FRONT PORCH IS A GODSEND NOW

Do you like old houses? If so, you’re definitely in the minority. Most realtors will tell you that they’re a hard sell. It’s amazing to see all the new subdivisions popping up all over town. And houses in every price range are selling like hotcakes. On the other hand, my husband and I live in a house that’s over 100 years old, and we’ve always loved everything about it. The beamed ceilings, pillared doorways, wooden floors. But now, one special feature of old houses has proved to be a blessing. The front porch is a godsend now, during this covid-19 pandemic.

A front porch is a blessing during the covid 19 pandemic — A front porch is a godsend during this pandemic. Friends can visit in fresh air, while social distancing.

For one thing, we’re not stuck inside the house all day—even if it’s raining. Except for the winter months, we always sit on the front porch and have a cool drink in the late afternoon. We live along a busy street, and simply watch the cars go by, or people of various ages and sizes jogging or strolling. It’s fun to see the different outfits people wear. Some are half-naked, sweat dripping off their shoulders. Others are covered in black workout clothes. And then, there are the babies in strollers, and families with little children. Until Covid-19, we didn’t realize how much we enjoyed this evening parade.

But the best thing about our porch during this pandemic is the opportunity to visit safely with family and friends who stop by . The porch is wide enough for social distancing if there’s only four of us. Right now, we’ve been starved for company and social interaction. But if a neighbor stops by to say hello, we feel safe inviting them to sit and chat for a few minutes while sitting in the fresh air. They may or may not wear masks. Sometimes we do, and sometimes we don’t, depending on how confident we are that they aren’t carrying the virus. We don’t invite them inside. But when they leave, we feel satisfied that we’ve seen and talked with someone we care about. Before the pandemic, we never appreciated how important that is. We took those random social interactions for granted.

Front porches are seeing a revival the past few years. Builders are beginning to include them in design plans. And if you’re lucky enough to have a front porch during this pandemic, put it near the top of your gratitude list.

August 22, 2020August 24, 2020

DID DEMS SQUANDER PRIME TIME?

What time do you typically go to bed at night? Eleven o’clock seems to be the favored hour for turning in. Of course, if you’re an octogenarian, you might begin to yawn around 10 p.m. Which means you’re not in the mood to watch speeches at a political convention. Prime time—when most people turn on the TV—is between 7 to 9 p.m. Consequently the voters most apt to view the convention last week were those who live on or near the West Coast. In preaching to the choir, did the Democrats squander prime time?

Voters in the blue states like California, Oregon and Washington got to view the convention during prime time. But what was the advantage to that? Those people already knew who they were going to vote for, so basically, Democrats were just playing to their base..

The battleground states at this time are defined as Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida. Look at the time zone map of the United States. Only one battle ground state—Arizona—was able to view the convention while they were most alert, during prime time.

I think if I were a political planner of either party, I wouldn’t really care how many people on the West Coast watched the convention. Those states are a done deal. They are going to vote Democratic, no matter what. Seems like you’d schedule the show to start at 8 p.m. central time. That way, you would reach more of the swing state voters while they’re still wide awake.

Actually, the conventions may not make much difference, in the long run. The DNC convention, overall, was somewhat of a flop, with viewership on the first night down 48% from 2016. I suspect the Republican convention next week will fare just as poorly. I don’t think anything is going to replace the excitement of live audiences, cheering, booing, shouting, waving and clapping in response to flaming oratory speeches.

August 19, 2020August 19, 2020

STRESS CALLS FOR COMFORT FOOD

Have you noticed that recipes in the media have grown more complicated during this pandemic? I guess they’re thinking that people have more time to fiddle around with unusual ingredients and longer prep time. But now, you want nostalgic dishes that remind you of happier times. Pandemic stress calls for comfort food , made without canned soup.

High on the list of comfort foods in the USA are soups and casseroles. What’s wrong with that? Nothing, if you make them with natural ingredients But here’s a list of additives you get in canned soups that really don’t give you that taste of home: Sodium phosphate, whey, soy protein concentrate, yeast extract, potassium chloride, lactic acid, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate and beta carotene. That’s just a few of the ingredients listed on the label of one can of store-bought Cream of Chicken soup.

