Send me a postcard, won't you?

I spent an hour or two last night sorting through some more of Mom's things she had me put in storage.  The task may very well take me 6 months at the rate I'm going.  

The box I sorted through last night had old church bulletins dating as far back as 1982 and from places as near as Lodi, where Mom lived for about 40 years and from as far away as St. Joseph, Missouri where she traveled to a Rabideau family reunion in 1989.  Most of the bulletins were just ordinary Sunday bulletins she picked up after mass.  Two were bulletins she kept because they mentioned a grandchild or two who were being baptized.  I will give those to the (now grown) kids that were mentioned when I see them next.

There were also programs for graduations (I think they were 8th grade "graduations") for a couple of her grandkids.  

One of more interesting items I found was a letter she wrote to no one in particular about her trip with Aunts Barbara and Theresa and Uncle Bob to the aforementioned Rabideau reunion by train.  What made it interesting is that it was in a plastic bag and that there were several copies as if she was going to distribute them to different members of her family.  I will be transposing that letter here, on Mom's blog sometime this week when I get more time.  It shows what a good writer Mom was when she was in good health and spirits.  

But the most interesting things I found in the box were postcards she had kept.  Not just postcards she had sent to different members of her family over the years, but also those that were sent to Grandma Batty by some of her children that Mom felt compelled to keep when Grandma passed away.  There are a couple dated in the 1930's with 1 cent stamps on them, and many others that are dated as long ago as 40 years!  I will be bringing those to the Lodi remembrance and anyone who wants them can have them as a memory of Mom or Grandma.

Looking through these things are really helping me cope with the loss of Mom.  

Thanks, Mom.  I love you.

Can't sleep

Steve, here!

I woke up at 2:45 this morning, thinking that the day for Mom's 1st family memorial rosary is here!   I've been through several of these services over the years and I'm sure they all take a couple of weeks to complete, but I'm surprised it's been 10 days since Mom left us, and two weeks since I kissed her goodbye and told her I would be back to see her in a couple of weeks.

Grieving is tough.  It's easier with family and friends around, but I still am having trouble coping when I'm alone in my thoughts.  Oh, well.  I'm sure she is happier now in the sweet embrace of our Holy Savior and His mother.  

Oops! I missed a day!

Here's the last of the unsent stories Mom had written.  It's pretty funny.  Enjoy!

Steve

I started to tell you how Cappy, (your Dad, Grandpa, Uncle, friend, etc., etc.And my husband!) got into the Mexican "Bracero" program.
He went to work from the shipyards to work for a friend of the family on a big dairy, and fruit farm. They had Mexicans on this "new" program the Govt. was starting and so we went to work up in Wheatland for the aforesaid guy! While there we lived in a brand new furnished house, etc. We were not too far from Beale Air Force Base and when the Mexicans would get off work at night we would take them up to a "Tavern" Roadhouse actually, and they could get a meal there and dance with some of the customers, have a drink or two and come home! Mainly the trade was from the Base and what tourists would come down the road! The guys, some of them had girl friends, etc.so it gave the workers a little recreation! After a couple of hours we would take the boys back home, singing but happy (most of the time drunk! They didn't have to work on Saturdays and Sundays there at Sandercock Farms! These guys were pretty nice and the folks who owned the roadhouse made them feel at home! Of course, Cappy and I had a ball too because we loved to dance! After a season of this the Farm Security Administration came into being or at least into the bracero program and so Cappy was hired then by the government! Rationing had come into being and we were given little ration books of stamps for groceries, that is some things, like meat, sugar, flout, etc. and we had ration stamps for shoes, and gasoline for our cars! When we first went to work for F.S.A. we were still sent to farms and had our housing furnished, if we wished their housing, or we could rent a place on our own., which we did when we first started to work for these people!

I remember the first paycheck they got at this one place near Healdsburg, Ca. they wanted to treat their "boss" I had a houseful of kids in town to take care of! Namely, Cappy's son Les, and two of my brothers and my sister Teresa had come to "visit" us for the summer and the boys got jobs picking hops, which was what the Mexicans were doing!

What a job! These hops are used in making beer among other things and they grew up on tall poles. They were sticky, smelly and when they worked in them they really earned their money!!!But this first "payday". I couldn't figure out what happened to Cappy because he was there for dinner at night but he didn't show up! Teresa had had her tonsils out that day in the hospital and even tho she had had that they sent here home that day! So, I told her,"Why don't you just sleep here in bed with me tonight" When Cappy comes home, we'll have him go up in the loft with the boys!" So she agreed and about 11"P.M. we hear this bam! I jumped up out of bed and looked out the back door. Cappy, who was never a heavy drinker, had run right into the garage door with his car! I went in and told Teresa, poor thing and I told her, I'm coming back to bed now and I'll just tell hime to go up stairs to the loft! Well, he comes stumbling in the back door and over to the bedroom door and stands there as drunk as could be! "Hello Honey!" I yelled at him, "don't come in here we'll get a cot down out of the loft for you!" I got the boys up and instructed them to bring a cot down stairs! Cappy says "I'll do it and the boys are coming down stairs with the cat and can't get by him" I pulled him out of the way and told him to sit down!!! In no uncertain terms!!! Teresa came out of the bedroom and told me to just let her sleep out there! I did, and I'm telling you once Cappy hit our bed, he was out like a light!! Good thing! I probably would have killed him!!!

Any way when that season of picking hops was over, some guy talked Cappy into going to Bakersfield to work with him, weighing cotton! But that's another story, and I'm tired! I did my watering today outside and decided to do some trimming of my roses and a few other gardening jobs, and then I had to rake everything up! By this time, (almost 10:00 A.M.) I decided to let the gardener who mows our lawns, etc., to pick up the yard and garden trash!!

Cars...

OK, So I was cleaning up the blog files under Mom's account and I found this entry.  I didn't look to see if she ever published this one. After reading it, it looks like she never finished the story, but I think we can pretty much guess the outcome. So I'll post it today in the hopes that it will interest you enough to read the rest of her entries!

Steve

What would you younger people think (and maybe some of the older ones) if I told you that we never had a "Brand-new" car?  I'll bet some of you are thinking, "Wow"!

 Well, it's true!  I started looking at some of these neighbors around here, poor as they seem to be, yet have two or more cars!  One fellow actually has three cars, a van, a truck and a motorcycle and today drove in pulling a motorboat!!  I asked him, "Hey, all these cars and a motorcycle aren't enough?'  He says, “Well, I've had this boat quite a while and had it out at a friend’s house but he wanted me to move it!" So, I asked him, "What are you going to do with it?  Put it in the backyard with your motorcycle?"  He told me he would but it wouldn't fit and besides "if" they ever build our gate back up, he could never get it in and out!  I wonder what he'll do with the motorcycle.

Anyway, Cappy bought the first car that we had just before we were married! Seemed like a good idea! That was the main reason he kept breaking our first dates! He had to borrow his brother's car!  I can't remember what brand it was but it had one seat in the front and a "rumble" seat!  Do you know what that is?  The trunk opened up from the top and a seat popped up!!!  It was a good car and we had it for a good long time!!! 

Finally though, it just absolutely conked out on us while driving to Mother and Dad's for Christmas!  We had no children yet and this trip gave us nothing but trouble for all the miles that we were able to travel in it!  We spent an hour here in a garage, and then would go a little farther and have to pull into another garage.

By six O'clock after one garage up by Livingston, Ca. stayed open for a couple of hours to get us on the road again, the car finally gave up the ghost again, not too far from Stockton, Ca. Here we sat! The car loaded with presents, and we didn't have cell phones or anything like that.  

Cappy recalled seeing a Motel back about a mile and said he would see if they had a room and at least we could call the folks and let them know what had happened!! He left me sitting in the car and I was crying my eyes out!!  I started to pray, first of all that I would be alright and then, that he could get a room! 

Before long I saw two people coming down the highway! One was Cappy and the other guy said that if we wanted to get to Stockton, he was heading that way and we could just load everything into his car and leave our car sit there till the day after Christmas when we could make some arrangements to get home and get the car back to Fowler, where we were living at the time!  We got to Sockton and he let us off at the Bus station. We called a cousin who lived in Stockton, and she and her husband came over and got us! They said we could spend the night with them and they would go up with us to Mother and Dad's! 

