Edwards Presbyterian Church Bible School resignation:
Dale, Angie and Robert Edward



The Lesson Rev. Dean Rydbeck and Dale Robinson


The children singing



Linda Dickson playing the piano..

Fun time!!!

Photos courtesy of Lesley Cannada

Well, ready or not... I am back….I took off July just because it is so blamed hot and miserable…and I knew you all didn’t want to listen to me whine. August is hot too…so I will still be whiney, but perhaps be a bit more cheerfully whiny? The days are still hot, but they are getting shorter. ...so perhaps more tolerable.... We will see.

I am on my front porch. My computer, Ruby is her name, has finally caught up with the old fashion tablet and pencil……Ruby is a lap top, and it can be toted any where a pencil and paper can go….but to use the internet she had to be connected physically to a phone line.

Until Now!!! I recently acquired a wireless router! ( I already had a router… in the shop, the purpose of that router is to shape wood. The two routers do not perform even remotely similar tasks, so why the same name? Maybe the techie guys didn‘t know the word “router” was already in use…do the techie guys not get out much?)

This new router thingamajig sits on my desk in the back of the house, and some how enables Ruby, un-tethered, by a tangle of wires, to function perfectly any where in the house. As I understand it, other folks and their computers can come play too and be connected. grandson Garrett is coming with his computer, we will see.

Garrett, you may remember was in a car wreck last October, he had to have more surgery, his mom and dad tended to him last week…they have declared him sufficiently improved enough that I should be able look after him this week. I don’t know about changing the bandage….I have a weak stomach…the incision is from his shoulder to his elbow. …I keep telling myself it can’t be any worse then a full diaper….we will see.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge…literally…(7or 8 inches)...since I was last here…but the most fun, was Bible School…we had Bible School in Edwards for the first time in years…It was a GRAND success…we had 29 children to attend.

I love Bible School…I no doubt have told you this before…as a wee little child, I learned all I really needed to know about Jesus at Bible school… “Jesus loves me, this I know because the Bible tells me so” , “The B I B L E” that’s the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God, the B I B L E” The Bible was taught to me, in simple language, with plenty assuring words, by compassionate Christian ladies that loved me…bandage my knees, give me hugs when I needed one, poured my Kool aid and gave me cookies…Bible school taught me, I can snuggle up with Jesus any time…

Call if you need me…
　
　
GloriaChristiansen@gmail.com　
　
　
　
　

My Texas trip, Edwards Mississippi to Wylie Texas and back....

Diane and Joe on the Dart Train.....

Down Town Dallas...

The white curls are pickled pork rind...yum!

My Texas Trip

Sometimes I surprise myself, as to just how clever I am… without intending to be. Come to think about it… I am far more clever by accident, then I ever am by intention.

Yesterday I returned from a long weekend, 4 days 3 nights…Well! To keep from going to the hot attic to retrieve traveling cases for the trip….I packed up the bright yellow, (I call it Doris Day yellow and it is from that era,) Samsonite luggage, Barbara Pennebaker gave me, a while back, from her attic. The bright yellow cases are so decorative, they live in one of my bedrooms and are out on display all the time…therefore saving me from an expedition to the hot attic.
For me packing a suitcase is not fun…but in the unpacking there are even less opportunities for hilarity. I have not unpacked,…… I just brought the bags in, and sat them down in their normal location, and they are not bothering me one bit. Clever Huh?

I will eventually get around to unpacking, but it won’t be today. Because I want to tell you about my trip ….and I am waiting for friends, we are going to go to Learned, to Gibb’s Grocery for lunch…. we have been hearing how yummy it is. So if I cut this off in mid sentence it is because I heard the horn honk…I do hope they are open on Mondays.

