Happy Birthday: Lindsey Watts, Hollie Bartlett, Karen Lazarine, Jimmie Putnam, Jonathan Temple, Randy George, Jr., Ruth Brandenburg, Julie Lowther, Kylie McCarty, Betty Buck, Frederic Tims, Ed Booth, Doris Cordova, Peyton Mathis, Buck Doiron, Linda Reynolds, Colin Lowther, Harold Morris, Len Medford, Mary Martha Henderson, Evelyn Forrest, Maxine Jenkins, and Thomas Gibbs.
Happy Anniversary: Ed and Linda Mount.
Lisa Teer, daughter of Linda and Dan Teer, has been elected Secretary of the Texas State 4-H Council and is Vice President of the East Texas District 5 4-H Council and President of the Angelina County 4-H Council. Lisa, a senior at LHS, has been accepted to Texas A&M University in the fall. She is the granddaughter of Jeanette and Joe Davis, Juanita and L. G. Teer and great granddaughter of Nedra Tillman.
Joy Fredrick, Carolyn Haney and I went to Austin for two days to visit our high school classmate Sara Ross and husband Dick Rathgeber. On our way through Elgin, Joy mentioned that grandson James Fredrick had come with fraternity brothers from Colorado State in Fort Collins, Colorado to Elgin to work on repairs for a handicapped center. We arrived in Austin with just one minor turn and Dick guided us over the cell phone to their house that is on the grounds of a once convent in west Austin. We had lunch at the Westwood Country Club overlooking Lake Austin. Joy, Carolyn and Sara are big needle point people and wanted to go to The Needle Works that was in the 26 Doors Shopping Center. Not being a needle person, I wondered in the shops. One was a gift shop operated by the volunteers of Seton Hospitals called Sweet Charity. We drove out to see the newest Austin shopping center called The Domain, which Sara says is very upscale for Austin. The Neiman's store was very upscale. It is on Mo Pac on some land that IBM had owned. The shops have condos over them. The mountain laurel bushes were in full bloom and bluebonnets and paintbrushes were on the roadsides. The landscaping at The Domain was "to die for". Money was no object. Macy's was the anchor store on one end and Neiman's on the other. Nordstrom is coming soon.
Dick is the cook and grocery shopper so he cooked dinner for us consisting of very thick Angus steaks, baked potatoes and asparagus. Sara did salad and chocolate cake. For breakfast Dick sectioned grapefruit for us in 57 seconds each. Carolyn was taken by their Daschunds, Max and Lilly. Joy and Sara walked the dogs the next morning.
Dick is very active in the Austin Children's Shelter, Salvation Army and the Settlement Home. The Austin Children's Shelter will be on a complex near Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. On the site will be the Scottish Rite Dyslexia Learning Center, and the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association, or CASA.
Dick's dream is to have the children's village and this area expand into a cross use of facilities.
We had a tour of Austin's residential district and saw the homes of the Rathgeber's children Ross and Julia Rathgeber, Gretchen and Bobby Ellis, and Ellen and Steve Miura. We had lunch on the 21st floor of the Chase Bank Tower in downtown Austin at The Headliners Club. The view of Austin was clear, and we could see the Capital and UT Tower. We even had a "sneak" peek at the men's rest room with the nude pictures of Marilyn Monroe. Get Joy to tell you more details. As we were leaving, we took a picture of Dick and Sara with his "toy car" as Sara calls it. It is a 2003 Thunderbird, orange and white, that is a replica of the 1957 Thunderbird. All had a good time, and we are talking about another "girls trip" later in the year.
When I got home from Austin, Ernest had noticed on March 20th that I had a hummingbird.
Ernest and I left Lufkin for Fort Smith, Arkansas on Thursday. Roundtable cookers and spouses for the Friday night party hosted by Dave and Mary Ann McMahon at the Holiday Inn were: Raymond and Carol Moore, Jerry and Kay Highnote, Bob and Tony Brown, Peyton and Barbara Mathis, Hugh and Linda Anderson, Charles Arnold, Mack and Linda Coward, Charles and Beverly Kent with grandsons Joshua and Ben Gilbert, sons of Amy and John Gilbert, and Ernest and me. David Moore and Andrew Moore cooked okra patties for the appetizers and the Roundtable cooked catfish and hushpuppies for the some 400 attending the pre Angus sale at Belle Point Ranch. Andrew Moore was able to get Ernest's watch off military time and on central daylight time. Thank you Andrew!! Thursday night, Dave and Mary Ann treated the group to Mexican food at La Huerta Grill where we met family: Mary Lynn and Marvin Holland, David and Tammy McMahon, Kathleen and Tim McGuire, Julie and Steve French, Susan and Rick Taylor. The grandchildren were there too at the family affair. Friday lunch at Belle Point Ranch, the Roundtable cooked fajitas and tamales for the workers. The ladies, Carol Moore, Tony Brown, Linda Coward, Linda Anderson, Barbara Mathis, Kay Highnote and me, shopped in Fort Smith at Gallivanting, an antique store called Now & Then Shoppe, then downtown to The Secret Nook, Betsy's Antiques, and Solemates while the guys were cooking. Our lunch was at Olive Garden. Saturday morning at the ranch, the Knights of Columbus chefs had scrambled eggs, sausage, ham, biscuits and red eye gravy for breakfast. The Angus sale followed breakfast at 10:30.
