Holly’s Happenings

I’m sure you’ve all seen the newest commercials on TV with various characters explaining to people that they’ve entered “the dead zone” as for cell phone service. The funny thing is, where we live is exactly one of those areas!

We’ve been told that because our house is directly in one of the flight paths of the nearby airport, that’s the biggest reason why the cell phone signal in the area is as poor as it is! And it’s actually been suggested to us more than once that we look into a cell signal booster for our home and our vehicles. I think what amazes me the most is the fact that it’s nearly impossible to pull in a reliable signal on my cell phone in my yard, but if I go less than half a mile down the road I’ve got a full signal.

It stinks that I moved into a “dead zone” area for cell phone service, but hopefully some day I can pick up a good booster and change that! In the mean time, if you call my cell phone, don’t be surprised if it goes straight to voicemail

Apparently when I was a kid I was as obsessed with music as I am now. Why do I say this? Well, let me put it to you this way. It’s been 25 years since I graduated from high school which means it’s been about 35 years since I was in 2nd grade. The reason I’m bringing this up is because this time of year ALWAYS brings back a song from a Halloween program that we did in the 2nd grade. After a quick websearch, I’ve found out it’s actually a poem, but my music teacher back then put it to music. But here’s the poem

Trick or Treat

Witches, ghosts, and goblins.
Stealing down the street,
Knock on every door way,
Trick or treat!

When your door is opened,
This is what you meet,
Scary creatures shouting,
Trick or treat!

I remember all of us kids up there on the stage in our masks made from construction paper singing this song, the melody of it is still in my head almost like it was just yesterday that I sang the song…LOL! Remember how it used to be cool to cut a couple of holes in a white sheet for your eyes and go trick or treating as a ghost? And my all time FAVORITE costume, the one I wore most often as a kid, was when I’d borrow a pair of pants and flannel shirt from my grandfather. Then my mom or grandmother would cut holes and sew patches on them in various places. We’d take a handkerchief and fill it full of paper then tie the ends of it around a stick. I’d put the altered clothes on and tie a piece of twine through the belt loops so use like a belt, mom would take black shoe polish and rub it lightly into my face and I’d proclaim I was the BEST hobo ever! LOL

Last night I had to stop at the store on my way home from my orientation to pick up break and milk. It never ceases to amaze me how intricately designed Halloween costumes are these days! They had every type of Halloween costume you could imagine for sale in the store! Long gone are the days of simplicity, replaced with what seems almost like a competition judged by cost rather than the imagination! Yes, I do realize that some kids and parents still do use their imagination and make their own costumes, but judging by the amount of empty space on the costume racks when we’re still four weeks away from Halloween, I’d have to say the people that do are getting fewer and farther between those that don’t!

I have to admit that the things that have happened over the past few weeks have really gotten me to looking back at my life! I know that I do quite a bit of complaining about my life, but I honestly do feel very fortunate to have lived the life I have!

Yes, I have had some fairly traumatic things happen in my life, but I’ve also had many more wonderful things happen as well! I grew up on a farm, in the country, with a very wonderful family! Life was always very busy! If we weren’t in the fields planting, fertilizing or harvesting crops, we had livestock to take care of! During the times that those things were taken care of and I didn’t have anything to do, were the times that I had the most fun.

Growing up like I did was a completely amazing experience! I learned the lesson about how good it feels to do hard work and I learned that it’s the simple things in life that bring you the most happiness! Things like laying on a blanket in the yard on a summers day listening to CKLW and trying to figure out exactly what animal that cloud in the sky looked like. Or swinging so fast and high on a tire swing that you swore you were going to crash into a huge tree limb!

Eventually I replaced CKLW with WIOT and when my parents started becoming grandparents they replaced that old tire swing with one of those really nice wooden swing sets because it would be safer for their grandchildren. But my point is that it’s those simple things that I remember the most about my childhood, and it’s those memories that mean the most to me! Life was so different back then compared to what it is now.