The End of Kmart

   Though Kmart is still going I do fear that the end is in sight. My Father went to work for S.S. Kresge right out of the Navy as an Assistant Manager in 1958. He was then made a full Manager two years later. Once the K-mart store came on the scene Dad could see the handwriting on the wall and knew that his time as a Manager would soon be over. In 1987 when the last Kresge store was close Dad was given a job as a dept manager for a K-mart. When he had a College grad fresh out of school tell him that the marketing that he had been doing for the past 20 years was wrong even thou it was company policy at the time and he'd better get his act together he left and started his own business.
     The decline of Kmart is a very sad chapter in the family book of memories because of all of the things I remember about the Kresge stores at which my Father worked. All of the employees always loved to see me come in because if I could help them with their jobs I would. Of course most of the time I was just in the way according to Dad, but even he loved having me there.
    I remember this one young black woman who would make bows out of left over ribbon in the arts and crafts section small as it was. The machine was this metal bow maker alot like the plastic ones you can buy today but noisy as hell and would vibrate your insides out if you weren't careful.
    I remember one time helping Dad stop a little shop lefter. He just had me follow her around to see what she did and he stopped her at the door and called her mom to come get her. I remember how scared she was and I felt kind of sorry for her. Dad didn't hurt her or lay a hand on her but being 5'10" and 180lbs Dad wasn't one that to many people argued with for long.
     I remember that the Kresge stores had a grill and one of the cooks would always take a day old Krisby Kream doughnut cut it in half, butter it, toast it on the grill and serve it to me. To this day when I do that for myself I can still see her behind the counter cooking away for all those who were tired of shopping.
     I remember one time when there were a group of College kids that were running up and down the strip mall. They were pledging for a fraternity and had to do what they were told by the manager of each store. LOL I remember Dad going out there and saying, "Alright I'm going to teach all of you a new card game. It's called 52 pickup." All of the kids would yell "YES SIR 52 PICKUP!!!!! HOW DO WE PLAY????"   He said, "Well it's played like this", and has he said that he opened the deck of cards put them in between his fingers making them fly everywhere and he said, "Now you pick them up!!!"  I still remember that like it was yesterday, and the laughs from all of the customers was just gold.
    Yes it's hard to watch what has happened to K-mart. But like all of the other big conglomerates it has fallen to bad management and bad choices. It's like watching a family member wither and die right in front of you.  I will miss K-mart but the memories of S.S.Kresge will live one.  I'm just happy that both Mr. Kresge and my Dad didn't live to see this. Dad most surely would have died from a broken heart.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kmart

I realize that there is alot of starvation and poor people in the world that need our help, but you know what I feel that we should clean our own house first before we go off to help other people with there problems. There are so many children in this country in the big cities, the rural towns, and on the reservations that need food, clothing, and educations that we don't need to go to another country to get this done. I feel that if the rich and famous feel that this is the thing for them to do then so be it but the those who are in our government and families of our government leaders need to concentrate their energies here and not over seas in other countries.
       The two big examples for the children of the Pine Ridge Reservation. These are children with big dream and big ideals who have no way of getting there unless they can somehow make it out before trying to commit suicide.  If you would like to know more:
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/2020-101411-14742643

If you would like to help
http://Lakotafunds.org 
www.redcloudschool.org/highschool


        The other group of children that could really REALLY use our help are the children who are still trying to get their lives together after hurricane Katrina. The Louisiana and Mississippi coast are where most of the damage with done by Katrina and those children and their families are still picking up the piece to this day!!!!
    If you would like to help here:
http://cdf.childrensdefense.org/site/PageServer?pagename=LA_Homepage

     Please.....before you give to a group outside of the U.S. please consider these sites or one of your own that you like to give to, but choose to help the children here first.

