Another pie, not just another day; My luve's like; Shout-out from Maureen Dowd; New Yorker cover; Prayer flags

this week from Dee's oven

^,^

Robert Burns
(Aye, 1794)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_96v_SFEz6E

O my Luve's like a red, red rose, 
That's newly sprung in June: 
O my Luve's like the melodie, 
That's sweetly play'd in tune. 

As fair art thou, my bonie lass, 
So deep in luve am I; 
And I will luve thee still, my dear, 
Till a' the seas gang dry. 

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, 
And the rocks melt wi' the sun; 
And I will luve thee still, my dear, 
While the sands o' life shall run. 

And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve! 
And fare-thee-weel, a while! 
And I will come again, my Luve, 
Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile!

^,^



Some not so good news

"Yes, Sarah, (we're) giving you a shout-out!".......

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/opinion/sunday/sarah-palin-saves-feminism.html

^,^

^,^

But some good news:

First Congo is back in camels

[Word on the sands  we've heard :

This renewal of the ancient camel figurine came about by
Dave Bruning's making a new mold over their adult
son John's old Sunday School Nativity figurine.

These sets last and last.  Painted by the SS kids
they tend not to be thrown away.

The one above is either Lee's or Erin's camel
which was not done in intricate colour, but...
a small child did it.]


^,^


End of yuletide Tibetan Pray flags

As our Christmas tree returns to the storeroom
here at the Odd Fellows
The emphasis on the vast ceiling height
afforded by the high tree in our window

is a task taken up by a string of prayer flags
attached to the ceiling fan-dusting 3-section
bamboo fish pole presented by downtown friend
Tom Hekkers.  It came from his cabin. 

The assembly stands behind a chair with the much-used
Jean Means quilt thrown over the back.
The pieces for the lap-robe came fron pieces of blue-jean
material left over from her purse-making.

The shapes  of the scraps pick up the flag theme.

(Photo done with the 'painting' setting on the camera.)

"Give a man a fish and feed him for a day.

Give a man your fish pole and allow him to dust his high ceiling

fan forever, or until transciency ends."

^,^

Another day, not JUST another pie; Out of my gourd, and into; Old Man River

Dee does another winner this week:

^,^

Gourds grown on home-made trellis in back yard on Arcadian Ave.

These are called Long Neck Bottle Gourds.

The one in right forefront became a playable horn

which is played still.  These shots were taken here

at the Odd Fellows this past week.

Name a tune, we can play it,

including Old Man River, This is my Father's World,

ad infinitum.

KD Cat gives it a try.

^

^,^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s

Paul Robeson
from Showboat 1936

(Happy birthay to Todd Herdt)

She directs SRN att'n to pot of gold; Fox close-up; KD wants breakfast; Products that sell and don't; Maria, ave

On her day off, after
 she baked a cherry pie

shw dug through her bathroom pile of unread Sunday New York Times 

and asked why I didn't comment on the page she ripped out

about New York's Gingko leaves in Central Park?

Wow, I'd somehow missed this in the 12-13-15 edition!

See this NYT video

on ace photog weekly Bill Cunningham's gingko/fashion page

saved by Dee:

http://www.nytimes.com/video/fashion/100000004089383/bill-cunningham-pot-of-gold.html

Watching and listening to Lee's crackling candle
in a gold effect

^,^

Tongues may signify hunger:

Close-up nature video

sent by a reader:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/fdSVp9GFeS4?autoplay=1&rel=0

Daily at 5 AM
KD expects her
breakfast

She
has an alarm 
for rousing us
from our sleep

A series of
jingle bells
sit atop the dresser

she starts with a little one
to get our attention, but if 
that doesn't work
she works her way up 
to knocking down

the whomping big sleigh bell

we usually then get up
and feed her

^,^

https://mpowerd.com/shop

^,^

Other new products
(that did not make it big)

The Happy Cooker

WELDED
FROM A BASEMENT TWO-BURNER GAS STOVE
OF AN ERA WHEN THE OWNER HEATED HER WASH WATER
- AS IT STOOD (SHORTER),
CLOSE TO THE MAYTAG WRINGER WASHER.

(schematic)

IT WAS TO HAVE
a mixed-media head
fashioned with papier-mache  over a balloon.
The features were to be happy.

The phrase Happy Cooker
was to be emblazed across the wings.

But orders did not  flow as we'd hoped.

We do have the original copper boiler here at the Odd fellows,
which we use as a wood box for our electric fireplace,

AND
the now-famed but out of production
* Whistling Tea kettle *
with genuine old-time whistle (loud-blowing when water boils).

(Both orig. items NFS.)

More on the kettle:

http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-is-it.html

Raccoon editor slices through steel like butter

^,^

(Danke  Tom Bentz)
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/PpjBOmJUahs?rel=0

Son provides crackle; Erin = 30; R. Mocs concl. (maybe)

Son provides crackle

Knowing as he surmises how much I miss the real fireplace at 517

Leland this Xmas presented me with a unique candle that offers the sound

of a real fire.

The flame travels verly slowly from side to side, nearly imperceptibly

as the candle flame makes its transit, wick to wick.
A crackling sound is heard.

This along with my miraculous elecric stove

(with the dancing flames projected onto a translucent screen

via a turning foil brush hidden inside

and lit by an invisible 40 W bulb)

now has me believing easily that I have a real fire going

with just the flick of a switch and the striking of a match.

