I am Klutzy
I didn't fall but this picture pretty much shows what happened to my food!
Once years ago , my Sister and her family took me to the Dallas airport to catch a flight home from there to Fort Wayne, Indiana. We decided that we would eat a lunch before I caught my flight. We chose a cafeteria in a nearby mall.
We were all in the line for our food and I was near the end. After I got to the end of the rail and was preparing to pay for my food, I was looking away from the rail to see where the rest of our group had settled for a table. I was not paying much attention to my tray and suddenly, the whole tray fell off the rail and spilled all of my food on to the floor. I was shocked. The cafeteria that I was used to had a rail which allowed your tray to sort of fit down into it and you had to pick it up to get it off the rail. This rail did not have that feature. The tray just sat on the rail and nothing held it in place. So that is my excuse for what happened!
Anyway, the cafeteria people were very nice and they filled another tray with all of the foods I had chosen and brought it to me at our table. But my meal was ruined --I was pretty upset and really didn't enjoy my food as I normally do.
When I arrived home and my husband picked me up, he laughed and said,"I hear you spilled your tray in Dallas." I was surprised and said, "How did you hear that?" As it turned out my Sister had called our home and told him about my accident right after I flew out of Dallas.
Since that time I am always very cautious about my tray when I eat at a cafeteria. It was a sobering experience.
My Ceramic Kiln
This is very similar to my kiln.One of my many brainstorms came to me back in about the early 70s. I got hooked on ceramics. I had taken a class in ceramics and pottery and just fell totally in love with the whole thing!The class covered everything from molding something out of the raw clay to the firing of it in the kiln. Each person in the class formed an object from the raw clay, then painted the item and then it was fired in the kiln to become a finished object. I was fascinated with the whole procedure. Immediately I began to look for a kiln and bought a pottery wheel and some clay and began making things--ash trays, vases, bowls and etc. I was stupidly advised--by a friend--to buy this kiln which was over $300 and much too big for my purposes.However, I did buy it and then found out that it needed a 220 electrical outlet, which we did not have. My husband was going to install an outlet for me but , unfortunately, he had to have back surgery and could not do it for some time. In a year or so we did get the outlet installed and my kiln was ready to fire. Somewhere along the line, I sort of lost my desire to do ceramic work and the kiln sat for another couple of years and was never fired.In the end I sold the never fired kiln for $100--a $200 loss from my purchase price. I still am fascinated by ceramics but not enough to get into it again. So that brainstorm was an expensive one. I am very careful now and I try to curb my brainstorms!
The Chicken Foot
When I was just a little kid, I can remember my Mother making chicken and dumplings. She would cook a big pot of chicken pieces to make a lot of broth. When the chicken was done she would make the dumplings and put them in the broth to cook. She mostly used the bony pieces of chicken such as the neck, wings, back and ribs. She also cleaned the chicken foot part of the leg and used it. The scaly skin on the foot could be scraped off and the the toe claws cut off and you would have a skinny piece of chicken that would not have much meat on it but it did add to the flavor for the broth.
I googled chicken foot and found a recipe for chicken foot soup. It was kind of funny. It said dry between the toes after you wash the feet. As I think back on it it was kind of strange that my Mother did that! My sister thinks it is a lot more than strange!
I don't think anyone ever ate the foot but my sister was repulsed by the sight of the foot in the dish and she would not eat any of it. I think my Mother finally started taking out the feet before she put the dish on the table. It really never bothered me. If you eat the liver, gizzard and neck etc. what is the difference? It is all sickening when it is raw! But the dumplings are so delicious!
Jesus Street
SteveMy sister was telling me about this incident that happened with her son, Steve, many years ago when he was about three or four.They had next door neighbors who loved to have Steve come over to their house and visit. They loved to talk with him and enjoyed his kid talk.One time Steve was at their house and the neighbor said that something came up about Jesus. They were talking about Jesus and answering Steve's questions. In the middle of their talk, The neighbor said Steve became quiet for a minute and then he looked up at her with a serious expression on his face. She looked at him and then he said, " What street does Jesus live on?" She and her husband cracked up. I don't know what she told him but Steve had serious thoughts about just where Jesus was and where he lived. His question is one many of us have on our minds sometimes!
