From the Memory Box - "The TR4"

"I remember when Dad got the Triumph. DD-Ki, DS, and I pushed it up and down the driveway at the lady's house trying to get it started. Although Dad was worried it wouldn't start, it did, and led to many adventures for the two of you."

Actually, I believe you might be remembering when we got the Triumph for DS. We have had several Triumphs and each has its own story. This one was made the same year DS was born and it seemed fitting for him to drive it off to college.

Dad's theory was that it was simple enough for DS to learn about car mechanics and keep it running. It would give him some means of transportation but not allow any extravagant trips or carrying a lot of people. I really think Dad was bestowing his own dream on his son.

The Triumph ran well enough to get him home occasionally.
"It doesn't go very fast," he said. We just smiled
One day he announced with great pride that he had the best parking space on campus. It seems he did not take it out very often, so he just kept moving it to a better parking place at each opportunity. Now, he had the best one and he kept it all semester.

We stored DS' TR4 for many years after college as he moved around the country and needed more reliable transportation. It is in the process of being restored and should be available for driving before too many more months. Hopefully, now he'll have time to get my TR3 up and running.

I have many tales of our Triumph days that I can relate in future posts. For details of some of our trips, see here.

From the Memory Box - "Children and TV"

"I remember your saying 'If I could figure out how to hook up an exercise bike to the TV, I would do it!'"

Yes, this was an oft repeated lament. I was one of those mothers who was always shooing children outside to play. That is difficult when the summers are so hot and humid. We had only one TV and it was in the family room. Children sneaked in at every opportunity, turned it on with the sound down low, and lazed around until I discovered them. I figured if the TV were hooked up to run off an exercise bike, they would either get more exercise or watch less TV.

There were also restrictions on what they could watch. Besides the usual no-nos, I outlawed such shows as "The Flintstones." That Flintstone woman was always putting her husband down, making him look incompetent and foolish. It was a message I didn't want washed into my children's brains. I was well aware that several programs that were banned at our house, were viewed at the friend's homes. My thinking was that the children were conversant with the programs so they did not feel left out at school, but they realized there was something wrong with those programs since they were not allowed to watch them at home. We talked about them, but it was never a very important conversation to any of us. TV was just not that important. Only rarely did we ever watch it during our meals, and that was because it was something of particular interest. They never had TVs in their rooms, so that was not an issue.

My ultimate and, in my opinion, most successful plan was that each child could watch 30 minutes of TV, under the same common rules (no violence, etc.). If they wanted to watch an hour long show, they had to negotiate with the others for a combined time. It seemed to work and the different ages had little interest in watching the older or younger ones programs so viewing time was decreased overall.

So what was the long-range effect? I only know that for my grandchildren, TV is a special dispensation.

Wordless Wednesday - "Make it Fit"

Something was too wide for the door. Well, what would you do?

Photographed in Italy.

More photos on Wordless Wednesday here.

From the Memory Box - "Weekend Isolation"

"I remember when we used to have stores and sell our junk in our doorways to one another."

That must have been when you were banished to your rooms "until they were cleaned." I would warn you in advance, then begin the sentence on Friday. You were only allowed out to go to church, visit the bathroom, and go to the dinner table. Of course, it backfired on me. All of you stayed in your rooms, quite happily, all weekend. You did not have TVs or radios in your rooms, so you read and hung out by the doors to talk to one another. You exchanged books by sliding them across the hall from one room to the next. Monday morning you went off to school with nary a thing having been accomplished in your rooms.

Odd Shot Monday - "Multitude of Motorcycles"

Not only are there a multitude of motorcycles, there is an odd little car in the middle.
Taken in Florence, Italy.

From the Memory Box - "Lost Shoes"

"I remember losing our shoes at someone's house in the neighborhood and you had to call around in the morning to find them."

Now this is one I don't remember at all! Most of the time all the neighborhood kids were playing at our house, so it is a surprise to me that you lost your shoes elsewhere. You probably had to pull them off to go in someone else's house.

The neighborhood was quite small, so calling around was not a big deal. Calling before you had to leave for school might have been bad timing. The bus stopped right in front of our house and would wait a minute or two for you if you were running late. Later, after the neighborhood had built up a little more, the bus stopped at more centrally located spots. When you missed the bus (the driver no longer waited), you had to run to the end of the street ( we lived near the beginning of a loop) and flag the bus down and get on. I think the other kids gave you a hard time about that, so it didn't happen more than one time for each one of you. "It was so embarrassing!"

If you completely missed the bus, I would take you one time. If you missed it again, you had to stay home and take a note to school the next day stating that you were absent because you had missed the bus. That did not happen more than once. Fortunately, all of you learned valuable lessons from these simple acts, but I was not voted "Mother of the Year."

PhotoHunt - "Candy"

This might look like fruit, including cactus fruit (tuna), but it is really made of marzipan. What a neat fruit bowl this would be.

Photographed in Florence, Italy.