Dinner in the 40's

When you had guests to dinner you like to have something specdial and when I was first married we were still under rationing so when you had guests you served a good dish xcalled "Tuna Fish and noodles" I have not had any for a long time but remmeber it was good. It took a can of tuna, cooked noodles, cream of mushroom soup and something grated over the top. I think you either served canned peas or green beans. It was very festive and I have not had any for a very long time. Do you suppose it is still good or I just have pleasant memories of the meals with friends. I know I enjoyed it with my sister Helen and her husband Roy. Maybe it was the fellowship or my dessert was good.

oatmeal

I love to have oatmeal for breakfast and never mess around with anything else unless I am out. When we traveled Ray tried to get us in Sheraton Hotels as they always have oatmeal. Mr. Sheraton liked it so insisted they always servr it in his hotel chain. Even in Peru when we stayed in a Sheraton they had oatmeal. They liked to put my milk on it in the kitchen which I did not care for and told them so. When we went to visit our daughter Susan in Wichita we always tried to stay in the Sheraton there. One time they did not have Oatmeal so I wrote the headquarters and complained. The next time they had it. Sometimes I will eat Shredded Wheat but perfer oatmeal.

The Prom

I notice in the news they are giving away prom dresses. When I was in high school back in the 40's only popular girls got to the prom. I knoe my husband to be went but girls did not go without a date. However the Junior class put on a play before the dance and the year I was a Junior I had the lead. It was the story of the old woman in the shoe. That was me. I had fun practicing and being the lead but after the play I just went home unlike some of the cast members. Now girls can go anyway. I don't know if they are asked to dance or not. I expect they are. I think it is better that everyone gets to go. Girls can always dance with each other.

Movies and admission

It says on the news this morning that tickets have gone up $4:00. When I was growing up that was a high price. Maybe it was because they were still silent. In Topeka we had many theaters. I use to baby sit so I could go to the movies. You got thirty five cents unless you sat until midnight and then it was fifty cents. The Grand and Jayhawk were our first run movies., The Gem was twenty cents and you could go to the Crystal or the Cozy for a nickel. At the Gem they gave a dish away on certain nights. Who cared what the movie was. My best friend, Martha, had a grandmother who loved to get a free dish. She would take Martha and I out to eat at the "Chocolate Shop" and then to the movie. We had a local theater calleds the "Coed" that was about twenty cents. We had the "orpheum" which was right by the Topeka Daily Capital and there was another theater down on Quincy and 8th Street. Black people had their own two theaters which were on 4th and Kansas Ave and they could sit in the balacony at both the Jayhawk and the Grand. When Shirley Temple movies came to town there was a ticket line that went clear around the block. Just before school started they had a movie you could get in free if you brought a school book. They had that every fall they had a schoolbook movie you could get in free if you brought a used schoolbook. They discontinued that after they had a movie that scared all us kids. It was a doctor that every moonlight night went out and strangled someone."Gone With the Wind" cost more. My father always set in the back row. I remember the first talkie. I saw it at the Jayhawk. The Newsreel was good.
When they used our car for the pallbearers at vice-president's Curtis funeral we went to the movie so we could see it.

Haircuts

When I was growing up girls always wore bangs at least us beauties did. We had our hair trimmed every two weeks at a barber shop located on 5th Street in Topeka a shop under a bank and across the street from another bank. I read all the signs from "Lucky Tiger" while I was waiting. Later when Ray was in College the football team did not like one of his editorials in the school paper and cut off his hair. He soon was in the army and they cut it off again, Then when our first son, Steve, was born I took him to barbershop in College Hill near my parents house and they used bad combs and his hair fell out. I went to the doctor and they suggested I change barbers as the barbers evidently had bad combs. His hair grew back very fast. After I was married and went to a great hairdresseer he cut Ray's hair every six months whether it needed it or not. It was a great occasion every time. He just never liked having haircuts after the barbers he had in college. He wrote an article called "Haircuts are Free".

Ray and being president of an organzation

Ray loved joining groups and eventually he always became president. One of his first was when we were first married and he joined the Junior Chamber of Commerce. He loved the orgazation and when he became president at his first meeting he started it out by pulling a cap pistol and shooting it off and stated "My administratiion may go out on its back but we are coming in with a bang. He eventually became a member of the Board of Directors and we attended many conventions. Evey PTA he was a president except I'm not sure about Shawnee Mission North or Shawnee Mission West but he was the first president of Shawnee Mission Northwest. After he started writing a daily column he would end up joining the groups he wrote about so we became Japanese, Welch, Sister Cities to name a few. The Chinese Society they made him tresurer. He never knew how to balance a bank statement so I became the unofficial treasurer. He never understood money or where it came from so ended up having to take bankruptcy. I think he liked to sit at the speakers table as the service is always good there. Some organizations he would remain as president for three years I went along to everything and took notes as he seldom trusted the groups secretary. Consequently when he died I attended many things in his honor. The Rotary planted a tree in his honor at their camp and I made the mistake of asking what kind was it and found they really did not know. I have maany plaques he received and some pictures. He was a fun person to be married to. He was on the board of the theater leaque so we got to meet lots of stars who appeared in plays. He was crazy about fireworks and made friends with the wholesaler so we always had a family fireworks display. He would get a permit from the city so it was legal but they would never give me one. I have just been thinking about him today and remembering all the things he liked to get envoolved with so a blog lets me share and you are not required to read this it was just fun to write.

