There is something about beginning a new year that makes our minds turn back to the days gone by.  We relish recalling those special moments when we were close as a family.  The stories we remember most fondly are those that gave us a laugh, or created a warm feeling inside us.  They are what bind us together as a family.

Since we have lost both our parents, the gathering together is not as often as it once was.  We each have our own family of children, grandchildren, and now even great-grandchildren.  Our way to keep in touch is by e-mail. Thank goodness for the invention of e-mail.  I hear from Patsy and Mamie almost daily, sometimes several times a day.  It keeps us close.

In this year of 2004, the idea came to me to write down some stories of the years when our children and grandchildren were young.  Stories we tell "Now and Then" when we are together.  This is the collection of some of those stories.  When the story is written in the first person, I will include the name of the author for that story.

By recalling these stories from the past, we relive those precious days when our children were young, and we look forward to the future.  We have hope for the generations to come.  We want to see them grow, achieve, and become productive members of their community.

Somewhere around the canyon, we got into a mud puddle.  Ray was not used to driving in mud so naturally he got stuck.  There was nothing to do but get out and walk to the house.  Ray got the suitcase and I slung the diaper bag and my purse over one shoulder and carried Ronald as we set out.  Ray lit a cigarette and as we walked, I could see the end glow red in the darkening night as he took another drag.

He started complaining of the mud.  "Looks like they could do something to fix these roads.  No one should have to live on roads like this.  I've never seen anything like this in my life."  And the topper of it all: "I wouldn't trade one square foot of Fort Worth for the whole state of Oklahoma."  It would be an understatement to say he was not a happy camper.

We finally made it to the house. Mama and Daddy greeted us at the door, took Ronald and had us stand by the fire to get warm.  I said something about tracking mud into the house.  Daddy said not to worry about that.  Then he looked at my feet, "Where is your other shoe?" he asked.  They found it the next day about half way from the house to the car.  Seems it had come off and I just kept on walking through the mud with one bare foot.  I guess I didn't want to cause any more problems for an already unhappy Ray.

Mama got up and started looking out the window to see people coming.  I was making beds and sweeping the floor.  She kept peering out the window until a car finally appeared at the top of the hill.  Finally, everyone got there and we had lunch.  After that we opened presents, then gathered a few pecans, watched the football game, played some '42'...

It was about 8:30 or 9:00 at night and everyone was still laughing and having a good time.  Mama turned to me and said, "This has been the longest day of my life." I guess all the anticipation and excitement of the day had been overwhelming.

The repairman took down all the information, then said, "Stand on the front porch and wave us down if we go past the house."  Virginia answered, "If you follow my directions, you won't go past the house.  The road ends at our front door."

As she got older, her thinking was not as sharp as it once was, but she still held her own pretty good.  It became a tradition that on the final game, we would distract her attention while someone chose an '84' hand and placed it in front of her during the shuffle.  She could hardly contain herself until it was her time to bid.

One time we thought it would be something special to pick out all the sixes so that when she drew, she would have a perfect hand.  All went well.  She started drawing and about the fourth domino she drew that was a six, you could see a grin.  As she drew each of the other three needed, she could hardly contain herself.  We had it rigged that someone would bid '84' or two marks, just to get her to overbid.  When it was her turn, she looked up at James and said, "Do you think I could make 3 marks?"  He grinned (chuckled even) and said, "I think so."  Then we pretended we were going to make her go set.  She led the double six, and of course no one could follow suit, but we pretended we didn't notice that.  She kept on until she brought all of them in. Then she said, "Did I make it?"  ha ha ha

It was Patsy's time to take her back to the "Home".  Patsy said she laughed and talked about it all the way there.  She probably told everyone at the "Home", who would listen to her, about it.  ha ha.  It was such pleasure to see the twinkle in her eye when she would see them all alike as she'd set them up.  Weeks later she still mentioned it and said, "I can't believe I got all the sixes."

When we were young girls, we would go to Grandma's house.  Aunt Mamie had a wind-up Victrola and a record of laughing.  That was all that was on the record, just some man laughing over and over, in different ways.  We would put that on and start to laugh with him.  We laughed at the record then laughed at each other laughing.  Must have driven Grandma and Aunt Mamie crazy.

One Thanksgiving, the scene played itself out in real life.  Cindy had to work during the holiday, so R. M. and Mamie brought Jordan who was about 4 years old, and sort of timid.  Toward the end of the day, though, she had warmed up.  During a lull in the conversation, she shyly walked up to Virginia and touched her with the tip of her finger.  Then she giggled.  This brought laughter at her laughter.  Then she did it again and touched Virginia who laughed a hearty 'fake' laugh.  Jordan responded with genuine laughter.

It became a game.  She would point her finger and touch someone.  They would respond with uproarious laughter and she would giggle and laugh, eyes twinkling.  We began to laugh at the one who was touch.  We laughed at Jordan.  And then we laughed at each other.  As our Daddy would have said, we had our giggle box turned upside down.

When we got to the creek, we discovered that dead trees and debris had collected and formed a dam, which backed the water up.  The crossing was under three feet of water.  We had two options.  We could walk back the way we came, or we could use a dead tree that had fallen across the creek as a footbridge.  Patsy opted for the fallen tree.

We made our way upstream a short distance through briars and bushes.  When we reached the fallen tree, Patsy stood up and walked straight across.  Mamie followed close behind, then David and Jeffrey followed her.  That left Lauren and me on this side while the others were on the other side urging us on.  Lauren and I looked at the water, and decided it would be a long way to fall, and the water was sure to be cold.  We sat down, straddled that log and scooted our way across, inch by inch.  The others stood on the other side laughing at us and slapping their knees in glee.  But we didn't care; we just kept inching along, green slime getting all over my jeans.

I know we explored where the old saw mill use to be and went by the lily pond and talked about the time we'd picked lilies there and Uncle Greenberry said they were "pisen".  We followed a cow trail all the way to the southwest corner.  The kids were amazed that we could see the highway from there and we all mentioned that we had never been on that part of our property before.  We had been to the northeast corner, southeast, and northwest, but that was the first for the southwest.  As we walked, it was recalled that mama had said that she couldn't get lost on our property because she knew every pig trail on it.  I'll bet she did too!

I don't remember much about the adventure, except we all enjoyed exploring a part of our property that we'd never seen before.

The explorers were Missy, Alexis, Mamie, Cindy, David, Jeffery, Lauren, Patsy, Jon, Christi, Virginia.  We went south from the house.  Missy stopped and snapped a picture of a farm implement in the grass, a cultivator perhaps.  She took other pictures along the way.

We continued through the pecan bottom, stopping and picking up what few pecans we could find that year.  We explained to the younger generation where the mulberry tree used to be and how we climbed in it and ate the mulberries.  This was also the trail that let to the plum thicket that yielded such plump, juicy fruit for jelly and pies.

We passed by the site where just months earlier Leon's tractor had gotten swamped by a sudden storm that had the creek out of its banks.  He had been working there clearing some underbrush.  He left it and went to the house, never thinking the water would get that high.

At the southeast corner, we posed for a picture.  Christi must have taken it; she was not in the picture.  Then we turned north and followed the fence line to the northeast corner.  It was pretty easy walking most of the way because all that timber has been cleared.  We told the kids that this was where Mama was gathering guinea eggs and was scared by a snake.  She fell and broke her wrist. It never did heal properly.

