Thank God And The Greyhound...

She's almost done with her one hundred. After being laid reeeeeeeaaalllyyy low for the last 10 days, in my lucid times I realized I needed to finish something in my life and the awesome 100 is the closest thing on my plate right now to being finished.

So let's get it on...

81. I know I've showed you this photo before, and now for the rest of this story.

I almost killed my baby brother when we were about this age. It was an accident, but still...
We loved to play together, since I didn't kill him, we still love to play together. One of our early games became a lesson in life, in a hurry. We'd play bronc rider and buckin' bronc. One of us would be on our hands and knees, the other would take the rope reins we had tied around our necks and mount up. When the top said go, the bottom would buck and jump and rear until we tumbled the other one off... then we'd change places and go at it again.

On one of my rides, when I fell backwards I reflexively jerked the 'reins' and they tightened around Ben's neck. By the time I got momma and she got the scissors to cut the rope he was turning a real nice shade of bluish purple.

We could still play bronco, but our shirts were the reins... no more rope around the neck.

82. I can still taste lava soap to this day. Walter, our middle Bro, was put in charge of us after church until mom and dad came home. I was raggin' about something that happened in Sunday School that I didn't think was right, (and I was right) the teacher called on a kid to read that didn't read very good and he just kept after him and after we got home I was voicin' my displeasure. Bro was trying to reason with me and I told him to go to hell or some such and the mouth washing commenced. He was never able to get me to unclench my teeth, but I bet I had a 1/4 inch of Lava bar soap on my teeth before he quit. That soap tastes nasty.

83. When we had company, which we did a lot, there was one fellow, Charles Johnson, that got a kick out of seeing me stand on my head and he would give me a nickel. If I got fancy and stood on my head on a hassock (foot stool to you young'uns) he'd give me a dime. He and his wife were not only good friends with mom and dad, but they were active at our church so when we had a church party, if the Johnson's were there, I was going to earn a bit of money. Last time I saw the Johnson's was at mom and dad's 60th anniversary time. Charlie says I got a nickel if you can still stand on your head. I shook my head and told Charlie that I could still stand on my head, even at 45, but he wasn't getting to see it for a nickel. Inflation, you know.... It's a quarter now. He reached in his pocket and pulled out the quarter, grinning like a possum. I dropped right there in mom and dad's bedroom and stood on my head. Got my quarter. And you know what? At 64 I can still stand on my head.

84. If you haven't figured it out by now, I am totally irreverent.

85. By the same token, though, I absolutely believe in God and when the time comes I will be with God and Jesus, being irreverent and they will be laughing with me, because while I am irreverent, I try never to be hurtful.

86. A lot of times, especially when I'm washing dishes, standing at the sink, I stand on one leg like a flamingo with the foot of my other leg up resting on the thigh of the leg I'm standing on...
If that doesn't make sense I'll have Bro take a photo and post it. I'm all about honesty.

87. When I was way, way younger, I had two motorcycles,. The first was a Honda step-over, red, running 50ccs of power. It was on this bike that I first felt my little bitties jiggle. I was doing about 45 on a pretty lousy bumpy stretch of road and the girls JIGGLED. I had never felt that before... I turned around and drove back over that same stretch of road to make sure I felt what I had felt...Oh to go back to those days. My second bike was bigger, a Suzuki 250 X-6 road bike. Man I loved that bike. To this day if I come into unexpected money I would, even at my age, buy another motorcycle. Vrroooom, Vvvrrrrroooooom.

88. I was born with ears that have no lobes. They grow right into my neck. Ignore the wrinkles.

On a trip to my big brother's (the Old Fat Doctor) for Thanksgiving, I asked him if he would pierce my ears. Sure, says he, as long as you let me get your earrings. Okay says I, when do you want to do this. Well, we will just go to the clinic on Friday after Thanksgiving and I'll do it then. The clinic will be open and I'll have my nurse to help get stuff set up.

