Life Insurance Policies

Girls

I've decided to dedicate this site to you, telling stories or events that come to mind that you can read some day. If someone else reads them...oh well...but it will be meant for you.

As we've probably told you recently, mom and I have updated our will, POA and associated documents. Since we're closer to 70 than not...we wanted to get some of those things in place so you wouldn't have so much to worry about years from now. In the process of looking through our file cabinets and safe, I found a couple of old life insurance policies that mom and dad took out on me when I was little. After some research I found out some interesting info.

One policy was taken out on January 11, 1954, when I was 10 days old. The value of the policy appeared to be $176 and the premiums cost mom and dad 10 cents per week. I found out that back in those days, insurance guys would come by the house, knocking on your door, trying to sell policies and if they did, they'd come by every week or so to pick up the premium. I suppose back in the '50s, $176 was enough to bury a child if they died. A second policy was taken out in 1964 when I was 10 years old with a value of $400. Both of them were taken out with Western-Southern Life, a company that is still around today, in fact there is an office down the street near the IGLOO. I stopped by last week to have the agent see if the policies were still good and had any value to them. It took them awhile to look back in records that were 60+ years old but they found it at last. 

For some reason, one of them had been turned into the Ohio unclaimed funds in 2013. I later called them about it and was told that I would be getting a check for $365 for the policy what had a value of $176. I guess all those pennies in interest over the years added up. The other policy did even better and has a value of over $1000 with a current cash value of $884.93. 

To keep you guys from having to mess with all the paperwork of trying to get the $1000 after I was gone, I decided to cash it in so I will also be getting a check for that in a few weeks. 

I hope that mom and I can use the $1000 from the two combined policies to help pay for the motor home we'd like to rent this spring or summer to do some traveling with friends.

Hopefully, mom and dad will travel with us in spirit as we spend their money on foolish things (ha!) 

Be talkin' to ya.

Dad  

TIME FLIES.......FASTER THAN YOU THINK

 

Back in 2016, one of the consultants who came to our workplace every quarter was in for the day. He and I got to talking about how long each of us had worked for our current employer. For me, I would soon be starting my 40^th year working for the same hospital organization I started with in 1976. He too had worked a long time for his consulting group. I asked him how much longer he was going to work before he retired and he reached in his pocket and got out his smart phone and showed me an “app” that he had downloaded. It was a countdown app. 

Some time back he had decided what day he was going to retire and had entered that date in the app and it began a countdown, showing the days, hours, minutes and seconds until his retirement date arrived. I don’t remember the exact number of days on his countdown clock but it was less than a year. I kept thinking about that over the following days and since I’ve always liked playing with numbers, I decided to download the app onto my phone. I entered what I thought my retirement day would be and the app clock showed right at 1000 days until that day. 

Holy cow, 1000 days seemed like a lot, and it was, but either way, the countdown began. 

Not every day, but every once in awhile, I would open the app and see that I had reached a new milestone…now it’s under 900 days…now it’s less than 2 years. Some days and weeks and months seemed to take so long to pass…but they continued to pass none the less. Before I knew it…it was less than a year…then it was under a 100 days…then a month…then into single digits. On that last day of work, the app was counting down the hours left…and suddenly…like I passed through a time machine…it was at 0 and I was clocking out for the last time. 

Some months after retirement, I was looking at my phone and realized I had not deleted that countdown app and saw that it was still keeping count of the days…but this time, it was the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds SINCE I had retired. So I just kept the app and occasionally would look in amazement to see it had been THAT LONG since I had retired. 

Tomorrow, ironically…it will be 1000 days SINCE I retired. I started the countdown to retirement with 1000 days to go, and now I’ve been retired for 1000 days. Like it or not, 2000 days have passed since I first started the countdown. 

Time indeed flies by…faster than you think. 

REMEMBER: We act like we are going to live forever but we don’t. We think we won’t get old but then we do. Life is short. Enjoy the ride. Make the most of each day. 

Be talkin’ to ya. 

Dan

 

A FAVOR FROM DAD

With the recent 90 degree weather during the day and 70s-80s at night, it’s not surprising a thunderstorm would make its’ way through the area. Recently a noisy thunder and lightning storm passed through one night while I laid in bed and once again it took me back to my days as a kid in Owensville and thoughts of my dad. 

Owensville is a little farm community of about 1000 people. When we lived there, we lived about 2 blocks from ‘downtown’. Dad worked at Smith’s Hardware Store and was the Chief of the volunteer Fire Department. We had a special phone at the house (maybe the other volunteers did too) that was specific for the fire department. On any given day, at any time of the day or night, that phone might ring and dad would answer it if he was home. He'd listen to the caller and then take off running to the fire station, 2 blocks away. We could then hear the alarm go off to warn the other fire fighters. I assume other volunteers would then head to the station if they were available. Soon, the truck would take off for the fire with one guy driving, a few in the seats inside and others hanging on to handles on the outside of the truck. 

