Surviving the Holidays

Hope all of you survived the Christmas doings! I did! Fun and lots of wonderful family gatherings. All just great.......the food, the kids, the grandkids, the gifts (both given and received), the family, the friends, and the wonderful memories that were made.

Christmas is a very special time of year. The older I get, the more precious it becomes. The family traditons are so important, to the old and the young. Met and made some new friends and reconnected with old friends. No matter what you do or where you go, you never forget the old friends and the treasured friendships that are a part of you.

Merry Christmas, my dear friends, old and new!

Arctic Front

Hey, out there! Been meeting myself coming and going! Time is as short as the winter days! Really, it does take longer in winter to put out the hay and take care of the horses, in addition to all the other daily things one must do. Stew and Cornbread and Hot Chocolate weather, not Ice Cream weather!

 But I will have time to write about some subjects close to my heart over the Christmas break. An Arctic Front blew in to Waco on Wednesday morning....crazy Texas weather..it was a record high of 87 degrees the Saturday before...everyone in the Christmas Parade was wearing shorts!!! Just kidding!  What a change! It sleeted quite a bit yesterday, making for dangerous icy driving conditions, then barely got above freezing today.

 Have to feed the horses extra hay in this cold weather. As long as a horse is on dry ground and has a roof over its head, it is fine. I feel sorry for all the cattle and any other animals that can't get out of the weather.

 My kids came up on the Friday following Thanksgiving Day, and we had a ball! Some went shopping on "Black Friday", with all the great sales that day. Most of us, including me, just sat around, watched football games on tv, and ate! No turkey and dressing or anything traditional....dip and chips, etc...we were all turkeyed out from Thanksgiving Day!

 I worked at DePaul on the holiday, and did not have to cook or clean and ate free twice in our wonderful little cafeteria. Cannot beat that with a stick!

Was so great to have the family all here. The litle ones,  the grandkids, just love going to the barn and helping me feed the horses. I am making sure they are becoming real little cowboys and cowgirls! 

I did not get in from DePaul til after 10pm, so the grandkids got to wear some of my barn clothes, take the flashlights, and go to the barn with me. They thought that was VERY exciting! 

They got to meet the sweet little girl kitty I got from my sister, Sue. I still have Simba, the old yellow fixed tomcat, that they always play with. But the girl kitty is so playful and a lot of fun. She was named Fat Louie to start with, then they discovered she is a girl..so called her Fat-Fat. I changed that to Fi-Fi, but told all that it might have to be changed to Pooter as the dry catfood makes her poot. She is used to the catfood now, so I have decided to call her Dusty, as she is a soft dusky grey color.

The next day, my daughter, Jon Marie, called and asked if I was glad to have my house back, as it had been a houseful! Was very enjoyable. So glad they came to visit the old granny. They call me Mamma (Mam-maw). 

I was able to get plenty of hay for the horses ..the best hay is the alfalfa I go to Cranfill's Gap to get....plus I get to visit with my beloved sister, Sue, and her family....I love that little town..about 300 people in the entire town. Everyone knows everyone's business, which can be good and bad..mostly good, as everyone watches out for each other. If I did not plan to move back to the Hilltop Lakes-Normangee area near Bryan one day, to be near the kids and grandkids, I would definitely move to the Gap.

 All the horses and animals are fed and bedded down for the night...going to be a cold one, about 14 or 15 degrees tonight. I thank the Lord for all my blessings, especially a nice, warm house and my wonderful electric blanket on a night like this!

First Real Cold Front

Hello,  out there!!!!Been about a month since I wrote anything...writer's block and too busy! LOL!! Finally, some cold weather...was ready for some cool weather...tired of being too warm..will want that hotness in the dead of winter, for sure.

 I worked on the barn today, plugging up the holes in the stalls so wind won't blow thru too bad. In Texas, you want holes in the summer for the breezes to keep them cool. But winter is a different story. As long as a horse is out of the wind and not in the rain, it doesn't need much in the way of shelter. If it is warm enough for me, it is ok for the horse. Plywood is high in cost in the stores..a real demand for plywood as it is going to the hurricane-hit areas.

Finally found a supply of hay for the winter and early spring for my seven horses. Found some really good alfalfa hay in my sister's little town, so when I go to get that hay, I get the added bonus of getting to visit with her and her family, too. I contracted to buy 200 more square bales of coastal bermuda grass hay, also. That and the alfalfa hay should get us through the winter. Found some hay not far from me, near Waco. My  oldest son, Jimmy, found me more hay from his friend near Bremond ,who will bring me hay when he comes to Waco, which is pretty often. Now just have to work harder to pay for it!!!

The north wind has really blown hard today...gusting to 40 mph. It has  finally laid some, but still windy. Going to be freezing tonight...our first real freeze. I am going to go out and make sure all the water faucets are covered and so on.

 Had to dig out the cold weather clothing! Got only a few rain sprinkles today..maybe twenty drops! We need rain so badly!Also I am going to look for the electric blanket!!! Stay warm tonight!

Hogs and Chickens

 While talking to my Aunt Sister the other day, I realized there were a lot of differences in the "olden" days, and yet, a lot was the same...just the ways of accomplishing things had changed. Juanita Blanche Head Merritt, my daddy's last living sibling, was born in 1921, in Tyler, Texas. The Head family had moved to Waco in 1914, when Papa Head went to work for the City of Waco at Cameron Park.  Mama Head had returned to Tyler and her family for the birth of Juanita. Sister was about six months old when she and Mama Head moved toWaco.

 The Head children born after her, Alma Louise (Toots) and Durward Allen (Son), were born in Waco.  All but Uncle Perry of the Head family had nicknames....James Odia (Uncle Odie to me) was "Bones", David Rankin ("Uncle Red " to me), and my daddy, Ralston Cecil ("Goober"). Aunt Sister got her nickname  by being the first sister after four brothers. The Heads had another boy, Durward Allen, known as "Uncle Son" to me, as well as another girl, Alma Louise, known to me as "Aunt Toots". These aunts and uncles were the parents of all my beloved cousins on my daddy's side.

