Four Hundred and Going Strong

I am closing out 2012 with the 400th edition of the Swann Family News, but more on that below.

SHOOTING STARS. Before I get started recounting our Christmas I want to share a story I forgot to write up last time.

The Geminid Meteor Shower peaked back on the 13th and that evening as the boys and I were returning from Ben’s basketball practice we parked in the field behind the shop and watched until we got cold (which didn’t take too long). We got quite a show, seeing two to three meteors per minute. Some were very impressive. It was one of those special moments I will treasure, not so much because my sons were asking me questions (and no, I don’t know all the answers), but because the three of us were simply enjoying the beauty of the night sky as made by our Creator.

There are so many details in this world that we miss because we are too busy to stop and look at the handiwork of God.

DON’T FLUSH! I am happy to report that we have had a great Christmas, though the unexpected challenge for us was that we were without water most of the day. It turned out that there was a major water main leak just down Henry Road from Highway 25 which affected quite a number of customers in the area. I became aware of this before everyone else got up when I heard a sucking air noise in the washing machine. I felt sorry for the crew out there having to fix the problem on a cold, damp, Christmas morning.

We were able to carry on with all of our Christmas activities. Mrs. Connie said, “We’re pioneers,” so breakfast was still on. I helped Vicki wash her hair over the kitchen sink with bottled water. Judging from the way she squawked I’d say the water felt pretty cold even though it was at room temperature.

At any rate, there are far worse problems to have on any given morning, much less Christmas. Better to be without water for a while than electricity on a cold day. Our water service was restored around 2:00.

A MOST WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS. To begin this tale I need to start by saying I do quite a bit of the gift wrapping at our house. This year I threw the kids for a loop because when I wrapped the presents I put numbers on the labels rather than names (I kept a key to the numbers in a notebook). The boys were so funny because they’d come up to me and say, “I don’t understand. What does number eight mean?”

We decided to put a little adventure into Christmas this year by staging a scavenger hunt for most of the gifts around the house, so Christmas Eve night found us writing clues and hiding gifts. The kids were totally oblivious to our sneaking around because they were watching something on TV. The next morning we presented them with eight clues that sent them looking all over. One clue had them going to their own closets and when I read it aloud and the kids figured out where to go Ben stopped with this most incredulous look on his face and exclaimed, “How did you get by me? I was awake almost the whole night!” He marveled again at our prowess because their final gifts were hidden right under their beds.

The major gift for the boys was a pair of Google Nexus 7 tablets. Ben knew immediately what it was and practically jumped out of his skin. Nate wasn’t quite up to speed, but quickly figured out that he had something really good. Jenna got a lot of smaller gifts that she wanted and a good haul of cash. I netted several books that are on my reading list.

CLASSIC TV. Two things we as a family got for Christmas were complete DVD sets of I Love Lucy and Gilligan’s Island. Nate is in hog heaven in that we no longer have to wait for the next disc to come from Netflix in order for him to get his Lucy fix, and we’ve enjoyed introducing them to the antics of those poor castaways of the S. S. Minnow.

KENNY IS STUMPED. For those of you who keep up with the Kenny Swann/Kim Hendley exchange on Facebook -- which has offered years of entertainment for many -- you’ll be glad to know someone finally has Kenny stumped.

For several years now Jenna and Kenny have exchanged gag gifts. Jenna usually picks on his lack of hair and Kenny tries to dream up anything he can to get her goat. They’ve both come up with some good gifts. Kenny’s crash helmet after Jenna’s bike wreck was a classic.

Alas, the gift giving is over. Jenna gave Kenny a baseball cap that reads, “Wish you were hair.” and Kenny had nothing in return. He said he had thought and thought and thought and couldn’t come up with an idea that wasn’t lame so he conceded and called a truce. When I heard him say that I thought, “Well, that’s what you get for messing with Mary Poppins in training.” I think they decided that Jenna would be Santa’s Helper next year.

I think Kim needs to team up with Jenna.

THE 400TH EDITION. I know I have said this sort of thing before, but I am really quite amazed to see “Number 400” in the header above (even more so that my software is reporting that I’ve typed over 318,000 words). I remember first dreaming up the concept for the Swann Family News when I was mowing the part of Aunt Mar’s yard we call the “strawberry patch.” I knew then that I wanted to keep a running journal of our family’s life, but that the only way I’d stay at it would be to make it into an email newsletter so I’d be accountable to more than just me. Even at that I never dreamed I’d still be at it 400 issues later.

This brings me to the birthday and Christmas presents I gave Vicki this year. I took the first two years of the Swann Family News, added pictures from our digital archives, and had them bound into book (I used the same service I used for The Wit & Wisdom of Aunt Mar). Vicki got volume 1 for her birthday and volume 2 for Christmas. Mom and the kids each got their own copies for Christmas as well.

The nice thing is that I don’t have to think up new gift ideas for a while, I just have to make another book in time for the next occasion. This edition, for example, will be in volume 10 if I get that far making books. Hopefully they will be something my family treasures for years to come.

Joe

Merry Christmas!

Just hours after I wrote last we have a cold front blow in and cool things off quite a bit. Things eventually warmed up, but then another front came through packing a lot of wind and cooling things off once again. Now there’s a possibility of snow in the forecast.

MIDDLE-EARTH. Last weekend we went to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It was good, but boy, was it long. I’m going to reserve some judgement until I see the next two movies, but I left wondering if it was a mistake to stretch the tale into a trilogy. (The original plan was to make a two-part film.) I also left wondering how much artistic license they took and how much extra material they pulled from the appendices to The Lord of the Rings. Long as it was we had a good time together which is what matters.

OUR STOCKINGS ARE ALL HUNG UP BY THE CHIMNEY WITH CARE and we are hoping Saint Nick will soon be here. This is not to say we are completely ready for Christmas, we aren’t. We haven’t sent out a single Christmas card. We’ve decided that’s going to have to be one of those post-holiday projects.

COUNT DOWN TO THE HOLIDAY. Our last day of school was Wednesday and the kids were counting it down. Jenna got out a little earlier since her exams were over. At one point Nate wanted me to figure it to the exact minute, and while I understand his excitement I told him to stick to counting the days. The kids are really fortunate this year that they have two and a half weeks off. Several of the other school systems around aren’t quite so generous.

It’s always hard as a parent to find a balance between playtime, chores, and other uses of time when your kids are on their break. You want them to have a good balance of all. The boys would say we didn’t find that balance at first because we tackled cleaning the house to get things in order for Christmas.

CHRISTMAS PARTIES. The big reason everyone got pulled into cleaning the house was that we hosted a Christmas party for my Sunday School class Saturday night. Ten folks were able to come and we enjoyed eating, visiting, and a quick game of Dirty Santa.

Yesterday after church we invited Mom and Jimmie and Susanne Pitt to come over for lunch. We eat leftovers from the party and a chance to just visit.

Last night saw us at the annual party over at Kenny and Lori’s. It’s always fun to stop and catch up with your neighbors there and I enjoyed it.  What we thought was funny was that Wil told all the kids to bring their Nerf guns because he was stocking up on plenty of Nerf ammo. Our boys were all over that and came home from church excited about the upcoming battle that evening. They even told Vicki not to be alarmed if she heard unusual noises from upstairs because they would be “in training.” Sure enough, upon arriving at the party the boys headed downstairs where I suspect a good time was had by all.

MARRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! It is not my habit to write this in the morning, but since it is Christmas Eve I thought this morning was as good a time as any. I am about to get ready for the day so I can make boiled custard for tomorrow and do some last minute gift wrapping. Vicki is going to look through her purchases and make a last minute shopping run if needed. Then there’s the Christmas Eve service at church tonight.

Whatever your day looks like, we wish you a very Merry Christmas -- and to all a good night...

Joe

Spring in December

The kids, Nate especially, are counting down the days until Christmas Break. Just 7½ days to go!

It’s hard to believe this is December. Not so much because time flies by, but because it’s so warm. Most days all you need is a light jacket, if that. Today, for instance, has brought rain. To look out the window you’d think it’s cold and gray, but step outside and it’s about 60°. Makes it sort of hard to dream of a white Christmas.

CHRISTMAS PARADE. Cross Plains held it’s annual Christmas Parade a week ago yesterday (the 1st). Our current weather trend made this most pleasant.

There were a couple of neat changes this year. First, they reversed the course of the parade route making the wait for it to get to the four-way stop shorter. And then they decided to have the parade at night this year. This allowed for a lot of neat expressions of lighting creativity. I certainly enjoyed it.

SICK NATE. Nate woke up early Wednesday morning sick at his stomach. He didn’t make it to school that day. He really didn’t make it too far from his bucket.

Nate really is one of the most pleasant kids to be around, even when he’s sick. After the kids and I left Vicki thought she heard noise coming from the living room. When she went in there to check it out she found Nate humming Christmas carols to himself. He wanted to keep himself in the holiday spirit.

The stomach bug has been going around, but fortunately the rest of us didn’t catch it.

BASKETBALL PRACTICE. Upward Basketball practice has started. Ben practices on Thursday evenings and Nate on Fridays (they are in two age divisions and thus on two different teams). Jenna has aged out of Upward ball.

I really like both boys’ coaches. I’ve seen Ben’s coach around for years and thought he would be a good coach to play for. We also know Nate’s coaches (a husband and wife) as their daughter and Jenna played on the same team last year.

VICKI’S BIRTHDAY. Vicki’s birthday is actually tomorrow, but she and I celebrated Friday. I had an eye appointment at Vanderbilt and an extra vacation day so we made a day of it. We headed out about 10:00, did some Christmas shopping, ate at the Korea House restaurant (a favorite of ours), got my eyes checked, and did some more shopping before heading home. It’s always nice to enjoy a day with Vicki.

We also went out to eat as a family to the Catfish House in Springfield last night.

Joe

A Wonderful Thanksgiving

We have had the most wonderful Thanksgiving this year. I cannot imagine how it could have been better.

LEAVES. Since we don’t travel anywhere for Thanksgiving I usually approach the holiday with two things on my todo list: leaves and Christmas decorations. The leaves are always contingent on the weather and the weather was perfect for working out in the yard on Wednesday and Thursday.

