ARE YOU SUPERSTITIOUS?

Superstitions are beliefs in ideas or practices based on the supernatural as opposed to the laws of science.

My mother was very superstitious and was always telling us not to walk under ladders because it was bad luck or that a black cat crossing the road in front of you was bad luck. She had a whole bag full of this stuff and she passed some of them on to me.

I have to admit I don't like it when I see a black cat crossing the road and can remember once a long time ago turning the car around and going in the other direction.

If I am walking down the street, I won't go under a ladder either!

Remember when we were kids and played hopscotch or walked down the sidewalk and we would say, "step on a crack, break your mother's back".

I can remember spending hours looking for four-leafed clovers because we thought they would bring us good luck and do toads really cause warts?

I still repeat the saying, "find a penny and pick it up and all day long you'll have good luck."

Does an apple a day keep the doctor away? Is is really unlucky to rock an empty rocking chair?

The cardinal is Kentucky's state bird and there are a lot of them around. I can remember a saying mother always had when she saw one of these birds. It went like this: " Red bird, red bird, one, two, three. Going to see someone you are not expecting to see!" To this day whenever I see a red bird, I think of this saying. I think I may have passed this one on to my girls because they say it, too.

Isn't is amazing how these things stay with us over the years? Do you have superstitions or remember some of your own?

A GREAT SITE TO VISIT FOR THE NEWS!

This is cool if you like knowing what is in the news anyplace .

One of the most interesting sites I have seen. Just put your mouse on a city anywhere in the world and the newspaper headlines pop up... Double click and the page gets larger.... I thought you all would like to know about this site, if you don't already. I also found you can read the entire paper on some if you click on the right place. You can spend forever here.

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/

KENTUCKY'S COUNTRY QUEEN, LORETTA LYNN

Those of you that read my blog all the time know that I like to write about famous Kentuckians. This lady is Kentucky's most well known country music artist, Loretta Lynn.

I plan to write about several of our songwriters and musicians in the future and if you want to hear the music of each person, it will be playing in the background while you read the post. If you don't want to hear the music, just scroll down to the bottom of the page and turn it off!

Loretta Lynn was born in Butcher Holler, Kentucky on April 14, 1935. She was the second of 8 children. That part of Kentucky is known for its coal mines and a lot of poverty.

Loretta married Oliver Vanetta Lynn at the ripe old age of 13 in 1948. Oliver's nickname was Doolittle or Mooney. Mooney was from his early career of running moonshine. Loretta had her first child at the age of fourteen and four by the age of seventeen. She was a grandmother at thirty two. They were married for almost 50 years and had 6 children all together, including a set of twins, Peggy and Patsy. Peggy was named for her mother and Patsy was named after the great Patsy Cline.

I am sure most of you have seen the movie, Coal Miners Daughter or read the book by the same name. If not, they are both worth your time.

Loretta has written over 160 songs, released 17 number one albums, and had 16 number one singles on the country charts. She was the first woman named, Entertainer of the Year, by the Country Music Association and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She ruled country music during the 60s and 70s.

Loretta and Doo bought the entire town of Hurricane Mills, Tennessee and their 1817 plantation home there is billed as the 7th largest attraction in Tennessee. She filmed her famous Crisco commercials from the kitchen of the big house.


The Lynns had a son, Jack Benny, that drowned in 1984.

Doo died in 1996 and Loretta moved to a smaller house behind the big one where she resides today. The big house is open for tours.

I heard Marie Osmond say once that she started out singing country music because Loretta was one of her idols.


A favorite saying is supposed to be, "Honey, life flies by so you have to make every day count!"

A few years back, I made a trip to Butcher Holler to see her childhood home. It was an experience!


Finding the place was like looking for a needle in a haystack. We went to Paintsville, Kentucky and began asking directions. Everyone knew where it was but there was no roadside signs or anything at this time. The first thing we finally found was a rock with an arrow pointing down a country road.



Finally, we came upon a country store that was run by her brother, Herman. He told us he would lead us up to the old house and it cost $5 per person to enter and look around.

We followed him up a gravel road to the house. His dog ran along beside his car all the way up the road. The house sits on top of a hill and was worth the $5 to have a look around. There was an old wishing well in the yard and a lot of the furniture, according to Herman, was the original furnishings during the time they grew up. He said the wood cooking stove was original, too. There was lots of family pictures and photos around the place and pictures of her after she got famous.




This lady has endured poverty to become a major star and is a staunch survivor today.


I am proud she is from my home state of Kentucky!

MY 100th BLOG POST!

Today's post marks 100 entries I have made on this site! It is amazing how fast they add up. My first post was in April 2008. I have enjoyed blogging so much and have made so many friends out there in blog land from Scotland to Australia to the United Kingdom, India, Canada, and right here in the United States.

I appreciate each and every blogging friend and all the great comments you leave here. This has been a place to laugh, cry, vent, play, and express love for friends and family and get to know some wonderful people far and wide.

I thought for this post, I would show you my blogging place where I spend a lot of time reading your comments, writing comments on your blogs and just generally hang out when I am on the computer. We post pictures of flowers, trips, birds, and a zillion other things but this is where I am actually coming from! It is just a small room in my home that I use for my computer and my monster.

I hate the computer desk but it does the job for now. I plan to replace it in the future. I have all my cookbooks, recipes, and files in this room.

My "monster" is my pilates that looks like some kind of torture machine but actually works very well if I use it often. It keeps my arthritis from acting up and keeps me limber.

I have a small t.v. mounted up in one corner of the room so that I can keep up with my shows and be on the computer at the same time.

The shelves hold my cookbooks and family pictures.

These black and white framed pictures of my grandson, Thomas Wyatt, on the wall are some of my favorites.

Bob made me this little cherry table and I love it!

The picture below is a collage my son did for me. The girl is me when I was in grade school.

Now, you have some idea or thought in your head of where I am coming from when I write or comment.

I challenge all my blogging friends out there to do a post on their blog site! This has been fun to do and a great year for me just getting to know you all. Thanks again and hugs to you from me. I tried to make these pictures so they would blow up if you clicked on them but for some reason it would not let me do it this time. Does anyone else have problems with pictures on blogger?

THE BIRTHDAY CALCULATOR!

This is interesting!

Click on 'Birthday Calculator.' It tells you how many hours and how many seconds you have been alive on this earth and when you were probably conceived. How cool is that?
After you've finished reading the info, click again, and see what the moon looked like the night you were born. Who says our time clocks aren't ticking... Enjoy.
Birthday Calculator .

Did you find out anything new about yourself? I enjoyed seeing what songs were popular when I was born.