Sister and I were talking about what people ate when she was a child, eighty-plus years ago. She said they ate about what we eat today, but the way the food was obtained was very different. She meant the old way of getting a  live animal to the dining table was very different from today.

 I agree. As a young child in the early 1950's, I remember being terrified by hearing a big old hog squealing as it was killed, and then seeing it hanging in the big oak tree in the front yard of Mama Head and Papa Head's old house next door to my house. My uncles and Daddy scraped it with sharp butcher knives, dipped it up and down in boiling hot water in a  big, black iron kettle over a wood fire to remove the " hair", and then cut it up. . I did not immediately link that event with the wonderful ham, bacon, pork chops, and sausage my mother prepared as delicious meals for us. I remember my parents making homemade sausage as late as the sixties.

 Sister told me that, years ago, they bought very little at the store....most folks grew their own vegetables in their own garden and raised their own meat....chickens, calves, and hogs. They also butchered and dressed their meat themselves. As a child in the late forties and fifties, I detested the process involved in getting a chicken dinner on the table. I will never forget Daddy wringing the chicken's neck, and then it flopping all over the yard, blood going everywhere. Once dead, it was plunged into a big pot of boiling water over a  wood fire, where the smell of the hot feathers truly turned one's stomach. I can recall that smell, even today, over fifty years ago.

Guineas and turkeys were also killed by the same process. Sometimes Daddy chopped off their heads with a small ax. Either way was very distressing for us kids. Of course, that was the only way to get a fried chicken dinner if you raised the chickens for that purpose! I remember the very first time my mother bought an already-killed chicken to cook.... I was so glad we did not have to kill it ourselves.

 Very few people today even know how to cut up a whole chicken. We really do take so much for granted when we walk in today's grocery store , with all that already processed, wonderful food! And the quantity of food! Not just the quality! Now if we could only just not eat so much of this plentiful bounty. My sister, Sue, says we would not eat as much as we do,  if we first had to raise it, catch it, kill it, clean it, and, finally, cook it!!

Birthday Bash for September and October

The get-together of the Waco High School classmates from 1964 to celebrate September and October birthdays was great fun! Ten of us met at Casa Ole restaurant in Bellmead, to eat Mexican food and celebrate!!!! We exchanged VERY inexpensive gifts that were neat surprises, and  were just the ticket!

We had fifty classmates attend the 40th Class Reunion in June 2004, and it was Fantastic!! The Souvenir Memory Book one of our classmates put together for us was wonderful. It is one of my most treasured possessions.

The world was certainly a different place when we graduated from high school, and it is fun to reminisce about our childhood. Our motto was: "We're the Class of '64, and we'll do more". I think we probably did do more, and in so doing, we had a hand in changing our world, hopefully for the better. I know that was our intention. 

It is sad that over NINETY of the class of 1964 graduates live around Waco, and  most don't care enough to stay in touch...maybe they think they were not friends, even back then. People may think they don't have time, or they are fat and old now, and no one would want to see them......well, guess what, most of us are OLD AND FAT ! and SO WHAT!!!!!   WHO CARES?!!!????  That is not what it is about......it is about friendship, and celebrating that friendship together every so often. In my opinion, we turned out to be some pretty awesome people!!

Knees

Great news!! Isabella Sofia is doing fine!!!! She is one scrappy little girl, making her own blood platelets now and doing very well, thank you!

Not so great am I, as I pulled the side ligaments in my right knee unloading hay one evening. For about ten days, I have been side-lined to crippling around, barely able to walk the first few days. Painful, too, but getting better every day. Old knees take a while to heal... not like when I was young and would run the mile from my house by the entrance to Cameron Park to the horse stables in the Park without even drawing a deep breath.

Ah, the joys of youth! I have such wonderful memories of those times! In the library at school the other day, I came across a reference book by James Jesek, a 1961 graduate of Waco High School. It was "A Pictoral History of Waco", and it was full of photos of Old Waco people, places, and things. I really enjoyed looking at it. It refreshed my memory of many places and things I knew, but had forgotten I knew. It was a real trip down Memory Lane.

 I plan to write about some of the photos in a future blog, to share the memories. Going to a little get-together tonite ..some of the Waco High School classmates (1964) and I go out to eat once a month, to celebrate that month's birthdays of classmates and friends. Always lots of fun!

Isabella Sophia

My dearest friend since I was four years old is Sandra Gunter Krumnow. Her daughter, Teresa, just had a baby last week, on the 21st of September, my mother, Marie's birthday. Isabella Sophia weighed eleven pounds and two ounces at birth and is a beautiful and very big fine baby.

All seemed well at first, but found out Isabella is Rh-negative, so she is currently at Scott and White Hospital at Temple, Texas, having blood transfusions. She may be there a week or so.

 Sandra, Teresa,and Teresa's daughter, Emily, are staying at the Ronald McDonald house in Temple, so they will be close by. What a sad thing. The Lord bless and keep Isabella Sophia.

Hurricane Rita

Well, Hurricane Rita has come and gone. Luckily for the Texas coast and our area, she was no Katrina. I am a bit worried about my friend Gloria, up near Tyler. She has taught at Tyler Junior College for many years, and we keep in touch by e-mail. I think I will e-mail her and see what's up.

What a mess the coast evacuation was....not as easy as it sounds to tell millions of people to get up and leave on the spur of the moment. I think everyone decided to leave at the same time. Hopefully, people won't decide not to leave next time, as Rita fizzled out for this area at the last minute.

 My high school classmate, Ramon Hurst and his wife, Sarah, left Pasadena on Thursday. It took them 20 hours to get to College Station! They and the two cats made it on to Waco the next day just fine. There has to be a better way!

We were to have high winds in Waco, so I decided to stay home from work at Depaul..I was afraid might not be able to get back home if weather turned really bad, as was thought. However, there was just that one day of bad winds, then Sunday was beautiful.

