April 19--another beautiful Thursday

April 19--another beautiful Thursday

I sit here at the computer my kids got me and I have lots to say but I'm extremely heartsick about what happened at Va. Tech...the college that Jeff attended...then Eric and then Ryan...the Hokeys.

There's soo much blame to go around...so many signs were missed or sluffed off...and it could have been avoided but no one really wants to interfere or listen.

Before this, nobody even heard of a little town called Blacksburg, Va. Now the entire world is aware of it. Will we be more aware of troubled souls who can do such evil.

I remember when we all made this trip with a 'dolly' to carry in Jeff's things...a little refrigerator...black and white tv....no computer since there weren't any. Jeff was taking computer science...a new subject..and he had a new Texas Instrument Calculator to replace his sliderule. Should we have kept them...would that be a 'collectible today!!!! We also schlepped lots of towels, blankets and sheets.

We weren't alone...every other parent was doing the same thing.

I remember on the return trip home, I knew that our lives would never be quite the same again.

And that's when Jeff took his first airplane trip home. We couldn't wait!!!

Are we becoming one people under God!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Are we becoming one people under God!

If Obama becomes our president, what does this mean to the Black folks!

That now, finally, we are all even. I don't think so! Blacks still have more menial jobs, spend more time in prisons, and have a poorer education that whites. Now, why did I capitalize blacks and not whites. Do I think of us as having no color while they do.

And their is a caste system in black black and light black like Obama. If he were darker, would he still be so desirable to us!

Maybe statisticians along the road will be able to understand these differences. And what what Hispanics...one out of every 3 people in about 15 years will be a Latino.

So..is this the new 'melting pot'. At the turn of the last century, it was the people coming into Elis Island that gave us this name.

They were given the charming term 'green horns'.

And I musn't forget the Indians...very smart people and they make excellent doctors.

When I hear a symphony orchestra, it seems the orientals take center stage with string instruments...violins, harps, and piano.

So maybe we are meant to blend into one color Under God! The sun is making me so dark, I'm almost not a cacasian.

Spelling bees seem to be won by the Viatnamese ... and so many of the products that we use are made by Chinese.

But they really all want to come to America...so we really must have something going here.

Me....I'm so proud and privileged to live here. If I had been born in Europe, I probably wouldn't have existed 60 years ago.

But I'm here...I'm happy and I'm going to the pool!

Learning to Blog

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Learning to Blog

.Hello everyone, I kinda feel like I'm in kindergarten 101. My kids are guiding my every word so I'm apprehensive about what I have to say next.

I just know that this is one of the greatest experiences of my life and I do feel as though I truly am living in the 21st century. I find it so impossible to believe that this is a living encyclopedia...anything I want to know or I find of interestcan be found on the internet

Now from someone who remembers when her father built a crystal radio set in 1928 with headphones, and listened to the first radio station ever, Pittsburgh's KDKA, this is quite a miraculous accomplishment.

When I was very young I only read the 'funnies' in our daily paper, either the Pittsburgh Press or the Post Gazette. Later New Kensington was able to put out the Valley Daily News. Now Jeff and Donna have arranged it that when I turn on the computer and go to my homepage, Florida's Sun Sentinel is staring me in the face...all I have to do is decide do I want the Front Page, editorials. letters to the editor...or what!!

Or what....the whole world is open to me and all I have to do us pay attention to what's going on around me...and if I do, then maybe when I'm out in company, I can speak intelligently and people will think I'm bright.

I'm not that at all...but this thing does keep one alert. I'd rather be on this than playing cards with impatient ladies, who can't wait until I lay my next tile.

So, for the moment, this Sunday, I have tons of things to think about so that my grown-up smart kids won't find me boring.

One moment please...I found this enchanting little note from Donna, my teacher and mentor.


1 comments:
Donna of Manassas said...
Wow!!! I wish I could write like you. It's funny how I find the computer stuff so easy but writing is so difficult for me. I suspect the opposite is true for you. We each have our talents don't we?Donna
April 15, 2007 8:54 PM

My little house

Sunday, January 5, 2014

My little house

Sunday, October 14, 2012

When my husband Allen and I looked at this B unit in a villa, we kind of fell in love with it.    There was a loft....for escape time.

Two bathrooms which seemed an enormous luxury...one bath and two showers.   The drawers all pulled out on rollers....a dishwasher and a garbage disposal.

And in the bathroom a special fan to eliminate any unpleasant aromas.

