Love doesn’t mold us. It is how we mold ourselves after that love. Interesting thoughts from Blogger Cristian Mihai.
“Granny, What was that Man Doing?”
I fed my little grandson, age 3, his breakfast. He had been watching a basketball game on TV with his dad, who was now upstairs dressing.
I was in a room next to the living room, clearing the table, when I heard a woman screaming on the TV. I quickly dropped what I was doing and rushed to the living room where our three year old was watching a man beating the crap put of a woman. It was Sunday morning around 10 am.
I tried to quickly turn the channel. My grandson was transfixed by the action on the tube. I couldn’t find the remote and wasn’t able to turn it right away.
I freaked; and when I found a remote, it was the wrong one. Finally, I found the right one but I wasn’t sure what buttons to push. Frantic by now, I just started pushing buttons. The screaming stopped, and the picture turned to snow. I basically put their TV out of commission for a while, because no one could figure it. Dear Lord, you can’t turn your head for a minute now days.
Our three year old looked up and said, “Granny, what was that man doing?” I think I may have made it worse, because I told him that the man was a bad man, and that he shouldn’t be watching that stuff.
Life was so much simpler for my mother’s generation. At my home there was only one TV station, and CBS was all we could get. Cartoons were a Saturday morning treat. There was a local show by a clown after school but it only lasted 30 minutes. I remember coming home early one afternoon, and mom caught me watching “The Secret Storm”. She freaked much like I did today.
When my kids grew up, there was Seseme Street on PBS, and Mr. Rogers and Fraggle Rock on HBO, but nothing else was on. And there was little violence even after late night tv. It was easier to control.
Now, I see kids watching TV all day, and violence is on 24-7.
I loved the horror films of the 60s, but The Exorcist kept me from sleeping for days.
This is ultra worse, and kids have so much access. It is frightening, especially with kids acting out in public with shootings and much more!
How do young women control what their kids see on TV today?
My Husband Says I Commit Fraud Every Day
My husband calls it fraud. He says that I commit fraud every day. I tell him that women know two things–good bait and camouflage. Harold hunts and fishes so I’m using terminology that he should understand.
I’m talking about my face. I’m 60, so It is sliding down my facial skeletal frame; and I keep applying every control that I can find. I guess the controls or makeup is what Harold calls fraud.
One very cheap tool that I use is a baby’s washcloth.
Set of Baby Washcloths by Target
When I was a young woman, I liked to wash my face with a mild soap and remove the soap with a wet washcloth. By the time I got into my 30s, I needed something better. I loved using Clinique’s Facial Soap. By mid 40s as my face became drier, I began using other products.
Today, I’ve come full circle and use Noxema and a baby washcloth. The scrubbing action of the washcloth feels like I exfoliate a little every evening, and the Noxema is not drying. I like the traces of menthol and feel that it stimulates my skin. I must have about 15 of those little cloths, and they remove my makeup perfectly
So don’t tell Harold, but I commit fraud every evening with my two secret tools.
This is me about a month ago, on vacation in Louisiana at Oak Alley. Yes, I’m enjoying a mint julep. All that’s missing is a silver cup.
What do you like to use to remove makeup? I’m always up for trying a new product.
Now, Voyager: A Movie Review About a Classic, Romantic Movie
Harold and I watched a wonderful, old classic movie last night. Neither of us had ever heard of it. Released in 1942 the film is best described as a romantic melodrama, but a very good one. It was voted #23 of AFI’s Top 100 Romantic Films of All Time.
Bette Davis does a wonderful job of acting. Initially, she plays the un-glamorous late-born, baby sister Charlotte Vail, who is dowdy, overweight and frustrated by a domineering high-society mother, who is more like a grandmother than a mother. Claude Rains plays the psychiatrist who comes to her rescue, and the good-looking Paul Heinreid plays the romantic stranger.
