Thoughts of Iowa Falls Part 1

The letter from my brother, Richard, mentioning his memories of childhood and our life in Iowa before WWII was a delight to read.  Memories of the houses we lived in, the schools we attended, work and play during our childhood allow us to relive those days tinged with the sweetness of age. 

Being older than my 5 brothers and 2 sisters, I recall each of their arrivals in the family and I enjoy remembering them as babies and later as play companions.  Although my sister, Adeline and I were close in age and able to participate in activities the younger ones could not, we eight children often played as a group. 

We older children helped look after the younger ones and I was often asked to baby sit when Mom and Dad both had to be away from the house.  We enjoyed a tremendous amount of liberty and we came and went as we chose until supper time, although we usually told Mom where we were going or asked permission to do something not usually allowed.  

For as long as I can remember, the whole family ate the evening meal together. Besides the immediate family, we often had friends and visiting relatives at the table too. 

The various dishes of food,  breads,butter and relishes were placed on the table and passed around with each helping themselves.  Adeline and I learned to set the table at an early age and as we got older, helped Mom prepare the evening meal.  Then we washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen afterward.  All my brothers and sisters learned to cook and three brothers earned their living as cooks. 

The foods we ate were home grown vegetables, beef and pork from animals we had raised or purchased from local farmers who had butchered  recently.  At breakfast time bacon and eggs, with hot biscuits or pancakes with corn syrup or sorghum, or a choice of cooked oatmeal or dry cereal was served. School lunches varied depending on which school was attended.  We came home for lunches or packed them to eat at school.  On rare occasions we were allowed to buy a hamburger at a small cafe near Dad's office. The evening meal was served soon after Dad got home from the office. The meal usually ended with a dessert, home made pie, cake or pudding.  Fruit was usually eaten as a snack or with dry cereal at breakfast time. During berry season shortcake was a daily dessert.

[Editor's note: This is part 1 of 3 parts]

Sorghum

Theater: Bill W. and Dr. Bob by Richard

Frances and I went to the San Jose Repertory Theater and watched the play Bill W. and Dr. Bob.

The play is about two men with alcohol drug addiction. The time is early 1900's,and the stage is long bar, plus roll out home living areas and bedroom rooms, with telephones of that time, and with background Charleston music.

Bill W, is in the hospital, very sick and down on himself when he receives a dream or an awaking and becomes sober for several months. Bill is then invited to New York for an interview for a job. Bill becomes uneasy after arriving in New York, and Bill wants a drink. Bill knows he needs help and needs to talk with another addicted alcohol. He makes several calls before making contact with Dr. Bob.

They meet and started immediately taking about their problems with drinking alcohol and their many attempts to stop drinking. Bill and Bob found that they could discuss their addictions freely because they shared the same experiences and that they were not able to share these with non drinkers.

From these meetings and discussions it becomes very clear to Bill and Bob, their drinking addictions affected them and all people they loved. Bill and Bob know they could not change the past, but the future they could. So they started working with other people with alcohol drug addiction.

These changes were the foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous as we know it to day.

Frances and I left theater with a better understanding Alcohol drug abdication.


[Editor's note: This story was written by Richard]

So How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

Kim

"So, how's the garden doing?" you ask. In short: FANTASTIC!

Stuff is popping up and overflowing everywhere. Here's a run down of what's happening.

Pot 1: Taters

They are going "a house a fire" as Grams would have said. The pot is full of green stalks each of which is a tater plant. Part A of the strategy is working; at least I have a pot of green stalks.

Pot 2: Bush Beans

They now have flowers on them but our recent heat wave (+106F) sort of left them a bit dazed but they are perking up well. It also helps I'm giving them more water too since our Central California Summer is starting up.

Pot 3: Cherry Tomatoes

We've had several small harvests and added them to salads and they taste.... YUMMMM!

