West Side Story and More

We just finished up our over-full, fun filled, too busy, exhausting, crammed, and sad weekend at Woodsong yesterday when Leslie left mid morning and mid-week to return to Nashville. Newspaper and television kept us aware of the sadness all around us due to the tornado, and we know personal sadnesses also.

When our grandkids learned about their cousin Sam’s spot in the pit orchestra in West Side Story, they plotted how they could be here for the Saturday performance. And despite the distance and parental fearful reluctance about all the travel involved, the younger generation had their way, and all cousins were here to cheer on Sam except the softball cousins, who were tied up elsewhere.

Down in Athens, the University of Georgia continued their winning ways at softball, and Gerald was able to follow part of the games on his computer. Erin’s team at Southern Illinois University Carbondale also won all four games to be the champions at the Coach B Tournament. Gerald and I did make the first game there, and we were glad it ended early with a run-ruled game. I was anxious to get back to the farm to be there when the grandkids arrived. Gerald learned on the way to the game that the young men he had asked to help burn the native grasses were going to do it that very afternoon.

The grandkids arrived after Brianna and Trent’s long trip up to pick up Elijah at Bloomington, where Jeannie brought Cecelie to join them. Five grandkids in the same car necessitated many prayers by parents for their safety. The five arrived in time to go by and pick up Sam to come out to Woodsong with them before they took him back to the Civic Center in town. They had every detail planned, and it was not five minutes after they arrived that they were at the dining room table eating cupcakes and playing a board game someone carried in. They also carried in a cookie cake with “My Little Pony” emblazoned on it as a birthday cake for Trent who had reached 19 the day before—their inside joke for teenage boys who watch the show for a joke. “Bromies” was the term for these guys, I was told.

I felt sorry for Gerald since he had really worked hard all Saturday morning to take off for the game. Meeting the government’s requirements for burning these fields had not been on his day’s planned agenda. But he was back at the farm in time to make the necessary phone calls, and he was thoroughly impressed with Brandon White and Randy Payne’s expertise and equipment for doing this job. He came in tired but pleased in time for a bite of supper and to take us in to West Side Story.

In the meantime, Leslie, who was on spring break from Belmont, also arrived and unloaded before we gave her instructions on parking and acquiring a ticket since when I bought tickets early in the week, I did not know she would be able to come. Mary Ellen and Brian also came downstate to support Sam and arrived shortly before show time. We all found our seats in the beautiful but very crowded civic center as we wanted to be sure to hear the orchestra’s prologue.

Sam’s parents Katherine and David and I had gone to the Friday night performance as well as Saturday’s. The second night I was more prepared to understand the plot even though the sound system was inadequate for actors’ dialogue, so I enjoyed it even more that second night. (It had been much too long since I saw the movie to remember the characters and plot.)

The vocalists’ and orchestra’s music was wonderful, the gymnastic dancing with fighting scenes was fantastic, and the set was spectacular. I cannot remember a high school set of that high caliber before. Scene changes were almost instant and always pleasing. Todd Graham, the high school band director, and parents had built set in the week before the performance. The unexpected day off school on Wednesday due to the electrical outage caused by the tornado did not seem to have hurt the cast’s successful execution of this complicated show.

While Sam was at the after-musical cast party, the rest of us came back to Woodsong to eat sandwiches and enjoy Trent’s two birthday cakes and ice cream. His parents had carried in the second traditional cake.

I don’t know when the kids went to bed that night but sometime after midnight when David brought Sam out. There were ten sleeping here, so couches were full. I do know only Leslie and Cecelie made it up in time to go to Sunday School with Gerald and me. Elijah and Sam came in with Mary Ellen for worship. I was glad when the pastor caught the kids before the service began and asked Leslie and Elijah to sing for us. I’d never heard them sing together before, and it did their grandmother’s heart good.

