August 30, 2018

Wow.  Doing an outdoor party for 40 people in Texas in August is HOT work.  Hot enough that a plastic candle warped from the heat.  Even though I did not spend long periods of time outside it was still wearing.  The lead up to the party had lasted for almost 2 months.  DIL perused Pinterest for inspiration, ideas and sources of products.  In late June she and I met and began dividing duties.  Of course priorities were invitations and the basic stuff that would be needed for this and future parties.  Things like a tub to ice drinks, beverage dispensers, half pint jars to be used for punch, footed trays, an old suitcase, crates, burlap and the list went on from there.

My beginning assignment was designing, printing and mailing the invitations.  Other design and print duties included wine glass tags, water bottle labels and sayings to be framed.   A few trips to a nearby antique mall yielded two footed trays and the cool old battered train case.  During the sister time in Dallas in early July, I pilfered Youngest Sister's decor stash and brought a back end full of stuff for decor.  Many items were ordered online.  Our stuff would fill a corner of the apartment office mail room some days!  And the pile in our apartment grew and grew!  Repacking and moving into our storage unit HAD to be next on the list.

While all this is going on Hubby and I had the Sister Time trip to Dallas July 7-11.  DIL and Son spent July 13 -17 in Lisbon, Portugal.  We house, granddog and granddaughter sat during that time.  July 27 - Aug 1 another trip for Hubby and I to a wedding in Arkansas then on to Missouri for the St. Louis Card's game.  DIL and Granddaughter left on July 29 - August 3 on a college tour along the east coast from Florida to Virginia.  August 7 - 11 DIL, Son and all 5 grands were at a lake house playing the in the lake and enjoying a little down time before the start of school on August 15.  Whew.  My laptop was always nearby so work progressed.  I even strung the wine glass tags while in the car on the way to the wedding!

Digging out enough frames for all the signs was a bit tricky.  Not enough 8 x 10 's so off to Michael's  for foam board and more decor for outdoor table tops.  Or at least ideas for the table tops.  Amazing what one can do with old canning jars, milk jars and jute twine!  DIL had cakes ordered, arranged rental of tables, chairs, glass ware, more decor items.  Figured out the menu and started two teenagers to school.  She, of course, has a full time job.  On Sunday prior to the Saturday party we met at her house to go through everything one more time to see if there were last minute items needed.  Finalize all print needs from me.  Oh, and there was still liquor and cigars to be purchased.  Oh, smoking requires ashtrays.  Back on Amazon for a couple more orders. And, what about that box spring that is still in the hall from the bed replacement in May?!&*%

Like some sort of extra punishment her back went out and my inner thigh was suddenly too painful to walk without a cane.  So extra doctor visits in an already crazy week.  DIL even had to fly out of town for two different trips withing 7 days of the party.  Stress and more stress.  That is when I called for reinforcements, Youngest Sister.  She was already planning to come to the party so she agreed to help do the actual placement of the decor on Saturday.  What a life saver.

Hubby and I managed to get all but one of the liquor needs purchased correctly.  Son said no problem, he would drink what we had purchased, a regular whiskey bourbon instead of rye whiskey.  Like could tell the difference.  Hubs and I, also, managed to disassemble the box spring unit.  The last signs printed, cut out and glued as needed.  I went a couple of photos with the text message of I think we may have this whooped.  DIL agreed.  She was sitting against an ice pack.  I had a heating pad on the over used, irritated tendons on my inner thigh.

At 4:00 pm on Saturday Sister and her hubby left to get ready for the party.  We loaded our car full of my stuff we did not use and off we went.  That left DIL and Son to finish food items for eats and drinks.  We got home, unloaded the car, showered and dressed.  On the way to Son's place we remembered the cigars!  They needed to stay hydrated and were in our crisper at home.  We made it to the party at about five after 7.  In time to set up the chafing dish with the Jack Daniels meat balls DIL had cooked.

Finally time to party.  Here are some of the follow up photos. 

Cigars anyone? 

Let's drink to Son's birthday!

Punch options for your drinking pleasure.

That is Son taking a sip of his drink.  Visiting with a friend from college days.

A great neighbor cooked all the stuff in those aluminum pans!  That was their birthday gift.  Wow what wonderful folks.

The goodies

Friends and DIL's dad visiting.  Wine and more goodies!

L to R:  Granddaughter, BIL, neighbor, me, Neighbor that cooked all those pans of food!

