What Do You Collect?

Why do people collect things? The collection can be anything from a particular piece of glassware to old milk cans. My sister started collecting cows when she was young. I think she must now have close to a million of those four-legged critters. These are not just any old cow. They seem to be black and white and made out of anything from paper to concrete. She has not received a surprise gift since it all started. She knows when the gift is opened, it will be another cow. A cow cookie jar, a cow flower vase, a cow plate, here a cow, there a cow, everywhere a cow cow. At one time they were in the dairy business so that might explain why it started.

My daughter collects Mickey Mouse figurines. I think it started when she was in highschool. For her College graduation gift, we bought her a Mickey Mouse telephone. It’s a real phone that still works and is in her living room. Not to give away her age or anything, it even has the rotary dial. When Mickey Mouse overran the house, she changed her collection to Thimbles. They take up much less room. There is a lighthouse thimble, a crocheted thimble, a Christmas tree thimble and the list goes on.
My son-in-law collects squirt guns. I sent him an email to authenticate the accuracy of my tale about his collection so I will include the return email.
Dear Editor and Chief,
The current count is 641 and rising (I hope).
My overall favorite is my Python, it is a remote control truck, that with the push of a button a snake head comes up and shoots water.
I have several old squirt toys that are from Occupied Japan, which means they are from the late 40's. Some older ones in the shape of a ship, airplane and locomotive.
Another of my favorites to use on people is a cell phone. You push the top buttons and water squirts out of the antenna. When you shoot people they always say let me see it. You give it to them and tell them to push the bottom buttons to get it to squirt, they always think "you fool, now it is my turn to get you. However, when you push the bottom buttons the water comes out the mouthpiece, you get to squirt them twice.
SIL

I have a collection of dolls. You know where they ended up. The top of the closet, the bottom of the closet, the dresser drawers, the garage, the guest bedroom has dolls decorating the entire top of the dresser and nightstands and I’m sure my many (2) guest must feel like they are in a wax museum when they spend the night. This collection probably stems from my childhood, when I didn’t get that Shirley Temple doll for Christmas.
What do you collect? Doesn’t everybody have a collection?

The Flour Sack

I remember the floral flour sacks very well. I once made myself a dress with them. It was a project in high school. A subject we had was called Home Ek. We called it Home Ek, but it probably was ec for economics. The class was mostly about food as I recall because we had to learn how to cook.
It really was a fun class. I loved it. We also had to learn how to sew. My project was a dress with a zipper in the side seam. Does anybody remember dresses with a zipper in the side seam.
Mom had saved several flour sacks of the same fabric. That was a bit of a challenge to lay out the pattern on the pieces of the flour sacks that had been ripped apart and washed and ironed.
We didn't have to make it with flour sacks and everybody else had regular fabric, but I wanted to make mine with the sacks.
I was worried about putting in the zipper so my Mom showed me how to put the zipper in and she was an expert in the field of sewing. I went to school the next day and it was time to put the zipper in. I put that zipper in exactly how Mom told me to and I guess lady luck was with me because it went in perfectly. That teacher was so impressed with my zipper job and she made me feel wonderful. So wonderful that I still remember if after all these years.


