Boys vs. Girls--Wally's birthday party

Before I had kids, I thought that each child was an individual, and didn't believe much in gender stereotypes in children. Little boys ran and jumped a lot because that's the kind of games they were taught. Little girls played with dolls because that was the kind of toys they were given. I thought that if all kids, regardless of gender, were exposed to the same things, they would have the same tendencies. Then I spent some time in the real world of kids and figured out that I was wrong. Possibly there were some differences between boys and girls. From time to time, I'm going to share some of my experiences that led me to this conclusion. However, so as to not bias you, I'm going to let you guess, who are the boys in the stories and who are the girls. 

Today's Story

 

Wally was in fifth grade and turning 11 years old. He had a pool party for his birthday at the local YMCA with both boys and girls. After an hour of swimming, the kids had pizza and soda. However, it took forever before the refreshments could be served. We were kept waiting by one group who were in the bathroom changing and making themselves presentable. Some of the other group changed out of their wet clothes, but many did not. When they finally sat down to eat, all of the boys sat at one end of the table and all of the girls sat at the other end. One group saw how much pizza they could get into their mouths at once and laughed as they punched each other. The other group talked about who they were “dating.”

You decide. Which were the boys and which were the girls?

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In case you had any doubts: The boys were the wet punchers and the girls were the well coiffed ones. It may have been peer pressure, but there was no mixing between the two. I found it very interesting that some of the boys that the girls talked about that they were dating were some of the boys that were at the party. However, the boys were clueless that they were dating anyone.

A Second Look--May 29, 2013

The Second Look this week yielded a few new flowers and lots of baby watching. The baby bluebirds have fledged but we have seen both mom and dad on top of the box feeding them. Also, we have seen a female cardinal feeding what appeared to be a young house finch. I'm not sure if that is common, but I don't think it is. I also saw a young bunny doing just what its mother told it to--holding very still. The bunny did not move even a whisker until I was practically on top of it. The kits from next door are out and about exploring in the neighborhood with their mother. However, the youngest babies we have seen are the freshly hatched sparrow eggs. Three hatched on Saturday and the other two hatched on Monday.

Here's what I found this week during a Second Look.

Rozanne geranium

A bluejay must have flown by.

Gerber Daisies--a gift from my buddy, Sarah.

Even though doves are very common, this is the first one we have seen at our feeder.

Not sure what this is, but it is a bulb that comes back every year.

The quiet young bunny.

A new color of iris blooming.

Unfortunately, this starling has started to visit the feeder. It can make a suet cake disappear overnight.

Although the Siberian Iris have faded in some beds, they are going strong in others.

Cardinal feeding the young finch.

Newborn sparrows. Notice on the left there are still two unhatched eggs. On the right, the eggs are gone and there are now five babies instead of three.

Leave It to Beaver--our aliases

Live and Learn-Toss and Turn: The beginning.
It's been two years since I started to blog. Most of you (all of you) were not with me in the beginning, so I'm going to go back and look at a few things from then. Today I'm talking about our blog names. 
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Leave it to Beaver or the Family We're Based On

You may have noticed that my family has the names of Ward, June, Wally, and Theodore. Some of you may have thought that those were our real names. However, some of you may have realized that those are our aliases based on names from the TV show,  Leave It to Beaver. Leave It to Beaver was a situation comedy that aired from 1957 to 1963 and is still in reruns today. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leave_It_to_Beaver

The show revolved around the Cleaver Family--Ward and June, the parents, and Wally and Theodore, (also known as the Beaver), their sons. The premise of the show was that Beaver and Wally got themselves into scrapes that frustrated their parents but from which ultimately everyone learned a lesson.

When I chose these aliases for my blog world, I didn't think much about the significance except there were the right number and gender in the Cleaver family, and they were from a show that made me smile when I thought about it.

In this post I had planned to talk about the details of the Cleaver family and compare and contrast them with my family. However that's too much work, so I'm just going to tell you a couple of things I found interesting about the making of the show that resonates with me.

--The makers of the show wanted to get gentle laughs. If anything got a really big laugh, they changed the script to make it more of a chuckle or smile. While I love a good belly laugh, the gentle laugh fits with my basic philosophy of life: Everything in moderation.

