Family Ways Stay With Us

From time to time, as I live my life, I like to remember the way our family has solved its puzzlements.


OPENING TIGHT LIDS: If a cap or a jar lid is on too tight,some people tap around the edge of the lid with the handle of a knife in order to loosen it.

My husband suggested that I run hot water over a lid, or a cap, to loosen it. He said that heat expands a material, and will loosen a lid. What a help that hint has been for me over the years. After I have run hot water for a few seconds over a bottle cap, or a jar lid, I can open the top quite easily. My husband would have opened the lid for me. He believed, however that it was important that I, as well as other women, recognize our capabilities and even increase our skills. Women, during the late forties, were doing just that, as they began to enter the workplace.

A Rule in How to Tighten and How to Loosen caps or lids: To tighten a lid or a cap,: turn the lid clockwise, or "rightey-tightey". To loosen a lid on a jar, turn it to the left, which is counterclockwise. We can remember, also "lefty-loosey."

COUNTING SECONDS TO KNOW TIME AND DISTANCE
Speaking of a "second": With no watch at hand how can we measure a "second?" Back in time, one of my four brothers (or my husband) told me that the length of time it takes to say the phrase, "One thousand and one" will measure "one second." Thus we can count the seconds: "One thousand and one," "one thousand and two", and so on.

HOW FAR AWAY IS A STORM
At our camp in the mountains, we counted seconds to learn how far away a storm was. As soon as we saw a flash of lightning, we began counting. We counted the seconds until we heard a roll of thunder. If, in counting, we couldn't get past "one thousand and one" we were advised to get inside some enclosure, as quickly as possible, and away from trees. A storm was close by.

I have now learned from great information at the URL below (thanks to daughter Jean) that if we can count to one thousand and five, or five seconds, the storm is a mile away!

Anyone who reads my blog can learn about storms, lightning, thunder and other things from this fun and wonderful site Web Weather (Click on the URL and reach it pronto. You'll find easy-to-understand explanations about lightning and thunder, and counting seconds with different words, to know how far away a storm is.

In Girl Scouts training, I think we were advised that if we're outdoors, and lightning is at hand, it's safer to get our bodies lower. We were advised to lie flat on the ground.
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EARTHQUAKE
One morning I was sitting in an upstairs bedroom in my house. Suddenly, I thought I was "seeing things" or was having a dizzy spell. The wall of the room seemed to be rippling.
I called my neighbor. I said, "Did your wall ripple just now?"

My neighbor said, "Not to my knowledge! If my wall ever rippled, I would surely notice it!"

A short time later I heard on the news that there had been an earthquake. I was surprised to hear the a radio announcer report that the effect of the quake would have been more noticeable on the second floor of a house than on the first.

Stay tuned for more Family Ways.
marylee manson armour
July 25,2006