people

National Left-Handers Day

According to statistics only about 10% of the earth’s population is left handed. It’s interesting that the scientists can’t figure out why. One of my older sister’s is a leftie, but can do lots of things right handed. And if you are a golf watcher, you know Phil Mickelson is right handed, but plays left. Odd, I’ve never heard it explained how he came to do that.

I’ve been in a store where they only sell things for left-handed people. If I remember correctly it’s on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. They had things like scissors, hand turn can openers and monogrammed pencils for youngsters. I didn’t find anything in the store I could use, but I loved visiting the Wharf.

We need to give lefties a break. They are forced to read labeled tubes of stuff upside down and backwards. What? Go get your toothpaste tube and hold it like you would a pencil. If you are right handed the lettering is right side up and reads from right to left. Now, transfer it to your left hand in the same position. See what I mean. Good thing it’s only toothpaste and the fine print isn’t very important. I did look at my Chap Stick and that is labeled for a left-hander. I guess it’s only fair.

I’ve been making quilts for a long time. I love the colors, the creativity and forming something useful and beautiful from a pile of little pieces. I teach some basic quilting classes and after everyone introduces themselves, my first question is, “Is anyone left handed?” That is important, because how they cut their fabric using a rotary cutter, mat and ruler is opposite how a right-hander does it. For the best results when cutting, use the ruler as a friend and measure with that, not the mat. The piece you are cutting should be under the ruler and the excess fabric should be to what ever side your prominent hand is. I guarantee more precise cuts if that general rule is followed.

Next time you go out to dinner with friends or family. Be polite, let the leftie pick their corner first, so you can both enjoy your meal without banging elbows. You will both appreciate being more comfortable.

08/13/2016 0

National Vinyl Record Day

Vinyl records are referred to based on rotational spee. The RPM’s, or revolutions per minute of the more popular vinyls are:
45s
33 1/3
78s

Other features of vinyl records included reproductive accuracy or “fidelity” (High Fidelity or Hi-Fi, Orthophonic and Full-Range), their time capacity (long playing or single), and the number of channels of audio provided (mono, stereo or quadraphonic).

Vinyl records were also sold in different sizes such as: 12 inch; 10 inch; 7 inch

Vinyl records left the mainstream in 1991. They continued to be manufactured and have started to become increasingly popular with collectors and audiophiles.

_______________________________

When I was in grade school our house was the local teenager hangout in our little town. We had a good record player in a brown wood cabinet and lots of 45’s. Most of them came from the local bar when they were rotated out of the juke box. My sisters and their friends would sit on the floor and discuss in which order the records would be placed on the spindle. The player could handle about eight but any more than that and they wouldn’t be level anymore so the speed would be off and the words would come out in a drawl. Sometimes someone would put the record on so the B side played and there would be a commotion about, “Who played that?” I tell people I learned to walk to the music of the ’50’s.

My neighbor had a record player and a few 33’s. You had to have good coordination to set the needle in the free space between songs so you could hear just the song you wanted. We would go to her room and shut the door so her little brothers couldn’t bother us.

My time as an Air Force dependent wife was spent married to my high school sweetheart. When he was stationed in England in the mid ’70’s we would go together to the local Pub. He would make a bet with an older “Bloke” that he could tell them the year one of their favorite old songs was popular. They all thought he was too young to know, so they would take the bet. He got a lot of free drinks with that ploy and no one cared it was me that knew the answer. Good memories.

I’ve lived and gone to weddings in a lot of different states and in England. The thing that makes me feel like I’ve come home is when I get to dance in the locale I grew up in and I dance like everyone else does. Until I traveled I didn’t know dancing was colloquial like language.

08/12/2016 0

National Purple Heart Day

The first Purple Heart was created by General George Washington in 1782 to be presented to soldiers for “any singularly meritorious action”. Since 1917 it has been awarded to any soldier, in any branch of U.S. service, when they are wounded or killed in action. I happen to believe it should be awarded to every service member because of the wounds they receive to their psyche; the ones that another person can’t see.

I attend the local Veteran’s Writing group in the city where I live. We met yesterday morning and I asked who had a purple heart. Out of the three Viet Nam Vets, One WWII Vet, and three Iraq/Afghanistan Vets, no one had been awarded a Purple Heart for a visible wound to their body. But, I know they all carry the wounds of being deployed. Each one of them has lost a close friend, or wartime “brother” or “sister” during a combat related experience. Each one of them admits to nightmares about something they were ordered to do, something they saw happen, or sometimes about the fact they couldn’t make a difference when they thought it was their duty to do so, or the fact they came home alive when their buddy didn’t.

I made the comment, “I was just a dependent wife,” because in my mind, that’s all I was. I never had to face being shot at in a war zone, or hold my friend’s mortally wounded body while he took his last breath. One of the Vets, Steve, told me after our writing session that if I left my childhood home to be the wife of a military service member, I too was a veteran. If only for the fact I understand what sacrifices they make so the citizens of the United States can enjoy the freedoms they do. I wish I had the capability to make eveyone understand what it does to any past or present military service member when they see someone disrespect the flag of this country.

Don’t get me wrong. I am all for free speech and freedom of expression. I just wish everyone could understand those freedom’s come with a heavy price for our service members. Another point Steve made today is that military personnel are expected to be tough. They go through a rigorous training to make them that way. So when they realize they need help with some of their unseen wounds it is hard for them to admit it and seek help.

I have come to respect every person I’ve met in the Veteran’s Writing group, if not love them. If it were up to me, they would all have a Purple Heart.