The thunder and lightning storm that was passing through this night reminded me of a night in Owensville when a storm was raging outside. The special phone rang and we knew dad was about to get called out to respond to a fire, probably due to a lightning strike on a barn or home in the area. 

On this particular night, my sister Jean and I were home with dad and we were scared out of our wits at the storms intensity and asked...no…begged…dad to not go on the run. I seem to recall him stepping out on the porch and waving the fire truck and crew on by the house while he stayed with us. I am certain he was frustrated with us as with most storms...after a few minutes...the worst of the storm likely passed by and simply became a heavy rainstorm. But dad being dad, chose to stay home and take care of his kids. That was our dad.

REMEMBER: Be a reflection of what you’d like to see in others. If you want love, give love. If you want honesty, give honesty. If you want respect, give respect. You get in return what you give.

Be talkin’ to ya. 
Dan

HALF PAST

 

In the quiet hours of the morning, the chiming of our grandfather clock caught my attention. It chimes 4 times on the quarter hour, 8 on the half hour, 12 on the 3/4 hour then 16 times on the hour. In addition then on the hour, the chiming is followed by a different tone of chimes equal to the hour it is on the clock. 

We’ve had this clock nearly 15 years so Cindy & I have heard it chime a ‘million’ times over those years. For some reason this morning, the chiming made me think of my dad. 

Dad was born early into the 20^th century so he grew up in a much different way than me. I recall his stories of growing up in those days and the sayings that were from that era. As I thought about that clock this morning, it reminded me that dad didn’t say it was “6:15” or “6:30”. To him, it was always “quarter-past six” or “half-past six”. Certainly either way is correct, 6:30 IS half-past the hour of six, but I believe it’s one of those ‘generational’ terms. 

Dad’s been gone a long time…and it’s been a long time since I’ve heard anyone say…”it’s half past six”. Funny how a simple thing like the chiming of a clock, took me back all those years ago, to good memories of my dad.

REMEMBER: Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.

– Mother Teresa

Be talkin’ to ya.  Dan

THOSE HOT INDIANA NIGHTS....RECALLED

In the wee hours of a recent morning, I heard it raining outside. Being a long-time lousy sleeper who
needs some kind of distraction to keep my brain occupied so I can sleep, I opened the window in  our bedroom so I could hear the soothing sound of the rain. 

Seeing as the daytime temps were nearing 90 degrees lately, it was probably in the low-to-mid 70s and humid as I opened the window. There was a little breeze...very little...but I enjoyed listening to the sound of the rain falling. Instead of making my brain go to sleep, I was taken back to my days as a kid in Owensville and those memories made me smile and kept me awake. 

Like many folks in the early 60s we didn’t have air conditioning in the house. The best we could do on those hot-and-humid Indiana nights was to turn on a fan dad bought at the hardware store where he worked. 

On those miserable nights, I remember wearing as few clothes as possible, kicking off the sheets so there was nothing on me, lying in bed by the window praying for the slightest bit of a breeze. I wanted dad to turn the fan towards me to blow the air across my sweating body but he always felt it better to aim the fan at the opposite window to blow the hot air out so it would PULL air IN through the window beside me. 

I don’t remember feeling like that trick ever worked. 

Dave and Jean were in the next room suffering with the heat as well, and poor Jean’s bed wasn’t even by the window. I’m not sure there weren’t times that she got in Dave’s bed with him, also praying a little breeze would come through his window. 

I don’t know that our kids and grandkids will ever have any idea of what it was like on those hot Indiana nights.

REMEMBER: There’s 2 ways to build the tallest building in town: Simply build the tallest building in town...or build a small one and tear everybody else’s down. Do you, and respect the competition.

Be talkin’ to ya. 

Dan

ARE SMART PHONES REALLY THAT SMART ?

I was challenged by a friend to give my thoughts on an article they had recently read. The article centered on a teacher’s experiment held in one of her classrooms. For one class period on one day, she allowed those students who carried a cell phone with them to keep their phones turned on with the volume turned up. Their responsibility in the experiment required them to walk to the white board at the front of the classroom and put a tally mark down every time they got a notification on their cell phone. The notifications included whether they received a text, an email, a phone call, a Facebook notice, an Instagram photo or a tweet on their Twitter account. Whatever the notification, upon receiving it, they were to mark it accordingly on the white board. Per the article, by the end of the class period there were well over 1000 tally marks on the white board. Presumably, the teachers’ intent was to stress that every tally mark meant a distraction, an interruption in their education. That interruption involved not only the student who was getting the notification, but also the students around them. The ‘pinging’ and ‘buzzing’ was a distraction for all. 

A separate study done in 2018 found that students who use their devices in class tend to get lower exam scores. It also found that the interruption tended to cause lower test scores for their peers as well, the ones who were not using their devices but were trying to study. 

The study's conclusion was that constant, mindless distraction prevents people from developing authentic relationships and suppresses deep thought. 

