Hooray for the Red, White and Blue!

Let’s send up a cheer for how patriotic Groovy Grove looked this last weekend. Hopefully, everyone noticed Old Glory waving from the utility poles all throughout the city limits. This is not a small deal, the numbers are impressive.

There were 285 American flags installed on 285 permanent flag holders. Flags have been flying over Grove for many  years. The Grove Kiwani’s Club put up flags since the early 1980’s.  Grove Rotary Club picked up that patriotic banner circa 2010. Every Memorial Day, Flag Day, July 4^th, Labor Day, and Veteran’s Day, a team of volunteer Rotarians hit the streets about daylight. The well-organized effort requires pick-up truck drivers, a flag un-roller, and a tall person to stand in the truck bed to insert the flagpole in the receptacle.

It is an outstanding effort to beautify our city and show our “All American” spirit. Funds were raised to buy permanent holders and additional flags that can fly from Memorial Day to Labor Day. They are illuminated by the pole lights and, in my opinion, look striking. For this to happen this year, the Rotarians purchased $1300 worth of extra flags. And, they have plans to add even more.

In case you got caught up in the hotdogs and lake scene, you might have missed another magnificent flag display. The Grove Ritual Team installs over 200 flag poles into the ground at Olympus Cemetery.  Each flag is dedicated to a soldier with their name, rank, and years of service posted on the pole. Most of these names are our local men and women who served in the armed services, including my daddy Paul Roberts. For $75, you can still get a flag that will be flown on Memorial Day, Flag Day, and Veteran’s Day… forever.

This has been ongoing for over 20 years. They put small American flags on all the veterans’ graves and American flags are also displayed at Buzzard Cemetery. This momentous job takes hours of hard working and faithful veterans and they are always hoping and looking for younger folks to volunteer their assistance. Feel free to contact them as they have several ways veterans can continue to serve and they welcome your help.

 For a small town, around 500 flags flying is a lot of flags! That means there are 6500 red and white stripes unfurling as a reminder of the 13 original colonies. The white stripe representing purity and innocence. The red stripe, valor and bravery. As we drive down the highway, we can look up to that field of blue that represents vigilance, perseverance, and justice. And there will be 25,000  stars  on those flags above us this summer.

Encourage the young people in your life to understand what the flag represents. Help them to understand what there is to remember at Memorial Day and other holidays. All you have to do is take a drive this summer and the lessons are there, flying above us.

We are Still Speaking

Your travelin’ pal is on the road again. Hubby Doug and I are in Florida. Our little teardrop camper, Joshua, is parked among RV’s three times his size. Recall that we have zero camping experience, so this on-the-road RV business is a learning curve for us. For starters, we have no idea what we need until we don’t have it. I make a lot of lists. 

Our first stop was near Nashville for a friend’s wedding. I love Nashville. The shindig’s caterer was  “Bacon and Caviar”. That just about sums up Nashville. And just for the record, our wedding supper included both biscuits and brie.

We took to the road the day after, making our way to Florida. We stopped at the state Welcome Center. Besides your usual maps and rack cards, we were offered a cup of fresh orange juice and a piece of fruit. I couldn’t help but wonder what Oklahoma might offer, ya know, stuff our state is known for?  I couldn’t help but be a bit jealous of all the landscaping that was along the interstate in Florida. I’m guessing that those palm trees didn’t come up naturally evenly spaced on each side of the roadway. Then when I saw road crews laying piles of sod in ditches that looked pretty grassy to me, so, well, there’s that.

We spent the morning on Cocoa Beach, sand between my toes and admiring the shells and the surf. I love the beach and you don’t even have to ask for a senior discount in Florida! Just pull your socks up over your calves and take out your readers to see the menu and they automatically give it to you!  Magic Doug had a show Monday night and a photo shoot for new publicity pictures. He noticed that his hands were doing this peeling thing, like he was shedding his winter skin. Not a good thing for someone that needs to have close ups of his hands.

Being the ever resourceful wife, I googled “peeling skin” and found a DIY  foot soak made of Listerine (“she” liked the blue kind”) and vinegar. Oh, yes, and water. Well, I mixed Mr. Anderson up a batch. I figured the water was to just stretch the mix, so I opted straight mouthwash and vinegar. After plunging his left hand in the mix, began to ask me questions, like “Where did you come up with this idea?” 

Me “Pinterest. It must work”

Him “How long am I suppose to soak for it to work?”

Me “24 hours.” (I laugh at his expression.)

Well, he didn’t last but  15 minutes. I need to post my Pinterest-fail. The skin did not peel away to leave baby soft epidermis. He had pruny, peely skin except now his hand was blue. Kinda a sick grey-blue... like circulation had ceased long ago. Whoops.

Me “Maybe I should have added the water.”

Him “Maybe I shouldn’t have done this before the photo shoot.”

We hit a Wal Greens for a stiff scrub brush, hit a McDonalds so he could take a layer off his hide and hit the studio for the pics. His fingernails are still a little pale and we get a whiff of pickles now and then. But we are still speaking. I love that.

Cut it Out!

I love scissors. There is something about having a nice, sturdy pair of scissors that deliver a clean cut that kinda makes me happy. I have a pair of scissors in every room of my house. I do not want to hunt for a something that will cut when I am ready to snip. I had my big orange handled scissors out and I was cutting out a story from the newspaper that featured a neighbor’s son. I thought of my friends that clip out and save for those articles for me. When we were sorting through my parent’s treasures, sister and I were amazed at the many stuffed envelopes and shoeboxes of newspaper clippings that my mom had collected. I’m not sure what she ever intended to do with them, maybe just save them, but there was a history of people we knew and the lives they had lived.

