Hey all….Jeff Proctor here working the Vastex booth at the NBM Show in Indianapolis this week. I can’t wait to tell you what Vastex introduced at the show this time.

It’s called the “Winged Pallet” and attaches to any Vastex V2000HD manual press allowing you to not only print a design on the front or back of your shirt but also put something on the sleeve at the same time. If you don’t own a Vastex V2000HD it’s no problem…when you order give Vastex the dimensions of your press arm and they’ll customize a bracket so it will fit your machine!

The Winged Pallet is only $159 and can be ordered by right sleeve or left sleeve depending on which you want to print.   Included with the pallet is a rubber pad for easily printing over the sleeve seam.  And,  the first 10 people to call Vastex at 1-800-482-7839 to place an order will receive 10% off for saying you read it on Jeff Proctor’s Blog at T-Biz Network!

Blank Winged Pallet

Sleeve and front printed over shirt at same time in Vastex booth using the new Winged Pallet!

I received the news from Scott Fresener late Wednesday afternoon (November 17) that Union Ink Company CEO Richard Labov passed away. I am one of a select group of people who had the pleasure of working for Richard for 10 good years before the company was sold.

What I am about to write is not so much mourning the death of Richard Labov as it is of celebrating and commemorating the life of a man who did things his own way almost to the day he died. I say almost because he died in a hospital bed. I think if Richard had had his choice he would have been found slumped over his desk in his office on a Saturday morning. He loved the company and working that much.

This is not to say he didn’t love his wife Carol, daughter Andrea and son Daniel very much. Many times Richard would ask about my family. The interest he expressed in my family proved to me how much he cherished his own family even though this was a side to him that he kept very guarded from outsiders.

Richard didn’t mince words. You always knew where you stood in his eyes. He was the “father figure” of a dysfunctional family of employees particularly the sales team. The sales team was a group of people with completely distinct personalities. The common denominator was that each of us thought we were the one that was right. Joe Catizone and I use to joke about how everyone would argue and take shots at each other but at the end of the day we all came together as a team. Richard was the glue that held us together and because of that he deserved our respect. Every employee all the way down to the janitor worked hard for Richard and I can’t remember a year when our sales did not increase by a substantial margin.

I spoke earlier about Richard being a “father figure”. I remember once visiting Union and being called into his office. I had done something for which I cannot even remember but what I do remember is the “tongue lashing” I received for the first 15 minutes that devastated me. When I left his office I felt better because in the true sense of any good father he spent the last 10 minutes building me back up again. I swear the man raised horses in a former life.

When Richard and Daniel hired me in 1996 I thought I knew how to sell. Little did I know I didn’t have a clue. He taught me that if you make a good product, offer good service and charge a fair price you can make money. There is an element of the market who wants that and he taught us to go out and get it.

I am sure everyone has a Richard Labov story. I am fortunate to have many. This is my favorite.

One of our sales representatives, Jake Smith, died suddenly and Richard flew to Atlanta for the funeral on a Sunday. I was new at Union at the time and picked Richard up at the Atlanta airport to drive to Fort Payne, AL for the funeral. The funeral was to be held in a small chapel on top of a mountain in DeSoto State Park.

We were really early and stopped to have lunch in a small town near the park. After we ate we got directions to the chapel and then proceeded to get lost in the middle of the biggest nowhere I have ever been. We were high on top of mountains and a bevy of dirt roads led off the sometimes asphalt—sometimes gravel roads we were on. If we didn’t find the chapel soon we would be late so when I saw a promising looking dirt road with a mail box I decided to turn down it and see if I could ask directions.

At the end of a road was a house with a front porch open under the porch. As I pulled up two of the largest dogs I have ever seen came out from under the porch and came to the car barking, snarling and growling. One was on my side looking me in the eye and the other on Richard’s staring him in the eye.

Richard looked at me and said without cracking a smile, “aren’t you going to get out and go up to the door”/

I didn’t know the man well and at the time and didn’t realize he was joking. I looked over at him and said “Mr. Labov, in all due respect, this is not Central Park and the dogs are not on leashes being walked with pooper scoopers held behind them. The owner has those dogs because he doesn’t want us here”.

All the while I had been formulating my answer carefully the man was staring straight ahead trying to hide his smile.

Richard was known world-wide. I hope many who read this will have their own special memories of the man as well as your favorite story. If you do I would like to ask each of you a favor.

Would you please take a moment and share your favorite story with the rest of us?

Goodbye Richard, I will miss your emails.

