Can You Stand One more Aunt Pearl story?

Here it is:

Once my mother, Mary Ruth and I went to visit Aunt Pearl and Uncle Gola in Little Rock, Arkansas.  We stayed for three or four days.

Aunt Pearl cooked our breakfast every morning while we were there.  She would fry bacon and make eggs and the whole works for us. We all ate probably one or two pieces of bacon and the whole pound would just sit there left over.  Aunt Pearl would finish off the rest of what was left.  That absolutely stunned my mother!  She said. "Can you believe she ate almost a whole pound of bacon?" As I look back I don't really think it was that much but my mother thought it was  just  outrageous that she ate that much bacon.  Anyway, that is probably why Aunt Pearl  was as big as she was. Even  though my mother loved bacon she never ate but one or two pieces of it at a time. So, she thought, that  if you eat  more than that you are  a  PIG!

I can eat more than one or two pieces of bacon but not a whole pound. Anyway, at today's prices I doubt Aunt Pearl would eat that much either.

So much for Aunt Pearl!

More About Aunt Pearl

A few posts back I wrote about my Aunt Pearl.  Aunt Pearl and my Uncle Gola are in the picture above. Thinking back on this post reminded me of another event that occurred while they were on their way to visit us in Paris, Texas. They lived in Little Rock at that time.

They were driving at night along somewhere in Arkansas between Paris and Little Rock. They came to a point where there was some kind of an awful smell in the area. They could not identify the smell but they said it was really a strong odor and they were feeling nauseous.  They were afraid they were going to pass out.  They hurried along and finally got far enough out from that area that the smell dissipated.  To this day we do not know what the smell was.  They never heard anything about it so they never knew what it was. Certainly there was an answer to the question but we just
never found it out!






I can remember how mysterious it all sounded to me, as a kid.  Even though I was just a kid I still remember how frightening it  was. It was probably just one of those things that happen some times.  Things just happen that are never explained or known about. Anyway, it was very impressive to me and I would still like to know the answer to the whole thing! Of course, I never will.

Antenna TV

Many years ago you saw TV antennas on almost every house in your neighborhood. That was the only way you could get TV, through an antenna. That was before Cable TV, or at least before everyone could get it. You had the antenna on the top of your house or on the top of your TV. 

At that time  all of the good shows were on!  Leave it to Beaver, Dennis the Menace, Threes company, All in the Family, Sanford and Son, and many others.  Recently they added a new channel on our Comcast Cable line.  It is called  Antenna TV. They are rerunning all of those old TV shows again.

Now I am in seventh Heaven--I can watch all of those shows again.  Some of them I don't care for, just as I didn't care for them then, but many of them I find very refreshing to watch. You do not see or hear any sexual references on Leave it to Beaver or Dennis the Menace. 

I especially like watching the Beaver.  It amazes me that June Cleaver always had on a neat dress, earrings, and looked as if she were dressed to go somewhere even early in the morning while they ate breakfast. I never saw her in pants or casual clothes at any time. That was not very realistic but I still like the show. Ward Cleaver, Beaver's dad always had on a business suit and looked very neat and trim.

Now I am waiting for them to rerun some of the variety shows that used to be on; such as the Dean Martin show, the Glen Campbell show, the Dinah Shore show, and many other very good shows which are never on at all.  They may never do that but I am hoping they will.

TV has dropped to an all time low in their choice of shows. Much of it is because I am from the old generation and the new generation is producing the new shows. Maybe someday they will wake up and smell the coffee. The old shows were much better than the new one are!  At least in my opinion.

Learn to Swim!!

If I were a few years (actually, a lot of years) younger, I would consider making use of the day noted above!

