Search Results for: Pick up

The Genius of Play

January 29, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Family Life, Health

Did you know that the amount of time that today’s children spend playing is far less than the amount of time we spent at play? How can that be with so many overwhelmed mothers who spend their time running children from one event to the next?

Siblings Wrestling in the Grass When They Thought No One Was Looking

Meanwhile, in our schools there is a decline in recesses. And at home there is an increase in screen time. Altogether, this means there is an overall decline in unsupervised play.

From time to time my husband Chuck and I reminisce about our childhood experiences and find ourselves comparing them to those of our grandchildren. The one that we feel is the most different is playing outdoors.

Neither of us would trade our experiences with our grandchildren’s. Not only do we see less children playing outdoors, but we also see that those who do are almost always involved in some sort of competitive, adult-supervised play.

T-Ball

We feel that outdoor play is important to the development of children, but we also think that unsupervised play is equally important.

I learned in October while at the Type-A Parents Blogging Conference that we are not alone in our beliefs. Researchers say that free play significantly improves kids’ problem-solving skills. Play is also one of the best ways to stimulate children’s brain development. Active kids are more likely to be active adults.

Girls Playing

But is free play the same as unsupervised play.

Chuck likes to talk about the traditional pick up game and how he feels it helped him develop into an independent adult. I wrote an earlier blog which described his experience. You can find it here.

I on the other hand like to tell about mine and my sister Pam’s imaginary world of playing house, using a stick to draw our homes in the dirt road driveway leading down to our home. They didn’t pave the driveway until I was much older.

Also, many of us in the neighborhood liked to play down in the woods behind our houses. We built forts and dammed the stream back there. Those were wonderful days, and there wasn’t an adult in sight for hours at a time.

Teenagers hanging out.

At the Conference I found in the expo a kiosk about a movement called, “The Genius of Play”. This is a national movement whose mission is to give families the information and inspiration to make Play an important part of every child’s day. You can read about it here.

Their research says that play is more than fun and games; that it is essential for child development. Their mission is to “give families the information and inspiration needed to make play an important part of every child’s life.” It provides advice, play tips, and ideas based on a kid’s age and developmental stages.

Since the conference, I found other groups with the same purpose, such as PortlandFamily.org and www.Care.Com.

The Genius of Play and the other groups feel that there are six key benefits of play that are crucial to healthy child development. I’ve taken the liberty to regurgitate what they said, melding it all together below.

Key Benefits of Play

1. Play Improves Cognitive Abilities – There are studies that show a correlation between outdoor play and a reduction in ADHD symptoms. Outdoor play requires children to use their brains in unique ways. Also, it helps them to incorporate concepts learned in the classroom.

They may have learned about the parts of an insect in school, but in the outdoors they can study an insect up close, by themselves, and experience it in a hands-on way where they can see it and touch it, bringing to life the lesson they learned at their school. My daughters used to bring me rolly pollys and would also let the little green lizards bite their earlobes and wear them as earrings until they let go. Scientists tell us that outdoor play also decreases anxiety.

Exploring New Ground

2. Play Hones Communication Skills – Unstructured play helps with honing our communication skills. Not everyone can be chosen first nor can everyone take a turn on the slide first. Kids who participate in unstructured play with each other learn these communication and behavioral skills on the playground.

They also learn to modify and enforce their own rules. Chuck and I both were involved in unstructured, unsupervised play. His story about the pick-up game you heard about earlier. Mine, though, was in a big field across the road from my home. It was surrounded with houses, as we lived at the edge of a small town. Kids from the houses met in that field and played football, baseball, or whatever was in season. As a girl, I loved football best. I think it had something to do with getting tackled by the boys.

3. Play Increases Creativity – Outdoor play helps children use all their senses, such as insects to see, rustling leaves to hear, fresh mown grass to smell, rabbit weed to taste, and acorns to touch and throw. TV only gives them hearing and seeing, and it can seriously affect their perceptual abilities.

For example, biking develops self-confidence and satisfies one’s exploratory interest, and playing outdoors provides opportunities for imaginative play. Children invent things like Pam and I used to do with the imaginary houses we created. And it was dirt that presented limitless opportunities to invent our world as we pleased.

Building Creativity

4. Play Increases the Ability to Process and Express Emotions – Remember how excited we all got when someone made a touchdown or someone jumped across a wide ditch. Well, this is how we learned to process and express our emotions. We were challenged by the other kids; and that was a good thing, because we learned how to cope.

5. Play Develops Physical Skills – Did you know that children who play outdoors have better distance vision? A study by Optometry and Vision Science found this to be true. Also, outside play is relaxing and destressing for children.

Research shows that third graders who get 15 plus minutes of recess a day are better behaved in school. Playing outdoors also helps kids develop muscle strength and coordination. For example, the simple act of swinging requires a child to engage all their muscles to hold on, balance, and coordinate their body to move back and forth. Skating requires balance, too.

Climbing Trees

6. Play Enhances Social Skills – Outdoor play requires kids to learn to get along with each other. Unchaperoned play requires it, too. It also helps kids gain self-confidence. Children invent rules and negotiate their way through play. This increases their creativity, intelligence, and negotiation skills—all social skills that we need to function in society.

But I would like to add a seventh benefit.

7. Play in the Outdoors Develops Good Health – Lots of children suffer from vitamin D deficiencies according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. This vitamin is important to future bone and heart health, but too much sun is a problem as well. My mother and I both made our kids come indoors during the hours of 10-2 p.m. Florida gets quite hot during the middle of the day anyway. But children need to play outdoors without sunscreen for some part of the day, and I don’t remember using sunscreen as a child at all unless we were swimming or out all day on the beach. I can remember playing outdoors without my shirt until I got to be about 6 or 7 years old. I believe outdoor play for children is vital to their good health.

So grandmothers, encourage your children to read this. They need to understand that unstructured play is as important as school and adult-supervised sports.

Nothing like a sprinkler on a hot summer’s day.

Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychologist noted for her work on bi-polar disorder, says it best, “Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.”

Postcards from the Blue-Virginia

January 13, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Travel

Over the holidays, Chuck and I took a little trip to Virginia, a road trip along the blue highways of the southeast. Here are a few highlights.
But one thought first before I begin. Because I take my mental health seriously, I anticipated probably too much so the emotional difficulty of these holidays. It has only been nine months since my sister passed away.
We were supposed to be at her North Carolina house this year for Christmas, and I just didn’t think it was smart for me and Chuck to stay home this year with all the kids away visiting their in-laws. I worried that my emotional state would overwhelm me.
But I also worried that I might make myself equally sad if I had no family near by during the Christmas weekend. So we decided to go to Virginia to visit the stomping grounds of a common ancestor and then drive north to Annapolis to have Christmas dinner with our daughter Jamie and her in-laws. It turned out to be a very good plan.
So chuck and I got in the car and went north. The main reason was as I explained, but we did have an itinerary. We decided to go to Virginia for a little genealogy stop near Jamestown, and we decided to travel blue highways.
On our way north we traveled west of the Appalachians stopping one night to visit our daughter in Atlanta, an afternoon to visit a cousin near the Tennessee line, and a night in Christmasy Gatlinburg to give those folks a little of our tourism money. They were devastated by the fires in that area less than a month before.
On the way north out of Atlanta we got off I-75 and drove US 411. The scenery is extra special for me, because this is the way we went to visit my Dad’s Roe relatives who lived in and around Chatsworth, Georgia. I always loved this drive.

