How are you? Do You Really Want To Know?

I went to the market this morning and the clerk said 'How are you?'

I proceeded to tell her.....'I have a bunion on my right foot that is killing me....notice how I drag my left leg...that's why I carry this dam cane....I had chili last night and it is still causing me killer gas, I'm walking so slow these days I can't outrun the odor any more...excuse me...got any room spray back there?... not to mention it keeps repeating on me. My knees play tricks on me, my blood pressure is high...my diabetes has advanced and is destroying the nerves in my feet. I think I'm getting dementia...what the heck am I here for? Oh, yeah, my eyes are seeing less...my glasses are getting thicker. You know, I have this one wayward hair growing out of my left earlobe that I can't see to pluck...wait a minute, I think I have some tweezers in my bag, let me look....would you mind yanking it out for me?

Did you ask me a question?....

That is a serious pet peeve of mine...don't ask how I am because you don't know me and you don't give a tinkers dam how I am... Try going into a detailed explanation next time someone asks you that question...the look on their face is priceless!




Bird of Paradise Otagiri Japan
Sq Plate Tray Dish..what a beautiful gift this would make!


If you're not careful, the santa and his wild-eyed reindeer will be bearing down on you...only 65 days till Christmas. A wonderful place to start your shopping is at Online Auction
Check out the OLA Houses decorated for Halloween:
Click on the banners below!

Debs Variety Shop



We hope to see you soon! Happy Halloween!

To Ignore The Facts Does Not Change The Facts...Halloween..Witches..Christmas

Don't miss the 'boat'.....I've learned....That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.


Seek out the facts and vote with your knowledge!



I did a halloween post a couple of weeks back but I forgot to include a snippet on witches....

Lets see....it was said that to actually meet a witch, you have to put your clothes on wrong side out and then walk backwards on Halloween night...then at midnight you would see a witch. (I told my grandsons that if they misbehave, they'll surely see one at their house...witch on a broom, I mean!) Yes, in years past, I, on occasion would jump astride my 'super sonic broom' and fly wantonly about the room or straight for the intended target.

Do you realize that there are only 72 days to Christmas? Get the best deals now at Online Auction
Check out the OLA Houses decorated for Halloween:
Click on the banners below!

Debs Variety Shop



We hope to see you soon! Happy Halloween!

Halloween Factoids....Have Bats in Your Belfry?

It is now the time of year I start feeling every muscle and bone in my body going through its process of mourning the end of summer. Time to get out the stylish sweat pants with the elastic waist and the baggy sweaters and sweatshirts. AAAh....at least they're comforable.  This time of year I can wear my supphose with impunity...nobody will see them...


After I've finished putting away the tank tops and shorts and reloading my drawers with the aforementioned 'fashions', I've got to shop for the Halloween snacks and start my holiday shopping lists.

I was thinking about Halloween this morning and went searching for some factoids....I came up with a few.....


If someone says you have 'bats in your belfry'...say thank you since it would mean you have bats in your yard (if you don't have a bell tower), where they eat about 1,000 mosquitos for a meal.

The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkable nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.


There are more than 1,000 species of bats in the world! They live on every continent of the world, except Antarctica. Bats do not live in areas where it is very hot or very cold.

To catch insects, bats use their wings. Their wings are the only part of their bodies not covered by hair, but with thin, tough skin. Bats use their wings like hands, and they have little thumbs and wrists on them.

Bats have long been associated with Halloween but the connection is less skeery than some would suspect. In Halloween's ancient origins people would gather together around giant bonfires to ward off evil spirits. Attracted to the warmth and bright light of these fires were many small flying insects. Natural food for hungry bats. People saw the bats flickering in and out of the firelight during the festivals and they became a feature of Halloween lore. They are the only true flying mammals.

Ever used the saying 'blind as a bat'?  I have, but guess what?  They aren't blind..

Our modern celebration of Halloween is a descendent of the ancient Celtic fire festival called "Samhain". The word is pronounced "sow-in (rhymes with cow).

Folk tradition tells us of many divination practices associated with Samhain. Among the most common were divinations dealing with marriage, weather, and the coming fortunes for the year. These were performed via such methods as ducking for apples, and apple peeling.

Ducking for apples was a marriage divination. The first person to bite an apple would be the first to marry in the coming year.   I'll bet there's some folks out there wishing they hadn't been in that early apple bobbing event!

Apple peeling was a divination to see how long your life would be. The longer the unbroken apple peel, the longer your life was destined to be.

In Scotland, people would place stones in the ashes of the hearth before retiring for the night. Anyone whose stone had been disturbed during the night was said to be destined to die during the coming year.



Then we have Jack O'Lanterns.......

Pumpkin carving is a popular part of modern America's Halloween celebration. Come October, pumpkins can be found everywhere in the country from doorsteps to dinner tables. Despite the widespread carving that goes on in this country every autumn, few Americans really know why or when the jack o'lantern tradition began. Read on to find out!

The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul.

The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o'lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o'lanterns.
History of Halloween



If you have begun your holiday shopping list, you probably should check out Online Auction .

There are a few sellers that have even some Haunted Houses for Halloween....definitely give them a look.....
Fleapirates Plunder

Aesthetics48

Jaswood Antiques and Collectibles

Stubsinc Primalwares

Debs Variety Shop


Don't forget to check out my haunted house...Supergrannys Treasures

GEEZER TEST! ARE YOU "OLDER THAN DIRT?"

