Radio Music

The other day I walked into the kitchen to get something out of the refrigerator and heard Home on the Range being played on PBS radio. It took a moment to believe what I was hearing because it’s not the usual type of music that station plays. My kitchen radio is tuned to PBS radio and plays 24/7. Having been a listener of that station for many years I was a bit astonished. The orchestration was so lovely I paused to listen. I expected the music to end any second but as it continued, I leaned against the counter and lost myself in the arrangement. As it played I wondered what orchestra had recorded it, and hoped it would be identified when the music ended. It was the Boston symphony with Arthur Fiedler conducting.

The song brought back a sweet memory of the ‘music practice’ Esther and I had every day with Mom when she was closer to 100 than 95 years of age. The sessions started one day when I was inspired to create an activity Mom could participate in. I took her by the hand into the kitchen and sat her down at the round maple table in the middle of the room. As she got comfortable, I pretended to be a music teacher. We did some warm up breathing exercises and sang the do re me scales a couple of times, then began singing songs like Old Kentucky Home, Down In the Valley, On Top Of Old Smoky, Amazing Grace and Home On The Range.

Mom had a wonderful time so the next day we repeated the ‘lesson’. Soon we were a trio when Esther came from Baton Rouge for a visit. Between the three of us we remembered more songs and added them to our repertoire. Esther had a wonderful idea of going to the library to get song books to help us with the lyrics. We searched thru music books and made zerox copies of songs we liked, lullabies, hymns, cowboy, patriotic, and pop songs from the 40s and 50s. When Esther went back to Baton Rouge she took the copies with her and made us four duplicate song books.

There was an extra for anyone who might want to chime in. Jerry did join us once when he was visiting from Groesbeck, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover he knew all the words to many of the songs, especially the hymns we sang! Adeline took part in our daily singing sessions when she came for a long visit from California. We coaxed Dad and Charles to join in but they refused. Dad preferred watching ball games on TV and Charles sat outside under the patio umbrella which was between the kitchen door and the wood shop entrance, and talked with Pierce, a neighbor. From time to time, either Charles or Pierce would come thru the kitchen on the way to the refrigerator for another cold beer. They would make disparaging remarks about our singing, but I noticed they stopped talking when we sang certain songs, so we must have at least been carrying a tune!

Esther has an unusually fine voice and enjoys singing and listening to music although her hearing loss is becoming profound. Charles had a wonderful singing voice when he was young. He was often asked to sing solos in school pageants but those days were long gone. When I was in high school I sang alto in the girl’s glee club and even after all these years, I recall the phrase ‘the diadem of beauty reigns’ from the Waltz of the Flowers.

My taste in music is varied. I often stop in the middle of what ever I’m doing if I hear Ode to Joy and hum along with it. Aaron Copeland’s Appalachian Spring using the shaker hymn as the main thread throughout is so distinctive a melody it too is a favorite. I often tune my bedside radio to an FM station that plays oldies like Willie Nelson’s ‘Georgia’, or turn the dial to a good Jazz station. On my computer I often listen to a web station broadcasting only piano music while I’m online. Although I love the 1812 overture, and anyone playing the violin will get my attention, I do not have a good ear for music, but both my daughter and son are blessed with musical talent.

Open Range

A recent PBS TV program, a 2 year photo chronicle of a small band of wild horses in Montana, brought to mind the many times I had seen wild horses running free when traveling across the country. For some period of time after WWII, the country remained as it was before Pearl Harbor although at the war’s end, an all out effort to regain a peace time economy seeped into every facet of living.

The highway system at that time was basically a series of two lane roads connecting east and west, north and south. The west was open range country meaning there were no fences to prevent animals from crossing, walking or sleeping on the highway. It could be quite dangerous, especially when driving at night. Automobiles had only mechanical brakes and seat belts had not been invented yet. Rounding a curve at 60 miles per hour to see deer, or cattle standing in the middle of the highway only yards in front of your vehicle was a heart stopper to say the least!

Cross country travel by plane was not yet available; one chose car, bus or train. If driving and having to cross the desert, you did so at night. Departure was timed to put as many miles behind you as possible in darkness to avoid the searing heat of day. Canvas bags of water were hung on car bumpers for emergencies. Engines often over heated or fan belts broke. Prudent drivers carried ‘extras’ to cope in various situations. In the western states, towns and gas stations were few and far between. ‘Last chance’ signs on the outskirts of a town warning how many miles to the next gas stop were duly noted, rarely ignored.

Day time traffic was very light. One could drive for hundreds of miles and see only trains passing in the distance, but in the desert areas at night one would frequently see the headlights of oncoming or passing vehicles.

Traveling from west to east, scenic views comprised mountains, forests, desert and prairie. The rolling hills of Midwestern farming lands gradually gave way to towns that were increasingly nearer to each other and which eventually blended into the congestion of the great cities of New York and Philadelphia. About the second or third day on the road, one began thinking of the pioneers crossing the same landscapes but in covered wagons. We counted our blessings at the easy way we traveled compared to the hardships endured by those early settlers. It was easier, but at times tedious.

Calculations based on the visual distance of mountains were misleading. After hours of steady driving, a highway could become a monotonous ribbon narrowing to a vanishing point on the horizon. Sometimes shimmering heat mirages were projections that kept pace a few yards in front of the car disappearing only when the sun set or it rained.

The excitement of unexpected happenings during a cross country trip outweighed the boredom that sometimes crept into attitudes resulting from longs hours of sitting. Spotting a band of wild horses brought a pleasure that was twice observed; first, our surprise and delight in seeing and driving past them; second, talking about them after they were long out of sight. Occasionally we would come across the history of a particular band when we stopped at a road side café and asked about the photographs of horses and framed newspaper clippings on the wall. We took for granted that our trips would always be enlivened by seeing horses running wild, but the development of the national highway system and the ever expansion of cities and freeway businesses plus the loss of open range relegates those days to the past.

Weather and Climate Change

Global warming is certainly playing havoc with the weather! Drought, floods and heat are bringing misery to thousands. Wild fires, torrential rains, and extreme temperatures make news every day. I’ve experienced temperatures of 117 degrees which lasted several days when l lived in Palo Alto, California a few years ago, but the 128 reading in Las Vegas only days ago is a staggering record. Death Valley often records phenomenal temperatures in the 130 plus range, but as wags like to remark, “it’s a dry heat”….add a little moisture and you get a Texas summer.

In my phone and computer chats, weather conditions dominate the conversations. We compare temperatures, the cost of running the AC, and whether or not the streets are flooded where we live. Occasionally I phone Mesa Tessa to get a currant weather report from her ‘spread’ in Arizona.

In thinking of ways to conserve energy, I’m reminded that before air conditioning there were shade trees, hand held paper fans and porches with swings where one might catch a breeze however slight.

Porches are almost a thing of the past; worry about mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus causes one to forego the pleasure of rocking in a porch swing as the summer moon rises. Porches can certainly play a part in saving energy though. There is nothing like sitting in a porch swing, whiling away a hot afternoon and sipping cold lemonade. Two of the houses the family lived in had screened sleeping porches. The Victorian house in Iowa had one on the second floor. The Sky Ranch in California had a wrap around screened porch, one section given over to a row of beds, dormitory style, where anyone choosing to sleep outdoors could do so. The fragrance of the redwoods and the night time sounds of rustling leaves was the only sleeping potion needed for a good nights sleep.