To walk away from it all afterwards I simply switch the stove off

and blow out the candle.

No ashes to clean up, as simple as can be.

The real look, the real warmth, and NOW the sound.

Plus there is an evergreen scent.  Thanks, Lee!

Who could ask for anything more?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnVl5zKY5-M

Lee picks out his tap shoes at Milw. east side's  famous Trep Art.
Percussion has always been his thing.

^,^

Lee, once really short, looms 'normal plus' with his sister and Ben

at Odd Fellows Xmas 2015.

^,^

Erin

 Turned

 30

on Jan. 5, 1916

So Dee decided to go into the jamb-packed storeroom

for 30 items that traveled with us when we

moved downtown to the Odd Fellows Hall

in Apr. 1010.

Erin, upon opening her tightly packed box,

exclaimd that she had no idea some of this stuff

still existed.

The spoon above for her to use as a baby

was made from a spoon fron the kitchen drawer

and a stick of wood out near the bughouse.

I gave it some shape for her little hands to grasp.

It got used by Erin as she sat in her high chair 

and  it got washed -

many many times.

Now the spoon greeted her on her 30th.

It's the kind of remembering girl Dee was and is.

Erin and Lee asleep on way home from Walworth Co. Fair, 1989

Erin's early exposure to music

listening to ukelele and  kazoo

It took.

Is a member of Vento Winds currently, an Appleton WI community orchestra.
She minored in music at Lawrence U.  there.




http://www.ventowinds.org/

^,^


Ref. last Sat.'s Raccoon

the Russell Moccasins came back resoled
as good as new:

moc·ca·sin

ˈmäkəsən/

noun

plural noun: moccasins

1. 1.

   a soft leather slipper or shoe, strictly one without a separate heel, having the sole turned up on all sides and sewn to the upper in a simple gathered seam, in a style originating among North American Indians.

Welch on me; Re-sole, 2016; Rocka (your) Soul - 1964

please,

at a time when the forces around us here in the downtown
push more and more alcohol
as something that is cool
and coming
and whuzappnin now

make ours sparkling grape juice!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!



^,^

Re-sole, 

New Year 2016

SINCE 1960-SOMETHING
WE'VE HAD A FAVORITE PAIR OF SHOES
which have logged many miles on our feet.

They were made here in Wisconsin
by the Russell Moccasin Co
of Berlin, near Ripon.

We have mentioned them before
on these pages.

They finally
after all these years
 wore through the bullhide soles.

This is how they looked over a year ago
but we still wore them.

This Christmas Dee said she would give us
a resoling via Russell.

That was no small matter.
These shoes now sell for an impressive  $254.00
 known as 'Russell Oneida Saddle Mocs'.
(look them up)

Just resoling a pair costs more than a third of that..

Dee took some of her hard-earned money
to do this for 'us'!
We didn't want her to do it but she did anyway.
Boxed them up, got them off to Russell in Berlin WI

and now we await their return -
return freight prepaid.






I was introduced to Russell mocs by my dad, Leslie V. Dix I
- there are now three of them -
in the 60s.  Here we are shown on the front stoop
of one of the best cobbling shops in the world,  I say,
and so say quality-shoe-purchasers, globally.

Dad had been a long-established customer of Russell
by then.  Russell had several filing cards of orders
from him in the days before computerization.

Dad said the place was a site to be seen for sure
so we drove up one time when Dad was visiting WI 
from his home in VA.

'Unprepossessing' fits Russell  well.

A simple screen door served as the main entrance
into a small office and fitting room.
The smell of leather was definitely in the air.

In a large attached quonset hut-like building
sat three rows of working leathermen,
 many of them  long-time employees,
with the Russell
heavy old sewing machines and big hand-needles and awls
 a-flying.

They will soon
(if they haven't already)
turn their attention
to my old Oneida mocs which will come back to me
here at the Odd Fellows as good as new
with a well broken-in fit 
- for they are originals.

Dad got turned on to this little shoe company
in distant Berlin Wisconsin by then Supreme Court Chief Justice 
William  Douglas, Dad's friend,
who headed up the Chesapeake and Ohio RR Canal  hiking club
with several other notable DCers.

Many of them swore by the Russell Mocs
as did Dad when he got his,
and so do I, now.

Above are my last purchase, Russell snake boots
which I've called my Ringmaster boots.
They hang next to me at this sewing achine/desk,
gathering dust for some years.

Except for the dust, they good as new.
Other pairs of Russells are on hand here
under the bed or in the closet,
all frequently worn, for many years serving well!

I've not had to buy any more shoes, from then on out.

http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-beg-thee-pay-heed.html



^,^


Here
sits my Russell re-sole benefactor
woman of my dreams
having a malt at Sloppy Joe's
sandwich and ice cream shop
 on one of  the downtown Five
Points in Waukesha.

In the background is
the Odd Fellows hall where we live and work.
See the Odd Fellows pediment on the roofline
to the right of the more sterile across the street
National Bank bldg.

An interesting study in architecture contrast;
 there are many in our downtown home district.

Dee Dix, rocker of souls

In this one...

Dee holds and rocks her baby brother,  John Jr., in Pleasant Valley Md
in 1965.

I find this song from 1964
goes with consoler Dee's
healing work, of which I am just one
beneficiary!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdq4iilT-Js

It was a good decade
in many ways -
the sixties

as were the fifties 
when Dee was born...