Chronicles of Nana

One of the different experiences Grandad and I have had occurred several years ago during the beautiful autumn days in the east…

EAST COAST ADVENTURES….

Because of his work, we occasionally went to NYC and this became an annual event for many years. It was during a time when you got more for your money and you could actually rent a car and explore the many neighboring states for a weekend before flying home.

We enjoyed these little side trips very much. In a matter of a few days we could drive through the autumn leaves in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. We ventured out everytime we came to the big city for business…

AUTUMN IN VERMONT…

One of our favorite spots is Vermont. The colorful rolling hills, the quaint little villages with the white churches and town squares. There would always be a running stream somewhere and a covered bridge around the corner. This was Norman Rockwell country and you could see it’s influence in his famous art works…

MOVIES IN MANCHESTER….

You could travel the entire state in a day and we landed in Manchester, Vermont for a nights stay at a local hotel. We decided to take in a movie at the local theater. “Baby Boom” was playing, a nice little comedy concerning a big city business woman (Diane Keaton) who chucks it all for the small town atmosphere so she can raised her baby niece whose parents were killed in some sort of accident. Well, it chronicled her adventures into country living…

We took our place in the quaint theater and the movie started but it was not long when we started to hear murmurs throughout the audience. We soon realized we were sitting among many of the locals who played minor parts in the movie…

It was great fun listening to the running dialogues from the screen and from those people around us. It got to be quite loud and vocal and laughter would burst out at the strangest places during the movie…

At movie’s end no one left the theater and most were still laughing their heads off….obviously most of the town was in this film.. it was great fun!!

We came home from that particular trip and purchased that movie which normally we probably never would have. To this day we view it during the autumn time each year….

and harken back to a bunch of crazy locals having a great time at the movies!!!

Been thinking what I can say about politics lately….seems like the crowds running for office are busy with “the show me the money” phases of their campaigns. I find this part of politics boring and a shame. Too bad it takes so much money to buy the office these days…

CANDIDATES APLENTY…

Let’s see…we have a zillion candidates from all affiliated parties running for the prize. I am seeing the hand holding, baby kissing and pats on the back. I hear the same same-ole and the occasional foot inserted into mouth comments. I ho-hum at the barbs, inuendos and downright slams to each other. I try not to think too deeply right now because everyone seems to be treading water…testing the waters or drinking the water!

STANDING FOR SOMETHING…

Dare I say among the race for money…issues!! Solutions? Meaningful discussion? Constructive dialogue? How about listening to the general public? What a novel idea!

Naw…right now politics is boring…how about a third of the crowd collect their campaign loot, bow out of the race and give their collections to a worthy cause…

Now that’s a novel idea!!

Just a thought!

 Remember the same old crap is just shit spelled differently…

I sit at my computer perch and survey the beautiful fall morning with that crisp snap of chill in the air…last night I went to bed with an added sweatshirt and socks, even a warm down comforter could not break the cold that seeps into my bones. Arthritus seems to awaken with a vengence when weather changes happen. In the wee hours of the morning as I stumbled into the bathroom I shed my trappings of winterwear….finally warmer than I wanted to be…

CELEBRATING TODAY…

Ahhhh…even seasonal changes make their mark on me! However, it is welcomed. I have a dear friend stressing over the Halloween festivities planned for the children of her neighborhood at the local church. Because of security concerns Trunk ot Treat has been created to let families bring their candied treats to the church and park in the parking lot so children can go from car to car to receive their halloween treasures….Since instigated I have had trouble with that concept. It’s like teaching children to approach strange cars with little fear of what could happen…

MAKE IT SAFE…

 It saddens me that such measures must be taken in order to secure a happy and safe experience for the children. A long time tradition has been spoiled…Regardless of how the treats are collected they should be inspected by the parents…used to be we would “inspect” just to get our hands onto our favorites!! How time has changed the old ways of doing things….

My friend has tired to be creative with her plans at the church for the big spooky night. She has tired to be sensitive to the needs of everyone…regardless of the fact one can not please everyone….oh well! It has been determined that cars are to back into the spaces around the church perimeter and the children can walk from trunk to trunk without walking about the cars parked which ever way in the lot. Childrens safety being first, of course. This will allow neighbors of differing faith, who may not choose to enter the church, to be able to participate. Those who enter the building are to be met with a warm bowl of chili and bread and children and parents can go from room to room to be met by all kinds of surprises made by families who have decorated and planned the activity for that room. There is a need to adjust to the times I guess…

CELEBRATING THE PAST…

I remember a Halloween night at a local church long ago…in those days it did not seem necessary to emphasize the grotesque and the gross!  Simple decorations of hay bales and pumpkins, crape paper streamers was all that was needed. There usually was served a light dinner along with lots of pumpkin pies for dessert. Activities for the evening were a twilight hayride in the orchards, bobbing for apples, a contest of pumpkin craving, making popcorn balls,dipping of carmel apples, the judging of costumes and culminating with a monster mash dance. Who would have thought the good ole days were just back then….

