Feb. 15, 2011 Friends

I've been thinking about all the friends I have had through 60 years. Some have been lost and some have stayed.

It is a wonderful thing when you can look back over a life time and know that some friends will be there forever.

I have friends from growing up in a small town in Illinois. There is Janice and Jo-Ellen. I really cannot remember a time when they weren't around. Now we live far apart but can keep up with this wonderful new tool of the internet.

Kathy moved to our town in Junior High. She, became another of the friends that will remain.

We were all girls together. The summers of swimming at the lake, riding bikes, and falling in and out of what we were sure was love.

There are friends from South Dakota, that have now scattered to the winds. Ha, I guess we all got tired of the intense cold. There were days of being together that allowed us to grow into our adult selves. Some were married or got married in the few years we all had together. We had kids or saw friends become parents. We are still in touch and most of us are grandparents now.

I have friends from work. Although, I have lost track of some, others remain and I hope will do so forever.

I have made new friends of neighbors and cherish that phone call that comes once or twice a week to check to make sure all is ok.

Again, I guess my best friend is my sister. She is there no matter what. We've had long years of not understanding each other, but I think we have always known that we were still best friends.

I have my Don. He is here on a day to day basis and even though he is my husband, he too, is a best friend. I can laugh and cry with him. I guess that is what it is really all about, isn't it?

Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011

I thought I would write a little on Valentines Day. I worked for years at Hallmark and dreaded Valentines Day.

It was awful trying to satisfy all the customers who felt we should have a card for "my dead uncle's daughter's step-son's wife" . Also, there were the guys who it just dawned on them that it was Valentines Day. Although, you could pretty much talk them into the $200.00 (ugly & stupid) Precious Moments piece, a $50.00 box of really awful chocolate, and then of course, the $7.50 card. What a bunch of morons! You could see them coming from a mile a way. " Ha, watch this, my fellow co-workers, I'll bet I can get this one to buy a $200.00 Madame Alexander doll, we've been trying to get rid of all winter." What a bunch of schmucks!

But then there is a side to the holiday that does have a nice purpose. It is just to let the one you love know that you love them. There are some truly wonderful love stories out there. You just have to look.

I would say that my sister had a wonderful love story. She told me that she saw my brother-in-law at the age of 13 and knew she would marry him. Granted, she did marry him and it didn't have the fairytale ending, but I truly think that between them they new that they would always be in love.

My sons seem to have found that wonderful type of love also. Ian and Angie, Tim and Jennifer, all seem to have that love that will last forever. I am so glad for them.

I have had the fairy tale love of youth, and it will probably stay with me until I die. But I've found a love that is wonderful, true and caring. What more could I want? I am so thankful that I found this man. He is funny and loving and I really couldn't ask for more. Some fairy tales do come true, some are just a place in your heart that will always be there.

So if you have someone, look in their eyes and tell them you love them. That truly is what the day is about.

Saturday/February

Sun is shining today. Looks warm but is still a bite in the breeze. According to the weather forecast it will be spring like next week. I am looking for a new pair of flip-flops for the summer. My sisters dog, Mab, ate mine last summer when they were here visiting. I am not upset about it, as I had had them for a couple of years and was really looking for an excuse to get a new pair. So a big thanks to Mab.

We have had lots of rain and that is a good thing. We have been nearly 2 ft. below what we are supposed to have.

However, being less that 3 ft. above sea level makes for a very soggy back yard.

I have been getting lots of mail from AARP and various insurance companies. First, I would join AARP because they are there for the folks that are rich and back the GOP. Other insurance companies just have a tendency to piss me off. There is way to much legalize in their pitches which I don't understand, but have found that it usually means: "your not covered for that".

I have watched as Egypt has ousted a corrupt government this past week. I sure wish we could have done the same with GWB and Co.. I would have been at the top of the list to get rid of that idiot and company. I hope it works to the peoples advantage and they take time to work out just what they want.

Well, nothing going on of any significance in 1951 this time of year.

It has been a few days since I've written anything. We had house guests last weekend, so it took a few days to get the house in order and then a few days of visiting with them. Now, life is back to normal.

Before you read this you should be informed that it will be a rant against the proposed cuts the House GOP want to make to the national budget.

They want to cut budgets for hiring Police. Well, we all know there are just to many police personnel. That is why we are in a Utopian society where there is no crime. Duh, I guess if you are rich, like a majority of the GOP, you can live in gated communities and not have to worry about crime. Except your Representative neighbor who is looking at child porno, beating his wife, sending pics over the internet of his middle aged body. So no police are needed to take care of those little problems.

Family planning will also be eliminated. Nope, no need for family planning programs. There is no teen pregnancies in the GOP god fearing families. Oops, evidently, Sarah Palins daughter missed that one. Now, don't get me wrong, I was a single mother for years. I know that mistakes will and can be made. But maybe, if family planning had been out there, I would have been a little more prepared.

Next on the chopping block, is Public Broadcasting. We all know that PBS is not needed nearly as much as shows like "The Jersey Shore", "The Bachelor/Bachelorette", "Survivor", "The Real Housewives", etc. What possibly can be learned from "Sesame Street", "The Electric Company"," Masterpiece Theater", "Nova"? Truly the the GOP would just like to dumb down Americans even more. That way, we will believe them when in they are in office and call for a made up war.

