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| Jeffery Daniel, RIP. |
I did not know Barnaby the Juggler at Moline High School, but he was remembered as a lot of fun. My late friend, Larry Easter, was quite impressed with Jeff's act. Many of my friends moved from teaching in public school to some other vocation. One became a computer graphics expert. Several became lawyers. I imagine Jeff found comedy useful in teaching English, so the move to the stage was a slight change in audience.
I found some YouTube video about Jeff - and there is a little about Larry Easter - Linn County. Here is another album by Linn County. Larry is found in Wikipedia, among other places on the Net. The group was honored for their work.
I told Larry that his fellow band members all looked like rotund Kiwanis members when they were inducted into the Iowa Music Hall of Fame.
Being in band and orchestra created a compact group of friends. Musicians seem to be over-represented on the honor roll in academics, perhaps from the mental discipline of memorizing music and working on scales until some good music finally emerges.
It seems as if Larry's band got their album recorded only a few days ago. We got together on a trip to Moline when LI was very young. Much later we met in Phoenix with a Moline friend who also passed away in the last year.
People seem to put the wrong emphasis on life. The most important memories involve our children - and now our grandchildren. We had a Norman Rockwell weekend, grilling with Team Jackson. When the charcoal was heating up, Alex helped me prune the roses. He was keen on getting rid of old blooms for me, and soon after we had five dozen in bloom at once.
He said, "Grampy, I learn a lot from you." That is my Hall of Fame, my Oscar, my Pulitzer, my endowed chair of rosarian science.
We walked to the corner for a yard sale. The girls opposite the yard sale started a lemonade stand to take advantage of the traffic and fund their tubing adventure. The next day they were still at work as we drove by their stand. I rolled down my window and asked, "Do you have drive-through service?" They laughed and brought two cups of lemonade. Mrs. I said, "What did they charge?" I said "Fifty cents, but I gave them a dollar each." She said, "We charged a nickel when we had a stand in South Bend." I said, "It's for tubing, and it's the most I ever paid per ounce for a drink. But it was worth it."
