Prices a shade higher

By Carol Weimer
Canastota Corner

Do you still have window shades? With all of the new window treatments and all the options available, few still have old-fashioned shades

At our home we have thermo-insulated shades that, along with insulated draperies, keep a room warm in the winter cut down on the National Grid bill.

So, I don’t plan on any changes.

The other morning as I raised the shade, the whole thing came down, practically on my head. After a few choice words (there was no one there to hear me), I gathered it all up. It was a large shade on a large window. The plastic holding it up had broken off.

What was I going to do? I have other shades stored that are no longer in use, not the right size, but perhaps I could borrow the fixture.

To my dismay most of them have already been taken for the same use, or they are made of metal and never break, but aren’t removable.

Time to shop for a new shade.

I don’t remember the price of the last shade I purchased, but it wasn’t too high. My nephew said he’d chip in half, inasmuch as the window is beside his computer.

The price of shades I was looking at was still too high. With a bit more shopping at other places that sell shades, I came up with a $90 figure. Now the shade has been ordered.

Some of my relatives suggested I put the shade on a new roller.

I had already tried that with the shade that the broken one had replaced.

I thought I would be so smart and carefully taped it to the roller but that didn’t work.

The shade I taped to the used roller seemed to work fine, but the next morning the shade was on the floor

The tape was still attached to the roller, but didn’t stick to the shade.

Perhaps I used the wrong tape. They all say duct tape fixes everything.

Wrong.

I once tried shortening one and ruined a perfectly good shade by cutting off the spring or whatever makes the shade go up and down.

I have found over the years to not try to mess with window shades, they are just too temperamental.

Do you have such experiences or am I just the only dumb one?

If I can’t order a shade in the right size for the fixtures, forget it.

Repairing the present shade wasn’t an option.

The price of shades has taken quite a leap.

I used to buy them for $5 or $10 in Gleasons Drygoods Store, Schepp’s Furniture Store, Gelose 5 and Dime Store and now they have to be ordered in a catalog.

Perhaps I should check out some of our nearby variety stores, just in case they carry window shades, but would they cut them to size?

I won’t change my window treatment. The shades do a great job of keep out the icy cold in winter and the hot, blazing sun in summer.

I hope that’s the last shade I have to buy for a while.

Space difficult to find

By Carol Weimer
Canastota Corner

It’s almost time to be putting the air conditioners in the windows again, just after I found a place to store them during the winter months.

The shelf where we used to store them, in the opinion of the person who carries them there, isn’t strong enough for two units.

I think it is, but to please him I decided to go along and find another place to keep them. Folks know I am a pack rat. The new winter spot for the air conditioners were already full of other things. It was a challenge, but finally it has been cleared for them. They were sitting in a spare bedroom until now.

It wasn’t a simple task to make the spot available. Nothing could be thrown out, in my opinion.

When I started making room, I did discover many things I had forgotten were there. For instance, a typewriter — electric, not that old — but it doesn’t work any longer. I saved it because it might come in handy for parts.

OK, it may hurt, but I’ll get rid of that.

There’s also a basket full of things I really need. A screwdriver, two screwdrivers in fact, one Phillips and one regular; a pair of pliers, a small hammer, a variety of miscellaneous nails, clothespins and assortment of sizes of duct tape and Scotch tape.

These are all the tools that I use on the second story of our home. When you live in a two-story home and you run into a fix-it job you can wear yourself out running up and down the stairs for the appropriate tools, so over a period of time I have accumulated extra tools and keep them in the upstairs for use. I have saved many a trip up and down stairs.

Also in the space is my dad’s Skil saw, along with my cordless electric drill. The drill was a Christmas gift and I love it. Have you ever tried to drive a nail into oak framing? I must admit many a cuss word escaped my lips before my electric drill.

Another item in the space was a box of construction paper, many colors, sizes, and patterns of various subjects that were used in my Sunday School classes and my Brownie troop during the days when I was active in these groups. Added to it were a variety of colored stars and pipe cleaners and all of the things that can be used by kids to make gifts for their parents and other relatives. I have now decided they will be passed on to someone who needs them.
Is there more that I haven’t mentioned? Don’t ask. There is now room for the air conditioners when they’re packed away in October or November.

The biggest problem is that it’s going to be hard to keep the space cleared off until then.

Grandma's iron kettle filled with memories

By Carol Weimer
Canastota Corner

Spring is here, or perhaps spring has been here more or less all winter.

Hasn’t it been wonderful?

