This week's assignment

Weekend Assignment #19: Tell us about an entry in someone else's AOL Journal or blog that really left an impression on you in the last year. Why does it stand out for you? Include a link to it within your entry (come back here and link to your entry in the comments).

OK, it's strange how I found this journal.  I went to AOL community, journals, and put "Kansas City" in the search there, hoping to find some local folks I might some day meet.  But very soon I was hooked.  And he has another guy leaving comments about his life and how much they have in common, so it's like reading two journals in one. 

http://journals.aol.com/toonguykc/InnerOuterDemons/

Both of these fellows are great story-tellers, and I'm seeing a different point of view than mine, which never hurts anyone.

 

The Nerveless Nocks

One free act we saw our first day of the fair was the Nervous Nocks:  Two of them climbed to the top of sway-poles and did some hair-raising stunts...

and others of the group got inside a big, slotted metal ball on motorcycles and rode upside-down and around... one going one way, one the other.  The girls were thrilled to have their pictures taken with the two motorcycle daredevils.

There were lots of places to get free balloons, and Monica and Natalie would carry them around until they got tired of messing with them, then release them into the air.  Below is the children's barnyard, where the girls saw a newly hatched chick, as well as some pipped eggs about to release the prize within.

At Hedrick's petting zoo, we saw a mother goat back in a corner pen (shown below) giving birth; baby #1, still damp, was beside her while she pushed hard to get baby #2 out.  We waited a long time, but finally moved along without seeing an actual birth. 

These folks have well-cared-for animals that seem to love the attention they receive from kids.  If you choose, you can purchase food for the animals and let them eat from your hands.  Don't hold any paper within reach of the pygmy goats when you're petting them:  Monica still laughs about the time, last year, with a goat grabbed my daily program and ate it all!

What a wonderful, varied, mysterious world is the State Fair!

Home from the State Fair

I love opening day at the fair, mainly because I love bargains.  And the first Thursday of the fair is truly bargain day.  Corn dogs for a buck, all day long; $1 off the normal price of funnel cakes; drinks for $1; admission fee, $1; oh, and the opening night concert, $5.  Natalie and I each had three corn dogs; Monica opted for a funnel cake.  The three of us shared a bag of cotton candy, and we had had ice cream cones at one point.  I also like opening day because it's a much smaller crowd.

 

The temperatures were amazing for August:  In fact, my sleeping bag was barely enough to keep me warm in our popup camper Thursday night, when it got down to 50 degrees.  It was a great time, and I'll have more to tell later. 

I'll see you Sunday!

First of all, I have to ask you to look at the entry of a couple of days ago, at the picture of Monica listening to the Governor (now keep in mind, the Governor always helps pass out free Hostess cupcakes after the opening ceremonies at the fair):  Her mom asked the other day, "What's the Governor's name?"

Monica answered, "I don't know, but last year he was selling Twinkies at the fair."

I can imagine her teacher's astonishment at the answer she gets if she asks, "OK now class, who can tell me, what is the Governor's job?"

I have to share this photo I found in my mom's stuff last night.  It was taken in 1967; it's my husband and my son, my firstborn baby.  Jimmy had colic for months after his birth and cried ALL the time.  To give me some relief, Cliff would get on my dad's Sears Suburban garden tracter (we lived in my parents' back yard at the time, in a mobile home) and drive around until the baby went to sleep. 

My dad eventually sold that garden tractor to my brother-in-law, Russell, who used it over the years, had the engine rebuilt eventually, and painted it a different color.  Russell passed away a couple of years ago, and, having no need for the lawn tractor, my sister sold it to us.  Cliff's hobby is old tractors, and I wanted it for the sentimental value; after all, it used to by my dad's!

Last winter, Cliff used it to haul hay bales to the three cows, and he mows with it sometimes.  Isn't it amazing that something built in 1967 is still going strong? 

Here's what it looked like when we bought it last year.  Cliff will eventually paint it in its original colors, and it will look just like it did when it put my baby boy to sleep.  We sold that hideous snow-blower, since we rarely get enough snow here in Missouri to need it.  And Cliff restored the hood, which my brother-in-law had  altered so it would take a bigger battery. 

Wish me luck folks, I'm off the the State Fair today!  Two granddaughters are asleep in the other room as I type this, and once they wake up, it'll be a whirlwind around here getting things loaded.  God bless you every one!

What a year this has been!

This year started out sad, with my mom dying in January... but even that was bittersweet, because she had been so unhappy for the previous two years, and it was a relief to see her at peace, finally.  People tell me, "Oh, you'll probably live to be a hundred; look at your mom (she was 91)."  But I don't want to live to be so old I can't make it to the bathroom by myself.  Sorry.

My mother died at the very time I had planned to fly to visit my sister at her winter home in Mission, Texas, with my daughter.  So we postponed that trip to February.  It was Rachel's first commercial airplane flight.  We stayed three days, and had so much fun:  We picnicked in the sand at South Padre Island  and shopped in Mexico, where we bought plenty of junk souvenirs (but also some neat stuff), and just enjoyed the lovely weather in general.

