OCTOBER 17, 2019
Hello there my friends,
As the title states, I never, "I mean NEVER" imagined. that I would actually write an entire book!
First of all, my English skills are pretty terrible! I have known this fact for major part of my life but have been willing to let things limp along as they were and continue to be. It has not been a great problem, most of the time. Perhaps, when my husband and I were raising children, our own and numerous others, as foster parents, I am sure it would have been wonderful had I been more skilled in the proper use and punctuation of the English language, but parenting aside, I did not ever plan to write anything longer than a check or an occasional letter (both practices that are now becoming, close to obsolete) so I did not let it worry me.
A few years ago I bought my "first computer" and at that time I decided I would write a "short story." Well- - let me tell you, this "short story" has become the "loo-o-ongest short story in history!" Not only in it's approximately 110,000 words but also in the length of time it has taken for it to be written!
I started writing it in the year 2000! (I told my family if I didn't do something soon that I would have to call it Historical Fiction!)
Over the years I have started and stopped, started and stopped and as time went on, the short story just kept getting longer and longer! About ten years ago my computer crashed and I lost the entire thing! Luckily I had a printed copy with most of what I had written up to that point so I slowly re-typed the entire thing into my new desktop computer!
Did that mean I finished at that time. No-oo! Not! I am telling you this girl is a procrastinator if ever was one. If they gave prizes for Procrastinators I would take 1st place and the Blue Ribbon!
But, slowly I have come to believe that Joletta's story deserves to be told. Over the years she has almost become just another family member. Now, finally, although I never dreamed it would happen, Joletta's Dreams is now, not only One book, but Two in One! (I plan for her story to continue.)
Did I become an expert in English skills in the years of writing? I am sorry to say that has not happened, but with some much appreciated help with editing the story is now both, printable and readable!
Joletta's Dreams is being published together as Two parts, One book! Book 1, Joletta's Dreams and book 2, Dream River. IT IS NOW AVAILABLE as either an eBook or in print on AMAZON until the first of January, after which it will be sold through other channels also!
I NEVER WOULD HAVE IMAGINED, BUT MIRICLES CONTINUE TO HAPPEN!!
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Friday, May 20, 2016
It's Called CAMPIN' (CAM-PUN)
That's right, not Camping -- we say "CAM-PUN" and CAMPIN' IS FUN! It is something I have done pretty much all my life.
First--- when I was a little girl, with my parents and brothers and sisters, then later, with my husband and our young family. Years later, we started going with our grandchildren and foster children, (more on that later) and now (at least for the most part) it is only me and my husband Wayne, who has now put up with me for 50-plus years!
Our kids have been grown now for many years, the foster children are gone and the grandchildren are well on the way to growing up! We even now, have our first great-grandchild, Little Abigail, who just had her very first birthday!
My earliest memories of camping consisted mostly of Daddy driving the big green Nash loaded with Mom and whichever kids were along, down to a local creek (usually within less than an hours drive from home. We thought Daddy was a super driver and I can remember standing (yes, that is what I said) behind his seat as my twin brother Keith and the rest of us hollering for him to drive "Faster, Daddy, Faster!!" (I don't know if he actualy was speeding, but he always played along! It was a game that was played more than once. After awhile, we would pull off of the main road and soon would be twisting down and around until we were right beside the water and under one of the many access bridges in the area of Southwest Missouri where we were raised. There he would park right on the rocky gravel-bar of whatever creek or river the adults had chosen for our newest adventure.
I am not sure but I think it was, usually, only Mom and Daddy and the 4 of us younger kids. We were always grouped together, because we were close in age and everyone called us "the Little Kids". We also had 2 sisters and a brother that were several years our seniors, I think they were probably perfectly happy (possibly thrilled) to get us out of their hair for a day or two or more! Momma's mother, "Grandma Price" lived with us, so the job of keeping up with the older siblings was left up to her. Not sure if there was ever a time that all 10 of us actually camped together.
I don't remember exactly how many times we actually camped while I was young. Many times our family would go picnicking at the creek or in the woods, so some of those memories have become jumbled and I am not sure which are the "real camping" experiences and which were, perhaps, only day long picnics,"
To me it doesn't really matter, since in MY mind they were all wonderful experiences! Roaring River, Capp's Creek, Flat Creek, Sugar Creek and 43 Bridge, are only a few in my memory.
Although I may have fantastic memories, I have to wonder if my "Momma and Daddy" possible may have felt very differently.
Among my memories are a few of the following---
One time, Mom was cooking our supper on a campfire. It consisted of bacon, eggs and toast. but--- the problem was--- somehow in packing up "we had failed to bring all the necessities! NO PLATES to eat off of!" But we did not go hungry, we ate our supper that night off of the "torn up" cartons and boxes" that the food was packed in! Mom told me in later life that it seemed we NEVER made a trip without FORGETTING something that seemed, at the time, to be important!
On another trip, we just gotten settled into our make-shift camp. (Because we had no tent, Daddy had set up a shelter with an old tarp and saplings. Unfortunately, just about the time Mom and Dad were all ready to relax for the evening and enjoy watching the stars and campfire, we little children started complaining of "Itching!" It did not take very long before it became painfully obvious that we had set up our bedding right in the MIDDLE of a nest of SEED TICKS! Needless to say, things were packed up as quickly as possible and we were packed, once more into the "Old Nash!" Once we got back to our little stone house in the country we were lined up and systematically "De-ticked! I will never forget standing naked while my tired little body was searched from "the top of my head, to the bottom of my feet!"
Then there was yet another trip when a family friend had offered to let Dad use his outboard motor and "I think Daddy then rented a flat bottom canoe". Anyway, we had a wonderful afternoon flying up and down the "Brand new Table Rock Lake." That is, until my youngest brother who was about 6 got so badly sunburned that another trip was brought to an end!
Now, most people would think after all that, it would be the end of camping for our family!
"NOT!"
The year I turned 8 (I think), we got to go on a "real vacation." This time it would be several days and we would be going to several different places!
After everything was readied, we headed out once again.
That trip included following the wild and scenic river-ways of Southern Missouri, where wonderful natural springs gush and bubble up out of the sheer rocky hillsides.
"Big Spring State Park (on the Black River, close to VanBuren, Missouri), has an amazing water-flow of approximately 276,000,000 (yes Million) gallons of water a DAY!
We spent at least one night at a brand new park called Johnson Shut-ins! It was and is a FAVORITE memory. Huge volcanic rock formations form a natural water-park, with the clear cold river splashing in and out of the shut-in valley. The park had only recently been opened and did not have water, electricity or even toilets built yet, but, oh my the huge rocks and ice-cold water was absolutely the most wonderful thing a small child could imagine!
It is kind of hard to describe. It was and is, different than any other creek or river I have ever visited. Not deep, the water runs and splashes between huge rocks, some as smooth and slick as a park sliding board. It made many personal pools to sit in and feel the chilling water flow over your body and some of the rocks had been worn so smooth you could (carefully) climb to the top and slide into the pool below!
I only remember going to the "Shut In's" that one time, although others in the family went back numerous times, Never-the-less, it was permanently etched into my young mind. Many years later while traveling, I saw a picture that had been taken there and I immediately recognized it! My husband could not believe that I recognized a picture of a place that I had only been to once when I was no more than 5 or 6 years old!
You know I can still remember the smell of Fried Chicken that Momma had made before leaving home. There is nothing better on a hot day, than tea, after it has been brewed in a gallon jug, iced and carefully wrapped in newspaper and towels to keep at its coldest until we made our destination.
Or, have you ever eaten a watermelon (not the little puny ones they sell you these days), but one that is huge and bright red and sweet after it has been siting in the cold creek water all afternoon.
We spent our days chasing bunnies, we shivered and shook as we tried our best to catch crawdads, chased tadpoles and minnows and we skipped flat stones across the glittering ripples of water.
At night we roasted marshmallows over the campfire and cracked pieces of flint-stone against each other to make sparks. We caught fireflies and June-bugs and listened to Daddy and Momma as they sang old. sad songs to us. (Favorites were Daddy singing "The Old Number Nine" and Momma singing "As I wandered 'Round the Homestead"
Finally, our little bodies were so worn out that we happily got washed up and then curled into our warm blankets for the night. It didn't take long before the song of the Whip-o-will and river night sounds would lull us to sleep.
I would wake in the very early morning to the sound of Daddy and the boys, getting ready to go out on the river for a couple of hours of fishing. I still feel the morning mist on my face and can easily imagine smelling the campfire and the coffee perking!
That's right, not Camping -- we say "CAM-PUN" and CAMPIN' IS FUN! It is something I have done pretty much all my life.
First--- when I was a little girl, with my parents and brothers and sisters, then later, with my husband and our young family. Years later, we started going with our grandchildren and foster children, (more on that later) and now (at least for the most part) it is only me and my husband Wayne, who has now put up with me for 50-plus years!
Our kids have been grown now for many years, the foster children are gone and the grandchildren are well on the way to growing up! We even now, have our first great-grandchild, Little Abigail, who just had her very first birthday!
My earliest memories of camping consisted mostly of Daddy driving the big green Nash loaded with Mom and whichever kids were along, down to a local creek (usually within less than an hours drive from home. We thought Daddy was a super driver and I can remember standing (yes, that is what I said) behind his seat as my twin brother Keith and the rest of us hollering for him to drive "Faster, Daddy, Faster!!" (I don't know if he actualy was speeding, but he always played along! It was a game that was played more than once. After awhile, we would pull off of the main road and soon would be twisting down and around until we were right beside the water and under one of the many access bridges in the area of Southwest Missouri where we were raised. There he would park right on the rocky gravel-bar of whatever creek or river the adults had chosen for our newest adventure.
I am not sure but I think it was, usually, only Mom and Daddy and the 4 of us younger kids. We were always grouped together, because we were close in age and everyone called us "the Little Kids". We also had 2 sisters and a brother that were several years our seniors, I think they were probably perfectly happy (possibly thrilled) to get us out of their hair for a day or two or more! Momma's mother, "Grandma Price" lived with us, so the job of keeping up with the older siblings was left up to her. Not sure if there was ever a time that all 10 of us actually camped together.
I don't remember exactly how many times we actually camped while I was young. Many times our family would go picnicking at the creek or in the woods, so some of those memories have become jumbled and I am not sure which are the "real camping" experiences and which were, perhaps, only day long picnics,"
To me it doesn't really matter, since in MY mind they were all wonderful experiences! Roaring River, Capp's Creek, Flat Creek, Sugar Creek and 43 Bridge, are only a few in my memory.
Although I may have fantastic memories, I have to wonder if my "Momma and Daddy" possible may have felt very differently.
Among my memories are a few of the following---
One time, Mom was cooking our supper on a campfire. It consisted of bacon, eggs and toast. but--- the problem was--- somehow in packing up "we had failed to bring all the necessities! NO PLATES to eat off of!" But we did not go hungry, we ate our supper that night off of the "torn up" cartons and boxes" that the food was packed in! Mom told me in later life that it seemed we NEVER made a trip without FORGETTING something that seemed, at the time, to be important!
On another trip, we just gotten settled into our make-shift camp. (Because we had no tent, Daddy had set up a shelter with an old tarp and saplings. Unfortunately, just about the time Mom and Dad were all ready to relax for the evening and enjoy watching the stars and campfire, we little children started complaining of "Itching!" It did not take very long before it became painfully obvious that we had set up our bedding right in the MIDDLE of a nest of SEED TICKS! Needless to say, things were packed up as quickly as possible and we were packed, once more into the "Old Nash!" Once we got back to our little stone house in the country we were lined up and systematically "De-ticked! I will never forget standing naked while my tired little body was searched from "the top of my head, to the bottom of my feet!"
Then there was yet another trip when a family friend had offered to let Dad use his outboard motor and "I think Daddy then rented a flat bottom canoe". Anyway, we had a wonderful afternoon flying up and down the "Brand new Table Rock Lake." That is, until my youngest brother who was about 6 got so badly sunburned that another trip was brought to an end!
Now, most people would think after all that, it would be the end of camping for our family!
"NOT!"
The year I turned 8 (I think), we got to go on a "real vacation." This time it would be several days and we would be going to several different places!
After everything was readied, we headed out once again.
That trip included following the wild and scenic river-ways of Southern Missouri, where wonderful natural springs gush and bubble up out of the sheer rocky hillsides.
"Big Spring State Park (on the Black River, close to VanBuren, Missouri), has an amazing water-flow of approximately 276,000,000 (yes Million) gallons of water a DAY!
We spent at least one night at a brand new park called Johnson Shut-ins! It was and is a FAVORITE memory. Huge volcanic rock formations form a natural water-park, with the clear cold river splashing in and out of the shut-in valley. The park had only recently been opened and did not have water, electricity or even toilets built yet, but, oh my the huge rocks and ice-cold water was absolutely the most wonderful thing a small child could imagine!
It is kind of hard to describe. It was and is, different than any other creek or river I have ever visited. Not deep, the water runs and splashes between huge rocks, some as smooth and slick as a park sliding board. It made many personal pools to sit in and feel the chilling water flow over your body and some of the rocks had been worn so smooth you could (carefully) climb to the top and slide into the pool below!
I only remember going to the "Shut In's" that one time, although others in the family went back numerous times, Never-the-less, it was permanently etched into my young mind. Many years later while traveling, I saw a picture that had been taken there and I immediately recognized it! My husband could not believe that I recognized a picture of a place that I had only been to once when I was no more than 5 or 6 years old!
You know I can still remember the smell of Fried Chicken that Momma had made before leaving home. There is nothing better on a hot day, than tea, after it has been brewed in a gallon jug, iced and carefully wrapped in newspaper and towels to keep at its coldest until we made our destination.
Or, have you ever eaten a watermelon (not the little puny ones they sell you these days), but one that is huge and bright red and sweet after it has been siting in the cold creek water all afternoon.
We spent our days chasing bunnies, we shivered and shook as we tried our best to catch crawdads, chased tadpoles and minnows and we skipped flat stones across the glittering ripples of water.
At night we roasted marshmallows over the campfire and cracked pieces of flint-stone against each other to make sparks. We caught fireflies and June-bugs and listened to Daddy and Momma as they sang old. sad songs to us. (Favorites were Daddy singing "The Old Number Nine" and Momma singing "As I wandered 'Round the Homestead"
Finally, our little bodies were so worn out that we happily got washed up and then curled into our warm blankets for the night. It didn't take long before the song of the Whip-o-will and river night sounds would lull us to sleep.
I would wake in the very early morning to the sound of Daddy and the boys, getting ready to go out on the river for a couple of hours of fishing. I still feel the morning mist on my face and can easily imagine smelling the campfire and the coffee perking!
Friday, March 25, 2016
REMINDER OF A MEMORY
March 23, 2016
Last week, my niece Jackie posted a memory on her Facebook page that had to do with her Grandma (my Mother),
Her post caused responses from, not only myself, but several others who had witnessed "Momma" madly waving a tea towel in the direction of the loud beeping of the house "fire alarm" that was mounted in the hallway, perhaps 20 feet or so from the kitchen.
Mom was a wonderful cook (at least her family always thought so, she would dispute that fact, but we each have our own opinions and she was certainly outnumbered) With that said, Mom did have a tendency to cook everything over high heat which, in turn, caused said alarm to loudly object on numerous occasions! This was the cause of much irritation and frustration on her part and snickers and head shaking and giggles, from Daddy and her family! However, she never did learn to turn the burner down and cook things slowly ---- "Thankfully" she never burned the house to the ground either!
This incident reminded me that I had initially started this Blog, "Karen Spillin' her Dreams" with the idea of writing about just such memories in the hopes that, at some point, my children and grandchildren might possibly enjoy reading the "bits and pieces" of , not only my memories but also "their history."
Admittedly, my life has not been particularly exciting but, still, I thought it would be kind of fun to go back and think about earlier times and or things that were possibly funny, significant and sometimes, even life-changing!
I did enjoy doing it for awhile, but as is so often the case when it comes down to it, I am not a very motivated person and as frequently happens when I start a project, I get sidetracked and soon it is forgotten, perhaps, never, but not always. to be finished at all.
Well, Jackie's post on Facebook reminded me of the Blog and so, HERE I AM ONCE AGAIN! I had no idea it had been so long since I had checked out or written anything on these pages. WOW! How quickly time flies by! The first 20 or 30 years of our lives seems to take forever and then the next 40 or 50 years fly by so quickly, you are kind of left shaking your head and wondering where they went!
Of course, I never actually worked at "blogging" long enough to really find out if I could manage to get people interested in following my pages, so there most likely will be very few people, other than myself that will ever see my ramblings. So here goes, I am back once again. I have decided my brain could use the exercise.
More than a few changes in my life have taken place these past five years, so I once again I am ready to start "SPILLIN" IT OUT FOR ALL THAT ARE INTERESTED!"
GOOD NIGHT ALL AND GOD BLESS!!!
Last week, my niece Jackie posted a memory on her Facebook page that had to do with her Grandma (my Mother),
Her post caused responses from, not only myself, but several others who had witnessed "Momma" madly waving a tea towel in the direction of the loud beeping of the house "fire alarm" that was mounted in the hallway, perhaps 20 feet or so from the kitchen.
Mom was a wonderful cook (at least her family always thought so, she would dispute that fact, but we each have our own opinions and she was certainly outnumbered) With that said, Mom did have a tendency to cook everything over high heat which, in turn, caused said alarm to loudly object on numerous occasions! This was the cause of much irritation and frustration on her part and snickers and head shaking and giggles, from Daddy and her family! However, she never did learn to turn the burner down and cook things slowly ---- "Thankfully" she never burned the house to the ground either!
This incident reminded me that I had initially started this Blog, "Karen Spillin' her Dreams" with the idea of writing about just such memories in the hopes that, at some point, my children and grandchildren might possibly enjoy reading the "bits and pieces" of , not only my memories but also "their history."
Admittedly, my life has not been particularly exciting but, still, I thought it would be kind of fun to go back and think about earlier times and or things that were possibly funny, significant and sometimes, even life-changing!
