FORT Koffee Klatch

[inthegarden]

I can't help it that I am so anal. My brother-in-law's mom is a retired English teacher. She used to send him back his letters from school ( this was years ago, in the 60's) with his grammatical errors circled in red ink. I admit I am not that bad but I did drive my boys crazy with their schoolwork.

This made me laugh... When I was young, my Mom took me with her to visit the elderly home bound members of our church. One was a retired English teacher. She would correct the the letters her grandchildren wrote to her in red and send them back. Honestly, they looked as if they were bleeding.

Another person we visited was a retired Science teacher, he would find small dead animals, clean the bones and mail them to his grandchildren. They had to guess the animal or the name of the bone.

I was thankful my Grandparents farmed and ran the Cotton gin. Although, I guess they could have sent me some interesting packages.

I admit I'm terrible with spelling and grammar. EMC I should have had you as a Mom. My parents tried, I was too busy exploring and investigating.

My Dad was an Attorney in the South, and he was always bringing home bushels of vegetables. He had a client that sold shoes, so we always had new shoes. One that was a jeweler, my Mom benefited from that one. A liquor store owner. Whom, I'm sure my Dad visited to calm his nerves while raising me .
I would go to his office on Saturday's to 'help'. I sharpened pencils, filed and other chores. When I was finished with my chores I explored.
He had a long hallway and I would set a rolling chair in the middle, run, jump in the seat and roll all the way down the hall. He had sugar cubes for coffee, and I would melt them in the water fountain. I fed the Pigeons that roosted outside on a window ledge my lunch. Rode the elevator up and down.... or if it was busy, ran up and down the stairs and tried to beat the people riding the elevator. Talked to whoever would listen.
My favorite part was going to the different Courthouses for research and work on Title searches. I loved the way the books smelled and how cold the pages were.
He was sometimes summoned to the jail and that was scary to me. I had to wait in the car and I could see the prisoners in stripped suits behind the barred windows. According to my Dad, all they got to eat was one piece of stale bread and a small cup of water. "So you be a good girl, it would break your mother's heart if I ever had to come down here and get you out of jail."
He wanted me to follow in his footsteps and become an Attorney, sorry Dad, I like to be outside too much to be confined indoors.
He did make sure that I knew how to change a flat, know what to check under the car hood, fix small repairs around the house, hammer, nail, and use a Skill saw. Thanks Dad.

[Eastcoastmom]

This made me laugh... When I was young, my Mom took me with her to visit the elderly home bound members of our church. One was a retired English teacher. She would correct the the letters her grandchildren wrote to her in red and send them back. Honestly, they looked as if they were bleeding.

Another person we visited was a retired Science teacher, he would find small dead animals, clean the bones and mail them to his grandchildren. They had to guess the animal or the name of the bone.

I was thankful my Grandparents farmed and ran the Cotton gin. Although, I guess they could have sent me some interesting packages.

I admit I'm terrible with spelling and grammar. EMC I should have had you as a Mom. My parents tried, I was too busy exploring and investigating.

My Dad was an Attorney in the South, and he was always bringing home bushels of vegetables. He had a client that sold shoes, so we always had new shoes. One that was a jeweler, my Mom benefited from that one. A liquor store owner. Whom, I'm sure my Dad visited to calm his nerves while raising me .
I would go to his office on Saturday's to 'help'. I sharpened pencils, filed and other chores. When I was finished with my chores I explored.
He had a long hallway and I would set a rolling chair in the middle, run, jump in the seat and roll all the way down the hall. He had sugar cubes for coffee, and I would melt them in the water fountain. I fed the Pigeons that roosted outside on a window ledge my lunch. Rode the elevator up and down.... or if it was busy, ran up and down the stairs and tried to beat the people riding the elevator. Talked to whoever would listen.
My favorite part was going to the different Courthouses for research and work on Title searches. I loved the way the books smelled and how cold the pages were.
He was sometimes summoned to the jail and that was scary to me. I had to wait in the car and I could see the prisoners in stripped suits behind the barred windows. According to my Dad, all they got to eat was one piece of stale bread and a small cup of water. "So you be a good girl, it would break your mother's heart if I ever had to come down here and get you out of jail."
He wanted me to follow in his footsteps and become an Attorney, sorry Dad, I like to be outside too much to be confined indoors.
He did make sure that I knew how to change a flat, know what to check under the car hood, fix small repairs around the house, hammer, nail, and use a Skill saw. Thanks Dad.

