Granny Davis' Blog

Camp Granny 2010

2010-06-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

The fun started June 7 when we picked up our first campers-Myra and Noah, Josh`s kids. The camp bus picked them up at Davis, Oklahoma-halfway to their home in Ft. Worth. It was some 5 days of swimming, sno cones, fireworks, hot dogs and movies. Forgot to mention Kennedy joined them because she and Myra are such great cousin friends. Kennedy kept them on the run and Myra settled them down on occasion. Noah just followed along or not as his mood struck him. He was pretty busy taking care of his new found favorite thing Kennedy`s 2 little puppies. Ricky, Hannah, and Andrew were staying with his sister for a few days and they joined the kids for a swim one evening.

The next week group 2 came in including Anna and family. Again a round of camp things happened fitting them in between visits with the Gode cousins from Maryland. Sunday after brunch Papa and Sky left to join Brandon for Scout Camp. Ricky feeling left out made plans to return Wed. for Scout Camp which he did and helped Brandon not feel so homesick until his Dad arrived on Fri.

Week 3 included Nate and Brandon and Ricky for one afternoon. This was a different camp-doing things a city kid doesn`t often get to do-rifle shooting, tubing on the lake, fireworks, golf, and just hanging out with his Dad and Papa.

Kennedy was able to be included many days as she swims on Stroud Swim Team and practices here 3 evenings a week plus Angie was in summer school all of June. Tho Jett, Skylor, Kenzie and Hayden didn`t get to stay at Camp Granny they were in and out often.

As I look into the immediate future Nate and Brandon left this morning. Then Josh and family will be here July 1st for Noah`s 6th birthday party on the 4th. This is the perfect place for fireworks for our little firecracker. July 9th Anna and family will be passing thru on way to Aquarina Reunion in Alva and possibly back thru on the 11th. Angie, Walter, Kennedy, 2 cats, and 2 dogs will be with us July 15 until the 28th while their new home is finished. It will work well for Kennedy`s swim practice. I`m glad we have the space to help them out a bit. To say the least our big quiet house has had a fun time with Camp Granny 2010.

Christmas Davis Style

2010-05-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I was looking for a way to make Christmas memorable for our family. The old fashioned Christmas on the farm was not doing it for them. Since all my children are self supporting, the small gifts I could buy for the many members would not be that much and how many socks and underwear can one use? So I came up with trip to a motel with a pool, meals, and some sort of entertainment to fit the bill. Destination and particulars were secret til close to the day. I asked way-6 to 8 months- in advance to save a certain weekend. A couple years Mother was able to go which made it special. Tho in her 80`s she came along with nary a complaint of strange bed, food, and often snowy cold.
The 1st trip was to Pryor to the Christmas train. Jordan was able to go that year and since all was secret his mother worried how to get him to the appropriate destination-not knowing it would be in their hometown. It was cold and snowy thus Nate and family had to turn around enroute from Kansas City much to Lindsay and Brandon`s dismay.
One year we took in the Territorial Christmas in Guthrie. Dinner was at Granny Had One where to save space Christmas trees hung from the ceiling. I remember Mother timidly asking for pie if it were included in the buffet. We surprisingly met my cousin Sandy Phillips Wright and family. The store fronts all had actors acting out sights of early years in Oklahoma such as playing board games, making apple pie etc. etc. Kennedy was surprised to see children from her Ok. City daycare as actors in one store front. The evening ended looking at Christmas lights from a trolley. This was Mother`s last Christmas with us so for a bit I couldn`t get in the spirit to plan any outing.
One year our celebration was postponed until April to vacation at of all places Kendrick, Oklahoma at a dude ranch of sort called Tatanka Ranch. We rode horses, swam in a salt water pool, hiked to the top of Elvis Tower, paddleboated, celebrated Andrew`s 1st birthday, had a huge fireworks, slept in rustic cabins and enjoyed cooking on the house. The no cleanup was great.
Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine Texas was another favorite destination. After that the little kids thought only Granny could take them to the Lodge.
This past year found us in Tulsa. Nate and family were able to join us for the first time in spite of blizzard like conditions which worked to our advantage because the hotel was nearly empty. Gift exchange, swimming, Incredible pizza and laser tag were the entertainment of the day. The surprise this year was in the form of a "stimulus check" for each family.
What will the next Christmas bring? My wheels are turning and time will only tell!!

Sister`s Date 2010 minus Karen plus Marty

2010-01-29T11:30:00.000-08:00

Just returned from Sister`s Date to New Braunfels and Gruene Texas. It was settled by German immigrants thus the history is rich in German influence. The towns are abounding with entertainment from parks, to water rafting, museums, a hardware store that only sells American made products(many are similar to things found in Cracker Barrel shops), a huge many acre water park.etc. etc. etc. In Gruene we visited the dance hall George Strait began in and John Travolta danced in and several antique shops.

Our gracious hosts were Uncle Ernie and Aunt Mary Ellen Balk and their daughter Louise and husband Brian. Her name is Ernellen Louise but after going by that in younger years she now prefers Louise. Ernie always lived in California then Utah and Nevada so I really never knew them well. We tried to catch him up because he said he regrets missing so many family things. Since we are orphans and Ernie is our last surviving uncle we adopted them as our parents.

We were greeted with pizza and sangrias(delicious). Our other dinners included an authentic German restaurant that sold German clothing and a Texas BarBQ place. The German Restaurant was run by lady who came over as a serviceman`s wife. She hoped to go back in May to visit and Mary Ellen invited herself along.ha At the end of the meal Mary Ellen ordered 3 different desserts and told us to take a bite and pass it on. We sampled a cherry, an apple, and a chocolate dessert there and buttermilk pie at the BarBQ place.

Ernie entertained us with stories of when his dad died he was 13 and became Oklahoma`s youngest licensed driver. They lived on a farm and Grandma couldn`t drive. He sat up on pillows. He helped on the farm until he graduated High School then headed to California with his mother and cousin to join the Navy. Mary Ellen was traveling with her mother to a job in a hospital. They flirted back and forth along the way and passed notes on an umbrella stuck out the window. They married after his 4 year hitch. Grandma visited for a time with former renters from Vance Air Force Base. She had set up an apartment during the depression in her farmhouse to help money wise that she rented to airman from the local base. She returned to Oklahoma by train.

One of his Navy memories was of when a paratrooper died jumping they just moved the food on ship to one side and carried the deceased in the fridge. After Navy he worked for a company that built things for NASA. Duce filled us in that Ernie had been promoted 3 times to his bosses job in his career. One was after they were working on rocket fins that would not work. Ernie took them home and worked on it with bungee cords until it worked. When he could not be promoted anymore because of lack of an engineer degree he scimmed engineer books from the library and took tests. He received his engineering degree at age 54. All this from a small Oklahoma High School grad.

Ernie shared a picture of a lake in Germany and a tale his Dad told of walking along the shore as a child with his Mom and Dad. He like many children would do ran ahead of his parents and fell in step with a woman. After visiting with her a bit he ran back to ask parents if they knew the woman. Parents replied," what woman we saw no woman." She was according to the tale the ghost of a woman who had drowned there years before. Guess Grandpa Joe Balk was a bit of a psychic.

A modern story was of when they visited there before they moved they turned onto a street called Klein. That was Mary Ellen`s maiden name and she took it a a sign that is where they should move.

Another was when he and his sons visited a brewery they asked for directions to a good lunch spot and if they sold beer. The brewery person hesitated so they decided to check it out before going in. One of the sons came back to the car with good news and bad news. The bad news was they didn`t have a beer license. The good news was beer was served but not charged for.

We were allowed to purchase lunch but dinner tickets were paid by Ernie and Mary Ellen. Said they were paying back for all Mother`s hospitality. Thank you Mother-what goes around comes around.

No Ordinary Boy Scout Ceremony

2009-09-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

This entry describes Not Your Ordinary BSA Order of the Arrow ceremony.

This weekend 09-26-09 some 40 youth and 15 adults gathered at Will Rogers Scout Reservation near Cleveland,Oklahoma for a OA weekend filled with service projects and fellowship. Saturday evening`s ceremony near the boat pond started out as others do except for the 7 in attendance in street clothes rather than Boy Scout uniform. It quickly turned into a Memorial for a recently deceased OA member. This was to fulfill his last wishes. Three adults eulogized his days in scouting telling of his love for fishing and teaching boys to fish at this very pond. He had carved the large Indian totem poles in the background. Each symbol had it`s own meaning. Then per his wishes part of his ashes were shot over the pond from a cannon used in ceremonies. The rest were distributed among those wanting to help scatter them. I wondered what the younger boys thought of this as most participated. Thus Richard Gode`s ashes remain for all eternity at the place he loved-Boy Scout Camp. It was, to say the least, a very unusual but meaningful service!!

