I'll See You On The Other Side Lewis Gooch

 I am grateful to have called you friend. The world is a little less interesting. You touched so many with your genuine kindness while your mischievous wit, easy going spirit and honest open heart made followers of us all. I marveled at your world travels and will miss your stories, your crazy adventures, your beautiful courage. 
I miss you already Lewis Gooch. See you on the other side or maybe another life, however the journey continues. On and on and so it goes. 

Lewis Gooch
February 10, 1941 - December 28, 2018

God and Dog

God and Dog     http://www.andiesisle.com/GoD_and_DoG.html    Click the Link for video song

I am so thankful for cooler weather on this blue sky Sunday after Thanksgiving. I don't like it much when the heat and humidity of Summer hang around past curfew causing conversations questioning, is Winter just running late or is she being held hostage by global warming? I'm not so sure the seasons care about our obsession with orderly and consistent predictable weather stability. I believe the earth has had its own rhythm since God spoke it into motion in the beginning. The one constant through time is change.

A friend sent me a link to a sweet song that touched my heart and rings so true I want to pass it along to you. God and Dog - by Wendy Francisco.  She has a cool Facebook page also. You can click the link above to watch the short video. When my kids were growing up we were blessed through the years with a loyal, happy family dog. What a treasure. Dogs can be protectors, and helpers but mostly they are willing and eager companions that turn on your heart light. You will never feel alone if you have a dog. When Daisy crossed the rainbow bridge our entire family mourned. But as hard and sad as it was losing her I am grateful for all she brought into our lives. In the beginning there was God. He knew then we would need a dog. On and on and so it goes. kisses

Me & Daisy

Just Know

It struck me the other day how I can look at my girlfriends and just ‘know’ what they need to hear to fix their latest breakup, patch up a fuss or get to the root of issues with their Mother.  While I stumble thru life in general finally resorting to the self-help aisle at Barnes & Noble.  Now relationships are only the tip of the iceberg.  Since the first day of First grade in Mrs. Townsend’s classroom when Adriana Salinas helped me find my own desk, (I have been in awe of Adriana ever since), I have wondered how come I missed the class, that link of DNA, or the secret meetings that let everyone else know ‘what to do’, ‘where to go’, ‘how to behave’, ‘what to wear’, just on and on cause I never seem to Just Know.  The hugest example of this is I always wanted to be a nurse, RN specifically.  Since I felt like everyone else in class would already ‘know’ what to do and nursing is such an important job I did the following- First I took the Nurse Aide course at my local community college.  Now keep in mind this was 30 years ago when nurse aides could be trained on the job.  No way was I to be caught off guard in nursing school not able to make the perfect mitered corner.  Then I applied for LVN school and studied like I was trying to get into Harvard.  I was accepted and graduated the very next year.  I have been an RN for over 20 years now.  I have never regretted taking the extra time to get in but I would not recommend it to anyone else.  It really is not necessary as they teach mitered corners in the first semester but hey, now you ‘KNOW’.  Have a super awesome November day.  kisses 

Meet Ya At The Raye

Happy church day, start of a new week day, finally cool weather, sunshine Sunday.  Hope you are feeling blessed and productive.  I love Saturday movie night at the Raye Theatre in Hondo, Texas.

I am not a fan of horror movies but the Raye has one large screen, is local ( the next closest theatre is at least a 50 mile round trip) very reasonable admission rates and a concession stand with prices that allow you to enjoy movie buttered popcorn and a drink without taking out a bank loan. October being ghost and goblin month of course the most recent Halloween movie is showing. It does not take much to rattle me so no surprise I screamed once... sorta loud. I get frustrated with this kind of movie script. Like seriously folks, you characters in the movie. This is a series of sequels. Did you NOT see the previous now on home video 1, 2 or 3? Have you learned nothing? Why do you continue to look in the closet? Leave the safety of your locked car on a lonely dark road? Whyyyy.

