Grandma and Holly, Our Actresses

Holly was our actress, and she was amazing. Even in elementary school she had the poise and confidence of a much older child. In both 5^th and 6^th grade she was asked by her principal to represent their school at a speech contest in downtown Phoenix. She wrote her own essays, the principal approved them, then she presented them on the stage, along with dozens of other youth from across the state. I would have been trembling in my shoes, but Holly walked onto the stage like she owned the place, and gave her speeches with the finesse of a polished orator.

She was in her first real play in Junior High, when they put on 'Lil Abner, and then Bye Bye Birdie. By the time she reached high school she was an established actress, and performed in all the theatrical performances, usually in a leading roll.

Holly came by her acting abilities naturally. I never had the guts to try out for high school plays, although I secretly believed I would have been good, but my mother, Holly's grandma, was an accomplished actress in her youth. She stared in plays like “Arsenic and Old Lace,” and “Blythe Spirit,” and when she got married the town newspaper announced her engagement by informing the public that they were losing one of their best actresses. One of my favorite pictures of mom was taken as she lay dying on the stage, shot dead on her wedding day, in the play “Smiling Through.”

Holly certainly inherited her grandmother's talent, and she was a delightful actress, too. After graduating from high school she went up to Rick's College, in Idaho, to major in secondary education with an emphasis in theater, so she could become a drama teacher.

The following spring we went up and see Holly in a play. She had the lead in “The Matchmaker.” It was fun to see her apartment, meet her roommates, and look around the school. Best of all, though, was attending the play. Holly was superb! I sat enthralled the whole time, vicariously enjoying the thrill of being an actress myself, and wishing I had plucked up the courage to try out for a play back in my high school days.

Happy Leap Year

Hey, today is Leap Day!,  Cool, huh?  Are you going to do something out of the ordinary today?  The reason we have a Leap Year is because it doesn't take exactly 365 days for the earth to orbit around the sun, it's actually more like 365 and a quarter days.  So every 4 years that adds up to another day which they stick into our calendar.  Only, that's not even exact, so to make it come out just right we only add that extra day on years that can be divided by 4.  What?  Now it's getting complicated.  Continue that out and it means that if the year is divisible by 100 it is not a leap year, but if it is divisible by 400 it is.  So 1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was.  Go figure!

When I was a girl we learned a poem to help us remember how many days were in a month. 
"Thirty days hath September, April, June and November; All the rest have thirty-one......" and then I could never remember the last part of the poem, though I knew it had something to do with February.  I found it finally, and it goes like this.....  "Save February, she alone Hath eight days and a score til leap year gives her one day more."  No wonder I couldn't remember that last part.

Since leap day is so out of the ordinary, people have used it to do extraordinary things.  Tradition says that a woman doesn't have to wait for a guy to propose to her on this day, she can pop the question to him.  Only she should be wearing a red petticoat for it to work properly.  If she is, and her guy declines the offer, he has to buy her a silk gown and give her a kiss.  Another legend says if he refuses to mary her he has to give her 12 pairs of gloves.  I guess they are to hide the embarrassment of not having an engagement ring on her finger.

Anyway, today is the day to do something different than you usually do.  If you really want to splurge, head on over to Disneyland.  In honor of this day both Disneyland and Disneyworld are staying open for 24 hours, from 6:00 this morning until 6:00 tomorrow morning.  They are calling it "One More Disney Day".  What fun!