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Once Upon a Midnight Dreary

So, speaking of Alice in Wonderland, it got me to thinking about the useless things I have memorized in the course of my life. When I was younger, memorizing came easily to me. I was a good test taker, though sometimes I only remembered the info long enough for the test. But I memorized other things just because; things that were interesting or intriguing to me. I still have a good memory for song lyrics; it’s kind of a joke in the family that one shouldn’t begin singing around me cause I usually pick it up and run with it, completing all the verses. Jealous family members will roll their eyes and say to the song starter,”Now see what you did.” But I have a very limited capacity for remembering numbers! That’s pretty good since I work in a bank. It’s fascinating to see some people who can rattle off their account numbers, telephone numbers of everyone they know as well as all of their children’s social security numbers. I believe that is why pencil and paper were invented, cause we know we don’t need them to write our posts since we have computers!
Okay, back to Alice in Wonderland, have you ever read the wonderful poem “Jabberwocky”? Here, I’ll recite the first verse from memory: (I could have recited them all, but I’m taking pity on you)

Twas brillig and the slivy tobe did gire and mimble in the wabe

All mimsy were the borrogroves and the mome wraths outgrabe. Beware the Jabberwock, my son, the jaws that bite, the claws that catch Beware the JubJub bird and shun the frumerous bandersnatch.

———————————————————————————————————-
Great stuff, huh? And then there is Old Father Williams:

“You are old, father Williams” , the young man said, ” And your hair has become very white And yet you incessantly stand on your head Do you think at your age it is right?” “In my youth,” Father Williams replied to his son “I feared it might injure my brain But now that I’m perfectly sure I have none, Why I do it again and again.”

____
The Walrus and the Carpenter:

The moon was shining on the sea, shining with all his might
He did his very best to make the billows smooth and bright
And this was odd because it was the middle of the night.

_
You get the point. With all that useless drivel in my head, I have no room for things I SHOULD remember,
like to stop at the store and pick up milk; like my account number; like my sister-in-law’s birthday; like how to play the card game that someone just taught me a week ago. And its getting worse. Why do I remember things I learned 20 years ago, and can’t remember something I read just this morning? Is my brain really full? I REALLY wish I remembered more of the Bible verses I memorized, but I only seem to have the ones I learned when I was young.
Anyway, I don’t think I’m the only one who has accomplished monumental usless memorizing. I was reciting Jabberwocky to impress my niece, Sara McDonald the other day, and she shot right back with the full and complete Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven.
So, I was thinking it would be great fun for everyone, all of our hundreds of readers, to search the cobwebby corners of their memory banks and dredge up the arcane, useless, but very interesting, at least to you at one time, poetry, Shakespeare speeches (“The quality of mercy is not strained; it droppeth as the gentle rain of heaven upon the place beneath”), etc. and share that captivating information with the group. Come on, you know you’re just dying to show off.
In conclusion, I’d just like to say, a la Ogden Nash;
“God in his wisdom made the fly
And then forgot to tell us why.”

Poetically yours,
UltraMom

HOW many years?

Hello Ultra Readers! (If there are any left after Bob’s shameful posting holiday). I guess its up to me to retain our readership with my dashing bi-monthly postings of great wit and charm.
Having said that, I will now proceed to ramble on about whatever first crosses my mind, which at the moment, is my recent wedding anniversary. I was confounded and dumbstruck when I did the math and realized that I have now been married, to the SAME man for 30 years. Since I was only single for 19 years, marriedness (not sure if that’s a real word, but I’m using it anyway) is a state in which I should be comfortable and well accustomed. That, however, isn’t always the case, even now. Sometimes we seem so different that I wonder how we ever ended up together, but then he does something kind and thoughtful and makes me laugh, and I get a glimmer.
I was a senior in high school when my family moved from California to Idaho Falls so that my Dad could, once again, become employed. The natural step after that was to attend college at the nearest University, which happened to be Idaho State University in Pocatello, about 50 miles away. I stayed in the dorm and didn’t have a car, and was about as green and naive as you could get (though quite studious). I happened to make friends with a girl on my floor named, of all things, Kathy. She came home with me sometimes, and I went home with her sometimes. I liked going home with her because she had the nicest brother….........actually she had three brothers (and a sister). Bill was a couple of years younger and still in high school. The older two, Chuck and John had each finished a stint in the armed forces and had gone in together to purchase a dairy farm in Howe, where their dad had been raised and where he had gone to retire from a Civil Service job. John was so nice; he loved being around his sister and seemed so anxious to insure that her guest had a good time! He took us fishing, on picnics, and played games with us. He always seemed to be the one to take us back to Pocatello after the weekend (Kathy didn’t have a car either, and if we were to go to Howe for the weekend, someone would have to fetch us. Going to Idaho Falls, we sometimes rode the Greyhound bus). I should have had a clue (no brother is THAT nice) but I was totally surprised when I got a greeting card in the mail from him asking me on a date!
He picked me up at my parents’ house in Idaho Falls on March 17 (St. Patricks Day, though I didn’t think about it at the time.) I wore a purple long sleeved shirt with a jumper; you know a sleeveless kind of dress, and tied my long brown hair back with a purple ribbon. My hair was really long and very thick. It was the style then to have these little corkscrew curls of hair in front of your ears, so that part of my hair was cut shorter so I could be in style. I remember how embarrased I was when he asked me what movie I wanted to see and my mother mentioned that I had been wanting to see Alice in Wonderland. I had wanted to, of course, but that seemed so childish! (I always loved that book, but more about that some other time). We ended up seeing the romantic comedy “Jeremiah Johnson” with Robert Redford. I’m kidding of course. In case you aren’t familiar with that particular flick, it is neither romantic, nor is it funny, unless you find the “Indians killed my entire family and now I’m out for revenge” theme humorous. Afterwards he took me to McDonalds. I tried to get a straw out of the dispenser, and all of the straws came out and cascaded onto the floor. After that auspicious beginning, how could we NOT end up together?
We got married the following February on Groundhog’s Day. I think it helps to get married on a memorable day like Groundhog’s day so that you can always remember when your anniversary is coming up. We have spent our special day in a variety of ways, not all of them fun. Several times, John spent the day crawling around under the house with a blow dryer and heat tape trying to unthaw frozen water pipes. Several times we had an appointment with our Tax accountant, or were getting ready to. This year, I worked, and when I came home, we planned to watch the Groundhog’s Day movie and eat some snacks we had leftover from Super Bowl Sunday. Well, the eating part went all right, but we never could find the movie, finally concluding we had lent it out, and had to watch Mrs. Doubtfire instead. Exciting, huh? Actually, we did go to Idaho Falls the Saturday before and ate at Applebees, and shopped our brains out, cause we had no food in the house. And I got a big exercise ball I wanted and a Tai Chi video, so that was all right. And I let John get a new cap.
Well, its getting late, and I gotta get up early in the morning and see the dentist about this big hole I broke in my tooth from eating peanut brittle, so I’ll wind this up. On the whole, it has been a good 30 years.. We have produced 4 terrific kids, and I know that he loves me. I know that I would never, ever have to worry about him cheating on me. He is often kind and thoughtful, and highly moral and ethical. And he demonstrates his love in practical ways. And he can still make me laugh. I could have it a lot worse, huh? Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart. Hope we have 30 more.
UltraMom