Diane Cambron

Malachi Chase

• 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   

Remembering Malachi

 I Wish

I wish my loved one hadn’t died….and I wish I had him back.

I wish you wouldn’t avoid saying his name and asking me about him. He was really important to me, and I’d like to know that he was important to you as well. When I cry because you do talk about him, I wish you knew it wasn’t because you hurt my feelings. 

I cry because his death makes me sad…but if you allow me to share my grief…I’ll be forever thankful. 

If it seems like I’m grieving too long, I wish you wouldn’t think I’m not dealing with it well...because for me there‘s no end to the grief I feel. I‘ll suffer my loss for the rest of my life, and I’m trying my best to live with that reality.

I wish you could understand that I can’t help thinking about him. My life was shattered when he died, and I’m doing my best to put the pieces back together. That may take a very long time…so please be patient with me. 

Here’s the thing….I wish you knew that I have to hurt to heal. 

When I say, "I'm doing okay," I wish you could understand that I don't really feel okay, and that I’m just saying that to make you feel better…because, inside, I’m sometimes slowly dying. 

I wish you could realize that I do all I can to just make it through each day, and that grief changes people…because when my loved one died…part of me went with him. I’m not the same person I was before he died…and I’ll never be that person again. 

I wish that you could understand my loss…my grief…my pain…my silence…and my tears…but to be honest…I wish that you’ll never have to understand.

Gary Sturgis - “Surviving Grief”

Growing up without “fast food”

Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favourite 'fast food' when you were growing up?'
'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.
'All the food was slow.'
'C'mon, seriously.. Where did you eat?'
'It was a place called 'home,'' I explained. !
'Mum cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate, I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

By this time, the lad was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I'd figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country or had a credit card.

My parents never drove me to school... I walked. My brother had a bike and if I was lucky, he would let me ride it to piano lessons. We had raincoats and galoshes. So we didn’t get wet.

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 10.
It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 10 PM, after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it came back on the air at about 6 am. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people...

Pizzas were not delivered to our home... But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers --My brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. No Saturday papers.
He delivered each day at 5:00 pm but Sunday was at 5:00 am. And during the summer, he would cut grass. There were no riding lawn mowers, they didn’t even have motors. You pushed by hand. My spending money was earned by selling coke bottles and clothes hangers. Glass coke bottles were returned to the store for a $.02 deposit. Clothes hangers were returned to the dry cleaners 2 for a penny. $.10 would get you in the movies.

Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend:
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old lemonade bottle.
In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea.
She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?
Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom

1. Sweet cigarettes
2. Coffee shops with juke boxes
3. Home milk delivery in glass bottles
4. Party lines on the telephone
5. Newsreels before the movie
6. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning.
(There were only 3 channels [if you were fortunate])
7. Peashooters
8. 33 rpm records
9. 45 RPM records
10. Hi-fi's
11. Metal ice trays with levers
12. Blue flashbulb
13. Cork popguns
14. Wash tub wringers
15. Old 78 rpm records

Back when I was a Kid

BACK WHEN I WAS A KID. HOW MANY CAN RELATE TO THIS.

    Clothes were not disposable they were recycled. A lot of folks called blue jeans Dungarees. It was quite easy to tell if it was a new pair. First it was usually the beginning of the school year or after Christmas.  Next the kids who had them might scratch a lot. Those new pants were so stiff that when you took them off you just stood them up in a corner. Giveaway number two was the deep blue color or the new blue tint to ones shirts. This meant that someone's mother forgot about the jeans and washed them with the other clothes. Color Fastness had  not been invented yet. Another giveaway was how high the cuff was turned up. New dungarees were purchased to last a while so as you grew the cuffs grew shorter. The more you grew the better the fit!  Boys were boys back then so without indoor electronics to keep them on their butts like today's kids grass stain and knee scuffs were a mother's biggest challenge. Then came the solution of adding some protection. This came by means of handy iron on knee patches before any knee wear occurred!
      It was common to have at least 2 sets of clothing and if you were very lucky you had a third set.

