Vacation -

Well, it's not really a vacation, but I am going to be away for a week or ten days, or so. So, don't rexpect to see any new blogs during that time. I will try to have some new ones lined up for when I get back.

Talk to you in a few days.

Beth

First Storm

Wow!! I didn't relize how long it has been since I have visited with you. I'm surprised. I was sitting here this morning thinking that I should write something again, but what? Then within a few minutes, I got hit with several ideas. I am going to mention them, just so I can have my own reminders to come back to. I thought about our Stotm ( the westher); Family history; = = = =
So, I guess I'll start off with the most current - the Storm. Sorry, already I forgot what the others were.

We have had several years of below normal rainfall, and it shows it. Crops are struggling, lawns are suffering, and just all over lack of rainfall. The fields, and natural areas are not as grassy and green as they usually are. This month we have had some unseasomably high temperatures - not really hot, but just higher than usual. Then this week, and yesterday in particular, the westher tried to make up for lost time. I had not turned my TV on for a week (this is my way of fasting) so I had missed the weather reports building up to this. But Sunday night when I turned it on. they were showing the forecast for this week, with the storm hitting Tuesday. We were supposed to have at least 2 inches of rain, with winds in the 30 - 40 mile level, with gusts up to 60 or 70 miles. We were warned to be prepared for power failures, and all kinds of unseasonable things happening. I don't think it turned out quite as bad as forecast, but it was quite a storm. This morning's paper said almost two inches of rain, and winds in excess of 30 miles an hour. We had lots of power outages in the area, mostly due to fallen branches, or trees, or limbs getting caught up in the power lines. Here at the facility where I live, we were without power from ll:35 am until 10.45 pm. The way my room is arranged, my back is to the window, so unless there is a lot of noise with the storm, I don't really realize what is going on outside. I know everytime I looked outside, the water was pouring off the roof of the building next door, and I could see that the treees were blowing quite a bit. Storms of this kind do not usually hit here this early in the season, so the trees are still full of leaves, making the winds much more damaging. The leaf covered branches hold back the wind more, causing more force on the trees, hence more broken limbs and touching of the power lines to branches. I'm not sure what caused our outage, but it could have been a number of things. Very annoying, to say the least. Even our emergeny lights, which are battery powered and go on automatically when the power goes off, were off because their batteries went dead. Because we had no power, our electric dishwasher did not work, and the dishes had to be washed by hand. Every meal is served in two siittings here, so the first sitting for lunch had already been served when the power failed. So, the second sitting got their lunch on plastic plates. Second sitting for dinner is usually 5 pm. but because there was no auxiliary lighting in the dining room, they fed us at 4:15 pm. We had tuna/noodle cassarole and peas, with pineapple for desert. Our beverages were served in styro-foam cups, dinner on plastic (throw away) plates, plastic forks & spoons. Surprising how much the cloudy skies cut down the light in the dining room. They have gas stoves, so at least they were able to serve hot food.

I fell asleep about 8 pm for a little while, and when I woke up, I could not go back to sleep, so I got up and went down to the dining room where the staff were gathered around a table, with a battery operated lantern. I was trying to read. It's amazing when I think that until I was in college, all we had to read by in our house was small kerosene lights. Mom, my brother and I would all sit around the dining room table so we kids could do our homework while Mom sewed or read. Dad always had his own table, chair and lamp. My, how times have changed!!

Well, I think that about covers the storm, so I'm going to call it quits. I'll write more later, and maybe by that time I will have thought of what the other things were I wanted to remember.

