D is for Master of My Domain

 

I am in the process of sorting through everything in my parents' home, and in so doing, I have been looking through all my childhood memorabilia, the majority of which I hadn't seen since my parents packed up my belongings and moved them from the home I grew up in to this house some 45 years ago. My 2024 A to Z Challenge theme is based on the treasures I have found in the boxes and the drawers and closets. Join me on my bittersweet journey back to my childhood.

We moved from our 900 s.f., three bedroom, one bath home to an 1100 s.f., three bedroom, TWO bathroom home the summer after I finished 6th grade. Our new house seemed huge by comparison, and with the second bathroom, my brother and I no longer had to share with Mr. Don't Touch My Razor and Mrs. Half A Can Of Aqua Net Hair Spray Every Day.

I was pretty low maintenance when we first moved into the house, but once I started junior high that fall, here came the baby blue eye shadow and lip gloss and hot rollers. I also camped out in there and got lost reading multiple chapters of books when I was "unavoidably delayed."* My brother was in high school and, it seems, had little patience for this, for one day, after an (allegedly) exceedingly long time in our shared bathroom, I heard him messing around outside the door, snickering and then running off, and I opened the door to find this sign taped to it: 

Believe it or not, considering its current condition, the
sign was made on a white 3x5 index card.

I was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY mad. First of all, I didn't know what "domain" meant. Second, whatever it meant, I knew it wasn't intended to be a compliment. Third, my mother was laughing at the sign, too, and I felt betrayed.

I can't believe I didn't snatch it off the door, and maybe I did (my brother will have to weigh in on that), but if I did, it was replaced, and the sign remained for the 7 years we lived in that house. Then sentimental soul that she was, my mom took it off the door in 1979, and damned if she didn't hang it on my bathroom door in their new house! I took it down last weekend and tucked it in a box and then hung it on MY bathroom door in my house.

Know what?

It STILL makes me mad to see it!

*If you've never read the book Cheaper By The Dozen by Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr., and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, get your hands on a copy, and you will find yourself quoting from it, too. 

C is for Communication, 70s Style

 

I am in the process of sorting through everything in my parents' home, and in so doing, I have been looking through all my childhood memorabilia, the majority of which I hadn't seen since my parents packed up my belongings and moved them from the home I grew up in to this house some 45 years ago. My 2024 A to Z Challenge theme is based on the treasures I have found in the boxes and the drawers and closets. Join me on my bittersweet journey back to my childhood.

When my kids were in high school and there was a bit of gossip to be shared, it would be all over the school within seconds. Ever watched a teenager send a text message? They are lightning fast! 

When I was in high school, we disseminated information this way:

Notes.  We wrote notes to each other.

Was it fast? Not particularly. Depending on the class or the teacher, you might have to write it surreptitiously, your piece of notebook paper slid under your classwork or inside a book. (There was always THAT teacher who took tremendous joy in confiscating notes and reading them to the class, but most of them really didn't care; they were just glad we showed up.) Then, unless the recipient was in the same class as you, you either had to entrust someone to deliver your note for you or pass it to them in the hallway while changing classes. 

I found boxes and bags of notes in the back of the closet last weekend. We are talking HUNDREDS of notes, and I kick myself for throwing most of them away before getting a picture of all of them, but I did open and read every one of them.

My best friend and I were voracious note writers, and the majority of the ones in my closet were from her (more about Jane in an upcoming post). We wrote about what boys we liked (usually unrequited), the antics of classmates, upcoming plans together, and how boring class was. We had our own shorthand for extracurricular activities that may or may not have been legal and used initials and nicknames, some so obscure I couldn't remember who we were referring to at the time. 

At the risk of sounding really old, I will go on record as saying that, while instant communication definitely has its advantages, the time it took to write and pass a note more often than not kept angry or hurtful words from being delivered to someone in the heat of a moment. The repercussions of hitting "send" on a text are far reaching; the information included in the notes I received from my friends ended in a box in the back of my closet.

B is for Becky With The Good Hair

I am in the process of sorting through everything in my parents' home, and in so doing, I have been looking through all my childhood memorabilia, the majority of which I hadn't seen since my parents packed up my belongings and moved them from the home I grew up in to this house some 45 years ago. My 2024 A to Z Challenge theme is based on the treasures I have found in the boxes and the drawers and closets. Join me on my bittersweet journey back to my childhood.

