It's An Uncloudy Day

If you sit around long enough you'll think of something to do. I'm sick of TV and decided I would like to listen to music. I usually go to YouTube to listen to music but I happened to run across a box full of old CD's so I found my old CD player. Did we call them CD's? I'm using a 91-year-old brain and can't always rely on it. 

I was doubtful the player would still work but it not only worked like a charm but the remote still worked with the ancient batteries still in it. I think it's a miracle. So now I am listening to the old country music I love. Willie Nelson is on now. Help me make it through the night.  Let the devil take the high road. I don't wanna be alone so help me make it through the night. 

The sun has taken over today. I'm guessing it's a little warm outside but I'm inside with a working air conditioner. 

Kenny brought me some groceries so I won't starve todeath, I haven't come close to that yet. 

Well, I'll be getting out of the house again because a haircut and perm are on the agenda. 

I finally got the long-awaited pedicure. I'm sure I announced that by now.   

When I was young and spry I would drive over to Randle Park and walk the mile trail a couple times with my little Wirehaired Dachshund. I would end up carrying her because she had to make a lot of tracks with the short legs. Her belly dragged in the grass so a bath was in order. She didn't mind the bath but she hated the dog groomer.  

This is Minnie and I wish I still had her. 

Memories

Everything belongs on the floor according to Miss Sassy.

It's a great day, everything is coming up roses. All you have to do is believe it. 

Living Proof

It's a good day because I slept really well. I gassed up the 26-year-old Tin-Lizzy and can you believe the nozzle would not go into the gas tank; something was blocking it. I tried and tried and tried and finally put the cap back on and closed the door. I decided if I start over maybe it'll work this time. Sometimes you just have to rely on magic if you want to get something done because that time it worked like a charm. By then the gas pump thought I was through messing around with it so it said, “Thank you for your service.” I had to run the card again. Well, since I had a tad bit of energy left I went to Walmart to pick up kitty litter for my feline. While there I thought I should pick up a few essentials such as candy, cat toy, coffee drink. I brought the cat toy home and put it on the floor and told Sassy it was her new toy. She stuck her nose in the air and walked right past it; didn't even sniff at it. It's a see-through ball big enough it won't roll under the couch and it has a dead mouse in it that should squeak, but it doesn't or maybe I just can't hear it.

I take advantage of my good days so I am doing laundry. I thought this would be a good day to wash my sheets so I did. When the sheets got dry I put the bottom one on and by then I had to rest a spell. When I went back to finish making the bed I couldn't find the top sheet. I looked in the bedroom because I was sure I got both out of the dryer. When I can't find something within fifteen minutes I am convinced someone stole it. Who the heck would sneak out of the house with a sheet. You just never know! Stranger things than that have happened. Well, the day moved on and I forgot about the missing sheet. Then the next batch of laundry was done so I got it out and took it to the bedroom. That was when I saw the missing sheet was on the bed. How could a sheet put itself on the bed. Hey, I'm living proof that it happened. Oh well, the memory goes. Everything else has already left. 

A very old photo of Dad, Mom, Me, Carol

In The Far Past

My flowers needed a frame.

When I used to type at the desk top computer with my hands over the keyboard, I seldom made a mistake, and now I peck out the letters like texting and I can't get anything right. Spellcheck must be from my era, it suggested ‘taxing’ for the word ’texting’. I guess it is taxing to be texting. Anyway it is for me.

My typing teacher would turn over in his grave if he could see how people type today. We had the old typewriter with the paper, and no eraser so you had to learn to do it right or else you would be out of a job. We even had to learn shorthand. A lot of the very young generation probably doesn’t even know what it means.

 You would be called into the boss’s office to take a letter. I always think of Carol Burnett and Tim whatshisname. I can’t remember it right now. Anyway she would take her shorthand book, and go into his office, the way she walked the little distance to his office was the funniest thing of all. The lady was a riot.

I got off the subject there for a minute. Well back to the olden days. Latin was a subject that was required in our school at that time. Latin scared the bejeebers out of me, how would I ever learn Latin. I even had trouble with English. So I dropped out of school and got married. Well, I got out of that jam, didn’t I?

