Seventy Year Typing Certificate

We have just a few documents from our families. I'm sure our high school diplomas are around somewhere but this turned up yesterday.

From Lebo, Kansas, in Coffey County, my husband earned this certificate in his first year of typing. He was sixteen and a junior in high school. I met him five years later after he had graduated and served four years in the navy. Yes, in at seventeen and out at twenty-one. We met on a blind date and were married three and a half months later. I'm sure my parents thought I was nuts but we were twenty-one and I guess since this year will be year sixty-five, we must have been right.

I don't think I know where the wedding certificate is!

Old Words

Last week I heard a word in an old movie on TCM that I hadn't heard for a long time:  piffle.

We used to say this when I was in high school, "Oh, piffle!" An expression of disgust is the way we used it. So I looked in dictionary.com and found out it means nonsense. As a verb it means to talk nonsense.

That made me think of other words I don't hear anymore. My mom called a boy going by on a bicycle a towhead. I thought she meant his head was shaped like a toe.  Later I discovered it meant very light blonde.

When I was a kid, I was tall and had thin legs. My dad told me I looked like a shyte poke, pronounced  to rhyme with shy. This was  a bird with long skinny legs. ( I since have shrunk in height but still have skinny legs.)

A friend (?) in high school told me I had alligator skin on my arms.

Another person kidded me and said I looked like Helen Brown. I was too dense to realize he was really meaning that I looked like hell in brown.  I wasn't too sharp. In Spanish class the Latinos called me Seca.  Dried up and thin.

Luckily, none of these things bothered me. They were harmless names and not like some terrible terms that are used more commonly now.

How did I get from old movies to calling people names? Stream of consciousness, I guess.

Later edit:  I used Google to look up shitepoke"   A common name for the bird, a heron, is shite-poke, which is an old-fashioned way of saying “bag [poke] of excrement. Used in Europe.

Care of Handkerchiefs (or is it handkerchieves?)

Lee opened his package of thirteen men's handkerchiefs, priced $5.00. The option was six for $3.00. Not being quick at math, I told him to get the larger pack.

After looking at the packaging, he read the notice on the package:

Handkerchiefs are reusable (really?) and do not waste environmental resources.

65% polyester       35% cotton

Machine wash cold. (No heat for killing germs?)  Gentle cycle. (They must be very delicate.)
Only non-chlorine bleach when needed. (Who uses bleach?)
Tumble dry low. Warm iron when needed. (Iron? What's that?)

I doubt if we will be that  careful of these new things. They will surely last in good condition until he loses them.

Walmart - The Search

Today we went to Walmart to look for men's handkerchiefs.

My, there are a lot of aisles with men's stuff: overalls, shirts, shorts (inner and outer,) socks, jeans, undershirts, gloves, pajamas, t-shirts, bandanas (they were close to the handkerchiefs.)

After strolling for quite some time, Lee asked a clerk. One nice thing about this store and the big grocery store we have - when you ask, they will lead. They don't just say, "Two aisles over."

I also picked up more yarn. I am always told get all that you need. I do for what I'm working on now, but who knows what colors I'll use later?

So with a fine mist and a strong wind, we came home and plan to stay in the rest of Good Friday..

What an exciting day.

Doughnut Wars

Yesterday we bought two boxes of doughnuts. LN picked out six with ooey gooey frosting; I picked several plain but assorted goodies.

After they were brought home and deposited on the counter, my doughnuts started disappearing. First it was a half that was gone with L.'s morning coffee. So I ate the other half.

After lunch another disappeared. I confronted him and said, "You are eating my doughnuts!" No answer. Later I told him I was half joking but why did he buy those with frosting if he wasn't going to eat them? There was no satisfactory answer. I believe we are buying and eating too many doughnuts. However, I have only had 1/2 of one plain.

Late afternoon another is gone. I guess I'm going to have hide them or put them in a lock box.

Jersey Afghan

This is a sample of the beautiful work my sister-in-law does. (The rows are really straight; that is just an optical illusion.) She inspired me and I am now using up yarn to make a similar one. Of course, in order to complete it, I have already bought more yarn. I needed more colors. I shamelessly copy her ideas. I hope they aren't copyrighted!

Seasonal Shift

We had many spring days in February. Now we are having fall days in April. Windy and chilly but sunny today.

My sister-in-law in New Jersey and I have been making afghans. Since all of our four grandchildren have at least one or two, I am making "spares." J. has ten grands so she is quite busy. In her spare time, friends of her daughter express their yearning for one so she obliges and I have lost count how many she has made. We share our results on Skype and talk every day.

There are many ideas on the internet and the latest that I have tried are crocheted "sweaters" for mugs. Since Picasa has morphed into Google Photos, I'm not sure how to include a phot in the blog.
Well, I can't post the mugs but I was able to add the following:

This is the birth date of my dad's cousin, Violet R. Hampton Dewey. I have a photo of her taken for  a contest "A Nation of Readers" at the Hutchinson Public Library.

Wonder of wonders, I was able to include the photo. The pitcher on the table was one she bought for her mother when she was a small child, about five. She saw it in a store and asked her dad to get it for her mom. This photo was my entry in a contest "A Nation of Readers" at the Hutchinson Public Library. Under the crocheted throw on her lap she was wearing her sweat pants. I think people over eighty should always be comfortable!