Thimble 005 London

Daughter Laura and her boyfriend Ivan brought me this thimble from London in August, 2006. Their trip was quite an adventure but I am sure they agree that the city is fascinating.

But this month the big news is London and the Olympics! What a great time to remember the city. I used to ask my students to compare London and Paris and played the devil's advocate, always saying that I preferred London. Most of them thought Paris was the winner and I think it is truly magnificent but I have to agree with Samuel Johnson who said the following in 1777:

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson

There is so much to do and see there, that it would take a lifetime to do it all. How I love the museums and parks, the river Thames and the pubs, the theaters and the street markets, The Tower, Buckingham Palace. The list goes on and on and on.

A few years back a group of students and I went for a weekend and we had a great time!  We took the sightseeing bus all around the city and got an overview of what there is to see. We went to see The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, the oldest running play in London. We went on a boat on the river and ate fish and chips at a restaurant nearby. We had a beer in a pub and went to a couple of markets. Here we are outside a shop near Picadilly Circus.

Nowadays, these weeks in July and August 2012 everyone has an eye on The Eye and London. The Olympics are in full swing and London 2012 are the first Olympics where all of the countries have a woman competing - a first in history. Michael Phelps has broken the record for the most medals ever won by an athlete. The second basketball dream team is breaking records as well. They won a game by the most points ever.

I am sure there will be more historic moments at the London Olympics. London beat out Madrid for these games but I can't help but hope that Madrid gets the Olympics for the year 2020 and we can talk about great things happening in the city where I live now, with an Olympic stadium just a few miles from my home. Maybe I can even get to see another basketball dream team play in person.

But for now,  I recommend a visit to London. I guarantee you will never get tired of doing things there if you do go.

Thimble 004 Oklahoma

I bought this thimble on one of my many visits back home.

As I said in my first post, I was born in Iowa but many people think of me as being from Oklahoma. We moved to Oklahoma when I was 6 so I lived there most of my youth. Since my father was from there too it seemed natural to feel like we were Okies too.

I started this post around Father's Day and what better way to remember my Dad than to speak about Oklahoma.

No matter where he travelled to, California, Florida, Iowa, Italy or Spain, he always said 'There's no place like home' when he stepped on Okie soil again. When we used to drive over the border from Kansas into Oklahoma, you could almost see his heart jump with joy to be back in 'his' state. He just had that red dirt in his veins and no matter where he was, there was a big ole country boy inside of him, hollering to get back home.

He was born in a town called Friendship. I'm not making that up. It was a little town in southern Oklahoma near Lehigh, Coalgate and Atoka. There were lots of coal mines in the area and it was a boom area in its heyday but when I got to go there in the late fifties, it was pretty small and getting smaller. Nowadays Lehigh appears in some books about ghost towns of Oklahoma, that is how small it has got to be. It's still there though.

Oklahoma is most famous for oil, wheat, cattle and of course nowadays for the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team. It's also known for its tornadoes. When I lived there I was terrified of them but I have to admit I never saw one 'live', so it must be harder to be in one than it seems.

Thunder, though, is the perfect name for an Oklahoma team. When thunder rolls in Oklahoma, it sounds like a freight train coming up at you, over and over again.

I guess I love Oklahoma because Dad did. Now that I am so faraway from there, I can smell the rain and see the golden, waving wheat in my mind's eye. I do think there are few landscapes that can beat that. I cherish that memory and then I understand why he was always so happy to see 'Welcome to Oklahoma' as he crossed the border and came back to his home.