Ms. SE's Kids Are Entrepreneurs (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, BeThere2Day, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by Charlotte.      

For today the prompt are:

Gratitude

Thistle

A pod of dolphins

Dance

Farmacy

Crumbs

     And/or

Fog

Nutcracker

Belt

Mushrooms

Room

Remember

Charlotte/Mother Owl has also chosen Golden Yellow as the color of the month.

(Please note i have used "pharmacy" in place of "farmacy."  I looked up the latter on the web and all i could find was a beauty supply company by that name.)

Deena finished sautéing the MUSHROOMS and took the pan off the stove.  Everything was ready for supper, all she had to do was get Mama to the table and wait for Rick to get back from the PHARMACY.  The doctor wanted Mama to try another new medicine for the blood pressure that was proving stubborn to control, and at this point, what could it hurt?

She stepped into the living ROOM and looked out the window at the FOG slowly creeping up.  It hadn't covered the THISTLE in the corner of the garden, the one she'd told Rick to leave.

"Why in the world would we leave a huge weed in the garden?" he'd asked.

"Who defines what makes a weed?" she asked.  "When I was in college, one apartment i moved into had a huge planter pot left on the back porch by the previous tenant, and it had a thistle growing in it.  It got very tall, and my roommates and I watched bees and butterflies enjoying it all summer.  We'll pull it up eventually, but why not let it grow and attract some pollinators for a while?"

Ever since she and her husband had moved into Mama's house to take care of her, Deena had fallen back in love with the garden and this room with the picture window overlooking it.  As a child, she'd called it the Golden Room, and been a bit afraid of it, as it was only supposed to be for company. 

Now she could revel in its beauty.  Mama had decided long ago there was no keeping grandchildren out of it, and it was no longer a formal salon but the room where they all watched TV, although the furniture was still Golden Yellow and the knickknacks plentiful.

Deena's favorites were the NUTCRACKER, with his real brass buttons and brass BELT buckle, and the snow globe with a Pod of Dolphins swimming in it.  She stopped to gaze at both for a moment, and then went to Mama's room.

Mama was sitting in her rocking chair, staring off with a blank expression that made Deena shake her head.  She walked over and stood in front of Mama, who finally looked up and she said, "Mama, supper's about ready, let's go to the table."

Mama got up without a word and Deena guided her through the house back to the kitchen.  As they passed the family photographs in the hallway, she thought of how her Mama used to say, "Dad may be king of the castle, but I'm the lady who cleans the moat and feeds the alligators!"

Now that lady seemed a shell, and Deena sometimes wondered if she would have done better had Dad taken better care of himself and been around longer.  They'd never know.

Rick was in the kitchen when they got back there, snitching a mushroom from the pan.

"Caught!" Deena said, and he turned around with the grin of a grandchild with his hand in a cookie jar who knows he's in trouble, but not really.

"You know I'm not going to wait for those!" he said.

Deena sat Mama at her place and she and Rick brought the food to the table.  As she cut Mama's portions into bite-size pieces, Mama suddenly said, "I used to cook mushrooms like that."

"You REMEMBER that, Mama?" Deena asked, and Mama nodded.

"And sandwiches.  I used to make special sandwiches all of you loved, you'd all even lick the CRUMBS off your plates when you thought I wasn't looking."  Mama laughed.

Deena laughed, too.  "Yes, Mama, you did.  I've managed to recreate a lot of your recipes, but I've never tried those sandwiches."

Mama was quiet for a bit, and Deena thought perhaps the moment of lucidity had ended.  In this DANCE between Mama being there and not being there, Deena never quite knew what would spark a response.

Then Mama spoke up again.  "It finally got so I'd have to make enough of them to have leftovers for everyone to take for lunch the next day.  One time, the boys got into the leftovers and ate them all as a midnight snack.  Oh, was Dad angry!  To feed my alligators that day, I had to go back to the store and buy more sandwich fixings."

"What else do you remember about them, Mama?"

"Oh, I'd buy those Hawaiian rolls and slice them, the whole dozen together, in half.  Then I would use the special sandwich sauce, Durkee, that's it!  None of you liked it, you all wanted mayonnaise on other sandwiches, but it was the Durkee sauce gave these the special tang."

Mama took a bite and got quiet again, and Deena gently said, "I remember they always had meat and cheese in them."

"Yes, indeed, whatever meats and cheeses were on special in the deli, but not roast beef.  These were ham or turkey or chicken, not roast beef sandwiches.  A good, sharp Cheddar or a Swiss worked well, and so did Pepper Jack."

"What did you top them with, Mama, before you baked them?"

"A stick of butter melted and mixed with a bottle of sesame seed salad dressing.  You pour that over top, and bake in a moderate oven until it's all bubbly and the cheese is melty.  We'd have it with tangy cole slaw and chips and fruit."

"Thank you, Mama!"  Deena was full of GRATITUDE.  Mama had written out some of her recipes and techniques and special things she did, but not all, and this was a treasure of information.

