Horses, horses, horses

 Horses seemed to be part of Charley and I's life - starting from his childhood and also mine.  So to document the horse theme in our life - here goes!

Horse story #1:

My friend, Cheryl, had two horses and they both were pastured at Charley's dad's house/pasture just down the street from where we lived.  By that time, his dad was in a nursing home, so the house was empty. She put them both out to pasture behind his house.  Lots of good grass for them, and 3 acres to run in! Her horse's names were Libby and Sugar.  Sugar was an absolute sweetheart and a large horse - her gait was very easy on the rear!  She had Sugar for quite a while before she got her second horse, Libby.  Well now Libby was a horse of a different color - pun intended - in color but also in temperament.  Her gait was pretty bumpy, and she certainly had a mind of her own - and not always what her rider wanted!  I remember she tossed her head a lot as if to tell me who was boss when I was riding her.

Cheryl and I would ride them when we had time - and since the houses on our road were all on a small acreage plot, it was sort of in the country, and sort of not!  We would start out from the pasture. onto the paved road, and ride around sort of a square to get back to their house.  We doubled back though, about halfway round the "square".  We turned the horses around on Richland Road because there was no way in hell we were taking those horses on Cleveland - which was a main road leading from the air force base.  Lots of traffic, lots of drivers getting off work and antsy to get home, lots of "flyboys" and their souped-up cars - way too dangerous for the horse and us "riders."

We always had so much fun riding and generally just a great time out in the great outdoors.  UNTIL ONE DAY!  Cheryl was riding Sugar, and I was on Libby. We had gone around to our halfway mark and started back. Yakking as usual nonstop.  As we turned around to start back, for whatever reason - Libby decided she wanted to be rodeo horse that day.  She started kind of dancing around like a crazy horse, and I kept trying to calm her down, using the reins and talking to her.  Then she decided that wasn't enough excitement, so she started throwing herself around in circles.  AND THEN came the bucking.  I held on for dear life with my legs, yanking on the reins, and yelling at Libby to stop the entire time.  Scared spitless.  Cheryl was watching, horrified, and her face was the color of chalk. After our rodeo ride, Libby finally came to her senses and quieted down.  Somehow, someway, I did not get bucked off.  It was just plain weird!   To this day, I still don't know what caused her to go cuckoo, or how I was able to ride the rodeo horse without getting thrown off.  Libby never had done that before, and she never did it again.  I think Cheryl and I both nearly needed a heart transplant after that episode.

Horse story number 2

Charley loved horses,  He often rode horses with his friend, Terry Williams.  They rode all over our area.  I think, if I remember correctly, Charley and Terry both helped his dad break in new horses.  One day, Terry and Charley were riding their usual route.  Not sure what happened, but Terry's horse decided it was rodeo time.  He pranced and bucked and Terry landed in the ditch and broke his leg.  Charley rode back to Terry's house to get Terry's dad.  Somehow, they got him up and home.  Went to the hospital and had his leg in a cast.  Terry was forbidden to ride until he healed, and really wasn't allowed outside much.  So since he was housebound, Charley would go over almost every afternoon and play cards with  Terry.  Felt kind of sorry for Lois having to put up with two teenage boys underfoot for months.  They were such a great family, and great friends to Charley.

Horse story #3.

As you can see by the previous posts, Charley loved horses,  Loved riding them.  The lot next to ours was just pasture - no house.  A girl from the base rented it for her horse, Red.  Charley would pet him, now and then. and we just got used to Red being next door.  One day, the girl wanted to ride Red.  That horse was NOT having any of that.  Ever!  He bucked and pawed and pranced until she was boiling mad. She just could not get him under control or settled down.  It's a wonder he didn't flip her off his back and hurt her a lot.   While this was going on, Charley had been watching the rodeo.  He came out and asked the girl if she would mind him riding the horse and "breaking" it for her.  She was very dubious, considering the fit Red had just pitched!

Charley got on Red, and off they rode to the creek.  Up and down, with Red determined to throw him off.  Up and down, up and down, until Red finally gave up.  Charley brought him back up to the front yard, they brushed him down, and cooled him down (and I wouldn't be surprised if Charley had lectured Red in his ear about behaving).  From that day on, Red was a good natured horse, and the girl could ride him anywhere.  

Where's the Joy in education?

 My heart is so heavy this evening.  Although I am retired from teaching, I keep in close touch with former colleagues and friends from my teaching days.  What I am hearing about education and the way it is being forced to be taught, is breaking my heart.  What I hear about the joy being gone from teaching is breaking my heart.  Seeing wonderful, creative teachers who are so burnt out, they are leaving teaching in droves - that breaks my heart. 

