I found it!!

I found it!! I thought it was lost forever. Gone in a puff of cyber smoke or left in a pile of cyber ashes. I was so sad! I had worked hard on it and it was gone ... or so I thought.

What was missing? THIS blog! It crossed my mind again a couple of weeks ago and I went looking for it. However, it has been {ahem} ten years and some change since I last posted, and I couldn't remember anything except "Random Reminiscences."

So very much has happened in these ten years:

• My son graduated from high school, started college, and quit college. He works as a freelance graphic designer.
• I went from working ten hours a week to working 40+ hours a week at my dream job as a public librarian. I retired from that beloved job in 2019.
• We took three separate trips to Nashville so my husband and son could go to the Tennessee Titans games. I shopped.
• My father-in-law turned 80 and we had a surprise party for him. He is very hard to surprise.
• My precious Daddy lost his fight with colon cancer in 2014.
• My brother David lost his fight with heart and liver disease in 2015.
• My beloved Momma lost her fight with brain cancer in 2019.
• My husband's brother David lost his fight with lung cancer in 2021.
• My sweet doggy Lacey crossed the Rainbow Bridge in 2018 at 15 years old.
• COVID-19 happened.
• I attended book festivals four different times.
• My husband and son went to see the Memphis Grizzlies at the FedEx forum a couple of times. I shopped.
• They also went to lots of Ole Miss men's basketball games. LOTS.
• We took a pizza vacation one year. We travelled around the state of Mississippi and hit up the best of the best pizza places.
• We went to Atlanta so the boys could see the Atlanta Braves play baseball. I shopped.
• My husband retired in 2021 after 25+ years with the US Postal Service.
  
• Many movies have been watched. Much music has been listened to. Massive numbers of books have been read.
• My grandchildren went from 7 years old, 3 years old, and 1 year old to 17, 13, and 11. (Wait ... what?!? How did THAT happen?)

My family has had some good times and some bad. Some amazing times and some heart-breaking times. We've wanted to give up, but we've kept going. We've been lazy sometimes, but we've also accomplished big things.

Most importantly, we are happy and healthy.

I plan to give this blog thing another go. Who knows what it may morph into this time? I think I'll just play it by ear and see what happens.

Auctions

I love auctions! I always have and always will, I guess.

Daddy and Momma took me to my first auction when I was about 10 years old. We were on our way to see Mamaw - or on the way home from visiting her - and we stopped at a little auction on the highway. Even to my little girl eyes, it was a small place. I remember sitting in aluminum bleachers and being entranced by all that was going on. Then I saw it ~ a set of smoky gray juice glasses. I asked Daddy if we could bid on them and he said that I could. So, with his help, I bid on those juice glasses. And I won them! A set of eight for a whole dollar! They were tiny, just four ounces each and about an inch and a half across. We used those juice glasses for as long as I can remember, until they broke and there were no more. My set is gone, but I found a picture of one online.

We didn't go to many auctions, and that is the only one I can really remember. However, eBay entered my life. Oh, how I love eBay! I really have to be careful there. It started out as a way to find vintage postcards of Blue Mountain College, my alma mater. Then it spread to buying scrapbook supplies. Two of my favorite purchases from eBay have been collector's Wedgwood plates for the 75th anniversary of Blue Mountain College. I found a blue one and a rare pink one!

That is Lowrey Dormitory pictured on the plates. My mother-in-law lived in that dorm as a student at BMC. When I was a student, the dorm had been closed and eventually was torn down. Another great find on eBay was a blue demitasse and saucer from the same commemorative china set that I gave to Mary Jo for Christmas one year. Doubly meaningful to her because she lived in the dorm pictured and she collects tea cups!

A few years ago, Ken and I started going to a local auction on Saturday nights in Tiplersville, MS. We have found some really cool stuff there. We haven't been in quite a long time because Ken has had to work on Saturday nights. But recently we have gone back. Here are a few of the great items we have found there in the last couple of months.

Blue Ball brand Perfect Mason jars in pint and quart sizes

Glass floral frogs

Fenton milk glass hobnail double scallop dish

HEAVY wood-framed antique mirror
I got this beauty for only $3!