I did enjoy doing it for awhile, but as is so often the case when it comes down to it, I am not a very motivated person and as frequently happens when I start a project, I get sidetracked and soon it is forgotten, perhaps, never, but not always. to be finished at all.
Well, Jackie's post on Facebook reminded me of the Blog and so, HERE I AM ONCE AGAIN! I had no idea it had been so long since I had checked out or written anything on these pages. WOW! How quickly time flies by! The first 20 or 30 years of our lives seems to take forever and then the next 40 or 50 years fly by so quickly, you are kind of left shaking your head and wondering where they went!
Of course, I never actually worked at "blogging" long enough to really find out if I could manage to get people interested in following my pages, so there most likely will be very few people, other than myself that will ever see my ramblings. So here goes, I am back once again. I have decided my brain could use the exercise.
More than a few changes in my life have taken place these past five years, so I once again I am ready to start "SPILLIN" IT OUT FOR ALL THAT ARE INTERESTED!"
GOOD NIGHT ALL AND GOD BLESS!!!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
TRUE CONFESSIONS!
Once upon a time, there was a magazine on the market called "True Confessions. Perhaps, it is still out there somewhere, but, it has been many years since I have seen one, much less read one. At that time I was a
very young girl and I thought it to be "Quite Shocking!" Of course, at this time in history it would probably be a little like "Bubble Gum Music" and would not even shock a 10 year old, but, that was a long time ago. Unfortunately things have changed rather drastically.
Actually, what I have in mind today has nothing at all to do with magazines, "Shocking or not", but, I remembered the name and thought it would be an appropiate title for what I do have to say.
Last night I sat at this computer and wrote a "tongue in cheek" list of my complsints about the weather we have been having to deal with this spring. Asmittedly, I was not totally serious, I was just a little out of sorts and felt like complaining.
As I said at the time "I was even getting on my own nerves!"
Well this morning, as I got up and prepared to leave the house for a full day, I decided I would turn on the TV and check out the news to see if there was anything interesting happening in our world.
The minute a picture came onto the screen, I realized there had been a terrible tragedy. On Wednesday, April 27, 2011, as I am sure everyone already knows, a huge storm system had barreled across the southern part of our country and devastated everything for many miles around! Sadly and tragically, taken by the storms, were also more than 200(and still counting)lives! This was SHOCKING and HEARTRENDING.
It has caused me to rethink what I said last night, it dosn't matter if I thought, at the time, that I was being funny.
I am now so ASHAMED of myself. For I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT!
EACH and EVERYDAY, I look around me and see people that are truly HURTING! EVERYDAY, I talk to someone who is sick, or without a job, or without a home, or a wonderful husband, or a loving child, or a friend, maybe they can't walk, or havn't got a leg, or are paralyzed, or cannot see, or hear or speak! OR DYING! The list goes on and on!
EVERYDAY! Not once in awhile, but EVERYDAY!!!
So my friends, I want to apologize to each and every one of you that read last nights article.
I AM and HAVE BEEN BLESSED in so many ways I could never begin to count them all.
And I AM SO THANKFUL FOR WHAT GOD HAS PROVIDED! Sometimes I just need to be reminded of how much I really have!
What a sad wake up call!
I have decided that I must stop complaining and whining when things don't go exactly the way I think they should!!
My heart goes out to all who are hurting!
I pray that the storm clouds will soon pass and the healing will begin.
"MAY GOD WATCH OVER YOU AND BLESS YOU"
very young girl and I thought it to be "Quite Shocking!" Of course, at this time in history it would probably be a little like "Bubble Gum Music" and would not even shock a 10 year old, but, that was a long time ago. Unfortunately things have changed rather drastically.
Actually, what I have in mind today has nothing at all to do with magazines, "Shocking or not", but, I remembered the name and thought it would be an appropiate title for what I do have to say.
Last night I sat at this computer and wrote a "tongue in cheek" list of my complsints about the weather we have been having to deal with this spring. Asmittedly, I was not totally serious, I was just a little out of sorts and felt like complaining.
As I said at the time "I was even getting on my own nerves!"
Well this morning, as I got up and prepared to leave the house for a full day, I decided I would turn on the TV and check out the news to see if there was anything interesting happening in our world.
The minute a picture came onto the screen, I realized there had been a terrible tragedy. On Wednesday, April 27, 2011, as I am sure everyone already knows, a huge storm system had barreled across the southern part of our country and devastated everything for many miles around! Sadly and tragically, taken by the storms, were also more than 200(and still counting)lives! This was SHOCKING and HEARTRENDING.
It has caused me to rethink what I said last night, it dosn't matter if I thought, at the time, that I was being funny.
I am now so ASHAMED of myself. For I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT!
EACH and EVERYDAY, I look around me and see people that are truly HURTING! EVERYDAY, I talk to someone who is sick, or without a job, or without a home, or a wonderful husband, or a loving child, or a friend, maybe they can't walk, or havn't got a leg, or are paralyzed, or cannot see, or hear or speak! OR DYING! The list goes on and on!
EVERYDAY! Not once in awhile, but EVERYDAY!!!
So my friends, I want to apologize to each and every one of you that read last nights article.
I AM and HAVE BEEN BLESSED in so many ways I could never begin to count them all.
And I AM SO THANKFUL FOR WHAT GOD HAS PROVIDED! Sometimes I just need to be reminded of how much I really have!
What a sad wake up call!
I have decided that I must stop complaining and whining when things don't go exactly the way I think they should!!
My heart goes out to all who are hurting!
I pray that the storm clouds will soon pass and the healing will begin.
"MAY GOD WATCH OVER YOU AND BLESS YOU"
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
"Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head"
Haven't written for awhile. Thought it about time.
I've been in a bit of a funk recently and while I sit around feeling sorry for myself I have been accomplishing very very little of any importance. Worst of all I am getting on my own nerves!
The weather here in Northwest Ohio this season is certainly not helping my mood one bit! I know we are not the only ones experiencing a late spring, and that complaining about chilly temps and rain, rain and more rain isn't going to make it come faster (believe me, I have been doing that for many weeks and it hasn't worked!!
Well anyway, FINALLY, we did have a couple days last weekend with SUNSHINE! And warm temps, taboot! SPRING!!! FINALLY!
The tulip magnolias and flowering pears began to bloom, daffodil's and tulips in every color, purple and pink hyacinths and little violets (Originally, we brought them from my parents house in Missouri, probably by now, over 30 years ago. These tough little flowers are no longer in my flower beds, where I planted them so long ago, but have seeded themselves all over our back yard.) I have to admit (even with all the doom and gloom) that I smile when I see them because they are a sweet reminder of my special family.
EVERTHING WAS BECOMING BEAUTIFUL! That is, for about 24 hours there, I actually believed we were going to make it. Did I dare sat the word -- SPRING?
I should have known that IT WAS A MISTAKE to voice it because, YESTERDAY, we were RIGHT BACK to 50 degree's and MORE RAIN and MORE FLOODING!
I tried to turn on the weather this afternoon and the SATALLITE would not even work!
I guess, it just didn't think "I COULD HANDLE MORE BAD NEWS!"
BUT, I still have my FAITH and I am STILL hoping that there WILL COME A DAY when I can bask in the sunshine and breath in the warm gentle air of a "PERFECT SPRING DAY".
I've been in a bit of a funk recently and while I sit around feeling sorry for myself I have been accomplishing very very little of any importance. Worst of all I am getting on my own nerves!
The weather here in Northwest Ohio this season is certainly not helping my mood one bit! I know we are not the only ones experiencing a late spring, and that complaining about chilly temps and rain, rain and more rain isn't going to make it come faster (believe me, I have been doing that for many weeks and it hasn't worked!!
Well anyway, FINALLY, we did have a couple days last weekend with SUNSHINE! And warm temps, taboot! SPRING!!! FINALLY!
The tulip magnolias and flowering pears began to bloom, daffodil's and tulips in every color, purple and pink hyacinths and little violets (Originally, we brought them from my parents house in Missouri, probably by now, over 30 years ago. These tough little flowers are no longer in my flower beds, where I planted them so long ago, but have seeded themselves all over our back yard.) I have to admit (even with all the doom and gloom) that I smile when I see them because they are a sweet reminder of my special family.
EVERTHING WAS BECOMING BEAUTIFUL! That is, for about 24 hours there, I actually believed we were going to make it. Did I dare sat the word -- SPRING?
I should have known that IT WAS A MISTAKE to voice it because, YESTERDAY, we were RIGHT BACK to 50 degree's and MORE RAIN and MORE FLOODING!
I tried to turn on the weather this afternoon and the SATALLITE would not even work!
I guess, it just didn't think "I COULD HANDLE MORE BAD NEWS!"
BUT, I still have my FAITH and I am STILL hoping that there WILL COME A DAY when I can bask in the sunshine and breath in the warm gentle air of a "PERFECT SPRING DAY".
Friday, February 25, 2011
Momma, The Heart of our Home, Part 2
Momma was not only a loving mother and wife, but she was gifted with many talents as well.
Her plans in early life did not include even having a large family. She said she expected to become a teacher and raise cats! She did get her teaching certificate but never got a school. (I suppose lacking a car (she didn't even get a license to drive until much later) or not wanting to go far away probably was part of the reason. "Boy, was that a plan that never worked out!" Instead, after she married she never worked away from home and instead of cats she raised 7 children! (and a few cats and dogs too!)
After graduation she lived and worked in Wichita, Kansas taking care of children and cleaning.
She then got a job at the Wichita Eagle and was working there when she was invited to go with some friends on a picnic. That day she met a young man who was working with a C.C.C. (Civilian Conservation Corp) group at Roaring River State Park in SW. Missouri. They spent the afternoon together. They wrote letters while he was traveling around the country and married two years later.
She loved writing poetry and wrote many heartfelt verses. Most were about everyday things such as love and family, some were spiritual and some were "just for fun". She wrote one about "A mail order puppy that arrived without a tail" and even one about "the stork bringing her two babies, instead of one"!
When I was a young teen she decided she would take up oil painting. She continued painting for the remainder of her life and there was. almost always, oil paints and "partially finished masterpieces" set up so she could work as time permitted.
At first she only painted for herself but, as time went on and many people seemed to appreciate her work, she would paint pictures as gifts and later she painted one each year that was used used as a prize in her garden clubs yearly "flower show". Her favorite subject was old "mills and waterwheels".
For quite a number of years, Dad was ill and not able to do a lot of things away from home. Mom stayed with him and never seemed to be unhappy or resentful about it. That was just the way things were and perhaps it wasn't always as you wanted but, you accepted it and did the very best you could.
When we lost Dad at 72 years old (he had a heart at tact on his birthday and died a month later) we worried about Mom being alone, But, being the person she was, she did not sit around feeling sorry for herself.
Instead she surprised all of us by becoming more active at church and that was also when she joined the local guarded club. She made many special friends and loved working with the flowers she planted. She always loved flowers and this gave her the opportunity to work with them and learn more about them than she ever had before. Her favorite flower was the rose.
She was so proud of her pretty arrangements and always took pictures of them and the many ribbons she won.
She remained living in their house for a year after Dad passed away and then, because it was just too much for her financially and to care for on her own, she sold it and moved into an apartment, only a few blocks away in the small Senior Complex that her and Dad had helped bring to their tiny community. She became the manager there and continued until shortly before she moved in with my sister Jeanie and brother-in-law just a couple of years before her death three years ago.
She loved every one of her children and grandchildren. She would start knitting months before Christmas making footies. Never in her almost Ninety-three years was there a child in the family that did not have a gift at Christmas. Many times they were homemade, but they were always well loved.
She never missed a birthday and mailed cards to everyone in the family and also wrote many letters to friends far away.
She sewed a quilt for every grandchild. They received them when they got married (and on occasion without the wedding).
The last few years of her life we were blessed to have her come to Ohio and spend several weeks before Christmas with us. It will always be a cherished time for our family.
Weekly she and I would go to the public library and she would get stacks of books which she would finish before the week was over and also every day she would do the daily cross word puzzle in our local paper.
One of my now favorite memories is of the visit the year before she passed away. I pulled a plastic bin out of the closet that was full of our grandchildrens dress-up cloths. They had pretty much stopped playing with them and I was going to get rid of some things. In the pile was a long slinky dress with red sequins sewed all over it. I pulled it out and told Mom I thought she could go to a Christmas party wearing that dress. She quickly took it and pulled it up over her cloths and then put a hat on her head. "Wow, I said, it fits everything EXCEPT at the top!" She then pulled even more things out and STUFFED the front of the dress full! We were laughing so hard we could hardly stand up!
Momma didn't worry about how old she was, she just enjoyed life the best she knew how and gave not only me, but countless others many, many special memories!
Her plans in early life did not include even having a large family. She said she expected to become a teacher and raise cats! She did get her teaching certificate but never got a school. (I suppose lacking a car (she didn't even get a license to drive until much later) or not wanting to go far away probably was part of the reason. "Boy, was that a plan that never worked out!" Instead, after she married she never worked away from home and instead of cats she raised 7 children! (and a few cats and dogs too!)
After graduation she lived and worked in Wichita, Kansas taking care of children and cleaning.
She then got a job at the Wichita Eagle and was working there when she was invited to go with some friends on a picnic. That day she met a young man who was working with a C.C.C. (Civilian Conservation Corp) group at Roaring River State Park in SW. Missouri. They spent the afternoon together. They wrote letters while he was traveling around the country and married two years later.
She loved writing poetry and wrote many heartfelt verses. Most were about everyday things such as love and family, some were spiritual and some were "just for fun". She wrote one about "A mail order puppy that arrived without a tail" and even one about "the stork bringing her two babies, instead of one"!
When I was a young teen she decided she would take up oil painting. She continued painting for the remainder of her life and there was. almost always, oil paints and "partially finished masterpieces" set up so she could work as time permitted.
At first she only painted for herself but, as time went on and many people seemed to appreciate her work, she would paint pictures as gifts and later she painted one each year that was used used as a prize in her garden clubs yearly "flower show". Her favorite subject was old "mills and waterwheels".
For quite a number of years, Dad was ill and not able to do a lot of things away from home. Mom stayed with him and never seemed to be unhappy or resentful about it. That was just the way things were and perhaps it wasn't always as you wanted but, you accepted it and did the very best you could.
When we lost Dad at 72 years old (he had a heart at tact on his birthday and died a month later) we worried about Mom being alone, But, being the person she was, she did not sit around feeling sorry for herself.
Instead she surprised all of us by becoming more active at church and that was also when she joined the local guarded club. She made many special friends and loved working with the flowers she planted. She always loved flowers and this gave her the opportunity to work with them and learn more about them than she ever had before. Her favorite flower was the rose.
She was so proud of her pretty arrangements and always took pictures of them and the many ribbons she won.
She remained living in their house for a year after Dad passed away and then, because it was just too much for her financially and to care for on her own, she sold it and moved into an apartment, only a few blocks away in the small Senior Complex that her and Dad had helped bring to their tiny community. She became the manager there and continued until shortly before she moved in with my sister Jeanie and brother-in-law just a couple of years before her death three years ago.
She loved every one of her children and grandchildren. She would start knitting months before Christmas making footies. Never in her almost Ninety-three years was there a child in the family that did not have a gift at Christmas. Many times they were homemade, but they were always well loved.
She never missed a birthday and mailed cards to everyone in the family and also wrote many letters to friends far away.
She sewed a quilt for every grandchild. They received them when they got married (and on occasion without the wedding).
The last few years of her life we were blessed to have her come to Ohio and spend several weeks before Christmas with us. It will always be a cherished time for our family.
Weekly she and I would go to the public library and she would get stacks of books which she would finish before the week was over and also every day she would do the daily cross word puzzle in our local paper.
One of my now favorite memories is of the visit the year before she passed away. I pulled a plastic bin out of the closet that was full of our grandchildrens dress-up cloths. They had pretty much stopped playing with them and I was going to get rid of some things. In the pile was a long slinky dress with red sequins sewed all over it. I pulled it out and told Mom I thought she could go to a Christmas party wearing that dress. She quickly took it and pulled it up over her cloths and then put a hat on her head. "Wow, I said, it fits everything EXCEPT at the top!" She then pulled even more things out and STUFFED the front of the dress full! We were laughing so hard we could hardly stand up!
Momma didn't worry about how old she was, she just enjoyed life the best she knew how and gave not only me, but countless others many, many special memories!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
"Momma,The Heart of Our Home"
It has been some time since I wrote about my Dad and my Grandma Price. Both very much loved and so very important in my life.
Now I want to tell you another story. This time about my momma.
I have wondered what exactly I would say when I told this story but, for some reason have put off writing it because -- Well, I don't really know for sure why I haven't done it.
It certainly isn't that there aren't many, many wonderful things to tell about Momma, there certainly are.
Perhaps, and I had not really thought of this before, but perhaps, it is partly because I still miss her so much.
She has been gone now for several years, but, to try and tell the world (or the dozen or so people that may or may not read this) just how special she was is not easy, because it makes me miss her even more.
I have always been a little on lazy side and if something is not easy for me then I may put it off forever if I think I can possibly get by with that.
Of course, it has not kept me from getting myself into trouble, time and again.
Apparently my mind sometimes plays games with me and tells me something is going to be easy at the beginning, but then, I find out much too late that it is much harder than I had anticipated!
Unfortunately, when you commit to do something (especially when you have told someone else you will do it) then it can be a problem that must be completed! I call it my (Open Mouth -- Insert Foot) complex!!!
So on with my story.
Momma was a wise wonderful lady that always gave her all to everyone.
She told me once,that sometimes, her all did not feel like enough.
By the time she became MY mother she had also served in the role of daughter, career woman, wife and mother to 4 older children and also a fifth, who was delivered only a few short moments before my birth and happens to be my twin brother. I was number 6 (if you don't include the little twins that were born too early to survive several years before our birth.)
Now think for a moment if you will. The challenges our earlier generations had to deal with. No heat without the effort of putting coal or wood into the pot belly stove, no faucets with hot and cold water, no indoor bathroom, no shower, and until "the twins came along" no automatic washer.
But, life became "so much easier" with the addition of a new set of twins and an automatic washing machine.
