Monday Memories

Did I ever tell you about the end of my childhood?

My 11th birthday was in the fall of 1950. During the summer of 1950 the curtain was slowly coming down on my childhood, but I didn't know it until much later. In fact, I was reminded of it last week when our writing group prompt was the comic strip Agnes who is supposed to be about 11 years old, lives with her grandmother and is always pondering life's difficult questions.

It was my last summer to ride a bike with my brother on the country roads and catch tadpoles to take home; the last summer to swing from vines in the dense woods on the road west of town; the last summer to visit our friends who had moved to Baileyville where you could still get a nickel ice cream cone; it was the summer I rode in the livestock truck with Charlie and Raymond; it was the last summer I would walk to the town baseball field in the evenings, sit up on the score board and run around being silly; it was the last fall I would build leaf castles in our front yard with my friends JoElla and Nancy; the last time I would play with dolls.

I started 6th grade in Miss Michael's fifth/sixth grade class in Forreston, IL in September in a building with grades one through twelve. On Sundays we worshipped at a small Lutheran Church in Forreston, although we weren't members, and my sisters attended their confirmation classes. We all sang in the choirs and my oldest sister took organ lessons there. On Sunday afternoons we would all get in the 1950 Chevrolet sedan and drive either to Mt. Morris to see my father's parents, or to a farm near Franklin Grove to visit my mother's parents. My parents would visit with my aunts and uncles and grandparents while we cousins would either walk to the Lamb Theater in Mt. Morris to see a B cowboy movie, or down the country lane into Franklin Grove.

In March 1951 my family moved back to Mt. Morris from which we had moved in 1946, and I finished 6th grade in a different school with a new teacher, new friends and a different church (where I had been baptized). I learned new slang, how to cope with cliques, and discovered the girls were gossiping about things I’d never heard of.

I'm in the front row right in this sixth grade class photo. I have a rather grown-up hair style and two piece dress and was probably close to my adult height and weight. There would still be time for child-like activities, but those times would be less and less Looking back, I think childhood was over during my 12th year, and like Agnes, I did start seeing things differently.

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Mount Morris, Illinois
Forreston, Illinois
childhood

2410 Gas Prices

Friday night we went out for dinner--we always have a date night, and since I've been married over 45 years, you might want to tuck that away as a suggestion. The van was rolling on fumes, so I checked the web site to see where gas was cheapest, and at our corner it was $2.89 and across the river $2.69. For 15 gallons it looked like it might be worth it. After our $30.00 evening out at the pub and $5 at Cheryl's Cookies for dessert, we started for Mill Run. But it was barely after 6 p.m. and we hit all the traffic returning to the far out suburbs. Believe me, Columbus has nothing like Chicago, LA or DC, but we're spoiled. We pout if we sit a bit in traffic. So after sitting for 5 minutes through 3 stop lights, he pulled into a Speedway and got gas for $2.79.

So we saved $1.50 by not buying it on the way to the restaurant, and spent $1.50 more than if we'd added 10 minutes to our evening, sat on the bridge for awhile watching the ducks and got it for $2.69. Isn't that silly?

Last October on our trip to Illinois we were thrilled to find $2.89. Want money for gas? Buy one less carton of cigarettes a week--that'll fill up my tank. Stop at Speedway for your coffee instead of Starbucks. In a week, you'll more than make up the gas increase. Buy a medium pizza instead of a large, and eats some carrot sticks. Buy one six pack of beer instead of three--we'll all be safer if you plan to drive. Don't down load any tunes (.99 each) for a month and listen to the thousand you already have. Don't go to any first run movies for a month--hit the dollar theaters for what you missed 6 weeks ago. Or go to the library and get some free DVDs and make the popcorn at home. That'll be $15 for the tank right there.

Invite a neighbor on your next shopping trip or drive to work. Drive the speed limit and inflate your tires. Don't hop scotch around on the freeway--pretend you're fifty instead of 25, because you all end up at the light at the same time.

And if you are a Greenie, accept the credit and take a bow for these prices. You've kept the oil refineries from being built. You've stopped the drilling for oil on American soil. You've halted a lot of industry in the USA so we could have cleaner air, chasing people out of the cities where they had public transportation. People are reducing their driving because of you, especially poor people driving older, less fuel efficient cars. Be proud and puffed up when you hear your co-workers bitching. Smile. It's all your fault.

