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"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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“Uh, well you go first, okay?”… “Me?! Why me? I don’t know what that stuff is either!” |
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I am just a happy dog. I get to play outside, and swim and roll in the gra***… life is great! |
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“Oh, what a glorious morning is this!” |
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Samuel Adams to John Hanc****, April 19th, 1775 – On hearing gunfire at Lexington |
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S |
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amuel Adams and John Hanc**** were en route to Philadelphia as delegates to the Continental Congress and were staying in Lexington at Hanc****’s aunts home. The story is that Paul Revere rode to the house sometime after midnight to warn the two Patriots that British troops were on the way to arrest them and send them to London to be tried for treason. |
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Men standing guard outside of the home warned Revere that he was making too much noise, and that the two delegates were sleeping. Revere is said to have replied, “There’ll be noise soon enough! The Regulars are coming!” |
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“There’ll be noise soon enough! The Regulars are coming!” |
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Hours later, John Hanc**** and Samuel Adams watched from a distance when the “shot heard ’round the world” rang out on Lexington Green as Ma***achusetts Minute Men and British troops exchanged fire in the start of the Revolution. |
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******* |
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So many other mornings, and sunsets through the generations… and those who have served their nation far from home. |
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My brother, and many others, are serving still in the Middle East and all around the world. |
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“These veterans are leaving us. Now in their 80s and 90s, they are dying at the rate of 797 a day, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. I urge families to seek out these veterans. Thank them for their service. Ask them questions. Let your children listen.” |
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they were tiny smooth black pebbles that made your feet slip with nearly every step, falling to one’s hands and knees to make any progress up the slope of the beach. |
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early |
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people |
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Walter Breuning was born on Sept. 21, 1896, in Melrose, Minnesota, and moved to Montana in 1918, where he worked as a clerk for the Great Northern Railway for 50 years. |
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His wife, Agnes, a railroad telegraph operator from Butte, died in 1957. The couple had no children. |
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Breuning inherited the distinction of being the world’s oldest man in July 2009 when Briton Henry Allingham died at age 113. Allingham had joked that the secret to long life was “Cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women — and a good sense of humor,” according to Guinness World Records. |
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there’s |
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T |
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he Guinness organization and the Gerontology Research Group each have verified [Walter] Breuning as the world’s oldest man and the fourth-oldest person. Three women were born earlier in the same year as Breuning. |
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“Walter wasn’t in last year’s edition,” Young joked. “He was too young.” |
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The Great Falls Tribune reported that Breuning gave a speech before about 100 people at an invitation-only birthday party at the Rainbow Retirement Community, with a guest list that included Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and representatives from Guinness World Records. |
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Breuning was helped up to a lectern from his motorized cart, appearing somewhat frail but speaking with a strong voice. |
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He recalled “the dark ages,” when his family moved to South Dakota in 1901 and lived for 11 years without electricity, water or plumbing. |
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“Carry the water in. Heat it on the stove. That’s what you took your bath with. Wake up in the dark. Go to bed in the dark. That’s not very pleasant,” he said. |
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He [Breuning] said men and women may be able to enjoy life, but they can’t be content without a belief or faith. His parting message to the crowd was one of tolerance. |
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“With all the hatred in this world, in this good world, let us be kind to one another,” Breuning said. |
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Breuning has celebrity status at the retirement home, with visitors waiting in line to see him, Ray Milversted, 92, told the Tribune. |
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Before his birthday party, Breuning declined to name a favorite among the 114 years he has seen. |
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“Every year is the same,” Breuning told the Great Falls newspaper. |
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But he criticized one modern invention — the computer. |
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“When the computer came out, that was one of the worst things,” Breuning said. “They laid off all the clerks on the railroad.” |
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But, he added, “Every change is good.” |
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He has no prescription medications. |
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“Remember that life’s length is not measured by its hours and days, but by that which we have done therein. A useless life is short if it lasts a century. There are greater and better things in us all, if we would find them out. There will always be in this world – wrongs. No wrong is really successful. The day will come when light and truth and the just and the good shall be victorious and wrong as evil will be no more forever.” |
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. |
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happy, healthy |
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Walter, may we all share in your wisdom and age as gracefully as you have… and Happy Birthday! |
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a***es and elbows |
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like |
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Cisseps fulvicollis |
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Aster |
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(Ageratina altissima) |
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nectarflow |
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Doh! |
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Clematis terniflora |
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“The breezes taste Of apple peel. The air is full Of smells to feel- Ripe fruit, old footballs, Burning brush, New books, erasers, Chalk, and such. The bee, his hive, Well-honeyed hum, And Mother cuts Chrysanthemums. Like plates washed clean With suds, the days Are polished with A morning haze.” |
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– John Upd****, September |
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Honeybee on Sweet Autumn Clematis |