I am attempting to organize our book collection and finding all sorts of things shoved into the nooks and crannies of the bookshelves.

My grandmother received two baby books when my mother was born. They were nicely illustrated and provided a way for parents to track their baby’s progress but, in this day of Instagram and Facebook, this custom has fallen by the wayside. Thank goodness. Can you imagine stumbling upon your baby book and finding it empty? Or worse …

My grandmother was a nurse and so Mother’s baby books are not empty. They’re not exactly full either. Things like weight and height were carefully noted. as were all illnesses and medical procedures. The rest, well it evidently didn’t interest Gram too much.

Poor kid, for sure. However, will my children want to know the date when their now deceased grandmother had her tonsils removed?

I guess Mother had no important events. To be fair, my grandmother was trying to raise three children during the Depression, and, serve as District Nurse. A district nurse’s main duty was to manage healthcare for people in small communities, for example: assign nurses, recommend treatments, delivery babies, and often provide end of life care. She’d seen it all and had little time to update the baby book with cute anecdotes.

I doubt this entry would ever show up in a baby book today:

I have no idea what to do with these books so I’ll just shove them into the box of things for my children to deal with. Curiosities from a different time.

My maternal grandmother wasn’t what you’d call a lover of the great outdoors. When she and Grandpa camped, it was always someplace with picnic tables, brick barbecues, and indoor “facilities.” She firmly believed yard work was for men and enjoying the outdoors was something you only did after chores were complete. But she did love birds.

Sometime in the late 1950s she began collecting Arthur Singer ornithological prints. She bought them at “The K-Mart” thirty or so miles from her house; probably as part of K-Mart’s weekly “blue light” specials. The sole grocery in their tiny town stocked only the essentials and so once a month my Crazy Auntie Dottie and Gram would hop in Grandpa’s Galaxy and hit the road. Their big adventure to the big city of Springfield Mass.

For those of you who’ve never heard of K-Mart, they were granddaddies of Costco, Target, Marks and Spencer – places where you could easily get lost in mile after mile of discounted products of all sorts: Clothing, towels, sheets, pots and pans — you name it. Heaven for housewives from small impoverished towns. I even thought it was a big deal as there were no large discount stores in Reno Nevada back then. And they sold big bags of buttered popcorn at prices even a child like me could afford.

Auntie Dottie went to The K-Mart to buy do-it-yourself hair dye and perm kits —- not for herself, mind you. But for her “clients.” Women willing to pay for a dirt cheap perm or dye job from someone who’d never set foot in a beauty school. One month she got a good deal on “Golden Highlights” and half the women in town were suddenly red heads. Their husbands were thrilled but the Vicar accused Dottie of tempting the Devil. Being Catholic, she just went to Confession and was absolved.

Gram probably bought wash clothes. She was of the opinion that you could never have enough wash clothes. And she might pick up a bottle of Old Spice for Grandpa. That’s what he always smelt like. Old Spice. While they drove, she probably snuck in a bit of unwanted parenting advice or a reminder that it was not exactly legal to pretend to be a beautician. Which Dottie would ignore.

Supposedly Arthur Singer created eight of these so-called ornithological prints. Each contains the male and female of a species and the flora and fauna typical for their environs. I don’t know if Gram collected all eight; only five survived life with Mother. Anyway, I have taken them out of the cheap plastic frames they were in and reframed them for the next generation. They may not be worth much, but I can’t look at them without thinking of Gram and Crazy Auntie Dottie and the excitement of those trips to The K-Mart.

The cherry pickers are gone, the mural has been signed off and so, that’s all folks…

What do you think? To me it looks undone but I do like the details.

Oh the way home I took this arty shot (well, at least for me!)

As I thought might happen, the threat of thunderstorms slowed progress on the mural. The only noticeable change is, the bobcat now has spots.

The artist seemed to be contemplating whether to add more spots or not.

The other two artists were working on the side of the library. Once they finish it will be difficult to tell the real leaves from the painted ones.

Across the street Grasshopper Topper’s gotten a little further along – probably because the artist doesn’t have to use a cherry picker!

The artist told me he’s planning to paint animals on the other three sides once he’s done with Topper. I didn’t ask him what kind of animals. Why spoil the surprise?