Let's see --- A nine year old, a 7 year old (who had heart trouble), a 5 year old, a baby that was 11 months old and now two newborns!
Heres how that wonderful new washing machine worked. If I remember how I was told -- First, you carried water and put it into the tub with shaved pieces of soap. Next, you put a load of laundry in and the miracle machine would agitate the wash load until it was finished (I don't know if it had a timer of any kind) at which time you had to lift each piece of clothing out and put it through a hand ringer (two rollers and a handle that you turned) until that piece of clothing fell through into a tub with clean water to be rinsed at which time you repeated the wringing process (twice, I think) and then the items were hung out to dry.
Of course, while you were doing this you had to clean house, make the meals, change diapers, weed the garden, wipe runny noses, and take care of the dogs, chickens and various other animals that also happened to be living with the family at the time.
As I told you before "Thank God for the fact that my Grandma was there to help her out!" I don't know if she would have made it through otherwise.
We moved several times during the years as I was growing up and though I don't really remember much of anything from my earliest years, I know that no matter where we lived She was the rock that held us all together.
Daddy struggled with depression and if it had not been for Mamma's love I do not believe he would have gotten through many of the hard times.
She was a wonderful cook, although she never thought she was and the house was always warm and welcoming.
We were a wild bunch and I just know it was not an easy life for her.
There was a time that she would eat uncooked oatmeal out of the box as a snack. She told me that she even ask our doctor if he could explain why she craved raw oatmeal and he told her he could not explain it, but perhaps her body had a deficiency and it was telling her she needed it.
Once she told me that even though things were hard she never wanted to leave us, but that she daydreamed sometimes that if she could "just go out and hide in the middle of the field, with her box of oatmeal and a bottle of water" she would be able to rest awhile and she would be alright.
She also said that she believed "Daddy never really understood how exausted she was all the time."
We started going to church the year I was 6 and I remember sitting beside her and holding her hand. I can still feel how warm and secure I felt when I held onto those precious hands.
When we moved into town when I was 8 she scrubbed and painted and put wallpaper on the walls to make the house look nice for us. Dad did a lot of cleaning the yard and fixing on the outside. They made a deal with the lady that owned the house that they would work to make it better and she gave them something off the cost of the rent.
The year I was fifteen she had to have surgery the same time my older brother Richard was having open heart surgery close to 200 miles away. She was so worried about him, but had to be in one hospital while he was in another close to 200 miles away. They both had serious complications, but, thank God for bringing them through that very tough summer.
She was a wonderful seamstress and although I don't have any idea how she found the time she not only mended our clothing, but she sometimes sewed wonderful things for us.
One thing that I was impressed with were the wonderful gowns she made for each of us girls.
Betty had a beautiful white taffeta (I think) dress, with a very full tea length skirt and low V neck.
Jeanie's gown was long and gorgeous. It was strapless, red with a white sheer overlay and a wide red satin cumber bun.
The year I was 16 I wanted a yellow dress I saw in the Sears catalog. She asked if I would like her to make it and when she had finished it,I thought it was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen!(It was much prettier than the catalog version which another classmate wore to the dance!) That dress was yellow satin and had a strapless top under a white lace top and long lace sleeves (trimmed with the yellow satin). The skirt had two layers. One of yellow satin and the other of yellow chiffon.
I went to the prom that year (with the love of my life, the man I was to marry 2 years later) feeling like I was as beautiful as a princess.
I can see this is getting to be way to long and so I think I will stop for the moment and perhaps continue another day with "Momma, Part II"
Now I want to tell you another story. This time about my momma.
I have wondered what exactly I would say when I told this story but, for some reason have put off writing it because -- Well, I don't really know for sure why I haven't done it.
It certainly isn't that there aren't many, many wonderful things to tell about Momma, there certainly are.
Perhaps, and I had not really thought of this before, but perhaps, it is partly because I still miss her so much.
She has been gone now for several years, but, to try and tell the world (or the dozen or so people that may or may not read this) just how special she was is not easy, because it makes me miss her even more.
I have always been a little on lazy side and if something is not easy for me then I may put it off forever if I think I can possibly get by with that.
Of course, it has not kept me from getting myself into trouble, time and again.
Apparently my mind sometimes plays games with me and tells me something is going to be easy at the beginning, but then, I find out much too late that it is much harder than I had anticipated!
Unfortunately, when you commit to do something (especially when you have told someone else you will do it) then it can be a problem that must be completed! I call it my (Open Mouth -- Insert Foot) complex!!!
So on with my story.
Momma was a wise wonderful lady that always gave her all to everyone.
She told me once,that sometimes, her all did not feel like enough.
By the time she became MY mother she had also served in the role of daughter, career woman, wife and mother to 4 older children and also a fifth, who was delivered only a few short moments before my birth and happens to be my twin brother. I was number 6 (if you don't include the little twins that were born too early to survive several years before our birth.)
Now think for a moment if you will. The challenges our earlier generations had to deal with. No heat without the effort of putting coal or wood into the pot belly stove, no faucets with hot and cold water, no indoor bathroom, no shower, and until "the twins came along" no automatic washer.
But, life became "so much easier" with the addition of a new set of twins and an automatic washing machine.
Let's see --- A nine year old, a 7 year old (who had heart trouble), a 5 year old, a baby that was 11 months old and now two newborns!
Heres how that wonderful new washing machine worked. If I remember how I was told -- First, you carried water and put it into the tub with shaved pieces of soap. Next, you put a load of laundry in and the miracle machine would agitate the wash load until it was finished (I don't know if it had a timer of any kind) at which time you had to lift each piece of clothing out and put it through a hand ringer (two rollers and a handle that you turned) until that piece of clothing fell through into a tub with clean water to be rinsed at which time you repeated the wringing process (twice, I think) and then the items were hung out to dry.
Of course, while you were doing this you had to clean house, make the meals, change diapers, weed the garden, wipe runny noses, and take care of the dogs, chickens and various other animals that also happened to be living with the family at the time.
As I told you before "Thank God for the fact that my Grandma was there to help her out!" I don't know if she would have made it through otherwise.
We moved several times during the years as I was growing up and though I don't really remember much of anything from my earliest years, I know that no matter where we lived She was the rock that held us all together.
Daddy struggled with depression and if it had not been for Mamma's love I do not believe he would have gotten through many of the hard times.
She was a wonderful cook, although she never thought she was and the house was always warm and welcoming.
We were a wild bunch and I just know it was not an easy life for her.
There was a time that she would eat uncooked oatmeal out of the box as a snack. She told me that she even ask our doctor if he could explain why she craved raw oatmeal and he told her he could not explain it, but perhaps her body had a deficiency and it was telling her she needed it.
Once she told me that even though things were hard she never wanted to leave us, but that she daydreamed sometimes that if she could "just go out and hide in the middle of the field, with her box of oatmeal and a bottle of water" she would be able to rest awhile and she would be alright.
She also said that she believed "Daddy never really understood how exausted she was all the time."
We started going to church the year I was 6 and I remember sitting beside her and holding her hand. I can still feel how warm and secure I felt when I held onto those precious hands.
When we moved into town when I was 8 she scrubbed and painted and put wallpaper on the walls to make the house look nice for us. Dad did a lot of cleaning the yard and fixing on the outside. They made a deal with the lady that owned the house that they would work to make it better and she gave them something off the cost of the rent.
The year I was fifteen she had to have surgery the same time my older brother Richard was having open heart surgery close to 200 miles away. She was so worried about him, but had to be in one hospital while he was in another close to 200 miles away. They both had serious complications, but, thank God for bringing them through that very tough summer.
She was a wonderful seamstress and although I don't have any idea how she found the time she not only mended our clothing, but she sometimes sewed wonderful things for us.
One thing that I was impressed with were the wonderful gowns she made for each of us girls.
Betty had a beautiful white taffeta (I think) dress, with a very full tea length skirt and low V neck.
Jeanie's gown was long and gorgeous. It was strapless, red with a white sheer overlay and a wide red satin cumber bun.
The year I was 16 I wanted a yellow dress I saw in the Sears catalog. She asked if I would like her to make it and when she had finished it,I thought it was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen!(It was much prettier than the catalog version which another classmate wore to the dance!) That dress was yellow satin and had a strapless top under a white lace top and long lace sleeves (trimmed with the yellow satin). The skirt had two layers. One of yellow satin and the other of yellow chiffon.
I went to the prom that year (with the love of my life, the man I was to marry 2 years later) feeling like I was as beautiful as a princess.
I can see this is getting to be way to long and so I think I will stop for the moment and perhaps continue another day with "Momma, Part II"
Friday, February 18, 2011
I'm Singing the "Blaah's"
Hum----m, Thought it about time I posted another page, but don't really know anything interesting to talk about. Not too much excitement here at the moment but, I guess that is a good thing, since it means that, at least for the moment, none of the family seems to be in the middle of any major crisis! You know how bad news is--it usually gets to you even before it happens. As far as I'm concerned I would just as soon NEVER hear bad news again.
As far as good news goes. Guess the best news recently has been the birth of another child in our extended clan. A little boy named Seth,born to my great-nephew's lovely lady. Babies are always a blessig no matter how much trouble thay can eventually be! I have no doubt that this little guy will be cherished, as every child should be.
Other than that, let's see -- We got treated to supper out this evening. My sweet Wayne and his friend Jack have been helping a friend from church for the past several months. The friend had surgery last spring and has had many setbacks since then. So the guys have mowed, shoveled snow and taken care of other little things he needed. Finally, his health has improved considerably and he insisted on taking not only the guys, but also the wives also. Such a sweet couple, it is always nice to be appriciated.
Our Ohio weather has finally warmed a bit this past week. We have gone from lots and lots of snow to sunshine and warm temperatures (The rivers are a-risin') the past few days. It has been a long winter. Spring will be welcomed.
I have been trying to write some on my (almost) novel, recently. It's hard work for a not so brainy person! It dosn't feel like it will ever be finished, but, I am making some progress and have decided I am going to get it done before 2011 is over! One way or the other! That way I will be able to say that I actually did write a book. I may not be able to say that it is a good book-------
Anyway as you can see, my creative writing is not doing very well this evening, so I am just going to stop boring you and say good-bye for tonight.
Maybe another time I will have something more interesting to talk about. At least this gives me typing practice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As far as good news goes. Guess the best news recently has been the birth of another child in our extended clan. A little boy named Seth,born to my great-nephew's lovely lady. Babies are always a blessig no matter how much trouble thay can eventually be! I have no doubt that this little guy will be cherished, as every child should be.
Other than that, let's see -- We got treated to supper out this evening. My sweet Wayne and his friend Jack have been helping a friend from church for the past several months. The friend had surgery last spring and has had many setbacks since then. So the guys have mowed, shoveled snow and taken care of other little things he needed. Finally, his health has improved considerably and he insisted on taking not only the guys, but also the wives also. Such a sweet couple, it is always nice to be appriciated.
Our Ohio weather has finally warmed a bit this past week. We have gone from lots and lots of snow to sunshine and warm temperatures (The rivers are a-risin') the past few days. It has been a long winter. Spring will be welcomed.
I have been trying to write some on my (almost) novel, recently. It's hard work for a not so brainy person! It dosn't feel like it will ever be finished, but, I am making some progress and have decided I am going to get it done before 2011 is over! One way or the other! That way I will be able to say that I actually did write a book. I may not be able to say that it is a good book-------
Anyway as you can see, my creative writing is not doing very well this evening, so I am just going to stop boring you and say good-bye for tonight.
Maybe another time I will have something more interesting to talk about. At least this gives me typing practice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
January is gone and we are another month closer to Spring.
Not close enough I'm afraid. But CLOSER is good enough for today.
Actually, I am not one that sits around wishing my life away. It is going too fast for me as it is, so I think I should try hard and find the good in EVERY day.
That is not to say, I would not enjoy WARM TROPICAL BREEZES AND GOLDEN SUNSHINE! Oh, my, but that sounds heavenly at the moment.
But,Feburary is here and so far has not dissapointed "OLD MAN WINTER!"
Our northern Ohio home is buried along with millions of others across the country with what appears to be "The Storm of 2011".
The past two days we have been BLESSED with snow, ice, wind and snow again.
Today it has been only snow and more snow.
I must say, although, MOST are not "happy campers" right now. it is very BEAUTIFUL.
Yes, my friend, that is what I said. BEAUTIFUL. A virtual WINTER WONDERLAND.
Our home is directly across the street from Riverside cementary. Which has been part of this community for well over 100 years. It is in many ways a park setting, well groomed with large maples, oaks, sweetgum, and evergreens of numerous kinds. Each season brings it's own kind of beauty.
In fall our local Junior High school children have collected leaves from this very spot, for, what has become a local tradition.
I watch each September and October as cars and bicycles slowly circle the grounds. Stopping every few minutes to reach for (some standing on Dad's vehicle, some jumping or using sticks) "the very best or biggest" leaves to be glued into albums that are due back at school in mid-November. Somewhere in this house, I'm sure, there are still two red or green, or perhaps blue folders, from my 40 something year old children's, jr. high years.
Spring brings new grass and soft green moss that grows on the sides of the old buildings or cementary markers. There are tiny white and blue flowers everywhere and mayapple and dutchmans britches that grow along the wooded edge. Sometimes the tiny flowers completely cover the ground.
Directly behind the cementary runs the Auglaize River that the cementary is named for.
As you now probably have figured out, "I LOVE MY VIEW ON THE WORLD!"
I decided many years ago that it is so much better than looking at more houses.
Some seem to think living across from where the "dead" rest is a negative. I don't agree. Although we have now lived here for almost 40 years and we now have friends and even family members buried there, I choose to draw comfort that there is a beautiful garden setting where loved ones can walk amoung the tree's and flowers and remember those that are no longer with us.
When I go further in my thoughts and think about how much MORE BEAUTIFUL GOD'S HEAVEN will be, I have no reason to feel sad or downcast.
Most years I make the effort to take at least one extended walk to breath in the fresh cold air and just to enjoy the quiet peaceful feeling I get from being surronded by nothing but snow and more snow.
I think today is a good day for a walk. Would you like to go along?
Not close enough I'm afraid. But CLOSER is good enough for today.
Actually, I am not one that sits around wishing my life away. It is going too fast for me as it is, so I think I should try hard and find the good in EVERY day.
That is not to say, I would not enjoy WARM TROPICAL BREEZES AND GOLDEN SUNSHINE! Oh, my, but that sounds heavenly at the moment.
But,Feburary is here and so far has not dissapointed "OLD MAN WINTER!"
Our northern Ohio home is buried along with millions of others across the country with what appears to be "The Storm of 2011".
The past two days we have been BLESSED with snow, ice, wind and snow again.
Today it has been only snow and more snow.
I must say, although, MOST are not "happy campers" right now. it is very BEAUTIFUL.
Yes, my friend, that is what I said. BEAUTIFUL. A virtual WINTER WONDERLAND.
Our home is directly across the street from Riverside cementary. Which has been part of this community for well over 100 years. It is in many ways a park setting, well groomed with large maples, oaks, sweetgum, and evergreens of numerous kinds. Each season brings it's own kind of beauty.
In fall our local Junior High school children have collected leaves from this very spot, for, what has become a local tradition.
I watch each September and October as cars and bicycles slowly circle the grounds. Stopping every few minutes to reach for (some standing on Dad's vehicle, some jumping or using sticks) "the very best or biggest" leaves to be glued into albums that are due back at school in mid-November. Somewhere in this house, I'm sure, there are still two red or green, or perhaps blue folders, from my 40 something year old children's, jr. high years.
Spring brings new grass and soft green moss that grows on the sides of the old buildings or cementary markers. There are tiny white and blue flowers everywhere and mayapple and dutchmans britches that grow along the wooded edge. Sometimes the tiny flowers completely cover the ground.
Directly behind the cementary runs the Auglaize River that the cementary is named for.
As you now probably have figured out, "I LOVE MY VIEW ON THE WORLD!"
I decided many years ago that it is so much better than looking at more houses.
Some seem to think living across from where the "dead" rest is a negative. I don't agree. Although we have now lived here for almost 40 years and we now have friends and even family members buried there, I choose to draw comfort that there is a beautiful garden setting where loved ones can walk amoung the tree's and flowers and remember those that are no longer with us.
When I go further in my thoughts and think about how much MORE BEAUTIFUL GOD'S HEAVEN will be, I have no reason to feel sad or downcast.
Most years I make the effort to take at least one extended walk to breath in the fresh cold air and just to enjoy the quiet peaceful feeling I get from being surronded by nothing but snow and more snow.
I think today is a good day for a walk. Would you like to go along?
Sunday, January 2, 2011
January, Cold and Cruel
Happy New Year to You all!
Here it is another year and apparently another Chance "To be FRUSTRATED"!
Let me say that "I don't get on too well with my friend "The COMPUTER"!
Every time and "I don't mean "Once in awhile", but "EVERY TIME" I want to try and do something creative or useful on this thing it just sort of decides that "today is the day that I will give her heck!"
I know, I know. As long as I have owned a computer I should know by now, that when something goes wrong, what it is that I need to do about it. Right? NOT!
Most of us believe that around the first of every new year we should be ready to settle down and accomplish something a little more productive than hanging shiny bobbles around the house and beautifully wrapping hundreds of packages that will shortly become piles and piles of wadded paper along with piles and piles of prepackaging plastic, Styrofoam peanuts, tape and leftover ribbon.
Well, I decided it was once again time to work on my writing and the story (potential book) that I have pediddled with for the past 10 years or so!
I keep thinking if I don't do something with it soon that it is going to have to be classified as a "Historical Novel" instead of just "Fiction".
It is the story of a young single mother and her two daughter's.
The focus is on Joletta, the oldest who is 13 when the story begins. The family has many problems and Joletta not only is having to deal with beginning the tough process of recently moving once again, but, also is in the middle of her mother's life crisis.
If I could only get the computer to co-operate, I might actually get a little ground covered.