I know that there are little communities dotting the american landscape who, perhaps, still capture those kinds of celebrating activities. Where the whole town joins in to celebrate the season and come together in friendship to end the harvest season. Some people may consider holding onto old traditions is corny and old fashioned…

Thing is some old fashion ways and traditions are worth keeping…

Spooky bumps in the night become frightfully good memories of the past..

Let your mind drift..can you smell the carmel apples and sweet buttered popcorn, do you taste the wads of bubble gum stuck to the roof of your mouth?

Make it a boo-t-ful holiday for you and yours…

I have never understood Halloween…it has certainly morphed into a bloated night for celebration for young and old alike nowadays. I remember a quieter, gentler time when children ran the streets barely at dust dressed in all manner of costumes and characters…

THE LOOT…

In my day it usually took most of the night to fill the standard pillowcase with treats. Suburbia and housing tracts were few and far between. Costumes were usually home designed and not as scary and grotesque as the modern trend of today.

TIMES HAVE CHANGED…

There were halloween parties occasionally at a friend’s house or the local school, church or town hall. Some things never change, teenagers still ran the streets collecting their loot and over running the smaller spooks. Unlike today, parents stayed home and managed the front door, there was no need for them to walk along for safety’s sake.

Seems that modern times have created an even weirder celebration of Halloween. It has become an adult night that sparks strange behaviors and even stranger activities. I have read it has become the most celebrated night of the year next to New Years.

Call me old fashioned, yeah…go ahead! Halloween, if it should belong to anyone, should be a kids celebration. Somehow it looses the innocence of celebration when adults dress behind masks, drink and be merry…

IN TIMES PAST…

Dunking for apples, homemade costume contests, pumpkins carving and making sticky carmel corn are activities made for children and are fun to watch by adults watching the children with wild abandon as laugh and squeals abound.

It is always fun to prepare for a halloween celebration…the costumes, the food and the treats. It is a fright night but it seems of late that fright and scary has taken the forefront in today’s celebrations. Movies have perpetuated the morbid, the grotesque and strange characters that once met in the dead of night would scare even the oldest funster!

I hate it when halloween becomes a reason to frighten little ones and when it is an excuse to preform mean acts, pranks and mischief. I even find TPing a house to be annoying….have you ever had to pick that up after a frosting night?…

THE GOOD AND THE BAD…

It is too bad that bad people take the innocence out of an old favorite celebration night. It is too bad that parents must monitor the candy bag and inspect each piece… it is too bad that parents must pick and choose the homes their trick or treater go to….it is just too bad and a shame!

Families have had to re-evaluate their priorities concerning halloween activities nowadays which is probably a good thing. Having fun family activities at home for halloween is a good way to draw families together…

Besides…you can pick all the favorite candies and foods and pig out big time…

Still it is sad to see the innocence going or gone!

BOO!!!

Halloween can be a fun experience for the family. Back when my children were school aged I would spend hours making various costumes. Every year there would be a parade of costumes at the school and I did not go the store bought route….not me!

SURVIVING THE MOMENT….

How I ever found the time, I can not say….must be the Mom survival thing. At the time I had four school aged children and we would gather to the back yard on a warm autumn day and plan together the costumes to be made. Oh….I was not handy with the sewing machine, not me. So we had to get creative…

PAPER MACHE IT…

I would have the kids blow up big balloons and we spent the afternoon with the sticky flour paste cocoction and paper mache the balloons. We would use shredded newspaper and layer the wet newspaper onto the balloons. We applied layer after layer.

Once the round spheres were dried by the sun.. it usually took several days. I suppose a hair dryer would have helped. We then cut holes for the eyes and then painted away to create the creatures we designed.

We had a jaybird head, and an elephant head with a slinky nose.One year we used card board boxes and created the Wizard of Oz group of Dorothy, the tinman, lion and the scarecrow. Our caboose kid at the time ended up being a giraffe made out of painted boxes…

I guess the lack of money and keeping the children occupied was the motivating force for such creativity…

PUMPKINS ANYONE?…

One of the traditions we always had was to take the family out to hunt for pumpkins. This usually involved an all day trip to the central valley to the farm fields. There would be several stands along the roads where fresh produce could be purchased. Along side the stands would be a pumpkin field with all the friends of halloween there…scarecrows, bats and cats, and hay bales staked together to make a maze. We would pack a lunch or hit a McDonalds for lunch and then slowly make our way home by dusk.