And my most recent ~ and exciting ~ eBay purchase as of today:

A lovely cobalt blue ribbed bud vase just like the one my Mamaw gave to me. Mine fell and broke just after Ken and I married and I have mourned its loss. Now I have a replacement!

{Three on Thursday} Attic Treasures

I went up into our attic earlier this week on a quest to find something I thought I had stored up there. Our attic is filled with seasonal items and holiday items and no longer used items ~ from my family and the one before us! We live in the house where my husband grew up, so we have his parents' and brothers' stuff up there with ours. I came across some photos that triggered the following memories:

1. Kevin has always loved Elmo from Sesame Street. One of his first toys was a machine-washable Elmo. The crowd grew after that. He had Tickle Me Elmo, Rock-n-Roll Elmo, ABC Elmo, Elmo's World Elmo. He had big Elmos and little Elmos. Stuffed Elmo and figurine Elmo and Christmas ornament Elmo. Elmo posters and Elmo pillows. He saw Sesame Street Live and "saw" nothing but Elmo. He even had his picture taken with Elmo at a local convenience store promotion. Yes, we still have all the Elmo toys, but they are stored safely in the attic ~ mostly.

Kevin and Elmo, around spring 1997.
I don't imagine any other little one giving Elmo
a hug nearly as excitedly as Kevin did!

2. I found this photo of my great-grandmother, Minnie Iona Thompson Dawson. Mamaw was one of my best friends. She always gave me mason jars with holes in the top for lightning bugs. She always fixed pinto beans AND great northern beans for the same meal when I was there. She taught me to crochet. She was teaching me to knit before she had a stroke. This unusual photo is from her last driver's license, just because that was the only recent photo we had of her.

My Mamaw

3. Katie was always a very picky dresser. Even as a baby she didn't like to wear "fussy" clothes. So out went ruffles and bows and all things frilly. She always seemed more comfortable and happy in simple, clean-lined garments. Then, she was asked by her daddy's cousin Traci to be a rice bag girl at her wedding. And she needed to wear a black or black and white dress. Grandmother Annie had this one made for her. Ruffles! Pleats! Eyelet! Gathers! Pinafore! Katie was excited to wear the pretty dress and pinafore for the wedding, but I couldn't talk her into wearing it again. She would wear just the black dress, but forget about that fussy pinafore! She was cute as could be though!

Katie ~ June 1992

Ironing

Okay, let's start with a true statement: I hate to iron!

I can remember watching my mother iron my father's shirts when I was a little girl. I would beg her to let me iron something. Rather than risk his dress shirts, she would give me a stack of pillowcases to iron. Granted, most people don't iron their bed linens ~ I don't, anyway ~ but it was really good practice for this little 6 to 8 year old girl. No worries about scorch marks or imperfect creases or ironed in wrinkles.

As I grew older, I became responsible for ironing my own clothes. No problems there, because I didn't wear many things that required ironing. The occasional blouse or skirt. Then, when I was in high school, I started asking my mother to make my clothes. (She was an awesome seamstress!) The deal was that I would pin the pattern, cut the pieces, and pin the pieces together before she sewed the garment. After the garment was finished, I hemmed it, sewed on any buttons, and pressed the finished item.

At some point, I started being responsible for ironing Daddy's work shirts. He had to wear a dress shirt and tie to work each day, and I had to iron them. Even when I was away at college, when I came home on the weekends, I ironed his shirts.

Ironing one of Daddy's shirts ~ about 1985-1986.
This is one of my Daddy's favorite pictures.

Somewhere between begging to be allowed to iron and ironing now, I grew to hate the task. Now, I don't mind ironing a single piece here and there with ample notice that it will be needed. But to iron a whole basket of shirts that will end up squished into the closet and getting wrinkled again? I don't think so!

So, I was ironing this afternoon. Ken got several new shirts for Christmas and I washed them. Then they needed to be ironed. *sigh* So I decided to do a couple of them. While I was ironing, I thought of my mother. My mother used to tell me that when she was a girl, she would iron shirts for her older brothers for a little spending money. With twelve children ~ yes, 12! ~ my grandmother made everyone responsible for his or her own laundry and ironing as soon as each was old enough. My mother was apparently an incredible ironer - three of her four older brothers would pay her to iron their shirts! Wow! (The oldest brother was in the military and no longer living at home.)