First of all, "a full 2 years ago", I lost everything when the computed crashed and I did not have back-up The only thing I had was my "UN-EDITED, TYPEWRITTEN, FIRST COPY", which luckily, helped to get me re-started. But,(I'm only being honest here) I am a terrible typist, and my skills in language arts has much to be desired. So pretty much each time I would start I would get side-tracked "changing many, many things" and soon I would have spent hours making what looked like "no progress at all".
Actually, slowly, slowly I have made "some progress", but, because I am so darned distractable and a very hit-miss person I can "go for months on end and not touch any of it"! Mostly because I get tired of fighting my poor skills and the "DARNED COMPUTER!"
Well,I have spent probably 4 hours the past 2 days working on this project. Progress, right? "NOT" Because today when I came back to the program I have been working with, "ALL OF MY COPY AND EDITING ARE GONE!" "The only thing I have left is what I had when I started the other day!"
Now, I guess, to many of you that may not seem like a it should be a big deal! But, to poor old me, "IT IS A BIG DEAL"!
I just don't know how many more times I can talk myself into starting over.
Oh well,at any rate, I Thank you for allowing me to rant and rave on this blog. (As if anyone had a choice) But, you didn't have to read it!
"PERHAPS" though there will be one or two of you that can at least try to feel little sorry for me!"Just a tiny bit will do, ok??"
As I said before. "HAPPY 2011"
I guess my attempt may still turn out to be Historical Fiction someday.
Here it is another year and apparently another Chance "To be FRUSTRATED"!
Let me say that "I don't get on too well with my friend "The COMPUTER"!
Every time and "I don't mean "Once in awhile", but "EVERY TIME" I want to try and do something creative or useful on this thing it just sort of decides that "today is the day that I will give her heck!"
I know, I know. As long as I have owned a computer I should know by now, that when something goes wrong, what it is that I need to do about it. Right? NOT!
Most of us believe that around the first of every new year we should be ready to settle down and accomplish something a little more productive than hanging shiny bobbles around the house and beautifully wrapping hundreds of packages that will shortly become piles and piles of wadded paper along with piles and piles of prepackaging plastic, Styrofoam peanuts, tape and leftover ribbon.
Well, I decided it was once again time to work on my writing and the story (potential book) that I have pediddled with for the past 10 years or so!
I keep thinking if I don't do something with it soon that it is going to have to be classified as a "Historical Novel" instead of just "Fiction".
It is the story of a young single mother and her two daughter's.
The focus is on Joletta, the oldest who is 13 when the story begins. The family has many problems and Joletta not only is having to deal with beginning the tough process of recently moving once again, but, also is in the middle of her mother's life crisis.
If I could only get the computer to co-operate, I might actually get a little ground covered.
First of all, "a full 2 years ago", I lost everything when the computed crashed and I did not have back-up The only thing I had was my "UN-EDITED, TYPEWRITTEN, FIRST COPY", which luckily, helped to get me re-started. But,(I'm only being honest here) I am a terrible typist, and my skills in language arts has much to be desired. So pretty much each time I would start I would get side-tracked "changing many, many things" and soon I would have spent hours making what looked like "no progress at all".
Actually, slowly, slowly I have made "some progress", but, because I am so darned distractable and a very hit-miss person I can "go for months on end and not touch any of it"! Mostly because I get tired of fighting my poor skills and the "DARNED COMPUTER!"
Well,I have spent probably 4 hours the past 2 days working on this project. Progress, right? "NOT" Because today when I came back to the program I have been working with, "ALL OF MY COPY AND EDITING ARE GONE!" "The only thing I have left is what I had when I started the other day!"
Now, I guess, to many of you that may not seem like a it should be a big deal! But, to poor old me, "IT IS A BIG DEAL"!
I just don't know how many more times I can talk myself into starting over.
Oh well,at any rate, I Thank you for allowing me to rant and rave on this blog. (As if anyone had a choice) But, you didn't have to read it!
"PERHAPS" though there will be one or two of you that can at least try to feel little sorry for me!"Just a tiny bit will do, ok??"
As I said before. "HAPPY 2011"
I guess my attempt may still turn out to be Historical Fiction someday.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
CHRISTMAS is------------
Well, I can tell ya one thing CHRISTMAS is NOT. CHRISTMAS IS NOT BORING!
The past couple of weeks it seems like there has hardly been a day we didn't have most of it FULL TO THE MAX of CHRISTMAS!
It started on the 2nd with a CHRISTMAS Party for the 50+ friends from church. It was held at a cool resturant called "The Barn" here in rural Ohio that has about the best Broasted Chicken you can find not to mention homemade hot rolls. You can't hardly beat that.
On the 4th we had a CHRISTMAS concert that was a lot of fun and great music! A local group called the Tacketts and another group called the
"Ball Brothers".
The 6th was wonderful (catered) meal and party with all of the people that work with our local "Crisis Pregnancy Center" (We do Christian counseling and education, moms in need can earn cribs, and car seats and also get clothing, food, and diapers.) It was held at a little church about 20 miles away and everything was decorated so beautifully with many candles and floral centerpices. More CHRISTMAS music and CHRISTMAS entertainment. Everyone even got a beautifully wrapped gift!
That was Monday evening, on Tuesday we go out to eat with friends each week, on Wednesday our girlfriend group went to a fancy little tearoom called "Touches" for lunch to celebrate, yes (of course) CHRISTMAS.
Wednesday Thursday and Friday we helped each day with our local Toy Drive,(we sorted and bagged toys for over 800 CHILDREN this year!!!) Wayne also helped on Saturday when the toys weer picked up by the families, while I went out to Brunch with friends (this time to celebrate December BIRTHDAYS!
On Saterday (the 12th if you havn't kept up) our 16 year old grandaughter had her first piano recital. (She played "Joy to the World". It sounded wonderful, of course!) The next evening we had a house full of company with a CHRISTMAS party here at our house for our Sunday evening Bible group. Thursday (the 16th) I worked at the Pregnancy Center then we had to go to the high school band and chior concert (once again for the 16 year old who is in the band and once again more CHRISTMAS music!) Saturday afternoon (the 18th) we helped out with an auction at the mall for a group called the Ravens that help people with vouchers for rent, utilities, groceries and whatever other needs there may be. This is a really AWSOME group. I think they made close to $2000 to be used by the needy locally!
Today was Sunday and I taught the preschool class at church (we had a Birthday Party for, (bet you can't guess) JESUS!!! Hats, treats, songs, a baby doll wrapped in swaddling cloths as a standin for our "GUEST OF HONOR." It was lots of fun, they really got into making "birthday cards".
Somewhere (in between all of this) I have decorated and cleaned the house (somewhat less than in years past) made several homemade gifts, baked about 6 dozen cookies,and wrapped, packaged and mailed packages to our kids that are in Germany.
Also, sadly, (in the middle of all this silliness), we lost a very special foster daughter. She passed away suddenly at only 31 years of age. "May God hold your soul in his loving hands Stacy!"
WAIT! I'm not done, this is only the 19th!
The 21st I am going to lunch with friends from our foster parenting days. One of them adopted 3 of our little foster children (who are now all grown up) and then became foster parents themselves and the others were foster parents for many years. Out of the four of us my husband and I were the only ones never to adopt.
On Wednesday I am doing a program at one of our Nursing Homes, Thursday, I work, Friday is CHRISTMAS EVE and we have church and Saturday (the 25th) is CHRISTMAS DAY and we will be going to see our Son and Daughter-in-laws to celebrate with them and the two Grandchildren that are still here in the USA!
Not quite done yet, we are planning a get to-gether (hopefully on the 27th) but not definite as yet with the family of one of our special foster Daughters and hopefully (at least some) of our extended family and friends.
So my friends to you I say, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!!!
The past couple of weeks it seems like there has hardly been a day we didn't have most of it FULL TO THE MAX of CHRISTMAS!
It started on the 2nd with a CHRISTMAS Party for the 50+ friends from church. It was held at a cool resturant called "The Barn" here in rural Ohio that has about the best Broasted Chicken you can find not to mention homemade hot rolls. You can't hardly beat that.
On the 4th we had a CHRISTMAS concert that was a lot of fun and great music! A local group called the Tacketts and another group called the
"Ball Brothers".
The 6th was wonderful (catered) meal and party with all of the people that work with our local "Crisis Pregnancy Center" (We do Christian counseling and education, moms in need can earn cribs, and car seats and also get clothing, food, and diapers.) It was held at a little church about 20 miles away and everything was decorated so beautifully with many candles and floral centerpices. More CHRISTMAS music and CHRISTMAS entertainment. Everyone even got a beautifully wrapped gift!
That was Monday evening, on Tuesday we go out to eat with friends each week, on Wednesday our girlfriend group went to a fancy little tearoom called "Touches" for lunch to celebrate, yes (of course) CHRISTMAS.
Wednesday Thursday and Friday we helped each day with our local Toy Drive,(we sorted and bagged toys for over 800 CHILDREN this year!!!) Wayne also helped on Saturday when the toys weer picked up by the families, while I went out to Brunch with friends (this time to celebrate December BIRTHDAYS!
On Saterday (the 12th if you havn't kept up) our 16 year old grandaughter had her first piano recital. (She played "Joy to the World". It sounded wonderful, of course!) The next evening we had a house full of company with a CHRISTMAS party here at our house for our Sunday evening Bible group. Thursday (the 16th) I worked at the Pregnancy Center then we had to go to the high school band and chior concert (once again for the 16 year old who is in the band and once again more CHRISTMAS music!) Saturday afternoon (the 18th) we helped out with an auction at the mall for a group called the Ravens that help people with vouchers for rent, utilities, groceries and whatever other needs there may be. This is a really AWSOME group. I think they made close to $2000 to be used by the needy locally!
Today was Sunday and I taught the preschool class at church (we had a Birthday Party for, (bet you can't guess) JESUS!!! Hats, treats, songs, a baby doll wrapped in swaddling cloths as a standin for our "GUEST OF HONOR." It was lots of fun, they really got into making "birthday cards".
Somewhere (in between all of this) I have decorated and cleaned the house (somewhat less than in years past) made several homemade gifts, baked about 6 dozen cookies,and wrapped, packaged and mailed packages to our kids that are in Germany.
Also, sadly, (in the middle of all this silliness), we lost a very special foster daughter. She passed away suddenly at only 31 years of age. "May God hold your soul in his loving hands Stacy!"
WAIT! I'm not done, this is only the 19th!
The 21st I am going to lunch with friends from our foster parenting days. One of them adopted 3 of our little foster children (who are now all grown up) and then became foster parents themselves and the others were foster parents for many years. Out of the four of us my husband and I were the only ones never to adopt.
On Wednesday I am doing a program at one of our Nursing Homes, Thursday, I work, Friday is CHRISTMAS EVE and we have church and Saturday (the 25th) is CHRISTMAS DAY and we will be going to see our Son and Daughter-in-laws to celebrate with them and the two Grandchildren that are still here in the USA!
Not quite done yet, we are planning a get to-gether (hopefully on the 27th) but not definite as yet with the family of one of our special foster Daughters and hopefully (at least some) of our extended family and friends.
So my friends to you I say, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!!!
Friday, December 17, 2010
This is December 17,2010 and the sun is shining here in NW Ohio. Today is a special day for me. It has been 40 years ago today that I was in Freeman Hospital in Joplin, Missouri. It has been 40 years ago today that a brand new baby girl was born. (Where do the years go?)
She was tiny and beautiful. Only 6 lbs. and 7 oz. She had wide blue eyes, like her father and big brother and a wrinkled little nose.
Unlike 2 and 1/2 years earlier, when her brother finally made his entrance into our lives by emergency cesearen section, we were able, with this one, to CHOOSE the day she was to be born.
Our Doctor told us we could decide on the date, as long as it was within 10 days of her due date, which was December 26. (Yes, she could have been a Christmas baby.) Doctor didn't want to take a chance on my going into labor because he had some medical concerns with the previous pregnancy.
Her Daddy and I calculated this and decided, in order to stay a full week at the hospital after her birth, which was required at the time, and still NOT MISS OUT on the fun of our big family Christmas celebrations, that we would choose December 17th. It would work out perfectly for us. She was our BEST Christmas gift that year and this way we would get to show her off to everyone!
My parents came and took our 2 and 1/2 year old boy home with them and I was admitted to the hospital the evening before her birth.
Since our first baby had been born by emergency Cesarean, the Doctor gave me no other choice but to be put to sleep when she was delivered. It wasn't long before I woke with our little one being put into my arms.
I felt really good compared to when he was born after a difficult labor and then surgery and ongoing medical problems.
Also, with our little boy, all the babies stayed in the nursery, except for short feeding and visiting times. No one, except the baby's parents were allowed access to the babies, except through the nursery window.
Times were changing and with this one we got to keep her in the room with us most of the time. Grandparents could come and visit also.
Mom and Dad brought her brother to the hospital and we waved from the second story window. He looked so little and far away through that window,
I didn't realize until I saw him how much I already missed him, but because little children weren't allowed, meeting his new baby sister would have to wait for a few more days.
I had to stay an extra day before I could leave the hospital because I had a slight fever, but on Christmas Eve we were both released.
I have tried, but, can't quite remember if we even went home after we got our walking papers. I do know, we made the drive, which was about an hour, that same day to have Christmas Eve with his mom and family. His brother and his wife were there with their little one as well as his sister, husband and neice from Ohio. Grandma was excited about a new baby and having everyone there. Baby made grandchild number 4. (Sadly, my father-in-law had passed away a year after we married and never had the joy of knowing his grandchildren.) After spending the afternoon and evening there we went to spend the night with my parents and the next morning had Christmas Day with my side of the family. (Lot's of excitment wiht all 6 of my siblings and our families) This was the way we celebrated each year for a number of years, even after we packed up and moved our family to Ohio in the Spring of 1972 we stilled traveled back each December to have Christmas at the grandparents. (That changed after some pretty close mishaps when (I think, to the relief of our parents) we finally decided trips were better done when the weather was likely to be more favorable.)
Christmas evening we drove back to our own little house in Joplin with both little ones, and our Christmas goodies, tired but happy. At this point in my life it sounds a little crazy to me to have gone visiting a week after surgery with two little ones, but, that was how we did things then. We were young and being raised in a large family I could never have even imagined not going to Mom and Dad's to have Christmas with everyone!
Our baby was a tiny little thing and the Doctor was concerned that she wasn't gaining weight fast enough, so he had me wakeing her (well it was more like--trying to wake her!) every two hours for the first few weeks. Not an easy job, because SHE didn't really want to wake up and feed! It worried me some also, but, before long it seemed pretty obvious she would thrive so we settled into more or less the schedule she decided for herself.
From early on our little girl had a mind of her own and the majority of the time she pretty much got her way around most of us.
She was cute, little and a real charmer. She was shy around most people at first -- until she had them wrapped around her little finger -- after that they were fast friends forever --or at least until she found someone else to charm!
It was fun to have a sweet little girl around. I loved dressing her and combing her soft curls. We rocked and cuddled and sang songs. Her daddy thought the sun rose and set just for her and her brother loved her as well. You had to really watch carefully or he would come carrying her with her chubby little legs swinging freely. She never cried when he carried her, but learned quickly to hang on for dear life! (It really didn't happen to often, but he never dropped her, thank goodness!)
He was always on the go and getting into lots of things, but, she was more reserved and likely to hang back and cling to Momma or Daddy. She loved hugs and kisses and picking flowers.
Years later, about the time she was , not quite a teen, (much sooner than I ever dreamed and certainly before I was ready for it to happen) she started feeling the need for Independence. From that time on Mom and daughter have had to deal with personality issues that has made life sometimes pretty difficult for us.
Relationships are complicated and it isn't always easy to understand how or why things happen the way they do.
But, as things do, life goes on and we muddle through as best we can.
I want her to know that the phone call she made to me a couple of months ago was one of the BEST gifts that I have EVER received.
Also, I want you, my precious daughter to know that no matter what, I am so glad that you are MY DAUGHTER and I am so PROUD of you and the daughter, wife and mother you are! HAPPY BIRTHDAY APRIL
She was tiny and beautiful. Only 6 lbs. and 7 oz. She had wide blue eyes, like her father and big brother and a wrinkled little nose.
Unlike 2 and 1/2 years earlier, when her brother finally made his entrance into our lives by emergency cesearen section, we were able, with this one, to CHOOSE the day she was to be born.
Our Doctor told us we could decide on the date, as long as it was within 10 days of her due date, which was December 26. (Yes, she could have been a Christmas baby.) Doctor didn't want to take a chance on my going into labor because he had some medical concerns with the previous pregnancy.
Her Daddy and I calculated this and decided, in order to stay a full week at the hospital after her birth, which was required at the time, and still NOT MISS OUT on the fun of our big family Christmas celebrations, that we would choose December 17th. It would work out perfectly for us. She was our BEST Christmas gift that year and this way we would get to show her off to everyone!
My parents came and took our 2 and 1/2 year old boy home with them and I was admitted to the hospital the evening before her birth.
Since our first baby had been born by emergency Cesarean, the Doctor gave me no other choice but to be put to sleep when she was delivered. It wasn't long before I woke with our little one being put into my arms.
I felt really good compared to when he was born after a difficult labor and then surgery and ongoing medical problems.
Also, with our little boy, all the babies stayed in the nursery, except for short feeding and visiting times. No one, except the baby's parents were allowed access to the babies, except through the nursery window.
Times were changing and with this one we got to keep her in the room with us most of the time. Grandparents could come and visit also.
Mom and Dad brought her brother to the hospital and we waved from the second story window. He looked so little and far away through that window,
I didn't realize until I saw him how much I already missed him, but because little children weren't allowed, meeting his new baby sister would have to wait for a few more days.
I had to stay an extra day before I could leave the hospital because I had a slight fever, but on Christmas Eve we were both released.
