It's Official...

It is fall in Oklahoma... We had to turn on the heat this morning because it was about 58 degrees here in the trailer... It got cold enough for frost on the ground last night and this morning when I took the dogs out for their morning constitutional I could see my breath. I did have the foresight to put on a long-sleeved fleece jacket on over my t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, but I will have to admit to no socks on my feet and just slipping on my Crocs... Needless to say after a 10 minute walk I was ready to crawl back in under the covers.

While the official first day of fall was Sept. 22, in Oklahoma we rarely see any crisp fall mornings until late October... usually around Halloween. Speaking of Halloween, I always make sure to check out Rick's blog, Organized Doodles blog for the latest "share if you dare" that he so kindly offers up to all us bloggers, or anybody else, to 'steal' and put on our blogs... and here it is...



But back to my 'officially fall' statement... Carol cooked up a big pot of brown beans and about 4 o'clock this afternoon turned on the oven to cook meat loaf and I had to turn on the air conditioner. It was almost 80 degrees F. in the house. It was a beautiful 70 F. outside but when the west sun hits the trailer and the oven is on... it gets too warm for this old gal and her hot flashes... so the standing joke in Okie Land is when you have to turn on both the heat and a/c in one day it's either fall or spring and since it's almost November even I figured out it's fall.

Anyway, Happy Fall y'all!!!

Oh, and please pray for or light a candle for or send good wishes out for my favorite baseballers, the Texas Rangers... Finally after 50 years they made it to the World Series and so far they are playing like a high school baseball team. They are headed back home for their game Saturday against the San Francisco Giants after getting thumped bad in the first two games but all of us Ranger fans know how to hope for miracles so maybe things will turn around.

Granddaddy Sid, Part Two…

During World War II granddad worked at Tinker AFB in Midwest City.  Because he was born in Indian Territory he didn’t have a birth certificate like folks from a ‘state’ had.  They had to do all kinds of paperwork for a birth certificate to get him cleared to work since it was for the government.  I just found this out from talking to my cousin this past week.  Granddad and grandmother lived with my aunt, uncle and cousins during this time we think because my uncle worked at Tinker and they could ride together to work.  During the war everything was rationed, gas, tires, sugar and a lot more.  I don’t know if, since my uncle and my granddad worked on the planes, thus the war effort, they had any more gasoline than normal folks were allotted to be sure they could get back and forth to work.  I wish I had thought of these questions years ago when my uncle was still alive but it seems that looking at things retrospectively is when all these questions pop into my head.

My grandparents probably were dressed to go to church because of granddad having his suit coat on…  This photo would have been taken in the late 40’s I think because of this…

 I was probably two or two and a half here but the photo was taken at my aunt Mac and Uncle Bud’s place like the photo before, or at least that’s where I think it was but it could have been at the house where we lived before we moved to the ‘big house’ as I like to call it because I remember next to nothing about the little home we lived in before the big house.  My grandmother is stepping out the door, probably to chase me down, but I think that my grandparents had moved to Konawa, Oklahoma, by this time and were in Okla. City for a visit and this is why there are a number of photos that were taken at this time.

Anyway, I loved my granddaddy and although I didn’t find the pictures I was looking for at least I got you introduced to my grandparents and when I find the photos that I know one of us has I’ll be able to post them and share another post about my grandparents with you all.

My Granddaddy Sid…

First off I feel like I need to say that these posts are MY memories, things I either remember about family members or stories that I remember being told about family when I was growing up.  I imagine if you asked my four living sibs or any of my cousins about a certain time you’d probably get similar stories but from their perspectives.  Since my parents were older when I was born (36 and 41) my grandparents also were quite a bit older so by the time I started forming memories they had either gone to see Jesus or were getting close…

That being said my granddaddy Venable, my mom’s daddy, is the grandparent that I remember most because he lived longer into my life than my other grandparents.

My granddaddy Sidney Venable was born in Oklahoma Indian Territory.  His daddy, my great granddaddy, was a doctor that traveled around the Territory, mostly out from around Ada, Oklahoma, area.  This photo was, as best as we can figure, taken probably around 18-21 years of age.  Granddad turned totally gray before he was 30 so it was a delight to me to see this picture of him with his auburn hair and though he turned gray early he never lost his hair and I loved his gray, wavy hair.