It's Hot!
Back years ago when I was just a kid I can remember my Mother and my Dad both pouring their coffee into the saucer to cool it. That was a no, no as far as etiquette was concerned!
The amazing part of it was that they also would pick up the filled saucer and drink from it--without spilling a drop! I would never try to pick up a saucer filled with coffee to drink from it. They had it mastered to a Tee.
My Aunt Sarah was visiting us once and she saw them do that and she laughed and said, "My, do you still saucer your Coffee?" She seemed shocked. She had two highfalutin daughters who had turned her into somewhat of a High Brow.
Of course they mostly did this at home but I do remember once when my Dad rode back to Texas after a visit with us in Indiana. We had stopped for a breakfast after a night in a motel and my Dad did pour his coffee into his saucer in the restaurant. I was somewhat embarrassed but of course I never said a word to him about it. I imagine restaurant people see all sorts of faux pas from their customers. Since he had always done that at home I doubt if he even had the first thought that it was a no, no. At least his coffee got cooled!
Quilts vs Blankets
This is a quilt similar to the kind my Mother made.
Back when I was a just a kid we always had quilts on our bed for the winter. My Mother made most of them. In the coldest weather we might have as many as three or four quilts on our bed--and they were heavy!
It was fun to look at all of the different patches on the quilts. Most of the patches were from the remnants of the dresses my Mother had made for the three girls in our family. One of us would say, "Hey, this is from my dress I had for school last year," or, "Yeah, and this is from my party dress two years ago." We usually spent many hours over the winter reminiscing about our clothes from long ago which were represented on the quilt.
However, as much fun as we had with the old quilts, blankets were the way to go. Blankets were much lighter and warmer than the quilts. We finally switched over totally from quilts to blankets because blankets were so much more comfortable than the quilts had been.Quilts were heavy and it made you tired to just turn over in bed! Especially when you had to have three or four on you to keep warm. Many of the quilts were made of heavier material such as denim or other thick materials.My Mother used everything possible to make them when we were using so many.
Now I have one quilt, and that I never really use. It is one that my Mother made and I am keeping it for a keepsake. I have thought of getting a bed ruffle and using the quilt for a bedspread top. But I have not done that yet. I love my light, warm polyester blanket on my bed!
I have a lot of fond memories of looking for a favorite patch of my old dresses from the past on one of those monstrosities--but I think I will keep my blanket for now!
Hard Times!
We never had a lot of money when I was a child. However, my Mom and Dad were good managers of what little money we had.My Mom always, somehow, managed to get what she wanted for the house--she did like to spend money. Back then you could buy things with a very small down payment and very small monthly or maybe weekly payments. I remember my Mother once bought a bedroom suit on time. She paid a small payment to start with and then the furniture store let her pay whatever she wanted each month on the balance. Of course, you must remember that back then bedroom suits did not cost an arm and a leg as they do now. It seems to me, if I remember right, that the total cost of it was maybe $150 or near that.I remember many months going to make the payment for her with as little as one dollar or maybe two dollars. I also think that back then they did not charge any interest on your purchase. It might have taken her a year or more to pay the bill off but she eventually did get it paid. Sometimes if she came up with extra money she would make a bigger payment. She always made sure not to miss payments and I think the store manager appreciated that. I can't see how they made money with that kind of business but I am sure they did. If we could not have bought things that way we would not have had many of our possessions. We bought our groceries the same way. My Mom would get whatever she wanted and we had a running grocery bill. She paid so much each month when my Dad got his check. We always paid the bill in full whenever we could.I am so thankful that nowadays I am not in the kind of financial position that they were. I pay for my things when I buy them, or I don't buy them! I hate paying out money for interest--which you do now have to pay--it is like throwing money away!
