Monday Meandering (on Tuesday) - 4.02.2013

Well, the Re-tire deal didn't work out. When I came out this morning the car had four flat tires. Actually, flat is not descriptive enough; the rims were bare, sitting on four piles of rubber dust! Of course, Pedang didn't answer his phone or text me back, so the deal is off! If you see the little weasel let me know,

Why yes, the weather did turn cold after moving the indoor greenery outdoors and putting out the tomato plants! A couple of days in the direct sun (before I could get the sun shade up) and a couple of nights in the low 30's did some damage, but I think everything will survive.

I mentioned the trend where panhandlers are flying mega-signs. The guy who had the sign that started "All the musicians have come to SXSW to show the world how good they are, but I don't have the time or the $$$ to indulge....." was back the other morning with another lengthy message that started "Okay, this is day 7 of..." and that's all I got. This time I was so intrigued, I circled around and got in the left-hand turn lane in order to be next to where he was working. My plan was to give him a couple of bucks and take a picture of his sign. Alas, traffic fortunes were against me on two attempts to get close; both times I was too far away and a line of cars behind me wouldn't let me stop.

On my way home the other day I stopped to get the car inspected. I debated about it a bit, because I really needed a restroom break, but I didn't want to go all the way home and then come all the way back. The place we go has been really snappy previously, so I stopped. You know where this is going, don't you? New guy. New, chatty guy. New, really, really chatty guy.

News Release

For Immediate Release
April 1, 2013

INNOVATIVE TIRE COMPANY ANNOUNCES BLOG ACQUISITION

The Re-Tired Rubber Reclamation Company (dba Re-Tired) announced today that agreement has been reached to become the new owner and publisher of the wildly popular blog RetiredInAustin. Speaking from corporate headquarters in Buda, Texas, Hugo Pedang, Vice President for Corporate Conglomeration, said that the acquisition was a major step in presenting the unique story of the Re-Tired Rubber Reclamation Company and its innovative process for reclaiming and re-using rubber worn from automobile tires during normal driving.

"Our vacuum trucks will soon be as ubiquitous as the Google Street View cars," said Pedang, "sucking up the millions of pounds of rubber that have been worn down on the nation's streets and highways.  Once reclaimed and reprocessed by our secret and innovative patent-pending process, that previously wasted rubber will be used to recreate new tires, marketed under the "Re-Tired" brand."

"RetiredInAustin, which will soon be rebranded as Re-TiredInAustin, is our first effort in getting the word out to the networked world. We believe social media is the market place of the future, and in short order we plan to have other sites in major markets, such as Re-TiredInDallas and Re-TiredInTulia to help get the word out. Getting Re-Tired is the way to go, wherever you are!"

The previous author and publisher of RetiredInAustin, who wishes to remain anonymous, said, "I figured these guys couldn't be any less interesting than I've been the last couple of years, so why not? Plus, I got a new set of tires out of the deal; if they will get me there, I'm headed to the coast."

I remember the Forties - Stories for my Grandchildren

While going through one of my mother's notebooks, I found this list. I wrote it; I'm not sure when, and I'm not sure why, but Mother had it and saved it. There are some things that probably won't make sense to you, but I'm going to publish it like I wrote it.

• A black cat named "Soot"
• A Cocker Spaniel named "Susie"
•  Being butted off a log by a goat named "Sweet Pea"
• A stove that had a model T coil "pilot light"
•  A Mangle that was also the family note-board
•  A wringer-type washing machine that would grab your hand if you weren't careful
•  A water tank up on a tower in our back yard
• A girlfriend named Marilyn, but she moved away
• Sitting in the car, listening to war news on the radio
• We drove a "four door sit-down"
• Visiting Uncle Marvin and Aunt Polly, playing at the stock tank, getting raw peanuts to roast
• Visiting Uncle Benny and Aunt Lou Amma, making corn-husk boats, "divining" for water, playing "I dropped my dolly" on their piano
• Playing Chinese checkers with Grandmother Bramblett -  until I won
• A trip to Lake Caddo to visit relatives, sleeping on the pool table
•  A cowboy outfit for Christmas
•  A bicycle with a little front wheel and a basket so big in front I could stand in it
• Learning to ride my Daddy's bicycle that was so big I couldn't sit on the seat - even with the pedals  blocked up
• My brother's Cushman motor scooter, and the night it arrived
• Margarine with the yellow dots that you squeezed for color
• Tablets that you added to sugar water to make "maple syrup"
• Walking to a garden plot close to our house
• Losing my favorite toy car in the plowed furrows of Mr. Webber's garden behind his house
• Gathering up all the discarded Christmas trees and building forts; then having a big bonfire with them
• Getting my head busted by Ida Jo Waller and getting stitches
• Swimming lessons at the YMCA- 
• Reading every Bobbsey Twins book in the Public Library
•  Daddy making a crystal radio that really worked
• Rushing to Tatum's grocery to buy Bubblegum when some came in
• Charging groceries at Minchew's little store
• Playing kick-the-can on summer nights
• Mr. & Mrs. Morrison next door, and Fred and Mary Baker the next house over
• The dancing Popeye puppet that Fred Baker made for me
• His dog Rusty, riding in the back of his pickup
• Swinging off of our garage on a rope tied to a tree next to the Kingston's
• The world's largest comic book collection, housed in Danny Webber's room out back
• The Jewel T man - one of the purchases was a pitcher in the shape of a pig. An ice cube often appeared to be its tongue sticking out
• Running away from home - until Mother passed me in the car going somewhere
• Ladies quilting in the basement of the church
• Lemon meringue pie when the visiting preacher came to Sunday dinner
• Not understanding why my sister was crying if she was so happy

Monday Meanderings - 3.25.2013

Walked out of Silver's Gym the other day and found these sitting near the doorway. The only thing I can figure out is that someone was trying to make off with some weights and they fell out of their pocket.

