Marsha, our leader, is on vacation right now so we will be sharing only our highlights for the week and when Marsha comes back we will share a round-up of all the most clicked from the three weeks she is gone.
This is a blog link-up where we not only allow you to share your past posts but we encourage it. So share away!
I’m so glad you are here and taking part in our weekly link-up of family-friendly, fun, educational, interesting, crafty, fashionable, and whatever else posts. I hope you’ll tell your followers about our post (feel free to copy and paste the graphic) and visit the blogs in the link-up.
Now it is your turn to link up your favorite posts. They can be fashion, lifestyle, DIY, food, etc. All we ask is that they be family-friendly. You can link up posts from last week or even from years ago. We are always looking for additional hosts so let us know if you want to help out and we are also looking for more links from fashion bloggers so let your fashion bloggers know!
Also, please take the time to visit the other blogs on the link-up and meet some new bloggers!
Continuing with my Summer Movie Marathon today I am focusing on the movie Summertime, released in 1955 and starring Katherine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi and directed by David Lean.
First, a little description of the movie:
Middle-aged Ohio secretary Jane Hudson (Katharine Hepburn) has never found love and has nearly resigned herself to spending the rest of her life alone. But before she does, she uses her savings to finance a summer in romantic Venice, where she finally meets the man of her dreams, the elegant Renato Di Rossi (Rossano Brazzi). But when she learns that her new paramour is leading a double life, she must decide whether her happiness can come at the expense of others.
Summertime isn’t exactly a summer movie in my opinion, other than the fact that Katherine Hepburn travels to Venice in the summer. It could really take place anytime, but it’s called Summertime because Katherine has her first big international adventure and her first big romance on this trip that is in the summer.
Okay, fine, maybe it is a summer movie, but I guess I think of summer movies being on the beach and being a bit silly. This movie is not silly. It is, in fact, quite serious at times. There are funny moments but there are also some big life issues that hit Katherine’s character, Jane.
Jane is a lonely woman who can’t seem to fit in. She’s a little odd by some standards, though I love her character – except when she flies off the handle at this one small thing in the movie and is all over dramatic at other times.
She likes to read and take photos and film little movies on her reel-to-reel camera and doesn’t believe she could ever be loved. (She sort of sounds like me.)
At first I found Katherine’s way of acting in this part grating. I wondered why they picked her for this role, but the more I watched, the more I got it. Yes, she is a bit grating in the way she talks and handles herself but that is how the character is. She’s abrasive and bold and overly excited and also suspicious of others who seem interested in her romantically.
In this case she ends up being correct to suspect Renato De Rossi and here is where spoilers will come in so if you haven’t seen the movie and want to, you might want to stay clear of the following paragraphs.
Jane meets Renato in one of the sexiest scenes I have ever seen in a movie. No, there is no sex or nudity or crude language. The actor who plays Renato simply looks at Katherine Hepburn in a way I could only dream of being looked at. The resolution on this clip is not great but this is the look:
Brazzi absolutely oozes sex appeal throughout this whole movie – from the first moment he checks her out, his gaze gliding down her legs and back up to the back of her neck while she films the scenes around her.
Jane is embarrassed by his attention and decides to leave the restaurant but a couple of days later she’s face to face with him when she wants to buy a goblet for sale in his antique shop. He is thrilled to see her again because he could not stop checking her out at the restaurant. He asks where she is staying and the next day he shows up and wants to take her out on the town.
But, back to Jane being suspicious – she has every right to be. Renato is not who he says he is. I mean, he is attentive and passionate and romantic and very possibly in love with her but he isn’t exactly unencumbered, shall we say. He has a family – not just nieces and nephews like he eludes to but a wife and children. The wife, he claims, is living somewhere else, by her choice. She’s fine with him seeing others because she’s doing the same. That’s how Italians are, he claims. Maybe they are, but that isn’t who or how Jane is.
Still, she is drawn to Renato and can’t seem to let him go and…well, you will have to watch the movie to know what happens, but I will say there was one scene that suggested….okay. Again. You will have to watch it.
I love the scenery in this movie. It was shot on location in 1954 and it is gorgeous. The film had a budget of $1.1 million and was one of the first British-produced films to be shot entirely on location.
