Animal Cookies

Along with Cracker Jack, which I wrote about a couple of days ago, another thing I remember from my childhood days is  animal cookies. Sometimes they are called animal crackers.  But actually they are cookies.

The boxes in the picture above look the same as they did many years ago when I
used to get them. You can see  in the picture that  the box has a cloth string attached at each end of the box.  After the cookies were gone I usually kept the boxes a few days to play with, until they  ended up getting torn and dirty.

I am not certain but I think you can still buy animal cookies in the same kind of box to this day.  You can also buy animal cookies in big bags, which are probably a better bargain than the boxes. I have not had any in a while but I did some time ago buy a
bag of them.  I like them now as well as I did then but they are not as much fun as they were then.  They are just a plain little sugar cookie but they were lots of fun to
eat, and play with. I must have not reached my second childhood days yet because I
would just want to eat them now--not play with them!

Aunt Pearl

The picture above is my Aunt Pearl.  She was my Uncle Gola's wife at one time (they later divorced). She had beautiful black natural curly hair. She always wore it pulled back and pinned down so that you couldn't really see her curly hair. I have no idea why she hid it that way. 

Anyway, I always used to tell her that I wished she would let her hair hang down so you could see the curls.  She would just laugh at me and still keep it pinned back.
Of course you can't see the curls in the picture above either because she had it pinned close to her head. 

Aunt Pearl has been gone many years but I can still remember her beautiful black curly hair as if I  saw her yesterday.

Cracker Jack Prizes

One thing I remember from my days as a kid is Cracker Jack. Really not so much the Cracker Jack as the prizes that were included in the boxes. I had a large collection of those prizes at one time but somewhere along the lines of time they got lost. The picture above shows one of the kind of prizes that were typical in Cracker Jack. You could write a story using the figurines and charms as an outline.  I loved my necklace that I made using the charms.

My mother used to make popcorn balls which were actually cracker jack. She made

the popcorn and  made a caramel coating and poured it over the popcorn and then made it into balls.  It was delicious to eat but it just wasn't the same without the prizes!

I have a recipe for caramel corn that I occasionally make but it, also, isn't the same without the prizes. I very often see little things that remind me of the prizes in Cracker Jack.  Then is when   I start remembering all of the tiny little jewels that I used to have in my possession but are now long gone!

Our Stolen Hubcap

On one of our many trips to Texas years ago, we were the victims of thieves who stole a hubcap from our car.  The car was very similar to the one in the picture above.  It was a Ford.  I don't remember for sure the year but it was very much like this one.

We had stopped at a rest area to use the rest room.  We parked in a very open place beside several other cars.  We went into the rest rooms and I know we couldn't have been out of the car more then maybe ten minutes. We came back and got in the car
and left.

After we arrived in Texas we discovered that the  hubcap was missing.  We knew
what happened had to be at the rest area because we did not stop at any other place  and there was no chance for anyone to take the hubcap anywhere else.
Some one must have been watching for just the right hubcap to enter the area and
had to have hopped on it right away because we were  away from the car  for no more
 than ten minutes.  I guess that was long enough for them to take a crow bar, or whatever tool they used, and pry off the hubcap.

Luckily my cousin happened to have a son who worked at the Ford place and he got
us another hubcap and put it on for us.

I hope they enjoyed using our hubcap.  We were out probably about $20. They will be out an afterlife in Heaven (unless they change).

Curious or Nosey?

I really don't know whether to call myself curious or nosey--maybe a little of both!
All through the years I have never failed to read every obituary, every marriage announcement, every divorce announcement or every birth announcement published in the newspaper. I religiously checked out details to make sure I knew who it was getting married, divorced or who had a baby or who died. I even checked out the other names in the articles  to make double sure I knew who was doing what! I am not
sure if that is being nosey or just being curious.  Maybe a little bit of both!

Now at this stage of my life I have begun thinking, who cares!  I still check out
obituaries so I know who died but marriages, divorces and births seem to have lost their importance. Maybe that is because they have lost their importance to others.  So many people now don't even bother to get married or divorced they just have their fun anyway without regard to their significant others.  People seem to have forgotten
 all about following the rules of the bible. Many of them probably don't even know the rules of the bible or don't even care to know them.

So now when I read the obituaries I know someone has died and that it was ordained by God for them to go.  And when someone is born, I suppose it is ordained by God for them to be born even in sin. Marriages and divorces are done by people who
don't really know what they want. This world is so mixed up with people who have child after child with man after man that many don't even know their own brothers and sisters. I am so thankful that my children know each other and that there are no
other brothers or sisters involved in our family.

