NANA'S MEMORIES

This picture was taken a couple of months ago at my Aunt Dorcas' burial at Oakland Cemetery. Luckily the broken branch did not damage any of the tombstones. I had asked my "three words all the way to Oklahoma City" Uncle if he knew how to spell our third grade teacher's name. He walked to the cemetery today and found her grave marker. It reads: Vivian E. Misenhimer   1899 - 1999 I wonder how many children she influenced over the years?

Well, I guess I have to leave these. And them To follow this To work I do not have a picture of work.....who wants to see a row of buildings and a big parking lot?

Well, I thought it was time to tell how I ended up married for nigh on forty two years without ever getting a proposal. Hubby and I should have or could have met in the seventh grade when he went to Clarksville School for part of the year. I do not remember him. He does not remember me. He does remember the "Candyman's" daughter though. And no, not the Sammy Davis, Jr. "Candyman". Diane's dad was the very nice gentleman that delivered candy to the stores in town. I remember Diane as well. She is the girl I cheated off on a test in the third grade. She was wearing a red cardigan. I remember it raining outside while I tried to recall the four seasons. I remember it was Michie School. I do not remember the teacher's name. We must have moved during the school year because I had Miss Misenhiemer as a teacher in third grade too. I liked her. Daddy said she was one of his teachers when he was in high school. I wonder if she bought that old black car new?...

My brother in law gave this to me for my birthday. We share a love of birds and flowers. He is in the nursing home - slowly recovering from a stroke. He probably needs this more than I do now. Maybe Freda should take it to him. Wouldn't he just love to be sitting out here on this gorgeous day? Arkansas is beautiful.

Isn't this a sweet picture? My daughter's day care kids going for a walk...all ten of them plus my grand daughter. They walked to the bus stop to wait for the after school kids.

1957 Black Chiffon Chanel gown Look at this beautiful 1957 Coco Chanel dress I found while looking at the Metropolitan Museum Website. (I am thinking I want to go there - for a week) I think the dress is just lovely. It is made to wear without undergarments as it has heavy boning and netting at the bodice. I can imagine Audrey Hepburn in something like this. This is what I remember women wearing in the 1950s. They were mostly sewn from patterns. I do not believe I ever saw an evening gown during the 50s. I think I would remember that. But......the reason for this post is to ask if you have ideas for editing photos after Picnik closes in April. I just got it figured out...and it shuts down. I would mostly like to resize the photos and make the little frames around the pictures. Any ideas?

I'm thinking Mama should have invested in dinnerware. A service for 4 for only $2.79. What we could get out of it now!!

Maybe I will drag myself out of the fifties sometime this summer. Now I'm into fifties fashion. I never had any of these dresses nor did I see anyone in these dresses. Well maybe the little white with blue flowers sleeveless dress. Mama made most of my clothes. This is a Balenciaga design with the wide collar look he was famous for. I was thinking how the models and actresses in the fifties had a little more meat on their bones until I saw the collar bones on this girl. Look at the cigarette in her hand. No wonder our parents got so addicted to cigarettes. It did look glamorous. " Fifties Designs " Create a free slideshow with Picnik! You can forget that "create a slideshow with Picnik" bit 'cause they're closing in April. Everything is free until then though. 

Your mind (or at least my mind) does funny things sometimes. For years now I have envisioned Mama looking just like Rita Hayworth. Actually she does not look like her. I do remember Mama wearing bright red lipstick...just like Rita. She pin-curled her hair and styled it...just like Rita. She often had a cigarette in her hand...just like Rita.  The picture of Mama was taken when she was thirteen. You can tell how tiny she was. Just three years later she was married and had a baby on the way. That's the way it was. You cannot tell much with the picture so small but there are little holes all in Mama's picture. I think one of her four brothers may have used her likeness for a dart board.

I did a piece during my OB rotation in school about how pregnancy practices have changed over the years. My Grandma had all but the last two of her nine babies at home with no prenatal care and Grandpa in attendance with each birth. When Mama had us, she was sedated throughout the delivery and Daddy stayed in the waiting room. That was the stereotypical portrayal of births on television during the fifties and even into the sixties. Pregnancies were not as publicly celebrated as they are today. I ran across this article about how Hermes bags are made and how the Kelly bag got it's name.  Princess Grace using Hermes bag to hide pregnancy . I thought it interesting that this particular style of bag became know as the Kelly bag due to her use of it to hide her pregnancy. It does seem odd today that a pregnancy needed to be hidden. I can probably find the website where this Hermes bag is for sale for $12,995. Oh, by the way...Mama said that they were expected to stay i...

I wonder if I could get by with a picture of her as my profile picture? I did not realize I had word verification on my blog....I did not ask for it. As I have not had problems with robots and with a little help from my friends, I think I have removed it. Please advise, if not. Oh, that reminded me of my grandson who did have a robot problem. We were talking about how he wasn't afraid of anything. He said, "Yeah, huh Nana - wobots." All the grandchildren said "Yeah huh" from time to time. As an apology, I present....Loretta Young. Don't you agree she was lovely?

Disclaimer: I am sorry to say this picture was not taken at my house or by me. Well, off to work I go. I hope to catch up on all your posts this weekend because I know you are telling of things I want to know about.

I rarely get a Valentine's card from my hubby...but he always changes the oil in my car. He rarely buys me candy either...but he always saves the last Twizzler in the package for me. I do not remember him buying me many cut flowers...but he digs the holes to plant my azaleas. He does not take me out to eat much...but he never complains if we have scrambled eggs for supper. We do not vacation together very often...but he will travel anywhere I am to change a flat tire on my car. He sometimes tracks mud in on my clean floors...but he takes his boots off every night at my house.

Dean Martin's signature song That's Amore as performed in the 1953 film The Caddy. Amore means "love" in Italian. It received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Song that year.

