On My Agenda

Here is what will be filling my evenings until December 13th......


....wish me luck!

For Your Vintage Enameled Flower Pins

Look closely. Yes, it's an old enamel pin from the 50's.

A FUN IDEA for your vintage enameled pins!

The orange flower above is a vintage pin from the 50's I recently acquired in a batch of jewelry. I love the vibrant orange offset by the green stem.

I decided to put it to good use by attaching some fall ribbon around this black wooden pitcher and then adding the pin to the ribbon.

Perfect for fall color decor and an unexpected surprise!

Dig those pins out of the jewelry box or better yet, start a collection now.

Tommy's Last Night At The Jockey Club ~1952~ AN UPDATE

(FROM AN EARLIER POST ~ WITH an update at the bottom)

This is Tom, who in 1952 (or '53) worked his last night
at the Jockey Club. He's a mighty handsome fellow.

I think THIS Tom gave the Tom in "Cocktail" some pointers!

Good with mixing smooth drinks, and smooth with the women, as you will
see in the next few photos.

Quite the charmer, that Tom.

Above are his "tools". Seems innocent enough.

Ah, here is where the trouble began. Tom's other tools are
his hands. Not that Snooks seems to mind.

Oh my, here is the evidence of Tom's OTHER tool.

...those LIPS!

...It started a chain reaction!

Snooks is ready for more!

Here's to YOU, Tom!

I'm sure you were sorely missed at the Jockey Club.

*all photos from RUTH'S photo album ~ see older posts*

As an unusual side note ~ Since posting this, I found out that Betty, my new friend, in the above photo with Tom, later MARRIED him! They were happily married for many, many years until Tom's passing in the 1990's.

Cheers to you both, Tom & Betty!

Loves Me Like A Rock

This is very HEART felt story.

Toward the end of the school year last year, Elena brought a rock to school
and stopped to show me. This is the kind of stuff kids do, but Elena is no ordinary kid.
I told her it was a "cool" rock. It was heart shaped and I told her how
I collect heart shaped rocks.

So she told me she wanted me to have the rock.

I happened to have a book about HEART SHAPED ROCKS that my rockin' niece Kristina gave me for Christmas this last year. (she's so thoughtful!)

That book is on a shelf in my room. So I told Elena to come by and see the book I have. I placed the rock on the book and took a picture of it. I was so touched!

Then....

It is back to the new school year. On the first day of school, Elena comes to find me. She says
she has a present for me. Into my hand she places a small bag with some rocks in it that she has collected for me over the summer. I thank Elena and tell her I will look at them in a little bit.

When I get back to my room I open the little baggie and place the rocks on the shelf by the book and the other rock Elena gave me last year. I wasn't expecting what I found when I poured the rocks out of the bag.

They were all heart shaped.

*** and then my cup runs over***

I love working with kids.


*name has been changed for privacy*

1952 ~ Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN ~ Take a trip back to 1952!

This is Betty and some of her friends. Betty's sitting next to the gentleman.

That's Ruth & Betty's friend Myrt on her head.
(all photos from Ruth's album from 1952)
Ruth lounging, looking lovely and probably AFTER she did dinner clean up.
Ruth had a lot of potluck suppers, in her apartment.

I want to know what they're eating in this photo, above.

Cheers, ladies!

One Life Means Something

"ANDERSON, S.C. (Sept. 16) - David Condon died broke and alone
in a zipped-up tent on the banks of a South Carolina lake, his stomach empty
and his lungs filling with fluid. His friends and family hadn't seen the bright but
reclusive Civil War buff in more than two months. He lost his job as a program
coordinator at the local museum last year, fell behind on his rent and seemed to
retreat even more into himself than usual.

Sometime in early July he disappeared. On Labor Day weekend, a group of college kids vacationing at a condo complex a few hundred yards from his tent found his body. The local coroner said he died of pneumonia, made worse by malnutrition. He was dehydrated and had lost 50 pounds in a few months. " (AP Press/AOL News)
...there's more to this sad story. I'm just irked that this kind of thing happens.
David Condon died alone. And he didn't reach out to anyone. Why couldn't his friends TELL something was up? Why did he die alone in a tent on the river?

Not all blogs can be happy and joyful. We need these kinds of stories to open our
eyes. I feel really sad for this man. And for his friends and family who are left
to wonder why they didn't know anything. And to stress that if you are feeling all alone
you only need to reach out to others.

There is ALWAYS someone willing to help.

The ALBUM... a continuing story

This is the continuing story of Ruth & Betty.
I found Ruth's album in an antique store and couldn't leave it there.
I started out thinking I would just keep the album to treasure. Then..
My curiosity got the best of me.
Who are these people?
Are they still alive?
Why is such a lovely, well documented album not at "home"?