We were rudely wakened the other morning by what sounded like people banging on the roof with baseball bats. Turned out to be only a little hail. There doesn't appear to be any damage, but it sure was noisy!

We've done our spring planting for the year, combined with the annual transfer of the house plants to the patio. Looks a little bare inside at the moment. We reduced the tomato plantings by 1/3; only two plants this year. That is in keeping with our efforts to reduce our workload and heavy demands on our time.

Couldn't help but but think it ironical that a band named "Pillage and Plunder" had their gear stolen during SXSW.

March Madness -  in addition to mind-numbing around-the-clock basketball - has launched a bunch of new TV commercials. Sort of a mini-Super Bowl.

You can't make this stuff up, folks. According to a piece in this week's Chronicle, the latest in a series by the local Vortex Performing Arts center will be a multidisciplinary show performed in 17 tons of dirt, with performers singing, dancing and telling stories of the Earth.

And McDonald's has a dress code. Who knew?

A small family mystery - Stories from the Family Tree

My grandmother Anderson's brother, Lester Starnes - one of the two siblings born in White Salmon, Washington - returned with the family to Texas, and was with them in Indian Territory in Oklahoma about 1905. I posted about that family here. Apparently Lester stayed behind when the family moved on, because in the 1910 census he was married to a Cherokee woman named Mary Payne.

Mary and her father Louis Payne, along with her brothers and sisters, Emma (age 25, Frank (age 17), Albert (age 12), and Fred (age 4) are already living in the Territory in the 1900 census. Mary was 11 at the time. Interestingly, her father and older sister Emma are listed in the census as "white," while Mary and the rest of the children are listed as "7/8 Cherokee." This suggests that either Mary was not Louis' daughter by birth, or that  the census-taker was clueless. Take your pick.

Nevertheless, about 1907, Mary and Lester married and took up housekeeping in Park Hill, Oklahoma, the center of the Cherokee nation, in a state that had just joined the Union. Mary's brother Frank, along with Lester's brother Archie were living with them at that time. Lester and Mary had four children: Frank (born about 1908), Gene Eudora (born in 1911 in House, Quay County, New Mexico), Bertha (born about 1913) and Nancy Ann (born about 1917).

At first, I thought the New Mexico location might have come about because Lester's parents lived in that state briefly and possibly Lester and Mary joined them there. However, I discovered that Gene Eudora was born on a train as they traveled across New Mexico, probably on their way to California. House, New Mexico was simply the town they were closest to!

Little is known about Lester's family after that until the 1920 Census, when we find the children, Frank, Eudora, Bertha and Nancy Ann listed as "inmates" in the David and Margaret Home for Children in San Dimas, California. This institution had been established by the Woman’s Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church as an orphanage only ten years prior, and it's still in business, though as a group home for adolescent girls in modern times.

What happened to Mary? There's no trace. What about Dad? As far as we know, he was in California at this time, along with his mother and several other siblings, and we can only speculate as to why his children were in an orphanage. There is a family story that Mary became mentally ill, and Lester simply could not care for four children and work for a living, but there's nothing to substantiate that.

We do know that Gene - the name she preferred - married a man named Harold Jack Piatt, had a son Larry and lived in the Los Angeles area until her death in 1985, at the age of 74. I tracked down the son, still in California,  but missed the opportunity to talk to him by mere days; Larry L Piatt passed away Saturday, February 16, 2013.

We also know that Bertha, according to a note in the family records, was "Killed in a motorcycle accident."

We know that Nancy Ann, according to another note in the family history, was “Adopted by Los Angeles family.”

And we know that Frank remained in California and died at age 71 in San Luis Obispo. It is possible that  the Frank Starnes listed as a lodger in the 1940 Los Angeles census, employed as a sheet metal worker, is "our Frank." Maybe, maybe not.

Almost nothing more is known about Lester - the family evidently lost contact with him, or he with them. There is a possibility that he lived in California until his death in 1971, at 82 years of age. But there is another version of the story that's more interesting.

In the 1980's, Virgil, the brother that took off to Canada with his dad, got a tip that a man living in British Columbia near him might be the long-lost Lester. Virgil and Marien visited him, and while many aspects of the conversation suggested otherwise, the man denied being the brother. In spite of his denial, Virgil and Marien came away convinced that he was the brother. Their conclusion was that Lester had lied about his age when he signed up for the Canadian retirement system, and was afraid that if he 'fessed up about being the lost brother it might get him in trouble with the authorities.

So how did Lester and Mary's kids end up in an orphanage, and what actually became of Mary and  Lester? It likely will always be a small family mystery.