CLOTHES?

Its finally getting cooler but its been so hot its like wearing clothes actually hurts! Sweat drips down your head, off your nose and your underwear is so soaked, you can't stand it. We go from one air conditioned spot to another except when we are out in the yard or out in the neighborhood. Lordy, how did our mothers and grandparents stand it without air??Well, they worked early in the morning, ate a good dinner and then..we were forced to take a nap. My grandmother would pull the shades, crank up the little black rotary fans, give us a damp washrag, change into her slip..yes, she wore a slip and a dern corset every day of her life. So there we all were, in 1949, sweating and laying on the beds, trying to be quiet. Good grief, that quiet time lasted for about 3 hours. It was so hard for me, at 9, to be still and quiet, the outside calling me, the hunting dogs wiggling around under the house(it sat on tall brick pillows) and me wanting to go and crawl under there with them and play! Along with the DDT my Uncle put under there and on them for fleas!..
That was actually the only time we could sit outside at night and not have any mosquitoes and gnats..when they sprayed the cotton fields with DDT...hey, it worked!! But the time finally passed and all of us got up, dressed, spashed water on our faces and , if it was Sunday, we visited.
Geez, I was forced to go and visit (wearing a dress with a pinafore over it) , to see all the cousins, aunts, uncles, that were all over the county, having just gotten up from their naps and dressed and were waiting for company. We had tea, sometimes a soda and homemade cake or cookes mostly all the places...finally we could get home and ..undress...and I was freed to go outside and harrass the chickens, pet the mule, run from the new calf, play with the dogs!! until leftovers for supper and then at dark, back to the very warm bedroom, another washcloth, a paper fan and try to sleep! mosquitoes love it when there is not air conditioning. But the dressing part was ingrained in my Mother and Aunts forever. When they retired and moved in together in 1970 in Springfield...they spent the morning getting dressed to go down town to the post office to get the mail..because everyone was there getting their mail! And again every afternoon after nap time, dressed to recieve company..in cast someone came..and someone always did..and they were dressed too..it was polite and expected and we have come a long way Baby ..now dressing is a clean pair of shorts, a tank top without food on the front and flipflops with no bite marks from dogs in them!! My Aunt Amy dressed until she couldn't...even at 80, driving her great big ol Chrysler to come to Columbia to see me..she dressed and had her hair fixed..a girdle, heels and her bouffant hair..I always asked her why she spent so much time doing that and she always said, "I couldn't come to town just any old way and I want your friends and people at work to see me looking nice" made me feel like a slump...still feel like a slump...just put on clothes to go outside and wish I had that sense of pride and Lord knows, wish I had a post office to go to.
I feel bad I know my family could be a lot prouder of me if I looked nicer and put on some make up and fixed my hair but darn, its a lot of trouble and its tooooo hot!~

RESPECT

There are many ways to show respect to another. It has to do with respecting their things, their feelings, their ways and them. Strong women are good at respect.

They can take over a situation, bad or good, and help without pushing the button of the person being helped.

We have ruined our men. I don't think the womens lib thing did it. I think we have become such strong women that they think we CAN do it all and when we ask for some help with a situation, they resent it. If only they were to know the truth. We stong women get tired..we get tired of "handling" everything all the time. The house, the bills, the car, the yard, the kids, the jobs, the meals, everything. Your moms and grandmoms did it all the time but the men then were at war, out in the fields, were the only ones working every day and they were really tired and needed a strong woman at home. Men can do everything too, they just need to know that its the little things that they do that count a lot toward being loved back. It does not matter if you are the greatest lover in the world, if you can not respect your woman and your family. Let me tell you, when a woman looses respect for a man, they might still care for them but it's a far cry from the love she had. Sometimes showing your strong woman you care isn't grabbing her ass as she walks by or her boobs as she works on something on the computer. Its taking care of some bills, washing clothes, keeping the yard neat, doing a little more than asked. That gets you more loving than any "grab" can. Strong women need more support than the other, they carry a larger burden and reach that breaking point too.

The "yes Honey" woman doesn't speak for herself she has become whatever the man wants her to be and whatever he does is fine and that might work for some but not for those of us

that are "Women Who Run With The Wolves"...

SAVE THOSE MEMORIES!

You know how crazy your new man gets when he finds some of your crap from the earlier boyfriends? Well, no matter how he whines, begs, threatens, don't you go and throw it away just to please him. You will regret it and wish you had it back later. I know. I did just that probably about 4 times and I wish like hell I had them back. My first husband found my diaries and pictures from high school and pitched such a fit, I got mad and moved all my stuff back home. Until my mama made me move right back..that same night! Well, I relented and destroyed it in front of him...stupid, stupid, I should have just hid it all. Well, the second husband got mad when he saw all the pictures and crap from the first one and DEMANDED that I throw it away that same day. Hell, i knew better than to pack and go back to mama....there wasn't room by then and she would have made me come back anyway. Nooooooo don't do it. You will wish you had those famous pictures of school, football games, college parties, vacations in a druken fog and all the blackmail you took and was taken of you! Hide the school annuals and all letters and cards, bury them, put in a lock box but don't throw it away!!! Someday you will be alone and you just might want to bring it all back...

back....All the proms, like the one I had 2 dates for and had to break one..he got mad and broke his hand on his car hood! haha. The nights you parked in a car and made out...it was sooo hard in a prom dress and crinolin petticoats...and besides, sometimes the cops would come and knock on your window and tell you to go home..That was when it was safe to park. And the graduation pictures under the flower arch when your date switched your high school ring on your finger and you kissed (nope, no pic of that either) but I gave him a kiss the chaperones were heading for the fire extingushiers....oops spell ck...and all the guys in between, at beach parties or lake parties where pj was plentiful and you could throw up in the water..Hey, we moms and little ol grey haired grannies HAD A LIFE..and some of us had speicy spicey ones...Damn, the week before I married Lanes daddy, one ex boyfriend showed up at my shower and had to be escorted off the premisis by my friends DAD..i looked so cute as a toilet paper bride that night. another one called me long distanct to tell me he really did love me even tho he was in a rock band and was going pot and had groupies. And the boy next door said he always thought he would marry me because i was the only girl strong enough to put up with him......so hey, under that little ol wrinkled grey head.......lies..................MEMORIES, don't throw them away, ok?