October 2017: Where Did I Leave My Cane?

Fran and I love going to sales. Any kind of sales, yard sales, garage sales, estate sales. This includes flea markets inside and outside. I have a cane in each vehicle and 2 in the house; one on each end since we live in a mobile home.

One day in September when Fran's niece and her family was here I lost my cane. Everyone was looking all over for it because I needed it! The weekend was Labor Day and Stockton had a town yard sale day with sale after sale going on. Who knew where in the world I had left it. I figured someone had sold it on their sale. Someone found it and I was so relieved.

As time went by on into October, Fran found himself back tracking our steps looking for my cane. One day he found it at a flea market out of town and they had put it back hoping I would be back for it. They are open only 3 days a week so it took several weeks to find it. After that day, Fran and I talked and decided if I kept forgetting my cane, I probably didn't need it. I now keep it in the vehicles for "just in case" days. In case of rough ground especially. You folks that have never been dependent on a cane have no idea how freeing it is to be able to peruse narrow aisles of flea markets and not have to be reliant on a cane to help you maneuver them.

We live in a small town of 1800 people and a lot of the people in town know us by name. Fran has been singing at the Walnut Festival for years until just the last few, and of course, he sang  karaoke at the Viking Club for years before I met him. My point being is that generally when we walk into stores in town they call us by name or always smile and ask how we are doing today. I love small towns.

Getting back to flea markets. I have one flea market that knows me by name because I can even call her on the phone and ask if she has this or that. The this or that is generally something put of the ordinary for our fifth wheel, my teapot collection, or for Marie's house.

One day I asked her if she had a ceramic paper towel holder; she said she did. I couldn't believe it. I wanted it for the fifth wheel because it would be heavy for the counter and I didn't want holes drilled in the wall for a wall mount one. I love it and it is just what I wanted.

The camper is generally stocked with special purchases from flea markets.

Tomorrow I will tell you what happened in November 2017. The start of my new life. See you then.

                                                 

This little cartoon lady is no longer me!!

                                                

September 2017

In September, the Missouri RX program was discontinued. That was a state program that was a 50% discount on prescriptions. My seizure medicine went from affordable to not affordable. Having a grand mall seizure is an experience that people never want to have after having just one. I have had several. In my case the seizure aftermath lingered for days; forgetfulness, foggy brain feeling, just a horrible thing to have to go through.
Well, what to do? I called my insurance company and told them what was happening in Missouri and the importance of me having a medicine that I could afford and did they have something. I asked the nurse for three medicines that I could research and that's when Google and I became really good friends.
I did my research and then called my doctor. He and I agreed on a new medicine and guess what? It cost $5.00 a month. It has no side effects and I feel better than I have in years.
My 55th class reunion was in September of last year and we went to Iowa to see my old friends that I hadn't seen in forty years. I had seen some of them individually, but as a group it had actually been forty five years. Oh my, did we have a lot to talk about!
I had only been taking the new medicine for about two weeks and was still having some trouble walking, but I could tell something good was going on.
When I was in high school I had three really good friends, Joan, Pam, and Sharon. Sharon lives a long ways away and couldn't come, but Joan and Pam and I got to visit a lot.

Class of 1962 that attended 55 years since graduation!

I knew almost everyone, but one lady had me stumped and of course, she enjoyed it immensely. We talked and talked and finally I remembered her. Oh my gosh, fifty five years is a long time.
I also visited the cemetery and decorated graves of my mother and father, and sister and grandparents and a lot of walking on rough ground.
I got to see my brother and his wife and her mother and once again I just talked their ears off!
Keith took my husband and I on a tour of Cherokee. The last time I was there was for my mother's funeral and hadn't been back since. Things, (buildings and people and streets and stores and everything was so different than what I remembered. Especially a well known land mark, Pilot Rock. It looked so small!

Fran and I at the dinner held for us at Spring Lake

Francis and I went to Aurelia to visit my mother's brother who was soon to celebrate his 101st birthday. My mother so wanted to live to be 100, but she did live a long life of 90 years.

Well that was just one weekend and there is just so much more I have to say! I hope you join me for my chatter, I do so love to tell stories.

Me, Pam and Joan

My brother Keith and his wife Linda

The New Chapter Of My Life

After three years of not posting to Lu's Place, I realized that I had been using Facebook to tell my stories about my crazy fun life. I love to keep in touch with my family and friends on Facebook, but I really miss blogging and my blog friends, whom I'm sure think that I have croaked. I am getting up there you know.

I downloaded my Cherokee posts that I thought people wanted, but evidently they didn't. (no comments) So I am back!

I have a 102 year old mother-in-law that I am now taking care of in her own home. I can't believe I am doing this because I have M.S. Due to a medicine change I have turned the corner and am now able to walk without a cane, I don't fall, and I am able to care for this dear sweet lady. This is Marie Lizotte laughing and enjoying her company that helped her celebrate her one hundredth birthday. I write a blog about her and have shared many posts about her and her family and her extended family. I invite you to read about this amazing lady at mrszotte.blogspot.com  

I have discovered something as I have renewed my blogging on Marie's blog that people are very hesitant to be followers and make comments. I think this is that since cell phones are the device that many people use to read about her, and not big computers. Ahem, you cannot see the followers button unless you continue to scroll and see a tiny little statement that says "view web version". When you tap on that, sakes alive it shows the followers, the page views, the archived posts all kinds of things that you can be part of. I would just love it if you would be part of my life again, because I just love to talk!! 

The picture you see of me is when I used to go to the beauty shop! Can't go any more because Marie can't be left alone, but she doesn't care if my roots show.

