In my life...

And I love her...


If I fell...

Memorial Day

A day to appreciate the soldiers who have fought for us - even when they didn't necessarily agree with the cause or choose to go to battle.  Praying for healing for the families who have lost loved ones and those men and women who suffered emotionally or physically in military service. Listen to a podcast interviewing Craig Bryan and Erin Finley about PTSD on Talk of the Nation - NPR here.

Also thinking about those who have gone before us - my dad, my sister, my grandparents, my baby.

USMC

Clotheslines

I should have taken a picture. My dryer broke so we rigged up a clothes line in the backyard. Hauling clothes up the stairs, out the door, pinning, bending and retrieving brought back memories from my childhood. I'll never forget the reaction of Aubrey feeling the stiff towels and clothes, "you expect me to WEAR this, and put this stuff on my baby?" Nothing like a good exfoliation with your towel every day. We didn't have to buy those special grainy cleaners.

Anyway, it really brought home this thought my Aunt Betty sent via email:

When growing up during the 50's, and living in the era during the 60's, we had several most satisfactory revolving symmetrical aluminum contraptions featuring 'built in' clotheslines proudly featured in the backyard.

And during the cold months during those freezing mid-west temps, my Mother strung some actual 'lines' in the basement -- our family never owned a dryer.

You have to be of a certain age to appreciate this and many of you don't, but I sure do -- have a hearty laugh on me !!!

THE BASIC RULES FOR CLOTHESLINES - if you don't know what clotheslines are, better skip this.)

1. You had to wash the clothes line before hanging any clothes, and walk the entire lengths of each line with a damp cloth around the lines.

2. You had to hang the clothes in a certain order, and always hung 'whites' with 'whites' first, and then the 'coloreds' with 'coloreds'.

3. You never hung a shirt by the shoulders, but always by the tail. I mean, what would the neighbors think?

4. Wash day was on Monday. Never hang clothes on the weekend, or Sunday, for Heaven's sake!!!

5. Hang the sheets and towels on the outside lines so you could hide your 'unmentionables' in the middle -- perverts & busybodies might see, donchaknow?left on the lines were 'tacky' !!!

8. If you were efficient, you would line the clothes up so that each item did not need two clothes pins, but shared one of the clothes pins with the next washed item.

9. Clothes were off of the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket, and ready to be ironed.

10. IRONED ?!!! Well, that's a whole other subject.....:-)

A few differences for me - we had the T-post lines that had several rows strung between the two big "T"s. Building our new clothes line, with walkway below was a big part of the new house. Grandma J had the same kind, built by the same guy :) After they sold their home and bought a mobile one they switched to the circular type but Grandma still liked to hang her sheets out there, long after we were using dryers. We also did laundry on whatever day worked - if it wasn't raining. I think the ironing helped with the stiffness too since we "sprinkled" the clothes first.

Like the Waltons

Michael McLean is an LDS musician. I came across something he wrote. This was not the main point of the article which was explaining a song he wrote, but just a side note that rang a bell for me:

I went to the “great room” of our house. Perhaps I should mention here that at the time our place was sort of like THE WALTONS television show, and I was John Boy. My mom and dad lived there, my wife and our three kids, and my sister and her husband and their three children.

I believe this kind of living arrangement is not only something from the past depression-era but also something of my present and many people's future in this recession-era. It is also quite normal in many parts of the world where people don't have to own so much "stuff" or have homes large enough for an entire army.

Now if I can just convince everyone here to work as hard as the Waltons at getting the chores done and if they could laugh and share while washing the dishes or peeling potatoes together...

G'night, John Boy.

A favorite "young fiction"

Nancy Drew is 80.  She was a favorite heroine of mine and I inherited a nice collection of hardback books from my cousin, Kathy, when she "outgrew them" - like her clothes she handed down.  Fun to have an older cousin!  But, when I went to college, I left them at home in my closet and after I returned when my freshman year ended, they were gone!  Apparently anything I left behind was assumed unwanted and went to the D.I.  Be careful what you do with your valuables when there are vulture siblings wanting your space when you move on, even if only temporarily.   Click here to read about this young girls' favorite read.  I first fell in love with her when our Girl Scout troop attended a play put on by older Girl Scouts, adapted from one of the Nancy Drew mysteries.  I can't recall which one, but it piqued my interest in Nancy for sure!  Was it The Secret of the Old Clock- Carolyn Keene's first?  How disappointing to learn as an adult that Carolyn Keene wasn't even a woman, but a man, Edward Stratemeyer!  I guess the cross-gender pseudonyms weren't only women posing as men to get published.  Ultimately there were women versions of Carolyn Keene as well.