Fans are electric these days. Hand held fans are no longer given away free as advertising gifts. Small individual battery fans replace the pleated Spanish fans that fold with a snap of the wrist.

Several years ago, my sister, Adeline, and I wanted to get some Spanish fans. She and I combed the malls near and far without luck. On our drive north to Mt. View, California to visit family we took a driving break and browsed a Pier One shop. In a dark corner at the back of the store we found a bin full of Spanish fans, all colors. Many were broken and of no use but the two of us bought the remaining ones. I got 7 or 8 and Adeline got the same. I gave half of mine away but those I kept have been repaired several times by trimming the white priority mailing envelopes from the Post Office to fit the fan shape and gluing it to the colored paper. Every time I use one I think of Adeline and our adventure in finding them.

Before moving to Houston, picnicking on hot summer days at the Louisiana tourist bureau and rest stop across the Texas line was always a welcome relief from stifling heat. Elevated wooden walkways circle thru the Cypress trees allowing one to look down into the backwaters of the Gulf and see rare plants and flowers native to the area.

Here in Houston there is a mesmerizing water sculpture. It’s a semi circular wall, 65 feet tall with 11,000 gallons of water per minute cascading down the sides; a most impressive sight! I enjoy going there after a scorching hot day. Lights illuminate the water from underneath and, if there is a breeze, a mist from the water fall rides the draft and creates a net over hair and clothes as you walk from one end of the wall to the other. A park of oak trees lies between the wall and the Williams Tower, owner of the wall.

Television programs on climate conditions and global warming leave me bewildered. I become enmeshed in a cycle of sympathy about what’s happening over yonder, thankful it’s not in my back yard and feeling guilty that I’m lackadaisical about saving the planet.

I HAVE replaced incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent and the new energy saving spiral bulbs. I promise not to buy any more Styrofoam plates and bowls after I use the ones I have on hand.

Sometimes I wonder what life will be like for future generations. Will earth warming be so drastic that humans won’t survive? They say anything that can be imagined can be done. If that’s so, people may live with blessings and curses. There’s bound to be medical breakthroughs and scientific discoveries, inventions of labor saving devices to ease the drudgery of work, possibly more time for pursuit of happiness, and a greater understanding of the universe. But there may also be a greater disparity between those who have and those who haven’t and the idea of a peaceful life may be at a premium paid for only by war and violence.
It’s tempting to think wonderful things will come to pass like an unending supply of energy for all of humanities’ needs, and travel to and from other planets. I don’t seriously believe it will ever happen. If the predictions of drastic climate change actually occur, however many years in the future, humanity will face catastrophic conditions just to survive.

Green Tea

Lipton’s bottled green tea with citrus flavoring, (diet style), is my favorite summer drink. I buy it by the case and drink numerous bottles of iced tea throughout the day and evening. Lately I’ve heard on the TV news that many cities are banning the use of plastic bottles for water because they damage the environment and overwhelm the land fills. The cost of producing and delivering them requires exorbitant amounts of energy and money. The same applies to the bottles used for my tea. The bulk of my own garbage consists mainly of empty plastic bottles; consequently, I’ve decided not to buy any more bottled tea. I’ll go back to brewing tea the old fashioned way.

I switched to green tea several years ago when it became a ‘must’ for good health, but I grew up in a household that only used Orange Pekoe. I remember a green tea incident caused by my younger sister, Adeline when we were around 8 or 9 years old. Mom used to let us take turns telephoning in the grocery order for home delivery. I never deviated from the list, but Adeline often added items. I don’t remember a fuss being made over the fact, probably because the items were of little consequence like the tin of corned beef she ordered because she wanted to taste it.

On this particular day, disregarding Mom’s tea preference, Adeline ordered a large box of green tea instead of the usual. The groceries came in the last delivery of the day and it was too late to re-order. There was a lot of fussing and fuming because no one liked green tea, iced or otherwise. That box of green tea remained in the cupboard for years and I doubt a cup was ever brewed.

In those halcyon days of my early childhood we had deliveries of all manner of goods. Groceries were delivered twice daily. The morning delivery was around 11 if the list had been phoned in by 10 and the afternoon delivery around 4 if the list was called in by 3 pm.

Milk was delivered to the front door step every morning. There was a standing order of so many quarts and so much cream, but when extra whipping cream or milk was needed, a note was left sticking out of the empty milk bottles which were put outside at night for the milk man to pick up the next morning. A farm woman delivered eggs and chickens.


The doctor made house calls whenever someone was sick or had an accident. In case of accident, the doctor came as quickly as he could, but if there was illness, he would see the patient on his daily rounds, or according to the seriousness of the illness. The doctor had patients scattered throughout the farming area as well as residents of the town so we never knew exactly when the doctor would come, only that he would.

The cleaners had pick up and delivery of laundry and dry cleaning although my family only sent the dry cleaning out to be done. The laundry was done at home.


The mail was delivered to the house twice a day, morning and afternoon. When a letter was ready for mailing, someone would ask if the mailman had gone by, hoping to get the letter in the mail that day.


A daily newspaper came every afternoon, but the printer had an advertiser paper with household items for sale, that was delivered once a week.

Ice was delivered every other day. A sign in the window would let the ice man know how much ice was needed. All the neighborhood kids liked to chase the ice truck and beg slivers of ice. It was great fun to chew gum and ice at the same time but the gum was often accidentally swallowed. The iceman always predicted dire happenings and gave warnings about chewing ice and gum at the same time, but he never seemed too worried and continued to give tiny chunks of ice to all the kids.

We even had a candy delivery. There was a woman who came regularly to take orders for butter brickle she made herself and would deliver on the dates Mom chose.

At the beginning of cold weather, the folks always had two large wooden barrels of apples delivered. They would last thru the winter and I made many trips to the apple barrels when Mom wanted to bake some for supper or they were wanted for after school munchies.

Projects

I’m anxious to tell you about two of my latest projects, but first I want to thank those who sent messages asking for more postings on my blog and telling me how much they’ve enjoyed reading it. It’s nice to know I have ‘fans’. I will write more frequently now that several of my projects are at a manageable stage.

Some weeks ago during a telephone conversation with Aunt Elizabeth, she was telling me about her room at the retirement facility and mentioned that she slept in the bed that had been grandma W’s. I asked if she was also using a quilt she or grandma might have made but she said no. I told her I would make her a quilt for her 93rd birthday on May 11th; one she could use when she napped. I planned to use the sewing machine to piece the top and sew the flannel backing, but would not use batting.

I had committed myself to a very tight schedule which became even tighter as I took days deciding on the pattern I would make. I also had to solve the problem of finding a table with the right height for my portable sewing machine. As luck would have it, my son found a marvelous antique drop leaf table at a local thrift shop so I didn’t have to get mine out of storage.

Because our family was among the true pioneers that helped settle the country and were homesteaders in South Dakota, I chose to do a Log Cabin for Elizabeth. Of the many quilts I’ve made, I had never pieced or quilted a Log Cabin. The blocks are made of light and dark fabric strips sewn around a small center square dividing the block into diagonals of light and dark. There are many ways to assemble the blocks of a Log Cabin quilt, each design having its own name. I chose to make the Log Cabin Star. I used five different light colored fabrics and five different dark color fabrics for the strips and red for the center square. The center color of either red or yellow represents a light or lantern in the cabin.

