It's Dance Recital Time

This is the weekend my niece, Zoe', steps it up and spends a long time at the Civic Center doing the dance recital.

 

The opening number had a jungle theme.

 

 

This is Zoe'. She is supposed to be a monkey.

 

 

Here she is doing her monkey dance.

 

 

Unfortunately the audience is not supposed to be taking pictures; no flash photography allowed. So I had to resort to photos without flash in a darkened auditorium.

 

 

It is fun to watch these girls do this stuff.

 

 

Little tiny girls in particular . . .

 

 

are just too cute for words.

 

 

Hit it girls!

 

 

My brother participated in the "dad's dance".

 

 

The dads all played photographers who were chasing models.

 

 

This is Zoe (in the rear with the headband) as a model in this routine.

Zoe broke her foot earlier in the year so she did not get to practice as much as normal. I could not tell that she suffered any for this, though. She has definitely grown in her dance routines; I can see the improvement from year to year.

Cows

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things that happened 50 years ago (1963).

1. The Civil Rights Movement in the US was heating up as Martin Luther King marched on Washington DC on August 28, 1963. That same year, black college students staged sit-ins at restaurants and other venues in the South. Many were arrested. Others were doused with water from fire hoses during marches and demonstrations. Alabama governor, George Wallace, elected to office in 1963, stood in the doorway of the University of Alabama in defiance of federal court order that allowed blacks entrance to the university in order to keep blacks from entering the school. He was eventually ordered by a National Guard commander to step aside. Cross-burnings were also frequent. An explosion at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, killed four young black girls and injured 22 others. The bombs were planted by members of the KKK.

2. President John F. Kennedy was shot on November 22, 1963. Vice President Lyndon Johnson became the 36th US president the same day.

3. The Mercury Atlas 9 rocket with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board took off from Launch Pad 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 5, 1963. Mercury Atlas 9 was the final manned space mission of the U.S. Mercury program, successfully completing 22 Earth orbits before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

4. Twenty-six-year-old Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel in space, going up on June 16, 1963, in the Russian spacecraft, Vostok 6.

5. Iron Man and the X-Men both debuted in Marvel Comics. The first episode of Dr. Who was shown on British TV.

6. The Beatles released their first album, Please Please Me.

7. Coca-Cola introduced Tab, its first diet drink. Studebaker ceased production of its cars.

8. The first push-button (touch tone) telephone became available to ATT customers.

9. Cassette tapes were introduced in Europe; they came to the US a year later.

10. Pop Tarts were invented, not by Kellogg's, but by Post. Post called them "Country Squares" and a year later Kellogg's introduced the Pop Tart. Country Squares did not take off but Pop Tarts did.

11. In 1963, the year end close of the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 762. The average cost of a new house was $12,650.00. The average income per year $5,807.00. Gas cost per gallon was $0.29 (twenty-nine cents). The average cost of a new car was $3,233.00. A loaf of bread cost $0.22 (twenty-two cents). A bedroom air conditioner cost $149.95.

12. The US Postal Service implemented Zip Codes.

13. I was born in June. Yep, I'll hit the big 5-0 soon.


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 296th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Iris

 

 

Gettin' My Buzz On

My neighbor with the chickens also plays host to honey bees.

 

She has five hives.

 

 

The honey bees love sunshine.

 

 

They also like to take a drink of water every now and then.

 

 

My friend says only old honey bees go after water. They actually put water in their little pollen pounches and return it to the hive!

 

 

I guess this would not be an old honey bee, then. He's drinking nectar or whatever it is they do when their head is stuffed in a flower.

 

Fascinating little creatures.

Memorial Day 2013

"It sure takes a lot of rough knocks and fall downs for a man to learn how to live and get along. And about the time you learn how to live and what is important in this old world, you are about ready to leave it and pass on to a higher plane of life as God has chosen for you. And each of us no matter how great or small leaves behind a part of our self in one form or another. I want to leave a good image of myself to all of my kids and grandchildren. I think I have or I hope I have." - Joe Bruffy

 

My paternal grandfather served in World War II. Before he passed away in 1989, he sent me an old, small book that my mother had given him. Those are his words above.

The war experience was one of two that defined my Grandpa Joe. The first was his birth, which left him an orphan.

