JIM'S LITTLE BLOG

My favorite (and only) sister, Lois


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Labels: Eating, Family, Jim Bunch Eats, Lois, Seniors, Sister

# posted by Jim : 10/15/2008 10:20:00 AM  13 comments

Lois 'baby' sits dogs for her son and grandchildren. She has never said yes to my request for her to 'baby' sit Adi. Probably she thought I wasn't being serious.

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Linda from Mocha With Linda has started a new meme! This one's going to be fun. Each week she will ask us a question, and we post our answer! It will be something to bring about a memory of some sort to share!

We are supposed to answer the following questions: (you might like to join in with this one or see others' posts, just click on the button on the right.)

It got a little long this week. I couldn't possible write about all this:

Do you have siblings? (If not, keep reading - I'll get to you.) How many and are they boys or girls? Where do you fall in the birth order? How did you view your "spot" in the family compared with the others? If you are the oldest, did you resent the things the youngest got to do that you didn't? If the youngest, what did you want to do like the older ones? And if you are more of a middle child, how did that impact you? How do you think your birth order shaped your personality? Did you and your siblings like each other growing up or did you fight all the time? Are you close now? Or at least friends with each other?! What memories stand out about you and your siblings?

If you are an only child, how did you like that? Were you glad to have all the attention or did you want to have a brother or sister? What advantages were there to being an only child? What disadvantages? Which side of the fence is greener?!

For everyone, did your sibling experiences (or lack thereof!) affect your decision to have kids or to have a certain number?

So here goes:

Yes, she is named Lois.

I am the older of two, Lois is the younger.

I loved being the older and didn't resent anything Lois got that I didn't. Most things we shared. Like our bike. Or Dad's horse, Minnie. I did get to ride Minnie to high school and Lois didn't. They tore the school down before she got that old.

We also shared Dad's pickup to drive to school. We drove it to the town high school. The country high school was only through the tenth grade.

Any time we shared you must keep in mind that Lois was five years younger. That meant I had use of whatever five years before she got old enough most times.

One thing that didn't work out very good was the bedroom. Our house only had two bedrooms so when Lois was ready for her own room apart from the folks' that meant I was ousted to the front porch. Grandpa and Dad screened and glassed it in. But there wasn't any heat. In the cold winter mornings there would be frost on my blankets.

I think we both are like the middle children. I don't know what happened to those on the outside.

And fight? We fought a lot in a friendly manner. I teased a lot and still do. About three years ago she got on to me about being too rough on her because of all the Midwest tornadoes. We don't have those down here along the coast. Ours are very small mild ones if and when we have any. I would tell her I couldn't come up to Iowa to visit because of those tornadoes.

I think she remembers best how I taught her to avoid smoking cigarettes. By some illicit means known only to me I had acquired a pack. We went down to the creek and 'smoked.' I think Lois smoked two.

She claims they made her sick. I only remember a lot of coughing and meaningless words from her. To this day I can't recall how I ever convinced her to 'smoke' the second.

My other favorite memory is teaching her to drive Dad's pickup. I taught a lot of girls and women to drive, maybe even ten. My kids count for two of them. Lois was always a bad driver. Once on the way home from school she ran over a neighbor's mailbox. Another time later in life she ran right into someone and totaled out a very nice Oldsmobile she and hubby, Jim. W, owned.

Lois had had no effect on me having five kids. This is the most I had written keeping on subject for a meme in ages. So I will quit. Go read the others by clicking on the logo above to find them at Linda's. Or click here.

Labels: Family, Flashback Friday, Lois, Sister

# posted by Jim : 6/04/2010 12:05:00 AM  11 comments

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Was Lois afraid Adi would fall off this rock? Both these pictures are taken with a partial view of their new home in Center Point, Iowa.

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On our last full day in Iowa, we visited the Amana Colonies again, at Amana, Iowa. We all voted (the three that got to vote, Adi couldn't, and Jim was nice and would go wherever we wanted) to do some antiquing.

The antique place would be Smokehouse Square Antiques showroom and sales. I enjoyed that almost as much as the ladies. No money was left at the store that day, but there were some desirables for each of us.

