Back again....

I was remembering another Halloween when we lived in East Oakland. We lived upstairs in an 8 apt. building. There were lots of families there with lots of children. My kids were out with some of the neighbors kids and adults and then came home. I heard another bunch coming upstairs and a knock on the door. I opened it and here stood the biggest clown I ever saw saying "trick or Treat"! And then she laughed. It was one of my neighbors on the other end of the building ! She was always a lot of fun!!!!How she ever had the time to fix herself up like that I'll never know!!There was another time in later years but I'm trying to figure it out in my mind, when Tim and Brian were little. Marilyn and Bob had fixed them up in costumes and took them out in the neighborhood. I can't remember now if Brian had gone up to the door for candy or not but all of a sudden some big person in a horrible mask scared him and he ran right up to the house where a lady was passing candy and ran right in the door!!!! I do remember Marilyn and Bob coming home laughing their heads off!!!!Time passes and things are not safe as they were then. Linda, my niece, was out with a bunch of little ones and as they passed this one house there was something fixed up like a man sitting in a chair and as she passed by she heard the "guy" speak. She said as loud as could be "Oh s---t!" then she heard the guy who lived in the place laughing! He had hooked up a speaker to this figure in a chair!! If you want to know about Halloweens, just talk to my oldest grandson, Tim! He's like a kid and fixes (or used to) fix up his house like a haunted house or whatever every year his Father tells me! Every year he has to outdo "last year's" decoration!Do you still do that Tim???? Love you!

Halloweens...Boo!

I thought since tomorrow night is Halloween I'd write a few Halloween "pasts". Since we lived on a farm quite a few years of my "growing up" I had to wait until I was in the 2nd grade of High School before I did any Halloween "tricks"! There wasn't any "Trick or Treat" in those days, it was mainly tricks. Usually some nice person would come to the door and give you an apple or a piece of homemade candy but it finally got out of hand. I don't ever remember getting into any kind of "costume"! We would wear an eye mask or big parafin lips or maybe throw a towel like a cape over our shoulders but that was rare!We "soaped" windows, knocked on doors and then ran, etc. but some of the kids did some pretty weird things like "waxing" the windows, (Mother caught us doing that one Halloween and that was the last time! We had to wash it off and you're right! It didn't wash off! It had to be scraped off!) We didn't write anything weird or anything, usually just scribble! I don't want to put down a few of the things we did, what we thought was innocent fun because somebody might read this blog and get a lot of "strange" ideas!I never really "liked" the Holiday!One Halloween, my Father was listening to the Radio and this "Newscast" broke in and said that aliens from another planet was attacking the U.S. and we all sat glued to the radio, afraid to go anyplace and really frightened!!! After so many minutes, somebody broke into the broadcast to tell us that we had been listening to Orson Welles, "War of the Worlds"! People all over the U.S. who were listening to the radio that night were affected! Some heart attacks, suicides, etc. Needless to say, the Radio sponsor who put this horrible show on was sued!!! They tried to say that people were warned before the show started that it was just a show, but everyone, including my Father, said THAT was not true, that he had been listening for over an hour to the radio and nothing was mentioned that it was fiction! Reports over the news later said that it had not been announced that it was only a show! We, my brothers and sister and I were afraid to go outside at all! And for days or even months later, one looked up at the sky to see if there was any "Alien Space Ships" out there!!! I'm sure that after so many years and so-called "sightings" of alien craft that people got used to the idea! And then there is today! With so many really, really "weird" movies, Broadway shows, books, and all! It's a wonder we don't have a bunch of "raving maniacs" out there! It's O.K. God's still in His Heaven and with age comes a sense of calmness! How long will it last??????

It's been awhile.....

