I Have To Scream!

Let’s ride “Fire in the Hole!  Yes! What about Thunderation?” my three kids excitedly asked.  We had just finished arriving and passing through the entrance into Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri.  Having all of this amazing day ahead of us, we began mapping out a plan of the activities to pursue, and I began facing a few fears of my own.

I love Silver Dollar City’s peaceful atmosphere, friendly people, beautiful hills, craftsmanship, musical talent, special events, and so much more.  On this particular day Stephanie, Chris,  Hannah and I were there taking it all in.  The aroma of fresh baked giant chocolate chip cookies and funnel cakes with powdered sugar filled the springtime morning air.  “Look, there is Hannah’s Ice Cream Parlor,” exclaimed Hannah.  “We have to stop before we leave!”  Every girl named, Hannah, is given a free ice cream cone.  At that moment we heard our favorite Bluegrass Band, The Link Family.  What to do first?

We reviewed the schedule of show times for the Link Family and chose 11 a.m. We planned to grab a bite to eat, and lastly get ice cream, with other activities between, as we made a big loop around the park.  We had an hour to ride.  Oh boy!

One of my fears is wild amusement rides.  In fact, I have never had much enthusiasm for wild amusement rides.  The older I become, the less I enjoy rides.  I remember a few times praying to safely get off of the ride.  I made a choice not to put myself in those situations anymore.  That does not mean, I won’t ride, but that I will only ride mild ones.  Thunderation fits this criteria.

Mark Twain once said, “To get the full value of joy, you must have someone to divide it with.”  We, my little family and I, were going to experience the joy of one of our first mild amusement rides together.  We walked to Thunderation which is a roller coaster with a few dips and more circular curves.   I am embarrassed to share that I can endure very few amusement rides without yelling and screaming!  Thunderation, a mild amusement ride, is no different.  As we waited in line watching the smiling and happy faces of the participants, I attempted to convince myself silently, “I will not yell.  I will not yell!”   This was the first exhilarating ride that we were to all ride together; I didn’t want to frighten the kids.

Soon it was our turn to board the car.  Stephanie and Chris rode in front with Hannah and me in the back.  Hannah, only 6 or 7 years old, was not very thrilled about riding, but not wanting to be left behind by her older sister and brother, rode beside me.  Slowly the cars pulled forward and down the hill we went!  Whoosh!!  I stifled a yell, but after the first tilting curve and I could not hold it in anymore.  Yelling around the dips and curves I went!!!  I was finally silent when we climbed up the hill and slowed down.  As we were stopping my son, Chris, turned around and said, “Are you alright, Mom?” “Yes.” I replied, feeling a little embarrassed at everyone’s eyes upon me.

The four of us stepped off the ride and walked up the paved hill.  We busted out laughing.  “What a ride!  Mom your hair was blown straight back behind you.  Why did you yell?” asked Stephanie laughing.  “I couldn’t seem to stop.” I replied, laughing at myself.  We proceeded on to the The Mine Ride, Fire in the Hole, listened to bluegrass music, and ate.  It was a fun-filled day!

After we arrived home, the kids excitedly informed their Dad about all of the day’s adventures!  Hannah sat at the table coloring and drawing as she has done on many occasions. 

Only this time, she drew a picture of me riding Thunderation.  The experience made such an impact on her life that she decided to share this picture with her Grams.  The joy continues to be divided among everyone.

 

What Does God Want?

Especially since the day The Lord saved my soul, I have had a strong desire to serve Him.  It has been my goal to consistently attend church, study scriptures, set a Godly example for my children and love people the way God instructs me to.  One day as I was reading through a familiar a scripture, I discovered that God is pleased with our faith and not necessarily with a perfect performance!

I read in Hebrews 11:6 that “without faith it is impossible to please Him:  for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of him that diligently seek Him.”  Wait a minute!  I thought that the better or near perfect my performance was, the more it pleased God!  I reread the verse, “without faith it is impossible to please Him…”  I could attend church every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, study scriptures for hours, and try to be perfect; however, without faith I could never please God!

