1940s Movie Stars - William "Bill" Carter

Yes, I've been perusing my late sister-in-laws collection of movie star photos again. All of the ones below are of an actor named William (or Bill) Carter -- whom I have never heard of. Actually, at first glance, I thought they were photos of Rock Hudson.

What do you notice about these pictures? Anything? Anything at all? (I'll wait....)

Here's what I noticed. The autographs. All three of them are in a different handwriting. I wonder if my sister-in-law noticed that? She must have been a fan, given the fact that there are three photos of him, and I think that she, like the rest of the young girls who wrote fan letters to their favorite stars, would have wanted to believe that he actually signed them. Alas, they don't call Hollywood a "dream factory" for nothing.

Here is the link to more movie star posts.

Till next time...

In Memoriam

Dorothy Payne "Dot" Yount, R.N.

1929-2010

Dot taught me just about everything I know about public health nursing. Not the textbook "body politic" things. The "real world" things -- like how to corner a client you know is hiding from you, i.e., the best time to make the home visit and the best bait to use to get them to the door. Because of my somewhat irrepressible and mischievous nature, she used to tell me I just wasn't "Sunbeam" material. At best I was -- and pretty much stayed -- a "Sunbeam Trainee." I'm not exactly sure what a Sunbeam is, but I did try to behave. Really. Well, I did. The main problem was that she was just as mischievous as I was.

She made me laugh. A lot. And she made me smarter than I would have been if our paths had never crossed. I am so lucky that she was a part of my life.

Thanks, Dottie.

A Violet!

How do you like it? For me personally, there is nothing more uplifting than the first hint-of-spring flowers -- which is why I always prefer a mixed spring bouquet to roses. My granddaughter earnestly believes that my most favorite flower of all is the dandelion -- which in many respects is true. The plant is edible and full of Vitamins A and C. The seeds are very entertaining. So are the blossoms -- you can make wine out of the blossoms. And, I have yet to encounter a child in the family who, given the opportunity, didn't pick one and present it to me as if it were a jewel-encrusted message from the king. (That last thing is my main reason for loving dandelions.) Over the years, I've had tiny vases and ceramic thimbles full of dandelions in various stages of turning to dust (one can't throw them away without causing alarm) on the kitchen window sill, right where I can see them when I do the dishes. In my experience, the dandelion can be a vivid reminder of the giver and the sunny day when it was picked.

I have two jonquils blooming, too -- "buttercups," we call them here. These jonquils aren't given to blooming, so "two" is a bumper crop. Not much from the forsythia as yet, but I remain hopeful. We could still get another snow event, of course -- I may have mentioned that one year it snowed when the azaleas were blooming -- but things are definitely looking up.

Here is one of the two jonquils. Nice, huh?

Here's hoping there are signs of spring where you are...

In Memoriam

JOANNE BOGER HOLSHOUSER, R.N.

1934-2010

Last week, Joanne lost her long battle with ovarian cancer. She and I graduated from the same school of nursing, and we worked together for a number of years at the local health department. I admired her so much -- her skill as a nurse and her determination always to do the right thing, no matter the risk to herself. She was so strong, yet gentle, kind, funny, dedicated to her family and friends. In this life, she truly walked the walk, and the world is a better place because she was in it.

It was an honor to have known her.

Updating...

As you can see, it's still February, regardless of what the calendar says. Snowed all day. (sigh)

So what have I been doing despite the weather? Re-typing my single title novel, PROMISE ME A RAINBOW, for one thing. I have the reverted rights and I want to get it into a good eBook venue. The original file was seriously obsolete -- my current computer system wouldn't recognize it, hence the re-typing. That seemingly simple project has been tedious because the aforementioned computer system suddenly developed multiple "old age" woes and required a subsequent clean install of a new OS. Twice. Which means you have to put everything back. Twice. Which then led to a semi-obsolete word processing program (read: "crash"), which led to having to scrape together enough over-budget pennies to get a new MS Word -- and eventually (finally) to re-typing some more. I have less than a hundred pages left to type, assuming my electronic and technical entities behave.

THEN, I want to start on my "Cinda Richards" categories and get them re-typed and into eBook format.

I've also been going to numerous grandchild events -- basketball games, cheerleading -- and doing general taxi servicing. I've actually had to buy myself a day planner just to keep up with it all.

And I learned to text message. This was not easy. My cell phone is a no-frills step above a Dixie cup and a string. Or just the Dixie cup. (Cells don't have "strings.") There's no fancy keyboard and the numeric buttons are very, very tiny. I'm getting the hang of it, though. The grandsons are very impressed.

In my spare time, I've been listening to digital audio books, i.e., Pat Conroy's THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE. I was interested in this particular book because of the cadet's diary -- which is very pale by comparison. My take? Wonderful imagery and characterization. Compelling plot. Realistically crude language indicative (unfortunately) of young males in a group. On the downside, I thought the tying up of "loose ends" in the final pages was a little too "pat" (pardon the pun) in that, while well-explained and logical, it seemed Charles Dickens-y minus the HEA. Maybe this was because I was surprised. The foreshadowing was excellent, and I knew which of the protagonist's peers were members of The Ten early on, but I hadn't expected or needed this particular duplicity -- maybe because I was done with the pregnant girl and didn't care what had happened to her. In any event, I liked the book well enough to have bought a paperback copy (new, not used, Mr. Conroy). I want the older grandson to read it -- as soon as I decide if he's old enough.

That's it for this time...