When it comes to the classic series of 56 Nancy Drew books, there were eight ghostwriters — five women and three men. But two women — Mildred Wirt Benson and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams — wrote most of the books. Benson was the first ghostwriter, and Adams was Stratemeyer's daughter who took over the company when her father died.

Older than dirt - been around a while, but still good

Yeah, I passed with a perfect score too. I AM older than dirt, I guess. Feel free to comment and add your unique memories.

'Someone asked the other day,'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?

'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,

' I informed him. 'All the food was slow.'

'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'

'It was a place called 'home,'' I explained. 'Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did.

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

Here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the countryor had a credit card. They had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice.

This was mostly because we had never heard of soccer.

I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds,

and only had one speed (slow).

We didn't have a television set in our house until I was five.

It was, of course, black and white.

I was 13 when I first tasted pizza. It was called 'pizza pie.'

When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too.It's still the best pizza I ever had.

We didn't have a car until I was four.

It was a black Dodge, four door sedan.

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living roomand it was on a party line.

Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn'tknow weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home.

The milk man and the bakery man camethree times a week.

Mail came twice a day and stamps were three cents.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers.

My brother delivered a newspaper six days a week.

It cost seven cents a paper, of which he got to keep two cents.

He had to get up at 6AMevery morning.

On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers.

His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change..

His least favorites were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend:

My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house,(she died in December),and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was,but my daughter had no idea. She thought they'd tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the wooden ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons.

Man, am I old?

Remember saying "God Bless You every time someone sneezed?" ( and they covered their nose and mouth always)

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals because cars had no turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:

Count all the ones that you remember,

not the ones you were told about.

(Ratings at the bottom.)

1 Blackjack Chewing Gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with

colored sugar water insude
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda machines that dispensed glass bottles
5.. Coffee shops or diners with tableside jukeboxes

6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyer'tennis' shoes
10. Butch wax
11. TV test patterns that came on at night

after the last show and Star Spangled Banner,

and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. There were only three channels.
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 33 1/3 RPM records
15. S& H Greenstamps
16. Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulbs and Brownie cameras
20. Packard automobiles
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Air raid drills
25. Wash tub wringers

IF You remembered 0-5? You're still young.
IF You remembered 6-10? You are getting older.
IF You remembered 11-15? Don't tell your age.
IF You remembered 16-25?

You're older than dirt!!!!!!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.

GOD BLESS YOU!

I CAN STILL SAY THAT AND MEAN IT WHETHER YOU SNEEZE OR NOT!!!!!

One more that came to my mind was:

We all walked to school. Most of us did not have a second car and the dads typically had the first one at work, so rain, snow, sleet and sun, we walked (and we wore dresses - no pants were allowed). Our parents didn't worry that we would be kidnapped on the way (at least they didn't let us know if they had such fears - that would have scared us). I do remember being a little scared (and cold) walking down the road without sidewalks about a mile and having the cars whiz by throwing the slush onto us or forcing us into the muddy shoulder. Once I was late coming home (I liked to stay and help the teacher) and some guy drove slowly past, learing, then turned and did it a couple more times, but he never actually tried anything. I did pick up my pace, however!

More: I remember the 8 oz Cokes in green glass bottles. Other sodas were just as interesting. I thought of this the other day when hearing an ad on the radio about the "new" old-shaped Coke bottles in 2 liters and the grandma is reminiscing with the granddaughter about it.

I remember graham crackers and milk for snack in kindergarten and "nap time" as well as real play areas where we played "house" at school, with dolls, kitchens, etc.

I remember savings books where we would bring our change to school, buy stamps to put in the book that could later be redeemed for cash. I bought my first bicycle in the first grade this way. (Yes, the big, one-speed, blue used bicycle and it was the only one I ever had).

I remember "fat" pencils we had in school through the second grade I think.