Ham Potato Casserole is the Perfect Comfot food — The Pandemic Calls For Comfort Food. This easy Ham Potato Casserole is made with all natural ingredients.

One of my favorite comfort foods is Ham Potato Casserole. Remember when they served it at your school cafeteria? I can’t think of many restaurants that have it on their menu. Your mom may not have made it, but I’ll bet your granny did. At one time, it was a way of using up the left overs from a baked ham. That was when frugal people didn’t waste a smidgen of meat left on a bone. Not many of us bake a whole ham nowadays. But you can buy packaged, diced ham, which greatly simplifies things.

When you go on the net looking for Ham Potato Casserole recipes, you’ll find that many of them call for canned soup. But it’s so much easier to make it the old fashioned way, starting with a simple white sauce. You don’t really have to follow a recipe after that. Just throw in some cubed, cooked potatoes, cheese, diced ham, and green beans. Mix it altogether in a casserole dish, and bake, covered for 30 minutes. Your family will want seconds, I promise. So make plenty.

If you feel more comfortable following a recipe, here’s one that serves 4:

Milk: 1 1/2 cups

Butter: 3 Tablespoons

Flour: 3 tablespoons

Onion finely chopped: 2 tablespoons

Idaho potatoes, boiled for half an hour, then peeled & cubed: 2

Fresh green beans, trimmed and cooked while boiling the potatoes: 1 cup

Packaged diced ham: 1 cup

Shredded Cheddar cheese: 1 cup

Directions:

In saucepan, saute onion in butter. Stir in the flour, until blended. . Gradually whisk in milk until mixture has thickened. Turn off heat. Add cheese. Arrange potatoes, ham, and green beans in a baking dish and cover with the white sauce/cheese mixture. . Cover with foil. Heat in 350 oven for half an hour, or until bubbly..

Notice, I don’t add seasoning to the white sauce.. The cheese and ham are plenty salty and some people are allergic to pepper. Provide salt and pepper shakers for those who want it. . You can leave out the green beans, or serve another vegetable as a side dish.

Enjoy!

August 17, 2020August 17, 2020

WHERE HAVE ALL THE BAD GIRLS GONE?

If you were young and single in the fifties, there were a lot of bad girls out there. Unmarried females weren’t supposed to have much of a sex life. To do so, would be at great risk to your reputation. Intimacy allowed in unmarried relationships was limited and clearly regulated. Kissing was about the only thing a girl could do if she wanted to have a “good reputation.” If you were going steady in high school, pinned during college, or engaged after that, you might go a little further. But going “all the way” was verboten. Nevertheless, a lot of so-called trashy girls, did. But now, we’re into the 21st century, and you have to wonder. Where have all the bad girls gone?

Of course, the real reason for all the abstinence was the fear of pregnancy. If a bad girl did get pregnant, the young man responsible was expected to marry her. However, there was no DNA testing available. Consequently, If a man wanted to contest a paternity suit, all he had to do was take five of his buddies with him to court. That was the magic number. Five. If five males swore under oath that they, also, had sex with the pregnant girl, the man was off the hook. He didn’t have to marry her or pay child support. The assumption being that promiscuity precluded the ability to ascertain which man was the biological father.

In 1963, availability of oral contraceptives began to change all that. Girls could have sex without worrying so much about pregnancy. The pill was a far more reliable method of birth control than condoms. Then, ten years later , the most important thing happened: Roe Vs. Wade made it legal for women to get abortions. Finally, women were free to act like men always had. Call it free love, free sex, whatever. All of a sudden, girls and boys started living together even if they weren’t married. If a girl got pregnant and had a baby, it was because she wanted to, not because she had to. Now, 40% of all births are to single moms. There are no bad girls anymore.

Where have all the bad girls gone? Kamala Harris would have been considered one back in the fifties. — Where Have All The Bad Girls Gone? Back in the fifties, Kamala Harris would have been considered one of them.. The Times, They Are A Changing.

