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During all the turmoil in our country now, I find myself thinking about our family tree. If you know me at all, you know that I have spent countless hours tracking our ancestors, compiling family data and being amazed at what a large collection of cousins that we have! We have I think, every nationality and race included in our family tree. We truly are an All American family! We are part of the great melting pot of people that is our America.

One little detail that I will mention in regards to our family tree database. There is no entry to designate what race/nationality someone might be. If there is one in the program, I have never bothered to look for it as I feel that is serves no purpose. I know we have represented in our tree, Native American, Chinese, Black, Syrian, Germans, Polish, French, Irish, Hispanic and many more , a true melting pot of colors and nationalities. They all make up our family tree.

I am going to spotlight one family on our tree today. This is the Decker family. They are the last of my direct ancestors to arrive in this country. They arrived in the U.S.A. on August 8, 1892. At that time, it was the parents and 3 children, 3 more children were born in the U.S.A. My grandmother was the 2nd oldest girl in the family and she married the son of French Canadian immigrants. Her oldest sister was married about 1903 to a fellow immigrant from Syria ,of all places. I always found this interesting. They came from such different worlds and surely did not speak the same native language, but somehow fell in love and married in this country. On researching the Syrians that came to this country in that time period, I was surprised to find that they were mostly of the Christian faith and came to this country for Religious reasons, in other words fleeing the Muslim persecution.

Today our country is boiling over with race riots, violence, murders, anarchy of all kinds. Do I have white guilt? No, i certainly do not, nor do I expect any one else to have any guilt about the color of their skin. We are almost all of us the children of immigrants in this country, built on freedom of religion and equality for all. Do we have some problems, well sure we do. We are all flawed human beings. None of us is perfect, myself included. We can do better but we could also do much worse. What is happening in our country right now can only make things worse. I will get off the soapbox now, back to regular programming. LOL

Patti and I made the move to the deep south just a little of a year ago. Did we put ourselves smack dab in the middle of a race riot? Well, I am very pleased and happy to report that NO we did not. There were a couple of peaceful protests in Tupelo. But, get this, the protesters marched along main street with the Mayor joining in, the peaceful protest ended with a “listening ” session at the Park. This involved many aldermen, police, elected officials listening and responding to the people’s concerns. what a concept. This was peaceful protest, the kind of protest that can effect change and improvement. Myself, having lived in the Twin Cities and St Louis, am very glad to have landed in Tupelo. God Bless the U.S.A.

Finally we are done painting the cabinets and putting up backsplash. Patti also installed some racks in the pantry to hold baking pans etc in an upright position. We had gotten pressure rods but they did not stay up, so some modification was in order. Power tool Patti to the rescue! She also designed and made a holder for cutting boards that is attached to a lower cabinet door on the inside. We are getting way too organized?!?! LOL

Here is picture of the whole kitchen. The lower cabinets and the pantry to the right of the fridge are actually a shade darker gray, but not really a very noticeable difference.

All the cupboards were done with slightly less than 2 quarts of paint. We used Valspar cabinet enamel. Water clean up and covered well (2 coats).

Here are separate views of each side.

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We took some of the cupboard doors off when we moved in last summer and we are much happier with that “style”. Easier to see where everything is and I think it also reminds you to be a little more tidy!

We also had a new kitchen sink and faucet installed earlier this week (before we finished the cupboards on that side) Looks really great so now the whole kitchen looks brand new…….well except for that fridge, you know the one that Patti won’t let me paint!

We also were able to take a Sunday drive over to Alabama to visit cousins. Our first cousin Lisa and granddaughter were down from Illinois visiting Lisa’s daughter and her family. We had a wonderful visit. It’s always so fun to see relatives isn’t it?

About the only other thing new is that we finally went out to a genuine sit down restaurant. What a treat that was after all these months, we certainly have missed that big time! We went to IHOP, it wasn’t busy at all, only a few other tables occupied. I was kinda expecting long waiting lines with the limited capacity that they all have at this time, so it was a pleasant surprise to be able to “walk right in , set right down”!!

And you too, could walk right in, set right down……. just hawl your ass to Tupelo.

The guest room has some open availability yet this summer! AND Elvis’ birth place and museum is now back open and ready for visitors. Life is good!

