Garden Notes: April 1, 1975-through 14 1975 --- OVER THE HILL

Bollmann Blooms

 

 

If you’re going  over the hill anyway, isn’t it nice that there is something to do on the other side? Mrs. Bollmann not only went on April 3, but she kept going…again and again!

Bollmann -- B-o-l-l-m-a-n-n – Bollmann
This week I found a picture with this note on back:
“Tho’t you might like this picture that you look upon in the Fall at 3650 California. [signed] The Bollmanns”  2 N’s ---  who knew?

April 1 - April 14, 1975

Tuesday, April 1, 1975 - Temp 32 - 58

Beautiful. Sunny & cool. Went to vote then took bus to Edna’s father’s funeral in Florissant. Came home and ate. Went outside and worked till 6 PM. First day to ride bus without paying for transfers. Lovely ride.

Wednesday, April 2, 1975 - Temp 31 – 50

Partly cloudy AM. PM cloudy, rained & much colder.

Thursday, April 3, 1975 - Temp 22 - 45

Cold & sunny. Sent specks back, insured. ….found out our dear friend Dora Stein, in her 105^th year, died March 22. Private service. Went shopping AM, paying bills PM. Went over the hill and started to clean a little brush.

Friday, April 4 1975 - Temp 23 - 50

Cool & crispy. Went shopping AM. PM went over the hill again. Cleaned a lot. 37° at 10:30 PM.

Saturday, April 5, 1975 - Temp 29 - 54

Beautiful sunny day and crisp. Otto watered plants downstairs. I cleaned a little AM. PM we planted onions (peas, almost 4 rows), Beets & Carrots.

Sunday, April 6, 1975 - Temp 30 - 57

Beautiful Crisp Sunny day. Went to church, took Erna Buren. Stayed for coffee hour. Came home and picked up flowers and went to see Ruth at Alexian Bro. Hospital. Came home and ate turkey dinner. Read a little and stayed inside.

Monday, April 7, 1975 - Temp 32 - 57

Mostly sunny AM. Hazel & Arthur came after snowball bushes, etc. Cloudy PM., We cut a lot of weeds, planted baby onions by Red Raspberries. Otto hauled dirt to cover turnip bed. Really looks like rain. First Ball Game tonite.

Tuesday, April 8, 1975 - Temp 45 - 59

Mostly cloudy. We had a soft rain around dinner time. PM we went out to dig yucca for Ms. Carlisle on both ides of our walk, down the steps to sidewalk. Trimmed out dead limbs of snowball and Otto cleaned the hillside on north side of house.

Wednesday, April 9, 1975 - Temp 48 - 70

Cloudy for awhile AM & then sunny all day. Mary fixed bricks in front where Yucca were. Otto hoed weeds and I tied up Red Raspberries. Stopped at 5PM and ate. Carried away yucca trash with Honeysuckle and Mary saw the first Martin (Old Guard) we call it. Jennifer was here PM. Ran around the house for fun.

Thursday, April 10, 1975 - Temp 40 - 58

Partly cloudy. We tied up Red Raspberries and hoed the East patch by Otto. I went over the hill and cleaned a little and got a bucket of dirt. Very pleasant day.

Friday, April 11, 1975 - Temp 35 - 54

Very cloudy AM. (early) Sun came out but cool all day. Mrs. Carlisle came after the Yuccas and peach tree. Baked a cake and Otto hoed and looked at things.

Saturday, April 12, 1975 - Temp 35 - 58

Beautiful sunny day, Crisp. Cut Otto’s hair, cleaned house and weeded garden. Planted lettuce and tore a lot of honeysuckle out of Bridal Wreath.

Sunday, April 13, 1975 - Temp 38 - 61

Clear most of day. Went to church. Stayed for meeting. Came home to Chicken dinner and listened to Ball Game. Cardinals lost. Went to see Ruth at Alexian Brothers Hospital. Otto went outside all the while I was gone. Never read at all. Real cloudy at 6 PM.

