Showing posts with label memories. Show all posts

Kites

As I was reading another blog post from a friend, It made me think about my childhood. Jack over on the ShipLog Blog wrote a post about homemade kites and how as a child he would fly kites made out of brown paper his dad would bring home from the dry cleaners. You can enjoy his post HERE.

This made me think about how I used to love it when momma would make us homemade kites. She would tell us to go find two straight sticks. This would get us out of her hair for a little while. We would run out into the woods and pick the perfect ones. Then we would bring the sticks into momma and she would make us a kite out of the daily news paper. If I can recall, she would use ribbon and bows for the tail. 



Sometimes they would fly and sometimes they wouldn’t but I would find an open area without any power lines or trees and take off running. The kite would often be bouncing on the ground behind me until a good wind would grab it and take it into the air. The open area I found was often just the dirt road in front of the house. Trees were all over but to an eight  year old, the space above my head was forever clear. 

The homemade kites never made it past a couple hours as either they would tear up from dragging the ground, fought over it with my sister and brothers or stuck in a tree. 

Now days I still like kites. I have a real store bought one at the beach that I keep in the camper just incase I want to fly it. It’s nothing fancy and its small but It’s fun to fly on the beach were It will reach sun. 


If The Walls Could Talk

My family has been busy. My mom and dad decided to move from the home we grew up in. They had 30 days to move out 46 years of “stuff”. They had the house built 46 years ago. My youngest brother was just a baby when we moved in. 



With them being in their 80’s they have found it uncomfortable and sometimes a struggle to go up and down the stairs so they purchased a one level house they liked just a few miles away. They are actually closer to me now and I like that idea.

It was bitter sweet seeing them let go of my old home place. There were lots of stress and mixed emotions during the process. Due to work, I was unable to visit the old house one last time before closing. I was hoping to see it empty but maybe it’s best to remember it full of memories.

If the walls could talk it would have many more stories than I could tell...

It once housed 4 kids, 1 grandchild and several foster siblings.
It was a place where we brought our first dates and where we cried over our first breakups.
There were fights over the telephone and laughs over dinner. 
It seen a lot of spankings and groundings along with lots of love and hugs.
This is were we learned to ride a bike and parked our first car.
Our handprints are in the cement around the well.
We had tree swings, bonfires, and Tree houses that over looked a yard where many loved pets were buried and lots of bare feet run. 
Where we would spend hours running through the sprinklers on a hot summer day and sit by the fire place eating tv dinners and jiffy pop on a cold Winter evening.


The house was just too big for my parents and they really needed to downsize. Now it is time for mom and dad to settle down in their new home and we already can’t wait to start new traditions and make new memories. After all, It’s the family that makes a home, not the house. 

 

Fried Chicken

When I hear the words “fried chicken”, my mind goes back to Grandma. I remember family dinners at grandmas house every Sunday. The main meat was fried chicken. It was real chicken too. I’m talking about the kind of chicken where she would actually ring their necks, drain their blood and pluck their feathers. Then she would skin them and fry them up crispy and place them beside a bowl of mashed potatoes. The smell of fried chicken was set in the walls of grandmas house. 

Later in the years, she would buy chicken to fry. Until the day she passed away, you could visit her house any time and she would have cold fried chicken sitting in paper towels on the stove next to a pan of cornbread. I never knew how much I would miss the little things like this until she was gone. 
My mom and Uncles carry on the tradition by bringing fried chicken to our annual family dinners. 

Now days, I do not eat a lot of fried foods, but since I have an air fryer, I can make foods look and taste fried without actually frying them. I love it. 
The other day I found some chicken legs on sale and decided to make air fried chicken for supper. 


I love how it turned out and tasted almost as good and grandmas. Almost. 
I skinned and washed each leg then rolled them in seasoned bread crumbs and place in the air fryer at 390 degrees for 23 minutes. 
I think if grandma was still here today, she would love how the air fryer cooked up delicious chicken this quick and I didn’t even have to turn em. 

Paid For

My walk is a little lighter today. After five years and fifty thousand miles, I just made my last car payment. Woohoo. I am now the owner of a 2014 Ford Escape.


I remember as a teenager, my daddy would help me find a car I wanted. I really didn't care what kind of car it was as long as the radio worked.  He would buy it and I would make monthly payments to him until it was paid for. I can't remember ever paying one off. He would find me one for around 3000 dollars or less and I would pay a little each month... FOR EVER!.

