Bluegrass-How we crashed a wake
Thel and I were driving past Oakdale Park at Glen Rose. It was lunch time, a bunch of people were lining up to eat. We thought it was Chachis Restaurant selling a meal. We felt lucky and drove in. We rushed to get in line, it sure smelled good, BBQ.
A man started talking to Thel and we were wrong in our thinking.
This was a 'wake' for their friend who had died a couple of weeks ago.
We started backing out, to leave. They held on to us and made us welcome.
There was plenty of food and it was already paid for. And they had money left to make a donation to the New York fire fighters.
They were “Barbequers','Q' uers. There, in a big rocking chair up on a table, was a big framed picture of 'The Dear Departed.' We shook hands with the relatives.
Then we ate BBQ beef, chicken and pork, the best we ever had.
They had lots of bread and a big peach cobbler.
They pulled little trailers, with jars of every spice in the world.
They had two or three trailers with bbq, big round cookers, smokers, mounted on them.
I sampled the meatloaf, it was as good as the rest. It weighed ten pounds!
Most of them were driving on to Florida the next day. One of the men said that the meatloaf would be good for sandwiches on the trip.
Another said, “You better look again, that meatloaf is just about gone.”
We thanked them profusely and Thel made a donation to the New York fire fighters.
We both remember that meal as the best one that we ever ate!
And that is the story of, 'How we crashed a wake'.
“Aunt Julia, I never saw you get mad.”
“Well Theresa, I got mad one time and it made me sick for three days.
I made up my mind that I was not going to do that again.”
Women have always keep a hoe leaned up, outside their back door.
They have all used that hoe, sooner or later, to kill a snake.
I did just that on April 19, 2013. it was 60 inches long. I laid it over the fence on it's back and it come an inch of rain that night. It always works.
It's dry again--I'm looking for another snake.
AN OLD INDIAN owned the land on the south side of the Canadian River, in Oklahoma, below where the Eufaula dam is built across it. The lake filled quickly. There was a lot of rain, all up on the watershed. Lake engineers went to see the old Indian. They told him that they were going to have to open all the flood gates or the dam might wash away. Most of his land would flood. He didn't believe them, he had lived there all his life, water didn't get that high. Some of his cattle were washed for miles.
Rondall wasn't in good health, we were visiting them and Thel talked him into coming to stay a few days with us in Texas. Addie Bell kept very good watch over him and we thought we would have a good visit, here at the lake.. But the next morning, he said that he just had to go home. I didn't go, so that Rondall would have the whole back seat, to lay in.(2013, Rondal just died at 83. he was born the night that his great granma Stephens died.)
They stopped at the cafe in Porum to get hamburgers for dinner. Rondall looked over at AN OLD INDIAN that he knew. He was setting alone at another table, crying. “There's something wrong with him.” He went over to speak to him.
His ten year old grandson was visiting him. He fell out the window, where his pit bulldog was tied. The dog killed his grandson. Don't trust a pit bulldog!!!!! Ever
(years before, Addie Bell Smith grew up near Porum. She was very pretty and popular.
Junior and Rondal were both liking her. One of Juniors friends had a nice bedroom suite for sale. Junior thought he would be using it, he bought it. One day when he got off work, he decided he would go and see her in Porum. We tried to talk him out of it. He started off on his motorcycle. We were glad when he come back in a little while. He said that road looked to long and dark. Empire was Rondals Mother,"I knew that I was going to get Addie Bell for a 'daughter in law' or a 'sister in law." After they married, Junior didn't want that bedroom suite. We gave him his $25 back for it; and are still using it.)