Just as we got a little past Ryan, it began to snow.  James and R. M. stayed home, so Mamie was driving and we were nearly side swiped by a pickup truck.  The farther we went, the harder the snow came down.  By the time we got to the homeplace, it had accumulated about 2 or 3 inches.  We had begun to wish we hadn't made the journey by the time we got there, because the roads got really slippery.  No sooner did our car get stopped, until the kids piled out and began throwing snowballs.  Guess who threw them right back?

Mike made a sled and took the kids to a hill on Porter's place and they would slide down the hill of the water tank.  He also pulled them behind his pickup.  Mike showed them a good time, while enjoying it himself.  Later they made a snowman.  They played in the snow all day.  Mama really enjoyed watching them play in the snow.  She would stand at the front door and watch them.

Really, there isn't much to write about it, other than the kids played in it the livelong day.  It didn't matter how cold it was.  They didn't have any gloves, so they put stockings on their hands and put plastic bags on them with big rubber bands.  You can imagine how long they stayed dry.  Ha ha.

The crazy part about our going was there was snow on the ground here and in Oklahoma, too, before we even left.  We went just so they could go to the rodeo.  The snow quickly melted and we didn't have any trouble returning home.

I continued attending the RV Club functions.  Robbie helped me with problems dealing with camping.  He helped me select a car or two.  Earlier in the year the two couples had signed to host the rally in October.  We decided to go ahead with those plans even if it was just the two of us.  During that time in East Texas, Robbie and I went out to eat together several times.  We were married in January 1999.

One morning we started to church, and I didn't find the paddle.  I searched all the rooms and it was not to be found.  We went on to church like that for a few weeks.  Then, one day I was cleaning house and decided it was time to turn the mattresses.  When I pulled Ronald's mattress up to turn it over, I spied that paddle.  It was lodged in the bedsprings.  You know back then, we didn't have box springs, they were open.  Evidently he had crawled under the bed and thought he had found a fail-safe place to hide it.  I pulled it out, took it to my room, and the following Sunday showed it to him as I put it in my purse.  His eyes were as big as saucers.

It was in that church that he became good, go-everywhere-with friends of Eddie Smith.  They spent many weekends together.  Sometimes with us.  Sometimes with Eddie.  One time they came to me and wanted Ronald to spend the night with Eddie.  I don't remember the reason, but I told Ronald, "Not this time."  They went around the corner and I heard Eddie say, "Go back and cry.  Maybe she will change her mind."  Ronald replied, "Not my Mother.  When she says 'No' she means 'No'."  I had to smile.

But I think he would have to admit that the opposite of that was true. When I said 'yes' it also meant 'yes'.  There were not many times I promised to do something for or with him that I didn't keep my word.  We did many things together:  played putt-putt golf, took him to little league games, movies.  He learned to swim at the YMCA.  We spent many weekends at the municipal pool or on Lake Tyler at the swimming hole, with a picnic lunch.  Once we flew a kite.  Eddie was with us many of those times.  Ronald taught Eddie how to swim.

After we moved to Lindale, we didn't see Eddie that much.  Ronald made new friends in that neighborhood:  Jeff Jones, Buddy Baker and Jay Woodson.  Many times they got together for game of Monopoly or Tripoly.

Jay lived across the street from us and was at our house a lot.  We had a small garden one year.  I planted some okra and it made in abundance.  Any time Jay was at the house when I was frying okra, he would ask to eat with us.  I always made him call home to get permission from his mom.  She never refused.  Funny how that works.  He would always phrase the question as "Ronald's mother wants to know if I can eat supper with them."

One day when I got home from work, Jay and Ronald were in the kitchen making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Ronald had poured them each a glass of milk.  He picked up one of the glasses and it slipped from his hand.  Of course it broke on the tile floor, splattering milk all over.  Jay jumped and looked at me.  Ronald grabbed some paper towels and started blotting.  He picked up the glass and put it in the trash can.  It looked like he had it under control, so I turned to go to the bedroom to change clothes.  I heard Jay say, "Is that all?  Is she not going to say anything?" Ronald replied, "In this house, when you make a mess, you clean it up."

You can imagine my surprise when he started to school and made every grade the teacher had to give, A to F.  We spent many hours trying to determine the reason for this.  We took him to Early Childhood Development Clinic.  There they put him in a room and watched him play.  Then they interviewed me and determined it was my fault because I didn't hold him on my knee and cuddle him.  Did you ever try to hold a squirming puppy that only wanted to get down and run?  Well, that was my Ronald when he was young.  No cuddling for him.

We went to see a child psychologist.  They put him through some tests and interviewed me as well.  I came out a little better with that one.  He told us he was just a normal kid.  You don't know how relieved I was to hear that.

The grades continued that way until: He reached puberty; We moved to Lindale; He came under the influence of Coach Prater; Manley and I married and he finally had a father figure.  I don't know if it was any one or all of those situations, but when he was about 14, life turned around and he began to make the grades I knew he was capable of making.

He grew up.  He presented me with Rebecca.  Many times he would get started on something.  Rebecca doesn't eat this, that or the other.  I smiled and said, "I had a little boy like that one time."

"Rebecca could make better grades if she turned in her homework."

"I had a little boy like that one time."

"Why can't she see that for every zero she gets, it takes 5 or 6 100's to offset it?"

"I had a little boy like that one time."

So the conversations went.  Every time he had a complaint, I responded with "I had a little boy like that one time."

One day he was out visiting.  Rebecca had done something that I didn't consider all that bad, but Ronald had landed on her with both feet.  When he finished and Rebecca was out of sight, I said to him, "Ronald, sometimes I think you are too hard on Rebecca."  He quietly answered, "I had a Mother like that one time."

When Ronald was born, Ray wanted him to be a Junior, so that is what we did.  Ray also requested we not shorten it to Ronnie, but to call him Ronald.  And that is what we did.

When Ronald was in the 4^th grade, the state of Texas ended their policy of 'right to choose' the school a child attended.  Ronald was moved from Gary Elementary where he had gone since he was in kindergarten.  He was placed in Peete, which was predominantly a black school.

He had one teacher there who insisted on calling him Roland.  He tried several times to get her to understand it was Ronald not Roland.  One day she called on him in class using the name Roland.  He just sat there.  She repeated her request a couple of times, but still he sat as if he didn't even hear her.  She finally came up to his desk and said, "When I ask you to do something, I expect you to obey, Roland." He looked at her and said, "My name is not Roland.  It is Ronald."

She finally got the message.

After Manley and I were married, we bought him a new 10-speed bicycle for Christmas one year.  We hid it from him in plain sight, in the box it came in, propped on the side of the carport.  He walked past it for weeks and didn't even see it.

When Ronald was 16 he took driver's education and got his license to drive.  Manley put forth a proposition to him at that time.  We could buy him a car but he would have to earn the money for the gasoline and insurance.  Or he could use one of our vehicles any time he wanted to for free.  He loved his bicycle so much, he decided to continue riding it and borrow the car or truck to go to Civil Air Patrol meetings.

One day I was having my hair cut at the beauty shop next door to the candy store in Lindale.  Brenda was snipping away and got to laughing.  She told me that every so often she would see Ronald go into the candy store and come out with a sack of licorice sticks.  He would pull one out and eat it, then stow the others in a compartment in his bicycle.

Ronald was not hungry for supper one night, so I looked at him and said, "You know. If you didn't eat that licorice you have stashed in your bicycle, you would eat a better, more healthful supper."  You could see surprise written all over his face.  Naturally he wanted to know how I knew that.  I just smiled and replied, "A mother always knows."

