In 2019 our country celebrated the 50th anniversary of several historical and significant dates: the moon landing, the Woodstock Music and Art Festival and 50 years of being amused by the cast of characters from Sesame Street. We even looked back wistfully at the last time the Fab Four played together live on the rooftop of Apple Records some five decades ago.
This year we’ll give the nod to those feisty broads, a/k/a the Suffragettes, who aided in the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote – 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of that feat.
This is not going to be a political post – no rants or raves. As many/most of you know, I’m a Canadian citizen, living over here since 1966, so I’m not voting, even in the local election. The only time I vote is for those little polls y’all have in your blog posts, or when WordPress asks if their Happiness Engineer gets a thumbs up or thumbs down.
So why did I go searching for suffragettes’ pictures on Pinterest?
And why did I use this blog title, which was the theme song from the popular Virginia Slims skinny cigarette ads so many years ago? The commercials were vintage themed and geared to show how women gained the right to vote and smoke – I thought they were very clever. Take a peek here and be prepared to end up with an earworm. And, while we are discussing dates, we have not heard any cigarette commercials since December 31, 1970, when Virginia Slims aired the very last cigarette commercial on network TV, at which time all cigarette commercials were banned from radio and TV.
Milestones.
I, too, have come a long way – even though I’ve never marched to get the right to vote or be permitted to smoke a cigarette in public.
Today I am celebrating two significant anniversaries … so break out the cake!
First … it’s my 7th Blogiversary.
Yes, I have been blogging since 2013 and this will be post #1,415 – who knew I had so much to say?
My posts weren’t always as long and full of photos as they are now. In fact, during the course of these past seven years, my blog has morphed from one-paragraph posts with a single-word title and no photo (or an image purchased from “Dollar Photo”), to posts so long and picture-laden that I have fallen asleep proofreading them. 🙂
“Walkin’, Writin’, Wit & Whimsy” has become my labor of love and I am having great fun with it, especially with my renewed interest in photography. The blog posts are a great way to write about the ordinary and extraordinary nature I encounter on my walks. I sometimes think I should rename my blog “Simple Joys” for my morning meanders bring me such peace and pleasure.
Today is National Make a Friend Day (#NationalMakeAFriendDay) and it is no coincidence that fellow bloggers and friends in this forum have been a blessing. One might think the blogosphere is large and intimidating, but, in fact, the blogging community is small, and interacting with all of you, and my e-mail subscribers, has been very fulfilling to me.
But wait, there is another anniversary ….
It’s my 40th year as a legal secretary.
Forty years ago today, I began my career as a legal secretary, after spending 18 months in an ad agency, hoping to advance from a Creative Department secretary to a junior copywriter position. It would have been super to parlay that print journalism degree into such a dream job, but that didn’t work out since we lost our major account and my mentor went to another ad agency, leaving me behind.
So here I am, forty years later, in a job that has taken me on a long journey with technology twists and turns aplenty during those four decades.
Ponder this: can you imagine a day in your business or personal life without e-mail or voicemail? Well, those niceties didn’t exist circa 1980. And, while I didn’t use a mimeograph machine with purple ink to make copies, (no I’m not quite that old), I used a fax machine that you wound up like a Victrola. It smelled like rubber tires burning and its dial tones beeped and screeched when a fax was sending or receiving.
I began my career typing on a non-correcting IBM Selectric typewriter, often using carbon paper; (believe me, you learned how to type with great precision, or forever be fixing your boo-boos). I then graduated to a self-correcting Selectric typewriter and finally to an IBM Wheelwriter typewriter, with storage capability for phrases and addresses. Imagine doing a lengthy appellate brief with many footnotes and gauging how much space to leave at the bottom of each page for those references – it was a nightmare! Or, how about retyping an entire letter because your boss wanted to change one word? Grrr. Now word processing is something all legal secretaries just take for granted.
