Thankful for Thanksgiving Day and family memories.

These images are scans of small, much older photographs. The quality is slim, but the love is deep.



Thankful for having had these fine women as part of my life. Except for me, they're now all gone from here, to a place where I shall join them at some point in the I hope distant future. Left to right, front row, Ma (my Daddy's mother), Mama (my mother), Mama Sudie (Mama's mother). Back row, Aunt Baker (Daddy's sister), and me.

 

Also thankful for my dearly departed husband LeRoy and our two sons, Lamont and Leland.

 

Thankful for my Daddy, seen here with Lamont.

 

And my Mama, seen here with Leland.

Nature's beauty, No. 9

Cropped into the square shape, sharpened, and resized at PicMonkey. This sort of rose is my all-time favorite because my dearly departed husband LeRoy always gave them to me when he gave me roses. Thank you, darling. I have loved you since lightning struck when I first laid eyes on you at try-outs for that play at The Foolkiller--Transcenmental Hippiedations--on July 31, 1972, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Sweet memories

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Forty years ago yesterday, I married this smart, smiling sweetheart--a sexy, hunk of a man--named LeRoy. During the ten years, three months, and two weeks we got to be together before he died on April 14, 1983, we had two splendid sons named Lamont and Leland. I count myself extremely blessed to have had that time with him and for the time I continue to have with two of them. 

If you were of marrying age on December 31, 1972, you'll remember that non-traditional weddings had come into existence. Was I ever glad of that! I just had never seen myself in a white, lace and bead encrusted wedding gown. Nor did I envision that beautifully built man in a tuxedo which to me meant he'd look like every other groom out there. So, I decided that since dark green was one of my favorite colors, I'd find a dress that color. My maid of honor Marsha found a lovely rust-colored dress. See the bouquet beside the cake? The colors of our dresses enhanced the beauty of those pyrethrum daisies. And LeRoy's camel-colored corduroy sport coat, chocolate brown slacks, and cream-colored shirt with ruffles at the sleeves and neck, plus his brown paisley ascot, made him my unique groom. 

I'm smiling and tearing up at the same time, as I type these words and remember our excitement at becoming Mr. and Mrs. 

Fed up? I am.

I thought I'd be cute and creative and make a sign about a pet peeve, using a photo from our wedding. That's LeRoy and me on December 31, 1972. That was the chain-letter era, right?

In honor of Father's Day, here's LeRoy, back in the day

My sons' Daddy--LeRoy--driving a Volkswagen Beetle I imagine--he was partial to them. This photo was taken before I had met him on July 31, 1972, so I can't say for sure when this photo was taken or what he's driving. I can say with confidence he's certainly good-looking.

 

LeRoy, still handsome, with Lamont, probably August or September, 1976.

 

LeRoy holding Leland, probably March or April, 1979. And he's still handsome.

December 31, 1972, I married this gorgeous, good man.

There he is, my husband-to-be, not too many minutes before we got married.


We wrote our own vows. I lost the 3x5 cards in a fire several years ago. Mostly I remember how proud we felt that we'd found each other, totally amazed in fact because I started out in Mississippi, ended up in Kansas City, and we came across each other at the Foolkiller Theater downtown where we acted in a play together, a play entitled "Transcenmental Hippiedations." We said from the heart that we would always be there for each other. Oh, before I forget, look at his beautiful hair! I did so love that man's thick, lustrous hair. Our best man is one of LeRoy's best friends, Ronnie. And my dress is not black, it's a deep pine green velour. I picked it to match the colors of the leaves in my bouquet of pyrethrum daises.


The photo was too wide for the scanner to get it all, or at the least I didn't understand how to make the scanner get it all. Who knows? Anyway I couldn't leave out my wonderful matron of honor, Marsha.


Here we are, embarking together on our married lives that began 38 years ago today at 2:30 p.m., Kansas City time. I had gone to the library and checked out a book about weddings. In it I read that getting married on the up-swing of the clock hand, from the half hour up to the hour, meant good luck.

We had that good luck until 1983 for 10 years, three months and 14 days before LeRoy died. Our sons were seven and four. A different kind of good luck has been with us ever since. We know we'll all be together again, someday.

My son Lamont is 35 today. My son Leland will be 32 on Halloween. I am blessed.

At first I thought I'd make a post about Lamont's birthday today, then later on make one about Leland's birthday. However, they're together, as brothers should be, in lots of photos, so I'm combining their birthday posts today.


In this photo, Lamont is between four and five and Leland is between one and two.


Lamont was three years, one month, and one week old when Leland as born.


When Leland was six weeks old in December, 1978, the four of us moved from Kansas City, Kansas, to Jackson, Mississippi. My parents came in their Winnebago so the kids and I could ride with them. My husband LeRoy drove the Ryder truck. My brother came, too, in his own vehicle to help out with any and everything. Here we are, early spring 1979, at the John Bell Williams airport out from Raymond, Mississippi. Our friends had flown down from KC to visit us, in that airplane right there beside us. I'm holding our older son Lamont. LeRoy is holding our younger son Leland. LeRoy and I loved our prescription glasses that got darker out in the sunshine. We look pretty doggone cool, I think.


Our friend, Ronnie, the pilot. Our friend Lyndall, holding Lamont. My sweet, dearly departed husband LeRoy, holding a dozing Leland.


Baby Leland with me, his Mama.


