WITTY

Marcia Norwood

America's STORYTELLER

Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking

 

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http://tellmeastory-marcia.blogspot.com/2014/09/witty.html

W I T T Y

I'm a girl with 65 years experience - who loves stories and happy endings.  I've been digging in the dirt, and telling stories since I was a little girl. 

Sister Gloria and Marcia.  Copyright   1954 Marcia Norwood

I was voted "Wittiest" by my LHS Senior classmates in the spring of 1967.   

Witty?  I may have been the silliest!  1967 Liberty High School Cheerleaders:  Ann, Sally, Joan,Judy, and Marcia. 

Often people say, "You are so creative.  Where do you get all your ideas?"

God made me this way.  My mother and grandmother  were both creative, out-of-the-box thinkers.  

My mother, Natalie Bush, brought hands-on activities to our Sunday School class at the Liberty Methodist Church, when she was our  teacher in the 1950's...long before the term "hands-on" was ever used.  

Mom painted Flintstone characters on our family's go-cart helmets in the 60's, and on murals in our bedroom.  (Yes!  I raced go-carts as a teenager.  So did my dad.)  We watched The Flintstones as a family every Friday night. 

"Yabba-dabba-doo!"  

The Flintstones became the first cartoon 

made for grown-ups 

when it premiered in prime-time 

on September 30, 1960 on ABC. 

The Flintstones, Season 1 - Episode 1

CLICK on the link or COPY & PASTE the link in your browser:

https://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&type=A111US0&p=the+flinstones 

Edith Dale said she and Mom wanted to crochet collars for baby dresses.  Edith bought the pattern, but Mom looked at the photo on the pattern, and made the crochet collar before Edith finished reading the pattern.  

 

From Left:  Marcia's Mom (Natalie Bush) holds Marcia and Edith Dale (in polka dots) hold Debbie.  Copyright 1949 Marcia Norwood

Marcia's Mom and Granny Lucille.  Copyright 1960 Marcia Norwood

My Granny Lucille was an excellent cook, seamstress, tailor, and housekeeper.  In a throw-down with Martha Stewart:  my money would be on Granny Lucille. 

Granny also owned and operated a dance hall, restaurant, and apartments  on her own.  

She was a divorced, single mom who supported two daughters.  

When she remarried, Granny Lucille still provided most of the income for the family.  
   
My mother and grandmother could do just about anything, and do it well...with one exception:  my mother was not a very good cook. Everything she made tasted bland with a strong cigarette-flavor.  (Mom smoked three packs of Camel cigarettes a day.)  I think Mom's mashed potatoes had more smoke in them that any other ingredient.

Granny Lucille.  Copyright 1960 Marcia Norwood

 

Mother & Daughter:  Natalie and Marcia.  Copyright 1970  Marcia Norwood

 

FOUR GENERATIONS:  Natalie (in ruffles), Marcia (center back), Granny Lucille (with pink rose), Kristin (Marcia's daughter - in front).  Copyright 1976 Marcia Norwood

I wanted to be an artist.  Art was my favorite class at Liberty High School, in Liberty, Missouri.  One of my favorite projects was helping other students create a large, mosaic mural for the Liberty Education Building in the 60's.    I wonder if it's still there?

It's no surprise that my favorite class at the University of Missouri, in Columbia, Missouri, was art.  I received the best although bittersweet advise from my art professor at Mizzou.   Freshman students  were assigned to paint a still life set up in class.  Mine was the worst, and I knew it.  

I tucked my completed painting under my arm and walked out of class. 

My professor must have noticed my disappointment.  She walked out with me and said:  "Talk to me."

"My painting is terrible." I said.  

My entire dream of being an artist vanished in my first art class at Mizzou.

It was as if she could read my mind:  "Marcia, most of the people in this class will make their living being artists.  Their art will become their income.  You may not become an artist.  You will make a living in another way, but you are witty and creative.  Your love of art will remain just that - something you love - not your taskmaster.  That is a gift.  Always be creative and have fun with it."

She gave me wisdom and encouragement.

Over the years I've  given myself permission to play with paints, colored pencils, pastels, water color, crayons, and markers, paper, wood and metal.  I've played in dirt as a creative gardener; played with words as an author and speaker; played with cameras as a photographer; and played in the kitchen.  I still would rather decorate the table than prepare the meal.  

I will try just about anything.  

My life has been filled with creative adventures.

I took an "Art Therapy" class from Dr. Madeline Rugh (University of Oklahoma) in the 90's, which made it possible for me to teach  art therapy classes to  adults and children.  Art can bring hope and healing when it ceases to be a competition, and you just simply play with the mediums.

My mom was confined to her home for most of one year of hospice care before she went to Heaven.  She filled her days reading voraciously.   Each week, she called in book requests to the Liberty Public Library.  Mom was a lifelong learner.  She never stopped being witty and creative.  

