Adam says the blessing

1991  (he's 26 now)

Adam is learning a new blessing.  He asked me to write it down on this card, even though he can't read.  He thought the blessing is what cooled our food off because I often said, "Your food's hot, let's say the blessing and then we'll eat."

Another Life Across the Street

I teach a writing class up at church and my students write about their childhoods.  This is from my friend, Peggy Myer's, book, "It All Began on New Year's Eve".  (She was born on New Year's Eve!)

Notice that even when really unusual things happen, kids don't know it's unusual until they are much older.

 Peggy and Mrs. Simpson

The Simpsons lived in the house across the street.  Their grandchildren came from Miami to visit for much of the summer each year and we would play Canasta and marathon games of Monopoly.  Mr. Simpson was not well, and I really did not know much about him.  

When Mr. Simpson died, Mrs. Simpson was afraid of being alone at night.  She asked Mom if I could come and sleep at her house and I did most nights for about a year.  I believe I was maybe in the third grade.  I would get myself ready for bed, kiss my parents good night and head across the street.  Mrs. Simpson would give me ice cream with chocolate syrup and a cherry on top before bed. I would slouch down on the sofa so my head wasn’t showing over the top and watch TV with her past my bedtime.  I would sleep in a big bed in the back of the house with Mrs. Simpson.  The next morning I’d head home and get ready for school.  

Once, Mrs. Simpson asked me if I’d like to plant a flower garden in a corner of her yard by her garage.  I remember planting the seeds she had purchased in packets in rich black, moist soil and being so proud when violets came up full of green leaves and eventually beautiful flowers. When Kingoff’s Jewelry store closed, she bought me a pretty white gold ring with a small diamond chip in the center.  One thing that I thought was unique about her was she would gently stroke the backs of bumblebees that landed on her azalea blooms.  As far as I know she never got stung.  She lived to be about 100.  

Montgomery Trip--4 Big Things Celebrated

Since many in our family were not able to attend Adam & Diana's wedding in Mexico, we had a family reception in Montgomery at my mom's house for them.  Here are the 4 big things we celebrated:

Wedding reception for Adam and Diana

engagement for Laura and Craig

engagement for Nikki and Cory

New baby arriving around Valentines Day for our daughter,       Janet and her husband, Michael

My mom, and sisters Janet and Marianne

These are my two nieces, Laura and Nikki.  Laura got engaged to Craig  Barton and Nikki got engaged to Cory Clinton.

Marianne and Stephanie with 2 feral kittens that
Stephanie tamed in just 2 days!

Diana & Adam, the newlyweds!

Reception cake (white cake with white buttercream frosting)!

Decorating for the reception 

 

Country's BBQ for dinner

Janet (my sister), Peter (brother), me, Marianne (sister)

Michael & Janet brought us a little gift from Mexico...

Wh-a-a-a-t?  A BABY!!!!

Our two grandsons, Jack and Ian with Janet holding 

a likeness of their new baby--if it's a boy!

Mamma and her 3 great-grandchildren

Adam (26) , Frank, Chris, Janet (35), and Michael (35)

Adam & Diana, Janet (daughter), Janet (sister), 

Marianne (sister), and Mamma. 

Diana & Adam with painting of their wedding 

done by Adam's cousin, Laura Till

Laura's painting of Diana & Adam's wedding in Mexico

Diana looks at collection of Adam's childhood drawings

Family takes a walk after big dinner

We went to the baseball game 

and the Biscuits whupped the Blue Wahoos!

Dinner at the ball game

Diana and Adam sing a duet!

Here we are in the Biscuit sky box

enjoying the baseball game

1. 
   

Intelligent Life Discovered

This is a story about our son, Adam, when he was in 3rd grade (he's 26 now).

1995--

The other night at dinner, Adam was acting a little distracted, like he was reading an imaginary book.  His eyebrows were furrowed, and I swear, I remember that same look on his face the day he was born.  He stood up and said, "I've got to check out a theory, I'll be right back." He came back in a few minutes with a pocket calculator and said, "I was right, any number whose digits add up to 9 can be divided evenly by 9."  I said, "What?" and Janet said, "Huh?"  Frank said, "That's right, but how did you figure it out?"

He said first he thought of 36 and 63, both could be divided by 9 and added up to 9.  Then he thought of all the numbers in the "nine times" multiplication tables: 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 81...each one added up to 9.  Then he tried some bigger numbers: 21,321 and 111,111,111 on the calculator and they too added up to 9 and were divisible by 9!

Janet said, "Hm.  Is there more corn?"

Nikki's New Year's Resolution 1989

These are letters written by my niece, 

Nikki Mueller 

when she was 7.  She is now 31.

Nikki's New Year's Resolution!

Nikki’s Diary

June-August, 1989

(Nikki is 7 years old)

June 29—Not to long a go it was my bithDay I got loss of 
                pressins and loss of peplol came.

