Tap 'er Light

[Carci]

I love it when I read a book and it sends me to the computer to find a meaning.  I just finished the book Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas, which sounds like a religious book but it itsn't...

 

The story is set in a small mining town in the mountains of Colorado and covers a period of 1866 to 1936.  Hennie Comfort is 86 years old in 1936 and has a sign in her yard "Prayers for Sale".  When a 17 year old Nit Spindle, a young bride, comes to ask her for a prayer for the baby she lost they become good friends and Hennie tells her many stories of the early days in the mining town. She came as a 16 year old widow from the Civil War in 1866 to meet her future husband.

 

"Tap 'er light" is a farewell when friends leave and it set me to wondering what it meant so I 'googled' it and found the following: "It literally means, "take it easy," or "be careful and have a good day." It comes from the practice of setting explosives in the mines, they had to pack in certain types of explosive charges by carefully tapping them in with a hammer. Hit the charge too hard, or miss and strike a spark off of rock, and ka-BOOM! (grin)"

[Eaglewoman]

I love Sandra Dallas, since I live in Colo, I try and find local authors who write about local things (Stephen White is my favorite Mystery writer from here and he writes about Boulder, CO,) Here is little fact about Sandra Dallas, one of our big local hospital build a new one and they sent all their old equipment to Vietnam, she donated a motor cycle ambulance to the cause.Have no idea what that is as there was no picture in the newsletter I got. We are going to read another of her books Sister in one of our book clubs.

I like looking things up when I am reading. We are reading Casual Vacancy by the Harry Potter author, there is so many characters that I couldn't keep them straight (over 30) Went on line and found a nice family map that put each family in a group and their connection to each other, was trying to find a town map as she went in to great detail explain, where everyone lived from the rich to the poor at the bottom of the hill

[Mandy Muffin]

In the genre of the Western romance, here is one I got from Amazon that was quite good:  http://www.amazon.com/Bride-Wore-Spurs-Sharon-Ihle/dp/0061083372  I guess the mail order bride theme has been done a few times but it always makes for a good story.