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FUN HOLIDAYS WITH THE GABBIN’ GALS
About books, movies, cooking, and advice
Decorating, shopping, and gettin’ the best price
Life, love and raising kids
Along with do-hickeys, what-cha-ma-call-its, and thing-a-ma-jigs
We’re just two Texas gals
Straight from the sticks
The only things we won’t gab about
Are religion and politics!
Today, on Gabbin’ Gals, we’re discussing some upcoming fun holidays!
ANN: Tomorrow, July 29th is Lasagna Day! I don’t like lasagna much, but I found this slow cooker recipe on Pinterest and decided to give it a try. It’s really delicious and super easy because—well, it’s a slow cooker recipe. I won’t print the directions here. Instead, go to the site responsible for this yumminess, at the URL below. While there, you can sign up to receive two weeks’ worth of easy recipes and view some 30-minute meals as well. I signed up!
https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/slow-cooker-lasagna/
SUSAN: When I had a house full of growing kids who could eat like field hands and liked to ask their friends over for supper, I was always looking for easy recipes that fed a crowd. A coworker gave me one for lasagna that could be prepared the day before. And what kid doesn’t like Italian food? So, I made it often. Years later, you can imagine my surprise when all three of my kids admitted they never really cared for it. I couldn’t believe my ears! These days, I try a lot of things I never got to try then. All I have to do is make sure it makes a small batch, so I won’t be eating leftovers for a week!
ANN: July 30th is Paperback Book Day! You know the Gabbin’ Gals will celebrate it. Here’s a bit of history.
In England, paperbacks were published as early as 1935, but they were poor quality. It wasn’t until Sir Allen Lane started a publishing company, that would later become Penguin Books, creating a paperback revolution. They published books by Ernest Hemingway, Agatha Christie, and a few other notable authors. As a result, the company sold 3 million books in the first year.
The US followed suit a few years later when Robert Fair de Graff decided books should be inexpensive and small enough to fit in a pocket. Simon & Schuster agreed and backed his venture. Sized at 4 X 6 inches, and costing 25 cents, the Pocket Books debuted in May 1939.
So, do you still enjoy reading a paperback, or, have you succumbed to digital books?
SUSAN: When someone asks me that question, I always tell them if it’s a good story, I’ll read it any way I can. One thing about physical books, though. If they’re yours, you can highlight passages, make notes or flip back to check on something that happened three chapters earlier. Can’t do that with an eBook. I’ve attached jpgs of three paperback books I’ve had since the 70s. I’ve read them dozens of times through the years. (You can tell by the covers)
ANN: Also, on July 30th, we celebrate International Day of Friendship. With social media, it’s easier than ever to stay in touch with friends—even those who live thousands of miles away. So, celebrate friendship by reaching out to someone you’ve lost touch with. It just might make their day!
Susan: I still send cards in the mail. Especially to my grand kids. And I have friends who still send them. There is something special about going to the mailbox and getting a card or a letter from someone I know. It makes my day!
Ann: I can vouch for Susan sending cards. I’m always surprised and delighted when I get one from her…and feel terrible that I’m not as thoughtful!
ANN: Do you have a lovable mutt? Well, July 30th is also Mutt’s Day. In just about all of my novels, I give at least one character a pet—be it a cat or dog. Do you want to know why authors do that? It isn’t just their love for animals. It’s a way for characters to reveal part of themselves by having conversations with pets who can’t talk back!
SUSAN: I write about animals in all my books too. And you’re right. They show us things about our characters we can’t see anywhere else. I like giving them human characteristics as well. In Not Long Ago, the protagonist, Erin, bonded with Griffin’s horse. It worked out so well, Bayard had an even bigger part in the second book.
ANN: We’d be considered terrible authors if we failed to mention July 31st is Harry Potter Day. After all, Pottermore, the official fan site, reports more than 500 million HP books have been sold worldwide. Can you believe it? That’s one in fifteen people in the world who owns at least one Harry Potter book!!
