John Oliver Smith
Bio
Baby, son, brother, child, pupil, athlete, collector, farmer, photographer, player, uncle, coach, husband, student, writer, teacher, father, science guy, fan, grandpa, comedian, traveler, chef, story-teller, driver, gardener, regular guy!!!
Achievements (1)
Stories (126)
Filter by community
All Members Rise
In my life I have been a member of several organizations like 4-H, Co-operative Groups, Farm Associations, Teacher Organizations, Hockey clubs, Baseball teams and Social Media groups. I have belonged to Book clubs and Record clubs. I have been a card-carrying member of my favored political party for over 50 years. However, the most “memberable” groups to which I have ever belonged are the one’s that didn’t take me seriously as a member. What I mean by that , is that I was seriously a member of a few Comedy groups, clubs and organizations in which I never had to be serious while being a member. Groucho Marx once stated that, “He would never want to be a member of a club that would accept him as a member.” Comedy clubs are like that – if you are serious about being a member of the group, then you can’t be a serious member. Seriously!!!
By John Oliver Smith5 years ago in Geeks
The "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" Project
Many Mandarin words that don’t have their foundation in Chinese tradition and culture or that are used to describe Western ideas, items, activities and phenomena, simply end up being combinations of Chinese characters and English sounds. For example, Bangqiu (pronounced bahng-chee-oh) is how one would say baseball in Mandarin. “Bang” is the sound that one might hear as a baseball bat strikes a baseball. “Qiu” is the Mandarin word for ball. Together, they portray the Chinese idea of baseball - 棒 球 . As foreign as these Chinese characters may seem to a North American baseball fan, they are no less foreign than the game of baseball itself is to the average high-school student in Wuhan, China. Baseball is not a traditional sport in China. Neither does the game have any cultural background in the long history of the country. Only recently have Chinese Nationals become even remotely interested or familiar with the game. Chinese men’s baseball teams have participated occasionally in the World Baseball Classic held every four years and, several players of Chinese ancestry have played briefly in the Major Leagues. However, there are no Chinese-born players currently active in the Majors. Fairing somewhat more successfully, the National Women’s Fastpitch Softball team, the Beijing Eagles, finished ninth out of 16 teams at the 2018 World Championships in Japan. Still, baseball and softball have a long way to go to achieve a status even mildly comparable to the status of the game in other parts of the world. Out of the nearly 250 thousand schools in China, only 52 of them offer a program or field a team in softball and/or baseball. Only a small percentage of the average citizens in the People’s Republic of China have ever spoken the word bangqiu and an even smaller number have any idea of what the game is about. With this in mind, baseball / softball is a reasonably tough sell in China. Not to be deterred by this fact however, I felt that the time was right to start a team of my own. So, let the project begin!
By John Oliver Smith5 years ago in Education
My Mother's Plan
There was an immense time in the life of this universe in which none of us existed. And, there will again come a time when neither you nor I exist. We should all feel fortunate to have shared our brief sliver of time with Mom. Who could have known that such a tiny window in the existence of the cosmos could provide such a wealth of joy and wonderful experiences? Who could have known that the way Mom lived her life would have such a positive and long-lasting influence on me and my family and indeed, all the other people in her life? Who could have known that every accomplishment, big or small, would become a goal for which we also strived in our own lives? She was our golden standard, our role model, our guide and our teacher. So many of the things I have done and do now are analyzed within the framework of Mom's life. Maybe MOM had a plan. If she could have planned her life 92 years earlier, at the moment she was born, what would she have said?
By John Oliver Smith5 years ago in Families
A Funny Thing Happened in Class Today
Now that I have retired from the teaching profession, I am constantly getting calls and emails from young teachers just starting out in the business, asking me for advice of some sort regarding lesson preparation, classroom management or student evaluation. Usually, I tell them that all of that sort of thing will just naturally fall into place once the amount of stress present in a teacher’s life has been significantly reduced. I have put together my Top Ten list of stress reduction techniques and practices for teachers. The list follows in the space below.
By John Oliver Smith5 years ago in Education
That One Thing
The phenomenon of High School graduation marks the occasion for reflection on the previous 18 or so years spent on this planet by the young men and women who appear on the stage in the gymnasium. Over two thirds of that time has been spent by both these students and their families pensive of school and the formalized socialization and education that school offers. During that time, they have wiped noses and held foreheads while faces have dipped into purging basins. They have shopped for school clothes and new school supplies. They have troubled over school lunches for sons and sisters and the odd one for the school dog. Parents have encouraged children to do homework and to study more, study harder, and just study, period. They have attended parent-teacher interviews and school plays, soccer games, rugby games, sports days. They have been on field trips to Science Centers and Parks and Industrial complexes. Students have painted, played, calculated, experimented, written, read, learned history, had crushes, fallen in and out of love, made friends like they will never have again. They have dissected pigs and frogs and eyeballs. They have raised money and dressed up like witches and Rock Stars and they have cried and laughed and shared and felt pain. They have heard about the same planet you and I have heard about for years and they have had thoughts regarding the workings of that planet that none of us have ever had before. And, now they are ready. The cookies are set to come out of the oven. They have laid all the groundwork necessary to change the world for the better and they have experienced all the tribulations of child and adolescent life so that they can strive for that one thing that all of us strive for. And what is that one thing? Like Curly told Mitch the Kid in the movie City Slickers, “We all look for that one thing. We spend our lives looking for that one thing.” And, nobody knows what that one thing is. But everyone still sets out to look for it. Everyone only knows to look and to keep looking. They don’t know what for, but they will know when they find it – because there is truth in it. There are so many paths to follow when they set out on this quest for that one thing. If they don’t know what they are looking for – how will they know which path will lead to that one thing. I contest though - if the path that is followed is the path with heart – then that one thing will surely be at the end of it.