So on Friday I followed him to the clinic and he had his nurse setting things up and she and I were chatting while he was checking some charts there in the room with us.

Now, she is a tall rangy, country girl, Bill's nurse is, and she asked why I decided to get my ears pierced at a later age than most women she knew. I told her I decided that I liked the look of pierced ears, and besides, my ears grow right into my neck like elves ears and I have no lobes and that makes it hard to wear regular ear-bobs. She came over and looked at my ears and said, you know, you're right, they do grow right into your neck, then she said, but you don't have any tips on the top of your ears...

Yep, you're right I said, but there is a reason for that... at which point my brother's ears perk up cause he's not sure what's coming next. You know that I am the fifth of six children, she says yes. Before I came along it was boy, girl, boy, girl, and I was such a large baby, 9 pounds at birth, the doctor thought I was going to be a boy. Uh huh, she says, following the story right along.
When I came out and was a girl child with fairy ears, the doctor broke out the circumcision kit and cut those tips off my ears so I would look more like my brothers and sisters. My brother almost fell in the floor laughing.

The next time I went down for a visit I asked Bill if he would take off a couple of moles that were bothering me. He said sure, sister, but I have a favor to ask... Sure what do you need? He said, I've got a new nurse and she's not quite used to me yet so would you be real nice to her when you come to the clinic? You bet, Big Brother, I will... and I was.

89. I do love to make up dirty ditties... a song will pop up in my head and to entertain myself and, sometimes others, I have been known to take liberties with the words. That one of my more ornery things I like to do to shock folks a bit.

90. My favorite movie of all time is "Going South" starring Jack Nicholson and Mary Steenburgen. My next favorite is "LadyHawke". Rutger Haur is wonderful, as is Matthew Broderick and Michelle Pfeiffer is ethereal.

91. Novels I have read more than several times each are "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountain Head" both by Ayn Rand, and "Exodus" and "Mila 18" both by Leon Uris.

92. My favorite poets - Rainier Maria Rilke and poet/artist Kahlil Ghibran.

93. I love Nina Simone singing the blues, I love classical music, Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Rod Stevens and Ray Stevens. Bette Midler, especially "The Wind Beneath My Wings", and "The Rose".

94. A song that will bring tears to my eyes e.v.e.r.y. time I hear it, is by the artist Tomito, on the album "Snowflakes Are Dancing". The cut is his rendition on the syntesizer of "Clair De Lune". It is absolutely breath taking to me.

95. I have a great niece somewhere in this world that one of my nieces gave up for adoption. She was born on Halloween, 1987, in Ft. Worth. I was with Punkin' (our nickname for her) when she was born and stayed with her mom the whole time my niece was in the hospital. I have a lot of photos that her grandfather and I took in those 3 days, we have her foot prints on our scrubs that we wore in the delivery room. I hope and pray that she comes looking for us before I leave this world...

96. My brothers and my sister are the most important people in my life. I cherish each and every one for different reasons. I look up to and admire each of them for many different reasons and I love them all with all of my heart.

97. I have a whole mess of nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews and even some great-great nieces and nephews, all of whom are totally delightful, happy adults and children. I can go play with kids from 8 months old to 59 years old... and they all do like to play with their family members.

98. I would like to think that I have touched each and every one of them and any more to come along in my lifetime in some special way. I know I've tried to and continue to try to make them feel, each and every one, very special.

99. My dream, if I won the lottery or at least came into enough money to allow me to travel, would be to meet in real life the friends that I have made on this wondrous journey out into the blogsphere. When I began blogging I didn't even think about who might read it or how connected we would become. I just wanted to tell some stories about my family, my friends and the world I inhabit. I like to think that I'm funny sometimes and can spin a pretty good yarn. But all of you that I have been fortunate enough to feel I can call my 'friends' have made me feel so very special, rich and cared for in this stage of my life. I feel enriched and I thank each and every one of you.

