Shop, Summer, Mail

        Sometime between the birth of brother Corey and the arrival of my sister Kayla, my parents decided to finish the basement.  I moved from my upstairs bedroom to the coolness of the basement.  They also had a phone put in at the end of the hall next to the laundry room.

        I don't know how old I was, but suspect it was after I had graduated high school when I heard the phone ring.  Mom had already answered the upstairs phone by the time I got to it.  Out of curiosity, I went upstairs to inquire about the phone call.  Mom said that it was her visiting teaching partner and she'd be leaving pretty soon.

        She had just started watching the movie "The Shop Around the Corner" with Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart and asked me to continue watching it for her so that I could tell her what she had missed.  We had a VCR, I think I offered to record it.  Or perhaps the recorder wasn't working.  I don't remember why we didn't record it.  I allowed myself to get roped into watching. 

        "The Shop Around the Corner"  is an old movie from 1940.  It surprised me that mom had not seen it already it, as she certainly had watched a lot of old movies and I had suspected everything with Jimmy Stewart but either couldn't remember or had missed this one.

        The characters' names were Klara and Alfred.  They both worked at the curio shop (at least I think they did) and didn't seem pleasant toward one another - mostly her to him. During the course of the movie we learn that each of them has a penpal they are currently writing but it is done secretly so not as to reveal each other's identity.  Eventually Alfred learns that he and Klara are penpals to each other, but she doesn't learn the truth until toward the end of the movie.

        The entire time I was watching it, the plot just seemed so familiar to me.  I know that I had never seen "The Shop Around the Corner"  before, but I was able to predict what events would happen.  How is it that I knew?  I finally figured it out  just before my mom returned.

        She had been watching "In the Good Old Summertime" just a few weeks prior and had been telling me that Judy Garland's character had been receiving anonymous letters from Van Johnson's character, and she'd been writing to him - and he knew, but she didn't.  I really hadn't been interested nor do I recall ever seeing it the entire way through.  But apparently I had watched enough to see the similarities.   

        So when she returned home to ask me about it, I turned to her and said, "This is In the Good Old Summertime without music."

      

       "No"

        I don't know why she didn't want to believe me.  So I started pointing to different characters and described what their role was.

       "Okay, that girl, there (I did not know Margaret Sullivan by name) she and Jimmy Stewart have been corresponding using false names.  And he knows it, but she doesn't know it."

        She asked me two or three questions which I don't recall, and I answered accordingly.  Finally, she came up with a question that only applies to one movie, but not the other.

        "What about the violin (or other stringed instrument; I forget)"

        "What violin?"

        I can't even remember what explanation she gave of why it was important to the story.

        "There is no violin.  But there is a curio box"

        "Oh, this is not the same movie at all."

          According to IMDB.com, "In this musical remake of The Shop Around the Corner, feuding co-workers in a small music shop do not realize they are secret romantic pen pals." We did not have (or know about) IMDB back then and so I was unable to prove my point.

       Several years later, "You've Got Mail" was featured in Theatres.  Instead of Penpals, Kathleen Kelly (played by Meg Ryan) and Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) would email one another.  Rather than exist as co-workers, they were actually business rivals.  I love that movie.  I loved Meg Ryan's character.  Of the three, it is my favorite. 

commercial values (and disvalues)

It is not my intent to promote or dissuade my followers with the following ads.  They're just observations.

I really like CenturyLink commercials, particularly this one:

I think the editing of this commercial is cleverly done. As Jenna and I have experienced both city and county life, it is something that we can relate to on both sides.

There is one commercial that shows us the talents of a guy performing on a pogo stick as he does flips in the air and bounces back to a green stage, and another of a girl on the same green stage performing a song. She strums the ukulele and starts out singing, "Early in the morning . . ." and finishes the song with yodel before she takes a bow. Yodeling is not my favorite form of music - though I would put it above Opera and Rap.  I really do enjoy this girl's enthusiasm.  Reminds me of the girls that I once was, or Jenna is now (though not everybody has had the opportunity for knowing that)

I couldn't find either commercial on YouTube nor have the ability (know how) to record them myself.  But as I was searching I found this one that made me smile.

I do smile when the Geico commercial comes on though I don't agree with how it's promoted.  One boy (boy A) gets up to ask where are mom and dad.  The other boy (boy B) says they left a note in which the first boy (A) responds that he is going to take a nap and Boy B says, "Dude, you just got up"  That part makes me laugh . . .  but the fact that their parents are on motorcycles riding the country without them - as though getting away from the boys is better than spending time with them . . . the way it's portrayed seems to bother me.

Gosh, wouldn't it be great to have all the money that Geico appears to have as it is able to introduce new commercials weekly (if not daily)

And don't even get me started on Dish in which having 88 channels of still nothing to watch has got to better than encouraging your child's imagination.  Earlier commercials promote the wonderful feature of having the hopper because you can now record up to six channels at once.  Never in my life have I had a problem of having to make the choice from six programs at once.  Once in a while there will actually be two programs on at the same time, but it is rare when I can even find one program that I would like to watch.  Most cable stations will give you two months of airing the same program again and again so that you have ample time to watch it if you'd like.  And who has time to watch all those recorded programs anyway?