THE FLOUR SACK BY COLLEEN B. HUBERT
　
IN THAT LONG AGO TIME WHEN THINGS WERE SAVED, WHEN ROADS WERE GRAVELED AND BARRELS WERE STAVED, WHEN WORN-OUT CLOTHING WAS USED AS RAGS, AND THERE WERE NO PLASTIC WRAP OR BAGS, AND THE WELL AND THE PUMP WERE WAY OUT BACK, A VERSATILE ITEM, WAS THE FLOUR SACK.
　
PILLSBURY'S BEST, MOTHER'S AND GOLD MEDAL, TOO STAMPED THEIR NAMES PROUDLY IN PURPLE AND BLUE. THE STRING SEWN ON TOP WAS PULLED AND KEPT; THE FLOUR EMPTIED AND SPILLS WERE SWEPT. THE BAG WAS FOLDED AND STORED IN A SACK THAT DURABLE, PRACTICAL FLOUR SACK.
　
THE SACK COULD BE FILLED WITH FEATHER AND DOWN, FOR A PILLOW, OR T'WOULD MAKE A SLEEPING GOWN. IT COULD CARRY A BOOK AND BE A SCHOOL BAG, OR BECOME A MAIL SACK SLUNG OVER A NAG. IT MADE A VERY CONVENIENT PACK, THAT ADAPTABLE, COTTON FLOUR SACK.
　
BLEACHED AND SEWN, IT WAS DUTIFULLY WORN AS BIBS, DIAPERS, OR KERCHIEF ADORNED. IT WAS MADE INTO SKIRTS, BLOUSES AND SLIPS AND MOM BRAIDED RUGS FROM ONE HUNDRED STRIPS. SHE MADE RUFFLED CURTAINS FOR THE HOUSE OR SHACK, FROM THAT HUMBLE BUT TREASURED FLOUR SACK!
　
AS A STRAINER FOR MILK OR APPLE JUICE, TO WAVE MEN IN, IT WAS A VERY GOOD USE, AS A SLING FOR A SPRAINED WRIST OR A BREAK, TO HELP MOTHER ROLL UP A JELLY CAKE, AS A WINDOW SHADE OR TO STUFF A CRACK, WE USED A STURDY, COMMON FLOUR SACK!
　
AS DISH TOWELS, EMBROIDERED OR NOT, THEY COVERED UP DOUGH, HELPED PASS PANS SO HOT, TIED UP DISHES FOR NEIGHBORS IN NEED, AND FOR MEN OUT IN THE FIELD TO SEED.
　
THEY DRIED DISHES FROM PAN, NOT RACK THAT ABSORBENT, HANDY FLOUR SACK!
　
WE POLISHED AND CLEANED STOVE AND TABLE, SCOURED AND SCRUBBED FROM CELLAR TO GABLE, WE DUSTED THE BUREAU AND OAK BED POST, MADE COSTUMES FOR OCTOBER (A SCARY GHOST) AND A PARACHUTE FOR A CAT NAMED JACK. FROM THAT LOWLY, USEFUL OLD FLOUR SACK!
　
SO NOW MY FRIENDS, WHEN THEY ASK YOU AS CURIOUS YOUNGSTERS OFTEN DO, "BEFORE PLASTIC WRAP, ELMER'S GLUE AND PAPER TOWELS, WHAT DID YOU DO?" TELL THEM LOUDLY AND WITH PRIDE DON'T LACK, "GRANDMOTHER HAD THAT WONDERFUL FLOUR SACK!"
　

Candy Corn

Candy Corn



My friends on Facebook started going on about how much candy corn they ate and other clever comments like that, and I got a craving for candy corn. It was just one of those things that hit us from time to time. I went to Wal-Mart to buy some groceries so while there I remembered the craving. Would you believe I couldn’t find one kernel of candy corn in that stupid Wal-Mart store. What is the matter with those people!
Corn is a vegetable, isn’t it?




I also looked in the candy department. I went up and down that candy aisle three or four times. They did not have any.

The Beauty without the Beast

It's a boring Saturday afternoon and I was going through my all my treasurers that I have saved for a rainy day. I ran across my old wig and my eyes lit up and I thought--- I might just be able to entertain myself with this for a few minutes. I actually wore this to church a couple times. No wonder they excommunicated me !!! I always wondered why.

Upcoming Event

Cora and Jim---The proud parents

Cora, my granddaughter, always wanted to be a Mommy as you can see from the picture. She was practicing on Mickey Mouse. Now it's going to become a reality. Her and Jim will be going to China to pick up their daughter. When adopting it can be a very long pregnancy with all kinds of loopholes, surprises and disappointments and finally a sucess. Just like biological parents, they will soon forget all the pain of it because it was so worth it. We still don't know exactly when, but should be very soon. She has a lot of family waiting to hug her.

Her name is Chloe and birthday was September 27, 2009.

When in doubt, leave out.

Now that I’m old I have nothing much to do and no energy to do it with. So I spend a lot of time thinking of my past life. I have vivid recall of some of the ancient past. I remember my mother telling me that when she got old, she could recall things that happened when she was a child. It was something she had not always been able to do. I don’t know why it happens, but I seem to be doing the same.
I swear this happened when I was about 2 years old.
We were at church before the service had started. I had put a penny in my mouth and somehow it went gulp right down my throat. I told my mother and she got all excited about it. I guess she was worried about it and was telling everybody to see if they knew what to do about it. I remember everybody started teasing me about eating my money. I remember wishing they would shut up and leave me alone.

