Archive | DiVoran Lites My Take- Monday RSS feed for this section

Gone With the Wind

10 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Wednesday was my birthday, so Bill took me to the Orange County History Center in Orlando to see an exhibit from the 1939 movie, “Gone With the Wind,” on its seventy-fifth year anniversary. I asked if I could take pictures and they said I could as long as I didn’t use a flash. Years ago that would have defeated me, but technology has now made great cameras possible.

I was a year old when the movie came out. I didn’t see it, then of course, nor even when I grew up. I’ve now watched it twice. It’s sad that its author, Margaret Mitchell only wrote that one book before she was hit by a car on the street in Atlanta and died. I did read that. I borrowed it from the Custer County, Colorado library when I was twelve and in eighth grade. It was the first book, and one of the few books that made me cry.

Sydney Howard wrote the script. other writers were called in to whittle on it some more, but Sidney Howard got the Oscar for it and there was no mention of the other writers during the Academy Awards.

1

 It’s a Remington Noiseless Portable in its own case. There’s a pencil on the side and something in a small box that could have been a typewriter eraser.

2

The one on your left was Vivian Leigh’s. Sydney Howard’s would have looked like the one on your right, that might even be the very one that was given to him.

The main actors got a bound copy of the script. One belonged to Hattie McDaniel who was the first African American person ever to win an Oscar. Hers was for best supporting actress.

3

 

Clothes and costumes are of a hobby of mine, so I was mostly interested in those. Here’s Hattie McDaniel’s. Small mannequins wear many of the costumes in the exhibit.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

We’ve all seen movies where someone is cinching up a corset, and aren’t we glad and thankful that we don’t have to dress like that anymore.

“Shaped corsets, 16 layers of fabric, and a myriad of accessories made dressing in Belle Epoche fashion a time-consuming affair.” Debbie Sessions,

http://www.vintagedancer.com/1920s/1920s-style-guide-womens-fashion/

 

Many actors and actresses made screen tests.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

I saw some of the screen tests and thought it must have been difficult to choose and cast the best actors for the rolls. Bette Davis desperately wanted the role of Scarlett, and she would have been good in it because Scarlett was the kind of unhappy woman Bette often played, but to her dismay Bette was never in the running.

Where are they all now?

1 Peter 1:24-25 Amplified Bible (AMP)

24 For all flesh (mankind) is like grass, and all its glory (honor) like [the] flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower drops off,

25 But the Word of the Lord ([a]divine instruction, the Gospel) endures forever. And this Word is the good news which was preached to you.

They have gone with the wind, as we all will someday, so let us enjoy every moment of this one life we have and live with Christ in our hearts until He decides it’s time for us to move on.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Fall is in the Air

3 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and Artist

Some people call it fall, some say Autumn. It is time for leaves to change and the weather to grow cooler.

This morning as I left the house, I looked forward to my walk on the trail, but one block up I saw many parked cars and a few signs that said, “Garage Sale.” Oops. Oh well, I’d get almost as much exercise going around to greet my neighbors and pursue their histories as I would walking the trail.

 

The first house was Ester’s, she had an orange sherbet-shirt with sparkling jeweled sea horses on it. It said, “Dixie Crossroads,” and since I eat there fairly frequently and always want one of those tee-shirts, I asked her to hold it for me while I went home to get some money.

3

Ester started to tell me about being sorry that she had fired our mutual handy-man, Hal. We had heard his side of it too. Ester’s young helper told her to tend to business so I said goodbye and left, my tee-shirt was in good hands. Ester is 80 and has dialysis three times a week, but she still exudes a love of life and a sharp mind.

At the next sale the homeowner had bright eyes and a bowl-type haircut. From her I bought a bed for my cat Jasmine, some pretty Melmac dishes to use for plant saucers, and a brand new timer just like the forty-year-old one I gave away a month ago. I missed it.

Bill was interested in what I was doing home so soon and laughed when I told him about the “garage” sale. Our handy-man, Hal, was with him. We’ve had to do without him once or twice, and I tell you it was hard, just as Ester had started to say.

