MEET HARRIETTE THOMPSON...

running full speed through life!

At the age of 76 Harriette Thompson made her marathon debut. Now fifteen years later she just finished the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon as its oldest competitor, setting a new record in her age group of 7 hours and 7 minutes. 

She trains, running loops around the small lake in back of her retirement community in Charlotte, North Carolina.

With no arthritis in her hands, knees or feet she says she only feels her age after a race. 

"Some young girls come in limping. At least I don't feel that bad."

Harriette first began running to accompany a friend who was "walking" for leukemia and lymphoma. 

Because some of her friends had suffered from cancer she took on the challenge, generating more than $90,000

The mother of five and the grandmother of 10 she has lived a "grand life" as a classically trained pianist. 

Harriette was a soloist with several symphony orchestras around the world and played three times at Carnegie Hall. 

She sailed across the Atlantic with her children, relocating to Vienna where she infused them with culture and taught them a new language. 

Still passionate about her music, it fills the halls of the retirement home she shares with her husband Sydnor. Her 9-foot, 6-inch Bösendorfer piano that once sat on the stage of the Vienna Concert House, now sits by the window of her living room.

Harriette Line Thompson a truly remarkable woman!

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Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/05/26/4934622/at-91-harriette-thompson-taking.html#.U40FN_ldXa4#storylink=cpy

FATHERHOOD... lucky kids!

my son and his daughter

Even though Father's Day is a couple of weeks away, I just couldn't resist sharing this video.  Everyone should have a dad like this :)

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I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS...

I spent some time this weekend reading about Maya Angelou. What an example of perseverance and becoming a better version of one's self. 

All that I listened to were in awe of her very essence. She morphed from a life filled with pain to a truly beautiful human being. She makes me want to try harder to be more gentle and forgiving and less self-serving!

I Know why the Caged Bird Sings 

Maya Angelou

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind
and floats downstream till the current ends
and dips his wing in the orange suns rays and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage
can seldom see through his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.” 

Still I Rise

Maya Angelou

Her words and her example will live on...

"Become somebody's rainbow in the clouds"

Have a beautiful and blessed Sunday

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THE LOVE OF LEARNING ...

"The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, and all the sweet serenity of books."     

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

School is out, its such a bitter/sweet time. I look forward to summer and all that it offers but I will miss the kids, the magic of teaching and the moments when the "joy of learning" happens for me.


As my own children progressed through school I was voracious about what they were learning. My youngest took AP English and I followed along, reading everything he talked about. I cried as I finished John Steinbeck's The Red Pony. It was a wrenching moment when Billy Buck makes the ultimate sacrifice to keep his promise to Jody. 

Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" left me in awe at his skill as a writer. How could he say so much without saying what he was talking about?

This was my first year teaching 6th grade math.  I knew I was in for a "ride"  I finally understood where Pi came from and how to use it.

I was good with geometric solids and finding the area of parallelograms and triangles but then I had to teach them how to multiply positive and negative numbers.  That's simple until you get to ....  negative x negative = positive

I remember learning this. I did the process but I never understood the "why"  I asked everyone of my fellow teachers. They just repeated to me a negative x negative = positive.  I know that but why???  "Just do it"  they said.


I went to my son who gave me the very lengthy mathematical explanation which I completely did not understand.


Then... I "googled" it and this is what I found...






If I said to you "Don't eat that"  that's a negative.
If I said to you, "Don't, don't eat that" it is a double negative that means  EAT IT!  (a positive) In that context I got it and going down that "rabbit hole" was fun.


After lots of coaxing, all the lost and overdue library books have been  accounted for except one, a little picture book titled, Galileo's Treasure Box. 

As I looked at the title I thought ... I know who Galileo is. Then the little voice in my head said... 
"Yeah, so what do you know about him?" Once again I googled it. Oh my word... so interesting.

Galileo was the father of modern astronomy and modern physics. He did not invent the telescope but he improved it and was the first to use it to study the stars. He showed us that there was much more going on in the heavens than anyone suspected. 

He observed the four largest moons circling Jupiter that are now referred to as "Galilean moons" and showed us that our earth is NOT the center of the universe.

He made contributions to the law of inertia, developed the first pendulum clock (quite a feat since previously there was no accurate way to keep time) and directly influenced Newton's work on gravity by showing that any two objects of varying weight, if dropped from the same height will hit the ground at the same time. This was very radical thinking in his day and in direct opposition to the teachings of Aristotle.

Is there a point to all this?  YES!  Learning is fun and being a lifelong learner makes the future exciting and mysterious.

There is so much out there... I never want to be too old to learn something new!

