Ace Wisdom

Your mom and I saw the movie “Fever Pitch” this weekend starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. Fallon has a passion for the Boston Red Sox and from April until October, baseball is the first thing in life. Jimmy has to choose between going to Paris with his love Drew or staying home for a game with the New York Yankees. Drew or baseball. Drew or baseball. Drew or baseball. Let me see! I won’t tell you what Jimmy chose but you romantics won’t like the answer.
Well the passion for baseball got me thinking about my favorite daughter Kelly and her passion for the trombone. You know, that brass wind instrument with a sliding tube. Kelly may not admit it but it shaped her life. I don’t know if it was coincidence that Kelly’s mom played the trombone in high school or that maybe her mother’s influence caused her to pursue playing it. Only Kelly knows.
It began innocently enough. She practiced and played and pretty soon she was in the North High School band. I think we bought the first trombone on time waiting to see how commited she was to the instrument. Pretty soon she was competeing for “first chair” against all the guys. If you know Kelly that was like war because she could play as well as any male counterpart. Darn right!
Then somewhere along the line Kelly became aware that she had a rather cheap horn. So for Christmas she begged as only she could for a special horn she had seen at the local music store (I can’t remember the name). Kelly’s memory is vague on the cost but being a “numbers freak” I remember exactly. The horn was $750. We finally agreed that she would pay half and we would pay $375 as a Christmas present. We had one happy kid. I think her version is she paid of it. Let me say no other Grasshopper got a $375 Christmas gift.
It was worth every penny. She babied the horn. It led to a Dixieland band at North High School. Yes, I did attend several upbeat Dixie presentations.
Then there was a quintet of trombonists that played Chrismas music in different Churches in Sheboygan. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Yes I even went to church to listen. I think Mr. Hawke, the band director organized the group.
I recall a guy named Pat Schultz. He played trombone at South Sheboygan High School. The competition was intense. Even as nieve as I am, there was a crush on this guy named Pat. I think Kelly invited him to a dance at North High.
Between Kelly’s junior and senior year she went to Germany for two weeks. Imagine the trombone as the ticket to touring Europe. I’m sure we participated in a major way on Kelly’s trip financially. Her take is that she probably had to pay for it herself.
And then it was off to Madison where she would tryout for the marching band. My thought was “that’s nice”. We had no idea that the marching band was a focal point for most campus events and that it did presentations at football games. What a surprise! For Kelly it was a new instant family of 220 fellow band members. Again the horn was her ticket to involvement and success.
The Madison years were great. We attended many football games with Nana and Grandpa. Many games. We would come down early, spend time at the South Union, watch the Pep Rally outside the Union and then “high step” our way to Camp Randall. We would pick out Kelly on the football field with binnoculars, stay for the fifth quarter and many times follow her to Baskum Hill as they marched out of the stadium. I remember a rain storm where we stood with Grampa George under the stadium and said that maybe we should leave without seeing Kelly in the “fifth quarter” because of the weather. You had to see his face. We didn’t leave and we stood in the rain watching Kelly.
And today? Kelly goes back to play in the alumni band occassionally at football games but the great part is that alumni are invited to play when the normal band members are short at basketball games and hockey games. She plays. She takes Mitchell and Grant. Mitchell for sure dances to the music as mom blows her brass instrument. Ain’t that a cool mom.
Which brings me down to my theme of passion. Kelly, whether she has thought about a lot or not, has always had a passion for the trombone and excels at it. Hell, she was one of the early female trombone players in the marching band. The passion has been good to her. It has created great opportunities. It was a catalyst for family events. It was a source of great satisfaction.
I think everybody ought to have a passion such as Kelly’s trombone in their life. It gives meaning to life.
Go Kelly, go!
Love,
Dad

