I FORGOT MY PHOTO

      I took a photo for yesterday's post and then forgot to post it. 

      I took a sky shot just before 10:00 AM to show that the sun is at a very low angle. The sun is so low here that it shines in your eyes and makes driving difficult. 

WINTER SOLSTICE

         Many people look forward to this special day. They say now the days will be getting longer. But, not so fast. From Dec. 19 to Dec  22. day length stays the same unless you want to count the seconds. 

       I do find winter solstice an interesting day. It's interesting that they think ancient  people knew and predicted the winter solstice accurately. I find it interesting that in much of the world people were nomads and lived outdoors. They did not have permanent housing. Since they were outside they could spend time watching the skies. They knew about phases of the moon, stars, comets, northern lights and constellations. 

      When I was a child growing up in the 40's we played outside in the snow after supper. We did not have electricity so  the farmyard was dark. Many days  I can remember watching the skies. I know that I didn't know much about the winter solstice. Many nights were clear and you had a good view of the night skies. We particularly liked the moon as it gave some light to play out doors. 

     We would go outside after supper when Dad would take care of the animals in the barn. The  animals were fed and the cows milked. When we got to be about 8 years old we started milking cows too. 

    I have concerns about the people of today. There is too much light for us to see the skies clearly. People do not spend time outside in the evening. I fear that they will not know much about the night skies as well as the winter solstice. 

    So today, the sun rose at 8:42 AM and set at 4:24 PM for a total  of 7 hours and 41 minutes of daylight.

    It was warmer here today but not because of the solstice. We had a nice sunny plus one Celsius today. 

SCHOOL CONCERTS

     I don't know about your end of the world but here at one time the school Christmas concert was the highlight of the school year. Now I realize that in many areas, Christmas is not celebrated but here it is. There are many traditions. I'm going to tell you about one tradition. 

    When I grew up in the forties, much of western Canada was very rural. Because of methods of transportation and distances, the one room country school was the major school organization. 

    So in these country schools the school Christmas concert was the major event of the year. 

    What's a school Christmas concert? It's a concert put on by the teacher and his/her  students. In the school I went to the highest enrolment was 17. 

                           In this photo I'm the little beaner on the far right  at the bottom. I was in gr one. I have my head twisted .

       In this photo I was in Gr. 3. I'm right behind the teacher on her left. 

    With a combination of music, skits, plays, drills and recitations all students were included in the performance. For these isolated areas it was entertainment and they saw their kids perform. 

    A farmer would go to town and the lumber yard would lend him planks to make a small stage and seats. Stage curtains were made from bedsheets brought from home.

    Finally the big night came and the show went on. All the time there was great excitement as the kids knew Santa Claus would come at the end of the show. They also knew that Mom and Dad were watching as well as the rest of the district. They were nervous. The teacher gave each kid a present and students chose names and gave the kid a present . The school board gave each kid a bag of candies, nuts and an orange. 

     With some good visiting, finally everybody went home

    Many stories about these concerts went on for years. My brother and I were teamed up to do a little drill to music. We were elves and had paper costumes and shoes. During the performance my brother stepped on a tack. When he stopped the routine he said, "I stepped on a tack." Loud enough for the audience to hear. I went over and pulled out the tack and we completed our act. Mom and Dad laughed about this for years. 

    Many schools still have some form of Christmas program but it has changed. There are no small rural  schools anymore.

    So at this time of year I look back at the wonderful Christmas concerts. In my teaching we'd have all kids go to the gym and we had music and then the kids were dismissed for the holidays. So some of the exciting things like Santa Claus didn't happen. 

    Merry Christmas everybody. 

MY FIRST CAR

      I bought my first car in about 1953 in partnership with my brother. It was a 1929 model A Ford. The car was in good condition as it had been driven very little. 

    Now here is where the story starts to sound like my motorcycle story. Neither one of us had a driver's license. The car did not have a license. We did not have insurance. And yet we merrily drove around with our car. The area was remote with few people and little traffic. We avoided driving into the village as it was rumored that there was a town cop in the village. So we drove the country roads with some of our friends.

    Today's weather brought back the memory of my car. Today we had lots of snow and wind. and it was minus 20 C. On a similar day about 71 years ago we decided to go for a drive. These cars did not have heaters. There was no anti freeze so we had to put water in the radiator and hope that the water didn't freeze. There was no snow plow. In the winter everybody put their car in the garage and used their horses for transportation. Only fools decided to use a car. 

   This didn't discourage us from going for a ride. We picked up 2 or 3 friends and made sure that we had some shovels and off we went. The first couple of snow banks we were able to plow through but finally we got stuck. So everybody out of the car and pushed. These cars were not very heavy. We got it out of that snow bank. We got stuck again and had to use shovels to get the car out of the snowbank. 

    Finally we turned around and went back home. I remember feeling exhausted after all the effort to get the car through the snowbanks. 

   Today I stayed in the house and kept warm. For that caper we were outside 3 or 4 hours and enjoyed ourselves. 

CATCHING UP

      A couple of my recent posts were not really complete, As a result I have people asking questions. 

     I should have had a photo of my Christmas cactus so here it is. This plant blooms in November, Christmas and Easter. So it blooms three times a year. There are a variety of colors and times of bloom. A person should really have more than one plant. 

     I have been retired for almost 28 years. I taught for 37.116 years. I did not get full pension as some of my Arctic time was not counted. 

   So this shows that I still have a difficulty with organization. I would being doing a lesson plan after school and suddenly I would see that I should have ordered a film last week. I would go down to Central Office and ask if they would please let me have the film. After a bit of a lecture and wink , wink I would get my film but I had to go down and get it and not get it in the delivery. 

CHRISTMAS CACTUS.

     I have had a Christmas cactus since about 1982. It has gone through some ages and stages. This summer I took it outside for it's annual bath and this year the micro manager insisted that it get a good haircut. So I trimmed it back as it was really overgrown. When Christmas cactus get a short haircut they usually don't bloom that year. Surprise , surprise , there are blooms. The November blooms have just finished and Christmas buds are showing. 

    So life is good. 

    When I came here in 1969, the Vice Principal had quite a few plants in his classroom. He's in the staff photo I shared in the last post. He's second from the left in the second row from the top. He retired in 1982  and guess what ? He had some plants to dispose of. I took them all. There was a very elderly Christmas cactus which didn't do well in the classroom. I kept the plant and found a large pot. When I retired I brought it home and started new plants from the old one    

      By the way, those people wondering which was me in this photo? I'm third from the left in the bottom row. This is a long time ago when I was about 40. 

    Now I'm wondering how long ago this plant was started. 

   Now today I wanted to do some research on the Christmas Cactus. I was very disappointed to find that most of the sites were about sales of Christmas Cactus plants. Commercialization!

    I make sure my cactus sits in the same light all year. They are very sensitive to light and if they are moved from place to place do not bloom very well. 

    So this old cactus is going to have some nice blooms for me at Christmas. 

45 YEARS AGO

     This was the staff I was on 45 years ago. It is hard to believe it was that long ago. 14 of these people have passed away.  When I look back it was a very talented staff. Yes, I am in this photo.