How do you know if Connie Arrington told someone about my mom?

Connie Arrington, wife of Gene, mother of Rocky, Stony, and Stephanie broke her arm and was having surgery which brought several of us together in OKC which gave us time to talk about some of the "good old days".  One of the things which I had totally forgot was that my mom had a name that no one ever used except Connie.  Although today when talking to Terry (Stephanie's husband) I realized he was talking about my mom when he was saying Neit (sounds like Neat).  Connie is the only person I remember ever calling mom, Neit.  It is one of those endearing names you use only with a special friend.  Connie and Mom were very close. Can anyone pick out Neit?  This is the Lane family.

Can anyone guess who these Grainola folks are?

Terry surprised me with how much he enjoyed being around Neit and how they use to go over to our old house on the creek and visit with Mom and Dad.  This made me realize just how much I missed when I left Shidler and Grainola.   The great thing about those days was we had time to receive guests who just dropped in or those who called at the last minute.  We stopped everything including TV and talked and many times broke out the deck of cards and played or sometimes dominoes or checkers.  I am afraid that today we are so dawgone (yes that is a word not found in your ordinary dictionary) busy we don't have time to breath, much less visit with folks.  Who is running our lives and what is important?  So here are a few questions to stir things up.

1. is it more important to have your child be involved in several sports or learn to communicate with adults and other children outside of school?  I am just saying!  You be your own judge.
2. Is it important that you children or even spouse watch every football game or play video games or learn to enjoy other folks?
3. Is it more important to cherish old friendships and nurture those along or is it better to stretch our center of influence or the number of contacts in our cell phones?

Well, I am not going to answer your questions but I am going to say that I have never regretted getting in contact with old Shidler or Grainola friends or acquaintances but I have regretted being too busy for those friends.  I can also say I have never regretted spending one minute with my children but I have regretted spending so much time at the office or traveling for work.  I was blessed to have a workaholic dad but I always got to work with him.  I cherish those memories.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• When you are carrying a load down the gravel road it gets heavy but when you are visiting with a friend while you carry that load you forget about the load and cherish the friend.
• It is not what we say to our children but what they watch us do and how they see us treat other folks that builds character in them and ultimately making them wanting to spend time with us as we grow older.
• Honor thy mother and father and treat thy neighbor as ya'll want to be treated

Thanks for listening,
thepioneerman.com