Big Bubbles & Packing Beetle
After collecting the keys to our apartment, Frank and I headed to CollegeView Apartments in search of our new home. These apartments sat across the road from the College Campus, thus how they got their name. The buildings were two-story old Army barracks converted into eight apartment units. On the front of the building, there were two separate entrances. Each entrance had a two-step small concrete porch that led to a screen door. When you entered through the screen door, there was a small entryway and on either side of this entryway was a door. Each of these two doors was the front door...
Read MoreGod’s Beautiful Gift
College Station was an amazing fun place. Frank and I absolutely enjoyed the wonder of all the things that we could go and do there. Were we poor? Yes, but wealthy in the things that really mattered. We had each other, lots of friends, plus lots of family living close by in the same apartments where we lived. Just like when Frank was in the Army, we were surrounded by couples who shared the same circumstances and poorness as us. The first semester of school passed by quickly for Frank and me then it was time for Christmas. We had continued to work with the Doctor in Wharton, Texas on...
Read MoreA Beautiful Fluttering Flipflop
The Doctor told Frank and me that the morning sickness could be controlled by my eating saltine crackers every morning before getting out of bed and eating small meals to keep my stomach from being empty. Our baby’s due date was figured out to be September 26th which meant that I was approximately nine weeks pregnant. The Doctor wanted to keep seeing us until I was past three months along and only then would he refer us to an OB/GYN he knew in the College Station. If the morning sickness was to get worse, the Doctor wanted us to call then come see him so he could write a prescription...
Read MoreAnd The Beat Goes On
May seemed to quickly turn into June as we began the Summer of 1973. Frank would take classes both Summer Semesters and work two jobs while I worked steadily fixing up our spare room into a Nursery. Frank and I did not have money to buy furniture for our baby’s room. The Preacher and his wife at the Methodist Church in Van Vleck gave us a very used baby bed. We acquired an old table from my Grandmother and an antique wooden rocking chair. Frank’s Mom gave us his baby chest. The crib was in excellent shape, so all I did was clean and disinfected it. I painted the table and...
Read MoreOur Miracle Baby Arrives
After nine months and three weeks, our miracle baby had decided to leave the warmth and safety of my womb to be born. Early on the morning of October 15, 1973, Frank and I had left our apartment then drove to Saint Joseph Hospital in Bryan, Texas. Although we had preregistered months before, after helping me out of the vehicle, Frank and a nurse wheeled me hurriedly in a wheelchair to a registrar’s office. Of course, we left puddles on our entire route, and I was embarrassed, but with each contraction that embarrassment lessoned because I did not care anymore, at all. Finally, we...
Read MoreTaking Our Baby Home
The morning after our son was born, October 16th, Frank returned to Saint Josephs Hospital around 6:00 a.m. Frank was excited and carried in his hand an Instamatic camera and a couple of pictures. He had stopped by the nursery to take snapshots of Scotty before coming to my room. I was sitting in the chair by my bed putting on makeup when Frank entered the room. Since the nurses brought Scotty to me to nurse around 4:00 a.m., after feeding our son, I had showered then changed into a gown and housecoat which were in my bag from home. Frank surprised me by taking my picture, but I did not...
Read MoreFrozen Diapers & Baby Book
Baby Boy was keeping us very busy. He was a hungry baby, nursing or taking six ounces of formula every two hours. The Nurses told us before we left to take Scotty home that he had been keeping them quite busy. They had brought him to me every four hours, but in between, they were giving him formula. So, they had sent us home with small bottles of formula with instructions of how and when to use. Frank’s folks and his little sister came to see us the day after we had arrived home with Scotty. With them, they had a multifunction stroller. Of course, we all loaded Scotty into the...
Read MoreWalking the Stage
Frank, Scotty, and I were thriving in College Station, Texas, living across from the campus, life seemed effortless and times were so easy. Of course, we had little money, but enough to satisfy our daily needs. Although Frank was busy going to school plus working two jobs, he wanted me to stay at home to be with Scotty. I finally convinced him when Scotty was six months old that I could stay home and babysit little ones of Moms who worked outside their homes. After word got out that daycare was available at our home, I ended up having four more little ones to take care of during the day...
Read MoreNext Up La Pryor
Frank, Scotty, and I returned to College Station then the packing began meanwhile the School Board and Head Coach in La Pryor looked for us a home to rent. Although Frank and I were not new to packing up and moving, it would be quite a new adventure now that we had that third little Musketeer in tow. We would have to be a lot more strategic in when and what we packed. The first thing on our agenda was to call and rent a U-Haul truck because, for some reason, we seemed to have acquired a lot more stuff. Babies seem to just come with more stuff, and we were not going to leave any of it...
