Happy Memorial Day

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY...and since today is a day about memories, admiration, and respect for our veterans and for all those that have made a difference in our lives, past or present, I wanted to reshare a post my mother wrote years ago which is fitting for this day.  It is entitled, "And Long May She Wave."  Be safe, be well, and remember to enjoy your day!

@Jim Terry, taken at San Francisco National Cemetery

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

Remember When...by Jim Terry

Ok, so who is tired of staying at home due to this thing they call a shelter-in-place or quarantine?  And I’m definitely not trying to minimize the effect that COVID-19 has had on people’s lives and our economies worldwide, but I have to admit it’s beginning to wear on me a bit. I do feel very fortunate that I have, right across the street, a trail that leads up the mountain to get out and hike, “social distance “ and remain sane in the pandemic we are currently experiencing.  Exercise, fresh air, and sunlight do the body, and the mind, good.  And while I am on these hikes, it gives me a chance to catch up on my photography, refocus myself and to think of and ask myself questions like…”Remember when?” 

Remember when gasoline, and I hate to say it as it will date me, was $.89 a gallon?  I specifically remember this from my high school days because I was helping to pay for my own gas. 

My wage at the time being a “fry boy” at a local fast-food chain, Arctic Circle, was a whopping $4.25 an hour. So for one who is mathematically inclined and being a bit frugal with my money over the years, I then came to the conclusion that one gallon of gasoline equated to 25% of my income after taxes of course. And that didn’t include my “huge” car payment that was $125.15 or my insurance, which was a bit higher than that. 

Remember when music was downright good?  And when I say that you need to know that I am definitely an 80ties boy.  A time when auto-tune was not an option to make an artist sound better than what they are.  When what you heard is what you got…and, if I might add, it was GOOD! 

When big hair, bandanas, leg warmers, stretch pants, spandex, parachute pants, and shoulder pads ruled the fashion of the day…”Gnarly!”  When terms like Preppies, Break-dancers, Jocks, Valley Girls, Nerds, Skaters, Hoods, Losers, Wavers, and Goths controlled the “vocab” of those that might also say, “Totally tubular” or “Gag me with a spoon.”

Remember when you had your first crush and how that made you feel?  When that someone either glanced at you with a smile or said, “Hello,” for the first time?

Remember when you, with the help of a parent, sibling, or friend, were able to ride your first bike without training wheels? The elation and excitement I personally experienced that day is something I will always cherish and remember from my childhood memories.

Remember when you were able to walk across that stage and accept your first, second, or, with some of my acquaintances and friends, your third diploma? And remember how that made you feel accomplished, talented, and capable all at the same time?

And with all of these “remember when” memories, I want to ask you do you remember when your mother held your hand for the first time? Do you remember when your mother made all of those meals for you over the years without complaint, grievance, or grumble? Do you remember when your mother kissed your first “owie” better and how that made it so much better? Do you remember?

So on this day of memories or “remember when” I will advise you to “REMEMBER” your mother on Mother’s Day.  Remember her and honor her for all of the “remember whens” that I know she was a part of. Remember when she stayed up and the countless hours of worrying when we were out too late? Remember when she provided unconditional love in spite of our faults, blunders, and errors throughout our lifetime? Remember when she provided the taxi service to all of our dance, sport or music lessons? Remember when you found her that day, in her room crying because she felt like she might not be doing the best job she can as a mother? Remember when…  

My beautiful mother, Marlene.

And to honor my mother who started this blog and who is no longer here with us, I will remember when you helped me with my homework. I will remember when you made the “boogeyman” go away. I will remember when you comforted me in my sadness. I will remember when I realized how much of an influence you had been in my life and always will be. I will remember when you jokingly told me, several times in my life, to, “Live long and prosper.” And even though we all know of your love of Star Trek through your previous blogs and this phrase now being a bit of a cliché, I know now that it also was meant with real intent and love. Lastly, and this one is not a "remember when" but a simple, “I will always remember you!  “I love and miss you, Mom, with all of my heart!”  

And for all of those reading today, please contemplate and think about this last quote and statement. With all of the memories, the laughs, the tears, and the happiness that is created when you remember when, always realize that... "Behind all your stories is your mother's story, because hers is where yours begins." ~Mitch Albom.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL THE MOTHERS OUT THERE!!!

