Saturday, September 17, 2016

Jo's Birthday Blog Hop - 1978

Jo is doing a blog hop for her 50th birthday where everyone is assigned a year and has to tell what they were doing in that year and at that age.  I was assigned the year 1978.

Jo was 12.  In the summer Jo went on holiday with the school, her first time away without her family.  She caused great excitement by having an asthma attack in the middle of night and needing a doctor to be called out.  Later in the year the town gave refuge to a family of Vietnamese people fleeing their country.  Jo was chosen as a mentor for one young girl - "you used to live in Singapore, you'll understand her".  My home town was not culturally diverse!  Jo did enjoy helping her and tutored her for Maths as she did not like male teachers and was scared of them.  Jo also introduced her to the delights of English sweets, only 10p a packet!

I was 28 and had been married for four years.  I was working as an inventory clerk at a company that traded in gold and silver.  I spoke to several people who I later got to meet on a trip to New York and perished in the attacks on 9/11.  My husband and I enjoyed riding dirt bikes with my sister and her husband out in the desert between Labor Day and Memorial Day and camped in a 1976 Chevy Van which we converted and still sits in our driveway.

When I was 12, I was in the 7th grade and attended Junior High School in  the small town of Carpinteria, CA.  We lived close to the beach and spent many days during the summer crossing the railroad tracks to go swimming.  This was also when I had pneumanitis (walking pneumonia).  My father was a gun collector and I would attend various gun shows with him.  Because coffee came with your meal and milk didn't, he would order me coffee, which I still don't like the taste of.  I also helped at the information booth at the local gun show in Santa Barbara.

The picture I have chosen to post is Bee Happy from Cross Stitch Card Shop #96 designed by Durene Jones.
Happy Birthday, Jo.  I hope it's an enjoyable one.

12 comments:

Vickie said...

Hello Cathy! I enjoyed meeting you and learning more about you and Jo.

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

Thanks for taking part in the Birthday Blog Hop. It sounds like you definitely enjoyed the outdoors life and pursuits.
Love the little bees, this is the second bee themed picture and Kim sent them to me for her RAK too. I have some bee themed charts and charms in my stash too.

Carolyn said...

Cathy,
Thank you for sharing yourself with us. What a cute stitched piece with the bees.

Astrids dragon said...

Oh yes, English sweets, they were the best!
Your bees are so cute!

Bea said...

Thanks for a great post and a cute picture. I'm glad to have visited your blog.

Tiffstitch said...

Great post and fun to learn more about you. Very cute hive!

Stitching Noni said...

Great post! Loved reading your story.
Your bee hive is lovely :o)
Hugs xx

Brigitte said...

A great birthday post and picture for Jo.

Melinda Forbes said...

Thank you for sharing your memories I have really enjoyed reading everyone's posts

Katie said...

I'm hopping along on the blog hop. Great post. Thanks for sharing. Love your bee stitched piece.

Elfie said...

I am slowly hopping through the birthday blog posts. I enjoyed reading your post. This is such a nice thing to be involved in.

Kaisievic said...

Great post, my dear. Love the bee stitching.