My Dad, the Artist!
When I was just a tiny tot my Dad worked as a night watchman for the Texas State Highway Department. He really didn't have much work to do but he just had to be there. So he could read or do anything he wanted on his work hours.
He had quite a few magazines available to read. He started picking pretty pictures out and making copies of them. He would bring home the next morning the picture he did the night before. Sometimes he would use carbon paper and trace the picture and then he would use colored pencils and color the pictures.
I can distinctly remember one Norman Rockwell picture he did. It was of a small boy pulling on a blanket with a dog in the picture. I have seen that picture many times since then. He also did one of a lady, I think it was a Pond's advertisement, who had long beautiful hair. He just picked out whatever hit his fancy at the time.
My Mom and I would be eagerly waiting every morning when he got home to see what new picture he brought home for us to look at and admire.
We had the collection of all his pictures for a long time after that.I really don't know what became of them. I would be happy to see them again if they are still around. I think they probably got destroyed or lost sometime through the years. My Dad really was not an artist, he just liked to copy the pictures and color them. He knew my Mom and I got a lot of enjoyment out of seeing the pictures and it gave him something to occupy his long hours while he night watched.
Five Cent Cantaloupes!
Can you believe five cent cantaloupes? It is true, back in the late thirties and early forties we could buy cantaloupes for as little as five cents each. There was a farmer who lived very near us who raised cantaloupes and watermelons and he sold them to surrounding neighbors for that itsy bitsy amount!
You could also go to our Market Square and buy them cheap but not quite that cheap. These were not scrawny, little melons but nice sized and very fresh--just picked, in fact!
My family loved cantaloupes and watermelons and we ate a lot of them. About every three or four days the farmer would have another batch of fresh picked melons for sale. We also bought a lot of other produce from him; black eyed peas, okra, green beans. peaches and other fruits.
I would be thrilled to pieces to have a farmer live near me now (even if the prices were higher than the olden time's-- but not too much!) and I could get fresh veggies and fruits from him!
GPS-- A new thing!
I was introduced to a brand new high tech gadget recently, The Global Positioning System. It is an awesome little invention. It is about five inches by four inches or somewhere near that. Some may be smaller and some may be larger. But the one my Grandson had was about that size.
My grandson picked me up to drive me somewhere and he had a borrowed one in his car. He used it to get us to the place we were going. I was fascinated by the thing.
I am told that you enter the address of where you want to go and this gadget tells you precisely where and which way to turn. As we were going along the device would tell you exactly which lane to get in, where to turn and how far you had to go before the turn.
If you take a wrong turn the device says, "Recalculating," and it then continues to tell you how to get to your destination from this wrong turn. You absolutely can not get lost with it!
I saw an advertisement on TV a for a GPS called the Garmin recently. It mentioned that if you wanted to find a restaurant to eat in that the device could tell you exactly where one was and also tell you how to get to it. Even if you wanted a special kind of restaurant, such as Italian or Mexican or whatever, it could get you there also. Isn't that amazing?
We have made many trips back through the years and have many times taken a wrong exit or turn. This device would have saved us many miles and much sweating! If only we had had one of these little toys back in those days we could have been a lot happier! I guess We were born too soon!
The Stripper!
Me at age three or fourWhen I was probably about three or four years old My Mother had removed my underpants and had me sitting on the pottie. While I was sitting my Dad came in and announced that he was going to go do an errand, I don't remember what it was since it has been so long ago. However, I heard him and I was determined that I wanted to go with him. I was afraid that if I took the time to get my underwear back on my Dad wouldn't wait for me so the only alternative was to forgo them!
I jumped off the pottie, dismissed the fact that I was pantie less, and ran out to get in the car with him. My Mother probably forgot that I had no underwear on and let me go. I climbed into the car being very careful not to let my dress fly up and stood on the seat beside my Dad.
I remember vividly being miserable all the while and very careful to keep my dress down . I was old enough to realize that I was in a very precarious position-- without underwear! Of course, my Dad never suspected a thing!
