We finally got rain! One really good soaking rain. It came Tuesday night. More importantly we’ve had a break in the heat. We were still suffering from daytime highs reaching 100°, now temps are still above average but its cooler than it was. I have noticed a few trees are beginning to lose their leaves already. Also, Bill Chatman has been cutting tobacco.
FOUR YEARS. I can’t believe that Thursday will mark the fourth anniversary of the Swann Family News! It doesn’t seem like we’ve been doing this that long. Looking back over the record I am amazed at what all we’ve done in that time. God has blessed our family in many, many ways.
SICK BOYS. The boys have suffered from a stomach virus. It started with Nate week before last and he missed both days of Mom’s Day Out. Last Sunday morning Ben began to complain as we were getting ready for church. When we went to the choir’s pool party last week Vicki and I decided to drive separately because of Ben’s complaints. It was a good thing we did because he hurled as soon as we got there. Fortunately it happened in the yard and not in the pool or my truck. He wound up missing school Monday and Tuesday. I’ll just spare you the messy details and summarize it by saying we washed a lot of sheets, underwear and pajamas. However, when Nate first got sick Vicki was cleaning up his mess while he was sitting on the toilet. When she came back to the bathroom to check on him she mentioned that he had diarrhea as well. Misunderstanding what Vicki meant he asked, “Oh no, you mean I’m turning into a girl too?”
COULD YOU DEFINE OLD PLEASE? Vicki and the kids were about to get on the highway the other day when Vicki pointed out an old car. It wasn’t a Model T but about that old passing by. This car was painted bright red which made Vicki recall Henry Ford’s famous statement that customers could get any color they wanted as long as it was black. With this on her mind she proceeded to explain this to the kids. Then Jenna asked, “Oh, was that in the late ‘70s?”
HANCOCK FAMILY REUNION. This year’s reunion was held Saturday evening at the old Hancock homeplace which Matthew and Jodi Hancock have renovated and made their home. Matthew farms and it is so nice to see what they have done to the place and how it is still a working farm. The house had been rented for many years so this was the first time many of us have been back there for a family function. After enjoying a dinner catered by Baldwin’s Barbecue a friend of Leslie Hancock’s flew over in his ultralight airplane and landed in the field beside the house. It was just breezy enough that he didn’t feel comfortable giving rides (darn), but it was neat talking to him and getting to see his plane up close.
On neat thing they did was to make index cards available so that everyone could jot down their memories of the old homeplace. While I shared this here a couple of years ago one memory I had was of Aunt Myrtle teaching me to jump rope there when I was seven years old. At the age of 77 she could jump rope with the best of them. Another fun thing I remembered was of a family dinner we were invited to about 30 years ago. Someone had hosted a foreign exchange student that year. This student was part of a folk music and dance group back in their country (I think it was Sweden) and they came back to the US that summer. They were all invited to the dinner and then entertained us afterwards as they danced on the concrete driveway and we watched from the yard. There was such a commotion that all the cows came up to the fence and enjoyed the show as well.
Yesterday morning we went to Hopewell Baptist Church as part of the reunion activities. Many of my ancestors attended Hopewell before Mt. Carmel was organized in 1894.
LABOR DAY. We grilled out at Pauline’s for Labor Day today as is our tradition. We also invited Kenny. Lori, Andrew, Wil, and Mrs. Connie over to eat with us. We had a really fun time together!
Joe
