IN MEMORY OF MY DAD, NORMAN SR

IN MEMORY OF MY DAD

NORMAN E. SR.

NOVEMBER 1926 - JUNE 14, 1987

Perhaps they are not stars in the sky,

but rather openings where our loved ones shine

down to let us know they are happy.

______________________

'Say not in grief 'he is no more but

live in thankfulness that he was 'Hebrew proverb

____________________

HE LOVED PLAYING HIS GUITAR,

AND PLAYED OFF AND ON WITH SOME OF

HIS FRIENDS..

Clayton Moss and Joe Sparks at times he

would just be picking by himself with them

sitting there watching, shaking their heads because

he had just out picked them.

And he played with THE KIMBERLIN

WORKING MAN BAND, and on the radio

some with different bands back in

the 40's and 50's. Actually he would play with

anyone that wanted to pick some guitar. He

loved playing so much that he always carried

a guitar behind the seat in his truck,

wrapped in a blanket.

He could pretty much play anything that

had strings on it! Self taught, and by ear only.

One of the songs I remember right off is:

WILDWOOD FLOWER

and a lot of blue grass and country songs.

Sometimes he would pick little songs out also,

for the little kids that wanted him to play.

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WE'RE REMEMBERING YOU WITH LOVE

~~~~~~~~~~

Shadows fall

and life becomes

so difficult to bear..

Yet sunshine comes

through memories

and the love

of those who care.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WE MISS YOU,

AND WE LOVE YOU DAD

DID YOU GO FISHING TODAY? I DID

IT WAS SENIOR CITIZENS FISHING DAY

UP AT BOYS HOME TODAY

I REALLY ENJOY GOING EVERY YEAR THAT I CAN.

IT'S ONLY ONCE A YEAR!

LAST NIGHT:

Fun Fishing Prayer
Now I lay me down to sleep,

A box of tackle at my feet...

My rod and reel perched by the door,

An extra pole sits on the floor,
My trophy hung above my head...

My minnow bucket beside the bed,

My raincoat on the bedpost,

And visions of catching the most.
If I should die before I wake,

I pray, dear Lord, it's some mistake...

For I just know that the next day,

I'll catch the one that got away.

........................................

I have been working around the house for weeks now and really enjoy getting out for awhile. I love going and talking to some of those older men. It's mostly men that goes. Many of them I have known for years now, and some I don't know as well. That don't matter, we still have a lot in common, and a lot to talk about. PLUS FISHING! And they do have some food and sodas there too if you want them. Hot dogs, hamburgers , chips and such. I ENJOY GOING.

OH, AND I DID BRING TWO FOOT LONG'S HOME TODAY...

she loves those hot dogs from Whiteys with that good chili.

..................................................

ONE OLD MAN TOLD ME TODAY..

That his son n law was stopped by a game warden in Northern Virginia recently with two buckets of fish leaving a lake well known for its fishing. The game warden asked the man, "Do you have a license to catch those fish?" The man replied to the game warden, "No, sir. These are my pet fish." "Pet fish?" the warden replied. "Yes, sir. Every night I take these here fish down to the lake and let them swim around for a while. I whistle and they jump back into their buckets, and I take em home." "That's a bunch of hooey! Fish can't do that!" The man looked at the game warden for a moment, and then said, "Here, I'll show you. It really works." "O.K. I've GOT to see this!" The game warden was curious now.The man poured the fish in to the lake and stood and waited. After several minutes, the game warden turned to the man and said: "Well?" "Well, What?" the man responded. "When are you going to call them back?" the game warden prompted. "Call who back?" the man asked. "The FISH." "What fish?" the man asked.

............................................

Well, if that didn't get a smile out of you maybe these will!

How do you stop a fish from smelling?

Cut its nose off.

Why are fish so smart?

Because they live in schools.

Where do fish keep their money?

In the river bank

What fish is most valuable?

A goldfish.

Why is it so easy to weigh fish?

They have their own scales.

What's the easiest way to catch fish?

Have someone throw it at you.

What kind of money do fishermen make?

Net profits!

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HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD DAY TODAY

I HAD A PRETTY GOOD DAY... LOVE THAT FISHING

I PLAN ON DOING MUCH MORE FISHING THIS YEAR!

I HAVEN'T BEEN HARDLY AT ALL THE LAST THREE OR FOUR YEARS.

I USED TO GO WITH CHRIS (our oldest son) AND PATTY'S DAD REAL OFTEN.