ST Patrick's Day

This is a day that I made sure I wore green so I would not be pinched. My sister Helen, taught first grade and always had her pupils make green shamrocks to wear on St Patrick's Day so they would not get pinched. My husband, Ray, loved the day since he had an Irish mother. On the Sunday before he volunteered to do the children's conversation at church and rented an Irish outfit. I don't remember what he spoke about but he had great fun doing it and we have pictures of him in his outfit. I'm wearing my green blouse tomorrow so I will be ready and to you all Irish and non Irish "Happy St Patrick's Day".

A light for the front room

I love the house I live in and like adding things to it to make it nicer. At a church rummage sale a few years back I got a great light for my front room. I had it on a timer and set for after I went to bed so it turned itself off. It finally wore out and one of my granddaughters, Stacy, gave me another. The first one had a fancy bulb but this one just had a light bulb. It has finally burnt out and I can not find a bulb that wants to work in it that is strong enough to read by. I have a bulb in it but it could do with a little more power. I have tried to fix it, my friend Ann has tried and my next door neighbor Richard have all tried. I have a light but it could use a little more strength. I'm sure some great person with knowledge will turn up and my dog Buster and I will relax until then I may spend time in the kitrchen watching TV. At least I will be able to the Basketbasll tournament.

Coky Pa

The year before Ray and were married Ray gave me a blonde cocker spaniel to replace the black on I missed so much and we named him after a cartoon character--Cokey. When we were married my dad had gotten attached to the dog and said Ray could havwe me but not my dog. After we moved to Kansas City my father became ill and my sister, Helen, moved to my parents house to help my mother take care of my dad. Chris was not very old and had two grandfathers so he called my dad Cokey Pa. My dad really enjoyed having my sister and her family there. In the mornings when Chris would come down my dad would ask him. "Are you up for all day?" and Chris would answer. "If I don't fall down." It might life pleasant for my dad to have them there and much easier for my mother. When we visited he would ask Sally and Sue. "How are you boys doing?" and they would giggle and respond with "We are not boys we are girls".

Rodeo animals

Topeka had a "Free Fair" every September and they had many things to attend. At night they had the "Night Shoe" but in the afternoon they had the rodeo. The same yar our daughter, Susan, was born, we were invited by the owner that furnished the brahama bulls to visit his ranch in Seneca, Nebraska. We were accompaniwed by the female photograher from the Topeka Daily Capital, Saralena Sherman. I was very impressed by Saralena because she had been the Drum Major when I was in high school. I don't know exactaly why I was included but Ray took me along a lot so he would have someone who liked him. We drove to Seneca and stayed all night as the ranch did not have roads you just drove across prairie. Soon after we were there the owner was killed in a car accident when he drove into a gulch but we did not have any trouble in our Lincoln in daylight. They had a huge herd of brahama bulls and while the rest of them did not seem to mind standing out there with them I was sort of scared. I always stood near the car so I could jump back in. The rancher had four children but they lived in Seneca so they could go to school. The rancher's wife was also the cook for guests and cowboys who were not married. We had a lot of delicious steaks so some animals did not make it to the rodeo. There was a railroad across the ranch. They loaded the steers right there. They had other cattle so think our steaks were not from the rodeo stock. We went into Seneca for a dance while we were there so it was all a pretty exciting weekend. Susan got along fine while we were gone. She stayed with her grandparents in the daytime and my sister Helen lived in the next apartment so Susan aslept in her own bed at night.

Squirrels

When I sit by my patio door windows and watch the busy squirrels I think about the ones I have seem everywhere. They are like Bluejays they are everywhere. In my yard I have gray squirrels. Down on the corner of Barton and 68th Street they often have white squirrels they trapped in Lamar, Missouri and brought back. If you cross Kansas City into Swope Park the squirrels get darker. When we go east or into Canada we see lots of black squirrels. They all seem to do the same things and are fun to watch. When I was growing up my father use to hunt squirrels for meat. I never liked it or rabbit either. I put it in the class with liver to be ignored and never eaten.

