Jimmy Dean died yesterday at the age of 82. Renowned American country music singer, television host, actor and businessman. While most may known him for his Jimmy Dean Sausage brand, he first rose to fame through “Big Bad John”.
Rest in Peace Jimmy Dean
Few things got my Grandmom hopping, like listening to Bing crooning away. So a few years ago I got her a CD collection of his. I feel fortunate that I had early exposure to ‘Classics’; many in my generation and even the generations before me have only a vague idea of what sort of music our elders listened to in their youth.
If you’re looking to buy some nostalgic music for an elderly loved one, here’s a list of ‘Greats’ that its hard to go wrong with!
Nat King Cole
Frank Sinatra
Bing Crosby
Jimmy Durante
Louis Armstrong
She is a metal forged by love
too volatile, too fiery thin
so that her substance will be lost
as sudden lightning or as wind.
And yet the ghost of her remains
reflected with the metal gone,
a shadow as of shifting leaves
at moonrise or at early dawn.
A kind of rapture never quite
possessed again, however long
the heart lays siege upon a ghost
recaptured in a web of song.
~Tennessee Williams
Originally written by the author of A Streetcar Named Desire for his institutionalized sister, I feel that these poignant words have strong resonance for those of us who have family members afflicted by dementia. It captures the heartbreak of a loved one so close and yet so far.
How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child’s board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.
Voltaire
I’ve had a hard life, but my hardships are nothing against the hardships that my father went through in order to get me to where I started.
Bartrand Hubbard
My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
Clarence Budington Kelland
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
Mark Twain
I talk and talk and talk, and I haven’t taught people in 50 years what my father taught by example in one week.
Mario Cuomo
My father, when he went, made my childhood a gift of a half a century.
Antonio Porchia
Nothing I’ve ever done has given me more joys and rewards than being a father to my children.
Bill Cosby
It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.
Harper Lee
By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.
Charles Wadsworth
My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.
Jim Valvano
By profession, I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder – infinitely prouder – to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentiality of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle field but in the home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, ‘Our Father who art in Heaven.’
Douglas Macarthur
The words that a father speaks to his children in the privacy of home are not heard by the world, but, as in whispering-galleries, they are clearly heard at the end and by posterity.
Jean Paul Richter
Being a father, being a friend, those are the things that make me feel successful.
William Hurt
I learned from the example of my father that the manner in which one endures what must be endured is more important than the thing that must be endured.
Dean Acheson
My father died many years ago, and yet when something special happens to me, I talk to him secretly not really knowing whether he hears, but it makes me feel better to half believe it.
Natasha Josefowitz
It is much easier to become a father than to be one.
Kent Nerburn
My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, “You’re tearing up the grass.” “We’re not raising grass,” Dad would reply. “We’re raising boys.”
Harmon Killebrew
I am not ashamed to say that no man I ever met was my father’s equal, and I never loved any other man as much.
Hedy Lamarr
You know, fathers just have a way of putting everything together.
Erika Cosby
One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.
Anonymous
A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.
Unknown
Can you relate to any of our quotations? Do you have a quote that you’d like us to add to our collection? Please, let us know!
The generation that lived through the storm of World War II has been called the Greatest Generation. This Memorial Day that generation is close to fading into history, the coming years will hold our last chances to hear them in the flesh.
Keep the Spirit of ’45 Alive! is a non-profit organization collecting stories from that generation and encouraging later generations to listen to those who lived through history while they still can. The story of Edith Shain is part of their collection.
I’m a nurse working at Doctors’ Hospital in Manhattan. The radio in my patient’s room is playing “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree”. My patient is taking the medication I handed to him.
The music is interrupted with an announcement that Japan has surrendered and the war is over…
I’m stunned, incredulous, and joyful. Fifteen minutes later, after removing my cap, I’m running to the subway. I get on the train to Times Square.
When I get there, I run up the steps and to the street, walk a short distance.
I’m surrounded by jubilation. Soldiers, sailors, old and young civilians. I celebrate with them.
A sailor puts his arm around me, bends me back, holds me, and gives me a long kiss. I close my eyes. When he releases me, I turn in the opposite direction and walk away.
The sailor is a symbol of all who fought in the horrific savagery of the war who shared courage, responsibility, and commitment.
We at home were with you.
Now, we are all together; the combination of all of our efforts.
Now, the empty spaces will be filled.
Now, the broken pieces will be put together.
Now, relationships will be repaired.
Now, we have peace.
This Memorial Day ask someone who lived through World War II to share their story.