The plot begins simple enough. Charlotte’s kind sister-in-law worries that Charlotte is unwell and moving toward a nervous breakdown, and she asks a psychiatrist to help. He sees Charlotte as repressed and then works to help her transform into a modern woman, with the strength and confidence to free herself from her repressive mother.
It is on a cruise where she spends time alone, blossoms into the glamorous socialite that she becomes, and meets a romantic stranger. What happens from there is a seesaw of emotions, especially when she moves back home with her domineering mother.
The title of the movie and book was taken from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.
The Untold Want
By Life and Land Ne’er Granted
Now, Voyager
Sail Thou Forth to Seek and Find
Directed by Irving Rapper, the movie’s screenplay was based on the novel of the same name by Olive Higgins Prouty. The film was nominated for a total of three Academy Awards, including Best Actress (Bette Davis) and Best Supporting Actress (Gladys Cooper), with Max Steiner’s nomination for musical score as the sole win (his second Oscar). Bette Davis’s cruise wardrobe and gowns are best described as timeless glamour.
Without giving away the story, their relationship becomes a romantically-complicated love, as evidenced by the film’s last stirring line of romantic dialogue: “Oh Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars.” A line made immortal to its movie goers.
Harold and I both loved it; but then again, lately, one of Harold’s favorite lines is, “Gosh, Ann, you’re turning me into a chick!”
Have any of you ever heard about this film? What other romantic classics would you suggest?
Watch for The Book “Far Outside the Ordinary” to Become a Movie — A Book Review
I don’t know where to begin, except to say that I absolutely loved this book. It is a quick, captivating read. Whether or not you can relate to the situations in the book, you will still not be able to stop turning pages. You will love Prissy Elrod’s style of writing.
Southerner Prissy Elrod, the author, is the steel magnolia in this story when she does what she has to do to save her husband, her family and herself. It has a fairy tail beginning and a fairy tail ending. It is what is in between though that tugs at your heart strings.
What many don’t know is that a magnolia blossom is very fragile, and the least little bump leaves a bruise that shows up almost the moment it happens. Prissy Elrod is a steel magnolia. She bruises, but she maintains her outward metal, and she survives. This book is her proof.
There is nothing ordinary about dealing with a loved one and their cancer diagnosis, but what Prissy Elrod did was ordinary. She did the best she could.
What happens to her, though, is far outside the ordinary. There is a twist in the story that is never expected.
All of us who have been in her shoes found ourselves living each day one at a time and making decisions for which we were never prepared, all the while on a cacophony of emotions sweeping us along whether we were ready or not. She captures this in her memoir.
Expect a roller coaster of tears, desperation, persistence, laughter, zaniness, hope, heartache, heartbreak, humor, pain, anger, anguish, sorrow, hope lost, fear, compassion, frustration, and renewal. Sometimes, you will feel the bewildering and competing emotions all at once, like when I found myself laughing through my tears.
Elrod hurled me down into the darkness of despair when she reminded me of my own experiences in this realm, when the unintended consequences make us realize that the decisions were never easy. She tells her story so well.
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Mostly, I was amazed by her candor and humility. Years ago my elderly great aunt who was a prolific reader told me that she was disappointed in the new books. She said that it was as if each younger author was simply trying to out-shock the last.
My aunt felt that contemporary literature was lacking in honesty, and that the stories seemed to be written for their ability to provoke massive fear, anxiety or disgust.
I wish she had lived long enough to read, “Far Outside the Ordinary,”. She would have loved this moving, honest account of a family’s tragedy and perseverance through adversity.
The book has small-town living, fashion, international travel, intrigue, shamans, shady medical clinics, a capitol city’s political high-society, tragedy, miracle treatments, love stories, and the uplifting love of family and friends. Elrod carried me for a ride through her life.
Though a memoir, it reads like southern fiction at its best. It reminded me of a cross between “Steel Magnolias” and “The Help”.
