Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

November 20, 2007

Today’s Announcement

A Birthday wish goes out to Roger Dean Kiser:  trampolineone@webtv.net And  Beth Ferree: beth@bethferree.com

 You need to vote for your favourite writer in the Halloween contest, we need to wrap this up folks!

Important notice: Storytime Tapestry is a free e-zine, however donations are always needed to help with the operating expenses of running the newsletter and to keep Storytime Tapestry the quality newsletter you are so accustomed to.   You can make your donations to paypal at: winterose@videotron.ca, or if you would prefer to use the mail system contact the publisher at the same email address: winterose@videotron.ca

Today’s Stories

~**~**~

CHUBBY

 Sharon Bryant

"Hey, they've got some 45's on sale over at Federals, you want to go see what they got?" asked my friend Susie.  "I've got to get some needles for my phonograph also," I said.

On Saturday, we both hopped on our bikes and rode the four miles to Federals to check out the latest 45's.

I had saved babysitting money so we had enough to stop by Saunder's and have one of those delicious hot fudge cream puff's also.

When we got to Federals, I was amazed at the selection of 45's.  I grabbed "Soldier Boy" and "The Twist."

Susie got a couple for herself.  I was bound and determined to get the dance "The Twist" down pact before the big dance at school the following week.

Susie came over to my house one night and we put that record on my phonograph.  We grabbed a couple towels from mom's linen closet and got ready to practice.  We spent the evening rocking and rolling in my bedroom.  We were ready for the dance.  Chubby, here we come!

American Bandstand was the big scene in those days.  How I loved to watch that show.  After all, all the latest hair do's were viewed and I was always looking for something different to do with my hair.

It was the night before the dance.  After supper dishes were done, I went to my bedroom to get ready for the next day for school.  I grabbed my bag of rollers and began the tedious job of combing sections of my hair and rolling it with the wire bristles rollers.  After I looked like I was wired for sound, I grabbed the can of Aqua Net and sprayed each roller.  On the stand next to my bed was the roll of toilet paper.  I slowly wrapped my head over and over with the soft tissue.  I wasn't going to be up all night with metal pieces jabbing my head.

The next morning I got up a good hour and a half early so I'd have time to "rat" my hair.  I pulled the rollers out and was satisfied with the stiff curls all over my head.  Everything was going to be fine.  I combed, I "ratted my hair, I sprayed, I patted, and soon, I was ready.  It would have taken a mighty strong wind to move one hair on my head.

I then went to my closet and decided I'd wear my plaid "kilt" skirt and a white blouse with a sweater to match the colors in my skirt.  I slid my feet into a pair of "flats" that were in my closet, and in no time, I was ready.  Ready for a day at school, and the dance that night.

When I got to school, everyone was buzzing about the dance.  Darlene asked, "Are you going to do 'The Twist' tonight when they play it?"  "I sure am!" I replied, "and I'm READY!"  It was tough sitting through biology, Science, English, Shorthand, and Typing with my thoughts on the dance.  Yet at 3:00 P.M. the bell rang and I ran to the bus to hurry home, grab a bite to eat and wait for my dad to drive me to the dance.

When I walked through the gym door, the room exploded with lights.  Kids were everywhere.  I laughed when I saw Denise standing over against a wall with a towel, practicing "The Twist."  Everyone was ready for the big dance.

And then one of the teachers got on the stage and gave our usual pep talk about behavior, common sense, etc.  The music began.  It was a slow dance.  I was waiting, my toes were ready, my shoes were hot, waiting for the big song.

Suddenly it began and every single kid in that gym ran out on the floor getting ready to Twist our lives away.

Chubby Checker's voice belted out through the large room and we were having the time of our lives.  Pat Snider found his way in front of me and said, "Can I share this dance with you?"  "Sure can," I said.  He and I finished the dance together.

We were teenagers.  It was the 60's and life was good. 

Fast forward a few years.  It's 1986.  I'm at a club with my parents.  The oldies are playing.  I danced a slow dance with my father, when suddenly the music changed and Chubby Checker's voice belted out through the speakers.  I giggled as I stepped back in time and remembered that night in my bedroom years ago with the towel teaching me the right way to twist.  Dad looked at me and I said, "Can you do this?"  "I'll try," he said laughing.  He did great.  We twisted the night away.

Every time I hear that old song today, my mind goes back to many years ago.  To a time of innocent youth, to great music and the Good Old Days.

Sharon Bryant

1946@bellsouth.net

 ~**~**~
 

Poetry Corner

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Autumn Leaves

Cynthia Groopman

Suddenly as a gust of wind begins to fiercely howl and sharply blow,

Down, down, down the autumn leaves from the treetops rapidly rush and go.

On to the ground they race,

Landing in every place.

This is truly mystifying to me,

For I have a question as you can see.

It seems each year for some unexplained and unknown reason,

Leaves begin their annual fall later and later during the autumn season.

In September, I can distinctly remember,

Leaves would pile high, not at the end of November.

Are we victims of global warming, I ask,

As in a state of pondering I bask.

Cynthia Groopman

cynthia.Groopman@verizon.net

  ~**~**~

Thoughts of Yesterday

Cynthia Groopman

Oh, thoughts of yesterday, rapidly in my mind do swirl,

Transporting me into the lovely youthful time when I was a young girl.

Dashing into the kitchen, to caress my mom's dear face,

Oh, how I long to be enfolded into her warm loving embrace.

Running into my dad's outstretched arms,

Filled my childish heart with security protecting me from frightful harms.

.

