Did You Cheer?

 

DID YOU CHEER OR DID YOU BOO?

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, February 11, 2025

INTERESTING TID-BIT:  Did you know, you can set up your iphone to read pages back to you?  You can!  Go to Settings, then to Accessibility, then scroll down to Spoken Content.  Turn the various selections on.  If you do, you will then see a light grey circle that appears on the side of the internet screen you have selected.  If you click on the circle, it will take you to a control bar that enables you to have the page read to you.  You can even speed it up to save time if you prefer. 

Did you cheer or boo?  This inquiring mind would like to know.  When the camera zoomed in on President Trump at the 2025 National Football League Super Bowl in New Orleans, the people overwhelming cheered, did you cheer or did you boo.  Where you excited to see him at the game or were you disappointed? 

I am writing this Nugget as I approach my 80^th birthday.  I only tell you this because that means that in my lifetime, I have experienced the presidency of 14 Presidents starting with FDR.  I cannot say that I remember anything about FDR because I was so young but as for the remaining 13, I remember some vividly and others like Truman and even Nixon, not so much.  Truman because I was still young and the only news we received back then was in the newspapers which I did not spend much time reading.  Social media did not exist nor did televisions for that matter.  Nixon only because of lack of interest.  

If you have read any of my previous Nuggets for the Noggin, you then know that between 1965 and 1985 I served in the U. S. Coast Guard.  What some of you, hopefully not you, may not know is that the U. S. Coast Guard WAS and IS one of the branches of the U. S. Military.  All of the other branches, like the Army and Navy, are organized under the Department of Defense.  The Coast Guard finds itself supervised by the Department of Homeland Security during peacetime and the U. S. Navy/Department of Defense during times of war; declared or otherwise. 

It is important to this Nugget to understand the above because the President of the United States is also the Commander in Chief of all branches of the U. S. Military including the Coast Guard.  What most people fail to fully grasp is that a PERSON serves as President who fills THE OFFICE of the PRESIDENT.  People being human, they are subject to making mistakes both big and small.  People are subject to being disliked just because of the way they may appear to someone.  In other words, there are many reasons to like or dislike the PERSON who has been voted in as the President of the United States.  The ONE THING that NEVER changes is that the two, PERSON and OFFICE are NOT one in the same thing.  As a member of the U. S. Military, we are taught to respect the OFFICE of the President and are expected to render respect to the PERSON who occupies that OFFICE.  Therefore, when someone renders honors to the President of the United States the PERSON, they are actually rendering honors and respect to the OFFICE of the PRESIDENT; hopefully both!  In my opinion, publicly disrespecting The Office of the President, regardless of WHO is occupying the office, is unacceptable!  PERIOD! 

I would like to draw a mental picture for you, bear with me.  It is 7:30 in the morning and I am at the local golf club.  I am on the practice range and practice putting green getting ready for my tee time at 8:10 AM.  It is very commonplace for golfers to warm up by hitting shot after shot on the practice tee and then hitting putt after putt on the practice green.  Then like clockwork, an employee of the club would appear at the flag pole at about 7:55 AM EVERY MORNING, rain or shine.  At 8:00 AM, just like on every military base around the world, he raises the Flag of the United States.  In this case, there are not honors being played by a lone trumpeter, just the silence of the wind.  As you look around this mental picture, you can easily identify the golfers on the tee and green who once served in the military.  They all come to attention, remove their golf caps and place them over their heart until the Flag is unfurled and standing tall.  The entire process takes but just a minute or two but it is the right thing to do for anyone who had served in the military.  It is a military person’s way of honoring the colors (flag) of the United States and all that it stands for.  It should be the same for everyone but unfortunately, it is not!  You can see this as a lot of the golfers would continue doing what they had been doing while the flag is being hoisted.  

I am well aware that most of the people in the Super Dome cheered President Trump, the man, but there were also many that honored the Office of the Presidency and some honored both.  In my lifetime, there were Presidents that I just didn’t like for very different reasons but most I had no strong feelings about one way or another.  I grew up knowing and still remembering the slogan, “I Like Ike” when it came to President Dwight Eisenhower; we all repeated it as kids.  What was there not to like.  He was a successful WWII General responsible for the “good guys” winning WWII for the allies and now he was the President.  As for the others since Ike, I despised Lyndon Johnson because of how he mishandled the Vietnam War and got people killed and wounded needlessly and prolonged a war that should never have been fought in the first place.  John F. Kennedy was a very liable person whether you voted for him or not.  Jimmy Carter was a “nice guy” but he was horrible for anyone in the military.  I saw the morale of the troops circle the drain during his presidency.  Ronald Reagan reversed all that during his term in office. I never trusted the first George Bush; he was the first President that I can recall that ever put forth the idea of a “new world order” as if it was a good thing; it’s not!  As for Bill Clinton, they called him Slick Willie for a reason.  Barrack Obama was and remains a very questionable character in my book.  I attribute the increased racial divide in America to his presidency plus as time goes by, we are learning more and more about the probable illegal activities he oversaw in regards to defeating Donald Trump at any cost.  As for Joe Biden, one side of me despises the man who on the surface singlehandedly destroyed America on so many fronts.  On the other hand, I truly feel sorry for him because he was in obvious mental decline, not of his own making.  I am not even sure he was running the country.  Someone was, but not Joe Biden!  I fault his political party for not taking the reins and removing him from office when they should have for medical reasons.  If they had, maybe America would be in better condition than it was when Trump took office for his second term. 

