Thank You-

Thank you for dresser drawer beds and whisky shot glasses instead of bassinets and sippy cups.
 
Thank you for little smocked dresses with mice scattered across the fabric.
 
Thank you for prickley pears and magnolia blossoms.
 
Thank you for piggy back rides and starry nights.
 
Thank you for sleepovers on the roof and under a bush.
 
Thank you for slingshots, [...]

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Mimi~

When we moved to Landers on Christmas Eve 1983, we brought with us my Christmas present.  A black lab mix (dumbest animals on the planet.  Why is it that you take a smart dog like a lab, mix it with any other dog, including other smart ones, and you get a stupid mutt instead of [...]

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A Good Old Fashioned Spanking~

I had old-fashioned parents.  They had crazy ideas about them being the authority and I being under their authority.  I was expected to obey, without question, and without complaint.  And I did.
 
I only remember two spankings.  I know I must have had more.  I remember dad explaining to me when we lived in Fillmore- I [...]

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Drummer Hoff~

Corporal Farrel brought the barrel.
But Drummer Hoff fired it off.
She read that book to me so many times that we quoted it throughout my whole life.  We’d walk (I think) to the library in Fillmore.  We brought home lots of books.  I remember Drummer Hoff, Caps For Sale (illustrated by someone I’ve never found yet) [...]

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The Bible Story~

One memory of my childhood didn’t make sense until I was an adult.  Ok, so a lot of them didn’t but this one in particular was one of those things that illustrate just how valuable wise and discerning parents truly are.
Mesa, Arizona.  John Hancock Academy.  Third grade.  Mrs. Rothlesburger’s classroom.
We were given an assignment.  It [...]

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Waiting…

 I have one reundant memory of my mother.  One, I confess, I cherish and wish I didn’t have both.  Mom waiting.  She did a lot of waiting.  For me.  She waited, outside church, outside school, movies… you name it.  I cannot fathom the number of hours that my mother sat in a vehicle, often in [...]

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Say WHAT?

The Scene:  A balmy afternoon.
The Stage:  Home
And…. ACTION!
I open the dutch doors to our gate.  They bang together as they always did no matter how hard I tried to keep them quiet.  They’re latched.  I swing my cerulean backpack from my shoulders and open the door.  It has an unusual door handle.  It says YALE [...]

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The Magic Number~

In some families, the magic number is 3.  You know, “I’m going to count to three!!!!  One—– two—- two and a half— two and … THREE”  That would never work in our house.  In our house it would have been more like.  “Do it.   Negative one.. BUSTED!” 
However, we had a “Magic Number” too, or rather, [...]

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Of Mom and Books~

Mom gave me a wide variety of books to read.  From the first Little Golden Books to the little green Beatrix Potter books in the Fillmore Library, to Nancy Drew, Meg, and later Atlas Shrugged and Flowers in the Attic.  I read ‘em all and everything in between.  When I look back, I wonder how [...]

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Don’t Know Much About…

It’s all Nancy Drew’s fault.  I read the books.  I liked them.  The mysteries were fun to decipher and the adventures she had kept the books intriguing.  However, my real delight was the drawings of Nancy, Bess, and occasionally George.  I loved their clothing.  The full skirted dresses with little jackets and hats.  I loved [...]

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