According to the site Luca’s Italy, (https://lucasitaly.com/2017/11/30/venice-in-the-movies-summertime-1955/) “Most of Summertime was filmed in and around the Piazza di San Marco and Campo San Barnaba, where Brazzi’s shop was located. The building is still a shop, but today sells toys rather than red Murano glass goblets, but curiously, never seems to be open.”
The blog post also states, “The Pensione Fiorini, where Hepburn stays, is now the stunningly named Splendid Hotel on Rio dei Bareteri.”
If you would like to read more about the movie here are a couple of reviews:
I watched this movie on Amazon but I do see it is free on YouTube. I can’t vouch for the quality:
I had to switch things up for my next movie because I couldn’t find Having A Wonderful Time streaming anywhere. I also decided not to watch Clambake because I tried to watch it and I couldn’t push through. Plus, if I had watched Clambake and written about it, I would have run into the Comfy, Cozy Cinema that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are planning and going to start September 5.
If you are interested in joining in, Erin has designed some wonderful graphics again this year and you can see the list below:
Next week I am going to write about Summer Magic with Hayley Mills to wrap up my Summer Movie Marathon.
Marsha, our leader, is on vacation right now so we will be sharing only our highlights for the week and when Marsha comes back we will share a round-up of all the most clicked from the three weeks she is gone. The hosts are excited for Marsha – well, not to speak for Sue or Melynda, but I think they are too – to go on this trip that she has been looking forward to and are looking forward to hearing all about it when she gets back.
I’m so glad you are here and taking part in our weekly link-up of family-friendly, fun, educational, interesting, crafty, fashionable, and whatever else posts. I hope you’ll tell your followers about our post (feel free to copy and paste the graphic) and visit the blogs in the link-up.
Now it is your turn to link up your favorite posts. They can be fashion, lifestyle, DIY, food, etc. All we ask is that they be family-friendly. You can link up posts from last week or even from years ago. We are always looking for additional hosts so let us know if you want to help out and we are also looking for more links from fashion bloggers so let your fashion bloggers know!
Also, please take the time to visit the other blogs on the link-up and meet some new bloggers!
Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation (1962) is probably a movie I should have watched at the beginning of summer to catch the feeling of the season ahead of time, but, really, this movie is one that can be watched any time someone needs a laugh. I think we can all agree that we all need a good laugh these days.
The movie, a mix of comedy and a bit of drama, stars Jimmy Stewart (as Roger Hobbs) and Maureen O’Hara (as Peggy Hobbs). There were moments that I think the writers meant to be comedic but I didn’t find some of those monies super funny, but instead found them a bit sad or serious.
In this movie, like others I’ve watched from this era (the early 60s), I can see that life wasn’t that much different than today. While we seem to look back at the 50s and 60s as a more innocent time, this is one of those movies that shows there were some hard parts of life even then – arguing married couples, potentially cheating spouses, fathers struggling to be good fathers, children addicted to television, and young women struggling through the teenage years.
Those topics could bring a person down but there is a lot of humor and light-hearted moments thrown into the movie to make sure it doesn’t go too far down the hole of depression.
We start the movie with Mr. Hobbs looking quite drained as he drives through the city – which I believe is L.A. Once he gets past trucks kicking out exhaust at him and cars pinning him on every side on the highway, he arrives at the office asks his secretary to take down a letter where he plans to tell his wife that he doesn’t want to go on vacation ever again.
From there the movie is a flashback to the crazy beach vacation Mr. Hobbs didn’t want.
He planned to take the family to a ranch in Montana for a month, but his wife (Maureen) has had the wonderful opportunity to rent a beach house and she wants to bring the entire family there – her teenage daughter, young son (who is maybe 12?), and grown-up daughters who are both married with children.
Mr. Hobbs isn’t so sure about this idea but he finally agrees.
Danny, their young son isn’t too thrilled either if it means he won’t get to watch his TV, which he is completely addicted to (not much different than kids today). When the family arrives at the home, it looks like not only will Danny not get to watch TV but no one is going to have too much fun because the place looks like it is about to fall over.
Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs decide to make the best of it, though, even bringing their cook with them. She doesn’t stay around long, though, because the house is a disaster and when the two older daughters come with their spouses things get crazy.
One daughter and her husband argue about how to raise their children. The other daughter’s husband is a stuck up professor who we later learn also likes to flirt with attractive women.
Mr. Hobbs decides to take a break from it all one morning by going out on the beach to read.