Bye for now,

Lemonade

I just came back from having my dinner, and while I was eating, I don't know why, but I thought about my aunt & uncle's house, and decided to write a little about it. I don't think I have told too many of my family about this, and I know I have never written anything about it, but I think it is worth noting. And I know, now, what made me think about it. That's almost a story in itself, but I'm going to take time to tell it. When we have seafood of any kind for dinner, we usually get a slice of two or fresh lemon. And one of the ladies who used to sit at my table would make lemonade out of her slice, so I started doing it too. Works great. We always have a four ounce glass of ice water at our setting, so I take the slice of lemon, squeeze it into the water, add a package of artificial sweetner, and Voila! Lemonade. It's good, too. But it made me remember when my aunt & uncle first built their house in 1945. I'm not sure, but I think they put electricity in the house as it was built. Their old house did not have electricity, it was built before the turn of the century. Anyway, Aunt Mable would make up a bunch of lemonade syrup - maybe a quart or more. This was just lemon juice and sugar. She would boil them together and have a nice thick lemon syrup. Just pour about 1/4 Cup of this in a large glass, add some ice and fill with water, and you had lemonade. The rest of the syrup was kept in the refrigerator for future use. So, thinking about this made me think about the rest of their house. I don't know just who designed the house, but I don't think they had an architect, a surveyor, or anything else like that, for reasons you will know as I go along. It was a three bedroom house, but it had only one bathroom. A second bath was unheard of in those days. But, the bathroom was distictive in that it was actually two rooms. The first room had the toilet and wash basin. Go through another door, and there was the bathtub. There was no shower, just the tub. But by having it in a seperate room, while one person was taking a leisurely bath, another could be using the toilet or washing their hands. It was a real neat idea. The house had a basement under the dining room and kitchen and back porch. In one corner of the kitchen, there was a "cooler" cupboard. It looked just like an ordinary cupboard, except it had no bottom to it , or any top. It just had a screen or slat floor. And all the shelves were made of slats. This allowed the cool air from the basement (cellar) to rise through this cupboard on into the attic, and this is where the butter, shortening, jams & jellies and anything else that really needed to be cooler, but did not actually need to be kept in the refrigerator stayed. Neat! In the dining room, which was designed to seat about 12 people because they always fed their harvest crews, there was a door directly to the outside. Also, on the West end, next to the kitchen, there was a built in china cabinet. Well, I guess actually you might not call it "built in" because Dad built it apart from the house, and then moved it into place, and guess what? The house was not square! See what I mean about no architect, designer, etc. Someone had screwed up and the whole house was just a little off square, so anything prebuilt would not fit. But it all worked out. In the East end of the dining room, there was a large window, and across the top of the window was a half moon shaped window which had come out of the main entrance to the old Pierce Christian College (High School) in College City. This house was built in 1945, and a lot of the lumber used in the house, and I guess some of the other things, like windows , came from this old school. I don't know if Dad tore the whole college down, but I can remember, and I would have been about 13-14 years, going with him and sitting there, knocking the square nails out of the boards as he took them off the school. I wish I had some of those nails now. You don't see square nails very often any more. Anysay, in the back porch of the house, one of the windows was a pane from a window in the science lab of the old college. There were about 7 or 8 names etched into this glass with acid. I think they were the names of the students from one of the classes. I keep speaking in the past tense, but I hope these are still there. I haven't been by the house in several years, and I have not actually been to the house since my Aunt passed away in 1971. I have no idea who is living there now, maybe one of the great grandchildren ( I hope).

In my last post I mentioned we would be attending the memorial service for a member of the family who had met a tragic death. Oh, please, if there is any way possible, keep in touch with the members of your family. I mentioned in my post that this young man was in his 30's and left small children. Shoot, he was 40, and his children are at least in their teens now. How times do pass. I think that I mentioned that I have lost most of my contact with the family, especially since I established my relationship with another mate. But it was good to see them again, I just didn't relize how people can change in 15 or 20 years. One of the "kids" I still think of as a teen-ager, is soon to be a grandfather. Wow!! There are plans in the wind now for a huge family reunion next fall, and I sure hope it materialzes.

Guess this is a good place to stop - when I get wound up, I could go on and on, but I'll keep some for next time.

See ya -

Good Day!!

Well, hello! Have you missed me? Sorry I've been away from my blog, but I was all geared up to write a blog about something special that was supposed to happen, and then when it did'nt happen, I kinda went flat. But, that's behind me now. Have you ever had one of those days when nothing, absolutely nothing, went right all day? Of course you have. Haven't we all? Well, how about a day when EVERYTHING went RIGHT? Have you had many of those days? I think today was about as close to that as I have had in a very long time. Isn't it good to hear me say that? I have so many "I feel sorry for me" days, that to have as good a day as I've had today, makes me feel blessed.

