Pam Hale was right three times today!
That’s for you, Darrell. We just wanted you to know she can be right sometimes.
Now back to the beginning. Here we are in the last half of 2023. What? How did that happen so fast?
We gathered at the home of Susie Kleffner to start our day. Those attending were Lucy Branson, Shirley Huffman, Linda Crider, Pam Hale and Susie Kleffner, our hostess. Mary Jo Crider joined us at lunch time.
We gathered around Susie’s long kitchen table. She provided us with coffee and tea. As we settled in, Susie placed a delicious looking casserole on the table, it was a breakfast egg casserole. It was accompanied by a bowl of fresh mixed fruit. After saying grace, we dug in. OMG! Everything tasted so good. Great job, Susie! As always, we had conversation for dessert. We started with all the storm/wind damage around Vienna. Every thing from small limbs to large trees broken off 8 or 10 feet above the ground. The city workers had to clear the streets all over town. We all gave thanks for the rain but didn’t mention the wind.
Lucy’s great-grandkids are having some health problems. Of course, being the great-aunts that we are, the problems were thoroughly discussed, and the kids joined everyone’s prayer chain.
Susie has been going through her books and had some laid out for us to borrow. We each selected the ones we wanted and bagged them up. I wouldn’t be able to get anything home if it wasn’t for Walmart bags.
We talked about snakes again. Lucy and Vic found out after they had purchased the farm on Highway 28 outside of Dixon that the place was called Copperhead Ridge. It ran all the way from W Highway to M Highway. They had a few run in with a few of the snakes but not as bad as the story sounds. They only killed black snakes if the caught them in the chicken house. Black snakes love to eat eggs. They then wrap themselves around a post or tree and crush the shells so they can digest the eggs. Vic took the black snaked to the barn to help keep the mice population in check. This worked ok until Lucy went in the barn one day and a big snake was laying across the header over the door. Black snakes as mouse traps ended that day in the Bransons’ barn.
We also talked about how raccoons are taking over the county. Some of the girls with chickens set out traps for the varmints who threaten their layers. One trap has caught 26 raccoons and a couple of foxes. Red foxes are making a come back to the area. The trap caught a red one and we have seen several red ones killed on the roads.
Shirley brought a picture of our Mom from 1968. It was stamped with the date it was developed. She looked so young; she was 61. She was walking away of a burning barrel in a yard with a house behind her with stuff on the porch. We looked at the picture off and, on all day, and we never could figure out where she was. Whose house was she at?
Lunch time rolled around, and we loaded up and drove to The Edge on Highway 63 toward Freeburg for lunch. I had never been there before, and I truly enjoyed it. We all had catfish sandwiches with a side of our choice. They had fries, sweet potato fries, broccoli cauliflower salad, pasta salad or mac and cheese. Between us we had several of the sides and they were as good as the catfish. The atmosphere was pleasant and service was excellent, professional and friendly. I don’t know why, but they put us in a room by ourselves. Perhaps our reputation preceded us.
We discussed hand-me-downs, cut-offs and button-down shirts. Things you don’t hear much about any more. Maybe they are in the place common sense and doing math in your head.
When we finished eating, we loaded up and went to Lucy’s house to have birthday cake for our dessert. My birthday was last week, so Susie made me a birthday cake. I am now older than I’ve ever been, but still younger than everyone but Pam. As the lady in the commercial, age is just a number and mine is unlisted.
Lucy stopped at a thrift store and found a quilt she had to buy. It is a hexagon flower garden, queen size and made from only pastel satin. It is so beautiful. All the hexagons are pieced together by hand and probably cut out by hand. They are inch and a half pieces of satin and each piece has to have a template of thick paper or light cardboard. You baste the satin around the temple and then whip stitch another hexagon on all six sides. My finger gets sore just thinking about it. But it is so very beautiful.
The subject of gardening came up. I remember when we were kids, Mom had a big garden and a “truck patch”, that another garden you have to drive to in the truck, get it. Most of Pam’s kids are gardeners to some degree. Theresa has a nice big one while Sam has a mostly container garden. DJ and Kiersha have a small patch with about five or six plants in it just out their backdoor. It’s their first try and it seems to be going well. They did have to replace their irrigation system when someone stole their 5-gallon bucket off the front porch.
When Lois and I moved into our first house, a couple bought the one next door and put in a garden. When the vegetables need to be picked, the guy came over and asked if we would like some okra. At that point we hadn’t developed a taste for it so we declined. He told us he had to get rid of it from the garden because they both hated it. I asked why they had planted it if they didn’t like it. He told us that you have to grow okra when you have a garden. I said “No you don’t”. They next year they didn’t have any in the garden. I got the impression it is somewhat like the lady who cut the ends of the ham every Easter. Remember, because Mom did it. Mom did it because she didn’t have a big enough pan to cook it in. Do you have any traditions in your family that started like that?
We were about to finish up the birthday cake when Lucy’s handyman came by to talk to her. We teased him about crashing our Sisters Day and he tried to defend himself and we all wound up laughing. A fun way to end the day.
We are going on 18 years of having Sisters Day. As the time goes on we all appreciate how important they are. We started out with seven sister and a sister in law, we are now four sisters, a niece and an adopted sister friend. Thank you all for sharing the ride as we celebrate those still here and the ones who are waiting above.
Thought: Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue on that counts. - Winston Churchill
Fun Fact: Why do we close our eyes when we pray, cry, kiss or dream? Because the most beautiful things in life are not seen but felt by the heart.