The boys and I met with Kenny, Andrew, and Wil on Wednesday morning to tackle the leaves on Mom’s yard. Between the six of us, my mower, Kenny’s tractor, and three leaf blowers we had the yard pretty clear within just a few hours. Kenny shoved the leaves that I didn’t chop behind the shed, and the pile, which also includes sticks, is about the size of my truck. Mom’s trees aren’t done dropping their leaves, so I’ll have to clean the yard off again, but at least they won’t be so deep.

That afternoon the boys and I took a couple of hours to chop up the leaves in our yard.

THANKSGIVING DINNER. Vicki and I had originally discussed taking a day trip and eating out for Thanksgiving, but Jenna said she wanted to help Vicki cook Thanksgiving dinner so we wound up staying home.

Our Dynamic Duo hit the kitchen Wednesday evening for some early prep and resumed their work Thursday morning. They whipped up an excellent meal. We stuck with our traditional menu: ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash dressing, deviled eggs, rolls, and carrot cake. Mom came over about mid afternoon and we dug in.

After dinner we talked, played games (poor Mom was clueless at Clue), and talked to the Cotter clan via FaceTime.

WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT WOMAN? As I mentioned above, one of the items on our to do list for Thanksgiving is decorating for Christmas. At some point along this process Vicki, Jenna, and I were taking a break in the living room. Vicki usually puts a nativity set above the TV and then adds lighted garland around it and the mantle above the fireplace. We use an extension cord with an in-line foot switch to get power to these lights. Vicki had not connected all this and decided to assign the job to me and Jenna but she was having a hard time putting her request into words, so in typical Vicki fashion she said, “When we get up I want you to get the ‘click-click’ and hook it up so I can ‘click-click’ and it all come on.”

Now, to really get the effect here you need to make clicking sounds for “click-click” so that it sounds like you are telling your horse to “giddy-up.” And keep in mind too, that she just blurted this out with no context for us to go on. That’s what we heard which made us both look at her and wonder what in the world she was talking about.

I used to think I will run out of cute quotations to record here as the kids got older. I no longer fear for running out of material because a new source is emerging.

THE STOWAWAY. We’re up to two and a half cats here at our house (Miss Cat counts as a half cat as she only checks in weekly). Our second cat used to be one of Mom’s kittens (the black and white one) but became ours when he stowed away in the bed of my truck the other day. Jenna had spent the night with Mom Friday night and the cat came home with us Saturday morning when I brought Jenna home. We’ve named him Tagalong.

We barely noticed Tagalong when we got here. Upon his arrival he hopped out of the truck as if he owned the place and commenced exploring every corner of the yard and every building therein. It didn’t take long for he and Dusty to meet and by the end of the day they seemed to be on friendly terms.

Ben would love it if we would allow the cats inside. Alas, the rest of us are allergic so I leave the basement door cracked open so they’ll have a warm place to go. Our allergies do not stop Ben from bringing a cat in for a quick visit, and when we see this Ben is quick to say, “What cat? You don’t see a cat in my arms. There’s no cat here.”

Speaking of Tagalong, he’s the cat that was really bad about trying to get into the house when he was at Mom’s. He had spotted the stuffed lions on the living room floor through the sliding glass door and always made a beeline to rub up against his indoor cousins. The boys spent Thursday night with Mom, and Nate pulled a little trick on poor Tagalong when I picked them up Friday morning. He moved the stuffed lions right next to the sliding glass door and as we left Tagalong was on the outside rubbing the glass to get to his friends.

At any rate, Dusty has a playmate now and Mom has one less cat to trip her up when she goes outside.

Joe

Eras at an End

I love fall mornings when Jack Frost has visited and the landscape has been painted with touches of ice. I was telling the kids about all the interesting patterns I saw on frost coated windows when I was a kid. Double-paned windows have robbed them of that experience (not that I would trade them for the old drafty ones).

MRS. KRANTZ. A few days after I wrote last I got an email telling me that Mrs. Mildred Krantz had passed away. You may recall that Vicki and I went to Mr. Krantz' funeral back in the spring. We were unable to make it to her funeral but did visit the Krantz family back on the 6th.

I know this is bittersweet for them as Mrs. Krantz was such a fine lady. Whenever I was around her she simply exuded love. Both of them did. I thinks I've said this before, but I got the opportunity to watch this in action at the 73rd Bomb Wing reunions as they would simply meet people where they were and offer their friendship. I watched them both place great value on every person they met. It was a quality and a skill that I want to capture. They leave such a strong legacy.

Another thing that always struck me about Mrs. Krantz (and Mr. Krantz as well) was her trust in God. It was strong, unwavering, and overflowing. You came away feeling spiritually topped off after seeing her.

A generation is now gone for the Krantz family. I understand where their daughter, Cathy, is coming from when she said to me that it feels like the end of an era. Mr. and Mrs. Krantz leave big shoes to fill. Their family has also had a couple other deaths making this year a most difficult one for them. Please keep them in your prayers.

SPEAKING OF ERAS ENDING. This item is not on the same level as the passing of Mrs. Krantz, but I do want to note it here. Mom noticed in the paper that the Nashville Sash and Door Company has closed it's doors. I am not surprised as I have missed seeing their yellow trucks making deliveries the last few years.

I mention this because Nashville Sash is one of three places where Mom worked long-term in her career. She was employed there from the late 40s through the early 60s. At that time they were located on Second Avenue in downtown Nashville where the Spaghetti Factory is currently located, and I remember visiting when I was a boy and getting to see where they made all the windows and doors. The freight elevator really sticks out in my mind because neither the shaft nor the car had solid walls so you could see all around as you traveled up and down. This ride brought home the fact that you needed to keep arms and legs inside the car when it was moving.

Mom has regaled us with many stories over the years of working there in Nashville. Her tales cover things happening in the office to quick shopping trips over her lunch hour and of course, all the good places to eat and the desserts they served.

The owners of Nashville Sash were very good to Mom. They let her have a month off back in the 50s to go to Europe to visit Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda when Uncle Bob was stationed on France. (This was a rarity as people just didn't get a month off for a vacation back then.) They also offered Mom her old job back at double the salary after Dad passed away. She was grateful but declined so she could stay home with me.

FITTING IN SOME ENTERTAINMENT. Last weekend Vicki and Jenna went to see Phillips, Craig, and Dean in concert. They both said it was very good. While they were there the boys and I went to see Wreck It Ralph which is a cute flick. We recommend it. Then last night Vicki and I went to see Skyfall, the latest 007 installment. Being Bond fans we enjoyed this one as well.

You want cheap entertainment? Get a laser pointer and a kitten (I'm sure a puppy would do just as well). This is better than anything on TV! Okay, I know this is nothing new, but we’ve never had a cat and a laser pointer at the same time.

Speaking of cats, Dusty does something I would never have dreamed of. He perches atop the handrail of our back steps in the mornings waiting for someone to come out and get the paper and hopefully feed him (he's never disappointed). It's a great place for a cat to sit and look for movement inside.

Joe

Falling Leaves

How did it get to be November already? Did I completely miss October? They say time flies when you're having fun. We must be having a blast.

HIGH SCHOOL AND FRIENDS. You know how it is when you run across someone you used to see on a regular basis but no longer do, you tend to catch up by asking, among other things, about their kids. The common response this year when I tell people that Jenna is a freshman is, "Oh, how is she liking high school?"

I am really pleased to say that high school seems to be a great fit for Jenna. I think there are several reasons for that. First, she's mature enough to be ready for the challenge and she is doing well. Second, Jenna is very sure of who she is and is comfortable with that so to that end I'm watching her really grow. And lastly, Jenna has some wonderful close friends.

I've mentioned one of Jenna's friends, Mackenzie, for several years now. As a matter of fact, Jenna was over at Mackenzie's house last night. (They've also been to all the home football games together.) They are truly kindred spirits. They keep each other in line, each helping the other stretch and grow while living up to high standards. I'm so glad Jenna has Mackenzie and others like her to hang out with because it is no fun doing high school alone.

Of course, the added bonus for me is that I get to work the algebra problems that hang her up. Yes, I'm weird, but that's my entertainment most evenings.

CAMPING. Ben and I have learned that we are no equipped for camping out in 40° weather. We went to the Fall Camporee last weekend and got pretty chilly the first night. Fortunately the camporee was in the immediate area. I stayed until supper the second night. After the meal was over I handed Ben my sleeping bag before leaving. When he asked what I was doing I said, "I'm wimping out. You put your sleeping bag down inside of mine and we'll both be warm tonight."

The Fall Camporee had a cool competition for all the troops in the district to compete in. Each troop was to use raw materials to construct a car. The wheels could be made of finished wood and the pivot for the steering could be made of metal, but the rest the car had to be made from wood poles that were lashed together. Once the cars were built the troops raced them (fours boys pushed each car) and also had to make pit stops at various stations that tested their skills. It made for an interesting afternoon. Vicki, Jenna, and Nate dropped by and enjoyed watching the activities.

Speaking of camping, Ben also made the previous campout which was the weekend Aunt Mar passed away. The troop went to Fort Donelson that weekend and participated in a merit badge university at Austin Peay where Ben completed all that was required for the Engineering badge.

What I thought was neat was that the following weekend Ben was channel surfing and stopped on a local PBS documentary featuring Fort Donelson and its role in the Civil War. Ben was very excited when he came to tell me about it: "Dad, they were showing Fort Donelson on TV and I was standing right there by the cannons last weekend!"

BIRTHDAY SLEEPOVER. Nate was invited to a friend's house for a birthday sleepover last weekend. What was so fun for him was that he won at bowling. He came home really excited about that.

TRUNK OR TREAT. Mt. Carmel had it's sixth annual Trunk or Treat on Halloween. It was a lot of fun, and the event is getting bigger every year. We have several of our members who simply open their trunks and pass out candy, and most of these wear a costume, but we also have several families who go all out. Kenny and his larger family were all circus characters. (Kenny dressed in drag and manned the kissing booth.) Another group got together, brought in a boat (renamed the S. S. Minnow) and dressed as the castaways of Gilligan's Island. And yet another family set up a pumpkin patch on a large flatbed trailer and dressed as Peanuts characters waiting on the Great Pumpkin.

