Over the River and Thru the Woods, to Grandmother's House we Go

Over the River and thru the woods, To grandmother's house we go!!

Not anymore! Grandma and Grandpa have moved to town. We used to live in the woods and every Thanksgiving we always had a big group of relatives at our country place. We always had a great time and it was fun watching the kids grow up and get together there every year. After a big Thanksgiving feast, everybody helped clean up and then we went walking in the woods. On Thanksgiving night there was always a big bon fire and weiner roast.

After we moved to town, and the nephews and nieces grew up and got married and started their families, the Thanksgiving Get-Together started getting smaller and smaller. Then in 2004 we sold the farm and moved to town. Thanksgiving is just not the same anymore since Grandma moved to town.


Our last big Thanksgiving family gathering was in 2006 when we celebrated James' 50th birthday a few days early. Pictured here are the Thrasher family who all came from NC for James' party.


This year we are going "over the river an thru the woods" to get to South Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with our youngest son and his 3 teen agers. He has been a single parent for 12 years since Nov. 17, 1996 - the year his wife Barbara died. Either we go there for Thanksgiving or they come here.


A couple of weeks ago I asked Bill and the girls to send me their favorite cookie choices. For the past 2 days I have made chocolate chip cookies, peanut brittle, peanut chocolate clusters, wagon wheel choc. cookies, brownies, and a 7-layer choc. cake. I've had two requests to make a pumpkin pie from scratch (not a bought one). And stuffing (dressing) outside the turkey, like we always have in Alabama. And today I made a favorite - homemade Concord grape jelly with juice from our vines. We will arrive in SC late Tuesday and I will have Wed. to do last minute grocery shopping for the big meal on Thursday.


When I was young, Thanksgiving Day was just another day on the farm and I've written before about the things we used to do on Thanksgiving. We never had turkey. 


My birthday is usually around that time but it comes a little early this year on Nov. 25. My brother's is the day after. I have asked for a new queen size pillow top mattress set for my birthday this year so I can start sleeping on "Cloud 9". Actually I have no trouble sleeping or getting up. But I hope the new mattress will help my weary bones and I will wake up feeling energetic and not so many aches and pains. I'm sure all of this all comes from getting older. 

My Habitat for Humanity project

No, I'm not building a Habitat for Humanity home - but I am doing my part by using my master gardener skills to landscape the new home being built in Elba.

The Elba Rotary Club is sponsoring the latest habitat home and since Jim is a Rotarian, I offered my services for their project. At our last Master Gardening meeting, I volunteered to serve as the chairperson for this project and 4 others volunteered to assist.

We met last week to go over the blueprints for the home to get an idea of the space, checked out the sunny and shady places and each went home to draw a plan.  Today we got back together and compared our plans.

                                                    

I invited the mother of the single family family (2 teenagers, ages 14 aned 15), to come to our Master Gardening meeting today so everybody could meet her. She said she loves pretty flowers but has never worked in the yard. She was so pleased that we are offering to help her plan for her new surroundings.

I remember new homes we have built and the stress of trying to decide how to lay out the flower beds, what to plant, etc. I always wanted to plant things that were not native to the area and of course, they wouldn't live. Don't ever plant the beautiful sweet smelling lilacs from Minnesota in south Georgia, or plant tulips and expect them to come back every year.

My younger sister Carolyn helped me plan our landscape for our current home and the feature I enjoy most is the split rail cedar fence in the front yard. And the window boxes at the bedroom windows. When we were working on the plan for the habitat house, I suggested the same fence design for the habitat house. Others seemed to like the idea, except for one man who asked why I didn't just put the fence out by the street and not in the middle of the yard! It's fun discussing projects with a group of about 20 certified master gardeners. You get a lot of different ideas.

Here I have posted our own split rail fence in the spring of 2004 and another photo about a year later in 2005 and one in 2008.

Christmas in the South - Ft Rucker Bazaar

Today I went with a friend to the annual Christmas bazaar at Yano Hall at nearby Ft Rucker.

The big aircraft hangar was the perfect place to hold all the exhibits of vendors from all around the area. We arrived there around 10 A.M. and the building was very crowded. We decided to walk around the entire area - about 6 or 7 long aisles - and then eat some German food before starting to get serious about shopping. When we arrived at the food court, we decided to eat Frito Pie in a bag that our Master Gardener friend Suzanne was preparing at an army Battalion booth. You can imagine my surprise as we started down one of the aisles, to find a family from Elba with a booth - S&B Country Goods by Arnie and Shelia Beerenstrauch. Her handcraft and lettering was absolutely beautiful. I bought this Rudolph with a blinking nose for James to put outside.

