I read another blog today that had to do with a woman who allowed her 5 year old son dress as Daphne from Scoobydoo. Apparently the child loves the show and for some reason had chosen this costume to be what he wanted to dress up as. The closer it came to Halloween and taking him to preschool in his costume the more he became concerned that people would laugh at him in a bad way. Several of his friends moms knew what his costume was to be and told him it was great as they walked into the school. However when the child and his mother reached his classroom several other mothers made a point to question this woman as to why she would allow such a costume and was it one that he had picked out and if he was in Kindergarten she would have had to put her foot down and not allow it at all.
This blog got my blood boiling! How DARE anyone question a costume for Halloween unless it is totally not age appropriate. This mother posted a picture of her son in costume and it made me smile. He was very cute. Now granted I wouldn't want my son to dress in drag on a regular basis but for a Halloween costume there isn't anything really the matter with it.
As I read this blog I thought about how hatred and bigotry and bullying tend to start at home and get brought out into the public areas. If parents can't find a way to understand that there are all types in this world of ours then how are children to learn that it is ok to be different? How are they to know that it isn't ok to call other people hurtful things or behave in a hurtful manner if their parents are spouting garbage in their homes and calling people that are different ugly names and terms? Children learn by example and while some things may not be the norm or really acceptable in todays society there are ways to let your child know without being rude, crude, and nasty about it.
Ok... I step down from my soap box and try to accept that life is as it is and I have raised understanding and non bigotted children. Thank you.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Concerts
For the past two weekends, my family and I have attended concerts at Stone Mountain Park. It has been a wonderful way to spend time together as well as get some cultural experiences.
Last week there was the Last Blast of Summer with Eden's Edge, Chris Janson, Jaron and the Long Road to Love and Jarrod Niemann playing on the main lawn. We got there early and got a good spot on the lawn where we could hear everything as well as be able to see the laser show later in the evening. We also set up near one of the entrances so that my husband would be able to find us when he got there from work. We got to hear some great music and have a good clean family time.
This weekend Stone Mountain hosted the Yellow Daisy Festival with tons of craft booths in the special events section. We knew that they were going to have The Band Perry playing and for a $10 parking fee we got to go enjoy another concert. This time we got to the lawn early and were thinking what fantastic seats we had, only to realize that we were in the wrong section of the park. We needed to be over in the special events section. So a long walk and a shuttle bus ride later, we got there in time to see part of Foxes and Fossils before The Band Perry started.
My son enjoyed Foxes and Fossils more than The Band Perry but that is ok. He found something he enjoyed listening to and then wandered for a bit with a cell phone in his pocket while the rest of us enjoyed who we had gone to see.
We got to meet the band afterwards and they were friendly and polite and just as happy to see those of us that were at the end of the line as they were to see those at the front.
I am so glad that we decided to go to these events. Family time is important and as my children grow rapidly toward being adults I find that I treasure the quiet times together.
Last week there was the Last Blast of Summer with Eden's Edge, Chris Janson, Jaron and the Long Road to Love and Jarrod Niemann playing on the main lawn. We got there early and got a good spot on the lawn where we could hear everything as well as be able to see the laser show later in the evening. We also set up near one of the entrances so that my husband would be able to find us when he got there from work. We got to hear some great music and have a good clean family time.
This weekend Stone Mountain hosted the Yellow Daisy Festival with tons of craft booths in the special events section. We knew that they were going to have The Band Perry playing and for a $10 parking fee we got to go enjoy another concert. This time we got to the lawn early and were thinking what fantastic seats we had, only to realize that we were in the wrong section of the park. We needed to be over in the special events section. So a long walk and a shuttle bus ride later, we got there in time to see part of Foxes and Fossils before The Band Perry started.
My son enjoyed Foxes and Fossils more than The Band Perry but that is ok. He found something he enjoyed listening to and then wandered for a bit with a cell phone in his pocket while the rest of us enjoyed who we had gone to see.
We got to meet the band afterwards and they were friendly and polite and just as happy to see those of us that were at the end of the line as they were to see those at the front.
