Upon 'getting old'

[kenny thomas]

Although a little younger than some here, 65, I am the oldest in my family. I wish I had paid more attention to some of the things my grandparents told me. I don't remember well now so I can't pass the stories on very well.
On a related note, in the 1960's or even much later would any of us have believed there would be such a thing as a cell phone. Or that I could be sitting here sending a message worldwide with a phone.
What will be invented in the next 50 years that we can't imagine now? I'm definitely waiting for the flying cars like the Jetsons had in the comics.

 

[Ouachita]

I had an uncle, I still catch myself snickering at his sayings.
I remember we were camping at Dad's and another uncles duck hunting camp on Trinity bay. Dad and his brother worked for their uncle building oil derricks in the Goose Creek oil field. They had built a fine hunting camp out of that lumber in Trinity Bay.

I can still hear my uncle Robert say Jack you need to close that window there is a whole stovepipe full of skeeters in here.
I have often wondered how many skeeters it took to fill a stovepipe.

My paternal grandad was the seventeenth of twenty siblings. He was 96 when he died in 2010. His Dad was born 1860 in Dakota Territory, then moved on to Santa Fe, NM after the blizzard of '88.
They moved here to Arkansas sometime during the first decade of the 20th Century and took up farming; watching cows eat and poop.

I never met him, my great grandad. He was buried here in 1936 after 76 years on this spinning ball of dirt, and two women. He had 10 kids with the first. She died, then he remarried at age 50 and had 10 more. Buckskin rubbers didn't work well.

Somewhere in the woodpile there is a fella named Herman. He was a young child when the family entered the country at Galveston in 1859. Herman was kidnapped by the Apache and used as barter between the native people. He cycled a time or three between brands, ended up being a circus freak eating calf hearts in front of a live audience.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Ouachita]

Although a little younger than some here, 65, I am the oldest in my family. I wish I had paid more attention to some of the things my grandparents told me. I don't remember well now so I can't pass the stories on very well.
On a related note, in the 1960's or even much later would any of us have believed there would be such a thing as a cell phone. Or that I could be sitting here sending a message worldwide with a phone.
What will be invented in the next 50 years that we can't imagine now? I'm definitely waiting for the flying cars like the Jetsons had in the comics.

Kenny,
Don't dwell on it too long. It'll make you sad.
Best to watch the sun rise, and especially what it is shining on.

 

[kenny thomas]

Oh I watch the sun rise several times a week. But usually from behind the steering wheel while I'm working. Retirement is wearing me out.

 

[greybeard]

I was not at all surprised when cell phones were developed. It was just a short jump from the old MARS system military folks (including myself) used to call back home from all over the world. All cell phones did was cut out the middle man (Amateur or Ham radio operator) that patched the calls in and relayed them from one operator to another until they reached whom ever you were calling halfway around the world. The tech for automatically transferring calls had existed in the military for well over a decade but wasn't available to the public yet nor were the frequencies needed for the public to use. The big breakthrough for cell phones to come about came when Texas Instruments developed the integrated circuit in 1958 and the single chip microprocessor in 1970. After that, it was off to the races for mobile phones and the FCC released more frequencies that had previously been reserved for Govt and military use.
'over'

 

[Ouachita]

Damn, GB, I'm feeling late to the party. Did you, by chance or not, wear wooden diapers?

 

[greybeard]

Damn, GB, I'm feeling late to the party. Did you, by chance or not, wear wooden diapers?

I guess you never used a ranch radio (radio phone) either? They looked a lot like a CB radio but you pushed a button and it connected you to an operator, you told her the ph # you wanted to call and she placed the call for you. No dial and no keypad. Pretty common out in this part of the state and especially during the 1st Austin chalk boom of the early 1980s.

 

[Ouachita]

I'm sorry. Apologies sent. Was just ribbing you. Sarcasm doesn't present well over this damn forever.net.
Me and my immediate family still use radios to communicate back and forth on the place and at deer camp.

