Grandpa Butler

This is John Turner Butler dressed and ready for World War I.

He never saw any action though because he contracted influenza.

He survived influenza but 251,653 other soldiers didn't.

116,708 United States soldiers died in the first world war so almost twice as many soldiers died from influenza than from the war.

So Grandpa fought and won is own war.

Uncle Jack

This is my Uncle Jack visiting us when we lived on Lexington Ave.

I promised in a post HERE that I would post some clippings form his college days and when he was drafted to play for the Los Angles Rams.

Here they are.

This ones great. It starts like this:

"Despite his massive 6-3, 220-pound hulk. Kentucky tackle Jack Butler is nimble afoot and treads his way around accurately through a crowded football field to unwind around the ball carrier.
There are two reasons in his background for this.

1. The sophomore fom Tompkinsville is a square-dancing addict, hence agility.

2. He comes from a farming family of 10 - six boys and four girls - and hence a mob doesn't bother him at all."

They don't write articles like that anymore.




Just click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Batman: The Animated Series 20

The car crashes as the Joker surfaces.

The Carters

These are some pictures of a visit that my family made to my Aunt and Uncle Carters house back in 1974.

This is my Uncle Leslie in his easy chair telling some big story.



He would also do magic tricks for us.

He would make marbles disappear and then they would fall out of our pant legs or come out of our ears. We loved it.
This is my Aunt Dixie.

Looks like she is cooking supper. Mmmm!

We loved to see her but hated to leave her.
When we left it was required that we give her some "sugar".

As she kissed us good bye and while my cousins laughed and giggled she would declare that we had "Strawberry sugar!" and that she wanted more.

Which means my brothers and I hid behind our Mothers legs.


This is Linda.

Thats right Linda Carter.

When Wonder Woman was on T.V. I told all my friends in middle school that I was related to Linda Carter.

They would say "Really? and I could honestly say "Yes".
I didn't bother to tell them that the Linda Carter I was related too wasn't Wonder Woman though.
Why ruin it for them?

Here is the face she made for me so I could show all my friends a picture of Linda Carter.

That is her sister Brenda sitting next to her.


Now Brenda has magically changed into my cousin Loretta.

I suspect that a phone call caused Brenda to leave the couch.

I remember the girls sitting on the floor with their fingers shoved into their ears trying to talk to their boyfriends on the phone while we were there.

Their Dad tormented them while they were on the phone.
My Dad joined in on the teasing too.

I just took notes and now torment my kids while they talk to boyfriends and girlfriends on the phone.



This is Brenda after getting off the phone.

Dad or Uncle Leslie must have gone to far in their teasing.


Loretta and Linda don't look to sure about the story that their Dad must be telling.

I noticed something on the shelf above them.


See that Mickey Mouse I have circled?

I made that.

We had a toy called Shaker Maker.
You added some powder and water into a mold and shook it for all it was worth.
After it set up and you pried it from the mold you could paint it.

I made a Mickey Mouse for my sugar stealing Aunt Dixie.
I think I thought this might help me escape the sugar raid but it probably just made it worse.

I do remember being surprised the next time we visited and I saw that the Mickey Mouse was up on the shelf.
After this surprise I made it a point to look for Mickey year after year and it was always there.

I swelled with pride seeing it each time.

It shank each year I saw it but it remained on public display until they moved.

Image from HERE and thanks too to Brian A for helping me remember the name of the toy.

You can visit Brian A's toy blog HERE.

Last but not least this is my cousin Leslie Kay.

I remember that she asked Brett and I if we wanted to play Jacks.

We said "Sure" but Brett and I were expecting a card game.
Nope. It was Jacks. A little rubber ball and metal jacks that look like something Batman would throw down to explode the tires of a car.

She taught us the rules and we had fun playing a girls game.
Onesies, towsies and so on.

We then went outside to shoot basketball.

Good memories.

Batman: The Animated Series 19

Batman swings to safety with Jordan.

Uncle George

My Uncle George is mostly known for his ability to cook chicken.

But he also carved a mean watermelon.

•••••••••••

I see my Aunt Pearl and cousin Steve in this picture too.

After looking at this picture for a few minutes I have come to a different conclusion.
It was not my Uncles ability to carve a watermelon that made it taste so unique.
It was my brother Brett running all over the table top where it was being carved that probably gave it the special something.