This lovely lady above is Betty. Ruth's best buddy ole pal! She's in just about
every picture in the album.
I decided to try to find the owner of this album, thinking since Betty was in so many pictures
that surely she was family. Her last name is written in the album, and Ruth's last initial was the same.
I couldn't find Ruth anywhere. So I started looking for Betty.
... and I found her!

These ladies really know how to have fun! I felt like I was part of this
whole group. Ruth had a lot of pictures and captions under almost all of them!

Isn't that a neat picture, above? One of the few colored photos. Ruth and Betty took a lot of vacations together.

When I wrote to Betty, I only hoped it was her. I sent some pictures of the pictures hoping to prove it was her, or not. And it was! She wrote back! Told me some stories about some of the pictures I had sent. Absolutely delighted to see them!

Ruth's album dated to 1952. There was enough information that I could figure out the town they were from. Lots of landmarks mentioned. It was like solving a mystery! And Betty's name has changed since then. Since Ruth put Betty's whole name in it, I was able to find Betty and offer the album to her.

In the pictures you can see that these girls could have some fun! I am happy to report that Betty is now a YOUNG at heart 78 year old. Still as witty and full of life as in the pictures! Some of the babies in the pictures are now grandmothers and Betty herself has two great grandchildren. It was an absolute j o y to find Betty and talk to her.

The album gets shipped off today!

Help Feed A Dog or Cat!

By clicking on the banner, you can be linked to this great place called FREE KIBBLE.COM which I found by looking at the website of our local animal shelter: SAFE HAVEN. There I saw this link and learned that by answering a question about dogs (and they have a link for cat lovers too) they will donate "kibble" to animal shelters.

There's one like that for humans, too. It is called FREE RICE www.freerice.com It's really cool because you learn new words (or show your vocab skills!) and earn free rice through the UN to end world hunger. Is that great, or what?!

It's little, but every bit o' kibble counts!

Decorating My Classroom and First Day of School

Allow me to take you on a tour of my little classroom!

The above picture shows the only window in my classroom. This little
nook is where I have my reading groups. They start next week.
Notice the old radiator heater. Our boiler is from 1935, our only source of heat.

We do not have air conditioning. It gets hot in this building!

If you look out the window you can see our school is in a historical neighborhood and my view looks out at Historical Craftsman Bungalows and other quaint & cozy homes. I took a ten minute walk on my break today along the canal one block away. A treat!

This is the view from the window. You can see my desk, and the hallway out of my room, where there is another radiator. A lot of the time the boiler doesn't work. The school was built in 1915, a brick building. It has almost been torn down twice. The neighborhood & parents saved it. It may be old, but we love it.

I like this little nook above the shelves because it seems to be the first thing you see when
you come into my room. This year I added vintage items like an old flag, picnic basket, polka dot scarf
and an old picture of the flag salute.
I think a lot of the theme of my room is going to be about the Grand Old Flag.

Above is the view from the doorway. So you see my desk to the right, first stop for customers. Then there is the table where kids will do problem solving or work. Then the kidney shaped table where I teach reading. To
the left is all shelves. You can't tell from this picture but I have lot of RED and Mary Engelbreit stuff, cheery cherries to brighten the room.
The room length dry erase board is my canvas for reading group teaching, drawings, quotes and problem solving skills examples.

DO YOU LIKE THE GOLD CARPET? Probably old as the school....

And here are two of my little darlings above on their FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL Nathan is now in 11th grade and McKenna is in middle school. You can't see the other one who graduated last year because he's the lucky one still all cozy in bed.

HERE'S TO A GREAT NEW YEAR!

School Starts Tomorrow & Back To Work

Going on the rides

Those magnificient horses!!!

Some views of the moon....

The colors!!

Summer's last yahoo ~ The State Fair!

I won tickets to get into the fair (and see the Disney concert) so we decided to go, after I worked my first full day at work... what was I thinking?!

The girls rode on the carnival rides, I people watched. We strolled, we ate (the scones!!!), we sat and looked at that moon, we strolled some more. Left for home at about 9:30 and my feet were on fire!

And today it's raining. Where'd the summer go?!!!

I found her! Reuniting an old album

I found an old photo album at the local antique mall recently.

Opened it's pages there in the store.

A story unfolded.

I knew I couldn't leave the album there.

So I brought it home and poured over every filled page.

More than a few times...

It belonged to Ruth, the lovely young woman on the left, above. To the right is Betty.

Are they sisters? Best friends? Coworkers? Cousins?

Betty is the spunky one of the two, obvious in the above photo.

I started to piece their story as I read each pages captions.

Then I went out and tried to find Ruth & Betty.

I found Betty!


...more soon...