Ice Storm 2007

The worst ice storm in Oklahoma history hit 10 days ago.  One third of the state was without electric power.  Some are still without.  Father`s sermon Sunday morning hit home.  It`s a time to reflect on our Oklahoma ancestors that lived on the prairies over 100 years ago.  It helps us see what life for them might have been like.  It helps us realize what possibly the homeless lives are like and what the average person in Baghdad deals with daily.  It certainly helps us appreciate the basics and the small things such as a gas range that heats our house, warm red robe I received for Christmas last year, the box of books Harold left when he was here, a deck of cards, Scrabble, 20 gallons of Coleman fuel Woody brought us last spring from an auction, Boy Scouts lanterns and stoves (to use and lend to others), soft rain for serval days that provided us with water from roof for toilets and dishes, and kept roads from icing so we could take a friend that needs a heart and lung transplant to regular Dr. appointment in Oklahoma City, and let us escape to movies and bowling alley( in whatever cities that had power) with antsy grandkids, a tall glass candle holder Becky gave me for Christmas a few years back(great light in a dark house), faithful mail delivery, connection with neighbors and friends in same boat, the 3 days we got power in between to run our freezer, take baths, and do laundry, 4 grandkids overnight when we had power and no one else did, the same 4 young ones attending Sunday Mass with us, everyone who helped with food for volunteer linemen from several states or anyone needing it (about 1000 were fed 3 meals daily here).  All of this brought out the best in everyone.  I think the saddest thing was the loss of trees.  Our backyard is stacked high with broken off limbs.  The cedar west of our house that is probably 150 years looks like a Charley Brown Christmas tree.  Hope we can save it as a reminder of the resilience of Oklahoma people. 

Aunts and Uncles - A Hardy Group

In the coming entries I will introduce you briefly to my memories of my biological aunts and uncles.  Mother had 6 siblings - 3 sisters and 3 brothers.  Daddy had 8 siblings - 5 sisters and 3 brothers.  Neither had any sibling die in infancy which was a fete in itself considering medical care was more primitive and money during the Depression and the first quarter of the century  was scarce.  Not many families of that generation can make that claim, alot did lose children.  The Balks and Phillips` were a healthy lot or maybe just too stubborn to allow babies to die.

New Picture

I just added a picture to this entry.

Horse Tails

My dealings with horses were not so much a love of but as part of my chores.  I gathered the milk cows about 1/2 mile away from the barn on horseback.

There were 3 events I can remember that had to with horses not involving work.

The first was a date of sorts, Alan Burkhart called me up and asked if I wanted to come play.  He lived 3 miles down and came to take me back to his house on horseback.  I remember it taking him a long time to arrive.  Seems he had stopped on the way to kill ants with the horse`s reins.  Boys!   I was probably 8-10 years of age.

The next was I decided to go for a ride.  Got a mile away from home and the horse wanted to go back and ran home with me holding on and screaming all the way.  The more I screamed the faster he went.  He stopped at the barn and I fell off into Daddy`s arms.  He later found my ponytail holder in the horse`s tail.  After that I often walked to get the milk cows.

The last was I ran for Freedom Rodeo Queen.  I had to ride a pattern in front of the crowd but the deciding vote was the number of tickets each girl sold.  I worked at it.  Another girl Tana Ferguson really worked hard at it but the owner of a large ranch wrote a check to raise his daughter,  Karen Walker`s amount to the top.  I didn`t resent it.  She was always a friend.  That was one thing I wished I hadn`t been talked into but I did receive some nice prizes.  One was a pair of purple jeans, I promptly took them back and exchanged them for blue.  Another was a skirt and sweater set I wore alot,  gold wool straight skirt with fuzzy fall colored sweater spotted something like an apaloosa horse.

Goodbye Mother

We said goodbye April 27, 2005.  Mother was in alot of pain but was embarrassed when nurses came to bathe her.  I`m glad she didn`t have to endure pain long.  Pancreatic cancer works fast!

