A Mouse, A Mirror, and A Moral

The Mouse

We had a mouse in the house.  Kent called me into the bathroom one night and said, "Get a broom, there's a mouse in here."  I got the broom.  The mouse was hiding in the towels on the rack over the toilet.  He had poked his head out and he and Kent each gave the other a fright.  

With broom in hand, Kent began to take off one layer of towels at a time, the mouse jumped off and onto the floor, and Kent was after him with the broom.  Mr. Mouse skittled across the room, through the door, and immediately scooted under the linen closet door.  

We couldn't find him in there.

So, I set a trap there and another one in the bathroom.  Days went by, and there was no mouse in the trap; however, I started seeing mouse evidence in the kitchen.  So, I set more traps.  I bought different traps.  Mr. Mouse was very clever and eluded all attempts to capture him.  Mr. Mouse was making me mad.

This morning though, even before my 5:30 alarm went off, I heard noises from the bathroom.  Then Kent came out carrying Mr. Mouse by the tail.  "I got the mouse," Kent said triumphantly.  "He was back in the towels."  But then he said, "I broke the mirror that is in the bathroom."

The Mirror

The mirror has a story to it.  It was in my Grandma Opal's house.  The house that is falling down now.  I have always loved that mirror, and one day (years ago) I asked Uncle Jim if I could have it.  He said, "Yes."

It is old and foggy, and the frame is cracked in a few places, but I love it.  I hadn't hung it, because I don't really have a good place to hang it, but I planned to some day.

I was really sad, but I didn't tell Kent, because I didn't want to make him feel bad.  It's just a thing, even though it is a precious thing to me.

When I looked at it though, it wasn't any more broken or cracked than it had been, the mirror just came out of the frame.  It can be repaired.  It just needs to be secured.  After I do that, I will hang it.

The Moral

There is a moral to this story.  I have been thinking a lot about relationships lately.  There are some relationships near to me that are broken right now.  It has made me very sad.  I would really like to see them restored.  I don't know if it can or will happen, but the mirror gives me hope.  The mirror can be fixed.  With God's wisdom and grace, the relationships can be healed.  

Lord, haste the day, when there will be no more broken mirrors or relationships.

Oliver M. Chappell

 Oliver M. Chappell

Toliver Chappell and Mary Mink’s boy

Born in 1872/3 date unknown

Died aged 11 years old

Cause and date unknown

Records lost in courthouse fire

He was Hattie Chappell Simon's brother 

In 1880 he was eight and Hattie was six

(Amazing how much Peter Harding looks like him.)

Letter from Grandpa Marion to Grandma Opal ( shared with me from Uncle Jim)

 

(From Jim to me on May 3, 2018)  Following is a letter Marion wrote to Opal in Oct 1929. It is not the complete letter but only three pages of it.  Opal would have just turned 19 and Marion was 24.  He was writing from Flint Michigan.  You must remember Marion only had a fifth grade education if that much so I made a few corrections to spelling and grammar.  From the way the letter was going Opal may have censored the last page and made sure it did not get saved.  Pure speculation on my part. We can thank Ty for locating this. He was the finder of the treasure.

Here it is:

Oct. 28th 1929

Miss Opal Simon,

My dearest loving little girl, I will write you a few lines tonight. How are you and what are you doing to pass the time off?  I wonder if you are thinking of your old lonesome boy tonight and wishing you could be with him to cheer him up.  Baby, life sure seems dull sometimes, if I didn’t have you to think about I don’t know what I would do but I know we will be together sometimes and so it makes me glad about it.  Because I can have you for always, Baby girl, isn’t that nice for us to be together for always and for me to love you for all time.  It just seems so good honey I can hardly stand to wait for I want you so bad.  Oh! Opal darling I know we will always be happy together.  For I could be happy with you anywhere on earth and I know you would always love me and we wouldn’t be jealous at one another because we wouldn’t do anything to be jealous over.  Opal darling don’t you ever doubt me for I will always be true to you, because I know I love you and I don’t want other women.  I would rather kiss you than any girl I’ve ever known and Opal darling I know just how you are.  I know it would be lots nicer if I had lots of money and I could give you anything you wanted.  But Baby girl I haven’t got it. I can only give you my love but sweetheart I can work for you and we can get by.  Opal sweetheart as much as I love you I would give you up if you could marry some man with lots of money and you could be happy with him.  But it sure would be a pain for me to have to give you up.

