I just don't feel like it's Christmas unless...

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I've heard the BC Clark's jingle on the radio a few times... ever since we move up north, I've missed it, but got to messing around on the computer a little while ago and found it online.  You can even download the jingle as your cell phone ring tone!  If I can only figure out how to do that, I may have to do it just for the heck of it.  Anyway, hopefully this link will work for you too.
http://www.bcclark.com/Default.aspx?p=11009

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Maybe I should explain... in Oklahoma, particularly in the OKC area and west of there, every Thanksgiving the Christmas season begins with this jingle being played on the radio and on TV (I usually hear it more on the radio).  It's been around since the 1960s or70s.  If anyone is from Oklahoma, especially the central part, they know this song, and all the words, even if they don't know all the words to traditional Christmas carols.  I probably could sing it without missing any words by the time I was four or five.  The first Christmas we were up here, I really missed it... when we went home a few days before Christmas, as soon as we got in the listening area I heard it on the radio and almost got teary eyed I was so happy to hear it.  Last Christmas, I didn't get to go home (as well as this one).  The other day I was thinking that it didn't feel like Christmas time yet, even though it's snowy and there are lights and decorations everywhere and then all the sudden it occurred to me that I haven't heard the BC Clark jingle yet this year.  So, I googled it, and there it was, a whole page dedicated just to the jingle...and the funny thing is that there is even a page of people's stories about it... how they were stationed overseas and someone sent them a recording of it, how they used it to prove they were really from Oklahoma, etc.  It's kind of like an insurance ad that used to play in the same area when I was a kid... I bet that any kid who grew up around the time I did in that area probably can still remember the phone number for Paul Meade insurance, too, because of the catchy jingle and memories of the TV ads with the skinny man in a ten-gallon hat...524-5431. 

[benevolance]

Comment deleted as being inappropriate at any season.  MtnDon

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Darn... inappropriateness going on and I didn't even get a chance to read it! 

[benevolance]

Don

what the hell man...

First off it was a joke...Secondly there was no vulgarity or profanity in it....

Holy crap man

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Benevolance, you don't have to swear to make friends 

[benevolance]

homegrown

Thing was I was not swearing... no f bombs or anything like that....It is all good... We speak of freedoms here and the constitution... I wonder what that little part about the right to free speech, and it means much of anything.

I agree that we need mods to make sure some idiot does not come here and promote the KKK or something hateful.. we need to keep spambots out of here also... But if I make a joke and a Mod thinks it might not be something that people would like or whatever I thought maybe I would get a message or mail asking me what the joke was about...

I made a comment that it was not Christmas until you make the person ringing the bell outside the grocery store cry... a reference to a comedian that got ticked off with the person ringing the bell in his ear and he threatened to stick the bell somewhere for the lady and she started to cry...This was of course after he asked her to stop ringing it in his face while he loaded his car...And he even told her he would pay her to get the bell out of his face....

Anyways done is done...now you know the inappropriateness that was going on... the cat is out of the bag so to speak

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I had a guy from the Salvation Army nearly make me cry one time back in college.  Wasn't a bell ringer, though.  I was moving and was dropping off some donations, and this guy came out the back door and started cussing up a storm at me and telling me that they had too many donations and no way to deal with them so to "load that crap back up and get the **** out of here."  I took it to Goodwill and they thanked me profusely and even helped unload it.  Kind of soured me on donating to Salvation Army, though I usually put some change in the buckets for the bell ringers because I figure it's a rough job in a cold climate.  The guy here at the local store actually earns it... he makes up songs and dances (I think more to stay warm than to entertain.)  Anyway, he's hilarious.

