Correction

My son Daniel just told me more about his charity...We sponsor a girl named Iris in Haiti and a boy named Nagabi in Buco Faso (West Africa). We go through the Child Reach (Plan USA). They sponsor schools for the children and community projects such as wells and school construction.

Good to know that there are so many organizations out there doing good in the world. Also thanks to those blogging friends for sharing the names of their charities in comments on my last post. Keep up the good work.

How much is enough?

I have several family members and friends who are involved in charitable giving. Which brings me to this question… How much giving is enough? There is so much need in the world for the homeless, hungry, terrorized, sick and destitute. How do we, who have so much, decide what to give? It’s important to investigate whatever charity you are considering giving to before donating.

Our church simplifies that as they have a Humanitarian Services that we can give to and know it will be used to help those in need regardlessly of faith and anywhere. We also have a Deseret Industries that gives training and jobs to those needing them. We can recycled our used clothing, shoes and furnishings there by donating to DI. Another program is called Perpetual Education Fund that loans money to youth in developing countries so they can further their education and job training skills, then they pay back the loan when they get a job so others can be helped.

I have heard recently of several worthwhile projects that you might want to participate in:

1. Hans Strandberg, son of my best friend Gittan in Sweden is single-handedly helping a group of Africans in Kenya with their school needs. See his website Hans commented in a recent email…Yes there are surely lots of needy people all over... No one can do all, but all can do something.

2. My daughter-in-law Nedret originally from Turkey made me aware of a new site Charity Water a group who are digging wells in various parts of the world. She says in a recent email….I'm using my birthday this year to support charity: water's September campaign to bring clean and safe drinking water to the people of Ethiopia. I recently learned that more than 1.1 billion people in the world today don't have the most basic thing: clean water to drink. Over 4,500 kids die each and every day from water-related disease. To do my part, I've been supporting an organization called charity: water that has been making a real difference. This year, I've decided to give up birthday gifts and ask for donations instead. 100% of the money raised will go directly to building freshwater wells, which will be proved with GPS coordinates and photos on Google Earth. Please make a donation on my page.

3. My son Daniel supports several children in undeveloped countries who need financial means to live more productively. I believe that program is called World Vision for just $20/month per child you can make a difference in someone’s life. You are given the name of the child you sponsor and a photo. Then there are the Mother Teresa’s of the world who donate their whole lives to charity. You certainly have to respect and honor their dedication.

Tell us about your favorite charities.

Blogging as a Tool

With your carefully chosen 

Words you communicate to
My soul, deepest feelings
Left unexpressed are allowed
To surface and find
Fulfillment in the safety
Of our friendships

Sharing views and voices
We all grow and find
Ourselves not alone,
But joined with other
Like spirits blogging
In the world of the Internet

Article #19 Nickel and Dime Stores

Before Dollar Stores, there were Nickel and Dime Stores. At your neighborhood Kresges, Woolworths or Ben Franklins, you really could buy something for a dime, nickel or less. Penny candy from a jar or barrel was a favorite of the kids. Candy bars and gum only cost a nickel.

Full of treasures, it was a real adventure to look around and dream of what you wanted to buy. If only you could earn a little more money doing chores or find more pop bottles to return for deposit money. Maybe you’d buy a yo-yo to impress your friends as you learned an advanced trick like around the world or some jacks and a small ball to keep you entertained for hours with your girl friends. For the boys, there were marbles of all colors and steelies that could knock lots of marbles out of the circle at recess time so the winner could brag he had the most marbles.

You could buy presents for all your family members at a dime store. A pretty barrette for your sister’s hair or a fancy scarf for mom, even a new comb or coin holder for dad. The storeowner knew you and your family personally and you were always welcome at the neighborhood dime store where you could actually touch the objects you wanted to buy. They weren’t behind the counter where only a sales clerk could reach them to show you. 

The merchandise in dime stores was geared for everyone, especially the kids. They loved harmonicas, compasses, and kaleidoscopes. Boys couldn’t get enough toy cap guns, small metal cars, trading cards, dart guns or rubber band airplanes. Even adults enjoyed comic books that sold for ten cents each and featured the adventures of Superman or Robin and Batman. Any party could be livened up with balloons, crayons, coloring books, rubber balls, toy wristwatches, stickers or whistles. Small children enjoyed the tin clicker crickets, and wind-up toys. The whole family could play a game with pick-up sticks just to name a few of the many items that were sold. 

