If I Could Blog Back Thursdays - #6, College Days

So I have been following Lola over at Lola's Diner and I decided to play along.. If you want to join in on the fun make sure and go see Lola's Diner and sign up..

Todays topic College days!!

With summer coming to a close and schooldays starting to gear back up as usual Lola picked the perfect topic.

My college days were sporadic and combumbulating. I sorta went here, then I went there, then I landed over here. I claim Cal State Fullerton as it is easier to say well I went here there and everywhere. I love school, I love everything about school but when I went to college, I will admit I was lost. I went to the wrong school for the wrong reasons and had no clue as to how to go about fixing it. Back in those days, parents were not encouraged to help.. they were actively shooed away.. told that their kids were adults and should be able to figure it out on their own. I am totally grateful that today's schools realize that while a child needs to venture out on his/her own, needs to learn to make decisions.. that is it nice to have that parental support.

When I was in school I seriously considered becoming a spy, I even spoke with people to see what classes I might need. I thought it would be an exciting and adventerous way to earn a living. Well except for my morals and my inability to lie when it matters. I mean ask me if I am secretly related to Alan Alda (no, but for a while as a kid I said so) and I can lie my socks off.. ask did you take the 5 bucks sitting here on the counter and me, I have to speak up. My version of I can not tell a lie.. well I can, unless it is important.. and of course all the stuff about nationalism.. come on insult my country??? I would never have made it. But it was a fun fantasy for a while..

My mom, she wanted me to become a doctor, lawyer that sort of thing. I was cursed as a child to be told I was very very bright.. the thing is no one ever explained to my folks that what I excelled in was cut and paste. They were ever ready to encourage me to be.. they wanted so much for me but had no clue how to help me find my path.. as it was so not what my poor logical, organized and creatively challenged family could comprehend. and me being me, was absolutely spineless and had no clue as to how to figure it out.

I do know I loved History.. it wasnt about dates and times to me it was about people, how they lived and loved. Did you know that people in the 1000's had sex? I know.. hard to believe isnt? They had trama, drama, intrigue all the stuff we have now.. well except indoor plumbing..I seriously would have hated that part. Anyway back to my school days.. ok back to now..

I have almost completely decided that I will go back, discover more about those ancient times and peoples, learn what they have to share and well hide my head in the past..

Sorry this blog is so absolutely out there today.. it was a long time in coming and I honestly have tons and tons and tons to say.. I wont be back until the earliest Sunday.. and if not then Tuesday but I promise I will be back..

If I Could Blog Back Thursdays - #5 First Pet

So I have been following Lola over at Lola's Diner and I decided to play along.. If you want to join in on the fun make sure and go see Lola's Diner and sign up..

Todays Topic: First Pet

I never had a pet growing up and my first pet like my husband was courtesy of his ex wife. When they split she got the car, the kid and the money... he got Peaches. Sometimes I still swear he got the better deal.

Peaches was this huge dog, she was part german short hair and part lab but at heart she was a lap dog. She loved to try and crawl into my lap, especially during thunderstorms. The big wuss if my lap was unavailable (which it was since she was huge) she would crawl under the desk and hide until the storms passed.

Peaches was what I would call a runner, not that she loved to run but rather she loved to roam. If we left her out too long she would leave the yard and go roaming the neighborhood only to show up at our door the next morning. She would always at some point in her travels go visit my Mother in Laws (she lived on the next block over). If we timed it right we could get her there and bring her home.

I am not sure how it happened but peaches was a racist dog.. It was so funny if you said the word Mexican she would literally start howling. Now I know it sounds bad but it was just too funny. It got to the point where we would point and say peaches look Mexicans, just to see her howl.

When I got pregnant with Hair Boy peaches became my biggest protector if any other dog came around me she would shove them off and stand over me. I was never a pet owner until I had peaches and I didn't realize how much I cared for her until she died because honestly I cried when we had to have her put to sleep. She was a loving caring creature and I was blessed to have had such an animal as my first pet.

Blog Back Thursdays - 4 Favorite Annual Events

So I have been following Lola over at Lola's Diner and I decided to play along.. If you want to join in on the fun make sure and go see Lola's Diner and sign up..

Today's Topic is Favorite Annual Events

I guess my absolute favorite family event from when I was a child was the family reunion. We would all get together on or around my great grandmother's birthday. All of my Grandma's kids, grandkids etc and all of my Aunt Margie's kids, grandkids etc would get together and spend one fun day together.

Everyone would bring a dish and each had something that they were known for, my mom's marshmellow salad, someone brought burritos (which were always good) and Uncle Johnny always brought the beer (He worked for Busch Beer or one of them wait maybe pabst? whatever)

I got to see all the relatives that lived within driving distance but we didnt see regularly which of course now we would think nothing of driving off to see them but back then they lived too far away. The best part was the chance to see my cousins Charlene and Irene, they were the only cousins in the entire family who were my age. It was hard being in the middle like I was.. with my close family I had my brother who was my age. My cousins were either way older (closer to my mom's age) or over 5 years younger and as a child that is a lifetime. So each year I would count the days until I got to see Charlene and Irene. The reunion was always held at the park we lovingly called Denace the Menace Park (I dont know why) and they had a public pool.

