End of an Era*

This morning I got a phone call that broke my heart. My brother called to tell me that the City of Memphis has auctioned off the Zippin Pippin. You can read about it here, Historic Zippin Pippin sells for $2,500 - Memphis Business Journal: and here,
http://www.nortonauctioneers.com/Auctions/Libertyland/Libertyland.pdf
(this link just tells about the auction and if you scroll down you can
see a pic of the oldest operating wooden roller coaster in the USA).

A lot of my happiest childhood memories are centered around the Pippin. I remember standing in line for hours to ride it, it was always the first ride on the list when arriving at the Fair or later LibertyLand. It was always ridden more than once during a visit too. Sure the Revolution, or was it the Rebellion, would take you upside down but nothing could compare to the creaks and groans of the Pippin.

One Shriner's day at the fair grounds the Pippin broke down. They told riders they could walk, climb or crawl down but crawling was the easiest. I was on the Pippin at the time with my cousin Charlie. I think this happened in the late 70s. The Pippin still remained at the top of my all time favorite rides list. For those of you reading that don't know what Shriner's Day at the fair grounds is, well it's a day when the park is closed to everyone but the Shriners and their families. My Papaw was a Shriner so we went every year. (Yes for you DaVinci Coders, my Papaw, my dad and my uncle and all the greats before them were Masons.)

My memories of the Pippin were so great that when we finally took our kids to a real amusement park a few years ago, Six Flags New Orleans, the first ride I took my then 7 yr old, who hadn't been on anything other than a baby roller coaster, was the Mardi Gras, a huge wooden roller coaster. Poor kid I almost ruined amusement parks for him for the rest of his life. Fortunately after he got over his initial trauma he wanted to ride it again before we left.

A year or so ago my mother sold her house, the house I grew up in, to my brother, that left me with no "home" to go home to. Now there's no longer a Liberty Land and I never took my kids there, not once.

I hope whoever purchased the Pippin for that measly sum gives it a place of honor somewhere if only for the Elvis connection.

Horror Story

So regular readers of this blog know the sad saga of my Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. Well last night I found the stitch that threw the whole thing off. Holy crap! It's going to be a bigger mess than I anticipated. But after going to bed heartsick last night, I figured out that as long as the top border lines up and the border along the bottom and down each side, I'm not going to worry too much about what's in the middle. I think as long as every thing will fit in the outer square it'll be ok. We're back to the whole lemons and lemonade thing. No way am I starting this over. Absolutely not going to happen. Thanks again to everyone for your encouraging words. Boy have I needed them this week. Nice to know there are people who understand the agony of the miscount, nonstitchers I've whined about this to say, just start over. START OVER! Are they insane?

Recent Reads

A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger

This book was good, read like a novel. Took me two days to read it because life got in the way. I finished it not being sure who killed Bessie Goldberg and wondering if Albert DeSalvo wasn't really the Boston Strangler.

I'm currently trying to finish up Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell. Bushnell is no Jackie Collins but her books remind me a lot of Jackie Collins. You know the main characters are rich, connected to showbiz in one way or another and someone is going to sleep with someone they aren't supposed to be sleeping with. It's not bad and I will finish it hopefully today. My problem is that I'm not sure I "care" what happens to any of the characters. I'm one of those readers that reads to get lost in the story. I'm not lost in this story, I'm not seeing their world, I'm not feeling what they are feeling. When I put this book down, it's the equivilant of putting down a tabloid. I can take it or leave it. I've been leaving it more often than not.

Even though A Death in Belmont was nonfiction, it was written in a way that I cared about the people involved. Not a "just the facts" kind of tale, but one that told the very human side of all the people involved.

Bushnell's characters, hmmm, seem stiff to me if that makes sense. I'm not buying them. I don't think I want to even know them.

Summer Solstice

No pictures of sunrise or sunset and no outdoor shots yesterday at all because I forgot. We grilled out dinner last night, Hawaiian chicken and sirloin burgers(which were turned into swiss mushroom burgers, slurp). Also had some potato salad(I was homesick so tried to duplicate my mom's potato salad could have too if I hadn't forgot to buy celery seed-but it was better than any store bought potato salad), mashed potatoes(for those that think potato salad sucks) and broccoli rice casserole because the house just wasn't hot enough until I turned the oven on for an hour!


*not exactly sure why I originally titled this post End of an Error...other than I believe that selling the Zippin Pippin was a huge error by the powers that be in Memphis or it could have been lack of caffiene......