Friday Five: Road Trip

Jan at RevGalBlogPals writes:

My husband and I just returned (on Wednesday night) from a long road trip up the middle USA to Canada, going through various national parks, and on to the Puget Sound of Washington State. This brought back memories of family road trips with my children and when I was a child, so the idea of today's Friday Five arose.
Tell us about five road trips--in your childhood, in your family, in your recent past, with friends, and/or hoped-for-places-to-drive-to. Don't forget the one that stands out as the BEST or as the worst time.

1. The first road trip I remember was in the spring of 1955 when my parents, four younger siblings, and I drove from El Paso, Texas to Bowdoinham, Maine, with a stop in Norwalk, Ohio “on the way.” My father had orders for Germany, to which we’d follow in about 6 months, so he ws taking some leave time to take us back to our little house in Maine where we’d await our port call. I don’t remember what kind of car we had other than it was a sedan of some kind. My eldest younger brother sat in front because he had a tendency to get car-sick. I was in back with the twins, who were about 2 1/2, and baby brother who was just about to turn one. The space between the front and back seats was filled with footlockers padded with blankets. I’m not sure about the diapers – I think disposables were just becoming available and we may have used those some of the time, but I also seem to recall a diaper pail and occasional stops at laundromats.

We did some sight-seeing along the way – I remember a stop at a scary snake farm – and sampled indigenous cuisine such as catfish-flavored grilled cheese sandwiches in the Ozarks. The visit to Norwalk was to see my aunt’s family, which included my one same-age cousin, and was a welcome respite from the road. When we arrived back in Maine at last, I remember my parents pointing out damage from the previous fall’s hurricane. I think it was a good trip.

2. After our return from Germany, we lived for several years in southern Connecticut, about a six-hour drive from home in Maine, so there were several trips a year. My mother would make sandwiches (to this day I dislike egg salad; I preferred when she would make “Italians” as we call them here); my parents would have a big thermos of coffee, and I suppose we kids had something to drink too. The clearest memory of these trips is the landmarks we looked for – East Rock and West Rock in New Haven, which meant we were really on our way; the various giant billboards and advertising statues just north of Boston; the fourteen (I think( underpasses of New Hampshire, and then the bridge across the Piscataqua from New Hampshire to Maine, which cost a dime. I would begin to feel at home as soon as the first toll-booth attendant said “Thank YOU sah!” but the twins did not ever believe we were in Maine until the smell of woodsmoke wafted through the car windows. When we got to our road, since nearly everyone who lived on it was a relative, my father would honk the horn at every house we passed until we arrived at my grandparents’ house, where Grampie’s dog Dinah would rush out to welcome us.

3. When we went to Germany again in the mid-60s, I hung out at the post library a lot. The librarian and I became friends and the summer before my senior year we took a little road trip in her VW Beetle. Since we were in Stuttgart, we took a wonderful trip around Bavaria to the south, visiting Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Oberammergau, and two of Mad King Ludwig’s castles, Schoss Linderhof and Schloss Neuschwanstein (the latter the model for Sleeping Beauty’s Castle). We also got as far as Lake Constance and looked across to Switzerland. At night we would stop wherever we were and find a Gasthaus mit Zimmer Frei – I just remember one town, Bad Kohlgrub, the name of which my parents found hysterically funny. Riding through the Bavarian Alps was a bit scary for me but we sang folksongs and musical theatre numbers which distracted acrophobic me at least a bit. It was a great trip.

4. Our third Christmas together, Onkel Hankie Pants and I headed for Maine from southern Minnesota, in our little Austin America. Our first child was on the way. I had checked out the Mobil Travel Guide from the library and planned a route through Toledo, Ohio (our first stop) and then a stop in Fairfield, Connecticut to see my friends whose families still lived there. In Toledo we even had a motel reservation – unfortunately in the same motel where some bowling club was having a loud Christmas party. Not much sleep there. Driving through the Poconos in a slushy snowstorm was interesting, to say the least. Also, the muffler gave up the ghost so our stop in Connecticut included a visit to the muffler shop; as I recall, the repair didn’t exactly work and the Wisconsin-Minnesota portion of our return trip was a little noisy. However, we had a fine time in Connecticut even though we all went to see a Bergman film, and a wonderful Christmas in Maine.

This is a picture of the Austin; imagine it bright orange.

5. I’ve enjoyed many road trips since, and hope to have a few more, but the one that stands out is a “shunpike” tour we took when our son was 4 years old. With the help of Jane and Michael Stern’s book Roadfood and a few other guidebooks, we planned a fun and educational trip. (And I know my daughters are jealous now. There are advantages to being the eldest.) Some highlights of the trip included visiting the reproduction of the Ingalls family cabin in Pepin, Wisconsin (we had already read all of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books to SonShineIn), followed by riding the ducks at Wisconsin Dells. We went swimming in Lake Michigan at Indiana Dunes State Park, rode a barge on the Erie Canal (where SonShineIn covered himself with glory by loudly bursting into “I’ve got a mule, her name is Sal, Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal” unprompted); and on the return trip, Niagara Falls. Below, a few photos from that trip.

Indiana Dunes State Park

Onkel Hankie Pants and SonShineIn at the Ingalls cabin reproduction in Pepin, WI.

Looking back, I can’t remember a road trip that I didn’t enjoy most of the time. I’ve been fortunate in my traveling companions!

Friday Five: IF

It’s been far too long since I’ve updated this blog. Some minor health issues (resolved), Christmas craziness and fun (over now and welcomed guests returned to their own homes) and sheer winter hibernation or, to give it its proper name, laziness, interfered. I’ll have to pick up the songs and stories next December. Meanwhile, here we go again, with this week’s Friday Five coming from RevGalBlogPal Jan, who blogs at Yearning for God.

