As a kid who would have thought I would be training and exercising my brain in the golden years! When I was born this old worn out brain had to learn things to get active and now old age means I have to exercise and train it again.....just to keep on remembering.
Can you just picture my brain lying on a table doing push-ups. Or maybe jumpin jacks......or even my little pea brain with tiny little legs running around the track doing a one minute mile!!! HA HA HA
I read this article not long ago and it said there were three ways to make your brain smarter......do mind provoking puzzles......do concentration techniqes such as focusing your mind on your favorite picture....and last of all get lots of sleep and at least 6 to 8 hours per night. I did all of these and I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT FEEL SMARTER! In fact it made me tired and I had to go sleep some more so I should be really smart but.........
So....recently I read another article on brain training and it said to work with numbers, read a book, walk around the house blindfolded, speak a new tongue, think positive, continually learn and on and on. Believe me I have to work with numbers all the time....it ain't fun juggling the bank accounts to make sure the bills are paid.....and I speak a new tongue each day because I brush my tongue with my toothbrush so it's just like new......boy that blindfolded thing is scarey as I think it's practice for when you go blind in your old age.....I learn something new each day just by writing on this blog and if I didn't think positive I'd be 6 foot under by now.
As I analyze this whole thing, my brain must be good and exercised and retrained. At least I think it is............
An Old Time Menard County Murder
In the days of old, it seems some men were rather strong at hand and in some cases just outright murdered their wife.....that happened more than once in Menard County. The following is a newspaper story about a murder which in 1921.
"Menard County had its first murder for many years Monday morning, when James S. Cooper of Pekin stabbed his wife Maud Cooper to death at the home of her mother, Mrs. Charles R. Bell, three miles east of Petersburg. Mrs. Cooper, who was about 29 years old, had for four weeks been confined to a hospital in Springfield and had submitted to an operation for appendicitis. She had been out of the hospital a week, and had been staying at her mother's home until she gained back sufficient strength to go back to her home in Pekin, and care for her family. Cooper, who is owner of a broom factory in Pekin drove down in his car Saturday afternoon, bringing their two sons, fourteen and twelve years old and Ora Daniels, a boy who works for him, along. He came with the expectation of taking Mrs. Cooper back with him.
About six o'clock Monday morning, Cooper went to the room where his wife and ten year old daughter Loraine were sleeping and asked Mrs. Cooper if she was going home with him. She replied "I don't know." Cooper then went to another room and after being gone only a few moments, came back, again asked her if she would accompany him home, and upon receiving the same reply, drew a knife and stabbed her through the right breast, the knife penetrating the lung, and causing her death in a few minutes. He is said to have struck two or three blows at the little daughter, but she was unhurt.
After striking his wife, Cooper turned upon her brother Walter Sewell, and attacked him with the knife, inflicting eight wounds before he was overpowered by a step-brother Jesse Bell, who came to Walter Sewell's assistance. None of Sewell's wounds are thought to be serious, but he was taken to a hospital so that he might be given proper care. Cooper was tied and the Sheriff and Dr. H. P. Moulton summoned. Mrs. Cooper was dead when Dr. Moulton arrived, and Sheriff Granstaff brought Cooper to this city, where he was lodged in the County jail until Tuesday morning, when the inquest was held.
Cooper was given a chance to testify and stated that he had no remembrance of stabbing his wife, or of fighting with Walter Sewell. He remembered sharpening the knife, and said that he whetted it as the edge of a crack, thinking he might need it around the car. To the direct question "Did you kill your wife?" he replied "No." Before the inquest he told Sheriff Grandstaff that he had been ill during the night before the murder but drank a portion of a bottle of liniment, and that his memory had since been blank.
After being set about ten minutes, the coroner's jury returned a verdict finding that Maude Cooper came to her death at the hands of her husband James S. Cooper, and advidsion that he be held in the county jail without bail.
Funeral services for Mrs. Cooper were held Wednesday morning, March 9, at 11 o'clock from the Christian Church here. Elder E.C. Smoot officiated, assisted by Rev. J.N. Grisso. Interment was made in Rose Hill Cemetery."
Recipe
I love a really good spaghetti sauce. When I first started cooking I used canned or jarred sauce but was never satisfied. I then started experimenting in making my own sauce....and after about 10 years I was satisfied. Here's my recipe....keeping in mind I don't like a sweet type of spaghetti sauce.
Spaghetti Sauce
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 small green pepper chopped
1 large onion chopped
1 cup celery chopped fine
2 cans tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (can use less or more if desired)
1 clove garlic chopped fine
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or 1 tablespoon or more dried
1/4 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon pepper
sugar to taste
salt to taste
Little water
Brown the beef, onion, celery, green pepper in the olive oil and drain any grease. Add the remaining ingredients and cook on medium until it starts to boil then lower to simmer and simmer for about 20 minutes.....then turn off and let it sit for about an hour and a half and turn back on and heat it through. I use this for lasagna or spaghetti or other pasta. It makes quite a bit but is just right for a big pan of lasagna.
Thought For The Day
The art of being wise is the art
of knowing what to overlook.
--William James
You know it's a bad day when you go to the store and you have someone gives you the big bad mouth.
I was at a Walmart this week and happened to see an old friend so we started talking. We were standing to the side in a big wide aisle so we were not in anyone's way. After a few minutes a young man, who I judged to be about 18 to 20 came up behind us and just stood there making faces.
Instead of going around us, he stood there coughing. I asked him if he needed a cough drop and that really made him mad. I could just see steam starting to come out his brain. He was good and mad at us.
Then his gums started flapping....he said "Move your *ss grandma". Yes I am a grandma but I don't deserve to be disrespected by any young whippersnapper. I was trying to be cool and also trying to quickly think of a really cool thing to say.
Naturally I couldn't think of much of anything but then it hit me......so I said. "OMG I remember you.....do you remember me??? I'm dating your dad and in a couple of months we probably will get married and then I'm going to be your mama not your grandma and I'm going to make sure that I'm the mean old step mother and I WILL make your life miserable. That kid turned and ran off as fast as he could.
I thought my friend was going to bust a gut laughing and then I started laughing and we had a grand old time laughing together!! I expected this kid was going to wait for me in the parking lot but I didn't see him. I sure don't know what makes kids of today act like they do....but they aren't going to get anything over on this old chick!!
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