My parents rarely let us go to public pools, well we had one in our backyard as did well over half our friends so why go to a public one but for the reunion we were allowed. So for many hours Charlene, Irene and I would swim and cavort and just have fun. The magic of summer. To this day those two hold a very special place in my heart and I look forward to seeing them at any family event. Which I must say Charlene manages to attend way more than either Irene or myself.

It is funny how much of our lives are created by single days... one day each summer I spent with these two cousins, that is it. and yet they remain two of my most precious meomories..

Again Lola thank you for helping me to remember these moments

If I Could Blog Back Time Thursdays - Music Show

TODAY'S TOPIC - DRIVE IN MOVIES....

So I have been following Lola over at Lola's Diner and I decided to play along.. If you want to join in on the fun make sure and go see Lola's Diner and sign up..


Today's Topic is Music Shows.. I must admit this is an interesting one for me.. we weren't allowed to watch a lot of TV when I was a kid (oh we managed to sneak it in but....) Music shows well let's see I guess I would watch the Smothers Brothers... and Laugh In and the Carol Brunet show and as I became a teenager I watched Saturday Night Live. I know most are more variety shows but that is what we watched and loved.. I know I loved the Smother's Brothers. And in a tip of to Lin (cuz we are almost the same age..) I too watched the Partridge Family.. grins who could resist David Cassidy? And then there was Donny and Marie.. I admit it I watched it.

Most of our music TV watching was done at the Grammys or what not.. and like I said the occasional Variety Show..

Lola this one was a hard one.. music played a major part in my life but I didnt really watch it on tv...

If I Could Blog Back Thursdays - Drive In Movie Theatres

TODAY'S TOPIC - DRIVE IN MOVIES....

So I have been following Lola over at Lola's Diner and I decided to play along.. If you want to join in on the fun make sure and go see Lola's Diner and sign up..



Thank you Lola for such a great topic. I think the Drive In Movie Theater played such an important part in the lives of two generations, those who came of age in the 50's and early 60's and their children. I was part of the and their children group.

My parents used to bundle up my brother and I, in our nifty little jammies and off to the Drive-In we would go. At the time they owned a 1964 Comet (which later became my first car but that is an entirely different story). Now I grew up in Southern California so we didn't deal with weather issues so much, just had a blast. I remember we would always beg to go play on the swing set, right there at the base of the screen... there was always one kid whose parents let him. We really hated that kid (yes I know the odds of it being the same kid over and over are extremely rare) . Being of the frugal sort (make that broke) my parents always brought their own treats, which included home made popcorn and drinks, please explain why it was never as good as the stuff from the theater. There was always a kiddee movie that played before the main movie it was supposed to lull us to sleep, it never did but it was a good effort. I remember this was how we went and saw All of the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns (I still love A Fist Full of Dollars) and we saw The Planet of the Apes, It took me years to realize Roddy McDowell did not look like a Monkey...

Again Lola this was a fabulous blog idea, it truly brought back some special times in my life..

If I could Blog Back Thursdays

So I have been following Lola over at Lola's Diner and I decided to play along.. If you want to join in on the fun make sure and go see Lola's Diner and sign up..

So this week she did one on summer vacation.. WOW what a great series this could be..

I grew up in Southern California in the 60's and 70's what a veritable playground we had. I lived on a perfectly normal block with perfectly normal kids.. we would play until the streetlights came on and then come hell or high water we had better be checking in. Or the whistle.. my dad would stand on the front porch and whistle and we knew we had maybe 5 minutes to get home.. and it didn't matter where we were.. fortunately the kid network worked well and even if we were as far as three blocks away... we heard about the whistle and got ourselves home.

My mom worked nights so she spent much of her days sleeping.. in the summer she made sure we were busy.. back before the days of over scheduling your child. In the morning we had summer school. Now our program was no where near what they have now, we had this great program of drama, games, guitar, bike repair... whatever.. each class was for an hour and 15 minutes.. a 15 minute break and then a second class for an hour and 15 minutes.. My favorite year was the year I signed up for Bike Repair as an alternate choice.. I really wanted the drama program but it was full.. So I got into bike repair... oh my did the fur fly.. a girl in bike repair??? oh they did everything they could to force me to leave.. they tried to send me to all sorts of other programs but hey I had the best of parents.. they said this is what my daughter wants.. guess what this is what she gets.. of course the school did eventually win as there suddenly was an opening in the drama class.. looking back I never appreciated how great my parents were. It wasn't that they were trying to prove a point.. it was just they didn't see that there was one.

Summer school was for the first half of the summer the second half was for camp.. oh how I loved camp... I went to Camp Arbolado for 10 glorious summers.. but that my friends deserves a blog all it's own.. and when I wasn't at summer school or camp I was at the beach.. Fortunately my aunt was a school teacher (meant she had summers off) and lived at the beach so guess whose house we liked to visit?

Yes Lola summers were a fun and fantabulous time when we were children.. Was it the era? or maybe summer still holds that magic we just dont get to see it as we grew up..