Love these old barns. This was one was US 411 north of Atlanta.

I told Chuck that I’m so old that I remember when I-75 wasn’t finished yet. The last section completed was just north of Atlanta, and I can remember getting off the interstate and getting back on farther north before we crossed over into Tennessee. My Uncle Moody lived in Detroit, so we drove I-75 north all the way to Michigan several times in my life.
This trip, though, was perfect and relaxing. We took our time, drove blue highways, and talked up a blue storm. The winter woods at the western foothills of the Appalachians were beautiful. I found that the total change in place helped tremendously. Our conversations about Pam were positive ones, remembering the good times we had as children.
I wish I could tell you the roads that we took. I know that we continued on US 411 north toward Gatlinburg after stopping in Eton, Georgia; but sometime just after dark we drove through some of the Great Smokies National Park. We got off of 411 somewhere, but now I’m not sure which roads we took.
We did not drive through Pigeon Forge. That I would have remembered. All I know is that we told the GPS that we wanted a route with no freeways. It was a slow, easy beautiful drive.

Gatlinburg was so Christmasy and at night we could see no fire damage, but the next morning was a different story. It is so sad what happened to them. The north side of Gatlinburg was hit the worst. It seemed to be hit and miss. There were businesses untouched and then a gutted motel or other type of building in the middle of those untouched. Their firemen and those from other places did an amazing job of saving what they could.

In one place everything on each side of a draw was burned out, but down in the middle of the draw was a little house untouched. Chuck joked, “Well, now we know where the fire chief lived.” Funny man.
After Gatlinburg, we continued north on US 321 working our way up west of the mountains mostly on US 321 and then US 11. As we crossed the Appalachians, we stopped in Wytheville, Virginia to stay in a historical hotel called the Bolling-Wilson, named after their town’s most known matriarch, the wife of President Woodrow Wilson. It was beautifully decorated.

But what we really loved was the view from their roof terrace. I was unable to capture the view at night; and it rained the next morning, so here is a photo off their website.

We ate breakfast the next morning across the street at Skeeter Dog’s and hit the road again going south to pick up US 52 and then eventually US 221 to the east. We rambled all over the place stopping to eat lunch in Floyd, Virginia.

Then we took roads like County Road 24, US 460 and US 360 stopping here and there to walk around a little town and get a cup of coffee or Diet Coke. This was an especially beautiful drive, and we even passed through Appomattox. I’ve got history here. I have kin who were there for the surrender and then had to walk all the way back to Florida. We spent the night in Richmond.

The next morning near Richmond we found Chuck’s old home place from when he was in elementary school. Little Laurel, Virginia is now a bedroom community totally enveloped by Richmond; but he found his neighborhood and had a great little walk down memory lane.

Chuck’s house was the blue one, and the place they played was behind the brick building at a school that is no longer there.

It was here where he played his first pick-up games. I wrote a blog post about how important those games were to him. You can read it https://oldageisnotforsissiesblog.com/?s=Pick-up.
About mid morning we drove north out of Richmond and took US 301 all the way to Annapolis and crossed the upper part of Chesapeake Bay. It was Christmas Eve and we spent it on on Kents Island in Chesapeake Bay. We had dinner at a place called Annie’s, because it was the only place we could find open.

It seems every one else on the island showed up, too. It was crowded. We had raw oysters on the half shell and gin and tonics, and life was good.

Annie’s on Kent’s Island

“Anatomy of a Hurricane”–Hurricane Hermine Comes Here

October 10, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Family Life, This & That

Hurricane Hermine is threatening our shore line. Earlier today I turned on the TV, and the Weather Channel was in Tallahassee. Oh Crap! It is never a good thing when Jim Cantore shows up in your town.

August 31, 2016

By nightfall the storm begins coming ashore just east of Tallahassee between Monticello and Greenville, Florida, about 25 to 35 miles away to our east. Monticello is my hometown.

Hurricane Hermine Comes Ashore Near Tallahassee

Our power goes out around 10 pm. Hurricane Hermine has begun to do its damage.

It will be all over the next morning, and tomorrow will be a very busy day. I make sure that everyone in the house knows that we’re in a “no flush” zone. You only flush the toilets periodically–on an as needed basis. Jamie has to explain what this means to Patrick.

We have no idea how long the power will be off, and the water in the tubs are there to bucket water from the tubs to flush the toilets. If you just need to pee, don’t flush. Only flush when needed. The water has to last. Not only is the weather deteriorating, but our lifestyle is, too.

Bucketing Water for the Toilets

Also, everyone understands that we do not open the refrigerators for anything. They will maintain food longer if they are not opened.

Finally, we all go to bed.

Friday, September 1

I wake up around 2 a.m., and the wind roars outside. I hear things hitting the outside of the house; but thankfully no big crashes, yet.

Around 4 a.m. I check my iPad for the latest weather update. Hermine is moving northeast and away from the area; but I can tell by the radar that it passed closely to our east. Luckily, we are on the good side of the storm, the side with less wind. I try to go back to sleep.

Finally, it is daylight. Outside it’s raining heavily. The oaks are still thrashing about, and I squint to see how the yard looks. Within minutes, I can tell that the pool is green with fallen branches. It is full of debris, but the fence around the pool is intact.

Then I see a very large tree down between the oaks, on the path down to the lake. One of the big Longleaf pines fell. I pull on a robe and go downstairs out on to the back porch.

The entire back yard looks like a bomb hit it. Oh dear!

The front yard doesn’t look any better.

There is another big pine tree down east of our house. It fell between ours and the neighbor’s house. The kids are downstairs sound asleep.

Thankfully, all the portable cell chargers were charged and ready. Our iPads and cells will come in handy now. We’ll need to begin making phone calls, checking on others, and trying to get help.

Chuck and I throw something on and decide to take his car and investigate our neighborhood, but we quickly realize that we cannot go east. A large pine is laying across our street, which is a circle.

Tree Blocking Our Street

So we go west and have to go around another tree in the road that leaves us us just enough room to squeeze by. Up on Lakeshore, we realize that we cannot go west because of downed trees, nor can we take Sharer south; but we are able to get out to Meridian going east.

Street lights are inoperable all over the city, and we see numerous occurrences of people barreling through these intersections. We quickly realize that it has been a decade since the last storms in Florida and over two decades since Kate.

No one is immune from the destruction. This tree crashed behind the Governor’s Mansion.

There is an entire generation of drivers in town that have no idea that when the lights are out everywhere, every intersection becomes a four-way stop. The radios quickly begin trying to educate all of us before someone is killed.
Speaking of mortality, electric lines are down everywhere on sidewalks, in streets, across driveways. It is quite scary because people are outside walking around trying to assess their damages.

We also realize that this is beginning to look like the aftermath of Hurricane Kate. Everywhere we turn, streets are blocked by felled trees and downed powerlines. We now know that it will be days before our power is restored. Thankfully, Hurricane Hermine came ashore as just a Category 1 hurricane.

