Tuesday, January 11, 2005
THE END OF MAY....1985
I worked the next three days after coming home from Rock Island and each night Bear and I went to pick strawberries at a friend’s who was overloaded with them. We picked and cleaned until we couldn’t stand the sight of them. However….later on that freezer jam looked (and tasted) mighty good. Our fist day home, mom, aunt Beulah and her sister arrived to bring mom home and spend the night. Aunt Beulah and Mildred were going on the next day to visit Dale. Mom was looking fit and with better color.
Jennifer was singing in a Spring Concert at school so we attended that the next evening. We always went to anything she was involved with from her very first “Grandparent’s Day” in elementary school. Living in a small town we knew a lot of the kids and had many of them in Children’s Church. It was gratifying to see them growing in talent as well as physically.
This was a period when George owned a motor-cycle. I was never comfortable when John owned one and now George was sitting in our driveway on a Yamaha. He arrived shortly after 8:00pm and hadn’t eaten so I whipped up a pizza and we visited till late. The next day was Saturday and Becky was having an early birthday dinner for me so George, Bear and I drove over at the appointed time. We had a superb meal, gift opening and cake….but the most fun was being with the family. John is always too far away to be able to make special occasions and we have certainly missed a lot of theirs. Distance is not a friend.
A family favorite is always a cook-out so on Sunday after church we cranked up the grill while I made potato salad, baked beans………and some of those good strawberries. Whenever George came, it was mandatory to make him a cherry pie, which was his favorite. Bear used to laugh and say he was always glad to see George come because he knew he’d get some cherry pie. George left after dinner on Monday and I was glad when he called later that evening to tell us he had arrived safely. I was secretly praying he would tire of the Yamaha and get rid of it. Mother’s prerogative.
I had to work on my birthday but a friend brought some cookies in to enjoy with coffee throughout the day and the guys I worked with went together and had roses delivered to my desk in the afternoon. My friend, Pete, who recently passed away, was the instigator and always the one to remember. Those are fond memories of a crew and a job I enjoyed for a lot of years…….. So May came to an end and summer was upon us.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
Jennifer was singing in a Spring Concert at school so we attended that the next evening. We always went to anything she was involved with from her very first “Grandparent’s Day” in elementary school. Living in a small town we knew a lot of the kids and had many of them in Children’s Church. It was gratifying to see them growing in talent as well as physically.
This was a period when George owned a motor-cycle. I was never comfortable when John owned one and now George was sitting in our driveway on a Yamaha. He arrived shortly after 8:00pm and hadn’t eaten so I whipped up a pizza and we visited till late. The next day was Saturday and Becky was having an early birthday dinner for me so George, Bear and I drove over at the appointed time. We had a superb meal, gift opening and cake….but the most fun was being with the family. John is always too far away to be able to make special occasions and we have certainly missed a lot of theirs. Distance is not a friend.
A family favorite is always a cook-out so on Sunday after church we cranked up the grill while I made potato salad, baked beans………and some of those good strawberries. Whenever George came, it was mandatory to make him a cherry pie, which was his favorite. Bear used to laugh and say he was always glad to see George come because he knew he’d get some cherry pie. George left after dinner on Monday and I was glad when he called later that evening to tell us he had arrived safely. I was secretly praying he would tire of the Yamaha and get rid of it. Mother’s prerogative.
I had to work on my birthday but a friend brought some cookies in to enjoy with coffee throughout the day and the guys I worked with went together and had roses delivered to my desk in the afternoon. My friend, Pete, who recently passed away, was the instigator and always the one to remember. Those are fond memories of a crew and a job I enjoyed for a lot of years…….. So May came to an end and summer was upon us.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
