Remember when

     I was remembering when I was a child and how Saturday was a big day for us. On Saturdays we took the extra eggs and cream that Mom had skimmed from the milk and headed to town. It was a big place LOL.
     There was a Pentecost Church , beauty Shop and the general store combined with the post office.
      The store carried everything you could think of sort of the Wal-Mart of today. A one stop shopping place.
   With the money we got from eggs and cream mom got sugar, flour and things we needed and we usually got a  bottle of pop and bag of salted peanuts which came to a dime.Of course we dumped the peanuts in the pop . Yum!
     There was a pot bellied stove in the back of the store near  the post office and benches and chairs around where the men sat and talked ( gossiped). Some played checkers.
      We got permanents at the beauty shop once with this machine with long cords that were put in our hair.
       Today the buildings are still there but the beauty shop is empty, a friend lives in the store/post office and some one lives in the church. A new church was built on the highway a few years ago. The post office closed and everyone was given a new address and our mail comes from the next county away.

Untamed by Lisa Harper

 I read this book and will review it here.
 It is a book about God and how strong and awsome He is. I found it interesting and thought provoking  as far as some questions she asked between the chapters.
However I will not reccomend it because of her trinitarian remarks as far as "Her God".
It does not match my beliefs as I have 1 God.

I remember.......

      Last night after I went to bed I was thinking about my childhood and I was remembering when I was 3 or 4 I loved to go to school.
      Most days my Mom would walk to the mailbox which was a couple miles or more from our house. The school was about half way. It was of course a 1 room school with grades 1-8 there. My Mom would stop to rest and get drink from the well and walk on to the  mailbox. I always begged to stay there while she went one and usually she would let me.Sometimes I got to stay the rest of the day and walk home with my sister.
       I remember one day Mom was doing our laundry out in the yard in a big iron pot and I asked her if I could go to school. She told me no, because my dress was dirty and she did not have time to clean me up and take me.
       I went inside and changed my dress and sneaked out. I decided I'd take the wagon path because it was low with high sides and she would not see me.  When I reached the far corner there she stood waiting with a switch as she missed me and came "Catty Corner" and beat me there.
        Yes, she whipped me because I wanted to go to school and I teased her about it for years but I really knew she whipped me because I disobeyed.

My Dad

  Yes, it is Father's Day weekend and I couldn't resist writing about my Dad. He has been gone for over 16 years and I miss him and Momma so much.
   My Dad was a quiet man. I can't remember ever hearing him say anything bad about anyone. I do remember one man he did not like but  my sister and I never knew why but he would not do business with him.
I remember my dad carrying me on his shoulders down the wagon trail to our house when I was small.
   I do not think he ever whipped me and if he did I don't remember it. He expected Momma to do that because my sister and I were girls.
   Once I had taken my glasses off and given them to him and he placed them in his shirt pocket and forgot about it  and went to  barn to take care of the animals. When he went to draw water from the well my glasses fell in.He borrowed a pump the next day from his boss and pumped the well dry to get my glasses out.
  My Dad was a soft touch and would give anyone anything he had if they needed it. He loved his kids and grandkids.
  He loved to hunt and fish and ginseng hunted until a few years before he died. He fell one day and broke his ankle and rescue people had to go find him. He never hunted after that.
  He took us to Church for years and went faithfully until his death.
   I was blessed to have such a wonderful earthly Father.

Grandkids and falling in love

  My 19 year old granddaughter has a boyfriend. She lives here in Illinois and he works in the Dakotas on the oil rigs. He is gone a couple months and back here 10 days and repeat. so they have lots of time apart and my granddaughter really misses him when he is gone.
 She said her mom says she goes from excitement to being grouchy the nearer it comes to his time home. She worries that if she cares for him something will go wrong.
 As I mentioned yesterday my heart son Robert is in Ok. with his wife as she has the day  to spend with him tomorrow after graduating today. Then he will return back here and leave her for 10 more weeks.
  Young love is hard!

Sweethearts

  My heart son Robert posted on face book today that he was happy for the first time in a long time. I know he is referring to the first part of April when his bride of 6 weeks, Amanda left for the military. Today he got to see her. It seems to have been more important to him than his first ride in a plane to Ok.
   I know when he has to leave this week end and come home it will be rough for him as he knows it will be 10 more weeks before he gets to see her again. Then he is concerned as to where she will be sent after these 10 weeks and if it will be somewhere he can go along with her.
   Amanda calls him quite frequently and hearing her voice helps some but it just don't replace getting a hug and kiss.
    My hubby and I have been married 50 years this year and still don't like to be away from him and I'm sure it is much harder on the young ones.

parents/children

  I keep hearing ideas to encourage parents to do things with their children and got to thinking of how different it is today than when I was a child.
   When I was a child we did everything with our parents whether it was plowing and planting a garden, fishing, camping or going to neighbours for a visit. We did not have camping equipment such as sleeping bags, coolers, tents etc. We camped beside the stream at Belle Smith ( a recreation area here in Shawnee Natl. Forest) and slept on blankets and looked at the stars. Dad and his cousin would fish the next day while "the kids" waded and swam in the little water hole by where we camped.We repeated this several times a year.
   It seems now that some parents don't want to spend time with their children and are busy planning things for them do so they won't be bothered with them. As soon as school is out they start sending their children to all sorts of camps so they will be gone all summer.

