Fathers Day First Day of Summer

Cowgirls

family photo

Cecelia, Barbara, Alfred, Flicka in yard of A.L. Keeling

Calvert High School in background

HAPPY FATHERS DAY to all you fathers out there.

Daddy liked to barbeque on holidays in his later years. Fathers Day was one of those days. I don't remember that we particularly celebrated Fathers Day in the past, other than to let Daddy barbeque, or we might have had our usual Sunday family dinner with red roast and red gravy, for all the fathers and men in the family. Of course, this was after church at Sneed Memorial Methodist Church in Calvert.

Daddy had his own way of barbequeing and wasn't about to change. The meat was kind of heavy on the lighter fluid and burned on the outside. But he was not about to let those coals burn down some before he put the meat on the grill, then added more lighter fluid when the fire burned down. We just scraped the charred part off the outside, and ate plenty of bread, corn on the cob, and Coca Cola to wash it down-or else! We didn't dare to complain about it much.

Daddy would place the little barbeque pit outside the back door, and park himself on a camp stool beside the pit. He wore his khakis, hat, and boots, and grinned a lot while he sweated in the sun, occasionally turning the meat. Mama boiled corn and sliced tomatoes in the kitchen. Sometimes she added deviled eggs and potato salad to the meal. (I didn't like those, though, so I got charred meat, corn, tomatoes, and bread and lots of sop!)

The photo above is of Daddy with the horse he bought for us, Flicka. Barbara is in his arms, and I am the one with the cap pistol in the holster. I wanted to be a cowboy and ride the range with Tim (Holt) when I grew up. It's kind of funny that I have my cap pistol, and am wearing a skirt-not a cowgirl type of skirt, either. (We couldn't wear boys jeans either. We had our own girls jeans with a side zipper, if we got to wear jeans at all.) Maybe this was after school, and I came home and strapped on my "gun", hoping to ride the horse.

I don't think we ever did get to ride Flicka. (Poor ole horse!) When Daddy bought her, she had a cut foot from trying to jump a barbed wire fence. The owner was starting to break her, but the foot healing was going to take a while. Daddy had to doctor that foot for a long time. Poor old horse even got screw worms in the wound. Daddy put some kind of thick, gooey black stuff on the wound several times a day. And then there was carrying hay to the pen and dragging a hose to put water in a wash tub for Flicka.

At one point, Daddy had to have foot surgery and was on crutches for 2 years. So Mama had to take over taking care of Flicka. During one snowey, icey spell, Mama came in the house and realized she had lost the diamonds from her rings in the hay! She was most distressed!

Finally, the horse's foot was better and she was ready for training. But, on Halloween night, some boys let Flicka out of her pen, and, as she left through the gate, the boys poured oil on her back. (They also rolled our big dog house down the street.) Daddy was still on crutches, and he was really mad. And even more so when he found Flicka, with big blisters on her back from the oil being heated by the sun. Now, we had to wait for the blisters to heal before anyone could ride Flicka.

Finally, the day arrived and Daddy put the blanket, saddle, and bridle on the horse. He was going to break the horse himself! Barbara and I stayed back, fearing that the horse would run over us or do like the wild horses in the movies.

We watched as Daddy got on and gave a little nudge with his foot. Daddy's face turned red, then white with terror. Away Flicka ran, across the lawn, down the street, and disappeared toward Main Street dowtown. We screamed for Mama and anyone to help!

Eventually, Daddy returned, leading Flicka. The horse had run all the way to town and Daddy couldn't stop her.

Daddy put Flicka in the pen and, the next day, he started looking for a new home for Flicka.

We were broken hearted that our horse was sold, and we never got to be close to her, or even ride her. There went our cowgirl dreams.

But, our neighbor, Mr. Porter, was manager of a large ranch in the Brazos Bottom, and was a real cowboy. He brought a horse in to keep in our pen. One that we could ride and care for. A very nice quarter horse, but that's another story.

I'm sure that Daddy probably grew up in a time where people were still riding horses and driving in buggies and wagons. And, of course, he always worked around cattle. He had confidence that he could do most anything and tried it-his way.

Anyway, that's one story about Daddy. I remember being really small with Daddy. Since I had the episode with the steps at Sneed Memorial Methodist Church in Calvert a couple of weeks ago, one memory is of Daddy carrying me up the steep inside steps at the church. He would sing "Rock A Bye Baby"-his way, with his deep voice. He sang the words, but when the tune was supposed to go up, he would go down. I'm sure he knew the correct way to sing those songs, but he just had to do it his way.

