No sooner than I wrote that it was beginning to feel like fall than the temps hit the mid 80s. This only lasted for a few days though. Now things are cooling off and the trees are really starting to show their colors. And the best part is that Fall Break began Friday. A whole week off! We will be on the road tomorrow to visit Will, Darice and their kids. Pauline is going too, so we’ll have a Jones family reunion!
ENGLISH IS HARD TO READ. Unfortunately, our language is not completely phonetic. Jenna found a list of birthstones the other day and came in to inform Vicki that her birthstone is “turkey-os-key.” I sympathize with her. Turquoise is hard to read when it’s the first time you’ve ever seen the word.
EXCITEMENT FOR NOTHING. We’ve had our dirty clothes hamper since we got married. In twelve years of use and three kids climbing on it to sit on the bathroom counter so they can reach the sink, it is far from mint condition. Vicki mentioned the other day at breakfast that she would be looking for a new one. Ben misunderstood and thought Vicki had said she would be buying a hamster. He had about five seconds of excitement before we brought him back down to earth. He has recovered quite well though. At bedtime he announces that he is taking his dirty clothes to the hamster now.
Ben did have some genuine excitement Wednesday night of last week (the 4th). The activities at church ran a bit long and we were behind schedule on getting everyone to bed when we got home. To make matters worse, all the kids needed to take a shower that night. As Jenna was bathing Vicki told Ben to clean up the living room. I happened to be a few steps ahead of him as he headed off to do his chore. When I turned on the light we surveyed a clean room and I said, “Well, Ben, it looks like you don’t have to do anything in here tonight.” When this stroke of luck sunk in he flopped down on the ottoman and said, “Oh Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”
OFFERINGS OF PRAISE is the name of the musical our choir performed at church this evening. They did a great job! After church all the choir members and their families went to Jimmie and Susanne Pitt’s house (next door for us) to celebrate a job well done. It was a perfect evening for an outdoor party.
MR. JOHN DRIVES HIS FIRST CAR HOME (2 of 4--by Nola Simmons). Do you remember way back when autos first came to this country? Well, Mr. John was one of the first men around home to buy one of these new contraptions.
Way back then, people didn’t have garages for their cars as they do today. They just put them in the barn. Now Mr. John had a barn right close to the house. He and Angie talked it over and decided that the barn was just the right place for the car.
Mr. John went to town and bought his new car--paid cash for it, too--“By Granny”. The car man showed him how to put it into gear--how to crank it up; and maybe showed him how to guide it a little. Anyway Mr. John decided he was all ready to drive it home.
Now do you remember how the roads were way back then? They were not paved at all. Part of the way, they were very muddy, and the small streams had no bridges across them at all.
Do you remember how it felt when you saw one of these contraptions coming down the road? “Y everybody looked and looked and looked.” The mules and horses didn’t like those autos one bit. They were afraid of them.
Well, Mr. John put his car into gear, cranked it up, and got in and started home.
Chug, chug, chug
Bump, bump, bump
Sput, sput, sput
And the farther he went--the faster he drove until, when he got home he was going so fast that he whizzed into the barn and forgot how to stop the car--so he whizzed through the back-end of the barn and that car--and Mr. John landed right on top of the biggest chicken coop-- where he killed his motor. Angie came running out of the house to see what on earth had happened!
But Mr. John just stuck his head out the side of the car and stroked his goat-tee and said, “By Granny, Angie, how did I get up here?”
NOTE: This story is accompanied by a painting by Miss Simmons with the title of the story. It shows what looks like a Model T driving down a muddy road with the chug, bump and sput sounds coming from the car.
Joe
