Boys And Girls

When I was little Grandma used to tell me that by the time I was 14 if I wore my father's shirt tied at the bottom, or shorts, or went bare foot she would beat me herself! It was not considered to be 'lady-like'.

In the eighth grade all the girls were required to take a semester of home economics. The boys were required to take a shop class. I already knew how to make a cake, wash my hair. and change my underwear. I did not want to sew and am still not good at it. I did learn how to dry and arrange flowers. All in all it was a wasted semester.

The point is that they separated the boys from the girls. In high school I signed up to take calculus. I was told that I could not take the class. It was not too full. There were about 6 boys in the class. The reason was because I was a girl and a girl would never need calculus. Yes they told me that.

I have always been grateful to my parents because they never told us we could not do things because of our genders. If we wanted to we should try it. They were so smart.

Clackety Shoes

   My daughter did not like wearing dresses. Jeans and a T shirt were her look. I understand. I have not even owned a dress for years. They are not practical and I do not care what my fashion statement is.

Back to my daughter. Even with her jeans and T shirt she loved shoes.

Her favorite shoes were little black patent leather shoes with the little strap over her foot. She loved them. Her oldest brother hated them.

He could hear her coming on a hard floor surface. He said that her shoes went, "Clackety, clackety, clackety," when she walked.

She loved the clicking sound they made. She possibly exaggerated the sound a bit. Ever since then we have referred to patent leather shoes as clackety shoes.

Protection.

 Here where I grew up and in that time children were protected from as much "bad" as possible. My children still tease me about being so naive about so many things. I was not exposed to a lot of things they were.

For instance I had never heard swear words any stronger than hell or damn. On the other hand my children knew them all. They did not swear in front of me. I hope it was out of respect.

I never saw any fights at school. I try to explain to my children that it was not students controlled their urges better. Fighting just did not enter our heads. 

When we lived in the same town as my grandmother I knew that two of her brothers lived there too. I would not have known them if I saw them on the street. I do not think they were bad men. My grandmother's family were simply not close.

I did know when each of them died. I overheard the adults talking about going to funerals. We were shielded from anything as bad as death.

When I was about 10 years old and we had just moved to a new house. We even had a basement! That meant we could wash clothes inside.

One day I was inside washing clothes. Mom came into the basement. She was holding the newspaper and had me read an article.

The article told us that television's Superman was dead. It was the first time I had been informed of a death. I was growing up.

The first funeral I attended was when I was 17. My father's assistant scout master had died. My oldest brother was going to be a pall bearer.

I had just been diagnosed with epilepsy. My parents did not want to leave me so I went too.

I did as everyone else and walked up to pay my respects. I had always heard that the dead look so peaceful. My father's friend looked DEAD. 

I learned why my parents so carefully protected me.

Winter Fun

 In the winter we were not outside as much. Mom needed to find things for us to do. Otherwise we would drive her crazy!

We all liked to read so often we were in a comfortable spot with a book. And we all liked to cook. My sister made the best cakes from scratch. My brothers liked cookies. I made bread, sweet rolls, and pies. 

We often played games in the evening. We had a lot of board games and we also played word games and paper games. And of course card games. As you can see we kept busy. 

There were also some special activities. 

Fudge was the most frequent of these. Fudge was made from scratch. After it cooked to a soft ball temperature it had to be stirred vigorously until it hardened, Then it was poured out and cut into squares. We usually had fudge with popcorn.

Divinity was my mother's favorite treat. We called it white fudge but it is a different candy. It is made of corn syrup, sugar, and egg whites. I find it too sweet for my taste. One bite is plenty.

Rock candy is a great treat. You can make one flavor or many. One color or many. I cook the ingredients to a hard boil then pour them out onto a cookie sheet. After it cools hit the candy to make smaller pieces. They are pretty in a bowl for people to snack on.

A taffy pull is a fun activity. Once the candy is cooked we picked it up with hands covered with butter to keep it from sticking to our hands. We had some choices. A small amount could be pulled from one hand to another. A large amount was at least a two-person job.

The candy was pulled back and forth until it firmed. It could be cut into pieces by a pair of scissors. 

It looks like all we did in the winter was eat. It was not all we did but we did enjoy eating.

