Betty’s Week
By Betty Shearer
Usual schedule for Tuesday after lunch had one little addition last week. Normally, after eating a sandwich, I zip up to Oxford to pick up J. C. Penney inserts, then come back by The Bargain Basket for a bottled water or Coke – and to see if they have any unusual buys. Sometimes there you can find items that we never see in our section of the country. Often it’s great and the down side is that you may never see it again.
Added to my list of “to do” last week was renewing my driver’s license. It just seems impossible that it has been four years, but the date on the thing does not lie and Betty Davis, who had to renew hers by September 3, had already reminded me. I was so proud of myself because I was three days ahead of the game—usually I get in on the exact date.
This was painless, except for that awful picture they put on these things—that you have to look at for four years. I did change shirts this year—was just accidental. For three renewals I’d worn the same shirt, really except for the dates you can’t tell a lot of differences in these documents. I must have really aged early.
This year I’d planned to go to Michael for a hair do, put on make-up, and get into a really cute outfit. Hair was out-of-the shower, make-up was non-existent, and clothes were whatever rumpled shirt was hanging on the to-go hanger. I told the young lady serving me of my intentions.
She laughed and said, “Oh, we want you to look natural on your license.” I look at the thing and wonder if the officer stopping me for a driver’s license check can really tell it’s me from that photo. Must look worse than I think. And now that signature they have you sign. Looked at it and the only time I can remember signing my name with out the electronic device and having it resemble what’s on my license was after the birth of Jim.
On his birth certificate my signature looks exactly like the one I signed Tuesday—and I’d been on drugs for 24 hours. Signature has not come into play yet—I’ve never had anyone ask me to sign my name while looking at my driver’s license.
On Friday morning Jimmie called first to make sure I got over to get renewed. Was she surprised to hear that that chore had already been attended to. Her question was “Where and how?” Then Davis called to make sure I hadn’t forgotten. I’m glad they did because it could have been that I’d not thought of it. They both wished me a happy birthday. Jimmie wanted to know if I wanted to go shopping. Took a rain check for this Friday, as I had important chores for the day.
Jim called next and urged me to let the chores go and have a good time on my birthday. His and Celeste’s gift had arrived on Thursday. It was NM peppers and they were labeled hot, hotter, and hottest. The hottest, dubbed the world hottest peppers, was developed at New Mexico State and Jim sent it in the form of a hot sauce, which he says had been toned way down, but you still need to use sparingly. Told him that I’d give Bo a teaspoon of it and if he proclaimed it hot, they had meet their goal. Nothing is every hot to Bo.
–––
Robert Montgomery finally got his pear peeler and brought it by to demonstrate on Wednesday afternoon. It really works, even though it cuts the pears into spirals—like curly fries. Wasn’t sure how this would do on pear preserves, but took the three he peeled home and made a pear cobbler out of them. Just cut the spiral into quarters and it was not much different from the strips we cut off vertically to make preserves. Of course it will be great for pear honey or pear relish. Billy Rotenberry came by on Thursday to see if I’d seen a demonstration of this device and to see if I thought it would work. I reported that it was everything Robert had claimed. Said he would have called Robert, but he didn’t have two hours to spend on the phone that day. Well, he didn’t save much time because we talked for a pretty long spell—we always do when we get together. I know a lot of the Rotenberry clan and by the time we cover family news, political news, food, etc. it takes some time. Do enjoy visiting with Billy.
–––
We were scheduled to play Bridge Thursday night, but everyone seemed to have conflict, so our hostess, Hilda Broom, says we’ll try again this week.