Another Street Blocked in Tallahassee

We use the radio to help us get down to the coast to check out the coast house. WFLA, 100.7 radio station with Preston Scott is taking calls from residents to let everyone know which streets are blocked and which aren’t. We use this to worm our way across town and south to the coast.

We learn that the Woodville Highway is closed, but not the Wakulla Springs Road down to the Bloxham Cutoff Rd. Wakulla Springs Rd. is closed from here, but we jog right on Bloxham and pick up Spring Creek Road all the way down to Shell Point and Live Oak Island Roads. All the while we fully expect for any one of them to be blocked and closed.

A Wakulla County deputy stops us to check that we are island residents. We are lucky and get all the way down to Live Oak Island.

As we drive across the causeway, we begin to see debris from the storm surge. Someone’s floating dock is on the side of the road. All the docks near the bridge are capsized and strewn about. You can tell that the island was inundated in areas. The storm surge did come across the island, but most houses are up off the ground.

Hurricane Hermine’s path came very close to the Coasthouse, which is on an island located here on this map just above the words ‘Apalachee Bay’.

Then we turn on to our road, and quickly realize that the it is strewn with many floating docks. We have trouble maneuvering and have to get out a couple of times to squeeze by debris until we find ours.

Floating Docks Displaced by Hurricane Hermine on Live Oak Island

More Floating Docks Displaced by Hurricane Hermine

Our floating dock is no longer in the bay behind our house. It is sitting in the road right in front of our neighbor’s house.

Our Dock Sitting in the Road at Live Oak Island

Inside the house, everything is thankfully high and dry. We are blessed. Outside, though, we realize that the kayak is missing, along with the ramp leading down to the floating dock, and a set of steps down from the sea wall to the Gulf.
Walking around, we find the kayak in a wad of flotsam near the other neighbor’s house along with the missing ramp.

Chuck and I begin trying to remove the debris so we can move the kayak.

Found the Kayak

Other neighbors come by in search of their missing items, and most of us find what we’re looking for in this pile. It is strange how a storm does this, affecting one house but not the next. Underneath our house, it is swept clean. Under our neighbor’s is everyone else’s debris.

Flotsam Left Behind by Hurricane Hermine

Finally, we finish what we can and drive back to Tallahassee. The kids called; and they are already trying to check on their home, which has several trees down on their well house and pump. They have Talquin Electric and already learn that it may be a week or more before their power is restored.

We return to the house in Tallahassee and begin the cleanup there. Our son-in-law is our hero. He picked up almost all the debris in our yard stacking it for our next really big bonfire. We usually have at least one during the winter holidays.
We realize that we’ve seen no power trucks yet in our neighborhood–not a good sign. We learn through the radio that the City of Tallahassee Electric has to restore the infrastructure first, which was also damaged by the storm.

We saw the trucks and tree trimming crews working out on the main roads. It will be some time before they get to little neighborhoods like ours.

The day goes quickly; but it hasn’t been all bad. When the storm pushed through so did the little front. Behind it is cooler and dryer air, which is unusual. Usually it is hot and humid behind these storms. So the cleanup this time is less painful.

By late afternoon, though, it begins to change. It begins to get humid; and we have no power, no air conditioning, no running water. We live on well water, which requires electricity to run. We tip toe through the house with flashlights and a kerosene lamp that hazily lights the kitchen.

Around 9 pm a bat flies into the house, sending everyone ducking and dodging in the dark to escape the little varmint. The bat finally finds an open door and flies back out after circling the house for about ten minutes.

My son in law Patrick who is an Air Force brat born in England and raised all over the world is getting his Ph.D. in becoming a true Floridian in one big hellacious weekend. He leads the effort to get rid of the bat.

Exhausted, we try to get some rest; but it is a little uncomfortable, nothing like the next night will be, though.

Saturday, September 2

All day Saturday we are cleaning up and setting all the lawn furniture back out. It is hard to get through the living room because it is full of pots, plants, and lawn furniture. Outside Chuck continues pulling leaves and limbs out of the pool.

We know it will be days before we get electricity. I’m already tired of bucketing water to flush toilets, sweating, and eating cold food. I wrench my shoulder and it hurts. We also worry about the food in the freezers, which we haven’t opened yet.

So Jamie and I begin to look for a generator to replace the one we had that won’t start. We call several stores, but they don’t answer their phones. Later, we learn that no one has regular phone service.

The stores who have no power are either running on generators or remain closed. Fortunately for us Florida’s hardware stores, grocery stores, and banks are almost all powered by generators during the aftermath of these storms.

At Home Depot there is a short line for 70 generators coming in around 5 pm on a truck. I count the number of people in line and think I have a shot at getting one, so I jump in the line and send Jamie and Thomas to Lowes to see if they can find one there.

Waiting on Generators

She in turn gets in another line, but the line at Lowes requires a ticket. There are 96 generators and she gets ticket 96. Her success is more certain, but what if someone miscounted and there are only 95 generators on the truck. So she stays in that line with instructions to call if she gets one first, which she did.

By the way Jamie almost witnessed a fight. A man from a country, where obviously only the strongest survive, jumped ahead several people and snatched a ticket from someone in the line, who was less able to defend themselves. She said that the man almost got a ass whippin from some of the good old southern boys nearby, before he (the one who snatched the ticket) apologized and returned it.

With a new generator in tow, we get home and realize that this one is big enough to carry almost all of the appliances in the house, except the HVAC systems. We run big outdoor extension cords everywhere, first to the refrigerator/freezers. I check the food in the freezers and everything is still ok. Earlier we had begun bringing in ice for things in the refrigerators.

We placed the Generator a Safe Distance Outside of the House

Wire Running Everywhere Throughout the House

Too bad that we didn’t have a small air conditioner, though. It is still humid and hot at night. It would be worse, though, without the big ceiling fan over our bed and two old house fans that I’ve had since I lived in Monticello over 27 years ago.

We’re already talking to a tree service company to remove the two downed trees. Many people have trees on their homes or across their driveways, while ours are not as big a problem. They ask us to wait for a later time, and we agree to do so.
Saturday night, we are hot; but we have TV and lights. Life is much better.

Sunday, September 2

We begin to find pockets of the city open for business. We have lunch at Vertigo’s, which is packed. Everyone else had the same idea.

The house is strewn with electrical cords leading to the refrigerators, fans, and lamps all over the house. Can you say fire hazard? We call our electrician, and he hooks the entire house to the generator, except for the two HVAC systems. Then we spend the next hour trying to figure out why the breaker keeps flipping off. It turns out that there is some type of short in the water pump. So we turn everything else off when we need to use the water pump.

We spend a second afternoon finishing packing. Did I tell you that Chuck and I leave tomorrow for China? For two days before, I packed early in the morning for the best light, otherwise I’m packing for a seventeen day trip in the dark. One has to laugh to keep from going crazy.

Later, we notice that there are Gulf Power Co. bucket trucks and linesmen working up on Lakeshore. They are from west Florida and helping us in Tallahassee to get our power back. It is a relief to see them finally in our neighborhood.