We buried her in a pink dress (she thoughtfully had drycleaned a couple weeks before) with a yellow ribbon on her shoulder in honor of a grandson serving in the war in Iraq.  Several young great grandchildren took it all in.  One commented "Why is Big Granny sleeping in church?"  Another "Big Granny is in a pretty cradle." At the cemetary they were the last to leave "Tucking Big Granny in."  I`m sure Mother was smiling down on them.  She looked at death as a celebration, another step in life!

I think I will close with Grand-son-in-law Walter Cox`s tribute that says it all.

Juanita "Big Granny" Balk 1920-2005

You were always the consumate "Granny", the most gracious host, never expecting, yet always prepared for visits from the offspring of your offspring.  There were always cookies on the counter, and your famous cinnamon rolls were perpetually in various stage of preparedness.  You were always sincerely interested in our work-a-day, humdrum lives, and you always doted on our children.  Polite almost to a fault, modest to the core, religious in a firm but not overbearing manner, an all-around-one-hec-of-a-pleasant-lady to be around, your influence will be felt infinitely, and your presence will be sorely missed.  Thanks for being a part of our lives.

Juanita Continued

In my H.S. years Mother continued to support whatever we were interested in.  For college she decided I would follow in Karen`s footsteps to Northwestern State College at Alva, Oklahoma.  After I was married she remembered every holiday with a care package of her infamous cookies.  They were a treat since we didn`t get home often.  After Daddy was hurt she cared for him tirelessly for 25+ years.  Christmas was always a large gathering until maybe 5 years before her death.  She welcomed every new child-in-law without question.  The grandkids were her joy.  She spearheaded Granny`s Pool Party in August before she sold her house and cheerfully moved to Enid for her last 7 months.  She seemed to enjoy the ladies but I`m sure she was homesick.  I know she missed her little church.

A few of Mother`s favorite sayings:

Everything happens for a reason.

It was just not meant to be.

I can`t promise but I will try.

She never wanted to be a bother to anyone.  She was so patient with Daddy even in his most difficult times.  She always wanted to pay her own way.  Mother was so appreciative of some of the little things we take for granted.  The "Good Ole Days" was the present-she had carried water, wood , milked cows by hand.  It was just plain hard work to her.

Tune in for the final chapter next time.

Halloween Memories

Halloweens were not a big holiday at our house.  We lived 12 miles from town.  I do know we celebrated it as a religious holiday by going to Mass in Woodward.  I remember one time a neighbor boy trick or treated us and not having candy Mother gave him a hamburger from our supper table.  Bet he was shocked.  I vaguely remember community Halloween parties.  One game I remember at a party was everyone was in another room and brought in one at a time and showed a row of raw eggs on the floor.  The person was blindfolded and the object was to step between the eggs.  Unbeknownest to him the eggs were picked up and replaced with sheets of potato chips.  Imagine their surprise when they crunched chips underfoot.  I remember this because us kids were put in a totally separate room so we wouldn`t spill the beans.

When a teen I stayed in town with friends and painted all store windows with bars of soap and shave cream.  I remember this because one teacher`s daughter not wanting to be left out but not wanting to disobey parents carried a sliver of soap but never touched a window.

We didn`t feel deprived of candy because every Sat. when we shopped in Woodward we were allowed to pick one bag of candy.  We had Halloween every week.

