New Grandmas Rock!

Were You Taught to Say, “Yes, Ma’am” and “No, Sir”?

Mon, 28 May 2012 04:48:47 +0000

Were You Taught to Say, “Yes, Ma’am” and “No, Sir”?

We moved to Texas the summer I turned 12, in 1959.

I only found out as an adult that the reason one hundred families with a parent who worked for Collins Radio were moved, en masse, to Richardson, Texas, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was because the government told them to.

Collins Radio (now Rockwell Collins) made what was considered a critical component, a radio for military aircraft.

The government told them they could no longer make it in a single plant.

They had to open a back-up plant.

They looked around the country and found Richardson, Texas.

It was home to Texas Instruments Ling-Temco-Vought and E-Systems.

The company said to themselves, “Our engineers will be happy here. They have good schools and there are other engineers to talk to.”

My father was an accountant. But, a new plant needed accountants, too.

North Meets South

Born in Chicago, I’d lived in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa from zero to twelve.

My mother had prepared us for the sun in Texas after a trip she and my father took to supervise the building of our new home.

“There are no children playing outside in the daytime,” she said. “I suppose it is too hot.”

I’d seen one or two cars with air conditioning in the Midwest. I assumed anyone with air conditioning in their car must be rich.

And, for the few weeks they might need it in the Midwest, it was probably true.

In Texas, however, almost everyone had air conditioning in their cars and their houses, and, for good reason.

However, my girlfriend and I enjoyed tennis in the early morning or late afternoon.

My brothers and I loved to swim in the hot Texas sun.

My friends and I explored the shale cliffs and shady creek behind our house, keeping an eye out for scorpions and rattlesnakes.

My Mom had told us in advance of our move that there were six types of poisonous snakes in the United States.

Iowa had two of them.

Texas had four.

School Starts

We moved in the summer. My thoughtful parents knew it would be easier on us if they did not move us in the middle of a school year.

Since I had a Midwestern accent, or, at least, didn’t have a Texas accent, curious friends asked about some of the differences in culture.

“I’ve heard that, up North, if you say ‘Yes, Ma’am,’ or ‘No, Sir,’ to a teacher, you’ll get in trouble. Is that true?” one boy asked.

I thought about it.

“Well,” I said, “if you said ‘Yes, Sir,’ or ‘No, Ma’am,’ with your Texas accent, they’d be charmed.”

“If I said it, they would think I was being a smart aleck and I’d get in trouble.”

As an adult, I worked in a profession where colleagues, even executives, called each other by their first names, so I quickly got past my childhood training of calling every adult “Mr.” or “Mrs.”

I never learned to say “Ma’am” or “Sir,” but after living in Virginia nearly all my adult life, I like it when young people do.

And, they don’t get in trouble.

What childhood training of yours has been passed on to your grandchildren?

What childhood training did you drop as an adult?

What habits did you learn as a child that changed when you moved?

To you and teaching your grandchildren about the wide world.

Carol Covin, Granny-Guru

Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”

Click here to order this blog on your Kindle.

http://newgrandmas.com

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Why Are There Three Bathrooms?

Weekly Recap. May 27, 2012

Sun, 27 May 2012 04:55:23 +0000

Weekly Recap. Sunday, May 27, 2012

Last week, readers spent the most time on:

A social network diagram (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last month, readers spent the most time on:

Coming up next week:

Were You Taught to Say, “Yes, Ma’am” and “No, Sir”? Monday, May 28, 2012

Texas. Iowa. Teachers.

Are You Social Network Literate? Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Experts. Almanacs. Dinner table.

When Did They Start Serving Oatmeal at McDonald’s? Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Apples. Fast-food. Comfort.

Bird by Bird Book Thursday, May 31, 2012

Homework. Focus. Creativity.

Can Tea Bags Fly? Friday, June 1, 2012

Ash. Marshmallows. Matches.

Childhood. Grandmother Poems. June 2, 2012

Nothing Gold. Grandmother Poems.

Sat, 26 May 2012 04:32:40 +0000

The wisdom of our grandmothers and our understanding of the sad, but natural march of life is embodied in this poem.

At 49, Robert Frost chose to tie the arc of life to Spring.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost, 1923.

Carol Covin, Granny-Guru

Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”

Click here to order this blog on your Kindle.

http://newgrandmas.com

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A Coin.

Can You Make a Parachute with a Handkerchief? Fun with Grandchildren

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:29:19 +0000

Can You Make a Parachute with a Handkerchief?

You can make your own toy parachute from a handkerchief, a piece of string and a rock.

