News from Lonnie

There hasn't been much action on here lately. Maybe Facebook is taking up all of our online energy...

We're holding our own here in Fort Worth. Daniel and Katie will turn 18 in March and finish high school in June. (What happened? Weren't they in kindergarten just a couple of years ago?) Laura is a junior at Austin College, majoring in art. She's very excited about her classes this fall.

Robin is teaching at the preschool at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History two days a week, and enjoys it very much. She also has a new blog that she's enjoying (www.singtomycats.com). Stop by and take a look when you have a minute. She would love to read your comments!

I'm still working for Everman ISD, trying to stay up with the latest technology issues. Sometimes I'd like to feel like I'm actually getting ahead of the game, but we're making progress, anyway.

So, does anybody else have an update? I'd love to hear from all of you!

Lenora's Stroke

Lenora suffered a stroke Tuesday, July 7. As I understand it she and Wayne were eating and he noticed that she was not handling her food well. He realized that she may be having a stroke and rushed her to the hospital.
She has been in the hospital for several days waiting for additional tests to be performed. She is talking well and appears to me at least that she does not have typical severe stroke symptoms. She is tough, has to be after raising five boys.

No More Pie

I remember staying at Lums Chapel for a few days one time and at lunch time, Grandaddy, Uncle Herschel, and the boys, Boots and Jim, came home. I had been there at the store playing or something, anyway we all set down and ate lunch. There were five of us at the table, after eating a pie was brought to the table. Grandaddy took the pie, using his knife he cut the pie into thirds and took a piece, he then passed the pie to Jim who took a third and passed the pie past Janice and me to Boots who took the last piece of pie. Janice started crying, I don't remember her saying anything for a while, just crying. Grandaddy said thee is no more pie. Then when Grandaddy was finished, he had kept a few bites of pie on his plate and gave it to Janice. I even got a bite to. Janice was still not happy nor was I, but we were grateful for getting a little pie. I went back outside and played with Tippey the large Collie and Janice did the dishes, the boys left for the field in the white Dodge pickup.

My foot surgery

I had foot surgery May 27th to repair a broken foot from a motorcycle accident last year. They rebroke the heel bone and the bone it attaches to in several places then ground the bones to fit together and inserted a three inch screw angling into the heel up towards the instep. It waas done at the VA hospital and they are to cheap to provide nice pictures like Billy Wayne has. Plus I feel as usual when compared to Billy Wayne, I came in second place, he has two screws and I only have one. I hear he is back to work but still having some pain. That'll teach him to swing from the top branch.

Lizards, Horny Toads and Snuff

This is for all the cousins who played at mama and papa's. I remember when I was perhaps five or maybe six and we would go to Littlefield on Sunday afternoons. It seemed that we were always lucky because Billy Wayne, Terry, Lonnie, Kenny, and Janice were there. I'm sure it wasn't luck but at that time it didn't matter. We would go to the field and chase lizards and toads. Man were they fast. We would chase them and sometimes someone would actually catch one. The toads would swell up and the lizards had a habit of losing their tales. Anyway we would run and run until we couldn't run anymore, then all go to the old white house. I think it had a red brick porch or something like that. Maybe I'm confusing several old houses but we sure had fun. I remember one time we all were tired and went in the house and started playing in the floor wrestling around, anyway someone turned over a can of some black stinky syrup. It wasn't syrup! We were quickly told to get out of the house. It was years later when I asked about it and found that someone, I won't mention names, dipped snuff.
Does anyone remember Grandpa Smith? That was his name wasn't it? I remember him eating with a knife.

Ride Home On The Milk Truck

I was staying at Mommy and Grandaddy's (Hershel and Erma Leta) in Lums Chapel for a week during summer when I was about eight years old, between second and third grades anyway. About the middle of the week I wanted to go home and was told that no one could take me home until the end of the week. Early the next morning I decided to go home so I started walking on Hwy 385 towards home. I really hadn't gotten too far and was in front of a house when a lady came out to get her mail as I walked past. She asked me where I was going and I told her Sundown. She convinced me to come into her house for some cookies, never turn down cookies, anyway about an hour or so later I confessed that I had come from the store. She loaded me up and took me back to Lums Chapel. Mommy met me there and was mad! She said that Boots was driving up and down HWY 385 looking for me. Anyway that evening after getting the cold shoulder from everyone but Janice who thought it was cool that I almost excaped. She was mad that I hadn't taken her with me. The next morning they woke me up early and when the Foremost milk truck stopped to deliver milk they asked him to take me to Sundown. It was great, we made many stops and I helped him load milk into crates. When we finally got to Sundown, Mr. Ross the store owner, called mom to come get me. She was madder than mommy had been. She kept telling me how bad I was for embarrassing her. But nothing could take away the great memory of helping the milk man.

The Tree Slide

We visited Plainview often and once when we visited Uncle Wayne and the boys had built a tree slide. It consisted of a cable from the fork in the tree to the base of another tree, at the time it seemed a really long way. I wanted to slide down and climbed up behind Billy Wayne, he grabbed the pipe that the cable ran through and Whoosh, there he went, all the way to the other tree. Uncle Wayne and dad, Uncle Jr, stopped him before he hit the tree. It now was my turn, I balked, Terry and then Lonnie went around me, I was scared and embarrased that I was too sissy to slide down. I climbed down the tree after a while and sulked around the rest of the afternoon. I was a coward, a real sissy. It was terrible, anyway later in the evening I knew I had to make the slide, I couldn't stand it any longer. I walked out and climbed the tree, the pipe was at the bottom, I climbed down and tried sliding the pipe up but it wouldn't stay. I found a piece of rope and tied it to the pipe and climbed the tree again, then I pulled the pipe up to me. I was ready, I had to do it. I pushed off and slid down the cable, however, no one was at the bottom to catch and stop me. Yep, I hit the tree. I didn't care I did it. I ran inside yelling that I slid down the tree slide. My mom saw me and was very upset, I didn't know it but I had scraped my face a little. Anyway Billy Wayne, Lonnie and Terry and I ran outside and slid down the tree slide until after dark.
By the way did you know that Billy Wayne was run over by a car while I think riding his bike. You'll have to get the story from Tarzan Billy himself.