SUSAN: I don’t own any Harry Potter books, but I’ve read just about all of them. I loved the characters, the settings, the stories. I’ve bought copies of them for two of my grandkids who enjoyed reading them too. And if there’s a Harry Potter marathon showing on TV, you can bet I’ll have it on.
To find out more about Susan and her books, go to: https://ww.susanaroyal.com
What Goes Around Comes Around
About books, movies, cooking, and advice
Decorating, shopping, and gettin’ the best price
Life, love and raising kids
Along with do-hickeys, what-cha-ma-call-its, and thing-a-ma-jigs
We’re just two Texas gals
Straight from the sticks
The only things we won’t gab about
Are religion and politics!
Susan: I’m what my grandmother used to call a clothes horse. I love colors, styles, and different fabrics. I come by it honest. My grandmother once spent a whole month’s salary on a skirt from France when she worked as a telephone operator in 1918.
I remember the dress Mama bought for me when I started school. A plaid shirtwaist with a white lace-trimmed collar. Maybe because it came from Sears. Most of my clothes were homemade. My grandparents had chickens, and the feed came in sacks with print material on one side that Grandma and Mama used for everything from dresses to kitchen towels to underwear.
When I got older, bobby socks were all the rage. And Poodle skirts. So were petticoats and full skirts. A few years later, I took a seam ripper to them and used the material to make fitted skirts and A-line dresses.
It’s incredible how the styles have changed over the years. But one thing I have learned. What goes around eventually comes around again. I never thought I’d see the day when girls wore bell bottoms, or tie-dye, or madras plaid again. But guess what? Never say never. You should see the look on my daughter’s face when she finds out her new outfit is just like one I wore years ago.
Ann: When I think of fashion, what stands out in mind are the three inch heels I talked my mother into buying me for my 8th grade graduation, the sacks of hand-me-downs I’d get twice a year from older cousins, and the borrowed formal I used when I was a homecoming princess my sophomore year. It had a boned strapless bodice with a full skirt of layered netting and a bustle-like tiered satin accent on the back. Talk about making your butt look big!
Currently, three-inch heels are all the rage, and we have re-sale shops where you actually pay for hand-me-downs. I no longer wear high heels, but I’m a frequent shopper at thrift/used clothing stores. As for the formal wear, I’m not sure if and when the big, big, skirted formals will make a comeback, but since big behinds are now in vogue, the bustle just might reemerge.
Susan mentioned wearing clothes made from feed sacks. I have a similar fashion history. My mom worked for Olive & Myers Manufacturing Company where she made mattresses. Yep, you guessed it. I had clothes made from mattress material. (photo below) Talk about making your bed and lying in…I wore mine.
Do you have a fashion memory you want to share? OR, maybe a photo of you wearing one of your faves? If so, post it in the comments. We’d love to see it!
For more info about Susan and her books, visit her website: https://www.susanaroyal.com
Lovey-Dovey-Smoochy-Smoochy
Today is National Kissing Day.
A friend once told me the minute a man touches you—you can tell if it’s for his benefit or yours. That’s pretty spot on. Ever had a guy hang on to a friendly hug just a little too long? That’s for his benefit…unless you’re crying your eyes out because your dog died or you got a bad haircut…then it’s probably for your benefit.
That got me to thinking the same thing might hold true for saying ‘I love you’ from habit and not sentiment.
When I was younger, my standard goodbye to my husband was, ‘love you, want you, need you.’ I meant it even though I didn’t say it with feeling. Because sometimes, you really feel the love when you say it, and other times you say it because it’s just the natural thing to say.
My husband told me he has no recollection of his mother ever saying she loved him. That doesn’t mean she didn’t. It just means saying those words might have made her uncomfortable. Or, maybe she felt she showed how much she loved him because of all she did and saying the words weren’t that important. As a writer, we’re drilled with “show don’t tell” so I suppose that can hold true with expressing our feelings too.
