More Things I Hate - Growing Older

This is a picture taken on my 75th birthday. I'll be 80 in a few more months and dread to see a new picture with the wrinkles and gray hairs that I've added in the last five years. Worse than that are the new ailments that I have and the pills that I have to take for high cholesterol, atrial fibrilation, allergies, blood thinner, glaucoma, osteoporosis, etc. I know I should be more thankful that I'm still in fairly good health and able to stay active and stop worrying about "growing older."

Things I Love

There are more things that I love than things that I hate. I love remembering about Bob's and my courtship, brief as it was. Just thinking about the odds of our getting together again after a blind date 5 years before is mind-boggling. God had to have had a hand in it -- his mother and step-dad even lived across the street from me at one time; his friend who suggested that he call me while he was home on leave was someone I didn't know -- he worked in the post office and would see me come in to pick up my mail from my post office box. Just the fact that Bob did call me for that second blind date is a miracle as he didn't remember ever having the first blind date and didn't even know what I looked like.
Other things I love remembering are flashbacks of my sons' early years -- I can still see John's excitement when he'd see the leaves on trees blowing in the wind when I'd push him down the sidewalk in his "buggy." Or when he'd see the "bubble-lights" on a Christmas tree. And what a smart and cute little toddler he was. He could name all the parts of a car motor when he was only two years old (bet he can't do it now!) His dad taught him that. He was so grown up and always wanted to do what was right. One time when he was only 4 or 5, he was going to spend the night in his little tent under the big tree in our front yard. I had told him that he could come in anytime he wanted to but guess he didn't remember that or hear me tell him that. It came up a big storm during the night, so we got him and his tent in. He later told me that he knew it was going to storm because he had gotten scared in the night and prayed that it would storm so he'd have to get back in the house.
Have lots of fun memories of Scott too. He was little and fast and could get away from you before you knew it. If he heard the music from the ice cream truck, he'd run toward it as fast as he could go. He had a friend who was bullied by the other kids and he'd happily do the fighting back for him. He always (and still does) liked to do the more dangerous things that moms don't want their little ones doing - I hated it when Bob and the boys would go hunting, when he'd ride his Honda Mini-Trail motor bike when he was a 5th grader, playing football, gymnastics, diving and all the other things that were scary. He still hasn't forgiven me for calling the school when he was in either jr. hi or mid-hi to tell them that I didn't want them to play dodge ball in PE as I was afraid he'd get hit in the eye (he'd had a bad eye injury when he was two so we were always watchful after that). He is a very loving and attentive son and I look forward to his weekly phone calls.
I love my daughter-in-laws very much and feel blessed to have Mary and Vicky in the family. I hear my friends make remarks about problems with their son's wives and know that I am lucky that we love one another and are always happy to spend time together. They are both wise and loving mothers who have done a great job raising my grandchildren.
I love remembering growing up with my five brothers and sisters. We always had to work hard; I envied the kids who didn't have to do chores and had plenty of time to study and do their homework. Loys was the grown-up one (I've always wondered if she ever did anything wrong in her whole life!) Jack was my protector, Bud was my tormenter, Doris was my friend (most of the time) and Frank was my responsibility much of the time when he was small. I had lots of cats and dogs to play with, horses to ride, tractors and farm equipment to play on, trees to climb and housework to do (which I enjoyed). I can remember cleaning the whole house on Saturday mornings while listening to "Let's Pretend" and "Route 66" on the radio. The whole family would gather around in the evening to listen to "Inner Sanctum Mysteries," "Green Lantern," and other fascinating stories on the radio. I loved to read but we didn't have a lot of books and magazines or access to the library. Our grandparents had lots of farm magazines and the "Look" magazine in their window seat and I liked to rummage through it when we visited them on Sunday afternoons. They also had the first air conditioner I'd ever seen; my granddad made it himself with wood, screen, excelsior and a fan and installed it in a window. (I thought he was wonderful and that he probably looked a lot like God does.)
I'm thankful that I had good, hard-working, God-fearing parents. They made sure that we were honest, knew the value of hard work and saving money and were truthful. I miss them very much.
I love mornings; guess most would think it's boring, but I love time spent having breakfast and coffee with Bob, working the cross word puzzle, sitting on the patio in the mornings when it's cool, watching the beautiful robins in the back yard and just doing what I like to do for a couple of hours.
Sometimes I think I'm the luckiest person in the whole world!

