Halloweens Past with The Hillbilly

I just recently put up a posting to do with Halloween and superstitions and got to thinking about some of my own Halloween experiences.  Being from the country, if I recall correctly, I only went trick or treating two times.  Both times were over my protests.

The first time, I was eleven and felt too old to be going.  However, my sister’s boyfriend (now my brother-in-law), having found out that I had never been trick or treating, insisted that I go.  In fact, he and my sister, loaded me up in his car, (a slick black 1963 Chevy Impala), and started taking me on the rounds.  Now, I don’t know how it is in the big city, but in the smaller towns, much of the adventure can be had while you are in the car.  Such things as dodging eggs or hedge apples, (Osage oranges).  For you who don’t know, hedge apples, are green, sticky balls that are about the size of a softball, but much heavier.  Within In the first 15 minutes, we took a hedge apple to the windshield.  I think the only thing that kept it from shattering was that it hit the curved edge where the windshield was the strongest.  Yeah!  This was a good idea!  At any rate, we finished up without too much damage.

An Osage Orange. Who knew?

The next year, we went to my aunt’s house.  She was wealthy and lived in a neighborhood that was quite popular for trick-or-treaters.  We went there to help hand out candy and watch the kids come through.  However, I got sucked into going trick or treating with my 10 year old cousin.  I was large for my age, he was huge for his, so we were close to the same size.  He eventually wound up growing to be about 7’4”.  I thought we both looked way too large to be out doing this.  Of course, since we were in his neighborhood, everyone knew him and had to find out who I was ---as if I wasn’t embarrassed enough!  During this, we stopped at a house and a pretty girl of about 16 answered the door and invited us in.  Hey, things are looking up – not!  I might have been 12 and not sensitive to a lot of things, but even I could feel the tension and knew that something was wrong.  As it turned out, there were 4 boys that looked to be about 15 – 18 years of age.  They had pushed their way into the house.  The girl was by herself, and for good reason was quite frightened.  My cousin and I weren't a whole lot smaller than these older boys, but we were 10 and 12 years of age.  My first thought was that we might all be in trouble here.  Fortunately, with us coming in, they soon left.  The girl started talking nervously and thanked us over and over again for coming in and staying until they left.  Hmm!  Maybe we should have asked for all the candy as a reward.

 Then there was the Halloween night that I went out in my freshly washed, waxed, and slicked up car.  Having had the earlier Halloween experiences, you would have thought that I would have learned.  But hey, there were girls out there.  Of course I didn’t find them.

They had either already learned from their past Halloween experiences  or possibly, they  thought that the hillbilly would be the only guy dumb enough to be out and about looking for them and they decided to stay home.  Since there were no girls, my heart turned to food.  So I stopped at a burger and ice cream shop and got a chocolate shake.  Okay, not as good as girls but still good.  While I was there, a mob of about 150 people who apparently had purchased every egg in the county, came walking by in what I can only call a traveling egg fight.  The police were staying at a distance and watching them to make sure that there was no major damage and also to keep from getting egged.  But yup, I got egged.  It is not that they were throwing at my car, it was just that I was in the vicinity and got hit.  I was thinking, stupid, stupid, stupid!  Look what girls got you into again!  Okay, they didn’t get me into it, but it was their fault that I was stupid enough to be out there, so close enough!

Years later, my wife and I were taking our 9 year old daughter and 5 year old son trick or treating.   It is a rite of passage for parents you know.   I explained the rules to them.  Rules such as, take your time, be cautious for cars, etc.  I thought the discussion of the rules went really well.  Next thing I knew, they would have left the road runner in the dust!  In fact my son, was going so fast that he fell, slid about 6 feet, hopped up and never even let it slow him down.  It was the Daytona of trick or treating.  He who gets the most candy takes the victory lap and wins the cup, etc.

 I can’t say that it wasn’t fun, but I can tell you that it wasn’t for sissies, grandparents, or anyone who was old or slow.  So having finally learned from Halloweens past, I am letting the grandkids know right now,  I am not taking you trick or treating!  Your parents, who put me through the various trick or treating nightmares will now have their own rite of passage.  Yes!  It is payback time!!  Ya ha ha!

From the Hillbilly’s Corner!

Halloween was certainly different when I was a kid. We went out in big packs and left the grownups at home! I don't remember ever being accompanied by a parent. How has Halloween changed since you were little?

Flowers for My Grandma

I'm so happy to be able to work with Teleflora because I have been their customer for years. Teleflora and I have a long history of sending flowers to my Grandma.