Pot 4: Pot Cucumbers

I don't think they understood the word “pot”, as they are growing and vining everywhere! They have lovely small yellow flowers though and nice green leaves. Nothing yet but I'm hopeful.

Pot 5: Pot Zucchini

Now surprisingly, these guys know the word “pot” and I have 2 plants that are large but not overflowing. They have the standard zucchini look and flowers but it took me a bit to realized that the veggie part was sort of a dwarf zucchini.

The plants have rather large stickers on them and I use plastic gloves to reach in and get the harvest. I also found out you need to harvest when the flower is still open. These dwarf zucchini's don't get any bigger like the traditional zucchini.

I see them in the stores now called Gourmet or Petite veggies. We've had several harvests and they are just wonderful sliced raw on a salad.

Pot 6: Tomato

It's a tomato! We have several green ones but no harvests yet. So nothing there to brag about.

Pot 7: Watermelon

Hmmm... I dunno here. I have a lot of plants with pretty leaves and some have flowers but I thought watermelons were going to vine like the cucumbers and flow over the pot sides, but these are not doing that. I think they should be having a chat with those cucumbers.

Past Harvest Report:

My garlic was not successful though. I harvested it, and well, it was rather a disappointment. Not even really garlic. So no “stinking roses” for me.

But the carrots made up for it. I harvested out the two pots and I had about 15 lbs of wonderful and colorful carrots! We've had them in salads, soups and stews. These will be on the winter plant list for sure!

Pot Zucchini Flower

Cherry Tomatoes and Petite Zucchini

Wall of Passed Time

I share a fun activity with my two adult children playing a computer game called A Tale In The Desert 6. Every year and a half a new Tale starts and the game varies in the requirements to reach higher levels, but the basics of the game remain the same each telling. There is no violence in the game; avatars learn to do the menial chores of a burgeoning society in Egypt.

Growing flax, weaving thread into linen, making bricks, gathering clay to make jugs and firing them in a kiln, feeding camels and and sheep, growing vegetables and mining for ore and gems are among the jobs avatars do as well as solve puzzles and build monuments.

When the three of us are in the game at the same time, we talk on the phone, conference style and play the events and projects as a team. At the beginning of ATITD 6, my son commented that he wanted to make bricks, a million of them. I said if he made a million bricks I would make a million jugs and wondered what a million of either would look like.

I said that I would make a wall with the bricks, but it was explained to me that the game wouldn't allow stacking them in a heap. Being virtual, you can make them, store them carry them, but not stack them. You can only see them as single units. The same with jugs. When I saw what they would look like as single units if dropped on the ground, I began to think of ways of using them in a statue vignette.

Since a vignette can have 25 items raised at different heights, I came up with the idea of making a wall using a pattern of jugs and bricks .The next step was experimenting with the idea and building a practice model on the top of a near by sand dune. Stacking two statue bases doubled the distance of the wall, then by repeating stacked bases, we could continue the wall for any length we wanted.

It was decided to build the wall in a straight line and in an area without mountains or sand dunes if possible so the next move was a walkabout to fine the right spot for our wall. Between scouting trips I made over 6000 jugs and added them to the stash of bricks and other materials we needed for the wall.

In order to make the jugs and bricks we had to collect clay from clay beds, build kilns in which to fire the jugs, build a warehouse to store all the materials and grow flax to make the rope and linen required for the statue bases.

The wall project will last as long as this phase of the Tale does. So far the wall reaches beyond 100 coordinates of the map grid and we continue to add to its length.

[Editor's note: you can follow our progress from the game wiki: Wall of Passed Time.]

Wall of Passed Time 100 coordinate milestone

MrsB's PDF Book for 2011

[Note: Editor's Post]

MrsB's blog stories from 2011 are now available for download!  Click the link in the download section to get your own copy of all the wonderful posts made by her and other members of the MrsB's blog circle!

While you're over there, you can get some of the other books and copies of the fabulous cookbooks made by MrsB and Esther too!