I loved dolls as a child, and I had the collection to show for it. I had dolls that danced, dolls that walked, and dolls that talked. I had troll dolls, Barbie dolls, Little Kiddles dolls (IYKYK), and I had baby dolls, and oh, those baby dolls were my favorites! I played dolls by myself, I played dolls with my best friend and next door neighbor Cherie, and I played dolls with anyone else who couldn't avoid me, such as my mom or my older brother Phil (although both my mom and my brother were curiously absent most of the time they were "playing" with me - hmmmm). 

This is Becky. She was my very first baby doll, and she has been loved so much. Her legs are barely attached. She could use a bath. Her hair looks and feels like a Brillo pad, and from the looks of it, she has had way too much back sleeping. I have no memory of what her original clothes looked like; her current outfit was a hand-me-down from Baby Tender Love. There are no identifying marks on her anywhere, but she does favor a Thumblina doll. 

And I love her.

Don't worry, Becky. Now that I have found you again, I promise to keep you safe.

Baby Becky

Back sleeping all the time will get ya.

This is a Baby Tender Love.
I didn't care much for her because
her arms and legs didn't move.

Newborn Thumbelina. Eyes are similar. 
I had one that I named Tina.

.

Shadowy photo, but I was more
concerned with omitting the cat 
from the shot (sorry, Nora)

A is for Annie Sweater

I am in the process of sorting through everything in my parents' home, and in so doing, I have been looking through all my childhood memorabilia, the majority of which I hadn't seen since my parents packed up my belongings and moved them from the home I grew up in to this house some 45 years ago. My 2024 A to Z Challenge theme is based on the treasures I have found in the boxes and the drawers and closets. Join me on my bittersweet journey back to my childhood.

Disclaimer: this is a SUPER cringey story

I fell in love, deeply, madly in love, when I was 14. I'd had crushes before: Davey Jones, Bobby Sherman, Barry Cowsill, but this time, it was true love, and his name was John Denver. Sure, there was a little age difference, but I didn't see it as a problem. What's 17 years? I could get married to him and still finish junior high, right?!

I saved my money and bought all his albums I could find, Rhymes & Reasons, Poems, Prayers & Promises, Aerie, Rocky Mountain High, Farewell, Andromeda, Greatest Hits (which turned out to be Volume 1, but no one knew it at the time). I sat by my record player for hours, writing down song lyrics (and it was TEDIOUS, because I could only write so fast, and I had to move the needle back over and over and over and I'm pretty positive everyone in the house wanted to KILL me). If one of his songs came on the radio, or if he made a tv appearance, everyone had to give me DEAD SILENCE.

I was a bloodhound at research, and let's remember that this was before the internet, like WAY before the internet. I devoured every magazine article I could find on him. and that's when it happened.

I discovered there was Another Woman.

Her name was Annie and he was married to her. My heart was shattered, if only momentarily, because (prepare for dark thought here), meh, something could happen to her, and then we could be together (interesting that this was my Plan A, as the idea of divorce never crossed my mind; at that time in my life, I only knew one friend whose parents were divorced).

His album Back Home Again came out in 1974, and Annie not only was on the front cover with him and was so pretty, but he wrote the most beautiful love song ever just for her. I gave up hope for a future with him (mostly, anyway).

I was shopping at the mall with my mom not long after this and found a sweater hanging on a rack at Montgomery Wards almost exactly like the one Annie was wearing on the album cover. It was a simple maroon pullover with a scoop neck, just like Annie's, and from that moment on it became known as my "Annie sweater."

I wore it often over the next few years, and then it got put into a drawer for what turned out to be the last time.

I continued to love Annie's husband's music. The very first concert I ever attended was to see him with my friend Teresa and her mom Betty. I saw him in concert again when I was in college. I cried when he died in a plane crash in 1997. His music still makes me happy when I hear it.

Tour book and ticket stub from 1975
John Denver concert at Kemper Arena,
Kansas City, Missouri

And then I dug in a dresser drawer last weekend and pulled out...my Annie sweater. 

Sorry that I kind of wished you dead, Annie, wherever you are.

Out Like A Lamb!

