A rainy Saturday morning

 TERRY

Nothing new for Terry.  As I write this morning I hope she is still sleeping as I hear nothing from the bedroom.  I do have the paper waiting to give to her when she wakes up.

When Terry gets well IF you come to visit we could drive down to the Everglades for lunch.  It is only about a 45 minutes drive or so.  I have never eaten this pizza but I am guessing there is nothing like alligator sausage and python meat on a pizza!!!  Am I wrong or do I see a frog leg bone in that pizza???

Well I have decided to play tennis at 9:00 this morning but I do need to get over to the courts to see if they will be wet.  It is hard to know just by looking at the street in front of the house.  As I walked out to pick up the paper the driveway was wet but that does not mean the courts are too wet.  It is amazing how rain just soaks in and the clay gets dry pretty fast.  Actually I kind of hope they are wet as playing tennis 6 days a week is just a bit much.  The guys have me in so I should show up BUT.  

Well I just took a short drive over to the courts and they are certainly playable.  That means tennis at 9:00. Here it is almost 8:00 so I have time to write more and then get ready.

As we are in Advent Season and approaching Christmas many memories come to mind.  Most of those are from the mid-50s to the mid 60s.

• I remember some of the Christmas presents we received.  As I have said before there were some years when the wrapped packages, which were stored about the kitchen cupboards, filled the space to over flowing.  Then there were years when the space was not very full.  As I think of it "Why did the packages go above the cupboards and not under the tree?  Maybe we did not always have a tree as I do not remember that.
• Among the most memorable presents:
• The pogo stick that was so much fun.  By the time the snow melted in the spring I could hop to the barn and back without mishap.
• The ping pong guns that we got.  We had two guns.  One would hold one ball and the other one could hold several.  All you needed to do was pump, like a pump shotgun, and you could fire several balls without stopping.  Dave and I would set up targets in the living room and have contests as to who could hit the most.
• There was the Christmas that we got a brand new sled.  We spent hours on the pasture hill behind the outhouse.  As I think about it that hill was NOT very steep but it was fun.  There was only one sled so sometimes one had to sit on the scoop shovel that was used for grain and down the hill one would go.  It actually worked pretty good!
• I do not know what year Dave got his erector set and I got my Lincoln logs but I am guessing we spent 100s of hours playing with those.  I am pretty sure Dave took his erector set with him and today his grandson Dakota has it.  My Lincoln Logs, they fueled the fire when the farm burned.  A side note is I had thought about getting my logs and my baseball cards but never did pick them up at the farm.  Then of course it was too late.
• They were not toys but a couple of the best presents I got were a clock radio and another time an electric blanket--that came after Dave had left home.  For many years I listened on the radio to "The Lone Ranger", Sargent Preston and Yukon King" and of course many many baseball games of the St. Louis Cardinals.
• I do not remember any pictures on the puzzles but we received many puzzles and they all were put together.  AND there were games that were pretty much worn out after years of playing.  Monopoly, Parcheesi, card games and more were the "go to games" during December and into January.  
• Of course we made up games as well.  Old empty shell casings were used to knock down with marbles with table leaves used as a backdrop.  
• AND I am sure everyone our age had "pick-up-sticks" which were fun too.
• I know there were many others as well.  As I think back I have no idea where Mom and Dad got the money for those gifts as money was hard to come by but for the most part they did find money to make Christmas a fun fun time.  
• So the memories are many as I think about making things with the Lincoln Logs as I sat by the kerosene stove in the living room OR ping pong on the kitchen table as we fried slices of potato on the cook stove.  
• Funny how one moves on from family memories in the cover of progress.  Mom and Dad threw out the cookstove and brought in a propane stove which I am sure was good for Mom but it ended some great ways to make memories.  AND the darkroom Dad put in the kitchen.  It was awful in terms of what it did to the kitchen and to this day I doubt he consulted Mom about it.  I mean what mother in her right mind would say "yes" to having 30% of her kitchen taken by a plywood box?  Well it did mean they did not have to put blankets over the windows and keep the kids in the living room for hours at a time!!!

Enough rambling for this morning.  I have our tiny fake Christmas tree lite, the manger scene up and a few other Christmas things up so December is here and I THINK I am ready.  

No, it is time to get ready for tennis.