Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

My idea of beauty was probably honed by what I saw on television.

When the television show Julia came on in 1968, I found Diahann Carroll so beautiful. I remember her character as a kind person, but it was her beauty I found so striking.

By Travilla-Diahann_Carroll.jpg: unknown (20th Century Fox)derivative work: TonyPolar (talk) – This file was derived from: Travilla-Diahann Carroll.jpg: , Public Domain, Link

 

 

 

Around the same time, Diana Rigg came on the scene to me for the first time in the television series, The Avengers. She was stunning and such a strong, independent woman for the time.

NBC Television, Diana Rigg 1973, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons

 

 

Then Adrienne Barbeau appeared in the TV show Maude as well as a number of movies at the time. She was beautiful with her dimples and her dark hair. She is still beautiful in this photo from 2011. (I tried to find an earlier photo I could use here and not violate copyright but was not successful).

5of7, AdrienneBarbeauJune2011, CC BY-SA 2.0

 

 

 

Lastly, I have to include pre-cosmetic surgery Cher. I was obsessed with her beautiful hair and her interesting face. To me, this was the era in which she was the most beautiful, sans Sonny.

Tower Comics, photographer unknown., TeenIn11968a, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons

Song Lyric Sunday – Long Train Running

The prompt this week is trains.

I chose a Doobie Brothers classic, “Long Train Running”. This song was written and sung by Tom Johnston, who for me, is the epitome of the Doobie Brothers. According to him, the lyrics do not mean much of anything, but the lyrics fit the music so Voila!

The song started out just as a sort of jam that the band performed in live concerts. It was a crowd please and producer Ted Templeman who persuaded Tom to write lyrics because he felt it could be a hit as a single. The song had several titles ( “Rosie Pig Moseley,” “Osborne,” and “Parliament“) before the lyrics were written.

I choose it because it has a strong connection to a particular time in my life.

Lyrics

Down around the corner, half a mile from here
See them long trains run, and you watch them disappear
Without love, where would you be now
Without lo-o-o-ove
You know I saw miss Lucy down along the tracks
She lost her home and her family and she won’t be coming back
Without love, where would you be right now
Without lo-o-o-ove
Well the Illinois Central
And the Southern Central Freight
Got to keep on pushin’ mama
You know they’re running late
Without love, where would you be now
Without lo-o-o-ve
Well the Illinois Central
And the Southern Central Freight
Got to keep on pushin’ mama
You know they’re running late
Without love, where would you be now
Without lo-o-o-ve
Well the pistons keep on turning
And the wheels go round and round
The steel rails are cold and hard
For the miles that they go down
Without love, where would you be right now
Without lo-o-o-ve ooh
Where would you be now
Mmm, got to get you, baby baby, won’t you move it down?
Won’t you move it down?
Baby, baby, baby, baby, won’t you move it down?
When the big train run
When the train is movin’ on I got to keep on movin’
Keep on movin’
Won’t you keep on movin’?
Gonna keep on movin’

Rules here if you want to play along.

SoCS – Barely Made it Today

Surprisingly, today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday is brought to us by Dan Antion, giving Linda a break while she attends a Writer’s Festival.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ent” “ten” “net.” Use one, use two or use all three (bonus points for using two, double-bonus points for using all three). As Linda would say, use ’em any way you’d like. Enjoy!

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Tomorrow I fly back to North Carolina. I will leave my daughter’s house around ten in the morning to head to the airport. It may just be the two of us since my granddaughter has come down with a cold and cough today.

Today we went to breakfast at McDonald’s (I had pancakes), then we ventured on to Target to play with the toys. Unfortunately while we were there I started to feel a little woozy which is not good the day before I fly. I took some Dramamine at the store and laid down a bit when we got home. I think it must have been brought on by a sudden change in the pressure due to a storm brewing overhead. I felt better in the afternoon after it rained for a while.

I may need to break down and call an ENT doctor when I get back home. Living in fear of vertigo when I travel is no fun. I will take more Dramamine tonight before I go to bed and more before I board the airplane tomorrow.