Sorry that I haven't been on my job of "blogging! So much has been going on I just haven't felt "up to it"! Was talking to my friend Rose today and while talking to her started to remember a few things about the good old days! They were, I know now, really the good old days!! Even if we did go through a Depression and all, or as some people say "the GREAT DEPRESSION". Things were much calmer then it seemed to me and I think it had a lot to do with the fact that families were "closer"! When it was mealtime, for instance, we ate together and then instead of getting up from the table and dashing off to God knows where, we stayed at home, played games, talked, read, or in most cases, the first thing we did was help with the dishes. No dishwashers, (Oh I shouldn't say that! As my son Dick recently pointed out, at one time, I had three "dishwashers") I also remember doing dishes myself when I was small enough to have to stand on a chair at the sink to do them! I didn't say I enjoyed it, but here at almost 90, I still do my dishes at the sink but I stand at the sink and not on a chair. My Mother was ill one time and my Father cooked all the meals, which we really enjoyed! He used a lot of the good old fats like Lard and real butter, etc. He made the best fried potatoes I have ever eaten and I consider myself a good cook! But after dinner, he would bring in a chair and up to the sink we would go and he would sit down and make sure we did the dishes to his liking! So, when I found out that Cappy was a better cook than I was, I "LET" him do the cooking whenever he wanted. But he told me flat out that he did "NOT" do dishes! So clever as I was, I had to train the boys to do the dishes!! My sister Barbara said to me one day, "I hate to dust! That's all I did when I was growing up at home!" I told her she should have said something, I would gladly have "dusted" if she had done the dishes!! It's not really that much of a chore and I kind of miss the big sinkful of dishes after having company and standing there and quietly go over the days events in my mind. It was kind of soothing! OOH YEAH!!!!!!! Goodnight.

Another Day...

Thank you God! It has been a beautiful Fall day here today. Not too warm and not too cool. Just right! And the smell of Fall in the air! I can remember fall days in the Northwest when the leaves would turn to gold, red, orange and still a few green ones. One couldn't keep up with the falling leaves. It was fun to rake them all up into a pile and then run and jump into them. Of course that meant twice as much work to get them all into a pile again before putting them into boxes or something and carrying them to some place where they wouldn't be in the way. There wasn't any plastic bags then so they probably made good mulch wherever they were put! Steve came over and installed Barbara's computer table into my computer room and then we got rid of a lot of boxes that I needed to throw away, etc. I'm trying to go through some of Barbara's things so have a lot of things to look at, etc. At least I can move around in here now! Can't seem to get my thoughts back again but then there's always tomorrow, or so the saying goes. Got to think of what to eat now and then relax. Goodnight and God Bless!

Dick, a few memories...

Well, this has been a few weeks that I could have done without!!Barbara's illness, death and burial, etc. Got home from the "wake" following Barbara's funeral and got a phone call from Dick! He sounded "kind of" funny but I thought he was tired. He had been here from Thurs. night late until Sunday night. Kept me on the "go" trying to keep up with him, but that's Dick. I said, "Oh, are you home now from Dallas?" He and Janie had gone to Denton to check out somet hing on their new house that they are supposed to move into in Dec, He says "No, as a matter of fact, I'm in the Hospital here in Dallas!" When I asked him what was wrong, he said that he had had a "mini" stroke! I said "Don't do this to me Dick!" Then he told me that they were going to keep him that night and that turned into 3 and half days and nights! He did have a stroke alright and it was caused by the "Caritoid"? arteries in his neck and he was going to have to wait and see what they were going to do with him! So on this coming Tuesday, Oct. 21st he will have the operation or a reaming out of the artery! He thought he was going to get out today and then go golfing with his friend there in Denton, where Janie has been staying with them. So Janie called me about noon,today, our time, and told me that they had let him out of the hospital but not only was he not going golfing, he wasn't to bend over, lift anything, etc. His sugar was pretty high the other day but the Drs. have now said that he will be a borderline diabetic and will treat it with medication .( a pill!) His operation will be in the early afternoon on the 21st and as to when he will be able to go home to Cleveland is still up in the air!!! I think I can hear him now where I live. But Dick, be a good guy and do what the Dr. tells you. You have children and grandchildren that need you as well as your Mother ad your Brothers!!!! I did have a nice, I thought, visit with him when he was here last weekend! Has it only been that long? It seems like he has been gone a month!! A few memories come back to me that I was talking to him about when he was here. We had gone to Church and he said, "Every Church seems to have a different version of some of the Hymns, don't they?" And we got to talking about Janie's beautiful voice AND his ! I told him about one time that I visited them in Cleveland and they took me over near Warren, Pennsylvania, to a hunting place that Dick had leased from State, County, or something. It was a nice place. John, Dick's son went with us and Rene, his wife. It was a pleasant day but a sudden shower came up and thunder, lightning, rain started to pour and so we decided to come home. John and Rene were supposed to be following us and they were, for awhile. But I remember we got to this one town on the way home, the sun broke out and everything looked so fresh and green, and on the radio was a religious program and they started to sing "How Great Thou Art"! That is one of my favorite hymns anyway, but Dick started to sing and Janie chimed in and I actually had goosebumps! I told him last week when he was here, Never was a song more appropriate but their voices blending in together was so BEAUTIFUL!!!! He says Janie does have a beautiful voice and I told him that the two of them should think about joining a choir when they move! He said he had thought about it!! You two would be a great addition to any choir!!! There Dick, I'll bet you thought I was going to talk about some of your "escapades" didn't you? Well, I'll let you get well and then you can tear into me, Okay?

