GOD first...Heavenly Father, with joy and thanksgiving, we thank You for the many blessings. Every day, we come nearer to Thee and each day You Continue many blessings as we journey with our fellow beings on this green earth. Forgive us our many sins and neglect of the things we needed to do and say. Help us Lord to correct our attitude toward others and forgive those that are against us. We pray in the name of our Savior, Jesus. Amen.
Pray for those who are ill, suffering, grieving, or are in harm's way.
**A man came down with the flu one day. He was glad for the interlude because it taught him how much his wife loved him. She was so thrilled to have him around that when the delivery man or the milk man arrived, she ran out and yelled, 'My husband's home! My husband's home!'
I was trying to clean out some of my junk in my man cave when I ran across a large notebook full of articles I had written to the Nordheim News. The oldest writing was some time after my sister, Wilma, had taken over from Mr. Leister who retired in 1997. Wilma wrote articles for about a year when she and her husband moved to Victoria. I was still mayor of Nordheim then and she asked me to take on the job writing the news. I started some time before the year 2000. In fact, I had to resign as Mayor because I had just been elected commissioner for a second time after a four year vacation. One of my last duties was to approve replacing all of the City's water lines through a grant approved by the State. So many things happened during 1999 and reading through all those copies, it brings back so many memories. I have come to realize that I have been writing for over 25 years. I included one of my articles about the Amos & Andy Cafe in last weeks' News. So many friends, so many characters, and stories that I have forgotten about.
Harold Stirl told me about a man that came and stopped at Stirls Station by the highway and Broadway. The man asked for directions to Yorktown. He told him, 'If you go straight ahead you are going right now, it will be 25,267 miles to Yorktown. And if you turn around, it will be only 8 miles.'
Edgar & Gladys Cafe had just finished adding to their kitchen. Nordheim American Legion Post moved to Yorktown. Vance Frosh became Mayor of Nordheim and also opened a pecan shelling business 'Kawitt.' Bell Telephone gave the City a grant to replace the old barbecue pit and cover at the City Park. Where did all that time go?
I had farmed a year after getting out of the army then moved to Nordheim and bought a house from Sabina Weid for $700 and went to work for Janssens. My grandfather Robert Sucher was still living at the time. I had already known a lot of the people in Nordheim as my sweet wife Mary grew up there. Even when I was going to school in Runge, I would drive to Nordheim just to get a milkshake at Charpentiers. Most of my kinfolks also lived here and out in the community. Most of those have already gone to their maker. My uncle bought me a share in the Nordheim Shooting Club. I still have it in my bank box. With a little imagination, I can still see faces and hear their voices. It is truly a gift from GOD that He has given me through all these years.
Mr. Reader of Runge was a connoisseur of history about outhouses. He wrote a book about them. He was a regular authority about them. It reminded me of one of the farmers south of Nordheim back in the 40's when an oil company approached him about drilling on his place. Leases were signed and everyone was in high hopes of a rich strike as it was near another farm that had struck it big. But, alas, it was a dry hole and the oil company began to move out. Just as they were beginning to move the rig away from the hole, the farmer suggested that they use the equipment to move his outhouse and set it over the hole they had abandoned. He said, 'I've moved that danged outhouse five times to new holes. You got a nice deep one here and it'll oblige me if you'd just set my outhouse over it.' The drillers were glad to oblige and moved his privey on top of the open deep casing hole.
Next morning, the farmers' son came running to the barn, very excited.
'I'm scared something's happened to Mama. She's sittin in the outhouse and she doesn't look right. Her eyes are set hard and her face is turnin blue and her eyes are all bugged out and her veins is all puffed out in her neck!'
'Nothin to worry about, Sonny. Your mama is just fine. She always did enjoy holding her breath till she hears it hit bottom.'
We certainly have enjoyed another half inch of good soaking rain here in Nordheim and hoping to get more. Thank you Lord for this blessing. Amen. See you next week.