Linen handkerchief decorated with three rows of hemstitching. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My grandmother gave me beautiful, lace, embroidered handkerchiefs that I would never use for such an activity.

They remain in a drawer, unused in 40 years.

They are a reminder of her and a different time, when ladies carried lace handkerchiefs.

I used one of my father-in-law’s handkerchiefs.

He passed away in 2009. I don’t think he will mind.

His birthday would have been June 22.

Thanks, Fox.

Know that you are missed and remembered.

May your spirit float with the parachute.

Materials:

Old handkerchief
Four to eight feet of string, thread or cord
Rock or washer (metal disk with a hole in the middle)
Scissors to cut the string

Instructions:

Cut the string into four pieces (the thicker the string, the more you’ll need)
Tie the end of each piece around a twisted corner of the handkerchief (double knots are secure)
Gather the four loose strings together and knot about four inches above the ends (you may need more if you have a rock instead of a washer)
Tie the end of one of the strings around the rock or through the washer.

Test the parachute by dropping it from as high as you can reach. It should start to billow out before it hits the floor.

If not, find a smaller rock or make the strings longer.

I started with one-foot lengths, then, doubled them to two-foot lengths of string. I was using very thick cord.

If the test run works, and the handkerchief starts to billow out, go outside.

Find an open space outside, as far away from trees and lines as you can find.

A school playground is a good choice, but an open yard will work just as well.

Throw the parachute as high in the air as you can.

You can test how high it goes by just throwing it up, swinging your arm in an arc and throwing it at the top of the arc, or rolling the parachute up tightly and throwing it up.

What Should Happen

The handkerchief should open up and float gently down to the ground.

Repeat as often as you like.

Variations:

Add different things to the bottom of the parachute, instead of rocks or washers, like small, action figures
Make the strings longer to see if the parachute floats longer.
Double up parachutes by attaching the washer to the top of another handkerchief
Make with different kinds of cloth besides handkerchiefs
Make with larger squares, like bandanas
Make a fleet of parachutes and see which one floats the longest.

This suggestion came from a book reviewed in another post on this blog, “How To Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself.” (see Related Posts below)

Click here to order the book yourself.

Did your grandfather teach you to make parachute handkerchiefs?

Did your father use cloth handkerchiefs?

Do you?

To you and teaching your grandchildren simple pleasures with simple things.

Carol Covin, Granny-Guru

Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”

Click here to order this blog on your Kindle.

http://newgrandmas.com

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Hanky Panky: Handkerchief dresses and skirts(fatchic.net)

Goodnight Moon. Book Thursday.

Thu, 24 May 2012 04:36:51 +0000

Play Audio
Play Video

Goodnight Moon.

NASA Moon Image

It’s almost hypnotic, this classic children’s book.

Goodn ight Moon was written in 1947, the year I was born. But, somehow, I missed it until my children were young.

It is still a favorite on children’s bookshelves.

Perhaps it is because the author, Margaret Wise Brown, had studied child development, so she understood how to soothe a restless, but tired child.

Perhaps it is because the things in the room are familiar to children. They know about the kittens and their mittens and the three bears on chairs.

Perhaps it is because the illustrator, Clement Hunt, cleverly starts you out with a well-lit room where little bunny is in bed, getting ready to sleep, then leads you, imperceptibly, through darker and darker views of the room as little bunny goes through a night-time ritual.

“In the great green room

There was a telephone

And a red balloon

And a picture of –

The cow jumping over the moon.

And there were the three bears

Sitting on chairs

And two little kittens

And a pair of mittens.”

…Toy house.

Young mouse….

By the time bunny has named everything in the room, you and your grandchildren are lulled by the rhythm of the naming ritual.

Then, it is time to say goodnight to everything named.

“Goodnight moon

Goodnight cow jumping over the moon.”

…Kittens

Mittens….

…Clocks

Socks….

By the time bunny says goodnight to the stars and the air and noises everywhere, your grandchild’s eyes should be heavy as you kiss them goodnight and turn out the light.

Goodnight grandchildren everywhere.

Click here if you want to order Goodnight Moon to read to your grandchildren, as beautiful a bedtime story today as it was 65 years ago.

Carol Covin, Granny-Guru

Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”

Click here to order this blog on your Kindle.

http://newgrandmas.com

Back to Sleep

Wed, 23 May 2012 04:30:45 +0000

Play Audio
Play Video

Back to Sleep

2,327 infants died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in 2006.

A sleeping male baby with his arm extended (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With the “Back to Sleep” campaign, launched in 1994, now 25% of infants sleep on their stomach.

