Old Time Fun

A long way lies ahead
If desired,you may
Stop along the way
and rest your eyes.

HAND PLAYS
In my former "neck of the woods" (Terre Haute, Indiana), the generation of "kids" that I am part of, enjoyed hand plays. I still like to remember those. I don't know whether my contemporaries, who grew up in this "neck of the woods," knew of the hand plays we had as children. (I am eighty three)

FUN WITH FOLDED FINGERS
A Somewhat tricky feat

Have you ever, with hands folded together, had someone point at one of your fingers to see if you can find that finger, and wiggle it? If you wish to do so, fold your fingers together now. Can you wiggle each finger in turn?
***

LEFT HANDEDNESS
Our late Grandma Barnhart, (Mother's mother) was right handed. My late Mother and Father were right handed. Aunt Bonnie Barnhart Eldred, mother's youngest sister, however, was left handed, as am I and as is my brother Joe. Our left-handed genes, family history shows, seems to have come from our maternal lineage.

Right-handedness seems to be more prevalent than left-handedness. I hope that the adjective "right" doesn't mean that left-handedness is wrong.
***

How Dominance is Expressed
If you fold your hands, which thumb is on top of the other? Is either thumb equally comfortable to be on top of the other one?

If you cross your legs, does one leg reflect the same dominance as your thumb?

Ever fold your arms over your chest? Does your dominant arm end up on top of the other one? Where is the other arm? Underneath? Can we change the position of our arms and still feel comfortable?

If we try to change, is it a puzzle to find where to place our arms? If I cross my legs, the dominant one of my legs reflects its desired position. Does yours?
Cross your feet. What then? Why is the body so particular about the position its parts assume?

THOUGHTS COME TO US
A funny thought has just come to my mind. We can't think up a thought. Try! Try! Try! Right this minute, think up a thought.

A thought has come to me: "Isn't it a little strange that we can fold paper, and we also can fold our hands!

I can't cross my toes, but I can cross my feet.

My dominant foot, as with my hands, appears to be my left foot. I've crossed it over my right foot. That position feels comfortable. If I had a football and could kick it, no doubt, I'd use my left foot to perform that act. Such playful information interests me.
***
Dominant Eye
Make a circle of your thumb and forefinger about
six inches in front of your face,
Look through the circle with both eyes
at some object across the room.
Close one eye.
If the object stays in the circle
the open eye is the dominant eye.
Don H. Dunn
Business Week


FINGERS
The first finger next to our thumb, we called, the index finger. I wonder why it has that name. Some people, I think, call that first finger, the "pointer" finger. Any of you readers ever learn as I did, that when we point a finger at someone else (to accuse the person) three fingers point back at us.... as if to say "And are you perfect?"


WALKING
When you walk, what are your hands doing? and your arms? Do your hands and arms keep the pace? Are the tops of your hands facing forward?

AN OLD SONG

"I'd rather have fingers than toes. I'd rather have eyes than a nose. And as for my hair, I'm glad it's all there. I'll be awfully sad when it goes."

Ever hear the phrase: "Grass doesn't grow on a busy street?" I think I have heard that hair doesn't grow on a busy street, either. So would we conclude then, that the mind may be more wise in a person who has less hair?
***

LEFT HANDEDNESS
I don't understand why left-handedness appears in some of us folk. I am left-handed. My brother Joe is also, but my three other brothers were right handed. Neither of our parents was left handed. I wonder who passed along my left-handedness?

Was the left hand the dominant hand of any of my maternal Grandmother's sisters and brothers, or parents? Grandma Barnhart was right handed.

Does handedness matter? In some classrooms the chairs had small tabletops on their right sides. We lefties had to "make-do' the best that we could.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

How I love to think about words! I often amuse myself with their various meanings. Think of the word, "cover". How many uses might the word "cover" have? A book has one, as do beds. We may cover floor with paper before painting a ceiling. On a chilly night we may wrap ourselves in one. A manhole has to have one. At a picnic, covers keep food safe from flies. And do some detectives have those, too?

FLY
In addition to time, how many other things fly? Planes, of course, and birds; winged seeds off trees. If seeds of trees didn't have wings, so winds could blow those hither and thither and yon, trees would grow too close together.
In an Adirondack woods there is a hemlock tree that is 300 years old. My husband counted the rings of a specie of that tree, one that had died and had to be taken down. As I recall the tree was 300 years old. (I'll have to verify that age again)

FLYING
Some folks know how to make paper airplanes that they can fly, but only for a brief fight. Some paper planes, however, find a current on which to coast. Bees and birds, and flies, fly. In the Fall, leaves fly, or do they flutter as they descend from the tree tops?

HAND:
Let's all "give him a hand" for that wonderful performance on the bassoon! (Give him a hand? I can't do that. I need two hands for myself. )

MIND
For the wisdom I find in it and for the equal amount of fun I find, I treasure my mind.
I hope it stays close by. I surely would miss its company.

I Don't Mind
Some people, when coming into their homes, prefer to take off their shoes, I don't mind, when you come into my house, if you leave your shoes on. (Oh, Marylee don't ever end a sentence with a preposition!) OK. "Come in, dear friend, and you may keep your shoes upon your feet."

Like to sing? I'm singing to you now.

Be kind to your web-footed friends
for a duck may be somebody's mother.
Be kind to your friends of the swamp
Where it's very very dahmp,,,,,

Now you may think
that this is the end.
Well, it is.......

Marylee Manson Armour
Remembered from way back
April 1, 2008
Revised a little to blog