Smelling the aromas of grandmother's

special culinary delights,

Enriched my life with such cheerful might.

Oh, the laughter at the table and family glee,

Are etched in my middle aged memory.

Oh I wish these times can be relived once more,

But I am left with cherished nostalgic moments which I shall always adore.

Cynthia Groopman

cynthia.Groopman@verizon.net

  ~**~**~

A Sweet Dream
Cynthia Groopman

I had a sweet dream as I slept last night,
That filled  me with such emotional power and might.
There was my Mom gently holding my hand and squeezing it too,
 As my heart was rejoicing and dancing through and through.
Then, a tender warm kiss was lovingly placed on my smiling face,
As my Mom began to enfold me,
Into the most lovely majestic and soft embrace.
When I did awake, I was so elated and serene,
Because my dearest beloved Mom visited me in a sweet dream.
Cynthia Groopman
cynthia.Groopman@verizon.net

Readers Feedback

~**~**~

Carol,
   You really wrote from the heart here my friend.  You honesty
touched a place in us all.  It showed the complications of loving relationships and how even death doesn't end a relationship.
It also reminded us all of just how brief our lives in this world
can be.  Keep up the excellent work.  Wishing you every joy, Joe

Carol, Funny you wrote about this when I've been thinking of writing about funerals, burials, cremations, etc.

I made my own funeral arrangements out when Andy died, and I've since changed them.

I changed them because I sat through the pain of seeing my mom in a casket.  I felt helpless.  Less than two years ago I lost my dad, and his funeral was even harder than mom's because he was all I had left other than my two siblings.

This past April I lost my best friend.  There was no funeral.  Her request was cremation.  She never wanted her kids or husband to view her body and live with that memory the rest of their lives.

Seeing your parent lying in a casket is so heart wrenching.  Seeing your child in one rips your heart out.

Losing someone you love, not attending a funeral........made it easier for me.

I knew my friend's requests. 

I understand now what she meant.

Some say having a funeral, viewing the body is a way of saying good bye.

When you love someone, I don't believe I would feel I was saying good bye.

On the other hand, I no longer view the word death as "the end."  I rather call it transistion.  For I know it makes no difference if you are buried in the ground or cremated.......you can come back and make contact with those you loved while your body was on earth.

Sharon Bryant

LOL........God Bless Clara for her wonderful story about "collecting things."

I am one of those kind too.

I still have a blouse I wore in high school.  Why?  Well, for one thing, It still fits, and it was a paisley, which I always loved paisley prints.

I have money from overseas from WWII that my grandfather brought back.  I have the button mending kit from grandpa's uniform in that war.

I have my first baby shoes.  Sure, they're hardened with age (what wouldn't be at almost 62 years old?) but I LIKE them.  So did my kids when I showed them my shoes when they were old enough to understand those were MOM'S shoes as a baby!

I kept the sweater dad bought for me, even though he bought the wrong size.  Just knowing he cared enough to buy me a carousel horse pattern was worth just looking at it even though I could never wear it.

Dad always knew I loved carousels.

I have my grandma's old hat pin from the early 1900's.  Now don't say, "Oh, you should go on the road show with that!"  It meant the world to me that grandma gave it to me when I was 18.

I kept newspaper clipping when JFK died.  Old military letters when my first hubby was gone for months on end at sea during Viet Nam.

And I thank my lucky stars I kept all my scrap yarns from sweaters and afghans I've knitted.  Just this year my daughter asked for a brightly colored blanket from yarn.  She's getting it as soon as I finish the last four rows I've got to add.  After all, it's the only one in the whole world that looks like it does!

I kept old letters from my parents and grandparents.  I've learned a lot from reading them.  I watched my handwriting grow and change as I added the date on each envelope.  I also have the stamps those letters came in.  Wow, to mail a letter for 5 cents.

I've kept ribbons.  And I too have some old Christmas wrap.  I call it my vintage wrap.

I got tickled when my daughter grew up and was looking in my clothes closet.  "Mom, your clothes are SO COOL, can I wear something to school?"  I allowed her to do so.

She came home beaming telling me everyone wanted to know where she bought the cool blouse from. 

She said, "from a vintage closet."

Some may call me a pack rat.  I don't think that's what I am.  Everything I have is part of my life and those I love.  Each and every single thing holds a memory.

I am a collector......

Of dreams, my childhood, my teen years, and my adult life.  I wouldn't change anything.

Maybe just one thing.......I should take those slimy big eyeballs off the fake pumpkin head I bought long ago and replace them with another kind of eye.  Just as soon as I find something that catches my fancy, I'll do just that.  Of course, I MUST save the slimy eyeballs.  They brought a lot of laughter into my life.

My "collection of things" are like photographs.  And we sure wouldn't throw away a photograph, now would we?

Thanks Clara.........you made me laugh.  And I'll be sure and save your story and show it to others when they say, "You're just a pack rat."

I  can say, "Hey, there are other collectors out there just like me!"

Sharon

Here is our Storytime Tapestry Angels: Also, I would like to thank those of you who chose to be a silent angel and gave an anonymous donation to keep Storytime Tapestry up and running.

Clara Westerfer, Mark Crider, Rosanne Catalano, Paula Booher, Kay Seefeldt, Mariane Holbrook, Mary Ellen Grisham, Louise Nomani, Sharon Bryant, Angela Walker, Hart and Helen Dowd, Keith Ready, Ginger Morgenstern, Ellie Braun-Haley, Surinder Jandu, Bob Shaw, Carol Meeks, Charlotte Hilliard, Maria Keller