School Days

I've been watching this TV show called "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader".  It has made me try to remember what I learned in first, second, third, fourth, and fifth grade.  I definitely didn't learn some of
the things they question you about on that show.  Some of those things I didn't even learn in high school.
They must be teaching a lot of things today they did't teach in the fortys.  Of course back then we didn't have pre-school or kindergarden.  I think the main aim of first grade was to teach you the alphabet and the numbers.  We started out reading in a primer and I can't remember if we went farther than that in first grade.
We didn't learn any geography or history until seventh and eighth grades.

I really think the main aim in grade school back then was "reading, writing, and arithmetic", and sometimes it was taught by the tune of a hicory stick as the old ryme goes.  The grade school I went to had two rooms,
although most schools back then were one room.  They were called the little room and the big room because the little kids were in the little room and the big kids were in the big room.  When I was in eighth grade our teacher had a large stick, he called a friend.  It was on the wall on top of a picture and sometimes he used it 
but not for discipline.  If you missed over so many problems in arithmetic or so many words in spelling there were so many wacks with that friend.  In this day and age that would not be allowed but it definitely made the kids study harder.

I enjoy watching the TV show and it's very seldom an adult can answer all the questions.  Just two questions for each grade on different subjects, but some of them are definitely not subjects taught in those grades when I was in grade school.  I think maybe I prefer the generation I was born into.

A Poem Speaks

I watched the movie "Spender In The Grass" and there was part of a poem there that I wanted to read.
When I found it, it was not a poem, it was an ode.  I usually don't try to interpret poetry.  I just want to
enjoy it but for some reason I want to understand this ode.  The second verse is"

The rainbow comes and goes and lovely is the rose
The moon doth with delight look round her when the heavens are bare;
Waters on a starry night are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth; but yet I know where'er I go
That there has past away a glory form the earth.

Did he write this when he was an old man and had lost many people he had loved?
He says again later in the poem:  Whither is fled the visionary gleam
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?
And the title of the movie was taken from this part:

What though the radiance which was once so bright, be now forever taken from my sight
Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower
We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.

 He talks later on in the ode of the faith that looks through death
Perhaps if I was still young, this poem would not speak to me the way it does today.
So I believe William Wordsworth was an older man when he wrote this ode.
The best part of the movie was finding this ode.

Wisdom

I've always heard that wisdom comes with age but I'm not sure that's always true. 
When I think of wisdom, I always think of Solomon.  When he became king, he ask God for wisdom and
God gave him wisdom.  But as Solomon became older, did he remain wise?  God had clearly instructed His people not to marry foreign women that they would turn their hearts away from the one true God.  I Kings says Solomon loved many foreign women.  He married many of them.   In his old age they turned his heart away from God ,just as God said they would.  So was Solomon wiser as he got older?  I don't think so.
So have I grew smarter through tthe years?  I don't think so.  I still make as many mistakes as I always
have.  But I'm never going to make the mistake of turning away from God.

Christmas Long Ago

I think there's a song by the name "Christmas Long Ago".  At this time of year, I always think of Christmases in the past.  There was no tree with sparkling lights.  We didn't even have electricity until I was in high-school.  I can remember going across the fields with my brother looking for a nice size cedar tree to cut and take home.  Us children decorated it with strings of popcorn, crepe paper rope and silver tinsel icles.  Daddy always brought home Christmas candy and a coconut.  At school we exchanged names and we got a bag of treats thatt was always an orange, an apple and Christmas candy.  We had a Christmas program at school that we practiced on for sometime before Christmas.  There was always a play where someone played Mary and Joseph and a doll was baby Jesus.  We could do that back then.  That was the meaning of Christmas and should be today.   There was no Black Friday and all the hustle and bustle of shopping then like it is today.  But Christmas carols filled the air and peace on earth, good will toward men and the birth of the Christ Child was the main theme of Christmas long ago.

A Sad Time

This year has been a sad year.  I've lost so many friends and family.  Is this something you should expect when you grow older?  I 've lost a brother and a brother-in-law, who was as close as a brother.  An old friend that I had worked with at the bank for a lot of years.  Although she had moved to Arizona, we had always kept in touch.  I was shocked to hear that Bill's cousin, who he had played in a band with for a lot of years, had died of a massive stroke.  A short time before that an old friend that he had played with years ago in our Quadcity years had passed away.  The last six months of two thousand and eleven will stay in my memory as a sad time.

Seasons

Spring is yellow daffodils and soft breezes
The earth turning from brown to green
Summer is a play ground filled with laughing children
Swimming pools and dusty roads
Fall is brown leaves falling
Quiet nights beneath a full moon
Winter is snow crunching underfoot
Frosty window panes and icy winds
Our life goes by like the seasons
Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter
Passing as swiftly as the seasons come and go

Alzheimers

I opened my refrigerator this morning  and there sit some things that should have been in the freezer.  I had fixed some of it for my evening meal before I went to church and for some crazy reason put the rest of it in the refrigerator instead of the freezer.  I was in a hurry because I was running late but is that just an excuse.  Some time ago I found my oleo in the pantry instead of the refrigerator.  Alzheimers is a real fear of old people because it seems to be something that no matter how fast you run, it catches you.  I'm trying to stay active and trying to keep my brain active.  I work crossword puzzles. do sudokus, play bingo on Wednesdays ,work at the library one day a week, and try to stay active in church activities.  I rememer my Mom and Dad just wanting to stay at home when they were older and some days I feel that way.  I think maybe when you're old , you just don't pay enough attention to what you're doing .  So that's how I'm going to look at this.  Old woman pay more attention to where you're putting things.  That's probably what the old man would tell me if he was here.