My grandparents, Rob & Mattie Wilson Austin had children:

Robert Washington Austin (married Manera Robinette)
Leonard James Austin (married Mollie)
Forrest Marion Austin (married Janice Coe)
Ivan Wilson Austin (Married Pauline (I should know this))
Frieda Mary Ella Frances (married Joe C. Dodd) Frieda just 1 month older than Granny.
Eunice Mattie Mae Philena (married Dana Harper)
Jerry Dean (married Carolyn Rocky)
Betty Jean (died in infancy about 1925)

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished. Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time.  These are facts, above.  Don't remember where I was headed with this but there, for now, is my Dad's family.

bon fire

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished. Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time.

 

I think I did use this photo before but it is just fun to look again.  If you really look, it appears that Morghan is poking Jack's rump and that Jack is trying to light his hair on fire.  But I'm pretty sure that is not really the case because Himself is sitting so relaxed and comfy in this chair.  If the scenerio I laid out had been correct and true, Papa would have had a fire extinguisher! 

Stroll-O-Chair

The Cadilac of Baby Buggies!

"With its nicely curved steel body, this Stroll-O-Chair is reminiscent of its English cousins. The frame design is almost identical to that used in the 1940s, and, in fact, changed very little over the years until the company went out of business in the 1990s." "Rex Manufacturers, operating from 1949 to 1979 in New York, created  the "Stroll-o-Chair".  The carriages converted from a buggy to multiple baby equipment -- a stroller, high chair and bassinet." There a The carriage Kristy, in her very own Stroll-o-Chair on her 1st birthday.  This is upstairs at 1503 Rebecca Street.  We are in the dining room, looking towards the kitchen, on the west side of the house.  The little bedroom is to our right, the North.  The bigger bedroom, behind us to the east.  The living room is to our left (open to this dining room) or to the south.  The bathroom is tucked around the corner from this room, between the kitchen and the little bedroom.  There are old fashioned bathroom fixtures and a claw foot tub.  There are tiny white tiles on the floor.  I loved the old fashioned medicine cabinet in the wall and the big old tub.  I could stretch out and the water heater was big enough to fill it to the brim!

              New baby Erica with sister Kristy. 

            In front of the Yellow Shrub Rose : )

          Using the still spiffy new Stroll-o-Chair. 

                Ah, the good "Days of my Life" 

               We still lived upstairs at this time. 

Picnic at the Smith Villa Library park.

Both girls wearing their home-made, hooded wool coats. 

Poor third child, boy baby. 

He gets left in the Stroll-O-Chair

 with a blanket over his head. 

I learned quick with this little ball of fire,

 don't wake a sleeping baby! 

This was a good day.  Winter was weakening. A hint of spring in the air.   Mama had the desire and the energy to buddle three precious babies, load them on the Stroll-o-Chair and wheel them the two or three blocks to the park for a picnic.  We are happy and laughing, enjoying life. 

shhhh . . . do you hear that?

no baby noises. For me, I miss the baby noises. As for Johanna and Audri, I know it is a good thing. Meanwhile, I carried all the toys upstairs and this little corner of the living room was so empty, I had to put a chair there.

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished. Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time.

This was written after Johanna and Audri moved to their own home.  I wish I had gone ahead and put the photo in here -- the corner of the living room.  I had baby withdrawal after Erica and Morghan moved on and Johanna and Audri.  It is the best thing for the Mama's and children.  I totally support that!  But a person gets used to . . . well, they get used to baby noises. 

You and Granny have been given precious time together--time you get to spend alone with her. What a gift that is. And you're creating memories of their Great Granny for Morghan, Jack. and Maddie and Gabby and Joey. And what a gift that is for Granny as well. Although her recent memories are gone, she can still say so much about the the past. . . .

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished. Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time. 

Someone wrote this to me and I saved it in a draft in Nana's View.  I'm glad I saved it so that I could find it again and think about our visits to Great Granny's. 

Fly Over

Rebecca Street ran up and down, north to south.   Where the W1 is West 15th Street.  We lived at 1503 Rebecca Street -- on the corner of Rebecca and 15th. 

Sioux City, Iowa.  That's right.  Today we are zipping in and having a brief review and revisit of our old neighborhood.  I got home sick last evening and went back for a little visit.  It is amazing what you can see on the Google or Mapquest maps, in the Satellite mode.  Purely amazing. 