I have tried, but, can't quite remember if we even went home after we got our walking papers. I do know, we made the drive, which was about an hour, that same day to have Christmas Eve with his mom and family. His brother and his wife were there with their little one as well as his sister, husband and neice from Ohio. Grandma was excited about a new baby and having everyone there. Baby made grandchild number 4. (Sadly, my father-in-law had passed away a year after we married and never had the joy of knowing his grandchildren.) After spending the afternoon and evening there we went to spend the night with my parents and the next morning had Christmas Day with my side of the family. (Lot's of excitment wiht all 6 of my siblings and our families) This was the way we celebrated each year for a number of years, even after we packed up and moved our family to Ohio in the Spring of 1972 we stilled traveled back each December to have Christmas at the grandparents. (That changed after some pretty close mishaps when (I think, to the relief of our parents) we finally decided trips were better done when the weather was likely to be more favorable.)
Christmas evening we drove back to our own little house in Joplin with both little ones, and our Christmas goodies, tired but happy. At this point in my life it sounds a little crazy to me to have gone visiting a week after surgery with two little ones, but, that was how we did things then. We were young and being raised in a large family I could never have even imagined not going to Mom and Dad's to have Christmas with everyone!
Our baby was a tiny little thing and the Doctor was concerned that she wasn't gaining weight fast enough, so he had me wakeing her (well it was more like--trying to wake her!) every two hours for the first few weeks. Not an easy job, because SHE didn't really want to wake up and feed! It worried me some also, but, before long it seemed pretty obvious she would thrive so we settled into more or less the schedule she decided for herself.
From early on our little girl had a mind of her own and the majority of the time she pretty much got her way around most of us.
She was cute, little and a real charmer. She was shy around most people at first -- until she had them wrapped around her little finger -- after that they were fast friends forever --or at least until she found someone else to charm!
It was fun to have a sweet little girl around. I loved dressing her and combing her soft curls. We rocked and cuddled and sang songs. Her daddy thought the sun rose and set just for her and her brother loved her as well. You had to really watch carefully or he would come carrying her with her chubby little legs swinging freely. She never cried when he carried her, but learned quickly to hang on for dear life! (It really didn't happen to often, but he never dropped her, thank goodness!)
He was always on the go and getting into lots of things, but, she was more reserved and likely to hang back and cling to Momma or Daddy. She loved hugs and kisses and picking flowers.
Years later, about the time she was , not quite a teen, (much sooner than I ever dreamed and certainly before I was ready for it to happen) she started feeling the need for Independence. From that time on Mom and daughter have had to deal with personality issues that has made life sometimes pretty difficult for us.
Relationships are complicated and it isn't always easy to understand how or why things happen the way they do.
But, as things do, life goes on and we muddle through as best we can.
I want her to know that the phone call she made to me a couple of months ago was one of the BEST gifts that I have EVER received.
Also, I want you, my precious daughter to know that no matter what, I am so glad that you are MY DAUGHTER and I am so PROUD of you and the daughter, wife and mother you are! HAPPY BIRTHDAY APRIL
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Memories of Grandma
My early years were spent not only with my parents and 6 brothers and sisters, but, with my Grandma Price.
The early 1940's was a time of challenge and change in the lives of many Americans, many were still affected by years of depression and now our country was about to become involved in another world war.
Our family was no different.
Mom and Dad married in the spring of 1938 and already had two little ones by July of 1940. My sister Betty and brother Richard.
Jobs were difficult to find and the family moved numerous times in those early years seeking a better life. In July of 1942 they went to Colorado where Dad'a sister was living.
In October of the same year Dad joined the Army. He thought he would be leaving immediately, but, as it turned out he wasn't called to active duty until several months later.
Meanwhile, Mom was pregnant for the forth time (she had lost a set of twins while my oldest brother was still a baby) It was getting close to time for their third baby to be born, so even though Dad could not leave Colorado, she packed what little they had and traveled, by train, with the children, back home to our Dads family. It was a long and exhausting trip to the small Southwest Missouri community where my Grandparents lived.
Mom told me once, just a couple of years before she died, what a difficult trip it had been and that she had been very upset with Dad, at that time, feeling his priorities were mixed up. She felt he should have stayed with them.
They went to stay with Dads father and step-mother and the baby was born only a few short days after their train trip. Mothers poor health kept them there until the new baby, (my second sister, Jeanie) was about 6 weeks old.
Moms parents, Grandma and Grandpa Price lived in Arkansas. Sadly, Moms father died shortly after she and the children came back from out west.
Those were all events, as with each decision made in our lives, that would ultimately affect our entire family.
When Mom was able, she moved with the three children and lived with my Grandma on the farm in Arkansas. They stayed there for the next several years.
In 1945 the war was finally about to end and Dad was expected to be returning home from his tour of duty overseas. My oldest sister needed to start school that fall, so Mom moved, again, with the children back to Missouri to wait for his homecoming.
In 1946 she had her forth child, another baby boy, (Jim) and later when my twin brother (Keith) and I (Karen) were born Grandma Price moved to Missouri and into our home, where she became a permanent member of our household.
Lord knows, I'm sure she was a welcome addition under the circumstances. Not only were there 6 children now to care for, but, 3 of us were babies and two years later another brother (Bob) was added. Making 4 boy's and 3 girls, for a grand total of 7 children!
My twin brother and I have a brother only 11 months older and to top that off, our oldest brother had severe heart problems and had to be in and out of Mercy Children's Hospital in Kansas City, which was several hours away from where we lived.
So, as you can see, at the time it having Grandma with us helped solve multiple problems. It gave her a home. (Now, I'm not sure if my own daughter had 7 children and ask me to live with her, that I wouldn't choose the old folks home!!) Also it gave our parents peace of mind. Knowing that when they were unable to be with us our Grandma would be.
Grandma was a special,wonderful lady. Always kind and loving. She was an attractive though quite stocky with white hair (she said it was yellow!) that she always braided and then wound into a bun on the back of her head with little bobbie pins. I don't ever remember seeing her wear pants of any kind. She wore colorful house dresses and usually an apron. She also wore long, tan cotton stockings and dark, serviceable shoes. At night she slept in long flannel nightgowns.
Once, when I was 6 and in the first grade, she made herself a new nightgown. It was long and made of soft yellow flannel. I was going to stay all night with a little friend (it was my first overnight visit) and Grandma made me a nightgown, just like hers! I was very excited about staying all night with my little friend and now I had a pretty new nightgown to wear! Grandma's are pretty important people!
When Grandma hung out the laundry she always wore a large prairie style bonnet to keep the sun out of her face. Sometimes I would help her and hand her clothespins. I can almost smell the fresh scent of clean clothing and sunshine as I think of her shaking out shirts and sheets and hooking them onto the line to let the wind whip them dry. (Actually, I can also remember running to try and retrieve almost dry clothing off the line when a spring rain would suddenly arrive and also, stiff frozen clothing brought inside in mid-winter to be hung up or laid out to thaw and finish drying!)
In our family there has always been some competition over who was most loved by our Grandma. My older sister, (baby number 3) Jeanie, claims she was the most special, because, when she was a baby and after Grandpa Price died, Grandma spent a lots of time caring for her, that, in turn, made her very special, because it helped Grandma as she was grieving. I am sure that is certainly true. Also she was the baby of the family for the next several yeas! It was probably quite a shock to that little girl suddenly having not one, but several little siblings to deal with!
Trouble comes when (jealous me), thinks she would like to have exclusive rights to Grandmas special memory.
Well, I am here to say that Grandma was with all of us younger children also, from the very time we were born, and though she was no longer grieving and we would not have gotten her to ourselves (by that time there were just too many of us, I know for a fact she loved everyone of us very much! Differently, I'm sure, but, just as much. I am not sure that I have any special proof of that, and it really doesn't need to be proven. Most everyone, I suppose, wants to be extra special to someone. Our memories are our own, each memory different for each person, each one exclusive to a person and their own relationships.
I have many special feelings and memories of my times with her.
I can't remember anything about my infancy, but, around the time I turned two we moved into a little sandstone slab house several miles out of town. While we lived there, I shared one side of the attic bedroom with my Grandma. I can remember her rocking me at bedtime and singing to me before I went to sleep. I had a little rubber doll, (a Betsy Wetsy) that I would take to bed with me, Grandma would always take it out when she came to bed, in the morning when I woke up I would find it on the rocker. She told me that it was too hard to sleep with and it would wake her up in the night if it was in our bed. But, it was always waiting for me when I woke up in the morning.
That little doll later became another issue between my sister and I. (Oh, we always had our issues!) I felt that baby doll was mine and only mine, but, originally Grandma had gotten the doll for Jeanie. Jeanie then gave it to me for Christmas when I was either 3 or 4. She was almost 5 years older and must have thought she was too big for it. I returned the doll when she had her first baby girl (as a gift for the baby). I was 10 years old at the time and must have thought I was too big for dolls! Well, at some point, she packed the little Betsy Wetsy doll up and put her away. As far as I know it hasn't been seen since. I ask her one time if she would get it out so I could see it and she told me it was too fragile to take out of it wrapping.
Isn't it strange that after all these years she still holds on to a little baby doll and I still miss it? All because we connect it to our own lost childhood and to the love of our very special Grandma!
Grandma loved the outdoors. She enjoyed working in the garden. After Grandpa passed away, she supported herself for awhile raising chickens but she became ill and her Doctor told her she would have to give them up because they were making her sick.
I remember Daddy making a swing for us and Grandma came out and sat on it then she stood in it, just (she told us) to make sure it was strong enough to hold us little kids without breaking.
I don't think she did a lot of the cooking, at least I can't remember if she did. Most of the time, I think, Mom took care of that job (Momma was a wonderful cook).
Sometimes, though she would make us something special. She made fried mush that we would eat for breakfast with sugar or syrup on it and she made us gum by melting paraffin wax and putting sugar in it. She told us carrots would make our eyes shine and when she made vegetable soup she always told us it was "B-Bob soup because of the little pasta letters in it.
She didn't like to waste anything and would drink the juice from the pickle jar or the liquid left from the vegetables, or sometimes the last bite off our plate.
Daddy would tease her because she would put saccarin in her coffee and lots of sugar in her oatmeal. I still have the old, creamy white, coffe cup she always used to eat her breakfast.
She taught us how to do dishes, (I still remember her telling us to wash the glasses first, then the silverware the the plates and then the pots and pans. This was a job she did regularly until the day before she died in her 94th year.
In her later years she continued to get the small town newspaper from Pea Ridge Arkansas where she had lived for many years and the first thing she would look at was the obituaries. She said she was checking to see who she knew that had died that week.
She always kept birthday and Christmas cards in a shoe box and would let me look at them one by one as she told me stories about the person that sent them to her.
When she was older she would have me braid her hair and put it up in the little bun she always wore.
She liked to read and she wrote many letters to her old friends and family members in Arkansas.
One of the things she enjoyed doing most was making patchwork quilts. She made quilts many times through the years. Many of them were pieced from our old shirts, dresses, or pants. Also she would sometimes order material scraps from the Sears Roebuck catalog. It was fun to see what would come in the bundles of material they sent. Many colors and designs, sometimes there was silk or lace pieces and if she could not use them she would let me play with them.
When she had several patchwork squares made she would sometimes let me lay them out in different arrangements to see what I thought would make the prettiest designs. As her seeing failed I would thread her needle for her. I became increasingly difficult to do her handwork because of her failing sight and the arthritis in her hands but she continued to make quilts pretty much until the end of her life.
When our first child was a baby she came and stayed with us for several days. I have a picture of her with the baby in his stroller and another of him sitting in the yard of our tiny little house on the quilt she made me when I was a little girl.
Several years after she passed away, Mom opened a box of hers and it contained seven completed quilt tops. One for each of her seven grandchildren. For Christmas that year we received a quilt with a poem Mom wrote telling about the quilt being from both, Grandma and Mom. Mother had put linings and backing on them all and had carefully done buttonhole stitching around each of the many small pieces of material. This repaired the places where our Grandmother's failing eyesight and un-cooperative hands had missed. It was a lovely and sentimental gift.
Our little girl was born just before Christmas 1970. Grandma said she was special because she was her 13th great-grandchild and we named her April. Grandma's birthday was April 13Th.
I think Grandma was pretty satified with her latter life but, she did, always, have one big fear. She was afraid there might come a time when she would be unable to care for herself (as we grow older, it is a dread I am sure many of us share) and she feared she would have to be put into an "Old Folks Home."
Thankfully that never happened to her for she lived with our parents and remained generally healthy, both physically and "Thank God" mentally until very shortly before she passed away in January of 1973.
We had just been to Missouri for the Christmas holidays and got to spend time with her that I hold very close to my heart.
I'm sure that everyone considers their Grandma to be the very best. I am happy if that is true for you.
It certainly is true for our family. I am so glad God blessed me (and my brothers and sisters) with our one VERY SPECIAL GRANDMA!
The early 1940's was a time of challenge and change in the lives of many Americans, many were still affected by years of depression and now our country was about to become involved in another world war.
Our family was no different.
Mom and Dad married in the spring of 1938 and already had two little ones by July of 1940. My sister Betty and brother Richard.
Jobs were difficult to find and the family moved numerous times in those early years seeking a better life. In July of 1942 they went to Colorado where Dad'a sister was living.
In October of the same year Dad joined the Army. He thought he would be leaving immediately, but, as it turned out he wasn't called to active duty until several months later.
Meanwhile, Mom was pregnant for the forth time (she had lost a set of twins while my oldest brother was still a baby) It was getting close to time for their third baby to be born, so even though Dad could not leave Colorado, she packed what little they had and traveled, by train, with the children, back home to our Dads family. It was a long and exhausting trip to the small Southwest Missouri community where my Grandparents lived.
Mom told me once, just a couple of years before she died, what a difficult trip it had been and that she had been very upset with Dad, at that time, feeling his priorities were mixed up. She felt he should have stayed with them.
They went to stay with Dads father and step-mother and the baby was born only a few short days after their train trip. Mothers poor health kept them there until the new baby, (my second sister, Jeanie) was about 6 weeks old.
Moms parents, Grandma and Grandpa Price lived in Arkansas. Sadly, Moms father died shortly after she and the children came back from out west.
Those were all events, as with each decision made in our lives, that would ultimately affect our entire family.
When Mom was able, she moved with the three children and lived with my Grandma on the farm in Arkansas. They stayed there for the next several years.
In 1945 the war was finally about to end and Dad was expected to be returning home from his tour of duty overseas. My oldest sister needed to start school that fall, so Mom moved, again, with the children back to Missouri to wait for his homecoming.
In 1946 she had her forth child, another baby boy, (Jim) and later when my twin brother (Keith) and I (Karen) were born Grandma Price moved to Missouri and into our home, where she became a permanent member of our household.
Lord knows, I'm sure she was a welcome addition under the circumstances. Not only were there 6 children now to care for, but, 3 of us were babies and two years later another brother (Bob) was added. Making 4 boy's and 3 girls, for a grand total of 7 children!
My twin brother and I have a brother only 11 months older and to top that off, our oldest brother had severe heart problems and had to be in and out of Mercy Children's Hospital in Kansas City, which was several hours away from where we lived.
So, as you can see, at the time it having Grandma with us helped solve multiple problems. It gave her a home. (Now, I'm not sure if my own daughter had 7 children and ask me to live with her, that I wouldn't choose the old folks home!!) Also it gave our parents peace of mind. Knowing that when they were unable to be with us our Grandma would be.
Grandma was a special,wonderful lady. Always kind and loving. She was an attractive though quite stocky with white hair (she said it was yellow!) that she always braided and then wound into a bun on the back of her head with little bobbie pins. I don't ever remember seeing her wear pants of any kind. She wore colorful house dresses and usually an apron. She also wore long, tan cotton stockings and dark, serviceable shoes. At night she slept in long flannel nightgowns.
Once, when I was 6 and in the first grade, she made herself a new nightgown. It was long and made of soft yellow flannel. I was going to stay all night with a little friend (it was my first overnight visit) and Grandma made me a nightgown, just like hers! I was very excited about staying all night with my little friend and now I had a pretty new nightgown to wear! Grandma's are pretty important people!
When Grandma hung out the laundry she always wore a large prairie style bonnet to keep the sun out of her face. Sometimes I would help her and hand her clothespins. I can almost smell the fresh scent of clean clothing and sunshine as I think of her shaking out shirts and sheets and hooking them onto the line to let the wind whip them dry. (Actually, I can also remember running to try and retrieve almost dry clothing off the line when a spring rain would suddenly arrive and also, stiff frozen clothing brought inside in mid-winter to be hung up or laid out to thaw and finish drying!)
In our family there has always been some competition over who was most loved by our Grandma. My older sister, (baby number 3) Jeanie, claims she was the most special, because, when she was a baby and after Grandpa Price died, Grandma spent a lots of time caring for her, that, in turn, made her very special, because it helped Grandma as she was grieving. I am sure that is certainly true. Also she was the baby of the family for the next several yeas! It was probably quite a shock to that little girl suddenly having not one, but several little siblings to deal with!
Trouble comes when (jealous me), thinks she would like to have exclusive rights to Grandmas special memory.
Well, I am here to say that Grandma was with all of us younger children also, from the very time we were born, and though she was no longer grieving and we would not have gotten her to ourselves (by that time there were just too many of us, I know for a fact she loved everyone of us very much! Differently, I'm sure, but, just as much. I am not sure that I have any special proof of that, and it really doesn't need to be proven. Most everyone, I suppose, wants to be extra special to someone. Our memories are our own, each memory different for each person, each one exclusive to a person and their own relationships.
I have many special feelings and memories of my times with her.
I can't remember anything about my infancy, but, around the time I turned two we moved into a little sandstone slab house several miles out of town. While we lived there, I shared one side of the attic bedroom with my Grandma. I can remember her rocking me at bedtime and singing to me before I went to sleep. I had a little rubber doll, (a Betsy Wetsy) that I would take to bed with me, Grandma would always take it out when she came to bed, in the morning when I woke up I would find it on the rocker. She told me that it was too hard to sleep with and it would wake her up in the night if it was in our bed. But, it was always waiting for me when I woke up in the morning.