Popular in the 1950s, these stores reflected the consumerism that would overtake America as so many families had just barely survived the Great Depression and been without for too many years. Eventually most local dime stores in small towns went out of business, as franchises were developed like the bigger chain stores of today.

Newly Retired or Looking to Volunteer

Volunteer for something (that's me as a cub scout leader on the left), it will add purpose and meaning to your life. Often when you retire after working for years, you feel let down after spending your entire adult life going to work. You miss your friends and the interaction at work, the feeling of accomplishment that sometimes defines us as a person.

I've always found at every job I worked, no matter how valued an employee I was or the contribution that I thought I made to the place-within a few years of leaving that job, I was forgotten. That's when I realized that the only job where your contribution continuing to matter is at home with your family. You can never be replaced there. But sometimes being at home 24/7 with a newly retired spouse can be challenging. There's such a thing as too much togetherness.

Try to volunteer for some outside organizations. There are many: hospitals always need help, homeless and women's shelters, food banks, schools love mentors to help individual students with literacy, libraries offer free ESL English as a second language programs, local historical organizations and museums always need docents, etc. There's probably not any church, scouting, club, group or place in your town/city that couldn't use your special contribution. Check out your local Sr. Citizen's center and newspaper for opportunities to make a difference.

Look at my best friend Gittan's son's blog, Hans lives in Sweden, is LDS and father of five, and doing volunteer work for a school in Kenya. You too can make a difference.

Question to comment on, tell us about some volunteer experience you've had:

Check out the Possibilities

A fortune in my Dove chocolate candy today said...Do not look back and ask why, look forward and ask, why not. I'm a firm believer in continuing education despite my mom's insistence until her death that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I believe you can, if the old dog wants to learn.

Before we retired, I organized a community education program called Horizons for Utah State University's branch campuses in Roosevelt and Vernal. I decided to have classes on everything I'd ever wanted to try, such as: stained glass, beading-making jewelry, pottery, weaving, basketmaking, spinning wool, guitar, photography, computers, woodworking projects, mexican and french cooking, social and line dancing, rock art, upholstery, wood carving, webpage making, photoshop, family history research and many other subjects. So I took all the classes and found some new hobbies to pursue. Found out I like photography, family history, scrapbooking and writing best. (See a display of my completed projects above.) You can't do all these hobbies,  but you need to try new ones to see if one catches your interest.

Tell us what interests you would like to develop or what classes you'd like to take if you could:

Where to find adult classes?

Since Jo asked me where to find classes now that she is retired and lives nearby, here's some generic ideas for everyone and specific links for our area:

1. Start first with your town/city's Recreation Department's Community Education. Ours is called Leisure Services. Local public school districts also may offer separate or combined classes with city recreation programs. I think we have separate classes usually their schedule comes in the mail after school starts.

2. Next look at any nearby University or College's Community or Adult Ed. programs. We have two: Dixie State College community education program cost about $44/class and a freeby program called Institute for Continued Learning ICL-you pay $40/year and can register for as many classes as you want, taught by volunteers.

3. If you have local Applied Technology Center's, check out their adult classes. Many have open entry classes that you can join at any time and progress at your own speed whether it is a computer or some other specialized class.

4. Find a mentor in the area you want to study to help you get going. i.e. weaver, potter, upholstery, scrapbooking or whatever your interest is.

5. Volunteer to become a mentor or teacher. Gather a group around you to study and learn together. Be it a book club, writer' group, weight loss class or whatever.

6. Check out local clubs or interest groups in the newspaper. Go to one of their meetings or workshops and join. We joined the Dixie Archeology Club, they have monthly field trip to local rock art and interesting speakers at their meetings.

7. The possibilities are endless as you consider libraries, Sr. Citizen centers, Internet, and  government agencies like Forest Service, Natl. Parks, etc.

Back to School Time

Who me? No, I'm all retired,

used to teach first grade and

was a school librarian for years.

I do look forward to learning, 

any excuse works for me. 

