Loved Life And All Challenges

About the time I think I've told you everything that's stored in my memory bank,

I realize there's more! A trip back "home" to Springfield, Missouri yesterday was like walking down memory lane. 

It was filled with family and food,

really good Mexican food!

We drove by a million place where we've had coffee,

or spent nickles when I was a kid.

Places where I was spelling bee champion,

and places that inspired me to dream about what my life could be.

I walked these halls as a freshman feeling very small and unprepared for what life held for me. Yesterday when I stood in front of Central, somehow I felt 14 again. It was 1966, I had yet to meet the love of life, ahead of me was motherhood and travel, elation and despair, growth and loss.

I miss my brother. I miss talking to him on the phone and email. We never had the chance to text each other, he would have taken to that like a duck to water...he was like that!

He was the kind of person who loved to learn new things. He loved cool cars, pressed jeans and once he ate 8 hot dogs, one after the other!

Marble pyramid made by Hobert Sheldon Risley February 1960, age 13.

The Bridge of my Childhood

When you cross over the bridge of my childhood...also known as Lake Taneycomo Bridge you enter a world unlike any other. 

It has houses that defy common sense...

The Titanic shouldn't be on the corner of Gretna and Highway 76...

Planes have landed on waterfalls... 

Ivy skulls invite kids to come play mini golf,

and a 100 foot chicken invites you in... for fried chicken nonetheless!

Or you can go back through the bridge of my childhood and this time it takes you back to a time I am familiar with.

I remember catching big stringers of crappie in the springtime of the year. 

In every nook and cranny there were old coolers that kept our pop cold and kerosene lamps that lit our campsites. Orange life vests were stowed under the seats of Daddy's old fiberglass boat, waiting for our weekend fishing trips.

That lake has given countless memories to countless families through the years. Long Creek, Blue Eye, Shell Knob we fished each cove, caught our limit and took them home.

Branson, Missouri is a unique place that has something for everyone!

Failure is Not an Option!

I had some amazing teachers as a child who inspired me. My second grade teacher, Mrs. Hayes immediately comes to mind. Oh, how I loved that woman! She was kind and patient, guiding and directing the 30 impressionable lives for the 9 months she had us. We learned how to add and subtract, all about the World in Social Studies and how to write in Cursive. But we learned so much more from Mrs. Hayes. We learned trust and responsibility and that honesty was the best policy. I'll never forget Mrs. Hayes or that feeling when she would have me collect the milk money each morning. It was good to be so young and trusted to do an important task.

The famous people below overcame that feeling of failure and reached for the stars. They struggled with disappointment and criticism, but somewhere along the way in spite of discouragement... they excelled.

Abraham Lincoln, former US President first went into politics at the age of 23 when he campaigned for a seat in the Illinois General Assembly and failed. He then opened a general store which failed after only a few months.

Harry S. Truman, former US President was rejected by the US Military & Naval Academies due to his poor eyesight. At one point he was a clerk in a newspaper mailroom, and also an usher in a movie theater.

Michael Jordan, the most famous name in basketball was actually cut from his high school basketball team.

John Wayne - Before his successful acting career he was rejected from the United States Naval Academy.

Steven Spielberg - This household name dropped out of high school and applied to attend film school three times but was unsuccessful due to his C grade average.

Beethoven - His music teacher once told him that he was a hopeless composer.

Babe Ruth - This baseball legend struck out 1,330 times.

Henry Ford - The Ford Motor Co was Henry Ford’s third business, the first two didn’t work out.

Winston Churchill - This former British Prime Minister did poorly in school and had a speech impediment in his early years.

Walt Disney - He was fired by the editor of a newspaper for lacking in ideas.

Soichiro Honda - The founder of Honda was turned down for an engineering job by Toyota after World War Two.

Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita - These two were the founders of Sony, but one of their first products was an electric rice cooker. They only sold 100 or so of these cookers because they tended to burn rice rather than cook it.

Charles Darwin - His father told him he would amount to nothing and would be a disgrace to himself and his family.

Albert Einstein - He learned to speak at a late age and performed poorly in school.

Thomas Edison - As a boy he was told by his teacher that he was too stupid to learn anything.

