Children in the Closet.....Chapter Four

 

 Chapter Four

 

               My second-grade teacher was named Mrs. Angel and I thought she was the prettiest teacher in the entire school. She wore dresses and often a colorful scarf around her beautiful neck. She also had the most stylish high heeled shoes! I looked forward to seeing what she wore to school each day and I developed an obsession with shoes. I wore shoes handed down to me from my cousin, Mae Ellen, but in my mind, I was walking around on tall heels with clever little bows on the straps around my ankles. At home, I would sketch out the shoes I had envisioned each day and I would draw some for Lloydine as well. She didn’t go to school yet but I told her she could wear them anyway. I developed quite a few designs that, instead of drawing the shoes I would be pretending to wear that day, I would simply pick out a sketch from my collection.

               Recess was on the asphalt playground outside and we had only one hard and fast rule – don’t run. One day, for whatever reason, I did the unthinkable and ran! I fell down and scraped my knees pretty badly. Mrs. Angel came running over and before she could say anything I was blurting out, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry I ran!!” The last thing in the world I wanted to do was disappoint her!

               I would come home after school and immediately change out of my nice school dress into play clothes. Lloydine, Lanita and even Lonnie were always watching and waiting for me. It was nice being the big sister and we all played so well together. We probably fussed with each other as all children do but, by and large, we would play sweet as Granddad would tell us.

                We all dearly loved Granddad. It was fascinating to watch him drink his morning coffee. He would pour some-which was piping hot – into the saucer, blow on it and then pour it back into the cup before taking his first sip. “Saucer blown coffee – oh, man, that’s good!” he would say.

In the evenings, right before he went to bed, Granddad would pour a small glass of Mogen David Concord Grape wine and sip it slowly. Granddad also smoked a pipe and I thought the scent was heavenly. Granny, on the other hand, dipped snuff which we thought was a nasty thing to do. The snuff came in small glass jars and Granny would stuff a tissue down in the bottom of an empty one and use it to spit in. She used some of those many snuff jars as juice or milk glasses for us. We had to try hard not to think about how those glasses had been used before they showed up on the table.

               Lloydine and I usually had supper time chores. It was our job to set the table each evening. The plates didn’t match, each one having a different pattern. Some were chipped a bit and one had a hairline crack that didn’t go all the way through so you could still use the plate but it was unsightly. My sister and I had a game of choosing which plate to give to each family member. We all had our own place to sit at the table so we would assign the plates accordingly. I would give Granny the cracked one and Granddad the prettiest one and we made sure Mother and Daddy got plates that weren’t chipped. All of us kids got snuff glasses for tea and the adults drank either from goblets or shiny bright colored aluminum glasses. We didn’t drink milk and now I wonder why that was. The four of us grew up drinking tea and water. Milk was used only for cereal. Perhaps it was to save some precious pennies since money, seemed to be an ever-present issue.

               After setting the table, we would use two saucers for bread plates and stack slices of white bread on them and place one at each end of the table. Daddy or Granddad would say the blessing before we would eat. After supper, Lloydine and I would clear the table and scrape any leftovers onto Granny’s cracked plate then take it out to feed the chickens next door. Then we would come back in to wash and dry the dishes. I washed and Lloydine dried.

               At night we all slept together in the same bed and each of us would wrap ourselves up our own blanket, wrapping around us Indian style and lie down.  For some reason, we feared what might be under the bed so we never allowed our feet or arms to dangle off the edge. One night, just as I was drifting off to sleep, I opened my eyes and blinked in fright. There was a hand right there by my face. It looked exactly like someone was under the bed and reaching up to get me. I was so scared!  I did the only thing I could think of, I bit down on that hand with all my might! Then I screamed out in pain! It was my hand! I started crying and Daddy came in to see about me. When I told him what happened, he took me to the kitchen and fixed a hot dog on a piece of bread for me. That was the best thing he could have done. I sunk my teeth into that weenie and forgot about sinking them into my own finger!

               On Sunday Mother and Daddy would walk with us up the hill to Trinity Baptist Church. That’s where I accepted the Lord as my personal savior, inviting Him into my heart and giving my heart right back to Him for safe keeping. I remember that moment to this very day. I was later baptized in that same church wearing a billowing white baptism gown.