A few thoughts...

After going out to dinner last night with Steve and family and Dick, I got to thinking about so many times that my family had been together! We were a pretty "tight" family to use the teenagers way of putting it! We had so many good times and they were mainly "at home" with family! When my three oldest were teenagers we sat around in the evening and either played games or watched T.V. or just talked. That was "more" than "important" to be able to talk to one another!I remember evenings when Cappy had to be on the swing shift and the kids were in High School. We always had a houseful of teenagers after school. I was "mom" and Cappy was "pop" to all of them. I never see any of them to this day that I am not "mom". They put up a Monopoly game on the dining room table and would play night after night! When they had to go home the board stayed in position and the game continued on the next night, etc. They about ate us out of house and home, anything and everything. Sometimes it was a quick call home " Is it O.K. if I stay here and eat?" I can remember the laughter and the funny things that they would be accusing one another of duroing the games! "You cheated" "I did not" and of course when Cappy wasn't there I got in on the games! When Cappy was there he did the cooking up of Tacos, etc.He wasn't much of a game player but enjoyed watching. And the crd games! Silly ones, like "Old Maid", Go Fish", "Canasta". Good clean fun! Why they all hung out at our place was beyond me! But I really liked it. My boys were home and I knew who they were with then! Ah, the "good old days!"

Fun? times in Mexico...