Then there was the food. Last year we ran out. We may have run out of chili this year, but not the hot dogs.

New this year were the games. I think the only game that wasn't a hit was the miniature golf. The rest were table style activities and were enjoyed by all. Also new was the live music. Some of the guys who play in our church band have a band with friends at Cross Plains Methodist and they played during all the festivities. I heard of a few little girls who were having so much fun dancing to the music that they didn't care about trick or treating around the parking lot.

Oh, you are probably wondering how our family dressed for the event. We were Christmas elves, complete with Christmas tree by our van. Yes, two holidays early, but we were warm which was important that night.

When I first heard "elves" I told Vicki I wanted to look like Legolas from Lord of the Rings, but that didn't fly. Actually, I got so busy running errands during the event I didn't get the chance to go put my costume on until right at the end when we took family pictures. Our Halloween costumes may be our Christmas card picture this year.

Joe

Transitions

The leaves are past their peak now. I think I'll have to mow one more time, but I’ll do that when I start chopping leaves. All the corn seems to be in and now the farmers are turning their attention to the soybeans. The whole landscape seems to be taking a deep breath before it enters into its winter rest. Fall is here.

NORMAL? Last time I said I'd write when we got back to a normal routine. Well, we’re here.

When I wrote last we were in the middle of our Fall Break so last week was the first week back from break. All the business of life has resumed. The thing is, normal is not the same any more. Nowhere is that more evident to me than when we are around the table, whether we're out to eat with Mom and saying we're a party of six or at home not needing to bring out the card table because we can all squeeze around the kitchen table. Life marches relentlessly on.

I've been very proud of Mom. Ever since Ann Beth went home after the funeral she has insisted on staying home alone. Jenna surprised her by spending the night with her on Friday the 12th and the boys stayed with her last Friday night. I know this has not been easy for her.

OUR PART TIME CAT. I mentioned a month or so ago that Miss Cat had disappeared. Well, she returned, having gained quite a bit of weight. Then she disappeared again only to reappear a few days ago, this time quite a bit thinner. I guess some kittens will be making their debut with us in a few weeks. I should be thankful that Miss Cat is the only loose woman in my life.

BEING THANKFUL. Speaking of being thankful, this is one I had to write down so I could share it here. We had sat down to eat supper the other day and asked Ben to say the blessing. Part of his prayer went something like this: "Thank You that we have food to eat today, which we've always had food to eat, but I'm just saying..."

This may sound a bit irreverent when you read it, but it was not at all that way when he prayed it. He was actually at a bit of a loss for words. I don't know what was on his mind, but I am glad he realizes, if by just a small fraction, that he is blessed beyond what many children in the world experience.

AN OLD STORY. I wish we were better at writing cute things down as reminders for me when I compose my thoughts here. Our family news would be all the better for it. In reality it's rarely the case. However, we do this on occasion and the other day we ran across one of these notes where Vicki recorded a conversation with Ben from September of last year. Better late than never.

Ben: "Nothing like a Mountain Dew!"

Vicki: "That's a Diet Dr. Pepper."

Ben: "I know. I'm just pretending that it's a Mountain Dew."

AN INCREDIBLE YOUNG WOMAN. I am so proud to tell you about a cousin of mine who spoke at church yesterday. Lisa Hellmann is a senior studying nursing at Belmont University. She also has a passion for the people of Haiti. Last summer she spent eight weeks there and she shared those experiences with us at church. Her love, her passion are simply amazing and I am really proud to have kinfolk like her.

Lisa plans to return to Haiti over spring break and also as part of her life’s work. It’s really inspiring to see how she is letting God be in charge and move her into a place and calling He created just for her.

If you want to listen to Lisa the audio is available on our church website (http://www.mtcarmel.cc/) on the sermons page under on-line resources.

Joe

Aunt Mar

I apologize for not writing anything more than the brief email I sent out last Tuesday about Aunt Mar’s passing -- there have simply been too many details to tend to here, and quite honestly, it has been just too hard to do until now.

I think it has been obvious from what I have written about Aunt Mar over the last few months -- years, really -- that her health was declining. We saw that decline accelerate after Aunt Linda, Uncle Bob, and Ann Beth visited at the end of August. In spite of that she met each day with the determination to get up, dress, and participate in life, even if it was only for a few hours a day, all the way until the last couple of days. She passed away about thirty minutes before midnight on September 30. It was a Sunday.

We had the visitation at Austin & Bell on Wednesday and were simply overwhelmed by the number of people who showed up to pay their respects. In the four hours of the visitation there was no time where Mom was without someone in line to talk to her. The line may have grown and shrank over the course of the evening, but there were always people. We told the kids on the way home not to take this for granted as it is not normal. Aunt Mar touched many, many lives.

The funeral was held late Thursday morning at church. Again, many people there. I delivered a eulogy as did Bro. Bill. I am pasting in the words I read from below to share with you here. I know I departed from the script a little, but not by much.

I will write again as we get back into the normal routine.

Joe

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On behalf of my family I'd like to thank each of you for being here today to celebrate Aunt Mar's life with us. As my daughter, Jenna, observed the other day, this truly is a celebration, not a funeral.

I'd also like to go a step further -- at the risk of making a lame blanket statement -- and thank everyone for everything. You have been so good to Aunt Mar and Mom, and the rest of us by extension, that there is no way we can keep up with all your acts of kindness. For months and months you have called, sent cards and notes, dropped by to visit, brought food -- you have all done so much that has touched and blessed us. Aunt Mar always wanted to finish out her days at home and you helped us accomplish that for her.

When we were meeting with Tim Nicholson to plan today's services and he asked if we had honorary pall bearers in mind we started reeling the names off and quickly realized we could ask our entire church plus many others, so if you are sitting here today we treasure all you've done for us and love you very much. You have performed as a Christian community should just like we read about in Acts 2, and speaking as a father, I am glad my children have seen you living this out.

Mom, wow! Aunt Mar would not have been able to finish her days at home if it were not for you. You dedicated these last several years to caring for Aunt Mar and that was not lost on her. She regularly told me and Vicki how much she appreciated you. We have witnessed you perform the most incredible act of love, loyalty, and selfless service. Well done!

Standing before you right now is one of the hardest things I've ever tried to do. I've lost my second mother this week. I am one of three people who can say that this morning, the other two being Mom and my Aunt Linda. I'm here because I want to share with you a little about Aunt Mar since I have such an intimate perspective.

I'll have to say, one of the benefits of growing up with Aunt Mar as a second mom is that she hated to see children get spanked. I got out of many spankings I deserved and Vicki has said to her on several occasions, "Aunt Mar, I wish you hadn't done that."

I want you to know, everything you've ever admired about Aunt Mar was true at home. What she was in public she was also in private. Her standard was high and she never disappointed. I cannot recall her saying anything bad about another person. She was too busy serving others to talk about them so any ill thoughts or feelings she may have had toward anyone she kept to herself.

This is not to say that Aunt Mar never got angry, she did. I remember one day when something happened that gave her every right to be angry, livid really. Aunt Mar had ordered a load of fresh gravel for the driveway. When the truck arrived she had the driver get out so she could show him what she wanted and alert him to a couple of hazards: one of those being the place where the power and phone cables cross the driveway overhead. After the briefing was over the driver promptly got in his truck, raised the bed, and started to spread the gravel without a thought to what Aunt Mar had told him. Within a few seconds he had snagged to power and phone lines, ripping them loose from the house, and bending the service entrance conduit that sticks up above the roof. Aunt Mar didn't say anything to the driver, but Pat Head Summit has nothing on her for icy glares. Actually, I think Coach Summit could have taken lessons.

One thing about Aunt Mar that was fun for a little boy was that she had the Hancock foot when she was behind the wheel. She was a good driver, but she was a fast driver. Going out West to visit Aunt Carrie and Uncle Ed was a lot of fun because she would zip along at 100 mph where there was nothing but miles and miles of oil wells and cactus. She'd also get a little aggravated with Mom when she relieved Aunt Mar at the wheel and only did 70 or 80.

I remember one time Aunt Mar and Mrs. Sue Freeland took me, Brent, Brian, and Steve to Rivergate to see a movie. We boys were in the back seat begging Aunt Mar to drive fast and on that stretch of I-65 between Bethel Road and Millersville she put the pedal down. We were doing 95 with Mrs. Sue saying, "Margarette, slow down!" the whole way. It was great!

Aunt Mar enjoyed roller coasters. She rode the Walbash Cannonball when it opened at Opryland. It had a double corkscrew making it the first roller coaster at Opryland to go upside down. I think her only reluctance was that it would mess up her hair.

Aunt Mar loved to clean and hated clutter. She kept and immaculate house. What most people consider a deep cleaning to be done periodically was the weekly standard for Aunt Mar, and that was when she was working full time at the bank. Even the garage was mopped regularly. Vicki told me after her first visit to our house when we were dating that she had never before slept on sheets that had been ironed.

The day that she broke her hip back in the 80s she had been up on the roof to sweep it off. You'd think that would have caused the broken hip, but no, what actually did it was a cabinet door that had been left ajar in the kitchen. Aunt Mar had been out picking wildflowers and was getting a vase to put them in when she caught her pants leg on the door and lost her balance.

She would take down the kitchen curtains and wash them a couple of times a year. She loved for them to be wrinkle free so she would starch them before hanging them back up. Somewhere I have a picture of those stiff curtains standing on their own in the middle of the kitchen floor holding up the curtain rod.

I never had to clean my room because Aunt Mar just came through every day and did it for me. Of course, I had to fish a lot of things I wanted to keep out of the garbage because if it was laying out it would be whisked away.

Nothing was safe from Aunt Mar's mop and dust rag. I had a box a treasures I wanted to keep -- really cool stuff. Okay, it was actually a box of junk, but they were treasures to a boy. I kept the box in the garage, but after rescuing my treasures from the garbage several times I moved them out to the shed. A few months later I went out to the shed and my stuff was GONE! -- never to be seen again. The whole shed had been cleaned out. I think I still have unresolved issues over this.