I write about these Presidents to prove my point that few if any are or were perfect, on the contrary, they are human beings.  People will say that no matter who the president is, half of the population will support him or her and half will oppose him or her.  Personally, I believe we are seeing the 80/20 Rule hard at work in every presidency.  80% of the population either outwardly or quietly supports the president and the office of the president and 20% will NEVER be satisfied and oppose everything a president tries to accomplish.  I believe this to be true except for LBJ and Biden where 80% of their activities adversely affected 100% of the population.  For LBJ it was the Vietnam War.  For Biden it was the open border, increase in violent crimes and an out-of-control inflation rate. 

I have never been in the presence of a President of the United States.  I am well aware that some presidents during my lifetime I liked, others I did not like at all, and a select few, I did not have any feeling toward one way or another.  Still, like the Flag of the United States, and as a member of the military family, I would pay honors to every President because each President represented The Office of the President and was a/my Commander in Chief of the Military. 

If you are like me, you probably despise many of the things the Government of the United States does and has done over history.  If you research the REAL history of the United States, it does not present the beautiful picture we were taught in school back in the 1950s.  In fact, I should have realized that we were being lied to even back then when we as elementary school students were told to take cover beneath our flimsy wooden student desk in the event of an Atom Bomb Alert.  Seriously?  Yet, like so many Americans on so many historical subjects, just believed what they were told and never questioned what the government was telling us and the media backed up with “news reports”.  Examples abound:  Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, 9/11, Weapons of Mass Destruction, COVID, Vaccines, JFK, RFK and MLK murders, Epstein Files, and there are more, many more! 

Every President, good, bad or indifferent, should always be respected as they fill the Office of the President.  The Flag of the United States should ALWAYS be respected; it has done no harm to you, EVER!  We live in what I believe to be the greatest country on Earth.  If you do not believe that I dare you to miss just one day by living elsewhere and then still say you don’t love America.  We are taught at a very young age that hating people is just wrong.  Hate is a powerful word!  Do you hate anyone?  I mean really hate them?  Keep in mind, that if you lie about that, you will most likely lie about almost anything.  In my own self-reflection, I understand that I do hate certain kinds of people.  First and foremost, I reserve the right to hate anyone who needlessly puts the military and first responders in harm’s way for power, money or glory.  Vietnam and the war caused by “weapons of mass destruction that did not exist” immediately come to mind.  I do not hate the Hollywood Celebrity types who announce they are moving out of the country because Donald Trump won the presidency but I reserve the right to thoroughly despise them for acting out the temper tamper throwing babies they truly are because THEY did not get THEIR way while millions of others DID! 

The ONLY people that should get booed during a football game are the referees who make asinine calls against invisible transgressions or in the case of the New Orleans Saints Playoff Game, MAKE NO CALL AT ALL WHEN THE VIOLATION OF RULES OCCURRED RIGHT IN FRONT OF TWO OF THE MEN IN STRIPES.  They deserve every boo they ever received and MORE!  But I digress. 

President Trump deserved to be cheered at the Super Bowl.  Taylor Swift DID NOT deserve to be booed as she was.  She voiced her opinion on politics and even switched from being an Eagles fan to a Chief’s fan (for good reason).  

No one should be booed for voicing an opinion!  No one!  If you don’t like it, ignore it!  Being booed because you were once an Eagles fan and are now a Chief’s fan; that’s an entirely different story.  Have at it Eagle fans!

How I Joined The Coast Guard; Life Lessons

 

HOW, NOT WHY, I JOINED THE
U. S. COAST GUARD
AND WHY MY LIFE-LESSON
CAN  AND PROBABLY DOES
APPLY TO YOU!

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, Lieutenant, U. S. Coast Guard Retired,
written on January 18, 2025

 

Warning:  This is long and may appear disjointed but it WILL come together, read on! 

It was May 1963, I had just graduated from Chaney High School in Youngstown Ohio and in September started my freshman year at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.  In addition to starting college, 1963 saw the Vietnam War ragging in the far East.  As an 18-year-old I did not understand the politics of Vietnam but even at 18, I could tell that the war was something that we should NOT be engaged in.  We were told that we had to be there because of the domino effect.  That meant that losing the war would cause the rest of the world in that area to fall like “dominos” to communism.  Most of us never questioned that premise; some did.  We were told that countries like Australia, New Zealand and South Vietnam, would become communist controlled if we lost.  One nation after another would fall – the Domino Effect; that is what we were told. 

There was not a high school student that I was aware of who was not deeply concerned about being drafted into military service for the sole purpose to fight a war in some far-off jungle.  It was NOT because we were unpatriotic, it was because we did not understand the need.  You could avoid being drafted if you had a physical ailment that prevented you from passing a military entrance physical.  Another way to avoid the draft was to enlist in a military reserve component or the State’s National Guard.  Some did just that and went to Vietnam anyway.  You could also avoid the draft if you were enrolled in a college or university as I was.  In 1963 a lot of people my age with no means of avoiding the draft, fled to Canada to avoid having to fight in the Vietnam jungles and rice paddies. 

1963 was also a time when parents would tell their children,  both boys and girls, that if you didn’t go to college, you would never amount to anything; most of us believed their parents.  This was said in good faith by parents who also believed what they had just said to us as being in our best interest.  As it turned out, at least for me, that one thought had been implanted in my head even though I did not know it at the time; after all, I was headed off to college so I was on the path to success. 

