10/31/10

We didn't have many trick-or-treaters tonight, but thought I'd write about a couple of Halloweens when I was a kid. Seems like times really were much safer then than now. We lived out in the country so as a result, Audrey, Elsie and I used to walk for miles just for some candy. We hated it when people gave us apples as we had apple trees. When I say miles, I know that sounds like walking 3 miles to school in 2 feet of school, uphill both ways, but we really did walk a long way.

We lived a mile from the grade school and we walked that far, not only to get candy, but once, and once only, we soaped the schoolhouse windows as well. I don't know how my mother and the janitor narrowed it down to us, but we had to go back the next day--yes, we walked--and wash the soap off. I am glad Mother (Grandma Jeanne) never let us use wax to decorate windows as we'd have been hours cleaning it off.

Another year someone put some chocolate laxative bars in our bags. Audrey was the only one who ate any of it. Somehow the rest of us managed to miss it when we reached down into our bags.

Costumes weren't very sophisticated then either. Probably an old pillowcase, to be a ghost or a paper bag w/eye holes cut out.

Changing the subject and risking repeating myself: elections

I wonder what we'll see on tv and get in the mail after the election Tuesday as it seems that the box is filled w/ads everyday and that's about all you see on tv.

But one of the worst fights I ever remember my parents having (and they had some doozies) was over the Dewey/Truman election. Back in those days, you went in to a polling booth and closed the curtain behind you. Daddy had said all along that he was going to vote for Truman, but Mother never believed that he would really vote for a dem for president. After she voted, she crawled into his booth to see if he actually had done so. It wasn't bad enuf that he had voted for a dem, but to vote for Roosevelt's vp was over the top as far as she was concerned.

I've been kinda watching the World Series. So far the Texas Rangers (the team I want to win) are down 3-1. I shouldn't feel surprised that the team I want is not winning--it's been that way most of my life. Seems the Yankees always won and my beloved Brooklyn Dodgers lost year after year. I remember listening to the Series at work. The perfect game thrown by Don Larsen was a tough one to listen to. I didn't want the Yanks to win, but after it got to the 7th inning, I couldn't help but root for him to continue pitching perfectly. But it made me very nervous, so I turned the radio off; then the suspense got to me and I had to turn it back on. That happened several times during the last couple of innings. (I think I wrote about this before as well, but I don't want to go back and read all my previous posts.

Not too creative tonite, so guess I'll call it a nite.

10/7/10

Wow, am I lazy or what?!!! It's much easier to play on Facebook than it is to sit down and think of something to write on a blog. Wish I would ever learn here and on my email how to set both the font and font size to be what I want. A techno-geek, I'm not.

I should have kept a diary on here of Stan's cancer battle, but I refuse to live in "woulda-coulda-shoulda land," so I'll just go on from here. We found out yesterday that his tumor is 1/2 the size it was when first scanned in March and then again in June. That is GREAT news. His new inhalers have helped a lot with his breathing, but he's still not as strong as the doctor would like so she ordered physical therapy to start next week.

Audrey and I were talking the other day about a couple of cousins that moved to Fairbanks when they were not very old and we weren't much older. Mother (Grandma Jeanne) was in Oregon with our aunt Vivian who was fighting cancer. Helen (Halford's wife) was taking care of us. I remember Mike and Larry were there, but I don't know where Delores was. Anyway, Larry bit our dachsund, Gretchen, so hard that he drew blood. We were not very happy about that, so Audrey, Mike and I took him down and fed him "galley-nippers." (I found out much later that they're really crane flies.) Helen was not at all happy about the situation, but I don't remember what she did about it. Later, as they were getting on the plane to move to Alaska, Larry turned around at the door, waved to my folks and a couple other of his aunts and uncles who had gone to see them off. As he waved, he hollered, "Good-bye all you big busterds."

One of the things Audrey and I have been discussing quite a bit is how much Indian blood we have in us. According to what my dad told Timm we're 1/8 as he and Mother were each 1/8. Audrey insists that Daddy was 1/4 Indian based on what she remembers hearing Mother say that Halford had told her. I'm going to contact the above-named Larry and see if he has any information on Daddy's mother's side of the family. My 2nd cousin (or however you remove them) Pat has done a lot of genealogy on the Kelly side and I'm hoping either Larry or my cousin Dorothy Ellen in Prosser can fill me in on the Warren side. My cousin Dorothy Jean in Bremerton doesn't know much more of the history than I do. Her brother Bud (Andrew) was the historian in that family and he died several years ago. (2020 addition); my daughter had a DNA test through Ancestry and according to them, there was no Native American blood in our family.

Dorothy's husband, Jim Vring, unfortunately has cirrhosis of the liver. I believe Jim is the largest (not around) man I've ever known. I know he had the largest "wingspan" I've ever seen on a human being. They used to live on the beach in Poulsbo. I remember him telling the story of oyster poachers on their property one night. He put a high-powered flashlight in each hand, held them out from his sides, walked down the beach, turned the lights on and in his extremely deep voice scared those poachers, probably to the need of fresh clothes.

Thanks to Robin Miller (my great-uncle Victor's granddaughter--and I don't know how she's removed either) and a Doris Kelly (no relation to the Kellys from which I'm descended), I also have a lot of info on the Stobie side of the family but not much on the French side. Maybe as the days get shorter, I will spend some time on the computer trying to find more of the Frenches. (Is "Frenches"right?)

The trees are starting to put on their fall dresses, which will soon be whisked away by the winter winds. In all the years I've lived, I still have not decided which I like better, when the trees put on their spring dresses and all the flowers are bursting into bloom or this time of year when they change into their brightly colored autumn gowns. I do know that neither winter nor summer is my favorite season.

Until I get back here...