A Painting

I was sitting in the dentist office, waiting for him to come in and there was a print on the wall in front of me.  It was the only thing I could see.  The title was "The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh".  I thought in my life time I have seen lots of starry nights.  I've never seen one that looked like that.  On a clear night, the stars are sparkling in the sky.  Only God could make something that beautiful.   I looked up Van Gogh's paintings on the computer when I came home.  He painted some that wasn't that bad, why did whoever decorated that office pick that one?

A Song For Me

Tonight I heard Alan Jackson sing a song he had written for his wife and it made me think of the time Bill was singing with the band.  Ronnie Gulley had a song he had written for his wife and he sang it every once in a while for her.  Donald Miller would sing a certain song for his wife.  I had told Bill several times that he should sing a song for me.  One night the guys were playing.  We were celebrating Ronnie's retirement.  When Bill stepped up to the mike he said, "I'm singing this song for my wife."  It was a Hank Williams song that was talked more than sung.

It was entitled, "Why Don't You Make Up Your Mind".  Some of the words were:
When I agree with you honey, it makes you mad
And when I don't, it makes you sad
When I argue back you pack and leave
And when I don't you pout and grieve
There just ain't nobody knows what I go through
Will you please make up your mind what you want me to do

That's just the first verse, some of the verses talk about him getting kicked around
Everyone thought that it was so funny that he was singing that for me and he thought
it was funnier than anyone.  When they took a break, he came and sit down by me
and I said "Just don't sing me anymore songs".  Well we did have some fun back then
but that really wasn't the kind of song I wanted him to sing for me.

October

                                                    
This is a glorious day.  It made me think of a day in October, 1953.  It was just a day like this in the Quad-cities.  There wasn't many nice fall days in the north.  That day I walked from 11th st. down to Slivkans, where I worked.  The weather was warm and the sun was shining and the leaves were drifting down, red and gold and I was young.

Honey Bees

At the library we've had a problem with  honey bees and in talking the the librarian I remembered something
I had not thought of for years.  When the children were small we lived in Fontenory addition in Milan, IL.
Our backyard had lots of clover and we had lots of honeybees.  One day I was doing laundry and my washer was on the back porch.  Debbie and Lora had been playing in the backyard and then they came in
on the back porch.  Lora was probably about four at this time and she was rocking in their little rocker.  I
noticed that she was rocking honey bees.  They were all over her lap.  I said "Where did you get those?"
Debbie said "She catches them but I can't they sting me but they don't sting her."   I said, How did you
catch them?  Lora said, I just put my hand over them and pick them up carefully.  I was amazed.

A Funny Story

The Rider Family had met over at Sam and Nadine's and the women were sitting around the table talking.
Violet was telling about the summer Bill came back from service and was working with Lawrence's brother and dad.  His dad had done somethig Bill thought was dangerous and he told Lawrence, he was going out
to the mental hospital where they were doing some construction and get a job and he did.

This made me think of something that had happened right after I started dating Bill so I told this story.
I was in the bedroom at my parents, getting ready to go on a date with Bill.  He and my dad was sitting in
the living room and I think this was the first time my dad had met Bill.  Dad had ask Bill where he worked
and Bill told him he worked construction at the mental hospital in Anna.  Dad said, Have you ever had any
trouble getting out of there of the evening?  For a minute Bill didn't say anything and I thought "Oh dad, I
like this guy, why did you say that.  Then Bill just laughed and said Well he hadn't had any trouble so far.

My Mother

Many women do noble things but you surpass them all. Proverbs 31:29
Today being Mother's Day, our church service was on Proverbs 31.  It made me think of my mother and
this verse was the one that made me think of her.  If I had to come up with one word for my mother as I was growing up, it would be patience.  She never yelled at us.  I can never remember her raising her voice at any of us or my father.  I wish my children could say that about me but they can not.  My mother raised nine children.  She cooked three meals a day.  She made most of us girls clothes.  I don't know how she found
enough time in the day to do all she did.  She worked in the garden and she always had time to plant flowers.  I can remember her scrubbing clothes on the washboard before she had a washing machine.  Even though, she didn't have a highschool education, she could help with homework but the most important thing
she taught us was right from wrong.  Some times I thought she must have a sixth sense because she always
seemed to know if you were doing something you shouldn't be doing.  I feel very blessed to have had her
for a mother.

Amazing Facts

I'm reading a book titled "Killing Lincoln" and it's amazing that back then he had so little protection.  There was one door into the box where the Lincolns were watching the play.  A soldier named John Parker was supposed to be guarding the door.  He is bored because he can't see the play from where he is and apparently he's also thirsty.  He left the door unguarded and goes to a saloon so there was no one there to keep John Wilkes Booth from going right in.  He was never  charged for leaving his post.  He was not punished at all.  This is a very interesting book and things have definitely changed in Washington DC.