SIDEBAR #21- Arias/Alexander forum

[Zuri]

I may have PSM address. If I still do, I will send her a card from all of us and ask her to either post or PM one of us.

 

[neesaki]

Great news for those with depression. They have linked insomnia with depression, and if they can fix the insomnia they can help the depression. Isn't this something we all have been aware of for a long time?

In 1969 I went with a friend to drop off her kids for a late summer visit with her mom in Magnolia Arkansas. Her stepfather was a forest ranger and they lived way back in the woods. They still had a party line (two short rings and one long for their number), chamber pots (you didn't go out after dark or to the outhouse because something was out there) and when you went to town you put on a dress, not pants, never shorts. You got up and went to Church on Sunday morning and you didn't even think about cussing.

I remember hearing about Sharon Tate's murder as we crossed the state line in Texarkana.


I still say bilfold. I have an old dear friend whose husband's family is from Tangiers Island and he is hard to understand at times, and it's not because he's in his nineties.

Oh my goodness, party lines, I'd almost forgotten about those. We had them when I was growing up. But then we kind of lived out in the boonies...Did I say the boonies? :floorlaugh:
Anyway, I also remember going to my grandma's house when I was quite small, up to the age of 7 or so. No indoor plumbing, only an outhouse, chamber pots (for night time), and a #10 washtub for bathing... wow, we really were little,:facepalm: I can't believe it now, but back then it wasn't that big a deal, was kind of like an adventure, Oh for the good ole days...:giggle:

ETA: Btw, I still say "billfold" too.

 

[ILikeToBendPages]

I used to live in Texarkana. One block off state line avenue on the Arkansas side. The junior high school I went to was home of the 'Piggies'. The charging Piggies.

Kensie, did you grow up being told there was something out there at nights? Like the "Fouke Monster"? The Bogy Creek Monster? I have a story to tell, and I know it's hard to believe, but there is something out there.

In 1967 when my sister was seven months pregnant with my nephew, she went to Fort Polk to be with her husband after the femur in his left leg snapped during basic training, and was to have surgery.
She found a little two room (no air conditioning) cottage apartment that was behind a large old house in DeRidder Louisiana and rented it for twenty dollars a month.

Her landlord was a very strange woman. She'd watch Johnny Carson with her and when it was over she'd unplug the tv lamps, even her refrigerator, and go to bed, and my sister would go back to her little apartment.

She said her bed was in the corner of the room with two windows on one side of the bed and two behind the headboard, and one hot summer night after she crawled in the bed and laid her head on the pillow she smelled a terrible stench and could hear something breathing, and that she's reached down and pulled a shotgun up by her side and laid there. All night she said it stayed and watched her, and it left before sunup. She told her landlord about it and was told it was OK it wouldn't hurt her. My sister is a very grounded person, and I believe her. She has no reason to tell something not true.

 

[Kensie]

Kensie, did you grow up being told there was something out there at nights? Like the "Fouke Monster"? The Bogy Creek Monster? I have a story to tell, and I know it's hard to believe, but there is something out there.

In 1967 when my sister was seven months pregnant with my nephew, she went to Fort Polk to be with her husband after the femur in his left leg snapped during basic training, and was to have surgery.
She found a little two room (no air conditioning) cottage apartment that was behind a large old house in DeRidder Louisiana and rented it for twenty dollars a month.

Her landlord was a very strange woman. She'd watch Johnny Carson with her and when it was over she'd unplug the tv lamps, even her refrigerator, and go to bed, and my sister would go back to her little apartment.

She said her bed was in the corner of the room with two windows on one side of the bed and two behind the headboard, and one hot summer night after she crawled in the bed and laid her head on the pillow she smelled a terrible stench and could hear something breathing, and that she's reached down and pulled a shotgun up by her side and laid there. All night she said it stayed and watched her, and it left before sunup. She told her landlord about it and was told it was OK it wouldn't hurt her. My sister is a very grounded person, and I believe her. She has no reason to tell something not true.

Yes, there was some type of monster creature. I was about 12 and terrified. I could not sleep near a window. I had forgotten about it but now that you mention I remember how scared I was. The news even talked about it. I can visualize my room and terrified of the window at night.