It used to be 85%.

As a result, the rate of SIDS deaths has been cut in half, from 1.4 babies per live birth in 1988, to .55 babies in 2006.

While the cause is still unknown, we do know some of the SIDS risk factors:

Sleeping on the stomach
Exposure to tobacco smoke
Very young mother
Mother smokes during pregnancy
Mold
No breastfeeding
Excess soft bedding, including bumper pads and stuffed animals
Co-sleeping with parents or siblings
Premature

Boys are at greater risk, but there does not appear to be a genetic link.

Why Would You Not Put Your Baby to Sleep On Its Back?

Though the education campaign has been intense and the results dramatic, apparently 25% of parents still think there’s nothing wrong with putting a baby down to sleep on its stomach.

I can think of lots of reasons for this.

“I put all my babies down on their stomachs and they turned out fine.”

I call this the “Everyone’s doing it” argument.

Sure, I raised two boys and they did not stop breathing in the middle of the night. Of course, I put them down on their stomachs.

I remember talking to a neighbor when I was pregnant with my first son.

She was pregnant with her second child. She casually lit up a cigarette one day while we were talking.

She must have noticed my look, because I carefully didn’t say anything.

“I smoked through my whole first pregnancy and my baby was fine,” she told me defensively.

Yes, I’m sure. But, his odds were not good.

And that’s the thing about risky behaviors. Not everyone is affected.

Not everyone who doesn’t wear a seat belt is going to be in a fatal crash.
Not everyone on a cell phone while they are driving is going to run into someone.
Not everyone who smokes is going to get lung cancer.
Not everyone who kites checks is going to get caught.

But, your odds aren’t good.

And, when a baby’s life is at risk, do you want to bet against the odds?

Then, there’s the “You can’t really trust scientists. Besides, they change their minds all the time. Why should I listen this time?” argument.

They do. Every time scientists get new information they add that into what they knew before and see if it changes anything.

And, they don’t even always agree. Getting a panel of scientists to agree on recommendations for all parents and health care providers is not a trivial process.

It means most of them agree that this is serious enough to change a practice that is natural and eternal, putting a baby down to sleep.

What Made Anyone Think That Sleeping Position Was Related to SIDS?

A 1985 report revealed that SIDS is rare in Hong Kong, where parents follow the common Chinese practice of putting babies down to sleep on their backs.

Subsequent research showing that babies who sleep on their backs rouse more easily seemed to reinforce the relationship with SIDS.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that babies be put down on their backs in 1992. The educational campaign, “Back to Sleep,” began in 1994.

This was long after my babies were babies, so grandparents might not have heard of it.

Are There Any Bad Effects?

Yes.

You don’t read about this much in the education campaigns to alert parents and grandparents to the dangers of putting a baby down to sleep on its stomach.

What happens is babies no longer have that time when they wake up, before you go get them out of their cribs, to lift their heads up and look around.

So, they don’t develop the neck muscles that used to build naturally.

To counter this, parents are advised to give their babies “Tummy Time.”

Put the baby down on a blanket on the floor every day for 20 minutes or so.

Get down on the floor and talk to them.

They will naturally try to raise their heads to look at you.

My grandchildren hated it. They cried when I put them down on their tummies because they didn’t have strong neck muscles and it was uncomfortable.

One grandmother told me her granddaughter never learned to crawl.

She was so uncomfortable on her stomach that she just waited until she was a little older and started walking.

Is It Worth It?

Half the rate of SIDS deaths since the 1992 recommendation that babies be put down on their backs to sleep.

I’d say it’s worth it.

Do you remember stories about parents charged with murder when their baby died of SIDS?

Did you already know that babies are supposed to be put down to sleep on their backs?

Did you know what the other risk factors are for SIDS?

To you and learning what it takes to keep your grandbabies safe.

Carol Covin, Granny-Guru

Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”

Click here to order this blog on your Kindle.

http://newgrandmas.com

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When Did They Start Making Ketchup Bottles Upside Down?

Tue, 22 May 2012 04:24:51 +0000

When Did They Start Making Ketchup Bottles Upside Down?

Ever since I was little, getting ketchup in a bottle to start flowing has been an inexact, messy process.

I learned about a number of techniques over the years.

A bottle of Heinz ketchup (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You can tip the bottle upside down and smack it hard on the bottom a couple of times.

First, you will see a little dribble of ketchup juice.

Then, when you give it a couple more smacks, it suddenly releases and glops all over your French fries, hamburger, plate and lap.