The other day we were trying to remember an old riddle that
G'ma Opal used to tell.  I never could remember how it went,
so I googled it.

I think G'ma changed the name from Twitchett to something else...
but I can't remember what it was.

So,...here's the riddle.  Guess it, if you can.

Old mother Twitchett has but one eye,
And a long tail which she can let fly,
And every time she goes over a gap,
She leaves a bit of her tail in a trap.

Life became more complicated this year in a good way.  Adding three
new babies to the mix has kept us all hopping, especially since the
youngest of the three has CF and has had to be hospitalized several
times.

It has been hard to pay enough attention to the details to find things
to write about.  But, the fog is beginning to thin a bit for me, and there
are sparkles of sunshine popping through again.  If that doesn't make
sense to you, not to worry.  I just said it because I like the way it
sounds.

A week or so ago, Bill and family were here working on their new
place and the grandies were all running in and out (despite the cold and
wet weather).  I had a plate on the counter that had biscuits leftover from
breakfast and a piece of bacon or two.  Every few seconds, one of the
grandies would say, "Granma, can I have a biscuit?"  Then they would
grab one and run out.  I was reminded of the days when my own boys
would go down to G'ma Opal's, walk in the front door, say hi to G'ma,
go into the kitchen, open the microwave, and take out a biscuit or two
and a piece of bacon or hog jowl.  Then as they munched on that, they
would go out the back door and take off to do whatever was in their
devious little mind at the time.

It has been a stormy and balmy February day today.  This evening was
drippy and foggy.  Kathleen, Colyn, Peeta, and Judah spent the afternoon
with me, and I took them home after dinner.  When Kathleen stepped out
of the car, she paused to listen, and then said, "Granma, you know what is
my favorite night-time sound?  It is the frogs."

The peepers were going at it hammer and tong.  Lovely, lovely, February
when the peepers are peeping.  A nice promise of springtime to come.

And, that wasn't the only sign today of the coming of spring.  I heard and then
saw a flock of geese heading north.  Oh yes, geese, go to those frozen spots
in Canada and remind them that Spring is on its way.

The other day Uncle Jim sent me the following entry from an old blog
of his:

Who would have ever thunk it? Mizzou Tigers 9th in the nation!! 

The hated and despised Colorado 5th down "champs" are next on 

our agenda. The game will not be played at the zou...not good.

First thing Mom said the morning after her birthday party was 

" I had quite a day yesterday" A day unlike most of us will ever 

see in our life here on earth. My daughter in law really outdid 

herself. It was a wonderful party. Lots of family, friends, and 

neighbors were there. Everything was perfect. The old girl held 

up pretty well even though she was a little overwhelmed by all the 

attention. I'm hoping by today that she will have caught up on her 

rest somewhat.

I can only imagine what is like to be starting the 98th year of life.

Well, I can see the light in her kitchen window, it's time to see if she 

is okay.

It's frosty this morning, 37 degrees. It was 36.9 yesterday.

'Nuff said.

This was written Oct 30 2007 in a blog that I started in ’06 and never 

stayed with.

I had forgotten all about writing about this.

It does bring back good memories for me. J

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

This would have been the day after the G'ma Opal's 97th birthday party. 

Mom didn't want to wait until G'ma Opal turned 100.  I remember mom

said, "I might not be there."  And she wouldn't have been.