2409 For Family Only

The rest of you won't care about this photo, but I'm just thrilled to have it. So just move along--if you don't like sappy and sentimental.


When I opened the envelope tears came to my eyes. I had seen this photo flash by in a DVD made by my second cousin (we have the same great-grand parents). I contacted her aunt to find out who they were. She wasn't sure, but said she'd find out. And then the photo arrived with a note from my cousin. This is the wedding photo of my grandmother's grandparents of Jefferson County, TN, James and Mary Ann Elizabeth Williford. It looks like it's been through some hard times--that it had been folded, and chipped, and maybe a cup or something placed on it. I don't know its provenance. Only one granddaughter of this couple is still living, the sister of my grandmother--she's 91 and I visited her last year. She probably has a copy of this, or this is a copy of hers. There are so many things I don't know about this couple that I'd like to ask.

So I go into my genealogy software and look them up. I found out quite a bit about this family on the internet some years ago because in Tennessee during the Depression there was an attempt to record family information from old Bibles, and that has since been put on the internet by county. James and Mary Ann Elizabeth had nine children. Leanor, my great-grandmother, was only 10 years old when her father, the handsome young bridegroom of this photo, died. I knew her. Used to run down the street and sit on her front porch swing and listen to her soft Southern drawl and gentle laugh. By then she'd probably buried those hurts of 60 years before. Why would she have even mentioned such a sadness to a little five year old whose own daddy was off in a war? How did such a large family survive with only a woman to head the household? James' father was over 50 years old when he was born, so how much help could they have been if still alive? Even my grandmother, Bessie, born in 1895, didn't know this couple. They had both died before she was born. For many years Grandma Bessie was our family archive--her phenomenal memory could retrieve the stories with ease. After her death, we'd ask my father. When he died it was like the library had been burned, and my paltry software is no match for the stories he heard from his parents and grandparents and at the Tennessee Reunions that were held in northern Illinois for many years.

However, we don't know what we don't know do we? So we don't ask.

2408 An Easter Walk

Cathy invited me along on an Easter Walk, 50 miles in 50 days. I don't have a pedometer, so I'm just clocking along at a mile for every 30 minutes. The park was really busy today--not only have the spring sports started, but Ohioans are so anxious for nice weather (probably less than 40% sunshine all year), that they tend to all rush outdoors at once.

Front row for Grandparents

Game's over; going home for lunch

He's just walking his dog

11 miles since Easter Sunday.

2407 Saving on blogger gas

To save you guys some gas, I'm going to combine several themes or thoughts into one blog entry instead of making them separate. OK? It will improve your mileage and save you money here. I've moved the gasoline prices to Sunday--just because I could.

Church stuff

We're having our SALT group here tomorrow evening. SALT is an acronym that someone with 70s angst thought up: Sharing and Living Together. I much prefer Serving and Learning Together because that's what we do. We have 3 campuses and 12 services (or is it eleven?), so if you don't participate in a small group you can become just a pew sitter. I think someone told me there are 144 ministries. Anyway. Back to SALT (no one took my suggestion, and at this point, staff has changed so often, I wouldn't even know to whom to re-suggest it, since no one but me is bothered by an inaccurate acronym). I've asked everyone to bring a favorite poem, verse, rhyme or limerick since April is National Poetry Month. I don't like to lead Bible studies, so my husband will do that part--I'll just do the warm up.

Dessert

I have a strawberry rhubarb pie in the oven, and the other one will be the peanut butter chocolate one I wrote about a few months back. My husband thinks I'm also making an apple pie (his favorite), but I sliced my thumb a little bit on the rhubarb, so I think I'll quit while I'm ahead. When he walked in while I was preparing the first one (never made it before), he asked why I would make something I never tried for company. Guys just don't get it, do they ladies? We all know that if you make something new, and there's just 2 of you to eat it, and one of you doesn't like it and pushes it around on the plate like it was brussel sprouts, then the other of you has to finish the whole thing! Right? But the second reason here is that even my bad pies are better than 90% of the good pies of everyone else. So there.

Update on my Exercise 13

I'm doing pretty good. I never set goals--hate goals, but promises aren't so bad. So I promised myself 30 minutes a day of exercise. I'm up to 50-60 minutes, but I'm not changing my promise because I'd rather go over than under. The weather has cooperated, so I'm getting about 30 minutes at the park, then later in the day, another 20-30 on the grounds. I'm walking in the grass and on hills when I can so my shins don't ache. I am consciously taking the stairs more often and parking further from stores. The sit-up plan, well, that didn't go so well. I'm finding more excuses not to do that.

