October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

One in four women suffer some form of Domestic Violence.  Look at your loved ones.  If it is you, tell someone.  Nearly every town has a Domestic Violence Hot line.   Love doesn't hurt.  Love doesn't make you cry.

 I was able to escape a 9 year violent relationship and marriage, solely to protect oldest daughter when she was 2 years old. I didn't realize I was worth saving too.   For me,coming to terms with physical violence was faster than getting past the verbal abuse.   It's all possible with support. 

 Don't give up on your mother, daughter, sister, friend.  Everyone has their own limit.  Some never find the inner strength.  They need you even more.

Happy Birthday to My Sister (YFS)

July 3rd is my sister's birthday.  I have discovered, from looking through photo albums, that we were photographed together a lot.  She is younger than me and she is also skinnier than me, but she's not more fun than me.  She doesn't show her mischievous side very often but I love when that happens. 

I had once, actually it was twice, (two years in a row) sent anniversary flowers to my parents with the card signed "Your Favorite Daughter".  Both times my mother guessed wrong.  It was funny.  I had hoped to get a laugh from it and I did.  Mom did not.  So now, my sister and I sign everything YFS, Your Favorite Sister.  It has taken on a life of it's own.  She's YFA to my daughters, etc

We are very much alike and very much different.


 Here we are very much alike with Farrah hair.
I'm over there, to the right.    (Sisters should not let sisters go out in public in blue eyeshadow.)



I also have a July Birthday so we will have to
celebrate long distance. 

Save me a seat on the pontoon and I want a G & T, double lime please.

Random Thoughts

Once again these are the things that happen that make me go "hmmmmm?"

1.  On Memorial day Terry switched the TV over to catch the end of the Indy car race.  I was anxious to see  to see how the drivers that I knew,  were doing.  I always check the girl power Danica Patrick.  I then have to see where "Dancing With the Stars "winner  and three time Indy 500 winner, Helio Castroneves  is running.  Then there is last year's winner and Ashley Judd's husband, Dario Franchitti.  All of that went out the window when I saw this:

Then in searching Google ( Thank you Google) for a photo of this, I found this:

Dollar General also has a Nascar sponsorship.  How many off brand batteries do they need to sell to make the $$ these sponsorships cost?  I'm not against it.  I just had not thought of them being in the Tide or Penzoil caliber. 

2.  Another random thought is the "Hooters restaurant in my neighboring town closed. Businesses come and go in this economy but keep in mind, that "Hooters" is about 14 miles from a Marine base that is home to approximately 7,500 active Marines.  If they can't make a go of a "Hooters" here, there is no hope for the rest of them.

3.  I mailed 3 paperback books to my sister last week.  They were wrapped in paper and taped with packing tape,  like the Hope Diamond was in there. (It was sent to the Smithsonian via  Postal mail on Nov. 8, 1958.)  It was also stamped "Media".  

I get my books by hunting garage sales and flea markets and then take them to the resale book store to trade for the ones I really want.  So, I have very little money involved in them.  I then read and pass along the good ones to my sister or my daughters. 

Yesterday my sister called me and said, " I just got something in the mail you sent me."  "Yes you did.", I was happy to confirm.  But then she explained all she got was the wrapper stuck in a plastic bag with a note from the post office saying it arrived in her town like this and that sometimes things happen.  No......"things" don't just happen.  I've gotten a magazine with the cover torn. Ok. , I've also gotten mail wrinkled like it went through the conveyor belt. That packing tape is strong stuff.

 So, someone got some good summer reading.  Now I am on the hunt for those books again. Wish me luck.

Have you run into anything that has made you go "Hmmmmm?"

The Little Blue Dress That Wouldn't Quit

I know this is a bit corny but maybe, if you're a Mom you will think it is "too cute" as well.

