I've been tagged - again!

First - Happy Blogiversary to Angel - one year ago today.

Second - Tina

I don't know what it's like in Prague, but AA batteries are cheap here. Later on I'll decide whether to switch to rechargables.

I'm having a ball and I just bought it this afternoon. I received a gift certificate for Target which somehow I misread as being from Circuit City and decided to buy the camera. Didn't discover the mistake until I was at the register. I thought, oh well, I'll use the Target certificates for the girls on the theory of "same pants, different pocket" and paid for the camera. I can rationalize anything and no way would I have left that camera there.

Forty years ago I would have been humiliated; now I figure the clerk just put it down to little old lady absentmindedness (lol)

Third - Thank you VMC for explaining Firefox and other things. I can paste now.

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Andrea in Japan is extracting payment for all her work on the blog roll. (lol) She tagged me and ipodmomma (I'm not sure what ipodmomma did to deserve it) for a list of "I remembers". Check out Andrea and ipodmomma when you have a chance - wonderful memories, some happy and some very sad. Like life, I guess.

Meantime I'm tagging VMC (gotcha), Sonja (Mollie, pass it on please), and anyone else who wants to join in. It's not a command but it's interesting to read other peoples' memories.

Except for the first one, I'm trying for happy memories. I've spent enough time on the unhappy ones for a while. Some of this you've read before but oh well, I can't make up new ones.

I remember:

Pearl Harbor, I think (I was 3) or maybe I've heard about it so much I think I do. I remember the feeling of everything being the same and then somehow it wasn't.

Playing in snow up to my neck. Somewhere I have an old photo.

Living in a house as it was being rebuilt (from an old Methodist chapel) by my dad and grandfather. They kept finding more that needed doing. More old photos somewhere.

Sunday dinners on the farm when we could get my dad's old Ford up the hill without sliding back down to the bottom. Always chicken, always my aunt's angel food cake with homemade chocolate sauce and handcranked ice cream.

Dealing with the 1,000 Rhode Island Reds who provided the dinner and angel food cake

Taking care of the baby chicks who spent their first few weeks on the dining room table in cardboard homes. Andrea talks about chicks, cows, and horses too.

Chatting with the cows, one Jersey, one Guernsey, and I think a couple of Holsteins who provided milk, buttermilk and the best hand cranked ice cream I've ever eaten. My uncle named them after his female relatives; Florence for my mom and June for my cousin's wife. I can't remember the others. Florence and June were the high class cows at least; not the Holsteins.

The old plow horse, Nellie, who spent her middle and old age living the good life in the pasture. She was obsolete but my uncle must have thought she deserved her retirement.

A crosseyed huge cat named George after Gorgeous George, the wrestler. My Uncle Elmer, who taught me to love the Brooklyn Dodgers, was a wrestling fan and what he liked, I liked. All the farm cats were named after wrestlers.

Walking around in my uncle's boots (literally). He must have been a feminist before the word was coined. He let me do what interested me (I was his shadow) and never thought it was especially strange. And he always called me Ann Elizabeth. I don't think anyone else ever did unless I had done something horrid.

His sister, my Aunt Ruth, who was much the same way. She always thought if I wanted to learn something, I was capable of it. Great lesson in life.

My Uncle Sherwood, their brother, who drew beautiful sketches of dogs and horses for me.

Picking blackberries and cutting our own Christmas trees (not at the same time) in the woods surrounding the farm. Wading in the creek.

Learning my first "two hand" song on the piano. Jesus, Lover of My Soul. Remember, it was my Grandma Hoke, a good Baptist former school and Sunday School teacher who first taught me to read music and play. The hymnal was my lesson book. I still love the old hymns and carols although I've strayed away from the Baptists.

Of course, my Great-uncle Jim from the other side of the family with all his musical instruments, socialist background, and eccentricity. and my granddad who trucked us around in a wheelbarrow and his old car. I paid him back by hiding all his nails and small tools in the high grass. He scared my mom into grey hair almost by bringing us home covered with melted chocolate ice cream. My poor mom thought at first we'd been in a wreck.

Two Christmases - one at home, one on the farm for dinner (more chicken - I never saw a turkey until I left home). We didn't actually get more presents; just two separate openings.

Leaving gingersnaps for Santa and finding crumbs in the morning.

Please notice there weren't too many "women's" chores involved here. I've always been a square peg and I'd rather clean up after chickens than sew a seam (although I can do it if I have to). I do like to embroider, tat, and crochet though. I learned them all young.

My dad teaching me to ride a bike by letting go.

My folks being so terrified of polio they wouldn't let us near a public pool until we were almost teens. I'm not sure what changed their minds. And speaking of polio:

Drs. Salk and Sabin who discovered their vaccines in time for my daughter Carol born 1956. Yes I know there is controversy but to us in the mid to late fifties it was a miracle.

My dad freezing our side yard every winter so we could skate safely.

and setting up the croquet hoops and stakes for us

and the badminton net

and the horseshoes

and letting us play touch football and softball in the front yard

and teaching me to drive at much too young an age

Both my parents for exposing us early to good books, art, and music without us knowing we were being exposed. It was just there. On the other hand, I remember

Staying up until 7:30 to listen to Hi-yo Silver, the Lone Ranger rides again on the radio. (More classical music come to thing of it - William Tell Overture.

Oh I can't forget my brother and good friend, another Jim, (a lot of them around the family) for being there through the years. We're separated by 3,000 miles but he's still, at 65, my baby brother.

That's enough for now - I won't have anything left for posts unless I really start repeating myself. Besides, it's beginning to sound like a speech at the Oscars. "I'd like to thank". Why do they always say"I'd like to"? Why can't they just go ahead and do it?

On writing this, I realize just how many happy memories I have and how much more I owe my adoptive parents and extended family than I can possibly repay.

Andrea, there's an old expression - "be careful what you ask for; you may get it".