An attractive, woman who is – shall we say – well-endowed in the upper body is sunbathing but he’s more interested in his book – War and Peace.
It turns out she is more interested in chatting with him and decides to interrupt his reading, all while leaning over in her bathing suit and pouting. She has a French or Norwegian or something accent, which, I think, is supposed to make her that much more appealing.
Mr. Hobbs eventually excuses himself, after stumbling over a few words with her, but she will show up again later in the movie – this time to flirt with Mr. Hobbs’ son-in-law.
This movie grew on me. I watched it twice in the span of a few days and during the first watch, I didn’t like it that much, but didn’t hate it. During the second time I watched it with The Husband I started to like it more. I began to like the characters and storyline more, even though there were times I was, once again, disturbed by how the father wanted his daughter to hurry up and grow up already and start dating boys.
What was about that era when every parent thought their kids should be dating constantly at the age of 14? Also, there is no way that girl was 14 in this movie. She had to be at least 20.
Fabian was in this movie and was her love interest and I’d say he was about 25. Hold on, though, I’ll look this up and come back….
The girl who played the daughter (Katey Hobbs) was Lauri Peters and she was 19 when the movie released, so probably about 17 or 18 when it filmed.
Fabian was the same age, so okay, they looked older but they weren’t that much older. For those who don’t know, Fabian was a famous singer back in the day and, yes, he does sing one song in this movie, but, no, the movie is not a musical.
There was one line in the movie that made me think that maybe Playboy wasn’t the same back then as it is today. Roger Hobbs says, in the beginning of the movie, that his children really don’t need him anymore.
“Danny only needs me to pick him up a copy of Playboy once a month.”
The kid was like 12. What are they doing getting him a Playboy anyhow? I’m guessing that Playboy wasn’t as dirty as it became and is now.
As I mentioned above, while this was marketed as a comedy there were a lot of heartwarming moments and a couple of serious issues brought up – not serious enough to bring the mood down, though.
There were a lot of silly or funny moments. The most hilarious scene in the movie involves Mr. Hobbs getting stuck in the shower with the wife of the man who his son-in-law hopes will be his boss. This is all after Roger says that he and his wife should let the kids figure out life on their own.
“We’re going to buzz off before we are told to buzz off.”
So they spend part of the movie doing their best not fixing their children’s mistakes and do fairly well…but you’ll have to watch to see what happens.
Jimmy Stewart was 54 in this movie. Maureen was 40. Their chemistry was amazing. They had so many passionate kiss scenes that made my toes curl. I think their respective spouses might have been a bit jealous.
Some interesting trivia I found online:
The portrait at the bottom of the staircase in the beach house is of Captain Daniel Gregg, played by Rex Harrison in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which was filmed in 1947, and which I watched last year with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.
This was one of three family comedies directed by Henry Koster from the early to mid-60s and each one featured Jimmy. The other two were Take Her, She’s Mine with Sandra Dee and Dear Brigitte.
The script was adapted from a novel by Edward Streeter.
Fabian was also in Dear Brigitte with Jimmy and said of him: “If anybody’s ever blessed, you have to be blessed to work with Jimmy Stewart. He was the most congenial, helpful person I ever worked with.”
I liked this review from imbd.com and think that I could have just shared this here and it would have summed it up well:
“Pleasant nostalgia, no modern sophomoric gags
This pleasant comedy may seem a bit on the dull side to modern audiences conditioned by R-rated gross-out fests (at least it’s in color, for those so spoiled they lack the ability to get into a black and white story), but a nice nostalgia trip for those longing for the “simpler, more innocent” times of the mid-twentieth century. (I’m not an old fuddy-duddy chronologically, just in spirit.) Stewart is your average Dad, taking an average Mom (Maureen O’Hara) and family to spend the summer in a rustic Victorian house at the beach.
They encounter the usual problems with antiquated plumbing and teenage romance, with a few interesting plot developments. If you know character actor Johm McGiver, he has one of his funniest roles as a bird-watching executive. Definitely recommended for Stewart fans or those interested in ’50 & ’60s nostalgia; but not for those who can only laugh at the stuff in Austin Powers or Team America (I like all these movies, incidentally).”