What am I so up about? Well, several things. One, I am considering a major change in my life (details not available yet) and I got some supporting information along that line. Two, I have been trying for several months to get in touch with some of my late husband's family, and I finally did, and three, I went to the LDS church for some help in trying to get onto a message board like I used to, to contact someone who is tracing my family history. And low and behold, with their help, I found the contacts I had made several years ago - I think it was 2005. So, now, I hope that person is still following the board, and will see my new infomation.

I referred to my "late husband" - of course, that is my ex-husband. If you didn't already know, we were seperated twenty years before his death this spring. In the future, he will be referred to simply as HRR. Sorry, girls, I hope you don't mind my doing this, but it is something I have done in my letters, etc., for several years. Anyway, most of his family live(d) in Whitman County (near Spokane, WN) and we had lost contact with most of them since HRR's mother passed away in the late 1970's and we seperated. So, I decided to try to find some of them. I know that one cousin is still farming the old home place near Rosalia, WN, so he was the one I first tried to locate. That was at least six months ago. Then when HRR passed, I wrote him again, and still had not received any return. When I got home from town today, there was a nice letter from him. I was as excited as a kid with a new toy. I have been trying to locate the sons of another of the family, and have not heard from them. Now, I have hope that they will still write.

While I was in town, I stopped in at the Family Research Center at the LDS (Mormon) church. They have about half dozen or more, computers, and they will help you locate your family history. They charge you a whole 5 cents per sheet to print out whatever you wish. The lady was so nice, and she helped me find some of HRRs family (on his Mother's side) - for instance we found the l920 census, which listed all the kids living at home - I think that is 7. Of course, the four older brothers were not listed, because they were all living out of the house. But that was exciting. And, she helped me find a message board for my father. On it I found the contacts I had made four or five years ago with a man in Quebec, Canada. I sent him another message, and asked him to contact me directly. We'll see what happens with that.

See what I mean - things just seemed to be going my way today. It's about time!!

Tomorrow will not be as exciting. About 1 1/2 weeks ago, one of HRR's cousin's sons died a very tragic death. His memorial will be tomorrow morning. When someone in their 30's dies, for whatever reason, it is never a happy occasion, especially when they leave a spouse, parents, and small children. But, unfortunately, those things do happen, and the rest of us must go on with our lives.

Even though my plans for the weekend did not materialize, I can give you some of the highlights of what was supposed to have happened. At our church, we have two teams of Pastors, both husband and wife teams. Our senior pastor is Pastor Fred, and his wife is Pastor Cindy. Well, Cindy is very talented. I always thought I was a pretty good pianist, but I don't hold a candle to her. She is something very special. And she sings. Saturday night was a special program at which she was to release her new CD. I think this is either four or five CD's she has made. I haven't asked, and I can't figure out if they are available on the market. There are no names on the label to give any hint, but she does have her own website, and she gave a "sneak" preview of this new CD on MySpace. Her address on MySpace (in case you are interested) is myspace.com/cindibenzel. I think her web address is on there. Just thought you might be interested.

Not much else to talk about right now, but keep checking - I plan on getting into the history of some of my family in the not too distant future. But for now, I think that's it.

I did it again!!

Man, I did it again. In my last post I was griping about the errors in my work that got past me, and there I found two or three more. I give up!! If, when you read me, I don't make sense, just guess at it! You probably won't be too far wrong.

Yesterday, I received an email from my granddaughter. I think it is just priceless, and it goes right along with the school situation I have been complaining about - you know, the things teachers are required to do, or not allowed to do, due to some state or federal regulation. Well, anyway, that's what I started out to do, but I guess I did get a little sidetracked on some of it.
Anyway, this came as a forwarded email. It had already been forwarded two or three times, to a whole bunch of people each time, and there was no originator's name attached, so I guess I am legal in putting it here. I think it is so true! and so priceless.


After being interviewed by the school administration, the prospective teacher said:

Let me see if I've got this right.
You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their distruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their "T"-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.
You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and secually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self-esteem and personal pride.
You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job.
You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure that they all pass the final exams.
You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English, Spanish, or any other language, by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card.
You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletin board, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps.

You want me to do all this, and then you tell me . . . .I CAN'T PRAY?

Thank God for teachers who ARE still willing to try to do all these things.

And, on the outside back cover of this month's Country magazine, I read "IT ISN'T WHAT GOES INTO YOUR MOUTH THAT HURTS YOU -- IT'S WHAT COMES OUT OF IT."