JOE IS GONE NOW, AND CHRIS WORKS ALL THE TIME. SO I GUESS I NEED A NEW FISHING BUDDY OR TO GO BACK TO TAKING PATTY WITH ME, SHE USED TO GO WHEN ALL THREE OF OUR SONS WERE IN THE SERVICE.. NO SHE DIDN'T FISH, BUT SHE WENT AND READ, SLEPT OR WROTE TO THEM. I REALLY PLAN ON GETTING BACK INTO FISHING, AND SOON.

A REAL LIVE REDNECK! COOL!

One day I had been working outside, and mowing the grass, running the weed eater and such. Well, I ran out of gas and decided to run on and get some so I could finish. I had on just a pair of bib overalls and no shirt, but that was fine, I was not cleaning up just to run maybe 3/4 of a mile to get gas. So, I put the tank on the back and jumped into my pickup and off I went. While I was pumping gas, a fancy car from New York pulled in beside me. A cute little girl jumped out and was so excited (and loud).. she said "LOOK MOMMY, A REAL LIVE REDNECK!" Well, the lady came over all red faced after she had scolded her daughter and apologized... I told her "no problem, I've been called a lot worse!"

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HA, by the way, this is NOT MY PICTURE! HA!

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Now that the weather is breaking, I have began getting out a little more. Last week I was helping a friend of mine named Bill. Two of my sons helped me a couple of days thankfully, it sure made things a lot easier. I guess since we have worked together since they were old enough to help. And we should finish up at Bills tomorrow. I have enjoyed being out, and helping and talking with Bill and his wife, and I always enjoy working with any or all of my three grown sons, they are all good hard workers, and are fun to work with. I am blessed.Once the danger of frost has passed we hope to plant some tomatoes and onions, hopefully some peppers and a few things. We have clay soil, so we can't do as much as we would like to. we have to use 'raised beds' in order to have anything. But we surely enjoy whatever we grow. We do have some rhubarb! Hopefully I will get a rhubarb pie this year.And I have a few projects I want to get done at our house this year. But like most people, you just have to wait until you have the time and materials to do with. We'll see.........................

Anyway, I hope you got a little laugh out of one of my experiences. I thought it was right cute, and I didn't feel the least bit insulted by that sweet little girl, and her excitement.

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

MEET THE WOLFE'S.. A PICTURE FROM 1949-1950

MEET COYD AND ANNIE WOLFE

THIS IS MY LATE GRANDPARENTS..

They raised three daughters and two sons, and a granddaughter.

MY GRANDDAD DIED AROUND 1953 AND GRANNY DIED 1974

THEY FARMED FOR A LIVING, AND GRANDDAD PEDDLED HIS FARM GOODS.

THEY WERE LIVING UP RICHPATCH WHEN THEY BOTH PASSED AWAY. (well, Granny had went in a nursing home shortly before she died, in WAYNESBORO)

I was only a little over 7 when Granddad died, we had went to town that day for candy for trick or treater's (on Halloween) and when we got back home he had died, cutting wood.. (it was his heart) He worked hard on the farm, from sunup to sundown, and plowed with a horse named Topsy, and he had a lot to plow. They also had an orchard and raised apples, peaches, pears, and plums. Granny worked just as hard in the house, and doing her chores and laundry, she canned everything she could. She raised chickens too, and they had milk cows and raised hogs.

One thing I remember about Granddad was that he was real superstitious. He believed things like if you can in one door, you had to leave the same way when you left. If you didn't eat while you were there, you brought trouble to the house. I remember one time I killed a frog, and he 'lit into me' , believing that it made his cow go dry. Breakfast, I remember that he always finished his meal by opening his biscuit on his plate, and pouring coffee on it and eating it. Sometimes he would pour himself a glass of milk, open a raw egg up and put it into his milk and drink it, he said it had something to do with his stomach. The main thing I think of about Granddad was HOW HARD AND CONSTANT HE WORKED.

Granny cooked three meals everyday they were at home. She read her Bible at night, and sometimes read to us. Granny disciplined us more than Granddad did. She too was a very hard worker, and they have both been gone for many, many years.. but memories remain.

THE KIMBERLIN'S (TAKEN IN THE 50'S)

MR AND MRS WILLIAM KIMBERLIN

BILL AND NELLIE

This is two of my grandparents. She died when I was about 10 or 11 years old. He lived to be 92 years old and died up in the 70's. This is about the way we saw her on Sundays, even though she wore dresses all the time, she's more 'dressed for Sunday' here.