The other was the war. My grandfather was a spitfire liberal, and he believed in things greater than himself. He loved his god and he loved his country, but he did not love greed. He saw the way the nation was turning and despaired to me in his letters. They were written in the 1980s.

The war taught him what happens when a country turns together, when it looks outward instead of inward, and how strong a society that gives to one another can be. He fought for his community and for his family, for good or ill.

When he wrote of the war, he often did it in the third person. He had a hard time personalizing his experiences. I think it was too painful.

In his stories, he talked about how it was during the war that his asthma began, how laying on the ground set off arthritis in his back, and how it felt when his friend died in his arms, his belly blown open by a German gun.

War is a terrible, nasty business. Death is never pretty. Today is a day to remember great sacrifices and debts unpaid. It is a lot more than the unofficial start of summer.

Joe served in France and was part of the push into Germany in 1945.

So in honor of those who fought to defend a better way of life, I present to you a small piece of my grandfather's memories about what it was like to have served in World War II.

Warning: Some of this is a little gruesome, but then, war is.
The War

On February 7, 1945, a young man of about twenty six was ushered before an army captain in Hatviller, France, a small town west of the German border. He had been in the army approximately six months, going through infantry basic training, and had been sent over seas. As an infantry soldier he had left behind a wife and three small boys. After proper salutes and the briefing, he was sent to the front lines, where he joined two other guys in a muddy foxhole.

Tony Stokes and John Grindle looked him over, and decided they liked what they saw. He was sort of a quiet fellow, about medium height with gray eyes and a shock of brown hair. John was a regular army guy with about eight years and he had been on the line for about three months. Prior to that he had been in the transportation department, but had got butted from a staff sergeant to a private and sent to the front because of a drunken brawl, where he had sent a first sergeant to the hospital with a broken nose. Tony, like Joe, had been in the army about six months and also left a wife and two daughters at home. All three men were from the south, and all had strong feelings about America.

Joe had been a coal miner from West Virginia. Tony had been a warehouse long shore man from Mobile, Alabama. John had been a peanut farmer from Georgia, and all were prejudiced toward yankees and black men. After being together about three days and exchanging information about each other, they were beginning to form a friendship that would last the rest of their lives.

They were in the 100th Die 3971 of Regiment, 3rd battalion. COK third platoon and third squad. When Joe had arrived the third squad had been dug in on a small hill overlooking a valley. The foxhole had been enlarged enough to accommodate a 30 caliber machine gun with a field telephone. The hole had about eight inches of water in it from the melting snow and rain.

John and Tony was sleeping outside in raincoats and shelters houses, only using the hole when the artillery started. Joe took one look at the water, took out his shovel and dug a small ditch at the bottom of the hole and drained the water out. He then, with his bayonet, cut several armloads of pine boughs, laid them in the hole, spread out his shelter house and made a dry bed. In the meantime, John and Tony was watching all of this. Tony said to John, "why in the hell didn't we think of that?"

Joe, in his West Virginia hillbilly way, replied, "You all didn't have sense enough." They didn't know Joe had been wrote up in this camp Joseph T. Robinson team camp news as being the best camouflage fox hole expert in the camp.

On about the third day, about 4 a.m., Joe was standing guard at the machine gun. The phone clicked and Joe lifted the receiver. The low voice of Lt. Nolon came over the wire telling Joe to be on the alert, as there was some kind of commotion down by the river. Joe strained his eyes trying to see through the fog and mist, but could see no movement of any kind. Suddenly a flare shot up from the other end of the line, and a gun opened fire, staffing along the riverfront.

Then all hell broke loose as the whole platoon opened fire, showering the valley with a wall of fire. The command came down to stop firing. When daylight came and the fog lifted, you could see a flock of sheep had drifted down from the hills, and that was what was making the noise. After that the third platoon was called the sheep brigade.

The water the men had been drinking came from a small mountain stream that was flowing approximately 20 foot from their hole. The snow had started to melt, and John had went upstream to relieve himself. Joe and Tony heard a loud yell from John. Grabbing their weapons, they started up to see what the matter was.

John was sitting down throwing up and at his feet laying in the water was a dead German soldier with the top of his head blown off. The small stream of water the men had been drinking from was flowing overtop of his half blown off head. The thought of drinking that water was just too much for John.