That wasn’t really the reason I got married, but I guess it’s as good as any. There are no good reasons to get married at age 17. 

 Home Ec was another subject that has been rejected, which I think is a big mistake. I learned a lot in that class that was truly helpful to my future. They need more, down to earth, studies of that nature.

Everything seems to be geared toward getting a career. We need lessons on living life with budgets, raising kids, etc.

Most parents learn as they go along. Raising kids is not the same as adopting a pet. You can’t just give them a name and feed them.

I have more beeping gadgets around here.
What was that, the cell phone, the microwave, the TV or my hearing aide?  I’ll bet the three bears didn’t have to put up with that.

Falsified World

We live in a falsified world. It seems that everyone is trying to cheat someone. Go grocery shopping, and you will see that not only have the prices risen, the can or box look the same, but it’s smaller and has less ounces than their original version had.

Coffee cans have the side caved in so it will hold less. A toilet tissue roll is narrower. One time I bought tomatoes from a fruit stand, and there was a sign over the top that said “Local Tomatoes” when I got home I discovered one of the tomatoes had a little sticker that said California. This is Washington State. I suppose once he put them in the stand they were local.

Pepsi or Coke is on sale. You need to buy four or you pay regular price. The next sale they have the stipulation that you can only buy one at this sale price. It’s a game, and the coach is out to lunch.

Online shopping is very convenient, but once you order from a business they have your email address so they can send you all their ads with the deceiving promises.  Half price it says, but you have to buy two so you get one for free. Otherwise it is not half price. I only want one. Or Free Shipping, but when you look further you are required to buy seventy five dollar amount or the shipping is not free. Who do they think I am? Oprah!

Appliances formerly would last forty or fifty years, and now they last ten or twelve years if you’re lucky. My hot water heater had a six year warranty and went bonkers in seven years.

We think our Sport figures are just fabulous because they outdo everyone else. Then we find that they have been taking a secret drug of some kind to enhance their performance.

Or they weren’t really singing the National Anthem, they were lip syncing. Then we hear, “oh no they didn’t and oh yes they did for six months.”  A beautiful lady wins the Miss America contest, and then you hear, “She is not even American, she is from India.” Just shut up for once. Why should you care where she came from? She is American now or she could not have entered the contest. It turns out she was born in America.

This is all the stupid deceptive things I can think of right now. You can probably make a list as well.

Cheer up! the best is yet to come, and that is false advertising.

Memories

Now that I am old I have discovered the very back end of my memory bank. There are things in there that I haven’t thought of in years. This one returned to me recently. When I was a child around 11 or 12 years old we lived in the country, and I attended church with my family on Sunday morning, and Sunday nights and all points in between. We prayed. I learned to pray. I prayed for this, I prayed for that. I prayed for rain, I prayed it would stop raining. I prayed for everything I could think of. That is the way I remember it. If anything went wrong I prayed about it.  A knot came up on the back of my hand. It was a small knot. We didn’t know what it was, and it didn’t hurt so it was pretty much ignored. I prayed it would go away. All kids in the vicinity attended a one room school house; it had a building with one side open for those that rode horses to school.  We were playing around that building one recess when a boy my age and I got into it over something. I can’t recall what I did to him, but he picked up a corncob and threw it at me, and I threw up my hand to protect my face. The corncob smacked the back of my hand, and when I looked at my poor hand the knot had disappeared. I said, “thank you, God.” I didn’t thank Ray for it. I’m sure you’ve heard that God works in mysterious ways. He does, even if it takes a corncob.

 I remember Ray Richards, the boy that threw the corncob. We were the same age. He died several years ago in an accident. He was very young. I can’t remember what kind of accident. I know it wasn’t a car wreck. We lived near Glencoe. Oklahoma. Ray had brothers and one sister as I remember. Billy was his sister. His brothers were James, Carl and Buddy. If he had more siblings, I don’t remember them. Maybe someone in the Glencoe area will read this and know who I am talking about. Small world you know.

It’s amazing how you can remember something 75 years ago, but forget to put the ice cream back in the freezer.