--June often wore pearls and heels when she was cooking and cleaning around the house. This is often made fun of because it was so unrealistic. However once I heard an interview with the actress that played June, and she explained why those wardrobe choices were made. Apparently the hollow at the bottom of her neck looked strange on film, so they had her wear pearls to fix the problem. Also, as the actors grew that played Wally and Beaver, they wanted her to be taller than them to still look authoritative as a parent. Thus, they had her put on heels. While you'll never find me cooking and cleaning in either pearls or heals, this reminds me that snap judgments are often wrong. Many times you just don't know all of the facts.

--Leave it to Beaver was the first TV show in which the kids were the main focus and not the parents. I don't have anything meaningful to say about this except that I find it interesting.

Another time, I may go into individual episodes, but for now, you know where our blog names came from.

But Wait There's More:

 If you read here very often and you've been paying attention, you may have noticed that several other major and minor Leave It to Beaver characters show up in my posts.

Memorial Day--Leo's Story

Today is Memorial Day in the US--the day we remember the men and women who died while serving their country in the armed services. There are many different stories about these people and I'm going to tell one of them here about Ward's grandfather, Leo.

Leo, 1941

Leo was the son of Polish immigrants and as a young man joined the army is 1929. He became part of the Army Engineer division. Later at a dance, he met a smart and pretty young girl, LeeAnn, and married her in 1932. They soon added a baby boy to the family and two years later they had another. After renting a small home, Leo built a house for his growing family. Being an enterprising young man, he used discarded lumber from a railroad yard for much of the house. (By the way, the house that he built still stands firm today.)

Leo's and LeeAnn's happy life was not affected much when World War II broke out in Europe in 1939. However, the Army started to send units to Iceland to build defensive fortifications to be ready just in case. At the end of 1941, his unit was assigned to go to Iceland to help in these preparations. While they were in New York waiting for their boat, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The US immediately declared war against Japan and her allies, including Germany. The US was officially in World War II.

Leo and his unit continued with their orders to go to Iceland, but they didn't make it. Their boat was attacked in the Atlantic by a German submarine and had to be repaired before it could go any further. During the month that the repairs took, the soldiers got to go back and spend time with their families. No one knew that this would be the last time they would see each other.

Their boat was repaired, and they were finally on their way. They made it to Iceland and completed their work. However, on the way back to the states, the boat was attacked by another German submarine and this time it sank. The seas were rough which made it difficult for many to survive. Most went down with the ship. First Leo was declared missing at sea and later he was declared killed in action. It wasn't until several years later that his family knew the details of what happened because much of the information was classified.

LeeAnn was suddenly left with two young boys to raise on her own. A few months later, the unthinkable happened and her younger son was killed in an accident. Despite the terrible losses, she kept going. With various jobs, hard work, and the help of family she carved out a good life for her and her son (Ward's father).

When I met LeeAnn, these events had happened over 40 years ago, but it was like they had happened yesterday for her. She talked about the surprise that Leo was going to bring her when he got home from Iceland and still wondered what it was going to be. She showed me some of the subflooring that Leo built where you could read writing from the railroad cars. She talked about how long it took for them to declare Leo dead and how that affected her benefits. But mostly she talked about the surprise her husband was going to bring her. She thought that it was going to be something to do with their tenth wedding anniversary that they were going to celebrate when he came home.

On this day and everyday, we remember Leo and the sacrifice he made for his country. We also want to remember all of the other men and women who have died in service and hope that their stories have been told. But most importantly, we want to thank each and everyone of them and their families. Because of their sacrifices, we can live a good life today.

Thankful Sunday...

I am thankful for this "Kind Hearted Woman" sign.

The story goes that hobos had a code of pictures to communicate with each other about what they found during their travels. A smiling cat, like the one above, denoted a kind hearted woman that might give you a bite to eat or a place to sleep for a night or two. I had never heard of this until a dear friend gave me this plaque many years ago. It was a great compliment. That dear friend is no longer with us, but this sign reminds me of her often. I am thankful for the memories this sign brings.