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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