WHERE;S THE BEEF?

WHERE'S THE BEEF? When I was a youngster, we lived in a trailer in Emmett. We did not have a freezer. Once a year or so, Dad would go the the sale barn and buy a steer. Which was then transported to the local butcher shop. We always got hamburger, steaks and roasts. We also got the liver and the brains. Mom fried up the brains and urged us to eat it. Nope, tasted like fried nothing. Disgusting, thereafter we youngsters had hamburgers and left the questionable delicacy to the parental units. The butcher shop rented freezer space and Mom would go there and withdraw what ever she felt like cooking for dinner. Now there may be some confusion between supper and dinner. When your people come from Missouri the meal terms are breakfast, supper (lunch) and dinner. The hamburger was made into burgers, spaghetti with meat sauce, chili, sloppy joes and meatloaf. The steaks were fried up, we had no outdoor grilling, the steaks were WELL DONE. There was no such thing as rare, medium rare, etc. The roasts went into the roasting pan and the left overs were sliced up and cooke in a frying pan with potatoes and a few onions, salt and pepper. This dish was known as Thousand Mile Stew. It was delicious. No garlic sadly. No carrots which Dad did not like. Mom learned to sneak them into a lovely bean dish later on in life. THE ORGAN MEAT consisted of liver and tongue. We never saw the heart or kidneys, not sure why. Beef heart is delilcious if cooked properly. Also the liver. I have never liked Mom's version of liver and onions because it was baked until tougher than whang leather. (No idea what this.) It smelled good. I am a non-taster and should LOVE the taste of liver. I would soak the liver slices in milk overnight, coat in bread crumbs, fry in butter until pink in the middle and set aside. I would fry the onions until translucent with garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Yummy!!! The tongue only appeared once. Mom boiled it, peeled abd ground it up. It was mixed with mayo, chopped onions and made a tasty sandwich spread. I have had a delicious venison liver one hunting season on Grandma LaVann's ranch. It was sliced and cooked for breakfast, gently fried quickly in a hot skillet with bacon grease. It was fabulous!! Dad was strictly a meat, potatoes and dessert guy. I have Mom's recipe box and it is loaded with jello recipes, cake recipes, candy recipes. We never had hot dogs, or pork chops or pork roast. Grandma Berglund pressure cooked pork roast and Mom said it was too greasy. I liked it. Big Grandma also hustled about the table taking bites from peoples plates. That really disturbed my mother.

FOUR DREAMS

FOUR DREAMS: First dream: I washing clothes and sorting loads; sheets, pillow cases, towels, socks, blue jeans, shirts, blankets. A to Z says this my attempt to sort my personilty. SECOND DREAM: Travel: wide freeway with light rail elevated. One section crossed a very high bridge. At one point I got separated from the people I was with.I could not find the correct elevator. Had to overnight in a barracks of all men, mostly nekkid. I was not quite sure how to avoid seeing all of that, so I took of my glasses. Problem solved! Then I went snorkling and the fish were very pretty. A to Z says the dream represents progress in my life goals. Cool. DREAM THREE: I was sharing the house and interviewing three people. The World Government was cracking down on the homeless. In England, thos who did not take in the homeless were sentences to six months breaking rock. In Russia it took a jury of six to decide who moved in where. I had a pet moose in the back yard that stomped a snake to death. A to A says this is about generosity and sharing feelings. DREAM FOUR: Two men were discussing two horse gallstones that one of the children dug up with a fork. One was large egg shaped one about four inches in diameter. The other was cylindrical and about six inches tall, about four inches in diameter. One man touched one with his tongue abd said it was neutral in taste. They decided to slice on in half with a rock saw. The center was which with dark striations in a sparkling star pattern. Now horses do not have gallbladders, these were a solid accretion of matter that did not go through the gut for a very long time. A to Z says that to dream of the gallbladder means that I need to get rid of the negativism in my life. Since I do not have much netivity in my life, I think I may be afraid that I might actually pooop out the cholelithiasis which I do have. Yeesh!

