Our Old Drive-In

When I was in high school we used to come to Macomb all the time to the "DRIVE-IN".  It was just about 20 miles from where we lived in Vermont, and if you had a REAL date we usually headed for Macomb.    We all liked the Drive-In because fun to sit outside and eat or drink beer in the car and maybe a little smoochin too.

One night there were four of us over here and the guys went to get popcorn and drinks and we girls decided to move the car.   They came out of the concession stand, looked all around and we finally had to honk the horn for them.   I'm sure the other cars didn't mind our pranks.

Well, we moved back to Macomb almost two years ago and one of the first things I noticed was this:

It is the back of the old Drive-In Screen.   I drove around front to see if we could see it but they have built apartment houses in that area and you don't even notice it. 

Now what I'd like to do is get a movie, say Jerasic Park, and play it on this old screen.   I expect there would be several calls to the police department. 

Bread Recipe

I'm baking bread today.   Well, kind of.   I'm actually going to make pizza for supper but I start with a recipe for bread.  

I've had this recipe for almost 45 years.  It was in our paper sometime in the mid 70's.  The article with the recipe starts out by saying with the rising price of gas, possibly going to .60 cents a gallon,  we may be looking at returning to doing things like baking our own bread.  

Wouldn't that be wonderful?   Of course our salaries would not be what they are today either.  At that time we lived on about $800 a month.   We had four kids and one about to enter college. 

ANYWAY...today I'll be making pizza with a very old bread recipe and thinking about how nice it would be if we only had to pay .60 cents a gallon for gas.

WHAT'S IN THE ATTIC?

We have something in our attic,
We know not what it is,
It makes some funny noises,
And creeps me out -

I wish we knew what the little varmit was
and what it thinks we might have to share.
There is no food or bedding for it up there.

I think it's kind of smart as it becomes quiet as can be
When Ted walks in to listen and maybe see.

SO...I know not what this critter
Thinks we have for it up there,
We have no bed for it to use,
Nor even a chair.

Winter Forecast

The headline on the paper this morning said we would have lower heating bills due to a milder winter.   YEA

Then I opened the paper and saw that people that "read" persimmon seeds say it is to be a terrible winter, colder than last year.

When I was growing up not 20 miles from where we live my mom used to say you could predict the winter by the color of the wooly worms coats.   Well, I've seen some pretty darned dark wooly worms lately. 

So...I'm not going to fool myself into thinking this winter will be all sunshine and roses.   I've got a lot of yarn here to knit prayer shawls, 15 jigsaw puzzles to put together and how much fabric to sew I do not know,  but I bet I can get a couple of quilts out of it.

Happy Winter all.

Memories

This morning I was reading my Sunday School lesson when I saw a post on the back of the book by an author I was privileged to meet one time.   I was working at a Publishing House at the time and she had several books we published for her.   She was the mother of seven children.   Her husband was a Dr. and they decided to show their children how to live OFF THE LAND. 

They butchered their own meat and grew most of their own vegetables and ALL their children had to help.   There were stories of them driving tractors, bringing animals into the barn in winter weather, a funny, funny story about them butchering a cow one time. 

I LOVED her writing.  It was always funny but also always had a message.  She would write a short story about one of the children and you always laughed while reading it, sometimes cried, but you ALWAYS came away thinking about the message she left you with.

I have not read any of her books in awhile.   Maybe time to search Amazon.com for some of them.

Summer Time and the Livin Is Easy

All of a sudden we have more vegetables than we can eat.   I've frozen corn, green beans, eaten corn, eaten green beans, and now we have tomatoes and zucchini.   If it's not from the Farmer's Market, we have these things given to us.

It's been warm but not overly hot.   Flowers are blooming nicely and we are getting more done to the house.  Ted has worked in his garage so hard.   It looks like something out of HGTV.   I bet they'd like to have him do a show for them.     Tomorrow we get a new furnace and A/C.    I wonder what we will do next year if we get all the projects done we have on our list.

Maybe next year we can wash the windows.   Keep thinking we will do them but something else always seems more important.

Our two first born    

came for a visit by themselves.   We love their families but, oh it was nice to have them here alone.  We giggled, looked at pictures, went garage sailing, and giggled some more.  Kim took a SELFIE of us and we giggled again.

