Author Archive
Personal Heroes – Erma Bombeck
Posted by: | CommentsDuring my teen years when I was struggling to figure out who I was and my mother was struggling to keep from strangling me, she often used someone else’s words to express her thoughts and feelings. It wasn’t uncommon for me to come in at night after being out with my friends and find either a Bible, or one of Erma’s articles on my pillow. If it was the Bible the passage she wanted me to read would be clearly marked. If it was Erma’s column, “At Wit’s End,” it was usually clipped neatly out of the paper and placed smack in the center of my pillow.
Looking back I know that mom used the Bible to try and save my soul and Erma to remind us both that we were human, and that sometimes laughter and looking at the lighter side of things can get us through tough times.
My mother was a smart woman. She knew I was a reader and that if for no other reason than curiosity, I wouldn’t (couldn’t) ignore what she had left me. She also knew I couldn’t back talk God or Erma, they were safe from my sometimes sarcastic tongue.
If you have never read Erma’s books or worse yet, never heard of her, you are missing out. Her take on motherhood, marriage and everyday life made her The Voice of her generation. My mother died of colon cancer at the age of 51 in 1990. Six years later I lost my surrogate mother, Erma, she was 69.
When we lose someone we love we can’t imagine life without them and when the hurt is new and your heart is aching with loss, it’s hard to believe that things will get better. Time doesn’t heal all wounds, in my opinion, it just makes them easier to live with. The memories come flooding back and soon you realize that even when someone is gone, their words live on in your heart. And so it is with my mother and Erma.When I miss my mom I read the letters she wrote me while I was away at college. When I miss Erma I read her books or old columns.
In fact just this morning I thought about one of Erma’s books (which inspired this whole post). The title of it is If Life is a Bowl of Cherries-What Am I Doing in the Pits? I decided that if I were to write a similar book I would entitle it, If Life is a Bowl of Cherries-What Am I Doing Beneath this Pile of Laundry?
If I ever go missing please tell someone to check the laundry room. I feel sure they will find me beneath a pile of dirty clothes!
On some web sites today is Tackle it Tuesday (www.5minutesformom.com)- Can you guess what I am going to tackle today?
And on this blog and my friend Laura’s (www.heavenlyhomemaker.com) it’s Gratituesday. Can you guess what else (besides Erma, her books and my mom and her Bible )I am giving thanks for today?
Grandparents in the White House
Posted by: | CommentsDid you know that Michelle Obama’s mother is not the first grandparent to live in the White House? I didn’t, but I was reading an article today and according to it Ulysses S. Grant’s father-in-law, Frederick Dent, lived there for a few years. Harry S. Truman’s mother-in-law, Madge Gates Wallace, moved in despite her dislike for Truman. Woodrow Wilson’s second wife, Edith, had both her mother, Sally Bolling, and sister, Bertha, live with them.
Marian Robinson, Mrs. Obama’s mother, lived in Chicago all her life and was reluctant to move to Washington, but now is enjoying living there.
According to AARP, Mrs. Robinson’s move to the White House puts the Obamas in the same category with at least 1 million American families in which the head of the household shares the home with both his or her parents and children.
Multigenerational living arrangements are becoming more common, rising to 6.2 million households in 2008, up from 5 million in 2000.
My grandmother lived with us for several years and the experience enriched the whole family. Do any of you have grandparents living with you? If so, share your story with us at Nanahood. We’d love to hear from you!
Nana’s Lap (Book Review)
Posted by: | CommentsHave you ever known a child that didn’t wiggle…at least a little bit? Wenda the Wacky Wiggler by Christopher Aslan is about a little girl who loves to dance to music, but the town where she lives doesn’t like sounds or dancing! The mayor gets rid of all music. Even birds aren’t allowed to sing, but that still doesn’t stop Wenda because she learns an important lessons: she has the song of her heart inside her!
If you moms or grandmothers know a child that wiggles (and I’m betting you do). This is a great book to share with them.
Now a book for Nana
A few weeks ago a lady emailed me and asked me if I would read her book and review it. Last week I received it in the mail. The title is 70 is the New 40 and it was written by Barbara Penn-Atkins. I looked at the cover and immediately wanted to be friends with the author. She’s a beautiful lady who doesn’t look a day over 50 and she is driving a bright red convertible. I don’t know about you but I don’t know too many 70 year old women who cruise around in convertibles…but why shouldn’t they? (Besides the fact that it’s murder on your hair)
And that’s really the premise of the book. If you want to do something after you retire, why shouldn’t you? If you want to work part -time or start your own business, why shouldn’t you?