Read MoreNo Water & Frigid Water
Spending the night in a motel in Uvalde was an excellent idea. So, after a good night of rest, Frank and I got up early, had breakfast, then drove back to La Pryor. While driving down the road, Frank was laughing then asked, “Nancy Lou, are you ready to attack some of those tarantula-sized wood spiders with me and get our home cleaned up?” I laughed loudly, saying, “You betcha Dimples!” It was such a beautiful sunny morning without a cloud in the sky, and we were ready to get to our new home, clean it up, and unpack the UHaul. Unfortunately, when we got to our house,...
Read MoreMaria, Heavenly Stove, & Red Stuff
Frank, Scotty, and I were enjoying being in La Pryor, Texas. Finally, we had running water and had begun to settle into our new life. The farmers in La Pryor grew acres after acres of vegetables. Our home happened to be surrounded by onion fields. These fields had onions planted in them that were in all stages of growth so that that they would produce at different times. The Mexican border was only thirty miles from La Pryor, and the farmers would go there to pick up day workers from Mexico then bring them back to work the fields, and the ranchers did the same thing, only using them to do...
Read MoreBabysitting & Potty Time
There is a beauty to living out in the country in a little white farmhouse. Scotty had fields to run and play in, but only if Frank and I were watching him closely. Our friend, Tommy, the head coach, spent a lot of time at our house. Frank and he had dug a hole to put hot mesquite wood coals into after they had started a fire next to the pit with the wood. Once they had enough coals in the pit, they placed a wire rack on top of the hole to cook hamburger patties or hot dogs. We would all gather around the fire, talk, and then eat when the hamburgers or hot dogs had finished cooking....
Read MoreLife Lessons & Hail
There was never a dull moment while we lived in La Pryor, and we thanked God for that. Frank loved basketball. I think of all of the sports he played, basketball was his favorite. He had the most beautiful hook shot, and he tried hard to teach me how to do it, but to no avail. Time would only tell if Scotty would take after Frank or me in shooting the hook shot, but we prayed Scotty had more of Frank’s genes for playing basketball. Frank was a great coach and respected by his players as a fair coach, who would teach them the game but was never afraid to discipline them in a just...
Read MoreMoving to Hubbard
Early in August, Frank, Mark, and I loaded into our car then headed to La Pryor from Hico, Texas. Knowing that it was going to be a very long trip with lots of packing to do when we got to La Pryor, Frank and I decided to ask my parents to keep our two and a half-year-old son, Scotty. Frank, Mark, and I would drive the five to six-hour trip to La Pryor, and then while I packed up our things for moving, the guys would go to Uvalde to rent a U-Haul truck to move our priceless possessions. We arrived in La Pryor a little past noon, ate lunch at the small restaurant in town, then the guys...
Read MoreLife of a Coach
Frank, Scotty, and I only had a few days to settle into our new home, and then Frank had to get busy with his coaching duties. Our home was in town, which was great. If you stood on our front porch facing the road, there was a church across the street. On the right side of our home was a Daycare, and on the left side of our home was another house which happened to be our landlord’s house. The only immediate problem that we faced was we had to remind Scotty that the trees in our front yard were not his very own personal tinkling toilets. I thanked Frank daily for teaching him that. ...
Read MoreEye Catching Fun
Once the football season ended, Frank started coaching basketball and refereeing other basketball games when his team was not on the court playing. I think he loved refereeing as much as coaching, and he did not seem to mind running up and down the court. Sometimes Frank would make a call that did not suit the fans, but he did not let it bother him. When Frank’s basketball team was playing, Scotty and I were always in the stands watching, but if not, I helped out in the concession stand with Scotty by my side. Watching him referee games was an exciting experience too. I think that...
Read MorePool Time Fun
End of the school year was fast approaching, and soon, it would be summertime. Frank, Scotty, and I had looked at some homes on the weekends that were for sale. We liked living in Hubbard and had decided to stay a while if everything worked out, and we found a home in our price range. We loved the house we were living in, but it was not for sale because it was tied up in a will. So, we just kept looking. Before school was out, Frank and the head coach inventoried the equipment from all of the sports then they ordered what needed replacing. Frank would have only a few responsibilities in the...
Read MoreMoving On Down the Road
As I have written in the last chapter, Frank and I were looking for a home to buy in Hubbard, Texas, and we found one about six blocks down the road from our rental house. The home that we purchased was an antique, and it was full of furniture, dishes, etc. The house had belonged to an elderly couple who had left it to their children in an estate. Their children decided to remove the small things that they wanted to keep and sell the rest with the house. All of this was wonderful. The major exception to fantastic was that I did not have time to go through what was in the new home before we...
Read MoreSnowball & the Click
Frank and I were good at working together, and had fun doing so with each other. Frank loved to get a rise out of me because he knew that I was a spitfire, but he also knew that all he had to do was flash his amazing dimples at me to put out the spitfire. Frank would learn one more thing about me that I did not know about myself. The summer was coming to an end, and Frank had signed up to go to Coaching School in Dallas, Texas. My sister-in-law and her two girls had come to visit with Scotty and me while Frank was in Dallas. One of my nieces was the same age as Scotty, and the other one...
Read MoreKiddos & Working Together
After purchasing our first home, money for essentials became tight. Since marrying, Frank and I had never known a time that there was money left over each month. The only exceptions were when I had worked in Massachusetts and Okinawa. In Massachusetts, we had used the extra money to ship our things home, buy my plane ticket home, and to buy Christmas presents for our family. In Okinawa, I babysat for a family for a year. We put that money in a savings account to pay for shipping our things home, my plane ticket home, down payment on a car and renting a home plus deposits on utilities. While...
Read MoreBig Bird & The Hairpiece
The beauty of doing daycare for only teachers children was that on school holidays, I was also free to be with Frank and Scotty on all of the school holidays. During the Christmas break of 1977, Frank, Scotty, and I had two weeks to spend with our parents. Our first road trip took us to Van Vleck, Texas, to visit Frank’s folks. We stayed there enjoying shopping and visiting until midnight Christmas Eve then we packed into the truck and headed back to Hubbard, Texas. After arriving at our home in Hubbard, we woke Scotty then went into the house to see if Santa had come to visit....
Read MoreMatching the Eyes
With Christmas and New Years celebrated, Springtime of 1978 had begun for Frank, Scotty, and I in Hubbard, Texas. All of the trees were putting on new leaves, the bushes were needing trimming, and the grass needed mowing. Since it was a beautiful Spring day, Frank, Scotty, and I all went outside to spend the day. Frank and I loved to work in our yard, and for the first time, it was actually our yard. Scotty was busy playing on his swing set in the back yard or riding his hot wheel on the sidewalk in the front yard. Frank decided to mow the grass first while I worked on cleaning out the...
Read MoreAll Tied Up Party
In March of 1978, it was time for Frank to renew his contract at Hubbard ISD. A new Head Coach came to Hubbard the previous year, and he adored Frank. The Head Coach had decided to take a coaching job in Bremond, Texas for the 1978- 79 school year, and he wanted Frank to go with him as the Defensive Line Coach. Leaving Hubbard, Texas and moving to Bremond, Texas, was a big decision for Frank to make. Frank and I talked about for several days. We had lots to consider, especially after buying a home. Frank decided to put in for the Head Coach at Hubbard, but with only three years of...
Read MoreBremond Here We Come
Hubbard schools had turned out for the Summer. Frank, Scotty, and I took a trip to Bremond to find a house to rent. We lucked out and found a home only a few blocks from downtown, and then we went back to Hubbard to begin the moving. Frank, Scotty, and I were excited to move to Bremond, which was mostly a Polish community. This community was known for its amazing Polish sausage. Since the towns of Hubbard and Bremond were only sixty miles apart, Frank and I did not rent a U-Haul truck for our move. We had a pickup truck and the Super Beetle that were loaded up and unloaded as we made...
Read MoreCamouflage & Shotgun
Once the Football season began, it was time for Scotty and me to watch Frank coach in a new town. We were so proud to be the wife and son of this amazing husband/father, Coach. The fans, players, teachers, and students loved Frank. It seemed that all of the people in Bremond, Texas, had taken us under their wings and embraced us as part of their loving community, and we were so thankful. The next story is one of my favorite stories from when we lived in Bremond. Since Frank and I were very trusted by the people in this beautiful town, and they knew that we would always do...
Read MoreRooster & Smashing Cans
Life was good in Bremond, Texas, and the months were moving by quickly. Our neighbors were leaving produce on our front porch nearly every week. They had indeed opened their hearts to us and treated us like family. Frank became good friends with the Ag teacher at the high school. Ag was a big part of Frank’s high school days. He loved the structure that Ag taught the students that were involved in it. Also, Frank was the president of the FFA when he was a senior. The Ag teacher approached Frank one day at school and asked him if he would like to buy some of the chickens that the Ag...
Read MoreAnother Change
Frank, Scotty, and I loved the people of Bremond, but Frank had begun to worry about something, and it would change our lives and put us in a more permanent place. Contract renewal time was quickly coming up at Bremond schools in the Spring of 1981. Frank asked me to have a sit-down discussion about renewing his contract. Frank was concerned that Scotty would be starting to Kindergarten in the Fall of 1981, and he wanted to make sure that Scotty would go through school from Kindergarten until Graduation in one town. Frank had gone to only one school, Van Vleck, until he graduated and knew...