We didn't let the folks know anything about it after we had called them in Livingston!    

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

 The Gospel of Luke Chapter 18, verses 1-8

Then Jesus told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’

For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’”  The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them?  I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

We should all be grateful Angela was such a warrior when it came to prayers.  How many of us drag ourselves back home after work each night wanting to say prayers finding that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak as we try to get our prayers said? How many of us have fallen asleep while saying the rosary?

Angela, on the other hand, had a regular regimen. She prayed the Liturgy of the Hours every day for as long as most of us can remember. She said a minimum of 3-6 rosaries a day, and at 3 PM every day she would drop everything to recite the Divine Mercy prayers. Steve says that many discussions with Grandma revolved around one Novena or the other that she was praying on behalf of her children or grandchildren. At her age she considered it her “job”, and she rarely “called in sick”. When she had problems keeping her schedule, she worked twice as hard in the next few days to “catch up.”

When you think of Grandma's prayers, you come to realize what an example she was for all of us. Think of her prayer regimen this way: When on a commercial airliner, usually while taxiing to the runway, the flight attendants will explain the safety features of the aircraft. In case of the loss of cabin pressure, the oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling above you. You are supposed to put your own mask on first, then turn to help the others around you, especially the small children and elderly. Angie’s rosaries and novenas were not for HER sake, but for those of us who haven’t put our own masks on yet and expressed our love of God and neighbor through the prayers our Blessed Mother has asked us to pray. Grandma felt it was her duty to “breathe” for us until we learned to do it for ourselves.

And our Prayer Warrior was very busy! Let's run the numbers. Consider just the rosaries she has said. She usually said between 3 to 6 rosaries a day. Let’s be conservative and say 5. That’s 35 rosaries a week, 140 a month or 1,680 per year. Steve said this was her regimen for at least the last 10 years (probably 20, but we’re being conservative), so that’s 16,800 rosaries said on the behalf of her family in just the last 10 years! If you break that down to individual petitions—after all, a prayer is a petition for intercession—there are 53 Hail Marys, 6 Our Fathers, and 6 Glory Bes to every rosary, in addition to the Hail Holy Queen(1). That’s a total of 66 individual prayers during each rosary. Are you ready for the total number of prayers she has said on our behalf in the last 10 years? Drum roll, please…….. 1,108,800. That’s over ONE MILLION prayers, boys and girls! Not counting Masses and weddings and funerals and Liturgy of the hours. And that’s just 10 years! And no one that knew Angela thinks she has prayed this hard only in the last 10 years. If you speak to anyone who really knew her over the last 70 years or so, the testimony you will hear is how she was such a prayer warrior, and how we were all helped at one time or another by her prayers.

And when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth? 

He will if Grandma had anything to say about it! And I’m quite sure He found it in His servant Angela.

       

R.I.P lodimama82, your MEmories will continue on

Dear Family and Friends,

Lodimama82, or as I call her---Mom---passed away almost a week ago on Ascension Thursday (May 29, 2014) at noon.

One of her legacies--this blog--will live on at least for as long as I can continue to contribute to it.  To start, I want to post one of two eulogies I wrote for her.  This is the longer of the two and is meant for those closest to Mom.   Future posts will be entries from the many different attempts at keeping a diary that Mom had that we found in different locations in her room and in other storage places she had.  I may post new memories of Mom that come to me, as well.  I might even copy and paste some of my own former blog posts as they related to Mom.  I hope to keep her MEmories alive this way.  Thanks for remembering Mom. It means a lot to me, personally.  Please leave a comment if you like what you are reading or--if you have a different version of the events or if you wish to add something to her MEmories so her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren can learn to know and love her as I do.  Occasionally, I will editorialize her journals for a variety of reasons not the least of which is because I am one of the few who can decipher her handwriting, and even I have trouble sometimes.  Thanks to all for the outpouring of sympathy and well-wishes.  On behalf of Mom, and the rest of us, I love you all.

Steve

Now, here is my eulogy:
A priest was preaching one Sunday on the theme of “Love your enemies.” After a long sermon, he asked how many parishioners were willing to forgive their enemies. About half held up their hands. Not satisfied with this response, he preached for another 20 minutes and repeated his question. This time he received a response of about 80%. Still unsatisfied, he went on for another 15 minutes and repeated his question. With all thoughts now on Sunday dinner, everyone raised their hand except one elderly lady in the front row. “Mrs. Jones, are you not willing to forgive your enemies?” the priest asked. “I don't have any,” she said. Surprised, the priest said, “Ma’am, that is very unusual. How old are you?” “Ninety-two,” she responded. “Mrs. Jones, please tell me, how can you have lived to be 92 years old, and not have an enemy in the world.” The sweet little lady, smiled, and said simply. “Oh, Father, I’ve had plenty of enemies. It’s just that, at 92, I’ve outlived them all!”  Sounds a little like Mom, doesn’t it?

”What a special gift Jesus gave us when from the cross He said to John, “Behold your Mother.”! (Jn 19:26-27).

Mothers always seem to know what you need and when you need it. I have a lot of very fond memories of times spent in my childhood when it was just Mom and me, which you would think would be difficult in a house with 4 brothers. I can’t begin to write down all of those memories, because A) There are too many, and B) I don’t have enough words in my vocabulary to express what those moments have meant to me. But I will share a few that I think about a lot.

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, I got caught stealing a candy bar from Dale’s market, across the street from our house (I should probably be on that television show, “America’s Dumbest Criminals!) The manager called Mom and she came over to get me. She pulled me home by my ear, really angry that I would betray her trust in me and embarrass her to the neighbors. She kept saying, “You’re going to confession! Today!” and “Your father’s going to punish you when he gets home!” When we got home, Mom sent me to my room and said, “Wait right here! When your father gets home, we’ll decide what to do with you!” All kinds of thoughts were running around in my head, not the least of which was “Man, this spanking is going to hurt!” Anyway, Dad came home and I got really scared. He was all for spanking me, but just as he was about to let loose on my behind, the phone rang, Dad said “Saved by the bell for the moment!” and he went out with Mom to see who it was, forgetting about me for the time being. It was Aunt Jenny. Mom told her what was going on and Aunt Jenny offered to come by and take the both of us to confession right then—me for stealing and Mom for losing her temper with me. By this time, Mom had pretty much cooled down anyway and was having second thoughts about spanking me. She could see that I was sorry. And I was. Truly sorry. Not because of the punishment I might and ought to receive, but because I had offended her and Dad, by not obeying them and staying out of trouble. I said as much to them and evidently Mom was satisfied enough with my contrition to talk Dad out of spanking me. But our trip to the confessional was still made—it was the occasion for me to learn yet another lesson. Sin is sin. Mom spent as much time in the “box” confessing her anger that day as I did for stealing a candy bar!

Mom loved Lawrence Welk! She watched his old shows almost as much as she watched EWTN. I think there were two reason for this. She and Dad watched it together back when the shows were first broadcast and it was often that Dad would take Mom by the hand and lead her to the middle of the living room floor and they would dance. Imagine that! In front of the kids and everything! Eww! Watching Lawrence Welk kept that memory of Dad's loving spontaneity alive for Mom. It also provided another excuse for her to share (yet again) that she was taught piano by Lawrence Welk's niece, Hildegard Braun. As many times as I heard that story—and Mom told it each time as if it were the first time I heard it—I only listened to her actually play on our old organ once. From what I remember of that recital, either Mom forgot most of what she was taught, or Lawrence Welk's niece was not much of a teacher!

Speaking of her stories; in her final weeks in the hospital, all of the doctors and nurses and therapists and care-givers remarked how keen and sharp-witted Mom was at 95. She certainly was gifted that way. One thing you could count on with Mom was that she would tell the same stories over and over and over again, but the facts of the stories never changed.

Mom once told me "I wish I could have made you all millionaires or something”. That reminds me of a story I once read:

There was a very rich man who had everything he had ever wanted and was so proud of himself he went riding on his horse one morning out to the countryside to survey his lands and congratulate himself for being so rich and successful.