The technology aspect alone has made law firm life much easier – important documents once sent via overnight courier are simply sent as a PDF accompanying an e-mail. Voicemail eliminates the need to be tied to the phone or paged incessantly the very moment you stepped away from your desk. Even the fax machine is becoming obsolete due to e-mail/PDFs and now document productions are transmitted between client and their attorney or to opposing counsel courtesy of Dropbox. No more stuffing thousands of pages into boxes and shipping them out.
As to work, it’s been a long and sometimes onerous journey and now I don’t even deal with most of those administrative rigors of office life since I’ve not worked on site since 2009.
Now that I’ve waxed nostalgic about work and play, there will be many more posts coming down the pipe as my computer photo file is still groaning with recent trek pics as well as some taken last Summer and the accompanying posts are bubbling around in my brain as time marches on.
[Vintage and cake pics courtesy of Pinterest]
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Congratulations! You’ve been in the blogosphere a long time!
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I have and it always amazes me how many posts I’ve done, though the early ones were very short, not like now.
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Congratulations all the way around. I enjoyed the walk down memory lane, I clearly remember those cigarette commercials, and many of those office devices! Technology can be great. I don’t miss working in an office. Looking forward to your next wildlife post. Xo kim
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Thanks Kim – it is a long time for both, especially the job. Long before my short stint in the advertising world, I liked those commercials. They were cute, catchy and, just like you, I think vintage is fun. The technology is great today, and, were it not for technology, I’d still be working on site, so I am grateful for that. Also, like you, I do not miss the hustle and bustle of office life, no matter how far we’ve come. Friday will be my next wildlife post – you might want to show it to Mr. and Mrs. Nutty. 🙂
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What a wonderful achievement with both blogging and your career. Congratulations, reading how technology has changed in your career is really something. It tells how fast things progress, the younger generations dont even know how to write a check. I guess they dont have to either. You are a gifted writer and photographer, congratulations again Linda, here is to many more adventures coming your way.
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Thank you Sandra – I was happy to realize both anniversaries were on the same date and I could make a post about both achievements. It is amazing to think of how far office life has changed since I began in this field. While in high school and college, I used my mom’s old Royal typewriter that she had back in business school in the late 40s. You are right about technology for young people, and, though I have learned a lot about computers the last 20 years since my boss and I moved out on our own and I could no longer just call the office computer tech, plus needing to be hands on with computer issues since I’ve been working from home, when my landline phone suddenly went out last night (and currently still out), I had to contact AT&T online and use an alternate number … that was the cellphone. The next step was to look up my cellphone number where I have jotted it down as I never give it out and don’t have it committed to memory. The cellphone is a phone for emergencies while out of the house only. I even had to find the manual and refresh myself how to use it! So, I thought that was pretty funny after writing this long post about how technology has changed my life! Thank you for your nice compliments as well – I hope to fill this blog with many more nature pictures and stories in the years to come.
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That is cute, talking about the changing of technology and getting the manual out for your cell phone. I am the same way, can’t remember how to use some of the gadgets I have, so I do have to write every thing down. I really enjoyed the old typewriters, especially when the electric ones came out.
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The tech is still here – he’s been to the backyard, the corner where the ATT equipment is and to the building where “mission control” is – still the phone is out of service. I doubt anyone else on my street still has a phone – some just use their cellphones or have it through their internet provider. So likely I’m the only one with a problem. I think he was even on the roof – it sounded like it anyway. I don’t get many landline calls, (just my boss) as I communicate with people via social media. I could have waited to call them I guess, but we have this storm coming so figure it is better to get it fixed today. I am not really a gadget girl either and must write things down. He called the cellphone just before 9:00 a.m. to say he was going to be here shortly … I got up, went to answer and it went to voicemail. Well, great – never retrieved a voicemail, but whatever button I touched, the message appeared on the screen. Must learn how to use it, but I never use the phone.