Now we had a nice hallway that led us to our master bedroom...but along those walls,  Allen nailed pictures of our family and our lives.    When we were young...and as we grew older.

When we bought new furniture, we felt like we were on our second honeymoon, even to buying a wastebasket.    Everything was a thrill.

Allen hired a shelf maker for  our bedroom closet to put up more rods.   Now I have to call someback to lower those rods...cause I simply can't reach them.

I loved our backyard look, a stable with horses...and I can hear them whinny and naaay...and it makes me feel good...like I'm not in a large city but near the farms.

Back to my hallway, there are pictures of my Mother and my Father not together, my Father was already married to Aunt Helen, my mom's sister  My Mother died at 41 and my father waited 10 years to remarry, till both my sister and I got married.   They had a good long marriage.The people who I see when I stroll up and down my hallways are My cousin Henrietta and her husband Eddy.,my endearing Sister Elayne....and my dear Aunt Rose and my sister in law, and my mother and father in law.  Paul and Barbara's wedding pictures...also Jeff and Donna.   Lots of Allen at all ages.   And, of course, pictures of my grandnephews Eric and Ryan when they were little.   Now they're both married and I must hang up pictures of their brides.

My family....

I've made some good friends here..and my biggiest pleasure  is our swimming pool, which is also my social life.  We all have one thing in common...we're all transports from another place and another time....so we've kind of become each other's extended family.

Everyone there is happy and splashing and splishing and making their arthritis feel better.

Lots of noodles are used too....very colorful.   This is our country club.

If anyone wants to visit me, I have a loft, if you can climb the stairs.   There's a queen bed, a dresser and a chair...and a radio.

To me...this is paradise and I'm very grateful that Allen brought me here.

Can't take credit for this one

hildag3@gmail.com... I like your visits...come again soon!

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Can't take credit for this one

This was sent to me by my dear friend Ethel Wainer....and how true...and how I relate.

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days." The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were truly recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks.

This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling's. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right.

We didn't have the green thing in our day. Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us.

When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart-ass young person.

Frustrated...or is it me???

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Frustrated...or is it me???

About ten years ago, hotels and motels came out with a new form of key.   Plastic like a charge card and you insert it in the room you're renting.

Well..sounds good...but does it work...at least some of the time.   I swipe it in the hotel slot in the door...and nothing happens...except for a red light.  Now I know that red lights mean trouble...so I instantly remove.

Now I try again turning the card in a different direction...same story.   I insert the card again and get a green light, but if you don't remove the card fast enough, it shuts off.  And this ritual goes on and on!

Five minutes have passed by now and I feel stupid, plus ..   I have to use the bathroom. 

 Finally another guest comes along and smiles at me.   I return the smile but I guess she can see utter disappointment in my face because she asks, can she help me.

I admit that I'm stuck outside my door.  I can't get in.   She takes my card...does exactly what I did...and the door flies open.

She feels very accomplished and I feel like a real dud.   She probably told someone she helped an elderly lady get into her room and why is she traveling at all if she can't even us a cardkey.

Does this happen to other people too....or is it just me????

Please .. please.. give me my old key back...even a skeleton one will do.

Senior learning!

Senior learning!

Last week my friend Harriet and I decided we'd  like to join a group of seniors on a trip to St. Petersburg, Fl.  on a venture called Grandedventures.

It's a little pricey but we enjoyed our vacation at a new Hilton Hotel which was beautiful and our home away from home for a week.

We both felt we needed a little time away from our reservation  here at High Point to see new faces and study new people and courses.   There was a so-called religious man who came with a pretty woman whom I assumed was his wife.   He wore 4 different colored skull caps every day and he was constantly quoting from the Bible.   During one of my gossip sessions, I found out they were shacking up together.   I still get shocked!    What's wrong with me!   He  changed yarmulkes (skull caps) like a woman switching earrings.

The classes we attended were very interesting...and some of the speakers were familiar to us...the Russian Orthodox priest talking about his wife and their belief in the Trinity.   We also were happy to reunite with our music lady talking about Cole Porter...and the next day showing us clips of Gene Kelly and that he came from Pittsburgh where I come from and that he had a dance studio where he gave lessons early on.

We spent New Year's eve listening to the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.   I have never seen such a huge stage..and we didn't just listen to the music of the masters...but we watched magical ballet and heard lots of opera.   I was entranced.   Perfect.   My only complaint...everything was in German...and I still haven't forgiven them for the Halacaust.