After the Bracero program, etc. and several bad "mistakes" in our financial area, we got a call from Cappy's brother Lafay that he could sure use Cappy in running a sawmill that he and their brother Bert had "invested?" in in Mexico. Since we were having a hard time of it we rushed home from my in-laws where we had been visiting and packed up and took off right away! We had a lot of trouble on the way there. First of all the small trailer that we had to take with what little furniture we had to take with us broke down and so that entailed an overnight stay in the town of Atwater which wasn't that far from where we were living! We had to wait till morning and didn't get away from there, (they had to order a part) until about 4:30 P.M. or so. We drove all the way to Barstow and since Bob was not quite two, we stopped and got a Motel and then tried to make it to Mexico the next day. Well, we had to stop one more night and then got to El Paso. Went to the border and even though Cappy was a duel-citizen, I was not so we had to go through all the problems of getting me a Visa. While waiting there a cousin of Cappy's came along. He drove a taxi in El Paso! In fact it was his own co. So he took us in his cab all over and showed us the sights of El Paso. Took us to dinner, etc. We had decided to drive into Mexico to the City of Chihuahua in the cool part of the day! We started out and about halfway there had a flat tire. Talk about luck! We parked and who should come along going to Chihuahua but an uncle of Cappy's and his wife. He helped us out and then said they would drive behind us in case we got into any more trouble! They went their way after guiding us to the Hotel where we were supposed to meet Lafay. Lafay had left word for us at the desk that he would be a few days late and that we were to go ahead and get a room and it was all entirely paid for by him. We were to just put everything on a tab and he would take care of it! And what a hotel! Right on the Main Avenue in town and a very classy Hotel! We were treated like royalty! I was told after they had to put us in a smaller room that in a day or two we would be put into a "suite" till "Alonzo" as they called him, came for us! I would, under their direction, put our clothes outside the door and they would pick them up, launder them and bring them back! Everything was spotless, and Bob's diapers,(no plastic diapers in those days!) were all neatly folded and his and our clothing was ironed and put on hangers, etc. When it was time to eat, we were guided to a beautiful dining room and waited on like we were the only ones there! For a day or so, we would take walks uptown and look around till 12:00 noon and then everything uptown and everywhere shut down for "Siesta" time till after 3:00 P.M. so we would head to the Hotel, have lunch and put Bob and ourselves down for a litle "Siesta". Then after that everything opened up again and went wild the rest of the day and half the night!!! In a couple of days they put us into our "suite" and that was great! Bob had plenty of room to play, and we had comfortable chairs to sit in and there was an outside "porch" all fenced in so that Bob couldn't fall but he played out there a lot! The weather was nice and we were actually on like a town square. A big statue of some guy on a horse was in the middle of this and there were benches to sit on, etc. and the cars came down and made a circle and went back uptown. Bob loved it and I used to take a chair out there and watch the cars and the people! When it was time for our meals of course, we went to the dining room. Oh yes, I forgot, they had dinner music played by a group of men and women with violins, etc. It was simply beautiful! We really dallied over our meals! All too soon Lafay showed up and our "honeymoon" was over. He stayed there a couple of days too and "spoiled" Bob no end. He wasn't married yet and so he really indulged Bob! Carried him all over town with us,etc. Life really began after we left the hotel to go to where the sawmill was. But that is another story! We lived in Mexico for six montha and it wasn't all wine and roses! Love it when you guys "comment" on whether you are enjoying them or not!

Well??

Well here we go again as someone recently said!!! I lived through the "Great Depression" as it was called! I think I wrote before that Dad lost two homes to it and somehow we managed to pull through! Mother, God love her, did a lot of praying but also she had a family to take care of and while Dad worked first of all as a farmer, by the actual sweat of his brow! Mother did a lot of things like being sure we had enough to eat, and clothes on our backs. After F.D.R. was elected into office, Franklin Delano Roosevelt for those who need to be told what some initials mean, (that'll be the day!)As I told you before Dad made $60.00 a month because he qualified as a head carpenter for the W.P.A. And of course things weren't so expensive then but I remember that F.D.R. shut down all the banks and wow! Everybody was scared and wondered what would happen but then he put all these different programs to work, W.P.A. was one of them. People were being hired and were working and with the work there was the Relief program. People were paid to make over clothes that had been donated to the program and for a long time that is what we wore! Of course we had an Aunt Josie, who was a marvelous seamstress so she could make over a lot of things that this one or that one had outgrown! The best part about it all was that everybody was in the same boat! Mother would go down to the Relief office and get whatever we needed, be it food or clothing, fuel, (wood, that lasted us through the winter!) It must have been terribly embarrassing for her to "beg" so to speak, but she was one of many!!! And it wasn't only us that had large families but you didn't just get rid of a child if it cramped your life style!!! We sure ate a lot of beans I remember but since Mother was such a gardner and knew how to "put up" food as they used to say, we did all right. I remember one bad time with my father. After the banks got the second house, I can remember him threatening to kill himself! We were all huddled behind their bedroom door and Mother talked him out of that Thank Heavens! A lot of people, particularly those who had lost all they had money-wise did take what was described as the "easy way out" No guts! And WE knew how to pray!!! Aaamen!!!

Thinking...

