Is My Slip Showing?

Good morning everybody.  OK girls, how many of you remember this?  For those of you who do not remember, this is a slip or petticoat or whatever other name you may have called it.  It was worn under your dress to prevent shadows of your bra and panties or legs from showing.  This picture came directly from the Sears website and to not get myself in trouble by using a picture without permisson, I have included their website.  http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_018VA49762301P?sid=IDx01192011x000001&kispla=018VA49762301P&srccode=cii_17588969&cpncode=31-126280365-2

And the half slips--remember those? Back in the day we younger girls opted for half slips which were just that, a half slip. Maybe we were rebelling from our mom's more puritanical ways or maybe a full slip was just hot. 

And can-cans.  If you are of a certain age, you gotta remember those.  Stiffer, the better and if you could get one that stood out 90 degrees from your waist, you were the bomb!  I was very little when mom made me one out of window screen metal............I swear!  I am sure it was, but you know what age does to you...........it makes everything just a little more dramatic, stories a little more embellished, and memories slightly altered.......but I swear it was made from metal window screen.  I remember the steel gray color....and nope, I am not telling a fib, it WAS window screen material.  My little dress stood straight out and to this day, I can remember how it scratched me at the waist.  Most uncomfortable thing I have ever had on.  I don't remember wearing it but once and that was to church.  It was gathered at the waist and had biased tape at the waist and at the hem.  I guess that was to protect me from pokes and scratches, but believe me, it did NOT work.  Maybe that is the reason mom didn't make me wear it again. 

Last night The Tonight Show had on Carol Burnett and during the interview, Jay Leno showed a clip of her early, early days.  Her little dress was cute as it could be; high neck line, gathered skirt, fitted bodice.  During the skit she was dancing and swinging her arms and when she raised her arms, her slip was showing.  It came as such a surprise, that I asked the hubby if that was her slip or part of the dress. 

Slip showing............nobody has a slip showing these days.  I guess that is the reason I was so surprised when I saw Carol's.  Have you seen a slip showing lately?  Nada...........that is because nobody is wearing one.  There was a time, however, when the sentence "Is my slip showing?" was the last thing we asked before we went out the door. 

In 2013, modesty seems to have flown out the window, but I kind of miss the old days...the days of modesty.  Don't you?  I miss the days when certain things were just covered up.  No need to show all your assets to every stranger in town.  Oh we think we are so liberated, not having to bother or be encumbered with a lot of extraneous things like a slip, but look around you.  Do you see TOO much from the young ladies these days?  Are you sometimes embarrassed for what you see?

I am not advocating bringing the slip back (I don't even own one myself), but a little less flesh wouldn't hurt anybody.  Modesty...ahh, the good old days. 

I love you.  Now, is my slip showing?   

Carol Burnett....one classy lady.  She was so good at her craft, making people laugh with her talent and with no obscene jokes, gestures, or words.  What a lady!

Winter, You Win!

I'm having my coffee in front of my windows, watching the world go by..........if only there was a car to watch...........but I have the squirrels..........NOT!  They are holed up in their little nests because old man winter has decided to work some overtime hours.  Hasn't he heard of the sequester?  No overtime granted.  37 brrrrrrrrr degrees with sprinkles.  Even the goldfinches in their bright yellow summer dresses are wondering if they should change back into their winter garb, or just grab a coat.  Get on out of here, winter.

Will Rogers was sure right about Oklahoma when he said, "If you don't like the weather in Oklahoma, wait around a minute and it will change."  If you have ever lived in Oklahoma, you know that to be a fact.  Just yesterday, it was 77 degrees with bright sunshine and today 44 degrees for a high??!!??  What gives?  Well, that was a stupid question.  What gives is that I live in O.K.L.A.H.O.M.A.

I am so ready for spring.  There are things to plant, places to go, people to visit.  I try to find little snippets of time to run outside to plant a few things.  You have to do this if you live in Oklahoma because ideal times are rare.  So yesterday I just couldn't wait another minute.  It was sunny, it was warm..........almost ideal conditions except for the wind and that old forecast.  I had to plant, plant, plant.  I was just daring the forecast.  Sure enough, it took the dare and looks like it may win.  Sad face!  UNCLE!!!!!!!!!!!  Winter, you win!

So here I set, enjoying my coffee and watching my thermometer stay at 37 degrees.............ever so grateful that I have a nice warm house.  Next week, the forecast predicts more warm sunshine.  Waiting............. 

I love you, Oklahoma.  I love you all.

Memory:  This has nothing to do with this post at all, but I have been thinking about thresholds lately.  All I seem to see these days are made of aluminum or metal of some sort.  Do any of you remember wooden thresholds?  My grandma's house had ones made of wood, almost worn flat.  Just think of how many people entered and left that house.  It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling thinking of my daddy as a child stepping on it, but it saddens me to think of him stepping on it when we had to say goodbye to my grandma.  If only that threshold could talk.  You know, I never thought I about wanting that little threshold, but I would love to have that incorporated into my house in some way. 



   

I Just Love It Here

I just love it here even though it is such a cold day for it to be the 18th of April.  Can you believe it?  We had 3 inches of rain last night which really helps the drought conditions we have had for the last several years.  Our pond is now overflowing and the wildlife will have a water source once again.  Again........can you believe it?

We are so fortunate that we live on this little acreage; plenty of room for a huge garden if we want.  Unfortunately we also have room for all the little critters that consider our garden fast food, take out, and a dine-in restaurant.  We have the patrons that dig up the potatoes, the ones that carry off tomatoes to enjoy in their lairs, the ones that nibble the tops off green beans, and even the ones that climb up a tree to leap over to the pear tree which is surrounded by a hot wire, outsmarting and thumbing their noses at us, but we glare at them from the porch swing.  I am sure we scare them as we shoot laser beams from our eyes. 