June 30—I love my hamster he is cuddley and he is vere soft 
               an vere frindle I can not stand it

July 1— To nihgt my brather is being a brat and he is acding like 
               a babay

July 2— To moro we are going to spind the nihgt at the hobel an
               we are gana have fun.

July 3— Deneesis (Dennis’s) gril frind came over and we had fun.

July 4— We got to see the fier works and they were buttafle 
              and the last one was the best one

July 11—We got to see a moove and it was Gost Gusters Tow 
              and we got a new cage for my hamster because it always
              gets out of the old cage

July 25—A fyou (few) days a go we got a new car and tomower 
            wrer going to my Grama and Grampa and we are briving 
            and I am going to miss my hamster.

Aug. 4— We are in tuscoen (Tuscon, AZ) and it is rineing 
            and pritue sune (pretty soon) we are going to eat.

The Cantaloupe Went Splat

Adam age 9...

One day while Adam was getting ready for school, a commercial came on TV that had some beautiful classical music on it.  I was surprised to hear Adam humming right along with it, note for note, all the way through!  I was thinking, wow, his music teacher is doing a wonderful job introducing him to the classics. I said,"Adam, you are very familiar with that music, aren't you?"  "I sure am", he answered. "You know it's a classic", I offered   "Definitely a classic", he responded.  "And you learned this in music class?" I said, my school pride swelling to the size of a cantaloupe in my chest.  "No," he said, "It's the theme music to Earthworm Jim, that video game we rented."  Splat (that was the cantaloupe).

Adam today, age 26

Duck 911!

Here is one of my own Gonka Stories:

Gonka loved the outdoors and had a special way with animals.  Not only could he understand them, but they understood him, too!  One day Gonka heard a duck quacking in his backyard.  He went out there and he saw a mama and papa duck.  They were hungry, so Gonka went back in the house and got them some bread to eat.  Day after day they came back for more bread. 

One day he heard the papa duck quacking in the front yard.  It was not the usual “I want bread” quack; it was a “Help Me!!” quack.  So Gonka grabbed his shotgun and went back outside.  The papa duck quickly led Gonka across the street to the lake where Gonka could see the mama duck was having a fit!  A raccoon was trying to get the eggs in her nest.  Gonka fired a shot in the air and the raccoon ran off.  The ducks were so grateful they couldn’t say a word!

A week later Gonka heard the papa duck in the backyard.  He went out and what do you think he saw?  The mama and papa duck with all their little ducklings had come to say Thank You!

Gonka often visited the duck family at the lake and watched them swim around. 

Favorite Things Collage

Hold to Light Postcards

On a hold to light postcard, the scene is in the daytime.  However, when you hold it to the light it becomes a night time scene with the windows lit up.

It is hard to take a photo of a "hold to light" postcard with it being lit from behind.  I had to get Frank to hold up the card in front of a bare light bulb while I took the picture.  Both of us were swaying just a little, so it took a while to get a photo that didn't look like we were both on crack.

The hold to light postcard was first made in Germany.  They had a special process that no other country could figure out.  When WWI started in 1914, Germany stopped making them for other countries. 

There are 3 very thin layers of paper glued together to make it. The top layer has the picture on it with holes cut out where the light will shine through.  The second layer is translucent and has the colors that will shine through the little holes.  The back layer looks quite solid, but is also is translucent and a message can be written on it.  There are 2 layers of glue that hold all this together.  Surprisingly, that type of postcard feels even thinner than the ones we have today, even with its 3 layers of paper and 2 layers of glue!

This first postcard is my oldest and most valuable one.  I bought it at a postcard show here in Orlando about 20 years ago for $35.00.  It was made to celebrate Edison's new incandescent light bulb, at the Paris World Exposition in 1900.

Here is the daytime scene...

And this is how it looks when held up to the light!

By the way, here is a photo of men assembling the star
on top of the Palais de Electricite.

This was given to me as a Christmas gift by my Bible Study group in 1999.  Somebody found it on the Internet and that was a big deal since what was the Internet and how did you get on it??

This is also a favorite.  It looks even better in person.  You are supposed to look at hold to light postcards with a 60 watt lightbulb, but because of the camera problems of taking a picture smack into the light, I had to use a 7 1/2 watt night light!

The man who sold me this at a postcard show didn't know what he had.  I got it for just $10!  When I got it home I discovered that someone had put a stamp over the moon on the back!  I had to carefully get that off as it was blocking the light.

This card was made in England by a totally different process. Notice how the sky completely changes when held to the light. There are no cut out holes in this for the light to shine through. There is one scene on the front, which is transparent but very strong.  Then there is another scene (moon, clouds, lights) printed on another transparent sheet of paper.  The back sheet is transparent, but doesn't look like it is, and the message and address go there.

This is an advertising postcard for Dingman's Soap

This 1904 British postcard is pretty unusual.  It has no holes, and the front is in black & white.  When held to the light you see the children in color and an angel in the background!