The progress so far on Little Britches. It has been slow and not so steady. Hands are the HARDEST in any media but in 3D it’s close to impossible. I use Cheetah 3D because it is affordable and capable and I can figure out enough of it to do this.
It was 1953 when the first TV moved into the Norris household in Ohio. It was a massive (most of them were then) Muntz with small screen in a big box. Although we were one of millions of families buying their first TV at that time, for our working class, family of nine, it was a real luxury. ( By 1955, within five years, 64.5% of U.S. households owned a TV). My dad was a techie before his time and loved the “new” advancements. Our TV viewing was highly monitored with NO TV during meal times or before homework. Forget violence, we weren’t allowed to watch boisterous shows like Howdy Doody or any that didn’t support our family values. Father Knows Best was unsurprisingly one that Dad believed conveyed just the right messages. As with all good rules there are exceptions; any activity would be preempted by Jim Doney’s Adventure Road or any show my father deemed as “history in the making”. Falling under this category was The McCarthy Hearings, political conventions, the launching of satellites, landing on the Moon, great speeches by great men, and inaugurals. Yes, I remember watching the McCarthy Hearings I would have been eight! The first political conventions I watched were in 1956. It was then when my father was touting the virtues of Eisenhower that I determined I liked Stevenson because even at eleven I knew that frankly he was a much better speaker.I relate this Norris family TV history to help explain the extraordinary lengths my youngest sister Patsy’s and her husband took to watch inauguration of Barack Obama.
Hi everybody, Just thought I would let you know at what lengths Bob will go for me. Monday afternoon our TV satellite dish decided to quit working. After checking things out, I figured the icicles hanging from the dish, while lovely, was not conducive to proper reception. Seeing that TC was not here to shoot them off, I concluded that I would not get to see Obamas inauguration or Bush’s welcomed retreat to Texas, ( the state of Texas has their idiot back ). In the cold and dead of night, after a hard day at the office, Bob hatched a plan. Since the new roof would probably act as ski slope if tread upon, he had to be resourceful. With simple tools like a broomstick, footstool, vacuum hose, my hairdryer, a pillow, my new purple duck tape, extension cord, his huge spotlight, and a tool case, we ventured upstairs to hang out the window. Mind you, all these tools were not thought of at one time so I got my exercise running up and down the stairs. After taping the hairdryer to the broomstick, turning it on and directing it at the dish, he decided a stool to stand on and a pillow on the window ledge would make things more comfortable. He then added the vacuum hose to make the broomstick more balanced. My job was to secure the window to stay open with the tool case, feed the extension cord and direct the spotlight. It worked! The icicles were gone. His creative genius saved the day! As with all good plans something is bound to go wrong. As I was trying to open the window wider, the tool case, with tools, decided to take a ride down the roof. Of course it stopped short of falling off and too far for us to reel it back in. Our thoughts … it would find its way down when the snow melted ….was just wishful thinking. My suggestion that we roll a bowling ball down to knock it off was greeted with a “what are you, crazy?”. So, next time a son or son-in-law comes by, I have a job for you! Tuesday was then spent watching the pageantry of the new administration being sworn in and the usual missteps of a gathering of two million people all in one place. Have a good day. Love, Patsy
I have never thought of myself as traditional but in fact my traditional side has taken years to emerge. But my traditional is nontraditional traditional. For instance this year I decided to download itunes Christmas music while my husband daughter assembled the new gas grill my husband got for Christmas.
But what about New Years? As a family we stayed in many more years than went out. Home with the kids watching the Ball drop in NYC on TV and then one year, 1986 in fact, I thought we should write our resolutions down and put them in a container. What I had was an Antique Quick Mother Oats container c1912. We began with a simple format which included the year, our names, weights, heights (fun to watch the kids grow; not so fun watching our weight fluctuate) our favorite movies, songs, words, and events of the year. The hard part came when we made our resolutions and put them in writing and then predictions. We were halfway okay with our resolutions but NEVER good with predictions. Every year we would take out last years and previous years and have a laugh of what we wrote and some serious moments too on what we lost and what we gained. When the kids became adults we were not consistent about always doing them but as we happened to be together for the holidays in 2007 we added that year. It a little more complicated since we don’t live in the same towns. This morning we were checking the back of the cupboards to find the box filled with remembrances scrawled on all manner of note paper. It has been with us through 3 moves. It is one of the few things I am really sentimental about. So again this year I sent out a plea to have our New Year’s Report. Since we stay connected by the internet I emailed out a form I made in Word. And the reports came in. They will be added to the Mother’s Oats box and the Virtual Mother’s Oats box so we can look back on 2009.
I recommend this tradition for families, couples, and or friends. I added this to the email to the family:
Note: Feel free to modify. For instance I added a place for my blood pressure reading and favorite websites. I added more lines for events and less for TV. No need to fill out any area you don’t want. Replace some favorite for new one EXAMPLE favorite clothes, foods etc.
And these endnotes:
Now go to it and create some new traditions for yourself!