Elegance...

Veronica Lake

Fashion fades, only style remains the same.

Coco Chanel

One Kitten, Two Kitten...

Elizabeth Taylor

We have a new batch of kittens--the first in a long time--that are exactly one week old today. There are five of them and we're pretty sure there are three girls and two boys.

We've never really been cat people in our family...my grandfather has always hated cats...I mean hated cats, so growing up my dad, being the typical boy and wanting to be just like his daddy, hated cats too. It wasn't until we moved here to our small farm and got a few of our own outdoor cats that he realized how nice they can be. I would still say we are dog-people, but I do really love my kitties. There's just something about a week old kitten that crawls right up into your heart and...you just can't help liking the sweet small things.

You'll have to help me think of some ideas for names for them. Right now they are nameless...and even though I'm not sure which ones or how many we're going to keep, I just hate the thought of it. *smile* We've had such a wide variety of names for our cats over the few years we've been here we've just about run out of ideas at the moment. We've had half-way normal sorts of names like Willum (and his namesake, Wilhemina), to the down-right silly ones like CryBaby, to the whimsical, taken from a beloved childhood storybook, Violet Pickles...

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks to You...

Just a note to let you know that I'm still here...

I've been so busy lately I haven't had a chance to post the good, newsy, thoughts-of-my-soul, sort of post I've been longing to. I love to hear from you...for me, there is nothing quite like the thrill I get when I see an email proclaiming "you have received a new comment" sitting in my inbox waiting for me. The honest-to-goodness reason I have comment moderation enabled is not because I am worried about inappropriate comments, but is because I am afraid of missing one! *blushes*

I'll be sharing more about my life soon...you can count on it! Even if I'm the only one reading it, it does wonders for my soul to tap out the thoughts that are stirring in my head and refuse to be quieted; it's somehow heartening to see them neatly typed out and in print.

Thank you so much for the support and encouragement you continually give to me! Truthfully, I've considered abandoning my blog a good many times...mostly because of how time consuming it can be, and as embarrassing as it sounds, if I get an idea in my head that my writing is boring and not up to par, or that I have no one caring to read, I can easily get discouraged and think that it's not worth the effort. I'm always encouraged to keep going, though, by your sweet comments...I think I'd really miss writing here if I ever decided to stop. Who knew blogging could be so much fun?

Much love,
Emily

War Posters...

I stumbled across these lovely posters from World War II the other day and I thought you might enjoy seeing them as much as I did. These are all aimed towards the women left behind and cover a wide variety of topics, from keeping up the morale of deployed soldiers to getting a war job, and I have to say, they certainly have me convinced! *smile*

Isn't she lovely? The look on her face is perfect and I really like her blue uniform.

It's probably the romantic in me talking, but don't you just love the scene depicted in this poster?

This is my definite favorite out of the bunch.

I think they perfectly captured an ideal American woman of the time.

Beautiful, patriotic, faithful, and hardworking...what more could you want?
(And don't you just love her red scarf?)

I enjoyed seeing this poster from the Ladies Auxiliary, promoting letter writing to keep up the morale of the soldiers. I treasure war letters (especially those from WWII) and since I enjoy corresponding with a few of the modern day counterparts to these American military men, this poster was doubly special to me.

This is terrible...but something about the phrasing of this poster makes me want to giggle! Can't you just hear them reading this in a husky, dramatic tone?

I really like this one, except for the fact that the women look almost exactly alike except for their hair. Were they supposed to, or was the artist just a bit on the unimaginative side?

Curly Top...

Shirley Temple

Isn't she simply darling?

Guess and Guess Again...Answers...

Here are, in order, the remaining three movies that Sarah's "Guess and Guess Again" quotes came from.

* * * * * *

#5 The Long, Hot Summer (1958)

"I made plans, Will, matrimonial plans."

"Now you ain't ever heard me say the word matrimony."

"Well, now, I'm willing to overlook that."

Paul Newman is Ben Quick in this 1958 movie that accurately captures that lazy summer feeling. Ben Quick is a man not liked by many. Run out of several towns after complaints that he was the one setting fire to neighborhood barns, he meets the Varner girls as he starts his life all over again in a new place with a whole set of new people. Clara (Joanne Woodward, Newman's future wife) and Eula Varner (Lee Remick) "belong" to Will Varner (Orson Welles, their father/father-in-law), the big man in town who just happens to own most everything in it. He owns a big white house and when he wants something he expects it to be done.

Both men are cut out of the same cloth and strike up an odd sort of friendship. Ben, ambitious and willing to do anything to get where he wants to go, and Will, pushy and too used to getting his own way, are soon plotting and scheming all sorts of hi-jinks.

* * * * * *

#6 A Place in the Sun (1951)

"I'll go on loving you for as long as I live."

"Love me for the time I have left. Then, forget me."

Montgomery Clift is brilliant as George Eastman in this 1951 movie. Also starring Elizabeth Taylor (as Angela Vickers), Shelley Winters (as Alice Tripp), and Anne Revere (as Hannah Eastman). George visits a wealthy uncle who had promised him a job opportunity in his large factory, and though he does receive the job, his uncle promptly forgets all about him.

George then falls hard for Angela, a high society girl who is beautiful and charming, but who doesn't take the least notice of him. There is Alice, though. A drab, fellow factory worker who, it is plain to see, thinks George is simply wonderful.

It's interesting to see this story develop; to witness how what might have been a beautiful love story for the characters, ends up being a sad, intriguing story, filled with "what-could-have-been's", as it takes a dark turn when each character simply doesn't notice what the situations really are, or forsakes their morals.

* * * * * *

#10 Ballad of a Soldier (1959)

"He might have become a farmer,

or a great doctor, or a wonderful father.

Who knows what such a boy had it in him to be?

But he was, and will remain forever in our memory - a soldier, a hero, and our friend."

Ballad of a Soldier is a sweet Russian film made in 1959. It tells the story of Aloysha, a nineteen year old boy serving in the Russian army during World War II, and Shura a girl he meets on his journey home to fix his mother's roof...

I wrote a review for this movie previously...if you would like to read the rest of it, you can see it here.

And So We Remember...

The pages of the calendar have flipped past and Memorial Day has come again. On this day, more so than other days, my thoughts have turned with gratitude to the men and women who gave their lives so that we may be free. How can I ever express what I truly feel in my heart?

I see them in my mind, one long, seemingly never-ending line marching past as far as the eye can see. Soldiers of all classes of life, of all races, with all sorts of unique interests and lifestyles, all united by the stark, terrible, reality of death. Death too soon, too sudden. These are the men and women who made America great.

If we forget where we have come from, where will we be? If we forget our soldiers, we forget a piece of ourselves. At the end of the day, the lives that were lost, the blood that was shed, and all of the pain and sorrow will have been for nothing--will have been pointless--if we let their memory die. The dead have paid the ultimate price, and they deserve no less. I value my freedom and my rights so much and I don't think there is a day that goes by without my thinking of the men and women who enabled me to have them. I want to live my life in a way that will honor them. I want to live my life in a way they never had a chance to. If we forget...who will remember them?

Their words whisper to us across the decaying effects of time...and remind us that we've forgotten how much we really have to be thankful for. The very least we can do is support our soldiers. We owe it to them and all those who went before them.

In reality, my feet never touched the manicured lawn of a cemetery today. I don't have any close relatives with military honors to mourn. But in my heart I knelt at the foot of a forgotten soldier; I stood on Mount Suribachi where that immortal flag was raised; I reverently roamed the beaches of Normandy where the blood of so many was spilled. And I wept. With gratefulness and real sorrow. I may not have known these soldiers, but they are my heroes just the same.