Dressing Up

As Ira was leaving our house after the Christmas celebration, he asked me if I liked his new shoes. They were some fancy black leather dress shoes. He said he'd bought them on E-bay and had paid only 20% or so of their original price. (Because of a bank merger in November, Ira transferred from a bank branch in the outskirts of Fort Worth to a another branch close to down town Dallas. That's a dress-code change of almost cowboy to suited executive.)

Then he talked about purchasing some long-sleeved dress shirts off of E-bay. These shirts didn't have button cuffs but needed cuff-links. Kelley had purchased some vintage cuff links (again) off of E-bay. I got the bright idea of looking in PeePaw's stuff to see if there were any cuff links Ira would be interested in.

These are the ones we came up with:

The tractors in this cuff link and tie bar set have "International" branded on them. My grandfather, Roy Ragsdale, (We called him Pampa.) owned and operated an International Harvester and Oldsmobile dealership during the depression, World War II and afterwards. My dad worked for him a while--and had stories to tell. I really don't know if these jewelry pieces date back that far (and I really kind of doubt it), but that makes them of far more interest than just a random tractor cuff link/tie bar set.

These cuff links are a ruby red. I don't know the story behind them. All the schools my dad attended and/or had long-term affiliation with had purple as the primary color. (San Saba-Purple; ACC-Purple; University High School-Purple) I have some recollection of my dad wearing these cuff links, but don't know any story past that... Maybe ruby because his and mom's anniversary was in July... or maybe someone bought them just because they were pretty or on sale. I think you can be sure that they weren't purchased on E-bay!

...and these.... These are just some tie bars that Ira decided to take with him because he thought they might go with some cuff links he already had.

Then Ira and I had a discussion about how it was hard for him to even imagine PeePaw dressing up. Made me stop to think that the man Ira knew as PeePaw had been retired and worn not much of anything but overalls for about 20 of the less than 30 years that he had know him. But there was a day that Ira Conner, as a public school administrator, dressed in a suit coat and tie every day for work. I somehow suspect that Ira Spies will be a bit like his name sake and after his working-career is over with will revert to whatever the equivalent of overalls will be...

Love (loved) the Iras in my life!!

Old Things Used in New Ways...but for the same reasons...

Back around 1971, my mom, dad, my friend Pat Kenner and I made a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was one of those "4 days and 3 nights in our lovely resort-give ya $50 to spend-just gotta listen to our 30 minute sales pitch" 'free' vacations ... (My dad was one that just loved to string the sales person along...get him to thinking he had a sale for sure, only to say no at the last.)

One of our little jaunts into town included stopping by at an estate sale. I had no idea what an estate sale was. We just sat in some red velvet covered chairs and they showed some trinkets, furniture, jewelry, etc. and an auctioneer did his thing. Well, surprise of all surprises, my Dad bid on and bought my Mother a diamond ring! Pretty cool!

But this barely-turned-17-year old girl was not to be outdone! I wanted a diamond ring, too! I had been working at Safeway for a whopping $2/hr. (and yes, that was a whopping sum back in those days...) By golly, I was going to try to buy me one, too. And I did. My ring was quite a bit like Mom's, but was--brat that I was--just a little bit bigger, and therefore, better, of course!

I did enjoy wearing my ring (and wore it constantly during the few years that I lost the solitaire diamond out of my engagement ring and the time when it could be replaced)...but I'm sure I didn't enjoy it as much as my Mom enjoyed wearing hers. She wore hers all the time until she literally wore it out. (The gold in the band wore thin and broke, therefore causing one of the little side diamonds to fall out.) She also let Stephany wear it between the time that Donnie proposed to her and when he could buy her an engagement ring. The ring had quite a romantic significance during it's tenure in the Conner household...

But the romance in the life of mom's ring lives on past her...

On December 23, 2010, Ira and Kelley Cook became engaged. It was the culmination of their Christmas date-week. (I'll let Kelley and Ira tell their own version of that special week.) Prior to the actual engagment, they got to "open" their stockings. Inside Kelley's stocking were these two gifts:






The ring is (yep, you guesses it) Mom's ring that's been repaired and coated with whatever you coat rings with to make them have a silver color rather than the yellow gold that it is originally. The earrings are made out of the two biggest diamonds of my ring. Isn't that a lovely addition to the story? I would be happy to hear some more lovely, romantical additions to this saga up in Heaven. Nice reunion, I'm thinking....



(PS--Sorry I didn't think to get/ask for "before" pictures...)

Hot Caps

I'm here at home at 11:30 on a Tuesday morning. It is 20 degrees outside and we have snow flurries. You guessed it: A Snow Day! (Actually, it's more of a sleet/ice day.)

My sweet little, hard-working, organic-farming husband worked so hard last weekend for this:



What you're seeing here is 102 broccoli, 25 lettuce, and 25 spinach plants all tucked neatly under their "hot caps". (Plus an abundance of onion plants--for all but you, Chris!)

Last year, Bob remembered that his grandfather had used "hotcaps" in his garden and did a little internet research and found a site that sold them. He used them last year and was able to plant early, avoid freeze and frost damage, and harvest a bit early. He tried it again this year: Planted on a day in late January--the 28th-- when the the temperatures were close to 80...and then the next week (whoops!): well, we're expecting a low of 9 degrees tomorrow night... Hmmm....will the hot caps be "hot" enough?? We're gonna have to wait and see!

The "story" behind all of this?

Well, I was visiting a bit with Aunt Ruby (that's Gwe-Gwe's [Bob's mother] sister) last spring. I had just assumed that Bob's grandfather from which he had the memories was Opah (Bob's mom's dad). But, it wasn't! It was Grandpa Spies.

Turns out that Grandpa Spies made part of his living by selling produce to the stores in town: The earlier you were able to harvest things like broccoli, lettuces, and tomatoes, the higher price you could expect. So, I'm thinking Grandpa Spies was quite progressive in his thinking and his risk-taking...way to go Grandpa! Hope it works in Glen Rose, Texas in 2011, too!

I hope to find a picture of Grandpa Spies to add to this post...

An addendum:
Bob added his additional memories: He said his Grandpa and Granny Spies had this little business after their "retirement". They sold their farm in Carmine and moved to Brenham where Grandpa farmed the lot and 2 others (about an acre in all) and sold his produce to the grocery stores. The "hot caps" were his ticket to being one of the first to be able to deliver fresh, home-grown tomatoes to the stores.

Bob also added that while his Grandpa and Granny still lived on the farm, his Grandpa had a "giant" broiler house. (How big is "giant" to a kid?) No need to wonder any longer why Bob Spies has this drive to raise chickens and garden....