Exploring a stranger's life

Handwritten neon-green signs led Sarah down streets to the estate sale.  Let’s see—mid-1980s, neatly kept desert lawns…retirees who have moved from the busy life to the business of staying alive.

The sign and number of cars indicated that this house was the estate sale.  Sarah prepared herself for venturing into someone else’s house, someone who either no longer lived, or at least, not here.

Walking through the door told her everything, almost.  Blue and mauve was a sure sign of the late 80s.  Furniture was well worn, especially the big recliner.  The man’s recliner…Sarah thought.  He was the last to leave.

The high ceilings and fans over the dining room and the dining furniture showed the couple had been well off; no Jerome’s or MOR furniture here.  Oak, real oak—and Lenox china ware, a complete set?  Waterford lead crystal? Ireland?

Sarah passed through the kitchen with its separate dining table, a mid-century set.  Now that’s worth some money, she thought as she ran fingers along the maple.  The then much younger couple must have loved this during the 1960s.

The bedroom was a bigger story about the couple’s lives together.  Travel.  Native American artwork.  Framed movie posters lined the walls. MASH.  Hmm, they loved MASH.

Sarah began crying in the bathroom.  Hair rollers placed in a plastic bag, shower cap, and rows of nail polish lined the counter, Mabelline lipsticks in shades of red. Some were opened, laying on the counter. When did she last use these?

She picked up a purple vinyl purse and promised herself she would use it.

Then the man’s attached office told of his fascination—no, obsession with Star Trek and X-Files.  Rows of video tapes, graphic novels (comic books), and collectibles lay casually on shelves.  How long had he been amassing this stuff?

The other two bedrooms had been her rooms.  Loved dolls, giraffes, Hallmark special Christmas ornaments.  His room was all Sci-Fi and her rooms were filled with a soft love.

The garage was the final stop.  It told the final chapter.  Sarah’s eyes watered as she held rusted hammer and tools, beheld the walker and raised bathroom seat, and saw “50 cents” attached to one golf club.  It was too much to bear.

She paid for the purse, 25% off the $5.00, and hurried away from the house. Inside her car, Sarah opened the purse and appreciated its construction.

In one zipped pouch was a scrap of paper.  It read, “Pick up t-bone steak for dinner.”  It was for him.  Sarah found a tissue and wiped her eyes.

Talents of God's People

 

 

Life in a farming community was a great world to be and grow. The world was somewhere out there, with the Martin Luther King, Jr. , Pope John, Janis Joplin and other people whose lives and mine would never intersect. 

There is a hidden group that has been persecuted for 2 millennia, the God's people, the Jewish people. Six million gone in a matter of a few years, there is little sympathy for a people that escaped genocide.  

But there is no reason to dig this up.  They went on their own choice. Get over it.  These are part of the language that puts the Jewish people down more.

Just who are some famous Jewish people?  Maybe You will be surprised.

Chris Pine        Robert Downey, Jr.    Adam Lambert    Scarlet Johannson    Jack Black        Paul Simon

Gene Simmons   Andrew Garfield   Steven Seagal    Paul Simon   Art Garfunkel  Joaquin Phoenix      

Zac Efron     Natalie Portman    Paula Abdul   Jake Gyllenhal     Sylvester Stallone     Bob Dylan

So many talented Jewish people went to the entertainment and music. But why to entertainment? And when did antisemitism first start the history of their struggles?

       

Antisemitism was first recognized as a political prosecution in the  740 BCE by the Assyrians up to now when they have been attacked, October 2023.    

Jews were prohibited for working in the community from One Millennia to another to our current age.  Being a banker was one skill that was disastrous. Instead they were allowed to work in entertaining at a fair.  They emigrated to America, where the Hollywood industry was picking up.  Jewish actors were hired above other actors. After all, they had spent more than 2000 years, practicing their skills as a way of surviving.

Many of the producers and directors (Steven Spielberg) were part of the Jewish people talent repository made necessary by the rest of the world.

What talent came from immigration to America! We are blessed to be part of their lives.

Check this out from antisemitism in history

Repost from 2019.

Cries from riots that Israel is engaging in a war.  That is what would happen logically after having an invasion, slaughter of women and babies, rapes, and capture of citizens.  Cries blamed Jews for the "genocide of Palestinians" after their own plans to "push Israel into the sea".  

Jesus, come soon.

It ain't worth nothin'.

 

                         China White pigs; they are mean.

Life on a farm can be unforgiving. This usually happens when the sow will reject the piglet(s) at birth if it seems frail in any way. Joining the herd frail or too small meant life or death.

Life was life, and things died—all farm children know the harsh facts. 

 

But, one cold winter day there was a lone piglet that was different. 

Love me for my brains!

He had been rejected by the sow because clearly something was wrong with him.  He had a huge tumor on his left hind leg.  My brother Robert looked down at the piglet in the box as I uncovered it and examined his poor leg.  “It ain’t worth nuthin’.  Should let it die.”

“Nuthin’…that’s what we’ll call him.”  Over the next days and weeks, Robert and I took turns feeding Nuthin’ first from a bottle, and then from a dish.  Nuthin’ grew, and we kept him in a pen in the breezeway until spring came.  By then, Nuthin’ was almost the size of our beagle dog Tuffy, and they played together in the yard.  We called his name, and Nuthin’ came as fast as his crippled leg allowed him.   

 

Spring was moving into May, and Nuthin’ was getting too big to let roam the yard.  Animals reaching adolescence are just like humans; they aren’t the same sweet little kids anymore.  Dad said we had to put him in the barn lot with the three milk cows.  We could still visit him, but playing with him wasn’t an option.  

 

That was when we noticed the tumor on his leg growing.  Day by day, we could see Nuthin’ slowing down, and not eating as much.  One day Nuthin’ lay down, and no amount of convincing could make him move.

The next morning Nuthin’ had disappeared.  No one said much about that, because all farm children know the harsh facts.

 

 First published: Susan Kane  22 March 2011 Robert and I have talked about good ole' Nuthin.over those years since. I had some fond memories, Robert not so much.