HOME EC

HOME EC: I attended Parkview Junior Highschool from fifth through eighth grade. In order to graduate eighth grade one had to know the eight parts of speech; um,,noun, verb, adverb, pronoun, preposition, quark, matter, antimatter. No? Sixth grade was Mrs. Smith. She had an old phonograph from 1880's and she had an old Vaudeville bit about two Swedes talking to each other on the phone. They could not understand each other. I remember one comment, “Not the devil, the wind, the wind, what goes shwoosh!” There was also a song about Barney Google with the goo goo googly eyes. His name was Barney Oldfield one of the first to race Ford racecars. Dad knew the song and would sing Barney Google. In the seventh grade, I took Home Economics. The only thing we ever cooked was milk toast, which is disgusting, only a toothless invalid would find any value in such a treat. What a waste, we would havse been baking cookies or something delicious. The whole class was L shaped; the sewing machines on one side and ovens on the other. We had two projects for sewing. The first was hemming a tea towel. We were shown how to pull a thread and make a clear path for tearing or cutting. My fabric was so rotton that is tore crooked, but I adjusted. The final project was to sew a simple dress. I had blue fabric. I don't remember but Mom probably washed it and had me help stretch it into shape. Then I cut out the fabric and put it together. The plann was to have a fashion show at the end of the year. I took it home. Mom looked it over and promptly tore it apart and sewed more neatly than I had. I do not remember if I ever wore it again. More than likely, I did. That building was torn down in the eighties and replaced with a nice post office. I have a brick somewhere saved from the demolition. Fourth grade was at Wardwell School. The third floor was condemned. Lunch room was in the basement. The building was purchased by the Catholic Church. Parking was saved for the church. A bank and the city Library were built on the rest of the lot. I always wanted to slide down one of the fire slides but no such luck.

RIGGINS

RIGGINS, IDAHO Salmon river, the River of No Return. When I was a sophomore, Dad worked in Riggins, Lots of weekend commuting. He decided fairly early that we should all move to Riggins. So they parked the trailer in a pasture of the Horn family. We stayed in a nice cabin near a good sized creek. There was no TV reception or radio. We played in the creek, there were apparently otters but I never saw them. We were sent to Bible school, a bus picked us up and were home by early afternoon. One of the teachers thought I was the mother of the girls. I didn't know whether to be insulted or laugh. There was the obligatory pasting of macaroni on paper for The the girls. I do not remember much else. Dad decided that me, Richard and Phillip would be enrolled in school. I was delighted to find there was aan art class. The classes were each two hours long and rotated through the week so that the afternoon was free for assemblies or sports. I saw a beautiful young man who smiled at me and my heart was instantly lost. I actually felt a pang of some sort. His girl was blond and they were the power couple. Art class was fabulous. I used oil paints and I loved the smell of both oil pain as well as turpentine. I do not remember painting anything worthwhile. One project was plaster of paris. I used a half gall milk carton for the mold and carved a native face looking upward. The art teacher was impressed and displayed it in a case. My friend lived in Lucille which is just over the time line where it was Pacific time not Mountain. So folks were used to adjusting the drive here and there. One time we rode horses and it was so much fun, even took off our shirts, the things to see us were birds. Dad picked me up for lunch one time. We met one of his supervisors and a flunky named Herb. I had a burger. Did had something other than the special. The big boss ordered heart and so did Herb the flunky. I loved that experience so much. We all learned to play a card game called Nertz. It is a kind of reverse solitaire. The goal was to put all the cards into the discard pile and yell Nertz. It went very quickly.

ENOUGH ROOM

ENOUGH ROOM: This all started with husband commenting that he wished the house was twice as big so he could save more cardboard boxes. (Heaven forefend!) I am reminded of my first roommate, Sue. We rented a three bedroom, two bath house in Novato for about one hundred dollars a month. Remember this was the mid sixties. We both made about 35 dollars per week take home. We were both slobs, I was only a slob in the kitchen, I kept everything picked up and clean. Sue lived in a separate large bedroom with ensuite in the back. I went in there once and she had all of her clothes in piles all over the floor. They were clean, simply not hung up or folded and put away. We then moved into one bed apartments in the same complex. Rent was about 65 dollars per month. One time when Sue's gentleman friend came over, she hid her dirty dishes in the cupboards rather than wash them. When she married, I visite their one bedroom apartment in Napa. She had stuff strewn all over. I started picking up and storing etc. When her husband came home, he asked what happened. I shrugged said, Hurriance Susie I was invited to their home when they moved. Nice large two story home in Napa. Dinner was very nice. I started to help after and was going to stack the plates. Sue said, don't stack them, I don't wash the bottoms. I guess she really needed enough room for the meticulous housekeeper to kick into gear.

MOVIE TAGLINES

Time for Movie taglines: I will list some movies and you must guess them. AS you wish Leave the gun, take the cannoli My greates fear was the thought of a bullet right between my eyes. Christopher Columbus What happened to your hair? Snakes! Why is it always snakes? Play the song, Sam. I have a bad feeling about this. It's over, go home! We're gonnna need a bigger boat. I will never be hungry again. Houston, we have a problem. Come to the coast, we'll have a blast. Kevin! Yo, Adrian. Here's Johnny! Who you gonna call? You are trying to seduce me. Do you feel lucky punk? It's a trick question. You talkin to me? I'm walkin here! ​If he is crazy, what does that make you? Get away from her, Bitch! Answers: Princess Bride Godfather Patton Little Women Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark Casablanca Star Wars Ferris Beuller's Day Off The Fly Jaws Gone With The Wind Working Girl Home Alone Rocky Ghost Busters Mrs. Robinson Dirty Harry My Cousin Vinny Midnight Cowboy Taxi Driver One Flew Over the cuckoo's nest Alien