Wheels of Progress

When I got my first computer back in the early 90’s I had barely seen a computer, but I had a burning desire to find out what all the hullabaloo was about. The office I had worked in had joined the computer world before I retired, and I had some knowledge of them. I didn't know anyone that owned one so the only way I was going to find out was to buy my own. I brought that thing home and read the instructions and miracle of miracle I got it up and running. It was an MS DOS 305 or something like that. That probably is not the exact name of it, but I was able to get something on the screen and I didn't know how to close the page.  I knew you guided the mouse around, but I didn't know about the X in the corner. I joined AOL and it was a phone hookup, and you had a certain number of minutes or you had to pay more.I learned about email and they had chat rooms and they were even fun back then. They had web sites where you could find friends, and I found many friends that I exchanged email with. Everybody was sending the corny joke’s to each other. Everything was free, now you have to join things if you want to be a part of it.  What fun. I kept the "How to books for dummies" in business for a long time. I started hearing words like defrag, ram memory, windows, and floppy disc. Haven’t we come a long way? The following is one of those emails that had been forwarded to me. 

Most of my family live in Oklahoma so this is for them.

You might be an Okie if:

1. You can properly pronounce Eufaula, Gotebo, and Chickasha.
2. You think the people that complain about the wind in their States are sissies.
3. A tornado warning siren is a signal to go out in the yard and look for a funnel.  (No kidding! This really happens)
4. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway.
5. You’ve had to switch from A/C to heat in the same day.
6. You know that the true value of a parking space is not determined by distance from the door, but the availability of shade.
7. Stores don’t have bags, they have sacks.
8. You see people in bib overalls at funerals.
9. You think everyone from a big city has an accent.
10. You measure distance in minutes, (“I’m about five minutes away.”)
11.  You refer to the capitol of Oklahoma as “The City.”
12. It doesn’t bother you to use an airport named for a man that died in an airplane crash.   (Will Rogers)
13.  You go to the lake instead of the ocean.
14.  You listen to the weather forecast before picking out an outfit ti wear.
15. You know someone who has used a football schedule to plan their wedding date.
16. You have known someone who has a belt buckle bigger than your fist.
17.  A bad traffic jam involves two cars stopped at a four-way stop, each determined to be the most polite and let the other go first. (It has never, ever happened in this State)
18.  You know which State “Miam-uh” is and which State “Miam-ee” is.
19.  You know cow pies are not made of beef,
20.  You aren’t surprised to find movie rental, ammunition, and bait all in the same store.
21. Your “place at the lake” has wheels under it.
22. A Mercedes Benz is not a status symbol. A Ford F350 4x4 is.
23. You learned how to shoot a gun before you learned how to multiply.
24. You actually get these jokes and are “fixin: to send them to your friends.
25.  Finally, you are 100% Oklahoman if you have ever heard this conversation:  “ You wanna coke?”  “Yeah”  “what kind?”  “Dr Pepper”

 

 

Back On The Farm

The following story is a rerun from years ago. 

I recall an incident that happened back on the farm where I grew up. Grandpa lived with us since Grandma had passed on. Our Daddy was the preacher of the little country church. It was a very devout household and we learned very early on that there was a code of ethics that you lived up to or else. Bad words were on the top of that list. No bad words. Us kids soon learned to follow that rule, but Grandpa just didn't seem to get the message. I don't think he really gave a gosh darn about the rule because he used them all the time. One time he hooked up a team of horses to a wagon and went to a field. I don’t remember what he was doing, but it doesn't matter. When he started back to the barn the horses got spooked over something and had a run-away, they took off like flying rockets over ruts and brambles and kicking up clouds of dust a mile high, and the wagon looked like an air born missile. Some of us kids were outside and saw them coming in our direction. We were worried that Grandpa had been thrown out and may be hurt bad because we couldn't see him in the wagon. We didn't know how we were going to get the horses stopped. We thought they might even run over us. Well, not to worry, horses are smart because when they saw the house they came to a screeching halt almost at our back door. I don’t know for sure how horses think, but I think they must have thought they were safe now that they were in their own back yard, or maybe they thought the fly that had been chasing them, was no longer a threat. We've got to go find Grandpa! About the time we were talking about finding Grandpa, he managed to pull himself up and was standing in the bed of the wagon. This is the point when he began to badmouth the horses with some more of those forbidden bad words. There were some words that our tender young ears had never heard before, he finally ended it with, "I see we finally got here." Maybe you would need to be there to get the humor of it, but we thought that was about the funniest line we had ever heard so we began to snicker and chuckle a little. At the same time Grandpa climbed out of the wagon and staggered around in front of the horses and begin shouting those same words to the horses again, in case they had not heard him the first time. He had raised his voice to a full roar. By now we had collapsed into a full-blown laugh seizure. We were laughing so hard we couldn't stand up. I guess Grandpa must have noticed this because, all at once, he turned his verbal abuse from the horses to us. Grandpa sure knew how to take the humor out of something because we snapped to attention and things began to simmer down and it was back to normal. Grandpa was just having a bad day. 

