Flashback Friday # 98

My Cousin's Bicycles

Greeting to all who have ventured this way again. I hope you had a pleasant journey.

Many of my long time readers (both of you) know of my relationship with my Aunt Shelly's kids. They were my closest cousins both in distance and affection. I have mentioned in previous posts about their affection for bicycles. Bikes were a way to get away from everyone else and transportation to make money.

Most of my Flashback Friday posts are stories of my youth. This will be a little different. It will be a pictorial of Frankenbikes that my cousins actually made, or would have made if they had thought of it. These aren't actual pictures (none exist) but some that represent the mechanical ingenuity of youth . I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

These photos come from our friends at "There I Fixed It".

Did you ever own a Frankenbike or one that really wasn't safe to ride?

Rambling Randomness

Here is a quick hit to the stack off stuff that has been going on recently.



*To answer my daughter as to why I was at Urgent Care on Saturday. I had an ingrown hair on my arm. I know what you're thinking, "You went for that?". When your ingrown hair gets infected with a staph infection you do. Nasty is too kind of a word for what that looked like. It still isn't too pretty now, after four days of antibiotics, but it is getting better.



*The County Fair opened on Sunday. Our church folks tell people where to go (park the cars) and police the grounds (pick up trash). Sunday was Tractor pulls. Yesterday was demolition derby. Today was harness racing at the grandstand and a motocross/ monster truck skills event at the back track. Tomorrow is rough truck (ALWAYS the busiest night of the fair). Thursday is figure eight school bus races. Friday Craig Morgan is there. Saturday is truck pulls. It's a regular redneck rodeo.



*Folks say"I'll bet you get some of that yummy fair food. Wrong. So far my "fair food" has consisted of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, granola bars & Gatorade from the refreshment cart our pastor's wife drives around. Maybe later I'll get a funnel cake or something.



*Last night, on the way home from the fair, the drive belt in my truck disintegrated. I heard some strange noises and about 2 blocks from my house,the alternator light came 0n and I lost power steering. When I popped the hood. The belt was missing. I found it all wrapped around the fan. It is supposed to be two inches wide and solid. This is what it looked like:

Ninja John came over this morning to help me put the new one on (thank you, thank you, thank you).

My Wife's New Dolly

When I discovered that I didn't have to work today (Saturday, 7/24),Lady Nottaguy-TYG said we would get everything done before so there would be no reason to have to leave the house on Saturday. We would stay cozy in our air conditioned house while it sweltered outside (90+ degrees with near 100 % humidity). That is until she got the call.



She got the call she had been waiting for since her surprise birthday party. She took the gift cards & cash she got and ordered a dress form. Friday she told me it was in. She contenplated picking it up Wednesday since she's off. I think the excitment was too much for her. We drove to Columbus in our un-air condtioned car to get it. We made a stop at the urgent care in Sunbury on the way back (this is due to an unrelated, minor injury on my part. I know this has nothing to do with my story, but I'm a man and tend to change subjects at the drop of a hat).



Once we got home, she commensed to put her new toy together. You may say "Wait a minute, she's XX years old, and still plays with dolls?" The answer is yes, and knowing her, she will get lots of playtime with this one. Her take on this story is found here.

Flashback Friday # 97

The Tire Swing

Hello. Thanks for wandering onto this footpath into cyberspace with me. Today, as we take a look back, we spot something that any child can enjoy. The tire swing.

Our neighbors, the Pershings, had a large tree in the middle of their back yard. They also had five kids (4 girls & 1 boy). One way to keep the kids occupied in the summer time was to put up a tire swing in the tree.

The Pershing kids weren't the only ones to enjoy that swing. I had my share of turns on it. We even rode double & triple on it. That's where the trouble began.

One day, I was out playing at the swing with the three oldest girls. They liked it when I would push. It didn't take long before all three girls were in the swing, and i was pushing them with all my might. They went straight. I twirled them. they got bounced. It was a wonderful time. Until the rope broke.

Fortunately for them they were only about three feet off the ground when it snapped. The oldest of the three (who was sitting on top) jumped free and landed on her feet. The two riding inside weren't so lucky. The next oldest had the unfortunate luck of landing on her back and breaking he fall of her little sister (they were still in the tire. The tire hit first, cushioning the fall, but not totally breaking it). She got the wind knocked out of her and got a few scrapes.

Where the rope broke made the swing irreparable. If you tied it that high, nobody could reach it to get on. Their dad also said that that should have known better than to ride three at a time. The swing was never fixed, and the tire got thrown out. It was fun while it lasted.

