Memory Monday #39

     Last memory, I mentioned our Storybook Doll collection...I looked on line and found this website which tells ALL about them! Apparently there is a resurgence of interest in them!
      I think our collection probably began with my grandmother...she was the one who really loved to pick them out...and she did pick out some really beautiful ones.  But somehow getting dolls that just sat on a shelf and looked pretty was not my idea of a really fun thing!

This is not my doll...but it a picture just like one of my favorite ones!

     I did love the dolls once I grew to understand they were not to be played with...not to change the clothes on....not to create dialogs for, etc..  I had other toys do "play" with, so I began to look forward to what doll Grandma had for me this birthday, this Christmas.

      I kept my half of the collection and have taken it with me where ever I have lived. Several  years ago, I had stored my dolls in a shoe box and had put them in the attic....well, wouldn't you know...mice got into them and really messed them up!!  The wigs/hair were put on with what must have been very tasty glue; the beautiful little dresses must have made great fiber for mice nests; and part of the little bodies must have been a papier mache material as some of the torsos were pretty gnawed up!!   

     Although they were pretty messed up, I still have kept moving them with me where ever I live.  Now, after 50 years of marriage, and about seven  moves...to larger houses each time, we find ourselves now ready to downsize and to move to a smaller location.  So I think I am finally ready to see if there is anything to salvage about my doll collection and find a buyer for them.  If possible there may be a collector out there who would like my dolls for parts!!

Our Beautiful World-"Fall"

    This week, the bloggers from "Our Beautiful World" are posting pictures for the word "FALL"!  And to celebrate one of my favorite seasons, I have a few to post too.  It has been so awfully hot here...then a great rain and cooler weather set in over the weekend!!  We have had such a drought that fall colors have not set in yet...but in past years, we have had a glorious show of color in the oak and pistasch trees.

Oaks in our front yard

...and our back yard! 

The  yaupon hollies filling branches with berries!

     And where I grew up in Illinois, the Maple trees are just breathtaking in the Fall! And in my husband's home state, Missouri.

Illinois

Missouri

    And a few years ago, our first trip after retirement was to the Northeast during Fall season and the colors at that time were unbelievable!!

New Hamshire

     So, yes, I would say, we have a "Beautiful World"!!!!

Memory Monday #38

     Last Memory blog was about the birth of my little brother...he was so cute...and being so much younger than my sister and I (12 and 9 years) he almost had three moms! Although as I remember, at first it was not easy on Judy and me!   We just didn't understand what a new mom was going through....our mom had been so devoted to us; so much fun always...and now she was dealing with a new born and she was probably mid 30's when he was born so I can now see, looking back from the perspective of being a mom myself, she was tired a lot of the time and I am sure not nearly as patient with us as we were used to her being!

Mom and Jack probably 6-7 months old

      I remember Judy and I thinking she was really cracking up!  I don't remember where we would have gotten the  idea of insanity but I do remember late night whisperings about what would we do if she was really loosing her mind!!  Fortunately all that passed within a few months; the baby was thriving (mom had been pretty paranoid about germs...made us all wear a mask when we held him or were near him).

     We had also given up our downstairs room for the baby...there was a large room upstairs that mom and dad had wall papered with the prettiest floral wall paper...yellow roses...had built a desk and shelves for our Story book doll collection.  And, although we loved the room, we were farther away from our parents...w-w-a-a-a-y upstairs, so that was an adjustment too!

Our Storybook Doll collection

    It is odd what the mind remembers....as I have said, we all had really wild imaginations...from all our reading and our fantasy playing so I guess thinking our mom might be loosing her mind was just an extension of that mind set!!  After many adjustments...mom got rested and became her fun self again; Jack grew and was a wonderful addition to our family; and we got a lovely room out of the deal!!!  Much bigger and prettier than we had before...mom and dad probably thought getting a pretty, new room would help compensate for other changes...which it eventually did.

Our Beautiful World-"Yellow"

     And the word for the week for "Our Beautiful World" is "yellow"...so looking through my pictures, I found a few I can submit without taking any new picutures!!
Please visit the link to the blog to see many more gorgeous pictures!!

Lantana flower bed with a gorgeous black and yellow butterfly!

A wildflower in the field behind our house...looks like daisy, doesn't it?

