Janet's Blog

I was combing my hair a while back, right after a haircut, when I leaned in closer to the mirror so I could see a little better. I wasn't imagining things; my hair, at least in the front, was much browner than it used to be! My hair has been increasingly silver, with a rather large white streak in the back, for several years now. (I guess I should be glad that silver hair is so popular, right now, that even younger women are purposefully dyeing their hair various shades of silver.) I've never colored my hair, so it has been interesting, although a bit maddening, I'll admit, to watch the progression from my natural dark brown to multi-faceted silver tresses. I never really expected to see that brown hair again. Most women my age have colored their hair for years, so they have to trust their roots to tell them what their natural, undyed color might be. Who would have guessed that graying hair might sometimes return closer to its original color? I've been mulling...

It had been, oh, forty years, I suppose, since I last visited McDowell's Mausoleum, a few miles southwest of Fairbury. I traipsed along that trail several times with my family, as I was growing up. We hiked somewhere or other, nearly every weekend, just because we loved to get outside and walk. I remember being amazed that few of my friends had ever heard of the mausoleum, and even fewer had seen it. The mausoleum is a hand-carved tomb, built into a sandstone cliff in the early 1900's by Nelson McDowell, a rich bachelor whose father was one of Fairbury's founders. He worked for nearly a decade before the tomb was finished. However, when he was killed suddenly, in a car-train accident, state law prevented his burial in the mausoleum. So, it sits there today, on the bank of Rose Creek, empty as ever. (When I first wrote about the mausoleum a few years ago, I included more historical details and family trivia. You may click  here  to read my previous blog.) I ...

We moved to Fairbury on Friday, May 1st, 1964. I had just turned nine years old. Mom took Danny and me to Eastward School the following Monday, right after lunch. That morning, she had met with the appropriate school officials to determine which school we would attend. Eastward was a few blocks farther for us to walk than Central, but we didn't really mind. We were eager to attend a newly-built school, which was quite a contrast to the stately, but aging, grade school we had attended in Norfolk. We were excited that our new school offered a hot lunch program, so we no longer had to hurry home for lunch. School started at 8:30 in the morning, which was quite a change for us, since we were used to starting at 9:00, but we were excited to be done for the day by 3:15, instead of 3:45. Mom fussed a little bit that we were changing schools in May, when there were only a couple of weeks of school left for the year, but she rationalized that we would be able to make some friends that w...

It happened again, at the airport this time. I observed someone who was greeting an older woman, giving her a big hug, and announcing, "You look so good!" I didn't hear the woman's reply, but she appeared to answer graciously. Bill commented later that some of his business acquaintances have been greeting him the same way, which makes him feel just a little uncomfortable. He lost a lot of weight a few years ago, and is clearly in good physical shape from his early morning workouts, but he doesn't necessarily want people telling him he looks good. It has been said that "beauty is only skin deep;" I have found that most mature people prefer to be recognized for who they are, rather than what they look like. There is a time and place for everything, of course. It is certainly okay to compliment someone on their weight loss, if you know they have recently been working hard to achieve that goal. And, if a close friend or relative has just successfully com...

The beach at the Hard Rock Cafe in Montego Bay is much smaller than it used to be, taken over by various new resorts and condos. Even the Hard Rock Cafe is relatively new, but gracious enough to allow residents of the Bay Pointe condos to use the beach there or, perhaps, the beach access is "grandfathered" in. Either way, we appreciate the use of that beach whenever we are in Jamaica. However, I can't help being a bit disappointed to find that the natural wildlife is more controlled than it used to be. Erin and Meagan can't forget those times, as young children, when they followed tiny, yellow fiddler crabs and hermit crabs, just like the pets they had at home, all over the sandy beach. We all remember the time Meagan picked up a sizable conch shell at the edge of the water, only to have a miniature squid dive out of the shell, into the water, swimming away under cover of the black ink it squirted as camouflage.  Back then, we could find big shells along the ...

We have been blessed, over the years, to be able to visit the beautiful island of Jamaica several times, due to the generosity of friends who give us the use of their condo there, in Montego Bay. Erin and Meagan were quite young, the first time they went with us. In fact, Meagan celebrated her fifth (or maybe it was her sixth) birthday there. This time, Erin brought her new husband, Reed, who was excited to experience his first time ever in the Caribbean. And this time, on Levi's second trip to Jamaica, he got to celebrate his 15th birthday with a chocolate cake that had almost too much frosting even for Levi, who absolutely loves all things sweet. I have been enjoying photography more and more, and I have found that my iPhone takes remarkably good pictures, so I was able to document our trip quite well. I regretted leaving my phone behind, for fear it would get wet, when we boarded a glass bottom boat to motor out to the reef. Bill, Levi, Erin, and Reed all snorkeled the len...

Over the past few months, I've been compiling a list of random, human-generated, church rules that are common in the US. It's interesting, and actually rather amazing, to recognize the number of rules and traditions that have become customary within certain denominations and individual congregations. So, for better or worse, here is my list: A few churches allow only  a capella  singing, and a few, no singing at all, while most congregations use some form of instrumental accompaniment. Some people insist that old hymns are best because people already know them well, while others prefer newer, contemporary, hymns because they draw younger people to worship. Along with this, some churches prefer to use hymnals, while other churches make use of technology to project the song lyrics up on a screen that can be seen easily by everyone, even those who might have trouble reading the small print in a standard hymnal. People who sing or play special music may do so from the balcon...