Mid July 2009

2009-07-23T07:08:00.000-07:00

This year`s Granny`s Pool Party was graciously hosted by Marty and Maddie and their 3 girls and their families at their home in Quitman, Texas.
We gathered at the Mineola, Texas Best Western Friday Evening. Maddie had Taco Salads with all the trimmings waiting for us.
Many of the group arose at the ungodly hour of 4:00 am to go on a guided fishing trip. Funtime had by all and I think a total of 78 fish were landed. The afternoon was spent eating all sorts of smoked meats compliments of Marty`s cooking skills, celebrating Karen and Sarah`s 29th birthdays AGAIN, nonstop swimming, visiting , and just hanging out catching up. At dark we were treated to a belated fireworks show that rivaled many a city shows.
Sunday saw some departing early and the rest back to Marty`s for fishfry and cake to celebrate Marty and Maddie`s 35th wedding anniversary. Their bestman and matron of honor were able to join us. Interestingly no one could remember the time they married.. They just lined up at the courthouse for their turn. One last swim before everyone but Josh left for home. Josh was having a car problem so he stayed over until Monday morning. Christina and Noah were picked up by some friends that just happened to be visiting in Mineola. Myra came back to Oklahoma with Kennedy for a visit. I believe 42 family members gathered in Quitman to carry on Mother`s Pool Party tradition. She would be so proud.
P.S. As I wrote this I remembered I did not do a writeup on our great time in Ensign, Kansas with Duce and Becky last year. Maybe later!!

PS to The Self Made Man

2009-06-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of a sad PS to an earlier post. Wesley Davis, 80 something, and bride of a year are now divorced. Not privilege to the whys but he is reportedly looking for a new mate. Maybe she was looking for fortune after all.

Great Grandmother Theres Kreuzer Balk lived 1840-1889??

2009-05-10T04:05:00.000-07:00

On this Mother`s Day I will write about a Mother of long ago.

I saw a documentary on Ellis Island recently that may explain what happened to Peter Balk`s wife, Theres, upon arrival in America. Family stories told she was very sick when they arrived. The documentary was giving a tour of the buildings on Ellis Island. The baggage room was on the lower level. They left belongings there and were sent to the receiving room. It was a large room that would have been packed with tired, anxious people speaking many languages. The people were funneled upstairs into interview rooms where it was determined if the immigrants were well physically and mentally. Doctors stood at the top of the stairs to watch for physical disabilities. Then they were screened to see if they had enough money (about $20) to make a start in the new world. They were then directed to a set of 3 parallel stairwells down. One allowed individuals to get a train ticket West, one allowed those sent to it to stay in the New York area, and the last was to the dreaded hospital where sick ones were tested to see if they had curable or noncurable ailments. Those with noncurable diseases were sent back to their native land at the cost to the steamship that brought them. That was only about 2 per cent. I guess curable ones were allowed to recover in the hospital. At the bottom of the stairs were doors to a room where people were joyfully united with family members or sadly realized that a family member did not appear healthy enough to join them. Evidently Peter, Joseph, and halfsister Anna Mary Kruezer had the $20 and were given train tickets West for they settled in Nebraska. I can only speculate on Theres. She was ill, about 49 years of age, had borne 6 of her 7 children in a bit under 8 years, buried 5 of them death do to typhoid. We do not know her ailments. I read from another source that it might be something as simple as body lice that detained them. Did she have to go back and possibly did not survive the trip or die at Ellis Island. I can only imagine the sadness of having to leave wife and mother there on the island. I am sure she as any mother would want them to make a better life for themselves. It is no wonder they never spoke much of life before. I have heard Peter went back to Germany several times. WHY? Did he not want citizenship early because he could not freely go back and forth? He would have had to renounce forever fidelity to reigning William II Emporer of Germany at the time. I know Aunt Margaret, Joseph`s oldest living daughter, was not thrilled at the thought of Ernie going to visit Germany in the last couple decades. She feared what he might find.

Too many questions. No answers yet.

Timeless Phrase ???

2009-04-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

There was a phrase coined during the Great Depression or Dirty Thirties that might be relevant today during our current recession. May I stress I did not live during the 30`s but remember my mother sometimes mentioning the phrase that went like this:

"Use it up. wear it out, make it do, or do without!"

I am optimistic that our current recession will never reach the depths of the Great Depression which was worsened by a lingering drought that made it nearly impossible to live off the land. But the phrase brought back memories when I ran across it in a magazine.

Cases of Many Colors

2009-04-04T04:34:00.000-07:00

After I retired from keeping Jett full-time, I found a new hobby. The first week in March an article ran in our local paper about an organization that sews and donates colorful pillowcases to children`s hospitals across the country. OKC hospital uses about 350 a month. Terminally ill children get to choose a pillowcase to use and then take home with them. The bright colors cheer those white sheets of the hospital. I thought I can do that. I pulled out all my cotton remnants and some I had brought home from Mother`s stash. I threw them out on the table. It was almost addictive seeing the pretty colors. They seemed to pair themselves. I use 2 different fabrics on each case. The oddest combinations make striking cases. For example, I paired a blue paisley with a tiny green dot and used orange stitching. Beautiful! One donated piece almost wasn`t given to me because the donor thought it too ugly. I must say it is a kind of ugly pink and green flower. I paired it with a tiny kelly green check. The donor couldn`t believe the pleasing results. I had enough fabric to make a dozen or so. Becky and Karen brought me enough on Sister`s Date for another dozen. A huge sack of fabric appeared at church one morning. I`ve emptied all my and Mother`s spools of thread. I even convinced Bill to buy me new machine with pretty stitching. Our consignment shop happened to have a couple bins of new fabric that was not selling so I purchase some fabric from them at a bit of a discount. I keep saying I won`t buy anymore fabric then the fabric section in Wal-mart lures me back. I am in a small way stimulating the economy in the current "recession".

My original goal was 52-one per week. I have to date turned in 80, have a dozen more finished to be turned in, and more fabric on the table. I must say it is a most enjoyable addiction!!!

Comical Things

2009-03-28T04:14:00.000-07:00

On this snowy day I will recall a few of the funny things during my kids` early childhood. One I remember for Nate was when we were moving from the apartment in the converted nursing home to our house on 1st Ave. I was trying to explain to him about the room in our new house for our car. He looked at me and replied, "You mean a garage?" He was not quite 3 and a man of few words. He was social and busy visiting the neighborhood when we lived in apartments in the summers when Bill attended summer school.
At this same home, Angie a preschooler and a friendly gadabout, proceeded to polish her sandals with white polish while wearing them. Her feet were as white as her shoes. She then went across the street to visit LT Case. He asked if she polished her own shoes. She replied "You ask too many questions." I sometimes helped with school parties. Angie`s 1st grade teacher was leery to have me chair a party but on party day I just carried and directed the 3 younger ones to a side of the room and sat them in a row while I did my party duties. She was amazed a 3, 2, and 1 year old could behave so well.
Mother always thought Angie and Nate might be ADHD and need medication until she watched Chad and Chris and their busyness.
Sarah was also a gadabout. That is one reason we built in the country to keep her home. She tried jumping rope at 3. I often walked the 6-7 blocks to get Sarah from morning Kindergarten. She was always mad when she saw me with the stroller instead of the car. Neighbor and classmate, Shellie Carroll, was mad because her mother wouldn`t walk her home.
The kids were all out in the garden one day. I was watching while I folded clothes in the house. In horror I saw Nate accidentally whack Angie over the head with a hoe. She had a pretty good gash but only yelled "I`m going to tell Mom."
Anna was always little and quiet. She crawled into her highchair every time anyone got a snack. With the many of us she might eat 6-8 times a day. For a couple of years she and Josh slept together in the bottom trundle bed. I had to get her to sleep before Josh because she told me ," Josh wiggles too much." When I went to enroll her in Kindergarten I remember her measuring herself to other children to see if she was as tall as anyone.
Josh the academic one would quiz me on my math facts after morning Kindergarten just to see if I knew them. He was a bit bewildered when in 1st grade they tried to make him count things to add them. He would busily write letters in preschool while I made CCD lesson plans. When he received a world globe for a gift he replied, " I always wanted to know (I don`t remember which country) was." He enjoyed trucks and army men also. One day he tied his favorite action figure to a helium balloon and watched dumbfounded as it flew into the wild blue yonder.
One memory I have of all the kids was when I taught CCD, I was to have a party with all grades. Refreshments were no problem-cookies and punch. Games was another story. I came unprepared. Not knowing what to expect I divided the kids by birth months into about 4 groups. They came out about even with a mix of ages and sexes. Each group rose to the challenge and came up with a game for all to play. The kids were surprisingly inventive and the group felt the party a great one. Party saved by a bunch of smart kids.
These were busy times and passed so quickly.

