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I was sorting through some old recipes torn from magazines and newspapers, saved by my grandma, in an old discolored manila folder. Grandma has been gone since the '80s. I am not one to use recipes. I like to make up my own ingredients and measurements. Actually, I am surprised that my grandma had this file because she often-maybe always- cooked and baked the same way= by the way it looked. I had some favorites that she cooked or baked, and as a teen (thinking I should harvest her knowledge for using myself someday) I asked her several times if she could write it all down for me on a recipe card.

[Recipe cards. Remember those... before you could Goo--e anything you ever wanted to know about anything?]

Her reply was, "I don't know how I would write it all down. I just put it all together until it looks right."

I do have a few recipe cards that each of my grandmas wrote, as well as some my mom wrote. I cherish them more now for their handwritten nostalgia than the instructions they explain. Recognizing the beautiful and individual style of their handwritten script makes me smile.

As I looked through the tattered contents of the folder, I started mindlessly throwing the magazine and newspaper recipe scraps in the waste basket. Surely I would never use them, fire hazzard they were and all that...

Then I suddenly stopped and thought about the great things on those pages that surround these age old recipes. Time capsule-like graphics of products we still recognize dressed in newer labels and those super looking old colors that don't exist anymore in advertising (or book illustrations). I am sucked in by those vintage ink colors every time!!

These old product paper ephemera scraps are fun to use in collage or ATC art for backgrounds. Have fun with these. Compliments of my thrifty grandma, who saved everything and taught my mom to save everything.

Click on image to enlarge it.

genealogy rant-blame the caveman

Maybe it is because I am not very techno savvy. I try to fake it but I possess no real modern gadget talent. Enough to make it through a day {barely} in 2010- yet not up to the standards of, say a Harvard or Yale student born way way after the 1960's!!!!
Maybe it is that I just need more to worry about. Who knows what the reason is for today's rant...
This is what is on my mind. I am a genealogist- a family tree maker, preserver of family facts- for the non-genealogist types out there.
What will future genealogists face when they try to piece together a family's history of important and not so important, yet no less interesting, pool of info and supporting documents? I say they will face a lot of deader than dead ends. I could save all my concerns and worrying and just assume that in the future no one will even care about family facts and history. Yeah, that's probably it. Too busy riding around in their flying cars. Shopping on the moon.

(Pictured at far left is my mom's sister, second from left is my mom, others are cousins. 1930's original photo that you can hold in your hand and touch in real life.)

Modern picture storage has become to some or most people, putting their new and even vintage snapshots on either a USB flash drive, CD, memory card or on an internet archive site.

Here is the impending potential problem for that...Flash drives, CD and memory card files can become corrupt and then are simply lost information. Gone into the nowhere zone. Forever. They can also become broken. Just broken. A memory card can even be vacuumed up [after all we do like our modern, super, suck-up-almost-anything, vacuum sweepers. "What was that noise I just heard? Humph, probably just a stray Lego again!"]

or lost inside the deep recesses under sofa cushions never to be found again.
Don't laugh! I once read an article about someone who did an experiment over a period of months. While doing his normal driving around he kept watch for sofas and chairs out at the curb. He stopped and, bravely without embarrassment, sliced open the upholstery with a utility knife. He found hundreds of dollars in both coins and paper money along with many other valuables such as jewelry and even flash drives and memory cards. Lots of the items found where simply under cushions or in the side deep recesses where most dare not reach into. I assure you he also wore gloves to protect himself and his health while doing these hunts. Amazing to consider overall.
Do you ever stop to think about the fact that it is super ultra cool to be able to hold thousands of photos on such a tiny piece of technology yet all those thousands of images can be lost just as easily?
Here's the other problem with photo technology and its future fate. What about the technology that reads these things becoming obsolete? I don't need to draw a picture of that implication to you , do I?

And the photo storage web sites? Well, they all have names and passwords and sign in info to help keep them protected yet that is the same thing that will keep your great grand-daughter/or son or great-great niece from seeing it. Understand? It will be of no use to the future members of your family after you are gone. Heck I can't even keep up with all my own ID #s, passwords, user names, etc, etc. - let alone make sure they are all left for future generations to find and use. And you are always supposed to keep changing them too, for security.
Security. Now there is still another problem. Long ago you did not have to worry about identity theft like these days. Info was readily available to genealogists. Nowadays we have to be so careful about every little detail and the safety of those details. I can say with much certainty that the generations to come will not be able to piece together a fully detailed family tree due to the plague, which is today, identity theft.

All info will be so well hidden and tucked away. Maybe only criminals and hackers will be the true genealogists of the future??!!!


Modern document storage. That subject will sound like the same rant here today on my blog...
We are encouraged to scan and keep digital files of documents instead of keeping actual papers, new and vintage. Purge the paper, we are told. The same problems occur as with photo saving technology.
Also, you can't display great-great grandma and grandpa's marriage certificate from 1896 on the wall in its original gold leaf frame or touch the linen paper of great- great aunt Pearl's nursing school diploma from 1902 when it is on a flash drive or CD. Yes I know, you will say, "You can just print them out on your handy dandy modern printer."
Sorry. Not the same!!!!! Just not the same. And if you think it is then you are a wannabe genealogist. Sorry.

Here is my conclusion. I am willing to admit I am probably in the small minority here with my crazy opinions. I am just saying that printed photos-modern and vintage- have their purpose and value in this world.
Paper (ephemera. see my side bar for definition!) has its purpose and value.

No modern convenience technology can ever replace that.

