Recording Some Memories

Eler Beth and I went to my Mom's yesterday.  I was able to sell a collection of books on Ebay for my sister, Lois, (for $300.00) and needed to pick up the books from her so I could ship them to the buyer.  So we spent the afternoon and evening with them and had a wonderful visit.

I took along a tape recorder to continue interviewing my Mother.  It's funny, when I pull out the tape recorder or a notebook and pencil and tell her I'm going to pick her brain again, she'll say "Oh my!" and look like she'd rather not.  But once she gets going she really enjoys talking about her memories.

I got a bit of a bonus, too, because my brother Alton would interject a few of his own memories while we were at it, and he actually talked a bit about Viet Nam.  There was a time when he would never mention his time in Nam, but in recent years he has a bit more.

And my sister Barbara was reminded of a few more of Dad's navy stories that she remembered.  At one point I mentioned Dad's CCC stint, and that reminded her of a story he had told her that I'd never heard before.  There was a young man in Dad's outfit who, in Dad's words, had "walkin' around smarts, and that was about all."  Military ranks were used in the CCC, and one day this young man addressed his Captain as "Sergeant". 

"I," the young man was told, "am a Captain!" 

"Whal, ya hopes to be a Sergeant someday, doesn't ya?" was the young man's drawling query.

Later on some of the other guys tricked this innocent into standing guard duty on the flag in the rain when no guard duty had been assigned.  That same captain came upon him, asked him what he thought he was doing out there in the rain, and then asked him who had told him to do it.  Dad said that for the next two weekends, the guys who had played the joke stood guard duty on the flag.  I guess that Captain had a soft spot for the poor young man.

I'll begin sharing some of the reaping from these interviews as time goes on.  I have enough from Mom now to start putting them in some sort of order. 

My niece Kelly (brother Alton's daughter) and her kids stopped by while I was there, and it was nice to see them.  Her daughter is not quite eleven and is a bit taller than Eler Beth. 

This is something Lois found at a yard sale, and I think it's so cute!  It's a concrete morel.  I must find myself one of these.

She found this little snail at the same yard sale.

I came home with some new books, too.  Well, not new, but new to my shelves.  I had asked Mom recently if she still had a couple of old primers that had been my Dad's when he was a kid, and that if she did and if no one else had placed a claim on them, that I wanted them.  So she had found them and had them ready for me.  There is a spelling book and a mathematics book, and also a book on agriculture and one on business that one of my uncles had given him.  Then Lois sent me home with a couple other booksthat she thought I'd enjoy reading (and also with some more that she wants me to try to sell on Ebay for her.).  When I got home I found that a package of school books had arrived that I'd ordered for Eler Beth.  So I have a lot of books to have fun going through this weekend.

I've done laundry, dishes, and some cleaning so far this morning, fed and watered pets, given some exercise to some pets, and put dinner on in the crock pot.  So I think it's time for a cup of something hot and some of those books to look through, and maybe some J-Land reading.  I hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Tags: CCC, family stories