In April I flew to Dallas to gather with long-time Internet friends I met in an old chat room that's now defunct.  In May, Cliff and I went to Branson and had the time of our lives.  In June, I spent a week with a friend, Joanna, near my nation's Capital.  What a thrill to see the Lincoln Memorial first come into view.  In July my Georgia son and his family were here for their yearly visit, and I enjoyed them to the fullest.  Tomorrow my traditional visit to the State Fair begins, with grandchildren in tow.

Cliff and I haven't been to a single tractor show this year, but we have plans to go to the Old Thresher's Reunion at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, on Labor Day weekend.  And I'm hoping our budget can stretch enough to accomadate one more trip to Branson this fall.  Whew!  It makes me tired to just sit here and list all of that.  No wonder life is whizzing by so fast.

awaiting Thursday

I spent a good part of yesterday evening planning my first day at the Missouri State Fair with Monica and Natalie.  Opening day at the fair is "bargain day".  It's $1 admission, instead of the usual $7... or $6 for senior citizens (although kids under 12 are free, so this only saves me $5).  Lots of food items are $1 at certain stands, so this is the day to buy corn dogs, caramel apples, and Cokes.  And then there's the $5 concert:  this year it's Charlie Daniels.  I'm not a huge fan of his, but I think for that price, the girls and I will enjoy his music.  Last year Sawyer Brown opened the fair, and Monica and I had a great time of it.  This will be six-year-old Natalie's first time at the fair.

That's Monica last year, at the opening ceremonies, during the governor's speech (that's his son beside him).

I've always loved the hoop-la of those ceremonies at the Missouri State Fair.  The parade is mostly antique and classic cars with politicians riding in them, and it gets rather boring, especially for children.  And the governor's speech isn't really anything to write home about, no matter who's in office.  But somehow it's part of the total package, and I love it all.  Besides, right after the governor speaks, someone sings the National anthem, and Stealth bombers swoop over the crowd out of nowhere.  Then the Hostess company passes out Twinkies and cupcakes, and we head across the street to the grandstand for the cheap show.  We should get to Sedalia in time Thursday to see a couple of the freebies on the grounds... perhaps the MaPaPa acrobats, or the Extreme Canines.  There'll be plenty to see, and we'll be lucky of we can hit everything in three days.  Friday, of course, will be devoted to using our "unlimited rides" wristbands, already bought and paid for.  But I'm sure we'll need an occasional break from riding, and we'll catch the pig races, petting zoo, and so forth at some point during our three-day stay.  Cliff intends to join us Saturday, and spend that night in the camper with us.  Two more days of work, and then the fun begins!

dreams put on the back burner

This picture was taken near the Missouri River, where I often ride my horse.  There's a story here if you look closely.  Can you see the telephone pole, to the right of center?  And the tree (or trees) just beyond it?  Cliff's brother, Phil, used to live there. 

Like Cliff and I, he had a dream, back around 1970, of getting out of the city and owning a little place in the country.  He got what he felt was a great buy on this river bottom ground.  There was an old barn there then, nothing more.  He and his wife shopped around and found a double-wide mobile home for the place, and moved in with their two boys.  A dream come true, obviously.

Until the flood.  I'm not sure what year it was, but it must have been the early 70's.  It was one of those years when one flood followed another:  Phil and Faye would find someplace to stay while their access road and yard became a body of water, then go home when the river went down.  But finally the big one came and swept their home away. 

They could spend years paying off a mobile home that no longer existed, or take bankruptcy; they chose the latter.  They then found a country place to rent in the same school district, drove old cars for a while until their good credit record was restored, and finally bought a house in a nearby mid-sized town, which they eventually sold, and bought another, nicer house.  Little by little over the years, as their boys grew (and they had two more), they pulled themselves back to the point where they had been before the flood wiped them out.

Now Phil's retired, and he has a lovely 100-acre place about a half-hour from here.  He dabbles in selling real estate, sort of a sideline in his retirement.  He has cattle (in fact, he's the owner of the bull we borrow for our cows).

He's a perfect example of how, with patience, if you keep your dream alive, you can come out the winner even after the most devastating loss.  And every time I ride Blue down near the place where Phil's dreams were shattered, I'm reminded to never give up.  There's a poem by John Burroughs that I've loved since I was a child, entitled Waiting: 

Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind nor tide nor sea;
I rave no more 'gainst time or fate,
For lo! my own shall come to me.

I stay my haste, I make delays--
For what avails this eager pace?
I stand amid the eternal ways
And what is mine shall know my face.

Asleep, awake, by night or day,
The friends I seek are seeking me;
No wind can drive my bark astray
Nor change the tide of destiny.

What matter if I stand alone?
I wait with joy the coming years.
My heart shall reap where it has sown,
And garner up its fruit of tears.

The waters know their own, and draw
The brook that springs in yonder height;
So flows the good with equal law
Unto the soul of pure delight.

The stars come nightly to the sky;
The tidal wave unto the sea;
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
Can keep my own away from me.