I read a lot. Always have 3 or 4 books going at the same time.

This reading is an interesting thing. During all the years I was practicing law, I had no time for recreational reading. I read legal papers, briefs and documents all day. So at night I had no desire to read. My eyes were tired. Or maybe it was an excuse. I don’t know.

Now in retirement, I read like a thirsting man lost in the desert who just found a water hole!

I finished Tom Brokaw’s Boom! Good book. A very good book.

Long. Almost another War and Peace. Over 600 pages.

It is about the 1960s. A turning point in the life of our country.

I lived through those years, so the book perhaps may have had a greater appeal to me.

Though I lived through it, I was not part of the radically distrurbing scene that occurred. I went to college and law school in the 1950s. I was an Eisenhower child. Everything was serene and OK! Apple pie and motherhood! The road to succes was to do as had been done. Follow the tried and true.

I believed. It was the American way.

I started practicing law at the beginning, in 1960. I thought all the demonstrators for the various causes were nuts trying to upset the apple cart of what was the tried and true way to live the American life.

I wore a suit, shirt and tie. Never let my hair grow long. Never got involved in the causes and issues of the day.

And were there causes and issues!

Vietnam, civil rights, women’s rights, assasinations and everything else!

My mind said any war fought by my country was good. After all, we were a good people and we could only maintain the good fight. We were pure. Every one else, contaminated.

I found the demonstrations on and off campuses hard to fathom. These people had to be nuts. Students burning buildings on college campuses! All I could think of only a few years earlier when I was in college was who my next date was going to be! The protesters’ values had to be misplaced!

I recall several peaceful marching demonstrations in Utica. All in protest of the Vietnam War. Some professionals and prominent businessmen walked in those parades. I thought two things. They were crazy and they had courage! I did not agree with them. That is why they were crazy, from my perspective. Courage because I questioned if I could so march if I had such a contrary and what I considered minority belief.

The battle for civil rights was astounding! And it was a battle!

I admired those blacks and their walks. I admired even more their Ghandi like approach. The courage it took to walk into those horses and clubs!

And the confrontations! Governor Wallace at the steps of a college trying to stop a black student from entering. A constitutional confrontation of the highest sort!

The killings in the south of whites and blacks alike trying to enforce voters’ rights.

President Johnson, a Texan, signing into law the most sweeping recognition and enforcement of clvil rights! He said when he did it that his act was the end of the Democratic Party in the south. And it was!

Women’s rights! Women went crazy in the 1960s!

It all started with the pill. Women became sexually liberated. Conception was no longer an issue. They screwed like men! I could not believe it! Women wanted to have sex! And as much as they could get!

With sexual freedom, came other liberating thoughts. Now women wanted to be like men in general. Freedom in the work place, equal pay for equal work and all that kind of stuff. Second class citizenship was out the window for them. They sat in front of the bus. In fact, they wanted to drive the bus!

And death! Assasinations of a magnitude unconceivable!

First, John Kennedy. My President! I could not believe any one would shot my President, the President. His brother, Robert Kennedy. I had the same feelings. And simultneously the question constantly in my mind. What was my country coming to?

Martin Luther King! What did he do to deserve his death? He was only trying to correct a basic wrong. Prejudice is a cancer. He was eradicating it. Peacefully, though disturbingly to many in the white establishment. Death was his mantle. He did reach the top of the mountain!

And so it was! Dynmaic, ever changing.

The belly of America regurgetated. The vomit spewed all over.

But we all felt better afterwards. Our Nation is a better place to live because of the the 1960s.

Until now, of course, and this economic crisis. But that is not for today.

I did baby sit last night. Fun! A joy!

The movie was…..you guessed it! The Wizard of Oz. I am beginning to hate it! But the grandkids love it! So watch it we did!

I made popcorn. Ally and I ate most of it. Robert did not seem hungry.

I colored and read books with Ally. Played with trucks and Ironman with Robert.

At some point, Ally came over and climbed up on my lap. She rested her head on my chest and fell asleep. How good!

Robert was determined to stay up with me. He faltered a little after his sister and fell asleep on the couch.

It rained while I was baby sitting. Big wind and heavy rain. Monsoon style! And it kept pouring for a couple of hours.

Lisa, Corey and step grandson Cameron had gone to a Montessori fundraiser at Southernmost. A reggae band. Bob Marley’s former backup band.

Lisa and team came home around 11. Each drenching wet. Each more soaked than the other.

This was a beach concert. No covering. About 1,000 people. They whooped it up while getting wetted down!

I came home to my own disaster.

When I left around 6 to go to Lisa’s, the sun was shinning. It was a nice day. I did not anticipate a rain storm. Nor, I suspect, did anyone else.

I left the sliding doors and windows open!

My bedroom got it! The wind from the Atlantic blew the water into the room about 5 feet. Carpets and throw rugs soaked soaked! My ottoman soaked. Some books nearby wet.

I cleaned up as best I could. Closed the sliding doors to prevent further rain coming in. I woke during the night after the rain stopped. Opened the sliding doors again. My concern was mold. That is how wet it all was!

This morning I am happy to report that everything is dry.

The sun is up. But I cannot see it. A bed of gray clouds is over the island. TV says scattered showers today. So I guess that is the kind of day it will be.

The wind is blowing. Actually, howling. And I can see whitecaps on the water.

Syracuse plays Arizona State at noon in Miami. Probably on national televison. Should be a good game.

Lest you forget, I love Sundays! God’s day of rest! My day of rest!

The Sunday papers! Meet the Press! The added bonus today of the Syracuse basketball game! And tonight in Key West! Probably starting with music and drinks at the Gardens at 5!

Enjoy your day as I am mine!