College was a bummer for me.  I attended class for two years and during those years I always felt like square peg being forced into a round hole.  The one over-riding reason I felt this way was because of a lack of interest and I’ll explain that in a bit, hold on.  It started when I was in the 6^th grade when the class was given a tour of a local U. S. Air Force Base.  I had the opportunity to sit in the cockpit of an F-101 Voodoo Fighter Jet; very impressive!  From that day forward, that is what I wanted to do with my life, become an Air Force Fighter Pilot.  It was just a seed that I never intentionally watered like learning how to fly an airplane.  No, I went to college and majored in marketing and advertising in the school of business.  Much to my surprise there was an Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at Bowling Green and I signed up and I loved it.  ROTC rekindled my 6^th grade desire to become a fighter pilot.  During my two years, I managed to pass the flight aptitude test and the flight physical examination all during my second year.  

The second reason that I did not like the college life was that for the two years I majored in marketing and advertising, I took NO courses on those subjects at all – zero!  I had zero interest in the courses I was required to take to just get to the third year where I would begin to learn about marketing and advertising; what a waste of time.  My grades reflected what I thought about the courses I was required to take; they were horrible except for my participation in ROTC.  Unbeknownst to me, I had begun to develop a deep love for the military and its organized lifestyle. 

Knowing that I was having trouble concentrating on my courses, I sat out a semester in 1965 to get my head on straight about continuing.  During this period, I obtained a job as an unskilled laborer at the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, a steel manufacturer in Youngstown.  I was assigned to work in the company’s Open Hearth.  Let me describe it from memory.  On one side of this very tall and long building, open to the outside near the top exposing everyone inside the building to the outside environment.  It was January in Ohio and it was cold outside and cold inside the open-hearth building.  On one side of this very long building were 8 to 10 “ovens” where the steel was literally cooked into a molten type liquid at extremely high temperatures.  I was told that the ovens were typically over 2000 degrees but they were very well insulated and did not heat the inside of the building.  My fellow laborers and I would sit on one side with very little to nothing to do and freeze until we were told we needed to reinforce the inside of the hearths (ovens).  Then with hard hat on, a special fire-retardant coat and special gloves, we put very thick blue lens goggles on and approach one of the five doors on the front of the hearth.  Each door had a round open hole that you could see inside the hearths. 

It's difficult to describe but I’ll try.  The Second Helper would tell us which door we would work at and describe over all the noise approximately where on the floor or walls of the hearth we had to throw a “patch.”  A patch was simply a shovel full of heavy black looking gravel type material that I do not remember what it was called, into the damaged areas of the hearth.  There was a skill at how this was accomplished.  We would get a long skinny shovel full of the black rocks, approach the open door from the side, step directly in front of the opened door and then with one very quick movement of your arm holding the shovel, throw the gravel in the direction that we were told.  The dark blue lens enabled us to see into the hearth that glared like the sun blinding anyone who did not wear the eye protection.  Once you threw the gravel into the hearth and in one continuing motion, you would use your right arm to immediately come across your face and your eyes to protect them from both the extreme heat AND the extreme bright light coming from within the hearth.  If you did not do this perfectly, you ran the risk of getting skin burns on the uncovered portions of your face and neck.  While you did this, you got the Hell out of there in a hurry to pick up the next shovel of gravel to throw. 

Each hearth had its own team so there were eight to ten teams like mine, one for each hearth. (I say 8 to 10 because I don’t remember the exact number of hearths that were there.)  That meant that it was possible to do an eight-hour shift and have absolutely nothing to do to pass the time other than trying to stay warm.  The highlight and lowlight of the shift occurred when it was time to “tap” the hearth.  Tapping meant that the First or Second Helper along with one of the laborers (me) went behind the hearth.  The Helper would lower himself down along side of a massive trough that protruded out and away from the lower back center of the hearth.  With a long metal rod, the Helper would poke at the bottom of the hearth to break through a plug that held the molten steel within the hearth.  When the plug/seal was broken, the molten steel would gush out, proceed down the trough and into a huge ladle located on a rail road car.  If all went well, it was dangerous and exciting but not harmful.  If it did not go well, that would mean that instead of just breaking through the plug, the plug would blow out on its own and that meant trouble for the Helper standing within just feet of the plug.  Like a volcano, it would erupt, molten steel, sparks and fire would burst out and scare the crap out of the Helper and the laborer (me).  My job when this happened would be to grab the Helper by the collar of his coat and make sure he is removed from the pit beneath the trough.  It was not fun.  All while this was happening you could not help but notice that there was debris floating in the air in all directions.  The debris was graphite.  You did not realize just how much graphite was in the air until you where home and discovered that you had graphite in your pockets, the cuffs of your pants and even in your wallet.  You can only imagine what the inside of your lungs must have looked like.  This was decades before environmental protection was even a thought.  

I was promoted to operate the bell on a train that went nowhere except from one end of the open hearth to the other.  The train had a car that contained a ladle that was used to fill the hearths with the ingredients it needed to make the steel.  The train, operated by a train engineer and ONLY operated when needed, plus me on the very back of the train; I was there to ring the bell.  During an eight-hour shift, it may move two times, three max.  As long as it was moving forward, I had nothing to do but ride on the back. When it went in reverse, I stood on the back with a metal rod hitting a bell to alert everyone in the path that the train was moving in their direction and to clear a path.  Sounds exciting, right?  It wasn’t!  I would also help to direct the overhead crane operator to hook up the huge hooks onto each side of the ladle to insure it pulled it straight up and not tip it over because one hook was not secured before it was hoisted.  Here’s the upside of all of this.  I made $34.00 a day doing this work.  That equates to about $8,800 a year.  By 2024 standards, that’s poverty level income but in 1965, that was a fortune and the workers had the Steel Union to thank for that. The downside was that I made more money as an unskilled laborer than a Youngstown Ohio School Teacher did with a college degree teaching 5^th graders.  That was insane and even I could see that.  The over-the-top cost of making steel paying these high wages was the ultimate cause of steel production being shipped overseas.  If you were to go to Youngstown today, you would see the remnants of these steel plants sitting empty and decaying.  The most valuable lesson learned for this 20-year-old laborer was that there was no way I was going to do THIS the rest of my life.  In fact, it lasted about 4 months when I decided to return to Bowling Green and restart my formal education. 

