Memories and memories!!!!!

Thanks Steve for reminding me on your blog about Cappy's death! I was so involved with "self" that I didn't even remember!!!! Planning on this trip to L.A. and in such a short time really takes a lot of thought. I wasn't sure that I was going to go until the last minute but finally decided that I just had to get away from here for awhile and give everybody a rest!!!! (Including myself!) How could I forget such an important day in my life? Cappy had been ill for some time and had taken coumadin? for years and was doing pretty good, we thought. But he just couldn't leave the Camel cigarettes alone and since he had pretty well, forcibly, retired, could think of nothing to do but just sit and smoke one cigarette after another. Yes, chain smoking!!! We had taken a short trip to the San Joaquin Valley, because we had thought that we would move here after about a year, which would allow Steve to Graduate from High School and Tom from Jr. High. So we had already made a trip or two up here and then Steve and Tom went up to Wa. state to work? for Dick or probably just to have a vacation. So we, Cap and I, thought we would take a trip up this way and see what could be found in the way of housing, etc. He wasn't feeling too well but we thought maybe because of the worry about being "laid off" etc., we had plenty of time to look around, and like I said, the boys, Steve and Tom were gone too. So we decided to take the trip up through Yosemite for a drive to Jackson, or Sutter Creek, or someplace up in the foothills around here. We did stop for a few sights, etc., had lunch, etc. and then headed up towards the foothills. We got in touch with a lady who was a realtor and asked her about properties to rent, etc. and with a promise to look for something for us, we headed to Lodi and to Barbara's. We spent the night here after talking to the lady in Jackson, and then Florence Rose, my step-daughter called from Concord and said that Cappy's brother and wife were visiting and that they would take another day or two if we could come down to Concord and see them. They lived in Nogales, Arizona. So when we tried to get out car started, for some reason that evening, there was something wrong with it and so Babe, Barbara's husband and their son Mark started working on the car, They got it running but while they were working on it, Cappy came in and said he sure didn't feel good so Barbara made him lay down on the couch while she got dinner. He seemed to get better, and so after visiting with them for awhile we all went to bed and then the next morning Cappy and I headed down to Concord. Lafay, and his wife were in the San Jose area visiting by this time with their sister Leona, and we were all going down there for dinner. We had a very pleasant evening and Florence and family left for home and the rest of us to bed! Cappy and I were leaving for home the next morning because Bob and Marilyn were expecting their third child at any minute and I had promised to take care of the other two little one's for about a week! Lafay and wife were leaving in the morning too, and Leona had to work. Cappy was sitting out in Leona's garage and told her he sure didn't feel good and didn't want any breakfast and that we would eat on our way. Leona told him to come into the den and sit in her lounge chair which had a vibrator because she said when Grandma Farnsworth was having heart attacks, she could rest fine there. Well, Toni, (Leona) left us her phone number and her Dr.'s and Lafay and wife left for the Airport to go home to Arizona. The phone rang and it was Bob telling me that Marilyn had had another boy, "Mark" and when were we coming home? The phone woke Cappy up and so he said, "let's go!" I asked him if he felt O.K. and he said yes and that if he started to feel bad we would pull off the road and call Bob to come up after us! So I agreed and off we went. We stopped about San Luis Obispo and I had lunch and Cappy still wasn't hungry but said he would have a bowl of soup. We made it home O.K. and he started to feel better. We called Bob and told him to bring the kids over on his way to work because we were going to just stay home and let Cappy "rest"! The next day we went over to Simi Valley with the kids and took care of them for a day or two. Cappy told me on Friday that he thought he wanted to go home and so Bob said he was picking Marilyn up at the hospital and could we stay till they got home. We agreed and after Marilyn went to the store to get the things that she needed we went home. and needless to say, had a bite to eat and then to bed! The next morning Cappy took me to Mass and then came home and said he had to mow the lawn. He came after me and he was having a time with the lawnmower and said that he was going to lie down. We borrowed a mower from the lady across the street and I told Cappy to start it for me and I would mow the rest of the lawn, which I did. He was asleep when I finished and so I decided I had better clean the house a little because we had planned on going back up to Jackson on Tuesday to see about a place this lady had called about! When I finished, I laid down on the couch and I went to sleep. The phone rang and woke me up. It was Aunt Jennie and Cappy asked her if they, she and husband Phil would like to come over and eat with us. She told him that they had just eaten and so after hanging up Cappy told me that dinner was ready. I got up and we had dinner and I did the dishes. We watched some T.V. and then he said he was going to bed. I told him I would be in soon, there was something I wanted to watch. He went to bed but started coughing and when I had finished watching the show, I went to bed and he coughed and coughed! I told him that I was going to go into the kids room so I could get some rest. He got up to go to the bathroom and then called me from there and asked if I could got him to the Hospital!!! I didn't drive and I was so dumb that I never thought about calling the fire dept. which was just around the corner! I called the gal across the street and asked her if she could take us to the Hospital and she was there in seconds!!! We got him to the Hospital, (Emergency) and then started the worst 20 or 30 minutes of my life! The people there came in and gave him a shot of something and he kind of calmed down, then, he started in again with trying to breathe, He was kind of halfway sitting up because he couldn't lay down flat and so I went over and put my arms around him and he started to cough and cough and I was trying to help him and trying to calm him down. I finally just went to the door and yelled, "he's choking!" The emergency workers came in with oxygen and took me out of the room and told me to wait in the waiting room!!!! My friend was trying to call my kids and Jennie, etc, and was having one heck of a time letting them know what was happening! I took the phone and Bill was on the line and I told him that I thought that his Father was dying and he was crying and said that they had called Bill's wife's folks and about that time Bob Doyle, the father-in-law came into the hospital!!!! By this time I had asked him to find out what was going on and he said he had called the Priest, and I asked the nurse at the desk, "what is happening?" and she says, "Oh honey, he's gone!!!" Bob Doyle grabbed me and took me into another waiting room and from there on, my life, as I had known it was gone!!!!! Thank you Steve, for remembering!!!!! More happier memories on another day!!!!