Now the only really important thing I look for is who died.  All of the other stuff is just 
 a jumbled up mess!

Our Good Dog, Buddy

Buddy was a good old dog! I still love him to this day and he has been gone for many years.
Buddy would eat just about anything.  His favorite thing to eat though, was potted meat sandwiches. I use to buy it mostly for him.  I liked  potted meat too  but I would have him in mind when I bought it. He would hear the can opener buzzing and come
 tearing into the Kitchen like crazy with his nose twitching and tongue wagging. He knew he would get some of it.

Two things that he would not eat even if he was hungry was banana and macaroni.  I tried many times to get him to eat macaroni that would be left over but as soon as he sniffed it he would turn and walk away.  The same with banana.  You would think that with the cheese on the macaroni he would eat it but. no, he would not have anything to do with it. I guess dogs are just like people-- they have their likes and dislikes.

I hope in heaven he is getting something besides macaroni and banana!

That's My Dad!

If you knew my Dad you would know his reaction to this event was exactly like him!
 He related this event to my Mom after they were married.

He was out on a date with a girl once and he said this happened:  She told him she had some new silk hose and that they were so smooth and soft that she wanted him
to rub his hand over them and see how nice they were.  My Dad said he looked at her and replied, "I will just take your word for it." I don't think he ever asked her out again
 after that! Now that is exactly like what my Dad would have done and I believe him!

MIss America!!

Do any of you remember that I used to have a figure?  Of course these pictures were made back in about 1959 or 60. I was at my best at that time. We were at Warren Dunes in this picture also. We loved the water and spent a lot of time in it while we were there.

I would love to go back to the good times we had then. But that is all water under the bridge and fat on the hips!

More Precious Memories

Another one of our favorite places was Warren Dunes in Michigan. On the shores of Lake Michigan we had a ball.  We went there many time over the years.

We had really praised the place and blown it up to my sister and her family so much that they finally decided to visit us and we planned to go to Lake Michigan and spend  a day on the beach with them.

 Luck was not with us.  For some unknown reason something had killed a lot of the fish and there were tons of dead fish on the beach and it smelled terrible.  My sister and her family  were not very impressed with the scene.  Of course we had no way of knowing that the fish would be  a problem. Anyway, we did get to be together for a day even if it was stinky!

Precious Memories

Many years ago when our kids were little, as in the picture above, we used to make lots of trips to Texas.  One of our favorite places to stop was in New Port, Arkansas.
There was a small lake there and we loved the lake and the whole atmosphere of the place.  These pictures were taken June 11, 1960, 52 years ago!

Along the way just before we reached New Port there were several fruit stands.  We would stop and buy fresh peaches and take them to the park with us.  There was a water fountain and we would wash all of the peaches and then have a feast eating them, peeling and all. Of course peaches were not always in season but they were most of the times we were there.

I can almost taste the sweet delicious flavor of those peaches to this day.  I have never found any in the stores that taste that good. They would be just the right point of ripeness and so juicy and sweet.

The whole point of my memory though is  my two precious kids and my husband, Ford.  I was living the real life then and didn't realize it at the time. Now that I look back I would give my right arm to live that time again.

But at least I do have my memories to enjoy now.

Jumping the Broomstick

I am sure you have heard the phrase "jumping the broomstick." Ever wonder just what it means?  I know it means to get married but why that phrase?

Back in slavery times the slaves were not allowed to have a legal marriage ceremony, so they devised their own.  Jumping the broomstick used to be a part of the Pagan ceremonies.  In America it became part of the ceremony for black slaves. Most marriages were not recognized as such. The couple would stand on one side of the broom and jump over to the other side, thus symbolizing their entry into a new life together. This has become a tradition in modern African American weddings to symbolize the marriage and also to pay homage to their past.

So, for us,  the term these days mainly has come to mean a "common law marriage," one without legal recognition, also known as living together or  as  "shacking up."

Knock on Wood

  In my last post I made a reference to 'knock on wood'. that got me to thinking--just what does that mean? I googled it and I found out that there are several theories about the meaning and origin of that phrase. The most popular one is: far back in ancient times spirits were thought to live in trees so if danger threatened a person  he simply knocked on the tree to summon up the aid of the spirit living within that tree. So knocking on wood seems to be a way to bring some good luck for yourself.

Another theory goes back to the child's game of 'Tag.'  in this version the child simply has to touch a tree, or wood, and is free from capture.

 

An Irish belief was that you 'Knock on wood' to let the leprechauns who live in that tree  know that you are thanking them for a bit of good luck. 

