Author: Lonnie Shalton

Rita’s Cancer Journey – Part Four: Post-Chemo and On the Road Again

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~ Lonnie Shalton

From: Lonnie Shalton
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 10:48 AM
Subject: Rita Update – Quarantine Lifted/Chrome Dome Pals/Good Vibrations

 If the 3-week chemo rhythm cycle was still in place, Rita and I would be spending most of today at the KU Cancer Center. Instead, she started this morning with yoga and is at the moment celebrating with her yoga buddies at a coffee shop. Fittingly, Groundhog Day was in this past 3-week period and, like Bill Murray in the movie, she has escaped that nagging repeating loop. The side effects from the final chemo treatment were unremarkable and Rita quickly trended up to almost full-time yoga and took walks on the treadmill and in Loose Park during that good weather. Attended book club last night.

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day (2013) – Bill Veeck and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

When Cleveland's Larry Doby and Satchel Paige became the first African-Americans to win a World Series
~ Lonnie Shalton

As the MLK holiday approaches, I submit for your consideration the name of baseball maverick Bill Veeck. Those of you who are not big baseball fans (or too young) might not know of this colorful and visionary team owner who shook up the establishment with his stunts, fan promotions, exploding scoreboards and so much more. For good or bad, he is probably most remembered for sending 3-foot-7-inch Eddie Gaedel to the plate in a major league game (Eddie wore uniform number 1/8 and walked on 4 pitches). But here is another fact: Veeck marched (on his one good leg and a wooden one) in Martin Luther King’s funeral procession in Atlanta in 1968. This is a story of why that march was in character for this man and why he has a key role in the history arc covered by Kansas City’s Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Continue reading →

Zambia Safari – September/October 2011

Photo: Lonnie, Rita and Slash
~ Lonnie Shalton

Rita and I again joined Ralph and Cheryl Waterhouse on an African safari. This was our fifth safari arranged by Ralph, the first being to Kenya in 1989 when he was director of the Kansas City Zoo. Trips to Zambia/Zimbabwe (1994) and Tanzania (1996) followed when Ralph was director of the Fresno Zoo. After retirement, Ralph has continued to lead trips and we joined him in South Africa in 2009 and this year in Zambia. We took a deep breath when the state department issued a travel alert warning of potential incidents arising from the hotly contested presidential race. However, the incumbent loser quickly embraced the victor and Zambia peaceably moved on. In contrast, safari tourism in neighboring Zimbabwe continues to suffer from the policies of President Robert Mugabe

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Woody and Jane’s Excellent Adventure to London and Paris – June, 2010

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~ Lonnie Shalton ~ 1 Comment

For many years, Rita and I have tried to persuade Woody and Jane to travel outside the United States.  Woody argued that they had already done so twice:  to Windsor across the border from Detroit and to Tijuana.  As Woody’s friends all know, he likes to keep his feet on the ground (even when one has a medical boot), and so flights, cruises and high places are not his favorites.  We were thinking he and Jane should cross an ocean, and they took the initial step last year by getting their first passports. Rita and I had been to London and Paris a few times, and we thought these cities would be the best for Woody and Jane to get a taste for international travel.  To our pleasant surprise, they agreed to go.

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South Africa Photo Safari – (10/1/09 – 10/7/09)

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~ Lonnie Shalton

In 1989, Rita and I ventured to Kenya for our first African photo safari. The trip was organized and led by Ralph Waterhouse, then Director of the Kansas City Zoo. We were thrilled with the trip and kept in touch with Ralph after he moved on to become the Director of the Fresno Zoo. This led to additional trips organized by Ralph to Zambia and Zimbabwe in 1994 and Tanzania in 1996. The animal kingdom setting in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania has our vote as the Eighth Wonder of the World.

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Lonnie’s Jukebox

~ Lonnie Shalton ~ 1 Comment

September, 2009, on the occasion of the 50 Year Reunion of the Van Horn Graduating Class of 1959

My Jukebox. I do not actually have a jukebox, but it sounds better than referring to my four beat-up record cases holding my 45-rpm record collection. Every adolescent generation fondly remembers its own popular music, but those of my age were uniquely blessed because our teenage years coincided with the birth of Rock and Roll. It was not really the birth of the style of music, but instead the mass acceptance of a genre that had been around for years as “race music,” a mix of blues and jazz, which in 1948 became known as Rhythm and Blues – a term coined by Jerry Wexler, a writer at Billboard Magazine, to provide a more marketable reference for the music. Rock and Roll would emerge from this genre, often with crossover elements from country, folk, gospel and pop. When my wife Rita and I made the pilgrimage to Cleveland to tour the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, I saw a great quote from a Muddy Waters’ song: “The Blues had a baby and they named it Rock and Roll.” Muddy also had a 1948 song titled “Rollin’ Stone,” which inspired the naming of a band still playing today and, in conflicting reports, may have also inspired the naming of Rolling Stone Magazine (the other possibility being 1965’s “Like a Rolling Stone” by Robert Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan). Continue reading →