Swimming pools, movie stars

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What does your ideal home look like?
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GenXers will recognize “swimming pools, movie stars” as the last line of the theme song from the Beverly Hillbillies, a TV show that was popular when we were young children. Basically, some poor people find oil on their property in Appalachia, get rich, and move to “Cally-phonia” in a dilapidated truck. It was pretty dumb. The theme song was definitely the best part of the show.

From the Beverly Hillbillies to Downton Abby to the Kardashians, I’ll admit to being fascinated by the lifestyles of the very wealthy, particularly their homes. Honestly, most of them do not look that comfortable. They’re too big. Everything is so spread out. Kim Kardashian is basically living in the Louvre. She has to walk miles just to get to the back of her own closet.

BUT, it would really be cool to have a big swimming pool and a view. Those are the two features I would have, if money were no object.

Here are a few photos from a visit to Newport, Rhode Island in July. We toured Marble House, one of the Gilded Age mansions. And yes, of course I watched “The Gilded Age” on HBO and am eagerly awaiting Season 2 starting on October 29. My husband likes to count the number of times the word “luncheon” is said per episode.

Marble House (Newport) – one of the filming locations for Julian Fellows’ The Gilded Age
Marble House dining room – the very definition of “gilded”
Lest you think Mrs. Vanderbilt and her friends didn’t discuss serious things at their luncheons, here are her Women’s Suffrage dishes.

The Bittersweet

~ MaryG ~ 3 Comments

What brings a tear of joy to your eye?

The last thing that brought a tear of joy to my eye was the final scene in the film A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks.

The film is based on the book “A Man Called Ove,” by the Swedish writer Fredrik Backman, which I had listened to on tape.

SPOILER ALERT

In the final scene, Otto has died of natural causes (rather than by suicide, which he had been planning) when his neighbor Marisol finds him. She is heartbroken, but finds a note with his final wishes. He has left his home, car, and money to her and her young family. He signs the note Abuelo (grandfather) Otto.

Aw.

The childless grumpy old man, whose heart had turned to stone after the death of his disabled wife (tragically crippled while pregnant years earlier), had found a family in his final years.

It’s the happy and the sad mixed together that tends to get me. The Bittersweet.

Tom Hanks in a Man Called Otto

Summer is our Glory in New England

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments

Why do you blog?

These prompts are starting to feel repetitive. Here’s an old post I wrote called Why Blog?

We’ve had so many rainy weekends in New England this summer. It’s great that we’re ending on a high note!

Summers are short, but glorious in New England. I know some people really love autumn, but it does not hold a candle to summer. Winter is horrible (unless you like skiing) and “spring” is not a thing. There’s like one warm day in May (if we’re lucky, it’s Mothers Day).

So here’s to New England in the summer.

The “Farm Coast” – Rhode Island/Massachusetts border
Quicksand Pond, RI

An American reacts to the death of Jimmy Buffett

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Interview someone — a friend, another blogger, your mother, the mailman — and write a post based on their responses.
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A brief interview with my husband (age 61) about the death of Jimmy Buffett at 76.

Question: You’ve awoken to the news that Jimmy Buffett has died at 76. How did it make you feel?

Answer: Surprised

Question: What were your overall feelings about Buffett?

Answer: Not a huge fan, but he was kind of a cultural icon

Question: What made him a cultural icon?

Answer: Parrot Heads [his fans], concerts, and songs that everyone knew

Question: Would you say that he was a uniquely American artist?

Answer: Yes

Question: You’ve now read his obituary in the NYT, what was the biggest surprise?

Answer: That he had a Broadway show. Also, I knew he was rich, but I didn’t know he was that rich. [Buffett’s net worth is estimated to be one billion dollars]

Question: Did you ever know any Parrot Heads?

Answer: Yes, a couple from our old neighborhood – I think they were Parrot Heads. The people that lived nextdoor to Pat. Hawaiian shirts, frozen blender drinks, heading down to Gillette [concert stadium]

Question: What do you think his legacy will be?

Answer: I think it will fade away with his fans (people our age and older)

TGIF

~ MaryG ~ Leave a comment

How are you feeling right now?

I’m glad it’s Friday. I work in Boston and things get hectic in late August when all the students move back to the city for the fall semester. We call this time of year “Allston Christmas,” when you can pick up anything from a toaster oven to a Bob Marley poster for free on the curb. Traffic gets MUCH worse. Occasionally, it comes to a complete standstill when some poor parent from the Midwest drives a too-tall rental truck under one of our too-low underpasses and gets stuck. This is called “getting Storrowed” and it happens every year.

Anyway, Labor Day weekend is the calm before the storm—or perhaps it’s the eye of the storm. I liked I.V. Greco’s post about sharing our super moon photos from Wednesday night. It’s so hard to get a good photo of the moon, but I like the sky in this one that I took. Peace.

Moon Sky, 8/30/23

One small achievement to start the day

~ MaryG ~ 2 Comments

What daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life?

I joined the masses in completing the daily Wordle during the pandemic. At the time, I had a Twitter account and I may have shared my results (those ubiquitous little green and yellow charts) once or twice on Twitter. One time, I got lucky and got it on the first guess! It was cool knowing that millions of other people were doing the same thing in lockdown. We were all in this together.