Let me sum up Fespa 2010, the recently concluded Federation of Europe Screen Printing Association’s bi-annual show by saying this…if you do not ever go to another show save your money and experience FESPA just once during your screen printing lifetime. The do a lot of smaller shows and every three years they do a huge show. The next smaller show is in Hamburg in May of 2011. It is a digital show but they will be having FespaFabric which will feature all types of garment decorating.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to be asked by Mark Vasilantone to work for 5 days at FESPA with the staff of Vastex International. And, it was five very busy days as customers filled the booth looking at equipment from start to finish.  I heard similar comments from other exhibitors about the traffic and also witnessed boothfuls of people gathering information on the latest trends.   This is truly an international show and it’s a pleasure to be able to talk to people from all over the world and get their perspective on the state of what is truly a global industry.

Attendees were treated to a first class educational program as Fresener’s Fabric (familiar name?) coordinated the efforts for the FESPA organizers.  The seminar I delivered on Discharge Printing was packed with the audience asking a myriad of questions both during and after the seminar.  For over 30 years Scott Fresener’s name as been associated with “education” thus putting hundreds and hundreds of printers into business and his organization of Fresener’s Fabric  proves why any organization is crazy for not utilizing his talents.

The floor or the hall was top notch with many large exhibitors having stands that took days to custom build.  Also, a little different from our shows in the USA is that most booths had bars set up to entertain clients at the end of the day.  For those who are not aware the World Cup Soccer Tournament being held from South Africa was being held during the dates of FESPA and many exhibitors had large screen televisions in their booths so attendees could watch and cheer on their favorite teams.  As a matter of fact in the booth adjacent to Vastex a Brazilian company practically shut down their booth one afternoon when Brazil played Portugal in one of the late games. And, if you find this hard to believe see the attached picture I took of the stand during the match.

Last but not least you get to experience the beauty of  major European city.  Munich is famous for their restaurants and night life and many attendees and exhibitors were found at any of the many local beer gardens around the city.

I am sorry if you missed it….it was a great time! I’ll see you in Hamburg, or better yet – if you can wait – at Fespa 2013 in London!

Check out a three minute interview I did with Mike Fresener while we were in Munich.

While my last bit of blogging was about fun, today’s blog I hope will make you laughing  uncontrollaby. I found this on the homepage of MSN.   Apparently this is a live sports show that appears every Saturday afternoon on the Fox Soccer network in the United Kingdom.  It has a sports anchor and three or four analysts in a studio reporting and analyzing the day’s soccer matches and  on-field reporters they cut to when something important happens in a match.

 What you are about to see actually happend when a Portsmouth player received a “red card” and the studio cut to the on-field reporter for a more in-depth account of what happened.  Click here to view video.

Now after your laughter has subsided and you have full control of yourself I want you to think if this could happen in the United States.  Can you imagine Jim Nantz anchoring the telecast of  The Masters and cutting to David Faraday or any other announcer for a special live report from let’s say the 13 hole at Augusta National with similar results?

Jim Nantz: ” Ladies and Gentleman we interupt our interview with President Obama to go to the 13 green where it has been reported Phil Mickelson has just made his second consectutibe eagle to cut Lee Westwood’s three  shot lead to one shot.  The roar of the crowd is deafening tell us about it David Faraday.  What has happened?”

David Faraday:” I don’t know, Jim Nantz, I don’t now  I must have missed that……an eagle huh?  Is that what the crowd was going crazy about?”

Jim Nantz:  “David, you don’t know?  What did you think the crowd was yelling about?  What were you doing?  Have you not been watching?”

David Faraday: ” I don’t know Jim Nantz, I just don’t know.  The pollen must have gotten in my eyes….it’s been bad this week.  Maybe one of Tiger’s girlfriends distracted me!”

Jim Nantz:  “According to our sources Phil has just made his second consectutive eagle to cut Westwood’s lead to one stroke…….David, get out your fingers.  If you watched from tee to green count  the number of shots it took for the ball to go in the hole, subtract from five and if you get three then Phil just made eagle.  It’s easy!”

David Faraday:  “Well I saw the ball go in the hole….I heard the crowd roar…..I just thought it was because they liked Phil”.

Jim Nantz:  “Another fine cutting-edge on-course report by the station that brings you 56 uninterupted minutes of  Masters coverage every hour!”

If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it fall does it make a sound and likewise if you blog and no on reads it is it really a blog or merely words in print that only makes the author feel good?

Why am I beginning like this? I am simply not sure what people want so I am going to change things up today. After all isn’t the definition of chaos “doing the same things over and over but expecting different results?”

Today, the topic is music and I do not in any way, shape, form or matter claim to be a music expert. I am a horrible singer and only my dog seems to enjoy my singing on our nightly walks. I find myself in the car listening to the radio and falling in love with a song and not being about to enjoy it a second time because I have no earthly idea who sings it.

Quite to the contrary are my wife and kids and I am sure my industry friends Don Hendricks and Lon Winters are the same way. They all can listen to a song and tell by how a guitar is played or hear a voice they recognize. I can’t and not only that I am a lousy dancer but I still love to dance.