I bought this little Health Tex dress at Sears, as a single Mom, so very proud of her daughter starting Kindergarten in 1980.   5 years later, the "hand me ups" not downs, get passed on to my sister for her daughter.  We did not plan that she would wear that little blue dress for her first day of school, but she did.

By the time I learned my niece wore it, I had remarried and had two more daughters.  Their apparel future was then written.  I knew that dress was destined for greatness.  I know it did not shrink up.... these kindergarten girls were growing taller.

Daughter # 1, niece in the middle, back row is Daughter # 2 and in front of the fence, Daughter #3


After my younger daughter wore it, in 1991,  that dress was retired, to hang in the back of her closet. It hung there until 2009, when my niece's daughter started kindergarten. My sister drove it from Michigan to Nashville the summer before, to make sure she had it.  By then not even tights could cover the fact that it was too mini and it was missing it's belt.   It was with a sad heart ( OK, not her mother's who was not sold on this idea) that the dress missed it's first First Day of School in our family.  * Correction:  My sister just emailed me that her granddaughter, this little cutie, wears a unifrom to school so that's the reason the little blue dress didn't make it to school on her First Day.

It was 29 years old on it's last photo Op.  It's been to every young woman's graduation Open House hanging proudly by the usual display of childhood photos and the punch bowl.   Now it's time to retire.

I did send Health Tex an email about the little blue dress.  They didn't write back.  I guess they don't care about the life of just one little dress from their tons of children's clothing sold during those years.  You would think they would be proud of such an accomplishment.  Every time we saw it march out the door, we were.

So Many Books, Too Little Time

Being an voracious reader, I have devoured an enormous number of books in my life.  I don't hesitate to say, in the thousands.  For most of my adult life, aside from the first year after babies were born, when you have to  figure out how to bathe to go to the bathroom with the little darlings, I have averaged about 2 books a week.

My earliest book memories are reading Trixie Belden (girl detective)  novels at about 10 or 11.   My sister, (3 years younger) says I never climbed trees or played outside with her because I was always reading.  I broke my leg at 11 while riding my blue Schwinn bike.  I was in a hip to toe cast for 3 months.  Books were my companion.  I limped for some time, which reminds me,  we moved  during that time and some classmates thought I was recovering from polio.  That was early 1960s so it was on everyone's mind.  We would line up in school, for the sugar cube with the polio vaccine on it.  Was permission from the parents even requested?  I somehow don't think so.   I think they just did it. 

During that move, we lived with friends of my parents while they were involved in the move.  It was at their house that I found Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and  Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk.  I was 11.  What was I doing reading Herman Wouk?   I'm not sure which came first, the books or the broken leg but after that I was a reader.

It's difficult to pen down a favorite or even a top ten list of my own.  They tend to change when I find a new one or I forget a good one.  Always in there though, is Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby, and  East of Eden.  I would also choose The Thorn Birds, Gone With The Wind, and one I found this past winter, by Kate Morton,  The Forgotten Garden.

Surprising to me too, is that I have not joined the electronic book market.  I've not tried it, so I can't say I don't like it, but I think I wouldn't.  I like the feel of a book in my hands but I can see that those huge ones would be much easier to read on a Kindle or a Nook type thing.  I'm not so much a Stephan King fan anymore... say not for the last 15 years really, but his "The Dome" sounds interesting.  I even bought the paperback version and turned it in to my resale book shop.  The thing has to be 3 inches thick, looks like a textbook and weighs a ton.  So I guess I'll never know about that one.

All kinds of subjects interest me.  I will hit the best sellers, the top 10 lists, Oprah's books, biographies and non-ficiton.  I separate autobiographies/biographies from non-fiction because I have read some that I am sure took artistic license.  Then again, some of those tales, you can't make up.  I saw Meredith Baxter on Oprah yesterday and she broke my heart.  While she was filming "Family Ties" , looking like the perfect Mom, she was living in an abusive home.  Her on screen husband, Michael Gross was there too, along with 3 of her children,  so I tend  to believe this one.  I'm on the hunt for "  Untied: a Memoir of Family, Fame and Floundering".   I also collect First Lady Biographies and Autobiographies.

