Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Back Home in Time for Book Fair!

 Monday was our last full day in the country for this visit and it was a beautiful one.


Louis Dean was having coffee out on the deck when he called me to come quick!
The young goats were outside our gate and mowing the grass.


Louis Dean and I strolled around the front yard inspecting all the wildflowers and new growth.
We have quite a number of Indian Blankets of which I forgot to take pictures.


The camper is on the side of the cabin Louis Dean built.


Monday night I used up as much of our veggies as I could and roasted them along with pepper poppers.

Tuesday morning we had our coffee and I started the preparations of packing and closing up the camper until we return later this month. I had put all the stuff on the deck for LD to load in the truck......


then discovered he had decided to paint all the shelves in his shop room.


I used the enexpected spare time to cut blooms from our rose bushes.


My goal was to leave around noon and get home before traffic.
We actually left at 1:20 and I drove us straight home without stopping!
We arrived shortly after 3:30.

I will miss the country roads with next to no traffic!
I yawned all the way home and went to bed early.


This was the first day of book fair and I was there from noon until 4:00 and loved every minute.
I love hearing and watching the young people. It encourages my heart.


The bonus was getting to see my Bell grands!
They each one came by the library to see me and my heart swelled.


Harrison came twice!
Actually the girls did, too.

I love working book fair and I love the librarian and teachers and staff.
So much so that I am going back tomorrow and Friday.
So, since I am going to school tomorrow, I better get in bed.
After all, I need to be there by noon!


Sunday, March 30, 2025

Our Country Days....

 I didn't think I  would get to post a journal entry since we didn't have Internet for a few days and my mouse was acting crazy on my laptop. Plus I was locked out of Gmail and Google!
We arrived on Thursday evening around 7:00 and before dark!
It was a good drive even though the last 50 miles or so it was raining so hard I could barely see.
It takes both of us to drive these days and we arrived safe and sound.
Before we even leave the driveway, we have a word of prayer.
Prayers help everything.

Sherry was down at their house and Dean drove in from taking a friend home and stopped to visit awhile. The friend, Tom, is a retired master electrician, and put our AC to rights in just a few minutes.

Alas, I had neglected to ask Dean to turn on the water thinking it was just a matter of going out behind the camper room and turning on the faucet. No, the water was turned off up by the duck tank and by then it was wet chilly rain and muddy! No matter! Dean trudged up there and turned it on for us and then made his way home in the dark and mud.

It's Sunday evening as I write and the Internet connection was restored yesterday.
My mouse is working off and on and will require a visit to me son, Jesse, next week!


Louis Dean and I love campfires and he's kept one going for us even with the rain we've had.


This is my sitting place to read, watch the campfire, sip coffee and pray.


My mouse is acting up again so I will add my words to this entry later!


Technology is hard for me!


The mouse seems to be working so if the words stop - you know why.
I made homemade fajitas for dinner on Friday night.


Such pretty critters down here!


Love the peacocks!




And the mops!



Work is an ongoing thing in the 1925 house and I was so happy to be a part of it today!


Sherry is using vintage doorknobs on her vintage doors.


Dean paints the high sections, Sherry paints the middle ....


and I painted the low sections.


This is a brick facade - the before...


and after I lightened the grout.
There's another step where we will  lighten and brighten the bricks.
This wall will be in the bathroom and feature a wall hung plant rack complete with a plant light and lots of greenery.


It's so pretty down here!


We haven't been able to inspect our beehives due to the rain.


But they seem to be thriving and we are encouraged.

It's been a struggle to do this post so I hope it makes sense!

I managed to add the edits to chapter 12 and hope to publish it in the morning.

Goodnight from the country!

Children in the Closet - Chapter Twelve

 Chapter Twelve

The summer of 1963 was terrible for my sisters and brother. After I left home there was no one to take care of them. Lloydine was the oldest at 11, Lanita was 9 and Lonnie was 8 and they were on their own to fend for themselves. The dynamics changed somewhat after I left. Clayton didn’t hate them with the hatred he felt for me. This wasn’t good for them, though. It meant that they were included in things that were in no way age-appropriate to see.