               One of the girls in my Sunday School class got a permanent wave in her hair and I thought it looked gorgeous! What’s more – I absolutely love the smell of the permanent wave solution. Mother was good at fixing hair and she often gave what we called perms to family members, then one day she gave me one. I was thrilled! Mother no longer went to church with us by this time, but she knew how important it was to me and she knew how much I wanted to fit in with the other girls in my class. Daddy continued to take us to church but Mother had begun working on Sundays.

               While none us children ever received any special attention that I can recall, there is one memory of the summer of 1956 that still stands in my mind. Photographers with Shetland ponies would canvas a neighborhood and offered to take pictures of us sitting on a pony. Of course, they charged for this, but Daddy arranged for Lonnie to have his picture taken. We were all so proud of him as he was dressed up in chaps, vest, a cowboy hat and bandana. He wasn’t one bit afraid of that pony. I still have that photo of him to this day.

 

               It was in the fall of 1956 that Mother began an affair with another man. She was working at Hotel Texas at the time and had met a man named Clayton Collins while working there.

               Daddy was not an overly ambitious man but he was a steady worker and was kind to everyone. While he was not well received by Mother’s parents, and they made this abundantly clear, Daddy was always respectful of them and never spoke a word against them. After four children, and still struggling financially to feed, house and clothe them all, he had a vasectomy shortly after Lonnie was born.

               Things were changing. Mother became distracted and was not at home as much as she had been. She worked and then didn’t come home until hours after her shift had ended. This did not sit well with Daddy, Granny or Granddad.  Clayton would bring Mother home – unashamedly driving right up into the yard (there was no driveway) and letting her out of the car. Other times he would bring her home in an ambulance because he worked as a driver for Smith and Harris Funeral Home. Before becoming involved with Clayton, Mother had taken the bus to and from work or Daddy would pick her up if it was late at night. She didn’t bother with the bus anymore.

               The holiday season of that year was very strained. There was no real excitement other than what we children felt. Mother was absent from home even more than she had been and she seemed to have little interest in us. Mother didn’t even try to make Christmas special that year. The scrawny Christmas tree was left unlit and undecorated. Lonnie was still a baby, he would turn two in January,  and Lanita had just turned three, so they didn’t really understand about holidays. They just knew they missed their mama. I was eight and Lloydine was about to have her 5^th birthday so, as big kids, we knew there was something dreadfully wrong but we didn’t really know what it was.

               Normally we all dressed up on Christmas Eve and watched Scrooge on television. Santa would visit the tree in the living room while we didn’t notice and then we would spy on our presents. Not so this strange Christmas. No watching Scrooge as a family and no giggling anticipation of Santa’s visit. No Christmas Day trip to our cousins. We opened our few small gifts of puzzles, coloring books and paper dolls on Christmas Eve and played with them for a few minutes before we were all told to go to bed.

