Another Tour Outback

Emma's Sunflower House

One of our nursery school teachers, Miss Michele, loaned me a book called The Sunflower House. Emma loved it. In it were instructions on building one. Here is the finished project in full bloom.

Why is it that stuff like this takes on more joy because of a granddaughter? Lucy said to me the other night when Emma came over, "Immediately after she arrives she makes me feel better!"

From a Dear Friend

Robin Jones and I went to elementary school together. After all these years we still keep in touch. Her husband, Joe, and I ran cross country and track together in High School. Recently we had an e-mail exchange going all over the country among the guys who ran with us. What great fun. Robin sent this piece to me today and I thought you would enjoy it...

WHICH GENERATION ARE YOU?

"Hey Mom," one of my kids asked the other day, "What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?"

"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up," I informed him. "All the food was slow."

"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?"

"It was a place called 'at home,'" I explained. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears AND Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called "pizza pie." When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.


I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them.


If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.


Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?



MEMORIES from a friend:

My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to "sprinkle" clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.


Older Than Dirt Quiz: Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about-Ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with table side juke boxe s
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7.. Party lines
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H Green Stamps
16 Hi-fi's
17 Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Washing machines with wringers; and washtubs for rinsing

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.

Don't forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really OLD friends....

And More!

Blooms, Blooms and More Blooms!

Catching Lightning Bugs

I came into the kitchen tonight. Looking out the bay window I saw an all familiar sight. There were scores of lightning bugs in the backyard.

My mind reeled back 40+ years. There we were with jars with tops filled with holes put there by our Dad' screwdriver. We ran throughout the neighborhood on those warm summer evenings catching fireflies!

There was no concern by our parents that they could not see us. Kids were safe back then. We were covered with the dirt and sweat of a day's activities outside. We poured onto our streets back then and played ball with chalk drawn bases.

At nightfall we went after the little bugs. It was a great way to end those summers of wonder growing up in the suburbs. We never got tired of these activities. We just got old and busy and when we see kids talking on their cell phones we want to say, "You don't know what fun you are missing!"

A Good Laugh!

The Broken Mower

When our lawn mower broke and wouldn't run, my wife kept hinting to me that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had something else to take care of first, the truck, the car, playing golf - always something more important to me.

Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point. When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors.

I watched silently for a short time and then went into the house. I was gone only a minute, and when I came out again I handed her a toothbrush. I said, "When you finish cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway."

The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.

Moral to this story : Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right, and the other is the husband.

from my friend Karl Eriksen

Another Favorite This Week

The Most Active Daylily I Have

I have had some daylilies do amazing things outback but this one surpasses all the others. It has had up to 21 blooms in one day recently. This morning as we pass the peak of the season, it still had 14 flowers.

It has also been split into four separate plants and all of them are doing spectacular. This one is also putting out a new scape now which means reblooms!
How nice to get up early and see this right in my own backyard!

Here is an afternoon stroll through the gardens today:

Dogs and Toads

A smart dog will pick up a toad only once in his life!

A dumb dog will try it a second time. Toads give out a very distasteful fluid, causing Fido to spit the toad out. Moe, as you see in the picture is a smart dog. He is looking but not touching. He had his once in a lifetime experience already, probably his first summer here in 2002.

Thanks to Mike and Linda Bassett the toads abound in my backyard. They stocked my pond last year with toad tadpoles. Toads are very helpful to all gardeners, particularly the organic ones. To read more about these helpers here is a website with links: http://www.fishpondinfo.com/toad.htm

A Warm Summer Evening In the Backyard

Birthday Reflections

I just completed celebrating my 51st birthday. It has been a wonderful weekend with friends and family. There are no words to express enough thanks for the love I experienced this weekend. God bless you all!

In the Evening

I love beginning the day and ending the day in the backyard. Quiet times, watching the sunrise an the sunset are so refreshing to my soul.

Here is a reflection of this summer evening in the garden.

Long Island's Daylily Master, Coach Paul Limmer

Thirty five years ago I was running cross country and track for this man.
Now he is in the business of making flowers.
Here is an interview with the Coach in his garden on Long Island.

Early In The Morning

Here is a quick walk through more of the backyard at 6:15 this morning.
The LORD's creation is simply wonderful!

Tour of the Backyard With Butterflies, Goldfish and Day Lilies

Here is the latest videos of the yard...
Enjoy!

First Outback Video

A Silent Reminder of Days of Guns and Roses

A sober reminder that we are at war here in our own backyard.
This is a picture of an New York City Policemen in full terror gear
in Times Square on Thursday, June 28th.

WASHINGTON (AP) Al-Qaida is using its growing strength in Pakistan and Iraq to plot attacks on U.S. soil, heightening the terror threat facing the United States over the next few years, intelligence agencies concluded in a report unveiled Tuesday, July 17, 2007.

Help Fight This War:

* Do you know anyone who travels but is vague on where they're going?

* Do you know someone with documents in different names for no obvious reason?

* Do you know someone buying large or unusual quantities of chemicals for no obvious reason?

* Handling chemicals is dangerous, maybe you've seen goggles or masks dumped somewhere?

* If you work in commercial vehicle hire or sales, has a sale or rental made you suspicious?

* Have you seen someone with large quantities of cell phones?

* Have you seen anyone taking pictures of security arrangements?

* Do you know someone who visits terrorist-related websites?

* Have you seen any suspicious check or credit card transactions?

* Is someone is asking for a short-term lease on a house or apartment on a cash basis for no apparent reason?

If so then report it to Homeland Security at 1-866-347-2423

Today's Blooms

The Fourth Of July

As far back as I can remember this day has been a special one for me. Erma Bombeck summed it up well when she wrote, "You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4th, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism."

I remember one Fourth of July when we were on our way home from a picnic of one of my parent's friends. I thought I would miss the fireworks that year but my dad pulled the car off Meadowbrook Parkway and we watched it from the inside of out 57 Chevy.

Then there was a Fourth recently that took place at my parents. God hung a rainbow out there in the sky and nothing came close to the show that He put on for us that time.

The temperature was perfect for me today. I think it was right around 72. I remember an Independence Day when the mercury hit 100 on Long Island. I was 12. We headed out from Bellmore to Montauk Point, got as far as Lake Ronkonkoma and stopped there. Then we headed back home. My Nana was so surprised to see us as she and Poppa had come out from Queens to take care of the house and the dog. Those were the Wonder Years for me!

Times have changed. Yet we still celebrate the signing of that Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia.

Today we celebrated with family the joy of being an American.
God bless you
and
God bless the United States of America!

Uninvited Guest

This little guy came out as I was pulling off the dead daylilies this morning. There are a number toads in the yard this year. They love organic gardens.

Click on the picture to enlarge