Lefty/Righty

In high school we studied genetics. My biology teacher was a brilliant teacher. He was also quick to let us know he was always right but that is another story for another day.

We learned about DNA which was a fairly new idea. Humans have strands of 23 traits. One strand inherited from the mother and one strand inherited from the father curve around each other. Those determine eye color, hair color, and whether or not you can curl your tongue.

Some traits are dominant and some are recessive. In other words brown eyes are more likely to be inherited than blue eyes.

One of the most impressive examples is handedness. If a person is left-handed both genes have to be for left-handedness. I am left-handed. For me to be left-handed each of my right-handed parents had to have a hidden left-handed gene. I therefore have two left-handed genes.

I married a right-handed man. He had lefties in his family so the possibility of him having a hidden left-handed gene were strong.

According to my high school biology this is a grid of possibilities that my children would be left-handed.

                                                       LL    LL

                                                RL   LL    LL               

                                                RL   RL    RL

This shows that if I were to have four children two would be left-handed and two would be right-handed with a recessive left gene. 

Well I have four children. Two are left-handed and two are right. Interesting?

Snacks

I am certain you are tired of me telling you that my family did not have much money when I was a child. What I do not mention is that there were few ready to make foods. Those available were too expensive.

We made everything from scratch. Cakes, pies, and cookies we just "whipped up". Sliced bread was available and inexpensive but I enjoyed making it so we had homemade bread and sweet rolls every week.

In the evening we watched TV or played games. Snacks were made for us to nibble.

Popcorn was cheap and easy to make. We heated lard in a pan then put in the corn. The pan had to be shaken or the popcorn would burn. After it popped it went into a big bowl and was salted. Mmmm-mmm.

Add fudge to have an even better treat. Fudge was basically sugar, cocoa, and water. It is cooked to the right consistency. Oh but we are not done yet. It still had to be stirred (constantly) until it began to stiffen. Then it is poured into a dish to set. Cut it into squares. It is a great snack.

One year Daddy bought a bushel of popcorn still on the cob. We were going to save money on popcorn. All we had to do was shell all the popcorn off the cobs. The problem is that popcorn is really hard and really stuck in the cob. We shelled all night and still were not done. I had a blister the size of a marble on my thumb.

Taffee was especially fun. We did not have it often. Mom would cook it up. Then we would cover our hands with butter. Each of us got a piece about the size of a teaspoon. We worked it and pulled it until it hardened.

Sometimes we got lucky and were given a large piece. More than one person was needed to pull the taffee. It was always fun.

A Bit Of Music History

In the 1960's there was a group named Tim Tam and the Turn Ons. Their biggest seller was Wait A Minute.

The group was formed when the six members were in high school. They were all from Lincoln Park, Michigan. That is a suburb of Detroit.  

They made other records of course. I am sure you can find them on YouTube if you wish to hear them.

One day I was driving through Lincoln Park and saw something that amused me. There were two apartment buildings next to each other. Their names were on the front of the buildings right over the entrances.

One was named Tim Tam. The other was Turn Ons.

I used to drive by them often just because the names amused me.

The group had invested some of their earnings into the buildings. It was a smart move.

Many years later they sold the investments. I guess the new owners did not take care of the properties. The tenants were evicted. The buildings were demolished.

City officials made a day of it. They each took a turn with sledgehammers. It was a day they called a reverse ribbon cutting. Each of them got their pictures in the paper.

Emotional Vampires

Do you know someone who is always unhappy and willing to share that unhappiness with everyone? My sister calls them emotional vampires.

These are people who are forever negative about everything. If you are enjoying a song they do not like the lyrics or music. If you are watching a movie they have a running narrative about the plot, acting, and script. They criticize the way other people look, dress, eat... all of it.

It is exhausting to be around an emotional vampire. Any happy or positive thoughts you have are sucked right out of you. Eventually you feel as miserable as they do.

I am normally a very happy person. I have good reason to be. Of course I have unhappy times. Deaths and illnesses come to mind. We grieve and survive.

I have known emotional vampires. I avoid them when I can. 

I am so wretched in their presence. If you are an emotional vampire STOP. If you are near an emotional vampire RUN. We need peace and harmony.

