From a Horse to a Camera

When I was in high school back in Oklahoma, there was a roller skating rink way out in the country called Lost Bridge. I went round and round at that skating rink probably thousands of times to the sounds of Hank Williams, Hank Thompson, Hank Snow and other country artists. (The Hanks come to mind.) We use to go there almost every night. I doubt seriously if it is there now. It has been over 50 years. There are probably houses, apartments or businesses where it stood.

Anyway, that was where I won a horse. No, it wasn’t for my skating ability, but because I had the winning ticket. I kept the horse for a few months and ended up selling it to the little brother of one of my uncles that lived about 85 miles from us. I sold the horse for $50.00. I used about half of it to purchase the Brownie Hawkeye camera. I don’t remember what I did with the rest of the money, but that camera was a good investment. $50.00 doesn’t seem like much for a horse, but this was way back in 1953.

Here is a picture of me and my little cousin Linda on the horse. By the way, the horse's name was Baby.

I just realized today marks one month of blogging. I posted my first one on January 12. What fun I've had and how great it has been to meet so many fellow bloggers.

Cameras and Horses

Photography has been one of my hobbies since I was 15 years old. That’s when I got my first camera – a Brownie Hawkeye. (It looked just like this picture.) So you’re probably wondering about the title of this posting. How do horses picture into this thing. Actually it wasn’t horses, it was one horse. I’ll tell you about that tomorrow, and post a picture of me and the horse.

Back to cameras, that little Brownie Hawkeye was the only camera I had for several years. After I had been married about 6 years, I convinced my husband that we really needed to get a better camera. So, we got an Agfa. It wasn’t a very expensive camera but it was a lot better than the Brownie Hawkeye. And you could take slides with it. So the next several years we took lots and lots of slides. We had another inexpensive camera after that one. Then in 1985 I got a really good 35mm Cannon camera. Then I was really in business. That camera still takes wonderful pictures, but it is awfully big and bulky and you have to buy film for it. So a few years ago, I bought my first digital camera. I’m now on my third digital camera. Boy digital cameras are the only way to go.

Now, are you curious about the horse? I hope so. Be sure to come back tomorrow to hear the rest of the story.

Something Less Frivolous

Since today is Sunday, it seems like a good time to write about something more important than dolls and tins and such.

Yesterday after doing my blog I went downstairs and looked for a good book to start reading. We have a whole wall covered with a bookcase full of books. Choosing one is always a daunting task. I picked out a book that I remembered my husband had talked about years ago as being one of his favorite books. I had never really looked at it before, but decided to now. The name of the book is Windows of the Soul by Ken Gire. I had not expected the reaction I had to the reading of the first chapter. No. I didn’t start with chapter 1. I scanned through the book and it looked like one that you could start just about anywhere so I started with page 64. When I finished reading that chapter, it took a long time for the lump in my throat and the tears in my eyes to go away. If you have access to this book, I would definitely recommend it. You might even consider buying it. I think it could be life-changing.

Tomorrow I will be writing about something more frivolous again but I won’t stop reading this book.

Violet Eyes

I decided to go back to my dolls today and talk about Elizabeth. I found some beautiful violet eyes at a doll show. I didn’t have a doll for them, but I bought them anyway because I liked them so well. I figured I’d decide later how to use them. I ended up putting them in this doll and named her Elizabeth, or Liz. (The pictures don’t do justice to the color of her eyes.) I just took this picture of her. As soon as I saw it on the computer screen I noticed that her hat had slipped a little. Too much trouble to do it again, so this will have to do. I also made the shoes she has on. The other picture is one with her coat and cap on. She doesn’t wear this much in Arizona. In fact, she hasn’t had it on in over 18 years.
P.S. To see more of the dolls I made, scroll all the way to the bottom of my blog to see a scrapbook.

Show & Tell

Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, my thoughts have turned to hearts. I love hearts. I have quite a lot of Brighton jewelry. Almost all their jewelry includes hearts in some fashion. When you buy their jewelry, they always put it in a darling little heart shaped tin. I had a whole bunch of these little tins that I gave away. I kept a few. I’ve been trying to think of ways to use them. The first thing I thought of was a good place to store straight pins and safety pins. Button boxes is a good idea. I just put them on my vanity dresser to look pretty. I bought the round pink tin at a garage sale several years ago because I thought it was pretty. I wonder what it contained when it was new. My best bet is CHOCOLATES. I display it in my doll room.

A Blessing from Ginger

Thank you, Ginger, for giving me this blessing. You have been a blessing to me as well.
Here is the way this Tag works.

The idea…it’s a game of tag with a difference, rather than looking inwardly, we look outside ourselves and bless, praise and pray for 3 blog friends. By participating in this endeavour we not only make the recipient of the blessing feel valued and appreciated, but we are having some fun too. We’re going to see how far the bloggin’ blessings can travel around the world and how many people can be blessed! Recipients of a bloggin’ blessing may upload the above image to their sidebar if they choose .

Since I have not been blogging very long I don't know very many other bloggers very well. So many of the blogs I have visited have been so interesting and inspiring that it is very hard to chose three. Many I considered giving the blessing to had already received it from someone else. Here is the final three I decided on.

1. Joyce from The Secret Gardner
2. Barbara from Ramblings from an English Garden
3. Lisa at A Thing for Roses

I would also like to give a blessing to everyone that visits my blog.

Sad Eye Joe

Before I write anything else, I want to acknowledge the terrible storms that hit our country last night. I hope none of my blogging buddies was affected in any way. But whether they were or not, it was a horrible thing and I am praying for them.
Also, I wish to offer my condolences to all those whose candidates did not win last night. I am included in that group. Oh, my candidate won some, but not enough.