1. If you were a color, what would you be?

A soft, heathery blue-grey. That’s today. Maybe tomorrow it would be a dusty rose , or a sunny yellow . A chameleon perhaps?

2. If you were a flower (or plant), what would you be?

A pot of rosemary, inside for the winter, outside in summer, adding taste and aroma to everyday life. (Alas…I do not have a green thumb so my pot of rosemary died.)
3. If you were an animal, what kind would you be?

I’m afraid lots of people are going to say this, but…a cat. Home-loving, not usually energetic but capable of furious activity, likes people but also likes solitude. And they are all so pretty!
4. If you were a shoe, what type would you be?

I’m thinking I’d be this one , which I’m wearing right now. It’s an indoor shoe that can go outdoors, comfortable, durable, easy on and off, with a warm lining.
5. If you were a typeface, which font would you be?

Nicolas Jenson Italic. I liked it when I wrote headlines for my college newspaper, and I like it still. It’s both elegant and readable, two qualities to which I aspire.

Bonus: Anything connected with metaphors that you'd like to contribute.

Sorry, my mind is a blank. Sisterfilms’ work Internet was down, and she’s been calling me all day with requests to look things up!

Prioritizing

is one of my problem areas, and another is not getting distracted from one task by another. So I'm going to blog today about some of my upcoming tasks and maybe by writing them down so publicly I can prioritize or at least check them off. I used to visit a website called www.organizedhome.com. There were people, and probably still are, who would post daily to-do lists that started with "Get up. Shower. Brush teeth. Get dressed..." I'm not making fun of them. I have been, if not quite there, pretty darn close at times in the past. But there is something a little funny about stopping to post the list on the Internet....As there is with what I'm doing. But I have an ulterior motive, as I realized I hadn't blogged today and it's after 11.

So, before December 1st (and in some cases quite a bit before) here's what I want to accomplish:

Write, compile, and send out a Thanksgiving issue of Speedwell Stories, my (mother's side) family history newsletter. (I do it by email.)

Complete acquisition, wrapping and mailing of Advent presents for Cordeliaknits and Sisterfilms.

Choose and record Christmas stories on disc for SF and mail them.

Mail the 2006 stories on disc to my niece for her daughters.

Prepare December blogposts (about the stories from 2007) in advance.

Have a potluck dessert party for family on Advent 1.

Finish getting ready for the church Christmas fair this Saturday -- I'm co-chairing the book room.

Seriously begin Christmas shopping; organize namedraw for Christmas Eve festivities with the extended family.

Clean my office. Do laundry. Organize guest room so that it will be hospitable for Sisterfilms and The Traveller when they come for Christmas.

Finish the library books I have out, then go on a library fast for a few weeks and read books I already own, including more of the Guardian 1000 Novels.

Catch up with my movie reviewing on Queuing Up.

Keep a few other promises I've made to various people.

I guess I'd better get some rest so I can get busy tomorrow!

Reading Report

Books to the ceiling, books to the sky.
My piles of books are a mile high.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
≈ Arnold Lobel

To date this year I have read 151 books; this includes two books that I read a significant portion of but did not finish and do not plan to revisit. I would like to reach 200, but I’m not sure I’ll make it.

Of the books, 94 were mystery/detective/suspense novels or collections of short stories in that genre. This is partly because I have two “projects” or challenges going on in that genre; one is to read all the Edgar Best Novel Winners, in chronological order (they’ve been given out since 1954, and I’m up to the late 90s now); the other is to read at least one mystery, by an author new to me, from every state in the Union and Washington, D.C. I just finished a book from Michigan a couple of days ago. The other reason, besides that I like mysteries, is my participation in the DorothyL listserv, where I am constantly reminded of old favorites who have new books and l also learn about authors I’d not been aware of.

Nine of the books were fantasy or speculative fiction; most of those were by Terry Pratchett. The two books I didn’t finish also fell into that category.

Fiction of various other kinds accounted for 30 books; I also read one autobiography, two memoirs, and 15 other non-fiction books.

The third challenge I’ve set for myself is to complete reading the Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (I’ve done a recount and it’s actually 1070, since they lump all Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series together as well as some other trilogies, quartets and other series). Optimistically believing that I might have 25 years of reading in which to do this, I calculated that I should be reading 40 of the novels per year (since I had already read a couple of hundred or so during the course of my reading life). So far this year I have read 21 novels from the list.

So, between now and December 31, my goal is to read 48 1/2 more books (I’ve already made good progress on #152), of which 19 ought to be from the Guardian’s list. Since I have some other things I want to do and/or have to do, I may not reach that goal. But I will enjoy trying!

Friday Five: Something New

Songbird at RevGalBlogPals tells us: “There's a new baby on my street, a double PK whose Mom and Dad are Methodist pastors and church planters. I'm hoping to go over and meet her today. I love new babies, the way they smell and their sweet little fingers and toes. Little K has me thinking about all the new things that please us with their shiny freshness.
Please share with us five things you like *especially* when they are new.”

1. KITTENS! Puppies too, I suppose, but I have more experience with kittens. Since the passing of our cat Heidi last summer, we have been a cat-less household for longer than we’ve ever been during our whole marriage. Heidi and Rusty never got along very well, so this seems like a wise plan, and yet, we occasionally catch ourselves wistfully wondering whether a new kitten (well, 8 weeks old, as our state law requires) could get used to Rusty and he to it and that there could be peaceful coexistence or even friendship.

2. APPLIANCES! Since we moved into this house in 2005, we’ve replaced the washing machine, the clothes dryer, and the refrigerator; most likely the stove will be next, although I both hope and fear that its replacement is a while in the future still. I still appreciate all the newer appliances, but when they were really new and shiny I appreciated them even more, making excuses to wash and dry things, trying out new arrangements for the refrigerator shelves….