A few weeks ago, Hal got a, new-to-him car from Car Care. It’s a ministry run by a wonderfully experienced mechanic, Ray, and his wife Alice, (who does the paper work) at the Indian River Methodist Church on howdy fifty called Car-Care. Hal is pretty much destitute even though he works hard much of the time and Car Care was looking for someone to give a refurbished car to (for a small pittance). Hal ended up with a Ford Taurus he needed so he could go to work and go fishing. He loved his old Datsun pick-up, but every time he drove it heated up and wouldn’t start again. The body had patches welded on it. Now he was ga-ga over his Taurus, and couldn’t say enough about its AC, Cruise Control, and great engine. He sounded like a man in love. I think that was why he corrected me when I told him and Bill I’d been to a, “garage sale.” Almost to himself he said, “yard sale,” “flea market.” For a moment he must have hoped there might be something for his beloved car there. I must admit, I haven’t kept up well with the nomenclature, either. Probably everyone is calling them yard sales nowadays. After the two extra trips home, one to get my money and one to take my goodies, I decided to walk the trail after all. I was glad I did. What a gorgeous day!

4

Another reason I was glad was because I got to see another sight I saw and admired so much yesterday. A teacher in our school here has begun to take school children for bike rides on the trail – all properly helmeted, of course. Yesterday there were eighteen third graders zooming around me. There were fewer today and they were moving a bit more slowly. In fact, after the first one, they all needed to be waved at. It was easy. I raised my hand like an English princess and kept it moving until all had passed. “You’re making a lot of kids happy,” I shouted to the tail-end teacher. She grinned and waved back. Ah fall. Fall in paradise. It couldn’t be better.

5

 

 

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me. Psalm 16:6

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The Accidental Death of my Cell Phone

27 Oct

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and ArtistDid you notice the smudge on my new hot-pink purse in the picture in my last blog – the one about getting my new driver’s license?pink 31 bag

Here’s what happened. Rebekah Lyn asked if I wanted to go downtown with her Saturday evening when they were having an algorithms art show down there. Please don’t ask me what that is, I still don’t know.

But, I’m usually up for an art show of any kind so I said yes, and I would pick her up. As I pulled out of my driveway I noticed that the hood ornament that rode home with me from the driver’s license bureau was waiting on a windshield wiper for another ride, a traveling brown lizard as common as a butterfly here in Florida where I live.

Gotta be honest. I’m not crazy about lizards, but I don’t like to see the cats get them or see them blown off a car only to get run over by another car. When I stopped in front of Rebekah Lyn’s condo, I reached for a spatula I’ve been meaning to give back to my daughter and 1tried to chase him off into the grass. He ran this way and that. Rebekah came out of her house laughing at me. Has she never seen a person chasing a lizard with a spatula before?

The window was open on her side and she said he was going to go in it. I knew she was right so I threw down my spatula, jerked open the car door so I could get to the key and put the window up and slammed the door, not thinking about having stuffed my purse in the door pocket before I left home.

The lizard ran down into an opening where the windshield wipers go. I didn’t see him again until Bill and I ran errands in his van yesterday and he was there to ride along. Everybody likes Bill better than me, but I don’t let it get to me. I like him better too.

Anyhow, after we parked behind some businesses down town and I reached for my purse, I realized it had fallen out, so we got back in the car and drove back to Rebekah Lyn’s. We saw the purse lying in the street right where we’d left it, grabbed it and headed back downtown. However when I checked to see whether everything was still there I noticed one of the zippers was very stiff, then I noticed the tire marks on the purse. Then Rebekah Lyn asked how my cell phone, which was in a pocket was, then I got it out and it was d-e-a-d, dead. Old cell phone from long ago. I rejoiced. It was finally time for a smart phone. Lots of people have phones now that are smarter than they are, and I will no longer be an exception, except I suspect that my old phone was… Never mind.

That was it except that when I went to use my credit card at the pet store the next day, they said it wouldn’t work, so I had to buy ten cans of salmon with cash.

Our daughter and her husband are helping us with new cell phones. Bill gets one too. We’re getting I Phones 5 c or s I can’t remember which and I’m looking forward to having a good camera with me always so that when I get a lizard on car I can take his picture before I brush him off.

“A lizard can be caught with the hand, (not by me, and Rebekah Lyn wouldn’t catch him, either) yet it is found in kings’ palaces.” Proverbs 30:28

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Driver’s License

20 Oct

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and ArtistWe have a new driver’s license and tax office in our town, directly behind the sheriff’s department building. And of course we have a few new rules, as well. When I went to get my new driver’s license I took every piece of identification I had from my whole life just in case: passport, copy of birth certificate, marriage certificate and so on. Bill called ahead to see if I’d have to take the test, and they said it wasn’t based on age, it was based on the opinion of the agent who waited on me at the license bureau. That was scary. Sometimes I forget shor-term stuff so recent it happened only a tick ago. I had tried for weeks to get a driver’s license handbook in case, but they are very hard to find and the directions on the internet looked daunting.

