I was honored by a tag from Rebecca, of Rebecca Writes, for a meme listing ten simple pleasures in life. I like:
1. Getting my hands in the dirt.
2. Spending time in a greenhouse/nursery, at any time of year.
3. Tim Hortons' decaf coffee with cream.
4. Watching our son walk.
5. Reading essays about gardening.
6. Salt and vinegar potato chips, especially Mike Sells brand.
7. Toblerone chocolate bars.
8. The smell of hot pizza.
9. Hot dish water.
10. A smile or a hug from our son.
I enjoy the simple things on Rebecca's list, too. I've enjoyed reading these memes from others who've done them. It reminds me that we don't really need riches to buy happiness. I'll tag Martin, retired professor blogging at Sun and Shield and Violet at Promptings. Anyone else want to volunteer?
Showing posts with label Memes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memes. Show all posts
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Five things I miss about my childhood
Catez, of Allthings2all, has tagged me to describe five things I miss about my childhood. (Catez, incidentally, is one of the best Christian writers on the internet, in my opinion. She is a gifted wordsmith, who combines remarkable clarity of thought with an orthodox belief system and a compassionate social conscience.)
1. My grandmother passed away just before the turn of the century. I miss the smell of her house, the creak of its floors, her open arms at the door. I miss her appreciation of the simple joys in life: African violets in the window, the tiny-patterned cloth she chose for her cape dresses, piecing quilt-tops from fabric scraps for each grandchild. I miss her quickness to see humor in human foibles, and her ready hospitality. She always had food waiting in the wings, and the coffee pot was always whisked to the stove, soon as comp'ny came in the door. Grandma had time to visit.
I miss Grandma's church, with a capella singing (real tenors), kneeling for prayer, and hard wood benches lined with relatives. Men sat on one side, women on the other, and there were two Sunday school rooms for children in the back. The church was at the bottom of a hill, on a gravel road. Two outhouses stood behind it. Those who had gone before rested in the cemetery on the hill. Summers, Grandpa mowed their graves every week.
2. I grew up in the country, and my mind does not breathe away from it. I miss sunrises from the living room window, and sunsets from the kitchen window. I miss red and white Herefords chewing their cud across the back fence, the smell of the neighbors' hogs when the wind was from the north, and the burble of the creek through the window on hot summer nights. I miss having a yard big enough for a baseball infield. I miss walking a half-mile to the general store and filling my pockets with penny candy, for 35 cents. I miss fresh vegetables, each in their own time, from onions through tomatoes, all summer long.
3. I miss family reunions, with large tables of food, women gossiping in the kitchen, and men discussing the meaning of Revelation in the living room. Cousins played hide-n-seek in nooks and crannies of the old house, the barn, and outbuildings. This happened on both sides of the family. People grew up, married, and stayed close to home, back then. I miss having my brothers, sisters, and cousins, in close geographic proximity.
4. I miss my mother's cooking. She was the best cook I have ever known, "back in the day," when she cooked. My dad was a minister, and we had company every Sunday that he wasn't filling in at his hospital x-ray job. Saturday's, my sisters and I baked cookies. Sometimes, my mother made pie. Sunday morning before church, my mother got the meat or casserole into the oven, the salad vegetables into ice water, and we set the table. She and we girls rushed home after church to heat side dishes, make iced tea, unload the oven, make the salad, and load the table. All that rushing gained her a reputation as an outstanding cook, in a church of good cooks, and she deserved it. Roast beef, ham and potato casserole, fried-then-baked chicken: it was all mouth-watering.
We had home-made meals every weeknight, almost as good as Sunday's. My favorite was chicken and strawberry shortcake (Mennonite Community Cookbook). Saturday nights were Chef Boyardee pizza, pop, and ice cream. Sunday nights were popcorn.
5. **I miss relative scarcity. We didn't have a lot of things; we valued what we had. My mother made some of the girls' dresses, and some we bought at the Salvation Army. Our only new store-bought things were underwear and shoes. My brothers did get some new clothes, theirs being too difficult to make.
We got new toys and books only at birthdays and Christmas. We saved our hard-earned cash for visits to the big used bookstore downtown. A few times, my parents bought a stash of used books to keep under their bed. Once a week, they would spread them out on the bed, and we would each get to pick one to keep.
Our indoor electronics were limited to the washer and dryer, the mixer, the blender, the radio, and the record player. (We children would sometimes see Leave It to Beaver at the neighbors, or Jim Nabors when we were out visiting on the rare Sunday nights there was no church.) We did not get a television until Neil Armstrong and his crew landed on the moon. I was eleven. After that, we got to watch I Love Lucy for half an hour weekdays, and some Wide World of Sports on Saturdays.
My dad never bought a new car, and did most of his own car repairs, having grown up around machines on a farm. We always had the oldest car in the church parking lot.
We were not targets of advertisers. We bought things when we needed them. Life back then was more about relationships than things, and you did not have to work hard to keep it that way. I miss that.
* She used The Mennonite Community Cookbook and the Mary Margaret McBride Encyclopedia of Cooking.
** For some reason, #5 reminded me of Tolkien's On Fairy-Stories and Leaf by Niggle, which I once owned, and gave away. Maybe because things were unique, and were able to stand for other things, back then. You didn't have to have one of everything.
____________
This meme"Five things I miss from my childhood," is a great opportunity for you to appreciate the good things from your past and share them with others.