 

[Little Joe]

We are good at remembering those old folks, and the times we had with them. Those are the experiences that make us what we are now.
I think a part of our problem (collectively) is that we don't realize that we are the stewards of those younger generations memories now.
This is our best hour. It may seem unfair that our last is the best, but this is how we can assure that our progeny survives.

On getting old……Do not draw pity upon yourself. It's not the time to draw. It's the perfect opportunity to give, as much as it can hurt.

I agree, I see alot of the older generation that don't spend much time with grandkids and alot of the older generation that have no tolerance whatsoever for the younger generation, I think both are missing out and the kids are definitely missing out. I don't have grandkids yet but probably will within the next 5 years, I just pray I get to spend the time with them that my grandparents spent with me and get to pass them old stories on and those old people ways. I hope they take an interest in me and my stories and knowledge like I did Papaw and look up to me like I did him. I was young when I had my son (20) and was always busy trying to make a dollar, don't get me wrong I spent alot of time with him but there are alot of things I wish I would've taken the time to teach him that maybe I can have the chance to teach grandkids.

 

[greybeard]

I had an uncle, I still catch myself snickering at his sayings.
I remember we were camping at Dad's and another uncles duck hunting camp on Trinity bay. Dad and his brother worked for their uncle building oil derricks in the Goose Creek oil field.

We called that the Pelly oil field.
My sister took this picture around 1956.

 

[Ouachita]

That is an awesome shot. I don't know if she intended to capture the moment, but she did.

 

[Ouachita]

Dang, somebody made a Wikipedia page about him. I wasn't joking about Herman. His mother was Augusta. My great grandad, the one born in Dakota Territory, was August.

Herman Lehmann - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Yes, I'm mostly from German and Italian, and some others in the woodpile, but I like my wife's music better. She's a pale skin with red hair (she suggests it's strawberry blonde)

 

[Logan52]

It seems the majority of people in the cattle business are getting old.
I was born in 1952 in a county my family has lived in for well over 200 years. I have held the deed to the farm where I live for over 50 years. It surprises me to think I have been on this place for 1/4 the time since it was first settled and cleared.
When I go to town I do not see many people I know. At the feed store and stockyards I know many more but most are old like me.
Yeah, holiday gatherings are a bunch of young people staring at a phone the entire time while a few like me tell stories the young are not interested in.
Still, I am thankful to have been so blessed.

 

[Caustic Burno]

We called that the Pelly oil field.
My sister took this picture around 1956.
View attachment 23903

Pictures from their days on Trinity bay.

 

[Ouachita]

 

[Travlr]

I mentioned to my wife recently, that a lot of the people that we were raised by and around were born in the 1800's. She gave me a strange look and said ''you are weird''

All of my grandparents were born in the 1800s. Dad 1906, Mom 1916.

 

[Silver]

I guess you never used a ranch radio (radio phone) either? They looked a lot like a CB radio but you pushed a button and it connected you to an operator, you told her the ph # you wanted to call and she placed the call for you. No dial and no keypad. Pretty common out in this part of the state and especially during the 1st Austin chalk boom of the early 1980s.

Mobile radios (or XJ's as many people called them) were our only way of communicating when I was a kid. We didn't have one. When something important came up and a call needed to be made we made a trip to the only neighbour who had one, about 5 miles away. Seemed like an event. This was in the '70's. We were behind the times I guess.
We still used those radios into the early 90's out in the oil patch before the Autotel's took over

 

[Big Creek]

View attachment 23906

So, august married a woman 26 years younger than him Or am I confused?

 

[ClodHopper37869]

So, august married a woman 26 years younger than him Or am I confused?

It runs in my family too! On the OldMan's side, Pappy was 24 years, 7 mos older than Mamma. On Mom's side, Papa was 11 years 10 mos older than Granny, BUT He was her school teacher in 7th, 8th grade!,
They would hang him now for that! But she was 20 when Mom was born.

 

[Ouachita]

So, august married a woman 26 years younger than him Or am I confused?

She was his second rounder. Ten kids with the first wife. First wife died. He remarried a spring chicken when he was 50, and they had ten more. My grandad was the seventeenth of twenty.

I'll never opine about you being confused.