Mom's Birthday

These are my favorite  pictures of my mom, Selma Wright Brown. She was born on February 7, 1904, in Halstead, KS. She had three brothers and two sisters. Another sister died in infancy. 

She was next to the youngest.

When she was seventeen, she went to nurse's training at the Halstead Hospital which was started by Dr. Arthur E. Hertzler. He was "The Horse and Buggy Doctor" which was the name of one of his books. Later he wrote "The Doctor and His Patients." I have a copy of each, signed by the author.

She graduated in the class of 1923. She did floor duty and private practice in patients' homes.

After three years of marriage, she and my dad adopted me from the hospital in Hutchinson, KS, where she occasionally worked. It was the best thing that happened to me - ever!

During WWII, there was a shortage of many things - one being nurses. The hospital wanted her to come to work. She told them she had a ten year old daughter.  Their reply? She's old enough to take care of herself. She did go to work and after school I went to a cousin's house after school. It all worked out.

She was a great mom and became a grandmother after seven years of my husband and I being married. I think she had given up. (So had I.) So she only was able to love the two grandsons for five years. 

Sixty is way too young for a grandmother to die.  I miss her and I'm  sorry for the grief I gave her a few times when I was a teen. She forgave me and that's good!

It's Cold

I know, it's winter, but for us a high of 24 for today is too chilly. So we stay inside and wait for a warmer day to get outside.

For lunch the main course was s*&% on a shingle. Dried beef in gravy on toast. I have made it earlier this year with corned beef because I couldn't find any dried beef in the meat section.

At the store last week I asked a clerk where I could locate it. She said, "We have corned beef." I said, "Yes, thank you. I know where that is. I'd really like the dried beef."

She seemed to think a moment and then said, "It comes in a jar and is on aisle eight, top shelf."
I thanked her and headed to aisle eight. As I went, I wondered how she managed to bring that out of her brain. All the employees are very friendly and helpful but how can they remember where all those thousands of items are located?

What if they are wearing a tiny microphone and a hidden ear piece. Someone in an office has the job to monitor them and tells them immediately where a particular item can be found.

Have I been watching too many spy thrillers?

I found it easily on aisle eight, top shelf, in a small jar. Amazing.

Nature Photo

When we lived in Texas for fifteen months, we walked our dog, Wally, night and day. At night there were all these little bright points of light in the grass. After using the flash light up close and personal, we discovered they were tiny spider eyes reflecting our light. This photo doesn't show them very well. Some nights they were like sparkling dew.

Made me want to buy some high top boots.

Nothing Much Going On

Today only big event is, of course, Super Bowl Sunday.
 I mostly ignore all the hype that started at eleven o'clock this morning.

I like the ads and today the added bonus will be a new wrinkle in the fly-over. An F-16 and an A-10.
Maybe more than one of each. In a closed stadium, how will the fans see them?

Oh. I forgot. Giant, jumbo screens.

Dear Diary

When I was ten years old, my Aunt Hattah gave me a five year diary. I kept something written in it every day for the next five years.
Today I saw it in a drawer. The lock is still locked. No key. But when I looked at the side, someone had cut the leather strap away so I, or anyone else, could read it.

Most of the entries say, "I practiced." That would have been on the piano. My parents got me a Kimball spinet piano and I took lessons for a long time. There are mentions of skating to the library, playing paper dolls, ping pong, Goal High, basketball and catch. Riding bicycles to the movies. I don't remember much of this stuff. I wonder if other people remember much of their childhood.

There are some mystifying entries: Dad got mad at me. No reason given why. During these years I started driving at fourteen - it was legal. To get a license the questions were, Are you color blind, do you have epileptic seizures. No and no. That'll be fifty cents. And this was not a learners permit.
We drove all over.

On April 12th, "Pres. Roosevelt died in '45! It's awful. The war may last longer."

On June 6, 1944 I have written in big letters, "Invasion of Europe in '44!"
This is all written in pencil and is fading. Some pages are very hard to read.

We skated a lot and went to many movies. One theater accepted pop bottle caps instead of a dime on Saturdays. After we got there (I think it was the Midland) we decided to go to the Fox instead. They didn't take bottle caps and I didn't have a dime so we had to go back to the Midland.

What amazes me that most of this stuff I don't remember at all!

Cold Weather

It's winter. It's February. So why do I think it should be warmer?

Nothing planned outside the house today. I tried another new recipe and this one was a hit. Someone even ate everything on his plate. That is not a normal occurrence  here. We were both raised during the Depression but somehow it stuck with me - sit there and eat that till it's gone.

Not in a mean way, just eat it. That was particularly hard for me when it was round steak. Yes, we had steak during those hard years. My dad had a good job with the electric company, KP&L, so we were fortunate. But the one thing I remember my mom failing at in cooking was fried steak; fried until it was DONE!  And TOUGH. The longer I chewed, the larger that chunk of meat got. Or so it seemed to me.

The first time I had a broiled steak, cooked medium well, it changed my thinking.

I'm so glad I'm not a vegetarian.

So even though it wasn't steak, our taco flavored hamburger casserole was good on this chilly day.

Entrapment?

My husband watches "Cops" part of the time. I have watched too and I admire these men who put up with all the harsh words,  disrespect and violence from those  they have to deal with.

One particular episode bothers me. The one where a female officer is sent out on the street or, as in today's program, a country road, and waves down passing cars with a single male driving.

She offers them a date and then the hidden officers swarm in.

I guess prostitution is against the law but was sex on these men's minds when they were driving along, minding their own business and someone flags them down? Sure, they could have gone on driving. Maybe they thought the woman was having a problem or was in some kind of trouble.

They stop and they are propositioned. If they accept, they are in big trouble and on the way to jail.



Or perhaps sex was on their mind in the first place.