Alex Wong and Harry Dacre

Hello, my friends!  Hope you are all well.  Me?  I had to have a crown replaced and the temporary one FELL OUT! Yes, I could write on this dang blog more often if my body wasn't falling apart! 

Okay then, while I was holding the side of my face that was swollen from the intensive attention from the dentist, I watched a show on PBS which was about BICYCLES.  (I don't even like to ride a bike anymore but the show looked interesting so...watch it I did!)
An artist by the name of Alex Wong sang the song "Daisy Bell" or "A Bicycle Built for Two". (One song but it is known by both titles.)  You know that song don't you? It was written by a Brit! His name was Harry Dacre. (I didn't know that until they showed that in subtitles!)  Another songwriter for me to learn about! I find his story fascinating, you may read more about him just here. He also wrote the song "I'll Be Your Sweetheart".  I know that song from Chas & Dave!  Those are not the only two songs he wrote, it states that he sold over 600 songs in the first two years of his songwriting career!

Back to Alex Wong...he is a singer/guitarist AND a songwriter too!
By writing this post and linking those two names together in my title post, that is like waving my magical fairy wand and granting Mr. Wong success in his musical career! The clip that I have here for you is "Show Yourself" and he says that it is about the years that he wanted to perform but felt that the world would not accept him as an Asian performer. (Please don't anybody yell at me, that is what the artist has said!)   Wish I could find that clip of him singing the song that I heard on the PBS show, the "Daisy Bell" song.  It was on a show called "Reconnecting Roots" and forgive me, but it was a bit silly at times (even for me) but there were moments that were like diamonds.  The performance by Alex Wong was one of them! 

Shall I speak of music forever? I could, you know.

Here I am from 2013 with a fantastic songwriter/singer and guitarist! You all know my son, Christopher!  Presto, I have just made myself six years younger! Notice my Yellow Daisy Shirt...I hope you remember my photos of those wildflowers. Love wildflowers as much as I love music.

It Doesn't Matter Anymore (Paul Anka, Buddy Holly, Linda Ronstadt and ME!)

In 1958, Paul Anka wrote the song "It Doesn't Matter Anymore".  Buddy Holly recorded it shortly before his tragic death in 1959. (Paul Anka wrote it especially for Buddy Holly and he donated the royalties from the song to Holly's widow.) 

In 1974, Linda Ronstadt recorded "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" and she also wrote the guitar arrangement for the song.  It is always amazing to me how differently a song can sound with a different arrangement!  I have written about Linda Ronstadt before and I have told you that she is no longer able to sing due to Parkinson's disease.  There is a documentary that will be coming out in September, it is called "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice".  I think it looks great!  

Paul Anka, Buddy Holly, Linda Ronstadt and ME?  What do I mean by that?  Where I work, there is an upper building with a high railing on the side of that building. If I happen to pass by the railing, I often think it would be the perfect place to have a concert...and you know I have to sing a bit of a song as I walk along that certain spot. Recently, I was thinking of this song, so... There was only one co worker nearby and he smiled and gave me a fist bump! (He has heard me sing before, so I don't think this was surprising to him.)  Of course, I am at a place of business so I can't belt it out like the great Linda Ronstadt fan that I am!

Anybody remember me telling y'all about the lakes that were drained at Panola Mountain State Park? We are still waiting for them to be refilled.  The dam looks as if it is almost finished. I took a photo of these white egrets and they seem to be saying...okay then, if you are going to build this great big dam, then we will just WALK across it!  

Let me know if you are able to see the trailer for the film and also if you think that Linda Ronstadt singing that song "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" makes you want to sing along...you might even get a fist bump!

Home Grown Tomatoes

Remember my post from June when I went to Tallulah Falls and visited the shop at the top of the gorge?  There was a man there selling boiled peanuts and he also had some tomatoes growing behind his small building.  When my sister and I admired them, he told us that there were two things that money couldn't buy...true love and home grown tomatoes.   Richard and I are able to grow small cherry tomatoes but those big tomatoes in my photo above are from a friend's garden.  I am wishing you all home grown tomatoes!
They are wonderful! Nothing better than a simple tomato sandwich...you can keep your true love! HA!

Recipe:  2 slices bread
               2 tomato slices (if tomato large enough, one slice)
                mayonnaise
                 salt and pepper         

                    That's it!

Next recipe:  Banana Sandwich!   Bread, mayo, and banana. WHAT? You have never had a banana sandwich?  Okay, go make one and eat it....I'll wait. There, see how good I am in the kitchen?

P.S.  If you don't have banana, you can use pineapple!

My friends, I hope you are all doing well.  I have just received some sad news. I found out that one of my former co-workers died in July.  She worked at our company for a year and I saw her every day while she was there. Although she was not in my department, she was close enough to me that I heard her voice every working day and was able to stop and make jokes with her now and then.  I can still hear her booming laugh.  So grateful that we shared that deep laughter together.  

                                                     

Now, Now, Now.

When I wrote my last post, I didn't notice until the next day that I written the word "now" several times. (I had a bit of trouble sleeping that night so I finished that post about 3:30 AM.) The next day I meant to go back and try to delete some of them but I got to thinking about that word..."now"....

Do you remember this... or am I the only one...but when you were a kid and your train of thought was going to a more cynical view that an adult would say, "now, now, now". They would not say anymore  but just leave it at that, just those three words?

Do you notice that folks will say "at the present time"?  The first time I heard that at work, I wanted to say..."Do you mean 'now'?"
(I didn't  but trust me, I had to bite my tongue not to do so.)

When I first learned to type, we had to type this one sentence, over and over.  "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country."  Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, they might have added women to that sentence later, but this is what we typed back in the day, when we only had typewriters and we had no idea about keyboards on computers!

