Tranquility

Tranquil and Anxious or just old?

I swear the world goes round too fast.  Is it possible for a person to be tranquil and calm when the New York minute is running at high speed even in my small town.

It seems just yesterday I was waiting to be age 21.  That age came and went, so then I was waiting to be age 30 because it was a neat age.  Age 29 came and I was traumatized and certainly not tranquil when I reached this age.  I guess I felt I was on the threshold of being old.  30 was a bit easier to take than 29 but, I suddenly realized that I was no longer a young chick....I was bound for the old chick's chicken pen.  The coup de grace as far as I was concerned at that tender age of 30.

Next came the wait for the "Jack Benny" age --an old 39 year old fart.  Reaching that age was horrible....even worse than age 40.

The next couple of years saw 40, 50 and then 60 pass me by.  
That old chick's chicken pen was getting full of years...all sitting along the wall like wallflowers.    No tranquility surrounded any of these milestone ages, but a lot of anxiety sure did!  Now I lay me down to sleep every night as an old person.....tranquil as h*ll mainly because I learned my lesson....age doesn't mean you're dead..... reaching those "high" ages brought me to discover that it really doesn't pay to be anxious about getting old.....we're all gonna get there....at the same pace.  Of course some of my good friends are gonna get to the next age a bit faster than me (cough cough you know who you are), but I guess I will catch up....tranquil and not anxious at all at raising the age. 

Tranquility is an old man's milk.  I think Thomas Jefferson might have said this.....but, he ain't around so I have borrowed it to become my motto (but I changed it to an old woman's milk).  He loved humor and so do I.  Tranquil humor that is!


Old Stuff

(you can click on most photos to get an

enlarged view)

Sears House "Honor Built Crescent"....1920's from a catalog.

Five rooms and a bath at a $2,436 cost.

Postcard showing Sears Roebuck in

early 1900's, Chicago, IL.  Was on 50 acres.

A "self built" Sears house which could be

ordered from a catalog 1927 at a price

of $2,025 or $35 monthly.  6 rooms and a bath. 

Called the Gladstone model.

Both sides of a postcard from Sears, advertising the book "Ben Hur" at a price of $.48.

Quote For The Day

Every sweet has its sour;

every evil its good.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Over my many years I've lost friends....some died...  some moved away....some I determined were really not my friends in the first place.....some got rotten spots like an old apple .....and some just went away .... Thank God!

At times the way we have to keep friends is like sucking marijuana through a blow pipe....they don't want to come up the way you want it to.  Some want us to kiss their butts.  And, some want to beat our butts.  Some would really like to make us go away for good and some don't really give a crap about us....but they pretend they do.  Money flows easily through one's hands and so do friends....here today and gone tomorrow.

Gaining and keeping good friends is like insanity in an insane world.   But I have a test for this insanity......I look at the 4 persons I consider my best friends to see if they look and act insane....if they look ok and act ok, then it must be me so I have to change....and sometimes it means changing friends. 

Sometimes those friends can turn on you like a rabid dog....kind of like that pit bull that your neighbor down two blocks has in his backyard pen.  Specifically, the one he's been training to fight other pit bulls ....... or maybe he's training those dang pit bulls to chew people or his friends .... sometimes friends can act like they want to go for your throat just like a pit bull.

If someone turns on you, what do you do??  You fight back.....that's what you do!!  It's my motto that you should never let anyone jump on you without retaliating....you should do everything you can to make that person miserable, if they started it.  You should send them a bouquet of dead flowers, talk about them to everyone who will listen and then send them a box of candy but, eat the candy first and replace the pieces of candy with little sheep poop pellets.  Love that tasty morsel.

The moral of this story is friends are hard to find but even harder to keep.  You should know that if you land up in jail....a friend who says she/he is your good friend will always bail you out....but your BEST friend will be in that same jail cell saying wow that was a good time...glad we were together!  See you around friend...maybe in that jail cell!

Thanks for coming to my blog.

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Hope to see you again soon!

Some Old Sears Information

Something Interesting about something old....
I found a website which shows the original Sears model homes....from 1908.  It's quite interesting to see that many of the models look like houses which are in Greenview.  I've know for quite a while that many houses in Greenview are actually Sears houses.   From looking at the pictures,  it's almost like looking at a block from the town of Greenview.  I thought it was cool to see that one of their homes was named "Greenview" from 1908 to 1914.  I think there a few homes in town and in the country which resemble this model.  Even though it's called Model 115, I found a reference to this Model 115 being named "Greenview".

Take a look at other houses on the web site and see how closely they resemble houses in Greenview.  On the left side of the page, click on the different lists of dates to see the different house pictures.  http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/index.htm

This site also has other interesting information about Sears.  I spent hours going through the site, looking at the catalog information and other history.  I miss the big old Sears catalog!  But times changed and so did Sears....with Sears Holdings now having Sears and K-Mart. I thought it was classed as K-Mart buying Sears but I have been confused on this since the day it happened.    By the way, does anyone remember when the K-Mart on Clearlake opened ...  it had a grocery store at the east end which was totally separate from the other part of the store.