I used to lament that I never learned shorthand in school like so many of the other girls - just too many classes I wanted to take. Looking back I'm glad I didn't sacrifice one of the others for that one - now very much out-dated, though I envied the stenos who, in college, took great notes.

Utah State Fair opens today

I have lots of memories of the Utah State Fair. When I was young, my Aunt Betty worked in the Home Arts Building. We always went to the fair and stopped to see her along with the lovely sewing and cooking entries. We also knew that my Grandma J's sewing surpassed anything we saw there and she would have had Sweepstakes ribbons if she had entered her work. Since I inherited her interest in sewing, this has always been my favorite exhibit.

Betty's husband, my Uncle Wayne, also participated in the fair as a second, temp job while he worked as a Driver License Examiner and later he was involved as a Utah Highway Patrolman. He used his influence to help me get my first job there. I worked in one of the industrial buildings selling homemade fudge and candy. It was the display where they had the big taffy pulling machine as the attention-grabber. This is when I first learned to count change - a skill I'm still grateful for. In this day of computer-thinking, many cashiers couldn't function if the machine was on the blink.

My mother worked at least one year in concessions to earn Christmas money. I know it was difficult for her because of health problems and she needed surgery at the time.

As a pre-teen I remember going to the fair with my cousin Kathy and looking for boys. I also remember seeing the actress who played "My Little Margie" - a short-lived television show we liked. (I entered cookies in the 4H exhibit of the county fair and won a blue ribbon.) Steve reminded me of how we used to save milk cartons (Meadow Gold) for Fair entry. I had forgotten about those things we would do to manage admission. We also sometimes got special deals because of the family members working there.

As an adult I took the kids a few times, when I could afford the price of admission. We carefully avoided the carnival due to high priced rides and kind of a scary environment.

Three years ago I decided I wanted to go to the fair partly for "old times' sake" (I had unsuccessfully tried to find someone to accompany me for several years). I went alone, listened to Kenny Rogers outside the Home Arts Building so I didn't have to pay for entry to the concert and I really enjoyed it. It was a groundbreaking experience for me when I realized I really could do what I wanted to do and did not have to be restricted by what others wanted (or didn't). I kind of claimed my independence there. The last two years Steve went with me because he didn't like the idea that I might go there alone again (I think he felt it was still kind of scary). He didn't really want to go but I only recently learned of that - he hid it well! He wanted me to be happy and not alone. Gotta love true friends!

If you want information about the fair, click the post title for schedules, etc.

Echoes of Old Songs ~ 100 years

I got the shirt...
I am so grateful I had the opportunity to attend Granite High School. It was a school with character; one of the first in the valley, opening in 1907. The Song of the "G" says, "...echoes of old songs and cheers..." Attending and today while touring, I felt the echoes of many students over 100 years' time who walked the halls, lived, breathed, loved, studied, worked, cheered, sang, danced, competed, and played here. I attended in Granite's "Glory Days" before the population dwindled. It was stiffly competitive with around 2500-2700 students at that time. I gained experiences here that I could not have in any other way and the time would never come again. Those brief three years I spent here went by so quickly. There is more to school than the knowledge gained through study and I am proud to say I'm a Granitian and a "Farmer Forever." I thank those who were part of my education, who gave me a well-rounded experience in life which helped prepare me for my future. I didn't learn everything here but what I did was unique and very special to me. I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. Now the school is closing and another history book closes. (Read about the closure by clicking here.)

I'm so glad I got to go to a school that was old, that had history, character and ghosts from the past. Today I roamed the halls and took a few photos to remember these very special days.
The Seal. At sophomore orientation we learned never to step on the seal. If someone caught you doing it, you had to clean it with a toothbrush. It was inlaid tile.
The main stairway of the science building (main building). This was the coveted spot for campaign signs and banners.
Lots of well-known people hailed from Granite. Top right is KSL radio's Doug Wright. Top photo on the left is Steve Brown, local sportscaster. Dian Thomas is here, Gerald Ottley and many others.
An old picture. Originally the North end of the "new" building was the senior high and the south end was the junior high.
An old pep club uniform
Band, cheerleader and pepclub uniforms
Granite memorabilia. The spotted vest was part of the male chearleader's uniform my senior year.
Around my era - late 60s
My senior year's Pep Club uniform (My sister, Carolyn had this one). I was in Pep Club the year previous to this one. They were the rebels. They convinced the sponsor, Nellie, to allow a darker (navy) blue and even some white in the plaid and a shorter skirt. Previously (up through my year in the group) it had to be royal blue and fire engine red with NO white in the uniform at all. Our trademark was the red petti-pants we wore that showed when we did the can-can which was part of every performance.
A classroom where English was taught.
A science lab room
We actually had flags in the room and real chalk boards
The office entrance and counseling center.
In the ballroom - the museum of memorabilia through the years.
The auditorium where we did our musicals, assemblies, dance programs, etc.

