Cartoons by Hubby- Party Rex

Party Rex

"Crunk"

Back story: T-rex likes to get crunk.

Small Town Elements: Good Neighbors

Woah woah woah, didn't she just write about a bad neighbor, you must be thinking. Well, let me tell you, far and away, small town neighbors are fantastic, and mine are no exception. Sure, we have had a few snags along the way, there always are, but in general, we have some great neighbors.

I especially love the neighbors on each side of us. To the one side, we have a young family, with two small boys. They are always happy, and they love to play outside. The more they get to know me, the more they talk my leg off! One night, the wife made up plates of pasta and brought them over to us. Another time she brought us cupcakes. All in the name of being a good neighbor. So they were overjoyed when I took the dog over there for the first time, just days after we got him. On the other side of us, we have a middle aged couple, and while we do not see them nearly as much, they are always friendly. I have often caught the husband mowing our front lawn in the spring or summer, and shoveling our sidewalk this past winter. That is just the kind of guy he is.

There are plenty of other neighbors that we are still getting to know, and many of them prefer to do good deeds unseen. Case in point. Monday, we had terrible winds. When I looked out back I noticed the winds had tossed all of the garbage cans around. Two of our three cans were lying in our yard, but the other one, well, who knows where it went. Today, I went to take a bag of trash out, and noticed a third can had appeared. It was not the can we previously had, but someone know that in the windy melee, they ended up with an extra, and we needed one, so, there it sits. All in the name of being a good neighbor.

Growing up, my small town was much more rural, so we did not know our neighbors as well as I know my neighbors now. Luckily, one neighbor was my grandmother, so we lucked out there. However, living right next door to us was an older man named John. He lived way back, off a long wooded drive, in a run down house. He drove a rusty car (not very well or safely), and was generally a crank. I remember being scared of him, because he would have loud fights with his other neighbor, who was his sister in law, usually about his late wife. After I grew up, my mom told me how John knocked on their door. He needed some help of some sort, I can not remember what, and my mom helped him. His home and general appearance were in total disarray, and his health was failing. Shortly after this, he went into a nursing home, his land was sold, and his house was torn down to make way for a beautiful new home to be built. I wish, in retrospect, we had known how to be a better neighbor to him. Perhaps he never wanted it, but I still wish I would have tried.

Explorations: The Library

I know that the library may not seem terribly exciting or exploration worth, but the whole point of this series is to get me to check out things in my town and surrounding areas that I have not checked out before. And no self respecting book reviewer can be caught without a library card, so....off I go.

Since I live in Kittanning, I decided the Kittanning branch of the Armstrong County Libraries made the most sense. So, I checked the hours on their website, and arrived exactly 4 minutes after the library opened. I walked in, and one of the librarians asked me if I needed help. I explained that I needed a card, so she hooked me up. While I was at the desk, I noticed a large basket that was being raffled off, and commented on how pretty it was. The librarian mentioned how much their budget had been cut, and this was a fund raiser, and her power of suggestion worked. I bought a ticket straight away. She then pointed out the different sections of the library and mentioned that the new release books are actually rentals, with a minimal charge, to promote fast turnaround time (probably also helps with the budget cuts). I decided since it was my first visit, I would make it short, and only take out a small number of books. In 17 minutes, I found 6 books (what a dork I am) and was ready to check out. I should point out I have been home an hour and already finished one of the books.

So, now that I have a library card, I also have access to some pretty cool community events. One that I am most interested in is a cookbook club, where the library displays a cookbook, you pick a recipe and make it to bring in to the club meeting on the fourth Friday of each month. I have a feeling I may explore this in the future!

I am also pretty stoked that the library is having a used book sale April 16-17. As if I do not have enough books to read and review already right? Sigh, it's not easy being a nerd.

Cartoons by Hubby- Teacups

A new series featuring cartoons by Hubby and a short explanation of them.

Teacups

"DO NOT EAT PLATES.....or this may happen to you"

The back story:
Last night, Hubby and I were talking about what a little chubbs our dog can be, as he gobbled his doggy ice cream. Hubby said "If we would let him, he would eat right off of out plates", and I said "If we let him, he would probably eat the plates too". To which Hubby replied "And then he would poop out teacups."

So when I got back from dropping our cat off at the vet, this was on our white board.

Do You Remember.....sidewalk chalk?

There are a ton of kids in my neighborhood, and I must admit, I love it. There is something magical to hearing the laughter of children in the early mornings. This morning I sat in the living room, I could hear the boys from next door playing with their dad outside. Later some of the girls from our street and the surrounding streets joined them. The kids were playing so well, I never even bothered to peek outside to see what exactly they were doing.