But some experts are concerned. If the next winter is a replay of the last one, it could bring big changes in New York state. Without all the snow melting and coming down from the hills, will we have enough water for crops, industry and homes? What about winter sports?

Most of us don’t think about these things; thankfully we have scientists to worry about them for us. I hope it doesn’t become more than just an academic exercise in the coming years.

I have been thinking about the beautiful weather and talking to friends and neighbors about planting, flowers, trees, vegetables, shrubs and all things to make the place where we live beautiful for the summer.

This all leads up to one of the “planters” I intend to put out on our porch. While cleaning and straightening around the cellar I ran across my grandmother’s three-legged iron kettle all covered up sitting on a table.

It brought back so many fond memories.

The heavy round kettle fit easily on the burner on the wood or coal stove in her kitchen. Whether our ancestors once used to cook in a fireplace, I don’t know, but it was old when it was handed down to her.

Its three legs allowed it to sit on top of the stove and simmer or, when she wanted to hurry something along, she would remove the iron lid from the wood stove’s burner and place it right over the fire. But then we had to watch it closely so it wouldn’t burn.

If it were something she had already cooked and wanted to keep warm, she would move it onto the stove’s reservoir to keep it warm because the reservoir always contained hot water.
Grandma cooked us some delicious meals in her kettle. She always said that certain foods were best cooked in a heavy kettle.

The breakfast cornmeal, cooked long and slow, provided a wonderful morning meal.

There usually was some left, which she put into a bread pan to cool into a loaf. At supper, you might be served a slice of it that had been fried in butter and served with maple syrup or jelly.

Other foods she cooked in the kettle included soup, beef stew with potatoes, carrots, onions, rutabaga and sometimes other veggies with a few spices and brown gravy in the mix.

She would serve this with homemade biscuits.

On a cold winter’s stormy night we would all thank her for such a good meal.

I had forgotten about the kettle; now it will be sitting on the porch with a mix of perhaps petunias or geraniums replacing grandma’s stew.

We’ve replaced her generation’s coal and wood burning stoves with crockpots and microwave ovens.

That iron kettle was really something. And sitting on the table on the porch this summer full of flowers, it will still be.

Easter special for many reasons

By Carol Weimer
Canastota Corner

Sunday is Easter, a time of tradition and customs. Much like the Christmas season, the stores have become busy with people shopping for gifts

The stores are decorated with chicks, bunnies, and other characters, such as popular basketball, football, NASCAR and hockey stars. I’m speaking of the men in your family.

Have you noticed some of the things they’re selling for Easter baskets? Take a look!

There expensive toys such as smartphones, iPods, DVDs, video games and appliances I don’t even recognize. But they are there and the Easter Bunny‘s expected to deliver them. Imagine!

And, the selections that you are being offered in candy. If your tongue doesn’t hang out and your mouth doesn’t drool there must be a strong willpower vein in you.

There again, do you remember when there were only chickens, jelly beans and bunnies offered for your baskets? You colored your own eggs to be placed in the children’s baskets. Today, I ask you to take another look on the candy aisle. Every type animal, character and objects are offered encased in chocolate, marshmallow and nougat that the little ones will devour.

Some mothers, I’m told have to fix Easter baskets for their kids (sons mainly) who still expect an Easter basket at age 29 and beyond. They are still their mother’s child and expect their favorite treats that they had when they were just little small fries.

But this seems to be what Easter to some is all about. The pace quickens for some with the beginning of Palm Sunday and Holy Week. Depending on your heritage and the customs of your family or country this holy season has much meaning and tradition.

For many families the togetherness starts on Good Friday. If your family is close you move from house to house for Good Friday, Holy Saturday observance with meals and then on Easter Day its home to mom’s for the big celebration dinner.

The Easter worship service is truly what Easter is. When the choirs sing their beautiful anthems proclaiming “He Has Risen,” it gladens the heart and lifts the spirits inside you. Isn’t that what we need in these troubled times?
The members of the clergy take their places in the altar and read from the Bible the story of the Resurrection that we have heard each and every year.

Yet isn’t there always something new that your ears hear when it is told again?

While the Christmas story makes a warm feeling around your heart, the Easter story gives you such hope and renewed life.

When the service is over, the celebration begins with a huge dinner with all the family around. Isn’t it wonderful to have the fellowship of everyone home, catching up on the happenings in the family with each and every one? Don’t you love talking with the children? They have so many things that are so important to their lives to tell you. Little things.

Have a happy Easter.