Mother’s birthday was June 6 and, while I had baked her a cake for past birthdays, now that I wasn’t there, Lanita decided she would do it. She bought a cake mix at a nearby store and set about to make it.  She read the directions and saw that it called for a cup and a half of water. We had no measuring cups or spoons so she used an empty mayonnaise jar. She watched and waited for that cake to rise while it baked but it refused. When Mother got home after work, Lanita showed her the cake and asked her why it hadn’t turned out right. She explained how she had to use a mayonnaise jar for a measuring cup. Mother told her that any idiot would know better than to do that. Lanita thought Mother would be pleased that she had tried to bake a cake, but she wasn’t.

More and more frequently my siblings were told to get in the car and Clayton would take off to the scene of some horrible accident. Mother would make them go even though they didn’t want to. It was that summer a call came across the police scanner of a child drowning in the Trinity River near I-30 and University. They all drove there and Clayton had everyone get out of the car and sit on the grassy knoll. Lloydine remembers them sitting out there in the sunshine on the green grass under a blue sky watching the heart wrenching scene below. They had to witness the dead child being pulled from the water. 

On another day that summer, as they were all in the car together coming back to the house after chasing yet another ambulance, the police scanner in the car began to announce a wreck where someone was decapitated. Clayton threw on the brakes and, with tires screeching and the kids falling all over each other on the back seat, he whirled the car around and headed to the scene. He pulled off to the side of the road once he got there and tried to get close enough to see on foot. The police turned him back and still he persisted in trying to push past the barricade. The kids and Mother stayed in the car and when at last Clayton’s curiosity had been satisfied and they were driving away, Mother told the kids not to look.

They were still devastated and confused as to why they should have to witness and hear about such awful things. Most parents protected their children from the ugliness of death and violence instead of insisting they be an eye witness to it. It’s no wonder that Lloydine was filled with fear and insecurity nearly every minute of her childhood, something that would greatly affect her adult life as well.

Earlier in the summer, Lonnie had stepped on a rusty nail. He told Mother but she didn’t pay any attention to it. Lloydine doctored it with what little she had but it only got worse. It became so infected that by the time Mother finally took him to the doctor, he was in danger of losing his foot. It’s strange that she would so easily have taken me to get an abortion and yet ignore her only son’s swollen and infected foot.

Mother lost interest in Bob that summer and took up with a parking lot attendant named Norman. Norman was already married so they would meet at The Dude Motel in Haltom City. Mother would drop Lloydine, Lanita and Lonnie off at the movies while she went to meet Norman. They remember seeing That Touch of Mink with Cary Grant and Doris Day over and over again. Many times, the movie theater would close and the three of them would be standing out in front in the wee hours of the morning waiting for Mother to pick them up. Lloydine would become so anxious and afraid that Mother would forget and never come for them that she began to hover at the entrance of the theater watching for her long before the movie was even over. To this day, they can all three quote that entire movie!

When Mother would drive over the bridge on the way to Norman’s she would point down and say, “Look! You can see Norman’s house from here.” Then she would start singing Sue Thompson’s 1961 hit song Norman.

Sadly, Norman later committed suicide by throwing himself off a multiple storied parking garage downtown. I don’t know why. Mother seemed to pick men who were not emotionally and mentally healthy. 


Mother continued to cook for her and Clayton late at night and she would leave the kitchen in chaos. When the girls would go in there the next day, every single cupboard door would be open, all the containers and ingredients would be left out on the counter with the dirty dishes all piled up. Lanita began to clean up one morning and as she stretched herself as tall as she could in order to put the black pepper back in the cupboard, she hadn’t noticed that the pour spout was still open and as she lifted it up, black pepper fell straight in her eyes! She started crying and Mother woke up and came stomping into the kitchen yelling at her to shut up.

It was in August of 1963 that Clayton decided to take everyone on a vacation to New Orleans. It was a shock when Mother went in and woke up all three kids at three in the morning and told them to put some clothes in a paper bag. They were going on a trip. They were not excited about being cooped up in a car with Mother and Clayton for days. He drove straight through. They went back to sleep when they got on the road but once it was daylight, Clayton insisted they watch the scenery and look around. Lloydine had trouble staying awake, though, and Clayton would yell at Mother and then Mother would slap Lloydine on the legs. He took God’s name in vain screaming louder and louder. It was a nightmare getting there and Lloydine was a nervous wreck.

