Where Trouble Sleeps

Alease Toomey sat at her dresser, putting on lipstick, getting ready to take her son up to see the electric chair for the first time. She blotted her lips on a Kleenex, reached for her comb. Her dresser top held the basics only -- a jar of Pond's cold cream, a bottle of Jergens lotion, Elizabeth Arden rouge and lipstick, hand mirror, hairbrush -- all on a starched white table doily.

She thought about little Terry Daniels, just down the road. Why not take him along, too? Seeing the electric chair might be especially good for him, and certainly his mother wouldn't be taking him up there. And it would be nice for Stephen to have some company.

_____________________________________

Where Trouble Sleeps by Clyde Edgerton

GVEC

providing our electric service

The link??

New discovery

Hominims

Ida

When words collide

published 1984

It is

supposedly

now permissible

to end a sentence

with a preposition

although it

sometimes

seems a little strange.

I can still hear

my grade school

English teacher

admonishing us

not to.

WHEN WORDS COLLIDE

When words collide, they can collide like trucks on a highway, causing chaos and damage. Or they can collide like atoms of uranium, releasing power and force. Grammatical errors cause words to collide with disastrous results. Grammatical mastery -- craftsmanship -- causes words to collide in a creative burst of energy.

Hugo Whittier - the ultimate anti-hero

"After he barged into my chambers, Dennis parked his flat, entitled rear end on the set of my favorite chair, the armchair facing the windows that look out over the river, and proceeded to explain the end of his marriage to me while I sat on my bed in my pajamas, squinting at him with all the hatred I bear him, which is a heavy force, although he's as ignorant of that as he is of everything else about me, including the fact that in a short while I'll be dead. Dennis can be counted on to be a narcissist in every particular until his own end, whenever that may be slated to take place. My one regret in being terminal is that I will never know this, or other things."

There is very little to like about Hugo Whittier in Kate Christensen's novel The Epicure's Lament - however he certainly holds our interest.

A quote from Sam Lipsyte on the book's jacket: "What a wonderfully monstrous voice Kate Christensen has created in Hugo Whittier, trust-fund misanthrope, chain-smoking foodie, confirmed cad. His narration is as rich and textured as his Lobster Newburg, which I can almost taste. May we all simmer in the dark with such humor and gusto."

What was happening in the Fifties?

Red Skeleton

We moved across the entire state of New Mexico in 1953 - one day before school was to begin as I entered my sophomore year. I just knew I would not have the type of dear friends I had in Tucumcari, New Mexico. I just knew I would not have any friends at all in Farmington, New Mexico. Well, school girls do survive a move across the state during their high school years and one has friends everywhere you live (and now in the internet age - where you don't live - but encounter electronically).

This was probably the last of the polio scare years (my husband was unable to attend Louisiana Boys State in 1952 - for that event was cancelled due to this crippling disease affecting so many). [In 1955 Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine.]

_______________________________

Ah - the Fifties!!!

The Dirty Bop. Chinese Fire Drills. Kidnap Breakfasts. Sock Hops. Juke Boxes - moving the tables and dancing in the drug store and sipping on cherry cokes. Rolled up jeans and wearing my dad's long sleeved white shirt (sleeves rolled and collar up).

Poodle skirts. Penny loafers. Saddle oxfords. Letterman sweater. Going steady (wearing your beau's college or class ring on a chain around your neck).

Skinny dipping in Jackson Lake (same sex) after a slumber party.

Rebel Without A Cause (James Dean). The Wild One. Seventeen magazine.

Elvis!!

Television.

Burma Shave signs.

Copy machine (with the purple ink)

________________________

The word Teenager was created in the 1950’s due to the tremendous population of those in this age category and because teenagers started gaining more independence and freedoms. Teenagers were able to buy more things like food, clothes and music because of an increase in spending money.

The fifties were times of joy and excitement - and I'm thankful for the memories.

_____________________

Two uncles were in the Marines
and both served in Korea.

One was wounded

(and left for dead)

but lived.

The other

- who had served in World War II -
didn't come home.

Life began to change.