Growing up in the 1940s

 Another memory of the 1940s.

I hiked a mountain at age 6. Tried to reach the top. never made it. Was ordered by mom to eat my packed lunch when the sun was overhead and then head back home. So I did, usually on a large rock in a sheep pasture. That was in the Appalachian mountains of PA, so the mountains  were grassy or wooded all the way up. No impossible cliff faces like in the western mountains. Yes, we all ran around a lot and only came home when the streetlights came on. (twilight)

This was before my youngest sister was born. Don was the baby and taking up all of Mom's time. Sandy a preschooler. We lived in Monroeton, PA and kids just roamed because parents were busy with other things or other children. They trusted us to have good sense and an instinct for danger and we usually proved them right. (I bugged her for some time before she let me go hike the mountain. And then it became something that I did, by myself, in the summertime. )

A few years before that when we lived in Towanda, she let me walk home by myself from kindergarten, so a friend and I took a shortcut that was an hour longer than our regular walk. We hiked through alleys and people's back yards. We collected empty pop bottles and turned them into the corner store for two cents each. (considering that recycling plastic bottles these days only earns us a dime, that sort of income stream hasn't risen much.) Yes, mom did panic when we didn't show up on time and forbade us to ever take THAT shortcut again. 🙂

Rain on the West Coast compared to the East Coast

 Oh no! It's pouring rain, the people of Southern California say.  

I look out my window. There's a slight sprinkle. That's a rainstorm?  

(When a normal rain comes, They call it an Atmospheric River and people who bought houses near a stream or river are totally surprised when it overflows its banks. Or when it tumbles down a hillside, gathering stuff as it flows down.

Really? You thought that was a good place to build a house. -or buy one already build?) 

People's attitude about water falling from the sky is so different here, where one-tenth of an inch is normal with a total of 7 - maybe 10 inches in a year. (I have never worn my raincoat here - didn't need it)  

Compared to the 40-50+ inches a year on the east coast of the USA. So different.

Author is unrecognized by fan

My day job was being a children's librarian at a public library. 

I was amused when a boy and his mother brought one of my books to the Information Desk and asked ME if the book was any good. (It was one of my biographies.)  

I told them that it was well researched and it was a good read and that I knew the author, hoping that they would notice my name tag and make the connection, but no.

Child's first attempt at writing

 Memories: As I sat writing at my typewriter (yes, I'm that old) One of my kids handed me a piece of paper with a pumpkin drawing and many, many lines of scribble under it. She asked me to read her story to her.  

(so I made up a story about a pumpkin that was sad he wasn't chosen by a child)

Spelling Counts

 My names were 'new' names when I was born.  

I was actually named after an aunt -- Lavinia Winifred -- but my parents changed it to Wendie Louise. I've suffered ever since. Believe it or not my parents were influenced by the story of Peter Pan, but probably thought the 'IE' part of the name might make it closer to Winifred.  

All it did for me was to make sure that NOBODY could spell it. Wendy, Wendel, Wendi, Wende. I've had all of these show up. (It was especially fun for my 'friends' to call me Wendel the whole weekend we were at a conference together and THAT was how my nametag was printed out.)  

I've had people accuse me of faking/ lying about being a published writer. They claimed they had looked me up on Amazon dot com. They (not noticing the spelling of my online name) addressed their message to Wendy in their accusation. Which made me laugh. They couldn't even READ the name on the header of the message they sent to me?  

I answered with two words, "Spelling Counts!"

Francis Scott Key bridge destroyed and family adventures with it:

 This morning (Marcy 26, 2024, very early in the morning, a cargo ship crashed into the very very tall (scary tall) Francis Scott Key bridge while trying to get out of the Baltimore Harbor.  Which reminded me of the many times I have driven over that bridge.  Also reminded me of that time.....

One day the family was going to go to my oldest's graduation from college - in southern Maryland.  

So we packed two cars and off we go to drive from north of Baltimore city to St. Mary's City. My youngest drove my mother in law's car and went first. Then we (the rest of the family) took off. We arrived at St. Mary's City and where was my youngest and my mother in law? They arrived an hour later.  

It turns out that neither of them could navigate. So - They got onto the Baltimore Beltway (696), took a right at I-95, went under the Baltimore Harbor through the tunnel, continued on I-95 until they reached the south part of the Baltimore Beltway (695). They immediately got onto 695 and soon found themselves driving over the very scary high Francis Key Bridge and suspected that they may have taken a wrong turn. Continued on 695 until they met I-95 again, so they then again headed south on I-95 and figured out that they needed to Not take the beltway again, but to take the road to Annapolis and then on to St. Mary's.

Is history boring?

 Students ask a lot of questions when writers visit schools, but some of them can knock you for a loop:

One student asked, "How can you write about history - it's soooo boring ! "

That one stumped me for a minute , mainly because I LOVE history.  

I replied -- that I don't write about the boring stuff. I try my best to find 'fascinating facts' and do include those. For example, did you know that.... (and then pull out some of the weird and wonderful things I discovered while researching my books.)