Country Roads

Southern Iowa, Northern Missouri. 

Pretty country and getting prettier.  

There are Amish communities springing up in several different locations in Southern Iowa and Northern Missouri.  Here, one pretty Sunday morning, the Amish gathered for a Sunday morning worship service.  There must have been 20-25 buggies.  Take that times 4 people (on the average? per buggy) and that was 100 simple folk gathered together for fellowship. 



 Himself and I were well pleased to see this many buggies in one place.  We may never see that again. 

Jamesport, Mo is a small town about the size of Afton with some old brick store buildings, businesses housed in old houses and crafts, collectibles and antiques for sale.  Outside of Jamesport on gravel and black topped roads are more Amish businesses.  There are country stores, greenhouses, horseshoe schools, bakeries and furniture stores housed in homes or on farmsteads.   Jamesport is a tourist area and not all the stores are owned by the Amish.  Some are "English" that might employ young Amish girls to bake or wait tables and to give atmosphere.  Still, the town and shops are picturesque and there are horse and buggies and farm wagons using the streets and the roads -- and little boys in straw hats and little girls in bonnets.  And the pace and the clip clop of horses plodding down the streets and byways, slows the thoughts and soothes the frenzy of folk from a different life style. 

Just east of Leon, Ia when you turn south and take the curvey, blacktop "short cut" to Lineville, Ia, there used to be a Mennonite Church sitting on the right, or the west of the county road.  This summer, the Church burned to the ground.  We aren't exactly sure when it did, but it is gone.  Could it have been burned intentionally? awaiting a bigger, better church?  That just doesn't seem right.  I don't think the Mennonites would have been so wasteful.  I think they would have taken the wooden Church down piece by piece and reused what they could.  It does seem that the Spiritual Community will rebuild on this site. 

One recent Sunday, just at noon, we were headed home and witnessed the sight of a couple of hundred of gentle folk, gathering for a funeral.  Himself had to pull to the shoulder to allow the Procession to pass and as it did, the folks to arrive first were getting out of their vehicles and walking to the grave site.  It must have been a pretty prominent person that died as it was a large funeral. 

Amish sect folks use horse and buggies for transportation.  Mennonites own cars and vans.  You might see Mennoinites in Wal-Mart in their lighter colored clothing, their tennis shoes and the women wearing the little white caps.  Mennonites are more modern than the Amish. 

We saw this hay field with Amish made hay bales in Northern Missouri.  Okay, it might have been southern Iowa.  Those two areas sort of blend together in this old one's mind.  But we can tell these bales are Amish as they are not as neat and uniform as high tech "John Deere" bales -- but they are pleasing to the eye. 

As is this huge house in western Decatur Co or eastern Ringgold.  I can look at this house all day!  At first, I supposed it was a school of some kind but I have looked all over the internet and cannot learn a thing about it.  So now I'm assuming it is a large, old farmstead house.  I may have to stop and knock at the door someday, in order to learn more.  I'll keep you posted! 

I really do enjoy my back road travels.  I just never know what I am going to find. 

Bring it on!

Summer!  Bring it on.  My favorite time of year.  

As dry as it has been, at least we are still getting some tomatoes.  The cucumbers have rolled over and died -- too hot.  But the tomatoes and peppers are hanging on.  I'm nursing one little cucumber plant, trying to hold it for cooler weather but honestly, I'm really thinking about replanting some cucumbers as I have not had my fill. 

I love all the animals at the county fairs, especially the pigs.  You just don't see pigs in hog lots anymore.  The majority of pigs in Iowa are raised inside a building.  Now, isn't that crazy?  Why don't you fence a pasture good and tight and turn the hogs outside.  Less cleanup, less smell, more fertilizer on the pasture.  Then the next crop of pigs, move them to a new pasture and let the first one grow clover or grass or whatever big pigs like to eat.  Oh, what crazy thoughts I have.

It amazes me that the pigs have their own water fountains and this one had the ambition to (half-way stand up) to drink.  The fat ol' hog in the next pen was laying with his head below the fountain and letting the water drip into his mouth! 

This display took "Best of Show".  If you look close, there's someone in the photo looks familiar. 