Juanita The Mother

Karen went to 1st grade at Dillon School, a one roomed country school.  She continued her elementary days at Freedom where she rode a school bus that was a pickup with a sort of camper shell the first year.  There were a few older boys that teased her to tears, tying her shoe laces together etc. nearly every day.  Mother helped milk twice a day.  She said she often returned to the house to find the baby had awoken and was crying in the crib.  She always regretted that.  Mother encouraged all her children in different areas of their lives.  She washed and rolled Karen`s and my hair every day from an early age.  I had a professional perm by age 3.  She tried her darndest to mold us into good cooks, housekeepers, and stylish dressers.  The law was enforced with a supply of tamerack switches from shrubs Grandma planted years before for that purpose.  It worked on Karen and Becky.  I was more like Grandma Balk(not so domestic).  Mother sewed many lovely school dresses for me.  I came home from school several times with the skirt torn off from catching it on the slide 'ops'.  She got a new zig-zag machine about the time I was in grade school and tried it out on me.  Grandma Phillips made me a quilt of the scraps of fabric.  Mother was active in her Home Demonstration Club "The Willing Workers" for 60+ years.  She enjoyed entering food in the fair nearly the whole duration.  She laughed about the year she ran short of time to can peaches and opened store bought ones and put in the canning jar.  She won grand champion on those and vowed never to do that again.  She helped form a Freedom PTA and helped wherever she could.  She hired a friend to make me the "perfect" First Communion dress.  She hosted Sat. night card parties that was the mainstay of their entertainment.  She hosted many slumber parties for us.  The girls loved the country and the hamburger picnics she cooked for us.  After Marty was born Karen and her friends surprised her with a baby shower slumber party.  She took the extra cooking and cleanup in stride.

TBC 

Juanita`s Young Adult Life

I think Mother met Daddy at a party or dance.  Her parents had recently moved from the farm to Freedom.  It presented the perfect opportunity for young want-a-be farmers.  So she proposed.  They were married June 10, 1939 in Enid in St. Francis Xavier rectory.  She was not Catholic so marriages in the church were prohibited at that time.  The only attendees were a couple of his sisters.  They went to an ice cream place called Weibels Home Dairy for banana splits and off to Freedom for their wedding night.  They spent that night in a detached room called "the little house" outside Grandma and Grandpa Phillips home.  She said Aunt Mattie had collected a set of cream color dishes with wildflowers on them from some retail business giving them as premiums for doing business with them as a wedding gift and had them on her cedar chest when she returned home.  Almost immediately after their marriage they spent wheat harvest near Bison helping his folks.  I asked her what it was like moving in with her Mother-in-law.  She said they liked her because she could milk cows.  She set up her bedroom suite in the littleused  livingroom.  She remembered spending time there when Grandma Balk took in her son Leo and his family after he could no longer teach because of a brain tumor.  They had a little mentally retarded boy named Clifford.  She recalled spending a short time over on another farm near Douglas cooking for Daddy and Grandpa Balk.  They slept on the grainary floor.

When they moved to the farm south of Freedom they felt like they were on top of the world.  Her folks gave them the farm for I think their business arrangement was her folks got 1/2 the profits after harvest each year.  A good start for young people and good retirement for the older folks.  She said they only had her bedroom suite, a round oak table (which she regettably sold in an auction for $3) and a few chairs in the livingroom.  They helped with widowed  Aunt Mattie`s 3 boys.  She was setting one of them behind the stove for some transgression when she heard about Pearl Harbor being bombed on the radio.  Patriotism ran high after that-tires,nylons,meat,gasoline for cars, probably other things were rationed.  If you were invited to dinner at someone`s house it was customary to give the hostess a meat coupon.  The mailman picked up any tin cans one might empty for the war effort.

Karen joined them 13 months after they were married.  She was born at home with a Dr. and Grandma in attendance.  She said maybe that`s why she didn`t have another child for nearly 7 years.

Mother cooked for and took care of the family and a  variety of hired farm hands.  At one point they kept Golden Belt`s school marm for a session.  She later married a widower neighbor and was one of Mother`s best friends.      

