OK State Fair 2010

Friday we had arranged with Mom to be at her house at 2 pm and pick her up for the fair. I called her at 1 to make sure she felt like going. Her response was, "Well...I'm not sure, but I'm going to try." So, I wasn't sure, but we drove out to her house anyway.

She was ready when we arrived and we locked up the house and headed for the fair. I had parking passes because I had planned to clog with our group, but had backed out because of scheduling. I kept the tickets and passes because they had enough and didn't need mine when I tried to turn them back in. Yeah!

Paul dropped us at the gate and we waited while he found the wheelchair rental and came back with a chair. Mother enjoyed the ride and would point and comment as we went along.

Mother was mostly interested to see the arts and crafts displays. It was also very cool in the A&C building. I had thought it would be a cool day because of the rain the night before, but it turned out quite warm and there was no wind. Hot and sticky outside.

Mother commented as we were entering, "Oh, it's too cold in here." Paul strongly disagreed, "No it's not! Not at all!"

An older man and his son were walking in front of us and I saw the Dad tell his son about the conversation he had overheard. They both laughed and turned around and looked at us. We did cause a few smiles and laughs as we made the rounds. Mother loved the quilts and other needlework. She commented that it was the best she had ever seen!!



We timed our entry back into the hot outside to make our way over to where the Okie Stompers would be clogging at 4. On the way we had to get a Fair corndog. Mother's always insisted those are the very best.


But, we had a problem. The night before Paul and I had taken Mother some fish and okra from our Lake Arcadia fish fry we had just attended. We took her enough for three meals. She had it Thursday night, then she got up and had it for breakfast. She said she was way too full of fish to eat a corn dog, so Paul bought one and we all three ate a couple of bites. Good, and enough!



We then bought our $3.50 small cups of lemonade and headed over to the clogging stage. We were early and watched the end of the Wild West show and then parked where we could see the cloggers. Freddie came over and I snapped his picture.

Here are the cloggers, the Okie Stompers, clogging in the heat. The music was loud and clear and the dancers performed great. I was their loudest cheer-er. It was fun to watch from the audience and sing along and know the dance steps. Fun, fun group!

And that was enough of the fair for all three of us. We wheeled out to the car and Paul returned the wheelchair. Mother said she really, really enjoyed going and felt so much better after getting out than she did when she started.

Quite the day for an almost 93-year-old. I'm so glad she got to enjoy one more fair and we got to share it with her.
MB

The Movie Heaven's Rain

Friday evening Paul and I went to the Bricktown movie in downtown OKC. Paul had read about the movie Heaven's Rain that was opening and showing. We later found out that it was only showing in four cities in the US.

The story is about the home invasion of the Douglas home in 1979 and the four-hour siege of two men on the family. Leslie was raped three different times, and she was only twelve years old. All members were shot and left to die. The kids survived and drove to a neighbor's to get help.


This is a picture of the real Brooks Douglas and Leslie Douglas, brother and sister.

A few months ago we were called and told that they were assembling a group of people at FBC in OKC to come and be a congregation in the movie. We were to try to dress a certain way to look like people did back in the 70's. We didn't make it but we knew several who did. That ended up just being a short scene in the movie.

The movie is very well done and the guy who plays Brooks Douglas is a well-known actor now appearing on Miami Medic, a TV show.

Brooks Douglas plays his Dad in the movie. He's a good actor. In an interview that Paul read, Brooks was asked what was the hardest part for him. His reply was that when he was his Dad in the movie and was dying and said good-bye to his son, he realized how his Dad must have felt at that moment in his life.

One of the prison scenes at the end when Brooks gets to visit with one of the prisoners is a powerful and very well acted scene. Gets the message across.

I noticed on the movie's Web site that one might have to request that it be shown in their area. I guess it's not going to be automatically sent out. It's rated R, I guess for the graphic content.

It's definitely a movie worth seeing. I want to buy it on DVD when it's available and watch it again. It's not too cheesy or too religious as I think some of this type of movie has been. That's usually a turn-off to me.

This is one of those things that makes an impression and that I think about a lot after I've seen the movie. Well done and memorable.
MB

Labor Day Labor

We had a great time Monday working at Mother's house and doing some things she needed and wanted done. We helped her do a little cleaning and some moving of furniture and she was so pleased with the results.

Then the Mcs and we were going to take Mother to Braum's for lunch but she wanted a Johnnie's chicken sandwich, so to Johnnie's we went. She had fretted since last Saturday evening when we had to cancel our monthly family get-together because of football. She missed her chicken sandwich.

Here she is finally getting her chicken sandwich. Paul, Tom, and I also ordered one. Really good. I see why she likes them. The chicken was twice the size of the buns. None of this "Where's the beef (chicken)?" on this sandwich.

We then took Mother to Bob Mills to buy her a recliner. She picked out a Cat-Napper, a power lift recliner of a "celery" color. We loaded it up in the Mcs pickup and headed to Cherry hollow to unload and hook up. What a challenge! Narrow doorways and one heavy, huge recliner that didn't come apart. The guys and Jenny made it work. Nice job for we older folks.

Here she is enjoying the fruit of our labors. We also installed three more phones so she now has a phone by her new recliner, one in the kitchen, and another in the living room. We thought that might help her not rush to answer the one phone that was downstairs.

Mother can now relax and lay back. She can read and control the TV from her chair. And best of all she can answer the phone with a click of a button. She is set up!

Good labor on Labor Day!
MB