And Happy First Day of Summer!

As Bob French has been saying on the weather forecast, we've already been having summer for a while. Temperatures around 100 degrees and not a drop of rain. Cerulean blue skies with puffy white clouds. Grass is dead or dying and the ground is like sand. One good thing is that my "jungle" doesn't need mowing!

Stay Coool!

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I just read on the "Eagle" website that Mrs. Shook died. My sympathies and prayers go out to her and her family. She was a friendly lady, and a former coworker. I know that she will be missed by many. I am so sorry that she was so sick for so long. You can read a nice obituary for her in the Bryan College Station Eagle today.

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Summer Rain

, Summer Rain

8.5" x 11"

pencil

"Take us to the club so we can go swimming, " I begged.

"Not today, I'm busy, " Mama answered and went on with her work.

"Pleeaaasssse, take us!" I pleaded.

"Go find something else to do. I can't take you today." Mama kept working.

"But, Mama! We've learned how to swim and we might forget how, if we don't ever get to go practice!" I argued.

" Get someone else to take you. Or just find something else to do. I can't go today, and that's that!" Mama didn't stop working.

"But, Mama! Everyone else is going!"

"I said No and that's it. Now go play somewhere."

I wondered if tears would work.

I stomped out of the room, with tears beginning to form. It was so boring to have to sit here, in the heat of a summer afternoon in Texas, with no fan or air conditioning. And know that there would be lots of people out at the country club, splashing in the pool. At least there would be those who were members, and kids and parents who were not at their businesses, or gone to a cool place for vacation.

"You go ask her," I directed my little sister.

She obediently went back into the room where Mama was working and begged to be taken to the swimming pool. But that tactic didn't work either.

Maybe if I had noticed that sweat was pouring down Mama's face while she worked in the heat, I could have used the argument that she could go sit in the club house with the breeze blowing across the little water lily-filled lake to cool her. Or she could sit on a bench beside the pool, among the white lattice work that offered shade, and duck splashes of water from energetic kids-a place where she could be cool for a while. The old oak trees even offered shade in the areas around the pool, the clubhouse, the golf course, and the little drive that wound around the grounds.

Of course, I didnt' think of those things, being a kid. I could always walk out to the shade or walk downtown where some of the stores had fans, and the picture show had some sort of cooling system. But work had to be done, no matter how hot it was in the homes.

A few places just seemed to be naturally cool, no matter how hot it was, like Miss Donie's concrete screened porch and her front hall, or the City Hall steps and the tile floors inside, or the little step down concrete entry into the basement of the Methodist Church. There were places to cool off, but it might take some walking to get there.

Our small "cottage" that Daddy built for his little family, had lower ceilings, a tiny front porch, small windows in each room that didnt' offer much in the way of cross ventilation. It was more modern than the old homes with the 12 and 14 foot ceilings, and tall windows that did offer cross ventilation. Some of those people were so rich, they even had fans! At least, I thought that anyone who owned a fan at home certainly must be rich, because most people didn't have such things. Maybe a folding fan from the store or a piece of paper to hold and fan with, but certainly not an electric fan.

Some stores had ceiling fans, even outdoors under the entry. I was told that was to keep the flies away. Some homes had them, too, as did the church. But they were seldom used. I understood that they were really old and they didn't know if the wiring was still good.

Toot had a fan at her house. A black wire GE oscilating fan. It seemed to just blow hot air. She kept it on top of the refrigerator until the afternoon when her work was done. She would put a quilt on the floor of the sitting room, plug in the fan in front of her, turn on her favorite stories, lay down and read movie magazines or "Life", "Look", "Saturday Evening Post", "Liberty", or "Better Homes and Gardens" and "Good Housekeeping" until it was time to get up and get ready for the afternoon social. The ladies met somewhere at least two or three times a week, and, if she wasn't going to someone else's house, she was hostessing a get-together herself. If I was there, I had to lay down too, and look through the magazines and hear the stories on the radio, and, later, on tv, until I fell asleep.

The fan also was taken to neighbors' houses, and our's, if anyone was sick. It didn't help much in our house. Just seemed to blow hot air on us!

So, now that we had learned to swim, we really wanted to get into that pool at the club, where the water seemed to be freezing cold, until you were in for a while. We could cool off, play, meet friends there, exercise, and show off our prized bathing suits. Maybe even attract some boys.

