A New Year and a New Baby

Happy New Year, Ya'll!  I am getting my things ready to go to Normangee, Texas, for the impending birth of my SEVENTH grandchild, a boy. His pleased parents, who have three girls so far, are thinking of naming him for his grandfather, my ex-husband, William Noah, and calling him Noah. I told them that William Noah was named for HIS grandparent, his mother's father, Noah Speed Williams. This was many years ago, as Noah's mother, Sara Ethel Williams, was born in  1902. They also like the name Elijah as a possible middle name. I told them that my grandfather, my mother's father, was Samuel Elijah Ellison, nicknamed "Lige", so that would be naming their new son for TWO grandfathers on each side of the family. Lige was born in 1886 and died in 1948, when I was two years old. I never knew him. He was a handsome, red-headed , charming Scots-Irishman, a school principal who spoke five languages fluently, as well as a Texas farmer.  My oldest son, the parent of the soon-to-be-born baby boy, is the spitting image of him, so it would be fitting to name their child for Lige. What a wonderful way to start out the New Year, with a new life. Ain't Life Grand?!?!!!!!!!!!

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!