This is getting long and I was afraid I couldn`t come up with enough stories for Mother.  More next time

Juanita`s Teen Years

When Mother graduated 8th grade they could no longer go to the Normal School in Alva to take a test to more or less skip H.S. like her older sisters did.  They were able to teach school after passing the test.  So off to Enid to board with Aunt Mattie Harman to finish her education.  She attended Longfellow Jr. High a few blocks from her home on E. Chestnut.  The house is still lived in.  This was during the Depression so she, Milton, Mattie, Mattie`s husband Delbert, and Mattie`s children Leon and Lowell lived in the one bedroom house.  Must have been crowded.  I asked her what she thought going from only student in the class to a few hundred.  She didn`t remember it being a problem.  She walked to Enid High down on S. Jefferson.  The building is still used as a High School today.  I think it was over a mile and graduated 1937 at barely 17.  One way she earned spending money was to type other student`s typing homework.  One`s grade depended on how many mistakes on a page.  She got more money for an A paper.  Was this cheating???  I still have the red Royal typewriter Milton bought at a pawn shop for her.  Her brother Marlin was playing football at OU at the time and actually helped set a record that stood for many years.  He was listed mistakenly as Martin Phillips.  Anyway he would occasionally send his "little sis" a dollar to help out.  He mailed his laundry home to Grandma for her to do for him.  He went on to become a pharmacist in Mooreland.  Mother`s fond memories of H.S. were the May Fete held in Government Springs Park.  Girls wore spring dresses and wrapped May poles.  Another was the time she and girlfriends went to a very fundamentalist church for a lark.  They laughed all the way home.  Shortly after she graduated, they all moved to a much larger house across the street from the H.S.  after all that walking!  She stayed in Enid after graduation.  She worked in the office at the Nehi bottling company.  She said the fruit flavors were their finest right off the line.  She also worked as a Nanny for one of the large department store owners.  They didn`t believe in much discipline for the kids.  She and the cook laid down the law when the parents were gone.

Stay tuned for more tales of Mother.

My Mother Juanita Balk

Mother (Karen and I were always required to use Mother rather than Mom) Juanita Lucille Phillips was born May 12, 1920 in their farm home 12 miles south of Freedom, Oklahoma. She was a late life blessing of Martin Granville Phillips Jr. and Effie May Webb Phillips. Her nearest sibling Milton Harley was 8 years older. Most of the other 5 siblings were already or nearly grown. Her neices and nephews were her age. She as child worried about her "elderly" parents dying. She attended Golden Belt School thru the eighth. It was a one room school about 3 miles from her home. She was often the only one in her grade. She related a story of a very early "hot school lunch program". It consisted of the teacher making alternately cocoa and vegetable soup daily to serve with whatever students carried in lunch pails. The students brought vegetables to go in the soup. Since she was reared basically as an only child she had the privilege of riding a horse to school. Other families with several children didn`t have that luxury. The families didn`t have Christmas trees in their homes. Their tree was at the school. Parents provided a gift for their children. She told once at about age 6 or 8 of going to the party and seeing the most beautiful doll on the tree. She wished all evening it would be hers. Lo and behold she took it home. She told of her mother making part of the morning biscuit dough into a cinnamon roll for her lunch. Was she a bit spoiled? Maybe but didn`t seem to be-was kind and generous to her peers. More recently she told the story of traveling by train from Waynoka to Arkansas to see relatives and got to eat at the Harvey House restaurant.
More next time.