We have been just sitting around and watching the zucchini grow!!! You may not be able to see it in the picture but there are baby zucchinis in there! The cucumbers are going great guns too and the tomatos and peppers and we are even trying to grow potatoes in a pot..will let you know how that works out!

Honestly though, the zucchini watching is only our leisure activity! We have started work on the kitchen and oh my what a project. Almost to the half way point so will share some pictures of the progress so far. We started out with ugly brownish painted cupboards. The paint pallette is now light gray on the uppers with a shade darker on the bottoms.

Here’s what it looked like before we started.

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Here’s a picture during the paint process.

The inside of the upper cabinets were not painted as we have zero intention of ever using them. We have plenty of storage without more ladder climbing!

And here we go with pictures of the finished uppers!

Still to go–is installing the new back splash and of course painting the bottoms and the pantry that is to the right of the fridge. Today is rainy and dreary so may just take the day off or maybe we’ll get inspired to get back to work, time will tell.

A big thank you also to cousin Teresa Parrow who recommended a cleaner for our old formica countertops. Countertop Magic is what she suggested and it lived up to its name!

Businesses are gradually reopening here in Tupelo, although we haven’t gone out to eat yet, it is for sure on our to-do list , probably sooner than later if we get to “tearing up the kitchen” again!

We enjoyed watching Kaylee’s high school graduation (Lisbon) on line this last weekend. Not like being there but so glad at least the families were all able to attend and send them on their way to the future. It is an important milestone for these young people and something that should not be missed.

Thinking of you all and hoping everyone is well and prospering. Our guest room is open whenever you get the urge to travel! Keep smiling!

So if anyone needed any proof that my mind/memory is not what it once was, then here is the proof!

The inspiration for my original blog about names was a name that I ran across and then I totally forgot to even mention it in my post. SMH

We had quite a long online chat going with our internet provider last week, trying to install a new box that they sent out for us. Supposedly very simple to install. Yeah, well maybe for a teenager, not so simple for the old ladies it turned out. Our chat helper was named “Damanjeet” Which I had to google of course, a masculine name from the Punjabi area (India). His grasp of written English was quite good and we were eventually able to get the TV back up and running, bless his heart.

But the name gave me a chuckle….can you see his mom yelling out to the yard ?? DAM DAM DAM where are you? well, I can’t help it..thats how my mind works!

Cousin Kathleen reminded me of another name in our family tree that I missed. Eufersine, yeah that’s another winner in the odd name category! Some others I had forgotten about too, like Marvelton (Another super hero!) and Cashmer and one of my personal favorites, Teckla, she was one of my grandma’s cousins and I remember her talking about her. I always that it was an unusual name.

So on another subject, our neighbors across the street aren’t doing so well with their social distancing. Last nite they had a big blow up slide thingy set up and a whole bunch of kids over for a party. Not the first time they have had company over during the “stay at home” either. Hope they keep it over there if they all get sick. Gosh.

This morning we had our front landscaping refreshed with the areas all scraped out and new barricade cloth put down and lots of big ole rocks on top. They sure did a nice job and the 4 of them knocked it out in a couple hours. It would have taken us days so very glad we hired that project out. They originally were supposed to be here a couple weeks ago but they got put on non essential status and had to cancel , but now are back to work.

The only glitch was that they started at 8 a.m.—way too early for all the commotion they caused with our doggies. But we are happy it’s another thing off the do to list!

Till next time!

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is a popular reference to William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet seems to argue that it does not matter that Romeo is from her family’s rival house of Montague, that is, that he is named “Montague.

Having lived with an unusual name and being interested in family and genealogy research, I have always had an interest in names, especially unusual names. So many times I have wished that I had a name like Mary Jones! It is amazing the different pronunciations that people can come up with for my name. I especially have to pay close attention when waiting for an appointment to see how they will pronounce my name. This sometimes means that I wait to see if any one else gets up or wait for them to try saying it again! I have been called LaRue, LaRee, Larry, and the every popular Lorraine! And having a long German name for the second half doesn’t help the process either!

