Those 70ish Girls

When I was growing up, I used to love sitting on the sidelines of family gatherings and just listening to my parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents talk, absorbing their emotions, thoughts and experiences as they told their stories. It took me away to another time and it was mesmerizing, it was fun. Maybe they would tell about the “Dirty Thirties” and struggling with life on the farm, or that coupled with the “Great Depression” and when they talked about one another like Uncle Wayne and how he survived being bit by a rattlesnake and almost died. Or when Grandma had her garden to keep the family alive and she carried water from Horse Creek to sustain her plants. Or about WWI or WWII. There were some sad and tragic stories, also happy ones, and they told them so vividly. You were there with them.

When you get old, then older and the absolute oldest, there are stories in your brain, waiting there, pausing patiently, ready to burst forth. They need to be shared, to keep the audience listening. So many fantabulous, uhh maze ing, real true blue to life stories and recollections. Someone needs to hear them and realize life is a fleeting moment filled with memories both good and bad.

But the stories that got told, then repeated can also be changed or get embellished somewhat. That’s all right though because no one seems to care nor remember exactly what happened long ago. At some point, I just got distracted, grew up and we moved away from close family and even though my Mom kept telling me stories of her life in South Dakota and my Dad told about growing up poor in Pennsylvania, the stories got repetitive and I grew tired of hearing them. When you’re a teenager or young adult, you’re building your own story. You think you know better than the “old folks”. That’s what happens naturally. I used to get sick and tired of hearing them tell the same old things over and over. Chock it up to innocence or plain ignorance.

Fast forward to being 70ish, now weary with all life throws your way, slowing down and getting a different perspective on life no longer through rose colored glasses but through bifocals or new lenses after cataract surgery. You play some of the stories from the past like a movie set up in your mind’s eye and enjoy hearing those old folks tell and retell their stories, however, you don’t always get them right or forget parts. You can’t hear them firsthand or you don’t hear as well. You wish you had written their stories down or at least videotaped them telling about the past. Regrets come flashing through.

Now we are the old folks, the ones with the stories. I’m not sure ours are as interesting. Let’s share them in any case with our children. I know I want to. Saayyy… did I ever tell you about the time my friends and I cruised La Habra Blvd listening to the new Beach Boys song?

WE ARE ALL EARS! TELL US THAT ONE AGAIN!

REMEMBER THE TIME, JEFF, WHEN WE…

THE GOOD OLD DAYS ON THE FARM- THE TYRRELLS, VISITING FROM IOWA, unknown lady, M.E.SANDERSON, MARY SANDERSON HOLDING MY MOM ELLA AND TODDLER WAYNE SANDERSON (maybe 1915)

MY DAD, AL LECKEY, IN GRADE SCHOOL IN PENNSYLVANIA DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION

My Dad used to say he would put pieces of cardboard inside his shoes because they had holes in the soles and with 5 kids, his parents couldn’t buy new shoes for him.

I’m a nice, kind, even tempered person. Usually. However, as I have gotten older, I sometimes lose my patience and calm demeanor. I don’t seem to care about how others perceive me much anymore. Not much.

I’m more grouchy, touchy and grumpy. I’m bolder. I probably get into arguments more with my husband, not with close friends. That’s because we’re together a lot more since we’ve been retired. It is better for our relationship when he’s working part time on an oral history project with a small historical town nearby or when I am away to administer testing at our small school here in town for a few months each year. We aren’t together 24/7 then. I’m more detached. I feel better. Absence makes the heart grow stronger and older.

Lots of excuses are springing forth now. So we 70ish kids can just say our hearing is failing and we didn’t hear what you said. Or another good cop out is to just let your head drop, while seated, and nod off to sleep when someone gets to be too much, too much to handle. Sleepy and grumpy underneath.

Maybe I am grouchier because I’m older, I’m sleeping poorly or my health and body aren’t what they used to be. I can’t quite put an arthritic finger on the reason for being grumpy. I just don’t want to put up with complicated situations and people complaining. I haven’t got the time. In our 70’s we are in the last chapter of the book of life. Heck, we might even be on the last page. Who knows? All I know is I want stuff simple. I want the plot to go slowly and peacefully. Can’t the text in the book of life be simple sentences with lots of one syllable words? If anyone presents me with characters’ problems, I’m taking the easy way out or escaping out the back door. Maybe even down the fire escape. No, that’s too risky.

