"G" Is For....

growing up...

I grew up in a small town called Milford, Ohio.  It is around 25 miles from downtown Cincinnati....

Growing up in that small town consisted of:

Mothers truly telling us to be home when the streetlights came on....

Mothers calling our name to come home for dinner.  Each Mom had a distinctive "call"...   One neighbor used a bell to call her kids home.  There were 3 Linda's on my street. But believe me, I KNEW when it was my Mom calling - LOL!

We could ride our bikes all over - and did...

We could take long walks - and we did...(especially to the library, to the little strip mall that was right by our house...to get a pop (soda) at the Little Store right down the street..., or just around the entire town to see what was going on. Oh and to school. We walked to school until we went into high school...

We could go hang out down in the woods by the creek - and we did...

I would sit outside on the porch, playing Jacks or cards - with my sister - or my best friend who lived right next store.  Or we would play Nancy Drew with the neighbor kids. 

And so many many other things we just did in those carefree days....without a worry or care...our town was safe...

It was a good childhood.....

"F' is for Father...

 

 

Not that I ever called him Father... I did call my Mom Mother many times when I was growing up - especially when my calls of Mom over and over were never responded to!! LOL!  But my Father has always been Dad - or when I was sad or upset over something - Daddy... 
He is going to be 90 years old this year!!!  He is a World War II Vet. 
He worked for the Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company for over 30 years. And in all those years, he only took off one day sick! Yep, one day....
He worked on the telephone polls and he also worked down in the manholes as a splicer.  We always loved it when he would pull up to the house in his telephone truck - just to pop by during a break - to say hello to us. They had this little water cooler thingie on the truck - and we loved to get a drink with the tiny paper cups. We were easy back then - didn't take much to entertain us!!

My Dad loves to shop!  He loves pricey jeans and shirts (see the ones on him above).  He goes to Nordstroms to buy them. But after all his hard work of raising 4 kids - he deserves it...

His health is still pretty good... he is going to be having heart valve surgery in another month or so. Hopefully it will give him some of his energy back after it is done.  And give him many more years on this earth!  His mental abilities are still fine - thank goodness for that - because with my Mom having dementia - it would really be hard if he started to go downhill in that capacity!!  He gets her out every day - to go to the Mall - go out to eat - go play Bingo - go and talk to their buddies that hang with them at Starbucks... 
So all in all - things are still pretty good!

Off The Needles...

I just finished knitting a pattern called "Easy".... It is by Martina Behm (if I'm spelling that correctly)...  The pattern has you doing the first half in one direction and then doing the second half in the "other" direction. Easy peasy...  It is blocking right now - hope it turns out looking like I want it to. Blocking is still a hit or miss with me. 
My book is one I picked up last week at B & N. I had read nothing about it before. Just saw it on the new books table and decided to take a chance on it.  It is a translated book and at times, the translation gets a bit "clunky", but I'm still enjoying it (so far)....

"E" Is For...

earrings..... 

I love earrings! I've always loved them.  One of the things I missed when I quit working in my office - was not being able to wear all my pretty ones.  They were just too dressy for my part-time job at the library - shelving books...  So I just mainly wore the same ones each day - just small hoops - ones that I wouldn't be too upset over if they fell off without me noticing it and got lost somewhere in the building...  I actually lost the sapphire out of my ring one day and never did find it! 

I won't even tell you how many earrings I used to have - but let me just say it was in the hundreds... Yes, the hundreds.  I went through a dislike of my body image years ago - and I never felt like shopping for clothes.  My statement was - earrings are the one thing I knew would fit - LOL! So I kept buying them and buying them.  I gave a bunch away to various people - I threw out some that were broken, or where I'd lost one of them. I still have tons left - don't worry - ha!  I still, because I'm not working at all now - wear only certain pairs each time I go somewhere.  But that doesn't keep me from still looking at them or buying them from time to time!!  That love will never go away.

My other "E" is for Ehrhardt. That is my maiden name.   I can still remember - whenever I had to give someone my name and address - going through the same refrain - E h r h a r d t - and I live at W i n n e b a g o Drive....  When I married the first time - my last name became Michels - pronounced like Michaels.  So again - spelling it out each time I had to tell someone my name.  And then when I married the second time, my name became Huson.  Again - spelling it out...  I get called Hudson, Huston, even Hufon!  I think the next time I get married, I'll pick an easier name (just kidding)...

"D" Is For...

"drive" - learning to drive that is!  I didn't learn how until I was at least 19 or 20.  It wouldn't have mattered if I knew how to drive before then, because I wouldn't have had a car to drive!  My first husband taught me in his 3 speed (on the column).... To say trying to figure out how to shift and drive at the same time was a challenge for me!  But I eventually caught on and went to take my test.  I can remember doing the parallel parking part of the testing (do they still make kids do that now?) and getting into the spot. I started to correct it all and the instructor yelled out - leave it - leave it - it is fine!  And he passed me!  I know if he hadn't said that to me, I would have overcorrected - messed it all up - and flunked big time - LOL!  I can remember the joy of driving over to my parents' house - a licensed driver!
I got my own car not long after that - a 1969 Chevy Chevelle. It was gold, with black interior. I loved that car! It drove so well.  Then it got creamed by a school bus.  Totally deemed "totaled".  I cried - alot.  Then moved on and got my next car - a white Camaro (or it might have been a Firebird) - with red interior. I can never remember which - whatever I had, my sister had the other one. 
What about you? When did you learn how to drive? What was your first car?

"C" is for....

Collecting....

I never really collected anything (that I remember anyway) - until I was in my 30's...   And that first item - was teddy bears. I think I was using them as a way to comfort myself because I was so far from my family after I moved to Virginia from Ohio. Once people found out I collected them, of course, I got them constantly for gifts!  Which was fine with me. But eventually I had to tell people to stop!!  I actually had names for all my bears too. Don't ask me to tell you now what they are - because all of these years later, my memory would fail me big time.

After that, I started going to antique stores and my collections veered off into silver baby cups with names and dates on them.  Two I found have my Mom's middle name "Jean" and my middle name "Sue" on them. That was fun!  I also loved collecting Avon bottles that were in the shape of women.  Their heads are what you turn to open the bottle!  I eventually, over time, found an entire bridal set (well minus the groom) - but still - all the flower girls and then the bride...  I have collected primitive santas and snowmen - little glass jars with silver tops - that women used to keep their rouge and powder in.  One has the letter "L" in the top.  That was the first one I bought. I saw some lady looking at it and I coveted it so much I could barely stand it. I tried really hard to act uninterested - while saying in my head - don't buy it - don't buy it! When she walked away - I ran over - and said - I want it!! And that was the beginning of that collection!  And little perfume bottles have also been another favorite of mine to collect. My first one came from a guy I used to work with at General Electric back in Ohio.  He had brought it back from France and gave it to me!!  And that began that collection!

 All of the antique places I used to go to around here are gone now...  Which saddens me as I so enjoyed going to them to see what gems I could discover.

Oh, I also have a collection of different editions of "Little Women".

Nowadays, my collections run more towards the useful - coffee mugs and umbrellas.  I have tons of both!  Doesn't matter to me though - if I see one of either that I love, I get it!  I just keep saying - but hey, I can use this and it doesn't collect dust!

What about you? What do you collect?