Audio: What's your favorite carol or holiday song?
I can't really think of my favorite, there are so many. So I'll just post my two favorite Christmas songs from the 80s/90s.....
I must confess, I spent lots of time alone in my bedroom practicing my English accent in hopes that the day I turned 18, George Michael would take notice of me and marry me. As for New Kids on the Block, I'm thinking there are a bunch of you out there that would confess to having their posters plastered on your walls. I must say, I don't remember them being as bad as they are in this video and the others I watched on youtube. I'm pretty sure I stayed up late just to catch them on that very "Arsenio Hall Show". Heh.
]]>Who was the first person to give you info -- correct or not -- on how to "make babies"?
Submitted by Manon-It-All.
My friend, Teresa, told me when I was spending the night over her house. We were in the 3rd grade. Her sister, Becky, was in fifth grade and learning all about it our Catholic school's health class. Teresa broke out the book, complete with detailed pictures of the male and female anatomy. Since I only had sisters, I was clueless as to what boy parts even looked like. I was completely shocked and utterly grossed out by the whole thing.
]]>If you look closely, the edge says "Fudge Royale". While at another store, I looked for Fudge Ripple in the handy dandy 5 qt tub complete with convenient carrying handle. Nope, this time it was Fudge Swirl.
See, when I was a child, we weren't poor, but we were exactly well to do either. We got by and didn't know any better. We were happy. We had ice cream. We had fudge ripple ice cream. Well, I wasn't happy about the fudge ripple. As a matter of fact, I can't stand fudge ripple. Give me plain vanilla, plain chocolate, neapolitan, anything but fudge ripple. Yet, that always seemed to be what was in the freezer. I think my mother thought it was a compromise between vanilla and chocolate. Oh, how I longed for anything but fudge ripple. Sometimes as a special surprise, my mom would buy chocolate marshmallow or tin roof sundae. Honestly, I hated these even more than fudge ripple. Not that I ever turned any of these down. Ice cream in a flavor I dislike is definitely better than not having ice cream at all.
So I posted that picture for my sister, Nicole. We were eating Ben & Jerry's...ok, I was eating Ben & Jerry's and discussing ice cream flavors of our childhood. We were reminiscing about eating cheap fudge ripple ice cream out of an economy sized tub. Ah, those were the days.
]]>I remember hearing my Mom-Mom using the term "Frick and Frack" to describe any combination of 2 granddaughters that were acting up together. I find myself using it now that I'm older. Now I know where it came from....
Perhaps I'll start calling them Heckle and Jeckle too, like we used to call my sister, Marlen and my cousin, Tara.
]]>Not only was my casserole a hit, but we also ended up with ribs from Famous Dave's, an insanely rich vegetable casserole topped with buttered ritz crackers and the PMS bark or chocolate bark as it is more commonly known as.
The PMS bark is a bunch of saltine crackers with some caramelized brown sugar and butter concoction poured over top, baked, then you add chocolate chips over it while it is still hot, let them melt and spread the melted chocolate all over. It's like a big heath bar, only more buttery. I ate so much I might as well have just injected it into my belly and hips.
The ladies ended up around the table, talking mommy talk. It's funny, I remember once upon a time I used to talk diapers and naptimes and potty training. Now we talk grades, homework, strong willed children who don't want to go to bed, talk back and won't clean their room.
On that note, am I the only one that didn't know what backtalking was as a child? My parents would correct me and I would say something and they would tell me I was backtalking. I would try and talk again and they would stop me. I thought backtalking was talking behind their backs, and I wasn't do that. I was just trying to nicely explain my side of the story, reason with them. But yet they would keep telling me I was "backtalking". It wasn't until I was an adult that I actually figured it out. Ohhhh, talking back to them after they told me to stop. Yeah, guess I was a little slow.
Ok, the kids are in bed and Steve's back from the store. So I'm going to snuggle up with him and watch some tv.
]]>What is your favorite greasy spoon?
Submitted by S@ngarang.
It used to be a little place called "Lou's" in my hometown. The place hadn't changed one bit since it was a popular high school hangout back in my mom's day. The main waitress was actually a girl my mom went to high school with named, Betty. They had the best breakfast. They also had liver and onions on the dinner menu. I love me some liver and onions. Add a side order of french fries with brown gravy. Now that is just heaven. Oh, and their rice pudding was the best. Sometimes, when I was in junior high, me and my friend Suzanne would walk up there just to get rice pudding. Mmmmm.
