While I am still able to recall in some detail highlights of my early life before true adulthood, I decided to write them down for future generations and others who may want to commiserate with my adventures and misadventures.  Continue reading
Tag Archives: journal
Making History with my own Mail-in Vote
I voted at home today, and I can’t wait to put the written ballot in the slot opening at my local Post Office.  Continue reading
Vietnam veteran recalls war 50 years ago
Today is Vietnam Veterans Day, and the Year 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of my deployment in the war zone. I was a 21-year-old Second Lieutenant placed in charge of a platoon of some 25 men, many of them still in their teenage years and drafted like I had been.  Continue reading
Stress taxing me for my new endeavor
Stress . . .
It is hitting me more and more lately, particularly since I decided to do my own taxes for the first time in my life and not pay out nearly $300 to have a professional do the work.  Continue reading
Exercise Routine by Accident & Incentive
I exercise daily and try to get enough steps each day to add up to two miles. That’s around 6,250 steps if anyone is counting.
Well, my iPhone is counting ‘em. The steps, that is. And the miles.
Tales from my ‘State Capital Adventures’
I once worked in the Pennsylvania State Government, meeting and writing a speech for the governor, and broadcasting a news story about a new group of buses being introduced to the Keystone State. Continue reading
Grandkids can Open You to New Worlds!
“It’s snowing!” is what Phoenyx happily announced to the household as the nine-year-old made her way up to the third floor at 6:58 am this morning.  Continue reading
No ‘Pardon’ for any War Crime Criminals
I was so proud of the Secretary of the Navy for his resignation in protest of a hideous act to cover up the atrocities of those in the military charged with war crimes.  Continue reading
Contoveros Blog turns 10 years old today!
- It’s been 10 years since I wrote my first post for this “Contoveros Blogsite,” and looking back, I feel a little like Ken Burns, the producer of PBS specials on such things as war, music, and other all-American things. 
An Officer and a Gentleman Recalled
I was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant 50 years ago, and looking back, I see it as one of the greatest achievements of my life. Also, one of the luckiest ones, and I’m so glad to still be around to talk about it.
Yes, by an Act of Congress, I was made “An Officer & a Gentleman.” I don’t know where that title came from — Great Britain, I guess — but I tried to live up to its “ideal” while in the army, and later when discharged, which career paths I should follow in my life.  Continue reading
Seeing a Divine Hand in the Worst of Times
God Works in Mysterious Ways.
Put another way, the Universe will conspire to bring about what you really want and need in life, even though you may not know it when the Divine Intervention takes place.
Or even like it. The intervention that is. And on first blush, it may even seem bad, but you realize on reflection that it had to have happened for you to progress in life.  Continue reading
GI Bill to celebrate its 75th anniversary!
I would not have gone to college had it not been for the GI Bill, which is marking its 75th anniversary on June 22, 2019.
My father, who was born on a small Greek Island, never went beyond sixth grade. My mother, daughter of Hungarian refugees, was the first in her family to graduate from a high school in New Jersey.
And I had barely made it through Dobbin’s Tech, a trade school, having transferred from a Catholic high school after I got caught playing hooky and was ordered to go to summer school for religion. No one – including myself — saw college in my lifetime.
Continue reading
Memorial Day cries out for those who died
Memorial Day always brings back memories of the Vietnam War and one of the soldiers I served with who I called a friend and a true “comrade-in-arms.” He was Victor Lee Ellinger, a fellow who lived in Staunton, VA. He was shot and killed by an enemy sniper while leading a platoon some 50 miles outside of Saigon. Continue reading
Father Koenig’s life lessons at St. Ludwig’s
Father Koenig put the gloves on me when I was ten years old and directed me toward the kid who was my same size but some two years older. That kid – Billy McLaughlin – kicked my butt. But I never cried or gave up as I swung wildly at him in an effort to land my own punches.  Continue reading
Relieving the moment Innocence is found
The most anxious-filled moments of my life occurred when a jury returned from its deliberation room and awaited the judge to ask for a verdict.  Continue reading
Remembering the scars you got as a kid
I remember . . . cutting the back of my hand while running beneath the boardwalk in Atlantic City. It is the earliest memory I can recall. I couldn’t have been any more than three or four and cannot for the life of me remember anything else I had done at that moment in time. Continue reading
Laughing & writing about ‘off limits’ stuff
Laughter. It’s good to hear in most life situations. It can be contagious and cause people to drop their serious attitudes and see a lighter side of things.
You need it, particularly when times get tough. And if you hang out with the type of people who laugh a lot, you might even hear some gallows humor. You’ll find it among soldiers, cops, and nurses as well as ditch diggers, new priests, and first-aid workers.  Continue reading
My Memorial Day recall — Third of June
“It was the Third of June, another sleepy . . . day . . .”
With that phrase starting one of most memorable country songs in the 196os, I began my life as a man, a soldier, and a leader of an infantry platoon in the Vietnam War.  Continue reading
100 nations visited the Contoveros site
Someone from 100 different countries has viewed this site and my flag counter can attest to the number of nations represented here.
I started to write a Blog some seven years ago and hooked up with a link that not only counted the number of persons viewing Contoveros, but determined which country that person was from. I placed the flag counter at the top of my Blog so that anyone — including myself — could readily see it on linking into Contoveros. It’s at my home site.
(See Flag Counter for the latest count. Trinidad is the latest country added to my list!)  Continue reading
How would like to see yourself next year?
If I had a magic wand, I’d wave it all over my body, magically ordering it to relax and begin to accept all the good and the bad life has to throw at me
I would want to treat it all with Equanimity.  Continue reading
Pinned for a Life above & beyond the call
While Neil Armstrong was taking a giant leap for all mankind, I had taken a small step toward adulthood one month after the moon landing, and I had no one to thank for it except my brother, who encouraged me to aim for the stars in becoming an Officer and a Gentleman in the Army of the United States of America.
Contoveros 