078 The BIG 7 0

The big 7 0

Seven decades--am I really there? How did it happen so fast? I just turned 30 the other day (or so it seems like the other day) with two small children, thick dark brown hair, and weight so low I couldn’t give blood.

One candle is the best!

Fast forward four decades and here I am with gray hair, four amazing grandchildren, and a weight total that definitely allows me to give blood.

It has been an eventful journey full of triumphs and challenges. I had planned to work until the age of 70, but about a year and a half ago I hit the wall. I had heard from many friends when you are ready to retire, you will know it, and boy were they right! I could hardly wait to get out the door.

So far, 70 seems pretty uneventful as an age --- the only big point is I am starting a new decade. I also feel fortunate to make it to this age and celebrate this birthday as many of my friends did not.





My family really took it as a time for celebration as my children surprised me with special visits and tributes. Nothing is more celebratory than grandchildren honoring you with hugs and kisses. It was probably one of the best birthdays ever because we were all together.

Friends have also been so attentive especially those younger than I am. Cards and messages aren’t nearly as severe as when turning 50 or 60. One card actually took a mild tone by calling them “colorful years.” Another card phrased 70 as “Don’t think of it as being 70. Think of it as being 7 perfect 10’s” I can definitely live with that idea.


It is still hard to say 70 so I don’t if I can help it. I really feel no different than I did a few weeks ago when I was 69. But my grandfather, Nonno Pasquali Alampi, used to say you finish that year on your birthday and are really starting the next. So according to him, my true age is 71!

I have also realized that it takes some creativity to master older age and retirement--what do I really want to do, what do I really have to do, and when I can say the heck with all of it?

Hand-decorated
gift bags are best!

There are some days the third option will take over and I do only what I want to do--that sometimes feels really good. But mostly I handle what I have to do in my own good time, not rushing unless absolutely necessary. How nice it is to run around during the day, stopping wherever I want, shopping at will (that is my true passion), and trying out new eateries (not too good on weight figures but I try not make it a habit).

As one retired friend has repeatedly advised me--ease into the day--and I definitely take her advice on many days.

Plus this age, affords one the pleasure of no deadlines, bosses, or tasks hanging over my head. Sometimes I miss the more creative work pursuits (not the daily routine),  but that feeling usually passes quickly.

So I embrace the age of 70 and all it means--taking on a new decade with enthusiasm and hope--and wondering if I will make it to the next one!

Frances                        

077 Period space space

Period, space, space

Whoops, backspace

Recently my husband Harry told me that I was the end-all authority on grammar. (Those of you who follow my blog know this is not entirely correct.) I am more knowledgeable than he [catch that pronoun choice?] and he wanted an opinion on a heavy topic:

One space or two after a period?

As with many baby-boomers, Harry was way behind the times, but I sympathize. My thumb just won’t stop that double-up on the spacebar. My usual strokes after a period are two spaces and a backspace. It give a feeling a completion—I have completed a sentence! I also double space at the end of a paragraph. Another completion celebration!

I, of course, turned to the net to find out how we got here. The usual discussion points to old typesetting and typewriters with monotype (non-proportional) spacing. There is a standard diagram included in each discussion. Modern word processing, etc., adjusts the spacing between letters so that an i or l take up less space than an m or w. Typewriters gave every letter the same space; therefore, the double space was necessary to indicate the end of a sentence and to aid reading flow.

Another argument is that typesetters, who had no standard for spacing after a period for hundreds of years, started changing to a single space while the rest of us were still using typewriters. Think how many pages of paper a publisher could save in a big book with just one space following the period instead of two. I guess it adds up. I did like one commentator who stated that a masterpiece of literature would still be a masterpiece whether there were one or two spaces.

Blogspot, the purveyor of this blog, as with most web applications does not tolerate double spaces. Backspace, sigh, I am trying to change!

And then I discovered I was being rude in my text messaging because I end a sentence with a period! My text messages are usually about meeting times and places, not running conversations. The thought is that the period emphatically shuts down the conversation. Okay?! (Question marks and exclamation points are not considered rude.)

I am getting tired of backspacing after each sentence so I guess I will quit

Trish            

076 Surprising celebrations

Surprising Celebrations for the January 11!

Happy 2016, dear readers. January always seems to me as the “blah” month. I am as bad as a ten-year-old hoping for snow. If you remember, I am the one Savvy Broad who loves snow. 

So far, since the weather is not cooperating, I figured it was time to play on Google and make January a bit more fun. Doing a search for January 11 (due date for my blog), I found a number of interesting items that are considered noted activities on this date.