I’m so glad you are here and taking part in our weekly link-up of family-friendly, fun, educational, interesting, crafty, fashionable, and whatever else posts. I hope you’ll tell your followers about our post (feel free to copy and paste the graphic) and visit the blogs in the link-up.
Now it is your turn to link up your favorite posts. They can be fashion, lifestyle, DIY, food, etc. All we ask is that they be family-friendly. You can link up posts from last week or even from years ago. We are always looking for additional hosts so let us know if you want to help out and we are also looking for more links from fashion bloggers so let your fashion bloggers know!
Also, please take the time to visit the other blogs on the link-up and meet some new bloggers!
I know that summer is winding down for most of us already, with kids already heading back to school in some places, but around here we don’t say summer is over until the first of September so I am watching summer movies for the month of August.
This week I am writing about Beach Blanket Bingo from 1963.
I started this movie and immediately decided I might not be able to make it through it. Ultimately I decided to push through it so my readers never have to.
And so I’d have some funny material for my blog.
I suffer for my blog readers. What can I say?
So here is the plot of the film – um….there isn’t one. I don’t think so anyhow.
There is just Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon jumping out of an airplane for whatever reason, kids (who actually look anywhere from 30 to 40 years old) dancing half-dressed on the beach, a lot of singing for no apparent reason, perverted old men chasing young girls, and some bumbling bad guy in a “motorcycle gang” who’s goal is to – er – I am truly not sure. Kidnap a pop singer I think.
Oh and a mermaid. There is a mermaid.
There is also a singer who is in love with Frankie’s character and Annette is jealous of.
I watched the movie and still had to go search online for a summary so I know what in the world happened.
Online it said this: “Frankie (Frankie Avalon) and the gang are hitting the beach for some good old-fashioned shenanigans. To get the party underway, the manager (Paul Lynde) of pop singer Sugar Kane (Linda Evans) decides a skydiving publicity stunt will really do the trick. As Frankie and the others are pulled into the plan, things get out of control. Throw in Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falling in love with a mermaid (Marta Kristen) and a kidnapping biker (Harvey Lembeck), and the party’s just getting started.”
Do the trick of what? I have no idea.
This movie was the fourth one in an eight-movie series with the first one released in 1963 and the last one being released in 1987 (yikes). From what I can see each movie had the actors playing different characters with unique plots. (Or what were supposed to be plots).
Three of the movies were released in 1964 and three in 1965.
So I looked this particular movie up on Wikipedia and it said this (there are spoilers but don’t worry…I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to rush out to watch this one), “A singer, Sugar Kane (Linda Evans), is unwittingly being used for publicity stunts for her latest album by her agent (Paul Lynde), for example, faking a skydiving stunt, actually performed by Bonnie (Deborah Walley).
Meanwhile, Frankie (Frankie Avalon), duped into thinking he rescued Sugar Kane, takes up skydiving at Bonnie’s prompting; she secretly wants to make her boyfriend Steve (John Ashley) jealous. This prompts Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) to also try free-falling. Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and his Rat Pack bikers also show up, with Von Zipper falling madly in love with Sugar Kane. Meanwhile, Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falls in love with a mermaid named Lorelei (Marta Kristen).
Eventually, Von Zipper “puts the snatch” on Sugar Kane, and in a Perils of Pauline-like twist, the evil South Dakota Slim (Timothy Carey) kidnaps Sugar and ties her to a buzz-saw.”
So….yeah…ahem. There you go. The scene with the buzz saw? Completely psychopathic material. It got very dark at that point I thought.
I did like at least one exchange between characters.
The manager of the pop singer says, “I didn’t catch your name, boy.”
And Frankie shoots back, “I didn’t throw it.”
When I first started the movie and saw Don Rickles was in it I thought, “The only thing that will save this movie is Don Rickles.”
As I got more into the movie, though, my thought was, “Not even Don Rickles can save this movie.”
But there is one stand-up act he performs in the middle that actually does save the movie…more about that below because is it just me or did Annettee always look like she was 40 even in her late teens?
She was 18 in this movie but seriously looked like 40 to me, or at least 30. Even Frankie looked old(ish) to me but he was 25 in the movie. Did you know he’s still alive? I didn’t. I knew Annette was gone – she passed away from complications of MS several years ago. I remember because my mom and I were talking about her since she was more from my mom’s era than mine.