In all of my 85 years I never learned to swim.  Not that it has ever made any difference but it could have.  I once was all set to sign up for swimming lessons at the YWCA and, unfortunately, the schedule  ran into our plans for a trip to Texas and I never did go through with it.  I think everyone should know how to swim!
We never lived near water anywhere that we could have learned to swim. Of course there was always the YWCA and public swimming pools. However, our mother thought it was sinful to wear a bathing suit and go into a swimming pool with other people. So we just never had the opportunity to have swimming lessons.  I am sure if I had been drowning in some place it would not have been sinful for someone to save my life! I could not understand my mother's way of thinking. But that is the way she was!
I can't say much for myself because I never saw to it that my kids learned to swim.  They may be able to swim a little but not because of anything I did.  Anyway, That is all water under the bridge.  But I do regret that we were  never a swimming family!

My New Sweeper

After a lot of thinking and looking for a new sweeper, I finally got one.  It is a Shark Navigator. Actually, I don't even use my sweeper any more.  Brett, my grandson does my vacuuming for me now. But he has a sensitive back and my old sweeper was bad on backs. It had a tank that you have to pull along behind you while you vacuum.  So this new sweeper is much better for his back and along with that  I think it is doing a better job of cleaning than my old one did.

I got a good deal on it so I plunged in and got out my Discover card and did the damage! This sweeper  also does not have a bag to deal with.  It has a container that you lift off and empty. I am pleased with it and so is Brett. Brett is doing my housecleaning now (with pay, of course) and I am thrilled to have such a good house

 cleaner. I don't have to worry about him stealing anything and he knows how I like things so I don't have to tell him everything to do, he knows. Next time you come to see me my house will be sparkling clean!

I Love a Rainy Night

I love a rainy night, I really do!  I also love the song by Eddie Rabbitt.

I remember when I was a kid how much I loved going to bed when it was raining and listening to the pitter patter of the drops of rain hitting  the roof. There was also a downside to the rain.  My Dad worked for the  City Street Department and if it rained too much they could not do street work so he would be off work without pay. I worried about that.

To this day I love hearing the rain on my roof.  However, it has to rain pretty hard for me to hear it inside the house. You can't hear snow hitting the roof but I hate for it to be snowing
because I know I will have to deal with it the next day when I get my mail and Paper. But rain is different, you don't have to shovel rain!

In fact it is raining here tonight.  But by the time I get to bed it will probably have stopped.
Anyway, I can remember the  way it sounds and pretend I am a kid again!

Blogging

It is true! Blogging isn't easy.  Actually,  writing the stories is easy but thinking of stories to write is very hard.  I have been doing it for a couple of years and at first I had tons of ideas for stories.  But after a while I ran out of ideas. Now I am constantly picking my brain to think of a new idea for each day.  I watch the newspapers, watch TV, and literally  watch everything around me for an idea.  I am actually using ideas now that I thought of a long time ago but discarded them because I didn't think they were good enough. Now some of them seem brilliant after reviewing again.

I have great respect for people who write columns for newspapers or magazines on a regular basis. I now know what they must face every day of their lives coming up with new ideas.  Some categories may be easier than others.  My blogs are  based on stories of my family and our past lives. There are only so many stories in my past and I think I have about reached the end of them!

Actually, I know there are probably many stories that are there--I just have to remember them. So if I miss a day putting on a post just know that I am here thinking hard about one I can put on next.

Also, my life and my family's lives  are  still going on so maybe there will be some new things come up (good I hope) for me to write about!

Picasso? or Van Gogh?

 

  
I  have some valuable art work in my possession!   The picture above was colored by my daughter, Lana Kay, many years ago when she was about 6 or 7 years old. I thought it was an excellent painting for a child that young.  It was done with crayons on just plain old paper like they use for student artwork. I don't know how it survived the years without getting misplaced or lost completely. In later years I did put it in a frame which saved it until now. I have it hanging on a wall in my hallway. I treasure it more than I would if it were a Picasso or a Van Gogh painting!

I don't know what will become of it after I am gone but for now it is a beautiful,
precious piece of art that will hang where it is until I am gone!