I would bet every one of us has felt the frustration of having our phone go off, whether for a call, text or other means, at an inopportune time, and if not our phone, someone we’re with, or someone nearby. Those distractions are not only frustrating but sometimes deadly. How many times a week do we see or hear an ad on TV or radio or see a highway billboard reminding us to NOT text and drive? Odds are some of you may have been affected from an auto accident caused by someone who was paying attention to their phone instead of their driving. How many of us have been out to eat, at a sporting event or walking through the mall and noticed the number of people who are staring at their phone? Maybe you’ve even been in your own home and noticed everyone looking at their phone instead of talking to one another? I once saw a photo of a teen and their grandparent sitting at a table and the teen’s face was in their phone, totally disregarding their elder. The caption on the photo said, “Someday, they’re going to regret that.” 

I found our nearby high school has a pretty relaxed policy regarding cell phone use in the classroom. It is left up to the individual teacher as to whether students may have their phone accessible during class. Some allow them for use to look up class subjects or take a photo of notes or lecture slides. They are not to look at notifications until the end of the class time. I asked if there are abusers of the policy and got the response…“every day”. With 1500 students and many of them with phones, the administration feel they would spend all their time addressing those abusers. They instead focus on trying to drive home the principle that there is a proper time to use the cell phone and a time to not. Use common sense and do the right thing. 

I remember when the iPhone first came out and several of our kids got one. At the time I was using an old flip phone for the obvious use of making and receiving calls. I was amazed at how often the kids were mesmerized by the phone and their attention was directed solely at it. I said at the time that I wasn’t going to get one of those phones because of that reason, but as time passed, I too joined the masses and eventually found myself mesmerized by their capabilities. They are indeed helpful in many aspects of our lives, one tool taking the place of many, but letting them become our main focus can be distractions from living a purposeful, sincere life. They have their place…but at what cost? Do we talk face-to-face with people anymore? Do we get outside enough for simple exercise and relaxation? Do we read a book to stimulate our thinking? Would we rather send a text to someone so we can control ‘when’ we want to be done with the conversation, instead of calling, or visiting them in person? Have we allowed 'social media' to so affect our thoughts that we can't form our own opinion? How many friendships, and even lives, have been lost because of a post on social media? 

I recall the simple days of my childhood in my old hometown. Back then many home phones used a party line, meaning multiple houses shared the same phone line. It might ring once for your house, twice for the house down the street. We rarely used our phone. Our black-and-white TV reception brought in 3 channels on good days, but 2 channels on most, so it was play with siblings and friends, or be bored. What I remember instead is being outside…riding a bike and being gone all day from home with siblings, cousins or friends. We were playing basketball, baseball, wiffle-ball, red rover, hide-and-seek, inventing games on the spot, making bracelets and necklaces out of the clover in the yard. When the weather made us retreat indoors, we found games to play to occupy hours upon hours. 

It’s a different world today. Today’s TVs have hundreds of channel options to pick from and the games are on the devices the kids hold in their hands and don’t require interaction with someone else in the room. Why be outside when we can lose ourselves in our devices while relaxing in our gaming chair in front of our 70” TV? 

It would be unfair to point our fingers at just the kids. We adults, many of us, are equally guilty. I’m again reminded of the study’s conclusion: Constant, mindless distraction prevents people from developing authentic relationships and suppresses deep thought. 

We need to do better. All of us. I’ve read about some families having a rule that when they get together for a family gathering, the TV is turned off and all phones are put away until the meal is over, or the gathering has come to a conclusion. I think we need to start that at our house. It’s a small step…but it’s a step in the right direction.

REMEMBER: One day, you’ll wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted to do. Do it now.

Be talkin’ to ya. 

Dan

The Coin Holder

 

As long as I can remember, my dad ALWAYS carried two things in his pants pocket…a pocket knife…and a coin holder. 

You know…one of those rubbery football-shaped things that when you squeezed the ends, it opened up and you could drop coins in, or take coins out. 

It had a good purpose I think. If you had a pocket full of change along with car keys or that pocket knife and reached in your pocket to pull your keys out, it kept your coins from flying all over. 

Anyway…as a 6-7-8 year old I walked home from school every day and I always stopped at the hardware store where dad worked. It was about 4 blocks from the school to ‘downtown’ Owensville where the hardware store was located. Just a few buildings away from the hardware store was Bates Drug Store where there was an abundant supply of 'penny' candy of every sort. From the drug store, it was about 3 blocks to our house. 

So anyway, I’d stop at the hardware store, reach in dads’ pocket and get his coin holder, find a dime, walk to the drug store, get my 10 cents worth of candy that penny candy that they’d put in one of those ‘little’ brown paper bags, and head home. Probably more times than not…the candy was gone before I ever got home. 

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one of those coin holders since dad died. I rarely have coins in my pocket for very long these days. If I do get change, I usually put it in our piggy bank when I get home. Then once a year I’ll cash the piggy bank in and we’ll use the money to buy something we’ve been looking for. 

That was never an option for dad. If he had change…I found an immediate need for it. The candy store! And it all started...with that coin holder.

REMEMBER: 

In life, it’s important to know when to stop arguing with people and simply let them be wrong. 

Be talkin’ to ya. 

Dan