Nearing June...

I received a notice from the Blogger people a couple of weeks ago. The notice stated they were changing their rating structure for storing pictures in June. Yuck!!

I have been Blogging for a while now.  I started with free picture storage.

At some point a few years ago, I had enough memory used in storage of pictures that I was asked to pay an annual fee to store my pictures. There were several plans available. I picked a plan that met my needs and have faithfully paid my annual storage fee of $5 for 20 GB of storage. I felt that should hold me for a while. As of today I have only used a little over 7% of the 20GB.

The recent notice regarding a June change in storage contracts from Blogger gave some options that were only monthly options. The least expensive one was $2.50/month. Simple math tells me that every two months I will now be paying what I have for an annual fee for several years or six times what I pay now annually. That is quite a big leap. This does not make me happy!!

I post this to state my frustration at this expense. Will one $2.50/month wreck my budget? No. That is not my point. It is all the people wanting to add their $2.50/month that kills a budget. It just sneaks up on us and before we know it we realize it is just too much.

I also post this to alert those who may follow this Blog that, if Blogger sends me another notice and I have to Blog at $2.50/month, I will cease to add to this Blog. I have other options out there that are not public and do not require an additional charge. I will choose one of them and go private with my thoughts.

I have appreciated the Blogging experience. I've always wanted to keep a journal and never been good at it. The Blogging experience has let me do that as I can and I am grateful. Through these years, each Blogging entry has been converted to a Word file and I have them all safely saved on my computer and printed in binders for each year of my Blogging. I may have even formed that habit of recording personal experiences and feelings so that I will continue without the Blogging forum.

There, just wanted to put that out there. Now...I will wait and see if they send me another notice in June...

Retracing Papa's History...Day 3

Well, this was the final day of Papa looking at his history.

We started it by attending Sacrament Meeting (Church) this morning in Winnfield.  We knew Edna Jean would be there but were not really expecting to see anyone else from Papa's past. Papa was pleasantly surprised to meet Mildred. She got out of her car as we were walking into the building. She recognized Papa before he recognized her. They enjoyed a big hug after many years of not seeing each other. Then the talking began. Mildred (I can't remember her last name) is the daughter of Gilbert Conner. I remember Gilbert because he had a hunched back. He was such a sweet man. He just radiated gentleness. I did not remember Mildred. But Papa remembered her and she knew him right off. Turns out she is the organist for the meetings.

As we entered the building another man was standing outside the chapel to greet people and he also knew something of Papa's history. Claude and I left him and Papa talking and went on in the chapel to find us all a seat. Jean came in and sat with us.

There was a lady sitting two rows in front of us. We talked a bit and I learned her roots were in Many, Louisiana. Her last name was Muse. I remembered that name. I told her my era was when Pres. Belial was stake president of the Shreveport Stake. She was able to share a little about people from that era. (Wow, that sounds old, era...)

We met Jean's son and grand-daughter. I learned that the man with the last name of Lawrence that was also a greeter at the chapel door was the son of Freddie Lee who was Papa's dear friend from childhood. We all knew him as Cuz and that was his son. Robert Taylor came in who was also the son of the Taylors that were Papa and Mimi's age. So Papa ran into some people with a knowledge or remembrance of him. It was a good morning for him.

After the meeting, we changed into our traveling clothes and hit the road. Our goal was Meridian, Mississippi. That would be about a 5 hour drive from Winnfield.

Before leaving home I found two restaurants that struck my fancy around Meridian. One was named Chunky Shoals Fish Camp. They had a restaurant that served fried catfish. Papa loves fried catfish. I checked it out as we drove and we determined we would go there and eat before finding our hotel. It turned out to be an excellent restaurant. We all totally enjoyed our fried pickles for an appetizer, the hot and not hot hush puppies, the best cole slaw I've had in many a year, the boys enjoyed their fried catfish and I enjoyed my fried shrimp po-boy, and Claude even tried fried corn on the cob. Yummy meal! Highly recommended for anyone in that area.

