NANA'S MEMORIES

Hubby and I were both born in the old hospital, delivered by the same doctor, and both mothers were tended by the Sisters there. As we were born three months apart, we did not see each other there. Remember my $22.00 hospital bill? The room rate was $5.00 a day, the delivery room was $10.00, laboratory was $1.00, and the identification bracelet was $1.00. I am sure his parents received a similar bill. We started first grade the same year. Nurse Simmons may have given us our pre-registration immunizations at the same time. Perhaps he and his little sister were in that ugly green tiled waiting room as I made my little brother get his shots first. Did my mother nod hello to his mother in the hallway? I think I would have remembered this cute little guy. My brother and I played tag and caught lightening bugs late into the night with a gang of other kids while Daddy played country-western music with friends around town. Hubby's folks did too but I do not remember seei...

My azaleas taken last week. This has been an incredibly busy weekend with no time for blogging - reading or writing. My apologies to all with a promise to catch up with your goings-on soon.

Remember my post where I called my sister a little chicken.  re-read about it here   Well, I take it back. This girl is no chicken. Last night she brought her still quite ill husband home from the nursing home he has been convalescing in since his stroke. Even after an intense therapy program, he cannot assist with transfers or bear his own weight. But he is home and he slept in his own bed last night. Way to go little sister!

I don't usually do a lot of family pictures but this is a picture of my oldest granddaughter, Rachel. She is fourteen. I had to work this weekend so we could not have all the little ones over. As she and her Papa can fend for themselves, she came alone. After telling her she could use the face cleanser that was on the vanity in my bathroom, she brought it to me pointing out it was anti-aging cream. I told her it was still okay to use. Her response was, "But I don't want to look nine years old!" If it were only that easy. Five years off with the use of cheap Dollar General facial cleanser.

It has been a busy weekend for me. I went back home for a school friend's funeral Saturday.  I should not be going to a school friend's funeral - not for at least another twenty years. Everything about that trip made me sad. What is up with my hometown anyway? Do we really need a bank on every corner in town? My elementary school was torn down to build a  BANK!  The Sunny Side Truck Stop is now a BANK!  Bet we can't go to the back door of a BANK and get ten of the best hamburgers in the world for a buck. How long before the old hospital is torn down to build a BANK ? Didn't we do just fine when the only bank was Farmers Bank which isn't Farmers Bank anymore but I usually still say Farmers Bank? I guess the old high school will be a City Complex soon. Couldn't they all just wait until I don't remember how things used to be? Someday I won't remember falling down in the dirt and gravel of the steep hill beside the bus garage, hoping no one saw me, a...

As soon as hubby gets me a spot cleaned out and kills that snake he says is as big as a fence post, I'm going to start fishing. I think I'll use a cane pole like Mama did.

Harry S. Truman was the President of the United States when my uncle was born. Sam was the ninth of nine children and born only eleven months after number eight.  Did you know Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri and coined the phrases, "The buck stops here" and "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen?" He dismissed General MacArthur one month before I was born - totally unrelated.  Much later, Daddy said Truman should never have fired him but I did not listen to why he thought that. Sid McMath was the Governor of Arkansas when my then two year old uncle tried to cross Main Street in his endeavor to see why Mama and Daddy had taken "his baby" to Aunt Maggie's little house.  Back then new mothers stayed in bed for ten days after childbirth. Naturally we went to Grandma's. Mama and Daddy had just left when my Aunt Dorcas and my cousin Jimmy arrived at Grandma's for her ten day confinement. The y...

This is probably not as harmful as it sounds....or maybe it is. I think there are radioactive particles in ordinary dirt. What I thought interesting about this video is how the model at the end is cleansing her face. It is just like we were instructed to cleanse as teenagers. Using your fingertips only, gently massage your face and neck in upward strokes. Side note: I failed my first check off on handwashing in nursing clinicals because I did not rinse the soap off my hands and wrists. You can scrub thoroughly but if you don't rinse well enough the bacteria is still there. I learned my lesson though if you are ever my patient.

