Flashback...grads

Flashback Friday...The Graduate

Someday I will share with you my review and thoughts on this famous movie,
but for now I thought I'd share with you how I've spent at least 32 hours of my life.
Of course, I'm talking about attending graduation ceremonies.

That is a lot of pomp and circumstance, bleacher sitting, name calling and mortar board watching!

And since I owe you a lot of Flashback Fridays...I'll be back with more Graduates.

Directions to here:
ARGH. Tried to load a video still clip of a picture of my graduation day...but stupid blogger is stupid. maybe later. no patience.

Happy and Congrats!

Happy Birthday,

Cody!
...and while I'm at it, another
Congratulations
on graduating from
Ball State!

A day of remembering that.....

This

is what it is all about.

Sacrifices
made by Patriots

so future generations enjoy
Freedom.

Directions to here:
Thanks Sister Susie for the pics and for passing the message onto those young Patroits!

Flashback Friday...last of the Grands

I don't quite know how this is possible....

but Mom and Dad's last Grandchild is going to be marching to pomp and circumstance tonight.

There are more Great Grands to come and Taylor has already been the first of them to graduate, but Shelby is the last of the first tier of Grandkids to finish high school.

I'm sure all eyes above and I know those here below will be proud to see you get your diploma!

Congratulations Shelby!

I didn't make it up.

Got the confirmation from Aunt Mary that I did not make the "Thobut" story up or dream it.
I asked Barb to show Aunt Mary the blog entry and sure enough, Aunt Mary had "the rest of the story."
Turns out it was Aunt Mary that gave Goulash it's alternate name and the Cobb's forever had Thobut instead of Goulash.

Here's what Barb wrote:

"Talked to mom and this the story about "though but." Winfred had scarlet fever and my mom and your mom were sent to stay with Aunt Jess. She made goulash for dinner. Mom had never had it before and really liked it. She said to Aunt Jess, "I really like this. I don't know what it is though but I want some more." Forever after it was called "though but. Didn't know you guys called it that too. I thought it was just a Cobb thing. Don't know how old they were. Winfred died when mom was 7 so had to be sometime before."

So there you have it.
Another story saved by Aunt Mary to pass onto your grandkids.
Now everybody go make some Thobut and tell the story to your kids!

Directions to here:
I'm sorry Sandy, I'm a memory hoarder.
It's my job and duty.

Flashback Friday....Thobut.

One of the wonders of facebook is connecting on a daily basis with friends who were other wise lost due to time and distance away from each other.

I've reconnected with Beth (Scheidt) Carver and the other day she had a post about watching a show where they were serving goulash. She asked does anyone else remember their mom serving goulash and from her disgusted tone, I got the impression that the younger Beth didn't care for her mom's goulash.

It got me thinking to when my mom would make goulash. She always called it "Thobut."

I can't remember exactly how the name came about, but it seems she would tell the story of being young and eating at an Aunt's house. Either Aunt Jess or Aunt Helen Doyle's. I'm pretty sure it was Aunt Jess. They were having goulash. Mom told me that she wanted a second helping and could not remember what it was called. Somehow she said something like, "I don't know what it's called tho, but please pass..." and all Aunt Jess heard was "thobut" and ever on since then, goulash was called Thobut.

Directions to here:
Barb, does Aunt Mary have the scoop on what I may be missing from this story?

She is woman, hear her roar!

In case you didn't see...Mike and Verna had a celebrity encounter in Lafayette:

check out who they ran into here.

I don't know what brought her to Indiana, but here she is at our store...
calling to get directions to the Triple XXX Drive-INN. I think she may be going to the Roller Derby Saturday night.
Or maybe that was her friend, Jim.

Do you remember?

This is a question for my brothers and sisters:

Think back to the kitchen table at 105 W. 181st Ave.

Mom is serving goulash for dinner.

Does anyone remember her calling it "tho-but?"

