Perceptions of age

As a child, all adults seemed, well, OLD! Parents of my friends were all ancient and teachers were probably nearing retirement or at least that is how I perceived it. As I am advancing in age towards my (gulp!) fifties this year, a couple of things have made me realize how very far off my perceptions were.

I just received news that the secretary to the high school principal of my local high school passed away on Sunday. At the first telling, it didn't really surprise me. I mean, I graduated more than 30 years ago and, while I never really thought about her age, I was positive that she must be older. I figured she had retired from her job years ago. Imagine my surprise when I read a post from a former high school teacher that mentioned how strange it would be for her to go to school on Monday and not see Mrs. Curtis there. Huh?!? Was the poor woman still working? How could that be? I followed the link to her obit and discovered that she was only 65! That means she was in her early thirties when I was in high school! How could that be? She was old! At least that is the way I remembered her.

I have also become a facebook friend with the woman who lived directly behind me when I was growing up. In our small rural town, no one was particularly well off but this family had less than most of us. However, it was always a joy to visit their home because it was always full of fun and full of love. It makes me smile to remember their teeny tiny little house with the crank washing machine. She wore her hair up in a very old fashioned bun and wore cotton house dresses .She dressed like my grandmother! My mother dressed much more modern and had an up-to-date haircut. I knew that she wasn't as old as my mother but I had no idea until recently at how very young she really was. Her children posted birthday congratulations on her facebook page and I figured out that she was in her twenties and early thirties in my youth. I could hardly believe it. The cool thing, however, is that from my conversations with her and from all of the photos posted on her page, her home is still full of fun and still full of love. No surprises there!

I didn't become a mother until I was in my thirties. However, I don't consider myself old even though I have lots of white hairs. I just wonder what my son's friends think of me. Do they think I am old? Tell me it ain't so!

Here's to not being old!

Monday Morning Musings - small town edition

Boy, I just love living in a small town and here is why:

Last Friday when I was at work, I received a call from my Credit Union. I had dropped my ATM card in the parking lot. Someone had found it and turned it into the town hall close to my office. The people in the town hall called the credit union who checked my file to find out where I worked and called to let me know. I had it back before I even realized it was missing. How cool is that?

We have had several bad wind storms the past month. One caused multiple roads to be closed and many branches in the road. In my journey to work, I drove over a branch at got it stuck under my car. That night, on the way home from work, I decided to stop in at the local coffee shop to see if I could pick up a few goodies for the next morning. I parked my car and went to the back to see what the unholy racket was to discover the branch. Since the parking lot was muddy and wet, I decided to wait until I got home to have my husband remove it. Before I could even walk back around my car, the coffee shop owner's husband was outside asking me if I was having car trouble. I explained that I had a small branch stuck and the next thing I knew, he was lying on the wet parking lot removing it for me.

Of course, it does go both ways. One of the other coffee shop owners lives a very short distance from us. He mentioned - in passing - that he was bummed he had traded in his truck because he had something to take to the dump. The next time my husband went, he stopped by and picked up the item and took it for him. Just so you know, we didn't know these people until they opened the coffee shop. It is just what we do in our small little town. Neighbors help neighbors.

Here's to small town life!

Thankful Thursday

What better day to have a Thankful Thursday posting than on Christmas Eve? Thankful Thursday is a time when I take a step back from the hustle and bustle of my life and spend time looking at all that is good in my life. Today, my thankful list includes in no particular order:

1) I am thankful that I haven't had to run around these past few days doing last minute errands.

2) I am thankful for the adults who have provided support and guidance to my son this year. These include, but are not limited to, the adults who spent time with him at the scout holiday party last night reviewing his Eagle Project booklet. It is ready to be mailed to get the district committee's approval!

3) I am thankful that my husband and I still have jobs.

4) I am thankful for karate which has taught me many lessons about myself this year.

5) I am thankful for my friends - new and old - who are always there for me.

6) I am thankful for the new people I have "met" thru the bloggie world.
Thank you for sharing your stories. You make me laugh, you make me think and you
often inspire me.

7) I am thankful that the people around me are mostly very healthy.

8) I am thankful that I live in a great town, a great state and a great country. I
feel safe, I (mostly) enjoy the weather and I appreciate the many freedoms.

9) Most of all, I am thankful for my husband, son and extended family for always loving me.

Merry Christmas to all of you that celebrate.


Here's to thankfulness.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I have been so busy lately that I have only had a chance to think about blogging in passing. It is 11:00 Saturday night and my husband is off to pick up the kiddo and I am taking advantage of these few quiet moments to throw something together.

The Good......

- My husband's cousin and her husband were visiting from Mississippi this past week. i hadn't even met them until a couple of years ago but I really enjoy their company. This year, we promised to take them into Boston for a day. What a glorious day we had. We decided to walk the Freedom Trail. The weather was perfect! We ended up skipping the last stop (Bunker Hill) and took the water taxi from the USS Constitution back to Fanieul Hall. You know, I have lived about 75 minutes from Boston for 26 years and this was the first time that I have ever walked the Freedom Trail. It was the first time on the water taxi too. Isn't it funny how we never do the tourist things until we have someone to take with us?

