Hello, there. I am having a pretty good Friday the 13th, are you? Well, I've been misspelling words even worse than usual, and Josh forgot to put the trash out, but otherwise, the day has not been in the least bit horrifying.
Yesterday I came home from Versailles, with Jake and the kids riding with me. That was the end of my trip, of course, and it was exhausting. But I think I'll start at the beginning instead.
On Sunday, we came home from Osage Beach, played with the neighbors, and packed. Monday I baked the cake and finished getting all the things ready. My mother came for the kids around noon. When she walked in, she looked at the dog and said, "Hey, Jake! Are you ready to go?" I was so shocked. I hadn't even thought about Jake going. I had been telling Josh that he and Jake were going to be bachelors together. After they left (with alacrity), I got ready and left, myself. The first evening, we went to Nanny's house to watch the gravel guy pour more gravel on her driveway. His name was Ernie Hibdon. Apparently, he grew up with my Aunts and Uncles, and my mom even watched his son for a while when we were all living in Sunrise Beach. I must have been 2ish. The pouring of the gravel lasted maybe 5 minutes (and very fancy and tidy, too, I must add). We were at Nanny's house for an hour and a half. Ernie is a talker. It was cute....and long. Nanny came home while we were there, and we all went back to Gran's to have some of my cake. We were all too tired to go to the fun event that Gran had planned. It seems that one of the little Mennonite guys was doing an (no kidding) opera workshop. Later, Gran was horrified that she didn't take me to it, but we really were too tired. All of us were. Instead, me and Gran had a "slumber party". We took snacks into her room and watched My Favorite Year.
Tuesday, we did lots of work going through old family photos. There were 7 suitcases full. I was sorting them into envelopes for each of the children (my mom and her siblings), an envelope of my grandmother, of my grandfather, of the two together, of her mother, her mother's family (Geiger or Gyger, depending on who was doing the spelling), his family, pets, family group pictures, houses, landscapes and flowers, friends, military reunions, other trips. We did this most of the day, with breaks to fuss about politics with my Uncle Pete or gossip or eat.
Wednesday, we did more pictures and got them all sorted. Then, we spent a lot of the day in Versailles. First, it was Taco Day at B&B's, so we had tacos. We made some copies of pictures of my grandfather, and one of my grandmother's only baby pictures. We shopped at Wal-mart, and then.....we walked the Versailles cemetery. We were visiting family. We visited my great grandmother and her husband. We visited Gran's favorite grandmother, "Mimi". Her name was originally Edna, I think. Or was it Edith? Her middle name was Merle, and when she was little, was called Merley so much, that she officially changed it to Merle E. Webster. She married a Silvey. Gran refers to him as Dad Silvey (short for Granddad, of course) and she was Mom Silvey until one of Gran's cousins called her Mimi, and then she was Mimi forever. Gran and her parents lived with them for a while during the depression. The men farmed. They canned food, and Gran helped, even when she was tiny. Mimi would go to the less fortunate neighbors and say, "Oh, can you help me out? I canned too many beans this year! They'll go bad if they don't get used. You take these. I'll need my jars back, though." And that is how the neighbors helped each other even though they were proud. Mom Cleo, Gran's mother, married Ferdinand Geiger. He was a farmer, and Cleo wasn't happy. (She had wanted someone else, but the family hadn't approved.) So, later, she left her job as a schoolteacher for some guy named Quincey or Quentin or something, and lived in Kansas City. But immoral women lose their teaching licenses, so she worked in a factory. Ferd Geiger loved her to the end, and left her his house in Fortuna, Missouri. She shouldn't have taken it after leaving him so thoroughly, but she did. She was a perpetually dissatisfied woman, even in my memory. According to my grandmother and Uncle, her husband was a hard working, pleasant fellow. I've seen his picture, too. He was extremely handsome. She had a neck and legs that resembled tree trunks.
Anyway, I am related to Websters, Silveys, Cables, Caines, Geigers (or Gygers), Robinsons...and plenty more than that. Gran knows them all. Who will visit when she is gone? I should have taken notes. Gran always puts red flowers for her dad. They were his favorites. And Mimi likes all sorts of colorful ones. Lilac, she said, for sure. Having a suitable death and a suitable grave were never treated for them the way they are for us. Cemeteries are not scary or even macabre. You don't go there to dwell on someone's death, rather to remember his or her life. Nowadays you're not allowed to contemplate how you are remembered. We're supposed to assume we are immortal or something. I don't know.
After the cemetery, we met Nanny at her work, and all went to the VFW Veterans' Day dinner in Gravois. They had it in the school house that Gran went to in second grade! She told me, "See that stage? I performed on that stage! I was a snowflake. But Patty so-and-so was the snow princess." I don't remember which Patty, but she ended up marrying a Webster. Family, you see. After dinner, Gran was trying to see if anyone could remember which parts of the building were original, and the lady asked. "Did you know a Cleo Geiger?" Well, that, as you now know, is my great-grandmother. We were as bad as Ernie Hibdon, at that point, and when we finally left to head for the car, we ran into the daughter of the scandalous Quincey or whatever his name was. She's a little old lady now, of course.
I called my own Veteran when we got home, but he was still at work. Poor thing.
We did more work with pictures. I cut apart all the copies we'd made and finished off the envelopes with them, then we separated them into suitcases. One for military reunions, one for other trips, one for the envelopes for mom and her siblings, to be given to them at Thanksgiving to take home. Group family pictures, pets, and the ones of my grandparents were put in a separate suitcase for the kids to look at, but not keep. Requests for copies are expected, of course. I heard lots more stories about the families then, too. Maybe what I really needed was a tape recorder.
The one thing I pushed for but didn't get, as yet, was for Mama Gran to write on the backs of the black and white pictures of the Geigers and the Robinsons. They have no names, dates, locations..... They are blank, and she's probably the only one who knows the details.
As we were finishing up for the day, Uncle Pete jumped up, horrified, and rushed out the door. He was retrieving the American flag, which had been flying for Veterans' Day. It was after dark when he remembered. But he came back in laughing, because my grandparents have a street light in their front yard, and so there had not been any disrespect for the flag, after all.
Thursday I helped Gran clean. We met my mom and kids at B&B. This time we had cheeseburgers. Then we all played at Gran's house in the leaves until I had to pack up and go. By then some things were all starting to catch up with me. They all smoke, and my throat was starting to be sore. Gran keeps her house very warm, and I was unable to sleep nights. So, I was worn out before I even started to go home, but there was lots to load into the car, and lots to load out of it. Everyone provided junk food for the kids, and I have my folder of pictures, and Gran gave me a squash. I wasn't really planning to make butternut squash two weeks in a row.... You know, I saw a bald eagle on my way back home. I really had no idea they ever came through Missouri. And in Versailles on Wednesday night I saw a huge owl.
Well! Now for the news since I've been back home. Josh had the test for the dispatcher position in St. Peters. The good news is that if all the groups of applicants are like his, he has a decent chance of being selected. The other good news is that they offer full benefits and 17 something starting wage. The bad news is that the selection won't even take place for several more months. After the testing, there will be formal interviews, and then background checks. There are only 2 open positions, but over 100 applicants. He really wants the job. I want him to have what he wants, even though I don't know which variety of shift work it will be.
Even if I have more to say, this is long enough. SO! I hope you are having a wonderful Friday, even if it is Friday the 13th!!! Next stop - Thanksgiving!!!! Smile. It will all be okay.
Next time, the politics of a "Constitutionalist". Heh, heh, heh....
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