Just Resting.
The floors are in desperate need of a vacuum and then a
good mopping, but the old woman is a wee bit tired today. Did manage to cook up
some ground chicken with sweet potato grated into it and some beef broth poured
over it for flavor. Personally, can easily understand why the dogs might not
think too much of ground chicken. But they will eat it. Eventually. By next
week the turkey will be cooked—probably. Don’t look forward to de-boning that
little body! Oh well. It will make several
meals for all of us here on the hill who live in this ol’ house.
My parents were very frugal. Some might have even called
them tight. Now Mom was not nearly as tight as HER mother. Granny Connie could
make Abraham Lincoln squeal according to Sterling. My time spent on their farm
just made me realize that they did not stay at home all the time. We had
cousins all over heck and half of Arkansas. In April of ’22 when Cousin Betty
Helen had her 90th birthday party down in Garland, met up with the
wife of one of the cousins who used to live in Arkansas. Don’t think we ever
met before, but at least we knew some of the same folks. Kinda interesting to
see that no matter where we go, we may run into someone who either is kin to us
or married to some kinfolk.
But back to the parents being frugal: they did not buy what
we all call Kleenex. Some tissues in a box were not their style. Mom and Dad
grabbed a roll of Charmin and kept it close to wherever they sat. Then they
raised a little registered Cocker Spaniel that my sister-in-law’s dog whelped.
It seemed to take forever to house train that little critter, but meanwhile her
name became Charmin.
Many of the memories of my parents are filled with such
funnies as pet names and some of the “different” things that they did. Dad said
that the first day he was at the nursing home in Henrietta, a man rolled up to
him and asked, “How did you make it through those days?” They then had a nice,
long conversation about the Dust Bowl, the Depression, and the times right
after the Depression when jobs were more scarce than hens’ teeth. They had a
hard row to hoe. My friend Carla Beard asked for Grandmother Pollard’s recipe
for “jam cake” that was made without any sugar during WWII when no one could
get sugar. They had a cellar full of jams and jellies from over the years, but
no sugar to put in coffee or in a dish of something like cereal or a cake. Could
not find her recipe book, but my guess is that any of us could figure it out if
we simply had no sugar. But work? That was something else again. Poor Granddad
had a team and a heavy metal slip he used to dig big tanks for the oil field
and for Lone Star Gas Company. No big D8 caterpillars existed back then. It’s
hard to imagine now.
A friend of mine was talking about how the Japanese forced
the POWs to make a road from one place to another. Each man had a bag to fill
with dirt and take to where it needed to go. And that is how they moved the
dirt until the road was created. John said maybe we need to each get a big bag
we could drag and go haul a load of dirt out of Lake Wichita until it is
dredged down to a good level for boating, swimming, fishing, and whatever else
it could be used for as a lake. Wonder how many of us would drag a bag of dirt
away from that lake if we had to. Knowing the City of WF, they would probably
charge us for each bag of dirt!!
Just a glance at the news shows that Israel is surrounded
on all sides by its enemies. And then read an article about a great big
asteroid called Apophis that is supposed to come within 20,000 miles of earth
on April 13, 2029. It makes me wonder if our world will even be any kind of
different by that time. Russia and China—not to mention Iran—keep threatening
to use nuclear bombs. Will Israel as we know it be surrounded then? God has
promised to keep Israel, so my guess is that no matter who surrounds it, God
will still be in charge of what happens. May we all look to God the Father and
His son Jesus Christ. His promises are sure.
Rest well, my friends. You are loved.
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