-My son had plans this evening. We were visiting his grandparents next door, he left early, went home and got ready and then drove the car down. I am really enjoying him having his permit!

-My husband installed Windows 7 on my laptop. It installed very easily and so far, I really like it. Usually when we upgrade something, another function breaks down. So far, so good. I have my fingers crossed (which is making typing much more difficult.)

The Bad.....

-We have a vocal few residents who are pushing to close our high school and have our town tuition out our high school students to another school district. While this would have some benefits (an increased course selection), I believe that it would have a lot of negative effects also. Class sizes would increase significantly, it would be much harder for our students to participate in many activities, the distance from our school could easily result in 2 hours on the school bus each day OR our teenage drivers traveling a very busy and dangerous road and we would have no voice in their education. The savings that they are spouting about has not been verified and I have been told by various people that it is simply not accurate. All of the people pushing to close our school are people who moved into our town knowing the small size of the high school. If you don't like it now, pick a new town. Many people moved to this town because of the small school department. The good news is that I attended a meeting less than a week ago that was advertised by facebook and word of mouth. On a rainy Sunday night, 40-50 residents showed up to say they support our school. I looked around the room and thought "Yup. These are the people that I want to go into battle with. They are the people that make things happen in our small town." I have been tied up writing petition and fact sheets, ordering buttons, writing letters to the editor and planning strategies. Phew.

and The Ugly.....

I got a phone call a little over a week ago from the high school principal. I figured it was because of the fight we were mounting to save the school. Imagine my shock when she told me that a notebook had been found in the school with "disturbing" comments - and my son (and other classmate) was named. Gulp. They know who wrote it but they can't tell us who or what he said. In fact, they didn't even say it was a boy - although I put that together since. All they said was that the writings were disturbing, the police had been called and that while they didn't think it was anything to worry about, they had to let me know. The good news here is that our high school is small enough that the principal knows my son personally, knows who he hangs out with and knows that he has no interaction with this other kid. The bad news - to me anyway - is that they couldn't tell me anything. No name to tell my son to stay away from, no idea of what the threat was so I can tell my son what to watch out for, nothing at all. I understand privacy issues but, gee, isn't my son's right to safety as important as the other kid's right to privacy? I ran into the principal in person and she did tell me that the kid had been removed from school and "probably will not be returning". Huh? He has been removed for good because of what he wrote?!?! Needless to say, that shook all of us up!! I called the police and got more of the same. Although, the first officer did tell me that they didn't consider it to be a serious threat. He had a detective call me back - the husband of the high school principal (the joys of a small town). He also said he couldn't tell me much but did tell me that the kid was away for treatment. He said that they were well aware of this kid at the police department, that he had done many things over the years but that he had never targeted my son or the other student before. He told me that they took the safety of all of the residents very seriously and that he did not feel my son was in danger. Basically, we are operating in the dark and being asked to trust everyone else. As a control freak, that is difficult but I am trying.

Now I am off to read everyone else's blog. I am happy to be back!

Here's to finally posting.

I am my mother's daughter....

I have recently reconnected with several high school friends on Facebook and we have all done the "what have you been up to since the good old days in 50 words or less" updates. Condensing the past into just a few words has made me realize something - I have turned into my mother.

Perhaps I should have noticed this earlier but I honestly never thought about it. I was always close to my mother and I never was one who said "I want to have a different life than my mother" but I always assumed that I would. As a youth growing up in a small town in Maine, I always assumed that there was more out there and I assumed I would find it.

However, I have realized:


My priority is my family. My mother's priority was her family. She was the youngest child and I am the youngest child. In many ways, she was the child who made the effort to keep the family connected after her parents passed away and I find that I have adopted that role also. She was at every performance and every show that I ever participated in. I knew she was behind me and I hope that my son feels the same way. My mother was always the parent who made sure that everything got accomplished that needed to be accomplished. While my hubby is a wonderful dad, it something needs to get done, everyone in the family looks to me to make sure it happens.

She loved the small town lifestyle of where we lived and I love the small town lifestyle of where I live. We both enjoy "neighbors helping neighbors". My mother always baked for bake sales, supported the youth organizations we participated in and "mothered" way beyond the family ties. I like to think that I have followed in her footsteps with my support of our community.

I work in the same industry as my mother. She worked in a small family owned insurance agency in claims and I work in a small insurance agency handling commercial accounts. I left a higher paying job in a bigger city about 10 years ago because I wanted to be closer to home and my family. I really enjoy helping out my neighbors with their business insurance and going into local businesses and knowing people. I know my mother enjoyed that part of the job also.

Is there more out there? Perhaps but the life I lead is a perfect fit for me. I can think of no better woman to be like than my mother. I miss her every day.

Who are you most like?

Here's to family ties and being my mother's daughter!