Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

* Black & White Memories *


This is one of my favorite photos among all the boxes of old prints!


It's my brother Mike and me, standing on our front porch steps. 
I think it might have been after he got home from his first day at school. 
Whether the first day or not, he's holding his red barn lunch bucket
 and his satchel and I'm hugging him. Awww...
(this photo was included in my memoir, too)

I thought I'd post it tonight because I've been searching for the actual print, 
which I haven't been able to find...but was able to print
 one from a digital one on my laptop. 

Thank goodness I took a photo of a photo!

I also decided to post it because Mike's birthday was September 29th. 
He was "X" years old, which is only 15 months older than me!

How time flies. I find myself thinking of old, happy memories more and more. 
I'm sure glad it's the happy ones I remember the most. And when sad ones pop 
into my head, I immediately "change the subject" of my mind!

&

Lastly, a new favorite poem that suits me well. 


Have a fabulous rest of the week!

Sunday, November 24, 2013

* NOSTALGIC SUNDAY *

It's Time Again for Another Nostalgic Sunday


My mind has been racing around in figure-eights and zig-zags, and miles way up high, and then swirling, floating down below with thoughts as many and as unique as the miracle of snowflakes. 

And because of all that, it's been almost impossible to choose which memories I want to include in today's Nostalgic Sunday post. So, I've decided to post random snippets of my memoir.


.....Some of my best memories are the times Dad and I watched TV together. It was more than just sitting, side by side, on our scratchy couch.(What was that material?)
I loved watching him as he watched TV. It was a show all by itself, an interactive one, and I was mesmerized every time...........
Dad would be so busy trying to watch TV while peering over his newspaper and holding his cigarette that he’d be lost to the world. It was as if he were daydreaming. Trying to get his attention during those times was next to impossible. I would watch the long ash of his cigarette hanging on for dear life, slowly bending down farther and farther, until it was the size of a gray wooly worm. Not being able to stand it a second longer, I’d finally yell, “Dad! Your ashes are falling!” I’d usually grab the ashtray and catch them just in the nick of time. He’d nonchalantly glance my way, as if he’d forgotten I was even there. He’d let out a chuckle and thank me for being so watchful. Afterwards, he’d go back to doing it all over again.

~~~

.......“Do you know what this note says?” she asked.
I already knew it wasn’t something good from her face and her tone. “No, ma’am.”
“Miss Mary Ann says you cheated during the times table test today! Rebecca Anne, is that right? Did you cheat?”
 Oh my gosh. I know I’m in big trouble when I’m called Rebecca!
“Uh…well, I uh—”
“I can’t believe this! You know better than to do something like this. You know it’s wrong to cheat. And it’s a sin!”
There it was—the dreaded guilt of sin being laid on me. I’d never seen my mother so upset, about anyone or anything, and here she was angry with me. I guess I was going to go to Hell. Attending a Catholic school Monday through Friday and Mass every Sunday, I knew all about Heaven and Hell and sins. But what I did should only be a venial sin, shouldn’t it? Not the horrible, mortal kind.I started to explain about the paper hanging out of someone’s desk, and how I thought I could do something like that.......

~~~

I hope y'all enjoyed reading those little tidbits of my young life! What else might have happened when I watched TV? What punishment did I receive for my gosh, I'm gullible sin?

*Welcome to my newest follower, Living a Dream. I hope you'll stop by often and always enjoy what you read and see! Thank you so much! *





"Back on its golden hinges, the gate of memory swings. And my heart goes into the garden and walks with the olden things." --  Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Intense Colors & Joy

I've mentioned before that autumn is my favorite season. I wasn't sure what kind of affect the crazy summer weather would have on the leaves in my part of the world, but I must say I haven't been a bit disappointed!

When I've been in my car the past few days, I could barely keep my eyes on the road due to my "Tree Admiring, Shrub Gawking, Foliage Observing" driving!

I thought many internal "Oohs and Aahs" and even shrieked some outloud....all to myself, while meandering through winding roads.
When I left to go on errands today I even took my camera with me. I realized immediately, though, I wasn't going to be able to stop and take pictures.

I would've been stopping every few feet, rolling down my car windows, taking pictures of gorgeous trees in people's yards....and would've probably had the police called on me! I'm going to have The Ronald drive me and see how that works.  


So..when I got back home this afternoon, it was time for Vern's walk. We try to go on one every single day. He gives me the incentive to do it even when I don't really want to, because he just loves it! AND, an added side benefit to that is....it certainly has helped with my weight loss. I've lost between twelve and fourteen pounds, depending on how well I eat any certain day! I plan to lose at least eight more.
Vern snoozing last Saturday evening, after a hard day....consisting of one walk and lots of rest!

Anyway, while on our walk today, I picked up a few lovely leaves to share with y'all. These were right in my neighborhood which is just breathtaking.

While stooping down to pick these up, a flood of school day memories hit me: Walking home from fifth grade, shuffling through the fallen leaves carrying an armful of books, seeing a pile of burning leaves at the edge of the street, hearing the crackling noise and inhaling that intoxicating aroma, reliving the two-sentence conversation I had with the current boy of my dreams....Ahh, it seems like yesterday.
Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter." ---Carol Bishop Hipps

Sunday, August 22, 2010

** SCHOOL DAYS **

When I went to school, back in the OLDEN days....we didn't start until after Labor Day. When our last day of school was, before summer vacation began, depended on how many, if any, snow days we had during the school year. So, when I see and hear about kids being back in school in the middle or end of August, it just doesn't seem right, ya know?

I have such fond memories of fall days and evenings....shuffling along in dried, fallen leaves, smelling that one-of-a-kind scent of burning leaves.....BUT, I'm not going to write about that tonight. That will have to wait for another time.....when it's not so blasted hot and humid. I am SO ready for this heat to subside.

However, I DO have something to post in honor of "School Days". This cute collage hangs in our upstairs hallway, next to a guest room and right outside my office door, so I see it often. It holds Mark's school pictures from his first grade photo through his high school senior photo.

When I bought this, complete with the school motif and ruler frame, I think Mark was in the 2nd or 3rd grade. I remember thinking how it would take soooo long to fill in every empty place, waiting for the correct year's photo. Also, I agonized over the price of it! It couldn't have been more than $10.00 or so, but money was so tight at that time. I finally decided I just HAD to have it and I would regret it forever, if I didn't buy it. I still love it to this day. There, in one frame, I can see how my little boy grew up so fast, right before my eyes. How could it have gone by so quickly? I was a stay-at-home mom. I was there. I didn't miss out on anything. I had the presence of mind to cherish every moment, and not wish he was older......yet, the years did fly by and now he's almost 23 years old. As I've said before, sometimes I really miss that cuddly little boy, while at the same time I'm so proud of the man he has become.

All you younger moms out there.....cherish your children, because one day, all too soon, you will be thinking or writing these very same words.


Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older. When did they?
When did she get to be a beauty?  When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn't it yesterday when they were small? -- Lyrics to "Sunrise Sunset"