Love Story or Don't take Me to a Sappy Movie

One of the first life lessons you learn as a country kid is death is inevitable.  That bum lamb you feed five times a day might NOT make it.  Your horse dies from old age or colic, your dog gets run over, yadda yadda.....it's always there and you learn quickly dying is a part of life.  Everyone's Life; Everything's LIFE.   And you get past being sentimental.  Because it's how you survive the brutality of the inevitable as a kid.

Fast foward to 1970.  I'm in college.  I love college, it's a blast.  I went from a graduating class of 12 in town of 380 people and a pretty large rural population to a college in the 2nd largest city in Wyoming. Population about 40,000.  It's HUGE to me.  New York City Huge.  I live in the dorms, yippee it's like having 200 sisters I never had.

One of my best friends comes from Bountiful, Utah and we decide we HAVE to go see LOVE STORY with Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw.  It's being RELEASED at the new multi-plex in Salt Lake City.  Yes, yes, yes, we are going.

So my roommate and I (rm 310 McIntyre Hall) and the other two girls in rm 301, one of whom is the Bountiful gal, hitch a ride to Bountiful for the weekend.  Our ride is Floyd from Morad Hall.  A really nice guy who put up with us four girls and had a heart of gold.  But a nerd, probably a very wealthy engineer nerd by now.  We flirted with him for over 300 miles, begged him for pit stops, and he graciously indulged us.

Night of the movie, Rm 301's dad loans her the car and we are OFF to the Multi-Plex and the Premiere of LOVE STORY.   Love story is soooooo 1970's.  Set in Boston, boy meets girl in college, sappy romance, they get married, she gets cancer, she dies, he grieves, touching ending.  It was a huge hit with the 1970 college crowd and starred Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw.

Except.......................I'm a country girl. Remember this point.  I'm not going to view this like all the star-struck teens in the audience (which was pretty packed and had quite a few adults also).  All four of college girls sit together UNTIL....................

We get to the death scene.  At which point I realize there is an audible sobbing wafting through the theater.  It is rising in crescendo.  I lean over to my roommate and whispered...hey listen to the audience.

And at that exact point, the 30 something housewife behind us, blew her nose with a VERY audible, VERY Loud HONK!

We both LOST IT.  Not a quiet subdued giggle but a loud raucous guffaw.  And the more we laughed the more we couldn't stop.  Everyone in the theater turned and looked at us.  The Room 301 girls got up and MOVED.  They were so embarrassed they would not sit with us.

We laughed some more.  Tears were running down our cheeks.  And Finally, we were able to compose ourselves.  At that very moment, 30-something housewife, bless her, blows her nose AGAIN.  And it sets both of us off again.  By the time we finally are able to contain ourselves permanently, Poor Ol' Dead Jenny is in the ground.

So now we go through the final moments of Ryan O'Neal displaying his profound grief, touching tribute to Dead Jenny and I really don't remember what else (I've never watched it since).  

Roommate and I stand up.  Room 301 girls rush out to the car; not wanting to walk with us. 30-Something Housewife gives us a disdainful look as the house lights come on, turns to her companion and states, "There I was, crying my eyes out and THOSE TWO were laughing!"  Omigosh, we lost it again.

We laughed all the way back to the car in the HUMONGOUS Parking Lot.  At which point we were informed neither of us were welcome to go to the movies with THEM again.  

Not to worry - it only lasted a week.  My roommate and I were the only ones with a available car at college. It was her brother's, who was also a student.....Being indispensable does have it advantages.

Kids and Ponies

Of Kids and Ponies -- We looked a long time for a nice pony for the grandkids and found Jeannie.

She's as cute as a bug's ear don't you think?

Jeannie is 18 years old and has a raised a passel of kids -- in other words she is PERFECT!
I think she is a Shetland/Mini cross and is a whopping nine hands tall.  Last weekend the grandkids were introduced and Jeannie is a HIT.  As we knew she would be.

OF course one's new pony must be thoroughly approved by the little brother and then properly brushed.

And then for a ride around on her.  I bet by the end of the summer, granddaughter is riding her in the round pen by herself.  Jeannie is not a lazy pony at all and really steps out nicely.  A feature that will be much more appreciated as time goes on; but I think the kids found it a little intimidating at first.

It wasn't all fun and games.  There was some SERIOUS discussion going on here--grandson, grandpa and Uncle -- 3 generations.

Aunt L and Grandson were official supervisors for part of the big foray into Pony Land.

And we will probably never know who wound up being the best roper but I really don't think it was anyone in this picture!!!

It was a PERFECT DAY!

Oh and Grandma is really partial to this pony because

This IS Grandma with her 7th birthday present in 1958! Her name was Heidi and she was PERFECT too!

Spring Sprungs

It's been a while since I've posted but a lot has happened.  We took a quick trip to North Dakota to pick up this, the cutest most gentle little white mare named Jeannie.  She is shedding and the sparrows love her as she is providing plenty of nest material!  When I take the shedding blade to her, it's like it's snowing.  And she closes her eyes and sighs.  It must feel very good.

