February 9, 2020

This is the day my father in law and his twin sister were born.  One hundred and four years ago today a little woman delivered twins.  She was a midwife herself.  I do not know if there was anyone with her to help her or not.  I would suspect possibly her mother was there.  Possibly another midwife but that is pure speculation.  I seriously doubt a doctor was present.  I do remember the two older brothers saying they were taken out of the house to the barn.


1916 was long before all the modern electronic gadgets that could tell the condition of a fetus.  No way to know the child's sex.  No way to know anything other than a woman was in a 'family way'.  Women actually dressed to try and hide the fact they were in a 'family way'.  Really!

Heaven forbid saying a woman was pregnant.  She might be 'expecting'.  There were no gender reveal parties.  One hundred and four years ago there weren't shopping lists to buy gifts for the woman in a family way.  In a farming community such as where Grandma lived everyone did good just to keep their own children fed and clothed.

I do remember my MIL saying Grandma told her what a surprise the second baby was.  Grandma said she barely have enough diapers and clothing for one baby and certainly not two.  Aunt Kathleen was born after my FIL.  She was the first girl for the family so no hand me downs for her.  At least with the two older brothers there might be clothing for my FIL.

As the family was a farming family I suspect she had little extra money to spend on material for diapers.  Probably re-purposed worn out clothing for the diapers.  Or the cotton flour and sugar sacks could have been an option, also. Again speculation.  However, this an interesting article here about the very subject of diapers.  And here is one about the flour/staple sacks.  My older sisters remember our mother making sure she bought the staples in sacks that she could match up to make their clothing during the WWII years.

Grandma survived this day 104 years ago as did the twins.  An older brother had died before the twins were born.  Grandma had 3 more pregnancies.  Two of those three births were girls that survived into adulthood.  Now, they are all dead.  Much of their existence just distant memories in the minds of their children and grandchildren.  There are even great and great great grandchildren for whom Grandma is just a name of a woman in a photo.

Back l to r:  Raymond, Trecil, Carl (FIL), Willis
Middle l to r:  Lorene, Josephine, Kathleen (FIL twin)
Front:  Grandma and Grandpa
Circa early 1950's

The two babies grew to have families.  FIL had two sons, three grandchildren and now 10 great grand children.  He lived to be 89 + years.  Aunt Kat had one daughter and two sons in that order.  There are four grand children, and 6 or 7 great grandchildren.  Aunt Kat developed leukemia and died too early.  Her youngest child was only 2 at the time of her passing.  Her daughter visits us every year for a week to 10 days.  There seems to be a slightly different relationship with those three cousins maybe due to the twins factor.  Maybe someday  scientists will discover a marker in DNA that answers the question of relationships.  Until that time there can still be a few surprises in life to enjoy while knowing how to decorate the nursery.

Take care and peace,
Janice

PS:  How would a gender reveal be done for multiple births of different sexes?

February 8, 2020

Today did not have a lot going on for Hubby and I.  That is unless you count sitting in a stadium watching our grandsons play lacrosse.  G-man, who is 15, is on the the JV team.  Older brother, B, is a captain on the varsity squad.  G is a freshman, B is a senior.  There is, also, Z grandson who had his ACL damaged last fall playing football.  Z plays lacrosse, too, but is out this season as he recuperates form his injury and surgery.

This morning was overcast with a 9 mph wind coming across the field.  Temperature was about 50℉, 10℃.  Hubby and I dressed warm and I took the wool blanket cause I did not want to get chilled.  I had awakened with a headache and knew getting chilled could cause it to go into a migraine.  Sure, there were brave folks in shorts and no jackets.  Good for them.  We were going to be on the bleachers for 4 hours.  I felt the only statement I was making was to the two grandsons.  We are here for you always.

JV game started at 11 AM.  G-man was playing offense.  It was a pretty rough and tumble game.  At one point in the game there was another tussle for the ball.  If you have never watched a lacrosse game and saw what I described as a tussle you just might think what the heck.  A battle is possibly a better way to describe a loose ball. 

The battle involves players all attempting to get to the ball on the ground.  No hands can touch the ball.  The ball can be kicked.  The sticks are 3.5 ft to 6 ft long.  The sticks are the only other thing that can touch the ball.  Those same sticks can be used on the other players as well.  Shoving and pushing are part of the game.  There are rules as to how, where on the body and when the pushing, shoving and hitting with the sticks can be done without penalty.  Well, no penalty other than bruises, scratches and general pain for the players the following hours/days.  You can see an example here.

