I was tagged by Vicki at Faint Heart Art to post eight random facts or habits about myself. Thanks for tagging me, this was fun to think about! It contains more memories than current habits.
~
1. I'm 52, and I have never ridden a horse, which is probably a good thing, if you consider #2.
2. I was run over by a school bus when I was 4. It's not as bad as it sounds, but it's a bit shocking, right? My brother Bennett was driving it around the dirt lot by our church. He was learning to drive, so he practiced in the school bus our church used to pick kids up for Sunday School, and I was playing train conductor, jumping up and down off the steps. Nothing broke. But there were tread marks on my rump. (This is why we have rumps. Why is there no good word for "rump"? Buttocks. Butt. Arse. Back end. Backside. Behind. Bottom. Bum. Derriere. Seat. Hiney. A**. Rear. Fanny. Cheeks. Posterior. Gluteus maximus. Haunches. Hindquarters. I don't like any of 'em. Well, maybe arse is ok. Oh and my sister's word was "buckets.") Bennett and I always loved each other, but after 
that we were bonded for life, which ended for him in 1996 at age 47.
3. I dressed up as Martha Washington (George's wifee) for Halloween in 4th grade. My sister Nancy (10 years older than I - same sister as per "buckets" in #2) made the entire costume, including white wig with ribbons and black lace gloves, shawl and lace trimmed eye-mask. It was an extraordinary costume, so was I stunned when my teacher Mrs. Woodworth recognized and greeted me "Good morning, Ruthie"!
4. When I am afraid of flying I do a meditation that includes picturing the plane inside me, and I stop feeling afraid.
5. Around the same time as the bus incident in #2, I learned to read on my siblings' laps during daily evening devotions when everyone took turns reading the Bible. 
6. When I was 12 Nancy cut my hair like Twiggy's. Wow, I just realized I had my own personal stylist in my sister.
7. When Don and I were first married, and I was a waitress, I 
waited on John Houseman in little Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, when he was on a book tour. I was the only waitress who knew who he was, which was what the manager guessed and seated him in my section. Was I shocked when I tonged ice cubes into his glass while recognizing that face I loved from the movie "The Paper Chase"! Of course the British actor asked for prime rib, which we had run out of. So I recommended filet mignon. "Fine," he said drolly. "Do you have any English mustuhd?" "But of course!" said I. Only we didn't, and someone had to run to the grocery store for Grey Poupon (there weren't any Rolls Royces around as in the TV ad). Mr. Houseman never smiled once. I would have been disappointed if he had, very disappointed.
69 comments:
OMG! I can't believe you weren't seriously hurt by the bus. Thank God! You must have some super butt or something!
I love Martha Washington, I have a framed portrait of her hanging in my dinning room.
I can remember playing with Twiggy paper dolls.
Not sure what dreaming of babies all the time is about, maybe you'll be a grandma someday soon! :D This was fun to find out some very interesting fact about you.
I loved John Houseman! He was the best thing about Winds of War, or was it War and Remembrance? I haven't seen either one in a lonnnng time. I've read each of the books 3 times!
Ruth, I just missed a few of your wonderful posts, I just came home from work (40 hours a week) and I am now just sitting down and reading all your words.
Amazing...run over by a bus...and than the fright of flying, I would have more fear for the bus.
The pictures of the snow.....wonderful, they expect some we snow the coming days..we hardly have that nice crispy snow as you have.
Ruth it is a joy to visit this blog, amazing Ginnie and you, both so gifted with seeing the beautiful things in life, her post of Basel is just fabulous again.
Ruth thanks for sharing these things that are important in your life.
Hahaha, Anet! That's me, Super Butt!! :D I love it! I think I have a new nickname.
What I've read about dreaming about a baby is that you are starting something new. My last baby dream I had three babies. Yikes!
Susan, were those both TV mini-series? Don and I loved them. I always think Jane Seymour was in one of them, and we named our beagle after her character, Madeleine. But I think I might be wrong. And I forgot Houseman was in it/them!
Oh Astrid! I haven't talked with you in a long time. A new job! I wish you well in that!
Hahaha I love your comment about being more afraid of the bus. It was very true on the buses in Turkey, let me tell you. Eeeesh.
Thank you so much for your visit and kind comment. I need to come over to your photoblog, it's been too long.
OMG! now i kno a lot more words for the butt!
and dammm run over by a bus!! now thtz kinda scary! and thread marks on the butt!!! LOL!!
A great still life as opening photo for your 8 facts/habits. The meditation exercise with visualizing is a good idea.