Mom gave me this book where she kept many little notes in. We've thought it to be rather interesting, hope you do to.

In January of 1936, she has a list of grocery items here.. 24 lbs flour@ $1.00, 2 lbs coffee, .30cents, 1 cake soap at .05 cents, baking powder at 025 cents, chewing tobacco at .05 cents, 3 lbs sugar @ .28 cents, 3 lbs beans @ .24cents, 1 gal lamp oil .16 cents, 10 lbs meal @ .30 cents,

matches .02 cents, and pencils .03 cents. 2 packs rice @ .20 cents, tablets .15 cents, and pepper @ .10 cents..

COWS BRED.. IN 1935

Maud on Oct 29 , daisy on Oct 31, Jersey on Nov 3, Polly on Dec 15 and Mr Smith's cow on Dec 16, and another of his cows on Jan 7

Set my first hen for 1935

April 26

Milk and butter sold 1936

Feb.. 25 1 gal buttermilk at .20 cents

6 qts of sweet milk at .60 cents

1 lb butter at .25 cents
Aug 1936

got me a pair of shoes from JCP

Howard and Nellie come up today and stayed about one hour and half April 5, 1933

Oct 16, 1935 Ida's baby was born, a boy

Thought maybe you all would like to see that, those prices are something else.

We will write more about her little book at a later date.

Hope you enjoyed it!

If you would like to leave a comment on my post, please feel free to do so. I would love to hear from you. God Bless

RIDING INTO THE SUNSET

THIS PICTURE WASN'T LIKE THE HORSES THAT WE RODE ON

ON THE FARM, BUT IT GIVES THE IDEA OF IT.

We used to make stick horses out of sticks we cut in the woods in Richpatch. We used shumate if we could find it, and fauter twine for the bridle.

It sometimes was quite a few of us, between the brothers and cousins that would play cowboys and Indian's. A lot of the time, I just played by myself, after my chores were done. I called myself riding around the ranch, pretending I was a cowboy, checking out the cattle and livestock.

Sometimes I played I was an Indian, riding my paint Indian stick pony, other times I was just a cowboy, riding around here and there. Sometimes I was a sheriff, looking for outlaws and other times I was the outlaw trying to get away from the sheriff. Other times, I would pretend to be characters in books I was reading, (books about the west, or horses) I read books like Black Beauty and Flicka stories about different wild horses in the west and cow ponies. I did my reading by lamp light most of the time. I loved reading those books, I could get lost in the books and in my imagination I could be anywhere. That's the places I would visit on my stick horse.

I also read books about Teddy Roosevelt and his charge up San Juan Hill. In the book the horses were named, and the mules were named, made it even more interesting. I read books about the Wild West, books about Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane.. were some that I liked reading about. When I was done 'traveling' for the evening, I would just ride off into the sunset (over Nichols Knob), put my horse up and go in and do my homework and sit and read, by lamp light mostly. Then, out went the lights because morning, and morning chores came real early in Richpatch. Good night friend, until we meet again.

Anyone reading my blog is more than welcome to leave a comment, I look forward to hearing from you.

LETS GET OUT OF HERE!

"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE GRANDDAD"

This is our oldest granddaughter "K" ... They are all special , but I must say this is one of my favorite pictures. I wish I could remember what she used to call me (but four grandchildren and many years later, my memory fails me)

After raising three sons, she was our first (of four) PRECIOUS LITTLE GIRLS! A true JOY!

She used to tell either me, or her grandma "LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" meaning that she wanted us off to herself, and oh what a pleasure. She was training to be a beautician back then and was using Ole Granddad as her Guinea pig. Once she rubbed lotion on my head until it was as slick as a baby's butt! And me, I sat there and enjoyed every minute of trying to make her happy, because she was surely making me happy too.

One of the many times she went camping with us, we had went for a long little walk ... just the two of us, and had to walk up and down a few hills. Well, coming back she got tired and I lifted her up and let her ride on my shoulders. As we came up that last hill, I was huffing and puffing... and we all laughed because she was too... just sitting on my shoulders trying to breath like I was.