Monday, April 14, 1975 - Temp 44 – 51 at 12:00 AM Midnight

Nice rains AM and at 6 PM raining again. I’ve got the runs but worked in the basement with Jar, Cans, etc.

This seems like a good place to stop, doesn’t it? So I shall bid you
a-doo-doo.  You may look for me over the hill…

...or Under the Blankies

Garden Notes March 22--March 31 1975 --- Planted Onion Sets & Radishes in Rose Bed

That Bird Really Gets Around

From my perspective, the years covered in the Bollmans’ notebook were not so long ago as to be considered the Distant Past or even the Olden Days. However, I will concede that is has been awhile. I am tempted to say life was simpler then, but I will resist and leave that phrase for someone who may need it. Mary and Otto led a simple life because they chose a simple and frugal path. Their days were centered around their house and all things pertaining thereto.  Damn legal background made me say that. Back to the real world:  They loved their Home and Garden and I do not mean their magazine subscription.

I am also tempted to say that they did not multi-task, that they were the embodiment of (yet another of) my Dad’s sayings “one thing at a time and that done well” or Don Fahey’s mantra “Let’s do one thing at a time, shall we?  We don’t want to get confused”.  For starters, nobody multi-tasked. Most of us juggled multiple tasks, especially the workforce and parents, whether working outside the home or not. We simply had not yet  invented a word for it.  Still and all – there is a good old south St. Louis saying for you – I stand by my statement that they attacked one task, finished it, moved to another, and if the first task needed tweaking they returned later and tweaked; or they split tasks 50/50. 

And yet…there are not many pages where Mary does not write: “I did this & that”… or  “I cleaned, etc.”.  Was she a secret multi-tasker?  We will never know.  What we do know is that she planted her onion sets & radishes in the rose bed – that Zany!

Garden Notes – March 22, 1975 –March 31, 1975
Planted Onion Sets & Radishes in Rose Bed

Saturday, March 22, 1975 - Temp 45 - 63

Sunny and Pleasant all day. Otto cleaned strawberries & a lot of weeds & I did too and finished for the Spring spading. Planted onion sets & Radishes in Rose Bed. Inspected the wall. We liked it, newly tuckpointed.  Johanna came over to say hello. No heat today.

Sunday, March 23, 1975 - Temp 47 - 76

No heat today. Lovely day. This evening it’s raining. Thank God we had it nice to go to church and back.  Heard a good sermon. Watered flowers and wrote a letter to Phil for her birthday. Had a tornado watch till 7 PM

Monday, March 24, 1975 - Temp 34 - 56

Windy all day. We got out and spaded and cut or trimmed Black Raspberries & cleared trash. Couldn’t plant seed as it was too breezy. Called Nationwide for roof.

Tuesday, March 25, 1975 - Temp 22 - 34

Mostly cloudy but breezy. Seemed very cold. Stayed inside and did this & that. Even baked some cookies. Had snow flurries. Roofer still coming down; they called

Wednesday, March 26, 1975 - Temp 20 - 46

Sunny mostly. Went shopping and got onion plants & sets & food. Otto planted the onion plants PM. I cut a few Black raspberries. The wind penetrated.

Thursday, March 27, 1975 - Temp 35 – 45

Rained all day. Decorated cookies & fixed bacon. Baked a turkey and bread. Went to see Mrs. Hardy. Took cookies and onions. Mr. Hardy came over to tell us our roofing was blowing off. No leaks so far at 6:30.

Friday, March 28, 1975 - Temp 38 - 47--- Good Friday

Rained through fog AM and rained most of day. Stayed home all day & did cleaning, etc.

Saturday, March 29, 1975 - Temp 30 - 36

Went shopping 9 AM between bread rising --- nice day.

Sunday, March 30, 1975 - Temp 24 – 44 --- Easter

Sunny all day. We spent the nice quiet Sunday at home. Had meatloaf dinner.

