The Green Hornet

After I taught Ray to drive he wanted a car of his own. He brought one from a friend that was green and old. He named it "The Green Hornet". It was very old but still driveable. However it was always having troublr and when he brought me home on a date we made a little noise. My father would hear it and tell him to bring it to the shop. My dad would go to the junk yard and get another part for it. When the war ended Ray was working but I drove down Kansas Avebue honking the horn with everyone else. I had his mother and his Aunt Helen in the back seat. When we got married his parents were driving the car to see us off on our honeymoon and the car gave up at the edge of the airfield so they did not make it to wave at us. I don't think it was fixable noe and we went to driving my 1932 Chevy until we bought the electric car.

Electric cars

When Ray and I were first married our 1932 car gave up the ship and we were in the market for a new car. They had an ad in the paper about a new car costling $950. We thought we would try it. It was very small and we had to recharge it everynight. Ray drove it to work at The Topeka Daily Capital and the printers liked to pick it up and hide it from him. Once they put it in the lobby of the Orpheum Theater which was in the same block as the "Capital". My mother was afraid we would hit a dog and have a wreck. Riding in was like riding inside my mother's sewing machine. At the end of a month we advertised it and sold it for just what we had paid for it to my mother's relieve and brought another car. I cannot remember what kind. It was an interesting month.

To Keep me Humble

My husband Ray was great in taking me along places with him so I got to see many great people from presidents on down and I guess I bragged about it. So I think it was my mother but it could have been someone else. I was sent something to put on my refrigerator. It said "It is nice to be important but it is more important to be nice", It has brought me back to earth many times when I got carried away for I don't think I have really done anything important for many years but I'm working on it and may do something "important" when I get older if I could just think of something. Maybe I should ask my older sister, Helen, as she has always been smarter than I am.

New Year's Day

When our children were small they thought it would be nice to stay up until midnight and greet the New Year but always fell asleep before midnight so we told them you could also do it at noon the next day. Then the next day we had poppers ready and horns and firecrackers and started the New Years. Than we had ham for lunch. As they became older they stayed up to midnight and celebrated but still did lunch and they are doing it again this year because I can't stay awake until midnight. It makes it seem like a fun holiday and does not interfere with their plans to be wild on the real New Year's Eve. I hope some of my grandchildren and children will turn up and help me celebrate this year.

We have a huge Santa Claus we put up at Christmas that Ray brought back from the Orange Bowl the year KU played and put 12 men on the field and lost. This Santa Claus hung in the Hotel Lobby where the Kansas Press was staying and Ray decided to bring it home. It was very stormy on the fligtht home and the plane landed in Kansas City and they came back to Topeka by train. Steve was only two so put him in the car and we went down to meet Ray's train. Governor Carlson saw us waiting for the train and told me they would have brought Ray home. Steve was enjoying it so it would have been a shame if we had not gone. Every year we hang it up at Christmas.

Under the kitchen sink

In cold weather I have to leave the doors under my kitchen sink open so the pipes will not freeze. I see I have my electri frying pan, cookie sheets, two hamers, an assortment of vases and small bottles that use to have something in them but as years went by I saved them and put koolaid in them. There is a long handled fork and a long handled pancake turner, bait to catch mice that they go home and die. It is back far so my dog, Buster does not care to taste it or the mice it might kill. I have an assortment of thngs to wash windows, clean the sink and anything else I cannot figure where to put. Some of the vases have things written on them. Maybe later I will find out and write another chapter.

Christmas socks

I used to love to knit Christmas socks. I received a card from my daughter Susan with Christmas socks in a neat row. She is a great knitter. My daughter Sally had socks on her blog yesterday. One of the fast ones I knitted was for my first granddaughter as I think I knitted on the plane ride to Washington when she was born. I have had them on the cover of a magazine and they gave me a lot of pleasure to knit. I have cards on everyone and I have knitted almost 2000. I do not knit well now so have retired from knitting. During the last war my sister, Helen, and I knitted scarfs for the army. After the war I tried knitting other things. We had a fair in Topeka and I went to the knitting showcase and looked to see what had the fewest entries and then by the next year I knitted something, I think it was men's gloves, and won a blue ribbon and five dollars. My sister Ethel gave me a pattern for the socks and I was off on my new hobby. I wish I could still do it.