FILLING THE MOM VOID

Since my last post, my life has changed in a most unwanted way.  I had to say goodbye to someone who has been in my life since I was born...my mom.  Everything they say, the old cliches, are all true.  You truly feel like you have lost the only person in the world who really cared about you.  No one was ever any better friend, bigger fan, or stronger ally than my mom.  Who, or what, can fill that void?  The answer is...no one.  My mom was someone who learned to fly a plane, but managed to keep her kids grounded and down to earth.  Someone who let her kids leave the nest, but never ventured far from it herself, always being there for everyone.  She was both a rock and a soft place to fall.  She always seemed to know when to call...she always seemed to know when to help....but she never tried to tell you what to do, or how you should live your life.  She supported you in whatever you wanted to do.  Her life was an example that I hope I always follow.  No, there will never be anyone to take her place.  All I can do now is to honor her memory, and try to be at least a little bit more like her.  After all, that's what moms do.....teach you to fly and then let you take the controls. It is at that time that you must fly on your own.

Music is a Time Machine,

HAVE YOU NOTICED that music is the best time machine that you could ever have?  The other day I was in a restaurant with my sister and my niece and an old familiar song "The Long and Winding Road" (by the Beatles) came on the radio.  The music flooded the room and my memories.   Suddenly, it was 1970 all over again.  I was driving my Nova in the cold Indiana snow.  It was late and I was hoping to make it home before my Mom woke up from her "nap" that she always took while she was waiting for me to get home.  I remembered who my friends were, and what I was doing when that song came out.  It was a transitional period for both the Beatles and myself.  That song was the last single they recorded as a group, with the announcement of their breakup following soon afterwards.  For me,  my friends had all moved on after high school and I was in the throes of my first real job.  My sisters (who were previously joined at the hip with me) were both married and out on their own, and I was forced (though reluctantly) to make a new life on my own.  With the help of Roy Orbison, Gene Pitney, and Elvis, I walked into the next stage of my life.  Songs and music have always been a time machine, a way of bringing back the past for so many people.  Before I left the restaurant, another of my favorite songs filled the room...."He Ain't Heavy...He's My Brother."  I thought I was in Heaven....turns out it was just a time machine.

White Christmas

                                                                                                              
It's nice to have a White Christmas, as long as your stocking comes with a little "greenery".
                            


                Linda  Poindexter

DANNY BOY

HAVE YOU NOTICED how we sometimes give more than one name to certain things in life?  Like, a car for instance (vehicle, set of wheels, ride, etc.) or money (cash, moola, dough, etc.)  Or even.....the bathroom!  It is known by lots of names like the "John",  the "toilet", the "restroom", the "powder room" (I like that one), and even the not so pleasant sounding term...the "crapper."  Well, our family has come up with yet another name for this most necessary room, although I admit strictly by accident.

A few years ago, I purchased these musical candles for all of the women in the family for Christmas.  They were pretty, smelled like vanilla when you lit them, and played the song "Danny Boy" when exposed to either a light or the flame.  My sister-in-law found that the only room that had a light strong enough to activate the song was her bathroom.  Every time someone went to the bathroom and turned on the light, "Danny Boy" began to play.  We soon learned that if the door was closed, AND "Danny Boy" was playing, that meant someone was in the bathroom.  And then eventually, when someone would go into that bathroom, they were said to be "in the Danny Boy".  Since then, that term has come to mean the bathroom.

I'm sure there are some names for things that no one really knows how they got that name, but if our name ever catches on......you can smile and say, "I know why they call it that!"  We'll gladly take the credit.

         

AM I AT THE WRONG CLASS REUNION?