Aunt Mar was a fast and hard worker. One year Kenny and I had a crop of tobacco right behind the house and we had a section of the tobacco where the sucker oil didn't work. Now, for those of you who have not worked in tobacco, suckering tobacco is probably one of the most backbreaking, physically demanding jobs in raising a crop. Aunt Mar felt sorry for us out there and came out to help. She was about 70 then and we could not keep up with her. Of course, she was in shape enough to do this. It was nothing for her to touch up the yard with a push mower and lively lad.

We were looking through Aunt Carrie's desk about a year ago and found a letter Aunt Mar had written to her sister. In it was a list -- dated June 22, year unknown -- of all the things she had done that day.

Got up and ate breakfast
Washed clothes
Swept the garage and moped it
Went to Roy Cole's and picked beans and squash
Fixed lunch
Hoed out garden
Went to Nashville with Anne to see Dr. Goldner
Went to Parkview to see Alice
Went to Memorial to see Robert
Went to Rivergate to get a tie for David
We met Joe in Springfield to eat supper
We all went to hospital to see Lillie Belle
Came home and strung beans
Took bath
Folded clothes
Twenty till twelve, ready for bed

Let me emphasize here, this was a typical day. And people say superheroes are fictional characters.

As I alluded to earlier, if any one thing characterizes Aunt Mar it would be servanthood -- to the point of pampering. For example, if you ate at our house, not only were you served an excellent meal -- because she was a good cook -- but Aunt Mar was getting up and passing you seconds before you had a chance to ask. Everyone who left her table had a smile on their face.

She was like that in everything. That's why I always described her as a cross between Aunt Bee (The Andy Griffith Show) and Mary Poppins. We saw Aunt Mar do more things for more people -- it's mind-boggling. She took care of details no one knew existed, doing anything required of her, meeting any need she perceived was there, all without complaint. There was no act of service beneath her.

Aunt Mar exemplified the two greatest commandments Jesus talked about in Matthew 22. "Love The Lord your God with all you heart, soul, mind, and strength." and "Love your neighbor as yourself." And to Aunt Mar everyone was a neighbor

I'll leave it to Bro. Bill to speak more about Aunt Mar's faith, but I do want to say she lived out her faith in God every day, all the way to the very end. Jenna had the privilege of overhearing one of her passionate prayers one afternoon last week. She was actually very upset with God for leaving her here so long -- we are speculating the delay was because heaven needed to be cleaned to her standards before she got there -- but in that Jenna heard her pour out her heart in a most beautiful way. That's her legacy.

Aunt Mar leaves us an impossibly high standard to live up to. I am blessed beyond anything money could buy that she is such a foundational part of my life. I just hope I can be that for the people I am privileged to meet.

Our last memories of Aunt Mar really interacting with us was Friday evening. I had to drop Ben off to go to a weekend campout with the Boy Scouts. She smiled at him from her bed and told him to have fun before we left. When I came back I brought some take out for supper and Aunt Mar wanted to come to the table to eat with us. She smiled and took part in the conversation as much as her hearing would allow. Nate was acting silly at the table -- being a normal nine-year-old boy -- and Vicki said to Aunt Mar, "He sure is a mess, isn't he?" She agreed with a twinkle in her eye.

And Judy, she enjoyed the hot fudge cake you brought in from Shoney's for dessert.

Hints of Autumn

Jenna noticed last week that the trees were just beginning to take on their fall colors. Sure enough, each day presents just a bit more color as the green starts to fade away. Cooler weather comes right along with the change of colors. We've woken up several mornings with the temperature in the 40s.

RA CAMPOUT. The boys and I have gone to the RA campout at Coldstream Camp every year since Ben was old enough to go. This year's campout was a week ago last Friday (the 14th).

The campout was a quick trip for us as we rushed to get there in time for supper that night and then had to leave by mid-morning the next day. What was really nice is that the boys just had plenty of space to just run around and be boys.

FAMILY REUNION. We had to leave the campout a bit early so I could mow the year and clean up before the Hancock family reunion over in Orlinda.

Isn't it funny how you can live within five or ten miles of your relatives and hardly ever see them? Of course, just as with other branches of my family, many of these cousins live far away. Near or far, it was good to have some time to visit and catch up.,

BARBECUE. One thing you can count on when the Hancock family gets together is barbecue. It just so happened that the reunion coincided with the annual Cross Plains Heritage Commission barbecue fundraiser. Now I like barbecue, but I've had enough to last me a while.

LST 325. We've all seen newsreel footage of the D-Day invasion so it's easy to call to mind all those ships that landed soldiers and tanks into the hell waiting for them on the beaches of Normandy that day. We got to tour one of these ships last Saturday (the 22nd).

This ship, which served in the Greek Navy after it was decommissioned from the US Navy, was recently brought back to the US and restored. It is now a floating museum traveling to various cities where there are sea ports or along inland waterways. To that end, it was sort of odd to see an oceangoing vessel docked at Riverfront Park in downtown Nashville. We had a good time touring the ship and it was interesting to see the quarters sailors, soldiers, and marines lived in while at sea. I think this was especially eye-opening for Vicki whose father served in the US Navy during World War II.

We ate at the Big River Grill afterwards.

You can learn more about LST 325 by visiting www.lstmemorial.org.

TWO LOST TEETH. What's even better is that they were lost on the same day from two different boys. Nate was so excited to have a gap visible in his smile for picture day at school.

Joe

A New Van in the Driveway

We have been enjoying some of the most pleasant weather! Some days are still sort of hot, but the mornings are cooler with a hint of fall crispness in the air. Bill Chatman has been cutting tobacco and the Pinsons have been combining corn. I just wish the grass would slow down a bit.

WOW, NINE YEARS! Can you believe it? As of last Thursday the Swann Family News is nine years old. I didn't know I had it in me!

TRADING IN. Our old van has served us well, but it was beginning to show it’s age. Vicki have been researching and shopping online for the past two or three weeks and she stumbled on a good deal. We traded vehicles this afternoon.

As a tribute to our old faithful van, we bought it in 2004. It was a 2002 Toyota Sienna with about 20,000 miles at the time. We’ve driven an additional 120,000 miles in the eight years we had it.

Our new van is a 2009 Sienna. It’s a silver gray and has 31,000 miles, and we’re looking forward to it getting us through the high school years.

A LITTLE CULTURE GOES A LONG WAY. Last weekend Vicki and I got the chance to steel away on a date. We went to see Much Ado About Nothing at the Centennial Park bandshell in Nashville. I never knew this, but each fall the Nashville Shakespeare Festival produces a different Shakespeare play. This has been going on for quite some time.

What was interesting was their adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing. First of all, they turned it into a musical. Then they changed the setting to be a story about soldiers coming home from World War II. I'm guessing most of the dialog was kept from the original script with a few lines updated to reflect events of the 1940s, but it was actually hard for us to follow the Shakespearian English. Nevertheless, we did keep up with the gist of the story and had a wonderful evening.

I MOVED THE TURTLE. Vicki kept seeing a turtle under one of our apple trees. I had never noticed it. It was quite a while before she said anything to the rest of us about it, but she kept wondering if the poor thing had died over there.

One day we were all walking to the van when she mentioned it. That's when one of the kids cleared up the mystery. "Oh Mom. That's one of our basketballs that rolled over there." They never bothered to crawl under the low branches to get it back." I retrieved it the next time I mowed the yard and now Vicki misses her "pet."

NOT A TRUE WAND. The boys are into reading the Harry Potter books. Nate is one book behind Ben. (As a matter of fact, Ben has to read 40 books for school this year and these books, thick as they are, count for two each.)

Naturally, the world of Harry Potter spills over into their play. They found some cool looking sticks out in the yard and instantly they have wands. The other day Ben and Nate were discussing the various spells from the Potter world at the kitchen table when Vicki asked, “Have you had any luck getting those spells to work?” After a bit of a pause Ben said,” No, we don’t have access to anything like unicorn hair.”

MISS CAT IS GONE. Miss Cat mysteriously disappeared earlier this week -- just when the boys were starting to enjoy her. Her kitten is still here though, and is much braver now that he doesn't have the companionship of his mother.

I think we're going to name the kitten Dusty. He is a pretty gray color with hints of tiger stripes, but also because he got bold and came into the house the other night. Then when he realized where he was he got scared and hid under my desk where it's practically impossible to clean with a broom or vacuum so when we dug him out he had several dust bunnies attached.

Joe

A Blue Moon for Neil Armstrong

We enjoyed a blue moon Friday night which, as the Neil Armstrong family pointed out, was a fitting farewell to the man who first set foot there. I was beginning to wonder if I would even see it. We had some rain that afternoon, and I enjoyed a large rainbow in front of me as I drove home from work. However, the sky cleared quite a bit by moonrise and the moon was beautiful.

I remember watching the astronauts walk on the moon. The Apollo 11 mission happened just before my third birthday. I am assuming it is the Apollo 11 mission as I distinctly recall Uncle George being in the den with us and TV coverage for subsequent missions would have been less. More likely is that my memory of several moon missions runs together as Uncle George would have been interested in all of them.

A BRIEF VISIT. We got a quick visit from Uncle Bob, Aunt Linda, and Ann Beth last week. They arrived Tuesday and left Thursday. The Bradley/Dee clan was even able to drive over for supper on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see too much of them with school, work, Scouts, and Awana, but the important thing was that they got in some time with Mom and Aunt Mar. I think they even got in a few rounds of Spades.

FUND RAISERS. One reality of parenting I could do without are fund raisers. Everything the kids are involved in requires fund raising. Half the stuff we sell doesn’t even interest me so it’s hard to be motivated. Occasionally, though, the kids sell something really good.

We have been involved with the Boy Scout popcorn sale for six years now, and yes, we do have popcorn to sell this year. In addition to the popcorn Ben’s troop also sells barbecue. One of the dad’s of the troop makes it. This year they cooked 32 shoulders. All of it was sold by pre-order. Friday night the troop camped out over on this family’s farm and the boys worked in shifts to help tend to the barbecue pits (Ben had the 3-5 am shift). Yesterday morning we set up an assembly line where we processed the meat and packaged it in two pound bags.