The heat is awful, though. Should turn cooler near end of the week, two little fronts coming through, both with a small chance for rain, which we need so badly! I am having to feed the horses twice a day as there is no grass..it has all burned up from the heat. It was 101 degrees yesterday, and near that again today.

 My electricity went off today about 1:30 pm.....came on two hours later. I stayed inside a bit, til it got too hot, then sat in the shade outside with a bucket of water nearby to dip my feet in and splash on me. That kept me pretty cool. Other than that, it was nice to just be home and not do anything but lay around!

My two sons, Jimmy and Bobby, and their families were near the storm path.....Madisonville and Bryan area, but they fared okay. Think mostly they had just high winds. We all wanted some rain out of Rita! 

Labor Day, Homemade Soap and Mayborn Museum

Have not written in a while..too much going on! When I was younger, in my 30's and 40's, I was the Energizer Bunny! Never stopped, it seemed...Where did all that energy go?

I worked three 12-hour days over the Labor Day weekend. My son, Jimmy, his wife, Esther, and their three daughters (September, Summer, and Sunday) came in late Sunday night to spend the night with me.  While I got up and went to work at DePaul the next morning, they went to Homestead Heritage, near my place in Elm Mott, planning to attend the Sorghum Festival...however, with Esther having a baby in January, they decided to see it later when the weather is cooler.

Homestead Heritage is an old-timey working- homestead farm that has preserved the rural Texas ways of life. The festival offered a demonstration making sorghum syrup, a staple of early rural Texas, as well as cornbread made from corn ground in an authentic on-site 1760's stone gristmill, homemade ice cream, fresh lemonade, barbecue, and many antique crafts and demonstrations.

I wanted Jimmy to get me some homemade soap from their gift shop, as that is what I have used for nearly sixty years to wash my face. It is 100% pure, unscented, and super-fatted, and doesn't dry out my sensitive facial skin.

I remember my grandmother, Sallie Lee Allen Head, making homemade soap in a huge black cast-iron cauldron over an open fire in the backyard of 2224 North 4th Street in the late 40's and early 50's. We lived next door to my paternal grandparents and stayed at their house a lot.

 Mama Head, as we called her, let the younger cousins and me help make the fire, quite exciting to a four-year-old. I remember bringing baskets of corn cobs and corn shucks, gathered and dried from corn grown in our own garden, for her to put into the fire under the big cauldron. Corn cobs and husks were supposed to make the fire burn hotter than wood. (This was the same cauldron that she used for washing clothes...we also enjoyed helping build the fire under it for that purpose.)

 Once the fire was hot enough, she put in a can of Red Devil lye, all the bacon fat, lard, shortening, and grease from cooking that she had been saving for months, and maybe some water. The lye would make it foam at first. She stirred it with a big wooden paddle. The soap would cook down and look like thick gravy. You could make soft soap and pour it into fruitjars, or let it cook down even more to thicken, then pour it into square pans to harden and cut into blocks. Soap made with used cooking lard, shortening, or bacon grease would give the soap a brownish color and a slightly rancid smell.

 An old family friend, Cotton Cling, made soap in that same kettle by using brand new cans of Crisco Shortening and lye, making the most beautiful, whitest soap with no rancid smell at all. Even after Mama Head died in 1955, Cotton would come over and make that wonderful white soap. The brown soap cleaned just as well, but did not smell as good or look as pretty as the soap made with the unused Crisco.

The brown soap was used mainly for washing clothes, cleaning chores, and washing your hands. Even after we got a modern washing machine in the house, I remember my mother using a sharp knife to shave off small slivers of homemade soap to wash a load of clothes and to wash dishes. We used homemade soap because it was cheaper than store-bought, and every penny really counted back then. You know that saying:  A penny saved is a penny earned.

 Nothing was wasted back then. People were very self-sufficient, growing or making most of what they needed, rather than buying it. At that time in our history, America was not yet a consumer society. It took me many years to realize that the Heads, my daddy's family, were the genuine article, a true pioneer family, that due to the hardships of the Great Depression and the citizen sacrifices of World WarII, still lived that simple way of life, in spite of living at the edge of the city of Waco with its urban ways.  Anyway, I want some more homemade soap, so I will go one day to Homestead Heritage's gift shop. 

 Jimmy, Esther, and the girls went on that day to the Baylor Mayborn Museum (with air conditioning!). They really enjoyed the Pioneer Village, with all the old 1880's -town wooden buildings...the tenant farmer's house, the sharecropper's house, the beautiful wooden church (getting to ring the churchbell and sit down and play the old piano!), the little red school house, the lawyer's office, the general store, the saloon, the hotel, the cotton gin, and the livery stables, all realistically outfitted with period furniture and historic fixtures.

 There were cool breezes off the Brazos River and lots of shade under the huge pecan trees. In the museum, the  Pioneer Homestead Room and the room with costumes from around the world are the girls' favorite places ...they can play "Little House on the Prairie" and "Dress up" !!!!  They enjoyed showing everything to their parents, as they and I had spent over seven pleasurable hours there one afternoon this past August. It is one of our most favorite places.

CATCHING UP

Since school started, I have not been able to sit down and write.....I was with the Life Skills class, Special Kids, High School, for several days....have known most of the kids for five years now, and they are SO wonderful.....you get a different slant on things from them, all the while, realizing they are average teenagers in some ways....and still so unique in their own special ways.....

Was great to get to see the high school kids again, as I was mostly at Junior High last year, and have missed seeing them. Even the ones from Junior High,  now at High School, had grown so much over the summer!!!!!!

My dear childhood friend, Gloria Dickson, a teacher for many years at Tyler Junior College, sent me some of her memories of my sister Sue and I visiting her in Dallas in the fities and sixties...funny how you do all these things as a little kid and never forget them!!! Glo was a big part of my growing up...we had SUCH fun together!!!!!  Life seemed so simple then, and maybe it really was!!!