My Roots

This old house was built  in about 1889 and my father was born here in 1900.  His father and brothers built it so they could move out of the dug-out they had been living in.  Grandpa had homesteaded the property.  My parents moved into it when I was about 4 years old.  We lived there until I was 14, except for a couple years we lived in Colorado.  This house was an oven in the summer months of Oklahoma. We did not have that air conditioner shown in the photo. It was a freezer in the winter months.  One of the trees in the front  is a mulberry tree and the other is a walnut tree.  I remember because we enjoyed the walnuts and mulberries. The back room was a screened in porch. The cedar tree in back was there, but it also grew up. The lower limb was just the right height to use for a bar to chin ourselves. We climbed all the trees. I had two older brothers, and what they did, I did. My mothers protests didn't deter me.  I had to wear a dress because I was a girl and I was constantly tearing my dress.  Once in a great while Mom would let me wear a pair of my brothers overalls, but I think it was a sin for a girl to wear boy clothes so it didn't happen very often.  

Time moves on and so did we.  We moved to Stillwater, Ok into a house with a  real  bathroom  inside and  running water. I was in high school by now and made new friends.  This picture is me on the left and my friend, Ruth Ann.  We were the best friends and found all the fun things to do. She came from a very poor family and I loaned her clothes because she didn't have hardly any clothes. I remember the clothes she has on in this picture were mine.  Her Dad was an alcoholic and it seems her poor mother was always sick in bed, and having another baby. When my oldest brother came home from the war the two of them met and married soon after and they moved to California. I missed her so much I thought I would die. It was the last time I ever saw her. A couple years later they divorced and we lost all contact with each other. Just two or three years ago my daughter  found her name in some records on the computer. She sent the link to me and It was definitely her, she had just passed away a couple years before. She had married again and had three boys and a girl. She named her daughter after me. The tears came when I read that. She must have missed me as I had missed her. I told Karen I wished I had named her Ruth Ann. She said, "That's okay, Mom."  

The Park

This is Randall park. A perfect  place to go walking.

Part of the scenery at Randall park.

Old age is always fifteen years older than I am.
I’ve seen a lot of change in my lifetime, and a lot 
that has not changed, it is just described differently.
I read the following in a book, and how true it is. 


 Lounge lizards have become couch potatoes.
Rumble seats have become hatchbacks.
Woodies have become vans.
Trailers have become mobile homes.
Iceboxes have become refrigerators.
Stoves have become ranges.
Lanterns have become flashlights.
Four-posters have become king-sized beds.
Roads have become freeways.
Hopscotch has become break dancing.
Work-at-home males have become house husbands.
Garbage men have become sanitary engineers.
Janitors have become environmental serenity specialists. 
Saps have become jerks.
Secretaries have become administrative assistants. 
 Or this is a more common term (Girl at the desk)
Plumbers have become rich.

Just a couple of my own observations. 
One four-letter word has replaced all bad words.
Prying means Google it.

