The Bear

 Here is a less than flattering poem I had written about a substitute teacher that I had only heard about but had never encountered until my junior year.  She reminded me of a school marm from the turn of the century - and I don't mean this century.  Subs have it hard because there is always at least one student who acts up and ruins it for the rest of the class.   Today's feature:

The Bear

If you painted her last name

You’d have a picture of a “Bear”

Or the ancient braud herself

The decrepit lady with blue hair   

 

We see the old grouch

Come back year after year

Why, this lady is so old

She went to school with Shakespeare

 

She was born to be a teacher

She knew that from the start

And after years of teaching

She bought a genuine handcart.   

 

She taught [near] little reservoirs

And on the Mississippi plain

One of her students was Samuel Clemens

Know to us a Mark Twain.

 

When she came to Jordon District

Not knowing how we’d feel

She traded in her ragged handcart

For a second-hand automobile

 

She never had a date

Nor did she ever kiss

Nor did she ever get proposed to

For her name is still “Miss”

 

But if we’re nice to her

She’ll be nice to us

But if we’re obnoxious

She’ll put up a fuss

 

Jordon School district had problems

Added on, we could tell

When the old lady came here

With a name that fit her well.

 

Perhaps It Was a Conspiracy Theory

                 I often wonder if Trump didn’t pay off the Chinese (or make another hollow promise to pay) to create a virus that would infect the entire planet (villain proof of course) knowing that it would eventually make its way to the U.S. before elections took place.  Trump would pronounce himself to continue as president and not hold an election until after the virus had disappeared.  What a JERK!  The absolute worst president in American history.  Should NOT be worthy of the title president.  Should be the part of history that gets erased.  Remove his name from the title.  He’s a villain!  Presidents should not be villains!

        Donald Trump and Joe Biden are three and a half years apart.  Three years!  Not three decades.  Pharisees act like they’re decades apart and Trump has a much younger and fresher mind.  He is quite juvenile and bratty – I’ll give him that.  Except that he’ll end up in jail for tax fraud same as Al Capone.  Tax fraud is generally not a juvenile problem.  OMG.  We cannot do another four years under his (lack of) leadership.  This country is already in terrible condition.  No other country wants to deal with us!  Can you blame them?  What a bunch of spoiled babies!  Sadly Trump and his posse are not what make up the majority of values and decency that others would like to bring back to this continent.  Why can’t the IRS dump Trump in jail right now?

        Kudos to those willing to run against Donald Trump not so much because they want to be in that position but just to succeed in getting Trump out.  He already made it clear that he won't be leaving gracefully (was there ever any doubt?) God bless us all.  Our future depends on it.

The Things We Learn

          In these two posts (here and here) I mentioned how much Jenna loves learning about her family members. Until we had played Chatter Matters, she hadn't known that Roland used to play the trombone - or anything about his childhood really.  Usually it's just her and I, but she did manage to rope Roland into playing with us between conference.  After she won the game, we continued to go through the "family room" and "my room" cards so that Jenna could know Roland a little better. It reminded me of when my sibs and I would force the Ungame questions upon my dad.

          My parents actually did three listed on the card - hiking was more of a seasonal activity  or annual thing - and it was usually a part of either a daytip or full vacation so the specific places we hiked were Yellowstone National Park or Timpanogos Cave in American Fork, Utah.

           I don't know that shopping was ever restricted to just the weekend.  Movies also occurred on days other than the weekend.  I chose number one for myself as they took us to church which falls on the weekend.  By process of elimination, Jenna and I guessed that Roland's family would go shopping choosing from just those four.  Church was definitely out and they didn't seem like they'd be much for hiking. His parents (well his dad in particular) liked to have drinking parties - but that wasn't on the card.

          I remember going to the drive-in theatres when I was younger.  Mom and Dad had taken Patrick and I to one drive-in theatre called the Woodland.  The walls that surrounded the theatre were decorated in colored bubbles - like on a loaf of Wonder bread - but with more colors. 

There was a playground area for children to play before the movie started or even during intermission (because there was usually a double feature or sometimes movies that actually had an intermission; but we may have been asleep by then. 

          I also remember going to different movie theatres with my family both as a child and an adult;  Roland says the one and only time he'd ever gone to the movies with his parents is when he was an adult and had paid for all three of them to see "Kelly's Heroes"

 

Not all multiple choice, but once again Jenna and I had both predicted that Roland would answer "Watching TV".  I don't remember actually ever sitting down to watch TV as a family - unless it was something like "The Wonderful World of Disney" 


Mostly we played games or talked.  I don't know any families who read together.  Unless it's the scriptures - which I don't imagine would amount for "more" time spent.