As the morning progressed, we were busy getting ready for Easter Saturday dinner with my in laws. I was so caught up in fixing my dessert to take, and getting dressed, that I never stepped outside until it was time to leave. When we went to go, I immediately noticed that the sidewalks were covered with colorful markings. AHHHH... so that was what had kept the children so occupied all morning.


There were a variety of drawings, and I only glanced at a few, until Hubby said "AWWWW. Honey come see this"

So I walked over to where Hubby stood, looked at the ground, and saw this...



I know it is hard to read it, so I enhanced the photo to make it a little more legible....

It says "I am not you're girl frend".

Cutest thing ever. I can only imagine the childlike conversation that precipitated this drawing.

I loved sidewalk chalk as a kid, and my niece and nephew played with it too. Seeing these drawings made me want to go buy some, and christen the newly poured concrete sidewalk square in front of my house.

Neighbor Woes

I think I am officially the neighborhood crank. Let me explain. We live on a street that is pretty quiet. Most of the time. And the neighbors on each side of our house are awesome neighbors. However, the day we closed on the house last summer, our across the street neighbor was having a get together. We were invited over to meet the neighbors, who were almost all sloshed, and were promptly told that a) we needed to cut our grass, b) we paid too much for our house, and c) the Catholic neighbor's sister had married a Jew. Awesome.

Soon, we were invited to the annual neighborhood block party. We went, and made our introductions to more neighbors, then after an hour or so, we left to go shopping. We got home several hours later to the party still going, but it was pretty quiet and harmless, so we did not mind.

Then....the winter came. And the parties continued. During one party, a neighbor hit my car. My husband happened to go look out the door, so the next day said neighbor told us what happened, and made arrangements to pay for the damages, provided we not involve insurance.

Parties continued all winter. And we noticed that people were cutting through our yard to get to the house across the street. I found this incredibly rude, first of all, and second of all, I did not want to be responsible for any bodily harm that befell them on their drunken sojourns. So finally, one night during a snowstorm, dressed in sweats, slippers, and wrapped in a blanket, I angrily confronted the neighbors about cutting through my yard and told them to stop. Since then, it has been quiet, but we have pretty much been labeled as the town cranks.

So tonight, we get home, and yet another drunken party is going on, complete with blaring music. I was livid, because we do not have our air conditioners in yet, so the only relief from stuffiness is to have the windows open, which is hard to do when music is blaring at 10 pm. We finally get them to turn the music down, and the next thing we know they are setting off firecrackers. It is Good Friday for pete's sake, not the 4th of July. I am so angry, because I feel like we can not even enjoy our home.

Am I in the wrong here? Should I just ignore this? I mean, yes, we are the new neighbors, but we are straight laced, we do not drink, we do not bother anyone else, so why should we have to put up with this? I just am very frustrated, and do not know what to do. I desperately want to get a fence for our yard, but that will only solve part of the problem. Do I just stop trying to reason with these people and call the cops? And, do I need to fear retaliation if I do?

Sigh, have I really become this much of a crank?

Do You Remember....penny candy?

This is the first installment in yet another new series, called "Do you remember" where I will discuss vivid memories from my small town childhood.


When I was a kid, my dad always worked more than one job. He worked in the steel mill full time, and then he worked part time as a meat cutter in a little shop that I only remember as "Wilma's". I think the actual name was Kirkwood Market or something, but to me, and my siblings, it was always Wilma's, after the woman who owned it. I remember Wilma so well, and also Annie, the other lady that worked there. The store was an old fashioned grocery, with wood and glass cases, wood shelves, and a big walk in cooler.

Wilma and Annie were so awesome to us, and we kids always looked forward to our dad coming home with a sack full of penny candy. He would often come home with a large bag of all kinds of candy, and three smaller sacks to divide it into for we three kids. Swedish fish, sixlets, wax bottles and lips, tootsies, bottlecaps, lemon heads, pixie stix, boston baked beans, candy cigarettes, jolly ranchers, smartees, sweet tarts, fortune gum, root beer barrels, I cannot even remember all the different kinds of candy there were. All I remember was it was heaven in a brown paper bag. We loved sitting and sorting it into our little sacks, then bartering with each other for our favorites.

When I entered middle school, we had an open lunch period, where we could leave school grounds, and Wilma's was less than 3 blocks away. I can remember walking down there on days Dad was working to get a ham sandwich, a frosty coke in a glass bottle, and of course, penny candy. Sadly, our open lunch privileges were later revoked until late high school, so I only had one year of going to Wilma's. It closed some time after that.

I asked Hubby if there was anywhere to get penny candy around here, and he was not sure. Sounds like I need to do some exploring. In the mean time, do you remember penny candy? What was your favorite?