ENTERTAINMENT, BARB AND MOI

Ba Ba Wah Wah, entertainment and moi: When I returned to Emmett as a displaced housewife, I entered BSU to earn an Associate of Science degree in Medical Records. After graduation I was offered the position of manager at the Walter Knox Memorial Hospital. I met Barbara Whelen there who was working in the office. I teased her by calling her Ba Ba Wah Wah and we were instant friends. I worked at WKMH for over twelve years. During that time Barb and I attended as many free events that we could. We went to a tiny theater on the bench in Boise to see Moliere's “The Monk”. I have sheer admiration for the actors who memorized page after page of script. We loved to go to Shakespear In The Park. I loved the comedies. We saw Twelvth Night. The overall theme was set in the Roaring Twenties, spiffy tennis outfits, slinky flapper dresses. In one part a young man is being urged to purchase the wares of a prostitute. The men replies, “Would that I could, my purse is short and I am long”. He gestures to his cock. I did not know Shakespear had sight gags. One time we went to a theater in Boise to see “The Color Purple”. We were packed in the lobby waiting. The previous show let out and a simply beautiful man came out and told us that we would love it. Barb exclaimed, “A sensitive man! Lets follow him!” The film was wonderful. One habit we got into was staying to read the credits. It gave time to clear out the theater and sometimes we watched hilarious things. Sometimes bloopers were included and we were the only ones who saw them. It was a the same theater that we won free tickets to an American Opera. Sung in English. Still could not understand the words. It would have been fabulous if sung in Italian. At any rate we sat way up high in the nose bleed section. There was a lady next to us who was showing us her pearl opera glasses. She explained that she purchased them in Vienna. We simpered as appropriate. We would often take the bus to Jackpot for the day. We got there about noon and left early the next morning. One time we actually rented a room and as we assembled in the hall the next morning, someone from another room exclaimed, “I hardly got any sleep last night from all the snoring” I piped up and said, “Wasn't it awful! Me too!” I knew that we were the guilty snoring partie. One of my favorite machines at Cactus Pete's was a trivia machine. It was only nickels and there were only two side by side. We sat there for most of day and won enough to keep playing. Other methods of entertainment were Pinochle. I had played pinocle with the folks where we traveled to a friends house, several tables were set up and we played for prizes. I was terrible because I did not have a good partner with whom I could chest Rules were much different at Barb's table. I miss her a lot.

CUTTING HAIR

Ijust got a cut and color this past Thursday. I went to Suzie who does a lovely job. I asked for ¼ inch cut to top and the top to be cut down to two inches. I also wanted white hair. It came out pretty well. I have a good chance of actually growing all white hair but I may have to wait until my 80th birthday. I the past year I have experimented with pink hair, getting patterns cut into my hair such as zig zag and a snow flake. But those things tend to grow our fairly quickly. Now back to the history of familial hair cuts. Mom never cut out hair. I find that interesting in that she attempted just about everything else; cooking, sewing, knitting, crochet, canning etc. But the family liked going to Ron Rekow's barber shop. He had three chairs on west Main Street. He also had a vacuum system built in so that all the loose hairs could be sucked at the end of the cut. That was nice, didn't get all itchy until the next bath. My two younger brothers always got a crew cut and I always got something called a shingle. I was happy enough with this until high school and then it was just to embarrassing to me to get a cut there. I managed to keep chin length hair. It was never nice enough to evolve into a page boy but I liked it at any rate. One time when I was staying with Grandma Horn, she wrapped my hair in cloth rags. I was very curly the next day. Didn't catch on however. As time went on I decided to let my hair grow. I purchased something called a fall. It was a partial wig that sat on the top of the head and fell down in the back. I discovered accidentally that if you lean up against a wall heater, that the hair would melt. That was the end of the fall. I eventually grow out my hair to a bit below shoulder length. I kept it dyed auburn. It was shiny and husband liked it. I began to cut it shorter and shorter which not in-coincidentally matched the length of the marriage. I have had white hair previously in the 60's and it was not a good look. I was far too rosy complected to carry it off. I looked like I was blushing or had an advanced case of rosacea. Ick in either case. I also did not like the almost instant black roots. Wn nearly all of the family lived in Monte Vista Gale owned cocker spaniels. She went to obedience training and took up giving them haircut. One time Dad asked her if she would trim hair hair. She refused. Dad was disappointed and started driving to Boise to the Barber college for three dollar trims. I do trim husbands hair for him when he asks. And it does not take very long. I actually talked him into doing the ¼ nch trim for me once. He was afraid he would ruin my hair. No biggie, it grows back. Finally, first husband was giving Charlie a trim in Helen's back yard. He was very patiently using the electric trimmer on Charlie. I walked out there and exclaimed, “What is taking so long?!” I grabbed the clippers, swooped in and gave him bald spot. I was very embarrassed and did not do that again. The hair grew out. Charlies first official barber shop hair cut was at Don Rekow's Barber Shop. The hair cut turned out very nicely. I took pictures but have no idea where they wound up. Ah well, it does grow back.

