2015 July "FROM MY PERSPECTIVE"

                   2015 July “From My Perspective”

The man behind the counter looked at the book I’d chosen to buy.  “I see you’ve selected this one to take home,” he said with a smile.  “Yes I have.  Is there something I should know about it?”  I asked hesitantly.  He looked at me, looked at the book, opened it thumbing through the pages.  “You need to know what you’re getting yourself into,” he said with caution in his tone.  He saw my quizzical look and continued, “You haven’t bought a book, you have bought a compilation of history, secrets, personalities not seen by many outside that house, laughter, tears, private thoughts, fears revealed, discord, disenchantment, a clothing catalog, food diaries, architecture design, and  interior decorating.  You have bought a journey to a place you may never see, but will share with millions.  ‘A place you will probably never live, but it is your house.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did,”  “Thank you, I had no idea there’d be all that in just a book,” I said.  Kate Anderson Brower’s THE RESIDENCE is a very good account of what it’s like to work and live in the White House.  Ron Kessler is another author whose writings I enjoy.  He is a former investigative reporter who has written FIRST FAMILY DETAIL, which I’ve read and enjoyed.  My first introduction to what it’s like to work at the White House came when I was a teen in the 60s.  I came across the book MY 30 YEARS BACKSTAIRS AT THE WHITE HOUSE by Lillian Rogers Parks.  She was the daughter of a worker there.  Her accounts stop at the beginning of the Kennedy administration.  My next reading will be UPSTAIRS AT THE WHITE HOUSE by J. B. West who spent 28 years at the White House starting March 1, 1941 as an assistant to the Chief Usher and becoming the Chief Usher in 1957.  He retired March 1, 1969.  

Remember the foods you ate when you were a kid?  Oh gosh, I surely do.  I was raised in the South where grits, greens, and potatoes are the royalty of the kitchen.  I’d like to take you down my memory lane of foods.  Mother made grits in the mornings.  They were slathered in real butter which was a golden pool in the middle of the mountain of “Georgia ice cream”.  The bacon was crispy and the toast was buttered with cinnamon sugar on one side, stuck under the broiler and cooked until the sugar melted.  You eat it as a square to get the soft underside and crispy top side evenly placed in your mouth.  If you flip it over, the soft sticks to the roof of your mouth and hangs on for dear life.  This is a segue to the anti-stick peanut butter sandwiches she’d make me.  On soft white bread she’d put some Peter Pan peanut butter, smear some marshmallow cream on that and mess it around to blend it.  On the other piece of bread she’d lightly butter it and then smash them together.  Sometimes she slice a banana and put the piece on the peanut butter side.  I’d have my choice of cold milk or sweet tea.  There is only one kind of tea served with a smile in the South; that’s sweet tea, where it was brewed and sugar was added to it, stirred until it dissolved, cooled, and poured over lots of ice.  Mother would usually put a piece of peppermint in the middle of it.  Along come the greens swimming in what is called “pot liquor”.  Mother would use turnip and beet greens, strip the rib off the back and cut them into large pieces.  She’d put them all in a kettle with some water, sugar, salt, and bacon grease.  The lid would go on and the water would gently simmer until there was only about ½ of what was to begin with.  Buttered toast was made and put on the plates to have the greens and pot liquor poured over the top.  Sometimes she’d put onions in the greens as they cooked and some ham, too.  Then there was the grilled cheese sandwich.  No, this is no ordinary grilled cheese.  It is as flat as can be and cooked in a cast iron skillet.  Butter one side of each slice of bread, cut your Velveeta into slices and put on the unbuttered side.  Put this in your hot skillet butter side down and the other piece of bread on top of that.  Wait about 1 minute and then flip it.  WAIT 30 seconds and then press with all your might with a pancake turned to make this baby nice and flat.  Serve with sweet pickles and chips.  Sometimes she’d put some bacon grease in the skillet for extra flavor.  We save bacon grease in the South.  It adds so much flavor and character to green beans, cornbread, pancakes, grilled cheese sandwiches, and potatoes.  And potatoes….oh my goodness, those were a meal in themselves.  In that big cast iron skillet there’d be a glob of bacon grease.  When it melted, she’d put slices of potatoes in the grease and wait.  She’d flip all this over after about 3 minutes.  She add about ¼ cup of salted hot water and a lot of sliced onions.  Then the lid would get put on and she’d sit down to tell me a story about living on the family farm.  After the water was all cooked out, she put some crumbled bacon on all of it, gives it a stir and serves it.  She’d make sure she’d get the crispy well-cooked potatoes scraped off the bottom and give it to me.   If she didn’t have any bacon, which was mighty rare, she’d have some ham and put that on there instead.  I’ll go on another time because I’m sure you’re either salivating or hungry by now.  “Y’all come back and sit a spell.”

