One Special Memory

One Special Memory

By, Gina Hill

1989ish

Based upon true events, well most of it.

Dedicated to my mom.

“Mom, are you ready to go for my driving lesson?” asked Nina.

“Just a minute, sweetie. I’ll be coming,” I replied.

I remembered the day I went to get my own driver’s license.

I wanted the freedom that came with owning my own wheels. But first I had to pass the very difficult written exam and driving test. I remember being very anxious that day and having studied very diligently that whole previous week for the written exam.

As I entered the Department of Motor Vehicles, I sensed a strange atmosphere and I suddenly lost the courage I had just a few minutes before. The first woman I encountered was a DMV clerk who was in her mid-40’s; she wore her glasses on the tip of her nose and her bluish gray hair was pulled back in a severe bun. The woman looked very old fashioned and out of style. The light blue jacket and matching modest length skirt she wore made her look like she had just stepped out of the 60’s.

My mother and I waited in line for a good ten minutes, with all the correct papers in hand, until she called me. Her shrill voice cried out “Next!” I walked up to the desk, relieved that I was finally there, but I did not know what was in store for me. She asked for the papers I was holding and everything seemed fine until she type the information I had given her into her little computer.

“I’m sorry, Miss Miller,” she said, “but the computer says you already got your driver’s license last July.”

My mother quickly replied, “She doesn’t have her license; she just turned 16 in June.”

After about five minutes we had that cleared up. It turned out that someone in California had the exact same name as I and had been born on the same day. So I had to add my mother’s maiden name onto my name, making it, Nine Louise Smith Miller. The secretary handed me an application that I had to fill out. At first I was agitated by the fact that I had to go through another process in the long chain of steps.

After I got the application, I read it carefully. The application asked all sorts of interesting and strange questions. Some of the questions were as follows: Are you an American citizen? I answered “Yes.” Are you male or female? I answered “Female.” Do you have children? I said “No.” How much do you weigh? This, in truth, to me was the hardest question of all. To any girl this is an embarrassing question. So I lied; I said I weighed 93 pounds when in fact I weighed 95 pounds.

            When I had finished the application, I was given the test. Boy, was I nervous! I read all of the questions carefully and tried not to get thrown off with the tricky questions like: When should you be most careful while driving: 1) After it has been raining all day 2) ½ hour after a rain 3) during ½ hour of rain. I picked number 2. When I was through with the test, I was told to go wait in the “D” line. I kept wondering what the “D” stood for. Dummy? Delirious?

Finally, I got to the front of the line and encountered the test corrector. She was approximately 35 years old; she wore her reddish brown hair in a short bob. She flattered her slight figure by wearing a tight, bright red dress. I could tell that the woman did not enjoy her job. She grabbed my test abruptly and started marking away. At the time I was imagining myself in a red convertible with the top rolled down, with my hair blowing through the air as I sang along with my favorite song playing on the radio.

But suddenly my dream world was shattered, vanished into think air, when the test corrector said, “I’m sorry, you flunked.” I thought I must be hearing things. I had to have passed. I knew everything on the test by heart. No more freedom. No red convertible for me. Lucky me. Back to Mom and the station wagon and my little brother screaming in the back seat.

The test corrector handed the test to me and told me not to come back before next Friday. A whole week more of being chauffeured in a station wagon. I told my mother the sad story as we drove home. While I was in the car, I decided to look over the test. To my astonishment, I saw I had only missed by only one point. The written exam stated that seven could be missed; I missed eight. I quickly skimmed over the test to find that one “ittie bittie” mistake that could have been corrected. But it was too late; the test was over with, finished. As I tried to hold back the tears on the way home, my mom kept telling me I would pass next time and be able to drive. These words of encouragement made me feel better in bad times.

When we finally got home, my mom called the DMV and made an appointment for the next week. My sarcastic little brother entered the kitchen and said, “Did you flunk?”

My mother quickly protected me and said, “She only missed it by one and the questions were very difficult.”