There is a beautiful hymn that is called "Now The Silence, Now The Peace" by Jaroslav Vajda.  I thought of this too.  The hymnwriter wrote the word "now", sixteen times in that song.  The hymn is about taking holy Communion and he wanted to emphasize that this was not something that had only happened long ago but was happening NOW.  (I found the hymn for you on YouTube. I hope you like it as much as I do.)

I meant to tell you in my last post that Neil Armstrong and the Wright Brothers were all from Ohio.  Looking up this hymnwriter, even though you might not think so from his name, Jaroslav Vajda is also from the state of Ohio. (His father was a Lutheran pastor of Slavic descent.)  He didn't write his first hymn until the age of 49 but then he wrote over 200 original and translated hymns that are in 65 hymnals around the world.  Jaroslav Vajda died at the age of 89 in 2008.

I wonder what he thought when he heard that Buzz Aldrin had taken bread and wine on the Apollo 11 mission for a communion service.  (No one knew about this at the time...you may read more about that just  here. )

I am wishing you all peace and beauty...now.

The Sweetest Thing...To The Moon And Back

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, one of my husband's co-workers brought tiny moon pies to work with small American flags taped to them.  Now I ask you, isn't that just the sweetest thing? (Moon Pies...you may read about them just here. They really are a "southern" thing!)

Now, the 50th anniversary of the moon landing... there was a very good documentary on our local PBS station.  It combined real videos and audio tapes of the Apollo 11 mission along with new film of actors portraying the men who went to the moon- Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.   This was very well done and I really liked it.  It was called "8 Days To The Moon and Back".  (I missed the first 30 minutes or so, but I find that I often still enjoy a show and don't mind missing the first part. I am an editor!)

Remember the film "Apollo 13"? I really like that film a great deal. You should keep that in mind as you are watching the footage of what went on in Apollo 11.  Good book alert: "Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13" by Jim Lovell.  After you read it, you will be filled with admiration for Jim Lovell (who is now 91 years old).   Also, I might add that Tom Hanks did such a great job in his portrayal of Jim Lovell.   If you read that book, you will see what I mean!

As I was watching the documentary on the moon landing, it reminded me of another book that I told you about last year...a book that I sent to my father-in-law and he thinks it is one of the best books he has ever read...  "The Wright Brothers" by David McCullough.  (Just think, men were sent to the moon in 1969 and the first successful airplane was invented in 1903.  Pretty incredible, that 20th century, wasn't it?) 

When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, he carried with him in tribute to the brothers,  a small piece of the muslin from the wing of the first airplane flown by Orville and Wilbur Wright. Now that was a very nice touch, don't you think? 



                    We Came In Peace For All Mankind.

Never will forget watching Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon and saying those words, "One small step for man...One giant leap for mankind".  (Yes, I know supposedly he said "A Man" but really, it sounds better the way we know it, so if that somehow was not transmitted properly, perhaps it was for the best.  I really am an editor at heart!)

Summer 2019-Georgia Peaches/Dansby Swanson

Georgia is known as the Peach state.  And yes, I know that California and South Carolina both grow more peaches but we are still called that! Now because of that, there are quite a few signs with companies that have "Peach" in their names so they will have drawings of a peach. Unfortunately, they sometimes look more like giant "bums" as they say in England! ("Behinds" as we had to say in the South as we were growing up.) Why, sometimes our car tags will have a peach as a background...and I do wonder if anyone ever looks carefully at these things. Am I the only one who sees this resemblance?  I find this amusing!

Those peaches, by the way, were delicious and yes, they were grown in Georgia! 

I tried my best to get a photo of Dansby Swanson flying around the bases...very often he will lose his batting helmet!  I treasure the memory of my Dad calling me in England while I was there in 2016 and telling me that I had missed Dansby Swanson hit his inside the park homerun!  And if you don't know what that means...a batter hits the ball and he RACES around the bases so quickly that he makes it home before anyone can throw the ball to homeplate! It very rarely happens and my Dad just couldn't believe that they didn't mention it on the TV in England!

I found it for you.  Dansby Swanson! Isn't he a cutie? By the way, very often a player can be from anywhere in the country (or Canada or Australia even!) but in this case, Dansby Swanson is a Georgia boy, through and through! 

I simply have dozens of things that I want to post about...so I am sorry that I can't think well enough to get my thoughts together.  

Hope you are all having a nice summer.  Stay cool!

Sally Goodin Song for Uncle Joe

One of my earliest memories is going to the little store overlooking Tallulah Gorge.  I went there recently and went back to this same shop. (I took a photo of the gorge looking down from this point and if you remember my earlier post,  we hiked further into the gorge which is on the other side.) 

We went a few days ago close to this same area for a memorial service for my uncle.  He very often would have nicknames for his nieces and nephews and most likely for any other children that he knew!  He was very funny and had a very gentle, teasing manner about him. One of the names that he liked to use was "Sally Goodin.".  Can you believe it, I just thought to put that into a search engine and I had no idea that it was a song! And then, to think that John Denver even mentions it in his "Thank God, I'm A Country Boy Song"!  (Remember this line..."I'd play Sally Goodin all day if I could but the Lord and my wife wouldn't take it very good.) 


 Looky here, I managed to find a version that you can sing along with!

Seeing this wooden box where you could return your empty glass coke bottles brings back memories. (And never mind it says "Pepsi", we always called any dark soda drink a "coke". We just did!)   

Now, just give me some boiled peanuts and I will be happy!
What, you have never had boiled peanuts!  That will have to be for another post!  My uncle deserves a better tribute than Sally Goodin and boiled peanuts but knowing him, this might not be too far off the mark. He did love to laugh.