LesterLand |
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Lesters vs. the world 
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Tuesday, July 15, 2003
I'll try to resurrect the stories of LesterLand. At the moment the only thing to add is the beginning of my lapband adventures, which are at Dan's Lap-band Now I just need to get others to contribute family stories. dan Saturday, June 16, 2001
Baby Cinda's Fingernails and the Chameleon Cinda was born in William Jennings Bryan Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska. I was working at the University of Nebraska Library and Marilyn was working at the Lincoln Public Library. When she was a few weeks old I was playing with her on the bed in our apartment at 300 S. 26th Street in Lincoln while Marilyn was at work that evening. I realized her fingernails were long and she was scratching herself. So, I got out my little nail clippers to shorten them a bit. I'd trimmed several when I missed and accidentally cut the end of her finger as well as the nail. Naturally she started crying and bleeding a bit. I was traumatized. I stopped the bleeding quickly, and she quit crying and all was well with her. She was OK, but I wasn't. I was afraid I'd damaged her permanently. Perhaps her finger would be deformed or permanently scarred. It bothered me for a long time, and I finally realized why I was so upset about cutting her. When I was in Junior High in Des Moines I had a lot of pets. Parakeets. A bat. A chameleon. The chameleon had a string around his neck and lived in a cage in my bedroom. The string around his neck was so he could come out of his cage and walk on me or the desk without getting away permanently. Trying to catch a free chameleon would have been hopeless. One day he (if he had a name, I've forgotten it) was in his cage and was tangled up in the string and was twisted around one of the dowels that were in the cage for him to climb on. So, I got scissors to cut the string from where it was wrapped around his left front eg. I missed, or he moved, or I was already more nearsighted than I knew, or something. I cut the strong, and also cut off his leg, which wasn't much bigger around than the string. I'd certainly damaged him permanently. Amazingly, the blood stopped after a couple of drops (not that a chameleon has many drops), probably because the scissors had pinched the leg off as much as cut it off. Anyway, he recovered and lived quite a while longer with three legs. He eventually died, of course, but not from the accidental amputation. Little do we know how things from many years earlier can come back to haunt us. Naturally, there was no permanent damage to Cinda, and this is probably the first she (or maybe anyone) has heard this story. Sunday, April 22, 2001
I'd planned to put here the story of Gail's job with A.G. Edwards. But I can't find a copy of the email I wrote about it. I probably got overly enthusiastic about cleaning stuff out. Saturday, March 31, 2001
I just invited several family members to join in, and Cinda was the first to sign up. I hope she'll add something soon. Right now we're both on AIM doing a bit of chatting.
Corky Corky was a little dog that we had in Phoenix when the twins were little. Corky was some sort of little terrier, and he wasn't really housebroken. Neither were Gary or Gayle. There weren't any fancy disposable diapers back then (ca. 1954) and the plastic pants over cloth diapers were leaky. Sometimes mom would find puddles on the tile floors and not be sure whether it was done by Gary, Gayle, or Corky. I guess she didn't want to get down and do a scientific study. Anyway, Gary and Gayle both learned to answer her questions with "Co-kee did it". Sometimes he probably had, too. One day there was a bunch of crayon scribbling on the hall walls. Mom asked the twins about it, and of course the answer was "Co-kee did it!" Sure. We all believed that.
In the last ten days I've received several emails from folks that graduated from Thornton Township High School in Harvey IL in 1960. One was from Dave Bell, who Diana dated a time or two in HS. Others were from ones I don't recall, but I recall almost no one from then, so I guess that isn't surprising. Plus, I was a ham radio geek and a newspaper geek (The Thorntonite), so I wasn't exactly a jock or popular person. No complaints, as I didn't really want to be. Plus, going there only two years and living far away from school made a difference too, I guess.
If all goes well, this blog will be the home of my family history, stories, and so forth. Other family members are welcome to join in. Just let me know and I'll set you up to do it. All you need is a web browser and you too can put up things here. |