Betty's Blog

I have been chipping away at getting photographs, newspaper clippings, and stories organized. It took me a while to get it figured out.  First, I made twenty folders on my desktop.   Then it was easy to transfer photos from the "pictures" on my computer to the appropriate folder. The next step was purchasing twenty sweater boxes in which to PUT all these photographs, clippings, and stories. What has NOT been easy is getting them all labeled correctly with the year-month-day (so that the computer keeps them organized chronologically) and then a few words identifying the subject. I have been using abbreviations  like "abt." for about and "poss." for possibly.   We cleaned out my husband's sister's house last year and I am just about done filing all of HER pictures which involved first scanning them, then filing on my desktop, and finally filing the hard copies in those sweater boxes. I am about to begin on our pictures which is a projec...

You didn't know I've had sports in my life, did you! Here are the seven "sports" I dabbled in. 1.- I actually never did learn to swim. But I enjoyed going to the local pool and watching other people swim. I even got in and bobbed around so long as I didn't have to get my face wet! 2.- My cousin Mary Beth and I used to play badminton on our front lawn. We made up our own rules. I just remember that if you returned the birdie UNDER the net, that was a "hoover" and counted double. 3.- I had those metal roller skates you attached to your shoes using a skate key. Our sidewalks had lots of bumps and so did our driveway, so I wasn't able to get very good at it. 4.- I taught myself to ride a bike. It was old and it was blue and it had big fat tires. I used to make myself a sandwich and ride out to the cemetery so I could have lunch on the podium where the mayor gave a speech every Memorial ...

I am going through my books and re-reading them and deciding which ones to keep and which ones to sell or donate so that my children won't have to do that when I am gone. Years ago I did that and settled on keeping only three of my favorite authors: Maud Hart Lovelace, Booth Tarkington, and Ed McBain/ Evan Hunter. A while back I decided to give all my Lovelace books to  my oldest daughter  who shares my love of the Betsy-Tacy series. I also gave her my set of Betsy, Tacy, and Tib dolls that I had purchased 30 years ago. I sold my entire set of the "Matthew Hope" series by Ed McBain on eBay a while back. I will soon be listing my entire set of the "87th Precinct" mystery series also by Ed McBain. Ed McBain and Evan Hunter are one and the same person. The books he wrote as Evan Hunter are all so different. I have to re-read them all first before I will be ready to sell them. I a...

If I had only known that my hair would not always be lustrous and thick and auburn... would I have spent more time fixing it each and every day? If I had only known how fast my children would grow up... would I have spent more time playing  with them and just holding them? If I had only known that my time with my parents would come to an end... would I have spent more time  asking them all the questions that I now have about them and their parents and grandparents and what it was like for them growing up? I am not qualified to pronounce deep assessments of Life and Love... When I can see 70 on the horizon and my body looks like my mother's and time is going so fast that I can hardly catch my breath... I want to write something significant and wise, but others before me have written books too numerous to count so that all that is left for me to do is to sit on our porch swing and listen to the doves and the cr...

It's 5:30. I lock the front door, turn off the lights, and walk to the back and get in my car to go home. He's gone with the truck and won't be home until late, so I'm taking her out for a walk. When I walk in the back door, she greets me and runs to the front door and looks expectantly over her shoulder at me. "Yes, hon, we're going for a walk!" I put my sweatshirt on and tie the hood. It's gotten a little cooler. Only an hour until the sun sets. She runs to the old black pickup. I open the door for her and she jumps in and takes up her station at the passenger side window that is always left halfway down for her. It's a bit of a struggle since my knee surgery, but I finally get the clutch pressed down, lower the steering wheel, start the engine, and we are off. It hurts to keep shifting, so I keep the speed down so we can stay in second. All the way north of town, she hangs her head out the window, her long ears streaming back. I always pa...

October 2017 Las Vegas Tragedy I am proud to be a lifetime NRA member. And it blows my mind that there are those who think that we need more laws to prevent what happened in Las Vegas a couple of days ago. I'd like them to tell me specifically what law they would enact that would have prevented Paddock from doing what he did. And they can't! Because there is no way it could have been prevented. Laws don't stop people like him! I hope they do a complete and thorough autopsy on him to see if he was dying or suffering from some condition. It will be interesting to find out what we are told was his reason! Anyhoo... I have a Concealed Carry permit and am proud to say that I can defend myself! I firmly believe that there should be gun safety classes taught in schools so that children become aware that a gun is not inherently bad in and of itself. I also think that teachers and custodians and other school workers should all be allowed to carry guns.