The next morning orders came down to get ready to move out, as a push was starting to crack the ziefreig line after loading up the machine gun and a weapons carrier, we had removed the phone and everyone mustered up.

The push started about 8 a.m. Joe and Tony had discarded everything but their shelter houses and raincoats. John had decided he was going to wear his heavy overcoat. As they proceeded up the muddy road, balls of mud would accumulate on John's overcoat, and he would cut off about six inches of the bottom. After a while it was cut off up to his waist, which left him with a good heavy top jacket.

That started a trend, and it wasn't long before the whole platoon was wearing the top half of their army overcoats. They named them after John and called them Johncoats.

_________________________________________

This entry is a rewrite of other Memorial Day or Veteran's Day entries that I have written on this blog. You can read the originals here and here.

My Neighbor's Chickens

We do not have chickens, but a neighbor I visited on Saturday does.

These belong to her. Thank you, Joy, for letting me photograph your birds!

First Rosebud 2013

Columbine 2013

The columbine in my yard is in full bloom.

 

The light purples and pinks are new this year.

 

 

 

Originally I had these dark purples and yellows. Evidence, I think,

 

 

 

that though the norticulturists breed for certain colors

 

 

eventually they revert back to their original beauty.

 

 

Mankind can only improve on Mother Nature so much ... and our improvements are not always permanent.

Thursday Thirteen #295

Today I offer up 13 ways to age gracefully . . .


1. Take up a new hobby, or go back to a forgotten passion.

2. Don't worry what your neck looks like.

3. Keep your sense of humor.

4. Accept your body's changes and acknowledge that your life won't stay the same.

5. But you might also try denying that you're getting older. Don't focus on what isn't working, think about what is.

6. Mourn what you're losing, if you must. It's going to go, so you may as well make the best of it.

7. Make young friends.

8. Find the things that are important to you, and do them.

9. Keep moving and exercise.

10. Watch your diet.

11. Smile (you might use whitener on your teeth, too, it helps make you look a little younger)


12. Wear rubber gloves when you do your chores so your hands will look smooth and supple.

13. Use conditioner on your hair to keep it from drying out and looking dull.

What are you doing to age gracefully?


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 295th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

It Doesn't Happen Every Day

Earlier this month, I wrote about an afternoon spent with a willow tree branch, wherein I attempted to do a little water witching.*

 

The well drillers came on Tuesday.

 

They set up quickly and went to work.

 

 

After drilling just 6 feet, they hit a cavern.

 

 

At 15 feet, they hit rock.

 

 

So they dug.

 

 

And they drilled.

 

 

And they dug.

 

 

And they drilled.

 

And they hit water at 371 feet.

 

But it was only a little bit.

 

 

So they drilled.

 

 

And they dug.

 

 

And they did other stuff

 

 

That meant climbing up in the well drilling machine

 

 

But in the end they got 'er done. They stopped at 425 feet, with 8 gallons a minute of water flow.

 

Not enough to start a water company, but it will definitely water the cows, and that's what it is meant to do.





*They did not drill where I had told them to, so we will never know if my water witching worked.*
 

Books: Fried Green Tomatoes

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
By Fannie Flagg
Copyright 1987
402 pages


I have long enjoyed the movie, Fried Green Tomatoes, which starred Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Mary Louise Parker. It is one of my favorites.

However, I had never read the book, an oversight that I decided to correct since I have read many other books by Fannie Flagg.

Very rarely do I decide that the movie is better than the book. In this case, I think it is a tie.

The movie succinctly showcases the heart of the story, and tells it well, if not better, than the book. But the book is rather like southern potato salad - more creamy and filling than the movie ever thought of being.

The book goes into greater depth and offers up additional characters, and I enjoyed that. The movie has a number of differences from the book, too, and it was interesting to note those as  I read.

The book Fried Green Tomatoes is set up in an unusual manner for the reader - there are many time and location changes, and things jump around a good bit. Some of the story is told by Ninny Threadgood, an old woman in a nursing home, who is visited by Evelyn Couch. Evelyn is a modern day 48-year-old woman who is trying to find herself (and I confess I have in the last decade identified with her character strongly whenever I see the movie. Towanda indeed.).

Other parts of the story are told by an omniscient narrator, and still other parts read as if they are torn from the local gossip sheet.

