Posted in Whimsical Wednesday

High School Reunion

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

When Luann visited the other day, she asked if I was going to the upcoming reunion.

There’s a Reunion? When? Why wasn’t I invited? I have to giggle at that, because I have no desire to go to a class reunion, but not being given the opportunity to spurn an invite felt insulting.

She explained that she was in a FB group and it dawned on me pretty quickly that I, too, belong to that group. I don’t use fb much at all, just to post this blog and say happy birthday. I do occasionally check up on relatives that I haven’t seen, but I don’t hit the “like” button enough to have much more than a lot of ads on my timeline.

Anyway, apparently the get-together has been in the works since June or so? I had to wade through some obituaries to find the announcement, and just in time! Today is the last day to respond and send my $40 for “heavy hors d’oeuvres” and cash bar at a nearby golf club on 10/10.

My high school years were brutal. My parents had moved me back from California and separated in the middle of freshman year. Mom was abusive and Dad was negligent. As a result, I was a really messed-up kid. My core group of friends from that time (including Luann) were all from grade school and I’m not exaggerating when I say I made no lasting friendships in high school. Several years back, I met up with a couple of acquaintances from those days, and it became clear we had markedly different memories which didn’t include each other.

On the other hand, the folks who plan these things stayed in touch with each other over the years. Many, if not most, still live here in Eville and get together on a regular basis. That is so cool,but I don’t actually know them, and doubt we have much in common. I did attend the 20-year event, even helped on the planning committee, and that was enough for me. Back then, we still had to mail letters and use landlines, and it was cool to see where people ended up; nowadays, a quick search of facebook will serve up photos of nearly everyone.

I’m an introvert whose persona is friendly, even perky, and I can speak in front of groups, run meetings and such, but I’m feeling panic right now thinking about going to this convention of strangers interspersed with a couple of people that I knew once, maybe. I haven’t been missed in 35 years now, so I’ll wager you’ll be fine without me.

Still, there are some folks from those high school days whose company I would enjoy (I think) one-on-one. Are you in town for the party? Send me a message and let’s go to lunch! Do you live here in the tri-state? Send me a message and let’s go to lunch!

I’m looking forward to the pictures of the HHS Class of 1971 55-year Reunion, and you can bet I’ll be zooming in, so use the filters. Y’all are so lucky to have life-long friends. Have a great time!

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

Suddenly Autumn

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

Just as the weatherman predicted, a sweet cold front pushed our humidity and heat right out of here, arriving just as the sun passed the equator. Very welcome, indeed. We celebrated the arrival of Fall with baked bread, butternut squash, vegetable soup, and a campfire.

My friend, Luann, in town from Portland, Oregon, for her Mom’s funeral service, came by yesterday and we had a wonderful visit. We did not take any pictures, but she brought one along that she’d found amongst her mom’s albums.

I think that’s at least 25 years ago, since I seem to be awfully proud of my mustang. Yeah, we still look like that…

The new theatre season at USI starts today and Dee and I are meeting for lunch and today’s matinee of First Daughter Suite. It’s sure to be a good time.

These Sunday Reports are getting to be more of a chore than actual writing, so I’m making some changes to my writing schedule that will allow for at least two posts a week, and I hope to make it three, so stay tuned!

I’ll be back soon!

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

Seasonal Flux

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

Summertime here at Sonnystone is always Magical, filled with family, floating, gardening, and relaxing, doing nothing and resting afterward.

There’s a lot to savour in my memories of these past three months, but the Dog Days are still dogging right along and I am ready for this Heat and Humidity to move on. The weatherman says the feels-like-hell-alert will be over at 7pm today, and that temps will be dropping 20degrees tomorrow, so there is hope that we’ll celebrate the Solstice and welcome in the cooler air on Tuesday, thank goodness.

An old high-school friend contacted me Monday to let me know that her Mom had died. The family had been planning her 100th birthday party on the 29th, but she passed on the 13th. As I am wont to do, I’ve spent a fair amount of time Remembering those days and how much I wished that Mrs. O was my mom. I would run away from the anger at my house to hers, where she just emanated loving calmness. Being around her made me feel better, and Lord knows I needed that kind of caring in those days. I was truly Blessed to have known her. I hope I get to see my old friend, too; it’s been a while.