Now, one might ask, why in the world would one name a place 'Chunky'. Thank heavens the menu answered the question for me. It seems the Chowtaw Indians from this area played a game named Chunka. From that the area was named Chunky. I would have never guessed that.

After dinner I took a walk along the creek beside the restaurant. The restaurant is really a vacation spot for people. There is a boat landing and canoes were seen paddling downstream thru the windows of the restaurant. There is a white sandy beach with a playset for kids and picnic tables. People could swim in the stream and enjoy that white sand beach. Across the creek a rope hung from a tree. I looked at that rope and thought, "Nissa's kids would go bananas swinging from that rope and landing in the water." And they would.

We headed into Meridian and found our hotel and checked in. After a brief period of time to rest, I went to the front desk and asked if there was a Dairy Queen close by. She assured me there was and gave me directions. I came back and found it on my cell phone maps and we were off for a cool treat before time to settle in for the night. So happy they have smoothies at Dairy Queen.

Now we are all tucked in. Papa so enjoyed seeing people. He was and is very frustrated with finding the places so changed where he grew up. But it is a good thing for him to have settled in his mind. Now we'll all hopefully have a good night's rest and be ready for a long drive home tomorrow.

Retracing Papa's History...Day 2

Woke up this morning and checked out of a very lovely hotel. We really liked this room and the bed was sooooo comfortable. We made our way back to John and Wanda's home to pick up Papa for the next leg of our journey. We found them all around the table having a nice visit. 

They stayed up late playing music and visiting. Papa was up before anyone else this morning, as I would have guessed. John made them breakfast. They were just having a great visit like good friends do after not seeing each other for a very long time. We visited for about an hour and then we headed down the road.

The drive to Winnfield was a straight shot south from John and Wanda's. We just got on Highway 167 and stayed on it. We made one stop in Ruston for lunch. Along the highway we came to this interesting view of the highway. I thought it looked like the road to no where!!

Papa has been fascinated by all the orange barrel markers for construction for two days now. He can't believe there are so many and that they go on for miles and miles with absolutely no sign of any work being done where they are place.

Claude is definitely doing the hamburger tour. Each day at lunch he has had a different kind of burger.

I am doing the 'no paper towels' tour. Each day at our lunch stop after washing my hands I have reached to get paper towels to dry my hands and found the dispenser completely empty. With my hands raised like I'm a doctor headed in to surgery, I have returned to the counter to tell the establishment they have no paper towels in the ladies room.

We made it to Winnfield in good time and headed straight to Edna Jean Strickland's home. She is John Finney's sister and also a dear friend of Papa. We visited at her home for just a bit and then we all piled into the car to visit the old home places that Papa remembered from his childhood. I had asked Papa what they would be as we drove to Winnfield and written them all down so we didn't miss anything. Can't imagine all this driving and then missing trying to see something. Between Papa and Edna Jean we were able to find most of them. Most are overgrown with vegetation because they were located out in the woods and homes have been abandoned and nature has taken over.

Here are some of the very few pictures I took.

We found the Conner Road.  There were two places Papa lived on this road. If memory serves they were the Banks place and the Bright Place.  If that is not correct, I will correct it with tomorrow night's blog. Neither home was there. We did find where a road went back to one of them. We drove down this road to the end and turned around and came back.

On Conner Road we did find Aunt Annie's home. It is abandoned. She was Carl Edward Lawrence's sister. Carl Edward Lawrence is Papa's father.

The road that ran perpendicular to the Conner Road had this stream along one side.

This stream is important because in the woods behind here Papa and his friends blocked the water, dug a pit deep enough to dive into, made two things to serve as diving boards at two different levels and then released the stream to fill the pit for a swimming hole. Don't tell anyone but Papa says he learned to skinny dip in this stream. That is way Too Much Information, isn't it. Edna Jean said she was baptized in that swimming hole. Lots of history there. We didn't see the swimming hole, if it is even still there, but this stream would have fed into it. It had a precious little turtle sitting on a rock and when I came back to take the picture it literally jumped into the water.