He came upon an old man, Hans, who was known as a vagrant and prophet of God sitting under an old oak tree and eating his simple lunch of a piece of cheese and some stale water. "God bless you, sir!" the old man said to the rich man. "Harrumph!", said the rich man with a snort, "It was by my own hard work and diligence that I am the richest man in this country. Your God had nothing to do with it!"

"Nevertheless", said Hans, "I had a dream last night that the richest man in the country is going to die tonight, so I will continue to pray for you."

"Harrumph!" he replied again, saying under his breath "What a crazy old man!"

As the day wore on though, the rich man started to wonder if the old man could possibly be right so he sent for his doctor. After a thorough examination, he was given a clean bill of health and a chide from his doctor for believing in "fairy tales told by old men". He went to bed that night feeling as proud of himself as he always did.

The next morning, his neighbor visited and asked, "Did you hear the news? The old man, Hans, died last night!"

Mom, by sharing your faith with us, you have made us millionaires. God bless you.

The most spiritually profound memory I will keep of Mom and one that is shared by everyone here without question is her complete devotion to the rosary and the Divine Mercy chaplet.

I have often thought and I confess to everyone here and now that I know God exists because of Mom's unwavering faith and prayers. Faith is a gift given to us by God. But it is taught to us and nurtured by our parents. Mom’s example of uncompromising faith and prayers are the “insulin shot” I need at those times when my own faith grows weak. I can only aspire to be for my children and grandchildren the example of faith my Mom has been for me.

You could set your clocks to Mom’s prayers. At noon each day she would stop whatever else she was doing and recite one of her many daily rosaries. She said a different rosary for each intention (and for each one of us). Sometimes she would say it quietly to herself and sometimes she would use some form of media—television or radio or cassette or DVD to “help” her along. There were many times that Mom and I would recite several rosaries while traveling South from Lodi and then back North again. It sure made the time fly by, that's for sure.

Then at 3pm each day (the hour Christ died on the cross) she would recite the Divine Mercy. That devotion is a relatively new one that was promulgated by Pope (Saint) John Paul II when he canonized St. Faustina in 2000. But the rosary devotion was hers since she could speak. I never knew her to miss a rosary in my entire life. She truly was the epitome of what is known as a “prayer warrior”. How gracious was it that Jesus called her home on the feast of His Ascension at noon? Praised be Jesus Christ!

I also have memories about our discussions on faith, life, and yes—even death and the new life that our death on Earth brings us to. But those are pretty deep and I think Mom would like to keep her remembrance on the lighter side.

As a lot of the saints do, Mom had such a great sense of humor! Oftentimes I would tell a joke that would be so mangled I would screw up the punchline. Mom would laugh anyway and then say SHE heard the joke before with a different punchline then retell it to me the right way!

While in the car a few days ago, Janie related a funny story about Mom and her sisters. Aunt Barbara, Aunt Theresa and Mom were all traveling somewhere when one of them remarked “If we were to have an accident right now and die, I'm ready.” The other agreed and said “Me, too! I'm ready whenever the Lord wants me!” From the back seat Mom piped in, “Then pull over at the next corner and let me out!”

I wrote a prayer for Mom on her birthday about 3 years ago. I’d like to share that now:

Lord Jesus, You have known Your Mother’s love and tender care so please hear our prayer for our own mother, Your devoted daughter, on this day we remember her.

Just as she gave life to her children and has given her best to protect us these many years, please protect her now and let her feel safe in the Light of Life that flows through You.

Take from her all her anxieties and fears and fulfill all of her wishes. If Your will is to refuse her any of those wishes, let even the refusals bring her comfort, as she has comforted her children even in her occasional refusals for our own good.

Though we, her children, can never repay her for all she has given us we have confidence that You will repay her for us one day when she rests in the sweet embrace of Your own Mother. Amen.

I’m sure that each of my brothers and our wives has a “special” memory of Mom that shows what a powerful effect a mother’s love can have on any one of us, and how she can protect us from pain and suffering, just as I’m sure Jesus has similar stories to tell about His special moments with His mother that were never written down in the Bible. How great His love is to share His Mother with us, so we can build similar memories with her.

And just as Mom was able to intercede for me to Dad so that he stayed his hand on my bottom that day I stole the candy bar, so our Blessed Mother does for us with her Son.

I would like to conclude with Mom’s all-time favorite prayer:

Hail, Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen

  

Update

Got a new computer today!  Thanks, Steve!  Now I should be able to access this and keep you all a little more current.  Not today, though!  Too many other fish to fry!  Keep checking back!

I'm here!!!!!!

It's been some time since I tried to get on here again and although I have had a lot of what I thought were a "great" ideas, I just couldn't seem to take the time to put it on paper or "print"! One of the ideas that I came up with was telling about "my" idea of giving my Guardian Angel a "name"! Then I found out several years ago that there are more than one person who does this very thing! Oh! About my Guardian Angel's name! It is "George". Don't ask me where it came from but "he" seems to like it pretty well. How many people can ask for "special" favors from someone and "whammo!" it's done! I started years ago and if I remember right I was really getting aggravated about something and then I got the idea to call on my G.A.! And if I remember I said to myself or to George, "okay George, help me out!" and he did and since then I have called upon him over and over! I say my little prayer to him night and morning, You know the one that you learned when you were very small if you had the kind of Mother I did who taught you your prayers as soon as you could learn to talk! Oh, the prayer! "Angel of God, my Guardian dear, to whom God's love entrusts me here, Ever this day (night) be at my side to light and guard, to rule and guide." Now also whenever I need a parking spot or anything for that matter, I just say, "okay George, I need help here!" And amazingly it works!

I have a lady who drives me to my Dr. appts., etc. and I told her about this and so I think she waits for me to tell her, "Okay, there is a spot right there in front of the Drs. office!" And I thank George! Because I don't know sometimes whether I can walk another step or not!!!! I remember at one of the Bible classes that I attended over the years and the Priest who was leading the meeting asked whether or not anybody gave their Guardian Angel a name and so I spoke up and then several in the class spoke up and said that they did! And if yu think that George is bad, think again! Enough for this time! George, or my stomache is telling to stop this and go and get something to eat!

A teaser

My daughter-in-law Marilyn sent me this article from Sunset magazine asking me what I remember about this place. The fact is, I don't remember it at all, because when I lived there, it was during the Great Depression and going for hamburgers was completely out of the question for those of us who had no money. But I do have several fond memories of my days in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. I will get those thoughts together and blog later today or this week about them. Stay tuned......

"When you get older!""

Time seems to fly by but lately I have been a day or two behind or something!!! I made a "boo-boo" about the date of Bob's death on yesterday's blob! He actually passed away on the 29th of November,2010! So forgive me. Anyway to get on with today's blog! The Fall Festival that we have every year started last Thursday and since the Apartment complex I live in backs up to the Festival grounds it is quite the nuisance to me!!! Carnival rides, loud music, and shouting, (or should I say "screaming") for four days!!! This year was a "little better" and I personally think, and a few of my neighbors too, that it was somewhat quieter and seemed like less cars parked all along our street. They actually open up at 12:00 noon for the first two days because the kids are in school and then they closed, this year anyway, at 11:00 P.M. Saturday night, they open at noon but close at midnight and then Sunday it is open from noon till 1100. I think the economy may have had something to do with it, because, as I said, even those the carnival was right next to our fence, seemed that the rides weren't so full or something!!!! When I first moved to Lodi they had a Queen Contest and a few years later dropped that. (Who knows why?) And for all the time up to a few years ago on Saturday or Sunday morning there was a parade from down town by the City Hall out to the Fair grounds! They, at that time had pretty good crowds at the parade and most of the Organizations, schools or Churches had "floats!. Then it got so that there were no floats, a lot of horse riders, etc. a Boy Scout Group or two just walking the parade route, so.... go figure!!! Nothing in life anymore is like it used to be with "simple" fun, small town pride, etc, and the like. One great feature that I saw a couple of times when I attended years ago, was the beautiful "pictures" that Sorority Sisters would make with nothing but the beautiful different kinds of grapes that were grown here in the Lodi area, and they always had a "flower" show where different home gardeners showed off their prize flowers and then there were some very good side shows and also "entertainment" groups, some with pretty good names, that put on their talent on stage every day!!!! The last time I went, it was completely overpriced for what they had and was nothing more than just a Carnival with a few side shows! By this morning there was nothing left on the Fair grounds and a few "clean-up crews" were busy and by tomorrow we will be back to normal! One of my neighbors was out, he told me picking up "junk" left on the curb and sidewalk yesterday, so it looked very good here!!!! Ho-hum!!! (Yawn!!!!)

