April 9, 2005 was our 50th anniversary. We spent it in a beautiful cabin on Cedar Creek Lake . It was bluebonnet time and the flowers everywhere were beautiful.The people who owned the cabin lived next door and they took us on a beautiful sunset tour of the lake. Oliver wrote this poem for me .

Pure Gold

In fifty years we’ve seen it al

l At least, it all flew by–

A lot there is I can’t recall,

No matter how I try.

But here are we, just you and me

Enjoying love beneath the stars—

In tune with every bird and tree

While crunching our Blue Bunny Bars

Let’s not bemoan the lack of showers,

The barren soil and stumps,

We’ve got to go on planting flowers–

Lisanthus and chrysanthemumps.

                                                      WORDS TO LIVE BY
When I was a little girl my Dad decided that each child in the family, which included all the cousins, should have a MOTTO to live by so for Christmas he hand lettered one for each of us. Being an engineer his lettering was beautiful and he ran it off as a blueprint. The background was blue and the lettering was white and it was  framed in a white frame and hung over my bed.  My dad had a love of words and poetry and he would often read poems to me. The motto he picked for me was from the RHYME of the ANCIENT MARINER.
  

He prayeth best, who loveth best
   All things both great and small;
   For the dear God who loveth us,
   He made and loveth all.

At Stone Street school in Greenville S C we would have “assembly” once a week where all the school would come together for a period and we would sing ,get instructions about the rules, and sometimes a class would put on a skit or reading. When I was in 2^nd grade our class was in charge of an assembly and one of the things we did was say the 23^rd Psalm verse by verse. My verse was the last one .
  

 Surely goodness and mercy will follow me
    All the days of my life
    And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

We moved to New Jersey in 1957 from Texas. This was a real culture shock to me . We lived in a rented farm house and the garage was the barn which had stained glass windows and 2 stalls for cows. With only one car when Oliver left for work each day I was home with a 1 year old, no friends, no family and  a feeling of being in a strange land. About a block away there was a sweet little bible church. The kind of church you see on Christmas cards. It was white with a steeple and it sat back in the  woods. There was a sign out front where they placed a message and this message was changed each week. I always Looked  at these messages as we went by because they had become, in my mind, a private message of encouragement  from God because they often said something I needed to hear.  The message that hit home the hardest was on the Morning I went into labor and we were on our way to the hospital, a 12 mile drive up over a small mountain. It was early morning, we were excited, and I was uncomfortable but even so I turned to look at the sign as we passed the church. There was my message. It read:

 Come unto me all who labor
 and are heavy laden
And I will give you rest.

Over the years these little verses became a part of me and many times would pop up at times when I needed them most.Its amazing what a few words can do  to change your thinking.

Nov 30, 2006

It snowed in dallas today. this is the first we have had for several years. Troy, the weather man kept telling us for days that it was coming, but we really didn’t believe him. This time he was right. My garden club had a bus trip to Fort Worth planned for this date for MONTHs. Rose Mary Rumbley was giving it and she is so wonderful on the history and stories of the towns in Texas. Its really hard to book her so what happens on our big day? IT SNOWED and she called off the trip. This was wise because the storm was coming in from the west and going to Ft Worth would be heading right into it. I had 10 friends going as guest. the guys were invited and they were excited to learn about “CowTown”. what a bummer!!!

Since we had planned to be away all day and no one knew we were home Oliver and I felt like we had a free day. we watched the birds, drank hot tea and worked on our christmas card.I made a crockpot of chili and baked cornbread. one thing we really had fun doing was finding all our past christmas letters we had sent out. It was a short history of the family. who got married, who took a new job, who was born, who moved. As the grandkids grew their ability changed and you can see how they go from preschool into grammerschool, and from there into scouts, sports and other special interest. oliver and I have decided to somehow put them all on the website either in our blogg or in the gallery. I want everyone to see how our family grew and the activities and interest of each of us. it ws like finding the Dead Sea Scrolls. We are so thankful that we are pack rats and saved so many things in written form. Who knows whatelse in in that file.

