Tag Archives: Family Life

We love Florida Springs Part 2

27 Feb

 A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

Bill

The Florida natural springs are some of the most beautiful and peaceful places I have ever experienced.  Floating down a quiet, cool, spring run on an inner tube in the middle of a hot and humid Florida day is one of the best stress relievers I can think of.  You can leave all your worries and cares back at the job and just lay there and drink in nature in all its glory.

 

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If it gets too hot for you, all you have to do is drop over the side into the water and cool off.  We found that snorkeling was another great way to explore the natural beauty of the springs.  A person can float along with the current and be surrounded with some of the most beautiful underwater scenes of plant life and fish.  Snorkeling also allows you to explore the spring “Boil” at the source of most of the springs.

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By far our favorite Florida spring is Ponce de Leon Springs located about 10 miles North of Deland, Florida.  This spring is rumored to have been visited and used by ancestors of the Seminole Indians as long as 6000 years ago.  In the early 1500’s history tells us that the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon went searching for what the local Indians called their “magical spring waters” and he called the “Fountain of Youth.”

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In the early 1800’s, after the U.S. purchased Florida from Spain, central Florida was settled by sugar cane and citrus growers.  It was during this period that a sugar mill was built at the spring for grinding sugar cane.  The original sugar mill was destroyed and restored at least two times during the late 1800s and now houses the famous Old Sugar Mill Restaurant.

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Designed around the rustic mill equipment, you sit at a table with a griddle in the middle, and cook your own meal.  There are eggs, bacon and sausage of course, but the specialty of the house are the pitchers of stone ground 5-grain and unbleached white batter for you to cook your pancakes.   You can spruce up your pancakes with a variety of items including blueberries, pecans, peanut butter and even chocolate chips.  Top that off with some local maple syrup, honey or molasses and you have a breakfast fit for a king.  There is also French toast and several homemade breads available.

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When we first started camping at Ponce de Leon springs, it was privately owned, very primitive and had many beautiful campsites.  It was less crowded and more restful than most of the larger springs and soon became our favorite weekend retreat.  We usually tried to keep our tent camper as open as possible to enjoy the cool spring surroundings.  The screen windows were at both ends of our pullout bed, so our heads were as close to the out-of-doors as we could get and still keep the insects out.  On one occasion, in the middle of the night, I was awakened from a deep sleep by what sounded like heavy breathing.  I couldn’t imagine what in the world could be making that kind of sound.  When I raised up on my elbow to look through the screen window, I almost had a heart attack.  Right there, not an inch away from my nose, was a very large horse sniffing me through the screen!   I almost jumped clear out of the bed!  “Whoa!  Where did you come from?”  I said.  Then, with heart pounding, and as calmly as I could manage, I told the horse to take it easy, and go find another place to sleep, as all the beds in our camper were taken.

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Now for those of you who don’t like to get wet, Silver Springs near Ocala, Florida is the largest of the 33 Florida natural springs, gushing 500 Million gallons of clear fresh spring water per day. They feature great glass bottom boat cruises, botanical gardens, wildlife exhibits as well as many other activities.

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Try a Florida springs Day Park or camping sometime–I think you’ll like it.

—–The End—–

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MY BIG BROTHER – Part 2

17 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills

Judy

 

There’s a lot I don’t remember about growing up in New Mexico. I remember my best girlfriend (down the street….through the neighbors yard….down the alley to her back yard) and some of the good times we had. She now lives just an hour-and-a-half away from me, and we see each other occasionally. She tells me that she probably wouldn’t be a believer today if it weren’t for my parents picking her up every Sunday morning to take her to church with us. I have no memory of her in our car. I remember her at the church and at the functions we did together. But not picking her up. Very selective brain I have, don’t I?

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I do remember that Bill and I used to fight like the proverbial cats and dogs. Nearly drove our mother to distraction sometimes. I’m sure he didn’t care to have his bratty little sister trying to tag along very often.

Of course, all that changed when he grew into the age that – all of a sudden, GIRLS were a VERY interesting phenomenon to him! He would ask me what I knew or had heard about that particular girl. And what about this particular girl – what do I know or have heard about her. I really don’t remember many of his “girlfriends” until DiVoran came along. But that’s another story unto itself.

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I have a couple of pictures that still make me chuckle every time I see them. We were both a couple of cut-ups in our day, and these pictures prove it. Weren’t we cute? I came upon these pictures many years ago, and had them blown up and sent them to Bill as a Christmas present one year. I think I heard him laughing all the way from Florida to Virginia!

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I have a couple of pictures taken at Bill’s 10th birthday party – and once again, I wormed my way into the festivities. Looks like none of the boys were paying any attention to me. But then, what 10-year-old boy pays attention to a 6-year-old girl? Some of these boys were neighborhood friends, some were school friends, and some were church friends. And Bill still keeps in touch with some of them. Those life-time friendships are treasured.

