Quote for Today

"there are six billion people on the planet. If I find someone who is not nice I leave them and move on."

David

Ames Municipal Cemetery - Memorial Day 2009

This is the view of "Grandpa's Bottom from the Ames Cemetery. I wrote the poem below in 2008. You can click on the pictures to see them larger. Many of the stones are my family. The flags were donated by veteran's families. Every year there are a few more. The picture by the start of the poem with the couple standing under the tree shows my home in the background.














Stone flowers growing on a hillside
above my great grandfather's farm.

The history of my town is buried here.
Some of the flowers are tall
most are small - stunted.

Walking among them I come across
old friends and family

Waiting there for me to join them.

I sometimes wonder if the garden
will run out of space.

Everybody there had a story to tell.
I wonder what it was

Susan Boyle - Memory

Piano Music

One of my Brothers from Minnesota sent me this charming link - YouTube describes it thus:
Fran & Marlo Cowan (married 62 years) playing impromptu recital together in the atrium of the Mayo Clinic. He'll be 90 in February.



I think that it is perfectly wonderful and I love the life and vitality of these two. 62 years married. Wow! Older people can enrich our lives tremendously. I regularly associate with people aged 25 to 90.

I don't know the name of the tune they are playing but I recognze is a a naughty little ditty my mother taught me entitled "Get Out The Old Blue Ointment." If you don't know what Blue Ointment is I leave it to you and Google to do the research. Anyway it is delightful.

Memorial Day

Ginny just sent me this.
Memorial Day Memories

By Ginny Jackson
When I was growing up Memorial Day was May 31. It didn’t matter what day of the week it arrived on we celebrated it on that day. Preparations in my family began the weekend before with my mom and her sisters making lists of whose graves to decorate. These consisted of grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, people who they barely knew but whose families lived out of town, and in-laws. All were going to have a live flower bouquet on their graves. There were ice cream cone shaped containers for the flowers and these had to be cleaned up and checked to make sure they still held water.
Over the years these were replaced by aluminum foil covered coffee cans that were saved throughout the year. If the weather cooperated there would be peonies and maybe irises which were gathered from their yards. For several years there were ladies in town who grew flowers to sell for people to put on the graves. In the beginning the bouquets were already made but as years passed we would pick the flowers ourselves and pay for them. In later years small plants from garden centers were used. There containers would be “gussied” up with colored foil and ribbon.

The day before Memorial Day mom and her sister, usually Jean would put the flowers and the containers in a car and head to the Ames cemetery. I remember going with them and it was quite a social event. There would be other relatives and friends there decorating graves and they would catch up on family news as the containers were filled with flowers and water that came from outdoor faucets. One year it poured down rain for the days leading up to Memorial Day. My cousin Rick and I were given the containers and told where to put them. I remember being soaked to the skin finding the grave of a woman my grandparents had helped after her husband had died. We still have a table they bought from her so she would have some needed money. At least twice mom came home later than usual because they had shut the trunk lid with the keys inside. These were the days before cell phones and they had to get a ride from someone they had been visiting with to go home and get another set of keys. A few times gravestones were gently driven over too. One year when my granddad visited the cemetery he saw that flowers had been put on his “side” of the gravestone he would someday share with his wife. He muttered and moved them all over to her side as his daughters fussed about it looking uneven and not as pretty as it had been. “By God I am not dead yet and I don’t want any out of towners thinking otherwise!”

Since Memorial Day has been moved to a Monday, creating a three day weekend it is considered the beginning of summer and a time for travel for a lot of people. Memorial Day is still a day of remembrance where people all across the United States decorate graves, take part in parades, memorials, and pause a moment or two to honor the service men and women who died in the armed service and miss the ones they love..

I have always considered cemeteries a place of peace and a place to wonder about the lives led by the people whose names and sayings are on the gravestones

Note from Jay. My Sis does good writing. The above is Mother's grave. I went out today just to check on things. Aunt Jo does the graves now. Mom and I used to joke that there were so many to decorate that it was almost like drive by decorating. Slow down and toss the flowers out. Of course, we did not do that. And lest we forget. I am watching the Memorial Day Concert from our nation's capitol on PBS ad they are playing the Armed Forces Medley. Tears and emotions of gratitude for all that these men and women have done and are doing for our nation. May they come home safely and please let peace come to our world. j

Is this heaven? No it's Iowa!

I had a really nice time today. I drove over to Rusty and Robin Hill's home near Perry, Iowa for a Barbecue. The picture above is not their home. I just love to take pictures of the abandoned farm houses and barns. I really love the weathered look of the wood.


Gene Aldrich. Gene and his wife live in Centerville and flew up to Des Moines and were picked up to come to the Barbecue. Gene is a Past Grand Commander.

Lillian Aldrich. Lillian is a Past Grand Royal Matron of the Order of the Amaranth.

They have some cats. This little one was very affectionate. I tried to get my aunt to take her but she is not ready for a new cat yet.

They had great food and plenty of it for everyone.

Wade came over from Newton.

Barb and B. O. came from Marshalltown. We had a really nice visit. B. O. is the Grand Governor of Sovereign York Rite College.

Greg Andersen, Past Grand High Priest and Bryce Hildredth who will be Grand Commander were also there.

As I left I snapped this picture of their home. I would love living out there. Rusty was raised on this place. He has 12o acres.

These are scenes of the rivers and creeks I crossed on the way home. I drove around the 4-H camp on the way home. I'll post some of those pictures tomorrow.

When I got home I sat out on the back porch sipping some Bushmill's Irish Whiskey. (Actually Bush's Black) My neighbor David came home and Max started barking at him. (Max always barks) - We have only met in passing and just said hello. I have never "neighbored" much but tonight I was sitting there sipping whiskey and so I offered him a drink. He accepted and we sat and sipped and visited for quite a long time. (Until his girlfriend came by.) I really enjoyed meeting him and getting to know him. I hope we can do it again sometime He has promised to teach me cribbage. I imagine I shall have to sharpen my math skills.


All in all I had a wonderful day. I hope you did also. Thanks for stopping by. Hugs, J