The Contest Is Over

I win, I win! It's been the longest since I posted!!!

Things I remember from my Aunt Elsie's house

Ann said on her blog that lists were an easy out for blogging. This may become a blog of lists.

1. The drawer in her dining room buffet where the cat had kittens--I don't remember a cat around there after that...

2. The stairway into the kitchen where we could sit and chat

3. Two Christmas trees, one in the living room, one in the family room. This is a big memory! I always thought it was so nice that Aunt Elsie let the kids decorate the tree in the family room anyway they liked!

4. The Christmas mantle with the angel hair--we never had angel hair at home because of the danger we might cut ourselves on it.

5. The bubble lights on the Christmas tree

6. That crazy mechanical horse we rode on the driveway in the backyard--I swear its name was Jocko or something like that, but Linda corrected me. Started with an M, she said, something like MoJo.

7. The garage where we put on a performance of The Wizard of Oz. I will never forget Lolly's starring role as Dorothy.

8. Linda's bed that we broke down bouncing our ages and our weights--

9. Aunt Elsie's coke rules--you could only have (seems like) one a day, but you could have it anytime you wanted it.

10. Riding Uncle Harvey's jeep around their backyard

11. The two fishponds, including the one in the front yard where Lynn nearly drowned. Mom pulled her out and held her upside down until all the water came out of her lungs. It's probably not a recommended first-aid measure, but I saw Lynn recently, too many years after the fact to mention, and she doesn't seem to be suffering any ill consequences.

12. The back porches that kept getting closed in to make family rooms and, later, bedrooms.

13. Probably the first walk-in closet I ever saw in my life

14. The big pots of chili and spaghetti sauce cooking on the stove, and my brother and I eating plain spaghetti noodles with butter, because that was what we liked. We were really picky eaters. I hate to think about what we missed.

I guess that does it for now. I will probably think of more things as the days go by and will add them as they come up. I'm old. I officially turn 63 today. Love to all, and God bless.

Orangutan and Hound Dog

Wow. I think I have been impressed with primates since I was six years old and went on a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo with my parents and brother. I loved to look at the tour book from the zoo, and was really excited to see that I could read part of it--"orange uh-tan", my phonetic pronunciation of orangutan. I used to wish my parents would buy a chimpanzee for us, but they never did. However, the woman who ran our local laundromat had a pet chimpanzee which she dressed up in baby clothes and diapers and pushed around in a laundry cart--for sure, one of the highlights of trips to the laundromat!

Just this morning, David's and my cousin Gayle sent me this video. Do I need to tell you how much I love it? At first I was a little peeved that it was obviously staged, but as I watched it through, I saw that despite the staging, the story was well worth watching and may be true. Enjoy. Love to all, and God bless.