January 16, 2013. Lunch at my house with my new floors.

From left to right around the table are Faye Gallegos, Maurine Hale, Sister Barbara, Sister Nancy.

 

Under the table is Elvira, Mistress of the Night who thinks she is in charge.

Sister Barbara and Sister Nancy

Pastor Faye listening intently and Pastor Maurine taking notes.

 

This little gathering was one of my better ideas.  What better way to break in my new floor than to have four sainted women over for lunch and discuss a matter dear to all of our hearts?  Just nothing else would do.  A little background here will help you understand.  Pastor Faye is a retired UCC minister and lives in Colorado Springs.  She was Interim pastor at First Congregational when I attended there.  More importantly she was then and still remains my very dear friend and confidante.  She marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and was most vocal and active in the fight for Civil Rights passage.  She is very active in all ministry work including the animal shelters and Heifer International.  And she raised kids at the same time.

Pastor Maurine is very active in the UCC Conference and various groups around Colorado Springs one of which she was representing this day.   This group takes on a project and this time it is Sister Nancy and her Los Pobres Migrant Center.  (An aside here.  Maurine is married to Max Hale, who is still very active in Pastors for Peace and does a blog that you can reach by clicking here! )  While her husband is retired, Maurine remains very active.
When I write about people I usually like to list 4 or 5 things that they will be remembered for, but that is not going to work for this bunch of women. 
So I have introduced you to the two UCC ministers and now we move on to Sister Nancy and her mission with the migrant workers of Southern Colorado.  I finally got a little of the skinny on how Los Pobres came to be the operation it is today.  Seems that many years ago , 1979, to be exact, Sister Nancy was having dinner with Father Gallagher at his parsonage at Sacred Heart of Avondale.  As the evening progressed there would be a knock at the door.  Father Gallagher would excuse himself and step out for about 10 minutes and then come back and set down and resume his job as host.  About the third time this happened, Sister Nancy decided to "spy on him", and was surprised to see him sacking up clothes and food for a man who was clearly an illegal immigrant. 
When she confronted him, he confessed and she told him, "Well, it is clear you are sort of organized, but let me help you and I think together we can do a lot more good."  In the beginning of their operation, it was run from a room in the parsonage.  Sister Nancy began to keep records of the immigrants who were accessing provisions and services.  Of course all this was done behind closed doors as the workers were all illegally in the United States.
But thank God for people who will do what ever is necessary and trust that good will win in the outcome.  In the year 2000 they built a small shed behind the rectory and the operation was moved to that area.   This is how it works in the real world...People die, babies are born, INS arrests and deports illegals to Mexico, women cry, and every day the business of living is a matter of course.  Children who do not know where Mexico is, are sent back there to live in a land they have never seen with people they have never known.
(An aside here  to a personal experience.  I think it was back in about 1980-81, I had daughter Debbie and her husband living in this town with or near me.  Patty and Dona were also here.  Well, Tex and Patty decided to go "work in the fields", since it was ready work and they could make lots of money.  So they piled into my Chevy and off they went.  8 hours later they returned.  Patty's eye was bloodshot and looked very bad.  Seems they were picking peas and Tex had pulled a weed and flipped it over his shoulder into her eye.  They were sunburnt beyond belief, exhausted, dehydrated, generally out of sorts with life.  The opened their hands to give me the fruits of their labors.  This grand total amounted to $3.28.  I was disappointed, to say the very least.)
The point with that story is that wages have nothing to with hours spent bent over in the hot sun.  I recall several years back that there was a lot of uproar about the illegals coming into this country and taking jobs from the locals.  So Pueblo County "cracked down" and the illegals were deported and none came from Mexico.  As I recall, the crops rotted in the fields because no one came to pick the produce.  I think they have lightened up since that little fiasco!
Back to Los Pobres.  In 2002 they received a grant from the Packard Foundation and built the big shed they are in now.  There are 5,000 families registered.  200-220 families weekly access the food bank.  The center distributes 1000 pounds of pinto beans, 600 pounds of rice and 720 cans of vegetables.  Everything at the center is done by volunteers.   Donations are made to the center by word of mouth, mostly.  Got clothes you want to donate?  Sister Nancy east of town,  Furniture, blankets, diapers, hygiene products, appliances, pots and pans, and on and on.  Sister Nancy east of town.  Everyone knows who that is.   I have a bag of coats in my car awaiting delivery.  Last summer I packed up a house full of clothes and household goods.  Took me 7 trips, but I got it all out there.  They are always in need of cooking oil, flour, beans, rice, canned vegetables.  I have a brochure here that I would love to send you.  Just call me.  719-546-1555. 
Well, I have once more digressed.  We did have a lovely lunch of one of my better offerings; home made chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, some sort of veggie and gluten free biscuits with cheese and garlic just because I wanted to make them.  Finished that off with a fresh peach cobbler with ice cream.  So after several hours of visiting, I gave them a tour of my little corner of the world and then they hopped in their cars and away they went.  All things considered, I thin we had a very lovely day and would love to do this again very soon.
Want to join us?
 

And this is how the day went down.

