Wednesday November 14 Journal Entry
It is Wednesday morning November 14 at 11:06 a.m. We had snow on Monday November 12. What a shock to wake up to snow. We haven't had but a sprinkling of snow in our area in about two years. The record holders said this is the earliest in November it has snowed since the 1950s. That is incorrect. A woman I went to school with said in 1991 the first days of November her son was born and there was snow on the ground. I knew it had been a long time since we had much snow, but I didn't think it was way back to the 1950s for our earliest snow fall.
In December of 1952, the month and year I was born, there was snow on the ground. I was born in the Franklin Hospital in Claremore, Oklahoma on December 14, 1952 at about 4:00 a.m. If I remember correctly, mom said there was about two inches on the ground and bitter cold. The hospital wouldn't even let my dad stay in the lobby until I was born. It was to cold to stay in the truck, so he went home. He had been up all night working. He was an auto mechanic. He didn't work on the Sabbath, but after sundown on Saturday night he began his work week. Many of us at that time did not have a telephone in our homes. So my dad gave the hospital my mom's cousin Lavetta's phone number for a contact number. When I was born the hospital called Fred and Lavetta's number to let my dad know. Fred came over to the duplex we lived in and had to knock on the window about three times before my dad was awake enough to come back to the hospital.
The last big snow fall I remember before our blizzards was in 1968. We had snow drifts up the side of our house, which would have been eight foot drifts. We lived quite a ways off the road. We were snowed in for a week and out of school a couple of weeks. The school buses couldn't run and most of the students rode the buses. Mom was snowed in at the Nursing Home where she worked for a week. When the weather got bad back then, she would stay over night at the Nursing Home. She couldn't afford to miss work.
When I was in the fourth grade dad got very sick and had to go to the Veteran's Hospital in Muskogee, Oklahoma. He was gone for about three months. They never found out what the spots were on his lungs. I believe looking back he probably had enphazema. That is what he was later diagnosed with. Mom had never worked outside the home, but with dad so sick she had to go to work. She was seventeen when she married and had only picked cotton, never working outside the home. She had no skills.
God was with us, a lady she knew Carrie Dickerson was getting ready to open a nursing home at 9th and Dorothy in Claremore. Carrie already had a health food bakery. Mom went to work in the bakery. Later helped refurbish the antique furniture that was going to be put in the nursing home. After the opening of the nursing home, mom was the head cook on the evening shift for the first year. The next year she trained as a nurses aid. Worked as an aid for several years, later trained as a Certified Medication Aid (CMA). With working on the floor all those years she had as much knowledge or actually even better than a newly trained LPN or RN. She gave the shots and passed out medicine to the patients. She wanted to get her LPN license, even checked into attending Vo-Tech to obtain her license. The catch was the Vo-Tech didn't want her working full time and going to school. They wanted her to give up her job. She couldn't afford to. So she never obtained her LPN license.
As I have mentioned before, our local church board is having the dinning hall tore out inside and new piers and subfloor installed. The walls are being insulated (never been done since the building was first constructed.) New sheet rock put up and new floor covering. New windows are being installed as well. Taking off the old siding that has been on there since the place was built back in 1952-53, and new siding put up. It had been discussed whether to let those who wanted to volunteer do the work ourselves or have to paid to be done. The kitchen floor and been tore out and redone from the bottom up, new flooring installed and new bottom cabinets. There was a lot of water damage to the floor and bottom cabinets. The board hired a crew to do the kitchen renovations. The decision was made to let volunteers do a lot of the tear out, floors and walls, then hire a crew to redo the floors which included putting in a new subfloor. Volunteers were to insulate the walls and put up new sheet rock. It was then decided to take the old siding off and replace it with new. That was discussed whether to hire a crew or volunteers do that also. The board decided to let the crew tare off the old siding and replace it with new. Cost a little more but done faster than if the volunteers done all the work themselves.
My husband and I had went up a week ago Sunday and started insulating the walls. We got one whole side done and part of the other. Rick worked this past Sunday, but was off on Monday for Veterns Day, so we went back up on Monday and finished the insulation job. Glad that is all done. The room will be warmer and quieter. Some of the volunteers that would have helped has been having other things to take care of on Sundays, so it has been just three of us volunteers working. Bob Cowan done a lot of tearing out of the old floor and the sheet rock off the walls. We had to take down the newly installed top cabinets in the dinning hall side so we could insulate the walls behind there and push it down behind the bottom where the bottom cabinet still remains. The top cabinet had broke in the corner and the owner of the crew came by Monday and said he would take the cabinet down and fix it and put it back up for us. But we needed the top cabinet removed that day. Rick and I took it down. It was a big chore. The screws that were in the cabinet to keep it to the wall wouldn't easily come out. We almost didn't get them off the wall.