Balk Sisters Date

2009-03-03T02:09:00.000-08:00

The sisters started what I hope is a yearly tradition-Sisters Date. We met at Texas Roadhouse in Witchita,Kansas Saturday February 28 for 24 hours of nonstop catching up. It is a fairly central location for everyone. The guys were invited to help drive. We did an afternoon of antique shopping. I found some of my everyday things there. Later Becky was determined I would get some Sketchers shoes like her and Karen`s. They are incredibly comfortable but dressy enough to wear lots of places. I found the right size but not color so will keep looking. We took hamburgers back to the room. I got a lesson there when we ordered. Wendy`s offers a Senior discount.

Becky reported on her trip to Uncle Ernie Balk`s near San Antonio and brought me copies of family documents. Most are in German so maybe Josh can translate for me. Ernie told her a couple comical stories. One was, Ernie and Mary Ellen have a hot tub with swimsuits optional rule. When Aunt Margaret visited in recent years she presented herself to the hot tub early one morning in the buff. She is now 96 years of age. Dad can`t get past the swim suits optional. May I clarify it`s couples only not a big party. He also told of meeting Amelia Earhart when she had plane trouble and landed in the pasture across from their Bison home. Hope to ask him more about that later.

Think we started something at Big Granny`s funeral by letting the Great Grands tuck her in. They did the same at Chad`s father-in-law`s funeral. They actually picked a number to see who could push the button to lower the casket.

Sunday morning we went to a large church in Goddard. We looked around and missed Phil. Here he came in vested with the priest. We didn`t get to hear him give a sermon but saw him in some action. Afterwards we headed home with thoughts of our Quitman reunion in July and plans forming in our heads for next year.

Roots in the Catholic Faith

2009-01-31T10:43:00.000-08:00

I actually only have one cradle born Catholic grandparent. I did not know Grandpa Joesph Balk born September 20, 1874 in Altschneeberg but he as a teen with his parents, Peter and Theres Kreuzer married January 8, 1874 in Tiefenbach, Bavaria brought the faith to New York on a ship named Hamburg Package Seaman August 28, 1889. He was the only one of 6 siblings to survive to adulthood. I understand the others died of typhoid. His siblings included those with very German sounding names of Franziska lived from January 1, 1876-February 8 1876, Magdalena February 9, 1877-May 25,1880, Katharina May 18,1879-June 11, 1879, Michael May 3,1880-May 27,1880 and Ludwig April 1,1882- May 8, 1882. Interestingly Peter`s parents` names were Michael and Barbara. Joseph did have a half sister, Anna Mary Kreuzer, that traveled with them. We do not know if their mother Theres was married to a Mr. Kreuzer or if that was her maiden name. We also do not know where Theres died and is buried. She did arrive in New York but was reportedly very ill so possibly died in New York. We think Joseph, Peter, and Anna Mary took jobs West to Nebraska.. Anna Mary was nearly grown and married in the Lindsay, Nebraska area to a Mr. Hoegerel. They were parents to a daughter that became a nun. I`m not sure of other children. Anna Mary is buried in the Catholic cemetery in Lindsay, Nebraska.
Fast forward to the land run into Oklahoma. The ever curious men Peter and Joseph made it and settled in Garfield county. Joseph eventually married Mildred Grace Rudd in a civil ceremony. She was pregnant with 2nd or 3rd child when the marriage was blessed in the Catholic Church in Bison. The family after that was pretty active in church affairs. The children were instructed and received the sacraments, some attended Catholic school part time, and when the church was built a stained glass window was bought in honor of Peter. When the church was replaced my cousin Tommy Rogers was able to buy that window and had it made into a lovely mantle piece. Joseph lost 5 baby siblings, his mother at an early age, faced uncertainty in a new world, reared 9 children, received word of his father Peter being killed in Germany by a stray bullet during WWI, endured the tribulations of the Great Depression, buried a son prematurely etc. without losing his faith. Alto he was fluent in English he reportedly prayed in German. He attended Holy Day Mass on New year`s Day in about 1940 and came home to suffer a massive heart attack and died.
All in all I think my own Dad felt his greatest legacy to me was the Catholic faith. It has carried many family members through many a trying time. One footnote-Mother and Dad began going to church regularly when Karen at age 9 asked why they didn`t go to Sunday School like her friends.
P.S. Most of the names and dates were given to me by Uncle Ernie Balk. He has visited the towns and church in Germany. The house the Balks lived in Germany still stands and is used for a storage barn.

Fun Job for Granny

2009-01-31T01:28:00.000-08:00

I am in the midst of a job that is the most fun I`ve had for a long time. I offered to keep little Jett Michael Cooper for a bit as a gift of sorts. He may be my last grandbaby and since I am retired and close the arrangement worked for this baby. He is a smilely happy baby and it doesn`t take much work to mix up a couple bottles and occasionally throw tiny clothes in the washer. At first he even let me have my much needed nap in the afternoon. He has accompanied me to Dr. visits and Christmas parties much to many`s delight. Just what the Dr. ordered for this now fully recovered Granny. Some have asked why I don`t keep him longer. I think it best for him to be around younger people. So thanks guys for sharing this precious pricless gift with us.

Christmas 2008

2008-12-27T09:50:00.000-08:00

With so many in a family-Christmas isn`t just a 24 hour event. This year it began on December 20 when 11 of us ventured to Cowtown-Ft. Worth. Some spent the night with Josh and some with Anna. Christina entertained her houseful with BarBQ and Anna had pizza. Sunday 19 of us drove 45 minutes to Grapevine`s Great Wolf Lodge with huge indoor waterpark. We enjoyed the waterpark, arcade, buffet, visit with Santa, bedtime story with lifesize animated characters, and back to our room where everyone brought their room`s chair for gift exchange and cookie decorating. I`m afraid the maid had to pick up more trash in our room than usual but we did leave some of the decorated cookies. The kids spilled out in the hall with remote control cars and other toys. Fortunately there wasn`t alot of traffic in the halls. The next morning was again spent in the water. Papa Bill even tried the approximately 3 story winding water slide. The only casualities were Baby Jett 4 months old got water dumped on his head from a tipping bucket on the lazy river, Andrew 18 months did not like the frowning animated tree in the lobby, and Josh on crutches from foot surgery got his bandages wet.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve when 12 (even years are special because Sarah`s kids are able to join us for evening Mass) joined us for midnight Mass at 5:00 p.m. Father Mickus is afraid too many will have too much Christmas cheer by midnight. I think it`s because he flys home to Chicago Christmas morning. Angie`s family ate pizza with us afterward. The following 2 days were very untraditional with chicken fried steak, a perpetual open house and 70 degree weather.

Altho Nate was not here we are pleased he arrived safely home from Iraq to N.C. about a week ago.

Big Bad Mike

2008-12-11T05:56:00.000-08:00

Mike is my baby brother 10 my Jr. He was a thin baby that spit up alot of his milk after a full bottle. He eventually grew to over 6 foot and 350 pounds altho in recent years his weight has pared down considerably. I`m writing this because after many years of torment and long hateful accusing letters I received one with little hate spewed. I beg to differ on some of his family memories but I must say most of the 3 pages of notebook paper were filled with happier things. He sent a Christmas card from "Boy`s Ranch" founded in 1939. He noted that was the year Mother and Daddy were married. He wrote his memory of May 31, 1974 (the day of Daddy`s accident) and noted Mother was the one whose life changed the most. I quote from his letter "the true test fell in our Dear Mother`s Hands. She gave it her best. But the true Secret about that date. Add the digits. They tally to 2005-the year she was set free to rest. Great set of Parents......." Bill remarked wish he could have said it to her face.

Now Big Bad Mike (many of the children actually feared him) is spending time in prayer ( he quoted many phrases from Bernard`s prayer book), trying to figure his next move, and pondering what life would have been like had they stayed on the farm. Is he changed? Maybe not but but hopefully it`s a start.

No Sisters I`m still not ready to move him in with me!

Election 2008

2008-11-05T10:31:00.000-08:00

As we made history this week by electing the first African American President, I`m thinking back to family voting history. I don`t know any of the Davis or Short leanings but speculate it was Democrat for that is traditionally the working man`s party. The Balks were probably also Democrat because Bernard must have inherited that fierce loyality to that party from somewhere. He voted straight ticket always. It did not matter if his own relative was running. This happened when a cousin-in-law who was Republican ran and won a seat in the Oklahoma House of Representives without Bernard`s vote. I know they took the privilege of voting very seriously for we did not venture out often during the week except on Election Day. We trekked some 7-8 miles across country to a little church named Haskew. Bernard would call a trusted friend outside at the poll to make sure he understood all questions on the ballot.