Some mothers are touchy-feely-smoochy-smoochy like mine was and some mothers aren’t. They’re both good mothers, just different.
Up until my parents died, we hugged and kissed hello and goodbye, even if I saw them more than once a day. I don’t know if Daddy was affectionate before he married Momma, but if not, her personality must have rubbed off on him, because Daddy was a hugger and a smoocher.
I looked up the word smoocher and the definition said it is a slobbery kiss. That doesn’t really describe what I mean. Our kisses were more like pecks, but describing Daddy as a hugger and pecker just didn’t seem right.
Most people in my clan are affectionate. Not so much on my husband’s side. One of his brothers would stiffen like he had a steel rod in his spine if you hugged him. I did it anyway. Because I inherited that TFSS gene and couldn’t help myself.
Over the years, I’ve had lots of people in my life I loved, but never told them because it would probably have been considered weird or inappropriate. That’s too bad because maybe they needed to hear it, and it would have been as much for their benefit as mine.
When I was in my 20s, I worked in a drug store with a soda fountain. Every day, a group of old men came in to drink coffee. I loved each one of them. That summer, I went on vacation and while I was gone, one of them died. When my boss told me, I cried and said, “I never told him I loved him.”
To which my boss replied, “Don’t worry. He knew.”
I hoped he was right, but I regretted it all the same.
In these times of social distancing, maybe we can’t be Touchy-Feely-Smoochy-Smoochy, but we can take every opportunity to say I love you, regardless if it’s for your benefit or theirs.
Dead as a Door Nail, Nekked as a Jaybird, Happy as a Lark
Two Gals Gabbin’
About books, movies, cooking, and advice
Decorating, shopping, and gettin’ the best price
Life, love and raising kids
Along with do-hickeys, what-cha-ma-call-its, and thing-a-ma-jigs
We’re just two Texas gals
Straight from the sticks
The only things we won’t gab about
Are religion and politics!
Ann: Is a nail only dead if it’s in a door? Since a jaybird has feathers, how can it be naked, and, is a lark always happy? We’ve grown up hearing and speaking these idioms, but what do they mean?
First, let’s define idioms. According to https://www.thefreedictionary.com/, they are the characteristic vocabulary or usage of a specific human group or subject. So, each country and region have their own idioms. In the US there are more than 25,000. I figure the south will claim a fair amount of those!
In book three of the Sweet Thangs Mystery series, Pretty Bows and Turned Up Toes, Sheriff Dan McAlister describes the body of Jay Roy Hobbs as dead as a door nail, nekked as a jaybird, and looking happy as a lark! Long after writing that, I decided to find out what those old-time sayings meant. You may be surprised by some. I was.
Dead as a Door nail
One explanation is that back in the day, doors were built using only wooden boards and hand-forged nails. They needed to be long enough to attach vertical and horizontal wooden panels together so they wouldn’t pull apart. The nail was pounded in and bent-over which made it difficult to pull out. The technique was known as dead nailing—thus dead as a door nail.
Naked as a jaybird
In the 1920s and 30s, upon arrival, new prisoners went straight to the showers and then walked from there to their cells, naked. J-bird was slang for jail-bird. And all this time, I thought we were talking about a bird without feathers!
Happy as a Lark
Okay, this one was exactly what I thought. The lark sings a lovely melody which makes it sound mighty happy.
Crazy as a Loon
Even though, the bird is known to have a haunting cry which is compared to the howls of the insane. The second theory I found for this idiom makes more sense to me. It’s short for lunatic.
This next one is what got me to wondering about idioms in the first place. As I turned onto a street, there was a bucket in the road. I thought, someone needs to kick that out of the way. What? No. No one should kick the bucket! I couldn’t help but wonder why we say that. Why would kicking a bucket have anything do with dying? Maybe I’m the only one in the world who didn’t know. But, now that I do, it makes sense.
