Costumes

It being Halloween and all...

My mother was a gifted seamstress and liked to make costumes. After all she went to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and studied costume design. She could make her own patterns and everything. I wish I had pictures of the costumes she made for my sister and me.

I think it all started with playing dress-up at Charlotte's. She'd let me dig through her closet and pull out clothes from late twenties and early thirties. She even let me wear her little tiara. What a princess! It doesn't matter that the gloves and shoes are too big!




















In the islands Halloween isn't the only time to get into costume; there's Carnival on St. Thomas, and the 4th of July on St. John. Here I am one 4th as some kind of Hawaiian chick wrestling with Gene, my sister's best friend.



















Back in 1969 I was in two Carnival parades, back to back, The Children's Parade on Friday and the Adult's Parade on Saturday. It was a crazy thing to do. Totally exhausting, particularly since I walked both days.

I think my school's floop (a combination of troop and float) was a tribute to literary characters. You can't see much... but that's me, as Snoopy, helping to carry a banner. I'm the one on the left.  The banner reads "Happiness is an Elected Governor," celebrating our first elected governor.

The next day I was in the Adult's Parade. That year there was a song called "Mah Na Mah Na," a one hit wonder that was very popular. Even Red Skelton used it on his show. He and others dressed up as a moon creatures and played the tune on kazoos. That lead to me being in the Carnival troop from St. John. We were moon creatures dressed up in painted foam costumes playing kazoos.  (Boy was it hot in that foam!)

The sign reads, " Legalize Extra-Orbital Activities."

Those round spots were price stickers. I had a spotted sun burn.








And here for your entertainment is a humorous rendition of "Mah Na Mah Na" done by The Muppets. Don't blame me if the tune gets stuck in your head.




Other memorable costumes include:
A mermaid with a full tail
Raggedy Ann complete with red yarn wig
A sailor on Columbus's ship
A witch (every girl has to be a witch at least once in her life)
Bugs Bunny, I made a paper mache carrot that I carried in a pistol holster strapped to my hip. My best friend, a head shorter than me, went as Yosemite Sam
A flapper
An ancient hippy (a ghost wearing love beads, medallion, peace and anti-war buttons)
A bag lady (I had every type of bag I could find pinned and/or taped to my clothes)
Miss Ellaneous, I wore a sash and a little crown and had paper clips, safety pins, pencils, pens,  post-it notes, scissors, rulers etc. pinned to my person
A gypsy

I know there are more, but I that's all I can remember at the moment.

What about you, got a favorite costume memory? Happy Halloween.

And the Winner is...

This, my first blogfest/bloghop has been fun. I send out my heartfelt thanks to those of you who participated by writing eerie, strange and spooky stories.










For those of you who were hiding in the graveyard, the winner will be getting this.















And who is the winner?

According to Random.org (what better place for me to go huh?) the winner is number 8 on my list of participants. (Of course I did not include myself.)



Number 8 is...drum roll please.



DONEA LEE at The Queen of Procrastination! YEAH!

Donea, please email me and send me your address and I will get those books and bookmark into the mail ASAP.

Oktoberfest Blogfest and Gift Give-Away!

It's here, my first blogfest, in which we write, in 300 words or less, a true (or not) Halloween type story.

First I want to thank all of you who decided to join in. A list of those participating can be found below. I hope you'll hop around and read their stories.

On Friday, the 28th, one of them will win this: The ARC of Jessica Bell's new book STRING BRIDGE, (coming out the 1st of November) a tatted (by me) bookmark and DOGSLED DREAMS by Terry Lynn Johnson.

And now my contribution.

This is an edited excerpt from a MG I'm working on tentatively called THE BOWL AND STONE: A WEST INDIAN GHOST STORY. It is a fictionalized tale loosely base on a true story.

The Mysterious Moving Grave       

The two tourist kids were so annoying we had to tell them the story of the Mysterious Moving Grave.

"Once there was this really mean man," said Gordie. "He was so mean nothing grew on his farm."

"He was married," I continued, "and had three kids. He drank a lot and blamed them for his not being able to grow anything."

"One night he got really drunk and went into a terrible rage. That's when he did it." Gordie paused for effect.

"Did what?" asked the thin, pale boy who looked like an albino salamander.

"That's when he killed his wife and kids," he answered.

"With a machete," I said.

