Chapter 4



May 26, 2000
Guess Who has a 3 day wk.end?
folks don't wish too hard you might wind up like me knowing that for the rest of your life you will just sit and have to depend on people to wait on you believe me unless your job is absolutely unbearable you may wish you could go back to it though i have webby a lot of books and all of you



May 26, 2000
Pancakes
i don't like very much variations in my breakfast like over easy eggs with plenty of yolk every once in a while they do have pancakes but i don't like syrup mixed in with my egg yolk so i asked them to put a pancake in an extra little bowl and put jelly on it and then put the syrup on my oatmeal i didn't get the nickname the little creep for nothing last night they used the van to take me into columbia to the red lobster i haven't been there since before i came here 9 years ago anyway i got my favorite broiled snapper and didn't leave enough for a very small mouse today was bingo day i won one regular game for fifty cents and the blackout for one dollar i have been very lucky i remember the first thing i ever won was an angel food cake with boiled icing every once in a while the p.t.a. would sell chances on something the kids would come around with chances for ten cents apiece my mother would say to them our church does not permit us to gamble but this time i had a dime of my own so i took a chance even though i knew i probably shouldn't have and i won the cake they say here this is not gambling it doesn't cost you anything to play when i win i give what i win to our bookkeeper thats the one that took me to the red lobster she keeps it in her drawer for me and over time i have quite a little stach i would not go to a casino though there is one lady here that will not play not even if we have a card game on saturday her sister is here and she plays she says about the one that won't she is a hard shell baptist she doesn't say it as if she thinks that's a bad thing just a fact



May 27, 2000
RAIN!!! WE GOT RAIN!!
we got the same kind of rain yesterday when i was first married my father in law said this a million dollar rain it was just as the corn tasseled he said thats really when we need it mostly corn in illinois didn't hear much about soy beans till i moved to missoui though i remember once when i was little they were planting soy beans around the outside of the corn fields to keep the cinch bugs outdid you ever eat a hamburger made of soy beans one time a group of people i was working in took me to a restaurant where they only served that kind afterwords they said how did you like them the only thing i could think to say without insulting the health food addicts in the group was they were indescribable



May 29, 2000
HOME SHOPPING????
what i'd like to go to that they have been advertising live shows for all over the country(now don't you laugh at me) is blues clues once when i was about 10 or 12 my dad took me to a show at bradley field house bradley is the college in peoria my home town we saw gene Autry and his horse live on the stage we were in the front row and they came right up to the edge of the stage years later when i was living in missouri we went to a show at the herns center that's the big field house for the university of missouri i saw the Lippizaner horses perform



Jun 1, 2000
silver lining
they say whatever happens to you there is a silver lining i have finally figured out what mine is a lot of people here older than i am don't really have any mind left if i get like that at least i won''t be able to get up and bother people



Jun 1, 2000
We Are Here!!
my attitude was when you get around to the work it will still be there waiting for you



Jun 2, 2000
sleeping
i guess i used to be restless i would take a book to bed and turn back and forth reading now when they put me to bed they use my pillows so i am sitting up just a little and i stay that way i can't turn to the right and i was always used to sleeping on my right side but now i can't turn because i can't get my left leg over so i stay put unless i wake up and need to use the bedpan they leave it on my bedside and i have to put myself on it it's not that hard but it messes up my position on the pillows so i have to put on the light to have them come empty it and arrange my pillows again oh well i survive



Jun 2, 2000
WHERE IS MY HORSE
we have a new man here he gets a little confused especially when the sun goes down that kind of person is called a sundowner yesterday evening he came into my room i was on the web of course he said what did you do with my horse? i assured him i hadn't seen it then one of the girls came and took him back to his room which he had lost this morning when our head nurse heard it she said you know they can still hang you for horse stealing i said dotty i swear i didn't see it she laughed and said yeah we know i should have told him we put it out in the pasture



Jun 2, 2000
silver lining (Donna)
no mary i never have when we came to missouri we lived five miles morth of middletown do you know where that is now i am in a home called Pin Oaks in Mexico Missouri but i was born and raised in peoria lived there till i got married in 1949 by the way i am aquarius 1926 when i got married my husband lived on a farm twentty miles north of the city we moved to missouri in1958 my-x still lives by middletown my second husband was born and raised in Centralia do you know where it is



