FReeper Canteen~Themeless Thursday~Tomkow Take A Bath~

April 27, 2005 | bentfeather/Canteen Crew

[Soaring Feather]

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday...
Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.

Good morning Troops!
WOO HOO Canteen Crew
Tomkow takes a bath!

History of Bathing

Sweat!!

Everyone wants to watch!

Tomkow has been acting out again!!
It's time he had a good scrubbing from head to toe.
Radu has the keys to the cleaning closet.
Tom, you better be on good terms with radu.

No use Tom, we will get you!

Heat lamps optional!

For your listening pleasure

~Muddy Waters~Hoochie Coochie Man~

~Muddy Waters~Harmonica Rockin'~

~Little Richard~Slippin'and Sliddin'

~Little Richard~Keep A Knocking~

~Herman's Hermits~I'm Henry the Eighth I Am~

Okay Crew Let Her Rip!!

bentfeather/Canteen Crew

[tomkow6]

Hey, Writer! She's at it again!

OFF WITH HER HEAD!

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Thank You for today's thread Your Highness!

[MeekOneGOP]

Mornin', everybody ! Happy Thursday!

79 degrees right now, headin' for around 88 today.

Have a cup while you Freep !

For those who prefer hot chocolate.....

[AZamericonnie]

Supporting our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, and Coast Guardsmen at more than 1,000 places across the U. S. and around the world.

Brad Fletcher~To All Our Mothers Children

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Thank You for today's thread Your Highness!

[Radix]

Sue McStay, left, Georgiana Stockel, center, and Les Stockel, right, wave to the sailors standing at attention on the deck of the amphibious transport dock Nashville on Monday as it sails into Port Everglades, Fla., on Monday to kick off Fleet Week.

Sailors aboard the amphibious assault ship Bataan line the deck as it arrives at Port Everglades, Fla., on Monday for the start of Fleet Week. The Bataan is homeported in Norfolk, Va. 

Tristan Sarap, 2, waves to his father, Nick Sarap, the executive officer of the guided missile cruiser Thomas S. Gates, as the ship pulls into Port Everglades, Fla., on Monday. Tristan and his mother, who is seven months pregnant, came from Pascagoula, Miss., to be together as a family during Fleet Week. 

Petty Officer 1st Class Josh Whitaker, of Pascagoula, Miss., hugs his son, Brandon, 6, aboard the guided missile cruiser Thomas S. Gates in Port Everglades, Fla., on Monday. The ship will take part in Fleet Week celebrations there.

A sailor from the nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine Los Angeles pulls a mooring line to secure the sub to the piers at Polaris Point, Guam, on Wednesday upon its arrival.

Daniel Cruz, a member of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, works with ‘Buddy,’ a Jack Russell Terrier, to find a brown tree snake that was placed in a shipping pallet during a training exercise at Anderson Air Force Base, Guam, on Wednesday.

Daniel Cruz works with ‘Buddy’ as they participate in a training exercise at Anderson Air Force Base, Guam, on Wednesday.

Tech. Sgt. Shannon Pressnall, left, and Staff Sgt. Lyle L. Hurlburt, right, both members of the Texas Air National Guard, play with President Bush’s dog, Barney, as Jane Hatch, a registered nurse from Galveston, Texas, takes their picture on Tuesday. The dog was kenneled at Ellington Field, Texas, as the president attended a forum on Social Security in Galveston.

Capt. Ryan Gist, left, the commander of B Battery, 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery, draws a crowd near a market after stopping to investigate a possible suspect location in north-central Iraq on Friday.

An Iraqi soldier inspects binoculars found with a possible weapons cache during a joint U.S.-Iraqi army cordon-and-search mission in Tall Abtah, Iraq, on Wednesday.

Lt. Col. Bradley Becker, left, the commander of 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery, listens to his translator, Spc. Laheen ‘Rivera’ Talbi, attached to the unit, as an Iraqi man expresses frustration over a joint cordon-and-search mission on Wednesday in Tall Abtah, Iraq. By the end of the conversation, Becker was invited into the man's home for tea.

An Iraqi man carrying his child watches a US soldier from the gate of his house during a neighborhood search in the Palestine district in the restive city of Mosul.

Trainees in an Iraqi anti-terrorism squad stretch in the Yajouz area on the edge of Amman April 26, 2005. The U.S.-backed Jordanian government is responding to what it sees as a higher risk of terror attacks by boosting its special forces and training troops from neighbouring countries such as Iraq.

 

US Army soldiers from the 1st Battalion 5th Infantry carry a 155 mm canon projectile into a hole to be detonated after it was found together with other armament in a farm in the outskirts of the city of Mosul, 400 kilometers north of Baghdad.

[HopeandGlory]

Thank you . . . hugs and I'll "see" you soon . . . ;-)

[Soaring Feather]

Kissed my grits!!

[Smartass]

Robby's Night

A True Story -- HANKY WARNING -- Worth Reading!!!

At the prodding of my friends, I am writing this story.
My name is Mildred Hondorf. I am a former elementary
school music teacher from Des Moines, Iowa.

I've always supplemented my income by teaching piano lessons, something I've done for over 30 years. Over the years I've found that children have many levels of musical ability. I've never had the pleasure of having a prodigy though I have taught some talented students.