 It has cooled down some, from the near 100-degree high today, so I am going out to feed the horses and fill all the water troughs......Can't wait for the cooler Fall weather to get here...Later!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Slower Pace

Have not had time to write! This week, I kept three of my four grandaughters. September is 9, Summer is 7 (almost 8), and Sunday is 6. Their mother, Esther, and their father,  my oldest son, Jimmy, flew to Columbus, Ohio, for a church convention, so I got to "keep" the girls. Actually, I am not too sure they did not "keep" me! It was a lot of fun having them here.

 Esther is the ninth daughter of a Pentecostal preacher who had 13 children, and they are practicing Pentecostals. I have attended their church services in Normangee, Texas, (near Bryan),and they have a fine church family. Attending church regularly is an important part of their life. 

For those of you not familiar with that particular religion, Pentecostals wear no jewelry except a watch or wedding ring, have no television or radio, and  the women do not cut their hair, wear any makeup, and wear only skirts or dresses, never pants or shorts.

When I visit them in their home, it takes a little time to get used to not having the television or radio playing in the background. IT IS VERY QUIET. After the first day, you realize there is a lot to be said for peace and quiet. The uncluttered background lets you think more clearly and get in touch with yourself and your inner thoughts. Life literally slows down to a slow pace that is quite enjoyable. All the "stuff' of the world is not intruding. You can read, play games, do jigsaw puzzles, draw, work, whatever you want to do that is within their guidelines.

 It really takes you back in time. I keep looking around for the wood cookstove and the oil lamps! (In reality, they have fine furnishings---Esther has excellent taste and could earn a living as an interior decorator!)  The girls have a keyboard (like a piano) they can play and that plays recorded instrumental songs. They sing a lot, mostly hymns, and Esther played the accordion as a young girl. They can use a TV as a monitor to look at instructive videos about wild animals, etc., and children's movies with good, clean subject matter. 

 Due to all the rain that fell in the five days they were here with me in Waco, we had to stay in most of the time.  We watched the movie, "Samantha, American Girl", at least 4 times, and my five "Little House on the Prairie" videos over and over, plus carefully screened cartoons on the PBS station.  Thank goodness I really liked them, too!

We all put on our mudboots and went to the barn twice a day to feed the horses and play with the cats. We stayed most of one day at the new Baylor Mayborn Museum, which trip I  will write about later. It was wonderful quality time! I was sad to see them go home, and I am lonesome without them.

John the Music Man

Got a reply from John the Music Man.....he sent a list of ten records worth $100.00 on up...he will send this list free each month if you ask for it.....None of mine are on this list!.....I am going to do an inventory and listing of my records, then do an appraisal twenty at a time.....have to have a credit card or can use snail-mail....another project on my to-do list......I told John I had heard him on the radio (the oldies station, of course!) and that I was Class of 1964..Waco Tx....he wrote that he is Class of 1964, Cheverus High, Portland, Maine.........he is a real expert!

Old Records

In a closet I have been cleaning, I found several boxes of old 45rpm vinyl records from the 60's, and maybe even a little earlier. Gonna go to moneymusic.com, and see what John the Record Guy has to say about them...Maybe some are valuable! If you come across a 45rpm that is by Jerry Butler on the Vee-Jay label and the song is "Your Precious Love", it is worth about $20,000.00. I think anything on the Vee-Jay label is worth a lot...It was one of the earliest recording labels and was not in business very long.

 Remember when you wrote your name on the record? Especially if you had siblings! Sure brought back a lot of old memories.....my sister, Sue, and I and our friends would lay on the floor and listen to them for hours, jumping up to dance if a really lively one with a good beat  was playing.

I have two or three record players stored somewhere...or maybe they are "stereos'..there is a difference , you know.  Marie, my mother, had a lot of old LP (long-play) albums and a few 33 records, too, that are now my possessions. A lot of them are great listening....a true blast from the past!

NO CAR

I took my friend to the grocery store yesterday.....She does not have a car.....She lives behind a beautiful mansion on Washington Avenue in an apartment that at the turn of the century was the carriage house or servant's quarters.....Part of her agreement to live there is that she have no vehicle.... there is no place to park it, for one thing..... for another, I think the City of Waco prohibits it by some old ordinance.

 It had always been hard for me to imagine not having your own way around,  until I met her about twenty years ago....She had a car then, but unfortunate circumstances and health issues caused financial difficulties..... She has "started over" several times since then....She can take the bus, but it doesn't run all the time, or go to all the places she might need to go....She walks whenever she can, depending on the weather and what she is carrying...Once in a great while and only when absolutely necessary, she will pay a taxi cab to take her somewhere....Her job choices are limited to whatever is close to where she lives...Luckily, her apartment is not far from the many businesses on Franklin Avenue, so she has had fairly good jobs and business owners that are willing to work with her particular situation.  

 We did have a good time.....We went to Wal-Mart......she got her groceries, and I got a few things, too...Mine came to $13.72....I asked the lady if that was the correct amount, that  it seemed like it should be more.....She really got a kick out of that, as most people usually think she has double-rung something, and the total is too much!....It was just the first time in a long time that I had spent so little....Being with someone who really has to watch their pennies makes you more aware of your own spending, I guess....

.We then went to Tractor Supply to get feed  for my horses....That is one of my favorite stores, being the horse person that I am. (I try to avoid western stores, as I see too many things I want, but don't really need!)  The Waco Tractor Supply is the number one TSC store in America...They have clothing, boots, jewelry, books, collectible Breyer and Stone Mountain  toy horses, and so much more....I could spend hours in there, just looking!  

 After the feed was loaded into the back of my Chevy pickup, my friend and I drove to Luby's, where we proceeded to eat way too much......I took her back to her apartment,  we unloaded the groceries, and I headed home.....I wanted to unload the feed before dark, as sometimes there is a light dew that will ruin the paper feed sacks and the feed.

