Chatty Cathy, Shipwrecks and New Classes

Three days in a row with no where to go and no human voices in my life that weren’t coming out an electronic device, maybe I need a Chatty Cathy doll! She had eleven phrases when she first came out in 1959 but she didn’t say, “May I have a cookie?” I’d have to get the 1964 doll for that. I'm thinking if I fed all the cookies in the house to Chatty Cathy, it would keep me from getting fat when I feel like the last person on earth. Alas, all Chatty Cathy dolls were a bit needy, always saying things like: “Do you love me?” Tell me a story,” “Please brush my hair,” “Will you play with me?” “I’m hungry,” or “Please take me with you!” If Levi my Might Schnauzer had a pull-ring to make him talk, he’s say exactly the same things. He’s needy enough, so I guess I shouldn’t be doing an eBay search for Chatty-the-annoyingly-needy-doll.

Still, I want more laughter and hugs in my life and teddy bears are better for the latter than plastic dolls. I want a lot of things including world peace, purple socks and an answer to a question I heard Sunday in a song on the TV series, Chesapeake Shores: “If memories are all we have, does that mean that’s all we’ll ever be?” The guy singing the song was young and I’d tell him, “No, get out there and make more memories!” But somehow that advice doesn’t work as well for worn out people like me who have memories that are starting to fad like fabric left outside in a tropical sun. Sometimes my get-up-and-go gets up and leaves me behind!

Then Tuesday came along with a class in the morning and a lecture in the afternoon with only a scant hour in between to catch a quick lunch of Slim-Fast in the car. The class was billed as part exercise and part group discussion on balance and preventing falls as we age. Eight weeks, two hours each session, I guess it’s going to entail more than just telling us to get rid of our throw rugs, don't use ladders and to donate all our Crocs and flip-flops. Ya, I know that rule. It comes stamped on the back of our Social Security cards, doesn’t it? We all know that falls are the number one thing that puts seniors in hospitals and nursing homes. If the Old People Police come by, they’d ticket me for having three oriental throw rugs and fifteen pairs of Crocs. Note to Self: Don’t wear the latter on Tuesdays for the next seven weeks. The facilitator is the same one who facilitates The Gatherings at the senior hall so that’s a plus for this class of just twelve. We laughed a lot, set goals and shared stories about our falls and fears and we got a half-inch thick workbook of homework. 

The lecture was part of the ‘Life Enrichment’ series and it was about the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940 that caused three massive freighters to sink off the shores of West Michigan within miles and hours of each other. The monster storm killed 273 people including 56 sailors. This is the third lecture I’ve seen featuring Valarie van Heest an underwater explorer, archaeologist and author. Never---even for a million dollars---would I want to go deep diving around shipwrecks but I don’t mind vicariously sucking the marrow out of Valerie’s adventures. She’s a great documentarian. This lecture was a fascinating collection of old news reels, photographs and underwater videos. One of the freighters was 420 feet long and is now an upside down, watery grave and the storm that put it there forever changed the way our nation’s weather is predicted. Can you imagine, that day the temperature dropped 40 degrees in a matter of minutes, with a 100 miles an hour winds and no one even knew a storm was coming because the weather bureau didn’t operate 24/7. She also showed photos of nearly a dozen other ice covered ships that were in extreme peril that day but didn’t sink and she told about the hardships of getting the sailors off those damaged ships. 

Note on the first presidential debate: Before the debate started I was wishing for a rare Cussing Chatty Cathy doll to keep me company. Yes, cussing as in swearing. They were made by Mantel in 1964 as gifts for their top salesman and executives. By the end of the debate I wanted, instead, a Celebration Barbie. My 'home team' won! No chance of finding a Cussing Cathy anyway but one time my husband found a rare Barbie doll for two or three dollars that he resold for nearly $1,000. After that, no matter where he found one---garage sale, flea market or antique shop---he’d be the macho guy undressing Barbie to look at the markings on her right buttock. The summer when I sold off so much of my husband’s stuff, I was not surprised to find three naked Barbie’s in a shoe box. Memories. Yes, in the end memories are “all that we’ll ever be.” At first those memories are painful for widows but in time they leave you with a smile on your face.  ©

Article written by Valarie about the 1940 Armistice Day Storm. 

