100 Must Read Books

A while back, there was a list posted on Facebook of the 100 must read books.  I remember scanning this list and thinking I probably read about five; and of the five, I remember the content of none. 

Mentally, I placed this on my bucket list of things to do before I die.  I never wrote it down, just sort of ‘penciled’ it in, so to speak.  Well, I remembered the other day that I don’t have this list and I’d better get it before it disappears. 

I recently finished the book, ‘Persuasion’ by Jane Austen, and I was pretty sure that this book may have been on that list.  While reading this book, I became angry at myself for taking the time to read a book.  I simply could not put this book down to participate in my normal life.  There were other things I needed to get done.

So, I’ve been thinking long and hard about this particular bucket list item and decided that I could not possibly accomplish this feat.  I would have to live like a hermit to do this monumental task.  There was just no way.

Yet, I needed this list so I would have it, in case something happened in which I found myself with a lot of time and no pressing need to participate in normal life.  Imagine that.

To find this list, I did an internet search and I found not one universal list, but several of them.  There was the ‘BBC, The Big Read, Top 100’; ‘Harvard Book Store, Top 100’; ‘Modern Library, 100 Best Novels’; ‘Time, All Time 100 Novels’; and there was even The Art Of Manliness's "100 Must-Read Books: The Essential Man’s Library"; and many more!    

How confusing is this?

So I glance over the lists and find many of the same titles on all of the lists.  But the novel I just read is only listed one list, BBC, The Big Read, Top 100.  Should I adopt that list since I’ve one down and many more to go?  I think so!         

It did bother me that I could not find the original list I had seen on Facebook.  I decided to add ‘Facebook’ to my original search criteria of ‘list 100 books to read’.  At the top of the list was the BBC list, the one that has ‘Persuasion’ listed as novel #38.  Alright!  I do have the list!  Click here to see BBC, The Big Read, Top 100. 

Scanning over the list to see how many I books I really have read, I feel a little better.  There are 11 books that I have read.  Many were requirements of high school and college literature classes and that was ions ago.  I don’t remember them, so I’m going to have to go back and read those again so that I could talk intelligently about them should I ever be asked. 

NOT! 

I’m moving forward and going to start book # 12.  If…I ever find that time where I don’t have anything to do and won’t feel guilty for taking the time to read a book. 

       

Smiley Faces

Next month marks the 30^th anniversary of the electronic lexicon of the horizontal smiley face.  The symbol, at that time was a colon, a dash and the right parenthesis, was first posted by a Carnegie Mellon University professor, Scott E. Fahlman.  He posted to an online electronic bulletin board on September 19^th, 1982 during a discussion about the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly.  It was used to convey humor and/or positive feelings with a smile.  Click here to view this information. 

Today, we now have ‘emoticons’ to convey our emotions available in our emails, chat sessions, and our social networks.  Most emoticons consist of a bright yellow face with black print for the face.

However, the picture of the smiley face starts much earlier than 30 years ago.  According to Wikipedia the first appearance of the ‘happy face’ was recorded on film and can be seen in Ingmar Bergman’s 1948 film “Hamnstad”.  Later in 1953 and 1958, the happy face was used in promotional campaigns for motion pictures ‘Lili’ and ‘Gigi’, respectively.  Of course, this was way before my time!  Click here to view this information.

All this started with the message, to ‘have a happy day’, which mutated to ‘have a nice day’ and ‘keep smiling’. 

Personally, my first memory of the big yellow ‘smiley face’ or ‘happy face’ as it was called back then, was in the early 1970’s while on vacation with my parents.  They bought a Winnebago motor home, which to me, was a big deal back in those days.  I suppose that my parents got full use of that thing because for several years we took many vacations.  My parents were adamant about vacationing two weeks in the spring and two weeks in the summer.  The two weeks in the spring was always welcome because we (me and younger brother) always got out of school at least one week, and of course, the other week was ‘spring break’.  The spring trip was always to Florida.  The two week vacation in the summer was wherever my parents wanted to go and they would mix it up each year.

