I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

The third sibling assignment from IEG this month is this one:

What movie most connects you to Christmas and why?

One of the movies that connects me to Christmas is "White Christmas".  I think this is because it was one of those movies we always tried to watch every year growing up, and it reminds me of family Christmas memories.  In fact, our family is going to sit down and watch it this afternoon once the girls return performing in their Christmas concert.

There is something magical about this movie, plus it is full of music, performing, show business and Irving Berlin music.  I love every aspect of this show.

I also love that they come together for the "old man" and put on a show for him, and all those men come back to help out on Christmas Eve.

I love singing along to the song "Sisters".

I love watching them rehearse all the numbers for the big variety show.

And I love how the snow starts falling at the end.

And other people must feel the same way, because this has certainly been a classic movie since it came out, and loved by many.

So, time to sing along with Bing, Danny, Rosemary and Vera-Ellen as soon we begin "White Christmas".

Clearwater River Fears

It is interesting as I read over my siblings writings about the Clearwater River here and here, and read about the fears of the Clearwater River, mostly passed on by our mother.

Mom's fears must have been all absorbed by Raymond Pert and Inland Empire Girl before I came along, because I have no memory of Mom being so afraid of the river.

In fact, I never remember being at the river with my mom.

Many of my sibling's memories of the river were at Beaver Dam. This was before my time. This was before Dworshak Dam and the reservoir became a reality. And because of that reality, Beaver Dam was covered up.

My memories of the Clearwater River all happened at Zann's Beach.

And I only remember being at the river with my dad. And I remember being amazed Dad could swim across the river and back, because I had never seen him swim at home, even when we would visit friend's river places up the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River.

I did have a fear of the river one summer, though. It was the summer of 1975. I would have been 12-years-old. That summer I had gone to The Rena Theater, and watched a movie called "Jaws".

That summer when we went to Zann's Beach with my family, I refused to go out into the water very deep, because I was convinced a great white shark would come and attack me.

Seriously!

Thank goodness, 35 years later, my fears of sharks in the water are gone. I was able to go to Zann's beach with my own daughters and husband and niece, and enjoy the water, and remember the white sand on the beach that was hard to get off, the volcanic rocks on the beach, and the memories of times gone by.

Here are some pictures of our family at Zann's Beach a few weeks ago when our family attended the "Last Cousin Standing Hootenanny" family reunion in Orofino, Idaho.

Our niece and three daughters...the bathing beauties in the Clearwater River.
Peaches swimming in the Clearwater River.

PKR, my own muscle man on the beach.
More beauties on the beach.
PKR with Juliet.
Sadie sunning herself on the beach.

The Coppery Gilt of Autumn

This week, Raymond Pert assigned our sibling assignment. IEG's is here, and RP's will be here soon.

Write a postcard, in poetry or prose, patterned after Ted Kooser. His are winter postcards of winter morning walks. Ours will be autumn postcards and we'll make our observations however we want...walking, driving, sitting, whatever....and time of day is up to us...

His postcards:

1. State the date
2. State the weather conditions
3. Capture physical detail of the moment
4. Reflects upon that moment, either implicitly or explicitly


September 26

Warm and breezy

The view from my backyard
is a perfect mixture of evergreen trees in the mountains
and deciduous trees on the ground.

As the sun sets this evening, it casts a perfect
autumnal glow on my view, covering
the trees and hillsides with a coppery gilt
that can only be experienced
as the light of each day is more rare, and
the autumnal equinox adds more darkness to our nights.

by Silver Valley Girl
September 2009

A Perfect Day

When I was gone for a week, and got out of the rhythm of blogging, I kind of forgot our last sibling assignment, which was given to us by Inland Empire Girl.

The assignment was: "describe a perfect day". IEG's perfect day is found here, and RP's perfect day is found here.

A perfect day for me would go something like this:

A Perfect Day

Ding Dong.

Bark, bark, bark, bark, bark.

Ding Dong.

Bark, bark, bark, bark, bark.

