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.