Two Sides of Bernard

I remember two sides of Daddy. One of my favorite memories of Daddy was around their wedding anniversary June 10 when he returned from a horseback ride to the north pasture he would bring Mother a huge bouquet of handpicked wild flowers. Cowboy roses were his favorite. He continued to order azaleas around this time when he was no longer able to ride horses. Another memory is when he shipped cattle to Kansas City by train from Waynoka he would either ride with his cows or in the caboose. One time when I was about 10 we picked him up on the return trip he brought me the little German dolls that are in my shadow box.
I thought long and hard on including this memory. But maybe some descendant will show signs of it, since it seems to be hereditary, and won`t be afraid to seek medical help as some of the recent generation have. It`s what is quietly referred to by family members as the Balk Curse. Several in the family have acknowledged they suffer from it. It`s an emotional form of mental illness. In Daddy it showed itself more after middle age. The symtoms were suspicion and often imagined wrongs done by others. Sometimes he wasn`t fun to live with but with Mother`s patience he and we were able to cope.
We said goodbye to Daddy May 27,2000 after he had lived 26 years as a paraplegic. Even tho we had a hard time understanding his speech in his last hours, he made it known he wanted to kiss us his usual not 0ne kiss but Two kisses.
May I close with a tribute written by Daddy`s Greatnephew 7 years after his death.
"I remember many times my dad (one of three nephews left fatherless at an early age) speaking of his having spent summers when an older child and teenager living and working with your parents, farming.
Your father was a good and a great man, there is little question that these many months and years of direct influence on my father molded him into the above reproach reputation of which he lived. Especially the results of the terrible moment that re-defined Bernard`s life, the short fall of which left him forevermore crippled. As you know-know far more than me, your father was a mighty man, a man`s man. Many looking at the changes in their lives would have opted to end it, many would have subscribed to a never ending pity party. Bernard Balk sat back and took study of what his life was to be and in the very most genuine character of the mighty man he was, he took it with a smile and lived his remaining days with his head held high.
The courage and determination in our clan of peoples, in so many instances, is purely remarkable."
Canter Mark A. Harman
Bristow, OKlahoma
Are there any questions?

More Tales of Bernard

Daddy was a practical joker. He would show off for our slumber party guests by swallowing raw eggs. Once for a Halloween party in the community he cut bars of soap in tiny cubes and dipped them in chocolate. The game was to see who could eat their chocolate first. At the same party he dressed as a mummy. He had on briefs and Tshirt and totally wrapped himself in toilet paper. Mother didn`t dress up she spent the evening reinforcing his toilet paper. On the other hand he was shy when dates came to pick us up, he suddenly had to go to the bathroom just before they came and didn`t come out until we were gone.
During the Great Depression he told stories of riding in train boxcars. One trip took him to Missouri to find a wife. He headed straight home when he found out the girls washed the potatoes in the same pan as they did their feet. Another trip the train stopped for the night. It was pitch black and he thought of jumping out but decided against it. The next morning when he looked out he would have jumped into the Arkansas River. Being a nonswimmer he would have drowned or died of fright.
His family had trouble feeding their brood during the thirties even tho they were farmers. Mother laughingly said they sold their eggs to buy coffee. Their farmhouse built by Joseph is still standing but I think he was either a procrastinator or didn`t have money to finish the upstairs well. In the winter snow would settle on the kids beds upstairs.
His dream-in the early years it was to make enough crop in the strange soil of the Freedom farm to feed and care for his family. In later years it was to accumulate enough property to make a living for he and his 2 sons. His fears were of the dark and water. His mother used to tell them there were alligators under the bed to keep them in bed. When he was grown and farmed land over by Douglas by himself he had to go to bed before dark because of this fear. The fear of water was probably something similar.
More next time.

Bernard-Proud Farmer-Little Known Facts Of

Daddy`s occupation was farming and ranching. It was in his blood. He found this out when he went to make a fortune in the gas industry in Wyoming. The wages were good but he found the work boring because his job was in a plant watching gauges not in the great outdoors. He liked to sleep late but once up he might work until midnight. I`m sure the milk cows were not fond of his somewhat erratic schedule. He was never one to hang around the house. He was exempt from serving in WWI because his job was to help feed the troops and people at home.
He was difficult to get to go anywhere, once there he had such a good time he didn`t want to leave. He was late to everything. He insisted on eating in a good restaurant and was particular about his coffee. It had to be just so and at home in his favorite green mug. He left the kid`s discipline to Mother and since he was hard of hearing our noise didn`t bother him. He was a stubborn, hardworking, shy man. He had his cousin ask Mother if she would go out with him. I think she proposed marriage so they could take over her family farm. His Catholic faith and respect for women were unshakable. He liked western music and would often break out in song."Oklahoma Hills" and "Mockingbird Hill" were favorites when he was happy. He could also yoodle a decent tune.
more next time.

