Tecumseh news: Sept. 19, 2018

It’s a beautiful Monday as I write these news items, and I’m still enjoying my crepe myrtle blooms. I didn’t get more pawpaws, as I planned, so I imagine the opossums got my share. My nephew, Dan Moody, enjoyed their crop, his mom told me. 

I’m looking forward to Hootin an Hollarin this week. Lord willing, I’ll be sitting close to the Hootin an Hollarin information stand near the stage, greeting friends. I enjoy celebrating our fall festival and remembering the past with good memories of Hootin an Hollarin folks such as Helen Marie Luna and Addie Lee Lister. I’m also looking forward to having the two Marlyns here and having them meet each other – my son, Marlyn Pitcock, and my friend, Marlyn Atkinson, whose mother was my high school friend. 

Dave and Karen Davis drove me to Mountain Home Monday for my doctor’s appointment. We enjoyed lunch at Chen’s restaurant. It’s a buffet and reasonably priced, and it’s always busy there. 

My daughter Kris’ daughter, Tanya (Burmaster) Minks, recently came back to the States to visit from her home in Japan, where she and her husband are missionaries. Tanya is the mother of six children, all involved in their mission work. Her husband is still in Japan at this writing. Kris and her sister, Karen, picked Tanya up at the airport in Springfield. 

Best wishes for Perry Hayes for his health to improve. 

The missionary ladies visited me today, and I enjoyed their visit. 

Molasses-making time is here, and I have lots of memories of my father-in-law, Lowe Pitcock, making good molasses – the best. I was very active in the process in past years. He raised his own cane, a certain kind, and ground the juice, rising early at four o’clock in the morning to begin. 

It was an all-day process, ending at dark. And then my work continued in taking care of the big pan and the strainers. I also washed the white laying-mash feed sacks we used to strain the molasses into gallon buckets. We bought the buckets by the case at Reed-Harlin Supply in West Plains. 

The last year we made sorghum molasses, we made 300 gallons over a period of a week to 10 days. I have lots of memories of the hard work involved – and also of the good-tasting sweetener. There was none better than our sorghum!

Slim Wilson and Junior Halworth sang “Good ol’ sorghum molasses” on KWTO each weekday morning after my husband Eldon took him a gallon of our best molasses when Eldon worked in the Sears Automotive Department in Springfield and Slim visited him there and they became acquainted.

Continued prayers for Bonnie Taylor in West Plains, who had leg injuries. Her son Chet had leg injuries also not long ago. I can sympathize as I am unstable without a cane for support. I have dependency on my cane after all my years of helping others when I worked as an emergency medical technician, which was a very rewarding time.

It began when I went to the hospital in the ambulance with my mother-in-law, Audie Ingram. Bobby Joe Sullivan, who was the driver, said he liked the way I worked with my mother-in-law, staying calm and encouraging, and he said he wanted me to take the training and come work on the ambulance – and I did. Instructors came down from Springfield, and we had classes three nights a week for five weeks, learning CPR and other things.

We worked lots of wrecks. One of the most treacherous incidents was when an airplane crashed near the high school. As I recall, there were five people in the plane – two adults and three adults. Elvin Piland was driving the ambulance that day. We took all five of them in the ambulance to St. John’s Hospital in Springfield. Back then we waited at the hospital until they either admitted them or we brought them back home. I remember in particular working on the ambulance and taking Beulah Martin to the hospital and how she thanked me for taking good care of her.

It was a busy time as I had two children at home and also had my farmwork to do, including  my cows to milk. Sometimes they had to be milked early or late, depending on my schedule. My husband Eldon worked hard too, doing concrete work around the area, including working for Gillioz Construction out of Springfield, helping pour the piers for the Theodosia Bridge.

See you at Hootin an Hollarin!

Ozark County Times

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PO Box 188
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Phone: (417) 679-4641
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