I meant to take my iPod in with me so I could listen to my audible book while I was waiting, but I’d already drawn my number by the time I noticed I’d left it in the car, so I stuck it out. They have news and entertainment notices on a screen now, so what with that and looking around I did all right until it was my turn.

One thing I had noticed while I waited was that the young woman at desk 10 seemed to have plenty of patience, exactly as if she had plenty of time, which she obviously didn’t because of the waiting crowd. Besides that, she looked like a little girl in a well-filled black dress, wearing a good sized hot-pink bow in her long curly hair with highlights. She didn’t look as if she could ever hurt anybody in any way. Guess what. She called the number just before mine. She called it again, and again. No one got up. Then she called mine.

It all went as smooth as rain on a window, even the part where I showed her the report from my optometrist that said I now have twenty-twenty vision so we could take the glasses restriction off the license. She seemed to give a little hum of delight that such a good thing could happen for someone.

She stood me against a blue backdrop and took my picture with a mounted camera. I said something pink 31 bagabout how bad driver’s license photos usually are and she asked if I’d like to see it. I had the impression that if it was awful she’d take it over, but it was better than the one I’d had for ten years or however long it has been. The new license popped out of a machine, no temporary paper license, no waiting. I slipped it into a slot in my hot-pink combination purse and wallet. Then I purchased a voucher for a new license plate which is being put out by the sheriff’s department. I asked for a driver’s license instruction handbook for a friend who has to take the test, but who isn’t equipped to read it on the internet. They just got them in, no problem. She handed it to me.

 

I went away rejoicing.

“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”

Isaiah 55:12

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I’m in the Hangar Again

13 Oct

My Take

DiVoran Lites

IAuthor, Poet and Artist‘m in Bill’s hanger in the backyard with my two cats, Jasmine and Lily. I come out here when the flea spray man comes once a month. It’s a beautiful workshop with door sized counters on three sides where you can work, 117 framed pictures of airplanes, 67 airplane books and two shelves of three ring binders with airplane pictures in them, many airplanes, and a lot of equipment. Bill cleaned off a space for my computer, and it feels good to write someplace else for a change. The cats don’t like change though so I’m playing, “Through a Cat’s Ears.” In order to keep them calm. It helps me anyhow, even if they still aren’t happy.

Today we’re out here because we’re having our bathtub painted. We moved into our house in 1965 and the fixtures in the family bathroom were sea foam green as was the tile. About six years ago, when we got new cabinets, the toilet tank broke. Bill epoxied the toilet and it held together, but it now showed an ugly scar. Then the sink started rusting where the little metal stopper goes and I couldn’t get it clean.

Eventually, I got tired of the bathroom looking so bad and we started shopping for new fixtures. We could get a nice toilet and sink and have them put in, but we didn’t want to remove the tub and take a chance of breaking the tiles and having to replace them all.

So Bill called the company that had painted our friends’ tub. Today when the man called to tell us the techs were on their way I ventured the question I’d been pondering the past few weeks: how toxic is this stuff, anyhow.

Bill told me they had explained the whole process to him. They remove the grout, clean the tub, repair any dings, ETCH the tub, and spray on the paint. That did sound toxic, and I was right.

I asked the man with the beautiful Irish accent whether the stuff the tub people use is toxic or not and he said, “Ah, yea, it’s nasty stuff. Yea, best you go to another part of the house while they’re spraying. Afterwards, close the door and stuff towels under it, if you have a window, open it.”

“No window — exhaust fan?” I asked.

“Yea, that will help.”

So here we are in our safe place.

Epilogue: the new tub is beautiful and matches the other fixtures. The sea foam tiles all around are still sea foam. I intend to keep the bathroom the cleanest it’s ever been. And yea, I think I’m going to have to do something about the grout now, but what?

1

 

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

The Science Project

6 Oct

Author, Poet and ArtistWhen I invited my friend, six-grader, Natasha, to allow me to help her where she was stuck with her reading I never dreamed the connection might morph into that dreaded thing, a science project!

I don’t think I’ve ever done one. I would remember, wouldn’t I? My son turned out to be a scientist (biologist) so I suppose he did one or two. I taught him and my daughter to cook, does that count?