I’d stuck in a couple of large frozen lasagnas in the oven before I left home, so everyone gathered in for lasagna and salad with left-over birthday cakes for lunch. David brought Katherine and her aide out in the van. People were coming and going with the kids riding the Gator and playing with Jake and going over to see farm buildings that Mary Ellen and Brian were leasing. Too soon it was time for everyone to go back upstate or home to Marion, and only Leslie was left on the farm with Gerald and me. Again with all the upstate driving that Brianna, age 17, was yet to do taking the cousins back to Bloomington, I was grateful no painful phone calls ruined our weekend.

We were very pleased to have this special pre-wedding time with our Leslie. She was busy while she was here shopping, getting a haircut from her cousin Erin’s stylist, and most of all working at her computer and keyboard composing a jingle tune to be used as an introduction for a podcast. This was for her second paying client, and I was fascinated as she explained the process to me.

We still found time over bowls of cereal at late breakfasts and again at evening suppers to talk, and I loved hearing her ideas and plans for her and Mike’s future together. She and Erin had planned dinner together on Tuesday evening, but with SIUC leaving the next morning for their Honolulu tournament, a called team practice prevented it.

Since Lesley had a meeting with a professor Wednesday afternoon, she had to leave us yesterday morning. Gerald and his brother Keith were meeting Garry and Ginger for breakfast at Jonesboro to belatedly celebrate Garry’s Saturday birthday and also celebrate that Garry had gotten out of the hospital the day before his birthday. (In the meantime, Garry had to take Ginger to the hospital in the middle of the night Monday, but after they checked her heart, she was dismissed Tuesday afternoon.) Gerald was able to run by Bill and Mickey’s and see the tornado destruction there before he came home. Bill’s three daughters as well as many friends and other relatives had come and cleaned up as much as possible in the immediate aftermath. Of course, there is still much to do.

Now everyone is back safely at home except for Erin in Hawaii, who is thoroughly enjoying herself, I am sure. Leslie is again at her job decorating cakes at Kroger. While I am proud of her tremendous talent and academic success, I am also very proud that she has worked part time throughout her college career—on campus during the school year until this job at Kroger. I liked what she told me about all the things she has learned about people while working there and her appreciation for those who will continue there while she has hopes of moving on to better and more interesting things.

Today Gerald had a free lunch at a John Deere Day down in Union County, so I had a leisurely morning and was only eating lunch myself when he came in at almost two. Later I picked up Sam from jazz band practice and saw Katherine briefly when I took supper into their house. Tomorrow we are having lunch with Bill and Mickey, and we will be hearing more about their house and barn rebuilding.

As I said at the beginning of this blog, our lives have been overfull and much too busy. I can’t believe that tomorrow it is actually another weekend.

Women's Softball Season Well Underway; So Is Tornado Season

With the coming of the women’s college softball season, we are once again eating meals at times downstairs in Gerald’s office while we follow games on Game Tracker on his computer.

We were excited about Gerry, Vickie, and Geri Ann, who were flying out for the Cathedral Classic in California. Of course, their daughter Tara Archibald, who is an assistant coach, was there also, so Gerald enjoyed imagining all the fun and excitement that Tara’s husband Bryan was having back home in Watkinsville taking care of three sons under six years old. Bryan is a family hero.

University of Georgia went to the Cathedral Classic ranked thirteen in the national polls; and after a 4-1 record there, the Bulldogs were declared number seven this week. They defeated Arizona, Cal State Fullerton, UCLA, and Oklahoma but lost to Washington. Winning over those kinds of teams will take away the worries that UGA’s losing eight great seniors were going to be known as a rebuilding team this year. Last year’s seniors—Jennie Auger, Brianna Hesson, Alisa Goler, Sarah McCloud, Katie Murphy, Taylor Schlopy, Laura Trout, and Megan Wiggins—were certainly a great loss, but this year’s young team is also obviously capable of great ball playing. It is going to be a good season.