100. I have a poem that I have carried with me for almost 50 years now. I read it in the Daily Oklahoman and cut it out and laminated it. It is kind of brown in color, a bit more on the fragile side, but I love it and I feel you will learn a lot about me and the kind of person I've tried and am still trying to be...

"Not By Bread Alone: After Hippocrates"

by James Terry White (1907)


"If thou of fortune be bereft

And in thy store there be but left

Two loves, sell one and with the dole

Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul."

Well, folks, that finishes my one hundred. Pretty much all you ever wanted to know, and perhaps more, I sucked up my nerve and put it out there for each and every one of you. Thank you for pushing me in many ways to try and be a better person every day.

Here She Comes Round The Curve...

Down the backstretch, heading for home.

I figured I better get back and finish my 100 before I hit my 200th post, so get your bets down as to whether I can come up with 100.

66. Me, about 1 year old. I loved my wheels. I still love a good set of wheels.

67. I'd love to be able to sing like I could when I was younger. Seems like the voice is one of those things that goes as you get older and don't practice anymore.

68. I hate grasshoppers and June bugs. Makes me shiver just writing this one.

69. When I was 4 years old, mom and dad decided that they could afford to get a bigger home. Several times I remember going with my folks to look at houses. I remember being upset that we didn't get a house that had a tennis court. I freakin' didn't even know what a tennis court was, but I sure wanted it. I could probably drive to that house even now, 60 years later.

70. I don't deal well with death and/or dying. This has been since I was not quite 13 and my oldest sister died. Mom and Dad had her laid out in our front room. If I had to go to bed I'd head up stairs through the kitchen so I didn't have to go through the living room where my sister was, and then when I'd go back downstairs I'd go out through the kitchen.

71. Obviously, if I don't deal well with death, I also don't go back to visit graves. I will go if I'm with some of my sibs and they want to go to the cemetery to visit, but I do not drive to the graves of my sister, my mom and dad, or any other loved ones. It was probably 15 years after my sister died before I could make myself go to a funeral home to honor a close friend that had died of breast cancer.

72. I'm very competitive, especially in sports. Ask my brothers. They'll tell you.

73. I lettered in 4 sports a year all 4 years of high school.

74. I won 2nd in singles and 2nd in doubles in the Okla. City Tennis Tournament the summer I was 16.

75. I had, and wore, a Nehru Jacket.




75. I also had, and wore, a pea coat and white, Navy issue bell bottom breeches, the kind that you could button down the right or left . Got them at the Army/Navy Surplus Store. I'd starch and iron them crisp and strut my stuff... when I still had stuff to strut.

76. I smoked cigarettes for about 40 years. Quit Jan. 31st, 2000.

77. My great granddaddy on my momma's side was a country doctor. More about him another time.

78. I believe that a person's sexual preferences don't make a person, just like their religion doesn't make them who they are, just like color doesn't make them who they are. I think their heart and soul makes them who they are.

79. I can't even get one foot behind my head anymore... much less both of them. That 40 pounds sure took up folding up room.

80. I really enjoy my own company. I learned as a child that I enjoyed being alone a lot. Not to say I don't like people. I do. But I just need my alone time.

Well, the race ain't quite run yet. I'm tired. I'm going to go to bed. I'll make sure to come up with 20 more when I can think 'em up. Dang, this is hard. But fun and a challenge...

I did tell you I'm competitive, didn't I?

Welcome To My World...

Won't you come on in?

Time for more of my 100 things about me or my world...

36. This is my favorite school photo. It was taken when I was in second grade. I don't know why it's my favorite. I just looked cute and I usually don't think I'm very photogenic.

37. My favorite uncle, my wonderful Uncle Bruce died at our house when I was about 8 or 9 years old. He and my Aunt Mary, one of my dad's sisters, had come to play Rook (a card game), visit and share homemade ice cream on a Sunday afternoon. We were just sitting on our screened in porch when he had a heart attack and died in just a short matter of time.