READING, WRITING AND 'RITHMATIC

READING, WRITING AND 'RITHMATIC: Reading: I was an early reader. I do not remember being coached to pronounce words other than “Breakfast” when I was still in diapers. My childhood books were: The Bobbsey Twins,Black Beauty, Beautiful Joe, Little Women, Jo's Boys, Eight Cousins, Huckleberry Finn, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Glenn Balch (Idaho author who wrote about teens and horses), Reader's Digest Condensed books, Junior High Library from which I was once banned until my grades improved, The Emmett Public Library where I discovered “Stranger In A Strange Land” by Robert A. Heinlein as well as Isaac Asimov. Google “Death of a Foy” and prepare to laugh your arse off. Speaking of Humor, I was at Uncle Paul's house in Boise years ago. I picked up a book lying on the table next to the couch. It was of all things. “The Bishops Jaegers” by Thorne Smith. I giggled, guffawed, snorted, gasped and chortled. At one time, Aunt Wanda asked, “Should Roycie be reading that?” The book was written from the view point of the characters' underwear. My favorite was Aspirin Liz. She wore sturdy cotton drawers held together with a safety pin I collected books for many year. When I moved to Barrow, Alaska in 1989, I sold off my SciFi collection. They were all snapped up family browsed the many cardboard boxes. I did take some of my favorites. When we finally settled in Coquille, I began collecting with a vengence. I also purchased several folding bookcases. I now possess about 3500 books, most downstairs pretending to be a library. There are also bookcases in the hallway upstairs, four or five in the upstairs north bedroom and one bookcase in the dining room. As my cataracts worsened, I was unable to read small print. Doom! I purchased my first Kindle in the 2000's. It was fabulous and had scalable font. The more recent Kindles allow me to make comments on the books as well as highlight a word to get a definition. Boy have a learned a lot of stuff. This year my cataracts were both fixed. I can now read anything including the Klingon subscripts. Turns out they were not arguing about ingredients for spaghetti sauce. AND I can read my physical books. Hooray for technology. WRITING: When I was in the fourth grade at the old Wardwell School, I was started on drawing loops, swirls, tornado things all in an effort to learn cursive. All of the kids taught by this teacher had the same lovely cursive writing, lt was legendary actually. I was left handed and learned to do it all upside down. As a result my palm was perpetualy stained with lead pencil. Finding a left handed school desk became my mission. 'RITHMATIC: I was in the first grade and we were given a test to write out the numbers zero through ten. I distinctly remember whispering to a classmate, “How to you make a three?” My only other instance of cheating was as a Freshman at Emmett High School. The entire class average for one English test was a solid D. So we were told that we would do the test again next week. I did not study. I memorized the letter answers from the last test. The teacher presented the same material but in a DIFFERENT test. I promptly got a second F. Me and arithmatic never did get along, until Algebra, It was like telling a story only with numbers. Geometry was part art form because I typed the theorems and used red and blue ink to demonstrate the figures. I love Turbo tax! God bless who ever invented that program! HAPPY NEW YEARS! Gotta be better than 2020.

