Serve Out

It seems that it is time to clean closets again. Here are some of the items I found on the shelves:

There may be some obsessive behavior issues here. Just sayin.

Too true.

They're going to need a bigger bridge.

So sad to see you go. NOT!

Yes, this is a bacon Sundae. You can get one at that Burger King above.

I guess this is a Neapolitan neck.

Date night.

Really?

Was he holding a camera at arm's length?

Uh Oh. This is getting out of hand.

See? I told you.

The early days

I am my father's son. I've got stuff stashed away in closets, cabinets and attic space that has no earthly value apart from my inclination that "I might need that someday." When we helped Barb's parents move for what would turn out to be the last time, I swore that I was going home and cleaning out my junk. I didn't.

My records and working papers for this past April's tax filing are still sitting on the floor, because I have no more room in the cabinets and file boxes; they are full of prior year's records. So, technologically astute fellow that I am, I have adopted a new plan: I'm scanning the paper records into computer files, then discarding and shredding the originals. Only problem is, I keep reading the pages as I scan.

The oldest documents that I picked up were in a notebook that Barb assembled during the early years of our marriage, when she filed our taxes.The first return was dated 1965, our 3rd year together. We were living in a house in Abilene that we bought from the coach of the just-terminated football program at HSU. I had been working for Fidelity Advertising, but that summer went to work for a group that split off and formed Sabre International Film Co. Barb worked for AISD, subbing and then as a teacher. Between us, we made $9,713. One of the medical expenses listed was to Dr. Steckler; $175 for "Complete OB care."

In 1996, Sabre was defunct and there was a short period when we were grateful for vegetables from a co-op garden we were part of. I went back to Fidelity and the total income for the year was $8,300. On that return we listed Rob as a dependent for the first time. One medical expense was to Hendricks Hospital for $258.85

1967 - Barb is listed as a homemaker, but income is up to $9,846. Expenses included payments to Sears and to repay government loans.

1968 - Added Julie as a dependent.

1969 - Fidelity was renamed Hallmark Enterprises, and my salary was up to $10,800.

1970 - A big  year: The address on the return is on Kamar in Austin.

1971 - Living on Dryfield in Austin. Owed IRS $115 but got a notice of an error in our favor and got back $47 of that. There is a note that there was a $50 Christmas bonus.

1972 - Barbara is teaching with Yvonne Streety at a day care. One of the expenses was a loan origination fee for the house we were going to build. Doctor bills indicate that I had an appendectomy.

1973 - Living in our new house. Still there.

1974 - Wages for Barb include Brentwood Christian School, Sweet Co. and NW Child Development. There was a $125 check for expenses at the ACU workshop, which meant that was one of the years we dropped the kids off at the grandparents and went on to Abilene to sell Sweet Company merchandise at the ACU Bible Teacher's Workshop. We considered it a vacation.

1975 - Deductible miles delivering Meals on Wheels and "driving volunteers to do yard work for sick church worker." No clue what that was about.

1976 - 1980  - These were evidently uneventful years, tax document-wise.

1981 - W2s from 1st Presbyterian (Barb directing the day school) and Nash Phillips-Copus, a big move for me. Expenses include Spanish lessons and UT classes. There is a schedule C for "DP Consulting."

1982 - This is the year that Barb came to bed on April 14th, after checking the return one last time and said, "Oh by the way. I figured wrong before and instead of getting something back we owe the IRS $2,300." and promptly went to sleep. I, on the other hand... And there were no more returns filed in Barb's notebook.

So. Thus far I've cleared about 3 inches of file cabinet space; maybe I need to stop reading every page I scan.

Monday Meanderings - 6.25.2011

Well, I seem to have meandered right off the page. I certainly didn't plan that little vacation, but I'm back and on the mend, thank you very much. I would like to go on record and say that everyone I came in contact with at Seton Medical Center - from the doctors and nurses to housekeeping - treated me wonderfully. Especially the nurses and extra-especially Elise, who went far beyond the call of duty to get me needed assistance. And, of course, I came away with some excellent stories - like getting stuck in the MRI machine. But that's for later.
 
It's not my first choice in diet plans, but several days with no food or drink intake except for an IV drip will let you reach new lows, weight-wise. I passed the 25 pounds lost mark this past week. I'm hoping for more conventional methods from here, though.
 