Monday, March 31, 1975 - Temp 31 - 64

Beautiful sunny day. Washed AM. After dinner worked outside. Planted Dutch onions & trimmed Blk. Raspberries a bit.

So it’s time for me to hit the hay early, due to exhaustion and body aches too numerous to mention.  This is the last time I read ahead in the notebook.  A couple nights ago I skipped to harvest time 1975 and came away feeling like  a real slacker. Bottom line, I have now planted 4 rows of snow peas, a few leaf lettuce, scallion and dwarf Pak Choy seeds, transplanted the volunteer lettuces, found and transplanted a volunteer sorrell(?), started marigold and moonflower seeds, pruned and re-potted the philodendron that wintered over in the basement, cut, pulled and cut the forest of dead morning-glory vines from the wishing well, pulled off dead honeysuckle vines from the flag pole, cut out the honeysuckle around the vine; it overpowered my hyacinth bean vines last year so it  must be destroyed. For my encore I seriously trimmed back the honeysuckle growing on the back fence.

Is it time yet to go to Carondelet Park, fill empty kitty litter buckets with free compost and lug them back to Tara?  Wait, am I getting a little disoriented?

  Be careful what you read.

Whoa....Where'd he go?

1975 Garden Notes March 6 - March 21 GOD'S GOOD SUNSHINE

March 6-through March 21, 1975 --- 1^st Day of Spring!!

Bollman's Bird Bath - and What a BIRD!

So much for my determination to keep up with the garden notes.  I said I was going to post the 1975 notes as they loosely coincide with the current week, didn’t I?  So here it is March 16, 2011 and I am a little behind.  All in all, it is better than being a big behind. And no smart talk outa youse guys, as we say in the City.

I am looking out my window at accumulated snow on sidewalks and cemetery headstones, don’t ask – and flying slush in the street as rush hour traffic speeds along Morganford Rd.  What am I saying?  All traffic speeds along Morganford, but that’s a story for another day.

Snow on March 14 is not all that uncommon but after the winter we have endured did we need this “surprise”? Yes, that was the caption to the news story this morning on Channel 5  - pasted across the screen - “Snow Surprise”. Apparently not the only surprise for local weathermen and the Missouri Dept. of Transportation…I’m thinking that somebody around there forgot to adjust their clocks to daylight savings time.  About 1:45 this afternoon a weather alert was issued that the snow would continue to accumulate till NOON then change to all rain.

Garden Notes – March 6 – March 21, 1975 – 1^st day of Spring!!!!

Activity in the Bollman Garden is still in low gear but preparations in the form of spading, digging, tying up raspberries and generally putting the winter to rest is ongoing.  Spring 1975 on California Ave. is on its way.  I know that, not because of the calendar date but because on March 10 the Bollmans “woke up to 8 inches of fairyland snow”.  And on March 16 Mary said “A lovely day, and did we enjoy it. Went to church….came home and stayed in God’s Good Sunshine”.  Sounds like a harbinger of Spring to me.

Thursday, March 6, 1975 - Temp 30 - 46

Mostly cloudy & cool. Went shopping A.M. Worked outside P.M. but it was cool. Fixed up Jamie’s wedding present, also wrote Blue Shield about check rec’d.  It was quite cool outside.

Friday, March 7, 1975 - Temp 33 – 57 at Midnite, 41 for High PM

Cloudy mostly. Otto took me to church to go to World Day of Prayer. Got home about noon. Otto was cooking dinner. Good Ham Hock & Sauerkraut & Potatoes.  Cleaned a little and froze meat bought yesterday. Otto sliced the bacon.

Saturday, March 8, 1975 - Temp 22 – 35

Lovely winter sunny day. We cleaned a little around, went shopping, wrote letters P.M.

Sunday, March 9, 1975 - Temp 19 - 34

A.M. partly cloudy, P.M. it started to snow about 5:30. Went to church, read Sunday paper late…it’s still snowing at 9:30 PM

Monday, March 10, 1975 - Temp 28 - 32

Woke up to see 8 inches of fairyland snow and we shoveled it this AM. Afternoon, washed windows in bathroom & put up clean green curtains. Otto shoveled more snow. Read paper and other things till Tillie called.

