Big Families

*A small part of Our Generation--the Grands














*Granny as a young woman





















*The Original Eleven with Granny and Granpa, circa 1968











I am sitting here on the pull out hide-a-bed in the guest room of my Uncle Doug and Aunt Edie's home here in Denver. It is Friday night, however, it'll become Saturday in just maybe thirty minutes. The whole clan has gathered to celebrate Granny's life. It is really nice to be here with this family.
Because Daddy was in the Air Force, we always lived in different places. We moved. a lot.
From birth to ten years old, I lived in all these places:

1. Rome, New York (for six days!)
2. Aurora, Colorado on Lowry Air Force Base.
3. Arlington, Texas and New London, Texas for a little while.
4. Aurora, Colorado, again.
5. Bangkok, Thailand for about 2 1/2 years.
6. Satellite Beach, Florida (Patrick Air Force Base)
7. Houston, Texas (Grandmommy and Pop's home)
8. Universal City, Texas.

We moved to "U.C." shortly after I turned ten years old. As our times came, each of us kids moved out, but--a fact which is so rare with military families--we, as a family, lived at 422 for 21 years. I left 8 1/2 years after we moved there. I joined the Air Force and was gone for 4 years, coming back now and then to our home for short vacations.

Since our life was so topsy turvy, we seldom made it home to Denver. Nowadays, we meet every three to four years for a family reunion.

So here we are this weekend, having what could be considered a very special family reunion. We'll be going to Daniel's park at 7:55 a.m. in the morning to eat breakfast made on the grill out there in the fresh air. We'll also have a short memorial Granny. This place--Daniel's Park--is a place of memory and history for our family. Not only during family reunions over the past many years, but also the Original Eleven went there many, many times. It is part of the culture of being Peay.

I remember watching Uncle Thomas making pancakes on the grill out there. It was--I believe--one of the first times I ever had whole wheat pancakes. They are now my favorite kind of pancakes, better than IHOP's harvest grain even! Whenever I eat whole wheat pancakes, I think of Uncle Thomas for a moment. That memory of looking up at him and watching him make whole wheat pancakes on the grill is my favorite one of him.

Daniel's park is just part of the being a Peay. It seems to me that having Granny's Memorial there is just about perfect. After Granny's Memorial, we'll all be heading over to 3003 to have what has been styled "The Last Thanksgiving." Of course, it wont' be the last Thanksgiving there, but it will be the last Peay Thanksgiving. We will be having a traditional Thankgiving dinner complete with Turkey and mashed potatoes and gizzard gravy and all the other special parts of that kind of dinner. Sadly, Peay family cranberry salad will not make an appearance because there are no cranberries available in the supermarkets. I'll miss it. It is definitely yum-dilly-icious.

I imagine the family fellowhsip tomorrow will be lovely and unique. Being with the Peay's--en masse--is always so interesting. We didn't see them too awful much growing up. Usually holidays and such were spent with Daddy's family--usually just Grandmommy and Pops. Sometimes Aunt Gail and her sons, Charlie and Chris would visit then, but mostly not.

Needless to say, there weren't a ton of people at these Ford events. Max was--maybe--twelve. At Peay gathering, however, an army attended even just the "Original Generation"--Granny and Grandpa's children were eleven people. They alone were nearly more than the max at Ford Thanksgivings.
The Original 11 had--between them--19 if I'm counting correctly. These nineteen (my generation) have had--so far--9 children between them. I'm sure more are on the way eventually. In fact, Marcia is 8 months pregnant. And happily, the first one of the next generation arrived earlier this week. On the 5th, my niece, Amelia, gave birth to the first child of the "great-great" generation.

So, you can imagine, when we all get together--with husbands and wives and fiances, and children etc., it is quite a crowd. It is above 50 people. It is a hullabaloo. It is chaos. It is crazy. It is loud. It is hectic. It is wonderful. There is just something special about big families--something extra special.

Though the reason for our gathering this weekend is partially sad (We will miss our mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great grandmother), we know she lived a long--93 years, dude!--hopefully mostly happy life.

She was crazy and wonderful and thought outside the box and she made us laugh and made us think and I'll miss her special raspy voice, and her just plain special "Granny-ness."

