Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Happy Days

Hello all, been awhile since I wrote.  Things have been going well.  For Labor Day weekend our two girls were here.  I always enjoy having them home.  It had been sometime since Sandy was here, also to have both Sandy and Isabel here at the same time.  It was very nice.  We just hung out and talked and enjoyed each others company.  Made some food they enjoy.  I like to have them home, enjoy the attention they give me.  They get along really well with each other.  It is a pleasure to see that.  They are great daughters, Jo and I are very proud of them.  So much fun to be with.  I love them.  Looking forward to their next visit.

This past weekend my brother and sister came down from Dixon, CA  They came to the house on Friday along with my brother-in-law Lee.  We had a good visit.  We had invited Mary and Dewey to spend the night but Mary had already made plans withe Bettie to go shopping on Saturday so they had to decline.  On Monday Bettie, Lee, Dewey, Mary, Rick, Christina, and their baby Jameson.  What a cute baby.  Six months old, and so happy.  Lots of love in the family for that baby.  We had lunch here at home chicken from Juan Pollo.  Well received.  Mary and Bettie had brought a cake that Mary made.  Good cake.  I got a little teary when they left.  It was good to have them visit.

Today was a little like fall.  Cooler temps, good breeze.  Jo took advantge and plated some new plants.  Re-poted older older plants.  I watered some spots in the yard that had gotten a little dry.  Good day.

This weekend the 14th my high school class of 1958 is having a reunion in Dixon.  Fifty five years since I graduated high school.  Don't know if I  would go even if I was able.  But it is certainly a milestone.  My Senior year I had a 1957 Ford Ranchero, black, with a red interior.  One other guy had a 1958 Chevy.  So I had the second newest car in our class.  I will look for a picture and try and post it for throw back Thursday.

Take care, enjoy life.
Pappy
  

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Western evening

It has been a day of hard work.  Rode drag till nooning.  We are some where along the trail.  Haven't seen anyone else.  Not even and Indian.  The weather has been hot.  But at least we have been able to find water at sundown.  Beef and beans are getting kinda old.  Maybe the scouts will be able to get some fresh meat soon.  Old Sam the cook can make some good biscuits.  Out of bacon.  Maybe we will get close to a trading post or small settlement, then we can lay in some supplies.  Full moon tonight.  My turn to ride night heard from midnight till dawn.  Better turn in now.  Long day tomorrow.
Pappy

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Great day for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June 5th, our first child was born.  That was a very special day.  My wife's Mother was here for the birth, my parents were there also.  But beyond that it was a special day for me.  I had a daughter.  I was a Dad.  I had a family of my own.  No worries about the future.  It was here now.  To begin to know someone from the day they were born was awesome.  To see her personality develop.  Share moments as father and daughter. Basket ball, tennis, volley ball, dog training, driving her to prom.  High school graduation. College, meeting for late lunch/early dinner.  Trip to Canada with daughter number two.  Yellow Stone whole family.  College graduation.  Move in with her boyfriend., stay in Poky while we move to SoCal.  She gets married in the Little Chapel of the West in LV.  I walk her down the ail.  She has her first born, a boy.  We become like two peas in a pod.  I spend a lot of time at her house.  We bond even tighter.  I am accepted by her husband.  I am a member of her family.  Sandy I am so proud of you, Marty and Tristan.  Love you all so much.  Happy birthday, quite a surprise  when Isabel showed up.  It makes me happy that my two girls get along so well.  Hope you all had a great evening.
Love Pappy




Monday, April 15, 2013

1945 #1

I was 5 years old.  My Dad was a share cropper.  We had lived on this place for as long as I can remember.  Across the road from us was a family somehow to my Mon.  They had a boy a little older than me.  We used to play together.  We would get on old broom handle and pretend it was a horse.  Take some string and tie to one end that was the bridle on the horses head.  We would go out to the fields  with our stick horses, play cowboy rounding up cattle. We would play for hours.  I remember there was a thunder and lighting storm.  My Mom was scared she took us kids and went across the road to this lady's house.  The boy thought the storm was fun and ran out of the house into the wind and rain.  His Mom was very upset with him and said something about the wind blowing him away.  He just laughed and ran around even more.  The storm passed and we went back home.  I don't remember were my Dad was, maybe he was in town or working helping some one.  Next day was back to playing and everything normal for my small world.
Pappy   

Friday, March 8, 2013

1944 #2

Saturday night.  Moma and Daddy going to town tonight.  I will go to Dad and Ma M. house for the evening.  After we eat the three of us will gather round the battery powered radio.  Amos and Andy, the Grand Ole Opery.  The kersone lamps are on.  Siting in the rocking chair on the back porch.  Another fine evening.

