Camping, Fast Food, Unitarians, ABBA and Anonymity

Hi Gawdessness (and anyone else)

I love the Unitarians. My birth mother was married in the Unitarian Church in San Francisco and, come to think of it so was I, to Sheryl's dad. That's one I'd just as soon forget. At that time, I think the Unitarians were the only church who would perform a ceremony involving a mixed couple (my mother and her husband). California had just legalized mixed marriage (1948 I think). Problem is I still like the traditional church service provided it doesn't come with all the right wing fundamentalist propaganda and I wanted a church involved in social action. The Methodists come closer than anyone to what I was looking for. We were the Methodist-Episcopal Church (at least in the U. S.), founded by John Wesley in England. We dropped the Episcopal. At some point we combined with a couple of others, one of which had United as part of their name. We also lost some along the way. The Protestants splinter off all the time and then the splinters splinter.

I'm not part of the food police. I subscribe to the forbidden fruit theory and I believe in moderation in most things. They love french fries but they're not bratty kids who scream for junk food daily.

Girls are already jumping up and down about Camp Green Meadows. I bet I still have some of Elcie's gear. I'm sure I have sleeping and duffel bags. I sent her off with pretty little soaps, shampoos, and miscellaneous toiletries - what we call the lala-foofoo stuff in little plastic cosmetic bags from the $ store. I wrote a note with a Sharpie on her pillow case saying Good night Elcie, we love you XXXOOO. She didn't see it until she piled into her cot at the camp.

Somehow I restrained myself from driving to Yosemite on the one day parents could visit. I didn't call either. It was only three days and I figured why make her homesick if she's just gotten over it. I needn't have worried. I now know where the expression "happy camper" comes from. It was Elcie.

If I hadn't already said everything here and on BB except for the actual word Merced, I might have tried to keep more secrets. I started out on BB with my actual name because I didn't know not to and truth is in this country, if someone wants to find you badly enough, they will. I could have called myself Donald Duck of Ducksville or whatever and that would still be true.

ABBA classical music - makes sense. To our kids, ABBA is ancient. It's surprising how many kids do like them, especially their bouncier stuff like Dancing Queen, Pied Piper (which is a really gruesome song when you listen to the words) and Super Trouper.

Merced - Mer sed accent on last syllable. Spanish name (Mercy?) like so much of California.
Population at about 70,000 now and growing fast. It's an extremely mixed population - Hispanic, Black, Caucasian (minority I think) and many displaced Asian people. I know we have Hmong, Laotian, and Cambodian. There may be others. We have Sikhs and we have Mennonites. We have Moslems although I don't know from which countries. I'm not sure if we have a melting pot or a powder keg. I'm hoping for the former.

Later - once again I meant to say HI and wrote another chapter of the great American novel.