 

[ILikeToBendPages]

Oh my goodness, party lines, I'd almost forgotten about those. We had them when I was growing up. But then we kind of lived out in the boonies...Did I say the boonies? :floorlaugh:
Anyway, I also remember going to my grandma's house when I was quite small, up to the age of 7 or so. No indoor plumbing, only an outhouse, chamber pots (for night time), and a #10 washtub for bathing... wow, we really were little,:facepalm: I can't believe it now, but back then it wasn't that big a deal, was kind of like an adventure, Oh for the good ole days...:giggle:

ETA: Btw, I still say "billfold" too.

Our kids and grandkids loved a bath in the kitchen sink. When my son was three he asked if he could wash the dishes after dinner one night so he could have a bath in the sink.

Life was so different than today. No one had a second thought about outhouses and chamber pots. That sounds so far away doesn't it? maybe not many understand how it was in the south in the fifties and sixties. Life was the same as it had been since the depression, and many still lived out in the boonies without the conveniences of town and indoor plumbing.

neesaki, how are you? Doing OK?

 

[Kensie]

I also lived in Texarkana in the late 60's , early 70's. I guess I just gave my age away. LOL.

 

[ILikeToBendPages]

Yes, there was some type of monster creature. I was about 12 and terrified. I could not sleep near a window. I had forgotten about it but now that you mention I remember how scared I was. The news even talked about it. I can visualize my room and terrified of the window at night.

The "Fouke Monster"? Fouke is not that far from Magnolia, and it's said whatever it is roams far and wide.

 

[Kensie]

It is definitely a small world.

I live in Alabama and one day I was in Philadelphia and saw a former high schooler.

 

[Nore]

Hi all, I know there will be no tv. etc. but will the public be allowed in the court room during the retrial? You know the part where they get to discuss all the carp we already know but we cant see or hear. ( I am so fed up)..In Ohio they may not televise the trial but in most cases they do for the sentencing. I wonder if miss priss realizes all of this yet, if the full impact has hit her. I wish I could be there if allowed in the court. only about 2,000 miles.:floorlaugh:

 

[neesaki]

Our kids and grandkids loved a bath in the kitchen sink. When my son was three he asked if he could wash the dishes after dinner one night so he could have a bath in the sink.

Life was so different than today. No one had a second thought about outhouses and chamber pots. That sounds so far away doesn't it? maybe not many understand how it was in the south in the fifties and sixties. Life was the same as it had been since the depression, and many still lived out in the boonies without the conveniences of town and indoor plumbing.

neesaki, how are you? Doing OK?

You're right, it seems like a lifetime ago, a whole different world from today. I actually kind of miss that. When i was a little girl, my favorite pastime was playing outside in the dirt and with little rubber cars and cap pistols and doing the whole cowboys and Indians thing.
I'm doing well, Other than being quite spoiled, now that I started thinking about it :facepalm: How are things with you ?

 

[Nore]

Our kids and grandkids loved a bath in the kitchen sink. When my son was three he asked if he could wash the dishes after dinner one night so he could have a bath in the sink.

Life was so different than today. No one had a second thought about outhouses and chamber pots. That sounds so far away doesn't it? maybe not many understand how it was in the south in the fifties and sixties. Life was the same as it had been since the depression, and many still lived out in the boonies without the conveniences of town and indoor plumbing.

neesaki, how are you? Doing OK?

--------
Hi I like, things were a lot different up North too. I think I prefer that to this!
People were so close friends neighbors, relatives, everyone shared good and bad. I'm glad I grew up in that time, glad my son wasnt far behind. He grew up outside in the summer and inside in the winter barring the time spent sledding! At the end of the depression we were still happy to run around catching bees in a bottle, lightning bugs, sitting out on the steps at night watching the stars. Makes me want to cry. We didnt have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out but dann we were happy kids! :loveyou:-

 

[Hope4More]

Poverty is different nowadays, at least in places where folks aren't expected to be poor. I remember what it was like back then.

My parents separated when I was 9. My mom had 4 kids to support, had never worked---married at 19, was expected to stay home, barefoot and pregnant. My dad refused to pay child support for 4 years. We did what we had to. My mother went to college fulltime to get a BA so she coukd teach and support 4 kids. She also took on a huge paper delivery route, and all 4 kids, the oldest age 12, did that route every day of the week with her. On Sundays we woke up, collated papers for hours, then delivered them carload by carload....in rain or snow, in a car with no heat and sometimes, with windows that would not close. We collected every month as well. There were a lot of people who tipped us well. Probably felt sorry for us. All our tip money went to our mother. We knew she needed it to pay bills, and we all felt good to be able to help.

