Summers past

Today was the last day of school for students. After we put the kids on the buses and waited for the car riders to be picked up, the teachers remembered summers when we were kids. Summers seemed inviting and full of possibilities on the first day of vacation.

The early weeks of summer were filled with Vacation Bible School. When I was in elementary school VBS lasted two weeks. Then we would drive to visit our cousins in Georgia and at least once we attended VBS there.

We went to the library once a week. My favorite library was the Livingston Branch in front of the zoo. The librarian remembered us and what kinds of stories we liked to hear. My younger brother always wanted stories about cats. Some of my favorite stories were Katy No Pockets, Millions of Cats, and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. When I started reading chapter books I liked magic stories like Half Magic and classics like The Secret Garden.

We went swimming at Hoover Lake when mom's friend, Aunt Jean, invited us. Swimming in a lake was fun. The mud squished between my toes and fish gave me kisses on my legs if I was still in the water. I wasn't much of a swimmer more of a dog paddler. When I was older we went to Aunt Billie's house outside of Florence to swim in her pool. Our cousins were ten years younger than I was. I remember Bob, at maybe age two, was like a little dolphin. He mostly held his breath and swam under water, popping up to get another breath of air.

Another frequent summer activity was shelling butterbeans and purple hull peas. My thumbs turned green from the butterbeans and purple from the peas. We liked to sit in our treehouse shelling beans and peas and letting the hulls drop down onto the vacant lot next door. The best thing about having a garden was the watermelons. We had red and yellow watermelons. I never had too much watermelon.

Making homemade ice cream is another summer memory. The earliest memories are from when we lived on Morrison Road. We had a cow so there was plenty of cream and milk. Mom made custard and then it was hand cranked in a wooden ice cream freezer. The men took turns cranking the handle. Sometimes one of the kids had to sit on top of ice freezer as the ice cream became harder. We usually had vanilla but sometimes peach or strawberry.

The summers seemed longer then. We didn't start school until after Labor Day. Fewer school days were required than are required now. We played outside most of the day. When we were hot we would cool off with homemade popsicles or we would play inside making towns and roads with blocks, boxes, and peopling them with plastic animals and small dolls.

I hope my students have fun making memories this summer!

Chicago: Remembering

The summer before my tenth birthday we visited Chicago. My cousin Nancy went with us. Her mom, Aunt Becky, was expecting a baby(Virginia). I remember the strangest bits and pieces of that trip. Here are some of the things I remember- When we finally arrived in Chicago in our big, blue, Buick stationwagon, dad couldn't figure out how to get up to the street level of our hotel. We were on the lower level where the train tracks ran. We could see our hotel but couldn't get to it. Mom said dad just drove across the railroad tracks and somehow got to the right level. I asked mom why we took a trip to Chicago. She said we went to there because there were lots of museums and things to see. We stopped by my uncle's house in Urbana, Illinois, on the way. We didn't get to see Uncle Ray, Aunt Ruth, and David very often. Mom said some people in Mississippi advised dad to change car tags with Uncle Ray before we went to Chicago. A Mississippi tag in the north in 1961 was thought to cause trouble. In reality, people were nice to us. I have always found if you are nice, most people are nice, too. Mom said our hotel was right next to the Wrigley Building and the Chicago Tribune Building. She said we went on a tour of the newspaper and saw the presses run. It was a chance meeting with a Tribune employee who noticed we were not from around there, that ended up in a tour of building. I didn't remember the newspaper tour but I did remember visiting the Field Museum. I bought a metal bracelet imprinted with the name of the museum and wore it for years. After talking with mom I remembered going through a walk through model of the human heart at the museum. We took Nancy home to Georgia and if my memory is correct, she had a new baby sister when we got there. I was happy for her but I did not want a baby sister. Two younger brothers were enough for me.