Man, oh, man, March flew by! It's currently being a lamb, with warm temps and a cool breeze coming in the open windows (I had to define that, as I live in a 100 year old house and there is every likelihood that a cool breeze might be coming in through CLOSED windows). And being the weekend, it's time for the last Ten Things of Thankful for March:

1. Speaking of my 100 year old home, we got some much-needed work done on it this month that was finished on Friday. Our house is a Tudor-style, and many (okay, most) of the timbers needed to be repaired or replaced. That is done, and we are much poorer for it, but the house looks so nice! We still have things that need repaired or replaced (some of which we might actually be able to afford to do), but one thing at a time.

Old photo but only one I could find at the time

2. The four-legged inhabitant of our attic is now on the outside, and his place of ingress and egress is sealed over. We are 99% sure it was a squirrel (and that's according to the exterminator and not to any actual sightings). It's been disconcerting to hear little footsteps thundering across the ceiling above us, and all of us (including the cats) are happy for that chapter of life to end.

3. I haven't been that into March Madness this year until I learned of University of Iowa's Caitlin Cook not only becoming the all-time women's NCAA Division I scoring leader, but also making the most career points in Division I history for women AND men, breaking Pete Maravich's record that was set in 1969. We watched the game where she broke the record, and then we have continued to watch her all month. What an athlete she is! 

Caitlin Cook, University of Iowa

4. Made it through this week at school with a full moon and Easter activities all in the same week.

5. My assistant teacher Heidy is leaving me for an opportunity she couldn't pass up, and I'm happy for her, but definitely feeling sorry for me. The good news is we are going to be forever friends AND she's going to sub at our school this summer.

6. Peeps were on sale at Target.

7. When you are navigating life with a cantankerous octogenarian, it sure is handy to have a son who is a physician!

8. Scored a gorgeous, practically new Vera Bradley duffle bag today at a thrift store. Only $24! Yowza!

9. Typically, we attend church on-line, as we belong to Community Christian Church in Kansas City but live 130 miles to the south. If I COULD, I would drive up to KC every weekend to attend in person, but our on-line chat every week is fun and sometimes rowdy, and it's still a special time with my church family. We attended Good Friday services this weekend IN PERSON. It's such a moving and meaningful service, made even more so by being right there in the building. Tomorrow is Easter. Will I make it to sunrise service or will it be the 10:30 one? Either way, it will be a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus and the knowledge that He died for us so we may have eternal life with Him.

10. Not sure if this really is a thankful or not, but I'm going to participate in the A to Z Challenge again this year. "How can that be?" you say. "She can't keep up with the TToT. How is she going to do it AND the A to Z?"  I DON'T KNOW. But here's to trying. First A to Z entry will be Monday, April 1. Follow my blog or look for the posts on my Facebook page if you want to read along.

Let's see those thankfuls! Write yours, link them up, and join the hop! 

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So I'm Late. So What's New?

I had the best of intentions for getting my Ten Things of Thankful done in a timely manner, and I failed at that, but I DID figure out how to beat the system and still link up my post with the rest of the TToT blogs. I think, anyway. When I finish this, I will find out....

Last week was Spring Break week. Did we get a week off at school? We did not. But this year, we did get ONE WHOLE DAY off. Wheeeee!!!

Anybody else get hooked on NCAA women's basketball because of University of Iowa's Caitlin Clark? On their way to the Sweet Sixteen!

It's spring. Sort of. March seems to be going out like a lion, but the tulips and hyacinths are blooming, the trees are budding, the grass is getting green, and it won't be long before we forget how FREAKING MISERABLE cold weather is.

The clearance racks at Belk department store has been oh, so kind to me.

And Ulta had my favorite perfume on sale for half price JUST as my bottle was almost empty.

We are having some much-needed work done on the exterior of our house. All of the timbers are being repaired or replaced on our Tudor-style house, and the best part (fingers crossed here) is that the squirrel that had taken up residence in our attic SEEMS to have been outside when the secret entrance to his penthouse was blocked. 

Our contractor gave us a discount for paying in cash, so I have been making cash withdrawals from the bank to pay him. I had to withdraw $9,000 last week, and the teller handed me the cash (in $100 bills) in a regular business envelope. I put the envelope in the console of the car and went back to work for a bit after the trip to the bank. At the time, I thought it would be safer to keep it there than bring it inside the school in my purse, and I was sort of right, because as I was driving home, I pulled the envelope out so I wouldn't forget it, and the money literally EXPLODED all over the car. There were $100 bills in the console, on the floor under my feet, in the seats, between the seats and the console (you know, that place where you can't reach ANYTHING that falls there). It looked like I was driving the getaway car from a bank robbery, and I just laughed and laughed, because what else are you going to do? After pulling in my driveway, I gathered all of it up and didn't lose a single bill! 