GOING TO THE MOVIES

Going to the movies: 1. When I was a kid, we would occasionally go to the drive in movies. If Dad asked Mom if she wanted to go the movies, we paid instant attention. If she said, “Oh, I don't care.” That meant we were going! We would all pile into what ever station wagon that was being driven. We wore pyjamas. There was no food or drink taken along. We would park in one of the inclined spots. Dad would put the speaker in the window. The drive in at the time had a playground. Can we go play? NO! The drive in had a concession stand. Can we go? NO! The first movie I remember going to see was King Kong. Then we went to see The Long Grey Line. The first inside movie house I ever went to was the one in downtown Emmett. Grandma Berglund had drooped us off to go see The Wizard of Oz. At the point where the witch is riding her broom writing “Surrender Dorothy”, my brother and I looked at each other and exclaimed, “I'm scare!” “Me, too!” We scurried out of the theater and wandered around downtown until we saw Grandma Berglund. She was upset that we had left the movie early. We went to lots of afternoon movies, we would beg Dad for pocket change and go. That was downtime for them. The theater had a concession stand but we never had enough to purchase anything. I was particularly fascinated by the Radar Range hot dogs. It was just hot dogs rotating on a rotisserie and they looked wonderful. The theater had loge seating where teenagers liked to occupy in order to make out. In the mid seventies I took Charlie there for a donate-a-can cartoon fest. We sat in the loge with what felt like a hundred kids. I could barely see the screen. But I was not going to let Charlie get trampled in that mass of kids. I was afraid the place would collapse. The only other time that I went to that theater was in the mid sixties. I had come home for Christmas. I went there with a high school girlfriend and we shivered and watched Dr. Zhivago. Yikes! When I first moved to California, I stayed with my cousin and his wife for a few months. One evening Carl said that we were going to the Petaluma Drive in for an EIGHT HOUR Beach Blanket Bingo extravaganza. I sat in the backseat of the 1965 Mustang. Very hard seat. Also the fog rolled in, he fog rolled out. In the late sixties, I went to a drive in movie with Judy Jones in West Virginia. The top of the mountain was shaved off and the place was segregated. While working at Fairchild, I went with my first roommate to go see both Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. A date once took me to go see ”2001 a Space Odyssey”. He fell asleep. The hippies all got up and waltzed when they played the Blue Danube. I once drove to the city to see of movie all by myself. There was a very long line. I cannot remember the title but it had hippies and war protesters and it was fairly humorous. When I was married, first husband and I went to see Patton on our honeymoon. It knew it was going to be an Oscar winner just from the music alone. We went with friends to see In Cold Blood purely by accident It was a very good film. We also went to see The Godfather. I really liked that one. Also, another pair of friends went with us to go to a little place called The Screening Room. It was a porn theater. Seating was sparse, we all sat together in the first row. We had a tremendous view of a 12 foot tall pudenda. Unshaven. Most of the scenarios involved naked women masturbating. There were no men doing so. Also there was an advertisement looking for actors for these movies paying fifty dollars an hour. Um okay. Did not go back, no plot. The summer that Charlie was born, I talked Mom and Dad into letting my sisters stay with me. Mike took us to a drive in, I only remember that it was somewhere in Marin County. I am fairly certain that the property has since been developed in very spendy housing. In the late seventies I went with family to go see Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And of course sprinkled in here were Star Wars. I only wanted to live long enough to see the trilogy. When the long awaited Star Trek came out, I took Charlie to go see it. During the start there was a very long shot of the approach to the Enterprise. Charlie asked me, “Is this the exciting part, Mom?” Uh not quite. One summer I took Charlie to the drive in movie in Boise to see Star Wars. We were interrupted by a train going by fairly often. Pretty sure that drive in no longer exists. One good thing that came out of Covid this year was the popularity of drive in movies. Wonderful. I hope they stay after things go back to normal.