Wouldn’t it be great to edit one’s life like that? Just cut out the bad times and wad that part up to toss away. Then make sure to cut out the good, wonderful stuff we want to remember and keep it safe. We could unfold and recall with clarity the ­­commentary about that life event so the joy never faded from our memory.

A special friend from my school days recently lost his mother. As the gang of high school buds stood around the funeral home parking lot, we felt a bit bad at the circumstances that had brought us together because we were so happy to reconnect with each other. And as friends do on a funeral home parking lot, we promised to get together more often and not wait for a death to do it.

I would like to remind you that you have probably made those promises to your friends and family. Maybe there are folks that you vacationed with as families or couples and you have said, we ought to go on another trip together! Here’s a great idea, how about a group tour? It takes the planning pressure off of you so you can enjoy each other’s company. Having a tour leader in charge helps with eliminating the “bossy friend” role, plus there are other people to share the experience with if you think there might be too much “togetherness”. Plus, if no one can get the preparation part going, remember with a group tour, all you have to do is pack your bag!

It’s not too late to make some memories, but there will probably be a time it will be too late. Fill up the pages of your life with times of being alive, laughing and learning. Create moments that are worthy of being cut out and saved like newspaper clippings to be remembered over and over again. Take those scissors to all the excuses that have kept you from going and doing and living. Cut them out and toss them. If you need help, call me. I keep scissors handy.

Pinning on a Peony

My world now includes a white carnation on Mother’s Day.

If you grew up in church that recognized mothers the second Sunday in May, you are probably familiar with the tradition of red and white flowers. As a girl, I remember women wearing corsages to church, red if their mother was living; white if she had passed away. Carnations were given away to the youngest mom, the oldest mother and the one with the most children. It seemed like we could always predict who was going to get the flower, but sometimes we had a visitor that surprised us. It was a day that we dressed up and worked on good behavior to make our moms proud. Our momma would work hard to prepare a big dinner for her mom (and dad, of course) and as the years passed the cycle continued. It was about being together as a family. It was about showing appreciation to our mother.

Out on Cowskin Prairie, on the Triple R Ranch, we didn’t spend a lot of time at the florist ordering corsages. When I was big enough to understand the tradition, I remember going out to Mom’s peony bush in the corner of the yard and picking off the biggest pink peony I could find. Mom loved to grow flowers, but she wasn’t one to cut or make an arrangement. She liked them in the yard. Where ever they came up and bloomed was her bouquet. Sister and I learned that an occasional Sweet William from the ditch, or a dandelion was Momma’s choice, and so we left her roses, iris and peonies alone. But I remember that big peony, about the size of a plate. I realize now it was way too large to be worn as a corsage. But Mom took that big blossom and pulled a couple of pins from her pincushion. She fixed that giant peony to her collar. I was so proud.

Maybe it was the choir. Maybe it was the organ music. Maybe it was my Daddy’s Hai-Karate after-shave. But… there were ants in the peony. And sometime before the offering, those little pests started filing out of those piles of pink petals onto Mother’s dress front. I’m not sure if they had a plan for their travel, but by the time she noticed them and started swatting at them, they had covered quite a bit of territory. I was sitting to her left, on the peony side, and I tried to pinch a few stragglers myself. Mom didn’t bolt from the pew. She didn’t yank off the flower in disgust. She just eliminated the trouble, straightened her collar, lifted her chin and belted out the next verse of “One Day at a Time.” (OK, I made the song memory up, but that was her favorite.) 

I miss her. I miss that, “Well, I’ll just take care of that...” attitude that she operated with. She didn’t whine, she didn’t do drama, she didn’t feel sorry for herself or for us. She just did. She was a momma that I appreciate now, more than ever. 

Pin that peony on now, friends, and celebrate your mother. There will be white flowers all too soon.

It’s Derby Time

This weekend is the Kentucky Derby. Since 1875 the “Run for the Roses” has been taking place at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. This weekend, riders , racing enthusiasts and people that have never sat a horse will be adding color to their conversations with terms like “Post Time”, “Win, Place & Show”, and “Homestretch”.

This weekend, bar glasses will brim with mint juleps, and hats will be critiqued. Money will exchange. This weekend, people will look at the racing lineup and claim a winner, whether out of intellect or illusion. At the end of the day, the system could have the same results.  This weekend “the most exciting two minutes in sports” will take all week to prepare for and more hours to discuss. 

Living in Oklahoma should make us all take interest in this famous race. We do horses in Oklahoma. You might be surprised to learn that the Sooner State is number one in horses per capita, with one in every 46 citizens owning a horse. The numbers still soar when we look at the number of race horses that are bred here. We own and show all breeds of horses with many world events hosted here. We race in Oklahoma, but most of us still would like to live large in “Looey-ville” with the locals and be part of the pageantry of the live race.

There will be over 150,000 excited spectators to share the exhilaration. We want to wear a hat and watch the ten furlongs (1 ¼ mile) race. We want to sing “My Old Kentucky Home,” like we mean it, just like folks have been doing for nearly a hundred years. We want to look at the horses, jockeys, and names and make our choices. Numbers, colors, and bits of information found in the forum can make a connection for us that makes us wager on a winner. 

The first race of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, the Kentucky Derby is on many of our “Bucket List” of things we want to do before we head to the barn. Tickets for the well-shod can range in the thousands of dollars. Reservations for seats must be secured well in advance.  Let the bells ring and the starting gates swing wide, because 2019 is going to be our year. Good to Go with Patti Beth has secured tickets for this historical event, and we are going to make that “Run for the Roses” next year as a group.

Check out our www.GoodToGowithPB.com for the flyer for May 2-5, 2019 for everything we are going to do.  I’m going to prepare myself by watching the event this year. I will sport a hat and cheer for my favorite thoroughbred. I think the three-year-old colt, Good Magic, sounds good to me.