Remembering - Graduation

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Just remembering... to way back when

I graduated on 3 June 1969... except it was a Tuesday evening and not a Wednesday. Don't you just love my spectacles... is that the cat-eye look :-) My hair behaved... does it make sense to wash, roll and stick your head under a hot hair dryer (no hand-held hair dryer) and then put on an awful looking mortar board?

There were 232 of us in the Class of '69. It was the largest class so far of our high school which had its first graduating class in 1965.

The graduation ceremony was usually held in the school auditorium. That was too small of a setting for our class. Our ceremony was held at Mills Memorial Stadium... our community football field. We had to march halfway around the stadium on the dirt track.

Umm.. you know I'm a klutz :-) Well, I whammed my baby toe on the day bed leg and broke it (my toe silly!) when we were painting the walls... my brothers' room if I remember correctly. The day bed sat in the living room and one had to step around it to go from the dining room to the hallway that led to the bedrooms. This happened three or four days before the ceremony.

We were not allowed to wear sandals for the graduation ceremony. The shoes had to be white. I did find some low heels to wear (before toe incident), but they were a bit tight. The shoe stretcher was used on them and I think my sister wore them some to help break them in. Of course, not enough stretching for my baby toe.

There was a long dress rehearsal the day before the ceremony... which meant I had to wear the tight shoes and my hurting baby toe had to hurt more. I did not think I was going to make it through that long hot day. The temps were probably only in the upper 80s, but when you are in the sun and it is humid it is hot. I think the whole track was a mile so you go around half of it about six times in one day and you are tired.

The walk around the track, trying to breathe in the humidity with a coat (gown, but it felt like a coat) on. Yep, graduation... an evening of torture!

My Daddy knew how to make this girl happy. He bought butter pecan ice cream (I got to pick the flavor) for our celebration... the good stuff not the imitation or ice milk actual Ice Cream :-)

I was glad to be home and eating ice cream in my bare feet. It didn't take much to make me happy back then and it still doesn't.

Award - Weather - Life and Remembering

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Michelle at Chocolate and Marmalade Tea presented this award to me. I love Michelle's blog. She always lifts my spirits. Thank you, Michelle!



"This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."Now I'm supposed to find eight others to bestow this on. Here goes!

1. A Second Helping
2. A Mellow Life Is A Good Life
3. Daily Yarns 'N More
4. Creative Thoughts
5. Flip Flop Floozie
6. Life With Liza Ann
7. Seasons Of Life
8. Faith, Family, Food and Fun
Weather-

This week has been very warm... even for our Decembers. I think we hit 80° yesterday. At 1:30 pm we are at 75°. Tomorrow our weather will change. There is a 60% chance of rain. The high will be around 60° and the low around 30°. Then Monday it is suppose to be windy with a high of 52° and a low of about 29°. Tuesday's high will be around 58° and low of 41°. Christmas Eve we get warmer with a high of 68° and low of 43°... which is more like our winter temps.


Life and Remembering -

Life is getting better. I'm moving around easier. I just worry about Mama. Mama is getting confused when she is talking. I will stock it up to pain meds for now. She saw the surgeon this week and he said she seems to be healing fine. Mama tells me that her leg has swollen more again. I really haven't understood why she is having the swelling. She said she has increased her water pills. I tried to get her to get her family doctor visit sooner than the January 2nd appointment that she has.

I feel joy this time of year, but I also feel sadness. My thoughts turn to my Daddy that passed away in 2000. I do find joy in remembering him playing Christmas carols on his guitar and singing. I especially miss hearing him play and sing Silent Night. My sadness comes in knowing that he is only here in our hearts.

... brighter notes of my life. I got the carrot cake layers made and in the freezer. I have such a wonderful husband to help me out. Oh... I know he didn't read my post yesterday. Frank mixed sugar cookie dough up. The dough is in the fridge ready to bake. Now isn't that true love! The sugar cookies will get baked tomorrow.

As long as I can remember there has been sugar cookies in the cookie jar or can this time of the year. I said cookie can :-) At one time we had a huge lard tin that we painted and wrote COOKIES on. I made a lot of cookies back then. I'm not sure where we got the lard tin from because if we had bought the lard in that tin we would still be eating the lard. Frank was in the Army then so it might have been from the mess hall.

I did a bit of digging and found an old Polaroid picture. I wonder why we kept it. The picture was taken in December of 1971. I was somewhere between three and four months pregnant with our son and not the happiest camper... I had morning sickness from three months to end of pregnancy. I remember being frustrated. I had never frosted sugar cookies before. I cut out my own patterns for the cookies out of brown paper bags. You can see the large tin in the background with COOKIES written on it. I still have the green mixing bowl and the rolling pin. The handles are no longer on the rolling pin. I still have the green cake cover too. Remember when avocado green and harvest gold where the "in colors"? You can see my old checker-board cookbook sitting on top of the ice bucket. I still have the cookbook. We lived in a single-wide house trailer over in Bluff Creek Alabama then. I don't know why that counter is so messy. I usually kept it neat. Okay... go ahead and click on the picture for larger view.


