MISSOURI KEEPS ON GIVING

The Generosity Angels struck again. Here in Missouri's division of the Universal Storehouse, we Live the Attitude of Gratitude and expect miracles.

Co-worker, Gene, had a headlight go out on his car. He bought a bulb but couldn't figure out how to set it. Grumble. Grumble. Picking up a sale for me, he met a young military man in camouflage working on his truck. They talked vehicles, like guys do. Gene commented about his headlight problem. The young man volunteered, just like he did for his country, "I'll take a take a look at it." He knew exactly what to do. Using needle nosed pliers he fixed it in a flash.
Gene was shocked, "How old are you?"
"Nineteen."

Another day Gene was writing up a sale for a lady folding clothes. "My kids have outgrown these. I'm taking them to goodwill." She paused and looked at him, "You're about my son's size." Shoving a pair of jeans at him, she asked, "Will these fit you?" He peeked at the label and smiled: exactly his size. She layered him with sweaters and shirts and added, "There's more. Stop back."

What wonderful surprises are next in Missouri's division of the Universal Storehouse? We'd love to hear what great surprises come to you in your division?

2009 RedConvertibleTravelSeries

More Missouri Castoffs

Gene just came in from work carrying a 19" Symphonic TV and remote. That wouldn't be anything to write home about, except, he sold a lady cable, and she gave him the TV.

Last week we found a computer desk with a note, "Free. Take and enjoy!" We did.

Over the weekend we acquired another chair, two end tables and a lamp. Forget about furnishing on a dime, we still have 10 cents left!

It's ok sleeping on the floor on a single air mattress. We lay the same direction and inhale at the same time. It isn't far to the floor, if we fall out. The question is not how, but when, one of us will come upon a no-longer-needed bed? I want to jump on the bed. I want to jump on the bed.

2009 Red Convertible Travel Series

Memory Malfunction

Just a minute, I'll be right back.

Who said elephant's never forget?

Leroy & Alice Patocka-Fortner took this picture in Africa. Leroy said he's seen an elephant 11'11" tall. That's a lot of elephant!

2009 Red Convertible Travel Series

WANAHOO DAM

Since childhood we've heard speculation about a dam on Sand Creek. It was always too expensive. Something shifted. I took this pic atop what's left of Bodley's Hill. Never paved, it was a vehicle test when muddy, and a great place to sled. Today the stakes mark the edge, a sheer drop off of about fifty feet. Wildlife will need to find new homes. When the dam fills, the trees will be covered providing hiding places for fish and snagging places for fishermen.

Highway 77 will continue around the west and north sides of Wahoo and over the dam. Where highways 109 and 77 intersect, the road has been raised. The weigh scale got a lift, too. Afterall, no eighteen-wheeler wants to drive in a hole to get weighed.

When I celebrated my 16th birthday, friends and I went down snow-packed Bodley's Hill in a truck we believed could go anywhere. It couldn't. A neighbor and his tractor came to our rescue. With the building of the dam, Bodley's Hill is now a private, crushed rock drive.

Those below the dam are looking forward to life without flooding, while the recreation lake will spawn a variety of new businesses for fun. Bait anyone?

2009 Red Convertible Travel Series

PIONEERING MISSOURI

If we'd just remembered how the pioneers traveled when they settled this country, we'd have come to Warrensburg with empty vehicles. This week was cleanup week east of Hwy 13. It allowed residents to put their "unwanteds" on the curb for the taking. Pioneer-fashion, we aquired an oblong wooden table and a round one, a box of dishes that included a kettle lid, mine has been missing for years. Neither of us brought dishes. Thankfully, we found cups, plates and flatware, two wooden chairs, a gas grill and a snow scoop guaranteed to stop winter.

During the day, JB spotted an entertainment center by a dumpster. We went back after dark, in a drizzle, loaded it up and wrestled the monster into our rental. Near midnight, we plopped in chairs to admire our find. I commented, "Our 17" TV looks newborn for the space; maybe it will grow into it. We need to shimmy the right end about an inch. "
JB studied, "No, we just need to set it on end."

You know you're tired when you can't figure out which end is up.

Next week the west side of town gets to unload. Who knows what we'll find.

Less is more . . . when it's enough.

2009 Red Convertible Travel Series

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER WILLA CATHER

AAA Living featured “Prairie Prose” in their May/June issue. It took me until Oct. 2nd to read it. Willa Cather lived near and in Red Cloud, Nebraska. She wrote fiction patch-worked from the lives of those around her.