The worst roadblock I have ever had to overcome in researching genealogy facts is that of fire destroying records from back in the 1700's in a church in Germany. I can't blame that on technology...unless I blame the cavemen for discovering the the modern technology of fire.

brain fun

I found a super fun (and informational too) web site all about life and people and things all through many eras that makes you get lost in the "I'll just click on one more page....Wow!!!...ok I can stop, well maybe just another and then I'll quit..." kind of mind frame. I have it saved in my favorites and then I can go back again after I put a load of my family's white socks in the wash so everyone will quit complaining. [Oh did I say that out loud?]

Speaking of complaining- I keep threatening to buy every member of the family the same size and style of white socks and just give all the current stuff to some mom with more time and patience. How can there be so many different styles of white socks for 5 family members???? Ugh! Sorry to get off subject, so lets get back to it. Here is the link to the site. If I were you I would first go put in a load of towels or jeans so you can look like you're multitasking. Just a suggestion!

http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/athome/index.html

Then I noticed the record player (my kids are fascinated by those dinosaurs of technology) and it made me think about the record player on the piece of ephemera I have. I won't bore you with all the super fun memories filed away in my head about record players at slumber parties and buying 45's with babysitting money...

I'll save that for another day when I have your attention trapped, errr, I mean reeled in, errr I mean attentive....

Any info?

I love unusual very old photos and I love a good mystery to solve.
I am puzzled by this photo. I have no info about this photo as it is unidentified on the back. It is tiny, about 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches. At first glance I thought, "What a fancy carriage". Then I scanned it and that is when I began to focus more on the cross on top. Then I scanned it again and cropped it in closer...

That's when I started to see the sides and front and the driver dressed in black and I began to wonder....

...could this actually be a funeral carriage?

Any facts or even guesses would be appreciated.

I had a great grandfather who was a grave digger and maybe he would know about this. Too bad he has been gone and buried for 101 years in his own Catholic graveyard where he worked. My own son carries his first name.

Family times

( my kids and my nephew's daughters)

It has sure been a time for family these last few days!! First the family reunion in Michigan and then my Texas nephew and his family for a

-time flies too quickly-

visit here in Ohio.

My nephew and his wife

at my brother's house.

My nephew and his oldest daughter.


My E. (I'm not crazy about her dark hair) and her cousin.


My A. and her cousin.


(my step-mom, my dad, my nephew and his wife)


We have made many memories

that will make time stand still in our minds!

A birthday and a reunion

Yesterday we made a short trek to Michigan to see some people that share the same blood line. Those would be my cousins!

We had a wonderful gathering at the home of one of my cousins. We had blue skies intermittently mixed with quick summer downpours throughout the whole day. We easily adapted to moving as a group of about 30 from his comfortable yard to his cozy house as the weather dictated, back and forth.

Another reason to get together on this particular day was the event of my Uncle's 75th birthday; the father of my party hosting cousin.

He now holds the honor of being the eldest relative on that branch of the family tree; his two sibling's (one being my Mother) are both gone. He is the one we now go to for stories told and questions to be answered.

The above photo is him as a boy with his parents (my Grandparents) and his sister (my Mother). His oldest sister must have been the photographer! I do love the stories, and a few new ones were told yesterday!

My cousins had some old 8mm family movies transferred to DVD and we had a glorious time narrating and laughing as we all sat in the same room to view some of it.

We marveled, as we watched ourselves on film as infants, at how we all survived the seemingly death-trap contraptions of babyhood eras gone by.

The strollers and walkers and cribs and playpens...

Several times throughout the day, my daughter commented that we needed to get together much more frequently as, "I want to learn all the names and get to know these people!"

I have 2 cousins born the same year as I and our conclusion was that, We are becoming the generation that sits and talks and tells stories as the little ones run around and play.

When did that happen?

A note about this photo: I have used this photo before on my blog and have previously commented on how I like this photo...it is funny- the fact that only my Uncle and the dog appear happy. Maybe they know something??!

Flash Back- g'night...

The Waltons is a TV series that I like to watch on DVD. I have some favorite episodes and some that are worth skipping, too. But for the most part I can escape for a time when I let myself believe that the people in that family are real. Do you ever let yourself escape into a show fully, even though you know it's just a script and actors?

I would like to sit on that bench at the long table in the kitchen and drink lemonade, as Momma irons nearby and teaches gentle lessons on life. Sit by the radio with the rest of the family and snuggle under a well worn soft quilt with tattered edges. Hang around for awhile at Godsey's to hear some gossip. Feel the wind through my hair on a hot summer day swinging high into the tree branches on the long rope swing by the barn.

One thing you may not believe is that I always wanted to have to share my room with a sister. If you have always had to do so you may think me nuts. I am sure I would have hated it after a while but I wanted to try it to see what it was like. But alas I had no sisters. Just 3 very much older brothers.

I grew up next door to a family of 7 kids that were all packed into their 3 tiny bedrooms. They hated it. I don't think they were ever glad they had to share their personal space. Nor do I think any of them watched The Waltons with the same wonder as I. My friend who was #6 of the 7 always enjoyed coming over to my house.

My husband is #3 of 7 kids in his family and they were stacked into a few bedrooms too. Then there was his Mom's sister who had 15 kids -all single births, no twins, no triplets-they were packed in pretty close even though they had a big old house with 3 floors. I don't think they had Walton envy like me either.

But maybe one or two of my next door neighbors or my husband's siblings or his cousins had lemonade envy or swing envy. Maybe.

FLASH BACK-The girl in the RED shoes...

Growing up, I was the baby of the family with 3 MUCH older brothers. Being the only girl and the youngest gets you three things: 1. new stuff like clothes and shoes, not sibling hand me downs and 2. toys you do not have to share with your older siblings and 3. your own room!

