by jphilo | Apr 6, 2015 | Daily Life, Family
I called Mom from Kohl’s last Wednesday. “I’ll be there in about 15 minutes, ” I said. “As soon as the battery in my watch is replaced.”
“My watch needs a new battery, too,” she said.
Why hadn’t she told me that yesterday when I called to ask her if she needed anything.
I bit my tongue, and replied, “That’s too bad. See you soon.”
15 minutes later, I greeted her as promised, “Hi, Mom!”
“Where are my clothes?” she demanded.
“What clothes?” I said, surprised.
“My clothes are too hot. I’m roasting,” she said motioning to the heavy turtleneck sweater she was wearing. “I need some cool tops and some summer nighties.”
So a couple hours later, after a few rousing games of Uno (we each one a game), after a trip to Saylorville Lake to watch boats going into the water on this first warm day of spring, and after supper at Applebees, I returned her to her digs. Her watch in hand, I headed to Kohl’s once again.
The shopping trip was successful–3 new shirts and 2 new nighties, all of which fit her–but the watch was toast. Mom accepted the death of her watch with resignation, and before leaving, I tucked her, clad in her new nightie, into bed (at 7 PM).
Once I was home, I related the afternoon and evenings activities to the Man of Steel. “Her room really was stuffy,” I ended.
The Man of Steel nodded his head. “Did you turn down the thermostat in her room?”
Duh.
“Ah, no.”
We both laughed.
And that, dear readers, is just one of the many reasons I need the Man of Steel. The name of this particular reason?
Common sense.
by jphilo | Mar 31, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
The last time my sister and I were together, we started a list of the things saved by our mom, who was raised on a farm during the Great Depression. She continued to save these items throughout our growing up years in the 1960s. My sister, brother, and I did not know many of the items on this list (and the list to be featured next week because Mom saved much more than a single top ten list can accommodate) could be purchased in stores because Mom never, ever bought them. Prepare to be awed, penny pinchers of the present, by what you should never purchase from a store again.
10. Rubber bands used to bundle the newspaper, the mail, green onions, and anything else bundleable.
9. Twine. I don’t know if Mom scavenged this from hay bales during visits to her parents’ and siblings’ farms, but there were bits of twine scattered around the garage all the time.
8. The string the sales staff at the shoe store wrapped around the boxes to make new school shoes for three kids easier to carry to the car. This string was later used to tie shut packages to be mailed at the post office, which yielded two more savings: no need to buy tape and a cheaper mailing rate for packages wrapped in string.
7. Peanut butter and mayonnaise jars. Mom saved the former for storing leftovers, eliminating the need for Tupperware. She collected the latter to be used for canning, eliminating the purchase of wide-mouthed canning jars. Occasionally, we saved jelly jars to use as juice glasses, but Mom usually bought big jars of jelly because they were much cheaper.
6. The cotton stuffed in the top of aspirin and other non-prescription and prescription pill bottles. The plugs pulled from children’s aspirin bottles were the best because they smelled orangy, sort of like Tang, which Mom bought once and then declared too expensive.
5. Ketchup, mustard, mayo, sugar, salt, pepper, and jelly packets from restaurants. Since we went out to eat once a month at the most, we stripped the table bare because, as Mom said, “It’s not stealing. We paid for this stuff with the meal.”
4. In the same vein as #6, we stuffed paper napkins in our pockets and sucked water through our straws, to rinse them clean before Mom confiscated gathered them in her purse.
3. Small paper bags from the grocery store to use for school sack lunches. Saving these meant that throughout my elementary years, I lusted in my heart for my classmates’ Roy Rogers, Mickey Mouse, and Lost in Space metal lunch boxes. Sigh!
2. Twisty ties from bread bags, which Mom insisted on collecting because she also collected…
1. …bread bags–sometimes for Grandma, who used them to make padded hangers like the one pictured above–but sometimes for our family because no self-respecting woman would buy Baggies. Which resulted in a scarcity of twisty ties at our house because only other way to score twisty-ties was by purchasing a box of Baggies.
Be sure to stop back next week for the rest of the collection list. In the meantime, join the fun by leaving a comment about what your family collected to keep the creditors–real and imaginary–at bay.
by jphilo | Feb 13, 2015 | Reflections on the Past
This week marks the beginning of a new Gravel Road feature called Fantastic Friday. Each Friday a fantastic blog post from the past will be given an encore airing. I hope you enjoy what you read as much as I enjoy thumbing through the archives and choosing them.
With Valentine’s Day almost here, this post about Mom’s Valentine wish (circa 2012) sprang to mind immediately. It truly is a favorite post because it shows the depth of Mom’s love for Dad, who died in 1997 after a 38 year battle with multiple sclerosis.
When Mom and I kept our standing lunch date last Tuesday, I mentioned that our next lunch would fall on Valentine’s Day. “That’s kind of fun, Mom. What would you like for Valentine’s Day?”
She thought for a few seconds. “Well, what I really want for Valentine’s Day I can’t have.” She fiddled with her coffee cup. “So I might as well not mention it.”
“Go ahead,” I encouraged her. “What do you really want?”
“What I really want is a few more years with your dad before his mind went…” She paused and moved her fingers in a circle at the side of her head. Her brow furrowed, and her blue eyes looked sad. “…you know, before he was…”
“I know,” I whispered.