So now that I have put myself down, you may be asking yourself why is Proctor talking about music. Well, it’s easy! I may not know much about it but I know what I like.

I play backgammon on line and one of my friends got to talking one night about music in the chat window that is under the game being played. He asked me “have you ever listened to a group called Dare?”

I said “no” because I had never heard of them. Now according to James Ortolani of Hix Corporation most bands have a My Space page so I went to MySpace. I found nothing. I went to Limewire and found nothing. I went to Youtube, BINGO. Up came everything I wanted to hear about this group.

Maybe you have heard of them and just maybe I am behind a rock which may be a bad analogy to make on
Easter weekend but I want to share them with you.

Dare is a band who I believe is actually from the Dublin area of Ireland. After listening to the two Youtube videos titled “Kiss The Rain” and “Silent Thunder”, in my opinion this is the best kept musical secret in Europe. I downloaded and PAID for 23 songs off Amazon downloads immediately. And, how do I know these guys are good? When my daughter heard them the first time she loaded all of the songs on her MP3 player.

I hope you like them as much as Kate and I did!

Have a Happy Easter to everyone who comes to T-Biz Network and if you get a chance to watch the T-Biz Television from the Magic Show it’s a riot.

And, by the way, thanks to everyone who supported my son while he was in Afghanistan fighting for my freedom to blog. He is back at his home safe and sound at Fort Richardson, AK.

All-Over Printing is back and Vastex International is now making it easier for you to print an XL t-shirt from the top to bottom to the hem and side to side from sleeve to sleeve tip and you don’t need an expensive automatic press to do it. It can be done with a Vastex 2000HD manual press and the All-Over-Printing pallet that attaches to the press arm in the same way a normal pallet attaches. (Note: click on images to enlarge them.)

Vastex exhibited the All-Over-Pallet at the recently concluded Atlantic City Imprinted Sportswear Show. Anytime Douglas Grigar, industry consultant and Vastex Representative, would push the giant 42″ squeegee across the over-sized screen a crowd gathered to watch.

But, before continuing let me digress a little and talk about the quality of the show. In spite of horrific weather on both Saturday and Sunday the Atlantic City ISS was in my opinion a huge success for both buyers and exhibitors. I did not hear one complaint at the show from either side. The aisles were crowded with buyers the entire three days including up until about 2 p.m. on Sunday and, another way to judge attendance is the long lines at the food outlets which were very long and crowded from 11 a.m. till 2 p.m. And, Saturday and Sunday might even have been better had it not been for an interruption of train service between Philadelphia and Atlantic City due to power poles, power lines and trees that were blown across the train tracks during the height of a storm that produced massive flooding and winds of up to 75 mph.

The All-Over-Pallet attachment sells for $375 and as I said before easily attaches to the arm of any Vastex 2000HD manual press. Also available for an additional $75 is an All-Over-Pallet-Kit which contains a large piece of rubberized foam as well as an additional print head without micro register in order to save space. The foam adheres to the surface of the pallet so when the squeegee pressure pushing the ink through the screen would normally stop on a hard pallet surface the foam compresses fillng in the seams around the sleeves and collar.

For more information about this contact Vastex at 1-800-482-7839

I love my Yahoo homepage.

In this day and age of gloom and doom about the recession, unemployment or any other negative news that seems to consume the front page, there comes a glimmer of hope. Today, a story about Joannie Rochette appeared and it was not simply a glimmer. It was a ray of sunshine so bright it easily penetrated every tear welling up in the eyes of all readers.

How many had ever heard of Joannie Rochette prior to the Vancouver Olympics? For those who don’t know Rochette, she is the Canadia figure skater whose mother had died of a sudden heart attack two days before Rochette was scheduled to compete in Women’s Figure Skating.

Think about something with me. Can you in your wildest dreams imagine what it would like to receive news that your mother died unexpectedly much less getting the news right before you are expected to brilliantly perform in front of your home country in the biggest event of your skating life. I am sure many of us would have given up on our dream and left the games to go home and grieve.

But to Rochette, this was not just her dream. It was a lifelong dream shared with her mother.

What did she do?

With her mother watching over her, Rochette performed brilliantly, performing every jump and technique well enough to receive a bronze medal.

Rochette is not my only hero of these games. My hat is off to the Georgian team who came together and decided to remain in Vancouver to honor the death of their fallen luge comrade, Nodar Kumaritashvili, who tragically was killed in a training run at the Whistler Sliding Center. Wearing black arm bands, this small team marched proudly into the Opening Ceremonies and competed to the best of their abilities.

“Sometimes you can’t wait for the storm to pass, you have to learn how to dance in the rain”!

And, dance both Rochette and the Georgian team did. They should be an inspiration to us all.

