Daughter #2 and famille made it to town in the driving rain on Saturday morning and then it was party central for the rest of the weekend. What fun! We didn’t get to do any driveway sittin’ or drive the miniature raptor, but the good times still rolled. We celebrated our birthdays…
We had lots of primo cousin time…The twins set a good example in church on Sunday and the prairie girls did great.
We went to the boy’s new house after church and had a fabulous time plus a gourmet lunch served up by daughter #3.
Is that a chocolate Westie?!!
An indoor Easter egg hunt was a big hit!
(Katie’s great-great-grandmother–after whom she is named–made this English smocked dress, which I wore c. 1964.)
It was a super fun weekend and I am super tired! It will take me a few days to recover!
I did watch the second half of Ben Hur on Sunday night–the perfect end to a perfect weekend.
Bonus: The ensemble at church sang this on Good Friday. I cried.
Well, the sun–thankfully–came out yesterday, but it was still quite cold. I had a lot of desk work to do, so I stayed inside mostly, only venturing out to mail a card. (Am I becoming my father?)
Today we celebrate the birthdays of two good writers–Elizabeth Bacon Custer in 1842 and Glendon Swarthout in 1918. Libby Custer was the wife of George Armstrong Custer. Left nearly destitute in the aftermath of her husband’s death, she became an outspoken advocate for his legacy through her popular books and lectures. She is largely responsible for his posthumous fame.
She never remarried and died in 1933, four days short of her 91st birthday.
“As the sun broke through the mist a mirage appeared, which took up about half of the line of cavalry, and thenceforth for a little distance it marched, equally plain to the sight on the earth and in the sky. The future of the heroic band, whose days were even then numbered, seemed to be revealed, and already there seemed a premonition in the supernatural translation as their forms were reflected from the opaque mist of the early dawn.”
–Boots and Saddles, or Life in Dakota with General Custer
Like Libby Custer, Glendon Swarthout was born and raised in Michigan. After serving in WWII, he went back to school, earning his PhD in Victorian literature, all the while teaching in college and writing short stories. He was paid $2500 in 1955 for one of these stories, “A Horse for Mrs. Custer”, which was made into a movie starring Randolph Scott, 7th Calvary (1956). The day after he finished his last doctoral examination, he started writing a novel called They Came To Cordura about Gen. Pershing’s 1916 expedition to capture Pancho Villa. The book was quickly sold to Random House and then to Columbia Pictures in 1958, becoming a major motion picture starring Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth.
Gary Cooper and Swarthout during filming
He wrote more best-selling novels, some of which were also made into good movies. As usual, though, the books are better than the movies.
So we’ll toast Libby Custer and Glendon Swarthout tonight and maybe we’ll watch They Died with Their Boots On (1941) with Olivia De Havilland as Mrs. Custer or They Came to Cordura (1956) or The Shootist (1976) starring John Wayne.
And it might be time to dust off Bless the Beasts and the Children and read it!
I will also note that recently our local rag (the Webster-Kirkwood Times) ran a story about the increase in recent coyote sightings in our neck of the woods. You will recall that I saw a coyote in my yard a few weeks ago and noted it. The experts attribute this to the huge cicada emergence last spring, which resulted in plentiful food resources and high survival rates for coyotes and other species. Well, my goodness, you don’t say? What I really want to know is who are the busybodies who report such things and to whom do they report them? I mean, if I saw a bear, I might call the police, but a coyote? That must be Karen, I guess.
Well, here we are in February. Yesterday we broke a record from back in the 1880s–reaching the temperature of 76 degrees! I made my usual Monday trip to the grocery store and swung by the P.O. It is a soggy mess out there, but I am not complaining.
