I just saw this on Facebook. My answers seemed 'normal'--and they are, for the Midwest, at least. I was surprised to see that people from the South--and New York city--use totally different names for these common items. I'm interested in seeing what everyone here 'calls' these items; I'll post my answers after the photo: 

My answers were: Grocery/shopping cart, BackPack, Soft Drink.

 Other names were: 'buggy', soda/coke/pop

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This morning, around 3am, I was awake & turned on my tablet to check NOTH for spammers. Just happened to see an article saying that Meat Loaf, one of my favorite singers, had died at age 74. I listen to some of his songs daily. Now, I admit I don't like all of his music--but do like many of his songs. 

It's kind of an ironic/funny thing. Recently, I had thought of writing a blog--about how I'm turning into my mother when it comes to singers. 

Mom always said she 'liked' Elvis, as long as she didn't have to 'look' at him.  I never understood why--unless she didn't like the 'swivel hips' thing that people in her generation used to complain about. Recently, I found myself thinking the same about Meat Loaf: I listen to his music videos daily; but I don't really 'watch' them.

However, I will probably always 'listen' to his music. I think the first time I heard him sing was in the Rocky Horror Picture Show: "Whatever Happened to Saturday Night". To me, the only 'good' thing about that movie was the music! But that's just my opinion.

Some of my favorite songs of his are:

I'd Do Anything for Love, Two out of  Three Aint Bad, You Took the Words right out of My Mouth, Life is a Lemon, and Rock & Roll Dreams Come True. And don't forget his version of It's all Coming back to me now.   

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I was never a 'Twinkies' fan. In fact, I don't think I ever had them more than once or twice. Then this year, I discovered a 'new' flavor: mixed berry.  Since that's one of my favorite flavors--of anything: muffins, 'drink' mix, etc--I decided I had to try it.

And guess what? I love it!  I'm not big on 'breakfast' in general; but now that I take a number of medications each morning, I know I should have something on my stomach at that time. So now, I have one Twinkie with my morning tea and pills. The good news: 1 Twinkie is only 135 calories--so it's perfect.  (Occasionally, I'll decide to have a scrambled egg with a piece of toast--but it's so much easier to grab  a Twinkie!)  

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While listening to some of my favorite songs from the 1980s the other day, I heard the phrase: "put another dime in the jukebox"; that brought back memories! But when I was a child, it cost a nickel to play a song. 

Of course, I was a pre-teen at the time. I don't remember exactly how old I was, but I was probably seven or eight years old. The reason I remember it so vividly was that my one grandmother ran a truck stop for a few years--and I spent a lot of time there with her. There was a jar of nickles that I could use to play music on the jukebox--and each of those nickels had a splotch of nail polish on it. When the machine was 'emptied', all of those nickles were put back into the jar to be used again. At this point, I don't remember which songs I played over and over--but I know there were at least half a dozen! I've always loved music. And I still do.

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I wrote this for my group, but decided to share. I think it's humorous! I've shared a number of my short stories in that group as well as one of my novellas. 

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I'm constantly saying: Google it! Do you say that? And do you 'do' that--use Google to search for things? In the past, yes, I used Google a lot. Probably daily. However, I've recently changed to Duck, Duck, Go as my search engine. But I still tend to tell people to 'google' whatever it is. 

I think 'google' has become the generic term for search engines--just like 'kleenex' is generic for any tissue.  I use Puffs--have for many years. But I still catch myself asking for 'kleenex' at times. 

I think it's the same thing for Coke. I don't know for sure, but I believe Coca-Cola might have been the first popular soft drink. My mom loved it; on the other hand, Grandma showed me that 'coke' could clean rust off an old child's 'highchair'!  Personally, once I tasted Pepsi, I decided I liked it better than Coke.

Of course, brings up the question: what do you call Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, etc? I say soft drink.  But that's off topic! 

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Now that 'fall' is here--or will be soon--people are talking about making homemade Chili. I saw some posts on FB talking about 'what' goes into it.  Now, I'm from Southern Indiana. We always had either spaghetti (broken up) or macaroni in our 'chili'. I have a hunch Mom and Grandma did that to make it 'stretch'! But who knows? It does taste good!  And 'our chili' was thick. Not soupy. Grandma used spaghetti; Mom did macaroni. 

