Back In Town

We had a wonderful weekend.  Eler Beth and I got to my Mom's house late Friday afternoon.  All of my sisters were there, and also a first cousin of ours who is like one of our sisters.  She and her brothers are double cousins of ours, because her mother was my mother's only sister, and her father was one of my father's brothers.   Her name is Sharon, and she actually calls my Mom "Mom" now, since both her parents are deceased.  My niece-in-law wasn't able to make it.

We. Ate. So. Much.

There was good stuff, like veggies, dip, and fruit.   And there was bad stuff, like chips, dips, cookies, pies, ice cream, cake, and rum balls.  The rum balls were soooo good! 

We stayed up until about 2:00 Saturday morning, watching movies and playing games.  We had sleeping bags and pillows all over my Mom's living room floor, just like a bunch of kids!  I think Mom actually stayed up until midnight, and that is very late for her.

Eler Beth learned how to play "jacks", the right way, and with the right kind of jacks and ball.  You should have seen all of us, 40-and 50-somethings, sitting cross legged on the floor, teaching a 10-year-old how to play jacks.

For those who have asked for pictures, I'm afraid I'm going to have to say "no".  A few pics were taken, but I have been ordered not to show or publish any of them!  After all, we were all in our pajamas and with no makeup on!

We told a lot of stories, and shared a lot of memories.  We finally turned in, as I said, around 2, but then we still talked until at least 3 a.m.  We were all up at about 8 on Saturday morning, too.  Dennice and Maxine took Mom shopping Saturday afternoon for a new coat and some other things.  The rest of us straightened the house, and Eler Beth and I were supposed to leave, so she could go to a tea party.  But she asked if she could, instead, stay and spend the night with "Mamaw".  So I called in her regrets to the tea party "hostess", and after Mom got back from shopping, I came on home, leaving Eler Beth to spend the night with my Mom, for the first time without me there.

Of course, she had a great time.  Then Sunday morning Thomas and I drove down, had lunch at Mom's, and visited all afternoon.  I was able to start the taped interview with Mom that I've wanted to do for so long.  Of course, it's just the beginning, but as I started interviewing her, all kinds of memories came to her, along with stories and family facts that I had never heard before.

For example, I knew that her father had been in the Cavalry in World War I, but I had never known that he had contracted the Spanish Flu and TB while he was in the service, and was, for a while, at the original Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville.  I will be writing more about him and some other things that my mother told us.  The interviews will continue, of course, because we've only just begun!

Gotta go for now, but more later....

Tags: Waverly Hills Sanatorium

We're off to Party Hearty!

I tried, but I just couldn't get to everyone's alerts and entries today.  So sorry, but I will get through them all tomorrow.  I've re-done how I read my favorite journals; it's much easier for me now, but not when I get behind.  And I'm behind!

Eler Beth and I are getting ready to leave to go to "Mamaw's House" for our sleepover.  Since you can't come along, we'll have enough fun for all of you, okay? 

I'll be back tomorrow and will get caught up with everyone.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Bye now!

Lori ~~

Pictures....

As you can see from this picture, Barbara was the only one of us born with black hair.  But her hair turned blonde and has stayed blonde. 1960

Barbara with "Bub", 1962

This is Barbara holding me, 1966.

This is Barb's fifth grade picture, 1971.

 

Meet My Sister, Barbara

 

Number six in the family is Barbara. Barbara is six years older than I am. All of the olders ones were two years or less apart, but there are four years between Lois and Barbara. Mom had a miscarriage two years after Lois was born; so Barbara was another planned baby, who really came right on time.

I love all of my siblings, each for different reasons, but I probably feel really the closest to Barbara.

In some ways, Barb is different from the rest of us. For one thing, she has an IQ of 165. Others of us have some artistic talents in the family, but Barbara is an artist. She paints in watercolor, oil, and acrylic; she does ink and pen sketches and charcoal drawings, portraits, landscapes, and caricatures; she loves working with textiles and makes beautiful wall hangings; she also makes unique pieces of jewelry; and she writes. Someday perphaps I'll get permission to share some of her writing here.

Barbara supports herself with her art. She, too, bought a mobile home when I was 14 and moved it onto the Northwest section of my parents' land; so she and Lois have stayed close to home all these years. About 12 years ago she built a house on that section of property. She also helps care for Mom and Alton; she and Lois divvy up the work, Barbara usually caring for the lawns and orchard.

Barbara is the other one of my sisters who almost always had a horse when I was younger; she's the one who taught me to ride. She and Lois taught me to swim in a swimming hole in a creek near our home, and Barbara is the one who taught me to read and write before I started school, to write in cursive by the time I was in the second grade, and to do multiplication and long division by the time I was in the third grade.

She is a very private person. She has never married and only rarely dated. Barbara is just usually slow to warm up to new people; she likes her privacy and does not like going out into crowds. As a matter of fact, Dennice and I have served as her representatives when she has had work in art galleries. She has actually gotten better in that area, though, and will often surprise us by interacting with strangers in ways she never used to. There is nothing timid about her or backward; she just prefers to be with family or alone. She is smart, well-read, well-spoken, funny, generous, and very deep.

There have been times when she and I have been in sync in our thoughts and opinions, so much so that we can catch one another's eyes and have a perfect, immediate understanding. That has happened between all of us, but for me it happens moreso with her than with the others.  We often finish one anothers' sentences or voice one anothers' thoughts.  Barbara is the one who can play guitar, bass viol, banjo, mandolin, dulcimer, bodran, panpipe, flute and autoharp. She writes beautiful pieces of music, as well.

