned and managed the agency… these come and go ‘visitors’ were the legs and ‘eyes’ of the company.

       I was inside that house (front room only) less than 1/2 a dozen times, if that many. He was a large man, usually sitting behind that was to me a HUGE desk, that was always VERY CLUTTERED. On it were stacked with reams and reams of paper!  And usually, at least one cat was sitting on a stack of paper like a fully paper-weight.  

    I have memory of her that will never fade — of her standing at the front door and in a shrill voice, calling the cats inside… “Here kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty”…. all strung out like that and run together as if it was one long word!

   Evergreen was truly a street with CHARACTER! 

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The Right Tool For The Job

As an elective, I took ‘Shop’ in junior high.  It was wood shop, no metals, as it was basically an introductory class.  But, we learned a lot!  One gem I took away from the class is to always use the right tool for the job.  That’s stood me well for all these years, and it applies to far more than just woodworking!

Words too are tools.  They’re the ‘implements’ by which we convey spoken thought from one to another.  If we use the incorrect word-tool we run the risk of making a mess in the transferring of our thoughts to someone else.  It’s much like using a sledge hammer to drive an upholstery tack… or a small tack hammer to drive in a tent stake.  Use the proper tool!  Choose your words carefully… and accurately!

No doubt, no word in the English language is thrown about more carelessly and more inaccurately that the word LOVE.  Example: ‘On a hot day, I love nothing more than a icey cold malted milkshake.”   Not only is that inaccurate, misleading, and ambiguous, it’s also wrong!  The proper word-tool here is like!  It could never be love… unless that is, you’re really wierd!

Like is an emotional leaning toward someone or something.  But like has it’s limits – limits in height, width, and depth – and time.  Likes have a tendence to shift and change.  Like actually means to enjoy, appreciate, fancy, be fond of, admire, delight in, or to be smitten with.

Love, on the otherhand, is a deeper and more intense emotion.  Love goes and will remain in situations where like will morph, will fade, and will fail. Love is not just adoration, but attachment, devotion, allegiance, and above all – commitment.

We all agree that it’s possible and normal to like and not to love.  But it’s also possible to love and not like!  We find this difficult to comprehend because we tend to consider that love is simply an extension of like.  It’s not.  The perfect example of human to human love is a mother’s love for her child!  She will continue to love the child even if that child grows to become a dispicable, sadistic murderer.  Although she’s repelled by what that child may have done and by what they have become, she will continue to love them!  She’ll not LIKE who they’ve become and what they’ve done… yet she LOVES them still.

Love and like are a million miles from being the same! 

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