From TV To Movies

There is a new docudrama about the life of Chistopher Reeve. He is remembered for his Superman movies. However I remember him   as a sniveling little troublemaker on the soap opera One Life To Live. How he got that big strong body I will never know.

Then I got to thinking about the many actors who worked in television before they made movies. It used to be thought that if an actor worked in TV they would never be hired for a movie. How times have changed.

Lee Van Cleef often guest starred as a bad guy on Tv shows. Charles Bronson did the same. Now they are well known for their movies.

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson began as a wrestler. He was known for his catch phrases. Now he is a famous successful (and very rich) movie actor.

Will Smith was a rapper who starred in his weekly sit-com. Today he is un high demand for movies.

Pierce Brosna played a private detective on his television show. Now he is famous as James Bond in the movies.

Sally Field was The Flying Nun. Then she won an Oscar for Norma Rae.

Johnny Depp played on TV in 21 Jump Street. I wonder if Captain Jack Sparrow would approve.

On TV John Travolta was a Sweat Hog. In the movie he was a T-Bird.

Goldie Hawn was a ditzy character on Laugh In. She was often ditzy in her movies but she always saved the day.

There are so many names. I am not going to name the many I know. I am sure you have some favorites too.

ddie Murphy

Jamie Farr

 Tom Hanks

Leonardo DiCaprio

Wait For It

My mother gave birth to seven children... four boys and three girls. Each of us weighed at least eight pounds.

I am the oldest born in 1947. My youngest brother was born in 1962.

When Mom started having babies it was common practice to put the mother to sleep during delivery. They said it was to spare the mother any pain. I think it was easier for the doctors. Mom was anesthetized for the first six of us.

Before she was awake Daddy had time to hold the baby and then call to let people know the baby was born. Then she would be sick. She did not tolerate anesthesia well.

Mom was thrilled when she learned that she would be allowed to stay awake for baby number7. She told the doctor that she was to be the first non-medical person to see the baby.

She joked and said that if she went into a coma for six months no one could see the baby before her.

Needless to say Mom got to see my little brother first. She got to hold him first. And all before Daddy even knew he was here.

Fathers were still not allowed in the delivery room. He had to wait. Mom was satisfied.

Mon's Family

My mother's family lived on their farm. 

Grandpa and my uncles worked the farm. They raised corn and wheat. They cut hay and baled it for later use. They raised a variety of animals including cows, pigs, donkeys, chickens, geese, and ducks to name a few. And of course there were always horses and a dog. 

Grandma and her daughters cooked and cleaned. They cared for the poultry. They gardened. Their homemade pickles were the best. They canned fruits and vegetables to have in the winter. They made jams and jellies as well as fruit butters. And watched after us.

My youngest uncle is only three years older than me. The twins were not much older. I had a lot of aunts and uncles. We spent a lot of time together so I knew them very well.

At the same time I knew very little about the larger family. Before he married Grandpa was a real honest-to-goodness cowboy. He lived on the range with cattle for months at a time.

Grandpa and Grandma used to play for barn dances. Grandma played the piano. Grandpa could play about five different stringed instruments.

Grandma lost her mother when she was young. That is when she took over household duties.

Still I know little about the extended family.

When I was little I sat so quietly and absorbed the stories the grown-ups told about family. I wish I knew more.

I Did It Again

 I was five years old. I wanted something from the top cabinet. Mom kept things up there that she did not want available to little hands.

Being bare footed was handy then. I used a kitchen chair to help me climb onto the counter. 

Even on the counter I could not reach easily what I wanted. I reached as far as I could. Could not reach. 

I stood on my toes and stretched to reach as far as I could. Almost but not quite there. 

I tried again. I reached as far as I could...  Oooops.. Something fell.

I looked down and immediately knew I was in big trouble. Mom had put a big box of thumbtacks up there. Now there were tacks all over the kitchen floor.

I quickly climbed down to collect and hide the evidence. As I jumped from the chair to the floor I screamed in pain. My bare feet were full of tacks.

Immediately I sat down to pull the tacks out of my feet. Yep. I sat right in the tacks. Now my bottom was full of tacks too.

By this time Mom was there. She picked up her crying little girl and began removing tacks. Fortunately there was no serious damage. 

My poor mother/ She raised seven of us. All of us did some pretty stupid things.