Jack’s Winning Words 11/2/18
“If we don’t heal our own hood, who will?”  (Nelly – the rapper)  birthday 1974)  As a kid, , Nelly moved from hood to hood, but wherever he lived was important to him.  Most people are proud of where they live.  Our high school fight song was, We are Moliners!  Moline was our hood!  Do you feel like that about where you live?  During this time of a divided nation I’m listening for a Nelly-voice calling out, “If we don’t heal our own hood, who will?”   ;-)  Jack

FROM RVB:  That is why I’m still so connected to my home church and love the roots of my hood in respect and history of the Jewish faith and traditions. Thanks for reminding me!!===JACK:  I think that I'd feel the same way, if we were to exchange places.

FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  https://youtu.be/o_NxSTX0jkc  my 2nd favorite fight song is this ^ ===JACK:  I always thought that the Univ of Iowa Fight song was" We're from I-o-way...That's where the tall corn grows."  Thanks for enlightening me.===LIZ:  https://youtu.be/l4ANP8g8wrE
and you can’t beat meredith wilson. my mom’s old ‘hood/alma mater.===JACK:  Were your mom and Meredith in the same Iowa class?===LIZ:  no, he was born in 1902. she, in 1923...

FROM GOPHER (POLAR) LYNN:  I was a Polar in high school – fight song was “We are the mighty mighty Polars”    mascot was a polar bear.  I have so many fond memories of high school
===JACK:  Have you ever taken "The Polar Bear Plunge" where members in swimming suits dive into ice-chocked waters?  Not for me.

FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  Jack,  we just saw the movie,  The Hate U Give.  its quite powerful and disturbing but does end on a small note of hope.  mostly about race relations and growing up "in the hood".  go for a matinee===JACK:  My children grew up in a different hood than I did, and it reveals that "we are who we were."===PAUL:  i was only in Moline, Ill. once in my life as a teen when my  Bro was a student at Augustana College.  he dated Marty Lindberg for a time whose Dad taught at the seminary.  perhaps you had him as a Prof.  I  can't even recall why we were in Moline.  but i saw an actual, working steam locomotive switch engine with smoke pouring out of its stack  and i thot it was the coolest thing i had ever seen.    i love railroading and even model railroading to this day.  but that was a highlight that i clearly recall to this day.  i assume it was soon taken out of service for reasons of air pollution, if for not other reason.===JACK: Conrad Lindberg was one of my profs.  The coal-buring engines gave way to the cheaper and cleaner-burning diesels.  I remember when the switch was made.  I don't think that pollution was that big of an issue.

FROM JDR:  Were your mom and Meredith in the same Iowa class?===JACK:  It may sound like a "corny" song, but it's OUR song!.

FROM DS IN SOCAL:  I have had wonderful friends in the "neighborhoods" of all the places Ruth and I have moved to, but NO feeling is the same as our original Moline "hood" when we were growing up.  The 50's were definitely a different, and I feel, better time.  I still think of Moline as "home"===JACK:  Even tho I was born in Des Moines, I always claim Moline as my home-town..
===DS:  You almost had it right...it's  "our team's the FINEST you've ever seen"   
WE ARE MOLINERS
WE’RE FROM MOLINE
OUR TEAM’S THE BEST TEAM
YOU’VE EVER SEEN
YOU DO YOUR BEST, BOYS
WE’LL DO THE REST, BOYS
RIGHT ON FOR OLD MOLINE!
RAH, RAH!
===JACK:  Since you're so smart...What are the words to the Augustana Fight Song?===D:  All Hail to you Augustana, all hail to the Gold and Blue, our heroes we cheer to victory as .......Do you want me to continue?===JACK:  That's enough, thank you.  Do you know the Augie cheer that goes, "Rootum, scrootum,etc>? 

 FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  We have always had the right to think for ourselves! Mother was a republican and Dad was a strong union Democrat and the were married for 73 years!===JACK:  Just like Kellyanne Conway and her husband.===FRPM TAMPA SHIRL:  A good reminder of our high school days- a loooonng time ago!===JACK:  BTW, Do you remember when girls weren't permitted to be cheerleaders?  At the time, did you think that that was unfair?===SHIRL:  I do remember Joline from Moline. I also remember Kenny Johnson!===JACK:  I think the Class of 45 might have been the last one with male cheerleaders...only.  Bill Gustafson was one.  Tom Getz was an earlier one.

FROM HAWKEYE GEORGE:  Jack, I'm so happy to be living in Iowa along the Mississippi River. Our neighborhood is very special to us, having moved here in 1976. Sue & I started an annual Fall Picnic for our area of 75 homes in 2004 or 5, which has had good success.  But I'm still a Moliner and am going to the M Men's night for basketball this January.===JACK:  For me, nothing has replaced the "growing up" years.

FRO SHALOM JAN:  Good one!  As a resident of Pontiac, my hood is charged more for life, health and auto insurance, gets fewer road services such as patching and scraping, and still has an unconscionable unemployment rate.  So, I keep urging people to vote, to attend meetings held by our Representative, Brenda Lawrence, and in other ways seek to improve things here.  We need a lot of healing but we need to act on that ourselves, too.===JACK:  Pontiac, IMO, seems to be making a turn-around.  Baby steps, to be sure, but steps.===JAN:  "'The times are bad! The times are troublesome!' This is what humans say. But we are our times. Let us live well and our times will be good. Such as we are, such are our times."--Augustine of Hippo.........Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams."--Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky..."We will not raise arms against other nations, we will not practice the art of war, because through Jesus Christ we have become children of peace."--Origen of Alexandria--3rd century...and another. from Mother Teresa of Calcutta:  "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."  Ain't that the truth!===JAN:  I agree!  I hope, "Slow but sure wins the race," applies.  :-)

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  We are the Pioneers mighty mighty Pioneers!  We grew up in Harper Woods.  Harper Woods is s little under 2 miles wide and long but there were 9 school.  There was Harper Woods High School, Regina High, Notre Dame High, Bishop Gallagher, Lutheran East High and Tyrone, Beacon, Parsells, and Queen of Peace.  Needless to say, we were all strong supporters of our own schools!  The other schools called us “Harper Hoods” and we were looked down on.  Everyone has issues and we’ve all learned how to deal with it.  Well, mostly all of us.  It was appalling to see that pastor at the Jewish funeral screaming.  I asked for prayers for her but she did a lot of damage to the Christian imagine.  In my humble opinion.===JACK:  I guess that every "time" has its appaling events.  I try to put them in the rearview mirror.


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