Can't go to the fair without eating "fair food".  Corn dogs and slushies.  Tenderloins. French fries and onion rings.   Not too many "on a stick" options at the county fair but who needs pork chops on a stick or deep fried snicker bars anyway? 

The kids sure enjoy the fowl and rabbit barn.  There are ducks and geese, chickens and bunnies of all kinds. 

See that duck in the corner? He said "aflack; aflack" 

June Specials

I had been by this restaurant many times in the last month or two, but something made me read it yesterday:

Specials

Chicken Strips w/banana            $4.99

Tacos & Small side salad            $4.68

                                ?????????????

SHUT UP

I don't know.  Do you?

Heat Wave

and I sure hope this heat wave isn't leading up to a drought.  Drouth, Gramps used to say.  I wonder what the difference is . . .  well, I went and checked . . . and there is no difference.  Just a preference.

drought (drout) also drouth (drouth) n.

1. A long period of abnormally low rainfall, especially one that adversely affects growing or living conditions.

2. A prolonged dearth or shortage.
I wonder why Gramps pronounced it "drouth".  I suppose that is the way his folks said it.

Anyway, Gramps remembered the drouth of the 1930s.  He remembered the Dust Bowl and The Great Depression.  Gramps always called it "The Great Depression" and not just the Depression.

(This is a photo of Austins during The Great Depression or shortly after.  That is probably my Gramma Austin, there, with three or four of her half grown sons.  There were a few years where there wasn't enough work for the "boys" -- even tho they were hardworkers.  They would cut fire wood all day with an axe, to sell the firewood.  My dad worked in a brickyard a hot Iowa summer or two where you were out in the hot sun, in a kiln or putting bricks in or pulling bricks out of a kiln.  They could hay all day.  They were young, and lean and fit.) 

My Mama, in 1938, said she saw her future husband, Forrest, and his brothers at his folks' house during the day and wondered why they weren't out working at something "useful".  Remind me.  I can expound on this in another post.  Back to the original thought . . .

Gramps always feared another drouth.  I got that fear from him; I inherited it.  When it is rainy and we get lots of rain, I will say "better too much than too little".  I always worry when it starts getting dry and we need rain.  Like now.  I'm worrying that it is not going to rain.  I know from my folks that drought is to be feared. 

In the late 1940s or early 1950s, there was a dry spell.  Gramps was farming and had about 7 children.  I wonder if he got to worrying on how he would support a family of 8 or 9 if there was another Drouth.  We'll never know --  but if he did or he didn't, he did in fact sell the farm and move to town.  He created a junkyard called Austin Auto Parts that supported a family of 11 from 1952 into the mid 1960s. 

There is a family story that Gramps' father, during The Great Depression, bought a barber shop/pool hall.  He was supposed to have said "times won't ever get so bad that men won't play pool".  But times did.  Times got hard and men couldn't pay a barber to cut their hair or to give them a shave with a newly sharpened straight edge razor.  Business dried up -- even at the pool hall.  Eventually, the Austin family couldn't pay the bills and the money wasn't coming in, and they all piled into the old Model A or whatever car they had patched together at the time and rode off into the sunset . . . to another life and career.

They might have went back to Pleasant Township, Union County, Iowa.  Gramps was one of the small boys in this photo, long about that time. 

One of the reoccuring themes during the R. B. Austin family's life and times during the Great Depression was cars breaking down.   Austins were always fixing cars.  Fixing tires.  Austins replacing windows and carboraters and radiators and ty rods and such.  And patching tires.  Tires were prone to blowouts back there in the 1930s and especially used tires and patched tires.  Those Austin boys, Robert, Leonard, Forrest, Ivan and even Jerry could probably change or patch a tire in the dark.  Anyway, seems like the Austins were always looking for used parts and used tires for used cars.  Always. 

(borrowed from the internet)

I wonder if all those times Gramps was under a car on the side of the road or hitching hiking to town to get a new car part was the reason Gramps moved from the farm to the junkyard.

Was he pretty sure that times would never get so bad that folks wouldn't need used cars and used car parts? 

Whatever the reason, Gramps ran what he called the Best Little Junkyard in South West Iowa.  He supported his family and usually paid 2 or 3 local men and 2 or 3 of his sons and for awhile, even his own father, to work in the "yard".   Gramps made a good move at the right time even though the dry spell in the 1950s wasn't as bad as the drouth of the Great Depression. 

