Privies, Punning, PPO, and Procrastination and A Poem

Hey, Y'all,
It seems like I could think of a lot of subjects beginning with "P" and had a difficult time making up my mind, so here goes:

Privies- For those of you who may not know what a privy is, in the language of a southerner, it is a toilet, most usually an outhouse. A conversation with Gramps went something like this:

ME: "I think I'll write about privies tomorrow."
HIM: "Did you all have one when you were growing up?"

"Well, yeah, several."
"All at one time?"

"No, honey. At different times when we lived in the country. At Possum Valley, and at New Market"
"Did they have a half moon on the door?"

"Nope."
"Did they have a latch on the inside?"

"Of course. We had to be able to fasten it to keep other family members out."
"Well, was it a one-holer or a two-holer?"

"The one here in New Market was a two-holer."
"Did two of you ever use it at the same time?"

"Well, two girls, Margaret and I, could use it at the same time, or two of the males in the family, but no otherwise."
"What did you use for toilet paper?"

"The Sears and Roebuck Catalog or newspapers or magazines, of course."
"Did anyone ever come and tip it over?"

"No, now let's go to sleep. I'm tired and I need my beauty sleep." Ha.

So the conversation went on a few more minutes and we settled down to sleep, finally.

Anyhow, a little more about privies. As I said, I've had some experiences with them. When we lived in Possum Valley, and I had begun school, I needed to go to the privy and was of course, only six years old. I could hear a dog barking outside, and as most children would be, I was really scared to go outside by myself, so I hesitated in asking to go, and consequently wet on myself. Someone pointed to the floor where the puddle was and so I was embarrassed and had to have my drawers dried near the stove that heated the room. I think maybe the teacher had extras that she kept for us in case of "accidents".

At New Market, when we moved here, I was once again introduced to the use of the privy. The outhouse got this name because long ago it wasn't called a toilet in polite society, but spoken of as a private place, hence a privy. Anyhow, it was across the road and down the wooded hill from our house. It was often populated by spiders and other critters. When we had to go in the dark down to it, Daddy would light the lantern, so we could carry it with us. I usually got my sister, Margaret Elizabeth, to go with me. In the summertime that is. In the winter, we used a 'chamber pot' or 'slop jar', and of course, had a lid to go on top of it. We kept it under the bed, and only used it in dire necessity. It was my chore to carry it down the hill each morning to empty it. UGH! I'm glad those days are over.

One time, on my way down the hill to use the outhouse, there was a snake on the path, lying there sunning itself, I suppose. Well, I screamed bloody murder, and of course someone came running, and I shouted, "There's a snake! There's a snake!" Whoever it was that came, probably my dad or Margaret, saw it and said, "Oh, that's only a black snake. I thought you were dying or something!" I said, "Well, I could have been if it had bitten me!"

Of course, you know that black snakes won't hurt you. In fact, they keep mice and rats out of the barn. They are friends to the farmer, but I didn't give a hoot what they did to help us, I just knew I didn't want one around me.

PUNNING - Well, folks I am one of the world's worst people for puns. Both my sons-in-law and I love to out pun each other. My daughters love to groan when we all get together and begin trying to outdo each other. I've heard that puns are the lowest form of humor, and if so, I know a lot of people who don't really care that they are.

PROCRASTINATION - Yeah, I am among those people who put off doing things, even things that I enjoy doing. I have to be in the right "mood", and have everything "just so" before I begin a project. For instance, before I begin a quilt of any size, I gotta be in the right frame of mind to do the beginning of it. Some art projects I have planned in my mind, are still on the back burner, but I will eventually 'get a round tuit', so to speak. Folding laundry, dishes in the sink, all that kind of stuff does eventually get done. My mom would have just called it 'Ruby Irene being lazy'. Ha.

PPO - That is one of my beliefs - Persistence Pays Off. I am a firm believer that keeping on pays off in the finality of things. In many ways of my life, I have found it to be true. If you want something to happen, ya gotta believe it will. Pray for it, keep at it, and believe it's gonna happen and keep on believing. My mama said that hard work never hurt anybody. She had a saying: "Things that you do, do with your might; things done by halves are never done right." That's it.

Well, folks, I never did find out what made all that noise the other morning at 4 a.m. I figure I must have just dreamed it, and it was so loud in my dream that it just woke me up. Do ya reckon? I reckon so. We spent a quiet day yesterday and didn't go anywhere or do anything spectacular (not that we ever do, ha). I was in here at my computer last night, and Gramps was in the living room watching television at about 10:30, when all of a sudden, I hear another huge noise. This time it was Gramps hitting the floor with his body. He had turned off the light near his chair and tried to leave the room with no lights on. Duh!

In the first place he doesn't see too well, and in the second place he is never real steady on his feet so he uses a cane to walk with. I jumped up, and ran in to see what had happened. I turned on the light and there he was sitting on his backsides looking up at me. I knew immediately what he had done. Yeah, he was okay and I helped him get up (which is not easy), and he came on in and went to bed. He will probably be a little sore today.

Today I'm making pizza and chocolate eclair dessert for our supper with our neighbors. They are bringing the movie, "Up", with them for us to watch tonight instead of playing games afterward. This is Blabbin' Grammy signing off for today. I have a dessert to go prepare. I made the pizza sauce yesterday afternoon. More later. Much love to each of you, my friends. Bye for now. I look forward to blog reading tonight before bed. Thanks to you all for the lovely comments and for reading 'my stuff'.

PS. A poem I once wrote:

Shadows

As I gaze around my room
The shadows flow as liquid, soon
To be dispelled by light
When sunshine chases out the night.

But all the shadows are not
Visible to the naked eye;
Instead they fill my heart,
Waiting for me to say good-bye.

Good-bye to what? I dare not say!
Or should I tell? I will today!
Good-bye to gloom, good-bye to doom!
"Come, sweet Jesus! Soon!

Fill this space inside my heart,
Make all the shadows flee;
Cause the sadness to depart,
Till only You are in my heart."

That's it. I wrote it several years ago. Bye again for now.