The toaster doesn’t work? Throw it out and buy a new one. Somebody asks me to do a BIG favor for them? Six weeks later, “Ohh, I forgot you had asked me.” You need money? Do I look like an ATM?

I won’t even get into the way aging can make us look or dealing with toilet issues. You know. Maybe I will touch on it. There’s the gray hair, maybe no hair at all, sagging everywhere not to mention the aches, pains and stiffness. Hey, that could be a clue. My body is stiff in places and therefore, my personality is getting stiffer. That could be it. But don’t give me your opinion. I don’t want it. Save it.

Grouchy, touchy and grumpy me. I’m not apologizing either. I’m not apologizing for my behavior. Nope. They made a movie called “Grouchy Old Men.” Why didn’t they ever make a movie called “Grouchy Old Women”? Forget it. I wouldn’t go see it nor stream it anyway.

I’m going to take a nap. Don’t wake me up because you will be sorry if you do. I might forget my age and deck you or just yell. If I yell, you probably won’t hear me.

YOU WERE A YEAR AHEAD OF ME IN HIGH SCHOOL

JUST BECAUSE WE ARE OLDER DOES NOT MEAN WE NEED TO ACT OUR AGE, RIGHT? DO NOT ANSWER THAT.

I’M HOLDING THE CAMERA UP HIGH TO HIGHLIGHT MY LOVELY HIGHLIGHTS AND MY BLUE EYES! CHIN? WHAT CHIN?

DOES THIS BONNET MAKE ME LOOK YOUNGER?

HUH? I DIDN’T SAY A THING! I AM NOT EVEN MESSING WITH YOU.

We have been talking and writing about diets and food and recipes and food a lot lately, not to mention eating. Food. My doctor told me to lose 10 pounds but she also kindly gave me “the speech” saying to not stress about it. She told me a story about when she started a diet and strictly stuck to it for 8 days. After denying herself fruits, carbs, eggs, cheese and many fattening foods for 8 days and eating vegetables and lentils galore, she hadn’t lost any weight. She decided to have a day off so she ate whatever she liked including cookies and watched TV and relaxed all day. Then she went back to just eating sensibly and not overeating. She felt less stressed. She felt good about herself. Her point was, she said, “Feel comfortable in yourself and with your weight.” No one needs to be perfect. Just be healthy.

A famous actor, weight lifter and athlete who has a newsletter online that I follow, says that the point is to progress, not be perfect. Take baby steps. Let yourself indulge once in a while but not daily. You don’t need dessert every day. When you do, dessert will be more special. Push yourself away from the table before you feel stuffed. And above all, exercise at least 3 or 4 times per week. Just a walk can help. Motion is lotion.

I know it can be difficult since some of us are older. Exercising and keeping healthy for those 70ish gals has been tough. We have experienced the challenges to being active and dropping some weight, but it was not like when we were 20 years younger. It’s harder now. Sure if we were celebrities we would just hire cooks and trainers and diet gurus to help us. We would have our own gym and a swimming pool! That’s not plausible for us though. Heck, I can’t hire a maid. I can’t even hire my husband to help clean house.

I’ve found that keeping life in perspective and not expecting overnight results helps. Routines of exercise and consistent simple meals sure work for me. Lastly, a sense of humor and the support of family and friends can help immensely in keeping healthy. I’m ready to stop using the D word. It’s not a question. The word “diet” connotes that I have a problem with my weight. It carries with it stress. I’m too old for that. I don’t need it.

Found these dish towels at a little gift store yesterday. I laughed after reading a bunch. It was fun. We all need to laugh more. Laughing uses muscles so it’s exercise. Right?

Isn’t driving a form of exercise?

Stay comfy.

Dieting is a hot topic.

I just had a good phone conversation with my dearest cousin. We were both complaining about how tough it is to lose weight especially in our 70’s. She said she used to lose 5 pounds easily when younger, just eating cottage cheese and fruit three times a day for a while. It worked. It was a snap. Now it’s not working that way, plus we’re both on meds that can add on the weight without even trying. We have excuses, too many to count.