1973

Batman: The Animated Series 18

Batman tosses the Joker from the car.

My Brother...

This my brother Darrell and my other brother Darrell.

The is the three amigos in 1977.

I am wearing a dog tag that I wanted really badly.
I looked everywhere for one.
I thought "Man a dog tag would be cool".
I could not find one.
We went to tons of art shows and there was always jewelry there but no dog tags.
Finally I found one but to get your name on it they engraved it and didn't stamp it.
It wasn't my first choice but I went for it.

••••••••••

As an adult I found a Army surplus store that sold dog tags and stamped your name in them.
I didn't get one but I got one for both my boys.

Batman: The Animated Series 17

The Joker and Batman battle face to face.

The Calico Frog

This is my Mom inside of the Calico Frog.

The Calico Frog was a store that she owned for quite a few years while I was growing up.

Can you guess what decade it was? Macrame, paisley and antique green are a few clues.

The slide up above was taken in 1975 where the store was first located.

This slide was taken in 1977 and it is of the stained glass window that was on the front door of the stores second location.

The doors were hand made with wrought Iron door handles and hinges.
Very cool.

Batman: The Animated Series 16

The doll explodes and starts a fire.

Naaah!

Elaine and I dated for 5 years before we were married.
During that time we had more than a few people tells us that we would never make it to marriage.
"Too young of a couple" or "High school sweethearts never make it" type stuff.
Some even tried to make it hard to survive by inventing trouble for us.
So we had one couple in particular in mind when we posed for this photo.

So naaah!

22 years of marriage 27 years together.
Just starting.

Batman: The Animated Series 15

The Joker tosses a burning kewpie doll at Batman.

Grandma White 1980

I have come to the conclusion that Chad must be drinking something nasty.
Look at the expression on my Grandma's face. It says "Ewww!"

•••••••••••••••

She hated to have her picture taken so maybe the face is meant for my Dad.

•••••••••••••••

1980. Hmm? This must have been while my Mom was working for the Secret Service.

Batman: The Animated Series 14

Batman leaps to Joker's roller coaster car.

Happy Anniversary!

August 15th is our wedding anniversary.

You probably think by my saying "our" anniversary I mean me and my beautiful wife Elaine's anniversary.

I do. It is our 22nd year of wedded bliss.

But by "our anniversary" I also mean my parents anniversary.

It is their 45th.

Tricky aren't I?

The happy couple 1964

Happy anniversary everyone!

Elaine on our honeymoon with her favorite Disney character.

Me on my honeymoon with a evil disney villain

Oh it is also opening day of squirrel season Dad. ;0)

School

My son Joel started school today. :0(

•••••••••••

Here was one of my favorite teachers though, Mrs. Markward.
This slide is from a class back in 1977.

I don't know how we got this picture though.
I don't recognize any of the kids or remember taking it myself.
Hmmm?

Oh well.

She read to us after lunch each day and one of my favorite books she read to us was "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler".

I hope Joel has some good teachers this year.

Batman: The Animated Series 13

Batman breaks out of the tank of water.

Where Have I been?

Well lets just say that it was a busy, busy week.

Here is my son at his work. He is a lifeguard and a storm had blown all the deck chairs into the pool.
Then he had a motor cross race that we decided it was raining to hard to attend.

So he entered a flat track race at our counties fair.
He did pretty good for his first flat track race.
(He was excited!)

Dining cheapskate style

When I was a Senior in high school we had a foreign exchange student come live with us.
Wilt has come back to visit us twice since then and my parents went to Holland to visit him once.

He came back this time with his family.


Levi and I took them to the Creation Museum one day last week.


Then we had a bad storm at home.
It knocked down about nine trees in our yard and snapped a power line that caught some of the yard on fire.

So we called 911.
We now know that 911 can find our house.

We had the Berga's over for dinner and explored a creek near our home one night too.

We had them all sign our chalkboard wall before they left.
I just wish we could read it.

My wife had a birthday this past week too.

So here we are at the in-laws celebrating another year for my lovely wife.


The ladies surfed the web and looked at bowls and stuff online.
None of the bowls had Batman on them. Boring!

We also had a big event at our Church too.


Levi and Hope enjoying the food.

Megan giving me the evil eye.


Then Sunday we had a cook out and sang some songs together outside.

I am tired just trying to remember it all!

Here is a video of some of the events from last week.