               I was glad when Christmas and New Year’s Day were over and I could go back to school. But even as life returned to regular routine, our home became increasingly tense. Now even Daddy was distant and preoccupied and then he seemed to lose all interest in us. That winter was especially cold and bitter, both in the weather and in the attitudes of the adults around us. By February I knew a little bit about why the relationships among the adults in our life were so stressful. Mother was pregnant again.

~~~~~~~~~~

 

               Mother continued to work at Hotel Texas through the spring when it became obvious to everyone that she was pregnant. She had become heavier with every pregnancy and by early summer it was difficult for her to get around and do much. Once again, Granny begrudgingly took care of us while Mother rested. Now, every morning as soon as we ate breakfast and put our clothes on, not only my sisters and I were shooed outside, but our baby brother, too!

               We would play all morning up close to the house. One of the games we played was call Butcher Shop. Trash gathered along the fence lines and we would take the newspapers, smooth them out as much as possible and then hunt around for some good size rocks. We would take turns being the butcher and the customer. I especially loved being the butcher as I would take the orders and wrap the make-believe meat up in the newspaper, just like they did at the little store around the corner. Lonnie and Lanita didn’t quite understand this game that Lloydine and I had made up, so when they wanted to play, we changed the game to “Christmas” and pretended to wrap presents and they would get to unwrap them. We knew all about catalogs as we would play with Granny’s old ones, so we would describe each gift trying hard to find things that would really please them!

               Whenever we were thirsty, we would drink from the water hose at the corner of the house. We were always allowed to come inside for lunch and we didn’t even mind taking naps afterwards, as that just meant we got to stay in the house awhile longer.

               The afternoons were spent at the back of the yard around the mulberry tree. That was our snack, eating fresh mulberries straight from the branches. Sometimes we would find an old tin can and make mulberry soup.

               Before we were called in for supper, Lloydine and I would lie down in the tall grass and watch the clouds form pictures in the sky. We could play that game for hours and taught it to our siblings. Even a small child can see things……in nature as well as in the faces of our parents and grandparents.  We saw lots of things. The thin line of Granny’s lips. The sadness in Daddy’s eyes. We felt things, too. The preoccupation of our mother to the point that she seldom even seemed to see her own children anymore. The hostility of our grandparents toward our parents. We especially felt the lack of feeling important to anyone. No one seemed to pay any more attention to us than was absolutely necessary. It is to our credit that we were, by nature, such good and obedient children that we actually required even less attention than most children our age. At the ages of eight, five, three and two, we were a family in and of ourselves. Lloydine and I acted as parents to our younger siblings, making sure they were taken care of, ate enough food and I even changed Lonnie’s diapers. Mother was coming to the end of her pregnancy and seemed to draw more and more into herself with every passing day.

               At night, we children all slept in one bed out on the “sleeping porch.” This was really a closed in room but it had screened windows that allowed for air flow. Since there was no air conditioning, we were grateful to be able to sleep there. We would be covered in chiggers and mosquito bites after playing outside all day. After our baths, Daddy would sprinkle us with powdered Sulphur to stop the itching.

               We had an old radio on the table beside our bed and I would tune into whatever station I could get so we would have music to go to sleep by. One of my favorites was Dinah Shore singing, “The Shrimp Boats Are Coming.” It was my responsibility to get the younger three to sleep so I would turn the volume knob slightly up and then back down over and over, thereby gently lulling them off into slumber. Then I would lie there wide awake late into the night, wondering about what was happening to our family.

               It was impossible for us to understand at the time that everyone in the family knew Mother was not pregnant with Lloyd’s child, especially since it was a known fact that he had a vasectomy after brother Lonnie was born.

               Mother gave birth to our new baby sister on Monday, August 5^th, 1957. She was named Lu Ann Ewing, born at 11:03 PM. Daddy and Granny took care of us while Mother and baby were in the hospital for a few days. Both of them were grim faced and expressed no joy over the baby’s birth.

               There were no baby showers or happy birth announcements when Mother came home from the hospital carrying her brand-new baby girl. No happy clucking over the baby and no nurturing aunts and uncles bringing in casseroles and fawning over the newborn. This was Mother’s fifth child and she used the baby clothes from her other babies to dress her. She still had several tiny, white cotton flannel dresses with tiny white buttons that Granny had made for me. At least I always thought she had made them especially for me, but as it turns out, they were hand me downs she had sewed for her other grandchildren.

                