This is kind of another "pet Peeve", only this time I am the "peevee" (is there such a word?) I sometimes get so irritated at myself. All my life I have been very good at "English" - spelling, grammar, conversation, and composition. I am not an analytical person, I can't take someone else's story, and tell you what they were "really" thinking when they wrote it - after all they wrote it, don't you feel they knew what they really meant when they wrote it? I can't take a magazine advertisement, and tell you what the subliminal meaning of that ad is. This type of thing has always given me trouble, and almost cost me my Associates degree from college, because I could not pass my English lA class, due to my inability to "analyze" what someone else was trying to say, when they wrote it. But, you would think I would know what I am trying to say,, when I say something, or write something. You would think I could recognize when I have made a boo-boo in my writing. That is what makes me so peeved. Like yesterday's blog. Any time I write anything - a letter, a story, my "book", or my blog, I read and re-read every part of it at least two or three times before I send, print or post it. And still the goofs get by me. Take the possting yesterday - I know I read all of it several times before I posted it, and then after it was posted and I read it again, I found several errors. I just went back and read it again, looking for those errors, and voila! I could not find them. I did find a couple that should have never got past me - I referred to "of those 160 students" which should have said "FOR those 160", and later on I used the word "is" where it should have been "in". I said "enought" where it should have been "enough". Funny how you can read the same thing many times over and fund different things wrong. Usually I am pretty good at catching these things. In fact, over the last year or so, I have found two commercially printed books with errors of this type in them. But, in both of these cases, the error completely changed the meaning or context of the sentence. In both cases I called the error to the attention of the editor of the book, and in both cases, the error was acknowledged and promised to be corrected in the next publication of the book, assuming there will be a "next" publication.

Since I posted my comments yesterday, there have been a couple more articles in the paper along the same line in re: school. So, I get stirred up all over again -but I've ranted enough. I'll pick another subject for next time.

A "Pet Peeve"

I was sitting here wondering just what would be a good subject to "vent" about today, and I was reading today's local paper. There it was, on page C7, in the Letters to the Editor, one of my Pet Peeves. And, of course, that stirred me up good This particular pet peeve covers a lot of territory, so bear with me, here goes.

I would not want to be a kid (especially a teenager) today for anything. They have so much more stressful, mentally taxing lives than when I was a kid, or even when my girls were kids. When I went to school, there was no such thing as "Kindergarten" except in the largest schools. We started in the first grade, not knowing how to count, how to recognize our letters, or with no idea how to write or print. We might know our colors, but only if our Moms were really on the ball. We finally learned to write cursive letters when we were in about the third grade, and it was then that we first used a pen and ink. Of course there were no such things as "ball point pens" then. Those didn't come into existence until about 1941 or l942. We actually had to dip our pens into the bottle of ink, and then write. Could sometimes get kinda messy, and boy, the stories that could be told about that. We had "penmanship" classes until we finished the eighth grade - again Oh, the stories. And now there is discussion about the possibility of dropping cursive writing as a school subject altogether. We had eight grades of grammar school and four grades of high school. No "middle school" or "junior high school". We "graduated" from the eigth grade, and we were not "promoted" to the ninth grade. All the girls in the 8th grade had to take a sewing class, and I almost didn't get to graduate because I hadn't finished hand hemming my dischtowels. I also almost didn't graduate, because I could not pass my test on the US Constitution. The only reason I finally got by that one, they never did get around to giving the test again, so I guess you could say I graduated from grade school "by default". By the time we finished grammar school, college was about the last thing on our minds. No one was asking us what college we planned on attending, or what career we planned on persuing. Shoot, we were just kids - not to be worried about such things when we were only 13 or 14 years old. That was time to be a "kid" and enjoy life. The major difference between grammar school and high school was the fact that, in grammar school we had the same teacher for almost all of our classes - usually someone special for music and sewing. In high school we were introduced to choices in some of our classes, and sometime to four or five different teachers every day. Of 160 kids in my high school, I think we had about 7 or 8 teachers. The math teacher taught some of the science classes. The music teacher taught girls PE, Chorus and Spanish. The coach (of all the sports) taught shop. Yes, one coach was for all the sports, and the practices for the sports were held during school hours. Some of those kids lived 15 or 20 miles from school, and out of that 160, only about 4 or 5 drove their own cars to school. One year, the term started with no teacher hired for the commercial classes, so one of the senior boys who was really good at the commercial classes, was our teacher for the first month or two. No one was worried about college applications, or entrance exams, or SAT tests, or anything like that. When I was about 14 or 15, they intoruced an experimental subject into our "Social Studes" class - driver's education. Yes, that's right, driver education. There were two phases - the first being driver education, where we learned the rules of driving, and the road. Then, if we passed the test for that, and were over 15 1/2 years of age, we could take driver's training, which was actual behind-the-wheel training. Passing this class, and the corresponding test, tntitled us to apply for our drive's license. But me, I had to be different. I passed the driver education test (100 questions) at 100 percent, but I was not old enough to go on. So for reasons of another story, I didn't get my license until I was 17 years old.