When we were first married, he presented Ronald with an option.  He talked to him one morning and told him to think about what he was going to propose.  He would not require an answer until the evening.

He said that he would leave it to Ronald what form their relationship should take.  He said if Ronald wanted to continue with things the way they were, with just his mother giving him instructions, then he would honor that and not say anything.  But if Ronald wanted Manley to have a voice in decisions, setting of rules, and discipline, he would be glad to do that as well.  He left it to Ronald to decide.  That evening Ronald said he wanted Manley to be a part of the decision making.  (It is probably a good thing Ronald decided that way, because I am not sure Manley could have sat by idly while something did not go to suit him.)

It wasn't long before that decision was put to the test.  It was Ronald's chore to carry out the garbage each evening.  I would remind him, but he would get involved in TV and tell me to "wait a minute".  Most times it would be out of his thoughts.  One evening I started my usual routine of reminding him a second time when Manley caught my eye, and shook his head.  I looked a question, but he indicated it would be OK.  I didn't say anything else.

Sure enough, when we went to bed, the garbage had not been carried out.  At 5:30 the next morning, when Manley got up to get ready for work, he went to Ronald's room and knocked on the door.  He said, "Ronald, your mother asked you to carry the garbage out last night and you didn't do it.  You need to get up right now and carry it out."  Needless to say, that got Ronald's attention.  He was not one to be bright eyed in the morning.  But he did crawl out of bed and carry out the garbage.  Needless to say, that was the last time he failed to do it at nighttime.

Another time Ronald came home and said he had a run in with two black kids.  He said they were always picking on him.  Never alone, but only when the two of them were together.  Manley said, "Get in the pickup.  Let's go."

Well, Ronald went with him.  They drove to the school where they found the two boys shooting basketballs on an outdoor court.  Manley pulled up in the pickup.  He didn't get out.  All they could see was his upper torso, and if you remember, he was muscular in his upper body.

He talked with the kids.  Told them he had been working with Ronald on his defensive techniques.  Told them that Ronald was ready to fight them, one at a time.  He was there to make sure they didn't gang up on him.  Well, when Ronald heard that he was being offered a fight, he swallowed a lump, and shook a little in his shoes.  He was never much of a fighter and skinny as a rail back then.  Both of the other kids were pretty husky.  As Manley felt like they would, they both backed down.  Said they didn't have any problems.  Manley accepted that but told them any time they picked on Ronald again they would have to settle it with their fists.  I think Ronald was more than happy to come home at that point.  But....the kids never bothered him again.

After Ronald got his 10-speed bicycle for Christmas, he quit riding the school bus and rode the bicycle instead.  He carried a lock and secured it to the rack at the school.

One morning, it was raining cats and dogs.  I was just finishing the breakfast dishes when he came to me and asked if I would drive him to school.  The bus had already run and he didn't want to ride his bicycle in the rain.  I said, "Well, I'll tell you what.  I'll go back to your room.  If the bed is made, the answer is yes.  If not, then the answer is no."

He said, "Can you give me 5 minutes?"

I told him it would take about that long to finish the dishes.  In 5 minutes I went to look.  What do you know?  The bed was made.  It became a routine then, for him to make the bed if he was going to ask for a favor.  After a while, he began making the bed just in case something came up.  Our Daddy always said there was more than one way to skin a cat.

When I returned home, James and I continued our friendship by corresponding via 3-cent letters.  When he wasn't working, he would come to Oklahoma to see me.

In late July of that summer, James asked me to marry him.  Since I was only 17 years old and still had another year of High School, I told him that we'd have to ask Daddy.  The following weekend, James drove to Oklahoma, and asked Daddy if he and I could get married.  With Daddy's consent, came two requests.  He asked me to promise that I would finish High School, which I did.  The other request was that we find a Church home.  Again, I promised him we would.

In late August, I enrolled in Ringling High School for my Senior year, but I only went long enough to check out, because James and I had chosen our wedding date for September 6th, the same as my Mama and Daddy's.

On August 24th, I packed my belongings, said my good-byes, and came to Azle to stay with Leon and Jeannie to be married the following weekend of September 6th.

I had no idea what dress I would wear to be married, but I knew I wanted it to be white, the sign of purity.  Since this was in September, it wasn't easy to find a white dress.  All the dark colors were out for the fall season, but somehow, Virginia managed to find a white embossed street length dress, and glass slippers.  The dress was a little large, so Virginia altered it for me.  Never having a "store bought" dress, you can only imagine how beautiful the dress was to me.

On a rainy Saturday night, September 6, 1958 at 7:00 p.m., a local preacher in Azle Texas married James and me, with Leon and Jeannie standing with us as witnesses.

I enrolled in Azle High School on Monday, September 8.  Going to school at Azle was a big adjustment and a little difficult at first.  Coming from a relatively small school, Azle School seemed pretty large and quite different.  I didn't make friends readily, because I didn't feel that I had things in common with the other girls.  After all, I was married.  Others talked about "dates", while I concentrated on household chores.  I eventually became friends with a couple of girls, Pat Smith and Sharon Williams.  As it turned out, Sharon was married, too, so we had common interests.

Though the early going at Azle school was a struggle, I did manage to "hang in there" to complete my Senior year, graduating from Azle High School and receiving my Diploma, May 1959, thus accomplishing what I had promised myself and Daddy.

"Our adjustment years" were the years that James and I had to adjust to being "a couple".  In the spring of 1962, we received the news that we were going to have our first child.  So now our thoughts shifted from "the two of us" to "the three of us".  I began to make preparations for the new arrival, due in January of '63.

The fall of 1962, brought some sadness to our lives.  I went into early labor and delivered twin babies, a boy and a girl, weighing 2 pounds each.  The odds of survival were virtually none in those days for premature babies, especially 3 months premature.  Carla Kay passed from this life November 30th and Danny Ray passed away December 1st, leaving a void in our lives.

James Kent was born to us March 5, 1964, and then two years later on June 13th our daughter, Shelley Reneé was born.  What a challenge we suddenly were thrust into, rearing these children and feeling the responsibility of developing them into being responsible adults.

The next few years of raising these children presented times of anxiety, challenges, and struggles.  During the early years, life revolved around the usual activities, "football, baseball, and softball".  In the later years, Kent was on the National Honor Society and was involved in High School sports and Choir.  Shelley became involved in Band.  You talk about your "challenges"!

In 1973 at the age of 33, I gave birth to another set of twins, Chad Eric and Christi LeAnn.  This time the twins were full term, weighing in at 7 pounds each.  The responsibility of raising them to become mature, responsible adults became doubled!  Again, we would go through the years of childhood and adolescence, with increasing pressures.

Chad and Christi shared the spotlight at graduation as they received their diplomas on the same night. Christi later went on to college and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education.

One scary moment that I remember was when we were at the top of Pikes Peak.  We had gone into a souvenir shop.  I was helping Shelley pick out a souvenir.  I picked up a T-Shirt that said, "I survived Pikes Peak" and asked Shelley "what about this?"  I didn't get a response from her.  I turned and looked to see Shelley stretched out on the floor, looking very pale.  I called for help, at which time a nurse administered oxygen.  The high altitude had caused her to become short of oxygen, causing her to pass out.

We had a ping-pong table in the garage.  So, one summer I made up a tournament.  I had just beaten Lonnie, who went out and told Kent, (climbing in the big tree by the patio), that I had won the match he and I played.  Now he (Kent) had to play me.  That's when Kent rubbed his hands together and said, "this shouldn't take long."  (And it didn't!  haha)

Little did Kent know that I had played in ping-pong tournaments as a young girl.  I ended up beating Kent about 21 to 2.  haha.  He went back outside where the other kids were and they were laughing about how much I beat him and he said, "Well, she ought to win, she's been playing for 40 years."   hahaha. I was just barely 40 years old at the time.