My first car was a 1976 Honda Civic. It was about the size of a roller skate and hard as steel. I ended up to totaling it before I could pay for it. Among several other cars, I had a 1977 MG-B. That was my favorite car but gave me the worst trouble. I finally got tired of putting more into it than I was giving daddy to get it paid off. I traded it for a new Pontiac Fiero. Daddy knew it was more than I could handle but he trusted me anyway and co-signed on a deal. Payments were over my head and he finally took it away from me when I ran off and got married without his approval. Yea I was a little stinker.

A few years later I matured and married the right man who help me pay off all my debts and taught me to never buy things unless I could afford them. Since then, I have paid off four new cars. I will be ready to trade the one I have now in a couple years before the value wears off. I like to keep a new car for the warranty. Mine still has an extended warranty that is still good for a while.

People ask me how I do it? How can how we can pay 1200 a month for health insurance, pay bills and make a car payment on a tiny paycheck? I say "we do without a lot of things". We pinch our pennies. We also make sure we each pay our tithes.

We do not have fancy things or go many places, but we are happy just being around each. I get ten days vacation a year so we head to the beach were we stay in our camper for half the price of a hotel and eat a lot of sandwiches. It's not enough vacation time but it will have to do and we make the best of it. Though we do not have a lot of things we want, we have all the things we need.

We do not have credit card debt. We have our own checking accounts and we do not buy anything we can not pay for unless it's something big like a car or home, then payments are made and credit is built. For now, what I used to pay for a car payment, I will put into my savings to add to the next car I choose in a couple years.

Life is great when life is simple.




Home Made Sherbet

It has been hot here in the Carolina's. This mean lots of cold treats. Like sherbet for example.
I admit I'm more of an Ice Cream eater over sherbet. My husband on the other hand, prefers sherbet.

My favorite sherbet flavor is Orange. I remember many years ago back in elementary school, they had an ice cream cart visit each room once a week. The kids would line up to purchase their favorite ice cream. I loved the Orange Push ups. I also like the Nutty Buddies, but there was just something refreshing about the sweet orange creamy sherbet.

Yesterday I thought I was going to have to have a tooth extraction and would want something cold to eat so I pulled out a bag of mixed berries and made my own sherbet to enjoy for my late night snack.
I ended up not needing an extraction but I still have a delicious snack.

It was so easy to make....

Just kidding, I had a mess with no end as I had berries everywhere. My blender was not strong enough to mix the frozen berries so I moved them to the food processor and that didn't work either. I then found a more powerful blender that I had stored away and it worked. Wheeew. I had a mess and three appliances to clean up.

So, if you have a powerful blender, this sherbet is easy to make.


Home Made Berry Sherbet

1 bag frozen of mixed berries (approx 2 1/2 cups).
2 tsp fresh lemon juice.
2 Tbs honey
3 Tbs warm water as needed to mix. 

Place all ingredients in high speed mixer.
Pulse until smooth and creamy.
ENJOY.

I enjoyed my sherbet in a waffle bowl. As it melted, it coated the bowl with sweetness. 



Rag Bunny

I reached up into the closet and pulled down the rag bunny. It always brings back memories.

I remember the days when times were tough and money was more tight than today. I would have considered us poor. We lived in a little old house that used to belong to Nicks grandparents. He and his father did a great job remodeling the inside and we made it our first home. I actually loved that house but hated where it was. It sat on about 10 feet from the road on the corner of a busy intersection. It was not safe to play outside or even enjoy the porch out front. However, there was a lot of love and memories in that house and you could always get a whiff every now and again of his Italian grandmothers cooking through the walls.

We both worked and it took my whole paycheck to pay for daycare and insurance. The only reason I worked at the time was to have insurance. I still can’t say I would have rather been a stay at home mom. I needed an outlet, and my daughter needed to interact with other children. It all worked out. 

Every Easter, I have always created my daughter an Easter basket. When she was little I refused to go out and pay lots of money on the fluffy stuffed animals and throw away toys that we simply could not afford. One year I found a piece of scrap material to line her basket to match her new dress. With enough scrap left over I created a matching bunny. This was my first time doing anything like this but I wanted her to have a rabbit doll. 

I cut out shapes of each limb. By needle and thread, I sewed and stuffed each piece together and attached it all together. It was not perfect or pretty but she was tickled to have a bunny that mommy made. 

The rag bunny is still around. She didn’t take it with her when she moved out. I bring it out every year and add it to my Easter decorations. Sometimes it sits on the bed or in the rocker. Sometimes its added to other decor. This year its sits on my mantel. It brings back memories of her being little and how sometimes the simplest and cheapest gifts can be the best. 