Things I Hate

I hate to see people doing things that don't help them in any way but have the possibility of doing much harm - for instance, drinking (loss of money, job, friends, reputation, drivers license, etc., etc.). In my relationships and jobs I've seen this happen over and over. What starts out as "cool" can become a habit that is hard to overcome. Friends should be chosen carefully; if they have bad habits and encourage you to join in, then you need new and different friends. I guess I'm old fashioned but to see beautiful young women intent on "partying" and then how it affects their image of purity and honoring the Lord makes me recoil. I mentioned my opinion on drinking to someone recently and was told "Everyone does it!" That doesn't mean that it's the right or smart thing to do. Again, risking being considered "old fashioned," I think girls and women should be "lady-like" and stay away from beer (over a time, it makes you have a big protruding belly too) and any kind of drink that can make you lose your resolve. (For the record, I also think it is stupid for guys to drink too!)

The Year Without Christmas

When we visited Scott, Vicky and Taylor in 1996 at Christmas time, I mentioned that my family had no Christmas when I was 9 years old. (My mother was expecting her sixth child at age 39 and wasn't happy about it at -- so we all had to suffer when she just skipped Christmas.) I had almost worn out the Sears Roebuck catalog and had high hopes that Santa would bring the small toy refrigerator with the play food that I wanted so badly. Taylor was astounded that we had no Christmas then and wanted to know why Santa didn't leave toys for all of us. I told him that I'd write to Santa and ask him to explain. He answered (looks like Scott's handwriting) with the poem that's below my letter.

December 24, 1996

Dear Santa, When I was a little girl, 9 years old, I hung my stocking on a chair (because we had no fireplace). I wanted you to bring a little toy refrigerator with 'play' food in it. When I got up Christmas morning and ran to my stocking, there was nothing in it -- I did not get anything at all for Christmas (and neither did any of my brothers and sisters)! Please tell me why you did not leave anythng for me that year. Jean (Peters) Moss

Dear Jean,

Rudolph had his bulb burn out;
Dasher caught the flu;
Dancer must have overslept;
Prancer lost his shoes.

Comet forgot his glasses, Donner and Blitzen drank too much beer;
They were always wanting to stop and pee;
So I said, "Forget it - we'll catch you next year!"

Santa

Just in the Nick of Time!
Today, September 28, 2006, I called my sister, Doris Ann Harp, to wish her a happy 78th birthday. As we were talking, she told me two stories about our dad, Walter A. Peters, that I'd never heard.

The first story was about a time that Dad was living alone on the home place (after our mother had passed away). It was Saturday, and her husband, Hubert, asked her if she was going to Davidson, OK to see Dad. Doris said, "No, I'll just go tomorrow. As she was driving downtown, she said for some unknown reason she turned onto Wilbarger Street and then on to the highway from Vernon, TX to Davidson, Ok. She said she didn't know why she went on to Dad's house as she hadn't planned to. As she topped a hill near Dad's house, she saw a large fire behind his house. She hurried on, parked next to his house, and then ran to where the back yard was on fire. She saw Dad lying on the ground, exhausted from trying to put the fire out with buckets of water from the hydrant next to the house. She said the fire was all around him. Quickly she grabbed the bucket and started dousing the fire; then got him up and out of danger. Afterwards he told her that he had prayed that she would come! He'd been burning trash and somehow the fire got away from him and set the yard on fire. He'd tried to put it out with the buckets of water but wasn't able to and then collapsed from exhaustion. The fire continued to burn all around him. Talk about answered prayer!!!!! I'm sure that she saved his life that day.