I can sort of remember the story, but not all of it.

Help?

Directions to here:
F.Y.I.
T.V. Show Madmen?
Same kitchen cabinets : )

Introducing my New Obession

O.M.G.

Look who stopped by on Vinyl night at Half Price Books!

I was spinning Sweet Caroline and in walked Mr. Diamond himself!

I saw a friend's video ('yo Nate !!) where they used album covers as talking heads and it was my brain come to life...I've thought about this idea so long but it never made it out of my head. Then I stumbled across a flickr set of "Sleeve faces" and well, now it's pretty much all I think about when a customer shows up with records to sell..."what great face is gonna be in this stack?"

Fortunantly for me, I have an endless supply of stock coming in daily and more than willing subjects at the store to pose and Vinyl Night on Tuesdays where we can have our photo sessions.

Who knows who might show up this week?!!?

Directions to here:

I hope you like it, cause you are gonna see more!

Flashback Friday....laughing out loud

It is hard work getting beautified, so after we finished up, we all agreed to meet at George's for lunch. Sandy went to her car and Susie and I got in her Tahoe. I pulled the visor down to see what the wind had done to my new doo. I looked to the left and Susie had the look she is giving in the above pic. I looked at her with the same amusement and said: "we both look like our digital haircuts that we laughed so much about last summer!"
We both cracked up at the same time and laughed so hard that we had to wait a minute before driving away. I'm glad that the internet, real life and my family can all make us laugh so much we might just wet our pants!

Fixing Vandercar - Season 1 ~ Episode 1

After recovering from the waxing room it was back to the chair for a few final touches and instructions

(never use a comb and never wash your hair daily).Then back to the wall for the after shots.Before..........................................After

Before
After

Before................After

All in all it was a fun day, full of loads of laughter.

Thanks to Sister Susie for the moral support. Thanks to Lori for fitting us in and for letting us have fun. And thanks to Sandy, the Fixer for making it happen and also treating me to my first visit to C'est Moi!

Thanks for watching!

Directions to here:
Next up:
The color gray, glasses and Blazers.

Commercial Break

Fixing Vandercar - Season 1 ~ Episode 1

After Lori finished up my cut, it was Susie's turn for cutting.

Sandy was impressed with the back of my hair...I had no idea it was so, um, wild looking.






I could never in one million years get my hair to do this...and it only lasted the minute or two that I sat still.

Watching Lori cut hair was truly like watching a painter.

I know there is a method, but she just kind of moves around and snips here and there and then out comes the finished artwork.









And then, just when I thought we were all done...The Fixer (Sandy) and The Teller (Susie), told the Artist (Lori) that the star of the show (Vandercar) was going to the Waxing Room.

After a lot of hemming and hawing on my part and the dispelling of wive's tales on their part, I knew I wasn't gonna get out of it, so I gave the ground rules (I still wanna look like me), sat down in the hot seat and handed the camera over, once again.

There was lots of laughing and telling me that it wouldn't hurt that bad and even hand holding for moral support.







I'll let you be the judge whether I thought it hurt or not!

Then the pros took their turns.

Susie didn't even flinch.
And Sandy smiled thru every second.

...Whatever.

So, there. I survived.
But then was told to "sit back down," I wasn't done. We still needed to do the lip.
"Wait, what?"
"The lip."
"Um."
This is where my new friend, Lori said: "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt as much as the brows."
Believing her, I sat back down.Fortunatly for your amusement and a little show called "Funniest Home Videos," Susie found the video mode on the camera.
Sidenote:
Once when my Dad was in the hospital and kept pulling his oxygen out of his nose, the nurses taped it to his face...virtually taping his mouth shut, making his round cheeks even rounder...and he had a pathetic look in his eyes of "help me." If you look closely at the first few seconds of this video you will see Bob Vandercar's ghost.
So, did you see Lori, my new friend, jumping up and down after I realize how
"it doesn't hurt as much as the brows?"
I point at her and say, "That is not true!"
Off camera, she says: "I lied! I had my toes crossed!!"

