Category: nostalgia

A few things that I cringe thinking about

Posted on Posted in animals, humor, kids, nostalgia, pets, the things we doLeave a comment

Keeping warm: When I was very young and we lived up in the mountains and it would be so cold in the winter mornings. I would often jump out of bed and sit over the heat vent with my night-gown over my legs so that the heat would blow up and keep me warm. One morning I felt something on my leg. A daddy-long-legs came out of the heat vent and was crawling up my leg. I never sat over that vent like that again.

Poop patrol: When my boys were young we had labs and one smaller dog. If the boys were going out to play in the back yard, they were to pick up the dog poop before they played. We did have shovels and pooper-scoopers yet one day my older boy came running in to tell me that his younger brother (who was 6-7 years old at the time) was picking up dog poop with his hands. We were all grossed out, except my younger boy.

Smells: When my boys were young, for some reason if my husband or youngest son smelled something gross, they would immediately say, “Ewe, smell this”. Myself and my oldest son continually looked at them like they were nuts, “If it’s so gross, why would I want to smell it”.

Wipes: About two years ago I was having surgery to remove a kidney stone that got stuck. I had to go to the bathroom one last time before surgery. The attending nurse told me to be sure to use the wipes and sanitize myself again after I was done, and before heading back to the room.

I was done on the toilet and saw a plastic container of wipes. As I reached for it and vaguely remember that it had the word sanitizing on it. I wiped myself and instantly I felt an incredible burning. I hit the call button for the nurse. She quickly gave me the soothing wipes that were in a drawer (really?).

I had used the disinfectant sanitizing wipes. I wouldn’t recommend that.

Fireflies – We’re never too old

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In the mid-90’s I was working in Tennessee. I spent two-three weeks at a time there. One of the gals I worked with and her husband took me to dinner one evening. We went to the New Orlean’s Manor. It was daylight when we went in to the restaurant.

The sun had gone down by the time we came out. There was a yard right out front, across from the driveway. There were twinkling lights all over in the yard. I asked what the twinkling lights were.

Fireflies! OMG. I had never seen a firefly other than on tv. I ran out into them like I was 7 years old. I was in awe of them. I feel a twinkle in my heart and get warm fuzzies every time I think of them.

Selective Hearing

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When my oldest boy was in the third or fourth grade I was increasingly becoming concerned about his hearing. It seemed that he often said, “What” or just didn’t hear me at all.

I asked the school nurse to schedule him for a hearing test. At the end of the day she had him tested, she asked me to come in and sit down to discuss the results. She told me that his hearing tested good and that he was simply ignoring me. What a relief, I think.

I was a paranoid mom, worrying that something would happen to my boys. To my defense, they were young at the time that John Walsh’s son was taken. We were all a bit scared.

I would tell my son over and over to wear a helmet when he was on the skateboard or bicycle; to watch for car; etc. Years later I was on the phone with him and he started yelling at his young step-brother to put a helmet on. Ha Ha Ha … he listened, heard me, he just chose what to let me know what he had heard.

Practical Jokes and more

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I love fun, harmless practical jokes. When my kids were young we’d have impromptu hide and seek. Someone would hide in a closet. As soon as someone else realized we didn’t know where that person was, it was game-on! We often had to bring our little dog with us to hide because she was a tattle-tail. If the boys didn’t bring her with them, I could always count on her to help me find them. Unfortunately, my daughter-in-law hasn’t thought my adult son’s impromptu hiding is much fun.

We had a living room and a family room, with a dining room between them (in sort of an L shape). We had cable TV in each room and it just so happened that both of the remotes worked either TV. The boys would be watching TV in the family room and I would be here and there doing household whatever’s. I loved changing the channel they were watching, using the living room remote. I would only do it every few months so they would be taken completely off-guard.

They would look at each other perplexed at what happened. I would sometimes hide behind a chair or something so if they came to see if it was me, I’d be hiding. By the third channel change, they would catch on that it was me but it was so much fun.

These are just a couple … I’ll share more later.

Yonder Firpiece?

