22 Daily Celebrations Create Memories

Have you ever tuned in to the radio, and noticed the broadcaster has a plethora of daily celebrations? I love to hear about all the fun and colorful things people choose to celebrate.  In today's episode I reflect on how things we take for granted can become a celebration, and create lasting memories to warm our hearts.

Credit to online sources including nationalcalendarday.com, merriam-webster.com, vocabulary.com, dictionary.com. 

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Thanks for listening!  Have a great day!

Thanks for listening!  This is a hobby podcast, with a positive vibe. No legal or medical advice is provided in this podcast, it's recorded for entertainment purposes only.  No cooking advice either - some things are best left for the professionals.  Have a great day! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Hi everyone, it's Lindy here. Welcome back to the podcast. Oh, as always, I'm absolutely delighted to be back in the old podcast chair. I'm upright and early this morning, and I often enjoy being the first one up in the house. I get a lot more done in the day when I start earlier. Of course I'm often on the couch snoozing earlier too, but hey, it is what it is. I'm more productive in the mornings, and sometimes being more productive means getting my podcast out earlier. A lot better than yesterday. I tried yesterday and I kept getting airplanes overhead and the doorbell ringing, and I finally gave up. Thought gonna leave it for another day. So it is another day. There's always a new day, good time to try again, and here I am. So where am I gonna get started today? Well, I'm gonna start by asking, do you listen to the radio or do you use a lot of social media? Have you ever noticed there seems to be a celebration day just for so many things? Yeah, people are always celebrating there's a day for this, there's a day for that, and sometimes I go, well, where did those days even come from? I was having a look the other day and there's actually a calendar online, it's called NationaldayCalendar.com, and it's really fun to look at. There's all kinds of different celebrations on there, or acknowledgments maybe I should call them. I was thinking, gee, I'd like to make up my own calendar. But anyway, I don't have all kinds of celebrations other than my own personal celebrations, and basically, when we're alive and we're on this side of the grass, yeah, there's a lot of things to celebrate. But when I was looking at that calendar, I was looking at all these different things they had, and according to that website, today is National Cherry Cheesecake Day, National Lost Dog Awareness Day, National Take a Chance Day, National Talk Like Shakespeare Day, and International Girls and ICT Day. Wow, that's a lot of days to acknowledge. Now these are not stat holidays, they're not vacations where you can take time off work, but they're certainly worth of consideration. Can't really go to your boss and say, hey, excuse me, but it's actually a national picnic day today. I think I need to take the day off. I don't think that's gonna work. Okay, so I'm gonna start out talking about National Picnic Day. Hmm. What's the first thing you think about when you hear the word picnic? What image comes to your mind? I have to admit when I hear the word picnic, I think a hey boo-boop, I'm gonna buy me a bicinick basket. Yeah, I love yogi bear. Who doesn't? Even grown-ups love yogi. Close friends of mine are in their 60s and they have a yogi bear sticker on the back of their motorhome. Yeah, it's kinda cool, and everything's about yogi for them when they're going camping, but it's not all yogi bear memories for me, though. No. When I was growing up, picnics were a form of entertainment. We lived right next to a hill with clay cliffs, and picnics were a way of providing entertainment for our family. Mum was a smart lady. She would pack up a big lunch bag full of cheese sandwiches, apples, and cookies, and she'd announce, hey, we're going for a family picnic. Oh, everybody get out, we'd all climb that hill together, and there was a little lookout point, like kind of a hump on the top of the hill. We'd all go and sit up there and we'd look down on our house and on the neighborhood, and we climbed that hill almost daily when we were kids, I mean, at least during the summer months. And it wasn't like we had never been up there, it wasn't like we'd never seen the houses in our area from that little point. But somehow when we did it with our mom, it made it a special event. There was a big old tree that had fallen on its side up there, and we used to call it the bouncy log. Uh so keep in mind I have three older sisters. I am the youngest of four, and we had quite an age spread. And after lunch we would all go out and we'd sit on that log, and my oldest sister would go and she'd climb up and she'd stand at the top of the log. So the log was sitting on an angle, and she'd stand at the very top, at the very height of it. She'd hold on to a few remaining branches and she'd start jumping up and down. And oh, we'd get so excited be like, yeah, yay, we're getting a ride on the bouncy log. Yeah, so for me and my sisters, we always have memories of picnics and bouncy logs. Huh. Here's another memory for you. Yeah, I'm not sure if this is a happy childhood memory or one that I look back on and go, yeah, kids, kids, kids, things kids do. Okay, we also had pine and spruce trees up on that hill, and I remember one year one of my sisters tried to tell me that, hey, if you chew sap from the pine tree, it's gonna turn into maple syrup. Uh oh. That nasty taste of that sticky stuff running down the pine tree. She told me it was a secret. Don't tell anyone or it's gonna use up the syrup. Yeah, what she was really doing was covering her butt because she was getting her kid's sister to chew sap from a sour old tree, and oh my gosh, it was nasty. It tasted so awful. And yeah, I think the bouncy log is gone now. It doesn't exist anymore, and I haven't tried chewing sap off a pine tree anymore either. That doesn't work. I took a chance, it didn't work. Oh well, memories, but I I have really good memories of the things I