Children's book The Interdimensional Dumpster by Ray Connor

     This is one of the free books I won. It is about a 10 year old boy and his friends who were all adopted. Willie liked to play video games and  finding out he was found in a dumpster where a robber had jumped in.When the police looked inside they found only Willie. The policeman and his wife adopted Willie. Willie and his friends all went to the dumpster and discovered it took them inside a video game and Willie was a prince.
     It was a good read and I think most young boys would like it.

My son James

    James is the 3rd of my 5 sons. He suffers with dyslexia and was always in special Ed. As a result he became the comedian and has spent his life making people laugh.
    Some people don't know whether he is telling a story or telling the truth that way they don't know if he don't know something or just making a joke.
    He has worked as a CNA for about 25 years with his wife of as many years and he keeps the residents laughing by telling them he is feeding them skunk belly bacon, buzzard eggs, or some other nonsense.I know the Hospice people will always remember how to prepare a "possum". He is very well liked and recently named CNA of the year resulting in going to National convention later this month in Okla.
   James is dad to 3 girls and pawpaw to 6 grands.

Our attempt to having transportation

    This morning we went to DMV to get tags
for our " new " car. It is a 91 Ford Taurus. It was a 2 hour wait but at least it was air conditioned. When we were called I realized I did not have my wallet so had no drivers license and part of the money designated. Bummer. The last was nice and asked for something so she could bring up my license so I produced a letter from Social Security with my address, SS# and she was able to get the information she needed.
    Tags in hand we stopped at auto parts store
 to purchase a radiator. I remained in the truck and sweltered. On to Wally World for transmission fluid, antifreeze, wiper blades and I waited in the truck.
    At last we are home and hubby starts to put in radiator. I check every hour or so to make sure he is ok. After about 3 hours  I hear a loud bang and I actually think I may have ran ( something I have not done in a long time)  out the door and there he stood with steam going every where. A radiator hose had busted! Thank God he was not hurt.
However it means another trip to town in the morning because we want to be able to go to church tomorrow night.

Family Ties

  My son called from Ga. tonight to tell me " You can't guess who I found on Facebook!" I did not try as there are so many people there. So he told me it was his daughter in Calif. that he has not seen since 1991 when she was just over  1 year old.
He was excited.
  I told him I had checked several times to see if she was on facebook but had not been able to find her. I have thought of her many times and counted her years as she had another birthday. Now she is all grown up but I still see the pretty little granddaughter that I remember from years ago.
  I may never get to see here again here on earth but as long as I have breath I will remember and count her among the 19 grandchildren I have.

Where I Belong

   I hear lots of people commenting that they aren't sure of where they belong. I got to thinking about it and decided I am where I belong.
   My grandfathers were born in this county of Southern Illinois as well as both my parents, my sister and myself. I now live on land owned by my grandparents when I was small and I'm a couple miles from where we lived when I can first remember.
   My first memories were of the home ( my grandparents owned it too) where we had to get in and out by wagon. We had no phones, no electricity, no indoor plumbing . I remember my mom washing our clothes in the iron kettle in the back yard. We had an ice box but rarely any ice so if we wanted something kept cool it was put in the water bucket and put in the well. We had a dinner bell in the back yard and if there was an emergency ( fire, illness, accident) it was rang and neighbours came to help.
  My dad hunted and trapped and I remember he and mom skinning the animals he had caught and stretching the hides on  boards to dry.
  We moved a few miles away when I was 5 years old  to Dixon Springs and we had electricity there and a used refrigerator. It was there I rode the bus to Robbs School for 3 years and the 4th year to Bay Valley School.
  When I was in 5th grade we moved back a couple miles from here and had crank phone and got our first used TV.
  We moved to Metropolis Il. in 1957. Still no indoor plumbing.... I lived there when I got married in 1961 and my first two sons were born there.
  We moved around Illinois for a few years and even to St Louis, Mo. but came back here ( home).Later we moved to McCook Neb. and came back here. In early 1980's we got in door plumbing and finished raising our kids here. I moved to Ga. in 1991 and stayed 20 years and came back home again and I am contented to stay so unless God has other plans this is where I belong.

Good reading

     
      I finished a good book today.It's title is "All the Fullness" by David Campbell. It was about  the fullness of the Godhead being in Jesus Christ.
       It reminded me that we all do not serve the same God or gods.  Some of us worship our homes, some  cars, children and on and on.  We need to stop and take a look as to what is "most" important to us.What ever we place highest in our priorities is our god.      

Grief

    This may not be a good way to start my blog but the anniversary of the death of my son Terry is coming up this month and grief hangs over my shoulder. I'm not sure that a day ever passes that he is not on my mind but days like Jan 24th which would have been his 43 birthday are hard as well as family dinners because even though I'm glad to be with my other children and grand children I miss Terry.
   My daughter called today and she is feeling the nearness of the first anniversary and we cried together.
   Cancer is a terrible task master and we watched him slowly waste away.As parents you don't expect to have to bury your children and my heart goes out to all who have did this or will have to in the future.
   Experiencing this made me promise myself that I would treat my neighbors and friends better than we were treated during his illness and funeral. So far I can say I think I have and I want to continue to do this.