I hope she will continue writing, because she has a voice I would like to hear again. I also believe this would make a great movie. The characters are rich.
She did a great job of describing their uniqueness. I believe the characters will get her a movie deal in the end. They are zany, comical, quirky, and just what we have come to expect in southern movies.
So do yourself a favor and read this wonderful book before it becomes a movie!
How to Speed Clean A Room in 3 Minutes
Today, I read an article through Bloglovin called How to Speed Clean Your Home in 15 Minutes. This was an excellent article, and it included tips on quick cleaning that I have used for years.
Often, just before a party, I almost always run out of time. I have to stop working on the unrealistic list of what I would like to do and bring the house in for a landing.
I almost always bite off more than I can chew, so the massive flower arrangement I had planned for the piano becomes a group of framed pictures of family and a candelabra (something I already had.). And that new wreath I had planned for the front door becomes a seasonal wreath that I rotate year in and year out.
But the house itself is not ready, so this is why I put away the unrealistic list and do a speed clean throughout the house. I always try to leave myself about 30 minutes for this, but this speed cleaning article has made me rethink this. I should allow myself 45 minutes, because of the number of rooms in my house.
I already play music when I seriously clean. I love good old kick-ass country or classic rock and roll, so either works well for me. Music helps the time pass and keeps me moving.
Blake Shelton “The Boys Round Here”
I use baskets; but only three, one for for each floor. I’ll expand that to one for each room. I store lots of baskets in the garage anyway, so I already have enough on hand.
World Market
How do you speed clean your home? Do you have any new ideas for getting the job done faster? Please share!
Oh Hey, Friday – Another Top 5 – Highlights of a Durango Vacation
It has been another great week of vacationing in Colorado. Here are the top five things we did this week. September Farm’s “Oh Hey, Friday!” strikes again.
1. Fished Texas Hole below the Navajo Dam on the San Juan River just over the state line in New Mexico, These are big trout, and I had a blast. We were there from about 10 a.m. until 5 pm with a guide named Mark from Duranglers in Durango. I even took a 30 minute nap after lunch on a grassy bank next to the river while Harold and the guide continued to fish. Wonderful day on a Great Trout Stream!
2. Found a beautiful scenic backroad between Durango and our borrowed house on 501 north of Bayfield, CO. It actually takes less time, too. The valleys and vistas are amazing on Colorado 240. We drove back when the sun was setting, which made the drive even more dramatic. Only problem was all the wildlife on the sides of the road. There were deer everywhere that evening.
3. Enjoyed a gin and tonic on the deck late one afternoon when an eight-point buck in velvet came to graze on the grass below. He stayed over a half hour. What a wonderful, peaceful moment.
4. Hiked a new trail which followed Vallecito Creek in the San Juan National Park. The trail turns into rocky ledges which snake around outcroppings of rock over a 100 feet up off the running creek below. A couple of times a pesky thought entered my mind, “What if there were an earthquake”? Bye, bye cruel world! But still awesome sights to see!!
5. Hung a hummingbird feeder, and before I got inside a hummingbird was already there feeding. Within a couple of days there were a half a dozen, some fighting to feed. I guess I need to purchase and hang another before they hurt each other.
Oh Hey, Friday! Here’s My Top Five!
This is in response to September Farm and Karli and her “Oh Hey, Friday”, where she asks her readers/bloggers to write up a little post about five things–anythings.
Harold and I are in Bayfield, Colorado, where we are living for a month. We just got here today, after driving all the way from Florida, stopping to sightsee and visit relatives along the way. We left Florida on August 23rd, so we took an extended car trip.
Here’s my five highlights as we crossed the southern states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico.