For years I was taught and graded by tests in elementary, junior high, senior high schools, and college.  I strived for good grades.  Our society teaches that the students with the higher grades receive the scholarships and the better jobs.  Competitions for instrumental performances, sports games, and so on are awarded placements.  The list continues.  If I didn’t measure up, I disliked myself.  I felt friends and family were disappointed and even worse, was that God was displeased and angry with me.

When my children were lost and seeking God, I wanted to know that I would have done all God required of me.  Through that process I sometimes forgot to have faith and trust in God.  I am ashamed to admit that I worried about my children not only with salvation, but other aspects of their lives.  I worried about my husband with health issues and his work.      

I am thankful to discover that in God’s world we are not graded on our performances.  With faith it is possible to please him.  I don’t have to perform perfectly, but just believe God and He will take care of everything.  We are only human.  I knew this in my mind, but I did not always feel this in my heart.  My greatest failure was not trusting and not having faith in God.

God gives us many choices in life.  We choose life or death. We choose to doubt or to believe.  Now my focus is to be my best and trust God to take care of all the rest.  My faith is what pleases Him.

Doing What It Takes!!!!

My brother, Buddy, and I grew up on a farm where my parents planted a garden every spring and summer.  Flowers, vegetables,  and fruits were given tender loving care.  The produce was either frozen or canned for consumption during the winter months.  Most aspects of a garden are wonderful, but there were things that Buddy and I endured and/or creatively avoided as best we could. 

Harvesting a garden is fun, but can be tedious and a lot of work every day.  I remember tilling the ground and preparing it for the seeds and plants to be placed gingerly and properly.  The ground felt so soft and smooth between my toes.  After school we would water the garden and as time went on we watched the garden produce a harvest.  As the tomatoes grew we watched for huge green worms and sprayed them.  We watched for rabbits, birds, and turtles eating our produce. 

My favorite parts were the corn and zinnias.  As the corn grew to six feet my brother and I loved running between the rows playing hide and seek.  Picking the zinnias and arranging them was fun.  We picked and ate homegrown vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, peas, and green beans all summer long. 

All these vegetables would not only be eaten fresh, but would also be canned or frozen.  This was the second part of the work.  Picking and canning could take hours.  My family felt it was worth every effort.  Overall we were very blessed to have this bounty, except for one vegetable.   

The one vegetable I very much disliked was green beans.  My mother would can dozens of jars of these nasty tasting pods.  Freshly cooked green beans are okay, but canned I never liked, and still do not.  It seemed that we were served green beans every meal, except for breakfast.  My parents required Buddy and I to eat them.  I grew weary.  John Lithgow said once that “Out of suffering comes creativity.  You cannot spell painting without pain.”  My imagination and creativity kicked into high gear to figure out ways to fake eating green beans and relieve my suffering.

I would make sure I had a pocket on my shirt so I could nonchalantly drop the beans in my pocket, and then go outside to get rid of the evidence.  I could accidentally drop them on the floor.  Sometimes I would drop a bean or two in my glass of milk, or sneak them back in the serving bowl.  Another method was to drop the beans in my napkin and put the napkin in the trash, but this did not work as well.  It was difficult to avoid our parent’s watchful stares.  I, also, kept an eye on my parents.  When they talked passionately about an event during the day, I could hide the beans in the broken upholstery of the chair and later remove them. 

One evening after supper I walked into the kitchen to see my parents dismantling the chairs.  “What is in the padding of this chair?  Why it looks like green beans?”  I nonchalantly walked to the sink to fill my glass with water, and then started to leave the kitchen.  “What do you know about this?” asked my Dad?  I said, “I was sick and tired of eating green beans and I hid them in the chair!”  I don’t remember what the punishment was, but, it was worth it.

