I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: Humor

  • when I think of Oscar, I remember…


    …a day in January, 2013 when I went with him, his mother Becky, his younger brothers Dwight and George on a personal field trip to the grounds surrounding the Montgomery County public library plus the Fernland Historical site near the library. Oscar, the oldest of the brothers I called the Fabulous Huss Brothers had turned 4 on  November 18, 2012. His brother Dwight would be 2 on the 22nd. of January.

    Dwight the leader with his special backpack

    am I having fun yet?

    now where did they put that longhorn steer?

    here it is

    Dwight, I told you it’s not real

    Hm…I don’t know about that

    sigh

    I’m not sure what this is

    Ok. Been there. Done that.

    now what?

    let’s go, Bro

    Rainbow Bridge garden a special place

    hot dogs and horses

    I’m thinking about what I saw today

    Dwight, where are you going?

    the kid’s a genius – he can find water anywhere

    I love this bridge

    Dwight, you’re harshing my mellow

    Happy Birthday, Oscar! Enjoy special times with family and friends – I hope you have as much fun in your tenth year as I had with you during my years on Worsham Street…you’re the best!

    Stay tuned.

     

     

  • this girl had it going on…was she calling to Get Out the Vote?


    was she making calls to Get Out the Vote?

    Actually, not really – this girl (me) was probably calling her office from a pay phone outside the tennis courts at the Family Circle Tennis Tournament in Hilton Head, South Carolina in the late 1980s. She was carrying seat cushions for bleacher seats, wearing enormous glasses and a wonderful hat that she lost somewhere along the way during the next quarter century.

    This girl would have voted in every election, though, and would want all  her friends across the country to do the same in the mid-term elections on Tuesday, November 6, 2018.

    Be woke! Go Vote!

    Stay tuned.

     

     

  • be woke! go vote!


     “Suffrage is not simply about the right to vote but also about what that represents: the basic and fundamental human right of being able to participate in the choices for your future and that of your community, the involvement and voice that allows you to be a part of the very world that you are a part of… it is not simply about the right to vote for women, but also about what that represents: the basic and fundamental human right of all people, including those members of society who have been marginalized whether for reasons of race, gender, ethnicity or orientation, to be able to participate in the choices for their future and their community.”

    (reported by Sabrina Barr, MSN News)

    Say, whose quote is this? Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony or Lucy Stone in the 1800s during the beginnings of the Suffragette Movement in the USA? Or was it Alice Paul with her group of women activists called the Silent Sentinels who were imprisoned in America in the early 1900s, went on hunger strikes in prison and were force fed to be kept alive for three years before the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution giving women the right to vote was finally passed in 1920? The above quote could have been attributed to any of these American women who devoted their lives to securing the right of women to vote in our country.

    Instead, the quote belongs to another American woman, Meghan Markle, who is now the Duchess of Sussex and spoke these words yesterday to a crowd in New Zealand where she was near the end of a Royal Tour with Prince Harry. While celebrating that country’s 125th anniversary of women’s rights to vote, she praised New Zealanders for their political actions in 1893 and concluded her remarks with a quote from the country’s most famous suffragette, Kate Sheppard: “All that separates, whether of race, class, creed or sex, is inhuman and must be overcome.”

    I am so proud that an American-born woman of color is in New Zealand talking about the basic right of all women to participate in shaping our democracies with the power of the vote. Every vote matters. You are only powerless when you fail to exercise your power.

    Pretty is driving me this morning to my Lexington County voting place for early voting for the midterms which are scheduled for Tuesday, November 6, 2018. I am feeling very strong today. This election is very important in shaping the future of our communities, our states and our nation; and I, for one, want my voice to be heard.

    I’m going to think about Meghan Markle’s final remark from Kate Sheppard: “All that separates, whether of race, class, creed or sex is inhuman, and must be overcome.”

    Amen, sisters. Tell it.  We shall overcome. Be woke. Go Vote!

    Stay tuned.

     

  • the water is your friend


    As the panic overwhelmed me when I saw the water above my head, I could hear Pretty yelling Stand up! Stand up!