It Made My Day

I received a letter in the mail. Not an e-mail, text or tweet. A real paper letter with a stamp attached. That was something. The contents were even more special. Here is the complete contents (minus names):

Dear (My name),

You are like a letter from Jesus to me. Thank you for letting Jesus shine in you. You show me Jesus when you teach me about Him in Sunday School.

Sincerely,

(My Sunday School's pupil's name)

It was like a cool breeze that finds its way through a hot summer day. It made my day.

Today Is National Junk Food Day

In celebration of this glorious holiday, here is a video from one of my favorite comediens, Mark Lowry. I hope you enjoy it as much as a cream filled doughnut.

Oh, What You'll Hear In Sunday School

Today's lesson dealt with the marriage of Isaac & Rebekah. In the lead up to the lesson, we discussed "What do you think of when you hear the word marriage"? The kids brainstormed and we wrote several things on the board. I then told them that I had been in seven weddings. I then told them that in two of the weddings, that I had given the bride away. I asked the class if they knew why I did that. One boy raised his hand and ventured the guess "Because you didn't like them"? LOL right there in class.

Prior to class, we told one of the girls that there was going to be a wedding in the class today. She asked if everyone in class was getting married. "No" replied my assistant teacher (who is female, and NOT my wife), "(My real name) and I aren't, because we are already married." No you're not.' replied the girl. "Yes we are married" She replied. "If you're married:, the girl exclaimed, why are your last names different". My teacher explained that we weren't married to each other, but were were still both married. Another LOL.

Flashback Friday # 96

Early Morning/Late Night TV

Hello, all. Ready for another trip down memory lane? Sure, I knew you were.

One of the earliest TV shows I can remember was a locally produced show called "Luci's Toy Shop". I can remember watching this while in kindergarten. The show starred Lucille Gasaway as a soft spoken adult parent figure. She was surrounded by various puppets who portrayed child-like qualities. She was like a female Mr. Rogers or Captain Kangaroo. ( which I also watched, but won't get into because everyone knows them). When she would go on vacation, she would be replaced by various "local celebrities". Imagine your hansome local newscaster interacting with puppets while wearing a red & white sports coat (she always wore a red & white pinafor). Her show was also the first to air episodes of "Gumby".


Here is a picture of her with "Lamb". I think every child in central Ohio can thank "lamb" for teaching the the alphabet song. I think you're wonderful.



When Luci went off the air in 1972, she was replaced with another local show called "Friendly Junction". The producers introduced the human characters on "Luci's Toy Shop" (I guess to break us in to them).I only recall them being on for a short time.

This is Leslie Podkin (aka Mrs. Rattlebee). The show was set in a train station near the toy shop.

When "Friendly Junction" went off the air, I became a watcher of "The New Zoo Review"

Much could be learned from Freddy the Frog, Henrietta the Hippo, Charlie the Owl and Doug & Emmy Jo. I wouldn't mind seeing it on TV again.



The local station also showed re-runs of Popeye" cartoons. I had never seen Popeye before. My grandson loves Popeye as much as I did (thank you DVD).



I also watched the CBS Morning News when I got a bit older, and had to catch the bus before the kids shows come on. I think I still prefer kids shows over "adult" shows.



The other end of the spectrum was late night TV. Johnny Carson was the only commedian on late at night. I didn't watch him too often. I usually went to bed after the local news at 11. Fridays were a different story. We stayed up to watch "Chiller Theater" (Bolt the doors, and lock the windows. It's time for Chiller Theater). This was hosted by Fritz the Night Owl. Some of my most unpleasant memeories came from this show.




If we stayed up real late, we could catch The Midnight Special, hosted by Wolfman Jack. We would always check who the guests were before we decided to stay up. If it was a group we liked, we tried to stay up until they played.



Unlike today, if you stayed up too long, there was nothing to watch. The station would sign off the air, and you would be left with nothing but static. The buzz from the static woke us up, and reminded us to go to bed.

A Message From The President

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I'll save you the thousand, and show you this pic I found:

LOL

Happy Birthday Lady Nottaguy-TYG

Today is my wife's birthday. On Friday, our daughters gave her a surprise birthday party (more about that here). She had told me several months before that she didn't want a party, especially a surprise party. I learned about a week & half before. When the Ogre told me about it, I covered my ears and told her, I'm not hearing this. I was worried that she would be mad. She wasn't, and all was good.

Happy Birthday to the love of my life.

Flashback Friday # 95

Garbage Cake


Welcome back. I can tell by the look on your face that the title of the post has you puzzled. Don't let it. there is a logical explanation.

When I was growing up, if something was "garbaged", that meant that there was nothing left of it except the garbage (wrappers, container, crumbs, etc.). So if you had a garbage cake, it was a cake that didn't last too long. I can't ever remember having to throw remnants out. Around our house, garbage cake was a staple goodie.