I'd like to blame it all on Covid, but I just can't.  Covid really did a number on our schools.  But the other things that are happening in education have nothing to do with Covid.

My great grandson - 4 - got sick at school the other day, and mom had to go get him.  When he realized he had to go home, he burst into tears - sobbing that he wanted to stay in school.  He cried all over again after their doctor appointment because he thought he'd get to go back to school.  He LOVES school.  My questions - wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if students loved school so much - they'd cry if they had to miss?  I remember one of my students in who was absent from school one day.  Her mom was a teacher in our building, came down to tell me she was sick.  The kicker?  Her daughter was livid that she had to miss school because she had so much fun and joy in my class.  That's a fifth grader - who loved school so much that she was upset that she couldn't be at school.

So my question is ------  where did the joy go that made kids love to be in school, to learn and explore, to be stimulated with great discussions, to grab a stuffed animal and lie on the floor for 30 minutes of glorious quiet reading, to explore science with real equipment and results?  

The joy was taken away little by little by people in power who thought that one person had the right to tell hundreds of teachers (with college teaching degrees)  how to teach, what to teach, when to teach, how long to teach and to read lessons out of a teacher's manual.  The joy left when the person/s in power began implementing so many tests, that actual active teaching dropped by at least 75%.  Tests after tests after tests - it seems like that's the only thing kids do on Friday - take tests.  

The joy left when standardized tests became the marker for an entire year of teaching.  I've had kids sob when they saw what their test grade was on the end of year standardized test.  Great kids who made high grades all year were traumatized when their hard work boiled down to a standardized test score. Kids who were not great test takers but were very successful in class -  saw the effort they made all year become worthless according to THE TEST.   I remember the 60 plus hours weekly, evenings and weekends that I had to put in so my students would be stimulated and love learning.  THEN all that work was compressed into ONE standardized test grade.  

Teachers go to college to learn how to teach.  They KNOW their students.  They KNOW when students need a break.  They KNOW how to make lessons interesting and fun.  They KNOW how to guide a discussion to the point that their students are at the top of Blooms Taxonomy.   But teachers aren't allowed any autonomy anymore.  That joy in learning sailed right out the door with rigid rules and exact time limits for teaching subjects, AND for the hundreds of tests the students had to endure in a school year.  

We have a real chance to change education for the better at the polls in November.  If there are not changes made in Oklahoma, will the last teacher in OK turn out the light in their classroom when they leave the building.   😢

Covid - Go Away!

 Covid - is it real or is it fake!

I am going to announce up front that I am fully vaccinated and intend to get the booster as soon as a Moderna booster shot is available.  

I am just flabbergasted at the theories and conspiracies and ideas etc. that people have come up with about Covid.  I'm not sure we will ever know the absolute truth.  So here goes on what theories or conspiracies I have heard to date. It is not my beliefs listed - it is what I've seen on the news and social media.  

1.  Covid virus was released on purpose from China to the rest of the world.  It was deliberate and planned for a long time.

2.  There were already vaccinations for Covid but were withheld to the public until "enough" people had died.

3.  Covid was released as a way of population control.

4.  When you get the vaccination, you get a microchip that stays in your body and allows "them" to track you where ever you go.

5.  Pres. Trump never really had Covid.  It was fake to make people feel a kinship to him.

6.  How much did the media influence people?  To get the shot, or not get the shot.

7.  The statistics on the number of people getting Covid are false.  They are inflated.

8.  The statistics on the number of people getting the Covid are underreported.

9.  Covid is a manmade virus.

10. Covid came from animals.

11.  There is no real cure for Covid.  You get better or you don't.

12.  There are medicines that cure Covid available, but doctors aren't allowed to use them.

13.  Wearing masks keep others from getting Covid from you.

14.  Wearing masks keep you safe from getting Covid.

15. Masks do absolutely nothing to help curtail the catching of Covid.

16.  Stay away from other people to avoid spreading Covid.

17. Don't worry about being in crowds - it'll give us herd immunity.

18.  Covid is completely and totally fake.  

19.  Vaccinations against Covid are harmful and will cause awful after effects.

20.  If you have gotten Covid and are well again, you have antibodies that will keep you from getting it again.

21.  Vaccinated people can still give others Covid.

22.  Even if you have antibodies, you need a vaccination.

23.  If you have antibodies, you do not need a vaccination.

24.  China released the virus to take down America.

25.  Vaccinations will help keep you safe, and help keep you alive.

Now I am quite sure, that this list doesn't have every conspiracy theory out there.  I guess getting vaccinated doesn't bother me as much as some because I grew up in the polio vaccination age. I took it, as well as my smallpox vaccination, measles, mumps, whooping cough, tetnus etc. etc. shots to keep me safe. My children did too.