Other cuts would be made to food aid for women and children. Ya, why should be make sure these folks have food. Oh, sure, they could always go to McDonald's and eat from the dollar menu. Good balanced meals to be had there.

Cuts to the CDC, there is no need to keep on top of illnesses. The drug companies need more money. It just isn't fair that the American Public might be able to get decent health care at a reasonable price or free. So the money needs to be cut. It is really a kill the poor and old program brought to you by the Republican party and the rich.

Next on the chopping block is the Community Development Fund. Why should anyone want to improve communities? The GOP are fine in their gated communities, county club estates, etc. There is no need to improve where the majority of Americans live.

I am appalled at the cuts being considered. There is no compassion or caring in the Republican party. Please, when you think about which party you believe in, think about the middle and lower income people who worked and made American what it is.

Toys, Toys, Toys

I was thinking about toys and what I played with as a little girl. So I thought it would be fun to write about some of them.

Barbie was introduced in 1959. I had a couple of them through the years. The original, the the strange eyes and the stranger pony tail. Then one with the "bubble" hair cut. My mom found a lady in our town that made the clothes. So, I had a pretty good size wardrobe for my Barbie. The one with the pony tail, I discovered that you could comb out her hair and using straight pins you could make all kinds of hairdos. Not once did it enter my mind that by sticking pins in a dolls head that I was maybe leaning towards voodoo. I wonder if that would work for the Ken doll?

The hula hoop was introduced in 1957. While it was fun for a while, you for the purpose intended, it was also great to use as hoop for the cat to jump through (depending on the cat's mood). I did find that riding a bike with a hula hoop is a bad idea. The only place to put it is around your neck and that was just to much of a temptation for some friend to grab it as you rode by and pull you off your bike.

Play-Doh was introduced in 1956. Great fun, but it does stick to carpet when it dries out. Also sticks in cat hair and the cat did not appreciate that aspect of it.

Mr. Potato Head came out in 1952. Not the kind with the plastic body. You had to use a real potato. Messy but fun. I wish they would have had more expressions. I loved the line from Toy Story when Mrs. Potato Head tells Mr. Potato Head that she had packed his angry eyes.

The Sleeping Beauty Game came out in 1959. A marketing ploy by Disney. I loved this game and would beg anyone coming into the house to play with me. My brother-in-law (at that time my sister's boyfriend) would play it with me. He cheated and then try to deny it.

I always like toy cars and would play for hours on end with them. We also played "cowboys and Indians" and used our index fingers for guns. I could always make a really good ricochet sound. We were like Zombies, dead one minute from an Indians arrow and shooting up a storm the next.

There was lots of hide and seek, kick the can, and flashlight tag. Outside from the time we awoke to after dark.

I feel sad for kids today that don't have that freedom.

My youngest grandson comes to our house, and he is old enough to mow the yard, there is always a story going on in his imagination while racing around the yard. It is so much fun to watch him. I will peak out the window and watch him talking to an imaginary person and see the expressions change on his face. That is when I know all is right with the world. Imagination reigns in the minds of little children.

January 27, 2011

This date in 1951 saw the close of "Peter Pan" on Broadway. It has been redone a couple of times since and aired on the television a couple of times, made into movies with some success.

Mary Martin will always been Peter Pan. She captured the "boy" perfectly. I really don't think anyone could do the role as well.

January of 1951 (from what my sister tells me) is that I was still in the hospital. I was supposed to arrive in March, but arrived early. I often wonder how a premature baby made it to life back then. Now there are all these warnings and fears for premature babies. Well, here I am 60 years later and other than the inability to understand complicated math, I think I did ok. The town I grew up in had no special natal units, no special doctors, nothing in the way of specialized care for preemies. So I guess by a stroke of luck, I made it.

Being nearly 10 years younger than my sister and 6 years younger than my brother, there isn't a lot of remembrances of my babyhood. Both Carole and Jim seemed to not notice me until I started to get into their toys and such.

I have a granddaughter that is just now looking at turning 2, her sister is 15. So there is about the same age gap between siblings. I hope that they form the same bond that my sister, brother and I have. It is special and wonderful.

I hope that this Monday finds everyone thankful for siblings. Call your sister or brother, they love you.

State of the Union

I watched the State of the Union address last night. As I watched I wondered what was in Harry Truman's address in 1951.

Mostly it was about the big bad wolf, the Soviet Union. The need to build bigger and better military and the need to train children to that end. Scary!

No wonder my generation grew up thinking we could protect ourselves by "duck and cover", no one told us that we could actually vaporize and that "duck and cover" was just a way to kiss your ass goodbye.

Today, we still have the same mentality. We have just changed enemies. We have gone from Russia, to China, to the Taliban. There will always be an enemy real or imagined. I believe that if we would just mind our own business that the peoples of the world wouldn't be out to kill us.

I listened to President Obama's speech. I don't believe that we have ever had such eloquence. I don't believe that we have ever had such a forward thinking administration. This administration sees our enemies and knows we must take action, but not destroy cultures as old as the beginning of time. There is a sense of what we really need to concentrate on, such as energy, our citizens right to a good education, a fairness in the distribution of wealth, our right to healthcare, and a right to our dignity as human beings.

Now, I know that some of my readers will loudly disagree. To these people, I can only say you are misguided and so very wrong when it comes to the true salvation of our country.