GETTING AWAY. I think I mentioned last time that we were just beginning our spring break. We decided to get away for most of the week and had a marvelous time. Last May when I enjoyed a brief visit with my cousin, Penny, in Wichita, she mentioned that she and her husband, Don, had a lake house and was kind enough to offer the use of it to us. We decided to take them up on their offer for spring break.
Don and Penny’s lake house is located on Kentucky Lake. It is a beautiful house with it’s own private dock (only serious anglers have their boats out this time of year since the water is still cold). It had more than enough room for us and proved to be the perfect place for us to get away. It’s also not very far so it was a nice drive while not long enough to take up a whole day traveling. We left last Sunday after church and eating lunch lunch with Mom and returned Thursday. We enjoyed perfect weather early in the week, though sometime Wednesday we heard a light tapping at the window and looked out to see it was sleeting outside.
We were the laziest bunch of vacationers I think I’ve ever seen. Everyone’s biggest desire was to sleep in so we didn’t get moving until the morning had worn away any of the days we were there. We also enjoyed just hanging out together there at the house. We played several games together (my family can get serious when it comes to playing Spoons). We had also bought a copy of Big Hero 6 and enjoyed watching that together.
This is not to say that we never got out. We sampled several restaurants in the area: Los Portales Mexican Restaurant in Benton, Kentucky; Parcell’s Deli and Grill and Majestic Steakhouse, both in Daffenville, Kentucky; and Patti’s 1880s Settlement in Grand Rivers, Kentucky.
On Monday the kids unanimously decided we should go bowling so we headed to Paducah to knock down a few pins. We actually did pretty well for a bunch of people who never bowl. From there we went to the riverfront in Paducah where we took in all the interesting murals painted on the flood wall there. We did a little hiking near the Land Between the Lakes visitor center on Tuesday. We stayed in most of the day Wednesday since it was cooler and messy. This allowed Vicki and Jenna to get some things accomplished for work and school.
Our trip, low key as it was, was exactly the sort of get away that we needed. Now I think I can push forward for the last nine weeks of school and the summer schedule to follow.
FIRST FENDER BENDER. Ben has had his first fender bender. Penny had told me that we were welcome to use their golf cart while at the lake house. In the course of doing so Ben backed into our van. The golf cart doesn’t appear to have suffered any damage, but the front, passenger side door on the van is another matter. He put a pretty serious dent there. I dread getting estimates.
I was actually down at the dock when it happened. I heard the thud from back up toward the house and my heart sank. Then I saw Ben running with hesitation down the hill to me. You know the kind of running I’m talking about--where Ben runs a few steps, walks a few steps, then runs a bit more.
Hard as the news was to swallow I was glad only the van was damaged. I told Vicki that if we make it through all three kids driving with this being the worst accident we have we’ve done well. Time will tell on that one.
The comedy in all of this was Nate. Nate was the passenger in the golf cart when Ben hit the van. In spite of that being his only involvement he was so torn up he was running in circles around the van saying, “What am I going to do?!” over and over again. Ben told me that’s what Nate was doing when he came to me at the dock and I asked if Nate were okay, and he was still doing that when I got back up the hill. Had it been me with the brother I never had I would have been laughing at his misfortune and saying, “Boy, are you going to get it now!”
OTHER DRIVING ADVENTURES. You might think that we wouldn’t want Ben behind the wheel again for a while, but when the opportunity arose Vicki suggested putting him back in the driver’s seat. Land Between the Lakes has an Elk and Bison Prairie. It’s essentially a large pasture where they raise a heard of elk and bison. There is a paved loop where you can drive through and see the animals as they graze. This being off the public road and since there was only one other car in the pasture with us we actually let both boys drive.
Ben is really a good driver and did well (though he did nail that big pile of manure that was in the middle of the road). Nate didn’t do so bad either, though he did get carried away with all the power window buttons that were at his control. Nate was driving when we got to the end of the loop and rejoined a short section of two lane road before leaving the area. When we told him to get on his side of the road he got real serious and said, “Am I in the real world now?”
A STORY FROM THE PAST. Years ago I interviewed several people on VHS tape. I was inspired to do this after reading an article about interviewing your relatives in Reader’s Digest. Last fall I decided to digitize those tapes while I still could. The first people I interviewed were David Lee and Betty Jo Thompson. This actually lead to my making a documentary based on the oral history of my family and giving it to my family years ago.
Since I now have these interviews as digital files I decided to start with David and Betty Jo’s interview and transcribe it. This was a great thing for me to do while at the lake because I am the early bird in the family and had all the mornings to myself. At any rate, here’s a story that David tells on the tape. What David is describing here is a sky lantern, though we didn’t know the name of it when the interview was recorded in 1989. David’s guess at being ten years old places this story around 1940.
Joe Caner would always shoot the fireworks. And in this particular group of fireworks he got it was some kind of balloon -- he was always wanting to fly something, if he didn't fly his-self he would get something to fly -- and it was a big ... it was made out of paper and it had different colors. And I never will forget it had a wick on it made of some type of shavings with paraffin on it.As I recall this was one of the stories I used in the documentary. It has always been a favorite of mine.
And he lit that thing. And, of course, we had to hold it -- and I couldn't have been very old, I guess I was maybe ten years old -- and as he held it, you know, and that night the wind wasn't blowing and it was cold. And, of course, as the wick started burning it filled the balloon, the paper, with hot air. And, of course, sure enough, that thing started going up. And it went up, went up, went way up, pretty high.
Well then, the wind started coming out of the east, going west, and started blowing. Well, he said, "Come on. Get in the car. Let's follow it." Of course, I was right on his heels, you know. We jumped in the car. Started following the thing. And, man, it was way up high in the sky and it was the weirdest looking thing you ever seen. And so we got out at Mr. Len Work's, and Mrs. Scrap's. And Bro. [Bruce] Ousley and Mrs. Charlotte was standing there and they were looking at it.
And Joe Caner said, "Now, don't tell 'em what it is, now. Don't tell 'em what it is."
And we pulled up, you know, and said, "What is that thing?"
And everybody was looking at it, of course back then you didn't even see an airplane hardly flying.
And I don't know what Bro. Ousley called it. It was something or other, it was something out of space. And Joe Caner just sat there giggling, you know, to his-self, and never did let on that he had sent the thing up, you know. And, of course, you could see it up in the sky and it was the weirdest looking thing you ever seen in your life. Different colors and that blaze a burning under it and that big old wick. But we watched the thing and it went on toward Springfield.
Joe