That’s about all to report for now, just doing the usual bird-watching and harvesting. I’ve been spending too much time staring at my phone. I’m not sure when I got this hooked, but it’s really pissing me off. I’m thinking I’ll set some sort of alarm to go off if I stare at it for longer than a certain amount of time. HaHaHa! That won’t stop me. I will just have to put it down, but first I have to decide to…

Hope you’re making good decisions in your neck of the woods.

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

Out of the garden and up the Family Tree

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

I harvested the last of this year’s edibles this morning…

Before
After

I need to trim the Peace/Bird Garden, especially after this week’s storms, but we’re still inundated with droves of hummingbirds, so there’s rarely a moment to sneak out and work there. We’ve got another streak of humidity and heat this week, but forecast says we’ll cool off in time for the Equinox, as it should.

With summer chores winding down and Autumn projects still weeks away, I’ve turned back to my genealogy research, compelled by a picture of my maternal great-grandmother and grandfather. While I’ve compiled a tree for Mom’s family, I don’t have access to any records or pictures, only one, taken late in their lives. They were from Crawford County, Indiana, the home of the whitecaps, precursors of the KKK, who were active during the days my greats were younger. I’ve always been afraid that I’d find out one of my ancestors was involved with that kind of hate, and would prefer to not know. Just a perfunctory search of newspapers of the time gave me information that proved that at least one of them was Not…

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-vincennes-commercial-halleck-needs-t/205817518

Turns out there’s this article from 1889, telling the story of how the whitecaps had pulled a young “wayward” woman from her bed, tied her and her lover to a tree and whipped them with 40 lashes. I should explain that this hate group didn’t just lynch black people, they were “moral police” who did these things to anyone who broke the commandments.

After the whippings, the mob gave a warning to four other men and a woman, telling them the same thing would happen to them if they continued to “cut their capers”. Haven’t heard that phrase, but it seems a little light for a threat. The article also goes on to print an “opposing view”…

Anyway, one of those men who was warned was my great-grandpa Halleck Goodson, and another was my great-great-grandpa, North Goodson. !! I confess to a bit of relief – I had already suspected he was a scoundrel.

That incident happened a year or so before he married, so I’m looking at my great-grandmother’s story with new eyes. There’s plenty of research to be done — my favorite part of genealogy! I’ll let you know when I get that published over on Family Stories.

We’re going to take advantage of this last week of summer to float around the pool. Hope you’re staying cool in your neck of the woods.

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

Another week done gone

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

We marked the 45th birthday of my boy-child on Thursday, but the poor wee fella just got a bit of cash and a hug. He’s not one for parties, so I don’t feel too negligent. We got a photo, a rare glimpse of him without a hat, and he looks so much like my Dad! Not that he looks old enough to be my dad, but he looks like my Daddy looked in his 40s –you know what I mean…

Both handsome and smart, he’s a true mensch.

Harvest has started with the first gathering of basil and oregano, drying in my hanging rack. Today I’ll cut back another basil to put in water until it’s their turn to dry, and cut back the next oregano to hang instead of drying flat.

It’s dang miserable out there, but I’ve still put off bringing in the whole garden, just because I hate to see the season end. Well, I don’t mind losing this hellish heat and humidity, but cooler temps are a ways off, so it seems premature to put it all away. We’ve had a good season, with dozens of tomatoes, cucumbers, and green beans. The peppers have been slow, and the squash up and died long ago, so I’ve learned a thing or two. Like most gardeners, I’ve already started to plan for next year’s garden, hopeful, as always.

We used to celebrate Michael’s birthday every Labor Day week-end at Ellis Park, but the track has closed before the holiday for several years, so these days we don’t do much. I think I’ll give the Jrs. a call and see if they want to have some brunch tomorrow.

Hope you’re enjoying the holiday in your neck of the woods!