Any small incident that cost money was a disaster that meant a choice between buying food or paying a bill. We went without food a lot. I remember weeks in a row when breakfast was jello, lunch was a peanut butter sandwich on stale bread bought from the day old store, and water, because we couldn't afford to buy 4 milks at school. Supper was one box of mac and cheese, shared by all 5 of us. And there were weeks when even that standard of living couldn't be met. Ever hear of soul food biscuits? That's what my mother called biscuits made from flour, water, and baking powder....our supper when things were really bad.

If there were families as poor as ours in the neighborhood they sure kept it a secret. The funny thing is, though, I never FELT poor. I knew from going to friends' houses that we didn't have the same kind of things or number of things, both toys and furnishings, etc. Every time I as invited for dinner or even had a snack at a friend's house I marvelled at what always seemed to be a gigantic fairy tale feast. But...I didn't feel poor. As others have recalled, it was more than enough to watch for fireflies at night, to play kick the can and hide and seek with every kid in the neighborhood, staying out till called for supper and going back out afterwards till after dark and bath to bedtime. We didn't own a TV and didn't miss it. If not playing neighborhood games we rode our bikes, pretended to be explorers in the nearby woods, imagined the gravel pit a mile away was a huge canyon and we were the first to discover it. We read. A lot. To this day I experience a book as a door opening to another place I can and do vanish into, completely.

My son has never gone hungry. Difficulty with food for him is choosing between sushi or steak. He receives more toys on one birthday than I received in my whole childhood, all holidays combined. At age 11 he has already travelled to 36 states.

And yet.....I feel sorry for him that he hasn't had and won't ever have the kind of childhood I had. His world is so much more isolating, so much less a place of imagination. Not knowing what it is like to have nothing, he is never amazed by or deeply grateful for little things. He, like his friends, just doesn't have the attention span to stare at the stars like we did too, for hours, laying on our backs in the grass, talking.

I wouldn't trade childhoods with him.

 

[neesaki]

Kensie, did you grow up being told there was something out there at nights? Like the "Fouke Monster"? The Bogy Creek Monster? I have a story to tell, and I know it's hard to believe, but there is something out there.

In 1967 when my sister was seven months pregnant with my nephew, she went to Fort Polk to be with her husband after the femur in his left leg snapped during basic training, and was to have surgery.
She found a little two room (no air conditioning) cottage apartment that was behind a large old house in DeRidder Louisiana and rented it for twenty dollars a month.

Her landlord was a very strange woman. She'd watch Johnny Carson with her and when it was over she'd unplug the tv lamps, even her refrigerator, and go to bed, and my sister would go back to her little apartment.

She said her bed was in the corner of the room with two windows on one side of the bed and two behind the headboard, and one hot summer night after she crawled in the bed and laid her head on the pillow she smelled a terrible stench and could hear something breathing, and that she's reached down and pulled a shotgun up by her side and laid there. All night she said it stayed and watched her, and it left before sunup. She told her landlord about it and was told it was OK it wouldn't hurt her. My sister is a very grounded person, and I believe her. She has no reason to tell something not true.

I believe her too.

Yes, there was some type of monster creature. I was about 12 and terrified. I could not sleep near a window. I had forgotten about it but now that you mention I remember how scared I was. The news even talked about it. I can visualize my room and terrified of the window at night.

The "Fouke Monster"? Fouke is not that far from Magnolia, and it's said whatever it is roams far and wide.

That reminds of that movie that came out back in the 70's "Legend of Boggy Creek". IIRC, I was about 16 or 17 y/o when we saw the movie at the Drive In ... another bit of nostalgia. : Anyway, I thought it was really scary because it sounded like it was probably true, at least it did to me.

Found these websites that tell the story and describe the reported sightings of the Fouke Monster.

Don't you just love this stuff ? :scared:

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2212

http://foukemonster.net/sightings.htm

Then of course there's the town of Fouke and the Monster Mart. That does it, I'm seriously going to make that a side trip on our next visit to Arkansas. :giggle:
http://foukemonstermart.net/index.htm

 

[Niner]

I may have PSM address. If I still do, I will send her a card from all of us and ask her to either post or PM one of us.

Oh good! Hope she gets back to you! :loveyou:

Anyway, I also remember going to my grandma's house when I was quite small, up to the age of 7 or so. No indoor plumbing, only an outhouse, chamber pots (for night time), and a #10 washtub for bathing... wow, we really were little, I can't believe it now, but back then it wasn't that big a deal, was kind of like an adventure, Oh for the good ole days...