38. In 1957, my mom had her first heart attack and that was the end of my innocence and invulnerability that all children seem to have. You never think anything bad can touch you. I grieved for my Uncle Bruce, but with mom's heart attack I realized that you never knew what the future held.

39. I always wanted to be a cowboy. This was my favorite outfit. Santa brought it to me about 1952. My big brother, Bill, Mom, Dad and baby brother, Bennett, were in this photo with me. Bill was home on leave from the U.S. Army.

40. My mom and dad had been married about 62 1/2 years when mom died.

41. I do not like organ meats... no liver, gizzards or hearts. I don't care how good you think you can cook any of the above, if I can identify it visually it ain't going in my mouth.

42. I had great looking feet when I was younger. I could have been a foot model if there had been anything like that when they still looked good.

43. Mom was carrying me when this family portrait was made. Every time mom was expecting another one of us dad insisted on getting a family photo in case mom died giving birth. From the left going clockwise, dad, mom, my big brother Bill, my middle brother Walter, my oldest sister Lu Ann and my middle sister Sue. I'm still in that nice warm place in mom's tummy.

44. My favorite color is purple.

45. I am the 5th child of a 5th child, my dad. Mom used to say that's why we butted heads.

46. This is one of my favorite photos of my mom. She was rocking Walter's middle daughter, Kelley. Mom loved us kids, but she doted on her grandchildren. Any of them knew if Mama Lou was around they'd get extra love and attention. This photo says so much to me.

47. I smoked a little marijuana back in my hippie days and I inhaled. I never knew how it was going to effect me... I'd either get hungry, gigglely, horny or think I was a great comedian. I never knew who was going to come out to play, so rather liking to be in control of myself and my actions, I never did smoke very much.

48. I love, love, wilted lettuce. I wouldn't care if there was anything else on the table. I could and still can make a meal just on wilted lettuce.

49. Stupid people make me crazy. Stupid. Not ignorant. If you're ignorant you can learn from your screw ups. Stupid people just keep on keeping on doing stupid stuff.

50. I went to Hawaii back in the mid-eighties for 15 days at Christmas time. Among the places we went was to the southern most point of the United States. This tree was the last one before we got there. It was permanently shaped by the ever-blowing trade winds. I thought it was cool.

51. Liars fry me. I hate when I'm being lied to, I guess, because I don't lie very well myself...

52. My dream trip would be to go "Down Under" and go all over Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania.

53. I've always thought it would be fun to parachute jump. Bungee jumping does not, however, hold the same fascination for me.

54. I was raped when I was 16 by a family "friend". I never said anything because I figured that somehow I brought it on myself. Almost 50 years later I still occasionally wonder if it was my own fault.

55. I've had to fight with my temper for most of my life. As I've gotten older I've popped my cork more often than I care to remember.

56. I was diagnosed as an adult with A.D.D., Attention Defecit Disorder. In looking back over my life, I probably was A.D.D. from childhood's days.

57. Children that are not well behaved get on my last nerve. I guess it's a good thing that I never had any of my own.

58. I do love my Ambien as it usually helps me get to sleep, though not always. Better living through chemistry, don't you know.

59. I hate being talked down to by anyone, but especially mechanics and car salesmen.

60. I prefer 77 to 69...

61. Meet my grandmother, Lucy Irene Morgan Venable. Her daddy and a younger brother went to town for supplies. They were jumped by three men, two who held my great grandfather and one who shot him and killed him because of a grudge.

Grandmother knew the men that were involved and she carried a gun in her apron for many, many years. If she'd have ever run across them she would have shot them dead and dealt with the consequences later.

My oldest brother said she was a crack shot.

62. I function much better with a semblence of a routine. I chalk that up to the A.A.D.D.

63.I wish I had more ambition, more drive.

64. I have been known to let my mouth overload my ass. One of those things you do when you try to be a people pleaser.

65. Forty pounds ago I could put both my feet behind my head. I'm not sure I could put one behind my head now. I'll think about trying it and if I do decide to try it again I will let you know the outcome.


