Heart Hope by Olga

While sitting at lunch, my grandson Will was watching a movie on an iPhone. It was loud and distracting, so I offered him ear buds so he could listen without disturbing others around. A friend sitting at the table said, "Now there's a modern day grandmother." His comment made me think, "What is a modern day grandmother? How are we different from our predecessors? And what do I want to be remembered for?" Grandparents today don't want to look old, act old or be old. They want to be seen as cool and be in the know with all of the latest gadgets. I've even seen many "competing" in a variety of ways to be the "best." In some ways we are very similar to grandparents of days gone by. We love our own and think they are the best. We brag on them and show off pictures. We desire to spend quality time with them. And we want to pass on traditions from our own heritage. Technology has made a difference in many ways, allowing us ...

Making memories was my goal. I didn’t really want the Christmas cookies for myself, but I thought it might be a fun project for me to do with my grandchildren. Homemade sugar cookies cut into shapes matching the characters seen at Jesus’ birth.  The dough was measured and mixed…it was rolled and cut…flour was everywhere probably because the kids would dip their hands into the flour and then clap them right in my face. Yes, it was going to be a memory…at least for me. Each child had gotten to select which characters or animals they wanted to make and were given lessons on how to position the cutters on the rolled dough in order to get the most cookies out of it. They wanted to eat the cookie dough and since I didn’t die as a child from eating it I let them do it; after all we were making memories. Once the cookies were baked and cooled it was time to decorate them. The picture on the cover of the cutters had beautifully embellished cookies, just the way I wa...

The 1971 class of William B. Murrah High School will converge on Jackson, MS on June 24-25 to celebrate 40 years since graduation. It’s hard to imagine that I have not seen most of my classmates for over 40 years, with the exception of a brief visit at the 10 year reunion.  It’s been fun looking at all of the old pictures, annuals, newspapers, stories and other memories that have been shared even though I was only at Murrah for a year and a half. We had a great time and didn’t even realize that the times were difficult in many ways.   We experienced many memories during the first 18 years of our lives in elementary school, jr high as well as high school that kids of today probably could not even comprehend.  We lived through the Vietnam War and Draft Cards that led to Draft Lotteries.  We learned of President John F Kennedy’s assassination together along with Medgar Evers, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. We used typewriters and princess phones, never eve...

Queen Roxy Roxie had a good life. She lived in the city while in Texas and the mountains of Colorado—the best of both worlds. She lived in apartments in Lubbock, condos in Boulder and the family home in Fort Worth. She even got to go to “camp” when we were out of town. She had two doting sisters—Margaret and Lynn, but Roxie pretty much ruled the roost. Roxy was often stuck with me, so we forged a strong bond. Being an “alpha” dog she began to think that she was the master and I was the slave, since I was always there to feed her, walk her and let her in and out at her every whim. I was all right playing that part. As the girls grew up and left home, Roxy remained in the family residence except for brief visits to Texas Tech and Houston. On one visit to see Margaret in Houston, our precious sweet little innocent dog discovered a basket of Valentines Day candy and ate the whole thing. Well, everyone knows that a dog can die if they eat chocolate, never mind the plastic an...

This time of year always brings back fond memories of days gone by. When the kids were all little, my friend, Susan and I would pack up all of the kids in her suburban and hit the road. With the car pointed northwest, we would head for the hills, to get away from the oppressive temperatures of Texas, to have some rest and relaxation and also just to have fun. Susan is the type to find out all of the great things to do in a particular area so she always had surprises for us along the way. Whether it was visiting the cave dwelling Indians, viewing the exquisite Royal Gorge, seeing plays at the Palo Duro Canyon or taking the out of the way nooks and crannies , we always had a blast—or so it seems now. Looking back, I long for those carefree days of summer on the open road. I even miss the kids yelling in the back of the car, the spilt Dairy Queen Blizzards, kids falling out of the raft into the rushing river and mysterious rocks flying through the air landing on other’s heads. I can even ...