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You might be right in that you could be the only one with a land line. The tech probably has not been on a call in so long, he is not sure what to fix. 🙂
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As I read your comment, the blinking light went out and I checked and I have a dial tone. Yay! I answered the door and the guy said that he had to climb up on the pole and replace the wire – guess why? Those furry “house squirrels” … or one of their friends had chewed the cord and exposed it to moisture … that was the issue. Perhaps blogworthy? Now I am off to work – glad it is fixed and they didn’t need to come in as my kitchen is a mess! Have a good day Sandra.
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Those sneaky Squirrels, it should be a post. Have a great day.
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Yes, I wonder what got into them to do that? The last time it was an issue at their building that houses all the lines. I hope they don’t make a habit of it. I think it would be fun to share the story and going to do that after I finish up here. (Just short, unlike the last few posts.)
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That would be a good post, I have never had squirrels do anything like that. Chipmunks can make a mess around the house.
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I’ve never seen a chipmunk (hard to believe, I know) but in the parks where I go, they are woodsy, but not dense. My grandmother had squirrels in her attic – I should have put that in the post about the squirrels chewing the wires. I likely would not have done a post except for mentioning technology in the workplace. We have this 3-6 inches of snow still on the way. It was nice weather this morning.
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There is a whole family of chipmunks living at this house. They squeeze into the cracks of the cement by the garage and live under there. Since I have been gone, I have not seen any yet.
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I am going to start looking up when I am outside Sandra. I had issues with the lights flickering a few years ago and called DTE (our energy provider) to see if there was a problem in my outside equipment. They said a tree in my yard was lightly touching the wires, but not the electrical wires, the phone wires only, so that was not the cause. They discovered the remedy to the flickering problem a few days later when others in the neighborhood began to complain and some equipment was faulty. I now wonder if the critters could get electrocuted if they bite a wire?
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I bet they could if they bit through the wire. The city comes here quite regular to trim branches between the houses. All the wires are in the backyard here. But the squirrels use all the privacy fences for their supper highways.
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“Supper highway” – I like that and we have privacy fences galore in the neighborhood so they are having easy access to poles but we have a lot of old trees in our neighborhood – it is squirrel haven for them.
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Same here, the funny thing to watch is, the squirrels run along the top of the fences and in the middle of the fence is another board that goes in and out of the vertical boards. And you can see the chipmunks running on that one. My dog see them running in there but can not get to them.
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I’m sure it is really frustrating to your dogs when the squirrels and chipmunks are out of reach and taunting them. They probably look at you to help them out. 🙂
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Yes, all I have to do is say the word Squirrel, and my dog gets excited and starts barking. I think she likes to chase them. She chased one to the big tree, it stayed just out of her reach running around the tree looking at her. I think they have fun with it also.
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There is a guy in the Park and he lets his dog on the loose – big dog and chases the squirrels up in the tree then they don’t come down again while I am there (or very reluctantly) … they actually don’t allow dogs in the Park. I like watching them running after each other round and round the tree.
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They sure look like they are having fun all the time. I dont let my dogs off leash anywhere. Well, my one dog is very small, I carry her when in public. She loves to ride in my basket on the bike.
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Yes, they do and they have an area at the Park where they have the baseball and soccer fields – it is away from the walking path and fenced off so last weekend I saw a couple of huskies running off leash and their owners were throwing Frisbees to them. I thought of taking pictures of them as they looked to be having such fun. I had time to go on a walk, take a bunch of pictures and get ready to go home and the dogs/owners were still playing … those dogs slept good that night I’m sure.
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They have a real nice dog park here, it seems to always have people there and their dogs, it is nice to see people use stuff like that. I don’t take my dogs there. They get plenty of walking with me.
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They are trying to put a dog park here in this City. I think we have 22 parks in this City, some are very small and some are for baseball, rather than playground activity and walkways. Council Point Park where I walk is really the only park in a natural setting in this City. We have Lions Park which is parallel to the same Ecorse Creek, but it is not really woodsy and it was made to accommodate kids with disabilities – they have a Braille Walk for the flowers identification and also playground equipment that is easy to use for kids with physical challenges. It is a small park. I go there occasionally as they have a nice garden and I try to take pics of the bees, not seen any butterflies there though.
