sunset 2 

Sunset ....10-23-05 

Old Toys

Toys of the past, and or how to
drive your parents nuts.

Lincoln logs, Erector sets…
tinker toys, trains….wood craving
set…wood burning sets, paper dolls,
Raggedy Ann and Andy, teddy bears,
wind up toys, banks that had actions
to put the coin in the slot…and sail
boats, tug boats… Popeye, and
Olive Oly dolls. Dick Tracy, toys that
came in cereals. Magic rings and
secret words in the shredded wheat…
Kewpie dolls And Betty Boop dolls.
And lunch boxes with Hopalong
Cassidy, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry.
Sky King, Red Ryder. Ovaltine…

I remember a lot of the toys... I had
a doll called Sparkle Plenty after
Dick Tracy's daughter. Or was it
B.O.’s daughter.. I cut off all of her
long blonde hair...I was in big trouble......
had a farm set, metal barn with
little tabs that you bend over to put it
together.... twice I took it apart...
never saw it again. Guess Mom got
tired to putting it together... no wonder
she didn't like kids. lol....

After writing this, I decided to
Google Sparkle Plenty. There were
a couple. One was down right ugly…
but there was another on E-Bay,
seems these dolls are hard to come
by, but I had to laugh when I read
the description of this one… It said,
"She has hardly any hair on the
back of her head" … I know it isn’t
mine, as I cut it off all the way around.

But I guess I wasn’t the only one
to cut Sparkle's hair.

SPARKLE PLENTY

P. J.'s in the Schools

First, I want to say, I like pajamas.
I have wore pajamas all my life.
AT home. At night time. And even
on a lazy, rainy day, I have been
known to be still in my pajamas up
to 11am. Too lazy to change. But if
anyone comes to the house, I shoot
into the bedroom and throw on jeans
or what ever.

But now we hear in the news that children
are wearing them in SCHOOL.

In Ogden, Utah they are letting them
wear pj's to school. One of the kids was
quoted as saying "Some days you don't
want to get dressed up for school, like
when it is raining and cold. And the
school's administrators feels because
the pj have been modest, it isn't a problem.
Remarks like a kid could wear worse
things to school. Or we learn to pick our
battles. Luckily, a lot of the kids don't think
it is so great and I hope they win out.

There are parents who think nothing of
letting their kids stay home from school.
Any excuse works, from I don't want to go
today because I don't feel well. We use
to refer to it as school bus sickness...
as soon as the school bus went by, the kid
was feeling better. Go hunting, was up late,
Mom wants the older kid to baby sit the
younger ones... What does this teach the
kids. And I understand that company do
look at the attendance records of future
employees.

This doesn't mean that I lump all the
kids in one group. 95% or more of the
kids in school, try their best to do their
school work, to attend school each day,
and dress properly. I know there are fads,
my kids had fads. And the less you pay
attention to the fad, the faster it disappeared.
But in our household, those fads did not go
to school if it was something that was
disruptive. And my kids will tell you to this
day, no one got out of going to school. You
had to pass a ridged test to get to stay home.
Fever, was the first one. One of my children
jokes about how I would have sent them to
school with intravenous feeding tube, if I
had to. It wasn't that bad, but they did have
to stay in bed all day. No books, no tv...
if you are sick... you are sick. And because
of this all my kids have great attendance
records at their jobs. And I lead by example.
I went 5 years straight without calling in. And
5 in 17+years of work. Two of them because
of snow.

I am beginning to feel like the old lady.
Am I becoming my parents? my
grandparents?

And when did the children become in
charge? Surely a parent didn't send
off their child to school in p.j.'s . In my
kids day's (my own school days would
never have allowed this) if there was a
child who came to school in such a matter,
it was a signal that there was something
wrong at home. Drug, or alcohol was
involved. The child dress themselves.
And a teen would not have wore such
clothes. Teens in my kids day, were clothes
horses, the best of brands and etc.