About 1990, Lamont and Leland with their great-grandmother Vivian, my Daddy's Mama. If it really is 1990, then she's celebrating her 92nd birthday!


Mama and Daddy's backyard. We've got seated, left to right my Aunt Baker and JL's grandson Patrick, my son Leland, Patrick's fraternal twin brother Michael. Standing, left to right, my son Lamont, and the twins' older brother Steven. Lamont is in 6th grade.


Lamont and Leland horsing around on Leland's 21st birthday.


Leland's kindergarten graduation.


I think this is kindergarten, too.


I think Lamont's about 18 months old here. We're still living in Kansas City; he's wearing a sailor hat that he loved to wear.


Our cutie's a bit tired here.


Precious son Lamont.


Precious son Leland.


Lamont with Papaw, my Daddy. Lamont's got a Tupperware lettuce storage bowl on his head. He loved to wear it!


Leland's a few months old here--it's 1979.


Lamont's standing on a chair in our house in Kansas City, at the kitchen sink.


The guys are six and three here.


Here they're four and one. Love that jacket on Lamont and that bow tie on Leland.


LeRoy with Lamont who is probably close to one year old.


LeRoy with Leland who is probably five or six months old.


My two precious sons. I love them very much.


Lamont and Papaw.


Grandma and Leland.


The guys, taken on July 9, 2004. They got up early to see us off back to Mississippi before they had to go to work at their respective restaurants.


And here they are, the photo that I started the week with--I took it on 9/11/2010.

First, an exuberant aside, then the Canby Cruise In Photos--1961 Volkswagen Deluxe Station Wagon with a plus at the end--please read/look to the end.

I'm feeling joyously unrestrained and enthusiastic and have to share the reasons with you.

After work today I boarded a bus and got a ride closer to a mailbox so that I could mail two things, then I boarded another bus and got off on the other side of the river and boarded a different, less crowded bus, then I got off at Fred Meyer and bought the groceries that Mama and I needed, then I boarded another bus with my rolling black bag, a tote bag bungee-corded to its handle and a smaller tote bag on the crook of my arm, then I got off and walked to Elephant's Deli where I bought a nice chunk of an affordable, scrumptious sheep's cheese, Sole di Sardegna, that they'd put back into stock because I requested it, and then I walked the rest of the block home. All of that had taken an hour and twenty-one minutes. How wonderful it is to live in the city!

After eating a really good supper that Mama had fixed, bless her sweet heart, and washing the dishes, I sat down to my little iBook, Honk, to look at e-mails and comments. Some were about a writers' group I've been invited to join, Write About Now. Lamont met a member, the mother of one of this friends, who sent me the invitation to post on their blog which I will do soon, and the group's founder sent a welcoming e-mail, with this quote beneath his salutation: "It's never too late to be what you might have been" George Elliot 1819-1880. I read that and felt buoyant with hope all through my 61-year-old self.

Then I went to Abraham Lincoln’s About Brookville where I read his latest thought-provoking, insightful, thrilling post, accompanied by the expected but always splendid photos. And I felt awe and a twinge of sadness that they just don’t make enough men (and women) like his Colonel Houser these days. Nevertheless, I felt hope that by sharing Mr. Lincoln's post, others would feel the strength of character he's written about, maybe being strengthened themselves in the reading and understanding. Like I commented to Mr. Lincoln, I cannot imagine my life without the chance to look at his numerous blogs where I learn untold amounts of wisdom and appreciation every time I click.

Then a few minutes after "Law and Order" started on NBC Wednesday night, I walked by the table and got another look at the two thumbnail value studies I had finished Tuesday night, for my watercolor class this coming Friday night. Rene Eisenbart, our teacher, asked us the first night to silence our critical voice, which is not easy to do. I've tried. When I put the paper down last night, I wasn't very happy with either one, saying it aloud to Mama. But now they've grown on me. In fact, what I thought was, "Enough time has passed that I've fallen in love with these two little watercolors." And I felt a great deal of joy at that quiet realization.

So, I couldn't help myself, as I so often tell you. I had to take photos of the two thumbnails to share with you. And as I took the photos, I knew I'd have to write all of this, too. It feels important to me to let you into my exuberant feelings. I want us all to find things like this in our lives to keep us sane and healthy and functioning. We have to do this, I firmly believe, or in the face of each day's news, we will suffer even more.

The thumbnails.





Now for the most fantastic VW bus I've seen since 1972. Be sure to look all the way to the bottom so that you can see what I'm talking about. Thanks!





















When my darling LeRoy and I planned our wedding on December 31, 1972, we were so thrilled that his friend and landlord Bob had given permission for us to wed in his wonderful home. My family came from Jackson, Mississippi, to Kansas City, Missouri, in my parents Champion motor home. For our rehearsal dinner, everyone climbed into the VW bus you see in the photo below and went to a spaghetti place, the name of which escapes me. I'm hoping Bob can remember. This is Bob's flower-covered jewel. When I look at it and think of my straight-laced, hippie-hating-probably-because-they-scared-him Daddy riding in this van, near my handsome husband-to-be whose hair was longer than mine, I get a great big grin on my face. Daddy's gone now, just like my darling LeRoy. Mama and my brother Howard, and my darling sons Lamont and Leland, and Daddy's sister Baker and her husband my uncle JL, and I miss the two of them, but we have some wonderful memories. Thanks, Bob, for sharing the photo.