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That is wonderful that your city has taken the time to put all of those parks in. It is real important I think to have these parks for everyone. I am glad I will be leaving the city, but I have enjoyed the parks over the years. And plan on spending time in them even when traveling.
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Yes, they are good for kids to grow up in and appreciate, especially a bigger park like Council Point Park. You will have a lot of parks to visit as you travel from place to place Sandra and you will be blessed by that experience.
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I look forward to it. There are alot of parks up at the cabin also, I have only been to 4 so far. I love the wilderness, but it is nice to hike on trails already made by the park services.
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I agree with you – right now anything on a warm and sunny day sounds glorious!
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Congratulations Linda on both anniversaries! That is quite an accomplishment and something to be proud of. I do remember those cigarette ads, although I never smoked, they were catchy tunes. When I was cleaning out the basement I found my old Selectric typewriter – I think I kept it because it might have antique status someday. In my early working days, all labels were typed on a typewriter and all records were written by hand. Computers are the best thing ever, plus they allow us to connect with the whole world.
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Thanks Joni – a lot of words typed for both the blog and the job and it seems I am never at a loss for words; in fact, this morning I had another post bubbling around in my head as I grumbled about missing my walk due to the phone issue (a beautiful weather day, the calm before the storm, and the phone issue is still ongoing, but tech is troubleshooting now at the house). I hope I can remember the gist of it as I am listening if he comes to the door again. I still have an IBM Wheelwriter at work that I bought as I had the need to use a typewriter and having one or two typewriters for all the secretaries to share did not work out so well, especially at the end of the day and taking the bus, so I bought a reconditioned one just for myself. I did defense litigation and we were not allowed to use labels (tacky looking they said) so had tons of outgoing mail.
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I was unable to load gmail last night or this morning to read your emails, so jI ust posted my blog, going to bake some date nut loaf, walk, run errands before the storm coming in and then switch browsers to see if I can open gmail tonight. If I don’t get back to you for a few days, that’s why. Hope your computer switch over is going okay.
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I can put it into a Word document if you want or I have a Gmail account which I rarely use – I can do either of those things; let me know. Gmail name is almost identical to my regular e-mail. Nothing has happened yet re: the computer … I am glad it was not today given the issues with the phone. I had moved things around in case he had to come inside since the phone port is right next to where I sit at the table.
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I’ll try a different browser tonight or maybe it will have fixed itself!
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Sounds good – let me know if you have any issues, okay?
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No, it worked fine – replied to all.
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That’s great – I usually use Chrome, but sometimes Opera browser as well. I should get used to using G-mail, but I don’t care for the interface. It seems jammed together and hard to read, even though I changed the size and color of the font and some other features to make it more user friendly to me. Comcast, for all its issues, is easier to use in my opinion (that said, it is having an issue this morning for web-based e-mail, as it says “opening your e-mail” but it dances around and nothing else happens).
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That’s what happens with gmail – it says it’s loading but it doesn’t.
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I didn’t know that – I thought it displayed funny. My Comcast web-based e-mail often does not function properly. Sometimes I can see things, but can’t reply, or it often just spins and spins, never opening at all.
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Wow Linda how fantastic!!! Boy do I feel old reading about the typewriters!
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Diane – I have been using a typewriter since high school book reports for school and that was my mom’s rickety Royal and I think I even wrote a blog post about it at one time. I had a Summer job putting together a welcome manual for the community college I attended before switching to Wayne State for the last two years. I did the welcome manual during the Summer, while working at the diner and the typewriter had proportional spacing. I had to count each letter and how much space it took up to make it line up, justified right-hand margin, and look pretty. On days I went and used this typewriter, I would work several hours just to type out one paragraph! I used to count my letters at home to make it go faster … like “m” was three spaces, “s” was two spaces and “i” or “l” was one space. It was nerve wracking!
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WOW!!!! How times have changed!
