Yesterday was a this and that sort of day. My grandson asked me to make fudge, so I did–the old-fashioned kind that’s fun to do, the chocolatey concoction bubbling on the stove and filling the kitchen with a delicious aroma. But, before that…in fact, on Friday, I went to my favorite antique store downtown and bought an old ledger. Then, Dawn and I went back yesterday and scouted through those reminders of the past. It’s like taking a trip through history.
Let me tell you about my find on Friday. It was an old ledger. Someone had written, “1928”, on the cover, but some of the clippings were from The Kansas City Star, as early as 1934. Evidently, the person who had kept the ledger was entranced with the Dionne quintuplets. Don’t know who they are? It’s worth looking them up. Five little girls, the first surviving quints and they were born in Canada. They were big news in those days. They have an interesting but not very happy history. Only two of them are still living.
The clippings from the paper had been pasted on with flour and water, I’m pretty sure. It looks like it, anyway. The Kansas City Star want-ads are informative and fun. Ads for tobacco. Are we going to see that in a paper today? I doubt it. Ads showing women’s dresses for $1.98. An ad telling prospective teachers how to go about applying for a job.
So, I wonder about the woman who kept the ledger and loved the Dionne quintuplets. I believe she was from NW Arkansas and she was living in the 1920s. What were her hopes and dreams? Was she happy? Did she have a connection with the Dionne family?
But, this morning, it’s more than ninety years after she had painstakingly cut out the clippings and pasted them in her ledger. It is raining here in NW Arkansas. It sounds as if it means business! In fact, it has been raining much of the night. Nemo, let me tell you, does not like thunder. He can’t understand that big, loud boom that probably hurts his sensitive ears. It jangles his nerves and he paces and is right at my feet now. I tell him it’s OK, that it won’t hurt him, but I don’t think he believes me.
Anyway, that’s the way it is here and it’s a perfect day for reading a cozy mystery. It’s fall. It’s raining. A good time to curl up in a cozy spot, open a mystery, and lose yourself in the life of Darcy or Ned, who can’t seem to keep out of trouble, no matter what the weather!
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