Birthdays - Janet Lane Walters

 Some people wonder why I chose to do my blogs here on the 17th of each month. That's because my birthday falls in that day so the date is easy to remember. Remembering things easier is a blessing when the years begin to creep up on you. Actually, they don't really creep. They hit like a frieght train and all those little things you used to do become difficult and even impossible.

I do try to avoid this by telling people I'm only a day older than I was yesterday. Works for me but leaves them scratching their heads.

So here I am another day older. Next time I'm back, I'll write something about creating worlds either contemporary, historical or fantasy. After all we're writers and are in the business of drawing readers
into other worlds

Looking back by Roseanne Dowell

I've got a birthday coming up next week. Seems like the older I get the quicker the time passes. Wasn't it just yesterday, I got married? Had my first child? First grandchild? First great grandchild. Certainly seems like it.
Nope, it wasn't just yesterday. I got married 54 years ago, had my first child 52 years ago,  my first grandchild 33 years ago, and  my first great grandchild almost 6 years ago. Since then I've been blessed with two more great grandchildren and another on the way.
I look back on those years and see how much time has changed. Not just couples, in a two bedroom duplex. The landlord lived downstairs. 

me, as a person, but everything in life. My husband and I started life on a shoestring like many young
We moved several times in the early years before we bought our first house. Most of our furniture was given to us by our parents, with the exception of our bed, it was brand new. Of course we got a lot of new stuff from our shower and wedding, and I thought we had everything  we needed. Which for the time, we did. A small black and white TV served as our entertainment. Living on a budget didn't allow for dinners or movies out very often. On weekends we visited family and played cards or just sat around and talked.
Can you imagine that? Just sitting around talking - no texting, no computers. Heck I didn't even have a typewriter until  years later after I had six kids and decided to try my hand at writing. And not one of those newfangled electric ones either. Nope, not right away at least and I didn't want one either.

We've lived through color TV, cable, satellite, and now netflix and so many other ways to watch TV.  When cable TV first came out, I couldn't imagine paying to watch television. Who needed that many channels to begin with? You could only watch one at a time. Never imagined watching one channel while recording several more.
I started out with a wringer washing machine - not that they didn't have automatic

washers, I just couldn't afford one. And I hung the clothes to dry -outside in the summer and inside during the winter. Yep, even had to hang diapers. Yes, diapers, real honest to goodness cloth diapers. No such thing as disposable - at least not that I knew of and even if there were I couldn't afford them. I think it was with my third child I finally had an automatic washer and dryer. Praise the Lord for small miracles. With two kids in diapers it was a God-send.

Can you imagine being tethered to a wall talking on a telephone? No such thing as portable phones, let alone cell phones. If you were out and had to make a phone call you found a phone booth. We saw a phone booth at a gas station the other day and my my husband was amazed.
I guess there's still a few around, but they're few and far between. Plus the phones had a dial, not push buttons back then. Growing up we had a party line on our phone - we shared phone service with someone else, which meant you'd often pick up the receiver to make a phone call and someone else would be talking. You'd have to wait for them to hang up before you could make your call.

 Most of the time the other party was considerate and hung up soon after. You heard a click when someone picked up the phone. Usually within 5 to 10 minutes the phone would be free. I can't imagine that now. My sister and I talk for hours when we get on the phone.
The old commercial (I believe it was for cigarettes - yes back when it was fashionable to smoke) You've come a long way, baby sure wasn't kidding and that was back in the 70s. We've come a long way since then.
I've seen a lot in my life-time. The first spaceship to the moon, the first man walking on moon - who would've thought?

 Typewriters to computers (I had a Commodore 64) to laptops, IPads, tablets and now smartphones.
Ah yes, many changes over the years. Sometimes I think things were better back then. Life was simpler. People were friendlier. Neighbors talked, kids played outside instead of having their nose in an ipad or whatever they use now.
But as they say, Life goes on. Hmm sounds like the title for a new book.

My book, Deadbeat Dads is available at Amazon.

After her husband leaves her for a younger woman, Erica Morris starts a group for ex wives of deadbeat dads. Little did she know just how many there were. 

In the process of rebuilding her life, someone tries to blackmail her. Can she put the past behind her or will it catch up to her?