Ruth, Natalie Jastrow was the main female character in both mini-series. In Winds of War, she was portrayed by Ali McGraw (very bad casting) and in War & Remembrance she was played by Jane Seymour. The character of Madeleine Henry who was Byron and Warren's younger sister, was played by Lisa Eilbacher. If you remember, Byron was married to Natalie. John Houseman portrayed Natalie's uncle, Aaron Jastrow, in W of W, but that character was played by Sir John Gielgud in W & R.
Whew! I'm dizzy after that convoluted explanation!
I was quite disappointed by the casting of Robert Mitchum in Pug Henry's role, because he didn't play him at all like he was described in the book. That's what I get for reading the books first. Happens every time. But I did love the mini-series anyway and I would love to see them again someday just to see how they would hold up.
Oh yeah, you forgot "patootie"!
Man, I never realized there were so many words for "rump". Too funny but I sure am glad you were't seriously hurt by the bus.
Fun reading some little glimpses into your life.
Oh but you missed one out! How about 'Bot-bot'? That's what my mum used to call it when we were tiny. It was out little bot-bot :O)
Poor little Ruthy's bot-bot got all squished by that nasty school bus!
Thanks for sharing Ruth, love the rump part,lol. I am so afraid of flying too, I love your idea, have to give it a try next time.
I love John Houseman, cool you were able to serve him, loved him best in Rollerball.
Interesting you dream about babies, I'll have to look that one up,lol
In many cases babies can simply represent something that is new or a fresh new mood of optimism and enthusiasm. Babies may also refer to some new relationship.
I am so glad you survived your bus encounter! I can't believe that you don't dream about that over and over!!!
Just greetings from the middle of snow and thanks for your post today, I have heard before, that guarding angels are very busy with 4 years old girls ( and 14 years and 24 years . . . )Fortunately they mostly manage in their work :)
I have put myself again in the middle of mess, because I am moving furnitures to different places and I do it before my husband comes back,after that he will say only, "it looks nice" and it`s ok ;)
But I must hurry!
Byeee!!
Yes, Prasad. The doctor had to check me out, make sure nothing was broken. I remember looking back and seeing the tread marks.
:}
Hi, Hildegarde. Thank you.
Everyone needs to go see your painting today. The image is fused in my eyes.
Oh Susan, all the names and faces come flooding back now. You did a great job condensing it! Strange that I remembered Jane Seymour's character's name wrong. All I know is that we thought our brown-eyed beatle looked like Madeleine. Now I should look for images of lisa Eilbacher. I never read the books, but I know what you mean. Once you have it in your mind, another adaptation can chafe. I do like books done up in series though, so you can draw out the story.
Patootie! How did I forget that one!
Yeah, brown-eyed beatle! Um, beagle.
Thanks, Sue! And clearly I missed some, since Susan and Babs thought of more. I like finding out what word families use for such things, since they often evolve out of a child's perspective.
Aha, Babs! That's one I've never heard. Bot-bot. As in bottom I suppose. I am going to tell this one to my daughter. We like to overemphasize the final "t" on words.
Thanks, Bob. I keep hearing movies I forgot Houseman was in. What a character actor.
How interesting that you are afraid of flying. No shuttle flights or rockets for you?
Sidney, I'm trying to figure out the most recent, in which I was responsible for 3 babies, and one was extremely malnourished. There's something I ain't takin care of I guess.
Sharon, what is very strange about this memory is that I don't remember once being afraid or any pain or anything. I actually remember thinking, lying there on the ground that this should hurt, and so I cried out. It must be that the soft dirt gave in, and I was lucky.
Be careful, Leena. Don't overdo it. I hope you like the results of your rearranging, that's a lot of work once you get started!
Enjoy the weekend in your snowy world. Maybe you will ski?
Oh my gosh;)the bus incident and Bennett:) I love this story and this love;) Great 8!
ok I'm very tempted to do the hairstyle over there on twiggy soon? what do ya think? maybe I'll wait till spring:) xo
Me too, Amy.
Yes yes yes, Twiggy-do on Amy-do! You would be gawgeous with that chin open to the world. Yeah, after winter, you need the warmth of hair for now. :)
Donica and I were sitting here laughing over several things here that we did NOT know about you, Ruth. Believe it or not, I STILL remember the total shock we were all in about the bus accident...and you were none the worse for it. Pliable bones, I guess! That still scares me. You told of things about Nancy that I never heard about...so fun to read now. And you dream about babies a lot?? Are you that eager to be a g'ma?? :)
Waitress ! you have all my respects Ruth. I feel so inferior to this tribe, waiter waitress. how on earth do they remember what the people ordered ?. i have only watched movies of high society eating places ( i can't spell resturantees ) and i have seen waiters write down the orders. Fine. You have to see our eating places Ruth ( i still can't spell Restauront ?) We say Vottall (hotale) Hundreds eating only 5 or six serving. and no notebooks pencil, all served and billed by memory. i was seved a wrong dish recently, which i had not asked for ( i never order, i always request, beg is more appropriate) i said fine i'll eat that, i am happy that you goofed.
i was on the road with Chinna, one well dressed lady approached and said she forgot the name of the hotel where she was staying and her husband has switched off his mobile. (sensible chap) i said i am happy that you are lost. its good to know that i am not the only dimwit in the world. Any way, with a little effort Chinna and i located her hotel and we dropped her there, but i was very disappointed to know that she was a doctor. Oh dear ! to remove my appendix she might open my skull. a bit out of shape too, beautiful though, but an out of shape doctor ???
not for me.