It was fun remembering. The sugar cookies this time won't get frosted. These days I roll the dough into small balls in the palm of my hand and then place the balls of dough on cookie sheets... then I take a glass and dip the bottom of it in sugar and flatten the balls into nice rounds and bake. If I have any colored sugar around I might sprinkle the cookies with a bit before baking... a lot less frustrating :-)


One more thing to share today. A genealogy friend shares his grandmother's collection of Vintage Christmas Cards. I hope they brighten your day as you look at them.



We do not remember days; we remember moments. -- Cesare Pavese

Remembering - Venturing Out - Pecan Carrot Cake - Potato Salad

First I am trying to catch up on reading your blogs and looking at your photos. The ventures have taken a bit out of me.

Remembering -

A couple of nights ago I awakened and started sneezing. Reaching for a tissue made me remember handkerchiefs.... isn't that a funny looking word :-) I can remember when we didn't have tissues and had handkerchiefs. Mama would keep one tucked in her pocket book or dress pocket... if there was no pocket she tucked it in her sleeve. As I got older I did the same. Daddy always carried more than one hankie... now that word isn't as funny looking. There were five of us children and someone always had a runny nose. The hankie also became an instant wash cloth with a bit of spit to wash that smudge off of one of our faces.

Here are a few hankies from my past. The two print hankies are from my teen years and the others some that my children gave to me as a Christmas present... it seems just like yesterday.



Venturing Out -

Yesterday I ventured out. It was time for Frank to get his hair cut. I waited while he had it cut. We are now sharing the same hair stylist. Frank always wants what he calls a "Andy Griffith" hair cut.... the cut is actually shorter than that though. Our hair stylist learned to talk in a saw mill... another way of saying she talks loudly. That's not bad if you are sitting across the room, but a bit rough when you are sitting in the stylist's chair. Another stylist is out of the question. This place gives the cheapest cuts in town and she does a better job on my unruly hair than anyone I've been to... so a bit of loudness is worth putting up with.

We then went next door to get a couple of things at Winn Dixie Supermarket. They used to sell sugar and butter cookies in big plastic buckets, but none in stock this year. The cookies were good for store-made. Maybe after Christmas we'll be up to baking some.

Next we went to the Marine base. Frank went into the dispensary and dropped off some scripts to be filled. Then we went to the commissary. This is a small commissary and it was busy. I couldn't stand any longer so I waited in the car while Frank went through the check out. It took him for what seemed like forever. The first woman in line... she didn't have enough money to pay for everything. (I saw this same woman in parking lot and she searches through her purse for money to pay the bagger and pulls out a wad of money at least three inches thick... you wonder!.. but then maybe it is all ones) The next people.. the woman kept shopping while checking out.... she wanted pizza dough and the cashier asked a worker that passed by if they have it and worker said no. They have pre-made dough in dairy case and freezer section. Frank knew this and stayed quiet. Of course by time Frank gets all the groceries on the counter they open up another check-out. Next stop was to pick up our meds at the dispensary. It was a tiring day.

Earlier in the week Frank went shopping for a new recliner for him and he looked at some mattresses too. We had looked at mattresses before my back surgery, but I hurt so much that I couldn't tell that any mattress was better than what we had. On Frank's searching trip he found a recliner he liked and he said he thought he found a mattress that I would like. This morning we went back to furniture store that he found his treasures. I laid down on two different mattresses. One has two different firmnesses... one on one side and other on flip side. I couldn't tell much difference in the two mattresses. Frank asked if he could flip the mattress over so I could see if I like the softer side of that mattress better. He flipped it and I did like it better. We'll take delivery on Monday. So we now will pay on a recliner and mattress set for about a year with no interest. I say about a year... we always pay off before the year.

After the furniture store we went to Ryan's to eat. I ate too much. My favorite thing on the menu is their cooked baby carrots.

Next stops were Sam's Club and Lowe's. I sure was tired by time we got home. We watched some recorded tv shows and relaxed a while.


Pecan Carrot Cake and Potato Salad -

Tomorrow I plan on... with Frank's help... making a Pecan Carrot Cake for our Christmas Eve dinner with my family. We'll freeze the layers. My sister-in-law called this morning and talked to Frank. She told him what she would be bringing to the dinner. She said she is bringing mashed potatoes, so we didn't have to bring potato salad. Frank said he is bringing potato salad no matter what. He only gets to eat it a few times a year. Oh... Frank said he heard my brother in the background say that he wanted potato salad too. I have not put this recipe on my blog yet. I do have it online: Southern Potato Salad . The recipe is for a reunion size potato salad. The recipe can be halved and it will fit in a 2 quart bowl... which is still quite a bit. I usually make the half recipe for Frank and me. Frank likes to use the potato salad as a dip for saltine crackers. The potato salad will stay good for at least a week.

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. -- Charles Dickens