Chapter 1Fri, Apr 7, 2000 when i as little my mother used to say if say if you keep your nose in a book constantly  you'll need glasses later but i don't really think my reading had anything to do with it she used to take my book away from me put me out the door and say go outside for awhile the book will be here later i would say but mom i would rather read she would say i know but constantly isn't good for you so i would have to wait to see how the story would work out now that i've lost the ability to do anything that requires two hands i still would rather read than anything else except the web i'm sure glad i saw it advertised and asked for it for christmas  Sat, Apr 8, 2000 let me tell you about the time i almost got a room of my own when the house was built it was four rooms living room dining room kitchen and bedroom this worked because my dad worked nights mom and i used the bedroom at night and he slept there in the daytime well when i was 14 they decided it was time i had a room of my own so they called the carpenter who had built the house and he had the blueprints all drawn for my room this was in the fall and it was to be built the next spring there was only one catch i was 14 in feb of 1941 needless to day in the spring of 1942 there were no houses or rooms being built so thats why i never got my own room Apr 8, 2000 when i got older the far sightedness of old age started to cancel out the near sightedness of youth at least that was the dr.s explanation when he couldn't fit me for bifocals before that i wore them so i could recognize who had walked into the room i was that blind i couldn't recognize someone when they came into the room but since i'm older and have had cataracts off both eyes sometimes i even forget to put them on Apr 9, 2000 hi i can'y be with you all but as a prize in bingo i won a two quart jar filled with  &'s  so what have i been doing all day sitting here munching m&m's then i want to lose weight i had a good friend up in illinois who said donna you're not 50 pounds too heavy you're just a foot too short
Apr 9, 2000 every morning my mother squeezed an orange and gave me orange juice then she followed it with a big teaspoon of cod liver oil i licked it i would take the spoon and suck on it just one time i got caster oil i didn't care for it it didn't have any taste someone said oh you liked the cod liver oil because you couldn't smell anything and someone told me i didn't like cigarettes because i couldn't smell them now i am here and every two hours people are down by the smoking room clamoring for someone to come so they can smoke i was in the health and wellness chat room one time i made the remark i didn't see why they didn't do with tobacco like they have other addictive drugs one of the posters got very hostile i had to leave for lunch but felt like asking him if he were a tobaco farmer or just a smoker i don't go into the chat rooms very often i'm too outspoken Apr 9, 2000 my mother used to give me sassafras tea. i didn't care that much for it but i drank it for coughs my great grandmother used to slice an onion very thin then put sugar on it it would make a SYRUP that was my cough medicine dad said when they had quincy sore throat their mother would roll paper into a little funnel put it in their mouths and blow it into their throats she put sulfa in the funnel he said one time his brother blew before she did she said his brother really got a licking but said it cured their throats did any of you ever hear of an asafetida bag they said they hung it around their necks said it kept you well no one could get close enough to give you anything Apr 9, 2000 do you remember the story of tom sawyer when he gave the tonic to the cat his aunt scolded him he said his aunt gave it to give it to him to burn his throat out it made his aunt think what was cruelty to a cat might also be cruelty to a boy my mother in law told of the time her throat was closed with diphtheria said her mother and her grandmother were thinking of something they could give her that would go past the blockage said they finally gave her a teaspoon of coal oil said it did go down and pretty soon she coughed up all the blockage she said i lived and she did she was in her 80's then and she lived to be 87 Apr 10, 2000 i would love to see the blossoms we had a pear tree in our yard it had such beautiful snow whie blossoms no pears but it bloomed as though it meant it them in the orchard right back of the yard we had apple trees cherry trees and a couple of peach trees all a little different shade of pink the peaches were cling stone but we used to go across the river to a peach orchard in Illinois it had beautiful big freestone peaches you could pick all you wanted for $1 a bushel the man even told us how the trees are grown they are grafted when the trunks are small one tree is grafted onto another i loved to can them but the cling stones i was just thankful them and the apple trees didn't both bear heavily the same year it seemed