Oh is he John Houseman ??, i forgot the name but can't forget paper chase, made a lasting impact on me Ruth.
Twiggy was a darling, i can write a book here Ruth, but its a comment page, oh dear what happed to the previous comment page you had ?
yes yes Twiggy, you have to be thankful to her for your slim figure Ruth, she is the one who started it all (without knowing). Before her, Rembrandt to Renoire till early sixties, the fashion industry, all used well fed models.
the famous exception could be simonetta vespucci, Botticceli's venus. (died at 22}. The Beatles and Twiggy Changed the world.
The movies and the TV serials very cleverly conceal the height of the shorter actors. i thought Jane Seymore was tall untill i saw a picture of her standing with some taller actor.
"after that we were bonded for life"
I can only imagine how poor Bennett must have felt! I(firmly)believe that sooner or later we all come to find benefits resulting from what were traumatic experiences.
Neat how you learned to read. I so love Proverbs.No matter what one believes in,there are some important and universal truths in there!
.. So much to comment on from your post,whew...
The whole bus story reminds me of being a freshman and being involved in a high-school charity drive where a bunch of students were in the back of someone's pickup truck. In a typical bout of stupidity, the gate was down and students were sitting on the gate. When the driver made a sudden stop, Cindy Doxsie fell off the back of the truck and got a serious skull fracture. She finally ended up being OK, but that really shook me up.
:) If it doesnt break my bones, i'd like to be run over by a bus too.....makes for a good story ;DDD or actually "throwing people under the bus" is fun too :DDDD
jokes apart, glad to know that you did not hurt yourself......and your little comment on butts reminded me of ogden nash's "poem" :
I test my bath before I sit,
And I'm always moved to wonderment
That what chills the finger not a bit
Is so frigid upon the fundament.
:)
so there's a new word "fundament" for you :)
I certainly will have to try the flying thing. That and a stiff drink. : )
So glad to learn more about you.
Boots, I dunno I dunno quite what the baby dreams are about. I don't think they're about grandbabies, even tho you know I want 'em. I think it's about me, maybe new stuff going on. Hmm.
rauf, I always had to write down what people requested. I couldn't remember otherwise, no way. My stress nightmare (everyone's is different, what's yours I wonder - maybe having graphic work on your computer with a mouse the size of a house) is having an entire restaurant to wait on by myself alone.
Oh I loved "The Paper Chase"! I haven't seen it since it came out though, and I was very young. I'd like to see it again.
Oh, I had fixed the comment box to pop up again, because I was afraid you and my other guests would have trouble logging in. It was a little finicky. But I have reset it now.
As for wholesome models, my mother always thought Reubens women should be the standard ('course she was one such herself).
Oh yes, rauf! Jane Seymour is quite short! It's funniest when they make men actors appear taller. So many are short, like Hoffman, Cruise, Redford, Pacino, even Laurence Olivier I think.
Carl, Bennett never really got over it. :( Long after, even when I was in my 30s (he was 8 years older than I) if the subject came up, he couldn't talk about it, he was too devastated.
I love Proverbs and Psalms too. They read beautifully.
Yes, I packed a lot in here. I realized as I was writing I couldn't just leave it at one simple statement, had to tell stories. Ha. Such is life with a blogger. :)
Whoa, Loring! I don't remember that story. Yikes. Every year something tragic happens to high schoolers. I'm glad Cindy healed all right. I was thinking about Terry Worthington the other day. That was sad. Did you know him?
Yeah, what happened to him?
Moi! Hahaha. Sometimes we have to throw people under the bus. That's a strange idiom, I wonder where it came from? Ok I googled it. :) This Newsweek article says it came from Cyndi Lauper! But also went back further to baseball!
Ooooh, fundament, now that's good. And the Nash poem is wonderful! :D
Christina, try it. But try it without a drink. Once I had a glass of wine at the airport before boarding, and when we took off, my brain did sumersaults, and I swore I would never do that again. But it does help calm the nerves once in flight. :|
Loring, Terry was in a bad car accident and was somewhat crippled. I saw him at our ten year reunion, and it seemed to me more had been damaged than his body. It was very sad, because he was such a charming, athletic guy. I don't know how he is now, haven't seen him since the reunion in 1984.