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I still adore my big brother.

Philippians 4:4-8

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My Big Brother

10 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

Judy

 I hope you are enjoying reading my big brother’s stories as much as I am.  I am learning things that I was too young to know or remember about us growing up.

One of the things that I really don’t remember – but have been told about many times – is the airplane trip when we moved from Dallas, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1945.  Bill can tell you that it was an American Airlines DC-3 plane.

 

Plane

Plane

What I remember our Mother telling me is that she made the flight without our Dad (he was already in NM), and with us two small children.  She said a military man asked if she would like some “help” with us, and she handed me over.  After a bit, she looked back, just as he was pointing out the window, with me looking out, as well.  I came running back to her and said, “Mommy!  Did you know there is an ANGEL sitting on that wing outside???!!!”

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Mother said that she was reassured that he really was a good guy.  In Bill’s words about the flight:  “My memories of the plane are limited to how steep an incline the aisle was from the rear door to the front seats, that there were only two seats on each side of the aisle, and at some point during the flight (I did not have my seatbelt fastened) the plane hit a fairly good-sized downdraft (air pocket) and I hit my head on the overhead.  The whole trip was quite an adventure for a six-year-old boy.”  And by-the-way – I still have the airline ticket from that trip!

 

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I do remember Bill’s obsession with airplanes – especially model airplanes.  I remember him in his bedroom, putting together small airplanes.  I remember the smell of the airplane glue.  I remember him taking the airplane (frequently with me in tow) to the park across the street, and flying it around until either he brought it down, or it crashed.  If it crashed, then he bundled it up and took it home for repair.  Those were the days of rubber bands and small gasoline engines attached to the plane.  He’s just grown up a bit since then, as has his taste in model airplanes.  He now builds radio-controlled model airplanes, and flies them as often as he can.  He goes to the airfield and watches others fly their planes.  He has built himself a workshop in their backyard, and spends a lot of time out there, building his planes.  He’s really quite good at it, too.

I adore my big brother.

 

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Free-Wheeling Days

31 Jan

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Onisha

 My husband and I were reminiscing this week about used Coke bottles and the part they played in teaching us that money had to be earned. If you are old enough you will remember that each soda bottle required that a 2¢ deposit be paid. Just like today some people were too lazy to properly dispose of the empty bottles. Often they were flung out car windows, dropped by walkers or cyclist. Their trash became our big time treasure. I can still remember how dirty and disgusting some of them were. Smokers used them for cigarette butts.

 If we had a craving for chocolate or other sweets we hit the streets. No we didn’t mug anyone, we scavenged for empty soda bottles. At that time you could still buy penny candy so for an hour or so of “work” we would have enough bottles to take to the store. Most stores had some sort of bin for bottle returns. We would show our bottles to the cashier, put them in the return bin and choose our treats. If we had been really lucky we would have enough for a soda too but we had to drink it in the store to save the deposit cost. Man did that soda taste good after spending time under the hot Florida sun looking for bottles. Sometimes though we had to “share”, meaning we could only afford one soda.

I can’t remember a time when my parents just handed me money for no reason. Once I was in junior high school I was given a set amount of money each week for lunch. If I wanted something my parents felt was not necessary, I saved a little bit of my lunch money until I had enough to buy it for myself. Today that sounds harsh but it wasn’t really. I learned that gratification of my wants was not instantaneous. I’m sad the state of our culture has diminished to the point that children aren’t safe to walk the streets and woods. So many lessons were learned during those freewheeling days.

What about you, did you ever collect soda bottles?

Coke bottles

You might want to check out “The Next Big Thing” at RebekahLynsKitchen. She will be talking about her upcoming book set in these same “free-wheeling” times.

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I was a 12 Year Old Businessman-Part 1

23 Jan

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

 

I was born in Dallas, Texas in 1938.  I lived in the big “D” with my parents until 1945, when we moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

bsby boy

The trip from Dallas to Albuquerque was on an American Airlines DC-3, and I was hooked on aviation at age seven.  As it happened, there were two large U.S. Air Force bases left over from WWII in Albuquerque.  So, it was no wonder that one of my main lifelong interests, was airplanes.

plane

That interest was carried from small wood models, thru the years, to large gas-powered u-controlled flying models.

remote plane

I started cutting the grass at our house and the neighbor’s, during the summers, around the age of 10.  My parents helped by taking me to jobs outside our neighborhood.

old mower

By the time I was 12, I had saved enough money to by a Sears self-propelled gas powered mower.  During the next few years, I put so many miles on that mower, that I had to rebuild the mower engine more than once.

gasmower

 

My grass cutting business thrived so well that, by the time I was 14, I was able to obtain my unrestricted driver’s license and buy my first motorcycle.

At that time, New Mexico allowed a person to qualify for a driver’s license at age 14 because so many of the farmer’s children needed to drive to support their family farm needs.