So for a bit of good luck or to keep going along good just knock on wood and hope for that bit of good luck for yourself!

Broken Bones

My sister, Mary Ruth, must be the president of that club!  She just broke her arm again a few days ago.  She also broke her other arm a few years ago.  So she is recuperating now from her accident. Luckily, if you can call it lucky, she did break her left arm this time.  The other time it was the right.  Of course either arm is bad but the left  is the best to break if you have to break one!

I have been fortunate, 'knock on wood', in that I have never in my life had a broken bone. My kids both had both arms broken and my sisters both had arms broken. Some how, I escaped the  misfortune of a single broken bone in my 85 years.

I may fall and break an arm tonight or tomorrow, God forbid! But at least I have never yet done that.

The Parade Magazine

Most people get the Parade Sunday magazine in their newspaper. If you do I am sure you have noticed that it is a far cry from what it used to be. I used to love it but now it is so different from its former self that I hardly even want to open it any more.  There is one feature that I still open it for--Ask Marilyn. I  like her column.

As for the rest of it , I usually skip over in it a New York minute. Seven pages out of the 14 in it  this week are totally advertisements. I realize they do need to make money but not at the expense of the good of the magazine. I used to look forward to a half hour of good  reading in the Parade. Now I am finished in maybe five minutes if I am lucky. Why don't they just hang it up and admit the paper is dead!

Seafood--not for me!

I am definitely not a seafood person.  I do eat salmon, tuna and just plain fried fish but I do not like shrimp, scallops, clams, oysters, lobster or Crawfish or any of the other seafoods that most people like who do like seafood eat.

Many people  eat crawfish tails.  The reason I don't  like lobster is because they look like huge crawfish.  My stomach rolls at the thought of eating either one of them. I am repulsed by the sight of the lobsters at the grocery store. 

Years ago in Las Vegas they had shrimp cocktails at the Golden Gate Casino for 50 cents.  They had a generous amount of shrimp  with a red sauce of some kind. Everyone we were ever with went wild for one or more shrimp cocktails when we
visited.  We always got something else, because Ford didn't like them either. People thought we were weird because we would not eat them. I am sure that the shrimp cocktails are not 50 cents now! But back then that 50 cents was really a bargain, if you like seafood!

Maybe we were weird but that is just the way it was, and still is with me. I really like just plain fried fish, catfish or any other kind, and I like tuna and salmon patties.  But I'll leave all of the other seafood for the rest of you!

Dimples

Why couldn't I have had dimples? Have you ever seen an ugly person with dimples? 
Betty White is 95 years old and she still has very pronounced dimples.  I don't know about Shirley Temple now but she surely use to have pretty dimples.

Some people are just lucky, I guess.  The only dimples I have are from fat and they are not where I would dare to show them! My idol from my high school years, Pattie Bess Lummus, had dimples and I thought she was the most beautiful person I had
ever seen (or ever will see). It seems as if people who are already pretty enough have the extra bonus of beautiful dimples.

Ford had dimples.  They show very well in the picture above. He was about 24 years old in this picture.  He still had dimples when he was older although not as defined.

I don't know if plastic surgeons can make artificial dimples or not but  if I were young, and rich I would consider getting them! At my age I will settle for the hidden dimples I already have but they are not pretty!!

Happy Easter to all of you!  I am not cooking at home this year.  Carla is doing it at her house (Thank You Carla)!

I am making the dressing and some deviled eggs. They are coming to pick me up so I won't even have to drive there.


Once again, Happy Easter to each one of you and may your  life be blessed to the full extent.

Love, Anna Beth

Blue Bonnets and Indian Paint brushes

The blue bonnet is the Texas state flower.  Indian paint brushes are also a Texas flower although not a state flower.

When I was  a kid we used to go for Sunday afternoon car rides and we would see millions of both flowers.  We usually picked a few for a bouquet--and no it is not illegal to pick them. Many people think it is but it is not actually illegal to pick them. It has been many years since I have lived in Texas but if I remember right they both grow in the springtime. It is a beautiful sight to look on a big field of blue bonnets or Indian paint brushes.

Indiana does not have either flower growing wild as they do in Texas. So if you are ever in Texas look for a field of either flower for a feast  for your eyes!

Tooth Brushes

My dentist gives me a new toothbrush every time I go for my six month checkup, I use the word GIVE loosely because I pay him over a hundred dollars each time I get my teeth checked.  I could buy an awful lot of toothbrushes for that hundred dollars. However, tooth brush does not appear on my bill so I know he is not including the charge for it. He probably gets the toothbrushes for a little of nothing.