I once met Mickey Rooney in the Men's Room at the Woodbine Racetrack.
I would much rather have met John Houseman in the restaurant.
Neither of them smiled. For which I'm grateful.
I think I might need to hear more about the plane meditation.
I don't enjoy flying (I even did a fear of flying course - it didn't work).
I'm flying in a few weeks - not looking forward to it.
Barry, wow, Mickey Rooney, and how perfect - at the racetrack! Wasn't he in a movie at the racetrack? Well he was probably in a movie in every possible scenario.
Letty, where are you flying to?
When you're on the plane, imagine yourself getting bigger, and the plane getting smaller, until you picture it inside you. Essentially, it's like you're flying the plane, like a bird. It makes you feel as if you are in control. It works to calm me.
What an interesting bunch of facts! Mine are so boring!!
Excellent reading again Ruth, you know I just love your work.
Hey Stiggy's back! Thank you.
I'm sure if you sat still long enough (the hens will wait) you would think of some very interesting facts about yourself. And I'm not even talking about Jo being featured on the front cover of Stamper's Sampler!
Ruth I loved learning these things about you...
I adored that photograph at the top from the first time I ever saw it... so subtle, sweet, reminiscent, melancholy, and caught in time.. timeless...
I had a connection to Twiggy too... I was called that as a nickname being as skinny as I was then...
When I was a young waitress I never had any recognizable personalities in my little neck of the woods.. only people complaining that there eggs were cold and not cooked properly.. I decided being in the kitchen as a dishwasher was easier on the head..
Keep dreaming about babies.. It will happen.. they are wonders... even the parts that used to be hard to take as a busy young mother now are treasures to hold dear...
Thank you, Gwen.
Being a waitress is incredibly stressful, and as it's still my stress dream, I guess it really embedded itself in my psyche.
I've been ready for grandbabies for some time, 'though I keep telling Lesley and Peter I don't want to put pressure on them. But they know it's there. :)
I love to read when others have been tagged, but I hate (and refuse) to be tagged myself!! !-)
So nice to know a little bit more about you!
Could you give some details about no. 4? My daughter has a real problem with this! She wants to see the world, but hates to fly! (She would take the Queen Mary for New York!)
Thanks for this post, it's always fun for me to learn more about the people that write the blogs I enjoy! That is absolutely amazing that all you came away with was treadmarks on your arse! (that was one of my Dads favorite words).:)
News paper advertisement for 'mixing bowls'
Mixing bowl set designed to please a cook with round bottom for efficient beating.
Peter, I'm usually the same as you re tagging. This time I did it, but I did resist tagging someone else, which I won't do.
I do this slowly, Peter: When I'm fearful on the plane, I imagine gradually getting bigger, and the plane getting smaller. I take several minutes at each stage of size. Finally I picture the plane inside me, and I imagine I am flying the plane, like a bird. It makes me feel as if you are in control. It works to calm me. It isn't magic, just mind over matter. But for someone who is terribly afraid, I don't know if it would work.
But I agree with your daughter about prefering a ship to a plane, for many reasons! Slow travel is much more appealing and natural and in tune with our rhythm.
Makes me feel as if I am in control, not you. :)
Wrensong, it was strange being under the bus, lying there, no pain, realizing I should cry out because this probably wasn't good. Then Bennett realized what had happened and backed the bus up!
Yes, arse is one of my fave's too. It redeemed the word it substituted for. :)
rauf, hehehehehe, oh dear me loffeeng out loud, well more like chuckling, snortling, sniggering - not HAHAHAHAHA-ing. Where did you find that?
Oh, and rauf, it reminded me of an old friend who used to say the secret to happiness is to beat your kids up every morning.
It also reminds me of the unanswerable question: "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?"
Interesting! I love the imagery of you picturing the airplane inside you. I could see where that would be comforting. Scary about you being run over by a bus, but so glad it wasn't too serious!
Lori, when I think of all the stories each of us brings to the world, it's astonishing.
Lol, I am afraid of flying but would still go up on a rocket, what a ride and somewhat of a contradiction, I would do anything to get into space.
Bob, going to the moon or a planet or just getting a view of Mother Earth would be worth any fear of flying for someone with your passion for space.
OK, that bus story....amazing. I could not help laughing at the way you wrote that, but oh my goodness, your parents must of been frantic. Good grief girl!
Haha, Raina, it was quite a strange experience for all of us! Far the worst for poor Bennett.
That was fun to read! Always nice to learn more about someone.
Thanks for your interest, Sandy! :)
Post a Comment