                                                          Catty Cathy Commercial

My Week of Missing Airplanes and Other Things

 

Monday I woke up to an inch of snow covering everything within my view. Again! Will winter never end? By the time I had to run the dog to the groomers the new snow was gone but the old snow is still covering everything but roads, sidewalks and parking lots and it’s as hard as concrete. I know this because I tried to move a pile of snow yesterday after my dog discovered he can climb the snow pile in his pen as good as any mountain goat could do. If you want to see an old lady freaking out, come by the next time Levi tries out his new climbing skills. They could easily lead him to a Great Escape to the other side of the fence where his nemesis, the neighborhood tabby cat, runs free and tries to tempt Levi into a steeplechase.

Tuesday I woke up to an inch and a half of new snow covering everything. Yet again! But this time it stuck around all day. Not to fear. It didn’t keep me at home. I had a lecture to attend on the mystery of NWA Flight 2501, a brand new DC-4 airplane that disappeared over Lake Michigan in 1950 and to this day has not been found. The author of the book Fatal Crossing, Valerie Van Heest, presented the program. She’s an underwater shipwreck explorer and researcher who has spent over a decade every spring teaming up with world reknown author and marine archaeologist Cleve Cussler to find the DC-4 using sonar equipment on loan from an agency that Cussler founded.

The film that was part of the lecture had a lot of vintage and recent videotaped interviews of people who’d help clean up the beaches after the crash, along with men who were in the coast guard who’d gone out to look for survivors in vain, and of family members who were left behind. It was a sobering fact that none of the debris that washed up on shore two days after the plane disappeared was bigger than a suitcase and that none of the many body parts that washed up were larger than part of a torso. They knew it was a torso only because it had a belly button.

They’ve searched three-fourths of the target area where Flight 2501 supposedly went down during a storm, factoring in the current patterns just like they are doing now to find the missing Malaysia plane debris. As I said, they haven’t found the DC-4 in this area known as Michigan’s Bermuda Triangle---yet---but they did find and document seven shipwrecks and they are going to start looking again when the ice is off the lake. While researching the lost plane Valarie found a one line notion in a coast guard log that said they had buried all the cremated body parts in a local cemetery. With more research, she found the unmarked burial site and the fact that none of relatives were told about this final resting place. At the end of the film it showed a memorial stone that finally marks where the remains of the victims are buried and the large stone lists the names of all 58 passengers and crew aboard. A well-attended memorial service was held 62 years too late but it did bring closure for the family members that attended. As Valarie put it, they went looking for an airplane but they found something far more valuable. It was a fascinating lecture---hearing the details of the detective work that is used to find old ships and planes under water. If my Michigan friends ever get a chance to see one of her lectures, don’t miss it.

After the shock and awe of that lecture it was a surreal experience to be running errands as if nothing I’d just seen had affected me, but that’s what I did and at one point I nearly caused an accident. It didn’t help that it was one of those days where I had to repeat stuff I’d already done which always puts me in a bad mood. Old people like me don’t have time for déjà vu days! For example, I bought a new set of sheets and had to return them because the pillow case was missing and I wasn’t about to pay $29.00 for a twin set and not get everything included. I also had bought a steamer pot for the microwave, unpacked it and found it was chipped. If I wanted to buy chipped I’d go to a flea market. Then I had to go back to JoAnn’s, a huge fabric and craft store, because I misread the dye lot on some yarn I bought and what I thought matched, didn’t. Note to self: time to make an appointment with the eye doctor.

And so it goes here on Widowhood Lane. Another half week gone, another half week and maybe Weight Watchers waiting for me tomorrow. Yes, fatty-fatty-two-by-four is thinking about going to the land of group support to lose the pounds her Winter of Boredom helped put on. ©