When they checked in, Clayton paid for two rooms and thankfully, they were able to get some time away from him and Mother. If it was meant to be a vacation, it was anything but that and my siblings were relieved to finally get back home.


Once again, they moved right before school started. This time to a house on Bewick Street where they stayed for three years making it the longest residence of their childhood.

This house was laid out in a convenient manner of separating the living areas up with three rooms on one side and three on the other. Mother and Clayton took the three rooms on the left side which included the living room, dining room and kitchen plus the master bedroom and bath. That left the middle bedrooms to Lloydine, Lanita and Lonnie. There was a second bathroom off the kitchen. That posed a problem so it was back to the coffee can situation even though they were no longer small children. But at least they now had two rooms instead of one.


Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Tuesday Treasures With Brenda!

I do believe that Tuesday is my favorite day of the week!
Brenda works part time from home and is finished around noon or so.

We usually meet at the thrift store but this time I went to her house to see all her spring decorations.
Somehow I forgot to take any pictures! I am losing my touch!

We decided to shop the Thrift Giant on her side of town first.
 

As soon as I walked through the door, I spied this flower arrangement!
It was $14 and came down to a little over $10 after the senior discount.
Win! WIN!!


For $2 I bought these three hangers - not knowing what I will do with them.
I'm thinking I'll take them to the ranch and use them there.


This is hanging in the sewing room now.


And this is on the hall wall.


I hung this in the dining room since it goes with my theme in there.


Ten napkin rings will be perfect for September.


I love pretty things.....signage, faux fruit and veggies....


A pair of Clarks sandels that had no price tag.
FREE!


I buy a lot of candles because I burn a lot of candles.
They make me feel happy and warm and cozy.


Brenda and I were shopping the textile section and Brenda found a table runner for me that matches a set of dishes I have. Next she found some beautiful green placemats. A sister shopper pointed out two other place mats. Into the cart they went! As Brenda and I were browsing in another area, the sister shopper spied us and handed me four matching napkins!

We shopped three thrift stores - two Thrift Giants and Texas Thrift and finally Aldi.
I did have to stop at the Dollar store on my way home.
Aldi has a good stock of things but no dishwasher  detergent. $ stores are great!


It rained early Wednesday morning and the sky was beautiful!

I took my coffee out to the porch and had my quiet time.
This afternoon Amber came to help us with computer and phone issues and she was such a blessing to us. As seniors, we need help with technology and I am so grateful for all four of my children who keep me connected. They will most likely hand the torch to the grands in time to come.

Kimmy arrived just before Amber was leaving and LD  played some music for her.
Kimmy had some memory gifts from June and Aunt Tommie for the grand quads as well as me.


Playing for Kimmy.....


Tuesday's night supper....


It was really good!


My Knight in Shining Armour out watering the flower beds.
We finally packed and stored away all the Christmas things today.
Hopefully next year's transition from season to season will not be be as hard as it's been this year.


I do love this man!




I am so happy to be married to Louis Dean!
These have been the best years of my life and in June we will be married for 20 years. I've asked God for 25 but I treasure every day!


Monday, March 24, 2025

Children in the Closet Chapter Eleven

 Chapter Eleven

By February of 1963, Mother had grown tired of helping me continue to see Jesse and told me to break it off with him.  I was desperate with the knowledge that I was pregnant. My 14-year-old body had already started to change and I was confused and scared. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. I managed to get in touch with Jesse by using a pay phone and told him about the pregnancy. To his credit, he remained calm while I was just about hysterical. 

I had no choice but to tell Mother. She found a doctor that would give me a shot to start my period. Jesse took me to the appointment but the shot didn’t work. Then she said she knew a doctor who would perform an abortion for me. While I was filled with fear and had very little control over my life thus far, I was overcome with a powerful conviction that I could not and would not kill my baby. To my utter and profound relief, Jesse agreed with me. This was the first time I had defied my mother, but I was adamant about keeping my baby. Jesse had agreed to marry me, so that was what we would do. Mother cried and carried on a lot but it made no difference to me. I was determined that I would not only have my baby but I would keep it! It was a relief to have finally and at long last made a decision of my own about life. It was the very first time I had felt any power at all and I was both scared and proud at the same time. I only prayed I had made the right choice. I never ever considered abortion though I did consider a home where I could live until the baby was born and then allow it to be adopted if Jesse didn’t want to marry me.