My grandma, my mama, me, my daughter, and my granddaughter

My grandma is 95 years old. This picture was taken on her 90th birthday. I don't get to see her very often due to the miles between us, but every year at Christmas I send her a centerpiece for her annual Christmas party. It makes me happy to sit at my computer looking at all the beautiful flowers on the Teleflora web site and decide just which ones she would like the best. 

The flowers always arrive on time, fresh and lovely, and Grandma loves them.

This year, I've decided that I need to send her flowers for her Halloween party. She's 95; I don't know how many more flower-sending occasions there will be, so I'd better take advantage of them all. And isn't it sweet that she's still throwing parties at 95? Okay, there will be about 5 guests, and my uncle will do all the work, but still. It's her idea and her party. And I'm sending flowers.

Teleflora has different looks to choose from, including some with witch, ghost, or creepy spider accents.  My grandma doesn't like the scary, witchy, kind of Halloween stuff. She's more of a cute pumpkins kind of gal, so I think I'll send her this arrangement:

I love the orange glass vase and orange roses contrasted by the white of the daisy spray chrysanthemums. It's just so bright and cheerful! It has been said that it is better to send flowers when a person is alive to enjoy them than to send flowers to the funeral when it's too late. I've tried to take that philosophy to heart. I hope Grandma enjoys her Halloween flowers, and I hope she's still here to enjoy Christmas flowers again this year.

To whom should you be sending flowers?


Of course, Teleflora has lots of other Halloween flowers, so be sure to check them out.

Disclosure: This sponsored post was made possible by Mom Spark Media. I was compensated for my time investment and work on this campaign. Thoughts are my own.

Wordless Wednesday, Grandkid Style

It's been a while since I showed off the grandchildren. Look how much the baby has grown! 

The Athlete and Miss Sunshine at the pumpkin farm

The Model in blue

The Princess with an umbrella

Here's The Monster in a hat

They're pretty gorgeous aren't they? 

A Hillbilly Halloween

Well, y'all, My Hillbilly is here to give you his opinion on superstitions and hauntings and such. I'll see you at the other end.


Since Halloween or All Hallow’s Eve is arriving, I decided to talk about some superstitions and other similar things this hillbilly has run into, heard, and questioned.

Let’s begin with some that I heard growing up.  Someone has a chill or suddenly shivers, and they say, “I feel like someone just walked on my grave”.  Hmm!  What if they are cremated instead?

If a black cat crosses your path, it is bad luck.  Does that mean that when a white cat crosses your path, it is good luck?  How about if a calico cat crosses your path?  Does that mean luck just gets very confused?

How about other things that are supposed to be good luck, such as see a penny – pick it up—all day you’ll have good luck!  What if you throw out your back while you are bending over to pick it up?  Of course that is very good possibility as you begin reaching my age.  How lucky are you then?  Huh?  How about finding a four leaf clover?  Same problem as with the penny and depending where you are, you might be beaten by some plant lover!

How about the lucky rabbits foot, are you supposedly getting the good luck of the rabbit?  If so ---- I don’t want it!  He had four feet and look what good it did him!

How about the lucky horse shoe that is to be hung with legs up so the good luck doesn’t fall out of it?  Duh!  It has no sides.  It is not like a cup.  Everything is going to fall out of it anyway – except maybe dust!

How about on New Year’s Eve, eating black eyed peas for good luck?  Yuck!  They taste kind of like bad beans that have been cooked in dishwater!  Why would they bring you good luck?  They will bring you gas!

How about Friday the thirteenth being bad luck?  Duh!  Everyone knows Friday is good, good, good because the weekend follows it!  I don’t care what the date is!

 How about breaking a mirror bringing seven years bad luck?  Wellllll, if it was Momma’s good mirror, it might bring some immediate bad luck.  I don’t know about seven years worth!

How about walking under a ladder being bad luck?  Truthfully, I feel that there could be some bad luck there.  For instance, if the ladder is six foot high, it would be bad luck for me if I had to walk under it because I am over six feet tall and would not fit well.  However if the ladder is a sixteen foot, I could and would walk under it.  I guess it would be bad luck in the case that someone might drop something on me.  Other than that, I say it is hooey.  And we could go on!