Kick the Bucket
A common theory is that it refers to hanging…execution or suicide. You stand on a bucket and the pail is kicked away for the noose to do its job. Another theory is that a goat, after milking, may kick the bucket and spill the goods creating a ‘bad ending.’ The origin of the phrase might also refer to a Catholic custom of using holy-water buckets to sprinkle the blessing upon a deceased.
Well, that’s five I’ve grown up hearing. That leaves 24,995 more to check out! Let’s take a look at those Susan comes up with.
Susan: I grew up hearing all these sayings and more. I thought everyone knew what they meant. But sometimes I come across people who’ve never heard of them and give me a strange look. Most of the ones I’ve shared today are pretty explanatory.
I wouldn’t trust him any further than I could throw him
You couldn’t pick up someone and throw them very far, so you’d put very little trust in what they say. I always imagine someone trying to throw someone much bigger than they are.
So dry I’m spittin’ cotton
This one’s pretty self-explanatory. Especially when you’ve been out in the Texas sun during June, July or August. If you have, you know what I mean.
Got to get back to my rat killing
You use this phrase to end a conversation with someone when you’ve got to get back to whatever it is you were doing when you ran into them in the first place. I used this phrase one time in a conversation with a writer friend from up north and he didn’t know what the heck I meant.
I didn’t just fall off the (turnip, tater, watermelon truck)
In other words, I’m not naive. I know you’re trying to fool me, and I’m not falling for it.
This ain’t my first rodeo
Don’t be giving me advice. I’ve been in this situation before. I can handle it.
If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
Hang out with the wrong crowd and you’ll end up in trouble.
I love idioms. I think they make a conversation so much more colorful. Especially when you can picture them. Tell us some of your favorites. Leave them in the comments.
Find out more about Susan and her books at:
https://www.susanaroyal.com
Some images in this post were purchased from Deposit Photos. Nails taken by: @Tamara_k, singing bird taken by: @lenmdp, kicking the bucket taken by: @blueringmedia
Drive-ins and Jesus
About books, movies, cooking, and advice
Decorating, shopping, and gettin’ the best price
Life, love and raising kids
Along with do-hickeys, what-cha-ma-call-its, and thing-a-ma-jigs
We’re just two Texas gals
Straight from the sticks
The only things we won’t gab about
Are religion and politics!
Susan: Drive-in movie theaters have started to make a comeback in recent years, and in light of the coronavirus outbreak, it could be a good thing. They were the brainchild of Richard Hollingshead. The idea caught on, and drive-in theaters popped up all over the country. Their popularity spiked after WWII and became an icon of American culture and a typical weekend destination.
Music to my ears when I was a child. We’d put on our pajamas and grab our pillows because it was going to be a long night. Daddy and Mama always went for the double and triple features. During the summer it got dark so late we’d be there until the wee hours of the morning.
I can smell the popcorn now! A cool summer breeze, the smell of the hot dogs on the grill, the crunch of gravel as cars pulled in. If we were lucky, we might get to go to the playground located in front just under the movie screen.
The advertisement for the snack bar flashing on the screen made my mouth water. (too expensive, Daddy always said so we always brought our snacks with us) The concession sat in the middle of the lot, along with the restrooms (which we avoided like the plague because Mama had a thing about germs)
When my husband was a teenager, he’d go to Floyd’s Dairy Bar (5 burgers for $1.00) and buy a six-pack of soda on his way to the show. He also told me the story of parking behind a kid who sneaked in a trunk load of friends (must not have been Bargain night)
My fondest memory is the time my uncles took a carload full of kids to see Cat Ballou. They took us to the snack bar and let us get ANYTHING we wanted. I thought I had died and gone to heaven! It’s a wonder I didn’t make myself sick.