That little doll later became another issue between my sister and I. (Oh, we always had our issues!) I felt that baby doll was mine and only mine, but, originally Grandma had gotten the doll for Jeanie. Jeanie then gave it to me for Christmas when I was either 3 or 4. She was almost 5 years older and must have thought she was too big for it. I returned the doll when she had her first baby girl (as a gift for the baby). I was 10 years old at the time and must have thought I was too big for dolls! Well, at some point, she packed the little Betsy Wetsy doll up and put her away. As far as I know it hasn't been seen since. I ask her one time if she would get it out so I could see it and she told me it was too fragile to take out of it wrapping.
Isn't it strange that after all these years she still holds on to a little baby doll and I still miss it? All because we connect it to our own lost childhood and to the love of our very special Grandma!
Grandma loved the outdoors. She enjoyed working in the garden. After Grandpa passed away, she supported herself for awhile raising chickens but she became ill and her Doctor told her she would have to give them up because they were making her sick.
I remember Daddy making a swing for us and Grandma came out and sat on it then she stood in it, just (she told us) to make sure it was strong enough to hold us little kids without breaking.
I don't think she did a lot of the cooking, at least I can't remember if she did. Most of the time, I think, Mom took care of that job (Momma was a wonderful cook).
Sometimes, though she would make us something special. She made fried mush that we would eat for breakfast with sugar or syrup on it and she made us gum by melting paraffin wax and putting sugar in it. She told us carrots would make our eyes shine and when she made vegetable soup she always told us it was "B-Bob soup because of the little pasta letters in it.
She didn't like to waste anything and would drink the juice from the pickle jar or the liquid left from the vegetables, or sometimes the last bite off our plate.
Daddy would tease her because she would put saccarin in her coffee and lots of sugar in her oatmeal. I still have the old, creamy white, coffe cup she always used to eat her breakfast.
She taught us how to do dishes, (I still remember her telling us to wash the glasses first, then the silverware the the plates and then the pots and pans. This was a job she did regularly until the day before she died in her 94th year.
In her later years she continued to get the small town newspaper from Pea Ridge Arkansas where she had lived for many years and the first thing she would look at was the obituaries. She said she was checking to see who she knew that had died that week.
She always kept birthday and Christmas cards in a shoe box and would let me look at them one by one as she told me stories about the person that sent them to her.
When she was older she would have me braid her hair and put it up in the little bun she always wore.
She liked to read and she wrote many letters to her old friends and family members in Arkansas.
One of the things she enjoyed doing most was making patchwork quilts. She made quilts many times through the years. Many of them were pieced from our old shirts, dresses, or pants. Also she would sometimes order material scraps from the Sears Roebuck catalog. It was fun to see what would come in the bundles of material they sent. Many colors and designs, sometimes there was silk or lace pieces and if she could not use them she would let me play with them.
When she had several patchwork squares made she would sometimes let me lay them out in different arrangements to see what I thought would make the prettiest designs. As her seeing failed I would thread her needle for her. I became increasingly difficult to do her handwork because of her failing sight and the arthritis in her hands but she continued to make quilts pretty much until the end of her life.
When our first child was a baby she came and stayed with us for several days. I have a picture of her with the baby in his stroller and another of him sitting in the yard of our tiny little house on the quilt she made me when I was a little girl.
Several years after she passed away, Mom opened a box of hers and it contained seven completed quilt tops. One for each of her seven grandchildren. For Christmas that year we received a quilt with a poem Mom wrote telling about the quilt being from both, Grandma and Mom. Mother had put linings and backing on them all and had carefully done buttonhole stitching around each of the many small pieces of material. This repaired the places where our Grandmother's failing eyesight and un-cooperative hands had missed. It was a lovely and sentimental gift.
Our little girl was born just before Christmas 1970. Grandma said she was special because she was her 13th great-grandchild and we named her April. Grandma's birthday was April 13Th.
I think Grandma was pretty satified with her latter life but, she did, always, have one big fear. She was afraid there might come a time when she would be unable to care for herself (as we grow older, it is a dread I am sure many of us share) and she feared she would have to be put into an "Old Folks Home."
Thankfully that never happened to her for she lived with our parents and remained generally healthy, both physically and "Thank God" mentally until very shortly before she passed away in January of 1973.
We had just been to Missouri for the Christmas holidays and got to spend time with her that I hold very close to my heart.
I'm sure that everyone considers their Grandma to be the very best. I am happy if that is true for you.
It certainly is true for our family. I am so glad God blessed me (and my brothers and sisters) with our one VERY SPECIAL GRANDMA!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Vacation is not for WIMPS! (part 2)
We have all survived a week of (did I say vacation?) and the time is winding down and we'll soon be returning home with not only our children in tow, but also 4 of our lovely nieces, ages, 14, 14, 15, and 16. Yes, I guess I am a little loony, but, it actually sounded like fun at the time.
O.K., on with the story.
Before we were to start home we were spending the last couple of days with my husbands family. His sister was also in from Ohio, with her husband and their two kids, so our children were still having a great time playing at Grandma's, with the one cousin on Daddy's side of the family that lived in Missouri and the other 2 from Ohio.
It was mid-afternoon the day before we we planning to leave, when two little boys came running, at top speed, through their Grandmother's kitchen. The younger cousin, for some unknown reason, dropped down to the floor and our little boy then took a flying leap "OVER his cousins back and RIGHT OFF of Grandma's back porch!
You guessed it. The poor little guy now had a BROKEN ARM. So, OFF to the hospital we went, where we learned that the arm was already too swollen to set right. He had to be admitted and stay overnight when they would decide, the next day, if it needed surgery.
No surgery,luckily, was needed, but, it would be one extra day before we could leave.
On and on it goes!
We got that crisis taken care of and the following day we packed up and started HOME (by that time, the word HOME was sounding better and better!) We had everything including all 6 young people in the station wagon.
Only 650 miles to go!
Well-----
I really would like to tell you that we were at the end of our PERFECT vacation. (About time, don't you think?)
No not yet!
We traveled until we were just about half way into the drive and it was time for the NEXT adventure. Our ENTIRE MUFFLER fell off the car!
And of course, (as we should have known by now!)NO ONE was able to fix it that day!
Then----
After we found a campground we went to the grocery store (we had not planned another night in the camper) and---the store WOULD NOT accept our travelers checks! We scrounged enough money from change and the girls allowed us to use some of their spending money to buy a few groceries. We went back to camp, ate, and waited for the next day to arrive.
Because the camper was so small, the girls slept in it and we slept with the little ones (and the broken arm) in the car. NOT my best night!(Or anyone else's.)
Well friends. you are not going to believe this, but, we REALLY did get home without further incident!
UNFORTUNATELY, when we arrived at our home-sweet-home, our REFRIGERATOR had QUIT!!!!!
"Va-a-a cation, Oh it WAS so much fun!"
"But, though we had a good time."
"WE ARE POOPED WHEN IT IS DONE"
Honestly, I can tell you. "VACATIONS ARE NOT FOR WIMPS"
O.K., on with the story.
Before we were to start home we were spending the last couple of days with my husbands family. His sister was also in from Ohio, with her husband and their two kids, so our children were still having a great time playing at Grandma's, with the one cousin on Daddy's side of the family that lived in Missouri and the other 2 from Ohio.
It was mid-afternoon the day before we we planning to leave, when two little boys came running, at top speed, through their Grandmother's kitchen. The younger cousin, for some unknown reason, dropped down to the floor and our little boy then took a flying leap "OVER his cousins back and RIGHT OFF of Grandma's back porch!
You guessed it. The poor little guy now had a BROKEN ARM. So, OFF to the hospital we went, where we learned that the arm was already too swollen to set right. He had to be admitted and stay overnight when they would decide, the next day, if it needed surgery.
No surgery,luckily, was needed, but, it would be one extra day before we could leave.
On and on it goes!
We got that crisis taken care of and the following day we packed up and started HOME (by that time, the word HOME was sounding better and better!) We had everything including all 6 young people in the station wagon.
Only 650 miles to go!
Well-----
I really would like to tell you that we were at the end of our PERFECT vacation. (About time, don't you think?)
No not yet!
We traveled until we were just about half way into the drive and it was time for the NEXT adventure. Our ENTIRE MUFFLER fell off the car!
And of course, (as we should have known by now!)NO ONE was able to fix it that day!
Then----
After we found a campground we went to the grocery store (we had not planned another night in the camper) and---the store WOULD NOT accept our travelers checks! We scrounged enough money from change and the girls allowed us to use some of their spending money to buy a few groceries. We went back to camp, ate, and waited for the next day to arrive.
Because the camper was so small, the girls slept in it and we slept with the little ones (and the broken arm) in the car. NOT my best night!(Or anyone else's.)
Well friends. you are not going to believe this, but, we REALLY did get home without further incident!
UNFORTUNATELY, when we arrived at our home-sweet-home, our REFRIGERATOR had QUIT!!!!!
"Va-a-a cation, Oh it WAS so much fun!"
"But, though we had a good time."
"WE ARE POOPED WHEN IT IS DONE"
Honestly, I can tell you. "VACATIONS ARE NOT FOR WIMPS"
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Vacations are not for WIMPS! (part 1)
It was mid-July 1976. Once again, we were preparing to make our annual trip down to the southwestern part of Missouri.
We would be traveling with our two children, Our son,then 8 and our little girl, 6 years old. We were all happy and looking forward to vacation. Not only were we planning on visiting lots of people, but, we also had several side trips planned. Six Flags, the St. Louis Zoo, camping. All the things, we thought, would make for a "PERFECT" family vacation!
My husband and I were both born and raised in Missouri, but, in the spring of '72 we relocated to the northern part of Ohio when he got the opportunity to start a job working for General Motors Corp..
In the early 70's G.M. was still a great job to have. It represented security and had insurance that was far better than what we had at the foundry where he was then working. (I remember thinking what a good job it would be, because, (of course) people would always need cars to drive!) The other main reason was the lure of money. It would be a much better paying job than what he was making in Missouri.
His sister and her family were already located in Ohio, so we would not be completely without family connections. Still, it was difficult to pack up everything we owned (which wasn't alot) and leave the security of having the extended family surrounding us.
Our little boy was only 3 and his sister a year so we decided we would always make trips back home a priority. My parents and his Mom were all there, as well as his brother and family. Also, all 6 of my siblings and their own families were there. (To this day, our family are the only ones on my side to have moved permanently out of the area where we were raised.)We wanted our kids to have the special feeling. Always knowing where and they came from and who their people were. I needed to make sure they knew they were loved and cherished by their grandparents and also by all those Aunts, Uncles and cousin's.
Everything started out pretty smoothly, or, that is to say, as smoothly as anything we ever started.
The kids were so excited about going to see everyone that they were literally climbing the walls.
Daddy was all ready to go (at least 2 hours before the rest of us) and waiting (patiently, of course) in the front seat of the car! (I joke you not, the horn sounded a time or two before I finally sent a child out to remind him that there were three more of us going and that we were NOT yet ready!)
He never did (and likely, he never will) understand how come it always took me so much longer to get myself ready than it did him. How on earth could that be???
All I had to do was get two children out of bed, dressed, make the beds, get some kind of breakfast into each one of them and the dishes washed. Put out the trash pick up toys double check the locks on windows, doors etc. Make sure teeth were brushed, hair combed, and shoes on. Oh, and fix peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and snacks for a little later in the morning!
Dad also wanted to know why we hadn't found all of their favorite toy's the night before. (We had but someone needed something to sleep with! You just can't pack a favorite teddy or dolly away if you have to have it to sleep with.
"Why" did they need to go to the bathroom "NOW"? They had both been sent to the bathroom 20 minutes before and, Oh,Yes, I needed to go also. Of course, not my man, HE had taken care of HIS business two hours before at the coffee shop!
Now I must give him credit though. He has always helped as much as he could. Over the years he has probably carried at least a ton of luggage to the family car. Sometimes, unfortunately, the suitcases were only partially packed (there was always the last minutes items that happened to still be drying from the last load of clothing I had washed at midnight the night before. Or as happened a time or two the suitcases were not properly fastened, spilling the entire contents onto the floor in front of the couch. Or even worse, not immediately spilling, but leaving them strung across the floor as he attempted to stop the free flow of whatever articles had once been neatly folded! Fortunately, after a few choice words (that I choose not to repeat) things would once again be under control and eventually (Thank the good Lord) we would be ready to head out.
Once on the road it would usually take an hour or so for everyone to settle in. But, finally, everyone relaxed and quited down with new colors and coloring books, magazines and a tape in the cassette player. We were now ready for our adventure.
How little we know. Not one of us expected it to be quite the adventure it turned out to be.
As we spent the first hours we made up silly songs.
"Oh, we're going to Missouri, with the camper on the car."
"And, we're gonna stop at Six Flags, but, it does seem so far."
Yes, I forgot to mention this was a trip with our little 16 foot Empire camper pulled behind our baby blue station wagon. On the back of the camper we had a rack with the kids bicycles securely (we thought) fastened on.
After a couple of hours we stopped and ate our sandwiches. Then the kids played happily for awhile as we sat and relaxed at the roadside rest where we had stopped.
That night we did stop outside of St. Louis and slept at a motel. We were up early the next day and spent several hours at "Six Flags over Mid-America".
"We'll ride the rides all day and night, It's fun to get a thrill"
"But, it might make us dizzy, when we ride the Ferris wheel!"
It was a beautiful sunny day and for some reason that day was not overly crowded. Most of the time there was not even a long wait for the rides and the children even got to ride a few more than one time. I still have pictures somewhere, that the kids drew as we continued the trip the following day. Both drew pictures of the big roller-coaster named the "Screaming Eagle". It was a major roller-coaster in 1976, even though, by todays standards, I'm not sure how it stands up. We were all very impressed at the time. It was a great day and a wonderful way to start a vacation!
The fun had just begun!
It wasn't long after we left the St. Louis area, traveling on Interstate 44, that we heard something strange and immediately realized there was a problem. Looking behind us (there were extended mirror's on each side of the car) we were horrified to see a Sim-truck swerving and almost losing control! That truck driver must have had his guardian angel riding with him that day, because, with skilled action, he managed to get his truck straightened out just in time and avoided a full blown accident. The semi continued on, but, now our kids almost new bicycles were lying at least a quarter of a mile back, somewhere along the roadside or worse, possibly still on the road, causing a hazard to some other unsuspecting driver!
As we slowly backed up along the berm another car pulled up behind us. He had been going the opposite direction and saw what had happened. He had crossed the highway and picked up the bicycles. We loaded them into the camper, thanked the stranger for his kindness, and once again headed south.
Va-a-cation, oh it is so much fun,
We'll swim and play and picnic in the good hot summer sun!
We stopped at Springfield to see my twin brother (who conveniently worked in a bicycle shop) and left the bicycles with him. Miraculously, neither bike had major damage!
After that we headed another hour on down South to see the grandparent's.
"And when we get to Grandma's, We'll see the other's there.
"Our cousin's, aunt's and uncle's, seem to be just everywhere!"
We had finally arrived. It was great fun. For the next couple of days it all went smoothly as we visited one family after another and then back to Mom and Dad's to sleep.
Then came the weekend and the "Family Campout."
Once again, it started out as a beautiful day. We were going to spend the next few days on the rocky riverbank. Fishing, swimming, eating, hiking, singing and laughing. Most of the brother's and sister's were there as were my folks.
Later in the day the men went off fishing and the rest of us took the younger kids down to swim in the shallow creek. Soon we became aware of dark storm clouds gathering and within minutes sharp flashes of lightening were crashing all around us. Our first thought was to get the wet children out of the lightening,so we headed for the camper.
The wind picked up and started blowing everything,every which way, just about the same time the rest of the group arrived back at camp.
Within a couple of minutes, two of our teen girls became trapped in a tent that blew down. Back out into the storm went Grandpa and my husband, headed out to the save the screaming teenagers. After a struggle with the tent they were told to get out and in the camper. "But Grandpa, one of them cried, "We aren't dressed!"
"Just grab a towel and GET INTO THE CAMPER!" came Grandpa's voice over the howling wind. After successfully rescuing the half naked girls, the men had no other choice than to lay down under the crippled tent until the worst of the storm calmed and the strong wind subsided.
It was a frightening experience, but, we were blessed and Alla's well that ends well!
I guess it was a good thing we hadn't gotten around to unhooking the camper. We believe the weight of our car (and the combined weight of everyone inside) helped to keep us from rolling over and ending up it the river!
For a few minutes there, that little 16 foot camper was sure "Rockin' and Rollin'" with 17 people and a hound dog inside!
We would be traveling with our two children, Our son,then 8 and our little girl, 6 years old. We were all happy and looking forward to vacation. Not only were we planning on visiting lots of people, but, we also had several side trips planned. Six Flags, the St. Louis Zoo, camping. All the things, we thought, would make for a "PERFECT" family vacation!
My husband and I were both born and raised in Missouri, but, in the spring of '72 we relocated to the northern part of Ohio when he got the opportunity to start a job working for General Motors Corp..
In the early 70's G.M. was still a great job to have. It represented security and had insurance that was far better than what we had at the foundry where he was then working. (I remember thinking what a good job it would be, because, (of course) people would always need cars to drive!) The other main reason was the lure of money. It would be a much better paying job than what he was making in Missouri.
His sister and her family were already located in Ohio, so we would not be completely without family connections. Still, it was difficult to pack up everything we owned (which wasn't alot) and leave the security of having the extended family surrounding us.
Our little boy was only 3 and his sister a year so we decided we would always make trips back home a priority. My parents and his Mom were all there, as well as his brother and family. Also, all 6 of my siblings and their own families were there. (To this day, our family are the only ones on my side to have moved permanently out of the area where we were raised.)We wanted our kids to have the special feeling. Always knowing where and they came from and who their people were. I needed to make sure they knew they were loved and cherished by their grandparents and also by all those Aunts, Uncles and cousin's.
Everything started out pretty smoothly, or, that is to say, as smoothly as anything we ever started.
The kids were so excited about going to see everyone that they were literally climbing the walls.
Daddy was all ready to go (at least 2 hours before the rest of us) and waiting (patiently, of course) in the front seat of the car! (I joke you not, the horn sounded a time or two before I finally sent a child out to remind him that there were three more of us going and that we were NOT yet ready!)