Our Heroes – The Power Company Employees

It’s like the cavalry came. That is how we see our heroes–the linesmen. I honk and wave, give them a thumbs up, and scream “Thank You” from my car window. The lady driving back of me did the same thing. They’re working in our neighborhood, but not on our street yet.

Sunday night is the hottest night yet. Still no power. We see their lights up on Lakeshore. We heard that the men work 16-hour shifts. We both have trouble sleeping.

Monday, September 5
Monday comes, and we still have no power. We finally packed for China, and we leave. Final packing done; but much of it without lights, so I have no idea how prepared we are for China.

The floors in the house are littered with trash, leaves and mud, tracked in from the outside. Unfortunately, we leave everything in a mess and our daughter in charge. Jamie is our angel.

About half way to the airport, our daughter calls and the power is on. Thank the Lord and Gulf Power.

This Gulf Power Lineman made my Grandson’s day!

We found out later that this picture of Thomas made the Gulf Power Newsletter. Two of Thomas’s great grandfathers were Florida Power Corporation employees. Geechie and Cliff would love this!

The house smells with the heat, humidity, two dogs, one crochety old cat, four adults, one five year old, and lots of smelly laundry. It needs the dehumidification that only a central air conditioning unit can provide.

Return From China
Seventeen days later we return from China. Tallahassee has power. Most everyone gets their power back within 10 days, but there are piles of yard debris everywhere still waiting for final cleanup. Many of the piles create a wall of debris next to the roads. People swerve to miss them.

The two trees are still down in our yard in Tallahassee, but our neighbor at the coast got our floating dock back in the water. It is anchored so it won’t float off. There is no ramp to it, though. It is just an island. Jamie and Patrick got their power back 8 days after the storm.

And on Monday, October 3rd, we had the decks and porches pressure washed to remove all the debris stains. We finally get back to normal just as we begin to watch Hurricane Matthew cross Haiti and threaten the other side of Florida. Monday, several computer models showed it coming into the Gulf.

And so we began the cycle again; but thankfully, this Hurricane Matthew went elsewhere.

Day 3: Lewis & Clark Goes West of the Rockies

August 2, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Following Old Trails, Travel

Yesterday, I left Three Forks and was on my way to Beaverhead Rock State Park. My route ran between State Road 2 and US 287 until Whitehall, Montana.

The road followed the Jefferson River, so it was perfect. This time of year the water is low. Wonder if it was the same for Lewis & Clark? They traveled this area in canoes, though; and we know that much of the time here they walked or waded and pulled the canoes with ropes. Don’t you know they were being watched from high up above in the hills and mountains?

If they were able to ride in the canoes, they poled them much like our current poling boats. They seldom rowed them anymore. So I believe the water must have been low.

The river flowed through a narrow canyon, near Lahood Park, Montana on SR 2; and I wondered what this looked like to them in 1805. It is still narrow today, and that was after widening it at the river’s edge to add a two-lane highway and a railroad. This is a beautiful ride especially here.

I need to describe what it is like driving through this area. These little two lanes roads winding through the mountains with their potholes and buckled road beds have a 70 mile per hour speed limit. I’m thinking, “why bother”. It is too fast even for me. And I’m the daughter that Dad nicknamed “Leadfoot,” but I’m not one out here. Not compared to these people.

Finally, I got to a little town called Whitehall, and stopped at the Legends Family Restaurant. They must have been short on help, because they told me to seat myself; but there was only one table and it still had a cup and newspaper at it. It was 1 pm. I set down, and the waitress took my order and never bothered to clear the table. I just pushed it to the other side.

Menus everywhere now are full of fast foods. I guess because that is what people want, so I ordered another chef salad. This one was lettuce, ham, roast beef, and a few sprinkles of cheese. Not much to write home about.

Finally I got to Two Bridges, Montana. Chuck would love this place. It has more fly fishing and outdoor shops than it has churches. Of course, I knew what that meant. There had to be a great fly fishing stream(s) nearby.

I turned right in the middle of town on Montana 41 and immediately crossed over the Beaverhead River. The Beaverhead is one of two rivers that creates the Jefferson River. The other was the Ruby. They chose to follow the Beaverhead so now I’m following it, too.

I stopped at a little park on the river and took some pictures. It is a clear stream not very deep and quite cool but not cold.

Afterwards, the road took me through the Jefferson River Valley where the Corps struggled to pull their boats up this river. This valley was an old Indian corridor, and they found an old trail. The men became much fatigued during this part of the expedition. The rocks in the river bruised their feet.

At one point while driving, Canon in D done with violins began playing on the radio. Within a short time I realized that this music was made for just such a drive. The wind in the fields seemed to roll with the music. I could not have planned a more majestic moment.

I finally got to Beaverhead Rock which sits right beside the Beaverhead River.

Sacajawea when seeing this rock, knew that her people were nearby. The rock was a landmark for several tribes who moved through this valley to and from their buffalo hunting grounds.

She was captured near here by another tribe when she was a girl of 12 and taken east where she was sold as a slave to Charbonneau. She became one of two of his wives. So she had come full circle and was back in her native lands.

Again, this is a state park where I can find no entrance. So I studied the area and a Google Earth map, where I noticed a gravel road which enters it just before crossing the river. The road pulled off just before a flashing sign that warns about a coming curve. So I drove the road into the park, but it simply surrounds the rock–the road and the park.

The rock is about 150′ high and made of Madison limestone. The road went around its base so closely to its cliffs that I worried a little about falling or calving sides. The vegetation was cattails and tall grasses along with several different kinds of wild flowers–yellows and purples.

Every afternoon the wind picks up, and here the grasses are blowing in waves. I can see how this was special to per people. It was also a meeting place for them.

The Indians thought this rock looked like a swimming beaver, thus the name they gave it.

I drove on to Dillon, Montana and turned north on the old US 91. Just north of town is a rock called Clark’s lookout. I found the entrance to the park just past the rock on the right. This one is well marked.

The Beaverhead River runs by here, too. It is simply a deep stream at this point. Clark climbed up on this rock and used its height to make measurements and notations for his mapmaking.

William Clark was from a famous revolutionary war family. Two of his brothers were revolutionary war generals. In fact one brother George was the original person that President Jefferson asked to lead this expedition. George declined but recommended his brother William.

I got interested in the Clark family many years ago when I read the historical fiction novel “From Sea to Shining Sea” by James Alexander Thom. They were an amazing family and several played key roles in our nation.

President Jefferson then asked Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition. Lewis in turn asked for his friend William Clark to co-captain the expedition with him.

William Clark had much to bring to the expedition’s success. He was outgoing and had an easy temperament. He was also a surveyor, mapmaker, frontiersman, experienced woodsman, and former military commander. In fact he had been Lewis’s commander earlier when they were in the military. This is how they became friends.

Actually, the Corps of Discovery was a military expedition commanded by the two co-captains. Before they left Illinois, Clark drilled the men military style to get them in shape for what was to become. Capt. Clark was the military commander on the expedition.

I left Dillon and got on Interstate 15 going south. About twenty miles later I got off on SR 324. near the Clark Dam. This dam creates the tail waters of the Beaverhead River. By the way Lewis and Clark still called this river the Jefferson, even up to this point.

The reservoir formed by the dam flooded the canyon here, and this canyon is where Lewis and Clark realized that the river from this point on was not navigable. Their travel by boat came to an end here.