Years later I came to understand that my parents raised me with all the knowledge they possessed at the time.  Today my family and I laugh about all the creative ways my brother and I avoided eating our green beans.  As I matured over the years, I became creative in the preparation of green beans.  I found that if the green beans are spiced and cooked to slightly crisp there is a much better taste to them.   

I agree with Mary Lou Cook who said, “Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”  I invented and experimented with new ways to avoid eating green beans and later with preparing a better tasting green bean.  I took a risk, broke the rules, and made mistakes in this process.  In the end the memory I created was fun for the whole family.

When Johnny Comes To The Farm

“Do you remember how much fun we had when Johnny spent several days over the summer with us?” I ask my family as we reminisced around the kitchen table after a meal one day.  As harmless as working, reading books, playing with cousins, and eating pickles seem, Johnny managed to fall into trouble.      

My brother and I spent many hours playing with various cousins.  Johnny, six years my elder, was the fun loving son of my mother’s sister.  During the summers of the early to middle 60’s Johnny spent days with us.  He would help my Dad on the farm.  My brother and I would beg my Dad to allow Johnny to spend the day with us just reading books and playing.

One particular morning my brother and I gathered around the kitchen table listening to Johnny read a book aloud to us while my Mother cooked dinner.  At the time I grew up on the farm lunch was actually called dinner.  “And the big brown bear came lolloping over the mountain.  ‘No, no!’ the princess cried.”  Grandpa Potts read in the book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang , by Ian Fleming.  Johnny was reading with much facial expressions and voice inflections.  We laughed and laughed.  Johnny stopped reading and looked at us intently.  He said with a serious look on his face, “Are you to going to listen to this book or are you going to goof off?”  Being unsure if our cousin was serious or joking, we decided to seriously say, “We are listening.  Please read more.”  Johnny continued reading and acting silly and we continued laughing not only due to our cousin’s comical behavior, but due to the book being funny.

After awhile we decided to play under the kitchen table and chairs with toys.  The chairs had upholstered backs and cushions.  There was a horizontal space between the back and seat upon which my brother and I could stick our heads through easily.  Someone sat in the chair while I tried to pick it up and discovered that the padded back of the chair lifted a bit causing a larger space to put your head through.  A crazy idea entered my mind.  I thought, “Wouldn’t it be funny if Johnny stuck his head through the space and I pushed down on the chair back, closing the gap?  And, just what would Johnny do when he couldn’t get his head out?”     

The next moment I said, “Hey Johnny, it is your turn to put your head through here.”  What do you know; he did, and I nonchalantly pushed on the chair back, closing the space.  Shortly thereafter Johnny tried to pull his head out.  He tried a couple of times and my brother and I tried to help him.  “Oh Johnny, you are stuck!” my brother exclaimed.  “Aunt Lois, come here.” Johnny called.  “Yes?” asked my mother.  “I am stuck.  Can you help me?”  My mother bent over trying to pull Johnny’s head out.  His head really was stuck.  My mother sat down on the floor and began laughing hysterically.  She said, “How did you manage this?”  “Oh Lois, I don’t know; just stop laughing and help me.  It is not funny!” 

My mother tried controlling herself.  She began pulling harder on Johnny’s shoulders while my brother and I held the chair in place.  “Oh, Lois my ear is caught!  Stop!!” begged Johnny. More laughing from all of us as my mother folded Johnny’s ear over thinking that would provide more space.  “What are we going to do?” my brother asked.  My mother suggested we wait for Uncle Bill to arrive home for lunch, which could be an hour.  My mother began laughing again and Johnny moaned, “I can’t do that!” 

At that moment, I decided that my practical joke had gone far enough.  I innocently asked, “Does this chair back rise up if we pull up on it?”  My mother tried, and raised the chair back.  Johnny was so relieved.  My mother began laughing again.  We all did.      

This little secret of mine is just now coming out of the woodwork after 48 years.  In fact, I do not think my cousin Johnny knows, er, at least until now! 