You can stick a knife into the neck and try to release the ketchup in the neck, while tapping it near the bottom and holding it at an angle.

Apparently, David Letterman came up with the idea of swinging the bottle in a wide arc, once, and that gets it started.

Physicists say you can apply Newton’s First Law of Motion, that an object at rest or moving will continue until something gets in its way.

For ketchup this means holding the bottle at a 45-degree angle, hitting the bottom and letting the curved neck of the bottle hit your other hand.

The idea is that the bottle will stop when it hits your other hand, but, given enough force, the ketchup inside the bottle will keep moving.

This is probably the same principle that makes the David Letterman swinging it in an arc motion work.

You get the momentum of the ketchup inside the bottle moving and then stop the bottle.

And, finally, just whack it on the 57 label while holding it at an angle to get it started moving and leave room for air to help keep it flowing.

The common saying for most of my adult life was, “We can send a man to the moon, but we can’t make a ketchup bottle that works.”

Until now.

What Are the Physics Behind the Reluctant Ketchup Bottle?

There are a couple of things going on to keep ketchup inside its bottle until it explodes all over your hamburger.

One is shear thinning, the property of a liquid to flow when it is thin and not to when it is thick.

When ketchup is at the neck of a full bottle, it is thick. Once it starts flowing, after you have it started, it has room to thin out and flow more easily.

Whipped cream, blood and nail polish share this property.

Another property of ketchup is thixotropy.

Thixotropy is the characteristic of fluids that are thick like a gel in their normal state but thin out when agitated. This is what happens when you shake the ketchup bottle.

Wet cement and paint in a can also share this property.

There is also a problem just getting enough air through the neck of the ketchup bottle to the bottom to help push the ketchup out.

To do it, you have to encourage spontaneous symmetry breaking.

Imagine you hold the bottle exactly upside down. The ketchup could flow out of any side of the open circle on the neck of the bottle.

But, because it is thick and doesn’t have enough air pressure behind it to start the flow, it doesn’t.

Then, you tip the bottle, encouraging the ketchup to flow out of one side of the opening.

This tips the balance from an equal, or symmetric chance that the ketchup will flow out of any side, to encouraging it to flow out of one side of the opening.

This is probably why whacking the bottle on the 57 label while holding it at an angle works.

How Did the Upside Down Bottle Solve All These Problems?

It started with the invention of a valve in 1991 in Midland, Michigan.

Paul Brown was trying to invent a valve for a shampoo bottle, so it could sit on the edge of a tub, upside down, and dispense shampoo without dripping.

The shampoo maker bought it, as did a baby food manufacturer for sippy cups and NASA for astronauts to drink in space.

Heinz introduced the upside down squeeze bottle, with this revolutionary valve, in 2002.

And, they discovered, like the shopping cart inventor that came before them, if customers had bigger bottles of ketchup, they would eat more.

78% more when the bottle size was increased from 24 ounces to 46 ounces.

Now, we can send a man to the moon, and he drinks from the same valve that lets us pour ketchup without getting it all over the table.

Thanks, Paul Brown.

What is your favorite way to get ketchup out of a new bottle?

Do you use upside-down bottles?

What else could we pour upside down?

To you and discovering how the world works with your grandchildren.

Carol Covin, Granny-Guru

Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”

Click here to order this blog on your Kindle.

http://newgrandmas.com

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When Did They Put Whistles on Life Jackets?

Mon, 21 May 2012 04:56:34 +0000

When Did They Put Whistles on Life Jackets?

I was on a cruise ship recently that had an evacuation drill.

Child's life vest. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Everyone was assigned a lifeboat station. We had to meet there so the ship’s staff could be sure we knew where it was.

We did not have to wear our life jackets for the drill, but the crew showed us how they work, just like flight attendants show you where the flotation pillow is under your seat if you fly over water.

Or, how to put your seat belt on and take it off.

Whistle-Blowers

One of the things they showed us on the life jackets was that they all had whistles.

So, of course, this gave me visions/nightmares of all those cold people in the ice water around the Titanic as it sank, if they’d had whistles, whistling to each other in the dark.

The Titanic had several problems that cascaded. Its Captain ignored warnings that it was heading directly into iceberg-filled waters.

Its designer miscalculated the effect of a breach of the hull and how much space was needed to contain water from the breach.

The designer told the Captain of his error as soon as they hit the iceberg and predicted, accurately, that they had one and a half hours before the ship would sink.

They both went down with the ship.

Its owner fought attempts at regulating the industry to require a lifeboat seat for every passenger and fitted the ship with only half the number of lifeboats needed.