Anyway, it was during one of these trips, we were cruising on the highway…well actually Dad was cruising, we were just riding and I assumed one of my many positions on this Winnebago.  This position was a couch in the very back of the Winnebago which made into my parents bed when we finally settled down for the night.  I would sit on this couch and watch the world go by from the rear of camper.  While everyone was driving forward, I was looking backward.  One of my favorite things to do was to watch others drive up to our camper, move to the passing lane, and proceed to pass us up.  You see, we were on vacation, and not in a hurry. 

It was actually kind of a boring day, we were on our way home and I was watching the cars go by.  I could not tell you which trip this was or which state we were in for there were many trips across many states.   What I can tell you that one man’s action resonated in my mind for many years and I have not forgotten. 

I must have looked really gloomy.  We did not have tinted windows in the motor home as they do now, so he must have seen my face bright and clear.  In the short time that he was in that passing lane, he picked up a bright yellow plastic lid with a smiley face printed in black, and waved it at me!  As you can imagine, he caught me off guard, and it brought a big smile to my face, which was what he intended! 

In reciprocation, I’m sure I brought a smile to his face.  He, being the driver, actually had to duck his head down to peer through the passenger car window to look up at me to see my reaction.  The thought that he took the time to bring a smile to someone else, a total stranger, stuck with me all those years. 

  

These bright yellow lids came from what I believe to be Maxwell House coffee cans.  My mom and my older sister could not remember these coffee can lids, but because of this memory, I sure do!  It was a novelty marketing gimmick and I remember saving them but I’m sure Mom threw them out at some point. 

Since that day, I never pass up an opportunity to make a total stranger smile on the road whether it be waving to kids in the back of a motor home, waving to the Amish children in their buggies, opening the door for the next person coming through in a public place or helping someone who is struggling with placing an awkward item into their car.  It just takes one small action on the part of one person to bring about a lasting memory.          

So, Happy 30^th Anniversary to the electronic smiley face…in many people’s minds, you go back further than the electronic era!  : )

       

Geraniums in the Sand

Last Saturday morning, early, when I couldn’t sleep, I decided that it was a good time to start a blog.  The blog had been on my bucket list of things to do.  I’ve always wanted to write but never took the time to sit down, concentrate and really write.  There were always places to go and things to do.  My head was always full of other stuff and never could get it clear enough to focus on writing.

There are other items on my bucket list, but for some reason, none were as compelling as this one.  For one thing, most things had to be done in the daylight, or during normal hours, not in the middle of the night while it was still dark.  I always imagined myself, getting up early, fixing coffee, walking around the house a bit and then, sitting down to write.  But this early?  It’s 4 am! 

What’s wrong with me?  I hate getting up early!  I was always the one who got up at the last possible minute to get ready to go to work.  I loved sleep!  Now that I don’t have a work schedule, sometimes I get up in the middle of the night.  But the best part is, after about an hour and a half of reading, I can go back to bed and continue my nighttime slumbers, which I usually do and let me tell you…that is the best sleep!  So, for this reason, I’m not fixing coffee. 

Anyway, I was hoping this ‘starting a blog’ thing was going to be easy because I wanted to get back to bed.  I entered ‘www.blogspot.com’ on the address bar on the computer and away I went.  

One of the first questions I was faced with was what do I name the blog?  Oh geez…now I wished I had made that pot of coffee.  But I got a glass of milk and some crackers and walked about the house.  I still had the desire to go back to bed. 

I looked out the window and the solar lights that I had outside were illuminating the geraniums I had planted earlier in the year.  Gosh, those are the most beautiful flowers, and the hardiest, I thought.  I always plant geraniums because they are so forgiving.  They are subtropical plants and seem to love when it’s hot outside.  During the times when I forget to water them, they seem to grow bigger and more beautiful bringing about multiple stands of flowers that started from one little plant.  This one had two stands but I’ve grown them before when they have had six or more stands of flowers.  I thought…they are so beautiful and so hardy…I bet you could grow them in the sand. 