Bonnie and Ormond were married in Oct 1982. in May of 84 James Ormond was born. We thought he was wonderful .When he was 22 months old they moved to Long Island. After they moved I wrote this story to help him remember these early years.Oliver and I recorded the story on tape and sent it to him soon after they moved. The sound was not real good and I’m not sure that he listened to it often. I found the story in our files and wanted to put it out again.

By the way, James is now 22 and has graduated from PURDUE. He is also engaged to be married to his high school sweetheart, Crystal.He is still very precious to us.

A story for Jamie

Once upon a time not so long ago in a far off place called Dallas Texas a perfect little baby was born. His Mamma and Daddy called him James Ormond.His Mamma was so happy, his Daddy was so happy too but happiest of all was his Nanny and Dadaddy who had wanted a grandchild for so long.James Ormond came home to live with his Mamma and Daddy on Collins Street. He was very tiny and spent most of his time sleeping. Before long he had gotten bigger and could play with everyone who loved him. Mamma called him “Baby”, daddy called him James and Nanny and Dadaddy called him “Jamie”.

Every morning daddy would get up and play with James Ormond before he went to work at T I . Mamma and James Ormond had so many things they had to do.They would make list and run errands. Sometimes they would go to the post Office to buy stamps. Sometimes they would go to Richard Simmons and Mamma would exercise and James Ormond would play with the babies. Sometimes they would go to the Safeway store and Sometimes they would go to church where J.O. would play with Audrey and Ben and John and Baby Caroline. Sometimes they would visit Laura and J O would play with Jessie. Prissy little Jenna would be there too and everyone would have such fun. Sometimes they would go to Nanny’s house. Dadaddt would come out front when he saw J O and Mamma drive up. If the flag was out Dadaddy would lift j O up to touch it. If it was hot Dadaddy would let J O turn on the fan. They would go outside and swing and blow bubbles and throw the ball through the hole in the fence. Sometimes they would play in the boat. Nanny would let J O play with the music box and she would read to him about Pooh Bear and fix peas and crackers with peanut butter and popsicles for lunch. They all laughed and played and had such fun.

One day Daddy came home and said “ I am tired of working at T I. I think I will go to work at the Grumman Office. We will move to Long Island in New York”. “Yea”, said Mamma. “Yea” said J O . “Phooey” said Nanny and Dadaddy for you see, they loved Mamma and Daddy and James Ormond very much and didn’t want them to move. After a few days Nanny and Dadaddy saw how happy the little family was and they knew how much fun they would have in New York so Nanny and Dadaddy were happy too.

The movers came in a big truck and put all the toys and beds and dishes in big boxes and took them to New York for Mamma and Daddy and J O.

When it was time to leave Nanny gave J O a bear that played music and a blue tool box full of toys. She kissed them all and said, “Be careful”. Dadaddy hugged them all and said,” Take it slow.”

Mamma and Daddy and J O started driving and they drove for days. They went to Memphis. They went to Knoxville and Winchester and all the towns in between. “When will we get to New York”, wondered J O. “When oh when will we get to New York” ,said Daddy. “ When oh when oh WHEN will we get to New York” cried Mamma but they kept driving for 3 days.

All of a sudden they saw big buildings and lots of cars and bridges and tunnels and water and the Statue of Liberty. “ We are in New York”, said Daddy.” At Last”, said Mamma. “Yea”. Said J O.

Mamma and Daddy and J O found a house to live in. It had stairs and a stove and beds and all of J O’s toys. Every morning Daddy would go to work at the Grumman Office and mamma and J O would run errands. They went to the A & P store the Post Office and Exercise class and the beach. They had such a good time.

After supper when J O had played with Daddy and brushed his teeth and Mamma had tucked him into bed and kissed him goodnight he would start to drift off to sleep. He would be able to hear Nanny and Dadaddy very quietly say “Good Night, We Love you” all the way from Texas. Teach and Gabe, their cats, will say Purr,Purr, Purr for they will have drifted off to sleep too.

Oliver and I bought new dishes this week. After really looking at the chipped and mismatched plates and bowls we were eating on one morning I told Oliver it was time for a change. After 51 years of marriage this would be our 4th set of everyday dishes.