I have no answers.  Even if I did, half would believe me, half would call me an idiot and tell me I was stupid and crazy.

All I know for sure is that Covid is NOT fake.  Whatever you want to call this hideous virus that has sickened and killed so many people - it is real and dangerous.  It is very contagious.  It will kill some people.  It will make some people so ill, they must be in ICU.  Some people get it, and are hardly sick at all. Some never get Covid at all.

Will we ever know the truth?  I very much doubt it.  I think we do the best we can with whatever information sounds the best, and hope that works!

Peace and blessings to everyone.  We need it now more than any other time in the history of our world.

 

It's corn season Y'all!

 It's almost corn season here in good old Oklahoma.  So many good and fun memories about corn season - so here goes a post on corn!  But first, I have to tell you how I learned the best way to fix fresh corn on the cob.  I've heard dozens of ideas.  Most of the time, you boil water, put the corn in, and when its done, you eat it.  As I was standing in line to pick up the corn we ordered a few years back, I overheard an older man (80's) telling his friend how they did it.  I went home and tried it - and never looked back.  You shuck the corn all except a thin layer of corn leaves.  Cut off the top and bottom.  Stick them in the microwave for 2 minutes per ear.  I get them out, and since they are boiling hot, I use a hand towel to pull off the remaining leaves and the silk - and they are ready to eat.  Silk comes right off.  It's the best corn I have ever eaten done this way.  No water dripping off the cob and diluting the butter!  

Where I grew up in Kansas, we ate field corn on the cob!  Now field corn is usually grown, dried on the stalk, then harvested for animal feed and cornmeal.  But it is really good eating on the cob if you pick it very young.  So every year for many years, hubby and I would load up in June or July and drive to Kansas to get corn.  With my parents, we'd drive out to a friend's field where we'd pick corn.  Now my dad and hubby would pick and pick and pick.  Mom and I would beg them to stop - tell them over and over that we had enough.  They just kept picking!  When we got home, the real work started.  Dad and hubby would sit out by the garage in the shade, and shuck the corn.  They'd talk the whole time.  Mom and I often said we'd like to be a little mouse by them to hear them yak!  Then they'd bring in big pans full, and mom and I would wash them and dump them in the water to blanch.  Once they were blanched and cooled down, we'd cut off the kernels and freeze bags full.  We were so stinking tired by the end of the corn - we could barely speak!  But we had to have our fill of corn on the cob dripping in butter to eat.  Such a feast.  We ate til we groaned!  Great memory!

One year, my dad grew sweet corn.  It was the last picking, and my brother, Gene, asked him if we could pick it and take it outside of town to Crooked Creek for a picnic. We also fished there many many times.   He said ok, so we got the corn, the pan etc., and bicycled out to the creek. I think I was about 12.  I'm guessing it was about 3 miles.  My brother and his friend got the fire going, water started to boil for the corn when my brother looked up and saw the sky!  It looked like it was going to be a tornado, hurricane, hail, rain and wind all rolled into one.  He threw me on my bike and said to peddle home as fast as I could and not stop at all.  I was so scared, that I flew home like a drag racer.  He and his friend put out the fire, grabbed our stuff and took out on their bikes.  I flew in the driveway just as the first drops of rain came down and they were right behind me.  Within a few minutes, it was pouring like someone was dumping buckets of water on our head!  The next day, I had appendicitis, and went to the hospital to get it taken out.  To this day, my brother swears that my appendicitis was brought on by my fear and peddling so fast to get home!

After I got married, and had our two kids, we went to Colorado on vacation nearly every summer.  Now if my husband sees things on the side of the road, he has to stop and get out to see if its something he might want.  Drives me CUCKCOO!  This time it was a paper sack at the side of the road.  I got out and picked it up.  It was fresh sweet corn - still cool from wherever it had come from!  No one was around, so finder keepers!  When we got to our campground, we had fresh corn for supper that night.

