A Grandmother's Love by KimB

[Editor's Note: This story was written by KimB]

Growing up, my brother and I lived as often with Grandmother and Grandfather as we did with Mom. Being with Grams and Gramps was just as much “home” as when we lived with Mom. There was never a lot of money but we never went hungry. Mom, Grandmother and Grandfather saw to that.

Grandmother always fixed a “proper” meal and when with her, we had to behave and sit at the table until dinner was over. Even if there were cartoons on TV, we had to sit until everyone was finished. At times, being the youngest, I was spared the long dinners and ate in the kitchen, where, while fingers were admonished, I could still shovel in the food in order to get back to watching Mickey Mouse and other favorites while the adults were busy sitting in the dinning room.

There must be something about grandmothers that their food is always “better”. Grams dinners were always fantastic, even everyday dinners were special. Times and finances dictated what would be served but regardless of the selection, it always tasted wonderful. I don't remember balking at eating what was served very often, the exception was canned asparagus but thankfully that wasn't served often. I think turkey was the most common item on the table. They would buy a whole bunch of frozen turkeys when on sale and keep them in the freezer.

Grandmother and Grandfather always had loads of company. Me, Mom, my brother, various Uncles and Aunts and other relatives would drop in or be staying with them for visits. It was always a full house and those saved up turkeys came in handy. A turkey could feed the whole shootin' match with something for everyone. Grandmother would fix all the trimmings, even in July. There would be stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy made from roasting pan drippings and real diced up giblets too.

The cranberry relish was my favorite and still is. She had this hand crank grinder from the beginning of time (or just about) and she would put in fresh cranberries in the hopper. If I was especially good, she would let me turn the crank. Then she would select a nice orange and cut that into quarters and place that in the hopper, peel and all would be added to the crushed berries. Lastly some sugar was added and it was placed in the fridge until dinner time. Tart, sweet, crunchy – it was the BEST.

There was always a bit of rivalry about Grandmother's Turkey Dinners. At various times, other members of the family would host Turkey Dinners with pot-luck side dishes contributed by those attending. Comparisons would inevitably arise and hurt feelings were sure to follow. No one could match Grandmother and that was just that. No matter how perfect the gravy or tender the turkey, no one would dare to praise it above Grandmother's dinners.

Now, to be honest, some of those dinners were excellent but there was always a missing ingredient. A Grandmother's Love cannot be duplicated and that was the magic ingredient in every meal she prepared.

Grandmother and Grandfather Abbott
Lucinda G. Abbott Aug 7 1902 - Jul 9 2001
Herod E. Abbott Oct 3 1900 - May 20 2001



Mimi

Mimi has gone off with a river boat gambler. She left surreptitiously. She went missing the evening of the super moon. At first we thought she might be napping but when she didn't show up for supper, we looked for her in her favorite rooms, then realized that she was gone.

This is not the first time Mimi has been lured away when the moon was full. During the hurricane Ike, she left and was gone for a month. She came back disheveled and seedy looking, and not entirely repentant. Of course we took her in. It was the only humane thing to do under the circumstances. We never did learn much about her time away, but she seemed happy to be home again.

From time to time recently I had noticed a slight change in attitude and assumed she was getting bored with the same old conversations, and the long winter days. We were all experiencing a restlessness waiting for spring and the blossoming of new growth on trees and foliage.

As a change of pace I took to knitting and had long conversations on the computer with my sister in Baton Rouge. Consequently, Mimi must have felt a little ignored and when the opportunity presented itself, she took it and skipped the ship.

I can only hope she weathers the strife and storms of day to day living with a river boat gambler. Perhaps after the excitement of being romanced by moonlight wears off, she will decide to trade that life for one she left behind and come back home. We will take her in again, (of course) and will treat her fatuity as a thing of the past.

Super Moon 03 19 2011

Indian Head Pennies and Buffalo Nickles

Yesterday, while walking across a large parking lot to our car, one of the people with me stopped to pick up a coin. I asked if it was a penny and they said no, it was a nickle. As a joke, I asked if it was a Buffalo Nickle. It wasn't.

As a child, both Indian Head pennies and Buffalo nickles were were so plentiful, we never considered collecting them. The only thing I thought of collecting was autographs. The little autograph books were inexpensive and every school child had one. Mine was filled with signatures of family and school friends. Obviously, I gave little care to protecting and saving them because I seemed to get new ones frequently.

I did have a small collection of handkerchiefs; presents from family and school chums. I prized the ones grandmother A sent me in the mail. During the great depression, fancy handkerchiefs with lace edging and embroidered flowers, pinned to cardboard backing and tied with ribbons, were offered for sale at Christmas time.

Aside from the collection of salt and pepper shakers of a neighbor, the only other collection I knew about was the stuffed birds in the high school biology room. There were no song birds in the collection. They had no identifying labels and were of varying sizes. They were a mystery except for the pheasant and ducks which were familiar to me. The stuffed birds sat next to each other on a shelf that continued around all four walls of the room. They were never discussed in class, neither did our teacher know much about them. They were just there.