The food at the hotel was all right.   We all got served the same menu and there weren't too many complaints .   Anything served to me is good.   Let's face it...I'm getting very lazy.  All the deserts were sugar free which wasn't such a great idea because to some people the artificial stuff is poison in their bodies.

Our week was good...went very fast.   We were very cold so we wern't able to take the boat ride offered...but we did get to see the Barnum-Ringling Bros. Circus Museum.

One man spent 50 years  building a matchbox scale of the circus....and that really interested me...such detail....  He included all the trains, animals, performers, tents, and even how they prepared their food....and the dishes they used... a view into their lives and how  hard these people worked to install the tents and then a day later...take it all down again....and do it in another city.

In those days, many of the artists were considered freaks of nature...the bearded lady...twins joined together,,, Siamese and which they're able to separate today.....dwarfs and very tall people over 7 feet.

All that is changed today.   I do remember the day the circus would come to our town and we were all excused from school to watch the circus parade with their big elephants and Arabian Horses.   What a treat that was.

I recall that one year they were selling periscopes for 25 cents.   That was a lot of money when you're 8 years old...but the vendor promised that I would be able to look behind me to see the homework of a classmate.   I fell for it..and was I ever disappointed.  But that was decades ago.

/Returning home from our trip we experienced a massive blowout on our bus tire.    Not every garage can accommodate a bus....so we waited almost 3 hours.   The bus company sent another bus from Miami...but in the meantime a garage came....so we were rescued.

While all this excitement was happening,  Seth who owns Grandedventures brought all of us wine, crackers, cheese and little veggies.   There was such a feeling of camarderie on that bus that we hadn't experienced all week....so everything serves a reason.  When Seth, his wife and son boarded our bus while we were delayed he was received with such applause...he'd come to save us!

I'm glad I went

Such rage!

hildag3@gmail.com... I like your visits...come again soon!

Monday, September 24, 2007

Such rage!

It was the day before Yom Kippur...the Holiest Day of the Jewish Year.

I was shopping at Famous Market in King's Point for some break-the-fast foods and when I was leaving the store, I saw a very angry shrieking heavy woman pounding on a car with a man sitting in the driver seat. I couldn't hear all her conversation but she was screaming at him that he pulled into her parking spot while she was waiting to drive in.

He was red-faced and screaming at her ...I hope you get the worst venerial disease ever and suffer...and I hope you get it in your mouth.

I stood there shocked. I wanted to say...and this is how you want to be inscribed in the Jewish New Year!

I didn't say a word though...I was afraid of these crazy people..that they would pounce on me..the innocent by-stander.

I can't get it out of my mind. These two souls found each other..filthy mouths...and I was a witness.

I'm still outraged! Why can't people be kind to one another. Why?

We are so fortunate. When I go to the library, it's like a magnificent buffet...so many books just to entertain me and also to make me a little smarter.

I just got to thinking about books because when I was very young, my first enrollment was in our free public library. Also my son's first connection with the outer world was his library card.

When I pick up a book, I hold it reverenly in my hands. I look to see how heavy it is...how many pages...and then I wonder about the author. Did the author think long and hard about the storyline...or just sit down and begin writing. Did he spend much time searching for the perfect verb or adjective to give the sentence the punch desired. Was it put there for shock value.

So much to wonder about and what a thrill it is to open the flap and read a little bit about the story. If it's a thriller, I immediately return it to its shelf.

After I've finished reading and digesting a good book, I love to discuss it with someone...I like to lie in bed or in the bathtub and think about it some more...such enjoyment.


The earliest dated printed book known is the "Diamond Sutra", printed in China in 868 CE. However, it is suspected that book printing may have occurred long before this date.
In 1041, movable clay type was first invented in China. Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith and businessman from the mining town of Mainz in southern Germany, borrowed money to invent a technology that changed the world of printing. Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with replaceable/moveable wooden or metal letters in 1436 (completed by 1440). This method of printing can be credited not only for a revolution in the production of books, but also for fostering rapid development in the sciences, arts and religion through the transmission of texts.


So..thank God for the printing press. The Egyptians used hierglyphics which is still preserved in the pyramids today.

I believe this is the greatest time in history for upcoming authors.

First of all...they can do all their research on the internet which really lightens their load. Now, all they have to do is weave a delightful storyline around it...and there you have a novel.

I make is sound so simplistic. Who am I kidding!! And I'm also grateful for paperbacks...so much easier to hold.