Find Something Interesting to Do

It's spring now, almost summer. Things are shaping up nicely around here with the house and all. Because of spouse's back problems we now have a "lawn" guy. First time ever for us!  But I'm finding there's little or nothing to do around here much anymore except watching grass grow.

I've met some nice old people at McDonalds to have a morning coffee or chat with. They are all nice but not really my type but it's something to do to get out of this house every day.  Starbucks is my kind of place because we are all busy with computers and iPhones and you don't have to visit with them, except the baristas are always friendly.  So I stop by McDonald's first  in my workout clothes, visit for about an hour--sometimes less--sometimes more, then head over to the gym for a 2 or 3 mile walk on the treadmill, then work on legs and another glutei type of machine and sometimes work on the lats and upper arms--yes, they really need it. Even though my arms are not heavy they still have a little underneath wiggle thing going on.  I buy a couple of power bars on the way out.  Oh yes, before I forget, I love to read while walking on the treadmill.  It's pretty simple actually.  There's a small ledge that will hold my iPad securely and I can read and not have to watch some stupid early morning talk show and reading makes a 3 mile walk go by much quicker.  Back to the power bars, so I've bought my power bars and then it's over to Starbucks for a caramel macchiato, nonfat of course, while devouring the power bar cause I'm pretty hungry by that time, some more reading on the iPad, a quick "check-in" on the iPhone and then I've finished with another morning!  Yeah! Sounds kind of boring to you I guess, but it's not all that bad really.

You see, I don't care about doing a lot of other things these days.  I don't care about having a friend to pal around with, cooking, sewing, painting, crafting, swimming, golf, cards, house cleaning, pet sitting or kid sitting, yard work, volunteering to feed the homeless, nursemaid, or any other volunteer type of job, although it would be fun when school starts again to volunteer reading and helping kids learn to write and express their feelings on paper.  It could work for me--might give it a try.  

I love reading, especially vampire stories, Facebook, Pinterest, shopping, lunch out at a sidewalk cafe, drinking wine, going to movies ( I just saw Godzilla in 3d last Friday), pedicures--just easy going type of stuff which is all about me!

I was thinking this morning if I could meet a nice rich old lady (or old man) who might be looking for a traveling companion--not in USA, but abroad, I might consider it.  My granddaughter is studying in England currently and she has visited so many wonderful places so now I really want to go but not alone.  She said she will take me there some day and I'm counting on it.

So What if I'm 70?

I look in the mirror every day and sometimes wonder where that black-haired girl went. I'm pretty sure she is still here somewhere.  How long does it take for reality to sink in and tell your body that sometimes you do get tired, sometimes you don't want to cook a meal, or clean the house, or do the laundry?  My body is telling me you can't do those three mile walks every day so let's cut it done to a mile every other day.  Why does my back hurt so bad the next morning when I exercise at night doing leg lifts and sit ups like I did 25 years ago?  Is it my mattress, my easy chair? So let's stop doing sit ups and just try stretching every night!  

I guess being 70 isn't so bad after all! I'm healthy, I can walk anywhere without assistance, I have no diet restrictions, and I do wear glasses to see better. I know how to use a computer, iPad, iPhone and I can drive a car anywhere I want to go!  

At this very moment I am having my third cup of coffee, and I'm not rushing off to work because I'm retired.  Two years ago I would be at my desk in my office going through paperwork and trying to figure out the latest software the techs installed on our computers over night.

I can call a friend to meet me for lunch, go to a movie, or Starbucks for a latte, so being 70 really isn't so bad after all!   However, my spouse is looking over my shoulder as I'm writing and I'm pretty sure he wants this iPad so he can play level 118 of Candy Crush!  So I guess I can take a nap!    But I think I'll go to the gym first!

Welcome to Texas!

We are here alive and well in Texas.  To make a very long story short we sold the second house we bought on August 30th, put furniture and clothes we didn't need in storage, piled what we needed in our two cars and headed this way.  After a brief 2-day visit with my brother Ed and Sharon, we headed to our daughter, Tiffany's house in Dallas, much to the disappointment of our son and his family.  

Tiffany fixed up one of their guest rooms and bath for us, arranged places for our laptops and a few clothes, and we settled in for what we thought would be a very brief stay.  It actually wasn't that long--from August 1st through November 10th.  It was a pleasant stay in their great house along with four dogs and two cats (theirs not ours)!  It was a comfortable arrangement and use of a swimming pool and all for free!  She was even talking of making an adjoining room into a sitting room for us and we'd never have to leave!  But her Dad had other ideas. 

