Choice Morsels

What do I miss? Well, first I have to consider which school I'm even talking about before I get into missing anything. I don't think of grade school much---aside from colorful memoir material, like being accused of swearing when I said it was "hailing" outside or being so gullible I was easily misled into believing all sorts of falsehoods.  So moving on to high school---do I miss anything about that? I have to say there's a lot about high school I don't miss as far as the social environment goes. I did enjoy the academics---except algebra---I couldn't get algebra. I just couldn't wrap my mind around it at the time. I loathed P.E. since I couldn't hit a softball or dribble a basketball and I was as graceful as a pig on ice at gymnastics. Ugh. Torture. I couldn't get more then a C in P.E. and I think that was just the teacher's mercy. I was an athletic incompetent. I believe, when it comes to gym class, every student should get an A for ...

The Mama Kat's Prompt for today: "write about a time someone duped you," thus the title of this memoir: The Big-Time Liar      As a child, I was quite gullible. Dupable, you might say. Being that I was the oldest girl and the fact that we lived far out in the country, made me accustomed to honest communication with just my parents. Being lied to was a foreign concept, which made me the perfect patsy when I started school.       When I was in 3 rd grade, I was completely taken in by a classmate with a special penchant for story-telling. Her name was Robin, a copper-haired girl gifted with both ample imagination and a silver tongue--plus me, the willing believer. It was a fatal combination. I remember sitting at a table with Robin and 2 other girls playing go-fish one day when she pulled out “the item.” She kept it hidden in her hand as she whispered, “ I have a fairy.”      We le...

     That title is a poignant line from a song by Janis Ian called "At Seventeen" which was a top-40 hit in 1975 when I a senior in high school. It played on the radio constantly and always made me cry because I felt it described my high school life perfectly .      I say this because Mama Kat's Writing Prompt for this week, which is "What Were You Like In High School?"  and the lyrics of this song used to resonate strongly with how I felt about my teenage life.  The parts I related most to are highlighted below: "I learned the truth at seventeen That love was meant for beauty queens And high school girls with clear skinned smiles Who married young and then retired The valentines I never knew The Friday night charades of youth Were spent on one more beautiful At seventeen I learned the truth... And those of us with ravaged faces Lacking in the social graces... ... to those of us who...

Mama Kat's Writing Prompt for this week is a fun one:  " Put together a holiday outfit you'd love to wear at a holiday party should a holiday party ever be on your list of things to do." This concept requires 2 things: #1)  First, imagining I have an unlimited budget and can buy whatever I want. #2) Second, also imagining I might  actually have someplace fancy to go that requires such an outfit, like, for example, an upscale Christmas party at a plush Destin hotel. Now that we have the ground rules settled, we can look at the clothing catalog photos I selected for my "ideal party outfit." Now I love a lot of things I see on those oh-too-skinny models in on-line catalog photos, but I'm not a long-waisted, hipless, bustless, skinny-minny like they are. I have more of what I prefer to call a "voluptuous hour-glass" shape. I simply look ridiculous in short-short skirts, straight shift dresses, the clingy knits, the fluffy-arou...

      It happened at a small, 2 year college in southern Indiana. I was at the Student Union building. It was morning. I had to go to the the bathroom. Now the thing to understand about this Student Union building is it had 2 sets of restroom facilities, one on either side. However, they were juxtaposed. On one side, the Ladies Room was first; on the other the Mens Room was first. I normally went in and out on the side where the Ladies room was first, but this particular day, I was on the opposite side of the building and forgot to think of that when I chose a restroom. I just blatantly walked into the nearest without even thinking where I was. It was empty.  I just walked into a stall. When I came out, I went to the sink to wash my hands. Still, I saw no one else. Lifting my eyes to the mirror to check my hair, I suddenly observed a row of urinals lining the wall behind me and thought, "That's funny, ...

Of Mama Kat's selection of writing prompts for this week, I've chosen the "Share a favorite Christmas Ornament," option:   My Favorite Christmas Tree Ornament:   My yearly Christmas tree is, of course, festooned with ornaments full of memories.However, my ultimate favorite ornament is a little pair of Santa Claus's I made from a pin-ornament kit back in 1976. They're simple really: just a Santa "stuck" in a fireplace chimney waving a tiny Christmas tree. It was an easy kit: the chimney being just a small square of styrofoam that I pinned shiny brick-shaped sequin squares around, then glued the little Santa body on. Tiny star-shaped sequins had to be glued onto the tiny tree he holds and red sequins & beads pinned through the "suit" area, then finally batting was glued around the "chimney" top to form "snow." They remind me of a place and a time when I was on my own, my very first Christmas away from ...