I reenrolled at Bowling Green to begin the summer semester with a renewed interest in doing better.  The time I had sat out, however, reinstated my position on the military draft (lottery) and I was drafted.  I had orders to report to Fort Knox before my summer semester was completed.  I was shocked and devastated.  With the draft notice in hand, I went to talk to the local U. S. Army Recruiter.  When he discovered that I had 2 years of Air Force ROTC under my belt and had already passed the flight aptitude test and flight physical, he had me mentally flying Jolly Green Giants in Vietnam before I had a chance to sit down and he told me as much.  In fact, he said I could be sent to flight school, be promoted to Chief Warrant Officer and then fly the big helicopters in the war as if this was some great thing to strive for. 

Meanwhile, my mother managed to get the Mayor of Youngstown involved in my plight because she and I both wanted me to finish the semester I had just started.  Because of my mother, I can tell you the rest of the story as the famous Paul Harvey radio broadcaster would say.  I was granted a deferment of my deferment to finish the semester I was enrolled in.  This gave me the opportunity to talk to other recruiters.  I wanted no part of flying helicopters in Vietnam!  My ROTC instructor explained to me that because I had finished two years of ROTC training, I could enlist in the Air Force as an E-1 (Recruit) and then skip the promotion to E2 and upon graduation, go immediately to E3; sounded plausible and good to me.  At the same time, I could apply for Officer Candidate School and then apply for flight school.  It all sounded great, it was a plan!  Then I went to see the recruiter. 

It’s now late July 1965.  Vietnam was going hot and heavy and we could hear about the daily casualty count on the evening news programs.  My future seemed very bleak.  I got up early and drove from Bowling Green, Ohio to Toledo, Ohio where the recruiters were located.  I arrived about 9:00 AM and was shocked to see a line outside of the Air Force recruiting office; it was long.  There were a lot of young men trying to avoid being drafted and to them, as it did to me, the Air Force seemed like a very good alternative.  Being the impatient person I was, I knew I was not going to stand in this long line.  I thought that the U. S. Navy would be a good alternative and like the Air Force, there was a long line. When I say long, I mean like at least 20 to 25 people in each line moving nowhere very slowly.  Between the Air Force and Navy Recruiters was the U. S. Marine Corps.  There was no one in line there so I went in.  What the Hell was I thinking?  I wasn’t.  I managed to get a seat in front of a man that you could easily describe even if you never knew what a U. S. Marine Gunny Sargant would look like and you could have described him perfectly!  He was on the phone and I could hear the conversation.  He was trying to get permission to recruit a two-time felon and was asking for a waiver for his discretions.  It took me about 4 seconds to realize that I was in the wrong office for me.  I decided to go back to school and get up even earlier and come back the next day and wait until they opened. 

(As a side note about the Vietnam War, it took years but it has been proven that the United States’ entry into the war was based on a lie about an incident that supposedly took place in the Gulf of Tonkin.  Follow this link and see if you don’t come up with the same conclusion that I have, the American loss of life was unnecessary and based on a lie.  https://www.quora.com/Was-the-Gulf-of-Tonkin-incident-a-hoax-faked-by-President-LBJ-to-get-the-U-S-involved-in-the-Vietnam-War-full-scale) 

On my way out I saw this open door.  Over the door it read U. S. Coast Guard.  I am a typical mid-westerner who never lived anywhere near the water and had no clue what the Coast Guard was.  When I looked inside, there was only one person in this very small office which was about the size of a small living room in a home.  There was a wooden desk and behind the desk was a man in a U. S. Navy looking sailor uniform.  He had his feet up on the desk and was reading a Superman comic book, yes, you read that correctly, a Superman comic book.  Here is what happened next: 

ME:  “What is this?”

HIM:  “The U. S. Coast Guard recruiting office.”

ME:  “What is the U. S. Coast Guard?”

HIM:  “It is one of the branches of the U. S. Military”

ME:  “How does one get into the Coast Guard?”

HIM:  “You can’t!”

ME:  “Why not?”

HIM:  He didn’t say anything, instead he reached behind him and pulled a legal-size green binder from atop the table behind his desk.  He showed me the book and there was nothing but names and phone numbers on page after page after page.

HIM:  “You see all these names?  They are people who have signed up on our waiting list to be called when an opening occurs.  Mothers have listed the names of their sons, some as young as 10-years-old, for them to join the Coast Guard  Do you understand?”

ME:  “Yes, but I don’t understand why there are so many.”

HIM: “ That’s because we are a small outfit and there are not that many openings to fill.  In the case of the Mothers signing up their sons, they feel that the Vietnam War may go on for years.”  (Who knew in 1965 how right the Mothers were.) 

I then explained to him my problem about finishing the semester in a week and that I will be drafted.  I also told him about passing the aptitude test and physical.  I don’t know why I continued to talk to him but I did.  Apparently, he had nothing better to do other than reading a Superman comic book so he sat and listen and we just talked for a while. 

Then this is what happened next, I swear, it happened just like I am telling you. 

He paused and opened his green-ledger book, put his finger on the next name on the list.  Picked up the phone on his desk and dialed the number. 

HIM:  Hello, is this………..?  Great, we have an opening to report to Coast Guard Training Center, Cape May, NJ on August the 4^th, can you make it?”

