Summer Visit from the Grandkids

Some of my grandkids came and stayed a few days with me, the old granny, as I call myself! Cobey, 5, calls me "Waco Mamma",  because they call their great-grandmother on their mom's side also Mamma. The girls, September (Seppie) 10, and Summer, almost 9, call me just Mamma. My oldest son Jimmy's wife , Esther, brought  them up to stay with me for a few days. Sunday, 7, did not want to stay that long, so she went back the next day with mom and little brother, Noah Elijah, 6 months old now. Sunday was the baby until little brother came along, so I think she relished having mom and the new baby to herself for a bit. My son Bobby's wife, Spring, and another granddaughter, Callie, almost 3, came up Thursday afternoon and joined us at The Mayborn Museum, one of our favorite places. We love the old Pioneer Village that is behind the Museum. Bill Daniels, the fine Texas gentleman that donated the village to Baylor University in the 1980's, died just a few days ago. He and his wife, Vara, had purchased land that had these 1880- through -1910- era buildings on it....an entire small town, well-preserved...I remember visiting it in 1985, when it was just being set up next to Baylor. The kids love the little white church with a piano they can play, the little red one-room schoolhouse, working the handle on the pump on the well to get out the water, grinding corn by hand to feed the chickens, guineas, and turkeys....just all of it. As you sit in the shade of huge old pecan trees, enjoying the breeze off the nearby Brazos River, it is fun to imagine you are back in time and living in that simple place with its slower pace of life.  When the Texas heat finally forces you inside, you do appreciate the wonderful coolness of the Museum. In one day, we try to see everything in the Museum, which is quite a task. When Spring asked Cobey, only five years old, what he liked the best, I was surprised at his answer. I thought he might say he liked the miniature train display or one of the wonderful car or toy interactive displays that we had a time getting him to leave to go on to the next wonderful thing.  However, Cobey said he liked the elephant bones and the video showing the elephants (actually prehistoric Mammoths), and being able to walk and crawl around on the glass above the bones (actually plaster casts of the original bones) the best. The Mammoth Display is the centerpiece of the Museum and an important and unique prehistorical discovery. The actual site with the real bones from 28 or so Mammoths that died in a mudslide in the now-Bosque River, just a few miles away, will become a National Park open to the public next year. What is amazing is that the adult Mammoths tried to lift the baby Mammoths to safety on their huge curved tusks, but all died and were preserved that way by the mud about 65 million years ago. Perhaps Cobey is going to be a paleontologist, archaeologist, scientist, or something along that line when he grows up. That would have made my mother, Marie, who died in 1994, especially proud. She was a rockhound and charter member of the Waco Gem and Mineral Society in 1950, loved nature, and had a great interest in science. I was very proud of him for liking the Mammoths the best. The girls love anything pioneer (as do I), especially the Pioneer Village behind the Museum......We could stay out there all day if not for the heat this time of year. We also love  the Pioneer Room in the Museum. I had braided Summer and Seppie's long dark hair into two braids...  dressed up in the period dresses and sunbonnets , they really did look like Laura and her friends from "Little House on the Prairie". The Mayborn Museum is a great place to go and spend the entire day...fun and learning in one place! I was sad to see my grandbabies go back home...they were good help at the barn and in the house, plus we had a lot of fun. As it was so hot outside, we had frozen slushies, played in the water to cool off, and watched videos in the cool air-conditioned house. I have a good selection of films for young folks.....They especially like "Old Yeller", "Johnny Tremain", "Samantha: 1910 American Girl", "Black Beauty", "Where the Red Fern Grows", "Felicity: Colonial American Girl", the wonderful documentary "Seabiscuit" by PBS, and (surprise!) the 1940 black-and-white movie "L'il Abner" with Buster Keaton... It is somewhat like the Beverly Hillbillies, and it is funny! They also like the black -and -white episodes from TV of "Fury", "The Cisco Kid", "Bat Masterson", "Annie Oakley", "Jim Bowie", "Death Valley Days", and "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon", all shows that any kid from the 1950's would remember well. Cobey had also brought some of his videos: "Free Willie II",  "Captain Nemo", "Toy Story Two", "Lion King and a Half", and "Babe". They loved petting the new baby colt, Stormy, and  playing with the half-wild baby kittens... once they figured out out how to catch them.  I know they went away with wonderful memories of quality time spent at Mamma's house.