The first time Natasha and I worked on the science project after school was the first day I decided to have decaf coffee for my afternoon cuppa. My brain was totally fried, I was confused and had the beginning of a headache which later developed into a real zinger. In one place Natasha put her head in her hand with her cornrow braids and their big beads hanging down. I thought the gig was up for me.

We did get some things done and another day we worked on it some more, then yesterday I picked her up from chorus and we came to my house. I had my coffee this time. I’m going to have to break myself of it grain by grain, I guess.

Anyhow, we had done some work on the botany-type project. We got our containers, and mediums and she’d written her hypothesis, and her question and we’d read the instructions – goodness how hard they are! I should have only read the numbered topics. Those I understood.

Before she came I was getting that tight feeling in my chest that tells me I’m anxious. Oh, what shall I do. I don’t want to be like this. I prayed. As always I asked God to show me the truth of the situation. The thought came to me that I might as well stop acting like a big-shot who knew everything and tell her I’d never done one before.

As it happens Natasha has done at least three of them. She was undismayed at my confession. I think putting our heads together did help her.

We got it all started, and then we took photos. I showed her how to use the digital camera and the computer to enhance and print them. We’ll take more sets of pictures as time goes on. She will measure the progress of the items ten times over a period of a couple of months. Her mom is going to have a baby soon. We talked about this project being Natasha’s baby and how she’ll have to think about it and write something every day, because that’s was in the instructions. We had fun. We talked about doing some art to go with it. We like to do art. Natasha said she has to do a graph. I nervously asked if she knew how. She described the process to me and then I knew I could lend aid whenever possible, but that she’s going to do a good job and I completely turn loose of it. What a relief.

I think I’ll look up the website printed on the instructions and learn something, http://www.sciencebuddies.org/ We’re on our way.

 

1

 

 

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Do You Read Self-Help Books

29 Sep

My Take

DiVoran Lites

 

Author, Poet and ArtistIt’s confession time. Raise your hands if you like to read self-help books. I see not many of you have them up. Mine would be, though, if I didn’t have to keep my fingers on the keys. Yep, whether it’s The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale, or How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie, I love a good, well- written, intelligent self-help book. Some of the more modern ones I’ve read have been Inspired and Unstoppable, by Tama Kieves, and A Course in Miracles, which, not knowing that it majors on Jesus Christ and His Atonement, I avoided for years. I’m so glad I read them all. The list would reach all the way back to Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, and The Feminine Mystique, which patrons recommended when I was working as a stylist for Magic Mirror Beauty Salons in Inglewood California.

Even now, I could give you the central idea from each book because they changed my life for the better. When I was a young mother I read Dr. Spock. I lived in that metropolis which is Los Angeles and had no one to tell me what to do with a brand new baby. In subsequent years we heard a lot of complaining about that one, but not everyone who criticized it had actually read it. Our children turned out so well, I was grateful for it. When I became a Christian I liked Dr. James Dobson’s books on child rearing. I’ve read books on psychiatry and psychology, religion, and Christianity, cooking, and cleaning. I’ve read How to dress, how to write journals, poems, novels and memoir. I couldn’t begin to tell you all the books I’ve read.

One that really stands out is, A Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, by Hannah Whitehall Smith. I’d recommend that one to anyone who wants to live a truly happy Christian life.

Long ago, I decided that I needed a standard for all these books. Oh, it wouldn’t matter, maybe about the cooking ones, but I wanted a solid philosophy to measure ideas against. I decided on the Holy Bible and it has never failed to keep me on track. I’ve read it over in many different translations and in different ways, such as topical studies, memorization, verse comparisons, and as straight story.

I majored for a semester to become a media specialist so I could work in a school library. It seemed people in the library world did not believe in censorship. That was a change for me, because I’d always been told in one way or another which books I could read and which ones I couldn’t. Books exist that could lead a person in the wrong direction, that’s for sure, but in general, I’m now of the opinion that I can read what I want because my wants are lined up with those of the Master.

I can’t imagine where I’d be if I hadn’t had all those wonderful and interesting books to read. It has been my major education and I’m deeply grateful for the much needed healing they have brought to me and to the ones I love because they have changed me for the better.

The one thing I’m seeing now is that I can read synopses and blurbs and decide whether I need that book or not. For a while, I was interested in various religious practices that show you how to live in the present, how to seek angels, etc. But I’ve found a wonderful secret now, I can short circuit all the hard work, study, meditation, that comes with that sort of thing and just ask Jesus to tell me the truth about anything and he puts thoughts in my head that because of my acquaintance with the Bible, I know are true, right, and good. These thoughts set things straight for me in a miraculous way and I thank the Lord Jesus Christ and His Spirit for being there for me.