               Just days after Luann was born, Daddy and Mother gathered all of us children together and announced that Daddy was going back to Kansas City and would get an apartment He would get an apartment ready with plans for us to join him soon. They explained we would take the train as soon as he got settled. It’s very easy to lie to children. Apparently much easier than telling them the truth. Children want to believe. As much as we loved hearing these plans, we could still feel the undercurrent of anger between our Mother and Daddy.  We could hear them arguing when they thought we were in bed fast asleep.

               Lonnie can recall his first real memory that came about this time. He can see Daddy wearing a pair of khaki pants and standing at the open refrigerator door, drinking milk straight out of the bottle. It is funny what our first memories are. This was to be the first, last and only memory he had of his Daddy, for he never saw him again. Neither did Lloydine or Lanita. Later in life, when Lonnie was 18 years old and wanted to contact his father, Mother lied to him and told him he had died. The truth was he lived to be 83 years old and passed away in 2001 when Lonnie was 46 years old. Later when I was 17 years old, I went to Kansas City on the train in search of my biological father when I met him and his second wife. But more about that later.

               Daddy left us on his birthday, Sunday, August 11^th. He didn’t leave with suitcases full of things to start our new life. As a matter of fact, he left with very little. He went out the side door with only a shoebox and a pair of Argyle socks on top and the clothes on his back. He slipped away without saying goodbye to any of us, but Lloydine was watching and saw him go. He that one last argument with Mother and then he was gone. 

                              We left Granny and Granddad’s house on a sunny day in late August of 1957. It was a Saturday morning and the taxi picked us up and carried us to the train station. We were being promised one thing, a reunion with our daddy and a new life in Kansas City, while all along much different plans had been made and were now becoming our reality. A horrible and terrifying reality. We would never again go back to being the young innocent children who had woken up all happy and excited that morning. Our lives changed forever that day and not for the better.

                             

Out of Commission....

 Monday was our last mormal day this week.

I slept late and took naps and rested.

I thought I was just tired.

Tuesday with Brenda was good and we had fun and found lots of good things.

Summer is here and joined us at Texas Thrift before she headed out for her doctor appointments.

She lives in Arkansas but keeps her Dallas area doctors which enables her to come visit me as a bonus.

I'm finally ready to shift gears from Christmas/winter to spring.

I'm thinking this table runner will work in the sewing room with all my honey themed collections.

I'm loving decorating the fence between us and Stephanie.

LD and I sit on the kitchen deck in the mornings and it's nice to see the plaques and canvases.

I've been buying up baskets and attractive storage containers for our hundreds of DVDs.

That's been my solution to Louis Dean watching movies he can relate to.

I can't believe we have already worn out one of our cat carriers and I was excited to find this brand new one for  $10.

I love this canvas!

This French style piece is now hanging in our bedroom, replacing a framed scripture which will go to the guest room.

Love this!

The Bible for young children is for Piercyn and I will be mailing this out to him as soon as I feel better.

Brenda found me some really nice purple things to wear to Harrison's hockey games.

Brenda and I had our traditional after shopping lunch at Chick-fil-A and then we both did a grocery run at Aldi's.

By the time I got home, I was on my way down and, after putting things up, I went to bed.

Congestion and coughing that's made my stomach ache. Plus a terrible headache and feeling miserable - I knew I was really sick.

And I'm still sick but am slowly improving.

Not sure if this is the flu or whatever but now Louis Dean has it, too.

And just today Summer came down with it.

We are all sleeping a lot and spending a good part of every day in bed.

This afternoon, Summer made some cereal for us and she and I ate ours on the driveway, sitting in the sun. It felt good and the breeze was such a blessing.

I put the cats in the guest room and opened up the house and turned the attic fan on.

I thought some fresh air would be a good thing!

Then we all went to bed, again, until late this afternoon.

Hopefully we are on the road to recovery.....

A Day Late and a Dollar Short.....

 That's a saying my mother used to say and that's how I feel!

It's been a week since I posted a regular  journal entry and it seems that the more behind I get - the more behind I get!

Last Wednesday Louis Dean had a Medicare Wellness Checkup.

I am so grateful that as Louis Dean complains about going to the doctor visits - he is gracious and goes along with the program even when he doesn't like to do so.

