Stories with Pam

I am storytelling again with the TimeSlips activity now that we have settled into Florida. I was walking on the beach the other day and met this wonderful couple at the top of the beach stairs. Meet my new friends, Carol and John. Here is their first story:

“The Beach”

Carol grew up in Ormond Beach, Florida near the beach. I grew up in New York and did not like the beach. When I met Carol my life changed. Carol loves the smell of the salty air on the ocean.

We lived on the beach for 40 years raising our children. We have 3 children and 4 grandchildren now. All the grandchildren love to play in the sand. Carol used to love walking on the beach for hours. She would walk in the morning. Sometimes she would walk in the evening and I would walk with
her after work.

We moved away from the beach 3 years ago because Carol is on a cane and has problems walking. She cannot walk on the beach and might fall if she tried. It broke her heart to move away from the beach. Now, we live in a condo about 15 minutes away from the beach.

When Carol is very sad in the mornings we will get in the car and I will drive her to the beach. We sit in chairs at the top of the steps and we are at the beach. Carol smiles as she can smell that salty air.

How do you spring clean?

Dust it off? How do you clean it? These are the questions to ask when you do the spring cleaning. The following is advice from Ann, a TimeSlips Storyteller on how she does her spring cleaning at her house:

When I spring clean the living room with my sister the first thing we do is to move all the furniture outside. We would get the men in our family to move all the heavy furniture outside. We would dust the furniture first when it was outside. Then we would oil all the wood with a special oil. This oil would make the wood shine for months and it smelled like lemon. It smelled so fresh and clean.
When the furniture was sitting outside we would also get the men to pull out all the rugs. The men would hang the rugs over the clothes line. We would then beat the rugs with wooden bats and brooms. This would get all the dust and dirt out of them. My sister always liked to do this part of the cleaning.
My sister and I would then wash all the windows in the house with vinegar and water. There were so many windows in our house that it almost took all day to clean them. After the windows were cleaned we would then mop the floors.
When the floors were dry we would get the men to move all the rugs and furniture back into the house. All this cleaning would take a full day at our house. By then it was the end of the day and we were so tired
The best part of cleaning is realizing that the house is clean and it smells so fresh and nice for the family. My sister and I were very proud of the work that we did when we cleaned.

Meet Ann and Maureen a new storytelling duo:

A new story by Ann and Maureen:

"Growing Up"

With an Irish name like Maureen you just know it is going to be good. I am a middle child who grew up in Connecticut. My mother had 9 children in all with my Irish father. My father was a police officer who worked long hours. There were 5 boys and 4 girls in our family. I was in the middle.

Our house growing up was always chaotic, loud but with laughter all the time. My mother was a wonderful woman who kept a loving home with so many children to take care of.

We always went to church on Sunday and then came home for an early Sunday dinner. My mother was a good cook. She taught everyone to cook when we were growing up.

In school it was always good to have a s sister or brother to watch over you and walk you home from school. Nobody picked on any of us as kids because if you did, 8 siblings would come and take care of you.

I am glad I came from a big family because we were always laughing and playing jokes on one another. When I think of growing up in Connecticut it brings a smile to my face.

Happy Wednesday. A new TimeSlips story by Ann:

"Sunshine"

It was always so cold living in Connecticut, said Ann. How do people still live there when there are so many other places to live? The best way to avoid the cold is to move to where the sun is shining. We moved to Florida where my daughters lived years ago. I have four daughters: Susan, Lisa, Ellen and Beth. Two daughters still live in Florida and they are very smart to live there. But, as you know all my daughters are very smart. They take after me!

My husband and I loved living in Florida with our family. Our 4 daughters were young when we lived there but we had such good times together.
- We went out to dinner with friends.
-We had family parties.
-We went to the beach and the lake all the time.

We spent so much time at our lake house that when I see pictures of a lake I think of it. It makes me smile when I think of those times.

I love seeing the sun!

A new story from the storytelling duo of Ann + Gladys:

The Flowers
Red, yellow, pink and rose. Look at those pretty colors of the flowers. They are all so beautiful.
They were picked by Gladys in the fields when she was walking home. Gladys always picked the fresh flowers by the road when she would walk home from school when she was younger.

Gladys and Ann both love looking at flowers. All flowers smell so good according to Ann.

Ann has some flowers in a vase in her room. The flowers in the vase are yellow, pink and blue. The yellow flowers make Ann feel good as if the sun is shining on her. The pink flowers give Gladys so much energy when she looks at them.

Gladys and Ann fully agree that there should be fresh flowers in their rooms every day.

A new story for all those men and women who are dedicated in serving our country both past and present. This new story is from my dear friend, Clyde who served in our military many years ago:

“The Seabag”

I was the first one to get off the ship from our deployment in the Pacific on the USS Bryce Canyon (AD-36). This was in the late 40’s. The Bryce Canyon was a destroyer tender that was built in the Charleston, SC shipyards. It was such a privilege to be assigned to that ship at 22.