Which brings us around to the love life of Kamala Harris, the vice presidential candidate for the 2020 election. It’s public knowledge that she had a long time affair with Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco, when she was twenty-nine and he was sixty.. Fifty years ago, a woman who had a very public affair with a married man would have been considered one of those “bad girls.” There were names for women who did such things—four letter words ending with T. Certainly she would not have been seen as fit for the 2nd highest office in the United States. The Times , They Are A Changing..

Where have all the bad girls gone? I’m not sure there ever were any.

August 15, 2020August 15, 2020

ANOTHER BLOW TO RETAIL THERAPY

Our neighborhood mall provides air conditioned comfort for summer walkers, and warmth on sub zero winter days. But more, much more than that, it has been home to a discount department store that meets your needs and fulfills your desires. That’s all ending. In another blow to retail therapy, Stein Mart has just declared bankruptcy.

Blow to Retail Therapy: Stein Mart leaves us without retail therapy — Another Blow to Retail Therapy: Stein Mart declares bankruptcy

As a child growing up in the post depression years, the inside of a department store was like a field of dreams. With no internet or TV, entertainment was limited to the radio and movies. Even if you didn’t have a dime, the department store atmosphere was an escape from the humdrum world we lived in. The fragrances from the cosmetic counter, glamorous store clerks, latest fashions, and shiny new housewares promised a better world.. When I was old enough to earn my own money, it was delightful to wander from department to department, admiring all the shiny merchandise before I made a purchase.

Later, after I’d graduated from college and moved to Chicago, I was mesmerized by the glamour and sophistication of the Marshall Field Department store. I would go there after work and simply wander around, admiring the latest fashions. Since I could sew, I often copied a designer fashion for a fraction of the price. And the store windows! Especially at Christmas, they were full of wonder and beauty.

According to Forbes magazine, the appeal of department store was due to these five factors:

Inspiration
Immediate Gratification
Convenience
Taction (the idea of touching, feeling, trying products on, i.e., getting help or confidence in a purchase)
Experience (the memory or social delight of being somewhere)

As a parent, I enjoyed shopping in department stores for my children, even though I was often on a tight budget. But the one of the best things of being a grandparent was shopping with my granddaughters.. I loved taking them to the mall and buying them special things that maybe their parents thought were too extravagant. What a joy to see their faces light up as they bought a pretty dress or a pair of fancy boots.

The pandemic is merely hastening the beginning of the end. Everyone’s ordering online for products they can’t smell, feel, or really see. A picture is one dimensional. What looks good online might not suit you at all. Shopping on a computer doesn’t even come close to the fun of trying on clothes in a department store with a friend or relative along.

There are a couple of chains hanging on for dear life—Kohl’s and Tj Maxx, for example. But will they last forever? Sad to say, I’m afraid retail therapy is coming to a sad, slow end.

August 12, 2020August 12, 2020

LESSONS LEARNED FROM DERECHO

Derecho storm 2020 swept through our city on Monday night, downing trees and wreaking havoc with electric power lines. Some neighborhoods have more trees than others, so power outages are sporadic. We live on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by great big old trees. Usually a blessing, but not during this latest wind/rain storm that barreled across the Midwest at 90 miles per hour. We got through an 18 hour power outage, but as octogenarians, it was tough. Here are the lessons learned from Derecho.

Morning coffee is a necessity. But if the power’s off, you’re not going to have any. Unless, of course, you are a camper or someone who has the foresight to have a battery operated coffee maker. We don’t do any camping these days, so we were out of luck.

Lessons learned from Derecho. Have battery operated devices. — Lessons learned from Derecho. Remember the Scout motto: Be Prepared!

Learn how to open garage door by hand. Years ago, we sold a vintage Volkswagen convertible and spent the proceeds on an electric garage door. There’s just one problem. It doesn’t work in a power outage. We were told at the time how to open the door manually, but we forgot. Consequently, we weren’t able to get to our car to go searching for someplace selling coffee until after we could get in touch with the garage door company. This is after 10 o‘clock. Hey, there’s a little hand pull that unlocks the door. Then you push it up by hand, folks. Simple? Yes. How could we have been so dumb? By that time, we’d made an emergency call to our son who went scouting around the city and found us some coffee at a McDonalds. That’s pretty good coffee, by the way.