The mass of investors buying stock every day do it on emotion. They got a tip at a party. Or somebody at work says “my broker is E.F.Hutton and he says” to buy a certain stock. Mercy!
When buying a stock you are buying actual ownership of the company represented. You own a small piece of the action. If the company is successful, the stock will rise accordingly and you will get rich (the proper representation is rewarded, possibly rich). The question is how do you decide which company to buy?
Imagine if you can, that you had enough money to buy any company you wanted and that you would own 100% of all the stock. “Make believe” that you become the CEO (chief executive officer) and will direct the company. It is yours. You can build it, mold it, treat employees as you’d like to be treated and pass the company on to those ungrateful little offspring that feel they are entitled to everything. That last comment wasn’t necessary but it felt good.
If you are spending big bucks to buy a company, you would want great products. You would want products with potential for good growth. You would want a marketplace that was expanding. You would want stong profits with opportunity to improve them. Of course as CEO, you would want to be rewarded for the risk you are taking in buying the company. Big salary!
Buying stock is just that simple. Of course you are only CEO in your mind, but you look for potential of markets, products and profits. You also should take a long term perspective of 10 years or more.
So in my mind, I imagine what companies I would be proud to own. I love Johnson and Johnson. It makes bandages, aspirin, and baby powder. It makes stents for artery reconstruction. What is not to like? It helps people. It grows at 12-15% per year. It pays 2% dividends and has increased dividends for 25 years straight. It is international and 2 billion Chinese will soon benefit from my products. I would be proud to collect my $3,000,000 per year salary and then get my $10,000,000 bonus. Because I would be a benevolent dictator, I’d share my success with my employees. Johnson and Johnson passes my CEO test. I’d love to run it. I’d buy the stock.
There are some companies that are profitable and would be fun. Hershey Chocolate! Disney! ebay! Google! They pass my CEO test. When somebody would say to me “what do you do for a living”, I could respond with I’m CEO of Hershey. Women would swoon at my feet?
You get the idea. Follow the money. Profits and more profits. Opportunity to grow products and profits. Forget the emotional bullshit. If you can feel you’d be proud to own a company and to become it’s CEO, then it probably is a good stock.
Even good companies fail in our worldly environment of uncertainty but good companies represent opportunity to navigate the rough waters.
Good stocks picks could make you rich. One lady profiled in Money magazine had continued to buy Schering Plough stock over her lifetime. With all the splits and growth, she left her nieces and nephews $9,000,000 when she died at age 91. Her failing was that she was frugal. She got her coats at the Salvation Army. Come on! The fun of making money is to spend some of it. It her case she lost perspective but she demonstrated what picking a good company can do.
Actually you are the CEO of your own life. I will save that dissertation for another day.
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)

I know financial subjects can be boring but I am determined to keep hitting on things that will affect you in your everyday lives.
Annuities are products usually sold by “bottom dwelling, scum sucking” insurance piranha (just using Margaret’s words). The insurance companies make huge profits out of the “annuity game”.
The only way I can put annuities in laymans terms is to give two examples.
Lets say you have $100,000 laying around (I know that is a stretch for most of you) and you need $5,000 per year of income to live on. The solution is easy. Buy a guaranteed certificate of deposit insured by the FDIC. Today it is easy to get 5% as an effective interest rate without taking a any of risk. Problem solved. You got your $5,000 per year.
Now example number two. You again have $100,000 laying around but you need more than $5,000 per year to live on. Your friendly insurance agent says he will guarantee you $8,000 for the rest of your life if you turn the $100,000 over to him. Good deal, right? How can he do this? Well he calculates how long someone like you will live and he gambles that in addition to the $5,000 per year that he can earn also, he will pay you some of the $100,000 that you gave him. He will pay you $5,000 based on his earnings and $3,000 from principal. After one year, he has $97,000 left to invest. The insurance company gambles that you will die before it pays out all the money you gave them including interest. Here is the “kicker”. If you give the insurance company $100,000 in exchange for a monthly guarnteed income, it is gone. If you die one day after giving the $100,000 to the insurance company, they keep it. Your wife doesn’t get it nor do your KIDS.
Here my get rich tip (in this case, stay rich tip). Manage your own money just like an insurance company would when they present you with an annuity. Earn the best interest you can and use some of your principal when necessary.
Now to complicate the world you should know there are lifetime annuities, tax-deferred annuities, single premium annuities, and variable annuities just to name a few. They all have sophiscated financial calculations to do different things but in the end, the insurance company makes big dollars with your money.
My tip of the day, AVOID ANNUITIES. There is an occasional situation where annuities might make sense, but it is the exception to the rule.
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)