Whahapend?????

I know it's been quite awhile since I last "blogged" but, well.... stuff happens when we least expect it. I know that it has been almost or over a year since I was last on here and a lot has happened! The worst, I think was losing Bob, my oldest!!! Not exactly unexpected but then I guess we really never want to look at the "inevitable"! He had told me sometime earlier in the year, 2010 that he was not really feeling all that good but then, he, Marilyn, his wife and I all thought that he was doing O.K. Then he called me one day, ( he called me almost every day) and told me that he was going to go on a "Retreat" the next week and so he would call me Friday when he got home!!!! I waited and waited, and when he didn't call Friday or Saturday or Sunday I began to have those little "feelings" that Mothers get that something must be wrong. But I thought no news is good news and he evidently was just too tired after his Retreat annd would soon call! Not one word from anybody or anything but that was usual too! People work, and are busy, etc. and didn't have all the time he had to call me all the time! By the time Sunday evening came I was sitting by the phone and it rang and it was Marilyn telling me that Bob had sworn everybody to "secrecy" not to tell me but that he was in the Hospital and in IC. He was having a hard time breathing, eating or talking or anything and that he had gone there to the Hospital for an operation on his upper stomach and that he was not too good yet but at least was able to see everybody and try to talk, etc. I did remember then that he had told me, what seemed like ages before that the Dr. thought he just might have to be operated on. But it seemed like that was such a "long time ago", that I actually had forgotten about it. In fact he had told me since then that he was getting up a group to go on the Retreat, so I just went along with it!!!!! I could not talk to him for a couple of days but Marilyn called a couple of days later and when I picked up the phone it was Bob!!!! Marilyn told me that the Drs. were really amazed at his "recovery!!! He was home shortly after that and everything apparently went back to "normal?" Then he took a fall and broke, or fractured his ankle or leg and had to be put in a cast on his leg which, because of his Diabetes, made a sore on the other leg and they took the cast off and put on a soft cast, and he started to heal, but I am not going to keep on telling you what happened next, and then next, etc. and then, he was told he may have to go into dialysis for his kidneys. He had an appt. with his Dr. on Tues. and so the Urgent care Dr. told him to keep the appt. and anyway, he and Marilyn called me on that Sunday evening, (he had gone to Urgent care on Friday! ) We had a a, rather short, I think, conversation and then Marilyn talked to me for awhile and everything seemed O.K. Then the next morning, Monday, I got a call about 7:00 from Bob's oldest, Tim, that Bob had passed away!!!!! The date was November 30. Marilyn went in to help him get ready to take his "shots" etc. before she started work, (she works at home.) and she could not wake him!!! She called me a little later in the morning and told me he had the most "peaceful" look on his face but was gone!!!!! Since it's not too long before his Birthday, Nov. 1st, I just wanted to ask y0u Bob to say a prayer or two for me!!!! I don't know why I ask that because he is so "with me" daily!!!!! And he is out of his extreme misery of Diabetes for over 30 or more years!!!!! Eye sight was going, kidneys, were going, etc., etc., etc.!!!! May God Bless you Bob, and God Bless your wonderful wife Marilyn!!!! Maybe I can get on a more cheerful note next time on here. I am going to try and keep up a daily blog if I can. If you remember, I had my 90th Birthday Bash almost three years ago now!!!!! God Bless you all for that!!!!

Children and such....

I was thinking about some of the funny things that children do when they are too small and sometimes too dumb to know any different. Case in point!!!! I don't know how old I was when I finally decided that there wasn't any Easter Bunny! I told you before how I really cried when I found my Mother and Dad putting the toys under the tree one Christmas Eve!!! I felt betrayed and also felt that somehow, some of my childhood had gone!!!! Then I reflected back to when my children were small and how Cappy and I colored eggs half the night and fixed up home made nests for them, (we were too poor to buy the baskets and the candies that went in them for my older children.) But with a crayon, we did some decorating before we dipped the hard-boiled eggs into the cups with the Easter egg coloring in them. Neither he nor I were very good at drawing anything. BUT a simple Happy Easter on an otherwise dismal looking egg was quite an achievement!!!! I, to get back to myself and the Easter Bunny, was able to help my Mother, (Dad didn't get into the Easter egg bit!) were coloring eggs for the rest of the family this one particular night and Mother says, "Wow, I think I just saw the Easter Bunny!" I took off and ran upstairs and got into bed and pulled the covers up over my head and stayed there! All I could think of is a huge bunny rabbit someplace out there watching us color the eggs that he was supposed to be bringing!!!!!! Talk about dumb!!!! Mom just stood there and laughed and I'm sure she must have told my Father about it!!!!! There was another incident that I was thinking about the other night that involved my sister Genevieve and my oldest two Grandchildren when they were babies!! I baby-sat the two little ones for my son Bob and his wife Marilyn, who both worked. Tim must have been about two and Brian was little enough that my sister, the day I am talking about, had Brian in his car-seat in her car! I had something to do that day and so dropped off the two kids at my sister's house while I was busy. I told Gen that if the kids got tired to take them over to my house and put them down for a nap. So, since I was longer than I expected to be that is what she attempted to do, take them over to my house and put them down for a nap. She got out of the car with Tim behind her and started to carry their goodies into the house. In the meantime she laid the house keys on the coffee table and she and Tim went out and shut the door behind them. Trouble is, her car keys were with the house key. She was getting Brian out of the car-seat and happened to think about what she had done! What to do???? She tried the front windows at the house and the only window that happened to be unlocked was the one in my youngest two boys' room! In the first place Gen was large, (shall I say she was "weighty?") and so she knew that she would never get in the through the window and besides the window was a good four or five feet from the ground!!!! So she decided to put Tim in the window and have him open the door, which he could do by just going to the front door and opening it from the inside! Why she didn't just ask him to get her keys and bring them to her I'll never know! After she got Tim in the house, she could hear him running around and she kept trying to tell him to open the front door, then she would run to the front door and tell him to come and open the door for her and then she would hear him running back to the bedroom and and this made quite a little "game" for Brian who was sitting in the car-seat and kicking his little feet and enjoying the whole thing!!!! A neighbor showed up and brought over a chair so that Gen could possibly get in the window. Well, Gen had to really pull her weight up to get into the window and said she just flopped on one of the beds in the room. When she got up and went into the living room, there was Tim trying to open the front door with his little set of plastic keys!!!! She said the whole time she kept wondering if he might pull open a drawer and cut himself on a knife or do something possibly more drastic!!!! Tim was a pretty smart little kid and was only trying to open the door with a key!!! She said she was also thinking that he might spot her keys on the table and drop them someplace and who knows what!!!! I laughed so hard when she was telling me about him running around and all the thoughts that she had worried about! I came home and neither kid had had a nap and were really all "keyed" up!!!!! I must have had someone with me on my errand because I didn't drive until I was over 51 years old! But there was no such thing as cell phones or anything in those days. Gen said she was like she was between the devil and the dark blue sea! One baby in the locked house and another in a car that she couldn't have gone anyplace to get someone!! It's a wonder that the neighbor didn't think to call the police from her home and have some man come over and let her in!!!! But in a case like that I would have done the same thing!!!!! This same Tim is an over 6 foot man now and he will get a kick out of this, I know!!!!!!

More on Dad on St. Joseph Day.....