This is how I remember women dressing in the 1950s Except for the fact I might be deceased now, I would have loved to live in the fifties. Oh wait.....I did live in the fifties. In fact, I lived all but one and a half years of the fifties. I never wore clothes like this though. Come to think of it no one I knew wore clothes like this.

Seems like the ladies from the fifties just had a natural beauty.

On the way to work but not today I think there should be a discounted license fee for those of us who have to drive Interstate 40 everyday. Besides the horrible road condition, the people out there are crazy!! Today's trip reminded me of Mama always saying, "That scared the P-waddin' out of me."  What is P-waddin' anyway?

Sorry I keep changing background colors.  What looks good on laptop looks wrong on phone  or desk top. Hope everyone had a great weekend. It was a lovely one here.

All three of us I always got a new pastel colored dress and bonnet for Easter. I already told you that though, didn't I? Grandma and Grandpa picked us up for church on Easter Sunday. Grandpa liked to get there early enough to pray before his sermon. I didn't much like the hard sugar-coated eggs the Easter Bunny brought. They looked pretty in my Easter basket though. Our Sunday School teacher used a flannel board to tell us the Easter story. I liked the fluffy white cut-out lambs she stuck on the board. Sometimes my OKC Grandma came to visit at Easter. Mama cleaned the house top to bottom before she got here. Although Grandma was Church of Christ, she came to Easter services at our Pentecostal church. We served the same God. A neighbor's cat ate our Easter chicks one year. Just the little pink and green feathers were left. Grandpa would read from the Book of Luke on Easter Sunday. Sometimes he cried. We always had a big Easter egg hunt after ch...

My son and his daughters We had our second grandaughter's birthday party at the Knoxville park today. Konstance is our "little lady" grandchild and is always pleasant, agreeable, and well-mannered. As she was so long awaited the nursing staff cheered as her Mom and Dad left the hospital. She loved to wear hats and sat with her legs crossed even as a baby. She is loved by all and our blessing from God. Her Nana had a major "senior moment" today when she forgot to put her birthday money in the birthday card. Don't you hate it when there is no way to hide it?

Blake with his kite                                    

Sorry Little Sister, this picture was taken about three years before you showed up. I think my Grandma from Oklahoma City usually bought my Easter outfits. My dress was a frilly organza or dotted swiss affair with a stiff and scratchy cancan slip underneath. I always got new shoes and socks too. I did not wear one this year but I usually had an Easter bonnet.  I once asked my oldest grand daughter if she wanted an Easter bonnet. She had no idea what a bonnet is. Now my second grand daughter always wore a cute little hat and loved them. Grandma is dressed in typical fifties woman attire. She has gloves in her left hand, costume jewelry bracelets, clip-on earrings, and cateye glasses. She was always stylishly dressed. She kept a fur coat in her closet. It was scary to  me. One year my Uncle Jack bought my Easter outfit. It was a blue dress with daisy trim and white shoes. He would probably buy me one this year if I asked.

Labor Day 2010 I had my son's daughters over this weekend to help clean off the back porch. Well, I didn't have them over just to work but they actually liked scrubbing the lawn furniture and washing the dirt and pollen off the floor.  It made me remember Mama spraying the front porch with water from a rubber hose trying to cool the house down. I loved the cold water running over my bare feet. I remember her hair in pin curls and wrapped in a chiffon scarf with the cuffs of her shorts rolled up into short shorts. The library used to be in the Court House downtown. Mama would let me and my brother walk to the library to get an armful of books to read every week. It was always shady and cool as we cut across Filmore Street. The library was cool too but I don't know if it was because it was air conditioned or just because it was in the basement. Mama would have us get her an Earle Stanley Gardner, Victoria Holt, or Phyllis Whitney book. If I brought one home that s...

Jimmy Stewart's advice to his twin daughters as they left for college, "Be nice to people."