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#Post#: 704--------------------------------------------------
Ewing Family - Scott (34) and Sons: John (12) and Paul (10)
By: Jack Date: October 7, 2017, 4:54 pm
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I received a phone call yesterday, from Mr. P (Principal at BCA)
asking if he could give someone my private number. I trusted
his discretion, but also thanked him for asking.
A few minutes later, I received a call from a man introducing
himself as Scott Ewing. He just got custody of his two sons,
they're starting at BCA next week (Tues, the boys have a three
day weekend), and he had questions about comic books (no wonder
I got this call). Scott owns a local business, and had taken
the day off, and I was trying to get some rest as much as
anything else, since the situation with Cole and Aidan seemed to
be over, with Aidan back at school, and Cole catching up on his
homework (which he'd been too darned stressed and busy to do the
past couple of days).
A brief aside. While there are normally plenty of good
condition clothes available for new students, much of which is
stored at the Huff Foundation offices or in my hand-me-down
closet, almost all the extra clothes we had went to Houston last
month, so stocks are sparse right now. Scott said he wasn't
really worried about that, and he thought he knew what to get.
Scott's actual thing was that he and his ex had been separated,
then divorced for getting close to three years now. His older
son loved comics, and read them a while after the divorce, but
his mom's boyfriend wouldn't let him buy any, so he'd kind of
lost track of things.
It actually started with Scott asking Mr. P if the boys were
allowed to read comics at school. BCA is something of an
unusual case, since they are a Christian school, but they're not
officially associated with any particular church or
denomination, and they've managed to stay somewhat progressive
in a lot of their attitudes (largely thanks to Mr. P and, I like
to think, my own influence). Quick aside: I will tell you that
the Church of Christ- probably the most conservative
denomination I know - has quit recommending BCA and has made
noises of opening their own school, and even talked to me about
running it.
Anyway, Mr. P made time to take them to the library, and showed
them the comics section, then mentioned me and the donations we
make. That was about the time he called me.
I met them at Target, helped him decide on uniforms (he knows
what our weather is like, so he knew to get the boys some
shorts, but he was a bit worried about them not fitting in. I
just helped him pick out a good mix, so the boys can wear what
they're most comfortable in. The mom's boyfriend hadn't wanted
to 'waste money' on the boys, so they both wear white briefs,
but I assured him that that is more common at BCA (I think it's
some cost consideration, but also a modesty thing left over from
the sagging fad). Both my grandsons still wear white briefs
(and by 'both' I mean Glen and Kline who are about the same age
as those two) and so do the only two sixth graders of whom I
could think.
From their, they followed me to the campus store. Lamar was
closest, but it doesn't have the selection the other stores
have. Let's just say that, while I haven't been staying up on
everything like I once did, I was still able to give Scott and
John a help in finding some stuff to get them started, and Paul
took some time picking out some Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards.
The boys were both aching to do their stuff, so we said good
bye, but I invited them for dinner last night, so they could
meet some of the kids.
They accepted.
(To be continued later).
#Post#: 705--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ewing Family - Scott and Sons
By: kalico Date: October 7, 2017, 6:03 pm
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:o really run the new school....
Happy it worked out and can't wait to hear what this new family
thinks when they step through your door...lol
Hope it all works out and I'm happy you can get them back into
comics and stuff like that
...
Thanks for sharing jack
Hugs kal
#Post#: 707--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ewing Family - Scott and Sons
By: Zyngaru Date: October 7, 2017, 7:28 pm
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You have mentioned it before and I have replied to it before,
but since it made such a difference in my nephew's life when he
was in school, I will mention it again.
When my nephew was in school, he had a teacher that encouraged
her students to read, so she had a 45 minute reading period
everyday. Her students were allowed to bring anything they
wanted to read. It could be a book. It could be comics. It
could be food labels. or anything they were interested in. My
nephew took his Yu-Gi-Oh cards.
Since he has dyslexia, reading was difficult. Being allowed to
read something he enjoyed and was very interested in, helped him
immensely improving his reading skills.
If someone reading this knows someone with dyslexia and wants
another tip on helping them read it is this. My nephew was
helped by this same teacher by showing him how to cut a piece of
cardboard into a small rectangle and then cut a smaller
rectangular slit in the cardboard. Then run the slit along the
line you want to read. This limits your eyes to just seeing one
or two words at a time, so the dyslexia doesn't have the
opportunity to mix an entire line of words together. It helped
him so much he went to college, was on the deans list, graduated
with honors, and now is the Director of Comprehensive Services
in the city he lives in.
So when I see a school like BCA allowing the reading of comics
in school, it thrills my heart as to how that small gesture is
opening reading to kids that wouldn't otherwise read.
#Post#: 721--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ewing Family - Scott and Sons
By: Jack Date: October 8, 2017, 8:03 am
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I had really wanted to finish this yesterday, but I'd been up
late Friday night and was tired, then we did Halloween
decorating yesterday, and I had to deal with Greg. By the time
I could come back to this, I just couldn't focus enough to do
anymore, so I posted that first bit.