Erin with Southern Illinois University Carbondale was down in Disney Land in Florida at the Citrus Classic last weekend, and we understood they were to have one game televised on ESPS 3 online. I had to be in town at that time, and we assumed we would not be able to get the streaming on our slow-speed reception. In Central Illinois, however, Mary Ellen watched both Erin’s game and also the University of Georgia’s game and was delighted with both wins. Sheri Beasley, who lives in our community but yet several miles from us, told me at Center’s pot luck on Sunday that their reception was great. SIUC had lost their first game that morning to undefeated Florida State (13-0) by 2-0, but then they run-ruled Marshall 10-2. On Sunday they beat St. John’s 4-3.

So our SIUC team is opening their first home games this weekend feeling good. The Coach B Classic (in honor of former Coach Kay Brechtelsbauer) will start games at 10 Saturday morning at Charlotte West Stadium. SIUC plays Western Illinois at 12 noon and then Wright State at 4 pm. They play Northern Illinois at 1 p.m. Sunday and SIU Edwardsville at 5.

Because of Sam’s participation in the pit orchestra for West Side Story at the Marion Civic Center on Friday and Saturday, cousins are coming downstate and will be at Woodsong on Saturday night. So I am not sure how much of the Coach B Classic we can attend.

I started this blog yesterday, but so much has happened since that I was not sure if I should finish it or not. I have just added to the title.

In late afternoon we learned that Gerald’s brother Garry had passed out and was being taken by ambulance to Southeastern Missouri Hospital at Cape Girardeau. This is doubly traumatic because his wife Ginger has suffered short term memory loss since December 2001 because of a stroke and Garry supervises her care. Last evening was filled with communication about all this with the final phone call being from our niece Vicki after l0. She had brought her mother back to their farm and given her the night’s meds and gave me the latest report on Garry although they still knew very little.

The next phone call we received was from Vicki this morning at twenty till five. We were sleeping soundly despite the raging storm outside. She was watching a tornado on television moving through and it looked like we were in its path. Almost immediately after her all call, our REA electricity went off. With a flashlight, Gerald went to his truck in the garage and learned the tornado had touched down near Creal Springs, a village just barely south of us and was headed to Harrisburg east of us. By then it was 5, which is when Gerald usually gets up, so he made arrangements to meet his brother Keith for breakfast since there would be no coffee at our house. They had already planned last night to head to Cape to see Garry.

Without television or radio, it was not until I went to town later that I found out that Marion was also without electricity. We learned three people had been killed in Harrisburg. Marion schools were called off. Electricity was soon back in Marion, however, and Sam and I had a good breakfast together at Cracker Barrel where we saw our niece Marla and husband with their grandson Michael. Mary Ellen had read on Facebook about a neighbor just south of us who heard the tornado go over their house, so she called to see if we were all right. By the time I got back to the farm, our lights were burning also.

Going down to the computer to check on Facebook what all had happened, I learned the death toll in Harrisburg had risen to l0. Writer friends were worrying about novelist Lois Barrett, who lives there.

Then I learned that our very special friends Bill and Mickey Tweedy, who live in a lovely house they built on a scenic spot on his home place high in the Alto Pass hills in Union County, had been hit by the tornado. Bill’s daughter Glenna down in Georgia reported this and asked for prayers. They had to run from their bedroom as it collapsed around them. They also lost two barns. This too was doubly bad because Bill has just had surgery on his back since the two surgeries he had a couple years ago were not successful. Although this doctor was not ready to order physical therapy yet, he already had Bill walking two miles a day and we were so happy for this success. I hope and pray that the running did not hurt his back in any way.

I phoned Gerald at the hospital to report yet another traumatic event.
I received calls from my brother Jim up in Mattoon after Vivian’s sister in Vienna had phoned them with the tornado news. Next my sister Rosemary down in Amarillo and my cousin Ken in California phoned after they heard about Harrisburg on the national news. I was grateful to be able to tell them we were just fine, but I felt bad knowing so many families right now are not.