Since he is diabetic, they always check his feet.

He is borderline but has no feeling in some parts of his feet.

Here he is waiting for his lab work.

Instead of seeing a podiatrist - we visit Lovely Nails on Beltline Road.

They do so much more than Dr. Garcia - plus they make over him like he is a movie star!

I think I've made him famous!

Since it was a fasting appointment and it was now 3:00 ....

He was excited to have a hamburger and fries at Braum's.

Louis Dean and I have enjoyed these cold evenings by the fireplace.

So have our cats.

I have no idea why this pic is here but we do love our pepper poppers!

Samantha is our super star and always posing!

I opened the fridge to prepare a meal and looked up......

We never know where we will find her!

She is quick to claim a new basket or investigate an open cupboard door.

I have a funny story about these pajama pants.

Louis Dean and I were having coffee in his music room and he wadded this pair of pajama pants up and said, "You can cut these up for rags or whatever you want to do with them but I slept in them last night and like to never got them off this morning!"

That's because these are my pajama pants!!!

I talked to my brother, Lonnie, on Monday and he laughed so loud when I told him this story!

Saturday morning we were up really early to go to North Richland Hills to watch Harrison's hockey game. It started at 9:15 and we were early!

Only for hockey games are we early!

I don't want to miss a minute.

Amber and Mike are loving the whole hockey adventure - just as much as I enjoyed her Synchronized Swimming! She explains to me the importance of a hockey game by comparing it to her swimming experience. This particular game was like playing Santa Clara's B Team.....they played the Penguin's B team.

And they won!

Amber, Mike and I went inside to the ice rink while Louis Dean opted to watch from the the windows where it was warm.

I love being a part of the whole hockey experience with not only Harrison, but Trystan, Kailey and Logan, too!

We made it to Harrison's Sunday game when the Brahmas played the Penguin's A team.

And, once again, they won!

3-2!

Life seems to be slipping by and I hope to not get behind in my journal entries.

When Lonnie and I talked on Monday - I was telling him about chapter 3.

He was a baby in the last chapter but apparently the family next door to Granny and Granddad continued to live there for years and years.

Right off the bat, Lonnie said, "That was Joe and John Bowman! They went on to serve long sentences in the penitentiary. Lonnie has an amzong memory as did Deanie and Nita.

While I remember my early years, they helped me fill the blanks in later years.

Today is Lonnie's 70th birthday!

He is so precious to us and we all love him dearly!

His humor is so funny and we laugh and laugh when we talk on the phone.

Children in the Closet - Chapter Three

  Chapter Three

 

       Granny took care of us now and it wasn’t nearly as pleasant as when Mother was home all the time. All three of us girls slept in the same bed together and Lonnie slept with Mother and Daddy. We would wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast and then Granny ushered us to the back door and turned us out into the yard like puppies. She always locked the hook and eye latch to prevent us from coming back in. We stayed outside until lunchtime when we were allowed to come in and eat.

          We took afternoon naps on the living room floor. Granny had lace curtains on all the windows in the living room and I loved to watch them billow in the breeze since the windows were always open due to the summertime heat. Not many people had air conditioning back then. She had hung framed prints on the walls and my favorite was the one of the angels helping two small, ragged, frightened children across a rickety bridge into what I assumed was Heaven. As I would gaze up at it, I imagined the children to be Lloydine and myself on that bridge and found great comfort knowing that God had angels to take care of us.

        Once we all woke up from our naps it was back outside until suppertime. Then we played some more until it was time to come in and get ready for bed. Occasionally we would watch a TV program in the evenings if both Mother and Daddy were home.  The Ed Sullivan Show and The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin were two of my favorites.

         None of us can remember playing with a single toy in all those summer days we spent outside. We generally followed the shade, playing up close to the house under the Seven Sisters rose bushes in the mornings. We used our imaginations and dreamed up all sorts of things to do. The roses were intertwined with a huge honeysuckle vine and we would pick bouquets, tear the blossoms into tiny pieces, put them in an old tin can, add a little rain water and stir it all up with a stick to make our own perfume.   We also tried to making our own glue using flour and water and mixing it together in another old can. We stirred it until it was smooth and white and looked like glue to us. Papers were always flying into the yard so Lloydine and I would gather up some of them and try to glue the edges of them together to make a book so we could play school. The glue never held. I imagine we kept getting it too thin.