I probably shouldn't have humiliated him like that, but you know me...he was making his brags that it wouldn't take long to beat me, so I had to show him.  Remember, "Patsy likes to win."  he...he.

It was about the third game of the season and we had driven to University Drive, I believe, and Kent didn't play one inning!  Because it was in the rules that every child would get to play at least one inning, I confronted the coach about it.  Not only did the coach tell me that Kent would play the next game, but that he would START the next game.  Well, the first inning came and went, Kent sat in the dugout, the second inning came and went, Kent stayed in the dugout, the third the same, Kent remained in the dugout, etc.  I was getting angrier every passing inning!

Finally, I told a friend, Shirley Garner, who was sitting with me, that if Kent didn't go out the last inning, I was going out on the field and get his shin guards and we were going home.  Sure enough, the 5th and final inning came up (they only played 5 innings).

I watched eagerly as all the boys in the dugout started putting their caps on and grabbing their gloves to go out in the field.  And there sat Kent, the only little boy left in the dugout.  When I saw the sadness on his face, I turned to Shirley and asked her if she'd watch the babies (Chad & Christi) because I said, "I'm fixing to make a scene."  She said she didn't blame me, and she would watch the babies.

So, with fists clinched, I marched out on the field and yelled, "TIME OUT!!!" at the top of my voice.  I proceeded to tell the coach how sorry I thought he was.  I turned to the umpire, Jim Bob Nation, (also head of the Little League), and told him how that Kent had never gotten to play in a game yet and he hadn't missed any practices and there were boys out there playing that had missed several practices.  The rule was if you miss practice, you don't play.  Jim Bob, trying to console me said, "Mrs. Gilley, I'll take care of it."  I turned to the coach and said, "And I want those shin guards too...right now!!!"  They were using Kent's shin guards, but Kent wasn't good enough to play.  I'll tell you I was one hot mama!!!

As I walked off in front of the coach, I turned to him and said, "You sorry outfit!"  He looked up into the stands at his wife who was observing the whole incident and said, "Honey, you can have her, whip her if you want to, I'm through with her."  To which I glared into the stands, with my fist still clinched and replied, "Just let her try!"  I was so mad I wouldn't have been afraid to take on Muhammad Ali.  hahahahaha! Well, maybe I wasn't that mad, but I was pretty dang disturbed, to say the least!

The coach had said to me, "If he'd watch how it's done when he's sitting in the dugout, instead of playing in the dirt, he might learn how to play."  To which I asked him, "So if you watched me play the piano and never got to play it, then you should be able to sit down and play it from watching me?"  That's when he yelled to his wife in the stands that she could whip me if she wanted to.

And that's how that story went.  It may have been a case of "mama bear defending her cub", but I like to think it was the principle of the matter.  You know something?  To this very day I can still see the disappointment on Kent's face as he sat there again in that dugout knowing he wasn't going to play this game either.

The next day Jim Bob called me and said he was putting Kent on another team.  Rusty Landers' dad was the coach.  Needless to say, Kent got to play every game and got better and better as the season went on.  He never was the fastest runner, but I guarantee you, he got to where he could slug that ball pretty good!

There were times in the early years that we've had to struggle with finances.  We lived on one moderately average income, and were raising 4 kids, sending them to school and making sure all their needs were met.

At one time, we had the oldest son being involved in sports, choir, and shop and we had our oldest daughter involved in sports, band, and choir.  Then we had the two little ones just starting to school and having activities they were involved in.

Needless to say, it made for some hard times right about then.

I had a good friend, Azalea Shawver, whom God had blessed her with money well above her necessities.  When she learned that Shelley wasn't going to get to play in the band because we were in a financial bind and couldn't buy her an instrument, guess what she did?

Yep!  She learned that Shelley wanted to play the flute, so she went to a music store and bought her one.  I was so humbled by the fact that she would do that for her, but yet felt as though I owed her something for it.  When I asked her about paying her back for the flute, she said........

"You know, in our walk with God, we need to learn to be a good 'receiver' as well as a good 'giver'".  I said, "But.....".   "No", she said, "I won't hear of it.  I want to be blessed and if you're not able to receive, how can God bless me?"  She said, "We need to learn how to receive as well as give...that's very important.  So, what I'm saying is, I will be blessed by doing this for you, only if you're able to receive my giving."  I thought that was a very good lesson, and I had never thought of it that way before.

When Cindy was five months old, we moved from 113 Shady Lane to 921 Red Bud Drive, where we still reside today.  We made one bedroom her nursery.  We had painted a dresser and a chest mint green with white drawer fronts and the crib was white.

The first trip we took with Cindy was to San Antonio when she was about 7 mos. old.  When we came back home and put her in her crib, she scooted from one end of the crib to the other.  She was glad to be in her own bed.

Cindy learned to walk when she was ten months old.  She would stand at the big picture window and wait for R.M. to come home from work.  He would peck on the window to her then she would run to greet him at the door.

In the fall of 1967, on October 27, our second daughter, Melissa Gaylene was born.  She was a tiny little thing weighing only 5 lbs. 12 ozs. and measuring a mere 19 inches long.  Being born so close to Halloween, she became known as "our little spook."  R.M.'s mother once again came to help.  I was more appreciative this time.

When Missy was about a week old, imagine my surprise when Cindy brought her to me.  Cindy was four months shy of 3 years old, and had gotten her out of the cradle by herself.

Mama, Daddy and Marion came for a visit one Sunday.  We were at Patsy's house.  The Cowboy game was on TV.  Missy was about 18 months old.  When the cheerleaders began dancing on the sideline, Missy would get in front of the TV and bob up and down.  Daddy laughed at her.  He sure got a kick out of that.

They quickly became little girls.  I was preparing supper one afternoon.  I had set the table with the plates and glasses.  With my back to Missy, who was sitting at the table, I heard her say, "Look Mama".  I turned and looked to see.  She had stacked the glasses!  Neat trick for a 3 year old.

One summer in '73 the girls were out in the garden playing.  They liked to dig with the shovel.  Missy came running to the house saying breathlessly, "Mama, help.  Cindy is stuck in a hole."  I went to see what she was talking about.  Cindy had dug a hole, deep and narrow, and had gotten down in it but couldn't get out.

It was in the spring of 1974 that Cindy and Missy were both saved during the revival services at our church.  We have gone to the First Baptist Church of Castle Hills in Azle since 1963.

We didn't vacation much with the girls but we did take them to White Sands in New Mexico one summer.  Oh, yes.  If we heard, "how much further" or "are we almost there" once, we heard it a dozen times.  We stopped at Carlsbad Caverns then went to the White Sands.  That was in 1974.  Cindy was 9 and Missy 7.

One summer, we made a trip to Galveston.  Darkness fell upon us and we were weary travelers so we decided to stop for the night at a motel.  From town to town, there would be no vacancy so we would travel on to the next town.  Finally, we found a place with two rooms available.  Each room had only one full size bed in it but we took them anyway. R.M. took Cindy and I took Missy to a room.  That was a miserable place.  There were many large water roaches everywhere.  Luckily, I locked the safety lock on my door as the manager came around early the next morning, saying 'room service' and tried to open the door.  We left that place to go on to Galveston to a clean hotel on the waterfront.  The girls enjoyed playing on the beach and in the ocean.

