Random Memories

Tootling down the memory path, I came up with a few more pieces of my life that you may or may not care about. Doesn’t matter. I’m putting them down…

My grandparents had a little grocery store in Kansas City and lived in the apartment above it. When my mom had a miscarriage, we moved in with them. My dad was an iron worker and had to travel to wherever the jobs took him, so this was the solution. I was about 2 or 3. At some point, I was given an empty tobacco pouch with a draw string closer. I kept bottle caps in it, and it was one of my most prized possessions. I loved opening up that little bag, taking my bottle caps out and arranging them. I played with that for several years. I don’t know where it is right at this moment, but I do still have it.

I’ve worn glasses since first grade and probably needed them before that, but until I started school, there was no reason back then to have my eyes checked. Once I got them, though, a whole new world opened up. I truly believe that the trouble I had with learning to read was because I couldn’t see well. As soon as we moved to Chico and I was going to a different school, the teacher noticed right away that I probably needed glasses. And from that point, I became a voracious reader. When I was in 2^nd or 3^rd grade, I woke one morning and reached for my glasses on my nightstand. They weren’t there. I went into the kitchen and told my grandma I couldn’t find my glasses. She said my mom had taken them to the optical lab to get the new lenses that were ordered at my last eye check. So I was allowed to stay home from school that day (yay!) BUT I couldn’t read or watch TV without my glasses! I was SO BORED.

My mom was never a real “hands on” type of parent. It was mainly my grandma that raised my brother and me. There was one point in time, though, that for some reason my mom was home more in the mornings. Don’t know why. Maybe the job she was doing at that time started later in the day. Anyway, Mom started making breakfast for us. It was winter, and we frequently had a fire going in the fireplace. Several mornings we were awakened for breakfast and she had made a fire, put the coffee table in front of it, and had bowls of oatmeal all ready for us. It was so great to be eating a nice hot breakfast and watch the flames.

Growing up, all meals were eaten at the kitchen table. There were very few exceptions. I think I might have been in junior high when one evening, my mom set up a TV tray for me in the front room. She said I would be eating my dinner in front of the TV because there was something special on that night that I would enjoy. It was the movie “Bell, Book and Candle” starring Jimmy Stewart and featuring a cat named Pyewacket. Looking back, this was such a tremendous thing my Mom did for me. I wish I could tell her how much this meant to me.

June 2017 Book Report

Cop Under Fire (2017) by Sheriff David Clarke Jr.

Sheriff Clarke writes about his battle as a conservative black man going against what he calls Black LIES Matter and the rest of liberal thinking.

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The Mistletoe Secret (2016) by Richard Paul Evans

Still hurting from his divorce, Alex stumbles across a blog written by a lonely woman. He begins to fall in love with her and determines to find out where she lives. She has no other information about herself other than the initials LBH. From other clues in her writing, Alex narrows his search down to a small town in Utah.

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Twelve Days of Christmas (2016) by Debbie Macomber

Julia blogs about her unpleasant neighbor and her plan to kill him with kindness in the 12 days leading up to Christmas. It’s an uphill battle at first, but as her blog audience grows, so do the feelings between Julia and her “Ebeneezer.”

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The Wood Nymph and the Cranky Saint (1993) by C. Dale Brittain

Second book in a series. Wizard Daimbert is the Court Wizard for a little backwater kingdom called Yurt. Not a whole lot to do and an easy gig. He’s friends with the Court Chaplain, Priest Joachim. The King decides to go on holiday, leaving his not-too-bright nephew in charge. Then strange stuff starts happening…

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Burning Secrets (2016) by Rebecca Adams

Tearoom Mystery. Jan and Elaine try to find out who tried to burn down one of Macy’s cottages and stole a family vase. The vase turns out to be a very valuable antique worth a LOT of money.

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A Yankee Flier in the Far East (1942) by Al Avery

Great little read! Written as more of a “boy’s” book that talks about the exciting life of a military pilot. There were several of these books written around that time. Heroic Stan Wilson and his friends March and Bill fight the Japanese and Nazi spies near Rangoon in WWII.

Myrtle Is Happy (For Now)

OK. I promised to let you know what I did with my latest altered book, and how I finally appeased my muse, Myrtle. I made this book for my daughter’s birthday, and tried to capture her essence in the pages. There were a lot of sayings and poems that I felt fit her, and tried to put some kind of image with each. Here are three examples:

This one is to give hope for lifes many, many trials. Sarah has gone through more than her fair share, but has not given up. I admire her for that.

The quilt is made of many different pieces of fabric, and I liken that to the many pieces in our lives that we fashion into our personal quilts. Plus, Sarah’s MIL quilts a lot and has gotten Sarah interested in it as well. It was accompanied by a poem I wrote.

I just love this one! I’d seen something like this with a bird as an illustration, and I knew right away that I wanted to use the words with a different image. I don’t recall where I found the image of the woman, but I loved it. She seems to embody joy, and I added clip art wings to her. I will probably use this page for other altered books.

So now my task is to finally get around to making an altered book for ME. So keep your pants on, Myrtle…it will get done!