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Rex Booth

Fred,

There are other chaps who wish to know the name of the blonde lady with Craig Stevens.

Her name?  Drum roll... Susan Cummings!

1959  - Crank up the Volume!!

Rex Booth

Patrick Riley

Earth's Population Statistics in Perspective

The Earth's population is around 8.1 billion.

For most people, it is a significant figure. However, if you condensed 8.1 billion into 100 persons and then into various percentage statistics, the resulting analysis is much easier to comprehend.

Out of 100:

11 are in Europe
5 are in North America
9 are in South America
15 are in Africa
60 are in Asia

49 live in the countryside
51 live in a city
 
75 have mobile phones
25 do not

30 have internet access
70 do not have the availability to go online

83 can read
17 are illiterate

33 are Christians
22 are Muslims
14 are Hindus
7 are Buddhists
12 are other religions
12 have no religious beliefs

26 live less than 14 years
66 died between 15 - 64 years of age
8 are over 65 years old

If you have your own home, eat full meals and drink clean water, have a mobile phone, can surf the internet, and have gone to college, you are in the minuscule privileged lot (in the less than 7% category).

Amongst 100 persons worldwide, only eight live or exceed the age of 65!

If you are over 65 years old, be content and grateful, cherish life, and grasp the moment.

If you did not leave this world before the age of 64, like the 92 persons who have gone before you, you are already one of the blessed amongst humankind.

Take good care of your health; cherish every remaining moment.

If you think you are suffering memory loss, read on.

Anosognosia (very interesting):

In the following analysis, the French Professor Bruno Dubois, Director of the Institute of Memory and Alzheimer's Disease (IMMA), addresses the subject in a rather reassuring way:

“If anyone is aware of their memory problems, they do not have Alzheimer's.” This means things like:

1. Forgetting the names of family or friends
2. Not remembering where you put some things

People 60 years of age and older often complain that they lack memory. The information is always in the brain; it is the "processor" that is lacking.

This is "Anosognosia" or temporary forgetfulness.

Half of people 60 and older have some symptoms that are due to age rather than disease. The most common cases are:

- Forgetting the name of a person
- Going to a room in the house and not remembering why we were going there
- A blank memory for a movie title or actor, an actress
- Searching where we left our glasses or keys

After 60 years most people have such a difficulty, which indicates that it is not a disease but rather a characteristic due to the passage of years. Many people are concerned about these oversights hence the importance of the following statements:

1. "Those who are conscious of being forgetful have no serious problem of memory."
2. "Those who suffer from a memory illness or Alzheimer's are not aware of what is happening."

Professor Bruno Dubois, Director of IMMA, reassures the majority of people concerned about their oversights: “The more we complain about memory loss, the less likely we are to suffer from memory sickness.”

Now for a little neurological test (only use your eyes)!

1 - Find the “C” in the table below:

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

2 - If you found the “C”, then find the “6” in the table below:

99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
69999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

3 - Now find the “N” in the table below. Attention, it's a little more difficult:

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

If you pass these three tests without problem:

- You can cancel your annual visit to the neurologist
- Your brain is in perfect shape
- You are far from having any relationship with Alzheimer's

We are truly blessed, so share this with your older friends; it can reassure them.

In any case, if you are over 65 and complaining about a few aches and pains, think again ... 92% of people didn't even get that opportunity!!!

Sherry Hester (Trasp)

Thanks Pat, I passed!! 

Fred Miller

Rex,

Re:  post 7785

I play on line golf on a site called Golf Clash.  A couple of days back, they had an outage/disruption similar to the one here.  Lasted 2- 3 hours.

For any problems we may have had during the outage, the administrators were kind enough to award each player 100 free gems.  (gems are how we buy balls, clubs etc.)

Soooooo.....what is our administrator offering as compensation for valuable time missed on this site??

(removes tongue from cheek)

Administrator: "A  🥜 (nut) for a nut" !!   (tongue IN cheek...) 

Fred Miller

Pat, that was a very interesting read.  Many thanks for posting...

Rex Booth

I tried to use my (eyes only) for the neurological test, it improved somewhat using my hands... but it helped sooooo much better to "Zoom" the chart  up to 150%.    

Charline Lake

LOL, I used my Oxford English Dictionary magnifying glass.

Sherry Hester (Trasp)

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. Since they were starting to smell, however, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women, and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it … hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the Bath water!”

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, resulting in the idiom, “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed, therefore, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, leading folks to coin the phrase “dirt poor.”

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way, subsequently creating a “thresh hold.”

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while, and thus the rhyme, “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.”

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat.”

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the “upper crust.”

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up, creating the custom of holding a wake.

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery. If you had to do this to survive you were “piss poor.”

But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn’t even afford to buy a pot; they “didn’t have a pot to piss in” & were the lowest of the low.

The next time you are washing your hands & complain because the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive, so they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.

And that’s the truth. Now, whoever said History was boring?

Bill Leggett

Rex Booth

Sherry,

All those "truthful" stories were hilarious! Thanks for posting!

Rex Booth

Cal Turley can tell you a similar story regarding car damage by dog(s?) with pictures to prove it!!