I commented on how slim, young and darling she looked last summer when we visited Murdo. She absolutely did. She said she and her husband did a diet program that really worked and she was about 20 pounds lighter last summer, then gained back. At least we have a couple years before the next Murdo Reunion until we need to diet, for real.

We both said we just aren’t motivated nor disciplined right now in dieting. I gained a lot during the pandemic, being at home a lot and stuck inside. I was mindlessly eating. You know how young kids go away to college and gain weight being in the dorms and sadly eat junk food? My daughter called it the “freshmen 9” because students typically gain that much being away from home. I feel like I gained the “pandemic 20”. I just wore the same two pair of stretchy pants and same tops over and over. I should want to look good and get back to being thin. I do exercise a lot and eat sensibly, and after going to a nutritionist, she really helped me lose 4 pounds, but there’s a lot more to go. My cousin and I both agreed, we need a fire lit under us and not a cook stove one, but something that will jumpstart our desire to lose. We don’t seem to care.

What we both said is that 1-we need motivation and the desire to curb our eating and 2- we both need to seriously watch what we eat. That’s a big part of our problem. Plus just having the snacks or treats around the house doesn’t help nor lead us down the right path. I’m buying more vegetables and fruits, using the blender to make smoothies and eating rice crackers as a snack. I’m being good about cutting down on carbs, although bread talks to us both and it says,”Just one piece can’t hurt.” Celery works well as a snack also, but it doesn’t seem to talk the way bread does.

She mentioned that her downfall now is night eating. She wakes up in the wee hours and eats cookies dunked in milk or some other delicious snack. That’s easily what has added on the pounds because my cousin eats super responsibly all day. It’s in the dark late at night when she wakes up and no one is around, she eats, so if you cannot see your food and no one is around, do the calories count?

All in all, my cousin and I did have a good time laughing and joking around about our lives, our family members, and writing for the blog. We always have fun together. My cousin is the cutest and the all time best. She is also intelligent, kind and generous. After a thoroughly enjoyable conversation mostly about our weight, she had to go, so we said our loving goodbyes. Her husband was waiting. She had to get ready. She was going out to eat.

These were free donuts. We shared them, sorta.

Hurry and take the picture so we can indulge.

Smile, Cuz! They’re making our rhubarb shakes now! Can we get extra large ones?

It’s Christmas, so the holiday calls for special meals with family and I will cook and bake and partake.

My Cuz, friend, and sister-blogger and I have been chatting about how to lose weight recently. We’re gaining! The good thing is: we exercise a lot. She has two dogs and takes them out separately about 4 times a day. I walk Nincompoop once a day and do my physical therapy exercises that my therapist taught me plus I lift weights. Not heavy ones but just 8 lbs. each. Apparently I like to lift other things besides weights, like forks with food, spoons with any desserts and glasses of sweet drinks and cups of fancy coffee drinks.

Lav came up with a simple drink that’s actually a meal in itself. It can be your breakfast drink, by itself, or lunch substitute or snack. It’s a berry blended smoothie so here she is trying to show us how she “cooks” in her simple way.

You will need blueberries, raspberries or any berries you like, a little yogurt, flavored or plain and Almond Milk. You can also add a banana and protein powder or veggies.

For this smoothie I just used fruit, two spoonfuls of yogurt and about a cup of almond milk.

Blend on high for 30 seconds.

Enjoy!

I hope everyone is enjoying the kick-off Friday of Memorial Day weekend. It’s going to be a hot time in Ben Wheeler, with a chili cook-off on Saturday and all sorts of other goings on, including lots of live music. I’m going to help our daughter, Heidi, and her boyfriend, Joe, with their chili booth. I’m really excited to have something fun to look forward to. Kip will be able to take part for a while, but since he’s still recuperating from back surgery, he can’t stand for long periods of time.

I want to apologize to the readers of “A Story to Tell.” I have not been faithful to the cadence of the story. There is too much time between episodes. I want to add so much to develop it, yet my initial goal was to put a short little fun story on the blog. I have had so many ideas that would turn it into a better long mystery that I’ve decided to stop here, and rewrite it. Rather than play it all out on the blog, I will self-publish it on Amazon as a book. What do you think?