Home Ec
More stairs
Sardine hall (lots of sophomores were assigned lockers here - the dreaded spot because when students were using this corridor which connected the two sides of the main building and more students were getting into their lockers, we were packed like sardines.
Classic yellow tile throughout the science building

Lockers - in the general vicinity of mine
Principal, Leland Bird
The officeThe "G" in front of what used to be the "L" building. We were a rare school in the area because it was a campus made up of multiple buildings. We still only had five minutes between classes to go up and down stairs, in and out buildings, often at quite a distance, up more stairs, maybe even a stop at the locker or bathroom. We had to hustle.The floor I marched on
From the bleachers where I sat
The football field
The Song of the "G"The court

This is where we sat in Pep Club

Driver's Ed classroom was right by the outside door to the parking lot and student driving cars.Stage access and more balcony gym seating.
This is how we got to the home side of the basketball court. there was no floor seating; all balcony.
The tunnel - you had to go down under the gym and out the other side to access the parking lot. So every morning and afternoon we went down, then back up to get to the building.

She is calling, calling to you ever, honor the grand old "G"

Farewell Farmers!

Thanks to Catherine Ford Barbiero for sharing photos (FB)

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

The Beatles!

My cousin, Kathy, shared this one on Facebook and it brought back such vivid memories I decided to post it here too. I can remember this like it was yesterday. I still swoon over Paul and it was greatness in the bud. Of course our parents didn't recognize that, but we did. And for once, we kids were right! The talent here was as significant in our day as classical composers were in theirs.

Enjoy the "really big shew!"

Sad News and Deja Vu

My mom's best friend...
My mom's little dog Toby (the very spoiled and well-loved dachsund) was 14 years old. Even the extended family loved him and he will be sorely missed! I don't have access to a photo of him now but Michelle posted one with my mom on her Blah Blah Blog so I hope she will forgive me for stealing it - all in the family, right? We are all so sorry for the loss of her faithful and beloved companion.

Deja Vu...

Last night we had an interesting experience. Nat, Jenn and their families were at my house, all sitting around the kitchen table with the kids all at one end (where was my camera?). Of course Avery was in the other room but as I looked at the kids and their ages I had a bit of a deja vu experience.

I had six children who lived (and one more in there that didn't) when Aubrey was born. Adam (the oldest grandchild there) was the same age as Chris was. Ashlie is close to the age Jenn was, Noah a little older than Justin, Olivia a little older than Natalie, Emma a little older than Seth would have been, Alex a little older than Jon and Avery the age Aubrey was. The age spread was pretty similar though mine were a little more evenly spaced of course.

Natalie considered it for a minute and said, "no wonder you don't remember the 80s" - it's true - big blur except for the music they played at my aerobics class - the only music I remember from the era (Elvira had a good exercise beat). TV? Mr. Rodgers, Sesame Street, The Electric Company. Books? Who had time to read? News? Who could hear it over the din? Besides, let's keep things in perspective. Who cared what was happening with the economy, politics, foreign relations - I had my own to deal with. Hey, the Vietnam War ended - after that it's a big blur. Oh, yeah, I went to nursing school in the early 80s! There were books - just nothing entertaining. I do remember after graduating picking up a magazine in awe and feeling guilty for taking time to look at it. Surely there was a textbook I should be reading.

I did cook meals at that time (every night except some special-priced Taco Tuesdays, coupon Pizza Fridays, and Saturday night hot dogs in the basement cooked campout-style with their dad, over the woodburning stove while they watched Kung Fu - "Gwasshoppah"). Somehow I kept the house reasonably clean, the kids bathed, the laundry done (though not folded) and held a Church calling. One day at a time and it really did go by very quickly! No regrets about the large family by the way...