When we weren't being chauffeured around places by our realtor, we would head out early, eat breakfast on the road and spend most of the day learning streets, putting addresses in the phone or GPS, and searching for that perfect little house somewhere by the water.  Usually after those daily trips  I would walk in the house in tears, weary from exhaustion of driving to so many places, and eating out all the time!  After a long nap, a hot shower and early bedtime, we would get up and do it all over again!  The pool provided some relaxing time when Chuck would agree to it.

My Granddaughter, Tristen

Well, this is one thing I never thought would happen in my Nine Lives Plus One. I am sitting beside Tristen, my amazing 18-year old granddaughter, and while I am trying to find my way around a new Mac computer, she is working on her Mac that we bought her three years ago.  She is doing her best to show me how to sort and store my 5,000 pictures on this amazing machine.  It's the age-old solution, if you can't figure out your telephone, your DVR, your  digital camera, and your new computer, thank goodness you have a grandchild to ask.   The sweet person sitting beside me tonight is that Plus One, and she truly is a plus.  Her name is Tristen, and she is amazing.  She is a Freshman in Community College but is transferring to a state university in the fall.  She is majoring in psychology and plans to go pre-med.  Thank goodness that we are going to have a doctor in our family.  Couldn't happen sooner for me for I am certainly not getting any younger.

Tristen has been a blessing to me from the day she was born.  She loves spending time with her Nana.  In fact, we just got back from a movie, The Woman in Black, with Daniel Radcliffe.  We loved him in the Harry Potter series, which of course we saw every one together.  Naturally, we had to see this movie and it was very good.

And of course, we've seen every Twilight series together--we've seen them all at least three times and then many times more when we bought the DVDs.

I've taken her to every Broadway play that has come to town since she was eight years old.  She says that the Lion King was probably her favorite, not to mention Hairspray, Beauty and the Beast,  Nine to Five, The Pajama Game--so many more too numerous to mention.

We love to go to movies, plays, eating at PeiWei, eating spaghetti, and just hanging out and watching Raymond every night.

I love you, Tristen Kelsey.  Thank you for spending time with me and actually loving to be with your Nana.  I've loved every minute of it and look forward to many more years together.  

I'm Not Just a Secretary Anymore!

I left my first part-time job with the small, independent oil company on the 4th floor of the bank building over on 4th Street in 1960 to accept a fulltime job at the Sinclair Oil Company, on 9th & Boston.  I worked there until 1969.  My salary when I left was around $900 per month, and considered a great salary for a secretary in those days. The company was bought out in 1969 by Atlantic Richfield and most of the workers transferred to Houston.  We were married by that time and Chuck had a good job because the oil business was good in Tulsa so I quit the workforce and stayed home to raise our one-year old daughter, Tiffany.  Two years later Mark, our son, was born.  I didn't return to the workforce until the kids were in middle school.

Working at a big oil company was fun.  Each floor had its own receptionist/mail girl.  I was hired as the receptionist/mail girl for the 4th floor--the executive wing.  The mail boys brought mail from the basement each day to the respective floors, and the mail girls sorted and delivered mail to offices on their assigned floors.  We didn't have to answer phones--there was one of those old-fashioned switchboards downstairs in the basement as in "Ernestine" played by Lily Tomlin.  I trained on one of those switchboard systems in business school and am very glad I didn't become a switchboard operator.  Later on Sinclair moved into the technical era and bought a more advanced telephone system. 

The gigantic "mainframe" came into existence around 1963.  The mainframe took up half of the 2nd floor where the accounting offices were located.  I applied for an opening in the secretarial pool on the 2nd floor and landed a secretary position for the director of accounting.  There was a huge window outside the accountants' area where we could stand and watch (flirt with) computer guys working on the mainframe.  At that time, the accountants kept track of oil-well royalties on huge ledger sheets.  There were no partitions separating the desks, and the only equipment they used was a pencil and a calculator.  I used a  manual typewriter at first until a roller skating accident left me with a broken left wrist.  I was off work for about a week and when I returned happily discovered that my boss had borrowed an electric typewriter from the executive floor.  I remember his words of warning so well--"don't get used to it because it goes back upstairs when your cast comes off".  However, my cast came off six weeks later and I never did return that typewriter.   I remained friends with the boys in the mail room after I became a secretary.  They gave me a birthday card once that read, "Old secretaries never die--they just look that way".  What a bunch of jokers they were! I was only 20 at the time, but I get the point guys, if you could only see me now! 

A typical office from the 60's.