"Hacked all four of 'em to bits." Gordie waved his arm like he was slicing something up. "Scattered their body parts all over his land. He thought it would make things grow."

"Gross!" The girl covered her mouth with a hand and turned green as genip.

"It gets better," I said. "He was caught and tried and they hung him right here at Gallows Point, which is where they hung all the criminals and pirates back then. Even though he was a bad man his brother wanted to bury him all proper, so he built him a small concrete tomb."

Gordie continued. "The problem is he's restless. He keeps getting out of his grave and wandering around Gallows Point with that machete, looking for the people who hanged him. People have heard him scraping his machete along the walls of the cottages, particularly the one you're staying in. But because he keeps climbing in and out of his grave, it keeps moving. Sometimes it's up near the road, sometimes closer to the genip tree. Wanna go see it?"

Caribbean Notables

You still have plenty of time to sign up for my blogfest and gift give-away. Just click on the pumpkin above!

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You might be surprised by the number of well known people who were born  in the Caribbean. Here are just a few.

Most everyone has heard of Bob Marley, born and raised in Jamaica.


As well as another raggae artist, Dennis Brown


But did you know Tim Duncan was born and raised on St. Croix?


And that Rihanna is from Barbados?













National Baseball Hall of Famer, Roberto Clemente, was born and raised in Puerto Rico. This is a picture of the stadium in Puerto Rico that is named in his honor.
















Or how about John James Audubon? Not only was he born in Haiti, he was an illegitimate child.













Alexander Hamilton, also illegitimate, was born on Nevis and raised on St. Croix.


Dr. William Thornton (not a house hold name) drew the original design for the Capital Building in Washington D. C. He was born on the tiny island of Jost Van Dyke (a close neighbor to St. Thomas) in the British Virgin Islands.


The father of French Impressionism, Camille Pissarro, was born and raised on St. Thomas.


And yes, Kelsey Grammer, was born on St. Thomas too.


Any well known people from your neck of the woods?

Definitions - Ruction

You still have plenty of time to sign up for my blogfest and gift give-away, click on the pumpkin above! 


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A now, a new word, at least for me.

Anyone know what a ruction is? Rhymes with fluxion and suction.

It dates from about 1825 and is of unknown origin. My Webster's says it could be short for insurrection. Ruckus, dating from 1890 is possibly a blend of ruction and rumpus.



Ruction: A rough and often noisy fight. The tomcats outside my window caused such a ruction I was kept up half the night. 

Ruction: A state of noisy, confused activity. There was a ruction on the floor of the political convention.

Plural: There will be runtions when she learns he cheated on her.

I think it's a great word.

Synonyms include:
ado, affray, altercation, argument, ballyhoo, blather, bobbery, bother, brawl, broil, bustle, clash, clatter, clutter, combat, commotion, conflict, contest, din, dispute, disturbance, donnybrook,
fisticuffs, flurry, foofaraw, fracas, fray, free-for-all, fun, furor, fuss, fuss and bother, handgrips, hassle, helter-skelter, hoo-ha, hoopla, horseplay, hubble-bubble, hubbub, hullabaloo, hurly, hurly-burly, hurricane,
hurry, hurry-scurry, hustle, kerfuffle, kickup, melee, moil, pandemonium, pother, quarrel, rough-and-tumble, roughhousing, row, ruckus, rumpus, scrap, scrimmage, scuffle, shindy, skirmish, spat, squabble, squall, stew, stir, storm, struggle, tiff, to-do, tumult, turmoil, tussle, uproar, welter, whirl, wrangle, zoo

Okay, now it's your turn. Give us a sentence using the word ruction.

With a Little Luck

You still have plenty of time to sign up for my blogfest and gift give-away, click on the pumpkin above! 


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Many famous people have visited St. John. 


Back around 1965 or so, I was with a group of four or five friends walking along the beach in Cruz Bay when we saw two figures run down the pier and hop into a boat. They must have thought they were being chased by hoards of screaming teen-aged girls. 


But they weren't, it was just us. And we were singing the latest Dave Clark Five hit at the top of our lungs as we jumped up and down waving madly. We couldn't really see them all that clearly as they had towels over their heads, but we always felt it was Paul and Ringo running down the street.


Years later George stayed at Caneel Bay. There were a couple of evenings he showed up at the bar, and impromptu, picked up a guitar and played and sang. I'd love to be able to say I happened to be there the nights it happened, but alas I wasn't.