one year the apple trees would bear really heavy and the next year the peach trees never both at the same time thank goodness Apr 11,2000 Eggs And.... over easy with lots of yolk with bacon cooked real crisp when i made it at home my husband used to say that isn't bacon that's cracklings April 12, 2000 when i could cook for myself i would bring the water to a good boil and poach the egg for exactly two and one half minutes i timed them by my watch i'v had the girl who runs the kitchen say donna if there is any way i could i would bring you in and have you cook your own eggs i said well my mother did when i was 5 years old i had a little red chair she would pull up to the stove she would say here fussy you fix them Apr 13, 2000 HOW MANY HAVE TOLD YOU? only the nurses when they think it's time for me to come to a meal come get my bath or something they always want me to do something when i'd rather just web Apr 14, 2000 MAGAZINES i subscribe to one magazine it is the mercury hour the astrology magazine for astrologers it comes out 4 times YEAR AND ONCE IN A WHIILE AN EXTRA the only articles in it are sent in by the subscribers some who have been professionals for years and some like myself for whom it is just a hobby i started studying astrology in 1972 and when i was home and had all my books i could do someones astrology chart in just a few minutes now if i have one i want for someone i call the publisher give her the data she needs and in few minutes she sends me a chart done on the computer i can interpret them i havn't lost that skill in case some of you think astrology is fortune telling its not it's strictly to interpret a persons strengths and weaknesses and is better done for a child so you will know their temperment their interests etc Apr 14, 2000 wayne you sound like a man after my own heart i used to love to read popular mechanics every month there was a story about a mechanic that would solve a mystery about a car and what was wrong with it i don't know if that story is still in them or not i haven't read one for years Apr 14, 2000 dear kath there are people in nursing homes that love to get magazines when my mother was alive she would save hers for me and if i went to visit she would give me a big stack she knew that on the farm i couldn't really afford to subscribe to them here there is a woman that every once in a while she wil bring me a big stack of true stories or true confessions a lot of times at night the night nurse will come to get them to take to read on her break i think there are people in hospitals that would enjoy them too Apr 14, 2000 MY SON i always liked evenings best especially when i was working each shift has it's own particular flavor and evenings was my favorite next was nights and i did work nights for years day shift was ok but not my favorite i'm a night owl not a lark and this despite the fact that breakfast was and is my favorite meal love those eggs and bacon especially if cooked right the eggs over easy with lots of yolk i love the whole egg but the allergy doctor said no egg whites and oatmeal i would find it hard to get through the day without my oatmeal maybe i was a horse in a previous lifetime Apr 16, 2000 FAVORITE WILDFLOWER when we were first married my husband told me i had a choice of two houses one was pretty new the other really old i chose the old house he was a little surprised and asked me why as it would have to be completely redone on the inside i told him i wanted that one because the back yard was full of violets it also had a beautiful rubrosa lilly growing where the garden had been when i lived at home my mother had flower beds surrounding the whole back yard in one place there was a bunch of flowers called pinks do you know what they are and several bushes of peonies they always bloomed just in time to take to the cemetary on memorial day when i was married and lived on huge farm outside the window that was over the sink where i did dishes there were two peony bushes one was white the other a deep magenta gradually so gradually i didn't notice it the white bush changed into a really pretty pink i know some of you will say what did you expect well i have to admit i didn't expect it
carol i never went strolling in the woods much first there weren't any close another thing as soon as i got outdoors even in only high grass one of the first things that would happen to me i would start to sneeze and itch no i would much rather stay in and read than go out and expose myself to the pollen the flowers were beautiful to look at but blessing or curse i was born without a sense of smell when i was a small child i didn't even realize there was such a thing but when i was nursing they would tell me how lucky i was Apr 16, 2000 SPEAKING OF SPAM i have a story about viagra you may think it's funny or you may delete it immediately i am in a nursing home one day i was in the office with a bunch of nurses some of whom are onery one of them said the police were notified that a burgular