I think homemade blueberry muffins on this cold "just a dusting of snow" evening will do just fine.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Robertson Dale Robertson played in the TV Series Wells Fargo from 1957-1962. Daddy liked the show and watched it faithfully each week. Westerns were his favorite. We were living in a basement apartment on College Avenue when the time for Wells Fargo neared. As the opening credits rolled, the music played, and Dale Robertson's face appeared, Mama said, "Ah, there's my man." Daddy turned the TV off.

                                                Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bette_Davis_Portrait.jpg If you have Bette Davis Eyes because you just cannot get to sleep at night, I have a little trick one of my home health patients told me about.  Have your bedroom a little cool. Go to bed but do not cover up. Get really chilled and then cover up. After you get all warm and snuggly, you will drift right off. I usually sleep very well and only have three or four sleepless nights a year. When I do, I try this and it works very well.

I promise this is the last I will bring up copyright issues. I am tired of worrying about it as I know you are all tired of hearing it. Patsy, one of my blogging friends, mentioned Bing Images as a source of photos. When I searched Public Domain Rita Hayworth, it came back with several pictures that either were never copyrighted or the copyright ran out. Public Domain photos are free, free, free. There were a lot of Creative Commons photos that I liked more but I am still trying to wrap my mind around that issue. Anyway, here is Rita. The original Rita.  In my opinion, she is more beautiful than any current celebrity. Source This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed . Unless its author has been dead for the required period, it is copyrighted in the countries or areas that do not apply the rule of the sh...

As I have probably already committed copyright infringement, the question of whether to download pictures of 1950's Hollywood stars may be a moot point. Most of the family pictures I have already posted were either made by or the film developed by Collier Studio, a photographer who had a shop on Main Street since the early fifties. This baby picture of me was made at Collier's and is stamped Collier Photography Studio on the back. By the way, we all had to bring a baby picture of ourselves to display in a slide show for our penning ceremony at nursing school. As I was the oldest graduate from my class, they had no difficulty recognizing me in this old black and white picture. Collier Studio is also stamped on the back of my engagement photograph that was taken there eighteen years later. When I went in to look at the proofs, I told Mr. Collier I liked my hair in one picture but my blemishes were showing too much. He said he would take care of the blemishes ...

Doing the right thing. It is not always easy to do the right thing. What if no one will ever find out or you will never get caught? Can you still do it? What if everyone  is doing it? Is it still okay? What if you really, really, really want to post some great photos of beautiful people? Do you know if Rita Hayworth is searched on Google Image, 164,000 photos will show up. Not all of the photos are of Rita. In fact, I saw one of Elizabeth Taylor and one of an older Lauren Bacall. There are a lot of duplicate photos of Rita Hayworth that have been pulled from all over the Web. There are some really great pictures out there.  Just because everyone  else is posting possibly copyrighted photos of the fifties glamour stars, can I post them as well? How do you know whether it was copyrighted or not? You know, your works do not have to be labeled with a copyright symbol to still be copyrighted. How do I even find who did copyright the photo? I can apply to the Copyri...

Mama said when they went to the movies, Daddy would be the one who took me out of the theater if I cried. He knew she loved the movies. I began to wonder which ones I may have seen with Mama and Daddy. Hubby and I stayed up late watching Mrs. Miniver with Greer Garson last night. How is it I had never seen this excellent film? Greer Garson won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1943 for her portrayal of Mrs Miniver in war torn England. Mama would have only been nine when this was shown. I doubt she saw it in the theater. I think I may have missed a lot of classic movies from the '50s. Here is a list of the best picture winners during that era. 1950 Broderick Crawford won Best Actor award for his role in "All The King's Men." Olivia de Havilland won Best Actress in "The Heiress." 1951 Although not a classic beauty, Betty Davis certainly had beautiful eyes. I read that Celeste Holm greeted Davis with a "Good...

This is for my brother in law who is in the hospital now after suffering a stroke two weeks ago. Ron bought me this pretty little bird house for Christmas. Although it is too low for birds to safely build their nests, by spring we will have it mounted higher in a tree. Ron is from New England and is an avid Patriots fan. After he has anxiously anticipated a Super Bowl win for some time, right now it is unsure whether he will recognize the game is playing. Please review these stroke symptoms and contact 911 immediately if noted. Although I do not typically watch football, I hope the Patriots win for Ron.

One thing I love about reading everyone's blog is they often remind me of something similar. That is what happened when I read Charlotte's account of the various birds and animals she sees on their farm.  Read her account here . Hubby has hated armadillos ever since they crossed the Texas/Arkansas border. I am not trying to  disparage Texas or Texans but as the armadillo crossed the Rio Grande, they must have come from Texas.  Read origin of the North American armadillo here.  Wherever they came from, they have been the bane of my husband's existence for years and he has tried to do his part to eradicate them from the Arkansas River Valley area. Back at the old place, anytime hubby would come running into the house around dusk I knew he was after his gun to kill some varmint. His main complaint with the  blasted  armadillo is that the yard and pastures are not safe for man or beast with all the holes they dig. (Used in that context...

My beloved Grandpa and Grandma I just read "why the name" on Carole-Anne's Use The Good Dishes blog.  Read her explanation here . It brought to mind my little Grandma whose favorite gift was a new flannel nightgown. She had gowns in many colors and styles with various ribbons, bows, and trims. She kept them neatly folded in a dresser drawer, yet she rarely wore the new ones. Someone teasingly asked her if she was saving them for Grandpa's second wife. Grandpa passed away first and when Grandma did her dresser drawer was full of new flannel nightgowns. My kids will not find any flannel nightgowns tucked away when I am gone.  I do not care for flannel.

The sun is shining and it is 70 degrees in Arkansas.