He never did (and likely, he never will) understand how come it always took me so much longer to get myself ready than it did him. How on earth could that be???
All I had to do was get two children out of bed, dressed, make the beds, get some kind of breakfast into each one of them and the dishes washed. Put out the trash pick up toys double check the locks on windows, doors etc. Make sure teeth were brushed, hair combed, and shoes on. Oh, and fix peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and snacks for a little later in the morning!
Dad also wanted to know why we hadn't found all of their favorite toy's the night before. (We had but someone needed something to sleep with! You just can't pack a favorite teddy or dolly away if you have to have it to sleep with.
"Why" did they need to go to the bathroom "NOW"? They had both been sent to the bathroom 20 minutes before and, Oh,Yes, I needed to go also. Of course, not my man, HE had taken care of HIS business two hours before at the coffee shop!
Now I must give him credit though. He has always helped as much as he could. Over the years he has probably carried at least a ton of luggage to the family car. Sometimes, unfortunately, the suitcases were only partially packed (there was always the last minutes items that happened to still be drying from the last load of clothing I had washed at midnight the night before. Or as happened a time or two the suitcases were not properly fastened, spilling the entire contents onto the floor in front of the couch. Or even worse, not immediately spilling, but leaving them strung across the floor as he attempted to stop the free flow of whatever articles had once been neatly folded! Fortunately, after a few choice words (that I choose not to repeat) things would once again be under control and eventually (Thank the good Lord) we would be ready to head out.
Once on the road it would usually take an hour or so for everyone to settle in. But, finally, everyone relaxed and quited down with new colors and coloring books, magazines and a tape in the cassette player. We were now ready for our adventure.
How little we know. Not one of us expected it to be quite the adventure it turned out to be.
As we spent the first hours we made up silly songs.
"Oh, we're going to Missouri, with the camper on the car."
"And, we're gonna stop at Six Flags, but, it does seem so far."
Yes, I forgot to mention this was a trip with our little 16 foot Empire camper pulled behind our baby blue station wagon. On the back of the camper we had a rack with the kids bicycles securely (we thought) fastened on.
After a couple of hours we stopped and ate our sandwiches. Then the kids played happily for awhile as we sat and relaxed at the roadside rest where we had stopped.
That night we did stop outside of St. Louis and slept at a motel. We were up early the next day and spent several hours at "Six Flags over Mid-America".
"We'll ride the rides all day and night, It's fun to get a thrill"
"But, it might make us dizzy, when we ride the Ferris wheel!"
It was a beautiful sunny day and for some reason that day was not overly crowded. Most of the time there was not even a long wait for the rides and the children even got to ride a few more than one time. I still have pictures somewhere, that the kids drew as we continued the trip the following day. Both drew pictures of the big roller-coaster named the "Screaming Eagle". It was a major roller-coaster in 1976, even though, by todays standards, I'm not sure how it stands up. We were all very impressed at the time. It was a great day and a wonderful way to start a vacation!
The fun had just begun!
It wasn't long after we left the St. Louis area, traveling on Interstate 44, that we heard something strange and immediately realized there was a problem. Looking behind us (there were extended mirror's on each side of the car) we were horrified to see a Sim-truck swerving and almost losing control! That truck driver must have had his guardian angel riding with him that day, because, with skilled action, he managed to get his truck straightened out just in time and avoided a full blown accident. The semi continued on, but, now our kids almost new bicycles were lying at least a quarter of a mile back, somewhere along the roadside or worse, possibly still on the road, causing a hazard to some other unsuspecting driver!
As we slowly backed up along the berm another car pulled up behind us. He had been going the opposite direction and saw what had happened. He had crossed the highway and picked up the bicycles. We loaded them into the camper, thanked the stranger for his kindness, and once again headed south.
Va-a-cation, oh it is so much fun,
We'll swim and play and picnic in the good hot summer sun!
We stopped at Springfield to see my twin brother (who conveniently worked in a bicycle shop) and left the bicycles with him. Miraculously, neither bike had major damage!
After that we headed another hour on down South to see the grandparent's.
"And when we get to Grandma's, We'll see the other's there.
"Our cousin's, aunt's and uncle's, seem to be just everywhere!"
We had finally arrived. It was great fun. For the next couple of days it all went smoothly as we visited one family after another and then back to Mom and Dad's to sleep.
Then came the weekend and the "Family Campout."
Once again, it started out as a beautiful day. We were going to spend the next few days on the rocky riverbank. Fishing, swimming, eating, hiking, singing and laughing. Most of the brother's and sister's were there as were my folks.
Later in the day the men went off fishing and the rest of us took the younger kids down to swim in the shallow creek. Soon we became aware of dark storm clouds gathering and within minutes sharp flashes of lightening were crashing all around us. Our first thought was to get the wet children out of the lightening,so we headed for the camper.
The wind picked up and started blowing everything,every which way, just about the same time the rest of the group arrived back at camp.
Within a couple of minutes, two of our teen girls became trapped in a tent that blew down. Back out into the storm went Grandpa and my husband, headed out to the save the screaming teenagers. After a struggle with the tent they were told to get out and in the camper. "But Grandpa, one of them cried, "We aren't dressed!"
"Just grab a towel and GET INTO THE CAMPER!" came Grandpa's voice over the howling wind. After successfully rescuing the half naked girls, the men had no other choice than to lay down under the crippled tent until the worst of the storm calmed and the strong wind subsided.
It was a frightening experience, but, we were blessed and Alla's well that ends well!
I guess it was a good thing we hadn't gotten around to unhooking the camper. We believe the weight of our car (and the combined weight of everyone inside) helped to keep us from rolling over and ending up it the river!
For a few minutes there, that little 16 foot camper was sure "Rockin' and Rollin'" with 17 people and a hound dog inside!
Friday, September 24, 2010
Karen - Spillin her Dreams: My Daddy was a Hero
Karen - Spillin her Dreams: My Daddy was a Hero: "Have you ever thought about the people in your life who influenced you and helped to make you who you eventually became? We cross paths wit..."
Monday, September 20, 2010
My Daddy was a Hero
Have you ever thought about the people in your life who influenced you and helped to make you who you eventually became? We cross paths with many people in a lifetime and each one and each experience adds to who we are, but some, of course, are much more important than others. For the majority of us our parents would certainly be at the top of our list. For me that is certainly true. I know there were many times I should have told them just how special they were and failed to do it. Sometimes I know I hurt them and now it hurts me to think of those times. They are the ones who loved me and put up with me through good times and bad times. They stood up for me and protected me. They were the people that nurtured me and gave me the morals that I live by.
I want to tell a little about some of these people. I hope that by writing this it will give you a small sense of knowing them and what kind of people they were. I write to honor them and remember them. I write even though they are no longer here. It is only a small and belated way to say thank-you, perhaps, but maybe it will help remind us all that we can and should show our appreciation to the people we love, now, before they are gone and there is no more time to tell them "thanks for being there".
I remember when I was very small I would stand on tiptoes behind the chair my daddy sat in and comb his hair. It was thick and very black and wavy and he would patiently let me comb. "My daddy was my hero".
When he would bring the cows in from the field he would let me ride on the back of "Babe" our gentle milk cow. He would swing me up on her back and lead her with the rope around her neck.
He put a swing in the tree out back and another one in the old outbuilding that Mom used to do laundry. I know it wasn't just for me, but, I can still remember him pushing me and feeling like I could reach the clouds. I can close my eyes and feel that sense of exhilaration as I flew high into the blue sky!
Another time, (I was probably in 1st grade) my daddy cooked fried chicken in the basement kitchen of the little country school we attended. It was for an evening meal and meeting with the families and teachers that went there. I can remember looking through the window (from the playground) and watching him put the chicken pieces into a brown paper bag with flour in it. Then he would shake it all up before he put it into the hot grease to fry it. I was so proud it was "my daddy" that was such a good cook!
When our big red barn burned down the wind was blowing hard toward our house and I was afraid. My daddy put his arm around me and said not to worry it would be OK. I was crying and he took the time to "save" my baby doll for me, {even though he and my mom were very busy putting our clothing and other things into the car, apparently there must have been a real concern that the house might catch on fire also}. We younger children were taken to stay with a family down the road. I will never forget watching the flames and smoke from that kind neighbors house and wondering if Daddy and Momma and my older brother and sisters were alright.
One time the bull in the small pasture was snorting and kicking his feet, acting like he was going to hurt us and what did "my daddy" do? He took the hammer he had been using and threw it, hitting that old bull smack on the head. Guess he taught him a lesson or two!
Of course, he wasn't just "my hero". I have a bunch of brothers and sisters and we would all like to think of him as exclusively "our hero". I guess it was and will always be "Yours, mine and ours". Really I don't mind sharing his memory one bit.
That is another thing about him. It never seemed to matter how many of us he had. He made every one of us feel we were special.
He was tender-hearted and kind to others.
Daddy was the youngest of 6 children.(Grandpa's 1st family). Sadly his mother contracted Tuberculosis and died when he was very young. After that my Grandpa remarried {I don't know exactly how long after her death) and he and his second wife (who already had two little girls) eventually had 8 more children. Unfortunately, Grandpa and my second Grandma Nellie (I always wondered if he choose to marry her partly because of her name) were overwhelmed with a family of 18 and it was, I'm sure, an extremely hard life. Somehow, at some point, I think Daddy kind of became the caretaker for many in his family. Many times one or another would call him when they had trouble. It made him so sad that he was not always able to help them. He would listen and tried to help, in some way, if he could.
Depression was an issue he dealt as it has been with many in our family. Sometimes, wheather we like it or not, out genetic makeup can get in the way and cause challenges we would rather not deal with.
When I was older I found out that he had been in "World War II". Even though Mom, already at that time, had two little ones to care for and was expecting their third child, when the war broke out, he felt an obligation to his family and country and joined the Army. (I'm not at all sure that Mom felt the same way about his duty to his family and country!). At any rate, he was first sent to Camp Perry in Ohio for "boot camp" and then shipped out to France. It was a very tough time for him. When I was a teenager he was in and out of the Veteran's hospital a couple of times and was always haunted by memories of the terrible things that happened during those years away from the ones he loved so much. His soft heart and family depression would have made it that much harder.
Years later as his health continued to decline he was given a medical retirement from the Post Office. He was 50 years old.(I believe that is right, anyway). My twin brother and I were 13, and we have a brother who was 14 and also a brother that was only 11 at the time. Also, some of our older siblings stayed with us part of the time while their families were starting out.
His life was not an easy one, but no matter the hard times got, we were always loved and protected!
There were also many good times and much laughter. He loved hunting and fishing. He took us camping even though we never had a tent. We would sleep under a tarp or in the seats of the big ol "Nash" that had seats that would lay back and make a bed. Sometimes we would just wrap ourselves in blankets and sleep on the ground. I remember him and my mom sitting on the misty river bank (I can remember the smell the mist and still hear the whip-o-will calling)and talking late into the night, as we little ones were going to sleep. He would whistle and sing songs of lovers and tragic train wrecks. I still love the smell of fresh coffee because I associate it with my Daddy.
It was a wonderful life for a little girl to have. Lots of brothers and sisters and parent's that loved us unconditionally.
Of course, as I grew up, I began to realize, that in reality, it wasn't perfect. But, still, we were always given what, to us as children, was most important, and that, of course, is always love.
Daddy was and always will be "My Hero!" It was all those tough times that, I think, showed his character the most. He was a person that no matter how hard it got he just "KEPT ON KEEPING ON"!
I will always keep those memories in my heart.
I so value those weeks, after his heart attack, when I was able to spend time with him. Though he was in the hospital he was still looking forward to whatever lie ahead.
I miss him and always will. I am forever grateful that He was "one of my very special people, "My Hero".
I want to tell a little about some of these people. I hope that by writing this it will give you a small sense of knowing them and what kind of people they were. I write to honor them and remember them. I write even though they are no longer here. It is only a small and belated way to say thank-you, perhaps, but maybe it will help remind us all that we can and should show our appreciation to the people we love, now, before they are gone and there is no more time to tell them "thanks for being there".
I remember when I was very small I would stand on tiptoes behind the chair my daddy sat in and comb his hair. It was thick and very black and wavy and he would patiently let me comb. "My daddy was my hero".
When he would bring the cows in from the field he would let me ride on the back of "Babe" our gentle milk cow. He would swing me up on her back and lead her with the rope around her neck.
He put a swing in the tree out back and another one in the old outbuilding that Mom used to do laundry. I know it wasn't just for me, but, I can still remember him pushing me and feeling like I could reach the clouds. I can close my eyes and feel that sense of exhilaration as I flew high into the blue sky!
Another time, (I was probably in 1st grade) my daddy cooked fried chicken in the basement kitchen of the little country school we attended. It was for an evening meal and meeting with the families and teachers that went there. I can remember looking through the window (from the playground) and watching him put the chicken pieces into a brown paper bag with flour in it. Then he would shake it all up before he put it into the hot grease to fry it. I was so proud it was "my daddy" that was such a good cook!
When our big red barn burned down the wind was blowing hard toward our house and I was afraid. My daddy put his arm around me and said not to worry it would be OK. I was crying and he took the time to "save" my baby doll for me, {even though he and my mom were very busy putting our clothing and other things into the car, apparently there must have been a real concern that the house might catch on fire also}. We younger children were taken to stay with a family down the road. I will never forget watching the flames and smoke from that kind neighbors house and wondering if Daddy and Momma and my older brother and sisters were alright.
One time the bull in the small pasture was snorting and kicking his feet, acting like he was going to hurt us and what did "my daddy" do? He took the hammer he had been using and threw it, hitting that old bull smack on the head. Guess he taught him a lesson or two!
Of course, he wasn't just "my hero". I have a bunch of brothers and sisters and we would all like to think of him as exclusively "our hero". I guess it was and will always be "Yours, mine and ours". Really I don't mind sharing his memory one bit.
That is another thing about him. It never seemed to matter how many of us he had. He made every one of us feel we were special.
He was tender-hearted and kind to others.
Daddy was the youngest of 6 children.(Grandpa's 1st family). Sadly his mother contracted Tuberculosis and died when he was very young. After that my Grandpa remarried {I don't know exactly how long after her death) and he and his second wife (who already had two little girls) eventually had 8 more children. Unfortunately, Grandpa and my second Grandma Nellie (I always wondered if he choose to marry her partly because of her name) were overwhelmed with a family of 18 and it was, I'm sure, an extremely hard life. Somehow, at some point, I think Daddy kind of became the caretaker for many in his family. Many times one or another would call him when they had trouble. It made him so sad that he was not always able to help them. He would listen and tried to help, in some way, if he could.
Depression was an issue he dealt as it has been with many in our family. Sometimes, wheather we like it or not, out genetic makeup can get in the way and cause challenges we would rather not deal with.
When I was older I found out that he had been in "World War II". Even though Mom, already at that time, had two little ones to care for and was expecting their third child, when the war broke out, he felt an obligation to his family and country and joined the Army. (I'm not at all sure that Mom felt the same way about his duty to his family and country!). At any rate, he was first sent to Camp Perry in Ohio for "boot camp" and then shipped out to France. It was a very tough time for him. When I was a teenager he was in and out of the Veteran's hospital a couple of times and was always haunted by memories of the terrible things that happened during those years away from the ones he loved so much. His soft heart and family depression would have made it that much harder.
Years later as his health continued to decline he was given a medical retirement from the Post Office. He was 50 years old.(I believe that is right, anyway). My twin brother and I were 13, and we have a brother who was 14 and also a brother that was only 11 at the time. Also, some of our older siblings stayed with us part of the time while their families were starting out.
His life was not an easy one, but no matter the hard times got, we were always loved and protected!
There were also many good times and much laughter. He loved hunting and fishing. He took us camping even though we never had a tent. We would sleep under a tarp or in the seats of the big ol "Nash" that had seats that would lay back and make a bed. Sometimes we would just wrap ourselves in blankets and sleep on the ground. I remember him and my mom sitting on the misty river bank (I can remember the smell the mist and still hear the whip-o-will calling)and talking late into the night, as we little ones were going to sleep. He would whistle and sing songs of lovers and tragic train wrecks. I still love the smell of fresh coffee because I associate it with my Daddy.
It was a wonderful life for a little girl to have. Lots of brothers and sisters and parent's that loved us unconditionally.
Of course, as I grew up, I began to realize, that in reality, it wasn't perfect. But, still, we were always given what, to us as children, was most important, and that, of course, is always love.
Daddy was and always will be "My Hero!" It was all those tough times that, I think, showed his character the most. He was a person that no matter how hard it got he just "KEPT ON KEEPING ON"!
I will always keep those memories in my heart.
I so value those weeks, after his heart attack, when I was able to spend time with him. Though he was in the hospital he was still looking forward to whatever lie ahead.
I miss him and always will. I am forever grateful that He was "one of my very special people, "My Hero".
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
September song
So here comes September. Clear and blue, sunshine and breezy. September 1, 2010. Pretty much a perfect start to a new season. The beginning of a new month, the end of summer and a new school year for children the world over.
I can say that because, as of May we are, officially an international family. Well not that we aren't all still members of the good old U.S.A., No one has changed thier citizenship, (I just say that now that half of our family lives in another country. Just a few months ago, our son-in-law, was sent to Germany with the U.S. Army and the rest of his family, including our daughter and 4 of our grandchildren followed him there! Sad but exciting at the same time.
They seem to be having lots of marvolous experiences checking out all of the new and wonderful things that part of the world has to offer!
The two oldest kids even went to Poland for a week already!
I'm sure now that school has started, some of the running around will be limited, perhaps to weekends or school holiday's. Now there will be homework, sports, and all the other things that keep folks so busy in the fall of the year.
I am glad to say that our son and his family are still here in Ohio. We see them quite frequently, but even their visits will most likely become less often because of much the same reasons.
It is so amazing watching how quickly the years go by.
Those children, that it seems only a moment ago were just babies, are now growing up.
We have one grandaughter that is a Senior this year, and a grandaughter that just got her drivers liscence. A 15 year old grandson that is planning to hike Europe with friends, (after he graduates and has enough money saved, so it will be awhile), and another grandson, that just became a real teenager.