Left to right, Francis Bay, Lillie Maho (where we had our guest house) Big
Maho.

Now take a look at this photo. 


Back in May of 1977 three yachts anchored at Francis Bay.  There were all kinds of rumors.

This is a picture of a maho flower.
It's a tree hibiscus. 

And they were true. It was Paul McCartney and Wings. One of the yachts was called Fair Carol and was a recording studio. A second yacht was for the band. The third yacht was for Paul, Linda and their kids. 


No joke.They were anchored at Francis Bay from May 1st through the 31st.


They recorded seven songs that can be found on the album London Town.


With a little luck, we saw them occasionally. But no one ever took notice, which is probably why they picked St. John. They could wander around like other ordinary tourists. They could blend into the scenery like chameleons and enjoy themselves.



One of the songs they recorded at Francis Bay was, "With a Little Luck."


I like this early, rough version. Just Paul singing with his base line strong and clear.  You can almost hear the water washing on the shore, feel the rocking of the boat.


Have you ever been around anyone "famous"? Even met an idol in person?

Blog Action Day - Food Additives #BAD1

Because I'm not convinced they are completely safe, I was going to comment on several different additives in our food, like: monosodium glutamate, propylene glycol, artificial colors and flavors.


But I got stuck on just one.


Polysorbate 80. Brand names include Alkest, Canarcel and Tween.

Picture take from Arrow Chemicals Company

From Suite 101.com I got this: According to Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, Volume 95, Number 6, December 2005 , pp. 593-599(7), "it is of current relevance as a 'hidden' inductor of anaphylactoid reactions", and "Polysorbate 80 was identified as the causative agent for the anaphylactoid reaction of nonimmunologic origin in the patient. Conclusions: Polysorbate 80 is a ubiquitously used solubilizing agent that can cause severe nonimmunologic anaphylactoid reactions."

Put in plain English, polysorbate 80 can affect your immune system and cause severe anaphylactic shock which can kill.

Read more at Suite101: Polysorbate 80 Causes Infertility: An Emulsifier That Can Damage Your Reproductive Health | Suite101.com http://joanna-karpasea-jones.suite101.com/polysorbate-80-causes-infertility-a60320#ixzz1aZP6Whbq



Polysorbate 80 is used in (to name just a few things): ice cream and other milk products, some medications and vaccines (flue shots), lotions, creams, toothpaste, batteries, paints and adhesives. 


Polysorbate 80 may be harmful to people, like me, who have Crohn's disease.


Click HERE for a list of possible side effects and allergic reactions.


And HERE, at the FDA, is a list of the many different kinds of food additives, the good, the bad AND the ugly.


Over the years I have learned to read labels. I say whenever possible go natural, go organic. 

Pay it Forward Blogfest!

It's here it's happening today! Come on in, take your shoes off and have a look around.

Matt over at The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment offered up this idea for a bloghpop.

"The idea is to introduce everyone to everyone else. We want this to be an easy post that allows you to meet and follow as many other bloggers as you can. In your post, we would like you to please list, describe, and link to three blogs that you enjoy reading, but that you suspect may fly under the radar of a lot of other bloggers. Or they can be famous blogs, as long as they're awesome.

But don't stop there! Certainly visit and follow all the blogs that are featured in people's posts the day of the blogfest, but those don't have to be the only blogs you visit. You can visit everyone who enters in on the fun, and signs up on the linky list. In the interest of time you don't even have to leave comment. You can just follow, and come back another time. After all, we all know we don't have time to visit every blog we enjoy every single day."

That's it! So here are three blogs I enjoy reading.

Anne Spollen is an author with two beautifully written books under her belt, The Shape of Water and Light Beneath Ferns. Her accounts of life with her teenage kids is both humorous and up-lifting. 

Mary Witzl at ResidentAlien is a writer and teacher who has raised a family, taught, and lived in such diverse places as Japan, Turkey and Scotland. Her stories of dealing with students, her kids, and life are always entertaining and eye-opening.

Tabitha Bird at Through My Eyes lives in Australia and writes beautiful blogs. In her words, "THROUGH MY EYES seeks to inspire the soul. The dragonfly is a symbol of transformation. And reading and writing are, in my opinion, processes of transformation. From my writer's heart to yours, may you...WRITE. HOPE. FLY." 