On the way home, I thought about how blessed I was to have my own "wheels" and control over my comings and goings....Helping out a friend in need made me realize that most of us take for granted that we are able to have our own vehicle, our transportation, without a thought of how fortunate we are.

Big Red Ice Cream

With it so hot outside, my mouth waters at the thought of making homemade ice cream. My favorite is BIG RED......A lot of people have never heard of it....It is definitely a purely Texas invention, as the home of Big Red soda water is right here in Waco...Some folks, especially those from up North, call a soft drink a "soda pop", or just a "pop"....We always called it a "soda water".....maybe because it fizzed?.... Also, Woolworth's and old-time drug stores had all those "soda" fountains....

It is so easy to make BIG RED ice cream.....In the freezer container, mix together two cans of sweetened condensed milk (Eagle Brand or any cheaper brand will do) and one two-liter bottle of BIG RED soda water, then freeze..........You can also use five 12-ounce cans of BIG  RED....just so you have 60 ounces of it.....One reminder:  Do NOT use DIET BIG RED, as it will foam all over everything.....Oh, yes, be sure someone gets to lick the condensed milk cans, just don't cut your tongue!

 The electric ice cream freezer that I had bought brand new in 1985, just after moving back to Waco from Normangee and Hilltop Lakes, where my three kids grew up,  finally bit the dust...It was "Made in America" and lasted twenty years. I had given it to my youngest son, Bobby, and his wife, Spring, as I did not need to be making a half gallon of anything that I love so much, just for me to eat all by myself!.....I did salvage the wooden bucket to use as a flower pot at the back steps....It reminds me of good memories every time I see it...

..One either loves BIG RED right off the bat or does not....Most people acquire a taste for it, once they realize it is the only flavor going to be made by our bunch!  It is VERY rich, but, oh, so VERY good.....First tasted it at a church picnic in Speegeleville in 1966....made by our dear friends, Frances and Dalton Stewart.....I had to have the recipe..

.It is a tradition in our family to have BIG RED ice cream and my "wedding cake" white cake for  birthdays, if at all possible, even if your birthday is in the cold winter months! And it is definitely one of the most pleasurable ways to cool off  in the summer heat that one can imagine!

Old Time Funeral

The very first funeral I remember attending was in 1953.....I was about six years old...my daddy's Uncle Bill  (William Allen, my grandmother, Sallie Lee Allen Head's older brother) had died in Smith County, Texas, out in the country, near Winona and Chapel Hill, a little ways from Tyler. 

 Uncle Bill's wife, Aunt May Head Allen, was my grandfather, John William (Billy) Head's sister...brother and sister (Bill Allen and Sallie Lee Allen) had married brother and sister (John William*Billy* Head and May Head), making their children double-cousins. (And no, this was not one of those Arkansas deals!) I remember many visits to Uncle Bill and Aunt May's house and liked them a lot....I liked to sit on the front porch in Aunt May's lap and look up at her hair...it was snow-white, with many braids wound high on top of her head..her hair must have been very long, as I was always fascinated by it and remember wondering how she got the braids to stay up there. 

All of the Head family had come from Waco to stay a few days for Uncle Bill's funeral. This must have been before the days of the undertaker and funeral homes, as Uncle Bill's casket was on the dining room table. I don't think I and the other young cousins really realized what a funeral was, or that a dead body was in the open casket, as my main memory of it is all the cousins and me chasing each other, yelling, and running around the dining room table with the casket on it, as we played Cowboys and Indians!!!!!!!!!

Note: For more on the Head family and their history in Texas since the 1830's, check out the Archives, beginning with the first entry on July 8th, 2005.

Cousins

By now, you must realize that I think knowing your Cousins is important....I had such wonderful times with my own first-cousins growing up...they meant more to me than friends when I was very young , before I started school....the kindness and caring of The Family.... the relatives, the aunts and uncles, as well as parents and grandparents, gave all of us cousins, boys and girls, a great sense of acceptance and belonging.

This was before the days of daycare and strangers, not Family, watching you,  keeping you safe and secure....The Family raised you, making sure you knew right from wrong at an early age, giving you confidence in yourself, and a healthy sense of who you were and who you would become..... You knew you were well-loved, not just well-cared for.

People stayed in touch with their relatives, helping each other in times of friendship and need ...A lot of family members lived together under one roof or not very far away....The Family was close-knit....People really needed each other and depended on each other...to watch the kids, to help in the garden, whatever needed doing....And the Cousins were more than friends,  they were FAMILY.....would that all the young ones of today could be so blessed......

Cold Springs

After the Zoo and Pizza Hut, we went to the Waco Water Park to take all the cousins swimming....the Water Park is a really nice and fun place....however, they have a rule that you must wear a swimsuit, even if you wear shorts and shirt over it...all of us did not have swimsuits....so we could not swim there.

We drove to Cameron Park to check out Cold Springs, the little swimming hole right across from our old homeplace, 2220 North 4th Street....It's legal name is Proctor Springs.....It is by Wilson's Creek and the old playground....This was the spot you would go to to REALLY cool off on those HOT summer days before the days of air conditioning. The swimming hole and the pavilion are still there, though the shallow wading pool is gone....this little waterhole is not deep but is ICE COLD.....thus the name Cold Springs...it is spring-fed.

Old timers might remember the Lion's Mouth, with the springwater coming out of the rock itself... ....It was easy to imagine an earlier time, when an Indian or pioneer might have stopped there for an ice-cold drink.....Initials and dates from long ago are carved into the rockface above the spring....the Heads used to put 4 or 5 big watermelons in the pool to chill them, before refrigerators were common...The water is ICY cold!! I mean FREEZING! 

Everyone stuck in a toe and went backwards at first, as it was so cold. Wasn't long 'til the cousins were swimming like ducks....I got my feet and legs wet, just enough to cool me off.

.Just being there again brought back so many great memories of childhood friends and family...me, my sister, Sue, and all the cousins running down the path from my house to jump in and swim until you were frozen and your lips turned blue.

