Addie Ellis

      First of all, I have got to admit that I am guessing how to spell Addie Ellis’s name. Now, Addie was the mother of Fred Ellis, who worked in the post office for many years.  She was a very colorful character and a fixture in Menard for many years. I never knew her husband.  He had passed away by the time I got to know Addie. She was a small woman and she had a rather wrinkled and freckled complexion. I hope no one thinks I am being hateful when I describe her in this way.  She had a very soft but raspy sounding voice.  I know that one time they had some ranch land. But, I don't know where it was or how much land they had.  It apparently qualified her to have a place in Menard's society circles.  Now, this was in the late 50’s and 60’s.  In this period of time,  there were a lot more local social parties for the women to attend than there are now.  So, Addie seemed to be a member of every woman’s club in Menard.  Her best friend was Clara Wilhelm.  Now Addie drove a red and white Ford Fairlane station wagon. It was not the fanciest car in town.  So, Clara Wilhelm would usually pick up Addie in her big fancy car.  Addie lived in the old Napier house, the house Dr. Nixon lives in the present time.  Clara must have been  impatient.  When she came to pick up Addie, she apparently wanted her to be standing outside waiting for her.  I spent a lot of time at my grandmother's house when I was a kid,  which is the house I presently live in now.  I would always know when Clara was coming to pick up Addie, because she would always start honking her horn about two blocks before she got to Addie’s house.  It seemed like there was a party every other day.  Then one day it all came to an end.  Clara lived about twelve miles out on highway 190 towards Brady.  So, she was running late for one of these parties and she had a cake for the party setting in the front seat.  In the last little valley before you get to the old drive-in theater, the cake started sliding off the seat.  Clara grabbed for the cake and she lost control of the car and rolled it.  She was critically injured, but she lived several days before she succumbed to her injuries.  I am sure this was devastating to her family and I am sure it was devastating to Addie.  I realize this is kind of a depressing little story.  But, it is a snapshot of the way Menard was in the 50’s and 60’s before we had so many forms of entertainment and social status was much more important then than it is now.  So, instead of watching T.V. or cruising the internet, they had little social events and parties to go to for entertainment.   

    But, even after Clara Wilhelm was sadly killed in a car wreck, life went on.  Addie sold her house and moved to another, smaller, house and lived several more years.  As I said before, She was a small lady.  She couldn’t see over the steering wheel of her car.  So, she just looked through her steering wheel.  She was famous for being a horrible driver.  So when you would see her coming, you made sure you stayed out of her way.  Pat Riley told me this story about her bad driving.  I thought it was a funny story and I have told this story many times down through the years and it is a true story.  He said he was in the post office one morning and he heard Addie and Curt Stockton arguing about something.  Now I am sure many of you remember Curt Stockton.  Curt was afflicted.  Not sure what happened to him, but he walked and talked like he was drunk, and a lot of the time he was drunk, in his younger days.  He rode a three wheeled bicycle because he was unable to drive a car.  A lot of times he would go to the bars on Saturday night.  So, when he was heading home from one of these bars on a Saturday night, he would get run off the road or he would lose control and end up in a ditch.  I don’t know how many times I would see flashing red and blue lights on Saturday night, and it would be Curt and his bike in a ditch.  So Curt and Addie were having an argument.  Curt told Addie, “You run over my bicycle.”  Addie said “Curt, I did not run over your bicycle.”  Curt kept saying “Yes you did.’  Finally, Addie said, “Curt, how do you know I ran over your bicycle?”  Curt said, “Because I was on it when you did it.”   

How I Learned to Play the Piano

                      

This is the first story I have posted in several years so I am having to brush up on my typing skills.  I used to be a pretty fast typist when I was in high school.  I even competed in U.I.L. competition and I did pretty good. Mrs. Halley told me that I was the fastest typist she had ever taught.  But, that was fifty years ago.  I also have to confess that I have already posted most of my best and funniest stories.  So, it may be a little dull from here on.  But, here goes anyway.