My mom was so thrilled to dress a blonde girl...but she didn't have an unlimited budget since she had 3 teen/preteen boys that were 1. filling stomachs that never seemed full and 2. outgrowing shoes at an alarming rate and 3. had pants that seemed to show their ankles each time she turned around!

My mom was pretty smart in the way she dressed her little blonde girl. In order to assure that I always had pretty little dresses and plenty of shoes for every occasion, she shopped ahead and shopped the end of season clearance racks. She did this from the time I was a baby.


I have lots of fond memories when she would take me along to the big Lion Department Store and we would gather many dresses- among them, Polly Flinders smocked front dresses and velvets and some with fancy collars or pinafores. Matching 2 piece Carter's play clothes with fun appliques and novelty pockets like apples or lady bugs. She would wait until they were marked WAY down and she could get them for a song. She had the attitude that whatever size was there at the end of the markdowns was just what we were meant to get...just as long as it was TOO BIG for me and could be put away to save and dole out whenever the item may fit. She was quite good at guessing my rate of growth for the items that were season specific. Dresses were the easiest as most were year round appropriate. When I was a little older, I remember going to a store called Jiminy Cricket at rock bottom price time and picking out pre teen clothing and anxiously anticipating being "grown up" enough to wear them.

By far my most favorite of all memories was the shoe department after Easter when shoes were reduced to sell the odds and ends of what was left. Once again, Mom felt that fate would provide the shoes meant for my feet in the future months --there among the boxes of 1. Stride Rite patent leathers with straps and buckles or 2. Buster Brown saddle shoes, some with pink or velvet sides and diagonally striped laces or 3. Keds or PF Flyers sneakers complete with the rubber toe cap, sure to make me run faster or jump higher than anyone! Some kids grew up trying on their Mother's shoes dreaming about some day when they would grow. I grew up trying on my own collection of shoes that were stashed in the closet, just like my own shoe store...dreaming of when I would grow.
There is something about that new shoe smell, when you take them out of the box and how about the distinctive sound you hear from that crinkly tissue paper that nestles them. I also recall, with much clarity, the tapping sound of new "high heels"- that were only about 1" but seemed very grown up- as I walked back and forth across the tile floor like some kind of a super model. There were many nights that a new pair of shoes were parked proudly at my bedside so I could keep them near and assure a gaze upon them when first my sleepy eyes opened the next morning.
Here's the very best part of shoe memories...they repeat when you have your own kids.
As a little girl, my A loved to do the same let's see how nice the "grown up high heels" sound as I parade across the tile thing.
And just a few weeks ago, my N purposely SLEPT IN his new tennis shoes!! Keeping them parked by the bedside was not good enough!
Hey, do you remember that baby boomer contraption that measured your shoe size when you inserted your sock covered foot into a machine and it squeezed your foot? As a kid I remember being very fascinated by it and maybe a teensy bit leery.
I think you can click to make these photos bigger. We always fed stale bread and crackers to the ducks at the cemetery. Gotta love a bouquet of Dandelions gathered with love! Palm Sunday palms need to be braided, don't they?My dog's name was Scarlet. The book I was reading is probably still in my library.

Flash Back- childhood drafting

I used to draw like I was some famous draftsman/architect when I was in high school and had more time to play with pencils and paints (one of the many advantages of being a kid is not having the responsibility of making sure 5 people have clean laundry to wear, Ugh! Oh sorry. Was I slipping into a complaining mode?!)

...Back to drawing like a draftsman/architect... I would endlessly draw the outline of our house like a blue print but then I would switch the rooms all around and make up new rooms (a library was always included!) and new windows (always a bay or bow window with a roomy window seat with secret storage underneath) and a new front door (always a grand double front door with wonderful set in windows). Many times there were a ridiculous amount of bedrooms and bathrooms (I could have an imaginary maid to clean anyway, right?) but to fit that many bedrooms and bathrooms into the true outline of the real house it meant sacrificing other rooms like the kitchen or living room -which was not such a smart draftsman/architect strategy. ..thus the endlessly drawn floor plans!!!! Oh, and I forgot to mention that there was often a staircase which lead to nowhere!! I always, always dreamed of a grand staircase- but my own silly unwritten rule was to use the real outline of the real house which was a 1950s ranch house. Here's a testament to just how weird a kid I was= sometimes when I was walking down the hall to my bedroom, I would act out the motions of climbing an imaginary staircase before I would reach the doorway of my real bedroom. I had issues, right?!

As you can see by the photos of my paper tablet pages, I still have the large pad of blueprint drawings I made as a young draftsman/architect. I am surprisingly impressed with my creations *patting myself on the back* as I look back with adult judging eyes. As an adult my love of books and libraries and staircases and window seats and drawing have stuck with me.

But now I'm off to do that laundry for 5 people...but maybe, just maybe I'll walk through my imaginary library room and take the imaginary steps up the grand staircase before I do!!

Some of you new to my blog may not know that I still live in the same ranch house that I have always lived in- my ENTIRE life. My Dad built it in the 1950s and I inherited it after caring for my Mom through her many years of cancer.

This one above took a daring approach as I enlarged the total outline of the original house to allow for so many more made up rooms. I think you can click on this photo to enlarge it so you can have a chuckle at my past teenage dreamer expense, go ahead, I don't mind your chuckles!!

genealogy crazy

That's my Mom- second from left with the big hairbow and white dress. Her sister Jackie is the tall one- first on the left in white dress. I love this photo of her because there are not many photo moments captured with my Mom smiling. Maybe she was just squinting from the sun in her eyes here.(?)