The night would become crisp with a chill in the air as we unloaded our treasures on the porch to soon be carved…

The kids would sleepily wonder to bed with visions of halloween in their heads…

Those were the days when innocence reigned and children owned the frightful night!

Have you looked at your email lately…? It doth stinketh for sure…Every morning I wake up to a email stack of to put it mildly…crap!

WIDE OPEN SPACES….

Now..I recognized that as an internet user I would somehow get on someone’s commerical list to buy miraculous products. For instance, since I am a big beautiful lady I get everything that you can $$$ for losing weight…okay already!

But how did I get on someone’s list for enlarging and enhancing a gential I don’t even own..? Where does that come from..?

Then there are the endless come-ons for miracle pharmacuticals that can be discreetly packaged in brown paper bags from places unknown.

How about the casino ploys to gamble online..? How many people allow themselves to get sucked into that headache..?

The worst come-on of all is the slimey emails to take a peek at pornography…and this ploy is working big time. I have seen marriages broken by the push of a computer button…

MIRED IN CRAP…

You know, the world out there is filthy enough nowadays, and it is probably going to get worse before it gets better. All sorts of slimballs will try to take their little piece of the action from the internet. It can be used for good…and bad. They say opposites attract.

WARNING!

Beware of smell-mail..it hits every computer nowadays.

Monitor your children’s use of the computer…and be aware that there is a telling trail of use on your end as well as parents.

As far as the smell-mail…eliminate it with a click. If I do not know the sender I just do not go there…period.

It just pisses me off…and that’s something both genders can do!

Halloween celebrations  usually center around sweet treats and dirty, slimy tricks. Throughout the years at our house we have tried to create a tradition of fuel-food before the long night of spooking the neighborhood…

TRADITIONS….

Our traditional fare included a crock pot of homemade chili and hot garlic or buttered french bread. When the cold, tired travelers returned there would be hot cider or hot chocolate waiting accompanied with plenty of donuts.

Before sending your creatures out among the vast array of goulish figures why not try warming their monster bellies with the following;

                                     __Cheesy Crescent Ghosts__

                                     Refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

                                     Shredded mozzarella cheese

                                     Asst. sliced olives or chiles

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with Pam or parchment paper.

Using a cutting board, unroll dough and separate triangles. Cut triangles in half to form 2 smaller triangles. Shape dough into ghost shapes folding in one point to form ghost head. Bake about 7 minutes or until slightly puffed and starting to brown. Cook 1 clove garlic finely chopped in 1 teaspoon of butter and brush over dough pieces. Top with shredded cheese, about 1 tablespoon. Top with olives to form mouth and eyes. Bake until cheese is melted, about 2-3mins.

                                          __Crunchy Mummies__

                                               1 1/2 cups garden vegetable spread

                                               3 1/2 inch pieces of cut celery

                                               deli sliced ham, sliced in strips 1″long

                                               dried cranberries or sliced olives

Place cream cheese in small ziplock. Cut off one corner and pipe into celery stick pieces. Take inch pieces of ham and lie criss-cross ways down the celery to look like bandage strips. Use tip of knife to tuck in edges. Place small pieces of cut cranberries or olives as eyes!

Both of these recipes would go well with a hot crock pot of whatever…actually whatever would make a good Halloween dish, don’t you think? It could keep everyone guessing….

TOXIC WASTE…

These recipes are easy and might counter balance the toxic junk that is going to ocupy your goblins tummies. It might be fun to have the kids make these with you as a fun family activity before they hit the spooky roads to adventure.

Make it a safe, sane night and don’t forget to check those candy treat bags!! 

Beware of ghosts in the night…..  BOO!!                                          

How many times have we heard of the middle child syndrome..it certainly comes up at family gatherings quite often now and then. I have such a child..born dead center in the middle of five!…

CRITICAL MASS…

It is said, also quite often, that the third child is the start of critical mass..I concure with that! Two arms cannot contain six…just a universal law I guess.

My third child is a son. When young he hated confinement and strained mightily not to be. But he became adaptable, most third children are! He would watch his older brother and sister and soon learned to make his own way. Once he took flight… he soared!

BASEBALL FANATIC…

To this day he is strongly attached to baseball…Little League was his thing! He used to be the banker in the family, saving every penny….boy, did that change! He had a lucrative paper route and he rode his bike all over town to drum up business…and quite the business he had, during holidays he made good money! He had a fear of roaming unfamilar dogs, so he could ride that bike fast. Sometimes having to run into the front yard tree in order to stop…

LIFE AS IT CAME…

This was the middle son who learned to take life as it came, therefore order and cleanliness was not his strong suit…it wasn’t until he went on a church mission that we finally found his bed! I used to hang a “condemned by the board of health” sign on his bedroom door but even that did not get any action. He goes with the flow, man….