So now, you have "met" all of my siblings. Now when I tell family stories or mention them, perhaps you'll be better able to put a personality and some characteristics behind the names.

And I have lots of stories!

Because she is such a private person, I hesitate to post pictures of her. If I do, they will be from when she was very young.

It's Party Time!

              Well, Eler Beth and I are off this afternoon to my Mom's house, where we will join Mom, all of my sisters, and a niece-in-law for a pajama party!  Mom has made Bourbon Balls and Mulled Cider, P.J. is bringing a snack tray with summer sausages, cheeses and crackers, and I don't know what everyone else is bringing.  I don't know what I'm taking yet, either!  What goodie should I make/buy?  Any ideas?

It will be fun.  Maxine got in yesterday from Florida.  She flew in and then rented a car, and will not leave until around noon on Monday.  It's raining, and is supposed to be raining probably the whole time she's in.  At least she's been able to see some of the Fall colors.  P.J. says she's bringing make-up and nail stuff if anyone wants to play!  Of course Eler Beth said, "I do!"  The food and the company and seeing my daughter having so much fun will be great.  And we always have fun when we get together.  I'm really looking forward to it.

                                                        

Then, we'll have to get home before too late tomorrow, because Eler Beth has been invited to a tea party at the home of one of her friends.  Great fun for a rainy, cold weekend!

                              

Still More Pictures....

At Lois' third birthday party, 1959.  Around her, left to right, Maxine, Alton, Dennice and P.J.  According to the caption with this photo, "P.J. blew out her candles"!

The caption Mom has on this one is, "P.J. and Lois, dragging their dolls down the front walk."

   4th Grade, 1965

  Above, 11th grade, 1973; at left, as Maid of Honor in my wedding, 1987.

Meet My Sister, Lois....

Graphic by Donna

Number five in the family is Lois, almost exactly 10 years older than I. Lois was a surprise baby, coming 16 months after P.J. Consequently she and P.J. grew up almost as twins. There is a story that my father made a remark to one of his sisters, after Lois was born, about her being a surprise (not planned). This aunt told my dad, "She'll be the one to care for you in your old age." And, in a lot of ways, this has proved true.

Lois has never married, and has no desire to do so. (She used to date regularly, though, and I can remember spying on her and her boyfriend when I was about 7 years old!) Lois likes her freedom. She works for a local lake resort, and spends a lot of her time, along with Barbara, caring for my Mom, my brother, and Mom's home. Lois moved out when I was 14 and she was 24 (so at 24 she lived at home the longest of all of us). But she didn't move far! She bought a mobile home and Daddy gave her a piece of land on the Southwest corner of the property. She lived there until Dad died, at which time she moved into the house with Mom and Alton. We did not want mom, at that time 78 years old, alone in the house except for Alton, who still needs to have someone nearby.  But it was Lois' decision to move in. 

She did play a big role in caring for Dad before he died as well, taking him to appointments, seeing that he took his medication, and so on. She is the main chauffeur for Mom and Alton as well, taking them to doctor's appointments and on other errands. She does the heavy housecleaning at Mom's and some of the cooking. Lois never cooked when she lived at home, or at least, very rarely. But when she first moved out, she asked Mom if she could make Saturday night dinner every week. Doing that she became a very good cook, and we got to sample all her early attempts!! It was fun experiencing firsthand her evolution into a good cook.

When she was home she couldn't grow anything! If she tried taking care of a houseplant it inevitably died. The only plant she was ever able to keep alive was an air fern; and a friend of mine killed that one day, when, helping me along with my Saturday chores while visiting, this friend decided she'd water all the plants -- including the air fern! But after she moved out, Lois started keeping houseplants alive, started planting flowers, shrubs and trees in her yard and eventually took over the garden from Mom.  (Oh, I forgot!  She did grow a horseweed when she was a little girl, tending it and keeping it alive for weeks!  But that's another story....)

Lois has a mischievous streak. She likes to tease, and she likes to pout. We call her the "real" baby of the family, but she doesn't seem to mind. In my young years I thought she was the prettiest of my sisters, and I liked to raid her makeup box while she was away from home. In my teenage years she became one of my best friends, and she was my Maid-Of-Honor in our wedding. All of us are blondes, except Lois. She was blonde when she was little, but her hair darkened into brunette, like our mother's. Also, like our mother, she started getting gray in her early thirties, which changed to a salt and pepper in her forties. Now, like our mother, I expect she'll get that beautiful silver hair in a few years. She does not color her hair. I can remember Mom ironing her hair when she was in high school because it was the style in the early seventies to have long, straight hair, and Lois' tended to curl. Then in the late seventies she gave up and cut it into a shag style, and the curls, finally unleashed to run riot, took over. She had the prettiest, naturally curly hair! And of course, like the perverse things we women are, she was never satisfied with the curls that most of us would kill or pay a fortune for! She's gotten used to them now, though, and lets her hair do what it wants.  (Actually, I used to cut and style her hair when I was still at home, and I can attest to the fact that it will pretty much do what it wants anyway!)

Of all of us, Lois is the only one who does not play a musical instrument, but she has a very good singing voice.  I love singing with all of my sisters, but she and I seem to have voices that blend especially well together.

I guess I'll stop here and post some pics of her. I could go on and on about this sister that I knew so well while I was growing up. At least now when I mention her, you'll know who I'm talking about.

To be continued....