Today we toast the wonderful writer MacKinlay Kantor, who was born on this day in 1904 in Webster City, Iowa. He wrote a lot of short stories for popular and pulp magazines before publishing his first historical novel, Long Remember, in 1934. Kantor was a war correspondent with the British RAF during WWII and also served as a gunner in the U.S. Air Force. After his service he became a screenwriter in Hollywood. His verse novel about three American servicemen returning to civilian life, Glory for Me, was adapted for the screen, becoming the Academy Award-winning film The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). He won the Pulitzer Prize for Andersonville, based on the notorious Confederate prisoner-of-war camp in Georgia where nearly 13,000 Union soldiers died, in 1955. I would re-read it, but I’m not sure I can handle such total depravity right now.
Anyway, I have been an admirer of Kantor for a long, long time and I recommend his books (and movies made from his books).
At the moment I am reading another historical novel by another American writer who wrote short stories for magazines while working in a hardware store in his hometown of Bloomington, IL. Harold Sinclair also wrote a few well-received novels, but The Horse Soldiers was his only bestseller. I have my father’s old signed copy from 1955 and I am enjoying it. Of course, the movie version starring John Wayne and William Holden is a favorite of mine. Here’s a picture of the author with John Wayne and the director John Ford.
We also toast country singer Clint Black, who was born on this day in 1962. He was born in New Jersey, but grew up in Katy, Texas. We always think of him as the secret twin of George W. Bush.
Quite the resemblance, don’t you think?
Speaking of twinsies, the prairie girls are enjoying the warmer weather too…
Today we toast my darling sister on her birthday. We have been together through thick and thin. Now we are both old retired ladies, trying to stay healthy and keep out of trouble.
I enjoy watching Katie and Ida as they navigate the rocky road of sisterhood. (And watching them watching Betty and Judy singing about “Sisters”!)
I pray that they will stay as devoted to each other as my sister and I, and though the miles may divide them, they will stay in close touch.
*“For there is no friend like a sister
In calm or stormy weather;
To cheer one on the tedious way,
To fetch one if one goes astray,
To lift one if one totters down,
To strengthen whilst one stands.”
(“Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti; read the poem here.)
And I thought this post by Ann, wherein she links to another post on X, is excellent on the subject of keeping the Christmas feast in a wayward and dark world. Read the whole thing.
Busy, busy weekend! I am now a person who takes naps to survive exciting times.
I went to daughter #1’s first DAR chapter meeting as regent on Saturday morning. She handled it like a pro as I knew she would. (I have transferred to her chapter.)
Of course, I didn’t take a picture of the meeting after it started…c’est la vie. We had breakfast and then the meeting, followed by the program, which she presented: DAR 101. I learned a lot.
I was interested to learn that one early member of our chapter was Dr. Mary Walker, who served as a surgeon during the Civil War. Assigned to the Army of the Cumberland and later the 52nd Ohio Infantry, she was the first female surgeon in the US Army. She was captured by Confederate forces after crossing enemy lines to treat wounded civilians and arrested as a spy. She was then sent as a prisoner of war to Richmond, VA until released in a prisoner exchange. She is the only female to receive the Medal of Honor.
Pretty awesome. She tried to join the DAR in NYC, but they wouldn’t let her in because she wore pants. Yay, Cornelia Greene Chapter for being more open-minded.
Daughter #2 and DN arrived with the prairie girls around dinner time and we had toasted ravioli and daughter #1 opened some presents.
It was a full day.
On Sunday we got up bright and early and went to the early service at church and to Sunday School, then headed home and on to our favorite Wild Sun Winery to continue celebrating daughter #1’s birthday in our favorite style. We were joined by several of her friends (ages 3-96) as well as the boy and his family. A good time was had by all and the rain held off til it was time to go home.
We had quite a sunrise yesterday, due, they say, to the wildfires out west. (Photo from Fox2)
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning, and all that. But the sun shone all day and it warmed up considerably.