Anyway, these kids all thought it was the thing to do!

All the way to Kingdom Come.

I wish I had taken the picture above with a regular camera and not the cell phone.  If I make this pic larger, we lose the clarity; it gets blurry.  or maybe blurrier.  But what a great road!   

The photo was taken in the region of "The Nation" that lower tier of Iowa counties and the upper tier of Missouri counties that Iowa and Missouri fought over.  We are still not sure if Iowa wanted to keep that tier of counties or give it away -- and ditto for the State of Mo.  But both States' militia were involved.  With guns.  We will never know who won and who lost. 





The photos above and below were taken in central Missouri, below Chillicothe.  I was sure we were going to be blown off the highway.  Maybe blown to Kingdom Come.  Does anyone say that, anymore?  all the way to Kingdom Come . . . to indicate a great distance? 

We weren't. 

Blown to Kingdom Come. 

This time. 

Drove on thru to greener pastures. 

This time.

and we still love the backroads and the scenic byways.

1950s Grocery Store Premiums

In their former life, these jars were:  a  gallon vinegar jar, 4-cup Chunky Peanut Butter jar, a Best Food horseradish mustard jar, a small menthulatum jar and a glass salad dressing jar.  I think the dog-shapped jar with the red and white lid might have held vanilla originally. The jar that ended up as a sprinkler bottle was probably vinegar too but the one pint jar that is curved on one side and straight on the other is a mystery to me.  I don't know what it would have held originally but I like the shape and lines.  PS: until I came across this Skippy peanut butter jar, I had never met one this big in real life!  This must have been for schools or hospitals.  I love it! 

I don't know if my paranoia of plastic developed from my love of glass things or if my passion for glass developed from my fear of plastic.  I don't fear all plastic -- just new plastic.  Johanna once asked me why I like that old early forerunner of plastic, the Melmac, when I tremble in fear from this new flimsey, 9th generation plastic.   That old melmac was first generation.  It was sturdy and stable and the atoms and molecules didn't rattle around in the Melmac dishes.  This new unstable plastic gives me nightmares of a bottle of water exploding because the atoms got to playing around too freely! 
As a kid, I knew there were two names for these type of hard plastic dishes but as an adult I have forgotten the second, so I "googled" it: 

From the internet:  Actually the substance that Melmac is made out of is called Melamine but most people know the Melmac name. Popular in the 1940's and 1960's this durable dinnerware came in many colors and patterns. Pastel Aqua, Pink and Yellow were three of the most popular colors. It was often used in cafeterias because of its durability. Today many people including myself still use and collect Melmac.

I'm one of those folks.  I'm a gal that still uses Melmac.  I don't really collect it -- but I could.  I could collect it at the wink of an eye.  I guess folks collect things of an era that takes them back to their childhood.  Melmac sure takes me back to the 1950s.  My Mama collected her Melmac at the grocery store.  Buy so many dollars worth of groceries and get a plate for 29 cents.  (I really don't know what the going grocery store rate was for Melmac dishes at SuperValue or Thriftway but in porportion to what I paid for ironstone dishes in the 1980s, I'm thinking I'm pretty close to accurate.) 

I think my Mama ended up with 6 pink plates and 6 green plates.  When we sat the table in the 50s, we sat 11 places.  Half green and half pink new melmac.  When it was my turn to set the table, the boys got green and the girls got pink -- or there was a lot of whining when it came time to eat.  "I don't want that plate!  My plate is green!  Give me my plate!"  "I want a pink one!  booohooo!"   ooohhh ya!  not pretty! 

 I remember Mom had a few old glass mis-matched dinner plates but I don't know if we owned a complete set of dinner plates before the melmac or not.

Oh, now, Changing direction . . .  I'm trying to remember the drinking glasses we used.  hhmmm.  gosh.  Well yes!  I'm pretty sure they were jelly jars in a previous life!  I bet that is it!  See, no wonder why I love glass and Melmac! 

PS:  sister Kate says Mama also got a set of silverware at the Thriftway on Elm Street in Creston, in the same fashion.  I remember Mom buying green blankets and red blankets for our bunkbeds, the same way.  Save up the cash register tapes until you had spent $150 (or whatever?) and get a blanket.  I remember waiting and waiting for my red blanket as there were seven others before me!  Remember, oldest first. 