The home is frame and small, there weren’t a lot of possessions to house. When my mother, my young daughters and I visited it, I climbed the stairs to her room, stood there and wondered what inspired her to write about the ordinariness of Nebraska. Home to me, it doesn’t seem all that interesting. She, however, captured the pioneer’s spirits, some so tortured with longing for the old country they took their life to get back.

A master at creating life-like characters, in “My Antonia,” she speaks of those who moved here to escape their past. Burdens carried took ‘now’ time. Simple pleasures were missed. Confession wasn’t enough to erase their remorse. When snow is piling up, and the wind is howling like wolves, I get a bone chill thinking of the brothers and the bride. Just a story, I tell myself.

“O Pioneers!” engraved in my mind the people's grit and determination. Our paternal ancestors immigrated from Sweden. Winter must have made them feel right at home. Willa was born in Virginia in 1873 and moved here with her family when she was nine. The bare landscape saddened her; she loved and missed trees.

People left the familiar to establish new communities with their traditions in food and worship, methods of farming and building. Breaking sod was hard, hard work. Weather came without Doppler warning. Swarms of grasshoppers ate them out, blizzards froze them out, droughts wiped them out and prairie fires burned them out. Threats of Indian raids, disease and loneliness added to their woes. Women ached to talk to another woman. As a child, my grandmother was living in a sod house when their cow broke through the roof―more dust, grass and bugs to contend with. The pioneers tried to persevere, worked hard, carried water and didn’t have a lot to eat. In their photos, no one is smiling. One thing about this part of the country, the people know more about work than how to relax.

Open prairie prompted farmers to raise a barn in a day or two with the help of their neighbors. Glad for the company, women cooked, baked and gossiped. The men built with wood nails and enjoyed the women’s food, such as fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, fruit and meat pies, whatever was in season, and a wagon load of bread. My maternal grandfather, Roy Williamson, played harmonica and fiddle. If there was a dance at the end of the day, I can see him fiddling Turkey in the straw, his dark curly hair bouncing and his brown eyes twinkling.

I was fourteen when I first visited Red Cloud for our state-wide Rainbow Girls convention. A small town, we brought our pretty dresses and stayed with families. Overnight a prisoner in the jail picked the bricks out and escaped. Hearing about it on the news made us afraid to leave the house. Willa Cather might have seen it as an idea for a story.

2009 Red Convertible Travel Series

SHORTS, SHOES and SHEEP

Last week my friend, Diane, and I volunteered at the Arlington, NE three day rummage sale on the fairgrounds. All day she unpacked, sorted and stacked donated plus sized sweaters, while I sorted small, medium and large shorts. I decided it would take seven pairs of Daisy Duke shorts to make one pair of jeans.

I suspect those in the know knew, if the volunteers had to leave the grounds to get something to eat, they wouldn’t come back, even though we were happy to be part of the effort. Volunteers were served a yummy potato and bacon soup, ham or egg salad sandwiches and a choice of cakes for dessert. A local bakery provided an assortment of brownies with nuts, or caramel, or nuts and caramel. Scrumptous! Back to work.

Our building displayed women’s clothes. Long jeans neatly folded and stacked bowed tables. Over 30’ of tables held folded sweaters at least six sweaters high and three or four across. Some blouses never made it to hangers, they ran out. We worked all day organizing, knowing full well a few minutes after opening it would look like a war zone. I could have shopped, but didn’t. It was overwhelming, like too many flavors of ice cream, just give me chocolate.

One building was dedicated to children’s clothes, another to men’s, a third to furniture. Across the road, row after row of shoes and purses were where I expected to find sheep.

Diane said this sale was a third of last year's donations, but they had a spring sale, too. As much as $75,000 has been raised for the hospital from a three day sale. That's a lot of Daisy Duke's.

2009 Red Convertible Travel Series

9/11/2009

From my "Vegetarian Pleasures" cookbook I made East Indian red lentil dal, yogurt with fresh orange sections and raisin chutney. Each has a healthy dose of fresh chopped ginger. Delicious! My house smells lived in. On my walls I have four small paintings of Mazatlan, Mexico, three Dutch tiles and Egyptian Papyrus. My home is a reflection of the world, my home.

I've learned to appreciate other cultures. Love is an equalizer. As humans we see in small pieces. Our Creator sees the whole. If we step outside our fear and allow love, I believe we can live together in peace.

2009 Red Convertible Travel Series