Colorado grows some of the best corn I have ever eaten.  Our favorite was called Peaches and Cream.  We would buy a WHOLE bunch and lay it in the bathtub of the motorhome, and cover it with ice.  Of course, as the ice melted, it would drain into our holding tank!  Pretty clever.  Then we'd blanch, cook and cut it off when we got home AFTER  we ate until we were miserable!.  To this day, I really can't stand canned corn from the store. 

 Hubby and I still cut and freeze lots of packages of corn every summer.  We now get corn called Ringwood Gold. We make a day of it - blanching, cooling, cutting and freezing bags of corn.  Oh so good and my mouth is watering as I type.  Should be ready by next week!  Corn feast coming Y'all!  

You did what on your wedding day?

 A long long time ago, in the US, in Kansas, in 1970,  a young girl turned 19.  The day after she turned 19, she got married.  After she was married, they traveled to Enid Oklahoma, some 200 miles, to start their new life.  

The weird/funny/sad story now begins.

When I got married, it was first part of June.  The wheat was ripening all over Oklahoma and Kansas.  Said husband and his father farmed little plots here and there and put in wheat, then harvested it. His father was retired, so they just planted and harvested plots here and there around Enid.

Well, said Kansas girl did not quite get how important wheat is to farmers in Oklahoma and/or Kansas and/or all through the midwest!  I wasn't completely clueless because my daddy, who taught HS,  did wheat harvesting for a friend in the summer.  We loved having daddy come home, covered in wheat dirt and tell us to look in his shirt pocket - a pocket that wiggled.  Many times there was a bunny there, that was orphaned.  Oh the fun we had with those bunnies.  But I digress from my original story.

My husband and I got married at 1 in the afternoon.  We were able to leave the reception in Fowler, Kansas around 3 and start for Oklahoma.  Stopped around Ashland, Kansas to wipe off the shaving cream all over the lights and windshield so we could see better. (a funny note - our friends had put a peace sign on our car windows with shaving cream.  My aunt saw it and blew her stack, and wiped it off.  She thought it was a dirty/evil sign)  

Pulled into his parents around 6 ish.  He took me into the house, because some how, someway, his parents beat us home although we left way before them.  His dad, I might add, drove like a bat out of hell!

My brand new husband took me into the house where his mom was, and disappeared.  I talked to his mom a bit, then went into his bedroom because I was wondering what happened to him.  He was nowhere to be found.  I started crying!  It had been a LONG, hot day!  I was exhausted, hungry and scared to death.  My husband had already abandoned me - or so I thought!

His mom came into the bedroom, saw me crying, and went ballistic on her son - aka my new husband.  She stomped to the door, threw it open, and stomped onto the front porch.  She bellowed at my husband, and I honestly think you could have heard her 30 miles away.  She lit into him like a firecracker.  Chewed him up one side and down the other - how dare he leave his brand new wife in the house without a word to where he was going and what he was doing.  He was - WORKING ON THE COMBINE SO THEY COULD TAKE A SAMPLE OF WHEAT!

He came into the house, like a scared puppy, with his head held low.  Meekly apologized and said - Dad and I were just going to cut a sample of wheat to see if we could start cutting tomorrow.  Calmed me down and went BACK OUTSIDE to finish on the combine.  They drove the combine to a wheat field, took the sample, took it to the elevator to test the moisture and came back.

By 9, I was starving, and tired, and cranky, and wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into.  He took me to a Mexican restaurant and assured me the food wasn't hot.  Taco Grande!  I swear, the heat in that food came flying out and slapped me across the head.  So boo boo number 2.  I was ready to tell him to take me home to Kansas.

We finally finished eating - he got me something not so hot - and went to our home - an OLD 55 by 8 trailer house.  I walked in, and almost threw up.  Seems said new husband and his friend had batched there for a couple of weeks.  Beer cans, cigarette butts, trash all over the trailer.  And I do mean all OVER!

Luckily, I had put fresh sheets on the bed a few weeks before that when he came and got me from college in Alva.

We went to bed because I was exhausted, without picking up a single thing of trash.  Next morning, he went to cut wheat and I started shoveling out the trailer.  My next door neighbor saw me and started laughing.  She asked me if it was hideous inside because Charley and friend had been batching there.  I told her yes, and continued to shovel out the debris.  Worked all day long to clean out that pit and the mess!

So started my new life in Enid, OK.  It was a really good thing I loved this man, because if I'd had my own car, I would have headed back to Kansas as fast as the law allowed.

Here we are 51 years later.  He's in a wheelchair from a car accident or right now, he would be in a combine somewhere around here, cutting wheat!