I think the grandkiddies will like her and I love her!  Jeannie reminds me of this:

Heidi was my first pony.  She was my birthday present for my seventh birthday and she was only about 9 months old when I got her.  She started me down my 'horsey' path.  I was devastated when I lost her 18 years later, she had gotten tick fever and just couldn't recover well from it in spite of numerous trips to the vets.

The trip to North Dakota was interesting and we really enjoyed it.  We discovered we are only about 7 hours drive from the Teddy Roosevelt National Park (South Unit) and we are thinking we need to go ride the trails there one of these days.

Spring sprung early in Wyoming,  early and dry!!  We had some moisture this weekend but not near enough.  We did not get our usual big snowstorm so the grass is really struggling to come up.  The drought monitor doesn't look real good for our neck of the woods predicting we have over a 50% chance of being abnormally dry in April, May, and June.  These are our critical months for pasture growth.

This is after the rain and look how dry it still looks!

Plans to buy some more cows has been postponed indefinitely.  We are now hoping we don't have to sell what we have!

My three guienas have been hard at work hunting all day every day.  I have noticed a huge reduction in mice this spring so between poison in the house and barn and the guienas it appears we are winning the 'mouse war.'  Thank goodness.

Odie is now officially a gelding and I think he is much happier.  He isn't escaping out the gate when we leave trying to get to the mares anymore.  We will finish breaking him this summer and then may offer him for sale. We really don't need another gelding and I have both Trystar and Ember to ride.  My mare, Tyrstar, is 23 this summer.  My goodness!  Odie is very nice and very gentle when we started him so he should make someone a nice saddle horse.

Bound and determined to have chickens and have a coon-proof coop; I set 6 posts today.  My goodness, who made cement so durn heavy?  I feel like my shoulders were going to pull out of their sockets hefting those bags and buckets.  Next will be cement floor on the 4 x 12 coop.   4 x 4 will be for the guienas to separate them from the chickens.  Then 8 x 4 for the chickens.   I have six guiena keets ordered for mid-June and I already have my golden-laced Wyandotte chickens but they have to stay under the brooder for a while yet.

And not last and certainly not least, we almost lost our Dubber to snakebite.  I didn't get a picture of him while he was so swollen but he spent a day at the vet's and had garden hose up both his nostrils.  I'm sure if we had not done that we would have lost him.  Horses cannot breath out their mouths, just their nose.  If it swells shut from snakebite; you lose your horse to asphyxiation.  

Dubber today singing "Nobody Nose the Trouble I've Seen!"  He is feeling much better and his nose is almost down to normal.  Although he is NOT happy about the medication in his oats and refuses to eat them.

And that's the News from Sixty Miles North of Nowhere!  

I am hoping to find the time to sew this spring but it ain't lookin' promisin' is it?

The Wisconsin Oleo War

I saw a post on facebook the other day claiming oleomargine was originally manufactured to feed turkeys; and when it was discovered it actually killed the turkeys, it was then manufactured for human consumption.
I couldn't find where it killed turkeys but I did discover that to my surprise, Oleo isn't a new 20th century product, originating clear back to Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte III  who offered a reward to anyone who could invent a tasty substitute for butter.  Apparently even in the 19th Century people though real butter was expensive. Click HERE for the history of oleomargarine on Wilkipedia.

What I do know is my mother was involved in the Oleo Wars in the 1950's.  Yes, my own quiet sweet Mother was a Butter Rebel.   Although we lived in Iowa, we crossed the Mississippi River over to Prarie Du Chein, Wisconsin to shop at the Piggly Wiggly. (remember, in previous genealogy posts my mother's family were French-Canadians who came down the Mississippi River)  I think mother thought the Piggly Wiggly was much cheaper except for...............

Butter!  You HAD to buy Butter in Wisconsin, as oleo margarine was outlawed.  Apparently the dairy industry in the 1950's had a HUGE clout in the policies of Wisconsin and clamoring housewives be damned.

So Mom would pile us into the car and head the car for the short drive to Prairie Du Chein.  When we got to Marquette where the bridge over began, as you went up the incline right before the actual bridge started, there was a Mom & Pop grocery store. 

Main Street of Marquette,Iowa.  If you look above the shorter building, you can see the guard rails on the approach to the old bridge my Mom used to take to drive to the Piggly Wiggly.  The bridge has since been replaced so I think this is the now the approach to nowhere.

The store had a huge sign (up on the bluff over it if I remember right but I was pretty little but apparently old enough to read) that said "LAST CHANCE FOR OLEO" and in much smaller letters under that "Green Stamps".    Mom was always careful to stop at this store AFTER the trip to the new, modern, huge (and very small by today's standards) Piggly Wiggly in the Butter State.  Years later I came across a partially filled book of green stamps from this store but I don't know what happened to it.  I also don't remember what my Mom redeemed her green stamps for.  Probably a gravy boat or something!

So Mom never bought butter in Wisconsin and we always stopped for Oleo in Marquette and whatever else she thought was cheaper on the Iowa side of the river.  I do remember the oleo was white and it came with a coloring packet you stirred into to make it look like butter.

I dunno; maybe it did kill those turkeys.