When you wish upon a star, it makes no difference who you are, all your dreams will come true. Something like that.
Well Grasshoppers, your mom had a wish to see Celine Dion perform in person. You know, the voice behind the theme song to Titanic. When Leo Dicaprio on the ship bow is hanging onto Kate Windslett as she raises her hands in search of being set free, the background music is sung by an angel voice. Yep. That was Celine Dion. I believe the song won an Oscar.
They have built a special theater in Las Vegas at Ceasar’s Palace for Celine. All of Oprah Winfrey’s disciples journey to Las Vegas to hear Celine. Celine married her older agent Rene’, nursed him through cancer, had a miracle child and sings loves songs. Mercy. Mercy. How can you not like Celine?
Well we made the trip to see Celine. We did not leave until we were sure we had tickets. We could not get the tickets direct from the Ceasar Palace box office so we had to get them through a broker. We paid double the box office price. No price was to high to see Celine. Did I say that?
Well, we got to Las Vegas on Wednesday. Thursday night we were preparing to leave for the Celine performance. You guessed it. She cancelled. Something about allergies. TV interviewed an older lady at the airport who was leaving town to go home. She had planned to see Celine for 6 months and was leaving disappointed.
Well what about us? We paid extortion prices and traveled 1400 miles to see Celine. We were told by the concierge at our hotel, that Celine would probably be cancelled for the rest of the week. This can’t happen.
So I did what I always did in business, I didn’t take “no” for an answer. My bride and I wandered over to the Ceasar Palace box office to find out what the options were. Well, I learned I could not get refund directly for my cancelled tickets because my broker was the name on the tickets and he got the credit. I would have to wait until I got home until I could submit my claim to the broker. Then, good news. Celine was expected to be back the next night but there were no seats available. Of course! They were always sold out. While the attendant was looking at her screen, a block of seats became available. Apparently somebody had cancelled. Did we want the tickets? Are you kidding? Sign us up! These were better tickets, 5 rows back from the stage and a lot more expensive. We charged two tickets to Celine for Friday night. Whew! Think about this. I originally bought two tickets to Celine at double the retail price and I couldn’t get an immediate refund AND I had just charged two more expensive tickets to Celine for Friday night. Over $1,000 worth of tickets to see Celine and we hadn’t seen the performance.
Celines’s status on Friday remained a concern. With allergies, who knows? We checked the box office at Ceasar’s late Friday afternoon and they said she was in the building. In the building! That was nothing but good news.
I know the love of my life talked to her special angels and her dreams really did come true. The Celine Dion performance came off without a hitch. An audience of 5,000 watched a superb performance. She really does have a fantastic voice and the supporting cast along with big screen visuals made it a spectacular performance. I’d recommend it. Even to the non-Oprah disciples.
All was right with the world. The primary reason to go to Vegas had been achieved. Mom was happy. Dad was happy.
Actually this blog is dripping with sarcasm to make it interesting. The whole Vegas trip was really a delight and a good time was had by all. I’ve been promised a full refund on my cancelled tickets.
To my bride of 45 years, Happy Anniversary.
If you wish upon a star your dreams really do come true.
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)

Shelby and I spent the last full day of our Las Vegas trip with Aleene and Lowell Dyer. Lowell was a colleague of mine while at Ripon Foods. They had journeyed 8 hours from Sacramento, California to Vegas and it was nice to see them.
During our visit, I coaxed Lowell into describing his basketball exploits his senior year in high school and there was an eerie similarity to my senior experience (read Almost Perfet).
Lowell played basketball for Richmond High School in California. They were the “Oilers” because of the oil storage and refining operation in Richmond. Richmond, for those of you that don’t know, is located in the north San Franciso Bay area apparently near the Ocean. 20,000 population. The school year was 1952-53. The Richmond Oilers had a very good team. Several 6ft.4in. forwards and some guy name Mike Farmer at center measuring 6ft.7in. Lowell played guard and was 6ft. In 1953 that was a pretty tall team. Well, like my experience, the Richmond Oilers were undefeated going into the last 3 games of the year. Glory was in sight. They too could be perfect if they just “win out”.
Yep, you guessed it. Fate stepped in and Mike Farmer, the big center, came down with appendicitis. The prognosis was that he would not play the last 3 games.
I can’t take you through a step by step dramatization of the end of the season but playing the 3rd last game of the year without their big man, the Oilers lost by 1 point. Damn! One loss.
Then came the 2nd last game of the year, again without Farmer. The Richmond Oilers actually won. Still one loss. A terrific final game was now set up.
The last game of the year was a home. They were playing their fierce rival that also had only one loss. No Mike Farmer! I can only imagine but I bet the place was rocking. In their first meeting during the season, Lowell sunk a the last shot of the game to win by two points. Well the final game wasn’t as dramatic as my last game in high school, but the Oilers also lost. Lowell couldn’t tell me the final score but he said it “wasn’t very close”. Like my senior year, the season came down to the final game of the year. Close but no cigar.
Lowell ended the season as the Oilers leading scorer with 14 points per game. He got a basketball scholarhip to Stanford and played all four years for them. I think he varsity lettered his final 3 years.
Mike Farmer (having recovered from appendicitis) graduated from Richmond High School the next year in 1954. Richmond Oilers did win the league championship his final year. He got a full basketball scholarhip to San Francisco University. He was a team-mate of some guy named Bill Russell and helped USF win two NCAA Championships. Bill Russell went on to play in the NBA for the Boston Celtics and is considered to be one of the greatest players of all time.
Mike Farmer, I think went on to the NBA. I know he was one hell of a player.
I asked Lowell if he had seen Mike Farmer since high school and he said he hadn’t. You’d think the friendship and team-mate status would have entitled Lowell some free tickets to an NBA game but no such luck. I guess like all high school relationships, time creates distance.
So you see Grasshoppers, another person experienced “an almost perfect” season and I’m sure Lowell reflects on what could have been. He can take solace in the fact that he was part of something very special. In truth it shaped his life.
So with this entry, a sincere thank you to Lowell for sharing his experience and to both Lowell and Aleene for joining us in Vegas. It was very, very special.
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)