Maybe I could even go shopping 

for new clothes or a new hairdo. 

Seriously, I do want to take

some classes, to broaden my

horizons, to learn new things.

There's another rock art class,

a line dancing intro, then I'll teach 

a class on pioneer research online,

and family history in Sunday School.

Guess I am going back to school!

I will still be writing my column, 

trying to get published, leading 

my writer's WORDshop group

as we create a holiday collection 

of our poems and prose to share.

What are you up to this fall?

What can we take with us?

Read Caryn's post (see her smiling face on the right) about gratitude for her perfect day and her comments on my post About Near Death Experiences:I just completed preparing a lesson for this Sunday. As a part of it, I took a piece of faux suede and wrote on it the things that I would be willing to die for. It's amazing what a small piece of cloth you need to do that. My home and land?? Nope! Gonna leave it when I die anyway. My scrumptious new outfit? Are you kidding me? The way I'm going it won't even fit me in three months. I came up with three things...THREE.

I have to tell you Caryn is an excellent sunday school teacher and really gets you thinking about your life and spiritual things. So how would you answer her question? What are three things you would be willing to die for? The first thing which came to my mind was FAMILY, then CHURCH of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and MY FREE AGENCY.

Now it's your turn:

Near Death Experiences

Read in the local newspaper about one of my favorite actresses...Jane Seymour. Loved her in Somewhere in Time-my favorite movie with Christopher Reeves, and as Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman-another favorite TV show. When she was 36 and making a film about Maria Callas in Spain, she came down with bronchitis. An antibiotic was given an injection of penicillin and she went into anaphylactic shock. 

The nurse that had administered it saved her life by injecting her with cortisone and adrenaline...but I did actually leave my body, see the white light, see the people resuscitating me, and all of that. And after that I realized that you take nothing with you in this life. It was a wonderful moment really, it made me realize how simple it is. It's all about loving and being loved...and the difference you may have made along the way. It simplified things for me. Your life is increidibly worth living and I don't want to waste a moment of it. Then Jane suddenly found herself back in her body. Great thoughts to ponder as we try to live our daily lives with purpose and meaning.

Article #18 Fast Food and Drive-ins

In the good old days, mom cooked all the food the family ate. Eating out at a restaurant was a rare occasion calling for wearing nice clothes, and your best table manners. Now we’ve changed into a society that eats out several times a week at fast food restaurants dressed in jeans or brings home pre-cooked food almost daily. Drive-ins are a way of life for fast food, cleaners, banks and most of our business dealings.

I ate my first hamburger in 1948 at a drugstore soda fountain counter in Eureka, Utah. It came complete with onions, lettuce, tomato and pickles and cost less than a quarter, with potato chips and a soft drink. What a treat to eat out. McDonalds came to my town in California in 1955. Hamburgers were then fifteen cents each and an instant hit because many moms had gone back to work during and after World War II. They loved the thought of hot food for the family picked up on the way home from work. My widowed mom and I enjoyed eating out at McDonalds when she returned home from her shift as a telephone operator. 

Drive-in restaurants were the big deal in the 1950s. Teens loved to hang out in their parent’s car or in their own car, if they had one. Listening to the latest hit tunes, most likely Elvis or the Four Lettermen, while flirting with their high school friends was a favorite past time. Young ladies employed as carhops, some wearing roller skates, came to your car window and took your food order. Later, they brought your food out to you, and picked up your tray when you put your lights on. What fun to eat in your car!

My first real job in my teens was as an A & W Root Beer Drive-in carhop. Dressed in my brown and orange uniform with its cute cap, I really thought I had arrived. I found out that it was hard work being a carhop and not that profitable. I think I made about a dollar an hour plus tips. Carrying heavy trays out to carefully place on car windows, then picking them up later, and dealing with disgruntled customers wasn’t as enjoyable as it looked. But I did get free lunches with all the root beer in frosty mugs that I could drink.

Reader's Location

Found a way to check out who is reading my blog and not commenting. Just added a live traffic feed called Feedjit. I saw it on Dawn Mercedes blog and wondered how she got all that information on people who were looking at her blog. So I just clicked on the button on her blog and it told me how to add this widgit to my blog's template. It's fun although it doesn't disclose the name of who is reading your blog, it does have the location city and state. You can even add a world map to show your readers. See it on this page at the bottom right of my blog.