I mention this because we’ve thought this was the best barbecue we’ve ever had. My family’s preference for barbecue has always been Baldwin’s, but they just got moved to second place with us. If Ben’s troop does this again next year I will let you know. Those of you who live locally may be sick and tired of buying coupon cards, popcorn, etc, but you won’t regret this purchase.

ODE TO THE LAMP POST. When Uncle George and Aunt Mar built their house back in 1965 Uncle George put up a lamp post at the corner of the patio next to the driveway and it has brought a warm, cheery light to the patio all this time. We noticed the lamp beginning to lean sometime last year and tried to stake it up, but nature finally took its course last night. Mom was sitting in the den and saw it fall over. She called saying, “It’s the end of an era!”

A trip to town and an hour of install time later and they have a nice, new lamp post standing where the old one used to be. The new one features an ambient light sensor so I won’t have to reset the timer whenever we have an interruption in power!

MISS CAT. I think I’ve mentioned before that we have a momma cat and kitten that have taken up residence at our house. The kitten is really skittish but I am starting to gain its trust.

No one has offered any names for our cats so I call the momma cat Miss Cat. She has taken up with me, but she is not a cat that likes to rub your legs or be picked up. She’s more like a dog than a cat in some respects. She followed me out to the shop the other day. It was warm so I left the doors open while I was working in there. I would have thought Miss Cat would have explored every nook and cranny of the building but I was w rong. She walked in a few feet, did a quick visual survey of the building, and walked out. The whole time I was working she sat just outside the door with her back to me and her ears turned back to listen to what I was doing. When I got done for the evening and closed up she happily escorted me back to the house. I don’t think she’s been back in the shop since but is content to sit outside and wait for me to get done.

UNEXPECTED NEWS. Over the past month or two I had begun to notice a little bit of vision loss in my right eye. At first I thought it might have been due to accidental exposure to a laser from a barcode scanner at work, but I kept feeling like I should go in and see about it. To be brief, after a visual field test and a 3D scan of my retina I have been diagnosed with normal-tension glaucoma.

Glaucoma is usually caused by high interocular pressure which causes capillaries that supply blood to the retina to collapse which, in turn, causes nerve damage. With my variety of glaucoma the interocular pressure is normal so the traditional “puff” test we all get when we visit the eye doctor doesn’t raise any red flags. It is not yet known what causes the nerve damage in cases like mine.

Glaucoma cannot be reversed, though it can usually be slowed to a virtual crawl. The standard treatment is to use eyedrops to lower the interocular pressure, and I am testing one of these now to see how my eyes respond. Please pray for me as I see my way through this. By the way, Aunt Mar is the only person I am intentionally not telling about my glaucoma so to those of you who may see her please keep this in mind.

A MUCH NEEDED LAUGH. My first trip to the eye doctor was back on the 21st. I was feeling mighty low when the appointment was over. I would rather have heard, “Yes, Mr. Swann, I can see where that laser has damaged your eye.”

I had to swing by the office to pick up a few things before heading home. When I got there I discovered that one of our schools had gone into lockdown due to the report of a suspicious character in the area. This turned out to be a false alarm, but the lockdown happened right at the end of the day and delayed dismissal by 20 minutes. The principal felt it would be wise to send a call out to all parents alerting them that their kids would be late getting home, but, as Murphy’s Law would have it, the internet was down at her school right then and she couldn’t access the phone broadcast system. I happened to be the only one at the district level in town who knew how to place the call, however, my eyes were still dilated from my exam and I couldn’t read anything smaller than the E on an eye chart. So here’s me and my boss trying to work together to send out this call -- I’m driving the mouse and he’s reading my screen -- and we get to laughing so hard we can hardly accomplish the task.

Sometimes I wonder if God doesn’t plan things like that for people when they need a laugh. Who knows, that delay may have thrown the timing of our buses off and kept them all safe on the road that day as well. Whether God was behind it or not, I got a chance to put my troubles behind me when I needed it most.

Joe

Back into the Routine

We enjoyed watching the Olympics so I was wondering if I would suffer withdrawals after it was over, but our normal schedule has kicked in and I haven't been home enough to notice.

Our weather has been very pleasant for August. It’s too bad our mosquitos are so vicious we can’t go out and enjoy it.

SCHOOL LIFE. We've been wondering how Ben would take to middle school. He may be there with all the same classmates, but it is a new building, a new schedule, and a different set of expectations from the teachers. He is, as usual, pretty quiet about his school day, never saying much no matter how many questions we ask. What we have noticed is that he is cheerful every morning and happily goes about the business of getting ready for the school day. We're taking that as a good sign.

Jenna and Nate seem to be enjoying school as well. The big news from Nate came the other day when he proudly told us he pulled his own loose tooth in class. He decided that afternoon that he couldn't wait for the Tooth Fairy so Vicki handed over a dollar right then.

I suspect the biggest change for Jenna is that she is now able to take some courses she’s never been able to take before. Two examples of this are her Family and Consumer Science (Home Ec) class and Health Science class. Jenna has to wear scrubs to school every Thursday for Health Science. I don’t know if nursing will wind up being her chosen profession, but she sure looks convincing in her scrubs right now.

SNAKE BITE DISEASE. That's what I call the affliction I seem to have when I'm looking for something that's in plain view but can’t seem to find it. The other morning as Vicki was packing our lunches she told Ben to get the deli meat out of the fridge. She was getting very frustrated with him for not finding it because the package was at the front of the shelf at eye level for the boy. When he finally spotted it he exclaimed, "Oh! That's where it was hiding." He’s inherited my gene.

THE WRECK. I am constantly amazed with the number of people who run off the road in front of our house or into one of Mom's fields. Most of the time the only evidence we have are skid marks and a trail through the field, but on occasion there's an abandoned vehicle about 100 feet off the road.

Last Tuesday afternoon a couple who lives down the road from us were returning home from Nashville when the wife, who was driving, dozed off. They ran off the road opposite our driveway, side swiped the old log shed that’s across from our house, flattened a path through the cornfield, and traveled about 200 feet into the woods before coming to a stop.

Of course, the local rumor mill had sprung into action as people drove by seeing all the emergency vehicles but no car (remember, it stopped 200 feet in the woods). Vicki and I were both at work as news of the FBI and TBI pulling at least one dead body out of the field came trickling in. “Oh great,” I thought, “The whole evening will be taken up with me being asked questions to which I have no answers.”

I am glad to report the pair suffered no major injuries. It could have been so much worse. Had their path been about five feet to the left they would have hit a corner of the building and could have been impaled by some of the logs. Unfortunately, they clipped enough of one corner of the building that we’re probably going to have to tear it down which is a shame because it adds a lot of character to the place. I don’t know how old that shed is or what its original purpose was, but I’m sure the men who built it never dreamed that a horseless carriage, if they could have even imagined that, would come flying down what may have been a dirt road and destroy their handiwork.

Joe

The Last Weekend of Freedom

The last weekend before school started was always one of the lowest points in the year for me when I was a kid. Nate got a letter in the mail from his new teacher, Mrs. Hooper. This is the same teacher Ben had in fourth grade. Nate wasn’t upset about his teacher, but he didn’t like the fact that the letter marked the end of summer break. I sure can sympathize with how Nate feels. So ends an all too short summer.

BEN’S BIRTHDAY. It’s so hard to believe that another birthday has rolled around for Ben. He celebrated twelve years on Friday. This year middle school. Teenager next year. He is becoming an extraordinary young man, but where has the time gone?

Ben really didn’t want to do anything big for his birthday this year. All he wanted was to have his friends, Jake and Luke, over to spend the night and all four boys (don’t forget Nate) had a wonderful time together. I think what’s so special about Jake and Luke for Ben is that they share his geeky side. They love to play Pokemon and that’s an interest a lot of boys at church and school don’t share with Ben.

Ben was moping a bit after his friends went home Saturday. I knew something was wrong, but the boy is so darn hard to read we had to work to get enough out of him to figure out what he really wanted. My first offer was to take him to Game Stop in White House so he could spend his gift card. Then we asked if he wanted the rest of the family to tag along and us go out to supper. Well, he did, but getting him to decide on a restaurant was like pulling teeth. I think he has taken lessons from Mom. We wound up going to Cracker Barrel which was a good choice because the serving staff will come to your table and sing Happy Birthday upon request and surprisingly he was all for it.

We celebrated as a family again over at Aunt Mar’s last night. It was a simple meal of hamburgers, but this meal featured an actual cake. (Ben had requested peach cobbler for when his friends were over on Friday.) I think he went to bed a happy twelve-year-old.

CATS. I have mentioned the cats over at Aunt Mar’s a few times over the last year. You may recall that we lost a kitten but then gained a stray so the cat count has stayed the same. It has been an ongoing debate with me about what to do with the cats. They all get under Mom’s feet and become a trip hazard for her when she goes outside which tips the scales toward getting rid of the cats, but then I drive up and Aunt Mar is sitting at the window thoroughly enjoying their antics as they play on the patio. To hear Mom and Aunt Mar talk about them the cats are better than anything on TV. What to do?

I’ve always thought that when the time comes to remove the cats I have plenty of barns around my house that would be a great place for a good mouser. That is, until we had a momma cat and two kittens show up at our house. One of these kittens has disappeared, but momma and the remaining kitten seem to be here to stay. Momma cat has even gotten over her shyness and let’s us play with her.

If anyone needs a cat we have a few to spare. Best we can tell they’re all girls.

THE START OF SCHOOL. We went to both schools this evening for open house. It’s very odd to walk through the high school wing with our new freshmen, strange to be back in the sixth grade wing with our new middle schooler, and that leaves our youngest at the elementary school by himself now.

I’ve already mentioned who Nate’s teacher is. Ben has many of the same teachers Jenna did three years ago. Jenna, on the other hand, has a whole new experience. She has four classes this semester: Family and Consumer Science (Home Ec), Lifetime Wellness, Health Science Ed, and Algebra I Honors. Unless things change she'll have the following classes after Christmas break: English I Honors, World Geography, Computer Applications, and Physical Science.

