Category Archives for human interest
Oregonians! Scam Jam Might Be For You
With the coming of the Affordable Care Act [ACA or Obamacare,] holidays, and wet weather “roofing experts” – it might be good to learn how to protect yourself from scammers.. and for those not yet “elders” it never hurts to learn about self-protection.
This event is co-sponsored by the organizations and agencies listed at the bottom..
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Scams, Medicare, And Obamacare
Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act [ACA] is NOT the same as Medicare.
If you have Medicare, there is need to do anything on October 1st.
ACA or Obamacare is for people who are not 65 or older who need insurance.
You might get called by those unethical scammers who will try to sell you something or get your information by telling you they can do something insurance-wise for you.
DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM
They want to steal your credit card information or identity
PS – please alert any seniors you know
Thank you.
Washboards, Washing Machines, And Memories
I have had a lot of conversations of late with a good friend, my age, who is visiting, and we have been reminiscing about how things were…
It’s fun to try and remember how life was before all the conveniences we take for granted were in existence, or in my existence. Things like washing machines, TVs, checking accounts, credit cards, and a whole lot of other modern conveniences….
I have decided to write about these to refresh my memory and to make some sort of record for
my son and anyone else who is interested in living history.
I often regret that I did not push my own mom a bit harder to talk more about her childhood and youth – she was generally reluctant to talk about it so I did not push hard. Now I wish I had asked a lot more questions.
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Memories about washing clothes
There aren’t many household chores I enjoy – but washing clothes, oddly, is one I love.
I don’t do them by hand; I do have a washing machine so the part I love is hanging them outside on a line to dry in sun.
Doing this often has me thinking back on how we washed and dried clothes before all the modern appliances came into being.
I remember a double sink in the basement of the house I grew up in. It was deep to hold the washing board and I think it was made of concrete.
My mom used Fels Naptha and scrubbed the clothes in one half of that sink and rinsed them in the other half. They were then wrung out by hand, and hung outside on a line to dry, or hung on a clothesline in the basement when the weather was bad.
I don’t recall when we got a real washing machine, but I do remember it had a wringer on it! One fed the clothing thru that wringer to squeeze out excess water.
That was modern technology!
Over the years, I moved on to machines that wash, rinse, and spin dry….
Yes, I do own a dryer, but my preference will always be the sun!
And PS – I now make my own laundry soap and guess what? The main ingredient is Fels Naptha!
What are some of your memoir of how things were?
Stay tuned for more “blasts” from my past :roll
Birthday Thoughts [for our adult kids]
35 years ago, at 3:55AM in Boston Massachusetts, I gave birth to a healthy baby boy!
Then, about 20+ years ago, when he was a teenager, we went to see City Slickers.
There is a scene where Billy Crystal is awoken at 5:16AM by his mother who reminisces about his birth.
She does this every year – and Billy Crystal mouths her exact words as she says them.
“Oh no” said my son, “I can see it now!”
Well – I never did start the reminiscing calls – because for one thing – 3:55AM and I have become strangers in these 35 years. But it keeps him wondering if I will!
But I can schedule this to appear at 3:55AM EDT 🙄
And for most of his birthdays, he calls me and says…”yes, mom, you HAVE aged [whatever age he is] years…because I tend to say how can you be [x age] when I have not aged that many years….
Do you have a birthday custom that has gone on as your kids grew into adulthood?
Please comment below and thank you.
The Original Mother’s Day Proclamation
The original mother’s day was an anti-war poem by Julia Ward Howe.
We have gotten so far away from the original thoughts of Julia Ward Howe and made Mother’s Day into yet another day to promote shopping and buying.
We are encouraged to telephone, send cards, send flowers and buy mom all matter of stuff.
I doubt many Mother’s Day shoppers even know how this day came to be so please take time this weekend to reflect on this original thought.
Mother’s Day Proclamation – 1870
by Julia Ward HoweArise then…women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace…
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God –
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
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Let’s elect more mothers and I bet we end all wars
And in the meantime – let’s bring all the troops home now!!
Peace