Thursday, January 28, 2010

I don't know these guys, but they liked mules.


Here is a pretty pair of mules. I wish Daddy had took a picture of his matched pair
Now today's adventure into my past!


Most famous authors, especially poets and song writers, become famous after their death. Many painters works sold for pennies according to the hours they put into the work until after they died.

Most of us will never be famous before or after our death. I think it is a standard of life to recognize beauty, intelligence, leadership and passion after a death. You have probably done it in your family.


I am ashamed, I respected my dad. He was a great guy. He was smarter than most men with ten times his education, but it was after his death that I realized just what my daddy had meant to me. I loved my mother as much as most boys, but it was after I was grown and she was gone, that I realized what insights, what ability that woman had.



As a child, I watched her prepare stuff to ship to missionaries in prison in Germany. Now I ask myself, how did a woman in Burlington, NC know how to get stuff through the enemy lines to missionaries Inprisoned by Hitler? How did she make delicious meals with half the ingredients?
I had two brothers both were brilliant in their own right. I thought I knew them, but there so many questions I would like to ask them. Oh and related to that so many questions I would like to ask Mama and Daddy. Why did I think too late?


I have thought of starting a business, it would be non-profit, as everything I have done since retiring. But a business of recording someone’s thoughts in book form before they pass on. Things they would like their children to know. Questions they wish they had asked of their parents and did not.



I was not raised in the country (except for two years 3-5) so I don’t know of plowing and farming except what I learned from my good friend Kenneth Conrad who had forty acres near Clark, Mo. I think. But back to Dad & Mom. One day, while mom was living with us in her last years, I asked mama, “Mom, what kind of horses did you and dad have?”
She looked at me like, did I raise a completely ignorant boy, “Son we worked on our farm, we did’t have time for fancy horses, your dad had a matched pair of roman nosed mules called Bet & Hide. The best in the county. Mules can work, horses were for fancy folks and buggies. We had a wagon.”

I just said, “Yes mam”.


Thanks for coming by the LOG.
Nite Shipslog
PS: Things concerning us Old folk:
Your husband sleeps better on a lounge chair with the TV blaring than he does in bed. It's called his "pre-sleep".






Remember when your mother said "Wear clean underwear in case you GET in an accident"? Now you bring clean underwear in case you HAVE an accident!

6 comments:

shirl72 said...

Jack I don't know anything about farming.
We always lived in town. Roads and sidewalks. I have learned to do yardwork. I don't remember yard work at home. We roller skated on the sidewalks and were always both into music. In the third grade I volunteered the Church Bus to take us on a field trip. I love living close to town because I love City sounds. Is this true confession.

Our parents could do anything and knew how to get it done. Have you ever wondered how Mother
and Dad could coped with us as teenagers since they were older. They just took everything in stride. I sure do miss them our brothers and sister.

Shirl

Shirl

Fred Alton said...

Jack, did you ever try to ride a mule bareback? It's an awful experience. Old Brother Grissom had two mules that he wanted to take to Sparta from Campaign. He hired his nephew and me (we were 11 years old) to ride them over - because he had no trailer or truck to transport them. I walked funny for a month afterwards! My Dad always pastored in rural areas so had my share of riding horses, milking cows and plowing with mules. ??? Didn't take much for me to have my share! :D

Fred Alton said...

BTW - That mule with the stocking feet and saddle on is a beautiful mule!

Paula said...

Those are pretty mules. You might like to go to www.twomulesandawagon.com

Woody said...

Small World, Dan Durant and Glen Sweeny I found out tonight were on the USS Independence, 59-63, Dan was a Gunners Mate and Glen was an Airdale!
As far as mules go, never used them, We had Belgians, I learned how to harness, bridle, hitch, how to clean their "Frogs" and put on shoes, I sugared, plowed, planted, hayed,
disc harrow, drag, log,and haul ice from the pond with them, they were named Jude and Joad!! Riding them bareback would be like trying to sit with your legs on each side of a volkswagon BUT I love the memories!!!

Lucy said...

We had mules but we had horses to. I think we had only one mule. My mom used to say my dad was stubborn as a mule and all I can say the mule she compared him to must have been really stubborn.