A Leap Year Birthday

My Aunt Edrie Morrell was born on February 29, 1916. She died in 1997, and thus had not yet reached her 21st birthday. But she was 81 years old. We always celebrated her birthday by number, and thus in our memory she will live on, always young.

Edrie married Eddie when she was young. We kids always thought it neat to refer to them as "Uncle Eddie and Aunt Edrie." Edrie's second husband was, as he referred to himself, "a Portagee," I think from Rhode Island, though they made their home on the Oregon coast. Late in her life, Edrie married a preacher. In their final years, she and the preacher had an RV in which they travelled all over the country. The last time I saw them they were visiting Indiana in their RV.

Aunt Edrie, when I was eight years old, gave me a copy of the book Pinocchio. Not a comic book, mind you, but a real book, the original story of Pinocchio. When she was about the same age I was when I received it, I passed the book along to granddaughter, Elizabeth. I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.

Edrie Morrell Rasbach Maderos Jarvis 1916 - 1997 RIP

(Took a while to find an image that Disney hadn't screwed up.)

Before There Were Kings...

...in Israel, the people submitted grievances and differences to judges, people whom God appointed to keep some order in the society and adjudicate between disputants. These people were highly respected and in times of necessity often led the people in rebellion against oppressors when they repented of their wicked ways and returned to God. (God is like that. He will grant a way out of difficulty when repentence is offered.)

There were thirteen judges in Israel over a period of many years. We are told somewhat about each one, some stories more detailed than others. The better known judges presented in more detail were Gilead, Deborah, Jephthah, and Samson who was the last of the judges.

Jair, we are told, had thirty sons, but his production of progeny was eclipsed by Abdon, who had forty sons and thirty grandsons! Ibzan had thirty sons and thirty daughters. Ehud was left-handed. Deborah, Mrs. Lapidoth, was the only woman who had charge of the people. She was no less bellicose than were her male counterparts. She and Barak delivered Israel from oppression by the Canaanites.

Deborah and Barak sang before the Lord following their victory. This passage in the Book of Judges is often referred to as the "Song of Deborah." It concludes with the lines

“Thus let all Your enemies perish, O Lord!
But let those who love Him be like the sun
When it comes out in full strength.”

So the land had rest for forty years.

Again With the Shopping

Sometime last summer I posted a thing about entering the store with BBBH while she shopped. I did it again yesterday. The temperature was in the mid-eighties and by mid-afternoon we were needing a change in scenery. We decided a scooter ride into town would liven up the day, and she decided that stopping in at a boutique, or two, or three, would be even better.

The first shop could not be characterized as upscale, but it certainly has an appeal to the denizens of the neighborhood in which it is located. As Beautiful shopped, I wandered around inside the store making silent observations about the state of the culture. Then I saw this.

I have photographed shoes in stores before. No, I do not have a foot-fetish, nor even a shoe-fetish. But sometimes I am amazed. Now understand that I grew up in an era in which it was standard behavior for the ladies to ruin their feet by the wearing of "heels" meaning high heels. Many a mangled metatarsal and heaven alone knows how many hammer toes were the result of the practice. But there seemed, mostly in the sixties and seventies, to descend upon the pulchritudinous portion of the population a modicum of good sense, and sensible shoes, a.k.a. flats seemed to become quite acceptable.

But that era seems to be over. The granddaughters of these sensible people seem to have reverted to the nonsense that once was, but with a vengeance.

Dolly Parton was once asked why she wore five-inch heels. She responded, "Because I can't find six-inch heels." Well, take heart Dolly. It seems that you might be able to find those here in Texas.

Just before we left this shop, a lady walked in wearing a pair of these things which she clearly must have purchased here. Now I was amazed, for she did not wobble, teeter, or fall on her face. Quite to the contrary, she strode in, fully confident in her ability to walk that tightrope. Amazing!

I really was planning to do a little story about our shopping tour, but it has turned into a shoe story, and time's up.