I cannot believe that mom has been gone for 10 years this August.  G'ma Opal

once told me that she had missed her mother every day of her life since her

mother had died, and I can honestly say the same about my mother.  I miss
G'ma Opal too, so very much.

From Fernnook of old.   Uncle Jimmy, the last on the left, sent me
this today.

G'ma Opal and her chicks.  I miss her, truly I do.

I wanted to use this picture, because it shows G'ma Opal in a dress,
and the story I want to tell is about G'ma Opal and a dress.  But, when
I looked closer at the picture, I had to giggle.  She does have on a
dress, but she also has on sweat pants. 

The Dress Story happened many, many years ago in Fernnook.
G'ma Opal wasn't a grandma yet; she was just a mommy.  She took
one or two of her little boys by the hand and they all walked down
Over The Hill to The Creek.  They went fishing and caught some
fish for dinner.  On the way home it started to rain.  That was a
big problem.  G'ma was wearing a rayon dress, and if you know
much about material, you know that rayon shrinks when it gets
wet.  It not only shrinks, it really shrinks!

Her dress was down past her knees when she started Up the Hill, but
it was far above her knees when she finally reached home.

A few days ago, in retelling this story to Debby (my SIL), Debby told
me her own rayon story.  She was coming home from school and had
on a rayon dress.  It started raining.  The problem was that this was in
the days of shorter dresses.  Her dress started off somewhere above her
knees and ended....too high to explain in polite company.  Her friend
was watching from the window of her home as Debby walked as fast
as possible toward her own home.  She said that she and her family got
quite a chuckle over Debby and the Rayon Dress.

Old Days Up and Down the Gravel

Excerpt from a letter written by G'ma Opal to Kent, Joel, and me on
Sat. Oct. 19, 1985  1:30 P.M.

(She had just gotten back from a visit to South Carolina where we were
living at the time.  I will put ellipsis to indicate the parts that I am not copying.
I did add some capital letters and periods and altered the spelling in a few
places.)

How are my youngun's? ....We got back home to my house just about this time 
one week ago today.  Everything was O.K. even the cats had been fed regularly.
The drive was full of cars and trucks.  Bill & Wanda with his new truck.  John
& Lucille with their truck.  Jim's car and my old car so when we pulled in we
had a full house.

I made the trip back fine but woke up Monday morning with a stiff neck with
lots of pain.  I stayed on the bed most of the day as it hurt too bad to move.  But
I got better as the week went by.  I'm O.K. now except I still can't turn my 
head to the left.  I guess I just looked at the beautiful mountains too much.  Ha Ha.

We came through the mountains on the Blue Ridge Skyway.  Boy was it "breath-
takingly" beautiful.  Don't know any news only Frank Simon had to have heart
surgery.  He had a double by pass.  The dr's say he is doing fine.  Lucille went back 
with Jim last week. She is still up there.  Frank has to have his momie take care
of him.  Ha.

And our St. Louis Cards won now tonite.  They are starting the World Series "whoopie."

"Well," here it is 3 days later.  You've heard of "slow."  That's me.  The Cards have
already won 2 games.  So its just a matter of time till they are World Champions.

....I want to thank you for my nice visit at your house.

If you were not so "far" away it would be better but the good Lord has been good
to us.

We can be together in our mind and hearts.

So you take care of each other and if the Lord wills I'll see you in December.

May God bless and keep you all the days of  your life.

Lots of love
Opal Faye Grandma-

(P.S.) I got your card
Thank you.
  Thank you-
I still lack 4 days being 3/4 of a century.

What a wonderful Grandma she was.  I so enjoyed my years, later on, of living
down the gravel from her.  I would dearly love to drop in to her place for a game
of cards tonight.

It is not possible to sum up on one page the life of
Opal Fleetwood who lived 98 years, 4 months, and 6 days.
She was born Hattie Opal Faye Simon on October 26, 1910
and lived a very full and fruitful life. She Married
Marion Fleetwood in 1929 and raised five children:
Paul (Bob) Fleetwood, Billy Fleetwood, Kenneth Fleetwood,
Jenny (Fleetwood) Starkey, and Jimmy Fleetwood. She had
12 grandchildren, 23 great grandchildren, and
5 great great grandchildren.