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

"LEARN"...by Jim Terry

And SO IT IS HAPPENING…the time in my life where the sad reality of life is starting to hit me smack dab in the middle of my face. Just the other day I received an interesting piece of mail in my mailbox.  It was something I had never EVER received before, or at least hoped it would NOT have happened so soon, but here it is.  It was a piece of mail addressed to “Mr. James Terry” and it was sent from an organization known as the “AARP.”  The “American Association of Retired Persons.”  All I remember or knew about this organization is that it was for "old" people. 

When I was younger, it was my mother’s response when she received the same piece of mail on the twilight of her 50^th birthday that associated and engrained the term "old" with AARP for me. It was a response that will go down in history as a true and comical response from a lady who rarely swore but who was, at that moment, unconstrained by how she truly felt. Her response...“Damn, I’m old!” In thinking about my mother’s response and receiving that thought-provoking piece of mail, I personally had to stop and evaluate more of what is going on in my life as I approach traveling around the sun for my 50^th time.   

What once was a full head of hair is slowly thinning and greying. In thinking ahead and trying to secure a good retirement income, I figured in another 10-15 years that I can at least make use of this area on my body if my hair continues to thin…I have already contacted NASA to see if they might be interested or in need of a reflective orb in order to communicate with the satellites or the astronauts in space.  Their response…" to be determined!”

The term crow’s feet are starting to become a reality at the corners of my eyes and if all that wasn’t bad enough, I also got my first pair of reading glasses within the last two years. (sigh)…I had to ask myself, ”So this is 50 huh?”

And other things are happening too. Have you ever heard of the term “Butter Fingers?”  Nearly everything I touch now seems to somehow magically slip from my finger’s grasp and, just like in the movies and in slow motion, fall to the floor. As I was cleaning up the kitchen about a week after receiving my welcome to AARP (retirement) notice, I dropped a mug I received for my 49^th birthday into the sink and broke the handle off. On the mug, it says, “ It’s a crime to look this good at 49!” 

“Is it really?” I said in my internal monologue with a quizzical look on my face.  “And what is to come with more years under my belt?”

And speaking of belts, who, that is in my same age range or older, has noticed that you don’t even have to eat anymore and can still gain weight? A simple glance of a piece of food, especially the sweet stuff, will add another inch or two to any given area on my body.  This then allows the eternal enemy, Gravity, to form “love handles,” “double chins” and anything that might resemble the Michelin or the Stay Puff Marshmallow man.

Whoever said, “These are your golden years,” must be a true optimist. Fifty, to me, feels more like a scene in the movie Dumb and Dumber.  The two main characters, played by Jim Carrey (Lloyd) and Jeff Daniels (Harry), are trying to drive to Aspen, Colorado.  They were doing this in order to return a briefcase to a lady that Lloyd has a crush on after she left it in the limo he was driving.  Thinking they are almost there and after a wrong turn by Lloyd who drove through the night, they find themselves not in Colorado but on a huge flat open plain in the middle of Nebraska.  

As the sun begins to come up and thinking they would be seeing mountains at this point Harry states, “Huh, I expected the rocky mountains to be a little rockier than this.”

Lloyd then replies, “I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver is full of sh**, man.”

As I enter the great plains of my 50ties I too want to ask, “Where are my mountains John Denver?"  Why is what I expected the golden years to be all the sudden appear to be not so golden?  And why in all of those commercials that show retirees with perfectly white, straight teeth like in AARP, Ensure nutritional shakes and Activia yogurt commercials not true to form?  

I want to see the lifts that get the "old people" off of the couch and out of their beds and onto the bikes they are riding on in that commercial. I also want to know which denture adhesive they are using to make their teeth not fall out as they hit that slight bump in the road while riding that bike. And what person, IN THEIR RIGHT MIND, is going to be smiling ear to ear while wearing a depend undergarment? 😂

So with Spring finally here and what will be deemed an "unforgettable" birthday tomorrow due to an unprecedented virus, COVID-19, that is affecting us all, I was also hoping to bring a bit of laughter, hope and wisdom with today’s blog. I hope I have done that and want to end with one more thought.

I always used to make fun of those “corny” signs in hobby shops and at craft fairs that would say, and in no particular order, “laugh, live and love.”  Isn’t it funny that at forty-nine and three hundred and sixty-four days old😏😁😉, I find that ALL of those words are applicable to me? I find that LAUGHTER brings me a better state of mind, which in turn brings more happiness and better health. Living my life in more happiness,  then allows me to LIVE my life more fully.  And if I am living my life more fully, I then can LOVE others and myself more completely.  It makes sense, doesn’t it? 