Peace

Posted in Weekly Wrap-Up

Sunday Report

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

The gardens and the gardening is winding down for the season. The Peace/Bird Garden has been looking very scraggly for a while, partly because I leave the blooms until they’re fully pecked by the birds and partly because of the frequent rainstorms. I finally got out this morning and lopped off the really dead stuff and pulled weeds.

before
after

It feels fresh out there, now, with plenty of seed heads left.

The Edible garden is closer to closing time, though. I’m just putting off bringing in the tomatoes, giving some small green ones time to grow. There are six peppers very near harvest, but after that, they, too are done.

Instead of going to Disney World this fall, I decided to buy a new refrigerator and stove. Marked #1 off my list this week when I found this lovely icebox on sale. We had to uncover a little filth to get it in its new home, but doesn’t it look dandy?!

I’ve got my eye on a bargain-priced stove, hopefully bringing it home this week. The dust bunnies under the stove might need to be called “dust groundhogs”.

In the meantime, #two grandie and her bf are going to take the old fridge, and possibly the old stove, as well. I like that kind of recycling.

My Dolly crying jag delayed my potting-up the mums, but I decided to just keep everything out on the back porch, the one I hang out in most, so I can enjoy it. I don’t know when 80-years-old started being too young to die, but it is, so I’m pressing on, determined to Enjoy Every Minute that I can, Look for the Positive, and Be Grateful…

I hope you’re enjoying today in your neck of the woods!

Peace

Posted in Special Edition

Everything’s going to be okay…

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

As I tumbled out of bed and stumbled to the kitchen, I felt the grief hit me again. I was gutted all day yesterday, crying and listening to her songs, crying and reading the copious tributes to her Life, crying for all of us who know there never was and never will be another Dolly Parton Dean.

I was about 14 when Dolly started showing up on my TV, singing with Porter Wagoner, a show I often saw, but seldom watched. She was a fascinating figure with that hair and those boobs, and she became part of our culture. After 9-5 and Steel Magnolias, we realized she was way smarter than anybody in the business, but way more humble than any other human on the planet.

The outpouring of Respect from across the Universe speaks for itself as we mourn her passing. Many have written eulogies better than I can, but as I head out to the dentist I want to share this think…

Dolly’s songs were her babies, and it’s estimated that she gave birth to nearly 3,000 of them. I can’t pick favorites, but this is among my top 5; someone, somewhere, everywhere, needs to hear it today.

Dolly talked about how it was written, just after her bitter parting with Wagoner (who sued her for 3million – she always said he got the first million dollars she made)…

As I left his office and began to drive toward my home out in Brentwood, it began to rain.

So did I. I cried. Not so much out of a sense of loss, but from the pain that almost always comes with change. It has a sad kind of freedom.

Then, I began to sing a song to myself: ‘it’s been a long dark night and I’ve been a-waiting for the morning. It’s been a long hard fight, but I see a brand new day dawning. I’ve been looking for the sunshine; you know I ain’t seen it in so long. But everything’s gonna work out just fine. And everything’s gonna be all right that’s been all wrong. I can see the light of a clear blue morning.’

And, I swear to you on my life as I said that the sky cleared up, it stopped raining, the sun came out. And before I got home, I had completely written the song called ‘Light of a Clear Blue Morning.”

Released in 1977, it’s typical of Dolly’s uncanny ability to make us all feel better.

“Cause I am strong and I can prove it
And I got my dreams to see me through
It’s just a mountain, I can move it
And with faith enough, there’s nothin’ I can’t do“

Everything’s gonna be all right, it’s gonna be okay…

Crying again…Sending Love to y’all…

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

Hummingbirds and Gershwin

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

We’ve been keeping hummingbird feeders filled for 30-some-odd years now, but retirement has given us plenty of time to study them. Right now, our feeders are constantly bombarded with dozens of the flying jewels, kamikazi-ing each other and fighting, buzzing and squeaking, and devouring the sugar-water.

