STORM

We went to the reunion of relatives on my dad's side of the family yesterday.  My sister met us at a convenient spot and rode along, so we had a good visit with her.  Coming home, we saw dark storm clouds ahead, and before we reached Liberty we were hit by heavy rain and strong winds.  We saw motorcyclists taking shelter under overpasses; I always feel for those people, because we've been out on the bike in the rain and I know how scary it can be.  
As we approached Buckner, there were limbs down and leaves on the highway, and whole town seemed to be without electricity.  
We were without power when we arrived home, too.  Although there wasn't any major damage, some limbs had broken.

My old cabin sat under lots of big trees in the woods and never had limbs on the roof.  It isn't harmed, by the way, at least as far as we can tell.  

Two of the big evergreen trees behind Cliff's shop broke off.  There's a propane tank underneath those fallen trees.  It's a shame to lose the tall trees, but still not a big deal in the vast scheme of things.  
On the news, I heard them saying winds were clocked at Higginsville at 95 miles per hour.   
At the reunion, I caught up with cousins I see once a year.

As always, we four 1944 baby girls lined up for a picture.  I find it amazing that four brothers managed to sire baby girls in the same year, although as the others pointed out, the Allens tended to have more girls than boys.  I graduated with the two girls on the right. 

That's me, top row, right.  Left of me is my cousin Alice, and on the bottom left is my cousin Frances.  Lela, the other 1944 baby, stayed home on the farm where she was born, and one of her sisters still lives on their old home place in north Missouri.  

Here's a stained old picture of the four 1944 baby girls.  In all my baby pictures, you will see me wearing a hat.  I was bald until I was about two years old, and my mother wanted the world to know I was a girl.  


While I don't have any earthshaking tales to tell, my favorite Russian (also the only Russian I know) is back home in Kansas City after a visit to Argentina, and is doing a series of posts on his travels.  If you're interested, check out the Kansas City Russian.


On another note, I'm rather excited that enough people have clicked on the ads on this blog to get me past $98; at $100, I'm supposed to receive a check from Google.  It has taken me five or six years to accumulate this much, so I imagine it will take another couple of months to actually hit $100.  With the economy like it is, I appreciate any extra money that comes in.  
For some reason I just haven't been in a blogging mood lately, so think nothing of it if I skip a day or two.   

The reunion: a cow tale

Way back in April Cliff put up electric fence to keep the horses off the lush grass; he put a gate in that cows could go through, but horses could not.  Bonnie's momma didn't raise a fool, and all I had to do was lure her through the gate with a can of feed one time; from then on, she entered and exited through that gate.  
Her son Clyde, however, never figured it out.  So while his mom goes to graze the tall stuff that would founder horses, Clyde nips short grass with the horses.  
Cliff got the hay baled today, and started putting it in the barn; he'll finish that task tomorrow before he goes to work.  At some point this afternoon, I asked him, "Have you seen either of the cows?"  
"No," he answered, "but Bonnie's in one of her two cool, shady places out back, I'll guarantee you."  
"What about Clyde?  Have you seen or heard him today?"  
When Clyde starts wanting a sip of milk, he usually bellows at Mom.  She's never in a hurry, but she loves her big old baby and eventually comes up to comfort him with some nice, warm milk.  
Somewhere around four this evening, I heard Clyde bawling and breathed a sigh of relief.  The cows are alive and well.  
A couple hours later, as I was sitting in the cool of the air conditioner, I heard Bonnie bawling over and over.  This could only mean that she didn't know where her calf was.  
In case your wondering:  yes indeed... I know my cows' voices.  They sound nothing alike when they moo.  
I'm still moving around pretty slowly with my gimpy knee, but I figured I'd go call for Clyde and reunite the pair.  Then I got a thought.  
I haven't milked Bonnie since my surgery, which was three weeks ago today.  If she hadn't seen her calf since morning, perhaps there would be enough milk for me to steal some before their reunion!  I hurried into the house, set up the jar and strainer, and headed out with the milk bucket.  Sure enough, I could tell by looking at Bonnie's udder that she had plenty.  Finally, some decent milk that doesn't taste all watered down!  Maybe I'll even use some cream on our strawberries tomorrow.  
I came in with a gallon of milk in my bucket, strained it and put it away, and then went over the hill calling Clyde, who came running and bucking and bawling as fast as he could.  Bonnie was bawling back at him, but by this time she had developed laryngitis from all the vocalizing; so he couldn't hear her from a distance.  Oh, and I did leave two teats untouched for Clyde.  Not that he needs milk at this stage of his life.  

They finally got together.  Clyde only has a couple of weeks to enjoy this pleasure; then we'll either butcher him or take him to the sale barn.  If we butcher him, we're going to have to get another small freezer.  

Family reunion!

I didn't take pictures of the reunion of my dad's family last week because there were so many people there with great camera skills. And one cousin's husband always puts his pictures on a CD and sends it to me.