The next week is very vague to me now, but I do remember going to the DMV with a new pencil in hand. I was ready for the test; I had been through this before. I had all the preliminaries down.

The same cleark was there. She still wore her bluish gray hair pulled back in a severe bun and her mannerisms were the same. She gave me test number 2, and I went to the table and started reading. It took me approximately 30 minutes to finish the test and about 20 minutes in the “D” line. When I got to the front of the line, I noticed a new and compassionate face, not like the others at the DMV.

She was different; her visage was old and wrinkled, but she had a great sense of compassion about her. She wore glasses and had curly gray hair. Her gray hair was alive and full of body. She asked to see my test very politely. There was nothing harsh about this lady. I gave her the test. This time I wasn’t nervous or anxious; I was very calm.

When she finished correcting the test, she said, “You did very well. All 100% correct.”

I was excited to hear those words!

“You passed,” she said. “You can start driving tomorrow with a temporary license.”

When I told my mom the news, she was proud and all the time while we were driving home, I realized that some people can make a big difference. Nice people are more helpful and make people feel at ease.

That night I wrote in my diary that I now knew what the “D” line stood for: diligent workers. While I was writing in my diary, I heard a horn honking outside. I went outside and there was my dream-a shiny, new, red convertible. I was so happy and so was Mom.

“Mom, are you ready to go for my driving lesson yet?” asked Nina. “It’s getting dark.”

“I’m coming, sweetie”, she replied.

The Eliza Do A Little More Effect/Pygmalion Effect

The Eliza Do A Little More Effect

By, Gina Marie Hill Meyers

While attending Fresno State University,  in 1992, I was selected to be part of an elite marketing/management class headed by the late Dr. Vic Panico. Dr. Panico introduced the term Pygmalion Effect to the sixteen of us. Now, a little over twenty years of thinking about the concept, I have developed two new terms related to the Pygmalion Effect, The Eliza Do A Little More Effect, and Substitute Authority Figure Interference.

The Eliza Do A Little More Effect. Eliza Doo Little was the main character in the movie, My Fair Lady. My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. Book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe.

The story centers around an unmannered, poor, Cockney dialect flower girl who takes speech lessons from Professor Henry Higgins, a phoeticist, so that he can get her to pass as a well manner, sophisticated, wealthy and well-bred lady.

The original playbill has playwright Shaw as a heavenly puppet master, pulling the strings on the character Professor Henry Higgins, in turn Henry Higgins attempts to control Ms. Doo Little. Drawn by Al Hirschfeld.

A snobbish, stuck up conceited, intellectual by the name of Professor Higgins, an aristocrat in the field of languages and linguistics makes a bet with his friend that he can take lower- class Eliza Doolittle, with her harsh and thick Cockney accent, and transform her into a proper English Society Lady.

The Pygmalion Effect, also known as the Rosenthal Effect and the Galatea Effects is defined as your expectations of people and their expectations of themselves are key factors in behavior.

If we can all take the Eliza Do A Little More Effect into account each and every day, we can be the change we hope in the world.

There are a few simple steps to take in your life to Do A Little More.

1.      Take responsibility for feelings, thoughts and actions.

2.      Believe we are good.

3.      Believe we are capable.

4.      Believe we can achieve.

5.       Take risks.

6.      Try and try again.

7.      Believe failure is not an option.

8.      Set goals high.

The Eliza Do A Little More Effect breaks your own glass ceiling, you raise the bar for yourself. You have to believe you are capable on achieving greatness in order to achieve greatness. It is a self fulfilling prophecy. Believing in your own potential creates potential.

Tell yourself:

You are your own cheerleader, you are bright and clever. If you have an issue, get help. Seek out positive role models; don’t beat yourself up, live.

