An old memory...

It was too late last night to write about this one but I remembered about it today and so will let you in on this! When we first moved to Los Banos because we had to get where it was drier than Oakland because of Dick's Ashma, we lived in a housekeeping room in a Motel because Bob was in school and had to walk there. When we had taken about all of those cramped quarters we could, (remember, we had three children by then!) Bob's Godmother and Godfather were living out on a farm in the area and had a "worker's house" on this big farm. So she asked the farmer if we could rent one of the other houses for awhile and Bob could catch the schoolbus from out there. He agreed and so we moved out to this farm. In the orchard of this farm there were a bunch of white "boxes" and since boys will be boys, Dick and Bill decided to check them out! Katie, (Bob's Godmother) and I were sitting in my living room there and we heard the boys start to hollar and scream and we opened the door and they ran in with a swarm of bees right after them! Katie said, "Put their heads in the sink and put cold water on them while I try and chase the bees out of the house!" She got a dishtowel and started to chase the bees back out the open door and when we figured they were gone, took the boys out of the water and they were covered with the stingers of the bees! I took one and she the other and with tweezers had to pull them all out of their heads with them screaming all the time!!! They did not have any dire effects of all the bee stings but were pretty well covered with lumps for days! They had overturned a beehive that the farmer had for the bees to pollinate his crops!!!! A lesson well learned!

Another memory about Mexico..

I was talking to son, Bob, the other day and he said, "How come you never told about the bus trip" So here goes. I wasn't in Mexico very long when I found out I was pregnant with Dick!!!! So at the time I was living in Chuatemoc and since one of Cappy's brothers had our car we decided to take a bus to Chihuahua where my Dr. lived. We went to the bus depot and paid for our fare and then the Mexicans, Indians, etc. started piling on the bus! There were lots of children, men and women so we had to take a seat in the "back of the bus"! On the way to our destination we stopped several times either to take on more passengers or let some of them off the bus. Well, we weren't too far out of town when we stopped to take on an older man and his wife? friend? And they had to stand in the aisle near the back of the bus. This old guy was carrying a rooster and he kept petting it, I guess so it didn't fly around! The two of them, the man and woman got into a fight! They weren't throwing things but one could sure tell that they were fighting! More people got off and so he sat down in a seat right in front of us! That bus was the stinkiest, dirtiest bus that I have ever been on in my life!!! I'll never forget the smell of sweat, etc. to say nothing of pets! Finally this couple pulled the cord on the bus and it stopped and let them off! Everyone was laughing because they were going up this "trail" and still fighting. He was walking ahead, with his pet rooster and she was lagging along behind, etc. Thank Heaven, the return trip was much calmer. Maybe by that time, most of the people were at home having their dinner!! This was truly an "experience"!!!

Just a few...

I wrote what I thought was the masterpiece of all time the other night and before I could Post it, I accidently hit the wrong button and soooo! Bye, bye blog! And too late at night to write another one so I'll try and do better now! I was doing a puzzle in my book the other day and one of the cryptograms just hit me between the eyes! It said, "Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future. We make discoveries about ourselves." And I thought how true!!! Looking at my brothers at my "Big Party", I remembered so much of our life in the past! Living on the farm, life in the city, etc. From birth to the present! Here were my family, biological and my stepdaughter who plays a big part in my life and is really a daughter! My stepson could not make the party because of medical reasons but I raised him too! He and his wife were missed! So much of my married life evolved around him and his wife and family! I want him to know that! Then the boys and Flo and their children who have such a part in "my" future! One doesn't get to a Great-grandmother on her own. And to think that I have some great-grandchildren that are old enough to get married and then it will be the Great-Greats!! Hope I hold up to see that!!!! How amazing! And all from Cappy and my marriage!!! I can see him now, (in my dreams!) having just as much fun with the Great-Greats as he had with his children! He was a great father! Spoiled the kids rotten but enjoyed every minute of it!! When the in-laws started showing up he really made them "his" kids too! We were Mom and Pop to so many kids! Or at least that's what their freinds called us and still call me Mom today when I see them and yes, I do see them every once in awhile because the family keeps in touch with their friends!!! So I hope all of you can have a "Family Magic Mirror" someday!! Love you all.

WHEW!!!