3. NEW PENS, NOTEBOOKS, ETC! I like these far, far too much. At this point, I am making myself use up the pages of old notebooks to write my first drafts of blog posts (I generally do FFs off the cuff, but the others I write in longhand first), because I have so many lying around. It’s a little easier to feed my addiction to new pens because they do get used up or lost/misplaced regularly. I like gel pens mostly, with black fine point as the default. But sometimes it’s fun to write with a thicker blue line, or red or green or purple. This picture is from a blog that I’m going to have to start reading because it seems to be all about pens and stationery! A trip to Staples is both a joy and a struggle for me as I try to resist buying things I don’t really need, but really, really want.

4. NEW BOOKS! New to me, at least. But even though I have no problem with used books and library books, there is still something extra special about crisp-paged, brightly-colored, hot-off-the-press new books. The new book shelf at the library is great, too. This photo is from the Legislative Library in New Brunswick, Canada. I'd be interested in that rubber duck book.

5. NEW SLIPPERS! I’d really like some. Pretty soon they’d be old slippers and I’d still like them even then. Wicked Good slippers from Bean’s, size 11, color immaterial. New shoes are nice too, but sometimes problematic because they can need to be broken in. But new slippers are comfy and warm right away.

I have to say, I do like new babies, for all the reasons Songbird mentions; but as I’ve seen with my own children, the wonder of their babyhood just keeps getting better and better as they grow. I might like to visit those baby days for a little while, but not forever.

Going to the Movies with My Brother

Brother #1 and me, a couple of years before we started going to movies together.

I have a vague recollection of being taken to a drive-in movie by my mother and one of her brothers when I was 6 or 7, but my first real memories of going to the movies go back to 1956, when we moved to the Hainerberg housing area in Wiesbaden. Our apartment was on Mississippistrasse, which may have been close to the outer edge of the housing area at that time. My memory is that it was at the top of a hill with the PX and Post Theater at the bottom of the hill. About halfway down, there was a Bread and Milk Station where I was sometimes sent on errands for my mother.

The hill is long and steep as I look back on it, but it really probably wasn’t that bad, since Brother #1 and I could walk down and back by ourselves to go to the movies. (Yes, we were free-range kids!) Fifty cents would buy both our tickets and leave twenty cents over for candy. I don’t remember ever getting popcorn; I guess we just preferred candy.

When we started doing this, Brother #1 was five and I was eight. I’m sure we always went to matinee performances, but I don’t recall any specifically-for-kids movies except for Walt Disney’s Song of the South. My parents must have exercised some oversight over our choices, since, while I recall seeing trailers for The Rose Tattoo, Tea and Sympathy, and The Bad Seed, I never saw the actual movies. But here are some of the ones we did see: Beyond Mombasa – my brother loved movies about Africa, and for some reason this title stuck in my head, but I’m sure we saw several others like it. We also saw Something of Value – which I suspect would not get a PG-13 rating nowadays.

Bundle of Joy – Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher in a comedy about “unwed motherhood,” 50s-style

Tammy and the Bachelor – more Debbie Reynolds, but I had forgotten that “the Bachelor” is played by Leslie Nielsen!

Friendly Persuasion – Indiana Quakers in the Civil War, with Anthony Perkins and Gary Cooper

Kismet, The King and I, and Oklahoma – three of the great movie musicals. My brother still tells of being snookered into going to see Oklahoma because “It’s about cowboys.”

The last time I can remember going to a movie with my brother was in 1964, and again, it was at a Post Theater – this time at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart-Moehringen. We hadn’t been there very long and the theater was showing The Longest Day (starring my pre-teen heart-throb, Fabian!) There was a long line to get in, and standing near us was a middle-aged buck sergeant who told us he wanted to see the film because he had been in the D-Day Landings himself (after all, it was only twenty years in the past then). He explained his low rank by having spent some years as a civilian before returning to the service. Ah, Sgt. Gnospelius, where are you now?

Now that my brother and I live near each other again, perhaps we should make a date to take in a movie together once more; I bet we’ll have just as much fun as we did 50+ years ago, but I know it will cost a lot more.

Further Memories from Sartoriusstrasse

It’s November 1st, and the beginning of NaNoWriMo, when we are encouraged to write a 50,000 word novel. Not gonna do it. But I am going to try to blog every day, and I’ll start out with some more memories from my family’s first sojourn in Germany.

It was over 50 years ago that we set off on the journey to Germany. I remember getting shots – we got lots of them throughout our childhood, courtesy of the Army, and I don’t think any of us fear them to this day. I believe my mother’s eldest sister accompanied us on the train to New Jersey, where we would board the MATS (Military Air Transport Service) plane for a 19-hour flight to Rhein-Main Airport. There was at least one refueling stop (Greenland?) but I can’t remember whether we got off the plane there. I, and probably other children my age (7) and older, got to visit the cockpit and were given little winged flight pins.

Since I’ve already discussed our stay in Bad Schwalbach a few weeks ago, I’ll start with a few more things about our time on Sartoriusstrasse. Although the Occupation had officially ended a few months before our arrival, West Germany was not yet the prosperous nation it would soon become. There were still areas where the effects of wartime bombs could be seen, but the biggest effect was on the people. (For a really good book about displaced persons in Germany after the war, seek out a copy of Margot Benary-Isbert’s children’s book The Ark.) Since we were in a small American enclave in the city of Wiesbaden, we had people occasionally coming to the door to beg, and more often, to pick through our garbage in search of anything usable. (For some time afterward, we children would insult each other by sneering “Garbage picker!” Dumpster Diving was not yet cool in the 1950s.) German schoolchildren would walk by on their way to and from school, carrying their battered school satchels and often holding hands (both of which were new sights to us), and I have a vivid mental image of one of them. She was bare-legged and even at 7, I could tell that the fabric of her dress was nothing like the sturdy cottons from which my mother made my dresses.