I don't remember how I handled the situation when I got home or if my Mother even knew what had happened. But I think after that I never forgot that you have to have panties on when you go somewhere!
Daddy's Tobacco
Daddy Smoking Back years ago we always knew what to get my Dad for a present--on Christmas, birthdays, Father's day or whatever. He smoked a pipe and he loved Bond Street and Prince Albert tobacco, and he liked cigars. We could get him pipes but he was a little picky about his pipes so mostly we stuck with the tobacco.I think his most favorite tobacco was Bond Street. It came tin cans--I think in pound cans or maybe five pound cans. That would last him several months. He also liked the small pocket cans of Prince Albert. He carried one with him all the time. He had a drawer where he kept his tobacco and you could smell it when you got near that drawer.I sometimes look back and think maybe we were contributing to his health problems but back then that was not so much an issue as it became later. I can remember smelling his pipe smoke and it really smelled good. He loved his pipe.That was his only vice as far as I knew. He never smoked cigarettes at all and he only occasionally smoked cigars. He did quit smoking in his last few years; then we had to come up with new ideas for presents!I can vividly remember the strong smell of the tobacco drawer when I walked past it. I hope that our gifts didn't shorten his life!
Little Pitchers Have Big Ears!
My sister was telling me about an incident that involved her son years ago.
She , her husband and Steve,their son, were eating their supper one night and her husband casually mentioned that he had just gotten a $10.00 weekly raise in his salary that day. He also told her that she should not tell their neighbor, who lived next door and who also worked at the same place where he did. He explained that since the neighbor was under his supervision he might not like it that he did not get a raise also. That was all that was said that night.
The next day my sister and Steve were at the neighbor's house for a visit. She said they were sitting there just casually talking when suddenly Steve blurted out,"My Dad got a $10 raise at work!"
My sister said she almost swallowed her tongue when he said that. She just sort of ignored his statement and hoped nothing else would be said--and nothing was.
She said she was shocked because Steve had not noticeably been paying any attention at all to what was being said at the table the night before and she was shocked that he even remembered the conversation.
It all just proves the old adage that Little Pitchers Have Big Ears!
Insurance payments
Back when I was a kid (Where have you heard that before?), my Mother would put the payments for the insurance man in an envelope stuck by the front door. That way she didn't have to watch for him or worry about missing his collection. We always carried life insurance on our family in those days. Not big policies but at least enough to take care of a burial if we ever needed it. I think about the most she ever paid a week was less than a dollar.Can you imagine putting your insurance payments on the front door nowadays? It would probably be snitched away quickly by kids or maybe even adults. My Mother never even thought about anyone taking the money when she put it out for the insurance man and they never did. There were dishonest people in those days but thefts were not as bold and as rampant as they are now.I have my door locked all the time when I am at home, as well as when I am not home. And I do not leave anything I value unlocked outside my home. It is true that payment for insurance now is a lot more than it would have been in that time. But the money was just as important then as it is now even though it was a small amount.I used to have two ceramic birds perched on my bird bath for about 29 years until about two years ago, when suddenly, they were gone. I do not know who took them. I know that my neighbors had company the day before and I did see the kids playing in my yard but I cannot say they took the birds. I can't imagine that if they did that the parents wouldn't have made the kids return them!Now I write checks for all of my insurance payments and hope that they get cashed by the rightful person. I would never dream of sticking money on my front door!
Cedar Pencils
Back years ago when I was in elementary school, many kids used cedar pencils. I have used them also but I never liked them very well. They were a hard leaded pencil and didn't write a dark line. However they were cheaper than the other kinds of pencils. Cedar pencils were about a penny a piece and other pencils were more, I can't remember exactly how much more. The cedar pencils did not have a big eraser on the end like other pencils. They just had a tiny little point of an eraser at the top which didn't last very long.They did smell good and served their purpose. You can still order cedar pencils on line. I brought up Google and there were places that had forms for ordering them on line.Nowadays people mostly use pens or mechanical pencils. I still like to have a pencil handy for jotting down notes and memos but I do not have any cedar pencils in my possession now. I like the number 2 yellow pencils and I think most people do like those. Cedar pencils are a dying breed and if you used one you would understand why! Most people who have them have them for old time's sake.