This morning there was a beautiful buff-colored hawk on the garden post.  He just swooped down and back up to the adjacent post.  Wow, what is a beautiful sight and not one you'd see in the city.  We have deer, fox, coyote, and even a rare bob cat.  The squirrels are everywhere this morning, so cute, chasing one another...........and..............and do I see what I think I see...........is that little guy thumbing his nose at me?????????????  Why that little...............!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As happy as we are to live out here among the critters, we are happier to live on a street with sweet neighbors.  Even as I type, the hubby is visiting with the neighbor that lives across the street.  Yesterday, another neighbor was running his sweet-natured greyhound, Rosie, up the street.  Of course, he was not running per se, but on his scooter.  Scooter boy pulled up our driveway, right up the sidewalk to the porch swing and we visited for a half hour.  Then later our neighbors to our right walked up for another impromptu visit.  We felt pretty popular yesterday.

With everything that is going on in this world, it would be easy to climb into a dark hole and stay there.  Then I hear the children's laughter on the playground at the nearby school, I hear the birds chirping, I see Rosie running up the street, the squirrels are still thumbing their nose at me, and the neighbors stop for a visit.  I just love it here.

Just a cute little Logan story.  Today, when my daughter picked up little Logan from kindergarten, he told her, "I have good news and I have bad news.  What do you want to hear first?"  She said, "I want the bad news first."  He then says, "The bad news is David got scratched.  The good news is he didn't bleed."    Oh how I wish that the bad news is just a scratch and the good news is no blood...out of the mouths of babes. 

I love you.

What a Wonderful Day

What a wonderful day,  I have had my breakfast, but more importantly, my coffee!!!  It is a windless cloudy morning, rare for Oklahoma.  I am setting here looking out my windows watching my hubby carry brush to the street for big trash day, feeling just a tad guilty, but not enough to get up.

I have my favorite catalog in my lap right now, "Soft Surroundings", the 2013 summer preview issue, and I am in heaven.  If you ever want to buy me anything, anything in this catalog will do.  ANYTHING!  Anything at all.  Tunics, pants, linen shirts, gauzy skirts, soft dreamy night gowns, unusual perfume (which may be on my shopping list today....I think I deserve it.), sandals, even bed linens.  I want them all!!!  Their link is www.softsurroundings.com if you ever want to take a look, but nothing compares to flipping the pages of the actual paper catalog. 

I just love catalogs.  They are certainly not junk mail to me.  I have my Gardener's Supply Company catalog, my Front Gate catalog, and my other favorite, Plow & Hearth in my lap, too.  Front Gate is so far from my comfortable price range, I tend to look at it for ideas.  Plow & Hearth, however, is one from which I have ordered.  It fulfills my 'plow' sense with all their wonderful gardening tools.  They make me feel like I, too, can be a gardener.  My 'hearth' sense is fulfilled with all the wonderful decorating items...making me long for a cabin in the woods, in the mountains, in Colorado or New Mexico.  Oh, I wish.........  mmmmmmmmm 

When I was a child, Kay, or any sister, and I would pour over all the catalogs we used to get.  They were not these piddly little 50 page catalogs, they were huge two inch thick things.  Montgomery Ward, Penney's, and Sears.  We would set side by side, each circling one thing on each page that we wanted.  It didn't matter if it was women's clothing or toys.  We had to pick one thing on each page and one thing only.  Even mom would get in on the act. When a new catalog would come, then the old catalog went to my sisters so they could cut out paper dolls.  I remember them in their bedroom, cutting out these dolls, shoe boxes and lids for pretend houses, and the girls playing for hours.  Oh my, that brings back so many memories.....good memories. 

Sadly, Montgomery Ward is no longer around.  It looks as if Penney's is not doing too well either and Sears..........well the icon seems to be loosing its way, too.  So many of the stores of my youth are now just a thing of the past. 

Well, it is time for me to put away my catalogs and get busy.  Another busy day at the Tucker household.  Looks like we may have some bad weather later, but for now, it is a perfect day.  Each day is so precious.  What a wonderful day.

I love you.



 

 

Meatloaf..........That's What's for Dinner Tonight

Meatloaf........that's what's for dinner tonight.  I don't know about you, but my meatloaf recipe isn't really a recipe.  I just pretty much start throwing in a dash of this and a dash of that and it comes out something like meatloaf.  If I had guts, I would taste the raw concoction just like Julia to tweak the spices...as I said, if I had guts.  I have no idea what mine is going to taste like until I serve it, but the hubby likes it every time.

One thing that is always a constant in my recipe is 'milk bread'.  I cube up my bread and soak in milk.  Tonight I didn't cube it, I just tore it apart.  You know what, it worked just fine and was a soft mushy mess, just like I like it.

While mixing up my meatloaf, I started thinking about all the little shortcuts that mom took.  I don't ever remember mom chopping, cubing, or dicing a thing, not even onions.  If she needed an onion chopped, she would hold the onion in her left hand and make cuts as she went along and the onion would fall right into the pan.  If she needed an onion diced, she would make the cuts even smaller.  If she made fried potatoes, she would hold the potato the same way, cutting down the length of the potato and then slice it right into the hot oil.......wait, it was either lard or grease.  We didn't worry about lard back then.  I remember her having a cutting board which hung from a lanyard near the range, but I don't remember her using it.   

Just a little note:  Mom had to make things stretch for her family of seven.  One of the ways to stretch ground beef is to add bread.  I didn't realized until after I married that adding bread to ground beef wasn't necessary.  Sometimes I wonder if today's generation will know how to be resourceful if times get tough.  Common sense seems to have left the building!!

Meatloaf............that's what's for dinner tonight.

I love you.