1. If you have never been to the Flora-Bama Lounge, you have missed the ultimate “beach bar”. Harold and I decided to drive coast roads on our way to Bayfield, and we stopped here about 4 pm on a Sunday for a true slice of Americana and a gin and tonic. Located on the Florida/Alabama state line on Perdido Key, in one hall there was an old classic country trio playing and singing. The female singer did Patsy Cline songs and was great. In another hall was a band doing southern rock. Downstairs in the open air bar was a third band. We left Perdido Key in Alabama by ferry crossing Mobile Bay and arriving in Dauphin Island, Alabama.
2. In Biloxi the coast road runs by the Hurricane Katrina Monument. We stopped to take a look. The memorial at 22 feet high is as tall as the storm surge that ravaged this beach city. In the glass case is a collage of items salvaged in the clean-up–a kid’s baseball trophy, a broken ship’s wheel, pieces of china, a weathered book, and hundreds more. On the black polished granite stone are etched names of the deceased. It is sobering, especially to those of us who live near the waters edge and have to contend with the possibility of one of these monstrous storms.
3. When we crossed the state line driving from Mississippi into Louisiana, we drove west on old US 90. This is a stretch of road that time forgot. There was hardly any traffic, and the road or bridges haven’t been repaired in a long time. We loved the old metal bridges, which reminded Harold and I of our childhood. This is truly a wonderful stretch of blue highway. By the way before interstates, US 90 was the ultimate highway for crossing the American south. It ran from Jacksonville, Florida all the way to Los Angeles, California.
4. Another stretch of highway that time forgot runs as close to the coast as you can get between Abbeville, Louisiana and Port Arthur, TX. It reminded us of crossing the Florida Everglades on the Tamiami Trail when we were young. Hardly any traffic, no homes, no stores, no gas stations, and very little room to even pull off the road, SR 82 is raised and runs between marshes until you get to a seaside oil town named Cameron, LA., which was ravaged by another hurricane. Then we crossed a major canal on a ferry, and the scenery changed to miles of cattle pastures on one side and beaches on the other side. We crossed into Texas just before Port Arthur, whose downtown is a ghost town, literally. By the way we googled to read about these areas. You won’t find any tourist signs for information. Remember these are areas that time has forgotten.
5. This is where we decided to turn north, because we are after all headed to Colorado. We love to see other state’s farming communities, so we headed across East Texas driving on their little roads that are marked “Farm Roads”. East Texas looks like central north Florida with rolling hills, oak trees, lots of pine forests, red clay and sand. Best stop though was Hemphill, TX with its NASA museum. This is the tiny town where the Shuttle Discovery’s debris came down, including the bodies of its seven astronauts. Their story is amazing, and it will touch your heart. This may be the best stop of our entire trip; this little town of about 5,000 people with its courthouse square and its amazing story about how a little town took care of 20,000 volunteers for 16 days.
Well, that’s my five! The drive took us a week, but we’re retired so what’s a week??
Our Children and the Digital age
I read an editorial in the June, 2014 edition of “Southern Living” magazine. It really made me ponder how hard it is to raise children today.
I thought it was hard raising my own during the late 80s and early 90s, but we didn’t have smart phones or instant messaging or twitter like parents have today. I think my own mom had it the easiest. Her biggest fear was the dreaded date to the drive-in movie. That was one of my “thou shalt nots”, as in “thou shalt not go with your boyfriend to the drive-in movies.” Of course, she didn’t say anything about the forests, corn fields, and cow pastures that surrounded our little rural community.
My sister has teenagers, and one of them had to deal with a barrage of unkind Facebook comments from a friendship soured. It finally flamed out, but it made all of us realize how vulnerable these kids can be to social media.
Here is a link to the story that made me pause and contemplate this problem.
I’m glad my kids are adults, but I know my sister is having to deal with this electronic world everyday. It is a world my kids or I didn’t have to deal with, but it is something my kids’ children will have to deal with soon enough.
Watch for this review! Coming soon! I can’t put this book down.
Far Out the Ordinary by Prissy Elrod: Book Review
I haven’t read a really good southern story in a long time–at least not one written like this.
Love this book! Will tell you about it soon!
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