In about the end of July or early August, you see all the "back to school" sales, and in stores like Walmart you see the "school needs lists - depending on what school the kid is going to be going to, and what grade - of all the things he/she will need. Such things as pencils, ball oint pens, notebooks, writing paper, color crayons, erasers, felt tip pens, rulers, protractors, and even back packs. Whan I attended school, and even when my girls were going, all these things (except maybe the backpacks) were provided to the kids by the schools. I doubt if many of the families could have afforded the items, even had they been required. When we got old enough to participate in the instrumental music program (7th grade) the school provided the instruments, and you usually wound up playing whatever the school had to offer. More about that later. We had a pretty nice orchestra (string instruments included). Would you believe that the lady who was my music teacher in the 7th grade (l942) is still alive and lives in Yuba City?

I was in the last class to graduate from high school without a cap & gown. The boys wore suits, white shirts, and ties. The girls wore floor length formals. And, I think we might have been the last class to graduate from that high school "stone sober". I was told that the next year, several of the class were so drunk they could hardly walk down the aisle. Anyway, things were a lot different then, than now.

And when my oldest daughter went to high school, there was still a pretty strict dress code. I don't believe girls were wearing slacks to high school then, let alone shorts or blue jeans. They did allow what were called "skorts". They were fairly short skirts. At least that's what they looked like from the front. But actually, they were shorts with a skirt in front. That was about as daring as the girls got. And, no such thing as "flip flops" for girls or boys either. On Fridays (or game days) the boys on the teams had to wear slacks, white shirts and ties, even to their own schools, and on the busses to the games. Four years later, things had taken a complete turn around, and it was almost a case of "anything goes". Oh, how times have changed.

When I started this post, I referred to a lettter in todays Letters to the Editor, that got me so stirred up. The writer was asking what happened to the "teachers' pride" he referred to the increased pressure to score high on tests, to the fact that teachers are more concerned about "dress code". I'm not sure, but I think the school she was referring to is one that has gone to a form of uniform, to more or less, standardize the type of clothing, for two purposes. One, to eliminate some of the types of clothing children were trying to wear, and two, to eliminate the wearing of "gang" colors - you know what I mean, handkerchiefs (plaid) around the neck, or on the head, or certain style or color of shirts that would associate them with gangs. She also was asking what had happened to the choirs, bands, and drill tems. In her words, "No money or no desire?" She was trying to remind the teachers of why they are there in the first place. Yes, I sometimes have that same thought - what has happened to today's teachers? Then, I stop and think. I'm not too sure how much of it is the fault of the teachers. I think many, if not most, of them still want to teach, so the student can learn; but with the way things have been going in the last few years, I have to admire anyone who even wants to be a teacher in today's society. It is not just this past year, and the current economy - it has been going on for several years. Costs have risen, and who has to suffer? The kids. What I said above about supplies, is a typical example. Then they cut out rooters' busses to the away-games; then they started cutting down on class field trips. One after another, extracurricular activities for the students have been cut. "Budget" is always the excuse. And now, with the economy the way it is, things must be more and more difficult for the teachers to provide for the students. California has long been one of the poorest states is meeting the standards for high school graduation, and every time I hear that some other school program (staff, supplies, activities, etc.) is being reduced or cut, my blood just begins to boil There's got to be an end somewhere, but where.

Well, I think I have "vented" about enought for one day. Anyway, I did kinda get it off my mind - not really, but at least now you know one of my "pet peeves"- one that really riles me up.
So, bye for now, catch you later -