President Jefferson ordered them to go by boat as far west as possible. It is here that they ran out of navigable waters.
Now they are desperately looking for horses in order to cross over to find a river on the other side of the continental divide. The group had seen no Indians since the Mandan Village back in North Dakota four months earlier. Winter is coming, and time is running out. They needed to cross the mountains as soon as possible.

They camped in this canyon, and it was called Camp Fortunate. I stopped at a little wayside park sitting high over the reservoir. There is a full scale model here of one of the canoes they used.

Lewis struck out further west on foot to find a pass through the mountains. Clark stopped at Camp Fortunate with the rest of the men, including Charbonneau, Sacajawea and her baby. I left the lookout and went west like Lewis did.

I continued on Montana 324 looking for Lemhi Pass where Lewis & Clark crossed over the continental divide on their way to the Pacific. Clark was so sure that they would pick up the Salmon River soon after crossing that he called this a portage on his original map. He later changed it.

I continued south toward Tendoy, Idaho to search for a west entrance to the Lemhi Pass Road. I don’t have instructions to the east side of the pass. I got very lucky though, because I found the road’s east entrance on the way. Following the Lewis & Clark Trail is not so easy some days. Today is better than most.

This entrance travels over USDA Forest Service gravel roads which eventually go over Lemhi Pass. This way will be about 25-30 miles. These roads are on an old Indian Road that Lewis and Clark took to cross the Continental Divide. There is a sign at the entrance showing the way through the pass.

On this side of the pass it is all gravel roads through ranch lands with cattle gaps, some old wood fencing, and then a national forest. Thankfully, I took a picture of the map on the sign before I left the entrance. It would come in handy later, because there are no signs marking the way once you leave the entrance.

This drive is the highlight so far of my trip. It rolls over private ranch lands. The views are beautiful. Here is where one of the party stood with a foot on each side of the once mighty river that is now a stream.

The road also later became a stagecoach road. One of the ranchers owns one of the old coaches and displayed it next to one of his barns. His hme was the old stage station.

Just as I approached the upper canyon, the road narrowed to a single lane and eventually entered a forest of conifers as it switchbladed back and forth up to a saddle. At the top of the saddle are more signs with information about Lewis’s pass through here in August of 1805.

A rock marker in the saddle shows where the continental divide is. I walked around a little but was a bit wary. This is because as I drove up I saw in the distance either a man or a bear walk off into the woods down the road a ways.

I thought it was a man until I saw the sign warning about bears in the area. Then I wasn’t so sure. Surely, it was a man, though, because he was walking on two legs. I haven’t a clue where he went but there was a trail there that dropped down the mountain over the side. So I was probably safe. Otherwise I was up there all by myself.

The signs say that this pass here on the Montana/Idaho border looks much like it did when the expedition came through here in 1805. Lewis crossed it first on August 12. He unfurled the American flag on the other side and for the first time in history the flag flew west of the Rockie Mountains. The views are stunning on both sides.

At the top of the saddle the road forked four ways. Three looked like good easy roads but one of them dropped off down a steep decline and is full of small rocks. I looked at my GPS but there is no service up here. I have no idea which road to take.

Thankfully, I took a screen shot of the map down below. It said that I needed to take Road 013. Oh Great! That’s the bad one with the rocks and the steep descent. I guess the rocks are there to help me keep going?

I rolled up to its edge and thought, “Well, I’ve been on worse.” The whole situation reminded me of Mulholland Drive.

I began my descent and slipped and slid several hundred feet down to a turn where it quickly evened out. Down below the road is narrow and winding, but the rest of the ride was a piece of cake. On the east side of the saddle were rolling ranch lands. On this side it is deep forests.

There are also snakes. It is almost 7 pm, and I’m beginning to think that maybe they came out on the roadbed to stay warmer because it was already cooling down.

It was very windy up at the saddle, and I noticed that it was less hot than down below. I passed four snakes total, all on the west side of the pass. The last one was a large nasty rattlesnake.

Speaking of animals I’ve seen quite a few this trip. At Tower Rock yesterday I saw two big horn sheep coming down some rocks from high above. They are amazing rock climbers. And today I’ve seen several deer.

One jumped out into the road a little ahead of me and then saw me and ran back across in front of my car. I threw everything into the floorboards, but missed the deer. Another time, I stopped to read a historical sign near a pretty tree-lined field and surprised a doe and two of her yearlings who were grazing nearby. They ran off a little ways but I got a picture of her.

Captain Lewis and his three men as an advance party spent a night on the west side of the pass and would go all the way to the Columbia before returning to his expedition back on the east side of the pass. I’ll continue there with that story tomorrow.

I finally got back down from the pass, but I’m in Idaho. I started driving north on Idaho 28 toward my next stop Traveler’s Rest. This is the Nez Perce Trail. And I’m also still following the Lewis & Clark Trail.

I have no idea how long I’ll drive before stopping for the night. It is two and a half hours to Traveler’s Rest in Lolo, Montana. I have fruit to snack on and a meal in the car just in case, but did not need the meal.

I rolled into Salmon, Idaho on the Salmon River about thirty minutes later and found a good restaurant, The Junkyard Bistro, and a surprisingly good Super8 hotel.

I am worn out, but it was a great day.

A Deer In the Cattle Herd

February 4, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy, Great Florida Cattle Drive 2016, Palmetto Pioneers

During the Great Florida Cattle Drive one night at dinner, Chuck and I had the pleasure of listening to some young girls from Ocala talk about the excitement of what happened when a deer jumped up in the herd. The girl’s group were riding with the cattle, so they got to experience this first hand. It was exciting listening to them describe the pandemonium it caused.

I walked away that night with a story for my book “Palmetto Pioneers”, and this morning I wrote a brief scene. It is below and is still a little rough, as I will make changes to it as I gather more information; but I thought you might be interested in how I fit their story into mine.

A Deer in the Herd

It has been family lore that several of the Walker brothers came down to Jefferson County, Florida from South Carolina and got things ready for their parents. We do not know if just the men came first and then brought down their wives and parents or if the men brought their wives and families and then sent for their parents. Those particulars have been lost over time.

We do know that Mary’s brother Little James was born in 1826 in South Carolina and that her next sibling William was born two years later in Jefferson County, Florida.

Cattle graze at a rate of about eight miles a day. When driving a foundation herd, such as what the Walkers brought with them in 1827, that is about how fast the family moved daily because there was no way to carry forage for the cattle. The cattle had to literally eat their way over 400 miles to Florida.

This means it took them at least 50 days to drive their cattle from near Walterboro, South Carolina to Monticello, Florida. I believe they probably stopped to rest at least one day a week, which adds seven days. Add a half dozen more days, and we get about 63 days or a little over two months that it took them to make the trip.

Their best time to travel would be in the fall, since it would have been better to get their cabins built before the bitter cold of December to February. By March North Florida is beginning to warm quickly, and it is past time to begin preparing for crops. The families would have wanted to be there in time to plant again.

Below I tried to recreate what a typical moment might have been on the trail as they made their west and south of present day Macon, Georgia. The trail went from Walterboro to Augusta to Macon, down the Hawthorne Trail and down through north of Tallahassee near Coon Bottom. These are all current names, as several these places had different names back then.

