THINKING ABOUT IMPORTANT DATES IN HISTORY

HAD SOME TIME ON OUR  HANDS TODAY,  and we got to talking about what might have happened on September 10, in just any old year.  Lots of things did in different years.   I know this because I looked it up on the Web.   There was the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a fine man;  the assassination  of Robert Kennedy, one of my beloved Kennedys; and the riots at the Democratic National convention to choose a candidate to run for president against Richard Nixon.  The convention was held in Chicago and Mayor Daily called out 7500 National Guard troops to quell the rioters outside the convention.  (sometime my group had to be quelled inside the hall but they managed to do that without the National Guard)  All those things happened on a September 10. 

Well, another fine thing happened, a sweet nun riding on a street car felt she heard the voice of God telling her she needed to leave the comfort of the convent and spend the rest of her life helping the poor.  That nun took the name  Mother Teresa later.  What a fine thing to think about on a September 10.

Ray Kroc sold the first Big Mac for forty nine cents and today its still on the menu with a bit more big money involved.  The first ATM machine opened in Philadelphia and 911 became a United States wide number to call for emergency help.

The first successful heart transplant was done (no one mentioned how many failed) and that has become almost simple.  That is if it happens to someone else.

The term burning the bra became everyday thanks to the Women's Liberation Movement, later called Women's Lib.

All of those things happened on a September 10.

Then we talked about dates some more and I said "Let's just suppose we pick a year, any year and see what happened on September 10 that particular year." Then my mate of 60 years said "Okay, lets just randomly pick 1968."   (we do fun things like this all the time)

Of course I found out the usual ----gas sold for thirty four cents a gallon; the average family income was $7,950.00; the minimum wage was $1.60 per hour;  the see through blouse to be worn without a bra,  made a brief appearance but women were still smart enough to reject it as a true fashion statement.

The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were the hot singing groups of the day.  Even today I still prefer the Beatles over any group I have heard  sing outside the Gaither Homecoming Group.  Top movie of the day was The Graduate and it introduced us to  Dustin Hoffman, not as good then as in Rainman, but he matured.

I found out that if we had started saving a penny a day in a penny bank, then today we would have a $146.09. 

WOW  we then found out that James William Marshall, Jr., better known as Jimbo was born at 9:35 September 10, 1968.  Happy Birthday Son.   Love from Mom and Dad

AUNT MILDRED'S SHOVEL

She was the only truly interesting person in our family.  We loved her.  She was independent in a day when that was unknown in most women and especially in Oklahoma Farm Women.  She was smart, she was not afraid and she loved with all her being the man who became our Uncle Earl.  After his death is when I think I really began to know her or it may have been when our mother was dying from cancer.  She seemed to be the strong one we could lean on.  I still miss her to this day.

When she passed away, we went back to Mangum, Okla home to lay her to rest beside her true love.
I never knew her to step foot in a Church building except for the couple of times she went with us when visiting in Texas but truthfully that was only to appease our Mother.  But she clothed and fed the poor and watched after her neighbor and did all the good things that a Christian should do.  She just preferred to do them her way.

After the burial we went back to the house and began to load her belongins to bring them back to Texas.  All of our kids were there and since we were the only heirs, there was no hesitation in dividing things even then.  It wasn't like vultures, it was something that had to be done.  We would later make other trips to Mangum to finish up the estate.

One item that we brought back was a "grain" shovel.  Shiny aluminum, sort of a short handle and not needed or really wanted by any of us.  But for some reason and some way Mate and I ended up with the shiny shovel.  It hung in the garage on Dunbar for at least ten years.  We joked about it and the fact that since I was the oldest I got all the good stuff like the "shovel".

When we sold the Dunbar house and moved to the lake near Tyler, the shovel went with us and hung in the garage there.  Again not to be used.  We laughed about dusting it.  Then we moved in town in Tyler and on Pam Street, the shovel hung on the wall, still shiny and still needing dusting.  Again never to be used.

Then the time came to move back to Wichita Falls into the house in Edgecliff and it hung in our garage here, still shiny and still needing dusting for 13 more years, until the big blizzard during Christmas a few years ago.  My niece, husband and two kids from Fort Gibson stayed at our house while we were in California and if you remember people could not get down residential streets.  Our nephew by marriage got the shovel and cleaned out the cul d sac.  The only time the shovel served its purpose.

Today, Aunt Mildred would be happy knowing that the shiny aluminum grain shovel rests with someone or several someones in a devastated small town in Oklahoma, where it will never suffer the embarrassment of having to be dusted.  It is now doing what shovels should do.  Its shoveling like it was mean to do and this time, serving the Lord.