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I grew up in Colorado and then moved to Idaho. My folks were born and raised in New York City and New York is where most of my relatives lived for much of my life. Other than occasionally on TV, New York accents were about the only accents I was really accustomed to hearing.

In the mid-90’s I was part of a team who was working on a project that primarily took place in Nashville. There were eight of us on this team, all from different offices within the Company. I was the only one who did not live in the South, two of them were from the Nashville area. I had been to that office a couple of times and over the years had been on the phone with some of my Nashville co-workers.

Our first day in Nashville to begin work on this project, we took a lunch break and it was decided that I would drive to where we were going to eat. I don’t know why I was the one driving since clearly I was not a local. This lunch outing would truly be my first introduction to the southern language. Most of these gals had as much fun with sarcasm as I have so … you can imagine the fun we had understanding each other. There were 5 of us who went to lunch that day.

I was guided to turn onto a road and then told to go ‘yonder firpiece’. For the first time in my interactions with my Nashville co-workers, I really felt like they were speaking a different language. I first asked how far ‘yonder is’. I would think that at least one of them would know how far ‘yonder’ is but I could not get a clear answer. I could let that go because from time to time we all say something like, go that way for a bit, a ways, etc but … what is a firpiece? When I questioned the definition of a firpiece’, we all laughed so hard I thought I’d have to pull over.

I can tell you that the only answer I got was that ‘firpiece’ is actually, ‘for a piece’. When we got to the restaurant it was a BBQ diner. I’m not a big BBQ fan but hey, when in Rome. I looked at the menu and had a tough time figuring out what to order. I wanted some basics since I was unfamiliar with most of the items listed. (I never imagined how different our foods were.) I ordered pork, corn bread, beans and hominy. When my plate was ready there was shredded meat, a pancake, bbq beans and the hominy. I went back to the ordering counter and told the gal that I got a pancake (I’m not fond of pancakes) instead of corn bread. … you guessed it, that was my corn bread.

One time in a restaurant the waitress asked me if I wanted a ‘coke’. I asked if that was the only ‘pop’ they had. She looked as stumped as I had felt on the drive to the BBQ diner. She said we have coke or water or sweet tea. I thought it was odd that they only carried coke. When the laughter at the table subsided I learned that ‘coke’ was the term for any soft drink just like the word ‘pop’ is to me.

I loved these gals and we worked together on this project for about a year and a half. I can’t tell you the numbers of times we teased and laughed about the differences in our food and language.

Irresistible Rescues

Posted on Posted in animals, cats-kittens, dogs-puppies, happy, humor, kids, nostalgia, petsLeave a comment

Warning: This may start off a bit emotional. If you want to skip that part, go down to the fourth paragraph.

I love animals large and small, large like bears and lions; small like pet (domestic) rats. When I was young I wanted to be a veterinarian and even had the opportunity to begin an apprenticeship of sorts when I was 14 years old. I found that I couldn’t handle watching animals who had to be put down and I never returned.

We had a few pet rats when I was a kid. They were very friendly and sweet. They would cuddle and lick and never nip or bite. We had dogs and cats I loved them all. My weakness is the baby animals.

From the time I was a young adult, I always had rescues. My first as a young adult was a black lab pup that was found. A work colleague called and asked if I wanted it, knowing the answer of course. Unfortunately he died when he was only six months old. When my boys were very young my husband and I got a black lab. When he was about 4 years old he had a neurological issue and became vicious and eventually had to be put down.

When my boys were still pretty young we got a lab pup from a nice small kennel. She grew to be a large lab. This was my third lab. She was a beautiful yellow lab and almost white. Her AKC name was Accents of Ivory Jasmine.

I had never had a small dog and thought it would be nice. My husband went to the pound and found a half-chihuahua/half-terrier. We named her Sugar.

One day (while Sugar was still a pup) the boys and I went out garage sale-ing. My oldest boy needed a bathroom so we went to a former baby-sitter’s house. She was happy to see us and told my son to use the bathroom in her bedroom.