New neighbors

New neighbors moved in this week. They just moved from across the ravine, but they are terrifically nice folks, so we're thrilled to have them. They are also Lakesiders, and my husband did their cottage for them. I saw their dog (with its owner) meeting another neighbor's dog this morning. Sniffing. Deciding who was going to be boss. If a dog has a blue ribbon in its hair is it a boy dog?

Another condo for sale just recently has also sold, I hear, to a single person. It has a dance studio in the lower level because the former owners were ballroom dancers. Our newish neighbors who moved in last year have added a hot tub. I guess they use it late at night, but so far I haven't heard anything.

Everyone says it's so hard to find a place here, but we've been here 4 years, and I think there have been 6 turnovers since we arrived. Out of 30 units, I'd say that's higher than our old neighborhood.

Mozart's Birthday

Our choir will be performing Mozart's Requiem, but since it was planned for Memorial Day week-end, I hadn't been practicing with them. Now the director might change the date because it conflicts with a wedding. As a result, I have a huge dilemma. I'm a really weak singer anyway, so do I try to catch up or mumble something that might pass as a lie? Actually, I don't like to perform in front of people--never have. I came down with Scarlet Fever just so I wouldn't have to be in a piano recital. I was in the junior class play in high school and hated being on stage and didn't try out for senior class play the next year. Our choir sings in a loft behind the congregation, so I've only been in front once, but it really increased my errors.

Check your mileage

See how many blog entries you can read here with only one stop for gas? And if you check my profile, you'll see that I have five more. Now Six, because I joined some Walkers.

2406 Leaving children unattended

Don't. Not for a minute. Even $5 million isn't worth it.

I really hope Chrysler wins on appeal. The child is left in the van, keys in the ignition so the guy washing the car could hear the radio, parked on a hill, emergency brake not set, mother not close by, and the child does what any kid would do who wants to "play driving" and puts it in gear. A device, not required in models of that year, might have been able to keep the van from rolling, but how do you protect children from adults who don't think?

2405 A Goldendoodle, a Dood, or a Golden-Poo

While walking in the park I've seen a man walking a large, cream colored dog, sort of fluffy. I used to keep breed posters of cats, horses and dogs posted on the bulletin board of the Vet Library, but I didn't recognize this one. So today I stopped and asked him the breed. "Not a breed, but a mix (hybrid) of a standard Poodle and a Golden." We chatted for awhile and he said they don't shed, and his was very good with his eight grandchildren. Apparently, Goldendoodles are good conversationalists, because when I got back to my car, the man was sitting on the curb smoking while talking to his blond friend: "Want some more water? How about some ice in that?" "Ready to go home? OK. Get in the car." Don't argue; don't try to run your life; great hair. Can't beat that, can you?

Update: Actually, I did blog about this in October--I'd never actually seen one. In this article it is called a Labradoodle, and is a lab poodle mix.

2404 Morning walk in the blossoms

My view as I step out the front door.



We love it here. The grounds are lovely; the neighbors are nice; and there's always someone around who knows how to keep things growing! It was dark when I left this morning and the spotlights were on the flowering crabs. The blossoms looked like dangling jewels. There are always birds and ducks, little critters, and big deer to watch. We never tire of looking out the window or walking around.









Our daughter drove down the street where we lived for 34 years the other evening on her way home from work. She called on her cell phone to report the new-new owners had a huge crop of dandelions in the front yard. She could hardly believe that her father who used to attack them every Spring would just say, "Oh really? Do you want to talk to Mom?" and hand the phone to me.

2403 The Fashion Police

Another sketch from Panera's.

2402 Are you this desperate?

On Feb. 28 I said I was taking applications for a daughter-in-law. I don't know a woman (or man) in the world who would desperate enough to take this guy off his mama's hands. Cranky Beach has definitely found a first class jerk.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things I know with absolute certainty

Have you noticed a shift to the phrase "I feel" when "I believe" or I think" or "I know" would sound too . . . dogmatic or pushy? Particularly women use this term. We all have opinions and beliefs, so why toss a perfectly good verb into the closet? Feelings are sweet, soft, and warm or loud and hurtful, and life would be boring without them, but for the long haul, give me a solid unshakable foundation any day. Your mileage will vary, but there are 13 things in my life I know.