Remembering Red Rocks

I have been listening to a Celtic Woman CD as I drive to school and back home. I try to sing along when I know the song. The best thing about the music is how I am transported through time and space back to the concert at Red Rocks. It was a magical setting with the massive rocks surrounding us, the light subtly changing as the sun went down. It is a wonderful memory. I am so glad we were able to share that night with Joey and Jessie.

Popular Fiction

Okay, I am reading The Hunger Games. I wasn't interested when I first heard about the series. I love book series but have read some depressing stuff in the past that sounded like the way this series was going to be. It is not high literature but so far it's entertaining. I will probably read the others, too.

I shouldn't turn my nose up at these stories. The books I have been reading on my nook are really fluff. Sometimes I'm just in the mood for mindless reading for pleasure. I have two other books in progress-Bringing Up Bebe and God Is Not One. Both too serious for me right now.

So I'm going back to the dystopian future when I post this.

On the sewing front I finished two little baby quilts with Eric Carle prints and green minky dots on the back. I hope to get the borders on my summer block party quilt. Then I will have 7 tops to finish. Oh, my.

The Borrowers: a book and movie experience

My fourth and fifth grade group recently read The Borrowers by Mary Norton. The book was published in the early '50s. It tells the story of a family of little people, Borrowers, who live under the floor of an old house. We read one or two chapters a day. As I read the kids read along silently in their copies. I try to model fluent reading and use different voices to indicate the various characters. We write a simple summary after each reading, sticking with 5 W's or less.

After we finished the book we made two circle graphs about two of the main characters. I modeled the first one and got them started on the second one. All of the students took the AR test on the book. First they took the test orally as a group. Then they took a practice test in pairs. Delfina really did well on the test and offered to help everyone take the practice test. Even the two beginners did well on the test. One boy did not listen to the instructions to wait and take the practice test. He took the test in his language arts class and did not make a very good score.

To extend the story I asked the students to write about which main character they would like to have as a friend. They could use the circle graphs to find supporting details. The fourth graders were just days away from taking the state writing test. Most of them copied sentences from the graphs in no particular order but they did write more than usual.

Now the movie part of the experience. I had a recent movie version of the book but it was not at all similar to the book. I found an old BBC version available on amazon.com and ordered it. It turned out to be a great three hour movie of the first two books in the Borrower series. We watched the first half the movie and then had to stop to take 9 weeks tests. Finally we finished watching the movie. The kids really enjoyed it. One of the fifth grade girls checked out The Borrowers Afloat from the school library. I love it when they want to read more.

Redbuds are blooming again

I know I've written about redbuds before but just this morning I noticed that they were blooming again. Most of the woods were still bare and brown, yet here and there were soft smudges of fushia. By this afternoon the spring blooming trees were covered with flowers everywhere I went.
The white flowered pear trees were the showiest. But I still love the redbuds the most.
I'm reading two books that are quite good. The mystery is cute and pretty much like watching TV. I have a hard time putting it down. The other book is an easy read but has so much that I want to remember and so I read it in bits. I bought it for Emily. It is an interesting true story called Bringing Up Bebe. I like reading it and looking at our culture through another culture's lens.
Well, that's all I've got for now.

What Happened to January?

Here it is February. I didn't write anything in January. It was a busy month and I didn't feel like reflecting or reading anything very serious. I started reading a mystery series I really enjoy. Laura Lippman set her stories in Baltimore. I like her detective Tess.

Taking a week off to work on dad's service, I contemplated retirement. I know I would keep busy with sewing and reading. But I'm not ready.

Martha Kelly decided to retire at the end of this year. It will be hard to find another sweet, soft spoken, hard-working librarian like her. Most people think librarian is an easy job. As much as I love reading, I know I wouldn't like the record keeping side of the job.

Maybe I can work on the baby quilt this weekend. I really want it to look good. I love making the pieced tops but the quilting part is overwhelming. I have finished some quilts and they turned out okay. I just love doing quick little quilts. I've got to stop buying fabric and get some of these projects finished. (Stern talk to myself-let's see if it works.)