Remembering Our Memories!!

This Friday was a rather special one!

It was a day filled to the brim with memories!

Even last night's dreams were about memories.

My siblings and I are on a journey. We are making a timeline of our childhood and connecting the dots of events year by year. I have divided the timeline according to the houses we lived in.

These were all houses - never 'homes.' There IS a difference.

This morning we gathered with some of our cousins for lunch and a time of remembering.

Deanie prepared this beautiful - and delicious! - gourmet sandwich tray!!!

Those are not just your average turkey and cheese sandwiches. Each sandwich is layered with a cream cheese concoction and butter. I brought a basket of cheese and crackers, a dip and fresh veggies as well as some tasty cookies from ALDI. That's where Ruth Ann and I shopped yesterday afternoon after our walk. You can get a lot for your money there!

Deanie did the complete beauty shop run!

She left a plate of sandwiches and veggies for Mother's lunch.

We met up around the corner and took off for our cousin's house!

Deanie forgot the box of photos she was going to bring so she had to go back for them.

Just look at me ducking down in the front seat so Mother wouldn't see me!!!

Since it's harder and harder to make Mother understand what is going on - sometimes it is just easier if she doesn't know!! Let me tell you, I had no idea I could get all the way down in that floorboard!!!

It was a lot easier getting DOWN there than it was getting UP, though!!!

We had a great visit with several of our cousins and connected a few more dots on our timeline!

After we left, Deanie drove us down Memory Lane.

We were inner city kids and lived in a small compact area of Fort Worth.

Always near the railroad tracks. Always.

This may account for my love of train sounds.

I remember going to sleep to the chugging of the trains.

And what is more beautiful music than that of a train whistle?

The house we lived in no longer exists but THIS is the very spot we called our back yard in 1959.

The hobos gathered here and we actually played there with them.

You can tell this is STILL a place where they congregate.

Thanks be to God this is no longer our 'back yard.'

One thing that remained constant in all the places we lived then - and is still there now - is the trash.

I have always hated trash - especially trash along a fence line.

Poor Louis Dean could not understand why I practically had a melt down when he said he wanted to put up a cyclone fence. He hasn't mentioned it again and now we have lovely TALL wood fences!

This was the house we lived in in 1960.

It has not improved over the years but some of the neighboring homes have.

The next house was still inner city but much nicer and probably safer.

I always loved this road and it is right down the street from where we lived.

This house HAS improved since we lived there!

We drove by a few others but it was not really safe to stop and take pictures.

This house on Travis Avenue in Fort Worth was the last one I lived in before I left home.

The side door that opened from my bedroom has been boarded up.

Next we toured our old schools.

This was the first Junior High Scool I attended. 

We moved frequently so I didn't go here for very long.

It is now upscale apartments and lofts.

Our old elementary school!!!

Deanie and I both attended here.

The last school we saw was Rosemont Junior High School.

For me it was a tiny bit of 'normal' for a tiny bit of time.

It was also the last school I attended.

I finished the seventh grade here and all other education has been self taught.

See that row of windows above the door?

When we arrived the windows were empty.

By the time we left, there were faces peering out wondering what in the world we were doing!!

We had parked in the parents pick up line!

It was a good day.

The past loses its power over us when we take it out and revisit it from the safety of our place in life today.

I truly believe God has a plan for our lives and I believe he has protected us and blessed us in ways we are just now understanding.

The following is An Encouraging Word from Max Lucado

JosephSon of JacobGraduate with honors from the University of Hard KnocksDirector of Global Effort to Save Humanity Succeeded

How? How did he flourish in the midst of tragedy? We don’t have to speculate. Some twenty years later the roles were reversed, Joseph as the strong one and his brothers the weak ones. They came to him in dread. They feared he would settle the score and throw them into a pit of his own making. But Joseph didn’t. And in his explanation we find his inspiration.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. (50:20 NASB)

In God’s hands intended evil becomes eventual good. Joseph tied himself to the pillar of this promise and held on for dear life. Nothing in his story glosses over the presence of evil. Quite the contrary. Bloodstains, tearstains are everywhere. Joseph’s heart was rubbed raw against the rocks of disloyalty and miscarried justice. Yet time and time again God redeemed the pain. The torn robe became a royal one. The pit became a palace. The broken family grew old together. The very acts intended to destroy God’s servant turned out to strengthen him.

“You meant evil against me,” Joseph told his brothers, using a Hebrew verb that traces its meaning to “weave” or “plait.”

“You wove evil,” he was saying, “but God rewove it together for good.”

God, the Master Weaver. He stretches the yarn and intertwines the colors, the ragged twine with the velvet strings, the pains with the pleasures. Nothing escapes his reach. Every king, despot, weather pattern, and molecule are at his command. He passes the shuttle back and forth across the generations, and as he does, a design emerges. Satan weaves; God reweaves.

We are ALL on a journey of one sort or another!

I hope yours is as healing and exciting as ours is!