What Would My Father Think?

What would my father think if he looked down from Heaven and could see all his children? First he would probably say "Where is everybody?" "What is going on here?" It is a different world than the one he left in 1959. His family has grown so big that he would have to get a bigger place to live and he would have to work a lot harder to feed all these people. He would wonder just who they were. He would know his nine children and fifteen grandchildren, but there were more, many more grandchildren, great- grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. Things have changed so much since he went away. He is not lonely in Heaven. He has Mama there with him and three of his daughters and two sons near him, so you see he keeps busy watching over them. He doesn't have to worry about the ones left on earth. They seem to be able to take care of themselves. He does have a fine family and he is proud. He is proud to know that he a poor dirt farmer who had only a third grade education had helped create this fine family. He is proud that he worked so hard to get an education for his nine children. Someone once told him he was killing himself trying to educate his children. He very much resented that remark. He was proud of all of us, and we are proud of him. The world has changed a lot since he went away. This is a place he would be lost in. Even I am amazed at the changes in my lifetime. I never dreamed I could sit in my easy chair and play games on my I-Pad or watch the news as it is happening on the TV. This month I have had a miracle in my eyes. My old God given lens were removed and new man made ones were put in their place. Now I can read without glasses. What a blessing? My father only had vision in one eye. He was nailing shingles on a house and a nail stuck him in the eye. In those days you had to just be blind. He was 80 years old when he died on November 11, 1959.

Depressed Is Not The Depression.

Last week some of my grandchildren were visiting and they started talking about some of the documentries they had seen on TV. They said they had never known about how the people suffered during that time. It was surprising to me that this was true. It should be in every history book. These things do happen and all should be aware of it. I am from a large family and I am a depression child. I remember how hard it was for my parents to provide food and clothing and a roof over our heads. We owned a small farm. Mama raised a garden and grew vegetables. We had a few chickens for eggs, a few cows for milk and a few pigs. My Dad grew cotton and corn. He had a couple of mules to pull the plow while he walked behind to guide the plow. It was hard work from sun-up til sun-down. There was never any money for extra things. We were happy to be able to be fed and taken care of. Our little house was bursting the seams with all the kids. All the beds were filled and then the twins were born. Now there were nine kids. Two more mouths to feed. My Dad lost the little farm to the bank because there was a drought and the crops failed. We had to move away from the little house he had built for Mama when they first got married. My Dad rented the little farm next to us and we moved into that house. It was a bigger house and we were happy for the extra room. Even though we had more room I had to sleep with a bed full of kids. It was usually my older sisters. They say the middle child gets the worst, and I can testify to that. We ate a lot of great northern beans and corn bread, that's what kept us healthy and strong through the depression.

Rollercoaster Ride

When I was just out of high school and new to the city life, my friends and class mates who were in the same city called and asked me to meet them at the park. They were there as nursing students and I was in business school. I had never been in a big city before and I was really a "greenhorn". I knew nothing about the city, but I went to the bus stop and caught the bus and paid my 7 cents and went to the park.

We rode rides all afternoon and had a glorious time until the rollercoaster ride. I don't think I have ever been so afraid before or since then. I was so thankful when that ride was over. My friends enjoyed every moment of it. I never rode another one until I rode the Matterhorn at Disney World in California with my little five year old son many years later. I couldn't let him know how scared I was.So you see I can be brave in bad situations.

Since I wrote my last blog several months ago I have been on a rollercoaster of a different sort. This has been pretty scary, too. Thanks to my girls I have spent a lot of their time carting me back and forth to doctor's offices and the druggist to make me feel better. If medication will make a new body, I should be about done by now. I take so many different kinds of meds that I have to keep books on them. I need a good bookkeeper. I read my medical history the other day and I'm amazed that I can still get up every morning and do as well as I do. This has been and is the ride of my life and I'm not ready to get off yet.