Here we go:

1. Secret Pal Day

Now declared worldwide as a day to do something nice for a special friend--something small, thoughtful, and unexpected. Send a card (unsigned), drop some homemade cookies in their mailbox, or call someone you didn’t catch up with over the holidays.

2. National Step in a Puddle and  . . .
    Splash Your Friend Day

Research did not provide the origin of this celebration, but most mentions were from southern states. Guessing that there are more puddles in the south in January than elsewhere in the U.S. Just for fun, look at the ecards sites for lots of funny and sweet pictures of friends splashing friends. 

3. Clean Off Your Desk Day

Oh, dear! I gotta do this one! The average home desk, says the celebratory explanation, harbors more germs – about 400 times more – than the average toilet seat. I have no idea how valid this research is, but I believe that in this season of colds and sneezes and coughs, cleaning the desk (not just tidying) but really disinfecting your desk (and keyboard and mouse and phone) is worth doing! Dusting doesn’t do! Grab your Lysol wipes.

4. Hot Toddy Day

This might be just the drink to have while cleaning your desk! The drink originated in Scotland to make the taste of Scotch whiskey more palatable to women who did not like the smoky flavor. There are many recipes using whiskey, brandy or rum with different additions for taste--honey, lemon, and cinnamon are often options. Here is a basic recipe: 2 oz. of whiskey, 1 tbsp. honey, 4 oz. of hot water, 1 slice of lemon. This is a basic alternative to cough syrup according to food.com/recipe.

5. Milk Day

The website called MooMilk about the dairy industry is fun for the whole family. Cows, games, dairy news, and a poll. Grab the last few Christmas cookies, a glass of milk and guess outcome of the poll,“favorite use of milk.” Your choices are cheese, butter, beverage, or ice cream. (The poll results were ice cream 62.6%, cheese 20%, beverage 12.7%, and butter 4.7%.) The dairy industry is not delighted that dessert and cheese come before the once-touted, most important drink for your body and bones.

6. Human Trafficking Awareness Day 

This serious event worth noting is dedicated to raising awareness of sexual slavery and human trafficking worldwide. Adopted by the U.S. Senate in 2007, the United Nations is also highlighting this topic for global awareness.

7. And, finally, we will be celebrating Savvy Broad Frances’s birthday somehow. Poor Frances, birthday in January when she prefers sand and sun! May she have a happy day!



That’s it for this week! 

Regards, Glenne              

075 Resolutions

New Year’s resolutions --- Not!

New Years’s Eve has come and gone--noise makers and hats in the trash---with reveling, celebrating, and sometime reflections over and done with for another year.

The word “resolutions” is brought out of mothballs each year, kept around for a few days or weeks, and then shoved into the memory bank until the next New Year’s Day.

Anyone who can keep them going is a much better person than I am. After years of resolving to do whatever I needed to improve, I have given up. 

January is the worst month to try anything new. There’s the letdown of the holidays being over, cold weather settling in often with snow and ice, and a couple more months of bleak weather looming in the future.

Gyms are packed with resolution-making clients who are going to get in shape and lose weight. That lasts a few weeks at the most and then it is back to business as usual which does not include exercise.

So what to do instead of resolutions or how to make change? It is definitely different strokes for different folks. Most people know what works for them so don’t get caught up in the hype for a new year and new you. 

Take changes slowly. Make them any time of year – don’t wait for Jan. 1. It is only one day a year. There are 364 other to start making changes. Evaluate what changes you think are needed or wanted –- a new look, better organizational skills, new job – and work out a plan. Each month tackle one goal and try to realize some parts of it.

My mother always encouraged moderation – in eating, drinking, and everything else you do. That worked for her, and I have seen moderation recommended in many diet and exercise plans.

If going to the gym to get in shape is one of your goals, start with one or two days a week and build up. Don’t jump in and burn out before you make any progress.

Don’t worry about making resolutions at the start of the new year. Do it any time you want – the first of March, the last of July – whenever it suits!

Frances         

074 Light frenzies

Christmas Light Frenzies

I stopped channel surfing recently to watch a program about people who have taken to decorating their yards for Christmas to a stupendous level. 

It amazed me how many hours of work, efforts, and enormous numbers of lights go into these displays. The creativity and the amount of “stuff” that can be crammed onto a house and yard is astounding.

The usual explanation is that the design grew and grew over the years, that people expect them to do it, and that they love doing it for the children.

I don’t make a special effort to drive around and look at these displays, but do enjoy seeing such yards when they are on my route.

On my evening walking route, I walk the same route so I have been able to watch the neighborhood decorations grow as Christmas approaches. 

The funny thing is that I usually comment that the tastefully decorated home is much nicer, but I find the over-the-top decorations are much more fun. 