I think in this instance the two works are best taken in separate lumps, and better off not compared. Each has its strong points. If you want a bit more potato salad than the movie offered, read the book.

Sunday Stealing - Meme Questions

From Sunday Stealing: the fairy tale meme

Snow White: Do you consider yourself pretty? Name the part of your body you think is the most beautiful!

A. I do not consider myself pretty, nope. I have nice skin, though. As I have aged it is not as nice as it used to be but it is still fairly decent.


Cinderella: What is your shoe size?

A. It's the appropriate one for my feet.


Sleeping Beauty: How many hours do you sleep each night?

A. Generally 7 to 8. I usually get up at least once during the night.

Little Red Riding Hood: What is your favorite food? 

A. Chocolate, apparently. That seems to be what I have the most trouble giving up. My favorite veggie is green beans. My favorite fruit is watermelon. My favorite meat is chicken (it used to be fish until I started having weird reactions to seafood). My favorite grain is rice.

The Frog Prince: What do you find disgusting?

A. Vomit or the act thereof, poop jokes, things that boys do, and politics.

Jack and the Beanstalk: What plants are in your room?

A. I have an artificial flower arrangement of yellow flowers in my office. Because of my allergies I long ago rid the house of real plants - mold in the dirt was causing problems.

Puss in Boots: Do you have a pet? Do you want one?

A. I have a herd of cows. They are not pets but they are my animals. I do not want another pet of any kind.

Rumpelstiltskin: What is the meaning of your url? 

It means "this blog at blogspot." The blog title, which I think is what this question is really asking, means "Blue Ridge Mountains, Living in the Country, and the World is Magic to Me."

The Little Mermaid: Can you sing?

A. La la la la la. Yes. I also play guitar. I don't do either as much or as well as I used to.

Pinocchio: What is your greatest wish?

A. This is a hard one. But I think my greatest wish is to be acknowledged and to feel like I matter. Or maybe that is my greatest need, and my greatest wish is something else.

Peter Pan: What is your (mental) age? 

A. I think I'm about 22. If you're interested in some personality testing and would like to know your emotional age, check out this link. Be aware the tests can be long, and I'm not responsible if you click on a link that says "pay up." I'm not being paid to promote this, I just like personality tests.

The Star Money: What is your most prized possession?
A. This is tough, too. I don't value things all that much and most of them are replaceable. But I would have to say my computer, or my backup hard drive, because it has so much of my writing and photography on it, and that would be difficult if not impossible to replicate if I lost it all. After that, I would say my diploma, which is representative of my education.

Down by the Road

Daisies in the hayfield.

 

Some kind of phlox.

 

Daisies up close and personal.

 

Buttercups.

Thursday Thirteen

Animals in my life:

1. My dog Ginger. She was with me from 1984 to 2001, which is a very long time for a dog. She was 17 years old when she died. She was a mix of an Eskimo Spitz and terrier, I think. She never weighed more than 35-40 pounds. Because of my terrible allergies, we kept her outside unless it was very cold out, and then I would bring her into the garage. Even though it's been a dozen years since she passed away, sometimes I still expect to see her scampering around in the back yard when I look out the window.

2. We raise beef cattle, and I grew up with cattle. Fortunately I have never had to handle more than calves. Cows are fun to watch, though. They are very calm creatures most of the time.

3. My father had chickens for a while when I was a young girl.

4. He also had guineas,

5. Quail,

6. Turkeys,

7. and ducks.


8. Deer. These are not pets or something we raise, but I consider the deer to be my animal totem.

9. I have never owned a cat, but cats have played an interesting role in my life. My mother thought my grandfather came back as a cat, and I think my mother sends me a black cat as a warning. This is because the day we buried my mother, I came home to find a black cat in the front yard. It hung out around the house for a year almost to the day of my mother's death and then it vanished. Now I only occasionally see a black cat on the farm, usually less than once a year, and I consider it a warning. The other day I saw two different black cats on the farm within an hour. I wonder what is up . . .

10. We aren't supposed to have mountain lions in this area, but I am one of a number of people who claim to have seen them. I have seen them several times, actually. I saw one when I was a young girl, and back then I heard the scream of a panther late in the evening a few times. Then I saw a mountain lion cross the road in front of me when I was driving over Caldwell Mountain one day. Officials claim there are no mountain lions here and that what we are seeing are bob cats. However, I have seen those, too, and I know the difference.