However, I've also had my share of what I call "musically challenged" pupils. One such student was Robby. Robby was 11 years old when his mother (a single Mom) dropped him off for his first piano lesson.

I prefer that students (especially boys!) begin at an earlier age, which I explained to Robby. But Robby said that it had always been his mother's dream to hear him play the piano. So I took him as a student.

Well, Robby began with his piano lessons and from the beginning I thought it was a hopeless endeavor. As much as Robby tried, he lacked the sense of tone and basic rhythm needed to excel. But he dutifully reviewed his scales and some elementary pieces that I require all my students to learn.

Over the months he tried and tried while I listened and cringed and tried to encourage him. At the end of each weekly lesson he'd always say, "My mom's going to hear me play someday." But it seemed hopeless. He just did not have any inborn ability. I only knew his mother from a distance as she dropped Robby off or waited in her aged car to pick him up. She always waved and smiled but never stopped in.

Then one day Robby stopped coming to our lessons. I thought about calling him but assumed because of his lack of ability, that he had decided to pursue something else. I also was glad that he stopped coming. He was a bad advertisement for my teaching!

Several weeks later I mailed a flyer to the student's homes on the upcoming recital. To my surprise Robby (who received a flyer) asked me if he could be in the recital. I told him that the recital was for current pupils and because he had dropped out he really did not qualify. He said that his mother had been sick and had been unable to take him to piano lessons but he was still practicing. "Miss Hondorf . . I've just got to play!" he insisted.

I don't know what led me to allow him to play in the recital. Maybe it was his persistence, or maybe it was something inside of me saying that it would be all right. The night for the recital came. The high school gymnasium was packed with parents, friends and relatives. I put Robby up last in the program before I was to come up and thank all the students and play a finishing piece. I thought that any damage he would do would come at the end of the program and I could always salvage his poor performance through my "curtain closer."

Well, the recital went off without a hitch. The students had been practicing and it showed. Then Robby came up on stage. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair looked like he'd run an eggbeater through it. "Why didn't he dress up like the other students?" I thought. "Why didn't his mother at least make him comb his hair for this special night?" Robby pulled out the piano bench and he began. I was surprised when he announced that he had chosen Mozart's Concerto #21 in C Major.

I was not prepared for what I heard next. His fingers were light on the keys, they even danced nimbly on the ivories. He went from pianissimo to fortissimo. From allegro to virtuoso. His suspended chords that Mozart demands were magnificent! Never had I heard Mozart played so well by someone his age. After six and a half minutes he ended in a grand crescendo and everyone was on their feet in wild applause.

Overcome, and in tears, I ran up on stage and put my arms around Robby in joy. "I've never heard you play like that Robby! How'd you do it? " Through the microphone Robby explained: "Well Miss Hondorf . . remember I told you my Mom was sick? Well, actually she had cancer and passed away this morning. And well . . . she was born deaf. So, tonight was the first time she ever heard me play. I wanted to make it special."

There wasn't a dry eye in the house that evening. As the people from Social Services led Robby from the stage to be placed into foster care, I noticed that even their eyes were red and puffy and I thought to myself how much richer my life had been for taking Robby as my pupil. No, I've never had a prodigy but that night I became a prodigy. . . of Robby's. He was the teacher and I was the pupil.

For it is he that taught me the meaning of perseverance and love and believing in yourself and maybe even taking a chance on someone when you don't know why.

Robby was killed in the senseless bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April of 1995.

And now, a footnote to the story. If you are thinking about forwarding this message, you are probably thinking about which people on your address list aren't the "appropriate" ones to receive this type of message. The person who sent this to you believes that we can all make a difference. So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we act with compassion or do we pass up that opportunity and leave the world a bit colder in the process?

You have two choices now:
1. Delete this.
2. Forward it to the people you care about.
You know the choice I made. Thank you for reading this.
May God bless you today tomorrow and always.

[Soaring Feather]

Not you, too, Radix!!!

[Soaring Feather]

Kiss my grits!

[tomkow6]

...........your needle's STUCK again!

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

FYI : Look in upper right corner of "My Comments" page.
Set it for "Brief" instead of Full.
You only will get title of thread and who pinged you.
No graphics will load.

[Soaring Feather]

Hey writer, what's keeping you??

[Radix]

OOPS!

Trouble in the Canteen image posting deprtment from the Radix homefront. I'll work on that issue in the AM. Sorry.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

From the men in the Military and the Canteen

[StarCMC]

ROFL!!! I love it!! Great thread Queenie!!

[Lady Jag]

But did he really get wet and where's the soap?

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

To every service man or woman reading this thread.
Thank You for your service to our country.
No matter where you are stationed,
No matter what your job description
Know that we are are proud of each and everyone of you.

To our military readers, we remain steadfast in keeping the Canteen doors open.
The FR Canteen is Free Republics longest running daily thread specifically designed
to provide entertainment and morale support for the military.
The doors have been open since Oct 7 2001,
the day of the start of the war in Afghanistan.
We are indebted to you for your sacrifices for our Freedom.

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT
Showing support and boosting the morale of
our military and our allies military
and the family members of the above.
Honoring those who have served before.
CLICK HERE TO FIND LATEST THREAD.

[Soaring Feather]

Thanks Star.

Have you seen all the double postings??

ROLFLMAO!