I remember Cool Hand Luke, The House on Haunted Hill, Planet of the Apes, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Shenandoah, and a whole lot of John Wayne movies. I saw a whole lot more, but those stick out in my mind.
Ann: Well, Susan, my parents never took us to the movies…drive-in or otherwise. And, once I was old enough to date, I wasn’t allowed to go to a drive-in.
However, I remember two exceptions to the rule and they stand out in my mind. Not because I was at a forbidden place, but because something memorable happened.
Drive-in visit number one: I went with a friend and her mother. I don’t recall what movie we saw, but I do remember the Lunar Eclipse that night! We spent our time watching it instead of the movie.
My second experience was the first date I had with the boy I would later marry. We’d gotten special permission to go…a one-time-only deal. Again, I don’t remember the movie, but I remember what I was wearing—a purple and white seersucker full skirt and sleeveless top. It was summer and even seersucker didn’t help.
Tom, my date, had a church hand fan in his car. Remember those? To my surprise, you can still order them as promotional products. They’re about the size of a sheet of typing paper mounted on a paint stir stick. Most of the time they had a picture of Jesus on them.
Well, Tom, being a gentleman, gave it to me so I could stir the air…which I did. But my hand got tired after a while so I laid the fan in my lap. When I raised it to fan again, it caught on the hem of my skirt, and pulled it over my head!
I was so embarrassed—but had a good excuse. Jesus did it.
To find our more about Susan and her books, go to her website: https://www.susanaroyal.com
A Blast From the Past
Ann: While doing some spring cleaning, I came across a book I’d bought many years ago, The Verse by the Side of the Road, The Story of the Burma-Shave Signs, by Frank Rowsome, Jr.
Some of you will remember this clever advertising campaign, which lasted from 1925 until 1963. The rhyming jingles for a brushless shave cream were displayed on a series of small wooden signs spaced 100 feet apart along roadways across rural America.
The company, Burma Vita Inc., was operated by Clinton Odell and his son, Allan, who suggested using the roadside idea. For the first three years, Allan and his father wrote the jingles, but when their poetic muse ran out, they sponsored a nationwide contest, awarding $100 for each of the 25 best. Some of the annual contests received more than 50,000 entries!
Some were naughty and never made it past the first round of judging. Boy, wouldn’t you like to read those entries! By today’s standards, I’ll bet they weren’t that bad!
Here’s one of the most the popular:
He had the ring
He had the flat
But she felt his chin
And that was that.
Burma-Shave
Wanna take a stab at writing one? We’re not paying any money, but it might be interesting to see a modern take on the jingle. And we’ll share the one we like the best on our next blog!
Here’s Ann’s offering:
His cheeks were covered
In five o’clock stubble
Canoodling with him
Was too much trouble.
Burma Shave
Here’s Susan’s:
Short, balding, chubby
And missing teeth
But with cheeks like a baby.
He couldn’t keep the girls away.
Burma Shave.
Susan: Talking about seeing these signs reminds me of road trips I’ve taken through the years—no fun when I was growing up. Three girls crammed together in the backseat of a mustang with black interior and no a/c. You either sat behind Daddy and got singed by flying ash (he smoked) or in the middle (with him yelling at you to duck your head because he couldn’t see) or behind Mama. He didn’t play the radio. And we drove for hours without a bathroom break. If I didn’t have a book, I read all the road signs. I knew exactly how far we were from the next Stuckey’s, Dairy Queen, or souvenir shop. (Not that we ever stopped) Things changed when I got married. My husband and I used to drive up in the hill country—nothing more relaxing than traveling down those back roads, listening to music, looking at the scenery.
Don’t forget to try your hand at writing a Burma Shave jingle. Leave it in the comments!
Winner of two eBooks from a previous post is Cindy Bright! BIG congrats, Cindy, and thanks for taking the time to read and comment on our blog.
Find out more about Susan Royal at: https://www.susanaroyal.com
Ann Everett, Best Selling Author
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