After Dad and Mom moved back to the Ranch in Wawawai, the Depression took it's toll on Dad, He couldn't keep the ranch more than a couple of years and so moved into one of his brother's ranches which was just, as they say, a bit up the road to Pullman from where we were. That we lived in for a couple of years and still couldn't make a go of it! It was another ranch that hadn't been taken care of and so with the prices that we got for what produce we did have, my Aunt had to let us go from there, I was in High school then and went for a year while we were still on the ranch to Spokane to an All-Girls school in Spokane, Wash. and then my sister was ready for High school the next fall and we had to move anyway and so went to Coeur d' Alene and moved in with my Grandfather Rabideau and my Aunt Jo and Dad went on Welfare or in those days F.D.R. (President Roosevelt was then elected and started all his programs (with initials, it seemed!) and so Dad went to work for the WPA, Works Project Administration which most of the people were being paid $44.00 a month and Dad because he had had some Carpentery experience was paid $60.00 a month! We got extra help which today would be called Welfare which consisted of some food allotments and clothing, etc. and since it was in Idaho, we did a load of wood about every few months in the winter!!! Times were tough but Dad struggled through it and he and Mother had 8 children and the last two in the family were born in Coeur d'Alene. A cousin of mine heard about a mill in California and so Dad and he came to Ca. and I wrote about that experience in one of my first blogs. (Like, we looked like the "Grapes of Wrath" a popular movie out at the time!) This mill was up at White Pines, Cal. in the Sierras and in a year or so, I met and married Cappy in Angels Camp, which was where the only Church was for miles. When that mill sold out, and was sold to someone who had a mill at Wilseyville and Dad moved the family over there. By this time besides me, Genevieve was married and Bob, and Laurence. Teresa was married when they lived in Wilseyville. That mill shut down and so Bob, Laurence and families moved to Torrance, Cal. and told Dad to come down and where he got work as a carpenter, building tract houses. He was there in Torrance till his death. A hard worker, and not very many vacations for Mom and Dad, except to visit their kids!!!! When he got the Alzheimer Disease and had to go to the Convalescent home, lived about a year after that. We, Genevieve and I made a cake for his birthday which was March 12th and we took ice Cream and got in touch with others that lived down in the Torrance area and had a great birthday party, and so we got a call on the 19th of March and Teresa, one of my sisters said that Dad had passed away. I always remember the date because of St. Joseph's Feastday!!!!! In the meantime Merry Maids, came, as I told you in my last blog except this time besides one of my favorites a young man came with her. He has been here before too, in fact Jennifer helped train him for the job!!!!! Bye for now. Got to figure out something for supper, (that's "old-fashioned" for dinner! In the meantime, I think I'll have an "Ensure" , and a couple of graham crackers!!! You haven't lived until you've tried Ensure!!!! Oh Yummy!!!!

Today's Feast Day...

Today is the date of my Father's death. He was 83 years old and as I told in another blog, was the Father of all ten of us!!!! It is, in the Catholic Church, the Feast Day of St. Joseph, the Foster father of Jesus. How appropriate that my father would pass away on this Feast Day! Dad was a good, hardworking man and like St. Joseph, was kind to all of us and we never went without a meal in our lives! And even though it wasn't (what, in these days, is called State of the Art), we always had a rood over out heads! He converted to the Faith shortly after marrying Mother and never let his Faith down. He was, in fact, the only one of his family that had any religious affiliation. I seem to remember, way back, when I was a very small child hearing the family talk about an Aunt Effie who would attend whenever a traveling preacher, or whatever came to the area. I don't even remember much about her except that she was very tall and had married, at that time, a second husband, who according to the "family Gossip" was a real loser!! Poor Aunt Effie! Her first husband, I understand had left her! I do remember the family telling how clean she was and the couple of times I saw her, she always had the whitest apron on!!! Enough about her! This is supposed to be about Dad! He was a farmer when he met Mother and had gone into partnership with an older brother to buy a big ten room house and after Mom and Dad were married 11 months I came along!!! My Uncle and his wife had two children, my cousin Cecil, who was 5 years older than I and he had a sister Eva. She got into a bottle of aspirin when she was a year or so and they couln't get her to the Dr. in time. My Uncle died also a little later on and my Aunt, to put it bluntly took over the house! So Dad and Mother went to Everett, Washington where he found work down on the docks on Puget Sound, loading and unloading ships!! Then, by this time he and Mom had six children, the youngest was born just outside of Everett in a small community when he got word that my Aunt wanted him to come back and take over the big 10 room house in Wawawai! (This incidently is where, my sister Genevieve, brother Bob, and even though we lived in Wawawai, my brother Laurence was born in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho more Mom's sisters and her father, my maternal Grandfather lived. Grandma had died shortly after, maybe two months, after we came back to Wawawai and she died in Coeur d' Alene!) But to get back to this and I may have to finish it after "Merry Maids" have gone. Bye. Continued in a few minutes!!!

More as promised.....

I got down to Teresa and told you about her and now comes Gerry or (Thomas Gerald, as he was named). Gerry was born in a little small town between Everett and Seattle, Washington. He was another happy-go-lucky kid and was a pleasure to be around!!! Seemed like he never got into trouble, (like Bob) and so it goes. We moved back to the big farm in Wawawai, Wa. (where I was born) and then along came Don. He was also a pretty good kid, (or maybe by this time I was just getting old enough to know that they were just little kids!) I will go more into detail at a later date and tell a few "stories" about each one of us!!!! Yes, me too! Eleven months later and by this time the Great Depression had started and Barbara was born!!! She also was a very cute baby and a pretty happy one. She was small in stature growing up but I guess she eventually got to the rest of us! We lost the farms, two of them to the Depression and so moved to Coeur d' Alene, Idaho where my Aunt Jo and Grandpa Rabideau had a small house but also Dad could find work with the W.P.A. and so at least feed us and clothe us!! Then along came my brother Joe. Joe wasn't much of a rebel either and a year or so later David was born! He is the youngest of the family. He was always a friendly, easy going sort of youngster. And there you have it!!!! Mother didn't have any more babies after him. She was getting up there in age and all too!!!! But we pretty much got along together!How I'll never tell you!!! But life was much slower and calmer in those days and one felt safer! It was nothing for my sister Genevieve and I to go to the movies alone about every other night, ((when we were teens!) We went to every change in programs in town and we had three movie houses!!!! We walked the mile or so to get there and were never afraid! (Or almost never! But that's another story!) Oh yes! the movies cost a quarter at the best theater and 1o cents at the cheapest and that one had all the Westerns! Tom Mix, etc. Fun! Fun! You'll have to read the blog before this one to get them all in order. I should have started with the youngest and end up with me! Oh well!!!!

A few more thoughts...

I was thinking in the night how families, though different, are still family. Take my Mother and Father's family. There were ten of us children, ( I am the oldest!) I have through the years watched them and their likes, dislikes, and whatever! I guess I'd better start with myself. I was spoiled no end by everybody, parents, grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, etc. I guess you could call me a "rebel". I had a mind of my own and even though I grew up as a pretty nowmal child, I still had a rebelious nature, or wanted my own "way" and usually got it!!! When my sister Genevieve came along, we had fun together as children but she grew up with a calmer, easier tempered nature. My brother Bob came along and he was adored by everybody!!! But he was not a "leader" either! He, even as a child, pretty much did whatever anyone told him to do and agreeably!!! He was like that all his life!!!! He was very neat, clean, and went about his own business of just "getting along!! Then came my brother Laurence. He was another "rebel"! I think that is why we fought so much, we were two "peas in a pod"! Nobody could tell him what to do!!! But I will go more into details later about some of my siblings doings! My sister Teresa was born, after two boys, so even though she was very sweet and sunny, (always!) she still was very tomboyish and tried to do everything her brothers did, (climb trees, etc .) I've gone halfway with the family and so will stop and get on later, maybe even later today! There is a lot to "tell" on my family!!!!

Some thoughts....

