BS: Paying One's Dues to Society

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jul 10 - 11:45 AM

I knew that, Rap. And I agree that fantasizing can be fun.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Jul 10 - 11:16 AM

They have to live with themselves. Can't be very pleasant sometimes being like that.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Jul 10 - 10:55 AM

No, Ebbie. I'll continue as I have. It's the irresponsibility of others that annoys me.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: olddude
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 10:44 PM

Rap we all get a little dinky dau for sure sometimes when we think about it .. that is why just focus on the other guy ... cause if I think to hard on it ... wanna scream

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 10:24 PM

Sounds like you've got it figgered out that living blithely and dying just a leap ahead of your creditors is the way to go?

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Rapparee
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 09:44 PM

You know though, having worked for 39 years in a field where the pay isn't (shall we say?) equivalent to the education needed and which is pretty much looked at as a "nice thing to have but not a necessity"; having served my country in the Infantry and having to fight the gummint for certain health issues related to that service; having recycled everything possible for the last forty or so years; having driven and still drive small, fuel-efficient cars; having lived within my means my whole life, I just gotta say:

WHY ME?? Why not one of the drivers of the gas-guzzling SUVs who blithely litter and live on their credit cards, selling people crap they don't need and have to go into debt to afford? I'm getting awful sick of being the responsible citizen...and the Revolution will not be telegraphed!

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: olddude
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 03:58 PM

An Bobster, well done my friend .. well done indeed helping those folks

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 03:02 PM

Aw, shucks(scuffing my shoe in the dust), 'twarn't nuthin'.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: olddude
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 02:08 PM

Now what Ebbie is doing is absolutely incredible and more than a labor of love .. it is a labor of the soul .. if I learned one thing from my work it is even the little guy (like me) can change a world for a few others in life giving the mind set.

Ebbie is doing this on her own .. She doesn't have big names of TV status pitching in. God Bless you my friend.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: fat B****rd
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 02:04 PM

Good for you, Ebbie, well done.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: olddude
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 02:01 PM

No Kat most people don't know I did that. I was on the board of directors until last year. I want them to rotate it now and they do. When I was on the board it was NFL heavy with all the greats.

Well at least some of the Catters know where those signed footballs that ended up in their hands , how I got em .. LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 01:43 PM

Wow, Dan...that is incredible and very much full of hope, not just for everyone involved, but for the world. Thank you for the link. Has Spaw seen it, do you know?

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: olddude
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 01:29 PM

Thank you Ebbie and Maeve. It didn't hurt to have Charlie so well known and Bon Jovi and all the NFL greats helping us either ... but boy it came from nothing to something special for sure. Took us 8+ years of work

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: maeve
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 01:06 PM

Wonderful indeed, all of you.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 12:56 PM

I just got back from an hour at that link, Dan. It is a wonderful site.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: olddude
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 08:11 AM

My efforts came with http://www.hannahandfriends.org
we started that with only a couple of K in the bank .. Now have a look at the farm for the kids. Charlie and Maura approached me before it existed with the idea and what it could be... we all worked our hearts out for the kids

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 08:04 AM

Unfortunatly, most of the folks I knew during my years in social work went the wrong way... I mean, I would take the "welfare car" (That's what our client's called them) to Central State Hospital in Petersburg, Va. and pick up two or three clients and getn them situated in rooming houses and get tem approved for various services, food, etc.. Most would do well for a month or two and some would actually get their acts together, find jobs and move back into the mainstream... But that was very few of the folks I would carry on my case load... But my situation was somewhat different in that I was getting a disporportionate number of folks who had been referred my Mental Health...

But I do have a number of clients who have stuck with me thru the years and perhaps I'll talk about them using fake names, of course...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 12:29 AM

I know you are right, Janie. Even on this level, I don't think there was one person who didn't seem cheerier when we finished.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Janie
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 12:27 AM

Ditto what Kat said.

Ebbie, I worked with a number of clients who lived in homeless shelters in the region. One of them got very involved with a writer's project facilitated by the advisor and her student group at a local university. It will eventually lead to an occasional periodical.   

The process of telling one's story and having someone actually listen, even just one person, can be very powerful.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 11:46 PM

Let me wait until the project is not quite as new to me. I'd be happy to share- once I feel that it is all right.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 11:37 PM

Good for you, Ebbie. I, too, would love to read the final project, if acceptable and available. I love hearing of these kinds of things!

