Senior Citizens hold show and tell

Mary’s Musings

By Mary Green

I love a good story, and everyone and everything has one. The homeless man on the corner with the cardboard sign stating that he will work for food, the driver of that huge RV with decals and stickers from all over the country, the quiet lady who moved in down the street – they all have stories to tell if there were someone to listen to them.

Last Tuesday, a group of nice people met at the Donley County Senior Citizens Center to enjoy a good meal and simply share some stories from their lives.

Richard said he had a heart attack in 1989, but his story was about the tee shirt from Hooter’s restaurant that was covered with Marks-a-Lot well wishes for his recovery from the girls who worked there. A gift from his brother and his sons, finding it in a long-ago stored box brought back memories of a scary time and thoughts of thankfulness for the years since.

Ann showed a beautiful hand knit bolero style sweater that her grandmother had knitted for her to wear to the Clarendon High School Prom decades ago. Her two grandmothers conspired to make sure Ann was modestly attired. The bolero (a short, cropped jacket) has aged to an ivory color with perfect knitted stitches. Several people in the group knew the young man who was Ann’s date that night. Sweet memories.

Linda and Larry had items discovered after their parents had passed, including a 1914 US Patent for a self-turning tractor that Linda’s grandfather had designed. The patent included schematic, detailed illustrations of how the tractor’s mechanisms worked so that at the end of a row, it would automatically turn itself down the next row. The patent was sold, and it is unknown what has become of it since.

Linda showed her mother-in-law’s calendar book that showed the daily activities of a very active couple in their later years. Detailed, mundane events that showed how they progressed through life, interacted with others… and ate out a lot!

Charlene held up an 1800’s canning jar with an envelope sealed in it. It, along with other antiques, had been stolen from her home years before. She thought it was gone forever, when serendipity stepped in. She and Butch were visiting an antique collecting nephew in another town miles from their home. The nephew was showing off some of his latest finds when Charlene spotted the jar he had purchased from a local dealer. It was hers! Proof was in the pudding of the envelope sealed in the jar. It was a handwritten note, dated and signed by her great grandmother! What are the odds?

Ever the storyteller as well as a poet, Butch read from a book of his published poems. The poem told of the agony of a youth growing up on a farm where work was never ending and his father, a farmer with stoic discipline, instilled this work ethic on a then, unappreciative teen. Oh, how he would love to work alongside his father again!

Paula had me biting my lips in worry for her great granddaughter! She displayed an empty bag of frozen blueberries and told how those blueberries led to a harrowing few days after the child devoured nearly the entire bag, capped off with M&Ms. Torn between snickering at that outcome and then cringing at the symptoms that came on later, we all felt great relief when the true culprit behind the little girl’s painful ailment was revealed. Ask Paula.

San played stand-up comedian very well. He told a few stories that brought much laughter and then explained how Parkinson’s sometimes affects his thought to word process. But it was not evident this evening.

Jean brought some examples of her beautiful mosaic works of art. She explained the process she follows, starting with a wooden shape and filling it with colorful glass, ceramic, and jeweled remains of former items. Broken ceramic songbirds perch again and sing to jeweled fields of glass and mirrors and miscellaneous found objects. She uses grout to keep them in place. There was a beautifully done cross that would grace any wall, as well as a fun, but happy pig. When she was working, Jean saw an example of this kind of art and taught herself after she retired.

Patty showed us a treasured old candy tin from the 1930s. Her dad had wooed her mother and his future mother-in-law with a tin of sweets. Inside the tin were actual parts from the 1930s automobile (Sorry, I forgot the year) that he drove at that time. There was the car’s ash tray that had been bolted to the door and the actual hood ornament! Remember when they were prized and unique?

Denise and Roy and Mary all shared things from their pasts. Denise wore and passed around the yellow, but not genuine, sapphire ring that her sister thought she wanted until she found out it wasn’t valuable, Roy showed two toys that many of us had played with back in the day, and Mary talked about losing on Jeopardy.

There were a few moist eyes in the crowd as Jerry spoke of the recovery of a grandchild, and Sam reminded us how important our time together is. Sharing little pieces of our lives lets us get to know one another and care for one another.

Many years ago, I believe it was on Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone or, maybe, One Step Beyond, a group of scientists had found a way to hear the sounds in inanimate objects. They took a lava stone and listened to the eruption of Vesuvius. Just think if rocks could talk!