The party lasted into the wee hours of Sunday morning.  We drug our septuagenarian tired bodies home about 2:30 AM.  We were just about the last to leave, too.  Slept till noon.  Then it was time to go gather things together to return to vendors on Monday.  That is a story for another day!

Lily of the Valley, July 24, 2018

In the past century often the center of social life in a farming community was the church or the school.  I attended elementary school in the same clapboard 6 room school as my mom and two older sisters.  There was a small field between the school and the church building.  A road, Thompson Lane, ran in front of the school.  That dusty lane ended in a T with the road that ran in front of the church.  In the northwest corner of that intersection sat Trab and Mrs. Emma Burton's country store.  Turn left and you would pass the church, the cemetery that held my mom's ancestors, a cotton gin and a couple of houses.  Social life in the Chambersville community sort of centered in this small area.

Our particular church was one of 3 in a 'circuit rider' tradition.  The pastor was a student in Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.  He, and it was always a he, would serve the three churches.  The pastor preached 2 Sundays a month at the Chambersville church, one Sunday at Cottage Hill and one at the Weston Church.  The parsonage was located in Weston, which was a small village.  My dad wired the parsonage for electricity when the Rural Electrification Administration brought electricity to rural United States.

Summers were busy time for the farmers and their families.   Crops were to be planted, tilled, hoed, 'tended' and eventually harvested.  School was out for the summer but the church activity would pickup during that time.  There would be Vacation Bible School.  It was great fun for the kids.  Time together with friends and relatives and learning that required no tests.  Each day had treats like sweet Kool Aid, cookies or popsicles.  Of course we learned about Jesus.  We sang about Zacchaeus the wee little man.  There may have even been an ice cream supper the evening of the last day of VBS.

But the ice cream supper could have been at the end of the other big church summer event, the two week revival.  Revivals were big for the Methodist Church as well as other denominations.  Sometimes the revivals were held in open air areas with rustic arbors built to support freshly cut limbs.  These were called brush arbor meetings.  If you are not from a tradition that is familiar with the revival tradition it was basically a time to renew one's faith.  A time to reflect on life changes one needed to make.  A time to 'win new souls for the Lord'. 

For our little church, the revival would be held in the church.  The local funeral homes would provide handheld fans with their services listed.  I wonder if that was to get us to thinking about the after life and soften us up for the alter calls?   Reba Jane and I joined the church when we were ten.  She was baptized at Mrs. Rachel's farm tank/pond.  I had to be sprinkled as I had an ear infection at the time.

Any way songs such as "Just As I Am", "Others", "Amazing Grace" would be sung.  Often the revival preacher would keep having songs sung till someone came to the alter to either profess faith or rededicate one's soul.  I did rededicate myself one year after joining.  I knew I was still a sinner and needed to live better.  Wow, was that the wrong thing to do.  Mom scolded when we were back home.  "You just made a spectical of yourself doing that.  That Charlie Peoples does that every year and never lives any differently."  I did not ever do that again publicly.

Lily of the valley was a prompt on one the the blogs I will follow.  On July 24 the phrase brought back to mind summer life in rural north Texas.  You see, another of the  songs that would be sung was "Lily of the Valley".  Hope you enjoyed my sharing some of those memories.

August 21, 2018

I did an oops and posted to my haiku blog on a post about our July trip to a wedding and that adventure.  If you wish to read about that you can click here.  I came away from the wedding with a request to forward files of an uncle speaking of his years in the military.  That has been on the back burner till after the Big Party for our son's 45 birthday.  Lots of planning and incidentals to help the DIL as she plans and decides on the party.  It is in just four more days so time is getting pretty short for me to get things accomplished.  But mostly all that is left is picking up the liquor, cigars, burlap, and the plates.  Will need to make a batch of sorghum chewies. 

Friday and Saturday morning will be finishing the decorating of the home and backyard.  And it is supposed to be 102 F., that is 39 C.  I am pretty sure folks will linger in the house and only foray into the outside for drink refill and smokes.

In the last post I said I would finish the story of the wedding and ball game trip.  Well, that will have to wait a bit longer.  It is well past bedtime so I will bid you a good night and visit later.  Here are a some photos from the ball game part of the trip.

View from our hotel room

Area of stadium Mark McGuire often hit balls into

Ninety year old lady that threw out the first pitch

The boys of summer loosening up before game time.

Yadier Molina behind home plate.  Yes, we sat 18 rows up from home plate.

Pre game rain showers/downpour sent into an hour weather delay.

I missed the fireworks following the DeLong home run.

Yadie hoping his hit stays fair.  It did not.