January 2018 Ramble

It is so freaking cold in the house right now. I’ve been pretty good at keeping the temp on the low side and bundling up because I KNOW that come summer time, that AC is gonna get cranked up. Period. You DON’T wanna be around me when I’m uncomfortably hot. As if menopause wasn’t warning enough…So y’all better appreciate the fact that I’m doing this blog with very cold fingers…

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I grew up on Campbell’s Soup. That was a regular thing at home. The main ones were chicken noodle, chicken and rice, and tomato. In fact, we never had fancy sauce for our spaghetti—we just opened a can of tomato soup and used that. One of my favorites, though, was beef noodle. Somewhere along the line I had the bright idea of putting potato chips in my soup instead of saltines (another staple thing at home). I loved it! I then tried doing it with chili. Awesome! Now I prefer flour tortillas with my chili, and for YEARS I could not find beef noodle soup anymore. Just figured they had stopped making it. After the new super Walmart opened up here, we were going down the soup aisle. I was stopped in my tracks when I spotted Campbell’s Beef Noodle Soup!! I might even have let a tear or two escape my eyes. I gathered several cans up and was overjoyed. Of course, I then had to also get potato chips. That’s what I had that night for dinner. It was just as amazingly yummy as I’d remembered it! Hello, childhood! One of the few positives memories…

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In sewing class in 7^th grade, we made dresses that we were to wear in a little fashion show. My choice was a very simple design. I had already figured out that I loathed sewing, so found the simplest pattern possible. The fabric was lime green with little flowers all over it. I did OK with it until it came to the hem. I either didn’t lay the pattern right, or I didn’t buy enough material, but I ended up with not enough to make a decent hem. My teacher let me take it home and my grandmother helped me out. She made a strip of material from all the little leftover pieces to get the length needed and then turn up to sew for a hem. It turned out pretty good and I got a good grade on it, since the teacher knew I’d struggled with it. Then came the fashion show. This was in the midst of the years-long shyness/people phobia time for me. We had to write up a little blurb about our dress and Cookie Scott was the announcer and would read it as we walked across the stage and back. When it was my turn, I trotted out there and back in double-time. I think Cookie was able to only read a sentence or two before I was gone. I saw her shake her head, but I didn’t care. I did my job with the dress. I did my job with the fashion show. Whew!!