Author: jottingjoan

With his permission I am sharing the following event that Gordon Bell recorded recently. In the late 90s I had a contract in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I drove there every Sunday evening and back to the Arkansas farm on Thursday evenings.Leaving my client late one Thursday, I stopped at a convenience store to nourish my starving…

With Thanksgiving drawing near, I count my many blessings. I begin with six children successfully launched. None look to us for housing, food or extra cash. All but one remains married after at least twenty years. Thankful that the grandchild we worried might not launch has kept the same job for five or six years,…

My sewing machine is such a Karen! That 54 year-old machine has definitely gotten my attention recently. It does have a special place in my heart. I received one like it as a high school graduation gift. At that point in my life I used it to make my dresses, pajamas and blouses. It also…

The boys had been awfully quiet that day as I worked in the kitchen preparing food. I did not worry though. Playing upstairs in their bedroom kept them safely occupied. Still, why did I hear the giggles? I looked up the stairwell to see both preschoolers peeking over the edge without a stitch of clothing.Shocked?…

Nothing like clearing out everything to discover items we once treasured, forgot or simply could not allow ourselves to throw out or give away. Two years ago, a preservation society began clearing out the house once owned by Samuel Johnston, governor of North Carolina from 1787-1789. In a long neglected junk room filled with old…

Old age hits us like a truck just as we round the corner and cross the street in front of it, at least that’s how an old Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson illustrates how fast old age hits. All the sudden the joints and muscles that once moved fluidly now resist with painful twinges…

Before self-checkout at the big box stores, we had self-serve gas pumps. Hubby and I have our preferences, although we each buy gas at either place. Last weekend. I could not find my favorite when the tank screamed “empty” so I swung into hubby’s favorite. On every single tank dangled a sheet of paper declaring,…

 “Let’s go see the model trains at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry,” my husband insisted when the boys were little. We piled them in the station wagon and drove to Chicago. The boys enjoyed looking at the display of 1,400 feet of track and watching the 20 model trains run from one miniature…

Nothing like a good story. Some I read. Some I watch. Some I find at estate sales. The mechanic who no longer needed the tools collected over the years. The crafter who once upon a time gushed over decorative odds and ends now left for others to discover. The shopaholic’s unworn hoard of clothes that…

With hours of traveling behind us, Hubby and I needed a break from road noise. We did not want a rest area. We wanted to leave the car, sit down and have a snack that did not require a long wait for the kitchen to prepare food. A fast food joint loomed on the horizon.…

“I do not want a job handling people’s dirty dishes! I will find a job doing something else.” her voice and face declared such work quite beneath her.  “We do not do that!” sniffed the mother of a military aged man who talked with a recruiter about joining the Army and going through Boot Camp.…

With cellphone in our pocket, we push a buggy through the store gathering groceries for the week. Once we complete the list we head to the checkout. It does not matter if we choose to have a clerk check us or do it ourselves at the self-checkout, the items will be scanned for their price.…

I anticipated a quiet weekend with my daughter Sharon and her three daughters before I received the phone call. “Katie, tell your grandmother what you want to do when we come,” Sharon prompted. “I want to make cookies and have a tea party,” third grader Katie said. “I want to work on a t-shirt quilt,”…

“With 18 grandchildren and 19 great-grands you probably don’t know all their names,” my cousin speculated during a recent conversation. “Yes, we do. We pray for each one by name every day,” I said. I could have added that we travel hundreds of miles a couple times a year so we know each other better…