Of course, I am teasing a bit about how old they looked. Everyone else in the movie probably was in their 30s or 40s, though. Even Rickles noticed. According to information I read online, he even broke character at one point while pretending to be in a nightclub act, teasing Frankie and Annette by asking why they were in the film, because they were so old. I must have missed this when I first watched the movie because I went back to watch it again and cracked up for the first time watching the movie. I absolutely love how you can tell how the cast is actually laughing for real – it’s so authentic.
The movie is supposed to be goofy fun so I tried to cut it some slack, but … oh my ….it was hard to struggle through most of it. The campy sound effects didn’t help anything and then there were these scenes interspliced into the movie of an old man chasing (literally) a young woman in a bikini. Weird.
I thought it was interesting, or unsettling I guess, to read that the pop singer was originally going to be played by Nancy Sinatra but she dropped out because part of the plot of the movie was a kidnapping and her brother, Frank Sinatra Jr., had only recently been released after he was actually kidnapped at the age of 19. A ransom was paid by his father Frank Sinatra to have him released.
John Ashley plays Steve, the husband of the sky-diver, in this movie (and was her actual husband in real-life) but usually played Frankie’s friend in other movies. One reviewer said the movies were about friendship ultimately and it was weird to see Ashley not playing Frankie’s friend in this particular movie.
There is plenty of music in these movies from Frankie and Annette and several other real-life artists including, Donna Loren and the Hondells and I have to admit the music really isn’t that bad.
The pop singer for the movie was portrayed by Linda Evans but she lip synched songs sung by studio vocalist Jackie Ward.
A 12-page comic book was produced by Dell Comics and released at the same time as the movie.
Frankie later said of the movie, “That’s the picture of mine that I think people remember best, and it was just a lot of kids having a lot of fun — a picture about young romance and about the opposition of adults and old people. There’s nothing that young people respond to more than when adults say `These kids are nuts,` and that’s what this movie was about. It was also fun because we got to learn how to fake skydive out of an airplane.
I thought it was also interesting to read that a skit on the Carol Burnett show with the cast and Steve Martin was based on the movie. I recently saw that clip and knew it was based on one of these movies but not which one.
I watched the movie on Amazon Prime. It’s free right now with a Prime subscription.
This week’s theme is: Ten Favorite Books from Ten Series (We all have a favorite book in our favorite series, right?) (submitted by A Hot Cup of Pleasure)
I thought this one was going to be harder than it was because I haven’t finished a lot of series and didn’t really think I’d read books from a lot of series. It turns out I have read quite a few books from series, even though I haven’t yet finished some of them.
Once I had my list, I also realized I had three children’s book series listed, but I think that’s okay since some of them I’ve read recently with my daughter.
Anyhow, without further ado – ten favorite books from ten series:
This one was a little hard for me because I like so many of the books in this series, especially the first book. I also loved book ten Home to Holly Springs, even though it was one of the darker in the series. I love A Light In the Window, though, because it is the start of the love story between Father Tim and his wife Cynthia.
Another favorite is A Common Life, which is the story of their wedding. I also love the Christmas one and …. I could go on and on with this series.
I just read this book in the series this year and I loved it for a variety of reasons. One, it took Qwill and the cats away from their normal setting and two it just showed a totally different side of Qwill. It was also just really well written.
It took me more than a year to get ahold of this final installment of this cozy mystery magical trilogy but I was glad when I finally found it on Hoopla. It was worth the wait and tied the series up nicely.
4. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia)
It’s sort of cliché to choose the first in the series, I suppose (though this one wasn’t actually published first) but it is my favorite of what I have re-read of the series so far. I read the series as a kid but I don’t remember all of the books so I am re-reading them with my daughter. So far this is my favorite of them but I may update that later.
I’m choosing the first in the series again, but this is my favorite from the series, which I first read in high school. This is a Christian Historical Fiction book that takes place during the rule of Rome. It’s very hard to put down.
Oops. It’s another first in the series. But it was my favorite! Ha! I loved this realistic inspirational romance that wasn’t cliché and dealt with real issues about faith, love, and personal flaws. It also had some humorous moments with and observations from the main character.
7. The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson (A Walt Longmire Mystery)
The Longmire mysteries can be dark at times and so I don’t read them often, instead choosing to space them out and take breaks with fluffier reads in between. I’m still in the beginning of this series so I’m sure there will be other favorites as well. I chose this one but there is actually a book of Christmas-themed short stories about Walt that I loved even more. It wasn’t really a book from the series, though, so I chose this one.
