Jackie Robinson

Name the professional athletes you respect the most and why.

I respect Jackie Robinson for breaking the color barrier in professional baseball. His drive and courage had to be tremendous to brave the difficulties he faced. He changed things for all of us who are different in any way. He was not just a baseball player, he opened doors for all who face challenges. Thank you, Mr. Robinson

Mother’s Infamous Flapjacks: A Humorous Culinary Tale

As long as I’m on the subject, I might as well tell about the absolute most heinous food Mother cooked: flapjacks! When I smelled the acrid smell of Mother’s flapjacks nearing incineration, I literally hoped for The Rapture before I got the call to breakfast. Mother ascribed to the theory that a person HAD to eat breakfast. If she’d had nothing to offer but a bowl of sticks and rocks, so be it. Though she was generally mild-tempered, on this subject, she wouldn’t budge. Breakfast would be eaten.

Mother’s flapjacks could never have been confused with lovely, golden brown pancakes topped with butter and dripping with maple syrup. We usually saw her dread flapjacks on Thursday morning, grocery day. The cupboard was often nearly bare by then with nothing left but self-rising flour, a little leftover grease, and possibly a little sugar.

That’s when we’d get flapjacks, a glorified, deep fried dough ball. They were most often no more than self-rising flour, likely made without benefit of milk or eggs. The flour was often just mixed with water. Should we be out of syrup, preserves, or jam, Mother would boil us up a bit of sugar syrup, an equal mixture of sugar and water boiled together. The only taste was sweet.

Mother’s flapjack technique was crude. She’d put the skillet of grease on to heat while mixing up a thick mess of tasteless dough. Once the grease was smoking and near to conflagration, she’d dump big gobs of dough into the near-blazing grease. The flapjack quickly plumped up about an inch thick on contact with the skillet. As often as not, smoke poured from the skillet. Just before they ignited, she’d flip them. The bottoms were burned black. As I’ve mentioned before, Mother was easily distracted by the madness always in progress with five kids. Distressed by the burned side, she usually managed to get the fat, black dough balls out of the pan before the bottoms burned.

Mother had a poor opinion of our intelligence. Despite the cloud of smoke circling our heads and the smell of the charred flapjacks, she optimistically took the trouble to plate them burned side down, sure we’d never suspect they were black on the bottom again.

Topped with sugar syrup and probably no butter, it was payday morning after all, we’d dig in. Invariably, due to the thickness of the dough and the inferno under the skillet, thick, white, maggotty-looking dough would ooze out when pierced with a fork. It was a nauseating addendum to a lost cause. I could never choke it down. Fortunately, we were always running late, so those of us with weak stomachs could escape to the bus after scooting them around a little.

The good news was, there were always plenty left on the stove for after-school snacks, should we be ravenous enough to chance another try.


Hirsute Jokes

Yo Mama’s so hairy…

Her dandruff shampoo is called “Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”

It’s green, hairy, and slides down a mountain…

A skiwi.

A tough looking group of hairy bikers are riding when they see a girl about to jump off a bridge, so they stop.

The leader, a big burly man, gets off his bike and says, “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to commit suicide,” she says. 
While he doesn’t want to appear insensitive, he also doesn’t want to miss an opportunity, so he asks, “Well, before you jump, why don’t you give me a kiss?” 
She does, and it is a long, deep, lingering kiss. After she’s finished, the tough, hairy biker says, “Wow! That was the best kiss I’ve ever had! That’s a real talent you’re wasting. You could be famous. Why are you committing suicide?” 
“My parents don’t like me dressing up like a girl…”

Imagine a nascar fan. The image that comes to mind is probably that of a brutish, beer guzzling, loud mouth, hairy, unwashed, unshaven, redneck

And her husband.

Hairy

My wife found out that our dog (a Schnauzer) could hardly hear, so she took it to the veterinarian. The vet found that the problem was hair in the dog’s ears. He cleaned both ears, and the dog could then hear fine.

The vet then proceeded to tell Andrea that if she wanted to keep this from recurring, she should go to the store and get some “Nair” hair remover and rub it in the dog’s ears once a month.


