Skinny

 My niece was about 8 years old when she was diagnosed with anorexia. Her parents realized that she had not been gaining weight as a little girl should. The doctor found that she was not eating.

Now it was certainly not their fault but my sister-in-law and her sisters were constantly dieting. A lot of their conversations were about not wanting to be fat. My niece took that to heart and decided to stop eating so she would not be fat.

As I said the adults are not to blame. It is simply a good example of how to speak when children are near.

Anorexia and bulimia often work together. Both are eating disorders. Often in order to be thin a bulimic will force vomiting or will take laxatives to keep calories from staying in the body too long. Not only does this not work but will cause the opposite. The person gains weight anyway.

Thankfully my niece had not gone that far...yet.

The doctor told her parents to make sure she ate at least one large spoonful of food at each meal. She knew that was required and did not argue much. But she did try to get around that. Children are so smart.

I often had my nieces and nephews at my house for weekends. My children were slightly older and enjoyed having their cousins stay.

One such weekend my niece came into the kitchen as I was making spaghetti. It is easy to make and you can make a lot if you have a lot of people to feed.

My niece informed me that she was not hungry. I told her that I knew she only needed to eat one spoonful. (Our whole family knew for her well-being.)

She said in a perky way that she was well now and did not have to do that anymore. I told her, "That's wonderful! I am proud of you. I will just give your parents a call to make sure."

Her little face fell, I gave her a hug, and we all had at least a spoonful of spaghetti.

Now how she is doing today. She has grown into a beautiful woman. She is tall and thin by nature not by starving herself. She is married and has two children in high school. All are healthy and best of all happy.

Good Luck

 I find superstitions to be fascinating. Where do they come from? Why do people believe them?

For instance find a penny, pick it up and all day you will have good luck. At one time a penny was a good amount of money. Then suddenly I heard it has to be face up to bring good luck; face down was bad luck. Then it was only good luck if you gave it away. Help.....

Three on a match has a logical reason. During World War I blackouts were common. The reason was the if the enemy could not see it they could not shoot it. When cigarettes were being lit the third person was a more clear target.

There are several explanations for the kiss at midnight on Near Years Eve. I prefer my own. It is goodbye to the old year and a pleasant hello to the coming year/

Islam teaches to cover your mouth while yawning to prevent evil spirits from entering your body.

During the bubonic plague it was thought that a sneeze meant you were dying. Hence saying God bless you.

Friday the 13th is considered to be unlucky. Throughout history with many cultures and religions there are reasons given for it being an unlucky day.

Knock wood. Most of us have uttered the phrase at least once. Again there are many supposed origins. It is believed to ward off evil.

I was taught that when you hang a horseshoe for luck you point the ends up to hold in the good luck. I have heard others say they must point down. That pains me.

Toward the end of a baseball game fans will often turn their caps inside out and wear them that way.to bring good luck to help their team win. They are called rally caps. It seems that sports players have a lot of superstitions. Sometimes they change from game to game.

Because clover typically has three leaves it is considered good luck to find one with four leaves.

If a ladybug lands on you let it crawl around before it flies away. It is considered good luck.

I am not certain why a rabbit's foot is believed to be lucky. It did not bring good luck to the poor rabbit.

There are hundred (maybe thousands) charms and rituals for good luck. What comes first to your mind?

For A Good Time

Some games we played as children are not as widely used by kids today. For one thing if a game or toy used batteries they were often put on a shelf when batteries ran down. Those batteries were expensive so they were not replaced regularly.

Not to worry. We had other options.

Jump ropes were good for getting rid of energy. We could jump our own personal rope. We could jump a longer rope that was swung by a person at either end. Often this way is accompanied by a little chant to help keep time. 

There were more complicated jumps too. The long rope as the jumper also jumped their individual rope too. Or more than one jumper in the long rope. Or two long ropes swung in opposing arcs at the same time with a single or multiple jumpers. So much fun.

There was usually a tether ball at school/ There is a tall post. The ball hangs down attached to a rope. There are two players. Each tries to hit the ball so it goes around the pole as the other player is trying for the opposite direction. The winner is the player who gets the ball around the pole until it can go no further.

Tag is fun. The players stand in a circle until IT indicates two players are to run around the circle whichever one reaches the goal then becomes IT. There are many different forms of tag...Pum-Pum -Pullaway, Drop Tag, Duck-Duck-Goose, and more, 

Not a lot of players available? How about Jacks? Jacks consist of a small rubber ball and 5 or 10 little six-sided pieces made of either metal or plastic. You toss the ball in the air and pick up one of the jacks after the ball bounces once. There are many sequences to make it more difficult.

Pick up sticks are a container of what look like double long colorful toothpicks. The sticks are pointed at both ends. They are held together on end in a hand. The hand opens and the sticks fall. The object of the game is to pick up as many as you can one at a time without disturbing any of the others. After all the sticks have been picked up each player adds up their points and a winner is revealed.

We played cards. Lots of cards. Solitaire and against each other.

Paper games were fun. Mom found one in a magazine that we really liked. It was called Salvo. Each player would draw two grids of 100 squares each In one grid we would draw a ship that used 4 squares. Another of three squares and two of 2 squares. In the other grid we kept track of our guesses trying to find and sink the opponent's ships. 

You have probably guessed that this was eventually made into a popular board game named Battleship.

What did you do for fun?

Speak No Evil

 I worked with a woman in a small confined space. We got along quite well.

We were working in the cash office of a department store. We handed out cash drawers to incoming cashiers. We were in charge of all cash needs during our shift. We also balanced the cash drawers of cashiers who went home to see how much money the company made. And the safe with all the money was there.