"Let's ask Pappy to take us!" We stood on tiptoes to use the phone and call Pappy. She always wanted to do things for the kids, but we thought of her as older and not as much fun as Toot. But , she had a nice car, which she drove really slow, and would eventually get us there, along with stories and lectures about what nice girls should and should not do.

Pappy was busy too.

We went back in the house and fretted because we couldn't get out to the country club to swim. Our bathing suits, bathing caps, and towels were all ready to go.

"You may as well just forget about that, " Mama said. "It's going to rain."

She headed to the kitchen and got things out to make fudge. The sky grew dark and the kitchen light was turned on as a warm, gentle rain began to fall.

Mama made the fudge while we watched, and licked the spoons and bowl after she poured the chocolate into a buttered platter. We were still bored.

"Can I go outside?" I whined.

"I guess so. It's just raining. No thunder or lightning, just don't bring mud in the house!"

We looked out over the street from the little hill of our front yard. Edie was coming from her house, across the vacant lot.

"Put your suits on and come on over. We're going to swim in my yard." She said.

"You don't have a swimming pool at your house!" I was surprised at her offer.

"My mother wouldn't take us to the club, either, but we are going swimming anyway." She advised. "Put your suits on and come on." She walked back to her house.

The gentle rain was filling the gutter with clear water that trickled over occasional gravel and small rocks. The rain was like a soft shower on my skin.

We put on our suits, grabbed our bathing caps and towels and walked in the street to Edie's house on the corner. I could hear children talking on the west side of her house.

"Come on!" Edie called. "Can you swim underwater and open your eyes?"

Several little girls, dressed in their new bathing suits and caps, were splashing in the water.

"That little ditch isn't deep enough to swim in!" I didn't believe that this little puddle of water under her sidewalk was deep enough to swim in and thought it might be a trick. I also thought that, if I tried to swim into the metal culvert, I might get stuck, or even drown.

"Come on! Don't be a fraidy cat! Look. We all can do it!"

At the start of the puddle, the ditch really was shallow, but it deepened next to the culvert . Deep enough to swim and go under the water, through the culvert, and into a deep puddle on the other side. That quickly turned into just a trickle of water in the grass and just covered the feet. Little bodies submerged and kicked through the culvert. White bathing caps went underwater as the body could barely be seen under the water. Some swore that they opened their eyes as they went under the water.

We sat in the warm water and splashed, we swam through the culvert, underwater, like little fish, and reveled in the water falling from the sky onto our rubber bathing caps and our skin. We squealed and we splashed the afternoon away.

Going home, we splashed in the deep water of the puddle on the corner by her house, then kicked the water with bare feet in the gutter all the way to our house. The rain was ending and cerulean blue skies reappeared. A golden glow of the setting sun radiated through the oaks and crepe myrtles at the park, turning the white weeds that looked like little cat tails on the edge of the grass a beautiful shade of orange. Lights at the baseball diamond and at the corner by Edie's house, came on, signaling that a lively men's softball game would soon begin.

A taste of fudge on the steps completed the day. We were tired, but had fun playing and swimming in the puddle at Edie's . A bath with lots of soap bubbles to make bouquets and pixie hair-dos, and fresh clothes, left the skin wrinkled and our hair squeaky clean.

"Mama, can I go to the ball game?" I whined. I was tired, drained from being in the water so long, but all the other kids would be there, and I was ready to go to the next activity. It would be damp, muddy in places, but cool. And there would be soda water to put a package of peanuts in, and sip and munch, while being among friends. And who knew what cute boys might be there!

The next day, we went back to the puddle with glass jars to catch polywogs. We wondered at where the little squirmy things came from, when the water had been clear enough for us to swim in the day before.

In today's sketch, I have shown a group of little girls, playing at Edie's house in the rain. I don't have specific people in the picture, but thought of some of the styles of swim wear that we had, and some of the movements we might have made as we played in the rain. And, of course, I was thinking of our neighborhood.

We had a little badly needed rain yesterday, and again this afternoon. We didn't get much rain, but there was wind, and lots of lightning and thunder. Bitsy, my weather forecaster cat, hid under her favorite blanket. The computer was unplugged and we waited.

I remembered how nice it was to have long afternoons and days of gentle rains, without a storm. And that led to the sketch of us playing in the rain.