I was thinking the other day about my Aunt Pearl. She lived, from the time that I recognized her, which must have been when I was about two or three, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. What got me to thinking about her was that a very good friend of mine moved to St. Paul last fall. Aunt Pearl came out West quite often because our folks, most of them lived in the West!!!! She was married to my Uncle Ed Peltier who worked for the Great Northern Railroad and so was able to get pretty much discounts on her traveling, (if not free rides!) She and Uncle Ed had two girls, Eleanor and Helen, who grew up and married and lived in St. Paul too! After her girls were able to take care of themselves, Aunt Pearl started to do catering for the Cudahay Meat Packing Co. They were quite a large concern with plants all over. In order to sell their meat and meat products they would put on dinners,etc. for some of their business clients!!!! My Aunt was, I guess, a pretty good cook because she worked for them for years and I can remember as a teenager, her visits and how enthused I was about her cooking and used to ask her for all kinds of recipes!!!She always obliged and would even cook some of them with "my" help! My oldest Aunt, Jo, would tell me, "Sure, she can cook but do you see how many dishes she uses?!" (Aunt Jo usually cleaned up after one of our "cooking sessions!) After Cudahay shut down , or moved or whatever, she had quite a reputation of being a good cook and got invitation from lots of people to cook big dinners for them!!!! Maybe that's where I got my love for cooking! The last time that I saw Aunt Pearl was in the 1970's. She, of course, had retired and came out to California to see her Grandaughter who lived in Ventura County. She went home from that visit and passed away later that year. She was always quite a lady and of course had to keep herself well-dressed and "neatly-combed" as the saying goes. She was very pretty and had the most beautiful white hair for years!!!! Uncle Ed died before she decided to go to work. I saw Eleanor and Helen when they were young and that made me very young! Then I remember Eleanor and her family, (this grandaughter I mentioned was just a little girl and Eleanor and Bill had a boy, Billy too. Bill was an accountant for some big firm in St. Paul and he had a nervous breakdown and sometime after that he died! ) Helen didn't come out West too often and I didn't know too much about her family but some of them did move out when my folks still lived in Torrance. Anyway, God bless you Aunt Pearl for giving so many "wonderful" memories of you and as I said at the beginning, I think she gave me the real desire to cook!!!! I always helped my Mother cook when I was a young girl and we all had "tasks". My sister, Genevieve, liked to "baby-sit" and as I said in one of my earlier blogs, I liked to iron, cook, etc. I didn't mind doing the dishes either (as long as I could wash them! I hated drying them and putting them away!) Enough of this! Hope you are reading about this, Ann, and I do wish I could remember where my Aunt and her family lived in St. Paul, It would be interesting to know which Parish they belonged to, etc. Probably St. Paul Cathedral which wasn't I'm sure not a Cathedral in those days!!!!! Bye now!!!!!

Sometimes!!!!!!

Sorry that I have been away from my blog again for so long!!!! During the time I have had another Birthday! My 91st! I think that sometimes time goes so fast that I can't keep up with it!!! I had a ver nice birthday with son Steve, and his wife, Marilyn and their family! First, Steve called me up about a week before and wanted to know if I wanted to go out for my birthday with he and Marilyn and I told him that I hadn't been feeling all that well but would let him know later! Then he called later and sked me where I would like to go for dinner and I told him that I really wasn't all that crazy about going "out" to dinner!! So the next day or so he called again and asked if I would just like to go to their house for some ministroni, etc., for my big day! (Marilyn, in my notion really makes a good ministroni!) So, I said, "Yes, I would love that!!" They have a big old chair that I can sit in and put my feet up, (which is one of my problems these days! My ankles sweat like crazy if I don't!) So he came up and picked me up around noon and off I went!! There was just Steve, Marilyn, Alicia, and Sarah, their daughters, an d Alicia's "intended" Lorenzo, G.G. Lily, their baby. Sarah's boy friend, and Marilyn's Mother, Pat! The ministroni was very good and with it they served sourdough rolls, and whatever one wanted for a beverage! Then they came in with a yummy chocolate cake that Alicia had made and of course, since they didn't want to burn the house down, she had put three candles on it! The usual "Happy Birthday" song and then the gifts! By the time dinner was over, I was really getting tired and so Steve took me home!!!! Thank you all, family!!!! I wound up going to a Dr. on Tues. Not because of the dinner!Ha, ha. But because of an on-going problem that I have had for quite awhile and didn't want to call the Dr.! I just knew I would have to go in to her office!!! And I didn't feel like it! I think I was afraid that she might find something really wrong with me! But the medication she put me on, (an anti-biotic) really made me sick so after the first two, I called and had the medicine changed and so now this A.M. I took the last of that!!!!! Hopefully that will be the end of the problem!!!!! But I haven't felt up to it to do anything and my apt. really shows it!!!!! I'll see how I feel tomorrow and maybe I can get a little washing done, etc. if someone else hasn't got the washers tied up!!!! Bye for now!!!!

Some more thoughts!

Well, it's still raining and is supposed to really clear up by Sunday but we'll have to wait and see!!! I got an E-Mail from a niece of mine about aprons! Do any of you remember aprons? Seemed like I remember them as a very small child! My Aunts, Grandmothers, and my Mother all wore them! They were part of one's "everyday" wear. As the E-Mail said they were used primarily to keep your one or two dresses in your wardrobe clean! But they did so much more! As she said, they made very handy dust cloths when "unexpected company" was seen coming up the walk to your door! And they were useful to wipe a little one's eyes, or nose, if that happened to be a problem!!!! They were good "oven gloves" for taking something out of the oven, and were even used to wipe one's brow if the weather got too warm. I would love to have one or two to put on over my "Sunday go to Church" clothes, instead of having to waste all that time changing into something for around the house after Church!! All the things that my niece described were what aprons were used for and more. My Mother-in Law never went on a long trip by car that she didn't come out of her house wearing a clean apron over her "good" clothes. And I asked her about it one day and she told me that usually there was a little one or two in the car with them and instead of having to be careful not to get her dress dirty, the child could sit on her lap on the apron!!!!Made sense to me!!!! I just got some good news a few minutes ago from my son, Steve. He said my latest "Great" finally took a little walk of about 5 or 6 steps! She has been taking a couple of steps and then down on her knees for about a month but she was finally brave enough to walk!!! Watch out world!!!! Here comes Lily-bug!!!!!

Me! Again!

This has to be a surprise since I have been delaying in writing daily and I guess it's just because I keep putting it off and "wow"! Another day is gone! Where has it gone and why haven't I done anything I want to do that day???? I heard from my "older" cousin, June yesterday and she told me that she had a heart attack in Dec. My "older" cousin was born in December 1918! She is now home, though I feel that she should be with someone, I know the feeling! As long as I am able to do for myself, I like my own bed, my own food, (such as it is!) and my freedom and the quiet that comes from living in one's own place!!!! June and another cousin Esther, were both born in December before I was born in 1919 in February. She has always been very active. She had the most beautiful gardens and the vegetables that she planted and canned!! Oh, Yummy! She was very active in her Church and when her husband died several years ago, long before my Cappy, she did things like make quilts for her Church, and several other activities. She has most of her family living near her which makes it nice and they are always right there to help her!!! My family helps me out too but I only have one boy that is nearby so he really gets a workout!!! June and Byron had a boy and a girl and the boy lives nearer to Pullman, Washington but Linda and her husband Marvin married and lived right there in Clarkston, Wash. where June moved after Byron passed away. Both of June's children had families who had families and so as I said before she has plenty of people to take care of her!!! Now to get back to today. It has literally poured down most of the time since Sunday! When we came out of Church at about 11:30 A.M. on Sunday, it was pouring and has been off and on ever since! Today it not only poured rain all morning but we had really heavy winds!!! But who's complaining? This State really is suffering for want of water! The flooding of streets and all are minor casualties. In the San Fernando Valley where last August they were hit by such terrible wildfires, now the hills are literally coming down to Sts. and homes in the areas!!! This is pretty usual for them down there too! First comes the Santa Ana winds that dry everything out and then starts the wildfires! Some are delibertly set and others are accidents! Some years are worse that others but it seems that this past year has been very "extreme" in everything!!!!! The thing that I worry about with all this rain is the tule fog that sometimes happens after a good rain in our area!!!! Well, God's Will be done but I do pray for all those who are hit in these "bad" things! Got a call from my son in Ventura County and he said that they had had a tornado either yesterday or this morning down in the Long Beach area!!!! Wow!!!

And so another year!!!

