Ick!

I lived in Nebraska and Iowa. Except for one summer in Washington State that was where I would be.

I love this part of the country. In small towns and on farms you can look up at the night sky and see the stars. 

We often were outside on the porch at night. It was the way families relaxed after a long day.

Parents would talk about the things important to them. The family pet (usually a dog) just laid there enjoying the peace. Children would play little games, sometimes get into little scuffles, and best of all wind down before time to go to bed.

When my children and I were living in Tennessee we also spent evenings on the porch. We would play board games if there was enough light.

Our porch was a simple concrete rectangle up a couple of steps from the yard. I sat on that concrete with the children as we played.

Then came the evening that I leaned back a bit using my arm for support. As I put my hand on the concrete of the porch I felt something soggy. 

I brushed it off the porch thinking it was something one of the children dropped after partially chewing it. Then I saw behind the children that the porch was covered with little creatures.

Because it was getting dark the slugs had come out. Eeewww.

I did not even know what they were. I asked a neighbor the next morning. She told me about them and how they come out at night. They were such a nuisance.

Space Race

It was hardly believable. They announced 7 miliary pilots who were training to go to the moon. They would be called astronauts. It was 1959.

Who would have thought it? It was the stuff of science fiction.

To be fair we had sent up satellites. We even put poor animals in some of them. But people???

Of course Russia wanted to beat us to it as much as we wanted to beat them. I always thought that Russia and the United States were part of the Moon Treaty prohibiting a country from claiming any part of space for themselves. Russia and the United States have not signed. But I digress.

The astronauts trained vigorously. NASA worked to perfect the space ships. It was an exciting time.

 Finally we were ready to send men to outer space. So was Russia.

Then we sent a man to orbit the Earth. Russia did it before us.

On the day they launched John Glen into space our schools gave us the day off to watch it from home. It was spellbinding. It was a proud day for our country.

Since then there have been tragedies. There have been triumphs. We have seen men walk on the moon. What can be more special?

Family Finger

I was astounded. I never saw anything like it.

The first time my boyfriend who would later be my husband took me to his parent's house his mother and father were arguing. I had never seen an argument between a couple.

The whole time my mother-in-law was pointing her finger and shaking it in anger and to punctuate the point she was trying to make. 

I suppose now is the time to let you know that they had a strong marriage. They were married for more than 75 years. Arguing was a form of recreation for them.

As time went by I often chuckled to see other family members point their fingers and shake them when they argue. Even my children could point and shake with the best of them.

We laughingly began to call the action "the family finger".

I believe each family has something everyone does. What is yours?

When To Hit

Timmy is my nephew. He was a child full of energy which also means he was often in trouble.

His parents were not married. A couple of months before he was born his father up and married another woman. We were all shocked.

Because Timmy's father did not want to be in the picture my father (Timmy's grandfather) was happy to be the main male figure in his life.

Timmy got away with things none of us (including grandchildren) would have been allowed to do. Like eat food from Grandpa's plate. 

He adored his grandpa. But Grandpa had a heart attack and died. Timmy was not quite 2 years old.

My husband sort of took over. We all loved Timmy so like all of the children he was welcome at our house any time. My husband (his uncle) did many of the things with Timmy that he did with our children.

My husband left our family. Then my oldest son took over. He has always been especially close to Timmy and his little brother.

Often my mother (Timmy's grandmother) and my sister (Timmy's mother) would call because he was misbehaving and they could not make him mind. My son would go to their house and talk to Timmy. He would explain that there would be harsh consequences if he continued bad behavior. 

My parents raised us not to fight. We lived where children did not fight each other to settle problems. We raised our children the same way.

Unfortunately we moved to and lived in a city where violence was the way many people tried to solve problems. My children learned to fight to defend themselves. Sadly Timmy did not.

My mother and sister did not allow him to fight. My son kept telling them that he needed to defend himself. 

One day Timmy came running into Timmy's own house with a slightly older and quite a bit bigger boy right behind him. That boy was beating on Timmy in his own house in front of Timmy's grandmother!

They called my son. Now they understood why he needed to defend himself. My son told them he would teach Timmy to defend himself. First they would have to let Timmy know it was okay.

My son explained that Timmy should never start a fight but it is okay to defend himself. Then he taught him how to defend himself.