I witnessed history in the 60`s when John F. Kennedy ran for President. Being the only Catholic family in our Freedom Public School I was tormented with such things as if he is elected we`ll all have to eat fish on Fridays and if elected the Pope will run the country. Of course those things did not happen.

Further back I know my Grandma Phillips as a woman could not vote until about age 40. According to Great Uncle Charley Phillips` grandson, T. J. Russell, Grandpa Phillips a Repulican settled in Oklahoma in an area of Democratic relatives. He was used to adversity tho-the Phillips in northwest Arkansas were a Confederate family living among mostly Union neighbors. Reportedly they kept to themselves back in a "holler ". I`m pretty sure Grandpa and my Dad didn`t discuss politics much.

Bernard`s party won this year. Obama is a charismatic, good looking (according to Kenzie) young man hopefully he does a good job in spite of lack of experienece.

Further back I know my Grandma

Family Health Histories

2008-10-14T02:46:00.000-07:00

With such a large family, I had 14 biological aunts and uncles and Bill had 21 I can`t know what all the health problems were but will relate the ones I remember. I know heart disease is on both sides and alcoholism does seem to be a problem. The Balks are all hard of hearing. Mother had severe osteoporosis. One Davis died as an infant and one died at age 5 in the influenza epidemic. She reportedly was a smart child and ministered to sick relatives by bringing them lemons etc. One Short died as an infant. One Phillips and one Balk had mild forms of epilepsy. Aunt Loretta`s was brought on by an injury she suffered as a toddler trying to escape an onery calf. One Phillips died of cirrhosis of the liver. One Phillips aunt suffered from emphysema tho she never smoked a day in her life. Not sure if husband did probably because most men did at that time. Most on both sides lived to ripe old age of 80 tho my grandfathers died of massive heart attacks at age 65-70. Grandma Davis was diagnosed with as Aunt Nell called it cancer of the female organs at age 55-60. She recovered and deemed it a miracle tho she was not overly religious and lived to age 96.

Some others in the famiy had some form of cancer. Bud Davis died at age 34 with goiter and throat cancer. Grandma Pearl knew he wouldn`t live long because he was born with a veil over his head, part of the placenta covered his head as he was born and according to old wive`s tale that was not good. Granny Fannie died in her 60`s with a stomach problem that she was scared to go to Dr. for-maybe uterine cancer. Bernard Balk died after fighting throat and mouth cancer. He had a tumor under his tongue in his 50`s and quit smoking cold turkey then in his late 70`s he was diagnosed with a tumor around the esophagus and refused any extra treatment. Juanita Balk died of pancreatic cancer in her 80`s at that point she announced that is what her mother May Phillips died of. We didn`t dream that. No one talked about it. A Phillips first cousin, Leon Harman, died of brain tumor leaving a couple young sons. Uncle Leo Balk died of brain tumor at a young age. Aunt Johnnie Belle Davis Cook died of a form of stomach cancer in her 50`s.

Why did I choose to write about this? It may give insight into family health issues and I was recently diagnosed with uterine cancer after only very subtle problems. Warning girls-the Pap Smear does not detect uterine cancer. The good news it was contained and will not require any radiation. Aren`t I glad I purchased that cancer policy 10 years ago over Bill`s objection? Don`t worry be happy!

Picking Apples

2008-09-27T04:50:00.000-07:00

This story was related to me in the early 2000`s by a fiesty 80 something year old wife of Bernard`s cousin Michael Felber named Edith.

Edith told of how in the early days of their marriage, Aunt Chris (Edith`s mother-in-law) was raving to Grandma Millie about the quality of apples in a nearby orchid. She referred to them as Uncle Joe and Aunt Millie. Anyway Joe and Millie decided to get some for themselves so off they went in their Model T. The car became stuck in a sandhill on the way. Millie jumped out to push the car out which she was able to do and the car went on it`s way. At the orchid Joe stopped and looked around for Millie. He looked back to see her running "mad as a wet hen" toward him. He had forgotten to pick her up.

On the same topic Aunt Ramonda told of how they preserved apples by drying slices on racks out by the chicken coop. One warm Sat. her job as a youngster was to clean house. She cleaned awhile, go out and sample drying apples, and get a tall cool drink. She repeated the steps several times during the day. The apples tasted so good. You can imagine what the water did to all those dried apples. She said her belly swelled up and she was very constipated. I doubt Grandma Millie was aware of what she had done all day.

The kids took advantage of their parent`s trips to town for groceries. Uncle Ernie told of how they would make fudge as soon as they left. His job as the youngest was to make sure their folk`s car was out of sight so they could make a plate of fudge, eat the whole batch, and clean up. Then Ernie watched to make sure the car was not returning too soon. He said Millie never suspected. I think kids have not changed a whole lot in the past 100 years.

Truly a Self Made Man

2008-08-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Bill and I had the pleasure of meeting and in his case becoming reaquainted with his nearly 80 year old 1st cousin once removed, Wesley Baker Davis this summer in Lubbock, Texas. Wesley`s dad Doc (William Wilburn Davis) and Bill`s Grandpa Nat (Charles Nathanial Davis) were brothers. Doc was a Jr. so his nickname was derived because as a child he treated peers for pretend illnesses with rabbit pellets.

Wesley was one of six siblings born to Doc and 1st wife Pearl Harmon. She died when Wesley was young. Doc then married May. That`s when "All hell broke out." according to Wesley. She bore 13 children 9 of whom (7 men and 2 women) commited suicide. Two jumped off the rim of The Grand Canyon. About 1942 when Wesley was 13 and younger brother Roy Lee or Tinker was 11 the parents left them in the cotton field near Matador. His dad offered him a bus ticket to Amarillo. He declined saying he could get there faster by Hitch hiking so he hitched to Amarillo, got a room in a hotel and sold newspapers to live. In spite of all he had a good relationship with his dad. Step mother was another story.

Wesley was able to give some insight into the lives of other family members. He knew Great Grandma Mary Davis. She was a fullblood Choctaw Indian. Great Grandpa William Wilburn Davis was embarrassed of her heritage so she was never allowed to go to town. She had sore gums and jaws and would wail in pain. She had no teeth. She would sit by the fireplace and smoke a pipe. I remember Pearl saying in later years she lived in a tent in her and Nat`s yard. Their house had burnt. His memory of Bud and Fannie was Bud was in CCC camp a couple years before they married. He remembered seeing Fannie only a few times. Wesley`s biological mother Pearl and Great Uncle John`s wife Noah were sisters. Wesley was the one to get John and Nat and their families to move from east Texas to west Texas. They settled near White Flat and made their living pulling bolls for 4 or 5 years 1st for a Charley Harris and others later. When asked about Nat`s illegal whiskey business, with a twinkle in his eye he told me he always sold it. Once when the sheriff came around to search the house Nat told him look all he wanted. Nat sat on the porch with feet propped up on a large round footstool. The sheriff opened every closet and cabinet, found nothing and left. The next visitor was a customer that purchased whiskey from that very footstool. Wesley thinks Tinker`s wife had him killed June 5, 2005. At his funeral he observed wife giving a fellow a roll of $100 bills. He said you don`t have to do this now. She replied "I told you I would pay when it is done."

One of the interesting recent stories was widower Wesley a couple of months ago eloped with his dancing club friend Rita. The couple dressed in blue jeans went to the local courthouse for their nuptuals. His oldest daughter hasn`t spoken to him since. They live in a new but very ordinary house for a man that is a billionaire and knew Sam Walton personally. No Rita is not a gold digger. His money is all tied up in trusts for his kids. To make his fortune it seems years ago on the advice of his father-in-law he bought a couple parcels of land in the Houston area and in recent years offered the land to some California doctors for an ungodly amount of money and they bought. I would say that is the rest of the story for a self made Davis relative.

Cousin Robert Stokes and Bananas

2008-07-17T04:01:00.000-07:00

One of my older Balk cousins related this story recently. He is one of the few who can remember Grandpa Joseph Balk.

At that time bananas were sold not by the bunch but by the stalk. One day as he and Grandma were headed to town to buy groceries, he told Robert do not eat any bananas while we`re gone because Grandma needs them for something. Robert being a onery kid helped himself to a few bananas. When the grandparents returned not much was said about bananas, Grandpa told all within hearing that someone told him poison was put in the bananas and anyone eating them would kill over dead. Robert spent the next several hours getting sicker and sicker. Of course it was all a made up tale and it was Robert`s conscience hurting him. Grandpa made him suffer more that way than whipping him for disobeying. Ole Joe tho not highly educated had child psychology down to a science.