Love, love, love this post, inthegarden. Your childhood sounds idyllic! Your daddy sounds like he was a sweetheart. My mom was a voracious reader and for some reason I have always been a word nerd. When I was younger we had a subscription to Reader's Digest. They had a feature (still do) that was titled "It pays to increase your word power". It was a list of 20 words with 4 multiple choice answers for each. Getting 18-20 correct was considered excellent. I am proud to say I always scored at least an 18. If I was unsure I would look at the word and try to figure out its meaning by looking at prefixes or suffixes or even if it seemed to be of foreign origin. I remember diagramming sentences in grade school, which my children never did. It truly taught us to know parts of speech and was so helpful in learning a foreign language. When I taught high school Spanish I found that many students did not know their parts of speech. If one does not know what a direct or indirect object is, or a participle or a gerund, it makes it more difficult to understand how to use it in Spanish or any other language.

Anyway, I digress, which is quite normal for me . Just wanted to say that I loved your post and loved learning about your childhood. Thanks for sharing!

[PhoneGrrrl]

inthegarden, did your Dad also take Augusts off because court was closed due to the heat? Early in my career, I worked for a judge whose father was also a lawyer (in Bogalusa, LA) and she remembered her Dad not having any court dates in August because it was just to darn hot. I kind of wish we still did that, but the courts are air conditioned now.

As an update to my post up-thread, I had my appointment with the dealer today and my brakes and tires are fine for about another 8000 miles. That's about another 500 round-trips to work and home! I'm now warning everyone off that tire shop that freaked out on my brakes & tires. They seriously acted like I'd die in the 3 mile trip home from the shop. I'm QUITE certain that the dealer would have gladly sold me 4 new tires (which, alas, aren't covered by the warranty) had they actually been bad. The service guy admitted as much when he said they work on commission and my non-warranted tires are stupidly expensive. (Run-flats.)

[justCoz]

As an update to my post up-thread, I had my appointment with the dealer today and my brakes and tires are fine for about another 8000 miles. That's about another 500 round-trips to work and home! I'm now warning everyone off that tire shop that freaked out on my brakes & tires. They seriously acted like I'd die in the 3 mile trip home from the shop. I'm QUITE certain that the dealer would have gladly sold me 4 new tires (which, alas, aren't covered by the warranty) had they actually been bad. The service guy admitted as much when he said they work on commission and my non-warranted tires are stupidly expensive. (Run-flats.)

And wasn't that stupid on their part to try to sell you something you don't need. Now they'll never get anymore of your legitimate business, and possibly friends/relatives that pay attention to that kind of thing. I wouldn't go there. We've definitely considered both good and bad reports about places just from friends telling us who they are pleased with or not. We quit going to a pizza place because of how the owner treated my boss. We've also picked places like car repair shops based on friends recommendations that it's a trustworthy place they've used for years. Word of mouth can and does make a difference.

[prhoshay]

Supposedly, this is what Angie's List is all about. I've got a tire place that has always been straight up with me and has never let me down. If I don't need something, they will come right out and tell me that I don't need it. They have also given me really good referrals to other car places when I've needed other opinions; they've been really good friends to me.

[inthegarden]

inthegarden, did your Dad also take Augusts off because court was closed due to the heat? Early in my career, I worked for a judge whose father was also a lawyer (in Bogalusa, LA) and she remembered her Dad not having any court dates in August because it was just to darn hot. I kind of wish we still did that, but the courts are air conditioned now.

As an update to my post up-thread, I had my appointment with the dealer today and my brakes and tires are fine for about another 8000 miles. That's about another 500 round-trips to work and home! I'm now warning everyone off that tire shop that freaked out on my brakes & tires. They seriously acted like I'd die in the 3 mile trip home from the shop. I'm QUITE certain that the dealer would have gladly sold me 4 new tires (which, alas, aren't covered by the warranty) had they actually been bad. The service guy admitted as much when he said they work on commission and my non-warranted tires are stupidly expensive. (Run-flats.)

I don't remember if the courts were closed during the month of August. It wouldn't surprised me to learn that they were closed. The summer was so darn hot.

I've had auto repair places try and scare me into costly repair work.
I'm glad you were wise and had your dealer check your car over.

[AZChristian]

It's August 19th. I just came home from our weekly Sam's Club trip. THEY ARE SELLING CHRISTMAS STUFF ALREADY!!!!!

[Gutmutter]

Oh geesh! Really? I got miffed at a store this weekend because they already had Halloween stuff.

[Debb70]

Oh geesh! Really? I got miffed at a store this weekend because they already had Halloween stuff.

I have had the nerve to wait until a week after Thanksgiving to hunt for certain Christimas decorating items and found they were SOLD OUT. I'm not kidding. And when it's gone, they usually say they will not get anymore in before Christmas. I learned my lesson. If I need something, I better get it before Thanksgiving. LOL

[prhoshay]

Anymore, I go by the philosophy "Get it when you see it!" with everything. Since I've done that, I've never been sorry.


My "nails-on-a-chalkboard" moment for today, so far, a reporter at a state fair talking about the food pronounced "gyros" as "Gee-Rose". I swear, I think these people do this just to eat my heart out!