Geraniums in the Sand. 

I thought about geraniums for a while.  Planting them in the sand would be cleaner than dirt and I’d have to fertilize them to give them the nutrients they needed.  I looked up Geraniums in the Sand on the internet to see if it could be done.  Never mind that I was in the middle of establishing a blog, my attention deficit disorder had kicked in.    

In my research, I stumbled across a poem, ‘Red Geraniums’ by Martha Haskell Clark.  I read it and thought about the poem for awhile.  I….love….this poem!   It’s about having dreams but staying planted if your dreams are not realized and thanking God for what you do have.  Click here to view 'Red Geraniums'.

Geraniums in the Sand.

After reading ‘Red Geraniums’, my mind wandered to another poem, ‘Footprints in the Sand’, by Mary Stevenson.  My paternal grandmother gave to me one year, as a Christmas present, a framed print of ‘Footprints of the Sand.’  This was in the 1980’s right before she passed away.  This is a special poem about having and keeping your faith in God.  The thought of her selecting this print for me, makes me smile.  I read it often and think of her.  Click here to view 'Footprints in the Sand'.

Geraniums in the Sand.  I could not get away from those words. 

My attention finally got back to the question of what to name my newly created blog.  I had decided that after all of that research and thought, the name had to be, ‘Geraniums in the Sand.’

I was so excited about the name that I never went back to bed.  I finished setting up the blog and posted my first story.  Bucket list item accomplished!

Wax Paper, Brown Paper Bags and Denim

Growing up in a blue collar family, in the 1960’s, working life was about wax paper, brown paper bags and denim.  Both of my parents worked at the General Motor Plants in Dayton, Ohio.   I was one of a few kids whose mothers worked and did not stay at home.  To me it seemed normal for a mother to work to contribute to the household income.  I recall my maternal grandmother talking of her work at Rike’s, a department store in downtown Dayton and just thought it was natural for all mothers to work.  I did not realize until my later years that most of my friend’s mothers did not work.      

A big memory for me was Mom and Dad packing their daily lunch which was usually lunchmeat sandwiches wrapped in wax paper.  The wax paper was folded in such a way that it kept the sandwich fresh and used to form a place mat for eating and catching the crumbs of the sandwich.  These sandwiches, along with a treat of some sort, rounded out their lunches and placed into in a brown paper lunch sack.  Many times these brown paper sacks were saved, folded and reused the next day.  I suppose that depended upon on the strength of the brown paper bag and how long it would last.  Brown paper lunch bags were stocked on the grocery store shelves and very commonly used.  There was no worry about keeping your lunch cold until time to eat.  There was also no time to run out and get fast food from a restaurant if you had forgotten your lunch.  Actually, there were no fast food restaurants until the candy and snack machines came about.        

I remember my mother wearing denim pants to work and black work shoes.  In the summer she would wear these short denim pants that she called ‘knee knockers’ that were manufactured by Levi.  Today we would call these capri’s.  She looked so fashionable in those pants and I longed for the day in which I could wear these cute knee knocker pants.  I never saw her wear them much in everyday life…they were considered ‘work clothes’.  She would wear shorts and tops of many colors but not that denim blue.  My father wore denim pants and work shoes as well but I don’t remember them like I remember Mother’s pants.

You can still find wax paper and brown paper bags at the grocery stores.  These items haven’t changed except that the available brown paper bags seem to be thinner in strength.  People who work can pack their lunches in small coolers with ice packs to keep them cool and prevent the food from not spoiling.  This was not a worry back when.  Today, we have many options of obtaining our lunch, from ordering out to eating out of refrigerated machines.    

As for denim pants, you can now find many brands of denim pants, in different colors and styles.  The usefulness of denim has stood the test of time and proven to be a fashion mainstay.  The blue collar jobs in Dayton are now gone and the manufacturing era has passed.