Butterflies on a Rua bush...very popular with butterflies to lay eggs!

Last year, my fellow art quilters had a 12"x12" challenge each month...this is my depiction of the challenge "Walking on Sunshine"!

And I had to add another couple of Chihuly's  glasswork as in my last blog for OBW

Another Dale Chihuly

Stained glass dome in an old building in Chicago, Illinois

And...lastly...gotta' have some Georgia..O'Keeffe, that is...one of my favorites!!

Memory Monday #37

     It is 1949...I am in the fourth grade, still going to the East School.  This year is turning out to be very stressful compared to my third grade, thanks to the lovely Miss Sutton!  My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Deemer, is much stricter!!!  She is not very tolerant of anyone who talks when class is going on...and I am a talker!!  I have a new friend...Barbee...who has moved to Pittsfield with her mother who is a divorcee, now married to one of the wealthy families of town!  I love Barbee...she is so much fun...we sit right across from each other..and we TALK a lot!!!  There is another new girl, Carolyn, who is also a BIG talker.  Now Barbee and I, although we talk, we are still eager students, both like to learn and are inquisitive and are both very respectful of our elders!  Carolyn, not so much...she is a real "fun" girl in a mischevious way! She is the bane of our teacher, always trying to irritate her.  So by association Barbee and I would frequently get in trouble too!  Carolyn was funny to our thinking, but our teacher didn't see the humor in her pranks...and by our laughing with Carolyn, we were considered equally guilty...and I suppose in some ways we were!

     October, 1949...is also the month my baby brother is born!  Pittsfield just opened a Community Hospital...Jack is one of the first babies to be born there.  When my sister and I were born, my mom had to go to hospitals in nearby towns.  Back then when women had babies, they stayed in the hospital for a week..and usually stayed in bed the whole time.  We were not allowed to visit her, or see our new brother as we were children.  So, our daddy would take us to the hospital yard and we would stand below her window; she would come to the window and wave at us.

     It was customary for a matronly lady to be hired to stay with the family while the mom was incapacitated in the hospital.  The lady who came to stay with us was unaccustomed to being around young children...she would cook and clean for us but not very many smiles or laughter!  Now my mom was a terrific cook!!  This lady was NOT.....I am sure she was trying to do her best, but it was just not the same.  It could be that Mom had kind of spoiled us a little.  For example, one thing I remember her doing for me when I was littler was to make bridges with crusts of bread between the different kinds of food on my plate so they couldn't touch each other!!!  I guess I had been a bit of a picky eater!
     So we were very happy when mom came home with our new baby brother!!!

Mom with our new baby brother, Jack!

Unfortunately for us...the lady stayed on to help for a couple more weeks!  But at least our mom was home...but little did we know how times would change with a baby in the house!!!

Our Beautiful World-Bubbles

What a fun topic for the week!  This week, the OBW blog chose the word "Bubbles"!  What first came to my mind were some of the pictures I took at the Dallas Arboretum last year when we visited the Dale Chihuly blown glass exhibit.  His work is so fabulous and North Texas was fortunate to have one of his most extensive outdoor exhibits on display for several months.  I have chosen just a few of the many pictures I took...these most aptly depicting the idea of "bubbles"!

Blown glass "bubbles" among fall flowers

More glass "bubbles"

Floating glass gondola with bubbles on an infinity pool at the Arboretum

Another picture of the gondolas in the pool which also overlooks White Rock Lake

And although not bubbles, this glass waterfall had some bubbles created in the water flowing behind the glass

     The amazing exhibit was just breath-taking...it covered acres of blown glass...some huge works of art....tree-size!  And the display was so artfully placed...in and around the beautiful permanent floral exhibits of the park!

   

Memory Monday # 36

    The summer between the third grade and the fourth grade was pretty eventful. My mom was pregnant with a baby which would be my brother..(I am nearly nine years older than he and my sister was twelve years older).  I had developed a long lasting case of whooping cough...I wasn't bed ridden with it but had a lingering cough all summer!

     One day in early August, my mom went shopping and bought Judy (my sister) and me some late summer clothes.  One outfit I dearly loved was a bare midriff top with ruffles and a pair of matching shorts.  The ruffle and the cuff on the shorts was polka dots!  Judy's was blue with red and white polka dots...mine was yellow with green and white polka dots.