For the most part we bought our food at the Commissary and most other things at the PX. The commissary’s dairy products all came from Denmark (which was still true in 1972 when I was stationed in Berlin). We were warned not to eat ice cream from street vendors for fear of tuberculosis. My mother tried some German recipes that our maid Hilda taught her, including Rotkohl (red cabbage – which I would encounter again when I married into a Danish-American family). I don’t recall that any of them made it into her permanent repertoire, though.

As I’ve said, our housing came furnished, but the PX was a source for decorative items. I believe that’s where we acquired the brass bas-relief plates depicting Anne Hathaway’s cottage and Shakespeare’s birthplace – Brother #1 has them now. A very popular item that my father scorned was the camel saddle. I have a memory of someone else we knew who had one that was coming apart and how smelly the stuffing was! European and British items of all kinds were available at the PX. Candy was not something we had constantly around the house, but I remember fancy tins of Quality Street candies at Christmas time

And at least once, there was an industrial-sized (to my eyes anyway) can of Jordan almonds, a favorite confection of my mother’s.

We also had a Sears Roebuck catalog, although I don’t know whether we actually ordered from it while we were in Germany. (This is the best photo I could find from the 1955 catalog.) My best memory of the Sears catalog is that I would come home from school and Brother #3 would just be waking from his nap (he was about 18 months old). I could keep him amused for a while by looking at and talking about the layette pages, which at that time were illustrated in the margins with drawings of babies doing cute things.

School was General Hoyt S. Vandenberg Elementary (now Hainerberg Elementary), which was a very modern building compared to Coombs School in Bowdoinham, whence I’d come, which had been fairly old even when my mother went there. My teacher for second grade was Miss Pieruki, who in my memory is very young and pretty. I wonder if teaching in Wiesbaden was just a short, adventurous interlude for her, or whether she made a career in the overseas schools? I suppose I learned the usual things in second grade, but what I chiefly recall is that I sat in the last row of desks next to a boy named Bernard See. On the back wall of the classroom hung a phonics chart, and it was when I couldn’t read the chart from my seat that Miss Pieruki discovered I needed glasses. I still remember the excitement of coming home from the optician’s with my first pair and being able to read the letters on the German advertising signs for the first time.

Friday Five: On Your Feet!

Jan at RevGalBlogPals says today:

Too often the Friday Fives I offer up seem extremely introspective, so here's something that could be fun. I notice as I finish my sixth decade that my taste in footwear is much different than when I was younger, as comfort wins out over fashion. So look at your feet and think about what you put on them!
1. What is your favorite footwear at this time in your life?

I guess it’s the pink moccasins I got for $3.00 at Marden’s last year. My plan was to have them substitute for slippers, but I started wearing them outside too. Now I wish I’d bought the green ones as well. (Marden’s is a Maine institution – a salvage store with several locations. I need to go there soon, especially as it’s across the street from my cousin’s great barbecue restaurant.)

2. What was the craziest shoe, boot, or sandal you ever wore?

Many people would think these were quite normal but…on my first date with Onkel Hankie Pants I wore shiny brown pumps with what I recall as 3” spike heels, although they may have been only 2”. For me, that was crazy – crazy uncomfortable!

3. What kind of shoes did you wear in your childhood?
In my childhood it was firmly believed that young children should always wear lace-up shoes, and preferably leather; even Keds were thought to be bad for one’s feet. So I wore lace-up shoes and saddle shoes. I’m pretty sure I was in fifth grade before I got my first pair of loafers (and already wearing a woman’s size 9).

4. How do you feel most comfortable? Barefoot, flip-flops, boots, or what?

I like moccasins and Mary Janes, though my Mary Janes wore out and the company changed the style just enough not to fit right any more. I do like lace-up shoes (these days walking shoes) for walking, but once I start to relax they always feel too confining. I hate flip-flops or any kind of between-the-toes sandal.

5. What kind of socks do you like, if any?

In summer, if I wear socks, I like the bamboo anklets from Target. My favorite pair of winter socks are the hand-dyed, hand-knitted ones that Cordeliaknits’ friend (http://stonesoupart.blogspot.com) made for me. Otherwise any warm socks that aren’t too tight on top; sometimes I have to get men’s socks as my feet are big.
Bonus: Anything you want to share about feet or footwear.

I really identify with this song….

Memories of Sartoriusstrasse

In Friday’s post I talked a little about our family’s sojourn on Sartoriusstrasse in Wiesbaden, Germany. Today I’m going to tell some more of what I remember; hoping that perhaps, through the magic of Google, someone else with memories of those days will be in touch.

We arrived, as I mentioned before, in late October or early November of 1955. The American, British and French occupation of West Germany had officially ended only in May of that year, and Germany was still rebuilding from the war. Probably because we had a large family of five children, we were assigned quarters in a requisitioned town house in the center of Wiesbaden, on Sartoriusstrasse. I did not realize until I looked at this map that we were only a few blocks from the main train station in Wiesbaden! In my researches, I’ve been hampered by not knowing the exact address where we lived; of course all our mail came to the APO address and was picked up by my father at work. A nearby hospital has been enlarged since we lived there, so it’s possible the building has been torn down; but I did find this photo of 29 Sartoriusstrasse, which looks very similar to what I remember. Our quarters, as best I recall, was the middle house of five. My parents later reminded me that the basement was common to all five houses, so that all the children could play there on rainy or cold days. The back yards had, I think, stone fences separating them, but that did not stop us either.