Oh, that reminds of my visit to Latvia in 1978 with just my mother! We visited some relatives over night, who had to haul the water out of the well, heat it up and put it into a tub for me to take a bath; and my mother would pour the water on my hair to wash that! LOL! Oh gosh - I told them - don't worry about it - I'll take a bath when I got back to the hotel!! :floorlaugh: and another relative who had an outhouse we had to use; actually he had fixed it up really nice! With posters and all - with a two-seater!

:seeya:

ETA: is anyone else having problems with WS? or is it just my laptop??? :banghead:

 

[Niner]

I may have PSM address. If I still do, I will send her a card from all of us and ask her to either post or PM one of us.

Thinking.... Zuri why not overnight delivery??!! :escape: a quick delivery vs. a slow one... so we don't have to continue :waiting: !! Just a suggestion!

:wave:

 

[m1279]

Wooo...Nancy Grace is fired up tonight!

Sorry, o/t. Carry on. :seeya:

 

[gcharlie]

Wooo...Nancy Grace is fired up tonight!

Sorry, o/t. Carry on. :seeya:

What's got her knickers in a twist this time?

 

[m1279]

What's got her knickers in a twist this time?

It was the latest George Zimmerman debacle.

I love NG but I don't always agree with her...I'll leave it at that!

 

[Gnatcatcher]

Poverty is different nowadays, at least in places where folks aren't expected to be poor. I remember what it was like back then.

My parents separated when I was 9. My mom had 4 kids to support, had never worked---married at 19, was expected to stay home, barefoot and pregnant. My dad refused to pay child support for 4 years. We did what we had to. My mother went to college fulltime to get a BA so she coukd teach and support 4 kids. She also took on a huge paper delivery route, and all 4 kids, the oldest age 12, did that route every day of the week with her. On Sundays we woke up, collated papers for hours, then delivered them carload by carload....in rain or snow, in a car with no heat and sometimes, with windows that would not close. We collected every month as well. There were a lot of people who tipped us well. Probably felt sorry for us. All our tip money went to our mother. We knew she needed it to pay bills, and we all felt good to be able to help.

Any small incident that cost money was a disaster that meant a choice between buying food or paying a bill. We went without food a lot. I remember weeks in a row when breakfast was jello, lunch was a peanut butter sandwich on stale bread bought from the day old store, and water, because we couldn't afford to buy 4 milks at school. Supper was one box of mac and cheese, shared by all 5 of us. And there were weeks when even that standard of living couldn't be met. Ever hear of soul food biscuits? That's what my mother called biscuits made from flour, water, and baking powder....our supper when things were really bad.

If there were families as poor as ours in the neighborhood they sure kept it a secret. The funny thing is, though, I never FELT poor. I knew from going to friends' houses that we didn't have the same kind of things or number of things, both toys and furnishings, etc. Every time I as invited for dinner or even had a snack at a friend's house I marvelled at what always seemed to be a gigantic fairy tale feast. But...I didn't feel poor. As others have recalled, it was more than enough to watch for fireflies at night, to play kick the can and hide and seek with every kid in the neighborhood, staying out till called for supper and going back out afterwards till after dark and bath to bedtime. We didn't own a TV and didn't miss it. If not playing neighborhood games we rode our bikes, pretended to be explorers in the nearby woods, imagined the gravel pit a mile away was a huge canyon and we were the first to discover it. We read. A lot. To this day I experience a book as a door opening to another place I can and do vanish into, completely.

My son has never gone hungry. Difficulty with food for him is choosing between sushi or steak. He receives more toys on one birthday than I received in my whole childhood, all holidays combined. At age 11 he has already travelled to 36 states.

And yet.....I feel sorry for him that he hasn't had and won't ever have the kind of childhood I had. His world is so much more isolating, so much less a place of imagination. Not knowing what it is like to have nothing, he is never amazed by or deeply grateful for little things. He, like his friends, just doesn't have the attention span to stare at the stars like we did too, for hours, laying on our backs in the grass, talking.

I wouldn't trade childhoods with him.

I spent a great deal of the day today cursing God's name because he wouldn't give me the $500 I asked for. And then I read your post.

How humbling. Really. I'm ashamed of myself.

 

[josie1986]

Think I'll be spending more time on ws again since I'm back to hardly being able to walk.

Got my boot off and was told not to put it back on and not walk much. Fat chance of that school run, nursery run, groceries and house to run so I've walked too much already and my leg is seizing up and burning because I have no muscle.

Left leg.

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