Opal loved her family and extended family and enjoyed dining,
visiting, and playing together. She loved to garden, fish, and
playing card games. High Five was her all time favorite game.
She loved to talk about the old days with her mom and dad and
brothers and sisters when they lived in Fern Nook on the farm
by the Little Black River. She liked to remember the trips she
went on to Hawaii, Nova Scotia, Colorado, New Mexico, and
Lake of the Ozarks where the fishing was good but fun with
daughter's-in-law Shirley, Wanda, and Ann was even better.

The "Little General" as she was affectionately known had an
amazing memory right up until she died. She didn't need a
calendar to remember her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids
birthdays because the dates were all in her head. Just recently
she repeated the entire preamble to the constitution which she
had learned in Grade school.

She always had a birthday card with a dollar in it for her grandkids:
Mike, Tandy, Terry, Joseph, Sandy, Kelly, Laurie, Ricky, Kenneth,
Becky, Scott, and Stacy. She always wrote in the card, "Remember
Old Granny loves you".

Her favorite work was gardening. She loved and tended every
little shoot and fought the bugs like a warrior. Oh! How she
(and the whole family) loved her fresh vegetables. She had a
green thumb, and her house was always full of plants and flowers.

Opal was a believing Christian. She kept her well worn Bible next
to her on the couch and read from it daily. She trusted the Lord
for eternal life and spoke gratefully of it shortly before she died.
She will be missed terribly.

Praise the Lord for giving her to us all for such a long time.

Wasps have been a large part of Fernnook this past week. I
was on the phone with my father-in-law when I saw a poor wasp
trying to fly across the living room. Poor thing, he was having
a hard time. Somehow (I sure don't know how) he had picked up
a huge dust bunny and it was trailing down from him. I guess
the weight of it kept him from being able to zip along. He
couldn't get more than 18 or so inches off the floor. As I caught
my breath from laughing, my dear father-in-law wondered why we
had a wasp in the house in February anyway. I don't know. We
have a lot of wasps that come in Billy's bedroom, especially on
warm winter days. I guess they have nests between the walls or
something.

Then G'ma was getting dressed a few days ago and a wasp was inside
her clothes as she was pulling them on. It stung her, according to
her, several times. She looked around the bathroom and all she
could find that looked mediciny was some vapor rub. She put that
on the stings and she had no swelling or pain. Now we know. Vapor
Rub for wasp stings. Who would have thunk?

Hattie and I went to sit with G'ma last night. She wasn't feeling
very well when we got there, so we just sat quietly and chatted
about things. After a bit she was telling me some stories that
included convoluted connections of various relatives. I was trying
to find my way through the maze, but I think I got a little lost.
But--the thing that was so interesting to me last night was a new
recipe she came up with. She loves hominy, but, having no teeth,
it is hard to eat. She can swallow it whole, but the flavor is lost
when you do that. So, she had a brainwave. She fried some bacon and
then dumped a can of hominy, juice and all in the pan with the bacon
and grease. She added a tich of salt. Then she transferred the whole
panful (bacon, grease, and hominy) into a food processor and made a
mush out of it. The mush ended up being quite thick. She took the
mush and made patties out of it and fried them in more bacon grease.

What can I say. They were delicious. She ate one and Aunt Jenny ate
one and she had enough mush left over to fry up some for her breakfast
this morning.

Now that it brilliant. I tasted the mush. It did taste like hominy.
It was delicious, if you like hominy that is.

Day 11 and the electricity was turned on. It was nice to
be able to play the piano after dark and to run the dishwasher.
The past 11 days haven't been too bad though. The electric
company had a lot of lines to fix.