Then there were "thee Dolls".  Mama saved and saved and took her receipts back to the Thriftway and got all of us girls, one at a time, a fancy dancy prancy beautiful doll.  Here's mine.  My dad, 30 years after the arrival of the dolls, made us all a beautiful hand-made walnut case.

Meet Princess Anne:

She's only about 55 years old.
The case is 30 years old, already.  Crimeny!  How can that be?

I am so glad that my Mama saved her grocery store receipts and "bought" me this lovely doll.  I'm so glad that my Dad made the frame to keep her forever and a day.  Isn't she beautiful!  love, Ma

July events, favorite things and little fishes.

So far in July, we've had an 8 year old turn 9 years, a 9 year old celebrate her birthday with her soon to be 8 yr old brother, a 4th of July celebration and celebration of a new sewer at the new cabin! 

We celebrated a "home" move from Montgomery Street to the country . . . and a newly finished basement -- with 2 bedrooms and a family room! 

Also, we will celebrate a 41st wedding anniversary this month.  Sssshhh.  Don't say a word.  Let's see if  Himself remembers! 

My grandchildren have transformed themselves into little fishes.  They swim and float and dive and splash and get thrown 10' in the air (or in Jack's case, 15'!) to fall into the lake.  This is a fun stage!  I love children on the beach, splashing and digging in the sand and having fun.  I love children 12 years and down! 

I'm sure I'm going to love 13 years and up too.  It's just going to be a new experience, having teenage grandchildren.  Morghan and I went and played tennis last evening.  We were both bad!  BADDDD!  But we had fun and laughed and made excuses.  I want to play once a week now but when I suggested it, I could see Morghan's brain gears going and dredging up dates and appointments and excuses as to why we might not be able to.  That's okay.  I remember my youth.  And my children's.  I'm not shocked or offended.  Just a little sad . . . boooo hooooo!  sobbing my heart out ........

PS:  Morghan is the most relaxed child I have ever seen in the water.  She can lay on her back with head under water until I start to panic just a little and then up she comes!  She should take swimming lessons so that she could get her Life Guard certification. 

Now, these boys, I don't think 13 will affect them and their engagements with Nana -- as long as I can provide a beach, a tree house, a bicycle, a video game, a 4-wheeler . . .  and plenty of big bad firecrackers.  lol 

Jack is a fish. I think he is a card-carrying fish. 

 

I didn't get a photo of this boy in the water but by the end of the visit he was being thrown into the lake and putting his head in and splashing and relaxing. He and Jack slept upstairs in the new cabin with only a sleeping bag and each other.  Man oh Man!  These boys are getting big and brave. 
Next thing you know, they will be sleeping in a tent in the back yard. 

These two little ones had fun at the cabin.  They enjoyed each other's company, the outdoors, the pool and the golf cart.  Audri had someone she could try to mother and Bella had "Audie!"  "Audie!" to call and chase after.  And they will be fishes too.  Audri wades out at the beach,  up to her chin and little Bella lays in a floatey and lets her little legs float behind her.  They are both going to be great little "cabin girls". 

Madge, how did your photo end up down here?  (Blogger has come a long way but it is still not very technically correct with photos.  In the early days, I would chase photos all over an entry, trying to pin them down, to align them . . . or not.  It was such a frustration.  It is way better now but still not always easy.  This should have loaded between Gabby and Joey.)  This  girl enjoyed the water too.   Maddie is one, sometimes to sit back, watch and wait.  Other times she's in the middle of the fray.  She and Morghan caught 14 fish!  with the little toy nets!  That is a "daily catch" record!  This might have been the first time Madge caught a fish with a net.  She is Nana's helper . . . and the keeper of the rules! 

So, in summary, my fellow citizens, this blog contains several of my favorite things:  summer.  babies.  children.  grandchildren.  water and floaties!  Also, snorkeling is just pretty awesome.  I'm going to take to the lake some weekend when I'm the only one within 3 miles, and learn to snorkel.  I will.  Just you wait and see! 

You all can come along . . .

 

June birthdays . . .