Hot Cheetos

I put three one-gallon jugs in the bike basket and rode the two short blocks to the corner convenience store to fetch water. No broken crown. As I alit from the bicycle, I spotted a gentleman readying to pull away from the pump. He saw me fumbling for my camera. He stopped and asked if I wanted a picture. Indeed, I said. He posed, I snapped. Then he said, as he opened the door and got out, "Here, let me get you with the car." What a guy!

So I posed beside the vehicle and he took the camera. Since my equipment is a bit tricky, a function of its age, not of design, he had a bit of difficulty. In fact, the final product rather left half of me standing by the car. That's okay; it is the thought that counts.

We had a nice conversation, mostly about cars, of course, and he told me he had several old vehicles, including a '58 Impala. He told me where he lived and gave me his phone number, telling me to drop by and take a drive. Thanks, Darrin. Nice guy and proud of his vehicles.










Hot Cheetos is powered by Ford 302. Restoration by Darrin, paint by a friend.

Surf on Over

Friend Bob Warr was tagged in a meme in which he decided to participate . Due to the inordinate amount of assistance he required in getting his responses organized and ready for publication, I find that I haven't time remaining in which to create a post for STSTT.

You may find his production at http://bobwarr.blogspot.com/

The Coloring Book

(Engaging in a bit of Texas living. I present a rehash of an earlier post.)

A few days ago we looked at a vignette from the first grade experience. Today is the tale of the coloring book. Not just any coloring book, but The Coloring Book. It was a huge, fat, glorious set of pages just begging to be crayoned. He had received the book on his sixth birthday, and he had still many, many wonderful pages to be artistically completed. (Yeah, I know. Stifled his creativity before it had a chance to grow. And other baloney.)

Anyway, it was a beautiful late summer day and school had been in session perhaps two weeks when The Boy decided to take the wonderful treasure to school. Now, those arriving at school before Teacher came out to gather the children around the flagpole to say the Pledge of Allegiance had to remain on the sidewalk or on the grassy area outside the schoolground itself.

The school was a "primary school" and housed first and second grade only. There was no public kindergarten in those times and in that place. Good heavens, how ever did the kids get an education?

So anyway, the second graders were "kings of the hill," so to speak and the firsters trembled in their very presence. At least some of them did, and the Boy was such an one. You know what happened. The "big kids" started to tease the child with his treasure. "Oh, look, the Baby brought his coworring book," and so on. So the child, crushed and intimidated, threw the book into the grass and PROCEEDED TO SIT ON IT! Dorks do have a way about them, and this elicited even more teasing in the vein of "BWAK, Bwak, buk, buk, buk-- look, the Chicken is trying to hatch his book."

Did I mention that school was not high on the list of the boy's pleasures?

(Another Tale From School)

Sunday in Orange Grove

Park Church service is at 8:40 on Sunday morning, and while this is a bit early for our taste, we both managed to be there in plenty of time with happy smiles on our faces!

The choir was in fine voice, the minister gave us an uplifting message from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, chapter five. Our friend Arnie played a medley of great songs on the concertina, including Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art. It was a service worth getting up for.

On the way out of the hall, we were stopped by friend Linda who wanted to take our picture. Later in the day, she stopped by to deliver a copy of it to us. I decided it would make a great profile picture, especially since the previous one was now three months old; we have aged since then!
Thanks, Linda.

Arnie and Arlene asked us to go with them to Denny's for a slam, or whatever happened to be our brunch choice. This was a great thing on several levels, the first being that we had the pleasure of visiting with these friends for a nice long time. The second notable item was the food itself, for it was abundant, tasty, and served just right. The coffee was good, too. And finally, the restaurant gave a fifty percent discount to residents of Orange Grove and the two of us ate for under ten dollars. Hallelujah!

The afternoon was spent reading and dozing. Ah, Sundays!

Then there is ice cream at the activities center in a few minutes, and BBBH has baked a beautiful cake which is just asking for a good slicing.

Verse of the Day

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 NKJV