We had just pulled into Treasure Island, California the night before I was to depart. I won the honor of being the first one off the ship for the next morning. I finished packing my sea bag that afternoon and then went to dinner. My sea bag was so light when I went to dinner and I was so excited and tired that day. I got back from dinner and went straight to my rack (bed). I left my sea bag open for any last minute items for the morning.

The next day I got up early, packed my last minute items and attached my padlock to the sea bag. I went to pick it up and it was so heavy. I did not have time that morning to repack my bag to make it lighter.

I carried that heavy sea bag for three transfer ships to get back home to South Carolina. When I returned home and unpacked that sea bag I laughed so hard at what I had found. My fellow ship mates had played the biggest joke on me. They had hidden in my sea bag a 50 pound babbit from the ship. I had lugged that babbit around for days not knowing it was inside.

“Boy did I learn a lot about life on that ship with so so many men and how to survive.”

It's a new year with a wonderful new storyteller, Christina. Enjoy her new story.....and YES, she has dimples!

“Those Dimples”
My father was in the United States Navy and I grew up as a Navy brat. My father was originally from New York. I had 5 siblings and I was the first one to go to college.
When I was in college I met the most wonderful man in New York. His name was Michael and he had rich brown eyes, silky brown hair and sweet, sweet dimples that would melt your heart. Oh, he could just make all my troubles go away. I fell in love with that man so fast. His dimples reminded me of Kirk Douglas.
I was able to finish college as a professional secretary then I married this man with the dimples. We honeymooned in Florida and swam in the warm waters laughing every day. We were very happy together and we had 3 sons. Did you know that all of my sons had those beautiful dimples like their father?
When I see a man with dimples like my Michael……I just melt!

A new winter story from my dear friend, Ann:
The Mystery Gloves

Where are my gloves and hat? I have blue, tan, red and black scarves all in the dresser at my house. Where could they be? I always kept my gloves with my scarf and hat together when we lived in Connecticut. It was always so cold there.

But, here living in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina you don’t need your hat and gloves all the time. Just when it is really cold like today.
Are my gloves at Ellen’s house in her coat closet? Are my hats at Beth’s house in her big hall closet? Do any of the grandchildren have them in their bedrooms? Maybe my grandaughter, Olivia needs to check her room and under her bed! All the grandchildren need to check their rooms for my gloves.

Oh, my hats and lost gloves will turn up sometime………………maybe I need a new set for Christmas?

Enjoy the sweet story by my friend, Ann:

“Make Up”
What kind of make-up do you wear?
All the girls back in the days wore so much make up to catch a boy. They would wear the red lipstick, the pink rouge and brush up their hair to be so big. That hairspray always smelled so so bad! My girlfriends back then wore that makeup. They all looked like prostitutes or hookers. I would see that and just think, “WHY?”

"I only wore lipstick to give me color for my lips. Sometimes only maybe rouge for my cheeks when I am very pale. I never puffed up my hair as I didn’t like to spend so much time on myself. My mother didn’t wear any make up at all. She taught me that you don’t need to catch a man with make up on…..just let them see the real you. Let that man love you for who you really are."

I am 85 years old and I only wear a little lipstick!

“Playing Farkle”

While playing Farkle with my friend Ann the following phrases could be heard when she rolled the dice:
-“All the best ones”
-“It worked”
-“It could be better”
-“Let’s see what you got”
-“Come on boys”
-“Not what I want”
-“Shake it, shake it baby”

Of course I lost to my friend, Ann 3/3 games. Maybe I wasn’t using the right phrases when I rolled!

Our first November story by Clyde:

"Alice Lorraine Fox"

She had brown curls and sweet brown eyes and I was her favorite. When I was 7 years old growing up in Anderson, South Carolina I was the one.

We were both in the first grade and she was crippled with polio. All the boys were afraid of her when she arrived at school but I was not. She was pretty and she had to be carried out of the car and up the steps to her wheel chair at the school. She was mine all the way.

Every morning her father would drive her to school in a big brown expensive car. As nobody had a car back then because we were all so poor. But, Alice Lorraine Fox's family had a car and everybody knew it. When her father pulled up in front of the school every morning I would be waiting there to carry her into the classroom. Every day after school I would carry her down to her father's car when he pulled up.

One day it was raining so hard after school that when I carried Alice Lorraine Fox down to her father's car he said, "Get in Clyde". I was shocked and did not know what to do. He said again, "Get in Clyde and we will drive you home". I got into the big car and it felt so strange to ride in a car for the first time. When the big pricey car pulled up in front of our brown brick house I stepped out. Everybody was looking at me in the neighborhood and I felt so ritzy like I had “Gotten up in the chips".

I will never forget that ride with Alice Lorraine Fox!