CALLER:  He must have said something like, “Oh no, I’m sorry, I fell and broke my arm, it is in a cast.”

HIM:  “Sorry to hear that, take care.”  He then hung up. 

He looked at me and said, “Can you report to Cape May, NJ on August the 4^th?” 

And that is how I entered the U. S. Coast Guard.  I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. 

Granted the words that I typed above may not be exact but they are very close to what actually happened.  Can you imagine the call to my parents to tell them that I had just joined the U. S. Coast Guard.  My mother had the same question as I did.  What is the U. S. Coast Guard and why did I agree to join it?  When she realized that it would satisfy the requirement that I either be drafted or that I had already enlisted in another branch, she was fine with it as was my Dad. 

I worried about my Dad more than my Mother because remember it was my Dad who said that if I didn’t graduate from College, I would never amount to anything.  As I have said, it did not mean much to me at the time but subconsciously it meant a great deal that I discovered much later in life.  I am sure that both my Mother and my Father were disappointed that I was NOT going to complete my college education and become the success they had hoped I would achieve because that is the what parents were taught to believe through the media and through the public schools at the time.  I am pretty sure the same thoughts were being advanced in private schools as well.  That was 1965 and it took over 50 years for the public to realize that (1) not every high school student is cut out to attend college and (2) you do not have to complete a college education to become very successful in life. 

Now for the lessons I took from this experience and I write them as I approach the age of 80.  Remember that I said my father repeatedly told me that “you will not amount to much if you do not attend college.”  I should have known that he did not believe this and was using it as a tool but I did not connect the dots.  He was very successful at what he was doing and he did not attend college, nor did my mother.  My sister did and she became a successful school teacher.  But I joined the Coast Guard and in 1965, no one joined the military with the idea of making it a career or at least that was the prevailing thought amongst my peers at the time. 

I joined the Coast Guard because it was an alternative to being drafted into the U. S. Army and then being shipped off to Vietnam.  Everyone knew that was going to happen; there was no doubt about it.  Sometimes as one door closes, another opens and that is exactly what happened to me.  Was it by design or by accident?  Didn’t matter, it happened.  Remember, I loved what I was doing in the Air Force ROTC program and was quietly becoming very interested in the military because of it.  When I joined the Coast Guard, suddenly it became very clear to me that the Coast Guard was going to teach the importance of organization, discipline and personal responsibility which I desperately lacked in my life through 1965.  I became very aware of how important it was to become a working member of a functioning team and that every team member had to do his (much later it also included women) job, otherwise people could get hurt or even killed.  A ship could sink or a plane/helicopter could crash with loss of life or serious injuries because YOU did not do your job as best you could!  At the time, I needed to learn those lessons and those lessons have stuck with me until this very day and proved to be instrumental to any success I may have achieved in life beyond my Coast Guard career.  I will be forever indebted and grateful to the Coast Guard and the fantastic people I worked for and who worked for me during my twenty years in the Coast Guard.  Everyone should be as fortunate I as was for that on-the-job education! 

It was about 1995 when I learned just how much “words mean things” when Dr. Tom Hill, my employer and I were having breakfast as we travelled about the South visiting real estate offices and helping them to become more proficient in what they were doing.  Dr. Tom asked me what was holding me back?  I did not understand the question because I felt I was doing fine at the time.  He then said someone or something has been implanted in head to where I felt I was undeserving of the achieving the “next step” in my success.  As it turned out he was very perceptive; he was right.  I would achieve things in my real estate career and then at the very moment my career should go on to the next step I would stop and change directions.  He pointed out those times when this would occur.  He was not faulting my service or work that I had done for him only that he could see these situations and I could not.  Again, he was right.  We talked that morning for a long time and that is when I recalled what my father had told me in the early 1960s that if I did not go to college, I would not become successful.  I went to college but I never finished college so in my mind, I did not “go to college” so I had no right in my mind to achieve success.  As I approached success, that is when I would stop and change directions.  That is when I realized just how much “WORDS MEAN THINGS!”  I could not help but wonder what words I may have said my four children that impeded their march through life.  That was a scary moment because I would never consciously say anything to my children to impede them. I am positive that my father never INTENTIONALLY said what he said knowing it would impede me. 

I began reading a lot of books on success, motivation, business and personal development.  I have read almost every book Wallace C. Wattles has ever written (back in the early 1900s) and in every one of his books he recites the phrase “thinking in a certain way!”  If you want to do this or you want to do that, you will never achieve what you want to do if you do not “think in a certain way.”  He does not describe the “certain way” he simply refers to doing it.  If you want to be as successful as possible creating a Coast Guard career, you must first “think in a certain way” like having already achieved the successful Coast Guardsman you want to be and then create the path that will take you there.  It really was that simple!  

If that is your goal, you want to achieve good performance reports from your supervisor and/or your commanding officer.  Therefore, what must you do?  If you want to achieve the next promotion, what must you do?  If you want to do those things, how must you think.  YOU MUST THINK IN A CERTAIN WAY!  Then you must simply TAKE ACTION AND DO IT! 

Brian Tracy said in his book, Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life, “You become what you think about most!”  Combined with what Wallace C. Wattles has written, it might be better said: 

“If you think in a certain way,

you WILL become what you think about MOST!” 