As I previously mentioned, it was fun to work for such a big company, but I can't leave Sinclair behind until I tell you about the "Miss Sinclair" contest in 1961.  Tiffany loves this story and the picture depicting this so-called contest.  I don't remember who nominated me to run but someone went around selecting certain girls in each department to run as "Miss Sinclair".  The winner was named at a Valentine's Party at the Mayo Hotel that year.  I didn't win and I don't know what the voting criteria consisted of, but I didn't try to solicit any votes!  I don't know what happened after the winner was named since I do not recall any big news headlines or whether the person went on to run for Miss Tulsa or what.   I wore a beautiful gown of red velveteen, and was escorted by one of the mail boys.  Unfortunately I do not have a picture of me in that pretty dress, but I found a similar one on the Internet.  Just picture it in velveteen!

All in all, it was a great time in my life.  I always wanted to become a secretary in the type of job where you finished your work each day, went home and forgot it.  In today's fast-paced computer age, you occasionally wake at three in the morning planning the next project your boss has been assigned that you actually do for him, and that's when I realize..... I'm Not Just a Secretary Anymore! 

I am 5th from the bottom.  The blond
2 girls behind me won I think! 

The Boy I Left Behind

This may be a difficult segment to write, and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, especially those who love me, but it is a part of my life that should be included because it meant something to me--to all who were involved.  I have mulled it over and over in my head as to how I should write it, who might read it, who might be hurt by it, but it's for my children and they both know of his family because they have been a part of that family too through visits, cards and letters throughout the years.  My son may not remember because he was very young when we used to visit.  I know it sounds strange, but this family meant so much to me.  His sister was, to coin a modern-day phrase, one of my BFF's in high school, although a year behind me.  She and I had actually dated the same guy at different times, of course.  I sang at her wedding--that's how close we were.  Their parents have both passed away--his mother only last year and his father several years ago.  And, sadly, his sister, my BFF, died from breast cancer a few months before their mother passed away.

His family built a new home in Muldrow and moved in the spring of 1958, I believe.  He was already out of school, and there were two younger sisters still at home.  Our teenage class Sunday School teacher took several of us to meet the new family in town to invite them to church, found out the girls would be attending our school and we became good friends.  Then I discoverd something even better--the girls had an older brother already out of school.  I've always told my children I never liked to date the boys from my senior class because they were so immature.  Truth is, I think I was too shy to try and get a date, so I dated boys from Sallisaw and that one from Fort Smith--remember the one that my Grandfather threw out of the house that day?  If you don't remember, you'll have to go back to the story about my Grandpa. 

Anyway, she got me a date with her gorgeous, 6'1", blond-haired, blue-eyed older brother.  I say that because he was gorgeous to me.  These days you kids would say he was "hot", but we didn't use terminology like that in those days.  Being hot back then was because we didn't have air-conditioning!
I think we probably only went out about three times.  I graduated, moved to Tulsa, started business school, he joined the army and got shipped off to Alaska.  Now you're getting the drift.  He sends me a Christmas card with his picture on it and my Grandma sends it to me in Tulsa, with the address and everything.  I started writing, he started writing back and we fell in love.  I was out of business school by that time and was living in a garage apartment with a girl I worked with.  He had a furlough in 1961 and wanted to come to Tulsa to see me. 

He flew home, visited his family for a while and headed straight to Tulsa where I was working on 9th & Boston, at the Sinclair Oil Company.  He picked me up outside the building and we drove straight to my Aunt's house in Turley.  She insisted we come there--I can't imagine why, but we just wanted to get reaquainted so we  headed to Muldrow the very next day after breakfast.  Boy--was his mother surprised!  She knew I was friends with his sisters but had no idea I had ever dated her son.  Here we are seriously talking about becoming engaged and she's going on like, "Law--I never even knew you guys had dated, didn't know you were writing, etc."  It was really kind of funny and a little embarassing.  I loved his folks, they always treated me like one of their own.  I spent many nights in their home even while he was home on leave, sleeping with the younger sister in her bed.  Those were the good ole' days, kids. 

We were together constantly while he was home those two weeks, and he asked me to marry him, so we went to Fort Smith and bought an engagement ring, a beautiful single solitare diamond.  I think his mother's head had quit spinning by then! 

I went back to Tulsa with an engagement ring on my finger, he went back to Alaska and we continued writing.  My boss at work wasn't too happy about my engagement and gave me some flack--kept saying I shouldn't get married, and others said I wasn't ready to settle down--I don't know, it seemed like eveyone filled my head with these negative thoughts--even from one of my best friends back home.