The very next day the other boy was ready to pick on my nephew. My nephew successfully defended himself.

After that the two boys became friends. There was no more fighting.

Can I Go?

My daughter's children did not get outside to play as often as I felt they should,

If they were at my house I took them out to play. That was not often because I also worked. 

Their usual caretaker was their paternal grandfather. He loves them and took good care of them. He did not enjoy being outside.

Once they were spending the afternoon with me. They did not want to go out with me but finally we were in my back yard.  They were playing tentatively. They were getting some sun.

There was a healthy breeze that day. Sometimes the gusts were a bit stronger. 

I noticed that they both seemed a bit afraid. I asked what was wrong. They said they were afraid of being blown away,

Before I could ask who had told them such a ridiculous thing my phone rang. Because my back yard was fenced in I felt comfortable leaving them out while I ran in to answer it. So I did.

I answered the phone. As I did I turned around. There stood my grandchildren right behind me.

The sister of my daughter-in-law lived 3 houses down the street from me. Her daughter is the same age as my granddaughter. She called me 'Grandma-down-the-street'.

When they were a bit olde3r my grandchildren liked playing outside. I went out with them because we lived in the city. It is not always a safe place to be.

 All three children would have a good time. They had toys to play with. On hot days I would turn on the sprinkler so they could run through the water and stay cool.

One day my grandson came to me needing desperately to go to the bathroom. There was not time to gather all three of them and I could not leave the girls outside. So I told him to go in the bushes.

He looked at me like I had lost my mind. I told him to go stand between the house and the bush of his choice. Then he could do what he needed to do in privacy. 

When he was done he was so proud of himself. He bragged about it for the rest of the afternoon.

After thar day whenever he came to my house the first thing he asked to do is go to the bathroom in the bushes.

DNA

My son decided to take a DNA test. From his father he knew there would be Irish, German, and Swedish. I on the other hand am a melting pot of many nationalities. 

It took several weeks for him to receive the results. It was fun looking through the results. It made me want my own.

My son gave me a test for Christmas. It consisted of directions about how to use it, a mailing box, and a sterile test tube with lid.

I put the proper amount of clean saliva in the tube and mailed it. It was hard waiting for the results.

Finally they arrived. I knew one of my grandmothers was 100% Danish. I knew there would be a lot of 

Germanic ancestry.

From my DNA results I am mostly of Northern European descent. It tells me what percentage of what nationality makes me. It is fascinating.

I have also learned that even though we have the same parents my brothers and sisters DNA will probably not match exactly. There may be small differences in traits that we inherited. That is why we have different colors of hair, different eye colors, even baldness. 

Every once in a while the web site for the DNA company re-defines the tests. It might include a specific area of a country and what percentage I have from there.

Since having the test done I have learned from other sources that there were many Mormon ancestors. They traveled through here as they were on their way to Utah. Who knew?

I am glad I did it. It lets me know a bit more of who I am and why I have certain traits.

How I Met My Husband

When I was teen-ager Friday nights were for socializing. If you had a car you would drive what we called the loop.

To drive the loop you drove down Pierce Street to Gordon Drive. From Gordon Drive you went up Nebraska Street to 14th Street. 14th Street over to Pierce Street. 

Unless you went to get something to eat you did this over and over until you decided to go home.

If you had no car you wandered around downtown. You were not confined to the same streets as cars. We thought it was great fun. Why I have no idea/

We would also stop to get something to eat. Once in a while parts of the two groups would meet that way.

As a matter of fact that is how I met my husband. He and his friends came in from their car. I and my friends were having a hamburger and fries when they entered.

They sat near to where we were sitting. We began to talk and get to know each other. 

We were invited to join them the next night. We accepted.

Because my friends and I were on foot we walked home that night.  I lived a long way from downtown. I was late getting home. I was grounded for two weeks.

 I told my parents I had a young man coming the next night to take me out. They were not impressed. I was still grounded.

When he came to pick me up that next night I wanted to be able to go out to let him know I could not go. My parents allowed it. Somehow he talked me into getting in the car and off we went.

We drove the loop that night. When he dropped me off at home Daddy was waiting. I went in to accept my further punishment. My husband-to-be took off before Daddy could get to his car.

I still have no idea why I disobeyed. I did not do things like that.