John Grisham - This best selling novelist’s first novel was rejected by sixteen agents and twelve publishing houses.

Isaac Newton - He failed at running the family farm and did poorly in school.

Henry Ford said,
“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”

Pamenna Cheese

There's hardly a household in the south that doesn't have a jar (or two) of these up in the pantry. You never know when you're going to make deviled eggs or potato salad and if you plan on making a batch of pamenna cheese you will need the whole jar, at least that's the way we always used it. My Grandmother was the maker of the delicacy, but Mom would buy Mrs. Price's at Ralph Browns Grocery. I don't remember a time when it wasn't in the fridge, toward the back next to the small curd cottage cheese. It was a staple. In the summer, I'd come inside from playing and make myself a pamenna cheese sandwich on white bread. It was one of the few meals I ever made for myself. I'd set there with my feet swinging under that old chrome table and taste the deliciousness of the 3 ingredients. It was good!

Pimento Cheese

1 lb. block of extra-sharp cheddar cheese (not the kind that’s already shredded)

1/2 cup Hellman’s mayonnaise

1 jar diced pimentos 

cayenne pepper to taste, optional

Grate cheese with a grater. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir it up, and enjoy! I recommend eating on saltines, celery, or on plain white bread. 

Summers, Summer's, Summers'

I think I've told you before that I was Spelling Bee Champion at my elementary school, Mary S. Boyd. It's not something that I still hold onto, I'm sure I've been out spelled for years now and I'm OK with that. What bothers me is that I've lost so much of my ability to retain the rules of writing and spelling, punctuation, the use of the English language. Anal, obsessive-compulsive or just embarrassed, I don't know for sure the write right way to write. Are you following me? Is it happening to you too?

Until I started writing down my thoughts on this blog 3 years ago, the most writing I ever did was checks. Yes, even more than writing letters, I wrote checks! So, I guess you get out of practice in time. You are a forgiving lot, my blogging friends who know I write "Arkan-ese!" I should not try to embarrass my Arkansas family since I am truly from Missouri so I'll just say "Ozark-ese!" Whatever, I write like I talk in person and it's a mixture of all the blood I have in me going back to pioneer days when my Grandmother's family migrated from East Tennessee. My Great-grandmother was full blooded Cherokee and came to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears.

Iroquoian is the official language of the Cherokee and according to Wikipedia, it's in imminent danger of extinction. Just like me, they are losing it by not using it. Less than 10% of the Cherokee people still speak or understand the language of  their ancestors. There are language programs in place, but there's just not much interest anymore. If you'd like to see what Cherokee looks like on a keyboard, you can click HERE. It's unique, they use Roman orthography with certain accents and symbols added to represent sounds not available in the 26 letter Latin alphabet. I think it's a lost cause on me, I can't even keep up with the correct use of apostrophes!

Thanks for the Memories!

The Blue Whale of Catoosa, Ok. Route 66

Boy, oh boy, do I love to get my hands on the perfect picture! One so good, you don't even have to put words with it to tell a story! This one, hooo boy, does it speak to you? To me it makes me remember all of those roadside attractions we stopped at during my childhood. We traveled Route 66 a lot, and it didn't really matter where we were going. It was the trip and not knowing what was around each curve!

My parents took a trip back to California when I was 2, it was 1954 so I really don't remember it other than seeing these pictures a million times. Mom's family lived there, all except her Mom and Dad who lived in Arkansas. They actually went with us on the cross country trip. That's 6 people in that car you see behind them... HOW did they do that? 

All along the way, they never passed up a chance to take a picture. Approximately 1800 miles and dozens of stops along the way to take advantage of a photo op! Mom's hobby was photography, she called it Kodaking!

I look at these pictures and I see it was hot summertime, you know they didn't have ac in cars then. Wow.

Mom and Dad were a good match, she loved stopping for pictures and he loved stopping to try out cafes. He used to call it "local flavor," he was afraid he'd miss something good!

Taken somewhere, 1957, I'm not sure since Mom didn't write on the back. It most likely was a Sunday drive, we did those a lot. Probably the Ozark mountains behind us. Memories for later, now it's later. 

Thanks for the memories Mom and Dad!

