Welcome springtime
By MARCELLA BRUCE
Contributing writer
Editor's Note: Marcella Bruce is in New Mexico, so we printed an adapted version of her column that was published on April 18, 2001.
Someone has said that the best thing about springtime is that it comes when it is most needed. After our long and cold winter, the warming has been most welcome! And needed!
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"To err is human; just don't let your eraser wear out before your pencil does."
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It seems like I no sooner throw or give away something than I hear "Oh that's a collector's item
Well, I just know that there is someone out there who would like to have my collection of old popular sheet music including "Hinkey Dinkey Parlay Vous" and a miniature cob pipe advertising piece from the Alf Landon for President campaign.
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One of my favorite columnists was the late Erma Bombeck. She somehow coupled humor and honest values in the most palatable way. Among my scraps of comments by the famous and maybe not so famous are two of hers. One is about newspapers being "one of the last bastions of decency in America" and the other about "wedding dresses go on the shelf, yellow, and spur fond memories."
On profanity — "This country is becoming bilingual. English and profanity are spoken fluently here by children and adults alike." "The contents of a (newspaper) are written by men and women whose spoken language would probably make the hair stand up on a rattlesnake's chest, but they have deemed to respect your home and readers by using a vocabulary that still conveys all the emotions without offending anyone." "Profanity is a lot like smoke. Being around it is just as bad as using it yourself."
On wedding dresses — "If wedding dresses could talk, mine would have nothing to say. It worked for five hours, got photographed 325 times and for the last 33 years has been living in exile in a box on a shelf. It cost me four-weeks salary, but I justified it by saying, 'My daughters will be married in it.' Funny thing happened, relationships replace marriage. Some people made so many trips down the aisle, drip-dry wedding dresses became a fashion staple. I got down my wedding dress from the shelf. It looked limp and plain, there wasn't much style to it. I remembered it as whiter. And yet was it worth the four- weeks' salary? Oh, yes."