Because of the large amount of cash the doors to the office were locked. We could get out if necessary but no one could enter. 

We only had each other to talk to. As people do in situations like that we discussed almost everything. Things happening in our lives was a common subject.

I was divorced. My ex-husband was often included in the conversation in connection to my children. We have 4 wonderful children together.

One night my co-worker looked puzzled. She wondered why I never had bad things to say about my husband.

I did have to think about it for a moment because it was not a conscious thing. He is the father of my children. Half of them is their father. I love all of each of them so I love the half that is their father.

Also I chose to marry him. I would feel pretty stupid having married someone I complained about.

Even though we were no longer married he was still the man I had loved and thought enough of to have children with. 

Besides we were no longer married. His new wife could deal with the flaws she saw.

Sniff Sniff

I do not have a keen sense of smell. It can be annoying at times. At other times it is a blessing.

I love the smells of flowers. Unfortunately I cannot always smell them. My favorite smell is a clean baby.

Soon after I moved back here to Iowa it rained. I love rain. The air is so clean after. And the petrichor was a smell I really missed in the city. Petrichor is that earthy smell when rain first falls on dry earth. 

A smell that is overpowering is the dust on the prairie grasses that grow beside the road. If a person were to stand in the midst of the grasses I believe the person could smother and die. 

One day I called my mother. My youngest sister answered the phone so we talked for a few minutes. Suddenly I asked her if she was eating Cheerios. She was.

She wondered why I asked. It was because I could smell them!

Of course each of us has our own distinctive smell. Even though my patents have died there have been times I would smell one of them. It has been a long time now.

When I moved back here I discovered I even liked the smell of fertilizer if it is not too strong. I really dislike the ammonium smell of pig farms. It is so strong and burns the nose.

I would really like to know some favorite smells and some least favorite smells.

The "Look"

My mother was a sweet loving intelligent woman. You might think her children took advantage of that and walked all over her. Not so.

Mom had a secret weapon that kept us in line. We called it her go-to-hell look. Not in front of her of course; we were not allowed to swear.

If we ever did something wrong she would just give us that look. It made us feel like we had deeply disappointed her. We would feel her anger. We would feel like scum. 

Often the look would be accompanied by, "I hope you had fun." As if we could not feel any lower.

Then came punishment.

Mom was never unfair. Punishment ranged from extra chores to being grounded. 

We had a lot of freedom. We were also expected to behave. It is a good balance.

It Sucked.

 I was a thumb-sucker.

When I was a little girl I sucked my thumb any time I was relaxing. It was comforting and as natural to me as breathing.

At the time there were five siblings. My younger sister and one brother also sucked their thumbs.

Many babies suck their thumbs. They usually stop by the time they are toddlers.

Because we were showing no sign of stopping Mom decided to try to help.

She bought a small container of anti-thumb-sucking liquid. In the lid was fastened a small applicator brush. The thumb was supposed to be covered with the liquid at nap time and before bed at night. It was bitter and hot.

I did not like it. I would go unto the bathroom and wash it off. My brother simply defiantly put his thumb in his mouth and sucked it anyway. I do not remember what my sister did but she still sucked her thumb. Mom kept applying the stuff as directed.

One day as Mom was vacuuming she bumped the television. The liquid was sitting on top and for some reason the lid was not on tight.  It fell over and spilled. It ate the varnish off the TV. Mom was horrified. She threw it out. That was the end of that stuff.

When I was 4 years old I knew I would be starting school in the fall. I also knew that I would be teased for sucking my thumb. I decided the time was now to stop. It was not easy.

Eventually I was only doing it at night. I made up my mind to sleep with that hand under me. It worked!

I have not sucked my thumb since then. I remember how comforting it was but of course I do not miss it.

My Paternal Family

 I know very little about Daddy's family. I knew Grandma. 

I knew one aunt and uncle. Their children (my cousins) were a lot older than me and treated me like a doll. I of course loved it.

There was so little I knew about my father's family. There were other aunts and uncles that I saw only once or twice. Some had died before I was born.

Grandma had brothers and a sister who lived in town. I would not have known the brothers if I passed them in the street. The sister did not like children. If Mom drove Grandma to see her sister we had to play down the street from her house.

I also had one aunt who made her "duty" visit to her mother every year. She never had children. I think she did not like us much. The feeling was mutual.

Grandma was not a nice person. I loved her but did not like her.

My grandfather died a few years before I was born. I had never even seen a picture of him.

Imagine my joy when I found his picture online. I finally know what Grandpa looked like. 

I know he drank.  The last time my father saw his father they argued. Daddy told his father that he was done fighting to stick up for his father. 

Daddy went and joined the Navy. When his father died Daddy's ship was under radio silence in the Pacific during World War II. He always regretted not bring able to fix things with Grandpa.

Grandpa had one sister as far as I knew. She lived in California and had no contact with the family.

You would think that coming from such a fractured family Daddy would have made a fractured family of his own. Instead he was a loving and nurturing father, 

If any of us had an event Daddy was a chaperone. When my brothers were in Little League baseball he did not coach. He did not want people to think he was playing favorites. Instead he umpired for all the teams.

If we were attending a new school Daddy went with us to enroll. We all knew he loved us. The things he did were because he enjoyed being there for us.

A friend once asked me (long after Daddy died) what I would change with my father if I had the chance to go back. He was very surprised that I had nothing to change. There were seven children. We all felt the same.  

Daddy loved us. We loved him.