Hope you enjoy all the stories and memories.

So How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

Mrs B

My gardening gene has prompted me to plant something so I've started propagating African violets from leaves. Besides germinating avocado seeds in water, I hope to be successful with mango seeds.

Years ago I watched Aunt Nettie plant the top of a pineapple, but I never thought of growing one myself. Seeing how easy it is in YouTube demonstrations, I plan on trying my luck growing one or two.

At one time I had carrot tops thriving in glasses of water on a kitchen shelf and I may start growing a carrot plant along side the avocado seeds. Propagating geraniums and chrysanthemums are also easy and fun to propagate.

I once attended an adult evening Botany lecture where we were shown how to clone ferns in water, but I'll not get around to cloning one since it seems my mission in life is saving the planet by germinating avocado seeds.

I hate to throw the seeds away when I make guacamole so I have a continuing supply of them, but I forget to keep the proper water level for germinating, consequently my stash of seedlings range from several to none.

[Editor's note: I had no idea you could plant a pineapple but you can! Here's a link to a site that tells you how to do it. How to plant a pineapple ]

Pineapple top can be used for planting

Tea Parties

Tea Parties

When Taffy was a little girl
She often came for Tea
She and I would sit a while and talk
as we munched on sugar cookies
And drank tea from pretty cups

Taffy's all grown up now
And never comes to call
She's too busy now for parties
So there's nary one at all

Perhaps she would come again
If she had time to spend
She and I could sit awhile and talk
And once again eat cookies
And drink from pretty cups

Marion Bigelow June 2012

Memories of Iowa Falls by Richard

The past few days, I began thinking about our life in Iowa Falls Iowa, and recalled several good memories about the wonderful times we all shared which included the following:

• I recall living in town in a two story home, and then moving to the country to a small farm the folks rented from Mr Brown.


• It was really great to have our own garden and raise our own vegetables, which Mom use to feed us.


• I can see Mom now, cooking on that wood burning stove and baking bread and cakes which we all enjoyed.


• Can you see us all making ice cream on those hot summer days? I can.


• I recall going to those country schools which were one room and one teacher, teaching all the grades.


• We had to walk about a mile or so, and when it was time to go home, I was always hungry. So when we passed an apple orchard I would go over the fence to get an apple or two.


• In the winter months we would each take a potato and put in the school furnace to have with our lunch.


• I remember the swimming pool, which was a long walk from home. Jerry and I would go anyway. We didn't have the money to get in, so they let us to pull some weeds for access.


• We moved back into town when Mr brown sold the property.


• Things begin to change. The war came and all our lives changed also.


• Marion and Adeline went into the service. Mom went away to work at a factory on the war effort. Dad stayed home to watch the younger children.


• Then Mom and Dad went to California to visit Marion and Adeline and were so impressed with California, upon their return to Iowa Falls Iowa, they decided to move to California. Dad quit the Telephone Company. They packed up everything and we moved west.

I hope this note will help you also to recall some those fond memories we all shared.

[Editor's note: This story was written by Richard]

Apple Tree

Synchronized diving

When I was surfing the TV channels I came across the Olympic trials for Woman’s Synchronized Diving. What a beguiling sport! If a sport can be called, 'lovely', this word certainly applies to synchronized diving. I was mesmerized watching the women perform. Their graceful twists and turns seemed effortless as they dived into the water with almost perfect timing. It takes exquisite skill and a high degree of aestheticism to achieve such beautiful dives.

Having been unaware that the sport existed, I was surprised to learn synchronized diving had been a new form of competitive diving at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

Back in the 1930's, Aquacades and swimming meets would showcase precision swimming where a group of swimmers would create designs in the water and morph from one design into another. On occasion there might be a display of synchronized diving as a skillful stunt much like those in a circus.

Now that its a recognized sport, it's hard to believe it took so many years for it to become a competitive sport.