I know the location of many of my regular readers who do comment, so I can see how many new or unknown locations or people are checking out my blog. BUT I still wish everyone who reads my blog would persist in getting registered with Google so they could comment OR at least would take the time to comment as an anonymous person. That's what makes blogging fun! Once you are registered with Google then you can start your own blog quite easily and we are here to help you join us and our community of friendly bloggers being creative and having a voice on the Internet.

Lost art of writing

Read this somewhere lately...things to be happy about-picking up a pile of junk mail from your mailbox and discovering an old fashioned letter. We seem to have lost the energy, time and skill of writing letters and sending cards to friends and family in our day of instant communication. It's easier to email, IM-instant messaging or Skype rather than take the time to write a few short lines in handwriting-what's that? There used to be classes in school called penmanship and cursive writing nowadays kids print or type.

My grandmothers used to always send me cute birthday cards with a note inside and a $1 bill-how fun to receive that in the mail, and I always wrote a thank you letter in return-another lost art. I have two relatives in their 80s who don't have computers so every few weeks I send them a short letter and include my published articles for them to read as they know the people I write about-my grandparents and their parents. I love handmade cards-receiving and sending them to others. Journals also seem to be a thing of the past unless we can type them into our computer. 

Wisdom in a Magazine

I was reading Redbook May 2008 Issue, an article about movie star Helen Hunt written by Margot Dougherty. What was said in her interview hit me...You can't love till you make peace with betrayal. I think most of us have experienced betrayal in some form of other from a close loved one or friend at some time in our life. It certainly takes time to get over and learn to trust again. Forgiving the person who offends or disappoints us isn't easy but necessary for our own growth and development. Another thought...everything negative in your life can be turned positive. It's just hellish getting there. quoting Helen Hunt who has been divorced and had other trials in her life. Isn't that true. The capper was...life has a way of growing you up. Indeedy do! I think the title of the article was I've stopped trying to get everything right. 

Calling All Lurkers

Are you a lurker?

One who looks at a blog

But never comments?

If so, the time has come

To come out of hiding

Make yourself known

By registering with Google

Just click on sign in

It won't hurt, it isn't dangerous

Takes just a moment of your time

Then I will have the pleasure

Of knowing you read

My blog and cared enough

To comment and ID yourself

Do it today, before you loose

Your courage and disappear

Again into anonymity, please!

Funny Times

Seems my husband and I usually manage to have a date weekly. It's usually to go out and eat-my favorite activity. Well, we went to our favorite Thai restaurant and had our usual yellow curry with chicken and the lowest level of spice=1. As I'm sitting there in the subdued light enjoying the ambiance and the food, I notice that there is water trickling down my neck. Hmm...sometimes when I eat Thai curry I perspire on my forehead but this time there are drops of water dripping down my neck. So much so that I have to use my napkin to wipe my neck, hopefully without other diners knowing what I'm doing. It was a strange moment-a little embarrassing but not too bad. 

Not like another time when I was much younger in my twenties and dancing on stage in a concert with a partner. He stepped on my skirt just as he reached down to pull me up to standing. My skirt fell off and I ended coming off the floor with only my crinoline petticoat and top. The orchestra members noticed what had happened, almost before I had, and stopped playing because they were laughing so much. It took awhile for me to realize what had happened, pick up my skirt, and run off stage. My most memorable moment ever on stage, but now I can look back at it and laugh.

What was your most embarrassing moment that you want to share with us? 

Article #17 Electricity Comes to Rural America

Electricity is a necessity we all take for granted today, but it brought major improvements for my Mom’s family when it came to her rural Utah town. Before that time, lights at home came from candles or kerosene lanterns which caused many house fires. They had no refrigerators. How did they survive? Well, they had root cellars in their yards to store perishables. In winter, they put their milk, etc. outside in a box of some kind. Some people had iceboxes, if their community had blocks of ice for delivery. Blocks of ice were cut out of nearby frozen lakes or reservoirs and stored covered in sawdust in local icehouses or transported by railroad, then delivered to homes by the iceman.