Tuesday, March 11, 1975 - Temp 30 – 38 --- 6:30 PM 34

Went shopping as we moved the car. Got things ready to take to church, Mizpah Bake Sale and to Evelyn R. her recipe I promised and a few others and washed my hair.  Raining this evening. Hope it doesn’t get slick.

Wednesday, March 12, 1975 - Temp 30 - 37

Cloudy all day. Otto and I washed kitchen windows and put up clean curtains. Signed contract with Excell for tuckpointing alley wall, etc. Otto made rain gauge. It rained about an inch and snow melted quite a lot.

Thursday, March 13, 1975 - Temp 19 – 30

Cold all day. Otto & I got Marie F. first boxes and took Marie & Mildred to Assoc. luncheon. About 60 people came to hear Celeste R________, policewoman from the Rape Squad of St. Louis. Very interesting. Stopped by Ruth’s as Mrs. Kurtz brought me that fan she was going to give her.

Friday, March 14, 1975 - Temp 26 - 42

Very Chilly but this PM beautiful & sunny. Went shopping this AM. Took Ruth along as she wanted to get Linoleum strips. She was sweet and had us to lunch. We came home and then went to Rausch’s to shop some more. It is 42° now at 6:45 PM – 41% humidity.

Saturday, March 15, 1975 - Temp 29 – 49

Very Chilly but sunny most of day. Watered flowers by Otto. Mary planted a few beans and we just did this and that. Went to Holy Cross fish fry for Carryout.  It was good.

Sunday, March 16, 1975 - Temp 36 – 57  52 at 6:30 PM

A lovely day and did we enjoy it.  Went to church, stayed for coffee hour by Circle #4 – came home and stayed in God’s sunshine.

Monday, March 17, 1975 - Temp 29 - 58

Cloudy AM. We washed and hung inside. Hung a few hand washables outside. Otto fixed the little Bird House & painted it.

Tuesday, March 18, 1975 - Temp 38 – 49

At 5:30 it’s 48° and raining. Otto raked strawberries & put on Crab Grass Killer between showers. Went shopping and got Anacin 300 for $2.70, also prunes 3 lb. $1.58. Got money order for Otto glasses & sent away to receive them. I ironed and now am patching.

Wednesday, March 19, 1975 - Temp 40 - 63

Beautiful day and we got our alley wall tuckpointed by Excell, 2654 Gravois. Also tuckpointed chimney and both sides of wall at end of alley at Winnebago. Mr. White [my Dad] helped Otto get Bird House down & we cleaned it and Otto started to paint it white. I tied up some Red Raspberries & folded the curtains. No heat today.

Thursday, March 20, 1975 - Temp 47 - 73

Beautiful day all day. We both were out spading, digging, tying up Red Rasp. No heat today.

Friday, March 21, 1975 - Temp 55 – 79
It is Spring and couldn’t be better.  Just beautiful. Went shopping and paid our tuckpointing bill. We are glad that’s off our mind! We spaded our garden and have a little more to finish and bits to plant and also have rasspberries to tie up and trim. No heat in house today. Our Jonquils and Crocuses are in bloom. Took wool coverlet off our bed.

at 5:30 it’s 48.

Well, it's time for me to give it a rest and go  out - in the pouring rain-sleet-or is it snow? -  and fill food dishes for the homeless hungry alley kitties.  Till next time....

60's Marilin with  Kenny, Laura,
that Great Purse that finally wore out
& a (relatively) Little Behind

 

ALWAYS REMEMBER AND NEVER FORGET

Always Remember and Never Forget

When You Bake Up the Dog Treats

Don't Leave 'em So Wet

Or...the Wearin' o' the Green

Sophie
Old Girl

                                  

 

OK, let’s say that some Sunday afternoon you make a double batch of natural-ingredient dog treats.  Let us also say that you slightly undercook them so they remain chewy (old dog).  Let us further say that after setting aside a few for your best friend, your grand-dog and his house guest, and some for the vet  you stash ALL THE REST in 70’s Tupperware with a tight-fitting lid.