Unfortunately, during yesterday's storm, a teenage boy was hit by lightning at the nearby golf course. He was raising his club to hit the ball when he was struck. My daughter wondered why he didn't hear the warning sirens telling of lightning. They said that there are lightning detectors around town and on that golf course. I would think that you just would need to see the clouds, hear thunder, and head for cover. But, human nature being what it is, we just have to go on and do whatever we were doing, despite a little wind, lightning, storm, extreme heat, or whatever. That is so tragic, and scarey that it was that bad, that close to us.

It would be nice to have some more gentle rain that doesn't cause harm or damage, just to get out in and let the children play. I don't know about swimming in ditches and culverts, though. Now, I would think there might be a snake or fire ants in there!

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The Last Day of Summer

The Last Day of Summer
The Frog Pond
8.5" x 11"
ink
The light has been different the past few days, as the days grow shorter. Tomorrow, it will be officially fall, and, before we know it, we will have the government mandated time changes. (Just about the time my body gets used to the sun going down earlier!) My dad would never change his clocks. He said that the cows didn't care what time it was. They expected their feed, etc., on their time, not the government's. But, he did have to abide by the time changes as he watched the news or other tv programs, went to church, or went downtown to the stores.
About the time I get ready to paint, my light is fading, so I just work on my drawing, or turn on several lamps over my drawing table. I don't have all the nice, new, artificial lighting where I work on my art. I just open the blinds and have a lot of natural light, on the north west side of the house.
In today's post, I am sharing a drawing that I made when I took my grandson to a wonderful swimming pool here. The pool has a giant frog with a slide in it, for the smaller kids to slide into the water through, and a huge floating, happy snake that divides the pool. There are features for older people too, of course, like the high diving boards. When my grandson was in swimming, there was a woman with a floppy hat and sun glasses, and there are always the mothers, urging their little ones to swim toward them.
While it is a fun pool, it is definitely a popular city pool with lots of people around.
The pool that I really liked was the country club pool where I grew up. It wasn't so big, and had metal pipes around the sides to hold onto. The water was always cold, which was great in the hot summer. There were wooden benches around the sides and wonderful lattice work that provided shade and even a little windbreak. There was a small bath house on the north side of the pool that had something like wooden flats on the floors so that water would drain off wet swimmers and onto the concrete floor and down a drain. Yellow Jackets seemed to like to invade the little house, at times, making us hurry with showers. That was all changed some years ago when they decided that an Olympic style pool was needed. It's nice, but it lacks the charm that the old pool had.
Near the pool was a wonderful, open, clubhouse that overlooked a small lake filled with lilly pads. A wooden swinging bridge led to the caretaker's home across the lake. That was an adventure to walk on, especially when a few boards rotted and fell out! There was a small rowboat that was parked on the lake, which some people used, when the craft was in good condition. When it wasn't, it was still nice to sit in it and talk, or pretend that we were boating. There was a picnic area, where barbeques were held, and a golf course among the oak trees. That was some wonderful barbeque! I wish I had their recipe!
I remember that a young woman, who was just a few years older, and who had a beautiful powder blue Oldsmobile convertable, drove a group of us out to swimming lessons at the pool in her car. I loved that drive, with my hair blowing. I hoped to have a car just like that someday.
I had one of my most embarrassing experiences at that time when it was my turn to dive in the pool and a strap on my bathing suit broke just as I was about to dive. I just fell in the water and stayed in there until someone could find a safety pin to fix my bathing suit with. I think that I didn't want to go swimming anymore. I dont' think anyone even noticed, though, except when I asked for a safety pin and I had to tell someone what happened. One of those embarrassing moments that you never forget.
Another memorabe swimming pool was in the mountains in Raton, New Mexico. My parents, my sister, and I were on our way from our home in Texas to Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah for a week long vacation. I was about 10 years old. We spent the night in Amarillo, then drove on to New Mexico. I remember Daddy talking about Raton Pass. We were tired and cranky from being cooped up in the car for so long. We begged to stop at every swimming pool and play area or rest stop that we whizzed by. So, it was a surprise when we pulled up to a huge swimming pool in the mountains, and Daddy sent my sister and me in to swim. Our parents stayed in the car, and we were a little unsure of what to do in a strange pool. This pool was different. I think they said it was a double pool, like two put together. It was heated and there were deep parts at both ends, while the shallow part was in the middle. Not knowing where we were supposed to swim, exactly, we chose the middle part and edged toward the deeper parts, carefully. That was refreshing and the warm water was so nice in the cool air. We were happy, for a while.
And, then, there was the swimming pool in nearby Hearne, with its gates, bathhouse, and clubhouse all made of unusual red rocks. It had a pool for kids, a life guard, and a high diving board. As we got older, we really didn't go there to swim, but more to show off our new bathing suits and in hopes of getting to know some cute boys from out-of-town. My senior ring ended up in that pool. I let my sister wear it just two weeks after we got our rings, and she lost it when she was in swimming. I guess it drained out to the Brazos River or somewhere. We didn't meet any cute guys at the pool, but we got to look at some, and we got to show off our suits, and splash in the water, being very careful not to get our hair wet. We didn't have enough nerve, or gas money, to venture on to Bryan or College Station pools, where we might have met some college guys.
When I was about 4, I went to a summer camp where my mother's sister was a counselor. They had a huge swimming pool there. I was taking swimming lessons, riding horses, and all that the older kids were doing. The hard part was being in the large cabin, at night, without my mother. However, I managed to get Pink Eye, so while the other kids were splashing in the pool each day, I was sitting on the steps of the nurse's office, getting drops in my eye. Soon, kids started to go home, and then it was announced that there would be no more swimming. There were a couple of drownings, if I remember correctly, and then Polio struck. No one knew what caused Polio then, but it was thought that you could get it from crowds or going in swimming, and who knew what else. It was frightening. The pool was closed and then we were all sent home. We were all scared because we had been exposed. But, the consensus was that I would be alright because I had not been swimming lately due to my Pink Eye. (I had been hoping that would clear up and was counting the days until I could go swimming again, while I sat on the steps with drops in my eye.) But, then, no one was really sure what caused Polio, or how it was contracted, so there was still some cause for concern. Maybe that pool only seemed so big because I was so little. I still remember it as a huge pool, with concrete steps inside, all along the shallow end.
As the years passed, fun at the pool came in watching children, then grandchildren, enjoy swimming and playing in different pools. Now, I wouldn't be caught in a bathing suit or swimming pool, myself. It's fun to watch, and remember, though. It would be nice to walk barefoot in some surf along the beach , but that's quite a distance from here.
Hope you have some good memories of the summer, now that it is ending. Of course, it feels like summer ended and fall began a while back, when school started.
I did "The Frog Pond" from a sketch I made while sitting at the pool one summer. Later, I drew it in ink, in a cartoon style, that I thought might be nice as an illustration for children. This is one that I might still do in color.
Frogs are kind of fun, aren't they! Real frogs, cartoon frogs, and props of frogs-even those with slides through the middle.
Thanks for reading and for your comments and support. Please share with others. I do welcome inquiries and comments. It helps to know that someone is reading, enjoying, and, perhaps, even gaining in some way. Remember that you can see more of my stork drawings and the series on Macular Degeneration in the older posts or archives section. All the series on Macular Degeneration have titles that are prefaced with the word "Vision".
If you see something of interest, let me know.
Happy end of summer '07! Hope that fall is a great one!

