Twelve on Twelve in May

My morning started early when I went out to get the newspaper.

Soon I will make my annual visit to Ashtabula County cemeteries for Memorial Day.

Kent features a farmers' market every Saturday morning.

The farmers' market begins under the bridge.

It is a little early for most vendors, but the Birdsong Farm was represented.

Here you see a mountain of turnips.

Radishes are an early crop, also.

I snapped these watermelons at Marcs. I lost my taste for watermelons, so I did not get one.

We went to Minerva this afternoon for a jazz festival.

Minerva is a very old town in Ohio.

Richard and I had dinner at the original Grinders.

Our friends Bob and Lynnda joined us for dinner.

Any MAY a Beautiful Change

Any Day a Beautiful Change happened to me about May, 2008. I retired from thirty plus years of teaching. It seemed to be the perfect time since they tore down my building. When I was a little girl my father advised me to become a librarian when I grew up. I remember his exact words. "You will always get a job when you want one." And I did. I loved every school library where I worked from The Ohio State University School to Miami Trace High School to Stow High School to Rootstown High School to Tallmadge Middle School. I learned plenty from my students, and I hope I shared my love of reading with them.
There has to be a major adjustment after one retires, but my life still includes libraries. I regularly visit the public libraries in Stow, Hudson, Kent and Cuyahoga Falls.

Now I work for myself. My current project is to write a biography about my great-grandfather's brother. The research I do on Uncle Bill (Senator William Morris Stewart of Nevada), the more fascinated I become. It expanded from just him to many of his contemporaries. Mark Twain worked as Stewart's secretary, and Ulysses S. Grant was his drinking buddy before and after Grant became President. Uncle Bill helped Leland and Jane Stanford set up the Leland Stanford, Jr. University.

The railroad magnates who built the Transcontinental Railroad strongly backed Stewart for most of his political career.
William Morris Stewart and his wife Annie Foote Stewart had three daughters. I connected with some of the Italian relatives recently. I know my next discovery is right around the corner.

Thoughts about Random Pictures

My mother wore the most stylish clothes of her era. Here she is pictured at her mother's house. I believe this is the correct location because of the flowers in the background. I do not remember my Grandma Lillian, but I know she loved to grow flowers.

This is one of my favorite family pictures. It gives the appearance of us being "outdoorsy" to the max. That was the year we took ten hikes in surrounding parks so one of the girls could get an extra A in Biology. It really was a fun experience.

My family took two week vacations every summer. We always went east. This picture has the label Gettysburg, Pa. 1950 in my mother's beautiful writing.  If you see an enlarged version, you will note I did not wear the most stylish clothes of the era.

An Incomplete Eighth Grade Education

The last two weeks I watched Great Expectations on Masterpiece Theater. It was a wonderful production, and I enjoyed it immensely. I remembered the names of the characters, but that was about all. That bothers me somewhat as we must have spent at least six weeks reading and studying that book in the eighth grade. Why don't I remember that Miss Havisham was not in her right mind, or even that Abel Magwitch had some redeeming qualities.
After some thought I decided the following excuses are the reason I remember nothing of the plot.

1. There were fifty-five eighth graders crammed on a small stage. The two seventh grades were on the gym floor separated from us by the stage curtain.  Eventually, our class was divided into two sections. I attended the morning session. I can't remember if we read Great Expectations before or after the split. (I had a wonderful year being totally unsupervised during the afternoons.)

2. Our class before and after the split behaved badly.  The science teacher, Mr. Devol, and the social studies teacher, Mr. Hall, could keep order. We drove the English teacher, Miss Duffey, out of her mind. She finally quit just before school got out. I would venture to say she never taught again, and is still telling stories about our class.

3. She was not really a very effective teacher. She told us things like she dropped our test papers down a staircase.  The ones at the top got A's and the ones at the bottom did not pass. Once a necklace she wore broke during class. The wooden barrels on it bounced and clattered on the floor. When she tried to pick up the pieces, there were none. No one would admit to having one in their pocket. Yes, I even remember Herbert Pocket's name from the story.

 I look forward to the next Masterpiece production, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I never read that one, so it will be completely new to me.

Twelve on Twelve for April

Today I followed my activities with the camera.

People who know me well are aware of my penchant for oatmeal. This yummy version featured mangoes, strawberries, peaches and blueberries.

After my hearty breakfast I started washing windows. I only do this once a year.

I still use the U.S. Postal System whenever I can. They need all the help they can get.

It is a little difficult to see the mileage, but it is well over 100,000.

I started taking a TRX class at the Nat. It stands for Total Resistance Cross Training. There are several different activities during class, but mostly we use the black straps.

After class I headed over to the Library in Cuyahoga Falls. This statue reminds me of the one at the Cheyenne Library.

This is a very old sign, but I'm glad they kept it for the updated version of the Cuyahoga Falls Library - now known as Taylor Memorial.

The Taylor Library has an amazing collection of Books on CD. This is one small part of the collection.

Richard's tenor saxophone awaits him. He has a gig this weekend.

My library about William Morris Stewart continues to grow.

If this cup looks big, it is. I bought it at Dr. Brodie's garage sale many years ago. She said it belonged to Cynthia Rylant before she had it.

When I went out to get the mail today, I noticed the these new blooms.

Community Showcase

Every two years Stow Munroe Falls High School hosts a Community Showcase. It is always fun to attend as we see old friends and former students. Slider made an appearance.

We enjoyed the Stow Players booth. They had a huge scrapbook from years past. We managed to find the pages on Lies and Legends and The Musical Adventures of Peter Rabbit, but not A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Tuesday Basement Adventure

Over the years certain individuals have considered our basement to be creepy. The door would always be locked.

There are world treasures that hang from the ceiling.

I have had a doll collection for many years. I can't decide whether to keep this one or not.

Some of my dolls have never been out of the box.

My best discovery today was the Dr Pepper mirror. I looked on Ebay and could not find another one like it.