Remembering A Loving Gesture in Shady Pines for Valentine’s Day
A Time For Love
I don’t know how it is where you live 
but everyone in Shady Pines Story Town is seeing red.
Of course that’s because Valentines’s Day will be here before we know it.
Friday, February 14, the day dedicated to love, is a favorite in our small Southern town.
That shoudn’t surprise you since our tight knit community is all about caring for one another.
And I gotta tell ya. Some of our neighbors go all out with their decorations both outside and inside their homes.
Naturally the stores are filled with hearts, flowers and candy.
Remember When
If you wouldn’t mind dear readers, I’d like to take you down Memory Lane for just a minute.
I want to share with you a loving gesture that happened just a few short years ago. It’s a story I think will warm your heart. I’ll drop you off at the Sanders’ home.
Edna can take it from here.
Cooking Up Something Special
Hi everyone! It’s me, Edna Sanders. Welcome to Edna’s Kitchen. In honor of Valentine’s Day I want to tell you about the time my wonderful husband, Harold, did something to show his love for me.
As a result of his efforts, my kitchen blender has become famous in Shady Pines Story Town. You can see the blender on the counter near the refrigertor.
You see, my blender, Gertie, is always blowing her top. No matter where I go in town, people like to tease me. They’ll say things like:
“Hey Edna, I hear NASA is tracking that blender of yours across several galaxies.”
“Chop, chop, Edna. That blender of yours is about to blow!”
“Edna, has the Ford Motor Company called you yet about your blender? I hear they’re looking for ways to rev up the engines in their new cars!”
Anyway, you get the drift. My blender has become a joke with lot of punch lines. And, I haven’t even made punch in it yet! So, I want to let you in on the 
secret behind my super-duper kitchen device.
A Loving Experiment
My dear husband, Harold, knows how I like to experiment with all sorts of new recipes. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in what I’m doing that I lose track of time. Oh, that’s another good story. I’ll tell you that one later.
So, there I am stirring and adding a pinch of this and that, and I don’t realize how late it’s getting.
Harold comes home from work thinking that I’m making dinner.
But I was really making appetizers for a get-together the next day at the Community Center where I volunteer.
Our dog, Boomerang 
was lying on the floor under the kitchen table, and our cat, Halley’s Comet, was snoozing on her window seat.
They like to keep me company when 
I cook.
“Hi Honey. What’s for dinner?”
“Oh, Harold. You startled me.”
“Sorry. Guess you couldn’t hear me over that noisy blender of yours.”
Gertie The Legend
“Be kind to Gertie. She may be getting on in years, but she can still get the job done.”
“Why don’t you let me take that thing and give it a tune-up?”
“Well, I will be busy at the Center tomorrow afternoon. I guess that’ll be all right.”
“Sure. And here’s the best news. Once the ‘ole gal is back to running full force, you’ll be able to make more recipes in less time.”
You know Harold means well. He likes to tinker with things. When you own the Nuts ‘N Bolts hardware store on Main Street, that’s what you do.
He left for work the next morning with Gertie tucked under one arm. I was a little anxious, but what can you say?
Harold returned home that evening and proudly placed Gertie back on the kitchen counter.
“Edna, it’s time for a test drive.”
“I’ll just pull a few ingredients together and…”
“No, no. Let’s make your chicken soup that I like so much. With the vegetables and everything.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
All Revved Up
So, Harold helped me chop and dice and pour. Now, for the moment of truth. I turned Gertie on low. She hummed. Sounds good.
But Harold wanted me to see what, “this baby can really do.”
The last thing I remember was Harold’s hand cranking the dial to Full Speed.
In a split second, Gertie blew her lid and launched. You heard me. That blender came unplugged and flew off the counter tossing the contents of tonight’s dinner all over the place.
Some part of her must have hit me because I was down.
I could hear Boomer barking and Halley howling. I still can’t remember how Harold caught Gertie and turned her off.
Harold helped me up, Halley hopped over me, and Boomer licked my face.
All the while my industrious husband was saying something about “turbo-charging the engine” of the blender.
Everyone’s Safe
I mumbled, “Oh, for crying in the soup.”
And that’s how the legend of Gertie, my blender, was born. Surprisingly, Gertie survived her frantic flight.
And since that night, I have found ways to better control her speed and power.
Harold was right. The new, and improved Gertie has cut down on the time it takes me to whip something up.
I must tell you there are still times, when, well, we have our little mis-adventures.
It doesn’t matter. What matters is that Gertie helps me create meals for people to enjoy.
Only, now, she’s able to do it in record time, due to Harold’s loving gesture. He was just trying to help make things easier for me.
A Heartfelt Gesture
In Edna’s Kitchen kindness and caring are the best 
ingredients of all.
And the same can be said for the loving folks who live in the small Southern town of Shady Pines.
Happy Valentine’s Day from our family to yours!
***Please Leave a Comment Below***
It’s on! Every four years the world comes together to see incredible sports competition. This year the 2024 summer
Olympics are in Paris, France.
Learning to be a good sport is having an impact even as far away as the small Southern town of Shady Pines.
She’s watching the USA Men’s Gymnastics competition on TV in the family’s kitchen.
“Mom sounds like it’s important.”
“Boomer, Halley, slow down. Track and field events are next week.”
“Look at the American gymnast, Harold! His name is Frederick Richard.”
Harold and Edna cheer as other members of the USA team perform.
“Why is dad walking around?” asks Boomer. “He’s not going anywhere.”
Edna is teary. “Each man gave it their all.”
Isn’t the bronze medal third place?”
Boomer plops down by Harold who starts petting the dog’s head.
“Listen up you two. You could learn a lot from those talented gymnasts about sportsmanship.”
Can we talk? My name is Mary Jane McKittrick. (old photo) For more than a decade I’ve been writing stories about cartoon characters living in and around the fictional Shady Pines Story Town.
talk about everything from severe weather outbreaks and national holidays to current events in a way that young children appoximately 6-9 years old can understand. It’s also an opportunity for their caregivers to start a discussion on these topics.
For a long time I stopped using the word civility in my marketing. Do you know why? So many people kept telling me Civility is dead in America. Ugliness, they said, has taken hold and there’s nothing you can do about it.
The truth is, we’re just trying to encourage and uplift. We want to underscore the urgent need to restore a gentler way of communicating with one another that transcends all boundaries and ideologies.
media or by email. Talk to friends and loved ones about the need for change.
The curtains billow gently from the open windows in the Sanders house on Dogwood Drive this morning.
Harold chuckles. “Yes, but the repairs to the stove and the new fire alarm units were a bit – unexpected.”
She hesitates for a moment. “Maybe I should put on my swim suit. No, I’ll just change into some shorts and a tee-shirt.”
garden with its different kinds of roses.
snakes through the air like a crazy, whirly, swirly, out of control object.
It’s late afternoon now and the shadows in the backyard grow longer. Finally, a cooling breeze causes the wind chime made of spoons to sing.
How about movies or your digital camera? Well, we have one man to thank for those inventions and a whole lot more. 
take weeks or even months to arrive. 
His teacher called him “addled,” which means slow or dim. 
That’s right. They didn’t think he was very smart. Edison’s mother was frustrated with the school.
the Grand Trunk Herald.
Some of his other best known inventions include the phonograph (which recorded sounds and played them back) and the movie camera. That’s right. Every time you watch a movie you now know who made that possible.