A FATHER HIMSELF…

Well, he is now the father of several middle children and married to a saint of a woman…you see, I know what she is up against! This union must have been made in heaven! Then again, she is a twin and has had to live with a companion most of her life…

A GIFT….

Among his many gifts and talents, this son has a great ability to write and communicate through the written word. I encouraged him to write one little”smutty” book that could set us all up for life but instead he writes for himself which I guess is a steady reflection of his character. He works for the second best place in the world beside Disneyland, a world renowned candy company! He has taken his writting skills into cyberspace and has established several websites. The most famous being one about christmas and the magic of Santa.

A FAMILY TOGETHER…

With his large family his life is not routine, settled or even secure but I see the love he has instilled into his children, the respect he shows his dear wife and whatever worldly things they do not possess does not matter at all…what is important anyway..?

He has a spiritual perspective beyond his years and tries mightily not to get mired in family squabbles and turns away from negative sibling situations…

Geez…..sounds like the middle kid alright!

Happy Birthday candyman and may there be many more!

Our eldest daughter is an October birthday girl. We remember well her birth several years ago…it was a joyous but tiring day for yours truly…

STUBBORN TO THE CORE….

She was stubborn even then by refusing to be born in the usual birth position. After several hours of difficult labor on my hands and knees she just dug in and refused to turn…

Her mind set has been steady ever since. She is fast becoming her parents care giver…the future will require harder work and much more patience from her I fear…

LIFE’S PASSAGES…

Her life has not been charmed or out of a princess storybook…her marriage disolved before the birth of her only child. Now, nearly eighteen years later she has walked her passages through life with grace and stoic determination. She has overcome several trials and still walks tall and with a great sense of humor.

PARENT’S PRIDE…

I want her to know how proud we are of her accomplishments…she went forward with her education after the birth of her son, getting her Masters Degree was a goal well achieved.

CAREER DETOURS…

Although well schooled, her career path has taken twists and turns. She has had to make due for the sake of her child and her parents. Her consideration for them being upmost in her mind and decisions.

She goes quietly about her business, callings, parenting and responsibilities without complaint, as long as there is plenty of chocolate around!

 She feels she has few talents but she fails to see her worth as others do. Dependable, steadfast, loyal, focused, organized and practical…qualities worth more than gold itself.

SELFLESS ACTS…

Her contribution as a good daughter does not go unnoticed, nor does her spirit that delights her friends and who  hold her companionship dear to them.

Happy Birthday dear, dear daughter…may your life passages bring you happiness, like your mere existence has brought to us!

Life can be sweet..like the spirit you possess and show to us on a daily basis !

Delight in your son and find peace in your heart…for a selfless job well done…

Happy Birthday!!!

Have you noticed in your panic of the busy life, that in some lag time how people are so self-absorbed..? I think at birth we are born that way and it takes years of experience and conditioning to get out of ourselves…most never do…

IN THE BEGINNING….

As babies we just cry until blue in the face or pee all over ourselves to get the required attention we seek. Some of us never get beyond that stage!

SAINTS OF THE DAY…

There are some people who truly work at letting other folks come before their own worldly desires. These people are not great in number and are those who usually go about life doing for others in quiet, unnoticed moments that do not draw attention to themselves or newspaper headlines…These folks get it!!

But, they must be unassuming and low keyed otherwise they would be chewed up and spit out by the selfish waiting in line…for more and more.

A NEED FOR INVOLVEMENT…

The Churches that dot the earth are reminders of selfless love and giving to those in need. This is not to say that the self absorbed do not give…on the contrary. However, giving is a two sided sword. And it would do us all good if once in a while we look inside ourselves and see where we lean…

MATERIALISM MATTERS…?

I think, as a free nation, speaking of privileges and entitlements, we tend to overcome our natural nature so to rise above our self absorbion. We are fortunate to have at our figure tips all the toys and gadgets of the world. We play with them, we occupy our time with them so much so that we can neglect the needful interactions with our fellow men.

Some experts say we are spawning a generation of fast fingered, video impaired, cumputer indulged people whose feelings and the relating and understanding of them have been grossly neglected.

GENEROUS GIVING….

People, by in large, are a generous people. As a participate in meeting the needs of others we all should questions our own motives and heart.

It is hoped that a way is found to  interface the technology of the toys  of today and bring back the “doing for others”as important and intrigal parts in life. Charity of pocket, heart and service are still greatly needed through out the world.

In the meantime, thanks to those who “get it” and hurray to them and the wonderful work they quietly do…

They put into action what should be in the heart!