I like the message of the Subaru commercials that emphasize the importance of the child's life as opposed to the car itself. 

Currently this is Jenna's most favorite commercial:

Mine is the Heinz commercial where the dachshunds are dressed like hotdogs and running toward people dressed as condiments.

Not Bad for Under Two Years

          When I was 7th grade, the mandatory history class focused on American history and Utah history.  We had first did a brief study on Europe and the reasons given for explorers making their way to the American continent. 

I don't recall a lot on either Revolutionary or Civil Wars though I'm certain that each was mentioned.  We cruise through Utah history as 95% of the class had been raised in the LDS church and obviously knew more about Utah's history than the text book - which had Joseph Smith martyred by hanging - in Utah.  Joseph Smith was not hung nor did he live long enough to see the Church move toward the Utah territory. 

          That is just one example that I remember.  The instructor was not LDS, but he could see that the class wasn't going to budge - weather right or wrong. I think we ended up skipping three chapters.  It was toward the end of the year anyway.  So how much of what we had already learned had even been accurate?  The entire book could have been done on speculation without resources to back up the so called information.

          Jenna's social studies have been focusing on pyramids and castles????? That's all well and good for those of us who live abroad, but wouldn't it actually be more useful and beneficial to start with your own state and country before expanding into places you might not actually ever get to.  I'm almost 55 years old.  The only castle that I've seen is the one Walt Disney had built for Disneyland.  It doesn't fit the history of the castles that Jenna has been learning about.

          We live in Oregon now.  I want to know about Oregon, specifically Douglas County.  I want to know the history of the things that are tangible to me - not the man-made architectures that I may never see.  All history is important - but not all are priorities - not for me anyway.  I've been trying to understand this county ever since we got here.

          The other day I was visiting with my friend Carolyn (mentioned in this post) and she showed me a Douglas County visitors guide (2017) that had come with the latest edition of the newspaper she recieves (I'm guessing Sunday's edition of the News Review)

         I'm aware that there are many who may live in a state or country all of their lives and not see any tourist attractions.  I am proud to say that I have seen (or are at least familiar with) more than half of what is considered Douglas County's top 10. 

          Before we were fully unpacked, one of the first things that we looked into was getting library cards. Roland found a video of the Roseburg Blast.  Wow!  Very informative.  It was mind blowing, heart breaking . . . very well done, I thought.  Certainly a lot more informative and more impressive than the Douglas Museum of History and Natural History.  After having visited many museums in Salt Lake City, the Douglas Museum was actually quite disappointing.  In this case, I am happy to have watched the video first.

published August 7, 1959

           I'd taken pictures of the lumber yards shortly after we moved here.  Some of these I've already posted back in 2015.

taken in Riddle

Glendale

           Even Myrtle Creek had once thrived on lumber dependency.  See here and here

from the Myrtle Creeks Day Parade July 2015

This was the picture in the News Review brochure

Ireland Trucking participates in July and December parades

           I had only learned about the owls earlier this month.

           Roseburg isn't always windy, but does seem to be windier than myrtle creek.  Just this past Saturday we had looked sheds before moving to inside the store and finding plastic owls and other finds for our yard and house.  The wind was howling something fierce and it felt like the tin sheds would rip out and blow away.

          I have been to Crater Lake only once.  This picture was taken in September when my brother Corey, came to visit.

taken September 2015

          I have not heard of Little River Rapids.  I have pictures of both north and south Umpqua rivers.  Mostly South - as the Umpqua bridge in these photos takes you from I5 ramp 108 to downtown Myrtle Creek

North Umpqua September 2015

North Umpqua July 2016

South Umpqua from railroad tracks of 4th St. January 2017

North Umpqua July 2016

South Umpqua November 2015

South Umpqua January 2017

South Umpqua November 2015

South Umpqua March 2017

         

          I have not been to Yoncalla.  I am familiar with its name and location on the map

  

now called Yoncalla High; taken from web

          I think we had gone to Drain when we were looking at houses.  I would have guessed "Douglas High" would have been in Roseburg

          I am so NOT into sports. 

scanned from News Review's Visitor's Guide 2017

          In addition to the 10 things to know were articles that featured great parks to visit, spectacular waterfalls (I had only been to Watson)

Watson falls from Corey's photos

and music.

Also a little blurb on Diamond Lake.  Corey and I stopped by to take pictures when he was here in September 2015.

I cropped this from one I had taken at Diamond Lake

Corey took this one of me

          There was also an article that featured Historic Oakland a city north of Roseburg. 

We missed the 2016 event, but I will be certain to put this on my agenda for 2018. 

Looks fun.