The following summers both girls began playing softball. R.M. was Cindy's coach for her first year; then he was Missy's coach for three years.  They were never on the same team because of their age difference.  Cindy bounced from team to team, but Missy stayed on the team with the same girls.  Her team became number one of the Azle teams in her age group.  Missy was the pitcher.  She was good.  She pitched fast and threw strikes.  At the end of the regular season, they would enter tournaments in other cities.  Those were fun years.  Marion came down for a visit one summer and went to Haltom City with us when Missy was in a tournament there.  Marion jokingly said, "We need to sign her up with the Rangers."

Both girls were peewee football cheerleaders.  Again, they were not on the same squad because of their ages.  Missy got the Miss Congeniality award one year. Missy was cheerleader in Junior and Senior High School also.  She was awarded The Most Spirited award during her Junior year.

They enjoyed taking piano lessons.  They both won first place in a "Who's Who in Music" contest.  Missy was in the third grade.  The winners performed in the assembly program before the student body.  When it was Missy's time to play, she walked across the stage, stood at the piano and played her piece, then walked off.  R.B. laughed when he heard that story.  They stopped taking lessons when their piano teacher, Mrs. Nation, moved to another state.

Cindy became interested in boys in her early teens.  Once she stayed out too late with her boyfriend, Phil Ray Henderson.  When she came through the front door, her dad grabbed her by the arm and started spanking her.  She began twisting and turning to avoid the spanking.  The words out of her mouth were, "What are you doing?"  We laugh about it now.  I don't know how R.M. answered her but he was probably thinking, "I'm trying to spank you.  Stand still."

"Well," she said, "I boiled the hot dogs and the water was still hot so I made tea with it."

It has forever been known as "Weenie Water Tea".

Rebecca developed a cold and needed some medicine.  Dorothy, Rebecca and I went to Kerrville to the Wal-Mart to pick up some over-the-counter cough syrup.  Dimetapp is what Rebecca told us she took.  Dorothy was amused that she would know the name.

While we were there, Rebecca saw a balloon floating in the air, with a ribbon holding it down.  She said to me, "If you buy me that balloon, I'll be your friend."  Now if she had just said she wanted the balloon, I might have gotten it for her.  But I didn't like having strings put on her affection.  So I responded, "Rebecca, the question is, will you be my friend if I don't buy you the balloon?"  I didn't buy it.  And she has remained my friend.

"Big Mama" had 'parked' the cane in front of a vacant chair.  Rebecca climbed up in the chair, leaned into the cane that was pointing toward her, resembling the microphones she had seen at the Burger King.  She announced, "Good evening ladies and gentlemen.  This is Rush Limbaugh."

(It is to be noted that Ronald listened to a lot of talk radio, Rush Limbaugh for one.)  We all burst into laughter.

Micah came to spend a week with us one time when we lived at Lindale.  Jenny and Howard had come up from the valley and were there as well.  Jenny's stomach was a little upset, so for supper, I made us some vegetable soup.  Micah was asked to offer the blessing.  She said, "Thank you Jesus for this vegetable soup.  I don't like vegetable soup."  We wanted to laugh, but knew she was being sincere and held it in.

Beverly is Manley's daughter and she has two children, Meagan and Crystal.  Both those girls spent a week with us for many summers.  Nearly every summer, we went to "60 Flags" as Crystal called it.  On one trip, the three 'girls' stood in line for the River Ride while Manley waited patiently on a bench, watching people go by.  It was finally our turn and we got aboard.  We came through all the rapids, twists and turns and were still dry.  Meagan and Crystal both wanted to ride it again.  They were so excited.  I tried to dissuade them, but nothing would do until we rode again.  So back in line, back on the raft.  This time as we came down the chute, water splashed all over me, soaking me and ruining my hairdo, such as it was.  They laughed and laughed.  That is what they were wanting all along.  They were content to move along.

We took Crystal on two long trips.  We went with Cora and James, Robbie and Marcell to South Dakota.  We went with just Crystal to Colorado one year.

Stephan and Nancy have two children, Emily and Matthew.  Emily graduated OSU at Stillwater in 2000 and we went for her graduation.  We went to Dallas in June 2001 for her marriage to Caleb Lack.  Emily is in graduate school at OSU studying to be a Veterinarian.  Caleb is in OSU graduate school studying to be a Child Psychologist.  Matthew graduated from College of Santa Fe in New Mexico.  We went out to see his graduation in May of 2002.  He is currently trying to get into a graduate school to further his education in creative writing.

Kristen loves to read.  One day Shelley, Kristen, and I were going shopping.  She was sitting in the back seat reading a book.  As I glanced back, I noticed she was pronouncing every word by using her hands to do sign language.  I asked her what the story was about, and though she tried hard to tell me, I didn't understand.  I guess she sensed that I didn't understand, so she started using sign language.  I guess she thought, "You figure it out".  Maybe she was tired of trying to explain.  ha-ha.

Bridgette calls her back pack a "pack cat"...to this very day.  It's soooooo cute.

Another thing from the mouth of Bridgette...She had seen lots of castles and the ruins of castles in Germany.  She thought a queen, king, prince, and princess lived in every castle.  One day while on a visit there, Bridgette told Shelley she was a princess, so Shelley asked her what her daddy was.  Bridgette said, "He's a king"..."well, what's your mama?"  Bridgette said, "She's a queen."   "And Kaylee?"  Her reply was, "Angel".  Thinking that she would say Jonathan was a prince, she asked her, "What is Jonathan?"  From the back seat came the reply, "He's a butt-head!"  ha-ha-ha-ha-ha...I guess Jonathan had done something that didn't please her.

I left David and Jeffrey with Missy one day while I went to the store.  Missy and David got into a little tiff.  Missy wouldn't let David do whatever it was that he wanted to.  He told Missy, "I want my grandma soooo bad."  Another time when Missy and David got into a squabble, she asked David, with her eyebrows crossed, "Why are you acting like a kid?"  to which I replied, "Missy, he is a kid."  He was six at the time.

When Jeffrey was five years old, David cut his hair.  I took him to a barbershop but there was nothing they could do but burr it off.  On the way home, Jeffrey rode in the floor of the car.  He held his hand over his head.  He didn't want anyone to see his hair.  After everyone convinced him it looked good, it became his regular haircut for the rest of the summer.  It was perfect for swimming.

Knight Rider was a popular TV show.  We went shopping at Sears one afternoon.  David saw the black talking Knight Rider car.  He wanted it.  It was getting close to Christmas so we told him "no" to buying it that day.  On the way home, he must have remembered the car because he began begging for the Knight Rider.  Again we told him "no".  He started kicking and crying, "I want a Knight Rider, boo hoo, I want a Knight Rider," boo hoo "I want a Right Knighter."  He stopped crying and corrected himself; "I want a Knight Rider."  He did get one for Christmas.  It landed in the toy box with the other rejects.

Cindy was once again a single mom.  I kept Lauren after school and during the summer.  She and Jeffrey could play all day and all night without fighting.  Not so with David. David could make her squeal and squeal she did.

Lauren told me once that my bacon was nasty.  I quickly told her my bacon was not nasty and not to ever say that again.  She will tell me that ever once in awhile now just to get my reaction.  I answer her the same way as then.  We laugh.