According to some of the posts, even some from Indiana don't do that, which surprised me. They call it 'chili mac' if it has any kind of 'pasta' in it, whether it's spaghetti, macaroni, or noodles. Others, from the Southwest, post that they add more 'spicy' things to it. And some don't even put beans in it!   Or they might use 'white' meat instead of beef.

As for me, I always put broken up spaghetti in mine.  My husband buys canned chili without beans; I choose 'beans' and 'hot' on store-bought canned chili.  If I 'buy' canned chili, I don't bother adding anything to it, so no spaghetti or macaroni in that. 

If I'm making it from scratch, I use Brooks' Chili Mix, which has beans; I use finely chopped ground chuck--or ground round. And I add Gebhardts chili powder.  I also add diced green chillies, with tomatoes. (T uses several packs of Brooks Chili seasonings & adds extra beans--Brooks Hot Chili beans). Yes, our tastes are different--so we each make what we like!  

Well, I started to 'update' this, then realized I had already explained what I meant! If I buy canned chili--no, I don't add anything to it, either macaroni or spaghetti. I only do that when I'm making it from scratch.  In recent years, I mainly stick to canned chili; and I'm not picky (like T is), so I buy anything from Hormel to the store brand. And I do like it spicy, so I get 'hot' when I can.

On the other hand, my husband always makes some spaghetti and pours his canned chili over it!   He is definitely picky about the 'brand'; right now, his favorite is Armour, without beans. Yes, that's contradictory: canned is 'no beans' while he puts beans into his homemade! 

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Have you ever met 'online friends' in person? I'll add 'pen pals' to that, since many of us started out with pen pals back before there even was an internet.  A recent Poll reminded me of this.

And yes, I've met several of my pen pals, over the years, since I started with pen pals back in the 70's. One has visited me several times. We still keep in touch frequently. In fact, she's the one who is now helping me 'edit' the novella I'm sharing here. Others, I only met once or twice in person--and lost touch with years ago. But in all cases, it was an enjoyable experience. 

Actually, there are at least 2 other NOTH members who live in my town. One hasn't been online since 2009 & I only 'found' her when I did a quick search today. Another one that had the same 'town', turned out to be in Canada.

The other one who actually lives here is a non-active member, who I did actually meet a couple of times in person. We had two nice visits. But we really don't have a lot in common; plus, she's very involved with her young grandchildren--the reason she moved to this area, she told me. So she's quite busy with them. We just didn't bother keeping in touch.  But it was fun getting to meet her in person. 

I just reread the original Poll & realized I'd forgotten something: I have talked to at least one pen pal by phone. Judy is one of my 'original' pen pals from the early 1970's. She's the only one I'm still in touch with who doesn't have a computer, so we use normal mail.  I befriended one of her daughters on FB, when it seemed Judy didn't receive a couple of my letters; so now I send a chat message to Debbie when I mail a letter to her mom. That way, she knows when to look for it. 

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I don't think anyone who was alive on that date will ever forget where they were, or what they were doing, or even how they heard about the terrorist attacks on 9-11-2001. I know I won't. 

I was asleep when my husband woke me up to tell me something was happening. We sat in front of the television, watching as the first tower burned. I saw the second plane tear into the other tower.  At that point, we had no idea there were other planes in the air, with other targets. But we soon found out. I don't think we did anything other than watching the live news that day.  A long time later, I learned that my nephew, who was in the US Army at the time, was one of the people who pulled bodies out of the Pentagon. I know that must still weigh heavily on his mind. It's something no one would ever be able to forget. 

Over the years, I've watched several documentaries about that attack, including some videos that were taken at the time.  Apparently, someone was producing a documentary about a New York fire department. Obviously, they had no idea how important that film footage would become--or what it would capture. As I watched it, I saw many firemen go out to help, to do whatever they could.  Later, I saw them wondering where their colleagues were, after they had gone to help. They didn't know if all of them would return. It's been years now, but I think I remember that everyone from that fire house did return safely. 

 Another documentary showed first responders entering the tower building, on their way to do whatever they could. I got to the point that I simply could not watch any more documentaries. It was too hard. And I couldn't watch without crying.  I won't even get into all the stories of the aftermath, how so many survivors or first responders ended up with toxic exposure to the debris from the collapsing buildings. But my thoughts go out to them all and to the families of those injured or killed. 

Today, I'm watching the live coverage of the 20th anniversary memorials. And yes, I still get teary. 

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