DON’T.  Who knew that on the stroke of Day 7 the dog bones concocted of whole wheat flour, rolled oats, peanut butter, a splash of olive oil, a touch of honey and hints of homemade apple butter, garden mint and cinnamon would grow their own furry green coats? Not your average shade of Mold Green, either, but really quite a lovely shade. 

AND YET - I, the lover of all thing green, recoiled in horror.

I have yet to check with the vet but am so hoping he distributed them to his patients upon receipt. I believe the odds are in my favor because he was saying “Oh, these smell good!” as he exited the exam room.  My friend’s dogs ate them within hours.  Grand-dog and guest survived. 

And so I leave you with two words:  FRIDGE and FREEZER.

Begin Again Finnegan ---Garden Notes – February 22 through March 5, 1975

Bollman House

Try not to be too shocked by what I am about to tell you, but here’s the thing…I changed my mind. This is not similar to “of all the things I’ve lost I miss my mind the most”.  It’s more along the “nothing as constant as change” lines.

When I started the blog I vowed to keep the garden notes in the chronological order in which they were handwritten in Mary & Otto Bollman’s notebook, which began with March 1974.
  But I’m over that.  I am skipping ahead to February 1975 so I can post notes that [loosely] coincide with the current dates.

 

Meanwhile, Look what I found in my garden today. Not a great picture but look closely and you'll see my volunteer lettuces. They are among the volunteer dead leaves and volunteer “ground cover”.  I will concede that while the ground cover is not altogether unsightly, it is of the not-exactly-a-weed-but-not-exactly-what-I-wanted-to-grow-there species.  This is February 21, a cool day following several balmy days - preceded by a long, bitterly cold brutal winter.  Tonight the temperature is supposed to dip so we will see how long the lettuces last.

 Garden Notes – February 22 through March 5, 1975

Things are still pretty quiet in the Bollman garden but very few days go by without some prep work . On February 25 Otto planted tomatoes and peppers.  I think it's safe to assume this means seeds.  I remember they had a cold frame behind the back porch, handmade by Otto of course; that may be where seedlings were started in February.  I know they brought geraniums and other flowering plants indoors to winter over in the basement but so far haven't found any references to where or how they cared for seedlings before setting them out in the garden. On March 5 they dug 3 lbs. of carrots.  Reading back a few pages, they also dug carrots on December 10 but I don't know when the carrots were planted. Granted, some December & January pages are hard to read because they are written alternately in red or green ink, 2-sided on thin pages so the ink bled through. Planting had to be before the ground froze, but did they stay there all winter and not freeze? Did some freeze and these were the superior strain who survived? Let's hear it for the strained carrots!!!

Without further ado I will leave you with the March 1, 1975 words of Mary Bollman:

Real Lion’s Entrance for March- HA!
Weatherman said it would be nice, warm & sunny. HA!

Saturday, February 22, 1975 - Temp 35 - 55

Rained all day and very dark. Otto fixed the lamp and weeded flowers.  Did hand washing, etc. Gave Otto a hair cut. Thundered and lightning.

Sunday, February 23  - Temp 30 – 32

Dark & drizzle and at 6:30 it is freezing rain or very fine snow as it looks foggy & the cars and ground are getting white.

Monday, February 24  - Temp 25 – 30

Snowing  We shoveled this A.M. Cleaned book case with horses. Watered flowers. Got out boysenberries (frozen).

Tuesday, February 25  - Temp 28 – 45

Snow melting with the beautiful sunny day. Very windy. Moved the car and did a little hand washing. Otto pruned and planted all kinds of tomatoes and sweet hot peppers.

Wednesday, February 26  - Temp 29 – 43

Sunny all day mostly. Went to stay with Ruth while moving. Otto dug compost behind house.