Hi everybody! I know that it's been quite awhile since I have attempted to regale you with my thoughts and "memories" but hey, I'm almost another year old and time does seem to really fly by and I don't even seem to have time to do the things that I really want to do, or should do!!! My legs bother me quite a bit and walking seems to be a little slower and if I stand at all for a few minutes, my legs cramp up on me! But I don't remember whether or not I wrote about Thanksgiving this year but, it was fun and the weather was beautiful up at Arnold and the people were fun! We had Liliana this year to join the fun and at 1 year old now, she is in my opinion the smartest, cutest baby that ever lived!!!! She has a continual smile and now and then gets the "giggles"! She eats almost everything and almost walks! She takes a few steps and then finds it is, I think, faster and easier to get down on her knees and crawl where she wants to go! She chatters like a magpie, and even though no one can understand her, we all "converse" with her and that satisfies her!!!!. At her 1st birthday party, she was quite the card!!!! I left the party and went to Mass with Steve because we were leaving for Simi Valley the next morning for Christmas! I, was, that is! Steve was just my "bus driver"! I got up the first morning with a sore throat and a cough and of course, had the dumb cold for a couple of weeks! Christmas was fun, as usual at Bob's and what made it extra special was that Bill, Wendy, Afton, and Alex came for dinner! Alex had finished Basic training in Georgia and had "leave" for Christmas!!! He looked really great and I had time to talk quite a bit to him! After all, he is my Godson! He is now in Washington State for further training!!! I just hope that he doesn't end up in Iraq or Afghanistan! I guess that's what Godmothers are for, praying constantly for one or the other of their Godchildren! Tim arrived from Texas after Christmas, (my oldest Grandchild. Alex is my youngest!) He stayed until the 3rd of January. It was good to see him!!! Steve came after me on the 9th of January and I have been trying to get back into "living" ever since!!! So much mail and I had put out a few Christmas things so that all had to be tucked away! I just finished this afternoon, shredding things in my shredder! Good thing to be doing on a rainy, rainy day!!!! Love it!!! And is it ever needed! As soon as I can get together a few "thoughts" about the "old days" I will be, I feel, back on track! I had a lot of great things thought up while I was in the Simi Valley but I didn't want to disturb the routine too much!!! Now that is a story! Shame on me!! I just didn't "feel" like doing a blog!!!! Sorry!

Long time between visits....

I was feeling pretty low last night for awhile after I "lost" something and no matter where I looked I couldn't find it. BUT, in case you are wondering, I found it this morning! Now to get to the blog! I heard someone say this morning on T.V., that some people take their problems and just "wallow" in them and others do great things in their lives despite their disabilities! It comes to mind how much our ancestors had to really live with everything in the book thrown at them and never complain but gave us, despite what it seems the world is turning into, a chance to do some of the great things that some people do. I was calling to mind a cousin, who was a little younger than I but she contracted Polio as a child and even though in those days we didn't see each other as much, or really as much as we can communicate with each other these days, she was crippled and in our teen years we moved closer to each other. I remember her telling me one day, "I'll never be able to dance or anything like other people do." I told her of a girl who was in school with me, a grade older than me who had had Polio and she danced and did all sorts of things. She was one of the most popular girls in our school! Well, to make a long story short, I guess my cousin took my advice because after High School she went on to college where she met and married a man who was interested in the same things she was. Janet, from the time she was a little girl loved animals and worked part of her high school days at a dog kennel. She told me that if someday she could do something like that she would be in seventh heaven!!! Her husband and she put up a kennels and started raising thoroghbreds and the University of Washington was hiring some of their dogs to find people lost in snow slides and avalanches, etc. Hank, her husband got Cancer and after he found out about it his life ended. (He passed away the same year as I lost my husband.) Did Janet give up? No! She and her two boys, married now, were running quite a successful business so she started to judge dog shows, and for several years was one of the highly acclaimed judges on the A.K.C. show that is on T.V. all the time. When she would come to the town where I was living, or near it, to judge a show, she came and visited me! She was so "able!!" Off and on planes, busses, etc. She didn't drive or couldn't with her problem. Finally she began to get offers to judge dog shows all over the world!!! She, at one time would tell me that she just got back from South America, or Paris, or London. She fell though about four or five years ago and broke or cracked the brace that she had in her leg and so it, because of her age put a stop to her working!!! What a gal! Another person comes to mind. One of my sons who has Diabetes and has had it for about 25 years or more!! Did that stop him? No, he worked until his eyesight got so bad he could do no more driving and started taking a train in the L.A. area and finally had to retire from that and is now pretty much "house-bound"! Does that stop him?No!!! He started to take the Sacraments to people in the local hospital where he lives and now has quite a crew doing it with him! He doesn't drive but those who can, pick him up and drive him! His Pastor has him training the crews, which, because of what it is, keep changing. (a new baby, a serious illness or some other valid reason can't do it anymore.) It keeps my son quite busy and the thing is, it gives him a "Life"! He has become involved with other Parishional things too. AND I HAVE TO ADD HERE, HE HAS A WIFE WHO REALLY HELPS , AND UNDERSTANDS!!!!!! I have another member of my family who was born with what was considered a "lazy" eye! After her Mother and Father, from age one, took her to Dr. after Dr. and after several operations, she herself decided that enough was enough!!! Did this stop her??? She was quite a student in Grammer school and in High School, with a scholarship and finally after 4 years in College, went on to Law school and passed her Bar and is now a Lawyer!!!! We all of us are so proud of your achievements, honey!!!! A friend of mine, a man who belonged to the same Bible class that I attended for several years,was a house painter and fell off a ladder and shattered an ankle! This man has been to several Doctors, and several operations even after I knew him! Does this stop him???? He is one of my heroes!!! He still does some painting and is walking very well and without a cane, and I just can't believe him! Such courage!!!! What a guy!

Some Memories...

Bob called me last night and wondered why I hadn't been working on my "blog"! So I told him that I had thought about it several times but I really haven't been feeling too good and also, I have been trying to put more time into my "prayer" life!!!! You atually start thinking more about the "necessary" things when you get older and wonder how much more you can "remember"! So I was thinking about some of the Holidays that we used to enjoy and how we celebrated them. Of course, in my family, when we were where we could get to Church and all that was usually the way we started them out! Thanksgiving was always a big deal "family-wise" because we usually lived around a lot of Aunts, Uncles, cousins, to say nothing of the 10 children Mother and Dad had!!! Seemed like some of the first Thanksgivings I remember, Mother got up in the middle of the night and stuffed the turkey and put it in the oven!!! The whole house smelled so good when we woke up!!!! And another thing I remember was that even though Mother got up so early, it seemed like the turkey took it's own sweet time cooking!!! We always had a huge turkey and with that, Mother made the best dressing! It was probably because she used home-made bread that she had allowed to dry out just for thaat purpose! The right amount of spices, onions, celery, butter, (to keep it moist!) and she always cooked up the giblets, (liver, heart, etc. and, if she could get away with it, the neck! The broth from those were added to the dressing and the giblets were cut up small and added too. We always had mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, creamed peas, candied yams, (Ooh yummy!) apple and walnut salad, and fresh biscuits. Then the pumkin pie that was made the day before! Now it seems like people have a variety of pies, Chocolate, lemon, etc. And Grandma, (my mother always made her own mincemeat and made pies with it!!!! As we got older and got married, we had our own dinners, depending on where we lived!!! If we were around family these became quite the way to have dinner! And it was the custom for this one to bake the turkey one year and the next year someone else did that and it was the same with the other things. The apple salad, for instance, (Waldorf Salad) would be furnished by one family and the yams by someone else! Then when Mom and Dad moved into Torrance, California, we decided that we could rent a hall and it was usually the Y.M.C.A. and we would cook everything at home where so many lived in the area and then bring the meat and stick it into the ovens there and cook the rest of the dinner there. We had big long tables and we would fix everything and then bring it to the tables and then the real fun would start!!!! The reason we liked this hall particulaly was that it had a nice big yard and the men and boys could play football and the little ones always had a good time together! After dinner, there was a fireplace in the hall and we would make a fire, and then someone would ask me or someone else to play the piano and we would stand around and sing and then we would turn on our record players, etc. and those who wished could dance. Cappy and I usually started it out and before long the younger ones were dancing along with the older members of the family. The dish situation was taken care of because there was a big, old dishwasher in the kitchen and so it could pound away without bothering anybody. We always left the hall clean and so we could usually get it the next year!!!! These dinners were really fun and even though we saw the rest of the family often, it was still great to get together all at one time!!!! It usually broke up about 5:00 or 5:30! after everybody had taken what they wanted have for leftovers that night!! When we moved from there and of course, by this time, my Cappy had passed away, we moved up here to the Central part of the State and I can't begin to tell you the number of times that I had dinner with my sister Barbara and her family!!!! I cooked a couple of times and since at that time I had a big apt. I invited those who wanted to come, to my house!!!!! I miss all that in my old age!!!!! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who read my blog!!!!