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 10:04 PM

Way to go, Beaubear! And Rapaire, share some more. My notion is that we all have B A   D memories and that we don't accept the G O O D ones often enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 09:51 PM

Well, ya' know, I been a jail house teacher, a drug treatment counselor and a social worker is I have a wealth of stories... I'll just check in now and then and might share one 'er two... Whew... Open that memory bank and who knows???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: GUEST, Ebbie
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 09:44 PM

Wesley, it's interesting you should ask.

The way I got into the project: I knew the director from when she had rented from me years ago. One day this spring I ran into her on the street and told her that I had an idea I'd like to pursue, that I would like to talk to various patrons of the shelter and see if they would be up to entrusting their lives to a recording. We would take as long as the person wanted and eventually I would type the disc into the computer and give the person a print out of their lives. The idea being, although I wouldn't tell them that, that they could read it and see where they made the choices that brought them to where they are today.

Mariya said, Great! You're just the person I need for a project..

As for making copies available, I'll have to wait on that. Although each of the names will be changed in the final edit, at this point it is very much the story of each of those men - and four women.

Women, I think, are more cautious than men - at least to a woman. Men are probably less threatened by a woman questioner. One of the comments I treasure is when one man told me: I haven't talked this much in years.

I have far more material on hand than I used - and even then it used 17 printed pages!

I will be going back for my original project.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Wesley S
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 09:21 PM

Ebbie - I for one would love to read these stories. I'll bet other Mudcatters would too. Any chance you could make copies available to us? Maybe we could pay for the copies - with the proceeds going toward the shelter. Any thoughts of turning this into a book?

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 09:00 PM

I once provided the information that helped a young girl mummify a squirrel...she ended up in the State Science Fair with her project on mummification techniques.

I have a book called "The Long Summer", a fictionalized account of a man's decision to stay Amish even though he was offered a full and complete scholarship for as far as he wanted to go in school. He ended up writing several textbooks for the Amish schools in Ohio, testifying in the Amish Schools Case, and writing his autobiography.   It's autographed to me, "...the best librarian on the planet." (I've been slipping; I have a more recent books autographed to me as "...the best librarian in the Western Hemisphere.")

That was the nice thing about my job: I got to help a lot of people and bring smiles to lots of kids.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 08:52 PM

Hey! I omitted a prime reason for this thread. The reason I gave it this title was that I am hoping to hear more stories of pleasureable outcomes of one's efforts

In the meantime, let me thank you and assure you the pleasure was all mine.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: olddude
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 07:34 PM

So proud to call you my friend
love you EB

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 07:28 PM

Another reason why I love you, Eb...

Beabear~

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: frogprince
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 07:17 PM

I don't think I ever heard "chuffed" in my life before I got wound up in this crazy "place". I guess I know what it means now, but it may be just as well that this isn't the first usage of it I ever encountered. : )

Anyhoo, good on ya, Ms.Ebbie!

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: ragdall
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 07:15 PM

Well done! Such a lot of work and what a worthwhile result.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: gnu
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 07:12 PM

BRAVO!!!!! Three cheers indeed!

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: jacqui.c
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 07:09 PM

What a great story Ebbie - that really sounds worthwhile! You deserve to be chuffed.

Subject: RE: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 07:02 PM

Good work!

Subject: BS: Paying One's Dues to Society
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 06:44 PM

I have a cap feather that I want to wave. It gave me such an interesting six weeks, in the process meeting and getting to know some fascinating people (some wonderful and wise, some neither) and learning their stories. And now great satisfaction in its reception.

The City of Juneau will be releasing a new directory of non-profit services being offered in town and the homeless shelter will have a section devoted to them.

I'm involved with a local homeless shelter and I was co-opted by its director into interviewing "10 to 20" patrons to get their opinions of the services being provided as well as what other services they deem desirable. She said she also would like information on what brought each one here.

So I interviewed everyone I could find in the shelter who was amenable to being recorded (a lot of people are skittish about that). I then took the recordings home and entered into the computer only the data referring to their usage of the services. I ended up with 28 stories, including the shelter director and the shelter manager.

After tweaking and tightening the stories I emailed the result to the director and she tells me that she loves it, that not only will it be in the Directory but the patrons' stories will be invaluable to her in her management of the facility.

I am chuffed.