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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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