As I said my Dad is a share croper.  He grows crops for cash.  Some cows, one for milk for the house.  Some pigs, and of course horses to do the farming with.  A garden for the house.  In the fall he would butcher a hog.  From this Moma and Daddy would make pork(seasoned) sausage form the meat into patties.  Fry the patties in pork fat then put the patties into Mason jars pour pork fat over the patties until it filled the jar.  Then seal the jar, place the jar into boiling water until the top of the lid sucked in a little.  The jars were then placed into storage.  We had pork sausage for most of the year.  Moma canned a lot of vegetables also, minus the pork fat.  Bacon and hams were salted and cured in the smoke house.  Cuts of fat were taken to Dad and Ma M. who had also butchered a hog, these cuts of fat were combined and it was time to make soap.  The fat was placed in a large kettle in the yard.  A fire was built under the kettle, when the fat reached the right temperture lye as added and mixed in.  This mixture was allowed to cool.  Then cut into bars, this was our laundry soap, bathing soap,    cleaning soap.  There was another kettle used to make our shorting.  Pure pork fat was rendered, allowed to cool then put into cans to use in cooking.  These were done on different days because it was a rather under taking.  Also the other farm work had to be done, milk the cow, feed the horses, and pigs, chickens. 

All of these things were normal for me.
Pappy

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

1944

Ma and Dad lived in house on the hill.  My dad was a sharecropper.  We lived in a house down the hill by the creek.  Between the houses was a field oh maybe 4o acres.  Dad farmed this field.  Sometimes he would have cotton, corn, or watermelons.  This was my play yard.  I would meet dad out in the field and follow him around.  I especially liked when he planted watermelons.  Dad and Ma were my mothers parents.  This was in OK.  My moms  brothers were in the army in Germany.  Walt was home but he worked for some one else.  My Dad and Dad M. would get the field ready, using a team of horses and a plow.  Then other horse drawn implements to prepare the the ground.  I would go along with Dad M. and he would make little hills and plant the watermelon seed.  Some snuff was placed in each hill then the seed.  He then carefully covered the seed not to deep just deep enough. (the snuff was to keep bugs from eating the seed)  Now we waited for rain to give enough moisture to sprout he seed.  During this time any weeds were hoe'ed out.  Many hours were spent in this manner.  I loved every hour I spent with my Grandpa M.  When the watermelons got ripe they sure was tasty.

When he had cotton in the field and it was cotton picking time the family all helped.  Each had a cotton sack(a long bag open on one end, closed on the other.  On the open end was a strap sowed to the bag off center.  You put his strap on your shoulder and drug the bag behind and beside you while you picked the cotton from the stalk and put it in the cotton sack.  I was unfair to my mother because I would get on the cotton sack and ride while mother picked cotton.  When the sack was full we had a team of horse's pulling a wagon with high chicken wire sides.  When this wagon was full of cotton we would drive the team and wagon to town to the cotton gin.  I remember riding with my Dad and Dad M. to town and the cotton gin.  Lots of work to being a farmer back then.  More later.  Have a good day.
Pappy

Monday, February 11, 2013

#1 February 2013

Hello!!!!!!!!!  Been a long time since I was here.  But how long is time?  For us mortals time is a nano second of life.  I have been doing fairly well.  It took some time to adjust to my sitution.  Now it is little goals, small rewards.  But each day I wake up is a small victory.  Enough about me.
     Next week on the 19th will be a milestone.  More later.  The girls will be here the 14th thru 17th for Sandy, Isabel on the 15th till the afternoon of the 17th.  Looking forward to see them and hear about their lives. 
     A vacation we took was to canada and Montana.  Had a good time and enjoyed their company.  You get some idea how your kids are when they are small.  But as adults sometimes they suprise you.  I need to get my thoughts in order and relate some of the things from childhood into adulthood.  Maybe some stories about me.
     Take care, love to all.
     Pappy