Mind your "P's" and "Q's"

LETTER Q

I could have also used this for P--but here's my Q.


How many times have you said "watch your P's and Q's and really didn't know where the saying came from?



Well I was very curious and have been studying this phrase the past week.


I found the following explanations from Wickepedia  but no one can know for sure the true origination.


1. Parents have used this to stand for "p" being please and "q"- being for excuse me-the q sounding like ex-cuse.  P and Q being easier for them to pronounce.

2. A possibility from English bartenders in the seventeenth century, they would keep an eye on the alcohol consumption of their customers.  They watched how many pints and quarts were consumed.
 They would say to the patrons "watch your "ps" and "q's.

3.  Maybe it came from sailors in the eighteen century who were reminded to pay attention to their peas (pea coat) and queues (pony tail).

4. This origin I think is more than likely the origin--it comes from the early printing presses.  Printers placed individual letters on a frame to print a page of text.  If the letters were reversed (they are right next to each other) it would be easy to mis-spell a word. They were fined for every spelling mistake!!! I can easily see how you would remind those to watch their "ps" and "qs".


I think of our children when they are learning the alphabet how easy it is to mixed these letters up!!!


There have been books written on this subject if you want to learn more!!

Linking with  ABC Wednesday

Ann

Keukenhof

Today is Friday and I'm sharing withOh, The Places Iv'e Been #3

On a dream vacation years ago we visited Holland and went to the Keukenhof Gardens in Lisse.



Every color of tulip is on display--even a black one. This pic shows how tall some grow-my height is still the same, can't say that about the rest of me though.


 

They were having their Tulip Festival and we had a VERY hard time find a hotel in this area, there was 8,000 extra guests in town so we ended up setting up our tents in the parking lot of the Tulip Hotel.

My Sis Deb and her family lived in Germany at the time and they also had two children. From these four we have given our Mom 9 great-grandchildren.

 

Me and my two on top of a windmill.

 

 

The pamphlet that I brought home.

 

Holland is the Holland I had pictured in my dreams as a child--gorgeous colors in all the flowers, little clear streams running throughout, tall green trees.

 

I purchased wooden shoes and Delft pieces I still display in my china cabinet.

OH I WANT TO GO BACK.

 

 

A beautiful country and wonderful people.

 

 

 

Ann 

P is for Paper

I am the keeper of papers in our family.  I have secured marriage license from my great-grandparents, war records, birth certificates and anything else that is of importance.

A few months ago at my Moms I was looking for a newspaper article from my childhood and found it, that is for another post.

I found this newspaper from 1945.  The Tulare High School printed a 4 page layout of the graduating class.

My Mom is the second from the right on the top row. 

The front page featuring the four leading students who would speak at the commencement.

 

 

 

 

 

Around the same time my Mom was graduating from High School my Dad was attending the U.S. Army Air Corps Technical School in Belleville, Illinois.

 

This is a post card that he sent his mother.

 

A passage from the pamphlet reads:  "Here at Scott Field is the world's finest school for the training of radio men. Within a few years 2,400 acres of Looking Glass Land have been transformed into a vast military college where men are instructed in every possible intricacy of radio."

 

My Dad served as a radio tower operator in WWII in Anchorage Alaska.

 

 

My Mom gave me these two pieces of Paper to take care of which is one my passions.

 

Linking with  ABC WEDNESDAY

 

 

Ann

 

Lovely gift bag

Sometimes it's just a paper bag that is beautiful to me.  At a tea last weekend I won a door prize and it came in this beautiful paper gift bag.

 

Maybe it's because the bicycle reminds me of the one I had at 8 yrs old.  I still have that bicycle and it's in one of my flower gardens.  I love the pink - of course its a girls bike.

 

 

The bag shows everything I enjoy, a pot of flowers,  blue birds in the cute tree and a red bird on the ground.

 

What can I do with the bag?  Maybe just sit on the mantel and enjoy it for awhile.

 

 

Inside the bag was a lovely tea cup and English tea to enjoy.

 

 

 

 

We were served cucumber sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, scones, biscuits and a few other tiny desserts.  What a delightful tea.

 

Linking with http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog

 

 

 

Ann



 

 

Oh The Places I've Been

St. Elmo, Colorado--Colorado's original ghost town.

St. Elmo was founded in 1880 as a mining town.  During its heyday, the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad lines ran through St Elmo.  When the mining industry shut down the town closed too.


Each time we visit our Son and family in Colorado we make a trip to St. Elmo the deserted ghost town in the mountains.

The chipmunks rule the town and there are sunflower seeds for sale to feed them.

Oh how they love posing by the outhouse sign.

 

 

A few of the structures

 

 

 

 

A great junk shop.

I did not get a picture of the school house so I located one from Wickepedia.

.Source

Wickepedia

 Also this map shows the area.

 

 

 Source: Wickepedia

 

St. Elmo is 20 miles Southwest of Buena Vista in Chaffee County.

 

 

 

Linking withOh, the places I've been

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ann

 

O is for Once

ONCE UPON A TIME



 

 

Can  you capture  the way you felt ONCE  in your past?

 

This was a magical gondala ride in the 1980s that my hubby and I  had in Venice, Italy on a month long vacation with our children and my Sister Deb and her family.

 

 

 

Since this time we have had two children grow up, marry and give us four grandchildren!!

 

We have had a magic ride.

 

 

 

 

Linking withABC WEDNESDAY

 

 

 

 Ann

Blue Hydrangeas

I was looking for some spring color for my vintage dough bowl this weekend and saw a bunch of these teal blue hydrangeas at Hobby Lobby.  They were 50% off which is always great.  I brought them home and took my wire cutters and separated the branches.

I was thinking about adding maybe a complementary color but I like the way it looks as is.

Linking with Sally @ Blue Monday

 

Ann