My Mom was a bit of a non-smiler in young photos for some reason. From what I know she had a good childhood, although her Dad was pretty grumpy a lot of the time, from what I am told. He seemed to have been that way after he had survived a bad bout with Black Small Pox back when my Mom's older sister was a baby. There was an outbreak in Lucas County and, among the inflicted, he and only a few others survived it. My Great Grandmother (his mother) came to the house to care for him and never got the sickness. Their house happened to be very near a contagious disease hospital and the story that has been passed down is that "the sick were brought in the front door and the dead were taken out the back door....and there were plenty". He did not go to the "in the front and out the back door" hospital. They had to hang a sign on their house that indicated to the various delivery men, common in those days, that it was a sick house. He was left with deep pock marks and scaring and some apparent nerve damage. Mom said he had a pretty short temper sometimes.


When my Mom was a teenager and was a secretary for the dept of surplus war assets in the 1940s, she would invite Navy sailors- just back to the states- to have lunch or dinner at her house. Mom said her Mother loved having an extra person around the table and always cheerfully added another plate. Her Dad wasn't so happy about it, and thought his daughter was silly bringing home strays! There are many photos of Mom with Navy sailors. Some have names written on the back and some don't. I do not know any of these men. Sometimes I have looked at these snapshots over the years and wondered if I should throw them away. I never have. First of all, my Mom is in them, right? Secondly, they are a part of her genealogy as a young adult and also a piece of history. She is smiling and acting silly like a young happy go lucky girl in the photos= wearing her penny loafers and bobby socks and pleated wool skirts with twin sweater sets and wavy long auburn hair.

My Mom ended up marrying a WWII Navy sailor, my Dad= a Navy Sea Bee who was stationed in Guam. He wasn't one of the strays she brought home. He was a boy who lived on her street and fixed her bicycle for her when it broke.

I knew my Grandpa in his old age and always thought he was kind of quiet. I never really felt all that close to him and being able to carry on an easy going conversation just didn't seem to click for us. He loved gardening and building things, and drawing. I still have some of his white hybrid Iris flowers in my own garden, given to me from his garden in Michigan. The huge showy flowers have been blooming for decades. Here is a weird thing-- there always seems to be a hard rain storm the week that they are in full bloom each year-- and if I do not get them staked up right away when they begin to bloom they're beat down onto the sidewalk.

This is another great old family photo. It is my Mom's sister Jackie, taken in 1928 when my Mom was only a year old. I love the pose and the clothes, don't you?

I am absolutely crazy about genealogy. I wish I had more time to devote to organizing my photos, written memorabilia and such. I will need to live to be 110 to get it all in order. Good thing my two Grandpa's lived to be in their 90's...that gives me some hope to live to 110 doesn't it?

10 memories of springtime from my childhood

(Me among spring bulb flowers in 1965 and then 10 years later in 1975. The first one at home, the second at the park.)

1. Watching the spring bulb flowers emerge from the cold ground and burst into color and fragrance. My very favorites are Hyacinths. (I have been known to detour from my rushed, planned out route inside the grocery store just to swing through the floral dept and breathe in a big fragrant dose of potted brightly colored Hyacinths!)

2. Being able to run outside to play without having to first bundle up in 5 layers of clothing and coats, mittens, hats etc.

3. Seeing adorable baby bunnies and chicks, and other birds. I always wished we could raise baby chicks. Mom said absolutely not-They grow much too quickly. (Now that I'm a Mom, I have allowed my E. to breed her bunnies several years in the spring.)

4. Being able to wear white shoes again. Who can resist a new pair of white patent leather shoes? I think I may have even tried to sneak wearing mine to bed when I got a new pair. I didn't want to take them off. I'm sure they stayed next to the bed so I could open my eyes and see them first thing in the morning!

5. Taking my bike out for a spin up and down the street after it being banished to the garage all winter.

(1970-Me with my oldest nephew at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Michigan for Easter. He seemed like a little brother since only 6 years divided us. By the way, I loved those t-strap suede Hush Puppy shoes!! Big yarn tied in my hair!)

6. Going to Aunt B's and Uncle J's house and Grandma and Grandpa's house each Easter Sunday. They lived on the same street, which was pretty convenient. As a kid it seemed like a long ride in the back seat to get to their town in Michigan from our house in Ohio. The Easter Bunny would include a new stuffed animal in my candy basket and leave it by my bed so I would find it first thing when I woke up. The new animal usually went in the car with me that day. (In the photo above you can see me holding a rabbit. I still have her. Touching the pink velvet inside her ears still reminds me of that Easter's car ride.)

I had fun playing with my cousins and eating too much candy. We had to save room in our tummies because there were always plenty of good things to eat for dinner. Chairs were gathered from all around the house and pressed into service as we squeezed around the huge table .

( my ink and water color paint art)

7. The arrival of the first fat Robin birds in the yard and watching them take things from the dormant garden to fashion their nests.

8. Springtime break from school meant that when we returned to school it would be a more tolerable amount of time until the school year ended!!

9. Warm rain showers and the smell of the dirt after a quick down pour. The air feels so invigorating!! Jumping in puddles up and down the street and searching for the biggest and deepest puddle.

10. I had a great friend named Joan who lived next door. We would sit on the split rail fence that divided our two yards and play hand clapping rhyme games..."Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack..." and others. We even made up lots of them. When it was springtime, there was a Pussy Willow bush by the fence and we would pick off the soft, fuzzy buds in between hand clapping games-- and then get yelled at by her Mom or mine without fail! Here is where you insert an all-knowing Mom voice = "Are you girls picking at that bush??!" It was too tempting. We couldn't help ourselves.
(I just saw a bush for sale in the garden section of the store the other day when my kids were in tow. I shared this story with them and they thoroughly enjoyed hearing about Mommy getting yelled at for acting mischievously!!!!)

