Count your blessings

Be truly thankful for the blessings in your life. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Defrost your turkey

Over the years when I would watch the early morning shows on Thanksgiving Day, the last segment would be a cooking segment.  They would always have Q&A for problems that people would email them about their Thanksgiving dinner.  Usually 'my gravy is too thick' or 'how do I know the stuffing is done if I cooked it inside of the turkey'.  But there was always one person who would say 'I forgot to defrost my turkey, what do I do'.  And the answer was 'look in the phone book for a restaurant that is open, because you aren't eating at home today'. 

Defrost your turkey.  Today.  Now. 

My favorite thing

I am a charter member of the Belmont Historical Society.  It was started in 2005 by 7 gentlemen who wanted to make sure that the history of Belmont is preserved for future generations.  We were given a house by the Stowe Foundation for our 'Cultural and Heritage Learning Center'.  It is the 3rd oldest house in Belmont and we are very proud to be the recipients of such a great gift. 

There are 5 rooms and a long hallway with displays in them.  Some of our displays are permanent and some are temporary.  We have pictures of old churches and schools, and items from businesses that used to be in Belmont.  My favorite display is a scrapbook that was started by the Chamber of Commerce in 1946 or 1948.  We were given the scrapbook when we opened in 2007.  Since it was about the local businesses in Belmont, there are ads from years ago.  If a supermarket was having a grand opening, they took out a full page ad and listed prices of their food.  At Christmas, toys might be advertised along with Santa's visit to the store.  There are car, furniture and clothing ads.  Some things have gone up in price whereas other things have gone down in price. 

It is a lot of fun to sit there and look through the book and compare prices to things nowadays.  If you live in the area, stop in one day and look over the book.  It will certainly take you down memory lane.  I wonder how much a Thanksgiving dinner would have cost back then. 

Don't judge me at the stoplight

Years ago we went to a local pizza place with another couple.  They had a juke box and while we were sitting there talking, a song with a really good beat came on.  We thought the song was saying 'Bob Greasy' and we could not figure out who would make a song about 'Bob Greasy'.  I don't know if it was the pepperoni or what, but we absolutely could not stop laughing.  We could not catch our breath or stop snorting about this song.  It never occurred to us to go look at the number/letter of the song playing to find out the real name. 

This morning I heard that song on the radio as I sat in my car at the stoplight.  I was immediately taken back over 30 years ago to that night when we heard that song.  My reaction in the car was the same as it was at the pizza place. 

I have a niece who always thought that 'Stop in the Name of Love' was really 'Stop in the Neighborhood'.  While I am glad that she was observing the driving rules at the age of 5 or 6, I wonder why someone didn't tell her what the real words were. 

I once heard someone say that they thought the song 'Islands in the Stream' was really 'I Live in the Street'.  Would it really be possible that someone would live in the street?  If they pitched a tent, would they pull it up every time a car came down the road? 

If you see me at the stoplight and I am laughing, don't judge.  I am singing a song from my past and I probably don't know the words. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEfFOd8TDZA

Friday

Nothing profound today.  Letting everyone catch up. 

TGIF!!

Mood rings

In the 1970s, mood rings were a popular piece of jewelry.  The ring had a stone that would change colors to match your mood.  The color could range from black to brown to green and finally to a beautiful blue.  The idea was if you were in a good mood your body would be warm and would make the stone turn blue.  The warmer your hands, the bluer the ring.  According to the chart, if you were in a bad mood or were sad, your ring would be black. 

My hands have always been cold.  If I met someone and they wanted to shake hands, I apologized in advance for having cold hands.  Needless to say, my mood ring indicated that I was in a different mood than I was. 

How many times have we looked at someone and thought they were mad, perplexed, upset or just in a bad mood?  How often have we decided that a person was a grouch when we hadn't even taken the time to ask how they were?  Did the lady almost knock you down in the drug store?  Maybe she was in a hurry to pick up a prescription for her sick child.  Did someone rev their engine behind you at the traffic light?  Maybe their car was going to cut off and they were trying to keep it running.  (1973 Mazda, many times). 