Andrea went to the store and bought some “Nair” hair remover. At the register, the pharmacist told her, “If you’re going to use this under your arms, don’t use deodorant for a few days.”

Andrea said, “I’m not using it under my arms.”

The pharmacist said, “If you’re using it on your legs, don’t use body lotion for a couple of days.”

Andrea replied, “I’m not using it on my legs either. If you must know, I’m using it on my Schnauzer.”

The pharmacist says, “Well, stay off your bicycle for about a week.

Uncle Albutt Part 4

Uncle Albert had an interesting vocabulary.   Even when he didn’t get words right, he forged bravely ahead.  When his energy was low, he didn’t have much image.  When the doctor diagnosed him with emphysema, he referred to his ‘zema. Air conditioners were air positioners. He called my sister Phyllis, Phillips.  I liked that one.  I was Linder.  I didn’t like that quite so much. My mother Kathleen was Kathaleen.  He called Daddy “Willie”, his real name instead of Bill, the name Daddy gave himself once he left home.  

Daddy cringed every time he was called Willie. The only other person who got away with it was his mother.  I wouldn’t have wanted to be Willie, either.  For some reason, Daddy’s brother Parnell named his daughter Willie Carol.  She was a whiny, sullen kid, maybe because of that name. It makes perfect sense to me.

On occasion, we saw some of Aunt Jewel’s relatives.  Her sister, Lucille, who incidentally had married one of Daddy’s cousins, had the hairiest legs I’ve ever seen, man or woman. The wearing of seamed stockings only made it more obvious.  A good proportion of the wiry hairs worked their way through the stockings, trying to escape, while the rest were imprisoned flat against her legs.  I don’t know which fascinated me more, the swirling mass of flattened ones, or the wild escapees.  I never got to look enough, and certainly wasn’t allowed to comment. Mother warned us off when she knew we’d see Lucille.  Daddy swore her legs had gotten hairier because she shaved them!  That just sounded nuts.  How would hair roots know a razor threatened?  He was death on leg-shaving, ascribing to the old wive’s tale that shaving made hair grow back thicker.  I don’t know what planet he was from that made his daughter’s legs, shaved or unshaven, his business, but Daddy thought he was God and his wishes,  commandments.  More likely, he may have feared he’d be stuck with his girls forever should we sprout hair like that. 

Of course, Mother never volunteered the information that she shaved her legs.  I guess she didn’t want Daddy to know what was in his future.  Naturally, I shaved my legs as soon as I could get hold of a razor.  I can’t tell you how happy I was to get away from home.

Daddy’s methods did ensure he never had to deal with adult children boomeranginghome.  Times just didn’t get that hard.

Nature Calls

My whole life, I have hungered for the outdoors. It has always calmed and fulfilled me.  My earliest memories were of Mother telling me I couldn’t go out till the dew dried.  Many, many times, she caught me outdoors barefoot with a muddy-tailed nightgown before breakfast.  Inclement weather was no impediment.  We simply played in the barn, slipping out the instant the downpour was over.  More likely than not, we’d end up wet anyway, then stay out till our clothes dried enough it wasn’t immediately obvious.  So much of the time I worked as a nurse, I’d go to work before daylight and come home long after dark, working on a windowless unit that shut out all hope of a glimmer of sunshine.  One of life’s greatest blessings is that after retirement, I am free again.  My husband and I camp a great deal, seeing a lot of the beach and the mountains.  While he fly fishes, I spend my time walking with my dogs, dabbling in the water, or just being.  I can’t claim to be a fly fisher person, but I never met a fly fisherman I didn’t like.  I usually cook outdoors in my Dutch Ovens over an open fire.  My posts have come to you from the hills and riversides of Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and from the beaches along the Gulf of Mexico.  Next summer we plan to spend time with friends in Canada and the Northwest.  I am grateful to be “Chilling” at this time in my life.

This picture was from one of life’s finest moments.  Someone called to see if I could come in and work a shift for them a few days after I retired.  Sent the picture with the explanation,  “Sorry.  I’m busy!”

hammock