The guys from Carpet Clearance Warehouse showed up at my door about 8:30 Wednesday morning.  Jason ramrodded the little fellows inside, pointed this way and that way, and Casey and Ron went right to work.  In very short order the old carpet and pad were gone.  The pad went to the dumpster and the carpet went to the front yard.  The carpet went to a new home in Boone where a man named Leroy uses it to insulate his chicken houses.  By the time the years of dirt that had filtered down through the carpet was sucked up and gone, I was breathing much better.  By 9:30 the first strips of flooring were in place and by 10:30 the living room was covered.

Then to the kitchen and dining room which were more of a challenge.  By that time Jason had left and some one else had come in his place.  Then another change and finally at 2:00 the floors were done.  Oh, don't be mistaken, that did not mean I was done!  The guys moved the entertainment center in off the back patio and moved the china hutch into the dining room where it belonged.  Deven and I would do the rest.  But first it was off to Lowe's to buy the little pads that go under the couch and table legs.  Home again, home again, jiggity jog, after a quick stop to pick up some chicken nuggets. 
We moved the table in from the patio, putting the felt things under it.  Then the chairs.  Then the couches had to be felted and moved where they belonged.  So now it was starting to look like this:

 

Now isn't that pretty!  The name of this is Sunset Oak.  Tomorrow the base boards will be put in place.  I have made rugs and I will put them down.  Then it should be ready for my company on Saturday.  I am having Sister Nancy, Sister Barbara, Pastor Faye and Pastor Maureen over for a nice lunch of Chicken and Noodles with mashed potatoes and some sort of veggie.  Home made rolls, and a dessert of something scrumptuous, perhaps a root beer float.  I know these women eat like a bunch of rabbits so I am giving them comfort food.  And Deven and Mikey are going to drop in to see Pastor Faye.  That will be a nice surprise for her.

 

As for me, I am setting in my office looking down at my kingdom and wondering why I did not get rid of that damn carpet years ago.  I think I am really going to like  this and I thank Jason for doing such a good job.  I know he had planned on doing it a few days earlier, but he wound up with pneumonia and landed in the hospital, but he made it and now it is done and I am very happy.

I will take better pictures when we get the base boards and the rest of the furniture in place.  Looks kind of Spartan right now, but you know I will have crap all over the place very soon.  For now, I think I will just go weave a little bit before I put the tired little body to bed.

 

Good night and sweet dreams.



Sherman Schroeder Memorial at South Side Johnny's.

Today was a wonderful day.  This morning I toodled off to Colorado Springs to attend the British Motorcycle Association of Colorado meeting.  Remember I told you that Sherman and two other guys started this back in 1983?  Today they paid homage to thier fallen leader.  First there was a memorial DVD put together by his nephew, Brent Schroeder of Boulder.  That was so very touching.

I took a photo album and the big picture that Carmen had put together for the farewell party.  she gave it to me so it is mine now.  (Thank you so much, new friend Carmen.)  In the photo album is a picture of Sherman in front of a cop car.  Validation for Dana when he said Sherman was the only member of the club to ever get a speeding ticket.  Seems Sherman liked to ding around at the back of the rides and watch the birds, squirrels, and clouds.  They would come to a pullout and wait for him to catch up, but this one time he was really late and they thought they should go look for him when he showed up with ticket in hand because he was hurrying to catch up.  Bad Sherman!!

Then Dana, Jerry and Todd had kind words to say.  I know bikers are supposed to be big and hairy and all that, but these guys apparently haven't recieved the memo yet as they were not all dry eyed.  And there were ladies there also.  I drank tea and it was paid for by a nice guy named Gary who sat at our table.  Wasn't that sweet?

See that bike?  (First I want to say my batteries were like blink city and I know better, but I forged ahead so I could show you these blurry pictures.)  Any way this thing was rescued from a shed and cleaned up, tuned up, fiddled with, sanded, painted, turboed, and God only knows what else and god only knows who all had thier hands inside her, but she is off to Bonneville Salt Flats and hopes to set a new speed record there.  John Stoner is the proud owner and the one who will be holding the handle bars when it shoots past the gun.  The whole club is so excited!  That is going to happen August 8-17 and I will keep you posted cause I am sure Dana and Jerry will keep me in the loop.  (?)

(Note to Amy...I wore the biker bitch sleeveless shirt you brought me from Daytona Beach.  I fit right in!  You would have been so proud!)

After Todd filled everyone in on all the happenings they left for a ride somewhere.  So rather than set there in the bar by myself I took my leave and went to see Pastor Faye.  We went to lunch at Country Buffet and she was telling me about the time she performed a marriage ceremony at the Sturgis Rally in South (?) Dakota and how upset the hierarchy got with her because she turned up on the national news.  Man I love that woman!

So I had a long day and now Kenna Rae, my step daughter is making me supper at her house.  Guess I will make it even longer.  I just want to thank the BMAC from the bottom of my heart for making me a part of their group for the day.  Bet Sherman saw that and smiled. 

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Chapter One...Loose Ends by Lou Mercer can be bought here with the little paypal button.