You may need some sleep aids. The power went off at 6:30 p.m. No TV, no internet. Fortunately, we had several flashlights and candles to light our path. We drank wine, ate some gifted chocolate candy, and talked for hours. I can’t remember much of our conversation. I guess we solved all the problems of the world.

By this time, we’re wired. Still waiting for power. Finally decided to go to bed and sleep though the whole thing. That didn’t work. We’re both waking every hour, wondering if /or when the power is going back on. Our next door neighbors said they had the same experience. Looking back, I think I would have taken a Benadryl or whatever you keep in your medicine cabinet to help you get to sleep when you’re upset.

Heating/cooling system stops working. In our case, it had been 90 degrees outside. After the storm, we opened the windows, but the house was still hot and stuffy. We got to wondering about a winter power outage. We have an all electric home. This power outage lasted 18 hours, but at least we were warm. What if it happens again in January? Again, we need some camping equipment. We’re going to buy some camping heaters ASAP, before we forget what it’s like when the power goes out. Might even invest in a coffee maker.

Ditch the damned diet. It’s hard to eat healthy at a time like this. You don’t want to keep opening and closing the refrigerator and freezer doors. Can’t make smoothies because the blender doesn’t work. No soup, because you can’t heat it. Grab some peanut butter and crackers. Cheese. Junk food, if you have it stashed in the cupboard. Maybe some chocolate bars. No restaurants for us during this pandemic. So, it’s drive-through hamburgers and French fries for dinner. Don’t weigh yourself when it’s over.

Remember the boy scout motto before the next Derecho: Be prepared!

August 10, 2020September 1, 2020

STOP! DON’T FEED THE GEESE

Our city is blessed with a beautiful park, and a pond which is home to many ducks and geese. Often, you’ll see parents and grandparents helping little kids feed the geese. They think it’s sweet, but it’s not. According to many wildlife and environmental organizations, the parks department should post signs : Stop! Don’t Feed The Geese

Stoop! Don't Feed the Geese. It's harmful to their health — Stop! Don’t Feed The Geese. Bread is bad for their health.

Bread is actually harmful to geese because it contains too many carbohydrates, and makes them fat. Bread, crackers, popcorn, and other high-carbohydrate foods are like junk food to birds. They provide very little nutritional content, and birds that fill up on them will not seek out other, more nutritious food. Furthermore, when bread gets wet it becomes sticky and can get lodged in the bird’s digestive system. As a result, impaction and fermentation may lead to death. This happens even when the bread is dry and stale.

While you may think that it’s kind to feed the geese, you can be jeopardizing their health, as well as polluting the environment. Wild geese have plenty of healthy food in their habitat. Let the geese find food on their own so that they and other animals in the environment can stay healthy.

The park is now overpopulated with geese. Little children walk among them, and the parents think it’s perfectly safe. Often, the geese stop traffic as they waddle across the across the road. They’re not in the least bit afraid of cars, dogs, or people. So, what’s wrong with this scenario? Geese who rely on humans for food lose their natural fear, and may become aggressive toward humans who do not feed them. Consequently, it’s not really safe to encourage a small child to wander into a flock of geese.

When humans regularly feed the geese, it can also cause the ponds to become over crowded, leaving weaker birds vulnerable. Overpopulation can increase the likelihood of disease outbreaks, such as botulism, duck plague, and aspergillosis, a fungal infection.

Talk to the maintenance personnel at the park, and they’ll tell you that it’s overrun with feces. And no, it’s not good for the grass, and doesn’t make for good fertilizer. Feeding geese bread will cause the birds to defecate more, leaving bacteria which helps spread disease.

Why does our city encourage this harmful practice? I suppose it has something to do with politics. Once, I complained about it on a local online chat room, and was lambasted as a mean spirited killjoy . Can’t you just see the headlines if the city council banned geese feeding in the park? All of them would be voted out of office for suggesting such an ordinance. We have a four term mayor, but if he proposed such a ban, he’d probably lose the next election. And so it continues.

I know it’s not going to happen. But I wish our city parks department would post signs near the water: PLEASE DON’T FEED THE GEESE.

LIVING WELL AFTER 80

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