Set1:
School clothes: take care of these clothes. When  you come home from school you remove them before you do anything! If not something will go wrong and you will be in deep trouble. School clothes are inspected regularly for grass stains, tears and stains. Avoid either because you have to have a story for each. Not just a story, a believable story. Nor everyone had special school clothes but they were usually neat and clean.

Set 2:
Play clothes
Yes you played in this set. These clothes might be formerly known as school clothes. Grass stains, small tears, mud etc was acceptable in moderation. Major damage to these clothes could result in possible bodily harm from unhappy parents. Standing in a corner would have been a cake walk to many unruly lads of the day. I could see this as planning time for their next misadventure.

Set 3:
Church Clothes
We were raised to wear your best clothing to church. No, everyone did not have a special set of church clothes but what they did wear was as clean as possible and pressed.  No t shirts, no jeans, no sneakers, etc. The rules were not as strict for younger children. Easter was a standard time to get a new set of church clothes. Who knows what started that. My personal guess was that it was an excuse for the ladies of the church to shop for their new  Easter Bonnets!  My opinion was that you keep your church as immaculate as can be afforded so why not look your best when you enter it. You didn't dress like you were headed to Wal-Mart, formerly called the Dime Store in my child hood.
I believe it might be an old school thing identified as RESPECT and  PRIDE in your church and yourself.
DO NOT damage these clothes!  You grew out of these clothes sometimes resulting in younger siblings getting -- New Sunday Clothes!
Even slight damage to church clothes could result in a Come To Jesus experience.

              BACK WHEN I WAS A  KID

Mothers are Blessings

Your Mother is always with you. She’s the whisper of the leaves as you walk down the street, she’s the smell of certain foods you remember, flowers you pick, the fragrance of life itself. She’s the cool hand on your brow when you’re not feeling well, she’s your breath in the air on a cold winter’s day. She is the sound of the rain that lulls you to sleep, the colors of a rainbow, she is Christmas morning. Your mother lives inside your laughter. She’s the place you came from, your first home, and she’s the map you follow with every step you take. She’s your first love, your first friend, even your first enemy, but nothing on earth can separate you. Not time, not space, not even death.
Author unknown

I have a friend who used to come to my house every morning and go to school with my children. I did not know that he felt this way about me. These are comments that he made about me on Facebook. I am one blessed person that other children love me.
Thanks Mama. You will always be my second mother. I will never forget your love of a little boy who needed you and your family. You made me part of your family and I will never forget that. My childhood would have been much less without you, Marvin, Jimmy, Jeff, Jerry, Julia and Joey. It was a great time in my life. My response was “thank you”.
No thank you. Y'all saved me. I was loved. I was included. I never felt like I did anything other than to belong. It is a part of me that is still there today. They are my brothers, she is my sister and you are my mother. I couldn't have asked for more. The greatest thing about this is the fact I did not have to ask. You already knew what I needed without being told. That's what mothers do. I had some of the best times of my childhood at your house or the adventures you always took ALL OF your kids on including me.

Washing Clothes

"Warshing Clothes Recipe" - imagine having a recipe for this ! ! !
Years ago a Texas grandmother gave the new bride the following recipe:
This is an exact copy as written and found in an old scrapbook, spelling errors and all.

WARSHING CLOTHES
Build fire in backyard to heat kettle of rain water. Set tubs so smoke wont blow in eyes if wind is pert.
Shave one hole cake of lie soap in boilin water.
Sort things, make 3 piles
1 pile white,
1 pile colored,
1 pile work britches and rags.
To make starch, stir flour in cool water to smooth, then thin down with boiling water.
Take white things, rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard and boil, then rub colored don't boil just wrench and starch.
Take things out of kettle with broom stick handle, then wrench, and starch.
Hang old rags on fence.
Spread tea towels on grass.
Pore wrench water in flower bed. Scrub porch with hot soapy water.
Turn tubs upside down.
Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with hair combs. Brew cup of tea, sit and rock a spell and count your blessings.