          I don't know that Roland's family watched TV together either.  It was long before cable, and the TV offered only three stations.  There were no remotes and so the kids had to act as the remote and turn the station to whatever dad wanted to watch. 

       We learned that his father had only a fourth grade education and would often get drunk and come home and line up his children and say, "Your mother and I don't owe you a living".  I think my mom's dad may have been that way.  She said she was scared of him and when he would get drunk he would smack her mom around.  She was determined to give her children a  family environment different from the one in which she had been raised. 

         Roland's family didn't believe in families like mine - nor did I have any clue that families like his existed.  As I grew up, I realized that my family was not the norm. when we had all worked for Snelgrove's, for example, (each of us having worked there except for my dad) we would take the change out of our pockets and Kayla's would remain on the kitchen table for a few days.  None of the rest of us would take it as we knew it did not belong to us.  The money would have been gone in a heartbeat with many other families. The older I get, the more unrealistic my family seems.  That's too bad. 

          I don't know about Roland's side, and I don't believe he knows either.  But he counts Uncle Ted as family, and so with this question we all answer Uncle Ted - who celebrated his 100th birthday in February (I don't know why I didn't post about it to my blog; I did to facebook)

          My parents met at a Church dance.  I was surprised to learn that Roland's parents had met at a dance also.  He said his dad had been going with another girl at the time but had told his mom that someday he was going to marry her.  I think she just laughed it off - probably rolled her eyes as I did when Roland proposed to me.

          It had surprised us all when Roland said his favorite movie was/is "Oh, God, you Devil"  He received it for Christmas one year because he had said it was his favorite.  I have only seen him watch it one time.

          It's great how some memories will trigger others.  I think these questions are great conversation starters and I am happy that Jenna prefers this interaction over spending time on electronic devices.

Presidential Trivia

(this post is about presidents past and NOT the current election)

         

        Jenna and a classmate are going to give an assigned PowerPoint this week.  I haven't seen any of it as it was a project they worked on it at school.  The first PowerPoint that I remember Jenna doing for her current school was a presentation on one of our former presidents.

        Before she had been assigned this task, I had told her that if ever she was to do a report on an American President, to pick either William Henry Harrison or Gerald Ford as William Henry Harrison was Pres. for only one month and Gerald Ford is the only President that hadn't been voted to be president (or vice-president) by the public.  I just like interesting facts that set apart from others.  But I suppose they all have something interesting about them.

        She did get an opportunity to do a power-point on a president, but not totally of her choosing.  Presidents' names were written on a paper and placed in a hat or box.  Students could draw two and make a choice between the two names drawn. 

        She came home one day and asked what I knew about  Martin Van Buren.  Not much.  I know that he was president during the time when the members of the church were being harassed in Missouri and Joseph Smith went to the white house to talk to the president and was not impressed with Martin Van Buren and decided that he, himself, would run for president.

        Jenna thought that was a cool story and wanted to use it, but the story has more to do with the Prophet Joseph Smith rather than the  Van Buren - except to say that Van Buren was arrogant and did not want to interfere with Boggs order of extermination as elections were coming up and he did not wish to lose the vote in Missouri. (Stevenson, 2013)

        Though there are some names that stand out for us more than others, there is tons of information about each of our past presidents if we but look.

Abraham Lincoln was the tallest president while James Monroe was the shortest. (Fun Facts, 2003)

Teddy Roosevelt was the youngest President to take office (at age 42) while Ronald Reagan was the oldest (age 69) Taft was the largest president and had to have a custom made tub.

Franklin D. Roosevelt served more terms than any other president.  Grover Cleveland was President twice (#22 and #24)

James Buchanan was the only president to be single throughout his term.  According to the History Channel, Cleveland is the only president to have his wedding ceremony in the White House (Siese, 2015)

though John Tyler was the first to marry while in office

For more fun facts and scandal, you can visit the following (or click on cite dates in post)

AMERICAN HISTORY: Presidential Trivia, Fun Facts and Firsts. (2003). Retrieved from Legends of America: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-presidenttrivia.html

Siese, A. (2015, June 3). These 2 Single U.S. Presidents In History Prove There's Precedent For Candidate Lindsey Graham's Bachelor Status. Retrieved from Bustle: https://www.bustle.com/articles/87904-these-2-single-us-presidents-in-history-prove-theres-precedent-for-candidate-lindsey-grahams-bachelor-status

Stevenson, F. (2013, May 20). Top scandals and controversies of each United States president. Retrieved from Deseret News: http://www.deseretnews.com/top/1512/8/Top-scandals-and-controversies-of-each-United-States-president.html