*NOTE* Charlie will be back with a brand new soapbox on Monday, in the meantime, here's a soapbox rewind from 2009. - TeamCDB/BW

I guess it may be a sign of my advancing age or a healthy case of nostalgia in fond remembrance of a simpler time in my life, but sometimes I find my thoughts wandering back to a time and place in my young life when my responsibilities consisted making sure the wood box was full and keeping my grades above the passing line.

*NOTE* Here's a Soapbox Rewind from Charlie about Veterans Day - TeamCDB/BW

As we approach the day we set aside every year to honor those who have served our nation in our armed forces, my memory goes back to a blustery Sunday in 1941 - December 7 to be exact - when my family gathered around my grandparents big floor model radio to listen to a scratchy overseas broadcast informing us that Japanese warplanes had attacked our Naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii doing massive damage to a major part of the Pacific Fleet that was moored there.