From the moment we utter our first words, “Mama, dada, no, yes.“ our lives are filled with many types of communication. In the next few paragraphs, I’ll introduce you to a few one or two liners that others have directed at me that I found especially meaningful. And more importantly, that I have remembered and repeated many times in the very long life I’ve been so lucky to enjoy.

The first that comes to mind came from my English 101 professor at my Queens College, Freshman English course. He gave us all an assignment to write a one page explanation of something with which we were very familiar. “ Expository writing”. The trick was to choose something very simple that could be explained in one page.
We were allowed to discuss our work with classmates, but the explanation had to be original. We each worked on our “ essay” , turned our papers in and waited until the next class to get his evaluation.
I wrote an essay on “ How To Dial a Phone”. Remember- it’s 1958. Phones were at home.
It’s time for his evaluation. He was quite critical of all our efforts. After all, he was setting the stage by showing how much we needed his course.
Now, he gets to my essay. He says,” Scooler, your essay is perfect. “. My head swelled a bit. He went on. “. Yes, no grammar errors at all. It’s very concise and totally understandable; BUT, it’s the most boring piece of s—t I’ve ever read. Put some humor in your writing, man. Write as you would speak to a friend. Not just bla bla words. Hold my interest.” Wow that sorta stung. But I’ve remembered that criticism for over 65 years now. and hope I’m still learning from it.

It’s now 1962, Stead AFB, Nevada Survival Training. Part of our seven-day trek through the Nevada woods, was to erect our personal tent at night to protect from the elements. Oops pun alert —- I always had a problem with erection. LOL. Well, I was having a problem “ erecting” my tent. My instructor helped. But he said” Scooler, if you ever have to bail out, you’d better drag somebody out with you who knows how to do s—t”. For over 125 combat missions in Nam, I always looked over my crew to see who I could hang with ( opps another pun sorta) if I had to bail out of our Gooney Bird ( C-47).

Okay, how about some quotable quotes from my kids? Here’s one from son, Jim. It’s more of a dialog than a one-liner. But it goes like this. Jim was a Freshman at U of I ( Illinois). They had an AFROTC detachment there and an opportunity for an ROTC scholarship if Jim applied and was accepted. That would have saved me a buncha money.
There was no Air Force obligation for the first two years of ROTC. So I was nudging Jim to apply, only after he said he was interested. The deadline for applying was tomorrow so we had a heart to heart talk. At one point, I asked, “ Jim, do you not want to become an Air Force officer?” He responded, obviously concerned, “ No Dad, I want to become aeronautical engineer, but have no wish to join the Air Force.” I said “ OK, that’s fine. “. I saw a wave of relief come over him. He had totally misread me and thought I’d be terribly disappointed. I would have loved to save some tuition money, but I never wanted to push any of our kids to follow me into an Air Force career. I was super proud of him for being accepted into one of the top engineering programs in the country. He continues to make me proud every day.

As for youngest son, Jeffrey, let’s recall his phone dialog with me to pass the great news that he and his lovely wife, Angela had a beautiful baby boy. After all the usual exclamations, I asked “What did you name him”? He said,” Apollo Orion, and immediately blamed me for the Orion, cause I taught him about the stars many years before.
I facetiously, ( There’s that word again. It’s a favorite cause it’s the only English word that uses all five vowels in the proper order) said , “ Why not, Donald, after me? He responded, “ You said you’d never name a kid after you cause “ ald” is not a syllable. My own words came back to haunt.

That leaves our daughter, Christine. She was living in Illinois. It’s 1994. This is dialog between her and her mom, Marjorie, so I’m paraphrasing.
She said, “ I’m moving. “. Marjorie asked, “ Where to, closer to St Louis “? Christine responded “ No, we’re coming to Charleston”. Those words changed our lives for the better forever. She and our grandson, Joshua, moved to Charleston in 1994. Marjorie and I are so thankful.

Forget anybody? I ain’t done yet. How about, my lovely wife, Marjorie. That’s too easy. It’s June 9. 1964. I had just proposed in my loud Aloha shirt. She said, “ Yes “. Not quite done. I asked” when should we get married ?” She said” How about August?” I said. “ like next August “? My New York life experience was that folks were engaged about a year before the wedding. Not so in Charleston. She responded,” No, this August, 2 months from now”. I said “ OK” and immediately left on two week airlift mission to the middle east. I guess those were life affecting words, cause we just passed our 60th wedding anniversary this August. Enuf