Learning to Drive

2008-07-01T06:17:00.000-07:00

I learned to drive a standard because the folks thought if I could drive a stick shift I could drive anything. My driving gave Mother gray hair but she was presistant. I would not be like a couple Balk aunts who never drove because of early mishaps learning to drive. Dad would not go with me. I remember once driving over a steep culvert on a turn toward home. It was on the highway about 3 miles from home for all to see. Rumors flew that the car was really messed up. Car and passengers were unhurt and I was taken out that evening for more driving. Anothe time I remember Mother stomping on my foot and brake going around a sharp curve and over a hill. I didn`t react fast enough. This made them realize I needed glasses. I remember one time driving the farm truck with many gears to town before school for servicing. I was a bit embarrassed but saving gas was the name of the game even back then. I drove 12 miles home alone many nights after school obligations. I was not afaid even tho for about an 8 mile stretch I passed 1 house and a couple of male classmates swore they had seen lights on Long Creek on that stretch on more than occasion. I didn`t get my license until about 17 1/2. I didn`t take the driving part of the test the first time and drove with a permit for a long time. I think all of the above makes me still not like to drive in traffic particularly if I don`t know where I`m going

I remember Mother relating how she got her license in the mid 1930`s from the court house for 50 cents without any sort of test. She also told of driving her Dad in a car without a working speed odometer. If she drove too fast he would say "I know you are speeding look how fast the fence posts are flying by."

Bill`s early driving was with Grandpa Nat Davis. He let him drive him to another county to pick up hootch but wouldn`t let him drive home. Nat would get mad if he brought the keys in after a trip. That way he always knew where his keys were. Dad still doesn`t like to bring keys in from his pickup. Dad was also a little older when he got his license but he drove alone in Matador at 13 and some in Dallas at an early age. Grandma Pearl Davis never drove. "Why did she need to learn she always had someone around to drive her?" She regretted that when everyone was gone from home yet she was still spry enough to drive around little Matador.

Nine Homes in Ten Years

2008-06-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

Our first apartment at 812 1/2 4th St. in Alva was chosen in the spring before we married in August. We looked at several before deciding on an about 20 square foot furnished basement apartment behind the landlord`s house. It was $35 a month all bills paid. Cool in summer but if outside drains got blocked with debries the floor flooded when it rained. Think that only happened once. In May I and a girlfriend moved in for summer school. Dad headed to Lubbock to work. The apartment was within walking distance of school and my job downtown at T.G. & Y. After summerschool roomie moved home and the girl upstairs moved down with me for the remainder of the summer. I made curtains. It was small but with lots of storage.

Our next place on a $6000 per year teacher`s salary in Lebanon, Nebraska was a square TP looking home. It had 2 closetless bedrooms. One bedroom had an addition built on that was at one time used as a beauty salon. There was one closet in the dining room. This house too was furnished. I remember an old fashioned rolltop desk, a reddish pinkish sectional sofa, built in hutch in dining room and stained glass windows across top of living room window. We did not heat the bedrooms. The insulation probably was not very good. We didn`t notice the cold with all 7 of our wedding blankets on our bed.

The second school year we moved across from the H.S. in a 2 story house with basement. We bought the minimum but new furnishings - gold sofa, mattress set on frame. chest of drawers, wood table with 4 chairs, brown refrigerator and washer on time which I promptly paid off with double payments most months. Nate`s crib after he outgrew the cradle was a garage sale find of Aunt Nell`s. We used only the downstairs. The school secretary loaned us a bed when we had company to use upstairs which had a half bath. Again I made curtains. A treat for me the house had a big old claw foot tub. We only had showers up to then. Our address there was P.O. Box 26 chosen because it was our anniversay date.

The summer between those school sessions was spent back in our original apartment in Alva where Nate was born. We also lived in the upstairs apartment one summer. Another summer when Angie was born we lived in a brick duplex across from Homeland Store. My grocery bill was the highest that summer. I could just run across to the store when I got hungry for something.

Our first home in Stroud was on 8th St. in a converted nursing home. It had new kitchen cabinets, 3 smallish bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and large livingroom which must have been a ward room for it had bedroom type closets across one end. Again I enjoyed making curtains. The rent was like $70 and we had to pay utilities. When we were gone for summer school the landload charged only half rent. They rented to mostly teachers.

When Angie was 2 we lived in a furnished apartment in Weatherford for the summer with minimun possessions. That was the last year we had to uproot for the summer. Thank goodness because Nate was always busy picking neighbor`s green tomatoes and visiting anyone in complex or whatever. Dad had spent 5 summers in school - 4 for his masters and one to finish up a math degree.

I remember riding around in Stroud one year. As we drove past 604 S. 1st Ave. I thought houses like that never come up for sale Little did I know that by the time Angie was 1 we would close on our 1st home at 604 S. 1st Ave. It was only 2 bedrooms but had lots of nice wood kitchen cabinets, wood paneling in kitchen, attached garage and the latest blue green shag carpeting in livingroom and bedrooms. This was Sarah, Anna and Josh`s first home. We assumed the original mortgage and the owners carried a 2nd mortgage for us. House payments were at most $200 a month. When Sarah was about 2 we converted the garage to bedroom, bath and a larger dining area with laundry closet across one wall.. That was a mess remodeling with the dust and mess with all the little ones underfoot. Dad did alot of the work. I remember wallpapering new bathroom ceiling and walls with yellow paper with tiny white flowers. Pretty but I was so sore. I swore I would never do the ceiling of another small room- there was not much room for ladders. Again we were quite comfortable until Josh came along. I felt like a rat living in a maze in our 1200 foot house. We made do for about 2 1/2 years until we decided to bite the bullet and build our present home.

Looking back - how did we do it - 2 acreas, new 4 bedroom 3 bathroom house with variable interest mortgage that sometimes was over $400? Answer since daycare on 2 1/2 ( kindergarten was 1/2 days) was more than I could make Dad taught, coached, drove a bus, worked at pool or painting at school in summers and worked at Sonic on Wed. evenings all the while doing as much finish work on the house as he could. Everyone was disgustingly healthy. ha We scrimped, wore handmedowns or handmade, cooked at home, cut boys hair, vacationed at Big Granny`s, used school and church things for our entertainment and held off decorating our lovely new space. Many years care packages of cookies from Big Granny Balk was our Easter treat and bags of candy and fruit from Santa downtown was put up for our Christmas. The kids all worked from age 16 not to help with household expenses but for spending money and to save for college. They all took a turn at McDonalds which I think instilled in them an excellent work ethic. We persevered and proved all things are possible if one wants it bad enough.

Memories on Mother`s Day 2008

2008-05-11T07:32:00.000-07:00

I was the type of teenager that everyone wondered how I fit in with my somewhat wild classmates. Those that packed liquor in their bags for the Sr. trip to Washington D. C. which led the guys to break a TV in a motel room about Memphis. Most of the 6 girls were pregnant on their wedding day.

I on the other hand had never had a complete physical before I suspected the birth of Nate. We lived in a tiny town named Lebanon, Nebraska. The nearest Dr. was 15 to 20 miles away in Cambridge. I drove over there, circled the Dr. office a couple times and headed home. I did eventually keep an appointment then we moved to Alva for summer school. I gave the Dr. the only Dr. in Alva I remembered and hand carried my records. Dr. Stephenson was ancient and got sick before Nate was born. He did give me great advice on one visit-"Get to the hospital quickly." I woke up at 12:30AM and Dr. Simon delivered Nate at 2:00 AM. The hospital was shorthanded and Dad answered the switch board while nurses attended me. My night nurse was a male named of all things Harry Carry. He more than once startled me awake in the middle of the night for blood pressure etc. Nate did not like being in the nursery alone, was born with one ear folded over, and we stayed in the hospital a couple extra days because Dad received his Draft notice and had to plead his case in Plainview, Texas. We were that close to being an Army family.

When Angie was born we lived in Stroud. She was due after summer school started so on Sun. May 30 we took an all day ride on bumpy country roads. She arrived just after midnight on Mon. She had the most perfect round head. We headed to Mooreland and eventually Alva the day after I got out of the hospital. Townspeople thought something was wrong with her we left so quick. Mother had a bed all made for me to get in when I arrived. I didn`t go to bed but did stay there a week.

Sarah was born a couple weeks late after I worked at the pool and sat at a baseball game until 8:30. Clinic hospital was packed and our first room was a bed in a storage room. She arrived right around shift change at 11:00 PM. Lots of nurses around but all debating whose job it was as they didn`t pay overtime. She arrived on Karen`s birthday barely.