This is very similar to our new outfits!  The one with the shorts except with cuffs.

     I couldn't wait to try it on and see myself in the mirror!  In my excitement, I stood on this chair with wheels to pose in front of a mirror on the wall!  As I struck a most endearing pose, I leaned against the wall and the chair rolled out from under me!  I fell off but tried to catch myself...my left arm was twisted under me and the upper bone broke between my elbow and shoulder!

     My mom immediately saw it was broken, picked me up and took me to the car. She drove to the emergency room at the hospital!  She carried me inside and I was immediately attended to!  Mom later told me that our family doctor who was also a good friend of my mom and dad's (remember....small town...everyone knows everyone!)  really chewed her out for carrying me in..she was seven and half months pregnant....really big...(weight gain was not banned back then...) and I was a pretty good sized eight and a half year old!!

     I don't really know how they set bones now, but back in the 1940's, my arm was strung up in traction...pulleys and weights...over night, then the next morning, I was taken to surgery to have it set and placed in a plaster cast.  So here I am...in the hospital, strung up like a hog to be butchered...coughing my head off..and my poor PG mom is spending the night with me!  I remember my dad coming some time so mom could go home and rest a little before they were to take me to surgery to set my arm, promising me she would be back before that happened.  But she didn't make it...they came to take me; Daddy got to go with me and held me while the doctor literally twisted the bone back into place and put the cast on....Later, Mom told me she was furious with the doctor...he had purposely told her the wrong time they were going to take me up because he didn't think in her "delicate condition" she should be in surgery with me!!  Being the original Mother Lion, I can feel sympathy for the doctor!!  I am sure she really told him off!!!

     Oh, and....that darling little outfit I had on????  It had to be cut off me because they couldn't it pull it off over my head!!!  That should have taught me to not be such a show off!!!! But probably didn't!

Me with my sister, dad, grandma and J. Guy...with my broken arm!  AND..my sister is wearing  THE outfit!

   

Our Beautiful World-September

 This week, the blog Our Beautiful World, has given the word "September" to focus on.  So many lovely pictures on the blog!  Be sure to take a look!  September to me means several things...the beginning of the school year, the beginning of my favorite season...Fall, the beginning of cooler weather (but not HERE yet..100 today!) So here are some pictures to depict what September means to me!

Beginning of Fall colors over the Mississippi River

Fall Asters

Fall Asters at home in Texas

First Day of School

Fall colors in Illinois where I grew up

    Oh, and how could I forget!  The beginning of football season!!!  Football is KING in Texas...it is a kind of passion not seen everywhere!  We were more into following the marching bands and enjoyed the half time shows...with our daughters and granddaughter. ..all grown up and on to other things now!  We may have to just go to the games and "adopt" one of the marchers to follow!!!

Friday Night Lights!!

Memory Monday # 35

     Last week I posted a link to a utube about my home town's original school built in 1861.  I have to admit, I had not looked at the video until after I had posted.  I was delighted with it!!  It really brought back memories to me...the large class rooms, the high ceilings, the description of all the facility.

East School Building

This is not my third grade class, but a picture looking very much as it did!
These are like the desks we used...real antiques now!!!

     When I was in the third grade, my teacher was Miss Sutton...we all LOVED her!  She was tiny and sweet...and in our eyes...beautiful!  And we were so lucky to have her because that year, she became engaged and told us we would be her last class because she was getting married!  And I also remember that was the year the district added kindergarten to the curriculum...I myself, did not go to  kindergarten, just started with first grade.  Although I was young for my class because my birthday was November and the break back then was January 1...so anyone born in the same year, was in the same class.

The third grade me...I never did take very cheerful school pics!!

      The decision to have kindergarten in the school system meant finding a class room for them.  It was a half-day session, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  My third grade class was the room chosen to have the back third of the room walled off and a door installed for the "little" kids.  I just remember they seemed to be terribly noisy...especially if one set towards the back of the room  which I did!  And the little kids had to be marched through our classroom to go to recess, the restroom, etc!  Such an interruption!!!  I don't remember how long that was the situation with the kindergarten; years later a very permanent building was built which housed the K-first and second classes which was used for years, even after the building fell into disrepair and was abandoned until rescued by the Historical Society.