did when I was a kid, and picnics were a good part of it. When spring came around, Mom was usually really happy to get us out of the house. Heck, I don't blame her. Four kids in a two bedroom house, and we could be a little bit loud. She also knew that fresh air was really good for us. So we had this old clothesline stand in our backyard. Like it was like a little platform, it had a few stairs going up and then the clothesline, you know, the reels that went across for hanging your clothes. But it had those few rows of stairs going up, and I I just remember one time I figured out if I went and I sat on the stairs, but I turned myself around backwards so that my back was facing away from it, I could tuck my legs in. And it felt like I was eating at a real picnic table. Yeah, the stair would cover my legs and it looked like a picnic table. And it wasn't just any table, but for me it was like a real wooden picnic table, the kind you might find in a park. I always wanted to have one of those when I was a kid. Anyway, many times I would sit at that picnic table outside, and really what it meant was I could take my sandwich outdoors and have my lunch outside in the fresh air. And I'd go to the door, hey mom, I'm having a picnic lunch today. Can I eat outside? And yeah, it was so good. I think I had many lunches out there. Uh we didn't have a car when I was growing up. My mom didn't drive. She couldn't afford one. Uh and we rode our bikes to the local swimming pool, and mom also made that into an event. We'd go swimming at the outdoor pool and then we'd head over to a park. It was called Rotary Park. This was back in the Yukon, and then we would just hang out for the afternoon at the park, you know, lots of things to play on, soaking up the sun. Yeah, Yukon summers were really nice when I was a kid. And sometimes when it was Mom's payday, she would treat us to take out chicken in a bucket. Oh yeah. I love that spicy, crispy chicken with the picture of the man with the white beard and the little glasses on the straight bucket. Oh yeah, it was such a treat. And Mum made our picnic part of that event when we were being active. So yeah, we were always being active around that time, but the picnic part, it was an event. It was special. So now I'm looking at all the other days listed on this calendar. Oh, National Lost Dog Awareness Day. I'd never heard of that one. I've experienced a lost dog, and oh my gosh, that's horrible. When we had our little poodle, he escaped from the yard during fireworks one night and we didn't find him until the morning. It was one of the longest days of my life, at least that's how I remembered. Oh, it was just absolutely horrible having him missing because I didn't know what happened to him. I didn't know if an eagle got him or did a cougar get him or did he get run over. It was really awful because he'd been let out for a pee late that night. The fireworks went off in the neighborhood, it spooked him, he found a hole under the gate and he bolted. Um and I learned a lot of lessons that night. And uh after that point, I made sure that whenever he was let out to go to the bathroom at nighttime, I still had his collar on him where it would have his name tag and his phone number. So yeah, when I see this thing and it says, yeah, National Lost Dog Awareness Day, I think of that night and and how grateful I was that we were able to find him the next day. And I live in a community where people are really helpful when it comes to lost pets. There are so many times I've seen a post on social media where someone's missing a dog, and the community's responded, they share the post, they offer to help search, or they share pictures of when a lost dog has been found so they can help reunite it with the owner. So yeah, again, a good reminder, always have that name tag with a phone number on it on your dog. Yeah, they're part of your family. Okay, so going back to this little calendar I'm looking at today, ho, National Cherry Cheesecake Day. Whew, that should be every day. All right. Seriously, I love cherry cheesecake. What else can I say? I read online on another page that cheesecake is traced back to ancient Greece. Well, that's interesting. That's not something I recall learning in history class, but hey, you know what? We're never too old to learn. Hmm, I think of cherry cheesecake. I actually think back to Mr. Mike's restaurant. Yeah, I worked there in high school and back in the eighties, they used to have a salad bar and a dessert bar. Oh, I loved it when I got to work in the back, and I was able to be the one to cut all those pieces of pie and place them on dessert plates. And then we'd go out and we'd take them out in the restaurant. There was like a little buffet area with glass on top, and we'd put all those pieces of pie out there. Yep, and cherry cheesecake. I can't remember how many times I bought a piece of that cheesecake when it was time for my lunch break. Absolutely it was so good. Looking back at this calendar now, apparently it's also national. Take a chance day. Hey, that's cool. There are many great things I've done in life that happened because I decided to take a chance. What a great reason to tackle an unaccomplished goal or maybe revisit a dream of doing something you might have never thought you might pursue. Heck, I took a chance when I signed up for adult acting classes this past year, and I'm really glad I did. I'm having so much fun with it. I took a chance when I learned to ride a motorcycle at the age of 52. Although I can't ride anymore for physical reasons, I am so grateful for those memories. I did it. I rode a motorcycle. I took a chance when I fell in love. And yeah, and then that's such an important thing as well. I often will say if you've had that opportunity to love somebody, whether the relationship lasts a long time, doesn't last, or whether you're lucky and you have it for your lifetime, uh, anytime you're in love with somebody, that can be a beautiful thing. Now, depending on how you view the words take a chance, that might influence your actions. I I looked up what take a chance means online. And uh according to Miriamwebster.com, it says to do something that could have either good