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Miss Linda…………………………Congratulations on your 7th Blogiversary!!……………………….and Happy Anniversary as a legal secretary for 40 years!!……………………..Wow what an accomplishment!…………………………..You Go Girl!!
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Thanks Ann Marie – I was pretty happy that both events fell on the same day so decided I should write about these shared anniversaries. Contrary to what I said, I am not going to eat cake, not even my chocolate squirrel which sits in the corner cabinet. 🙂
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Happy Blog Anniversary, Linda. Happy 40 years- here’s wishing you a restful retirement with plenty nature and wildlife.
Also glad you do not want to fight for the right to smoke either inside or outside, Linda.
It is a happy day!
Susie
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Thank you Susie – I appreciate it. I will look forward to just that type of retirement that you write about; I hope my retirement days will be filled simply and no doubt written about at length here in my blog. Nope, not fighting for the right to smoke either and no voting either. It was a happy day and I would have been happier on this day after if I could have gotten out to walk, as it is a sunny and clear-as-a-bell day, but my landline phone went dead last night and I had to be here at the house for the tech to come and troubleshoot and let him in the house if necessary. That’s too bad in lieu of this whopper snowstorm we are getting tonight – I may not make it back to the Park soon. P.S. – Hope you do not have the same type of weather where you are.
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Congratulation on making it so far! I look forward to seeing you make it much further. 🙂
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Thank you Rachel – I am sure there will be many more posts left to write about in years to come and I hope you will sticking with me all the way. 🙂
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I hope so too.
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We Will Have What We Want. Love the sign.
Congrats on your blog anniversary and your career anniversary. I’m glad I found you along the way and look forward to reading more of your posts here. You’ll blog forever, but the question that comes to mind is: how much longer will you be doing the legal secretary thing?
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Thanks Ally. Pinterest has a treasure trove of vintage pics and this was my favorite of the suffragettes – great shot. I am glad you are enjoying reading the posts, mostly nature related, but that was not always so and I like sticking a post like this into my blog every so often too. I thought the career anniversary was monumental enough to tack it onto my annual blogiversary post. You are correct that I hope to be blogging for many years to come and I figured I’d better tout the 40-year legal secretary anniversary since I doubt I will make it to 45 or 50 years. My boss will turn 73 next month and he wants to work until age 75 which will mark 50 years practicing law. His father was a probate attorney and still practicing law at 82 years old and only stopped working because he had sudden kidney failure and died. He had no intention of retiring. So, I think/hope to be working at least through 2022.
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Congratulations on both achievements Linda! It seems that even though it may not be your career you are now using your education in your blog. While it doesn’t pay the bills It pays off in other ways. I always enjoy reading and appreciate the friendship that has developed through our chats. I’m sure other readers feel the same. I hope you have a beautiful day my friend.
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Hi Ruth – thank you very much for your kind words. I was happy both events were the same day so I could make one post about the two of them. You are correct – I never found a job to use my degree and that was because the market was flooded with journalists when I graduated in 1978; due to the Watergate scandal, everyone went into journalism hoping to be the next Woodward and Bernstein. I could find no jobs, even at smaller newspapers, so writing this blog has always felt like at least I put that education to good use. My parents were disappointed I never used my degree in my career, but that is likely also because they paid for my schooling. I appreciate our friendship too Ruth and I may have been writing this blog for seven years, but I’ve only been interacting with other bloggers since November of 2017, when I got followers within WordPress. So it has been quite an experience after only interacting with friends who were subscribers for 2013 – 2017. My day has started off a little rocky – I had hoped for one more long and sunny walk this morning before the snowstorm tonight, but my landline went out last night, so the ATT tech has been here troubleshooting and I had to be home in case he needed to come inside.
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Like you I blogged for several years before getting any followers and interacting with other bloggers. It was comments from friends and family that were made in person the encouraged me to keep writing. I never really imagined when I first started that I would make friends with people from around the world. It is what I really like about WP. I hope you got your phone problems straightened out.
