Peanuts

The other night Hubby and I ate a late supper at a hamburger joint that has peanuts available to munch on while waiting for the burgers. I told my hubby that eating peanuts out of the shell like that reminded me of three things from my childhood. And lucky you! I thought I'd write about it here.

1. I remember one of the the first times I ate them. I must have been 7 or 8 and we were visiting my aunt and uncle in eastern Tennessee. Uncle farmed tobacco and they lived in a house that pre-dated the Civil War. It had a building that I was told was for the slaves and there was a place on the front porch in the brick that a cannon ball smacked into. I remember sitting the the front yard in metal lawn chairs that looked something like this:

My aunt and uncle had some friends over and I remember an older man teaching me how to crack open the peanuts by finding the seam and pressing it until it popped. It was a bonus if I found three peanuts inside.

2. When I turned 10 we spent the day at a friend of the family's house. Our friends gave me a bag of peanuts in the shell for my birthday. A whole bag! All for me! I was number 4 in the family and it was rare I got something just my own. I remember savoring those peanuts. I would pull out our toy record player and put on my record of The Three Little Pigs to listen to while I ate my yummy peanuts. I believe I got that record for my birthday as well.

3. I used to walk around singing a song about peanuts I probably learned at camp. I remember being able to play with our cassette tape recorder/player sometimes and I would take it to my room and just talk or sing. I'd talk about what I was doing (like putting my laundry away) or I would sing songs. (I wonder whatever happened to those cassette tapes....) I remember singing a song into that tape recorder that went something like::

Found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peanut just now. 

Just now I found a peanut, found a peanut just know.

(Catchy, huh?)

Believe it or not I found several YouTube videos of this lovely song. I will post the least cheesy one::

You've now been given a glance into the way my mind works in seemingly normal activities like eating peanuts at a hamburger joint. :)  Funny the way memories can come flooding back of random moments of my childhood.

My Swedish Grandpa and Me

I don't have a lot of pictures of myself when I was little. I had fun scanning the handful I do have into the computer and posting them here and on my Facebook page.

I have decided this is pretty much my favorite picture. This is my Grandpa Swanson. Doesn't he look like a Swedish Farmer? I think I am almost 2 years old.
Some of my favorite memories:

• Grandpa used to rub his rough whiskers on my cheek just to make me squeal.
• Grandpa always sat in the same chair in the kitchen.
• Grandpa ate the fat off his pork chops. Yuck.
• Grandpa had a remote control for his television. It had two buttons. It clicked. I thought it was so cool.
• Grandpa blew his nose like a farmer. One finger on a nostril and blow into the wind. :) (that was something my mom didn't want us to copy)
• I remember watching Grandpa carry a possum by the tail he had smacked in the head and tossed it in the ditch.
• When we hung our Christmas stockings at Grandpa's house (the socks were the kind with the red toes and heels), we always got an orange and a Hershey chocolate bar.
• Grandpa would purposely ask me if I was a couple of years younger than I was just to tease me.

Oldies But Goodies

Here are some quite awesome pictures I scanned into the computer recently. I don't have very many pictures of me as a kid. These are a few that my mom printed from slides and gave to us kids. I am the youngest of four. So it's easy to pick me out as the smallest ones in these pictures.
The next few are some birthday pictures. My mom always made us shape cakes. We got to pick out what we wanted. (I made shape cakes for my kids too.)



This is my with my mom's hairdryer on. Any one remember those? Megan looked at this picture when she was little and thought it was her.

Here's one taken in a photo booth. I hated this haircut. I used to get called a boy and hid my head in my desk at school because I was so embarrassed. Oh the trials of childhood.
The next two are me and my maternal grandfather at Christmas time. Notice the awesome camera/flash in the first picture? The second one has my brother in the picture.

This one is all four kids with my paternal grandparents. Don't you just love my really short dress, my brother's plaid sport coat and my sister's gloves? Not to mention my grandma's hat. I pretty sure this was for Easter.