Josie Haas, beloved grandmother..........

My grandmother had the sweetest smile and the prettiest eyes.  When she smiled it was like every angel in Heaven was shining in her eyes.  They were the kindest eyes and when she looked at me and smiled it was like she looked deep into my soul and would always know what was there and it would always be good and kind because that is what she saw.  Oh, if I could have spent my lifetime in the shadow of that woman, so much would have been so different! I would never have had an impure thought or wanted anything but to go straight to Heaven and live there for eternity with my sweet, sweet grandma, Josie Haas.  How do I explain what happened next? 

How do I explain coming home that January day to find that Uncle Goll and Aunt Mabel had come and I did not live there anymore.  My great grandma Hatfield was being whisked off to Coldwater, Kansas, Grandma was in the Broadacre Nursing Home, and I now lived in Nickerson, Kansas.  Aunt Lola and Uncle Alvin would  "dispose of the property" because Grandma had fallen to yet another stroke.  How quickly my life had changed.  How completely and utterly devastating life can be for a 15 year old girl.

There was no time for the goodbyes we always need to say.  Grandma Hatfield patted me on the head, Aunt Mabel smiled at me and Aunt Lola looked at me with her blank stare.  Mother took my little box of clothes to the car and that chapter of my life was over.  No more Dean and Dale, or Janet, or Miss Ghormely.  Slam, finis, and so long Plevna, Kansas.  Two weeks later my little grandma with the very sweet smile was buried in a grave beside her dear husband.

It was several years later that Grandma Hatfield was buried at the age of 104 in Abbyville, Kansas.  Many years later, when my own dear mother went to her heavenly reward, my sister handed me a kind of long white box and explained that it should be mine because I was the only one who had any idea what it contained.  Inside, nestled on white tissue paper was a golden braid of hair.  It was the braid that was cut from my grandma's head the night they took her to the nursing home.  It would have been too much work to take care of her hair, so they just cut it off and gave it to mother.

All the grandma's and grandpa's, aunts and uncles and most of the cousins are gone now.  All the mothers and fathers, one of the sister's and the only brother I ever had are gone.  They are slowly taking their places in my memory bank, but the one who shall always remain at the pinnacle is my dear sweet grandma, Josie Haas.

School starts at Plevna, Kansas and I am there!

Catty cornered from Grandma's house lived the Smith family.  I do not know how many girls there were in that family, I just know there were a lot of them.  I remember Mr. Smith had one brown eye and one blue eye.  I also remember they had a television set.  I could go over and visit them, but I could not set in the room where the television was and I could not look at it when I walked past.  I was very good and did as I was told.  I did not look at that television except once just to see what it was.

I wish I had pictures, but I do not.  If I did they would be black and white snap shots and they would be fuzzy.  But true to my word school did start the next week and I was there!  I started my Freshman year at Plevna High School  I was in heaven.  I do not know why.  The whole High School was 40 kids.  The first crack out of the box, I was picked to be in the Junior Play!

Now in tiny schools like this, things like that happen.  The Juniors had picked the play they wanted to do and there were not enough Juniors to fill the roles, so since I was a hick and used the word "ain't" a lot and this play was about hillbilly's, I got elected.  I was rather impressed that I was in the Junior Play, but I was scared to death.  See,this is how that worked.  I could read all I wanted as long as I was reading the Bible.  No books, no book reports, no reading play books, only the Bible.  So memorizing my lines was a real challenge.  Somehow I did get them learned and the play went off without a hitch so I was happy about that.  It even helped my English grade.


 The box lunch social was another small town tradition. We all had to bring a box with something to eat in it and then each one was auctioned off.  The buyer ate the lunch with whoever made the lunch.  We all lived in mortal terror that no one would buy ours.  Mine was bought by the coach of the basket ball team, so I was good to go.