Flash Back- paper dolls and lunch boxes

[ 1960's Little Women paper dolls]

I once had a set of these paper dolls. They were played with for many long hours. I made them walk, I made them talk. I changed their little paper outfits thousands of times. Darn, how I hated when the tiny paper tabs tore and you had to repair them with tape. They were never quite the same after being taped but I loved them no less!! I often wished the girls were all posed the same so I could have all outfits work on all girls. The coat that had the cape and hand muff was my favorite, but I think I gave equal rotation to all pieces. I was named for two of the sisters- my first and middle names.
My friends had paper dolls too. We would have great fun playing paper dolls together. Sometimes we would try to make new clothes for them too!
I bought paper dolls for my 2 girls when they were little. They loved playing with them and also felt the same about the tabs tearing off. I even made a carrying box for each of them with doll images cut from magazines and catalogs decoupaged on the outside and a little button/ elastic loop closure and a silky cord handle. They found them a few months ago and the elastic loop was not stretchy anymore. I teased that it meant they were getting old. The girls not the dolls!!!

[1960's Aladdin metal lunch box]

When I was in grade school I had a lunch box identical to this one called Junior Miss. I do think mine was less beat up though. I LOVED this lunch box!!!!!!! I would stare at this girl everyday at the lunch table in the noisy cafeteria and wish I had long BROWN hair and GREEN eyes like hers!!!! I LOVED her hat with all the flowers and vines hanging down. Even to this day, I often doodle flowers and vines like that with colored pencils!!!
Lunch in those days was usually a peanut butter and butter (Oleo) sandwich carefully wrapped by Mom in wax paper and an apple and maybe a cookie. I think my thermos broke early on (remember how the insides of those old thermoses would literally shatter if you dropped them?) so I bought my milk for 3 cents. 3 CENTS!!!!!
When I look at her long brown hair and green eyes under that wonderful hat I am instantly taken back to the sights, sounds and smells of the grade school cafeteria!!!
Surprisingly, I have many, many of my childhood things still. That's what comes of never moving around from house to house. That, and having a SAVER for a Mother. I do not know what happened to either of these things- the paper dolls or lunch box. I would love to have these items once again to hold in my hand and look at. Maybe someday I will again.
(These photos were borrowed from ebay.)

Flash Back- kindergarten delinquent

(me at age 5, 1968)

You've heard, "Everything I ever needed to know I learned in kindergarten"?
When I was in kindergarten I was so excited about the prospect of learning how to cut with scissors with precision [ a skill that would lead me to cutting paper snowflakes to be used for a photo shoot at St. Jude's Hospital 40 years later].
I learned how to share toys willingly with everyone [ I was the baby by 8 years and only girl in my family so my toys were usually MY TOYS!].
And how to pay attention when someone was speaking [ I am my Uncle's helper and I now wait very patiently while he sometimes struggles to get a complete sentence out in a hurry].
There was one day in kindergarten that I learned a lesson that engraved a memory into my brain that remains as fresh today as it was in 1968!!
Near the end of a school day, we were all gathered sitting on the floor, my classmates and I, near the upright piano that was probably out of tune. Miss Payment was playing a song- I don't remember the song- and singing along. We were supposed to be singing along. No doubt it was an educational song. Duh! Of course it wouldn't be a Beatles' song for goodness sake!! Anyway, I was not singing along. Nope. Not I. I was socializing. Or as Miss Payment probably stated= not following directions or interfering with my classmates education or being a kindergarten delinquent!!! Surely if this was not nipped in the bud I would follow aimlessly down a path of destruction in my educational career!!
I was taken out of the mix of vocalizing song birds and marched over to the corner. The CORNER! The DREADED CORNER! Yep. I had seen others marched over to the CORNER. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be a child of 5 years so badly behaved that I would be marched over to the CORNER!!
There I was to remain in solitary confinement for the rest of the class time which was no doubt maybe 15 minutes tops. At least this form of cruel and unusual punishment was lessened with the facts that I was allowed a chair and had already eaten my snack at snack time. But oh the humiliation! The stigma of being labeled " a corner sitter"! The agony and stress of those minutes slowly ticking away as I imagined Miss Payment forgetting ME when it came time to line up all my classmates to walk from our detached kindergarten building to where the buses all sat waiting to take home the kindergarten students and all the big students in the main building. I was sure I would have to stay there on the chair in the CORNER all night alone. I would starve! I would not be able to go potty! I would not see my Mom! But Miss Payment would be sorry when she came in the next morning and found me there suffering!! Wouldn't she??
After much angst I was gratefully given a parole. I was allowed to line up with my classmates and go home on the bus. As I obediently stood in line, red faced and teary eyed I was handed my construction paper art project done that day. A giant toothbrush. The bristles were cut in fringy strips with rounded nose scissors. The conditions of my parole= I was not to socialize during song time again.
"Yes Miss Payment, I promise!!"
I know I never did socialize again during song time. Thank goodness the only teacher that ever had a piano in the classroom in any grade was Miss Payment. That would have proved a hard commitment had all my other teachers done educational sing-a-longs on out of tune pianos!!

But then again there was of course Mrs. Hoover the music teacher. She was about 99 years old and had flab under her arms that would swing to and fro when she would clap the rhythmic patterns to teach us music note timing. She always seemed to wear sleeveless dresses - the kind that have a skinny belt made of the same gaudy fabric as the dress. Maybe her girdle was so tight it forced the fat to squeeze up to her arms!...She had a piano...but that's a story for another time!