Stay tuned for the finale as we wrap up this episode of Fixing Vandercar with the before and after shots!

Commercial Break

Now imagine this doo on a 7 year old!!!

Fixing Vandercar - Season 1 ~ Episode 1 (con't)

Like all reality shows, this is the segment where the dramatic music is cued and the subject talks really low and stifles the urge to cry while telling a secret or a story from their past.

And Fixing Vandercar wouldn't be a reality show without our very own whispered segment.

Here's the back story, minus the tears, cause I've already figured out how it relates to my fears and hopefully have put them to rest. Having said that, however, has not taken away my hesitancy to trust people with implements in their hands when they are near my head.

Many of you know that I was a late comer to the Vandercar family. I can imagine that I cramped my teenage siblings plans once or a thousand times on a friday night when they wanted to go out, but had to babysit their baby sister instead. I also imagine that I was somewhat sort of a baby doll come to life.

As I grew up I remember wanting to be wherever my brothers and sisters were and remember getting to go with them...not realizing that I was probably called a tag-a-long.

I remember going with Sister Susie and her friends to Tony's Drive INN and how I thought Brenda and Marilyn and Susie were so grown up, hip and pretty. As I remember, Brenda was planning on becoming a beautician and all I remember is one day they got it in their heads that they were gonna "set" my hair. There were rollers and a dryer involved and the whole beauty shop process and when they finished I looked like a tiny person with very BIG hair. (think bouffant). Now, many of you know that by this time in my young life, I was probably more comfortable in a Cubs hat and no shoes or shirt than a fru fru hairstyle.

So the big girl curls freaked me out.

I did NOT know what the term "SET" meant when it came to hair-doos and I had KNOW idea that when I washed my hair, the curls would disappear.
So, you can imagine me...when I finally got alone and went to bed that night, I laid my head on the pillow and instead of wearing the hairnet that keeps the hair doo tidy, I pressed my head into the pillow as hard as I could and spent the better part of the night...pressing my hair down to my head with my arms and hands. I put my head under the pillow, on top of the pillow, anything to flatten my hair back to the dutch boy cut that I was used to. Of course, I'm sure the next day I looked like a wreck. I don't remember the relief that came from washing it and it returning to normal, I only remember the anxiety that came from being torn between wanting to be with my sister and her friends and the fear that they would keep using my head for hair practice!

So there. That is the story of my early hair care. And why I might flinch if you innocently try to straighten a stray hair on my head.

See no crying.
Well, at least not yet.

Commercial Break

Fixing Vandercar - Season 1 ~ Episode 1 (con't)

Sister Susie was getting highlights, so she was first up in the shampoo room and then onto the chair.
While waiting, I got a better look around the place and found these things to be very cool: lights, boots and the upside down Christmas tree! Then it was Susie's turn to wait.
While her color did it's magic, I took my turn in the shampoo room.
It was there that Lori and I decided that I will move to Lowell and open up a book/coffee shop across the street in what was Nellie Jane's (another bank building, I believe) and we will do cross promotions for each other's business! Oh, and we'll be neighbors too, cause I'll get an apartment in the upstairs of one of the buildings downtown. (please, pay no attention to my oversized neck in this picture).

Then it was onto the chair where Sandy and Susie watched Lori go to work!

This is where I'm telling Lori my first memory of getting my hair "done."
Which tho innocent enough, probably scarred me for life and made me wary of "beauticians."
Watching Lori work, tho, I was starting to relax and see that there is a difference between a person who cuts hair and a stylist. This girl, is an artist!

THEN, just when I was RELAXED..
I heard Sandy, the fixer,
say the word

WAX.

Stay tuned for the visit to the unexpected room where my new found confidence in the beauty business gets put to the test.

Commercial Break