or bad results. Vocabulary.com says oh to take your risk in the hope of a favorable outcome. Dictionary.com said risk something, gamble, as in I'll take a chance that he'll be on the next plane. Well, my own interpretation is that it really is to just do something and know that it's not guaranteed, but it's worth giving a try. Yeah. Of course there are things I did when I was growing up and I took a chance and totally misjudged the seriousness of it. Oh yeah. Some things you shouldn't do. Yeah, I'm the kid who jumped off a tall fence with an umbrella to see if the wind could carry me like Mary Poppins. Silly me. Six year olds don't fly with a parasol. I missed a day of school with a sprained ankle, and believe me, I didn't take that chance again. Yep. Fond memories. Anyway, I was really glad to see they had International Girls and ICT Day listed on that calendar, and I had to look at it because I'm like, Well, what's ICT? I had no idea what it stood for. Well, according to this website, it draws attention to the need for more girls and women to become involved in the area of information communication technology. Ah, that's what ICT stands for. Okay, that's a good thing. Um, it is a good thing because if you look back in history, uh there's so many things that women did that they weren't traditionally able to do when the world was changing, and I'll even go back to say Second World War, where many Canadian women were serving in our country in different roles. And although many were trained initially for administrative and supportive roles, eventually they got to train in trades that were initially male dominated, then soon they changed over and everybody could have a chance to do it. And there's so many roles for IT, and IT to like I call it IT as an information technology. And technology is critical in so many areas. It's more than just fixing a computer so you can get your email, and our world has become so technology driven. It's not about who's better at it, it's about working together and everyone having an opportunity to be part of that team. So anyway, I'm gonna give credit today to nationaldaycalendar.com for sharing those cool events online or cool acknowledgments. And I know there's some other websites out there with similar things, so you know, I can't say that one's right over the other or one's better than the other. I'm just uh sharing where I got my information today. And to me, it's all fun. You know, anything we can celebrate in life is a bonus, especially all the great memories we can create when we do choose to celebrate unique moments, special moments, simple moments. It doesn't always have to be fancy. But when we celebrate life's moments, yeah, it's really good. I'm grateful for the memories of picnics and hikes with her mom. I'm grateful I had those cheese sandwiches. Wasn't always grateful when I'd wrapped my sandwich in the dirt and I knew I had to eat it with the dirt in it, and I had gritty cheese sandwich, but to this day I know how lucky I was to have those memories. Now that I know it's National Picnic Day, I think I'm gonna ask my partner tonight if we can go have supper at the beach tonight. Hey, the weather looks good. It's just after six o'clock in the morning I got blue skies, so why not? Yeah, I think I'm gonna have a picnic tonight. Maybe we'll find a real picnic table and I'll make some yummy sandwiches to take along. Or maybe we're just gonna go sit on an old log and oh yeah, and if I do that, I'm gonna make sure I have long pants and tall socks, because right now I'm dealing with some really itchy bug bites, and I know that ants on a log can leave a nasty itch. Oh, ants on a log. That's also a snack. You can use peanut butter or cream cheese, and you can spread it in a piece of celery, line up the raisins on top. Yeah, looks like ants on a lot. Okay, seriously, I better go. I think it's always a good day for a picnic, always a good day to build another memory. Oh, and just a quick reminder as well too, of course I've always mentioned this is a hobby podcast. I do it for fun, but I always appreciate positive feedback. If you happen to be listening to this on a podcast app, uh, if you could give me a positive review and a nice rating for the show, my goodness, I would really appreciate that. It would make my day. Uh you can also share your feedback with me through my website at www.greyrootsandchickenboots.buzzsprout.com. Uh so that buzzsprout.com is just B-U-Z-Z-S-P-R-O-U-T dot com, greyroots and chicken boots dot buzzsprout.com. Just click on the episode and you'll see the word share your comments at the beginning of the description. If you click on that, you have the option to either send me an email or you can even send me a voicemail. Hey, it's pretty cool. And if it doesn't work in your app, know that you can always go to my website. But I know there are a couple of apps out there that they will allow the links to come through and you don't have to leave your app. Either way, love to have your feedback. Okay, that's it. I really do have to get going. Have a great day, everyone. Hopefully, today you can build a great memory. If you live near nature or you have a really nice community park, might be a good day to go have a picnic. Take a picnic basket and share that time with someone you care about. On a final note, here I would like to sincerely wish all of you peace and happiness. No matter where you are in this world, I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to my little podcast today. Um, it really means a lot to me, and I thank you for choosing to listen to this episode. And yeah, we're all people. One of my sisters has on her voicemail, if there's one thing you can do today, please be kind. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. A good point. Uh, and I believe it takes less muscles to smile than it does to frown. So at the end of the day, it's not about what we own or what our title is. It's about how we treat others. And we all make mistakes, but there's always room to try. And always room to learn, always room to try again. Have a great week, everyone, and oh, remember that smiles come in all languages and in all colors. We'll talk soon. Have a great day.