Go, visit, enjoy.

Origins - Whippersnapper

Last time we looked into the origin of fuddy-duddy. So it only stands to reason that we should learn a little bit about the word whippersnapper.

It was all new to me.

Image by  Nelipot at Cheeseburger.com

The word whippersnapper (as you probably know) describes a young person who is impertinent, lazy, and who lacks motivation. One usually hears it coming out of the mouth of an old fuddy-duddy.

What does snapping a whip have to do with being lazy, when cracking the whip has to do with demanding obedience?

Apparently, back in the 17th century there were young men who were ne'er do wells. To pass the time they loitered around on street corners and idly snapped whips.

It didn't take long for people to start calling them whippersnappers.      



Synonyms include:

a nobody, a nothing, boldface, brat, brazenface, chutzpanik, cipher, common man, dummy, elf, enfant terrible, figurehead, gamin, holy terror, hussy, imp, jackstraw, juvenile delinquent, lightweight, little fellow, little guy, little monkey, malapert, man of straw, minx, nebbish, ne'er do well, nonentity, nullity, pip-squeak, puck, punk, punk kid, pup, puppy, runt, saucebox, scrub, shrimp, small fry, small potato, small potatoes, smart aleck, smart-ass, smarty, smarty-pants, spoiled brat, squirt, squit, swaggerer, upstart, urchin, whiffet, wise guy, wise-ass, zero, zilch

You can learn a bit more about whippersnapper here.

Got any whippersnappers in your home?

Blog Action Day - Food #BAD1

Blog Action Day is coming up on Sunday October 16th! 


What is Blog Action Day? It's a day when bloggers from all over the world write about one subject. 


Last year the topic was water. You can read my entry on water here. 


This is the third year that I have participated.


This year's topic is #FOOD. 




To learn more about Blog Action Day and to register click HERE! 


To learn why FOOD was chosen click HERE.


They even offer a few suggestions of what you can write about.

•   My favorite food
•   The famine in East Africa
•  To be organic or not to be, that is the question.
• Hunger and poverty.
•  Best and worst food memory
•  Slow Food, Fast Food: What does it actually mean
• Malnutrition
• Conflict over Food: Will new wars be about arable land?
• Is your hamburger hurting the environment?
  It takes 24 liters of water to produce one hamburger. That means it would take over 19.9 billion liters of water to make just one hamburger for every person in Europe.
• Vegan, Vegetarian, Meat eater – Which one are you and why?
• Trading in the future of food. What is the impact of food speculation?
• Will we be able to feed 9 billion people in 2050?
• How does Fair Trade food help farmers and communities get out of poverty?
•  Freeganism  – eating the things others throw away.
• The scandal of food waste.
• What is the best way to farm food?
• Growing your own – the joys and heartache of growing what you eat?
• Too much or too little taking food to extremes.
• Strangest thing you have ever eaten.
• What food means to your culture.

PLEASE JOIN ME!

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Happy Columbus Day! If you haven't signed up for my blogfest and gift give-away, click on the pumpkin above!

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It was the summer we were eleven and twelve that my cousin JohnJohn and I were christened Thing 1 and Thing 2. It all started because my sister, Erva, and JohnJohn's sister, Frances, kept harassing us.

I'm sure you can easily get the picture. They were older, wiser girls. They knew everything. There wasn't a thing we could do that they couldn't do better. They whispered and giggled behind our backs and we were sure they were whispering and giggling about us. They ordered us around.

There came a point when we decided enough was enough. JohnJohn, being twelve, took the lead. 

One night Erva and Frances were getting all dressed up to go out. Their hair had been in curlers most of the day. Thick ruffled petticoats made of scratchy nylon net were shaken out. Two inch white pumps were checked for scuffs and polished. Modest amounts of make-up was being applied.

It was a big deal.

Step one was getting Erva's attention and luring her into JohnJohn's room. As she opened his door a paper cup full of water fell on her head. Oh, she was furious and near tears. Her hair was ruined! How could we!

We, of course, were laughing with delight, ecstatic that the plan had worked. We also raced out of the house to avoid being smacked on the rear by an irate 15-year-old. We danced around and kicked up our heels in the back yard.