The Day the Phone Took Over

Last night I accidentally called my brother, Ray. We only talk to each other about once in every 5 years or so. He lives in another state. For some strange reason I had put his phone number in my new cell, and fumbling around with the phone, it accidentally dialed his number. 
I thought I heard a phone ringing and put the phone to my ear, and a lady said, “hello”. I said, “well, uh hmm er I wonder who I called?” 
The voice said, “ This is Jo Lockwood.”  Then I said, “ Oh, I remember you, you’re married to my brother, Ray.” 
We were both laughing by now. I told her I had accidentally called their number, and she thought it was hilarious, since I never call it on purpose. 
We had a great time hashing everything over, and then Ray got on the phone and we gabbed about everything from our days at Rosehill School when we were kids.  How we read all the books in the two little bookcases they had. How we both still love to read. He borrows books from their library in the large print because he is almost blind, but he can still read those.  
He brought me up to date on the house we lived in on McGeorge when we moved to Stillwater. All the huge college buildings they have built there. I asked if they had built anything across the street where they used to practice football. He said it was still the same. They still practice there.  
They don’t have a computer so we can’t do email and facebook. I didn’t even tell him about the Kindle reader. It would be perfect for him because you can set the print as large as you need. 
We have been separated all these years by the many miles and in the past long distant phone calls were very expensive so we just drifted apart.  I think it’s kind of strange that I accidentally called his number. My subconscious must have been doing something behind my back. I know this is a boring post, but oh well, aren’t they all.  

Family Pictures

I wish I still lived in that house. Molly and Emily bottom step.
Laura and Katie on the top step. Deena isn't in the picture because
she was the photographer. The twins were color coded. Molly always in pink.

Grands, Laura and Katie

Emily, Daddy, Molly

Granddaughter's grew up. Molly, Cora, Emily 

This is Minnie, my late dog (LOL) Don't ever get a short dog. Their belly's are always dragging in
in the dirty grass, then they come in and wipe it off on the carpet. I miss Miss Minnie.

Remembering Trent

This is a picture my grandson, Trent, drew of me when he was 3 years old.
When he showed it to me, I asked why are those yellow lines under my eyes. He said, “those are tears.”  I remember a creepy feeling came over me and I wondered if he had some kind of ESP. He had never seen me cry. He is 3 years old, why would he think about me having tears. 
Tomorrow would be his 39th birthday, but he died in a plane crash when he was 12. Shortly after his death I was gathering up his drawings to look at. I had saved some of them. By the time he died he was on his way to becoming a very good artist. When I came across the above drawing his prediction came true and more tears rolled. 


Our lives moved on and February 13, 2010, on Trent’s birthday, God sent me a Great Granddaughter. Her second birthday is tomorrow. Now the day has a happier meaning, but we never forget.

He always had a pencil in his hand drawing another picture.

The big birthday

He made this painting when he was 10 or 11.
 I couldn't get a very good picture of it. 

Now on a happier note this is the little cutie that was born on his birthday 2 years ago.
Happy Birthday Leah !!!!

Early Era of Oklahoma

A long time ago in a far away place from where I now live, life was so different than it is today. It’s hard to compare the two. It was quiet in the old farm house. Daddy reading his bible by the coal oil lamp. Mom was taking out the bun in her long dark hair and braiding it in a long braid as she prepared for bed. Grandpa rocking in his rocker by the wood burning pot bellied stove. 
He could no longer hear so he was very quiet as nobody could communicate with him. His life consisted of rocking, reading the newspaper, taking long walks each day. He lived to be 89 and that was a very long life in the early 40’s. There was no noise outside unless a thunder storm came up.
Grandpa may have been reminiscing about his younger years and what life was like in those days in the state of Oklahoma. 

My father, Dennis Lockwood, was born in the family farmhouse in 1900. His Dad, Jasper Newton Lockwood, had homesteaded  160 acres of land near a town that was barely in existence in 1889. It was called Still Water Valley before it was known as Stillwater.  It  was listed in a map as a town with no name for a long time. 
It didn’t attract much interest because it was hard to get to without roads.  Indians began to move into the area because of the white people taking over everything else. It became known as Indian Territory. 