I love Johnson’s writing and how he weaves humor into serious moments. Walt’s relationship with his Native American friend Henry Standing Bear will go down as one of the strongest and coolest in literary history in my mind.
8. On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (The Little House on the Prairie series)
It was hard for me to choose a favorite from this series because I like a few of them about the same. I chose this one because it’s when we meet Nellie Olson, who wasn’t as big of a part of Laura’s real life as the TV show made her out to be. I love the part where Laura tricks Nellie into going into the creek and Nellie ends up getting leeches stuck to her legs and starts screaming.
The other book I almost chose was These Happy Golden Years because Almonzo and Laura start to court more in earnest. But I also love The Farmer Boy…okay..better move on from this one or I’ll add them all.
9. Paddington Abroad by Michael Bond (The Paddington Bear series)
I had to choose a book from this series because the series has been so much a part of my and Little Miss’s life. We have read this series a couple of times and Little Miss loves when I read the books to her and do all of the accents of the characters.
There have been a few times she has fallen asleep and I’ve kept reading because I’ve gotten so caught up in these cute stories about Paddington bear. I like this book because Paddington and the Browns travel to France and they have so many different and exciting adventures.
10. EDIT: Previously this was listed as Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery (from the Anne of Green Gables series) but it was actually Anne of the Island that I enjoyed more. I switched them in my head. Sigh. Sorry about that to people who already commented.
Most people would choose Anne of Green Gables as their favorite from this series and I absolutely love that book but I also love Anne of the Island because I love that Anne and Gilbert really start their romance in this one. Anne is growing up and learning about who she is and what she truly wants in life and it’s just a fun adventure.
What are some of your favorite books from a series?
Today is my mom’s 80th birthday so this afternoon, right around the time this posts, I’ll be at her house with the kids and my brother and dad to celebrate her birthday. The Husband will, sadly, be at work, but he will see her tomorrow.
Yesterday Dad and I took her to a doctor appointment and she did fairly well despite some of her health issues.
We had an adventure while trying to get her back to the car from the lab for her bloodwork when the sky opened up and dropped all the rain on us that the weather had been saying we were going to get for a couple of days. The wind was also blowing a couple of different directions and Dad and I knew she’d get soak while we wheeled her to the car (she uses the wheelchair so she doesn’t have to walk as far with her cane and walker but doesn’t use the chair at home), so we decided to wait until the rain passed to take her out to the car.
While we were in that town for her appointment (a regular check up), we also picked up groceries in a pickup order. Well, Dad did while I stayed with Mom.
I didn’t write a blog post last week like I usually do so I didn’t write about the sleepover Little Miss had other than a mention in my Sunday Bookends post. It went well and when I mentioned it in my Sunday Bookends, some other bloggers commented about remembering sleepovers or not remembering them because they didn’t go to them.
I honestly didn’t go to a ton of sleepovers. I did have some as a kid and there were a few at my house. The sleepovers at my house often went sidewise or got weird. One time my best friend at the time (we haven’t spoken in almost six years, sadly. People just grow apart) ate hot dogs at dinner, we made a tent in my room to sleep in and I slept between her and her sister (as I often did when we had sleepovers), and threw up a mere inches from my head in the middle of the night.
Luckily her mom didn’t live very far away and came to get her. We left the sister asleep and took her home the next day.
Another time, those sisters came over for a sleep over and the younger sister – who was born with a hole in her heart and ran out of energy faster than other kids – took a nap shortly after she got to my house. I ran up to check on her and she opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling for several seconds. Then she turned her head slowly, like a robot, and stared at me but, it was weird, I could tell she wasn’t all there.
I told her that dinner was done if she wanted to come down. She didn’t respond. She simply turned her face toward the ceiling again, eyes still open, and then closed her eyes.
I was entirely creeped out so I went downstairs and told her sister and she shrugged and said, “Yeah. She does that stuff all the time. It’s sort of like sleep walking but she’s just lying there instead. I’ll go wake her up.”
Luckily she was fine.
When I was a teenager, I had a couple of sleepovers with several different girls at my house and during one of them a friend really did sleepwalk. She had fallen asleep early but got up while the rest of us were giggling at 2 a.m. and asked where our bathroom was. She knew where our bathroom was. She’d been to our house many times because we’d known each other since we were toddlers.