Back to G-man's game.  G-man is in the middle of fighting for the ball.  Other players come flying in from all sides.  Someone gets the ball and a whistle sounds.  Two players are down and not getting up quickly.  One player from each team.  One is G-man.  The other player is helped up and is moving slowly.  The Round Rock Dragon trainer is now at G-man's side.  In a short time G-man is able to get up and move off the field.  A replacement is sent in for G-man and play resumes.  We can see G-man is being checked for a concussion.  By halftime it is determined he is okay.  He returns to play all of the second half without further injury.  Game ends Dragons 1, Alamo Heights I do not remember but something like 9 or 11. 

Next game started at 1 PM.  There is close to a 30 minute warm up that we grandparents need to watch.  It is B's senior year.  B is the grandson that last year about this time had his chin broken and was out for the rest of the season.  He is back and doing very good this year.  Even has a small college watching his work.  I digress.  The varsity game starts.  The Dragons are on fire, no pun intended.  At the end of the first quarter they are up 7 - 0.  B is doing an outstanding job on defense.  Almost to the half and B takes a nasty hit from another player falling against the back of his right leg.  He goes down and is not getting up quickly at all.  Another whistle.  B manages to get off the field.  A replacement is sent in and the game continues. 

B's mom is near us.  She is using her long range camera lens to see what is going on with B and the trainer.  B's dad, our son, is spotter and cannot go to check the situation till half time.  The trainer is working on B's leg and icing.  Shortly, he has B begin to make movements.  The movements continue and B stands.  Move stretching movements.  Halftime arrives and dad checks out the boy.  Sore but not in pain as Z was after the ACL injury.  That is good.  But B does not return to the game.  Dragons increase the lead to 10 before the other team scores.  Then the other team begins scoring.  We know the team is missing B's talents.  Dragons hold on the the lead increasing for a final score of 12 - 5.

All the while through both games I yelled about 3 times.  Cause I still have very little voice.  With these boys and this very physical game I am not sure if my old heart can take another 4 years of lacrosse. 

Ya'll take care and stay off the lacrosse fields, please.

Janice

February 6, 2020

When it comes to the year 2020 and the environment, well, we are back several decades.  Yes, the economy is doing well.  My 401K retirement funds are at the same level as they were when I put them in investments in 2002.  Yes, they have recovered from the 2008 melt down and even added about 14%.  The value on the chart has remained pretty consistent over the last 12 years and 2 different administrations. My plan has been to withdraw as needed for auto repairs, insurance premiums, trips, etc.  Live for the most part on my Social Security check.  Same with Hubby's retirement funds and incomes.

I am not educated in the ways of the economy in general. I have observed that investors will hold funds till an more friendly administration is in office.  Are the tariffs working?  Some say yes, some say no.  So long as companies are run for the purpose of making the most profit, the burden will always fall on the end user, you and me, the consumer.  Whether it is a US consumer or a consumer in another country, we pay the tariffs.  Do the tariff revenues go into the general coffers of governments or into politicians pockets?  Only 'they', whoever the heck 'they' know are.

Environmental regulations are being trimmed back to pre-1970 years for some industries.  Fossil fuel companies seem to be especially favored in this area.  However, chemical companies are doing pretty well, too.  Sorta wish some of the folks rolling back the standards had eaten fish from Spring River in Verona, Missouri, (or Kansas as that is up for debate now).  That was the beautiful spring fed creek between our home and Aunt Punkin's home.  A chemical byproduct named dioxin seemed to have made it into the water from a chemical company located on the banks of the stream.

That same contaminate was discovered in Times Beach, MO.  Parks in the small town where lived contained some of the same sludge.  Millions and millions of dollars later there was an incinerator built that was moved to different areas where there was contaminated soils.  The soil was dug up and exposed to UV light to decontaminate.  The contamination was done out of ignorance. 

As noted in the past on this blog I worked for a company that dumped chemicals into the city water system.  Also, just dumped on the ground behind the plant.  One of the guys was recently mentioning this on social media.  Basically he said we did not realize it would harm anything.  Hubby's cousin worked as an engineer in the local water system.  He could tell by the systems that monitored the water when an accidental dump was made by someone or some company.  Those systems were put in place once the government had set up standards.  I have heard both he and folks in charge at our plant of the chemical handling of over zealous EPA standards.

Ignorance can explain past transgressions.  I mean in the 1940's the farmer on the adjacent farm to ours accidentally spilled a large quantity of gasoline near his spring fed well.  Within days the water was contaminated never to be drinkable again.  That lesson for that farmer did not transfer to the folks in a different state.  So the lesson did go unlearned.  1,1,1-trichloroethane was poured onto the ground by ACD emplyees.  As well as acids.

The spillage lesson has been learned.  Unfortunately it is too late for the karst system in the area.  The photo to the right is the site where all the chemicals were dumped.  Click here for the story of the chemical migration. 


Yes, my 401 K from the polluting company is still growing.  As more standards are rolled back to 'encourage business' I ask myself what further price will the planet pay???

Peace and love,  Janice