Leaving that, for you who are afraid of ghosts, witches, goblins, zombies, werewolves, and vampires, I will tell you of a friend of mine back in Missouri.  Up front, she and her husband are just as hillbilly as I.  I was a real estate agent at the time, and she called me and asked me to show her and her husband a house.  Now to set this all up, it was winter, about twenty degrees outside, and the house was vacant, and had no power or heat.  While we are going through it, my friend says, “This house is neat, but there's something cold about it”.  I said, “Of course it feels cold; it is about thirty degrees in here." And she says “No, I don’t mean that kind of cold!  I think someone has died in this house”.  Okay, I laughed at her (quite a lot) and rolled my eyes like a teenager!  But she decided to check it out. Sure enough, someone had died there and she would not buy it.

Photo by frédéric dupont

 Later, I showed her another house that I thought was cool and cheap for what it was.  It backed up to a well kept grave yard.  She said, “I could never live there”.  I applied my well-honed sales pitch and said, “Those dead people will be the quietest neighbors that you will ever have!"  Of course that would be unless some strange asteroid passes by and they all rise as brain-eating zombies.  At any rate, my sales pitch didn't work.

Brain-eating zombies

I guess that I am not a sensitive hillbilly!  If the price was right, the property had been cleaned up, repainted, etc., I would buy a house where a mass murder was committed and be quite happy.  Just think of the stories that you could tell dinner guests  ---- particularly at Halloween with sound effects in the background!  Yup, I tell you --- they said her head was lying right over there by the door and  the rest of her that they could find --- well she was torn to pieces you know --- just like the rest of them.  And there was them big bloody tracks  --- looked like huge wolf tracks ---- werewolf I tell you!  Oh!  You want another helpin of them ribs?  Sure good---- ain’t they?

From the Hillbilly’s corner!
   

Thanks, I'll pass on the ribs right now. What superstitions do you "believe" in even though you know they're silly? I always think about my mama whenever I step on a crack.

     

Random Blog Prompt FRIDAY! (So there, Alyssa!)

Yes, once again I am totally stealing my daughter's brilliant idea and and answering random questions posed by the Random Blog Prompt Generator (RBPG -- a distant relative of R2D2)

So here they are:

The Random Blog Prompts

If I could change my ...  Wow. This one's pretty wide open. I not only have to come up with the "what if" portion, but first I have to decide what I'm changing. This could go lots of places.
          If I could change my name, I'd go by Betty Boop.
          If I could change my job, I'd be a full-time blogger.
          If I could change my house, I'd get one that was a lot bigger with room for entertaining. A self-cleaning one.
          If I could change my marital status, I wouldn't because the Hillbilly makes me deliriously happy.
          If I could change my daughter, she'd leave me alone when I steal her blog ideas.

My favorite movies right now are... ummm....well.... ones with actors? Sorry, not a huge movie goer. I like movies, just not enough to really have a "favorite." At least not lately. But I liked The Avengers.

Name five things in your freezer. Ice cubes, coffee, ice packs for owies, frozen burritos, and tater tots. How about you?

What are the values you cherish even though they run counter to societal values? Well...ummm...what?

If you disappeared today, who would be affected? You want a list, RBPG? Well, wouldn't everyone be affected? I mean, it's the butterfly effect, right? There'd be my family, of course, and my students and co-workers, and my tens of readers. Since they'd be impacted, everyone with whom they come in contact would be affected by my disappearance, and so on and so on. How new agey would you like me to get here, RBPG? And anyway, why in the world am I disappearing? Where did I go? Is "disappear" a euphemism for something else? If so, I'm just confused. I think we'd better move on, RBPG, because you're starting to annoy me.


What's your biggest accomplishment to date? I managed to take two little babies and turn them into intelligent, compassionate, productive human beings. There is no accomplishment of more value than that!

Do we really need more than 50 kinds of shampoo?      No.

No, we don't.

If money didn't matter, what job or career would you go for? Lady of leisure.

There we go! We have successfully navigated another Random Blog Prompt Friday! What do you think? Do you have any answers for RBPG? Leave them in the comments!

    
       



  

Why I'm Tired All the Time

I teach English, not math, but a lot of my days look like this:

So today we studied the Greek root CYCL, which means circle. Cycl is a root used in the word cyclone.



"Who can tell me what a cyclone is?" One little darling's hand shot up high.

"It's someone who looks just like you, like an identical twin."

Multiplicity

 And that's why I'm tired all the time.

The Hillbilly Attends My High School Reunion

Way back when the world was young, in 1977, I graduated from high school and was voted The Shyest Girl in my senior class. Well, not much changes after 35 years, and I'm still pretty shy, so when it came time for my recent high school reunion I was unsure about attending.

