Mind Reminiscing: Hot Spots

When you get to be as old as I am you start "mind reminiscing." Sometimes just a question, a picture, or hearing someone laugh can send my mind reeling into good times and bad times. I can remember things I probably should have put out of my mind permanently and can't find the things that I really should remember.
Such as yesterday my niece asked me if I could re-post a post from long ago about my late husband's family in war time. I didn't have a clue about what I had written or when or which blog.

The "mind reminiscing" also makes no sense to anyone but me. For instance that particular question made me think of Christmas years ago on the farm when I was just a little girl. Why? Because I thought, "Old girl, you are really in a hot spot because you can't remember as much as you should." I instantly could see our old dining room. In the middle of the room was an old coal stove. You could see the fire through isinglass. Does anyone but me remember isinglass? That was our hot spot for sure. If you stepped four feet away from the stove you were cold. This picture is almost the perfect replica of the stove that warmed our fronts for awhile then we turned and warmed our backs. If we would have known the word rotisserie back then we were the "chickens."

I was an avid reader from the time I was seven years old. I asked my poor mother so many questions I'm sure she went to bed weary not only from her daily hard work, but from her inquisitive child. I can remember asking her why one word had more than one meaning. That made no sense to me. I'm sure she gritted her teeth and said with a smile. "I have heard that the English language is the hardest for people from other countries to learn because of just such things as homonyms." I can remember asking her why do the trees outside have bark and Poochie, our dog barks. That was completely beyond a seven year old girl's comprehension.  I can clearly remember going to bed as a child thinking, "I bet if I was a grownup I could think of different words to mean the same thing so people wouldn't get confused." Yes, I did that; a lot. As I got older I started to realize that phrases, not only words took on different meanings.
I can remember my children's father talking about the war and being in a hot spot more than once. I can remember hearing on the radio and television that Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan and wildfires in California were hot spots. I also remember the terrible age of race riots they called them. Hot spots in college campuses. Kent College comes to mind if I remember correctly. Shooting and wild fighting started in protest of the Vietnam War. That was definitely a hot spot. That set off college campus strikes throughout the country.

As I continued to age I found myself in a world of technology that was only a nightmare to an older lady of fifty-eight or so. A lady that was sick with a neurological disease making learning new facts and ideas very very difficult. And at times impossible to grasp. A mouse, a mouse pad. Computers can only count to one? Huh? No not for me. However, here I am with a mouse on a mouse pad on my computer desk.

 My brother was a guru in computers and traveled around the world teaching people what he knew about the mysterious world of computers. My daughter did data entry when she was out of school for extra money for college. What was data entry? I had no clue.
Then I found myself hearing about hot spots again. What in the world were people talking about; hot spots? "Lu, you should check to see if your cell phone is capable of being a hot spot." What? My world continues to rattle my brain. Now uptown there is a place called Hot Spot. It is a convenience store that gives me a discount if I pay cash. Now that I understand.
Talk to you later!