As the work progressed, the living room slowly lost its identity and turned into a Hodge podgy assembly area of scattered fabric strips, rotary fabric cutters, star charts, and stacks of finished and unfinished quilt blocks. All of which Mimi, the cat, believed were her new toys. At times it was a toss up of whether I was in charge or Mimi was. When the top with the center star was finished, I backed the colorful blocks with soft pink flannel and got it in the mail just in time for it to be delivered the day before Elizabeth’s birthday.

I wasn’t able to reach Elizabeth by phone on the day of her birthday. The following day I received a phone call from a son telling me she had suffered a stroke on her birthday and that she had not seen the quilt before the stroke. I send loving thoughts to her every day and pray she regains a measure of health so we can continue our phone chats. I miss them.

While browsing the thrift shop for a sewing table, I spotted a lovely necklace in the glass case by the cashier. I knew immediately what it was and asked if I could see it. I had seen a PBS television program the night before on Pearls and recognized a type of elongated pearl that is becoming rare due to the pollution of the waters in Japan where the pearls are found. It was a stunning necklace and I bought it for a ridiculously low price.


Off and on through the years I enjoyed beading but never worked with pearls, but now I decided to learn how pearls were knotted and to make necklaces for myself and members of the family.

I started by going to the library and reading everything I could find on the subject. The next step was practicing on imitation glass pearls. The overhand knot is simple but the trick is to know when, where and how to tighten it. The knot is important, but learning the tricks of fastening necklace clasps equally so. Undoing a bad knot is a hassle and I quickly learned that total concentration is a must. Once I spent an untold amount of time undoing a knot in the middle of a string then making a bad knot in the place I had just untied one! It’s easy to let your mind wander when the rhythm of knotting verges on rote.

The trip to the bead store to buy real pearls was a delight. The clerk was patient and willing to answer all my questions. I bought 5 strands of varying colors and sizes. I had never seen the process done and the only photo I could find on knotting was one on the internet showing how the cord was tied in an over hand knot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so undaunted and treading where angels fear to go, I started creating necklaces. My first failure came after knotting about a dozen pearls. Because of a bad knot that resisted all my efforts to untie it, I had to cut each pearl from the cord and start anew. I’m please to report that I finished all five necklaces without further problems. When I showed them to the clerk at the bead store he told me I had done a very good job of knotting. I’m giving these necklaces away and I’m already busy knotting the next batch of pearl necklaces.

Catch Up News

It’s been a while since I’ve written in my blog so thought I’d better post something or everyone will assume I’ve been subjected to another disaster similar to Rita.

During this past year my daily routines have settled into a comfortable pace that suits me. I’m becoming accustomed to apartment living in Houston. My computer and telephone keep me in touch with the latest activities of the young as well as the older family members. MimiCat and I share the apartment, but she lets me believe I’m the boss. She has had her ‘fix it’ surgery and has matured into a dainty lady, albeit a mischievous one at times.

I recently had to take all her toys and boxes away so we could accommodate my sister, E, when she came from Baton Rouge to visit for a week. E. has to use oxygen around the clock and the 50 foot oxygen tube and her walker was hazard enough without catnip mice and pretend cave boxes being in the way.

My son helped me choose furniture and decorations that would make Esther’s room as attractive and comfortable as possible because I hoped to entice her back for a longer visit. I may have succeeded. She plans to visit again the last of April. We devoted one day to shopping. C., E.’s daughter, was kind enough to be our chauffeur. We browsed a needlepoint shop and fabric store to our hearts content. Besides the purchases from the needlepoint shop, we bought Muumuu patterns and appropriate fabrics for our sewing projects that never seem to end. The three of us had a late, leisurely lunch at a Chinese café and the Fortune cookie comments made us laugh as they seemed to hint the truth about each of us.

Perhaps the following bits of news might be of interest to those of the family who have settled far and wide.

Aunt El. has been moved from southern California to a facility in Idaho. The move allows her to have more frequent family visits. She is in fairly good health and we chat often on the phone. She will be 93 on May 11th. She is the last member of Mom’s family that has known me all my life. There is something special about having a relative who has known you from the day of your birth to the present. It’s a delight to reminisce with her and she often clarifies bits of our family history.

A. phones frequently from California. Researching the source of his name shows it to be a form of ‘John’. He recently had heart by pass surgery and is recuperating nicely.
I often have long phone conversations with Mesa Tessa in Arizona. Yesterday she told me she had planted another tree, one that will produce several types of pears. Her orchard is comprised of various types of fruit; all dwarf trees, some beginning to bloom.
G., in Iowa, a veteran of WWII, tells me of his visits to the VA hospital. He and I discuss the national economy and political affairs and bemoan fact that the country is going to Hell in a hand basket.

E. in Louisiana chats of beading, quilting, recipes, books, and her medical appointments. She and I have a running dialog about her position as campaign manager if I run for president. If laughter is the best medicine, we won’t have to refill our prescriptions for quite a while!

D. H. emails wonderfully interesting and thought provoking photo articles and videos which I pass on to D. A..

M. in Mt. View, tells me about treasures found at thrift shops and the latest gig of D.’s band.

And so it goes. My routines rarely vary, but I add projects and squeeze them in between projects underway. The latest addition is gardening. The Strawberry plants in hanging baskets that I ordered have arrived. I hope they will produce berries like the catalog pictures. I also plan to have several containers growing tomato plants. As hope springs eternal, I hope to pick fresh tomatoes during the growing season!

Substitutes

Americans love substitutes. We accept them, we create them, and we approve of them. Our national economy thrives on them. Even our national security depends on them. Our daily lives are influenced by substitutes from the time we wake up in the morning to when we go to sleep at night. We even have a substitute for time called daylight saving time. Our language is full of substitutes. We shorten words to the barest minimum of characters which can still give meaning to our thoughts. Thx, ok, ty, ttfn, wtg are examples. We substitute nick names for real ones. We often use letters of the alphabet as a substitute for names of people such as FDR and OJ or grocery stores called H.E.B. Our government uses abbreviated words and letters to denote agencies.

We have even found a way to substitute some foods for the real thing. Splenda is a substitute for sugar. Canola oil is a chemical substitution for some oils. We patronize restaurants that give substitute choices for things on their menus.

Substitute teachers are part of our education system. We are constantly in search of new ways to substitute money. We went from substituting paper for coins to banking with checks, then graduated to plastic and currently we are attempting to substitute online services to replace the tangible substitutes in use now.

Our clothing is comprised of synthetics which are substitutes for wool, cotton and silk. Vinyl replaces leather. Our residences are partially built and decorated with synthetic woods and stones. Television and radio have substitute hosts. Pharmacies often substitute one medicine for another. The National Guard is a substitution used to augment the army. Injured soldiers are given substitute arms and legs to replace those lost. Doctors routinely transplant substituted organs for defective ones. We keep ourselves comfortable in substituted climates of heating and air conditioning.

Undoubtedly there are many more examples but these are just a few that crossed my mind when I watched a television commercial for Capital One credit card. It’s really amazing that we are so unaware of how the culture of our time is developing or that rules of American society are predicated on substitutions.