One of my favorite stories for my name mispronunciation was a regular customer that got it in his head that my name was Lorraine. I just answered to that for quite a spell, but then one day, I said to him, you know my name is LaRae, not Lorraine, no N. Well, I thought he understood me, but from that time forward, guess what he called me!? Yep, No N. Might have been better just to let it go, ya think?

So in the family tree, some of the more unusual names are Agrippa, Cletus, Halaron, Thrasilla and my personal favorite, Twinkle Claramae. I don’t even have a comment for that last one but it makes me smile when ever I see it, so good job to the namer of that child!

I grew up with a young man named Eldean, which I didn’t find unusual at the time, but after living all these years and never meeting another Eldean or even hearing of any one else by that name, I guess that qualifies for unique! To me that name sounds like an alias for a super hero, hm….not sure why, as I have never seen the gentleman in question changing clothes in a phone booth, so my apologies for my flight of fancy there! But best keep on eye on him anyway.

Nicknames and shorteners are another issue entirely. Sister Patricia goes by Patti, but other Patricias are called Pat or Trish or Tricia so you have lots of options there. So many of the kids that I grew up with had nicknames, indeed some I’m not even sure what their actual names were. I remember Smokey and Sparrow and Tex for starters, Oh and PeeWee and Pedro, gosh there were a lot! LOL

I am sure you all have your favorite “Odd” names, so be sure to share!

We are mostly practicing our social distancing here in Tupelo. Spending lots of time at home working in the yard. Its hard to stay indoors and do anything when the weather is so nice. So far the violent storms have steered clear, but we continue to be blessed with too much rain. Gas prices are very nice, I think 1.40 was the latest price, makes a person want to take a road trip! I wonder how long it will take to go back up once all the travel restrictions are lifted. Not long would be my guess!

Keep safe everyone and keep smiling!

So, Sister Patti said to me today- “you haven’t blogged in awhile?” My response was that ” I had nothing to say” to which she laughed and laughed. Hmm…maybe she knows me too well?!

Along with every one else, we have learned new phrases and societal rules like “shelter in place” and 6 feet of separation and all the other restrictions and requirements in our world these days. Luckily, we had an ample supply of toilet paper before the run on that, but we could have used some hand sanitizer. Patti did find a recipe for making your own so we now have disinfectant wipes, thank you very much Sis!

The weather temps have been warming up here nicely and we are anxious to get working on the yard- HOWEVER- we have also had way too much rain making it quite impossible to do much. I have started some seeds indoors and one way of the other, we will have veggies planted in a week or two! And of course—flowers!! don’t forget the flowers! One chore that we are not enjoying is mopping up after the dogs. With all the puddles and soggy ground, it is next to impossible to get them cleaned off well enough to not track all over the floors. And playing ball with them is pretty much a no go item at this point also.. We will all rejoice with hot weather and drier skies!! I wonder if the outside temps will affect the virus? I seem to remember reading something about it, that it did not like heat. Well, if that is true, come on Mississippi summer!!

Another big plan we had for this spring–A garage sale! yippee—oh but wait…can’t even get a garage sale permit with city offices closed….and of course not a good idea with the risk of infection. Our corner of the world is relatively virus free (so far) but still…that whole idea is on hold for now. We are all going to have so much to do when this “thing” is past us!

I hope everyone is well and following the new guidelines as well as possible. We have braved the groceries a few times and have at least enough food for a couple weeks. A lot of shelves bare in the stores here. Hamburger was an especially difficult thing to find. One store had it on sale-Saturday only- however the line to get hamburger was practically out the door. Needless to say, I decided we didn’t need it that badly. One can live without hamburger and quite a lot of other things too. We won’t starve! A favorite in our house is good old Campbell’s tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches! And the occasional supper of pancakes are a weekly meal also! Do you’all have a stand by–easy fixin’ meal that is always on the menu? This might be a good time to exchange recipes?! Oh and Patti found a lady that sells fresh eggs too! We are gradually finding our way around our city–oops don’t tell anyone–we are spose to be staying home LOL

Keep Smiling! This too will pass.

We are gradually visiting more of the local tourist attractions! Earlier in February Tanya came to visit us for a few days! It was so great to see her and we had fun doing some touristy things! Plus she brought along with her a new addition to our household, Patti’s new puppy, Zoey. She is a toy Schnauzer and quite the little scamp!

