Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Memories Are Made Of This

Our family is very sad today, my husbands older sister passed away unexpectedly early Sunday morning. Her name was Delores, she was such a great lady, her husband died a few years back and was cremated, so she wants cremated, have her ashes mixed with his and taken back to Flordia to a designated place.

Memories of our family and childhood are what shape our personality and who we are. Whether we like it or not, our personality is formed by our parents, brothers, sisters, and the environment that we grow up in. We can only grow as people when we choose to confront our past, only then can we move forward in our lives.

Memories
by Judy Burnette

The winds blow gently on my mind
Reminding me of you;
I smile . . . I close my eyes
Knowing dreams do come true.

I see you there in the center of my heart
I stand in your warm embrace;
I see the love in your eyes
I gently caress your face.

Memories are a precious gift
We have shared the old, we will make the new;
I hold you close, though we are miles apart
My best memories were made with you.

We all have memories, both good and bad. Is there someone that you made your best memories with? If so after reading this poem, close your eyes and relive those happy moments.

Friday, October 23, 2009

There's A Reason


There's A Reason
by Claytia Doran

I was always taught, there's a reason
That people do the things they do,
Though you may not always like them.
Their heart hides a secret from you.

If they're quick to bite your head off
Or constantly brag and boast,
Remember, the people we like the least
May need our love the most.

Could it be they had been abused
Or even ridiculed all their lives?
These are the type of hurtful things
That make sure their heart survives.

But, the heart that survives is hardened
And, on the seas of life, they coast.
Remember, the people we like the least
May need our love the most.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Women in World War Two

As in World War One, women played a vital part in this country's success in World War Two.At the end of WW2, those women who had found alternate employment from the normal for women lost their jobs to the returning soldiers. Many young girls found jobs in domestic service, the wages were still only 25p a week. The women between the two wars had full voting equality with men. In 1928 a law was passed stated any person over 21 could vote-male or female.

Women were called on to help on the land and the Women's Land Army (WLA), their work was vital as so many men were called into the military. The government tried to make out this was a glamorous job, in fact the work was hard. In 1943, the shortage of women in factories and on land lead to the government stopping women from joining the armed forces. They were given a choice of either working on land or in the factories.

Many women decided that they would work in a factory, their work was in all manners of production, from making ammunition, making uniforms to aeroplanes. They worked long hours and some had to move to where the factories were, those who moved away were paid more.

In the military all three services were open to women, women were also appointed as air raid wardens, but women could not train as pilots of war planes. Women were also used as secret agents, their work was exceptionally dangerous as one slip could lead to capture, torture and death. Women was also important in entertainment.

The war ended in Europe in May 1945, at this time there were 460,000 women in the military and over 6.5 million in civilian war work. Without their contribution, our war efforts would have been severely weakened and it is probable that we would not have been able to fight to our greatest might without the imput from women. Rosie the Riveter was the name given the iconic image representing women during WW2 on the home front war effort.

Hitler captured foreign women to work as slaves in his war factories. Many of these slave workers, male and female, deliberately sabotaged the work that they did-so in their own way they helped the war effort of the Allies.

Friday, October 16, 2009

13 Fascinating Facts about Halloween


1.) Halloween is always celebrated on October 31st.

2.) Halloween is one of the oldest celebrations in the world, dating back over 2000 years to the time of the Celts who lived in Britain.

3.) Halloween is correctly spelt as Hallowe'en.

4.) When Christianity came to England and the rest of Europe, November 1st became All Saints Day and the night before became known as All Hallows Eve and eventually Halloween.

5.) It is thought that the colours orange and black became Halloween colors, because orange is associated with harvest and black is associated with death.

6.) Black cats were orginally believed to protect witches' powers from negative forces.

7.) A pumpkin is really a squash, and comes from the same family as the cucumber.

8.) The biggest pumpkin in the world tipped the scales at a whopping 1,446 pounds. It was weighed October 2004 at a festival in Canada.

9.) The very first jack o'lantern was made out of hollowed out turnips.

10.) If you see a spider on this night, it could be the spirit of a dead loved one who is watching you.

11.) To meet a witch, put your clothes on inside out and walk backwards on Halloween night.

12.) About 99% of pumpkins sold are used for Jack O'Lanterns at Halloween.

13.) The record for the fastest pumpkin carver in the world is Jerry Ayers of Baltimore, Ohio. He carved a pumpkin in just 37 seconds.

