Tag: nostalgia

Tiny Tuesday!


There’s an abundance of memory for me in a tiny sweet gum ball. It was under the sweet gum tree in the front yard of our house in South Carolina where a whole new world opened to me. There were very few children on my block–the ones close to my age were boys who DID NOT play with girls, but mostly the kids were older than me.

I would sit on a blanket under the sweet gum tree with nothing much to do. There wasn’t a bookmobile like in our Georgia neighborhood. My mother hadn’t yet begun to build my library, and my parents’ books were too old for me. So I mostly had a few Nancy Drews or Hardy Boys belonging to Debby and David, with a couple of Spin and Martys thrown in. Not enough to keep a fast reader occupied for a summer. I’d outgrown my baby dolls and paper dolls.

Enter Nancy, the older teen girl from next door, who brought over two Barbies, two Kens, and a black Mattel case full of fashion. It was truly one of the kindest gifts I’ve ever received. Those dolls changed my world forever. They were my first characters as I created story after story for them, and no little girl ever loved her Barbie dolls more.

Thank you, Nancy Jones. You have no idea what an impact you had and what a giant world you gave me under that sweet gum tree. And if you ever read this post, there’s a much longer version here of this story–and photos.

On that post, I used a photo of a case similar to the one Nancy gave me. This is the actual case from Nancy, and I still have it:

Photo Friday, No. 684

Current Photo Friday theme: Winter


Back to the film photography archives. I didn’t take this shot, but it’s a favorite of mine. Possibly my mother took it in 1967. This was our house, also a favorite of mine. It was my first year in a new school when we moved back to Alabama from South Carolina, and a classmate spent the weekend with me. We didn’t expect to get snowed in, but it was a lot more fun with a friend my age!

This was also the model for Dr. Boone’s house in A Coventry Christmas. The original is long gone, but it’ll always be around in the novel.

A little Sinatra with your Saturday

I don’t think I’ve shared this estate sale find from a few months ago on here. I was thrilled to get it.


The suit and bow tie look very much like one in the photo that goes with this video. Here’s a Becky fact: I don’t care who sings this song, what the tempo is, or where I hear it. If it plays, I will always, always cry. It is World War 2. It is my father in Normandy. It is seeing my parents dance cheek to cheek to it years later. It is romance and longing and loss and memory.

Fedora tip to the Chairman of the Board.

Dream Lover

I love the version of this song by Ricky Nelson (one of my first heart throbs as a wee Becky), BUT I’m very much wrapped up in my characters right now, and a certain SHE wanted to hear a version sung by a girl because she loves the line, “Dream lover, where are you / With a love, oh, so true / And the hand that I can hold / To feel you near as I grow old,” because there’s a hand she always wants to find when she reaches out.

I found this utterly lovely version from 1964. If David Lynch never used this in a film, he should have. I’m stealing the title for something.

Thank you, dreamy Paris Sisters. Perfection.

ETA: HA! A little research and I found a version of the Paris Sisters singing “I Love How You Love Me” on the limited edition Twin Peaks series. Do I know David Lynch, or what?

Yesterday

I saw the movie Yesterday and was immediately ready to go and see it again. Looking for likeminded local friends who will indulge me in same.

Meanwhile, this came in the mail to continue my Summer of Beatles.

I don’t have time to color right now, but at least I’ve narrowed my first choice down to these three:

I’m pretty sure I know which one I’ll go with and why.

Tiny Tuesday!


In the 1980s, I was obsessed with Stewart Copeland’s soundtrack to the movie Rumble Fish. Maybe I was also a little obsessed with the movie Rumble Fish. I don’t remember if I read S.E. Hinton’s novel Rumble Fish. I think I should probably just get her books into my Nook e-reader and read or reread them all. I wonder if I will still enjoy them as I did when I was young? P.S. I want to write Rumble Fish one more time.

Sometimes when I look at Superman in his display case, I start hearing “Don’t Box Me In” in my head. It has such a great 80s sound.

I figured he might like a visit from these 80s Ladies: Cyndi Lauper, Joan Jett, and Debbie Harry.

You walk
I’ll run
And follow right behind you

You call
I’ll come
And I won’t remember where I come from

Over there
At the end of the bar
This fish keeps swimming
In a jar

I feel
A tug on the line
Which end
Will I be on this time?

Don’t box me in
Don’t box me in

One day
I’ll show them
Just what I’m made of

There’ll be
A time
When I won’t remember what I was afraid of

And I’ll be swimming
In the sea
No banging on this glass
For me
My eyes saw red
When my life turned blue

So I’m leaving
Everything that’s true

And I’ll jump into
A brand new skin
And then you won’t be able
To box me in
Don’t box me in

Don’t box me in
Don’t box me in
Let go!

There’s a few places ’round
That I’ve never been
There’s an ocean out there
That I gotta swim
There’s a river that flows
Right past my door
I wonder…
I wonder…
What?!

And if sometimes
I can’t seem to talk
You’ll know this blackboard lacks
A piece of chalk

Don’t box me in
I told you not to
Don’t box me in
Don’t box me in
Let go!

While I’m at it, I probably should spring for the soundtrack. Also, word: Never try to box me in. I have unpredictable and unpleasant (for you) reactions.