Gypsy Child

My dad worked for Nabisco for 37 years.

We had free reign to all snacks from the warehouse.

I can remember going to see my dad and getting so excited because we got to walk in the warehouse and pick out what we wanted.

It never got old.  How can that large assortment of snacks and cookies ever get old. We picked Oreo’s, Chips-ahoys, Marshmallow Pinwheels, Lorna Doones.

When I saw this picture my son’s father took of him it reminded me of the Nabisco Raincoat Boy, that’s what my sisters and I called him.  

We had Nabisco envelope openers, paperweights, tins, towels, plates. The list goes on…

The Raincoat boy was on most of them along with the animal cracker train.

Uneeda Biscuit Boy

Nabisco, once called the National Biscuit Company, created the UNEEDA biscuit. It looked promising, but they had to find a way to make sure it got to customers all fresh and tasty. So while other companies were selling crackers in bulk out of barrels, the National Biscuit Company created the Inner-Seal Package, an ingenious system of inter-folded layers of wax paper and cardboard. To market the new cracker they created the illustration of a wholesome, little boy clutching a box of UNEEDA Biscuits. The lad was wearing a raincoat and rain boots to demonstrate the moisture-proof nature of the package.

‘Where The Wild Thing Are’. a movie review

Where the Wild Things Are

I happen to feel like Kenneth Turan, who did the review on NPR News, did not get the movie. He said neither parents nor children are going to like it.

Somehow this movie completely missed his frontal lobe, slithered past his heart and gut and landed in a pool of (no imagination); taking everything exactly how it is presented with no creative thought process of his own.

I cannot imagine watching a movie waiting for everything to slap me in the face crying “look at me, listen to me.” I watched the details alongside the clatter and the silent depth of emotion sprinkled with the folly allowing my mental juices to go along with the imaginative ride I was taken on.

I loved this movie. I get this movie. I easily flowed along the lines of his mother’s toes hiding behind her stockings to the stacking up of limbs, heartbeats and knarly toes; resting in the comfort of loved ones in one big monster lump.

I get the moods of each character. Tell me you couldn’t relate to the selfish, out of line, dysfunction every character relayed and I will say you are not looking very close at yourself. People do things and say thing that are not always who they truly want to be, then out of nowhere people will say the perfect thing, do the most noble thing. This is human nature.

This boy’s eyes show anger, confusion, compassion, hope and love. Max Records couldn’t be more perfect.

In the end he returned to what was familiar. He decides he could rest easily in a house full of chaos and love. He could accept all these traits and still find comfort in the mist of his mothers love. She falls asleep at the end not out of neglect, but out of release; release of anger that turned into fear that thankfully lead to relief.   The boy understands his mother is as human as he is.

She is simply exhausted from a night of no sleep.

The simplicity of the moment is enough.

The movie captured Maurice Sendak’s sense of adventure and content for what this journey called life is all about.

…he sailed off through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are…

…and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found supper waiting for him.

Two boys having fun in 1986 and 1987.

 Sept 20th. I buy 2 baby pumpkins.

So excited to carve them and set them out for Halloween.

Opps, not Halloween month yet. My bad.

Thats what happens when you live in Florida and the seasons are defined by hot and hotter, Green and Brown depending on how much rain you get. Watching the weather channel everyday (hurrican season) to hardly ever.

My mother signed me up for a year of Family Circle magazine.  They have the cutest carved pumpkins on the cover. The cover is often all I ever see. Not my favorite magazine but I must admit to some good tips I found inside.

So I’m at the grocery store and I see these cute little pumpkins and am instantly drawn to them, then I remembered the magazine cover and thought, “This will be something fun to do with the kids.”

The kids got a good laugh at my mistake. Glad to make someone laugh.

The green one is still around but the orange one colapsed after a few days.

  This is not a leaf dying but actually a leaf being born. It reminded me of fall so I took its first newborn picture.

BOO!

 My son’s lame attempt at a mouth. We decided it was a scary ghost pumpkin. The powers-to-be can not stop the knife.