NOVEMBER 9

November 9, 1968 at 11:02am, Indiana and Illinois felt an earthquake.
 I remember it like it was yesterday.
 It was my maternal grandparents' 50th Golden wedding anniversary. They would have been married 94 years today. November 9, 1918.
 My sister and I were at my Aunt Florence and Uncle Russell's house eating lunch while preparing and decorating for the big party that evening.
My aunt was in the kitchen bringing the luncheon plates to my sister and I as we sat across from each other in the small dining room.  My uncle was down in the lower level of their split level house in his fascinating radio room with all the radios and Morse Code contraptions and radio wave sounds from all over the world. He was a Short Wave Ham radio operator.  I always wondered if he could pick up sounds from Mars. 
 My chair started moving and shaking and I looked at my sister accusingly as my chair rocked and slid..  She exclaimed that her chair was rocking too and then we heard the windows rattle and we looked at each other as the blood ran out of our faces.  I said "I think we are having an earthquake! What should we do?"  We both envisioned the earth cracking open and swallowing us right then and there and realized there was no place to run to get away...It was an awful sick feeling.
We asked Aunt Florence if she felt anything but she did not. She'd been moving too fast on her feet in the kitchen.
  My uncle came upstairs when he heard the panic in our voices. He said he thought it was his heart beating hard enough to jolt his chair around and he was waiting for himself to keel over.  He announced that we indeed had just experienced an earthquake as confirmed by the other Ham radio operators he was talking with who were privy to seismographs from around the country and the world. 
 We have had several earthquake tremors since that day.  One was on my own wedding anniversary in 1974, but that was my first, and now, every November 9, I remember my grandparents 50th Golden wedding anniversary and my first quake. 

Today's Thoughts

"Do you think we choose to be born? Or are we fitted to the times we’re born into?" — Lincoln

The new movie "Lincoln" is coming to theatres tomorrow. I want to see it but just watching the trailer I about flooded my keyboard. I know it will be powerful and what perfect timing for what is happening in the USA right now. This is my take on things: This is not our granddaddy's America any more and we should stand united, not untied. The only true Americans are the Native American Indians and I am not sure they even have the right to vote. Perhaps we should have a Democratic President and a Republican Vice President or vice versa. Become one for all and no more separation. Both parties want the same things for the country....is this not true????? But ah, human nature seems to always have differences~it's just the way it is and probably always will be. Maybe it would be different if we weren't born with opposable thumbs.  
A set of little twins were just born...their names are Barack Obama and Mitt Romney...let us hope they will grow up in a house undivided~they will have individual choices having lived under the same roof with the same economic restrictions~let us hope they will respect each other.

Pumpkins for Squirrels and Little Monsters

Nothing makes a better Halloween

Musical Sistahs

Let me share a little story of when my best friend Suzanne and KennyRogersLookAlikeBeforeThePlasticSurgeryWentWrong and I  were in Reclamation, a locally owned Arts and Antique mall,  a couple Fridays ago.
Two women working behind the counter appeared to look like sisters to me so I asked the slightly older one if they were sisters. They looked at each other and said no, neither one of them had a sister....Suddenly the slightly older gal started singing 'Sisters, sisters' from the White Christmas movie. Then all of us and the other customers

in the store started singing 'Sisters, sisters, never were there more devoted sisters'.....then tra la la we continued the song to 'Lord help the Mister who comes between me and my sister, and Lord help the Sister who comes between me and my man!'

The slightly younger gal looked wide eyed at all of us and said  " I don't know what just happened here!"
See what impromptu fun you can have with perfect strangers.  It was like a musical! 

Sometimes I think we might need a film crew tagging around with us.

Too Emotional

I can't go to the cinema anymore because I am afraid I'll have a cryin' jag and have to be carried out.  I had to be carried out of ET and my kids were humiliated and then while watching 'Karate Kid', I got so upset with those boys beating him up, my kids had to pull me down into my seat because I kept jumping up yelling,' Kill those boys!' They urged," Mom!" as they tugged,  "we are not in the living room and this is not Little House on the Prairie!" That television series used to really rial me up!    HaHmmm.  Sorry...but I did have to run out the back door of the theatre when I watched Driving Miss Daisy because I was sobbing so loud.  Been a loong time since I have allowed myself to go to the cinema... as you can see by the movie titles I have mentioned!

Soothing

Sounds that are soothing:
Sound of the spoon in the mashed potato bowl
Sound of a broom sweeping*
Sound of typing
Sound of a man's beard over the telephone (actually very sexy)*
Sound of crickets
Sound of squirrels barking
Sound of the clatter of my grandparents' teeth while eating
Sound of a lawn mower
Sound of a ticking clock*
Sound of children playing quietly with gentle toys
Sound of a mother's voice reading a story
Sound of the turning of thin pages of a bible in church
Sound of purring
Sound of Captain Kangaroo's crayons on construction paper
Sound of Bishop Sheen's chalk board
Sound of my children's lullaby box*
Sound of good china and silver
Sound of people murmuring in the distance
Sound of car motors way off in the distance
Sound of children reading aloud
Sound of early morning bird songs
Sound of the ocean waves
Sounds of Halloween
Sound of drums
Sound of my kitty's heavy stride

Suzanne and Me and 33 Years

Somebody pretty special is comin' to visit me.  It's been a long 2 years since we've seen each other. I'm gonna lay on the bed while she unpacks her suitcases of 12 pairs of shoes and 15 outfits and light weight jackets that she will not get to wear because it is a bazillion degrees here with 400% humidity~She is gonna cook and I'm gonna eat~we'll give each other gifts and shop till my feet cry out "No More"~and then when she goes back home we will talk for hours on the phone 'cause when we are together, we are just happy to be together~too much happiness for words~so we'll talk about everything in about a week..That's how we're the happiest together!