Sunday, July 2, 2017

Red! White! Blue! Unfurled Color! & Day 200 CJSM

 
Oh! Red! White! & Blue! Unfurled Color-pride!
 
 
Unfurled high-tethered bright colored chevron displayed with pride
Striped Red! And, White! Stars-50 cadenced on Blue!-field prescribe
Sentinel to guard her promise-born “We the people…” to subscribe
From Great Lakes to Gulf-stream on Atlantic to Pacific domain-wide
Tread none upon her colors-proud. Welcome! To please stand tall beside
 
Soldier-proud carried on a golden gonfalon in necessary battle-charge
“Freedom through Liberty!” Motto proclaim world-wide beacon large
 
Strong gates wide open-invitation to any guest who flag allegiance-pledge
If not “shadow-born” of yonder standard, then employ “convenience-ledge”
 
In stillness hangs her colors-blended waiting to be rippled-bright
Waves-proud inspiring banner lifting hearts-full in patriotic-sight
 
Unfurled high-tethered bright colored chevron displayed with pride
Striped Red! And, White! Stars-50 cadenced on Blue!-field prescribe
Sentinel to guard her promise-born “We the people…” to subscribe
From Great Lakes to Gulf-stream on Atlantic to Pacific domain-wide
Tread none upon her colors-proud. Welcome! To please stand tall beside
 
Across U. S.-nation depth and breadth gleams courage Freedom-ring
“America the beautiful! God shed His grace on thee…” Liberty-sing
 
Such “simple-humble” cloth waves reminder-cogent hope-belief
Protector of Independent-Individual enumerated rights in ultra-relief
 
In grand flag wide shadow “cool” acknowledge calm sacred-resolution
Declaration “of, by, for…” foundation-strong pins U. S. constitution
 
Unfurled high-tethered bright colored chevron displayed with pride
Striped Red! And, White! Stars-50 cadenced on Blue!-field prescribe
Sentinel to guard her promise-born “We the people…” to subscribe
From Great Lakes to Gulf-stream on Atlantic to Pacific domain-wide
Tread none upon her colors-proud. Welcome! To please stand tall beside
 
Unfurled high-tethered bright colored chevron displayed with pride
Striped Red! And, White! Stars-50 cadenced on Blue!-field prescribe
Sentinel to guard her promise-born “We the people…” to subscribe
From Great Lakes to Gulf-stream on Atlantic to Pacific domain-wide
Tread none upon her colors-proud. Welcome! To please stand tall beside
 
Amen!
 
Plus:
 
 
 
 
Day 200
 
 
Jesse and Forrest tooth-picking the head back on
the lamb-cake the night they came to dye eggs.
Ellen brought raw eggs and we had hard boiled.
We forgot to keep them separate---Oops!
 
 
When the “gypsy” leader uprooted his clan and moved them two thousand miles across the fruited plain to God’s awesome Great Northwest, Becky was entering her Junior year of High School; Beth had been accepted to Willamette University School of Law in Salem.
 We arrived in August of 1989 and settled in once we found a house. Uh! Yeah! Hmm!
 We had vacationed in Oregon for several years and the Great Northwest had stolen my heart from Colorado’s majestic Rocky Mountain paradise; I was hooked---and…landed.
 In April of that same year, I had travelled to Oregon to find a residence. I lucked into a delightful real estate lady name of Gladys who was just wonderful. I dominated her time for a full week; we found a 20-acre property on a rise east of Salem looking west toward the capital and glimpsing views of the Coast Range bordering the magnificent Pacific Ocean.
To the east of the location rose the Cascade Mountains. We haggled over the price, made an offer which was immediately accepted by the seller. Voila! Success! I turned Miss Gladys loose and called home with the great news and promptly checked out of the motel and headed to the blue Pacific in my rental car where I spent two carefree days sightseeing along the fabulous coast, secure in the success of my endeavor and anticipating another exciting new adventure beginning in August when we would make the actual move. Little did I know…
Through the summer back home we packed and planned---a little…and, got ready.
When we arrived in Oregon with our “gypsy” caravan led by myself driving a Ryder cargo truck chock full of household belongings followed by son-in-law Graig in his pick-up hauling a cage full of Lady Candice’s mourning doves and our Irish setter “Brandy” and Afghan-dog “Ruffian”. At one point in the sojourn, Graig whipped off the Interstate onto the shoulder because good ole Brandy-cur was patiently pulling the tail feathers out of the hapless birds. Beth followed in her Trans Am and Lady Candice and Rachel brought up the rear in a Ford van I had to purchase and build a three tier “nursery”-shelf in so Candy could accommodate her myriad plants and flowers. Quite a menagerie trekking west to satiate a “little” boy’s happenstance.
Arriving in Oregon late on a Friday evening, I called realtor Gladys to advise we were within striking distance of Salem within the hour. Surprise! The California bank where I had arranged financing on our 20-acre “estate” with the view in my previous visit had rescinded our loan due to a bank underwriting rule which would not allow them to make a loan on any tract of land over five acres! Wow! Where I came from, that idiocy would have been ridiculous!
So, we trucked on into Portland where, luckily, Candy had a former classmate-friend who resided there. We left the vehicles, save the van from which we unloaded the plants and other contents, loaded up the “gypsy” clan and trekked south to Salem, some forty miles south.
When we arrived at the state capital-city, we met with dear ole Gladys and her real estate manager; they explained what had transpired---and…we had No home!? We took motel rooms for the night and set out with Miss Gladys the next morning desperately searching for some kind of domicle. Boy! Oh! Boy! The “boy”-genius had pulled the boner of a lifetime. My family did not panic and we made jokes about the entire situation, dire though it was. Eventually, actually, the very next day, realtor Gladys put us in touch with a developer who empathized with our plight; we purchased an in-town house which Mr. Epping financed through his real estate company. It was small (sort of) but we managed quite nicely; we boarded our horses at a farm on the outskirts of Salem; they were already in southern Oregon as we had previously shipped them.
So, Beth started Law School and Becky began high school where each made friends, easily.
Boys name of Jesse and Forrest and a girl, Ellen, soon became nearly permanent fixtures at our house as they were friends with Becky; they became part of our “family”; several years later Forrest rode his motorcycle to Illinois for a visit after we had moved back via a Tennessee-route.
We always make every occasion an event which, sooner, if not later, turns into an adventure.
Easter found the trio of Ellen, Forrest and Jesse at our humble abode to color eggs for the holiday. We had several dozen hard-boiled eggs on hand for the festivity and delightful Miss Ellen brought another dozen to color---only…she did not know they needed to be boiled. The eggs got mixed together in the melee of the excitement and we found the “raw” eggs when we craked the batch to peel and eat them. Great fun! Seems life is determined more by attitude than by accident---and…by a “that’s okay, we’ll adapt and persevere!
 
Thank God! For a Saving-race sense-of-humor!
 
Ah! Cookie Jar Sweet “The old-man  did it---again! Memories!
 
 
 


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