You've gotta love living in Austin; among the fun things to choose from for activities this past weekend was the Fifth Annual Bug Festival (billed as a "special sort of potluck - bring normal dishes and learn how to eat bugs"), the New Belgium Urban Assault Ride ("a scavenger hunt for cyclists, with obstacles and challenges [like Town Lake] along the way"), Keep Austin Weird Festival & 5K ("psychedelic music, vendors, artwork and a race") and topping it all off, the first annual Leslie Fest ("Celebrate the life of the late Austin legend in costume").
 
Was watching the College Baseball World Series on the hospital room TV when Kent State defeated #1 Florida and sent them home. A nurse, who was from the state of Florida, but NOT a Florida fan, asked where Kent State was located. I said, "Ohio. You know, 'Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, We're finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming, Four dead in Ohio.'" and she just looked at me. "Uhhh, Neil Young song, Ohio? Crosby Stills, Nash and Young?" "Oh, I've heard of them," she said. This younger generation has missed so much.
 
I guess summer is really here - it reached 103 degrees last evening. I think that's the first triple-digit temp in Austin for this season, but I know it won't be the last. Hopefully, Debby, out in the Gulf, will bring some moisture our way later this week. Wouldn't that be nice?
 

Temporarily closed for repair.

I've been in the hospital since Sunday night, so I haven't had a chance to blog - but I promise you, I've got some great stories to tell.
 
Be back soon.
 

Monday Meanderings - 6.18.12

Big kerfuffel in the British press last week because Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife went off and left their eight-year old daughter at a local pub, each thinking that the child was with the other parent. It was really not a big deal; Cameron and his wife met at the pub near their home for lunch, and while they lingered over their meal, the child had gone outside to play in the garden, and they arrived at home without her.
 
I, on the other hand, as a very young child, was left in an empty, dark, scary church building when my parents made a similar mistake. Asleep on a pew, I was forgotten while my parents turned off the lights, locked the doors and went their separate ways to home. Truth be told, I was still sleeping soundly when they rushed back to the building, though I have often used that incident to explain some of my issues.
 
And speaking of Brits, it is amusing to listen to the announcers while watching the Euro 2012 soccer championships. You hear advantageous pronounced ad van' ta jus; controversy pronounced con tra' ver sy, and immediate pronounced im meed' jut , for example. You might hear the country Tunisia pronounced Tu niss' ia, and of course there is always the old standby shed' ule for schedule.
 
We are also amused at some of the national anthems of the competing countries. The most plaintive is that of the Ukraine, a host country. Translated into English the Ukraines sing, "Ukraine has not yet perished." Meanwhile, the Czechs wonder, "Where is my homeland?" Poland, the other host nation sings, "Poland is not yet lost." The Irish, scrappers that they are, sing, "The Soldier's Song" while the Norwegians affirm, "Yes, we love this country." Perhaps the most unusual anthem is that of the Netherlands; it is titled simply, "The William" and is sung in the 1st person.

More from the Lufkin Police Blotter

Here are some recent items from the Lufkin, Texas police blotter, posted originally by Texas Monthly:

May 29
Money and a first-aid kit were reported stolen from a vehicle broken into Monday.

May 28
A woman was reported for stealing a box of baby formula from CVS.

May 24
A woman was arrested after allegedly stealing an $85 swimming pool from a store.

May 21
Police arrested a man for allegedly stealing three cigarettes from the complainant after the complainant refused to give one to him. An officer found the man a short distance away, recovering two of the three cigarettes.

May 21
A coin jar was reported stolen out of a residence.

May 16
A woman whose phone was stolen six months ago found out that someone she knows has it. When she called him and asked him to give it back, he refused.

May 14
A 17-year-old woman was reportedly arrested Sunday on a charge of assault/family violence after fighting with her sister over folding clothes.

May 14
A piece of exercise equipment was reported stolen after it was placed at the edge of a yard for a yard sale.

May 13
Lufkin Police officers arrested a man on charges of failure to identify and disorderly conduct/language after a tirade in the drive-through window of McDonald’s.

May 12
A heart-shaped necklace was reported stolen.

May 8
A woman was arrested for trespassing Sunday morning on church property.

May 3
A set of train horns worth $2,500 were reported stolen from a parked train.

May 2
A 20-oz. Dr Pepper and hair dye were reported stolen from a store.