This is Mary’s story. She was five when they made the move to Tallahassee.

* * *

I remember it well. Daddy and my uncles came in all excited. Mama and my aunts had them a good pot of stew to warm them up. This morning it was cold and wet, where it had rained the night before. Fall was definitely giving way to winter.

We had been gone almost two months. Last night Daddy talked about how the cotton would have been picked by now. Granddaddy and Grandma Walker were handling it for all of us. We were already missing them.

But today, the conversation around the fire was all about a deer that had jumped up in the herd. The poor thing was probably hunkered down in the wet brush and let the cows almost completely surround her before she decided to make her escape.

Deer were like that. Daddy says that this is how they protect themselves from predators. They just get real still.

One time Henry and I were walking back from Grandma and Granddaddy Walker’s house, and we were walking through the woods pushing our way through some low green vegetation. All of a sudden a tiny fawn just jumped up from under our feet.

We were literally inches away from stepping on the little thing. Mama said that the fawn’s mama was probably out foraging and had put the fawn there for safekeeping. She had probably told it not to move no matter what.

I remember asking mama if animals talk to each other. She said, “Mary, why do you ask such questions? I don’t know. And don’t get too friendly with any of these animals, because that is how we eat.”

Uncle Littleberry, who was standing next to the fire with steam coming off his clothes, said that the poor deer just didn’t know where to go and ended up springing this way and that, bouncing off the cows and causing them to stampede.

He added, “It was wild. The deer bouncing this a way and that’a way, the cows parting and stampeding in different directions, and all of us on horseback not knowing which way to go first. It took us several minutes to get the cattle to settle down and come back together. ”

All of us children were hanging on every word. “Was it hurt?”, said Henry. “No,” said Uncle Littleberry, “it didn’t look like she was; but it sure scared her”.

Mama, Aunt Elizabeth and I were hurriedly trying to keep the men’s plates full and their coffee cups filled. We had had trouble getting a fire going when we finally stopped today. The wind was beginning to pick up, and the temperature was dropping.

We all knew that there would be no fire that night when it was most needed. The front pushing through made a fire dangerous.

We were lucky that the rain stopped about mid-morning. At least least we had a fire to cook up a good dinner. Mama, Aunt Elizabeth, and Aunt Mary Jane cooked double so we would have enough for supper tonight. It wouldn’t be as good as having it warm, though.

While we were cooking, the little kids gathered firewood, berries and anything else that might be usable. I helped with the cooking when I could but it was my job to keep Sarah Jane from getting into trouble and to listen out for Little James. Mama had just nursed him, and he was asleep under the wagon by one of the back wheels.

As soon as the men finished they went back to the herd and all of us packed the wagons back up and began following. My mama and all my aunts could handle the oxen. Mama said that the soreness she felt those first weeks was gone now. She also said that her hands would never be the same again. They were rough and calloused.

Day 2 of the Cattle Drive, Monday’s Misfortune

January 25, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy, Great Florida Cattle Drive 2016, Travel

The cattle drive was a misadventure from the moment we got up. About the only thing that went perfectly was the alarm clock that rolled us out of bed on time. Thus, this is how our day began on the Great Florida Cattle Drive, 2016.
I spent time to dress in period clothing. I wanted to think about Elizabeth Walker and her 400 mile walk from South Carolina. What was it like for her to follow her husband all that way behind a foundation herd and dragging along their five children.
As I put on each garment, I tried to imagine what her mornings might have been like. Did she dress quickly and get cooking right away, or did she pick up and feed the baby first. Did Jesse get up first and make her a fire?

I tried to dress quickly, not just because I thought she probably did it that way but also because it was cold. I could see my breathe. I quickly slipped on a pair of pantaloons, a long under slip, chemise, ruffled petticoat and finally over all this a full-length brown skirt and white blouse.

I have to admit that I fudged though. For the low temperatures I added a white turtleneck under the blouse–one that I had worn the day before. Lord, I was tired before I even stepped out of the tent.

Breakfast was standing in a long line for a long time; but the grits, bacon, eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy were wonderful.

Breaking camp was an adventure in itself. The tent was soaking wet. It was 36 degrees when we got up with a heavy dew. On the positive side, the waning full moon was wonderful. It was like sleeping under a spotlight in the tent. I never had to have a flashlight to go to the port-a-potty, three trips in one night. geesh!

On three different occasions runaway horses flew near our campsite. All three were already saddled, and one ran through with another unsaddled and unbridled horse following her. One of the horses caused another man’s horse to get a little crazy, and I felt in danger while rolling up the tent of being stepped on by the whirling horse. I jumped up and almost ran over a very surprised Chuck. All the horses were frisky and competitive with so many other horses so close by.

We were required to load our two 60-pound duffel bags and deliver them to an assigned stock trailer. Everyone was throwing theirs in, but the glut of duffels at the door were stacked too high for us to do the same. So Chuck being the Good Samaritan that he is, got up in there and began moving them farther back. People started bringing theirs in and throwing them to Chuck. He spent a good 20 extra minutes there, too nice to let them know that we were not the hired hands.

So that is how we missed the wagons, which we were supposed to walk beside. We looked up and they were almost out of sight. We thought it wouldn’t be a problem, since there were still hundreds of horses and riders milling around waiting for their turn to go. We set out on foot and began our journey.

We thought we were walking eight to ten miles today. We were wrong. It turned out to be 13, eight before lunch.

There has been a lot of rain here; and all the ditches, streams, and wet prairies are full. Within an hour, our feet were soaking wet. Waterproof doesn’t mean a thing when the water is over your shoe tops.

Chuck slid partially into a stream once. By then the temperatures had risen considerably. It dropped to 36 last night but by the time we finished it was in the low 70s.

Riders kept passing us. A lady named Edith from Gainesville joined us. She was walking by herself and caught up with us when we were looking for a way to cross a swollen stream.

Together the three of us kept moving along. Finally, I began to get a blister after about six miles of walking in wet socks. An EMT truck stopped to help and that was the last we seen of anyone else.

We walked from field to field, through unimproved pastures and improved pastures, following tree lines, crossing into gated fields, and all we had to guide us were tracks and fresh horse manure. We took several wrong turns and had to backtrack.

One time we walked over a quarter mile not knowing if we were exactly on the trail or not until we stumbled across a family in a broken down covered wagon, waiting for for the forest service to come pull them out. They offered water and cookies, and I would survive to regret not taking them up on the offer.

The countryside was beautiful though.

Me and Edith

Lunch came and went. We knew that they were stopping for lunch, but we had no idea how far we had fallen behind.

About 12:30 pm the Johnelle in me revolted and refused to go any further without rest and some food. We stopped under some pine trees and dined quickly on water and peanuts. Thank goodness Chuck brought a large zip-lock bag of nuts.

In the meantime Edith called her daughter to see how far ahead of us the group had stopped for lunch. They were over two and a half miles away. We asked for a rescue, and two young men came back in a four-wheeler to pick us up.

We caught up with the group and called it a day.

Edith’s daughter was holding two lunches for us, but her horse ran away and she was out chasing after it. We didn’t dare let the drive’s wagons and chow wagons leave without catching a ride, so we came into the evening camp around 3 pm without lunch.