Flibbertigibbet

 My mother called me a flibbertigibbet. She was not being insensitive. I am amused by silly songs and anything else for that matter. 

I love interacting with a two-year-old child. We understand each other. I love it when their imaginations awaken.

I drive to the top of a hill and gasp. The beauty of the scenery takes my breath away.

I will dance anywhere. Not like no one is watching. I do not care who is watching.

From the time they were very small my children and I would go out to dance in the rain. 

Elm trees have seed pods that have sort of a tail to catch the wind to blow them to new locations. We call them helicopters because the tail spins as it falls. One time my granddaughter took a double handful of helicopters to her upstairs bedroom. She tossed them out the window. They caught a little updraft. It separated and lifted them before they spun to the ground. It was glorious!

The man who bought the farm my mother-in-law and father-in-law had owned before they died said he welcomed anyone from the family to walk the hills they had owned. We were overjoyed. Every time anyone comes to visit we climb the hill and roll down.

You have not lived until you bend over to smell a flower. Then you examine every petal and leaf. Enjoy the colors. Watch them close for the night. Or open in the morning. 

As you know I love music. If I hear a song I know I sing along. Of course I cannot carry a tune. Does that stop me? No. My children and grandchildren have on occasion asked me to stop. 

One day I was walking with my son and daughter. I told them I knew it was hard having me for a mother.

They said, "Not really. We thought all mothers were like that."

Poems

 

I enjoy poetry. It is words not quite set to music.

If I am writing poetry it is most often in the form of a limerick. I have no idea why. I suppose that is the rhythm in me.

Of course nursery rhymes are important. They are usually the first poetry children are exposed to. Things like Humpty Dumpty, Little Boy Blue, and Mary Mary quite contrary are only three of the well-known nursery rhymes. There are so many. 

One of my favorites was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

There was a little girl,

            Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

            When she was good,

            She was very very good,

But when she was bad she was horrid.

My daughter taught it to my little niece. When my niece recited it she said, "And when she was bad she was hooo-id. So cute.

A. A, Milne wrote Halfway Down

Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair
Where I sit.
There isn't any
Other stair
Quite like
It.
I'm not at the bottom,
I'm not at the top;
So this is the stair
Where
I always
Stop.

Halfway up the stairs
Isn't up
And isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery,
It isn't in the town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head.
It isn't really
Anywhere!
It's somewhere else
Instead!

And then there is Mom's favorite by Dorothy Aldis called Hiding

I'm hiding, I'm hiding,
And no one knows where;
For all they can see is my
Toes and my hair.

And I just heard my father
Say to my mother —
" But, darling, he must be
Somewhere or other;

" Have you looked in the inkwell? "
And Mother said, " Where? "
" In the inkwell , " said Father. But
I was not there.

Then " Wait! " cried my mother —
" I think that I see
Him under the carpet. " But
It was not me.

" Inside the mirror's
A pretty good place, "
Said Father and looked, but saw
Only his face.

" We've hunted, " sighed Mother,
" As hard as we could
And I am so afraid that we've
Lost him for good. "

Then I laughed out aloud
And I wiggled my toes
And Father said — " Look, dear,
I wonder if those

" Toes could be Benny's?
There are ten of them, see? "
And they were so surprised to find 
Out it was me!

Are those fun? No wonder children love then so.

May Day

 When I started school it opened a whole new world for me. I had new friends. And I learned new traditions.

May Day was a tradition I knew nothing about. 

On the first day in May Mom and I made "May baskets". We filled extra-large paper cupcake cups with various candies. A long and colorful pipe cleaner made a pretty handle for the basket. I think there were other decorations but it has been a long time. 

All the baskets we made were placed side-by-side in a cardboard box and put in the car. Off we went.

Mom told me when I got to a friend's house I was to take a basket and go to their door. When I got there I should knock on the door and run to the car. If my friend caught me he or she had to give me a kiss.

So I knocked on the door and ran like the devil was after me. But Mom had neglected to tell me to leave the basket first! 

She told me to take the basket back and leave it. By this time my friend Susan was running toward me. She took the basket and kissed me on the cheek.

The rest of the baskets were delivered more successfully.

I miss old traditions. I wonder why they stopped.