Another time, and a few years later we were camping down at Whispering Pines and had to run to Clifton Forge to the Kroger store for a few things that evening. She said when we were there "I just love living like this!" she was so excited... Then for supper she wanted the "chicken with the turkey in it" .... (fried chicken breast)... of course we got a good laugh out of her. She was always so sweet, so cute, and so respectful.. and loved life to it's fullest! She is 15 years old now, ans still beautiful, smart, sweet and respectful.

I hope to find pictures of me and the other grandchildren from time to time and put them on the site too. We are happy and blessed by each of them. WE LOVE YOU GIRL.

THE GANG IS ALL HERE, in the 50's

THE GANG IS ALL HERE! BACK IN THE 1950's
from left to right Cousin Ruby, Cousin Susie, Sister N. Jean, Cousin Anna, (me) Norman (the cool one) Cousin Billy.. then in the middle from left Brother Bob, Brother Coyd(the little blond boy in the middle) and then Cousin Sheila (peeping over the tailgate.)
The Gang Was All There (for the most part, but then there were always little ones in the house) I don't know where we were going (in our imaginations) We found all kinds of things to play back then. Most of the time if we weren't working, we were playing outside. There were always a lot of us at our house, or at Granny's. This was taken at Richpatch, when we were at Granny's. We found all kinds of things to play back then, and there were enough of us to play anything. Sometimes ball games, sometimes we played hide and seek, or cowboys and Indians. When we got older we sometimes caught snakes, just for the fun of it. Or we would one climb a tree and a few cut it down to see if the one in the tree could make it to the safe side before it hit the ground. Sometimes we would throw rocks at hornets nest so they would chase us. At times we would swing from grapevines. Back then you HAD TO DO YOUR CHORES BEFORE YOU PLAYED ANYTHING! It is some great memories, and we never thought of the danger, or possible danger of many of the "games" we played. We were just enjoying being kids, and outside in the countryside, there was always something we could "get into".

One of my greatest (old) memories.

The color of this horse reminds me of Ole Topsy,

a horse my granddad Coyd Wolfe owned when I was growing up.

He bought her from Old Dr Bowles. He brought wild horses from out west and broke them to harness. Our neighbor had another of the wild horses and they borrowed from each other so they could have a pair of horses to mow and rake hay. We also used Topsy to plow and skid wood. She did a lot of work on the farm. She was a great and gentle horse and even as a kid I could plow and other farm work with her. She didn't like anyone to ride her, maybe because she had been wild and never broke to a saddle. She lived to a sweet old age of 36 years old, and she was buried there on the farm. She was one of my greatest memories of growing up there at my grandparents farm in Richpatch.

LET ME LIVE IN A HOUSE

Let Me Live In A House

Let me live in a house by the side of the road

Where the race of men go by

The men who are good

And the men who are bad
As good and bad as I

I would not sit in the scorners seat

Nor hurl the cynics ban

Let me live in a house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man

Poem submitted by Lois Frank

ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS

this was on my mind hope you like it

He Saw It All by Booth Brothers

I was working in town one afternoon

Attending some business affairs

I heard a commotion a couple streets over

And wondered what's happening there

A young man was running from in that direction

and stopped just to catch his breath

I asked him to please tell me what was the hurry

He smiled up at me and he said

I was trying to catch the crippled man,

Did he run past this way

He was rushing home to tell everyone

What Jesus did today

And the mute man was telling myselfAnd the deaf girl

He's leaving to Answer God's call

It's hard to believe but if you don't trust me

Ask the blind man, he saw it all

Ask the blind man, he saw it all

My friend if the troubles and burdens you carry

Are heavy and dragging you down

And you've tried everything

You can possibly think of

But there's no relief to be found

That very same Jesus that altered the future

Of the blind man, the deaf and the lame

He's still reaching out In your hour of trouble

One touch and you're never be the same

You'll be trying to catch the crippled man

Did he run past this way

He was rushing home to tell everyone

What Jesus did today

And the mute man was telling myselfAnd the deaf girl

He's leaving to Answer God's call

It's hard to believe but if you don't trust me

Ask the blind man he saw it all

Ask the blind man he saw it all

Ask the blind man he saw it all