Seven hundred nine survived in lifeboats designed for 1,178.

Fifteen hundred fourteen died.

I never could find out when they put whistles on life jackets, but I’m glad they now have them.

Aren’t All Life Jackets the Same?

I was also interested in the fact that our life jackets were flat, not puffy, like the ones you have on small fishing boats.

Life jackets for recreational boating are different from those on a big ship.

They are filled with light, buoyant material, like foam, to keep your head above water the second you fall in.

They are, however, the same color, orange, so you will be easy to spot in the water.

On a little fishing boat, if you fall in the water, you don’t have to maneuver in small spaces.

You’re already in the water and need to keep your head and face up.

How Do You Make a Light Go On When It Hits the Water?

The life jackets also had water-activated lights.

Apparently, it is not the light itself that is water-activated, but the battery that powers the light. Two metal electrodes are powered when put in contact with plain or salt water.

Bert Adams invented the water-activated battery.

After he filed a patent for it, he demonstrated it to U.S. Army Signal Corps scientists who first said it was not possible, then arranged for manufacturers to make it without crediting Adams.

He sued for implied breach of contract. The government claimed the invention was obvious and based on the prior art of chemical batteries.

While Adams lawyer was arguing his case before the Supreme Court, he dropped a small battery with a light bulb into a glass of water in plain site of the judges. It lit up.

Adams’ patent was upheld in 1966.

Now they are on the life jackets on cruise ships.

You can now also get water-activated strobe lights to attach to life jackets for children or pets for small boats.

Why Are Life Jackets on a Ship Flat, or Uninflated, When You Put Them On?

Our life jackets had tubes you could blow in to fill the vest with air if the strings you pulled didn’t inflate them automatically from carbon dioxide canisters.

Not ours, but some life jackets inflate automatically on contact with salt water.

There are a couple of good reasons for outfitting us with life jackets that are flat to start.

Once life jackets are inflated, it’s a lot harder to move around in enclosed spaces, like on a ship.

On a ship, you might have to get through blocked passageways.

If you have to dive underwater to escape through a passageway, you can’t do that once your life jacket is inflated.

I felt like I was on the Titanic II, after they had learned the lessons from the sinking of the first Titanic.

Although, as we learned with the Costa Concordia, even having enough lifeboats and life jackets may not be enough.

At least 32 of 4252 people died in that January 2012 disaster when the ship ran into a reef. Shortly afterwards it listed heavily, making lifeboat evacuation difficult.

Regulations now require lifeboats for 125% of the passengers and crew.

On our ship, there were, of course, enough lifeboats for everybody.

And, water-activated lights. And, whistles.

Carol Covin, Granny-Guru

Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”

Click here to order this blog on your Kindle.

http://newgrandmas.com

Life jackets can save yours (sfgate.com)
Officials Remind About Life Jacket Use As Part Of Safe Boating Week (boston.cbslocal.com)
Wear A Life Jacket To Work, Promote Safe Boating (baltimore.cbslocal.com)

Weekly Recap. Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sun, 20 May 2012 04:50:37 +0000

Weekly Recap.

Last week, readers spent the most time on:

My Great Grandmother (oil on canvas) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last month, readers spent the most time on:

Coming up next week, look for:

When Did They Put Whistles on Life Jackets? Monday, May 21, 2012

Titanic. Dogs. Patents.

When Did They Start Making Ketchup Bottles Upside Down?

Restaurants. Bubbles. Viscous.

Back to Sleep Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Bumpers. Co-sleeping. Crawling.

Bird by Bird. Book Thursday, May 24, 2012

Noises. Routine. Scraps.

Tea Bags. Fun Friday, May 25, 2012

Ashes. Floating. Matches.

Nothing Gold. Grandmother Poems, May 26, 2012

A Coin. Poetry Corner.

Sat, 19 May 2012 04:51:44 +0000

A Coin.

In keeping with this week’s review of a memoir of growing up in the Great Depression and World War II years, in which June Kilpatrick tells the stories of things that she has kept for their memories, like her mother’s ruby and pearl ring, is this poem about memory.

Filsinger, Sara Teasdale, Mrs., portrait photograph. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Coin

Into my heart’s treasury

I slipped a coin

That time cannot take

Nor a thief purloin, –

Oh, better than the minting

Of a gold-crowned king

Is the safe-kept memory

Of a lovely thing.

Sara Teasdale, reprinted in “Time for Poetry: A Teacher’s Anthology”

Carol Covin, Granny-Guru

Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”

Click here to order this blog on your Kindle.

http://newgrandmas.com

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