The Music is Silent Now

Those of you who have been following this blog over the past year may recall a post I wrote from Oscar Scherer State Park last year about Betty and Carl . Carl plays a banjo and sings upwards of 300 American folk songs. The real folk songs which define our heritage from the beginning century of our country. Betty, his wife strummed along with a homemade percussion instrument and tried to keep him on track. Every Wednesday evening they would entertain the campers in the park while we ate ice cream. On Thursday afternoons, a group of local musicians playing all sorts of instruments would gather at the activity center and jam under thier guidance. They were warm and welcoming to anyone who chose to participate regardless of  level of skill. Betty had a sweet smile and gentle giggle and always appeared to be enjoying herself even as she listened to Carl's endless stream of jokes which she must have heard over and over.

We were disappointed when we arrived this year to find that Betty has passed away recently of breast cancer. There is no music this year as Carl is taking time to grieve. We hope that he will return next year and we will enjoy him as much as ever, but it will be a different kind of enjoyment without Betty's sweet countenance sitting beside him and drumming on her whatchamacallit. Betty, you will be missed by so many more people than you could imagine. People who have sat in the crowd admiring you from afar, but never got the chance to know you personally.

The Eagle Has Landed

Actually, it is Bertha who has landed in sometimes sunny Florida. Mind you I am not complaining about the weather. Today was perfect - sunny, low 70's, open golf course. What is wrong with this picture? Nothing.

It was a bit of adventure getting here. After our whirlwind holidays and quick turnaround to get on the road, too tired to cook, we treated ourselves to dinner out in Chattanooga at Applebe's. About 2 bites into his meal Don bit into something that viciously cracked a tooth. I say viciously because this was no ordinary cracked tooth. This was broken in two pieces held in place only by the gum.

Hence we called our son Mike, in Atlanta whom we were scheduled to visit for the week-end and asked him for a dental referral. His Dentist, Dr. Blat, was so obliging that she took him in immediately upon our arrival in town. She temporarily cemented his tooth into a tolerable position for the week-end, and first thing Monday morning she accommodated our schedule and worked on him for at least 5 hours to finish the job so we could be on our way early Tuesday morning.

This isn't really about Georgia dentistry though, it is about Georgia hospitality. It's about a professional who went above and beyond any expectations to meet our unreasonable demands in the most timely fashion. The moment we walked into the office, the receptionists greeted us like old friends. The were warm and cheerful and wanted to know all about our lifestyle. Then, of course there is our Georgia native daughter-in-law, Elizabeth. Even though I make jokes about her being stuck with her in-laws longer than planned, she never fails to make us feel like we belong there as long as we wish to stay. Then there is Drew who is three and just learning his social skills who broke my heart when instead of saying good-bye, he said "Why are you leaving Grammy?"

I have always been proud to come from the Midwest, particularly Chicago, where we have a reputation for friendliness, but since our son became a part of the Georgia culture, we have been subjected to large doses of Southern hospitality and believe me we have a long way to go before we come close to meeting their standard.

By the way, if you ever need a dentist in Atlanta we strongly recommend Dr. Blat for her skill as well as her obliging nature.

Christmas with the Chilsons

Wow what a celebration! Our holidays lasted almost two weeks, starting on Dec. 23 and running (literally) through New Year's Day. We had two days at home to put away Christmas and load up the RV and here we are scarcely two weeks later sitting in Atlanta at Mike and Elizabeth's on our way to Florida for the winter.  I never thought I could be this tired and live, but it is such a good tired generated by lots of time with all 7 of the grand kids and all 6 of their parents.

We started with a small Christmas celebration for the Chicago Pattersons which includes my brother, Jim, nieces and nephews, Lindsay, Jason, Johanna, Marin, and Emily. Marin has such a precious outlook on Christmas. When she spied our manger scene, she was awestruck. She said "look, Lindsay, it's Jesus" with the same fervor that a preteen would have said of Justin Beeber.

We left our home early on Christmas Eve to celebrate in Green Bay. The excitement in that house was at a peak. Elise and I spent some time looking out the window to see if we could spot reindeer and our efforts were rewarded later in the evening when Santa, his wife, and a couple of elves arrived at the front door for a brief visit. Don and Amy had a few of their close friends over for the celebration and it is always special getting to know the people your children call friends. Especially when they are all very nice people. We are even trying to get a couple of boys on a camping trip with us.

Monday morning we set off to see the rest of the Chilson clan in Minneapolis with our car packed to the gills with Christmas presents and three more kids. Since their parents couldn't get away, we stole the three kids from Green Bay for a couple of days to visit with their cousins. When we arrived in Minneapolis, we had all 7 grand kids together and what a wonderful state of bedlam was created!

Now, Ella discovered somewhere along the line that I had an extra gift left with fancy ribbons and no name on it. I told her there was going to be a raffle for it later in the week. Well, she never forgot for one minute about that raffle and asked me at least 3 times a day when we were to have it. I just kept putting her off until her daddy arrived on Wednesday evening to take them home.

Meanwhile, as last year when we were all in Atlanta for Christmas and had the first Christmas snowfall there in 129 years, this year the kids from Atlanta came to Minnesota looking for snow fun only to find the first Christmas there with above freezing temperatures. Our Bob is never daunted by weather conditions and indoctrinated us all to the concept of Southern sledding.

You fill the wagon with unsuspecting children at the top of the hill then release it to run into the brush pile at the bottom. The kids had a ball and as you can see so did the dads.

Wednesday evening Don arrived as planned to pick up his kids so I arranged to have our raffle. I printed tickets for each one of the 12 contenders numbered from 605301 to 605312. I drew the winning ticket and read off the numbers slowly, one at a time. With each number called Ella grew more and more excited until I thought she would pop a gasket. It got down to the last 2 numbers and she actually had a 1, but so did her Uncle Bob. I could not believe myself when I read off the winning number for Ella to walk away with the grand prize.

What was in the box? It was something I have had in my linen closet since all of my children moved so far from home that it does not pay to keep a full cookie jar in the house for occasional visits from grandchildren. It was our family cookie jar given to us by a colleague of Don's when the boys were very young. It is an elephant seated with his feet extended wearing a baseball cap with the name Chilson printed on the brim. It is important to note the position of the elephant's feet as that was the place where the last two cookies always hid and usually it was my husband who found and claimed them, This became the thing of family legend so much so that when my dad would come to visit he would buy a box of Oreos just to put two in the elephant feet and see how long it took Don to find them. This cookie jar always stood on top of the fridge. The raffle was really for our boys as I could never decide myself who should get the cookie jar, but the young ones were made to appreciate just what it was they had won when their daddy said to check the feet for cookies and that the jar must always stay on top of their fridge. I finally found the one possession we had which my children would cherish after we were gone. I am just sorry there was only one elephant cookie jar.