An August Morning on Dale Hollow Lake

We rented a houseboat on Dale Hollow Lake, on the border of Tennesee and Kentucky a couple of weeks ago. This was the view as we were heading out one morning for some water-skiing.

An Evening of Society Craps

Last evening, with two members of the family gone for the night, my youngest and I were looking for something to do in between listening for the strains of the Jonas Brothers that were drifting over to us from the fairgrounds!!

"Let's play Society Craps!" I suggested. When I was a kid we loved to play this game with my mother, who would sit down at the dining room table with us and deal out the cards.

Society Craps was once a fun way for women to gather together...and gamble!! They would usually use pennies or nickels, as this game was popular at a time when a penny would actually buy something. But I grew up using buttons. My mother always had jars and jars of buttons...something she inherited from her mother and grandmother, both of whom had tins and tins of buttons. Now, I am the proud owner of some of those tins so I brought one out and dumped a couple of handfuls onto the table. Using buttons does nothing to quell the competition of the game. It is amazing how prized certain buttons will become during play (usually the largest, or those with unusual designs), or how concerned kids can become when their stockpile of buttons begins to diminish!!

Besides the buttons, a deck of cards, a pair of dice, and a dish of some sort (for the "kitty") is all you need. Each player chooses a suit and receives all the cards of that suit. Lay out the cards in numerical order in two rows as seen above, face up, but discarding the seven and the king:

2, 3, 4, 5, 6
8, 9, 10, 11 (jack), 12 (queen)

Each player receives a pile of buttons...40 or 50 each is a good starting point, but everyone should have the same amount. Place the "kitty" in the middle of the table and everyone "sweetens" the pot by throwing one button into it. Now each person takes turns rolling the dice. If they roll a number on one of their cards, they flip that card over. If they roll a 7 or a number they've already flipped, they throw a button in the pot. The first person to flip over all of their cards wins the "kitty"!!

If played in earnest, you would eventually want to be the last one left...with all the buttons!! How rich you will be! But, as I have always played as a child or with them, the banker is usually very generous in handing out loans to those in need!

We had a great time last night playing a simple, old game. So much better than watching TV. But having the Jonas Brothers providing the background music added a modern touch, for sure!

A Visit to Monticello

On our way southward to pick up our children from a weeklong visit with the Grandparents, we decided to stop at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson in Charlottesville, Virginia. Being a huge history buff, I felt that walking in the footsteps of one of our Founding Fathers would be worth the 1 1/2 hours it added to our trip...and I was right!

We left Central New York at 4:30am and drove straight through, arriving at the ticket booth just after the noon hour. It was gray and misting rain, but we boarded the shuttle bus and climbed the steep mountain on which Jefferson built his home. Arriving at the top, we could see the home through the trees and it was...well, it sounds silly, but it was almost breathtaking. I've seen this structure in so many documentaries and history book photos...not to mention the back of every nickel I've ever owned! Seeing it in person was really something.

We toured the interior of the home with a very pleasant, very southern gentleman who showed us such things as the clock over the door that is run by weights that hang so low he had to cut holes in the floor; twin dumb-waiters on either side of the dining room fireplace that allowed empty wine bottles to be sent to the cellar...and full ones to be sent back up; and a set of Don Quixote books written in Spanish that Jefferson used to teach himself the language on a trip across the ocean.

But more than anything else, we were moved by the beauty of the place and significance of the home, who's owner and designer was such an important player in the creation of this country.

Our visit, which included a guided tour of the gardens and time to wander around and walk down to the cemetery, took about 3 1/2 hours. It is well worth the time....and yes, even with an 8-hour drive!!

To the right is a slide-show of some of the photos I took of the grounds (we were not allowed to take photos inside). For anyone who is interested in visiting or learning about Thomas Jefferson, please click on the following link.

http://www.monticello.org/index.html