Jesse told his mother and that was that. Now there was no reason for me not to spend the weekends with Jesse, so Mother would drop me off at the bus station downtown and I would ride the Greyhound bus to Dallas on Friday nights. Jesse would drive me back to Fort Worth on Sunday mornings.
       One Friday I was late getting to the station. Mother had dropped me off and was gone by the time I discovered I had missed the bus. There was one leaving later that night so I had no other choice but to sit down and wait. I had started wearing make up at the age of 12 and looked a bit older than my age, or so I thought. I had long hair that I usually wore pulled up and piled on top of my head. I carried a book with me everywhere I went, so I found a spot to sit and read to pass the time. A couple of policemen came over and questioned me about where I was going and what was I doing out so late at night. I didn’t realize at the time that they thought I was a prostitute! Later it dawned on me when I was telling Jesse about it. That was the last time I rode the bus. From then on, Jesse would drive over from Dallas and pick me up and then bring me back on Sunday.
Mother took me to Clark’s, a discount department store, to buy a wedding dress. It was a simple white dress with a pretty silver broach with sparkling rhinestones in it. I still have that pin to this very day. It is sitting on a tiny shelf in my bathroom, nestled among some lace and ribbons.
        Jesse and I were married on April 26, 1963 at a preacher’s office in Weatherford, Texas. We couldn’t get married in Fort Worth because Mother was afraid Clayton would find out about it.  My mother cried all the way through. Jesse told me it was because she was losing her babysitter. But she didn’t, at least not for a few more months. Jesse and I continued to spend weekends together but I was home during the week. I still kept house, took care of my siblings and prepared the meals. I no longer went to school. I had attended less and less every month until it just didn’t seem very important to go anymore. No one from the school ever inquired why I wasn’t there. I guess the truancy system wasn’t working very well back then. Or maybe it was because they didn’t care about the lower income, inner city students.

The weekend after we married, Jesse’s mother and stepfather gave us a wedding shower. She invited the people she worked with and a few other friends. That was kind of her and we received some things with which to set up our household once we got our own apartment. For now, we stored the glasses, dishes, towels and such in the bottom of the closet In Jesse’s bedroom at his mother’s rental house in Dallas.

Jesse graduated high school at the end of May and I moved to Dallas in June. We lived with his mother and sisters. I called his mother Mrs. O’Dell although her first name was Mary. She and Mr. O’Dell had split up that summer for what would be the last time. Kenneth O’Dell was Mary’s third husband. Her first marriage had been to Amos Davis. He was Jesse’s father and had died when Jesse was just a little boy. She married again and had another son, Danny, before that marriage ended. Kenneth was the father of her two daughters and they remained close to their dad for the rest of his life. When I met Jesse, he went by O’Dell as did his younger brother who was at Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch after he had started a fire that burned down a church.

As soon as Jesse’s senior year of high school was out, he immediately got a job selling encyclopedias door to door. He didn’t even attend his high school graduation ceremony, but had his diploma mailed to him. It took Jesse only a couple of weeks to know that he would not make enough money with this job.  His sisters had been playing with a couple of little girls in the neighborhood and they told him their daddy was a stone mason and was looking for a helper. Jesse went to see him and was hired at $1.25 an hour. He learned the trade from the man and went on to become a gifted stone mason himself. However, Jesse was exhausted at the end of every day and would come in, take a shower, eat something and go to bed. He would be gone by six every morning and not get home until dark. He worked every day, including weekends, except for when it rained.

I was lonely and missed my siblings. Jesse’s sisters played outside most of the time so I was alone. Mrs. O’Dell worked as a waitress at the Zuider Zee restaurant just down the street, so I spent the long summer days by myself. 

