We have had several rainy days this week, but they have been balanced with some really pretty days as well. Our trees are at their peak which makes me wish they would keep their fall colors longer.
HEALING. Jenna got an extra day of fall break as Vicki took her to the doctor to check on her arm on Monday. They took the splint off and her arm was stiff and sore, but she could move it without major discomfort. By Friday she had left her sling behind and was regaining normal use of her right hand.
INDOOR TRAMPOLINE. Will and Darice have a waterbed which was a new thing for Nate when he discovered it at their house last week. The other day Nate found Vicki in our bedroom folding clothes. Climbing on our bed he observed, “Hey Mom, you don’t have a waterbed. You’ve got a jumping bed!” Then he proceeded to prove it.
BODY ART. Another day this week Nate came into the bathroom where Vicki was sorting clothes (I think laundry takes up 50% of her time). He had pulled his right arm inside his shirt and wanted Vicki to leave the bathroom so he could wash his hands. Knowing something was up she told him to go ahead and wash as he wouldn’t bother her. He kept insisting that she leave. This continued for a bit until she finally coaxed him to put his arm back in his shirt sleeve which revealed a dark blue hand and wrist with lines drawn up his arm. Fortunately he had found washable markers and it came off easily.
THE COST OF LIVING. Our washing machine began leaking oil about two years. When the repair man looked at it he told us it would cost more to fix it than to buy a new one and recommended we run it until it died. It washed its last load back on the 6th as Vicki was getting our clothes ready for our trip. We bought a new one to replace it this week.
Due to the size and shape of our bathroom our dryer blocks our washer in. When they came to install the washer they told Vicki that they aren’t allowed to touch a gas dryer and they left. This left the installation job to me after work. Our old washer had serious walking problems and its front feet sat in two rubber coasters which were glued to the floor. In trying to lift the washer out of the coasters I ripped the vinyl floor in a very obvious spot. I was sick when I looked down and saw it. For now Vicki has covered it with a bathroom rug. Nate, calling it a “comfy, blue bed,” wants to sleep on it.
WOMEN’S RETREAT. This weekend Vicki went on a retreat with 26 other women from church. They went to Horton Haven Christian Camp near Lewisburg, Tennessee. She said it was the perfect setting...beautiful weather and surroundings, no children, no cooking, no laundry, etc. They enjoyed Bible study and lots of fun and games. It sounds like everyone had a great time.
MR. JOHN LIKED ICE CREAM (3 of 4-- by Nola Simmons). A long, long time ago, way back when I was a little girl, we used to have ice cream suppers.
On one summer night daddy, mammy, Billie, Anna and I took our ice cream freezer and went across the field to Mr. Len and Miss Scrap’s house [roughly where Steve and Elaine Fisher live today]. John and Robbie [Randolph] were there and Mr. John and Miss Angie came down. You see, Mr. John and Miss Angie lived up the road--that’s why they came down.
When we had ice cream suppers out where I live, we didn’t just serve one saucer full and stop at that, but we made two or three gallons of ice cream and everybody ate all the saucers full that their tummies could hold. Now sometimes, especially if the weather was awfully hot, Mr. John’s tummy could hold a lot of ice cream.
The women folks would make up the ice cream and pour it into the freezer. The men would chip up the ice and pack it with salt. Now everybody would take turns turning that freezer round and round until it got so hard you couldn’t turn it any more. Then the men would put more chipped ice and salt around it and leave it for a little while to ripen.
On this hot summer night they made and froze three gallons of ice cream. Everybody ate until their tummies couldn’t hold another bite. Mr. John had had nine saucers full. As he sat scraping out the last tiny bit of ice cream, Miss Scrap said, “Pap, you needn’t be licking out your saucer, they ain’t no more!” Mr John just stroked his goat-tee and said, “By Granny, don’t care, ‘twant good nohow.”
NOTE: Nola Simmons’ parents were Lee Simmons and Clara Jones. When Clara died Lee married Chloe Fyke. They had seven children in addition to the ones mentioned above. For those of you who rode the school bus with me, one of their boys is Mr. Guthrie Simmons, our bus driver.
Joe