Anna arrived during the time Dr. Markert was in trouble for selling prescriptions for diet pills. Dear ole Dr. Jones was trying to keep the hospital open singlehandedly. I went to the hospital around midnight after Dad came home from playing basketball with the Harlem Wizards-a knockoff of the Globetrotters. She was delivered minutes before Dr. arrived at 5:00ish AM. I declared as he came in "you better not charge for this." He good naturedly replied"I won`t." The insurance paid and my credit was something like $42. I was paid to take her home. Nurse Patsy Hatter told me he never charged if he didn`t make it or the baby was stillborn.

Josh was born after a 6 week wait. This was before modern ultra sounds so his due date was a guess. Around March 1 Dr. told me to stay close to town-could be any day. Dad was a nervous wreck. He continued his busy schedule of end of the year class trips etc. One time as the bus went by the hospital a car like ours was there. He knew I drove myself there. Little did we know it would be 6 weeks. I was tired of keeping laundry etc. done up. Finally on Mon. after Easter I woke up 4:00ish AM, cleaned the kitchen, did a load of laundry and sent Dad to do lesson plans. When we arrived at the hospital Nurse Tonya Roundtree told all aids to listen to me because I knew what I was doing. I came out of the delivery room to a smiling Dad and Angie. She had just gotten out of morning kindergarten. I had to hurry so I didn`t miss out on the turkey dinner they served at noon. Josh was huge at 9 pounds 6 1/2 oz. but another boy dwarfed him in the nursery. We were the talk of the hospital 5 children the oldest still 7.

These are my memories of becoming a proud mother of 5. The rest of the story will be becoming proud mother-in-law to 5 and Granny to soon-to-be 12 grandchildren.

Aunt Jean Short Allin

2008-05-02T04:15:00.000-07:00

My most recent memory of Jean was when we visited her and daughter Debbie and son Jimmie in Bradenton, Florida 2008. She uses a walker at 78 but her mind is sharp as a tack. She carries her trusty pistol on her walker when home alone. Said the neighborhood was declining but it looked fine to me.

Jean was a feisty one from birth. She was small when born and sister Fannie practically raised her while another sister Mary Lou was sick with whooping cough etc. and needed their mother`s attention. I understand Mary Lou always had her hands up wanting to be picked up.

At age 16 or 17 during WWII Jean did the patriotic thing and wrote letters to a local soldier overseas. They were friendly pen pal letters. His to her were passionate love struck letters. She laughingly shared them with her mother and Grandma Bryant. When he came home he invited her to a carnival. She was excited for the evening out and dressed in her only store bought dress-a white one with red buttons down the front and a monogramed J. on the bodice. They stopped by a friend`s house first and suddenly the hosts had to leave. She being naive sat down to wait. The soldier put the moves on her and she told him Papa would kill her. He replied "He`ll make me marry you after tonight." At that point she reached over his shoulder for a bottle of whiskey on the end table. She reared back and broke the bottle over his head. He yelled"When you say no you mean no." She returned home with glass and whiskey all down her front. She slipped in a side door where her mother took her clothes to soak and sent her up to bed. Papa was a strict one and never knew of the incident. Why Papa was strict with his baby daughter will come out later.

The Davises-Balks A Patriotic Bunch

2008-04-17T07:18:00.000-07:00

We had several family members serve in various branches of the militery in America`s wars beginning with Private John Hammond Sr. in the Revolutionary War to the present Iraqi War. Fortunately I do not know of any that did not make it home. Bill`s Uncle Don Short was a POW during the Korean Conflict. The family did not know where he was for 2 years. His mother`s picture during that time showed a face of true sorrow. Don was held in a camp up in an out of the way forest. He tried to escape 5 times. His commrades told on anyone trying to escape in exchange for a blanket or a candy bar. They were forced to march without medical care. He was wounded in the heel. The blood ran out of his boot as he walked. When they came to a village they were stripped and put in a wire cage. The local women came by and taunted them. In response to the question "Did that bother you?" He said "Hell no I just strutted." They carried wounded until they were able to walk or died. At that point the head of the march always placed the body head down in water. They passed many like that. He never understood the reasoning for that.

A young Mexican soldier cultivated the guards until he was able to bathe in a nearby body of water away from the camp. Finally in the nick of time for they were headed to China within hours, while he was batheing the young man spotted an American General in a jeep and alerted him he was American and where others were. He felt they would not have been liberated otherwise.

Don tried to remember funny things and gloss over sadness. One thing they did was they weren`t allowed to boo so during indoctrination speeches they would cheer and whistle loudly to drown out the speaker.

Let me say Don was a bit of a rebel. He joined the Navy as a teen probably because times were hard for this large family of 11 children. He served a year before Grandpa Short got him out. When he was of age he joined the Army and even after his Korean ordeal he served in Viet Nam. It was hard for him to shoot women and children there but many were wired with explosives so he just shut his eyes and shot.

These stories make me less sympathetic to all those vets that came home and seem to be reclusive and not accomplish much. Don and many others survived and led productive lives outside the service. Don worked tirelessly by writing letters to congressmen after he came home to try to bring home POWS that he knew were force marched into China and never heard from again. The war dept. denied they were there. He saw so much death during his captivity he couldn`t bear to go to his own parents funerals a couple decades later. I remember he came to the church but had to leave.

His younger brother, Charles, wrote a loving tribute to him after his death. According to family this was very uncharacteristic of him to write such a thing. It told of the sudden change on their mother`s face when his name came up #5 on the list of those coming home.

These memories were told to me by his sister, Jean Allin. She was supposed to write a book. Maybe she still will.

Billy Wayne

2008-04-14T06:44:00.000-07:00

Billy Wayne Davis was born at home January 17, 1946 in Matador, Texas. His father Buford Coleman made his living as a professional gambler and service station attendant. He related they went from brand new cars and houses to next to nothing shanties and old cars depending on Bud`s luck. Bill suffered from diphtheria as a child and his mom, Fannie waited until the last minute to interrupt a card game for his dad to take him to the Dr. That is why he has a cracked tongue even today. Fannie contributed by canning anything she could find and sewing their clothes from flour sacks. She bought all of one pattern sacks until they had enough to make shirts etc. Bud died when Bill was 7 of a goiter operation. There is some disagreement on whether he had cancer or not. Aunt said yes and brother said no. I tend to agree with Aunt as Earl was only 10 years of age. They may have shielded the kids. Fannie was left with 4 boys under the age of 10. She went to work in the cotton fields pulling bolls. She often pulled her sack with a young one on the end of the sack. She later married a man who studied to be a Baptist minister. He had small country churches thus began the moving to a dozen different schools before Bill graduated high school. He never lived anywhere long enoug to be a Cub Scout thus his passion for scouting today was born. He attended one room schools all the way up to Dallas city schools. I think this is why he was a good counselor. He had empathy for kids in lots of situations and coming from all sizes of schools. In high school he didn`t want to move so Fannie found a family for him to live with in Geary, Oklahoma. He spent quite a bit of time with Grandparents in Matador. He listed his schools as K. he had a tutor named Mrs. Coldiron so he could skip 1st grade to be with older cousin. The list then included Amarillo, Matador, Hale Center, Hugo, Oklahoma, 2 schools in Dallas named John B. Hood and S.E. Old Cliff, Mt. Pleasant, Mesquite, Pattonville, Broken Bow, Oklahoma, Green Hill Country outside Mt. Pleasant, Matador, Mt. Pleasant, and Geary Oklahoma. Some years he attended 3 different schools in a school year. Other years he returned to a school he had been in before. They moved one year because the school tried to get them signed up for free lunches and Fannie thought they were trying to take her boys. He sometimes went to school barefooted to save shoes for cold weather, but then others did the same thing

One reason he wanted to stay in Geary was because of sports. He participated in all sports but basketball was his love-playing in the Big House in 1963 where he promptly fouled out. He was competing with teammates that were nearly a foot taller than he. He often walked miles home from ball practice. He always felt bad because his parents never saw him play a game. They had to save their money for pop and other things. He would take an odd job to buy athletic shoes but when typing had a lab fee he just didn`t take it. A decesion he later regretted when college papers were graded down because they were handwritten in neat print or he hunt and pecked his way thru his years as counselor at the high school. He could type nearly as fast as I with my 2 years of typing. His coach Keith Covey and Grandparents Davis helped him go to Northwestern. He went a couple years but the oil fields of west Texas lured him away. The money was good but work was 7 days a week. For entertainment he played summer baseball. One semester out and he was back at Northwestern. He was a math major and a job offer in the business world was forthcoming. He turned it down for his love of education. The only semester he had financial aid was the semester he bought my engagement ring. We married in 1967 and he graduated in 1968. He immediately enrolled in graduate school for the summer. In the fall found us in Lebanon, Nebraska teaching in a tiny town of about 300. All 3 of the elementary teachers were not college graduates. They had taught for years but never finished their degree because they lacked student teaching. They made 1/2 the salary of a degreed teacher. We spent 2 years there going back to Alva in summers for school. He taught math and coached basketball and helped with football. One year he taught Chemistry and set the lab on fire. He played town league basketball in a larger town. At the end of 2 years we decided to move and found a job a little south of Lebanon in Lenora,Kansas. We moved our furniture there and went to Alva for the summer. During the summer Keith Covey recruited him for a job in Stroud. Marty and we took a farm truck up and got our furniture. In 1970 we started our tenure in Stroud. We continued to go to Alva summers and he got his Masters in 1972. One summer in 1973 we lived in Weatherford for him to complete his math degree.