I did not purposely think and act that way during my Coast Guard career but that is exactly what I thought and did.  I entered as a Seaman Recruit and advanced my way to Chief Petty Officer and then to Chief Warrant Officer and then to Limited Duty Lieutenant.  I was then involuntarily retired on a physical disability before I was ready to continue on my path in the Coast Guard.  I did the same thing as a Real Estate Salesman moving on to a Real Estate Broker to later become a Real Estate Trainer and a Real Estate Broker/Owner.  At one point in my real estate career, I was personally responsible for 105 real estate licensees in my company.  Therefore, contrary to the thought unintentionally implanted by my father, I was successful in my own in right without having completed a college degree. The very important lesson I have learned is that no one can set goals for you, you must set your own goals, low or high, and then create a life that will take you to achieving whatever goals YOU CHOOSE and  that you SET for YOURSELF! 

That would be a successful formula for whatever you want to do in life and a good lesson to pass on to your children and their children.

CAN YOU HEAR YOURSELF?

 

CAN YOU HEAR YOURSELF?

 STOP IT !

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, January 15, 2025

Question:  Do you write like you talk?  It’s an honest question; do you write like you talk?  For a lot of people, I HOPE NOT! 

Today I listened to a PODCAST interview between two people.  It was long.  It was extremely interesting and covered a lot of subjects.  There was a very glaring annoyance in the discussion that at first was simply annoying and then it became very distracting.  What was the annoyance?  I’m glad you asked.  Before I answer, I am going to rewrite this paragraph in the same manor that a great many Americans now talk.  

So, today I listened to a PODCASE like interview, you know, like between two people. It was like long, like very long.  But it was like extremely interesting and, you know, covered a lot of subjects.  But there was like a very glaring annoyance, you know, in the discussion that at first was like simply annoying but then became like very distracting.  So, what was the annoyance?  Like, I’m so glad you asked.  But, before I answer, I’m going to, like you know, rewrite this paragraph in the same manor, like you know, that a great many Americans like talk. 

Can you pick out the needless and sentence changing words; it’s not difficult to do?  More importantly, if you were to read the second paragraph first, you hopefully had the same reaction that I had listening to the PODCAST.  Why did the speaker insert those needless and very annoying words or collection of words into his speech or in this case, my writing.  Does the speaker write and the same way he uses the annoying words in his speech?  I seriously doubt it. 

It’s been decades since I conducted my last job interview where I was the employer asking the questions.  I am pretty sure that if a job applicant were to sit in front of me and we conducted a discussion regarding future employment and the applicant spoke like the second paragraph, I would have been disinterested in hiring the applicant.  For most employers, not all, promoting the company’s brand and image to the public is important.  Not only is using proper English important, a person’s handwriting is just as important.  Obviously, I cannot speak for everyone or every employer when I identify what I consider to be important factors that I used to hire someone.  Why did I include handwriting as being important?  If a member of my company were to take important notes or pass important information along to customers that required handing writing or printing notes or paper, I wanted the customer to be (1) able to read the notes/papers and (2) not be confused as to important things like times, dates, places and required actions because they are unable to read the employee’s or agent’s handing writing.  Having poor handing writing, a skill that can and should be learned, is as important as properly speaking which is also a skill that can and should be learned. 

BUT!  But is a word that most people do not recognize as being a wall-builder; yet that is exactly what it is.  I can speak the truth, word after word, BUT, when I insert the word “but”, it stops the mental processing of what I had just said or written.  Everything that I have said or written up until that point is mentally disregarded because the truth to the reader/listener is about to happen with whatever is said or written AFTER the “but.”  As an example, use this one sentence written twice and see if what I have just written is not true. 

“I hear (or see) what you have said BUT I think (or believe) that…”

“I hear (or see) what you have said AND I think (or believe) that…. 

In the first sentence the word “but” means that what you have said isn’t as important as what you are about to say.  In the second sentence the word “and” is used hoping that the reader or listener will understand that you understand what they have written or said and that there may be more information to consider.  Using the word “and” instead of “but” is a HUGE difference and keeps the conversation/reader continually engaged instead of being turned off or immediately becoming defensive. 

So, do you understand the difference between “but” and “and?”  Or how about rewriting this last sentence to read: “Do you understand the difference between “but” and “and?”  What is the difference?  The word “SO” has absolutely no meaning and when repeatedly used in speech or writing is once again, very annoying to the reader/listener who knows that it has no meaning and is used more out of habit than out of a practical use.  It is also rarely used in writing and often used in speaking.  STOP BEGINNING SENTENCES WITH THE WORD “SO!” 

LIKE  To me, this may be one of the most annoying words ever used, especially in speech because if the same person who just spoke the word were to write out the same sentence on paper, the word would be automatically deleted or it would be deleted using a better than average spell check program.  IT SERVES NO PURPOSE other than to detract from what is being said and when used enough, comes to the point that whatever is being said falls by the wayside because it IS so annoying.  Not ONLY is it annoying, it reminds me of clips we have all seen on television where young girls more so than young boys, insert the word “like” into everything they say.  Still, I seriously doubt that if they were required to write a paper that would be read or reviewed, the word “like” would rarely if ever appear.  Why is the word to dominant in today’s spoken language?  I have no clue!  NONE!  As I have said, it serves no purpose but to distract and even diminish what is actually being said.  No matter how credible the speaker may be, as in the case of the above referenced PODCAST, over the length of the PODCAST, I lost interest.  The ONLY way I could get through the PODCAST was to stop and then later return.  You may not believe that it what I did; believe it, that is exactly what I did.  In fact, I stopped three times and then later returned to finish watching/listening to the PODCAST.  Had the PODCAST contained less interesting material, I would have simply stopped listening and never return to hear it to the finish.  Had that happened in this instance, it would have been my loss because the PODCAST was extremely interesting. 