So, I’ll put the kids on the bus tomorrow for an abbreviated day (reminding Ben to get off at the right school) and classes start Thursday.

SCHOOL IN MY GRANDMOTHER’S DAY. The start of school is a good place to come back to my grandmother's recording as she talks about school some. The part where she begins to talk about school is very garbled, but clears up. She starts off telling about cleaning her slate. I'm guessing her school, which would have been a one- or two-room schoolhouse, did not have any plumbing at all because she mentions a hole in the floor where they poured the waste water. Something about her washing her slate must have been very funny because she laughs a lot during the retelling of it and she quotes the teacher, Miss Jesse, telling her, "Joella, I believe you're going to have to quit washing your slate. You're just tickling these little boys to death."

Mrs. Joella would be overwhelmed if she could walk into a classroom today. I do see some teachers use the slate idea, though with handheld dry erase boards, when they have their classes work math problems as a group. It amazes me how much paper we use in our school system each year. Here's what my grandmother said about slates and paper in her day.

Slates was so grand for those children learning to write. We didn't have tablets too much then. [Unclear] ... couldn't keep no way ... couldn't keep you in tablets. [You buy] a little old tablet and it wouldn't be as thick as your finger and the old, coarse paper, you know, [by the] time you tear out two or three leaves wasn't no room for anything. But they finally got where they made nice thick [or slick] tablets. Everybody could have good paper. But at first they didn't. It was old coarse paper.

Sadly my grandmother's educational experience was typical of many elder daughters of large families in her day. She missed a lot of school because she was needed at home to help with her younger siblings. She was supposed to share this responsibility with her younger sister, Mamie, but Mamie didn't seem to keen on staying home from school to cook and do laundry. My grandmother also didn't have the heart to leave her mother to do it all by herself, and, as she explained, "Mammy had a breaking out on her hands plum to her elbows. Had to wear rubber gloves to make up biscuits and to work with [unclear], such as that. She didn't use her hands without 'em ... biscuit dough and cutting meat. She had [unclear] on her hands. And that [unclear] would have to be tied down. She wore rubber gloves up to her elbows."

WALKING TO CHURCH. The last story that's intact on my grandmother's tape is about walking to church. She had been talking about her older brother, Frank, and some of the things he did, though the recording is hard to hear for that. One tale I could make out is that Frank loved to play ball, baseball in particular. A lot of the balls were homemade. On one occasion he wanted a rubber ball and made it by cutting out the tops from his father's rubber boots. He told their father a squirrel had gnawed off the tops of the boots. This story segued into a tale about going to church which was easier to understand.

Frank sure was a mess. But he was the best thing that ever was. Yeah. I know one time the [unclear] meeting was going on. And Mammy would go. And when Pappy could go he'd carry us all on his two horse wagon but he couldn't go all the time. And we'd all walk ... had us a little path ... and the path was so much better than the road was that the wagon had to go over.

So, one day, one morning, Frank says he wanted to go to church that morning. And Mammy said it was alright. We all got ready to go to church  ... he got Mamie going ... Frank [unclear] out. I don't know whether [unclear] John went or not.

And it had been a raining, but it wasn't raining that morning. So we went on the church. We had to go it was about a mile and a half or two miles from home. And so we went on to church and after dinner at church it come up this here cloud. Oh, it just rained, it poured. And then Mamie and I didn't have nothing but our little old parasols to keep the rain off of us. And so, when the rain was over with and it was after dinner Frank says, "Well now, you and Mamie get ready now we've got to go."

I said, "We can't go. We'll get our shoes muddy."

Frank said, "Pull 'em off and go barefooted." He said, "I'm going to pull my shoes off. I'm going barefooted. I ain't going to wear my shoes out in that slop."

So we pulled them off and went barefooted. He said, "Keep your socks on if you want to." I told him I thought as much of my socks as I did my shoes. I pulled them off.

So we went barefooted and [unclear] in the road just like a [unclear]. We walked all the way home. Awfullest time it ever was and I thought we was going to have to stay all night over there at the Presbyterian church. Frank said, "No. We ain't going to stay all night no where. We're going home. Naw, and we wasn't going to [unclear] stop on the road either to [unclear]. We was going straight on home."

He didn't stop for nothing. He said, "If we stopped we never would get started." And we went on home.

They must have had to cross a creek to get home and were concerned that the creek would be flooded.

He said, "[Unclear] Well, if it get's up I'll pack you and Mamie across the creek." [Laughs] He said he could pack us across the creek. You know, Frank wasn't no bigger than me. But it wasn't no [unclear] swim the creek. It hadn't rained that much.

We got home. Frank had on his new suit Mammy had made and pressed [unclear].

I said, "What in the world are you going to do with your suit?"

He said, "Well, I don't know. It's just as well to throw it out there on the fence and let it dry and Mammy can fix it."

[The] sun come right out right quick and so I had [unclear]. Well, mine and Mamie's clothes was just so wet -- ruined -- awful. I had on a white looking dress which was ruined. And Mammy had to stick all that into soap and wash it.

And, so the next day we kind of wanted to go back, but Pappy told us we better not go -- it might rain again. Well, we decided we'd better not go either.

So we finally got to going back to church. Oh, we thought it was the biggest thing that ever was to [get in the path and keep walking -- unclear -- go to church]. It was [unclear] the biggest crowd you ever seen. We had more dinners over there. I guess that’s what made us go over. You could eat all you wanted. Mammy would send dinner too.

But Pappy and them, Uncle [Thomas'?] folks, they always get up the two horse wagon to carry all of us. [unclear] But the road was so awful, almost turned the wagon over trying to get on the road. And you'd rather walk than to be in the wagon when the wagon would [turn]. We all went. We'd go on anyhow just to sing.

As I’ve said before, I don't remember much about my grandmother, but one thing that many people have said they remember about her is that she would not tolerate gossip and that she would never say anything bad about anyone. I admire that about her and hope I hit close to that mark.

Joe

A Great Day

(My intention was to post this on Monday or Tuesday, but we’ve been enjoying the Olympics each night so I didn’t get to it. I decided to leave it written somewhat from the perspective of a few days ago and follow up with more news in a day or two.)

I’d almost swear that my grass is trying to make up for lost time now that it’s gotten a little rain. I mow and it seems like the yard looks wooly again two days later.

A GREAT DAY. We had the privilege of going to Murfreesboro last Sunday to attend church. We went to be with a friend of mine from high school and watched her and her husband participate in a baptism ceremony along with dozens of other people. It was a great day.

I am a little sketchy on these details, but as I understand it World Outreach Church does baptize people throughout the year, however, yesterday was set aside as a special day for baptisms. They had two swimming pools set up in their courtyard and baptized around 400 people over the course of several services.

To fill in the back story here, Tessa and I were friends in high school. Several of our teachers, as many do, enforced assigned seating in their classes and the usual method was to sort people by last name. Since Tessa’s last name then was Searcy I found myself in the seat behind her quite often. I lost track of her after graduation only to wonder what happened to her for about 25 years until we reconnected on Facebook. (By the way, I deleted my account on Facebook a little over a year ago because it was just consuming too much time.)

I don’t remember exactly what happened, but our conversation on Facebook somehow got on topics relating to Christianity. As the conversations grew we switched to email and it evolved into my typing up my Sunday School lessons as I organized my thoughts each week and emailing them to her.

Tessa surprised me four weeks ago when she emailed to say that she and her husband, Thomas, had been attending church and were going to be baptized on the 29th. When I shared the email with Vicki she said, “Well, of course we have to go.” It was a blessing to be in Murfreesboro and share in this special occasion with the girl who used to sit in front of me in high school. I am so thankful to be able to see how God works in people’s lives.

THE TRAVELERS ARE HOME. Vicki and the kids got back home last Saturday. They stayed with the Jones family for the first half of last week and we talked frequently through Jenna’s iPad. Whenever we talked they were either about to swim, drying off from swimming, or playing a board game.

Vicki surprised the kids last Thursday when she told them they were going back home by way of a trip to Dollywood. Since they got to Pigeon Forge late in the evening their tickets covered that afternoon and all the next day. I know they had a wonderful time, but I can’t get a lot of details out of them. I do know they had to convince Nate to ride the new Wild Eagle and that he loved it afterwards.

At any rate, I got four tired, happy people back home last Saturday. It was a nice last hurrah with only one week of summer vacation left.

A MOST DISCOURAGING WEEK. I don’t make it a practice to share a lot about work here, but I did have a most discouraging week at work last week while Vicki and the kids were gone. For those of you who don’t know what I do I manage the student information system for our school system. I have been working on a project for over a year to migrate our data from the product we use to its successor. This project has included training all our users in the new software.

Last week, as a result of a secretive corporate take over, the company that produces these two products was bought out. The new owners immediately announced both software packages were now in maintenance mode and would be retired in two years. We immediately had to migrate back to the old software and throw all the training out the window. Now I am looking at having to repeat all I’ve done in the last year plus with a new product that hasn’t been selected yet, and it may be necessary to do it in a shorter amount of time.

As discouraging as it all is at least my family was able to travel and has gotten home safely, we are all in good health, and I still have a job and can provide for them. And the icing on the cake is that I got to see a friend of mine get baptized last weekend.

Joe

Home Alone

I am writing to you this week from an empty house. Vicki has had such a full summer with CentriKid and VBS that she and the kids took off Sunday afternoon to visit the Jones family in Georgia. I had to work so I stayed behind to hold down the fort. I've spent my free time picking up tree limbs, mowing the yards, and taking care of other such chores. Every time I’ve gone outside to work I’ve said to myself, “Self, let’s go feed the mosquitos!”

THE MEM LUTON STORY. Last weekend at the Threshermen's Show I ran into a cousin of mine that I haven't seen in several years. Brian Luton was visiting from Ohio and he had brought three of his four kids to see the show.

Brian and I are second cousins but I can't say we are much more than acquainted. He is 19 years older than I and has always lived on Ohio. We have only met a handful of times.

Brian's wife, Mem, is from Thailand. They met when he had made some mission trips there. Mem's story of how she became a Christian and then how everything worked out that she and Brian would marry is simply amazing. I bring this up in case you would like to listen to it because her story was recently featured on the radio program Unshackled!

