Hey friends, it has been a while since we have ‘talked’; lots of things have happened this month. I told you all about my ‘brand new’ neighbor, Rylee Ann Parker, Jimmy and Cassie Parker’s newest addition, when we last ‘talked.’
Now I have more new neighbors, Savannah and Patrick Stroud, with children Miley, Masin, and Maria. Heather and Matt Johnson moved over on McCreary Ridge and Heather’s sister Savannah and husband Patrick, moved into their place…and I still have wonderful neighbors, although I do miss seeing Heather and Matt.
Savannah told me that her mother, Sheena Yocum (Mrs. Daryl), recently had a very serious surgery but is now home recovering. Savannah said she is doing well but ‘hard’ to keep down. Sheena is one of those people that are always moving and a ‘quiet’ recovery is hard for her to do. Before the surgery, Sheena, Heather, and Savannah, were all baptized, praise the Lord. Do remember these lovely ladies in your conversations with the Lord please.
The cicadas are singing (oh yes, I know it is bunch of bugs making an ungodly racket but I ask you, which sounds better, cicadas singing or bugs making a racket – after all, it is just a matter of words and has the same end result.) So…the cicadas are singing their hymn of praise to the Lord, heralding the advent of fall. Here we are at the end of August (actually by the time you are reading this, it will be September) and fall is just around the corner.
Mike and Mary Martin celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary on August 19th; it doesn’t seem possible that 34 years have passed since then. I remember it so well (can’t remember what I had for breakfast but 34 years ago is a ‘snap’.)
Mike and Mary were so skinny; Mary bought the smallest dress she could find (a beautiful blue) and then had to take it in – time has changed that a mite. Hilda and Johnny Lock provided a huge bouquet of white snowball blooms and we put sprigs of blue chicory in them. It was a beautiful bride’s bouquet and set off her dress beautifully.
I baked a four-layer wedding cake; the only problem was Markland church is at the bottom of the Pike and I lived on top…and the road was a curvy monster back then. Moving a big wedding cake takes…well whatever it takes, I didn’t have it; finally, I took part and Patty Miller (Mrs. Mike) took the other part. Unfortunately, Patty’s brakes went out about half way down the Pike and the kids holding the cake in the back seat had a hard time keeping it together.
Patty was a good driver (and the Lord must have been with us), she made it to the church hall, with the cake intact, and we put it together. It looked great; however, the hall (old schoolhouse) didn’t have air-conditioning back then and it was very hot that August; the icing started melting. Everything came out all right in the end though.
Ruby Stevens (Mrs. Bobby), Mary’s mom, always used to use a metal curler on her bangs; we were all so excited, she forgot to take the curler out of her hair and no one noticed it until we got the pictures developed. We all had a good laugh with her about that. Both Ruby and Bobby have now passed but we are left with sweet memories of them.
Congratulations to you Mike and Mary. They went out to eat (compliments of the children) and to see a movie. The kids (Michael, Jessi, and Kym) treated them to a couple of nights at the Festival too.
We had several birthdays in August: Alex Turner (1st), Debbie Bruce (4th), Paulette Barnes (4th), Robert Barton (6th), Conner Stevens (11th), Dana Carter (24th), Kyle Perry (26th), Daniel Mangold (27th), Charlotte Kroening (28th), Jeff Mullins Jr. (28th), and Vandora Bennett on the 30th. We wish each of you a ‘Happy Birthday’ and a big ‘bouquet’ of God’s sweetest blessings for the year to come.
Incidentally, if there is anyone that wants to send Vandora a card of remembrance, or just say hello, her address is: 123 Kelley Street, Clarksburg, West Virginia, 26301.
Spanish classes have resumed at the ‘Y’ on Fridays (for the ‘senior’ class and Wednesdays for the ‘junior’ class – but not this past week because the ‘Y’ was closed for annual maintenance), taught by Evelyn West. It was so much fun getting back together again and surprising to see how much we remembered…and a lot of fun of what we forgot. Bruce Williams definitely took the ‘cake’ for funny pronunciations. We have so much fun in that class that it is amazing we actually learn some Spanish. ‘Professora Evelyn’ made sure we had plenty of homework to ‘tide us over’ during our ‘bi-week’ (oh goody, football is starting.)
Bridge last week was at Ana Slover’s home; she made a pumpkin chiffon cheesecake for dessert – even the dieters enjoyed it. The week before was at Rita Green’s home and she served a ‘south-of-the-border’ meat salad (Rita likes spicy food and I am learning to enjoy it also.)
Before that was at Carolyn Green’s home (she and Ivan have made some real progress on their remodeling of their property) and Carolyn laid out a big feast. We do enjoy the card games but the food is really nice too. Bridge is one of those games that is supposed to ‘improve’ your mind – we actually haven’t noticed too much improvement yet, but we do have a lot of fun.
Debbie Turner has, temporarily, dropped out so she can put in more time getting her new business ‘up and running’. It will be called “Ridge Top Shop” and it is a neighborhood consignment store here on top of the Pike. I spoke to Debbie this morning and she told me the Grand Opening will be on September 15th (same day as the Community Yard Sale) and she hopes lots of people will come out to shop and visit.
Debbie Bruce has been a very busy lady lately (actually she is usually busy); Debbie and the girls, Allie and Jessie, returned from Florida (James stayed home to ‘hold down the fort’) last Sunday and Monday morning she had to fly to New York and travel on to Stanford, Connecticut for a business meeting. This past Saturday, she was back and working, along with several others, deep-cleaning the church. (I hope she remembers to take her vitamins; busy people need vitamins.) On top of which, she and James are building a new house…literally, they are building the house.