We need to stop looking at everyone's mood ring and start looking at them.  Really look.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/11/18/its-a-wonderful-life-sequel/

If this is true, it is just not right.  What good could possibly come from a sequel?  The original movie ended the way it should.  **SPOILER ALERT**  Although I have wondered what would have happened if Mr. Potter's henchman would have told George that Mr. Potter had the money.  If the sheriff would have investigated further instead of just issuing an arrest warrant, he would have found that Uncle Billy gave old man Potter the newspaper the money was wrapped up in. 

Have you ever thought about what life would be like if you had not been born?  If you are an only child, what would your parents life had been like?  Are you married?  Who would your spouse have ended up with?  Would your children have been born to someone else?  Would your beautiful grandchildren be here? 

What an awesome movie!  And to be made during the era that it was.  No special effects.  Just good acting and camera shots.  One scene that is so brilliant is where George has a close up of his face.  He slowly turns and realizes 'this is not a dream'.  And Clarence says, 'You see George, you really did have a wonderful life.'

It doesn't matter how bad things get or how hard life is sometimes, try to remember the good things.  And hopefully you will find you really do have a wonderful life.

 

Things of 'value'

As I was growing up, my parents would say that they were glad that they didn't have money/expensive items to leave to my siblings and me when they died.  I told them that it wasn't money that we wanted, it was sentimental things.

When I was about 7-8 years old and was sick one day, I remember my mom letting me play with her pink jewelry box and the contents.  Now before you say that you can't believe she let me play with anything expensive, let me assure you that wasn't the case.  The very few items that she had that were worth any money, were kept in her top dresser drawer in a box.  This pink jewelry box was made out of hard cardboard and contained trinkets that I am sure she got for her birthday, Mother's Day and Christmas from stores like K-Mart, Woolco and the dime store in downtown Belmont.  She had 2 small crown pins that she wore on her brown winter coat lapel.  Every year.  Without fail.  In later years I asked for the pins only to be told 'no' since my sister wanted them also. 

One Christmas about 12 or 13 years ago as we sat opening gifts, I unwrapped my gift from my mom.  Inside was the pink jewelry box with the crown pins.  As I looked up expecting my sister to say 'that's not fair, I wanted those', my sister instead said 'I got the bracelet'.  (Something she had asked for before and had been told 'no'.)  I was glad that my mom gave us those things before she passed away so that she could see how happy they made us. 

Before Eric's dad passed away 2 years ago, he told Eric that he wanted his sister-Eric's aunt-to have a certain afghan that Eric's mom had made.  Eric told him to give it to her then while his dad was still alive, so that he could see how happy she was to receive it. 

As we started cleaning out my in-law's house last year, we would take pictures of anything that we thought the 4 grandchildren would want.  I would send out a blanket email and picture and they would tell me yes or no if they wanted something.  If no one did, then we donated it or sold it.  One of the things that all of the grandkids said was, 'I remember the glass canisters that sat on the refrigerator with the cereal in them'.  Always Raisin Bran, Frosted Mini Wheats and something else.  And I am sure that as they reminisced, they were taken back to the nights they spent with their grandparents and had cereal out of those canisters. 

If you think that you don't have anything of value to give to someone, you might be mistaken.  What one person values is different from what someone else does.  And if you think it would make them happy, consider giving it to them now.

And the glass containers?  We had enough to give everybody one.  We don't know what they are being used for.  It could be for cotton balls, tea bags, nuts and bolts or just sitting on a shelf in the garage.  But we hope that when the grandkids see them, they are taken back to their childhood and the Saturday mornings sitting at Nanny and Paw-Paw's kitchen table.

Our parents weren't always our parents

Last week I was speaking to someone that has known my family for years.  He was telling me a story about my mom and dad and an activity that they all enjoyed.  My dad's parents and brothers/sisters lived in Michigan and sometimes my parents lived there also.  They all worked for the automobile plants during the 50s.  This particular event must have happened in the late 40s, I do not know the timeline.  As you can imagine, it was cold in Michigan during the winter.  My parents and this couple went ice skating.  The lady fell down, apparently her feet went completely out from under her.  My dad started laughing (her husband was laughing as she told the story) and my mother told him to be quiet.  Now, I am not sure how good my dad was at ice skating so I don't know if he had fallen before and this lady had laughed at him.  But I do know my dad probably went over and helped her up after he stopped laughing. 

