Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. What is the best story your parents or grandparents tell about the good ole days?

Here it is, in my mother's own words: her story from 1932:

  

It rained all through December and stayed above freezing, and our day came: We were going to be married! I had bought blue satin material and made my own beautiful wedding dress. Everett had bought a suit from his cousin for $2 and we were all ready for our big day. Just one catch: the rain had stopped, but with dirt roads, the mud was almost impossible to get a car through. Everett had asked a friend to take us to Bethany to get married. The friend had an old Dodge pickup truck, so Everett walked six miles to my home and the friend got there about the same time to pick us up; but we didn't get far!

The mud rolled up on those wooden spoke wheels. We all three punched mud. With me in my blue satin dress and with Everett's second-hand wedding suit, you can imagine what we began to look like. We'd punch mud and go a few feet at a time. We finally got about two miles from my home and got stuck again. The two men kept working away. I walked to a neighbor's house ahead and called the judge, who was also a preacher, and asked him to take a marriage license home with him, telling him we'd be too late to get in the courthouse, so we'd come to his house.

The pickup finally was so buried in the deep ruts of that mud road, we knew we were as far as we could go in it. So we left it in the middle of the road and walked on three miles, to 69 highway, which had been paved.

Some folks I knew lived there, the people who operated our lumber yard in Eagleville; so I went to the door and told him our hard-luck story, and asked him if he would take us on to Bethany. By then, it was five o'clock and dark. By the time we got to Bethany and got the ceremony over with, it was seven o'clock. Everett's friend and Mr. McElhiney were our witnesses. I was 20, Everett was 25, and we were the muddiest bride and groom you will ever see!

After the ceremony, he took us back to his house and fixed us something to eat, and he and his wife insisted we spend the night there; you couldn't travel anyway, except on foot. The wind had changed and it had gotten cold, so we all three stayed all night. By morning, winter had arrived with a vengeance. We watched the little McElhiney girl, four years old, open her presents under the evergreen tree they had decorated for her before we left to walk to my sister's. They also gave us breakfast; no nicer people were ever known.  

There is a little more to the story.  You'll find all of it HERE.

2. The best things in life are . . .

Home, family, nature, and pets.

3. Name a few things that drive you batty.

The people who are so set on the fact they're always right that when someone, ANYONE, presents the actual facts to them, they just say that person is lying; they will not accept any fact-checking site.   Most members of a certain political party are guilty of this.

4. Name a place you'd like to live and why.

At this stage of my life, I have found that place.  I used to wish I lived in Colorado, but that was back when I could hike and enjoy the mountains.  If I had to choose another state to reside in, it would probably be Arkansas.

5. What is the best thing you've ever found?

Jesus and my husband

6. The best thing that happened recently is . . .

The strawberries my garden has produced.

7. I admire people who . . . 

Live a good, kind life and aren't judgemental about people.  Unfortunately, that isn't always me, but I wish it were.

8. What makes you special?

My eccentricities

9. I am looking forward to . . .

Eating a ripe tomato from my garden sometime in early July.

10. What are some things that scare you?

Everything in the world, these days.  The fact that anybody can buy an assault weapon is at the top of the list.

11. What are some complaints you have?

Complaining never does any good.  I'll pass.

12. I could never live without . . .

Having a home in the country.

13. List some things that make you laugh.

My husband... he and I take turns being the straight man in a two-person comedy team; my dog, Gabe, and Blue the cat... they are also a two-person comedy team at times; and Andy Sipowicz, a character in NYPD Blue.  Cliff and I are watching that series from the 90's, mainly because of him.

If you find my Mother's story here interesting, there are several posts I made, copying her stories about her early life.  You can go to THIS 

PAGE and find all those entries in order.

You can find more Sunday Stealing HERE.