I remembered Maple Nuts that we had bought at Bass Pro Shop; and we drank more water and shared these, too. So that was lunch–Maple nuts and water

What a day. We are discussing just how we should do the drive tomorrow.

Hopefully, we’ll make it; but we’re thinking that we may try to only do a half day, if we can get a ride again.

Also, we never saw the cattle all day long, except until they came in for the evening. They left before we finished breakfast this morning, and they left lunch before we got there. Not exactly the experience I expected, but what a misadventure!

I also realized that I had not thought about Elizabeth since we left the morning camp.

There is a little of everything out here. People dressed in western or in period costumes. One young cowboy dressed like Rowdy Yates. Some look like they’ve been rode hard and put up wet.

We have men who dressed like saloon card sharks and ladies dressed like pioneer women. One woman dressed like a soiled dove, and she’s quite popular. Very interesting group. These are pictures from one of the two earlier drives.

Grit: A New Year’s Resolution

December 29, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Family Life, Opinion, This & That

Meta Description: <The “Greatest Generation” had grit, but do we and our children? Will we be able to rise to the occasion if our liberties are threatened?>

Remember the John Wayne picture named “True Grit”? In the movie, a fourteen-year-old girl Mattie hired Rooster Cogburn, played by John Wayne, because she heard that he had true grit. She needed someone with passion and resolve to track down and capture the man who had murdered her father.

Have you ever thought about that word “grit” and what it actually means. What was it that John Wayne’s character had that was so special?

http://youtu.be/XTMeDBVknQY

Well, I decided to look up the definition, and here is what I found. It means courage, resolve and strength of character. Synonyms are bravery, pluck, mettle, backbone, strength of character, strength of will, steel, nerve, fortitude, toughness, hardiness, resolve, resolution, determination, tenacity, perseverance and endurance. Kind of reminds you of the girl in “True Grit” when she crossed that river.

One example of use in a sentence was given by the online dictionary. It said, “He displayed the true grit of a navy pilot.”

Which brought me to think about a generation that seemed to have these characteristics. Many of us knew them as the “greatest generation”. They were the men and women who carried our country through World War II. As a whole, they epitomized this concept.

But their time was over seventy years ago. And today is…well, it is today! I can’t help wondering if our generation has this? Do we have true grit. I’m thinking, not. I’m also wondering if we have raised our children to have it, too?

I’m concerned because whether we want to admit it or not, we seem to have an enemy. Someone wants to take away our freedoms of speech, religion, and general happiness. There are those elsewhere in this world who don’t like us the way we are. They keep hitting us here on our own soil–a little here and a lot there (the Twin Towers). Each time, the threat makes us realize that we may have to call on our young people to help us again. And I’m not talking about simply air strikes in another country.

I guess I’m worried, because I’m wondering if we will have what it takes to rise up and do what is needed to be done when the time comes. It will take much fortitude, courage and hardiness from not only our military but from all of us as well.

That word “fortitude” worries me, because it seems a little hard to maintain fortitude when we have such short attention spans. I’ll give you a brief example that seemed truly insignificant at the time but may be an indication of a bigger problem.

As a family we celebrated our extended family Christmas on Christmas Eve. There were 26 family members, including our children and their families, our sisters and theirs, a nephew and his, and even one mother-in-law. As is traditional, we placed two of the grandchildren ages eight and seven in charge of handing out the gifts from the great pile under the Christmas tree.

There was one problem, though. They would pick up two or three, hand those out, and then get distracted. We would have to jump start the process again. Their parents, too, were distracted and didn’t seem to notice the problem. After about three times of this, I finally gave up and jumped in and handed out the gifts myself.

I thought of a quote I recently heard. “People today have the attention span of a gold fish.” Notice he didn’t say kids. He said people, and I think he may be right.

I’m wondering if we as productive members of society should be more concerned about teaching our children to have true grit–to demonstrate strength of character, hardiness and resolve. It all goes hand in hand with “finishing the job”. How can we have a “work ethic” if we never finish? And again I’m not just talking again about the kids. This is the job of parents and even grandparents, to maintain the effort through thick and thin. To “finish the job”. If we give up over and over, how can we expect our children to do otherwise.

Our nation’s schools of psychology are beginning to look more into this behavior called “grit”. University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth defines grit as a child’s “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” She says that it is a better indicator of future earnings and happiness than either IQ or talent.

I found a blog post that explains how parents can teach their children grit. It is entitled What is Grit, Why Kids Need It & How You Can Foster It? Click on the name, and a link will take you there.

Also, this is the time of year when we re-evaluate ourselves to see what needs improvements. It is the time of year when New Year’s resolutions are made. A good focus for all of us can be to evaluate how we’re raising our children. Subsequently, a good resolution might begin in 2016 that can teach our children grit and ultimately help themselves and ourselves.

I sincerely hope someone out there is listening. These freedoms that we all cherish can only be maintained with diligence, attentiveness, and just plain “doing our part”. We must maintain and finish the jobs that we’ve been given.

Grit may be a key ingredient to our liberties.

A Visit to Fort Benning

May 8, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Genealogy

About once a year I make a trip which I call a genealogy vacation. I spend weeks chasing after my dead relatives.

For example, two years ago I made a two-week trip up the eastern coast to places around Savannah and then on up to South Carolina and North Carolina to look up ancestors who had settled in those areas. That was a trip of libraries.

Then last year while we were out west we spent about a week tracing a Roe ancestor who was part of the Pikes Peak gold rush. The highlight of that trip was finding the place where they first found gold and then finding the place where they worked a claim in the 1850s.

Yesterday I started this year’s trip. I’ll be on the road for 15 days. I’ll post most days with the highlights.

Our first stop yesterday was Fort Benning, the military base in west Georgia; and we finished the day in Atlanta with my daughter Tracy and her family. Chuck is with me for this part of the vacation and will be flying back to Tallahassee later on. Here are five highlights of yesterday.

1. Finding my great great great grandfather’s grave on Fort Benning.

We had GPS coordinates to the little cemetery where he was buried, but the military will not let you just come on the reservation without an escort. So we arranged for an escort and was taken to Midway Methodist Church cemetery.

Chuck and I walked all over that little cemetery because I was looking for a larger grave. I had a picture but it was deceiving. I was looking for a grave about 3 to 4 feet tall, and this is what it turned out to be.

It reads Rev. J. W. Boland. He was born in 1824 and died in 1907. He was my grandmother Annis Wilkerson Hamrick’s great grandpa. Next to the graveyard were the foundations of an old church where the Midway Methodist Church once stood.

2. Finding the escort for our trip on the military reservation.

It is not an easy thing to go on a military reservation to visit dead ancestors. Online someone gave me a telephone number to call, and this number was for the Range Control at Fort Benning. I called this number over two weeks ago.

Here is my advice on how to do this. You must be persistent. I had to keep calling back until I finally succeeded.

When you finally finish your preparations, ask for it in an email. I asked for have an email from them with all the information needed as to who to meet and where to meet. Then don’t do like I did and simply take you electronic device with only an e-copy. Make a copy of the emal. All I had when I got to the base was an e-copy, but when I got there all the emails in that stream disappeared. Of course, I’m thinking does the military have that capability?