I always travel with a book in the car, to any appointments, on vacations, and to events.  When my daughters were little, they didn't have nap time, they had "Quiet Time".  They had to stay on their beds but they could look at books if they weren't tired.  They are all readers.  My grandsons sneak flashlights under their covers at night to read.  Their Mom says for that, there is no way they will get in trouble.  Their other grandma pays for baskets.touchdowns and home runs.  This Nana pays for books read and  every few months, I send them new flashlights.

What Would She Think Today?

Meet Evelena Dixie Giles Taylor.  She was my mother's Grandmother, Mimi.  She was born in Waverly, Tn. in 1869.   I barely remember her.  She was very elderly and blind from cateracts when I was a small child, about 6 or 7.   I remember Mimi sitting in a rocking chair.  I also remember she loved fried chicken and could strip a neck bone in minutes. Her choice folks.  I think that "eat the whole bird" thing came from being through the depression and from living in a time of growing and raising your own food.  Those were hard times.  She lived with my Mother's family, in Kennett, Missouri,  as long as my mother could remember.  They shared a bedroom from the time my mother was a young girl until she left home as a married lady of 18.   Can you imagine sharing a room with your grandmother?  I can't.

 Evelena was 92 when she passed away.  Only recently my sister found these pictures of her.  My mother passed away about 4 years ago.  She was an avid genealogist but for all of her hunting she failed to share the pictures closest to us.  I think her quest led her to her own past and she didn't give much thought to the people she knew, that maybe we didn't.

This is Mimi with her children.  My Grandfather is the little guy in front.  He was born in 1900 so she was 31 when he arrived.  This would make her about 37-38 here. 

This is more how I remember her. Always in a long sleeved cotton dresses, even in the heat of those hot Missouri summers.

I wonder what she would be thinking about life today and if she would think the days gone by were "the good ole days"?  I think they were pretty hard.  My Mother-in-law always said "there was nothing good about the old days".  That young woman with the umbrella looks like she doesn't have a worry and the elderly lady at the bottom looks like she has been through a lot.

Today, my sister is called Mimi by her 2 grandchildren.  One of them is Evely.  I think the first Mimi would have liked that.

What Fragrance Were You Wearing?

Like music, certain smells can transport you through time as well.
 
Certain fragrances, for me, conjure up pajama parties, football heroes, dances, first jobs, and other wondrous moments in my history.  I'm sure the mention of a name or brand can do the same for most of us.

My first "had to have" was Ambush cologne by Dana, in the bright pink bottle.  Most of the time I had to settle for the Avon fragrances of "Unforgettable" or  "Sweet Honesty".   Those just did not capture the "It factor" of Ambush's jasmine, bergamot and patchouli tones.   My mother wore Topaz and Occur by Avon.

 Ambush's sister fragrance was Tabu.  Only one person I knew wore that.  My favorite checker at the IGA.  Tabu was full of exotic tones that could easily enter a room before you.  You had to be a brave woman to carry it off,  so myself and my young friends stayed far away.. 

Dana also had marketed to young men with Canoe After Shave.  I see Princeton haircuts, clean cut faces and can almost inhale the citrus freshness of this cologne.  Shortly after the Canoe phase came another hit for Dana .  British Sterling.  Everything and anything British was "mod".  This had to be about the mid to late 1960s. 

To the aroma of citrus, add amber to get British Sterling..  My father received some as a gift, back in the day, and I am sure there is still a bottle in his bathroom. He's continued to wear it through the ages.  Also, about this time came Brut, Jade East,  English Leather, and High Karate. 

My sister was wearing Faberge's Tigress at this time.  It was a spicy, musky scent that really contrasted to her other favorite, Houbigant's Chantilly.    Their website says it is composed on sandalwood, moss and orange blossoms.  All I remember from that fragrance is the cloud of powder coming out from the the bathroom door after my sister took a bath.  It is exceedingly difficult to find dusting powder today.  I've looked.  You really felt pampered with that puff flying.

