\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I’m not even sure what, when or how the addition of “step” came to being.\u00a0 Why not extra-brother or added-sister?\u00a0 Stupid, I know.\u00a0 But why step?\u00a0 Step? It doesn’t even flow.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Oddly enough, the whole “step” deal got to whirling through my skull as a result of a recent conversation with one of my best friends, John Schoenhals\u00a0 (said Shane-halls)\u00a0 Yeah, practice spelling that name.\u00a0 Effed up German names like Kelln, Schoenhals, Helfenbein and Pshigoda contributed to me never winning a spelling bee.\u00a0 We grew up together in Shattuck America.\u00a0 He was scholarly and athletic.\u00a0 I was not.\u00a0 Although, we both share an identical ACT score on the exact same day–but I didn’t use a calculator.\u00a0 He grew up a fan of UO.\u00a0 (his dad actually played for the sooners in the late 50’s).\u00a0 I like orange.\u00a0 He started college at uo then ended up orange.\u00a0 We were room-mates and graduated from OSU.\u00a0 He lives in a large urban area–Phoenix.\u00a0 I live near Fargo, OK. Not urban. He understands agriculture.\u00a0 I live it.\u00a0 My kids are grown.\u00a0 His boys are in their teens.\u00a0 He enjoyed listening to stories of Tammy and I raising kids.\u00a0 Now, Tammy and I enjoy listening to stories of their kids.\u00a0 His parents and my parents get along well.\u00a0 So, about once or twice a year, we all get together and share some stories, some food and maybe a dang good beverage or three.\u00a0 He attends the Arizona National Livestock Show whenever we are there.\u00a0 Good bud!<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Anyways, he was recently telling about a trial and tribulation of his youngest son.\u00a0 Good kid that said something wrong at school.\u00a0 He got suspended for a couple of days.\u00a0 In the conversation about kids will be kids, he mentioned a website that his boy had found.\u00a0 I googled it.\u00a0 Oh snap!!\u00a0 Step this, step that, step RU kidding me?\u00a0 How did the “step” term take this form?\u00a0 I don’t know and I do know that it should not be in that form.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I, nor my brothers, have a step parent, step brother or step sister.\u00a0 Huge congrats to our parents for pulling this deal off!\u00a0 We did, however, have a step grandpa.\u00a0 And all of the grandkids called him “Pa”.\u00a0 In a way, for some cousins, he took the place of our Grandpa Kelln.\u00a0 Thanks to my dad, all three of us boys stayed in contact with Grandpa Kelln.\u00a0 So, with Pa, we got a bonus grandpa.\u00a0 How bad ass is that?\u00a0 Three grandpas.\u00a0 You damn right!\u00a0 Yet, to our cousins, Pa was their grand-dad.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0 He served the role and regardless of genetics, he was THE grandpa and a strong male presence in their lives.\u00a0 Irreplaceable.\u00a0 He didn’t have kids of his own and he did not have to do the job.\u00a0 Yet, he owned it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Side story–Pa was Samuel K. Barton, attorney-at-law.\u00a0 His business cards had the motto: “Defend the innocent, prosecute the guilty and protect the widows and orphans.”\u00a0 He truly lived this credo.\u00a0 Seriously and literally.\u00a0 As a teenager, I had to go pickup some pigs on occasion, dairy bottle calves another and shoveled a pickup bed trailer full of wheat seed on another occasion.\u00a0 These were all payments for legal fees.\u00a0 This dude won some large cases that changed laws about land owner rights, specifically dealing with mineral rights and damages.\u00a0 Seriously!\u00a0 Although he never saw the monetary windfall from his legal battles, his people enjoyed the benefits.\u00a0 Yet, he was fine getting paid in chickens, pigs, calves or seed.\u00a0 When I was 12 years old, a friend of Pa brought by a Christmas present.\u00a0 I opened the door and watched the guy carry in the wrapped offering.\u00a0 It was supposedly a gag gift.\u00a0 Yet, once I laid my own eyes on it, it became a credo.\u00a0 It was “just” a glazed piece of dried cow turd.\u00a0 That’s it.\u00a0 A dried cow patty that was painted with a clear coat and then they had glued a pen holder to the top of the cow patty.\u00a0 Yet, it had a little, crappy brass plate that read, “If you can’t dazzle ’em with diamonds, baffle ’em with bullshit.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, with that saying, I have exposed the basis of this blog as well as most of my teaching strategies.\u00a0 I am capable of both.\u00a0 Dazzle or BS.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0When Pa passed away, Granny asked if there was anything of his that I wanted.\u00a0 Ooumph!!\u00a0 He had several guns, two purple hearts from WWII and that piece of shit.\u00a0 Being the oldest grandchild, I felt that I might have a chance at this family heirloom.\u00a0 Too late.\u00a0 Between Pa having 12 brothers and sisters, somebody else already had it.\u00a0 I’ve thought of re-creating this piece of artistic and motivational piece of crap but no.\u00a0 Not yet.\u00a0 The original is all that matters.\u00a0 Just as Pa was an original.\u00a0 He never had any kids of his own.\u00a0 Yet, he had a BUNCH of grandkids and great grandkids.\u00a0 Step-granddad only by name.\u00a0 Not by actions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Let’s change over to Tammy’s family.\u00a0 At this point, Tammy’s mom is cringing at what I might type.\u00a0 No need.\u00a0 The wurst (I like wurst) thing that I will write is there are numerous opportunities for that “step” title.\u00a0 But here we go.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Tammy has a half-brother.\u00a0 Bull $h!t.\u00a0 Half– my ass!!!\u00a0 Those two are damn sure FULL brother and sister.\u00a0 One only has to deal with them to quickly realize this fact.\u00a0 Yet, the wicked awesome cool fact is that even though they truly do share different sires, ALL aspects of the family get along and include each other despite some genetic differences.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I would like to tell you the fact that Tammy has a “step” dad.\u00a0 But that would not be a true statement.\u00a0 Factual or not, Tammy does not have a step dad.\u00a0 Once again, the step title is Bull $h!t.\u00a0 He may not be her biological father, but Darrell Gunsaulis is, has been and will forevermore be Tammy’s DAD!\u00a0 Better yet, I’m really not sure if Kela (age 31) or Duke (age 20) even know that, well, technically, that they have a step……..not even going to type the rest of it.\u00a0 That dude is our kids Granddad as he is for all the other grandkids as well! Period!!<\/strong>\u00a0 He earned the title and he will retain the title.\u00a0 And as a bonus, my parents and Tammy’s parents get along.\u00a0 Which means that our kids have always had FOUR grandparents at EVERY event.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0And technically, genetically, whatever, Tammy has a step brother and a step sister. Once again, although factually correct, NOT true when you watch the family get-togethers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Stopping.\u00a0 Have a good one.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I finally got sleepy and stepped away from the keyboard for a minute.\u00a0 Woke up a couple of hours later.\u00a0<\/p>\n My point about the “step” title is that there is no need for the addition of that word to a name.\u00a0 Blood or not, people can still be family.\u00a0 Our family has been very fortunate.\u00a0 I hope yours has as well.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0How can a post about step family NOT include a comment about the great movie Step Brothers?\u00a0 That movie is so funny yet so wrong.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Prestige Worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I’m not even sure what, when or how the addition of “step” came to being.\u00a0 Why not extra-brother or added-sister?\u00a0 Stupid, I know.\u00a0 But why step?\u00a0 Step? It doesn’t even flow.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Oddly enough, the whole “step” deal got to whirling through my skull as a result […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4567"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4574,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567\/revisions\/4574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}