Hatred

Now that I am  much older  that I realize how naive and stupid I am.
Growing up I learned about slavery, and how bad it was. I learned about intolerance, and how bad it is. I was learned about murder, torture, harassment, and all kinds of things like that. And I knew that all  those things were bad.
To me, it seemed as though this must have been new information for us all. For most of the adults I knew were very prejudiced against black people. They did not go by the name African-American at that time. There was also tremendous intolerance for gay people. They were called "queers" when I was young. Faggot was a term used for guys, and Dyke was for gals. I was guilty of using all the nasty words. Everybody was using them, so it only seemed right. Everybody, that is, except the people on the receiving end of those insults.
I came to realize it was all wrong. I have always had gay and lesbian friends. I didn't always know it. But you see I don't really care about that aspect of my friends' lives. They're my friends. What else do they need to be?
But I believed that people were finally "getting it", and that all of this hatred was fading away. Mine would be the generation to finally end racial hatred. As it turns out my generation is more guilty of the crimes than any generation which has gone before. I say this because my generation has had all of the previous generations to look at and learn from. But we learned the wrong lessons.
I have seen prime examples  of racial hatred. Gender hatred. Hatred against class. Hatred against gays and lesbians. I have seen all of these things which before, I failed to see.
It is exhausting to realize how many people just plain hate people who are different. This is whether the difference is skin color, body size, faith, gender, sexual preference, class, or country. But we can't give up trying to put a stop to the hatred. I wish we would all just stop hating each other. So many of the world's problems would just go away if we stopped.

Who am I?

Sometimes I wonder how much of the "me" that existed back in the 1950s and 60s still exists. Have I really changed much over the past fifty-plus years? Or am I basically the same person?
Certainly, many of the things I enjoyed back then mean nothing to me now. Can't think of one quickly, because it seems to much of what was important to me then is still important to me now. New things have come into my life, to be sure. But that's just part of growing and I'm not sure my discoveries actually changed me.
So many of my years have been spent trying to be "what I'm supposed to be", instead of what I wanted to be. I tried to guess the ideas of other people and conform myself to them. I never really did that well and spent those years very uncomfortable.
My discomfort now, I think, is that I am tossing all that aside, and I'm trying to just be me - and I'm not used to it. The ideals of others don't always fit me. There are attitudes and philosophies I used to adhere to, but now am abandoning. Is it because I have changed who I am, or because I'm simply no longer pretending to be someone I am not?

Laundry

Remember starch? I don't know if it's even made anymore. Clothes are all permanent press now. Wash them, dry them, hang them up, and the wrinkles are gone. Back in the day when I was young that wasn't so. You wanted to get wrinkles out, you ironed.
I began doing laundry with my grandma when I was in grade school. I may have been eight, nine, or perhaps ten.
She had an old ringer washer. The image is probably as close to what it looked like as anything.
The black hose was used to drain the thing.

The tub was filled manually. We would run a short hose from the faucet of the water heater to the tub and turn on the hot water. When the washing tub was full of soap and water the clothes would be added and the wash cycle engaged. There was no rinse cycle. That was where the wringer came into use.
Next to the washing machine there would be a wash tub. Well, when the washing was done, you would take the clean clothes out of the water and begin running them through the wringer. If you let the next article of clothing rest on the previous,it go ahead and pull them through. The dirty water would fall back into the machine and the "clean" clothes would fall into the clear, hot water in the wash tub.
If you were good, you could actually send more than one piece at a time through. But you had to be careful. The wringer sometimes would jam. Then you had to pop up the top (see the big handle?) pull the clothes back and do it again.
Feeding clothes into the wringer was a bit of a risk. If you weren't careful, you'd get your fingers pinched. Once the clothes soaked in the hot clean water they would be sent through the wringer again. This time, instead of letting the clothes fall, you had to catch them and put them in the wicker baskets (not plastic) to be brought to the clothesline.
So, back to starch. That was using in ironing. I loved ironing. Some things were really hard to iron. Remember pleated skirts? Things with ruffles. Stocking were easy. So were cotton t-shirts. Sheets would have been, except they were so big.
I just smile when I hear someone complain about laundry. They really have no idea.

Monday with Morgan

Daddy took me to the park. I love to swing I went really high.

I climbed on a big rock and Daddy took my picture.

I had lots of fun.

                                        Aggie is my very patient dog. 

                                     Playing wears me out. Nite Nite

                                    This is just cause Grandma likes it

Happy Easter

5 on Friday

1. Which of your country's leaders (past or present) would you like to have a chance to sit down and talk to?


One of the Founding Fathers, definitely; I think Jefferson or Adams would be my top pick. (Bonus points if I can get them on film saying something about how the US was in fact  founded on "Christian principles" so we can end that madness once and for all).

2. What job would you never want to have to do?

Oh there's a lot of these. I wouldn't want to do anything that involves killing something or someone or the decision to kill something or someone, be it working in extermination, the meat industry, or  animal medicine.

3. How many kids do you have and what are their ages? If you don't have kids, do you think you want any down the road? If so, how many?

I have 3 grown sons.  And I have 5 gorgeous grandchildren. I am not including their ages as it will make ME feel old,

4. Do you have a "blankie" or a favorite stuffed animal? What is it/what does it look like?

No I sure don’t and I don’t believe I ever had one.

5. What is your favorite flower?

Lilac and Peony. Love them