1) I know with all my being and intelligence that I am special and unique because I was created in the image of God and am not a product from the slimy ooze 50 million years ago through endless cycles of trial, error and death.

2) I know God knew me personally as I was being formed cell and sinew in my mother's womb.

3) I even know when my own life began.

4) I also know when my present life on earth ends that I will be in heaven. In God's economy, nothing is wasted, including our experiences and pain. I will some day have a different kind of body, a resurrected, perfect physical body with a personality.

5) I know I was blessed to have two parents, married to each other for over 65 years, who loved me and made me feel secure even as an adult. I had a father who was always employed and a mother who was able to stay home with her children.

6) I know my parents also blessed me with two sisters and a brother, all wonderful people and friends, and a large extended family.

7) I know my parents loved me enough to mold my spiritual life and values and my formal education, seeing to it that this foundation was not left to chance, the government or to my own choices.

8) I know I am loved and cared for by a man who wanted to marry me and establish a home and a life together over 45 years ago.

9) I know that all my children are a blessing from God, chosen by him from the beginning of time to be in this family.

10) I know that having my adult children live in the same city as we do is a blessing few enjoy.

11) I know that friendship is a treasure and that old friends, some from childhood and many from years past, and new friends of just a few months duration are a blessing.

12) I know that good genes and good habits (examples from my parents) have provided me with good health, and I know I took this for granted when I was younger.

13) There's a well known radio commentator who claims to have "talent on loan from God," and I know this is true for all of us and loans must be paid back.

Christmas 1979

Christmas 25 years later


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2400 Harriet Coleridge

"The truth, if we're honest, is that the poems of Harriet Coleridge (if there were such a person) would by now be an unforgivable omission in every anthology."

Ouch! Now there's a slam at required women's studies courses if I've ever read one. There was a short article on the less than stunning career of Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849), son of the famous poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in the March 2006 issue of Poetry. He writes about being forever a child and unfulfilled promise. The writer of the article mentions he could have been a great poet if he had taken more than 10 minutes and if he could have forgotten whose son he was.

TO A CAT

by: Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849)

NELLY, methinks, 'twixt thee and me
There is a kind of sympathy;
And could we interchange our nature, --
If I were cat, thou human creature, --
I should, like thee, be no great mouser,
And thou, like me, no great composer;
For, like thy plaintive mews, my muse
With villainous whine doth fate abuse,
Because it hath not made me sleek
As golden down on Cupid's cheek;
And yet thou canst upon the rug lie,
Stretch'd out like snail, or curl'd up snugly,
As if thou wert not lean or ugly;
And I, who in poetic flights
Sometimes complain of sleepless nights,
Regardless of the sun in heaven,
Am apt to doze till past eleven, --
The world would just the same go round
If I were hang'd and thou wert drown'd;
There is one difference, 'tis true, --
Thou dost not know it, and I do.
Source

Hartley Coleridge
>Cat poetry

2399 The charges have been dropped

against an Ohio State University (Mansfield) librarian Scott Savage for sexual harassment because some gays didn't like the books he suggested for a recommended Freshman reading list designed to discuss issues. They might be afraid for a gay student to ask for help at the library reference desk. Yikes. I wish I had a dollar for every time librarians had to use material that violated their beliefs or that students had to sit in class and listen to something that stepped on their sensitivities! Story here at Inside Higher Ed.

Even so, these kinds of trivial, bizarre, frivolous charges have to have a chilling affect on academic freedom. Professors already can be shunned by colleagues, cut from grant proposals and denied staff help if they don't toe the political line of their department or college. Tenure doesn't do you much good if you get reassigned to all the freshman courses. The faculty at Mansfield should have put a stop to these whiners before it ever became national news. It's brought shame on that whole campus. And where was American Library Association? I'll have to check the 2 or 3 conservative library blogs to see if anyone responded. Even the account of the law suit in the above cited piece sounds hostile.

One of his suggestions was Freakonomics. But the one that hit the fan was The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom, by David Kupelian. The account at Inside Higher Ed doesn't list the titles other faculty suggested, except for a Jimmy Carter book (probably his current anti-administration pout) and Maria Shriver. It would be interesting to see what Savage was trying to balance or if any of the faculty that supported the charges had even read the book. Although the University has dropped the investigation, Savage wasn't notified, according to this WorldNetDaily article.