I woke up on a Saturday morning to the sound of the doorbell ringing, and the dogs barking, signaling that someone was at the door. I looked at the clock. It was 7 a.m.

"Maybe they will go away if I just lay here and ignore them," I said to myself. After all, I was home alone this weekend, no one to cook for, no schedule...I wanted to sleep.

But it was obvious with the continued ding donging and bark barking that the guest at the front door was going to be persistent.

I crawled out of bed, threw on a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt, ran my fingers through my hair, and headed for the door.

When I opened it up, I looked down, and there were three very short people standing on my front porch. They were dressed in work clothes, each a different color. One had blue clothes, one had red clothes, and one had green clothes. Upon closer inspection, they each also had very pointed ears.

"May I help you?" I asked, after a long awkward silence.

Blue guy stepped forward.

"Good morning. We are here to help you," he said.

"Help me?"

"Yes. We are the cleaning elves. We travel around the world searching for people in need of a good house cleaning and some organization help," he said.

The red guy stepped up next.

"The cleaning elf express, at your service."

"But, why me?"

Now it was the green guys turn to step up.

"Every time you made a wish and blew out your candles, every time you threw a coin in a fountain, and every time you saw the first star in the sky, you made the same wish....to have your house clean and organized. So, it is your time to let us make your wish come true," he said.

"Yeah, we are kind of like the Make A Wish Foundation for Desperate Housewives," said the red guy.

The other two elves groaned.

"So, what exactly are you going to do?" I asked.

"We come in with our magical cleaning supplies, and go through your house, cleaning every corner, crevice and stain," said the green guy.

"Then we go through every box and tote and bag and either display it, shelve it, box it or throw it," said the blue guy.

"By the time we are done, you wish will be fulfilled. You will live in a state of peace and harmony, with a place for everything, and everything in its place," red guy added.

At this point, all I could think of was to invite them in, and let them get started. We sat in my living room, and they explained things a bit more thoroughly. Then I gave them a tour of the house, so they could take notes on what needed to be done.

"Now, you just sit back, get your book, grab your computer, do whatever it is you want to do, but just relax. Leave the work to us. If we have any questions about anything, we'll let you know," said blue.

So I grabbed the book I'd been reading, plugged in my laptop, and relaxed as I watched in amazement as the elves became a flurry of magical activity.

Before I knew it, the walls were wiped down, cob webs gone, windows washed, and floors swept and mopped. Shelves were dusted, furniture vacuumed, and the once dingy, stained white carpet now looked like brand new.

The fireplace was swept out, the stainless steel in the kitchen gleamed, and the laundry piles were gone in the laundry room.

Then they headed to the basement. Again, dusting, sweeping, mopping, disinfecting. It was all getting done.

"Now it is time to organize," I heard one of them say.

So they went into the various storage rooms in the basement. I could hear quite a flurry of activity.

As this was going on, I just sat leisurely by drank tea, read my book, and occasionally got on my computer.

Before I knew it, it was 5 p.m., and the three elves were standing in front of me.

"All done," said green guy.

"Come and see, come and see," said red guy.

"I think you will be quite pleased," said blue guy.

So the three little men escorted me to the basement, and took me into my storage closets. Shelves were stacked with totes with labels of what was in side. Bookshelves were labeled and the titles were in alphabetical order. Bags of trash were already thrown in the garbage in the garage.

I was in Heaven.

"What can I ever do to repay you?" I asked.

"Just that smile on your face was payment enough, ma'am," said blue guy.

"Now everything is clean, organized, and in its place," said red guy.

"And now you know what it is like to have a perfect day," said green guy.

Yes I did.

She's The Greatest Star

If you could act in the movies like anyone, who would it be and why?

That is this week's sibling assignment posed to us by Raymond Pert, who answers the questions here, and Inland Empire Girl answers the question here.

I would have to pick Barbra Streisand.

Growing up, I have always wanted to sing like Barbra. But I have always enjoyed her as an actress as well. I loved that she started out on the stage, creating the role of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl on the stage before it was made into a movie for the big screen.

