HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY...(and grandmother and great grandmother....)

When my uncle Fred died a couple of years ago I took the opportunity to take pictures of photos
that were in an album made by a cousin. The page above shows my maternal grandmother and
grandfather. Ida Belle and Laurence Frederick Catton. He went off to fight in WWI already
carrying a bullet in his shoulder from shooting practise.
When he returned from the war they were very poor and sadly he died just
when my grandmother had given birth to their fourth child.
In spite of great poverty my grandmother raised four children single-handedly and
lived to be almost 94 years old. 

Ida's mother, Lydia Jane, is shown above. She had good genes as well and lived
to be 104 outliving a couple of husbands.
She was very feisty despite losing her sight as she aged. No one
could tell her what she could or couldn't do.
I like to think that in addition to receiving her middle name that I also inherited
her feistiness. 

My mother, Edith Jane, was very photogenic! This is the house she lived in as a girl. A well-to-do uncle
owned the house and allowed her, her mother and three brothers to live there. Those were the depression
years and money was scarce as were jobs.

I have a Brownie camera though not the same one my mother used for a lot of these photos. She
loved to pose and get her photo taken - I love this one with the old bike and newspaper-sized basket.

I see myself in this photo.
 

This is the house I grew up in.
Me and my mom.  She was a great mom - always had good advice when I had a problem. In the 1990's she
was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, late onset. It wasn't long before dementia took her away from us in 2000, almost
20 years ago. But she is as alive to me now as she ever was and I feel her presence every day.

Here we all are...my two older sisters, my two older brothers and my handsome parents. This house didn't
have a furnace only an oil stove in the dining room to heat both floors. The girls' room had a wooden vent in the floor to allow heat to rise (not much haha! The linoleum was bitterly cold on the feet winter mornings!)
Eventually my dad excavated underneath the house raising it up and creating a basement.

Here's my mom and I in my dad's garden - he had quite the green thumb.

Mom - I'll keep cycling just like you did. One of these days
we'll meet up on the same road.
Love you Ma.

Tuesday's Treats and Treasures

Yesterday I didn't manage to put a post together as I went to the 6:45pm showing of:

oh please please please go and see this movie!! Visually it's a feast for the eyes. It's hilarious and quirky, eccentric and silly and we (friends from work) laughed until our sides hurt! The only problem is it was so fast paced that I missed a lot because I was shrieking with utter glee! Which means, of course, that I'll have to go see it again...and again!! This is a movie I would buy.

So on to the treats and treasures of yore (yesterday)! My ID cards from the past 5 years!

I'm not getting older, I'm getting better! Not much change that I  can see - perhaps my face is fuller in the last one - that helps to plump out the wrinkles so I'm told...I've also started to use coconut oil (the new super food, well one of them anyways) and hope to see the clock turn back and me starting to look younger and younger...yes, I'm dreaming :)

Addendum: I know what the difference is now with the last picture - my smile is starting to slip and I look tired. I picked the right year to go.

As you may have guessed yesterday was "photo day" so let's have a look at the photos I kept close to me over the past 800 14 years that I taught at CCH...look at my sweet little puddin'pop :) I bet every one of you moms out there have a macaroni picture frame of your little cutie pies...

she was such a happy little scamp...who knew she'd grow into a surly teen?? Hah, just kidding...sort of...

one of my most favourite (and challenging) students - she used to call me "Spicy Eyes" because that was written on one arm of my glasses! She kept me hopping with her daily ritual of questions that HAD to be answered: can I break your glasses...(me - NO), did they cost $534?...(yes)...can I look down your top...(NO)...what colour camisole are you wearing?...at this point I'm trying unsuccessfully to redirect her...can you call Ed Roland?...no..(lead singer of her favourite band "Collective Soul") and on and on. Eventually I wrote down a list of her questions and my answers and put it on the side of the fridge and I'd just point at it when the questions started. Gave me a bit of a breather.

 Bad photo but I have a little hamster peeking out from inside my jacket - we had one for a classroom pet for a few years.

 What form...what grace...what?? It was "Share your Talent" day and I just had to clown around :)

What a happy crew! This was the first year that we went to the Special Olympics. A number of football players volunteered to coach the kids. They ALL had a blast!

Pre makeup, pre blonde hair extensions, pre eyelash curler, pre hair straightener, pre everthing but total CUTENESS!! Ah, Kazibelle, I do miss those innocent days...

 But whoa!! Look at those dimples would ya!! This is one of her "casual" Gr. 12 graduation pictures - what a beauty!