I am so glad that we decided to go to these events. Family time is important and as my children grow rapidly toward being adults I find that I treasure the quiet times together.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Neighbors
It never fails to amaze me how friendly people are when there aren't wooden walls between "neighbors".
On Saturday when we got to our campsite, one set of neighbors offered us the use of a hammer to pound the tent pegs. It wasn't needed since we had brought our own, but it was nice they offered never the less.
On Sunday evening, after dinner, we were finishing a game fo cards and the neighbors across the way began to play some dance music on their car stereo. My daughter and I decided we wanted to do some of the dances so we set the same songs to play on our laptop. We began dancing at our site and they saw us and told us to come on over and join them. We ended up there dancing to several songs.
Also on Sunday, while at the pool, my teens met another set of teens that were siblings. THe four of them played frisbee and ball off and on through out the afternoon. They later came and sat with my kids around our campfire that night, talking about band and wrestling, snow and floods.
Smores were eaten, conversation flowed and neighbors of a few hours in the space of time got to know each other better. What a wonderful way to spend outdoors.
On Saturday when we got to our campsite, one set of neighbors offered us the use of a hammer to pound the tent pegs. It wasn't needed since we had brought our own, but it was nice they offered never the less.
On Sunday evening, after dinner, we were finishing a game fo cards and the neighbors across the way began to play some dance music on their car stereo. My daughter and I decided we wanted to do some of the dances so we set the same songs to play on our laptop. We began dancing at our site and they saw us and told us to come on over and join them. We ended up there dancing to several songs.
Also on Sunday, while at the pool, my teens met another set of teens that were siblings. THe four of them played frisbee and ball off and on through out the afternoon. They later came and sat with my kids around our campfire that night, talking about band and wrestling, snow and floods.
Smores were eaten, conversation flowed and neighbors of a few hours in the space of time got to know each other better. What a wonderful way to spend outdoors.
Sitting in the quiet stillness of the morning beside a lake, my family still sleeps in the tent behind me. A small smokey fire burns befoe me to heat the first pot of water we will need today. We have taken a weekend to go camping for the first time in many years.
I recall the many nights of camping in amusty canvas tent with my parents and siblings when I was a child. Tghe day light hours of those camping trips are long gone from my memories, but the nights? Those I remember. We would have a campfire and roast marshmallows and sing. Then Mom would send us in to get in our sleeping bags for the night. She would remind us to be hush so we'd hear her play us to sleep and if we were quiet whe would go out and play her guitar by the fire. Sometimes it was just a variety of chords that would sound like a bablling series of notes as her fingers plucked the strings but oft times it was more an accompaniement to her soft soprano voice.
Tonight our campfire will bursh and my children will roast marshmallows. We will sit beside the fire and talk of our day in husched voices but there will be little to no singing this night. My teenagers don't know the old songs like I learned. When I should have been teaching them around the campfire like I was taught, I fell down on the job. Sadly my voice doesn't hold the notes properlyh now and it would be the noise part of the command to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Despite the lack of Christian choruses, I believe my children will remember this time together with fond memories.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Yesteryear
They say you can't go home again..... I am finding they are right. I have come back to my hometown for the first time in 12 years and so many things are changed. Many of the people that I remember are no longer locals. Buildings that I remember are still here but have changed ownership and business names. I played tourist while I was here, taking lots of pictures of things I remembered. I was glad to see that some things still look the same but being older and taller the vantage point is different.
The outer portion of the library is the same.... I spent so many hours in that place because it fed my love of books. I remember my mother taking us there when I was a child and going there in elementary school for a field trip. I remember hours of research done there as a teenager for papers for high school. The library had a children's section, a teen section and an adult section as well as the periodical room. This was before computers were so popular and everything needed to be looked up in the card catalogue to find it. To this day I am excited to walk into a library and know that the world is at my fingertips and adventures await when I open the covers of a book.