Unshackled! has been in production since 1950 and is still produced as a radio drama of that era. If features the true stories of people like Mem and how God has worked in their lives. Mem's story is told over two half hour episodes (programs 3197 and 3198). You can find them online easily enough by searching on the name "Mem Luton." By the way, it is rare for Unshackled! to do a two-part show on any of their subjects.

MY GRANDMOTHER. Speaking of oral history, I have accomplished something I've been struggling with for several years. Back in the 1990s Aunt Helen gave me a cassette tape of my grandmother, Joella Durrett Swann. Uncle Paul made the tape with a new cassette recorder he had purchased, however, he recorded Mrs. Joella without her knowledge. He must had thought she would not have done it if he had asked, though she seemed to figure out what was going on about halfway through the tape.

Mrs. Joella was born in 1886. She was the fourth of eleven children born to  Ludwell and Callie Durrett, and the oldest of their four daughters. She married my grandfather, Caner Swann, on Christmas Day of 1905. They had five children, my dad being their forth. I barely remember Mrs. Joella. She'd had a stroke and was bedfast by the time I was old enough to appreciate a grandmother. She passed away in 1974.

The tape is extremely difficult to understand due to age and other factors. Since receiving it I have wanted to transcribe it so her story would not be lost. What follows are a couple of stories that were fairly easy to understand.

I have decided to do very little grammatical correction to my grandmother's comments so you're reading this just as it sounds on tape, only without some of the false starts where she was collecting her thoughts.

BUILDING A HOUSE. Toward the beginning of the tape Mrs. Joella talks about how her father, whom she called Pappy, built a house. My cousin, David, told me the house was decorated with spindles and such and was standing until a few years ago. I hate I never got to see it.

It wasn't no burden for us all to live. We all done right well. We done mighty well. And I tell you I ain't a saying it -- ain't bragging -- but Pappy made us a good living, but we didn't have sense enough to know it. How did the poor thing do it?

He always provided us to have plenty to eat. We didn't have no great lot of clothes, nice clothes to wear, but in them days people didn't have it no way.

We didn't have no good ways to go, well now, we couldn't, he couldn't afford it. He had to have stock with him. He had to work. It wasn't any of them had no riding horse -- farmers didn't have no riding horse in those days. Well now, we never did have no way to go. Well, we couldn't afford it, couldn't have it. We done the best we could.

I think when he started that house up there. He started ours when Mr. Davy Jones started his house. [Unclear comments deleted.] He built several rooms upstairs, and then he bought nine windows to go upstairs. Nine windows! [Hits table for emphasis] Now you think about that. It wasn't big windows, it was these small windows.

And now, I don't know how he had money to get all that stuff. And he bought windows. I forgot how many windows he bought for downstairs. Some of these big windows, like that right yonder. He bought several of them. Doors. Window casings. All such as that costs money. [Sentence unclear though it sounds like she is talking about how much her father made himself in addition to the items he purchased.] And he done his own dressing his lumber. Done his sawing. And how in the world did he do it?

Uncle Tom and them had a sawmill, him and Pappy did. And they cut a lot of wood, logs there, tearing up ground, you know, and they had a lot of it sawed off. They sawed off a lot of lumber, and they used that about building a house. And Pappy, he furnished all his lumber. And he furnished Mr. Davy Jones' lumber to build his house. He sawed [unclear]. And when Pappy got his house done, and as Mamie was saying here awhile back, Pappy said he didn't have but thirty cents left in his pocket after he paid all his bills. He had paid for his house, he really did.

Now I'll tell you, you know now, they was doing mighty good to have a great gang of young 'uns and putting up a house like that. Now didn't they? We couldn't. I had five children. Me and Caner couldn't do it. I don't know how he ever got by and done as well as he did. And he put up two or three barns. He put up a stock barn. And there was several things he done. I don't know how he done it -- I sure don't.

I used to think he could have done better than he did do, but Pappy done ... I don't know what with these young 'uns. What a gang of young 'uns. Had eleven children. Eleven! Seven boys and four girls. I don't know how he come out that well. Shucks. I know he didn't have nothing to build a house on. But we had to have a house of some kind, as many young 'uns as we had.

My grandmother’s immediate younger sister was named Mary Elizabeth but she was called Mamie. I’m guessing this story was fresh on my grandmother’s mind because she and her sister had discussed it prior to this conversation.

GRANDPA DURRETT. There’s a bit of confusion on the tape before things clear up enough to make out the next segment where she talks about he grandfather, William Dawson Moore Durrett. (Her other grandfather passed away when she was two years old.)

I was just thinking of him. I believe I must have had one of the best granddaddies in the whole world: Grandpa and Grandma. He must have been a [worker], and a smart man on top of it. He made money. He worked long as he lived. He'd go out walking, he'd always have a hoe with him. Every time I seen him he'd always have a hoe in his hand.

And he had good gardens. And he had good everything! Some of the best orchards you ever eat fruit from. He had 'em. He grafted all of his trees.

And I know how to graft those trees. Do you know how to graft a tree? I seen him graft 'em. He had a big old wooden box about that long, about that wide, and about that deep with sand and dirt in it, you know. And he'd pick two kinds of plants, a peach and an apple [unclear due to mic adjustments] ... himself. He'd cut that, you know, and fix those that would [be able to] go together with those that the heart of that there little branch that would go together, would hitch. And the bark would [hitch] the same. And use yarn thread [and] scraps. And then he'd bury down in this here dirt in that little box. And he'd put just a tiny [pitch? wad, oh it might have been a little over two or three drops of wad in it.] And, you know, he [unclear] raising all the fruit trees he wanted. And Grandpa, that's where he got all his trees. He grafted peach trees. He grafted ... it was some big horse apples [or hedge apples] and such. Great big old horse apples. I don't even remember. They say he grafted every one of those trees, and they was great big old trees, as big as oak trees.

And Mammy got fruit off of them trees. He had a bunch down there on one corner of the place, three or four trees, and over there at another place in the corner of the field, had two or three more he had grafted. And they had a lot of apples on them, great big apples. And they'd be full every year. He would trim them back every [year]. Peach trees, cherry trees, pears trees, he had everything! And then he had there at grandpa's, he furnished Mammy, [unclear] mammy, a great big orchard with the place that she got, three or four acres. And Uncle Tom had a big orchard. Uncle [Huell? - unclear] had a big orchard. He grafted every tree. He fixed that the children all had 'um a big orchard. We never starved for fruit when he was living. We had all we needed.

And grandpa made a living he had [unclear]. I guess you could say he was a rich man. Poor thing didn't know it. Back in them days you could work yourself to death. If they had any money they didn't appreciate it.

And he raised tobacco. And if he'd go out walking he'd always have his hoe. He had to have a hoe or something to walk with anyhow. He had had two strokes and he kept him a walking stick or something to walk with, and he had his hoe, and whenever he run up on a spring of grass or weeds he'd cut it down. He wouldn't let 'em get ahead of him. And the biggest garden you ever laid eyes on. He had it.

He always took a lot of interest in [Maw's] garden. [Maw] had a garden. She had a pretty walk up through the middle of it. On each side of the walk she had all kinds of flowers. And he helped her tend to them.

I am assuming from the context that Maw is Mrs. Joella’s grandmother. The tape begins to get really unclear at this point. From the snatches of conversation I can understand she talks about her grandparent’s house and a large pear tree that grew in their back yard. It sounds like her grandparents loved children and would fix little baskets of pears for the children in the family.

It seems that she discovers the tape recorder after this and there’s a lot of breaks in the recording before it settles down again. There are a couple of other good, clear stories which I will share another time.

Joe

Tall Grass Again

It amazes me how grass that was brown and crunchy under foot can revive and grow seed heads that are almost knee high in less than a week’s time.

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL. As you know, our Vacation Bible School was last week. The focus of this year’s VBS was all about trusting God, no matter what. I think everyone enjoyed it a lot because they kept coming back. I’m not sure, but I think this was our most well attended VBS ever. We averaged 220 with about 140 of those being kids.

Thursday night was family night at VBS. We had a good crowd of families there and after the program we went outside for hot dogs and games. Toward the end we noticed storm clouds and lightning on the horizon so we rushed to clean everything up. By the time the boys and I got home we had one of the worst thunder storms hit that I’ve seen in a long time. The weather alerts on TV were saying the storm was capable of producing 70 mph winds. Vicki and Jenna got in a bit later, drenched and having had to go around a tree that was down across half the road.

The storm lasted all night and left us almost four inches of rain before it blew itself out the next morning. What I didn’t know was that Mom and Aunt Mar were without power for about 12 hours. Our lights had blinked a lot as lightning hit the power lines, but never went out. With all that activity I didn’t want to be holding a phone when the next one hit.

THE THRESHERMEN’S SHOW. The Threshermen’s Show was this weekend. We didn’t make it on Friday as I needed to work and the kids all had dental appointments, however, we all loaded up in the van and went yesterday. We got there in time for the kids to ride with their cousins in the parade. We left pretty soon after lunch, much to Ben’s chagrin, so that we could come home and finish de-decorating from VBS.

I’m always proud to see the engine and thresher run well. The engine is 88 years old now so it’s an accomplishment for Charlie to keep it in good running order. Charlie is also training his younger son, Nate, to run the engine and I thought he did very well. Uncle Paul would be proud of his great grandson.

THE WINDBLOWN LOOK. Switching to my son now, Nate loves to ride with the window down. He makes me so mad in the wintertime. I’ll pick them up from Aunt Mar’s after work and down goes the window. It doesn’t matter that it’s 20° outside, as soon as I start the truck down goes the window. And he love to hang his head out the window like a dog -- as much as his seatbelt will allow. (I’ve warned him that one of these days he’s going to meet a low flying june bug which is not at all fun.)

We were driving home from White House the other day and Nate had his window down. It was pleasant so I had mine down too. Of course, he made the whole trip with arms resting on the windowsill and his head sticking out the window.