Truth is, I didn't listen to my heart--I didn't follow my heart and when he came home the next time and we still hadn't made plans for the wedding, I think I just wasn't ready to be a married lady.  I got scared, and I backed out, told him some ridiculous story about not being in love any more.  We've remained friends, and as I said before, I loved his family very much and still do although they are gone now, but never forgotten.  I attended his parents' 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration several years ago, and the kids and I would drop by from time-to-time and spend the night and send cards, pictures, write letters throughout the years.  They meant a lot to me and I believe I meant a lot to them too.

We both married someone else--guess you are glad about that kids, or you might not be here.  Isn't it funny how decisions we make change everything?  Oh, I believe I would still have had a Tiffany and  a Mark, but have you ever thought how different it would be?   Kind of scarey isn't it thinking you might not have been born.  But remember, God had a plan, and he is never quite through with His plan for our lives. 
Mom (posted at 10:00 on July 1, 2011) Because I love you.

Tiffany and Paul 2010

Mark and Family 2011

Business School

On a warm and sunny day in August 1959, I left that small, dusty country town and traveled on a bus to Tulsa with my Grandmother.  We were met by my Aunt, one of my Father's twin sisters, at the bus station where she then took me to the business school downtown to register for my classes to start in a few weeks.
I enrolled in my classes and in exchange for room and board, the school assigned to live with a local family as their nanny and do light housekeeping for $25 a month.  After all, kids, this was 1959 and $25 a month was adequate for bus rides, snacks and things.  My Aunt then drove me over to a beautiful two-story home around 23rd & Lewis Avenue to meet my new family.  They had two school-age girls, but the older girl was away at that time in a hospital undergoing a yearly routine of physical therapy.  I learned that she had been in an automobile accident when she was around two when they lived in New Orleans.  Her mother was driving and she was standing in the front seat.  Very sad, very tragic--I guess seat belts weren't used much, or there were none in that car--it was around 1947 when it happened because she was around 12 when I met her.  The younger sister was seven.  They were sweet girls but the 12-year old could be a little stinker at times, but I felt she was within her rights to be that way I suppose.  I ran into her several years later at the mall being wheeled around by a couple of kids.  I stopped and visited and she told me she had married and the kids were hers.  She looked happy and still beautiful.  I don't know if she is still around because I have not seen her since that time and we lost touch after a while.
I was a little homesick at first but the girls and school kept me pretty busy.  I made some friends at school and would visit my cousins in Turley on the weekends and attended the First Baptist Church on Sundays.  It was turning out to be a pretty good adventure for me so far.  I learned how to get on and "off" the city buses, learned that pay phones didn't give change, and found out you could actually use more than one fork at a table setting. 
The family always drank wine at dinner and I was offered my first glass of wine one night, took a big gulp, and thought I would croak right there.  I was not too anxious to try that again for a very long time.   They never said a word nor laughed at me but I imagine it was difficult for the Mister to keep a straight face because mine was probably lit up like a Christmas tree!

The father had a business in Guatemala and would be gone for six months at a time, and their mom did public speaking at women's clubs.  She was a celebrity of sorts, being from India, and would wear a beautiful sari when she had speaking engagements.   She was a beautiful woman especially when she would dress in her sari.  Her mother came to visit one year from Calcutta and stayed six months.  She introduced me to Indian cuisine, which I dearly loved!  My mouth would start salivating the minute I walked in the door from school and smell the curry, and she would love to see me eat.  I think I put on an extra 15 pounds that year!  Her mother was the most fasinating woman I ever met.  She would talk for hours about her life in Calcutta and I just couldn't believe the kind of life she endured there.  I wish now that I had taken notes when she would talk about her life in Calcutta.
When I wasn't attending school, I was practicing my shorthand strokes, playing with the girls or writing letters to a boy from back home who was stationed in Alaska, and letters my Grandparents.  They didn't seem to be worried about me too much--guess they didn't realize how much I had to learn dealing with a whole new life, children to take care of, maneuvering around town on those slow, smelly city buses, and dreaming about a good life I hoped to have some day.  However, I am certain that Grandmother prayed daily for my safety. 

I finished business school in about nine months, moved in with my Aunt and Uncle and five cousins in Turley, a surburb of Tulsa, and landed my first job with an independent oil company owned by three business men.  It was on the fourth floor of a building on Fourth Street & Cheyenne right over the Coney Island.  Every morning around 11:00 the smell of those coneys would waft through the vents and make me so hungry.  I could  hardly wait until time for lunch.  Coneys became my steady diet for a while.  Two coneys and a coke, for about a $1.  You cannot buy one coney nowadays for less than $2, and I have yet to find any that tasted as great as the ones from the downtown Coney Island!  I think it is still there today.  So at this point, I was beginning to love my new life! 



Ironing outfit for job interview!





I shared a room with Cousin Sharon.