lincoln's Birthday

In our house while raising our five little darlings we celebrated every holiday with special food. Lincoln's Birthday was a delicious Lincoln's log; It was a yellow cake rolled with chocolate icing in the middle and iced with chocolate. I do not know where the recipe came from probably a magazine but was great. Can not say much more than that so this will be short.

best gift

My writing class nezt month wants us to write about the best gift we ever got. I will try that out. After the war when we were all on stamps my mother use to buy things at a place run by the Santa Fe Railroad with damaged goods. She bought two of my facvorites catsup and peaches in large cans and recanned them in smaller amounts. One birthday she asked me what I wanted and I told her a can of Del Monte peaches and a bottle of Heinz catsup. For my birthday that year I got a bottle of catsup and a can of peaches. They were delicious. If at 88 I still remember they must have been good. I still love them.

vALENTINE'S dAY

I have received a Valentine from my granddaughter Holly. When I was growing up it was not my most popular holiday as I did not receive a lot of Valentines but I like it now. Growing up in school I sometimes got mean ones but my mother use to go to school and give me one very nice fancy Valentine. After I grew up my husband once gave me 30 valentines and I love the candy you get if you are lucky. My grand children in Wichita had a very clever teacher that had a party for the grandparents on that day and put on a play where every student had one line and then you helped the kids make valentines to take home. They put on a play where everyone in the class had one line called "The thing in the forest". One year Ray gave me 30 valentines. Now I already have one. I use to know how the Day got started but it has slipped a bit in my mind so I will just relax and enjoy it. I may mail a few myself.

Groundhog Day

Today a Groundhog named Phil tells me if I see his shadow in Pennslyvania I will have more winter or less. It seems kind of far away to me to tell me what the weather will be in Kansas City. It was not a day I grew up celebrating nor did even when I was grown and always puzzled me but it made a great movie a few years back. Happy Groundhog Day to those who may read this.

Susan's Birthday

This weekend both Kansas and our daughter Susan have a birthday. The year Susan was born Kansas Day was on Sunday like this year and so most of the festivities were held on Saturday night. Then Susan appeared on the real birthday. Her father was working covering the festivities but was very available on the Sunday when she was born. We left our oldest son Steve with his father's parents and went off to the hospital. She was very cooperative and arrived in St Francis Hospital in Topeka. I always enjoy Kansas Day as the schools put on programs and I got to see how clever our grandchildren were at their schools. Kansas had been created as part of te Kansas Nebraska act where they were moving the eastern Indians west. Kansas had a time picking Topeka as its capital because Leavenworth thought they should be. In Indian language Topeka means a good place to dig potatoes which is not very glamorous but did have good potatoes. It has some very colorful history and did not just settle down and behave for we had John Brown come in and burn Lawrence and they had a time in Topeka. My father had a garage on 4th St and the location of the hall where the Kansans met was just up the alley. Susan had many nice birthday parties as she grew up for we loved to have birthday parties at our house. Now our daughter Sally came home from the hospital on Mother's Day, Scott tried to hit Fourth of July, Cindy had Thanksgiving and Steve had Halloween. Birthdays are fun but at 88 I wonder if it is time to quit and just stay 88 but maybe like my mother I will reach a 100. You do not decide that so I will wait and see. I just hope my sister Helen stays around with me so I have someone who understands me.

ETHEL'S bIRTHDAY

Today is my sister Ethel's birthday. She was named after my mother's twin sister. My mother was named Edna Jessie and her twin Ethel Bessie. I have two sisters and they were always kind to their little sister who was skinny, cross eyed and kind of dumb. My brother just kind of ignored me but my sisters Helen and Ethel were kind. When she was in college and dating a student from Kansas State whom had a rather low opinion of my exsistence and he gave her a cocker spaniel she shared him with me. I really loved that dog and after she was married and moved to Sas Diego I had trouble adjusting to the departure of the dog more than them and embarassed them at the railroad stastion when they left with the dog. We visited her many times along with her five children but Tarbaby had been hit by a car by then. She managed to have her daughter born on my birthday which I thought was a rather nice gift. Her mother in law also helped me get my first job teaching in a rural school just between Topeka and Dover, Kansas. Hasppy Birthday Ethel. You were a great sister.

Friday the 13th

We have just lived through another Friday the 13th' I use to be scared of them but my mother taught me that they are really a blessing because anything you do stupid on that day is blamed on the date so you can just relax and enjoy yourself' I think back over the years and remember I fell out of bed one 13th just after I got out of the hospital after one of my 4 pnuemonia trips. I remmeber that all the dumb things have been after turning 60. I shall try to be careful on those dates but will relax if things if do out work out well. HAPPY FURTEEENTH.