See Internet abbreviations at:
http://www.pulpchat.com/faq/faq215.php
See Government Acronyms at:
http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/subjectareas/gov/docs_abbrev.html
See Ingredient Substitutions at:
http://www.e-cookbooks.net/ingresub.htm
See a document listing Drug Substitutions at:
www.wiba.org/pdf/insurance/prescription/2006_formulary_list.pdf

Concoctions

I just finished making one of my food concoctions. I poured 1 cup boiling water over sugar free lime Jello and when it had cooled, added non fat plain yogurt until I liked the color. I figure that since I like lime Jello and yogurt regardless of fat content it will be edible. I usually follow tried and true recipes when cooking, but when I make concoctions, I never know how they will turn out. If possible I like to combine colors first and worry about taste later. Of course this tendency leads to lots of failures, but sometimes I get lucky. Occasionally I get nods of approval, and on occasion I even get rave comments, but when I have a failure, it’s usually colossal.

Examples of color combinations are juicy oranges, cucumber slices and red onion rings or tossed pieces of cantaloupe, pineapple chunks, green seedless grapes, and ham cubes with ginger ale poured over all.

I am not the cook my mother was. I learned how to make many of the recipes she made for the family but I don’t have the touch of creativity that she had in the kitchen. She could throw things together and call it her ‘Thunder’, and have people lining up for seconds. My brother, Mickey, followed in her footsteps when it came to food. His two passions were listening to opera and gourmet cooking. My sister Esther has Mom’s highly developed sense of taste but she doesn’t exercise it on a variety of foods. She is not adventuresome when it comes to trying new dishes or foreign foods.

I’m lucky to have my son as my taster when I make concoctions. When I tell him that I’ve just made something worth his attention, would he like to taste, he always asks what it’s called, (obviously a sneaky way to find out the ingredients). Often times I would rather not say, but knowing his dislike of certain foods, I either tell him or give hints.

Recently I came up with a concoction that was several days in the making. I had stored some bollixed up cream cheese frosting in the fridge and was trying to decide whether to throw it out or try to make something with it. I had not measured quantities and the mess had gotten too sweet and slightly discolored from too much vanilla.

In a moment of brilliance I thought of mixing it with peanut butter. I started with globs of peanut butter and kept adding and tasting but the mixture never lost its blandness. I put it in the fridge for a few days while I pondered how best to use it.

A week later I was on the verge of tossing it in the garbage when another moment of brilliance hit. I decided to make carrot muffins from a box mix and frost them with the cheese mixture. Because I had put only a small amount of batter in each cup as a base for the frosting, they looked rather skimpy after baking. I heaped more frosting mixture on each muffin and re-baked them. When I finally quit fooling around with them, they actually looked quite appetizing. When I phoned my son and said I had made something for him he asked what it was… I just said ‘my thunder’. He did say later that they were very good, a little sweet, but good.

Happy New Year

Good bye to the year 2006. Welcome to 2007. I always have high hopes at the beginning of a new year, but I never have concrete wishes for anything specific. It’s just a nebulous feeling that the days to come will bring an ease to the country’s difficulties and to quote Porgy and Bess, hope that “living is easy”.

I make resolutions up the kazoo. I make a list of things I should do and things I might want to do. I jot them down on scrap paper until the list numbers between 10 and 15. It may take a day or two to make the list, but by New Year’s Day, the list is complete and I write them out on a nice sheet of paper and put it in a place where I’ll see it from time to time. I actually keep some of the resolutions.

One resolution I make every year and the one I always keep, is DO SOMETHING I HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE. It doesn’t have to be world shaking, expensive, extraordinary or conformist but without fanfare and accomplished before the year is over. Among these resolutions I’ve had my ears pierced, raised chickens and sold eggs, took up the violin, passed the FCC exam and became a ham radio operator, and started this blog.

For many years I’ve been content to stay home, read a book and watch the TV coverage of fireworks celebrations around the globe while waiting for the ball to fall in New York. As a child of 8, I remember trying to stay awake but was too sleepy to wait until midnight so Mom served me strawberry Jello with whipped cream and helped me to bed.

The year that I was in the 5th grade, my family was at grandma W’s house on New Year’s Eve. H.O., Paul and George, my uncles who were only several years older than I, wanted to see the New Year in while sledding down the hill near grandma’s house. It was a bitterly cold night; the snow was deep and still falling. Every little while one of us would run back to the house to get warmed up a bit, have some hot cocoa and cookies, and then come running back to have turns with the sleds. George and I often did the runs together; one of us steering the sled and the other, running and pushing as hard as they could then jumping on top of the one steering for the icy two block ride down to the bottom of the hill. I still have a scar on my leg from the run that finished the sledding for that night. George and I slammed head long into the telephone pole at the bottom of the hill! George got a bloody nose and was yelling to beat the band. He was helped up the hill by Paul and H.O. who thought he was badly hurt because of all the blood. They left me behind and I had to limp to the house by myself. My leg had been caught between the sled and the pole and I could hardly walk. George and I chatted on the phone yesterday reminiscing about that night and I still lay a guilt trip on him for steering into the pole.

One New Year’s Eve at the Sky Ranch, when Esther and Vern and my husband and I were newly weds, we played a trick on Mom by pretending to have made her a strong alcoholic drink. We had only mixed 7up and ginger ale but told her it had a splash of whisky. Mom rarely if ever drank anything alcoholic but we convinced her that she might get tipsy. As the clock got closer to midnight, Mom actually began to be light hearted and gay and was laughing a lot. We were certain she was drunk, but later she told us that she was pretending to be high so the joke was on us!

Tomorrow afternoon, January 1st 2007, I plan to attend a ‘virtual’ New Years party on my computer. In ‘A Tale in the Desert’, the internet game I play, the avatars, Shuofthefieryheat, Kalateth, and iziz, are throwing a party for members of their guild to celebrate the finished landscaping of their palace gardens and to commemorate the coming year. Gorgeous flowers and banners decorate the rooms and atriums. Fountains and two obelisks make the palace unique. There will be wine tasting, Hookah smoking and much mingling of avatars. We’ll gossip and exchange wishes for a Happy New Year. A large display of fireworks is planned to anoint 2007 and bring it in with style.

I want to wish all my readers a Happy New Year. May all your wishes and good intentions come to fruition and flourish in peace.

December 23, 2006

It’s Saturday, the eve of Christmas Eve, 2006 and I’m looking forward to Christmas day. This year my holiday spirit culminated in a baking spree. Instead of making Sugar Plums this year, I decided to give presents of old fashioned filled cookies, date bars, rum balls, cranberry bread, two kinds of oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. Still on the baking list is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, sugar cookies with colored sugar topping, and cherry pie. If I have any energy left I hope to make a lemon crème pie.

The recipes are the same ones Mom used during the years when I, along with my brothers and sisters were growing up and still at home. My sister, Esther, and I have been reminiscing about past Christmases during our instant messaging chats and she reminded me of the Burnt Sugar Cakes, the Devil’s Food Cakes with Boiled Frosting and the Upside Down Pineapple Cakes and the Coconut Cream Pies Mom used to make. We marvel that they were all baked in a wood/coal burning stove, not a gas or electric stove.

