June
I’ve been too busy or too tired – or too lazy (take your pick) to write anything this month. This is going to be just a quick update.
Honnie
We are all waiting anxiously for news of Honnie, one of our World Vision members. Honnie suffered an aneurism of the brain this week and is in a coma. We are just hoping and praying that she will recover.
Honnie helped on our Street Stall just last week and was fine then – except for a nasty gash on her face that had required 9 stitches. She and her husband had been dismantling an old television set so they could put it in the rubbish bin, when it exploded. I didn’t know a television set could do that! People should be warned about things like that! But it had nothing to do with the aneurism, the doctors said – it would have happened anyway.
Royal Morning
One morning while attending Timbertops School in Australia, Prince Charles attended a service at the local parish church. As the royal visitor left his church, the rector apologized for the small turnout: “Being bank holiday weekend,” he explained, “most of the parishioners are away.” “Not another bank holiday!” the prince exclaimed. “What’s this one in aid of?” “Well,” the rector replied, rather embarrassed, “over here we call it the Queen’s birthday.”
I found that little story and lots more at anecdotage.com I printed a lot of their Royal Anecdotes and read them at our “Royal Morning” It was a fun day. We played a word association game – something like the game “Scattergories”. We each had a list of “royal” words, and had to write down the first word that came to mind for each one, then we compared lists and crossed out any word that matched someone else’s. I must say, some people have unusual minds!
Samford Museum
icechests
Mum and I went on a bus trip to the Samford Museum a couple of weeks ago. It brought back a lot of memories, specially for the older members of our group. Sometime ago, I tried to explain to a friend what an ice chest was. I tried to find a picture of one on the internet, and couldn’t find a single one (except for a modern version.) There were two at the museum, so I took a photo so I can show her – and anyone else.We had an ice chest when I was small. The ice man used to bring a big block of ice and leave it on our verandah. My little friend and I would run out and lick it. My mother would take it inside and place it in the top compartment of the ice chest. Food was kept in the larger compartment underneath. A metal pipe ran down inside at the back and directed drips of water into a tray underneath the ice chest. The tray had to be emptied whenever it was full.
When I was nine, we moved onto a small farm, too far out of town for an iceman to call, and Dad bought our first fridge. We must have been one of the first families in our area to get one, because I remember my school teacher asking me all about it.
That’s a meat safe hanging above the green ice chest. My grandmother had one. They didn’t keep the meat cold, but they kept it safe from flies.
And the glass jar with the handle on top of the ice chest is a butter churn. Grandma had one of them too. She would fill it with cream and turn the handle until it turned into butter.
I don’t know what that thing is on the other ice chest. Do you?
I’ve put some more pictures of Samford Museum on another page.
Change Over Dinner
Our Toastmasters Change Over Dinner was a huge success. We combined with another club (who organised it) and had a wonderful evening of dining and dancing, as well as the solemn ceremony of swearing in the new Executive. No, I didn’t dance, but it was fun to watch.
The ghost
I love spending time with my grandchildren, Miles and Hayley. When ever 2-year-old Hayley sees me, she says, “Meemar! Read a book!” She’ll sit for hours listening to stories. Last night, Hayley answered the phone when I rang Frances. I said, “ Hello Hayley, it’s Meemar.” She said, “Meemar! I want to read a book!”
Last time I was at their place, I tucked Miles into bed. He said seriously, “I’ll be able to walk through walls tomorrow.” When I asked him why, he said, “I had a talk to God, and I asked him to let me be a ghost tomorrow so I can walk through walls.”
When I explained that God doesn’t usually do that sort of thing, he said, “Well, I’ll just ask him to bring me lots of toys.”
A lot of adults haven’t advanced much further in their concept of God.
I told Frances about it after Miles went to sleep. She said, “Well at least we’ll know what’s happening when he starts running into walls!”