     Do you remember the first conscience sin you ever committed? I do. It was right there underneath that Seven Sister rose bush. One day I had got hold of some matches in the house and I took them with me when we were shooed outside. I had them hidden in my hand behind my back so Granny didn’t notice them.  I tried and tried to burn a stick. I managed to strike the matches but the stick would never catch on fire. Even as I struck each match, I knew in my heart that it was a sin for me to be playing with them like that. No one saw what I was doing but I eventually felt so guilty I tried to go inside and confess to Granny what I had done. However, the door was locked so I tucked the book of matches down beside the little step under the door and went back to play. I didn’t forget what I had done, though, and confessed it to Mother later that evening. She didn’t seem to pay much attention to me and I didn’t even get a spanking as I was certain I would.

      As the day progressed, we would go further and further into the back of the yard. At the very back was a huge old mulberry tree. We did love those mulberries! Lloydine and I would climb up in the lower limbs and discovered two “seats” where the branches curved in such a way as to form what we called our chairs. We spent many an hour up in that tree. Lanita was too little to climb since she was only two years old. She didn’t stay outside as much as Lloydine and I did. Granny had her come in for an extra nap in the mornings. Lonnie was just a baby so he got to stay in the house most of the time.

    The people living next door to Granny and Granddad had chickens, roosters, pigs, they even had a donkey! They also had a boxer dog and Lloydine was so scared of it, probably because of his constant barking. She loved that old donkey, though. After supper, Lloydine and I would take a single plate of scraps out to feed the chickens and the pigs. Feeding the critters was the highlight of our day.

      While we liked the neighbor’s animals, we were a little bit afraid of their boys. They were on the older side by at least a few years and they were mean to us. While we didn’t have real toys to play with -- we did have good imaginations. Lloydine had a pet dog, which was really an old glass pickle jar with a string tied around the neck of it. She would pull that thing all around the yard and play like it was real. She even named him Pee Wee. One day we were playing close to the fence between our yards and the boys started throwing rocks at us. One of the rocks hit Pee Wee and killed him, shattering the glass. Lloydine was devastated and ran to pick him up, cutting her finger. Daddy ran outside when he heard her crying and took her in the house to put a bandage on the cut.  We learned to stay more in the center of the yard after where the neighbor boys couldn’t hit us from that distance. 

     I have a particular memory of Daddy mowing the grass that summer. It was Johnson grass for the most part, with Bermuda grass in the middle of the yard. It would get so high he had to use a scythe to cut it.  Standing in grass up to his waist swinging that scythe back and forth, back and forth, he would work his way up and down the yard.  We weren’t allowed to be anywhere near where he was cutting, so my sister and I would stay just far enough back to be safe and watch him.

      Rain was no excuse for coming in the house that summer! That was the only time we were allowed to go in the little storage shed that was built next to the mulberry tree. It was open on one side and we would go in and find something to sit on and listen to the rain fall on the tin roof. It felt kind of like we were playing house. We would stay in there until we could hear our Granny calling us to come out because the rain had stopped.

     One afternoon, as we were trooping out after the rain was gone, Lanita tripped, lost her balance and fell against an old metal bedspring that had been leaning up against the side of the shed. It fell over on top of Lloydine and her head went right up through one of the spring coils. She was stuck and we could not get her head out! I ran for the back door screaming for help all the way. Granny came to the door to listened to my story, never bothering to unlock the door, much less even take a step outside to see about Lloydine. She just said she would call someone to come over and get her head out. That someone turned out to be Granny’s oldest grandson, Anthony. It took a good little while for him to get there. In the meantime, Lanita and I huddled around our sister -- who was crying hysterically --and tried to comfort her until help arrived. Granny’s backyard was certainly not a child safe area and it’s a wonder we were never seriously injured while playing there.

The second Sunday in August was when we had the Carlton/Hancock reunion in Stephenville, Texas. That was the highlight of our whole summer! Mother cooked all morning that first Saturday of the month. That afternoon we took baths and put on our pajamas. This was Lanita’s very first memory of Daddy – he gave her a bath and she remembers seeing his arms covered in thick black hair. While she could never see his face in her memory, it didn’t matter. She knows it was her Daddy.

