I Buy My First Old Postcard

I was with Mama in 1981 at an old rundown antique shop (the kind with farm implements) when I saw a big box of old postcards.  There were hundreds of them! I spent the rest of my time there looking at them, front and back.  Finally I picked only one, and I have loved it ever since.  It had a lovely 46 star U.S. flag on the front, but I bought it because of the message written by a young mother in 1911:

Dear Sister,

Must forgive us for not writing. I am nearly dead with dysentery and the baby has the worst case of measles you ever saw on anybody.  Weighs 10 1/2 lb. is 6 mo. old.  We are expecting the boys to have them next week.

Lovingly, Vista

At that time, I was 31 and Rebecca and Janet were little.  My heart went out to that poor mother and her children.  I prayed for them although the children would be in their 70's by then, and their mother about 95.

Do you know of another rectangle of cardboard that can move a person that much?

Chris' sister,  Marianne

(age 10) writes about their 
brother Peter at age 2

Peter is very nice even though he pulls my hair and he also bites and pinches  he is always into mistrif”.  One of the times he through mamas bilfold out the window 2” times he put it in the tolet once with a 10 dollar bill in it.  Onee when you were very small and didnt know how to open the door (at least nobody thought he could) he got out every body was looking for you they look all over in the house but you werent there finily they looked out side in the rain and there you were soking weet sitting down in the sand.  Onee when you just come from the Hospital and were taking your nap Reg and Janet snuck in your room and Reg wasnt spots to but he picked you up and dropp you on the big bed then momey comes in and gets rill mad.  Once you ate a hole bottle of pills and hade to have your stomak pumped ouT.  When you were taking a nap you got up when mama was asleep and ran away, when you were sitting in the street with sand and mud that was black I was riding on my bike and saw you I took you home and boy was mama surprised.  We went to the a&p once and Peter me Chris and Janet stadey in the car you turned on the car and we started baking up and going into this big hiway the people across the street starting yeling and pointing mama finilny came out and stopped the car just in time

Peter is 2” years old He is only a baby we call hem Petey Bo
I love hem vary much I am 10”years old

When Adam was Nine

1995. This is Adam in the middle with his buddies, Jon Martin and Matt Hunt on either side.

Here is what I wrote to my friend, Martha, in Oklahoma at the time this photo was taken: 

"Hi Martha, 

You asked about Adam so here goes.  Adam is nine and in the third grade.  He got a new bike for Christmas and it is red and black, his favorite colors. He has already made big plans for the upstairs since he will be the only one up there when Janet goes off to college next year.  He plans to call his bedroom the 'East Wing' and her bedroom the 'West Wing'. I don't know how to describe Adam except to say that he is kind of a scientific nerdy-wad that everybody likes. He thinks about the speed of light and square roots and adds up big numbers in his head. He jumps up from the dinner table to look things up in the encyclopedia.

Adam is very picky about food, suspicious of any kind of sauces, and doesn't trust anything that comes out of a crockpot.  He likes spaghetti, chili, corn dogs and taco salad. Ketchup is practically a beverage.  If a corn dog weighs 4 ounces, it requires 4 ounces of ketchup. Tomatoes are the only vegetable he likes.  He likes apples and red Jell-O. Basically he likes mostly red stuff.  Frank and I would love to take him to Washington D.C. and just let him pick out the things he would like to see.  We are hoping to do that before he gets to the stage that he will not claim us as parents."

Note: The following summer we did take him to D.C.  When Janet went off to college he told me he was sad and missed her.  I told him she is always with us in our hearts, but he said still, he wished he had a solid molecular structure of her.  He's so mushy.

Fast forward 16 years.  

Here is Adam getting his PhD. in chemistry.

Easter 2014 

The Lord is Risen!

Theo's first Easter
Two months old

Diana's mother, Carmen, gave me 

this beautiful Easter dress from Mexico!

If Frank and I were Rabbits, this would be us.

I don't know... that rabbit doesn't look real to me. 

Or maybe it ate some clover by the nuclear power plant.

This is pretend. A rabbit can't really fit in an egg.

Reading lines for the play, Harvey.

My grandson, Jack Chisholm, wrote this note when he was six.

"After Christmas holiday

there will be a target contest.

You are invited"

Adam says the blessing

1991  (he's 26 now)

Adam is learning a new blessing.  He asked me to write it down on this card, even though he can't read.  He thought the blessing is what cooled our food off because I often said, "Your food's hot, let's say the blessing and then we'll eat."

Another Life Across the Street

I teach a writing class up at church and my students write about their childhoods.  This is from my friend, Peggy Myer's, book, "It All Began on New Year's Eve".  (She was born on New Year's Eve!)

Notice that even when really unusual things happen, kids don't know it's unusual until they are much older.

 Peggy and Mrs. Simpson

The Simpsons lived in the house across the street.  Their grandchildren came from Miami to visit for much of the summer each year and we would play Canasta and marathon games of Monopoly.  Mr. Simpson was not well, and I really did not know much about him.  

When Mr. Simpson died, Mrs. Simpson was afraid of being alone at night.  She asked Mom if I could come and sleep at her house and I did most nights for about a year.  I believe I was maybe in the third grade.  I would get myself ready for bed, kiss my parents good night and head across the street.  Mrs. Simpson would give me ice cream with chocolate syrup and a cherry on top before bed. I would slouch down on the sofa so my head wasn’t showing over the top and watch TV with her past my bedtime.  I would sleep in a big bed in the back of the house with Mrs. Simpson.  The next morning I’d head home and get ready for school.  

Once, Mrs. Simpson asked me if I’d like to plant a flower garden in a corner of her yard by her garage.  I remember planting the seeds she had purchased in packets in rich black, moist soil and being so proud when violets came up full of green leaves and eventually beautiful flowers. When Kingoff’s Jewelry store closed, she bought me a pretty white gold ring with a small diamond chip in the center.  One thing that I thought was unique about her was she would gently stroke the backs of bumblebees that landed on her azalea blooms.  As far as I know she never got stung.  She lived to be about 100.