I like that she is very versatile, and does more than just act in movies. She sings. She writes. She directs. She produces. She writes songs.

All the things I like to do or hope to do someday.

Of all her songs, I have probably enjoyed "I'm The Greatest Star" the most.

When I was a senior in high school, I sang it in the Miss Kellogg pageant. I got second runner up.

While a student at the University of Idaho, I sang it in the U of I talent show my junior year, and got second place. (This was also the night PKR turned to my best friend CE and told her he was going to ask me to marry him.)

I may try and work this song into this summer Kelly's Alley Revue at the Sixth Street Melodrama.

Other songs from Barbara's movies have been a part of my life. My friend TC and I sang one of the songs from her movie "A Star Is Born", called "I Want Everything" during our freshman talent show at Kellogg Junior High School.

As a sophomore, I sang another song from the same movie "Watch Closely Now" at another program at Kellogg High School.

Listening to songs from the "Yentl" soundtrack reminds me of rooming with a particular sister at the Tridelt house who played it over and over, which didn't bother me in the least.

She did comedy quite well. She did musicals. She was a serious actress. She took chances in directing, writing, producing, even when she got flack.

She is probably one of the most popular entertainers in the world.

I like her, because she can laugh at herself. I like her because one night she surprised Mike Myers, Madonna and Rosanne Barr on Saturday Night Live during "Coffee Talk with Linda Richman" and had fun and laughed at herself.

And the Barbra Streisand tradition continues with my daughter. This weekend, The Princess will be singing "Don't Rain On My Parade" for her senior voice recital.

Wildcard Wednesday--Make Up Sibling Assignment

Inland Empire Girl gave us the following sibling assignment.

Robert Frost said,"Good fences make good neighbors." Think back to all the neighbors we had growing up in Kellogg. Choose a memorable event that involved neighbors and share your memories.”

Defining moments. A moment in life that is decisive and critically important. It is a moment that changes things for us. Life changes in a split second. This story is about one of those defining moments in my life.

At first reading, you would expect us all to have some warm, fuzzy stories about the wonderful neighbors we had growing up in our little hometown of Kellogg. You will find these stories at ING's blog here, and RP's blog here.

Unfortunately, this assignment made me think of a very memorable event that happened, but it wasn’t a pleasant memory. Some events that have happened in my life lately, as well as the prompt IEG gave us, has made me realize the following is the story I would be telling.

I guess it is my turn to have the dark side of this week’s sibling assignment, an honor which is usually reserved for Raymond Pert.

No warm and fuzzy neighbor story for me.

No, unfortunately, the memorable event I remember most about a neighbor happened when I was 11, and it was a defining moment in my life.

Growing up, we did have wonderful neighbors on either side of our house. But, as they grew older, their houses were put up for sale, and they moved on.

We had a variety of neighbors come and go on each side of our house. Before my sixth grade year in school, a family moved in to the house to the west of ours. They had four kids around my age, a boy going into ninth grade, two daughters going into seventh grade, and another daughter going into fifth grade. So I developed a friendship with them, and hung out with them occasionally.

One day I was playing over at their house with the youngest daughter. Her brother was home, but the rest of the family was gone.

As we were playing in the house, the brother came up with idea to hide in the closet in his bedroom and scare his mom, who was expected home soon. So the three of us got inside the closet. While in there, I was molested by the boy.

Yes, I was touched in those improper places that a bathing suit covers up.

When we got out of the closet, he brought out some pornographic magazines from under his bed to show me.

Then I remember going home.

I also remember being really mad.

I didn’t tell anyone. I dealt with it on my own. I knew it was wrong what was done to me. Even my body knew it was wrong. I remember I skipped my period that month.

Besides the violation that was done to me that evening, what bothers me now is the fact I didn’t tell anyone, or even knew that a crime had been committed against me. That knowledge was not there.