Christmas cards always add to my holiday spirit especially when there is news of a new baby in a favorite cousin’s life. Email photos of those near and dear, sent to celebrate the season, bring memories of past Christmases. TV stories of holiday travel delays remind me of long ago when I tramped thru falling snow with presents to put under the tree.

What fun it is to remember the myriad decorated trees I’ve had over the years. One year, when I lived in California, I returned a tree to the Christmas tree lot, demanding a replacement. I had purchased the tree around supper time when the night air was turning cold and misty with dampness, but the lights strung around the enclosure of the tree lot created an ethereal quality as Christmas music played and people laughed and browsed among the trees. I chose a tall, bushy fir and waited for the helper to nail on a wooden stand then went home to trim it.

After the tree had been decorated, it suddenly fell over, scattering decorations in all directions. I stood the tree up again, but before I could finish putting the ornaments back on the tree, it tipped over again. The stand had been nailed on crookedly and I had no way of fixing it. Never the less, I put the tree in a corner with ornaments hanging only on the front branches. When the tree fell over a third time, I removed the tinsel and other trimmings, put the tree in the car and drove back to the tree lot. I gave the tree back to the helper who had sold it to me and demanded another tree with a good stand. I think I must be the only person in the world who ever returned a Christmas tree!

I already know what my presents are but that doesn’t take away my excitement for Christmas day. I’ll be having a wonderful dinner with my son and hear the voices of loved ones as they phone with glad tidings and wish us good cheer. I wish the same for all my readers. May each of you enjoy the season with joy and tranquility. Perhaps the wish we all have in our hearts, Peace and the end to the war in Iraq will be realized.

Update on Miss Mimi

Miss Mimi is leaving kitten hood behind and becoming a cat ‘teenager’. She’s learning to use her wiles and kittenish charms to get her way. I’m not positive that she knows her name, but I suspect she knows it when it suits her. We are learning and adjusting to each other’s routines. I’m becoming familiar with cat behavior which is both amusing and destructive if one isn’t aware that curiosity is a cat’s middle name.

My first awareness came when I discovered the cord used to charge my cell phone had been chewed in two as well as the wires of the house phone. The cost of replacement and repair was a signal to cat proof wires by wrapping them with Radio Shack tape designed for that purpose. Mimi is still teething but chewing is giving way to other pastimes.

Her curiosity knows no bounds. I often catch her eyeing something she has noticed for the first time. She likes to pounce, stalk and wrestle. She is teaching herself how to catch mice and fight off enemies. Her favorite play is jumping in and out of her cardboard boxes or paper bag, and protecting the toys she has placed in them, then jumping out to claim victory over some imagined prey. In the morning after she eats, she gets hyper and likes to race from room to room checking on all the secret nooks and crannies she has found. She lurks around corners for imagined prey and constantly faces danger in the protection of her toys.

Mimi purrs while she sleeps. She likes to be on my lap especially in the morning while I sip coffee and watch the morning TV news. She snuggles into a crook in my arm and purrs away and sleeps until the news is over. If she’s not on my lap while I’m sitting with my feet on the ottoman, she leans against my legs and relaxes into a purring sleep.

She is constantly aware of where I am and follows me from room to room. If I’m in my bedroom working on the computer, she curls up on the bed and sleeps or grooms her long fur. If the light bothers her while sleeping, she moves to the closet and stretches out in the shadow of my granny dresses.

Mimi has several favorite sleeping places if my lap is not available. The higher the look out spot, the happier she is. The window ledge by far is the one chosen most often, but she also likes the glass table near the TV where I keep all manner of things at my finger tips like the ‘whodunnit’ I’m reading, pencils, cell phone, reading glasses, Kleenex and a small bottle of sanitizer. A chair with a stack of pillows is always a favorite. The other day I found her sleeping in the bathroom sink!

December 7, 2006

On waking this morning, I realized that it was December 7th, the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I wondered if any TV news programs would mention it considering the non-stop coverage of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq study that was announced to the public yesterday. The study is a bi-partisan effort to help the administration find a new course in foreign policy that allows our troops to exit Iraq.

This evening NBC did show a minute of the ceremonies in Pearl Harbor. This will be the last observance since so few veterans are still alive to attend. It took me a few moments to comprehend the meaning of that statement. I don’t think of myself as being in that age group, but of course, I am.

We learned of the attack by the Japanese when Dad went to see who was ringing the door bell. It was a boy I had been dating. He was shouting something about the country being attacked and handed Dad a brace of pheasants. He, his father and brother had been pheasant hunting that morning and on their way home they heard the news on the radio. They stopped by the house only long enough to give us the pheasants and tell us the news. When we heard the shouting, most of the family quickly gathered to see what the commotion was about and we stood there with our mouths open, looking from the boy to the pheasants and tried to make sense of what he was saying. They were in a hurry to get home and tell his family, but we kept him from leaving just long enough to tell us again that an island called Pearl was being bombed.

The minute the boy left, we turned on the radio. None of us had ever heard of Pearl Harbor and the only island we knew about was called Hawaii which was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Why would anyone bomb that? The news was sketchy at most. After President Franklin D Roosevelt spoke to the nation, the situation was clearer but we had no idea how our lives would change from that point on.

Before Pearl Harbor, when we went to movies, we saw newsreels of the war on the Russian front, the fighting in Spain, the Japanese in China, but the attack on Hawaii caused a wave of patriotism that permeated the very soul of this country and lasted until both Hitler and Japan was defeated.

I got a job in an aircraft company and Mom went to work in an ammunition factory. Family members and school friends began to wear uniforms of various branches of service. Rationing of certain food stuffs and gasoline quickly became the norm. War bonds in various denominations were goals that even small school children aspired to own. Women began to fill jobs held by men who went into the army or navy. Suddenly the depression was over and there were jobs with higher wages than before the war. People moved to cities and states where the jobs were. Hitchhiking was common and people went out of their way to give hikers a ride when possible. WW II changed the country in profound ways. Those days of trust and innocent peace no longer exists.

Today the country is obsessed with salvaging some kind of solution to our involvement in Iraq. We can all see the writing on the wall, but we don’t want to accept the decision that seems most practical, which in my opinion is, declare victory and come home. The Iraq war has already lasted longer than WW II. Since this will be the last time WW II veterans will meet, it won’t be long before Iraq veterans can start commemorating their battles until they are too old and too few. Is it possible this country is destined to have an ensuing batch of veterans taking their place?

Shooting Stars

If the sky is clear tonight, the meteor shower known as the Leonids will be visible. I won’t be able to see them but I’ve seen the shower known as the Delta Aquarids which is visible during July 15th to August 15th, and the shower, Perseids which is seen from July 25th to August 18th.

Shortly after the war when Mom and Dad owned the Sky Ranch on King’s Mountain in California, the family, with the exception of my sister who lived with her husband in New York, lived at the Sky Ranch. My husband and I with our baby son lived in a small cabin on the grounds and a sister and her husband and baby daughter lived in another small building we called the ‘Chuck Wagon. Mom and Dad with my younger brothers lived in the main building.

At the end of the day, we usually gathered at Mom and Dad’s to share our day’s experiences. In the winter time we sat around the huge fireplace, but on summer nights we generally sat outdoors until bed time, enjoying the wonderful fragrance of the trees and the soft mountain air.