May 1
A man reportedly moved into a rent house before the landlord told him he could and then stole utilities. A search of the home revealed marijuana and several dogs. Animal control took the dogs.

May 1
A man on a motorized shopping cart reportedly left Walmart with $577 in merchandise without paying.

Preaching all day and dinner on the ground

It's a well-known fact that obscure genealogical findings are interesting only to the family of that specific tree, and frankly are probably interesting only to one or two die-hard researchers within that family. I am one of those. So I apologize to those of you who could not care less about our family history. But, to paraphrase a song from the Sixties, "It's my blog and I'll write if I want to."

While searching through some old keepsakes I came across this flyer. You may have to click on it to get all the details.

What actually caught my eye was not the reference to the preacher, W. D. Black, a distant relative of Barb's, but the camp-out style of the meeting. Phrases like "Good Roads," "Good Spring of Water," "Bring Your Camping Equipment" and "No Dogs or Guns Will Be Allowed" stood out. Camping in the rough and the brush-arbor "all day preaching and dinner on the ground" experience is an an authentic example of a by-gone era. Or is it? After some investigation, I determined that this advertised event was a very early session of what is now known as the Pecos River Family Encampment, and as best as I can tell, it is still going on today (albeit with more amenities, like cabins and restrooms). The session advertised in this flyer took place in 1945: W. D. (known in the family as "Uncle Dave") Black and his brother J. Frank, another evangelist, started the encampments in 1941, and were instrumental in the growth and success of the annual event.

As far back as our dating days, I have heard the story of the summer "camp" that Barb attended as a teen in hot, dry west Texas, where every meal served consisted of cabrito and beans. Cabrito, I'm sure you know, is a colorful and exotic-sounding Hispanic word for the meat of a young goat - a kid. Check out the part of the flyer that says, "Free Barbecue Served Each Day." Sheffield is in the heart of the substantial Texas goat industry, and since the free barbecue meal served was donated by local ranchers, well....

Barb was at the Pecos River Family Encampment because her dad, W. A. Brown, was the evangelist for the 1955 encampment. He joins a list of noted Church of Christ preachers, such as Joe Malone, Charles Mickey, Ruel Lemmons, Jimmy Jividen, Johnny Ramsey and of course, Uncle Dave and brother J. Frank Black. Song leaders included Holland Boring Sr (and Jr.), B. B. Stephens and James Willeford.

No disrespect to Sanderson, Sheffield and the area, but if I were looking for a Family Encampment, I think I would go a little further west - say to Ruidoso, free cabrito notwithstanding.

Monday Meandering - 6.11.2012

Why yes, it is legal to drive on the shoulder of a Texas highway to let other cars pass. Just in case you were losing sleep over that.
 
We are trying meals from the new My Fit Foods store near us; they sell a large variety of ready-to-eat meals that are actually good for you. The portions are controlled (the lunches are typically less than 250 calories) and the ingredients are uber-healthy. Some are tastier than others, but so far so good. The cost is less than a meal for the two of us at a restaurant. I'll keep you posted.
 
Been seeing a promo in the paper for a one-man presentation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. According to the ad, this dude "plays all the characters, creates the sound effects, sings the music, and plays both sides of the battlefield." Not sure how he handles the 10,000 Orcs. This is the same guy who did the one-man show of the Star Wars trilogy. "Luke! I am your father!"
 
It sounds like summer around here: the cicadas are out in numbers. Must be the 13th year of the cycle (though here in Central Texas we have some variety of cicada every year).
 
TV news item the other night said that some foods, including chocolate, may become unaffordable. Barb says, "Nope. Not possible."
 
My wife is an ardent supporter of University of Texas sports - any and all UT sports, and is conversely NOT a supporter of any University of Oklahoma sports program. So, while researching family records, she was rather startled to learn that her father was apparently once the college minister at the Norman, Oklahoma Church of Christ!
 
Had to make tough decisions for our weekend activities. Had to decide between the Republic of Texas Motorcycle Rally, the Gillespie County Antique Tractor and Engine Show and the Blanco Lavender Festival.
 
Defrosted the chest freezer this weekend. Found some things that either need to be submitted to the authorities as potential bio-weapons, or buried in the back yard under the cover of darkness.
 
