Halloween Memories: A Hilarious Wrong Turn

 On Halloween I always think of the Halloweens of the past when my kids were young. I often made their costumes, we went trick or treating in our neighborhood, and put up a few decorations at our house. A couple of Halloweens stand out though.

When my daughter Jamie was 4 or 5 and my son Ben was 7 or 8, we went to the Chicago Botanic Garden for their Halloween festival. The Chicago Botanic Gardens is a wonderful place north of Chicago. We go there often to walk, for art and flower exhibits, a yearly quilt show, and so on. 

The Halloween event included a hay ride, apple cider and donuts, and a choice of two walks: a friendly walk and a scary walk. The friendly walk had adults dressed up a Care Bears, Winnie the Pooh, and so on. The scary walk had typical scary Halloween beings.  Since we had younger children, especially Jamie, we choice the friendly walk. Only we took a wrong turn. And didn't realize it at first.

We walked up the steps (outdoors) to the area with the man-made lily ponds. As we walked by the first pond, the Creature from the Black Lagoon lunged out of the water and grabbed Jamie's ankle. She of course started screaming. 

We got her away from the Creature (my husband and I laughing quietly) though she isn't over her fright yet and who comes down the path but Frankenstein! Jamie completely loses it begins shrieking. Frankenstein sees what's happening (and probably wonders what's wrong with these parents to bring little kids on the scary walk!). He break character, kneels down close to her and says softly, "I'm not really a monster. I'm just a man in a costume." 

When I remember this day, that's what stands out -- that he saw a child in distress and took immediate action. 

Here's to a not too scary Halloween! 

A Reading Life

 I love reading and spend a lot of time every day reading - novels, newspapers, magazines, blog posts...

I can remember a time before reading. I started kindergarten in 1958, when Dick and Jane, point and say, were the big thing in education. I don't remember actually learning to read, but I do remember the reading groups in first grade and that despite the bird names - bluebird, robin, etc. -  I knew very well that I was not in the top group. 

I did learn to read and reading became a passion. In later elementary school, I would read novels in our living room, neglecting to turn on the lamp when it started getting dark. My mother repeatedly said I would ruin my eyes reading in the dark. I did end up with glasses but I think that was more due to genetics than reading in the dark. 

My reading passion for quite a few years was dog books. I read all the Albert Payson Terhune books, beginning with Lad: A Dog. I read all the Big Red books by Jim Kjelgaard after Disney made a film based on the first book (though in Disney fashion, nothing like the book). I gave oral book reports on each of the three Big Red books; my 6th grade teacher suggested that I should read something else for a change. I think there were other dog books but I'm not remembering them now. 

I also read all the Bobbsey Twin books, all of Nancy Drew, all of the Freddy the pig books, and lots more. If you haven't heard of Freddie and his friends, you can read about the series here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddy_the_Pig

I don't remember reading much in college except for textbooks of course. Somewhere along the way I found mysteries other than Nancy Drew, starting with Peter Whimsy, because of the PBS series. British mysteries! Agatha Christie! Dorothy Sayers! Margery Allingham! And of course, Sherlock Holmes!

I still enjoy rereading my old favorites as well as finding new series. My husband jokes that I never go anywhere without a book. Not entirely true, but I do stuff one in my purse when we're going to take the train into Chicago. 

Reading - an education, an vacation from real life, sometimes calming, sometimes the opposite. 

Food Memories and Menu Planning

 Growing up in the 60s in small town Wisconsin, we ate whatever our mother made. I do  not recall anyone ever complaining about any meal. Our diet was very Midwest, even after we moved to Connecticut. Roast beef, hamburgers, fried chicken, pot roast, meat loaf, and hot dish - a casserole of hamburger, noodles, some kind of vegetables and sauce. It never occurred to any of us to complain about not liking something. We ate it anyway. When we were on vacation in Minnesota, we caught perch and sunfish every day and ate fried fish every day for a week.

Some how we all survived with our arteries fairly intact.

As time passed I discovered other cuisines. I distinctly remember being at the Seattle World's Fair in 1962 and seeing pizza for the first time, though I didn't eat any. After we moved to Connecticut in 1965, friends took our family to eat in a Chinese restaurant. That was the first time I had eaten Chinese food, and maybe the first time my parents had too! I liked it, a  lot.

Now my world is filled with all kind of foods, and at the same time, I have eliminated many foods. I'm now lactose intolerant (this after living in Wisconsin for 5 1/2 years and drinking milk three times a day!) and have become a pescatarian, eating seafood and vegetables. My husband cannot eat spicy food and watches his cholesterol. And frankly, he's sort of a picky eater. So menu planning has become just slightly stressful. We want variety, healthy foods, and I don't want to spend all my time in the kitchen.

So now I have lists -- fast dinners, slower dinners, fish dinners, veggie dinners. The plan this week is:

Monday- Asian Salad

Tuesday- BLTs (I have a rehearsal to get to!)

Wednesday- BBQ Pineapple Pizza

Thursday- Mongolian "Beef"

Fish- Fish, type TBD

Saturday - Tropical Island Kebabs on the grill

Sunday- We're going out!

I'd love to hear about other people's dinner strategies.

Books and the Unexpected

 I recently discovered that an acquaintance/former colleague/friend of mine has written and published a novel! I had not seen him in years until this past June when a group of former colleagues went to see a musical that he had written about ancient Aztecs. 

He's obviously a very creative guy. I first met him when a small theater I was working at produced a musical that he had written the music for. We were actually in college at the same time, but he was a grad student and I was an undergrad, and even though the school was very small, we never met. We did not stay in touch, but encountered each other again when we  both ended up working at a music magazine for band directors. We both moved on from there years ago and have gone in different directions career and creative-wise.

I discovered the news about the novel while reading the alumni magazine. (I always look for people I knew. Finding them happens less and less as we grow older.) I ordered the book immediately. The title is Music's Guiding Hand and is about Guido D'Arezzo, who was a real person born around 990 in Italy. Every music student learns about him in music history. His claim to fame is Guido's Hand, a mnemonic device he created to assist sight-singing, that is singing written music that you don't already know. If you want to know more, here is a video: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1042331942769547

I just got the book and haven't started reading yet. However, I claim a very small contribution to Guido's fame. When I was working as an editor at the music magazine, I was editing a humor article. I don't remember what the main idea of the article was, but the author has made a joking reference to some music thing that had been done "since the time of Guido D'Arezzo." My wandering thoughts led me to add an extra humorous touch, creating "Guido 'The Hand' D'Arezzo." Referencing, obviously, the Italian criminal organization and its many nicknames. The editor in charge loved it, and it stayed in. 

I suspect that novel is more serious, but I'll find out.