Old Games-Memories

When the husband and I take our afternoon walks we will often come across coins, broken jewelry, lost keys and more. But what I like to find is marbles. It's rare but I have found a few. When I pick a marble up, I will always say "Someone is loosing their marbles".  I have no clue why I find them because I'm pretty sure they are not needed in any of the video game kids play now days.


I still have a bag of old marbles. Some are mine and some are my husbands from when we were kids.

I remember playing marbles when I was younger. It's started by drawing a ring in the dirt with your finger or stick. Each player would throw in a few of their own marbles into the center of the ring. Each player also had a "Shooter" marble which was larger than the marbles in the center. We always had our lucky shooter. Each player took turns thumping there shooter into the ring and try to knock out the other player's marbles. They also got to keep the marbles they knocked out. This led to going home with either more marbles than you had or less. It was sort of a gamble. But it was fun.

As I was cleaning out some old games from the TV hutch the other day, I came across some old Jack Rocks. These were not the large plastic ones you see in the stores today. These are the tiny metal ones that would scar your foot for life if you ever stepped on one barefooted.


I used to play with these things all the time. I remember the back side of my pinkie finger would be raw and even bleed at times from sweeping my hand across the pavement. You would start with collecting one, then two and so forth until you were able to grab all ten jacks in on sweep before the ball bounced. You do not see that being played by kids anymore either.

Another game I came across while cleaning..... wait.....let me back up...It really has not been that long since I have cleaned. I was just going through some old small games I had stashed away.
I found a box of Old Maid cards and a can of "Pick up Sticks". These were all simple and fun games we enjoyed as a kid. I think I'll hang on to them for the next generation.

Do you remember old games you used to play? Do you still have them?

Daddy's Hankie- Memories

We finally got everything squared away with my husbands Father's estate. While cleaning out the last bit of stuff, we come across handkerchiefs. Lots of them. Some were old and stained and some were still in the box. My husband would toss them in the trash as I kept retrieving the good ones. Some were fancy and monogrammed with a D.



He looked at me funny with a little smirk. "Nobody uses hankies anymore, just throw them away". I replied, "But they are still good and some still boxed! Everybody needs a hankie!"
"Ok" he said, "just do what you want with them".
My plan is to use them to practice making crochet lace trim.

Then the memories came as I put away the boxed ones and gently washed and folded the old ones. My daddy always had a hankie in his pocket. He also had four snotty nose kids with him all the time.


Daddy wiped many tears and runny noses with his hankie. He would fold the dirty part to the inside and slid it back into his pocket. The next kid up, he would always say, "Here is a clean part to use" and we would.

Daddy's hankies were there to wipe up our spills, clean sticky fingers or polish our shoes. I’ve seen him use them to wipe a foggy windshield or wrap around a kitten. They may have even been used to take a fish off our hook a time or two.


So I'm keeping the handkerchiefs we found. Even though these are not my daddy's hankies, I know the benefits of these little rags and who knows, maybe I'll keep one in my purse. You never know when one will come in handy. 

Indian Dolls- Memories

I remember when I was young, one of the places our family would visit was Cherokee, NC. On the way, we would often pull over for a roadside picnic. Those were the good ole Days.

I loved to visit Cherokee because I loved to see the Indians. You could see some in full suit and head dress walking around. I even had a little Indian dress myself and a pair of moccasins. I think there was dancing chickens and a piano playing chicken but I could have been dreaming.

While we were there, we would always go into the shops. Mom and dad would give us each a couple dollars to buy a souvenir. My big brother would often get at tomahawk or hat. My little Sister liked to pick up a pet rock and I went straight to the Indian dolls and beaded jewelry. I would walk away with one of the other.


I loved the little Indean dolls the best. There was just something about the smell of the leather outfit, tiny shoes, and cotton hair. I have no idea where those dolls are today but I wish I still had one.

My sister drove up to Cherokee a couple weekends ago on a job assignment and revisited a few of the stores.


She was sweet enough to bring me back a souvenir of a tiny beaded Indian doll necklace just like we wore when we were little.


They are still made the same as they were over 40 years ago. Look close, you can even see tiny little feet under her dress.


Not only did my sister bring me back this sweet gift but she also brought back some memories. Now I am trying to get my husband take me back to the Indian town and visit the casinos. I have never been to a casino, and of course touch an Indian. [Grin].