Well the big day is over and everyone made it home safely! Dick and Jane, and John and Rosemary were the last to leave yesterday morning and Janie called last night and said that they were just leaving Dallas for home!!! She told me that Rosemary and John had barely made their connection in Houston because the plane was a little late leaving Sacramento but that she and Dick had a little while before their plane left Houston for Dallas!!! She said she considered it a success and I told her that I was more than satisfied with the number of people that showed up despite the weather! I'm still trying to open things and get cards and gifts straightened out!!!Somehow or another with the cards, some of them fell off the gifts, etc., so the Thank You's will just say "thank you so much for coming. I really appreciated it and hope that you enjoyed the party as much as I did!" I know what some of the things were and who they came from but one or two? I am completely at a loss!!!My legs are starting to feel a little better and that could also be because of the weather clearing up a bit! Got another gift yesterday. My brother Jerry and wife sent me a beautiful bouquet! Heard from Bob, of course and he said that Marilyn and he thought it worked out very nice!!!I heard from my brother Bob's youngest son, Joe, and he said that he had been given the weekend off and he was going to come and the Forestry Dept. called him and asked him to plow some roads! So he said, that changed everything!!! He lives up in Washington about 30 miles from the Canadian border in the Cascades! But he said that in a few weeks he was going to come by and see me because he was going to take a trip down to see his Dad and Sarah, etc. and of course would stop by here too, to see his brother Rob who lives in town! I just finished a piece of pie that Coco's gave me for "free" because of my birthday! We had gone over there to eat dinner on Sunday night!!!Seems like all we did is get in and out of cars ever since last Thursday! Since I don't do too much cooking anymore and don't keep "that" kind of food on hand anymore, it was eat out or else!!!! Truly though, now I'm beginning to let it sink in that I am alone again and it may be some time before I see some of my family again! Of course Steve lives in Stockton and this coming weekend Alicia's baby Lily is being Baptised and if I am at all able to attend that I will!!! My youngest Great-Grandchild of twelve Great-Grandchildren!!! I'm getting old, people!!! And tonight I feel like I just had my 100th birthday!!! Good night and God Bless you all!!!More on the party in a few days!

My PARTY!!!

I sit here doing nothing. I haven't eaten since morning and it is now 7:00 but I got a call from the Motel next door to me and here is where my Neice, Amy, is staying! She said she arrived yesterday but was staying in her brother's room but there was so much confusion going on that she decided that she was going to get herself a room tonight!!! Others are coming tomorrow! Am I ready for them???? Yes and no! I haven't done one thing to clean up my house today and I thought that I would hurry up and do that early in the morning, along with trying to get my prayers in!! I'm afraid that I am going to have such a hard time with my prayer schedule in the next few days but It is so important to me to do my prayers!!!I will more or less depend on saying a lot of Rosaries, etc. because I can say them a little at a time!!!I've got to get in there and eat also or I won't be here to greet the guests!!! I'm not all that hungry either! It was raining when I was talking to Amy, or at least that is what she was telling me! She is such a character!!! I love her so much!!!! I got a card from my stepson and his wife yesterday with a gift certificate in it for $90.00! They can't make it because of medical problems but they told me this was in honor of my being 90 years old! Then said, "excuse me! 90 years young!" but then they haven't seen me lately! And people keep saying how amazing it is that I am 90 years old!!! I'm soon going to start believing them!!! Heard from a couple of people that had to back out in the last few days but I hate to say it but I wonder if I'll even notice it? I just hope I don't collapse after its all over!!! I'll probably sleep for a week! I'm just rattling on so I guess I better get to eating something! Good blog Steve, I'm so proud of you! Wish I could be as deep as you are with your Faith!!!

Me and walking!

When I was a kid I used to love to walk and hike, etc. Of course we had no cars like the young people of today! And the parents had one car and in the case of living on the farm that was a truck!!! But I loved it! Especially in the Spring of the year when all the hills were green and covered with wild flowers!! When we lived on the farm, as I have said before, we lived in this valley between two pretty high hills and the hills were steep!!! On weekends, I would take any of my siblings that wanted to go with me nd start out at the bottom of the hill by the creek and then walk the trails that the cows had made which was in a parallel pattern back and forth from one Spring which had water coming down to the creek in the valley to another. It made for quite a long walk but also one could keep one's balance. We would walk up a couple of these parallel trails and then stop for a nice cool drink of water out of the spring (or creek) and then wind out way up farther to the top of the hill! It was so beautiful up there where you could see "forever" it seemed! The Snake River, the canyon road winding it's way along the creeks and farms! When we had rested awhile at the top, then began the slow walk down the trail to the bottom and then home!! When we moved into Idaho, (Couer d' Alene) we walked the mile and a half or so to school, Fall, Winter, and Spring!! Then in the summer I used to take probably the same siblings with me and walk to Coeur d' Alene Lake. Swim awhile, walk around the Park that edged it and then walk home! Sometimes so sun-burned that you could hardly walk! I think that is one of the things, now that I'm old and it started when I began to get older that I miss! When I was married and we lived in Reseda, and Cappy was alive, we found that by going over to a "wash" in the Tujunga Canyon, we could walk up that dry creek bed, and then up into the hills! We did that a lot when the kids were smaller. Sometimes the older boys went with us but usually it was just the three younger boys. We found the best watercress patch up there by a spring and we would bring a big sack and gather the watercress. I managed to take some of it down to my Mother and Father who lived at the time in Torrance, California, who really enjoyed it since we lived on the farm and had watercress growing by the springs! But time and age takes it all out of you as you get older and the old legs just don't want to make it like they did!!! Maybe I just got lazy about walking but oh, how I wish I had the legs and the same places to hike around in!!!

