pappy's paradise

2010-01-24T15:14:00.000-08:00

Pappy found his old(er) blog! A person needs prompting sometimes, and I hope to figure a way to keep both of my blogs and divide my interests accordingly. My newest blog is pappy's paradise plus, an extension of this. However, there will be changes.
Don't know how or what.

Thanks for reading. Hope it gets more interesting in days to come.

2006-07-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a link on playing clarinet.

2006-07-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

2006-06-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

After an absence of many years, I’ve recently returned to playing clarinet. I now play in a concert band, and enjoy playing classical music. Tonight, my wife and I were jamming some blues numbers, she on piano and I on clarinet. When we finished improvising St. James Infirmary in B minor, she said, “You’re good. That’s your voice.” With her that was a natural observation, not a learned kind of thing to say. Made me feel good.

2006-06-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

2006-06-20T06:28:00.000-07:00

Been going through old photos lately. My wife and daughter brought a box of old photographs, I took during the mid-fifties, up from the basement. A bit of nostalgia, as well as renewed perspective, goes along with seeing old photos.

Shown here is a picture of me leaning against my old '54 chevrolet, a used car not much on looks. The previous owner worked in the steelmills and coke-dust had ground into the finish, but that didn't matter because I also needed a car to drive the half-hour trip to the mills. At this time, I worked in the chem-lab of U.S. Steel, the best of the many jobs I had working in the steel mills.

The '54 chevy was the last of a model line made to look ancient by the awesome change of style in 1955. My chevy was a straight stick with a six cylinder motor, pretty simple fair, but it turned out to be a dependable car. When I returned to Indiana University as a student, this old chevy reliably took me the five hour trip to Bloomington. Traveling as many back roads as possible, I made pretty good time. On holidays, when I wanted to return home, I usually had a few fellow students as passengers; they helped with gas and also made the time go by faster as we told stories and sang songs.

For me, the mid-fifties were difficult days of work and worry about my future made easier by having a car. A car was like a passport to freedom.

2006-05-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

The fickle fate of Florida winds has decreed that "pappy's paradise" will return to its original home. Thanks to all my friends who have followed me here, now if your patience allows, please return with me to those days of yesteryear at http://pappy.tw3k.net/

2006-04-12T08:59:00.000-07:00

Sugar Sand

A nearby park has two nature trails we love to walk. One trail is named after the Sand Pine and the other the Slash Pine, although I confess I find the differences in these two pine trees difficult to determine. Today we took the Sand Pine trail with a habitat know as Florida scrub. A distinctive feature is the sugar sand that you can see in a picture my wife took of me looking at the burrow of a Gopher Tortoise. Chapman oak grows along with the pines and palmettos. We also found this mushroom I think might be a Tawny Milkcap. Walking through the scrub on a well-layed path of wood chips offers a pleasant look at Florida's past, a past that goes back to the Pleistocene era of 10,000 years ago when mammoths and giant sloth's roamed the earth, and people hunted for them. Today the nature trail leads to Little League baseball fields, and days in paradise.

2006-03-31T09:41:00.000-08:00

On Blogging

Last Father’s Day, my oldest son set up a blog for me at wordpress. He did all of the hard work of creating a theme and template, and administered my blog. When something technical failed, I called on him. All I had to do was write, take pictures, and publish my stories. I enjoyed blogging and learned from the experience.

Blogging helped me work on my writing style and hone “my own voice.” After years in academia, even though I did write and produce plays, my writing diminished to the demands of the job. I perfected memo writing and classroom observations! When I retired, I started writing a journal, and didn’t worry much about form. I wrote observations, recorded happenings, and came to terms with my life. Writing the blog, with the character of pappy and the aid of photographs, helped me bring these experiences together and write without concern about commercial success.

Fortunately, I found an audience for what I wrote. Stories as diverse as The Gudgeonville Bridge and the meaning of “Boca Raton” where found through search engines. My reminiscences where among my most popular pieces; for instance, a story on my graduation from kindergarten has been read around the world. That long ago occasion inspired some fellow educators. Stories on my 50th high school class reunion allowed old friends to reenter my life. People were moved by stories about my mother and father. Furthermore, my academic expertise has lived on in articles about American Melodrama, the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and other historical and theoretical writings have been helpful for people’s research. But, as they say, all good things must come to an end, and such it is with my old blog.

I am grateful for the time spent writing these pieces, and even more thankful for the audience that has helped inspire my writing.

Now, as I conceive of a new blog, I will reconsider how I want to approach my writing by taking in the ephemeral nature of blogging.

Thanks,

pappy

2006-03-28T06:21:00.000-08:00

How to Write a One-Act Play

The most frequently searched for item on my old blog, was "How to Write a One-Act Play." What follows is a copy of that much requested page.

During the time I taught playwriting I developed a step by step process that leads to a finished and professional appearing one-act play. The one-act play is a rewarding form, especially for beginners seeking the craftsmanship of writing full length works. In it's own right, the one act can be a powerful emotional punch of comic or tragic proportions. Masters of the one-act form include: Eugene O'Neill, John Millington Synge, and Tennessee Williams.
The link below leads to my full text version of the playwriting process entitled, Playwriting: Build That Play. If you want to write a one-act play, following the weekly tasks of playwriting as described in my text will lead to success.
Playwriting

2006-03-26T13:23:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Readers,

This is my first post on blogger.com. Some of you have been reading my posts on "pappy's paradise" at wordpress. I truly appreciate your following me here to this site. It's a new experience for me. I hope I can create stories with pictures as well here as previously. Hope you can be patient with me as I explore this new territory. I am happy to be here.

pappy