About ivanbenson
I am a former singer, guitar player, writer, story teller, voice over talent, and a current heart attack survivor in the Atlanta, Georgia area.
A one minute video explaining the origins of The Lost Story. It’s really your story, and mine.
The rain is pounding on the roof this morning, making that deep thudding sound followed by the much higher pitched splashing and spattering of the rainwater as it hits the concrete sidewalk and driveway. Then for a bit it will … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged All Things Must Pass, baking powder submarine, chattanooga, control, far side of the moon, fear, George Harrison, Iroguois Publishing Company, Kellogg, loss, memories, NASA, paralyze, rain, risk, Robert Louis Stevenson, security, Shawnee Trail, toy boats, uncharted territory
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Aragorn is dead. In case you hadn’t heard. He passed away on the last day of February due to complications resulting from a recent surgery. His family was able to say their goodbyes to him in the hours before his … Continue reading →
Posted in Family History, Fathers, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged adventure, aplomb, Aragorn, Arwen, bristlecone pine, canyon, Catalina Mountains, chattanooga, courage, cowboys, dendrochronology, Elves, exotic, father figure, hobbit, indians, Legolas, Lord of the Rings, LOTR, memorial, Mordor, Nazgul, Peter Howell, Peter Jackson, Pippin, Santa Catalina mountains, Saturn, Sauron, Southern Arizona Rescue Association, streambed, Strider, The Old Pueblo, Tolkien, tree ring research, Treebeard, Tucson, University of Arizona, Viggo Mortensen
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If you’ve lived long enough on this planet and have been out-of-doors for any period of time you’ve probably experienced it. One day you take an uninformed step on the ground beside you and you sense you’ve landed in a … Continue reading →
Posted in Aging Parents, Assisted Living, Family History, Nursing Homes, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged 1951, Andy Griffith, aroma, bizarre, consideration, dependent, dignity, dog poop, elder abuse, fast-paced, freedom, ghosts, God, hurry, incomprehensible, infractors, mother, Nursing Homes, olfactory, oxygen tank, patience, Plymouth, praise, pungency, rehab facilities, respect, rush, stink, taking things for granted, veracity, waiting, wheel chair, white shepherd/lab mix
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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . .” Thank you, Charles, for that awesome, albeit ominous, beginning to this blog. How does one begin the story of two couches? Has one ever been … Continue reading →
Posted in Family History, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged accident, chair, change, Charles Dickens, Hemingway, Memphis, mother-in-law, murder-suicide, Settee, stronger in the broken places, witness
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It’s hard to estimate the value of an investment, isn’t it? The stock market changes with the times, the value of our currency fluctuates, and commodities like gold and silver vary with regularity. There is no certainty that what you … Continue reading →
Posted in Family History, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged art, Campus Brothers Music Company, commodities, currency, first, Google, guitar, investments, New Orleans, patina, piano, priceless, sports, stock market, Stone Mountain Park
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My father was a crafstman with wood. He could build furniture, build a house, take some pieces of wood and shape them into a 3-inch tall replica of a rockingchair with splayed legs pegged into the seat (just like the full-size ones we sit … Continue reading →
Posted in Aging Parents, Family History, Fathers, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged approval, baseboard, courage, craftsman, father, grandfather, imperfect, legacy, miter box, persevere, pliable, presence, saw, stowaway, Sweden, tools, Tucson, woodworking
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I lay awake in bed today in the early morning hours somewhere between 4:30 AM and 5:00 AM. That’s when I heard it. That lonesome whistle; the distant sound of a freight train. And it called to me . . … Continue reading →
Posted in Family History, Fathers, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged Arkansas, Arlo Guthrie, buoyant, chattanooga, Colorado, cowboy, Denzel Washington, diesel, Durango, early morning, Folsom Prison Blues, gene, hobo, hop a train, impassable, indefatigable, indestructible, John Charles Thomas, John Henry, John Muir, Johnny Cash, Josh Turner, Kensett, lonesome, mystique, narrow gauge train, persistence, power, Railway Express, relentless, Searcy, Silverton, Southern Railway, steel, Stone Mountain Park, Thomas the Tank, Tim McGraw, trains, Trane, unsinkable, Unstoppable, unyielding, whistle
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Yesterday our 44th President was inaugurated for a second term in the White House with all the pomp and circumstance that accompanies such momentous occasions. Millions viewed the proceedings as they celebrated Martin Luther King Day, and there was ample … Continue reading →
Posted in Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged authorized, beginnings, Brian Regan, celebration, commencement, dawn, expectations, fresh, gift, glow, inaugural ball, inauguration, light, Martin Luther King, momentous, morning air, new, par excellence, possibilities, president, reborn, renew, sanctioned, shadows, white house, womb
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In the collective memory of each and every family there are words and phrases that are so commonplace, so absolutely predictable that they become home to family members just as much as the family house or a favorite family recipe. … Continue reading →
Posted in Family History, Fathers, Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged aware, dreams, email, failures, Family, garden, grandchildren, home, house recipe, letters, little things, memory, phrases, planting, reading, sensational, sequel, sharing, successes, unremarkable, value, words, writing
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The Lost Story 