My Daddy-Bernard Simon Balk

Bernard Simon Balk (he hated those initials) was born March 18,1916 in Garfield county Oklahoma. His mother Mildred Grace Rudd made the Run into Oklahoma from Nebraska. She was about 5 years of age and remembered walking alot of the way behind a covered wagon. His father Joseph Peter Balk immigrated to America at age 11 from Bavaria, Germany also made the Run with his father Peter Balk.( There are 2 stories about what happened to Peter-one according to an aunt, he couldn`t get his citizenship during WWI and was deported which is likely and one he went back to Germany to check on property which is unlikely. There wasn`t much money in the Balk home for travel. Dad believed the later one. We do know he was hit by a stray bullet and died wearing several layers of clothing and carrying all his papers.)
Daddy felt the sting of prejudice in his early life when an older sister went to OSU but couldn`t get a teaching job because of her Catholic faith. His family was not without prejudice-they disliked what he called Bohemians and blacks. (Chris don`t feel bad about that last statement. I rebeled and do not carry that particular prejudice). I think he feared he was part black. He had black curly hair and dark complexion. His Aunt Ruth had alot of black characteristics and her son looked just like Daddy.
Education was important to his family attending elementary school in Bison. All 9 siblings graduated H.S. except Lloyd the oldest. He was a rebel and ran off with a circus when he was a teen. Daddy attended public school and when the term was over he attended the local Catholic school for a few weeks as their term ran longer. He preferred Catholic school. He walked 2-3 miles to H.S. in Waukomis. His sisters boarded in town but for some unknown reason he walked. He played basketball and made good grades. He liked to tell the tale of once when Coach took him out of a game he just proceeded to the stands for the remainder of the game. Coach couldn`t find him to put back in.
This is getting long so tune in another day for the rest of the story.

