Retroblog November 26, 1981

Today is Tursday Nov. 26th 1981. Time 1:29 PM

My family was going to my grandma's for Thanksgiving, but something told dad that we shouldn't go. So we didn't I cried when he told us. I wanted to go so bad. I love my parents all they do to me.

I actually do remember this event. I did cry. We were all excited to go to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving, and were pretty much all packed for the journey. The prompting that Dad got was serious enough that we didn't go, at practically the last minute. He and Mom were really somber about it when they told us. I don't know if it was a gut feeling, a dream, foreboding, or what, they were freaked and not moved by the crying or whining of their kids.

This was back in the day when there were no cell phones, GPS devices, internet, CNN outlets, etc., plus there were no iPods, or electronic games to distract the three of us kids from the crowded conditions of the backseat. The drive from CT to NC was almost a whole day, with Mom and Dad trading off the highway driving, with napping and refereeing the three of us.

Who knows what might have happened? I don't remember there being any news of major accidents on 95. If Dad shared with Mom what might have happened if we took that trip, I've never found out. We went down plenty of times over the years -- even journeys that I undertook as a solo driver. It's a mystery I look forward to finding out the answer to. It's on my list of questions for "the other side."

Retroblog Thanksgiving 1981

Thanksgiving 1981

Here are some things that our family does to celebrate Thanksgiving.

X eats turkey dinner
__ has a family party
__ talks about what we are thankful for
__ watches the football games
__ visits relatives

Some other things our family does at Thanksgiving.

Stayes together.

I am thankful for alot of things.

The nicest thing about today was
that a parade was on.

Some many years later -- the family still eats turkey, and stays together, the parade is still on, and we're thankful for a lot of things.

We have watched football, visited relatives, had parties, and talked about what we are thankful for ... including that Dad doesn't wear Wild Turkey's Deep Woods cologne anymore.

Happy Turkey Day!

Vacation Setting

First Encounter Beach, Cape Cod c. 2008

I'm off travelling to the "wilds" of New England for the holiday.

Enjoy this trip down memory lane.

Stay tuned for more Thankgiving-related retroblog postings ...

Quote of the Day

Now, what is music? This question occupied me for hours before I fell asleep last night. Music is a strange thing. I would almost say it is a miracle. For it stands halfway between thought and phenomenon, between spirit and matter, a sort of nebulous mediator, like and unlike each of the things it mediates, spirit that requires manifestation in time and matter that can do without space.

We do not know what music is.

~ Heinrich Heine (1797-1856, German poet)
Letters on the French Stage
Quoted in Opera in America, by John Dizikes, Yale University Press, 1993.

Garden Views

I've know blogged about the view from my office windows before ... but recently there was a new development. We jokingly called this roof top green space "the grassy knoll," even before the sod was installed.

I guess this makes this guy "the lone gardener?"

From this angle, it looks like he's watering the lawn ...

in a very inappropriate fashion.

Laughing at the LDS Lilies

Auntie Nettie took a nature walk recently and stumbled across these markers in a daylily grove. Although the thermometer read 70 degrees, the calendar read mid-November, so there were no "blooms on the rose," so to speak.

My fellow walker wasn't sure why the odd Mormon girl was laughing at these* (I guess it's one of those LDS things ...).

Luckily, the Interblogs and Webbynets are good for research, so I could see what the Spider and Soldier looked like in plant form.

Thanks to OgdenStationdaylilies.com for this image of the Mormon Spider,

and to these guys (here) for the image of Helaman.

*I suppose I could send a pair of young men in suits and nametags to her door to explain the whole LDS humor thing to her ...

Depth Perception

Whenever I am bored at work, or feel the need to be inspired when writing yet another proposal, I head up to the third floor and stare VERY intently at this wall.
Why? Why the h*** not, for one thing ... and for another, it's all a matter of perception. Look more closely, and you'll see that "behind the drapes" lies some of the great masterpieces of the English language. Rather than being completely weird, I'm actually being inspired by all the words of the Bard. Really ...

Mostly, it's ...