       We got in the car with Daddy driving and Mother sitting in front holding Lonnie. We three sisters filled the back seat, with the food securely stored in cardboard boxes in the floor board of the car. Daddy stopped for gasoline at the Texaco station and when the attendant came to the window, Daddy said, “Give me five of ethyl.” I’m thinking that must have meant five gallons. We were headed to Stephenville, Texas which was about 100 miles west of Fort Worth.

      It was nearly dark when we arrived at the Stephenville Community Center. Mother had packed a stack of quilts, blankets and pillows and Daddy made beds for us in the gymnasium.  We were so excited to be there that Mother allowed us to run around for a few minutes before we settled down and went to sleep.

       The aroma of coffee filled the air as we woke up the next morning. Mother and Daddy were already awake and sitting at one of the long tables with other relatives. She noticed we were awake and came over to help us get dressed in our Sunday clothes. Mother was already wearing her favorite floral printed dress and had on her pretty blue rhinestone necklace and matching earrings. Mother always dressed so nicely. Daddy wore khaki pants and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. I asked him why he rolled them up like that and he said because they were torn. He wore his good white shirts to work and to church but kept the old ones until they were absolutely worn out. Everyone dressed up for the reunion in those days.

        Granny and Granddad arrived later that Sunday morning and pretty soon the parking lot was full of cars and the gym was overflowing with families. We watched and waited excitedly for our cousins to arrive! Most of them were older than we were, except for Uncle Truman’s two youngest, Mae Ellen and Dale.  I looked up to Mae Ellen and tagged around behind her. We played in the gym until just before lunch was served. That’s when the photographer came and we all gathered up on the bleachers to take a group picture. I sat on the floor along with a dozen other young cousins with nine bleacher rows filled all the way up to the top behind us with as many as 16 people on each row.

        A preacher or church deacon in the family would lead in prayer and then lunch was served. There was an enormous amount of food! A solid row of tables spanned the width of the building and it’s a wonder they didn’t break under the load. That food still lives in my memory! Fried chicken, roasts, hams, large platters of sliced home-grown tomatoes, fried okra, corn on the cob, potatoes of every description, black eyed peas cooked with bacon, fried squash, stacks of sliced white bread with jars of jams and jellies. There were pickles and chow chow (diced green tomatoes, bell peppers, green chili, vinegar and spices) and pepper sauce. One table at the end was just for desserts and oh, those desserts! Pies with meringue piled high and lightly browned, cakes, cobblers, cookies of every sort and, best of all –- freezer after freezer of homemade ice cream. There were huge galvanized barrels with spigots filled with cold tea and one was full of ice water. There was no air conditioning in that old stone building, so it was hot as it always is in Texas during August.  Every drop of the tea and water was gone by late Sunday afternoon.

      After lunch, the mothers would put their children down for naps while the grownups played dominoes or 42 or just sat around and talked. Daddy would get the blankets back out and we would lie there listening to the hum of voices and before we knew it we had fallen asleep. This day never lasted long enough

        Shortly after the family reunion, Aunt Irene and Uncle PR came to see us. They lived on a farm out in West Texas. I remember that visit for two reasons, one -- Uncle PR taught me an easier way to make up the beds. It was kind of him to pay attention to me and help me simplify one of my chores. The second reason is that they took me home with them! I got to spend a whole week in the country. My cousins, Shirley and Jerry, still lived at the farm but they were nearly grown up by then. I loved being the center of attention and seeing all the exciting things there was to see on a farm. I would only get homesick at night when I would gaze off into the distance and see tiny lights from a faraway town and think, “My mother is where one of those lights are.” While I loved being there, I was ready to go home when the time came. I missed my sisters and brother and my mother and daddy.

        Another good adventure that year was visiting our Aunt Alice and Uncle Truman. It was every bit as much fun to visit them in the summer as it was at Christmas time.  I believe it was Labor Day 1956 when Daddy drove us all out to their place. Mae Ellen was all agitated over an incident that had happened just a few days earlier. Air conditioning was not all that common back then. Everyone left their windows open to let in what small breeze might be blowing. In the early evening, Mae Ellen noticed someone peeking into her bedroom window. She didn’t scream or call for help. Instead, she very quietly slipped out of her room and went to get her mother. Now our Aunt Alice was an amazing woman –-hardworking, feisty and fearless! She marched herself in there and slammed down that window, trying to catch the peeping tom’s hands under it. He barely jerked them out in time! He took off running and Aunt Alice went flying out the front door after him. Their yard had a tall cyclone fence around it and that fellow was headed straight for it! He pulled himself up and was trying to jump over it when his feet got tangled up.  He did not make a clean getaway, but cut himself up pretty badly on the sharp wire and they had to cut him down from there and take him to the emergency room!