Perhaps you have wondered how G'ma Opal (98) did through the 11
days of outage. She did just fine. She probably handled it as
well or better than anyone else. She wouldn't even leave her
warm, dark cave until day number 9. Then she went to Dad's house
and took a bath, and then she traipsed off to town for a haircut and
some grocery shopping.

Uncle Jim is going to have plenty to keep him busy through the
next few months. I've included a few pics of their yards and
pole.

She's 98, but who's counting?














The Cherry Cobbler complete with three layers of crust.














G'ma and Cousin Mary lost. Dad and Jenn won. High Five of course.














A little jig to end the evening.
Happy Birthday Grandma Opal!

Kent and I walked down to G'ma's Sunday afternoon. Uncle Jim
was outside working in The Park. We wandered around in The
Park for awhile and then he showed me the whole set-up for
his outside shower. I hadn't really had a chance to see the
whole thing put together yet.

After sitting with G'ma for awhile she wanted to play cards.
Now that was a surprise. There were only three of us, so we
played Rummy. Kent beat us. But the funny thing was that I
kept saying, "Humpf" every time someone would lay down a card.
I think it was getting a little irritating and soon Kent began
saying it and then Grandma. She would lay her card down and
then pick it up again and say "Humpf" and when she did her little
head would bob up and down and her curls would shake and then we
would all giggle. Before leaving we got into a circle and hugged
each other and humpfed as loud as we could.

At least we finally got settled her meal for her birthday (98) which
is coming up this weekend. It will be Pork Roast, Mashed Potatoes,
either Sweet Potatoes or Squash (maybe as a casserole) and Cherry
Cobbler (with lots of crust). I'm sure I'll add a few more things,
but that gives me something to start with.

Between G'ma Opal's illness and then peaches (from a road trip
with Dad to Campbell) and grapes (from Cousin Mary's yard) to
work up, and between starting school and the normal workings
of the home and business it has been a good thing to take a
time of rest from the computer.

But today Kent and I walked down to see G'ma and had a lovely
meander down the gravel. This morning Sister Becky and her
family were visiting her and G'ma said, "I wonder if I'll get
to play cards before I die." Well, they did play two games of
High Five with her and they were both nail biters. G'ma won
one of them.

While we were visiting Aunt Jenny came in and so we decided that
where there are four people there should be a game of High Five.
Jenny and I creamed Kent and G'ma the first game, and then they
came back and beat us the second. So all in all G'ma had a lovely
day!

When we were talking about the rubber game she said, "We'll let
the rain settle it for us." If you live on a gravel road that is
a profound statement.

Yesterday I walked down to G'ma Opal's house for a good,
long visit. We started out in the screened in porch, which
is where I found her when I arrived. We sat down and she
read some funnies to me from some old magazines. They were
funny sayings by kids that were sent in by their parents
or grandparents. The one I remember the most is the little
girl who looked at herself in the mirror after losing 7 teeth
and said, "My mouth is bald." G'ma can relate to that.

After a while we wandered out into the yard because Uncle Jim
came out and had the Cardinal game on the radio. By this time
Kent had wandered down the road also and so we were a cozy
foursome sitting in the shade on a hot and humid day.

G'ma's feet started to swell from sitting in the lawnchair, so
she and I went into the living room where she could sit in her
recliner for a bit and rest her feet. Finally I said I needed
to go, and she said, "But you haven't eaten yet."

We headed to the kitchen where there was a pot of beans and
a pan of meatloaf. After adding a piece of bread and a glass
of milk, I made a pretty good meal. Hattie, who was popping
in and out all day, had a big bowl of beans as well. Kent
then came in and ate several helpings.

Then Hattie proposed a game of High Five...it was Kent and Hattie
against G'ma and me. We (G. Opal and I) won. We took the last
bid and went out at 53, and, even though Kent and Hattie actually
ended up at 54, we won because G'ma had taken the bid. Jim says
you can't make more than 52 in the game. That is new to me, but
even with his reckoning, it would be 52 to 52 and we still won
because we took the last bid.