Sears on South Grand, Springfield

Provoking Thoughts

For the entire existence of Greenview, the Montgomery family has been on this land.  Unfortunately, our ancestors and the ancestors of most families did not do a good job documenting the history of the town after the few early books.  Our family has spent many man hours trying to research and document what we can through persons still living, bibles, books, photographs and other items. 

It's hard. And time consuming.  But, the facts are checked before anything is released...and if a mistake is made, we correct it.  The research is ours and not of others.  That's one reason why I have in the past asked my readers to document something about their families for archives at the library and the historical society (haven't yet had any takers but I'm still hoping for some so their families can be accurately documented).    I wouldn't want anything to happen which would force the family to stop our quest for ACCURATE history documentation.  We're not opposed for others to help in the documentation of this town and in fact welcome that.....but the research must be accurate.   We do not want Greenview known to be a village which puts out inaccurate information on its history.  The history environment is adamant about this!   I'm sure persons whose families have been here for decades and decades wouldn't want accurate Greenview history documentation to stop.  You obviously can see that our family cares about Greenview .... from reading this blog.  Just sayin......

Old Tyme Greenview

1933 - John Johnson and Cleo Denton opened a grocery store in the Wernsing store building.  The Wernsing family had operated a general store since 1883 in that same location.

1934 - Waldo Adams became the owner of the Grenview Cash Market.  (Note from Carla - Waldo Adams is the person from whom my dad purchased the large white house we used to live in across from the old grade school - and at the opposite south end of the street from the elevator).  Henry O'Brien opened a tavern and pool and billiard room in the Opera House first floor  (the section which later became the tavern operated by Luther and Mildred Schmidt (Smitty's) -- Henry O'Brien was Mildred Schmidt's father)

1935 - Vocational Agriculture was added to the school curriculum.  Dick Cramer opened Cramer Implement in the location of the Rayburn garage.  Dick was killed shortly thereafter and Marie his wife, his father Harmon and his brother Elmer took over management of the business.  Richard VanOsdale operated a restaurant purchased from Jess Barnett.  Roy Cramer operated a tavern in a brick building next to the post office.  Frank Taylor was the iceman.

1936 - The post office which had been located in the Robert building for 30 years, moved to the First State Bank building.  Band instruction was added to the school curriculum.

Recipe

The following is my chocolate fudge icing recipe.  Th recipe was my grandmother's and I would be lost without it.  I use it for a large chocolate cake, texas cake and a big pan of brownies.  I have been known to cut the recipe in half for a smaller pan of chocolate whatever.

Bring to a Boil:  1 stick of margarine
                      6 Tablespoons milk
                      4 Tablespoons cocoa

You do not have to boil this any length of time.  Remove from heat and add 1 Box Powdered Sugar and beat till blended (I usually sift beforehand to make sure there are no lumps), add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts if desired.  Be sure to work fast.....as it usually sets up quickly.  Makes enough for a large cake.  You will not be sorry when you taste this icing.....it sets up kind of like a fudge.

Thought For The Day

Fortune does not change men,

it unmasks them.

--Suzanne Necker

Geeze....I think I shouldn't have put the poll question on about posting less often.  The majority is 3 and those voters think I should post less.  And, I let it get me down.    I'm not sure if it's because I'm not doing a good job of finding interesting and variety things to post about (I really try and spend mucho time doing it), or if these are some persons who in the past gave me bad critiques which was a big part in my stopping the blog previously.

It's my own fault that I'm down in the dumps over the votes.  But I guess I was interested in finding out people's true feelings.  Of course only five people voted and I doubt that is a true representation of the many readers I have according to the statistical numbers. 

I use this blog as a mental exercise to keep my brain healthy and in an attempt to warn off Alzheimers which has already happened among my siblings.  The writing of this blog also helps me keep up with my writing skills.  And, it gives me something to do each day....it's hard sitting around doing nothing out in the rural area with no friends close by to visit with. 

At this time I'm going to ignore the wishes of the 3 voters and keep on posting as long as I can.  I guess people will need to physically write me a note and tell me that I'm getting boring and should slow down and not post so much....or maybe the readers who think I should cut it down, should only read two of my posts a week....their choice of the two posts of course  Just some thoughts....sorry for a rather dark thought blog post today.

Those of you who know me personally know that

I'm a proud American who loves my fellow American citizens.  I hope you enjoyed yesterday's special weekend post about Remembering 9-11.  I also hope you got a chance to listen and watch the utube tributes....in my estimation, these were the best I could find.  Happy Day....with hope .....for a better tomorrow. 

Comments please on anything I've written today or at email:  carlaslittlemoms@yahoo.com