Another time I stuck a blue bead up my nose. Nobody knew about the bead except me and I knew I had done a dumb thing and didn’t want them to know I had done such a thing. I think they even asked me if I put something in my nose.
I just played dumb, which wasn‘t a very hard accomplishment for me. They knew something was wrong with my nose and took me to a doctor, and he looked in my nose with a light and said it looked like it might be some kind of growth.
I still wouldn’t tell them it was a bead. I guess I thought they would think the bead just got in my nose by accident. In that day, the only anesthesia was ether. My lips were still sealed so I had to have an operation. The way they administrated the ether was to place a sheet over my head and let me breathe the fumes. I was four years old and this is they way I remember it. It took everybody in the room plus a nurse or two to hold that sheet over my face. I thought they were killing me. It only took an instant and I was sound asleep.

The next memory I have of that event was on the way home from the doctor I was standing in the back seat of the car and leaning over the front seat between my parents and asked, "What did they do with that blue bead? " Mom and Dad both whipped their heads around and looked at me. If looks could kill I would be dead. My Dad said, "So now you want to talk about the blue bead, do you?"
Thank goodness, looks don’t kill.

Here but not really

Everybody has a phone jammed onto their ear. My grandson came over yesterday and was almost in panic mode. He instantly started looking under my sofa cushions. He had lost his I-pod and thought he might have left it here. He normally has the Ipod things stuck in each ear and his cell phone is ringing constantly with this far out crazy ring tone, and then he has to text back to them. All the time I am waiting for him to get untangled from all his wires and gadgets so I can talk to him. By now he wants to know if he can get on my computer. He is 16 and I love him unconditionally.
But I am sort of like the lady in the cartoon. He is here, but not really.

Prisoners have rights too

I guess this really isn't any of my business, but I never let that stop me before.

Our local county jailers and arresting officers seem to think they have a right to apply their own form of punishment on the prisoners. In our paper today there were two separate incidents of improper handling of the inmates. (IN MY OPINION)

One man was handcuffed with little sissy sized handcuffs and they were left on him for 8 hours. The handcuffs were so tight on his wrist it cut off the circulation. He suffered permanent injury and ended up having to undergo surgery.

The other incident was a man that was in a cell and was beaten to death by other inmates. He was left for several hours before taken to a hospital where he was not allowed to contact his attorney or his family. His family was finally notified by his attorney after a week. He died 12 days after the beating.

You can read all about it on this link.

http://www.yakima-herald.com/

Hurry up and Wait

I sort of had a lost week. I am a recovering Bronchitis sufferer. What started out as a common cold kept getting worse instead of better. It finally moved into the bronchitis stage. Lots and lots of coughing.
Anyway it is better and life goes on. Cora and Jim's adoption is on track and they should be able
to go to China soon and finalize everything and bring their daughter home. I don't think anybody knows exactly when. It's been a guessing game since the beginning. I'm sure Jim and Cora will be glad to sit back and relax for a change. They should have fun getting acquainted with their daughter. It has been a long long trail for those two with lots of set backs and disappointments, but it will be worth the wait.

Bad things make Cnn news

I got online and imagine my shock to read on CNN news about a college party that had some problems. Then I realized the college is the same one, four of my granddaughters attended.

I think the bad people have out numbered the good people. Every day is a new shock.

Sorry I can't figure out how to shorten the link. I used to know, but forgot. If anybody knows I would love to re-learn it.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/09/washington.students.overdose/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

I am a mess

This is my head on Cold drugs

I have had a cold for over a week and this is how I look and feel. I have coughed my head off and sneezed until my eyeballs popped out of my head. I believe there are little evil demon germs inside my head practicing their dart skills. It goes on and on. Hopefully they will get tired of the game soon.

The Happy Day has arrived

Yaba daba doo ! this is a picture of Cora, Jim and Little Miss in China. Travel plans are on the agenda. This is my Granddaughter and husband. They have waited so long for an adoption. Everything always fell through, but at last it is going to happen.