February is moving on - fast!

January is now history and February is marching on fast! The past 3 days have been a blur for us. For several days we were nervous and anticipating Feb. 2nd and wondering how we would handle the lst anniversary of James' death. Everything went fine, remembering Father Tim's favorite scripture in Jan Karon's Medford series of books: Phillipians 4:13. (Go look it up!)

The weather is much the same except it wasn't raining this time last year, but was so very, very cold. In the 20's the day of his funeral on Feb. 5th and the wind blowing, making it even colder.

We got up on Tuesday, Feb. 2nd, had a good breakfast and I went to the gym for 30 minutes to walk while Jim had coffee read the newspapers. We had telephone calls and e-mails from many of our family and friends that day. Tuesday morning, Jim took out a DVD that our son Bill made from old family videos over the years that had a lot of pictures of James and we actually enjoyed watching them and listening to him talking and interacting with his cousins and nieces, teasing them and playing with them. I thought it would be sad but it had so many good memories for us and I'm so glad we have sound with the pictures. It was like sitting and visiting with James. Thank you Bill for those precious memories. Ron is doing the same with his old videos, making some more memories for us. Not only were we enjoying seeing James but it was fun watching everybody else grow older. Most of those nieces and nephews are married now with families of their own.

Jim invited me to go to his Rotary Club luncheon and I accepted. After lunch, we took a trip to cemetery 8 miles out in the country in the Curtis community where I grew up, to put some flowers on my parents' and James' graves. It's been so cold that many of the Christmas poinsettias are still on the gravesites, so our yellow daffodils really stood out among all the red flowers!! February is daffodil season here altho they are a bit late this year due to the cold weather we're having.

February 2 came and went and we survived the day and had many happy memories to draw on, and family support.

One of James' favorite sayings was "you shouldn't worry about that. You can't do anything about it!"


And we look to Phil. 4:13 to keep us moving along..........

John Smith Genealogy

My ancestor John Smith was not the one that married Pocohantas. He was of Quaker background and migrated to NC from Pennsylvania and settled in Rockingham County.

A few years ago my cousin Harris Winston gave me an old family history book, "The Smith Family Geneaology" by J. Fletcher Smith, 1903. It was very fragile and falling apart, so in 1982 I retyped the entire book and put the original away. I updated the book to include my great grandfather William Cole Smith's line.

Now, 28 years later, I am updating our family section once again. This time the update was copied from Jim's ancestry.com and My Legacy files on the computer. All entries are up-to-date, including the last child born in August, 2009.

The hardest part was making an index of all surnames in the 1903 book, and the pages where they occur. Jim just clicked "index" on Legacy and the index appeared! So easy.

We made a copy today of every page (98 pages), using the "duplex" feature of my HP printer to print front and back of each page. It's exciting to learn to do something new. I knew that feature was there but had never tried using it. I will have copies made of the book for family members. We'll also place some libaries and in state archives in AL and NC.

It was interesting reading about our ancestors in the 1903 account. Many were Quakers and lived in the Greensboro, NC area.

Samuel Smith, son of John Smith, is the ancestor I used to become a member of the DAR. He didn't actually fight in the American Revolutionary War, but made gun powder for the troops to use. He was turned out of the Quaker church for his participation in the war.

His son Joshua Smith migrated to Opelika, Alabama and was the father of my great grandfather, William Cole Smith. William Cole Smith had 2 wives, and a total of 10 children. One of his sons was my grandfather, Oswald Cole (O.C.) Smith. Another son, Joshua Drayden, owned a general merchandise store in Elba called Smith Brothers. Many of my grandfather Smith's brothers and sisters were living when I was growing up and I got to know many of my great aunts and uncles.

Pictured here are children of O.C. and Bessie Mayberry Smith. My mother Ruth is on the left on the back row. Two more children were born after this photo was made.

