My Life - The Early Years

I was born October 14, 1948 at Grace Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. My parents were Arthur, Jr. and Mildred.

My dad was Arthur T. Rouse, Jr., known as Junior to his family and Mickey to his friends. The son of Arthur, Sr. and Glennie Pringle, he grew up in Richmond and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School. After graduation, most of his friends went off to fight in WWII, but my dad's poor eyesight (nearsighted) kept him out of the Army. He went to work for Federal Mogul Corp., a producer of auto parts used for tanks and other military vehicles. After the war, he went to work for NAPA Auto Parts in Richmond.

My mother, Mildred Travis, was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, the daughter of James Travis and Pearl White. The family farm was near Green Bay, Virginia. My mom graduated from Lunenburg High School in a graduating class of nine students. When she met my dad, she was living in Richmond and sharing an apartment with two other women. She was a receptionist at P. Lorillard Tobacco Company. (Picture a switchboard with a lot of wires and plugs, a headset and a rotary dialer.)

Until I was four, we lived in the Tuscan Villa Apartments in Richmond's Fan District. They are Mediterranean style apartments with stucco walls and tile roofs. About 20 years ago, they were completely remodeled and sold as condos. They are located on Park Avenue at The Boulevard. I don't have a lot of memories of the apartment, but I remember playing on the fire escape in the back and I remember a maroon sofa with fuzzy upholstery that I liked to bury my face into. My grandmother only lived about six blocks away on Mulberry Street so she was a big part of my early life.

It was a good thing we could walk most places; our family car was a 1938 Plymouth built before WWII. I remember faded blue paint and grey primer. I remember being able to see the street through the hole in the floorboard.

Our apartment was directly across from the First Baptist Church in Richmond where my parents were married. It was an "interfaith" marriage; my dad was Methodist. He never joined the Baptist church because he did not believe he had to be re-baptized (dunked) and the Baptists would not accept the Methodist baptism (sprinkling). It was a big old church; the campus took up the equivalent of two city blocks. The pastor, Dr. Theodore F. Adams, was also president of the Southern Baptist Convention and had his own half hour weekly TV show, The Pastor's Study. My dad called him the Pope of the Baptist Church. The large church bell was in a gazebo like structure out front. I always liked to watch the man come out and ring the bell for the call to worship before church.

I remember Capri's, the Italian restaurant where I learned to twirl my spaghetti on a fork, no cutting it up for me. I also remember a corner bar on Robinson Street that I was not supposed to tell my mother about.

Why am I doing this?

Why did I decide to start writing a blog? As I enter my 60's, I find I am having more trouble remembering things I could instantly recall in the past. I think it will be therapeutic to me to put these experiences down as I recall them to try to keep my memories from fading.

Why did I decide to start writing a blog NOW? A recent experience made it clear that my friends, some of many years, do not really know me. Last week I was at a Christmas party with about twenty friends. We were doing a "Chinese auction" where you draw numbers and pick a wrapped gift or steal one from someone else. After someone stole my first gift, the gift I unwrapped was Ted Kennedy's book, "True Compass." As they were taking my picture with the book, one of my friends laughed and said, "Art's the biggest Republican we know."

Well, I am a registered Republican but only because in North Carolina you have to declare a party in order to vote in a primary and I am opposed to the current Progressive/Socialist leanings of those currently in control of the Democratic Party.

I am a conservative in the classic sense. That is, I believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For instance, the 10th Amendment states that any power not specifically granted to the federal government is reserved to the states and to the people. I believe that the best government governs the least. I'll be posting more on this later.

I am a libertarian. That comes naturally from being a conservative. The least government enables the most freedom and liberty. Don't confuse those who want to impose strict rules on social activities as being conservatives.

I am for personal responsibility. I have made mistakes. I have made bad investments. I have been fired twice. I take full responsibility for my life and don't expect the government to bail me out. I am 100 percent for equal opportunity, but do not expect equal outcomes. You get out of life what you put into it.

I am a fiscal conservative. I believe in a balanced budget. You should not buy what you can't afford. Today's government, both federal and the state of North Carolina are controlled by special interests. They give grants and programs (entitlements) to groups that continue to vote them in to continue the largesse. I believe in a hand up, not a hand out. We need to balance our budgets.

I am a skeptic. I don't necessarily believe what I hear on TV or from the government. I try to read both sides and make up my own mind. I believe most government social programs create more problems than they solve. I have read the Communist Manifesto. I have read Glenn Beck's Common Sense. I choose capitalism over communism (progessivism, socialism or whatever you want to call it.)

I'm actually sorry that someone "stole" the Kennedy book from me later in the auction. Now I'll have to buy it.