[benevolance]

normally I am all for the salvation army...they are one of the better charities in that all the money they take in goes out to needy people... they do not hold money back invest it to develop a endowment fund like other churches and charities

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

The other day I was driving through town and at the main intersection, there were these four great big guys who looked like linebackers wearing ill-fitted fluorescent vests that said "Rescue Mission" (written with a sharpie on duct tape!), and they were stopping traffic asking for donations into these plastic buckets.  One of my friends who works down there at a cafe' said that they've been there the past three weeks.  Anyway, there isn't a rescue mission in town, although there is a food pantry that runs on donations.  I don't know where they were from.  They were driving a plain white van with dark windows parked on the opposite corner from the cafe'.  They didn't have any information to give out to people about who they were and what they were doing.  I was highly suspicious.  I asked them, and they said it was 'nearby' and a 'homeless shelter', but like I said, no specifics.  I told them that after 9-11, I couldn't in good conscience give to anyone if I didn't know where that money would really be going.

[MountainDon]

We prefer to make our charitable donations directly to an organization we know. Donating food to the Roadrunner Food Bank is our biggie. Other material goods like clothing usually end up being donated to the local Vietnam Vets organization.

We do not donate to anyone collecting on the street as you mentioned. You have no way of knowing where your money ends up. The exception to that would be the Sally Ann (Salvation Army). [I think Sally Ann is a Canadianism.  ]

When being solicited on the telephone ask them to send you a statement that shows the percentage that goes to administrative costs. Many times you'll never get that. Administration should not eat up more than 10%.

Charitable Donations Info Link

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Mt. Don, I used to think that the "plant a row for the hungry" thing was a great idea until I worked in a food pantry for a while.  It seems like a great idea, providing fresh vegetables to people who need food, but what I found working at a local food pantry back home is that a lot of people who get help from the food pantry don't have a clue what to do with fresh vegetables, or they don't want to go to the trouble to clean them and prepare them!  (The exception was potatoes.)  Anything "different" that was donated was kind of shunned.  The Asian store in the city gave us a bunch of different things, everything from instant soup mixes to wasabi powder.  People wouldn't take it.  They said stuff like they'd heard all that "Chinese" stuff had things like cats and dogs in it or that they didn't like the spices, wouldn't know what to do with it, etc.  The exception was elderly folks who got food from us.  They took everything and were glad to get it.  They were always sending us home with the leftover vegetables that no one wanted... and a whole case of wasabi powder, ha ha.  I still have two little cans of that left.  Anyway, I figure that if I'm ever in a position to do so again, I would like to volunteer to teach a cooking class for a local food pantry, using the food that they have available for that particular week... the idea is that when folks come to pick up their food to be able ot let them prepare dinner for that night using the fresh stuff available and take it home with them.  One thing I've noticed is that a lot of people on welfare don't know how to cook or how to grocery shop even... everything they buy is highly processed and low in nutrition.  After having a friend who's lived on section 8 most of her life, it struck me that she really didn't even know how to bake a cake from  a cake mix!  She would use her food stamps to buy stuff like bakery pre-cooked cakes and those frozen meals you put in a crockpot (the ones that are already done for you and you don't have to even season them.)  I couldn't figure out how she could run out of money for groceries to feed her family of five when the government was giving her $600 a month in food!!!  (For our family of 4, we spend less than $200 a month, yet we eat really well.)  Going shopping with her answered that question... the cart was filled with junk food!  She thought Cheezits were healthy just because they have cheese in them, etc.  I remember her total amazement when I cooked stew for her and her kids one night... she acted like it was some sort of magical formula that only I knew the secret to, and when she finally figured out how easy it was to make, she was amazed.  It became a weekly thing in her house, along with homemade cornbread, which she had thought was impossible. 

[MountainDon]

Our food bank donations are the canned or dry packaged variety. That's what they prefer to receive for whatever reasons. I'm sure part of it must be what they can safely store and use later. Maybe some of it is because of what you mentioned about people not knowing how to use fresh veggies or how to bake anything. Not too much about humans and their nature surprises me anymore; sadly.

I learned to cook early on. Not sure when but it seems I learned just from having a Mom who did it all from the garden to canning and later freezing. She cooked and baked all of our food from the basics for the most part. I just soaked it up.

[benevolance]

one of the most discouraging things for me donating time in the food bank unloading trucks and stocking shelves was seeing people I knew for a fact that did not need to get free food....Go down there cry poor and walk away with bags full of groceries..

when I confronted a guy about it he said...It is there I might as well take it... I wanted to punch the guy out then and there... I found out so many non needy people were down there getting food and they had more money than I did...

