Grapevine: Keeping Warm
By Rosalyn Queen on January 28, 2014 from The Grapevine
What piece of advice would one have to pass on for this week? Well, the only thing I can think of is to "keep warm." I really feel bad for those of you who have had to get out in this cold. I am very happy that the kids were able to stay home. I know that they will not be to happy come Spring and they will have to make up these snow days. The one piece of true advice that I can share with you is that it is absolutely wonderful to be able to stay in, get a hot cup of coffee, get the morning paper, open the curtains on the back patio doors and just dream. A world covered with pure white snow is really beautiful. The other piece of advice I have is to not over exert yourself in trying to remove the snow. Breathing this extremely cold air and the exertion from shoveling is not good for us golden oldies. So take it easy and I promise that eventually the snow will go away and the birdies will be announcing spring.
I wanted to share a story with you that appeared in the Sons of Italy publication. It was titled The Sailors Cloth and was written by Karen Haid. This is a story about blue jeans. When we think about jeans we think they are somewhat current but the story says the blue jean material predates the American West by hundreds of years and was first made in Italy centuries ago. It seems they originated in Genoa in the 12th century The blue cloth was exported to England and was referred to with the French translation of Genoa, "Genes." The word became anglicized to blue jeans or blue from Genoa. The word denim is of later origin and comes from "de Nimes," denoting the French city that graded with Genoa and where the rough cloth was also made. In America the first denim factory was opened in Amoskeag, New Hampshire in 1838. In San Francisco, 35 years later Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis patented what many consider the first pair of jeans. And I guess as that famous broadcaster would say "now you know the rest of the story."
The passing of Joe Beto stirred a lot of memories for me this past week. Joe and his sister Katherine were born and grew up in East View. Joe was a little ahead of me in school and Katherine was behind me. We went to East View Grade School , then to Broadway Junior High and then on to Roosevelt Wilson High School. We kids who followed this pattern have a lot of great memories, like the sports programs the Jr. High concerts, the high school plays and a lot of good things and it is with this in mind that I grieve Joe. When you live in this type of a community, everyone seems like family and we were all an extended family. The wonderful part is that our children also share this same camaraderie.
Hope you are keeping the pot of soup on the stove. Do not forget to try some French onion soup. A good base for this is beef bouillon cubes, cut toast into cubes, put it on the soup, melt a little cheese on it and you feel like you are in a gourmet restaurant.
Keep warm, keep in touch and until next week "Now You Have Heard It Through The Grapevine."
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