I made a version of Cousin Lav’s apple pie. I don’t have much counter space in the RV, so I made turnovers instead. I used her recipe for the filling, and even with Pillsbury pie dough, it’s delicious…

Changes to come…

I could understand Aunt Marti’s desire to know what happened to Holly and her mother, June. There were several crayon written pages with different made-up stories about dogs and kitties and several child-like drawings of houses with trees and billowing clouds. All of her pictures had a bright yellow sun shining down from the corner of the paper. Aunt Marti had grown to love the little girl she had never met and wanted to learn more about the family that had occupied this house so many years ago.

Aunt Marti did not have knowledge of the internet, and my guess was that it didn’t occurr to her that someone could do a search online and find out more about the family. I hoped there would be enough information in the lock box and chest to be able to do an adequate search to find out what happened to Holly and her mother. I didn’t have the first names of the grandparents, but I knew their last name was probably Reading since Holly’s mother was married to their son, and their last name was Reading. Holly said she was moving from the house. The date was 1923. Did the grandparents move, too? Aunt Marti had said the house had been vacant for 20 years prior to her purchasing it.

I kept digging through the papers and also found a photobook in the chest.

“Mr. B.. Oh my… where did you find that?” It was a handmade sock monkey.

*********************

“But Mommy, I don’t want to move. I don’t want to leave Grandpa and Nana. I love our house. Why do we have to go?”

Dear, sweet, Holly. This will be an exciting time for us.

If you’re expecting company, you should bake a pie. If you’re going to a potluck, you should bake a pie. If you’re celebrating the good old 4th of July, take a pie. For the red, white and blue Holiday, try green Granny Smith apples and maybe a few other varieties mixed in.

FIRST: Here’s what you will need for baking a special homemade apple pie: 4-5 McIntosh apples, 4-5 Granny Smith apples (peeled, cored and sliced) one cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, a little shake of salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and make a double crust pie dough- recipe to follow.

I’m using all Granny Smith apples since I couldn’t find McIntosh ones. Thanks, Granny. Please don’t eat those bananas in the background. We need them for smoothies, but that’s another story.

8 apples peeled, cored and sliced with the lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, dash of salt added. Mix it well and let sit while you make the pie dough.

TWO: Pie dough – mix together 2 1/2 cups flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 8 tablespoons vegetable shortening and 12 tablespoons chilled butter cut into little pieces. (Have ready 6-8 tablespoons ice water for after when dough is all mixed.)

You can use a spoon, knife, fork or one of these to cut the butter and shortening through the flour making it like coarse crumbs—-

After the pie dough mix looks coarse and crummy, I mean like coarse crumbs, add the ice water a tablespoon at a time and use your hands to push it together. Then form dough into two disks.

This is the flour worked in with the butter and shortening and a little salt and sugar.

Adding the ice water, a tablespoon at a time…

Wrap the two disks tightly in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour— chill the dough disks, not you…you don’t need to chill, or you can if you want. Chill out!

Those 70ish Girls- The Apple of my Eye: Pie! By Lav

Continuing: preheat a rimmed cookie sheet in oven at 500 degrees.

Roll out bottom crust. It might not be pretty, but you can patch it with a little water and tear edges off as patches.

Place the rolled out crust into bottom of a pie pan and put the apples in. If there’s too much juice, drain some off.

Next roll out the top crust, cut slits – make a design of your choice- fold it once in half, place gently halfway across apples, then open top crust 100% then seal edges. You can use a fork to press edges together or just your fingers pinching top to bottom crusts.

Gently pull entire crust on top of apple filling. Seal edges.

Put pie on cookie sheet in oven and drop temp to 425 degrees for 25 minutes. Then after 25 minutes, rotate the pie and drop oven temp to 375 degrees for another 25 minutes or til golden brown.

Take it out of oven when it’s bubbly hot and golden brown.

Let it cool then enjoy eating it! Add ice cream for A La mode or whipped cream to make it more tasty. Enjoy!