I had never heard that my parents had gone ice skating.  Of course I have pictures of them when they were children and pictures of them as a young couple.  But somehow I never thought of my parents as anything other than 'my parents'.   As I was growing up, I was always Brud and Christine Gilreath's daughter.  Then I turned into Andrew and Paul Summerville's mother.  Now I guess I will be Georgia and Drew's Granny B.  Which is fine, I am proud to be all of those. 

But now that I know this story, I somehow see my parents differently.  And I wonder if my kids will always think of me as 'their parents'.

My business card

Remember when the only people that had business cards were 'higher ups' or 'important people'?  Well, anybody can be one of those now.  Check out my business card.  I even have a special case to carry them in. 

We won't be moving anytime soon.  I had 750 printed up.

My thank yous-2nd attempt

As I looked over my posts, I realize somehow my thank yous did not print.  So I will again attempt to say my thanks.

To my kids, thanks for your comments and suggestions.  I will keep them in mind for my next book.

To Eric, thanks for believing in me and listening to me talk about this over and over and over and over and....  For not nagging me while the kitchen was a wreck with my papers and other book related items were scattered about.  Thanks also for listening to Christmas music 3 weeks before Thanksgiving so I could get into the spirit while I worked on my book.  But at least it was Nat King Cole and not Buck Owens.

And last, thanks to my mom and dad, Christine and Ernest (Brud) Gilreath.  For instilling a love of reading, and always having newspapers, books and magazines at our house.  For making sure that I had a few dollars to order books from the Weekly Reader book site when the teachers were getting an order together.  I hope you like the book and I hope I made you proud.

I love all of you.

Back cover

 

This is the back cover of my book.  The lower left corner contains a number that is assigned to an author for the title of their book.  Book stores, Amazon, libraries, churches, schools and other people who order books can go to a website and look for a specific category.  Books are catalogued under children, biographies, fiction, etc...  It lists the type of binding, the measurements, the price, pages and other things that help someone decide whether or not to purchase it.  So depending on how much someone has in their budget could determine if your book gets picked or not. 

I have had a library card since I was 7 or 8 years old.  That was something else that my parents believed in.  We probably went to the Belmont Public library 2-3 times a month.  The library cards had a small piece of metal embedded in it.  Mrs. Dunlap was the librarian and I can still hear the 'clunk' when she would put the book card into the machine to stamp the return date on it.  And I can still see the little tables and wire chairs that sat in the children's section. 

The Christmas tree is what I chose for the Summerville Stories trademark.  Like many other families in the 60s, we had an aluminum Christmas tree.  Ours had red ball ornaments and yes, we had the 4 color wheel that shined on the tree.  It was only natural that I pick something that I remembered about my childhood. 

I hope if you are reading my blog that you will visit my Facebook page-Summerville Stories.  In the next few weeks, I hope that people will start posting some of their favorite memories of their past Christmases.  Whether it is about the stockings that the textile mills gave their employees or the treat bags that the churches fixed for their members.  I want to hear them all.  So put your thinking caps on and let me hear from you.

The original manger scene

This is the manger scene that started it all.  1984. 

The book-cover

The book-page 1

The book is finished!

So I have finished my book!  Received my ISBN so it can officially be catalogued.  I am now a published author.  Long way from Catawba Heights Elementary School.  This is where any teacher who is reading this should say 'Thank a teacher today'.

Selling for $10.  Cute book to start a tradition with your family. 

About the author

For the past few days I have been trying to think of what to write in the section 'About the Author'.  Unless you have tried to do this, you don't realize how hard it is.  What I have decided on is a very short bio about my family.  I'm sure that everyone would say that it should be about me since I wrote the book.  I have to disagree.  My family started the tradition many years ago and I feel that they should be included. 

After I finish this part, I will be ready to put my contact information out to the public.  Thanks to everyone for your support.