Well, my Sisters’ Day started off with a bang! I got up with my mind all full of prescriptions. Whaley’s Pharmacy closed rather suddenly for me. I heard about it on Saturday and it closed Tuesday. So, I had to find a different one. Walgreens bought them out and I do not like them. I had to find another pharmacy here in Jefferson City that delivered to Wardsville. I chose Roberts, another family-owned shop. But getting my prescriptions transferred has been a strain for me. I suffer from procrastination for something. I went to DJ’s (Harold’s grandson) to spend some time waiting for my prescriptions to be ready for pick up. At about quarter-to-10 my phone rang. It was Pam. “Where are you?” she said. “I’m at DJ’s waiting for my pills” says I. “No” I said, “I just forgot it was today.”

They had all finished breakfast and were on their way to Pam’s daughter, Jane’s, house. So, I jumped in the car; a figure of speech -- I haven’t jumped in years -- and headed for Iberia, as Harold used to say, like a big herd of turtles. When I got to Iberia, I stopped at a gas station at the junction of highways 17 and 42 and called Pam. In about five minutes, she drove up and I followed her to Jane’s house. The rest of the girls were going into Jane’s shop (KRA-ZEE-JANE’S). I think I mentioned before that Jane has a machine embroidery business. She adorns caps, t-shirts and anything you can embroider a logo or saying on. She showed us how it all worked as she finished up embroidering each of her great aunts a tee shirt. The have the words Sisters Day at the top and seven little girls scattered below. Each shirt was our favorite color. Jane said she looked for little old ladies to put on the shirts but all she could find was young ones. That’s OK by me…we can all still remember when we were young.

We learned how the machine works; it is amazing. There are a lot of attachments which allow her to embroidery on a variety of things.

Those attending breakfast were Lucy Branson, Mary Jo Crider, Susie Kleffner and Pam Hale, our hostess. Breakfast consisted of homemade biscuits and gravy, apple strudel and a variety of fresh fruit. Knowing Pam and having shared many meals with her and her family over the years I know it was delicious.

Jane’s shop is separate from her house. She has it set up for embroidering and making quilts. She has a couple of treasured items from Jane’s great-grandparents, Hickey’s house. Jane’s Dad, Darrell, lived there while he was growing up. One was a little narrow door built of planks of wood laid side by side then connected with a cross board ant the top and bottom. It was age white. Every night, Jane’s Dad opened that door to go up to his bedroom. She also has the front door of the house too.

By then it was lunch time. We moved to Jane’s lovely home. Just like her parents’ home, you feel welcome the minute you step through the door. The large farmhouse table was ready, and drinks were waiting on the island. We helped ourselves then took our places. Jane had a giant pan of Lasagna prepared. She placed it on the end of the island. We took our plates and helped ourselves. Bowls on the table offered a build-your-own salad. We each put together our salads and dug in. The lasagna was scrumptious, and the salad was the perfect accompaniment. A light dessert of an assortment of cookies and applesauce. Well done, Jane!

On the wall behind the table was a hand-crocheted tablecloth of the Last Supper. It was about 4’ x 8’. Jane had it framed beautifully. I mentioned to Pam how beautiful it was and she said she had made it. In fact, she made one for each of her seven kids. What a wonderful future heirloom for all those families.

We talked about cookouts Pam’s boys have had and decided they could make shrimp boil or crawdads for us. Of course, we wouldn’t turn down fried fish either. The best part of these is the getting together.

We talked about dishwashers, the machines and the ones on the end of your arms. I remember when I was a little girl Shirley was supposed to do the dishes. Mom had the tea kettle on the stove heating the water. Shirley poured the boiling water into the dishpan with some water from the pump by the sink. She stuck her hands in the water and quickly pulled them out. That’s too hot. The pan was full, so she decided just to wait for it to cool down before she started. Oh! Oh! She waited too long; the water was cold. She put it on the stove to reheat. After a couple rounds of that mom just washed them herself. To clarify Shirley didn’t do this every time; it’s just a memory from her kid sister.

We talked about plans for future Sisters Days. We also talked about a Crider reunion so the cousins could get to know each other. Nothing was decided on either topic, so we will have to discuss it some more. 

It’s hard to think our nieces and nephews and the greats especially, don’t know each other. I remember knowing most of my cousins. I will admit there were some I knew by name but couldn’t recognize. There were so many of us and varied in age. Us younger ones mostly knew the younger cousins. Mom and Daddy both had seven siblings each and there were 10 of us. That’s a lot. The ages of my siblings spanned 21 years. Pam is our first niece. Lois and I (the twins) were two months old when she was born.

We talked about our Crider family history book written by our cousin, Julian Crider. It started five generations before us and went on to two generations after us. It has been revised a couple of times since then.

We tried to talk about some of the old folks before us. We soon found out that some of us suffer from the dread disease...CRS. (Can’t Remember S@$&). One thing about CRS is that you get to meet the same new people over and over and have lots of new experience again and again.

Well, that’s the end of another Sisters Day. Hope you enjoyed hearing about it. I will leave you with these thoughts for now. God Bless, and thanks for sharing our day.

Thought: Old age is golden, or so I’ve heard it said. But sometimes I wonder as I crawl out of bed, with my ears in a drawer, my teeth in a cup, my glasses on the table until I get up. As sleep dims my vision, I say to myself is there anything else I should lay on the shelf? The reason I know my youth is all spent? My get up and go, has got up and went. But in spite of it all, I’m able to grin when I think of the places my get up has been.

Fun Fact: A lesson in Irony 

The food stamp Program administrated by the Department of Agriculture is proud to be distributing this year the greatest number of free meals and food stamps ever to 46 million people. Meanwhile, the National Park Service Ad mistered by the Department of the Interior, asks us “Please don’t feed the animals.” The reason for the policy is because “animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves. 

This ends today’s lesson in Irony.