Erva's coif wasn't completely ruined and my Aunt Ninina, after reprimanding me and JohnJohn, made what repairs she could. But her hair was not exactly what she had hoped it would be.

However the night was young. We still had to get back at Frances.

Back then in Puerto Rico there were plenty of huge bullfrogs, as large as my two hands. They were all over the back yard. After the girls left for the party JohnJohn and I gathered up at least a half dozen of the monsters and put them in a paper bag. We put the bag on Frances's bed.

We were sound asleep when screams echoed through the house. Everyone got up. Frances had gotten into bed only to discover a large wet area and, on my god! a frog had somehow gotten under the top sheet and she had touched it with her feet.

Frances hated frogs, particularly those great huge beasts. And these guys had peed their way out of the paper bag and were hopping all around her bedroom. We found them among the shoes, under the bed,  and trying to hide in various other places. The sheets had to be changed and the mattress turned....

And that's when JohnJohn and I won the title of Thing 1 and Thing 2. Thank you very much. It was the beginning of my journey into being The Rotten Kid.

Here we are a few years ago. Thing 1 and Thing 2. The Cat in the Hat remains my favorite Dr. Seuss book.

Where you ever given the name of a character from a book?

Abrstactions

Abstractions remain one of my all time favorite ways to play with words. They are also great writing prompts as well as being a kind of poetry or a piece of flash fiction.

The rules are simple. You can change them around.
 1: Abstraction plus verb plus place
 2: Describe what the abstraction is wearing
 3: Summarize the action



Incongruity danced across the stage in a party dress and pink sneakers, while playing a mean flying V.





Wearing a single purple bow in a most incongruous place Incongruity moved with ease between the states of joy and sorrow, laughing at all her tears.



Incongruity eats worms with kids and snails with the elite. All the while her pearls hide ulterior motives as easily as feathered fans hid Sally Rand.







Now it's your turn to have fun. Using the word Incongruity, leave your own abstraction in the comments.

Awards and Wins!

A while back Lynn over at LynNerd's Random Acts of Writing (you must check out her blog she's hysterical) gave me the Liebster Blog Award. 


I learned from getting this award that liebster means friend in German. Seeing as how there is a large German community just up the road from where I live, I consider this award rather special. Thanks Lynn!

I'm suppose to share an embarrassingly funny memory. Errrrr. Dare I? Okay...I got quite drunk on my 19th birthday, thanks to my mother's wonderful sangria punch. (So I can blame her right?) My friends and I decided we all wanted to go swimming. Most of them were up for going skinny dipping. It was like midnight, it was dark on the beach. We could easily slip out of our clothes and into the water and no one would seen a thing. But no, I was too shy. So what did I do? I changed into my bathing suit behind a door where I thought I was perfectly hidden. Much later (I'm talking years later) I was told I had been completely visible to everyone!

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Nutschell over at Nut's About Writing gave me this award. I know I'm not cute, so it must be because I have some seriously cute posts? Thanks Nutschell!

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Lastly I won the book of my choice from Kari Marie over at Writing by Heart. It was hard to decide what book I wanted to get. But finally I made my choice. Because I so enjoyed Across the Universe by Beth Revis I decided to get the sequel, A Million Suns. I'm thinking by the time it comes out in January I'll have forgotten about it (NOT) and will be completely surprised when it arrives in the mail. Thanks a million Kari!

Oktoberfest Blogfest, Gift Give-Away And a New Look!

It's time. I'm having my first blogfest. The reason? This month, on the 29th, I celebrate my fourth year blogging. AND I'm so close to having 300 Random Followers I just HAVE to CELEBRATE!

So here's the deal. The theme, obviously, is Halloween. On October 26th your challenge is to write and post, in 300 words or less (okay if it goes over no big huge deal) a real life Halloween/ghost memory or a fictional story. If you can work the number four and/or 300 into your story that would make it even more special!

To celebrate four years and 300 Random Followers I will put the names of all those who participate in my bloghop into the proverbial hat and on the 28th YOUR name could be drawn.

The winner will receive this! An ARC of Jessica Bell's book THE STRING BRIDGE scheduled for release November 1st, DOGSLED DREAMS by Terry Lynn Johnson, AND a tatted (by me) bookmark.

Join in the spooky Halloween fun, and spread the word.

I'd love to read YOUR story.


Add your name to list below and be eligible to win!


(What do you think my face-lift?)