I once attended a lecture about the contribution collectors make to society. The reasons people collect range from complex to to the simple fact that it's an enjoyable hobby. I, myself do not have the 'collector gene', but appreciate the work of those that do have it.

Collections of everything and anything can be found in the most unlikely places. I once came across a collection of egg shells in Bloomington, California. There were thousands, each labeled and nesting in a padded box of its own. There used to be an exquisite collection of diamonds in every color on display at the Los Angeles County Museum.

Some of the many types of collections are coin, stamps, shells, rocks, baseball cards and chess sets. The churches of Europe collect bones, supposedly of Biblical persons and Saints which I saw when touring the churches there.  If seeing them paves one's way into heaven, perhaps those pearly gates will open for me.

Gem Collection
Natural History Museum Los Angeles County



For Heaven's Sake!

Let's shut down the nuclear plants and stop building new ones! 

In light of the events that are on-going in Japan, it makes no sense to build more of these things!

On March 16, 2011 in Victoria, Texas, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board held the first day of a two day hearing to consider a Chicago based corporation, Exelon's proposal to build a nuclear plant on the Guadeloupe river.

Houston environmental attorney, Jim Blackburn, representing Texans for a Sound Energy Policy (TSEP) gave a very good speech in opposition to the new nuclear plant.

Here are some key points:

... the position of Exelon, it does not matter if there is faulting, hundreds of oil and gas wells, toxic gas and methane and inadequate water supply as long as the power block itself is not directly affected. Additionally, there is a total disdain for instability and uncertainty of the geologic platform for this facility.

...we have a geologic platform of silt and clay that is riddled by fractures and oil and gas penetrations.  The subsurface here is active.  It has cracks.  It is pressured in certain locations.

Exelon's proposed plan includes a cooling pond that is clearly crossed by two and potentially four subsurface faults. These faults clearly threaten the stability of the cooling pond.

...Exelon cannot guarantee water at all times .... Exelon clearly states that it will simply shut the plant down when the cooling pond levels are too low.

I think the Japanese Nuclear Companies said the same thing and it turns out they CANNOT "just shut them down".

The hearings will continue...



Victoria Texas
Map shows the mostly likely areas of Nuclear Contamination.



Credibility

News of how Japan is coping with the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami is beginning to come to us in bits and pieces. Photos and videos are broadcast via television. Added to the enormity of the disaster, are reports of explosions in Japanese nuclear plants.

As the world struggles with the bewilderment of such a biblical act of nature, suddenly the realization of the hazards of nuclear radiation is seeping into our consciousness as insidiously as radiation particles seep into the atmosphere when the nuclear plants vent steam. The only reference we have is the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the disaster at Chernobyl.

One hears conflicting explanations of Japan's report that 'partial meltdowns' may be taking place. The press is understandably as confused as the listening audience, so they call on 'experts' to tell us in plain English what 'meltdown' means.

The word Credibility, is being banded about suggesting Japan may not be forthcoming in telling us all, or that our own 'experts' are reluctant to say how dangerous the scale of radiation has been.

Obviously in days to come we will know the true nature of the situation but I, personally have already formed the opinion that all nuclear energy plants should be shut down.

Fukushima Daiichi No.3 "Hydrogen" explosion March 13, 2011

Decoy Autos

The evening television news reported that city police have resorted to using decoy police cars in an attempt to cut down on the number of drivers running red lights. The news reporter named most of the intersections where the cars will be located as well as several other major high traffic areas.

For some time, cameras were used to film drivers running red lights. Photos, being proof of their having done so, resulted in fines, which in turn furnished the city with hefty revenues. During the last election, the initiative to ban all traffic cameras finally won, and all the cameras have been removed. Now the police hope decoy cars will alert drivers not to speed thru intersections that 'woulda, shoulda, coulda' resulted in a traffic ticket.

Seeing a police car in the nearby vicinity of where one is driving will automatically alert one to driving hazards, and if speeding, slow down. On many occasions, I have driven miles behind a police car controlling traffic by driving the posted limit. Only when the police car veered off on an exit ramp, did any of the drivers following behind speed up from the posted limit.

In long ago days, I often drove highway 101 to and from San Francisco’s peninsula to southern California. There was a small town in the middle of a long expanse of highway that rarely had drivers stopping for gasoline, food or motel services. The highway ran along the edge of the town which posted speed limits but they were generally ignored.

One day as I drove south, I saw a 'black and white' parked at right angles to the highway so that it could be identified as a police car from some distance away. There was no question about it. A police car was waiting for a speeder. Of course I slowed down.
You can imagine my surprise to see that when I passed the 'black and white', it was only a cutout in plywood that had been painted like a police car. It was so realistic that it only became a cutout when the driver was within feet of it. It became one of my favorite things to notice as I drove thru the beautiful and changing landscape.

One of the favorite devices police use to catch and fine drivers is hiding their autos in nooks an crannies off the traditional highways and byways. The moment a driver fails to stop at a stop sign or runs a light, or when a radar gun registers speed above the allowed limit, a police siren or spotlight warns the driver to pull over to the side of the road and show his driver's license while the officer writes a ticket.