I understand there is a special way of judging the events. Both men and women compete in two events. Two divers of the same gender attempt the same dive from adjacent 3 meter springboards, but share the platform on the 10 meter board. Each diver has one of the nine judges watching his or her performance in addition to that of the other five judges.

Roseline Filion (foreground) and Meaghan Benfeito
Photograph by: Mike Ridewood

Photo Credit and Story Link:
Roseline Filion (foreground) of Laval, Que. and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal compete in the preliminary for women’s synchronized 10m platform at the FINA Visa Diving World Cup at Olympic Aquatic Centre in London,
England, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012.
Photograph by: Mike Ridewood

Canary babies

I'm glad to report two canary babies are busy learning bird language from their parents. I'm sad to say that the third baby didn't make it, but the two that did are replicas of the parents. Only their size lets me know which are the babies and which are parents. Its too soon to tell if the lighter brown will be female as is the mother and the darker brown with black patterns on the wings will be male like the father.

Both parents feed them and their little wings flutter like a hummingbirds as they hold their mouths open as wide as possible to be fed. They are learning to fly from perch to perch across the cage and they like sitting and balancing on the swing.

Hooray!

Hooray! One of the baby canaries is out of the nest.

I didn't see when or how it happened. I just discovered the little guy sitting on the floor of the cage in the late morning.

As the day went on, he hopped around the bottom of the cage and when the parents fed him, his little wings went '90 to nothin' as they filled his beak. It hasn't hopped onto the lowest perch yet but it did stand on the foot rest of the seed cup for a while.

It has the same shade of light brown of the mother bird. The two babies still in the nest seem to have the darker color of the father, but they huddle together in such a way its hard to tell one from the other. They fill the nest and its only a matter of a day before another leaves the nest.

Baby Timbrados

I have three tiny baby Timbrado canaries. A day separates each little hatchling and they were such tiny blobs they were hard to distinguish as birds. I think my little finger nail was larger than each blob.

They are a few days old now and Number 1 blob is beginning to show the tiniest of feathers. This morning for the first time I saw one of them holding its mouth wide open waiting to be fed.

The parents are very attentive and feed the babies the special treats I put in the feeding cups. I give them hard boiled eggs with the yolks, cooked rice, cooked carrots and various fruits. They will eat seeds when they are a bit older.

I have yet to hear peeping sounds from the babies, but their tiny wings and beaks show they are taking on bird shapes. In time I will know what gender they have. I hope I have a male that will sing as nicely as the father bird does.

Spanish Timbrado Canary Song

So How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

KimB

I think someone forgot to tell the bush beans and watermelon seeds I planted about “how long it takes to germinate”. All the packets said 3 weeks so I wasn't expecting THIS!

Bush Bean Seedlings

Watermelon Seedlings

And my strategy on the taters … that seems to be working too! WOOTS!

Tater Plants

So How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

KimB

Well it's that time of year again: tweeting birds, sun, rain, heat and the smell of compost in the air.

This week I made my way out to the garden pots and took stock of what was there and what I wanted to do with it all.

The winter planted carrots are still going strong. It's getting very hot here so they will bolt soon but I picked another dozen or so nice ones.

We checked on the garlic but it's way too soon yet but there was hope and we took out a smaller plant to check: it's still a baby garlic bulb but it will taste great.

The beets were not that successful, like the turnips I didn't plant them deep enough and they mostly laid on the surface. I saved 2 nice beets and a half dozen small specimens and the rest hit the compost bin.

My re-planted and new strategy for getting taters is working! I have about 15 or 20 tater plants popping up in their bucket. I gave them some organic plant food and this year I'm hoping for something better than a few marbles. I put in a big mix of taters: reds, yellows, whites and Russian fingerlings.