Where I Grew Up

Tell us about where you grew up. What was your house like? Who did you play with? What kind of things did you do?
I was born February 22, 1947 at 11:10A.M. in Dr. Young`s Clinic located in a house in Freedom, Oklahoma. It is still used as a private residence. Karen said snow was on the ground and I was kept in a tiny closetlike room. I was named for my father because having a sister already I was supposed to be a boy. I was given no middle name because Bernadette is long and Mother was afraid I would have trouble learning two names.
With the exception of one year spent in Big Piney, Wyoming I grew for all of my 18 years on the farm 12 miles south of Freedom my Grandpa Phillips and family traded sight unseen for a place in northwestern Arkansas. My house in Oklahoma was the house Grandpa built in about 1915 to replace a 2 room gyp rock soddie that was just east of the house. The soddie was home to 7 people but long gone before my time. They were able to make do because the boys slept in a separate cellar. The house was a story and a half with 2 (12x12) rooms downstairs and 2 upstairs the same size. There was an addition on the back that included a kitchen, small room that was later an indoor bath, and a screened porch that held our freezer. Mother was the first in the area to own a freezer. Mother and Karen were born in the house.
The folks remodeled the house when they married and moved there in 1939, adding large double windows. Grandpa felt the house might collapse with those big windows. Mother wanted to swap livingroom and bedroom but Dad won out and left the rooms as was. They painted the exterior white with bright green shutters. Before that it was never painted left just the natural wood. Mother loved to decorate often. My bedroom was pale pink with small white and gold snowflakes. The floor was painted dark brown. I had twin beds with brown spreads over pink dust ruffles, and furniture from Grandma Balk`s farm house.
The boy`s room was bright blue wallpaper with silver or white airplanes with alot of red trim. The floor was red with scars on the floor from my uncles sneaking a smoke years before.
We got electricity when I was 2. Dad was one in the community that spearheaded REA at that time. The bathroom was put in when I was about 5. Before that we used an outhouse with state of the art cement floor and commode complete with a wooden seat and lid much like we have today that the CCC built during the Depression. All of the neighbors had much more primitive outhouses but our family was one to try new things. The plumber we had install the bathroom called me Snickle Fritz and I helped (got in the way of) him alot. I remember when we moved to Mooreland the bathroom was decorated in 3 shades of purple light to dark.
Before we had running water the folks had an elaborate cistern system with filters that caught rainwater from the roof and was stored in a well. Mother was so glad when we drilled a well even tho the water was hard as a rock because she would sometimes draw up a frog or a mouse in her cistern water.
Mother`s bedroom held the furniture she brought as a bride and a twin bed for the youngest
child. The livingroom held almost always a sectional sofa in one corner, piano, rocking chair, and TV in later years maybe when I was 10. Mother had a bar built down the middle of the kitchen that held the range Dad bought on time. At that time that meant they paid in full after wheat harvest. The table and chairs were to the left and cabinets, sink, fridge, and hot water heater to the right of the bar.
We had a separate garage that had what we called the wash house. It contained washer, water softener and shower stall. The hired help slept there. The immediate yard included house, wash house, brooder house, chicken house, milk barn, grainery, pig pen and cellar covered by cactus to keep kids from playing on it. Grandma tossed a sprig there earlier and by my time it totally covered the surface.
Our year in Wyoming 1956 was because Dad heard there was good wages in the gas fields. We leased out our Oklahoma farm and headed north. We lived with Aunt Meddie for a time in the second story of her house 2 bedrooms, large dressing-bathroom and wide hallway large enough for living area. The house was still lived in as of 2000. We then moved into Meddie`s rental which was a 2 bedroom apartment over a downtown building she had built for her beauty shop and 1st husband`s barber shop. The barber shop included 3 claw foot tubs that I guess was used by single cowboys when they came to town. Mother used the downstairs to run a western wear store. I remember the apartment as well planned to utilize every inch of space. We then moved to a trailer out on the gas plant Dad worked for. It was large for the time 8x50 feet 3 bedroom but one had to go thru each room to get to back. We rode the bus about 25 miles. Mother found out she was pregnant with Mike and with medical help miles away the family decided to move back to Oklahoma. One thing that was accomplished during our stay in Big Piney was that natural gas was taken across the continental divide. I don`t remember much but Mother said there was big celebrations with lots of drinking. This was foreign to us since Oklahoma was dry at the time.
My friends on the Oklahoma farm was Alan Burkhart. He lived about 2 1/2 miles from us and was about a month older than I. He still lives in the family home. I also had an imaginary friend named Jane. Before I started school Mother had a birthday party for me in Grandma` Phillips Freedom home. I was shy and she wanted me to meet my future classmates. Mae Beth Nixon was my best friend and remained so all of childhood. I still talk to her every few years. We rode a bus 12 miles to school. One year we had to pick up a girl down on a ranch and had to ford a creek.
I always had chores-gathering and cleaning eggs, hanging out laundry, dishes, housework, ironing. I could milk cows, ride horses (not my favorite). For fun we hiked the pastures, played dolls, played "kick the can" that resulted in 5 stitches in my ankle one time. I sewed alot from about age 15 on. The neighbors got together on Sat. nights to play cards. One night I clotheslined myself playing in a horsetrailer and ended up with 3 stitches in the back of my head.
In Wyoming my best friend was Patty Jewett. We just hung out She lived behind us. On Sat. nights we attended the movies 2 blocks down. We walked there. The grocery store was strange to us Okies because we just handed our list to an employee and they gathered up our groceries.
In 1957 the wettest in Oklahoma history the bridges washed out and we couldn`t drive to town. We drove to the creek and someone on the other side would meet us to take us to school after we walked across a wooden plank. Mother was nervous because she was due with Mike about that time. Fortunately she made it out before the south bridge went.
Christmas was a big deal. We walked to the north pasture for the perfect tree. Mother made candy and cakes etc. Christmas Eve while the folks milked Karen played Christmas carols on the piano until the doorbell rang and low and behold toys were on the front porch. Christmas Day was spent in Enid with Grandma Balk. I remember one Christmas celebration with Aunt Lilly in Freedom. Santa actually walked in down the long drive. I was suspicious when "he " left and I saw long brown hair hanging over "his" collar.
After Karen at the age of 9 asked why we didn`t go to church, we started the trek every Sun. and Holy Day to Woodward (28 miles) for church. There was one in Mooreland but Dad was more comfortable in Woodward where Aunt Lorreta went. Sonic or roast and veggies cooked while we were gone sure tasted good those Sun. CCD was Sat. mornings and I went until I got tired of getting up early each weekend day. I also was embarassed because we were habitually late. I took H.S. CCD by correspondance. Dad would periodically enforce daily rosary. It felt like a chore and only recently have I come to appreciate it`s solace.
Each year we traded time with cousins in OK City and Enid. They loved the farm and I enjoyed the city with movies etc. We often took a road trip after harvest. We took x amount of $ and when we spent 1/2 of it we headed home. I remember going to Mount Rushmore, Salt Lake, Yellowstone and visiting Uncle Garland in Washington state. He owned a vegetable truck farm and I remember playing in irrigation ditches and visiting the cannery where he sold his crops.
We often had picnics and swam at Boiling Springs on Sun. In the early years it was a dirt bottom pool part of the lake. Later a nice cement pool was added. The bath house was built of rock by WPA or CCC. I`m not sure which.
We took out of town guests to Alabaster Caverns about 3 miles as the crow flies from home. Once we took a group of nuns in their long habits. We also lived about 3 miles from Chimney Rock. It was a little appreciated spot in my day but served as a marker for travelers in the early days. As I look back it was really a fantastic rock formation. One particularly wet winter after I was grown it fell down.
Gee I think I wrote a book, but this is my memories of my early life. Are there any questions?

