Mattes's Musings by KC2GIK

People tell me not to dwell or harp so three entries about the visit to the Branchville Elementary School might be pushing it. However the closer I get to going up there, the more I have the urge to write about it! Call it a way of comprehending what is going to happen. I have told everyone I know about this trip which makes it seem like I am going up there for more than a day. Although the is the same reaction when I went do to Washington DC on my own, to visit Jane in Tennessee or even the license plate convention in Alabama two years ago. These kids are definitely going to bring back to a time with mixed feelings. I mean the kids I'll be speaking to are same age when things starting getting real tough. It was the perfect storm back then. My body was getting worse, and the more I tried to hide it, the more evident it became. I never wrote this before but since I could remember I) was made to wear a helmet while walking around the halls. I fought this hard and finally in fourth g

First of all I want to make a few things clear about this visit upto Kurt's school. Tim's biggest selling point to Principal McKinnon was my writing. Does anyone notice a theme here? Anyway I want to outline my day on Tuesday. Well it actually starts out Monday afternoon when Tim and Kurt drive down to pick me up. We'll then drive back to Connecticut and maybe help setup for the following day. I will be talking to a second grade class and a fifth grade class. I keep telling everybody I'm more nervous about talking to the older kids than the younger kids. The older kids might hit on some more sensitive areas. Going through the process is making me think about my experiences in second grade. When I would go to the Special Education class in the morning, where I didn't belong. Then I would be "mainstreamed" Irony of ironies of of the teacher's name is Mrs. Wilson, I had a Mr Wilson when I was that age. I'll take that as some kind of a sign. I wil

This should be a very interesting post because originally I was going to write about my trip to Connecticut after it happened but since my writing is part of my presentation, I was asked by the people who invited me to write something of a preview prior to going up there so I could show the kids some of my writing. It all started with an e-mail from Tim Stentiford, a license plate collector friend and editor of the famed PLATES Magazine explaining how Kurt, his son, was having what they call a "Diversity Day" at his school. Kurt suggested I come up to speak and when Tim presented this idea to the rest of the planning committee, they loved it. Talk about your ego booster, this is right up my alley. I have spoken about myself at various venues before, even on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC My mom kept saying I had to prepare but I didn't know how. I have been bouncing a few ideas off my mom and am getting my thoughts together. I decided instead of typing them just in W

I have won and lost my share of auctions but this one will sting for quite awhile. For those of you you don't know NJ license plates, the pair shown above are 1928 New Jersey Courtesy license plates I have been follow this auction on eBay since it came out but decided to wait until the fourth day to throw a bid in and it was for $60 which is high for me to jump in but this pair was sweet. Four days went by w ithout another bid so I first thought that either folks were either really hurting from the current economic problems facing the world or people were just lurking..To my dismay it was the ladder. Nothing happened until today when I saw another bidder kick it up to $86 and I threw $100 at the plates without flinching which still was a bar gin for these jems. We played this game all day raising the stakes north of $200 which made me sweat a little. Finally I decided it was time for a gamble and I threw $222 at the pair of plates knowing he eit her would stall out or we'd be