Maybe not cheating when this many?

The inflatables are interesting and often make my dog Tootsie bark, but don’t they seem like cheating?

Luminaries are nice because often a neighborhood cooperates to set them up, but wind, rain, and snow can ruin the effect.







I wonder, though, what is it like to live across the street from one of these mega-displays. There must be a huge number of cars driving by as soon as the sun goes down. If the neighbors of the light-frenzy displays have windows that provide a view of the dazzling spectacle, I bet blackout curtains or shades or plywood cover those windows!

Thanks to those home owners who remember what it is all about.

                                                                                   Trish

073 Christmas recipes redux

Christmas Recipes over the Years

After researching the most liked and disliked foods on the table for Christmas, I am a bit amazed that there are so many  surviving baby boomers.  The rich foods and the quantity of foods we consume over the holiday season are staggering.  We probably all have clogged arteries and weigh at least ten pounds too much.  And, of course, it was all the fault of our mothers! It’s always the mother’s fault!

The most favored foods you can guess – turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy and that daggone green bean casserole that was created in the 

Campbell’s test kitchen in New Jersey for a way to market mushroom soup! Ironic and iconic.

Here is the list of most unpopular holiday foods: Brussel sprouts, tofu, oysters, mushrooms, red cabbage/sauerkraut, heavy-handed use of garlic (on what???), fruit cake, and plum pudding.  

With the exception of tofu, all of these made an appearance some time or other at our house.  I need to add one more item to the list.  One year we went to Connecticut for the holidays.  At the table, I served myself a large helping of what I thought to be mashed potatoes…NO, TURNIPS!!  So not on my top 10 list.  

Another year, we had dinner at a relative’s home--and there it was--a tofurkey!! 

Nope, didn’t try it.  

A typical Christmas dinner at our house was turkey, country ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, and some very weird stuffing recipe (thank goodness, for Stove Top), green beans, peas, squash casserole, and 

sometimes a sweet potato casserole with brown sugar and some “pretty fruit” on top, cranberry sauce (homemade with lemon or orange zest--awful), some sort of Jello salad mold, rolls, butter!  THEN, for dessert there were several kinds of pies (apple, pecan, and maybe mince) with ice cream or bourbon sauce (I am rolling my eyes and shaking my head--nasty stuff) and a platter of cookies and candies.

My plate was mashed potatoes  with a gravy swimming pool and a spoonful of peas for the swimmers. I still like peas in my pool! Maybe six green beans if coerced. 

That’s it.  

I much preferred the cold turkey sandwich and a Coke after everyone had gone home.  Yep, that’s me – Ms. Scrooge. 

Along with all this food came all the relatives.  We lived in a large 1850s house with plenty of room (according to my parents).  There was a children’s table as well set up in the TV room. However, as we all know, the children who have not seen their cousins in a year don’t want to sit with these strangers but rather with their parents.  OH, PEACE AND JOY!!  Or WHINE AND IGNORE! And, for the most part, until tears, we were ignored or told to go “back to the TV room.”       

[A typical Max action, but not Max]

Let’s mention--Ta Da: Tryptophan!  Yea!  Thank goodness for tryptophan.  Yes, it is in the turkey, but also we ate all those carbs-producing melatonin.  And, just perhaps, a bit of overeating and some alcohol added in.  Yes, please enjoy your Christmas dinner, then go home, and take a nap.  I want to read my new Christmas present books, anyway!

Just for fun, l reviewed a whole lot of websites and old cookbooks of my grandmother to see what has been popular over the years.  Picture this:  1947 – The White House.  Mrs. Truman served tomato consommé, olives, turkey with chestnut dressing, giblet gravy, cranberry jelly, mashed potatoes, asparagus, plum pudding and assorted nuts and candies. Not much changed for nearly a decade – broccoli replaced the asparagus and oyster stuffing instead of chestnut. 

There must have been some sort of rebellion in the 1960s.  We move from turkey to duckling with orange stuffing, wild rice, a Jello fruit wreath.  In 1960, the most popular menu was roast beef with roast potatoes, green bean casserole, apple salad (?), and French fried onion rings.  Dessert was a holiday decorated cake and coffee.

In 1975, (getting ready for the Bicentennial, I think), came roast goose with onion dressing, braised chestnuts, applesauce, green bean casserole, cranberry/pecan molded salad, and plum pudding.   

The 1980s and 1990s became more casual.  The hostess does a turkey (or alternative meat) and all the guests bring a potluck side dish or dessert. 

Entertaining myself by flipping through the magazines at the grocery store checkout line, I learned both the traditional turkey and “ all the fixings” are equally as popular as newer alternatives based on one’s tastes and culture.  Essentially, anything goes.  Maybe the idea of being with family and friends has overshadowed being in the kitchen for days!