He and grandmother farmed out in Canadian, Texas, in the Texas panhandle.  It was a hardscrabble life but both of them were no strangers to hard working.

At some point the family moved to Gentry, Arkansas, because that is where they were living when my momma went to John Brown School for her last two years of high school and met my daddy who was going to college for his bookkeeping degree.  I assumed that granddad and grandmother had a farm outside Gentry Arkansas because I don’t know of them doing any other type of work after they were married.  Grandmother taught school before they married but I think she just became a farmer’s wife after they married and I imagine it was a lot harder life than teaching. 

Anyway after the war started up grandmother and granddad moved back to the Okla. City area and lived with my Aunt Mac and Uncle Bud and their children, Nancy Gale, Ray Lynn and Carol, the cousin that took me in for the last November until I moved back to Norman in July.  Granddad and Uncle Bud both worked out at Tinker Air Force Base in Midwest City, a bedroom community of Okla. City.  After the war he retired and he and grandmother moved to Konawa, Oklahoma, about an hour and a half drive from OKC.  I remember visiting them in Konawa one time before grandmother had to go to the nursing home in Okla. City.  Granddad came and lived with our family after that. 

To me, he was the kindest man.  He loved to read the stories of the old west, Luke Short and

Louis L'Amour in particular. He'd sit in his rocker, upstairs in his bedroom, and read for hours. Granddaddy also played the fiddle and if we asked him he'd break it out and play a little "Turkey In The Straw" for my little brother and me. He smoked Lucky Strike cigarettes and sometimes when money was short he' roll his own.

This is getting long and I'm having trouble finding the photos I want to show you all so I'm closing this for this evening... Stay tuned for Granddaddy Sid Part Deaux.

I'm Feeling It...

I feel the earth move under my feet... actually under my whole body. I was still laying around in the bed this morning, a little after 9 a.m., and heard what at first I thought was a truck, like a dump truck that was overloaded, going down the street, a rumbling. Both dogs bailed off the bed barking like crazy and the bed started vibrating like some one had installed a heavy duty vibrator in it, the kind you could drop a quarter in the box on the nightstand at the motel in the olden days and the bed would start vibrating, not that I would know anything about that but I digress...

I was laying there jiggling and smiling that, once again in my life, I was feeling the earth move when it dawned on me that it was just that... the earth moving. I heard Carol tell whomever she was talking on the phone to that she would have to call them back, heard the recliner foot rest bang back in place and she was up like a shot heading to the door. I got up and she asked if I felt the trailer move. I suppressed a smile and said yeah... She thought at first that someone had driven into the trailer and then realized it must have been an earthquake. She got into her wheelchair and headed outside and I laid back down and turned on the t.v. Sure enough in a couple of minutes the local news broke in and said there had been an earthquake and would get back on air in about 12 minutes when, hopefully, they would have more information and would be checking with the earthquake center about the strength and where it originated. I felt that there was no alarm at all, more just letting folks know that, yes, there had been an earthquake.

There was still some disagreement on the 10 p.m. new about the strength of the trembler, 4.3 according to the national earthquake center and 5.1 at Oklahoma earthquake center. The epicenter was about 6 miles east of where we live and we figure that our California friends are saying 'big deal, snicker, snicker... it's no real earthquake unless it gets into the 6+ range' and I'd have to agree with them. I was not alarmed at all during this episode, more like curious about how strong it was that we would feel it at all. We have had reports for the last year of probably eight different quakes around central Oklahoma area and this was the first one that I've actually felt since 1952 when there was a 5.5 earthquake close to the Okla. City area. I remember that we must have had people over at the house because my sis and I were sitting together on the piano bench in the living room. I would have been seven and I remember us looking each other when the piano bench started dancing around with us on it. It was not scary to me then either. I remember being curious at the chandelier tinkling and dancing and the piano bench moving.

Anyhow... just so y'all know, in case you heard about an Oklahoma earthquake, that no one was injured or killed and only minor damage has been reported such as broken windows here and there and maybe some cracks in brick mortar in homes closer to the epicenter but all in all it was more just an unusual happening.

I'm working on my next post about my family but it will be another day or two because I will be driving a friend of ours back to Tulsa tomorrow so that will be about a six hour up, unload and drive back tomorrow evening, but I've got the post about half written... just looking for a few more photos so I hope to get it up by Friday.

All's well that ends well and all has ended well this day.