What Ever Happened to Manners

What has ever happened to manners in this new time and age. It use to be that anyone would hold the door open for you especially if you were an elder not caring about gender. Now if someone holds the door open for you it's very very rare and most time they will walk through it before letting you in.
    Mothers use to keep their children in check. Lets face it, it's not easy keeping a two legged octopus happy, but most Mom's managed to do it. Now adays, if a kid isn't screaming, pulling on someone else purse hair or clothing and sneaking a peak at your private parts in the bathroom from under the wall then their running like a freight train on a down hill grade through the store trying to take off with Mom saying over her shoulder ok that's nice Tommy as he runs the little old lady down. I took my Mom to Walmart the other day so she could get some things that she needed. While we were there Mom all but got her nose broken by a kid running by us to get to the door first and all but knocked her over. I called the kid down for it and all but got hit by his mom. Did I mention that both of their ages combined wouldn't even be half of mine. We were almost run over by an employee moving a merchandise cart over to the other side of the store and we were almost run over by a kid on a motor cart that had a cast on her leg, and this was all in the first ten minutes!!!!!
  There use to be laws on the books.....I don't know if there are anymore or not that said that it was against the law to walk behind a car that was backing up or walk in front of a car that was moving forward unless the driving indicated such. You park anywhere in either a Walmart or a Kroger parking lot and not only do you have an adventure, but you have a disaster in the making. People walk everywhere and anywhere they want and if you look at them or say anything it's, "You talking to me!!! Just who do you think you are????"  The sad part is that unless someone actually get hit by a car in a parking lot the police can't do anything about it because it's private property and without the owners permission....aka(the company)...their hands are tied.
     I took her to McDonalds which is where she likes to go to get her coffee in the afternoons and these five hellions all under the age of ten were running the restaurant and climbing all over the chairs and booths. Did a manager call them down and ask the mother to rein the in????  Not only no but hell no!!!  It's getting to the point that no one can go out and enjoy a meal any more anywhere.

The Way I See It, Is........

...... religion is what you make of it.  I had been in the Catholic faith for years and was just not happy. Then I had a dream one night. I was a Cougar cub and I was chasing a baby bunny all over the office, from desk to desk and shelf to shelf, not to eat it but to save it.  I had a person interpret that dream for me. She said it meant a new beginning. Boy was she ever right and in more ways than one. I started seeing cougars everywhere. Mercury's on the highway, special programs that I didn't know were one when I turned to that channel. When I started reading about Native American beliefs then I started having dreams about Cougars, and I would often of deer cross my path on the road where ever I went. When ever I had a dought a Cougar of some kind would appear, so I figured that the Native American belief was what I needed, but I kinda of got lost along the way.  
     I'd always felt that in this country the one religion that had to do with animals was Native American. So I bought books and studied. I studied alot. I think I have more books on the Native American belief than the local libraries. Well it turns out that, and this is a quote, "That's a white point of view."  Now I've had alot of NA people tell me that their tribal beliefs are private and not to be shared with those not of the tribe. I was never looking for those. I just wanted someone to tell or show me the proper way to pray to the beginning of the day, or the proper way to give thanks for the needed but not asked for help from one of the many relations we have on this planet, or the proper way to purify something, that's all I ever wanted or needed, but instead all I ever got was either, "It's a WHITE point of view", or "We don't share tribal beliefs."  I don't remember asking anyone to share anything.
        Now that I've got you really fired up, I'm going to push it a little farther. No......ALOT FARTHER!!! One thing a REALLY REALLY HATE.....is a fake, or someone who denies that something or someone exists. Now I have been reading and buying books on Native American beliefs and Culture for years and yes I will admit that alot of the books out there are or were written by people who either refuse to claim their native heritage for what ever reason or are not native at all, but most of them are PHD types who have studied for years or decades on the subject and despite the misgivings of those of native blood do seem to know what they are writing about.
     Then you have the other side of the coin. Those who are of Native American blood either full mixed or part mixed with some other nationality who have in some case gone out of their way to write about the religious beliefs and experiences and printed not only one book but several.  One in particularly is Wolf Moondance whose books are still available today, and from what I've read so far she's right in there. You type her name on the Barnes and noble web site and quite a few books come up, and one other Author by the name of Ted Andrews who it seems is well known in the Native American world and has similar teachings, but even thou they are both of mixed blood Ted is more well known than Wolf.....why?   The only answer I can think of is the way they teach. One is more along the lines of tradition and the other is more along the lines of New Age, but they will admit that they were never excepted by their people so they went out on their own.
     In closing, there are alot of people like me out here who are searching. Searching to be a apart of something bigger than themselves and if Native American aren't going to help people like me and other out there to learn what it is we need to learn, then leave us alone if we don't do things the right way. Both the Native American Beliefs and the Celtic along with a few of the Shinto beliefs are very similar unless you knew for sure what you were watching you couldn't tell the difference so excise us if we don't get it right. If your not going to help us.............leave us alone and don't say a thing.