       As Aunt Alice and Uncle Truman was recalling the story to us, even Mother and Daddy were hanging on every word. Then we were shooed out to play while the adults visited. I confess to being envious of my cousins and their family. Aunt Alice and Uncle Truman didn’t fuss with each other as Mother and Daddy did. Uncle Truman was Granny and Granddad’s only son so he was treated special.  We later learned Granny and Granddad lost their first son when he was three years old so this made Truman even more special. He was a man’s man and was usually building something. He liked to fish so they always managed to live near a lake.

     Aunt Alice and Uncle Truman had five children; two sons and three daughters. Paula, Joyce, Anthony, Mae Ellen and Dale.  Dale was five years older than I and he was really spoiled. They must have had a real soft spot for him. Sadly, the spoiling ruined him and he brought a great deal of harm to many people including myself and especially my sister, Lloydine. But at the time we only knew that Dale could have anything he wanted and we wondered how he got to be so lucky.

               At last, the summer months came to an end, and it was time for me to return to school and begin second grade.

Tuesday Thrifting With Brenda......

 This was such a good dish for our inauguration party with Ilene on Momday.

She arrived about 11:00  so we watched the entire event together! Louis Dean came in and joined us from time to time so it was really nice to watch the whole thing with Ilene.

I found this recipe on a reel from Facebook and took screen shots so I could remember how to prepare it.

It was really good!!

The recipe calls for a pizza crust - which I didn't have - so I used a tube of crescent dinner rolls.

Basically - it is the dough and the hot dogs are placed areounf the edges and then we pull the dough over the dogs. Chili goes in the middle and

topped with a can of chili and chopped onions.

I added some Fritos and then grated cheese.

Brush the dough edges with melted butter and sprinkle Everything but the Bagel seasoning over the dough.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350.....

Delicious!

We enjoyed watching the presidential inauguration of President Trump and Ilene and I are planning on watching The Hillbilly Elegy together.

I've  already seen it but am looking forward to watching it  again with Ilene.

She is such a good friend to us.

Tuesday morning Brenda and I ended our thrifting adventure with lunch at the original Sonny Bryan's Barbecue.....

And it was SO good!!!

This is next door to the Salvation Army thrift store on Inwood Road.

Their Senior discounts are 50% off on Mondays for brick and brack and clothes.

Wednesday is 50% off on everything else.

Brenda and I are adjusting our thrifting stragedy.

We had such a good day!

I am already finding gifts for next Christmas!

These will be for Faith.....shhhhh....

I love all things Sunflowers!

I'm thinking thoughts of spring and this lemon pic will fit right in for me.

Brenda found this wallet/bag and I am so excited!

I have a never ending search for a handbag that WORKS for me!

Brenda says I can put this 'wallet' inside a bigger bag - and then take it out when I go in somewhere to shop! Win! WIN!!

I love this denim bag....I may use it in the kitchen to hold my tea towels.

How could I pass on this lantern??

Brenda found this Traveler's black cover and I turned it down at first.

I already had several....

But it is such a quality piece with pleats in the back - 

it went right into my cart!

I'm going to love wearing this!

I had picked Brenda up and we talked about what we were looking for in our thrift adventure that day.

She and Billy had given us a really nice piece of furniture which I am going to put in the den where the white Christmas tree is. Louis Dean loves to watch western movies and we have quite a collection - thanks to our friend, Susie Q, son Jesse, daughter Amber, and others.....

So I found exactly what I was looking for!

The baskets will hold the DVDs so Louis Dean can easily pick out what movie he would like to watch.

He can follow the old movies he is familiar with and this is good for him.

It's amazing how God works things out for us!

Louis Dean was going out to fill the bird feeders when he discovered a frozen faucet that had defrosted!

He was Johnny-on-the-spotn and a trip to Home Depot for a new faucet took care of the situation in short time!

Louis Dean has an appointment for his annual checkup tomorrow.

He is doing so well and life is good for us. We do appreciate all the prayers!

We are hoping to go back to the ranch as soon as it's above freezing at night and warm enough in the day so LD can go outside to play.

I would like to thank all of you for your positive responses to my postings of  Children in thw Closet. This has been a labor of love and I have  have felt compelled to share my story.

It's not been an easy book to write and  I will be glad to finish it.

My next book will be a happier one -Life With Louis Dean!

God saved the best of my life for the last of my life and even though we are now dealing with dememtia and Alzheimer's disease - I would not trade these days for anything.