Summer Sundays -- Sunday drives

A car similar to ours

The first car I remember my parents buying was similar to the one pictured above. Occasionally we would take a Sunday drive. My parents, my little sister and me. No seat belts or car seats, you know. After all this memory was around 1953.

After my brother was born in 1954 we existed, barely,

all very tightly squeezed into our sedan. My brother would be seated in the new car seat. It was so fancy. It had a toy steering wheel with a red horn in the middle. The "car seat"  attached to the actual car seat with two large hooks.

You get the picture.

Then, when my youngest brother was born, my parents 

discovered station wagons.

 

My father on one of our family trips.

By this time my sister and I were entering out teen years.

Station wagons were so totally uncool!

My dad drove slower than anyone on the road and we nicknamed him "turtle".

He had almost total control over the radio. My sister and I wanted to listen to our pop tunes while my parents preferred the easy listening stations. On long trips we made a deal with our parents... for every two songs that my parents preferred we were allowed to listen to one of our own.

I remember my father's favorite expression,

"Good gosh!"

He rarely liked any of the music we listened to.

Never did I ever see my mother drive my father anywhere.

My father was the master, man in control, the boss, the head "honcho" of the road.

To allow my mother to drive him anywhere would have been so well... "unmanly".

Rumor has it that once he had a root canal and actually had to have my mother drive him home. I did not actually witness this. It is a bit of family lore, you see.

I've been thinking about my growing up years and our mode of transportation. While having our Suburban primped and ready for sale, my husband and I shared a vehicle for

Seven weeks!

Long story.

It made me realize that in my parents 60+ years of marriage, my mother never had her own vehicle to drive.

She and my father somehow managed to share a car.

Never, ever did I hear a cross word about it.

They meshed their schedules together and made it work.

Kudos to them as my husband I dealt with a daily

run-through of schedules in order to have wheels.

Amazing!

Well, such is life in modern times.

Hopefully I've brought forth a memory or two of

your family's mode of transportation when you

were growing up.

It's Summer Sundays at

The Tablescaper

http://thetablescaper.com/

Take a few minutes to check out the great postings!

"Adios" for a few days!

It's "adios" for me right now.

I reread Laura's (from White Spray Paint) posting from last week hoping to get a tip as to how to look

a Geek Squader in the eye and explain how urgent

it was to get my computer up and running again.

"The look" Laura writes about didn't help me

out. Can you fancy that??

Thank goodness for the external disc drive

I have. I sure hope that it works.

Please send prayers and good thoughts my way.

My late parents' computer files were loaded onto

my computer last year. I think most of all I would

hate to lose their writings. Hopefully they are

on the disc drive... which I hardly understand how

to use.

Okay... pity party is over.

Everyone have a great Thursday.

It's almost the weekend!

And a big thank you to my husband who

stood by me at Best Buy today!

White Wednesday: My White Sunbeam MixMaster and story from the past

Love this picture!

We've probably all seen it, but actually it is the Sunbeam MixMaster that I am focusing on.

I'm pretty sure that this mixer is white and not the yellow that it appears to be.

This picture reminds me of an episode from my childhood.

We were living in Midland, Texas in 1954.

I was outside playing and my mother called me to come inside. She wanted to tell me something.

She was standing at the kitchen counter, much like the woman in the picture, but she was using her white Sunbeam MixMaster and preparing

the batter for a chocolate cake.

She asked me, "Would I like to have a baby brother or another baby sister?"

Wow! I told her that I wanted a baby brother.

On February 27, 1954 I got my wish!

Clay

I was so excited. What a good brother he has been.

Not long ago I saw a white Sunbeam MixMaster - Legacy Edition, at Kohl's. The memory of that

time with my mother returned. I had to have that

mixer. Today I used it to make banana nut bread.

If you are curious about Clay, check out his blog at

http://ccboykin.blogspot.com/2010/07/willow-city-loop.html

Visit Faded Charm at

http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/

For White Wednesday

A little addition: Clay is familiar with this story and when I was visiting him one time he took me into his kitchen to see what he had

bought at an antique store... a white Sunbeam MixMaster... only his was identical to our mother's!!