Jun 2, 2000
silver lining (Donna)
where in peoria does his folks live we lived on the south side and i went to manual not too long ago i was invited to my classes fifty fifth anniversary but of course won't be able to go i would love you to stop if you get the chance



Jun 2, 2000
Guardian Angel
there is a poem about the guardian angel it goes angel of god my guardian dear to whom his love commends me here ever this day be at my side to help and stand by guard and guide they had a silent auction here i bid on the guardian angel picture but i forgot to go out the last morning they had the bid book there so someone else got it have any of you ever participed in a silent auction do you know what it is people donate things they are put in a case and a number is put on each thing there is a notebook with a page for each item that is kept for a certain number of days you look at the items enter your bid in the book after it ends they look at the book and take the item to whoever has bid the most it ended at 10:a.m. friday before last i should have gone out that morning and checked but by the time i remembeed it they had already have taken the book i did get a group of books i bid on of course if you saw my room you would say why is she bidding on them and not donating them



Jun 4, 2000
DRAPES OR CURTAINS
my mother always had drapes in the front room and the living room but she had curtains under them i remember her putting the curtains on curtain stretchers i worked nights so much that i had blinds that blocked the light only when we lived in our first house my youngest girl loved blue so we had blue curtains in her little room she only got to live there about three months though



Jun 4, 2000
Were you a GS?
i was a brownie but when it came to being girl scout like hildas mother my mother knew it would involve things that would take me too far away from home she thought i do remember though when i was little my dad was a boy scout leader for a while anyway my uncle was one and for some reason he couldn't for awhile so my dad took over dad always had all the boys in the neighborhood there anyway when i was in high school though i belonged to the blue triangle club that was the y.w.c.a. club and i got to go camping for two weeks one summer i learned a lot of silly songs and one of the leaders taught us to make shish kabobs over an open fire and every evening we went into town to the swiming pool when my girls were growing up there were no girl scouts where we were my oldest girl was in four h though when we were on the farm she had just finished fourth sewing their next year would have been making coats but we moved to columbia and they didn't have sewing so she took crafts and she was real good at that i know when my grandaughter got married she made all the dresses for her maid of honor and her bridesmaids she didn't make her wedding dress though even so i think she did well



Jun 5, 2000
Roll Call Missouri
hi my name is donna i live in a wheelchair in a nursing home in Mexico Mo. that's about 150 miles niorth west of st. Louis i've been here since the fall of 91 when i had a stroke that paralysed my left side i have a one handed walker and can walk with help 50 to 100 feet from the door at the end of the hall to the nurses desk i have a daughter and a granddaughter who live in Indianapolis my daughter has an M.B.A. in business and is vice president and relationship manager in a bank in indiana that makes loans to small businesses my son is a computer programer for the university of indiana my grandaughter manages a Bob Evans restaurant my daughter will be 50 the twenty first of july my grandaughter was twenty nine new years day i was seventy four feb the twelfth my daughter comes to see me when they have a three day weekend they always come on christmas and take me to my son in laws sister in columbia for christmas dinner i have many good friends here they have a wheel chair van and two weeks ago thursday they took me into columbia to the red lobster which i used to go to a lot when i was working i got my favorite broiled snapper then we went to the super wal marts i got an entertainment center and a two foot bookcase for the price of just the entertainment center here in missouri every year about income tax time we get a certain percent of what we have paid the home in the last year it's called a short circuit people who have $50,000 a year of their own in the bank don't get it this year i got $900 back andi have so many books and tapes they wanted me to get the entertainment center i got some new dresses when the company that brings clothes around to the nursing homes came they have dresses for people who don't walk they have a u shape cut in back from the hem up to the waist and the dress comes around over knees when your in the wheel chair my knees get cold and it's hard to have a lap robe for me i only have one hand to hold it with and i have to use that hand to wheel the chair my daughter made me a robe and put a tie on it but that's against state regulations it's considered a restraint i said what do you think i'm going to do get up and run away they said no but if the state came and saw it we would get a demerit so i'm thankful for the dresses look at how i've gabbed on you would think i was a gemini