 

We tried to find the '20' which was a piece of ground the family owned and different members of the family had different sections of it. We also tried to find Freddie Lee's home in Milltown and did not locate that.

 

It was interesting to listen to Papa and Edna Jean try to find places and then drift off in stories of remembrance of living in Winnfield as kids.

 

We did go to Winnfield High School. This is the actual building Papa went to high school at and graduated from. (Lots of prepositions in wrong places in that sentence but I'll leave it that way anyway.)  I cheerfully told Papa we did find one building standing from his childhood. He chuckled.

This is Edna Jean Strickland and Papa standing across the street from Winnfield High School in Winnfield, Louisiana.

Eventually they decided to give up the search for more places from their childhood. Poor Papa was having to come to grips that it was all either grown over or demolished for newer homes or roads. For a man in his waning years, this is a big thing with which to come to grips.

We headed back to Edna Jean's and air conditioning. When visiting John, he reminded Papa of how Papa used to climb up in an old Sweet Gum Tree on the Finney property with his scriptures and sit there in the branches reading and studying his scriptures. This was a new story to us and it brought back lots of memories for Papa. He determined we should find that Sweet Gum Tree when we got back to Edna Jean's.

We walked to the back of her property and could not find that tree. They both felt it was out in the woods along the side of her home and closer to the corner of where the property would have been between her home and the acre of ground Papa's family lived on. Edna Jean had us walk back to her home and around to the end of the lane thinking there might be a clearer view there. This ended up being full of undergrowth and trees and not near enough back in the woods in Papa's mind.

Then Papa looked at the situation and determined if he hiked back in those woods he would be able to see the Sweet Gum Tree, if it was still standing. My 85 year old father on unsteady feet, not listening to the three of us telling him it was not a good idea, plunged head long into the undergrowth to find this tree of his childhood. I handed Claude my purse and, with camera in hand, plunged in after him. I was never so grateful in my life to have him stumble on a fence that eventually allowed him to understand it was not a good idea to proceed any further. Here is Papa determined to search out this special tree.

Claude is a confident male and, actually his shirt and my purse were quite well coordinated.

We rested and cooled off in Edna Jean's home. Then we all went into Winnfield and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant Edna Jean suggested. Dinner was delicious. We drove her home and then found a gas station as it was time to feed the car again.

We checked into our hotel. Papa was worn out. He told me he learned two things in the last two days. First, he feels his back will be able to handle flying to Utah to see Junie. Second, he now knows how important his little cat naps are throughout the day and he was really missing them.

We got him to his room, I got ice for his ice bucket and he figured out a foot stool for the chair in his room, I got my listerine for him so he could sooth his sore gums after getting some food caught under his dental plate, we made sure he had an Ensign (church magazine) to read, a remote control by his side for the television and our room number on the pad by the phone in case he needed to call us.

Claude proposed he and I stroll across the street to the Sonic for an evening treat. We did just that and spend an hour just the two of us enjoying root beer floats and chatting.

Another full day. Some things were successful. Some things were realized and will need some time to digest. We are all going to get a good night's rest and then be ready to plow through day 3 of this journey through Papa's past.

Retracing Papa's History...Day 1

My dear father will not have a car after July 1st. This is a VERY BIG DEAL. My father has just a few things that he truly enjoys doing. One of those is driving, just for the joy of the drive and looking at the countryside. He could do this for hours and days and be very, very happy. Maybe this is why he made such a good long haul truck driver. So, losing that opportunity to get in a car and drive will be a major adjustment in his life and, by extension, my life.

