Anniversary of My Grandmother's Death

Today is the anniversary of my grandmother's death. My Grandma Susie died last year due to stroke, and it was a devastating blow to my family. My grandmother was the family matriarch who had such love and wisdom. She was a saint, and I was blessed to have had her in my life. Grandma Susie was an inspiration and proof of the American dream. Despite no formal college education, she went from being a secretary to a bank president, all while taking care of my grandfather, my aunt, and my dad. She was beloved by all who knew her.

The one I will always remember about my grandmother is food. My grandma loved ice cream, she always had to stop at Dairy Queen and she always had ice cream in her house. When we would have dinner over at Grandma's and Papa's house, Grandma would make as much food as normal people make for Thanksgiving. When she made Thanksgiving,there was so much food you could feed a family of four for a month. Grandma was happiest when her family was eating, so after we finish a meal she would immediately ask if we would like dessert. Or fruit. Or popcorn. Or a glazed ham. If she had her way, everyone in my family would weigh 500 pounds.

A lot of my fondest memories with my grandmother revolves around food.  Cooking hot dogs and s'mores around a campfire. Coming up with themed dinners. Decorating Christmas cookies with her, my brother, and my cousins.

I miss my grandmother terribly and if you wish, you can check out this video my cousin, Lauren Patterson made.

I'm Colin and these are the ramblings of a guy in his twenties. I miss you, Grandma.

Remembering With Rose Colored Glasses: Magic School Bus

For those of you who don't know, there is another movie coming out in the Harry Potter universe called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. After hearing about it, it reminded me how many kids were disappointed that they didn't get a letter from Hogwarts. I, however, suffered such disappointment when I was eight years old and didn't get Ms. Frizzle for my third-grade teacher.

That's right, Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus cartoon series that ran from 1994 to 1997. God, I loved that series. For the those who don't know or don't remember the show, a third-grade teacher took her class of eight kids on field trips with a magical school bus and taught kids about science. The show covered everything from basic biology to ecology to astronomy. During grade school, teachers would show Magic School Bus videos during class and it was the highlight of the day for every student.

Every episode would more or less start out with Ms. Frizzle's class learning about a new subject; let's say the solar system for an example. Ms. Frizzle would then say "Field trip everyone!" and the class would go to the bus. The bus would change, for this example into a rocket, and the class would go off to explore the subject in the field. When they got there, Ms. Frizzle would then tell her students to, "take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!" The students and the audience would learn about the topic, then something unexpected would happen, and a student named Arnold would moan how he should have stayed home today. I would slap my forehead every time Arnold would say that, but more on that a little bit later. Anyway, the class would figure some way out of the problem, and they would return to school and go over what they learned.

Ms. Frizzle was amazing, voiced by Lily Tomlin and according to Internet Movie Data Base, won a Daytime Emmy for "Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program" in 1995. I wanted to be in her class so badly, it wasn't even funny. She took her class to outer space, the rainforest and into the human body. I thought her students were so lucky, class clown Carlos, level-headed Keesha, book worm Dorothy Ann, kind-hearted Phoebe, tough Wanda, baseball-cap-wearing Ralphie, artist Tim, and Arnold. Arnold, Arnold, Arnold, good God this kid drove me nuts. Every episode he complained about going on field trips, EVERY... SINGLE.... EPISODE! My God kid, you saw things that most kids can only see through a television screen or a microscope. You went into OUTER SPACE! And visited every SINGLE PLANET!!! You wish you stayed home today? If I was in Ms. Frizzle's class, I would never miss a single day, even if I was sick. Come to think of it if I was sick, Ms. Frizzle would just shrink the class down to microscopic size and take a tour of my body so we could learn about the immune system. Like she did in the episode called "Inside Ralphie."

While the show is no longer on-air, as far as I know, it is on Netflix. There are also books about Magic School Bus, mostly the episodes in book form but also a series called Ms. Frizzle's Adventures by Joanna Cole. This series has Ms. Frizzle taking the class to visit ancient civilizations and teach history. There was also talk about bringing the series back, but I haven't heard anything else about that revival.

I'm Colin and these are the ramblings of a guy in his twenties.