Tom’s Ramblings

Hey there, friends, neighbors and insomniacs, TOM’S  (me) RAMBLINGS is guaranteed to put you straight to sleep, but before you doze off, maybe you’ll get a chuckle or two out of my rambling stories. The first story I wrote was in August, 2016 about my father-in-law Mac Tweed, over a year after he passed away in February, 2015. I wanted to preserve my memories of Mac for mine and my wife’s families. If you read it, you will see that my writing style then was pretty straight forward, grammatically and syntaxically. The more stories you read, assuming you will need a sleeping aid more than once, you might notice that my style has changed (notice that I didn’t say improved) somewhat, to the point that my writing now more closely resembles my thinking, with one thought leading to another, often linked together in long, sometimes doubling back, sentences, with liberal use of punctuation, parentheses , square brackets and even curly (I got these bracket terms when I googled the spelling of “parentheses”) brackets, all to the consternation of many who’ve read some of my stuff, to which I reply that it’s a lot easier to write like you think and a whole lot more fun!

I’m going to make a not very profound observation, something I’ve shared with anyone who will listen: every single person in the world knows stuff that no one else knows, and if they want their families and others to know some of their stuff, then they had better write it down. That’s the motivation for these ramblings of mine. I’d love to read some of yours. The complaint “but I’m not a writer” doesn’t cut it with me. I’m not either. But if you can talk, you can write. Just write down what you would say if you were talking to someone. It’s not as hard as it might seem. Now the proofing and editing, that’s a different story. I hate both, but unfortunately some is necessary, even in a ramble; otherwise, those following your ramble might fall off the cliff.

HAPPY READING and WRITING!

As you’ll see, I’ve also included some interviews I’ve made on my cellphone of various people I’ve met over the years who I found interesting. I haven’t reviewed all of them. I know that in some of them I asked if I could share their interview on the web where it could be viewed by anyone and they granted their permission on the video itself, as you’ll see and hear. For those whose permission is not so documented, I assure you that I got their verbal permission. *I intended for my stories to have come before these interviews, but since I sent them to my web guy after the stories, the interviews appear first.*

 HOPE YOU FIND THESE FOLKS AS INTERESTING AS I DID!

And finally, what I probably should have placed at the beginning of this intro, a little about me and my family so that the characters in my Ramblings will be easier for you to sort out. I’m Thomas James Caldwell, born Feb 27, 1946 in Charlotte, NC to Joe McCamey Caldwell (2/27/1908-12/6/81) and Louise Beaty Caldwell (10/13/1909-8/6/2006). I have 2 siblings, William (Bill) McKamie Caldwell, born April 26, 1942 and Harry Beaty Caldwell, born January 13, 1948 and possibly, actually most probably (see my story, THANKSGIVINGS), a half-brother,  Joseph Allen Aycoth [formerly known as Joe McCamey Caldwell, Jr),  (3/6/33-7/25/2021). I’m married to Janet Tweed Caldwell and we have 2 sons, Thomas (Tommy) James Caldwell, Jr, 53, who lives in Frankfort, Ky with wife Kim and daughters Emma, 16 and Anna, 14 and who is in his 19^th year as one of three chaplains at a federal medical prison facility in Lexington, Ky, and Timothy David Caldwell, 49, who lives in Crestwood, Ky with wife Sara and son Sam, 19 and daughter Sophie, almost 16. Tim is an assistant principal at South Oldham High School where Sam graduated last year and where Sophie is a sophomore (S Oldham’s nicknamed is the Dragons, which will explain why, toward the end of my graduation letter to Sam, which I just reread, I mentioned his reaching “full Dragonhood”).

I practiced law in Monroe, NC from 1971 till 2008 and now live in Louisville, Ky. I’m in the process of setting up this website. I’m not sure when it will go live, but I’m typing this on Dec 1, 2021.

PS: Lanny Heidenfelder, my web guy is in Burnsville, NC where he and his wife own and operate Quilt-N-Code, located at 208 West Blvd. If you are considering setting up a website or need computer type technical help, I highly recommend Lanny. For most everyone smarter, or at least more tech saavy than I, which includes, without my having to point it out, most all of you, if you click on the 3 short parallel lines on the first page, you can select stories or videos. Lanny tells me that my stories are in pdf, which I understand means that they can be printed. He also tells me that there is a place where you can make comments about what I post. Please, be kind to, or at least understanding of this this old man!!!