11. In the last several years, we've had swans on the farm ponds. This includes a black swan that appeared out of nowhere and hung out for a long time. These birds were brought in by a local millionaire for his pond but sometimes they apparently want a change of scenery. They fascinate me because they are so elegant in the water, and look so unusual. That's especially true for the black one.

12. To my knowledge I don't have mice in my house, but growing up we frequently did. I remember my mother opened up a drawer where she had stored some lace to find a mouse nest full of babies in there. And one time during a party a mouse ran out into the room full of guests, and my mother took off her high heel and killed the thing with it. I imagine that was the highlight of the party. I have an affinity for mice dressed like Santa Clause.

13. So far this year I have not seen a bear on the farm, but they are around. I have taken a few photos of them. We once had a little cub on Grandma's front porch.




Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 294th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Books: The Shoemaker's Wife

The Shoemaker's Wife
By Adriana Trigiani
Copyright 2012
Approx. 15 hours (Audio)

I have read or listened to almost all, if not all, of Adriana Trigiana's books. The author is from Southwestern Virginia, which makes her a hometown girl, and for that reason alone I take pleasure in her work.

While I still think her Big Stone Gap book series is her best work, her recent books about shoemakers in New York (Very Valentine and Brava, Valentine) have also been entertaining.

The Shoemaker's Wife takes us back in time to the immigrants who came to America to learn the trade of making shoes. Two young boys, Eduardo and Ciro, are orphaned after their father dies and their mother leaves them at a convent because she cannot care for them. The story follows Ciro for a while, then switches to Enza, a stalwart, hard-working young woman whose destiny is entwined with Ciro's, and back again.

The story is told in third person omniscient, always an interesting point of view and one not seen in many new works these days. I always like it.

It is always better for me to be listening to long books while I am in the car, and this one was no exception. The story at times grew lengthy and I think some strong editing would have made the book better, but all in all it was a nice addition to Trigiani's work. Having read her earlier pieces I could see where this story was coming from, and had an idea of where it was going.

Trigiani is strong in character study and she's good with description. This book took advantage of both, probably a good thing since it was a little short on plot. It would not be unkind or wrong to call this a literary romance, for boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-again truly is the plot line.

The details of the time period are nicely done and since I have not been to Italy or Minnesota, and it's been quite some time since I was in New York, I found her descriptions interesting. Some might find them a little long-winded, though.

The only issue I had with the audio CD was a change in readers about half way through the book. At the end of the book, the author (who was the last reader) explains that this change of voice was done to emphasis the change in locale and time and to create a radio-play type of feel to the audio book. Unfortunately I found it a little jarring - the first reader was quite softspoken and feminine, and Trigiani - well, she's from around these here parts and has a tougher, louder, voice. It's not an unpleasant voice, but the two did not mesh. While I understand what the author wanted to do with the switch, the end result was more along the lines of "good grief, what happened, did they run out of money to pay the reader?" than I suspect was intended.

If you're a fan of Trigiani, and I hope you, then this is another good read for you. If you're just finding her, you might want to start with another of her works before you tackle this one.

Fancy Footwear

After months of hobbling around trying to heal a painful right foot, I finally went to the orthopedist Monday.

He put me back in a boot.

I was in a surgical shoe for a similar issue in late 2011. I still have the surgical shoe and since it is less bulky than this monstrous thing that goes all the way to my knee I suspect I will be wearing it some, as well. Particularly when I go out if I feel I need to.

The diagnosis was a multiple one of arthritis, plantar fasciitis, and tendonitis. I have the three itises, I guess. I have been limping around for a while.

I've had trouble with my feet since 2007, off and on. Plantar fasciitis is a bear and it eases up but apparently is never cured. The first time it flared up it was mostly in the left foot; this time it's the other side.

The doctor also recommended I wear a night splint, which is essentially the same thing you see above except you wear it at night and you aren't supposed to walk in it much. I have tried one in the past and not found it especially helpful; also, it interfered greatly with my sleep and getting your sleep is as important as anything else. So I don't know that I will follow that recommendation but I will look for the night splint I used last time.