Mom set up an art table in her bedroom by her corner windows, and  invited her grandchildren to use her crayons, markers, and gel pens right along with her.   My children and grandchildren don't remember a dying room filled with Mema's pills,  oxygen tanks and lines.  They remember coloring with their Mema at an art table by a bright window.  They have her pens as a reminder.

I created a coloring page for Mom (Mema)'s memorial service.   I asked family to write or draw something on it.  We gently laid them in Mema's casket.  We all knew her spirit left that mortal body, but it's absolutely possible that Mom saw it all from her balcony in Heaven.

God is our creator.

He gives creativity, and wisdom, and knowledge and witty inventions to anyone who asks!

Remember my college still life painting?  I took it home in the autumn of 1967. Mom agreed it wasn't that great.  She put it in the big trash can in the back yard to be burned.   My Nanny, Aunt Ann, (caring, witty and creative) retrieved it from the trash can, and hung in in her bedroom above her bed.

I was elated.

Sometimes it just takes one person to believe it you - to encourage you.

Let me be that person for you.

When was the last time you gave yourself permission to color with crayons or pastels or markers?  

I encourage you!

Buy a color book or watercolor paper.

Color a picture.

Plant a garden.

Write a song!

Sing a song!

Write a poem or short story. 

Read a poem or story!

Write the book that is in your heart.  

Read a book aloud to someone else!

Take a photograph or take one hundred photographs, or take one thousand photographs.

Paint on the sidewalk.  

Write with shaving cream or pudding.

Create a new recipe.

God has never wasted any of my experiences...especially my failures. He has given me jobs and opportunities beyond my talents and beyond my education. He supernaturally transforms my MESS into a MESSAGE to a hurting world...and He will do the same for you.

I am a life long learner.

Before I begin anything I pray:  "God teach me...."

Ask God to give you wisdom and witty inventions.

Have FUN!

 

Proverbs 8:12 

 
I wisdom dwell with prudence, 

and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
The Holy Bible

King James Version 

What is prudence?

• Good judgment
• The practical application of wisdom

 

CLICK on the image to ENLARGE. Copyright 2011 Marcia Norwood

CLICK on the image to ENLARGE. Marcia served as Editor & Graphic Artist.  Copyright 2011 Marcia Norwood

CLICK on the image to ENLARGE.  Marcia's songs.  Copyright 2011 Marcia Norwood

Marcia's MAGAZINE & NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
Marcia's writing and photographs have been published in CLUBHOUSE (Focus on the Family), Chosen Child, Adoption Today, and The Red Thread magazines. Marcia's photographs and articles have been published in The Kansas City Star; The Examiner, (Independence, Missouri) and a series in Mother & Child Reunion.

To view samples of Marcia’s articles online…click on the links:
"Under My Umbrella" (Adoption Today) April 2013: http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=152974
“Are You Looking At Me?” (Adoption Today) http://library.adoption.com/reunions/are-you-looking-at-me/article/2795/1.html

BOOKS CONTAINING Marcia 's SHORT STORIES & PHOTOGRAPHS:

FLY AWAY

FINDING HOPE IN THE MIDST OF GRIEF

A STORYTELLER Gift Booklet

CLICK on the image to ENLARGE.  Copyright 2003 Marcia Norwood

 
Chicken Soup To Inspire The Body and Soul 

Edited by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Dan Millman, Diana von Welanetz Wentworth
ISBN # 0-7573-0141-X
Marcia's Story: The Beautiful Girl in the Mirror - Page 233

A Cup of Comfort
Adams Media Corporation
Edited by Colleen Sell
ISBN # 1-58062-524-X
Marcia's Story: The Crying Chair - Page 16 

  

 

What I Learned From God While Cooking
Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Edited by Cristine Bolley
ISBN # 1-59310-346-8
Marcia's Story: Love Never Fails - Page 209

   

 

 Stories for the Spirit-Filled Believer
Starburst Publisher
Edited by Cristine Bolley
ISBN # 0-7394-2160-3 ISBN # 1-892016-54-0
Marcia's Story: Miracle on Peck Road - Page 225

The Ultimate Bird Lover
HCI Books
ISBN-13:978-0-7573-1438-4
ISBN-10:0-7573-1438-4

Two of Marcia's photographs are published in this book.

     

Proverbs 8:12 

 
I wisdom dwell with prudence, 

and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
The Holy Bible

King James Version 

What is prudence?

• Good judgment
• The practical application of wisdom

 http://tellmeastory-marcia.blogspot.com/2013/09/where-are-we-going.html

Tell Me A Story: WHERE ARE WE GOING?
Sep 15, 2013
My "A-ha! Moment" happened in 1999, when I was the Missouri and Kansas Regional Coordinator for *Camp Invention, the HANDS-ON educational outreach program of the National Inventor's Hall of Fame sponsored in part ...
http://tellmeastory-marcia.blogspot.com/

 Thanks for stopping by!

Come back often, and invite a friend!

Marcia Norwood,

America's STORYTELLER

Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking