Thursday, August 31, 2023

Tuesdays With Pappo

August 31, 2023



Look who drove us to lunch this Thursday??!!! 95 years old.....and we didn't hit a single thing! But we did make a quick stop at the barber shop....seeing as he was starting to look like a "beatnik" ...



beatnik | ˈbētnik |
NOUN
a young person in the 1950s and early 1960s with long hair and belonging to a subculture associated with the beat generation

Thursday, August 17, 2023

Tuesdays With Pappo.....On Thursday

 



Awwww....Tuesdays With Pappo.....on Thursday again!!!!

Today my Sister and I sandwiched Dad between us and squeezed real hard until we got this quirky "Ok-Ok....I-Love-Ya'll" smile on his face! It's always fun forcing things out of him!!


And today.....we splurged and drove right on past Braums to Cotton Patch for a bite to eat! After we solved all the problems of living in an Independent Living Center....i.e., "I don't know why all those old people don't want to do anything here!" or "I just want to learn how to sew so I can take up my trousers....but all they want to do is knit!" issues, we grabbed the ticket, which he promptly wrote a kind note to our waitress Zoe on, and headed back to his home where the people are "just too old" (Quick Reminder: He's 95).



These Thursdays with Pappo have been healing for Liz. Being the typical baby of the family, I haven't always gotten along with Dad......but these days of hearing him talk about learning to play hymns on the keyboard or sew up his "britches" or fixing other people's walkers or even how much the ladies like the "kiss on the head", have been highlights of my week that I greatly look forward to.

Dad and I have finally found our "footing" (and I don't mean the web toes footing I inherited from him!).

He's a good man.....and ya, I kinda love him!



The Day The Grasshopper Went To Church


The Day The Grasshopper Went To Church


So there's this song I heard yesterday thanks to our good friend Blair Jones called, "The Mississippi Squirrel Revival". It's sung by funny guy Ray Stevens and goes a little something like this:

"The day the squirrel went berserk
In the First Self-Righteous Church
In that sleepy little town of Pascagoula (Pascagoula)
It was a fight for survival that broke out in revival
They were jumpin' pews and shouting "Hallelujah!"

Yesterday.....my deepest fear was met "head" on!

While sitting in the full-to-capacity pews of First McKinney Church, smack dab in the middle of the sermon, I feel something hit the side of my head. My hand immediately went up to see what it was and I could "feel" what felt like a large bug in my hair. I swatted it away, not knowing whether it was actually a bug or a toddlers pacifier that hit me in the head.

A few minutes go by when I see the man on my right leaning forward whispering something to the young woman in front of him. She immediately gasps and starts to grab the back of her head....but not before he grabbed the back of her head and proceeded to remove a large bug from her hair. The entire pew gasped.....and it was then, that I realized it was the same dang bug that smacked me upside the head a few minutes earlier.

So what does this have to do with my deepest fears?

It - Was - A - GRASSHOPPER.

If you know me, you KNOW this is INDEED my biggest fear. I will kill snakes....I will fight hornets...I will shoot armadillos....but do not let a grasshopper come within 30 feet of me. It's called Orthopterophobia (I Googled it years ago!!) and its REAL!

Of all the cars sitting in a parking lot, they pick MY windshield to sit themselves down on.....its MY helmet that millions of them attach themselves to while on a motorcycle in Wyoming....and of all 750 people occupying space in the pews of First McKinney, they pick MY head to land on.

Some serious "revival" broke out in the First McKinney Church 5th pew from the back yesterday. And I think I know why.....

Satan arrived.

(Revised Version of Song)

"The day the grasshopper went berserk
In the First McKinney Baptist Church
In that sleepy little town of McKinney
It was a fight for survival that broke out in revival
They were jumpin' pews and shouting "Hallelujah!"