Note from Jeff: If I have missed others in the Olympics who have inspired you as well, please reply and let me know who your heroes were…..and thanks for reading!.

There are a lot of claims about foil resist ink and the video at the end of this article will prove that the new resist from Lancer really works and shows you how to make it work too. As many of you know I rep Excalibur Inks from Lancer Group International as well as a couple of other irons I have in the fire. I received this press release today from the Lancer Group Sales Manager, Mark Dorrington, about a product called Foil Proof. Foil Proof is a clear that when printed over colors and flashed will not allow foils to stick to those colors in a design.

For instance if you have a four-color design and you only want to enhance one color with the foil treatment simply make a 5th screen and overprint Foil Proof over the other three colors and flash, print your foil adhesive or plastisol where you want the foil to stick and then cure and transfer the foil. It sounds simple and it is. Here’s the Press Release and if you do not have time to read it cut out the middle man and go straight to the video.

Foil Proof News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lancer Group International
311 Saulteaux Cres.
Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3J 3C7

Excalibur® introduces a real solution for incorporating elements of foil within a screen-printed design. Finally something that actually works. Up until now the only way that printers could add a foil effect to specific elements within a design was by using water-based ink. Lancer Group International is proud to announce the release of a plastisol solution. 801 Foil Proof is a clear coat plastisol that repels foil. Simply screen-print Foil proof over top of the plastisol where you do not want foil to stick. When you heat seal the foil onto the image, the foil will only stick to the parts of the design that are not clear coated. Obviously there are a few tips and tricks in regards to mesh counts etc. They are as follow.

Recommended Mesh:
80-110 t/in. (32t to 43t/cm) for image areas requiring foil.

160-200 t/in. (48t to 80t/cm), on image areas that don’t require foil.
Adhesive systems:
Use 845 Printable Adhesive for areas to be foiled or tint 845 PA with ink color similar to foil
Printing Procedure and Tips:

•For best results use 80-110 t/in. (32t to 43t/cm) mesh counts with a print/flash/print routine to “build up” the areas to be foiled.

•On non-foil areas, use a finer mesh. The goal is to achieve a thinner ink film than the area(s) to be foiled. A print/flash/print routine with 801 Foil Proof is also suggested for maximum foil resistance.

•The addition of 820 Puff Base to 845 Printable Adhesive creates a low loft, which results in a higher surface area for the foil to adhere to. As a starting point, we recommend adding 25% of 820 Puff base, by weight, to the 845 adhesive.

•Adding small amounts (3% by weight or less), of 801 Foil Proof to the ink will also aid in resisting foil. Be aware that adding more than 3% will affect viscosity and opacity.

•Gelling, instead of fully curing the print initially, will result in a much better foil transfer. Heat pressing the foil at 375° (191°C) will contribute to proper cure. You may also consider putting the foiled garment through the dryer again at normal curing temperatures.

Foil Application:
Set heat press to 375°F (191°C) – apply with very light pressure for 4-6 seconds. Peel foil slowly while still warm.

As always, testing is strongly recommended prior to any production. Feel free to direct any questions or comments to Bill Verasky, Technical Services Director for Lancer Group International. 1-204-885-7792 or lgsales@lancergroup.com

Hello once again all and I give a whole new meaning to the adage “You can’t kill bad grass”. Many, including Scott thought I had gone away and joined another industry but lo and behold I have surfaced once again. Yeah, yeah I know I had promised to do this regularly but once again fell off the wagon.

I worked the Vastex International booth at the recently concluded Orlando ISS and thought I would share some comments with you that I heard from attendees.

In defense of the good people at the Imprinted Sportswear Show they did everything they could to get the attendees to the show. I did not hear one complaint about the number of people who came through the door. Most companies were extremely busy both Friday and Saturday and some even on Sunday. I saw many deals being written. I know from our standpoint at Vastex we sold the press and both dryers off the floor so people attending were spending money. Also, when I looked at other booths such as Mike Kaminsky’s at RPL Supplies, Inc. his looked void of product at the close of the show so I know he took a lot of orders.

The complaints I heard were from attendees and these were “Where are the exhibitors”? I know we are in the midst of a recession and everyone is cutting back but many companies were not represented. There is an old philosophy of when do you promote–when you have money or when you need money.

Now don’t get me wrong I am not entirely placing the whole blame on the industry. I would like to use this forum to make a suggestion to the Imprinted Sportswear Group that might help increase exhibitor attendance thus keeping your attendees coming to the show. We need both. I mean look at the Pairs Skating in the Vancouver Olympics….don’t you see two people. Just like pairs skaters can’t do it by themselves neither can exhibitors nor attendees.