had broken into a dr.s off ice and had stolen a whole case of Viagra they were told that they would be looking for a hardened criminal of course i have not been nursing for years and they had to tell me what viagra was Apr 18, 2000 pray for me tomorrow the only girl that can get my shoe and my brace on while i am in bed will start on at least a two week vacation there are two more people here in the home that can put it on while i'm still in bed and they are not always available if they will put my shoe on my one good foot they can get me up in the chair and after i am up there are several people that can put it on once i'm in my chair maybe it sounds foolish to say pray that there is some one that can put my shoe on but it has to be flat on the brace and it wants to twist its something when someone cant put your shoe on but after it was broken and got out of the brace it wants to spasm and twist and without it i can't put any weight on my foot even to transfer in the bathroom so even though it sounds silly please pray for me that they can get me up Apr 17, 2000 DOLL HOUSE once a year all the children in the neighborhood would take shoe boxes cut holes in them for windows and doors cover the openings with tissue paper put a lighted candle in them and then have a parade down the sidewalk it was a pretty sight i would sit on the front porch with my mother and watch mainly because i was not allowed off the front porch unless my mother and i would take a walk together some times down the block and over to the other street where there was a drug store we used to get their specialty which was a walking sundays it was ice cream in a cup cone with sauce on top you could have any combination you wanted my favorite was chocolate ice cream with pineapple sauce it still is by the way when i can get it we just had an activity that she the activity directer was going to be planting flowers we did that once had little pots we put potting soil in and sprinkled little seeds in my little plants got about an inch high and were starting to have little tiny leaves when somebody tipped my pot over this time she whipped up a package of jello vanilia pudding and folded in a carton of cool whip then she sprinkled on it what she said was potting soil of course it was crushed up chocolate cookies dished it up and put little gummy worms on it she passed it around and some of the ladies wouldn't eat it they thought it was real dirt i'd been here long enough to know better of course besides the state department of nutrition gives the kitchen their menus also their recipes and i'm pretty sure potting soil isn't on the list but they didn't even have squash this year either and i love it zuchini and acorn squash both i used to take acorn squash cut it in half and bake till it was soft take it out and mash it up mix in butter and molasses put it back and bake it till it got kind of firm then serve it Apr 17, 2000 DOLL HOUSE i never had a dollhouse because i never played with dolls i had a good imagination though downstairs the basement was finished but in one wall there was a door the door opened to the part of the basement that was under the front porch i used to sit there and imagine there was a tiny city in there i had just finished reading Gulivers Travels Apr 17, 2000 DOLL HOUSE i had a cousin herbie he was about 3 years younger than i was the closest i ever had to a brother when i was 12 and he was about 15 he had a little sister when he was 21 about 30 days before my daughter was born he was killed in a motorcycle accident he had just finished building Margaret a doll house complete with lights that worked herbie like many of us had been born in the midst of the depression and my aunt and uncle had a really terrible time uncle herb was out of work for two years they moved to a farm they called colamity one time one of the fellows at the railroad brought him a flock of baby chickens to raise the man that got them for him didn't know much about chickens those chickens were leghorns and when they wanted chicken Herb had to shoot one out of the tree because that was where they rosted by the time margaret was growing up they were pretty prosperous so she didn't want for anything they even made it legally that if anything happened to them my mother and dad would raise her Apr 18, 2000 Near Death Experiences in 1932 when i was 6 years old my grandmother who was 52 was dying of stomach cancer my great grandmother who was 77 had lived with my grandmother and grandfather since she had been widowed in 1900 the last 5 weeks of my grandmothers life she was in the hospital three days before her death they woke me up one morning and told me my great grandmother had died that night of a stroke they said they did not tell my grandmother that her mother had died but they said she knew something had happened at home she kept asking them what was going on she said is Ed my grandfather painting the barn they said just before she died she looked up toward the foot of the