May 18th is . . .

[pikkewyntjie.livejournal.com]

[Okay, looks like LJ is back up for the moment. We'll see how this goes.]

Armed Forces Day



International Museum Day



No Dirty Dishes Day



Visit Your Relatives Day


I can't imagine putting a kid that young on an overnight train trip by herself!

http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/may.htm

I noticed the today is tag seems to have disappeared, FWIW.

Comments

[misstia]

no, today is tag is there! it's showing!!!

[pikkewyntjie.livejournal.com]

Whaaaaa? I see it there now. LJ has gotten me so discombobulated!

[noluck-boston.livejournal.com]

We never had a dish washer. Just my hands. My mom when ever possible used plastic disposable cups and paper plates for every meal.

I never knew anyone else here that did that.

[pikkewyntjie.livejournal.com]

We did! We didn't have a dishwasher either. My mom also had a lot of health problems, which was another reason we used paper plates so it was a little less work for my parents. I don't mind paper plates for cold food like sandwiches, but I hated them at dinner. Of course, the solution was for me to do the dishes more often, as I should have! :)

[hutchlover.livejournal.com]

Hurray for the Armed Forces of the World that strive to bring freedoms, safety, education, & technology to those who need whatever release from slavery, supression & war.

And God bless those families who support them.

I'm very proud of my Son-in-law, currently serving as a Naval medic in Afghanistan. And my daughter who is bravely serving at home, raising our grandson.

[pikkewyntjie.livejournal.com]

My thanks to your son-in-law and your family!

I believe that most of the problems in the armed forces these days stem from politics and poor leadership. Yes, there are a few bad seeds just like you would find in any group of people that large, but most military people I know are good folks who are doing their best in the middle of wars with questionable purposes and agendas and rules of engagement that are completely idiotic. Yes, these people are willing to be put in harm's way, but it's stupid policies and procedures that are causing a lot of that harm. Okay, that's my rant for the day. Maybe.

[pbrim.livejournal.com]

I'm not too sure how old the little girl is -- in some shots she looks 7 or 8, in others she could be 12 or 13. When we were 13, my cousin and I traveled alone by train from California to Texas, about 36 hours. We didn't even have a roomette, just out in coach and we didn't eat in the dining car, we brought a shoe box of sandwiches.

She lived in California, we lived in Texas, we went there every summer to visit relatives. The summer we were 13, I stayed in California when my family went home. Then, mid summer, we both went to Texas on the train and she spent the rest of the summer with us. Our Grandmother gave us a little notebook with pages of instructions, ranging from not going to the observation car after dark to putting a leg through our purse handles and hiding them under our blankets before we went to sleep, and I don't think we obeyed a single one. But we made it OK.

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine putting a kid that young on an overnight train trip by herself!

But they could - and did. The United States as they existed prior to The Sixties™ were a very different society. For one thing, dress codes were universal. As with Britain until later, who you were was how you dressed was how you were treated. This little girl in her expensive, stylish, fancy clothes was treated like a princess by the railroad and a careful eye was kept on her, and if anyone had molested her the cops would have defined “police brutality” for him… whereas an Okie girl of the same age, in cheap clothes, would be treated like dirt by everyone including the police. It wasn't “fair” - but it was universal.

Here's a Greyhound ad from 1951 that shows what I mean:


(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3488/4058899107_9e44faa052_o.jpg)

image 1995 x 2540 p


Every class of folk are characterized by how they dress as well as their personal appearance. Rawboned 'Jed Clampett' back there on the left is wearing a plain coat over a plaid shirt, instantly marking him as a country yokel, while crewcut Joe College on the right is wearing a bow tie - &c. The Southern California / Silicon Valley / post-Sixties fashion of millionaires wearing jeans and sweatshirts simply didn't exist then.

So yes, being affluent, female and white, that little girl was perfectly safe, and doubtless had a wonderful time.



(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2684/4146475506_aaedee2035_o.jpg)

[pikkewyntjie.livejournal.com]

Replying so post will unlock.

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

http://vintage-ads.livejournal.com/4421381.html?thread=40639237#t40639237

My reply got spam-filtered.

[pikkewyntjie.livejournal.com]

I've been told if I reply, it unlocks it so here goes.

[misstia]

why do i always crack up when livejournal considers their own site spam and 'suspicious'?

[pikkewyntjie.livejournal.com]

Well, they ought to know!

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

How the heck is the kid putting all those accidental capital letters in her note? It's been a long time since I've used a manual typewriter, but I recall pressing down the shift key took a bit of conscious effort.

[pikkewyntjie.livejournal.com]

That does seem weird, doesn't it? I could even see her accidentally pressing shift and a letter close to it like "a" at the same. What I also hated about the shift key is that my finger would slide off of it and get jammed under the key above it. Ouch! It was also the pinky finger that had to do it and that's a lot of weight to lift for one finger anyway.

Also, (judgmental parent mode switched to on) a girl that young should still be working on her fine motor skills and write the note by hand. She shouldn't be allowed to use the typewriter until she takes a typing class so she doesn't develop poor habits she will have to break later.

Of course, the same message today would be sent by the kid's own iPhone and read: sup gma ridin train lol cya! <3 :)

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

At least using a typewriter means that she wasn't able to put in any backwards letters.