It was so special that these modern-day cousins were able to enjoy one of the most memorable things that generations of my family had enjoyed..... Plus we saved fifty dollars, as we did not have to pay to get in!!!

Pizza and more Cousins

After visiting the Waco Zoo the other day, my family and I...all thirteen of us... went to the Bellmead Pizza Hut to meet more cousins.....they make the best pizza and we usually get the lunch buffet....all you can eat..pizza, salad bar, cinnamon sticks, breadsticks....the works..they ask you what kind of pizza you like and then make it fresh for the buffet.

My oldest grandson, Ross, almost 13, wanted to meet up with his two older cousins, Jarrod and Brandon (15 year-old twins) and their mother, Diane, my niece by marriage, whom everyone but me calls " DINK". Diane had stayed with us a lot as a teenager and is one of my favorite people.  Her two boys are very special...twins..weighing only a few ounces at birth, they are now handsome, polite teenagers starting high school......they play in the band at Clifton.... I hope to go hear them play one day soon.

It was great to sit in the coolness, eat, and drink something cold after the extreme heat of the Zoo. It was decided that Diane would take the older cousins ( Ross, Jarrod, and Brandon) bowling  and meet up with us later..... in the meantime, the rest of us would go swimming.

Down the Alley

Just got an e-mail from a dear childhood friend about whom I will write some stories and tell about mischiefs we got into in the '50's and '60's one day soon...Gloria Dickson...her grandparents lived right down the street from us ... she would let us know she was coming to visit by "yodeling" , loudly, as she walked down the alley from her grandparents' house to our house....the alley ran behind both houses and was another way to enter as we had a circular drive that went in the back and out the front, or vice-versa.

We loved to hear Glo coming! She was one of our most favorite playmates. We would go to her grandparents and have a cook-out with them...Mr. and Mrs. Anderson...I can't remember her grandfather's first name, but Glo called him Gramps, and her grandmother was Grandmother Mabel....she also had a wonderful Gramma Snooks.....I will tell more stories about them in the future.....

Texas State Capitol

My oldest son, Jimmy, called me last evening and said, "Guess where I'm standing, Mama! On the star in the State Capitol!" Having been to the Texas State Capitol quite a few times in the past, I said, "Wow! Is the statue of Stephen F. Austin still there by the door? He was a small man and the statue is almost lifesize.....a few other statues used to be there by him, too...maybe Davy Crockett?" He walked over to the door and said, "They are still here.....along with Sam Houston, too!"

We talked a few minutes about how much they were enjoying seeing the Texas State Capitol. They had gone into the Senate where school legislation was being debated, to see how government works, and then explored all over the building.  It is a beautiful piece of architecture made of pink granite with the wide Congress Avenue leading up to it...as impressive inside as out...especially beautiful at the end of the day, when the setting sun is shining on the tall pink dome under a clear blue Texas sky.  

 Jimmy said they had missed the bats going out from under the bridge a few streets over from the Capitol....I had seen them many times, and the three little girls would have really liked seeing them fly out....I told him if they went to Sixth Street to be careful....used to be you could walk anywhere in Austin at any time, day or night, and not have to worry.

They had planned to go to San Marcos and float down the river, the Frio, I think...but Esther being pregnant prevented them from doing that, so they went on to Austin...Lake Travis in Austin is also nice, and there are many things to see and do...I love Austin...perhaps because it is laid out about the same way Waco is....also it is a city full of important historical things, with even the streets named for Texas heroes and statesmen.

What I really like is that Jimmy and his family chose to stay in Texas for their vacation, instead of going to Colorado skiing or whatever in other states, as they had in the past...that keeps the tax dollars and the tourist industry going in Texas...plus, if driving, the high price of gas would be a big factor in the decision to stay closer to home....There is so very much to see in Texas if one will only look...

I told Jimmy he needs to watch my 2-volume movie, "TEXAS", based on the novel of the same name by James Michener, to really understand the history of Texas and what has made it so uniquely different in so many ways from other states. And, if he wants to take a week or two, or a month even, to read Michener's 1,096-page novel, "Texas", he can borrow it from me!!! 

Indian Land

Talked to my daddy's only living immediate relative, his sister, Juanita Blanche Head ..... "Aunt Sister"....born March 31st, 1921....her nickname is "Sister"...all the Head children but Perry, the oldest,  had a nickname...She is the only one left of the children born to Billy and Sallie Lee Allen Head and who grew up in the old house that used to be at 2224 North 4th Street in Waco, right down the street from the entrance to Cameron Park.  Her son, Billy, and his wife, Dorothy, had read my blog and printed out the Head history for her, as she does not have a computer....She liked it!!! I was worried about being accurate....Guess I am as accurate as I can be for such a long time ago and not even born yet!!!!

 My cousin Billy, Sister's son, wanted to know where that Indian land was located! I am going to call the Bureau of Indian Affairs about the matter, as an authentic Native American friend of mine recently told me there could actually be a record of it,  that he thought only the Choctaw called property rights "a headright", and how would I know that specific term if not for the letter????

  Family legend has always been that we were part-Choctaw, not some other tribe, and the Choctaw Nation is in Oklahoma where my grandparents went by covered wagon in the early 1900s to claim the land........ Hmmmmmm........ Interesting! We will see what turns up.

.NOTE: You can read about the Indian land  and some of the Head history in the Archives at the first entry of the Blog, July 8th, 2005.

Trip to the Waco Zoo

I have been too busy to write! Worked the weekend and then my SIX grandchildren, my daughter, Jon Marie, and my daughter-in-law, Spring, and Spring's little cousin, Ashtyn, came up and spent the night with me.....I had a houseful! It was good to have all the grandkids together......Ross, September, Summer, Sunday, Cobey, and Callie, aged twelve to almost two. 