     This is the story of how I learned to play the piano. We were living in Abilene, Texas and I was in the fourth grade.  My mother wanted me to start taking piano lessons.  I look back on it and I wonder how we managed to afford it. So, she talked to Mrs. Springer, who was the music teacher where I was going to school, and she said she would be glad to give me piano lessons.  So, I started taking lessons from Mrs. Springer I believe in January of 1961.  After my first 30 minute lesson, I saw reading music was  simply counting spaces and lines up and down from middle C.  I got back to the house and started playing songs out of the hymnal after the first lesson. I guess you could say I was a natural born note reader. When the school year ended Daddy decided to move back to Menard.  Vernon Bates had offered him a job working at Bates food store in the meat market.  I was excited to be moving back to Menard, but I was not excited to leave Mrs. Springer.  I older brother William Franklin had taken piano lessons from Mrs. Tisdale before we moved to Abilene.  He was doing pretty good but he lost interest in the piano.  We went to see Mrs. Tisdale and asked her if she would give me piano lessons.  She said she would. But, she told my mother that “She would be glad to teach me, but I would never be as good as my brother was”.  I proved her wrong.  So, that was when I was in the first grade.  I soon became her star pupil.  Mrs. Tisdale believed in recitals.  Seems like we had a recital for every holiday.  I remember playing for a Halloween recital one year in the old Christian church.  I remember it was at night so it would seem a little spooky.  My mother took an old sheet and cut out a place for my eyes and I went as casper the ghost.  No one knew who I was until the recital was over. I played a recital, at the Baptist Church in the fellowship hall, and it was the only time I played a two piano duet.  I played it with Cheryl Westphall, who was Dr. Westphall’s daughter.  I remember being so nervous because I knew if I messed up it would mess her up too.  Thank goodness it all went smoothly.  I played at the Menard Manor almost every Christmas.  The piano was on the second floor of the old hotel building.  This was before they built on the two wings.  I remember playing” O Holy Night” and they liked it so well I had to play it twice.  I did not realize at the time that Menard Manor would be a big part of my life and that I would work there for thirty one and a half years.  I remember playing for, I believe, the Rotary Club and Mrs. Tisdale wanted me to give a little speech telling about the song's origin.  I refused to do it because I was so shy and stubborn.  I look back on It and wonder why I was so stubborn.  Before  I move on I just want to say what a fine women Mrs. Tisdale was.  My dad and I were in an automobile accident and my dad was unable to work for a while and we were unable to pay Mrs. Tisdale.  But, she kept teaching me piano lessons without charging me until Daddy could get back on his feet financially. I loved Mrs. Tisdale and she will always have a special place in my heart.

     I did not take piano lessons my senior year in high school because Mrs. Tisdale said I would just be too busy.  She said I could already play as good as her.  I did not think I could play as good as her because she was a very gifted pianist.  So, when I got to college I decided to go with my passion and be a music major.  This was probably not a good career move. But I did it anyway.  I soon realized that this was not an easy major.  Not only did you have all of your basic subjects to study and pass, you had to make time to practice the piano.  Not only did you have to play really hard music, you had to learn to perform in very stressful situations.  I remember playing on a nine foot grand piano on stage with a spotlight on me, playing a hard song without any music.  I was so nervous, it was like I was in a trance.  I remember starting the song and ending the song but nothing in between.  Someway I got through the  song and everybody thought I did good. But, even though I was scared to death, I loved it because it was my passion. 

I stayed in college for two and a half years and when I quit I was working on “Moonlight Sonata” by Ludwig Van Beethoven.  This was to be my senior recital song.  The first movement is not really difficult. But, the rest of the song is extremely difficult and it is thirty three pages long.  It has to be memorized and performed before a music major senior recital.  It can be performed any time you are ready.  But it has to be done before you graduate.  I was driving back and forth to San Angelo five days a week and I wore out every old car I could get and I wore myself out.  I decided I would take a break from college and I never made it back.  But, I didn’t give up music.  I started playing mostly popular music and I loved Dan Coates arrangements.  I was still a very good note reader and excelled on the level of difficulty of the arrangements.  I never played with a band even though they had asked me to play piano for the Angelo State Band right before I quit. But, I have never played with a country and western band and that is where my passion is. I have played for a few different events in my life.  I played several years in a row for the Menard Chamber Of Commerce but they got new chamber members and never asked me again.  I have played two or three weddings.  I often thought if I lived in a big city I would place an ad to play for weddings. I have only been paid one time for playing the piano in my whole life and that was for a wedding here in Menard.  I won’t mention who the person was, but he gave me a fifty dollar bill.  I didn’t ask for any money. But  it only lasted three weeks and they had the marriage annulled. So, I guess he thought that was not money well spent.