Dance and the like!!!

Over the weekend I had company from Utah and mentioned that Cappy had taught dancing to the Morman Youth Group at one time. It is called something else now but at that time the group was called "Mutual".

Of course dancing, as I knew it and still know it, was entirely different than it is now!!!! We danced the Waltz, (my favorite, the "Hesitation Waltz"!) Fox Trot , Two step, etc., etc., etc. Your partner took you in his arms and danced with you to the rhythm of the music.
These days, it seems that everyone is out there, shaking his/her you know what, and you really don't know who came with who, etc. The music, to my ears, is not really music, but a lot of loud banging on the drums, etc. which is probably just as well because some of the words that I occasionally hear, I wish I hadn't! The Jitterbug, the Twist, and some of the other "dances?" came a little later.
But I did Jitterbug when that became popular and even before that tried to do the "Lindy Hop"! I didn't get along with that one very well. Seemed like you were dancing with some guy and then he sort of whirled you about and you were dancing with another partner!!!! I never learned to do the Charleston, that was a little before my time!!!!! I liked the "intimacy" of dancing to the music in the arms of my boy friend!!!! You didn't hold each other too close but there was this "almost" oneness.

Cappy was a very good dancer and taught me what I knew as a dancer! And he picked up on the Jitterbug as well! The music would start and we were on the floor dancing!! I loved it!!!!

As old as I am, and that is 90, if I hear an old "tune", I dance around as much as I can in my small house!!!! I have to watch myself that I don't fall down now! The kids used to ask us to dance when they were small! And as they grew up some of them, the more agile ones, would ask me to dance at a wedding, or some kind of party! (Probably out of kindness!) But this always made me feel "special"! Wish I could hear some of the good music now. Think I'll go put a tape on that has "my" kind of music!!!!!

Small world....

This afternoon I got a phone call from my neice Amy, up in Washington State and she told me a very strange story. She said she had been to a place like the Moose Lodge up there, and there was a guy there who mentioned something about being from the Pullman area, etc. Amy told him that her Dad was born in Wawawai, down on the Snake River and this guy told her there was never a place like that on the Snake River. And she told him that, yes, there was, because her Dad and a couple of her aunts were born in Wawawai!!! Pretty soon this guy comes in with an older looking guy and so Amy told the older guy what the younger one had said and he said, "there sure was! I picked peaches there and in fact, I went to school there in a little old schoolhouse!" So Amy ran home and got a book that a cousin of mine, who was also born in Wawawai, had written about Wawawai after they put in the Lower Granite Dam on the river! This guy was thumbing through the book and says, "There's the old schoolhouse" and he was looking through the book and told her that that was where he had picked fruit years ago!!! Amy got his name on a piece of paper and his E-Mail address which was theoldfart@Yahoo. She told him that I was on line too and that she had just been to a birthday party for me in February, etc., etc.... So she asked if it was all right to give him my E-Mail address and I told her it was okay. So she said that if I get mail from this guy not to throw it out or delete it. I might really know him! His name was Claude (something or other) and she is going to send me the name and address that she wrote down on a piece of paper! I don't remember any Claude, but she said he seemed to have recognized my cousin Cecil in the picture in the book. His father, this guy's could have worked for the Comapny Ranch at the time he lived there. I think it was owned by somebody called "White". The White fruit company was what kind of rings a bell in my "memory bank"! We didn't know all the people who worked there but a couple of the families married into our families! My cousin Loretta, for instance married a guy named Bill Bacon and his brother and family worked for the company ranch!! Who knows? It would be kind of interesting to know if he really knows anybody like he told her he did! She doesn't know, at her age. any of them and she doesn't know if he Dad, (Uncle Bob), would remember either anymore. She just thought it was really odd that this guy seemed to know about Wawawai!!!! I'll keep you all posted as to what I find out if anything!!