Just some fun facts to know, I am sure there are many more. Have a very nice Halloween, be safe and please when driving watch out for all the little gobblins out there trick and treating.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Make-Believe Is Not Just For Kids.

this power of make-believe just for children or can the grown ups join in? The answer is we can to a certain extent. We enjoy the theater, plays and the movies, all which is mostly made up stories for our enjoyment and entertainment. The great dream merchant Disney was a success because he believed make believe was what everyone needed.

It is not unusual for children to have invisible friends or to believe their teddy bears can talk. I think their ability to suspend reality and play make-believe is a wonderful gift. Studies show that children know the difference between make-believe friends and reality., but they choose to travel between the two worlds. I envy this ability, it is a bit like magic.

We all enjoy magicians and their magic tricks, some parents hire magicians for their childrens birthday party's. Even as adults we still feel the sense of awe and joy from imagining what we see is real or not make believe. Unfortunately, most adults think this is just for kids. They grow up and imaginatian gives way to logic. I think this is sad. As adults, we need to use our imagination more often and watch how kids go between the real and the pretend when they play make-believe.

As adults we like make-believe in different forms, we no longer believe the items we own can talk or we no longer have imaginary friends. We turn to other made up things, some like to read fiction books, go to plays and the movies, we know most movies are just someones imagination put down in book form for their readers to enjoy. The movie makers do the same, most movies are taken from an author, who happened to capture a movie production companies attention, most movies are make-believe and others are real life stories.

Also as grown ups we have our children s best interest at heart. We should encourage kids in their pretend play, the purpose is to stimulate their creativity and get them to use the power of their imagination, this gets them to think outside the box. Childhood should be full of enchantment , whimsical characters and curiosity.They grow too soon and realize the world can be a bit confusing then pretend, and some children hang on to make-believe longer than others.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Sudden Impact—Target Earth

History has always been my first love, my history teacher always told me she wish all her students were as interested as I was. It probably was because she knew how to make it interesting. I like to read about things that effect our mother earth, even though these metorites came to earth thousands of years ago they are interesting and still we receive small ones even to this day.

An impact event is the collision of a large meteorite, asteroid, comet, or other celestial object with the earth or another planet. Small objects frequently collide with earth, I am going to write about only five craters, the Barringer, the Rio Cuarto, the Hebbury, the Waber and Manson, Iowa the Manson crater is the largest crater in the United States.

Barringer Crater; There is a giant hole in the ground east of Flagstaff, Arizona, nearly a mile across and over 500 feet deep, this impacted earth 50,000 years ago and the dry Arizona climate has kept it close to impact-fresh ever since. Geologists for years insisted it was a dead volcano. This crater is owned by the Berringer family, which bought it in 1903 and today has made a tidy sum as a tourist attraction.

The Rio Cuarto Crater; There were ten depressions, four of substantial size. There is a string of lakes spanning 19 miles, as the result of about 10 oblong meteorite craters, the shape and alignment of the lakes suggests a low angle impact. The crater lakes have been dated at less than 10,000 years old. These craters are in Argentina, and they came in from the northeast.

The Henbury Meteorite; This is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is west of Alice Springs .The 13 to 14 craters range from 7 to 180 meters in diameter and 15 meters deep, they were formed when the meteor broke up before impact. The Henbury meteorites themselves are very distinctive and unique with a beautiful ocher-red patina from the Australia outback soil, the craters are about 5,000 years old.

The Wabar Crater; This site covers about 500 by 1,000 meters, and the most recent mapping shows three prominent, roughly circular craters. The impact did not penetrate to bedrock but was confined to local sand, making it particularly valuable as a research site. The sand was turned into black glass near the craters. the impact area suggests that the body fell at a shallow angle and moving at entry speeds of 40,000 to 60,000 km., it is estimated the impact was thousands of years ago. These craters are in the vast desert of southern Saudi Arabia, the most desolate place on earth.

Manson, Iowa; The largest crater in the United States. The Barringer Crater in Arizona might be the most picture-worthy crater, but in order to find the largest crater you will have to travel to Manson City, Iowa, it is 24 miles wide and was created 74 million years ago when a metorite crashed to earth. Only problem is a later ice age wore the crater smooth and filled it with rocks from far North, leaving the site as flat as a pancake. Researches believe at one time that this metorite caused the deaths of the dinosaurs.

In the past 540 million years there have been five generally-accepted, major mass extinctions that on average extinguished half of all species. The largest mass extinction to have affected life on earth was in the Permian-Triassic, which ended the Permian period 250 million years ago. Some believe that dooms day is not long in coming. I pray for Mother Earth and for mankind to take care of her like she takes care of us.