Goodbye Dorothy

2008-04-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

We traveled to Enid today to bury my Dad`s sister, Dorothy. She never had children so her brother Ernie, sister Ramonda, and about 15 others mostly neices and nephews gathered at a funeral home for a short service. Sister Margaret age 95 being in ill health sadly was not able to attend. Then off to pretty Bison cementery for burial. It is about 2-3 miles from the Balk homestead. We stopped at the original house built in about 1906 where nobody now lives so is too quickly running down. The original woodsiding is in places peeking out from behind layers of more modern coverings. It still bears the original yellow paint and is in remarkable condition. Beadboard covers front porch ceiling.

Eleven people lived there in 2 small bedrooms, kitchen, large room across front divided by sliding doors, and full not totally finished attic where the kids slept. Our next adventure is trying to visit inside the house to look for pictures and papers reportedly hid in a bedroom wall when Grandma feared Joseph might be deported at the beginning of WWII like Peter was in WWI. I did bring home a very old brick from a collapsed chimney.

The question came up why they settled there. An older cousin related the men traveled by train that ran within a mile of where the house stands. All related men jumped off and ran to stake claims and that is where they landed. Joseph Balk, a teenager, was one of them and his future in-laws settled across the road.

There are only 2 aunts and 1 uncle left. I mentioned we were running out of older people to gather for. Karen brought up the sobering fact-we are moving into the older group.

We finished the morning at Golden Corral toasting Dorothy`s 85 years with fudge-a secret treat of her youth.

Family Secrets

2008-03-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

There seemed to be alot of secrets in the Balk family. The biggest secret on the Phillips side. I had an aunt who after attending school at Alva Normal School and obtaining her teacher`s certificate was back at home at about age 23 teaching in a one room school. Mother was only 3 so couldn`t remember but an older brother, age 11 who was probably in her class, related she came home sick from school one day and went upstairs. Grandma Phillips went up to check on her and came running down the stairs yelling "Lillie had a baby!" No one suspected! She married the father 9 days later and had 4 more children. The last was a mentally retarded girl. The first child , a girl named Irene, died at about age 8 after eating an apple treated with insecticide. Her funeral was the top of the line including several limos with all family members assigned to a certain numbered limo. My cousins told me recently that little girl was never quite right but Mother never told me that but then she maybe didn`t realize it being only about 11 at her death. She did say the family always doted on her. I think the whole family lived with Mother`s family out on the farm for a number of years. I know Irene`s crib was still out at the farm when Jeff and Lori had children because I think she used it for some of them. I seemed to remember a written tale of Lillie and family and her 2 or 3 children moved to Freedom at a later time.

We`ll blame the wild side on the husband`s side of the family. His great neice, a girl about my age, repeated the act by concealing her pregnancy until the 9th month. I remember her cheerleading skirt was huge for a formerly thin girl. She went to the City to marry the boy and had the baby before the 3 day waiting period on the marriage license was up.

A couple of thoughts-was it a shotgun wedding? I can`t imagine Grandpa Phillips doing that. He was a very kind man. Also this happened in September did she lose her job? Who knows!

My Balk Aunts

2008-03-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

Daddy had 5 sisters Mary Evelyn Stokes, Margaret Ann Rogers, Loretta Agnes Weber, Dorothy Louise Maggert, and Ramonda Rose Laughlin. He always said he had 5 bosses that tried to help rear him.

Evelyn married a man names Otis Caughts(not sure of the spelling Daddy pronounced it Cox) who served in WWI at age 14. He seemed to be in some sort of illegal dealings. Mysteriously worked at night and came home with blisters from walking-all over his feet. He served time in Leavenworth but not sure if it were in the Federal Prison or the Military Prison. When he came home he changed his name to Homer Stokes and seemed to straighten up. I believe at the time they were married with a son so they would have had to change their names also. Evelyn and son Delbert lived with Grandma Balk during his incarceration. She retired from Tinker Air Force Base.

Margaret was the kindest aunt. She had kids close to our age so I spent time in her home in Enid. She was patient with husband Frank that seemed to suffer from a very mild form of post traumatic stress syndrome from WWII. They owned and operated a service station. She celebrated her 95th birthday February 28,2008. They reared 2 great kids. She tirelessly help care for Grandma Balk in her last years so she wouldn`t have to go to a nursing home. She is a bit stubborn-will not sell her house in Enid but divides her time in Oklahoma City with daughter and Forney, Texas where son lives. Mother tried to get her to move into assisted living with her. Her reply it`s great for Juanita but not me.

Loretta lived near Sharon in her adult life. She was engaged in her early adulthood. Her engagement was broken and my 1st Communion veil was made from her 1st veil. She moved to Woodward to be housekeeper for the priests. They fixed her up with a bachelor parishoner, Herman Weber, several years her senior. Daddy gave her away because Grandpa was not living. She felt she wouldn`t have many children starting at age 30 but she had 8. Many achieved college graduation with Medical Dr, Nursing, CPA degrees to their credit. I was always amazed at the amount of food she had to prepare for a meal. Herman did all the grocery shopping and bought cases of things. They lived on a pig farm near Sharon and built onto the original smallish house with a bedroom large enough for 6 beds, 6 dressers, and 6 closets to accommodate 6 daughters. Herman at one time cut his arm off above the elbow in a farm accident. Loretta didn`t drive because of narcolepsy(caused from a childhood accident) so she had to get someone to drive him to the hospital. This was probably in the early 1960`s. They were able to reattach the arm with little or no loss of use. I remember the family as a whole being quiet,reserved. Politics and the glories of the Mooreland Hospital were the only things she was vocal about. She was Republican, Daddy Democrat. She used the Mooreland Hospital and the folks did not.

Dorothy, dear Dorothy, she was a bit younger than Daddy, worked for a bank, was engaged for 16 years to Ray Maggert. Ray was the other family member Mother didn`t like. They finally married when Grandma couldn`t cook and do laundry for him. She didn`t drive either because of a fender bender when she was learning to drive. Her brothers made fun of her and she never got behind the wheel again. They never had children, raised dogs instead. He died a few years ago and she lives in an Enid Nursing Home. She is the one who told me Great Grandpa Peter Balk was deported during WWI.

Ramonda was and still is a pretty lady with dark eyes and hair. She married a man named WENDELL DAVIS young and moved to Florida. She came home on a bus with a 6 week old son named Richard. They lived with Grandma and she went to work. A bit later she married Jack Laughlin who adopted Richard. They never told him he was adopted and when he found out as a young adult he took off and they didn`t always know where he was. I guess he has sporadic contact with them now. She had 2 more sons. She worked as a manager for Braums for years. The funniest thing that happened in recent years was while she was caring for Jack in Enid during his final illness something snapped, she left and the Highway Patrol found her in a ditch up near Kansas City out of gas and somewhat dazed. She continues to live in Enid after Jack`s death.

This is nearly the end of my stories. I have one to relate that is probably the most amazing tale. Mother never knew the truth on it. I found out from a cousin only recently. That one is to come next time.

My In Between Aunts on the Phillips Side

2008-02-29T05:25:00.000-08:00

My other aunts on the Phillips side were Lillian Ann Ferguson and Mattie Clyde Harman, Russell, Hebinck. Mother was closest to Mattie because she lived with her while she attended high school. Mattie was born prematurely, a cup fit over her head and she slept in a shoebox on the oven door. Grandma tried breast milk and cow`s milk with no results. Finally she tried sugar and coffee and she began to thrive. She was a kind lady that was widowed with 3 baby boys-the oldest maybe 7 when 1st husband Delbert Harman died. Notice the 'man' on Harman Mother always stressed 'man'. Delbert made Mother the curio shelf with the elaborate cutouts that I have in my bedroom. Her siblings helped out during the summers. Milton and Delsa moved in with her early in their marriage to help with the boys and help with the bills. Mattie worked and retired from a couthouse job. All of the boys grew up to be upstanding citizens. She remarried when the boys were all grown to a jolly man named Floyd Russell. They were married several years before he died. Mattie told Mother she dreaded the awful lonliness. Awhile later she married Bernard Hebinck. He was not a good soul. Mostly seemed to be after a free lunch. He is one of only 2 in the family Mother did not like. They drove new cars between dealerships. They were in a small plane crash coming home from one of these trips. She was killed. He went home to her house thinking he had a home free and clear. Surprise she had put the house in her boys` names years before.