Don't I look like the shyest girl in my class?

 I'm not as shy as I was back in the day, but I'm still not one who can just talk comfortably with people I don't know well. The Hillbilly assured me that I'd be fine, so we went and had a lovely time. Here's his version of the story.



When you reach my age, you have been to a few high school reunions.  Okay then --- quite a few!  In my experience, the first one (mine was the 10th year) has a let us impress everyone with our greatness --- look at what I have accomplished attitude to it.

Sometimes the second one still has a little bit of that feel to it, but begins to be a bit less so. By that time most everyone has children and everyone is sharing and enjoying sharing their experiences.  By the twenty-year reunion, it becomes more of a who still has hair, who is going gray, who has gotten fat or skinny, or isn’t that a new husband or wife for that classmate, etc.

The last one of mine that I got to attend was my 30th.  It was great!  By that time, it was who cares!  Let’s have fun!  Have you got pictures of the kids or grandkids?  Who is that?  Boy have they changed!  How many of us have we lost?  Look at those old pictures.  Look at that hair.  Look at the bellbottoms!  Can you believe we wore those?  And so on!  While attending it, I realized that there were a lot of my classmates that I had really not gotten to know that well.  After having enjoyed spending time with some of them, I wished I had!

Some time back, Cynthia mentioned that her 35th class reunion was this year.  When I asked her if she planned on attending, she said that she didn’t know.  She seemed to have mixed emotions about it.  She told me she hadn’t been to one since her 20th.  I told her that she should go and that I was sure that she would enjoy it.  Eventually she decided that she would!

So we went.  I was the eye candy on her arm.  Okay, I am stretching it a little!  Okay, I am stretching it a lot!  But I was on her arm.  Let’s face it men,  we’re  just the lump used for contrast to make the women look really pretty.  But hey, I did a good job of being that lump.

Me with my trophy husband.

At any rate, the reunion was in the large, beautiful, pooled, back yard of one of Cynthia’s classmates.  Right up front, I want to thank them for their hospitality!  Now, not being a classmate and having moved here from Missouri, I expected that I would be left alone or be visiting mostly with other non class members.  I wasn’t concerned because I had heard that they had food and drinks.  I don’t drink alcohol, but they had soft drinks.

Let’s see, food and soft drinks.  Hey – I'm good!  Cynthia, go forth and visit!  After eating good food, having good visits, eating more good food, having more visits, I then found freshly baked cookies.  Yes!  Chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, macadamia nut, and other types of cookies, just sitting there unattended!  There was no one there to tell me to just move along ---  no one there to protect them from the cookie monster.  As the old hillbilly sayings go, I was as happy as a hog in slop or as a fly on --- well, you know what flies like to be on.

After a while, Cynthia came to me and told me that she was ready to leave.  And I am thinking, why now?  There are still cookies left.  Oh !  Okay then, just spoil my fun!

Once again, thank you for the hospitality and the good conversations!

From the Hillbilly’s corner! 

We really did have a nice time, and I got to visit with people I hadn't spoken to in years, including one old high school crush who still doesn't know I had a crush on him...unless, of course, he reads the blog. All in all, it was very enjoyable. There were a couple people I didn't get to talk to long enough before they were whisked away by someone else, so maybe I'll try it again five years from now.

But only if my trophy husband comes along on my arm as eye candy.

And how about you? Have you been to your high school reunions? How did it go?

Unfortunately..Fortunately

Unfortunately the alarm clock didn't go off this morning.
Fortunately I woke up anyway.
Unfortunately I woke up 40 minutes late.
Fortunately it was crazy hair day at school.

Unfortunately it was not also crazy makeup day.
Fortunately I had a clean "school colors" shirt.
Unfortunately I dripped toothpaste on it and had to wear a non-school colors shirt.
Fortunately I had time to make coffee.
Unfortunately I didn't have time to eat a healthy bowl of cereal.
Fortunately, my husband keeps the house stocked with junk food, and I scored a package of mini donuts.
Unfortunately...my husband keeps the house stocked with junk food, and I'm currently 5-10 pounds over what I should be.
Fortunately, my car, which has been in the shop for a week, was ready for me to pick up on my way home.
Unfortunately...it was crazy hair day at school.

Yeah. It was that kind of day.

Make me feel better. Tell me about a day when everything went wrong for you.

Find more laughs at The Mommyhood Chronicles

Happy Blogaversary to Me!