The lack of electricity certainly limited entertainment in those days. A few families had windup RCA gramophones to play disc records. I remember my grandma telling me about dance nights. When the neighbors descended on a family’s home, took out the furniture and carpet, brought goodies and had a dance inside with fiddle music or a gramophone until the wee hours, while the kids watched or napped.

When electricity came, they could have a light in each room, and a plug in the living room to plug in the radio. This opened up a whole new world of entertainment. Of course, early radios required an antenna to get any signal.

Then everyone sat close around the set to be able to hear the shows that became so popular: “Amos and Andy,” “The Whistler,” “The Lone Ranger,” ”Jack Benny Show,” “Red Skelton,” “Bob Hope,” and “Lassie” were some programs that I remember hearing as a child. Just imagine getting the current news and music shows right in your home on the radio, it was mind boggling.

Telephones soon became available. At first each town only had one phone in at a local store. If someone got a call, they had to be fetched to the store to answer it. Later phones became available for individual homes, but you shared a line with other neighbors. It was called a party line with a special ring to identify whose phone was ringing. Listening to others’ conversations on a party line was fun. Everyone knew everyone else’s business in small rural towns, especially the town’s telephone operators.

Competition or cooperation?

After watching and sleeping through so much of the Olympics, I feel totally frustrated when I hear a TV announcer's comments like this one at the women's gymnastics competition last night...her only hope to win is that someone will stumble badly. Dumb and very unsportsmanlike thoughts...but that's competition for you. I appreciate the contrast that can be part of sports where a team effort is necessary and a spirit of cooperation and good will more important than winning. I had a friend who coached a girl's basketball team in that spirit for our church. They had a marvelous time because they were aware of their responsibility to build relationships not just win. So they were happiest playing their best and being good sports, whether they won or not. Needless to say it really frustrated their opponents. Even that word is oppositional, isn't it?

Well that being said, I need to acknowledge my gold medal or blogging award given in that same spirit...not competition but encouragement and recognition which is then to be shared with another. Thanks Dawn Mercedes for the award, check out her blog and marvelous talent at making cards and raising kids. I pick for my I love your blog award, my friend Caryn. I really do love to read her posts even though they are not as often as I'd like to see, but she does comment on many of our blogs so you are aware of her sensitive and insightful thoughts. Hurrah for Caryn! Keep blogging and give this award to others whose blogs you enjoy.

Day Off

We took a day off from Olympic viewing to attend the local Archeology Club. It was an interesting change to view ancient ruins and rock art in northern Mexico in Copper Canyon. There is so much to see and study in this fascinating world of ours and so little time. You really have to decide and prioritize how to spend your time. Also worked on Tuesday afternoon with our church's Humanitarian program making stuffed cloth animals to send throughout the world to the needy and poor children of the world. Our prophet has requested that every child in the world have a toy-a worthy project. So it's been a good week with returning to my water aerobics class and contemplating again how to get my ancient body slimmer and in better shape.

Also learned how to use my word program on the computer to make a newsletter for our local Heritage Writer's Guild. Today I hope to dismantle my old desk computer and set up my new mini mac and scanner. Of course my old scanner doesn't work with the new mini. It's quite the process to change one thing and leads to a succession of new things. Ever notice that? One change leads to many changes. And our weather is cooling just a tad-relief! Fall is coming as the days are getting shorter. Lots to be grateful for...how about you?

Olympics Reflections

for those of us who are watching the Olympics on TV each night, morning seems to come a little earlier these days. It's difficult for me to stay awake till almost midnight to see who has won and lost but I'm been impressed by the athletes' great efforts and dedication to training not to mention endurance. All qualities we could use in our lives. 

My California high school was known as the Olympians but I doubt many of us have lived our lives that way. Although we all had goals in life, whether it was to graduate-get a great job, marry and have a family and/or go to college, few have received the recognition or gold medal for outstanding achievement but then we aren't in competition with each other-only ourselves and what we can become. Excellence is a prize that most of us aren't willing to expend the effort to accomplish. 

It was interesting to watch the men's gymnastics team: the Chinese won gold and were so excited, the Japanese won silver and were disgusted with not winning gold, then the Americans were jubilant winning the bronze or third place. There's a lesson there to be learned. Celebrate your best effort not the outcome!