I need to try harder to make journal entries daily. The entries are longer than I would like them to be, when I skip a few days. Thanks for reading my journal. Not expecting to see any comments. Just writing down memories and thoughts.
God Bless and Keep you Always,
*Starlight*
In December of 1952, the month and year I was born, there was snow on the ground. I was born in the Franklin Hospital in Claremore, Oklahoma on December 14, 1952 at about 4:00 a.m. If I remember correctly, mom said there was about two inches on the ground and bitter cold. The hospital wouldn't even let my dad stay in the lobby until I was born. It was to cold to stay in the truck, so he went home. He had been up all night working. He was an auto mechanic. He didn't work on the Sabbath, but after sundown on Saturday night he began his work week. Many of us at that time did not have a telephone in our homes. So my dad gave the hospital my mom's cousin Lavetta's phone number for a contact number. When I was born the hospital called Fred and Lavetta's number to let my dad know. Fred came over to the duplex we lived in and had to knock on the window about three times before my dad was awake enough to come back to the hospital.
The last big snow fall I remember before our blizzards was in 1968. We had snow drifts up the side of our house, which would have been eight foot drifts. We lived quite a ways off the road. We were snowed in for a week and out of school a couple of weeks. The school buses couldn't run and most of the students rode the buses. Mom was snowed in at the Nursing Home where she worked for a week. When the weather got bad back then, she would stay over night at the Nursing Home. She couldn't afford to miss work.
When I was in the fourth grade dad got very sick and had to go to the Veteran's Hospital in Muskogee, Oklahoma. He was gone for about three months. They never found out what the spots were on his lungs. I believe looking back he probably had enphazema. That is what he was later diagnosed with. Mom had never worked outside the home, but with dad so sick she had to go to work. She was seventeen when she married and had only picked cotton, never working outside the home. She had no skills.
God was with us, a lady she knew Carrie Dickerson was getting ready to open a nursing home at 9th and Dorothy in Claremore. Carrie already had a health food bakery. Mom went to work in the bakery. Later helped refurbish the antique furniture that was going to be put in the nursing home. After the opening of the nursing home, mom was the head cook on the evening shift for the first year. The next year she trained as a nurses aid. Worked as an aid for several years, later trained as a Certified Medication Aid (CMA). With working on the floor all those years she had as much knowledge or actually even better than a newly trained LPN or RN. She gave the shots and passed out medicine to the patients. She wanted to get her LPN license, even checked into attending Vo-Tech to obtain her license. The catch was the Vo-Tech didn't want her working full time and going to school. They wanted her to give up her job. She couldn't afford to. So she never obtained her LPN license.
As I have mentioned before, our local church board is having the dinning hall tore out inside and new piers and subfloor installed. The walls are being insulated (never been done since the building was first constructed.) New sheet rock put up and new floor covering. New windows are being installed as well. Taking off the old siding that has been on there since the place was built back in 1952-53, and new siding put up. It had been discussed whether to let those who wanted to volunteer do the work ourselves or have to paid to be done. The kitchen floor and been tore out and redone from the bottom up, new flooring installed and new bottom cabinets. There was a lot of water damage to the floor and bottom cabinets. The board hired a crew to do the kitchen renovations. The decision was made to let volunteers do a lot of the tear out, floors and walls, then hire a crew to redo the floors which included putting in a new subfloor. Volunteers were to insulate the walls and put up new sheet rock. It was then decided to take the old siding off and replace it with new. That was discussed whether to hire a crew or volunteers do that also. The board decided to let the crew tare off the old siding and replace it with new. Cost a little more but done faster than if the volunteers done all the work themselves.
My husband and I had went up a week ago Sunday and started insulating the walls. We got one whole side done and part of the other. Rick worked this past Sunday, but was off on Monday for Veterns Day, so we went back up on Monday and finished the insulation job. Glad that is all done. The room will be warmer and quieter. Some of the volunteers that would have helped has been having other things to take care of on Sundays, so it has been just three of us volunteers working. Bob Cowan done a lot of tearing out of the old floor and the sheet rock off the walls. We had to take down the newly installed top cabinets in the dinning hall side so we could insulate the walls behind there and push it down behind the bottom where the bottom cabinet still remains. The top cabinet had broke in the corner and the owner of the crew came by Monday and said he would take the cabinet down and fix it and put it back up for us. But we needed the top cabinet removed that day. Rick and I took it down. It was a big chore. The screws that were in the cabinet to keep it to the wall wouldn't easily come out. We almost didn't get them off the wall.
I need to try harder to make journal entries daily. The entries are longer than I would like them to be, when I skip a few days. Thanks for reading my journal. Not expecting to see any comments. Just writing down memories and thoughts.
God Bless and Keep you Always,
*Starlight*
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