The meteor shower usually took us by surprise. One of us would spot a shooting star and make a wish. As they began streaking across the sky, we were filled with wonderment at the display. The night sky would be filled with glowing meteors that continued to delight us for several hours before the stunning display would dwindle to only a few. The showers created evenings of magic for us, and we made secret wishes. During the nights of the annual showers, the beauty was repeated each night. The sight of so many flaming meteors in the sky at the same time was always a thrill.

50 Years

50 years and counting! My brother R and his wife F, who live in California, recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. R has the distinction of being the only one of my brothers and sisters to celebrate this anniversary so far. R and F’s daughter A and her husband N, hosted a dinner party at their home in honor of the occasion. I was unable to attend but A sent photos showing everyone having a great time.

R and F are grandparents to J 14 and W 17. I have never met the boys, but they have winning smiles in the photos. A grows more beautiful as the years pass; she and N are blessed to have such handsome sons.

Being the oldest of eight children, I have memories of each sibling as they joined the family. R, the 7th child, was an adorable blond baby. I often changed his diaper when he was a toddler. Because R was always curious, we children helped Mom keep an eye on him so he wouldn’t get into to trouble.

One day, after school, as I walked into the house, I smelled a strange medicinal odor and the house was unusually quiet. As I walked thru the downstairs rooms I thought it strange that Mom was no where to be found. As I started to push back the sliding wooden doors into one of the rooms, Dad came to the door and told me Dr. Wray was with R; there had been an accident. Before he disappeared back inside the room, he asked me to help keep the smaller children quiet until the Dr. was finished.

We sat quietly at the dining room table and shushed each other as we wondered what kind of accident could have happened. After Dr. Wray left the house, the folks told us what had occurred. Mom was doing the laundry and was washing a load in her new Maytag washing machine. It had an electric wringer that squeezed the water out as the clothes were fed thru the rubber rollers. While she was upstairs gathering dirty clothes, R climbed on a chair and got his arm caught in the wringer. His arm had passed thru the rubber rollers all the way to his shoulder. Rather than stopping, the rollers continued to spin. His screams brought Mom, who quickly released the mechanism, but the damage to his soft baby tissue was severe.

The Dr. came every day to change bandages. R was confined to bed for months. When he was well enough to be out of bed, he had to learn to walk all over again. My sister AM and I often took turns with Mom and Dad holding his hand as he tottered around the room. We had to be careful not to let him fall and hurt his arm. As the wounds healed, we kids often asked him to show us his arm. Gradually the scars began to fade and look less hideous. Eventually, R was able to use his arm as naturally as if there had never been an accident.

R was always eager to join in what ever activity the rest of us were involved in. He lived in the swimming pool in the hot Iowa summers and played in the snow during the cold Iowa winters. When we lived on the asparagus farm, he went to a one room country school. During WWll the family moved to California and settled on the San Francisco Peninsula. R and F also chose to make their home in the vicinity, as has A and N.

The years have passed in a flash but it seems only yesterday I attended R and F’s wedding and reception. It’s nice to know they have prospered, enjoy congenial friends and remain in good health. I congratulate and wish them continued happiness as they begin the next 50 years.

Veteran’s Day

As Mary, my sister-in-law, and I chatted on the phone yesterday, our conversation centered on memories of family and relatives who had fought in American wars. She told me about her father who fought in World War 1. He had been gassed while fighting in the Ardennes. When the gas attack began, he was able to quickly dig a hole under a fallen and decaying tree, crawled in and covered himself as best he could. Later when he thought it safe enough he left the burrow he had made and the first thing he saw was a soldier friend laying near by, killed by the gas. He was taken in by a French family that cared and nursed him for a short time. The family had a small daughter named Bernice and years later, Mary’s father named his first daughter Bernice after the youngster.

Mary, who grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, and I, across the state in Iowa Falls, recalled how we were taught to observe Veteran’s Day. If November 11th was a school day, we were ushered into the assembly hall to stand quietly. When the Principal announced the time as being exactly 11 o’clock, we bowed our heads in total silence for one whole minute. It wasn’t called Veteran’s Day, but Armistice Day. After the silent prayer, students were allowed to go home since school was in session for only half a day.

During WWII my family had members in all services, Army, Navy, Waves, Marines, Air Force and the Merchant Marines. They fought in India, Europe, Germany, France, England, Pacific Islands, and on Atlantic voyages to and from the Soviet Union. War news was constantly on one’s mind. Each time I watch a war movie, I recall memories of anxiety and dread as family and friends waited for war news to be headlined.

Last night I watched the movie Patton on TV. I’ve seen the film many times but last night’s viewing seemed to have romanced the battles for territory as competition for prestige and glory was played out between the ambitious generals, Patton and Montgomery each trying to reach Berlin first. I wondered if jealousy existed between the generals we have in Iraq and if so, how it might be affecting the troops.

To days TV news clips showed impressive ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery and at the Wall dedicated to those who died in Vietnam. Observances through out the country paid tribute to all the veterans living and dead that have served this country. I was especially moved by a story of a young 15 year old girl who played taps on her bugle during one of the many ceremonies. The 24 notes were played beautifully and perfectly. Afterward she told a reporter she believed those who died fighting for this country were due the honor of a real person playing taps rather than recorded ones.

Miss Mimi

Miss Mimi is a kitten. Her long Persian fur is cream color with dark brown points. Her eyes are blue. She has “come to my house to stay while I wash the cups and saucers and brush the crumbs away.” * Thanks to the Hope Volunteer group, she has been vetted and is ready to be a house cat after being rescued from a degrading future life on the streets, starvation or getting killed by a car.

Miss Mimi is one of 4 kittens born to a calico cat hardly out of kitten hood herself. One day the mother cat appeared in the apartment parking lot during rainy weather and took refuge as best she could. She was obviously in a ‘family way’. Her cries of hunger brought results when ‘B’, a tenant who owned a beautiful dark brown Siamese, took pity on her and put food out for her. Personally, I thought the animal control people should be notified but softer hearts prevailed. Even the landlord thought keeping her around the place to ward off rats and mice was a good idea. ‘B’ named her Suzie Q.

When the kittens, 3 cream colored and 1 black, made their appearance, tenants discussed the future of the mother and the babies. It was decided that spaying was a priority. ‘B’ researched the whys and wherefores and discovered that the Hope Agency would vet the mother and kittens free of charge. I was one of the tenants that chose to adopt a kitten and I chose the alpha female.

Having a pet cat that uses a litter box is a new experience for me. The cats I’ve known have all been indoor/outdoor cats. During the years Dad worked repairing antiques in his wood shop, he often adopted a stray cat that would become his special pet. They would ride on his shoulder half curled around the back of his neck and purr while Dad went about his work.

Miss Mimi has been a house cat for two days and is adjusting nicely to the apartment. Her natural curiosity is leading her to new discoveries. Gone are the trees, shrubs, grass, pavement, bricks and dirt under the building where she hid with the other kittens when people came too close. Now she walks on carpet, is surrounded by television pictures, telephone rings, on and off electric light, pillow cushions, window ledges, and secret dark hiding places behind doors and in closets and most important of all, a litter box. No more little insects to taste or chameleons to catch. Now it’s a ball of yarn, catnip and lots and lots of petting. Time will tell if I own a cat, or if a cat owns me.