Utah Grandkids

It was fun to see the grandkids again. They are all, but the youngest, getting ready for school to start. The twins Emilee (above) and Heather will be in 5th grade, Nathan starts kindergarten (notice his creative crocodile in bottom photo) and James the youngest (see photo below) gets mom Tina all to himself at home. James surprised me by sitting at the piano and pretending to play notes not just pounding the keys like kids sometimes do. 

James may have musical talent at age two, his great grandmother (my mom) would be so pleased as she always wanted someone in the family to play the piano (I wasn't interested at age 7-12). I love to be called grandma or as James says grandpomp or something like that for both my husband and I. I tried to straighten him out and explain that I was grand-ma and my husband was grand-pa, and I think he got it cause he called my husband daddy. LOL! It takes a while for some family names to get straightened out but fun to be with family. My son Daniel cooked a lovely meal and the newlyweds-my other son Jeff and his wife Rachel were there also.

Home Again

after a 50th high school reunion for a school I went to from first to fourth grades. Amazed that anyone still remembered me, some I hadn't seen since 1950 when I moved from the small mining town of Eureka, Utah to a very large Los Angeles, Calif. with my mom. There were 12 students in Eureka's graduating class so they invited anyone who had ever attended the school since first grade. I recognized many.

In comparison five years ago I attended my 45th high school reunion in California which had 330 graduates in 1958, and I only knew a few students who were the student body leaders and more popular ones (not me).

Article #16-Riding the Trains

“All aboard,” said the conductor and you knew the train was leaving very soon. Riding the trains was such an adventure when I was young. Since my dad had worked on the railroad before his untimely death, my widowed mom had a lifetime pass to travel on the Union Pacific railroad. This was in the days before airplane travel. The only way to get around was either by private car or a Greyhound bus on two-lane roads that stopped in every little town, or you could take the much faster passenger trains. 

We made many trips between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City by passenger train. It was quite comfortable with the overnight sleeper cars. You could sleep all night in curtained bunks, and wake up the next day at your destination. The diner car was convenient. It was fun to sit and eat a hot meal while watching the scenery go by the big picture window. When we arrived at our destination, we were met by my loving grandparents at the depot. 

The depots of those days were fancy buildings with impressive architecture, and clean furnishings. From issuing you a ticket to taking care of your luggage which was checked and put into the baggage car, you were well taken care of. It was on the trains that I saw my first black person––the porters who were so helpful. The conductor collected tickets and announced stops along the way. There were even public restrooms on the train cars with flush toilets that emptied right on the train tracks. Wasn’t that something? Hot and cold running water was available, almost better than at home. 

Staying at my grandparent’s home in Milford next to the railroad tracks in their company home was very noisy. The trains came by at all hours. Sometimes it would sound like they were going right through our bedroom, but they only lulled my grandparents to sleep. They were used to the sound and the whistles. It was their livelihood. They would notice if a train was late. 

In the 1950s, when commercial airplane travel became more popular, it almost put passenger trains out of business. You could now make the trip from California to Utah in several hours rather than the 14+ hours the train would take. Many passenger routes were cancelled. My mom’s lifelong pass on the UP railroad wasn’t much good anymore.

Navaho Reservation

Click on view all images for the complete photo show.

Sunflower Bee

Look close and see

What is it? A honey bee

Making its contribution

Fulfilling its creation

Flying from flower to flower

What a wonderful enabler

Pollinating, a work to do-please

Let's try to save the bees!

We're home safe!

Drove home through several all out monsoon showers to find our home town at 78 degrees instead of its usual 100+ degrees. Wonderful. Great to be home...talk tomorrow. Night! 

PS Here's some photos of Colorado near Telluride-gorgeous area.

Cool Cloudy Colorado

We found the monsoons
In Colorado, driving along the highway
Suddenly dark clouds appeared
Light sprinkles began falling, followed
By urgent drops of rain like hail
Beating against the windshield
Temperatures outside dropped


Would the heavy drops turn to pellets
And damage the window of our car?
Not this time, soon the rain stopped
As quickly as it had started, leaving
An immaculately clean windshield
And two relieved passengers inside