Tecumseh news: Dec. 13, 2017

Clear Springs Baptist Church had a really nice soup supper and Christmas party at  Rocky Top Campground hosted by owners Joe and Diane Easterday. The party included a tour of the beautifully decorated Christmas drive-through lights. A lot of people were there, including Clear Springs pastor David Evans. Some of those attending brought desserts or other things to share. It was fun – and good eating! And there was plenty of room for everyone in the Easterdays’ home and out on their patio. I hope everyone gets a chance to visit their drive-through Christmas display. They’ve gone to a lot of trouble and have done a lot of work to make it special, with elves and Santas and all kinds of things. It’s amazing – a treat for all of us. We were like children again, even we oldsters, enjoying all the colorful decorations. The drive-through is open every night through New Year’s, and everyone is welcome.

Thanks to my former daughter-in-law, Carol Pitcock Weiss of New Cambria, Kansas, near Salina, for a beautiful Christmas greeting and a subscription to one of my favorite magazines, Taste of Home. She’s a very sweet person, and I enjoyed a visit from her a few months ago.

I see that the sparrows have taken over the martins’ house now that the martins have migrated. The sparrows make such a mess. When the martins come back in early March they will clean out the mess the sparrows have made. I love to watch the martins. They work hard, throwing out the sparrows’ trash. 

I’m so glad that our former neighbors and friends Ginger Peters and her son Allen Roebock stay in close communication. She calls occasionally, and we write back and forth. They lived here on the lake, and then she moved back to N.J. after her husband died.

I also correspond with Alene Herd of Miller. She has presented me with some nice gifts the past year. One is a collectible doll, the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. Couldn’t refuse that! I guess she thought I was in my second childhood. 

I was remembering my school days again and thought of Mae Reynolds (later she would become Mae Boone), who boarded with us while she taught school at Lilly Ridge, where I was her student. We had wood heat, and our house with its high ceilings was certainly not the warmest place. In fact, it was actually cold sometimes! The wood-burning stoves in the front room and the kitchen were all the heat we had. So we had to dress warmly in the wintertime, with those long stockings and all the other clothes we had to wear to stay warm. 

At breakfast, Mae would say, “Mrs. Crawford, would you please burn the biscuits a little this morning?” She liked them a little crusty – and so did I. My mother would cook them in our wood-burning cookstove. I always look forward to hearing from Mae’s daughter, Peggy Jo Walker. I expect I’ll be getting a Christmas card from her before long. She and her husband, Gary Walker, have a music business in Nashville, Tennessee.

Again I say thanks to my neighbor Jerry Miller for sharing her fall veggies with me.

Cedar trees now stand out among the other trees that are bare of their leaves. The cedars make it look a lot like Christmas everywhere we look. The birds use the heavy cedars for their hideouts and habitats and for protection from the cold winds. We were blessed last year not to have much ice and snow, but it’s always good to be prepared, and who knows? We may have some of that this winter.

Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423