Here is my idea and it’s taken out of a page from the Official Marketing Guide of NASCAR. Last year NASCAR knew many hard core racing fans had been layed off and they were in danger or losing revenues across the board big time. What did they do? They lowered ticket prices and kept their fan base.

Why can’t we do the same for the shows? Until we are out of the recession or whatever you want to call this economic down turn how about lowering booth prices for a few shows. Let’s say we lower the price of a 10X10 frm $2500 to $2250. For the sake of math which by the way I am terrible lets say you sold 200 booths so you are taking a hit of $50,000. But you only need to sell 23 addtional booths at $2250 to recoup your price reduction and more than likely you may sell many more.

I am not saying this is a perfect solution. I am just throwing this against the wall to see if it sticks in order to get the thought process working. Maybe you don’t need to reduce prices at all as it might be done in the form of a rebate based upon how many of the ISS Shows a company participates in.

What do you think?

…….but! I used to cringe when I heard someone say this because it always meant they were going to dredge up some long-forgotten war story that I really didn’t want to hear.

Trust me, I am going to spare you today. I just received a comment from Aaron Montgomery concerning the state of the New Orleans Digital Printing Show sponsored by the former screen printing association now called SGIA. He claims the aisles are full of people and hopefully they are buyers and not just gawkers. This goes along with the comments I received yesterday evening from Bruce Basen of Ideal Imaging Systems who was satisfied with first day traffic at his booth.

Both comments prompted today’s subject. Selling is not like it used to be. No longer do we get in a car, carry a catalog and samples and visit customers as our main marketing tool. What do we today? We go to trade shows.

Dont’ get me wrong….I am not condemning trades shows. As a matter of fact I really like them. Someone walks into my booth wanting to know about my product, has a need for my product or else wants to know if there just might be a better way to do things. This is much better than me walking into his place of business and competing for his time and focus between phone calls, his customers visiting and needing attention as well as the day to day matters that he has to contend with. At a trade show I have the customer’s full attention. And, if I have spent the vast amount of money to exhibit I want each and every show to be successful.

Why do we not want bad trade shows or shows that are sparsely attented by either customers or exhibitors or a combination of neither group showing up and supporting the show? Let’s say for example an exhibitor exhibits for the first time and attendee traffic is light isn’t this exhibitor going to get a bad taste in his mouth and he look for another avenue to reach his customer. Likewise, if a first-time customer comes to a show and can walk three aisles of exhibitors in less than a half day, this leaves a bad taste in his mouth. In other words both will have a closed mind for other trade shows that might bring in large amounts of exhibitors and attendees.

The only way to determine if a show is good or not is to talk to other exhibitors or attendees. This can be easily done by posting on the T-Biz forum or any other forum and ask the question “I want to go to a trade show, then spell out your goals and ask someone to recommend their favorite one and why.

You, as the attendee or the exhibitor can only judge if the show is good. You can’t simply let the promoter evaluate the strength of the show by the amount of profit was made.

I may need to revised my last blog as I have just returned from a kick-ass Imprinted Sportswear Show in Texas. The show was held in Fort Worth and because the show was so good the recession may be coming to an end or else everyone there decided not to participate. For whatever reason noone is complaining.

My last statement is based on the following observations:

1. The aisles were crowded with buyers. And, these buyers were spending money. Equipment that normally sells off the show floor on the final day was selling on the first day. One exhibitor even reported someone came into his booth and bought a press and dryer and paid cash on the first day.

2. Buyers are increasingly becoming more intelligent about spending their money. I was working in the Vastex booth and watched several customers go back and forth between equipment booths to learn about the products of each company so they could make the best choice and get the best value for their money. They weren’t just shopping for price.

3. Many buyers were aggressively seeking ways to improve their existing business by reaching out to more customers. Many questions were asked about sleeve printing, oversized printing and athletic numbering just to name a few.

4. Seminars were well attended. Marcia Derryberry, Editor-in-Chief of Impressions Magazine told me they were extremely satisfied with seminar attendance. I spoke to a group of 15 people on “Athletic Printing”, a fairly specialized subject so if attendance was that good for me I can only imagine what Dane Clement, Charlie Taublieb and Greg Kitson drew in their seminars.

5. The downside of the show to me was the fact that it had less exhibitors. I noticed for instance many manufacturers chose not to exhibit but supported their dealers by having a company representative in their booth. Even though they were represented many customers do not realize they were even there and if they do not see that company banner they do not ask about the products.

6. Manufacturers were coming out with new products. As a matter of fact an old friend, Joe Clark, showed me a revolutionary new squeege blade called of all things “Smilin’ Jack” that looks quite promising. He explained it to me but it was so far over my head I will not even attempt to explain it here. All I know is Greg Kitson has been testing it and because of it he says he is as close to a “one-hit” white on his automatic presses as he ever has been so with that recommendation I will throw my hat in the ring right now. For more info you can see this revolutionary new squeegee at www.cprknowsjack.com.   From all that I had seen and heard from printers that have tried this product you will be happy you looked.

