Whiskers!

Joel Schlautman's face (my dad) has been covered with whiskers for most of his life. His whiskers are mostly blond with mixed in with brown and reddish tones. My dad's whiskers were usually short and stubby, and felt similar to sandpaper when you rubbed a hand against them.
As a child, I remember sitting on my dad's lap and playing games with him. I looked up to him. I'd rub my had against his cheek and feel his whiskers, and he'd rub his face against mine scratching my cheeks. His whiskers were pathotic. They were an object of endearment, and seeing and feeling them as a small child made me know that I was loved and protected by my father.
As I grew, my dad grew into more of the discipliner and mentor that I needed as a young team. Instead of the feelings of love and protection that his whiskers once gave me, they now made me feel young. His whiskers were something I did not have, and they symbolized the knowledge and wisdom about life that I lacked and he had. In an effort to help me bcome a successful man and person, he forced this wisdom and judgement upon me, and it seemed that often times I didn't always want to hear it. His whiskers were on a face that would smile when I did something right, but would also frown when he was disappointed. The whiskers were what I looked to in order to judge whether the decisions I made were right or wrong.
Today, the whiskers are still on my dad's face, but once again they have changed in what they symbolize and the meaning they have in my life. I can now reach up, touch my face, and feel the my own short stubby whiskers. My whiskers remind me of his, they remind me of what I am becoming, an adult with the responsibilities that my dad had as a man, a husband, and a father. When I see his whiskers, I am reminded of the role he has played in my life, and the impact that he has had in my development into an adult with my own whiskers.

Grandfather Frog Stays in the Smiling Pool

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A copy of "Grandfather Frog Stays in the Smiling Pool", written by Thorton W. Burgess in 1914, sits on top of a dresser. Besides the black sketch of Grandfather Frog sitting on his Lily Pad wearing a suit jacket and top-hat, the cover is a faded brown made up of visible criss-crossed fibers. It has an aged look, the cover lacks the boisterous colors, plastic outer cover, or computer generated graphics that characterize many of the books written in the past few decades. Its binding is loose, the corners of the cover are damaged with the fibers slightly unraveling like yarn in a woolen sweater, and its pages are creased and have some slight tears. The nearly 100 pages of the book are filled with more than noticeably large print and illustrations of Grandfather Frog and his other friends from the smiling pool have been illustrated on most of the pages by Harrison Cady.
The name Charles Brunnert is scrawled on the inside cover in an obviously childish cursive hand that contains glimpses and aspects of the elegant style that characterized the early 19th century. Charles Brunnert, my grandfather, received this as a Christmas gift when he was a child in the 1920's. It was the first book that he learned to read with the help of his mother Regina, the teacher at the one room school house in Argyle, MO. The words of the book and its images and stories of grandfather frog and his friends' adventures were some of the first to fill his mind.
Nearly 70 years later, when I was a child. The images and stories that fill this old brown covered book were the first that I read as well. I spent the summer with him and my grandmother the year before kindergarten helping/annoying them complete the simple tasks I was given on the farm. After the first few weeks, my grandfather decided that I was at the age where I should no how to read. "Grandfather Frog Stays in the Smiling Pool" was the first book he grabbed off the shelf, and we spent the rest of the summer evenings sitting in his chair letting Grandfather Frog teach me how to read just as he had taught my grandfather many years before.

Aermotor Windmill

On old Aeromotor Windmill stands in the pasture along my family's driveway. The windmill is about 25 feet tall and has fan blades that are about 6 feet in diameter. It's the smallest type of aeromotor windmill built to serve its function. At one time, its fan blades would spin constantly, pumping water from a well into a cattle tank to quench the thirst of grazing cattle, and long ago, before electricity had arrived on the farmstead, even people. As mentioned earlier, it was purchased in the early 1900's by my grandpa's father before electricity had reached the farmstead. It was then that it functioned as both the source of water for his family's water and his cattle's water. Even after electricity had arrived on the farm, it continued to serve as the source of water for the people up until shortly before my father was born. Then, a well was finally dug and hooked up to an electric pump. It's been through alot, its blades and tail fins are riddled with bullet holes from .22 rifles. It served as target practice for multiple generations of teenage boys. Some of the rungs of its ladder that lead up to the blade and generator box have broken or become detached, and a few of the legs and supports have been bent in accidents over the years.

Today, it no longer stands at the old farm where it lived most of its life, instead, its stands at our home in the pasture some 150 miles away from its original location. Its blades have been locked in place, no longer able to spin, and it no longer stands above a well from which it can pump water. Still, it serves a purpose. It has been given a shiny new coat of silver paint with red tips painted onto the ends of the blades, and the bends in its supports have been hammered back to nearly their original shape. Now it stands, alone in our pasture as simply something to look at. It is a symbol, a reminder, of the farmstead for my dad and his brothers that had sustained and been the lifeblood for our families over multiple generations. Although the farmstead is now sold and gone, they still recognize the importance it had in raising them and building our families into what they have become today. The windmill is all that remains as a symbol and reminder of those days.

Aaron's Ethos

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In Aaron Carter's music video "I Want Candy," a rhetorical appeal to ethos is made through use of the rhetorical strategy of compare and contrast. This appeal is developed throughout the video in the comparisons of Aaron and Candy verses Aaron's three friends. On multiple occasions throughout the video, this appeal to ethos creates an appearance for Aaron and Candy that causes them to appear more mature than Aaron's friends. This is achieved by the places that each of them is placed within the video, and the behaviors shown being performed by each in those places. For example, at the movie theater, Aaron and Candy are sitting next to one another with no one around them. By their actions (i.e. smiles, touch, and conversational appearance) it is obvious that they are on a date. This is a very mature thing to be doing for Aaron and Candy's age of people. Conversely and comparatively, Aaron's friends are also at the movie; however, they appear to be less mature. They are sitting together but they happen to be all boys; therefore, they are not on a date. Furthermore, they are laughing, talking loudly, and throwing popcorn at Aaron and his date. This is very rude behavior and their lack of dates and practicing proper theater etiquette lead to a decreased appearance of their maturity and an increased appearance of Aaron and Candy's maturity through comparison of their actions.
Another time when this comparison leading to an ethotic appeal occurs while Aaron and Candy are again on a date, but this time they are in a restaurant eating. Aaron's friends are in the booth behind them. During dinner, while Aaron and Candy appear to be maturely having a conversation, his friends are laughing, making noise, and interrupting their date immaturely. The grimace or look of disgust on Candy's face makes the statement that this is not proper behavior or display of maturity and the comparison between the two groups once again builds an appeal to ethos.