For the record, I did not leave it at that point.  The speaker provided everyone with his “X” identification and I wrote to him and simply asked him to review the PODCAST and count the number of times he used the word “like.”  If the PODCAST were not so long, I would have counted them.  Unfortunately, that would have made listening to the PODCAST useless.  I may revisit the PODCAST and listen for a period of just 5 minutes and count the number of times he says the word “like.”  Doing that would enable me to suggest to him that he has a  “like use rate of” “x” number of times used over a 5-minute period.  He could then extend that out over the entire 2-hour interview to ascertain how many times he may have used the word LIKE.  From that he may or may not decide to make a change in his speech patterns. 

I know that such usage of words such as “like” is done so out of habit, not training.  You cannot correct a habit if you are unaware that you are doing it.  As an example, when people constantly use the phrase “you know,” I interrupt them and say, “No, I don’t.”  They typically ask what I mean by that and that opens the door to explain to them that they had just said, “you know” and I am telling them that I don’t’ know.  They are typically surprised that they may have used the phrase and they have - CONSTANTLY!  This is very common among professional athletes.  Why professional athletes?  I have no idea.  I do know that such things as language, clothing, beliefs are contagious. When one or more people begin to repeatedly do something, others either consciously or unconsciously join in and do the same things. 

Being able to speak and write using proper English is a learnable skill and should be learned AND practiced at every opportunity.  People are watching and listening; it makes a difference!  If you are in doubt, record your own speech and review what you have recorded.  Compare it to what you may have written or would have written and see for yourself if there is a difference, THERE USUALLY IS! 

In regard to handwriting; two things stand out to me.  For much of my life, I have been complimented on my handwriting (cursive).  When writing notes and cards, I discovered the difference between using a fountain pen and a ball point pen.  On several occasions I was asked if I always used a fountain pen to which I replied yes, how did YOU know?  Then I was told that you can actually see the difference between the ink on the page between a fountain pen and a ball point pen and you can!  I also discovered the Pilot makes disposable fountain pens that you simply dispose of when the ink runs out.  They are very inexpensive and as such, I had no reluctance to giving a customer the pen and explained how they could acquire more if they liked it; they almost aways did.  In fact, when I handed them the pen to sign something they usually were very surprised and used such terms as WOW or FANCY to describe this very inexpensive ($4.00) fountain pen.  Over time I have become very sloppy in my handwriting and need to practice to get back where it is obvious to people that I care about what I write out as compared to printing out.  In fact, a lot of people over the years have referred to my penmanship as being calligraphy which it is not; I’ll take the compliment and need to get back to that degree of penmanship! 

MORE IMPORTANTLY!  Your children learn from you as they grow older, especially through the ages up to 10 to 12.  If you curse in front of them, they will probably curse as well.  If you use phrases such as “you know” or words such as “so” or “like”, they will use them as well.  After all, their parents can do no wrong, right?

Afraid To Stay

 

“Afraid To Stay; Afraid To Leave!”

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, January 8, 2025

The title of this Nugget was heard on the news this Wednesday, January 8, 2025 and was said by a survivor of the firestorms ravaging Southern California.  It was heartbreaking to hear but I can attest that I can sympathize with her; as compared to empathizing with her.  What is the difference between Sympathizing and Empathizing?  You can sympathize with someone when YOU have experienced similar or same events.  You can only empathize with someone when you have NOT had the same or similar experience and therefore can only “imagine” what they are going through.

When Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on America, it was originally not headed to where I lived and I went on with life as usual.  That Saturday morning, meant I was playing golf with “the guys” as I always did.  When we stopped at the club house between the 9^th and 10^th holes that morning for refreshments, the news was on the TV and the storm had made an unexpected turn and it was headed directly at us.  We had only hours to make a decision to stay or to leave.  If we stayed, we would have to ride out the storm in our home.  Given the size of the storm as shown on TV, that was not a good choice.  If we evacuated, we might get caught in very slow-moving bumper to bumper traffic on the interstate system along with everyone else trying to do the same thing.  Being caught in your car was also not a good choice.  It was very similar to what the poor woman on the news said this morning when she said “We were afraid to stay and we were afraid to leave.”  

Now for the real purpose of this Nugget as an instructional tool that applies to everyone and is based not only on the California fires but also Hurricane Katrina and more recently the terrorist murders in New Orleans on New Year’s Day morning.    What do these three things have in common?  None of them were expected and the results were devastating and in at least two of the three, lives were lost.  As time progresses, sadly, the fires will probably have taken the lives of people who had no choice.  The real question that needs answering is, where they ready?  My best guess is that very few were ready for any of these events to occur so look at it in that regard and ask yourself, ARE YOU READY IF YOU ARE EVER FACED WITH SUCH A QUESTION? 

How does one prepare for a disaster such as the referenced events?  They are not the only events that require preparedness on your part, others would include but not limited to Fires, Earthquakes, Storms, Floods, Sudden Deaths from any number of sources and yes, even Volcanos (Mt. St. Helens).  You may have only minutes to make a decision that will affect the rest of your life or the lives of your loved ones as in the case of a “sudden death.” 

The Military constantly play “war games” based on a “what if” situation.  If “this” were to happen, “what must I do?”  Look at the California fires.  How many residents played the “what if” war game should a sudden fire erupt.  This is what I mean. 

If I had time, what would I take with me if I only had minutes to leave my home?  People obviously come first but remember, not everyone may be as mobile as you are.  Pets and livestock would be next.  As important as your pets and livestock may be to you, a very tough decision may have to be made to leave them behind if it means saving your own life.  If that is the case, at least give them a fighting chance and do not leave them in an enclosed building with no means of escape.  If you were to die, the pets and live stock would be on their own in any case unless you have arranged for them to be cared for by a third party.  Important papers like wills, power of attorneys, insurance papers and God only knows what other papers you would consider essential to protect.  Unless you have the time and the space in your cars or trucks that you plan to use to evacuate the area, items such as valuable or sentimental jewelry, family photos, art work, etc., will just have to be left behind, you may not have either the space or the time to protect them. 

