Bits & Pieces

Bits and pieces

Bits & Pieces – Black Friday shopping not for me

One of the things that happens after Thanksgiving is Black Friday. I’ve never really understood the hype behind it all, but I know a lot of people who really love shopping on that crazy day every year. 

I used to work with a friend who usually made it a family affair. They would get up in the middle of the night, leave around 4:00 a.m. and hit Jacksonville or Springfield, or both, and spend the whole day dodging traffic, shopping carts and irate, rude and unhappy people. Why?

Bits and pieces

Bits & Pieces – Plenty of love, fun, laughter

No sooner is Thanksgiving over and we jump right ino Christmas. Honestly, I don’t see anything wrong with that, as long as we remember the true meaning of Christmas. Shopping is okay if you enjoy it. Gifts are nice too, but we must always remember the greatest gift of all, the gift of love.

Bits and pieces

Bits & Pieces – Copy machine vs coffee machine

We just completed our first week at our new location and we love it. The adjustment has been easy, getting everything done has been an experience. We’ve had great help by friends and we truly appreciate them. But like in all moves, there are opportunities to pitch and purge. We were also moving from a much larger building to a smaller one. We had a lot of wasted space in the other building. Now, we are learning to use our smaller space wisely.

Bits and pieces

Bits & Pieces – Nothing worse than a scared dog

It’s always easy to tell the seasons are changing. Although many like the fall season, they don’t like the next season....winter.

Summer’s okay and I love spring. But as a youngster who had fire red hair, summer was not my friend. Sunburn after sunburn after sunburn. And it was always a blistered (usually second degree burns), painful experience.

Bits and pieces

Bits & Pieces – Time is of essence, sometimes

If I had been traveling with Christopher Columbus in 1492, looking for a new sea route to India, China, Japan and other places, we would still be looking. Since I have no sense of direction, hard telling where we would have ended our journey. Come to think of it, he didn’t do such a good job of going to those countries because he ended up here.

Bits and pieces

Bits & Pieces – Ghost, goblins and ghouls; no thanks

It’s beginning to look a lot like Halloween season as many are putting up “spooky” decorations. This year, the giant size seems to be pretty popular as more and more of them seem to be popping up around town. 

Bits and pieces

Bits & Pieces – Celebrating another year ‘younger’

Eleven days ago I celebrated my birthday. Yes, friends, it’s great to be 78! There were no sirens, whistles, but there was a parade in “my” honor. Actually, it was the Fall Fun Festival parade. I just like sharing it with them.Every few years the festival falls on the 23rd and 24th of September. This was one of those years. The 23rd of September was also the birthday of my late husband, Chuck. Chuck and I always had a good time together and even more so on our birthdays.When our three kids were little, we used to tell them there was a parade uptown for our birthday.

Bits and pieces

Bits & Pieces – The difference between bulls, heifers

In my last column, I shared about one of my experiences while a student at Quincy Beauty Academy. Even though I lived 65 miles from home, my mom made sure there was still a watchful eye on me; my landlord, Mrs. Smith.

Although our group of girls didn’t like the idea of having  curfew, we really did love this sweet elderly lady. But as teenagers, we did disobey, a time or two.

Bits and pieces

Bits & Pieces – Police bust rooftop yelling

On May 28,1963 I graduated from high school. It was a hot day and was held in the ‘59 gym. Two weeks later, June 11, I started school at the Quincy Beauty Academy. At that time, cosmetology school was only six months, but they crammed a lot in your heads in six months. 

I was only 17 at the time and didn’t turn 18 until the following September.

Like all teenagers, I was elated at living away from home and being on my own, although I was still totally dependent on my parents for money, food, living expenses, etc. But the thought of being at home with NO curfews was a dream come true.

But I should have known that my mother was one clever woman. She had to look far and wide to find a home on Main Street, six blocks from the school (walking distance) because none of us had a car.

Bits and pieces

Bits & Pieces – Pajamas and dealing with guilt

Should I or shouldn’t I? Or maybe it should be do I want to or not? Ordinary questions but sometimes they’re tough to answer. Now that I’ve got you all to wondering what I’m up to, I should do some explaining.