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JANVIER T. LEE'S Moment of recognition

Do you have newspaper clippings that extol about a relative or friend? Little pieces of ephemera filed away that you occasionally come upon?

I have several, including one about myself, well actually a drawing I did that was published in the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Most of the others are about my dad or mother. I do have one about a friend who was a singer, one of a friend dressed in a bikini for a local department store, and one of a friend winning a prize. Someday someone will find these after I've died and simply toss them. The person featured in the clipping will find that their fleeting moment of "fame" is officially over.

This fellow, Janvier T. Lee, has probably run close to the end of his shelf life. This clipping is in the Montez Lawton scrapbook. Google his name and nothing shows up. Dig a little deeper and I find that he died on March 7, 1989 at the age of 75 in Danville, California. He was born November 11, 1913 in Nebraska. Doing a small amount of math would indicate this clipping appeared in a local San Francisco Bay Area newspaper in 1946.

The store mentioned, Lucky, was a grocery store. Several years ago it went out of business. Then another company bought what was left of it, including the signage, and opened them back up.

I'm fascinated by how much ephemera I have, including photo collections, that belonged to people originally from Nebraska. How did so much ephemera end up from Nebraska in my hands. I can't think of any other state that features as prominently in my collection.

CROSSWORD for a muddled mind

Yesterday I awoke with images of bridges, glasses, and classrooms in my head. This morning? This morning? I found myself mentally repeating over and over again "48 water clubs." Huh? I have no visual memory of the dream, but it took me awhile to stop repeating "48 water clubs." I shook the cobwebs out and decided it was probably best to not ponder this phrase for too long. I'd have preferred a terrifying school dream instead of wondering what 48 water clubs look like and what nefarious plan I had hatched to use them.

Which brings me to another page in the Think-And-Do Book. This little book belonged to Ruth Gray. As you can see she once again got an "A" on this page. I have, however, removed her answers so that you can put your thinking cap on and try to get the "A" that she deserved.

Ready? Pencils in hand? You have 10 minutes. Start...NOW!

Click on image to see it larger.

I HAD A DREAM last night...

...I was just about to walk onto a bridge when suddenly it started to move. The deck began to go up, up, up and I was sliding down, down, down. I know where this came from. I was looking at a photo of a bridge yesterday that was in this position. But then, in the dream, I suddenly realized I was wearing the wrong glasses. I was wearing my cheap computer glasses, not my prescription lenses. AND I was on my way to school? Huh? School? Geez, I thought I was through with those type of dreams. You know, the ones where you can't remember your locker combination or you've somehow managed to NOT go to the class for an entire year and suddenly it's time for the final? Seriously, I sort of thought those dreams went the way of other things in life once I passed through menopause. Alas, no. This one had me freaking out because I had to get to class because indeed, there was a test. Of course there was. So screwy bridge, wrong glasses, test to take. Middle of the night angst!

I have this feeling on my death bed instead of seeing the light I'll simply see a row of lockers and be left thinking, "Oh #!*% I can't remember my combination!" Fade to black.

Click on image to see it larger.

I bought a couple of old elementary school workbooks a few years ago. Nothing great, but when I look at them I can almost step back in time and get glimpses of moments when I sat with my thick pencil clutched in my tiny hand, nose close to the page, drawing circles and arrows around answers. I wish I could see one of those books again. I sort of like getting a whiff of an old moment. Looking at this page I think I might just be back in school tonight in my dreams.

This page is from a book called Think-And-Do Book to Accompany Streets and Roads published by Scott, Foresman and Company in 1946.