My sincere advice requires that you answer questions based on the TIME you have available.  If you had only minutes to evacuate your home, what do you feel you must protect and take with you other than the people in your home?  Are these items available to you in a “go bag” or ready to grab suitcase on a moment’s notice like a house fire?  If not, they should be!  In this regard, this is what I would make absolutely sure you have placed in a fire retardant “go bag” that you can grab and run: 

·         Wills.  Hopefully you and everyone in your family have one.  There were a lot of both young and old people who died during all of these events, many never thought they were going to die at a young age.  There is not an age that is too young to have a Will.  When a person begins owning things, it is a good time to begin the process of maintaining a current Will and it needs to be State Specific since each State may have its own special requirements for a Will to be valid. 

·         Medical Power of Attorneys.  Who has the authority to make medical decisions on your behalf in the event you are unable to make them for yourself.  This can occur at any age such in the case of traumatic accidents or natural disasters. 

·         Medicines.  How long will you be away from your home?  You have no idea!  How long can you go without your prescribed medicines?  This is extremely important to me because I wear external devices because of previous surgeries and also take life-saving drugs (I’m diabetic).  Life would prove to be very difficult if I did not plan ahead to ensure that I had sufficient supplies with me as I evacuate my home.

·         Insurance Policies.  Having access phone numbers and/or websites is good but having access to the entire policy is better.  The policy is your guarantee that you are covered and what you must do to file a claim and identify what is covered and what may not be covered.  Most young people do not recognize the importance of having a personal insurance policy on their life but one only need look at the ages of those that have passed away during natural disasters as referenced or in the case of a “sudden and unexpected death” such as an accident or a medical event.  More importantly, the cost of such policies will never be as inexpensive as they are when you are young. 

·         Credit Cards.  If Hurricane Katrina taught me anything it taught me that I needed to have my credit cards with me when I had to evacuate.  It also taught me that it is good to have more than one credit/debit card with me.  Furthermore, it taught me that having multiple credit cards with high credit limits available to me was extremely important even if I never used the cards.  For example, if my home survived the storm but was damaged, I needed to have access to either cash or credit to make IMMEDIATE repairs to limit any further damage and that may require having immediate access to thousands of dollars in credit to tide me over until the insurance companies can provide the financial help that I would require. 

·         Purse and Wallet.  I vividly remember a local news reporter interviewing the survivor of a tornado that took out his home.  He said he took cover within his home but failed to keep his wallet with him during the storm.  When the storm had passed and he survived the destruction of his home, he had no way of starting his car because he had no idea where his keys were nor did he have his wallet with money and credit cards.  I had never thought of that before but do now every time we are warned of severe weather in our area.

·         Precious Metals.  You may or may not have precious metals stored in your home (gold, silver, platinum, etc.).  The problem with metals is that they are heavy but if you have them stored in your home and you want to protect them from total loss, you must take them with you when you evacuate your home on a moment’s notice.  Can you readily retrieve them or will you have to take the time to open a safe and retrieve them when you may not have the time to do so?  Just a question that needs to be asked and answered.

·         Important Personal Papers that you or your next of kin may need such as important military papers, employment retirement records, locations of safety deposit boxes if you have one or more of them, how to access your many computer websites and accounts along with passwords. 

On the subject of computers, I cannot overstate the importance of always backing up your computers.  I found the best way is to contract for an outside resource that automatically backs up your computer OFFSITE!  I have done so for decades and have TWICE used the service to recover my computer files.  Like insurance policies, the price of coverage is a cost that no one wants but when you need the service, it suddenly becomes PRICELESS. 

There are two steps that everyone should consider and not just dismiss them out of hand.  

First, it would not hurt to own a SAFE for your home.  If you have weapons, it goes without saying that the safest way to store your weapons would be to lock them away in a safe with very limited number of people having access.  A safe should be water and fire resistant.  The time you have to evacuate determines the usefulness of storing your most valuable items you want to take with you.  In the case of the California fires, would you have sufficient time to open your safe and place the items in a container large enough to carry with you?  

Second, and probably one of the best choices of all, is a medium to LARGE SIZE RECORDS CASE that is also water and fire resistant.  I purchased one online for less than $30.00 and it comes with a combination lock that would delay access but certainly not limit the access to the items contained therein.  

I went through what I consider the most valuable paperwork, credit cards, computer and website access information, and anything I thought I would want to take with me and placed them in this compact record bag.  I keep the bag very near my master bedroom.  I am able to grab it and run in just seconds as compared to trying to take the time to locate these documents that may have otherwise been filed in a filing cabinet in a different part of the house.  I have a very limited supply of precious metals and I keep it in separate case and keep both cases in the same location.  I can easily locale both bags and be out of the house in just seconds.  That is the way it should be. 

HAVE A PLAN!  Like most families, my family is spread over many States.  As such, everyone in the family should know where you would evacuate to if ever required.  Your location may change depending upon the reason for evacuating.  Immediately following Hurricane Katrina, the cell phones didn’t work for weeks as a phone but did work to send text messages; never did understand why the difference.  You should either establish a place where you can all meet up or that everyone knows WHERE you will be. They may not be able to reach you by cell phone but at least they will know where to begin their search for you.  You should alert members of your family that you ARE evacuating the moment you make the decision to leave and before the phone service is cut.

 

GOOD LUCK!