I had an experience many years ago when the above happened to me and I forgot to pay the ticket. Some weeks later I got my renewed drivers license in the mail and being in a hurry, I only glanced at it and put it in my purse. That evening I casually mentioned to visitors that the state had redesigned the new drivers license and I passed it around for them to see.

You can imagine my shock and dismay when I was told it wasn't my new license but a notice of my arrest if I didn't pay the fine!

Pierre Vivant's Traffic Light Tree
Canary Wharf London

The Best Vacation Ever by KimB

[Editor's Note: This story was written by KimB]

Mexico has many many travel and vacation spots. And even 40 years ago many of them were famous get-away locations featuring Sun, Food, Music, Entertainment and The Ocean. One of the more famous ones is Acapulco. All the movie stars from the USA went there and the magazines were full of their doings and escapades. It was THE HOT SPOT to go to and getting reservations for hotel rooms was almost impossible.

Acapulco is located about 200 miles southwest of Mexico City on the Pacific Ocean and has beautiful beaches surrounded by steep hillsides and cliffs. The La Quebrada Cliff Divers are famous for their plunges from the high cliffs surrounding the bay, timing their dives with an incoming wave. The temperature is generally hot all year round and the tropical climate is totally different from that of the high altitude of Mexico City: hot and steamy.

One day Mom came in with great news! She'd managed to snag a two week reservation for the both of us at an inexpensive hotel near one of the beaches and just a short drive up a steep winding street. We started celebrating our good fortunes and planned for a wonderful vacation on a shoe-string-budget. I wondered if I would see any Hollywood Stars and we planned sight-seeing and other activities for our trip to the famous spot.

We packed and planned and finally the day of departure came and we loaded up the van with all the things we thought we would need for our stay. And off we went. It was a long drive through jungles and flatlands and finally we came over the top of the mountain and saw Acapulco Bay. It was fantastic! We went to our hotel, checked in and started unpacking the van.

[Of course, you know an adventure is about to happen don't you?]

As we unpacked for our stay, Mom began to look for the box of books she had planned to read on our stay. But it was no where to be found and after much searching there was only one conclusion: We had left it behind. We found one old paperback and that was all there was to read. There was dismay at the thought of nothing to read for two weeks. Books were our primary source of entertainment. We had no money to go to the nightclubs and as I was only 11 years old, I couldn't go even if I wanted to.

We talked about making the long drive back to Mexico City to get books but the cost of gas would prohibit us from returning to finish our vacation. Mom was in a quandary about "What to do Percy"? At last, it was decided that we would stay and enjoy what we could and if things got too boring we would leave early.

Our hotel was perched high on a steep hillside and though we could not see the ocean we could smell the salt air and if we listened carefully we could hear the faint sounds of the waves crashing on the cliffs nearby. We had a very nice room with no air conditioning but a nice big fan and there was a hotel restaurant that served simple standard Mexican cuisine. There was a swimming pool that was shaded by large trees and during the day most of the hotel guests hung out there.

During the day it was so hot that all we wanted to do was sleep thru the heat. I discovered that most of the hotel guests left the pool around 5:00 pm to go nightclubbing or pursue other interests and I could have the pool all to myself. The water was warm from the heat of the day and it wasn't long til I persuaded Mom to come swimming late late at night. We got the hotel manager to let us keep the pool lights on and we would swim from 10 pm to 3 am. When we were finally tired of swimming and lounging we would turn the lights off as we headed back to our rooms.

Our fellow visitors were friendly and we would often be offered fresh made cold lemonade when we came out to the common patio areas. The food in the restaurant was good and I enjoyed eating many many meals there.

But the problem of the missing books was soon resolved in an unexpected manner. Because we had nothing to distract us, Siesta Time became Prime Time and boy, did we enjoy our siestas! We slept all day long, only getting up for a meal at the restaurant before it closed for the evening then napping until the night came when we went for our swim.

Sleep, Eat, Swim, Sleep, Eat, Swim, Sleep, Eat, Swim.

That was the mantra for the entire two weeks of vacation. We did make a few forays down the main boulevards and along the beaches but we didn't stay away long. The lure of our warm pool and nighttime swims was too strong.

I didn't see any Hollywood Stars but I had a wonderful time swimming in our “private pool” pretending that the hotel was our "personal villa". Mom, slept and slept and never even read the one old paperback we'd found. She had not realized how exhausted she was from all the painting she'd been doing. And after the initial shock of not having books, we both relaxed into a wonderful mental state where nothing was more important than: Sleep, Eat, Swim.

Our two weeks passed quickly, more quickly than we imagined when we first arrived. And we were both sorry to leave behind our magical experience. As we drove over the top of the mountains we stopped and looked back one more time at the beautiful landscape and bay.

Mom said, “This has been The Best Vacation Ever!”

And I couldn't have agreed with her more!

Acapulco Bay

Mrs B's 2010 PDF book is HERE!

[Editor's Post]

Mrs B's Family Stories for 2010 is now available for download in a PDF format.  All of the stories for 2010 are included.

Previous years stories are also available by the Download Link as well as the two cookbooks - one by MrsB and one by Esther!

Please feel free to download and share them with your family.

Click on the link in the download panel to get a copy.