After taking stock of what was still there I headed down to the local nursery and picked up 2 new pots and some tomatoes and seed packets. I picked out a Better Boy tomato for sandwiches and Sweet Million cherry tomatoes to make the summer tomato and basil salad that Allen likes. I also picked up a packet of bush beans and will see how they do in the pots too.

But this year I am going to be “adventurous” and “daring” and take on a “big challenge”. I am planting watermelons in a pot. Yeah... I know... not likely but I have a “plan”. The plan is: put the seeds in the pot and let the vines trail over the edge and they can sprawl all around one end of the side yard on top of the gravel. I picked the baby round watermelon type so I hope we get something tasty in a bit.

Between the taters and the watermelon it will be a challenging season!

Always To Be Remembered by Esther

My sister Marion, sent me an E-mail she received from a cousin, it was so much history I was not aware of, and it remind me of a time I went to see where my brother Charles was buried.

All my brothers and sisters served in the military. Most of them served in the Marine Corp, one in the Navy and one in the Air Force. Charles was in the Marines and served mostly in China.

That trip was a very emotional one, for we were a very close family. My daughter and her husband Arthur, drove me to Marion’s house. Together we went on to Houston, Texas, and spent the day visiting Marion’s son Bob.

It was a nice day to go out to the Military Cemetery where Charles wanted to be buried. It was a long trip and both Marion and I were remembering stories about how we use to play and little events we did as children growing up back in Iowa. The eight of us children made for some stories and we had to laugh at most of the tales.

We arrived at the entrance to the Cemetery and Bob drove around to where we wanted to go. I had never been to a large town where the larger cemeteries were, and I was surprise to see how large this one was. It reminded me of my third grade teacher who asked the class if they could visualize how much a pile one thousand pennies would look like and how many one dollar bills would it take to make an inch high stack. I was never so impressed, as seeing how far to look in any direction, to know I could not fathom what I was seeing in front of me today.

Through the years, I have watched on TV, when the news would show those who gave the ultimate price returning home in honor and I would give a silent prayer for their family.

As we walked to where Charles' marker was, we read the names, and there was so many and so young. I will always know I could not see the whole cemetery, nor know how many was the count of all who rest there or in all the other cemeteries there are. It is a great price to pay for our freedom. Since then I have a better idea of how to think of what "big" means.

Our family has one Marine and one Air Force member still living today, and I hope it will be quite a while for them before they to will be gone.

I will always think of how a pile of pennies look and how many one dollar bills it takes to make a one inch stack. And how many are at rest in all the Military Cemeteries. Which I still can not imagine how huge it is.

[Editor's note: This story was written by Esther]

ABBOTT, CHARLES H
PFC US MARINE CORPS
WORLD WAR II
DATE OF BIRTH: 05/16/1927
DATE OF DEATH: 12/21/1998

BURIED AT: SECTION M2 SITE 841
HOUSTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
10410 VETERANS MEMORIAL DRIVE HOUSTON, TX 77038

USA Veterans Nationwide Gravesite Locator

Houston National Cemetary

Fads

Hair styles of women are a 'statement' of the latest fashion in clothing. From the extreme arrangements of Marie Antoinette, to the short, shingled cuts popular with women of the Flapper age in the '20's, women readily follow the latest trends. I have no idea how the fads get started, but they sweep the nation over night it seems. The women on the street, as well as those appearing on television, all wear their hair the same way.

In my opinion, the latest hair fashion makes women look like cyclops. Hair is draped over one eye so that only the other eye is seen by an onlooker. During a conversation in person, or as seen on a television screen, when a women is interviewed or reporting the news, a lock of their hair hangs over one eye in fashion. No effort is made to brush the lock aside as the interview or report continues. Apparently the woman believes this is attractive, but I find myself wondering how the woman can see thru the hank of hair. I stop listening to what's being said and start brushing my own hair away from my forehead, wishing the woman would do the same.