Ms. Penn-Atkins is a Certified Retirement Transition Coach, award winning speaker and she conducts workshops that offer insights to retirement readiness, life options and changing careers. For anyone nearing retirement or thinking about “What do I do next?” this book is a great guide and motivator.
What about you? Have you read a good book lately? What’s your favorite book from your childhood?
Let us know at NanaHood!
Random Thoughts from Teresa before Char Posts more Random Links
Posted by: | CommentsChar does Friday posts so I am sort of jumping into the water without her permission here but I am guessing she won’t mind if I go first today and she can follow later. We are, after all, in different time zones. I’m in Kentucky and Char is in Nevada and even though we work together….we have never met! We intend to one day soon but so far it hasn’t been possible. I had a few random thoughts I wanted to share and I am hoping you (dear reader) won’t mind two posts today. After all, who doesn’t love two for the price of one!
First random thought….
A few weeks ago I told you about taking my granddaughter to feed the ducks and all we had to feed them was french fries. Abby insisted on dipping them in ketchup before she fed them to the ducks. Last weekend Nick made pancakes for everyone and we had left over pancakes so guess what we fed the ducks that day?
Yes, those are floating pancakes and no we didn’t put syrup on them!
FYI- Ducks love pancakes.
For those of you who do not live in Kentucky and don’t know or understand March Madness and the importance of UK Basketball, let me caution you that if you ever go to a UK game and they were to lose (which rarely ever happens!) DO NOT MAKE THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT: “Oh well, it’s just a game.”
In Kentucky any game that UK plays is NOT just a game.
Kentucky plays today in the SEC Tournament and I can assure you that all over the state people will be taking a long lunch break today in front of a television set.
My friend Tricia's grandson Jacob is a UK fan!
We start them young in Kentucky. Before most little boys and girls can walk they are given a basketball, a UK tee shirt and taught to spell “CAT” as in “UK Wildcats.”
Go Cats!!! And thanks Tricia for teaching your grandson which team to cheer for!
Small Town Heroes
Posted by: | CommentsYears ago when my husband and I decided to move back to my home town I remember telling him that sometimes living in a small town feels like living in a fish bowl, everyone knows your business (or thinks they know) sometimes even before you know it. He laughed at my concerns and reminded me that the town he grew up in wasn’t much larger than mine.
Bill and I have lived here since 1981 and neither of us have ever regretted the move. What makes this community so special? A whole host of things, but for now I want to focus on the people.
My sons play basketball and this past season one of their team mate’s brother (who plays on the freshman team) was diagnosed with bone cancer. His name is Logan and he is 15 years old.
Logan and friends at blood drive
His parents are good friends of mine and when I asked what I could do to help they mentioned that they would like to have a blood drive in their son’s honor. Tuesday of this week the “Lots of Love for Logan” blood drive was held and it was a great success because of the wonderful people in this community.
Yes, small towns are fish bowls but when needs arise there is no better place to be than right here in this tiny town in the middle of south central Kentucky.
Big city folks sometimes underestimate the power of the people who dot the country side. When I called the Red Cross workers in Lousiville and told the gentleman there that we wanted to host a blood drive he said, “How many do you think you will have donate?” I replied, “At least one hundred, maybe more.”
There was a long pause.
“I don’t want to argue with you miss, but we have had blood drives in your county before and you will be lucky to get 50 people there.”
They set our goal at 50 and brought a few extra bags, just in case.
We had 50 donors before 4 o’clock and the drive just started at 12! To make a long story short they ran out of bags and we had to take names and phone numbers of people who came so we can invite them when we hold the next one. If they had brought enough bags (dare I say I told you so!) we would have had about 150 donors!
So let me say it loud and clear, SMALL TOWNS ROCK! Some of the kindest, sweetest, people in the world live right here in my little corner of the world and I am so very proud to call them friends and neighbors!
Yes, it is possible to text while you are donating blood!