Thursday, February 27  - Temp 44 – 22

Sunny most of day. Cleaned dresser & Otto cut down tree in flowering quince. At last he got to it!!

Friday, February 28 – Temp 33 – 27

Sunny & Cool. Went shopping and Otto fixed bench.  Broke up mulberry tree for beams.  I cleaned house & ice box.  He painted bench.

Saturday, March 1, 1975 – Temp 25 – 39

We awoke with snow covering the ground. Beautiful day it was. It was still snowing and had a little snow flower shower during P.M. Otto cleaned alley of leaves & Boysenberry vines. Lovely behind the wall.  Real Lion’s Entrance for March- HA! Weatherman said it would be nice, warm & sunny. HA!

Sunday, March 2 – Temp 18 – 30

Felt cold with the little breeze. Went to church. Came home to chicken dinner and stayed.

Monday, March 3 – Temp 16 – 30

Sunny but cool. We washed and hung in the basement. Excell-Avery & Mr. Kausch came for tuckpointing estimates.

Tuesday, March 4 – Temp 17 – 41

Sunny & cool most of day. In evening seemed warmer. Went to vote. Cleaned street and trying to fill holes on curb. Cleaned the car. Also on business we went. Dug up bricks, too. Raked along north side of gate.

Sunday, March 5 – Temp 28 – 59

Sunny most of the day. I dusted all the walls & ceilings. Otto washed dishes & got dinner. A.M. Otto & I got outside. He dug dirt & filled up places. I found part of the garden dry enough to start spading. Dug all carrots, about 3 lbs.

Time to turn in...again...Finnegan.  Nighty Nite.

 

WHAT I KNOW

Leonard, Frances
Marvin, Marilin, Arthur

I should have said “What They Said – Aloud and A LOT”

 

Frances, my Mom: 

Her mantra was “The Lord Will Provide”

My brother Arthur and I, chronically broke and frequently bored, were not above poking fun at her – behind her back. We would exchange pathetic anecdotes about the depths of our poverty, the jobs we just lost, the depths of depravity to which humanity had sunk, then declare “but Girl [or Honey], the Lord Will Provide”…UNTIL…..

One day Arthur was getting out of my car in front of his apartment when an apparently homeless man approached and politely asked if we could spare $1 or even some change; he offered his wristwatch in exchange.  $1 or less at that time would actually have bought a meal. I was flat broke, Arthur was down to his last $3.00, but being Arthur he gave it all to the man and said “keep your watch, this is a gift”.  The man got teary-eyed, insisted we take the watch and Arthur vowed to keep an eye out and return the watch to its owner some day. Neither of us ever saw him again and I still have that watch, although my brother passed from this world many years ago.

Next Day:  Arthur opened his mailbox and found an envelope containing $3.00 cash – from our Mother.  Signed, Sealed and put into the mailbox the day before, probably about the time we were talking to the watch guy.
P.S.  We stopped making fun of her.  Yeah, we still said the Lord will provide, but we said it with a lot more reverence. Our brother Marvin always claimed that it was a hot watch, so of course the guy wanted to unload it, but to us that was neither here nor there. 

 

Fast Forward a couple years.  We needed a new source of mild amusement and Mom’s habit of doing things in 3’s provided it.  For instance…if we asked for cookies she would give us each 3, never more never less.  Arthur concluded that it was a religiously symbolic thing.  I concluded that he was nuts and it was because we never had enough of anything to dish out more than 3.

3 cookies, 3 bucks, 3 mills. 