Another fashion I see on television, is a style that looks scraggly. Wisps of hair stick out in all directions giving an unkempt appearance. When the most serious topics of the day are being discussed by a woman with this hair style, I always have the feeling that she's a scatterbrain and what ever expertise she may bring to the conversation is lost on me.

I am also amused by women who ignore their years and wear their hair long and flowing like a teenager. Perhaps those prepping a person for the TV camera are to blame. since they think hair brought forward on each side of a woman's neck is more feminine.

Who knows what the next fad will be. What goes around, comes around. I wouldn't be surprised if long braids wrapped around one's head became fashionable again.

Marie Antionette

Theater: 101 Years of Broadway by Richard

Frances, my valentine, and I had the pleasure of seeing the musical revue 101 Years of Broadway. The musical revue was about several of the best musical Broadway shows, with the actual stars singing the beautiful songs. It was incredible and fascinating to watch listen and enjoy.

Neil Berg was the musical director and producer who also played the piano and the lead in the New York Band. The cast of Ron Bohmer, Chuck Wagner, Sandra Joseph, Andrea Rivette and Lawrence Clayton all were so talented that they brought the music to life in such way, it was magical.

This musical revue transformed the audience and my self back in time, as if we were back watching these musical plays again. Frances and I left the theater with a better understanding of Broadway Musical productions.

To Neil Berg,the cast, and the band, well done.

[Editor's note: This story was written by Richard]

Skipping Stones

Today as I surfed the television channels to find something interesting to watch I stopped for a few minutes to watch cowboys in the movie, Broken Trail, to skip stones across a creek. I had seen the movie several times and knew the plot, but didn't remember the skipping stones scene.

It brought back many memories of standing on the bank of a body of water with family and friends on picnic outings and competing to see how many times we could skip a stone and how far it would go.

These little competitions were never planed. It was a spontaneous move on the part of someone in the group to pick up a stone and skip it. Now and then a stone wouldn't skip, in which case, the group telepathically appraised the moment and as a group, silently agreed to mosey on our way, or automatically begin competing to see who could skip stones the best.

At any one skipping session we could spend an inordinate amount of time developing our skill. Of course there had to be a good supply of skipping stones available. Skipping stones is one of those childhood skills that stays with one, but you never hear anyone bragging about it. When I saw the two old cowboys in the movie casually showing off their skill to each other, I realized we do take pride in our accomplishments and draw on them when we want to show off.

Skipping Stones by Alan Bray

Superstitions

I am not a superstitious person and I do not believe in the supernatural, but I do believe in something we call luck or chance. It's hard for me to define luck, but I think I am a lucky person. I feel lucky. That doesn't mean that I think I'll win the lottery, or come into a fabulous inheritance. It's just a feeling I have.

I not only have a feeling of being lucky, I make up little reasons why I'm lucky. I know my pretend lucky signs are just that, pretend, but they are fun and I change or add to the list when it suits me.

Currently, Camel cookies are a sign of luck. I buy animal cracker cookies in a large plastic 14 0z size container from Sam's. When I grab a hand full of cookies and find a camel cookie, it's lucky. If I get more than one, the luck doubles.

I also pretend numbers in sequence bring me luck. When I glance at the clock on the microwave and it reads, 2:20 or 4:44, that's lucky. Whenever I check the time on my cell phone, any combination of like numbers brings luck and if there are more than two, the luck goes up accordingly. The other day, on the 25th of January, I woke early and checked the cell time. It read, 25,5:55,55 Now that is REAL LUCK!!!

Camel Shape

Sponge Garden

I am growing a tiny garden on a kitchen sponge.

One day while I was filling my canary and parakeet seed feeders I wondered what would happen if I sprinkled some seeds on a wet kitchen sponge and kept it moist for a few days. I had a hunch the seeds would sprout and if so, I'd have some fresh greens for the birds to eat.

Since this little experiment worked, I'll start several sponge gardens and test various seeds to see which sprout easily, perhaps lettuce seeds.

Sponge Garden