Summertime

Summer Walk 8.5" x 11" ink

Horned toads, roadrunners, turtles, frogs, and other critters crossed the dirt road where this group of young girls walked. The smell of hot dust and dill weed filled the air. In those days, of innocent, long summers, all the kids went barefooted, unless they knew they would have to walk on pavement, or go somewhere that shoes and better clothes were required. A small group of girls gathered in town to walk past the three story school, with the tall chimney on top; across the wood and iron bridge over the dry creek bed; up the dry sand and clay road; past the dump ground and a couple of pastures, to an old house. There, three of the girls went inside to visit an older woman, while one, who didn't know the woman, remained by the gate, hoping that a snake or spider wouldn't appear. The girls walked, most of the time, in silence, occasionally breaking into their thoughts with whispers and giggles about boys, their hopes for the future, things they liked to eat, movies and movie stars, or about things that had happened at home. They didn't mention the woman. Walking to the house in the country and back was just something to do on a long summer day.

This is an ink sketch, depicting a time when friends, slowly walked out in the country to visit a woman. Back then, there were lots of horned toads and roadrunners and big red ants-all kind of wildlife to be found. That was long before fire ants came to this part of the country. There were a couple more girls in the group, but this seemed to be enough for my drawing. One curious, near-sighted girl is closely observing a turtle by the road. Two older girls walk together, sharing secrets. One girl hangs back a little, making sure there are no snakes ahead. You can see the school, which was Calvert High School, and a few rooftops above the trees back in the town.