The Lost Cow
This is a Jersey cow just like our cow was.We usually had a cow most of the time when I was a kid. There was a pasture right behind our house in which we could let our cow graze. We always had our own milk and butter.
One morning my Dad went out to put the cow into the pasture and the cow had somehow gotten out of the lot where we kept it when it was not in the pasture. He looked all around and the cow was nowhere to be seen.
So he had to go looking for it. About a mile or so behind our house there were railroad tracks. So my Dad went that way thinking that was the most likely way for the cow to go. He walked a couple of miles along the tracks before he finally saw the cow grazing along the railroad. He had a rope and put it on her and walked her back to our house. Then my Dad had to look for and repair the hole in the fence where the cow had squeezed through. He had saved our milk and butter supply-- But he missed half day's work in doing so!
The Studio Couch
SaraOnce when my youngest sister was probably about 4 0r maybe 5, she was picked out of a Sunday School class to sing a song on a radio show. She was very excited about it.We had recently bought a new Couch-- at that time it was called a studio couch. I have no idea for the reason for that term but it was a studio couch. It opened out to make a bed.So my sister was all dressed up for her debut at the radio station. She and my Mom were about to leave for the broadcasting studios for her performance. Someone who we knew saw her and said to her, "My, you look pretty, why are you so dressed up?"My sister brightly said, "I am going to sing on the studio couch!" My Mother embarrassingly explained that they were going to the radio station for her to sing on the radio.Somehow, in all the discussions about the studios at the radio station and our recent purchase of the studio couch, she had gotten the two mixed up and came up with studio couch as a name for the Studios of the radio station. Her enthusiasm was not dampened at all and she did sing on the radio at the radio station's studio (but not on the couch)!
Our Model T car
This was not our car but it is similar.
When I was about 4 or 5 years old my Dad bought a model T Ford. Of course it was not brand new but was a few years old. It was probably one of the first cars made back in that day.
I remember how noisy it was when he started it up. He also had to hand crank it a lot of the time. He didn't know a lot about working on the car-- hardly anyone did-- but he managed to keep it running most of the time.
There was a little ledge up in the back window that was barely big enough for me to lie on when we went somewhere in the car. I remember how much fun it was to lie on that ledge and see everything we went past.
We had the car for a few years and then my Dad sold it. I don't remember why, probably because it had things go wrong and he didn't have the money to get them fixed. Anyway, then for several years we had no car and we walked everywhere we went (Can you imagine walking everywhere you go nowadays?).
My Dad never had a brand new car but he did later on get a better car so they could have a way to go get groceries and run other errands. Wonder if they have new cars in Heaven? I hope so and that my Dad has one of the best!
Old Crow
Years ago when my two girls were just teenagers, they came up with a nickname for me--much to my displeasure.
They had seen a whiskey bottle with the name OLD CROW on it. So they started calling me Old Crow! I really was ticked off with it and I threatened them with all sorts of punishments if they didn't stop it. However, do you spank a teenager?
This went on for several years and I finally got used to it and just ignored them when they called me that. I guess that did the trick because then they didn't use the name very often anymore.
Last Summer when my daughter from Idaho was visiting here in Indiana she and my other daughter went to garage sales. What did she find at one sale but a little figurine of a crow and the crow was standing by a little sign that said OLD CROW? She bought it and brought it home to me! I have it sitting on my shelf in my family room. It brings back pleasant memories of when they were still at home and annoying me with that old nickname!
Now I think of it as just a funny phase of their lives and not really anything to be annoyed about.