“He wasn’t with me that way long enough,” Mom sighed.
I nodded, not knowing what to say. There are no words for Mom’s loss. Dad’s diagnosis of multiple sclerosis at age 29, less than 10 years after their marriage. The love of her life struck down by multiple sclerosis. The end of her dream of being the wife of a county extension agent and mother to an increasing brood of kids. The loss of the bread winner, the protector, and leader of the family she loved so much and taking on those roles for the next 38 years as Dad slowly failed and finally died at age 67.
Now, 15 years after his death, what does Mom want for Valentine’s Day?
Not chocolate.
Not flowers.
Not a card.
She wants a few more years with her husband as he once was.
I looked at her, across the table, and said, “We can’t know what life would have been like if he hadn’t gotten sick. But I do know the life you gave us was a good one. You raised us well.”
She nodded and smiled. “I did a pretty good job, didn’t I?”
“You did,” I agreed and helped her into her coat and out the door.
Hiram’s off tomorrow, so we’re going down together to see Mom. We’ll take her to lunch at Culver’s, one of her favorite places to eat. Mainly because she loves their frozen turtle custard.
Over dessert, we’ll tease her like Dad did. We’ll talk about his love of ice cream, his silly jokes, his infectious grin, the goofy songs he loved to sing, the cribbage rules he invented as he played.
Compared to what Mom has lost, lunch at Culvers doesn’t seem like much. But perhaps, sharing memories of Dad and indulging in the laughter and dessert he loved will bring him to her in some small way. Perhaps, over frozen custard, we can give Mom a memory of what she’s wanted for Valentine’s Day for years.
If you would like to see a certain post on Fantastic Friday, leave a comment in the box below, and I’ll try to find it. Happy Friday and Happy Valentine’s Day to all!
by jphilo | Dec 22, 2014 | Family
Camp Dorothy is gearing up for Christmas, or to be exactly exact, for pre-Christmas. Over the actual holiday, the camp’s namesake will be heading to points north to spend a few days with her oldest daughter’s family. The camp namesake’s view of the travel plans?
Why am I going further north in December?
The answer, in the camp director’s opinion, is simple. The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activities for the campers–Judge Judy, naps, games of Rummicube, naps, Wheel of Fortune, naps, 3 square meals a day plus snacks, naps, library runs for the camp’s namesake, naps, The Price Is Right, naps, Man of Steel flat on his back for five days, naps, out-of-town doctors’ appointments for both campers with the camp director as chauffeur by the camp director, and more naps. Enough of a whirlwind of activity that the camp director one of the campers needs some down time. The camp director’s view of the travel plans?
Where better to relax and watch the snow fall than further north in December?
The camp’s namesake isn’t buying her younger daughter’s logic, but she brightened when the camp director said Dorothy’s oldest daughter bought her mother a new pair of fleecy, fuzzy, warm pajamas. Perfect December attire for Camp Dorothy North activities such as Judge Judy, naps, games of Rummikube, naps, Wheel of Fortune, naps, 3 square meals a day plus snacks, naps, fighting over a favorite chair with two lovable pooches, naps, The Price Is Right, naps, watching the snow fall, naps and the like.
Vanna White, eat your heart out.
In other camp news, the Man of Steel is feeling much better. By Tuesday, he took over duties in the camp laundry. By Wednesday, he resumed his duties as the camp handyman, and by Thursday he was back at work. And on Saturday, he filled as camp director so the full time director could have an entire afternoon to herself. When she returned after a few hours at her favorite coffee shop, the Christmas tree was up. Apparently, the Man of Steel added camp decorator to his resume during her absence.
What a guy.
Surrounded by such thoughtfulness, with the Christmas tree up and the lights twinkling, the camp’s namesake dozing during television Christmas specials, and the Man of Steel wearing a cranberry red sweater, it’s beginning to look and feel a lot like pre-Christmas around here.
From everyone at Camp Dorothy to everyone at your house, Merry pre-Christmas to you!
by jphilo | Dec 15, 2014 | Family
Camp Dorothy has been a happening place since Christmas Camp commenced last Monday. So much happening, in fact, that the Man of Steel’s back became jealous enough to go out, just so the MOS could join the fun Thursday evening and stick around all weekend.
You heard it right.
Camp Dorothy had enough campers Friday to Sunday to outnumber the camp director (aka: camp cook, camp laundress, camp housekeeper, and camp nurse) two to one.
Twice the campers = twice the fun.
The weekend was a blur of campers in motion–Rummikub games, listening to or watching ISU basketball games, and eating–punctuated by long stretches of campers napping long and hard.
Thank you, God, for naps.
Before the MOS hunkered down at camp, the camp’s namesake tried, unsuccessfully, to teach the camp director the times and channels for her favorite TV shows: The Price Is Right, and Judge Judy, Wheel of Fortune. Equally unsuccessful was the camp director’s attempt to introduce her charge to Downton Abbey and Peter Pan Live. But they bonded during Big Bang Theory.
Thank you, Jim Parsons.
As for the picture above, stop by on Wednesday to learn what that was all about. Suffice it to say, the camp director is now the camp namesake’s favorite child, thanks to some kitchen magic.
Uh-oh! The nappers are rising. Got to run!