The university will respond by offering more workshops in being sensitive. "We will be taking a number of steps to help create a more welcoming atmosphere on the Mansfield campus by offering additional training for faculty and staff. We also will work to reinforce a better understanding of the principles of academic rights and responsibilities, and to ensure the respect for diversity of all kinds." It's quite possible that the current faculty have never heard of the principles of academic rights and responsibilities, so maybe it's for the best.

sexual harassment
librarians
Ohio State University
David Kupelian

2398 The new doctor

Actually, I could have walked to the dermatologist's office this morning. It was my first visit so I wasn't positive where he was located. He said the tiny spot on my lip was pre-cancerous and would need to come off--sometime. But not now. It comes and goes, and although it was around last week, it snuck out in time for this appointment, so he says to call when he can see it better. The spot on my arm that isn't pre-cancerous, just ugly, he zapped (froze) and now it has a blister about the size of a nickel. I'm very fair, and I've not tried to get a suntan since I was about 19, but apparently it is the sun exposure you get as a child that is so dangerous. My husband is 3 or 4 shades lighter than me (i.e., almost colorless), and is now really paying for attempting to warm up his skin tones each summer at the lake until he was about 50. If you have red hair, don't do that.

Speaking of suntans, April is National Cancer Month. It is also National Poetry Month. And National STD month. Maybe I would write a poem with these themes . . .

2397 Does your kitchen make you fat?

Maybe so, but not for the reasons you might think. Take a look.

2396 A Free Education Site

Free- ed.net offers a number of courses (I looked at Spanish and Poetry) that are completely free. I didn't see any gimmicks and the site is easy to use with very little annoying bling and blash. It doesn't offer diplomas or certificates--this is for the self-motivated you. Read the FAQ carefully. I wandered into it looking for SweetHaven Publishing Services, which has apparently changed directions. The address is Westerville, OH.

2395 What puzzles us

is that any thinking person believes The Gospel of Judas is somehow going to rattle our faith. And of course, The DaVinci Code is leading the parade softening them up. Christianity Today author Darrel Bock writes:

"This is a time that tries many a believer's soul. Works are coming out like rounds from a machine gun. But none of the guns fired so far are the "smoking gun." They are more like pop guns, creating a lot of noise but no damage."

He did, however, find one redeeming quality in the book. Read about it here.

Saturday of Easter week-end, the holiest season for Christians around the world, one of the morning news shows--either CBS or NBC* (doesn't really matter since they are Tweedle Dum and Dummer)--had that theological giant, an editor from Newsweek, tell us the significance of Jesus. It was almost too comical to be insulted and outraged.

*My kitchen TV isn't connected to cable and the reception is so poor I can hear voices but not tell faces.

2394 What I saw at the library

The check out line was long at the public library last night. The middle-age woman in front of me had quite an armful and dropped some, and I got quite an eyeful. Hip huggers went down, short t-shirt went up and tattoos were revealed down the butt crack. EEyew! Fifty years from now someone in a nursing home will be changing her diapers and get quite a chuckle.

2393 Tuesdays with Morrie

While the rest of the nation was keeping this title by Mitch Albom on the best seller list for four years, I was working and reading committee reports, unjamming printers, and teaching search strategies about bovine diarrhea. But I saw a like-new copy at the Friends of the Library store yesterday for $1, so I bought it. Today we drove to our son's home for lunch (he's on vacation and putting in his garden) which is about a 40 minute drive, so I started reading it in the car. Marvelous book. Short. Well-written. Wonderful insights on illness and the end of life. I'm going to check with our book club archivist and see if this was a selection before I joined. If not, I will definitely recommend it for next year.

Read an excerpt

2392 Refer a friend, get a gift

When we moved here about 40 years ago, we selected a bank for very sound reasons--it was near by and it was the only one with Saturday morning hours. We're still with the same bank, and it may be the only one around that hasn't changed names.

This week we got a handsome flyer from a "banking office associate" suggesting we refer a friend for a checking account and we'll both receive a gift. So I looked at the picture of the gifts. The umbrella is the only item I can identify with certainty. It will require a $50 deposit to get the free gift, and there will be a $20 closing fee if you close it within 180 days. And you have to report the gift value on IRS Form 1099. Trust me. This is not a $20 umbrella, and the other two thingies, well, who knows? So, find your own bank.