Our Sick Hogs
When I was just a small kid my parents bought two baby pigs to raise for meat for the winter. We fed them table scraps and my Dad also bought some kind of animal food to supplement the table scraps. The pigs grew and became hogs, eventually. Then came the time for butchering them. But, just days before they were to be butchered the hogs became sick. My Dad had a veterinarian to come check out the hogs. The veterinarian had bad news for my Dad, The hogs had a disease called erysipelas. Erysipelas is most commonly found in pigs but can be in other animals and also in humans. It is similar to cellulitis, a red swollen infection of the skin. The bottom line was the hogs could not be eaten. So they had to euthanize them. My parents were devastated. They had spent their money buying and raising the pigs and ended up not having meat for the winter but also not even being able to get any of their money back. In those days money was not easy to come by so it was a terrible loss to them. That was the end of pig raising for my Dad. After that he stuck with chickens which are easier and cheaper to raise.
Our July Birthdays
In our family (my sister's and my family) there are tons of birthdays that fall in July. My two sisters and I have eight children between us. Two of them have birthdays on July 6th, two have birthdays on July 22nd. Two of our grandchildren have birthdays on July 2nd and another one has a birthday on July 4th. I also have a son-in-law who has a birthday on July 6th.
I think it is an honor to have a birthday during the month of our country's birthday. Seven of our family have that honor!
Our Julys are filled with parties and celebrations for birthdays. Of course we cannot be together for all of them because I live in Indiana, not in Texas. But we always remember each other on their birthdays and it is easy to keep up with them because so many of them fall on the same days.
My Goldfish
Once years ago I had one of my brainstorms. I bought a fish bowl, rocks, and all of the ornaments that you put in aquariums and about three goldfish. I was so proud of my new toys. I placed the aquarium on a table in front of the window in my living room. It really looked beautiful.I spent a lot of time watching my fish and really enjoyed them. Someone told me that fish need sun. Since my window faced East and the morning sun always shown in mostly until noon, I thought I will open the drapes so the fish can get some morning sun. I hate to tell you this but I am a late sleeper and I slept late that morning and the fish were in the sun until almost noon. I was shocked when I got up to look in on the fish and they were all floating, belly up! I could not believe that three hours of direct sun had cooked the fish!I felt terrible. I did replace the fish. Then I made sure that I never left them in the sun more than an hour or so at one time. Later, I realized how much time and work an aquarium requires. And If you don't clean it often enough it is also smelly. I kept the fish until they finally died and then I disposed of the aquarium and all of its decorations and I wrote off fish as an unpleasant hobby. Now the only fish I have around my place is the tuna, halibut, salmon, cod, fishsticks or fresh caught fish for a meal!
The Mermaid Lady
Once when I was in about the third grade there was an exhibit that came to Paris, Texas, by train. The exhibit was a lady who was billed as the Mermaid Lady. Our school sponsored a field trip to the train depot so that any student who wanted to see her could go. Of course it cost a fee but I don't remember how much. I am sure it was not much or I couldn't have gone.The Mermaid Lady was inside one of the cars of the train. She had a bed and was lying on the bed on her side. You could see her whole body--even though she was clothed. Her legs were exposed and while there were two of them and they were covered in kind of a fish scale type of skin, they were kind of useless and deformed. She talked to the lookers and answered their questions. She was an intelligent person. I was really impressed with her and had never seen anything like that in my life.In later years I saw her picture in a book I found which featured freak people. They made their living by traveling in side shows letting people see them. Some of them, I am told, made a lot of money in their time. A sad way to make money but then the
y really didn't have much choice!
String Figures
My Mother used to make several different kinds of string figures with a piece of string. She would tie the string into a circle and then put her hands inside the circle. She would wind her fingers around the string certain ways and end up with a Crow's Foot, a Jacob's Ladder, a Cat's Cradle, a Cup and Saucer or some other things that I can't even remember the names of now. I always tried to do what she did but I seldom accomplished it. She knew a lot of things to make but there were many others that she didn't know how to do.