Must have been a rough Saturday night in Austin. On our way to church we passed a police-closed intersection, crime scene tape blocking access to the post office and a wrecked car amid a half-dozen uprooted shrubs in font of the Walgreens. This all in the space of one block.
 
Y'all have a good week.

The 50th Anniversary Nostalgia Tour

Shortly after Barb and I began dating, her parents moved from Houston to Port Lavaca, Texas so that her father could assume the duties as the pulpit minister - indeed, the only minister - at the Church of Christ in that coastal community. Thus began a series of trips to Port Lavaca to visit her parents, and later, after Barb graduated and moved home to start her teaching career in the nearby tiny community of Austwell, a series of too-brief week-end journeys on my part to see her. When the time came, we were married, by her father, in that church, fifty years ago.

The trips to south Texas continued of course; first to Port Lavaca, then to Bay City, El Campo and Three Rivers as the years passed and Barb's father took other preaching positions and we came to visit, just the two of us at first, then bringing babies to show off. Time marched on, and eventually we no longer traveled to south Texas to see family.

I don't know when we began going to Port Aransas - it was after the kids were grown - but that became our get-away destination, and that is where we went to celebrate our 50th anniversary. I mentioned to Barb that we were only 70 miles from where this all started, and maybe we should make a memorial tour.

It is a fairly straight shot from Port Aransas to Port Lavaca, along Highway 35. Not Interstate 35, but Texas 35, through Rockport and across the causeway that divides Copano Bay from Aransas Bay. This is the route we took, in reverse, from Port Lavaca to Corpus to go on our honeymoon. When we went through Rockport, I wondered which service station we stopped at to dump all the rice out of our clothes and the car. I do remember it being a lot of rice.

Things change in 50 years, and Port Lavaca was no exception. When we married, the church was way out from town on the bypass. Now State 35, the bypass, is almost the main street through town, teeming with commercial development. We did locate the church (no help from Google maps, which put it across the causeway in Point Comfort) and the little house next to it, the original preacher's house.

 

By the way, Shan Jackson, the current preacher, was in the youth group when Barb's dad preached there.

 I say original preacher's house because during that period Barb's family moved to a new house in a brand-new suburb - which we could not find! We went down what we thought was the right street, but we did not find a familiar neighborhood.

We did find the Viking Inn Motel, now a somewhat seedy place doing business under another name. Here's the pool where I hung out on my wedding day (and got sunburned). Funny. I thought it was bigger.

And the motel restaurant where we hurried to to change place settings is now doing business as the "Taqueria Mazatlan."

Oh, and the place card change must have done the trick: less than two years later Barb's sister and my ex-roommate were married in the same church building.

Another landmark we failed to find was the location of the original Shellfish Restaurant, site of the wedding reception. There is a new version on the highway near the causeway, but we were unable to locate the original building. A lot of changes in 50 years.

We drove back to Austin along a route we had not traveled in many, many years - Port Lavaca to Victoria to Cuero to Gonzales to Luling - but we saw things that brought back memories, and we talked about times and places long forgotten, and other roads we had traveled.

And while you may not be able to go home again, you can have a sweet time remembering those days gone by.

Monday Meanderings - 6.4.2012

Wow. Lots of travel the past couple of weekends, and if you know me you know that's not my style. But sometimes you  have to do what you need to do. Last week was a trip to see some of the grand-kids, and their parents, of course. This weekend Barb and I celebrated our 50th by returning to the coast, though initially some 70 miles south of where this all started. More about that on Wednesday.

On the route to Lubbock when you get on I-20, you normally can look off to distant mesas and see miles and miles of wind turbines. This last trip we could hardly see the mesas. Smoke from the Gila Forest wildfires had reached from the far eastern edge of New Mexico, across that state and well into Texas.

Always enjoy satellite radio in the car on those long road trips. For Memorial Day weekend, you had your choice of a channel devoted to Pink Floyd, a channel for the Allman Brothers, and another for the Beach Boys. There may have been others featured, but you can only listen to one at a time.

So, if you are driving down the highway (obeying the speed limit, I might add) and two State Trooper cars tuck in behind you, and it is a two-lane highway with limited passing opportunities, what do you do? Is it legal to drive on the shoulder to let the car behind you pass? I was taught that it was polite to do so, but is it actually legal? Do you want to find out with two cop cars behind you?