I get this Magazine called "Reminisce" every month, well actually Reminisce one month and Reminisce Extra the next. It was so filled this time with things of the past. Things that they are calling "things of the past!" To me it seems like pretty modern things. They showed on the front of the magazine a picture of what an older home would look like. On the table were, for instance, a peeler which I guess they were going to use to peel some apples for a pie since there was a pie crust rolled out and one pie pan already filled with a crust! I noticed a measuring cup, and a gadget that was used to mix together the lard, flour, salt,etc before adding a little water to hold the whole thing together. On a stove were big pots, a bread pan with a loaf of bread, etc. Got me to thinking how, when I was growing up we used a plain coffee cup for the measuring cup, a regular paring knife to peel the apples, and we kneaded the flour, Lard, etc. with our hands! This was great for your hands too. The lard kept them nice and soft! On the ironing board in the kitchen was an iron which was heated somehow but when I was growing up we had flatirons that sat on the back of a wood stove all the time. They were always ready to use, I guess. When one did the ironing we had a clamp-handle kind of thing that fir onto the irons. When the iron got too cool you put it back on the stove and "picked" up another one!!! And the stove in the picture was a gas stove! My, how things have changed! A heck of a lot of things, for the better, but in some ways, the "good old days" were good! People cared for one another and there wasn't so much "me" and "I". I didn't have to have everything to make "Me" happy and content! Enough of the Grandma stuff for today!

Strange isn't it, how time flies.....

I went this morning to a Funeral Mass for a fellow that I have known, oh lets see... at least 30 years. Gary died on Saturday, and Barbara, my sister, on Sunday. Gary and his wife started a retreat group called "Journey into Faith" some time before I had heard about it. It was based on the old Spanish retreat system called Cursillo. I was asked several years to make it by various relatives but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I had been on Catholic "silent" retreats. One would go to a Retreat House for a weekend and just do nothing but keep silence and pray, etc. Of course you got your meals, and a room for at least 2 nights. They really were great because you really started to think about where you came from and where you were headed. When I finally decided to make "Journey" I was told to bring a sleeping bag, clothing for two days, besides the ones I was wearing, etc. We, oh sometimes 25 or 30 people made it at one time. The leaders, like Gary and Margaret, his wife, had a "crew" who did the cooking, etc. Well, on a Friday afternoon we left for an undisclosed destination and then the fun began! We paid for no food, or anything that I can remember but we were in a camp in a forest, that was a Science Camp for kids during the schhol year. Lots of cots, rooms, etc. and I do remember we were greeted with trays and trays of different kinds of cookies and a cool drink or coffee or tea. The leaders explained the program to us which involved over the weekend; Bible Study, prayers, Mass etc. And of course delicious meals!!! It was really a lot of good fun besides learning about your Faith, etc. One thing stands out in my mind. On Sunday morning at about 5:30 or 6:00 there was this sound of singing and people marching and then came a parade of people who had made Journey before into out bunkrooms singing Hymns and throwing flowers on our beds! It was neat!!! After this all happened we got ready for breakfast.Oh I forgot! On Sat. evening we had an Agape" service. We were told that we had to be very quiet and that we were going to go up and surprise the "workers" in the kitchen. When we got to the kitchen, it was completely dark and we went into the dining room where all the tables were put into one long table and there was a bottle or two of wine and big loaves of French bread. for an evening get-together with the whole bunch! The lighting was candles in wine bottles and flowers on the table, etc. We sang and gathered as a "group" talking, singing, etc. Then it was lights out and off to bed we went. The next day was getting ready to go home day. We had a conference or two and then packed our things up. Mass was at 4:00 P.M. and the people who had brought us up there and anyone who just wanted to come up joined us for the Mass and dinner and then home! Everyone that I talked to said they had really felt like they were leaving Paradise and returning to the "cruel" world. One could only make Journey once but you could go back up the next time or anytime they had it to help out!!! I was working at the time so didn't go back up but the memories still linger on. And today at Gary's Funeral Mass, the priest who was our Spiritual Director up there said Mass and Some of the "songs" were one's from Journey. When th casket left the Church the group was singing "I Know Where I'm Going" Anyone of you who have made Journey will remember the song. After Church it was like "Old Home Week". Gary would have loved it!!!