I have had some people ask why I do not have my photo in my profile so I thought that I would try to post it. I really do not understand how to put it in my profile but that is something for another day I guess. So this is what

R. J. looks like folks.

Just More Of My Bio

A few days ago I was sitting quietly enjoying the solitude of relaxing in my recliner without the sounds of TV or radio when I suddenly thought of a former classmate. Though this may not seem strange in itself, for me it was just that since it has been thirty-seven years since I was last in school. Furthermore it has been twenty-seven years since I moved away from the up-state New York region in which I had lived in my school days.

Just to recap my bio some from the one listed here on my blog I was indeed born here in Ohio back in 1951. I lived in the very small village of Leetonia with my Mom and older brother in my grandparents home,(my Mom’s parents). One of my Moms brothers and one of her sisters and her son also lived in the home with us. We were of what most of society would refer to as the poorer end of middle class. Then again back in the early fifties in this area that was most of what the local families were, poor.

Growing up in a tiny village like Leetonia was almost like living in the country. I mean we only lived two blocks from the downtown area and one block from our Little League Baseball field and yet we had two dogs, several ducks, and an entire fenced in chicken coop. We always had a very large garden, and fruit trees. All of which was used along with the collection of fresh eggs every morning and the harvesting of the chickens to reduce the food costs of the household. My granny made fresh pies, bread, rolls, butter, ice cream, and other baked goods all the time. Every Sunday it would be Sunday school, then Church and then home for the big family dinner where every week one or more of my aunts or uncles and their families would come by for a visit with my grandparents and dinner. My grandparents had thirteen children, the youngest a daughter passed away at around three years old. Back in those days if a child or even some adults got pneumonia it was usually fatal as it was for my aunt Lorraine.

At the end of my fifth year of school in 1962 my Dad returned home from the US Army where he had been since 1951. He was trying to make a thirty year career out of it but from the injuries he had received in Korea his health had reached a point that the military was tired of giving him operations year after year and they finally told him he would need to retire from the Army and return to civilian life. Almost immediately after getting home he and Mom bought a house downtown and for the first time in our life my older brother and I would leave my grandparents home and move into a home that was just made up of a Mom, a Dad and two sons. Every chance I got I would take the three block trip across town to my grandparents house to talk with my granny. As a small boy I spent more time with granny than Mom since Mom had to work to help with the expenses around the house as did my aunt and uncle and cousin that lived there. My grandparents were retired.

I used to tell my granny that I was afraid to live with my Dad who I really did not know since we had only seen him less than a half dozen times the whole time he was in the Army. During that time we only knew him from all the letters that we exchanged and there really was not that many of those for most of them went to my Mom, and she would relay his thoughts and love to us. My granny would just say that I needed to give him time to adjust and we too needed to make adjustments. I told her it was like we were now in the Army boot camp with all these rules to follow and chores and inspections. She told me to be the young man that she knew I had grown to be without my father around and I would do just fine with him here now. In just a few months, times got really bad and it was hard for my Dad to find steady full-time work. Since his family was from New York City and his older brother lived in up-state N.Y. he called my uncle Roy,(who I was named after since I was born on his birthday), and in no time my parents sold the home they just bought and we moved to up-state N.Y.. We first settled in Fishkill, then six months later we moved to Hopewell Jct., about six months after that there was a new housing development being built just down the road, (still in Hopewell Jct.), so my parents had a new home built and we moved again. This would become our final move as a family.