Flash Back- more baby boomer TV and theme songs

I suddenly began to wonder how I find myself so attracted to some of these 1950s- early 1960s TV shows. Being a 1963 baby boomer, I am considered on the outside edge of the boomer club. I think the answer lies in the fact that I am the baby in a family of 3 very much older brothers. I grew up hearing about and being influenced by their own experiences with TV, and radio and somehow it must have all translated into my own memories as a transfer effect. I think this is true for the TV shows that I was clearly too young to remember first hand because it happened also with music and record albums. I liked what they liked even at a very young age when my peers (oldest in their sibling line-ups) did not know what I was talking about or listening to.
True, the age of TV Land on cable television soon allowed someone of any age to become familiar with all the grand old shows seen in black and white and the magic of color, but how else could I have loved these shows BEFORE cable reruns. Surely it must be credited to my brothers.
My boy N. asked me once how I knew what color someone was wearing or what color their hair was when everything was in black and white? I never stopped to think before but he was right....I did not in fact know those things until the same TV show was changed to color in subsequent seasons. Still, I think our "black and white" brains just automatically filled it in!!
So I proposed a question to him- "Which episodes do you like better of Bewitched or The Adams Family or The Munsters? The black and white or the color?" He decided that he enjoyed the black and white better, especially for The Adams family and the Munsters.
Here at our house we do not have cable TV or satellite or dish. Not for about 7 years now!! NOPE. Just bunny ears and now a converter box. We do buy movies at garage sales or the local resale shops for 50 cents and we get TV series discs from that mail rental company, N--Fl--.

Leave It To Beaver aired from 1957-1963

No one ever really got punished in the traditional ways. They just discussed things over dinner at a table set with linen cloth and napkins and learned strong moral lessons by the end of each half hour. Homework was always complete and baths and teeth brushing were never ever skipped.
The Donna Reed Show aired from 1958-1966
Perfect family, perfect house and yard and car and job and paycheck. No wondering about when your husband would be home from work when his office was in the home! How in the world could it be comfortable to do housewifey chores ~like scrub behind the toilet~ in a dress and girdle and heels? Well, I guess that's why we never saw Donna do that on any episode!
Lots of lesson learning discussions at another well dressed dinner table on this show too!

H. R Pufnstuf aired from 1969-1971

Jump ahead to a show I do remember watching. Memories that I truly own.

The characters are very silly and endearing. As an adult looking back at the characters and the era during which the show aired, I have to curiously wonder if there were possibly some mind altering drugs going on behind the makings of this show??? Shame on you Amy for even questioning that! So what if it had talking trees and a magic talking flute. Didn't the old classic The Wizard of Oz have talking trees? And after all, the beloved Captain Kangaroo show had a talking Grandfather clock for gosh sakes!!!

Listen to some vintage TV theme songs to spark your own boomer memories!

We have been watching the current TV series The Big Bang Theory each Monday. We enjoy this show about brainy nerds. My A. is a bit of a nerd since she has always been in gifted and talented classes and earns straight A's (which means she couldn't possibly be MY KID!). A. understands and laughs at the complicated theory rants that fly over our heads and past our less developed brains!!! ....anyhoo... the reason for bring up this show is that I realized there are not many current shows that have theme song jingles that stick with us--but this show does. Tonight we were all singing along!!!

a stitch in time

[Here's my favorite nun movie!!! ]

When I was about 12 I was sure I was being called to be a nun. It was not to be. I changed my mind about a week later. I often think back to that time and the circumstances that gave me that feeling.



My great aunt on my dad's side of the family was a beautiful and smart young lady in the first part of the 20th century. I know she was beautiful because of photos I have seen many times of her as a girl and as a young woman. There she was, smiling for the camera, an older sibling of my grandmother. I know she was smart because our family genealogy record includes her college degrees and teaching certification and the list of schools where she taught many ages of children, finally settling in to teach high school students.


She began her own school journey in a one room school house as a little girl and she was to return to a one room school house as a teacher. An old newspaper clipping from a small town in Ohio told me this: The one room school house had many teachers that came to mold the young students' minds but most seemed to leave, many not willing to last a harsh winter season. My great aunt left too but not for the same reason as the rest. She left to take holy orders and enter into the convent. Once when she told the Mother Superior that the farthest West she had ever been was a small town in Ohio named Wapakoneta, she soon after found herself being assigned to a school in Arizona! She would continue her teaching, sharing her knowledge and love of learning with high school students, for many years into her own old age.


As an old woman, she was back in Southern Ohio and when I was 12 we made the drive to see her. I remember being so taken in by it all. The beauty of the church and convent buildings. The huge magical booming echo of the organ music and all the nuns singing familiar hymns. The simple, non materialistic lifestyle of the nuns. She seemed so absolutely happy and fulfilled. I was sure it was the plan for me. I recall my mom wondering what all my hundreds of questions were for on the ride back home to Northern Ohio that weekend.



The infatuation feeling quickly passed. I was to continue my life, observing the many priests and nuns I encountered so often in my Catholic upbringing, with a feeling of quizzical admiration for the people that felt so absolutely sure of the calling. My great aunt's brother also answered the call of the church and became a priest. Ironically (or maybe not so ironically) my aunt-in-law was also a nun. You know those good Catholic families usually have some nuns and priests tucked into the family tree somewhere along the line !



I reread the newspaper article (celebrating her Silver Jubilee) and this time I found a new detail that I had overlooked before. It said that throughout her life she did beautiful embroidery work and was happy with her needlework in her lap when she had the opportunity. Her work was admired for its lovely stitches. Of all the images of her before the convent and after, I think I like that image that I hold in my mind the best. She died at age 85 at the time I was a teenager. She had a long life filled with her calling, teaching, and embroidery!