String figures are popular all over the world. There are hundreds of them. On Google I found one that claimed to be the world's simplest. It was a smile or a Cheshire cat--no finger manipulation at all. (Illustrated above). Google has quite a lot of information on making many different figures.
I remember trying to learn to do some of them from my Mother and it is not as easy as you think. But at one time I could do the simple Crow's Foot and a couple of others. I did have a lot of fun attempting to do them. It is a cheap entertainment because all you need is a length of string and your two hands.
My Mother sometimes would tie a handkerchief into a baby doll to entertain me during church services. If I dropped it there would be no noise and so it was a quiet toy. She would fold the handkerchief into a diagonal and then roll up each corner to the center and tie a knot in the middle so it formed arms and the bottom would be shaped into a skirt. The knot in the middle would be the baby doll's head. I was fascinated with the things she could make out of almost nothing! She wasn't a sailor but she could sure make some cute string figures and tie some interesting knots!
I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!
SaraOne day my sister had a headache and was complaining to our Mother about it. So my Mother said to me, "Go to the store," which was just a few doors away from us, " and get a package of aspirin." So I took off for the store to get the aspirin.
In the meantime, while waiting for me to get back with the aspirin, my youngest sister, Sara, came flying into the living room with a handful of spoons and dessert dishes. My Mother said, "What are those for?" My sister said, "For the ice cream!"
My Mother laughed and said , "We aren't having ice cream." My sister said," I heard you tell Anna Beth to go to the store and get a package of ice cream." My Mother said, "I told her to go get a package of aspirin, not ice cream!"
So with a very disappointed look on her face my sister took the spoons and dishes back to the kitchen and put them away. My other sister took the aspirin and, hopefully, her headache went away!
Oops!
FORDNot long after I got married, back in 1943, my uncle and aunt, who had never met my husband, came over to my Mother's house to visit with us one Sunday afternoon. It was very hot and we all decided that it would be nice to go get a cold watermelon and have a refreshing snack.
My uncle and my husband decided that they would go get the melon. When they got back they were getting out of the car and my husband was going to get the melon out since it was on his side in the back seat.
He got out the melon and was walking toward the door to go into the house. His hand slipped and the watermelon fell out of his hands and splattered right there on the grass. It broke into many pieces. He was so embarrassed.
However, we managed to rinse off the pieces to get the grass clippings off and we salvaged most of the melon. So all was not lost. My husband was really feeling low about the whole thing but my aunt and uncle had a good laugh about it and said no harm was done because we ate the whole thing anyway. He had managed, at least, to break the ICE--or watermelon-- with my aunt and uncle!
Tooth Cleaners
Do you remember using tooth powder to clean your teeth? It was a great improvement over some of the things I and many other people have used in the long ago past!I have used salt, baking soda, just a clean white cloth or a twig to clean my teeth. Salt was the most common thing to use for cleaning teeth back in the old days. It was OK, but I hated baking soda. The taste of it was terrible. I guess it did an OK job if you could survive the taste! Some people took a small twig--I think Elm was a favorite-- and chewed the end of it until it was like a brush and used that to clean their teeth. My Mother also would sometimes give me a piece of clean white cloth and tell me to use it to scrub my teeth. It would make my teeth feel smooth and clean but I am sure it didn't get into the crevices and around the gums like a brush would.Then came Tooth powder. I remember the Colgate brand. It had a fresh minty taste. You poured a little of the powder in your hand and dipped your toothbrush into it. It was white and so much tastier than salt or baking soda. There were other brands too but the only one I specifically remember is Colgate.Then finally came toothpaste. It was the Cadillac of tooth cleaners! I now use toothpaste all the time. In fact, I am not sure you can even get tooth powder any more ( and where would I find an Elm tree?). I do not have a certain brand that I have to have--mostly I buy whatever is on sale or that I have a coupon for ( preferably I like it if it is on sale and I have a coupon!).I still have most of my own teeth and I am sure it is because I have spent a fortune on taking care of them. I know that I would not be happy with false teeth and so I am more than happy to spend the money to keep my own teeth. Hooray for Crest, Colgate, Pepsodent, Listerine and all of the other tooth paste manufacturers-- not to mention my Dentist!
