The Strapless Black Bra & the Bears.....

It started out to be a nice, family camping adventure. This had to be in the mid to late 1950's. Between Yosemite and Big Sir our family spent a lot of time camping. They were our two most favorite places and it didn't take to long to get there, (mother and dad would make a bed in the back of the station wagon and shove us all in there with our p.j.'s still on). We would try and get back to sleep so we wouldn't get car sick.......sometimes it didn't work!
Anyway camping was great because with a growing family you could have a lot of fun and not spend to much money.
Great memories of those times, I'll say. Pitching our old green canvas tent right by the river, {I can still smell that tent}. It was the old umbrella kind with the pole in the middle. Oh, you had to find just the right place for the tent so your head wasn't downhill and the sun could greet you at the door in the morning...{it really didn't matter to us kids we slept in the back of the car most of the time, or trade off in the tent} the tent could sleep four. Dad was very particular about putting the stakes in first. Then he and mother would both lift it up and try to push the pole up and get the other things in the corners just right. Well that was a job! I look back now and can see just how funny it was. They would disappear in that tent, you couldn't see them but you could hear all the directions going back and forth, "push here" and "pull that", "hold that up", "would ja just do what I tell ya", "can'tja just help me"?....etc. All of us kids would be waiting by the camp table or by our car listening and watching afraid to do anything till that part was over. Then after many minutes all of a sudden they would appear a mess...all hot and their hairs all messed up, and dusty.... Then the task of unpacking the car and putting things away so the bears wouldn't bother us. When that was done we would get ready to eat and go to the river..... what more could you ask for?
The sounds in the mornings of campers chopping wood, the woodpeckers, and blue jays putting in their two cents worth. Then there was the smell of bacon, eggs, and in the distance coffee, and whatever else one could think of to eat for breakfast out there. At night the camp fires, the smores....the singing! Then the sun would start to makes it's appearance for the day.
Campers must be really, really patience people for the most part when it came to our family...
Well, I can't really remember if it was our first night or second night. It was time to head for bed. So mother and dad where in the tent and I think there were three of us kids in the car, {we were small then}. It was the middle of the night and we started to hear a little commotion. I rolled the window down a little to hear what it might be....then there was more and more noise coming from the tent. I could see flash light beams darting around in the tent and could hear mother's commands getting louder and louder, more rustling, and then more noise from mother telling dad to hurry, hurry, get out there, I need to check the kids....well I looked around and we seemed alright. But before we knew it mother had made a "b" line for the car, jumped in the front seat and slammed the door shut. And dad shot out of the tent like "GI Joe" with his big hunting knife in the ready position....by now other campers were up coming around wondering what is going on.....mother had the window down to give more instructions to dad and also shouting something about bears being in our camp! Well now panic was about to set in with me...out of nowhere a ranger showed up..."Well, ya see here what happened" the ranger said... you scared the mama bear, and she in turn sent her cubs up the tree that just happened to be between our car and the tent! Then the mother bear was rustling around in the area to protect her cubs, your lucky she didn't get in your tent! Well about then people started laughing and pointing at dad, even mother was joining in and then us kids....When we figured it out it was pretty hilarious. It seems with all the commotion in the tent, with dad trying to hurry and all to get dressed and mother was trying to get something on to make a brake for the car, when dad pulled on his pants he didn't notice that mother's black brazier got hooked to his back pants pocket. So all that time running around like GI Joe, no shirt, & his bowie knife...he had a hitchhiker in his back pocket! I can tell you it took a while for things to calm down after that. This is a story we still get laughs with time after time!
Oh those camp stories!!
And you know every time we camp at Yosemite we have bears in the camp. Yes, even in the daylight. That's a much shorter story I will tell sometime about making lunch with a bear!

I love these people...

These people are my collection of staff (family) that make up a good part of the "CrazyDayzDewDropInn"......
The Camp Director, The Builder, Tonka Man, BettyBoop, Vet Tech, CDF, Tooth Fairy, Chaps, Chopper Fox, Chadder Box, Chef to Be, Animal Queen, Mr Hole In One, Astrology Mom, Sport Reporter, CIA Guy, (last but not least by a ling shot) The Mighty Touch.....
By backup staff will be: (these are my married siblings)
Dustie Lens Cap & Mr Opinion
Chip off the Old Block & French Toast
Mover & Shaker & Downhill Racer
Bean Counter & The Healer
Party Girl & Travel-n-Man
Now I just have to get the stories together about them.....they should start soon. I have a good one that happened to The Camp Director and The Builder I will write about that tomorrow.