Then after several miles, when you see the 2nd cop car behind you making repeated swerves onto the shoulder, how fast do you pull over to let them pass? Still don't know if it's legal, but it was certainly permitted.

On the trip to the coast, we taste-tested another of the big BBQ names in the Luling/Lockhart area, City Market. Better tasting brisket than we've had at either Black's or Kruez's. Like many of the purist places, It's served on butcher paper and you eat with your fingers. You do get bread or crackers; pickles and onions if you care for them. There are standard sides available, but the word is that one should forego them and concentrate on the meat. Unlike Kruez's, there is sauce available - a very tasty mustard-based concoction. However, when all is said and done, I think I still prefer Rudi's extra lean, and knives and forks.

So we're waiting for the ferry to take us over to Port A (a wait of more than an hour; must be summertime), and a guy driving a pickup a few vehicles in front of us jumps out and makes a mad dash to a near-by porta-potty. In a few minutes, he comes out, sees that the line hasn't moved a bit, so he strolls back to his truck to the applause and honking of those in line.

Port A beach report:  Back hoes have scrapped up seaweed and sand and made big piles every hundred yards, but all that did was make the beach hard to walk on. It sure didn't make a dent on the accumulation of seaweed on the shore. With the heat, crowds, rough beach and seaweed, I give it a C minus this trip. But the seafood was great, as usual.

Golden!

It's pretty easy to remember what I was doing on this day exactly 50 years ago. Hanging out poolside at the Viking Inn in Port Lavaca, Texas, waiting for the hour when I would put on my sharp new white jacket, gather up my groomsmen and get to the church on time to marry the love of my life.

We had been through the rehearsal the previous inning, scurrying afterwards to the restaurant to swap place cards at the dinner, because Barb's sister and my roommate were suddenly speaking to each other again, after being  decidedly on the outs for the previous couple of months. We went our separate ways after the rehearsal dinner, and now all I had to do was stay out of the way until time for the wedding.

In retrospect, hanging out at the pool on your wedding day might not be the best choice; a raging sunburn is not something you want to take with you on your honeymoon. But the sunburn did not last; the marriage did.

Fifty years. In some ways that's a lot harder to get my head around than reaching 70 years of age. The first time I ever saw Barb was during rehearsals for the homecoming musical at ACU. The show was Brigadoon, and I had a small, but oh-so-vital role as Andrew McLaren, village elder: "Aye, laddie, yer in Brigadoon!" Be sure to roll the r's. Barb had followed a friend from her dorm over to rehearsals and soon was active in all things theater. Well, as much as an Elementary Ed major could be. More about that in a minute.

For years, whenever Barb and I would go to some gathering or party, and they did the old ice-breaker, "Tell us something about yourselves that nobody knows," I would say, "When I met my wife, she was a call girl." Depending on the group, that was sometimes a show stopper. In fact, a call girl - in theatrical terms - is the director's Girl Friday, responsible for many duties, the most important of which was making sure the members of the very large cast were "called" from the green room, or wherever they were offstage, prior to their entrance onstage. I was usually somewhere behind the scenery, hitting on Judy Boone, Pat's little sister. Needless to say, Barb's first impression of me was NOT, "Now there's a young man I would really be interested in marrying."

I continued to endear myself to her in many other ways. I was very proud of the fact that I was a disk-jockey of some renown in our small town; she thought I was a Dork. When she thought about me at all. When we did begin to date, it irritated her that I was always wanting her to hang out or go get a coke or something; her (correct) impression was I never studied, while she was carrying a 4.0 average, and had to do the work that regimen required.

But somehow she overlooked all that and one June day in 1961 we went by Sewell Auditorium - the place where we met - and I got down on my knee and recited the best line I ever said on that stage. To my everlasting good fortune she said yes.

There might have been little glitches over the years; Barb has always felt that it would have been to my benefit if my mother had stressed the need for me to pick after myself just a wee bit more than she did. And did you know that the dryer makes a little sound that means it's time to take the laundry out and hang them up? Me neither. It's possible that there have been other things, but they are so minor I can't recall any of them now. You know, this might be a good time to turn off comments on this blog. Just saying.

I told my son at his rehearsal dinner that none of us deserve the women we wed; we all marry up. I cannot tell you how true that has been for me. My parents were married for 72 years. Neither of us have those genes, but at 50, I somehow think the best is yet to come.

I'm looking forward to that, my love.