2020

2020 what a year! Let me try to do this sequentially with an occasional meander off topic. January – I stopped driving in January because I found that I could not discern movement in shadow. I was terrified that I would hit a pedestrian. This all due to my cataracts. Eeesh, husband is a wonderful chauffeur. February – we started to hear about Covid 19, out of China. They buttoned up pretty well. Built huge hospitals to treat Covid patients. It spread very quickly. March – On Friday the 13th I had an appointment with Dr. Kumar. We went, I had labs done and Dr. Kumar told me to report to the hospital in Roseburg because I needed dialysis. I went, the dialysis tech said he did not like the looks of the dialysis shunt. So I was scheduled to have a carotid cannula put in the next day. That went well. I was admitted after for observation overnight. Discharged the next day. That night I went up stairs to sleep and developed severe shortness of breath. Husband took me to the hospital. I was seen in ER. The doctor looked over my record for Mercy Medical Center and reasoned that I received too much of a medication and he would give me something to counteract that med. However I got a little too counteracted, the nurse kept reminding me to breath. I was transferred to Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay. While there, they determined that I needed a higher level of care because I had developed long pauses in my heart beat. I do not remember anything after that. I was transferred to Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg to have a cardiac pacemaker put in. That went well. I was awake for that and felt like an elephant was stomping on my left chest. I was discharged with 19 medications! Husband ordered a large plastic storage container with five drawers to hold all of those meds as well as my supplements. I got home and did well getting all the meds sorted out. The next part I do not remember (Self diagnosed with petit mal, more later. At any rate, I probably took an additional dose of my meds having forgotten that I had already taken them). Husband says I was not responding so he called 9-1-1 and I was sent to ER at CVH. From there I was sent to Mercy Medical Center. I remember most of that visit. I told every old joke that I could think of. I was discharged. Within two days I was directed to go to Bay Area Hospital for dialysis because Davita was working on paperwork. I was told to report to Davita two days later to begin dialysis there. We got lost and got better diretions to find the correct clinic. We really needed a map. That session went well. April – it was during this time that I realized that I had petit mal. This is a strange little neurological diagnosis that involves a sort of seizure in that something triggers a total loss of memory. I was watching Wheel of Fortune one night and I realized that I had missed the last fifteen minutes. So I Googled “absence” and it took me straight to petit mal. I informed my PCP, Dr. Holland who scheduled me for an EEG and referral to a neurologist. Eh, I can cope without that. I have begun to record more TV. Oh, and this usually only happens when I am watching TV. It has happened a couple times at dialysis. I lost a half hour and an hour. Meh... May – I did not blog for May, perhaps I forgot? June – nothing. Covid. July – nothing. Covid. August – Had my cataracts removed. Got new glasses. So lovely, now I can read the Klingon subtitles on the screen. They were not actually arguing about ingredients to spaghetti and meatballs. Black Lives Matter happened somewhere in here. It was about time. I think police need repeated training in descalation and should probably carry tasers more often. More young black men would wind up alive. That is not the solution but it is a good start. September – Gale and her MIL came to visit. I can't believe I did not blog about that. We had a lot of fun. She brought her four month old Golden Retriever, Betty. She was a hoot. First thing that happened is that Gale locked herself out of her car. We were milling around outside. Joann asked our neighbor if there were any locksmiths. Yep, use Triple A , use my card. The Triple A guy came in about an hour and during that time my neighbor had volunteered to puppy sit miss Betty. The next day we got breakfast and set off for a day of entertainment. We went to Bandon and every place we went to eat was closed. So we drove to Coos Bay and ate at Shark Bites. They have fabulous fish and chips, I had black cod. Gale had halibut. The dishes came with cole slaw, mine is better. Dressing as follows; half cup may, 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar, four packets Splenda. Stir, pour over slaw. Delish! Got that recipe from a friend in Dillingham. The next day was dialysis day so the girls dropped me off and went exploring. When they picked me up, we went to Charleston for seafood. They had wonderful clam chowder. I had the scallops and prawns in a wonderful sauce. Next day they returned to Idaho. Hope they can come again next year! Also while they were here, Gale helped me clean out the upstairs bedroom closet. She liked a few things but we filled up ten huge bags of stuff to take to Bree's a local charity shop that raises funds for women who cannot afford mammograms. October – Covid. November – dreams. Reminiscing about Clover Drive. Mom and Dad's first home. Scheduled for procedure at BAH. Revision of upper vessels of the shunt. Dr. Rogalsky tied off two branches to force blood in to the remaining branch so it will enlarge. Thirty days Davita can begin using the revised shunt. Yay. Eventually will get the carotid cannula removed. December – weird little family mystery solved. A few months ago, I called Aunt Wanda to chat. She told me that #1 brother had called her to ask if Mom had ever been married before she met Dad? Nope, I didn't think any more about it. A few weeks ago, I found an Emmett Highschool website. I decided to post a question. I asked if any of my classmates of 65 knew if a grandfather or great uncle had married Virginia Horn. She may have been known as Ginny. I got an answer, Francis Frisbee. So I told #1 brother about it. He reported that he had applied for a copy of a Gold Star family drivers license for mom. He received a notarized copy of an affidavit for correction of a birth certificate. Mom's last name had been submitted as Horne and was corrected to Horn. Also her last name was changed from Frisbee to Berglund. Huh. I do wish I knew more about Mr. Frisbee, where did he serve, etc. Brother #1 is still investigating. Perhaps there will be more to talk about in future.