I can hardly believe it! My first blog post went live one year ago today, October 4, 2011. It was short and sweet. You can read it here: And Crazy Starts with Me!

When I started blogging, I wasn't sure how long it would last, what I was doing, or even why I was doing it. It just sounded like fun. Once I got started, I discovered the best part of blogging: YOU! All of my readers make this so much fun for me with your comments and remarks. I appreciate each and every one of you.

Some of you have been with me from the very beginning, and I appreciate you more than words can say. All of your encouragement has kept me going.

For those of you who haven't been around since the very beginning, I thought I'd share some of my favorite posts to help you get to know me better. I have a lot of favorites, but these all involve my family. To get to know me better, you have to know my family because my family is everything to me.

I don't expect you to read them all. I mean you certainly may if you wish. But I'd be happy if you'd just click on a couple interesting titles. I had a great time re-reading all of these.

Meet the Grandkids

The Monster! Just trust me.

Fun with Adult Children

My Favorite Hillbilly

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Honeymoon

Spending Time with The Princess

The Princess

My Baby is Moving Out!

The Athlete Goes to Disneyland

The Athlete

An Apology. Sort of. More or Less.

My Darling Daughter

The World According to the Princess

My Wonderful Boy

Me with my wonderful boy and my darling daughter

More Spending Time with the Princess

Welcome to the World

A Valentine for my Hillbilly

Me with My Hillbilly at our wedding (almost 9 years!)

A Mother's Day Card for my Mama

My Sister Hates Me

Just a Little Nepotism -- Sticky Chic Boutique

This is Cynthia's Blog

And the Baby's Name Is ... 

Miss Sunshine and her daddy

I Don't Get No Respect

A Visit to the Model

The Model

Crazy really DOES start with me!

Thanks so much for all your support. I think I'm good for another year, and I hope you are too!

Which posts have been your favorites over the past year?

Wicked English Teacher Wednesday--October

Okay, folks. I cannot take it anymore. CAN. NOT. TAKE. IT!!  I've given you every chance to fix this problem, and you haven't done it. I've left you alone in the hopes that you'd come to your senses, but that's not happening.

So it's time!

Time to discuss the Wicked English Teacher's biggest pet peeve. This isn't any pet peeve. This is not a hamster or a goldfish. This is a gargantuan beast of a peeve. This is a TYRANNOSAURUS REX PEEVE!

By Ryanz720 (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, there is no excuse --NO EXCUSE -- for this! The concept is not difficult! It's NOT confusing! You are capable of learning this, so stop messing it up!

Okay. I'm ready to calm down. Give me a minute...

Okay. Another minute...

Your vs. You're

Your: a personal pronoun showing possession. 

You're: a contraction of "you are."

I  mean, it's not even like there, their, they're. There are three of them. There are only two of your and you're!

Okay, let's study. 

The most frequent mix-up that I see is using your instead of you're. Why? Why why why???

"Your funny!" My funny what? I don't have a funny! In fact, a funny is not even a thing! No one has a funny!!

The speaker should either say, "You are funny!" or use the contraction for you are, "You're funny!" 

I see it all over the Internet, especially on Facebook and Twitter. 

Your cute. (You are cute.)

I hope your feeling better. (I hope you are feeling better.)

Your in trouble. (You are in trouble.)

Your right. (You are right.)

Your wrong. (You are wrong.)

Kids, if you mean you are, then just write you are. If writing you are doesn't make sense, then and only then do you write your. Your is used to show ownership.

Your puppy is cute. (The puppy belongs to you.)

I hope your cold gets better. (The could is yours.)

Go to your room! (The room belongs to you.)

Your answer is right. (The answer is the one you gave.)

Your answer is wrong. (The answer is the one you gave.)

Quiz Time!

Fill in the blank with "your" or "you're." Answers are down there below the signature apple!

1. I think _____ really cool!
2. You should listen to _____ Wicked English teacher.
3. If you don't do _____ homework, _____ going to fail English.
4. If you don't get this right, _____ Wicked English teacher is going to have a stroke!
5. I'm glad _____ here doing _____ best to learn to do this right.

Here are your quiz answers:

1. I think you're really cool!
2. You should listen to your Wicked English teacher.
3. If you don't do your homework, you're going to fail English.
4. If you don't get this right, your Wicked English teacher is going to have a stroke!
5. I'm glad you're here doing your best to learn to do this right.

How did you do? It's easy right? So go forth and sin  no more!

