Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Palm by Court

Kay's Pic : She says they had a fair amount of wind last night.
Barb says:
We discussed the demise of this palm while the players were still in the park. It looks like nature may have taken care of it. By the way, if any of you would like a closer view of any of these single photos, clicking on the picture will make it bigger.
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Sling shot

Max & Mary Pierce are ready for an air raid!

 
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Ron and Elaine Wingert's cactus

From Kay V.
These are Ron and Elaine Wingert's cactus! Just notice how neat the flowers are and there are 2 big "pods" ready to develop! They are all flat to the ground....such a nice surprise!
 
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Tuesday, April 17, 2007

From Kay Voss

Click on the album below to see all of the pictures (5). Kay Voss says,"I lost the"Easter Bunny" in the neighboring junk yard--but this morning found 2 horses!!!! Interesting place...the rest of the pictures are of the Magnolia tree by the mail boxes. It sure smells good, but you better look before you sniff---bees love the blossoms also!"

Barb says:
I would love to see these blossoms up close. We may stay late some year.;-)


Magnolia Blossoms

Friday, April 13, 2007

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The tree with a new haircut

Well I told you that I would let you know if there was any damage to the mobile where the tree top fell, so here it is.. No damage to the mobile but the tree got a haircut from the park.. The top of the tree was decayed and that was what caused the top to go in the wind.... They went ahead and trimmed it back to where it wouldn't break off any more.. Dennis says that it will leaf out and be thicker with a little time.. If he had of left the other top on it would have fell in the future and got the mobile for sure, so it was the time to do it.. Just thought you would like to know.. For those of you up NORTH the weather is just great and no snow to shovel or furnace to run.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Easter Bunny

Kay Voss got a picture of the Easter bunny while on a walk in Magnolia Park. Thanks Kay! It is too darn cold up north for the Easter bunny and everybody else too.

 
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Sunday, April 08, 2007

Updated Kitchen is ready to serve

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Don and Eva getting the serving table ready

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Nice crowd for Easter Sunday

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Ladies dishing up the dessert

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Vivian McAllister

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Easter Sunday at Magnolia Park

The folks at Magnolia Park still celebrate Easter Sunday together by having Easter Dinner at Allen Hall.. We had a nice crowd. Don and Barbara Howard did a lot of work putting things together along with a lot of help from various other people. Don said that he counted 59 at the tables after everyone was seated. The food was just great and as always there was plenty. Everyone was invited back at 5:00 o'clock to see if we could finish it up.. HA HA We even had Vivian McAllister to visit us from the nurseing home. She sure looks great for every thing she has been through.. She was all smiles to see everyone.. So as you can see, we at Magnolia Park are still alive and well.. We just miss some of our Magnolia Family that had to go NORTH so early..

A little wind damage


Well the weather hasn't been too nice for the last day or so.. Kind of wet and windy and real cool for this time of year. Last night we had wind all night and this morning I heard of the top of this tree falling over.. I don't think that there was any damage to the mobile though.. It is Max and Mary Pierce's place so you know where you are at.. If there is any damage I will be able to tell after they clean the tree up.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

A Favorite columnist of mine

AT THE MIDDLE PASSAGE

By Walter Mills


Mabel and Elsie Are Leaving

Now that I have gotten to the point in life where I spend a few moments
every morning with the obituary section of the newspaper, I have come to
realize that we are fast losing a generation of Elsies and Lotties,
Minnies and Mabels.

These are the women in their 80s and 90s who saw the Great Depression
in its entirety, whose fathers were off fighting the First World War
while there was still something called the Austro-Hungarian Empire to
fight against. They were young women in their 20s and 30s when the
Second World War left them alone on the Home Front, listening to radio
reports from Europe where their husbands and brothers were fighting the
last good war of the century.

Their obituaries often have a great similarity - "She was a homemaker
who enjoyed quilting and gardening. She had six children, two of whom
preceded her in death. She was active in her church and was a member of
the Ladies Auxiliary Fire Department and the Ladies Aid Society."

They lived in a time when the country was still largely rural, when
canning and quilting were both a necessity and a social activity. Many
of them attended one-room schoolhouses and were married in the same
country church where their parents had wed and next to which their great
grandparents were buried. They did not often move far from the place
where they were born.

In the small-town newspapers of fifty years ago, their comings and
goings were recorded on the social page: "Charles and Sadie Tewksbury
report a visit for the month of June from her cousin, Minnie Cooper and
her husband Roy Cooper of Elmira, New York, along with their four
children." Family reunions, church suppers, Red Cross meetings were the
everyday entertainments and news events in the times between and after
the wars.

For the most part these women stayed at home and took care of the house
and children, or worked on the family farm. Most of them married for a
lifetime, and almost all of them outlived their husbands, and often a
child or two. They were accustomed to loss, to hard work, and their
rewards were usually intangible - a clean home, respectful children, a
place in the community.

Along with the loss of the Netties and the Irmas we are seeing a decline
in the great tradition of sociability, of social and civic activities,
that was a defining characteristic of America for its first 150 years.

I recently came across an article by Robert Putnam, a Harvard
sociologist, called "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital".
By almost any calculation, Putnam says, we are losing our connectedness
to each other as well as our sense of civic responsibility. In one
whimsical example he discovered that although more people than ever go
bowling, bowling leagues are in a drastic decline. Shriners and Lions
Clubs, Elks and Jaycees, women's clubs and Red Cross volunteering have
all taken nosedives.

Alexis de Tocqueville, one of the earliest observers of America, saw in
us a nation of joiners, forever forming associations. Our habit of civic
democracy on a local level was what made our national democracy so
successful, he believed.

As I write this I can glance out the window and see across an open field
to the Grange Hall, an old building with peeling white paint. One
Thursday evening a month a small group still gathers for Grange
meetings, but I cannot imagine that it is not the last remnants of what
was once only one of many strong and active civic organizations.

Putnam's disheartening message is that it is social interconnection that
assures a healthy democratic society, and from voting to volunteering at
the parent-teacher group to regular church-going to bowling in leagues,
we are no longer a nation of social people. Instead we are small units,
wrapped up in our own insularity in front of the television with a DVD,
or plugging ourselves into the disembodied Internet.

Their names sound strange to our modern ears - Lottie and Minnie and
Mabel. The sound of a far different, and some would say, better
generation. Funny old ladies with old-fashioned names. But will the
Grange Hall be empty when they have gone away?



(The above column originally appeared in the Centre Daily Times and is
copyright © 2007 by Walter Mills. All rights reserved worldwide. To
contact Walt, address your emails to wmills@chilitech.com ).

_______________________________________

Monday, April 02, 2007

From Bernie Houle

Well we finally got home at 10 PM. What a trip. Rain from the Texas border to South Dakota and then snow. Tornadoes in Oklahoma City and tornadoe watches in Kansas and Nebraska. Well I am going to bed after 10 hours of driving against the wind.

Bernie