Tagged by Mingling.
A Meme on Childhood.

The Rules are simple.
Remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog's name in the #5 spot; link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross pollination effect.

1.Blog, Blah, Blah
2.Adventures of a Domestic Engineer
3.Crazy Like A Zircon
4.Yeah, I'm A Cat
5.MeanderingMusings & What Not

Next: select 3 friends to add to the pollen count.
(No one is obligated to participate).
1.Cassie-b
2. Tricia
3.Freddie

So ... The challenge is to list the five things I miss most from childhood.

1. My grandmother.
(Okay so she is not a thing, but she was a very important part of my childhood) She started living with us when I was 8. It seemed as if my mum was always working ( she wasn't, it just seemed that way) and when grandmother came, she filled in the holes. She was always there when I came home from school, with a snack waiting. She taught me how to cook. How to make homemade bread. She always had plenty of hugs. She would sit down with me and we would talk about anything and everything. She was always there for me, no matter what.
She passed away when I was 13 and I still miss her terribly.

2.Family Trips & Camping.
Dad's side of the family lived in Michigan, mum's relatives lived in Nebraska and we visited both at least once a year.
We drove,- - - from West Virginia,- - - in a Rambler.
Dad always found different places for breaks along the way and made the trips interesting. If it wasn't trips to see the relatives, we went to lots of other places too. One I remember vividly was Williamsburg, Va.... I had a great time on that trip. Beaches in Florida and Cypress Gardens (Disney World wasn't there yet). Ocean City in Maryland, Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. . . Just really,really good times.
When my mum was working on her dissertation, she often needed quiet time away from my brother and me. (For some reason the bickering that my brother and I did almost constantly was a distraction for her) For those two summers, my dad would take us camping every weekend. We had a place near
Coopers Rock in West Virginia and dad set us up a campsite, complete with tent, kerosene lanterns and a campfire. He taught us how to cook over that fire,how to keep marshmellows from catching on fire, how to fish,why you should avoid skunks and porcupines, what plants were safe, what snakes were safe (!), how to paddle a canoe and how easy it was to tip a canoe and dump my brother out in the water. I learned alot about appreciating the outdoors, and also if you cook a potato too long in the coals it makes an excellent weapon to toss at the annoying baby brother.

3. My bike.
We rode bikes everywhere! To a friend's house, the penny candy store, the ballfield, the park,the school(after it was closed, of course), the Dairy Queen......If you could get there on bike, we did. Sometimes even if you couldn't get there by bike, we did. Mine was purple (of course!) and had the funky banana seat. Wonder how many miles I logged on that thing ?

4. The Library and Carlson's Bakery in Minden, Nebraska.
Okay.... Sounds dumb, but I loved that library. It was across the street from my grandparents house and was the first place I was allowed to go to by myself. It is where I got my first library card, and I spent hours there.(avoiding my annoying baby brother)
Carlson's Bakery? Was just around the corner, in the town square across from the Courthouse, and Mr Carlson made the absolute best cinnamon rolls I have ever had!
I can still remember how wonderful his place smelled.

5. Dad's cartoons.
My dad had about 15 reels of black & white silent cartoon films from when he was a kid. The only time he showed them was during the winters when it was too cold or yucky to go out and play. Mom would make a batch of popcorn, and I would help dad set up the projector, and the screen. We sat and laughed at Micky Mouse and Popeye, Rip Van Wrinkle and Briar Rabbit. Dad gave them and the projector to me when I moved away and I still have them. I tried showing them once to my oldest son, but by then video games were the rage and the old cartoons just didn't seem to be the same for him as they were for me when I was little. But for me, they were a part of growing up and laughing.

Overall, I would say I had a great childhood.
Treehouses and kickball games.
Snowball fights and sledding by moonlight.
First crush on the boy next door and first heartbreak.
Backyard picnics and cracking open Black Walnuts between two rocks.
Climbing apple trees eating the golden delicious apples.
Life was good.
Sometimes I wish I could go back. . .

Later,
Jovi


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Waiting for the storms to roll in.
There is a line of severe storms headed right for Pittsburgh and should be here within the hour.
Most of the time, the storms are simply wonderful, full of lightning and thumder and cool winds.
I don't mind them , unless we lose power.
Son is working at the local amusement park, Kennywood, and he was working there 2 summers ago when tragedy struck in the form of a micro-burst(tiny tornado?)
and after havoc and chaos, one was left dead and several were injured.
My son was fine.
He walked home *sigh*
(We won't mention the 2 hours I spent looking for him among the 100's that were being evacuated from the park)
Soooooooo now when he is working, and bad weather is headed our way , I tend to over-worry.
But I am a mom.... what can I say?
Ever since that day however, the park does shut down if they feel the weather calls for it.
So basically sitting here, waiting for the storm, with a Clive Cussler book
(decided I didn't want to tackle Tom Clancy right now---too heavy after all the Robert Ludlem books I just read), thermos of coffee(decaff) and have a Chef Salad ready to go in the fridge.

Should be an interesting evening.

Later!
Jovi


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I have survived the first real week of Hot&Humid Pittsburgh Weather.
And hardly used the AC at all.
Can't wait for Autumn to get here.
Wonder if there is a way to just bypass summer. . .

Have been doing alot of reading lately, wading thru my older books trying to see if I can weed some of them out, and find myself wanting to read them all over again.
My friend Jim of Velvet Blog Fame did a Book Meme,
and so did his dog Freddie.
Freddie had some really doginterestingly reading that he has done listed.
So anyways I have just re-read all of Robert Ludlems books that I have and decided that I really don't wish to get rid of any of them.
Am going to start with Tom Clancy next. . . I think.
It's just too dang hot and sticky to do much of anything else right now.

Later!
Jovi


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