Wow! Where do the years go?

These handsome devils belong to Jared and Liz, and me too! Ethan (8) and Zander (6), they all live in Lehi....it is sure nice to have them close by. I wonder what #3 in January will look like? I would like to think "pink" but we would take "blue" that's for sure...
I love these guys so much as I do all my grandkiddlets....from 21 years down to 6 years...

"Happy First Day of School" my little guys!! Love you, grandma

In the good old summer time.....

It was our Sunday drive back in the late forties...from Oakland, California. Mother, dad, my sister (Rachel) and I would hop in the 1940 something car we had and head toward Walnut Creek (which back then and a ways into the "50's" was a two, yes two lane road)! Now it is a ten lane freeway....

Anyway when we hit the town of Walnut Creek my dad seemed to know right where to go. Of all places it was the Grey Hound Bus Depot! I can still remember after all these years (I think I was about six years old), how the place looked and the ice cream...oh my! It was worth the drive let me tell you! I can still taste the creaminess. At that time my favorite was the lemon custard...

Now why would we travel thirty miles for ice cream? Well is was a two fold thing. We could get the ice cream and then drive around the area where my dad was building some nice homes where families can grow and start great neighborhoods... incidentally, I think it was the later part of 1951 or 2, we bought one of those houses to live in so dad didn't have to commute so far....(from that time on we always lived in or pretty darn close to the area where dad was building so we could somtimes go and have a picnic dinner with him while he was laying out a house). The cost of that little house was around $13,500.00, 3 bed one bath, living room, dinning room, nice kitchen, and about a one and a half car garage where the laundry area was as well. A good size yard too. That same house about five years ago sold for almost $500,000.00. Crazy!

More ice cream stories later....yum

I found it!!

I found it!!! Do you like the picture of me worn out from looking for it?? Yea, I found my camera right in that safe place....you know the one, the very last place you look! And then you say after your three hours of looking everywhere, "oh yes, now I remember". I'm just glad I didn't have to tell the camera gift giver, (my daughter) that I was getting absent minded and lost it.....that would be the worst. So now if I get things together I will add some pictures now and then of the things I love or enjoy....Have a good night

It's Late...

It is passed my bedtime so I will make this short....pretty good day today
Got some things done around the house but more could have been done.
Talked to some friends
Went by the bank,( just to reminisce)
Bought a few provisions for the week
Ended the day with my 15 year old grandson. What a awesome guy! If I could find my camera I would add some pictures......I'm looking for that safe place, you know the one, where you put things and you know you can find them when you need them...
So that's about the size of it today...Oh, one exciting thing. I may have an offer coming on my house, we shall see in a day or so.
Until next time.....don't let the bed bugs bite!

Car Repairs Continue and End

Let me just start by saying, it is not nice to tell a nice lady in 90 degree heat (with no signs of it letting up for awhile) "sorry there are no parts for you cars air conditioning system in the whole U.S.A. for at least 3 to 4 weeks" AND, if you want to be sure you get yours you must pay up front!!! I asked, exactly what parts are we talking about and how MUCH? Well they rattled off a list of things to the tune of $1,600.00's give or take a few! Well I must have sounded like an idiot because all I could keep saying was, "you have got to be kidding" over and over again. Mind you I don't drive a fancy Mass-ear-rati or anything like that. It is a little 2005 PT Crusier, Chrysler......that last word could be the problem.....There will be a lot of "steamed, hot under the collar" Chrysler drivers commuting on the roads you drive on so watch out!

So in the mean time I have figured out (from a friend with the same problem) that you start out with a spray bottle of some nice scented water. Spray yourself down, put the windows down and by the time I get to work I should be dry and smell pretty good, (now if I can just figured out how to drive 65 miles per hour out University Avenue and hit all the green lights) I will have it made!

I'll let you know how it works out.....stay cool til next time!