Ernest and I toured the Arkansas Wine Country at Altus and stopped at Post Familie Winery, Wiederkehr's Winery and Chateau Aux Arc Winery and had lunch at Wiederkehr's Swiss Family Bistro on I-40. We found out sampling that wine cannot be shipped into Arkansas from another state. Laws prohibit it. We saw fishermen below the Aux Arc Power Plant dam on the Arkansas River at Ozark.
The Cowards, Kents, Charles Arnold, Ernest and I were referred to as "trailer trash" since we had our travel trailers and stayed at Springhill Park at the J. W. Trimble Lock and Dam on the Arkansas River. It was peaceful and quiet and the Kent's grandsons taught Linda and me how to skip rocks in the water. Joshua and Ben are masters at this and could make them skip 5 and 6 times. I failed, but Linda did pretty good. The Kents and grandsons hiked, biked and fished. Ben caught a bass from the bank.
Kay Agan and Jerry Highnote were married on March 16 in San Augustine at the McMahon Chapel by the Rev. Jim Powell with no one attending their 3 p.m. ceremony. For a short honeymoon, they went to Natchitoches, LA. Best wishes to you both. The McMahon family in Fort Smith surprised the newly weds with a cake on Saturday night.
Here is some more about our trip to Washington D. C. for Charlie's promotion. On Sunday early, Charlie went with Ernest, Julie, Bill Vernon and me to Manassas National Battlefield Park. There was a 45-minute video and a very good volunteer gave a description of the first and second battles of Manassas or also know as Bull Run which were the first battles of the Civil War. The recruits were "raw" and 900 were killed in the 10-hour battle. The Confederates named battles after the towns and the Union named them after rivers. The Confederates won these two battles, and General Robert E. Lee used them to get support. All but me took the walking tour to see several stops in the first battle that was July 1861 in the Civil War. The second battle, in August 1962, was marked with spots on a driving tour with stops at the Stone house that was a hospital and the Stone Bridge built in 1800s to cross Bull Run Creek. The Confederates blew up the center spans and it is being restored. There was an unfinished railroad trestle that was used by the Confederates as a berm to fight. The rail fence was called worm fencing and it is a trademark for Manassas. The book store at the park had a computer list of Confederate soldiers. Ernest looked for his ancestor, Thomas Crawford. General Thomas J. Jackson earned his nickname "Stonewall" here at Manassas. Julie got on a crusade to find the significance of the riders on horses with hooves raised. One raised hoof means the rider was wounded in battle but did not die. Two raised hooves means the rider died in battle, all four hooves on the ground meant that they served and were not killed in a battle. Sunday afternoon we drove to Mount Vernon and toured the out buildings: Slave Quarters, greenhouse, Spinning House/Overseer's quarters, servants' hall, main house all three floors, kitchen, coach house, wash house, smokehouse, storehouse/clerk's quarters, stable, and Washington's tomb. The guide said that President George Bush came on President's Day and placed a wreath at the tomb. He was the first sitting president in a long time to come to Mount Vernon. New facilities are on the grounds with the Ford Orientation Center where there was an 18-minute video of Washington's early life and how he met Martha. On exhibit is Mount Vernon in miniature, one-twelfth the size in exact replica of the mansion's 22 rooms. The Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center had George Washington's false teeth along with many other artifacts and exhibits. It really could take you all day to see this with its 23 galleries and theaters. The DRT Ladies at the Alamo inspired the ladies to purchase Mount Vernon. The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association purchased the 500 acres estate in 1858 from descendants 50 years after Washington's death for $20,000. They have maintained it for these many years. George Washington was born in 1732 and died in 1799 at the age of 67. On our way home, we stopped to eat at the Chart House in Old Town Alexandria. It was on the Potomac River overlooking Maryland. We had to eat Maryland crab cakes as we watched the planes landing at Reagan Airport.
