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Forks, spoons, license plates and beavers

April 1, 2009 in beavers,canada,license plates,me being silly,virginia with 17 Comments

Happy April Fool’s Day! Today is sort of a mixed bag of nuts, but I suppose that’s not anything particularly new here.

I will begin some pictures I took a few years ago of license plates on vehicles owned by two of my uncles in Virginia. Quirky runs in the family:



I think this started quite by accident MANY years ago when my Uncle Franklin randomly received a plate that was all numbers. Now, both he and my Uncle Stewart get these license plates for themselves and other family members. I’m pretty sure they don’t pay extra; it’s all about “Who ya know.” Texas is my home, but being surrounded by laughing, fun loving Virginia kin folk in my very formative years helped shape who I am. I’ve got a big, goofy smile on my face just thinking about them.
My Uncle Stewart lives in Mechanicsville. I spent many fun days and nights with my dad, mom, sisters, brother, aunts, uncles and cousins at that house. Most notably, I remember catching fireflies in a jar at night. I’ll will likely write about how places you remember from childhood seem somehow smaller and less significant when we return as adults, but Uncle Stewart’s house is exactly as I remember it. This is due in part to the fact that it is EXACTLY THE SAME AS I REMEMBER IT.

It has been in a time warp for the past 35 years, which just brought joy to my heart when I went back there after all this time. I wish I had taken a picture of the wall shelf that had the same astrological sign coffee mugs on them as when I visited as a child (circa 1970-1975). He gave me a whole new appreciation for the term “waste not, want not”. I did manage to snap a picture of what was on the opposite wall, unchanged after 35 years:

I ask you, who needs a new fangeled cordless phone when you have a cord that can reach around the house?

And speaking of Canada…

In honor of my friend Tamara, who was born in the Great White North and because she emailed me the link in the first place (or maybe it was Jeff) — I forget. I was distracted because I was talking to Jeff on the phone about googling pornographic cheese butlers when Tam interrupted to ask, “has Kathy seen the beaver video?” Anyhoo, the following video was shot at the U.S./Canadian border. Enjoy!

Welcome to Canada!