Keeping Busy

For 13 days in a row, we had temperatures below 40, dipping into the teens at night. This is certainly not Alabama weather! We really enjoyed our fireplace during these cold days. Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day and high temperatures. YEAH! I spent some time cleaning and pruning at the old Folsom house downtown - one of my projects.

I cut the article below from our weekly newspaper, The Elba Clipper, telling about the front yard flower garden I created and maintain. Read on.....

A Night at the Movies

Thanks to our Netflix movies (2 a month), we can spend an evening "at the Movies" in the comfort of our own home! We set aside a couple of hours when we get our movie in the mail to sit back and enjoy it.

Sometimes we like them; sometimes we don't! But we watch them anyway. It was so difficult tonight for me to watch a Disney Movie, "National Treasure -2". I thought it was going to be about the assassination of President Lincoln. It was more like an Indiana Jones movie. A lot of action and cliff-hanging scenes and for that reason I never knew what was going on. Jim loved all the action! But then he didn't like "The Devil Wears Prada" and I loved it! Most of the time we agree on what we want to watch.

We look at the movies we can choose from, and it's hard to choose a title from so many on the list. We were so disappointed in the P.D. James movies. We loved her mystery books and for some reason the movies did not live up to our expectations. First of all they were in color and her books were in b&w in our minds; sinister and mysterious. We only watched one and cancelled the others in the series.

We don't have a movie theater in Elba so this is how we go to the movies - via mail! Not even a movie rental place anymore.

I remember when I was growing up that we would come to town on Sat. afternoon and daddy would drop us off at the "picture show" while he had errands to do which including eating raw oysters at Ben Conner's oyster bar on the square.

The only time I remember our entire family (before Alice and Carolyn were born) going to a movie was a cold rainy night we all got inside the cab of the truck (2 adults and 5 kids) and went to Elba to see "The Enchanted Forest" which 

came out in 1945. Mother had heard about it and wanted to take us. It was a great movie.

Another great movie I saw there was when we had a 4-H Rally for all the schools in Coffee County in 1947. The morning was spent competing in sports and games, and after a picnic lunch we all walked from Elba High School football stadium to the Elba Theater to see "Song of the South". That was such a happy movie and I loved the songs.

My friends that lived in town got to go to movies more often. One of my high school friends actually worked at the movies which I thought was a "top job". She got to see all of the movies - good and bad.

Even now I love going to the movies and watching them on the big screen, with surround sound.

We have to travel to Enterprise or Dothan to go to movies. Our most recent one was "Blind Side" and it was so good. And before Christmas we went to see "Julie and Julia" which we both enjoyed. I wanted to see "It's Complicated" with Meryl Strep but one of our granddaughters said she didn't think we would like that movie, that it was "R" and had vulgar language. I'm glad she was looking out for us! (I'll catch it on Netflix someday!)

Waiting for snow today???

For several days the weatherman has been predicting snow for Alabama and everybody's getting excited - except me! We have experienced enough snow for a lifetime and that's why we retired to the sunny south 14 years ago. I only remember it snowing once when I was growing up and that was in March when I was in the 6th grade. We went outside and collected some and made milkshakes by adding some milk and vanilla.

Our weather seems to get colder each winter and hotter each summer. I suppose it's because we are so warm or cool inside with air conditioning and central heat. Then when we go outside there's a drastic change.

Oh, well. I'm going to search the newspaper today for firewood just in case we use up all we have on hand in the next few days. There's nothing like standing in the front of a hot fire and warming your backside and then sitting in a recliner with a cup of hot coffee or chocolate, and catching up on the stack of magazines or a good book.  Our morning temperatures have been in the teens and low 20s almost every morning for the past week and aiming for 13 degrees Sat. morning. The high hovers near 40 but the wind chill is much lower.

_______________________
Christmas of 1995 it snowed in Elba. James and I drove to Elba from Albany, GA two days before Christmas to spend the night with Aunt Bob and cook some Christmas food for her to have since she lived alone. As we were driving into Elba, it started snowing - giant snowflakes, and I had to turn on the windshield wiper in order to see. We got to her house and she was waiting for us and was bundled up to go outside. She wanted to go to Kelly's barbecue for lunch and for a ride in the snow.