More thoughts about gardening!!!

You know when I wrote yesterday, I forgot one of the most important things about gardening in the "old days"! Did we run down to the closest garden shop or to the closest hardware, etc. and get some kind of fancy, expensive fertilizer? No! Our cows were in the barns and in the barnyards, doing their thing which was furnishing us with plenty of good old manure!!Nothing like it to make theings grow! So it smelled bad for awhile but it didn't poison you if you ate the vegetables without thoroughly washing them!! Bugs? I don't remember too many tomato bugs or little or big things that ate up the leaves and sometimes the fruit and veggies! What happened here? We had plenty of bees, yellowjackets, wasps, etc. but in a way they were helpful for the pollenization of the fruits and veggies. We had worms, the kind that you could catch plenty of nice trout with in the creeks or rivers but what they did was keep the soil healthy!!!I remember about 10 years ago when my son Tom moved in with me, he loved to garden and keep the lawns nice, etc. This grass in front of my place lacks a lot of things, things that will make it green and healthy! Tom , however, bought a gadget that he would shove down in the grass to open up the root mass and then he bought bags of steer manure and spread it over all the lawns here in the apartment complex! The neighbors, a few of them complained but the grass started looking pretty thick and green!!!Since he passed away and the managers take care of it, it is looking terrible again!!! The gardener, poor old guy, sprinkles a few bags of some kind of "grass feed" on them and they don't do anything!!! This term "organic" really is the way to go!!! But the merchants have found a way to package "steer manure" to make a LOT of money and most people don't want to bother with it!! The old fashioned way of doing things was best for all concerned so what happened?????

Veggies and all...

I was reading the ads for the local stores the other day and got to thinking about what really good fruits and vegetables we had when living on the farm! Mother was quite a gardener and had a good "Green thumb"! Seemed like anything she planted grew!! We, I say we, because when we got old enough, we did help plant our big vegetable gardens! Dad, of course plowed up the field and all and then we helped to plant the garden. We planted radishes and green onions which were the first "spring" vegetables. Dad planted three kinds of radishes. There were the little round red roly-poly ones, some red ones that were a little bit oval and white radishes. I think these were my favorite kind. Each kind seemed to have a taste all their own! Then the rest of the vegetables we planted were corn, peas, beets, carrots, turnips, parsnips, tomatoes, (two or three different kinds, all with their individual flavors! But all red tomatoes!) , lettuce, (leaf lettuce) cabbage, cucumbers, big old Hubbard squashes, (no Zucchinis. Never heard of them or summer squash till we moved to California!) watermelons, cantaloupes,string beans,and I could go on and on!!!! It was so nice to just go out into the garden and pick or pull up what you wanted to fix for dinner or supper! To say nothing of the fruit that we had in our orchard. Cherries, apricots, peaches, and pears. If we wanted apples we had to buy them!!! But the town of Wenatchee in Central Washington grew all that one could want and some of my Aunts and Uncles used to go to Wenatchee after their/our crops were done and work in the apple orchards and would make sure we all had plenty of apples in our cellars!!! Mother told me when I was a small one, before we moved to Everett, etc. that she could find me in the garden in the Spring eating radishes and green onions, dirt and all!! Now I can't even eat things like onions, radishes, lettuce, and a few other things that I so dearly love!!! When the watermelons got ripe we would "plug" them, (make a small inch cube right down into the watermelon while it was still on the vine and then taste it to see if it was ripe enough!!!) One year Dad let us put up a "fruit stand" in front of the barn. There was a spring up in the canyon that brought down ice-cold water to the barn, not enough I guess for the house water but Dad put a big tub under a faucet just inside the gate of the barnyard and we would drop those watermelons in that and then when the visitors who came from town to get their fruit for canning (peaches, etc.) we were right there, usually with a watermelon cut open and on a plate and would ask the people if they would like to taste the melon and see how good they were!!!!What money we made and we did pretty good for the times, we got to keep but by the time we divided it three or four ways, we didn't get rich. But did we care? Noooo! We were in the shade of the barn and had that ice cold water out of the faucet over the big tub and were were very happy!!! The people got a big kick out of us and I'm sure we got more money than what we were asking for our fruit!! I can almost taste those watermelons! What happened? Now the farmers or whoever, are so anxious to make that "Big" money that everything is picked green and ripened in a warehouse of some sort. Nothing tastes as good as in the old days!!! The farmers in California, my Dad used to say, water everything so much that there is no flavor in the farm produce!!! Father really DID know best!!!!