The ocean and beaches look the same. I guess there isn't much that could be done that would change the waters. I was hoping for some time with the ocean waves rolling in. This visit the bay was rougher than the ocean but to be able to remove my shoes and feel the sand between my toes and the water over my feet was wonderful. The salt air was perfume to me and seeing these places brought back the memories of laughter and playing in the sun and surf as a child; of meeting family and friends on the beach. Memories of picnics at Fresh Pond and fireworks at Albert's Beach or Main Beach flooded back. Days of innocence and growing up.
Another thing from "yesteryear" is the foods I used to eat while living in my hometown. I can't get them where I live now but I was able to find them again here. Rare roastbeef and american cheese on a hard roll with mayo and salt and pepper along with a Hampton's Dairy iced tea in a green box was a must have. I ate them regularly and was so glad that I was able to get them at Buckets where Everett came out of the back to say hello. I worked in that store on Saturday mornings putting the Sunday newspapers together. I always got lunch from there or from the Chicken house on Saturday. It just depended on which deli I was at when lunch time rolled around.
New York Pizza was a must as well. I ate it twice this week..... folded over the proper way with extra cheese and garlic salt added to it. Grease dripped from the folded crust as I bit in and closed my eyes. There are New York style pizza places in the south but there is NOTHING like it to have it from one of the parlors from my home town. I worked for a local parlor when I was in my early teens and thought when I stopped that I would never want pizza again. How wrong I was. Due to be older and having reflux issues I don't usually eat red sauce anymore.... but NY pizza isn't the same without it and I found that I didn't have one bit of problem with it from here.
I am so glad I took the time to come back to my hometown. I still want to bring my children so they can see it, but I long for the days of yesteryear, when we walked the streets safely and played at the parks and beaches and through the neighborhoods. It felt odd seeing the local kids grown up even though it has been so long since I have been back and I feel old myself many days. Seeing familiar places took me back to being a child and the days of freedom and innocence.
The outer portion of the library is the same.... I spent so many hours in that place because it fed my love of books. I remember my mother taking us there when I was a child and going there in elementary school for a field trip. I remember hours of research done there as a teenager for papers for high school. The library had a children's section, a teen section and an adult section as well as the periodical room. This was before computers were so popular and everything needed to be looked up in the card catalogue to find it. To this day I am excited to walk into a library and know that the world is at my fingertips and adventures await when I open the covers of a book.
The ocean and beaches look the same. I guess there isn't much that could be done that would change the waters. I was hoping for some time with the ocean waves rolling in. This visit the bay was rougher than the ocean but to be able to remove my shoes and feel the sand between my toes and the water over my feet was wonderful. The salt air was perfume to me and seeing these places brought back the memories of laughter and playing in the sun and surf as a child; of meeting family and friends on the beach. Memories of picnics at Fresh Pond and fireworks at Albert's Beach or Main Beach flooded back. Days of innocence and growing up.
Another thing from "yesteryear" is the foods I used to eat while living in my hometown. I can't get them where I live now but I was able to find them again here. Rare roastbeef and american cheese on a hard roll with mayo and salt and pepper along with a Hampton's Dairy iced tea in a green box was a must have. I ate them regularly and was so glad that I was able to get them at Buckets where Everett came out of the back to say hello. I worked in that store on Saturday mornings putting the Sunday newspapers together. I always got lunch from there or from the Chicken house on Saturday. It just depended on which deli I was at when lunch time rolled around.
New York Pizza was a must as well. I ate it twice this week..... folded over the proper way with extra cheese and garlic salt added to it. Grease dripped from the folded crust as I bit in and closed my eyes. There are New York style pizza places in the south but there is NOTHING like it to have it from one of the parlors from my home town. I worked for a local parlor when I was in my early teens and thought when I stopped that I would never want pizza again. How wrong I was. Due to be older and having reflux issues I don't usually eat red sauce anymore.... but NY pizza isn't the same without it and I found that I didn't have one bit of problem with it from here.
I am so glad I took the time to come back to my hometown. I still want to bring my children so they can see it, but I long for the days of yesteryear, when we walked the streets safely and played at the parks and beaches and through the neighborhoods. It felt odd seeing the local kids grown up even though it has been so long since I have been back and I feel old myself many days. Seeing familiar places took me back to being a child and the days of freedom and innocence.
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