Flash Back- some boomer TV music

I decided to search out some Baby Boomer TV music, and guess what, I couldn't load ALL the great ones I found. There are TOO MANY! I hope these little snips of songs bring back some happy memories for you. I realize a lot of you read me from Canada or across the ocean and these songs may not produce the same warm fuzziness. Just believe me when I say that just about anyone in the U.S. over the age of 40 will know a lot of these, and will probably have some sort of life experience connected mentally to the songs. I threw in some really old ones (1950-1960s) and some newer (1970-1980s) ones too. You can click through the songs on the player and pick and choose if you want to hear certain snips of the 29 I have on there (29!). Have fun!!!

The Courtship of Eddies Father

(orig. aired 1969-1972)

I always thought it was cool that they had a housekeeper, Mrs Livingston. Do you remember that she always addressed Bill Bixby as "Mr. Eddie's Father"?

As I recall, Eddie and his father often had a deep lesson teaching talk at bedtime after Eddie JUMPED on/into the bed. I was never allowed to jump on my bed!

The Partridge Family

(orig. aired 1970-1974

it followed the Brady bunch on Friday nights for a time)

How cool to have a family that travels around in a groovy bus!! I always thought Laurie Partridge was so pretty and I wanted to be grown up like her. ~I had no sisters. And, well what can you say about David Cassidy? All my friends and I were in love with him and kissed his picture...ok maybe that was just me.

I have this sheet music for sale in my shop. And to answer your question....NO! I did not kiss this picture of him. SWEAR! Cross my heart and hope to die.

Charles In Charge

(orig. aired 1884-1985 and

then 1987-1990 in syndication)

Scott Baio was on Happy Days and then Joanie Loves Chachi before this show. The same person played his mom on all three shows. Chachi's real name was Charles.

Like most shows with a moral at the end of the silliness, Charles, the college student-live in babysitter, never failed to get the children to listen.

Bewitched (orig. aired 1969-1972)

I never failed to be fooled and never questioned how the magic was done when I was very young. I must admit this show was not as fun when I began to dissect the splicing that was required to do the stunts before the computer generated magic we now have. I loved Aunt Clara and her doorknob collection! I was a Dick York (1964-1969) fan myself...

but maybe you where a Dick Sargent (1969-1972) fan.

Gladys Kravitz

Alice Pearce(1964-1966)

played later by Sandra Gould (1966-1971)

Mrs Kravitz had a very enduring husband if not endearing. I mean c'mon, who could put up with her?? Did you know that the outside of the Kravitz house was also the outside of the Partridge Family house?

I have a dear friend ~that I went to school with 1-12 grade~ that coincidentally lives down the street 3 houses from me now. When we want to check up on neighborhood gossip we call each other on the phone, "Hello Gladys? This is Samantha. Got anything?" We take turns playing the part of Gladys!

Flash Back- What? No Santa?!

I came across these great retro images in one of my vintage recipe pamphlets and it made some old Christmas memories start to bubble up in my mind.

You see, my Mom always made the Christmas season seem so effortless. I mean the whole thing...from decorating, to inviting everyone for Christmas Eve, to celebrating my oldest brother's birthday on Christmas day, to all the cooking and baking and present wrapping and well- you name it- she seemed to be all pulled together.

I must admit there were many times in other months of the year she seemed much less than together!! Why did the end of the year festivities seem so smooth running? I wish she were here so I could compare notes with her, now that I am the wife/Mom in charge of it all.

Time is running out again this year for me to get it all pulled together and try to look somewhat organized, enthused, and timely.

This is a flash back to the Christmas I found out there was no Santa.

Actually that would have been much less of a shock and disappointment if I had just FOUND OUT on my own.

I'm afraid I was TOLD there was no Santa. Yep! My brother, the youngest of my 3 older brothers (I have no sisters and I am the baby by many years difference!) decided that it was his duty -and his thrill- to tell me point blank...and on Christmas Eve!

(1970- Grandma with my cat Pepper and her kitten. Grandma always loved playing with the cats.)

We did all our Christmas stuff on the 24th since the 25th is my brother's birthday.

Every year our Christmas activities went like this: Mom would have just about every inch of the house decorated and on Christmas Eve have the ham dinner with all the goodies that go along with it all ready. There were always assorted Christmas cookies -home made of course- and hard candies set out. There were already some wrapped gifts under the tree from Mom and Dad .

Grandma and Grandpa (Dad's parents) always came for Christmas Eve. I would anxiously wait for them both to come in the back door- one carrying the fruited Jell-O mold and the other carrying the aluminum cover cake box that safely transported home made German Chocolate cake with the thick, sweet coconut frosting.

While Mom and Grandma finished up the last minute dinner preparations in the kitchen, I was kept in the bedroom with my brothers. We would be wrapping a gift for Mom or some other set up activity to keep me from the "action areas" of the house. This was when Santa would visit our house!! Grandma would come and open the bedroom door in breathless excitement and announce that Santa was just here and left some gifts, "He couldn't stay because he had to hurry along, but he did ask for a quick drink and a few potato chips (potato chips? I guess he gets tired of having to eat all those cookies!) as he rushed out the door!!"

Then I would have to wait until after dinner to open everything. The next morning there was usually a small gift or two that Santa apparently found with my name on them in the bottom of his sleigh as during the night he circled the world on his route. So Santa always came TWICE to my house!!

One year, I guess the little devil sitting on my brother's shoulder got the better of him and he just couldn't resist spoiling the magical fantasy for me. That was the year he took his opportunity and ran with it.

There we were in the bedroom doing the set up activity while Mom and Grandma supposedly finished with the dinner prep. My meany brother told me, " Grandma is going to tell you that Santa just came and he had a snack too, after he left the gifts. The reason you always miss Santa is that there is NO Santa! You're SO DUMB! It's just Mom making it all up."

NO, I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!

NO, I WOULDN'T BELIEVE IT!