From then on it was hell figuring out where to go and who to see. When we finally got to the Range Control building, we had already talked and worked with a half a dozen people. It took us an hour and a half just to get to the person that we needed to go with us to the cemetery.

3. Meeting a Parker on Fort Benning.

Toward the end of the hour and a half that it took to find the range control building, we met a gentleman by the name of Parker. He worked in the building where hunters go to get permits to hunt on the reservation. It turns out that his Parker’s are from the local area near the base, and I am almost positive that these are Parkers that migrated from the Savannah area where my Parker’s are from.

This was the young man with the nice rural Georgia accent that was kind enough to escort us all the way to the range control building. I think the gentleman in the range control was surprised when we walked in the front door. He may still be wondering how we got on the base to begin with.

4. Just getting to see Fort Benning.

This was special for me because this is where my dad did his basic training before he went into the Korean War. There were companies running in full pack, drill sergeants moving them along; and every once in a while we could hear the tap, tap, tap of guns firing and an occasional boom in the distance. These are America’s finest preparing to protect our freedom

4. A drive into underground Atlanta.

When we got to Atlanta we were asked to stop and pick up Eric our son-in-law at the Georgia Dome. Eric works for the Atlanta Falcons, and he recently sold his Jeep so he needed a ride. Currently the Atlanta Falcons are building a new stadium right next to the Georgia Dome.

Our GPS which was trying to find One Georgia Dome, brought us to the side opposite of Northside and opposite of where we needed to meet him. This wrong road took us down into the bowels of an area called the red deck. We quickly realized that we were driving in underground Atlanta, and at one point there was even a train traveling under ground beside us. We finally came above ground and popped out near the Atlanta aquarium. What a journey! Of course by then we were hopelessly lost.

5. Visiting with Tracy and Eric and the boys! We ate supper with them, and after the boys were in bed, we set up and talked. I can remember visiting family in North Georgia when I was a kid. I can remember the adults sitting up late at night talking, and laying in bed listening to them. I wonder if Tracy’s boys did the same.

We spent the night with them, and today we are on our way to Chickamaugua.

My Happy Place

February 25, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Health, This & That

I have a happy place–a place in which to escape when things get crazy.

It is my home place in Monticello, my house that dad built with his own hands. That house and the two people that gave me my life are the anchors to my happiness. When things get tough, I close my eyes and mentally walk through the house and visualize mama in the kitchen and daddy out back working on his truck.

The House in the Early 60s

The House Today

Daddy had an old 1936 International pick up truck, which he tore down and rebuilt the engine. He would laugh when he told on himself. He put the engine back together and had left over parts, but it ran just fine. It is the silly little simple things like this that make me smile.

Mom and dad are long gone, but the house still stands. I actually own it, though it is leased to a woman who seems to be taking good care of it. I get a bill every once in a while for a repair, but it doesn’t amount to much. Daddy built a good house.

I like to go home frequently, and by home I mean Monticello. There is a genealogy room in the local county library; and it is manned with volunteers, people I’ve known almost all of my life.

My husband thinks that I really go just to get my fix of Monticello. He is probably right.

This, too, has become a happy place for me–a treasured Wednesday event.

The courthouse in my hometown.

Do you have a happy place?

The Ultimate Memorial Day Movie to Watch

January 21, 2014 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Movies, Opinion

The Memorial Day movie “Lone Survivor” is about four American military men in Afghanistan who were given an order to capture and kill a Taliban leader. The movie is based on the book of the same name by Marcus Luttrell one of the four men. Their mission goes horribly wrong.

Chuck and I went to see the movie in 2013 when it was first in theaters. Ironically, I was the one that insisted we go. This surprised Chuck because he knows that I don’t like extremely tense movies, and he knew that this one was exactly that.

But We Went Anyway

Of course, the movie was extremely intense. Most of the people in the theatre were young men. A row of them to my right were all with very short haircuts. They all set like they were sitting at attention if that is possible. They were stoic and very quiet.

The movie was excellent, as was the acting.

Well, why did I go?

I truly believe that freedom in America is not free. We all owe a debt of gratitude to all the men and women who have fought or are fighting for our freedom. These four young men did just that.

The War in Afghanistan was and still is a direct result of the attacks on the Trade Center buildings in New York, our Pentagon in DC, and the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. This battle in Afghanistan took place within five years after those attacks. At the time, there was no doubt in our collective minds that we needed to be over there. To do nothing was not an option for our nation.

“Lone Survivor” is about Operation Red Wings. The operation was one of the worst military disasters in US history. Nineteen men lost their lives. Four men were sent in for reconnaissance, and surveillance centered on a leader in the Taliban.

The operation failed because of several reasons, the biggest of which was their accidental discovery by some Afghan goatherders. They captured the three goatherders but regretfully had to let them go even though they knew that there was a good chance that the Taliban army of men down in the village would be alerted. Later, it was their virtues that led to the disaster, not their vices. The Seal team of four followed the rules of engagement and did the honorable thing.

I heard enough of this story to feel the tug of my own calling. If these men could put themselves into this situation for the people in this country, then the least I could do was to see their story. I felt the ‘lone survivor’ wanted to make sure these men were not forgotten.

There is really so much more about this movie. You’ll find yourself proud of these young men and their call to duty, and you’ll be amazed by some Afghan villagers in the story. You’ll leave the movie as quietly as the young men I sat beside. Much thought will crowd your mind.

Is War Senseless?

Some time ago I heard that a reporter called the deaths in this operation, senseless. I just wonder if he felt the same in 2005 when this happened. Time makes us forget, and it is easy to look back ten years and make generalizations.

Senseless? I think not. If anything, it was a very conscious decision that was valuable, smart and sensible at the time. It was not perfect, but it had to be done. Thank goodness, these professionals knew their purpose; and they did the best they could under the circumstances. They understood that a dedicated life is a life worth living. They gave with their whole heart. Let’s not forget these young men on Memorial Day.

A Yellow Ribbon to Remember Those Still in Harm’s Way

Ever since the first men and women were sent overseas after 9-11, we tied a yellow ribbon around a tree near our street. Several times over the past dozen or more years, we replaced it because it lost all its color and was almost unnoticeable. This Memorial Day we will re-wrap the tree for the rest of the men and women who are still over there doing their best to keep America free.

We plan to read the book by the same title because there are still questions unanswered. Most important of all? Let the politicians, reporters, and pundits argue; but let us not forget our military.

And let’s not forget our children. I am not sure that our children are learning American history like we did. Our schools seem so intent on teaching them about the bad in our American history that I’m afraid they leave out the consequences and importance of what we did that was good. I believe it may be up to all of us outside of the schools to teach our children about this great nation and what it really stands for.

That is why Chuck and I have been taking the kids to battlefields, museums, and monuments. We cannot depend on our schools to teach our children and grandchildren what we feel is important. We need to pick up that job ourselves. This summer get to know your offspring better and learn about America’s history first hand.

Two of our grandsons on the Resaca Battlefield.

And don’t forget that all of us need to update our lessons. “Lone Survivor” whether you decide to see the movie or read the book is a good primer.

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