I suffer from 'mind bloat'....take the test and you'll see why...

by Frank Kaiser

Where did headlight dimmer switches used to be located?
a. On the floor shift knob
b. On the floor, left of the clutch
c. Next to the horn

2. The bottle top of a Royal Crown Cola bottle has holes in it. For what was it used?
a. Capture lightning bugs.
b. To sprinkle clothes before ironing
c. Large salt shaker

3. Why was having milk delivered a problem in northern winters?
a. Cows got cold and wouldn't produce
b. Ice on highways forced delivery by dog sled
c. Milkmen left deliveries outside doors and milk would freeze, expanding and pushing up the cardboard bottle top.

4. What was the popular chewing gum named for a game of chance?
a. Blackjack
b. Gin
c. Craps

5. What method did women adapt to look as if they were wearing stockings when none was available due to rationing during W.W.II?
a. Suntan
b. Leg painting
c. Wearing slacks

6. What postwar car turned automotive design on its ear when you couldn't tell whether it was coming or going?
a. Studebaker
b. Nash Metro
c. Tucker

7. Which was a popular candy when you were a kid?
a. Strips of dried peanut butter
b. Chocolate-licorice bars
c. Wax coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside

8. How was Butch wax used?
a. To stiffen hair cut into a flattop so it stood up
b. To make floors shiny and prevent scuffing
c. On the wheels of roller skates to prevent rust

9. Before inline skates, how did you keep your roller skates attached to your shoes?
a. With clamps, tightened by a skate key
b. Woven straps that crossed the foot
c. Long pieces of string or twine

10. As a kid, what was considered the best way to reach a decision?
a. Consider all the facts
b. Ask Mom
c. Eeny-meeny-miney-mo

11. What was the worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex?
a. A cold
b. VD
c. Cooties

12. "I'll be down to get you in a ________, Honey?"
a. SUV
b. Taxi
c. Streetcar

13. What was the name of Caroline Kennedy's pet pony?
a. Old Blue
b. Paint
c. Macaroni

14. What was a Duck-and-Cover Drill?
a. Part of the game of hide and seek
b. What you did when your mom called you in to do chores
c. Hiding under your desk, covering your head with your arms in an A bomb drill

15. What was the name of the Indian Princess on the Howdy Doody show?
a. Princess Summerfallwinterspring
b. Princess Sacajewea
c. Princess Moonshadow

16. What did all really savvy students do when mimeographed (ditto machine) tests were handed out in school?
a. Immediately sniffed the purple ink, as this was believed to get you "high" b. Made paper airplanes to see who could sail theirs out the window
c. Wrote another pupils name on the top, to avoid failure

17. Why did your mom shop in stores that gave Green Stamps with purchases?
a. To keep you out of mischief licking the backs, which tasted like bubble gum
b. They could be put in special books and redeemed for various household items
c. They were given to the kids to be used as stick on tattoos

18. "Praise the Lord, and pass the _________?"
a. Meatballs
b. Dames
c. Ammunition

19. What was the name of the group who made the song "The Gypsy" a hit in the US?
a. The Ink Spots
b. The Supremes
c. The Esquires

20. Who left his heart in San Francisco?
a. Tony Bennett
b. Zavier Cugat
c. George Gershwin

ANSWERS
1. b) On the floor, left of the clutch. Hand controls, popular in Europe, took till the '60s to catch on.

2. b) To sprinkle clothes before ironing. Who had a steam iron?

3. c) Cold weather caused the milk to freeze and expand, popping the bottle top.

4. a) Blackjack Gum.

5. b) Special makeup was applied followed by drawing a seam down the back of the leg with eyebrow pencil.

6. a) 1946 Studebaker.

7. c) Wax coke bottles containing super-sweet colored water.

8. a) Wax for your flat top (butch) haircut.

9. a) With clamps, tightened by a skate key, which you wore on a shoestring around your neck
.
10. c) Eeny-meeny-miney-mo.

11. c) Cooties.

12. b) Taxi. Better be ready by half-past eight!

13. c) Macaroni.

14. c) Hiding under your desk, covering your head with your arms in an A-bomb drill.

15. a) Princess Summerfallwinterspring. She was another puppet.

16. a) Immediately sniffed the purple ink to get "high."

17. b) Put in a special stamp book, they could be traded for household items at the Green Stamp store.

18. c) Ammunition, and we'll all be free.

19. a) The all male, all black group, The Inkspots.

20. a) Tony Bennett and he sounds just as good today.

SCORING
17 — 20 correct: You are not only older than dirt, but obviously gifted with mind bloat. Now if you could only find your glasses.

12 — 16 correct: Not quite dirt yet, but your mind is definitely muddy.

0 – 11 correct: You are a sad excuse of a geezer. Redeem yourself by declaring to everyone that the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Well, now you see why I suffer from 'mind bloat'!! I got them all...so if you did...all I can say is Bless Your Heart!!!

Happy Labor Day....remember to put your white shoes and bags away today.......

When Labor Day has come and gone, the BBQ mess is all cleaned up then people start turning their thoughts to the upcoming holidays. Decisions decisions....

Halloween...what kinds of candy should I give the neighborhood kids...or do I want to dress up as Maxine or Father Time? All I have to do is get dressed and I'm there....

Thanksgiving...which to serve...turkey or ham? or maybe we should just make a small package of Jello and go to the Senior Center pot luck?

Christmas...make my lists...check my drawers and closets for gifts to re-gift...start my shopping at all the Sellers at Online Auction.

Here's a suggestion for the family with kids who love to be served desserts or even oatmeal in a fancy bowl....

Contemporary Glass Sherbet Ice Cream Dessert Dish Bowl






Start shopping at Supergrannys Treasures now!