 

John 8:23

You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free

 

Surfers

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Getting More Than You Give~Part 2

22 Sep

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and ArtistVolunteers from large organization help a large number of people. But not everyone is in a position to do that. That makes me wonder if a seemingly smaller contribution has less importance. When I think of Denisha, I know the answer is a simple no.

Some members of Danisha’s family are in jail. Some have been shot. There’s not a lot of money in the family. Danisha, however has a job. She works hard, even though she has gone through multiple surgeries as the result of an automobile accident. Denisha seems to be the guardian angel of a family of cousins and sisters and their children. One girl-child is under guardianship with Danisha now. She has brought others to church for many years. Several of them have invited Christ into their lives.

My little Sunday School class has a different number of these children attending almost every Sunday. I like them a lot! They remind me of the child I was, and the kids I knew in our small, plain community in Colorado long ago. Danisha says that her grandmother brought her to church and her uncle who is an elder in our church included her in family get-togethers. She had her troubles as a young adult, but she came into the love of Christ and it made all the difference.

Danisha, often brings edible treats for our Sunday School refreshment time. A few Sundays ago she missed most of the church service to go after hamburgers for the seven kids who attended our class that day. Last Sunday she headed out for pizza. Before she left, she asked the children what kind of pizza they wanted. The verdict was: one pepperoni pizza and one cheese. We were all hungry and excited.

While we waited, we had rhythm band and singing. Then Mr. Lites prayed for them. Next as I searched through my store of books for the right story I came to a Jack Prelutsky book of poetry. “Oh, I hope this is, A Pizza the Size of the Sun, I thought. It turned it was not only the book, but the poem of the same name appears on the first page. I picked it up and read with great feeling about a great pizza while the children listened rapt and salivating. Then I recalled that this was a “lesson,” so I said, “God is even better than pizza!” It might sound a bit lame, but given the fervor in the room when pizza was mentioned, I thought the idea just might seep into their little minds and lodge permanently in their brains.

A lot of learning takes place on the woodsy play ground outside, so we went out there to play on the swings and wait some more. We learn sharing, kindness, love, obedience, and maybe a bit of race relations. When we first got there we found a few frogs the size of the my thumbnail jumping around. Nature is always a part of our curriculum so we looked them over and one of the boys picked one up. Finally Danisha came with the pizza confessing that she had eaten the missing sliver as she headed back to church. We sat at picnic tables and dug in. Yum! That pizza was delicious! The kids ate and ate, we were all happy, but I suspect that the person who got the most joy out of the experience was Danisha.

Yes, there are many different kinds of volunteers, from people who do wonderful things in big organizations and help a lot of people to those who work hard, take on a guardianship, and bring the little ones to Jesus just as He commanded. All kinds of volunteerism gets passed down, all kinds of roll-models are needed.

volunteer

 

 

Psalm 68:6 New Living Translation (NLT)

“God places the lonely in families;
he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.

Tags: , , , , ,

I Never Met a Pizza I Didn’t Like

15 Sep

My Take

DiVoran Lites

 

Author, Poet and ArtistTo celebrate our 57th wedding anniversary, Bill and I went out for pizza. Mama Rosa’s, where we had planned go, was closed for vacation so we schlepped on down to Kelsey’s in Port St. John. We had already celebrated twice, having normally scheduled meals with family members and calling them celebrations, but this was the real thing on the real day.

Bill took me for my first pizza when I was eighteen years old. The restaurant was on Central Blvd in Albuquerque. It was also where he took me for my first lobster. Then when he decided to ask for my hand in marriage he took me there again. I liked lobster fine, and I liked the T-bone steaks at a small diner where they only cost $2.00 a plate, but the love of pizza stayed with me for the rest of my life (so far.)

We did get married and our first month in California where Bill was going to school, we spent every penny we had with barely enough to pay the rent. We didn’t even have money for food. I think we spent it on movies or something equally frivolous. Anyhow, Bill’s friend drove out from New Mexico to visit and our mothers sent care packages. They knew we’d developed a passion for pizza so between them they sent five boxes of Appian Way pizza mix and a pizza pan to bake them on. We got by.