So you may ask, what flavor is garbage cake? It doesn't taste like garbage, that's for sure. Actually it is a mayonnaise cake. Mayonnaise in cake, are you crazy? I thought the same thing the first time I heard of it too. I HATE mayonnaise (and Miracle Whip). I won't touch any salad or spread with it in it, but garbage cake is a whole different ballgame.

We had it so often because we almost always had all the ingredients on hand at all times. here's the recipe:

2 C flour
1 t baking soda
1 C sugar
3 T cocoa
Sift these ingredients together and then add:
1 C cold water
1C mayonnaise (or salad dressing)
1 t vanilla
stir well. put in greased & floured cake pan. Bake 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees.

That is the recipe for the cake. You can eat it un-iced, or ice it with your favorite icing. Mom usually made her's out of powdered sugar, milk, vanilla & a pinch of coffee. I've also seen her top it with chocolate icing or German chocolate icing (my brother's favorite). The cake is super moist. It is one of the best tasting chocolate cakes that I've ever eaten.

When ever we would go to a reunion, of family get together, Mom would make a garbage cake. She always brought home an empty cake pan.

Forbidden Conversation

We were leaving one of our favorite restaurants/ice cream places last night when a sign near the door caught the attention of "The Boy". It said "Take home three containers of ice cream for $10". One of the containers shown was "Forbidden Chocolate". He saw that and said "Forbidden Chocolate?" ." Yeah" I replied, "It means you're not getting any." He smiled and replied "If it's forbidden, why are they allowed to sell it?"
Guess who has my sense of humor?

Where's Samuel L. Jackson When You Need Him?

Samuel L. Jackson was the hero in the movie "Snakes On A Plane". I don't know what he would do in this situation.

Associated Press: Maggots falling from an overhead bin from a spoiled container of meat forced a US Airways flight to return to the gate so the bin could be cleaned.

Passenger Donna Adamo said she noticed a couple of flies on the Monday flight when she got to her seat but didn't think much of it. Then, as the plane was taxiing, she heard a passenger behind her causing a commotion and refusing to take her seat.

"Then I heard the word 'maggot' and that kind of got everybody creeped out," she said. "All of a sudden, I felt somebody flick the back of my hair and on the front of me came a maggot, which I flicked off me."

A passenger had the container in a carry-on bag and brought it on Monday's flight heading from Atlanta to Charlotte, N.C., said US Airways spokesman Todd Lehmacher. The pilot announced that they were returning to the gate because of a "minor emergency on board" and the flight attendants told everyone to sit down and be calm, Adamo said.

"I felt like they were crawling all over me because it only takes one maggot to upset your world," she said. "And as they're telling us to stay calm and seated, I see a maggot looking back at me and I'm thinking, 'These are anaerobic, flesh-eating larvae that the flight attendants don't have to sit with.'"

Once the plane returned to the gate, the passengers were asked to get off, and a crew boarded to clean up the mess, Lehmacher said. The flight then continued on to Charlotte, where the plane was taken out of service and fumigated "out of an abundance of caution."

The passenger who brought the spoiled meat on board did not get back on the plane and was put on another flight, Lehmacher said. Other passengers were told their connecting flights in Charlotte would be held for them, said Adamo, who was traveling home to Syracuse, N.Y., and made her connection.

It's unclear why the spoiled meat was brought on the plane, and Adamo said she didn't notice a foul smell at any point.

"You can buy meat anywhere," Adamo said. "I don't know what special piece of meat was in Atlanta that needed to get to Charlotte, but it affected hundreds, if not thousands ... of passengers, and is a health risk."

I guess you could say that the passenger's carry-on luggage was actually carrion luggage.

Flashback Friday # 94

If you give a boy a firecracker...


Salutations to the faithful readers who have ventured this way again. A warm welcome to you.

Today's post takes place about a year & a half from the timeline where I am currently writing. This requires everyone to jump into the wayback machine and zoom ahead a bit. Got your seat belt on? Here we go.

My Mom had an aunt who lived up in Masslion, Ohio. Whenever she would visit her sister in Masslion, she would stop in and see Aunt Lynn. I never went to her house, but I always saw her at the reunions. She would always send something back with Mom for me. She had a multitude of stuff in her attic, and there was always something enjoyable for a young boy.

One day, upon her return, Mom gave me a shopping bag that Aunt Lynn had sent back with her.When I say shopping bag, I don't mean the little plastic ones you get at the store today. This was a large paper bag with handles. My eyes nearly popped out when I looked inside. It was FULL of firecrackers of every size & shape.