I talked about this in chat Friday, before the Ewings arrived,
so a few people know more details. I think it was Adric (?) who
asked if the boys were attending BCA for educational or
religious reasons. They are going there because both boys are
ADHD, John has some minor behavioral issues (sounds like a bit
of impulse control to me - that is, a bit more than is common in
12-year old boys), and Paul has some mild dyslexia. I mention
that now, because of Zyngaru's post. While Scott plays Magic,
and he encouraged the boys to learn Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, it's
doubly true with Paul, because it is a great way to get him to
practice his reading.
I will also skip around to say that Scott enjoys reading to the
boys, and he fell in love with our story couch in the playroom.
He's not sure he has room for anything in their home, but he's
going to look into it. We also spent some time looking at
stories that my boys have enjoyed. The three of them are
probably coming back today, and he wants to make notes to find
stuff the boys haven't read yet, that will be exciting for all
three of them.
A Pause for Descriptions:
Scott is 34, but if he'd tried to buy a drink from me, I would
have carded him. When you look a bit closer, you can tell he's
a bit older than that, but he could easily pass for mid-20s.
He's a blond with blue eyes, who is slightly shorter than me
(maybe 5'10") and has a pretty lean, well-defined build.
John is 11 (12 'next month' - so some time in November). John
is strawberry-blond with his Dad's blue eyes. He seems like
he's about average height for that age - just under 5', I think,
but a bit on the lean side.
Paul is 9, but with a late February birthday. His dad calls him
strawberry-blond, but to me he's more blond than strawberry. I
was thinking 'honey blond', but i found this chart -
[center]
HTML https://s1.postimg.org/859ult8kkf/red-hair-color-chart.jpg[/center]
And I would tend to say that John is maybe slightly less red
than tequila, while Paul is more golden tan. I guess it's not
really important, and you could safely say that both are a
reddish-blond, but not exactly the same.
Paul is also blue eyed. He's about 4'6", and maybe 55 or 60
pounds, which gives him just a bit of padding and a nicely
rounded bottom.
When I met them, both boys had longish hair (about shoulder
length) which is generally out of dress code for BCA. After
comics shopping, I recommended David's barber shop and had
driven by it, while Scott and the boys followed me and pulled
in. The long hair seemed more to do with their mom, because
both of them seemed happy with their haircuts which they showed
off that evening. Both of them went pretty short and with
standard boys' cuts.
Scott and the boys showed up about on time, and I was just
getting the meat on the grill when they arrived. It was a great
late evening with sun still in the sky and temp in the low 80s -
very nice. The littles and tweens were mostly already outside
playing, and John and Paul were both quickly introduced around
and pulled into whatever was going on. They fell in love with
the animals, and now Scott is looking for a couple of lab mix
puppies.
I grilled burgers and dawgs and some chicken breasts for the
weekend, and I'd sent Zeke and Kenny to the store to get some
packaged sides, and I let them go ahead and get some sodas as
well.
I hadn't mentioned the pool to Scott, so the boys hadn't brought
suits. I told him we had plenty of extra suits, but he asked
about skinny-dipping, and my boys really don't need to be asked
twice. His boys were a bit shy, but it didn't take too much
encouragement for them to join in.
Greg was home by then (and had loved the grilled dinner) and KC,
Ryan, and Thomas had come out for the weekend. Most of the high
school kids had left for the game, but those were willing to
supervise the younger kids, so I gave Scott the grand tour.
He liked everything. I nearly had to stop him from trying to
walk out with my story couch, and he wished he had room for the
bed/fort we just put up for the grands. However, he was also
enthusiastic about the little deer.
Scott explained to me that he has a younger brother, an older
sister and an older brother. When he was in 8th grade, his
little brother was in 7th, the sister was a junior, and big
brother was a senior. They lived in a 1 1/2 story house, and
the three boys had the two upstairs bedrooms. All three boys
were spanked by hand when they were younger, then they got the
novelty paddles, and he's sure that when his big brother was in
8th grade, he was sometimes spanked with a novelty paddle, but
sometimes had to bend over for swats with an Attitude
Adjuster/Board of Education (which are more like school paddles
for younger kids). His big brother has a couple of the novelty
paddles for Scott's nephews, but John and Paul had still been
too young for the paddles when he and his ex split. Rather,
John had just been getting old enough, but he hadn't been able
to find one.
At that point, Scott told me that both boys had earned a
spanking since he'd brought them home, but he was trying to
remind them of rules and talk to them, giving them a settling in
time. I congratulated him on that, and explained how I did most
of the new kids that moved in with me.
Scott had been trying to think of where to find one (or more),
and had found some on eBay, but not in active sells. He asks
where I got mine, so I took him to the garage.
He asked a number of questions about BCA as well. He feels like
their mom wasn't a very good disciplinarian. He knows both of
them have troubles, and someone has to respect those problems
and understand them, but he also knows they have behavior issues
that need to be corrected, and that the problems they have need
to be understood, but not allowed to be used as crutches. He
thinks BCA will be good for them, but he was nervous about them
being too strict. I talked to him about what I've seen with the
teachers and with Mr. P, and I think he feels much more
comfortable with his decision now.
