Thanks for sharing that, Ebbie:

You know, the nice thing about this thread is that there is no such thing as thread drift. I started this not as a nostalgia thread (although God Knows, I've done more than my share of nostalgia-mongering in my day.) It's a "sitting at the kitchen table, talking about whatever comes to mind kind of a thread, so everything is equally valid to talk about. I really appreciate the specific threads, and have learned an enormous amount from them. (Tonight I printed my first label on a CD for my Gospel Messengers CD and am ready to go into production.) I don't know that I could have done that without all of the help from my friends in here.

But, this is just a nice, late-night kinda thread. I just got off the phone after talking with one of my sons for almost an hour and a half. I hadn't heard from him since Christmas and was concerned about him. Turns out, he's going through a lot of stress at work and has been wiped out emotionally by all the turmoil. Our conversation was very much a kitchen table kind of talk... minus the kitchen table.

I'm so sorry to hear what happened up your way, Ebbie. That's a hard loss to deal with. Oddly, it brought back memories of a tragedy where I worked. A young man (early 30's) who was a beloved Boy Scout leader of a pack sponsored by the place where I worked was accused of sexually molesting young boys, years earlier. His current pack stood up for him as character witnesses, but a couple of adults came forward saying that he had molested them several years earlier. When it became clear that it was going to be made public and taken to trial, the man who worked for me committed suicide. Hung himself in his Mother's garage where he lived. His Mother came out and found him. Some tragedies defy any rational explanation. They just hurt. There's no sense in trying to figure out "why." You just have let the pain out, release it and try to comfort each other. It sounds like that's what you and your friends did, Ebbie. Good on you!

Jerry