By Sheri Hopkins, Lifestyle Contributor
Hello everyone! Summer is back in Arkansas—I love it, don’t hate me for that.
I’ve been thinking back to the olden days when life was simple and times were so different. You could trust people, and if someone told you they were going to do something or be somewhere at a certain time, they were there.
We weren’t afraid to let our children walk home from school or go to a friend’s house. I had a wonderful childhood. My sister and I were just talking about it last week. We didn’t have a care in the world—we played outside, rode bikes, made mud pies, played with baby dolls and Barbies, and smoked fake cigarettes every chance we got. We didn’t have a phone except the one attached to the wall in the house. Believe it or not, neither one of us has ever smoked. Now, I’ve taken in enough secondhand smoke to kill a cow—I think all parents smoked back in the day. At the age of five, I was even sent into Bill’s Market in Booneville to buy a pack of Raleigh Filter Kings for my daddy. Kids could do that back then.
I’ve also been thinking about some of the words and sayings my parents and grandparents used. I still use several clichés, and my kids think I’m crazy. For example:
- If someone was lazy, my mom would say, “They are just doless” (meaning they do less).
- My dad used to say, “They couldn’t find their butt with both hands.”
- I often say, “Handier than a pocket on a shirt.”
- Another favorite: “Crazier than a goose.”
- And, “Let sleeping dogs lie.”
- “Dumb as a rock.”
- “They looked at me like a rock with eyebrows” (meaning just staring right through me).
- My friend Joy always says, “What in tarnation?”
- I joke that I’m “old as dirt.”
- My nephew (you all know the one I’m talking about) says if someone is grinning real big in pictures, they’re “grinning like a fox eating yellow jackets.”
- A friend used to say, “If it ain’t one, it’s two.”
- My mom would describe a tall man and a short wife as “Mutt and Jeff.” (I had no idea who they were until I looked it up—a cartoon with a tall guy and a short guy.)
- My aunt always said, “Tighter than Dick’s hatband.” One time I asked her who Dick was, and in true Aunt Exie fashion, she “knew” him and claimed he wore his hatband way too tight.
I miss the good old days, and I miss loved ones who have gone on.
This week’s recipe is for no bake cookies, but it has a twist. You put coconut in it and I would also add a few chopped almonds.
NO BAKE COCONUT COOKIES
1 ¾ cup sugar
½ cup butter or margarine
½ cup milk
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups quick oats
1 cup coconut
optional chopped almonds
In a a large saucepan, heat the butter, sugar, milk and cocoa. Bring to a full rolling boil and boil for one minute. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla, oats, coconut and almonds (optional) and mix well. Drop by the spoonful onto parchment paper. Let it stand for one hour. Hope you enjoy these. Have a wonderful week and always count your blessings.
Keep a smile on your face and always count your blessings.
