If you haven't seen it, you should!

GONE WITH THE WIND . . . Star Wars and The Sound of Music, for starters .........


Here's the Top 20 movies of all time ... by number of tickets sold according to

http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2010/01/is-avatar-blockbuster-its-claimed-to-be.html

1 "Gone With the Wind" (1939) 202,044,600

2 "Star Wars" (1977) 178,119,600

3 "The Sound of Music" (1965) 142,415,400

4 "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) 141,854,300

5 "The Ten Commandments" (1956) 131,000,000

6 "Titanic" (1997) 128,345,900

7 "Jaws" (1975) 128,078,800

8 "Doctor Zhivago" (1965) 124,135,500

9 "The Exorcist" (1973) 110,568,700

10 "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) 109,000,000

11 "101 Dalmatians" (1961) 99,917,300

12 "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) 98,180,600

13 "Ben-Hur" (1959) 98,000,000

14 "Return of the Jedi" (1983) 94,059,400

15 "The Sting" (1973) 89,142,900

16 "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) 88,141,900

17 "Jurassic Park" (1993) 86,205,800

18 "The Graduate" (1967) 85,571,400

19 "Star Wars: Episode I" (1999) 84,825,800

20 "Fantasia" (1941) 83,043,500



"Avatar," despite topping the worldwide gross list, by and by, is only No. 26 on the ticket sales list with 76,421,000 sold ... at least, so far...


Nana says "I've seen most of the top 20 . . . but not Avatar yet, nor is it on my short list.

Tales of Long Ago

Do you remember Green Stamps? At the grocery store, if you bought $1.00 worth of groceries, you got 10 green stamps. If you bought $50 worth of grocerites, you got 500 green stamps. (Is that math correct?) My Mama, I remember at my early age, had $50 a week for groceries. $50 to feed 11 of us for a week and maybe to clothe us too?  The only extra groceries to be picked up during the week might be milk or bread. Once in a while, I remember Mom sending us "uptown" to get 2 pounds of hamburger or a dozen eggs.

Anyway, Mama got her S&H green stamps every Saturday and once every month or two or more it was almost always a young girl's chore to paste them in the Green Stamp books. You had to lick the stamps. If you couldn't handle that, you got a wet washrag and lay it on the table to pat the stamps on. Each book held 1200 green stamps! At first they all came in a very small size, in sheets. Later, they made a larger stamp equal to 10 little ones so you got them in strips. You'd have to get them wet enough and slap them in the book. It was a good feeling to get a whole book filled . . . and you knew you were that much closer to getting something new for the house but even better -- some new toy or game for the children!

Photos

Cool!  just noticed that each photo I add to Nana's View, shows up in the slideshow.  I didn't know that!  I supposed I would have to add them to my original album.

                                                                                                        This is a test!  Love, Nana

Well, the test hasn't proved a thing yet!  I'll keep on checking!

Winter has over stayed its welcome

It has been a doozy of a winter; a winter from my childhood.  We have had umpteen inches of snow and even with a good rain this past weekend, we still have snow banks in our yards, streets and driveways!  Today, here, my house, we just missed being in a Blizzard Warning area.  The Bondurant folks are in one.  Out there in that new subdivision with no trees or shrubs to stop the wind, I bet they will have 5 foot drifts!  I would love to live in the country every day of the year except for those days when there are ice or blizzard warnings!  And this winter, we have had one or the other at least once a week, I think.  The local school has missed so many "weather" days that the last day of school has been pushed out to June 2 or 3, already and we still have February and March to wade through.  Kristy, these photos are for you -- because all the rest of us are sick of it!  lol (just kidding, Mother Nature!  just kidding)

Berries, under ice

shhhh, I don't want to tempt fate! 

50s Still . . . and down hill!

Brought to you by our sponsors, S & H Green Stamps!

Freedom for a child in the 50s was a pair of clamp on skates and a new, smooth sidewalk!  On a spring day with a little breeze and some free time, there was nothing more exhilarating then a good skate down a long smooth sidewalk! 

We had two pair of skates like these in our home when I first learned to skate.  There might have been a third pair that weren't as good as these which would have been handy as there were three little girls wanting to skate!  Even by the time I got to use these skates, after my older sisters had moved up to bikes or cars, they were still good skates.  We'd get Dad's oil can and oil the wheels first time out in the spring -- but then those skates would go!

Learning to skate brought skinned hands and knees.  Learning, we would clamp one skate on to our sturdy oxford shoe and practice skating on just one skate.  After getting comfortable on one skate, we'd work up our courage and clamp on the second one!  Look out!  Arms and legs flailing, awkward gait, near falls, a little girl learning to skate was one ungainly sight!  But soon, we would get a rhythm and our balance and it wasn't long until we were off on our own!  Free as a bird, as long as the sidewalk held out. 

You had to use the skate key to go skating.  I would tie my shoestring, tight, and then use the skate key to make the toe clamps bigger and slip the skate onto the shoe.  Strap the ankle strap on and then use the key to tighten the toe clamps on to my shoe.  Do it twice and jump up and go skate! 