We met my sister, Sue, and three of her grandchildren Tara, Krista, and Cody (These are her daughter Amy's children) the next morning at the Waco Zoo in Cameron Park, our old "stomping grounds". It was fun to walk the grounds of the zoo and know what used to be there. The just-finished Brazos River Corridor additions are superb.....the new HUGE aquarium is great.....the black bears were one of the best parts...they can swim right up to you, as their water tank is glass and the walk you are standing on is right next to it. One bear really likes people, as he (or she) swam right up to us......It scared Cobey, 4, and Cody, 3, to have that big old bear swimming right at you  (level with your face!) and at the last minute be turned away by the glass! Callie, only two years old, was too young to be scared and she "petted" the bear through the glass. I will admit it did take some nerve to stand there without flinching!

Saw a lot of new, really interesting animals and exhibits...I have always liked the snake house.... the herpetarium...plus it is cool in there!  I like the fact that the Zoo added animals native to this specific area and to Texas....I wish they had had a horny toad, a little critter I had as a pet growing up in the '50's...it slept at night in a cigar box in the house in my room, right beside my bed....I used to catch big red ants for it to eat and led it around with a long red ribbon tied around its neck. I had several as pets but can't quite remember what I named them...I think perhaps one was named "Sadie",  but that might have been my sister Sue's horny toad, and not mine. 

 Cameron Park turned out to be the perfect setting for the Zoo...lots of shade for animals and people....so natural and much more beautiful than small cages...This was old home ground...All of the Head family (my Daddy and his brothers and sisters) and their friends had grown up roaming this very Park back in the 1920's, '30's, and '40's....and my sister, Sue, (born in 1948), my brother, Charlie, (born in 1958), and I (born in 1946) also knew every inch of it from running wild as little Indians in the 1950's, '60's, and '70's. 

The house at 2220 North 4th Street that my daddy built in 1948 is still just up the street from the Zoo....Daddy was against the Zoo being put in Cameron Park..he felt it would be smelly, messy, and not a good idea....Daddy died in 1989, before the Zoo was put in the Park, but I think he would happily admit how wrong he was, as it  turned out to be a wise decision and a wonderful place for it.  I think it also made the Park a safer place, just having a lot of people in that area again.

Every time I drive down 4th Street, I am glad to see that the old home of my first and dearest childhood friend, Sandra Gunter, is still there, too, on 4th Street, right across from the Zoo, across from what used to be the Waco High School Athletic Field.....I spent many a happy hour in that home, visiting and being treated as a member of the family, with Sandra, her wonderful mother and father and her three younger sisters....She and I used to sneak across the street and sit in the bushes to watch our favorite boys we had a crush on as they practiced football.

 Even today, forty- something years later, every time I pass by there, I think of my favorite sweetie, Richard Durham, who I had adored since 7th grade and who died in 1997.  When no one was on the field, my sister, Sue, and I used to race our horses (Shorty and Rinky Dink) wide-open from one end to the other......once Sue was riding home from the Stables in the Park and came across the Athletic Field....she stopped her horse, got off, collected several BABY SKUNKS she had spotted at the edge of the woods, got back on the horse, and rode on home with them....to say the least, Daddy made her take them back to their mother!  

At the Zoo, Sue and I were able to tell where the miniature train had been (it is in Lion's Park now), Green Lake (which we called the Lily Pond for all the huge lilypads floating on the water), as well as where the Rose Garden ( designed and built by my grandfather, Billy Head, after the City of Waco sent him to the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago to see its famous Rose Garden) had been. 

Cameron Park's Rose Garden had two beautiful fountains big enough to wade and swim in, a big flight of long, cement stairs with flower vases at each end, a drinking fountain built into the wall, and a large rectangular wading pool with rosebushes planted all around it. I remember walkways, roses, and pretty flowers being everywhere.  Behind it were the tennis courts and two other wading pools....of course, all of that is gone now, and it is the Zoo.  It was amazing to see some of our old trails still there that we had walked or ridden on our bikes or horses as children forty years ago.

Even though it was a very hot day...I think it hit 100 degrees.....we had a great time. The Waco Zoo is one of the best around, or so I overheard several people saying. A lot of people go to the bigger, older zoos, like Dallas, and there are lots of animals, but in small cages...the natural setting makes all the difference in the looks of the Waco Zoo and in the contentment and comfort of the animals.

All the grandkids loved the zoo, so we plan to go back again when it is cooler...it was really hot for two older ladies like me and Sue! After all, we are nearly SIXTY years old!

An Old House

My grandparent's house at 2224 North Fourth in Waco was built in the 1870's or 1880's, possibly even the 1860's.....when torn down in the late 1960's, I was able to save some of the square nails used in building it...they stopped making those kind of nails in the 1880's....a lot of good wood was salvaged from that old frame house...the man tearing it down thought it was near a hundred years old....house set way up high, as it was near the Brazos River, which until the 1970's would flood and the river floodwater could have reached it...my mother told me that in 1936, the river had come over the top of the pavilion in Cameron Park by Wilson's Creek and the old playground.....that was not far away. 

 The old house had a big front and side porch...I remember many a time sitting on that front porch in the shade, shucking corn, peeling peaches to can, cutting up okra or squash to can or fry, and shelling peas and pecans. There was no air conditioning, though my parents new house next door at 2220 North 4th Street had a window cooler. When the water hose was hooked to it, air blowing out was fairly cool but gave you pleurisy, where it hurt your lungs to breathe...The old house had a nine-foot hallway that ran from front door to back door, a real breezeway when doors were open. All the doors in the house had either real glass fancy doorknobs or the old round porcelain handles...either white or brown....the doors were never locked....don't think there was even a key.....all the floors were wood ,of course, and not varnished except in the living room, if I remember right... Lots of tall windows that stayed open  just about all the time, except in the coldest of weather.... People got up early and did their chores while cool as much as possible...At night, slept under a small fan that sat on the floor, much like the box fans of today. 

