Pulling the chain - and that's no joke

My neighbor's son was getting ready to cut the grass. I could hear his father's voice loud and clear, as his son tried to start the mower. "Pull the chain, pull the chain!" That phrase took me back more than 70 years...

The summers I spent upstate in my grandparent's home were very different from my own parents' house in Philadelphia. There, we lived in a new home in what was then a recentlybuilt neighborhood.

My grandfather's rectory, however, had been built in the 1860's. It was a Norman-style house, three stories of purplishred brick, with a high, slate roof and several porches. The kitchen stove was a large iron coal-burner with two ovens.

Since the sanitary facilities in that house were of the same age, they consisted of a round oak-seated toilet and a brown wooden box overhead with a long metal chain to operate it. My grandmother, who was a fanatic on cleanliness, always reminded my sister and me when we used it "Don't forget - pull the chain, pull the chain!"

This saying became a family joke as my grandfather, a wouldbe comedian, used it whenever someone made a dubious or untrue statement. When any one of us told a story or made an excuse for some shortcoming, the rest of us would all shout "Pull the chain!"

I've been thinking lately about some of the statements made by today's politicians, and while I am far too ladylike to do more than mutter, "Pull the chain!," I can't fault some people if they are inclined to use stronger language than that. Maybe just two words would do it...

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How long has it been since you visited the Butterfly House? The Panhandle Butterfly House is a cooperative program of the Santa Rosa Green Communities System, Inc., The University of Florida, and Florida Master Gardeners. It was started in 1980 by Jack and Fonda Wetherill, both members of the Gulf Breeze Garden Club, one of the oldest such clubs in the region.

Located in Navarre Park on Route 98, it is part of the Navarre Nature Walk. The exhibit is open from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and from noon until 4 p.m. Sunday. Scheduled tours are available for groups of 15 or more people. Just call 623-3866.

See these fascinating creatures in their natural habitat as they metamorphose from ugly caterpillar to beautiful butterfly.

I guarantee you will want to make more than one trip to see this display! But remember, The Butterfly House depends solely on donations from visitors, so be sure to feed the kitty.

********** Thinking of taking a trip to Washington DC this summer to renew your acquaintance with the historical monuments and maybe the Smithsonian Institute?

If you do, make time to visit The Florida House at 2002 22nd ST. NE. This is Florida's very own state 'embassy' in the capital, and we are the only state to have one.

It is a short walk across the square from Florida House to the U.S. capitol. The house, acquired by Nancy Chiles, the wife of former Governor Lawton Chiles, is supported by the people of Florida, and is an excellent resource for information about where to go and what to see in Washington D.C. today. Stop in and feel proud of your state.

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The weekly thought:

Aging seems to be the only available way to live a long time.

See you next week!