Hillbilly Feeding Habits

Sometimes The Hillbilly makes it sound like his childhood really was the good ol' days. In this week's episode, however, I think there are some questionable child-rearing methods at play. See what you think.


In continuing with my country school days, I thought we would have a fun with food post.  At the school I went to, we actually had a kitchen/lunchroom and hot lunches.  This was rare for small country schools.  Also unusual were the rules to do with the lunches that were put into effect by the unerring wisdom of our P.T.A.  The rule that led to various funny happenings was that all students were required to eat everything on their plate.  EVERYTHING!  It didn't  matter if you hated it or were not hungry!  Their reasoning was that we children would taste and learn to eat all kinds of foods.

This rule was enforced by our teacher.  If you sat there and didn't eat it, you would still be sitting at the lunchroom table when it was time to go home.  Hey, it wasn't my idea! As an example of what I saw, there were students who would tell the teacher, "I can’t eat this!"  The teacher would then insist.  Then the student would either sit there, sulk, and fall into the teacher’s disfavor, or try to eat it.  Sometimes a student would try to eat the disliked food --- and then rush out the door and throw up their socks!  Always entertaining!

There were various foods with which I had trouble.  Some of them came from foods that were pushed by government programs. My really bad ones were chicken pot pie, chicken livers and black olives.  We received several huge jars (probably 3 gallon each), of black olives.  We had to eat so many per day.  I hated black olives!  Small chicken livers, once I bit into them, became the size of baseballs.  They would make my gag reflex go into high gear.  We also once had some southern recipe that, to me, the first bite tasted good, the second bite not so good, the third bite, well, I could hardly get down.  I was pretty good at eventually getting foods down.  If I couldn't, I waited until the lunchroom cleared out and then stuffed whatever I couldn't eat into my milk carton.  It is amazing what you can learn from school.

Desserts at school were anything from applesauce, peaches, pears, cake, pie, and even cinnamon rolls.  The cinnamon rolls may have been the best I have ever eaten.  That is saying a lot!  Trust me on this, I am a dessertaholic!  I know good dessert!  These were kind of normal cinnamon rolls with this brown sauce that looked like it had been poured over it.  The sauce looked like it stacked up about one half inch thick on top then slowly oozed down the sides.  Most of it stayed on top, and the sides.  Very little of it, got on to the plate and you licked it off.  It was just that good!  I reminded my sisters about these cinnamon rolls and we all got hungry for them.  It actually got us on a mission to find the recipe.  We had no luck!  But once, walking into the lunchroom, I saw an extra one on the cabinet, and asked for seconds on dessert and got it.  Everyone was so jealous!

Now dessert was the one thing they didn’t force us to eat. We had some students that were moved in from another school that didn’t realize that.  So we had some fun with that.  All of us older, larger boys sat at the same table.  We had raisin pie.  There was one of the new eighth graders that hated raisin pie.  In fact, he was breaking into a sweat just thinking about having to eat it.  As you can imagine, we were all dying laughing at him.  Finally, he stuffed that whole messy piece of pie in his front pocket and walked out of the lunchroom.  We laughingly, informed him of the fact that the eat everything rule didn't apply, after he did such a good job of messing up his pants.

Probably one of the funniest food events I remember was during a Thanksgiving play.  Two of us boys were dressed up as Indians. The story was that we showed up at some pilgrim’s house and were fed bread and given milk to drink.  It all went pretty well in practice.  However, when we actually performed the play in front of a large crowd of parents and children, there were some problems.  The girl playing the pilgrim woman actually brought us real bread.  It was cheap white bread that had been lying out all day.  She didn't really bring us anything to drink.  We just had empty glasses to act like we drank from  them.  We really needed something to drink!  I put the bread into my mouth, I chewed, I choked, I like to have died.  The other boy actually spit his out into his hand and put it in his pocket.  As you can imagine, the audience was dying laughing.  It wasn't supposed to have been a comedy, but it became one.  Really, if I had been a real Indian, and she had been a real pilgrim and fed me that, I would have probably scalped her on the spot.

Well, I disliked the eat everything on your plate rule.  However, I now like black olives.  Maybe their plan worked.  Nah!!

From the Hillbilly’s Corner!    

Wow! Those were some pretty messy hillbilly boy pockets. Glad I wasn't doing their laundry.

I hated broccoli when I was a kid, but as I adult I really like it. Still won't eat liver though.

Were you made to "clean your plate" when you were a child? What foods were disgusting to you? Did you ever learn to like any of them later?