OK. It’s back to the Berry Farm as it was in the old days. One of the most popular things there was ol’ Sad Eye Joe. Here’s his picture that I found in my old scrapbook. He wasn’t real, obviously, but when you went by the jail where he was and looked in, he would talk to you. He always knew something personal about you – where you were from, who you were visiting, and he would make other remarks that would make you wonder, “How in the world did he know that?” It took a while to figure out that someone in your party had gone ahead of the group (someone in the know) and paid at a front office to give him a list of questions. It was fun to see the puzzled look on their faces whenever relatives or friends would come to town that had never been there before. Boy, it didn’t take much to amuse us in those days.

My favorite thing there was the little chapel. You would go in, sit down, and the lights would go out. Then these doors would open revealing a life size picture of Jesus. It started out with his eyes closed, and with a change of lighting, his eyes opened during a description of him. This was pre-Disneyland and all the animation that was later invented. Here is a little hand-held version that I have kept all these years and recently scanned into the computer.
And then there was Disneyland. The first time I went there was in 1955, the year it opened. I’ll have to talk about that sometime in the future. I love to reminisce about Disneyland.

Another New Blogger

I had intended to write about Sad Eye Joe at Ghost Town today, but just found out that an old friend has started a blog and I wanted to write about that. So, ol’ Joe will just have to wait.

Connie moved here about the same time that we did in 1989. She and her husband lived about a mile from our house. Her husband passed away several years ago, but we continued to see Connie “all the time.” Connie sang in the choir as did I, so I saw her every week at rehearsal and we were in the same Sunday School class.

Connie’s blog is called Down on the Farm. http://www.downonthefarminmarana.blogspot.com/
She now lives in Marana which is in the desert close to Tucson. You wonder: “How can anyone farm in the desert.” It’s a challenge, but Connie is up to that challenge. I know you will enjoy her blog. She is a fun person. When she lived here she had parties in her back yard by the pool every Friday night for awhile. Her theme was Party Party Party. They were good clean parties, and no alcohol was ever served.

Blogging is contagious. I caught it from Ginger. Connie caught it from me. I’m sure Connie will inspire others to join in the fun.

Knott's Berry Farm

If you’ve been to Disneyland, and who hasn’t, you have probably also been to Knott’s Berry Farm. When people visit southern California, these are on the top of their list of places to go.

The first time I went to Knott’s, back in the 1940s, it was called Knott’s Berry Farm and Ghost Town. Can you believe it was all absolutely FREE, even parking. In fact, it was all free in the early 50s as well. It was such a fun place to go. As far as I’m concerned, they destroyed it when they started changing it into another Six Flags kind of place. Now it costs as much to go there as it does to go to Disneyland. Of course, I was just a kid in the 40s and my cousin who was a year older than I convinced me that there was a rocking chair on a porch there that rocked by itself. He was always trying to convince me of some wild story. He was the one that told me there wasn’t a Santa Claus. Of course I didn’t believe him and it made me very angry. (That's him, that's Jerry, in the covered wagon behind me in the picture.) I'm the one in the middle.

Yes, I loved that place in the “old days”, but now the only thing there I care about seeing is Virginia’s Gift Shop, and maybe eating at the chicken restaurant.
Here is a picture made in their “Pitcher Gallery” in about 1945 or 46. The girl in back on the left is now Ginger’s mother-in-law. Ginger, of course, is the Ginger of “Enchanting Cottage”. The younger girls on each side of me are cousins.

The other picture made there, the one on the horse, is me in the front, and my best friend Irene behind me. This one was made in about 1949.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about “Sad Eye Joe”, one of the favorite attractions in Ghost Town.

Super Bowl Sunday

Well, here it is - Super Bowl Sunday, which doesn't mean a whole lot to me because I'm not that much into football. This year is a little more interesting to me though because it is close to us. Glendale is about 45 minutes away. One of the teams, I think it's the Giants, is staying at a resort about five minutes from our house. My husband will be watching every minute of the game. I may watch a few minutes.

Church this morning was wonderful as usual. I can't imagine starting a week off without going to praise and worship God.

I've been reminscing a lot lately. I guess it happens when you get to be my age. I was thinking about Knott's Berry Farm and how it use to be in the "old days." Think I'll write about that tomorrow - maybe.

The Dancing Bear

When traveling on the roads in India, you never know what you might run across. (A friend who had been there commented that traveling on the roads in India is like a near death experience.) I think that is a good description. On our journey from New Delhi to the Taj Mahal we saw this dancing bear and his handler by the side of the road. Of course we stopped. After taking this picture and observing the bear for awhile, I started to get into the back seat of the car. I didn’t know the bear was going to follow me in. This may be the most scared I’ve ever been. The handler backed him out when Sharon gave him some more rupies. I never was so relieved. I even started breathing again.

By A Banyan Tree in India

Since my last two blogs have been about Leah, I decided to continue with this theme.

This is a picture of Sharon (one of the missionaries at KKH), Eisha, me and Leah by a large Banyan tree in India. They say these trees are only in India and Hawaii. I had my picture taken by a huge one that filled a whole city block in Hawaii in 1987. I'll post it sometime in the future.

We had just had lunch with Eisha and her husband, Ravi and they took us on a tour around the area. Leah gave me the outfit I have on. She also gave me two other outfits.

I've heard that Sharon is back in the U.S. and will be speaking at our former church so am looking forward to seeing her again.