But horror of all horrors for my first year of high school was Home Economics.  My teacher was (I forgot her name!) my mother's Nemesis from her high school days.  I flat out flunked cooking!  Not a bad grade, a fail grade.  A big fat "F".  All that woman had to do was glare at me and my knees turned to jelly. A quivering mass of jello, I tell you.  I would love to know the history of those two women, but it was enough to know that they did not like each other in the least.

Small towns are really an experience in and unto themselves.  The whole high school went carolling for Christmas.  One of the teachers made hot cocoa in the gymnasium.  Somebody brought us an apple.  Togetherness in a small town! 

Tomorrow I will tell you how my Freshman year ended, but I am too tired tonight to do it justice.  Just show up tomorrow and I will fill you in on that.

Oh, quick Eric is going to beat me!

I heard through the grapevine that Eric has some donors that are going to cause me to be dumped in the dust.  I am so sorry, but you know how competitive I am and if Eric beats me I am going to be devastated!  It just dawned on me that I only have 10 days left to come up with another $500.00.  Now when we started this venture  $1000.00 did not seem like much money, but now that the deadline is coming up I am starting to get very nervous. 

See it is a matter of pride with me.  I know I have a lot of friends and I was pretty much counting on them to bail my boney butt out.  Now I do not know where my friends have gotten off to.  I had a couple of the chat room girls donate, but none of the guys.  Hey, I thought they loved me!  I know I have family and friends out there reading this.  Help!

You see Eric is a little skinny, really cute kid with these curls and I can not just be defeated by a pretty face!  There is no amount to large or too small.  Just throw me any kind of a bone here!  Look here is my widget and everything!  I love you.  You know I love you!  And this is a very worthy cause.

Over sexed tarantula's loose on the Mesa.

Ok, I am making a special posting here, you know, deviating from my regular modus operands.  I read this in the newspaper, so I know it is true.  The Tarantula's are breeding out here on the Mesa and they are not one bit timid about it. either!

I have lived on this Mesa out here since 1982.  In all that time I have seen 2 Tarantula's near my house.  One wandered in and a son-in-law carried the other in the house.  Needless to say he also carried it out at my gentle urging.  You should know going in to this conversation that I do have a tad bit of a case of Arachnophobia.  This means the bigger the spider the more screaming and crying you will hear from this little body.

Now the article in the paper gave us a lot of useful information including the fact that it takes a male 5 years to mature.  I did not actually read the article because had I read it, I would have had nightmares for sure.  I do not want to read about them.  I do not want to think about them.  I only want to know why they are invading my space and I find it is because they are mating.  The mere fact that they are mating causes me to think there will be more of them.  I am about half way smart here on the breeding thing, having had 5 children of my own.

Now what I am wondering here is this; what shall I do if I see a breeding pair?  Shall I cheer them on in hopes of lots of babies?  Should I turn my back and give them privacy?  Should I stand there and extol the glories of safe sex?  I am thinking I wish I did not know how to read.  Or perhaps the Chieftain could write about something that does not cause visions of very hairy legs to come to my mind.  I am hoping this mating thing does not go on much longer.  I am actually praying for a hard freeze.  My life has lots of little turmoils as I scurry along towards the end of it and I can see if I must be on the lookout for giant spiders that I am not going to be able to watch where I am going and I could hurt my little self.

So, where ever you are tonight, be glad you are not out here in Colorado in the midst of this thing going on here.  And you might want to get me a room ready at your house, cause I think I may be moving on very soon!

Link for the AIDS WALK!!

Ok, here is my link so you can support me in the AIDS Walk in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado on October 9, 2010.

There is no donation too large or too small.  Every nickle is appreciated and all the money Eric and I raise will stay right here in Pueblo for our clients.  Know how much I appreciate every thing I am allowed to do for these people whom I love so much!

Kisses and hugs to everyone of you! XOXOXOX

High School at Plevna, Kansas with Grandma and Great Grandma!

Well, there is nothing more scary in the whole world of young people than the day they leave the secure little nest of Elementary School and venture onto the high school campus.  True it is only 7 blocks away and it is the same kids you have gone to school with all your life, but none-the-less, it was a real heart stopper for me.