Jesse’s mother had given us the large back bedroom so that’s where I spent most of my time. The bedroom had a lot of windows and they looked out onto a good-sized backyard with lots of trees. At first, we didn’t have a real bed but slept on a mattress laid right on the floor. I stayed thirsty all the time and every night I would put a glass of water on the floor by the edge of the mattress. One night I took a drink and was stung on my lip by a spider that had crawled into the glass. The next rainy day that he wasn’t working, Jesse and I went to the Unclaimed Freight in Dallas and bought a bed frame to get the mattress up off the floor. There were several of those places all lined up in a row on Industrial Boulevard and they bought train cars full of commodities that had been damaged or unclaimed. They sold canned goods, soaps, furniture, whatever they had, all at cheap prices.    
       We continued our trips on rainy days to buy things for our future apartment. A big pottery bowl for fifty cents one day, a set of knives for $1 the next time. We also bought bath soap which came in a package of a dozen. I unwrapped every bar and piled them in the crockery bowl and put that on the dresser. It looked so pretty and when the breeze blew in the open windows, the fragrance would scent the room.

My stomach was growing bigger every day and one night I went to bed and when I got up the next morning, I couldn’t fit into my one and only dress. It was one of those housedresses that snapped down the front but I couldn’t pull it together no matter how hard I tugged at the sides. I didn’t know what to do so I went back to bed. Jesse had already gone to work and I was scared. I had no clothes to wear so I just stayed in bed until Mrs. O’Dell came home on her break and found me there. I told her I didn’t have anything to wear, not one single thing I could get into. She was working a split shift, so she went to Levine’s Department Store, which was right next door to the Zuider Zee, and bought two maternity skirts and two tops. She brought them home to me before she went back to work and said that Jesse could pay her back, which he did. He also paid her rent for the room she let us have. The house was a duplex with two rooms and a bath on the other side which she rented out to a young man for $10 a week.

I had never gone hungry at home with my siblings. We always had something to eat, be it crackers and peanut butter or oatmeal or a boiled potato, but it was a different story at the O’Dell house. Jesse’s mother bought groceries by the day so there was never anything extra in the cupboard. We didn’t necessarily eat our meals together as a family, but she did go by the grocery store on her way home each night. She also occasionally brought home fish and hushpuppies from the restaurant after her shift. 

    Once Clayton found out I was pregnant and married, I was forbidden from ever coming to the house again so I didn’t see my sisters, mother or brother unless they came to Dallas, which they didn’t do often. Mother did bring Lanita over to stay with me for a few days late in June. Mrs. O’Dell had gone out of town and told us to collect the rent from the tenant and buy groceries with it. Jesse didn’t get paid until Friday and we were out of food. However, the guy moved without paying the rent so we had no money and no food. Later when Lanita told Mother about being hungry, she said, “Why didn’t you tell Linda?” And Lanita explained that I had been hungry, too.

By July the weather was sweltering hot and I was growing more and more uncomfortable. Jesse found an old swamp cooler to set up for me. It was the kind you fill with water and a fan blows across the surface to cool the air. Every morning before he went to work, Jesse would buy a bag of ice and pour into the bottom of the cooler. I stayed in front of the fan as much as possible reading book after book to pass the time.

Jesse looked up obstetricians in the phone book and found one not too far away. He had converted his old home into his medical office. Jesse took me to see him and we found out our baby would be due on October 26th. I weighed 89 pounds before I got pregnant and by now I was up to 110. Our doctor charged $150 for prenatal care and delivery and allowed us to pay it out in $15 installments. He told me to eat as much as I could. I needed to gain weight in order to have a healthy baby. Jesse and I went to the grocery store at the strip mall with the Zuider Zee and Levine’s Department Store. We bought boxes of macaroni and cheese and cans of Chef Boyardee’s spaghetti for my lunches. For Jesse’s lunches, which I made and packed for him, we bought cans of tuna fish and jars of mayonnaise for tuna salad sandwiches. Onions, loaves of bread, tea bags, and some fresh fruit rounded out our purchases. We budgeted $15 a week for groceries and that meant three full bags of food. Neither of us ate breakfast and Jesse’s mother continued to share the seafood she would bring home and we ate that for our suppers.