Then the two little ones. They are not really little either,(sigh) but growing quickly trying hard to catch up to the others. They are so beautiful. Our 11 year old grandaughter is beginning to show signs of the woman she will become and the 9 year old boy is an amazing kid that is just full of love and laughter.
Sometimes, I just want to say; STOP! WAIT! I'm not ready for this! But, I really don't want to cheat them out of the many plans God has in store for them.
I know this world can be tough, but, we're here. God placed us here and we need to take advantage of every second. We need to love and we need to work and do our best in everything we do. If we mess up we need to get ourselves up, dust our pants off and start over.
So many of us, waste so much of our lives, basically doing nothing. Always wondering why nothing special ever happens to us.
I always liked the Nike comercial that say's "Just Do It"
If you have a dream, start planning to make it happen.
If you see someone you wish were your friend, say hello, you never know, they may need a friend.
If you are not happy with the way you life is going then change directions.
Sing a song, say a prayer, dance in the rain, read the funny paper.
"Just Do It" and have a great day.
I can say that because, as of May we are, officially an international family. Well not that we aren't all still members of the good old U.S.A., No one has changed thier citizenship, (I just say that now that half of our family lives in another country. Just a few months ago, our son-in-law, was sent to Germany with the U.S. Army and the rest of his family, including our daughter and 4 of our grandchildren followed him there! Sad but exciting at the same time.
They seem to be having lots of marvolous experiences checking out all of the new and wonderful things that part of the world has to offer!
The two oldest kids even went to Poland for a week already!
I'm sure now that school has started, some of the running around will be limited, perhaps to weekends or school holiday's. Now there will be homework, sports, and all the other things that keep folks so busy in the fall of the year.
I am glad to say that our son and his family are still here in Ohio. We see them quite frequently, but even their visits will most likely become less often because of much the same reasons.
It is so amazing watching how quickly the years go by.
Those children, that it seems only a moment ago were just babies, are now growing up.
We have one grandaughter that is a Senior this year, and a grandaughter that just got her drivers liscence. A 15 year old grandson that is planning to hike Europe with friends, (after he graduates and has enough money saved, so it will be awhile), and another grandson, that just became a real teenager.
Then the two little ones. They are not really little either,(sigh) but growing quickly trying hard to catch up to the others. They are so beautiful. Our 11 year old grandaughter is beginning to show signs of the woman she will become and the 9 year old boy is an amazing kid that is just full of love and laughter.
Sometimes, I just want to say; STOP! WAIT! I'm not ready for this! But, I really don't want to cheat them out of the many plans God has in store for them.
I know this world can be tough, but, we're here. God placed us here and we need to take advantage of every second. We need to love and we need to work and do our best in everything we do. If we mess up we need to get ourselves up, dust our pants off and start over.
So many of us, waste so much of our lives, basically doing nothing. Always wondering why nothing special ever happens to us.
I always liked the Nike comercial that say's "Just Do It"
If you have a dream, start planning to make it happen.
If you see someone you wish were your friend, say hello, you never know, they may need a friend.
If you are not happy with the way you life is going then change directions.
Sing a song, say a prayer, dance in the rain, read the funny paper.
"Just Do It" and have a great day.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
"Late Summer Musings"
This has been a great week.
When I woke up Sunday morning I could feel a difference in the air. The house felt almost chilly. I had to put on a sweatshirt to be comfortable.
Most of this summer it has been extremly hot, with many days topping out in the 90's. That is bad enough to deal with on it's own, but, when combined with humidity that has just been off the charts, being outside has been pretty much an option you would NOT want to choose. Going out has been like walking directly into a preheated oven. (Set on BROIL) Even very early mornings have been to hot to enjoy spending time outside.
But not this morning. The heat and more importantly, the sticky, hot air was gone. I opened the back door and a pleasant breeze touched my face. What a wonderful relief!
Wayne made coffee and we spent the early part of our day on the back deck reading the "Cresent News" and just enjoying the sunshine that felt gentle and warm instead of the strong stinging, heat that had kept us housebound for so many weeks.
I know I should not complain, it is a bad habit that needs changing, but, I have long had a love-hate relationship with air-conditioning. I so appriciate having it when the summer weather gets nasty, (refer to above paragraph) and I sincerely thank our great God for it, but, I am almost resentful when the time comes that we do have to close everything up and depend on electricity to keep from melting. On top of that, to make it worse, it always takes us at least a couple of weeks before we come to a reasonable compromise on where the thermostat should be set.
Thankfully, for once this was my absolute, favorite kind of summer day. There was a breeze in the air and for awhile I put my head back against my deck chair and closed my eyes, letting it caress my face. I said a silent thank-you for being blessed with such a morning.
Wayne read the forcast in the paper aloud to me and suggested we take the camper and go over to the state park closest to our home and camp for part of the week. I had previous appointments Thursday, Friday and Saterday so we decided that we would get ready after lunch and take off for Harrison Lake mid-afternoon.
Soon, it was time to go and eat something before heading to 10:30 church services.
I love listening to Pastor Rick when he preaches. Not only does he know the Bible extremly well, but, he can give a sermon without making you feel like you are being preached at. He is not boring or stuffy and has a wonderful sense of humor that everyone enjoys. He just finished a series of teachings he called "Close Encounters of the God Kind."
Now, for the next few weeks he is doing a series on what we need to have to be an effective church. Last week his sermon was on how to have Growth in the church. This Sunday it was on Love. I can't wait to hear what next week will bring. Also, coming the first week of October we will be starting, as a church body, to read the New Testament and study it together. The plan is to have small groups meet weekly or bi-weekly (we already have a number of groups in place). We will have discussions on the reading we did and that Pastor Rick is preaching on each week. That way, we can all come to a better understanding of what God's word is telling us and what He wants us to know. It should be an exciting time for our congregation.
Our son Kelly's family came over and ate lunch with us and after they left we packed up and left for the park which is a little complicated since the camper lives with our kids. We have to pack a cooler and wait till the next morning to use the fridge since it takes awhile to get cold. But though it isn't perfect it works out for us.
The weather stayed beautiful although it did warm up again mid week.
We still enjoy camping although we are not as active as we once were. We used to do a lot of hiking but, it seems like we have gotten lazy and do a lot of just sitting around. Some days we even sit inside and read or take naps if it gets too warm. We had campfires each evening since the temps were reasonable and several of our friends came over one night and we shared a wonderful meal with them.
Wednesday morning came too soon. We packed up and are now back home ready for what tomorrow will bring.
Perhaps to some this does not sound very exciting. But perhaps it will give you pause to think about the special things in your life.
Many times it is the little things that make life worthwhile. A babys smile the color or a sunset or the smell of fried chicken. I'm sure it is different for everyone but all of us need to remember and appriciate each of those moments for what they are. Too many times, sadly we let them slip by withour notice. Then they are gone, never to return.
When I woke up Sunday morning I could feel a difference in the air. The house felt almost chilly. I had to put on a sweatshirt to be comfortable.
Most of this summer it has been extremly hot, with many days topping out in the 90's. That is bad enough to deal with on it's own, but, when combined with humidity that has just been off the charts, being outside has been pretty much an option you would NOT want to choose. Going out has been like walking directly into a preheated oven. (Set on BROIL) Even very early mornings have been to hot to enjoy spending time outside.
But not this morning. The heat and more importantly, the sticky, hot air was gone. I opened the back door and a pleasant breeze touched my face. What a wonderful relief!
Wayne made coffee and we spent the early part of our day on the back deck reading the "Cresent News" and just enjoying the sunshine that felt gentle and warm instead of the strong stinging, heat that had kept us housebound for so many weeks.
I know I should not complain, it is a bad habit that needs changing, but, I have long had a love-hate relationship with air-conditioning. I so appriciate having it when the summer weather gets nasty, (refer to above paragraph) and I sincerely thank our great God for it, but, I am almost resentful when the time comes that we do have to close everything up and depend on electricity to keep from melting. On top of that, to make it worse, it always takes us at least a couple of weeks before we come to a reasonable compromise on where the thermostat should be set.
Thankfully, for once this was my absolute, favorite kind of summer day. There was a breeze in the air and for awhile I put my head back against my deck chair and closed my eyes, letting it caress my face. I said a silent thank-you for being blessed with such a morning.
Wayne read the forcast in the paper aloud to me and suggested we take the camper and go over to the state park closest to our home and camp for part of the week. I had previous appointments Thursday, Friday and Saterday so we decided that we would get ready after lunch and take off for Harrison Lake mid-afternoon.
Soon, it was time to go and eat something before heading to 10:30 church services.
I love listening to Pastor Rick when he preaches. Not only does he know the Bible extremly well, but, he can give a sermon without making you feel like you are being preached at. He is not boring or stuffy and has a wonderful sense of humor that everyone enjoys. He just finished a series of teachings he called "Close Encounters of the God Kind."
Now, for the next few weeks he is doing a series on what we need to have to be an effective church. Last week his sermon was on how to have Growth in the church. This Sunday it was on Love. I can't wait to hear what next week will bring. Also, coming the first week of October we will be starting, as a church body, to read the New Testament and study it together. The plan is to have small groups meet weekly or bi-weekly (we already have a number of groups in place). We will have discussions on the reading we did and that Pastor Rick is preaching on each week. That way, we can all come to a better understanding of what God's word is telling us and what He wants us to know. It should be an exciting time for our congregation.
Our son Kelly's family came over and ate lunch with us and after they left we packed up and left for the park which is a little complicated since the camper lives with our kids. We have to pack a cooler and wait till the next morning to use the fridge since it takes awhile to get cold. But though it isn't perfect it works out for us.
The weather stayed beautiful although it did warm up again mid week.
We still enjoy camping although we are not as active as we once were. We used to do a lot of hiking but, it seems like we have gotten lazy and do a lot of just sitting around. Some days we even sit inside and read or take naps if it gets too warm. We had campfires each evening since the temps were reasonable and several of our friends came over one night and we shared a wonderful meal with them.
Wednesday morning came too soon. We packed up and are now back home ready for what tomorrow will bring.
Perhaps to some this does not sound very exciting. But perhaps it will give you pause to think about the special things in your life.
Many times it is the little things that make life worthwhile. A babys smile the color or a sunset or the smell of fried chicken. I'm sure it is different for everyone but all of us need to remember and appriciate each of those moments for what they are. Too many times, sadly we let them slip by withour notice. Then they are gone, never to return.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Dreamwork
I couldn't sleep the other night. I had already been in bed the better part of 2 hours and still felt wide awake. Most of us have had times when the more we try, the harder it is to rest, so I decided to get up. I thought wandering the house for awhile would be better than tossing and turning until 4:00 a.m. in the morning.
It always seems so quiet in my house after midnight. You can even hear the clocks ticking. Something I never notice in the daylight hours.
Very different than daytime, when usually it is anything but quiet here. Living on the main road going through town, there are always cars buzzing up and down in a constant effort to get to, who knows where. Back and forth, then back and forth again. If you sit there frequently you notice many go by only to see them headed the opposite way only a few minutes later. (When we had small foster children or grandbabies we would sit on the glider on the front deck and entertain the little ones just watching the cars pass by. "There goes a red truck, that way! There goes a black car, that way! Opps, we almost missed that red one!") Daily, we have constant activity at the legal services and phycologist offices next door and to add to the noise level, we also live in a dog friendly neighborhood with dogs that frequently enjoy barking at each other. People are in and out of the house, the young man next door has a motorcycle as do his friends, the washer or dryer are often running and the TV is on several hours each day.
So as I was saying "quiet" is not the norm throughout the day.
But, late in the night it is different. Occasionally a car passes or you hear the hum of an oncoming train and the sound of it's warning whistle. Listen closely and you will hear the whistle at every major crossing throughout town. Five in all. It is a familiar, comforting quiet.
I sat down in the small, upholstered, rocker that I bought from a sweet neighbor several years ago. She had fallen and was moveing to an assisted living home. I bought the chair because Mom was coming to stay with us and it reminded of the little rocker she used at home. At the time I didn't care much for the style, but, I thought she would be comfortable sitting in it. I was right. She was so pleased that she would not sit in any other chair for more than short periods of time. She said it felt just like sitting in her own chair at home. So I was very glad I had it. Now that she is gone I have come to love the little chair, because, when I sit down and close my eyes I see her sitting there reading, doing her crossword puzzles or crocheting and I remember the pleasure it gave her. It makes me feel like she is close by.
A little while later I got up, but, I was still not ready to go back to my own bed. So I went into our middle bedroom and laid down on the old iron bed that once belonged to Wayne's grandparents. Lying there I thought back to the years of raising our children, (this was our son Kelly's room) and the foster children that shared our home. It is the smallest of the three bedrooms, but, it is quite amazing how much furniture you could put in there. We once had a double bed, a set of bunk beds, 2 chests of drawers and a very large bookshelf that covered most of one entire wall. Admittedly, there was not a lot of room to spare, but, it worked for our purposes at the time. I've often wondered why people today seem to think they need to have such large houses.
Now, Wayne and I use the front bedroom, (our daughter, April's room). It is next to the bathroom and is bright and sunny when we wake up. We enjoy sleeping there although, I admit, I do miss the big closet in the back room. The bedroom that originally was ours is now the TV room, or, as we joke, it is his (Man's Room). Actually, it really is Wayne's room and I have even tried to decorate it with him in mind.
As I was laying on the old bed I got a little chilly and pulled a quilt over myself.
I was finally getting very sleepy, but, before I dozed off, I realized I had wrapped myself in a quilt that my Grandma Price had made for me when I was just a small girl. It is now quite tattered and I don't usually use it much anymore because of it's condition. The quilt has many small, bright colored pieces of material in it. It is made of shirts my daddy and brothers wore, and pieces of dresses and aprons that Momma and Grandma wore and so many other little bits of our lives. Each with a memory, perhaps a skirt that belonged to one of my sisters or peddle pushers (capris) that were made for me, there are even several small pices that were the same as the little dresses my sister had made for my precious baby doll. They are faded memories, some I can't quite bring into focus. Faded but like the quilt, they are memories that mean so much to me. Memories that take me back and connect me to my past.
In many ways life is like that patchwork quilt. Lots and lots of tiny peices, some more important than others but all of them connected, held togather and connected by the threads of history.
My memories carried me to sleep that night. I was no longer restless but wrapped in the love of my special family and I slept peacefully until morning.
It always seems so quiet in my house after midnight. You can even hear the clocks ticking. Something I never notice in the daylight hours.
Very different than daytime, when usually it is anything but quiet here. Living on the main road going through town, there are always cars buzzing up and down in a constant effort to get to, who knows where. Back and forth, then back and forth again. If you sit there frequently you notice many go by only to see them headed the opposite way only a few minutes later. (When we had small foster children or grandbabies we would sit on the glider on the front deck and entertain the little ones just watching the cars pass by. "There goes a red truck, that way! There goes a black car, that way! Opps, we almost missed that red one!") Daily, we have constant activity at the legal services and phycologist offices next door and to add to the noise level, we also live in a dog friendly neighborhood with dogs that frequently enjoy barking at each other. People are in and out of the house, the young man next door has a motorcycle as do his friends, the washer or dryer are often running and the TV is on several hours each day.
So as I was saying "quiet" is not the norm throughout the day.
But, late in the night it is different. Occasionally a car passes or you hear the hum of an oncoming train and the sound of it's warning whistle. Listen closely and you will hear the whistle at every major crossing throughout town. Five in all. It is a familiar, comforting quiet.
I sat down in the small, upholstered, rocker that I bought from a sweet neighbor several years ago. She had fallen and was moveing to an assisted living home. I bought the chair because Mom was coming to stay with us and it reminded of the little rocker she used at home. At the time I didn't care much for the style, but, I thought she would be comfortable sitting in it. I was right. She was so pleased that she would not sit in any other chair for more than short periods of time. She said it felt just like sitting in her own chair at home. So I was very glad I had it. Now that she is gone I have come to love the little chair, because, when I sit down and close my eyes I see her sitting there reading, doing her crossword puzzles or crocheting and I remember the pleasure it gave her. It makes me feel like she is close by.
A little while later I got up, but, I was still not ready to go back to my own bed. So I went into our middle bedroom and laid down on the old iron bed that once belonged to Wayne's grandparents. Lying there I thought back to the years of raising our children, (this was our son Kelly's room) and the foster children that shared our home. It is the smallest of the three bedrooms, but, it is quite amazing how much furniture you could put in there. We once had a double bed, a set of bunk beds, 2 chests of drawers and a very large bookshelf that covered most of one entire wall. Admittedly, there was not a lot of room to spare, but, it worked for our purposes at the time. I've often wondered why people today seem to think they need to have such large houses.
Now, Wayne and I use the front bedroom, (our daughter, April's room). It is next to the bathroom and is bright and sunny when we wake up. We enjoy sleeping there although, I admit, I do miss the big closet in the back room. The bedroom that originally was ours is now the TV room, or, as we joke, it is his (Man's Room). Actually, it really is Wayne's room and I have even tried to decorate it with him in mind.
As I was laying on the old bed I got a little chilly and pulled a quilt over myself.
I was finally getting very sleepy, but, before I dozed off, I realized I had wrapped myself in a quilt that my Grandma Price had made for me when I was just a small girl. It is now quite tattered and I don't usually use it much anymore because of it's condition. The quilt has many small, bright colored pieces of material in it. It is made of shirts my daddy and brothers wore, and pieces of dresses and aprons that Momma and Grandma wore and so many other little bits of our lives. Each with a memory, perhaps a skirt that belonged to one of my sisters or peddle pushers (capris) that were made for me, there are even several small pices that were the same as the little dresses my sister had made for my precious baby doll. They are faded memories, some I can't quite bring into focus. Faded but like the quilt, they are memories that mean so much to me. Memories that take me back and connect me to my past.
In many ways life is like that patchwork quilt. Lots and lots of tiny peices, some more important than others but all of them connected, held togather and connected by the threads of history.
My memories carried me to sleep that night. I was no longer restless but wrapped in the love of my special family and I slept peacefully until morning.
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