Elsie Hilton's booth

Farther down the next aisle was my friend Elsie Hilton and her Herb display. Her husband Roy also had some of his plants, gourds, dried okra, bamboo vases, etc for sale. Elsie works for many weeks getting her herbal products ready for the bazaar. I really liked the wine bottles that she melts down in a kiln to use as a cheese tray. And her lovely china tea pots painted with herb designs.  I first met Elsie at a DAR meeting in 1997 and we've been friends ever since. We are also both Home Economists.

Ft Rucker was where Jim was stationed in 1953 when I met him on a blind date. He graduated from high school in Harrisburg, NC in 1952, and soon afterwards, enlisted in the army and had basic training in Ft. Jackson, SC. Then was sent to Ft Rucker, AL. I met him in the summer of 1953 when he came to Troy State University with a friend who had a date with my friend, and she asked if I would go out with them. It was love at first sight! We were married 4 months later, just before he was sent overseas to Germany. I later joined him in Germany.

Camp Rucker 

"Modern" Ft Rucker

When he was at Ft Rucker, the buildings looked like the ones in this b&w photo and it was called Camp Rucker. In 1955, it was renamed "Fort Rucker" when it became a permanent aviation center. Most of  the buildings at the much larger helicopter training  base are now modern brick buildings.

Our Annual Trip to the National Peanut Festival

Last Wednesday (Nov 5) we left home at 7:30 A.M. to journey to Dothan to attend the National Peanut Festival. Wednesday was devoted to Special Persons Day. James' friends came by bus from the Coffee Co. Training Center. We always meet them there so we can bring James home long before the others return after lunch. James is unable to walk very long on the cement walkways and tires easily due to his kidney failure. 

James looks forward to this day for weeks and wouldn't miss it for anything.  He wanted to go to the midway as soon as we entered the gate. His favorite  ride is the merry-go-round and here's some pictures of him and his dad. It's  getting harder and harder to help James get up on the horses. Jim wasn't with us last year and I gave up trying to help James get on one of the horses, and he and I sat on one of the benches and enjoy going "round and round".

He wanted a peanut festival cap and I ended up going to the fair office to buy one. The building that houses peanut festival products (caps, shirts, etc) was not open on Wed. With his cap in hand, and riding the merry-go-round, he was ready to move along to the end of the midway looking at all the rides. No many were operating on Wed. Near the end he said he was unable to walk any further, and sat down on a bench. He was extremely tired and wanted something to drink. Not a single food vendor was open in the midway. I left James with his dad on a bench in a shade and walked back to the entrance of the park to find someone to come give James a ride back to the entrance so we could go home.I found some nice people at the First Aid station and they came to pick James up in their John Deere "Gator". We found him a Pepsi at one of the food vendors. Then after being there for about an hour, he was ready to leave.

He's still talking about how much fun he had at the fair!Since we were out of the park by 11 a.m., we went shopping and stopped at the mall for lunch in the food court. I had my favorite - chinese food. Our Buick was at Maaco in Dothan getting some dents in the bumper taken out and the bumper painted. Jim and James came home in the buick and I spent a couple of more hours shopping. I was totally exhausted when I got home but after a fresh cup of coffee I was ready to go to Wed. night supper at church. It was a very long day.

The Peanut Festival ended with a parade on Sat. morning. For the past few years, we have made a deal with James. We will go to the fair with him on his special day and he would watch the parade on TV. Usually on Friday before the parade he will say something like "I sure would like to see the parade in person and sit in front of First Baptist Church on one of the chairs they rent to "festival goers" and I feel a little bit guilty for not wanting to take him. Actually the parade is a little nostalgic since I remember marching with the band in the parade in the early 50's. (Note: the first peanut festival was held in 1943) I remember one year the band marched behind Johnny Mack Brown on his famous horse, whose name I can't recall. Yesterday (Mon.) when we took James to his appointment with his kidney doctor, we saw big trucks carrying the fair rides, etc. as they were leaving Dothan. James was excited as they passed us on the highway.

By the way, James got a good report (no change in his kidney function which is 20%). If it gets lower, that means dialysis 3 times a week, in 4 hour sessions. We try not to think about that.

Now that the fair is over, James is looking forward to going to SC and NC for Thanksgiving to be with family. We were there just a month ago. Traveling in our "almost new" Honda Odessey van makes the trip much easier.

Observing All Saints Day - prayer, communion, music

Today at church (Elba United Methodist), Pastor Stanley Carter read the names of our departed "saints" for the past year. This was followed by silence while we remembered them and others outside our church. The choir then sang a choral arrangement of "The Old Rugged Cross". After a short message, we had communion with small groups going to the altar rail to participate in the Lord's supper.