© background; Amazon.com

So next time you are at a craft fair, look for that lowly stand in the corner with a fifty-year-old man sitting there with new “corny” signs to sell.  Please come on by and say, “Hi.” Those “corny” signs I will be selling will definitely include “Laugh, Live, and Love” on them but may also include at least one other “L” word.  “Learn” to laugh. “Learn” to live. And “learn” to love.  "LEARN!!!" 

Oh and just so you know, I "LEARNED" how to throw a piece of mail, the aforementioned piece I spoke of, in the trash rather quickly. Hey, I still have nineteen hours left before I am officially...OLD! 😊

HAPPY SPRING!!!

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well, it's official!!! Another year has come and gone in a flash. What a great time to start anew.  We hope the new year is full of success, happiness, being gratified, feeling loved and accomplishments. 

I would like to share a quick quote with you the really makes a lot of sense and just may help you reach all of your new year's resolutions.  The author is unknown but really should be recognized for what an impact this statement can make..."Be so busy loving your life that you have no time for hate, regret or fear." 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020!!!

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

"Run, Don't Walk"...by Jim Terry

Just last month my brother, Ryan, posted a wonderful tribute to my sister Lora for her birthday on our “secret” family page. It not only included a paragraph filled with sweet sentiments of memories past regarding why she is so special to him and to our family but also included a photo. It was a photo of when she was young. The photo also included my sister Angie and myself. Since I was so young in this photograph, I had to ask my mother, before she passed, what the occasion was. Apparently, it was taken during the Christmas season when my sister, Lora, got her favorite racecar she always wanted. As you can see in the image, she is also sporting her favorite crash helmet at the time. It also portrays the oldest sister’s love for her younger siblings and expresses some pretty happy and content kids. As I continued to look at that photo, it also brought up some great memories of Christmas’ past.

One of the first things I remembered from my past Christmas’ was the anticipation of Christmas morning. Didn’t time seem to just entirely slow down or stop on Christmas Eve when we were young? Oh, how I wished I could speed time up for that next morning to arrive. Seconds turned into hours and hours turned into eternity during that night.  I recognized it was a bad situation for me when I would outlast the constellations.  What are the constellations you might ask?  Well, as a young boy, I also wanted to be an astronaut and had those plastic glow-in-the-dark stars that were carefully placed on the ceiling in my bedroom to resemble the heavens above. Once the light was turned off, they generally would glow for about an hour. I rarely remember not falling to sleep before they would stop glowing. However, on Christmas Eve, I recollect having to turn on my light two or three times during that night in order to recharge my stars so that they might glow once again until I would finally have “visions of sugar plums" dancing in my head.

You know that old rule, “walk, don’t run?” Well when the next morning would arrive, I remember my siblings and myself, never walking, always running to see what Santa had delivered in the wee hours of the morning. I can picture it now as we entered the living room. 

First, there was always the lingering faint smell of cinnamon and apple potpourri in the air that had been simmering on the stove from the night before. The peaceful radiance from the lights on the carefully decorated Christmas tree, that we all decorated together as a family, helped with the ambiance of the setting that we would experience. The stockings that were hung by the “chimney with care” were now filled and carefully placed next to the other items that Santa had brought us regardless if we were “naughty or nice.” The faint flickering light from the fire being lit and the warmth it provided…The beautifully wrapped gifts to each other under the tree…The fun…The laughter…The Joy…The happiness…(sigh).

From Left to Right...Jim, Lora and Angie ~1971

If I could go back in time and witness this again, even if it might be with the Ghost of Christmas Past, I would do it. This time though, I know my attention would be directed differently. Instead of focusing on the gifts I would receive from Santa, I would now focus on and notice the reaction of my father who had worked so hard to provide for his family. I would also focus on my mother, who wrapped, sewed, cleaned, cooked and made everything so special during the holiday season.  I would also direct my attention to my grandmother Hattie, who, in her quiet demeanor, would sit in the corner experiencing the joy of the younger generation's delight until it was her turn to open her gifts. And lastly, I would also focus on my siblings so that I might experience and relive the joy and happiness that we all had together knowing we were family.

As they say, "time flies," and since Christmas is here and you still have time to get off of Santa’s “naughty list” for next year, I would recommend being bad and breaking that old rule I mentioned before.  My Christmas wish for you...“RUN, DON’T WALK," to be by your family’s side or by those you care about so that you can make those memories that will last a lifetime.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

WISHING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY PEACE AND HAPPINESS DURING THIS HOLIDAY SEASON. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! 

♦ Hope you'll let us share your stories and photos here at our residence "In a Nutshell." Email us at nutshellstories@gmail.com.  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Wishing you a HAPPY and SAFE HALLOWEEN!