The point of this story is Nate’s hair. Most of the time it just looks wild because he’s looking all around, but on this particular trip he was resting his head on his arms and not moving so the wind styled his hair very nicely with a part down the side. We all commented that it was a nice look for him. He seemed to like it as well.

Skip to Sunday morning when we were getting ready for church. Nate came to be with the hairbrush and I suggested we try parting his hair like the wind did. He was game to try so I went to work. Obviously I am not hairstylist because after checking out my work in the mirror he had me redo it saying, “If I stick my head out of the window it would do a better job.”

Joe

Rain! Beautiful Rain!

It rained here shortly after I sent out the last newsletter. We got an inch in about 30 minutes, and we got three quarters of an inch the next night. As a matter of fact, we’re getting so much rain I’m wondering when I will find the time to mow. I dumped two more inches out of the rain gauge today.

Most of the rain has been slow and gentle, but some has been accompanied by intense storms. One clap of thunder woke me up early Tuesday morning. My thoughts went to Ben, but then I remembered sleeping in a teepee during a thunderstorm once. He’s going to have stories to tell just like I do.

CAMP REPORT. Ben is back home now. I got him this morning. As we were leaving the reservation I asked him if he would do it again. He said yes without hesitation. I was glad to hear that.

When we dropped Ben off Sunday I told him I planned to come by and visit on Wednesday. Boxwell is between Gallatin and Lebanon and I knew my work schedule would have me in the area for training and a conference. When I got there Wednesday afternoon I knew I had one homesick boy. He never mentioned leaving early, but he did talk about how much he missed me and the rest of the family (and his bed). What was unusual for Ben was the number of times he said this to me.

While I was there he gave me a tour of the camp and I joined him for supper. Afterwards Ben and I found a quiet spot and talked for a while before joining the rest of the troop back at the campsite. That was a conversation with him I will always cherish.

I was worried about how Ben would do when I left but a bit of misfortune actually made that better. Ben walked me to my truck. As we parted I noticed I had a flat tire so I called him back to hold a flashlight for me while I changed the tire. This turned into an hour job because the ground was so soft my jack sank under the weight of the truck. I was able to get the flat off but had to reposition the jack to get the spare on. By the time I had the truck roadworthy Ben’s mood had changed to concern for me. He expressed this to me saying, “Dad, it’s after your bedtime. Are you going to be okay driving home?”

Now that camp is over I am glad to know he would go back. I think he had a lot of fun and in several ways he didn’t expect. One example of this was his merit badge classes. I checked out all the merit badge books from the troop library that I could for the classes he would be taking and made him read through them before camp. After reading the book he didn’t seem too excited about one class he would be taking, Indian Lore. Turns out that’s one of the things he has talked about most.

Oh, and Ben’s return home was a very happy reunion for Nate who had missed him all week long.

DECORATING. For those of us left at home this week is all about decorating for Vacation Bible School. That’s what Vicki and Jenna did during the day and I joined them when I get home from work. I think we’ve eaten out every night this week except tonight.

Our theme this year is Sky. All I really know about it right now is that we’ve put up a lot of blue background and fluffy clouds. We’ve got balloons and airplanes hanging everywhere. I think there may even be even a pig with wings somewhere. Slowly and surely this thing is coming together as it always does.

AN OLD CAMPING STORY. I wasn’t in Boy Scouts for very long when I was young. My regret is that we didn’t find another troop for me to join. However, our RA group at church was very active at that time and we went camping quite a bit. One spring weekend we were camping out by the river on a church member’s farm. It had been a wet spring and the ground was saturated. They had a large teepee set up from where the Boy Scouts had camped the previous weekend so we got to use it.

That night a severe thunderstorm blew in. Lightning was striking very close and the thunder woke all of us up. The rain, which was coming down in sheets, had no where to go because the ground was saturated so we had to scramble to gather up our gear and head back up the hill to the house. Then we had to go back to the campsite and tear down the teepee before it washed away. We wound up having to lash the last of the teepee poles together and hold them so they wouldn’t float away before we could drag them up the hill with a motorcycle.

David Henry was our RA leader then and it seems like it rained every time he took us camping. I’ll save the canoe trip story for another time.

Joe

The Half-Way Point

Our heat wave continues. We had a bit of a reprieve earlier this week, but by Wednesday the temps were back in the triple digits. And to add insult to injury, what afternoon thunderstorms have popped up in the area have all bypassed Cross Plains. I hear thunder rumbling in the distance now. Maybe, just maybe...

TIME FLIES. Last week marked the half-way point of the year. It also means the kids’ summer break is half over. I was thinking about that as Nate and I were turning into the parking lot at church. Spying the school bus he rides parked in Lynn and Alice’s yard across the road I said, “Another five weeks, Nate, and you’ll be riding that big, yellow bus again.”

When Nate didn’t answer I looked at him to see if he had heard me. Seeing me glance his way he said, “You sure do know how to put a guy down, Dad.”

A QUIET WEEK. When I first looked at out summer calendar I called last week our down week. This is the one week in our summer break where we are all at home and we don’t have any local, daily activity. Granted, I am back at work every day and Vicki is gearing up for VBS at church, but we’ve been able to enjoy evenings at home watching movies or I Love Lucy episodes we rented from Netflix.

The same can be said for our Fourth of July. The only things we did was go to the Kilgore Remembrance ceremony that morning and take supper over to Mom and Aunt Mar’s that evening. We didn’t even bother to drive up to Cross Plains for fireworks. The heat had a lot to do with that decision.

ONE HAPPY MAN. I will never forget the smile on Carl Swann’s face as he drove up to the Kilgore Remembrance ceremony. I think I’ve written before that he purchased a restored Willys Jeep last year. He was driving it when he arrived at the cemetery Wednesday. It looked perfect with the two American flags he had attached to the back corners of the vehicle. We asked him to park it next to the highway to show it off which seemed to please him to no end. I wish I had remembered to bring my camera.

SCOUT CAMP. Of course, the busy summer schedule resumes next week. We took Ben to Boxwell Reservation for Boy Scout Summer Camp this afternoon. Among all the regular camp activities we will be doing work toward six merit badges: First Aid, Fishing, Indian Lore, Leatherwork, Space Exploration, and Woodcarving. He comes home Saturday morning. At least the weather forecast shows cooler temperatures on the way!

Joe

Turnin’ Up the Heat

When we got back in town Sunday afternoon we immediately noticed the corn was taller and had tasseled. We also noticed everything was dry -- really dry. When we walk across the yard the grass crunches under our feet. Our pleasant weather is gone for a while as the last half of the week has been dominated with triple digit highs.

A SHORT TURN AROUND. Jenna only had a short time at home as she was scheduled to leave with our youth group to Mission-Fuge the next morning. For her it was unpack, do laundry, and repack. We had her at church bright and early Monday morning for her to roll out on the bus. Our group included 84 people who represented Friendship Baptist, Hopewell Baptist, and our church. This year they are doing mission work in Appalachia and are based from the University of the Cumberlands at Williamsburg, Kentucky.

Jenna has had a great time all week. The really neat thing is that we’ve been able to talk to her every night. This may not sound like anything special as everyone seems to have a cell phone these days, but Jenna does not. Jenna saw where they would have free internet so she took her iPad. This has allowed us to talk to her face to face. It’s really made us think about what life will be like around here when she’s in college. (Vicki went in Jenna’s room to put some things away the other day and spritzed some of Jenna’s perfume because she missed her.)

Jenna was assigned to a track where they did some construction, painting, and yard work. She helped with painting the side of a thrift store, cleaning up the landscaping at a local ministry, and helped a couple clean their house after a house fire. We get a full report from them at church next Sunday.

TRASH & TREASURES. The weather did not help our annual Trash & Treasures event this weekend. The heat predictions seemed to scare a lot of people away and rightly so. There were only a few brave souls poking around after 10:00 yesterday, though there were more people today. By the time I got home yesterday afternoon my thermometer had recorded 103°F for the day’s high. Thankfully the humidity was only 40% (when 80-90% is more of the norm). Today was a slight bit cooler at 102°.

I should note here that the Tennessean reported that the temperature reached an all time high of 109° yesterday, breaking the record of 107° set in July 1952. I don’t think I’ll need to mow for a while.

In spite of the heat Vicki and the boys came up and helped us with the hamburger stand that the Heritage Commission had. Nate was great help assembling hamburgers and hot dogs while Ben got some experience working with customers and making change. I am proud of both of them.

AN OLD STORY. This is a story I meant to share in past editions but fled my mind whenever I sat down to write up our news. This happened pretty soon after school was out and I was beginning to get settled into my shop. I tend to keep a few pieces of scrap wood around because it comes in handy for fixing things. Ben noticed the pile of this in the corner of the shop and began to wonder what he could build with it. Eventually he nailed together three short pieces of 2x6 to make a small stool and then he took more scrap lumber and nailed together a short podium (sized about right for a toddler). It even has a strip of wood to keep your papers from sliding off. I was impressed with his work.

Nate was also inspired by Ben's creativity and decided to nail something together himself. We are not really sure what it is, but it looks nice. Nate insists that Vicki use it in VBS somehow.

ANOTHER OLD STORY. This story happened while Vicki and the boys were away at CentriKid. Jenna and I went to visit Mom and Aunt Mar one evening while Larry and Tommy Pinson (father and son) were planting soybeans in the recently cut wheat field behind Aunt Mar's house.

We noticed the planter was being pulled by a Case International tractor which is really odd because the Pinsons have used John Deere equipment almost exclusively for as long as I've known them. That red tractor pulling the green planter was an eye catcher.

As Jenna and I were leaving we stopped and talked to Mr. Larry about this and he confirmed that the unbelievable had happened, they had defected. They had gone to purchase a new tractor but the people at the John Deere dealership didn't seem to want to talk to them so they went to H & R Implements where Greg Keith works and he sold them on red paint. Mr. Larry said it has taken some getting used to but it seems to be a good tractor.

Greg, you may recall, is a cousin of mine and I last wrote about him when he and Cathy married last year. He's been selling tractors for a few years now, but now that he's sold the Pinsons a Case I'd say he could go ahead and retire as he's done the impossible and reached the pinnacle of his career in tractor sales.

Joe