Our little family began to grow with another brother in 1963, a sister in 1964, and our last sister in 1965. With three more mouths to feed and a new home to pay for my Dad took on a second job and my Mom went to work also, which meant that my older brother and I became the care givers of our new siblings while my parents went off to work. We also did much of the cooking, most of the house work, yard work, and even laundry. Mom would work full time hours as a waitress and then come home to help and or relieve my brother and I so that we could find time to hang out with our friends and finish our home-work if we had not done so already. Once again we did not see much of Dad with him working two jobs and only having Sundays off, which was his only day to rest and inspect our work. When you are young and really do not understand how life really works you form a completely wrong idea of why Dad works from early morning to late night six days a week. We just thought he was just plain mean and angry because he was more or less forced to retire from the Army that he loved so much, and working kept him away from us and our home. It probably took me until my mid to late thirties before I really got to know my Dad, since as soon as I was out of school and turned eighteen I left home and basically shut him out of my life, until I lived with him here in Ohio for just over a year. Now that Dad has passed and gone home to be with our Lord I truly miss him and his wisdom.

During our school days in New York I had a very hard time at first since I tended to be shy and counted on my big brother to be my protector as he had my entire life. If anyone picked on me or fought with me and I was hurt in anyway then my brother would find them and put an old country type of whopping on them then he would come home and whop on me and tell me that I better start getting stronger and stand up for myself because he could not always be there to pick me up. It took longer than I would have liked and my brother whopped my butt more than I liked but I did finally learn how to fight for myself. That meant less butt whopping from my piers and from my brother too, which I really liked. Though I did try to avoid fighting as much as possible, I did not allow anyone to just push me around anymore. My brother just kept telling me that we no longer lived in an environment where everyone got along with each other as they did back home in Ohio, and I needed to find newer ways to survive or I would be crushed and left behind.

The schools in N.Y. where filled with far more kids than back home, one grade level had more students than our entire school in Ohio and our housing development even had more kids than schools back home. As you can see I never stopped calling Leetonia home. I always said some day I will return to my roots and the elements in which I feel more comfortable. I guess when you are born a poor kid from a very small village for some it’s hard to let go of that safe and secure feeling you get here. I for one love being back home, and out of the bigger cities and that fast paced lifestyle. Though in all honesty this little trip down memory lane has made me remember all the great friends I made in New York and in Florida where I lived for nine years before coming back home to Leetonia.

I joined Classmates.com just a few days ago and I really am not very pleased with their service. They more or less do not let you do much of anything on their site unless you pay. Free members can basically just look around and you can not post anything in the message boards or even send or read any e-mail you may get. With all the advertising on their site I think they have no reason other than greed to charge to connect with former classmates. I am hoping that the short bio that I put there will get some of my old friends to visit here. Even in your bio there you must be very careful what you say or they will delete it. I think it would be nice to hear from some old friends. If they do come here all they need to do is post a comment with their contact info which I totally control and I would simply get their info then delete it and NOT post it.

Well that’s enough of my bio for now. The next time I will talk more about my life in New York, school days, married life, my two sons, why I moved to Florida, new marriages in Florida, why I left Florida to come home to Ohio and the wonderful wife that I found here and the last fifteen years with her. Until then may all your days be Blessed. Please visit here often and tell all your friends and family to stop by too.

Three Old Men

A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long
white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them.

She said "I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please
come in and have something to eat."

"Is the man of the house home?", they asked.

"No", she replied. "He's out."

"Then we cannot come in", they replied.

In the evening when her husband came home, she told him
what had happened.

"Go tell them I am home and invite them in!"

The woman went out and invited the men in"

"We do not go into a House together," they replied.

"Why is that?" she asked.

One of the old men explained: "His name is Wealth," he
said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one,
"He is Success, and I am Love."

Then he added, "Now go in and discuss with your husband which
one of us you want in your home."

The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her
husband was overjoyed. "How nice!!", he said. "Since that is the case,
let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!"

His wife disagreed. "My dear, why don't we invite Success?"

Their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner
of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion:
"Would it not be better to invite Love.
Our home will then be filled with love!"

"Let us heed our daughter-in-law's advice," said the
husband to his wife.

"Go out and invite Love to be our guest."

The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, "Which one of
you is Love? Please come in and be our guest."

Love got up and started walking toward the house. The
other 2 also got up and followed him.

Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: "I only invited
Love, Why are you coming in?"

