Fun Monday - Small Memories

Molly dropped by yesterday to remind me that I have been remiss regarding Fun Monday. On this, the last Monday of the month, she would like to hear about a childhood memory.

I do not have a grand memory of my childhood. We didn't go to Disneyland or anywhere spectacular (to a kid). I do have a lot of small memories, the small things that life is made of.

I remember the smell of Vick's whenever one of us got sick. Mom would rub it on our chests and up our necks and then put us in one of Dad's white pima cotton T-shirts.

I remember when Mom would bake pies and there were scraps of dough left, she would roll them out, put a little butter on it, sprinkle it with sugar and cinnamon and bake it just for us kids.

I remember the button box in Mom's sewing chest and how, when we were bored, we would play with the buttons, or steal an empty thread spool, tap 4 small nails in the top, and use it to weave a yarn tube. They made great Barbie mufflers!

I remember the sound the rain made on the fiberglass carport next to my bedroom and how cold the linoleum floor seemed in the wintertime.

I remember picking the honeysuckles from across the street and sucking the "honey" out right up until I saw the neighbor's dog doing what dogs do on bushes.

I remember cutting holly from our very own holly trees for holiday decorations and sharing with the neighbors.

I remember my brother and I running through the house and turning on all the electric appliances so my Dad would look at the PG&E meter and lose his mind, and then running even faster to turn everything off before he came inside.

I remember my childhood very fondly. The parts that I was not fond of, I choose not to remember!

Now, hop on over to Molly's and see what everyone else is remembering.

Just Thinking

I was in the bathtub this morning listening to Shorty exhorting the black pup, "Eat your breakfast, Goose". I giggled because we used to spend our mornings telling Julie's child, "Eat your breakfast, Moose". Some days I am easily amused.

Anyway, this got me to thinking about the differences in our dogs. Duck and Holly are both food-driven. Rattle a bag or walk toward the pantry or even think too loudly about food and they are right there!

Goose could care less about food. She is affection-driven and just loves to be loved. I will be glad when she figures out that she is more lovable when she is not eating my work shoes or my Uggs.

This leaves Bonnie. I was trying to decide what drives Bonnie and all I can figure out is that she marches to the beat of her own little tiny chihuahua mariachi band.

Fun Monday - Dream Big!

Our hostess for the entire month of February is Molly at one of my very favoritest-named blogs, Return of the White Robin. This is her assignment for this Monday..."imagine that you are the recipient of a large sum of money, say 10 million dollars (to account for inflation). Tell us what you would do with the gift and how would your lifestyle change."

This is easy for me because I dream this dream every time I buy a lottery ticket. When I win, or when someone gives me $10 million, I will do the following things:

1. Pay off all my bills

2. Give all of my children a lump sum to do with as they wish, with the understanding that there will be no more.

3. Buy a house in the Hill Country of Texas, probably in Fredericksburg, where you can still shop at Dooley's, an honest-to-goodness old-fashioned variety store.

4. Endow a scholarship fund at St. Anthony's where my grandson started his school life and where they love him still.

5. Use the remainder to start a fund for the permanent endowment of our local lending library. I cannot think of a better gift to give the world...and myself.

To honor - and to share

Friday night after dinner at Rudy's, Moose went with me and Shorty to Barnes and Noble where we met up with his mom and Rusty. On the way, he was telling me about how one of his classmates "offended" him. Evidently, that afternoon Father John told the kids that he had to officiate at a military funeral at 2:00 One of the other boys immediately asked who was going to take care of them. This offended our little patriot who thought that the dead hero and his family should have been thought of first and foremost.

This lead to a discussion of "frame of reference" and how everything you have been and done and heard and read affects what you think and how you look at things. We decided that obviously his frame of reference was decidedly military as well as service oriented. We discussed service to your country and service to others and how it was all a form of sharing. Moose told us how Father John had explained some things about military funerals including the fact that the flag was not buried with the fallen hero, but given to his/her loved ones.

My first husband, although he died as a result of a vehicle accident, had served in the Army. After the funeral, I was given the flag that had draped his coffin. My family, while patriotic, was not especially military and, to be honest, I really did not know what to do with the flag. I did not want to just shove it in a closet or in an attic and I did not have an appropriate place to hang it.

This bothered me for years.

Then my oldest daughter, the child of my dead husband, started kindergarten. It was a good school and she loved it. Come the fall, the kids learned about Veteran's Day and who veterans are and how they served. She learned that her daddy had been a veteran.

The flag that had covered her father's casket was donated to her school in his memory. It flew over her and her classmates for the rest of that year. I think it was a good use for the flag and a good way to honor her dad's service. So did Moose.

Words Count

Words count -

and so does correct usage.

The video'd assault on 13 year old Nadin Khoury from Upper Darby, PA, to which I will not link, has gotten a tremendous amount of press coverage.

Every SINGLE report that I have seen refers to the bullying. Definition courtesy of Merriam-Webster online.

Bully

Definition:

Transitive verb

1. To treat abusively

2. To affect by means of force or coercion

Intransitive verb

1. To use browbeating language or behavior

Bully: synonyms

Brutalize, abuse, ill-treat, ill-use, kick around, maltreat, manhandle, mess around (slang), mishandle, mistreat, misuse

This child was not just bullied. He was assaulted.

Assault

Definition:

1. A: a violent physical or verbal attack

B: a military attack usually involving direct contact with enemy forces

C: a concerted effort (as to reach a goal or defeat an adversary)

2. A: a threat or attempt to inflect offensive physical contact or bodily harm on a person (as by lifting a fist in a threatening manner) that puts the person in immediate danger of or in apprehension of such harm or contact

B: rape

Assault is a crime. It is punishable by law. It is not dependant upon the schools to take care of assaults. It is incumbent upon the state to both protect the innocent and prosecute the criminal. Once we call a spade a spade and quit being so politically correct, I believe that, one crime at a time, we can take back our liberties, both civil and personal.