We came home and had lunch and then went back to the church for our annual Charge Conference with our new Supt. in charge. This is where we get assignments for the coming year. Jim has been appointed as Chairmen of the Trustees. He will be on the Administrative Council, Financial Committee and is currently the church webmaster. http://www.elbaumc.org/   I resigned my post as trustee since we didn't both need to be on that committee. I am in a new "position" - membership secretary. This coming year I plan to put all church members, addresses, and other info on an Excel spreadsheet. Two floods in the 1990's destroyed many of the local church records. I hope to dig deep and try to update our membership. This will take a lot of time and energy but so vital to our church in the future.

We had to leave the conference before it was over in order to take James home to stay with a sitter while Jim and I traveled to Dothan to attend a concert at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity on Holly Lane. The church choir celebrated the lives of the departed through the singing of John Rutter's Requiem. It was also important for the church since they were celebrating the life of Pat Byrne, a member of the choir for almost 40 years.

Jim was in our church choir that presented the Requiem when we lived in Albany, GA and this time he got to listen to someone else sing. It was a combination of Latin and English. Rutter's Requiem was a beautiful way to spend All Saints Day. A friend of ours from Enterprise, Rex Everage, was singing in the choir and invited us to attend.

At the beginning of the program there was a beautiful violion solo by Jenny Gregoir, concertmaster for Mobile and Gulf Coast symphonies. She played Ralph Vaughan Williams "Lark Ascending". I loved the bassoon music, the harp, flute, violins and cello - plus others.

The featured soloist Fay Schiffer, from Enterprise, was magnificent. Our friend Rex confided to us that he thought she raised pigs! The strings played an encore at the end - uplifting music after listening to the beautiful Requiem. We were invited to stay afterwards for a nice reception and to meet the choir and musicians.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and the church was filled with dancing colors with the sun shining throught the beautiful stained glass windows.

We enjoyed our trip back to Elba as we watched the big bright sun going down in the western sky. It got dark before we reached the city limits of Elba, AL.

All Saints Day 2008 was a busy, but memorable one.

Pumpkin's on the (Elba) Square

October 29th was trick or treat night for kids in Elba. Parents brought their children downtown to show off their costumes and to let them get treats from area merchants, businesses, clubs, churches, etc. who had booths set up around the courthouse square.

James wore his Uncle Sam's costume since he had worn it to work all day. By the way, he won "Best Costume" at their party at work.

Our church (Elba United Methodist) handed out candy to the little gobblins and James helped them. After a short while, he told our pastor Stanley that he wanted to walk around and look at what everybody else was handing out and he took off. I'm glad he doesn't like sweets and he didn't carry a bag around to collect goodies . Pictured: Nancy and Stanley Carter, Martha and Joe Guerrero,James & Candace Vaughan

He wanted his picture made with some of his friends. He is pictured here with his cousins, Betty and Bo Sauls, and our friend Laurie Chapman, the blonde with the fuzzy dog ear hairdo.

After he finished looking at all the booths he went with Jim and me across the street to the Just Folk coffeehouse for chili and to listen to 2 of our Opp church friends from when we went to church in Opp, as they played their guitars and sang old favorites. James enjoyed the music and was greeted by so many of our friends and had his picture made several times.

Halloween has come and gone for another year. We didn't carve the pumpkin this year and it's still sitting outside. We'll leave it there until Thanksgiving.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

I don't think of snow falling in October. This is the month of beautiful colored leaves, especially in the mountains. But last night it snowed in Black Mountain, NC where my sisters Alice and Carolyn live.

My sister Carolyn sent me these pictures via email this morning and the snow is beautiful. It covered the apple tree in the back yard (center of big photo) and the red apples looked pretty surrounded by the snow. The snow melted today when the sun came up.



Another October snow I remember was our first winter living in Wayzata (Minneapolis suburb), MN. We had moved there from Texas during the summer. On October 11th I remember going to Ridgedale Mall and parking my car and going inside the mall for awhile. I was there for a couple of hours and when I came outside around 2 pm, my car was covered with snow and it was snowing so hard I could hardly find the car. It snowed all afternoon and I was so nervous trying to find my way back to Lake Minnetonka near where we lived. I knew our son James would be getting home from school around 3 pm. So I had to try to make my way back home. When I got back on the highway, the snow had melted and I had no problem getting home.


I love the first snowfall of the year and we've lived in many places where it snowed. We lived on a wooded hill in Winston Salem, NC in the early 1980's and when it snowed the trees were beautiful. It was a little tricky sometimes getting up the hilly driveway from our "tucked under" garage on the back of our 3 level home when there was snow and ice.


While the early snowfall is always exciting and beautiful, I think I lean more to the beautiful fall foliage and cool nights and pretty frosts that look like a sprinkling of snow early in the morning.