Category Archives: Personal History
Midget wrestling in Kennett
Everything you need to know about Kennett, MO
Basement Diaries slide show
And oldie-but-goody from 2013.
Twenty years on YouTube
I created my YouTube account on February 12, 2006. (It officially launched to the public on December 15, 2005) I’ve uploaded 604 videos in those twenty years. As difficult as it is to believe, YouTube says the channel has 1.13K subscribers. Collectively the videos have been viewed 1,238,880 times. Playlists include:
- Movies & TV
- Learfield
- KBOA
- People (interviews)
- SteveTV (goofy shit)
- Land Rover
- Yard & Garden
- Travel
- Dogs
- Uke Songs
- Screencasts
If someone asked me to describe my channel, I guess I’d say it’s like that cardboard box in the hall closet where you throw old Super 8 movies nobody watches twice. Here’s the description I posted:
Might be easier to explain what my YouTube channel is NOT. I’m not trying to build an audience. I’m not trying to make money. I’m not really trying to “engage.” On that point I should explain why I block most subscribers. In my experience, most just want to use the comments on my videos to spam. (I can’t recall the last time I got a benign or useful comment) When I remember check the NO COMMENTS box when posting a video.
Getting back to my fighting weight
Coming up on three weeks since surgery and for the last week I have had a voracious appetite. Thinking three meals ahead! A good thing because I’ve lost weight in the last six months. Down from 140 to 125. (Yes, I look like Nazi death camp survivor)
I now know this weight loss was almost certainly due to undiagnosed acute diverticulitis which got tossed into the medical waste receptacle with my benign mass. Where was I? Right, my weight.
My goal is to get back to 140 by my 78th birthday (March 8) which means I need to gain ~1 pound every week, which I’m told is doable. Bowl of butter pecan ice cream at bedtime, big Towne Grill breakfast… easy peasy.
1920 Kennett High School Yearbook
My friend John got his hands on a copy of the 1920 Kennett High School yearbook and took the time to copy every (?) page. Here are a few of the images that caught my eye. Click the thumbnails below for larger image.
What is a robotic colectomy?
Watch on YouTube (3:30)
Colorectal surgery for a non-malignant growth-when performed electively in a stable patient-has a survival rate exceeding 99%, making it one of the safest major abdominal operations in modern practice. It was a very long month.
Riggs Motor Company (1920)
From that same 1920 Kennett High School album. My favorite part: TELEPHONE No. 62. John liked: “We repair anything from a Motorcycle to an Airplane.”
Dodge Brothers Motor Cars was the name under which Horace and John Dodge began producing their own automobiles in 1914, after years of supplying parts to other Detroit automakers like Ford and Oldsmobile.
Founding and Rise – The Dodge brothers opened their first machine shop in Detroit in 1900, quickly gaining a reputation for precision-engineered components. They supplied Ford’s Model A with complete chassis assemblies and even held a 10% ownership stake in Ford Motor Company. In July 1914, they incorporated the Dodge Brothers Motor Company with $5 million in stock and introduced their first automobile—the Dodge Model 30–35 touring car—built in Hamtramck, Michigan.
Innovations – The 1914 Dodge car was marketed as a more advanced and durable alternative to the Ford Model T, featuring an all-steel body, 12‑volt electric system, and a 35‑horsepower four‑cylinder engine. These innovations helped the brand quickly achieve second place in U.S. sales by 1916.
Wartime and Growth – During World War I, the Dodge Brothers supplied commercial and military trucks as well as artillery recoil systems for the Allied forces. By 1919, production surpassed 400,000 vehicles annually, and the company introduced its first four‑door sedan.
Legacy and Ownership Changes – Both brothers died in 1920 due to complications from influenza, and without their leadership, the company struggled to maintain its early momentum. In 1925, their widows sold the firm to Dillon, Read & Co. for $146 million, and in 1928, Dodge was acquired by Walter P. Chrysler to become part of Chrysler Corporation.
Today, the Dodge brand remains part of Stellantis, continuing a legacy that began with the pioneering Dodge Brothers Motor Cars more than a century ago. (Perplexity)
Miss Rella J. Wells, my first grade teacher
I attended first grade in 1954 and my teacher was Miss Rella Wells. According to the newspaper clipping I found in my mom’s attic, she retired in 1955 after teaching for fifty years.
Miss Rella J. Wells was honored for her more than 54,000 classroom hours in the Kennett public schools Friday noon by the Kennett Lions Club. The Kennett teacher this year observes her 50th year in the Kennett school system.
Miss Wells, who started teaching the second grade in the Kennett grade school in 1905, is the first person ever to be signally honored by the service club, according to club officers. Presentation of a special certificate of appreciation to Miss Wells was made by Elmo Blakemore, Kennett Lions club member and a former student of the veteran local teacher.
Altogether the first grade instructor in the South school has been teaching for 52 years, starting her long professional career in 1903 in the old Thomas school, which is long known as the Hazel Grove school, located south of Kennett.
In 1905 she moved to Kennett and has been teaching in the elementary division ever since. Miss Wells estimates that she has missed less than a month of school because of sickness during the past 52 years.
Born at Marble Hill, she moved to Kennett when she was seven years old. Her parents were Jacob T. and Miriam Bullinger, whose family gave Bollinger county its name. Miss Wells attended Kennett grade school and was graduated from Kennett high school in 1903, the same year she started teaching.
In the early years of the 20th century, only two years of high school were offered here, but the Kennett teacher worked during the summer months on her bachelor of science degree. She attended both Southeast and Southwest State college, receiving her degree from the latter college in 1936.
Earlier today my friend John found the photo below in a 1920 Kennett High School yearbook. (Miss Wells is fourth from the left)
Silly Willy
My buddy John continues to unearth treasures from our youth. I think I would have been in the sixth grade in 1959 when our school produced a little musical called The King’s Christmas Carol. Not sure why but I was cast in the role of Silly Willy, the court jester. My only memory is the costume my mom made from a girl’s gym suit. She also came up with some slippers featuring long, curled toes with a tiny bell. Continue reading