     So, even though I could read notes very well and I could play beautiful difficult music. I began to notice something.  Nobody thinks you are a real musician unless you can play some by ear.  So, I decided I would learn to play by ear.  It was not easy for me.  But, I worked hard and it has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.  I always loved Floyd 

Cramer's style of playing the piano.  So I set my goal to play like Floyd Cramer.  Floyd Cramer used the slip note to give piano playing that unique style.  So, anytime you hear me play the piano, you are going to hear some Floyd Cramer.  When I find a new song I want to learn, I first find out what key it is in and I try to learn it in the key it was originally sung in.  If it is a key I just don’t like, I will put it in a key I do like.  I try to learn a new song about every two weeks.  Some songs just come naturally and some songs I really have to work hard to learn.  Here I am at sixty eight years old and I still have that burning passion to become a better pianist.  But, I will never be as good as I want to be.  Well, that’s all for now.  Now that I am retired from the Manor, stay tuned for a lot of stories about my life in Menard.   

  

Raisin Sauce

     In nineteen seventy one, I was attending college at Angelo State University.  I had never hardly been out of Menard.  I had never gone in a restaurant that had a real life chef serving you the meat, complete with a white chef''s hat.  I was impressed.  Now at the time, I never realized this was a fancy eatery at a retirement center for the rich or well off.  I might not have been as impressed if I had realized this was kind of a glorified nursing.  But, it was a fancy place at that time.  It was called the Candlelight Dining Room.  They were serving ham that first day I ate there.   The chef served me a big slice of ham on my plate.  He next deposited a large scoop of raisin sauce over my slice of ham. This began my love affair with raisin sauce.   I loved it.  I thought to myself, I can make my own raisin sauce at home.  So, I did.  It soon became a family tradition.  But, WE didn't just put it on ham, we put it on everything.  But, our favorite thing to put it on was dressing.  So, it has now become a family tradition to always serve raisin sauce over dressing anytime  we serve turkey and dressing.  So, I have been asked to put my recipe for raisin sauce on my blog by my wonderful daughter and daughter - in- law.  so here it is.

First you need about two cups of raisins.  Place them in medium size sauce pan.  Then, cover them with water.  Add about a cup of brown sugar if you have it.  If you don't have brown sugar, use regular sugar.  Let boil until it has thickened considerably.  Then add on half stick of butter and about four tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.  Let it simmer until it thickens to the right consistency.  You want it to still have quite a bit of liquid in it, but you don't want it to watery.  If it is still to watery, you can always add a little cornstarch.  Trust me, it is really hard to mess it up.  Whatever you do, it is still going to taste like raisin sauce.  Enjoy.

4. My favorite season.

     My favorite season of the year is spring.  Being a carpenter's son in a small town, in the sixty's and seventy's, was not a real pleasant experience.  During the winter there was never enough work for daddy to do, and if there was any work, the weather was usually so bad that it was a very unpleasant experience.  Unlike some people that were raised poor but didn't realize it, I realized we were poor from an early age.  So, spring meant better times, more work, and more money to do things.  It meant baseball season was starting, and yes as a kid I loved to watch baseball with daddy.  It meant summer was just around the corner. It meant my birthday.  It meant the Pierce reunion would be here before I knew it, and I always looked forward to the Pierce reunion.  I meant the wild flowers would be in full bloom.  It meant it was time to take a trip to Garner State Park.  It meant thunderstorms and going to the storm cellar.  It meant Easter.  It meant it was time to plant a garden.  It meant I would be getting up early and going to work with daddy.  Spring brings back so many memories.  Some are very fond memories and some are in a way a little sad.  I realize most of these experiences I will never have again.  But I am thankful that I have all of these wonderful memories.  I wouldn't change a thing if I could.  These memories are part of who I am today.