*Thanks to daughter Stephanie for taking that great shot of the Blue Whale. You are proudly carrying on the Kodaking tradition!

Roaring River State Park

 We took a little road trip up into Missouri last week to Roaring River State Park. It's just a little ways up the road from where we live, so why haven't I been back for like 40 years? In reality, I've been a little busy. We moved to the Gulf Coast, then we lived on the West Coast several years and then the East Coast. Finally back to the Midwest, Texas and then Arkansas. The most important thing, I found my way back to this beautiful place!

      Roaring River runs along shady limestone bluffs, and over 20,000,000 gallons of water flow from the spring.each day. The park's hatchery stocks the streams with more trout each night. The abundance of fish allows visitors to bring home their catch of 4 trout every day.

     

 You can see in this picture the deep blue spring- breathtaking! There are 7 trails cut through the park's rugged terrain, plus a lodge, cabins and beautiful campsites.

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 For 2 1/2 miles the icy cold water meanders along and fishermen dot the banks.

  

 Let me mention one more time...you get to bring home 4 trout a day, no charge, as in FREE! Look at the size of these Trout Almondines!

For more info on Roaring River State Park, visit Missouri State Park's website and plan a trip soon!

Meals that Matter

It's been a year since Joplin, Missouri faced the worst tornado in US history since record keeping began in 1950. The EF-5 tornado took so much from them; their homes, cars, livelihood... basically everything. So much devastation, as far as the eye could see. Homes, businesses and the saddest of all... 161* lives were lost and thousands were homeless Sunday May 22, 2011 when a tornado ripped through the heart of town. It took the top two floors of a solidly built hospital, it took schools and nursing homes and shopping centers. It took homes and trees and front yards where kids used to play. Joplin was a beautiful small town, Home Sweet Home to 50,000 people. Joplin was a great place to raise kids and buy a home and grow old. In only a few minutes their world was turned upside down. 

Within hours, Tyson Foods sent teams of volunteers with grills, food and emergency supplies. For decades now they have responded to disasters by doing what they do best: feed people. The folks at Tyson open their hearts and their wallets to communities just like Joplin whenever they are needed. Last year was an especially demanding time when tornadoes stuck with fury in the US. Just six weeks prior to the Joplin tornado, Tyson was in Northern Alabama with 270,000 pounds of of food. 

Crews from 10 Tyson locations including Monett, Sedalia, Noel, Missouri and Rogers, Arkansas were among the first to help out with the cooking. It's a huge undertaking to organize such an effort, many elements have to "come together." There are so many needs that it's hard to know what services will be needed the most. Food, ice and water, storage for products being cooked, supplies... in all there were 6 tractor trailers on site. In the weeks that followed, 120,000 pounds of food were served to the citizens and emergency workers in the Joplin area. That was a 24/7 job, 2,000-3,000 meals per day.

Much was learned during the weeks that followed. Tyson took those lessons back to headquarters at Springdale, Arkansas and put together a 53 foot, self contained trailer outfitted with enough space to store 20,0000 pounds of meat. The transportation division of Tyson took the lead and planned out a truck that is designed to set up and run a cooking site complete with tents and lights, sanitation equipment, cooking and serving supplies, a generator, hydraulic lift and even a Wi-Fi hot spot via satellite! When disaster strikes, the "Meals that Matter" truck; along with grills and volunteers can be on site within 72 hours.

Ed Nicholson, Tyson's Director of Community Relations, said the company has signed a formal statement of collaboration with the American Red Cross to become a Disaster Responder Partner. "We think that's going to make quick response more efficient, being able to get in and get situated faster. They know us, we know them, so there's some trust built up." The Red Cross counts on partners like Tyson to provide the funds and supplies needed when disaster strikes. Nicholson said food safety is another area where Tyson can help out the Red Cross, "The last thing they want to  do is make people who are hit by tragedy sick... it's critical of what we do."

The residents of Joplin have struggled over the last year to recover and rebuild. With the help of many volunteers and the strength and determination of the Missourians that call Joplin home... the community is on it's feet again. What Americans do best... follow their heart and help others in need!

*The official loss of life was 160, it was later found that one fatality died of  injuries unrelated to the tornado.