Category Archives: Obituaries

School killings old, old

Think American school shootings, stabbings, and general violence leading to death are a modern phenom? Think again.

Not counting Indian “warrior” raids on schools, first recorded in 1764, the first recorded one was in 1871, in La Grange County, Indiana. There were just six more in the Nineteenth Century.

Then things really picked up. The Bloody Twentieth Century recorded twenty-three before World War II. Fourteen more by 1960. Then a hundred and thirty-two before the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, CO, in April, 1999.

Followed by  a hundred and twenty-six more by Jan. 22 of this year. Whew.

So these things really aren’t new, except in the sense of clothing fashions, i.e. what’s old is new again.

Doug Godbey, RIP

It’s bad enough to learn that a friend has died, but even worse to find that he died six years ago and you didn’t know it.

Douglas S. Godbey Douglas S. Godbey, age 55, passed away Saturday, December 17, 2005. Doug was born in Dallas to JJ and Louise, where he was raised with his two younger sisters, Lynda and Anita. When Doug was in his early twenties he moved to Austin where he began work as a sheetrocker. With his talent, creativity, and ingenuity he quickly started his own business and was self-employed as a building and design contractor for the duration of his life. His first child, Jessica, was born in 1979 from his first marriage; he later married Raquelle Smalley in 1992, and they had a son Nikolas, in 1993. Doug will always be remembered by his family and many friends for his warm heart, vibrant spirit, nonstop sense of humor, hearty laugh, unconditional devotion to spirituality and his family, and amazing love for life and all the people in it. He is survived by his wife, Raquelle Smalley Godbey; son, Nikolas Godbey; daughter, Jessica Godbey; sisters, Lynda Chambers and Anita Gideon. A memorial service will be held at Cook-Walden Funeral Home on Wednesday, December 21, 2005 at 3:30 pm.
Via Austin American-Statesman.

I met Doug in 1993 when I hired him to help “frost” a window in the bathroom of our new house so we could take showers in privacy. He found a cheaper, easier way to “fog” it with chemicals. Later he replaced a wood floor in our next house and, subsequently, the illegal cedar shingles of the roof, installing a skylight gratis as a gift for the birth of Mr. B. We’ll miss Doug.

Bye, bye elementary school

I should have written this already. Like back at the first of the month. When Mr. B. officially walked out of his fifth grade classroom, took about ten steps and was out the north-side door of the school and the door closed behind him on its pneumatic valve. Sigh. Thunk.

Forever. He says he won’t miss it. I already do, a little. All those afternoons in the heat or cold or rain waiting with other parents (mostly mothers) for the let-out and the pick-up. Holding my hand on the walk to the car. Ancient history now.

Next stop Middle School, just down the street.  Yee-ahhh. And puberty. Oh joy. (Or no joy.) Time will tell. He will play the clarinet in band. At least in sixth grade. Boy scouts will continue, and monthly camping trips, at least until he’s a First Class. More evening and weekend youth basketball? Probably.

Other than that? Girlfriends? Sex? Time to begin some serious prayer.

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Obamalot on the rocks

Sacrifice

“AT LEAST SEVENTY wicked witches were melted in last night’s unexpected drizzle. Governor Corbett has declared a state of emergency, and has designated Sunday as a day of prayer and human sacrifice.”

News from Dr. Boli’s Celebrated Magazine.

On Memorial Day

These are the men of 60th Company, OC 504-68, who were killed in Viet Nam.

We graduates of that 1968 class at Infantry Officers Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia, commemorate these seven each Memorial Day.

One graduate:  1LT Jacob Lee Kinser, a Huey pilot.

Two Tactical Officers:  CPT Reese Michael Patrick and 1LT Daniel Lynn Neiswender, both infantry commanders.

Four drop-outs:  CPL Sherry Joe Hadley, SP4 Reese Currenti Elia Jr., CPL Robert Chase, and SP4 Jeffrey Sanders Tigner, all infantry riflemen.

Katie Couric resigns. Yawn.

You remember Couric, the so-called journalist who did the hatchet-job on Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign? Well, Sarah’s still viable. Couric is leaving cBS. She’s become even more irrelevant than the network she used to work for.