Another story was one that I had heard part of - but not all. She said that when Dad got sick the final time and had to go to the hospital, she was in the room with him. He told her to look at that picture on the wall (a scene with a road going off into the distance). He said, "I'm going down that road; I can hear them singing and I'm going to church there." I'd only known of him going to church a few times -- to funerals, and once to a revival where he was very uncomfortable because of the flambouyant preaching and collection of offerings in large ice cream buckets by the revival team. He was a Christian but didn't care much for preachers as their small church's pastor often ate Sunday dinner at their house and would always tell him to go feed his horse (he thought the pastor took advantage of his parents' generosity).

While Doris was there, he asked her to cut off that light as it was so bright. She started to flip it off at the switch and he said, "No, it's up higher and it's too bright." We wondered if he was being ushered into Heaven with the music and the light. My brother, Jack, also told this story of his last few hours with him in the hospital. Dad told Jack to look out the window at that man on a horse. Jack said he didn't see anyone or a horse and told him that. Dad said, "That man is on the most beautiful horse I've ever seen and he's coming to take me with him!" He passed away shortly after that. (I hope that is the way I go up to Heaven as I've always loved horses and used to help my dad round up and move cattle.)

I Hate Flying

First of all, I nearly always have severe ear pain when flying. One of my doctors suggested that I use a nasal spray so I do and that has helped. I also take a Tylenol Extra and use wax ear plugs that completely cover the ear canal just before the plane departs and have not noticed as much pain as I had before doing this. Then, too, it seems that Bob and I always end up in the wrong line and have to be directed to the correct one. I find that I'm always the one who is in line for expanded security checks of some kind; must have a target on my back or something. Even when I flew from Tulsa to Lubbock after having gall bladder surgery and was in a wheel chair - yep, they went thru my carry-on bag, checking my lingerie carefully! I was scanned and patted down in Tulsa last Thanksgiving. Guess grandmas are suspect. Next month we'll fly American Eagle from Roswell to DFW and then have to change terminals there to change planes and fly on to Colorado Springs. It really stresses me out to not know what tasks I have before me and to not be familiar with my surroundings in any situation. I searched for a link to the DFW airport and the terminals this morning and learned a lot about Skylink, which terminals AA uses, security, etc. There were videos of each terminal and it was almost like being there to take the tour which showed the gates, Skylink entrances, etc. I hope that with all this information we won't seem like such country bumpkins when trying to change terminals and planes. We're looking forward to Brandon's and Lisa's wedding and to seeing John, Mary, Scott, Vicky and Taylor, as well as Brandon and Lisa and meeting her family. 'Til next time, G'Ma

Changing Times

How can an event make you so happy and so sad at the same time. Last weekend our only granddaughter graduated from Baylor University. We were so proud of her excellent grades, honors, beauty, morals and just the sweet young lady she has turned out to be. She is one of the fortunate who has a job waiting - with Unitrends in Boston, MA and she is excited to be moving there in just a few days. I was sad when I read that she "has a one-way ticket to Boston!" That sounds like she's never coming back home to Irving. Right now she thinks it's great to leave home, have her own apartment (in the same city where her boyfriend, Paul, lives), and be independent. We know that she will eventually realize that she misses the whole family she leaves behind - her mom and dad, brothers and even Goldie, the cat! Plus us - the grandparents in New Mexico - just 8 hours away from her old home in Irving. I remember when I left my job and family in Oklahoma, also at age 22, to marry the love of my life in Albuquerque, NM. Thought I'd never look back. That changed when, just a week later, Mothers Day rolled around. Tho Bob never knew it, I cried most of that weekend when I'd think of my family gathering to honor my mother without me for the first time in my life. I hope, tho, that Kathleen finds, just as I did, happiness, love, success, and many precious memories of the first 22 years of her life.