Another great memory is watching Johnny at the dinner table visiting with my parents. They were all excited!  One of his favorite foods my mother prepared was homegrown home canned pickles.  He just sat there eating right from the jar one pickle after another pickle.  My Dad said, “You are going to make yourself sick.  You better call it quits for now.”  Johnny said, “I don’t get these pickles everyday and I just love them.  I will be okay.”  A couple hours later his stomach was hurting, and the laughter began all over again!!!!

I have read “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” by Robert Brault.  As I reflect on this cherished memory, I realize these little activities and little memories we made together, as a family, that summer fills a huge place in my heart.   

                                                           This is Johnny and myself.





One of the Best Days of My Life!!

By Hannah Stewart

I never thought a civic duty would lead to one of the best days of my life.  It all started when my sister’s boyfriend said, “Let’s go to the Humane Society!”  My sister, her boyfriend, my dad, and I went to the Humane Society and looked around at the dogs and cats.  I love cats, so I ran ahead to look at them.  As I looked around the room at all the cats, I saw a cute, little, orange kitten.  I took him out of his cage to hold him.  I noticed he was the only kitten in the room.  I started to fall in love with him and wanted to take him home with me.  I asked my dad, “Can we take him home?”  My dad said, “Let’s go home and talk to your mother first.”

When we arrived home, I used my art of persuasion to convince my mom to say yes.  I informed my mom, “He was the only kitten there, I will pay for the adoption and vet fees, plus it is my civic responsibility!”  Mom was smiling and thinking about it.  I said, “He is your favorite color for a cat, orange.”  Mom finally said, “Yes.”  I was so excited!  I could hardly wait.

The next day we arrived at the Humane Society early to make sure no one else adopted him.  When they opened, we walked inside.  I could hear the little orange kitten neowing as if he knew I was there.  The caretaker opened the door to the room filled with the cats and then I saw two new kittens.  They must have been brought in after we left yesterday.  They were both a beautiful, creamy orange and white with green eyes.  Now, my decision was difficult.  I had to decide between them.  I was petting the two new kittens when I felt something hitting me on my head.  I looked up and the little orange kitten was vying for my attention.  He started meowing, rubbing his head against the cage as if to say, “Here I am!  Remember me?”  I decided that since I saw him first, I could not resist his sweet, little face.  I told the man, “This is the one.”  “Oh, you want the meower!”

We put the little orange kitten in the cat carrier and drove home.  On the way there, I took him out, and he sat on my shoulder just like a parrot.  When we got him home, we let him out, and he started to run from one end of the house to the other.  I was witting there trying to think of a name for him.  “Dewey?” mom said.  I said, “No.  That does not fit him” Then I remembered a book I bought titled, 2001 Names for a Cat.  I looked in the book for a while.  He ran fast like a jet, but jet did not seem to fit him either.  I saw the name Torpedo and knew that was the one because he was as fast as a torpedo.

Choosing a cat to adopt, caring for the cat, and naming him were all a part of my civid duty.  It made not only one wonderful day, but many.

Hannah and Torpedo relaxing!!!  Silly little kitty cat!!!

Car Bouncing

When my brother and I were seven and nine years old we lived in a two story white house along a gravel road approximately 3 miles from our grandparents’ (my Dad’s parents) farm.  In our young minds, it might as well have been 500 miles, because we could never spend enough time with them.

“When are we leaving?”  “How much longer will it take to finish the dishes?” my brother and I chimed in together.  “I am scrubbing the last pan now.  Go get your jackets on.” My Mother told us.  Finally, it was time to go.  My brother and I raced to the car and jumped into the back seat, while my Mom slid into the front passenger seat and my Dad positioned himself into the driver’s seat.    

As my Dad only traveled at a speed of 25 miles per hour on the curvy gravel road in the very dark night, I listened to my parents’ conversation.  On this particular evening, they were talking about the car we were riding in.  “This has sure been a good car for us.  I expect to get a few more good years from this car, a 57 Chevy.” My Dad told my mother who shook her head yes.  I was restless and bored.  Suddenly, a crazy and outrageous thought popped into my mind.  “Hmmm.  What if my brother and I bounce up and down in the back seat every time my Dad slowed the car down to turn a corner and after the corner was completed stop bouncing?”  I leaned over and whispered in my brother’s ear.  Yes, he thought it would be fun.