President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Homestead Act of 1862 so legal settlers could claim lots up to 160 acres in size. Provided a settler lived on the land and improved it, he could then receive the title to the land. 
They had what they called a Land Rush.  This is what my Grandpa entered into. They lived in Illinois or Indiana at the time. I know that my Grandpa was born in Indiana and Grandma was born in Illinois, so I am not sure where they were living.

 Some of the individuals who participated in the run entered early and hid out until the legal time of entry to lay quick claim to some of the most choice homesteads. These people came to be identified as "sooners". This led to hundreds of legal contests that arose and were decided first at local land offices and eventually by the U.S. Department of the Interior. 
Arguments included what constituted the "legal time of entry.” While some people think that the settlers who entered the territory at the legally appointed time were known as "boomers", the term actually refers to those who campaigned for the opening of the lands, led by David L. Payne. The county was named after this man.
 Several rivers flowed across Oklahoma, including the Cimarron, which received the flow of numerous small streams that flooded with the seasons. One of these persisted through frequent droughts. 

Cattlemen began to take an interest in the area because of the water from the river. It was named Still Water Creek. It was a nice stopping over place for the travelers….From there a colony of Boomers, whose presence there in 1885 forced open the Indian land to white settlement.

Grandpa came to the area alone on horseback to get involved in the Land Rush and staking a claim. Some traveled in a wagon train with many wagons and families.  They took household items and food to last for several days. There had been so much rain that the trails were soaked and muddy. Grandpa staked a claim of farmland Northeast of Stillwater. He owned the property the rest of his life and was able to attain more acres. 
They lived in a dugout while they built the house. My father was born in the new house in 1900. He was the youngest of the children. There were seven boys and one girl.  The house is still standing today, Many of the people lived in dugouts. His older sons and Grandpa built the house. It is two stories, but not very large. He had three brother that died at a very young ages. Late teens and 20's. Dad told me they died from kidney problems.  I'm not sure if that was just a guess or if anybody knew for sure.

 This story was passed down and this is the way I remember the story, my grandmother was alone in her kitchen one day when three very large Indian men came through the door. She felt they were there to kill her because that was all she had ever heard about Indians. She was frightened beyond belief. They grunted some words and she wasn’t sure what they were saying at first, but they made her understand that they would not hurt her, and they just wanted something to eat. She gave them food and they went on their way.

Grandmother was 73 when she passed away. She predicted her own death to the day, and she was not sick. She just knew what day she was going to die. I don’t know what caused her death. Maybe it’s like having faith, if you believe something strong enough it will happen. It has stuck in my head all these years. I was 4 years old and was outside playing when it happened. I don’t know why we were at their house, but I remember all the hustling and running around. People coming and going.
So I found a quiet place behind the cellar under some bushes and I sat down and fell asleep. I woke up and heard everybody calling my name.
I am in including a Utube of the a depiction of the land rush.

http://youtu.be/yxaJY8UZxn4

The Wheels of Progress

You started the car with a crank.

Back in the early 1930’s when I started to school, I learned to read with the Dick and Jane books. I have now evolved to the Kindle. I bought one today and it’s the best thing since indoor plumbing. The world has changed somewhat in that 70 year span. We always walked to school in the mud or snow or whatever elements happened to be going on. Life was uncomplicated. I considered our teacher to be rich because she had a regular job and wore beautiful dresses and had painted fingernails. Her name was Mrs. Moser. Now that I think about it, she lived in a little two-room cabin on the back of the school property. I guess I was easily impressed by pretty dresses and painted fingernails. I think I’ve evolved a little too since those days.
Anyway I have this Kindle and the main thing I love about it is a feature that enlarges the font size. That is perfect for those that have vision that can’t be corrected to normal. I have downloaded some free books because they are old ones, but I love those old books. Even the later books are not very expensive. I can sit in my chair and shop for books and if I think I want one I can download enough of the book to read and see if I like it before buying it. The very first thing I did was buy a book accidentally. Karen (my daughter) was here and setting it up for me. When I bought a book I still don’t think I touched anything, but if you do something so dumb you can check something to say it was an accident and it will be taken off and you do not pay for it. I guess I sound like a kid with a new toy. I’ll shut up now.