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Ruth – when someone from the WP world wrote a comment on a blog post in November 2017, I actually asked how he found me? My blog is also carried on the online Community Blog Roll for the “Heritage Newspapers” and “Dearborn Press and Guide” and another paper that is in northern Michigan but I am not familiar with its name right now. I have been blogging those places since 2013. I used to get occasional comments from people who read it in the online newspaper but it’s been awhile. But anyway, this fellow blogger said he was searching for “tree-related blogs” (his blog is about trees) and I had written about trees that day (Fall colors). I was incredulous as I was not writing to gain followers within WordPress, just writing for the enjoyment of it. A whole new world opened up for me, just like for you. My phone got fixed, and it took almost several hours … it was squirrels that chewed the phone wire! (The nerve!)
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Congratulations on both achievements. That is some going on the blog, especially alongside a job.
You brought back a memory of having to learn to touch type. On (even then) an old and well used manual typewriter. No electricity on that thing! Needless to say, 40 years on in IT, I still can’t touch type!
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Thank you Jerry. I never seem to run out of things to say and always have a blog post bubbling around in my mind. I had to stop responding to this comment as AT&T arrived and is here working on my landline. The landline went kaput last night – it has been in place since 1964, so that is “low tech” for you. You use the “hunt-and-peck and pound” method then for typing. 🙂
Nothing beats the rhythm of typing on an old rickety manual and pounding the keyboard and swinging the carriage at the end of each sentence!
P.S. – I like your profile bio – very clever!
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Look at you, Linda…a Canadian using “y’all”! Kidding!!! We owe those suffragettes a debt of gratitude I think we sometimes forget today. Happy anniversary to them and to you! & years. That’s a long time in blog-time.
Another Happy Anniversary for 40 years as a legal secretary. I took a typing class in high school. Whew! I made way too many mistakes.
I am so glad you and I met through the blogosphere. Here’s to many more years of blogging and commenting!
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Hi Laurie – yes, that “y’all” just kind of slipped out and I believe it was all those years working at the diner with the Southerners did it. Thank you – it is a long time for both, especially the legal secretary portion.
I am glad we met in the blogosphere too and we often get to compare notes on many topics, especially our formative years.
Now, speaking of topics, you need to write about the suffragettes, sometime before August 18, 1920 (when the 19th amendment passed that granted women the right to vote). There are a ton of pictures on Pinterest and I think you could have some fun with it.
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Congratulations on your multiple anniversaries! So go vote, open a bottle of wine to celebrate the blog, and go grab me a cuppa coffee, hon. 😁. Ok, kidding on the last one. And for the record I have been a lawyer for 35 years and have *never* asked a secretary for coffee. Or used the term “hon”. But those older guys, . . . .
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Thank you JP. I have had to get coffee over the years, but not for any boss I’m happy to say. The first firm I worked was very stuffy and old-fashioned, especially the elderly senior partner. No one was addressed by their first name. Since his name was first on the door and letterhead, he thought he could say/do anything. He was famous for his faux pas. One time he called opposing counsel and got his secretary. That attorney was at lunch and there was an important message to be left for him, so he asked the secretary “might you be Mr. Smith’s Girl Friday?” Well, that was an archaic expression and she took offense with it and slammed the phone down in his ear before he could leave a message. He called back later in the afternoon to speak with the attorney, who was equally insulted by the term. (I wonder if he ever used that term again?) I have to say I would not have been insulted and perhaps would have said “I am Della Street to Perry Mason, if that is what you are insinuating.” When my boss and I went out on our own I had an e-mail address of “lschaub@___” but since my name is not that easy to spell, for kicks I had an alternate e-mail address of “girlfriday@ _____” too.
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Haha, the “girl Friday” – isn’t that from a really old movie? I thought it was supposed to be complimentary, as in that indispensable assistant that everyone wants. But if I ever saw the movie it was back in the 70s or something.