Lillian Ann Ferguson lived in Freedom. Even tho we knew she and her family were family we weren`t close. I guess possibly because of the age difference. She was nearly 20 years older than Mother. Mother said her family thought they were better than us. I think the old home had some bad memories for her. Who knows! I had 2 of her granddaughters as good friends.

Daddy`s sisters`s stories come next time.

Talk About Home Alone

2008-02-12T05:18:00.000-08:00

I am inserting one of Dad`s family stories out of order because I found it so interesting. We visited his Aunt Jean Short Allin in Florida this week. She told stories almost the entire 48 hours we were there. Hopefully she will write a book as she has always intended.

I will paraphase here her written copy. Her and Granny Fannie`s dad, Ira Lee Short at age 6, while living in Missouri lost his mother 4 days after she gave birth to a son. There was also a 4 year old sister named Sadie. There were no near neighbors so his father fixed a sugar teat for the baby and warned the other 2 to be brave, take care of each other, keep the fire going to discourage wild animals from scenting dead mother in the bed, and left on horseback to telegraph his mother in Texas of the death. Ira posed in the doorway with a loaded gun against his shoulder on the lookout for panthers, bears, etc. while Sadie fetched water and more wood from outside. The trip took 2 or 3 days but seemed like forever to the kids. He brought back help from town to bury the Ma. It was cold and difficult to dig a deep grave. Ira and Sadie piled rocks on the somewhat shallow grave.

Grandma arrived by train when she could get there and they all moved back with her and she helped rear the children until her death 5 years later. The dad did not remarry until the children were grown.

I will relate more stories later.

My In Between Uncles

2008-02-04T05:04:00.000-08:00

My other uncles on Mother`s side were Marlin Dewey Phillips and Garland Roy Phillips. I knew Garland the least. He tried to farm out by Freedom in his earlier adult years. He couldn`t make a go of it, pulled up and moved to Washington state. There he farmed a truck farm. I remember visiting there at about age 6 and seeing irrigation ditches, foreign to me, and the cannery where he sold his vegetables. Garland suffered from a mild form of epilepsy.

Marlin went to OU in the late 1920`s. He was short, maybe 5' 8", but played football there. I researched those years. They didn`t have very successful seasons about that time. I remember people referring to him as Uncle Stub. He was a pharmacist and set up a drugstore in Mooreland until his first wife died of diptheria leaving him with an infant son, Martin George. He moved to California and lived there until Martin George at age 5 died after a tonsillectomy. He had always promised his son he could visit Grandma Phillips on the farm. When Marlin brought him home to bury next to his mother he took him to the farm to lie in state. It was so cold the flowers around the casket froze in the unheated room. Marlin returned to California, eventually married again, and had a daughter Marlene who was an artist. The flower painting (supposedly done by a new technique Marlene developed) in my blue bedroom is her work. She married beneath her according to her parents and had several children. Marlin was the one who gave the old pictures of the great grandparents to me when they divided up things of Grandma Phillips. Told me an old fashioned gift to go with an old fashioned husband of my future.

The other uncle on Dad`s side was Leo Joseph Balk or Joseph Leo we`re not sure which is first name. He was a school teacher but developed a brain tumor that took his life at an early age. He had 2 sons and a daughter. The girl died young. My dad always thought it from a botched abortion. One son was mentally retarded and lived out his life in a nursing home in Enid. The other son I never knew but grew to adulthood and had a family.

The Youngest on Either Side

2008-01-22T07:55:00.000-08:00

The youngest uncles on either side are Ernest Raymond Balk and Milton Harley Phillips. Ernie was in school when his Dad died of a massive heart attack. He helped Grandma Balk farm until he left for the Navy after graduation. He met his wife while traveling across country with his mother and she with her mother in another car. They flirted by notes until they both stopped. They were married in a big Catholic wedding. When their 3 children were teens they joined the Church of Latter Day Saints, now they are of no denomination. They lived in California most of his adult life and had a top secret job with the government. We didn`t see alot of them.

Milton was 8 years older than Mother but their children and the folk`s children were close in age so we spent the most time with them. He married a dear lady named Delsa, had 3 daughters, and worked for Tinker Air Force Base. Altho Delsa was a staunch Baptist she observed the Catholic tradition of meatless Fridays by serving salmon when we visited on Friday. I remember the time I attended Sunday School with them. The teacher was taken aback when I told her I was Catholic. Like it was the shock of the day. Milton battled alcoholism but we didn`t suspect until his parents both died. It was a well kept secret. Grandpa was a strict teetotaler.

The Eldest

2008-01-10T08:40:00.000-08:00

My eldest aunt and uncle on either side were Meddie May Phillips Howerton Shipley and Lloyd Peter Balk. Meddie was 21 years older than Mother. Grandma couldn`t go to their wedding because she was due with Mother any day. She was always such a youthful looking lady up into her 80`s. She was a firm believer in Merle Norman cosmetics and sold them for years. She was married twice 1st to Charley Howerton of the area in Arkansas the Phillips were from and had 2 sons. They homesteaded in Wyoming early 1920`s. He died there of a massive heart attack. It was quite sometime later she married Frank Shipley. He was a friendly guy. We lived with them for a time when we first moved to Wyoming.

Lloyd left home young and lived away most of his adult life. He served time in Big Mac for helping 2 other men rob a service station probably during the Depression. The other 2 let him take the rap and he was the only one to serve time. I remember him as a prodgical son who only returned periodically. His 5 sisters cleaned him up, filled his prescriptions, and he was off again. He kept up with family happenings. The $2 bill in my shadow box was a gift when I was born. He walked the Florida beaches early in the mornings to collect shells as gifts for family members. The shells from Mother`s apartment were some of those. He was legally married 3 times, lived to be 100 but left no children. Nephews went to Florida to move him to Guthrie when people kept stealing his SS checks. He was not pleased with the move( they wouldn`t let him keep his junk at the apartment they found him) but made friends. During one of Guthrie`s many floods Karen saw him on TV news hanging onto a barbed wire fence to keep from washing away. He always thought of himself as a ladies man. He could see or hear very little in his last days but enjoyed his beer and the company of a 30 something mentally handicapped girl that looked after him.

Christmas 2007

2008-01-01T09:54:00.000-08:00

Even tho the weather wasn`t great and I was a little under the weather Christmas is always a good time to see family and their differences in life styles. Makes me proud to see that my kids all picked perfect mates and seem to be well adjusted. Those grandkids are precious and growing up so fast. Time, gifts, cards, calls are all so appreciated. My favorite memories were attending Mass as a family and watching the little ones admire and play with my ornament collection.

Dad`s and I`s first Christmas in a little basement apartment in Alva was a special time. He showered me with several things-mostly clothes that included a pair of red penny loafers and a red and blue pants suit. I worked at T.G.andY until late on Christmas Eve and we headed to Mooreland for dinner and the night. I probably had to work on Dec. 26. As I recall I worked that season with something similar to what I got this year. The customers were offering me cough drops.

The Christmas before we married Dad shopped for Becky make-up mirror, Mike toy gun (he and his room mates had a ball with that before he wrapped it), and the folks set of hostess dishes and spent it in Mooreland with us. Seems like he caught a ride with someone after the last basketball practice.

My childhood Christmases were a little one sided. Christmas Eve Santa left toys on the porch and rang the doorbell and we spent every Christmas Day with Grandma Balk in Enid. As I look back she always attended Mass on that day by herself. Everyone had gone at another time. Adults were served first in the living room and the kids begged for whatever on the backporch. She bought every person a gift even tho everyone else drew names. I guess it was probably about 40 people. In later years I often wondered what Grandma Phillips did for the day. I`m sure she never complained but was a bit lonesome her children were in California, Washington state and Wyoming.

Ice Storm 2007

2007-12-18T00:32:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-04T02:50:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-30T07:13:00.000-08:00

I just added a picture to this entry.

Horse Tails

2007-11-22T01:52:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-11T05:29:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-06T11:15:00.000-08:00

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

2007-10-30T02:41:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-23T02:26:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-14T05:33:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-07T05:37:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-24T06:11:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-18T11:03:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-15T04:25:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-14T03:44:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-14T03:42:00.000-07:00

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.