It shut down a few years back. A local family bought it and their daughter reopened it under a different name. It's good, but it's not that same as going to "Lou's".
]]>I have over half the groceries put away. I'm going to be a sneaky mom this week. I've hidden all the new snacks and cereals for now. It seems we have some snacks and cereals that just can't seem to make their way out of the pantry. So I'm not going to put the new snacks where they can see them til they eat some of this stuff that I guess they are tired of. Spoiled kids.
We always had the same old cereals in our cabinets, nothing with sugar, except for Oh's for Nicole. Nicole was special and the oldest and loved the most. She was tall and skinny and pretty (ok, she still is those things). She took ballet, tap and jazz and was in the Pom squad. She was even in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade one year. Ok, I'm just kidding. (Love ya big sis!) I could have done all those things, but I was a slacker. I would have much rather sat in my messy room all day and read a book or play with my barbies and eat my original creation, mayonaisse, lettuce, salt and pepper sandwiches on toast*.
Anyway, cereal, we always had honey nut cheerios, corn flakes, plain cheerios, puffed rice (mental note, pick up puffed rice, I love that stuff),I kinda remember plain shredded wheat being in there too. Didn't matter, my mother let us put sugar on it. We would put so much sugar on it, you could eat it by the spoonful when you got to the bottom of the bowl. Maybe I was the only one that did that. That would explain why I wasn't the skinny one in the family. I'm still bitter that I could never borrow any of Nicole or Marlen's cool trendy clothes. Should've laid off the sugar and the mayo sandwiches, eh?
As for snacks, it was apples or celery with peanut butter or whatever else we could find. I'm thinking the Little Debbie snack cakes were only for lunches and for my dad's middle of the night kitchen raids.
So basically what I am trying to say is these kids are spoiled rotten, they don't know how good they have it. So they can finish off the Lego fruit snacks, Applesauce, Snickers granola bars, Slim Jims, Ritz crackers and cheese packs, and Yo-Gos before I refill the snack drawer.
*In my mother's defense, she did have lunchmeat, cheese, tuna and pb&j in the cabinet for me to eat. We weren't poor. I chose to eat this.
]]>What's one family recipe that you wish you knew how to cook?
My Nan's cinnamon cake. I remember going over her rowhouse just outside of Baltimore on Sunday afternoons. We would sit down at her table, covered in a lace tablecloth and she would give us a piece of cinnamon cake and either milk or a glass of her homemade sweet tea. I would eat it and watch her washing her dishes. She always seemed to be standing at the sink washing dishes. I remember how she would wipe my face softly after I finished. Then I would go into her living room and admire all the bisque babies she had sitting on almost every imaginable surface. I was forbidden to touch them, but I would look at them and make up games with them in my head. Nan would be outside by this time, standing at the fence that separated her rowhouse yard from the rowhouse where her sister, Genny lived. They would be smoking cigarettes and talking in their raspy city accents.
Sadly, she never wrote her recipe down. None of us have it. One time, right before she went into the nursing home, when I was visiting her, she rattled it off to me. I didn't have anything to write it down on. Before I knew it, she was gone. So, unless it's hidden in one of the boxes my mom has up in her attic, it's gone for good.
]]>What was your favorite game to play at recess in grade school?
Submitted by Elisheva Chana.
I didn't really play too much at recess, maybe tag. Mostly, me and my closest friends walked around talking, sometimes stopping to watch the cute boys while they played kickball every day.
]]>What is one of your favorite poems?
Submitted by marvel is my pen name.
I can't really think of one. Although, this made me remember one of my most embarrassing moments in Junior High.
I was in 7th grade. About once a month, we had to memorize a poem, then get up and recite it in front of the class. I knew my poem like the back of my hand. Getting up in front of the class, including Jason the cutest boy I had laid eyes on up until that point of my life, not so easy.
I was nervous. I remember thinking, just stare at the back of the classroom. I opened my mouth...
"The Fag Goes By By Henry Bennett," I heard the words coming out of my mouth. I had just said "Fag" instead of "Flag". Perhaps no one heard me. I could feel the blood rushing to my face. I couldn't believe it. Right in front of Jason!
Jason didn't laugh, but the merciless and immature Michael found this slip up hilarious. It didn't go unnoticed as I had previously hoped. I'm sure you can imagine how those 7th grade boys didn't let me live it down, especially Michael.
Somehow I made it through the rest of the poem perfectly. I also made it through the rest of the 7th grade, despite the teasing that followed that blunder.
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