I will introduce a term I have developed called Substitute Authority Figure Interference. What it means is that any person can replace or substitute and create a positive experience and get a positive result from employees. It works on the basic good cop bad cop principle. If the teacher for example thinks his class is loud, disruptive and just plain horrible and he introduces another substitute authority figure. The Substitute Authority Figure can:

1) Believe the primary authority figure and institute Pygmalion Effect or

2) Utilize the approach of Pygmalion Effect, take charge, expect positive behavior from employees or students. Set up clear boundaries, expectations and improvement.

If you institute the second approach, the approach will reap benefits. Positive behavior will be had. So, the power of expectations is like the Law of Attraction.

To say it in a more concrete way, authority figures perceptions affect the performance of their charges or employees. As an elementary substitute teacher for the past sixteen years, I have seen it time and time again. The teacher will leave a note and it will start…. One of two ways.

This is a very well-behaved class, they are respectful, caring, great at following directions. Here is a list of names of students to call on if you need any assistance.

The second note would read:

This is a terrible class. They are loud, disrespectful, poor listeners. I have personally found that those classes where the teacher thinks the kids are so great are neither better or worse than any other class. Sometimes in fact, the children are louder and more power hungry since their teacher believes them to be so exceptional.

The real key is the authority figures perceptions. Anytime I buy into the teachers perceptions of a disruptive class I’m in trouble. The key is giving everyone a clean slate and “yes” at times acknowledging disruptive students or rather being aware of the potential. The most important part of maintaining order, having a quiet class, or whatever positive actions or productivity you are seeking is to model this positive approach with clear expectations, being positive. 

Pygmalion Effect

Principal

Supervisor

Teacher

Parent

*Every supervisor has expectations of the people who report to them.

*Supervisors communicate these expectations consciously and unconsciously.

*People, students, employees, children consciously and unconsciously.

&People, students, employees, children consciously and unconsciously pick up on the vibe.

*People perform in ways that is consistent with the expectations they have picked up from a supervisor.

supervisor.

Excerpt From Twitch: Meeting Kasey Rogers

Recollections of the Bewitched Fan Fare 2005. It was hot and humid. Kasey and Mark were handing out autographed photos of Louise Tate (Kasey Rogers) and Larry Tate (David White). It was very hot in Burbank that day and Kasey and Mark excused themselves early. I was disappointed since I was the only one of the group of twenty or so Bewitched enthusiasts that did not receive a black and white glossy photo. But fate had a different plan that day. After the festivities at the Warner Brothers Lot were complete, David and myself had a long drive back to Fresno ahead of us. We went to a liquor store to get some gum and noticed that the Bewitched movie was plastered on pretty much every news paper and magazine, so I purchased everything in site. We were both hungry and noticed that there was a restaurant above the liquor store. As we approached the building, it literally looked dark and vacant. There was a sign outside that said something to the extent that the official last day of business was the day we were there and that they would be closing permanently the very next day. I seem to remember a bar in the front, and lots of dark cherry oak tables. The hostess seated us across from Mark and Kasey. David and myself went without the kids to the Bewitched Fan Fare in June of 2005, but for the book signing we had Lauren about eight years old at the time, and Lucas, one and a half with us. Most of the book signing is a blur since Lucas was very active and I had to be “on” for the book signing. What I do remember is that Lucas was misbehaving and David left with Lucas in tow about 15 minutes into the book signing. That left Lauren to video tape the event. Kasey had recently had a tracheotomy, so I fielded questions from the audience. I do remember that Mark was having a blast, he was gossiping up a storm and Kasey kept telling him to hush. That was so cute to me. There also was a fourteen year old boy with his friends and mom and dad who had come especially to meet me and to buy my Magic of Bewitched Trivia and More book. It was beyond a treat for the young man to meet a real life actress who played on Bewitched. I was overjoyed and overcome with such sheer pride the entire day. Kasey had said something at the Fan Fare that stuck with me. Many of the Bewitched fans were wearing WWSD? Tee shirts. This was a play on What Would Jesus Do?, and basically said, What Would Samantha Do? (as in Samantha Stephens .) Maybe it wasn’t her words so much as her dismay at the rip off from what Jesus Would Do. As a Christian woman myself, I understood her faith in God and this WWSD? Just didn’t sit well with her.