Anyway you just never know what fun prop the Raye will have in their lobby. This hometown movie house goes the extra mile. I thought it would be fun to take a picture with this colorful clown. So I stood real close and start talking to it because I think I am so funny. Well all of a sudden Mr. Clown lights up and starts moving! And see that hand? Is he trying to get fresh with me?

O

"Back off Bright Eyes! None of that on the first date."
I'm glad I grew up with the Shriner's circus clowns full of silly shenanigans so IT only startled me a bit. I think he may be trying to strike up a conversation.
Happy Halloween. kisses

Barber Shop

Lee the Shoeshine Man

 Looking at Facebook just now, as is common for me at 5 am, when a page with pictures of old Corpus Christi, Texas brought back memories of Schatzel Street and my PawPaw's barber shop. He leased a prime downtown spot during the sixties not far from the Nueces County Courthouse.  It was in a dignified fancy brick storefront, back when architects designed buildings with character and class.  I googled his name and Schatzel Street and discovered it was called Jimmie Adams Barber Shop.  My little sister and I were allowed to get on the city bus in front of Paw Paw and Granny's house on Gollihar,  by ourselves, and ride it downtown to the shop.  Robin had this adventure much more often than me as she was Paw Paw's favorite and I didn't much like doing it anyway.  I was too afraid to pull the string letting the bus driver know to stop and let me off and Paw Paw would fuss at me for looking at the girly magazines he left out so his all male customers would not get bored while they waited their turn. I was fascinated by those naked women and wondered if they were normal.  Lolly, the manicurist with her jet black bee hive hair do, huge eyelashes, blue eye-shadow and always a mini skirt told Paw Paw to leave me be as I needed to know about growing up-or something like that.  This did not go over well with my Paw Paw and was probably one of the many reasons I was not his favorite-always the little rebel.  Anyway, watching Paw Paw's employees was my greatest entertainment.  Girl talk with Lolly was fun but she stayed pretty busy perched on her stool in front buffing lawyers fingernails to a professional pink shine. There was a very thin, tall young barber, with perfectly slicked back hair-almost in a duck tail, that had the first chair. I thought he and Lolly made eyes at each other occasionally.  Paw Paw ran a pretty tight ship so I never witnessed much chitchat between them.  Turns out I was right because a few years later  Paw Paw grumbled about how that barber had borrowed money from him and never came back and neither did Lolly.  He felt this was no coincidence and they must have skipped town together.

Granny gave Lolly the benefit of the doubt and was concerned for the wife the young barber left behind.  I thought the whole story was quite exciting and pictured Lolly and Thin Man in matching trench coats and fedora hats traveling incognito to a new life in a big city far away.  Don't ask me why.  Just my little kid  mind and too much Dick Tracy and Brenda Star I guess.

A large mirror ran the length of the wall behind the three stations giving some depth to the narrow shop.  Opposite the high dollar adjustable barber chairs and towards the back of Jimmie Adams barber shop was the shoeshine stand attended by Lee the shoeshine man.  He had a fancy set up Paw Paw had bought from a hotel. When he was not busy he would shine my brown leather penny loafers and talk to me the entire time.  What a treat!  A few times I remember Lee stopping by Paw Paw and Granny's house after church.  He and his wife still in Sunday best as were we.  They were entertained outside on the covered cement patio which offered much more space than my grandparent's small living room. It all felt very friendly till one Sunday Paw Paw was showing off his prized roses to Lee so Granny wanted to make a bouquet of her beloved sweet peas for his wife.  Granny asked her to follow into the kitchen. I was puzzled when wife was leery about entering the house and asked Granny, "What will Jim say?" Granny waved her on saying it was okay.  So wife followed.  Next, things got really confusing. It seemed like Paw Paw appeared out of nowhere yelling and cursing and literally chased wife out of the house.  I will never forget that sight and trying to figure out what went so terribly wrong. Lee was apologizing and kind of bowing to his boss as he and wife retreated to their car and made a hasty escape.  Next my grandfather yelled at Granny asking what she was thinking letting that woman in the house.  Granny yelled back.
"Jim, you are going to hades for such behavior."  And she kind of trembled all over and did her Granny style mumble under her breath, shaking her head and clicking her tongue in a severe way I only witnessed a few times in my life. Granny was a good Christian thru and thru. It would be many years before Paw Paw felt God's hand on his life and experienced a total change of heart.

