Down Memory Lane - BOO!

My kids getting ready for Halloween. I think the year was probably 1969. 

Thank you to my youngest daughter for putting this picture on FB. Brings back memories!

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

And save the chocolate candy for me. 

AWOL

I will be 'Absent With Out Leave' for a bit as I am busy digging for ancestor information during my 14 day free access, and I am finding a lot! And this is just the first day!

I am not sure if I will find time to write a post here during these 14 days, but you never know what will happen.

Wedding Pictures

My first wedding with the father of my children

September 2, 1961

These are wedding photos of my parents, grandparents and great grandparents on my mother's side. I haven't found any wedding photo for Dad's parents yet, thought I do have some of them years later. One of the reasons may be that my dad was the second youngest of 7 in the family.

I know that Mom's wedding dress was blue, because I used to play dress-up in it. Notice the difference in wedding attire through the generations.

Mom and Dad

February 10, 1932

Mom's Parents

Grandma Ada and Grandpa William

July 28, 1907

Great Grandparents
Parents of Grandma Ada
date unknown

Great Grandparents
Parents of Grandpa William
July 19, 1883

Fall - a Bountiful Harvest

1952

A trunk full plus 3 baskets of pumpkins and squash of all kinds. I just noticed the full gunny sack at the side of the car. I wonder if it is full of gourds.

I think I even see the spare tire among the squash. That was our new car, too! A two-tone blue 1952 Chevrolet. It is the car I learned to drive, and drove it many miles as a teenager. Dad refused to get a new car until AFTER I got married and left home. Hmm. I wonder why?

I can remember this was the year that Dad planted all those pumpkin and squash seeds among the sweet corn rows at the edge of the field of regular corn.  I don't remember what they did with them all. I only remember them doing it this one year. I am wondering if Mom had read about doing that in a farm magazine or newspaper. Every year she seemed to try something new. One year it was raising a couple of white turkeys that were allowed to run loose on the yard. They could get mean and chase you. And another year it was white geese, and for a few years we had a few Mallard ducks roaming around. I hated those geese because they would chase you, too, and take a bite out of your leg! I did love the ducks, especially the baby ducks. And drakes are so pretty. I can remember a few of the ducks, turkeys and geese made it to our dinner table for holidays.

This 'n' That - Finger comfort

Here is a tip for you crocheters. Recently I was checking some tutorials to see if I am doing some crochet stitches right, and I wasn't! After all the decades I have been crocheting, I guess I interpreted the written directions a little wrong. But that isn't exactly my tip today.

Do you know what these are?

Do you know what they are used for?

Some people call them pencil cozies. The name on the package says they are gel grips - for pens and pencils. They are found in the pen/pencil section of the store, and there are many in a package.



Here is how crocheters use them -

When I crochet large projects like afghans, my thumb  always got sore from gripping the hook at the flat part where the brand is stamped, and raised. These gel grips keeps that from happening, and it keeps me from holding the hook so tightly and therefore getting cramped. They would not stay in place as I worked so I wound a small rubber band at the top of the grip and now they stay in the proper place and I can crochet away without a sore thumb or cramped hands! Don't you like my color coordinating? I even found a little red rubber band for the red hook. I know you can buy hooks with the thicker shaft, but I have all the hooks I need so am not going to spend money on more. That's because I am a cheapskate frugal.

It took a little time getting used to them but I wouldn't want to be without them now. If this picture looks a little odd, it is because I am a lefty. I realize some of you hold the hook different than I do, so the grip may not be as important to you. You probably hold it more like I would hold a knife instead of a pencil like I do. The first time I saw someone crochet that way I thought it was really odd, but since then I have discovered many others do it that way also. And I found out that either way is correct. It is just a matter of how you learned and what you are comfortable with. I have tried it the other way and I had a hard time keeping my tension even, but I suppose if I kept at it I would eventually get it to work. But I don't need to change, and I have done it this way for maybe 60 years and it has served me well. But I will be using the grips from now on!

(rereading this I see I used a lot of 'buts' here, BUT taking them out didn't seem right either! This is the way I talk, so this is what you get.)

Faith Friday - Who's Afraid of the Dark?

FAITH FRIDAY

WHO'S AFRAID OF THE DARK?

For you are all children of light, children of the day.
(1 Thessalonians 5:5)

Read 1Thessalonians 5:1-11

One of the most important sets of lights in a theater are the emergency lights. While these are legally required to be in good working order, an experienced stage manager will have them checked regularly, just for peace of mind. After all, should the electricity fail during a show, hundreds of people would be stuck in the dark; in that darkness lives a stage manager's worst fear -- panic.

Groups of people panic in the dark because they fear the unknown. In a strange place, surrounded by unfamiliar people, we fear the worst will happen, and that it will catch us by surprise.

This is what Paul is getting at in this passage. He describes Christ's second coming and God's just judgment as being something that will catch the unbeliever off guard. It will come unexpectedly, "like a thief in the night." For the Christian, however, there is no surprise. While we do not know when judgment day will come, we rest easy knowing that Christ took our punishment on the cross so that we could be declared "not guilty" before God. It is the radiance of this truth that makes us "children of light, children of the day" who have nothing to panic about.

-- Rob Matthews

Prayer: Father God, thank you for the gift of your Son Jesus Christ, whose death paid the penalty for our sins and whose resurrection gives us the hope of a world reconciled to you. Amen.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fear of the unknown - isn't that what we all fear the most? As a child we are afraid of what might be lurking under the bed. It is dark under there, and most anything could be in that darkness, ready to grab our feet and pull us under with them. I would run and jump into bed and pull my feet up and under the covers as quickly as possible. Even though I knew there really wasn't anything under the bed, there was always a chance that I could be wrong.

But when we live in the midst of God's light, there is no need to fear what is in the darkness outside of the light, because that light is our protection. If we leave a nightlight on when we go to bed, whatever is hiding in the darkness cannot come out and expose itself.

Down Memory Lane - Artist in the Family

This is an old ink drawing done by Esther R. I think she is my mother's cousin from St. Louis. She has the same name as Grandma Ada's maiden name, and Ada originally came from St. Louis. I know I have some post cards that she had done somewhere, but I have not been able to find them again now that I want them. If I should run across them before this is published, I will update either in this post or one in the future. Maybe this is where my youngest grand daughter gets her talent.