Enjoy this 3 minute mini biography about Galileo...

THE LAND GIRLS of WW II

It is fitting that we set aside Memorial Day to honor those who fought bravely and unselfishly in preserving freedom. Their stories fill us with gratitude. There is, however, a story, seldom told but truly remarkable, one that was vital to our success in World War II.  

It is the story of 

THE WOMEN'S LAND ARMY

Picture from the 1998 movie THE LAND GIRLS

 

We often think of "Rosie the Riveter" as the icon for the American women's contribution to the war, but in addition to those efforts there was an army of three million women who served on the agricultural front in the United States and in England. 

With so many men gone, the workforce on farms was small and food was getting scarce. Young women flocked to the country, ensuring "Freedom from Want" at home while our soldiers were fighting for victory abroad.

In the UK, Lady Trudie Denman convinced the agricultural board to set up radio broadcasts, calling for young able women to leave their city lives and move to the country to work the land. By 1944 there were over 80,000 young girls who responded. The majority were "country girls" but over a third came from London and industrial cities of northern England.

The American recruits were mostly high school and college students. They worked long hours driving tractors, tending crops, harvesting, catching rats, milking cows, raising live stock and even shearing sheep. 

Most farmers initially opposed women working their land. Out of necessity those in the Midwest and South yielded, employing hundreds of thousands. Those in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains resisted and suffered great agricultural and financial losses. 

THEIR UNIFORMS
 

2 short sleeved shirts

1 green pullover

2 pairs of socks

1 pair of shoes

1 bib and brace overall

1 hat

1 pair of rubber boots

1 long (very thin!) Mackintosh for the winter

At 25 to 40 cents an hour, money was not the attraction. They came to support the war effort and in the end they proved themselves an indispensable brigade of hard workers. 

Our GI's may have won the war but the women
 "kept the home fires burning"

WOMEN'S LAND ARMY SONG

(Women's Lad Army Song)

Back to the land, we must all lend a hand.

 To the farms and the fields we must go.

There's a job to be done,

Though we can't fire a gun

We can still do our bit with the hoe...

Back to the land, with its clay and its sand,

Its granite and gravel and grit,

You grow barley and wheat

And potatoes to eat

To make sure that the nation keeps fit...

We will tell you once more

You can help win the war

If you come with us - back to the land

"CLASSY GIRLS WEAR PEARLS" ...
a blog I love!

There are plenty of blogs out there where women, young and older, dress up in beautiful clothes and have their pictures taken. But there is one that I return to again and again. Last week it finally dawned on me why I am completely captivated by this blog.  

Meet Sarah Vickers, a young woman who loves preppy fashion, her fiancée Kiel and her home state of Rhode Island with its easy access to some great New England destinations.

I love this Lilly Pulitzer dress!

Sarah's blog "Classy Girls Wear Pearls" sports 26,000 likes on Facebook, 115,000 followers on Instagram and over 3,500 direct followers to her blog.

So what's the attraction? Its really not that complicated but it IS BRILLIANT!

#1 Location, location, location

Every post finds Sarah and company in an amazing location. From the Kentucky Derby to a New England ocean side vista, to Ashford Castle in Ireland, she Kiel and a handful of friends take us on a visual tour of some of the most beautiful, and historic destinations on the East coast and beyond. You might say its a "travel blog" fronted by fashion.

 They look like they are in an Agatha Christa novel

#2 Sarah is a beautiful girl ...

with a great shape and classic good taste in clothes. She wears everything from Lilly Pulitzer's dresses to iconic Christmas sweaters. Some I'm sure she has purchased but many are sent to her by advertisers. Either way, its fun to watch a normal girl, not a model, with her own sense of taste and fashion. She mixes vintage with contemporary, looking chic but never vulgar or immodest.  She "rocks it" 

#3 And then there's the romance!

When her blog started Sarah and Kiel were boyfriend and girlfriend... now he is her fiancée and she sports a beautiful ring.

Everyone loves a good love story. Theirs is in pictures with almost no commentary. That leaves us, the readers, to fill in the details. Oh the imagination can take us to such fun places.

I'm waiting for the "big day"  I'd love to see her in a wedding dress walking down the aisle with a little piece of New England history in the background.

So... there you have it, a blog about fashion, love and travel. Its like watching a romantic movie without the sound and very, very few subtitles. I have no idea what is really happening behind the scenes but it is fun to vicariously re-live my 20s watching and loving Sarah's blog! 

Excuse me... I need to go and adjust my pearls!

http://www.classygirlswearpearls.com

BRING HIM HOME (from Les Misérables) - ThePianoGuys 

 

ENJOY!