Monday, May 26, 2008

The Day I Dropped Out of School

I’m sure Mrs. Swayze was an excellent teacher. I’m sure she loved her students and wanted the best for them. That description probably would be accurate from an adult’s point of view, but I was only 7.
Second grade was very difficult for me. I was apparently very shy, or so I’ve been told numerous times by my older sisters. I loved the play store we had in the back of the room, where we could take turns being the storekeeper and making the change for the "customers". I loved being a customer and trying to count out my money so that it would cover the cost without getting change.
The school was built like a fort. A huge grassy square was in the middle, with verandas and sidewalks around, from which each class room could be accessed. We had to go outside and walk around to get to other rooms, including the bathrooms. Hence, my problem. The teacher apparently was rather reluctant to let me go every time I asked to go. I don’t know why! One day I wet my pants because she wouldn’t excuse me. I had enough sense to leave my coat on at recess and lean against the building because I knew if I played jacks, I would leave a wet spot.
Because she knew what happened that day, she let me be excused the next time I asked. I went to the bathroom and sat there and cried for a long time. She finally came and checked on me. She urged me to come back to the classroom. I said I would, but I ran down that long hall, out the front door, and headed for home. I lived about 4 or 5 blocks from the school, and had to cross a major highway. On top of that, during my run, a bulldog decided to join me. I thought he was chasing me but, on retrospect, he may have just been running with me. I was screaming as I grabbed our back gate and almost pulled it off the hinges. My Mom let me stay home for a little while so I thought I was okay.


I saw her talking on the telephone but I thought she was excusing me from school. Then she betrayed me! She put me in the car and drove me back to the school. Mrs. Swayze met us at the front door and together they pulled me up the stairs. I made it as difficult as possible by bracing my feet on each and every one of the 10 or so steps. I honestly don’t remember any further problems with that teacher. I wonder if she had any further problems with me?

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Goin' on a Trip

Well, we'll be taking a trip to visit our daughter and her family in Missouri. We leave on Tuesday and will be back on Saturday. It's about 13 hours of traveling. Our other daughter and her two kids are going with us. We are anticipating traveling through tornado alley during that time so please pray for us to have peace about going and safety as we travel. I should have something to talk about after that trip, at least about the kids. Thanks.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Shot glass

I found new meaning to the term "shot glass" this morning. I dropped a heavy glass (my favorite one) and it shattered and my one leg got shot in two places and the other in one place. Nothing serious but it was so sudden and kind of shocking. Makes me realize how suddenly something really bad could happen and I would be totally helpless to stop it.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Some of my Youthful Memories

1. I smoked about 8 of my Dad's cigarettes when I was about 10, I think. I couldn't understand why my mother didn't feel sorry for me when I got so sick. After all, I rinsed my mouth out to take away the smell! By the way, I don't smoke.

2. I supervised the birthing of some kittens. I was Roy Rogers and I watched the cats and announced when a new one came, calling out the color to anyone who was interested.

3. My mom "let" me carry a dead bullsnake down to the canal to dump it after she found it full of eggs from the cellar and killed it. I carried it on the end of a long sturdy stick.

4. A mouse ran up my sister's pant leg and I almost died of laughter. She didn't.

5. I gave a sick baby kitten a bath and it died.

6. I was still riding stick horses when I was 12.

7. I didn't like my nephew's Boston bull terrier but when a kid passing by threw a rock at him and hit him in the eye (he barked at the kids), I chased them about 3 blocks while waving a stick at them.

8. I was looking for my mother's drain hose for her washing machine and found it on the porch. However, when I started to pick it up, it revealed itself to be a big bullsnake (a different one.) I think I screamed.

9. I loved sleeping at my sister-in-law's house because the sheets smelled so good and she made a cherry cake.

10. I didn't know what chiggers were until a cousin told me how soft their Oklahoma grass was to roll on.




Sunday, May 11, 2008

Oh Deer Me

Years ago, a couple of us activity workers took a van of n.h. people to a local wilderness park. It was okay then to feed the deer (not so now because it caused them to be too troublesome and this is a good example). There were about three deer along the road and we pulled over. I took some of the bread we brought and got out to feed them so the residents could watch. Well, guess what? I don't think a deer understands what "I have no more bread" means. She raised her front leg and pawed at me. What she actually did was rip every button off the front of my shirt! The residents enjoyed that more than I did.

My Mothers Day Gifts

One of my lovely daughters wrote me a beautiful poem and the other wrote a blog about me. These things are more precious to me than all the flowers and chocolates in the world (well, maybe not chocolates). Loopdeloops has the blog but the poem hasn't been publicly published. The blog talks about my involvement with nursing homes, etc. I don't know when my thing for the old, disabled, strange, unloved and unlovely people of the world actually began. I do remember that some of the "strange kids" in high school were my friends. I liked working at the state hospital, even as an office worker, and got attached to many of the people. When I lived in a tiny mountain town, a friend and I talked about wanting to start a nursing home there. I didn't even visit in nursing homes then. I believe that the calling came when I started visiting an old guy and brought him to church. I went to the pastor, bawling my eyes out, asking if we could have a nursing home ministry. Of course, he said yes, but the understanding was that lay people would do it. That worked out fine. So I guess God just gave me that desire.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

MY WHOLE WHEAT KICK IN THE 70s

Continued from Flower of the Family's blog comments. She mentioned my whole wheat kick I went on when she was a little girl. Well, I outgrew that shortly. The girls had some friends whose mother was forever on that kick. They milked their own goats, ground their own wheat, used honey instead of sugar, made their own cottage cheese, etc. My kids loved to go to their house because they could eat that good stuff, and her kids loved to come to our house because they could eat chips, cookies, and drink pop! Wonder which had the best advantage healthwise? Doing all that is hard work, especially when at least one in the family wants to live on mac and cheese and hamburger. Guess which one? Not me.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Dumb sheep

I've been thinking about those sheep that were in the parade. There were those sheep, hundreds of people sitting along the street, and the sheep keep steering away from the middle of the street. See, I think they would be afraid of all those people but they seem to not notice them. Then the dog would circle the straying sheep and bring it back to the herd. Isn't God good? We are dumb as sheep and need a shepherd. When we wander off the path God has set us on, he sends His Shepherd's dog (the Holy Spirit) to gently urge us back onto the right path. Sheep are followers, not leaders, and they are trusting. Sheep people usually have a goat with the herd because the goat leads and the sheep follow. We need that dog to steer us back into the right path, and we need that goat to lead us down that path. I don't think God will mind the analogies.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Parade events

Today our town had its annual Blossom Parade. There was supposed to be a surprise between the pre-parade and the main parade. The only thing I figure was a surprise were the four monstrously big Texas Longhorns. They were being ridden just like horses, but moved a lot slower. They were huge with really long horns. Also in the parade this year was a herd of about 7 sheep which was being herded down the street by a border collie and a man, mostly by the border collie. When the sheep would ease off toward the side, the dog would gather them back into the middle of the road. Cool!

Last year my sister and I were next to a lady who suddenly fell forward and smacked her face on the sidewalk. She was having a seizure. Fortunately, the ambulance was just around the corner and they were there in about a minute after the call. The lady had so much blood coming out of her mouth and nose that I just knew she'd broken her nose and busted out her teeth. I saw her a couple of days later at her work place and she was fine. All that blood came from busted lips and a bite on her tongue. Not so cool!