Another thing that is funny now but certainly wasn't then, is the time Lauren asked to go to a friend's house.  Marty just lived down the street.  For some reason, I told Lauren she couldn't go.  Later, I asked where Lauren was.  Jeffrey told me she was at Marty's.  I drove to Marty's to get her.  When I knocked on the door, Marty's dad opened it.  I told him I had come for Lauren.  Lauren was in the room with Marty and I heard her say, "I don't want to go.  I'm scared of her."  Marty's dad didn't know what to do but I told Lauren to come on and she did. "Miss Drama Queen" is what her mom calls her.

Christmas of 2003 R. M. dressed up as Santa Claus for their Christmas party with the grandchildren.  Mason was too young to know who it was.  However, Alexis came to the door first that day.  She peeked through the glass and saw R. M.  She quickly ran back to tell her mom that Granddaddy was dressed like Santa.  Didn't fool her at all.

He would play Ring Around the Roses when he was a year old and then clap his hands.  He would look from person to person to see if each one was going to clap.

Ronald and I left on a Saturday, heading to Arkansas.  I did not plan as well as I should have, and it was getting dark by the time we turned onto the road leading to Fairfield Bay.  Night fell quickly.  The roads were very crooked, and we seemed to be gaining altitude.  I slowed my speed and kept driving.  I was beginning to think I was lost when I saw a sign:  Fairfield Bay - 10 miles.  We continued on.  It seemed like we had driven for a long time when another sign came into sight:  Fairfield Bay - 9 miles.  That was the longest mile!  It continued that way through 8 miles, 7 miles.  Down the line until we at long last arrived at our destination.

We were housed in a 2-bedroom mobile home.  And that was really nice.  The next day, being Sunday, was free for us to do some sight seeing on our own.  We got in the car and headed north to our destination of Harrison, Arkansas.  The road out was so steep and crooked.  If I had known what I was driving on the night before, we may have turned around and forgot the whole free trip.  But we had made it once, so I felt like we could do it again.

Outside Clinton, Arkansas, we pulled in to see the Natural Bridge.  I'll have to admit, the drive through the Ozarks was very pretty.  We finally made it to Harrison where we went to Dogpatch amusement park.  Ronald had a great time there.  And so did I seeing his enthusiasm.

The next day, we had our sales pitch.  After resisting the hard sell they put forth, we were free to enjoy the resort.  We took a trail ride on some very gentle horse through some beautiful scenery.  Then we took a barge on an excursion across Greer's Ferry Reservoir.  It was a very nice trip.  We had bought groceries and cooked in the mobile home.  So, altogether, it was a very cheap trip to that point.

Our three nights stay was up so on Tuesday we ventured toward Little Rock.  We met up with Patsy, James, Kent and Shelley at the appointed time.  We made it on to Nashville that night and got accommodations at a Travel Lodge, with the signature sleep walking bear.

We did all the tourist trips we could cram into a short period of time.  A tour of the state capitol, the wax museum, Ryman Auditorium and the Hall of Fame.  We even went out to see the Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson.  And we took a bus tour of the homes of country music stars

On one of our days out, we came by the television studios of WSM.  We stopped in and as it happened, they were getting ready to air a local music show and we were invited to sit in the audience.  It turns out the emcee was Ralph Emory, and the guest was a local girl just breaking into the business.  She was the daughter of another country star who had gained a little stardom, Liz Anderson.  That is how we got to see Lynn Anderson first perform what would become her biggest hit, "I Never Promised a Rose Garden".

Later in the week, we got word Jerry Lee Lewis would be performing for a television show to be broadcast later.  They were advertising on the radio for people to come be in the audience.  It had been a busy week, and the show was not going to start until late in the evening.  I knew the kids would not be able to stay up for that, so I offered to stay with them while Patsy and James went to the show.  Patsy didn't think that was right that I should stay and let them have the fun of going.  But I convinced her there was no need for all of us to miss it, and I would be happy to stay with the kids and let them go.  She finally did.  When she came back, she said it was a very good show.  But it was nearly midnight when they got in, and she said the kids wouldn't have stayed awake that long.

I don't know how long we stayed, but we must have left before Saturday, because we did not see the Grand Ole Opry.  At any rate, we decided to come home a different route.  We planned to get as far as Birmingham, Alabama the first night.  When we arrived in Birmingham and tried to check in, we learned they were having the Miss Alabama Beauty Pageant that weekend, and all the rooms were booked.  It was early and we decided to continue on down the road and stop in the next town.  Well, they were out of rooms as well, overflowing from Birmingham's solid bookings.  It was only 30 more miles to the next town, so we continued.  We got there to find the same story, no room.  Well, we said, it is only 30 more miles so we will go on.  Everywhere we went, there was no vacancy.  After a while we said, well, it's just 30 more miles to the next town and got to laughing at how ridiculous it was getting.  Finally, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, we found one room at a Motel 6.  We all piled in there together.  I don't think we even took off our clothes, we were so tired and sleepy.  And to top it all, Kent looked like he was coming down with the mumps.

We made it back to Tyler the next day.  Patsy's family spent the night with us and returned to Azle the following day.  With all the problems of finding a room, though, it was still a good trip.  And one that remains in my memory.

I do remember seeing Lynn Anderson.  I do remember going on a tour of the state capitol, the wax museum, Ryman Auditorium, Hall of Fame, the Hermitage of President Andrew Jackson, and taking a tour of country music stars homes.  In fact, I have pictures of all those places.  I have a picture of Jenalu holding Shelley when we first met at the park outside of Little Rock.  Boy what a memory you have!  To remember that we stayed in a Travel Lodge, with the signature sleep walking bear, is remarkable!  I didn't remember where we stayed, let alone the signature bear.  Wow!

Brenda Lee, Minnie Pearl, and Webb Pierce were among some of the homes we saw on the tour.  I remember we walked in the back yard of Webb Pierce and saw his swimming pool in the shape of a guitar.  I have a picture of it, do you?

You are right; Kent did have the mumps and was running a very high fever.  The one thing I do remember, is he "up chucked" coming across the Mississippi bridge!  Of course, you may not have known that, since you were in your own car.

When Robbie and Marcell Roberts heard we were going, they asked if they could go with us.  We had all been with another couple once before.  Marcell wanted to go see it again.  I asked Patsy what she thought about that, and she told me "the more the merrier".  So it was all arranged.  Robbie and Marcell had been to a family reunion for Marcell in Arkansas, and they left from there.  We went by Azle to pick up Patsy and James.  We each spent the night in Kansas, but in different towns.  Then we met at the prearranged campground in North Platte, Nebraska.  When Patsy met Marcell, they formed an immediate bond.

We came through the Badlands and spent a night to see all the sights there, including Wall Drug Store.  We continued on to our campground at the edge of Rapid City.  We were there about a week and saw all the sights there were to see.  A couple of stories come to mind that I would like to record.

Meanwhile, Patsy and I were in the trailer.  When we looked out, big hailstones were pelting down.  When they hit the ground, they would bounce back about 3 feet in the air.  Patsy grabbed the video camera and started taking pictures.  I don't know how long it continued, but it covered the ground before it left.  And it left a few dings in that brand new red truck.

It was too cool to eat outside after that, so we set up an extra table in the trailer and all ate inside that night.  Afterward we played Skipbo.

There was supposed to be a photographer, but he didn't show up.  Patsy had her video rolling and made pictures.  I took still pictures on a camera they brought and also on the camera I had with me.  We took their name and sent them copies of what we had made.  That was a special 'happening'.

The three of us set off.  We went to the headquarters building where we had seen some flowers we wanted in our pictures.  The sad part was, it was a foggy day, and not very good for picture taking.