Jun 6, 2000
MILK TOAST
did you ever stay home from school sick and have your mother fix you milk toast a nice piece of warm buttered toast in a bowl with sugar on it and pour warm milk on it i hated to miss school i was always lonesome at home but that milk toast made it almost worth being sick



Jun 6, 2000
MORE GAS~~~SORRY
man at the breakfast table this morning who comes in every morning to be with his wife told us this morning said gas had gone up again that it was now $12.61 a gallon i mean 1.61 we were talking about what people would do a little ways north from Centralia where i lived there is a big community of Amish people i suggested we might all go back to a horse and buggy like they drive he didn't seem to think that was a good idea but sometimes they might when i was little in the thirtys my dad worked on the railroad a switching line he said it wasn't unusual to find a whole family in a box car we used to go for a ride on sundays he would go to the gas station and put five gallons in the car it cost a dollar and that was our sunday treat now when they take us somewhere in the wheel chair van they will stop for gas and fill up just one tank it will cost $35:00 or more i still think someday people might go back to a horse and carriage i bet if everyone did they would lower the price of gas any comments



Jun 4, 2000
WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST
had eggs over easy bacon it was good and crisp this morning and oatmeal & hot chocolate my usual breakfast don't like them to change it yesterday at dinner the girl asked me if i would like anything different than what they had on the menu i said yes she said what i said eggs and oatmeal she said if you think i'm going in the kitchen and ask for that this time of the day she said that cook would kill me



Jun 9, 2000
wierd rules the state has
a lot of times if you are sitting in a wheelchair your legs get cold to remedy this they have lap robes one problem i have if i'm going to keep it from slipping down under my wheels problem i have only one hand to hang onto it with and that's the hand i have to use to move my chair i said it would solve the problem if i had some thing to tie behind my back they said we can't do that the state considers it a restraint and it's against the rules i said what does the state think i'm going to do get up and run away they said well...no but it's us against them they got me these dresses that are cut out in the back and come down over your knees i know they wouldn't be any good if i were walking my whole rear would show did any of you see the original movie the parent trap when the one girl cut the back out of the other girls dress



Jun 9, 2000
Branson Bound
i had a bad experience fishing my husband used to go to a lake not far from our town it was called tri city lake he had his fish in one of those wire boxes that you push the top down i thought the fish didn't have enough water so i moved the box back into deeper water when he got back the biggest fish was gone ever after that he accused me of springing his fish and to just stay away when he was fishing which i was glad to do i think it's cruelty to animals anyway shoving a hook through the worm and having a fish swallow the hook i know you have to kill something to eat it but i don't like the idea



Jun 9, 2000
Branson Bound
my husband loved to play golf and was pretty good at it i tried it once and took 45 hits from the tee to the hole he said that wasn't any good and i agreed with him



Jun 9, 2000
WHO'S GOING TO STOP ME?
a man was sitting on a beach fishing two mosquitos flew down and picked him up one said too the other should we eat him here or take him home the other said eat him here if we take him home the big ones will get him



Jun 10, 2000
SEASONS
fall was my favorite when i was a child because i knew i would soon get to go back to school when i was married and lived on the farm it was my favorite because their wasn't as much mud as there was in the spring after that spring winter because i knew it would soon be christmas i liked summer if it didn't get too hot



Jun 8, 2000
>>> NEED TO SHARE <<<
several people from the home agreed to walk last year they have at the new track at the high school here i offered to go and ride in the wheel chair i get around in it pretty well but they said the track was gravel and they didn't allow anything on it with wheels if it had been blacktop i might not have been able to keep up with the others but i would have got there a little later maybe they always have something in the case their raffling off and that money will go to the relay for life i didn't take a chance this time it's a big george forman grill i thought it's just my luck i'd win it and what on earth would i do with it



Jun 15, 2000
Tongue Talk
when we needed to check a person to make sure the medicine wasn't having a bad effect on them we would ask them to stick their tongue out and move it from side to side to side then up and down then to turn their head from side to side then up and down sometimes their face would get so stiff their jaws would clench when my daughter was having radiation treatments i had supositories i would give her for the nasusea the radiation caused one time her arms got so stiff she couldn't bend them and neither could i it wore off but it scared me that was before i had the training to know what a physcotrophic drug could do



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