School will be starting before long and then everyone is busy and before we know it it will be cold weather and we won't get outside at all.

I hate to see Summer end.  

Sick and Tired

I just pulled up my email account and there on the side bar is a good looking woman with short shorts on and a pair of really high heels sitting on the ground resting next to a car tire.   Can you guess what this was for?              CAR INSURANCE    Could someone please explain to me what she has to do with buying CAR INSURANCE?

Before we moved to Illinois I turned my computer on one day and the side-bar had several pictures of good looking middle aged men.   The headline was:  " Ellen,   there are 145 men in Chapel Hill that would like to meet you.:"     I burst out laughing because Chapel Hill probably didn't have 145 men in the little town and none I had seen were as good looking as the guys pictures they showed here.

I pull up my Facebook account and young women I watched grow up are whining because the government won't buy their contraceptives.   Next I guess they are going to want the government to buy their tooth paste and shampoo too.

I used to hear people say they hated to watch the news and I never quite understood it.  I do now.   I really don't understand why we have to hear about the WORLD CUP for 16 weeks AFTER we lost or watch the same news on the local channel as we do the National News program.  

I think I'm getting old.  I'm tired of hearing some young women whine and sick to death of commercials for Viagra or Cialis.

GET OVER IT people.

   

Newss

I wish SOMEONE wuld give us some NEWS sometime.  All we get are a bunch of people that tell part of the news, find something they think is funny and laugh like a bunch of kids. 

Then we get 10 minutes of commercials.   There is ALWAYS a commercial for a guy to take to get an erection, someone that needs good smelling kleenex, a car or two (that's proably going to be recalled within a year for some malfunction that can kill you), another guy that can't get an erection and then some magic pill that will make me thin .     Of course all these medication have just the most scary side affects - bleeding, dizziness, nausea, or maybe if you are lucky death.

What is wrong with us that we let this crap continue.  If a news anchor interviews a politician about something very serious they try to put words in the politician's mouth.   I'm not saying politicians are always right but for heavens sake, let's at least give them a chance.  

I'd like to know some news  people.   

The Past 70 Years

Our papers and T.V. are full of accounts of the Invastion at Normandy these days.   Today marks the 70th Anniversary.

I have a book that is a very good account of that day.   Some of it is hard to read.   I cannot imagine what that was like.    The book I have is "The Bedford Boys".   It's about the town Bedford, VA and how they lost 16 young men that day.  It describes just what it was like when these young men hit the water.

We receive a local paper and every week they have a section called "A Step Back In Time"  Now and then they also have a page on "A Little More History"  This week they have several articles about Normandy and also a section this week entitled   "D-Day Plus Twenty Years".    It  was written in June, 1964.

When I read that article and realized how close we were, even then, to WWII it made me sit up and take note.    I remember very little about the actual war.  I remember having "blackouts" where we had to pull all the blinds in the house.   The old dark green one's that were ugly and let NO light in.   We also had ration stamp books.   Sugar and bread were rationed, also shoes.   I still have a book somewhere with a stamp or two in it.

BUT...when I looked at the date "1964" and the headlines  "D-Day Plus Twenty Years"   I caught my breath.  The fact that I had been married just a few years after WWII shocked me.   I had not realized how much had happened in those twenty short years.   By the time the article was written I had two girls and my life was very full AND seemed very safe.   Ted, however, had served almost four years in Korea.  

Growing up in a small town was a wonderful thing but it also shielded me from the things that were going on in the world around me.   Of course we did not have T.V. and get the facts practically before they happened as we do today.     My main source of news came on the big screen every week at the movie.  

I guess the thing that shocks me the most is how I could live in that era and not realize all the terrible things that were going on in Germany and how lucky we were to be living in the United States.

Oh Well!!!!

Sunday is our 58th Wedding Anniversary.    Ted asked me the other day what I wanted to do and if I had anywhere I'd like to go.

I had been thinking now that we are living so close it might be fun to go back to Navoo where we spent our Honeymoon and eat at a place that was really famous at the time.   The name was:  Flora Thumbs Restaurant.