When the reality of this began to set in, Papa determined he wanted to go home to Winnfield, Louisiana one more time. He wanted to see if he could find the old home places his family lived in when he was a very little boy until he grew up and left home. He was planning on doing this on his own and me watching his little dog, Tiny. I had major concerns about him doing this trip alone. I had no doubt in my mind he needed the trip. So I told him I would join him on this trip. I told Claude I was going on a road trip with my father. Claude said, "I want to come." And that is how it started.

The major obstacle was Tiny. She has never been in a kennel in her life. If she isn't with Papa, she is with me. I told Papa that she would have to be kenneled if all three of us took this trip. I had asked over Facebook if any of my friends could highly recommend a kennel. One of them gave me the name of one in Lexington that they praised highly. I told Papa I had a great recommendation but it would only work if he agreed to it. Then I left him to mull it over.

He thought about it and agreed we could do it but it would break his heart. I understood but knew I could trust these dear friends recommendation. I got the information and then made a reservation for Tiny.

Thursday I hurried to Papa's apartment after our Frankfort adventure and picked up Tiny's halter and leash. Tiny cowered. She hates a leash. I was only taking it for the kennel to use. I told her to say goodbye to Papa so she could go on her vacation. She just didn't know what to think of what was happening. We got her in my car and I headed to Lexington. It was 4:10 and I had to have her to the kennel before 5pm. Tiny hates to ride in a car. It didn't take many seconds before she began to shiver. I didn't take the turns to get her to Sadieville so she knew something was just not right about this trip. Then the rain started to pour down. Tiny hates rain. She was beside herself with confusion and fear. Eventually she got down on the floor on the passenger side of the car and tried to get so she couldn't see out the window. She just shivered and scratched at the floor. I just kept driving. This was the perfect storm in Tinyland.

We made it to the kennel just before 5pm. Just as we pulled into their parking lot the rain started to come down in buckets. Poor Tiny jumped out of the car as quick as I opened the door only to be hit in the face by rain. She hadn't expected that. I hurried her up the steps and she ran into the clinic portion. The ladies took the last of the paperwork I needed for Tiny to stay there. Then one of them came and talked to Tiny and she picked her up. Once Tiny was in her arms she calmed right down and perked up her ears. She was happy and going to be fine.

When I got back to Georgetown for the Homemaker's dinner, I called Papa before I went in and told him how happy she was. You could hear relief in his voice.

This morning we picked Papa up at 7am and hit the road. Claude is our driver so Papa can look out the window and enjoy the countryside. I'm sitting in the back seat so I can spread out all my junk. I have my cell phone on a charger and when Papa starts into some of his history I set my cell phone to record and hand it to Papa. He is actually getting very comfortable with telling his history into the cell phone.

Claude and I have gotten a kick out of him. He has told his story of him and mom getting married twice to us and once at dinner tonight. He started one story about motorcycle riding and got off on a tangent and never came back to the motorcycle story.

We drove past one town named Bucksnort, Tennessee.  I mean really!! 

Tonight we checked into our motel in Little Rock and then headed to John and Wanda Finney's home. Wanda prepared a delicious ham dinner for us. We visited for a while and then left Papa to have a sleepover and nice visit with his dear friend from his childhood.

So far, our trip is a success.  Now for a good nights rest before we pick up Papa in the morning and head to Winnfield.

Here are John Finney, Papa and Wanda Finney.

G.N.O.

Thursday, May 24th, was the date for the Scott County Homemakers Annual Banquet. I've never been able to attend this before. This year I was able to go. It was a fun evening with lots and lots of other Homemaker Clubs. Scott County has the largest number of Homemaker Club members in Kentucky.

We sat as clubs and enjoyed a delicious turkey dinner. There was a brief business meeting. Then we were entertained by the Sweet Adeline's. This is a ladies group of vocalists and they did a very nice job. Clearly they enjoy doing this.

Here is our intrepid Countryside Homemakers Club.

It was a great way to end a good year of Homemaker meetings.