Granny Davis' Favorite Recipe

What is your favorite recipe and why?
Cinnamon Rolls
Grease 2 (9x13) pans.
Make a caramel topping with
1 c. brown sugar
2 t. water
2/3 c. margarine
Heat together until dissolved and spread in bottom of pans.
Bread dough
1/2 c. sugar
2c. lukewarm water
2 pkg. dry yeast
1 t. salt
6 1/2 c. flour
2 eggs
1/2 c. melted butter or shortening
butter
brown sugar
cinnamon
Put sugar, water, and yeast together and mix. Add salt and 2 c. flour. Beat 2 min. Add eggs and melted butter and beat 1 min. Gradually add 4 1/2 c. flour. Stir well. Rest dough for 20 min. Roll out to about 1/2 inch thickness and spread generously with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up jellyroll fashion cut into about 1 inch rolls and place cut side down about 1 inch apart (or more if space in 2 pans allows) in sugared pans. Let rise 40 min. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 min. Remove from oven. Let set rightside up about 5 min. Then turn out into cookiesheets with sides to completly cool.
I`m hoping to be as good at these as Big Granny was. This is not her recipe but an easy one that I baked many a dozen in the mid 1980`s to earn money for Sarah`s softball team. They sold for $7 a dozen an outrageous price to me for maybe a $1 of ingredients.
At NSC in the mid 1960`s I was one of the few in Foods 103 that could bake bread pretty consistantly so I helped alot ( to the point of literally making nearly everyone`s bread) with that assignment. Little did the instructor know that if it failed to rise properly it went into the disposal and we started over. We could do this because it was a lab class and we worked at odd times on our own.
Wonder if the grocery budget was high that semester!!!

This thing is open...again!

Granny's blog is ready to go! This is going to be an ongoing project between Granny and her kids. We'll ask the questions and she'll give us the answers. I hope to fill this blog with delicious recipes, fuzzy memories, and of course, pictures to help us and all of those who will follow remember just how wonderful it was(and still is) to be part of such a special family.