    My legs refused to cooperate…I tried to stand, but my wet feet kept sliding on the vinyl lining of our swimming pool. I was holding on for dear life to one of the two buoyant noodles I used for my daily exercises, but for some reason that wasn’t helping. I would try to put one foot down, the foot would go out from under me and I would go under again. Panicky. Panicky…I was drowning….in four feet of water…I was drowning.

    I can’t stand up – HELP!

    Pretty jumped in with all her clothes on and pulled me out of the water.

    I could barely breathe. The panic and fear wouldn’t let go of me even when I stood safely on the top step of the four steps leading into the pool. Pretty stayed in the water with all her clothes on and began to walk back and forth in the four feet depth of the shallow end of the pool she had just pulled me out of. She was clearly undone.

    After a few minutes, she said, I probably should have let you get out by yourself so you would know you could make it alone.

    I shook my head. If you hadn’t pulled me out when you did, I would have drowned, I replied. I stood shaking on the step for a long time before I slowly pulled myself out of the pool.

    All summer long I got into the shallow end of our beautiful swimming pool to spend 30 minutes of exercise in the water because my orthopedic doctor remarked offhandedly during an appointment last spring that the water was my friend, and if there was any possibility of exercising in water, that would be a brilliant idea.

    I had resisted the suggestion because of my lifelong fear of water – like as in major phobia fear of water. I loved to look at water but rarely got in it. However, this summer  I discovered the water allowed me to walk without pain and that made a “water believer” out of me. Every day I overcame my fears to get in the pool and do my exercises. Most of the time someone came to the house to swim so I had plenty of company during the warm summer days.

    Gradually I even began to look forward to the 30 minutes of water activities. And also gradually after Labor Day, most of our friends quit coming to the pool; Pretty was busy with her antique empire, and I kept up my pool exercises by myself. Even Charly and Spike were bored with my walking back and forth routines, opting to stay indoors while I spent time with my new best friend, water.

    October has been warmer than it’s supposed to be which gave me encouragement to continue my water exercises. Cooler nights chilled our unheated pool but sunshine could make the water bearable for me in the late afternoons. Pretty who loved the pool during the summer months occasionally got in with me but most of the time preferrred to chat  from the vantage point of a bench near the edge of the water whenever she came home during my pool time. Most of the time I was already out by the time she arrived.

    But for some reason known only to the gods of shallow water, Pretty came home early last Friday afternoon as I was wrapping up my routine. We were chatting when I lost my balance in the pool and went under. She was in exactly the right spot at the right time  to save me from myself and from my friend, water, which at that moment had become my foe.

    I vowed to never get back in the pool again; that promise didn’t last two days. The cold water may keep me out when the sun doesn’t warm it to suit me, but fear won’t. If Katherine Hepburn could swim in the Atlantic Ocean every day of her life until she died, surely I could spend 30 minutes in a swimming pool in my back yard.

    As long as my personal Super Hero Pretty is within shouting distance.

    Stay tuned.

     

     

     

     

  • proud mary


    While Pretty was away doing constructive activities with her father and number one son Drew at his house across town this morning, I watched CBS Sunday Morning. Oprah’s Gayle who is also a CBS correspondent interviewed Tina Turner at her home in Zurich, Switzerland. Tina was promoting her new autobiography, and Gayle was having fun talking to her.

    When Gayle asked Ms. Turner what she had to say about her many fans who missed her performing after her final performances in 2007, Tina said her fans now had her many videos…which led me straight to my computer which is now smoking from my watching countless videos of Tina Turner singing Proud Mary – with and without Ike – for the next two hours.

    No version is as fabulous, to me, as the duet with Beyoncé at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

    Proud Mary

    Tina Turner and Beyonce

    My apologies to all of my feminist friends and to my wife Pretty who is not a huge fan of Beyoncé, but if I ever have a memorial service, please play this video on a decent screen.

    P.S. Pictures taken from video on my computer and used with no one’s permission.

    Stay tuned.