Mama and Sugar
My Mother was big on sugar. She added a touch of sugar to almost everything--things you don't even associate with sweetness.She added sugar to most of her vegetables and I have to admit that a lot of the time I didn't notice it. She claimed it brought out the flavor of foods. The one thing that I did notice the sugar in, and I hated it, was cabbage. She would cook a big pan of cabbage, add bacon grease ( I did like that) and then she would add her sugar. I have no idea how much she used but I always tasted the sweetness in the cabbage. When we visited her she would cook cabbage and I would tell her we will eat it but not if you put sugar in it. So she would say, "I won't put any sugar in it." But when I would taste it I knew she had put the sugar in, maybe not as much but enough that I could still taste it.Finally, I think she realized that I was on to her. She did quit putting the sugar in the cabbage. Or, at least she put so little that I really couldn't taste it. That was fine. If I didn't taste the sugar I didn't mind that.I never add sugar to anything that isn't supposed to be sweet. Maybe I am missing out on some flavor but at least I am not getting all of that sugar!
Curling Iron and my Hair
I would love to learn the knack of using a curling iron. My sister never uses a roller or curler on her hair at all. She can shampoo her hair, dry it and use the curling iron and be through in less than an hour!I have tried many times to do the same thing but I never achieve the results she does. I shampoo my hair and immediately roll it on brush rollers and then sleep overnight with the rollers in my hair. It is uncomfortable but you know what women go through to be beautiful! I have tried to copy my sister's motions and follow each step she goes through but my hair comes out like I had been in a windstorm! She keeps telling me that if I just continue to try I will eventually realize success.Maybe so, but I haven't got that much patience. I just continue to use and sleep on my old brush rollers. I am worried that they will discontinue making brush rollers and then what will I do? Use rags?
My Foot in My Mouth!
I promise this will be the last animal story for a spell! This goes back to the psychotic dog.We were camping with a group from our church one summer. We were all sitting around a campfire just talking, laughing and telling stories. We had Mickey, our psychotic dog with us. Mickey did some strange thing for a dog--I can't remember what now. One of the children said, "Why does he do that?" I laughed and casually replied, "Because he is retarded!"I had no more than got those words out of my mouth when I looked up and sitting right across from me was the family of a retarded girl. They and their daughter were all sitting there. I felt the numbness of a stroke go through me. What could I say? Well, as it ended up, I said nothing. No one said anything at all. I am sure it was a low blow to that family. In a few seconds everyone was laughing and talking again as if nothing had been said at all. But I still felt as if I had made fun of those people when that was the furthermost thing from my intentions. I had really stuck my foot in my mouth!
Who let the dogs out?
While I am into the animal category I will tell one more tale. This tale concerns my daughter's cat. I was cat sitting for her one night and it was late and I was getting ready for bed. My husband was already in bed and sound asleep. I went to the back door to let the dogs out before bedtime. I opened the door for the dogs and suddenly, the cat, Tiger, zipped right past me and out the door. It was winter and there was snow on the ground. I was barefoot and in my nightgown. I realized that I could not take time to get shoes or a robe on because the cat was already out to the back fence. I hurriedly ran out the door to grab the cat. Unfortunately, I had prelocked the door and when I let it shut after me it was locked for sure! There I was locked outside with a squirming cat in my arms , barefoot in the snow, and in my nightgown. I finally got my mind together enough to go to the bedroom window where my husband was sleeping and pounded on the window. He jumped out of bed having no knowledge of what was going on and came to the window. I said, "Unlock the door for me!" He rushed to the back door and unlocked it. Still mystified as to what the problem was he said," What is going on?"After I explained my problem he then had a good laugh at me with my cold bare feet. After that I made sure that the cat was not near the door when I let the dogs out.