 A conglomeration of photos: 4 generations of Harrison men in the bottom photo - my nephew David, his son Jack, my brother Gord and my dad Doug.

Me, with darker hair, in front of the Montmorency Falls near Quebec City. And I'm thinking "braless"! Brazen hussy!

What more can I say about my one and only - she'll always be #1 in my heart!

One of my valentine cards from a student...am I the worm or the apple?

 A plaque to keep me motivated...

 At least 6-8 years ago - a wonderful group of students and staff...

Yup, I was still really enjoying my job back in those days - life was darn good. Sometimes I look at old photos and wonder to myself - "why did I get rid of that top? I love that top!! Drat!"

Now THAT top I only wore a couple of times and then donated it - you win some you lose some!

OK, this is from the middle ages...24 years ago this July. I'm graduating from UWO with my parents to support me. My dad before cancer got him in 2002 and my mom before Parkinson's took her in 2000. Kazi is there too - I was 7 months pregnant!!  I remember how brutally hot it was that day and she kicked up a storm ALL day!

Finally a pink candle (because I go through a LOT of candles) and my little "blessings" stones that got me through a lot of rough moments...

Today being Wednesday I brought home a new batch of stuff but will post about that tomorrow. Its getting past time I was on my bike pedalling fiercely through an episode of "House of Cards"!

I wish you a wonderful evening and thank you for joining me as I wandered down Memory Lane!

Dougie the Dodge Pas Deux

Hey look, there's Dougie! I don't think I told you that my dad's name is Doug. So that's where Dougie the Dodge's name comes from. My dad never owned a truck, not to my knowledge anyways, but I'm sure he would have liked to!  Back in the day when my dad was driving us around we always had cars, BIG cars. And by big I mean with tailfins like these...

In fact, the red and white job, 3rd one down, is very much like one we had, same colours, though by the time we had it it was about 10 years out of date. We needed a large car to tote the seven of us around, if we'd had a pickup truck then all of us kids would have been rattling around in the bed of the truck. Now, hillbillies we weren't, pretty close though, we just didn't have any HILLS! 

That red and white number was the car I fell out of one time. Yes, we were driving up our street, Washington Ave., to drop in to my aunt and uncle's house, just me and dad.  These were the days before seat belts, and I guess my door wasn't properly latched. Anyhoo I can still remember (and we're talking over 50 years ago kids) my shock at the door swinging open and me tumbling out onto the gravel at the side of the street! I don't remember crying, I was more stunned than hurt, though I do remember Aunt Ruth picking the gravel out of my knees and slapping on a couple of bandaids. The thing that saved me I'm sure was the fact that my dad was driving about 5 miles per hour!!

Nowadays I probably would have been taken to an emergency room. But 50 years ago our mothers just slapped on some bright orange mercurochrome and a bandaid and then shoved us outside again. Remember that stuff? I sure hope it didn't actually contain mercury!!

Oh Lord... it did...here's what Wikipedia has to say on the subject...

Merbromin (marketed as Mercurochrome, Merbromine, Sodium mercurescein, Asceptichrome, Supercrome, Brocaseptand Cinfacromin) is a topical antiseptic used for minor cuts and scrapes. Merbromin is an organomercuric disodium saltcompound and a fluorescein. It is readily available in most countries, but because of its mercury content, it is no longer sold in the United States, Germany, or France.^{[citation needed]}

(Hmmmmm is it still used in Canada I wonder? Or is Canada just included in the 

United States???)

It was known throughout the Southern United States as "monkey blood." (Oh really??)

Uses

Merbromin's best-known use is as a topical antiseptic. When applied on a wound, it stains the skin bright red. In the United States, its use has been superseded by other agents (e.g., povidone iodine, benzalkonium chloride, chloroxylenol). It is still an important antiseptic, particularly in poorer countries, due to its “unbelievably low cost”.^[1]

Oh my goodness!! Did you read that last line?? Gee, I wonder why it is so cheap?? Because we're still unloading our stock on the POOR COUNTRIES??

Sorry, I got a little off topic there.... as I was saying I think my dad would approve of Dougie the Dodge. I also think he would have enjoyed having a pickup truck of his own, though I'm sure my mother would have had something to say about it! I can't see her in a pickup truck but maybe she just never had the chance!  Or she did, loved it and I just never knew about it. As I'm starting to ramble again I think I'll call it a day. Needless to say I'm enjoying Dougie the Dodge very much:)!