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After the antique shopping, we got an early start on lunch. Here are three of the four Jim Bunch Eats guys. The Ox Yoke Inn is Jim and Lois' fav. Lois and I had a plate of delicious ribs, Mrs. Jim had veal, and Jim (bro-in-law)had steak.

Our first course was cottage cheese and sauerkraut, complete with freshly baked bread. The entree was served with mashed potatoes with brown gravy and fresh corn, both served family style as was the previous cheese and kraut offering.

Dessert was pie, each of us had a different selection. Mrs. Jim had rhubarb, Jim (bro-in-law) had banana creme, Lois had lemon, and I had coconut creme. They were all excellent.

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After lunch, I went to the visitor center. It wasn't very exciting, but the climb to the top of the cupola had me puffing. The building had formerly been a granary.

The climb was well worth it, here is one of the pictures of the Amana Colonies I took from the windows up there. It wasn't raining, the picture was taken through a glass window its screen for the effects you see here.

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I was glad once more that I had gotten my worn-out foot toughened by walking around Europe this spring. The blocks were long and the temp was warm, in the mid 80s. This was taken from the corner across from the visitor center. The Ox Yoke is up the street on the left, beyond what you see.

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Now most guys get a little tired, emotionally, not physically, of all that shopping. Pretty soon one handicraft looks like another handicraft and we can't tell rhubarb wine from grape or gingham from suede.

There is a relief at Amana though. I don't remember this shop's name, its top floor, the attic, was turned into a farm room. They had sold out of John Deere "Bs" which was our first farm tractor in 1942. I have been looking for one; they show up on eBay, I just haven't bought one yet. (My last eBay purchase was a 1948 Ford Convertible, 1:18 scale.)

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You might think this was in the farm room but these toys are at Dad's nursing home. We stopped in to tell him goodbye. Lois had brought him some chocolate stars and we all indulged. Big Jim and Little Jim Bunch here eating another time, how about that?

Aren't those nice trucks? The Red Hat ladies and the Construction Guys (they gave Dad his hard hat)(July 24 posting) made toys for a fundraiser.

The residents helped too. The day before we had watched one of the men residents painting the trucks and the benches. He was doing a good job, I didn't know they would turn out this nice.

Do you think Adi is sad because she is leaving Iowa?

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And now this from last night's Boston Legal:

"I have to represent him, I gave him my word."

"Oh please, we're lawyers" said Denny Crane to Alan Shore .

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Labels: Adi, Eating, Family, Feet, Foot, Humor, Jim Does, Toys, Travel

# posted by Jim : 8/02/2006 12:09:00 AM  6 comments

  - Tom's This "Week's Prompts, Starts with "L." A Favorite. - "L"ove.

A Favorite:   "Last" will be my Favorite today.  This is my Last garbage Can Liner out of the batch we inherited from Mema, Mrs. Jim's mother. 

Labels: Adi, Bible, Family, Food, Friday's Weekend Roundup 09, granddaughter, KP, Lois, Reflections

# posted by Jim : 9/23/2022 07:37:00 AM  4 comments

THE FOURTH LETTER FOR THIS SERIES - The Letter "D" Prompts are: (A) Starts with the Letter "D"; (B) "Dark" (Tom's Choice); (C) A Favorite; (D) Street/Reflections; and (E) A Lagniappe.

(B.1) "Dark"   This is a photo of the International Date Line taken from the back window of our plane, heading to the U.S. from Australia.  Since it was night and Dark out there, you will have to imagine what it looked like.

(B.2) "Dark":    Nearing Dark, twilight. 

(B.3) "Dark":   My previous Dark story, Dark opposite of Light (my dfn.).

My Dark Story:  When I was growing up on the farm, we did not have electricity until 1938. That was the year my younger sister, Lois, was born.

Lois was trouble as soon as she was too old to be sleeping in Mom and Dad's bedroom. Our house only had two bedrooms, upstairs. At first there was one for my parents and one for me.