Why is this show a success? To me it’s a combination of things.

1. It’s a great market full of screen printing entrepreneurs and always has been.

2. Fort Worth is a reasonable city for both hotel rooms and food and is easy to navigate. Also, Sundance Square is a great entertainment district full of restaurants, bars, entertainment and shopping giving everyone something to do after the show is over each day. The keyword here is reasonable costs and you can park your car because everything is within reasonable walking distances.

Hopefully, in January the Long Beach Imprinted Sportswear Show will follow suit.

Is the recession close to ending? You have to be kidding. I heard this on CNBC just the other and I had to chuckle. Georgia alone has double digit unemployment rates and I read just a few seconds ago on Yahoo News that 42 states lost more jobs last month. And, on the home page of the Pulitzer Nominated T-Biz Network is a story about apparel giant American Apparel laying off 1500 people. Now, let me tell you the real reason in my opinion that the “recession” is not ending and this reason hits close to home.

I am sound asleep in the friendly confines of my home about 5 a.m. last Thursday morning when I awoke to the sound of my dog barking in a very low volume. It wasn’t like her incessant barking where she goes off in a continuous howl but rather a low, barely audible two bark woof that awoke me.

I sat up in bed and I heard the sound of a car door opening. My bedroom is on the second floor and overlooks where my car is parked underneath the window in front of the garage door. The sound was my car door being opened.

I looked out the window and saw the shadowy figure of someone inside my car going through it looking for anything of value. Instinctively I yelled “Hey, get out of here”. I wish I had thought before I spoke but as many of you know that is not possible in the heat of the moment.

The perpetrator fled on foot. As it was dark and not knowing what I was getting into I stayed in the house waiting for it to get light some two hours later prior to walking outside. Also, something that crossed my mind was could it all have possibly been a dream.

When I looked in my car I saw that indeed it was not a dream. Someone had taken my blue tooth hands-free unit than Debbie had bought me last Christmas. Why weren’t my cars locked you might think? Well, in 21 years of living in this house nothing had ever happened till now cause this is not exactly a metropolitan area.

I guess the thief was scared off when I yelled cause he made a beeline for the back yard to get into the woods and out of danger. Along the way he left a trail of goods including numchucks, three cell phones, knife, shotgun shell, cigarette lighter, an inhaler someone with breathing problems uses, my blue tooth unit as well as dropping their flash light. It had to be an idiot or the worst thief ever in the history of mankind. Staples has been running back to school specials here for weeks and you can buy a back pack for 10 bucks. My dad always said if you are going to do a job be the best. I guess this guy never heard that talk.,

Anyway, if thieves are so brazen as to come up to a house where the bedroom window is wide open and risk being caught I dare say the recession is not over or at least not over in this area. I found out later from the police detectives that investigated the crime scene that there were a rash of these burglaries that happened not only that night but many other subdivisions had been hit on other nights.

And, to further emphasize my point they hit another neighborhood shortly after mine. I guess the yelling didn’t deter them at all.

So, to sum all this up I now shut and lock my living room windows which are accessible from the porch and make sure all of my car doors are locked. Is this our definition of progress? Needless to say I spent most of the day Thursday speaking to detectives and also on the phone to anyone that saw all the police cars in my driveway at 8 a.m. The only people missing were Gil Grissom and Nick Stokes from CSI.

P.S.
On a more positive note Thursday was my son, PFC Benjamin D. Proctor’s 25th birthday and I found out he spent the day out on patrol in the Pakteka Province in the mountains of Afghanistan. How many of you can say you spent your 25th birthday mountain climbing in an international setting. And, last but not least he sent Debbie and I a note on Facebook telling us to look on Yahoo News because there was a picture of him. Even though he is asleep under his gear we blew the picture up and you can read part of his name on the body armour near the left hand side of the pic about 1/3 of the way up. Happy Birthday Ben!

Here’s the pic and thanks to all for your support!

If you look extremely close on the bottom left of the picture on his body armour you can barely see the

I have been reading the headlines in the newspapers and on Yahoo news for the past few weeks. It’s sickening to say the least. And, it’s not the news that is sickening it’s the attitude.

America, you wanna know what’s wrong. It’s simple. Somewhere down the road we have gotten soft, yes soft. Let me tell you how I came to this conclusion.

1. The headlines in the newspaper that we are investigating unfair interrogation tactics on suspected terrorists.

2. The fact there was very little outrage when that “global power” Scotland released the Lockerbie Bomber for health reasons when we later found out from the BBC that our supposed ally, the United Kingdom, had brokered a oil deal with the Libyans.