We drove further, and saw a sign that said something about a fire tower up that road.  Well, one of us had the bright idea that we should go up that road.  Maybe we could get a picture from the top.  That sounded like a super way to see the entire valley below.  It might have worked, except for the fog.

Onto that road we turned.  Up that hill we went.  The higher we got, the narrower the road seemed to be.  The higher we went, the heavier the fog became.  There was nothing to do but continue upward, there was no place to turn around.  We also realized that all that goes up must come down.  But continue upward we did.  When we finally reached the top, there was a fire tower all right.  But what could be seen through the fog?  Nothing. James found a space, we turned around and came down.  Patsy recalled it was a lot like their trip up Pikes Peak.  At any rate, we decided that was one thing Manley never needed to know.

On the way up, we went by the Royal Gorge so Patsy could finally see it.  From there we went to Fun Valley near North Fork, Colorado. It is a park on the Rio Grande River and within driving distance of many other places.  From that location, we drove to see all the sights a week would hold.  Kay, Jake and Dylan (Manley's niece and her sons) came and spent a night with us.

We three rode at the end of the line of the group.  I was in the lead of us three on a horse named Lord Calvert.  All my horse wanted to do was eat, and the "Trail Master" had told us before we left not to let our horses eat.  So, I became paranoid about that right off the bat!  Virginia was on a rather gentle horse named Blondie and James was on a horse named Pete at the end of the trail.  They put the rider of that horse at the last because they said he was a stubborn horse.

One horse at the front of the line had stumbled and fallen with his rider (a guy who was there with a Square Dance group).  When we realized the rider wasn't hurt, we all had a good laugh.  Little did we know that, just around the corner, Virginia's horse was going to get hung up in a bush.  haha.  Everyone else was trudging along when I heard this recognizable voice behind me say, "My horse is hung up in a tree."  I looked around and Virginia's horse was stomping up and down in a bush trying to free his legs.  Of course, I burst into uncontrollable laughter.

As we were nearing the end of our trail ride, I could see there was a very steep hill to go down before we got to the end of our ride.  Realizing how much trouble I had had trying to keep my horse from wanting to eat, I visualized him going off the cliff in another direction away from the group, so I called to the Trail Master and said, "I want off, I don't want to ride down the hill."  At that point the Trail Master got a hold of the reins of my horse and stopped him and I got off.  I only walked about three of four paces when I slipped on a rock, sat flat down on the ground and twisted my ankle.  When we got to the bottom of the hill, I got back on my horse and rode back to the campgrounds.

When we arrived at the campgrounds, the Trail Master thanked us for being a good group and wished us a good stay at their campgrounds, and then he added, "I'll say one thing, this has been one of the most eventful rides we've ever had."

In Lake City, we were viewing the little blue church.  It looked like something from a Swiss village.  I was lining up my picture.  When I turned around, Patsy was not to be seen.  James said she had gone in the building across the street.

I went over there and found her talking to a real nice lady.  She was a member of the church and was preparing that room (their fellowship hall) for a wedding reception later.  There was to be a wedding in the church later that day.  Talking with her we learned that she had once lived in Kerrville and had attended Trinity Baptist Church, where I had been going for a couple of months.  She told us she and her husband planned to move back to Kerrville before the Colorado winter set in.

Some years later, I was attending a music concert at Trinity Baptist Church where Robbie and I joined after we were married.  I was sitting with Becky Bennett, who with her husband, Bob, had been the director of our Sunday school class for 2 years.  I don't know how the conversation led to it, but she asked me if I had ever been to Lake City, Colorado.  I told her I had been with my sister and we had seen the beautiful little blue church up there and met the nicest lady who told us some of its history.  It hit us both about the same time.  Becky was the lady Patsy and I had talked with in Lake City.

Well, Patsy said they had been over some roads like that on their famous trip with the Gilleys to Grand Canyon.  Nothing would do but for us to drive that way to see if it looked like what she remembered.  I told her I would take her as far as Silverton, that would give her a feel of the landscape.

We got up early one morning, loaded in the Jeep and headed out.  We stopped in Pagosa Springs long enough to know Patsy didn't like the smell there.  We went through Durango and made it into Silverton.  We got out and toured there for a while.  Then Patsy put on her 'pouty' face and said she wanted to go over the Million Dollar Highway.  Well, she looked so pitiful, I relented and we went.  Fortunately, James did most of the driving.

Actually, the road had been resurfaced, widened and all the white stripes were in place.  It was not nearly as bad as I had remembered it being.  It turned out to be a very nice drive.  We got back into the park well after dark, but it was a good drive and I am glad we went.

We had taken Mrs. McCorkle and Christine with us.  We stayed in a cabin at the edge of Branson where we had a kitchen and cooked our own breakfast.  We had been to seen several shows.  One day we decided to go to Mutton Hollow, an area with shops, candy stores and ice cream parlors.  We had walked up the hill to go through a shop that we had heard had a lot of pretty things.  When we got to the top, Manley was tired from the climb and not too interested in the quilts and stuff inside.  Seeing the rocking chairs on the front porch, he decided to wait there for us to get our shopping done.

As he sat rocking, another couple came up on the porch.  They spoke to each other.  The man said, "I think you have the right idea.  If you don't mind, I'll sit here with you while my wife shops."  Manley said that when the lady spoke to him, something inside him made him think he had heard that voice somewhere before, that he knew her from somewhere in his past.  As he sat and talked with the other gentleman, they exchanged information of where they lived and what they had done for a living.

It turns out the lady had been a nurse in the Shriner's Hospital in Shreveport during the time when Manley had been in the hospital.  She had been his nurse.  When she came out of the shop, Manley said something to her about being in the hospital and she said, "I just knew when I spoke to you going in that you had been one of my patients.  Are you Manley or Albert?"  She said she knew it was one or the other of those two, they were the ones who always stood out in her mind.  Manley remembered the Albert she mentioned.

One of the comments Mama made on the way down was, "I've seen more cedar on this trip than I've seen all my life in Oklahoma."  She may have been right about that.  The hill country does have a few cedar trees.

Our first trip out took us over the Willow City Loop, a drive that is usually covered in bluebonnets.  As our luck would have it, they were not that plentiful that year.  We took a few pictures.  Delrena got down in them and had a picture made.  Mama was on her walker and stood above them.

That evening Patsy showed the video she had made of the trip.  Mama watched it in silence.  She stood up, leaned on her walker and said, "I'm disgusted."  She had not seen what she had been promised!  Patsy and I nearly fell over in laughter.  Just the way she said it showed all the disgust she felt.

The next day, Robbie decided to stay home, but we 4 ladies packed a lunch and a chair for Mama if she needed it and headed south in search of bluebonnets.  We went through the high hills around Leaky, and cut across to Vanderpool.  We did find a patch of bluebonnets in someone's front yard.  It appeared no one was home to ask permission, so we just went on faith that it would be all right.  We set up the chair for Mama and she had her picture made in that patch of bluebonnets.  She was better satisfied that night.

But the best show of wild flowers came on our way back to Azle.  We stopped on the Old Spanish Trail between Llano and Burnet.  There we found fields of Indian paintbrush and bluebonnets.  We took a picture of Mama on her walker.  She looked at those fields and finally knew what we had brought her to see.