3. Favorite Foods

Food.  It just has to be one of my favorite words.  In my younger days, I used to drink a lot of beer.  So, food was not as important to me then.  But, after I quit drinking, over twenty five years ago, food suddenly became more appealing.  It was my new addiction.  I have since learned that controlling my food addiction is almost as hard as controlling my alcohol addiction.  Ha ha just kidding.  My nephew David Pierce once said that Pierce's were just natural born pigs.  I am inclined to agree with him.  Well, here is a list of some of my favorite foods.
     I will start with my favorite meat.  My favorite meat is barbecue brisket.  I don't mean this market trimmed brisket.  I mean good old fat barbecued brisket, cooked slow for about twelve hours.  There is nothing better in the way of meat.
     The next food category I will talk about is my favorite side dishes.  I love any kind of beans, and of course barbecue brisket is not complete without some kind of beans as a side dish.  Another favorite side dish of mine is good old potato side.  I am not picky about what kind of potato salad it is, they are all good.
The smell of potato salad just screams picnic or family reunion.  That smell brings back many pleasant memories.
     The next category of food I want to talk about is vegetables.  Even as a kid, I always loved vegetables.
I planted my own garden when I was eleven years old.  I raised a garden every year until we moved to our present home.  The soil here want grow anything, and if it did, the deer would eat it before it got started.  So, I now have to rely on store bought vegetables.  I have many favorite vegetables, but probably my favorite is squash.  There many ways to cook squash and I like them all.  Squash is also something that brings back many pleasant memories of family reunions and other summer activities.  Another one of my favorite vegetables, is turnips.  Unfortunately, Loveta hates turnips with a passion.  So, I don't get to eat them very often.  I really can't think of a vegetable that I hate, so I will pretty much eat anything you put in front of me.
     The next category of food is sweets.  This is without a doubt, my favorite category  of food.  Anyone who really knows me, knows how much I like sweets.  So, here is a list of a few of my favorites.  I will start with cobblers.  Now how can you go wrong with a cobbler?  It does not matter what kind you make, you know its going to be good.  My mother-in-law used to make a cobbler out squash.  Guess what, it was delicious.  My next favorite dessert is coconut pie.  I have never tasted a bad coconut pie.  Some are better than others but to me they are all good.  I also love lemon pie, and just about any thing with lemon in it.  One of my all time favorite desserts is plain pound cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of it.  Hard to top that.   I get pretty excited when I talk about desserts as you can probably tell.  Last but not least, I love ice cream.  The best is Loveta's home made ice cream, but there is no such thin as bad ice cream.  It's all good from the cheapest store brand to the most expensive.
     Even though barbecue is my favorite meat, my favorite food category is without a doubt, mexican food.  If anyone suggest we go out to eat, and they ask my opinion, nine times out ten I will pick Mexican food.  I just like every thing about it.  I love chili, cheese, beans, and tortillas.  I could virtually live on these four things.  I might not live very long since that would not be a very healthy diet.  But, I would enjoy every bite.
     Well, I could go on and on about food but I am going stop for right now.

#2. Love

     I have always thought the word, "love", was impossible to define.  Anyone who attempted to define love was just foolish.  But, as I have gotten older, my views about a lot of things have changed.  I have learned that, yes, I believe love can be defined.  So, I am going to make a attempt to define love as I see it, even with the risk of being called foolish.
     W hen Loveta first mentioned love as one topic we should write about.  I thought to myself, "That want take long".  But, knowing my past writing experiences, it takes me a lot of words to say anything.  So, lets hope I can keep this short.
     My dad used to say, that love was so close to hate that it was hard to tell them apart.  When he would say this, it would infuriate my mother.  I guess she wondered which way it would go, in regards to his feelings about her.  I never quite understood what daddy meant by this statement.  These are both very strong emotions and I kinda understand where he was going with this.  I know my dad had a very hard life, filled with sadness and heartache.  I know he had been hurt and betrayed several times by those that he thought loved him.  So, perhaps these made him have such a harsh viewpoint about love.  Fortunately, I didn't inherit daddy's viewpoint about love.
     To me there are several types of love.  One type of love is the casual feeling of love and commitment we have for our friends.  We wish the best for them.  It would hurt us if any thing bad happened to them.  They a important part of our life.  But, they are not family.
     The second type of love is the love we have relative.  They are blood kin and yes blood is thicker than water.  So, we love them.  But we don't see them very often.  So, its a different kind of love.
     Next, we have the strong love and affection we feel for our parents and all of those family members who were there when we were growing up.  Even though this is a very strong love, it is natural for us to feel like we are going to out live our parents.  So, we spend a good part of our life preparing for them to pass from this life before we do. I don't in any way want to diminish the love I had for my parents.  But, I knew that more than likely I would out live my parents and have to make a life of my on after they were gone.  When I was young I worried about what I would do when they were gone.  They have been gone for many years now, but I still miss them and occasionally still dream about them.
     Next, the love you have for your spouse has to be one this strongest forms of love known to mankind.  The Bible tells us to leave our parents and go out into the world and find a mate.  We are supposed to cling to that mate and become one and nothing is supposed to separate us except death.  What a beautiful plan.  Unfortunately it doesn't always work out that way.  From the moment we are married we face the things that life throws at us.  We laugh together, we worry together, and we cry together.  We endure every hardship together.  It makes for a love and closeness that endures forever.  A love that is tested by the trials and tribulations of life.  A love that endures until death.
     The last form of love I want to talk about, is the love we have for our children, their spouses,  and our grandchildren.  You think you know all about love, until you have a child.  Then, you learn a whole new level of love.  All of a sudden your whole life revolves around a little baby.  Nothing else matters except the welfare of that little baby.  It is a love so strong that you can't imagine ever living a moment without that baby in your life.   That love you have for that baby never diminishes no matter how old they get.  It only grows stronger as the years go by.  It is indeed a love that I thank God that I have been fortunate enough to experience.  Not ever one can say this.  I am truly a blessed man.