In fact, that didn’t really dawn on me until much later, as an adult, when I covered the courts for the newspaper. Then it finally dawned on me. I was a victim. He was a criminal.

I knew morally it was wrong. But it never occurred to me to tell an adult that a crime had been committed against me. I guess because I handled most of my problems on my own. I remember telling a friend at some point, but we just kind of laughed, and didn’t do much about it.

As an elementary student, you were warned of strange men in trench coats who could come after you and entice you with candy.

We knew not get in a car with a stranger.

But nobody warned us about the teenage boy next door. Nobody warned us that you are more likely to be molested by a family member or a friend of the family than a stranger.

As I look back on how this moment affected me, I think it actually gave me a strength I didn’t have before. I think the anger created a type of alertness and kept me on my guard.

I knew I never wanted to be a victim again.

Sibling Saturday--We Got You Again Dad!!

This week's Sibling Assignment was posed to us by Inland Empire Girl. IEG's is here, and RP's is here.

Here is this week's assignment:

" Many say what is lacking with families today is that time sitting together at the dinner table discussing the events of the day. Here is your topic: Think of a memorable time our whole family was gathered at a dinner table and your reflections on that memory."

To me one of the funniest conversations around our dinner table happened when I was in late elementary school and junior high, and my brother and sister would return home from college on either Christmas break or Spring break, and Mom, my sister and I, and sometimes my brother would get in an exciting conversation about some special people in our lives. But Dad never quite clued into who we were talking about. The conversation would go something like this:

The Family Dinner Table

Starring:

Dad: A man in his mid to late forties. He is a blue collar worker at the Zinc Plant.

Mom: A woman in her mid to late forties. She teaches second grade at a local grade school.

RP: The oldest, and only son. He is a student at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington.

IEG: The oldest daughter, and middle child. She is a student at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho.

SVG: The youngest child in the family. A student in the seventh grade at Kellogg Junior High School.

The setting: A kitchen in the house at 516 W. Cameron Ave., Kellogg, Idaho. The family is sitting around the dinner table, enjoying a meal of homemade chili and freshly baked cinnamon rolls. RP and IEG are home from college on Christmas break. The family is catching up on news from the last few months.

The conversation could have been something like this.

IEG: Wasn't that sad about Tad being thrown out of the car by his dad? What a horrible father he has.

SVG: Well, he was just getting used to being with Jeff and Mary, but then she died after those creeps invaded her house. It was so sad, her being pregnant and all. But I didn't think it was ever going to end. Wasn't she up in that attic forever!! After she died, along with her unborn baby, Jeff was devistated so Ruth and Joe decided to take Thad in.

Mom: Yes, then his father did show back up, and wanted to sell him to the Martins for $15,000.

RP: Yeah, and could you believe it when he came back after they refused and he raped Ruth.

Mom: Well, she did press charges, so now he is off to jail.

IEG: And can you believe Erica finally got her clutches in Phil, the love of her life?

Mom: But it didn't last long. After they were married she got pregnant, but miscarried, and had a nervous breakdown.

SVG: Yeah, then her and Phil divorced and she started having an affair with her mom Mona's best friend Nick. Yuck!! He is way too old for her.

IEG: And what about the song he sang in his nightclub? "Summer Me...Winter Me..."

IEG and SVG burst out laughing.

Dad: Who in the world are you talking about?

SVG: Oh Dad, we're just getting caught up on what has been happening on All My Children.

Dad: Oh for Christ's sake. (rolls his eyes, goes into the living room, opens a can of Heidelberg, and sits down to watch "The Wide World of Sports".)

IEG, SVG and RP again burst out laughing.

This scenario was repeated many different times, and could have included not only All My Children, but also General Hospital or One Life To Live.

(A Few Years Later)

SVG: Hey Dad, did you hear about how Luke raped Laura in the Disco in Port Charles, and Herb Albert's song "Rise" was playing? "Do..do..do..do..do.do......(hums tune to song)

Dad: What? Oh very funny. You and your stupid soap operas. I'm going to Dick's!!