I'm supposed to offer it to four people. I'll try:
Barbara at Mommylife
Violet at Promptings
Amanda at Wittingshire
Dawn at Frugal for Life (will check to see if can fit her theme)
If you're memed out or too busy, let me know, and I'll pass it to someone else.
Remove the blog at No.1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog’s name in the No.5 spot. Blog names are linked to their posts on childhood, with the URLs for you as well:
1. Just Ask Judy
2. Loose Leaf
3. Black Currant Jam
4. Allthings2all
5. Life In the Slow Lane
And then you pick four people. Thank you.
1. My grandmother passed away just before the turn of the century. I miss the smell of her house, the creak of its floors, her open arms at the door. I miss her appreciation of the simple joys in life: African violets in the window, the tiny-patterned cloth she chose for her cape dresses, piecing quilt-tops from fabric scraps for each grandchild. I miss her quickness to see humor in human foibles, and her ready hospitality. She always had food waiting in the wings, and the coffee pot was always whisked to the stove, soon as comp'ny came in the door. Grandma had time to visit.
I miss Grandma's church, with a capella singing (real tenors), kneeling for prayer, and hard wood benches lined with relatives. Men sat on one side, women on the other, and there were two Sunday school rooms for children in the back. The church was at the bottom of a hill, on a gravel road. Two outhouses stood behind it. Those who had gone before rested in the cemetery on the hill. Summers, Grandpa mowed their graves every week.
2. I grew up in the country, and my mind does not breathe away from it. I miss sunrises from the living room window, and sunsets from the kitchen window. I miss red and white Herefords chewing their cud across the back fence, the smell of the neighbors' hogs when the wind was from the north, and the burble of the creek through the window on hot summer nights. I miss having a yard big enough for a baseball infield. I miss walking a half-mile to the general store and filling my pockets with penny candy, for 35 cents. I miss fresh vegetables, each in their own time, from onions through tomatoes, all summer long.
3. I miss family reunions, with large tables of food, women gossiping in the kitchen, and men discussing the meaning of Revelation in the living room. Cousins played hide-n-seek in nooks and crannies of the old house, the barn, and outbuildings. This happened on both sides of the family. People grew up, married, and stayed close to home, back then. I miss having my brothers, sisters, and cousins, in close geographic proximity.
4. I miss my mother's cooking. She was the best cook I have ever known, "back in the day," when she cooked. My dad was a minister, and we had company every Sunday that he wasn't filling in at his hospital x-ray job. Saturday's, my sisters and I baked cookies. Sometimes, my mother made pie. Sunday morning before church, my mother got the meat or casserole into the oven, the salad vegetables into ice water, and we set the table. She and we girls rushed home after church to heat side dishes, make iced tea, unload the oven, make the salad, and load the table. All that rushing gained her a reputation as an outstanding cook, in a church of good cooks, and she deserved it. Roast beef, ham and potato casserole, fried-then-baked chicken: it was all mouth-watering.
We had home-made meals every weeknight, almost as good as Sunday's. My favorite was chicken and strawberry shortcake (Mennonite Community Cookbook). Saturday nights were Chef Boyardee pizza, pop, and ice cream. Sunday nights were popcorn.
5. **I miss relative scarcity. We didn't have a lot of things; we valued what we had. My mother made some of the girls' dresses, and some we bought at the Salvation Army. Our only new store-bought things were underwear and shoes. My brothers did get some new clothes, theirs being too difficult to make.
We got new toys and books only at birthdays and Christmas. We saved our hard-earned cash for visits to the big used bookstore downtown. A few times, my parents bought a stash of used books to keep under their bed. Once a week, they would spread them out on the bed, and we would each get to pick one to keep.
Our indoor electronics were limited to the washer and dryer, the mixer, the blender, the radio, and the record player. (We children would sometimes see Leave It to Beaver at the neighbors, or Jim Nabors when we were out visiting on the rare Sunday nights there was no church.) We did not get a television until Neil Armstrong and his crew landed on the moon. I was eleven. After that, we got to watch I Love Lucy for half an hour weekdays, and some Wide World of Sports on Saturdays.
My dad never bought a new car, and did most of his own car repairs, having grown up around machines on a farm. We always had the oldest car in the church parking lot.
We were not targets of advertisers. We bought things when we needed them. Life back then was more about relationships than things, and you did not have to work hard to keep it that way. I miss that.
* She used The Mennonite Community Cookbook and the Mary Margaret McBride Encyclopedia of Cooking.
** For some reason, #5 reminded me of Tolkien's On Fairy-Stories and Leaf by Niggle, which I once owned, and gave away. Maybe because things were unique, and were able to stand for other things, back then. You didn't have to have one of everything.
____________
This meme"Five things I miss from my childhood," is a great opportunity for you to appreciate the good things from your past and share them with others.
I'm supposed to offer it to four people. I'll try:
Barbara at Mommylife
Violet at Promptings
Amanda at Wittingshire
Dawn at Frugal for Life (will check to see if can fit her theme)
If you're memed out or too busy, let me know, and I'll pass it to someone else.
Remove the blog at No.1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog’s name in the No.5 spot. Blog names are linked to their posts on childhood, with the URLs for you as well:
1. Just Ask Judy
2. Loose Leaf
3. Black Currant Jam
4. Allthings2all
5. Life In the Slow Lane
And then you pick four people. Thank you.
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