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JP – I just Googled and it was a movie with Cary Grant, made in 1940, called “His Girl Friday” and I probably saw the movie at one time, though I’m not an old movie buff. I actually cancelled my cable TV in 2010, so it’s been a decade since I watched a movie or any TV. I get all my news from an AM radio all-news station, or from internet news sites. I thought it was complimentary too and would not be offended. While I believe in equal rights for women, I have never been a feminist. I happened to like this attorney, who was in his mid-70s, and quite full of himself, but he traveled the world and back then I used to travel a lot as well. He would have a caustic tongue with staff and the junior attorneys, but after I returned home from a trip and assembled my photos in an album, I would go into his office and tell him my photo album was ready whenever he wanted to sit and go through it, when time permitted. So, he’d come over to my desk, with an empty bone china teacup and saucer and jiggle it in his hand and say “Ms. Schaub, I need a cup of tea – you know how I like it, strong and weak as I like my women, then bring that cup of tea and yourself into my office and we’ll look at your trip photos together. That statement about how he liked his tea sure would not be uttered in any workplace today and he said no other untoward statements to me or any others. We would sit in his office at a glass table and spend a few hours going through the pictures and telling stories to one another about our experiences in those locales. He was quite a piece of work and a great storyteller if you could get past that irascible demeanor, but I worked in a diner all through college and was kind of used to off-the-wall comments and always had snappy comebacks. He died in his sleep of a heart attack in 1990 while in Kentucky during Derby weekend. I am sure I am the only one in the office who shed a tear for him at his funeral. The office was closed that day and everyone attended his sending off. I know staff and attorneys, even his partners, were intimidated by him. He is the one who relayed the “Girl Friday” story to me, as if to say “what is their problem?”
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Congratulations Linda! You write so well and always have something interesting to say! Your a eagle eye for detail!
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Thank you Wayne. I always seem like I have something to write about and the past two weeks I’ve done a lot of posts, more than usual. This is the first Winter that I am actually backed up on posts that I want to do, lots of pictures to use from Winter as well as last Summer and some notes jotted down and the rest is still in my head. May I never run out of words!
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If you do your going to go crazy!
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Well I intended to take a “breather” from blog posting for a few days, but I went out this morning to Heritage Park, got lots of shots of ducks and geese on the ice or in the water and hiked around the Park in the snow – found some nice shots with snowy backgrounds. I was there 90 minutes but the cold got to me – my fingers, even with 2 pair of gloves on. It was -4 windchill and 11 air temp but the wind was blowing 15 mph – yikes! I intended to go back to the River where the eagles are but it would have been colder down there, so I went to Council Point Park and just fed the squirrels instead, no photos there. So I’m going to do a post for tomorrow morning then do less posts – I have a lot of photos stored up since we’ve had a pretty clear Winter – if it had snowed as much as they predicted, I’ve have stayed home more.
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as far as the hand thing goes,I use a charcoal hand warmer! They have fancy electric ones you might find better.
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I have never used hand warmers since I’ve been walking … I had thought of getting battery-operated gloves, but only found mittens (for skiers or snow sports enthusiasts) and you’d have to take them off to use the camera. I was not impressed with these two set of gloves’ warmth yesterday, but it was brutally cold – the wind (15 mph) made it seem worse and the windchill was -4 … I should have known better to venture out, near the water no less, but they predicted snow last night (didn’t happen) and it was sunny (a big plus these days), and the roads were dry, so out I went. I will check out the link – thank you for sending it Wayne.
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If your fingers don’t hurt from the cold …………your not trying hard enough!
Photography is about suffering at times…..
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I was suffering big time – it was -4F windchill, +11 air temp and 15 mph wind! I did take about 200 shots while I was out there in the 90 minute walk and told the geese and ducks I was sharing their pain. Here is the post … look at all that ice they were on/in and I was near and one goose got mad ant they all took off in a huff making water everywhere – luckily the camera and me remained dry: https://lindaschaubblog.net/2020/02/16/cuddle-alert-2/
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one always has to suffer for ones art
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Yes, I wanted to get there as it was the second very brutal weather day in a row and I knew there would be lots of ice and they would be huddled on it as they usually are.
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