For the six months preceding our trip to Germany, my mother and we children had been living in our little house in Maine – four rooms and an attic, with an outdoor privy. I know that at one of the times we lived there,  we also got water from the neighbor’s well, but possibly we had some kind of running water, at least from a pump, by this time. In any case, living in this rather fancy house in Wiesbaden was a big difference. There were three floors, with a bathroom on each. At first, I had my own room on the third floor, but at 7 I was a little too young to appreciate that so I soon moved in with my 3-year-old sister on the second floor. In addition to a living room and dining room, we had a playroom, I think on the first floor, which must have saved my mother a few steps when we needed supervision.  The house came furnished with heavy, dark furniture and even china – Brother #1, I believe, has the slightly chipped gravy boat that we had to buy from the Army when we moved because we had chipped it. It’s white with a dark red stripe like some church dinnerware, but more delicate. My sister has a souvenir of the furniture – a tiny scar on her forehead where she slid under my parents’ bed during a chase.

Our previous homes had certainly had no more than three bedrooms or two stories, and there were still many Germans looking for work. So, for the first and only time in her life, my mother had household help. Our first maid was Magda, who was younger (well, under 40 anyway) and skinny. We children thought she was mean, too. I’m not sure if she quit or was fired, but then we got Hilda, who was stout and jolly. She taught my mother to make some German dishes, and was happy to help me with my school German although her dialect was not the Hochdeutsch we were being taught.

My father, who was a Master Sergeant at the time, was First Sergeant of A Battery, 63rd AAA Missile/Gun Battalion. (I’m not sure exactly when it changed from Gun to Missile.)  As a First Sergeant, he had some responsibilities for the men in his battery, beyond simply their work performance. I benefited from this responsibility when one of his men came to him for help – he had signed up to buy the Book of Knowledge for his infant child and couldn’t really afford the payments. My father bought this great children’s encyclopedia from him and I (and quite a few other family members) got years of enjoyment and education from it.  I remember too that we did a lot more entertaining of people from work than at any other time in my memory – extra people at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, for example. 

In the house two doors to the right of us lived the Larsens. Larsen Sr. was some kind of Naval officer (I don’t remember his rank but probably a Lt. Commander), who was most likely attached to the Rhine River Patrol. My memory is that he was actually from Norway, but I wasn’t then as knowledgeable about Scandinavian-Americans as I am now. His wife, however, was Swiss and was my Brownie leader. Their two elder daughters, Karen and Esther, were in the troop as well. There was one son, Larry (Lars or Lawrence?) and two smaller girls –- I think one was named Astrid.

Right next door to us were the Mellingers, an Air Force family. They had a lot of children – maybe as many as eight? More than five, anyway. The eldest, Yvonne, was about 14 and I think Butch, the oldest boy, was a couple of years older than I, but still young enough to join our play.

For some reason I can’t recall the name of the family who lived on the other side of us or really anything about them. Perhaps one of my siblings will remember. The last house was inhabited by the Toms family, and I think Mr. Toms was a civilian employee of one of the services. There were two older boys and a girl, Rae Liz, who was my age. She had a fantastic dollhouse. The other thing that I think I recall from the Toms household was that they put angel hair on their Christmas tree. Angel hair was, I think, made from fiberglass (ouch!) – it looked really pretty, though. (I’ve linked to a site where you can actually still buy it, which claims that the angel hair it sells is not like the rough, scratchy kind I remember. I still wouldn’t use it around pets or small children, though.)

For some reason we don’t seem to have any photographs of those years in Germany.  This seems odd to me, as we have photos and even slides from the years immediately preceding them. My hope is that photos were taken and sent home to Maine, and that perhaps there are some in an album or shoebox at the home of one of my relatives. Later this week, after a visit from SonShineIn’s inlaws, I’ll write a bit more about our time in Wiesbaden.

Friday Five: I Like Me!

Today's Friday Five poster, Singing Owl, says: "Lately I seem to be encountering many people who have a very difficult time finding anything good to say about themselves. They are able to extend grace and forgiveness to others but find it difficult to extend that same grace to themselves.

With that in mind, let's share some healthy affirmation today! Tell us five things you like about yourself!"

Well, even though one thing I don't like is that I've been so bad at blogging the past month or more, here goes with the good stuff.

1. This may sound shallow, but I like and appreciate my hair. It's still relatively thick, I don't mind the grey, and it has enough of a wave that with a decent haircut (which is not too hard to find) I can wash'n'wear or wash, blowdry and wear, and feel that I look OK.

2. I like and appreciate my memory, which is still pretty good although perhaps not the steel trap it was in my younger days.

3. I like my ability to make connections among what might at first seem very different ideas, events, books etc.

4. I like my normally calm demeanor and feelings about life and its random events.

5. I like that I'm a pretty fast reader still, which will help me get through all the books I want to read before I die!

If you're not a regular blogger, feel free to play in the comments.

Friday Five: My Favorite Things

Songbird at RevGalBlogPals has had a week of some uncertainty, and says: "In a week of wondering how various things in our family life will unfold, I found myself thinking of the way Maria comforted the Von Trapp children in one of my favorite movies. Frightened by a thunder storm, the children descend upon her, and she sings to them about her favorite things, taking their minds off the storm.

So, let's encourage ourselves. Share with us five of your favorite things. Use words or pictures, whatever expresses it best."

1. Books. You knew that, right? Here's a picture of some of our living room bookshelves today. Books there include poetry, Bibles, reference books, history, and some of the numerous To Be Read books. Many other books are elsewhere in the house.

2. Sunshine.

I didn't do so well
photographing this,
but it's a sunny day here and that always makes me happy. I'm not one for lying outside in the sun, though.




3. Color. This photo of a photo that Cordeliaknits took in California is an example of how color can lift the heart.

4. Family photos. Here's one of me and my brother that he recently gave me. Apparently my parents had our picture taken professionally (possibly by my uncle Bud, who was working for one of those companies at the time) before my father went to Japan and Korea. I had only had the tattered copy he carried in his wallet there, and from which he had a painting made, until Brother #1 retrieved a bunch of things from storage and gave me this.

