New Year’s Day meant taking the tree down. January was always a bad month for cold, snow and/or sleet. Big George had to wade through snow drifts to deliver the mail and would come home with the exposed skin on his face and hands almost frozen. In that time frame mail-men had 20-mile walking routes and carried the mail on their side packs from one depository box to the next. I’ve been on a rural route now for 32-years so I’m used to the mail coming by vehicle to each box on our route. However, I believe the carriers no longer have to walk all their route in the city now, I think they have a small mobile cart or something that carries them to the next pick-up box.

There were usually a few days of school closings in January so it was a cozy time for the children and I to do things together. Sometimes I would put a blanket over a table so they could play like they were camping out and they got to help fix food to eat in their tent. Of course they liked sleigh riding so I would go out with them to pull them back up the little hill in front of our house. I could stay out with them until I thought John was getting cold and then the two older children had to go to the back yard to play; make a snow fort, snowmen and oh yes ! angel wings in the snow…..fox and geese circles….all of that. On snowy days they would be out as long as they could stand the cold and then be forced in to warm up. I would help them in and out of their over-shoes, leggings, mittens, stocking caps, scarves and coats each time they went out or came in. Their wraps were put over the heat vents to dry out for the next trip outdoors.

This year would be the last winter that Becky would be home with John and me because in the fall she would begin kindergarten. We made Valentine cookies and drew Valentine cards to send to family…we colored Easter eggs in the Spring and had fun looking for them. Becky mentioned in one of her posts that I always made potato salad out of them the next day and the dye that bled through the shells always made the potato salad look funny. It has been so much fun for me to read some of the memories that John and Becky come up with….things that impressed them enough to think of. As parents we never really know what memories they will carry with them into adulthood.

Summer came and we returned to the Ozarks to visit grandparents and have fun at the lake. George and I enjoyed water skiing and dad was expert at pulling skiers. He always got a kick out of it when I would pull on the rope hard enough that I could get ahead of the boat on a soft turn……..then jump the wake to the other side of the boat. At the time it was a big deal to dad…..I wonder what he would think of the high-jinks skiers do now? It seems people are getting more and more able to defy gravity with their antics on roller blades, skies, water skies, bikes….whatever.

When we returned home that year Becky was registered at Neiman School for kindergarten. She couldn’t wait for the day to arrive. She loved being in school and hated when it was time to come home. With her personality and pleasure of being with other kids it was a marriage made in heaven. Now John was the lost one with both George and Becky in school most of his day. I took a picture of him after they left on the first day and he was a pretty lonesome little boy. He wanted to know why he couldn’t go to school too. I wonder how mothers across the land explain that to little two-year olds? He spent his day helping me with chores.

That fall I began selling Avon to make a little extra money. I worked around the hours that George was home to watch the children as I didn’t want to leave them with a baby-sitter. One of the houses I called on had a cute puppy and three wild little boys. As I showed my customer the catalog I couldn’t help noticing how the poor puppy was being treated. She was picked up by her head, a back leg, tail or any thing handy and carried about squeezed up against one of the boys by her neck. I commented what a cute puppy it was and that it looked like she was having a rough time of it. The woman said, “I wish they’d hurry up and kill the thing. I don’t want it. We got her from a friend we were visiting in Oklahoma because she was trying to get rid of them. I took this one but I’m not going to keep it.” I couldn’t stand the torture the little thing was going through and I told her I would like to have the puppy if she wanted to get rid of it. When I left, I had “Oakie” in a box headed for our house. She was named Oakie because she was born in Oklahoma.

When I came through the door I had the puppy hid in front of me under my coat. The children all came running because I was home and when I bent down to kiss Becky, Oakie poked her head out of my coat and it just about caused Becky to have a coronary. For some reason she was afraid of dogs, I’ve never known why. It scared Becky and Becky’s screaming scared Oakie. The boys were delighted and Oakie became a family member for the rest of her life.

Oakie and John, wearing his first pair of Gramma Stricklett’s pajama’s, are in the photo album with the Christmas pictures of 1959. One of the traditions I started when the children came along was to read Luke Chapter 2 verses 1-20 before we open gifts because I wanted them to know the reason for Christmas. Little ones get so caught up in Santa Clause and the commercial aspect of the event I wanted them to have the fundamentals down that were appropriate. We follow that tradition to this day and the “reader” of the story is different each year. Sometimes the oldest, youngest, the one who has traveled the furtherest or one who rarely gets to spend Christmas with us…… it is always decided ‘who’ will read the story by the ones present. It is an honor to do so.

Incidentally, in the pictures that year, Becky is holding Oakie…….who had become a very vital part of our family……she was a faithful and loyal friend.

Until tomorrow,

Essentially Esther