When We relocated to Ocala I opened my own real estate office again but I didn't take listings nor did I provide agency representation. I didn't really practice traditional real estate anymore. And, in fact I don't do real estate at all now. After a year I stopped working.

C H A R L I E

A Good Friend...

There is a special bond we have with animals, a trust and loyalty (and dependence) you can never expect from another human being. Pets rarely, if ever disappoint you.

What my wife, son and I do now is something I enjoy a lot more than real estate, and it is selling Black Hills Gold and Sterling at jewelry shows and in several markets here in Central Florida and especially on the internet. It is a great site and the jewelry is beautiful but best of all it pays for all this. See Jane Roths Fine Jewelry

I practice the golden rule in everything I do. I hate chauvinism and crude and phoney people. I think we need more civility, common courtesy and decency and we don't have it. I demand these things of myself in my own behavior unless someone is nasty to me first.

It is me in 2002.

We lived in a big house when we first moved to Ocala, with over 4,300 square feet under roof and 2,800 under air. In 2002 we sold the house and moved to over seven acres in the country closer to Gainesville.

It wasn't our first litigation to obtain rights for the disabled. We were very much involved in the fight for rights for the handicapped and we sued the school board in Broward County to obtain a mainstream education for my son, Richard and other kids who were up to that time warehoused but not educated. In Florida we were unsuccessful and Rick got most of his education in private schools but graduated from a public high school in NC. I was also involved in the fight early on for parking for those in wheelchairs when we didn't have any. We got special parking, but that privilege has been so abused that wheelchair bound disABLED folks are often still without parking or access. There is constant struggle for rights and equality.

As for Jane...

The truth is I am glad I didn't wait to get married. I'm certain that in spite of anything I might say about the difficulties I have had in my marriage being married to Jane far outweighs any of it.

After military school and a short time at home where I just couldn't quite find myself and then going away again I felt a loss for this illusive sense of belonging that I thought I could only get by having my own family and as it were, I was someone with not an awful lot of experience with women (at 18) - and being almost normal, I was attracted to a lot skirts, and Jane just happened to be there which was lucky for me. I didn't have much experience because I didn't date much. Military school was for all boys. The year I spent in a regular high school I didn't date at all, preferring to spend my spare time with hame radio, an interest which was a big benefit to me when I did join the army.

Jane was also looking for a way out of her situation. Her mom and dad were separated (they never divorced) and her mother was very poor. Jane had very little material thing growing up and there was a very dysfunctional emotional relationship with her mother and her estranged father. We both seemed to find what we were looking for the moment we met each other, and it didn't take us long to decide to get married. It was Jane liked to say, a mismatch made in heaven.

We were too young, we didn't really know much about life and what it held in store for us but we needed the security and the comfort we were able to provide for each other. wanted to get away from and the rest But was a learn-as-you-go experience and we made a lot of mistakes and some I regret but overall it has been a great ride. By the way, we are together as of this writing - married for 49 years (since March 1, 1957).

I was Jewish. She was a Pentacostal Baptist. That was a big mismatch. (Later she was to become Jewish and I became a declared atheist, though Jewish-atheist) Her background and mine could not have been more different. And she didn't finish school and I thought she would. She was very attractive and I loved her body and that has got to be at least a very big plus in every relationship, if you can just sustain that attraction. Now it seems hardly important at all; it is her mind I really admire. This may seem strange but maybe we were also perfect parents to have a handicapped son, who is now in his late 40s and as difficult as it is for anyone to have to deal with that, it very likely kept our marriage alive and the love and caring helped to sustain our relationship. And the sex has been great!

Being married to Jane has been the most wonderful thing I ever did. It has been satisfying (and yes, the sex has been great) She was and still is beautiful. She is smarter than I am. She is a liberal; her heart is always in the right place.

She really cares about what is important. Jane is more progressive than I am even though I consider myself a radical-progressive. Maybe she is less radical but far more stable and wise. Thanks for being there Jane.

As for my brother, Bob...

I seems my brother and I have little in common. BUT, you know I look at my son, John, and I can say the same about him. I look at Richard and we live together and have some things we both like and I feel close to him. He is disabled afterall, but even if not for that, there is something about Richard. He demonstrates empathy. His compassion for others is obvious. And don't laugh, but he loves the dogs. And some people don't like animals. How can anyone be humane if they have a disregard at least for those animals with which we have a sybiotic relationship?

My brother is loaded. And he is proof that you don't have to be smart to get rich. OK, that isn't fair. Of course he has some intellect, even if he doesn't use it much. He just isn't curious. And he is too much of a capitalist. I have some difficulty with that. Would I feel different if I concentrated more on accumulating wealth? I don't think I would. I have a lot of intangible wealth.

I also had the disadvantage of getting sick and becoming uninsurable - and I went though most of the money I saved for Richard. And I also never earned my money off someone else's labor -- not in the sense that that person worked for me - but certainly in the sense that we all benefit from the cheap labor which made something which we enjoy or use and that isn't fair but it is the way things work.

My brother and I did not communicate for about 20 years because of the falling out I had with his wife, which I talked about earlier in here somewhere. When she died, within the year he was dating and he brought his girl friend up here to show her off. It was a surprise to see him and I made the best of it. We even went down to South Florida and stayed at his house when my dad had surgery. Things change, but not that much.

I liked his girlfriend. She was actually an improvement in his life, because she was fun to be with and she made him laugh (among other things), but there was a huge problem for my brother with that relationship. She was poor. My brother is a snob and he said she was not in his economic class. He should know he was talking to is the wrong person when he belittled someone based on some pseudo-class analysis.

He is now with a women who is equal to him in class, he says, and she votes Republican, is anti-drug (her son died from an OD) and since he moved in with her he has stopped calling me. Maybe it was because I called him Curly and her Mo (Her name is Moureen and she uses the nickname "Mo")? (grin).

Not that anyone has asked or ever will, but I think the poor girlfriend, who was also Jewish, really loved him and would have been good for him - and there was also that possibility that we could have had some kind of brother-brother relationship. His "classy" girlfriend has been through two marriages and made out all right by them. At least she appears to be independently well-off. And she is also Catholic (my brother's wife was Catholic also) is converting to Judaism (to please Bob?). She insists it is because she is "religious." Why would anybody convert to reform Judaism because they're religious? Reform Judaism is not about religion or faith, it is all about community, which colors any motives based on religious faith suspect.

Anyone who has a belief in the belief that their belief is true because they believe it is (because belief without facts in something doesn't require proof), that is understating the irrationality of religion, ANY religion at all.

All that aside, she seems nice but I don't really know her nor care to. Jane says she likes her and she says anyone who puts up with dad and Bob can't be that bad. (It depends) Maybe I should try harder to like her and my brother? After all those lost years, it isn't up to me to try anything. Besides it is none of my business who he dates or lives with. We almost had a reconcilliation but after he met this women - the drift was back almost to where it was before.