I did not start High School in my Beloved Nickerson, I started in Plevna, Kansas.  The entire city population was 112.  There were outlying farms, but I lived in the city proper with Grandma Haas, age 71 and Great Grandma Hatfield, age 98.  Grandma was rather crippled up from a stroke and Great Grandma took care of her.  My job was to help.

Now, I don't know if you ever lived with 2 very old ladies when you were a delicate flower of 15, but there is a lot of adjusting that needs to be done and guess who is going to do it!  First was the sleeping arrangements.  They had a bedroom with a big bed. That was theirs.  Upstairs were 2 bedrooms with beds and all, but I could not sleep up there because I would be too far away and something might happen and what if some one came in and kidnapped me?  So I slept in the downstairs living room on the couch right by the front door, which was never locked.  Ok, Grandma's!

Next I must learn to crochet.  They had a radio, a big wooden thing with a round top.  That was for listening to the stock market and futures reports at noon.  For no other reason was it ever turned on.  It goes without saying that there was no television, so crochet it should be.  With my little hook and size 10 crochet thread I very quickly learned to make a "chain".  That was good enough for me, but not the grandma's. 

After my first chain was about 10 feet long I say the wisdom of learning other stitches.  I was taught the sc (single crochet, dc (double crochet), hdc (half double crochet), tr (treble crochet), dtr (double treble crochet), and then I was on my way.  Soon I had a round crocheted thingy to which I added chains and made loops.  At the end I crocheted around the outside with green thread and that was it.  I had made my first Pineapple Doily! Great Grandma then boiled sugar and water and put the doily in there.  It was then set to dry and the ruffle shaped.  It was a work of art and my first endeavor in the fine art of needlework.

Plevna had a bank, filling station, phone company, post office, mechanic, the school, and a General Store.  Hinshaw's General Store  was the hub of the metropolis, needless to say.  When Grandma sent me to the store she sent me with a handkerchief with the money tied in the corner.  After all it was almost a full block! It was always just the right amount.  I would walk in, tell Mr. or Mrs. Hinshaw that Grandma Hatfield had sent me, hand him the hanky and wait.  He would retrieve what ever it was, untie the hanky, take the money and had me the hanky and the item.  I was then trusted to walk home with both.

There was lots of stuff in that store. Light farm  equipment like rakes, shovels, towels, a few pairs of overalls, socks, beans and crackers in a barrel, and of course groceries.  I went one time with Aunt Mabel and she bought a towel for me to do textile painting on for momma for Christmas.  It had laid on the shelf so long it had lines that never came out, but it was new and it was for momma.  As I recall Aunt Mabel helped me paint a beautiful Iris.  Another form of needlework or crafts or something.

The most important part about the Hinshaws was their grandsons!  They were my age and they were twins and I would go to school with them when school started.  Dale was very light complected, with red hair and freckles and a little on the pudgy side.  Dean was  small and wiry, and darker complected with dark brown hair, very thin.  If you met them you would never dream they were related in any way.  First lesson on twins.  Also my first childhood crush, but I won't tell you which one it was! It actually lasted way over a week into the school year.

The highlight of the summer was when momma sent 2 friends of the family to pick me up and take me back to Nickerson for a few days before school started.  They roared into town on their Triumph Motorcycles and I was in Heaven!  I loved those bikes and the thought of the 20 mile trip to Nickerson was enough to make me walk on cloud 9 for weeks after.  There is just nothing like a Triumph.  Harley's are great and I love the rumble of the motor, which I understand is patented, and I own Harley stock today, but a Triumph was the sign of the times.  It symbolized youth, and freedom, and the open road.  Ah, I digress.

Next week I could start school!  And that will be tomorrow, so see you then. Be sure that my short time at Plevna High School is not at all what one would expect.  So see you then cause you are going to learn about my roots.