This trip has been difficult in some ways, and so rewarding and fulfilling in others. The net result from my daughter’s surgery has been so positive which makes it easier to go back home knowing she is back on the road to recovery.

I will miss them all so much, and I know tomorrow will be difficult. That’s what love is.

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Check out all the rules on Linda’s blog. Then check the comments to read all the other SoCS posts for today.

Reader’s Digest Records

Image Courtesy of Pixabay

Everyone is probably familiar with the publication Reader’s Digest. I know we always had them in our household growing up. I would hazard a guess that these magazines were a staple in most American households.

My grandmother also had a collection of Reader’s Digest condensed books. I never read any of them, most likely I was too young to be interested at that time.

But what I do remember well is our collection of Reader’s Digest LP collections. I looked tonight to see if I could find the records we had and Voila! I found several for sale on eBay. The collection I remember was “Popular Songs That Will Live Forever”.

The only record in this collection that I really listened to was the 10th album in the set: Songs That Will Live Forever which included the following songs:

• Side By Side
• Stephen Foster Medley
• My Blue Heaven
• Heart of My Heart
• Till We Meet Again
• The Band Played On
• In the Good Old Summer Time
• Let Me Call You Sweetheart
• Down by the Old Mill Stream
• Shine On Harvest Moon
• Bye Bye Blackbird
• The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
• All Alone
• Always
• Auld Lang Syne
• Good Night Sweetheart

I have the words to every song committed to memory. My favorite has to be “My Blue Heaven” because of my grandfather. He told me a story about a man he used to work with when he worked for the railroad. This song was this man’s favorite and evidently he sang this song all the time. If I remember the story correctly, he was killed in a crane accident and my grandfather had been the crane operator.

I was a child, but my grandfather always told me to remember this man and how much he loved that song. I always have. I think my grandfather must have carried extreme sadness over his death and this was his way of keeping a little of him alive. I wish I had known his name.

I like this version because the tempo is closest to what I remember.

Makin’ Do

Image Courtesy of Pixabay (cropped)

I had a great catch-up conversation with a good friend today. We were discussing relationships and life lessons around money. We shared stories about being young and struggling to feed ourselves and our families when there was no one else to rely on.

The conversation stirred some memories. The funny thing about memories is you can either remember and reflect, or go back and swim in it. I choose reflecting.

During my first marriage, times were tough. I loved my husband but he was not reliable when it came to holding down a job, God rest his soul. At the time I was working in a pottery factory finishing bowls. The clay was poured into large plaster molds. The combined weight of the mold and the weight clay took some strength to lift on and off the racks. It was hard work.

When I found out I was pregnant, I could no longer do the job which made finances very tight. Finding enough money to pay bills AND eat was challenging. But I was in love and love conquers all, right?

My in-laws had a large garden as most people did. One fall weekend, we went to help pick shelly beans (also known as October beans). If you have never picked beans, it is backbreaking work — especially if you are pregnant. The vines grow close to the ground so it is a lot of stooping and bending to find and pick the beans.

After picking a LOT of beans, we had to shell them. We did at least find a way to speed up that process by running the beans through a wringer washing machine to pop the bean out of the pod. At the end of the day, we had an entire washtub full of shelled beans. The beans were then bagged and put in the freezer for the winter.

The following week was tough for us and we had no money to buy food. We went to my in-laws to ask for a bag of the beans to cook for dinner. We were told no, that those beans were for winter.

There was nothing to do but make do.

Back at home, we had two potatoes and an almost empty jar of peanut butter. That became dinner. We ate a baked potato and put peanut butter on the peels and ate those.

I could be bitter about that memory, but I do not feel bitter. I learned a lot from the experience. I learned that family will not always be there when the chips are down. I learned that even difficult times can be held in a positive light. I also learned that when you share hard memories, unscrupulous people can throw it in your face later in life. But no matter what anyone else says, makin’ do holds a powerful lesson.

I do not live in my past stories but they are there and I can choose how I view them. They remind me how resilient I am and by reflecting, I can see how far I have come.