"You're welcome, my Deena-dee!" Mama called her by the name she'd used all those years before.

It was a very good evening.

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Today is:

All or Nothing Day -- no history on this one, but it's supposed to be the day you decide to live as if it's going to be your last!

Aunt and Uncle Day -- originally proposed on this day in 2005 by Florida State Senator Tony Hill; if you have aunts and uncles you love, why not give them a call today 

Dia de la Rebeldia -- Cuba (Revolution Anniversary)

Festival of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival of Sleipnir -- Norse Pagan (date approximate, honored Odin's eight-legged horse, Sleipnir)

Green Corn Ceremony -- Native Americans (thanksgiving for the maize harvest; these are celebrated by many tribes in many different ways and are not generally scheduled as they depend on how the corn grows; some have with rites including a Thanksgiving Prayer, Confession Chant, and Feather Dance; the Santa Ana Pueblo holds an annual Corn Festival on this date each year that is open to the public)

Groovy Chicken Day -- don't ask, just enjoy

Independence Day -- Liberia(1847); Maldives(1965)

Kargil Vijay Diwas -- India (Kargil Victory Day)

National Coffee Milkshake Day

One Voice Day -- readings around the world of the Universal Peace Covenant, sponsored by the School of Metaphysics

Otaru Tide Festival -- Otaru Wharf, Otaru City, Japan (one of Japan's biggest sea festivals, through the 28th)

Racial Desegregation Day -- date in 1944 the US Army ordered training camp facilities desegregated, and the date in 1948 President Truman signed the order integrating the US armed forces

St. Anne's Day (traditional name given to the mother of Mary; Patron of broommakers, cabinetmakers, carpenters, childless people, equestrians, expectant mothers, grandmothers, grandparents, homemakers, horse men, horse women, housewives, lace makers, lace workers, lost articles, miners, mothers, old-clothes dealers, poor people, pregnancy, pregnant women, riders, seamstresses, stablemen, turners, women in labour; Canada; France; Micmaqs; over 20 cities around the world; against poverty and sterility)

St. Joachim's Day (traditional name given to the father of Mary; Patron of fathers, grandfathers, grandparents; Adjuntas, Puerto Rico)

Tisha B'Av -- Judaism (begins at sundown, through tomorrow; fast in remembrance of the destruction of the First Temple in 586BCE and the Second Temple in 79AD)

Anniversaries Today

Signing of the American's With Disabilities Act, 1990

New York becomes the 11th US State, 1788

The United States Postal Service is founded, 1775

Birthdays Today

Taylor Momsen, 1993

Kate Beckinsale, 1973

Jeremy Piven, 1964

Sandra Bullock, 1964

Kevin Spacey, 1959

Angela Hewitt, 1958

Dorothy Hamill, 1956

Susan George, 1950

Roger Taylor, 1949

Helen Mirren, 1945

Mick Jagger, 1943

Dobie Gray, 1940

Stanley Kubrick, 1928

Blake Edwards, 1922

Jason Robards, Jr., 1922

Vivian Vance, 1912

Gracie Allen, 1902

Aldous Huxley, 1894

Carl Jung, 1875

George Bernard Shaw, 1856

George Catlin, 1796

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Alice In Wonderland(Animated film), 1951

The Babe Ruth Story(Film), 1948

"The Bob Howard Show"(TV), 1948

"Young Widder Brown"(Radio), 1938

Today in History

The first recorded women's cricket match took place near Guildford, England, 1745

The birth of what would later become the United States Post Office Department is established by the Second Continental Congress, 1775

The Surrey Iron Railway, often considered the world's first public railway, opens in south London, 1803

In California, the poet and American West outlaw calling himself "Black Bart" makes his last clean getaway, 1878

Premiere of Richard Wagner's Parsifal at Bayreuth, 1882

Publication of the Unua Libro, founding the Esperanto movement, 1887

United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation), 1908*

King Edward VIII, in one of his few official duties before he abdicated the throne, officially unveiled the Canadian National Vimy Memoria, 1936

The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power, 1945

U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council, 1947

U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military of the United States, 1948

Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution, 1953

Syncom 2, the world's first geosynchronous satellite, is launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster, 1963

The National Assembly of Quebec imposes the use of French as the official language of the provincial government, 1977

A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 1989

Mumbai, India receives 99.5cm of rain (39.17 inches) within 24 hours, bringing the city to a halt for over 2 days, 2005

Over 92,000 classified documents detailing incidents related to the war in Afghanistan are released by Wikileaks in the largest leak in U.S military history, 2010

President of France, Francois Holland finalizes a deal with Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara to forgive $4.7 billion dollars in debt incurred by the Ivory Coast when it was a French Colonial Power, 2012

Great Britain announces it will ban gasoline and diesel cars by 2040, 2017

The Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics publishes findings about the observation of a black hole by a telescope in Chile that proved Albert Einstein’s prediction of gravitational redshift, 2018

Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz makes history becoming the first athlete from the Philippines to win gold at the Olympics, 2021