So, here’s to your Christmas feast and your nap!  Be safe, stay healthy, and enjoy the holidays.

Glenne       

P.S.  How about some ground- up Xanax in the gravy for a really mellow Christmas evening? Okay, never mind!  Just a random thought!

072 Thanks, Mom & Dad

Give parents a big thanks!

Can you believe the holidays are here! I can’t. What happened to the 11 months that had to pass before we arrived at good old December, the month that does by at warp speed – so much to do and so little time.


Wish we could stop the clock and give us all time to savor a few minutes (or a couple of hours) but you know that will never happen!

So onward and upward to complete all that has to be done – no stopping, stalling, or waiting. As I plod forward buying, wrapping, and baking, my thoughts go back to my childhood and how it seemed like Christmas would never get here. The months and days just wouldn’t go fast enough for anyone under the age of 12.

I definitely appreciate those days and realize how wonderful it is for children --- making a list, visiting Santa, dreaming of what presents will be given and received, helping with the cookie making, and decorations. I wish they could realize how great it is before they make it to adulthood when they become the ones responsible for all the Christmas magic.

No wonder we look back at those good old days and think of how great it was – we got to enjoy it all without doing much of anything. We were in awe of how the presents appeared on Christmas morning exactly as we asked. But now we know the hours of work that went into that special time by our moms mostly with some help from our dads to make it all come out so very, very magical.

I can remember my mom monitored the Santa list making sure she knew what we wanted and that we didn’t go over board. There was always a reality check but it didn’t stop our expectations going over the moon. 

Christmas Eve brought it all to a head as we went to church for the real reason for the season and then home to wait for Santa’s arrival. Of course, he wouldn’t come unless we were fast asleep which didn’t come easy. 

But before you knew it was morning and my older sister was waking me up with, “Santa’s been here.”

This photo of my parents was taken when
we were all young and dreaming of Santa.

If you have living parents, give them a great big thank you for all they have done. If your parents are no longer walking on this earth, thank any parents you know who are fulfilling the Christmas wishes of their children or grandchildren and making the magic happen.

I still find the season a great time of year as most people are a little kinder and cheerier. My children are no longer in my home but in their own so I don’t do as much as I used to but I truly enjoy trying to find that special something to show I how much I care. Plus grandchildren help bring back the wonder of the season with their enthusiasm and love of all things associated with Christmas and the birth of the baby Jesus.

Whatever stage you are in life, remember to enjoy where you are and thank anyone who has been a part of it.

Frances           

071 Thinking about age

Those people look old!

I catch myself looking at folks and thinking “they look old.” After a brief moment of reflection, I realize that they are probably younger than I!

I have somewhat of an excuse—for much of my life, I have been the youngest.

My only sibling, my sister Joanne, is three years older so I was always the youngest in the house. Sometimes it worked to my detriment. My parents loved to tell the story of an early punishment ploy that they realized wasn’t working. They would tell my sister and me, “Tell us who did this or we will punish you both!” I didn’t quite have the logic worked out because I always confessed—no matter who the perpetrator.

But there were benefits of being the youngest. I remember my sister bitterly complaining when I received crinolines just a year after she did. She thought I should have been made to wait at least three years to be the same age as she was because she had desperately waited and begged for crinolines. I don’t know why we had to have those scratchy starched petticoats!

I was born at the end of October and my mother said she had to talk the school into letting me into first grade with other children born the same year. So I was usually the youngest in my class. It didn’t matter much because I was still taller than most of the other kids.

We were military brats, moving almost every two years. Luckily for me, a move from Virginia to South Carolina put me a year ahead so I jumped from Virginia high school freshman to South Carolina junior.

When I went off to Radford College, I was a sixteen-year-old college freshman. I didn’t have much dating experience, and one piece of advice I learned from my older and wiser suitemates was:

“You will never get a date if you don’t clean 

your hairbrush.” After all those years, I am still 

baffled by that one, but I do keep my hairbrush clean.

I ended up as the youngest editor of the newspaper in my sophomore year because the previous editor quit. So when I went from college to graduate school at Florida State University, I was twenty.

After receiving a Master’s degree in Library Science, I was offended by a library users who looked at me and asked me to “go get a real librarian.” 

No one has thought I was too young for the job in many years.

So I have finally relinquished my whiz kid status. I have learned that age is determined by your state of mind, not your chronology. With frequent visits to Florida, I have met so many active seniors who live full lives in their 80s and 90s even though some have severe physical limitations. They are now my models because they are young at heart.

Trish           

I am still the youngest of the Three Savvy Broads!