General topics.

No one ever comes to our door, or in our neighborhood.
Still, that's a good reminder that there are gremlins out there.
When I woke up this morning, it was a surprise that this was halloween!

If anything happens, they will get marshmallow rice crispies snacks, fig newton bars, or individual apple juice or grape juice boxes. But those are for our emergency go-bags. 🐤😱👌

I wasn't planning on opening up for Halloween this year but when I was cooking supper the doorbell rang and like a dummy I answered - of course it was trick or treaters. Geez, no pumpkins or lights or anything and I never get more than a dozen kids, why did they come to my door? I handed out a few chocolate eyeballs from my personal stash but I only have a few more left 😯

Well, we could all say hello to Ms. Madge, hoping that she herself is well and did not lose her job due to Covid.

Hi Ms. Madge! We understand if you are no longer posting, but thought you to be a really good person. Miss you!

She hasn't posted in a long time Barb and I sure do miss her contributions and hearing about the Viking.I hope she's doing alright~

No. Not for several months.

Nope!

Has anyone heard from Ms. Madge?

I love to visit antique shops. Once I found the identical red metal cash register that I loved as a kid. I played store with my fake money all the time.

I asked the salesperson to check the price for me. It was $75! I didn’t buy it but it brought back fond memories.

Just think if we would have kept all of our vintage toys, some are quite valuable today. Nothing was made out of junky plastic.

All of my brother’s Tonka trucks were metal. I loved playing with those too. Oh, the Lionel train sets were awesome and they are certainly collector items. So are the Barbie dolls. I had the original one. I didn’t have her dream house though. I did have Skipper, the little sister. I didn’t want Ken. Hahaha, he was dorky. I much preferred my brother’s G. I. Joe. He was cool!

My brother and I loved yo yo’s growing up. He was older and could do all the tricks.

My grandmother had a top like that, maybe two, and they were fun! I wonder what happened to them 🤔

Don’t know that game either. Who had a wooden top with the string that you wound up? Loved mine! I was good at spinning a top. I loved my ball and jacks too. Oh, and bubbles! Paddle ball thing, too.

I was horrible with a yo-yo. My brothers could do all the yo-yo tricks. I was a jump rope and hula hoop kid! A rubber ball! My baby dolls. The disappearing milk bottle! My tea set. Tiddly Winks! Spirograph! Etch a Sketch.

My grandpa built me stilts and I loved those too. I could skateboard but not roller skate! Best of all were large empty appliance boxes that could be turned into a fort. That was awesome! My huge live oak tree in my backyard to climb too. Of course, my bicycle.

I miss old fashioned toys. Everything shouldn’t require batteries or electricity. We had fun toys!

I played and saw a lot of classic board games growing up. Checkers, chess, Chinese checkers, backgammon. Never heard of or saw a crokinole game. My nephews and niece like to learn new games, I may get a game as their Christmas present, and learn it. They play a lot of games in their house, have a weekly game night.

Ever seen the popular (in Asian countries) game called Go? I was watching this documentary, where an AI bot beat the world's top Go player. The game is several thousand years old, and there are something like millions of possible plays, but it's very simple to learn.

I just thought it was a fascinating game. The documentary is called AlphaGo, I think, and you can watch it for free on YouTube and other places.

crokinole, looked it up on YouTube. We had a wooden board thAt was a checkerboard on one side and reversed to crokinole. Never played it or even knew what it was. Played lots of checkers though and I had started to learn to play chess.

It's a game where you take turns flicking little disks closest to the centre to try to score the highest points.... oh gosh, it's hard to describe....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud301ESDfeE

This video makes it sound kind of dull 🤣

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crokinole

Okay, I give up, what is crokinole?

Me!!!

I've been looking through the holiday flyers delivered today (already?!😲) and spied some more Canadiana - How many of you know what crokinole is and grew up playing it?

Barb,

Oh my gosh! Sounds like my cousin! She would run outside of the doctor’s office when she saw a needle. My aunt couldn’t find her. She was hiding under a stairwell. Hahaha 😂. Oh boy, did she get punished for that, along with the shot that she was afraid of!

Sounds like your grandson knows what he doesn’t want to tolerate!

Guess what? My youngest kid was like that too! Her teachers would tell me that her determination would take her far in life later on.

My response was, well maybe so, but she is driving me crazy now, giving me gray hair and taking years off of my life! Hahaha 😂.

She ended up being a top student because she was so determined in her approach.

She was also very competitive in everything she did, lead roles in drama. She loved being center stage at the theatre camps that she participated in.

She adored the oil paintings on my walls and decided she could do that too! I had to find an art studio for her to attend. When I gave her Crayola water colors to paint with she complained. She won art contests at eight years old, beating out high school kids!

So look out! You’ve got a strong willed grandson with a mind of his own. He’s going to be a leader, not a follower which is a good thing!

"BarbBrooklyn,"

That's too funny - "out of the mouths of babes" as they say!

So what will he be like when he IS 40????

My 8 year old grandson had a consultation with an orthodontist yesterday. He was a bit anxious about it, as he doesn't like people doing things to his mouth (he has his dad's weak teeth and has quite a bit of work for a kid his age).

The ortho looked, looked at his films and "watchful waiting" was decided upon. Kid gets out of the chair and says "that's IT? We drove half and hour and that's it? Geeeeez....."

8 going on 40, we like to say.

Freq,

Ahhhh, so similar to me. I adored my MIL. She died far too young, 68.

I struggled for a bazillion years to have a baby. My parents or in-laws never pushed us to have kids. I do see others doing that with their children.

Anyway, we adopted our first daughter, then 7 years later...surprise! I was pregnant! Both of my girls are miracles! All babies are miracles.

My brother’s ex wives remain close to my mom, all three of them! LOL They still send Mother’s Day and birthday cards!

It used to hurt me terribly when people asked, “When are you going to have kids?” I never ask anyone that. No one knows what they are going through. Plus, not everyone chooses to have children and that is perfectly fine.

Polar,

Yes, but these people are specifically naming their child after the virus. It’s crazy!

All corona viruses are called that because their appearance looked crown like to scientists, we've all seen the pictures. And the proper name of the virus is now SARS- CoV-2, the disease it causes is COVID-19 (like HIV causes AIDS)

NHWM - Corona means crown in Spanish and Latin. I think it's pretty. I don't know who came up with that name for the virus, that person shouldn't have. Anyhow, the proper name for the virus is COVID 19. I hope no one names their baby that. But you never know, some crazy people just might.

The grand-baby thing reminded me of my ex-mother-in-law. I just loved her, in fact, liked her better than my own Mom :P

Anywho, she kept pushing about grand-children to us. Once I found out I couldn't have any children, the next time she hinted about grand-children, I told her "I hope you love us even if we don't have children". She never mentioned it again.

Even after her son and I divorced [after 20 yrs], his Mom and I were best friends forever until she passed in her 90's. She always brighten my day with her sense of humor.

Yep, lots of new babies! I even heard that some are being named Corona! How awful for them.

I heard of 4 people in my neighborhood that recently gave birth to a baby boy

Bridger,

Funny! It does happen. Some people really get the grandparent bug!

Pam,

She has a right to be picky! Good for her!

Her current boyfriend’s mom is nice for the most part. She is hoping to have a grandchild though. Hahaha

My daughter broke up with a guy a couple of years ago too because his mom kept interfering and she wasn’t nice! The guy was a jerk! He was looking for a gal to cater to his every whim! That isn’t my daughter!

She wasn’t nice to my daughter because my daughter refused to baby her son like she did!