Of course the Elvis birthplace got another visit. I wonder how many times we will see this, as I am sure every visitor will want to go there!

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We also visited some battlefields, one was the Tupelo Battlefield, which is close to our house. This is a small park as the city as enroached on the property over the years. There are a couple of monuments and cannons. There are 2 tombstones and many unmarked graves. The stones that are there were put up fairly recently.

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We also drove up to Baldwyn, MS to the Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield. There is a very informative Interpretative site with many displays in addition to the battlefield sites nearby and a Confederate cemetery. I didn’t realize that Mississippi was the 2nd state to leave the Union. There were many Civil war battles fought in this state.

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One of the displays there was the bugle with all of the bugle calls that were used during battle. They used different bugle “songs” to indicate what the soldiers should do next, like charge, retreat, etc. We enjoyed pushing all the buttons and listening to the bugle calls!

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My favorite was the visit to the Natchez Trace Parkway Visitor Center. The Natchez trace runs from Natchez, MS to close to Nashville, TN. It is 444 miles through 3 states. It is part of the National Park System. The visitor center is located on the Trace in Tupelo. They had a wonderful short video about the Trace and it’s history, along with displays, etc.

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We also had lunch one day at Johnnie’s Drive In in Tupelo. This was a diner that Elvis liked to frequent and features HIS booth, complete with a picture of him sitting in it. The entire diner is filled with old photos and memorabilia. Very interesting and the burgers were excellent also!

We also saw this tshirt in one of the gift shops and thought it was cute!

Yep no shortage of gift shops!

I can’t close this blog without mentioning all of our rain! We have totally lost track of how many inches or how many times we have dumped our rain bucket. Needless to say, the ground is saturated and we can’t keep the floors clean with the dogs running in and out. But we aren’t flooded out like some areas that are close to rivers and creeks, so we have nothing major to complain about !

And on a very positive note, the daffodils are blooming—Spring is in the air!

So winter is here and we have been spending a lot of time binge watching TV and knitting and crocheting. So far we have made it through Designated Survivor and working our way through This is Us, both of which we have enjoyed. But it brings to mind one of my pet peeves and that is movies and tv shows that are “Based on a true story” or “inspired by a true story”. I always cringe when I see this before the title. I enjoy reading autobiographies and biographies and am amazed with the triumphs and tragedies that make up a person’s life. BUT why oh why does “Hollywood” feel they have to add so much more drama to peoples stories. And the other thing that really gets my goat is all the people that believe these “based on true stories” and think they are the gospel truth. If you are one of these people, you may want to stop reading now and go back to scrolling on facebook or doing your laundry of something…You have been warned!

Speaking of laundry, this week I made a trip to the laundromat. Goodness, I had not been to a laundromat in so many years, can’t say I miss it. No, our washer is not on the blink, but with 2 dogs and rainy season, it was past time to gather up all the throw rugs and get ’em washed! But I digress, back to my rant…..LOL

So the absolutely worst example of this based on a true story crap has to be The Butler, oh yes, critically acclaimed and if I remember correctly, won a lot of awards. Well, hell, about the only thing true in this movie was the fact that there were indeed black butlers during the time frame and that at least one for sure was still alive to vote for a black man for president. The rest of the story depicted is nothing but made up garbage. Supposedly, the story was based on the life of Eugene Allen who lived from 1919-2010. You won’t see his name in the movie as the lead character (Butler) however, as they ventured so far from his life story that it bore no relationship to him, and they “made up” a name for the character. One of the first scenes from the movie depicted the lead character as a young boy with his slave parents. Well, if you need a history lesson, the Civil War ended in 1865 so right out of the gate we have a major problem with timeline. I won’t bore you with all of the made up details, but like I said above, so very little actually pertained to the real butler that supposedly the movie was based on. My question I guess is why do they feel the need to pretend it is based on a person’s true story, why can’t they just admit it’s just a story?