When I suggested we wait until it stopped snowing, she said "No" - that she had been waiting for me to get there and take her out to eat. She knew I had driven in snow many times before and I would not have any problems. Soooo... I helped her into the car and away we went.

James and I had planned to spend the night at our farm, 8 miles out in the country. I was so cold when we got to the lake house but the little propane heaters soon warmed the little house and we settled down to watch TV. During the night James woke me up and said he was cold. I got up and checked the heaters and they were all cold. We had used all the propane gas. I got out more blankets and when it was daylight, we got up and got dressed and headed home to GA. But we couldn't leave right away. The snow had melted and had frozen and our front yard was like an ice skating rink. The car wouldn't go. James was getting very frustrated by this time. He had not wanted to go to Ala with me in the first place! Today was Christmas Eve and he was so afraid Santa wouldn't know where he was. We didn't have a cell phone back then or phone at the cabin so nobody knew we were stranded.

Well, the sun came out and started melting the ice, and we managed to get the 1/4 mile to the paved US highway to start home. On the way home we passed the Coffee County courthouse in Elba and saw the ice in the water fountain. 

Cold Down South

The temperature dropped down into the 20's last night and the big, roaring fire in our fireplace feels so good this morning. Jim had it started when I got up at 6:30 a.m.

He gets up early to check on temperature in the greenhouse. It was in the 40s inside the greenhouse today and 28 outside. So far so good. Plants are looking great.

Last Wednesday, Dec. 30, we went to Opp 
and while there we stopped by Mizelle Memorial Hospital to check out the Tree of Light where ornaments were purchased for $5 in honor of or in memory of people in 2009. Three friends from Opp purchased ornaments in memory of our son James and we found two of them.


The tree was so full of ornaments it was difficult to locate all 3 with his name. Proceeds for the sale are used for a hospital auxilliary project each year.

We spent New Year's Day doing absolutely nothing but watching TV and eating. Too cold to go outside. The Auburn/Northwestern University football game was so exciting.


When that was over we watched a very long movie "How the West Was Won" and neither of us remembered having ever seen it before. It was released in 1962 when we were living in Bremen, GA. With 3 little boys, and both of us working, I guess we didn't have time to watch long movies back then.

Looking Back at 2009

January 16-19 - we took a road trip to Sarasota, FL to visit my sister Judy and her husband Guy. James always looked forward to visiting them. Judy would take him to see the circus headquarters and shopping, just the two of them.
January 28 – James had gall bladder surgery at SE Medical Center in Dothan. This was the day the workers came and poured cement to enlarge our front driveway. Also on that day Gappa Wise came and started removing the bricks from the back of our bedroom wall to add a bathroom. We were surprised when we got home from the hospital on Jan. 31 to see the new driveway turn-around and a tarpaulin covering the back of our bedroom.


February 2 - James was taken to the ER in Opp due to complications following surgery and he died at 8:30 pm that night. He had multiple problems and his system just shut down and he stopped breathing.
February 5 – funeral at 2 p.m. for James at Elba United Methodist Church. The church was filled with friends and family on that very, very cold day (in the 20’s). James did not like cold weather and I had problem sleeping that night because I kept thinking he was freezing out in the cold cemetery.
March - Jim spent most of March getting physical therapy for sciatic nerve pain in his hip and leg.
March 11-12 - Jim went with me to Auburn to the annual state DAR meeting.
March 27-30 – Jim’s brother Larry and wife Suzi came from Virginia Beach for a week-end with us. We met them at airport in Montgomery. Jim and Larry spent the week-end reminiscing about their mother who passed away in Sept. 2008, and of course talking about James. Weather was so bad they couldn’t come to his funeral.

April 12 – Easter Sunday and spring break for Bill’s girls. He took Katie and Caroline on a cruise for a week. Nerissa had her spring break earlier.
April 30 – we took a road trip to Austin, TX to see Ron and Cindy and granddaughters Liz and Ally, and their new home. Had planned the trip in April for about a year, to see the bluebonnets and there weren’t many last year, and they were all gone.

May 3 – Dedication day for Habitat for Humanity home in Elba. I wasn’t present but was recognized for landscaping the home as a Master Gardening project.
May - our new bathroom was completed and furnished and clothes moved into the “his and hers” walk-in closets.
June 6 – Granddaughter Katie graduated from West Florence (SC) High School. We 
gave her a bicycle to have for transportation when she went to College of Charleston that fall. Couldn’t have a car on campus due to lack of parking spaces.
June 8-17 - long road trip from Florence to Charlotte to Greensboro, NC and then sisters got together at Cyndi’s (niece) in Emporia, VA on Sun. June 14 to celebrate Jake’s graduation from high school. On to Nanticoke, MD for a couple of days visiting Chris and Al. We got back to Elba on Wednesday, June 18.
July 14-21 - vacation time.
July 15 – celebrated Bill’s 51st and Jim’s 75th birthdays with a cookout at Alice and Jerry’s house in Charlotte, SC.
July 16 - Jim’s 1952 high school class reunion in Harrisburg, NC – Jim was one of the organizers and worked long and hard on getting this together and everybody had a great time.
Jul 18-20 – traveled to Olive Hill, KY to the Logan family reunion. The cousins got together on Sat. night and then the big covered dish luncheon was on Sunday in Vanceburg, KY.
Jul 20 – spent the night at Black Mountain, NC with Nell’s sister Carolyn and husband Dave and stayed at their B&B. Returned to Elba on July 21.
August 7-15 – Grandma Camp: just Caroline this year. We had fun doing this with her for a week.
Aug 21 – Nell had surgery on her eyelids at Eye South, Dr. Bryant. She spent the week-end putting ice packs on her eyes and wondered why she ever decided to have that surgery. But later it paid off since her eyesight improved so much.
August 11- went to Florence, SC to help Katie move to her dorm at College of Charleston.

Sept 26 - helped our pastor and his wife move into an apartment and store most of their furniture. The parsonage had to be abandoned due to black mold coming in from underneath the house. Did not know that they would be in that apartment for almost 2 months!
October 3 – Our 56th wedding anniversary. Also Grimes family reunion. Our family was hostess this year. Good attendance. Reunion was held at picnic pavilion at Curtis (New Ebenezer Baptist Church).
October 10 – 24th Curtis School Reunion – Judy and Guy spent the week-end with us.
October 23 – Nell went with Master Gardeners on a trip to Birmingham to Aldridge Botanical Gardens and stopped over at Petals from the Past in Jamison, AL.
November 11th – Debbie Davidson, James’ friend in Winston-Salem, died.
November 20-28 - Florence, SC. Attended Caroline’s Mock Trial competition in Lexington, NC on Sat., Nov. 21. She was awarded “Most effective Attorney” in the SC State Middle Schools competion.
Nov 25 – Nell turned 75 and celebrated with a party at Bill’s house in SC.
Nov 26 – spent the day at Sunset Beach, NC for Thanksgiving Day with lots of relatives attending.
December 3-9 – another road trip!! Austin, TX to attend Liz’s graduation from University of TX on Sunday, Dec. 6th.
Dec 8 – James’ birthday. We left Austin at 9 am that day to start home (2 day trip)
Dec 18 – had a Christmas luncheon for Nell’s cousins.
Dec. 25 - spent Christmas alone, just the 2 of us, for the first time in 55 years! Went to several Christmas gatherings at Nell’s cousins. Ate Christmas dinner with cousin Tom and wife Sharon.
Dec 27 – Aunt Ida turned 90. Went to visit her at her home in Brewton on our way home from TX earlier in Dec.

Getting ready for a new and better year – 2010.