Daughter #1 took the day off for her birthday and we went to the Art Museum where we had not been for quite some time–probably since before Covid, as with so many things. It was fun to walk around without it being very crowded and look at all the good and bad art. When I was growing up we lived five minutes away and we went frequently with our Mother. It was free and we would sometimes go for an hour or so after church. We had our favorites to check out. That is still the way I like to go to the art museum–just to wander through and not look at every single painting, reading each description card. So we did that and then we sat outside at Taco Buddha back in daughter #1’s neighborhood and ate lunch. Lovely.
When I got home I worked a little on my article about Gratz Brown, the governor of Missouri after the Civil War. Here’s a fun fact: His granddaughter was Margaret Wise Brown who wrote Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny! Talk about your small world! File that one away in your Trivia File.
I also toasted all those brave Americans who died on September 11, 2001. In past years I have included this video about a fine young man who died in one of the towers helping others and I encourage you to watch it again. He was a lacrosse player and his initials were WRC. It wrecks me every time. Lest we forget.
Today we celebrate the birthday of our firstborn, lovely daughter #1!
We will toast her today and through the weekend! What a blessing our adult children are to us!
Happy birthday, precious cupcake of love!
I will say that nothing makes a person realize how life speeds by more than one’s own children reaching their own age milestones. In this vein, I enjoyed this reminder that life is too brief to waste. “[A] heart of wisdom recognizes that while each day of mortal life is very brief, it is profoundly significant because its minutes and hours are priceless. Each brief day of mortal life counts, not just for an earthly life well-lived, but for eternity.”
And for all of us who stress about the current state of the world, let us take heart and read Psalm 2:
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Today we toast the great English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, born on this day in 1809. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria’s reign. A number of phrases from Tennyson’s work have become commonplace in the English language, including “Nature, red in tooth and claw” (which I use all the time), “‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all”, “Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die”, “My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure”, “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”, “Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers”, and “The old order changeth, yielding place to new”. He is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
Speaking of heroic hearts, aIthough I am not watching the Olympics and he is a professional, I was happy to hear that Scottie Scheffler won the Gold for men’s golf, coming from behind in a record-tying final round. He cried during the playing of our National Anthem.
“I would say first and foremost I’m proud of the country I’m from. I’m proud to be American. I got emotional the other night watching the gold medal ceremony for the women’s gymnastics. I take tremendous pride in coming over here and representing my country,” he said after his round.
Thank you, Scottie.
FYI it is also the birthday of Lucille Ball, Robert Mitchum, Ella Raines, and M. Night Shyamalan. So watch an old movie! And, as always, look out for bears!
Well, the whole family converged on Champaign County to celebrate sweet Katie’s 4th birthday. It was quite a gala event. It would have been nice if it hadn’t rained all day on Saturday, but we count it all joy and DN managed to grill!
The birthday girl was delighted with her presents and with her cousins who are more fun than a veritable barrel of monkeys.
We will all, no doubt, need a few days to recover.
We gave Katie the Little Tikes Cape Cottage Playhouse and she was quite taken with it. It will move outside but the kids were entertained in it for hours on a rainy Saturday afternoon after DN was kind enough to put it together. (And he did it without swearing once!)
Lottie drew a picture of the girls excluding the bud from the house–girls only! (Some things never change, do they?)
That didn’t last long.
We took very few pictures of any grown ups but we were all there. Quite a treat!
In case you need reminding, Sunday is John Wayne’s birthday. He would be 117. If you are in Fort Worth, be sure to sign up for…
I will be home streaming my own John Wayne film festival.
Nobody slams a door like John Wayne.
How will you be celebrating?
P.S. Saturday is the birthday of Ralph Waldo Emerson. I disagree with him about quite a few things, but I agree with this:
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
–RWE, Collected Poems
Now there’s three aces!
*Bob Dylan
But I ain’t gonna go to hell for anybody I ain’t gonna go to hell for anybody I ain’t gonna go to hell for anybody Not today, not tonight, not tomorrow, no never, no way!
dual personalities 