Gina's Spiced Pumpkin Juice Libation

Spiced Pumpkin Juice Libation
2 tablespoons of pumpkin puree, such as an easy pumpkin pie mix (spices are already added)
1 tablespoon of apricot puree, or apricot preserves
1 cup of organic apple cider
1 cup of organic apple juice
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
1 shot of rum
Directions: Place two heaping tablespoons of pumpkin pie mix, 1 tablespoon of apricot preserves, 1 teaspoon of brown sugar, 1 cup of apple cider, 1 cup of apple juice and 2 shots of rum into a food processor and pulse for about 30 seconds

Spooky Spider Cupcake & Witches Brew Recipes, by, Gina Meyers

Spooky Spider Cupcakes

1 package of chocolate cake mix
1 package of thin (rope) black licorice
Cup cake liners
Red hot candy

Directions: Follow chocolate cake mix directions and bake cupcakes in cupcake tins. Once cooled, frost with chocolate frosting, and add black licorice for spider legs and two red hot candies for the eyes.



Witch’s Brew

1 14oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1 46oz. can pineapple juice, chilled
1 2-liter bottle of orange soda, chilled
Orange sherbet ice cream.

Directions: In a punch bowl, or jack o’lantern container, stir together sweetened condensed milk, pineapple juice, and orange soda. Top with sherbet and serve over ice.

Day 1: Mind, Body, and Spirit

I don’t go by the rule book…I lead from the heart, not the head.-Diana, Princess of Wales




Every Choice You Make Has an End Result. Zig Ziglar


These are the first two quotes found in a book of inspiration I wrote a few years ago called, Feng Shui To A Better You. As an author, I have a way with words, but, typical of most artists, I don't always follow the rules or the beliefs that I write about. But, now, finally, I am practicing the rules that I preach. I am a positive person and believe in destiny. I believe in God and the spirit of growth, understanding, compassion and caring for others. This journal starts with: "I don't go by the rule book...I lead from the heart, not the head."-Princess Diana of Wales. So true for me too! As I wrote in my first "fictional journal book", Life Lessons Learned In Paris, "my mind is quick and my heart has trouble keeping up with intellect." Let that be a lesson for everyone. If you know your own emotional baggage, either 1) check it at the gate, 2)share your dirty laundry, and buy new clothes, or 3) chuck the suitcase, buy new stuff wherever your travels lead or 4) save and recycle, good tailored clothing never goes out of style (I'll explain more about my analogies later). It felt good to finally follow through and make it to the gym. I am in good health, and very active, but, it was on my list of additional "Body" image and activities! The adrenaline rush and perspiring was very beneficial to deal with all of the major stressors that my day had!

Halloween Tips and Tricks, by, Gina Meyers

Halloween Tricks and Tips: Don't let the Halloween hungries get you, here are some easy tips and tricks for Halloween.

Orange, black, and purple are perfect accent colors for decorating for Halloween.


Taking your Halloween cookie cutters and cutting out shapes out of flour tortillas or corn tortillas and placing the lightly salted flour or corn tortillas on a sprayed baking sheet (and a preheated oven at 325 degrees) bake in the oven, in about three minutes, Walla, you have Halloween chips to serve with dip.

Carving out an orange bell pepper to look like a jack o’lantern and adding carrot sticks or filling the orange bell pepper with ranch dip is a fun and appetizing appetizer that kids can assist in the kitchen with.

Use your Halloween cookie cutter to cut out your child’s favorite witch, ghost, or pumpkin shape on white or wheat bread. Then spread their favorite peanut butter and jelly or egg salad sandwich.

Decorating for Halloween can be a lot of fun. Adding candlesticks in various sizes and allowing the candles to drip, give you an easy and affordable gothic look.