A Day in The Life of a Retired Person with ADHD

 Why is that blasted phone ringing over and over and over?  I got up to see why it was ringing.  Realized it was himself needing some attention.  I also remembered that I had shut off the sound on my cell phone YESTERDAY at the doctor's office so he was calling on the landline! 

I stagger into his room, fix him up medically, and start to stagger back to my bedroom.  Himself hollered, I went back.  Now I'm cranky and out of sorts.

Bathroom next.  Brushed teeth but I always forget and flush the toilet before brushing my teeth.  I have a stream of water the size of a pencil lead at the sink, while the toilet fills back up.  Halfway through, I hear another holler.   I try yelling with a mouthful of toothpaste, and nearly choked myself.  Got cleaned up, and went BACK to himself.  Don't even remember what he wanted.

Now I get my clothes on because Sophie won't come back in the house, and himself can't get on the lawn without sinking in his wheelchair to China.  Dog in, no sinking accomplished.

I go to the kitchen, and realize that the couch cover is still draped all over the bar stools because my dryer bit the dust.  Take it, wad it up in a ball and put it on the end of the couch.  Notice lots of dirt on the floor.

In the rec room, I see that I need to put some stuff in the back bedroom - known as a giant closet.  So I clean off the top of the DOA dryer, and take it to the back bedroom.  Look at the bedroom, that by now, I can hardly get into.  I think about 2 seconds about rearranging and thought NO WAY.  

Realize I need to pack a couple items to send back to Amazon.  Go to rec room, find it online, fill out the paper work to get it ready to send.  The confirmation is sent to my phone.  Now if I can just remember where I put my phone.  No packing needed Amazon says, but since we break down all boxes to recycle, I don't have one big enough for the stuff I'm sending back.  Out to the garage.  Back in.  Tape up a box so at least himself can carry the stuff into the UPS store.  See the things I need to send to my granddaughters still  on the kitchen counter.  Back to the garage to get another box.  Make sure no spiders are in it.  Back inside, I put the items in the box and tape it really good.  Got a label out of my desk drawer, put it on, put my return address on and think about something I need to do in him self's bedroom.  Go in, see a bowl that belongs in the kitchen, decide to take it to the kitchen.  Start out the door, realize his bed needs straightening because it looks like a hurricane hit.  Straighten it out, realize the top of the dresser needs straightening, and I do that.  Pick up the bowl to go to the kitchen and decide I need to use the restroom.  Set down the bowl in the bathroom.

Finish there and start back to the kitchen, and realize the bathmat has slid to the floor.  Picked it up, put it back on the side of the tub, pick up the bowl and head for the kitchen.  

Realize I need to get the clothes out of the washer and hang them outside because said dryer is DOA.  Back to the kitchen to scrounge clothespins because we use them to close the chip bags.  Back to the rec room, get him self's jeans and journey outside.  It is COLD.  It is WINDY.  But I got them hung up.

Get a heavy shirt from the laundry basket and hang it in the hallway where I rigged up a temporary rope clothes line.  Get that hung up.

Start another load of  laundry.  Realize I haven't finished addressing the package to my granddaughters.  I get the address card out of my roll a deck, and then go to the kitchen and put on the right address.  Back to the rec room, put address card back in my roll a deck.  See the kitchen floor, - it is a mess.  I sweep it up, get the dirt in a dustpan, finally shove the bar stools back to the counter, put all the boxes together for himself to take to the post office or UPS.  

By this time, the next laundry is done.  I scrounge heavy hangers from 3 closets, and hang up the heavy shirts on them.  Take them outside and hang the hanger on the clothesline, and clip it with a clothespin.  Think that I need to call himself and tell him to get a new roll of rope and a package of clothespins in case this happens again.  Think about going and digging through our camping stuff and get another rope and clothes pins out of the van.  Nope - too much work.

Came inside, decide to hang the rest of the stuff outside after all.  Find clothespins, hang up the clothes and come inside.  Notice that my throw rug by the backdoor is full of dead grass.  Take it outside, shake it good.  Notice my rec room floor is full of dead grass and who knows what.  Try to find  the  broom - but its not where it should be.  Walk to the kitchen - find it there.

Sweep the rec room, and take the dirty clothes basket back to himself's bedroom.  Put the broom up, and decide to eat a snack and rest.  Nothing sounds good.  I eat some Easter Eggs like whoppers, drink some tea and try to figure out what to do next.  Oh yes, my bedroom.  Its a mess  Don't care one bit.  Just leave it. 