3. When I passed the TV and Bette Midler from The View was talking about how disrespectful Republicans were last night because they didn’t applaud everything President Obama said during his health care pitch.

4. Toyota, Honda, Kia and other foreign manufacturers are kicking our butts not only with quality but also in the fact we let them export their cars to the USA for less money than they let us export our cars to their country. And, what does our government do? We open our arms wider to them and pay more unemployment to our laid off workers.

This whole softness started in the early nineties when we quit keeping score at youth soccer games. We said it hurt the loser’s self-esteem. So what, let’s teach them some pride. If they get beat 15-0 enough times maybe they will want to get better instead of being the neighborhood patsies.

Talk shows gurus say that spanking children causes poor self-esteem. Do you really think so? I know many people who are where they are today including me who got their asses beat a few times a day. All it took was one good thumping from my dad and believe me I thought twice before ever pulling that stunt again. Back then no one knew what self esteem even was.

Going back to my four reasons for saying we are soft I propose this.

1. Unfair Interrogation? Let me remind you we are at war. I have a son on a mountaintop in Afghanistan defending this country against the Taliban. If we have to beat a suspected terrorist within an inch of his life to prevent another 9/11 so be it. War is hell and believe it or not this is a war. No more Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and airconditioned interrogation rooms. Let’s get back to blackjacks and toothpicks under the fingernails. And, if we have to get a group of Hell’s Angels to ask the questions I am sure there are a few who would have time to answer the call to serve their country.

2. Release of the Lockerbie Bomber? The Justice Minister of Scotland said he was forced for humanitarian reasons to let this guy go home to “die with his family”. I thought a life sentence without parole was just that–a life sentence. May I remind this jackass that there 207 people or so, mostly Americans, who were killed on that flight who would like to have come home to “die with their families”.

3. No applause from all for Obama? What is this? If you disagree stand up and say so like Wilson did and don’t politely applaud like you even remotely agree. Have you ever watched “Questions to the Prime Minister” on CSPAN? When the opposing party disagrees they hoot and holler and show their displeasure immediately. Our politicians politely applaud then run off and talk behind people’s backs. These guys wouldn’t last 15 minutes on the playground I grew up on.

4. Automobiles? This is simple. Charge the foreign automakers the same tariffs, duties or fees that they charge us. If Americans continue to pay higher prices for foreign automobiles because they are of higher quality than our cars then shame on us. Maybe the pride I spoke of earlier will kick in at some point and we will raise our quality.

Oh yeah I forgot. I also read the headline on Yahoo News that said America was no longer the most competitive nation in the world. Hmm? They are just now figuring that out. I guess it took that extra Latte for the brain to kick in.

In conclusion, do you remember when you were a kid and you looked at something to buy and it said “Made in Japan”? You laughed and noted the cheapness of the product. What does “Made in Japan” insinuate today?

I have a tendency to ramble so I’ll try and be brief today.

Many of you have no idea where I am from other than being able to narrow it down to the State of Georgia.  Many of you probably don’t care but the ones that know me know I am going to tell you anyway.

Most of my friends who live elsewhere  think I am from Atlanta because that is what I have told you.

Actually I am from Holly Springs, a sleeping little town just off I-575 between Woodstock and Canton. Why did I tell you Atlanta?  It’s because it is is so small it can’t be found on most maps and when it is on a map the dot is so tiny it is missed.

My wife, infant son and I moved here in 1988. Back then we had a locally owned pizza place, George’s Store which was a convenience store/gas station and several churches. We had no traffic. Now today, we have grown considerably because people want to get out of the city and have major traffic problems (at least for us). Our City Council has annexed a lot of land expanding the city and allowed for major developers to come in and build industrial business parks and big subdivisions. I feel so lucky we decided to purchase our home in a 26 house development where we have the chance to know all our neighbors. Last year in our Christmas Parade we had the Budweiser Clydesdales because someone on the City Council works at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in nearby Cartersville.

The point of all this is I have always said you can’t forget where you came from and who helped you get where you are today. Those are your roots and you have to be appreciative no matter how long it takes you to develop that appreciation. My appreciation of my roots began in 1988 when my family and I chose Holly Springs for our home.

After I left Milltown, Indiana (pop. 750 in 1970 census) in 1972 I swore I would never ever live in a small town again. There was nothing to do and I had places to go. I went to college at Indiana University where there were more students in my dormitory at McNutt Quadrangle than there was in my hometown. After college I lived in Indianapolis, Nashville and Spartanburg, SC just to name a few of the places.

When Joe Clark and Barry Wolfson (they helped me get where I am today) gave me the opportunity to work for Flexible Products Company in Marrieta, GA and my wife and I began to look for a home I told her “find me a place in the smallest town you can find within a reasonable driving place of the office.