I'm so glad I can remember it and I'm so glad I can remember her. And I'm so glad that I'm part of this large, noisy, kooky, wonderful family which she and Grandpa (and God) created! Life is good and I"m the luckiest girl in the world to have come from the places I have. :)

Overheard...

in line at the bank:

Lady 1: I'm having to pay this ticket which my husband received on the way home the night before he got laid off. It has been months and he still can't find a job. Now this ticket has doubled in price. I'm here to get a money order to pay the judge.

Lady 2: Oh, Lady 1! You Should go to Such and So Company over in Orange! They're hiring pipe welders and paying a ton of money!

Lady 1: Oh, but my husband is a construction worker. He doesn't know how to do that pipe laying stuff.

Lady 2: Oh, Lady 1--Lie! Lie! Lie! When he fills out the application, he should just put down that he knows how to do pipelining. The pay well and have full medical. Lie, Honey! Lie! Lie!

She left right after she said the last "Lie!" and I stood there just appalled and disgusted at what she said. Does she REALLY think that is the way to live life?

Sadly, I'm pretty sure that she thinks that her advice was sound.

What a shame.

04OCT10

Pop and I were taking a late evening drive when I saw the sunset. It was too late to get a really beautiful sunset picture, but these were pretty neat in themselves.
I love all the tall, tall trees we have here in Southeast Texas. :)

Writing Challenge: Limerick

I saw that a gal whose blog I follow was doing a 30-day writing challenge online. I didn't really care for the exact challenge she had because it really dealt very heavily with a hardship that she is living right now. Her hardship isn't one that I know--at all, so I didn't think I ought to rise to that particular challenge.
However, I found a few other challenges. The following is just a one-time challenge.

Challenge was to write a Limerick with the name of the place I live. Definition of a limerick is included.

Buna Girl

There once was a girl in Buna
Who especially loved tuna.
She would add pickles and mayo
And would chomp it all the day. Oh!
And some thought she was a loon! Naaahhhhh!!!

Psalm 19:1

Psalm 19:1

"The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork."

The air was a cool 72 degrees. The sun was filtering through the mimosa trees and the wind chimes were tinkling lightly. I was sitting in Pop's new swing. My legs were pumping back and forth like a child on a swing-set.

I was struck with the pure beauty of it all.

I didn't actually think the words "This is a perfect moment for singing God's praises" but it WAS such a moment. So...I sang: Blues skies, Lower lights, Marching to Zion and a few others.

As I sang the last line of Jesus is Love,

"He was born to die on Calvary
To redeem all lost humanity.
Conquering death, He rose triumphantly.
Now He reigns for all eternity!"

the winds picked up and the branches swayed and the wind chimes chimed a ferocious and beautiful song--as if all of them understood and agreed with the words I was singing and wanted to join in singing the praises with me.

It was a lovely, lovely moment.

Things that are cool about Pop, # 16

Cole picked me up at the house so we could go to the baseball game in Houston. As I walked out, I noticed that Rose had already arrived for her shift watching Pop. She and Pop were sitting on the porch enjoying the wonderful cool air we've been getting.
Cole and I said our goodbyes and were heading for his new truck when I heard Rose yell, "Stop!"
I obeyed and immediately turned around to see what she wanted.
"Turn around."
Again, I obeyed.
"You have a hole in that pocket. You oughta put your money in another pocket."

I thanked her and was in the processing of obeying her when I heard Pop pipe up.

"Oh, don't you worry about that money. We'll just follow along behind you and pick it up as it drops out of your pocket."

I had this feeling--because of the grin on his face--that if he did manage to pick up my "fallen" money, it might not be returned to me. He and Rose might have gone out to eat or something! :)

Photo Shoot at Minute Maid Park

After an hour or so at the game, Aurora came over to sit by me. I was taking pictures of people, and--of course--she demanded I take some of her. We were having fun, so I decided to shout out commands!
"Look angry!"
"Look sad!"
"Look happy!" and so on.
She was very obedient--a great little model.
and, of course, as any curious little child does, she wanted to be on the other side of the camera, and--sadly for all of y'all--I was her subject.
She also took a few other pictures:
-of the ballpark
-of a boy who had come with some others in our group.
-a random stranger who sat in front of us--His name was Taylor.

We had a great time, of course, and used up nearly all of my batteries! Hope y'all enjoy!

p.s. I have NO clue as to why the blog's photo uploader has put the pictures into this odd assortment. Please forgive!