Farewell To The Good Old Days

Farewell to the Good Old Days is a lively and intimate tale by David Greatrix, a man who has lived a dynamic professional life, first as an aerospace engineer and then as a professor of the subject. The book, leaning heavily on the actual life experiences of Greatrix and a number of his academic colleagues close and far away, is divided into two discrete parts; the book’s narrator for both parts is nominally a fictional consolidated representation of Greatrix, drawing from various sources in addition to the author. Part One covers the narrator’s childhood and early adulthood, followed by his moving into his years of growth as a professional breaking into the challenging field of aerospace engineering. Part Two tracks the narrator’s subsequent twenty-five-year academic career as a professor of aerospace engineering at a university in a major urban centre. Prominent in this story are the many challenges the narrator encounters in his navigation of academe in a high-profile setting for engineering education. In an emotional narrative that never strays far from various shades of humour, the narrator shares the details of his teaching and research experience at his institution, frequently bumping up against the pointy bits of an evolving cosmopolitan academic culture. In colourful detail, the narrator reveals the small successes, notable failures, unexpected events, and crushing disappointments that describe his tenure at his university. The narrator is especially candid in his revelations about episodes of betrayal. He takes aim at big targets, including the Canadian government, university administrators, and the academic superstructure as a whole. The result is an enlightening view into an individual’s complicated experience in a demanding world that serves as a microcosm of society at large.

Farewell to the Good Old Days is a lively and intimate tale by David Greatrix, a man who has lived a dynamic professional life, first as an aerospace engineer and then as a professor of the subject. The book, leaning heavily on the actual life experiences of Greatrix and a number of his academic colleagues close and far away, is divided into two discrete parts; the book’s narrator for both parts is nominally a fictional consolidated representation of Greatrix, drawing from various sources in addition to the author. Part One covers the narrator’s childhood and early adulthood, followed by his moving into his years of growth as a professional breaking into the challenging field of aerospace engineering. Part Two tracks the narrator’s subsequent twenty-five-year academic career as a professor of aerospace engineering at a university in a major urban centre. Prominent in this story are the many challenges the narrator encounters in his navigation of academe in a high-profile setting for engineering education. In an emotional narrative that never strays far from various shades of humour, the narrator shares the details of his teaching and research experience at his institution, frequently bumping up against the pointy bits of an evolving cosmopolitan academic culture. In colourful detail, the narrator reveals the small successes, notable failures, unexpected events, and crushing disappointments that describe his tenure at his university. The narrator is especially candid in his revelations about episodes of betrayal. He takes aim at big targets, including the Canadian government, university administrators, and the academic superstructure as a whole. The result is an enlightening view into an individual’s complicated experience in a demanding world that serves as a microcosm of society at large.

This work, a companion to the author’s Broadway Sheet Music: A Comprehensive Listing of Published Music from Broadway and Other Stage Shows, 1918 through 1993 (McFarland 1996), provides information about all sheet music published (1843–1918) from all Broadway productions—plus music from local shows, minstrel shows, night club acts, vaudeville acts, touring companies, and shows on the road that never made it to Broadway—and all the major musicals from Chicago.

In 1999, I flew from Fort Lauderdale, FL, to Japan for $28.39 round-trip. Previously, a round-trip from Fort Lauderdale to Turkey cost me $17 and change. On the Turkish flight, a computer glitch wiped out my documentation shortly after I landed in Frankfurt, Germany. To compensate, Delta Air Lines upgraded me to BusinessElite class, featuring free champagne and choice of filet mignon or salmon steak served on a cozy table set with sparkling crystal and the finest silver and china. Most of my caviar lifestyle on a tuna budget has been based on United States Social Security and Bahamas National Insurance payments, having worked many years in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. What’s the catch? Basically, it was playing the discount-fare and frequent-flier game to the Nth degree, N as in nothing, in many cases. My best free junkets in senior-friendly skies came via Delta Air Lines frequent flier mileage. My Delta SkyMiles were tallied by such senior-citizen bargains as a Fort Lauderdale- Hawai’i round-trip ticket for as little as $440. That alone added some 10,000 FF miles to my account. Signing for a Delta SkyMiles credit card netted 10,000 miles; a switch to MCI telephone service scored another 5,000 or so. An MCI WorldCom/SkyMiles long-distance card is good for five 10 HAROLD FLAGG miles per dollar spent. There is at least one case where a “motormouth” literally talked his way into a free trip! Investors can rack up major mileage via Delta

What was is about the little country schoolhouse that so endears it to us? Travel with us to a time when education was a lot more than the three R's. You'll treasure this collection of heartwarming memories about those "dear old Golden Rule days."

"Remember the days when you were snuggled safe in your mother's lap as she read a poem or sang a song? Remember the poem you memorized for that school program, or the song you learned back in the Good Old Days? This volume of 'Mother's Favorite Verses' will take you back to those days of love and innocence."--Page 4 of cover.

Favorite Songs that people sang in the old days.

Real-life stories will take you back to the time when families stood shoulder to shoulder, working against Depression, dearth and drought to build a better life together.