In September, Jesse and I moved into the previous renter’s room since he was long gone from the other side of the duplex. The kitchen had a sink in it but we didn’t have a refrigerator or a stove. That wasn’t a problem, we used an ice chest for the fridge and Jesse bought a hot plate and put it on a TV tray. Instant kitchen! We used a few of our precious dollars to buy pegboard and hooks at Elliot’s Hardware and Jesse fashioned us a place to hang our single pot and pan plus a few utensils. We stacked a couple of boards on bricks for a pantry. I was used to making do with what I had. It was kind of like playing house, in a way.  In the bedroom, we had a bed and used some cardboard boxes to hold our clothes. Since I was home alone all day, Jesse bought a small TV at a pawn shop for a few dollars. Mrs. O’Dell was jealous of the way he made sure I was taken care of and I didn’t understand that. She confused me. Sometimes she was kind and other times she was hateful. I never knew what to expect. She constantly complained about Jesse thinking the world owes him a living and yet he worked every single day he could and faithfully paid her the rent for our rooms.


Life was just as stressful there as it was in Fort Worth, plus my body was constantly changing with my pregnancy. I was happy to be away from Clayton, but now I was dealing with Jesse’s mother who was every bit as neurotic as Clayton was. While I can’t say I really missed my mother all that much, I did miss my sisters and brother. My life was no easier now than it had been before and my siblings’ lives were worse than ever.


Sunday, March 23, 2025

Weekend Happenings......

 Louis Dean is as happy as he can be when he has a project to do!


And he always has something he's working on!
I don't know what he's doing here but he does and that makes both of us happy.


I've been sorting through my recipe boxes and whittled four boxes down to one!
Recipes from dear friends from years ago remain treasures for me.


Louis Dean is enjoying his Alexa and I can hear him talking to her quite often.


Louis Dean is loving this new relationship with Alexa!
Thank you, Amber and Mike!


Spring is bursting out all over here in North Texas.
I saw this beauty on my way to Walgreens.

I finallyfinished the dining room on Friday!


I decided to go with a spring garden theme this year.


The lace gives it a romantic vibe, as well.


My next dinner party will not be until late May or early June, but I shall enjoy seeing the table setting until then. I usually change things out to sunflowers in June.





I'm calling this room done!


Saturday we celebrated the life of Lily Paul Painter.
She was a Proverbs 31 Woman if ever there was one and she blessed so many in her liftime, including me. She was Nita's first mother in law and made such a difference in her life.
When I said Lily had changed Nita's life to her daughter and my friend, Joni, she looked at me and said, "And Nita changed our life."
And so she did.


Nita and Lily in 2018

Lily was born on March 25, 1925 and left for her home in heaven on March 17, 2025.
She was just a few short days from 100th birthday.
I love that Christians can celebrate their loved ones moving on to the next life.
We both grieve and rejoice at the same time.


Didn't Louis Dean dress up nice???
He dressed hinself and did it well!
He's lost so much weight he had to punch new holes in his belt!
He and Deanie were so happy to see each other!
They bonded for life back in 2012 after the Bell quads were born and they drove back to the DFW  area and have been fast friends ever since.

We all gathered at Joni's home after the service and enjoyed visiting with everyone.
My nieces, nephew and his granddaughter, and my grand nieces, and so many friends and my siblings, 



Louis Dean and Joni.....


Louis Dean is so much fun and he did good!!
He is a social butterfly!


It's been a good Sunday here.
We watched Fellowship Church online and then Louis Deanworked on the fence gate while I did routine housework. And what it is that actually?
Putting out medicine for LD, feeding, watering and doing litter duty for the cats.
First thing was putting Samantha and Tabitha in the guest room before opening any door to the outside.
Tabitha has been getting out more and more and I' thinking of confining them during the days and letting them roam the house at night.
Empty the dishwasher, make meals, doing some gardening and washing the stone path with bleach, sweeping them with a broom and spraying with the water hose.
I could work all day long and never get to the end of the work I need to do.
I did start on the sewinng room and some of the Christmas is down.
Tomorrow I will finish up the job and start redecorating for spring.
I already know I will be using a Honey Bee theme!

Speaking of bees....I am excited that when we go down to the ranch soon ...Sherry and I will be opening the apiary and inspecting our hives in anticipation of splitting some of our hives.
We have continued to have bees but have not harvested in a few years.
Plans are afoot for the coming weekend and I am beyond excited to get down there and join Dean and Sherry in more of their adventures!