Mixed in there as well, were Coty's Emeraude and Windsong.  Guirlan had Shalimar.  White Shoulders and Heaven Scent floated in the halls around you.

What surprises me most was the fact that these were old, well established ,colognes long before we discovered them. The manufacturer Dana had been around since the 1930s.  Coty's Emeraude from the 20s. I had thought they were marketed and developed for that time.  Talk about the  "It's all about me" mindset of teenagers.   All of them were sold on drug store shelves.  That was what we could afford and the marketing for them had to have been great.

Through the years I have worn some winners and some losers.  I have tried Vanderbilt, Cher, Giorgio, Ciara, and Charlie.  I was hunting for something that would be right for me.  I got bored with each one after one bottle.  Then I discovered "Beautiful" by Estee Lauder.  I've worn it from the beginning.  I never get tired of it.   I may try something else in addition, but that is my fragrance of choice. And that is my fragrance journey.  Where did yours start?

1950's Music

From the time I discovered Elvis, I have loved music. I don't remember a constant stream of music coming from my memories of the 50's accept for my love of Elvis.  My father hated Elvis so I don't know how I was aware of him enough to be mesmerized by his music at 6 years old. 

My father had the musical gleam of stardom in his eye, but it was for country music. He  tells the tale of me being held in the arms of steel guitar's most influential artist, Jerry Byrd, at the Ryman Auditorium, when I was a baby.  So, the music I would have been most exposed to was country.  I do know, that in the 1960's, I would come home from school to the tunes of Johnny Cash, Don Gibson and Marty Robbins, on  "The Buick Factory Whistle" radio show while my father was getting ready to go to work.  I don't remember music being a part of my household then like my daughters remember theirs.

I discovered 1950's rock n roll in the early 60's because my father's parents owned honkytonks and diners in Missouri and Arkansas.  Until I lived in the Carolinas, I thought that ws "the south".  My grandmother was 90 pounds, maybe, and 5 foot nothing but my grandfather was large man ready to get between any would be fighters.  I have few memories of going into the Palmerhouse honkytonk with her in the morning  so she could get ready for that night's business.  There were games sitting around that all took quarters to keep the night's guests busy while they spent their money on booze and burgers.  There was a shuffle board, a hand gripped strength detector,and  a bowling machine. Easily, the most amazing  was the brightly lighted jukebox that took red quarters.  The jukebox serviceman would give my grandmother quarters painted with red fingernail polish that she could used to start the patrons feeding it themselves.  When he came in to change the 45 rpm records, he would give her back the red quarters.  Those are the ones I got to use.  Remember,  I was still 6 or 7 years old.  I loved those quarters. He also gave her the old records that he had replaced with current ones.  In the early 60's, she gave me those records and I continued to received them from various diners for a few more years.

I kept them for decades and gave them to my sister just a few years ago for a party of her own. I haven't thought about them in a long time.  I hope she still has them.  They were played with love at many parties of a twelve year old and many pajama parties of a certain 15/16 year old.   Old "Sun Record" labels from Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis slamming his " Great Balls of Fire".  Little Richard and Chuck Berry belting out "Long Tall Sally" and "Johnny B. Goode".  I also discovered the slow dancing, romantic sounds of Sam Cooke, The Platters, Brook Benton and Paul Anka.

I also discovered Doo Wop from these records, which is the sound of blended voices,  usually acappella, like "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers or The Coaster's "Poison Ivy"  Dion and the Belmonts, The Del-Vikings, the Coasters, no doubt, had great influence on many musicians that followed.  But, more importantly to this young girl of the 50's, I heard them, loved them and couldn't wait to hear more. In the meantime, Berry Gordy had just founded Motown Records in Detroit.