Autumn and the leaves...

Was just sitting here thinking that here it is Autumn and outside the temperature has reached a cool, or should I say a hot 100! I remember the "good old days" when Autumn meant that the leaves were starting to fall and the temperature had fallen and one almost always had to wear a light sweater. The flowers were the Goldenrods, and of course the Zinnias and Asters were pretty good Fall flowers! The leaves seemed to fall, and fall, and fall. One could rake them up and the next day there would be another pile to rake up. (Or was it because it was so much fun to run and jump into the pile of leaves, scattering them everywhere!) Today I looked into my small garden and the Roses were still blooming and the Crepe Myrtle trees are in full bloom! By this time they usually have lost all their blossoms!!! It has been kind of a crazy year all around. Was warm very early in the Spring and then turned very cold and seemed like Spring and Summer were here and gone. Oh, we had a few hot days but this was not the usual thing this year. This Spring and into Summer it seemed like the fresh tomatoes didn't come on the market as early and since we live in a grape growing area, it seemed to me that the grape harvest didn't start as early!!! There are still fresh peaches in the market and they, the store clerks, etc., say that the peaches are locally grown! And they do taste like it! Not picked "green" so to speak and then "warehoused" to ripen!!!! Before we know it, and we really will need it, the rains will start again and the cold weather will begin and so begins another cycle! I was talking to a Granddaughter day before yesterday and she was telling that she was looking for her wedding dress for her upcoming wedding in June of 2010!!!! I thought, so far away and yet looking at the way the past year has flown, "Wow" I had better start getting around a little better so I can attend! I said last February when I heard about a Grandson's August wedding, I will try and make it but I can't promise anything!!! I did attend the Wedding and now here is something else to look forward to!!!!! I would like to see another "little one" or two before all is said and done with me!!!! Not pushing, just dreaming!!!!!! First the weddings though!!!!

Another trip...

When, several years ago, I recieved a letter inviting me to my High School Reunion. The reason for the Reunion was that the School was being torn down and so everyone that could be reached and had gone to the Academy was sent an invitation. This included my sister Genevieve, my brother Bob and me. It was to be at the Immaculate Heart Academy and we really were anxious to be in on it! They sent the usual data as to Hotels, Motels, etc. It was to be a three day affair. But, I was going to talk about another trip! After the Reunion, (which in my notion was a complete sucess,) we, the three of us, Genevieve, Bob and I started home. Did I mention that the Reunion was in Couer d' Alene, Idaho?? We left for home anyway, after Mass on Sunday morning and went the same way back through Oregon and when we got to California, we decided to take the "scenic" route along the coast which meant going through the Redwoods. Since I had never, and Bob had never really taken time for them, we decided that this was the time. Genevieve's husband Phil was a forest ranger with the State of California a long time ago and so she had been there. She was a pretty good Guide. We took our time and really got a lot of beautiful pictures but by the time we started to leave it was getting on in the afternoon! We went on to Highway One which by this time, (since the previous trip up Hwy. 1) was a pretty good Highway. Still not all that wide or anything but we were traveling in the early evening and it was summer! Genevieve wanted to go past a couple of the State Parks where Phil had worked and where they had lived and so as the old saying goes "time flies when you are having fun!" It was getting later and we had planned to go to another brother and wife's home in Sebastopol and spend a couple of days with them. We kept looking for a small cafe and someplace to spend the night before going on. We got to Fort Bragg and found a restaurant, had dinner and asked where we might find a motel for the night. We came out of the restaurant and found that we had left the lights on in the car and hence had a dead battery!! We called AAA and they came after about 45 minutes and we went inside and asked the people who were running it if there was any place we might spend the night! They told us that the Democratic Convention was in San Francisco and the Forty-Niners Football team was in the Bay area for the last game of the season and hence there was no room at any Inn for miles around! Someone pointed out a small hotel at the bottom of the hill and said we might get a room there but it was up over a bar and all! We thought that that was all we needed so decided to head over to Highway 101 at Cloverdale and take out chances at finding something along that Route. Every little small village or bigger town was full and had "No vacancy" signs everywhere. and when we did stop and ask, just in case, we were told that it was doubtful if we would find anything at all down to San Francisco and beyond!!!! Well, we got to Santa Rosa and since that meant we could either go home or go to Sebastopol, which was closer. I was really tired by this time and we were all getting a little cranky and so I looked in my purse and didn't have any change to call David and Bob was saying, "What should we do?" I said, "Just give me a damn quarter and I will call David and see if they are home and if not we will go home!" I called and Jeanie, his wife answered and said, "You just caught us home! We have been gone all evening! But please do come over and stay a couple of days!" So they told us how to get there from where we were and we arrived to find that they had beds all set up and all and were more than happy to have us!!!! But did we go to bed? NO! We sat and visited for hours! But we were rested when we decided to get back to Lodi and the old routines again!!!!! We, my sisters, and Bob and I, have taken several trips and some were good and some were, let's say, very memorable! I will tell about a trip we took by train to Texas to go to another brother and wife's Golden Wedding! That was, as I wrote in a letter and sent to all my family, entitled The Trip to Hell!!!!! Oh the Golden Wedding was nice and being in Dallas was nice but the trip there was something else!!!!

Dumb trips!

I have really taken a lot of trips in my life! After Cappy died, I felt that I hadn't done too much traveling "just for the fun of it!" But one trip we took when he was alive keeps popping into my head and so I decided to write about that! We had traveled to San Francisco to see Cappy's folks and his sister Leona called and said, "Why don't you guys come on up here?" They lived in Bodega Bay at the time. So we took Cappy's parents and his daughter and son with us to visit there. We had to take another car because we couldn't all fit into ours. During the visit my Father-in-law said that someplace he had always wanted to see and really wanted to see was the California Redwoods. So Leona said, "Why don't we drive up there now"? Well, someone had sense enough to say that we had better take something to lunch on till we got there because this was about 4:30 or 5:00 in the afternoon. So, we started to get food together for a "picnic" sort of meal to eat on the way and that took about an h0ur or so and Mom Farnsworth thought we had better take some blankets with us because we had Florence, Lester Bert, Bobby A. (Leona and Al's boy, Bob's age) and our boy Bob Earl, and they might get cold, etc., etc., etc. And off we went. We were going to go up Highway one which at that time looked like an old country road but it followed the Pacific Ocean front. We hadn't gone very far when the fog settled in and we were creeping along to get to the Redwoods! The fog got thicker and thicker and it was getting later and later and finally we couldn't even see to drive!!! So we decided it was time to stop and have a bite to eat and see what kind of a situation we were in! We pulled off on the right hand side of the "road" and found ourselves on a big flat "rock"! The men started to gather driftwood to start a fire to keep us warm and while we were eating our "picnic"! It was really late and the fog was so bad behind us and in front of us, in fact, we didn't know where we were or why, at that moment. The little ones, the two Bobby's anyway were getting fussy, (hey, they were only about a year and a half old!) so I told my Mother-in-law that I was going to get in the seat of our car with our Bobby and I would use our coats to cover us and I was going to try and get some sleep! Mom decided that she and Leona, Bobby A. and Florence would get into another car and the men said they would keep the fire going till morning!!!! I must have been very tired because the next thing I knew it was dawn and the men were standing around the fire trying to decide what we were going to do! Someone was smart enough to suggest we try to see the Redwoods another time and so we got the fire put out with the sand that was all over at that place and we headed home! Now we could at least "see" where we had been, getting up there to that spot and how lucky we were not to have ended up "shark food"! We just took right off for San Francisco and left Leona and family in Bodega Bay!!! When we got back to San Francisco my brother-in-law Lafay called us and wanted to know how he could get in touch with Cappy and so Cappy took the phone to hear him tell us that he and another brother, Bert had a job for Cappy in Mexico if he wanted to take it! And that was why and when we went to Mexico to live for??? We didn't know at the time how long it would be!!! In later years I got my chance to see the Coast Redwoods and it would have "possibly" been worth the trip, fog and all!!!!!