Mills (correct spelling was probably milles but not in South St. Louis). Mills were plastic currency worth 1/1000 of a dollar.  In other words, if you “broke” a penny you got 10 mills.  Arthur’s 3 mills were a sore point, literally. He used them for tax on the bowls of chili he bought for lunch for 25¢ - or less - at the neighborhood store catty-cornered from Humboldt School.  Chili was served in a real bowl and taken outdoors to eat, at the proprietors’ insistence.  The store was very small and the chili line was out the door and around the corner every school day. Arthur got to go because he was a Big Kid.  Being a Little Kid, I did not. Little Kids could not cross streets without a big hand to hold.  Once, Mom ordered him to take me along.  He did it under protest and got even by making me share his chili (1 bite) instead of buying me the baloney sammich I was screaming for. Like all Big Kids, Arthur kept his lunch loot in his penny loafers. A penny, maybe two, occupied the coin slot on top; the rest resided inside his argyle socks and he walked on them till lunchtime. You thought those slots on loafers were just for decoration, didn’t you?

Leonard, my Dad:  “Write About What You Know”

Everyone’s parents said “Stick to What You Know” but Dad tailored his version specifically for me.  I don’t remember what I was writing when I first heard it, most likely it was a class assignment to write a piece of fiction - or, as Dad called it - “fairy tales”.  Dad didn’t believe in fiction unless it came in a book with an orange binding bearing the words “by Zane Grey”.  What I do remember is Dad’s tone of voice, best described as vehement, no-nonsense, borderline stern but directed more towards the teacher than the pupil.  He didn’t hold with telling a pupil to write any doggoned fairy tale; they should writing about what they know! I wish I could tell you that this spurred me on to write the Great American Non-Novel but as you can see, it did not.

Awhile afterwards I did write a pretty doggoned good book report, though. A biography of FDR, an assignment given to me by my Dad.  That was odd in itself, since he and FDR did not see eye-to-eye.  For my Dad the fun had gone out of taking me, too frequently, to the Soulard Branch Library. He decided that I was skimming, not reading. When Miss Schicker, my 3^rd grade teacher told my parents that I devour books like most kids devour candy they were proud, but it seemed to strengthen Dad's resolve to put me to the test.  Next library day he allowed me to choose my own books but insisted on a look-see (that's a Leonard quote) before  checking out.  At home he announced that I was to read the biography first, give it to him for safekeeping then write a book report. My reward, should I do well on my assignment, was his promise to stop moaning about trips to the library.  DID IT.  He not only approved, but took it to Miss Schicker, his way of  saying "you were right, she does really read that stuff" (not a Leonard quote).

Well, I Mean....

What did he expect the day he took me to Soulard for my first library card?  It was the very day I became old enough to qualify. He took me by the hand and together we ascended the majestic stairway. I believe the heavens opened and choirs of angels sang us up the stairs. At the top we stood face-to-face with massive sculptured library lions. CATS, can this day get any better?  Inside, he presented me to the Head Librarian and said "she wants a library card". 

Fast Forward a Few Years:

By high school my long-time friend Jan commented that she had never heard my Dad laugh. I didn’t understand that because I heard him laugh all the time. I countered by telling Jan that maybe she is not as funny as she thinks she is. She said “no, I mean he never goes Ha Ha Ha, it’s always a single HA!”  Well, she got me there. 

She also commented on how weird it was that Dad would drop a letter in the mailbox, close the little door then open it again to make sure the letter went down.  I took offense at that one because we ALL did it.  I still do.  Especially on a rainy day when the mail might have gotten hung up on a wet surface.  At mailboxes with no little door, there’s no harm in giving it a push on the way down, is there?  I figure if I don’t it might get hung up on the mail version of a roadblock down below.  We are masters of overkill in this family.

Well, I am getting tired, my cataracts are acting up and my cats are acting weird so that’s about it for tonight.

If you are my children, you have already heard all this stuff ad nauseum so I hope you didn’t waste time by reading it all again.  HA!   

Bears, Bags, Blooms, Bits? What Does It All Mean?

The Desk Bears

Sock Bags

Moonflowers on Wishing Well

Not much - just that the blog is going in another direction....
NO DIRECTION.

Bears, Bags  Blooms, especially the blooms, are staying, but I'm throwing in whatever else is on my mind. A little this 'n' that, flotsam & jetsam,blathering & blithering,blarney & baloney, barbs & blab ---

You know.....Bits