HAVE YOU NOTICED how everyone you went to school with seems to look a lot older than you?
If you've ever walked into one of your class reunions, just for a split second, you think "I must be at the wrong reunion...I don't know ANY of these people....they're so much older than me!"  Little by little, you start to recognize them.  I'm sure if you had seen them all along through the years, they would seem pretty much the same as you remembered them. But life has a way of playing with the memory.  It seems like our memory never ages.  My husband insists he's never even seen some of the people before that showed up at his reunion.  "I look the same....why don't they?" he asked. (Of course, I know it's not true, but I shake my head in agreement.)  It reminds me of a joke I heard on one of the late night talk shows about some guy going to his class reunion and he said "None of my classmates showed up, but a bunch of old people did!"

It is also funny how, no matter how many years have passed, time does not affect your memories....it's like nothing has changed when you return to "the scene of the crime".  You gravitate to the same friends, talk about the same things, and still wish the most popular guy in your class would notice you...(he doesn't).  But he does look a lot older, and too bad for him, because you don't!  No, I haven't aged a bit.  I've convinced myself....now I just have to convince all of those old people.



  "True friendships are the ones where nothing changes over time except your faces".
                                                  ( Linda Poindexter )

   "When you're young, you think you will live forever.  When you're old, you just wish you would."
                                                  ( Linda Poindexter)



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ILLUSIVE KIDS

HAVE YOU NOTICED that kids don't play outside anymore?  Sometimes, if I happen to be driving down our road when the school bus runs, I will actually see some kids!  I don't know where they are the rest of the time, but you hardly ever see them.  It seems like they just don't play outdoors like we used to.  I guess it's partly because of the computer, TV, and all of those video games and partly because of safety reasons with the world the way it is today.  But if I were a kid today, I swear you would not be able to keep me inside.  When we were kids, we PLAYED!  We literally made pests of ourselves in our neighborhood.  If we weren't riding bikes, or walking up to the corner grocery store, we were out in our yard, yelling and screaming till way past dark.  Oh no, there was no chance you would only see us when we got off of the bus.  We were there, and everyone was going to know about it!  We knocked on our neighbors doors pushing our girl scout cookies and band candy till I'm sure they were sick of us.  Summers found us with our butterfly nets, heading off into the country (yes, the COUNTRY, all by ourselves), walking miles, hunting for pop bottles and Zebra Swallowtails.  Even if we weren't running through the sprinkler, or riding our horses, we still stayed outdoors...lying for hours in the cool green grass, just reading a book, or staring up at the clouds.  Our doors got all of their wear from us just going in and out a hundred times a day.  Today, I hardly know where the kids are.  I don't know what they do or why they don't play outdoors...why they don't learn to enjoy the world outside and all it has to offer, but I do know what they are missing....it's a thing called "childhood".  Yes,  it seems that kids playing outdoors are getting harder to find these days.....seems like they are as illusive as those butterlies.

           "Tell your child he is capable of doing anything he dreams of, and
             someday he will become everything you dreamed of."

                                  (  Linda  Poindexter  )

SMALL PACKAGES

Have you noticed how things are getting so much smaller?  Everything from cars, to computers, to phones and even the boxes and cans of food on the grocery shelves.  There was a time when BIG was better.  Well, not anymore.  Everyone wants you to think you're getting more....when actually you're getting a lot less.  Take for instance, a can of tuna.  Well, it used to be 6 ounces and now it has managed to shrink down to 5 ounces.  The price, however, managed to avoid the same fate.  I'm sure the distributor of these cans hopes that we won't notice.  But when I used to make tuna salad, one can would make two sandwiches  and now it only makes one and a half.  So did they think we wouldn't notice?  I guarantee you, in our family, someone will notice if they only get a half of a sandwich on their plate!  Maybe, since we're getting a lot less, we could demand that we pay a lot less.  I guess that things are going to get smaller and smaller, until one day you'll open up a box of your favorite cereal and......it will be empty!  (That's one way to cut down on calories.)  All of this talk is making me hungry....now where is the other half of that sandwich when you need it?

  "My new diet is very simple to follow.....if it tastes good, don't eat it!"

                          (  Linda Poindexter  )