AinsleyJo1952 Here Getting Her Toes Wet...(Written On July 13-14, 2017)

Greetings From Anderson, Indiana USA!!!
The caption I've added to my 3 months old picture speaks volumes (Let me say here that I've been told that I was the kind of baby that, if you put a pacifier in my mouth that I would immediately spit it out and continue having my say!), but I hope you'll keep scrolling down to get more details...

A few weeks ago, my goddaughter, Michelle  (who goes by tecnosgirl here) told me about this place.

She had already written several articles at the time and not only invited me to read what she'd written but, also, to join.

As many people reading this already know, you have to apply and be accepted in order to be a part of this, and I was elated when I heard from the site-owners that I had been accepted.

NOW, I would be able to participate, and I was soooooooooooo EXCITED!!!

But -- !!! WHOA !!! -- even though I had been accepted, I wasn't able to access the site.  That is, I could read the articles, comments, etc., but I was unable to further participate in any way, shape, or form.  

Michelle told me that I would probably have to invest in a new computer tower.

WELL!!!  I wasn't ready to do that just yet.  

For one thing, there were other things in my budget talking at me about how they needed my attention.

For another, I was (still am, in fact) playing a lot of catch-up and giving my online presence an X-treme makeover, and I wanted to stick with using the same computer until I became more organized.

Fortunately, my hunch was right in regards to how the problem seemed to lie with my choice of browser.   When I switched from my Mozilla Firefox browser to my Google Chrome one, it was just what the doctor ordered!!!

Anyway, this is my first post where I'm supposed to start out by introducing myself.

For starters..........

I was planned for, conceived, did a little growing for about nine months, and, then, popped out into the world on December 12, 1952 at 1:27 in the afternoon after causing my mom to go into labor either late on December 11 or else early on December 12.

Anyway, I weighed in at 7 lbs. & 14 oz. and was 20" long upon arrival -- delivered by Dr. Warren C. Polhemus who continued as our family doctor until his retirement in 1987.   He was assisted with my delivery by a nurse whose last name was Williamson.

I would end up being the Alpha & Omega (a.k.a. only child and sufficiently spoiled) of Lillian Ainsley (nee: Jobe) and Raymond Woodford Phillips (most commonly known as Ainsley & Ray).

My full name is Ainsley Jobe Phillips, but didn't even know this until I was in first grade, as I was called Ainsley Jo Phillips most of the time -- or simply Ainsley Jo.

On my gravestone, I would like for my name to be engraved as Ainsley Jo(be) Phillips.  But more details about that in the future...

A couple of my pet names when I was a preschooler were Little Humpty-Dump and Squirt.

Anyway, I was born at a time when Harry S Truman was still our POTUS but would be passing the torch over to Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower a little over a month later.

The Korean War would be going on for another six months, and both segregation and McCarthyism were alive and well.

Yet, in spite of this, these were wonderful times for living The American Dream -- at least, for many of us.

I'm not blind to the blemishes of that time -- and I'll be writing of this in the future -- but I also am not too jaded to realize that there are a lot of precious memories from way back then that really did happen.  

Some people believe that the Leave It To Beaver lightheartedness of that time is purely fiction.......perhaps, for them, it was.  Fortunately, not so for me.

I'm out to celebrate those times and bring them with me into the 21st Century.

By the same token, there are those who believe that nothing is good about the present age and that all things hopeful are in the past, and we can never go home again.

One would have to be wearing blinders not to see that there are a lot of serious issues going on at this time in numerous areas.  However, that doesn't mean that all of the beautiful parts of life have totally evaporated.  In spite of those areas where life seems to have gone downhill very quickly, there are still people out there making a positive difference in life.

One such person doing this is a heartmeltingly-adorable guy who just turned 70 years young this past February 17.  Come this October 24th, we'll be celebrating four years of a wonderful friendship.  At the time we met, I was homeless, and it wasn't one of my best days, so I was feeling a bit blue and discouraged (but more about that in the near-future).

It was on this day where autumn had made an early departure leaving behind a gray day and a chilly rain that I noticed a man using a walker standing out on the sidewalk as if he were waiting for a bus, so I decided to turn into Shadyside Park so that I could drive around again -- this time, where I would be in the right lane to drive into a near-by parking lot to ask him if he would like a ride somewhere.

I would find out that he was right where he wanted to be, and we talked for awhile and decided to keep in touch.  In the course of our conversation that day, I learned that I had met his name almost half-a-century before. 

By the time we had said our good-byes, my day had gone from as gray and chilly as the weather to one of rainbows and sunshine, even though neither the weather nor my situation had changed in the least.

But, again, that's a story for another time -- though I've already told a lot of it in other places.

Long-story-short:  read enough of what I've written since October 24, 2013, and there's at least a 75% chance that you're going to find something where I've at least dropped his name if not actually written an entire piece about him.

One thing that I'm doing at this moment is, as I mentioned earlier, sprucing up my online presence.

Where you will be noticing the most changes is on my profile page at WritingDotCom.

I'm going to be sharing two hyperlinks that will get you there.

1.  This is a link where I will get credit for referring you should you decide to become an active member (and there are several levels of membership, including a free one):

http://www.writing.com/main/portfolio/view/ainsleyjo?rfrid=ainsleyjo
 

2.  This is a link that will also take you to my profile, but it isn't a referral link:

 http://www.writing.com/main/portfolio/view/ainsleyjo 

You will be able to watch the changes being made in real time -- that is, what my profile page looks like today will, likely, be somewhat different than it looks tomorrow.

Over time -- through reading my blogs, articles, etc. (both over there, here, and other places) -- you'll be able to further get to know me beyond what I've written in this introduction.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to spending time here.

I began writing this introductory piece late yesterday and finished it this morning.

Can hardly wait to post it -- and, if you're reading this now, it means that I have.

I've now gotten my toes wet at Steemit and am getting ready to dive right in!!!