I only made one really stupid play. Clubs was trump and Kent led
off with the Q. of spades. I was holding the five of spades. For
some reason I was thinking spades was trump and the five was the
last trump I had, so I plunked it right down. Hattie then countered
with the Ace of clubs. So she caught my five when I didn't even need
to play it. That's why my 97 year old G'ma doesn't prefer me as a
partner. I am easily distracted.

Last week was Kent's birthday. Since we were all busy on Tuesday,
which was the actual date of his birthday, we put off having his
birthday dinner until Thursday.

When I asked him (I don't know why I did, I know what he wants)
what he wanted for his dinner he said, "Quiche and pie, please."

So I planned on making Asparagus Quiche, Quiche Lorraine, salads,
side dishes, and both an Apple and a Peach Pie.

We were at G'ma Opal's house the Sunday before and we invited her
to the birthday bash. She offered to make the Apple Pie because
she was planning on baking one that week anyway.

So on Tuesday I got this phone call. "Laurie, this is your
Grandma. I thought that we were having the dinner today since
it IS Kent's birthday and I already baked his Apple Pie. You
better come get it so it doesn't go bad."

So I sent Billy to get it and it was delicious.

Then on Thursday she called and offered to make a Banana Pie.
We said, "Yes!"

So, Kent got two Quiches and three Pies for his Birthday. Spoiled,
ain't he?

Been gone. Up to The Big City. Off to ballgames.

But in between all the goings and doings we snuck down
to G'ma Opal's house on Sunday and played a game or two
of High Five. What Grandma said while we were playing
will only resonate with those who are Fern Nook Ex-pats
or Fern Nook Wannabees.

Kent and Dad were partners and G'ma and I were partners.
It was G'ma's turn to bid and Kent (the dealer) came after
her. That was when she said, "If I bid 9, he'll bid 10.
If I bid 10, we'll go set."

So, she bid 10, and we went set.

I dropped by G'ma's house yesterday afternoon for an hour
or so. She was playing Sol and had already lost, so she was
cheating. She told me she'd played several evenings last
week for 3 or 4 games and lost everyone. Then a day or so
ago she played one game and won and got up from the table
and left...she knows when to fold 'em.

She is tickled pink because she had Uncle Jim pick her up
a new floor lamp in town this past weekend. It is quite bright
and makes it much easier for her to read and do crossword
puzzles.

Saturday night when she went to bed she pulled on her favorite
jammies and the elastic in the pants was totally shot. She
pulled them off and put on another pair, but the next morning
when she woke up she found a piece of good elastic and decided
to mend her jammie pants. The pants were a little short in the
waist and she decided to extend that as well. So she went to
look through her scraps and found the pieces that she had cut
off from the pants when she first bought them. Being a Fleetwood
she has to hem everything she buys. (But who, besides G'ma Opal,
would ever save the cut off part from the bottom of the pants
legs?)

Anyhow, she laid out the two leg bottoms and they didn't quite
make it all the way around the waist, so she added a few inches
of a different material. She used her new lamp to pin it all
together and then her machine cooperated and let her sew everything
together.

She is just as happy as a clam with her mending.

As she said yesterday, "Counting from when I was conceived I am
going on 99 and I can still bathe myself and take care of myself.
And I can fix my own jammies!" Well I admit, I paraphrased a
little, but she said something like that.

A few days ago Dad and Billy were down at G'ma Opal's
house fixing her toilet. She was hanging around, probably
giving advise...because she will be cold in the ground
before she stops giving advise and opinions on things.

After they finished, she asked how much she owed them,
as if they would charge the 97 year old matriarch of the
family for an odd job like that.

She answered her own question with this, "Well, just
charge it to the ground and let the rain settle it."

Where does she come up with all her sayings?

Ah, the beauty of good old Ozarkian stock.