SOBER GRADUATION.

Graduation in most places is already past. My daughter Virginia was a volunteer parent for sober graduation this year.  Pinball machines,  pool tables, all manner of games and fun plus the traditional dancing and all night visiting, signing year books, eating gobs and gobs of good food, picture taking...good stuff. Her own High School graduation was sober by choice, at a private party, but Bret Harte did not have sober graduation-then. It put me in mind of my own pretty amazing High School Graduation Party.

My date arrived, and picked me up. I was all decked out in a  blue, sparkly formal. Our party was an all night affair ending with a morning breakfast. I had a pretty dress to change into if we decided to attend the breakfast.

A neighborhood couple I babysat for, had two sisters move in with them mid year. One sister, Jane, was my age and I introduced her around school. She was graduating as well and had a date. We decided to go in separate cars to the dance. I knew her date, Gary, but he had never met my date, Frank.

During the course of the evening I found out Frank wasn't much for dancing. He would slip out to his car and have a drink. I could smell it on him. I kept dancing.  About midnight, he just disappeared. Jane, who had been having  a good time, dancing and flirting was also imbibing and she passed out in Gary's car. He was looking for her and I was looking for Frank. What to do? Together we decided to bring Jane home. I knew her Uncle would be mad, so we carried her into my house. I  put her in my bed and stood her almost identical blue formal in the corner of my room. I changed clothes and went back to the gymnasium for more dancing and breakfast with Gary.

We ate breakfast and a group of kids decided to go to Lake Merritt in Oakland and ride the paddle boats and we  decided to go. I didn't call my parents. I'd be home about the time the breakfast after party was supposed to be over.

It was quite a shock when I arrived home about noon and my parents did a double take. Jane was still passed-out in my bed and her Uncle and sister were frantically calling my parents( and Gary's parents) to see if I knew where Jane was?  They kept telling them I was home and still asleep in bed.

With school's end,  Jane was shipped back to her family in Kansas, and I ended up with Gary as a steady boyfriend that summer.

As the quote goes:  "All's well that ends well."

NEIGHBORHOOD GANG?

Neighbor and friend, Jan Stewart is the hostess with the mostess. If anything is going on, it is always at her house. I don't know how she does it. Always throwing a bit of a party together at the last minute, with just the neighborhood "gang" as she refers to us. Never thought I'd be a gang member at this age.


This is the other Jan. A positive thinker and healer, petting Mikey. And I don't think there is a tattoo among us, unless Mikey has one.


Brian, and Becky listening to Jim expound on something. We all live close to each other.


Karen doesn't like her picture taken and kind of hid. But, I got her anyway.


We ate outside because the weather was so beautiful.  I just got a new haircut and got skinned, but the gang saluted my birthday.
Jan has a pond where a mountain lion, the coyotes, raccoons, and foxes come to drink. I'm so grateful to her for supplying water to the wild animals that frequent our neighborhood because the creek isn't flowing.  The power authority has cut off the water that used to flow behind her house. I remember when Big Dick Hogan lived across the street, he used to go up to the flume and kick out a board to keep a small trickle of  water coming down Peppermint Creek. He moved away twenty years ago. So Jan's pond is essential. I heard the lion squalling as we sat. Jan claims it will come and drink with her quietly sitting on the deck, but not when she has a group of noisy people talking. I think the lion wanted us to leave, so we did. It was a beautiful moon and starlit night. Perfect. Thank you Jan.

POP! GOES THE WEASEL.

We all sang it and jumped rope to it when we were kids. Well, sometimes I forget what generation I’m in. But, surely we’ve all HEARD the song.

“All around the cobbler's bench,
The monkey chased the weasel,
the monkey stopped to pull up his sock.
Pop! goes the weasel.

A penny for a spool of thread,
a penny for a needle.
That’s the way the money goes.
Pop! goes the weasel.

I knew what a weasel was since we had chickens and weasels are as clever as foxes at breaking into the chicken coop. My dad would point out their tracks and curse them vehemently.

There are many verses sung in various parts of the world. The song actually originated in London in 1852. Most of the verses were sort of ribald tales of “where the money goes…as in carousing, gambling, drinking, and worse..”

As it turns out, the rollicking little song isn’t about a chicken eating weasel either. The usual chorus in London was,

Up and down the City Road,
In and out the Eagle,
That’s the way the money goes-
Pop! goes the weasel.