The photo of our great old house was taken in 2007 when Himself and I drove through Sioux City on our way back from a vacation "out west".  I gave notice last evening that it is about time for another weekend trip to Siouxland.  I loved that house!  I want it back!  See that tree in the front yard?  There was a beautiful yellow-blossomed rose bush about there.  Well, you know that -- from all the photos. 

 From the satellite map photo, I think the little 1920s garage is still standing, just up the driveway.  That long flight of stairs, I must of climbed that 10,000 times, usually with a child and a sack of groceries or a clothes basket;  later, with two children, one on each hip.   Then, when Craig arrived, I either made two trips, made Kristy walk or just didn't make the effort to go out!  No, not true.  We went out most days.  I would load three children up on our handy-dandy convertible baby stroller and off we'd go for fresh air and exercise (recommended by Dr. Benjamin Spock, the widely known baby doctor) and a quick visit to the library.

Smith Villa Branch Library

Photo from the internet.

Looking for a photo in the internet of this great Library just a block or two from our house, I couldn't find a photo and in searching maps, there were so many trees around and over it I couldn't find it.  I was afraid they had torn it down.  But never fear, here it remains.  I'm not sure if it is still a branch library, but I hope so.  Remember the pleasure we took, and the anticipation of finding a book, when we walked up the street to the Library?

2007

My Photo

This huge old building, I discovered last night in the internet, was built as a house for a doctor.  Imagine!  But it was a school, just up the street two blocks from our house.  It is where Kristy would have started school if we hadn't moved to Hubbard.  I just could not bring myself to start Kristy to school in a class of 100 children (not all in one room!).  So we moved to Hubbard and sent her to a kindergarten class of 7, I think it was.  Ah, much better . . .

This school is scheduled to be razed, if not already gone.  In my journey last evening, I learned that a new modern school was built this past year to replace Smith School and another neighborhood school, Everett.  They tore down houses to make room for the modern one-story mass of a building and now will tear down this old stone structure.  Makes a grown woman want to weep -- and tie herself to the building so the catepillar and dragline can't do the destruction! 

The Combination Bridge over the Missouri River is gone now too, replaced with a new safe bridge.  We drove across this bridge to get to South Sioux City.  It was always an adventure for a child as the floor of the bridge was made of steel grids and you could look through, down to the river.  Part of this bridge swung sideways.  It would open like a gate to allow barges and before that, I imagine, steamboats to travel up and down the Missouri. 

This is Sioux City's municipal Auditorium.  Right downtown.  Just off of I29 and the main north / south street, Pierce Street, through downtown Sioux City.  This is where we tried indoor ice skating and where they had home and garden shows and other community activities.    There was a carnival and displays set up near here in 1976, the Nation's Bi-Centennial and we went, as a family, through the Freedom Train.

Oh, wow, that was a feel-good trip.  The journey brought back lots of great memories and good times.  Just like childbirth, one forgets the work, the fights, the pain, the frustration of marriage and child rearing and only the good memories remain. 

baby baths

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished. Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time.


Well, that's Audri in the middle and Gabby & Joey.  Wish I had the bigger picture!  I probably had to crop the photo to keep Joey decent!  lol

"Johanna went to visit Shannon this evening and Shannon's new little boy born June 28. Audri stayed with Nana and Papa. After an hour outside sucking on muddy spoons, watering plants, washing rocks . . . well, you get the idea, the cousins had a bath. Your Grandmother Hofmeister always liked to bath you children. I didn't get it . . . then. Now I do. It is just plain fun"

Nana's sweet baby Maddie

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished.  Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time. 

I can't call this little girl "baby" anymore. Can you believe she is going to be 5 years old? Not me!

Cars in my life, Part 1

You wouldn't guess it and I'm pretty sure you don't know it but I am a lover of old cars.  We can all guess where I got there.  This apple didn't fall far from the tree.  Well, maybe not a Lover of all cars but a great admirer! 

It's strange . . . I don't have a good memory yet I have several vivid memories from when I was two or younger.  One early memory had to do with this pretty Chevy.  This is a 1952 model.  Granny and Gramps had 9 children by 1952 and we were going to town and to Gramma's house and on Sunday drives in this two-seater.  Our Chevy, actually, was a four door.  Or as Unc says it "fordor" . . . in contrast to "todor".  Or Two Door.  I thought Unc was being facitious until I found those words in the internet. 

 

Above, this is Chevy Styleline and the first car I remember.  Our maroon Chevy had a black top, Unc says.  I don't know . . .  I just remember the big roomy seats. 

