Stuff and nonsense

Yes I volunteered many times. My first volunteer job was in Pennypack in the mid 50's.  They had a clinic there that was open on Wednesdays.  I was the receptionist. Parents could bring their children in and get vaccinations and regular check ups.  I was a teenager and I worked there one day a week.  I worked as S.S. Kresge's on weekends.  I enjoyed both. The next volunteer job was in Hanover Park in a similar position. Cook County called it a well baby clinic.  My kids were all in school.  I did that for about a year.  Then they discontinued the clinic. The next voluteer job was at the Hanover Park library.  It was an all volunteer staff.  My friend Audrey got me into that. One day a week I was a regular librarian (like Marion Peru in the Music Man)  I really enjoyed it.  They ran a referendum to open a real library and it passed.  That was the end of that. The next volunteer stint was with the Boy Scouts of Ameri...

Many years ago I dreamt of having a house with it's own library.  I even designed one.  Three stories, the library took up the whole second floor. I think I was twelve. I had my first library card when I was about nine or ten.  My sister and I used to take the street car to the Holmesburg library.  Yes in the late 1940-'s, two little girls could ride the trolley safely by themselves.  The first books I remember checking out were about race horses: Man Of War and Citation.  Hers were about dogs by Albert Payson Terhune.  We went to public school for the first few years.  I started Catholic school in the fifth grade, my sister was in 4th grade.  The nuns always gave us a list of "preferred" reading over the summer.  Then we would need to do a report of some sort on what we had read.  One summer I was into historical novels.  One of the book's I read was Scaramouche.  The nun gave me a hard time about that one.  Didn't...

For some reason, last night STARS decided to run A Christmas Carol.  The semi-animated version starring Jim Carey.  There is another word for the format, but I don't remember it.  I'm not a fan of Jim Carey.  His version of A Christmas Carol is the darkest I've ever seen. I am a fan of Charles Dickens.  I love his opening sentences.  The version of A Christmas Carol that I read has "To begin with Marley was dead.  Marley was as dead as a doornail." Ebeneezer Scrooge is a role that actors love or else there wouldn't be so many variations on the theme: from Alistair Sim to Bill Murray, Susan Lucci and Kelsey Grammer and at least 25 others. Even Disney got in a Scrooge movie once: MICKEY"S Christmas Carol.  I believe Mickey played Bob Cratchit.  There is a website that ranks all the Ebeneezer Scrooge portrayals, but they don't include the Mickey Mouse version. My favorite is the 1951 version with Alistair Sim.  My least  favorite...

The 2020 census Early in March, every address received a notice about the census. Printed in all Caps on the envelope it says" YOUR REPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW" The letter begins "This is your invitation to respond to the 2020 census."  "Respond by April 1." Not a problem, I have plenty of time. A few weeks later came a reminder.  Included in that text was a line that said "if we do not receive you response online, we will mail a paper questionnaire to your address in a few weeks." Okay, I'll wait for the paper version.   Then Covid-19 became a problem. My computer went down and I couldn't get online.  We called AT&T for the same problem three days in a row. Four days later we were under quarantine.   They finally sent out a technician, who fixed it by installing new stuff.  Our bill went up $50.00.  But the last thing on my mind was the census. Today is April 1.  No paper version but a blue notice.  Now it's "He...