Welp, I have since deleted my Twitter account, but I still do the daily Wordle. (Yes, I am a subscriber to The New York Times, which acquired the game, but I think the game is still free to all.) It’s a fun and satisfying way to start the day. One small achievement. If nothing else goes right, at least I got the darn Wordle!

I’m not one of those people who starts with the same word every time, but I do try to pick a word with at least two vowels. Here’s my first guess from today. I got it in three!

Comparing us to the Obamas

~ MaryG ~ 2 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?
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The Obamas in 2009

“Sasha Obama job 2023” was the last thing I googled. I was wondering what Sasha is up to now that she’s graduated from college. My son will be graduating in May.

This is part of a longstanding habit I have of “low-key comparing” my family to the Obamas.

I believe I developed this habit because Barack Obama was the first President in my very own age group. He was 47 when he got elected in November 2008. Michelle was 44. And their daughters, Malia and Sasha, were 10 and 7. I was 43. My husband was 46. And our kids were 13 and 7. I know that technically Barack is a Baby Boomer, like my husband, but culturally, they’re Generation X.

In addition to admiring them tremendously as a family, I’ve always tended to keep tabs on the Obamas’ milestones. For instance, I was very interested in Barack’s 60th birthday plans and how they were impacted by the pandemic, as I was thinking about my husband’s 60th. I’m sure I’ll be paying close attention to whatever Michelle has to say about turning 60 in January, as I start to think about my own entry into that decade of life. (I’ve read both her books.) Also, I’ll admit to being jealous of her famously toned upper arms. They are my main motivation whenever I decide to pick up my hand weights.

There should be a word for a celebrity or public figure that you relate to because they are part of your generation. They are your “contemporaries,” but you don’t actually know them. Let me know if you think of one.

The music is what stuck

~ MaryG ~ 3 Comments

What TV shows did you watch as a kid?

Growing up in the 70s in suburban America, my sister and I watched a lot of TV. Our parents were not strict about it. We could basically watch as much as we wanted, but we were not allowed to watch late into the night. We had fairly strict bedtimes.

As little kids, we watched Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers—two fantastic PBS productions. From the vowels and the days of the week to how to process grief over a deceased guinea pig, we learned so much from those programs and we were lucky to have them. As we got older, Zoom was another fantastic PBS production created in our own backyard (Boston’s WGBH) that encouraged us to write our own plays, experiment, and learn to speak Ubbi Dubbi. You could write to Zoom for instructions on how to do activities seen on the show or send in your own ideas. I will never forget Zoom’s mailing address: Box 350, Boston, Mass, Oh, Two, One, Three, Four. The zip code must be sung!

We also watched hundreds of episodes of The Brady Bunch and Gilligan’s Island, including many re-runs. Everyone in the neighborhood knew and talked about the important episodes, like when the Brady family went to Hawaii. Very exciting! We were not big Star Trek kids, but I remember certain episodes like the “Trouble with Tribbles.” The tribbles were so cute, like our guinea pigs.

For years, we could not miss an episode of Happy Days or Laverne & Shirley. They were both on Tuesday evenings. We loved those shows. My entire concept of the 1950s (my parents’ teenage era) comes from Happy Days. Laverne (played by Penny Marshall) immortalized the capital cursive L with those sweaters and made me want to get everything monogrammed.

It’s funny how I remember so few individual episodes of those shows, but can still sing virtually every theme song.

“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale”

“Here’s a story, of a lovely lady”

“Sunny days, sweeping the, clouds away”

“It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood”

“One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock rock”

“Give us any chance, we’ll take it”

The music is what stuck.

Coffee is King

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments

What’s your favorite time of day?

I like the morning coffee hour, but only if it doesn’t start too early. If I’m up at 5am drinking coffee, I consider that a sleep failure.

A couple years ago, my nephews gave me an Ember smart mug. I didn’t know if I’d like it, but I do. It keeps your coffee at the right temperature, so you can sip it slowly and not have to reheat it in the microwave.

Mornings are all possibilities, no regrets, as long as you slept well.

My set-up. Cute little cactus and candle were gifts from my thoughtful daughter. My sister-in-law crocheted the coaster.

The Old Recipe Box

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite recipe?
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I think my generation may be the last one to have recipe boxes. I got my mine as a wedding shower gift in the early 1990s. I still use it – all the time.

For those who don’t know, recipe boxes are small, rectangular boxes with hinged lids. They can be wood, metal or plastic. When you flip up the lid, you see they are stuffed with index cards sorted into various categories with pre-printed dividers: Appetizers & Snacks, Soups & Sauces, Meat & Fish, etc.

In the olden days (before the internet), if you liked a dish your friend made, you would ask her for the recipe and she’d write it out for you (by hand) on a lined recipe card. What an act of love! The recipe card would have her name on it somewhere. For example, many recipe cards were pre-printed with the words “From the Kitchen of” at the top.

I’ve scanned and transferred some recipes to my computer, but they’re always hard to find when you need them. Plus, who wants their laptop on the counter while they’re cooking? The recipe box really was an ingeneous invention.

Here’s one of my favorite recipe cards from my mother. This very simple recipe for rice pudding was her mother’s. It’s a great thing to do with leftover white rice.