I've really been trying to turn my life around what with all the negatives that have happened to me over the past months. Ole and I have almost completely left The Circle of acquaintances that have caused all the heartaches, and it's made me feel so much better over the last weeks. I've had more energy and a much more positive attitude about a lot of things. Sleeping better, too. Isn't it interesting how other people (if you let them, of course) can drag your attitude down with theirs.
I've also cut out a lot of the dead wood bloggers that I used to read (snicker). If any of you followed me back when I was writing under The Adventures of Ole and Lena, and followed the little blog war that I got sucked into by
But I digress. The point I was trying to make is that I've been out there looking for new, fresh writing - with a more positive and upbeat attitude. And I've found several. Granted, I still read some of my old blogging friends - by "old" I didn't mean ancient age-wise (chuckle) - I just meant I've been reading you for awhile. I would never give you up because you stuck by me when things were down and I was being trashed.
Anyway, the amazing thing with the new blog that I found - Stitchinbythelake - is how much we have in common. She's a quilter - I'm a quilter, although I haven't had much time over this past year to accomplish much. I must admit that I go downstairs to my sewing room to work on the stack of ironing that has piled up, and I shed a tear for my wonderful sewing machine that has only been used for repair work over the last many months. I open the doors to my cupboards and look at all the fabric that I have piled there, just waiting for someone to be creative with it. I just know it's crying out to be cut and assembled into something beautiful.
I digress again. I do that a lot, you know. I don't know if it's an age thing or if I just have too much to say. Anyway, when she was in high school she worked in a dime store - so did I. How many of you remember what a dime store was?
I worked behind the soda fountain on Saturdays and one night after school. I'd race down to the dime store, jump into my white uniform, put on my apron (that was the rule, we had to wear them) and race to get behind the counter to serve up all that ice cream and pie and make chocolate sodas for the kids that would come in after school for snacks. Saturdays were really busy because we had the lunch crowd of shoppers and from the retail clothing store that was next door. We did burgers and BLTs and tuna salad and egg salad sandwiches, along with all the ice cream and pie and coffee. We made chocolate cokes and cherry cokes back then, too. I still love a big glass of icy cold Coke with a bunch of chocolate syrup drizzled into it. If you've never tried one, you're really missing something.
Ole worked next door in that retail clothing store. He started out sweeping up the floor at the end of the day and eventually graduated to a shoe salesman in the shoe department on Saturdays. He would come over to the soda fountain for lunch and his breaks on Saturdays. So I'd manage to take my break at the same time if we weren't too busy. Oh, young love, huh?
Oh yes, I was going to tell you what a dime store was, in case you're too young to remember them. Not only did they have a lunch counter, but you could buy just about anything you needed in a dime store with the exception of groceries. There was a candy counter that consisted of a long row of glass bins full of different kinds of bulk candy. You would tell the girl behind the candy counter how much you wanted, for example a quarter of a pound, or 10 cents worth, etc., and she would dig into it with her scoop, weigh it out, put it in a bag and collect your money. You could buy fabric by the yard, shades for your windows plus the hardware that you needed to hang them up, a clothes rack to hang your wet clothing on, bath towels, shower curtains - just about anything you wanted.
The dime store that I worked at was Kresge's, but we also had Woolworth's in town, and Ben Franklin, who just closed all their stores a couple of years ago in our area. Couldn't make it against all the Big Box stores like Walmart and Target.
But Walmart and Target are missing all the ambience of the local dime store. After all, none of today's store have that lunch counter where you sit on a stool next to the counter and have the girl in the white uniform and the apron wait on you.