Someone said this was almost like Christmas!  waiting for little Bella or little Audri to open a package and Papa to read cards and discover the gift card.  The afternoon was fun.  Most of the family was around to watch and enjoy.  There were gifts galore. 

And, maybe not a part

 of the traditional birthday photo shoot, it was.

It was a part of the birthday shoot. 

You look good in that vibrant sombero!

Good pic and Happy 32nd birthday!

home grounds

the south garden. 

This is mostly the Veggie Garden.

orange day lilies

in what I call the cottage garden.

the cottage garden

with little chairs and fish and latterns and beaded trees. 

I can't choose a favorite! 

Thank goodness, my life doesn't depend on it! 

Writer's Block

Don't know what happened.  For years.  And years.  And years!  I wrote a weekly letter.  Then I blogged and still wrote a weekly letter.  Then Facebook came along.  Now I don't write letters and I don't blog.  Is there a connection?  Do I keep in touch with everyone, know what they are doing through Facebook so that I'm not motivated to write and blog?  I have been thinking on this subject and trying to analyze what is going on. 

I think that maybe email and Facebook has removed the motivation to write.   I know I still want to write down events and recollections and memories so that they will be there when I need reminded -- will be there when I want to reminisce.  I'm so glad I have my dad's written memories and stories and that makes me think I want to leave my writings behind for my posterity.

On the other hand, I just wonder if I've gone through a dry spell.  I hope this is the case as I really did enjoy putting my thoughts, memories and opinions into the written medium.  I'm hoping the block that has kept me from writing, dissolves so that I can take up where I left off.

I have a need to record Bella and Audri's toddlerhood as I did the first five.  Years down the line, they will read the letters and entries about the older grandchildren and will wonder why Nana didn't write about them.  I want them to know I enjoyed their babyhood and toddler's years as much as the older five. 



Somewhere I have read that an author just has to "write through" a writer's block.  So that's what I'm going to try.  If you read a lot of drivel and boring stuff on here, just remind yourself that Nana is trying to "write through" that block.  There will be better days ahead!

On the other hand, maybe if I were just to clean off this desk and clear away some distraction, the writing might come easier? 





Today's the day the Little Ones had their Picnic!

If you go out in the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go out in the woods today
You'd better go in disguise.

For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

Beneath the trees, where nobody sees
They'll hide and seek as long as they please
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic

The little teddy bears are having a lovely time today.
Watch them, catch them unawares,
And see them picnic on their holiday.
See them gaily dance about.

 They love to play and shout.
And never have any cares.
At six o'clock their mommies and daddies
Will take them home to bed
Because they're tired little teddy bears.

If you go out in the woods today,
You'd better not go alone.
It's lovely out in the woods today,
But safer to stay at home.

For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic

Every teddy bear, that's been good

Is sure of a treat today

There's lots of wonderful things to eat

And wonderful games to play

Bella Bu!  You get down right now!

Beneath the trees, where nobody sees

They'll hide and seek as long as they please

Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic

Birthday Girls

Can you believe it?  12 and 8 years.  These girls are 12 and 8.  Really, it seems just like yesterday that Morghan was on the way and now she's 12 and Maddie Mae, 8 years. 

It is really true.  The older you get, the faster time goes . . . and I want it to slow down so I can enjoy and savor and wallow in my grandchildrens' youth.  

All of them.  Forever and a day.  Until they are married and have children of their own.  So I'm going to live until I'm a crotchety old Nana, at 99.  I've got the crotchety down, PaPa says.  So now I've got to stay young at heart and strong in body.  Those two attributes are works in progress. 

Morghan's cake had the appropriate amount of Bling for a girl of Morghan's age and nature.  Madeline's cake was adorable but I chose this photo because she was so pleased with the money in her card.  She truly wasn't expecting that money.  She was totally surprised and greatly appreciative of the money in her card.  And yet, I think she gets her age in dollars in her card every year.  Sweetie. 

Tony had a birthday too and now we are looking towards June . . . three in June and one in July and several in August.  We've got much to look forward too . . . and much to celebrate.  and much to be thankful for. 

And I do and we will and I thank the Lord for kind and generous children and their spouses who give of their time and good will and lively, healthy, appreciative grandchildren -- and good health and good times and good fortune . . . for us all. 

                                                                          clink, clink . . . Cheers!

                                                                                              love, Nana