Well that's all I remember about that - oh and Mom trying to explain to us on the way home that Paw Paw grew up in a time where black people were not allowed in white people's houses. But not every one felt that way and Granny's family never did.  Neither did MeMaw (Dad's Mom), and now days most people did not worry about such things and we should pray for PawPaw.

 Good Grief!! What a ruckus.  I actually have this one picture of Lee with me and my sister, Cheryl part of the Tulane gang, my grandparents and Mom.
The building on Shatzel has survived the many changes of downtown Corpus with only minor face-lifts. The barber shop had a total of 3 owners thru the years. PawPaw was the middle one and he sold it when he was diagnosed with colon cancer that required multiple surgeries in the mid 1970's. He recovered and cut hair for several more years from home. I am not sure exactely when the last owner sold out. But once I drove by and it looked like a surf shop. The steps to the open upstairs area where PawPaw kept a cot to catch a nap on slow days were still there. I pictured his cot and remembered how the barber shop smelled of hair tonic, shaving cream, Vitalis and Old Spice with an uner tone of musty old building and leather shoes.
If those walls could talk!  kisses

Schatzel St  Paw Paw's barber shop what it looks like now

As Long As You Can Find the Bathroom

Dark rain clouds have hovered over and around my rural Texas neighborhood for a solid week  scattering sprinkles to downpours causing much mud and muck, filling up creeks,  leading to the inevitable mosquito invasion.  I am thankful for the much needed rain.  I am super duper thankful it has cooled things off a bit but those mosquitoes need to go to the devil!  They are evil misery on wings.

late 1960s'

I was just looking through old pictures and I found this of Mom (in the hat) us three kids and my Great Aunt Marie spending a day on Padre Island.  I do not remember this particular event but I do have fond memories of my Aunt Marie. She and my Granny lost both their parents when they were young children (in the early 1900s) so spent their youth growing up with grandparents and then various cousins. It always sounded to me like the family sort of took turns with the little orphan girls.  It also seemed they were a good Christian family full of love and kindness because that is how my Granny and Aunt Marie were, full of grace and dignity.  They both had a very strong faith in God and believed in the power of prayer.  Aunt Marie lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma while Granny and our family lived in Corpus Christi, Texas.  I remember Granny mailing lots of letters as calling long distance was saved for special occasions back then. Aunt Marie was very hard of hearing so wore a hearing aid.  Her 'ears' as she called it, had a large, very uncomfortable looking ear piece with a long wire connected to a metal box she kept in her bra.  I was so fascinated with the way she spoke on the phone.  I am talking about a real telephone handset from back in the day not a cell phone.  Anyway, she would turn it sideways and put the receiver to her bra and the speaker to her mouth. It was hard for my little kid mind to understand how she could hear through her brazier.  Us kids had to be a little careful what we said under our breath as Aunt Marie had learned to read lips!   She had much difficulty but never complained and made a joke out of everything.  It was so great to be around Aunt Marie.  She found the positive and humor in all things. Once after me and Granny had visited a whole week, we were packing up to catch the Greyhound back to Texas. Aunt Marie was so surprised and upset. She said, "Why are you leaving?" "You just got here yesterday?"
I realize now she had early dementia or forgetfulness. She realized it to some degree and would tell us,  "The doctor says as long as I can eat and find my way to the bathroom not to worry".  She would belly laugh, throw her arms in the air then bend and slap her thighs.  A grand Aunt Marie gesture I remember well.
I wish my kids could have known her but only the rocks live forever.  Hopefully my memory holds out for me to tell them all these stories.  So it goes. kisses

Sisters-Marie & Sarah

A Mother's Heart

1982

Sunday morning sunshine will soon and suddenly rush through my bedroom windows like an unwelcome party crasher.  No slumber for this over thinker, midnight writer, night owl.