The old men replied together: "If you had invited Wealth
or Success, the other two of us would've stayed out,
but since you invited Love, wherever He goes, we go with him.

Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success!!!!!!"

MY WISH FOR YOU...

Where there is pain, I wish you peace and mercy.

Where there is self-doubting, I wish you a renewed
confidence in your ability to work through it.

Where there is tiredness, or exhaustion, I wish you
understanding, patience, and renewed strength.

Where there is fear, I wish you love, and courage.

You have two choices right now:
1. Click this off
2. Invite love by sharing this story with all the people
you care about.

I hope you will choose #2. I did.

The older I get the smarter I am! "I've learned not to let
my eyes go shopping for my Heart!"

Reflections

I was just sitting at my desk reflecting on what it is that I am constantly searching for in my pursuit of life’s happiness. What rewards do I long for and what path in life do I follow to get there. Then I thought about some of the quotes that I often turn to when I need to lift myself up or find inspiration to accomplish a task that I have taken on. That is when I realized that I already have the rewards that I am looking for in life and that is the Love that I get from my wife, family, and friends, and yes the Lord and Savior. All other things in life that I seek are just material things that I really do not need but rather just desire to have. Take a few minutes to read through the following famous quotes and see if they inspire you too.

Quote of the Day: "Let us be about setting high standards for life, love, creativity, and wisdom. If our expectations in these areas are low, we are not likely to experience wellness. Setting high standards makes every day and every decade worth looking forward to." -- Greg Anderson

Quote of the Day: "It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity." -- Horace


Quote of the Day: "Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant." -- Horace

Quote of the Day: "Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it." -- Horace

Quote of the Day: "Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody's hand and squeeze it, while there's time." -- Dale Dauten

Quote of the Day: "Forget the resolutions. Forget control and discipline...too much work. Instead try experimenting. Go in search of something to fall in love with...something about yourself, your career, your spouse." -- Dale Dauten


Quote of the Day: "Never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory." -- Norman Vincent Peale


Quote of the Day: "...if the next generation is to face the future with zest and self-confidence, we must educate them to be original as well as competent." -- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Quote of the Day: "Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills, or abilities--that's training or instruction--but is rather a making visible what is hidden as a seed... To be educated, a person doesn't have to know much or be informed, but he or she does have to have been exposed vulnerably to the transformative events of an engaged human life... One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled but few are educated." -- Thomas Moore

Quote of the Day: "The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have." -- Norman Vincent Peale

Quote of the Day: "I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness or abilities that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." -- William Penn

Quote of the Day: "When you become detached mentally from yourself and concentrate on helping other people with their difficulties, you will be able to cope with your own more effectively. Somehow, the act of self-giving is a personal power-releasing factor." -- Norman Vincent Peale

Finally the one that I find most inspiring in the search to improve my own life and my pursuit of the right path of life to follow is found in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson;

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us”---Ralph Waldo Emerson on Perseverance.

Have A Great Life!!
Roy J. Keller

Then and Now !!

The following post is a post that I happen to read at one of the Forums that I visit and post to everyday and it brought back so many memories that I thought that I would copy & paste it here for all my readers to relate. Since I was born in 1951 this really had me remembering my early childhood here in Ohio during the fifties and early sixties. Oh, to have those simpler days again. This little village has not really changed that much on the surface but the story below does indeed reflect our world today. Enjoy and as it says at the end feel free to share it with others or just direct them here to read it for themselves. Have a grand day……Roy J. Keller;

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the

1930's 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, and Early-ish 80's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a Ute on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drink with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING !

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given cowboy guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

The town football club had tryout for the junior team and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

ONCE AGAIN SPAM WILL NOT BE POSTED ON MY BLOG!!

