Opinion

September started off the fall season with a bang

Friday, September 25, 2015

In the East schools formerly didn't start until the middle of September, so the month always meant big changes for me. We went back to D.C. for the school year. We settled back in our former home. The weather usually changed enough that I had to get out fall clothing, at least for the first day of school.

Back home here this September has had big changes for me even though I am no longer in school nor do I have children to get ready for school. But it seemed like I still had many changes. Two of those changes were caused because I was so old.

I was honored at the Vernon County Farm Bureau celebration of the 100th year of the Farm Bureau in Missouri. Oh wait, don't think that I am THAT old. But I was old enough to still be alive to accept or share with the local members of Farm Bureau the activities of my father (before I was born) which led to his serving three terms as president of the Missouri Farm Bureau. Since the American Farm Bureau is what brought our family to Washington for the school years for two decades I guess I did my part in making the experience good for all of us. If you do your math you can see that my older sister Ellen and I had all of our public school training in Washington. Four of our older siblings had the latter parts of their education there after starting in Pleasant Ridge School on what is now 900 Road. The oldest two were college level so they had all of their public school here, and Miriam, in addition, had two years at Cottey College.

Back to the present, the following weekend the Ellis Domestic Science Club celebrated its 100 years in existence and since my mother was one of the charter members and had worked to get the club started back in September 1915, I did what I could do to help pull up the old pictures of the club that my mother had and again found several pictures that I wasn't in, because I hadn't even been born yet. But I was very happy that I could be a part of this celebration, which I knew my mother would have been so proud of.

Now things go on for the future. Community Choir starts rehearsing tonight which I know Wes Morton is glad to know, that won't affect me except that Shirley is my transportation to AAUW tonight and is also a member of AAUW and AAUW is having their first meeting of the year tonight and we are asked to bring new member possibilities. I think I have it worked out that she will take me to AAUW, stay the first hour or so, then go to the high school for the rehearsal. When the meeting is over, friends from AAUW are taking me to the Cottey Library where our daughter Susan will be at work. I will stay there until Shirley comes back to get me. Doesn't that sound confusing for someone who has driven herself since she was 11 years old?

Add two visits to two different doctors this week, and a visit to the ER, add a weekend visit from our great-granddaughter and her family, add a birthday party for two different great-grandchildren, and add a new ailment that I am sure no other 90 year old woman has -- arthritis in my shoulder and neck which was treated with a shot in my shoulder. That caused me to take a couple of pain pills, which caused me to sleep like a zombie until after 10 a.m.

So, how's that for ending a summer that was filled with sitting on our deck, keeping track of where and when our family took off from or returned to, playing Internet Scrabble with something like 13 opponents, and greeting joyfully our friends from the church that brought us luscious food once a week?

I enjoy both scenarios, but I am wishing for more time for my reading this month, so maybe I can blend the two types of months and have a relatively quiet October, but seeing my friends, and getting out some.

Did I forget talking about watching two or three game shows on the Game Show Network and following "America has Talent?" And I'll probably start watching "The Voice" since "American Ninja Warriors" is over I need to keep up my cultural level.