My 3 adult children have been adults so long I now have an adult grandchild.  This fact matters not to my Mother's heart.  I still picture each of them as my little ones.

When my oldest daughter had surgery last month and arrangements were being made for me to be there Tosha asked, "Mom should I put the  trundle bed in Evelyn's room?"

"Oh, for Paul?"  I replied. 

Paul is Tosha's husband and of course the

trundle was for me.  She laughed as she has been a Mother long enough to understand the feeling.

So I have a daughter with children old enough to have Mother feelings like her Mother.  Apparently this is an on going process and somewhat more involved than I had anticipated. My Granny and my MeeMaw made it look so easy.  I wish I would have paid more attention or that they could have lived forever.
Time marches on, Life is full of change, on and on and so it goes.

47 Year Wait

Happy church day, good morning Sunday, it's gonna be a beautiful day I just know it. April showers bring May flowers as the rhyme goes but apparently no one told the Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrushes, Buttercups plus lots more. Our Texas roadsides, Rest Areas and rolling pastures are covered in natures endless variety of fragile geometric shapes decorated in brilliant bright primary colors, or soft pastels . Fibrous green stems hold tight while long shapely leaves, like arms do their best to stabilize God's handy work.  So looking at a hillside the ground is various shades of green with a continuous patchwork, similar to a well make quilt, of grouped wild flowers swaying and bowing as birds make bird noises in natures animated symphony. The wonderful world of color but not Disney.

When I was in fifth grade my best friend was Cindy Wilks. We were kindred spirits and instant friends. I don't remember how we met and only hung out that one school year. I think she moved away in junior high and I have not seen hide nor hair of her since.
Night Owls and a bit of a running wild stresk we both had parents that kept us in check. I loved spending the night at Cindy's house. We would dance and sing along to Donny and The Osmond Brothers 33 1/3 album on Cindy's portable record player and talk endlessly about boys. I was full grown by fourth grade( so embarrassing) but Cindy had not gotten her growth spurt yet and she was really little. I have a picture of us at my 11th birthday party and I looked like a giant.  By junior high that all changed-Thank God.
Anyway, it is so funny the stuff you remember! One  night we were up watching 'the late show'. That is what movies were called in the 1960's and early '70's that came on after the 10 o'clock news. Television was still mostly black and white and signed off every night with the National Anthem. No 24/7 programming like it is now. 3 network channels, ABC, CBS and NBC. Black horizontal and vertical lines rolling through the picture were a constant nuisance requiring the use of 'fine tuning' knobs or adjusting the rabbit ears antennae on top often with added foil as a signal booster. If you had a Mom like mine who was somewhat suspicious of this new technology and prone to they say 'isms' you were forced to watch the 6-12 inch screen a full six feet across the room as 'they say' the television emitted dangerous radiation and was only safe to watch six feet away.

So there we were, past midnight, in our babydoll pajamas, lounging in the radiation free zone watching Friday night's late show titled "Westward The Women".
Maybe we had the television turned a little to loud. We were totally into the movie on this adventure. It was a western about women, specifically mail order brides, traveling in 1850 by wagon train from Chicago to California.  These women all had a story. All different kinds of personalities, all ages, strengths and weaknesses. Some small and ladylike, others sturdy and no nonsense but every single one amazing and strong and determined. I was mesmerized. Then Cindy's Dad came in and turned it off.  Why did adults do stuff like that back then? It was so jarring. I felt empty inside and like I just had to know what became of those super duper wonderful  pioneer women. Did they make it to California? Were the men waiting for them? Were they good men? WHAT ??? So in my 10 year old head I decided I would never forget the title and make an effort to see the ending.
From that night till this I never forgot . I have watched many westerns but those Westward Women seemed to fall off the earth. I hoped the old film had not been forever ruined or destroyed. It is a mystery why it took so long but I finally caught it , late last night on my color television in the same black and white film. No vertical/horizontal knobs but I still use an antenna less the foil. It was just as wonderful as I remembered and the ending, just so you know Cindy Wilks-was worth the 47 year wait. On and on and so it goes. kisses


Movie Quote from Westward The Women
Patience Hawley: [to the awaiting bridegrooms] You can look us over, but don't think you're going to do the choosing! All the way from Independence, I've been staring at two things: one was this picture and the other was the rump of a mule... and don't ask me which was prettier!

