Friday Foto Friends ... and a few Friday Fragments

Linking up early with Debbie at Breathing in Grace!

Here is my fun foto!

I realize I never posted about our trip to Washington, D.D. And nobody ever knew that my DH was there when Lee surrendered to Grant! Here are a few other historical figures from the past.

"Company's Comin'"

I am so excited my aunt and uncle are dropping by today on their way to visit one of their granddaughters and newest great-grandson. Nancy and Gene have a beautiful family, with loads of grandkids and greats! 

There are lots of old cliches about company. My Dad used to know somebody was coming to visit if his nose was itching! It mostly itched on weekends and sure enough, somebody usually came to see us. Another one is "If I'd Known You were Coming, I woulda baked you a cake!" But I did know on this one! So I baked a cake just for Aunt Nancy and Uncle Gene ... Mama's Pound Cake ... Paula Deen's mama, that is! :-) I have some lovely strawberries and whipped cream to go with the cake. DH has been drooling ever since it came out of the oven but, as usual, I am making him wait until they arrive. Why am I so mean?

Here is my 10 year old Aunt Nancy proudly holding up her new niece.

I was the first granddaughter on my Mama's side.

Nancy and Gene now.

I'm guessing they have been married 61 years!

Wow!

Random memories

Yesterday I began the task of trying to go through photos and delete, delete, delete. My goodness, there are so many pictures and each one you look at, you think you need to save it. Sometimes even the blurry ones. Each one of them are part of a story or a good time. Sometimes they can bring back a mix of sweet and painful. For instance, this dear old couple. 

Mr. and Mrs. Debolt were our landlords from the time I was about 4 to 8 years old. They were so good to our family. We first rented the back three rooms in their house and they lived in the front part of the house. 

My sister and I on the front porch of "the white house."

The Debolts were in the process of building a house on the vacant lot next door. When they moved out, we had the whole house to ourselves for a short period of time before my uncle and his family moved into the back and we moved to the front! Pretty crazy!!!

Mr. and Mrs. Debolt lived in their new house for a short time and then moved out to the country. So our family moved into the new house. Totally confused now? This house was the yellow house.

The yellow house is behind us in this pic.

Mr. and Mrs. Debolt were two of the kindest people ever. We used to visit them after they moved to the country. Mr. Debolt was a carpenter and he saved all the scrap wooden blocks for us to play with when we visited. Also, Mrs. Debolt had an old pipe organ that you had to pull out the stops and press stomp really hard with your feet to get it to play.

Now, I'm going to be brutally honest about my nasty past here. As I said, these were very good people who had shown much kindness to our family. So you have to wonder what in the world was my five year old self thinking when I, for no apparent reason, spit in his face???? Honestly, I blush with real shame when I remember this and I have to say, I got what I deserved. He slapped my face and took me in and told my parents! They were of a generation that would not tolerate disrespect from the younger ones. 

My last little remembrance about Mr. Debolt is from his funeral. He passed away when I was 14 and the minister who preached his funeral told in a very dramatic way about how just before Mr. Debolt died, he raised up from his bed talking about the angels he saw coming for him. This still gives me chills thinking about it. I was sobbing so hard and couldn't stop crying when I looked down and discovered that not only my tears were falling, but my nose was bleeding profusely all over my white blouse!!! OH! The anguish of a 14 year old embarrassing herself in the middle of a very solemn occasion! Although I did manage to make it through with the help of my mom, I promised myself I would not ever let myself cry that hard again in a public setting. Of course, I haven't been able to keep that promise, but I do arm myself with lots of tissue these days. 

And also, I have found many other ways to embarrass myself throughout the years!!! Lol!

photo credit

Mama's Pound CakeRecipe courtesy of Paula Deen
Ingredients

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, plus more for pan
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
With a mixer, cream butter and shortening together. Add sugar, a little at a time. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl and add to mixer alternately with milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour. Mix in vanilla. Pour into a greased and floured tube pan and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

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