* From the poem, Little Orphan Annie by James Whitmore Riley which can be read at the following address: http://www.judyn.trest.com/OrphanAnnie.html

War

Results of War, the threat of War and actual War has lurked in my life for all of my 84 years. From the time I was curious enough to ask ‘what and why’, I’ve heard of War. As a very young child, when I saw men with missing arms or walking with crutches because a leg was missing, I was told they had been in the war. On more than one occasion I saw men without legs sitting on boards similar to the skate boards of today. Being only a few inches above the sidewalk, the men propelled themselves along by pushing with their arms. I never saw them talking to people I knew; they were strangers passing thru town and I never knew from where they came or where they were going.

I have a vivid memory of an ex soldier creating mud sculptures on the river bank under a small bridge. After neighbor children excitedly told of a man making mud figures down by the river, my sister Adeline and I raced to join the crowd watching as the artist created mud soldiers in uniform with guns. The audience whispered appreciative comments about the details of the sculpture as they circled around to get a better view or drop money in a hat. No one asked the man’s name or where he was from. He was another ex- soldier passing thru town.

Adeline and I often visited our Girl Scout leader’s house and saw the photograph of her father in his Army uniform. In the large black and white photo, he stood straight and tall with his gun by his side. The man in the photo was quite different from the man we knew who wore overalls and went to work every day. We were always curious and asked what it had been like when he was in the war. Dad had been too young to fight in the war, but he and his brother showed their patriotism by getting American flag tattoos on their arms. They did so without permission but Grandma and Grandpa A had to accept the ‘fait accompli’.

I was in the third grade when I started reading the newspaper and browsing the photos. A great deal of the news was over my head but I skimmed headlines and read captions under photos. When the war photos of Japan and China began to appear in the paper I studied the pictures with curiosity. When Mom asked me to gather all the old newspapers and bundle them, I took time to sort thru the pages and look at war pictures. I remember asking Mom if she thought we would ever have a war in our own country.

In the lower grades at school we learned about the Civil War. Because Mom came from the North and Dad’s family were Southerners, the drama of freeing the slaves took a prominent place in our imaginations. Our childish perception of the War Between the States came from Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation Emancipation along with stories of the Underground Railroad and songs like My Darling Nellie Grey.

Comprehension of the Civil War became more profound as we got older. Our family history is deeply rooted in that struggle since we had members fighting on both sides of the conflict. One year, during Dad’s three week vacation, Grandma and Grandpa A. and uncle ‘Bus’ from Middlesboro, Kentucky, took us to see the old family plantation in Virginia. I was 15 years old and in high school at the time. I joined the adults in meandering the grounds and woods while the younger kids headed for a wide creek at the bottom of a small hill. The slave cemetery, enclosed with a wooden railing, was small, only 4 or 5 graves, but it made a big impression on me. Grandma’s father, Caleb, had been born on the place. He had been taken prisoner as a confederate soldier and sent up the Ohio River to a military camp. He later escaped and hid in a cave for three days before getting to safety.

I was still in high school during Italy’s war with Ethiopia and the Spanish Civil War. Volumes have been written about the devouring of Europe by Germany, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the years of WWII. The horrors of war were finally behind us but peace agreements were no sooner signed, than we went to war with Korea, then Vietnam. The first Iraq war was a prelude to the Iraq war we are now embroiled in. The Muslim attack on the World Trade Center in New York was the beginning of our War with Afghanistan which continues as we fight the Iraqis. I would not be at all surprised if there weren’t plans afoot for a war with Iran and another with North Korea. After all these wars, is it any wonder that I have become anti-war?!!

Weather

The weather has always been a topic of conversation; probably because it affects us generally as well as personally. It’s always with us, there’s no getting away from it. You can’t change it. It just IS. Weather comes in cycles and I think about it the same way. It certainly has my attention when warning reports of severe climate changes are due, but I barely acknowledge it when days of pleasant weather continue repeating.

I do take notice of particularly fine days when the air is soft and breezes balmy. I enjoy brisk, cold but sunny days that seduce one into long walks. Fog can be spell binding and mysterious while fresh fallen snow is often a delight.

Floods, cyclones, hurricanes, sand storms, drought and ice storms are the dreaded weather patterns of destruction. I’ve never been in a flood, but I remember how concerned my parents were in 1936 when the Ohio flooded Louisville, Kentucky where Dad’s parents and other family members lived. From Iowa where we lived, we listened intently during each radio broadcast describing the situation. Fortunately, none of the family suffered direct flooding. Later when we visited Grandma and Grandpa A., aunts, uncles and cousins in Louisville, Uncle Alvin showed us water marks on buildings in the flooded area indicating how high the water reached.

Back about the time I was in the 3rd or 4th grade, I woke one morning to find Mom and Dad along with several neighbors looking at Mom’s new ringer washing machine lying on the grass in the back yard. It had been on the back porch, but during the night, a cyclone blew thru the area. The wind took off the porch roof and one of the side walls and pushed the washing machine almost into the neighbor’s yard. Cyclone became a new word in my vocabulary.

I once experienced a sand storm when my daughter and I were driving toward a border crossing on our way to Mexico. The pinging sound of sand against the metal and windshield of the Corvair van I was driving grew louder as the sand got thicker. I had heard stories uncle Chester told of sand pitting the windshield and taking paint off his vehicle, and I worried that it would happen to the van if we continued driving. I looked for a safe place to park the van so the windshield could be pointed in the opposite direction of the blowing sand, but there weren’t any places to pull off the highway. Obscured vision required driving slowly, but eventually we passed thru the sand storm with little damage to either paint or glass.

The drought during the depression certainly helped to give my early years a universality of understanding the human condition. Day after day the sun shone with never a rain cloud in sight. The radio news of weather was anxiously awaited by farmers and town people alike. Newspaper accounts and photos of withering corn and wheat fields, of dirt clouds blotting out the sun and farmers pulling up stakes and leaving behind what they couldn’t strap to their model T fords as they headed west to better climes, are childhood memories still vivid in my mind.

Ice storms are exquisitely beautiful. The brilliance of sun reflecting off ice crystals is so sharp it’s brittle. Where fog obscures and hides, ice coats and delineates shape and size. When the weight of ice on tree branches make them break, the cracking sound is like a gun shot, quick and piercing. The freeze often causes undo hardship when there are broken water pipes, downed electrical and phone wires and icy highways. A few years ago I lived thru an ice storm in Texas that caused an eight day electrical outage. I don’t know which is worse, an outage of long duration or broken water pipes and being last on a plumber’s ‘fix it’ list.

I have saved old letters from family members who lived on farms in the Midwest and in the south. Along with their state of health, they always mentioned weather, the state of the crops and the wish that good harvest weather would hold. Aunt Lily, who lived in Nebraska, also described her kitchen garden and told how many jars of fruit and veggies she was canning.

Because the family is so far flung, I have devised a way of using daily weather temps to let me know how those near and dear to me start their day. On my computer home page I have a long list of the following cities with daily a.m. temps: Houston, TX; Hollister, CA; Baton Rouge, LA; Groesbeck, TX; Santa Clara, CA; Oskaloosa, IA; Canton, GA; Yuma, AR; Paulden, AR; Mt. View, CA; Long Beach, CA; Buena Park, CA; Norwood, MO; Lancaster, CA; Loma Linda, CA

Bees

There was a news story on TV last night about a small child having her birthday party ruined by a swarm of bees settling in the midst of the invited guests. A photograph showed a large swarm of approximately 20, 000 bees. I wouldn’t have been able to guess the number of bees, but I thought the swarm looked enormous in the picture.

