I came across this neat site today. At least neat for me. It is www.lorettalynn.com I really love her. She embodies everything I love about women of country music. And, maybe I am dating myself but I don't care. I was able to hear her song " God Bless America Again " on this site. I think she is great because she took what she had and made something out of it.
I remember years and years ago I sold Tupperware and it was the end of the year here in Ohio. We were given an incentive to book " X " # of parties for the first week of January and if we did we would win this certain bowl that would never be sold and we got to keep all the money we earned!
Well, I met the challenge. I was the only one stupid enough to do it. I went out in snow and ice and extreme cold and held those parties. But the amazing thing was The hostesses didn't bail on me and the guests showed up.
I remember my manager saying to me She didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to do it. I answered her, " As Loretta Lynn would say, I hope I'm never smart enough to be stupid enough to listen to you".
A few years later I was pregnant with my 4th child having a very complicated pregnancy. I had won a trip to Headquarters for the annual convention. I was supposed to be on bedrest without bathroom priveledges. Well, as we had 2 nurses in our group, one being an Ob-Gyn nurse, I decided to go. After all, I had earned it. So, PJ and I went on a 300 mile trip to Massuchetts and Canadian Niagara Falls on a Traiways bus. Wasn't one of the smarter things I've done and unfortunately there is more in that column than there is the smart column.
We made it back in 6 days and I ended up being OK but I'd never do it again. However, I enjoyed my trip immensely. My youngest daughter decided to walk the day after I left. She was 13 months old. And, my husband reported we had an earthquake. I didn't believe him. Who ever heard of an earthquake in Cincinnati, Ohio? It turns out there is a fault from Maysville KY up into Ohio.
Anyway, part of the reason I earned that trip was they had a contest that for a 24 hour period you were supposed to book a party an hour. I called everyone I knew and surprising enough people got into the spirit and booked first for the middle of the night time periods. I think I forgot to say I was selling Stanley Home Products at that time.
I like to say I've sold everything but my body and that is because I know I wouldn't have made any money off it! All those quarters would have been heavy to carry around!
So, there again, I was too stupid to be smart enough to fail.

I was thinking of Dan this morning. Those who follow his blogs know he is ADD and suffers from depression.
I suffer from guiilt sometimes because I know I am partly resposible for the genetic predisposition to these disorders. He does also have the genes passed from his father's side too.
The poor kid he really got screwed. He deserved a much better mother than he ended up with.
I was 17 full of " spit and vinegar " and a lot of love; maybe a little common sense, which was good because his Dad had none. His Dad was extremely bright when it came to books and college stuff but I was street smart.
We didn't have two nickels to rub together. His Dad was a co-op student. I remember we bought his crib from a furniture store showroom that was discontinued as a last years model. How do cribs change from one year to the next?
Then we saved up and bought 2 dozen diapers, a set odiaper pins and 2 pair of rubber pants. My sister gave us a few receiving blankets and a big baby blanket. We got 2 sleeper pajamas. We were set.
We were proud parents. You would have thought he wa the only child ever born. My Dad once said his birth was akin to the second coming!
So, here he was with this mother who had nothing to offer but a whole lot of love.
I was so dumb back then.
When I was in the labor room and this was in the days when Dad's didn't play the active role they do now, I was asked if my baby was a boy did I want him circumcised? I didn't know what that was. I remembered they did it to Jesus and if it was good enough for Him it was good enough for my son. True story. After he was born when his Dad came down the hall to wait with me out in hall while they were doing it he explained what it was and I heard his little voice screaming I felt so awful but I figured it was his first lesson in sucking it up.
Then when I brought him home I was cleaning the area with vaseline and I guess I rubbed too hard and it caused him to bleed a little. I cried for the longest time because I knew I had sterilized him. I was so ashamed I didn't even tell his Dad for about a year. Then his Dad told me that isn't exactly how it works.
I was such a woman of the world at 17!
When he was about 3-4 months old we moved to a bigger apartment. # rooms instead of 2! And hardwood floors instead of linelouem. We were moving up.
There was a store across the railroad tracks I would go to. So I put Dan into his " punkin seat" and put it down into the stroller and it didn't have a tie thing anymore as I got it used so I used a peice of clothesline and tied the seat into the stroller.
Going across the railroad tracks I tilted the stroller back and sure'nuff, Dan came sliding out and fell out. Luckily, his head landed on my feet. I grabbed him up and was crying. I felt so awful. So from then on I used the stroller to transport groceries but not my son.
He had chronic ear infections. He stayed on antibiotics. In order for his Dad to get sleep I would pack him into his car seat and drive around for hours until he fell asleep. I had no license. In Ohio then ( maybe still ) you had to have your parents signature if you were under 18 even if you were married. My Dad wouldn't sign for me so I drove without a license. That's OK I had been doing since I was 14 anyway.
The car we had at the time was something else. It was an old Falcon. In order for the drivers side window to go up and down you adjusted it by adjusting the snowscraper in the door. It didn't have a door panel.
And the heat wasn't all that good so we put cardboard in the front of the radiator and kept blankets around us. We would scrape the inside of the windshield as well as the outside.
But our child wanted for nothing. He always came first.
It wasn't until many years later we were told that we would have qualified for welfare. We were so dumb we didn't know that.
I took in laundry and scrubbed it out in the bathtub as well as the diapers and our clothes. My hands would bleed. I would take in ironing and I hate to iron. That was before permanent press. You used to sprinkle the clothes with water and roll them up in dry cleaning bags. Plastic garbage bags hadn't been invented yet. Pampers were a new thing but it was a luxury I couldn't afford.
My younger sisters liked to come and stay with me for a few days at a time. I would have to feed them bicuits and gravy and beans, potatoes and cornbread. They thought that was the most amazing food. My mother never cooked like that.
I made them promise not to tell her or they would have something to say about how we couldn't take care of ourselves and we were doing fine, we thought.
I took in babysitting.
I delivered newspapers and phone books.
We did what we had to do to make ends meet. And we loved each other and our son.
More of my amazing stories to come later.