I have never had an electric toothbrush.  I have thought about trying one but I then think, what could it do that I can't do with my hand? Besides what would I do with all of the hand brushes I get from him? Actually, I sell some of them in my garage sales. 
 I also give some of them to my kids and grandkids.

So, I will keep brushing my teeth by hand and donating the dentist the one hundred dollars for his fancy lifestyle!

Storms and Tornadoes

This is a picture of a tornado in Sulphur Springs, Texas.  It is northeast of Dallas, Texas. These storms hit there yesterday. I heard all about the one in Dallas but I didn't hear about the ones in Sulphur Springs until my sister sent me this picture. She lives there.

As far as I know all of my relatives in Texas are OK. I am amazed that after all of these years none  of my family has been involved in a bad tornado.  Maybe they have been in them but no one has ever been hurt in one. I am 85 years old and I have never been
 in a bad storm of any kind--Thank God.

Once again, I am thanking God for the safety of my family in Texas.  I also pray to God for help for all of the people affected by the storms. I am sure it must be devastating to go through one.

Social Security

Do you know my favorite day of the month?  Of course you don't. Well I will tell you.  It is the third day of the month!  That is that day we get our Social Security checks. Today I got on line and checked and there it was as pretty as you please.  That is my main fun for this month.

I have to credit the man in the picture above as being responsible for me getting my Social Security. He worked a long 58 years to earn that money for us. When I started getting my SS they checked how much I could get on my own work record and then They checked what I could get on his record. Mine would have been $80. What I could get on his record was much higher. Then they give you which ever is the highest amount. So without him I would be getting the $80 amount but it would be some higher now due to all of the raises over the years.  Anyway, I am getting much more
on his record.

I quickly give my loving thanks to LeRoy Ford every time I see my Social Security check on my checking account. I Thank God, and Ford,  for Social Security.  I hope Obama doesn't do something to mess it up!

Our shrinking neighborhood

I feel a touch of sadness every time I go to get my paper and mail and I am faced with the view of this house which is across the street from me. The lady who lived there died about two or three weeks ago.  Her husband still lives there. 

I did not know the lady very well even though we have been neighbors for about 36 years. I had met her on occasions but we never did much neighboring.  She had ovarian cancer which was discovered about  a year or so ago. She was only 66 years old. Even though I did not know her that well I still feel a touch of sorrow for her husband when I look over there.

Her death makes a  count of four for our part of the neighborhood.    The two houses
on the one side of me and then her death made three and with Ford, my husband, dying eleven years ago made it four. Out of the three houses along side of me and then the lady right across the street  makes a total of two widows and two widowers

One  sad thing is the lady right next door has a retarded son who lives with her.  He is probably about 30 or 35 years old and she is in her 70s.  I am sure it must be a big burden on her  to have her son and to know that she might die long before he does. I feel certain that she must have made plans for him but it still would be an awful thing
 to have on your mind.

Well no matter how sad, LIFE GOES ON!

Dandelions

The first picture above was just taken a few minutes ago.  It is the yard of my neighbor across the street. The other picture is of my yard taken at the same time. The two pictures show the results of The True green Lawn Company care of my   yard. It is a shame that I am exposed to the view of that yard more than my own yard.  I pay about $250 a year to get my yard treated for dandelions, and other weeds.  As you can see, it really works.  They treat my yard four times a year for weeds and fertilize it also.  They never even knock on my door.  It is usually early in the morning when they do the application and I never know about it except for the little sign they place to show that it has been treated. They stick a note on my door .  I pay for the whole year by check and that is the extent of what I have to do.

To me, it is well worth the $250. Once I was going to do it.  I spilled fertilizer on
 a spot and it killed the grass I decided then and there that That was not my cup of tea.  That was about ten years ago.  By the time I would buy fertilizer and weed killer
I would probably spend near that plus I would have to keep track of when to do it. I am too old for that kind of thing!

Up Your Nose!

My post from yesterday reminded me of another little incident with the same  neighbors. They had a son, Steve, that was near Lana Kay, our daughter, in age. He was a little older than her but they often played together. They were perhaps about three or four years old.

Once when they were playing they had some  small beads they were playing with and Steve stuck a couple of them up inside his nose.  We really didn't know how many he put in his nose but anyway he couldn't get them out.  His mother panicked and started having him blow his nose and trying to get them out. I think he did blow out a couple but to this day we don't know how many didn't come out. Anyway, Jean, his mother hoped they were all out.  He got a long speech about not doing that again!

Unfortunately, Steve did not live to a very old age,  He had some kidney disease and had to be on dialysis for as long as he lived. I think he died about age thirty five or somewhere near that.