Marci Leap told me Sunday morning at Sunday School that she was so tired and I should poke her if her eyes closed during the service…I didn’t have to poke her. She said an old friend, Steve Sublett, came in from Oklahoma and they were at the Festival until almost one in the morning. Marci said she wasn’t used to staying up that late anymore; she and Steve really enjoyed ‘paling’ around, catching up on all the news of all their friends. Marci said Steve was thinking about relocating to Indianapolis and she is hoping it happens, maybe then they will get to see their friends a little more often.
Pastor Bobby was sick last week with an ear infection but he still gave a great sermon (no need to ‘poke’ anyone during that) that inspired a lot of thought. After the Worship service, several of us joined together for a meal and a ‘disciple-ship’ class (kind of like a very informal Bible study group); we all enjoyed that.
Several people were mentioned on our prayer concern list this week: Mary wanted us to remember her uncle Curtis Birge in a nursing home with COPD and her son Michael Martin and his friend Justin (traveling to Georgia for work). There were unspoken requests and a petition for those friends and family seeking employment; for unsaved loved ones and victims of ‘Isaac’. Jacob Dickerson is sick, Sheena Yokum for recovery, Betty Mishler, Brian Parker, Brian Green, Donny Pavy and his family, Sherri Habel, Pastor Bobby (healing), Caleb (Kyle Perry’s nephew), Janelle Lustig and family, and most especially, our very dear friend, Judy Judy. Please remember these, and others you know about, in your conversations with the Lord this week.
Sherri Habel (Mrs. Art – Spanish class ‘amigos) dropped me an e-mail with some awfully good news. She had a problem with her throat and after several tests, found out it was a ‘treatable’ infection and not any of the horrible things her imagination had brought to mind.
Wilma dropped in to visit; she is another person that is always busy. She and Marjorie Ford have been down to the nursing home a couple of times; Wilma and Linda Bolden have been shopping. Mary and Danny took her to the parade (she said it was a really good parade – she waved at Josh Carr (on the big drum – she said he smiled at her), and she has been shopping with Anthony – like I said Wilma is always on the go.
She went down to Madison and got her a new mattress, got it loaded in her car, came home and ‘willy-waggled’ it up on the porch by sliding it up the handrail, and in the house. Granddaughter Stacy Turner called and asked why she didn’t call her for help; Wilma told her she already had it in the house and on the bed. She didn’t need any help; that’s Wilma.
A lady stopped me at the store the other day and asked, if the next time I wrote the column, if I could put in the ‘Fail-proof’ piecrust recipe; she had lost her copy and really missed it. It is especially nice since it is done mostly with a mixer and the lady (naturally I can’t remember her name) has arthritis. No matter what you do to this crust, it always turns out flaky and good tasting.
Three-quarters cup Crisco
One tablespoon of milk
One-quarter cup boiling (not hot, boiling) water
Two cups all-purpose flour
One teaspoon of salt.
Put the first three ingredients in a mixing bowl; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, and the liquid is fully incorporated into the mixture.
Add the flour and salt; beat at lowest speed until all dry ingredients are moistened. Divide dough in half and shape it in two balls (I usually flatten mine a little); put them in plastic wrap (baggies work fine) and chill for at least four hours or overnight.
Take it out (one piece at a time) and roll between two sheets of wax paper (it is a very tender dough and hard to roll without the wax paper but if it tears, just moisten it with water and press it back together.) Put it in your pie pan, carefully, and bake at 350* for eighteen minutes or until lightly browned for a cream pie. Fruit pies, after putting crust in the pie plate, add filling, top with other half, and bake as usual.
They say ‘an old dog can’t learn new tricks’ – and I say, ‘phooey’ on that. I am an ‘old dog’ (I have been called a lot of other things, some of them not nearly as nice) and I can learn new tricks…especially when it saves me time and effort.
My chocolate cream pie is famous (at least in our family – Sam never wants cake for his birthday, chocolate pie is, and has always been, his choice.) I make it with Jello chocolate cook-n-serve pudding, but I do jazz it up a little by using two cups evaporated milk (one can is a little less than two cups and I use half-n-half to make up the difference. I add three egg yolks, a gob of butter (about two tablespoons), a dash of salt (about an eighth teaspoon), whisk it all up in a heavy pan and cook it over medium heat until thickened. Take it off the fire and add a splash of vanilla (probably a teaspoon or two) and pour it in the crust. You can make a meringue with the egg whites but I usually don’t, as no one in our family likes meringue; they like cool whip on the top – to each his own, as they say.
Ana Slover makes her piecrusts up, several at a time, and puts them in the freezer – then just whips them out when she wants a pie. I have never tried it with this ‘No-Fail’ crust but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work; just roll it out, put it in the pie plate, and freeze. Should work – but like I say, I haven’t tried it. Ana uses her own crust recipe and it tastes really good too.
Ana told me she had decided to ‘retire’ (she is another person that is always doing something) from her massage business at Twisted Ends Salon. I believe she said her last day would be sometime in September. Ana is almost 80 years old (which she neither talks or acts like) and thinks she just might be old enough to retire.
Friends until we meet again, my prayer for you is that the Lord will cause His face to shine on you, to bless you and keep you safe from harm; may He lift up His countenance and give you heart-peace. Amen