Three or More: I love the number 3!!

Three favorite plates!

I found these plates in a popular store not far from where I live. I'm not sure what drew me to them, but I love the colors.

I bought them to put in my family room,

however, I just did not get around to hanging them.

They stayed stacked on a bookshelf.

One day I returned home to find that my housekeeper (she's awesome and I look forward to any day I can get her!) must have gotten

exasperated with me, waiting to see where I was going to hang them. She put them in this plate hanger in my kitchen.

Perfect!!

I wouldn't dream of moving them.

 

I'm new to

The Gypsy's Corner for

Three or More Tuesday.

http://www.thegypsyscorner.com/

It's so perfect for me since I love groupings of

three or more!

Please take time to visit this wonderful blog!

Oops! Forgot to mention...

I only paid $10 for each plate.

They were on sale. Yes!!

A Few of My Favorite Things -- My cornucopia

Cornucopia or "horn o' plenty"

We moved a lot when I was growing up. Maybe some of the things I inherited from my parents, particularly my mother, meant so much to me was because when the seasons changed, Mother would set out the same things to decorate with.

They were always used differently from year to year. I can't ever remember any of her decorations staying exactly the same. Just seeing the familiar dishes, bowls, granite fruit,

dried flowers, etc... brought a little security to my world. That thought has not occurred to me until now. (One of the benefits of blogging!)

This cornucopia, or "horn o' plenty" as it is sometimes called, would always appear in

mid-September. Either there would be fresh fruit

in it, dried flowers, nuts, whatever my mother

chose for her fall decor.

I loved this cornucopia. Not only did it

signify bountiful food, but it also signified that

Halloween and Thanksgiving were near.

I loved this time of the year. The aroma of

autumn leaves and such.

Perhaps I am getting a little ahead of myself

with the seasons ... but that's okay.

When our oldest son and his family were

visiting us recently the topic of the annual

Halloween party that I had been hosting

for our granddaughter the past four years in

Mexico came up. I had already been thinking

about the theme, what to cook and

even had a great "spooky" story in mind.

My son said, "Why don't we do something a

little different this year?" Hmmm... was I ever curious. "I would like for Carmen and David

to learn more about American holidays and

customs. Let's do Thanksgiving together in

Mexico."

A-ha!" ... The words I have been

waiting to hear. Our son, also our business partner has been living in Mexico for thirteen years with only periodic visits back to the U.S.

He married a woman from Mexico (educated for a year in England though) and I have been concerned that their children would miss out

on our U.S. holidays and customs.

It appears now that this is a priority to

our son. My husband and I were thrilled

to hear our son's suggestion.

Our cornucopia is over-flowing!

My mother

I am linking to Laurie for

Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie.

It's "A Few of My Favorite Things Saturday"

Check her out! 

http://bargainhuntingwithlaurie.blogspot.com/

Show and Tell Friday: Daddy B's Typewriter

Daddy B's typewriter

My sister and I would stay with each set of our grandparents for a couple of weeks each summer.

Visiting our paternal grandparents meant many different experiences:

- riding in my grandfather's red MG with the top down

- picking peaches from the peach trees at their "stock farm"... a term we don't seem to hear anymore

- riding on the Brackinridge Eagle in San Antonio (my grandfather owned it)

What I think my sister and I really enjoyed was being in our grandfather's home office, sitting at his desk and pecking away on his typewriter.

This was around 1955, or so.

Daddy "B"

The typewriter, a Hernes 3000 was extra special and unlike my father's typewriter.

This machine was green AND it typed

in script!

I thought that was so unusual.

On top of that, my grandfather had a brown ink

ribbon in the typewriter. Leave it to Daddy "B" to be unique. He typed all of his letters in spite of the beautiful handwriting he had.

Perhaps it was having access to Daddy "B's" office that led me to a life-long passion for

office supplies and to enjoy typing.

You will see Daddy B's typewriter on my blog

always. I inherited it!

It doesn't really type anymore and I am sure

to find someone to clean and repair it would

be a monumental task, but I love to

look at it, remembering the hours of

pleasure I got from it.

I am linking to Show and Tell Friday

at
My Romantic Home