When our family lived on the asparagus farm, Dad was always sending for the free government booklets on subjects he was interested in and the whole family enjoyed reading them as much as he did. After reading a booklet on bees, Mom and Dad decided raising bees was a plausible endeavor since we lived in the country and had acres of red raspberries, black berries, and strawberries as well as fields of corn and the huge gardens we planted every year.

Dad began reading and studying how to raise bees. He sent for catalogs offering queen bees and related equipment for sale, and as he thumbed thru he pages, he got all of us children involved in the project of choosing which strain of queen bee we should buy. We became quite knowledgeable about bees and how to care for them.

The first bees were purchased from a South Carolina company and it wasn’t long before the several hives we started with increased to a dozen or more. Every evening when Dad got home from the office, we kids helped him check the hives. He wore long sleeves and a hat with gauze draped over it that protected him from bee stings, but as time passed, he became comfortable working with the bees using only the smoker. A few puffs of smoke caused the bees to keep their distance when he checked the honey frames inside the hives.

Dad did get stung on occasion but the bees were quite docile unless provoked. Even the smallest children walked along side dad as he used the smoker and rarely got a bee sting.
I don’t remember how many frames were in each hive but when one was filled with honey it was replaced with an empty frame for the bees to fill. The hives were placed some distance in back of the house and beyond the long rows of berry bushes separating the asparagus fields from the field corn. The ground inclined slightly and we could see the hives from one corner of the back yard.

One summer day one of the smaller children spotted bees starting to swarm and sounded the alarm. We all raced up the hill hoping to catch it. Dad had told us that tossing clods of dirt into the air among the bees would often cause them to settle near the old hive and we might be able to retrieve it. In that case, he would be able to move it into a hive when he came home from the office.

We three older ones, Adeline, Mickey and I, tossed clods and yelled instructions to each other. Suddenly, Charles, who was about 12 or 13 years old, stuck his arm out. Low and behold, the swarm landed on it! You can imagine the excitement! Someone ran to get the smoker, but before it came, Charles calmly shook the bees off his arm into an empty hive without a single sting. You can imagine how proud he was when Dad heard how the swarm was caught! Later, as an adult, Charles found that he was allergic to bees. His Dr. warned him of the danger and he spent the rest of his life avoiding bees and hornets.

Computers and Telephones

I am constantly amazed at the magic of computers and telephones. I realize they are objects made of materials with qualities that transform frequencies, magnetism and, god only knows what else, into wonderful machines that control and regulate all manner of things; electricity, graphics, and fuel consumption. They even control space. As tools of business and governments, today’s computerized phones have a capacity for knowledge and communication that seems endless. Videos, music, games and calculators, can all be encapsulated inside a mini phone that can be held in one’s hand.

I remember when my sister Adeline and I had play conversations using old wooden wall phones with bells that Dad brought home from the telephone office where he worked. They were beyond repair, but made wonderful toys. From time to time he would also bring insulators that were used to attach wires to telephone poles. They were solid, heavy pieces of colored blue or green glass, about the size of a man’s fist.

When we lived in the old Victorian house on Bliss Blvd in Iowa Falls, the phone was a black wall model in the dining room next to the entrance to the kitchen. I could stand on tip toe to talk into the mouth piece but Adeline had to stand on a stool. When Mom let us phone the grocery store with an order for the morning or afternoon delivery, we raced to be the first one to the phone, because the winner often had permission to add a treat to the order.

Our house phones were usually black wall phones, centrally located on the first floor of the various houses we lived in. The ringing of the bell was loud enough to be heard from anywhere in the house or yard. If the phone rang during the night, one had to go down stairs to answer it. The only way to keep a conversation from being overheard was to talk very softly or use the phone when no one was around.

When making a call, operators asked “number please” and made the connection. You could hear the phone ringing at the other end but after so many rings, the operator would come on line and tell you there was no answer. Many times we didn’t bother to use a phone number; we just told the operator who or what business we wanted. The intimacy of a small town was lost in the larger cities but you could call ‘information’ to ask the operator to look up the number and to ring it for you. In old movies you often see and hear people making phone calls like we used to.

Eventually we graduated to black table phones with 25 foot cords, which let us walk around as we talked or carried it to a comfortable place to sit while talking. The first colored phone I saw was Grandma A’s pink princess phone. It wasn’t much more than a receiver resting on a base of the same size.

At Hillcrest, our house in Redwood City, the phone was in a private booth paneled in mahogany wood. It was located in the middle of a long hall dividing the day rooms from bedrooms. If the conversation was a long one, it got rather stuffy with the door closed. If anyone was using the phone when a call had to be made, a knock on the door was a signal to finish.

I remember sitting in that booth for hours talking to my husband. He was in New York waiting to be shipped over seas during WWII. We never knew if our conversation would be the last until the end of the war, but as the week progressed, he was able to phone me 3 or 4 more times. During those evenings I monopolized the phone. It was difficult to make phone connections from the east coast to west coast; consequently, I was on pins and needles until the phone rang. The family was very considerate and gave me total use of the phone when he called.

Telephones became such a part of daily life after the war families began to have more than one phone in the house; bedrooms, kitchens and even bathrooms. A late night phone call no longer indicated an emergency or bad news. Long distance calls were no longer limited to holidays and teens got their own phones.

Now you can leave a message if the party you are calling isn’t home or doesn’t want to answer the phone. In fact you don’t even have to use a phone to chat. You can use your computer and choose Instant Messaging or Voice mail. I have a cell phone that has every bell and whistle imaginable. It’s private, and I can wear it around my neck on a ribbon. I don’t know if I have a computer with a phone inside or a telephone with a computer inside. It’s all magic to me!

Puzzle Solution

Puzzles

Here is a puzzle for those who like to solve them:

Arrange eight squares so there are four rows of three squares each.

I accidentally did this when I was trying to develop a design pattern. Not being a puzzle person, I was rather astonished to see what I had done. This may not qualify as a real puzzle if there is a criterion for such.

The Sunday morning PBS radio program usually has a few minutes devoted to puzzles and word games interspersed among their current news and book reviews that I like to listen to, but I rarely have success solving them.

My dear sister-in-law, Mary, got me started on crossword puzzles, but I only do those advertised as ‘Easy, No Dictionary Required’. Even so, I cheat by checking the spelling; ‘el’ or ‘le’. When stumped, I wait about 10 seconds for a brain wave to kick in, but if it doesn’t, I peek at the answers. Mary is a real crossword puzzle person. For years she has done the daily crossword in the newspaper and finishes them before her second cup of coffee!

All forms of math puzzles are enigmas to me. I do try simple Sudoku problems but scanning for the solution is tedious and I get impatient. I prefer the more visual puzzles like Tangrams or Mazes. Fractals and jigsaws are classes unto themselves. Puzzles are problems posed as entertainment AND, they are also diabolically clever and frustratingly tricky.

The Diamond 16 puzzle can be seen at: http://finitegeometry.org/sc/16/puzzle

For a tamgram go to: http://www.enchantedmind.com/puzzles/tangram/tangram.html

(editor's note: solution will be shown in a few days)