Inside 212

Randy being a goober. Carrie sitting on the counter.


Meredith and Carrie


Rebecca and Billie June


Nina, Meredith, Bessie and Randy


Melanie holding Lindsey in the upstairs bedroom.


Gathered around the kitchen table: me looking bored, Nina, Brooke, Suzie, Frank, Meredith and Dale.


Randy, being a goober again, Lydia, Dale and Joe in the living room at 212.


So far these are the only pictures I have of the inside of 212 and I can't believe it! That house scared the begeezez out of me when I was a kid....I was a stupid kid. But there was lots to look for and enjoy in that house. In the small closet under the stairs were lots of comic books like Archie Arch, Richie Rich, Little Lotta (which I now realize was about a fat girl and am totally scandalized by), Wendy the Good Little Witch and Casper the Friendly Ghost.

We loved playing the game Tripoli with Mollie, Nina and Elizabeth. There were spaghetti dinners and chicken spaghetti dinners and fried chicken dinners with sweet cornbread....all were the best ever. And then there was the sleeping porch that held 2 double beds with soft white sheets for the best nap taking ever. We would turn the window unit air condition to snow and then snuggle down in the sheets. It was fantasticness. All bedrooms upstairs connected to each other and each door had the loveliest glass doorknobs.

The china cabinet in the dining room held the most irresistible and breakable treasures. And then of course there was the swinging door between the kitchen and the dining room that I got grounded from more than one time for swinging over and over and over. And there was the attic that was scary and exciting but was just too hard to pass up searching through for hours to find that special something to connect us to the past.

The house plus the people that lived there made it a wonderful place to spend time. I wish it was still ours.

July 4ths of the past

I've spent the afternoon scanning over 200 pictures of July 4ths past and I'll be posting them over the next few days. I've enjoyed reminiscing as I looked through my photographs. I found much younger people, many hayrides, lots of family time and tons of laughter while searching my photo albums. Those were wonderful trips. And as the size of the family grew, it only got better. The look of the farm, as well as the surrounding area, definitely looks different. In fact some of the pictures I chose were not so much for a great photograph of someone, but rather the nearby scenery.

I'll have some commentary to explain some things that may not be recognizable. Also I'm not doing them in yearly order.

Take your time. Have a look and most importantly remember the fun.

It surely was grand.

The people that made it all happen. They were fantastic.







I miss all of these people. That's Howard in the blue. I remember him always calling Mary Catherine "Sapphire." Then there's Bessie with her back to the camera wearing her peach colored double knit dress that she made herself. Nina and Gran are sitting in the glider and then Mollie with her feet propped up wearing that wonderful pink gingham dress that I loved so much. I also remember Nina and Mollie calling each other sister. That's Nina's blue car in the background and Gran's pecan trees are back there as well. I'm not sure if the other tree behind Nina is a Pine tree or something else. But all are gone now. The people here look relaxed and enjoying each other's company. It would be delightful to spend more time with all of them.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Happy anniversary Lindsey and Bill

It's unbelievable that a year has passed since the wedding of 2009 happened. But as we all know, time passes so quickly and hopefully we're having fun as it does. What a great time we had with both families planning and partying and all that goes along with the anticipation of a wedding. This is just a sampling of all the festivities but the pictures Emma and Maggie took are so fantastic, I'll be posting more in the days ahead. We need another wedding soon. Any takers?

Arlington National Cemetery

People really do make sacrifices of their lives for others.
It's extremely sobering if you think about it.