Children, back then, weren't strapped, belted or pinned in.  We rambled and flopped and fought for space (all 7 of us in the back seat) while two lucky little ones sat up front with Mom and Dad.   In fact, Gramps took the door handles off so little mischevious hands in the back seat couldn't open the door from the inside.  One of Granny's dire predictions was of one of us falling out of the car!  On a serious note, this did happen.  Children did fall out of cars and were hurt and killed so Gramps and Granny took off the door handles and protected their little ones. 

 One child would sit in the middle of the front seat and the luckiest of all got to sit on Mommy's lap!  : )  Yep, you guessed it, that lucky one was baby Mary when I could remember.  I suppose before that it was me, with Linda between.  But really.  Can you imagine 7 children in the back seat of a car?  At night, coming home late from visiting an Aunt or Uncle, one middle size person might climb up and lay in the back window ledge and two of the smaller ones curl up on the floor, one on each side of the hump.  Let's see . .. I'm doing my math.  7 - 3 = 4.  That would be just about right!  Four bigger children sitting and leaning against each other in that big bench seat.  Holding each other up, as sleep over took.  Only young heads a bobbing and a nodding.  Oh the good old days!

This green beauty is a 1955 Chevrolet Two Ten fordor.  Gramps fell in love one Saturday night in Kerr-Cochran's Chevrolet show room while Granny shopped for fabric upstairs at JC Penneys.  Unc was sure Gramps was going to drive it home that night but Dad resisted and it was another week or two before he took the car he was driving and traded for this beauty.  Ours was two-toned green, according to Gary Lewis and Unc.  Interesting enough, I don't have a memory of this car . . . but isn't it pretty? 

Children were growing.  Getting taller and wider. Gramps didn't keep the '55 more than a year, he went out upgraded to a 1956 gray and white nine passenger fordor station wagon.  wa whoo!  The Austins were right up town!  I couldn't find a gray & white photo in the internet but while I was looking, Aunt Kate wrote in an email: 

"I liked the gray and white station wagon, too. We traveled in it and I don't remember that we ever saw another one (like it). I seem to remember that Dad ordered it and picked the colors."

Then, I discovered in the internet that you used to be able to go to a car dealer and design your own car. 

from the internet:
In response to Sparkywax. I think most of the Two-Tone (top only) cars were painted at the dealer at the buyers request.

So now we are pretty sure Grampsy did design his own, this one -- the one Kate says they never saw another one like!  I adore the story -- whether true or not, we will never know! 

That's enough about cars in one entry.  I'll write about earlier cars someother time and about later models too.  There's a few more stories to be told! 

Oh, and lest I forget to tell it, it was in this car, in this 1952 Chevy Styline, that Aunt Mary was born.  Born in the car in the parking lot of the old Creston Hospital on North Oak Street. 

Record Breaking

These are home grown!   A couple of years ago, we had home grown tomatoes at Thanksgiving time.  This year, we may be able to have tomatoes for Christmas Dinner.  This gives me great pleasure!  Isn't that silly?  I think it is the Depression Era up-bringing breaking out in me.  Himself and I had wonderful BLTs last night for supper.  Hmmm Hmmm.  Good!

Some Assembly Required

Some?

Some assembly? 

Really. 

How about Total Assembly Required. 

Thanksgiving. A Good Day.

Wow!  we couldn't have asked for a nicer Thanksgiving Day.  It was 60ish.  Clear and Sunny.  and the Corn was picked.  Too bad it wasn't our corn! 

The meal was bountiful!  Delicious.  Plentiful.  With a big selection.  And great atmosphere!  and views. 

Conversation was diverse, interesting, non-political and having nothing to do about religon and opinions.  oh. . . errrr ...... was it?  (Get out! and stay out! ????)

No!  JK!  It was more like "the Smorgesboard Line forms to the right"   . . .

Children . . . little ones running hither and thither.  (wait.  did I just make those two words up?  hither and thither?)  I love the photo!

thank you on-line dictionary: 
hither and thither (not comparable)

1. To here and to there

For sure, the children were "to here and to there" and back again! 

Aunt Hannah!  I'll beat you!  (doesn't that just sound like sweet Morghan?)

Is this practice for walking "single file"?  For Indian trail walking?  What a great way to walk off some of those delicious incoming calories! 

We love the swinging bridge!

And the tree swings!

And the Tree House!

And return trips.