The other movie that comes to mind and one that I enjoyed even though it was full of made up crap was The Blind Side. Very inspiring story of a white family that adopted a black teenage boy. But again, as I was watching this movie, some things just didn’t ring true. For example, the scene where they pick up this black teenager that they don’t know from Adam alongside the road , take him home with them, and he spends the night etc. Well, sorry, but this is pretty far fetched. If you loved this movie I strongly suggest that you read the book written by the parents in 2010, one year after the movie came out. I think they felt the need to set a few details straight. I found their REAL story to be so much more believable and inspiring and here again, why did Hollywood feel the need to add all the bullshit.

Well, there are many others, but you get the idea!

We have been dealing with torrential rain, but keep thanking our lucky stars that it is NOT SNOW! We do keep track of the weather “Up Nort” and hope you are all staying warm! Reservations still available in our guest room, please call for availability!

2020- whoever thought we would see this yearly number? It just boggles the mind so think how long we have been on this earth.

Patti and I took a little Tupelo tour on New Year’s Eve Day. There were big doings planned in downtown for that night, but we were pretty sure it was all after our bed times, so we went exploring in the daylight!

One of the things we wanted to check out was this big Arena. We are planning to attend an event there next month so it was time to scope it out. They had the arena open that day for ice skating. Who knew that there was ice skating in Mississippi, we didn’t. A lot of people were enjoying the ice.

We parked right by where the New Years Ball was going to be lit and dropped at midnight so we got to see them practicing running the ball up and down the side of the building. check out the “hanger” on top, the ball was suspended from a guitar. Well, what else would you expect from the home of Elvis’ birthplace?

Also this year is Tupelo’s 150th year anniversary. Lots of events planned for the whole year in celebration so we are keeping an eye on that for sure!

WELL—prisoners here wear green stripes. They had a prison work crew out helping with set up. Good idea, put ’em to work!

A lot of work and planning went into the New Years event with big stages set up on the street downtown for the 4 bands and dj’s that were providing music. A giant beach ball drop zone at the park entrance.

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Another interesting art exhibit was in this area too. It is named the Alzheimer tree. A tree welded from metal and hung with dog tags.

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We also “found” a new bakery and started our year out with some wonderful bakery bread. Life is good!

2020 has started out well. We did venture out on New Year’s day to do a little shopping but spent most of the day taking The Christmas tree down and getting all the trimmings packed away till next year. We are ready for 2020, let the good times roll!

Christmas is a time for remembering. I don’t really remember the Christmas from this picture but it looks like it was a happy time. One of the things that always sticks out, is that we had oyster stew on Christmas eve. This supposedly was an Irish tradition, so I’m not sure where or why or how our family started this tradition, but it was a constant every Christmas eve. I remember I didn’t like the oysters, but ate the broth part with the oyster crackers. And that was the only time all year that we had the fancy oyster crackers too! We got to open one gift on Christmas eve and the rest had to wait until after dinner on Christmas day and the dishes were done. Mom always had so many baked goodies and cookies and pie. It makes the mouth water just remembering!

Another tradition was the Christmas turkey dinner with all the fixings! And of course, Grandma and Dad were there always. I like the fancy tablecloth over the top of the everyday vinyl too. Gosh we put on the ritz!

Ah yes…Zigsaw puzzles. I wonder how many of these were put together over Christmas break? And card games were also another must do in our home.

Snow—another constant memory from Christmas. I don’t remember ever having a Christmas in North Dakota that didn’t have snow, do you?

gosh this picture is poor, but looks like somebody got a fun toy that year! Another thing that happened at Christmas or during the school break was making ice cream in the old crank freezer. Nothing was ever as good as that!

Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Gosh we had our share of these. I think they must have sent all the reject trees to Havana? And do you remember the Christmas catalogs? We used to get at least two, maybe Montgomery Wards (Monkey Wards LOL) and Sears? They were almost all pages of toys and they were dog eared and worn out before Santa ever thought of leaving the Pole on his journeys!

I always remember the Christmas program at school. And after the program, Santa would come in the back of the crowd and all the kiddies would get a little brown lunch sack with goodies. I’m not sure just what all was in there, but I think maybe peanuts and hard candy but for sure I remember the Chocolate drops. they were my favorites!

Merry Christmas to everyone ! I hope you all have wonderful memories of Christmas traditions and those loved ones no longer with us, except in our hearts forever!