So a few minutes ago I Googled it and oh my, I got some weird answers.

The one that really caught my eye though was:   Flora  -  minus thumbs.   I'm not sure just what that was as I decided Flora Thumbs was closed and we couldn't take that trip back in time.

Oh Well!!!!!!

MEMORIES

Yesterday we buried another member of our family.   She was a niece on my side of the family and only 8 years younger than I am.   I did not know her children very well.   We moved to Tennessee while they were still young.   Her two living sisters and several other nieces and nephews were at the service.

This morning my daughter had a picture of several of the nieces and nephews on Face Book and the memories have been flooding in every since.

Some twenty years ago we lost the first grandchild on my side of the family.   He was just a neat kid and grew to be a pretty neat man too.   These two danced together for many years and my mother and I would come to Peoria every year to see their performance.

They were two of the funniest kids you'd ever want to know.   Well, I've had a few funny kids of my own by now but I thought these two were special when I was growing up.

I won't bore you with all my memories but I would encourage anyone that has a big family and have lost the parents to try and get together.   I'm hoping this summer we can arrange to have a family reunion of the ones left.   We have lost 5 of this generation and that's too many not to realize we need to keep in touch.

Happy Birthday, Winni

Today is a very good friends birthday.   She's in her 90's - I don't know the exact number, didn't ask, don't care.    She loved us from the first time she saw us.

Ted had gone to work for GTE and we lived in a garage that had been converted to a little apartment.   We had a picture window in our bathroom.    We lived there when Kim was born. 

One morning in January we woke to ice on the inside of our windows right beside Kim's bed.  So a search for new housing began.   We had very little money and the houses in Mt. Carmel, IL were too expensive.   Someone told us about a house in the country we might want to look at.  

We called the people and set a time to go see it that night.  When we arrived they had a roaring fire in a beautiful fireplace.   Their house was so pretty.   They said the electricity had been turned off at the rental house but Don would take his big beam lantern to show us the house.  It was hard to see at night but we looked and they said the rent was $45 a month.  Then I saw the kitchen and there were two sinks in it.   Also this Don guy stuttered and then here was this house with two sinks.   Good heavens I thought.   So...being the nice person I was (AHEM) I politely said, "We'll call you"  and at the same time Ted said, "We'll take it".    I thought he'd lost his mind.  

Little did I know what wonderful people they were.    They loved us from the first time we were there and did everything they could to help us.   The day we moved in Kim had not had a bath for three days as our house was just too cold.   So...their oldest daughter, Judy, kept Kim while we unloaded our meager furnishings.   During that afternoon Judy gave Kim two baths and I think Kim slept sounder than she had in days.

We did not have a television so they invited us over every Sunday evening to watch T.V. and every Thursday night to watch Tennessee Ernie Ford.    When we finally saved enough to buy our first T.V. I think they were about as sad as I'd ever seen them.

They furnished us a lawn mower, we had all the fruit we could eat or can - FREE and I couldn't begin to count the number of free meals we ate over there.   They really adopted us, they just didn't make it legal.   To this day we call Winnie - AUNT WINNIE and though Don died many years ago he was always UNCLE DON too.   Such wonderful people.   Loved us just for who we were and even though we smoked and I'm sure they knew we drank too they never tried to change us.   They just loved us.  

We were two very young, very lucky people.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

We knew 2014 would be a different kind of year for us and we would have snow.   We never expected SO MUCH snow.

 

This was just our first snow.   Since this 8" we've had a little warm weather, some ice and then another inch of snow on top of that, then last Sunday we had another 6" and then the temperature dropped to -12 degrees.    O.K. already!!!!!!

 

Yesterday we saw an inch of rain on top of the last snowfall making for one crappy mess to walk in OR drive in.

 

Today we were in beautiful sunshine and 40 degrees.  Tomorrow they promise us almost 50 degrees and I may see if they open the pool at the park.   

 

 

 

 

SQUIRREL SNOW

Oh yes, we have been officially welcomed to Illinois now.   Our first snowfall came last night and measured about 8" or better.  It's beautiful.    The trees look like a fairyland.