By John Oliver Smith5 years ago in Motivation
Kind Of A Drag
Dear Sophie, Greetings from the parking lot of the Drag strip. You’ve seen the Marx Brothers’ movie – A Day At The Races (at least twice with me) and I know you have listened to Queen’s album – A Day At The Races, because you borrowed it from me about two years ago and you still haven’t given it back. What’s up with that? Anyway, I am going to complete the hat trick for you now by recounting the story of my very own day at the races – drag races that is!!!
By John Oliver Smith5 years ago in Wheel
Essential Services
During these challenging times surrounding the dangers and effects of the Covid-19 virus, many have commented that it may now be possible to exist in the world without some of the pleasures we once knew to be positive enhancements to living. Some have said that the world has survived without baseball and hockey and basketball for all these months and they know now that they were not essential. Others explain that this period of time without movies, music concerts and other forms of art and entertainment has shown the world that we don’t really need those “extras” in order to survive. Operative words in these arguments seem to be ‘existence’ and ‘survival’. Without sports, music, movies and entertainment arts generally, we are only a step above the primitive ancestors from whom we evolved. Those that make this argument are somewhat oblivious to the fact that these are the very features of living, not mere existence or survival, that make us truly human. These could be the same people that would also support the elimination of sports and arts programs from schools and universities during tough economic times. As a former teacher of Physical Education, Music, Art, as well as the Sciences, Maths, History, Languages and the Practical Arts, I know and have lived with the firm realization that in order to educate the entire human being and in order to nourish and enrich the souls within all of us, it takes contact with all disciplines. In order to be a true citizen of the planet we need to have taken part in as many possible challenges and learning styles as we can. In order to understand each other and to positively develop the human condition and make the planet livable and safe for everyone we cannot let any already-conceived program slip through our grasp. Every one of us has a responsibility to bring as much to the table as we possibly can in order to make the world a better place to be. Contrary to what some may think, Covid-19 has not shown us that sports, music, movies and the entertainment arts are non-essential, but rather the opposite. Check out the world right now, it is in dire need of those very aspects of life. I believe we need them more than ever. Covid-19 has shown me that we cannot “LIVE” without them. I would suggest that those individuals who claim that they do not need sports at all levels, music and concerts, entertainment and the arts, should first give up their televisions, computers, cars, boats and motor homes for they also must be considered as frivolous and non-essential. Some of us may not think we need these supposedly non-essential programs, but if nothing else, there are world-wide, millions and millions of support staff workers (not just players and performers) who directly and absolutely DO need these aspects of life. They have gone without work for the last 15 months and now they deserve the same back-to-work opportunities as the rest of us. (For further information on the benefits and positive economic impacts of a professional sports team on a community please refer to What Are the Benefits of Hosting a Major League Sports Franchise? By Jordan Rappaport and Chad Wilkerson.) These authors refer to the fact that each professional sports team around the world creates anywhere from 5000 to 10000 full time jobs depending on the sport, the location and the size of the stadium. Even some minor league and university sports teams create nearly as many jobs. Even the building of a sports stadium or arena creates thousands of jobs for several years. Professional sports teams and University sports teams, other major sporting events, music concerts and arts entertainment spectacles can boost local economies by as much as $10 million dollars per single game or event through not only spectatorship, but secondary and tertiary services like restaurants, vendors and hotels as well. The New York Marathon, for example pumps over $350 million dollars into the New York economy every year.
By John Oliver Smith5 years ago in Motivation
How Things Work
At the height of the initial wave of the Covid Pandemic in March and April of 2020, I organized some thoughts about what was happening in the world. I think those thoughts are still valid, or at least, valid for a time when another such pandemic rocks our world.
By John Oliver Smith5 years ago in Humans
On the Radio
I remember Memory Almost Full. With the release, subsequent purchase and the hardly-wait-until-I-can-get-it-out-of-the-stupid-cellophane preview of Paul McCartney’s new album came a torrent of thoughts, emotions, ideas and yes – memories. Memory Almost Full was exactly what I needed from Sir Paul at that juncture of my life. It felt like the Beatles, of course, because to me Paul was the Beatles. I mean, I loved the other Beatles too but Paul was always the Beatle (if there can be such a thing as a singular Beatle). The Christmas before that, I had purchased a Remix of Beatles songs in an album entitled, simply, Love. I wore it out, of course. I cherished everything by the Beatles. But Memory Almost Full was different. It is like the old days. There wasn’t that mixing hand that showed through with Love. Love was everything about the Beatles, but Memory Almost Full took me back. It was au natural.
By John Oliver Smith5 years ago in Beat