Holidays and such!

Well another 4th of July has "come and went", as the story goes. I am not too excited anymore about the "ooh" "aah" of a few fireworks! I find that I am much happier just sitting in my little home and listening to some programs with a "Patriotic?" theme than to sit for simply hours waiting for what I consider just nothing but a big waste of tax-payers money!!!! When I was younger and there were fireworks out over Coeur d' Alene Lake, it was really beautiful!!! Everyone at that time of "my" life seemed more patriotic and more down to earth! Coeur d'Alene, Idaho was a beautiful "little" town with a town park right at the edge of the water. Most of the residents walked to the Park and there wasn't people crawling all over you to find a spot to sit!!!! We usually had relatives come from the farm down in Wawawai, Washington and so our celebration started at home with the preparation of a big picnic lunch and lots of watermelon getting ice cold in a big tub of ice to finish off the picnic! We usually made it to the park at around 10:30 or 11:00 in morning and if you found a table that was to your advantage but if not, we just spread a big blanket on the grass and had our picnic there. The only thing that always did bother me were the firecrackers because the kids weren't too cautious and you could be walking around and a firecracker would go off under your feet! Of course, you screamed and yelled and usually, "Junior" got his hind end tanned right there in front of you!!!! But during the afternoon there was the local "band" that played in the little bandstand in the middle of the park, and of course, the swimming!!!! The Lake was great for that, and nobody was bothering anyone with any boats or anything! They had police that really policed the Lake and so no one even tried to get very far to shore in a boat! There was a great beach front and shallow so that anyone, kid or grown-up was able, knowing how to swim or not, to keep pretty cool in the water!!!! At dusk, the loud-speaker came on and everyone was told to get out of the water and get ready for the fireworks!!! All the show was from a big boat out on the lake and it was simply beautiful!!!! The noise from them going off, sort of got drowned out because of the water I guess!!! They usually started at 9:00 P.M. and at 10:00 P.M. everyone picked up kids, blankets and cleaned up any mess they had made on the shore and headed home! We could get to the Lake in about 20 min. from where we lived. And since so many people had walked down to the Lake and back, there wasn't such traffic jams, like there is today!!!! Night before last, on the 4th, there was a man and his son and me who had stayed home all day! So when I heard the first big "Boom" I thought, "well, I'll give it a try!" There was a couple of skyrockets that went off but barely came over the trees where we three were looking! A cold wind came up and I was sitting there for barely a few minutes and then thought "this is nuts!" so I went back in the house and finished watching the fireworks going off at the Capital in Washington, D.C. !!!!! Old age, I guess!!! Hope you all had a happy 4th of July!!! I fixed myself a sandwich and ate it and had no dessert because the sandwich filled me up and then decided that I would go to bed!!!

Things in general...

Steve sent a blog today about today's readings at Church. It was about Lot and his wife and how God told them they could leave Sodom and He would give them a chance to rebuild a new life elsewhere. But no, Lot's wife had to look back! I was thinking too about this blog and how I am "looking back" so to speak in order to leave a sort of legacy for my Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren! And in a way I think this kind of looking back is good, because it gives them, my "younguns" a chance to see where we or I, in my old age, made a lot of mistakes, and also we, as a country, made a lot of mistakes!!!! I guess if one looks at it in this way, life is a "merry-go-round"! It is what we do about the mistakes that makes the difference. If we can help it, (and sometimes we can't do anything about the mistakes we make) but trying to do better, I guess is what I am trying to say, makes us better people. It's the one's who shrug it all off with an attitude, a "the world owes me a living attitude" that bother me! There are those who don't vote and haven't ever voted, and I do know a few people that don't, but groan and moan about everything! I think that we have to have an opinion and I think we have a right to express it!! Whether things go "our" way or not!!! The world, to me, is in a big spin and I would like to slow it down some but that's not the way things work! In a way I wish I could go back about seventy years and think things out more! I wouldn't have given up Cappy or my kids, but maybe I could have made life a bit easier for them!!! I don't know!!! What you get is what you get! Sorry about that! I love you all anyway and wish I could have made you all millionaires or something but that's not all there is to life either! "Get off here Mom, Grandma, Great-grandma, Aunt, Cousin, etc. Go eat something and then go sit down and relax! You are good at that!"