Lets start on a positive note. One of the small but so telling things I love about my daughter-in-law is that although she does not really like sweet potatoes she mashes and spreads them on taco start ups before the vegies beans and meat and cheese. While keeping everything in place this punches up the nutrition  and makes for a great meal. We are so lucky to have her in our lives!!! Happy Birthday, Sunday, Jen!!!!
   Zoomba has replaced ball-room dancing now that I have a fantastic area in which to practice.
My Zoomba instructor has picked me as one of her demo dancers to drum up interest for the Y,ect. This shows sedentary folks that you do not have to be young and in great shape to do Zoomba.  Zoomba is pro
mental and physical acuity. Everyone should try.
I have a line on some Long family facts that I will be reporting here as soon as Carol Long Ellis touches base with her cousin Norma who should be able to shed some light on some situations.
It is time to go to the Library, take back my over-due book and see their new carpeting.

It is supposed to be a beautiful day today so I am rushing to get this out early.
According to my grandmother Grace Anglin we have not had "Indian Summer" yet and
it will not happen today because we have not had "Squaw Winter" yet. These are her words
coming out of her era and not suitable for this era of political correctness. I am sure that is why
the Chicago Trib. discontinued their annual front page depiction of the old man telling his
grandson the traditional settlers version of this event.
My father Don "Wop" Anglin subscribed to the Sunday Chicago Tribune and we always looked
forward to the October edition that had this well illustrated story on the front page.
Grandma Grace Anglin  maintained that we need to see a few snow flakes before we can experience
true "Indian Summer" Some people think that you only need a frost. Read the story -I think you will
know it when it comes. Go ahead and click the link below.


Dad's Injun Summer

Here it is the fifteenth of may already and I am not writing in my blog at least weekly as I thought.
Sunday was a good Mother's day (May 13, 2012). I drove to Ft. Wayne and went plant shopping with Grace.
I bought Scented Geraniums and other hard to find herb plants. Then we went to Panera  for lunch. We stopped at the Co-op so I could replenish low sugar dried cranberries. I got to sing "Sweet Rosie O'Grady to the kids the way Glen used to sing it.They were polite enough to laugh. Words are " Sweet Rosie O Grady : She was a blacksmith by birth. She got tired of living on this grand old earth. So she swallowed a tapeline, went out and died by the yard. That was the end of miss Grady who took this life so hard.
Last week Kerry and I took dad's Koscuisko County Fair picture up to the Courthouse to the curator there. He will restore the frame and hang it  where the public can see what the fair used to be like.
We need rain- hope it rains tonight.
I am soo looking forward to dancing in the park this summer if that ol 'coot I dance with doesn't fall off a building or something before that. Wish me luck!

Spring is leaping

Although my throat feels like razor blades and sandpaper I couldn't put off transplanting the "Mortgage Lifter" tomato plants any longer. They were named back in the depression-30s- when an out of work gardener developed them to be the largest tomatoes ever seen. It is said that he kept his house because those big tomatoes sold so well.They are Heirloom tomatoes . Grace and I went to a Tomato Festival last fall where I bought just one. The seeds of that one tomato produced twenty plants.
I talked to my"peps" across the street -they went to the store and got chicken soup fixins. It will be great to feel it sliding down my throat. WOW! Thanks! It is almost seventy degrees out so I am sure they were not thinking of soup for supper.
I remember walking home from my high school in late May when the trees and the lilacs looked like they look right now. Everything jumped the gun this year. Next year it could be Indiana snowing in this time slot. We never know.

Let's try this.

O.K. Grace got me up and running again. I know this background is a little over the top springy but it is the first day of April. We went to Winona for lunch -now I am too full. Need to do some greenhouse work with Mary she is doing a plant for 4-H. I am so thrilled that she stuck with 4-h
all these years. Marilyn Shannon who a teacher at IPFW is the leader and also homeschools her kids.
Chris (son) sings in the Easter program tonight. Should be great.
Spring break is all next week so things will be hoppin' around town including First Friday the 6th.

I just had to share my Aunt Anna Rapp's 17 year old diary entry for today. She is such a hoot!!

September 30, 1941
Up qt 7:00. Ate. To school. Had some fun today.Went down to the furnace room and talked to Tadpole.(current boyfriend) Edyth went along. Silly. Had a ball game after school at Beaver Dam We won 6to8. Good game after supper Mary A. and I went with Gib A. and Red W. Tony P. to Mentone. Knocked on doors and asked how to find Burket. (they all knew how to find Burket). More fun. Came home. Washed and fixed hair. To bed.

My cousin Ron Rapp sent this letter about Aunt Count that was read at her funeral. Thanks Ron and thanks Larry.

My fondest memories from childhood are similar to my brother, Larry's. Home-made cherry pie, grocery store right across the street, their dog Skippy with the constant oil streak on his back from sleeping under the car, outhouse for 'day use' and chamber pot for 'night use', large yard where we kids could play, and of course, the active train tracks within a stone's throw. Aunt Ina Mae was always so 'kid friendly' - very tolerant, patient, and caring.

As an adult, I remember visiting Burket with my wife, Dorothy, and our family of three children. How Aunt Ina Mae would laugh when we would hear the trains coming, scurry to place a penny or two on the tracks, and then attempt to locate the coins after the train passed. She would always cook something special if she knew we were coming (even if we requested she not bother). Once my Dad passed away in 1987, I realized just how much Aunt Ina Mae reminded me of him - similarities in appearance, sound, values, etc. Eventually, during each visit, the conversation would turn to Aunt Ina Mae telling us stories of growing up with our Dad, or of receiving letters from him when he was in the Air Force. You could pretty much track what was important in her life, just by reading the notations on that calendar that hung on her kitchen wall. She remained mentally sharp through the last of our visits, and could recall so many details of her younger days.

In our living room, Dorothy still has the Christmas cactus that started from a sprout given to us by Aunt Ina Mae. I'll likely pause each time I pass by that plant, and smile each time it gives off those pink blossoms. Life's journey has ended, Aunt Ina Mae, but many of us were blessed by your presence. Enjoy eternity with your heavenly Father (and say hello to my Dad)!