bed and said why ma what are you doing here few minutes later she was gone they moved the piano out of the living room and for three days my great grandmothers coffin was there then for three days my grandmothers coffin was there i remember sitting under the window thinking i wonder how long it will be before i will be with my grandmothers again i know it will probably be a long time because i will have to grow up first and that may be a long time one time a dr asked me to tell him about myself i told him this and he said didn't you think they would come back i said oh no i knew they wouldn't come back that i would have to wait and someday go to them he said you were an unusual 6 year old that has been 68 years and i'm still waiting but i'm just as sure now as i was then that it will happen Apr 18, 2000 ANOTHER BRAGGING MOMENT bee is this the game where the president is supposed to throw out the first ball you have reason to be proud my dad was quite a bowler one time he took me to the rink the ball was heavy and instead of going down the alley it went back under the bleachers there was a young man bowling in the next alley he looked at me pointed down the alley and said that way Corrigon how many of you remember wrong way corrigan another time when i was older i went bowling with a girl friend when i got home dad said well what was your score i said 63 he said i mean for both games i said dad that was both games he just looked at me but he had learned long before not to expect anything of me when it came to athletics Apr 16, 2000 GHOST STORIES you can take this as a ghost story or not i never thought so about a month after my daughter died i went into her room and lay down on the bed as i lay down i turned my head toward the door there was a man standing there he was in a long white robe you would have thought my first reaction would have been to be terrified especially as i was alone in the house but i just accepted it as a matter of course the man said come now aand i will take you to her i stood up and then we were in a long white hallway we walked down the hall till we came to a door he said you go in and she will come i entered the room and vickie my daughter came in from the other side i didn't see an entrance she said oh mommy it's so beautiful and i'm so happy i'm going to school and i have 33 of the most beautiful teachers i said i was glad she was happy she said well mommy i've got to go now and she left the room the same way she had come in again i couldn't see an entrance or an exit the man came to the door and said i'll take you back now we walked back down the hall and suddenly i was in the bedroom again i know some of you will say oh she had a dream but that was in 1967 and you don't remember a dream that long or that vividly it really happened Apr 16, 2000 GHOST STORIES in 1932 when i was 6 my grandmother died of stomach cancer she had been ill for a long time and spent the last 5 weeks in the hospital her mother my great grandmother had lived with my grandmother and grand fatherever since she was widowed in 1900 three days before my grandmother died in the hospital my great grandmother died very suddenly of a stroke one night well the family didn't want to tell my grandmother that her mother had died though they said she knew there was something they were keeping from her she said what is it is Ed painting the barn Ed was my grandfather they said about 5 minutes before she died she looked up at the foot of the bed and said why ma what are you doing here? Apr 16, 2000 GHOST STORIES about 6 months after my mother died i left my husband and went back home we had used to spends lots of time in the basenent a full finished basement one night i was sleeping down there and suddenly i didn't see hear or feel anything but i knew as surely as i know i'm sitting here right now my mother was there was i afraid of course not why would i be afraid of my own mother i sometimes wish she had materialized but i realize that for some reason god did not permit her to do that Apr 24, 2000 Hi everyone they had an easter egg hunt for the little kids sat morning in the south courtyard thursday we had spent craft time stuffing the plastic eggs with chocolate finally by 10 saturday morning the girl who was working on the ones managed to get my shoe and brace on so i got to go out and watch we have a golden retriever here at the home she was out there with the kids finally one of the nurses brought me a blue egg and said here hally that is the dogs name picked this one up do you want it that afternoon my daughter paid me a surprise visit she brought me a new jacket a light lavender it goes really well with one of my dresses a light blue with sunflowers now i have two navy blue jackets a green one and now this lavender one ones that go well with all my dresses she brought me a package of cadburys chocolate cream eggs and a sack of hersheys chocolate nuggets she knows i'm a chocoholic |
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