Do we have to eat to entertain?

Do you feel obligated to feed anyone who comes to visit you at your house? When you're not having a party, didn't invite them, but they just stopped by. Maybe they called first...people don't just drop in like they did in the Olden Days when I was a child. Do you feed them?

When I was a child, people did just drop in. Mostly it would be Sunday afternoon, or just about any afternoon in the summertime. We didn't know they were coming, they just stopped by for a visit.

I know Mother always felt obligated to offer them something to drink. "Would you like some ice tea?" before they could sit down. If they said yes, or even said, "Could I just have some ice water?" Mother would go fix something to eat. If we had some cake or cookies, she would get out the glass dishes and serve them dessert. It often happened that there was nothing left of the cake or cookies, since there were so many of us children in the house, so she might send one of us out the back door to the corner store to find something to "serve."

And of course we were sometimes the ones dropping in. I remember my brother George would sometimes take me with him to visit his girlfriend Shirley. I was about 4 years old, so he would have been about 15. I never knew why he would ask me to come. It could have been any number of reasons.

1) He was too nervous to go alone.

2) He was using my cuteness factor to ensure that Shirley would let him in.

3) Shirley always served something if he brought me along.<<<<-------

Of course that was the reason I went along. Shirley always served Burry's Fudgetown cookies. She put a bunch on a plate and I could eat them all by myself without having to share with my sister Toni.

I tried to break the cycle of feeding the drop-in guest. Of course, these days people don't drop in unannounced the way we used to. We can stop in at the Goodberry's or Starbucks when we need an afternoon sugar fix.

P.S. George and Shirley recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

What had happened wuz....or how I got suckered

It was no ordinary day. I got up, showered and dressed, and didn't have breakfast. I was fasting until my 9:30 doctor's appointment. I did have a big glass of water so my veins would perk up for all the blood work.

After the annual physical and bloodwrok, I was feeling rather puny, and boogeyed on down to the nearest McCafe to try the latest new thing from Mickey Dee's...a banana-strawberry smoothie. It tasted great and was just the thing on a hot NC morning. Then I started wondering what was in that pink sweet concoction.

I had a few errands to run, but when I got home I decided to Google the nutritional content of that thing. The site I found calorielab.com, didn't say which size smoothie they tested (I had a small one) to get 292 calories. So I clicked on a link that said "McDonalds - Official Site." This was where the SUCKER Punch started. The link went through some google-ads machinations before landing on this page. I should have been more observant...the URL was www.foodcritic101.com....blah blah and my McAfee Site Advisor was bright yellow...WARNING!!

But I was distracted by the "FREE McDonald's Arch Cards." I know McDonalds is very generous with those cards at some venues...or maybe I can blame it on the brain freeze and high fructose corn syrup.

I'm usually the one who helps people get out of the mess they get into by clicking on some dumb interent link, but there I went...

I filled out the Name Address and phone number stuff, then they wanted my cell phone number. Brain was still frozen. Then they sent me a confirmation text message, all while asking me more questions online. Next thing I knew I had signed up for Unlimited ringtones for $19.99 per month!!! ARGHHHH!!! YIKES. This is the stuff that happens to teenagers not paying attention.

Finally my brain thawed out. I closed all the internet windows and called my cell phone provider. Thank God for good Customer Support. They got me out of that mess. The charge had already posted to my account. They took it off and put a purchase blocker on my phone. I never in my right mind buy anything through my phone.

No more McD's Banana-Berry Smoothees for me.

Catchall Simile

When did AS HELL get to be the simile for all time?

According to Bossip Alicia Keys was in Central Park this morning, looking as pregnant as hell???

Gorgeous as hell? Hungry as hell? Hot as hell....that one I'll take. But cold as hell???

This comes from published writers. I won't name names. Can somebody give me some better similes than hell?

I thought Alicia looked radiant with her baby-bump.

My Daddy Read to Me

I didn't have Dr. Seuss, or any other kid's books, but my Daddy read to me. By today's standards, you might call him a house-husband. He was a priest, and he was home with me during the day while Mother taught school. Daddy did the laundry, and cooked dinner during the week.

I come from a reading family, so I would sit myself in Daddy's lap while he read the newspaper, and he would read to me. He read me the headlines, and the "funny paper." Mostly he read "Henry" to me, since Henry didn't have words, and together we would figure out what Henry was doing that would merit his being in the Funnies.

When my sister Toni went off the first grade, I discovered "Dick and Jane" and read all the old primary readers my brothers had discarded in the attic. I read to Daddy and he read to me.

When my siblings got married, he was the officiating priest for almost all of their weddings. When I got married in 1968, I asked Daddy to give me away. That was the only time I remember seeing him "dressed up" and not wearing clerics. Daddy retired that year, and passed away in September, 1968.

Sunday is Father's Day. It would also be Daddy's birthday. He used to say he was born in 1900. He didn't have a birth certificate, because in some parts of the South in those days, they didn't have birth certificates for black people. When Daddy applied for Medicare in 1965, they had to search the Census records to prove he was old enough for Medicare. Daddy was listed as a child in the 1900 census. So we concluded that Daddy was probably born around 1898. He would be 112 on Sunday.

My Daddy read to me.