One of many videos from our bird cam…

It’ started a couple of weeks ago, when the males from up north got the signal to start heading down to Central America. By now, many of the females and young ones have started on their way, all of them requiring astronomical amounts of energy/nectar. Though we see dozens at one time, morning and evening, these fascinating birds don’t flock together – each one travels alone. Somehow they find their way there and back. We’re well-marked as a stagecoach stop enroute, and I’m serving up their favorite sugar-water.

Casey’s been sealing the blacktop on our driveway, so I’ve been kind of stuck here at the house, taking care of the gardens, but trimming and harvesting a few edibles hasn’t filled my days.

I have an old, falling-apart book of piano tunes called, “That’s entertainment” that I’d picked up somewhere and never really looked at. It’s chock-full of songs from Old musicals or movies, including “If I only had a brain”, “Get Happy”, and lots of Cole Porter and even a version of “Rhapsody in Blue”- just the piano part that goes “da-da-da-daaa, da-da-da-da-dadadadadada” – beautiful chords that always pluck my heartstrings. I haven’t got it perfected yet, maybe never will, but it brings me such joy to play piano, that I was immediately cheered…and challenged…

Next week is filled with appointments, something I usually don’t like, but I’m ready to get out of here! In fact, I’ve been fantasizing about going back down to DisneyWorld one more time before our Annual Pass expires in October. Am I being Inspired by the hummingbirds to head south for The Mouse? Is that what those chirpy sounds are conveying?

Look out for the hummingbirds in your neck of the woods!

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

Forty-seven years!!!

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

To celebrate our wedding anniversary yesterday, we spent the day hanging out, looking back at 47 years of good times, mostly, with a theme of “we could never have imagined (fill in the blank) back then – from tech to grown kids to grown grandkids – so much has changed, especially us. As we each evolved individually, our relationship grew stronger and we each made an effort to accommodate the other’s differences. We’re quite comfortable and content, but still growing even now. I could never have imagined how sweet this feels. Here’s hoping we have many more anniversaries!

Instead of going out to eat, I fixed a lovely steak, mashed some taters, cooked up the last of the green beans, and sliced tomatoes. We topped it off with pecan pie and were properly stuffed by the end of the day.

The garden is still keeping us fed, but it’s on its last lap. There’s a good dozen or so tomatoes still ripening, only 3 bell peppers on the vine, and four butternut squash.

I grow my herbs in pots. Basil is my favorite, and I have asian, red rubin, lemon, tower, and sweet varieties. I harvest/repot only the sweet and it was time to bring them down to size.

Here in Eville, it’s Back-to-school-time, which I consider a great opportunity for changing routines, adding new goals, re-setting my energy expenditures, making some plans…

I’ll be dreaming up fresh schemes out on the front porch swing…

Stay cool in your neck of the woods!

Peace

Posted in Grandies, Summer at Sonnystone

Almost Camp Sonnystone…

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

This visit from Emma and Eliza has been so wonderful. Every morning we were up at 7:38, driving through Donut Bank for crullers and cookies (and a chocolate-covered long john for PawPaw), a tradition founded several years back. They tanned in the pool when the UVs were right. We traipsed out to the mall, ate lunch at my go-to restaurant, Bru Burger, and saw ToyStory5 (I cried).

The Forever sign was finally decorated, and the NYers restored the Grateful sign.

We went to the races and thanks to Eliza’s clever bets, nearly broke even!

Yes, Jojo requires manual labor from her grandies…They’ve been shucking corn since they were big enough to shuck corn (and snap beans, too).

Our visitors included my friend, the girls’ Aunt Dee, my niece, Lauren; my cousins Lori, Haley, and baby Saylor Reese, and everybody seemed to have a great time watching Emma dance. Thanks, y’all!

We recreated the pictures from the past — We’ve been taking these swing pictures, and arm pictures for about 10 years! I’ll have to put them all together for you some time.

To top off a Great Visit, PawPaw got a campfire going and we made s’mores…

I guess I’m about as Grateful as a Human can Be.

Also exhausted…

Hope you’re resting well in your neck of the woods!

Peace