The Harmonica

I love the harmonica. I use to have them around for my grand children to play with me. I even had a banana one I got in Hawaii. I finally got a real one with numbers on it. If you hold it correctly and blow on the numbers you can actually play tunes like "London Bridge" and other greats. MY grandaughter, Hayden got me the music for "Happy Birthday" which I love. I'm not very good and never will be but have lots of fun playing it. I practice (I actually I DO practice) when no one is around for even the dog leaves the room when I get it out). It is fun I sit and look out my patio door and play for the birds and the chipmunk who sits on my back step.

Pictures

I love the pictures on my walls and re enjoy them every day. There are pictures that the K C Star photogrhaers took and paintings by a niece, and paintings by two friends. one of three chickens, one of Raggedy Ann, one by brother of Fourth of July but I painted it for when I took it in to be framed the framer had the picture duplicated on film and made it larger as we only borrowed the painting the orgiginal was the property of our nephew,Chris, and he wanted it so I don't know where the original is but I love my copy. Some of the paintings Ray brought back from trips whrn he was on assignments for the paper, some are gifts given to us by artists after he wrote stories about them. One is kind of strange as it is lottery tickets from when Ray was head of the Kansas Lottery. One is an Indian that you have to get at the correct angle to see. Some are emboirded pictures that our daughter Sally made. They are all important reminders of neat things in my life. Some are really big like the leather buffalo in the hall or the painted tapestery in the dining room that has jello marks left over from grand children in high chairs that sat next to it. They are all smaller than the swordfish which is on the basement wall where it is happy. Even Ray did not want to have it upstairs. We have too many circus posters to put up. Our things from China are in our bedroom walls along with all the M & M things I have collected.

Chris and the peppermint stick

Somewhere my brother-in-law, Roy, picked up a huge peppermint stick--probably a bar--and brought it home. My nephew, Chris, loved it. He was not very old, probably not quite one but he set in his little chair and licked it. My husband thought it was great and had a photographer come and take a picture. Newsweek magazine picked it up and he was on the cover of Newsweek licking his large peppermint stick. I guess they had to eventually throw it away for there was no way he could ever finish licking it.

Helen's anniversary

Yesterday was my sister Helen's wedding anniversary. Most people at that time had weddings at home. Ray and I had a wedding at the church because he had so many relatives and we could not decide who we should invite. Helen had a best friend, Penny Baker, who she was the maiden of Honor for and when Helen got married she borrowed the wedding dress and the maid of honor dress for me. When you shopped for dresses there was not much to choose from and they were not very attractive. Penny's mother either knew a good dressmaker or did it herself for the dress and maid of honor dresses were great.

It was a warm day in March and we were outside after the wedding in front of my parents' house. Ray stepped on the skirt of my dress and ripped it off. That is not a nice feeling. I hope my underwear was attractive but I covered up fast. Four months later, in July, we changed dresses and the maid of honor dress was mended and I was the bride. I think we did not wear the same veil as I remember mine was different, sort of Romeo and Juliet like. I bet the dresses liked being in three weddings and not just stuck in a box. I know Penny moved to Nebraska and the dresses went with her so maybe they are in an attic there being treasured. I know we had our three daughters' dresses cleaned after their weddings by a special cleaner and I guess they are in their attics.

More Chile

The country of Chile was really interesting and I am sorry it is having trouble. Two other things I would like to mention. While we were there, many tourists came in as they wanted to go to the shore and see the Green Flash. That is something that happens when the land is on the carnival we visited and they were selling clown noses. Ray and I liked to dress as clowns for grandchildren's birthday parties and run the games. We had great clown suits but no noses. The town we entered was having a carnival and selling noses. We bought two. I think I still have them. If I was a better housekeeper I could check but that room is a little cluttered with junk.

Chile and the llama

A few years back Ray and I went to Chile to see the comet go over with NATO. They let me go along. It was an interesting trip. I'm really sorry about the earthquake for we had a great time and it is a beautiful country, much more advanced then many of the South American countries. We had to go north where we were going to be close to the desert to view the comet. We had lots of instruction so we would recognize what we were seeing and we visited many interesting places. Before we left, our doctor had us get tetanus shots as he did when we went to Africa. One day at lunch we noticed that they had a llama on a rope who was eating the grass. I was standing beside a man who had saved his roll from lunch for the llama and gave it to him when he came up to us. Then the llama looked at me for a roll which I did not have so he reached over and bit me. It hurt. When I got home it still was there and I went to the doctor but since I had my shot before I left I was in fine condition. Not even a scar but it really hurt at the time. I had seen the llamas in Peru when we went and even thought they were very attractive but now I'm not sure I like them. They used to have a herd of them in south Johnson County across from the park where my granddaughters played baseball but I keep my distance in case they are hungry for something besides grass.