Saturday, July 6, 2013

Ruth's Quips, "Here's Your Hat"...etc

Since Gramma Ruth passed, nearly 13 years now, I have thought of compiling her terse sayings together into a book for my children. Oh, how I remember, though not often with fondness the sayings rolling off of her lips, over and over and over again. For Ezra, who is my only child who never met, "Ruthy" {as Dad would call her} I did a before school series of discussions on the sayings of Ruth. We talked about the way she pulled her sword out of sheeth and she had specific intentions for each word. ie "Youth is wasted on the young"

She got these sayings from her travels and she didn't intend a one of her offspring to die without their inheritance. These sayings were the inheritance and what they meant were for the lot of us to dig out in our own experience.

I must say that at the time I was not disposed to respect her reusing other people's sayings the way that she did. I was more inclined to respect the contemporary muses of my day and poo-pooed the likes of "a stitch in time saves time" crowd. I know now that she and I were kindred spirits, weaving words into the minds of our youth, hopefully, for their profit. I was privy to her early efforts, before she calmly learned how to skillfully enter the admiration of youngsters. She used to just slam us with sayings.

Toward the end of her life, we had made peace with eachother, which was confirmed by her saying to me, "remember when you wouldn't come into my house?" I do remember Gram. I do remember. Now, I see her everyday. When I look into the mirror, when I see the terse way that I handle my younguns. I am thankful that she taught me to love her, over time.

She wove word usage into my psyche the hardest way possible and taught me to wrestle the word usage into my unwordy children as well as my wordy children. For that, I am truly grateful. I came to her house one day and she was playing the memory game with Muffy. What is up, Ruth? I thought to myself, where is your sword? This is my sword and yesterday, I learned the memory game with her, for the profit of my own children who say the same to me, when I am a softy. Where is your sword? {tongue} I do want to hold your hand, Ruth and weave words into the minds of my kids...
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Title- The Studious One!

Title- The Studious One!
artwork by Elyse

Of biscuits and syrup

Of biscuits and syrup
tasty treats

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday!
a day at the Raptor Center.

Widdle Emmie in outer space school

Emmie jumped on the bus and off it flew out into the atmosphere. There was a set of clouds with turbulence right above the house and it took a few minutes for my Emmie to buckle her seatbelt. They hit the bump hard and it knocked my Emmie out of her seat and she bumped her head. The video camera came on and the monitor looked through and stated, Ms. Emmie, where are you? You are not in your seat. Where are you? I am alright I fell because I hadn’t buckled correctly. Well jump up Emmie we have a long way to go and you have to be buckled there is entirely too much turbulence in the stratosphere for you to unbuckle now. As soon as we are through this weather system there will be straight sailing but right now you must buckle. Emmie scrambled into the seat with intensity and purpose now. She watched every cloud pass her window and her nose was pressed to the window trying to see the top of the house as it drifted slowly out of sight. Soon they were not only out of sight of the house, the sun came out brightly and just as quickly they were putting on the atmospherical breathing apparatus and the outerspherical lights. The ABA and the OL. These precautions were to make them appear to be satellites to the radar as they were out in the ionosphere. Emmie knew all about this now. She had gone to the orientation and had a good breakfast and it took them 20 minutes for her to get out past the atmospherical pull and to feel the zero gravity. It would be 15 minutes before the gravity simulators would take effect, a glitch in the system which was being worked on. Until then, they enjoyed the couple of minutes of floatation, while being connected to the seats by belt. The first thing they saw everyday was the strataflotsam. The items which had been dumped into the atmosphere by earlier generations. What would their generation do about this ecological waste area that remained floating above their heads? This was a question for the generations. For now it was the area that they had to guide through on the way to school.

Midnight at the OASIS

Midnight at the OASIS
Sunset in Huntersville

My little Emmie

ran to the bus on the first day of the last year of school. 2 buns on the side of her head. She kissed me and ran at dawn to the bus. She was starting the adventure of a lifetime. I would never see that little girl again, she was going to woman school!

My Father and I 1989

My Father and I 1989

to the tune of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

A VISIT TO PAPA











Are you going to Mary Immaculate?

Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



Remember me to the one who lived there,



He once was a true love of mine,



Tell him to buy me an acre of land,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



Between the muddy Hudson in Jamaica Bay,



Then, He’ll be a true love of mine,

Tell him to sow in it seeds of pure cream,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



And build Ice cream mountains and buildings of whipped cream,

Then, He’ll be a true love of mine,



Tell him to reap them with sickles of M&M’s,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



And chew bubble gum and eat till we’re done,



Then, He’ll be a true love of mine.



Tell him to run it off down the motor parkway,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



After your done 50 pushups



and jog down the West Side Highway,



Then he’ll be a true love of mine…

(Don’t wait for me today dad, The kids are sick again, My tummy’s bulging again, My heart is aching again, And now there’s no love there…)





He once was, a true love of mine….So, Girls, I do beg you don't miss your Daddy,Apricots, Chocolate cherries and Pie,You have one short chance to see him on this side, Go visit him and let your light shine.