It seems that even with my posting the "BLOG RULES" on posting your comments to my articles once again I am forced to point out those rules. Someone with the user name of "Askinstoo" posted eight comments to just three of my latest articles and I was forced to "REJECT" all eight of his comments since everyone was exactly the same word for word and they were just as follows; "Very nice, then he/she went into a three line ad for his/her own business efforts. Just in case you do not see it Askinstoo this is SPAM and that is not wanted or tolerated here. As I have said in a previous post if you want to advertise on my blog either "pay me directly" or pay Google to place your ads here. This is "NOT" a "FREE" advertising blog. So stop being cheap and most of all LAZY and find another way to advertise what you do because I WILL NEVER post your ads unless you pay me to do that.

Until The Next time then, have a wonderful day! May You & Yours Be Blessed Always!!
R.J.

Well some people are just far to "STUPID" for this world and the rules they should follow. Today is 4/15/06 and this moron Askinstoo has made an attempt to post four more "SPAM" comments to just two of my articles, he just does not get it. WHAT A MORON!!!!

"SPAM WILL NOT BE TOLARATED HERE !!"

Well, I launched this blog on Jan.23,2006 and some one has finally tried to post “SPAM” in the form of a comment. Frankly I am surprised it took this long. I not only welcome any readers comments, I also encourage them. However I also encourage you to take a moment of your time to read the introduction to this blog for the rules on posting your comments. The number one rule listed is that your comments are “NOT TO BE SPAM”, then the other rules of what they may not be are listed as well.

So let’s get a few things clear today for those netrepreneurs, (on-line entrepreneurs), that are just to stupid or ignorant to “GET IT” and know what “SPAM” is. Whether you are posting a comment here, on another blog, or at a forum, or sending out e-mail with a sales pitch in place of any words of value or contribution to the subject at hand then you are just posting SPAM. Furthermore I only permit three people to advertise for “FREE” here on my blog and they are, ME, MYSELF, AND I, oops that’s really only one person, ME! Now I have applied to Google to place ads here that I will be paid for, so if you want to pay Google and Myself in the form of pay per click, then just contact Google and tell them you would like your ads placed here.

So if you have nothing of value to contribute than just keep your mouth shut and or just do not even come to my blog. As I have said many times I would love it if every internet user stopped by and read my entries and made comments but I will continue to maintain total and complete control over those posted comments for all the reasons stated in the introduction of this blog. If you have an on-line business then find the “PROPER” ways to promote it. Heck, I have even given many examples here in my posts and in my links. There is never any need for SPAM. The on-line marketer that uses SPAM to promote their business is the biggest reason that honest, hard working Internet Marketers like myself have such a tall mountain and high wall of skepticism to over come in order to find success. You are the typical forum member that finds himself outcast or even blacklisted for the same reasons. Just incase you may be to dumb to realize who you are, since most spammers never look to even see if their comments were approved and posted, let me tell my readers just what you tried to slip in. This does not include the links to this persons website nor do I truly recall just what the product was since I immediately rejected and deleted the request to post this comment. HEY! Great I got this (I-pod, or laptop) FREE then I sold it for pure profit and you can TOO!! GO here!!(this is where the link to this idiots website was.). This comment was intended to be with my post of “Can Anyone Find Success On-Line With Limited Or No Funds? ”. I personally took this to be pure SPAM and a marketer looking for free advertising and this is not where they will find it. There are many free advertising methods on the internet, so stop being so LAZY, and learn how to write good traffic drawing ads and go out and place them in the proper places and then maybe, just maybe Internet Marketers will not all be looked at as scam artists out to rip people off. Your form of business operation is why you are in the 95% of marketers that never make any money on-line and you place all the blame on scams, when that is just how you are trying to make it.

For all my readers, with or without an on-line business that would like to make comments that have some merit value that contributes to the subject matter I would be more than happy to post them, whether you agree or disagree with my comments as long as you adhere to the rules. If all you want to do is post an ad well then you will be sent packing, sorry. Use the methods that I have given you to advertise elsewhere or find your own methods that do not include SPAM.

Until the next time have a great day! May You & Yours Be Blessed Always!!
R.J.