Sprinkle Bottles and Ice Boxes

Ironing shirts today...for my man. My mom never taught me to iron shirts...my Aunt Lucille taught me when I visited her and my Lebanese grandparents in Maine in 1963. Aunt Lucille was amazed that I didn't know how to iron clothes~my mom always had piles of clothes to iron and she ironed every day...first sprinkle the clothes with the sprinkle bottle~ she put a sprinkle head on a Coca Cola bottle. If she couldn't get to the ironing right away she rolled them up and put them in a pillow case and put them in the ice box...it was called an ice box then...the old Philco...not a refrigerator. There were no steam irons. I would sit on the back porch with her while she ironed and read one of the five books she would read each week and I watched Queen for a Day on the television. Mother never once asked me if I wanted to learn..you know she'd just as soon do it herself~she enjoyed it but I felt kind of guilty when my friends told me about the chores they had to do around the house. It was more of a bother to teach us girls than to do it herself..and she did a really great job of it..ironing sheets, shirts, underwear etc. So Aunt Lucille taught me how to iron shirts and I think of that with every stroke of the iron....the collar first, then the shoulder area, Then the back and the sleeves and cuffs and finally the shirt fronts. I iron fabric really well...I used to iron shirts for our male friends when I was in college. My friends sew....so when we get together to make articles of clothing or curtains they ask me to iron ...my ex-mother-in-law taught me how to buy fresh fruit, vegetables and meat at the grocery store and I learned to cook with a cook book. I'm spoiled I guess....

In the Meantime, In Between Time, Ain't We Got Fun..

Rereading again. This time it's The Great Gatsby. Actually I should clarify this, I'm listening to the audio version on C D told by Alexander Scourby. Oh, he is an excellent reader..just the right intonations for each character. I don't own the 1974 film that starred Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Sam Waterston and Karen Black but that was an excellent portrayal. Way back then I really wasn't convinced though that Mia Farrow or Robert Redford could portray Daisy and Gatsby..I guess I had their other rolls too vivid in my mind to allow them to cross into my imagination of my beloved book. Yes, I felt it had been written for my eyes..I have read that many people have thought this, too. I discovered this book in the high school library when I was 15. I was working in the library at the time and something called to me to pick it up. I felt an amazing calmness as I began reading it...I'll never forget that feeling. It took me back to a time that seemed familiar and a time that I longed to return. I feel the same way now after all these years and just listening to it continues that longing. I remember seeing the movie when it came out in 1974. I was amazed that seeing the billboard of Dr. T. J. Eikelberg and the road winding through the ash heaps was just like I had pictured in my mind. I was truly amazed. Fitzgerald's descriptions are so spot on that probably everybody had the same illusion painted in their minds. Over the years I have played over in my head what a friend asked me when I told her that I wouldn't have cast Mia Farrow for Daisy or Robert Redford for Gatsby. She asked me some 35 years ago who I would have chosen. I honestly couldn't come up with one person I would have cast for those two parts...but now in retrospect I believe they were properly cast. I think I didn't believe they were "believable" because they were the "in vogue" actors of the day. I felt they cast them to load the box office. Mia did an excellent job though, but I still cannot get my head around Robert Redford~although I am coming around to that mind set. I was very pleased with Sam Waterston portraying Nick (I've always been in love with him and his observing nonjudgmental ways) and Lois Chiles was excellent for the aloof Jordan Baker. Karen Black was the epitome of Tom's "girl". She has the voluptuousness and vitality of a secretly kept woman... she filled my imagined character as did Bruce Dern~he excellently carried off all the narcissism and non-empathy of Tom Buchanan.
I've read a lot of blogs and critiques of The Great Gatsby over the past 35 years and I am not the only one who is enthralled with this writer and this book~alas, sigh, it wasn't written just for me.

The Smell of the Past

I am leafing thru the pages of the new March Anthropologie catalog that came in the mail yesterday. I am in the sunshine, pure blue sky sitting in the sunroom trying to soak up as much Vitamin D as I can cause I have caught that awful bug that is going around..how dare that little snarly beast enter my body! I came across this picture and it spoke to me right off the page. It looks like it was found in an old clothes trunk, worn by a pretty lady from the south in the 1920's and is full of wonderful memories..to me anyway. I think it was a petite woman like Margaret Mitchell who wrote Gone With The Wind that might have worn this beautiful sweater, or maybe Zelda Sayre before she met Scott Fitzgerald. I can almost smell the musty odor and the scent of the green fern leaves. It made me think that we associate the past with musty odors, staining and yellowing as if that is how clothes and furniture and old letters and photos looked and smelled back then when they were new. But in fact, that is the past in the present day time that smells musty and looks yellowed and time worn. I like that smell; I like this sweater.

Home "Theatre"

...... The entertainment of a home....teacups, special possessions of your grandma's, old family photos, gifts from a daughter, from a son, from a cousin, from a friend and a mother~in~law.... little things that make a home and that fill every corner so that your eye always sees a memory and your heart hears a story. Wholesome entertainment~rated P-G.

~Wild Pet Satisfaction~

I think I have Ollie out of my system now. Haven't seen him around since he slipped out the front door. He might be at someone else's house. And since I've relinquished my desire to start over with a new cat, I will enjoy my wonderful back yard pets that I don't lose any sleep over...they just bring me enjoyment and I don't worry about them being out in the cold of the night. They are the self sufficient ones and I guess I'm into the self sufficient, non-huggable pets. Here's what I get to see when I spend time in my sunroom on these dreary cold, "thesnowisalmostmeltedtillthenextstormcomes" days! Hurry Spring!

Cemetery Research

If you have a love of genealogy like I have, cemeteries are not spooky places, unless you love to be spooked and then you can crawl around in one on Halloween and tell yourself ghost stories. They are very interesting and you can learn so much from them. Take a road trip, add a couple of friends and bring home a tombstone--legally~make a tombstone rubbing. You will need: rubbing wax or jumbo crayons like they use at the home improvement center for marking lumber, masking tape or a partner, scissors and nonfusible, medium to heavy-weight interfacing fabric(Pellon is one brand name) This works better than large sheets of butcher paper or white shelf paper, according to Sharon DeBartolo Carmack who wrote~Your Guide to Cemetery Research~Excellent reference book! My son bought this book for me and it goes with me whenever I go for a cemetery walk. I'm itching to go back on the road to visit several cemeteries of my relatives that I haven't had a chance to see yet. Hope to find lots of art and symbols and we can't forget the epitaphs...those are always so interestingly written. It's been said that they decorated headstones with artwork because many of our ancestors couldn't read or write but they could understand the meaning of the symbols. And don't forget the cemetery keepers. They can help you find who you are looking for quickly and they have access to many records. I will spend a little time from now till Spring Break honing my skills in symbol reading and then go on a cemetery jaunt. I love history and the cemeteries are full of history. Want to come along? We'll take a picnic!

Display vs Prep Space

I cook every day and mostly from scratch...my kitchen is very small and I have many pretty things on my counter..I try to clear them off to have prep space...but you know, these collections (I think one of something could possibly be a collection~you never know when you'll find more) are too pretty not to have them on there to gaze at while preparing a meal..Are you like that? I manage though...I like to be cozy.