Jon and Christi didn't have a vehicle during the first stay in Germany, because their car was being transported and would take 6 weeks to get there.  So, we walked or took a bus everywhere we went.  It was not uncommon to see people walking or riding bikes.  On the weekends Jon would rent a van so we could go sight seeing.  The first place we drove was along Europe's famous Rhine River.  What beautiful scenery we saw as well as getting a glimpse of beautiful castles at the top of a hill surrounded with sprawling acres of grape vineyards.  We also took a drive to Rothenberg, an original medieval town with buildings that date back to the early 1200's.

Each time when we returned from an outing, and started upstairs to our rooms, Bridgette, who was two and a half at the time, would turn to me and say, "Grandma, you go up the stairs, and I'll go up the 'alligator'.  At first, I didn't realize what she was saying, but I soon come to realize that she meant that she was going up the elevator.  Ha-Ha.

One of the most remarkable things to me about Europe was its beautiful architecture.  You could scarcely go anywhere without seeing a building being restored.  I understand that in Europe, very seldom are old buildings torn down, but rather they are renovated.  It is understood that the European countries would rather restore the original architectural buildings, rather than replace them.  The artwork on the buildings was beautiful.

Most all the houses were two or three stories and all had planter boxes in the windows with a mixture of beautiful cascading flowers.  The residence of the business owners was usually above their place of business.  I was told that two or more immediate families occupied most of the residential homes.

During the first trip to Europe, we took a train to the Black Forest in Germany.  While there we toured a beautiful waterfall located in Triberg and the world's largest clock factory "The Haus of a Thousand Clocks."  Yes, Christi and I both came away with one of the things the Black Forest in Germany is famous for, a beautiful cuckoo clock.

We took a bus tour to the Keukenhof Gardens in Holland.  As far as the eye could see, lay a beautiful array of tulips, every color in the rainbow.  Absolutely breathtaking!  We visited a cheese factory and a factory where they made wooden shoes.  Then we went to Amsterdam, a city I had read about many times in Geography, never dreaming I would ever be there.  While in Amsterdam, we took a tour on a boat, in which we saw the house where Anne Frank was born and later hid out in when the Nazi's were looking for her.  They finally found her and she died in a concentration camp.  She wrote a diary, which later was found and published.

Next we took a bus tour to the beautiful city of Paris France, where we viewed the Eiffel Tower, and spent the day enjoying Disney World of Paris.

We took a bus tour to visit the royal castle of Neuschwanstein.  It is always good to take the tours that are provided; because there are both English and German speaking Tour Guides and you can get in depth the history of the country as well as gain knowledge of what you're touring.  We also visited a beautiful cathedral and later the royal Linderhof Palace where King Ludwig resided during the summer.  Later we traveled to the beautiful country of Austria to visit Salzburg to view the birthplace of Amadeus Mozart, a famous composer.

Next our travels took us to yet another European county, Italy to beautiful Venice, known as the city on water.  There the kids frolicked on the square at Venice, while thousands of pigeons fluttered around hoping for a bite to eat.

The Market Place was our next visit.  It is in the center of the old town as well as the St. Nicolas Church, the Bourse, which is the Stock Exchange.  It is the meeting place of the Belgian financial world.  The Royal Theatre of Monnaie was also breathtaking with its name being inscribed in gold.  Again, the architecture was truly breathtaking.

Arriving in Belgium, Jon seemed to have a difficult time finding where we wanted to go, since he had never been there before.  It seemed we were going in circles, many times traveling the same street we'd been on before, yet not getting anywhere.  It had been mentioned several times that we didn't know where we were going.  Suddenly, from the back seat came this wee little voice from a three-year-old Bridgette who seemed to have an intelligent suggestion.  She asked, "Daddy, why don't you just look at a map?"  ha-ha.  We all got a big laugh out of that one, even Jon had to admit it was a very intelligent suggestion.

We drove down the beautiful Mosel River and shopped in many of the shops along the River.  Our journey that day took us to Trier where we toured the Electoral Palace.

I have visited seven of Europe's beautiful countries.  They each have their own distinctive "flavor", each beautiful in their own right.  I am most grateful for the opportunity to have visited these lovely countries. France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Austria.

We took a nature hike amongst the colorful trees.  Alexis was running, having a gay time.  A chipmunk darted across the path and Alexis exclaimed, "A fox!"

She opened the door and was coming in with outstretched arms.  I went to her and we wrapped our arms around each other.  My dream was over in a flash.  I think I know why I dreamed that.  I opened a desk drawer yesterday, and her picture was face up looking at me.  I remember thinking that was a sweet picture of Mama.

After Marcell & Manley died, I dreamed I was in a public restroom somewhere washing my hands.  At the sink next to me I noticed Marcell.  I said to her, "You can't be here.  You are gone."  She laughed and told me I would be surprised at how many angels I see every day.

Then I wanted to know what heaven is like.  Again she laughed and said, "It's not like what I expected.  It is not like we have been taught to believe.  Not that I am complaining, mind you."  She went on to tell me she was camped on a hillside, about half way up the hill.  Some were higher and some were lower.  She was staying in a tent with 3 other women, 4 of them in all.  Every day they went to meetings where they heard speakers explaining Biblical things to them. Sort of like an all day Sunday school.  I asked if she had seen Manley.  She told me he was not in her camp but in another one.  But she said he had walked through their camp and was talking to everyone.  Then the dream was over.

The snake touched me on the arm and I groaned.  It then moved up my arm to my shoulder.  It was then that I let out a scream.

I woke up and Robbie was asking me if I was all right.  He said he heard me mumbling and tried to wake me by touching my arm.  When that didn't work, he shook my shoulder and I let out a scream.  That was where dream and reality met.

I said to him, "You can't be here.  You have left me."

He told me he was there just for that night only.  He said he wanted to tell me not to worry.  He was all right.  He said he had been talking to Luke Helton.  Then he was gone.

Luke Helton was in the clown unit with Manley and had died some 5 or 6 years earlier.

When I went to the R. V. rally in August, I was talking with Barbara Kersh.  It came up in the conversation what had happened on that first night alone and how Manley said he had been talking with Luke Helton.  She had a funny look on her face, and then asked, "Did you know Luke Helton's sister died and was buried the same day as Manley?"  I had not known that.

I believe Manley came to me in the form of The Comforter.  I believe that when he crossed the Jordan River, he saw Luke Helton who was waiting there to greet his sister.  I believe Manley mentioned Luke Helton to let me know what he was saying was the truth.  If he had said he was talking with his mother, I would have thought it was my mind thinking that now he was with his mom and dad again.  Those are just my thoughts on the subject.

I was at work, but had a severe cold, possibly the flu.  It was getting worse as the day wore on.  I decided I needed to get some medication.  I called my regular doctor who was out of the office but was referred to another doctor.  I made an appointment and went to see him.  He prescribed some medication.

When I took the prescription to be filled, the pharmacist made an unusual statement, something to the effect "It's just like Dr. (whatever his name was) to prescribe something like this."  I had never had a pharmacist make a statement like that before.  I don't remember what the medicine was.  All I remember was it was elixir of something or other.

Well, I was feeling pretty bad and after all a doctor had prescribed the medicine.  So, when I got home, I took a dose.  At bedtime, following the directions, I took another dose and crawled between the sheets.

I don't know if I slept and what happened was a dream.  I don't know if the medicine made me have hallucinations.  All I know is that at some point in the night, I felt my inner self-rising from my body.  It hovered in the corner of the room.  I looked down at the bed and saw myself curled up under the covers.  I heard angels singing...very beautiful songs.

I said, "I can't go. Who will look after my little boy?"

That was the end of that.  The next morning I woke.  I felt better.  But after the experience of the night before, I decided not to take any more of the medicine.