5. Stuff with memories attached. This is a charm bracelet that my oldest friends gave me when my family was about to move to Germany after sophomore year. I added to it later. There is a map of Connecticut, a pennant from our high school, a St. Christopher medal from our Catholic friend, a banjo to represent the folk music we were into, a lobster for Maine, the Berlin Bear and Wappen (shields bearing the city or country arms) from Germany, the cities I lived in there, and places I visited. Also a holly sprig for Christmas. The bracelet clasp is broken and the likelihood I'll wear a charm bracelet again is very slim. I'm thinking maybe Cordeliaknits could incorporate the charms into one of her bead or fabric art pieces for me.

Friday Five: Take Me, Baby, or Leave Me

Songbird over at RevGalBlogPals has this question for us today (you can go there to see a YouTube video of the song, as I'm using Chrome which doesn't seem to take to them very well):

Although written by a young man, this song from "Rent" became an anthem for women of a certain age ready to be taken on their own terms. Maureen and Joanne love each other, but they are *very* different.

Whether it's new friends or new loves or new employers, what are five things people should know about you?

I'm not planning any new loves, but for the rest of you:

1. I'm an introvert. Really. Way over on the edge of the Myers-Briggs scale on I (as well as on N, F, and P). It takes me a while to make a new friend.

2. Because of (1), I'm also a bit of a Bartleby and when faced with a new experience my first reaction is often "I would prefer not to." However, when I am forced into one, I usually enjoy it, unless it involves rollercoasters. So keep pestering.

3. I am tidier than I used to be, but I still tend to shed shoes, books and coffee cups everywhere.

4. I have a good memory and know a lot of reference books and websites, which causes some people to think I know everything there is to know. Believe me, I don't.

5. Please, don't ask me to watch "reality tv."

These are some of the things about me that aren't likely to change.  What are yours?

Friday Five: Countdown to Christmas Eve edition

Songbird at RevGalBlogPals reminds us that Christmas Eve is less than a week away, and asks: what five things do you need to accomplish before then?

1. I need to finish reading a book that I'm planning to re-gift. 

2. I need to buy wrapping paper, ribbon and tags at the Dollar store so I can wrap presents, having left my stash of such items back in Maine (and you can't bring wrapped presents any more).

3. I need to get a few more presents, and also some new mittens or gloves because I seem to have lost one yesterday and it's cold here!

4. I need to work with Sisterfilms on planning our Christmas Eve festivities (the meal, especially).

5. And I "need" to have fun, which will happen tonight when I see SonShineIn play Santa Claus at the Bedlam Theatre; enjoy their dinner theatre production "Turducken"; tomorrow when Cordeliaknits arrives, and we go to see the Rose Ensemble in the evening; Sunday when I go to church and the caroling party; Monday when we see Onkel Carpenter and Tante Rosemaler before they and The Traveller head to Tacoma; Tuesday when Onkel Hankie Pants finally arrives; and at odd and unexpected moments throughout the time. It's good to be back in City of Lakes even though it's cold and snowy and things look different here.

You are invited to share your pre-Christmas planning in comments or on your own blog.

Friday Five: Windows of the Soul

Sophia at RevGalBlogPals says today:

"This Friday Five is inspired by my husband's Lasik surgery yesterday....He'd been contemplating it for a while and was pushed over the edge by the fact that we put too much money in our healthcare spending account this year and it would have been gone anyway. (There was only enough for one eye, but the kind people at the eye clinic figured out a way to divvy up the charges between surgery and followup in January=next year's spending account). So please say a little prayer for his safe recovery and share with us your thoughts on eyes and vision."
Prayer said, here are my answers:
1. What color are your beautiful eyes? Did you inherit them from or pass them on to anyone in your family?
I used just to say brown, but now, having looked closely at really brown eyes, I say hazel. I believe they are close to the same color as my mother's were. However, having married a blue-eyed man, and having had a blue-eyed father and a blue-eyed maternal grandfather, all three of my children have blue eyes.
2. What color eyes would you choose if you could change them?
Just as with hair color, I'm quite happy with what I have. But if I had to make a change (and it could somehow be a natural one) I'd like red hair and green eyes, please. It's such a Romantic Jacobite Heroine combination!
3. Do you wear glasses or contacts? What kind? Like 'em or hate 'em?
I've worn glasses since I was seven. I can still remember the joy of riding home from the optician's and being able to make out the letters on the advertising signs (I couldn't actually read them because they were in German, this was in Wiesbaden). I'm very nearsighted, have astigmatism, and of course now have developed presbyopia (nothing to do with Presbyterians, it's "elder sight" or farsightedness) so I have bi- or tri-focals. They're progressive, no line in the middle, which I like. In my late teens, contact lenses were just becoming widely available/affordable but I was never tempted. I am very grateful for my eyeglasses.
4. Ever had, or contemplated, laser surgery? Happy with the results?
Too scary. Also, I suspect I have too many different things going on in there for successful treatment.
5. Do you like to look people in the eye, or are you more eye-shy?
I'm terribly shifty-eyed. Also rather shy in other ways. Looking people right in the eye seems very intimate to me.
Bonus question: Share a poem, song, or prayer that relates to eyes and seeing.
This is by Edna St. Vincent Millay, from her first book of poems, Renascence, published in 1917. I don't have a particular association with grey eyes, but I understand the sentiment. Courtesy of Bartleby.

7. Tavern

I’LL keep a little tavern Below the high hill’s crest, Wherein all grey-eyed people May set them down and rest. There shall be plates a-plenty, 5 And mugs to melt the chill Of all the grey-eyed people Who happen up the hill. There sound will sleep the traveller, And dream his journey’s end, 10 But I will rouse at midnight The falling fire to tend. Aye, ’tis a curious fancy— But all the good I know Was taught me out of two grey eyes 15 A long time ago.

