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!