The next time there is a blood drive in your community, give the gift of life and tell them Logan sent you! He’s certainly inspired a lot of people around here to donate blood and there are lots of kids (and adults) out there who need us to take a few moments out of our day and donate.
A Great Granny Named Joy
Posted by: | CommentsFrequently on this site we feature stories about grandmothers, but what about great-grandmother’s? They have stories to tell as well! Today NanaHood is proud to have our first feature story about a truly GREAT grandmother….Joy Shive. And what makes the story even more special is that it is written by her granddaughter, Kelly Jo Harbison.
Joy, daughter Johanna (Kelly Jo's mom) holding their three grandchildren
My Granny is the strongest and bravest woman I know. Granny isn’t your typical grandmother in some ways. She has always worked very hard. My grandparents have a large farm and they raise tobacco, corn, hay, beef and dairy cattle. Granny always did the milking; twice a day, seven days a week. She would walk to the barn (it was only about 2 tenths of a mile from her house) and start in filling the buckets and calling the cows in from the pasture. As a child I loved going to milk with her. I would play in the feed room and she would always let me put one set of milkers on a certain cow. She was very patient with me when I wanted to do these things. On the days that the milk truck would run, I always like to clean the milk tank. Once again she would let me help. A job that would normally take about 10 minutes to do, would take me thirty but she was always very patient.
During the spring and summer months tobacco setting and tobacco cutting would take place. Every other day Granny would stay home and cook for all the men who worked on the farm. She would have at least 3 meats and any kind of vegetable you could imagine. All of the corn, beans and tomatoes would come out of her garden that she had put up the year before just for the workers. I remember that when the corn was ripe she let me help shuck the ears and remove the silks. I am sure that I slowed down the process, but she didn’t mind. When I would get a small pile of shucks and silk I got to throw them over the fence to the pigs.
People have often told me that they loved to work for my grandparents just to get to eat some of Granny’s good cooking! After the meal she would bring out cakes, pies and puddings. She loved all the men who worked on the farm and treated them as if they were her own sons.
Granny worked just like all the men. She would sit on a plant bed and draw plants, ride a tobacco setter and cut tobacco all day long, but would have to stop at 3:30 to go milk the cows. After a long, hot, hard day in the field and milking she would come home to cook a meal, complete with some kind of cake or pie. My grandpa, Joe, was a big man so it took more than a hotdog (one of my specialties) to fill him up!
But my favorite memories with my Granny were when we would sew together. Granny is a very good seamstress. She has made many little sundresses for me and my sister and now she is sewing for my daughter. She has made many quilts and pillows in her life too. She always saved every scrap piece of material that she had left over and those pieces made great Barbie doll outfits. My dolls always had lots of clothes. She would allow me to do some of the sewing either by hand or on her machine. Of course some of my clothes didn’t stay put together as well as hers did! She would sew our Cabbage Patch dolls dresses and they were just as pretty as any you would buy at a store. My sister and I still have all those dresses today.
Halloween at Granny Joy's
When Granny was younger she wore high heels and I loved to wear her shoes! I would put them on and go outside to walk on the sidewalks just to hear them “click”. I am sure that the heels were scratched all up from me falling or sitting down to play in them but she never said a word.
Just the other day my mom was allowing my son to do something that she would have never let my sister or me do and I confronted her about it and she quickly said, “ I never you let wear my Sunday shoes outside on the sidewalks either!” I guess letting your grandchildren get away with things is a Granny/Nana thing!
Granny is now a Great-Granny. She loves her great grandchildren just as she did us. She keeps my little girl for me one day a week now. My son will stay at least one day a week with her in the summer. He loves to go to her house. At Granny’s you can roam freely. That was another favorite memory at her house in the summer. I could ride my bike up and down the road as many times as I wanted. Granny is 83 years young. She doesn’t mind to tell her age, because she doesn’t look or act it one bit!! She still mows her yard, puts up a garden, drives and goes anywhere she wants to go and loves keeping her great grand babies!! I bet she could still “put that baccer on the ground” as Joe, my grandpa would say!!
I love you Granny, you are the best Granny in the world!!! Thank you for being so kind and patient with me as a child.
Granny is also known as Joy Shive of the Cave Ridge community in Edmonton.
Thanks to Kelly Jo for sharing her story! If you know a grandmother or great-grandmother who deserves some recognition, please send us their story (and some photos)