Then Grandma came to the door..." (breathlessly) "Amy, you just missed Santa! He left some gifts and said he was sorry he couldn't stay. He was hungry so I gave him some egg nog and a handful of chips! I called for you to come out of the bedroom, but you must not have heard me."

My heart sank. I decided that I couldn't let on that my meany brother had just wrecked Christmas, not just for that year but every year forever until the end of the WORLD!! That's how dramatic it was!

I wanted to be a tattle tale, but then I couldn't try to pretend for Mom and Grandma's sake and most of all- FOR MINE- that everything was right with the world. I wanted to have that anticipation all through dinner wondering what SANTA had brought to me inside that Christmas wrapping. I wanted to wake in the early morning hour and find a tiny gift or two under the tree with my name on them that during his first visit slipped under the seat of the overworked sleigh with a zillion sky miles on it!!

I don't know?! Maybe the egg nog and chips should have been a tip off for me. Honestly, who would want egg nog and chips together as a quick snack??!

I hope your Christmas is filled with a little bit of magic and fantasy this year.

And remember, when Santa comes to your house and is hungry, go ahead and offer him some chips. He gets entirely too many cookies.

And maybe he needs a good stiff drink...it's ok, after all, Rudolf is his designated driver!!

In a previous post, you can see a picture of me as a child at Christmas and also my daughter wearing that same dress at Christmas .

Flash Back- really old TVs

Are you tired of the commercials and crawls along the bottom of your TV screen about The Big Switch happening in Feb to digital TV broadcast? Well take a break from the modern technology madness and lets visit a time when rabbit ears on the top of the TV was super high tech!!

This is a photo of me in front of a very modern TV, indeed!!

The post that includes this photo and a great vintage TV ad can be viewed by clicking here.

I have another photo of a different TV that came to live with us in our home after this one for many, many happy years of viewing-- everything from Bozo The Clown to the day that we all watched the first man step onto the moon to M*A*S*H!!

Taken Christmas Eve in the 1970s, that photo shows me in front of the huge console TV sitting on the floor, and I was playing the violin for the family.

First of all, we all know you don't sit on the floor to play a concert quality performance-duh!

Second of all, I can't find the photo right this minute so you will just have to wait.

I know you will feel disappointment and probably some stress over the wait. I apologize.

Recently my brother came to my house to take this TV to his house for display and keeping. I suddenly realized, as it was out in the driveway waiting to be loaded for the transport, that I should take some snaps of it. The kids laughed, "Look at mom taking pictures of the TV, silly Mom!"
Many years ago when Grandpa went to assisted living (he lived to almost 100!) , our grandparent's (Dad's side of the family) home was closed. I became the caretaker of this so it would not end up in a stranger's home from the estate sale. I never had a perfect place to display it.
In the meantime my oldest brother, who will be 60 on Christmas day, built a giant log home along the historical Maumee River which he has filled with tons of vintage items. Lots of the treasures that fill it are family items, some are from here or there locally and from his travels. I love the cozy, everyday life feel of the collections that accent every floor of the 3 story log home and the 2 floors of wrap around porches. My dad, on the other hand, thinks it is only clutter, and he is not afraid to say so! "Who has a croquet set in their breakfast room?", asks my dad.
I think it is super cool. It is the family set of old wooden mallets and balls, with wickets in the original rack that has been played with by generations of our family.
Also on display is the cabinet maker's tool set in a very impressive wooden tiered tool box that belonged to our great grandpa (Mom's side of the family)-- He was told he needed to get a respectable job to marry my great grandma in 1903. He had been a trapeze artist with the Ringling Bros Circus. You can read about it here.

Anyway, My brother remembers watching TV

on this TV at our grandparent's house when he was a little boy.

My childhood memories of the TV are that it was always downstairs in their finished basement and was a different source of entertainment for me. I liked to open the doors over and over- the record player was just like the action of a pop up book and the other doors revealed things behind them like a lift the flaps picture book. I'm sure I was yelled at for doing that (the times I was caught, anyway!) On top sat a big snow globe with a dog inside of it (the RCA Victor  his Master's Voice dog) and a TV light that was a pair of horses side by side like a silhouette.

(Do you remember TV lights? They were novelty lights with low wattage bulbs.)

One of my brothers took the light and I don't know who got the snow globe.

You can see another fun vintage TV ad
I posted a while ago by clicking here.


These are original records from our grandparent's house, 78, 33 and 45 speed. The green book standing upright is a collection of 78 speed jazz records. Even the original receipts and warranties are still keep inside this area of the cabinet too!

I forgot to mention that in the photo above that shows the record player, one of the records on the turntable is a 45 speed record for training your Canary!

The paper is still on the back. I don't think it explains how to hook up cable vision, satellite dish, VCR, DVD, Blue Ray, high definition or digital compatibility!!

These are some of the things I also sent to my brothers house.
A 45 year old doll buggy, a mallard weather vane, a brass fireplace screen (he has several fireplaces)...
...a pottery Indian style lamp, Indian drum, mantel clock, brass and wrought iron wall brackets, a chrome leg chair that belongs to the enamel top table he already has that belonged to our grandparents, 2 willow branch mini chairs, wood and metal Bissel Sweeper made in Grand Rapids MI., and an RCA Victor radio/record player. ( the gas grill with rusty LP tank in the background was a sorry mistake in the aesthetics of this photo!

(this RCA VICTOR record player is a far cry from the modern ipod that everyone now takes for granted!)

All of these things will be a part of his home, which is a lesson in the history of how we have lived over the generations. My kids love to go to their uncle's house. They call it the museum! It is a kind of game to find new things or the placement of things we have given to him.
It is like a never ending I Spy Game!!