Oh, Erica and Dana? 

I'm thinking there might be a lot of return trips. 

Thank you! 

It was a great day!

Had to try it

I'm shocked.  I evidently didn't take a picture of my pumpkin.  I bought the Rhode Island Cheese Pumpkin at the grocery store in Mercer, Mo.  The pumpkin was not bright orange and it was sort of flat but I can't find a picture of it.  I even used it for a fall/Thanksgiving decoration in my entry way but never took a picture of it.  What? 

 . . . oh well, wait.  Here!  The internet has everything and here is a photo of my pumpkin!  Paler, flater.  Okay . . . more flat!  Certainly not a Jack-o-lantern pumpkin. 

But pleasing to my eye. 

What a surprise when I cut it open -- it has beautiful orange meat!

Himself asked me why I thought I had to cut open, scrape out and cook down a pumpkin?  Why?  he wondered.  I confessed that I didn't know but I had got it in my head that I needed to do this once in my life time .

So I quartered the pumpkin, and with Maddie's help, scraped out the seeds and the strings.  I threw the shell and the flesh in a roasting pan, covered it with foil and baked it at 350 degrees for an hour. 

I separated the seeds from the strings (the guts) and roasted them as required.  I salted them down with sea salt and fed them to hungry granddaughters.  Johanna tried them and said they tasted like wood chips!  but Morghan and Maddie chowed down on some and took the rest home. 

Salted Pumpkin Seeds

After baking the pumpkin shell, I scraped out the meat, drained it and froze up four pint jars.  I kept thinking the pretty orange color would fade but it didn't.  I think the cooked pumpkin is beautiful! 

We had to drain the "puree" then ladle the pumpkin into glass jars to freeze.  I didn't research further, but if you want to "can" pumpkin you have to leave it in pieces.  You can't "can" pureed pumpkin so I cooled it in ice water until there was not one little degree of heat left in it, and plunked it into the freezer. 

Isn't it pretty?  I used one of these jars and made some Pumpkin Gingerbread.  This "bread" or cake wasn't nearly as sweet as say, pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting, but it was good . . . and much healthier for a person.  Himself and I tried it right out of the oven but it was better the next day, after cooling.  That is unusual as most baked goods are best right out of the oven.    Again, I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the pretty gingerbread (sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon). 

What's wrong with me?  I'm out of practice!  I'll be working on that . . .

Missing in Action

Don't know why I haven't posted lately. 

I have been tongue tied, I guess. The Cat has had my tongue.

Maybe it had something to do with Uncle Gary's brain tumor, surgery, treatment?  But maybe that is just an excuse.  Maybe because my camera hadn't been working (Himself got me a new one!  BHH!)

I don't know  why I hadn't been writing . . . However!  let me tell you when I was looking at photos tonight and I had several inspirations crowd my brain for blog posts and joggle for first place, I was a happy camper!  I wrote up the Christmas decoration entry (around Blogger being down and dumb and not accepting my photos), it felt good! 

I hope that writer's block is well and truly behind me!

It is beginning to Look a Lot

like Christmas!

and it is beginning to feel a lot like WINTER!  A day time high of only 26 or 27 degrees today and we had our coldest night of this winter just last night or the night before. 

Himself did a nice job decorating this year and he's so good at putting the lights on a timer so we don't have to go out and turn them on and off.  I like it! 

Those new candy canes were a bit of a traumatic adventure as I saw display candy canes in the Menards store but couldn't find a boxed set.  So I asked the guy stocking the shelves.  Well, it wasn't really his area but as he was my age and remembered the old days of customer service, off he went to check.  Mind you, I'm shopping with Himself.  So I feel pressure.  And I feel pain.  Himself's pain : ) 

Stock (old) boy comes back and says there are 25 boxed sets somewhere.  So he and I and Himself recheck every shelf and hem and haw and practice patience and finally after about 20 minutes, he finds them!  upstairs!  where they will never sell!  So he brings them down and I grab mine and off we go to check out! 

And I like my candy canes and I'm glad we got them but as we are checking out, I realize these are NOT the ones on display, these are shorter!  I'm happy tho and I'm not going back to tell him because he worked so hard to find these!  But you know what?  There's another 25 boxes of Candy Canes in that Menards store somewhere! 

These candy canes have about 8 settings. One setting has each candy cane lighting at its own time, solo, and jumping up and down off the ground, twisting and shouting! Jiving!  Wow!

Himself has selected a more sedate mode.