After Lois came she needed the bedroom that I had and so I was relegated to the front porch which was to be used as my sleeping room. Just a sleeping room. In the daytime my bed was put back as a studio couch and with the rockers and the other chairs our front porch was a place to hang out in the evenings. It was screened to keep the bugs out and also had storm windows for the winter to keep the winds out. But it still got cold out there, even so Nebraska cold that frost developed on my outer blanket

Yes, we had electricity, REA, Rural Electricity Association, from the year Lois was born on.  There were two lights hanging on the back side of the porch attached to the house wall. So I had a pull chain light that I could reach by standing on the bed, i.e. the unfolded couch. 

We also installed an inside bathroom that year. It had a tub, a toilet, and a sink. And a closet for my clothes with a hole from kitchen wall for a refrigerator.  We still took showers out on the back porch though. Now instead of a bucket of warmed water to bath with we had a real shower hose attached to the faucet used also to fill the washing machine. We shared that part of the back porch with Mom's old Maytag machine.

Dad did not like us using the toilet in the bathroom because it meant cleaning out the cesspool more often (the sink, toilet, and tub drained into the cesspool). 

Helping the cesspool, the porch shower water ran outside into the back yard through a hole in the wall at floor level. When we weren't showering we put a big round wooden plug into the hole to keep snakes out. But we couldn't run any toilet water out into the back yard.

The 'light' story part: 

So we were supposed to use the outhouse (outside toilet in a little house) that we had used before.  It was out behind the chicken house in the grove. If only company were to use the inside toilet and our family always used the outhouse we would probably never have to clean the cesspool out again. I don't think we did either.

The problem at night was that it was dark going out to the outhouse. I can't remember if I was afraid of the dark or just pretended to be. But at any rate I can remember convincing Lois always to walk with me at night, in the dark, out to the outhouse.

We may have had flashlights but not one to use going out there. They were saved for working in the dark or fixing things at night. I suppose that Lois also used the outhouse while we were out there. I don't remember that part..

Our Outhouse

Too bad the tree fell on it. Of course no one was inside, just a whole lot of memories left there waiting.

You can buy a brand new one in kit form for around $449.00.

Go here

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This outhouse we had was a two holer. I don't remember anytime that there were two people in there together.

Then why were there two holes? I may answer in a few days. Or you can furnish me with one.

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This posting is for this week's round of Two Shoes Tuesday... a place to share what we enjoy doing most... writing! Each week we have a one-word writing prompt and are asked by Josie to share a short story, poem, essay, thought, or photo relating to that topic.

The writing prompt for Tuesday, December 4th, 2012, is "light"

(C) A Favorite:   This "mother-to-be" Brown Duck is hatching five eggs, she came up from the lake to have her chicks.  

(D) Street/Reflections:   bright Sky and shades of green Foliage side and backyard Reflecting in the water  (a friend's home, not ours).

(E) A Lagniappe:  Mrs. Jim inspecting the lake on the end of our friend's lot.  It has really nice Reflections also. 

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Labels: Animals, Birds, Friday's Weekend Roundup 07, Reflections

# posted by Jim : 7/23/2021 04:06:00 PM  6 comments

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Our Outhouse

Too bad the tree fell on it. Of course no one was inside, just a whole lot of memories left there waiting.

You can buy a brand new one in kit form for around $449.00.

Go here

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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This outhouse we had was a two holer. I don't remember anytime that there were two people in there together.

Then why were there two holes? I may answer in a few days. Or you can furnish me with one.

- - - - - - -

This posting is for this week's round of Two Shoes Tuesday... a place to share what we enjoy doing most... writing! Each week we have a one-word writing prompt and are asked by Josie to share a short story, poem, essay, thought, or photo relating to that topic.

The writing prompt for Tuesday, December 4th, is "light"

 

You can find other light blogging here, at Josie's blog:

http://www.josie2shoes.com/2012/12/two-shoes-tuesday-14-lights.html

Labels: Family, Jim's Life, Jim's old home place, Two-Shoes-Tuesday

# posted by Jim : 12/04/2012 11:31:00 PM  9 comments