That's all from Washington at this time... (who used this line?) I'm gonna try to go to sleep now.

More Of Me, Why Not Take More Of Me...

26. 50 plus years ago this was not considered politically incorrect. 50 years ago we hadn't heard the term politically correct or incorrect.

My brother, Walter, is at the top, my sister Sue is in the middle and I'm the lowdown one. This was part of a vaudeville show that we performed in at our church.

The wigs and the outfits had been rented from a costume shop. About a week after the show, us kids that were in the show all started coming down with the measles.

When folks started doing a little investigating they found out that the group who had rented the outfits before us had several kids that had been infected with the measles but hadn't broken out yet.


27. I call this photo "High Hopes". All the girls in the family were under-gifted in the boob department. Mom, my two older sisters and myself were all, basically as flat as the floor.

Mom, who rarely ever teased about anything she thought might hurt someone's feelings, told me she was going to take me to a tattoo parlor and have them tattoo FRONT on my chest so if I was ever in an accident the ambulance folks wouldn't try to turn my head backwards, because my front looked like my back. I laughed, we all laughed because it was true and just one of those things all three of us girls learned to joke about rather than cry about.

My Bro (Walter) even gave me a t-shirt with fried eggs on it for Christmas one year.




28. For my fourth birthday, Judy the elephant at the Oklahoma City Zoo sent me a card.

I was so excited. I loved Judy and would get to feed her peanuts when we went to see her.

I didn't like that she was chained, but that was 60+ years ago and I was little and didn't know what I could do to change that.



29. I loved all the old time cowboys... Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, Red Ryder, Lash LaRue, Cisco Kid and Pancho, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.

30. I used to play the guitar a little. You know, back in the Bohemian Coffee Shop days and into the Hippie Era.

31. I have also been known to write a little poetry, although I did not read them in front of anyone. It was good therapy for me to learn how to express my feelings.

32. I had a panic attack on the night of my high school graduation and ducked out of the procession line before I got into the auditorium and hid out crying and shaking in the bathroom. My counselor found me and stayed with me and helped me calm down.

Scared my folks... they thought I was pulled out for God knows what and was not going to be allowed to graduate. That was my first experience with panic attacks, but was certainly not my last.



33. I took violin in grade school for 2 years. The photo was taken on 'jeans' day and I wasn't going to ever wear a dress on 'jeans' day. I'm the second from the left if you haven't figured it out already from the jeans remark.

34. I got in trouble the summer between my sophomore and junior year over a book. "Eggbert The Embryo" was the title. We were having family reunion in OKC and I went to my Aunt's house after my summer school class and I had the Eggbert book with my school books.

If you are not familiar with the book, there were illustrations of a baby with a circle drawn around him and the caption would be something like "Mom! Get this horse out of a trot!" It was very funny and not "dirty or slutty".

One of my cousins took the cartoon book to show her mom because she knew it would get a laugh. Well, some of the older aunts got a hold of it and wanted to know where this trashy book came from... Another cousin ran outside to where I was and was freakin'. She said her momma would be asking about whose it was and I told her to tell her it was mine. I was the black sheep once again at reunion time.

35. I took piano for several years. Each year we had a recital. I'm the second from the left on the front row. My next older sister was right behind me and my brother Walter is in the second row, third from the right.

We were so precious.







This is the second and last piano recital I was in... Again, I'm second from the left (what is with that?) on the middle row. My sister Sue was second from the right on the back row, next to our teacher.

I think that's enough to consume for this trip down memory lane. I don't know if I bit off more than you or I can chew, but I'm committed (or probably should be) to finish the 100, even if it kills me.

Next Installment Of 100 Things...

I thought that it would be difficult to figure out 100 things about me and my life, but that has not been the difficult part for me. Onward and upward...

11. Saying "I" so much is very hard. From childhood's hours I have been taught that "we" is more important than "I'.

"We" had cocker spaniels growing up. The one in the photo at left was Domino. There was another one at the same time that was spotted and was called Checkers. I had lost my two front teeth in this photo.