Things I Have Done -- a meme while waiting for Friday Five

Want to play? Copy and paste. Pick a color for the things that you have done. Mine are in vermilion letters.
I HAVE...

1. Started my own blog

2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain (Fremont's Peak in California; Ehrenbreitstein in Germany. Big enough for me)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
3. Watched lightening at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (Many times, see "B is for Berlin" in old posts)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (at least not physically. When I was in school, my mother would write this excuse note: "Auntie Knickers was absent from school with my knowledge and consent.")
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice 
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (just the short kind on rivers and lakes)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma 
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone - probably, in my foot, but didn't realize it at the time
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle 

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper (see photo - at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Memorial Day, 1961)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (just lobster)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury (was empaneled, but challenged off)
91. Met someone famous (Ray Milland, Ali McGraw, and Ryan O'Neal at a student journalists' promo for Love Story!)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby (three!)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Ridden an elephant

I'm not going to tag, just do what Processing Counselor did and invite you to play on your own blog or in comments. (Though i don't think you can change colors in comments, you'll have to use an asterisk or something. Or get a blog. It's easy. Really.)

Another Meme (since I have nothing exciting to report)

Celeste tagged me for this meme and I have been lazy about doing it. I actually did it some time back so I had to go back and check the random facts so I don't end up repeating myself.

Here are the rules, which I am breaking:

1. Link to the tagger and post the rules.

2. List seven random facts about yourself.

3. Tag seven more people. (This is the one I'm breaking, because I'm running out of people to tag. Y'all friends who don't blog have to get on the ball! However, feel free to list facts in a comment.)

Here are my random facts:

1. I can't swim or ride a bicycle, although I've had people try to teach me to do both.

2. I attended five different elementary schools in three states and a foreign country.

3. I can't stop buying Christmas music (see photo above)

4. I have a large collection of what I call "How to Be Perfect" books -- books on organization, how to dress, how to decorate, how to run your life. It's not clear they have worked.

5. I now write a short review of each book I read and post them on Goodreads, DorothyL, or both.

6. My dog, who weighs 55 lbs., sits in my lap. (See photo below, I love how he looks when standing up looking out the window.)

7. My cat, who weighs about 5 lbs., does not.

Internet Fun: I'm Origen!

You’re Origen! You do nothing by half-measures. If you’re going to read the Bible, you want to read it in the original languages. If you’re going to teach, you’re going to reach as many souls as possible, through a proliferation of lectures and books. If you’re a guy and you’re going to fight for purity … well, you’d better hide the kitchen shears. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

I have to say that the questions were difficult, and thank goodness I'm not a guy!

A Big Surprise....

As usual with this type of quiz, there's a lot of "Yes, but...."  I've actually thought of myself (in idealized form) as more of a Katharine Hepburn, but that's because my mother was a Katharine Hepburn type (that's why my parents' favorite movie was The African Queen). 

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are an Audrey!

You are an Audrey -- "I am at peace"

Audreys are receptive, good-natured, and supportive. They seek union with others and the world around them.

How to Get Along with Me

• * If you want me to do something, how you ask is important. I especially don't like expectations or pressure


• * I like to listen and to be of service, but don't take advantage of this


• * Listen until I finish speaking, even though I meander a bit  This is certainly true!


• * Give me time to finish things and make decisions. It's OK to nudge me gently and nonjudgmentally


• * Ask me questions to help me get clear


• * Tell me when you like how I look. I'm not averse to flattery


• * Hug me, show physical affection. It opens me up to my feelings


• * I like a good discussion but not a confrontation


• * Let me know you like what I've done or said


• * Laugh with me and share in my enjoyment of life

What I Like About Being an Audrey

• * being nonjudgmental and accepting


• * caring for and being concerned about others


• * being able to relax and have a good time


• * knowing that most people enjoy my company; I'm easy to be around


• * my ability to see many different sides of an issue and to be a good mediator and facilitator


• * my heightened awareness of sensations, aesthetics, and the here and now


• * being able to go with the flow and feel one with the universe

What's Hard About Being an Audrey

• * being judged and misunderstood for being placid and/or indecisive


• * being critical of myself for lacking initiative and discipline  So true!


• * being too sensitive to criticism; taking every raised eyebrow and twitch of the mouth personally  Not so much in my later years


• * being confused about what I really want


• * caring too much about what others will think of me  Again, this has gone with age. Thank goodness!


• * not being listened to or taken seriously  I don't recall this being a big problem, and I think Audrey was taken quite seriously in later life in her work with UNICEF.

Audreys as Children Often

• * feel ignored and that their wants, opinions, and feelings are unimportant  Don't recall feeling this way.


• * tune out a lot, especially when others argue  This would probably be true of any kid with four younger siblings!


• * are "good" children: deny anger or keep it to themselves

Audreys as Parents

• * are supportive, kind, and warm


• * are sometimes overly permissive or nondirective  Maybe so, I got better kids than I deserved!

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy

Friday Five: Location, Location, Location

Singing Owl over at RevGalBlogPals has this to say this week:

"My daughter, her husband, and their toddler, Trinity Ann, are moving from Minneapolis, Minnesota to our place. It's a long story, but the short version is that they will be loading a Ryder truck on Saturday, and on Sunday afternoon we will unload it into a storage unit in our town. They will move themselves, their two cats and their BIG dog into our place. Yes, there will be issues, but this Friday Five isn't really about that. (Prayers for jobs for them and patience for all of us are most welcome, however.) This post is about locations. My husband has lived at 64 addresses in his life so far (16 with me) and he suggested the topic since we have moving trucks on our minds.