My dad and I took a little road trip from the lake house, where he now lives full time, to the (other? real? original? former?) house three hours away. We made it there and back without mishap, and that's quite a win!

While my dad was cleaning out drawers and throwing away stuff packing up every single paper clip and calculator to take back to the lake house, I was going through all my childhood things still upstairs in my room. Wow. So many memories, some happy, some bittersweet, some cringey. I took photos of many items that had once seemed so important to me, school papers, scrapbooks with keepsakes that meant the world to 10 year old me, every script I ever got from my high school theater classes, ticket stubs, etc., and then I THREW THEM AWAY. I filled four contractor-sized trash bags. I did keep a few things; my kids can throw them away when I am dead and gone. It will give them a project to do together.

I may be crazy, but I think I'm going to do the A to Z Challenge this year. Are you KIDDING, you are probably thinking, when you can't keep up with the weekly TToT and you're going to do a DAILY blog challenge? Ummmm, yes, because I'm going to write about the stuff I found in my old room!

Hope you had a week of thankfuls, too!

Car Hospice, My Person, And Spring Thankfuls

The car my daughter has been driving for the past nine years or so was a hand-me-down from my parents. It was a 2004 Toyota Avalon, and I drove it for a several years, then my son drove it in high school, followed by my daughter driving it in high school, college, and now, law school. We had high hopes it would survive until she graduated, passed the Bar, and officially began her Big Girl job at a law firm, but the little car had different ideas. It was tired. It had seen things. It had over 200,000 miles on it. It had to have a new (to it) engine after it began belching blue smoke while my daughter was still in high school. Its ailments increased over the past few years, then a few weeks ago, it became incontinent, losing its oil God knows where, and it was determined by a mechanic to be fatal. It was time to let it go.

Fortunately, my daughter made bank at her summer internship and had some money stashed away, so after MUCH research, making of spreadsheets, and test driving, she got her very first car. This event marks the beginning of my Ten Things of Thankful.

My husband drove up to Kansas City to go with her to the dealership while she signed all the paperwork. He complained a little about it, but I told him MY daddy drove two hours each way to sit with ME in the car dealership when I bought MY first car; it's a dad thing.

My baby and her new ride

While he was in Kansas City, I spent the weekend in Branson at my dad's, because my Person and her daughter were in town. It sure did my heart good to spend time with them. 

Terri and Mackenzie

With my Person

The Hanes outlet is closing, and we made a KILLING buying new bras. Girl thing.

We may have hit SEVERAL outlet stores, actually....

We ate at all of Terri's and Mackenzie's favorite places and got frozen custard twice. TWICE.

And saw The Haygoods show FOR FREE.

The Haygoods show

We had a good dose of Spring this week. The daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips have popped out of the ground and bloomed. The red bud trees are also in bloom, the grass is greening up, and there are buds on all the trees. Winter really may be out of here when it's supposed to be!

There were a LOT of leftover bananas in the kitchen at school that were beyond eating straight up, so I took them home to make banana bread. I planned to make four loaves: two to take to school and share with everyone there and two to take to my dad. I could make enough batter for two loaves at a time in my Kitchen Aid mixer. I had the batter mixed and ready for the addition of the mashed bananas, but as I began the mashing process in a separate bowl with the back of a fork, the bowl flipped off the counter and landed upside down on the kitchen floor, dumping six VERY RIPE bananas all over the floor. I said MANY bad words, cleaned up the mess, and CAREFULLY mashed six more bananas, added them to the batter, and I STILL had enough old bananas to make two more banana breads. See? I DID have a lot of bananas! And the banana bread was appreciated by all who partook.

Saturday was a gorgeous day, warm and sunny, and my husband and I ventured out to Silver Dollar City theme park for our first visit of the 2024 season. We listened to the Homestead Pickers as per usual and took a lap around the entire park and I thought to myself, "God's in His Heaven. All's right with the world."

And it was. And it is. 

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