Our skate key was usually tied on to a shoelace so as to make it a bigger object and less likely to be lost. I think we probably hung it around a neck while we skated, like a necklace, until it was needed. Mama must have had a spot in the house where the skate key was kept when we weren't skating because it seemed like we had the key when we needed it. Of course, there were 2 or 3 keys around, not just one.  But I remember now, there was a nail just outside the utility room, in the garage, that held skate keys.  Dependably. 


Some little girls could skate backwards.  I had a couple of friends that could do a pretty good job skating backwards and sister Linda could too, some.  If I remember right, Beth was known to be a good skater.  I was an average skater but ohhhh, did I love to skate! 

Mama got these two pair of skates from the S&H Green Stamp Store.  She carried in her Green Stamp books pasted full of stamps and traded them for two pairs of shiny roller skates with red leather straps.  I was always so glad she did.

Stuck in the 50s

I may have written about how, once, my Mother made me a lovely "drop waist" dress. 

In searching the internet this is as close as I could come to the pattern. 

I didn't have the can cans to wear under the skirt and the skirt wasn't made that full anyway. 

The sleeves were shorter, with no ruffle.  The color was a paler plaid with some turquoise running through and a sheen to the fabric.  I thought it was the prettiest dress I had ever had. Best of all, it was one of a kind.  Usually, when I got a new dress, Mary and Linda did too but they didn't get a drop waist dress, like mine. 

Maybe my Mama knew I need some self confidence, a little boost.  Mama's usually know best!

I don't remember at all why Mama made this dress but it made me feel pretty and graceful. 

Long lost orphan

As Himself is working to spruce up and improve the "clear" upstairs, he has been encouraging me to let go. He has been poking and prodding and daring me to clear out and lighten up! Well, this evening he pushed me one times too many and just to show him, I did! I let go and grabbed and gathered and grumbled. I boxed up 3 big bags of clothes, a bag of odds and ends and mistletoe and ivy. It is all bagged and loaded and ready to go to the "Rerun Shop" tomorrow on the way to work.

And in the clearing, when the dust settled, there was this.

This poor lost orphan. And in the years that this baby has not seen the light of day, my poor memory has failed. This sad Mama can't remember Koala Bear's name -- nor even which of my children once loved this poor, sad boy. Please help me.

Way too much

This is the sight outside our back door. It is way too much and it has been there way too long. What we need is a January thaw. And soon!

1950s sort of girl

When I was a child, our winter gear was more basic than winterwear today. Our coats were usually wool, skirt length and buttoned down the front with big silver dollar-size buttons. I think the coats almost always had pockets. When I was a bit older, I can remember getting my first coat with a hood! That was so exciting! and the coat itself had a little flair to it, it wasn't just cut down straight. woowhee! I sashayed around in that coat for awhile!

Our mittens weren't vinyl or waterproof. They were machine or home knit, usually just one layer. They were warm if the temperature wasn't too cold and if the mittens were dry. Usually, tho, those mittens weren't dry! In fact, I don't remember a whole day with dry mittens -- ever -- in my childhood! I can remember when I had strings attached to each mitten. The strings ran up the sleeve, across the back and out the other sleeve. I needed a mitten holder as I was a rambunctious, careless child and prone to loosing mittens and scarves. A lot of winters I would end up with only 1 glove or mitten or mismatched mittens. My hands were often chapped and dry and would crack and bleed some because I wouldn't wear my mittens or had lost them. Poor Mama; she'd say . . . "what am I going to do with you?"

Our boots were plastic or rubber. There was no lining or insulation in those boots. They pulled over your shoes so they were adding some extra warmth but it was always my luck to get snow down my boot on the way to school so all morning I'd be in school waiting for the socks to dry. Some shoes were hard on socks; the shoe would pull the sock down inside the shoe. It was most aggravating and uncomfortable and before long you might have a blister on your heel. To get the boot over the shoe could take a lot of work, if it was a tight fit. Then you'd get to school or back home and try to take the boot off and . . . oops, there went the boot, the shoe and the sock! Then you had to wrench the shoe out of the boot with your hands. Also certain boots would rub on the back of your bare leg and chap that leg. The backs of the legs would be red and raw and burn for a week! Or sometimes all winter.

Little girls wore dresses to school, back in the 50s. Dresses and ankle socks. There was a lot of bare leg in between! When it got really cold, our Mama would make us put pants on under the dresses. Well, imagine how comfortable that would be! Girls didn't have denim jeans. They were cotton or duck. They might be flannel or even corduroy. They had elastic waists so you'd pull them up under your dress or the waist of your skirt which added a couple of inches to your waist line. Next came the coat over those two layers of clothes, and then the boots if you could bend over enough to get them pulled on over your shoes. Mama always wanted a scarf over your ears. There were no knitted hats for the girls like there are today . . . or at least not available to the girls in my family! So a head scarf and mittens, to finish the outfit and out the door to walk the quarter mile to school. And you did that four times a day. If you went outside to play after school, you went through all that six times a day! And in between, you tried to find some way to dry your mittens!

Shouldn't that read

"ICED" lemonade?
(Thanks, Morghan Grace, for the "cool" ade sign!)