#1. Life Changing Moment

     Several years ago, while the kids were in college, Loveta and I decided to write a list of different events in our lives that have have been instrumental in shaping the course of our lives.  We decided to make a list of pivotal moments in our lives.  We decided we would write all of this down and present it to our two children for Christmas some day.  So, after we are dead and gone they would have some sense of the events in our lives that made us who we are.  But, were never got around to it.  So, recently, Loveta discovered this list and we decided now is the time to do this.  But, we have decided to do it on our blog instead of writing it on paper.  So, here goes.

     I have had several life changing moments in my life.  So, I can't seem to narrow it down to just one moment.  I am going to list three of the most significant life changing events in my life.  There are more life changing events, but these are what I feel like are the most important.  I will warn you that these are not all pleasant experiences.  

     I will start with the first life changing experience, when Loveta and I got married.  I had never met her family until the day before the wedding.  Loveta,  had a huge family,  and I was scared to death.  I never slept one minute the night before we got married.  It was not that I dreaded it.  It was just that I didn't know what to expect.  I had never had to be responsible for anybody but myself.  All of a sudden I had to be responsible  for someone else.  I had to grow up and be a man.  When I met Loveta, I had just about given up on ever getting married.  I had several bad experiences in my relationships up to this point.  So, I had virtually given up on finding the right mate when I met Loveta.  She swept me off my feet, and turned my world upside down, in a good way.  I never had a sister, so sharing a house with a young lady was a learning experience.  I was totally miserable in my life before I met Loveta.  She suddenly made my life worth living.  I may have made my share of mistakes in my life, but marrying Loveta was not one of them.   

      The next life changing moment in my life was when John Carol was born.  From the time I knew Loveta was pregnant,  I stressed about something happening to that baby or Loveta from that day forward.  Loveta would get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and I would wake up and remind her not to fall.  I did the same thing when she was pregnant with Kalyn.  I will never forget the feeling I had when the nurse first brought John Carol to me to hold.  I had never held a baby in my life.  I was scared to death.  But,  I will never forget the feeling of love and overwhelming feeling of  responsibility I had for that little baby boy.  By the time Kalyn was born, I had the same feeling of love for her that I did for John Carol, but I was much more at ease holding a baby.  I have learned that you never loose that feeling of love and responsibility that I felt when I held John Carol and Kalyn for the first time, no matter hold old they get.  

     The next life changing experience I am going to tell about is when my drinking habit finally caught up with me.  It was nineteen eighty eight.  I had just started to work at the Menard Manor.  I had a drinking problem that I had managed to hide from the public.  I had only been working at the manor for a few days when I got really sick .  I woke up with with chills in the middle of the night.  I was literally too sick to get ready to go to the doctor.  I had already had pneumonia once that year and I really never got over it.  I finally made it to the doctor and he said I had pneumonia.  He put me in the hospital and I was in there for ten days.  I feel like this was the closest I have ever come to dying.  While I was being treated for pneumonia, I endured all of the very unpleasant effects of having to deal with my drinking problem.  They told me if I didn't quit drinking, It was going to kill me.  I decided they were right.  From that day on, I have never took another drink of alcohol.  I would be lying if I didn't say it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life.  I felt like I owed it to my wife, kids, and to myself to try to get healthy and live to take care of them.  I am proud that I made the right decision.  

     There are several other life changing events in my life, but I am going to stop there for right now.