I told her where it was, though, and told her she could go through the kitchen to get there. She staggered into the kitchen, turned the lights off and on a few times, staggered back toward me, jumped up and down on the couch a couple times, staggered to her sleeping bag, curled up in a little ball and fell back asleep again.
All of us other girls just burst into laughter. In the morning she didn’t remember any of it.
During another sleepover we pranked called a radio station. So glad we didn’t get in major trouble for that one. My parents never knew or they wouldn’t have allowed us to. They’d gone to bed. The DJ still played our song and I think we recorded it on a cassette like you did back in those days. I’m pretty sure we requested Step-by-Step by New Kids on the Block.
My mom used to like to dance to the music we listened to – pretty innocent stuff like the aforementioned New Kids on the Block. That was fun to watch.
How about you? Did you hold or attend sleepovers when you were a kid?
Honestly, I was more of a homebody and mama’s girl. I didn’t like sleeping away from my house so there were really only three friends I ever had sleepovers with and they were few and far between.
Shifting gears here a bit, last week I found out that our neighbors’ cat (she’s our neighbor four doors down) had passed away. This wouldn’t be that interesting except this cat was sort of like the street’s cat. He didn’t go too far but he would roam up and down the street and all the neighbors would greet him. There are eight houses on this street and in some ways, we felt like he belonged to us.
Simba was the first “creature” we met when we moved to this street. We took Zooma the Wonder Dog on a walk and she was very “excited” to see Simba, who wasn’t too sure about Zooma and stayed a safe distance away but watched her.
After that, we would greet Simba when we walked by and he always liked a nice pet.
I think everyone gave him a nice pet when they walked by because during the winter when we had two back-to-back snowstorms of two feet each, we visited our neighbor and Simba climbed on my lap and rubbed all over me. My neighbor said that he was trying to soak up all the attention he hadn’t been getting because everyone was trapped inside their house and couldn’t pet him while they were walking by.
Over the years he and our older cat had a few stand-offs, complete with yowling, and a couple of all-out fights. When we first brought Scout home, he stalked her and let her know she was not welcome on his turf by yowling at her.
Overtime, though, they started to tolerate each other. Simba still loved us to talk to him and give him a pet no matter where he was on the street.
Our other neighbor wrote the nicest things about Simba in our local paper (they own it and no, it isn’t the paper The Husband works at) and I had saved it out to share here but I think I tossed it in the recycling. She essentially wrote that Simba loved to sun tan, get pets, and that he lived the Hakuna Matata life.
Indeed he did and he is already greatly missed by the residents of our street. I still slow down when I go by his house, being careful in case he darts out to get back to the house, though he rarely did. He would just sit by the little shed across the road and watch the cars go by and if we saw him we would stop the car and Little Miss would jump out and give him a quick pet and tell him how sweet he was.
There are a lot of debates about if animals go to heaven or not but I believe they do and I can’t wait to give Simba a quick pet on the way to my mansion.
For now, I’ll give my own cats some cuddles. I think they’re ready for the cooler weather and warm cuddles too because they’ve been climbing on me and rubbing up against me a few times a week. Last week Scout was determined to lay on me all day Saturday and she didn’t just want to be on my lap, she had to be right near my face every time. Not sure what all that was about but she was better the rest of the week and didn’t have to be in my face, luckily.
How was your week last week? Did you do anything exciting? Let me know in the comments.
I’m glad you are here for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot and I hope you will check out the most clicked post, my highlighted posts, and then link a couple of your own posts and click on some other posts this week.
Let’s get right to our most clicked links for this week.
I’m so glad you are here and taking part in our weekly link-up of family-friendly, fun, educational, interesting, crafty, fashionable, and whatever else posts. I hope you’ll tell your followers about our post (feel free to copy and paste the graphic) and visit the blogs in the link-up.
Now it is your turn to link up your favorite posts. They can be fashion, lifestyle, DIY, food, etc. All we ask is that they be family-friendly. You can link up posts from last week or even from years ago. We are always looking for additional hosts so let us know if you want to help out and we are also looking for more links from fashion bloggers so let your fashion bloggers know!
Also, please take the time to visit the other blogs on the link-up and meet some new bloggers!