Monday it was windy and we went to Federal Triangle on the Metro and got the umbrellas that we had left at the DAR House. Then we went to tour the National World War II Memorial honoring the 16 million who served in the armed forces. Oak and wheat bronze wreaths adorn granite pillars for each of the 50 states and territories surrounding the 4,000 gold stars representing the 400,000 killed in the war. I remembered sending in money to place names on the list of those who participated in the war. I found Charles Slover, Rocky Morris's father and my dad Willie Royle in the data base. I have the website if you want to add someone to the data base that fought in World War II or were supporters of the war efforts at home: www.wwiimemorial.com to enroll individuals. From there we went to the Korean Memorial dedicated in 1995. In the center is a triangle of 19 stainless steel statues depicting a squad on patrol like the American ground troops would have experienced. Within the sculptures are strips of granite and scrubby juniper bushes suggesting the rugged Korean terrain. Other significant markers are around the memorial. Stops were made at Lincoln Monument, Vietnam Memorial, and the Vietnam Nurses Statue. We took the ride up in the Washington Monument, which is 555 feet 5 and one eight inches tall. It was started in 1848 and dedicated in 1885. Tickets were free for the 70-second elevator ride to the top at 500 feet. We saw the 195 memorial stones inside the walls on the ride down in the elevator. The Rangers said that this was a perfect day to view from the top.
Tamesha and Bill got tickets for the tour of the Capital and while they were waiting they went to the Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Building to see the Gutenberg Bible. They recommend seeing it. Back at the hotel, Charlie brought Milton Hickman from the airport and met Col. Kevin McClung, who had dinner with everyone at the Jumpers. Nancy and Mike Herde with Hannah, Isabelle, George and Sarah arrived from Connecticut. All toasted Charlie with Charlemagne champagne that Nancy brought from Europe. The toasts were in Meemaw's champagne glasses.
Tuesday was Charlie's big promotion at the Pentagon. We left at 9 a.m. via Metro from the hotel shuttle and arrived at the Pentagon. We went through clearance and security. The ceremony was at 11 a.m. with Col. McClung from the U.S. Army National Simulation Center to officiate. The promotion orders read as follows: "The President of the United States has reposed special trust and confidence in the patriotism, valor, fidelity, and abilities of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Andrew Jumper. In view of these special qualities and his demonstrated potential for increased responsibility he is therefore promoted in the United States Army to the grade of Colonel, effective the first day of March 2007. Signed Peter J. Schoomaker, General, United States Army, Chief of Staff." Shari and Col. McClung pinned the eagles on Charlie's shoulders and it was read: "Eagles have been popular symbols in our and other military services at least as far back as the Romans. Colonels started wearing spread eagles as a rank insignia in 1829 when they transferred the gold or gilt eagles that decorated their hat cockades to their collars. After 1831, most of the Colonels wore silver eagles on their gold epaulettes or gold-bordered shoulder straps." Tyler and Marcy pinned the eagles on Charlie's inside ribbons on his shirt. Janice Ann pinned the silver eagle on his black beret. There were about 60 at the reception and promotion with family, friends and co-workers. It was a wonderful day for all of us: Ernest, Janice Ann, Julie Jumper-Morris, Nancy (Jumper) and Michael Herde, with Hannah, Isabelle, George and Sarah, Tamesha Jumper, Bill Vernon, Milton Hickman, and of course the Jumper family Shari, Tyler and Marcy. The ladies and girls received roses, Tyler received a military coin, and Ernest and Milton received an Army cap with the date 1775 on it. Following the ceremony, we all had a tour of the Pentagon, which employs 23,000 persons. We saw the Memorial Chapel dedicated to those 184 who were killed in the Pentagon and on American Airlines Flight 77 on September 11, 2001. Ernest noticed that the plane came in over Arlington Cemetery with a strait shot at the Pentagon. Many hand made quilts were on the walls sent by school children or groups in memory of those lost. A memorial park is planned nearby with the name of each organized in a timeline of the victims' ages spanning from the youngest at 3 to the oldest at 71. Fifty-nine memorial units face one direction, 125 face the other - thus distinguishing victims on board the flight from those inside the Pentagon. When looking at the ones killed in the Pentagon, it will be in the background. When looking at the ones on the plane, the sky will be in the background. Donations are being taken.
This has been a busy three weeks with me off from work. I need to get back to work to rest. Catch you around Lufkin. Janice Ann email:
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