12. I have been horse crazy all my life. Here I'm getting my first "big horse" ride. I was absolutely a pest about it, I'm sure, to please take me for a ride again. All I wanted to do was be around horses. Pet them, ride them or just look at them. This was at one of our family reunions in Tennessee and my cousin (third or something) was kind enough to ride me around for a bit.

The only thing my father ever apologized to me for (and there were many things he could have picked) was not living in the country where I could have a horse. He was on drugs after his prostate surgery in his 70's when he surprised me with that little gem.

13. My oldest sister, Lu Ann, died when she was 23, about a month before I turned 13. She had a brain anuerism and died very suddenly. She left behind three children. More about her at another time.

Here I am, passing on the first ride to my niece. Nancy Lu went to Tennessee with us the summer after her mom, my sister, died. She is the youngest of the three children and is the only girl, so mom felt it was important for her to go with us to keep surrounding her with love and making her feel safe. She was two and she loved that Aunt Helen took her for a ride.

The horse we were on belonged to my Aunt Fannie (dad's sister) and Uncle Ed. He was half Tennessee Walker and half American Saddle Bred and was like sitting in a rocking chair when you rode him. I don't remember his name, but I can still feel the ride. The saddle was a plantation saddle. It was different from western saddles in that there was no horn, only a swell and overall much flatter, more like an English saddle. Lightweight and comfortable.


14. I loved to make mud pies. And I was very good at it. Mom always liked the pictures of me when I was younger because I usually had a dress on, not like when I got old enough and dressed myself. Then it was shorts or britches. If you look closely you can see, under my right hand, my toes... Barefoot again.

15. I'm a 'half-breed'. Half Tennesseean and half Texan. I used to tell dad that I was sure he was my dad because I got my 'one leg shorter than the other' from him. From always walking around on the side of the mountains...
My Texan side was responsible for my love of horses.

16. I took some modeling classes when I was 16. My sister Sue said I'd be a good model. I was tall and I 'swaggered' when I walked.


17. I got my first "perm" when I was 4. My mom and my Aunt Mack rolled me up and smelled me up. The permanent solution smelled so bad back in the day. Even worse than now. Mom was so excited that her baby girl had some curls. I don't remember it but I'm betting it didn't last very long. My hair is so straight and fine as frog hair, so unless my hair is short, the curl falls out of it pretty quick.






18. My grandmother, Lucy Irene (Morgan) Venable, was a school marm. She is on the left side of the photo, in the light lapels and she is holding a school bell in her right hand. You can click on the photo to make it bigger. There will be more stories on Lucy down the road.

19. I learned how to spin a rope when I was about 10. The only neighbor that was a girl my age, her daddy made both of us spinning lariats and taught us how to spin them. I'll have to try it again to see if I can still do it.


20. When I was in 5th grade the school had a talent show. I cracked a bullwhip. I did a repeated double crack for them and I cracked a piece of paper out of my brother's hand. Without hitting him. They would let me put out a candle, though, because of the fire codes. My daddy taught us how to crack a whip. He had used one growing up on the farm in Tennessee.

21. I was a hippie chick. Bell bottoms, hip-huggers, Indian bull hide sandals and shag hair cut. I thought I was cool, with-it and hip.

22. I love to sketch and paint (mostly watercolors). I don't do near enough of it since I got to computing. I need to try to do more. It satisfies my soul.

23. My favorite toy as a child was a ball. In my baby book my mom wrote that I could dribble a basketball 100 times with0ut missing before I was 4.

24. I went to summer school between my freshman and sophomore year in high school and again between my sophmore and junior year, because I liked school.

25. I have an exaggerated fear of throwing up. For that reason alone, I rarely drink and when I do, I will only have one or two drinks over an extended period of time.


Whew... I hope you all are enjoying this... I didn't mean to write a book. 1/4 through 100. Time for a rest break now and to go do some reading.