Mom made me promise to be careful with them. Of course I would be careful (what else do you think I would say). An early teen with a bag of firecrackers. Whoo Hoo. I lit some traditionally, but I had some adventures with some of the others (Disclaimer: If you are a Mom, and let your kids read this, you may want to finish reading this after the kiddos go to bed).

As I've written before, I made paper airplanes out of old women's magazines and inserted a firecracker in each one. I then lit the nose on fire. The plane would fly until the firecracker went off. What was left of it would flutter to the ground.

In the bag were roman candles (at least I think that is what it was). When you lit them, you got a mini fireworks display. I discovered, that if you insert the end into a piece of pvc pipe, you can shoot them across the sky in what ever direction you pleased.

Also in the bag was cherry bombs. These were a bit more powerful than regular firecrackers. One of these were dropped into a mason jar and tossed into the creek. It made a mighty splash when it went off, and the jar floated down the creek, filled with smoke. It looked really cool. I also set one of these on top of of a mayonnaise jar. I set a very, very rusty can on top of it. The fuse stuck out of a hole in the can. I lit the fuse and stepped back to what I thought was a safe distance. When it exploded, shrapnel flew everywhere. Some hit me, but did not penetrate my skin. The mayonnaise jar AND the can had completely vanished. This just goes to show that Mason jars are more sturdy than mayonnaise jars.

Also in the bag were bottle rockets. The only problem with these was back then, pop bottle were returned for deposit. We had just taken our back prior to getting the firecrackers. How do you shoot bottle rockets without bottles. I looked around for anything I could find. Finally my eyes landed on a pipe that was sticking out of our lower roof (the roof just outside my bedroom window).

I clambered out onto the roof and dropped the first rocket down the pipe. Since we were higher up, the rocket said really high into the air. I had six dozen rockets in my possession. I lit & dropped each one down the pipe. It was spectacular. I found out, several years later, just what that pipe was. It was the exhaust vent for our septic tank. If any of the sparks from the bottle rockets had ignited the methane gas in the tank, we would have had a large crater in our back yard. How do you explain to your parents that you blew up the septic tank. Years later, when I told this story to Dad, he turned white.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. I saved the last pack for July 4th. I was discussing this post with my wife last night. I don't have any idea how long those firecrackers were in Aunt Lynn's attic. Gunpowder deteriorates with age. These may have been incredibly dangerous. If you have firecrackers, don't do as I did, be careful with them.

Whole lot of random goin' on.

Yes, I am still alive. I know I haven't posted in a nearly a week. Here goes a little bit of nothing and a lot of everything.

Tired. That pretty much sums me up. We are seriously undermanned at work and have been working lots of overtime. They split up the group that I "Nanny" over. One part is still just outside my department while the other is at the far east end of plant #2 (I work at the far west end of plant #1). It's like babysitting the kids who live down the block while you stay in our house. Every once & awhile I venture down to see if they are doing OK. If they need something before I get down there, they text me, and I go meet the need that has arisen.

The past few days have been stressful beyond belief at work. The powers that be let the receiver and her back up both go on vacation at the same time. Guess who is third in line at receiving? I had to do this AND keep up on all my other duties. I have clinical proof that doing receiving raises my blood pressure. My evil twin went to work in my place both Monday and Tuesday. I had to apologize to some co-workers because I frightened them with a comment I made. (They thought I might "go postal" on everyone). I literally tore my hair out.

Yesterday was inventory. Inventory is always rough. I was actually looking forward to inventory. It meant that I wouldn't be doing receiving. Nuff said.

We've been having a few issues with "The Boy" recently. A while back, I found a multitude of snack wrappers hidden upstairs. He has been banned from eating upstairs. Guess what I found again? Lunchable containers and yogurt cups upstairs and spoons hidden in the pillowcase. He was punished by having to do dishes after supper last night (there were a lot of them).

He also has developed a bad habit of getting my "comic books" (Far Side, Calvin & Hobbes, Fox Trot, Dilbert, etc) out and reading them, but not putting them away. We have found them everywhere. When I find them, I pick them up and they get "stashed away" for a while. I don't think he has caught on yet.

It's Thursday, and I still haven't picked up my MIL's laundry. Yikes! Normally that is something that I do on Tuesday. With working over on Tuesday (they wanted me to work over even longer but my wife said NO) and revival services later that night, it just didn't happen. Wednesday wasn't much better. I'll get them today and then meet my wife for lunch (that doesn't happen very often). No work today. I don't go back to work until next Tuesday (with regular hours no less. Probably means we will be working Saturday). Maybe I can recharge my batteries (Aiieee, He's an alien robot! I just knew it!)