I wanted to come home. My roots were from a small town and I wanted to come back, no more big city for this kid.

Yesterday morning reminded me of what attracted me here.

I was awakened by my dog barking and several other dogs barking in my neighborhood as well as 7 a.m. knock at my door. It was my neighbor from the only other street in our subdivision. Apparently someone called him and asked if it was his goat that had gotten loose and was running around the neighborhood. Yes, a goat. It wasn’t his but he was concerned something would happen to it so he was going to try and catch it.

Gawd, I love this place. Where else can you practice stoop sitting, have live goats pillaging the neighborhood and root for the Georgia Bulldogs every fall?

Where are your roots?

During an all-day motivational seminar I previously attended the speaker asked us if we could choose–what words would we like engraved on our tombstones.

Well, I was born at night but I wasn’t born last night. I knew where this was heading. He was trying to make us realize that how we live our lives is how we will be remembered by others.

I pondered the question and the answer came to me immediately. I want to be remembered as—“Jeff Proctor, the modern day father of stoop sitting”.

“Stoop sitting,” you ask, “what’s that?” Well, it’s the lost art of relaxation that fell by the wayside shortly after urban congestion, the internet and the hectic pace of life as we know it today. It costs nothing cause all you have to have is yourself and a stoop in which to sit

I decided to investigate its origin and immediately went online. To no avail, I tried “Google”. Google sells for over $200 a share. If Google doesn’t know the existence, there’s a good chance there’s no documented proof. I went to the next best authority, my wife of 26 years, Debbie. I asked and she had the answer and believe it or not at less than $200 a share too.

As a child my wife told me that she remembered a former neighbor, Mr. Danbach, who would sit on his stoop wearing a pair of shorts and one of those sleeveless underwear tops reading the newspaper and sipping a cold beer. This “sighting” dates all the way back to the 1960’s so we may have to give him unofficial credit.

My goal is to bring it back.

Anyone can stoop sit. Stoop sitting doesn’t discriminate by age, race, weight or sex. It’s easy to do and open to everyone providing they have a stoop.

My stoop is at the end of 13 steps that leads up to where the porch begins on the front of my house. Yours might be lower or it might be higher. There are no height restrictions.

Some city people would disagree with me. They would say it’s simply a porch. I disagree. This is my blog and I make the rules. If you still disagree think back to the talk your father gave you about life not being fair.

Everyone has steps where there’s a spot at the top above the final step wide enough for your butt. That’s what I call the stoop. It can be made of wood, concrete, metal or anything flat enough and wide enough where you can sit comfortably. Personally, I like wood the best and I think my butt agrees too. It has a little give to it and I can practice my stoop sitting technique longer.

Stoops are versatile. Many things can be done while sitting there. My personal favorite is when I let my dog Panda out in the early morning. This is before anyone else in the neighborhood is up, it’s deathly quiet and the solitude is priceless.

After retrieving the paper I sometimes sit and scan the sports page. Other times, I enjoy that first cup of coffee or just peer out over the neighborhood enjoying the peace. People of faith may even find stoop sitting a useful place to mediate or engage in their daily prayers.

Some say Jack is not sitting on an official stoop. Does he look bothered?

But you don’t need coffee, a newspaper or for that matter anything else to enjoy stoop sitting. Rule 3. Section B, subsection 127 of Jeff’s Official Stoop Sitting Etiquette Book contains a clause that says you are allowed to just sit and ponder—anything, everything or even go into a vegetative state of pondering nothing.

As you can see from the picture of my cat, Jack, he has discovered stoop sitting as well, or should his be called stoop lying, or maybe stoop napping?

My point is this, the modern day version has something for everyone, even pets. And, by the way, pets aren’t stupid. They always practice stoop sitting in a high-traffic area where the sympathetic owner is forced to walk by many times patting their heads and telling them how cute they look.

Proper attire is important for stoop sitting. One must be comfortable. My favorite outfit is a baggy pair of camo shorts, floppy well-worn t-shirt and flip flops. Even though I prefer to wear my favorite hat that I bought while on vacation at the beach for $4.00, headwear is optional and might not be right for everyone. I will remind myself to write an “Optional Headwear” clause in the Official Rule Book during the next update.

If you’re a nudist and live in the sticks with no one around, you can practice both art forms at the same time. However, if you live in the city or in a crowded subdivision you should think twice.
Silly you say, I think not. Try it some time. With the hectic pace we are living in today’s world we need more relaxation and time to ourselves. We all have a cup of coffee in the morning, we all read the paper, we all let our pets out and we all think.

Why not do it from the friendly confines of your stoop?

I have to go now. I am petitioning the International Olympic Committee. If stoop sitting catches on soon maybe I can get it introduced as an Olympic sport as well.

Next Blog Thursday: Further comments that life isn’t fair.