St John (Or, move over)





 As a fifth grader, St John Fortune was not only # 1 in chess in the State of Florida he was also # 1 in math in the State of  Florida.  And he was in the 94th percentile in reading.  And at the  the National Chess Championship Tournament, held in the State of  Arizona, he was undefeated.  His elementary school,  Toussaint Lourvature, finished 3rd in the tournament.  St. John, like I said, was undefeated in competition and he did all of this this stuff before he received a computer from Dwight's Computers for Kids.  
The next day, after he got his Dwight's computer, he called to tell me he had put a password in the bios and forgot what it was. 

When I went to the apartment to reset the password, I learned his oldest sister had an arguement with her boyfriend and they split.  She had just come home with her 6 month old baby to live with the rest of the family. The thing is, hold on to your hat, John was already living with 11 siblings in this 3 bedroom apartment. The answer to the question you are thinking, is: I don't know, but I'll try .
 

HGK, Benjamen, and St. John

The family gave her one of the bedrooms to share with one sister and that meant everyone else had to make room.  The bedroom I visited had the computer in the middle of the near wall and the chair fit in the space between two sets of bunk beds  Each was each stacked three high against the side walls with a stool on the floor between the beds. 

Everybody, even little Benjamen, who was always naked and running around wherever, and kept grabbing me by the leg and banging on the computer keyboard.  He, like everyone else behaved as if nothing unusual had happened. 

After his father lost his job, they all moved to a 2 bedroom apartment. 

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Lice

With lice you have to be unconventional. You rub a good supply of sand and plenty of alcohol into the scalp and then wait. After the lice get drunk and start fighting, they will throw rocks at each other until they kill each other off.

President of the United States of America

 

The President, Barack Obama

During former President Bush's term of office I was asked for my opinion of what he was doing.  What I said included, I did not  vote for him but since he was now the  president, and for as long as he was, I would give him the benefit of the doubt and my support.
"I believed then and I believe now he had a child-like trust in those who were closest to him."  To their discredit most of their creative thinking was aimed at trying to make the Republican party dominant and on his reelection even at the cost of disservice to our country. .  Yes the GOP did benefit.  But the country was the worse for it.  The effect of President Obama's sincerity of purpose has not only inspired hope throughout the  world, but those who surround him who are selected from our country's most informed and they look to him for inspiration and for leadership. To me, that makes this presidency different.  I'm reminded of.what NFL hall of famer,  Dwight Stephenson's grandfather told him . . . . . .
"If you always do the best you can at whatever you're  doing, good things will just seem to happen."

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A day like this for every kid;

At age 4  I was hospitalized with Scarlet Fever.  When it came time for me to be discharged from the hospital, the doc said 'no' because a foot rash had not fully healed.  Mom and I pleaded until the doc said to my mother, "Ok, I'll let  him out if you promise you won't let him do anything strenuous." She promised and I got discharged.  I guess my  mother thought that meant forever. I can remember my brother out playing when I was 8 or 9 and she was still keeping me home.  I read every book in the library for my age and as I got older I kept reading at every opportunity. In my teens for one year I played all the sports. But, in football, forget it. In those days if you couldn't run fast, you played the line no matter what you weighed and I was slow and skinny.. In baseball I was ok. I seldom struck out and I could throw accurately tho not very hard and because Sol, our best athlete, wanted to play 2nd, I played 3rd base. I wasn't good enough to play at shortstop Sol, that rat, he was our best athlete and should have played shortstop. But he wanted to play 2nd. At 3rd I always played in close because I didn't want anyone to find out how weak my throwing arm was. The coach would yell and big bruises were all over me but even when I backed up because of the yells from the coach, I would come back in with the pitch no matter who was batting.
 In the league the teams finishing 1st and 2nd would play for the championship at the end of the summer and we finished first. In the championship game, in the bottom of the 7th, our left fielder gets hit on the leg by a pitch and we put in a pinch runner.
When the 8th starts the coach says, Howard you're in left, and the pinch runner plays 3rd. He kept saying he was always afraid I was going to get killed at 3rd. Anyway no fly balls come my way and we finish the 8th 4 runs in front. Now its the top of the 9th and after the other side gets 2 runs, with 2 out, their best hitter comes up and hits a fly ball to left center. I'm running like hell, my glove stretched way out when I step into a grass hidden hole and start to fall. The next thing I know I'm on the ground and unbelievable,. . . . the ball is in my glove.  


Miracles do happen,

Amazed I hold the glove up.  Everybody is yelling,  then they're pounding me and hugging me and I hear a father say.  'That was as good a diving catch as I have ever seen by anyone, anywhere." 
I thanked the Man upstairs and now was positive He had me hit that tree with my head (at 10 or 11) because my mother had told me not to sled down any hills of snow, from the top of the hill and I did not listen.

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