But today, I took pictures. This reunion began with the descendants of David Stevens, 1825-1900: My maternal grandfather's daddy.

This picture is of his kids, mostly; although Grandma (in the back on the left) was the wife of one of his kids; Grandpa died in his fifties, so they had her stand in for him. This shot was taken many years ago. (Thanks to my cousin Pauline for putting all these wonderful old photos on Ancestry.com.)


We've gathered in the Bethany, Missouri, city park for many years. Since the heat usually is unbearable on the second Sunday in August, I think we're going to be meeting in an air-conditioned building from now on.

That's the shelter-house where our reunion was held. When I was in grade school in Eagleville, we got to picnic in this park on the last day of school.

Here you see my mom's Uncle Charley's descendants. They always show up in full force.

This is my mom's cousin, Opal's, son. He was the only one of his branch of the family to show up; he started tracing our family tree many years ago.

Here you see the descendants (and spouses) of Benjamine Stevens. That's me and Cliff in back on the right (as if you couldn't tell), and my beautiful sister sitting in front of us. The lady in the yellow top is my cousin Pauline, who took up where Terry started and has traced our roots back to Pennsylvania and France! My only living aunt in the family is sitting in the center of the front row. Aunt Mary still lives in her own home.

I love taking pictures of people taking pictures!

This is Aunt Mary with her oldest grandson and his fiance.

In spite of the heat, it was a good day.

Pictures from our motorcycle ride

Cliff and I took advantage of our perfect weather to go for a long ride on our Gold Wing. In Missouri, any trip that doesn't involve an Interstate highway is scenic, and I fully enjoyed this very familiar route up 13 highway to Bethany, where one of my family reunions was being held.

This mural celebrates the fact that J.C. Penny was born in Hamilton, Missouri.


This is the grand old courthouse in Gallatin. Jesse James once robbed the Gallatin Bank.

This is the tiny, almost-dead town of Coffee, Missouri. Cliff and I lived two miles from here with our children during the winter of 1974-75. It didn't take us long to move back to familiar territory.

Bethany was our destination, and we arrived less than two hours after leaving home.

That nursing home was my mom's last residence before she passed away.

More later.

the family reunion

I was raised in a family that had frequent get-togethers and family reunions; in my younger days, it seemed like they were far too frequent.

Cliff's family, especially on his father's side, wasn't much for reunions. He says it's partly because of hard feelings and old grudges between so many of them. Whatever the reason, the Wood family just doesn't gather in large groups, except at funerals.

I don't have a lot of the social graces needed to host such a gathering, but for some reason in the spring of 2005 (I think it was our daughter's idea), I summoned up the nerve to consider holding a "Wood reunion" here at our place.

Cliff began to call cousins to see if they'd be interested in such an undertaking, and when he got hold of his cousin Ken, he was met with such enthusiasm that it gave me courage to go ahead with the plan. Ken volunteered to supply a whole roast hog for the event, to be held in July.

There were a lot of no-shows, some from people who didn't even live that far away; but we still ended up with a nice crowd.

(Click on the picture to see it larger)
I clipped Ken and his wife and little grandson out of the picture so you could get a good look at him.





That's him and Cliff visiting, before most of the folks showed up.

Kenneth smiled almost the whole time he was here, and more than anything else, that smile made me feel I hadn't wasted my time having the shindig.

There he is with that grandson again.

We rode our motorcycle down to Sedalia a couple of weeks ago to visit Ken; cancer had returned, and we knew he didn't have long to live. The same grandson who was constantly attached to him in 2005 was still at his side.

So, if you're thinking about having a reunion in a family where it has never been done, or if you think not enough people would attend to make it worthwhile, here's what I learned: If it makes just one person as happy as our reunion made Kenneth, it's worth the time and trouble.

I'm so glad we did it while he was around.

So, how was the family reunion yesterday?

HOT! That's how it was. Unlike the reunion a week earlier, this one includes a larger family tree. My dad's gathering consists of the offspring of my grandfather; my mom's goes back another generation or two. Which means I never did know half the people there, and each year I know them a little less. Oh, I know the older ones' faces each time, but I couldn't tell you how I'm related to them.

Big mistake: I forgot my camera. So I'll have to show you how some of the attendees looked a few years ago.



The person on the left, my cousin Carolyn, was there. (That's me on the right.)

Oh, the guy on the left was there, my cousin Gerald. There's Carolyn again, on the right... at an even younger age.

That's Aunt Mary holding (you guessed it) her daughter, Carolyn. Aunt Mary was with us yesterday.

I have lots of cousins' baby pictures, but the usual cousins didn't make it this year. So we'll just feature Carolyn, who is the driving force behind this particular reunion. She contacts everyone, reminding us it's time for our annual get-together.

It was her son, Bryan, who bought our WC tractor.

Hmmm, maybe it's a good thing I forgot my camera. Wouldn't you rather look at young people instead of old folks?