Betty's Blog

January 2015 It was August of 1966. I was 16 years old. My oldest brother Ken was living in New York City. I don't know whose idea it was, but my parents and my aunt and uncle decided to send me and my cousin Mary Beth to live with Ken for a month!!! We were ecstatic, of course. Mary was 18 so I suppose they thought we would be safe enough! I don't remember where we flew out of, but I do remember Mary and I running through O'Hare airport in Chicago to catch our plane to New York. Ken met us at the airport which was La Guardia. He lived on Manhattan. I couldn't tell you the address. We were enthralled with the elevators! Ken sat us down and gave us a map of the city. He told us that we should decide on every place we wanted to see and then to use the map to find it. I have memories of walking down the street and stepping over people sleeping on the sidewalk. We used the subway several times. That wasn't too scary. We went on the Circle Line cruise that too...

December 2014 Enough time has passed since i wrote the Homes I've Lived In-#1 & #2. i'm ready to continue the story! in December of 1962, my sister patsy was married, living in Tolleson, AZ, and expecting her first child. my parents decided to make the trip down to visit her and to leave me with her to help with the baby. by this time, the last of my siblings had graduated and moved away leaving me the only child left. so we drove down in my folks' Nash Rambler station wagon, which was remarkable because the seats would lie totally flat! i think we took three or four days to drive down there, staying in motels and eating in restaurants along the way. and one of those days was a sunday because we went to church at a Church of the Open Bible. there were quite a few black people in that church, but my, could they sing! i liked that a lot! while we were stopped in Amarillo, TX, my dad bought me a souvenir. it was a Navajo doll with a pink dress with red rickrack ...

November 2014 I am thankful for friends, family, and faith. I wish all of you the best as the holidays approach. I have never liked making a turkey. My mom always made Thanksgiving dinner for everybody who could come. Starting in 1973 when we moved back to Buffalo Center, we have always walked a block over to mom & dad's house for Thanksgiving. 1973 until 1996, wow, 24 years!!! Thanks, Mom! And since then we have had Thanksgiving dinner at our house. This will be the 18th one. We always have to have turkey and ham, dressing, potatoes & gravy, green bean casserole, corn, crescent rolls, slushy punch, and pies. I've tried some variations over the years, but that has been the usual menu. The reason I have never liked making turkey is having to get all the meat off the bones. That plus never knowing for sure when it's done. This is why I have delegated that job to my husband. I remember one year hearing that my inlaws were planning on having hotdogs, ...

November 2014 I am thankful for friends, family, and faith. I wish all of you the best as the holidays approach. I have never liked making a turkey. My mom always made Thanksgiving dinner for everybody who could come. Starting in 1973 when we moved back to Buffalo Center, we have always walked a block over to mom & dad's house for Thanksgiving. 1973 until 1996, wow, 24 years!!! Thanks, Mom! And since then we have had Thanksgiving dinner at our house. This will be the 18th one. We always have to have turkey and ham, dressing, potatoes & gravy, green bean casserole, corn, crescent rolls, slushy punch, and pies. I've tried some variations over the years, but that has been the usual menu. The reason I have never liked making turkey is having to get all the meat off the bones. That plus never knowing for sure when it's done. This is why I have delegated that job to my husband. I remember one year hearing that my inlaws were planning on having hotdogs, so ...

February 2014 well, hello there! it's been a rather cold winter, has it not? i'm really loving the heated seats in my Fiesta. nothing like a warm bum when you are driving! name your twenty favorite things to watch. mine would be (in no particular order): 1- Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) 2-Downton Abbey 3-Scott & Bailey 4-Mad Men 5-What Not to Wear 6-Something Borrowed, Something New 7-The Middle 8-The Paradise 9-Mysteries at the Museum 10-How I Met Your Mother 11-Rake 12-Modern Family 13-Doc Martin 14-Drop Dead Diva 15-Long Island Medium 16-Here Comes Honey-Boo Boo 17-Monumental Mysteries 18-Mr. Selfridge 19-Pawn Stars 20-Most movies from the 30's, a few from the 40's take heart, people... the days are getting longer!

Number Five We just came back from meeting our newest grandbaby. A little boy who is the first to carry on our name for his generation. I like to think about what my own grandparents thoughts might have been upon my own arrival in this world. Were they as excited as we were? Time has really speeded up for us just in these past ten years. I look in the mirror and see my mom. He says I walk just like her. Friends and family relationships become more and more precious. Things that would have bothered me twenty years ago, no longer do. I also think about the world that little boy is inheriting. His eyes are brand-new and he will see things that I can't even dream of now. I hope he can remember us. John Thomas Davids, V Family... forever and always, no matter what!

March 2014 So we've set the clocks ahead an hour. you can almost taste spring in the air! nobody appreciates spring like an Iowa native! a new beginning. this life of ours is such a marvelous gift! i don't usually preach, but how can someone look around them and think that this all happened "by accident" and that there was no One behind it all??? i think God looks down on us here on Earth and just shakes his head. i don't think he gives cancer to one child or lets another one live to be 100. THAT, my dears, he leaves to chance or to choices that we make. but i do thank Him every day for his Gift of Life. and i hope to use it well! can you say with me that you absolutely love where you are at in your life? A man died and went to heaven, where he met St. Peter sitting at a desk in the middle of a great hall. On the walls were millions of clocks. “What are those used for?” he asked. St. Peter said, “There’s one of them for every living person o...