Therefore, tell us about the five favorite places you have lived in your lifetime. What did you like? What kind of place was it? Anything special happen there?"  (People who haven't lived in so many places can do fantasies; but that wouldn't be me.)

1. Brunswick, Maine: that's where I live now.  I haven't moved as often as Singing Owl's husband, but I've moved a good many times, so I'm fairly adaptable.  But I have waited a long time to get back to Maine, and I'm very happy to be here. I like that it's a small town (21.000) with a fairly cosmopolitan atmosphere because of the Naval Air Station (due to close in a couple of years) and Bowdoin College (been here since 1798 and set to stay another 200 years at least). Without even leaving the town limits you can be in a rural area, see Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River, yet also see movies both mainstream and independent, art galleries galore, and lots more. My house is within walking distance of our wonderful library, which readily acquires for me anything they don't already have on their shelves. Bowdoin has numerous cultural events that are free to the public. I could go on and on, and probably should to improve the housing market here, but I won't. By the way, the winters aren't that bad at all.

2. Minneapolis, Minnesota: I understand that Maine comes high on the list for good places to raise children, but for us, Minneapolis was a great place, and I think the kids would agree (two of them still live there and one would be pleased to get back, Minneapolis churches please copy).  Big enough to have a lot of city amenities but small enough so that the middle class has not left the city entirely; incredible cultural opportunities; and we belonged to a wonderful small church there. Of course the most important things that happened there were the births of our two daughters. (Our son was born in a small town in southern Minnesota, and I actually enjoyed the three years we lived there, too, but if I'm going to keep this list down to 5 I'll have to leave it out).

3.  Monterey Peninsula, California: I sort of think everyone should have the opportunity to live in California for a year or two, especially sometime in their 20s.  The really important thing that happened while I was there was that I met Onkel Hankie Pants. This happened toward the end of my stay, though, and I was enjoying life there even before that. Lots of natural beauty, weather that I thought was just fine although classmates from San Diego thought they were somewhere near the Polar Ice Cap, and again, a lot of cultural activities. Plus, since I was there under the auspices of the U. S. Army, I didn't have to worry too much about money, which was good, since I wasn't making much -- but it was enough.

4. Fairfield, Connecticut: When I was in eighth grade, and we were living in a cramped, rented duplex in Milford, Connecticut, my father came home with the news that we were moving a few miles away to Fairfield. A planned Nike missile site in Westport had been scrapped, and the housing that had been built in Fairfield for the Nike folks was going spare. So the military rounded up all the recruiters, National Guard advisers, etc. in the surrounding area and offered them three-bedroom ramblers in a town with an excellent school district in exchange for their housing allowances. We moved in November.  The house and school district were all that was promised, and besides that, I quickly made friends for life -- the same ones I get together with in South Carolina each spring.  I can't even recount all the new experiences and horizon-broadenings I had courtesy of my friends and their families -- my first live theater performance, my introduction to Nero Wolfe, and oh yes -- my first taste of Yoo-Hoo! I also had several of the best teachers of my educational career.  I was very fortunate; I don't think any of us could afford to live in Fairfield now. I'm glad I was there when I was.

5. Bowdoinham, Maine: My hometown, and only a few miles from where I live now. I'm thinking of a couple of specific times as well as  a place, because we lived there at various times during my father's Army career and then full-time after his retirement, but since I was a senior in high school when we moved back, my best and best-remembered experiences there were in the winter and spring of 1966 and the summer of 1968. The house my parents had built when I was small was still pretty basic when we moved back there; in fact we still had an outdoor privy that first winter (brr!)  But the chance for frequent visits with aunts, uncles, and cousins, and especially the nearness of my maternal grandparents in the next house down the road, made up for any small hardships.  Also, Brother #1 and I attended the same school for the first time in a while, and our walks to and from the school bus (a mile and a half each way! up and down hill! in the snow!) were a lot of fun and cemented our relationship forever. By the way, Bowdoinham is featured in the current issue of Down East, the Magazine of Maine, and there is a picture of Uncle Nepco and his morning coffee pals in the article! (Only in the print version, though. But lots of newsstands have it, and some libraries).

I've lived in other places, too. Wiesbaden, Stuttgart, and Berlin, Germany; Sandy Hook, New Jersey; Townsend, Georgia; El Paso, Texas; somewhere in the vicinity of Fort Sill, OK; and others mentioned above. I actually liked all of them quite well. I'm just adaptable.

Friday Five: Fall Equinox Edition

I took this photo last year on September 19, and yesterday this same tree looks just about the same.

Over at RevGalBlogPals, Songbird (who lives not far from me) posts:

It's that time of year, at least north of the equator. The windows are still open, but the darned furnace comes on early in the morning. My husband went out for a walk after an early supper and came home in full darkness.  (Auntie Knickers says: I just went around closing windows so the furnace wouldn't come on, as it's after 9 am and the temp is only about 40 degrees, which is the lowest setting on our thermostat).

And yes, where we live, leaves are beginning to turn.

As this vivid season begins, tell us five favorite things about fall:

1) A fragrance: When I was small, it was burning leaves. We don't do that any more, but especially here in Maine, more people are using woodstoves and the fragrance of woodsmoke can sometimes be discerned. It brings happy memories of my grandmother's woodstove.

2) A color: Red - the red of new apples and the "Irish setter red" of maple leaves. But then what about the gold of the leaves of other trees, and of the grasses I remember from the Midwest? And who can forget orange, pumpkins, leaves, and Halloween decorations?  

3) An item of clothing: Fleece jackets and vests -- I'm wearing one already as I write this for the chilly morning. 

4) An activity: Buying and planting spring bulbs -- always looking ahead.

5) A special day: Thanksgiving - all is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin (or at least we hope so!) Making special food for special people. I only wish there were a special morning church service to attend near me; I miss the one we had in Minneapolis.