Dallas

Morning has broken, Spring has sprung and it is a beautiful sunshiny Tuesday.  52 degrees here in south central Texas. Jackets worn to catch the school bus this morning will be stuffed in backpacks this afternoon. Fishing poles are out and ready to go as bluebonnets wave hello. I love living in the country.

I recently visited Dallas on business. Pulling in on I35 the skyline reminded me of a scene from the movie AI (Artificial Intelligence) . Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law fly into a futuristic city full of talking neon billboards. Apparently the future is here although I did not see any flying cars

 My Iphone camera is barely adequate but that purple sphere on the left was huge. It could have been a visiting spacecraft and yet no city folks could  tell me what it was or had any idea what I was talking about. The rental car was full of sorcery. Push a button to start an engine that idles without gasoline, a knob more suited to a kitchen appliance than for shifting gears just felt like blasphemy and the radio talked to me.    

       Good Grief ! Maybe I need to get out more.   While I think it is good to broaden our horizons. I  am happy to be back home . My old truck has a proper gear shift. A radio for me to listen to -not the other way around. And one highway through town lined with wild flowers not massive concrete walls. The
 moon and the stars are my favorite and familiar skylights. God blessed Texas. kisses

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It Is Not How Much You Love

Wake up rays of happy Sunday sunshine will soon and suddenly cause the inky blackness cloaking my small room to disappear into the place darkness goes or simply ceases to exist in the presence of light. My mind is stuck on pause from hours earlier picturing the table set up by the dance floor at my favorite neighborhood jukebox hangout. Select framed photos, familiar cowboy hat and boots. Glass vase full of assorted fresh white flowers as a memorial to help us say goodbye to a dear friend.
Lots of familiar, friendly folks and lonely, thirsty travelers passing by meet here daily with reasonable expectations of being around this time next year. Maybe yes, maybe no. Death is unpredictable and oh so final.
The spot at the end of the naturally stained tree trunk bar was puzzlingly empty for a little too long prompting a search for its occupant earlier this month.  Some friends found his body at home. His spirit having moved on the day before. I hope the passing from this life to the next was peaceful and painless.

I remember the first time the tall handsome, blue eyed cowboy spoke to me. I had been divorced a few years and this was my first time venturing out by myself, determined to meet new people. It was mid afternoon and it took all my courage to open that door. More than my eyes needing to adjust, anxiety, sorta akin to stage fright caused everything to be a blur and I wanted to bolt. Until thru tunnel vision I focused on the looming presence across the concrete floor. He looked right at me with a big country smile and said "Come on in, we don't bite. Unless your into that kind of thing".  I super duper appreciated him that day and as time passed even more so a few others.(stories for another time) Quick witted, always respectful and a truly authentic person. What you saw is what you got an attribute too rare these days.

I tune out the karyoke singer and tarry by the table. Running my fingers along the brim of his hat hoping to feel some part of his essence left behind. Something to fill the empty hollow space.  This place does not feel the same. This place will not be the same. Last night it was filled with friends and family all trying to cope. Kindred spirits united in our sorrow, our loss of acquaintance, neighbor, friend, family, love. I wonder if Mike would be surprised at all the fuss?  He was just a humble man with a good heart doing the best he could and we all felt it. Funny the difference one good heart can make. It matters not what we think of ourselves, our imperfections, regrets, good intentions matter not in the end. Only how we make others feel in our presence.

You see, it is not how much we love but how much we are loved..
"Weeping may last through the night but joy cometh in the morning " Psalm 30:5
Life is unpredictable and so very precious.
There is a new baby on the way I heard the other day. As it should be.
On and on and so it goes. kisses