Only moments later my son was making all kinds of strange noises. He yelled for me to come and I bolted into the bathroom only to find a litter of kittens. The garage sale-ing stopped because we needed to go to the store and buy whatever our new kitten could possibly need. Her name was Spice. (Her name was Spice because I was starting a theme, not because I baked a lot).

Next we bred Jasmine (a one time thing and we gave away most of the pups to our friends). One of the pups had to be resuscitated shortly after birth. We kept her because her feet were huge and we knew she’d be a big girl. Thank goodness we kept her because she was developmentally challenged. She was such a sweet dog but much like Odie (of Garfield) and was like a 4 month old puppy her entire life. My husband named her Comet. Comet? After a ball of fire in the sky or a cleanser? Who knows. Obviously there was no respect for my pet-name theme.

Our next pet came to us, much like all the kids selling whatever. There was a sign above our door that read “Sucker” or “Softy”. Regardless it seems that we were the only ones that couldn’t see it. There was knock on the door one evening. There was a person with a kitten. I melted and my husband (standing behind me) said, “No” before this person even spoke. The person pleaded and said they were moving and that the mother cat was hit by a car and … oh my what a story. Who knows if it was true or not but my husband still said no. And me, well I don’t need a story.

The next morning, my husband left for work and within 15 minutes there was a knock on the door. It was the same person with the kitten again. I can’t even remember what was said, probably, “Please”. I, of course took the kitten. The boys went off to school and I went off to get kitty stuff. I’m not sure why I wasn’t at work that day but thank goodness.

When the boys got home from school I told them not to say anything to their dad when he got home. Ha! He walked in, the boys were standing there with grins as wide as their faces and he knew. He said, “You got the kitten didn’t you?” His name was Cinnamon.

Halloweening

Posted on Posted in balance, happy, healthy, humor, nostalgiaLeave a comment

Just a bit of reflection and nostalgia-tripping. When my kids were young Halloween seemed to be the time of the first snowfalls of the season, in these parts. There was definitely more snow.

When we chose Halloween costumes, they had to be large enough to go over the jackets. I do remember one year (when they weren’t so young) that the neighborhood boys all dressed as female cheerleaders. If I remember correctly, I think they were very cold. I’ll post a photo when I come across it.

For years now I buy bags of selected party favors so I have about 15 varieties of little toys. I avoid sugar and don’t want to support anyone else’s sugar habits (it’s just not healthy). The Teal Pumpkin Project is about handing out treats to kids that are allergy free so that if kids have allergies to certain food, they can still enjoy the treat. I heard of them a couple of years ago. It’s actually less expensive to buy the little toys and the kids LOVE them! I have kids return each year excited to see what’s new. For the first and second year trick or treaters I usually have small bottles of ‘bubbles’ or something toddler-friendly. I get such a kick out of seeing them have fun.

Although during this pandemic I’ve social distanced, I chose to hand out these treats this year. My safety though was, once I open the door the kids choose their toy from a large tray and they leave. We don’t have too many conversations and they are not there very long. It seemed safer than a grocery store, as far as spreading. Most of the kids (few that we did get) this year were wearing masks.

A childs point of view

Posted on Posted in humor, kids, nostalgia, perception

When I was young, I had an aunt that lived about 90 miles from us. We would go visit from time to time and occasionally I got to spend a week here and there with her during the summer.

Every night before bedtime, she would have a big bowl of ice cream over a chopped banana. This was one of my favorite things during my overnight visits.

I wound up moving almost a thousand miles away. Years later she downsized and moved to my hometown. About the time I was approaching 40 yrs old, I moved back so I was able to see her and spend more time with her again. Within a year of moving back, she passed. I bought her home from my cousin with everything in it (including a dog; a cat; and her grandson).

Soon after moving into the home, I opened one of the cupboards and saw a stack of bowls. They were the bowls that she used for ice cream and bananas when I was a kid. My heart was full of warm-fuzzies but I also had a laugh because those bowls were not nearly as big as I remember them being. In fact they weren’t big at all.