No, I hope this another fad that goes
back home... I want all the kids to learn
that there is work ethnic, and only if you
work in a pj factory and it is a pj day to
break the winter cabin fever... then MAYBE.

I am sure there are people who will fight
for the rights of the children to wear their
pj's to school. And if they do, and they
succeed, I will be sad. Not for me, but for
the child and the world. What work ethnic
will they be learning? And what other
traditions for work will go down?

"I Shaved my Legs for This?"

As the song goes......
"I shaved my legs for this?"

I had a doctor's appointment
for this morning. They even called
me yesterday, to remind me to
show up on time.

I show up and they looked surprised
to see me. The Dr. is in surgery, she
said with a quizzable look on her face.
Then she said, oh, well Brian is going
to be looking thru these charts, maybe
he can do something. Who the heck is
Brian and do I want him looking at my
chart?

As she looks for mine to give him
(he is with another patient) she says,
"oh, I can take care of this for you."
She tells me the results for my test.
End of story. Oh, yea, with the add of
you will need to come back and have
your test done again. I said, EXCUSE
ME??? In 3 years, she says and smiles
My question, but the phone rang and
she dismissed me, is why the heck
couldn't she tell me yesterday? I went
all thru this for what? I sure hope I
don't see a office call on that bill.

So on the way home,
the song came to mind....
I shaved my legs for this?

Mother and Kids...

When raising my kids, there were
times that were frustrating… Like
fighting. After the first one that
came home from school and got
into trouble for fighting. We had
the talk about how not to fight.
That it isn’t good to fight. God
doesn’t like fighting. (Got to instill
the guilt card).

We talk about how MY kid better
NEVER EVER start a fight. Never
start one. No pushing, shoving,
punching, or verbal start of a fight.
They could finish a fight. Meaning
that if someone else started one,
threw the first punch, shoved, or push,
then they could protect themselves
by hitting back. I didn’t want them
to become someone’s punching bag.

So the rule was NO STARTING FIGHTS..
Not MY KID. Right?…Right, mom.
Not your kid. Well, that works at school.

But not at home. As mom the referee,
you have to decide who started the fight.
It is always …he did it… not me, mom…
or she did it, Mom, not me. So I came
up with this deal. I sat the two offenders
down at the table. Went the route of …
how MY KID doesn’t start fights.
Right? Right, Mom…So being MY KID
doesn’t start fights, I want to know…
which one of you guys, isn’t my kid…

They looked at each other and then
pointed to the other one. He isn’t, Mom..

Reading the Sunday paper

Reading the Spokesman Review
yesterday was interesting..

See, on the front page of the comic's
was OPUS which tells the story as we
know it here local in Sandpoint, and
others know it across the nation. We
seem to think it is just here.

I wondered where the OPUS cartoonist
lived that he thought the housing market
was so wild. For those who don't get
the SR, it was a cartoon of selling a
house, a battle over selling a house,
that wasn't for sale, and then when
they finally sold it against their
better judgment, they wonder
how they were going to replace the
house. The long and short of it, as the
cartoon was ending, the house was
one of those that you see in people's
back yards that little girls have.

I have Dish so I get the New York
stations, (local wasn't available at
the time) and one of the ads is
about how their mayor is running
for re-election, was trying to get
low cost homes for the new owners.
And the kicker line was, housing
low enough for New Yorkers to
stay New Yorkers. Sound familiar
where you are at?

Also in the Region section on page
2 was a map of Earthquakes in Idaho,
I had to laugh. Now for all you
Californians, this is tongue in cheek.

See the top two areas were in the
south east corner of Idaho and
what appears to be Hayden,
and Bonner County area. See,
we knew we had too many Ca.
people move here. They not only
brought their high price housing
but they brought their earthquakes
too!

Kootenai School and Colors on the side 

Turning with the wind  

Colors in Kootenai, Idaho