Thanksgiving Day, 2010

The weather is kind today. We are enjoying 80 deg with a light wind. Last year it was quite cold.  The warmer weather this week has brought out the pollen allergies. Closed windows and air conditioning when we should be enjoying the fresh air.The cooler weather will rush in during the night and plunge the thermomenter to  about 40 deg. On again, off again go the sweaters.

Nothing special happens for us on holidays anymore. I  almost dread the dates. R is getting too decrepit to travel by car anymore and we are usually stuck going through the same living pattern on the Day as we do the days before. Fortunately we have one son visiting from NYC and the other living nearby, so all is not lost. I often long for their being  kids again,and that'll occur when our grandbaby Henry grows older, as we do ourselves. I wonder if we'll be too old to romp with him in play or walk him around the park, pull him in the red wagon that sits waiting for him to age a few years?

Despite my darkness I hope the reader is blinded by the light of children laughing, playing, friends and family hollering, chatting and having a reunion of a good time. We have a lot more to be thankful for than what I've mentioned in words. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Yikes--Another One with My Name?

I've often mentioned my family  research using Ancestry.com. Today I was checking the resources under the name of my family and was struck, as I usually am, by the repetition of  names of people who share my family's names. There it was, a 1948 California Voter Registration of someone with my full maiden name and married  name. VAWN...I  couldn't believe that such a person had exisited. At first reading I thought my identity had been stolen, but I didn't have the N in 1948. In fact, I  was  a single  ninth grader. Later I  found someone who shares my full maiden name VAW living in Florida at age of 2. Funny world, to meet yourself in different states and on different registers.

High School Yearbooks

You'll do it as I'm doing  now. Reviewing yearbooks. Remembering stories and people's faces. Recalling what was important  in high school. As I search for ideas to write, I'm drawn to several incidents that occurred during my high school days. So I reach up to the topmost shelf and wiggle my fingers until they touch THE BOOK. This one relates  my single year, the tenth grade, that I attended Central High School. I had earlier spent three years in junior high with many of the sophomores pictured in the Cotton Boll. For that reason I keep the book handy.
The photos are available when I'm helping someone research family members, when the annual is the only source for remembering a particular person, as cameras in the late 1940's early 1950's weren't like cell phones of today.

I've turned to a page to remember an old boyfriend; a friend  who recently passed away; a neighbor I"m sure I know but can't place; or a teacher I want to point out to R with a fond experience to tell. Yearbooks are the portals to revisiting our youth.

Recently, while researching on Ancestry.com, I came upon a notice that annuals are being collected and torn page by page to microfilm to add to their vast research resources . I have been trying to tear the Cotton Bowl away from my knarly grasp, like pulling a child from its  mother's arms. I'm fearful that if I send it off to the netherlands I'll find thousands of reasons for having kept it. That is something I'll have to work on.

A Contest To Win

Surely you have read about the national siesta championship in Madrid. I should have entered the contest. As an avid sleeper, I can take an afternoon nap for three hours and still be in bed by 10 p.m., sleep 8-10  hours more. So this contest was made for me. The purpose of the contest was not only to find the best napper but help revive the tradition of taking a snooze after lunch. We've always associated Spain and Mexico with siestas, haven't we?

 Here are the highlights : Contestants lie on  bright blue sofas in the middle of a shopping mall with their choice sleeping clothing; pulse monitors attached to their bodies. The winner is the one who manages to sleep for the full 20 minutes.  Eight rounds are held daily with five participants each on sofas parallel to each other. Awards go not only to the longest napper, but to those with the most original sleeping position, loudest snore, and the most eye-catching outfits (yes, you could wear your PJ's.).

 The National Association of Friends of the Siesta began the competition Oct 14 and ends Nov. 6. According to this organization "The mission of the championship is to spread the idea that the nap is something of ours that must be defended and practiced, because it is healthy and good for everyone."  Yea!

 I've been a proponent of naps since childhood when my parents insisted Saturday and Sunday afternoons were for rest. This has been a  part of my life I cherish. Didn't some scientists recently state that those who nap live longer? I'm for that, too.