Cliff and Opal Olson 2 of ? who knows ?

I don't know about you but growing up in the Olson house was a delight.  Mom was a great cook and mentor.  Just FYI, the picture is Dad and Mom and Preston our youngest son and me.

Not only did she make a great roast for Sunday after church but she could cook about anything.  But let's diverge for just a moment, that is like a bend in the creek if you know what I mean.  I have to tell you about that roast.  When Mom would prepare her roast to be cooked she would always cut off both ends of the roast before putting it in the pot.  One time Debbie, my sister, asked her why she cut off the ends of the roast.  Mom said she did not know but she would ask Grandma Annie who taught her how to cook the roast.

Well Grandma Annie by this time lived down by Oolagah near Tulsa on a farm which included a dairy run by her brother Uncle Bill. Since it was about 90 miles we did not get down there very often and to call long distance was expensive in those days so Mom waited to find out the answer until we took one of those early Sunday morning trips (skipped church) to Grandma and Grandpa Lane's house.  I assume you are not so slow that I have to explain that Mom was a Lane before she married Dad.  "Anyway" when we got down there Debbie pushed her to ask Grandma Annie why she cut off the ends of the roast before she cooked it.  Well here came the wisdom, Grandma Annie said, "because the roast did not fit in the pot".  Can you believe that?  Well I hate to tell a lie but it made such a good story.

Now back to the truth in growing up in the Olson house.  Mom really did iron the sheets for our beds and she really did iron our t-shirts and I think she may have ironed the under-ware as well.  She was very neat which actually worked out in my favor since she had rather me work outside with Dad than be in the house making a mess.  She use to say that even when I cleaned things up in the house it was still a mess.

Mom was tenacious about going to school, getting good grades, doing the best in everything we did, working hard, and even playing hard.  She loved to have friends over in the evenings to play cards.  It seemed like every week we had Don and Dorothy Kelsey over to play cards.  I thought Dorothy was the prettiest girl in the world.  When I was about 7 or 8 I told Dorothy she was my girl friend. 

Susie Snyder and her daughter Lauren

Aunt Gladys/ Mrs. Snyder the math and science teacher

Now if it were not the Kelseys it was the Shumates (Beth, Sally and Janie) or the Snyders (Gladys, Bill and Susie) and when I was real young it was the Joe Ferguson crew.  Does anyone remember them?  He was the base fiddle player for Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys who performed often at the old Big Beaver.  Now the truth is it was a bar that was north of Web City but the stories I heard was that there was a lot of drinking and fights.

Anyway I loved playing cards when the big folks were not playing.  My favorite was 10 point pitch.  What I did not like was that Larry (my brother) seemed to win more than his fair share.  For those of you who do not remember the game the trump 3 was worth 3 points.  Mom was the funniest one of the bunch when she played and she would spice it up by switching a card with one that had already been played or just about anything to get a laugh.

Mom was the ramrod for Boy Scouts or Cub Scouts and she thought Joe Conner was about the best as he went on to get his Eagle Scout.  Joe lives in Fairfax and I was blessed to get to see him at Don Kelsey's funeral after about 40 years.  Isn't it a shame we see each other only at funerals?  Now Larry and my cousin Bill Snyder were pretty good at scouting.  I was deprived in that I never got to be one  (that is a joke as I always tell Mom how deprived I was).

Dad and Larry my brother


Dad built a club house just for scouts and I loved it when we would have a scouting party.  Dad would cut down a tree for a bond fire and we would wrap potatoes in aluminum foil and bury them in the hot coals. Sometimes we would mix up potatoes, carrots, onions and some hamburger then bury it under the coals.  It was called HOBO stew.  Man it was great.  Most of the time we would roast marshmallows and hot dogs.  It was during this time that I got to meet Cindy Hustead who I thought I would marry someday.  I never did date her and I guess I thought she was just too pretty or maybe I was just scared to ask when I got old enough to date.  Cindy's older brother, Richard, was a scout and they would come to the parties.

By now you get the idea that Mom was a motivator and organizer who understood discipline.  She taught us responsibility and that if you don't do anything your rewards will be nothing but if you try you may not win the prize but you will be a winner in life.  She made sure we were in church almost every Sunday and I will have to tell you that I did not become a Christian until I was in college but I did know what was right and wrong and I did learn that I needed to know who God was.  I was a slow learner I guess but the most important thing is she challenged me to figure things out.  So when I was in college I started studying what being a Christian was really about and what it was not.

In summary I learned being a good person was not enough because no matter how hard I worked I fell short of perfection like Christ.

I remember Vea Harris telling us many times how Jesus lived a perfect life.  I also found out it was not about dancing and drinking or not doing those things but I found out it was totally about God's Grace and how he gave it just for asking.  Some day I will tell you that story as it was a great one, at least to me it still is.

Thanks for listening,

Gary
glolson21@gmail.com
http://thepioneerman.blogspot.com
please do send me your thoughts as many of you have encouraged me just like MOM.