Thursday, July 20, 2006

weekend assignment #121

Weekend Assignment #121, from John Scalzi: Do whatever you want, so long as it somehow involves the number 11

Memories of being eleven, lists that have eleven positions on them, collections of eleven similar objects -- hey, whatever you want. As long as the number eleven is somehow involved, it's all good. For those of you thinking about being sneaking and using binary notation: no "11, base 2." We're talking binary number 1011 here, pal.

HOW ABOUT ELEVEN THINGS I MISS?

1. Real farms:  these days a farm has only two crops:  corn, and soybeans.  When I was a kid, a farm consisted of milk cows, beef cows, hogs, chickens, and all sorts of garden crops.  (Thanks to Uncle Leo and Uncle Carl.)

2. Babies:  My youngest grandchild is five years old (or is it six now?) and she's in Georgia.  I sure do miss having a drooling, helpless baby around.

3. My family... grandma, mother, daddy, uncles.  Yes, I am in touch with my kids and some nephews and nieces.  But it SUCKS being part of the oldest generation in my family.  All I have of Mama and Daddy and Grandma and my aunts and uncles is memories.

4. Energy.  Why am I tired all the time?

5. A sense of awe.  Oh yes, when I was in the Rockies last week, I felt it.  But in the old days, I was in awe of everything around me.  I miss that.

6.  Lightening bugs.  Yes there are a few around.  But when I was a kid, they were everywhere, and I could put a bunch of them in a quart jar and it would make plenty of light.

7. A church family that really cares about me.  Enough said.

8. Youthful ideals.  Remember when ANYTHING was possible?  Dang, I wish it was like that now.

9. Playing music with a group.  I would love to have somebody to pick and sing with.

10. Home-made ice cream

11. The camaraderie you get from having a job.  My job got pretty heavy at the end, but I miss the people. 

Extra credit: Grab a book, open it to page 11, and write out the 11th sentence.

""She knelt beside the woman Marceline, touched her lifeless hair, bent close."

That's from "Thicker Than Water", by Linda Barlow and William G. Tapply.


 

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to the hundreds of lightening bugs?!  I can remember running around in the dark and seeing so many that the grass at my feet was illuminated.  Now there are just about a dozen in my backyard.  I hate the suburbs.  Do I sound old?

R

Anonymous said...

I have wonderful memories of the REAL farm that my grandparens had.  They really were almost self - sufficient.  Monthly trips to the store would bring home stapels like coffee, flour, sugar...they had the rest pretty much on the farm.

Thanks for the memory joggers !

'On Ya' - ma

Anonymous said...

Good list.  Made me think of many things I miss about life too.  The lightning bugs though -- they have been out here the last couple of weeks and I remember  when I was a child collecting them in a quart-sized canning jar and doing the same with my children not that many years ago.  It seems to me there were hundreds floating through the night.  Now, not so many.  In fact, so few that the DJs of a local radio station had listeners calling in about lightning bugs for a discussion!

Anonymous said...

To answer Toonguy...The chemicals got em!  A lot of your list hit home with me too.  

Anonymous said...

great list and thanks for sharing. I hope you get to see your granddaughter soon again.

Anonymous said...

If you ever get to Massachusetts, try the homemade ice cream at Farfars, and thank me later.

Anything is possible, Mo.... you just have to will it into existence.

Anonymous said...

You made me think of days gone by, of younger days of youth and awe and wonder.  Thanks for the memories.  
If you would like to read my entry, here it is:
http://journals.aol.com/fisherkristina/SometimesIThink/entries/1114

Krissy