Before I get to my trip, I want to tell you what Doris Stubblefield said about growing pineapple from the green part…It will root and it will produce pineapples, it takes two years….Doris and a friend each rooted a top, Doris got tired of fooling with hers, but her friend persevered and was actually able to harvest pineapples. So…there you go………

My best friend from high school , Diane and her husband Joe, live over in Texas, close to Dallas, I drove over for the weekend, we had a grand time. We took the Dart train to downtown Dallas, did the tourist thing down there, got back on it and went to what they call the West End, ate lunch and walked around, lots of cute shops and restaurants. It was 99 or 100 degrees but the humidity was so low it was not disagreeability miserable seeing the sights. ….just walk on the shady side of the street.

Then Saturday morning we got up and went on the hunt for Mexican vanilla, like my buddy Paula used to bring us back from Mexico…didn’t find any…. but I sure enjoyed going in and out of the Mexican markets looking for it….seeing all of the different foods. I became fascinated by what the lady selling it called fried flour…It was thin and curled like pork rinds, but bigger like 6x4 inch rectangle. So I ordered one, she asked me what I wanted on it, I told her what ever was the traditional. She started with lettuce, and pico de gallo, then with her gloved hand she reached in to a jar and pulled out two big handfuls of nearly white, short pieces of something resembling worms…it was pickled pork rind….then she topped it off with sour cream and jalapeno peppers. Well, I thought it was tasty, Diane and Joe opted ham and cheese sandwiches.

I do not like interstate driving and besides you see more on the little two lane roads. I took old Highway 80 most of the way going to Texas. On the way back I crossed north Louisiana on LA 2, then took 65,to 80 they had signs calling them “scenic bypasses” …what a pleasant drive.

Love to all Call if you need me…

GloriaChristiansen@gmail.com

The Burial of Hobbs Freeman

The phone rang……I picked up the phone when saw the name on the caller ID…I knew it was the call I had been expecting for days ….the voice on the other end of the line said, “Hobbs has died.” I felt both sadness and relief, in mid May Hobbs had been diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas…he never left the hospital…much of that time he was not conscious.

Into the phone I heard myself say “I didn’t know him long enough…” I got to know Hobbs through his neighbor and best friend Gordon Cotton…and the hymn singings and dinners on the grounds they held down at Campbell’s Swamp, at Jordon’s Chapel .

Hobbs was a rare man…His pastor referred to Hobbs as a renaissance man….Hobbs was a man of many talents he was an artist, a sculptor, a builder, jewelry maker, a cook, a gardener…God gifted the hands of Hobbs Freeman…Hobbs’s hands could create what ever his mind could imagine…..

But, the quality Hobbs possessed that I admired most was he never tried to be anybody but Hobbs Freeman…he was the same everyday…he didn’t change according to who he was with… he treated all people the same….everybody was important to Hobbs….If you stop to think about it that is a very rare quality indeed.

Hobbs was buried at Campbell’s swamp…we arrived a head of the processional. When we step out of the car an uncommonly large butterfly came down and buzzed past our ears. I wondered a loud if that butterfly could have been Hobbs…I know there are folks who think that is not possible even sac religious …but I am of the mind that God is almighty and would have no trouble what so ever letting Hobbs spirit go into butterfly, so he could sit on the limb of a blooming hydrangea and see his friends on earth one last time..

The setting down there is like out of a movie…at the edge of the woods sits Jordon’s chapel, a cemetery to the side and a bit behind it, flowers in bloom all around and the scent of gardenias in the air. his burial was so appropriate, so simple. His casket was handmade by a friend out of an old walnut tree that had fallen on the property.

In the cemetery, there were six stones marking the graves of fallen confederate soldiers and a hand dug grave awaiting Hobbs. The hearse pulled up, the pall bears carried the walnut box up the hill and placed it beside the opening in the ground…The preacher said a few words…Then the pall bears and young men call out from the gathered mourners to lend a hand…began to slowly lower Hobbs body in to the ground.

Accompanied by the sounds of nature a young lady sang, while we in turns, beginning with the pall bears, took shovels of dirt and began to cover the box in the ground holding to body of Hobbs Freeman.

We walked away clapping hands……

GloriaChristiansen@gmail.com