 You could make a pallet of Mama Head's patch-work, handsewn quilts on the front porch and sleep there, but the mosquitos might drive you crazy...best was one of the two double beds on the sleeping porch, a screened room big enough for the beds and Mama Head's quilting frame in one corner. Many a saved scrap fabric went into those practical and beautiful quilts she made....I remember many people quilting with her, even some of the men. I have so many wonderful memories of that old house and the people in it.

Have to go feed the horses

May write more later tonight..it has finally cooled down some, nearly 99 degrees again today....I wait til it is cooler to feed the horses ...may write more later....

I have to work tomorrow at the little hospital..I am the receptionist and Switchboard operator...do two 12-hour days..then when school starts again, I will work almost every day as a substitute teacher and the hospital on weekends..will explain one day how two jobs came to be.......and tell you about my horses....

Talk to you later..........My horses await! 

Some Head Family History

 Growing up in the 1950's and '60s in Waco, Texas, I did not realize I was witnessing the passing of a way of life. Now, almost 59 years of age, I "wax nostalgic" for those carefree, innocent childhood days and that simple way of life. The older I get, the more I think about the past and that easier, simpler time. I wanted to record some of my memories and  thoughts about that time and how it shaped me and my generation. As a child, I never thought about the what, why, where, or when of things...it just "was". As I neared my forties, I became more interested in my family history.

 My mama, Marie Ellison Head,  had spent many hours doing genealogy research at the public library, searching microfilm in the days before the internet. I started paying attention to the family stories I had heard all my life and asking questions about what it had been like back then. I wanted to know about " the good old days", which, realistically, had to have been good and bad. Sadly, many of the older relatives were dead by then, their stories gone forever, except for other people's remembrance of them. I had the realization that these people in my family tree, those I had come from, had a large part in determining who I was and had become....they were MY PEOPLE. I realized that everyone has a story and many memories.

This is my story and my memories. I was born August 21, 1946, at Hillcrest Hospital in Waco, Texas.  I was one of the first generation in my family to be born in an actual hospital and not at home. While my mother, Marie, and I were in the hospital, my daddy, Ralston Cecil Head, (nicknamed "Goober", for the peanut), moved our meager household possessions from the Gholson, Texas, farm he and Mama had lived on to an apartment at 2510 Sanger Avenue in Waco. Mrs. Jenkins was our landlady. We lived there six months to the day,  then moved to 2224 North 4th Street in Waco, right across the street from Cameron Park, to live with my grandparents, Billy (John William) Head and Sally Lee Allen Head, my Daddy's parents. (I know this because my mother wrote it in my babybook, which has become one of my most precious possessions.) My parents had bought the lots right next to my grandparents and planned to build a house there.

 My daddy's parents,Billy andSally Head, had moved to Waco from near Tyler, Texas, in 1914. Daddy was born in 1917 on St. Charles Street, in East Waco. Billy was a first-class gardener who could grow most anything. He worked  42 years for Cameron Park and the City of Waco, retiring as an assisitant superintendent in 1957. He designed the beautiful Cameron Park Rose Garden after the city had sent him to see the famous Rose Garden at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago. Sally was a housewife and mother, as were the majority of the women of her generation. She was born July 11th, 1886. Billy was born November 16th, 1886, and they grew up together in the Big Sandy, Winona, and Chapel Hill area near Tyler. They married in Smith County in November, 1905. Both their families farmed and grew roses and watermelons.

 Sally's mother was Melinda Amira McMurry, whose family had been in Texas since the 1830's or so.  Melinda, nicknamed "Lennie", was the daughter of William McMurry, "Bill", a Confederate officer in the Civil War. ( As far as I know, the McMurrys did not own any slaves, nor did any of my people, which is a comfort to me.) Lennie's mother was Sara McMurry, about whom not much is known, except that she was a second wife (first wife died) and was either full-blood or one-half Choctaw Indian. The family legend always maintained this was so, even though, at that time in America, this was something to be ashamed of...a "breed"..and people did not talk openly about it.  I do know that when I was about twenty years old, I saw a letter dated 1905 or '06  or so, that gave my grandmother, Sally Lee Allen, and her brother, Bill Allen, a headright of 640 acres each, in Oklahoma, based on their Indian blood. It is a fact that  Billy and Sally Head did go to Oklahoma about 1909 or so, to claim their land, but there was no way to make a living...all those rocks with all that OIL under it, you see...so they came back to Texas and eventually ended up in Waco. 

 Sally's mother, Lennie, married  David Crockett Allen in Smith County (Tyler) in 1867.. They lived near Winona and Chappel Hill on a huge acreage (I always thought it was a Spanish land grant). They moved to Big Sandy, built a new frame house, and had a son, William Allen, my daddy's Uncle Bill. In 1886, Melinda died in childbirth, having a baby girl...my grandmother, Sally Lee Allen. David Allen married again and had  eight more children, whose descendents are still around the Winona and Tyler area. Sally was raised by her Aunt Sara, her mother's sister, who also died in childbirth when Sally was about ten years old. She remembered a black servant woman raising her from that point on. (Childbirth killed many women of the era. Disease also killed many people, especially children.)

Sally grew up with her first cousin, Holland ("Holly") Baker, the boy orphaned when  her Aunt Sara died. They were close all their lives, considering each other sister and brother, as Sally helped raise Holly after his mother, her aunt Sara , had died.  After she married, Holly went with her and Billy Head to Oklahoma, Indian Territory, by covered wagon to claim her land. As there was no way to farm or make a living from all those rocks and poor land that the Indians had been forced onto, the Heads came back and lived with Sally's family, farming and raising roses and watermelons.  Many women worked in the fields alongside the men in that day and age.

Sally Allen's and Billy Head's families both grew roses, which had to be tied by hand, a back-breaking chore and hard work. Sally's  father had given her 500 acres as a wedding gift from the land grant acreage. They lived on it until it was sold back to her father so they could move to Waco. (Note: It had OIL on it, too! The family legend has been that Sally's descendents were just not meant to be rich from OIL, as her brother's family ended up with what had been hers! At least we kept it in the family!)