Advent Calendar - December 1, The Hilarious Christmas Tree

I tell you, when we lived in Singapore my family had the most hilarious Christmas tree ever! It was made entirely of plastic. It was white, however, had a hint of blue to it. The branches were hilarious too. They were covered in snowflakes for the leaves. It was supposed to look like a tree with snow on it. It looked the very best at night with all the house lights off and the christmas tree lights on and of course with all the presents underneath it. It worked for us all of the six years we lived there.

I wish I had a picture of it to show you.

Talented Tuesday - My Grandpa the Ventriliquist

This is my Grandpa, Willis Harold Lyon in September of 1955, three months before I was born. Just recently this picture was uncovered from a box in the attic and I was so happy. Up until then there were no pictures of Oscar the dummy that I had seen or of Bud, Grandpa's second dummy.



So here is Oscar. My Grandpa went around to schools all over the country and gave temperance lectures to high school students about the effects of alcohol and ciggaretts speaking through Oscar and Bud. Oscar was the dummy that was not addicted to these, but Bud was an addict, a rambling drunk and he smokeed cigarettes. I wish I had a picture of Bud so show you. He was a bigger guy that wore a hat and an old overcoat and beat up shoes.



When us girls would spend the night at our Grandparents home a couple of us slept in the basement. Sometimes when I came up the stairs during the night I was scared out of my mind because Bud was standing there!



My Grandpa did a good job at his craft and really enjoyed the students. Unfortunately, Oscar was made of wood so did not survive the years. He had been eaten by termites . He was kept in a suitcase. I remember the suitcase. But what happened to Bud? I'll need to ask my Dad.



Yes these are fond memories.........

Super Sister Sunday - Indonesia

This picture is one of my favorites that consists of myself (on the left) and my eldest sister Nancy although we did not realize at the time it was taken it would someday be a favorite.

Here is the story. We lived in Bandung, Indonesia at the time. We were 8 and 9 years of age. Our mom would send us away in a "betcha" or rickshaw to take piano lessons from a nice Indonesian woman. Nancy remembers that day was really rainy and dreadful, but we went on the ride and took the lessons anyway.

The piano teacher had a son called "Sinchepu", a teenager, who was enthralled with us. While we waited for the other one to complete lessons he would show us weird things. Like, the

Indonesians would take a rubber band and rub it back and forth on their arms to remove the hair. It really hurt! Bad!

Sinchepu had a camera so on this day he decided he wanted to pose Nancy and I so he could take our picture. We were not in the mood, and ordinarily would not have posed like that but we let him anyway, therefore the non-smiling picture. He was very proud to give us the picture the next time we went for our lessons. Somehow it made it back to the U.S. with us and it has become a favorite of mine.