Later when I had a job with Magic Mirror Beauty Salons and Bill worked part time cleaning airplanes our favorite pizza palace was Sir pizza. I’d stop there after a hard Saturday on my feet, get a pizza with everything (except anchovies and green peppers), stop at Thrifty Mart for a bottle of Thunderbird, and we’d spend our Saturday evening watching our tiny black and white T. V. and munching away at our pizza. We loved the cowboy shows such as, “Rawhide,” and “Wagon Train,” and it was a lovely thing to look forward as we went to work Saturday morning. “See ya later, alligator, after while, crocodile.”

We started out eating a whole small pizza between us, but now all we can manage is half, which is great because that means we can stick it in the oven for fifteen minutes the next day and enjoy it all over again.

Listen, the reason we both look kind of funny in this picture is that I asked a man who was in front of us in the paying line to take the picture and he wasn’t sure what he was doing and he took one and it didn’t flash and Bill said take another one and we were both wondering whether he was going to be able to manage it or not. You can see we weren’t overly anxious, but then again who had time to smile with all that going on. We really did enjoy ourselves and are planning many more pizza times to come. We’ll try Mama Rosa’s again on my seventy-sixth birthday which is coming up soon. Y’all come. (You see we live in the South now, so I’ve taken on Southern talk.)

1

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Honoring My Grandparents ~ Ida and Marie Bowers

7 Sep

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Here’s a funny thing. Ira and Marie Bowers were married on September 6, 1914 which means this month marks the 100th anniversary of their union. Bill and I were married on September 6, 1957 and will be celebrating our 57th. Grandmother and Granddad were married for over sixty years and it looks as if Bill and I will make that milestone as well – we’re close now, anyway.

1

I got to spend quite a lot of time with our grandparents. Throughout my childhood every summer I visited with them for a week. Grandmother wanted my brother and I to come separately because we fought too much when we were together. Sometimes I missed my family and our dog Brownie, but I wouldn’t trade the time with Marie and Ira for anything.

My first real memory of them was when I was somewhere between three and five years old and decided to take a walk. I’m sure I’d been taken around the block many times, but now that I was a “big girl” I could go on my own. At one point, I did feel a bit unsure of where I was, but I hadn’t crossed any streets so I kept going and ended up back at their big apartment house from where I had begun.

When I arrived back at the house there was a lot of agitation in the air. Apparently they thought I’d either been lost or kidnapped. It was a prison town, no one was really afraid, but there were certain things you adhered to in case someone escaped. Keeping an eye on your children was one of them. After grandmother discovered that I was all right, she told me to find granddad and tell him. Granddad was a man’s man, but he had a gentle side, and I knew it all my life. He was always gentle and quiet with me, never got angry or yelled or criticized, helped me stay out of trouble whenever he could AND when I found him standing in the big front bedroom where I usually slept, he was crying because he thought I was lost. That’s a pretty powerful message for a tot. I can see him now, tall and gray with his face in his hands.

Grandmother taught me so much. She let me vacuum, taught me how to wash windows and how to clean an oven with newspapers and ammonia. She let me walk to town with her, in and out of the bank, Penny’s, Rexall, and Red’s grocery. In Penney’s she taught me the names of all the beautiful fabrics. She was a hairdresser and she kept my hair nicely groomed, and made lovely clothes for me. She talked to me a lot and that was edifying too. When I was twelve she gave me her cowboys boots. They’d been members of the saddle-club and gone on long rides, but now they were giving it up and I got the boots. I loved them dearly and insisted on wearing them with everything.

Grandmother came from farming stock. She was the eldest of eleven children and always worked, even though later in life she was diagnosed with a congenital heart murmur. When her mother died she took in her youngest siblings who were close in age to her own boys, my dad and his brother.

2

 

She had her own beauty salon, and she and granddad also invested in a Victorian house on a shaded street which they turned into a lovely apartment house.

?????????????????????????????????

Granddad’s father was a horseman and also owned a general store. Granddad did all the repairs to his and grandmother’s house, took good care of the yard, and kept the car running. He was a guard at the penitentiary for many years. The camera swept over him in the movie, “Canon City,” which was about a prison break—part of his experiences too.

They were just my grandparents and I kind of lost touch with them in later years. I did try to write every week until the last of them was gone. Now, however hardly a day passes that I don’t remember something they taught me. I thank God for the love and the good influences they put into my life. I’d love to sit down with them now and have a wonderful visit. Someday that will happen.

3

This picture doesn’t look too happy, but honestly I think she just didn’t have the energy for everything she did and a toddler was hard. She loved me as passionately as any grandmother loves her grandchildren which was with all her heart.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →