Just a Hello!

Just want to keep the blog going daily....but just can't spend 4 or 5 hrs a day (or middle of the night) as usual on this.  Been really working on getting photos in "order"....I am really having a great time with this...every time I open a photo and begin the touch up (as much as I can) memories just flood my entire soul and I almost burst with wanting to get it all down and done.

Roy was one of the most incredible men I have ever known in my entire life.  And I knew him the longest and the best of anyone left on earth.  Oh yeah, we had times we didn't communicate for such a long time and I would say, "Okay, this is it, if you don't call me back I will never call you again.  I am tired of reaching out to you and then never hearing from you."  Then of course I would call him again and all was well and we were so close to be so far apart.  Our lives were very different; our views on life different; and the whole thing, but never was there a time we didn't love each other and love each other the most!

Then came that horrible call from him....then he called me often.....then he reached out to me....then we talked for hours on the phone....then I went to visit for a week.....and stayed for over 3 months.  It was the hardest and the most wonderful time of my life.  He became my precious little baby brother again, all grown up into an incredible human being.  He held my hand, we talked, we laughed and we cried and oh boy did we rememeber!  Many of things will be shared here as time goes on.  It a story of 65 years of memories, so it won't be short....but as I share, I do hope those of you who knew and loved him, come to know more, know the child, the teenager, the young soldier, the young daddy, the troubled years,....the whole life of him....and then love him even more....laugh, cry, talk, comment, ask me questions about gaps that may seem to not be filled soon enough for you...I will do all I can to lift him up and show you and share with you the Roy, I knew and loved.

This is why I don't write every night I just get flooded over with "stuff" and can't seem to stop.  But, stop I will tonight, for I am tired and I have lots more work to do to get this story done.  Hope folks who never heard of Roy somehow get pulled to this and learn of this extraordinay "baby brother."

Sleep well and I will post more soon.  Just one little photo for the road....

Sunflowers and Peanuts

Well, the move to Hutchinson, Kansas was a great success!  The Burney family crossed over the 5 ton bridge into Kansas in a Tom's Toasted Peanut Truck.  Well, we actually bounced over the bridge...here we come in a Peanut Truck and Sunflowers are everywhere!  Roy hated that bridge from the first time we crossed it until the last time he crossed it....that was a long hate affair and it was crossed many many times in the 10 plus years we lived there.  We always had to stop at the Port of Entry for daddy to do his mileage report on the truck.  It was just on the Kansas side of the bridge.  The bridge was an old wooden slat bridge with low rails at the sides.  It was, indeed a rickety old thing.  There will be more on the bridge later.

The rest of the road into Hutch was basically straight and flat with the beautiful Sunflowers shining and blowing in the ever blowing Kansas wind, and as we looked out the windows of the truck it looked like a huge golden quilt that was being held at one end by a giant, snapping it the way Mother snapped the sheets after they had dried on the clothesline to get the wrinkles out.  It was beautiful and it was a sight that gave me a good feeling about Kansas.  Roy liked the flowers, but he was still crying about the bridge.  It REALLY scared him.  And, being my little brother, I was trying to console him and trying to get him to look at the flowers.  He was beginning to settle a bit when all of a sudden the flowers stopped and on both sides of the road was this really weird looking low lying kind of board fence.  You got it, Roy thought we were going back over the bridge.  But, nope, this stupid looking thing on both sides of the highway (most highways in Kansas at that time it seemed) was a SNOW FENCE!  I had never heard of a snow fence, and have, to my knowledge never seen a snow fence since I left Kansas.  Kansas winters are bitter, I think it is even flatter than Oklahoma.  So, they built these snow fences to keep the blowing, and I do mean blowing snow off of the highways.  Makes sense right?  The snow is so thick you can't see your hand in front of your face and it is blowing across the prairie and comes to one of the fences and becomes huge drifts, leaving the highway clean and then on the other side of the road it would start again piling up to the other fence.  Okay, they don't really work that way, but to be perfectly honest, they never made much sense to Roy or to me as we grew up and made many many trips on that highway going to Oklahome for the weekend.....and somehow, those roads did stay clearer...and there were often times drifts four and five feet deep against the fences.  Wonder if that still happens today.

Okay, we are a bit older here, but still in grade school, I know this because this picture is taken in front of our first house and we moved from there when I was in the seventh grade.  The peanut truck is the same....it was our "family car" until I was in High School.  I hope you can tell in this picture that Roy's arm is linked in mine.  I tried to blow up this picture, but almost almost lost the entire photo.  As said, before, I am a blogger novice so in the event as time goes on, I learn to work better with it, I will make it bigger. 

I write this and sometimes I simply have to stop awhile.  As I go through the photos and remember the stories, I cry.  I cry because of the joy of remembering and I cry from the sadness of still missing him.  I cry remembering how much I loved him and protected him when we were little.  I cry remembering how he used to "drive me crazy" following me everywhere I went.  I cry like I did when I read the book "Notebook."  By the way, Roy gave me that book for Christmas when I was in Chickasha taking care of Mother.  He came and spent Christmas with us.  What a joy that was!  It was wonderful!  When he left to head back to Kerrville, it was snowing really bad....hope there were snow fences along the way.

Okay....had my cry so back at it again.  Where was I....oh yeah, we were standing by the peanut truck in the snow.....

Our house was really neat as I remember.  Rooms were huge!  Rooms look bigger with no furniture, or very little, but these rooms were big.  You can tell in the photo (if you can get it large enough) that the homes were all large, mostly two story.  Ours also was a two story, but we only occupied the bottom floor.  I seem to be having a senior moment and I can't remember if I told you that there was an apartment above us and two lesbians lived in it.  Of course, Roy and I had no idea they were lesbians....in fact we had no idea what lesbians were....we only knew they lived there, they were two girls sharing the apartment, one a school teacher and one an R.N. and we liked them.  They were fun to be around and they ate dinner with us a lot.  Donna, the school teacher was my gym teacher in Junior High.....nope, still had no idea she was a lesbian or what a lesbian was.  It was a totally different era...children were still innocent...life was "kept" from us....we were just like "Leave it to Beaver," except Mother did NOT clean house and cook dinner in high heel shoes.  

Temporary detour there, now back to our life.  Our house was huge.  Or the rooms were.  There was a front porch with brick columns that went all the way across the front and the front door was glass.  You can tell a bit about it in the following photo.  It may be WAY too big....I think I may have enlarged it.... we'll see.

As all can see, it is no larger....hhmmmm, must work on that on my own time....Okay, you can see the door, the window, the foot stool.....and Roy and his friend Toby Brown.  This was just after Christmas and I know that because Roy has on his Davy Crockett suit.  (Minus the coonskin cap)...I blew up this picture so, I will now tell you what all the items are.  Roy has the coonskin cap in his left hand and his "gun" in his right hand.  He and Toby are sitting on a "Tom's Peanut Truck."  (Wish I had that today, wonder what happened to it?)  Moving on, in the bottom right hand corner on the floor (real hardwood) there is the "Davy Crockett Fort" that goes in the large box on the left side under the window.  Under the box, sticking out you can see a "sock monkey."  But, what you cannot see, nor could I see even when I blew it up, on Roy's left wrist is an "Original - Authentic - always on time Davy Crockett watch.  That story of this particular Christmas and the "trip" we took will be in the next post.  I am already laughing hysterically remembering!!!!  Hope it is as funny for you....but I will promise you we laughed about it and talked about it for the rest of our lives.  But, now on with the house arrangements....

The house faced south and at the other end of the living room was the television, two spinning chairs that you can still find at Lynn's house to this day in her living room.  I haven't been there in over six years, but they were there the last time I was in the house.  And kids still love to spin in them.  Roy and I spun; Kurt and Scott spun; Cathy and Erin spun; Leah, Jay and Amy spun; Matthew and Ashleigh and Jessie spun; Zack and Kristi spun; Shannon, Sonya and Melanie spun and many many more have spun!  If you have been a spinner in one of these chairs let me know! 

There was also a fireplace (non-working) or we just never lit it, I don't know.  Then finally a green couch was added.  The television had one channel and it came on at 6:00 in the evening and ran until after the news at 10:00.  We were GLUED to it.  It started off with the Star Spangled Banner and ended with jet airplanes zooming through the clouds and someone reciting:

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

During the rest of the 4 1/2 hours or so between these wonderful things we watched, Ike Eisehower running in the Presedential election, Libarace and I don't remember what else.  All of course in black and white....and grainy, even with our "rabbit ears".  Then we got color tv.  It was great!  It was a piece of some kind material, about the same size as the screen and you kind of just put it over the screen.  The energy from the tv would help it to cling close to the screen.  It was colored from light at the top to like red at the bottom and as long as people were standing just right they had almost a flesh colored skin; if they bent down, their face of course was very red.....and NO we did not have remote control.  But, then I guess there was no reason for it when all you had to do was turn it off and on and move the rabbit ears around depending on the weather.

Okay, now moving north from the middle of the living room was a huge archway, also serving as the entrance into our bedroom.  Actually it was a dining room, but this was now a one bedroom apartment, but we never realized that.  We just thought we lived in a big house.  There was a double bed and a very small closet and a wardrobe cabinet with four drawers and a door on it.  This was Roy and my bedroom.   Going on north was mother and daddy's room and it was much smaller, but it had a door on it.  The closet was also larger and the bath was in their room.

Moving from "our" room you went into the big eat in kitchen and out the back door to the utility room and out the door to the huge back yard.  There was a window over the kitchen sink and I remember mother liking that as she did dishes.  She didn't like doing the dishes, but she did like a window over the sink.  She always had a kitchen window over her sink, as I recall.  

So that about does it for today and the tour of the house.  There still stories to tell about while we lived in the house and that will be coming soon.  From about 1952 - 1956.....funny stories.  See ya next blog!

The Early Years....

Well, after the throwing the baby blanket incident, the rest of the early years was basically boring.  We lived in Chickasha, OK and I realize as I have gotten older and seen a few of the places that we lived in Chickasha....we were POOR!  But, we didn't know it, perhaps we were too young, perhaps in those years we were just too happy. 

When Roy was just a baby, daddy got a job in El Dorado, AR.  He went ahead of mother and Roy and me and found a place to live and for whatever the reason, I remember that place.  I also remember the bus ride mother and Roy and I took to get there.  It was a very long ride indeed, and the first time I remember being hot.  Perhaps that is why I, to this day, cannot stand heat.  This was like in August of 1948 and the bus was, well it was a 1948 bus, you picture it for yourself.  Mainly, it was crowded and had no air conditioning.  Mother sat in the aisle seat with Roy in her lap and I sat by the window.  All suitcases were under the bus, but mother had a diaper bag for Roy supplies. 

The memory is getting more vivid as I write, and I am beginning to have a very acute sense of smell.  To make a long story short, Roy vomited all over mother and me and the floor...it was horrid.  Mother begged the bus driver to get the suitcases out so we could change clothes, but it was a no go.  We rode all the way to El Dorado in hot, stinky, puky clothes.  When we got to El Dorado, daddy picked us up at the bus station and took us to our new home.  It was an upstairs, one bedroom, unairconditioned apartment above a garage.  I remember Lyra and J.C. lived in the house on the same property and I remember that every day mother and Roy and I would have lunch and then take baths and take a two hour nap. I don't know if I remember that or mother just told me so many times about that, that I think I remember it.  I remember now, she told us she was very anemic and the doctor told her to take a two hour nap every day. Also, doctor told her to buy a fan to blow on us while we slept.  Blew hot air, I am sure.... but mother hated El Dorado, but loved Lyra and J.C.  I guess that is why it seems like it is such a memory to me.  Don't remember how long we stayed in that hot town, but don't think it was very long.  We were, as I look back on it, kind of like gypsies, but again, I didn't realize that at the time.  We moved back to Chickasha and lived in about 4 different houses before we move to Hutchinson, KS.  It was the summer before I was in third grade so I would have been 8 and Roy was 4.

There is one story about Roy, before we moved to Hutch!  He was always so curious and bright...ooops just thought of a couple more incidents so this will be a little more detailed than I had planned.  First story:  Walter and Arlene (mother's brother and his wife) lived in Norman, OK and Roy was about 4 and already interested in things peculiar.  There was a museum in Norman and Walter and Arlene talked mother in letting Roy go to Norman with them and go to the museum and spend the night.  Roy REALLY wanted to go, so mother relented.  About midnight, there was a knock at the door and there was Walter and Arlene and Roy.  At the museum there had been a showing of shrunken heads and they scared Roy.  Every time they turned the lights off to go to bed he would cry and say the shrunken heads were going to get him so they had to bring him home.

Second story:  There was a five and dime store at the corner of 4th and Chickasha Ave and Roy had gone there with Paul.  Paul had to go to town to buy something so he took Roy with him and then was going to buy him a toy at the 5 & dime.  Well, Roy wanted a "tuvel" and Paul tried everything to figure out what a tuvel was, but to no avail.  They left the store with Roy crying for a tuvel.  Paul would have bought it had he only known that it was a "convertible" car toy Roy wanted. 

He wanted one all his life and finally got one...and we went riding in it a few times when I was there in Hunt.  He would put on that safari hat and away we would go...fast around those curves in hill country and he would laugh...he really loved his "tuvel."  One day I had to go into town to go to the grocery store and do a few errands and he felt pretty good that day so he wanted to drive me in the tuvel.  It was not a good car to go shopping in....in and out...in and out...no where to put groceries....but it was great.  I remember on our way back home when we passed the coffee shop that guy with all the cars was there on the porch and Roy honked and waved and he waved back and then we saw Tony, was that his name, and honked at him and waved and Roy was having fun.  Interesting, that I never connected the two incidents about the tuvel until this very minute.  I don't think these blogs through and plan what I am going to write except for kind of an outline like I wrote several blogs ago, but as I type, my mind just jumps and wanders and my fingers just type what they want to and I just let them, a lot of times because I can't see the screen through the tears as I remember...and oh, there is so much more to remember.

Okay, on to other stuff.....that part of the story comes much later, but way too soon.....oh how way too soon.

Gonna have to put some pics in about now and give myself a little break and probably you too....but when I write again it will be about Hutch and the beginning of a new life....and how we realized then that Roy was a "runner"...he was like the wind and hard to catch even then.  Next blog, I promise.....



This is rather timely for this story time period...
He always remained by "baby brother"
and still is to this day

Look at the date on this one....
I was 7 and he was 3...
also notice he is holding my hand



Ride that horsey down to town

watch out little boy...don't 'cha fall down

Notice he has his watch on...he was always

very time conscious...never late for anything

Been Busy Been Sick Been Tired

Well, it has been awhile since I have written to you my friend blog....But life as been rather hectic here in Music City and just haven't seemed to have the time nor the get up and go.  Have been typing a book for a very dear lady, this is the second one I have done for her.  She writes them in long hand, I type them and edit them and then ... wah lah she publishes.  She was born in 1912, so when she asks me to type and edit for her I get right on it.  Wow...what a privilege!


Also, I am about to decide to just put on here what I want to and do it to "cleanse myself"... only place I can vent where I am pretty sure no one will see it.  Sounds rather snotty doesn't it?  Don't mean to be, but it seems with each passing day I become more and more confused and even distressed sometimes at what I hear people say and see them do.  I simply do not understand today's "standards," .... wait, can I even use the words "today's and standards" in the same sentence.  Don't really think it is politically correct because it might offend someone if they thought I thought there were no values, standards or morals (okay some, but very little) present in today.  It is a do what you want to do; say what you want to say; be what you want to be world.  All that is fine, don't you see, but then if I happen to disagree and say what I want to say or try to just be who I want to be, then it is not quite so fine. 

Words are the most powerful and destructive weapon in the world.  They can shatter lives.  They can break hearts.  They can cause breakdowns, not only nervous breakdowns, but breakdowns in relationships and families.  It seems to me that people don't choose their words very carefully today.  They just say whatever vile and hurtful thing they want to say and then forget about it and expect whomever they said it to, to do the same.  I see it on facebook all the time and it breaks my heart. 

It is a very different and angry world we live in today, very unlike the world I grew up in.  We had less, it is true, but what we really had was MORE!  We had families we loved and respected; we had respect for others; we had respect for authority; we had respect for our parents; we had respect for our teachers; but you know what just occurred to me...what we really had was respect for ourselves.  We were taught respect and we knew what it meant to have someone lose respect in you.  We did not want that to happen.  We were concerned about our "reputations" among our peers.  I think most of all, we were just innocent.  We were spared the hatred and violence and sex.  Don't get me wrong, I am not saying those things did not exist, I am sure they did, but they were not invading our minds and hearts everyday.  Again, we just lived in a more gentle time.  A time, I truly believe the young people of today would love as much as we older folks love it...if they were only given an opportunity to experience it. 

But, alas, they won't be afforded that opportunity.  And for that, my heart aches and breaks.  Growing old is not the most wonderful thing in the world...lots of complications come with it and as my Mom used to say, "Growing old ain't for sissies," and she was right on with that one.  But, unfortunately, or fortunately however you choose to look at it, growing old does give you a wisdom.  A wisdom that you only wish you had when you were young.  A wisdom you only wish you had when you were raising your children.  The thing is though, don't let that wisdom that you did not present when you were younger, turn into guilt.  The past is dead and gone.  It is not ever going to come back.  Oh it may haunt you at times, but it will never come back.  Your past is a great deal like words, it is over, just as the spiteful words we say are out there and we can never get them back.  So choose your words carefully.  Learn to care about others as much as you care about yourself.  We are all in this world together.  We all have rights, but none of us has the right to assume that our right is more important than anyone else's right.  First, of all, however we need to realize just what "rights" really are and what are not rights.  I think that is a major problem today, everyone thinks everything is a right...when it is not a right.  Just because I may like to do something and want to do something that does not mean I have the right to do it.

If we learned about rights and what they really mean, we would find what a great a privileged country we live in.  We still have the privilege to worship; vote; see our flag flying high and snapping in the wind; and even disagree with some people on some issues.  Remember, this privilege and freedom is not free.  Men and women have given their lives for us to be able to remain free.  But, the road we travel today is not a road to freedom, because once the respect for another's freedoms and "right's" is taken away and replaced with only room for your freedoms and rights....we wake up one day and find that none of us has them.   And, instead of flowers, we will be singing where have all our freedoms gone, long time passing.....

Blogs are really great.  You don't have to go back and check what you wrote because, it was a true feeling at the time you wrote it, whether it was right or wrong.  Still going to write the story of Roy's life in words and in pictures.  He was very much into freedoms and rights....yours as well as his.  And it began when he was a very small boy and lived with him and grew with him all the days of his life.

But, that will be in another story...this was my vent tonight.  Guess is, there will be others.  But like they say, if you don't like what I say....don't read it.  Hmmmmm, perhaps that is why this isn't catching on... maybe I should rethink....nope I am going forward. 

Peace to all.  And to all a goodnight!

Do we does or do we doesn't think this is adorable????

Cathy and Erin.....what a treat this should be for you.  He loved you so much!  Yep......there will be a story later....just a preview to get you interested.  As if, you already weren't.  I am really getting excited about doing this.  I have so many great pictures and they are all on the computer.  Now to just get them all intertwined with the stories of what was going on about that time....

Holly, wasn't he just as adorable as a baby and young daddy as he was when he fell so head over heels in love with you! 

Well, I can see this is going to become an obsession with me.  It is 1:00 in the morning and I am slammed dunk tired, yet here I sit going through old pictures and just wanting to share this with everyone.  I have never been an obsessive person, guess it just took the first story in writing to do it to me.  See, you can teach an old dog new tricks!  Good night sweet princesses of Texas...and you two princes as well.  Got a few stories for you as well, but what I lack in telling stories of you and your daddy and showing pictures of you all, I will make up by giving you a first hand look at him as he grew up and tell you some really funny stories about him that you never knew.  Wyndham you look a lot like him in a lot of the pictures I see of you on facebook.  Yes, I follow you and Connor and the girls on facebook and am so proud of each of you.  Now for real....good night! 

The World According To Roy.....The coming Chapters

Well, I got Chapter one posted, "Little Choctaw" and now I am going to give you the names of the chapters to come.  There are lots of pictures and lots of stories to go with the pictures, so be sure and not miss a Chapter.  As you may have already guessed, this is a Tribute to my brother.  Hard to write but needs to be written.  Not for the world to see, but for those who loved him to see; and were only able to see snippets of his life; only to get a glimpse of who he was and sometimes wonder why he was that way.  Complicated....to say the least; amazing....to say the most and of course everything in between. 

He was who he was and he believed in who he was.....he was the original "I shall, I shall, I shall not be moved." and there he would stay for the moment.  One of his favorite movies was "The World According To Garp," and often I called him Garp, so with that in mind, I have called this Memory Book, "The World According To Roy."

The Chapters are: 

El Dorado Here We Come....But Certainly Not Where We Started From

But, I LOVE Museums

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Toby Brown

A Christmas Story - Hats and Watches and Dominec De'BacaBella

Another Christmas Story

I am Smarter than You are

NO, I want a "Tuvel"

TeeToe TeeToe I Want a TeeToe

But I LOVE my Bowtie

Mom, is my arm SUPPOSED to do this

All of a sudden I LOVE my Sister

Too Smart for School---Too Dumb to stay out of trouble

The Move to Hot Springs -- He came for other reasons

unknown to me at the time....But He was there When I Needed Him

Flunks out of College ON PURPOSE to get Drafted....into the Marines

Leaving for Bootcamp

Bootcamp

Visit After Bootcamp..Again, there when I needed Him

Back to Camp Pendleton....Why He wasn't shipped to Viet Nam

Meets Pam-Marries Pam-Their First Home

Moving to Oklahoma...But afraid Healthy Baby will Hurt me....How Sweet.....How Wrong

Happy 30th Birthday.....NOT

Las Vegas Trip--This chapter will be a book and You will LYAO

Leaving Las Vegas

Cat Stevens....what a concert

You Did WHAT With My Car

Moves Into Karen Silkwood's House

Why Do I have to have a TV just because I signed up for Cable

HodgePodge of Years

Enter Angie

More to come.....Stay Tuned.  You won't want to miss a second

And thou shalt call His name.....

And thou shalt call His name Jesus,

Prince of Peace, Mighty God,

Wonderful, Counselor, Holy One

Lamb of God, Prince of Life

LORD God Almighty

Lion of the tribe of Judah

Root of David

Word of Life

Author and Finisher of our Faith

Advocate

The Way

Dayspring

Lord of all

I AM

Son of God

Shepherd and Bishop of Souls

Messiah, The Truth, Saviour

Chief Cornerstone

King of Kings

Righteous Judge

Light of the World

Head of the Church

Morning Star

Son of Righteousness

LORD

Jesus Christ

Chief Shepherd

Resurrection and Life

Horn of Salvation

Governor

The Alpha and Omega

The Great I AM

Thanks to all who are visiting and what to expect......

First of all, I know nothing about blogs.  For instance it says "add enclosure link" at the top of this and I have no idea what that means.  So, at least for now, I won't be doing that.  If anyone is blog savy and can help me out, leave a comment, call me write me an email, post on facebook or whatever.  Until then......

Secondly, this is going to be a journey and some will need a road map to follow it.  Sometimes, even I may get lost, but will try hard not to.  If I do, we can work our way out together.

Thirdly, there will be several segments to the blog and they will include the following:  The World According To Roy, which I have been wanting to do for over four years now, but somehow could just never do it.  I have the "chapter titles" in my book, but could never write the chapters.  I am left the only survivor of my "family."  I can tell you for sure, it is not a fun place to be.  I suppose most of us, as we age, figure that we will lose our parents; we are not ready for it and we do not want it but, we are somehow prepared.  I was more prepared for mother's passing, because she had been so sick for so long and her quality of life was so poor.  I was not at all prepared for my daddy's passing, he wasn't sick a day....just went to sleep and didn't wake up the next morning.  Took me a long time to get over that one....don't know yet how long as I still am not over it completely.  But, my baby brother....my only sibling; my only family from my "first family," think about him daily, miss him daily and laugh about many of the things that you, his children and grandchildren, probably never knew.  Well, unfortunately Cathy and Erin, you did know quite a bit, but you also had the wonderful privilege of seeing him grow into the wonderful strong man he was.  Holly, you, Roy and I talked about some of these things while I was there in Texas with you so you can attest to the truthfulness of some of the things that sound like noooooo, that just can't be true, but it was.

So, I will be telling the story of "The World According to Roy."  You won't want to miss a chapter.  Lots of pictures, probably pictures you have never seen.  I won't write a chapter every day, but I will often and I will try to let you know somehow what the "topic" of the day will be.

Fourthly, there will be many topics of the day: Polymer Clay and jewelry making and how it came to be....you can thank Holly, Marie and Heidi for that one; new business venture and what it is and why it is; High School Buddies, and I really mean High School Friends and how we got together after 46 years of not even talking to one another, much less seeing or sharing our lives with one another---that was really pretty stupid on all our parts to let 46 years go by....DON'T LET THAT HAPPEN TO YOU....KEEP UP WITH YOUR FRIENDS.  They know every single thing about you from the time you were in junior high...I don't think there is a junior high anymore....unimportant....I was talking about knowing everything about each other and still loving you.  And friends, unlike family, do not JUDGE you...they just love you.  It is wonderful for that one week a year when we all get together and become 15 all over again....hoping to add more to the yearly get together's, but even if we can't see each other, for goodness sake we can talk.......; politics I am sure will come up at some point...my or my what a volatile subject that is today; then religion will be discussed, again volatile but nevertheless a topic; and who knows what else!!!!!

One of the reasons I called this blog "Memories are just that" is because if you just thought of it a second ago, it has already become a memory.  We can have old memories, new memories, good memories, and bad memories, but we all have memories and that is exactly what they are:  memories.

Enjoy the ride~  Please comment on what you read...what you thought or think...become a part of someone's "memories."  You will be glad you did and so will they.....Also, feel free to change the topic of the day by commenting on something completely different than what you read....

I'll be seeing you, if only in my memories.  BonnieB

On the move now

What a lovely day to awaken and find I have 6 comments, okay, 3 of them are from me, but I did have 3 more.  Keep em coming.  Not only that, but I have 4 followers.  I am so excited I don't know what to do.  I am officially a blogger.

Cathy, Erin, Wyndham, Connor, and Holly this is for you.  There will be along the way some Eclectic Arbor things, and pics of things to sell....but I really expect even the buyers that come to this site to read this story of "Little
Choctaw"

Chapter One:  Little Choctaw

Today, I will start this off with a wonderful story about a youngster called "Little Choctaw."  Many of you knew him and many of you love him.  I knew him best, but though I loved him more than words could ever say, I am sure others loved him more, or at least thought they did.  But, he was my baby brother and mine he was, right from the very start.  Born on March 5, 1948 in Chickasha, OK, it was thought he might not live, but live he did, and made quite a mark on the world, I might add. 

He simply would not cry.  Dr. Roy Edgar Emanuel, whom he was named after, had been killed in an airplane crash just prior to his birth.  Dr. Roy had delivered me and was going to deliver Roy.  Mother worked for Dr. Roy for years and trusted him like you wouldn't believe (He even took my dad's tonsils out...OUCH).  When he and his nurse were killed, Mother didn't know what she was going to do.....like she had a really big choice 8 months pregnant in Chickasha, OK.  So, she did the only thing she could do.  She went to the "other" doctor and he delivered Roy. 

 Breathing problems ensued and the whacking began.  Finally that cry....that sweet first cry.  I didn't get to see Roy for several days and I could hardly wait.  WOW my very own baby brother.

They brought him and Mother home from the hospital in about two weeks and I finally could touch and look and touch and rub and touch this little thing.   He wasn't really what I had expected, he didn't play or talk and he didn't have any teeth.  But, he sure had a lot of black hair.  Mother and Daddy let me hold him as long as I was sitting down, and let me tell you, I sat down a lot in those days.  I loved holding him.  He was mine.

I have this uncle that was a huge teaser (still is as a matter of fact)...got big laughs out of teasing me.  I realize now that he loved me and that was why he, as my mother used to say, "nearly deviled me to death."  Not really so much fun being the teaseie....is that a word?  Especially at nearly 4 years old.  Why, my land, I was just a baby myself. 

Anyway, Roger and Billye came to see us at Neenies house and when they left, Roger gathered up Roy's diapers, some little shirts, his diaper bag and then had some folded blankets in his arms.  He said bye and he was taking Roy with them and walked out the door onto the front porch.  I, of course, began screaming and crying and chasing and begging,  "please don't take my baby brother!"  I followed clear out the door and onto the porch about 8 feet behind them....screaming and crying, when Roger turned around and said to me, "Well, if you are going to be such a crybaby then, just keep him." 

At this point he threw the blankets at me and I shuffled and grab and cried, but they went everywhere....I couldn't get them all before they fell on the ground.  I was completely shattered and everyone thought it was funny because, as you probably have guessed, Roy was not in the blankets, but rather sleeping peacefully in his bassinet.  I could not be comforted.  The person I loved most was no where to be found.  Finally after what seemed a very long time and the laughter had died down somewhat, I was picked up and taken to his bassinet and saw him sleeping.  I was no longer crying, yet I was still sobbing.  This is my first real memory of my baby brother and I knew then, I would always love him and try to keep him safe.  But, as we grew older it was nigh on impossible .... he could always out run me.

One More Once

Guess you could say this is a test!!!!! Going to try it again...being as my life is so full and interesting to everyone in the entire world. Going to try to figure out how to let all of you know how to get to me on this blog and how to blog back to me......here goes