Happy Birthday America!... :) Shangy! >Here are the details on our Yahoo ShangyFunList: To Subscribe send a blank email to ShangyFunList-subscribe@yahoogroups.com To UnSubscribe send a blank email to ShangyFunList-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Group home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ShangyFunList Through no fault of my own we suddenly became an adult club in the love and romance directory so you will have to confirm that you are an adult when you go here. I still have no idea how to change this back as it sends me around in a circle when I try! or Web Site: http://www.ShangralaFamilyFun.com/ShangyFunList.html Group email address: ShangyFunList@yahoogroups.com or email me here: bcrsystems@earthlink.net ================ *~* A REMINDER: PLEASE Send me sweet, interesting, funny, inspiring, family type forwards ANY TIME here... bcrsystems@earthlink.net I Need them, Love them, Use them, and Share them! THANK YOU!! AND For Facebook Users: Please Friend Me / Like Me here... http://tinyurl.com/cma6all ^~^ May God SUPER BLESS You As You Do! THANK YOU! ================ .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:. __, ,___) ______) ,_) ,_) _____),_) (--|__| _, _ _ (--|_ _ ,_-|-|_ _ |_ (--| | _| |(_||_)|_)(_| _| (_)(_)| | | | (_)| |(_)|(_| ( | | ,_| ( |_, | (__| ,_| .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:. *~* HAVE A VERY HAPPY, SAFE, AND BLESSED JULY 4TH CELEBRATION! :) ( (_) ### . (#c __\|/__ #\ wWWWw \ \-. (/. .\) /\ /`\/\ /\ HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA! |\/ \_) (_| `\.' ; ; `' ;`\ `\; ; . ;/\ `\; ; ;| \ ; .' ' ; / |_.' ; | /) ( ''._;/` | ' . ; |.-' .:) | | ( .' : | |,- .:: | | ,-' .;| jgs_/___,_.:_\_ [I_I_I_I_I_I_] | __________ | | || | | || | _| ||_|__|_|| |_ /=--------------=\ / \ | | >-->HOT Off The 'Shangy' Press :) This too hot to handle one comes from our friend Brenda! It is sure to give your funny bone a tickle! Give it time to load and check it out here... Useless Signs! http://www.shangralafamilyfun.com/uselesssigns.html --- ...Definitely a head shaker! LOL! Thanks Brenda! =========================================================== >-->From Heartwarmers: .--.-,-.-.-,-.--. | \ / | | \ / | | .===,=,===. | _/\_; .-'`^`'-. ;_/\_ ( /` /_________\ `\ ) | | |===========| | | | | | | | | | | | , | | | | | ;_{_________; | | | |/===`>========\| | | ;-._<`________.-; | | | | U | | | / | |___________| | \ | | |jgs | '-------------------------' >JUST IMAGINE by Michael T. Smith When I married Ginny, I gained a new son, daughter and four grandsons. I became an instant grandpa. Over the July 4th holiday, I got to meet my new daughter and her three boys for the first time. It took a day for my new grandsons to warm up to me. The first day they stared at me, perhaps wondering what they were supposed to do with this man, who they were told is "grandpa." I waited patiently. I knew boys like to play. They'd come to me in their own time. On day two, the oldest two were doing summersaults over my lap. The youngest, Ben, took a little longer, but yesterday he raced me across the yard thirty times and won every time. The weekend brought back memories of my own childhood. We had such imaginations. In our minds, a tree was a tower to spot approaching bad guys, a big rock became a mountain, a fallen log a space ship headed to the stars. We had toys, but we had to use our imagination, not like the new toys I see my grandkids with. Our toys didn't talk, and if they did, you pulled a string to make it work. We had blocks to build, crayons to create, trucks and cars to push. They were simple toys that required imagination. I thought about the toys in my garage, the ones I saved, when my children outgrew them. They were simple and needed their imagination to work. Mr. Potato Head allowed them to learn parts of the body and giggle at the funny face with an ear where its mouth should have been. I still have an old plastic phone. It has a dial to turn, a bell that rings when you push a button, and that's it. It doesn't talk, squawk, beep or move around the room. It's simple and was used when they played house, nurse, doctor, and secretary. I have a toy doctor's bag, with all the plastic doctor's tools. I remember all the broken bones, cuts, bangs, scratches and aches my daughter repaired as I lay in her office moaning. Most toys today do it all. We don't need imagination -- it comes in a box. Video games that take us into another world or reality, talking toys, with vocabularies better than most people, computerized toys to teach the alphabet. Kids sit and have imagination brought to them. The teaching toys are great, but children tire of them -- it's like being in school. When my son was young and tired of his toys, he would come to me and say, "Dad, I'm bored." "Go find something to do," I'd reply. "I don't know what to do." "Go outside and find a friend." "Naaa! I don't want to do that." "Use your imagination." "Huh?" he asked. "Well, when I was young..." You know the routine. Sports is the same. We're entertained for hours watching someone else have fun doing what they're good at. Wouldn't it be better to be playing yourself? If we don't like the sports available to watch, we create new ones. It doesn't matter what, people will pay to see it, because they need to be entertained. I haven't heard of world championship worm digging, but if someone offered a large cash price, people would buy tickets to scream at the contestants. I worry. Are we becoming a society that needs outside influence to have fun? I think I'll go climb a tree. Maybe there's a pirate ship on the horizon or someone is attacking my castle. Just imagine. -- Michael T. Smith ___________________________________________ Michael lives in New Jersey with his new wife and son. ========================================================== >-->From Johanna :) ============;===========;() # # # #:::::: # # # #:::::: # # # #:::::: # # # #:::::: # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # jgs # # # # # # # >Forgotten Hero Some perspective for you..................... You're a 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam . It's November 11, 1967. LZ (landing zone) X-ray. Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense from 100 yards away, that your CO (commanding officer) has ordered the MedEvac helicopters to stop coming in. You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out. Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day. Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter. You look up to see a Huey coming in. But.. It doesn't seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it. Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you. He's not MedEvac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway. Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway. And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of you at a time on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety. And, he kept coming back !! 13 more times!! Until all the wounded were out. No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm. He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not