Talking About Daddy

Or at least his trucks - on Facebook.

Daddy started out driving an ice delivery truck when he was still really just a kid. For you young 'uns out there - I'm talking about blocks of ice to go in the ice box. Not refrigerators. This was before electricity. He told me about knocking on the screen door of a kitchen one time and the black lady telling him to "come right on in, son"... Big woman. Taking a bath in the wash tub in the kitchen. Of course, Daddy did tell some tales.

He worked for Red River Army Depot, but Mama said he'd work awhile...they'd lay him off...they'd call him back. It just wasn't steady work. Daddy, Mama, and Jr. moved to Grand Prairie, Texas. They came back so that the same doctor at St. Michael's in Texarkana could deliver me. Then we moved back. BJ was born in Dallas.

Daddy went to work for Lone Star Boat Company in Grand Prairie. It sold out to Chrysler Boats.
http://www.fiberglassics.com/library/Lone_Star

Wasn't he a handsome man?!Can you imagine driving trucks like this coast-to-coast? summer and winter? He told another story about J. C. Jackson and him driving their two trucks in California one summer. They were driving through orange orchards and saw a sign "All The Orange Juice You Can Drink - 5 Cents." Well they pulled over and threw their nickels down. Gulped a glass each and said, "More." Gulped that down. "More." Next time, she said, "No." Neither one of those men were much for being told "No." "Whaddya mean, 'No'? The sign says ALL you can drink." They were told real quick that they'd drank all they could drink at that stand. LOL

Someone on Facebook asked about Daddy's 1949 Ford. Baby brother Joey had it last. He sold it quite awhile back...20 years or so???

Then the old red B-Model Mack was mentioned. Daddy bought it to play with. He sold it to Chrisman's in/near Coal Hill, Arkansas. Joey had worked for them when he owned the '49 Ford. They totally refurbished it. They even found the original bill of sale in the door panel! Joey was supposed to get some information about Daddy to them and they were going to put a plaque in the truck dedicated to him. I hope they did.

Lost and Found

I lost my Swiffer duster. Quite awhile back, actually. You know...before Thanksgiving. YES! I have dusted since. At least a swipe here and a swipe there with my old fuzzy acrylic dust scatterer. I know that I probably got interrupted while dusting and just dropped it behind something. For the last two weeks I've been looking behind knick-knacks, photos, books, what-have-you. Alas, no Swiffer duster. I'm thinking perhaps the monster dust bunnies absconded with it. But no ransom note has been forthcoming.I turned the stereo on over the weekend. Put on my Christmas present for my stocking from me Darius Rucker CD and sang and danced and looked up. Dang it! Found the blasted thing. Now, I've really got to dust in earnest - but not while Darius Rucker is singing "It Won't Be Like This For Long."

What about these bluebonnets?!

Don't you just love the red in the centers?!

My Mother's 77th Birthday was Yesterday

Wasn't she such a cute baby!! For years and years she had a standing appointment at the beauty salon for this hairdo. :D I've posted this photo before of Mama and me standing in front of a Blocker family quilt - yep as in Dan Blocker aka Hoss Cartwright. His dad and my great grandmother were brother and sister. A bed laden with nostalgia. Looking for these (except the moccasins) to loan to Colt......wonder why I saved the boot box too? Heart still goes thu-thump...thu-thump...one of the smoothest voices in country music!

Red Tails

Very good movie!

In talking with others, you will either really like it...or really hate it. I honestly think part of that would depend on - well - how racist you are. I heard two older men talking about "rewriting history" ... "The Tuskegee Airmen were just escorts." I knew these men and asked, "Oh. And if the Germans started shooting on the air convoy, these fighter pilots just ignored them? Interesting."

Let's give credit where credit is due. Yes, the movie is "based" on true events. No, every word uttered on screen is not historically accurate. IT'S A MOVIE PEOPLE!

However, The Tuskegee Airmen had a fight with the US military going in strictly because of their color. But look what they accomplished!!!

From Wikipedia:

In all, 996 pilots were trained in Tuskegee from 1941 to 1946, approximately 445 were deployed overseas, and 150 Airmen lost their lives in accidents or combat. The casualty toll included 66 pilots killed in action or accidents, and 32 fallen into captivity as prisoners of war.

The Tuskegee Airmen were credited by higher commands with the following accomplishments:

• 15,533 combat sorties, 311 missions
• 112 German aircraft destroyed in the air, another 150 on the ground
• 950 railcars, trucks and other motor vehicles destroyed
• One destroyer sunk
• A good record of protecting U.S. bombers, losing only 25 on hundreds of missions.