Made me sick

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Yeah, I knew a lady here who was getting help from 5 different charities, and when I mentioned a girl I know who had become homeless because of medical problems and not being able to work (someone who legitimately needed help) and how that the food pantry had helped her get into a house temporarily until she could get back on her feet, and the charity case gal wanted to know if I thought they had anything in a 4-bedroom house for her and her family... this was a woman already on housing assistance!!!!  She pays a measley few hundred a month of her own money for her rent on a nice 3-bedroom house!!!  She has a freezer full of food and sits there with her hand out waiting on the government to fill it, and meanwhile, she rips off every charity and food pantry in the area.  I was disgusted.  Where do people get off thinking it is the government's (translation: the taxpayers') duty to take care of them?

[tanya]

I don't like being totally dependant onthe food bank for groceries and at one point in time that was the case but I do like that every now and then, I find myself in a position to go back, it keeps me very humble.  The last time I went though the food was all processed sugar stuff and really not much for a meal at all.  Plus there was a long long line of known meth users/dealers and it was very hard for me to even stand in that line, I can't help feeling that they should be using thier drug money for food.  In the summer there are always fresh vegies not only at the food bank but even jsut in boxes on the benches outside the store with a free sign, people who do know how to use it take it home and some even cook it up and bring it to the neighbors who need it.  When I can I donate tot he food bamk, it is my favorite chairity and if I ever wint he lottery I am gong to make a big donation so that everyone can eat good wholesome food.  When you donate please think nutrition values.  I always put money inthe Salvation Army kettles too ALWAYS it brings good luck. 

[benevolance]

donating never brought me much luck...

Sort of seems that the harder you work... the luckier you get in life... in my experience it seems that way at least

[tanya]

I am lucky enough that I know who to donate to when I have extra.  Usually it is someone I know personally or someone I know who knows someone personnally but every now and then I have stuff to donate to the town thrift store or food bank too.  I feel very very blessed this year we have our health, I am plenty sick of winter but it hasn't been below zero yet, and the best people in the world are willing to listen and help whenever they are needed.  It is a great feeling.  I am also lucky enough that I found additional opportunities not jsut for work but for voluntering as well and I have the additional support of friedns and family in my work/volunteer endeavors as they say many hands make light work.  The only complaint i have is thsi darn strep throat I have, it is the worst case ever and it is taking a big toll and I find it extremely irritaing too.  And I am feeling guilty as hell because I didn't tell my daughter I am sick because I really want her to come for Christmas dinner.  BUT she gives me strp on a regular bassis when she is working so it's pay back I know that is awful!!! She will never know.

[Sassy]

Hope you're feeling better soon, Tanya...  are you taking any antibiotics for the strep?  I don't usually endorse medications but strep can cause a lot of problems besides getting others sick   

If you're not treated for strep throat, you are most infectious when the symptoms are the most severe but could remain contagious for up to 21 days. Lack of treatment - or not finishing the prescribed course of antibiotics - also could put your at risk for other health problems, such as rheumatic fever (which can cause permanent damage to the heart), scarlet fever, blood infections, or kidney disease.

Anyway, I had strep throat a few years ago - we were visiting Glenn's family in Oregon - we went to their family reunion (actually it is their school reunion but most of the people who attend are all related to Glenn!)  We'd also been hiking around northern California at Lassen National Park, Bumpass Hell (a mini-Yellowstone Park); ice caves, lava tubes - I didn't feel real energetic but still had fun.  Glenn finally told me I needed to go to the doctor, it sounded like I was going to stop breathing when I was sleeping... the doc didn't think I really had strep throat because I didn't run a high fever, but I asked him to do the "rapid strep" test & sure enough, that's what I had.  Hurts like the dickens    Some antibiotics cleared it up pretty fast 

[sparks]

Hi Folks.......Unless there are a few children around, We had a nice Christmas....hope you did too!!.....Sparks....and his wife.....oops...they were grandchildren....aaaagghhhh!