Food And The Seasons

Thanksgiving is coming up in a couple of weeks and the weather is getting colder. Those two things got me thinking about different foods and what they represent.

As we grow up foods become family traditions. The holidays and the seasons become linked in our minds with these foods to the point where they become one.
Thanksgiving is turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole. Summer is cookouts with hamburgers and brats. Fall is apple cider and donuts. Easter is linked with ham and hard boiled eggs.
The list goes on and on. For each of us it changes based on our family and where we grew up. I am sure that people in the southwest don't see cold weather in the fall as soup time and there are those who don't have the same holiday traditions.

One thing remains the same for all of us, food can bring comfort and memories from our past. Family gathering around the table at grandma's house or a cookout at the beach. We each have memories triggered by smells, tastes, and the time of year.

Whatever these things mean to you, take the time to pause and reflect when you smell dinner in the oven during this holiday season.

Language And Age

I was wondering what to write about then a conversation with a friend gave me an idea.

Our language is made up of words and phrases that came into use because of things that were in common use. Now those things are gone, but the words and phrases remain.

Ice boxes are now refrigerators. We still say don't touch that dial when the television set has no dials. Record players are long gone, yet we still say someone is going on like a broken record. How about dial the phone, take a Polaroid, or play a record.

Kids today grow up without slip covers, party lines, percolators, typewriters, photocopiers, records, reel to reel movies, tape recorders, the ice cream man, and bottle openers.
Is it any wonder our language is so had to learn? What's a student to think when they hear "I'm going to run down to the break room and throw this in the ice box."
How about "He's running around like a chicken with its head cut off."
Life was truly exciting when cars had emergency brakes instead of parking breaks, and you went out to shoot the bull with your friends.

Still it's not so much the words, it's realizing the things they stand for no longer exist that makes one feel old.
Remember out there in the peanut gallery you're only as old as you feel.

The Great Lakes, Gift And Responsblity

I realized how blessed I am to live in a state that's surrounded by water. Michigan is home to many beautiful lakes both large and small, there are rivers and streams everywhere you go, the Upper Peninsula is home to numerous waterfalls, and it all is part of the great lakes basin. We have more freshwater coastline than any other state.
With that fact comes responsibility. We have it and they don't. Others want it and we must guard it for those who will come after us.

It is not fiction to realize a pipeline could be built to move water hundreds of miles to areas that lack it.Nor is it out of the question that a tanker ship could sail in and fill up with hundreds of gallons of our water.
In our area we already have had to deal with the idea of the water being bottled and sold around the country, a problem that goes much further than one company. There many others taking the water out of wells and selling it.

If you look at the history of water in this country you will find many lakes and rivers that are or will soon be dried up. It may seem that a lake like Lake Michigan would not be hurt by a few hundred gallons lost, but it would soon be hundreds of thousands.
This must never be allowed to happen. We must wake up and realize that in the end water is for fighting for not just drinking.