08/07/2016 0

National Girlfriends Day

For me, the role of a girlfriend changed as I aged. In grade school it was anybody of the same sex that I did something with. In high school it changed to a girl I could share my secrets with and they wouldn’t tell. As a young mother it was any other young mother that was learning along with her children how to get on with life. It makes me shake my head when I think about how we thought we knew how to tame the world. Oh how naïve we were. (Good thing we didn’t know it.)

Now I’m a grandmother and one of my best girlfriends is my adult daughter. If she weren’t so busy we would do more things together. One of my childhood pals lives near by and we enjoy a long lunch every couple of weeks. We know each other’s life story; we listen intently to each others troubles and triumphs. I laugh a lot when I am with her. I have a few ladies that I get together with to sew. They are my quilting girlfriends. My acupuncturist and her sister are also my girlfriends. We celebrate our birthdays together. I have one of those special friends in another state who I might not see for two years, and we can pick up a conversation right where we left it the last time we saw each other. One aspect of girlfriends that dismays me is when you become close with a work mate, then change jobs and loose touch with them. I guess they were really an a acquaintance.

I recently wrote about something my mother’s best friend did for her when she was sick with cancer. I’ll share it with you.

One sunny day, Mom was in her recliner snoozing when Doris arrived. She said, “Come on Beck, we’re going for ice cream.” Mom gave her a sad look and didn’t move. “I’m not dressed.” Doris went to the coat closet, got out Mom’s light, long rain coat and then stood by her chair. I don’t think Mom had been dressed, or outside in more than a week. It was getting towards the end. Mom finally got up, Doris helped her to the bathroom, put her coat on her and walked her out to the car, maybe a jeep at that point. They came back about an hour later. Mom walked herself into the house, had color in her cheeks, and was smiling. That was the kind of friend Doris was. Helping to make good things happen, even though she was now suffering with rheumatoid arthritis.

That’s what a girlfriend does, lifts up her friend no matter how young or old, in good times and in the unhealthy. I’m a lucky lady to have the girlfriends I do. We talk about things: current events, life, dreams, other relationships, our families. Lots of times a girlfriend can help me see a situation in a different light; I’m thankful for that.

08/01/2016 2

National Aunt and Uncle Day

I was recently had the opportunity to attend a dinner in the private home of a board member of Writer’s and Books, a non-profit literary organization in Rochester, NY. Along with the espresso served at meal’s end were these thin, almost see-through, cookies. I looked at them in wonder and asked, “Are these lace cookies?” The hostess smiled and said, “Yes. They are.” Each bite brought back more memories of my Aunt Alda.

Aunt Alda was my mother’s older sister. She never married, though we heard she had more than one proposal. She taught school in Haddenfield, NJ, for over thirty years so I only saw her during the summer and over Christmas vacation until she retired and moved north to live near us. I can remember going to the train station to pick her up at Christmas time. During her visit she would play card and dice games with just me, or read stories. I don’t remember my mother doing that when I was little, so I looked forward to her visits.

I do remember my mother being proud of me for being the only one in my second grade class that knew what state I lived in. That was because it was my job to mail the letters she wrote her sister. And, in those days you didn’t have to teach your child their full address as soon as they could talk. Life was simpler in the ’50’s and ’60’s. You knew your neighbor’s names, and kids ran all over the small towns in the southern tier of New York state with no fear of who might be lurking.

I digress. Once Aunt Alda retired I saw her most every day. She would eat dinner at our house most nights, and we ate at her house once a week. We being me and my mother. My older sisters were out of the house by then and my father was still working from 3pm – 11pm. I enjoyed suppertime because there was always talk of current events, local town news, and church events.

It was Aunt Alda that took me to Rochester every week to visit my mother when she was in the hospital through out my last three years in school. It was Aunt Alda who took me shopping for a new dress for my mother’s funeral when I was a senior, and it was she who answered some of life’s most difficult questions. I think of her often. She is also the only one who had ever made me lace cookies!

07/26/2016 0

National Day of Cousins

It just so happens this day falls on the last day of a family reunion for my husband’s family. These cousins know how to have a good time, and keep the family close. Not easy to do considering there are cells over the country. Not everyone attends, but those that can still travel, usually do. We aren’t as young as we used to be.

The group my age do their best to carry on the family tradition of togetherness they learned from their parents. I wish I had been part of the family when they were alive. I missed knowing some hard-working, intelligent, caring people.

Friday night we gather at a restaurant for dinner. There were 21 this year, including two ladies we claim as family that really aren’t. Most of the discussion is updating each other on personal news. The conversation was extra special because we heard stories from the next generation that are now all over 21, about their memories of being little. Some tellers wanted their parents take of what they remembered about certain happenings. After dinner there is a pub crawl, starting at the local Elks Club. Cash registers like it when we visit.

Saturday there is a picnic at Stony Brook State Park. There is food, conversation, laughs, memories, and the obligatory trail hike. I didn’t get the exercise gene, so I skip that. This year we figured out this reunion has been happening for over fifty years. In the evening we all go out for dinner again. By this time the conversation has slowed a bit and we all look a little bedraggled, especially when it’s hot.

Sunday morning we all say good-by in the hotel lobby and have already started planning for next year. This morning a three year old was walking through the hallway, with big eyes, saying, “There’s more cousins!”

One comment made a few years ago by a lady cousins sticks with me. It was honest, and oh so true. “We are together just long enough to not get under each other’s skin.”

Ain’t family grand?

07/24/2016 1

Sue Spitulnik

Writing, Sewing, Travel, and Thoughts

Category