I kept seeing bunches of snow fall but we have no wind.   Couldn't figure out what the heck that was.
Just now I saw a squirrel playing in a tree and the snow was falling below him. 

Thus   SQUIRREL SNOW

THIS OLD HOUSE

Yes, we bought this house in August and moved in quickly.  We were so excited to have a house we did not have it inspected.   DUMB.   



                                                           

 

 

 

We  love the neighborhood and the neighbors that we have met.   We have one of the most beautiful maple trees we have ever seen in our front yard.  

 

BUT...we should of had it inspected.   We knew we had to do something to the kitchen.   In the end we decided to replace ALL the cabinets, put in a new stove and microwave and eventually a new floor.

 

What we did not realize was that we had to replace the faucets to the sink in the utility room, Ted had to rewire much of the wiring coming into the utility room and the last thing he has had to replace was the garage door opener.

 

We kind of wonder what will be next.   It's going to be a really neat house when we finish.  We hope to do some work in the downstairs bathroom and replace the carpet downstairs at some point too.  Then I suppose it will be about time to move again.

 

 

 

BOOKS

I love a GOOD book.   I did not read for many years, then someone handed me a really big book on my way out of church one time and said, "You need to read this".   I took it to get her off my back and much to my surprise it was a REALLY GOOD book.   I finished reading it that Tuesday morning about 5 a.m.

For several years I read only books that were true.   Then one time a friend told me if I would read fiction I could go anywhere.   So I read fiction and still do.  I love a good mystery if it doesn't get too gory.     But have to admit my favorite books are ones that are based on truth anyway.  

I have read a few books that stand out in my memory.   Some of Will Campbell books are excellent.  One book about a battle in the Civil War is a book I keep in my library - small as it is.   I have a couple of books written by a lady I saw at the Southern Writers conference.  She writes books based on truth and one of hers is another book that will always be in my library.  It's a true story about a woman that butchered her husband.

We have a used book store here where we live and they carry a lot of what I call  junk books .  We are members there though and now and then you can get a good book for hardly anything.   I am reading just such a book now.

It's written by a southern writer but it's about a year they spent in Alaska.  I can hardly ever put it down and yet  hate for it to end.   I just want to keep reading about living in Alaska. 

Ted and I drove there one time and it was one of our best trips ever.  We drove the Alcan Highway and I wouldn't give that memory up for  anything.   Kim and I spent two weeks there 5 years later and saw different things altogether.   She and I saw the Northern Lights, a big moose right in front of us on the road, a glacier that was calving, a pod of Orca and had a trip that lives forever in her mother's heart.   I wish I could take a trip like that with all my children.

I'm hoping when I get to the end of this book I find another just as exciting and wonderful

World Communion Sunday

Today is World Communion Sunday.   I'm still "visiting" First Christian Church in Macomb but will soon  be moving my membership here.

 I sat in church today thinking of all the people I know that would be taking Communion today too and how lucky I have been to of known so many wonderful people and the impact they have had on my life.

I have to ask myself how different my life would be if I had not met these people.   Church really is a community and I need that community to live.  

I'm looking forward to becoming a part of this church and hope I will have some gifts and talents to share with them. 

Summer 2013 - Winding down

Once we decided to buy the house in Thompson Station and knew we had to wait awhile we kind of relaxed.   We finished Benjamin's bedroom, played with the new kittens  

 

and one day we had another kind of visitor.

 

Soon it was time for Jordan's visit with her dad and we knew we could see her more if we were closer to Clarksville. So...we found a campground that is a good spot for us.     We have had Jordan a few days but she's having such a good time with Mark, Megan and Zach that we haven't seen too much of her.   Even though we miss her, that's good because she never gets enough time with her dad.

 

We have been in the campground several days now and have enjoyed watching the people come and go.   For once we do not have the smallest camper where we are.  We used to laugh about always being the smallest one.   But...compared to some we are not the biggest or the best.   That's fine, we have more camper than we've ever had and it has served us well this summer.

 

Many things have changed about camping since we took our first camping trip, but that's another blog.    One of the things we now have is a bathroom and we don't have to go find a place across the highway to "go" or go to the bath house.  Almost everyone had a big tube out of the camper to an underground septic.   They now even have a little rack that you rest this on to make it drain better.  Like this one

 

 

 

We, however, did not know about all these newfangled toys that you needed to have to go to the bathroom so we have an antique one, like this.