The Eagle was a well known London music hall where drinks were sold. The weasel was a tool used by hatters, often pawned on Saturday night. Pop was a slang term for hock.

Hmmm! Now I know Pop goes the weasel wasn’t an American jump rope song, nor a simple fun rhyme that was easy to make up verses to match it.  It was an adult fun ditty.  And,  now you know too.

ITS ALL ABOUT THE BEADS AND DRINK

Mardi Gras Parade number two, for us, was a different animal. Fast moving, giddy excitement, people screaming for beads and plastic junk, including me. The whole street was alive, moving, cheering, smiling, having crazy fun. The New Orleans Police Department is very laid back and helpful. If a cop saw an errant football, cup or moonpie that missed its mark and ended up in the street, he would helpfully push it to the curb or hand it into the crowd.

The theme of this parade seemed to be drink. There was a nod to Valentines day in a couple floats, also Thoth Krewe with Egyptian God floats, but drink after drink and places to drink rolled down the street. I didn't count but over 20 floats were named for individual drinks, grasshopper, mimosas, brass monkeys, champagne, singapore sling and so on.

Did I say this was a serious drinking town? This is a SERIOUS drinking town. Jello shots made with 190 proof booze.

Why bother with a single drink when you can get everything you don't need in one. I watched a bartender pour 8 shots into a single drink. They sell them in 32 oz. size to 70 oz. size. And, you can bring them out into the street.

All of the elements for a parade were present. The horseman above threw artificial roses. And, along with horses, you have bands, and music and noise. The bands didn' t simply play music, most of them danced and jived down the street.

We noticed the band escorts picking up beads from the street and giving them to the hard playing marchers. But for us it was the beads. You couldn't help but want to catch them as they flew through the air. Everyone competed for hands full of plastic beads.

And at the end of the day, most people wore their booty home.

Its all about the beads. We did like many others and put our beads in a bag. I couldn't believe when we got home to find our booty weighed 18 pounds. Whattam I gonna do with all these beads? Its insanity. And we'll go back and do it again.

We took the ferry back to our side of the river and watched the sun set over the Big Easy. A perfect name for a laid back fun city.

BIKER CHARITY RIDE, LIE, STEAL AND CHEAT, GOODBYE YUMA

I'm leaving Yuma for good, tomorrow, with much of the city left to explore. I'm glad to announce that Jim's nudist friend Paul Weiner from Oasis Book Store is holding my camera for Jim to Pick up on the 29th. I'm so glad to have my trusted tool back.
I wanted to check out the desalinization plant here in Yuma, but wasn't able to get to it. My interview for yesterday got canceled because Paul Harder had fallen and thinks he has the flu. He is 94 years old. Be sure to click on Jim's PI link on my page to see Yikes, Spikes-
My picture today is daughter Kristanne who professes to have been on a Charity ride. I have no doubt it was a charity ride, but did Kristanne ride? Hmmm. I think she is just BIKER FLUFF!! Anyone who knows her will probably agree.
My daughter-in-law, Laurie sent me such a neat email, I thought I'd share it:

Never lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms
of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If
you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments
that take your breath away

Isn't that a great sentiment?
Today we will attend a lettuce festival and quilt show.
Hasta La Vista

LUNCH AT GARDEN CAFE, FINAL DENTAL WORK

Today we made our final trip into Mexico to
take care of my dental work. YAY!!! Yesterday we had lunch at the Garden Cafe with Bob Gambol and his companion Hilda. Both are ex-marines. Bob back packed the world at age 55 and visited 168 different countries over a period of six years. Hilda, just got off one segment of the Appalachian Trail. She intends to hike the whole thing-its over 2,000 miles. She is in her 70's. What an interesting pair they are. And here in Yuma, you find that residual taste of the Old West, the modern and the decidedly different. I'm learning that people who choose alternative lifestyles, are interesting, cantankerous and contrary. More about Bob to follow as I am currently working on his manuscript. I have another victim on line as well. And, this photo of an old clock fits the craziness of the old west. It hung across the room from the bar. When the drinkers looked in the mirror, they could tell the time because the numbers, as you can see, are printed backwards. Some drinking somebody thought that one up I suspect.
Until manana.