Read MoreJust A Diggin
Once we arrived in Van Vleck, Texas, there was work to be done. Our trailer house would not get delivered for a few weeks, but that gave us time to get everything set up for its arrival. Frank and his Dad were working shift work and digging the septic lines in the evenings. Frank’s Mom was working as an accountant, and Frank’s little sister, Cindy, was attending a Daycare preschool in Bay City, Texas, where her Mom worked. Scotty and I were holding down the fort, cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, and being there on the lookout for when Jackson Electric and the Well Company...
Read MorePorches & Asp Sting
The trailer house was ready to go, but Frank and I realized that it needed airing out with all of the windows and doors open. A make-your-eyes-water preservative, if I remember right formaldehyde, used on the paneling inside the trailer made the whole house stink, so even though we were ready to move in, we aired it out for several days. The trailer home had two entries, the back door, and the front door. The only way to enter the trailer doors were with some wooden four-step moveable steps which did not have handrails. Frank and I knew that as soon as possible, we needed to build some real...
Read MoreSlipping & Sliding
Frank, Scotty, and I fell into a more normal routine. It was good only to have yard maintenance work to do for awhile Although everything but the toilets got taken off of the sewer system, we figured the yard would always stay pretty and green because of the washing machine, sinks, and shower water running through a pipe that had a long flexible hose on the end of it. Also, the trailer house had a brand new dishwasher, but with the sewer situation, I never got to use it. You know what? I never really minded it. Washing dishes has never been a burden to me, and I still do not have a...
Read MoreBrake & Tonsils
Our days were beginning to become routine. Frank was busy working shift work, Scotty was going to school, and I was planting flowerbeds around the yard. With all of us in different places during the daytime, Frank became concerned that we needed another vehicle. If I needed the car, I would take Frank to work, but this did not take care of the emergencies that might come up. With Scotty three miles away in school and the knowledge that I might try to take on projects at the house without using good judgment, Frank decided that we needed another vehicle. This man knew me way too well. Frank...
Read MoreThe Painter’s Helper
In the Fall of 1981, Frank, Scotty, and I moved into our home in Sweeny, Texas. Although we did not know it at the time, it would be our final home together. The house has over 1500 sq.ft., sits on a pier and beam foundation, and the detached three-car garage with a shop and washroom is an additional 1500 sqft., but sits on a concrete slab. The house and garage sit on two & half large city lots, which is cornered on two sides by Avenue A and Orange Street. In the Summer of 1982, Frank and I decided that the house and garage needed repainting. I had never painted the outside of...
Read MoreFencing & Toilet
If painting and roofing the house was not enough, Frank and I found other projects to tackle together. Nearly every improvement done to our home, we did together, and it all made for some fun and wild stories. The next improvement project that Frank and I undertook together involved a lot of measuring and Geometry. Trust me; Geometry is the math you need for proper fencing. Of course, first, you will need to find your property’s boundaries too. Fencing Frank and I decided that we would fence our backyard. We did not want a privacy fence because we liked the feeling of openness, but...
Read MoreTubing & Mr. Christmas
The days and years were flying by us. Frank was working shift work at Phillips 66. Scotty was growing fast, involved in school, and extracurricular activities, and after applying then being hired, I became a Sweeny School Bus driver. Early springtime at our home was for working flowerbeds and planting flowers. Frank and I shared a love for working in our yard, and since we lived on a corner lot, we planted and grew lots of flowers. The first thing we did each Spring was to buy lots of new mulch, cow manure, and flower plants. We had put landscape timbers around the house and all of the...
Read More25th, Deep Love, & Batteries
Once our son graduated from Junior High then went into High School, his name changed from Scotty to Scott. Our little boy had now become a young man, and it was as if the name change signaled his coming of age. Frank and I were busy following Scott around watching his activities and the sports he played. Although there was little time for much else, we found a way to be involved in the community and church. Frank ran for a position on the SISD School Board. We made homemade plywood signs, painted them with Frank’s name and the school board position he was running for, then staked them...
Read MoreThe Mourning Dove
Christmas with all of its magic, poinsettias, and the scent of pine greenery passed bringing us into a new year at the Florist. Friday, January 24, 1997, was a beautiful day. The air was crisp and refreshing, and there was lots of sunshine. Frank and I were at the Florist in Bay City, Texas. He was in the office, inputting information into the computer files. The floral designers and I were busy cutting flowers, filling and delivering called in orders, and getting things ready for Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for all florists....
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