All this in less than 2 hours.  I need a vacation on a beach.  Nice warm sunshine.  Adult beverage in my hand.  Good snacks that I DON'T HAVE TO MAKE.  Wave sounds.  Birds singing.  

Not in the cards!  More work.  More dishes. More food to cook. GRRRRR 

I LEFT MY KIDS IN WAUKOMIS

 This is the sad tale of when my MOM badge got crushed, annihilated, ran over, and shredded.  Now before true confessions, I have to qualify this post.

Waukomis - a tiny little town about 7 miles from where we lived.  TINY.  As you turn into the town, they have a Quick Shop , and just across from it used to be a Jeep Repair shop and not much else.  Maybe 400 people live there.

So now that you can picture this town, I must add - our Jeep Wagoneer loved money!  It gulped it down in huge amounts by breaking something ALL THE TIME.  So my jeep was in the fix it place AGAIN in Waukomis.  My parents had come to visit us in Enid, and then were going to Midwest City (near OKC) to help my sister fix up her house to sell.  My Jeep was fixed (so they told me) so dad said they'd drop me off to pick up the money gulping jeep on their way to OKC.  My kids were 8 and 9 at the time.  They had money that was burning a hole in their pocket.  So they asked if they could go to the quick shop after we got dropped off in Waukomis.  I said yes, and good grief - it was like Christmas and Halloween all rolled into one.  All by themselves they would go across a tiny street to the Quick Shop to spend their money.

OK.  Now that we have established all that nonsense - here's the setting.  My dad had a Suburban that he had crammed full of stuff to help fix up my sister's house.  Literally - lumber, all his tools, saw, etc.  There was one tiny space in the second seat that I sat in, and the kids got in the very back of the Suburban in a little space that dad made for them.

So we go to Waukomis, the Jeep place, the exciting Quick Shop.  My kids bailed out of that car like their clothes were on fire.  They shot across the street to the Quick Shop to spend their money on junk food.  I hugged my parents goodbye, and sent them on the way.  

Now I'm sad because they are leaving, I am agitated that more money will be gulped down by this Jeep Wagoneer, and also sad that my sister was getting a divorce and selling her house.  I went in and said hi to Jim - who was the repairman - who we know - who was a BIG guy - who knew Charley - who was a big Teddy Bear.  Paid for THE JEEP again, and got in it to go home - thinking the entire time - this blank blank thing had better not break again.  So I pulled onto the highway, and started back home.  Remember - 7 miles back to Enid.  About 2 miles out of Waukomis, I suddenly had this horrifying feeling that I was forgetting something.  It hit me like a ton of bricks that my children were still back in Waukomis.

I literally screamed hysterically, drove full speed across the median to the other lane (I'm shocked I didn't hit anything) and still screaming, hysterical, shoved the gas pedal to the floor.  I hit 100 mph in seconds and I didn't slow down until I turned into Waukomis.  

Now I knew if I was hysterical, the kids would be too.  I straightened my butt up, wiped my face and turned into the repair shop.  Here came my kids running out, with Jim right behind them.  He grinned at me and I KNEW he knew!  But I polished my mom badge up, told the kids that I just took the Jeep for a test ride to be sure it was fixed.  Asked them what all they got at the store.  Jim said they came into the shop and I wasn't there.  He said, "Did your mom forget you?"  April was being brave for her brother but they were both scared.  So Jim just laughed and said, I'll call your dad at the police station.  Jim said he'd call the PD again and let Charley know I had the kids.  

I made it home.  I don't know how!  But I made it home with my precious cargo.  When we got there, my kids ran off to play, and I went into the bedroom, shut the door and proceeded to have a complete and total mom meltdown.  I cried so much, I threw up.  Charley came by, and calmed me down and nothing more was said until ..........  they were older.  I think High School.  They asked me about the time I had "left them in Waukomis" and what that was all about.  I confessed.  I told them the whole horrible story.  

The ending to this story is that for the rest of my life, I have been harassed unmercifully about leaving my kids in Waukomis.  There is not a single family gathering at which this horrific mom failure is not brought out and paraded around.  Over and over and over.  Much laughing ensues again and again and again!

My 16 year old granddaughter texted me the other day.  She is practicing driving alone to a little town 7 miles away after school.  She goes alone, stops at a convenience store and buys goodies for her siblings.  Her last line?????? " But I never left anyone at the store, Mimi!" Her dad put her up to that without a doubt.

So my mom badge was tarnished badly, but at least it gives my kids AND grandkids something to pop off to me when we meet - "well, at least we didn't leave our kids in Waukomis."