We bounced on the very next corner.  Because it was so dark, our parents did not notice my brother and I were bouncing.  Our parents said nothing.  As we approached the next corner, we bounced again.  My Dad looked at my Mom and asked, “Do you feel that?”  My Mom replied, “Yes.”  We traveled around another corner with more bouncing!  My Dad was really puzzled.  My brother and I managed not to laugh, but remain quiet.  At last we arrived at our grandparents’ farm.

My brother and I ran into the house.  My grandparents presented us with a bottle of soda pop.  We chose from all sorts of flavors, grape, orange, strawberry, 7up, Coke, and root beer.  “Pop, on the way over here the car seemed to jump up and down.  It was the strangest thing.”  My Grandpa and my Dad took a huge flashlight to go look at the motor in our car.  I just looked at my brother and pressed my lips together saying silently not to reveal our little joke.  After a great visit it was time to go home.

Riding home, my brother and I started the same bouncing again.  This time my Dad began studying the situation more intently.  My brother and I laughed a bit.  My Dad asked us, “Do you know what that is?  Are you doing anything?”  We just shrugged our shoulders.  The next corner we stopped the bouncing until the last corner before home and we bounced on that one.  My Dad said, “Well, I will have to check it out further tomorrow in the light.”

The next day my Mom asked my Dad if the bouncing was still occurring.  Dad said, “Nothing.”  My brother and I laughed and laughed about our little joke in private later.  We kept it as our little secret.

 

This is a picture of my paternal grandparents taken on their farm near Goodson, Missouri.  On the back row is my grandmother, my grandfather, and my Dad.  On the front row is myself and my brother.  As one can tell the sun was very bright that day.  That is the reason for our funny faces!

 

   

Great Geysers

As I gather plastics, tin cans, and newspapers to recycle my eyes stop and stare at a Gatorade bottle.  Flash!  A memory of a homeschool science experiment pops into my mind.  I laugh out loud!  Scattered pictures of flowing bubbles, diving children, a shooting bottle cap, and a geyser appear in my mind.

Stephanie, our oldest daughter, conducted a science experiment in which she was to mix baking soda with vinegar in a plastic Gatorade bottle.  She learned that the following chemical reaction occurred.

Na⁺HCO₃^- + CH₃COOH → CH₃COO^-Na⁺+ CO₂ + H₂O

When she mixed baking soda and vinegar together it yields aqueous sodium acetate and carbon dioxide gas.  The gas fills the bottle causing the sides of the bottle to bulge when the cap is tightened.  Chris and Hannah wanted to observe what was to happen in the experiment.  Stephanie’s curiosity got the best of her.  She asked, “What happens if I shake the bottle?” And immediately she shook the bottle rapidly.  This mixing causes the chemical reaction to speed up.  “No, wait!”  I said, but it was too late.  The mixture bubbled profusely and rapidly to the top of the bottle.  At that point, Chris and Hannah dove behind the couch to take cover.  Who knows where the bottle cap would land once it was released from the bottle.  Fortunately the bottle was pointed upward and the cap shot off like a bullet to the ceiling.  The mixture was all over the table, the walls, Stephanie, and a big brown spot on the ceiling that remains to this day.

Chris and Hannah came out from behind the couch, when it was safe.  “Look at the ceiling!  There is a brown spot!”  A frown appears on my face!  Stephanie, Chris, and Hannah said, “We will clean the mess up, Mom.”  We all stood there looking at each other for a moment, and then we all burst out laughing. 

I remember reading a quote about laughter from Bob Newhart.  He says, “Laughter gives us distance.  It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.”  I am certainly glad I could look at this bottle cap shooting event with humor.  I am glad our frowns turned into smiles.