I kept cutting grass until I was 16, when I got a part-time job in the local Furr’s supermarket.  I started out unloading trucks and mopping floors – then to bag boy and stocking shelves –and finally working my way up to cashier.

bag boy

stocker

This allowed me to be able to sell my first motorcycle and buy a new 1954 Harley Davidson 165cc motorcycle for more reliable transportation to work and school.

165cc

When I was 17, I bought a used 1940 Chevrolet coupe to customize, and ended up rebuilding the engine and repainting it.  I met DiVoran’s brother, David, at Furr’s supermarket, where I was still working, and she told me later that he was awed by a guy my age who owned a car and a motorcycle.  She said she decided right then and there she wanted to meet that boy.

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In 1955 I traded in my 165 cc motorcycle in on a new 1955 Harley Davidson Sportster.  This motorcycle would end up serving me faithfully for years to come.

sportster

 

At 18, while I was still in my senior year of high school, I joined the local NROTC and began my short career with the U.S. Navy.  I met DiVoran that year in typing class, and by the time we graduated, we were engaged.

young beloved

 

Senior picture

Not long after that, I shipped out on my first U.S. Navy shipboard cruise.  That 10-month cruise first took me to the many ports around the Mediterranean, back to the U.S. and then to stops on both sides of South America and at Panama, and finally to Bremerton, Washing ton.  We wrote to each other every day while I was gone, and just knew we were meant to spend the rest of our lives together by the time I was transferred to my next duty assignment.

 

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DiVoran and I were married when we were 19, and lived in San Diego during the 6-month stateside assignment to my next ship.   When I shipped out on my 8-month cruise to Hawaii, Japan and Hong Kong, DiVoran returned to Albuquerque to live with her parents and attend Beauty school.

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After I was released from active duty with the Navy at age 20, DiVoran and I moved to Los Angeles for me to attend Northrop University.  I started my engineering career in the aerospace field while still in college, first with Douglas Aircraft Company and then with North American Aviation.  We ended up staying in Los Angeles eight years because after my first two years in college, I went to work full-time while continuing my college classes at night, and I couldn’t always get the classes I needed.

salon

At first, DiVoran worked full-time as a beautician to help with our living expenses.  Then after our children were born, she stopped working to be a stayed-at-home mom.

baby girl

bsby boy

As soon as I graduating from college in 1965, we moved to Titusville, FL with North American Aviation, on the Apollo Manned Space Program.

Colossians 3:23

                                    —-To Be Continued—-

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THAT CHICKEN BONE

13 Jan

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Judy

                                                     

I’m sure that many new parents have had this experience – but it was new to us.

When our oldest daughter, Karen, was just a little thing, we were living in Wiesbaden, West Germany.  She was finally old enough – developed enough – to be eating solid foods, and our foods – no more baby food.

I remember the first time she was given a piece of chicken to eat.  I had made fried chicken for supper that evening, and I had given Karen a drumstick to eat.  Fred and I were eating and conversing, as we usually did, not really paying much attention to Karen.

All of a sudden, I looked over at her in her high chair, and…..she was waving that chicken bone this way and that.  It was completely stripped of everything edible!  She had eaten the fried skin, the meat, the tendons and ligaments – that was the barest drumstick I had ever seen!  It was naked!  While I was nearly gagging at the thought of all she had eaten, she was happy as a lark!  It’s a good thing that bone was thick, or I’m convinced she would have tried to eat the bone as well!

While we can laugh about it now, I’m convinced that I paid a LOT more attention to what and how she ate after that experience.  She didn’t suffer any severe consequences from her encounter with that chicken bone, but I made sure to cut the meat off the bone and give it to her the next time.

 

                 

 

 

 

 

Romans 8:28

 

 

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Lord Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise

3 Jan

Those of you who have been  following Bill’s travel adventures, we are offering up praises that his heart attack was mild and he is doing very well- Onisha

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Onisha

 

 

Last week I wrote of the plans I had made for Christmas and how they hadn’t worked out. I am hoping 2013 will be a bit more cooperative.  My parents often prefaced their plans with “ the Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.” As a child, I thought this sounded silly but now I understand that in a humorous way they were lifting their plans up to God.

This week we will be leaving the chilly weather and heading to the sunshine in Florida. We live a rather migratory life, visiting between our children. When I am in Florida I am very content. I love spending time with life long friends and of course being with our daughter. When it is time to return to the “hills,” I am sad and not sure I really want to go.  Once our car gets a few miles up the interstate my heart begins to race with trills of anticipation, excited to see our son and his family and all the things we love about our living in the country. All too soon it’s time to close up the house and head back to Florida and once again I am sad and not sure I want to go.

Does this make me fickle? I don’t think so. I prefer to think of myself as content. In Philippians 4:11 Paul speaks of being content in his circumstances. Admittedly he is referring more to finances, but I am still claiming the contentment!

 

Philippians 4:11-13

 

11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ[a] who strengthens me.

 

 

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