Anyway, the boys did have a great time, and it was after 10pm
before they left. The boys were both a lot more comfortable
themselves. I'd been able to invite Brandon Malone and the
younger two Worley boys, so they both know several boys at BCA
and at least one who'll be in their class with them, so it
should be a lot nicer going in for them.
By The Way - Scott assured me that John and Paul was an accident
based on the names of older relatives and was not meant as a
tribute to Apostles or Beatles.
#Post#: 728--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ewing Family - Scott and Sons
By: Jack Date: October 8, 2017, 9:11 am
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I just realized that I was distracted by hair color and forgot
to say that Paul is about 4'6" and maybe 55 to 60 pounds. Where
John is rather lean, Paul carries just a bit of padding, which
leaves him with a very nice little bottom.
I'm going to edit that into the earlier post, just to keep it
all together.
#Post#: 734--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ewing Family - Scott (34) and Sons: John (11) and Paul (9)
By: kalico Date: October 8, 2017, 1:32 pm
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Sounds like everyone had a good time and thanks for sharing jack
They sound like a very nice family .... loved the skinny dipping
part I bet that was fun..
So nice of you to have extra BCA boys there to get introduced
and the new boys have friendly faces going in..
Hugs kal
#Post#: 739--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ewing Family - Scott and Sons
By: Adric Date: October 8, 2017, 2:50 pm
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[quote author=Jack link=topic=80.msg721#msg721 date=1507467808]
He thinks BCA will be good for them, but he was nervous about
them being too strict. I talked to him about what I've seen
with the teachers and with Mr. P, and I think he feels much more
comfortable with his decision now.[/quote]
It's probably fortunate that I didn't have the opportunity to
talk to Scott about my opinion of the back-to-back incidents
late last spring (pitching and spiders), as that might not have
made him feel quite as comfortable.
#Post#: 780--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ewing Family - Scott (34) and Sons: John (11) and Paul (9)
By: Jack Date: October 10, 2017, 5:57 am
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I've waited a while to reply to this, because I'd thought (and
hoped) we were finally past it, and I wanted to calm down a bit.
[quote author=Adric link=topic=80.msg739#msg739 date=1507492239]
[quote author=Jack link=topic=80.msg721#msg721 date=1507467808]
He thinks BCA will be good for them, but he was nervous about
them being too strict. I talked to him about what I've seen
with the teachers and with Mr. P, and I think he feels much more
comfortable with his decision now.[/quote]
It's probably fortunate that I didn't have the opportunity to
talk to Scott about my opinion of the back-to-back incidents
late last spring (pitching and spiders), as that might not have
made him feel quite as comfortable.
[/quote]
I'm aware of your opinion, but, having talked to him, I don't
think he'd be upset to learn that, when several senior boys were
caught committing a felony, that everything was handled in house
and they ended up receiving community service and parental CP.
In the case of gambling, I'm sure he'd understand that something
which is very clearly forbidden in the school handbook,which is
considered a sin by many of the parents (at a Christian school),
and which resulted in a fight (one of the non-sin reasons it's
forbidden), was dealt with rather harshly, but without boys
being removed from class for any length of time, since at least
the two boys fighting might very well have been suspended at
other schools.
It seems we have a strong disagreement about these issues, but I
think it's best to justs 'agree to disagree' in this case,
rather than continuing to rehash it.
[hr]
I thought I would mention that there was a BOTD Scearnio based
loosely on the Ewings, but with a bit of an update on them as
well, was shared at
HTML https://jackshouse.createaforum.com/botd/botd-extra-9-october-2017-red-reunion/[quote<br
/>author=Adric link=topic=80.msg739#msg739 date=1507492239]
And finally, all three of the Ewings joined us yesterday for
Scouts.
I have been so busy that I forgot it was a holiday for the kids
(Columbus Day), so I had a house full of Scouts for whom I
wasn't prepared yesterday. Not only that, but we missed what's
become our annual trip to Yesterland Farms. It looks like we'll
be able to reschedule and go the 21st, so that's not a complete
miss. I had to make a quick run to the supermarket for extra
supplies, but we managed to feed everyone.
I did learn that while Paul and John aren't too huge on team
sports, both of them are really active. John plays violin (I
was able to enjoy introducing him to both Eddy Campion and
Lindsey Sterling and he loved them both), while Paul plays
guitar. Both of them take dance, though Paul has done more
towards gymnastics. Both of them have also had piano lessons,
and they're going to take a refresher course, since it's
available at BCA.
#Post#: 809--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ewing Family - Scott (34) and Sons: John (11) and Paul (9)
By: David M. Katz Date: October 12, 2017, 3:03 pm
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All in all, they sound like really cute kids.
#Post#: 824--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ewing Family - Scott (34) and Sons: John (11) and Paul (9)
By: Jack Date: October 12, 2017, 3:59 pm
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The kids are adorable. Dad's not too scary himself.
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