Here it is, my exciting past life
12-05-1948 Went shopping. Last rose on vine.
12-05-1949 Changed part to middle.
12-07-1949 Changed part again.
12-05-1950 JoAnne's birthday party.
12-05-1952 Bought rose dress. Date with Tom White.
12-05-1957 Explosion at Ingram Oil.
12-05-1958 Sue has middle ear infection. Sam had an infection in his thumb. Dr. Albert scraped the bone.
12-05-1959 Sent Mom a cyclamon plant for her 63rd birthday.
12-05-1960 Sent Mom a fancy Christmas dish, handmade by Mrs. F. Called home.
12-05-1961 Second frog test negative.
12-05-1985 Katie signed act of sale on house in Covington.
12-05-1987 New master cylinder. $174.00.
12-05-1988 Saw "Rainman." Good movie.
12-05-1989 Mother-Daughter banquet at Fairmont Hotel.
12-05-1990 Tree too big. Put up on porch. Girls wildly embarrassed.
Now here's a disclaimer. Some of these pertinent events occurred on a different day. The month and the year are exact. I took poetic license and placed everything on December 5, just for columnal beauty. Believe it or not, some December 5 days had nothing going on! If you really need to know the exact day an event occurred, please give me a call. Otherwise, just take it for what it's worth: an exciting lifetime of happy memories.
What was so embarrassing?
The girls were big on conformity and in their mind a decorated tree, replete with lights and tinsel, had no place on a front porch in the great outdooors. So they said, but I loved the idea because it freed up all that space in my living room. The reason for having to put it outside in the first place was that once I got the tree home, the branches unfurled, and stretched from wall to wall. It was entirely too big so there was no alternative to the porch except to buy a second tree. That, of course, was out of the question! And everyone survived.
May I assume you called your mother on her birthday and not on the 5th of December?
Paul and I also had a tree way too big for our tiny house one year. That was the year we didn't have the family over for Christmas Eve. We wouldn't have had anywhere for them to sit!
Yes, December 4th is correct. One of the minor allowances I permitted myself to achieve that columnal beauty alluded to above.
That tree is still talked about amongst my friends and not just talked about but laughed about. We were the laughing stock of our group. I was mortally embarassed. I was a senior in high school and had to be picked up by my Christmas Dance date, whom I hardly knew, and explain why there was a completely decorated Christmas tree on the front porch. And it didn't look good there either!
Oh, yes, it did!
What is a frog test?
You are so funny with your stories! I too was wondering what the frog test was all about. I'm glad you got your part situation figured out. After all it is all about the hair some days isn't it. Well, that, and a misplaced Christmas tree :)
Girls: I think the frog test is the same as the rabbit test -- pregnancy, in other words. I suppose the first test came back positive and, in alarm, I said do it again. I have no recollection of these tests and was surprised to read that entry. Maybe frogs were used for testing other ailments, but since I was so cryptic in those days and didn't identify the problem, my guess is that it was for pregnancy since that was usually my ailment of choice.