Then, I thought of all the shirts that my mom has ironed so lovingly for my dad. And I realized that I had been given that same opportunity to do something with love for my own husband. I resolve to try to make ironing less of a chore and more of an act of love.

{Three on Thursday} Firsts

1. First haircuts: Beth (a cousin) took her little boy for his first one this week. He has a head FULL of glorious curls, now they are just shorter curls. It got me to thinking about my own boy's first haircut. He was about 18 months old. Ken and I were going to meet at the barber shop when I got off work, and we were going to videotape the "event." It just so happened that it was the last teacher work day of the year, and I ended up having to work late. I tried calling several times, but never got through. So ... Ken took Kevin by himself for the haircut. He came home - not with my baby boy, but with a little man! Oh, how I cried! I do have the video, of course; but I still tear up when I watch it. And, thanks to the barber, I also have his little curls!

2. First teeth: My sweet grandson is teething. He is 6 months old and drools like crazy! I am reminded of when his mommy was teething at 6 months old. She drooled and chewed and gnawed like everything! Then one evening, while we were visiting family in Memphis, she grinned up at us from her seat and she had ... not one, but TWO ... new teeth!

3. First words: I'm still holding out hope that Wyatt's first word will be "Grandma," but don't expect me to hold my breath. :-)  Katie's first word was "Da-da." My mother used to tell me that all babies say da-da first because it is easier to say. I disagree - Katie always was a Daddy's girl, so of course her first word was Da-da! She used to "sing the Da-da song" ~ ♪♫ da - da - da - da - da - da - da ♫♪ 

Kevin's first word was "Ma-ma," probably because I was able to stay home with him longer than I was able to with Katie. Questions remain about it though: "Ma-ma" morphed into "ma-milk" so he could have been asking for more milk all along.  ¯\_(*.*)_/¯

(Sorry no photos today ~ may try to find some and add them later.)

{Three on Thursday} Random

Okay, y'all ~ here is the first installment of "Three on Thursday."

1. Ken bought a 1966 Mustang in 1976, just before he graduated from high school. He started fixing it up in 1986. In 1996, he took this picture of Katie in front of it.

Katie & the Mustang ~ April 17, 1996

2. Ken and I both have beautiful mothers. Ken's mom was born in 1933 and succumbed to cancer in 2004. My mother was born in 1942 and is still going ~ not strong, maybe, but still going.

Annie Lois ~ at about age 25

Patricia Ann ~ at about age 26

  

3. My daughter and I were cleaning out an old toybox recently for her to take home for my sweet grandson's toys. We ran across this little fella, looking somewhat worse for the wear.

He is an important little Happy Meal toy. This is the toy that my son was playing with (at age 5) the day we went to the doctor's office to get his official diagnosis: Duchenne muscular dystrophy. While Ken and I talked to the doctor and cried, Kevin was playing cowboys with this little horse.

New Plans & Pinterest

WOW! Has it really been that long since I've posted? I really want to do better at this whole blog thing, so I'm going to follow an idea of a friend and fellow blogger Sarah at Jumping Jax. I'm going to attempt to do a weekly quick-post of a few short memories. I may also add a few non-reminiscent posts in the mix as well. For now, the new quick-post will be titled "Three on Thursday" and will feature three short items that came to mind that week.

On another note, have you joined the Pinterest bandwagon? I have, and let me tell you... it is well worth it! I have always been one to clip from magazines and catalogs anything I wanted to try or remember: craft ideas and recipes and clothing and home ideas and house plans and color combinations and ... the list goes on. However, what I usually ended up with was a jumbled mess of scraps of paper that made no sense because I couldn't remember why I wanted to save it! (grrr...) Enter Pinterest! This website is a virtual pinboard where I can "pin" things or ideas that interest me. I can add my own comments to each one and I can sort them into whatever categories, or "boards," that make sense to me. This is a fantastic tool and was definitely an "AHA!" moment for me.

You can see my boards and pins by clicking on the "Follow Me on Pinterest" button over there on the right. If you want an invitation to join, just drop me a line with your email address and I will send you one!

See y'all tomorrow with my "Three on Thursday" memories!