Awards and decorations awarded for valor and performance included:

• Three Distinguished Unite Citations
  • 99th Pursuit Squadron: 30 May–11 June 1943 for the capture of Pantelleria, Italy
  • 99th Fighter Squadron: 12–14 May 1944: for successful air strikes against Monte Cassino, Italy
  • 332d Fighter Group: 24 March 1945: for the longest bomber escort mission of World War II
• At least one Silver Star
• An estimated one hundred and fifty Distinguished Flying Crosses
  
• 14 Bronze Stars
• 744 Air Medals
• Eight Purple Hearts
  

In 2007, President George W. Bush and Congress presented the surviving 300 men with the Congressional Medal of Honor. President Bush saluted them to help atone for the slights they received while they were serving their county.

But remember - they were ONLY escorts. Riiiiighttttt!

Let's NOT rewrite history. But please report it completely and honestly.

The Grey

I like Liam Neeson so went to see "The Grey" tonight. If I ever unwind, I'll go to bed.

Two problems with the movie:
1. Really, REALLY bad closeups of the fake wolf heads. If they weren't going to get a closeup of some real wolves, why not go the computer generated route? Some of that work can be so realistic that you can't tell the fake from the real thing.

2. When someone falls into frigid water in the middle of winter in Alaska when temps are well below freezing...if they don't get those clothes off, they will freeze to death!

Sheesh. Somebody out there thinks movie goers are idiots.

Next week I'll go see "Red Tails" - about the Tuskegee airmen.

Moving Day

Over the weekend we helped Colt and his parents move to their new home. A moving company moved most of the stuff. Erin had quite a bit packed up, but there she is 8 months pregnant with a 15 1/2 month old toddler. Oh...and John had to work Saturday until mid-afternoon...so she was by herself.

We got there about mid-morning and I took over the best job - keeping Colt occupied while Sam went with Erin to what he could do in the "keep her from lifting anything heavy" job.

As you can tell, Colt worked hard. I rocked him on the couch and when he conked out, I placed him on the couch. Then - arggghhh! What if he rolls off? I put a bolster on the outside edge and held it in place with his high chair. Decided that wasn't good enough so scooted the big living room chair over against it. Then I went into the kitchen and wrapped dishes while I kept my eye on him. He slept two hours! And that was with the movers talking giving each other directions, running in and out of the house, doors opening, left open and closing - loudly. LOL He stayed in this pajamas all day.

When we got to the new house, Erin sent Sam, Colt, and me out for lunch. Colt was so good! His nap was late. His lunch was late. By the time we got some fried chicken down him it was 3 p.m.! This was our first just the three of us and we all did so great!

At the new house, he had to have some Cheerios for a snack and shared with PawPaw.
Then...he inspected his new digs. Yes. He is trying to crawl in the drawer! LOL

I Made Gravy Tonight

Daddy called it "white cream gravy"...although Mama always used milk. As a truckdriver, he ate a lot of slop across these United States. He did not like brown gravy. He wanted "white cream gravy" even on hamburger steak. I thought of him while making my little dab of gravy this evening. Mama was a good cook. (I say "was" because she doesn't cook much any more. She's reached the point where very little tastes good. She doesn't want but a bite or two of meat. And even when I cook something and lightly salt and pepper it, she calls it too "spicy". I know she doesn't eat it.)

Back to the story. Mama was a good cook. Daddy went through a point in their lives when he criticized everything she cooked. He ate a lot of bologna sandwiches for awhile. When he questioned her about it she replied that he griped regardless of what she put in front of him, so why should she waste her time cooking. Snicker. He hushed until...

Daddy ate gravy every day that he was home. Breakfast, lunch, supper...gravy at least one of those meals just about every day. You can't make a little gravy. Mama got tired of making it every day. So...Mama put the leftovers in the refrigerator. Next day, she'd stir in a bit of milk and heat it in the microwave! Bwahahaha. One day, she started making it fresh again. Because...

She said Daddy sat at the table one day dipping a spoon into the bowl and pouring the gravy back in the bowl --- spoonful --- pour back in the the bowl --- repeat. He said, "Shirley, you used to make decent gravy. You can't make it worth a damn any more."

I asked Mama what she said to him. She replied with a great big smile, "Nothing. I just started making it fresh each time."

I love having those flashbacks of their lives.