I’d been wrestling with so much drama and stress in my life in April and the first part of May.  As I drove home from some shopping time to escape, I took a different route home.  I passed a church with an outdoor sign.  Here is what was posted, “WHAT YOU ALLOW WILL CONTINUE”.  It spoke directly to me.  I’ve made some changes in my approach to the issues.  Slowly, peace is coming back.

“A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.”  Gloria Steinem   Well, that’s a thought.  

Here’s an interesting word my dear friend Melodie sent me.

OSTROBOGULOUS:  slightly risqué or indecent; bizarre, interesting or unusual.  She asked me if I’d ever behaved “ostrobogulously”.  I told her, “Yes, every chance I got I’d flash my beloved.  He’d laugh and say, ‘Oh Trute, you make me blush.’”  It was interesting in that I never saw his face red.

“The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not upon our circumstances.”  Martha Washington, First Lady

Knowing you don’t know it all is confidence which embodies humility; thinking you know it all is arrogance which can embody rejection.  This goes along with Bertrand Russell’s statement and observation of, “Fools and fanatics are always so sure of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.”

If you were ever a fan of THE GRAND OLD OPRY out of Nashville, TN, you may remember a person whose stage name was Minnie Pearl.  She told the funniest, clean jokes and sometimes brought in a family character, who was a n’er do well, by the name of Uncle Nabob.  I was thumbing through my dictionary the other day and came upon that word----nabob.  It means:  a person of conspicuous wealth or high status. He, Uncle Nabob, was far from being a person of conspicuous wealth.

 

I have had many students in my career of teaching.  Some I’ve forgotten and some have been memorable in one way or another.  This one particular student, a boy, recently connected with me.  He is a fine young man, now with a family and is an ordained minister to the down trodden.  When he was my student, he was a hoodlum and very angry.  I accepted where he was, but not his anger.  I told him, after he’d brought his negative attitude and self into the classroom once too often, “Whatever you’re angry about you may talk to me after school or on my prep.  BUT, you will not bring that anger into my class.  For 45 minutes you will be free of it and enjoy what I have to offer.”  From then on, he usually arrived in class without the hint of anger, but when I saw it, I’d quietly tell him to go out to the hall, put it there, and return.  He is one of my treasures.  He tells me I’m like a second mother to him.  Wow!!

Have you ever been in a dead silent room with others when your stomach decides to make the call of a mating whale?  Church and a French final exam come to mind for me. 

Viagra….a hard subject to bring up in mixed company.

I was reading that the ability to speak foreign languages is valuable, but the ability to keep your mouth shut in any language is priceless.  I can do that, but it's the hand gestures which can get me in trouble. Some of them are universally understood.

English is weird; however, it can be understood through tough, thorough thought, though.

Have you ever noticed that some women’s “I’ll be ready in 5 minutes” and some men’s “I’ll be home in 5 minutes” are exactly the same?  ‘Just an observation.

In Sunday school, our minister asked the class, “What have you found to be your best answer and most fear-inducing answer.”  I said, “I have found that silence can be the best answer and the most formidable answer at times.”  I heard a lot of thinking going on.

DON’T LET SOMEONE GET COMFORTABLE WITH DISRESPECTING YOU.  I saw this sign and put it on my page of Facebook.  I said, “To those who have talked with me about how their children are showing disrespect to them…take away everything they want and all the privileges. Don't take away their life; let them live so they can experience the discomfort your actions will produce. You, also, enjoy your freedom too much. Remind them frequently that your attitude is a result of their actions. If they don't like your attitude, they can just blame themselves. You're the boss, applesauce. Remind them of that, too, and do it frequently."

I recently saw this on a t-shirt:  “I am a teacher.  I try to mold minds.”  I think I might make a t-shirt with this on it:  “I am a retired teacher.  I tried to mold minds; some minds were moldy, though.”

If you are concerned about what and how people think about you, pay them no mind.  I used to fret about other people’s opinion about me until one day I tried to pay my bills with their opinions.

‘Some people’s name which makes you wonder what the parent(s) were thinking.  Fonda Yeww; Rusty Steehl; Warren Peacemake; Oh Noh; Silence Bellers; Hugh Pugh; Lettie Attom; Adam Boom; Mac R. Onni; Juan To; Stew Vacca; Major Gods Blessing; Hammond Eghs.

I came across this word and found it interesting.  Cryptozoology is the study of unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose existence or survival to the present day is disputed or unsubstantiated.  Here are some examples of cryptozoology:  Abominable Snowman, Big Foot, chupacabra, Fouke Monster, Kelpie Water horse, Loch Ness monster, Mermaids, Sea serpents, Sewer alligators.  Crypt is derived from Greek kryptos meaning “hidden”.

“Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.”  Plato

Have you ever seen something for $10 which you were sure you could make for less?  So, you buy the supplies for $35, make it and it looks awful; then you go back and buy the original.  Raise your hand as I am doing.

Peace and smiles to you…………Trudy