Looking Back

 Good golly, I was searching for a radio station a few weeks back when I stumbled across a very faint KMOX 1120 AM station.  It was faint because I live 90 minutes south of St. Louis but oh my it took me back to my childhood!

I grew up with summers of listening to the St Louis Cardinals on the radio. This was before they were broadcast on television.  Yes, we had a television but those games weren't on there. The best place to listen was the portable radio my dad always had at his workbench or outside when he was working on the house.

The other place I always remember hearing the games on that static-filled radio was at my mom's family reunions every summer.  It was always at one of my cousins' houses and always outside. No one's house was big enough for over 70 adults and kids to gather so we ate outside, played outside and visited outside all day long.  And you would hear somewhere in the yard a radio blasting out the Cardinals game.

It's hard to remember that it was a really long time ago when we did that. I'm 65 which doesn't seem that old but when I start looking at all the changes, the new technology, the ways things are done, it is so weird to think we only had landlines with a rotary dial...and only one in the whole house, black and white televisions, only one and it sat like a huge box in the family or living room. We had newspapers which had comic strips every day, we drank Kool-aid, shared a bottle of soda, ran around the yard barefoot and drank out of the water hose.  We rode bikes without helmets, roller skates with no knee guards, our swing set got going good when the concrete holding down the legs would work loose in wet soil and the legs would rock back and forth!

I am not embarrassed to remember any of this stuff. It is part of my history and I love telling my grand kids about it.  I showed my granddaughters a picture of my husband and I when we got engaged to be married, I had long dark hair and he had long dark hair as well!  My granddaughters refused to believe it was us in the picture!  I of course don't think Mike and I look all that different. But of course we do... 

There has been so much life lived and enjoyed. Of course there have been sorrows too, but those go along with a life lived.  

So I will enjoy trying to listen to KMOX way down in Cape Girardeau, the static and some of the weird noises I imagine are lightning strikes from a storm between us and St Louis.  I will roll down the windows of my Command Vehicle, otherwise known as a van and enjoy the oncoming rain and storm and hope my kids have good memories of their childhoods the way I do.

 

It Is Spring!?

 Whee, it has been quite a winter in Southeast Missouri.  We've had ice, snow, tornadoes, wind storms, warm days, freezing cold days and some days all of the above in the same 24 hours!  Mother Nature likes to keep us on her toes, but I can't say I've been paying her any compliments lately. 

  So in-between the storms, I try to keep crocheting and knitting to keep the worries away, but it has been difficult considering the many things I've had to worry about!  

  But I have been working on the usual knitted hats, I am crocheting a scarf in a rainbow of colors, mostly to use up some multi-color yarn I need to use or loose.  It's been sitting in my box for several months, but I usually pick it up ever night and do a row or two.  My husband asked me to crochet some juggling balls for him which worked up really quick and easy. He loves to juggle and is trying to teach our granddaughters ages 7 and 5 how to juggle.   I just crochet a circle and then use a tennis ball as my guide for the size and shape.  I use the cotton yarn I make my dishcloths from, a nice cotton from Lily Sugar and Cream. I love all the colors it comes in!

   Crocheting with my Sugar and Cream yarn is also a really good de-stressing activity if I am waiting somewhere like a doctor office or picking up a family member. It packs easily in my purse with my aluminum hook and dishcloths are so quick and easy to make.  My sisters and daughters love the dishcloths. I've made hundreds of them. They work up in about 30 minutes.

 But I have to say the last week was weather horrible, even for Southeast Missouri. In all the years I've lived in my town, which is over fifty years, we've never had a tornado come through. Last week we had not one but TWO tornadoes come through my town!  Now we are a town of about 45,000 people, so the city is not huge so when a storm comes through you are going to know someone affected by it.  The first one hit a block from our church and the office where I work. The next one which came two days later went right over my daughter's apartment which is less than a mile from my home.  My heart was in my throat all week and I think I know what a panic attack feels like now.  

While grabbing our record box and my purse and laptop, I did not even have time to think about knitting or crocheting through the storm. THAT was how upset I and worried I was. I know if I cannot knit or crochet during something it MUST be bad!  And it was..  

But today is a sunny day so hopefully we can relax and get back to work and of course more knitting and crocheting!

Here is the second sock I am knitting in a very soft ball of Hobby Lobby I love that Wool.

 

This is one of my mini bears from Yarn Bee sock yarn.

This is going to be a hat made from Knit Picks Wool of the Andes collection.

And this is my left over scarf of many colors I am crocheting from Yarn Bee Cake.