I will be talking to you soon if the good Lord is willing and like my dad used to say and the creek don't rise.

Oh, by the way, things have changed in the last three years now you can print and save and email my posts. Let's have fun and maybe even stir the pot a bit.

My Mama's Red Stilts

I read some comments on the website I enjoy about my hometown in Cherokee, Iowa. I learned yesterday that there over 900 people that belong to that site.
One of the people reminiscing was a gal that I knew that said she used her wooden stilts to go to the Cedar grocery store.
I thought I had used up all my old memories, but when I read that, I remembered a story that my mother told me about her red wooden stilts.
The stilts were a gift from her father. I remember him as very stern and I just can't remember him smiling, but when Mom told me about those stilts that day, she smiled and her eyes just sparkled remembering how much fun she had on those wonderful stilts.
It is really really difficult to think of  my 80 year old mother as an 8 year old having such a wonderful time with her new toys.

Hopefully I will have some new memories I can share this year.

                                                                     Lu

Three Generations of Aprons

When I was a child I can remember my mother criticising my grandma for patching the "stomach" of her apron. Then my grandma made beautiful crosstich aprons that just went around her waist and she embroidered the tiny blocks every other one with white thread. I still have one or two.
Then my mother wore aprons to keep her housedress clean, so she could tear it off when she heard a car on the gravel driveway. Good grief, no one should see her in an  apron. Aprons were the first things that little girls learned how to sew; they were decorated with bias tape or rickrack.Organdy aprons were given to "waitresses" at weddings with the bride's colors on the pockets. I am sure they were thrown away shortly after the wedding. They seved no purpose whatsoever.
Most of you know, I worked in long term care facilities.for almost twenty years. All of us were always concerned about our folks's dignity.
Now I am concerned about my dignity. Fran and I have had a lot of company this summer which has been a lot of fun. Fran's daughter and my daughter have helped make and serve meals while they were here. Therefore, the work part for me was minimal. My hands shake a lot!
Last night I read a true story about two friends that took his father and mother across country on a trip that was expressly his father's last wish. He had terminal cancer, and his mother had alzheimers disease.
The author was explicit in details which made my reading her book a delight because it took me back in time.
When she got to meal time in the home she was told that the folks did not wear "bibs" they wore aprons. We never said "bibs" either, we called them clothing protectors.
This morning we went to a local craft shop and YES she made aprons. No more spill spots on my clothes. A lot less Shout to get my stains out. PLUS she puts a strips of cloth about 6" across that holds my hand towel. Well, I suppose you know my dignity is now up a notch or two. Thank you Unique Boutique  Stockton, Mo.  She even had an apron for my very favorite football team the K.C. Chiefs. Yay!!!  I will always make sure my KC Chiefs apron is clean on Sundays.

1974

1974 was an interesting year. I started working at Sears. I had not worked outside of my home for many years. I enjoyed being a mom, but when they started school, there was only so much dusting to do.
I interviewed on the phone to be a switchboard operator. Soon there was this deep voice with a smile that told me they had no need for a switchboard operator, but they sure did need a female applicance technician.  He asked me if I had an aptitude for repairing things. I told him that once I had taken my vacuum apart and couldn't get it put back together again. He laughed and said, "Come on in and fill out your paperwork.!"
I knew nothing about the need to have some females in the traditional jobs that men did.
He was slick. He got me by sending me to Chicago for schooling for six weeks. So I apprenticed for about three months with supervision. Loved it!!
Along with learning something new, I got a discount on everything from gasoline, to appliances, to furniture. Gasoline was 74 cents a gallon that year.
In that year Sears started carrying microwaves. Oh, I wanted one so bad I could taste it.  I bought one, read the instruction book. I made a hamburger, when it was done it looked like a black hockey Puck,
completely unedible; short story made very long.
The other day I made some precooked sausage for breakfast  39 years later than the hamburger story. The sausages were slated to cook for 40 seconds. I put them in for 4 minutes. I put them in front of Fran, turned around to fix my eggs and sat down to a face that was not a happy one. He could not chew them.
Later he told me that he had given them to our big outside dog and he couldn't chew them either.
My pat excuse is, "But Fran. I have a condition!"  lol

Happy Mother's Day, ladies.

I Do It!!!

I was reading a blog this morning written by a mom of two boys who live on the west coast. No snow = can't use Christmas sleds. That post again, jogged my memory of when my oldest children were small. We lived in South Dakota so we always had snow and cold weather.
The memories I have though, are of my little ones screaming and laughing and after about two or three minutes wanting to go back in. They were so cute with their apple red cheeks and "outdoor" voices when they came in to warm up.
They always wanted hot chocolate to warm up and maybe a cookie or two. Once they were warm, the proclamations  began that they were ready to go back outside. My thoughts" What?" In the winter, the majority of my time I spent changing, snowsuits, mittens, stocking caps and,oh don't forget snowboots and stockings!
The snow that came out and or off mittens and hats didn't always land on the scatter rug, but on the floor, very cold to step in. Ick.
My oldest, was very independent and insisted on doing for herself regardless if it drove me nuts. She wasn't very tall at four years old, but invariable when I went to open the door for her to go out, she said in a very loud voice, "I do it!"  My answer for her would be "but with your mittens on you can't turn the door knob." I wanted to growl and stomp my feet, but for the most part, I kept my cool. It wasn't worth the effort as far as I was concerned. I hated temper tantrums.  However, if I didn't help her then she yelled for me to help her. How is a mom supposed to win?  Maybe dream of daughter having children of her own?