I was reminded of a childhood project when I saw two yuppies out riding their bicyle built for two. Spring has sprung.
John Zelm and I were downtown neighbors in Plymouth. I lived above the City Club and he was next door above May Kaestner’s clothing store. He was two years older than me. I must have been around 12 years old when we dreamed up this bicycle project.
Like all kids with “nothing to do mom, I’m bored”, John and I decided to build a “bike for two”. We did it from old bicycle parts we could find (no Christopher, you do not have a corner on old parts). We cut the back wheel off one old bike and then chopped off the front steering assembly from a second bike. The Implement Company located right behind the City Club agreed to weld the frames together. Our biggest problem was getting the sprockets between the front person and back person lined up so that the common chain drive would stay on. It turned out pretty good except that the chain to the back of the bike kept coming off when we tried to go fast (put too much pressure on it). With parts, donated labor of the Implement Company employees and our own sweat, we probably spent $15-$20. Not bad. We probably had the only bicycle built for two in Plymouth.
When the common chain came off the rear person would come crashing down on the bars and you would walk funny for a while.
Well older John Zelm never liked sharing the bike with me. Remember I was two years younger and that was “yuk”. He also felt I didn’t peddle as hard. That part was probably true. The City had repaved the main street in town (actually the total length of Mill Street) and widened it out. There had been no traffic allowed for 6 months. To celebrate the reopening of the street, they had a bicycle race from one end of the street to the other. I don’t remember what the prize was.
John Zelm thought he could smoke everybody with the “bike for two” because it was two people on a common frame. He had entered the bike and decided that Jim Barnes, a friend in his class would ride with him, not me. Asshole!
Well being the sport that I am, I went to the starting line to watch my creation run the race with John/Jim at the controls. The flag came down, there was a frenzy of bikes taking off and there sat the bike for two. With all the pressure put on the chain drive to the back of the bike it had come off. It was going nowhere. And, John Zelm was writhing around in pain because he had come down hard on the bar. Oh, poor John. It served the son of a gun right for not including me. Then I smiled because that could have been me limping around.
The bike eventually ended up being sold for $10 but it always warms me to think about the two bastards that tried to steal my thunder.
My opinion is that a “bicycle built for two” is meant to be shared by two young lovers where the woman can carry the whole load by doing more of the peddling. Just like she does in life! Did I get it right?
Enjoy the warmer weather.
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)

The choice this morning was to talk about annuities or “what I believe in”. I know your minds can only absorb so much financial philosophy so “what I believe in” wins out.
In the movie Bull Durham, Susan Surandon asks Kevin Kostner what he really believes in. His response is “soul, dawn, an evening susnset, the small of a womans back, a hanging curve ball, slow wet sloppy kisses, Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, soft-core pornography and opening presents on Christmas morning”. I was moved. Here was a man who wasn’t a mindless jock.
I pondered what my answer would be. The person closest to me wrote down on a piece of paper what my answer to Susan would be.
I believe in …….
Soul
The power of intuition
Reincarnation
The Golden Rule
Crisp, white, tailored open neck blouses
Banana popsicles
The swish of a pure jump shot
The ritual of baseball
Pagentry of Badger Football
The power of money
The existence of evil
Magic of Christmas
Persistence prevails
Johnsonville Brats
Johnsonville brats? Actually over the years I’ve never found brats that tasted as good and occasionally I get a craving. Yep, it stays on the list.
Nobody has ever asked me for my list before. I can only dream that they would.
What is your list? Quick! Off the top of your head. Don’t spend weeks reflecting on it. Share it with me.
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)