Daddy died in 2000 from ALS - Lou Gehrig's Disease. He wasn't ill much at all in his entire life. I remember a crick in his neck when we were little. One of his BFFs, another truckdriver, walked in the bedroom, pulled his pocket knife out of his pocket, and offered to cut the crick out. I know my eyes turned the size of saucers! At 69 years of age he had no medical problems (except his memory). He took no medications of any kind. Taking only a daily injection of Vitamin B12. Yep. That's it.

In the middle of making my dab of gravy tonight, I looked at the clock...6:46. I called Sam and said, "Let's go outside." During the weather segment, the meteorologist informed us that at 6:48 the space station would be crossing the sky...WNW to ESE. We looked up and around, eliminating one planet after another. (THEY were awesome in their own right!) Finally, I saw it, "THERE!" We watched it as it traversed the sky - about 5 minutes Sam said.

Then I went back into the house and finished the gravy.

Poor Baby

Last month as I left Decatur for home, I stopped at Isabel's. She'd been to the doctor that day for her MMR vaccine. During the exam prior to the vaccine, the doctor noticed her ears were a bit red and wrote a prescription for amoxicillin. Well...when Jonathan was little, if he had so much as the sniffles, the doctor would not give him the vaccine. This is why:

This was Monday. She is feeling better. The spots appeared on her face first, then her torso. They are disappearing in the order that they appeared.

I thought she might have had a reaction to the amoxicillin. Her great-grandfather, her Pawpaw, and her mother are all sensitive to penicillin.


We are going to Colt's house this weekend. His dad called and asked us to come. They are moving to a bigger home! We are to keep Colt occupied (my job) and keep his Mommy from lifting anything (Sam's job). Colt's baby brother is due April 3... (OH! Erin and I talked today. She wanted to know when we'd seen Isabel last. Sam saw her last at her January birthday party. I saw her on the February 17...the day of the vaccine. So we're safe to see Colt and be around pregnant Erin.)

Me? Dag-nabbit! While I was flossing my teeth tonight, I flipped off a crown! A week after the Longview dentist sent me home with it, it came off while flossing. I went back to have it "glued" back on. RATS! Tomorrow is Friday. I know that THAT dentist is off on Fridays, and I think the dentist I currently use is off too. Sam told me to clean it up good (remember, he's a retired dentist) and leave it out on the counter to dry. Tomorrow, I'm supposed to put some vaseline in it, dry the "stub" real good, then stick the crown back on. I'll call and set up an appointment with the dentist I'm using now to get it glued back on. @#^(*&%!!!!!

Another Trip

Sam and I drove to Lake Jackson to visit Jonathan. When he invited us, I said, "Sure! As long as we can stay through Monday night." We had a wonderful visit. Monday morning Sam and I went to visit our old office. Well...my old office, because he worked in the field. Many people are gone and there were several new faces...my boss...former boss...was out of the office.

Then, Tuesday morning we headed to San Marcos. Yet another business related seminar. After this one, the THIRD in less than 30 days, I have nothing scheduled (business related) until fall. I meant to get a photo of the courthouse in San Marcos since I got photos of the Texas capitol building and the courthouse at Decatur...but I forgot.

However, I did get a photo of the watermelon paint job on Luling's water tower!

We were gone a full week. I was so glad to get home!

Carol called yesterday about going to Lee Gardens south of Gladewater to see the daffodils. We decided to do so after church today. You can read about the garden here: http://www.daffodilgarden.com/daffodils_home.htm




I thought this was funny! I think it's someone with the gardens parked there to tell other people NOT to park there. LOL

Feeling Better...and Still Traveling

Last week I went to Decatur for more job related training. The sun was peeking below the clouds...but traveling and trying to handle my camera - well it leaves a lot to be desired. Like circling the downtown square trying to get a photo of the historic courthouse. Ask me how I realized the courthouse square had two-way traffic around it...sigh... One day home and at work. I was surprised at the amount of work I completed at the office. When I got to work, I made a list and checked the last thing off that afternoon with 15 minutes to spare. WHEW!

Then...Saturday...more traveling to visit Jonathan. We drove in and out of rain all day. I had fried shrimp Saturday for lunch. Then I had grilled shrimp a la Grecque Saturday night for supper. Nope. Have not had my fill.

Jonathan cooked several meals for us...including some good - really good - bread.

Tomorrow? Headed west for yet another - yep you guessed it! Another job related seminar. It's been a busy 4 weeks! I'll be glad to get back to the office!!

Yes, I am feeling better. Thank you for your concern. :D Still some light coughing on occasion. But it's getting better day by day.