 

 

I think Ted should get this patented.   It's much more stable and easier to use.  

 

And...that brings me to the end of our Summer 2013 series.   We are taking Jordan to a waterpark tomorrow and then on short trip to Illinois.   We hope to be in a house before too long.   I hope we find one soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Summer 2013 - 2nd chapter

When I last wrote we had just returned from a week in Illinois.   We were anxiously awaiting for our realtor to call us that we could come close on the house in Thompson Station we were wanting to purchase. 

We spent our days doing little things for Connie and Jim.   Dad worked in the yard and the pool, I did a little cleaning and decided to repaint Benjamin's bedroom.  

In the meantime there was a lot of summer fun going on - especially when Benjamin was there.

 

One afternoon some good sized water shooters came on the scene.

 

Grandad even got into that action. 

 

Benjamin seemed to be the target of most of it but he got a shot or two in now and then.

 

AND of course we had to get the boy in action.

 

We waited and waited for our realtor to call and our patience was wearing thin.   The closing date was set for June 28 but as that day drew closer and closer it was apparent there would be NO closing that day.

 

We were really in need of a house.   We decided to go see that house again and see if we wanted it bad enough to re-set the closing.     While we were there Ted discovered a problem with water in the crawl space.    I noticed the lady had taken some drapes and curtain rods that were to be left.

 

SO...we told the realtor we had changed our minds and would not sign an extension.   She went to work to get our deposit back.

 

In the meantime I had part of a tooth fall out and had to get a new crown put on.   My dentist was 2 1/2 hours away in Winchester.    I was in no pain but very afraid that could change any minute.   I called my dentist and they gave me an appointment the next day at 4 p.m.     I finally decided I just couldn't take all the late afternoon  traffic through Nashville and drive that far too.    I asked if they knew of a dentist closer to me and one was recommended in Clarksville.

 

Dr. Garrett took me in the next day and he was so good.    He had heard my Dentist speak one time on the new procedure for making crowns.    He was very impressed.    I liked Dr. Garrett and kind of liked Clarksville.  I thought it might not be bad to live up there and not have the traffic of Nashville to face every time we wanted to go somewhere.   Mark lived there and Connie would be close and Jill was at least half way through town.

 

The next morning we got up and I asked Ted if we could go look at houses in Clarksville.   So...off we went.   Contacted a realtor up there and she was busy that day but did leave some ideas at her office for us to go see.    When we got there we contacted Marks girlfriend, Megan, and asked her if she would tell us if these were in good neighborhoods or not.   She met us for a sandwich and the three of us took off.    

 

Prices are high in Clarksville but the traffic is just way too much for this old couple that love country living but city life.  :)

 

By the time we got home that night we were disappointed and exhausted and our patience was wearing very thin.

 

The next morning when we got up Ted asked if I had any ideas on what to do.   I told him no.  He looked at me and said we are going to buy that house in Thompson Station.  WE NEED A HOUSE.  So...once again we called our realtor to work up an extension.   She said she told me it could be up to 3 months and possibly 6 on a short sale.   Somehow I don't remember that conversation, only that they do take awhile.

 

So...off we went to Franklin to sign a new extension with the date of closing on this to be August 28. 

 

To Be Continued. 

 

 

Turning A Page of Life

 

This was our home for almost 11 years.   We built it and loved it but now it belongs to another.

 

This is our home now.   Well, it's where we sleep.    We are in Connie and Jim's back yard and eat in their house a lot.   We also shower in there and do our laundry there.

 

This is the shed we had built when we built the house.    The new owner did not want it so we sold it and they came to take it the day they moved our furniture out. 

 

We get to see Benjamin every other week now and I have a full time job holding one of the chairs down beside the pool.    On a hot sunny day that's not a bad job.   My biggest problem most of the time is the temperature of the water in the pool.

 

Not sure how long we will be here.    They may get tired of our ramblings and suggest we go find another one of their siblings to visit.  

 

They spoil us so we may be here awhile.