Cal send me the pics and I'll post em! 

Patrick Riley

Sherry, great and interesting ... thanks for posting!

Paula Carl (Cowee Miller)

Thanks for those very informative stories, Sherry!

Fred Miller

Interesting posts here the past few days.  Very educational site, and having fun at the same time...

Cal Turley

Rex

Attached are the pictures you asked me about. The pics don't really show all the damage. Both the investigating Police officer and body shop estimator felt that due to the extensive ($4500 repair cost) damages inflicted on my car it could have only been done by a rouge "Chupacabra" that strayed over to New Mexico from West Texas!

Anyway I am supposed to get it back from the body shop on Wednesday and I guarantee I  won't be leaving it parked outside over night!!

Scene of the crime. See license plate and debris 6 feet in front of car...

Wiring cable gnawed through ...

Bite and teeth marks deep into metal...

More broken body parts..

What kind of 'devil dogs' do this kind of damage?

For those who wonder what a Chupacabra looks like...

"Chupacabra" in Spanish means "goat (blood) sucker" that kill a lot of goats in Mexico.

John Doyal

Sherry, you were talking history that I lived before we moved to town.  Our outhouse was out past the stock watering tank over 100 yards from the house.  the pipe that fed the water tank was about 18 inches off the ground and went across the path to the outhouse.  When I was 5(and all grown up) I went to the outhouse by myself after dark and when I stepped over the pipe I luckily stepped on the head of a 5 foot rattlesnake.  The cartoon of someone running in air was me as the snake buzzed and coiled and I screamed  and ran.  My dad heard me yelling snake and he came out with a flaslight and shotgun and killed it  From then on I used the piss pot after dark.    We had a  cast iron pot that mom would fry meat in and later add potatoes and onions and more of each for several days.  Our baths were in #2 round tub on Saturdays.  So I guess byold time standards we were rich( did have lots of horned toads to play with).

Sherry Hester (Trasp)

OH MY GOSH Cal,
Had you tried running over this 
"Chupacabra" or chasing Him/Her with a shot gin?!
Rhetorical Questions?
What could have made him that angry and vicious!
It is just about unbelievable that a "Dog" could do
that kind of damage! He sure wasn't getting sustenance.
If I didn't see the pictures I would
have thought you were telling tall tells like My Brothers.
I have learned to ask their wife's if their stories are true!

Just WOW!!

Sherry Hester (Trasp)

John, 
I have heard a lot of those sort of stories from my 
family. Especially my sister who is 10 years older
than me, she tells me how fortune I have been. She
talks about not bathing often enough! I don't argue. 
I remember visiting a Aunt and Uncle, in the
Texas Panhandle, the outhouse was in back. all I
remember is the windmill squeaking and a cousin
taking me out to potty. 
My Grandparents had a the piss coffee can!! 
My Grandfather use that till the day he died. 

Paula Carl (Cowee Miller)

Hey Sherry. I'm with you. We 4 kids all used the same bath water. Yuk!  And I washed my hair 1 time a week. My grandparents had an indoor "jar" or we had to use the outhouse out in the pasture. We didn't bathe at their house; probably just washed off. Of course I guess when we went to the river to swim we got pretty clean. Hmmm. I'll take what I've got now-those good ole days left some things to be desired. 

Rex Booth

How many of you had 'Grandmothers' who used this...?

John Doyal

My grandmother at our ranch(where my dad was born) and my mom until I was 4 and my dad bought a gasoline Maytag washer.  The buckets she had used to wash in were what she used to heat the water in for our baths.  My mom still made soap in a "witches black pot" out of fat.  Mom still had to use the wash buckets when the washing machine wouldn't start.   And any clothes to be washed in hot water still had to be heated on the stove and poured in the washer so the women of the time were not only tough but physically strong.

Paula Carl (Cowee Miller)

John Doyal, my mom made lye soap from bacon fat too. The neighbors often contributed their fat to help out. She also used a scrub board until she and daddy purchased a washing machine when I was 6 or 7. How about chickens?  She purchased them from local sources, wrung their necks in the back yard and then Gary and I were privileged to help pluck them!  That was an extremely stinky job. She was doing that in the mid 1950's. And I remember when my grandparents got electricity and running water for a bathroom. Mid to late 50's. 

Sherry Hester (Trasp)

Yes, Rex, John D, Paula;

My Grandmother made lye soap,
had a witches black cauldron in the
back yard with a fire under it and
used a wash board. My Mom used 
a washboard as did I. 
My Dad rang chickens necks. I thought
he was showing off, (and he probably was)
but the more I hear stories from other people,
I guess it was/is a real thing! HAHA! 

 

John Doyal

Yes my mom would wring chickens necks, one time she was trying to wring a young large roosters neck and couldn't so she had me hold him while she cut his head off with an axe.  I chased him around trying to catch the headless rooster for quite awhile. We kept having problems with skunks getting  in the coop because they woulddig under the sides, my dad finaly put a wood floor in with the chicken wire stapled to it to stop them.  My dog and geese kept the coyotes and foxes away.