Our 1st set we got as wedding gifts. It was a typical 1950′s pottery set in aqua and off- white. It was made by Russel Wright, I think. The cups were kind of funny looking. These lasted through 2 moves and 2 babies and then we were again eating on chipped and mis- matched dishes. The time had come for new dishes.

At this time we were living in New Jersey. In a quaint little town called Flemington not far from where we lived was an outlet store for Stangl Pottery. Stangl had been made in nearby Trenton since about 1845. It was hand painted, bright and colorful and you could find “seconds” at the outlet store, cheap! Everyone in NJ had Stangl pottery and if you broke a piece it could soon be replaced. They made many patterns and it was fun to mix several patterns. The children had their own special dish, bowl and cup for breakfast. When the day came for us to pick out our pattern Oliver and I made the trip to Flemington and combed through the seconds for the pattern I had pick call Petite Flowers. It had a creamy, almost yellow, background with small blue forget-me-nots painted all around the edge. I thought it was beautiful! These were our everyday dishes for years. They survived a move to Dallas and all the young people that seemed to camp at our house when Bonnie and Steve were still in the area. In the late 80′s Stangel decided to stop making their pottery after over a hundred years. The value went sky high. Bonnie, having married and moved away to Indiana with her family, came to visit and informed us that the dishes were much too valuable to be using for everyday and besides SHE wanted them to display in her living room. They got packed up and taken to Indiana where they do look beautiful in the Doty’s living room.

Set number 3 we just went up to the Home Store where they had many kinds of dishes displayed. We choose a plain off white that would do well for our needs. The family had grown by then so we needed a service for 12. These were the ones that had been chipped and broken over the years of us getting older and grandchildren visiting.

Oliver and I went like newlyweds to pick out these new dishes at the Mikasa outlet and we picked out a white set. The plates are 8 sided and the cups are large and lovely. The pattern is called Maison Blanche. It is dishwasher and microwave safe! 50 years ago if we had seen that on our dishes we would have said, “Who can afford a dishwasher and WHAT is a microwave!” We as well as our dishes have changed a lot over the years.

You can’t just bring home new dishes and put them away. The old ones need to be removed, the shelves washed, new shelf paper put in. The next thing you know you have rearranged the whole kitchen. Our new dishes are up on the shelves and if I break these we will just move on to paper.

Come to see us and we will serve you on an 8-sided Maison Blanche plate.

      Aug6, 2006

After many many days of hot dry days we had a RAIN. It came up suddenly in the afternoon. The temp was reading 112 and within 20 minutes it dropped to 85. Oliver and I stopped what we were doing and went out to sit on the porch and rock and watch this almost forgotten event of a rainy afternoon. I took down the flag and put the hanging baskets out on the steps to catch the drops.

The young men across the street could be heard laughing and cheering from their pool.

Because the streets have become so hot steam rose like a fog as the rain hit. Even the little lizzard that lives on the porch ran along the edge of the enjoying the cool .

The weatherman said we might get some more showers tomorrow , but none can be as welcome as the heat breaking rain we had today.

                             Aug 4,2006

It is 108 on our patio this afternoon,the 20th day of temp over 100 . No rain for weeks and none in sight.The grass is almost gone and all my pot plants have died. we have restricted watering and I go out each morning before 9 and try to put some water around to save whever I can. I believe we have saved the roses which are dear to us. The grass will come back whenever we get a good hard rain.The landscape people are about out of business. Nothing to cut and too hot to work outside. We are so thankful for a good almost new A C  and a house that is well insulated. Inside we are comfortable.

Dallas is a lovely city in a steril kind of way. the streets arer wide and many have a median with grass and trees and in the spring wildflowers. Today while i was out I saw a  truck with a big tank on it carrying water and it was spraying water on the grass in the center of Beltline road. On the back of the tank it said it was not potable water.I have no idea where the water came from.

We will get through this and when the rains come in the fall we will forget the hot dry days until next year when they come again.Usually we have a break from the heat every few days but not this year