What are you dooin'??

My work brings me in contact with all sorts of people.  An itsy-bitsy, teensy-weensy amount of them are real goofballs...but the rest...Ah Yes!  They are the stuff of many stories!

While I was working in Birch Tree, Missouri last Thursday, I needed to tie to a benchmark in the old Depot Park downtown.  I noticed a few kids playing on the merry-go-round but since I was concentrating on working, I just tuned them out.  As I was standing with the GPS pole on the benchmark, I heard this little girl's voice behind me..."What are you dooin'???"  I glanced around and there were two little girls with puzzled but curious looks on their faces.

Now, when you have a job that is difficult to explain to adults, it is near bout' impossible to explain to little shavers.  I started out by asking "Do you know what satellites are?"  They didn't...  So I told them that it was satellites way up in the sky that brought them the programs on their televisions...."Can you get television on that thing?" (pointing to my data collector - which has a small screen)  I told them I couldn't but I turned it around where they could see it and it was "Wow!"  "Cool!"...  I figured it was time for a different tack so I asked them their names..."I'm *Skeeter and she's *LuLu" (*names changed to protect the innocent)  "Where do you go to school?"..."She goes to Birch Tree and I go to Mountain View."  We talked a little more and I told them I had a daughter..."Is she little like us?"...And it went on from there.  Finally I told them I had to go and we swapped "see ya later's."  However...the "spokesman" had one last parting shot...As I was walking away, she said in her bright little girl voice "You leave this park and DON'T come back!" and went off laughing with her friend.  And I went back to my truck with new faith that all is not wrong with the world......

Just One More...

My last blog entry was about my Grandma Riggs' sister, Albie, but I couldn't let this day go by without saying how much I miss Momo (If you read my blog at all you'll know who I'm talking about.)  Thirty years ago today, on a Sunday, Momo made the crossing to the Celestial City.  In one of my low times as a young Christian, I remember her kneeling down beside me at church and praying with me.  These were her words "Just keep praying...You can make Ray Boy".  These words of encouragement have helped me through many a tough time.  In turn, I have tried to encourage young people with these same words, "Hang in there...I'm for you...You can make it!"  I loved my Momo and miss her today......

You Just Never Know...

I mentioned in a post last summer that there was more information forthcoming about my Grandma Alma (Earls) Riggs.  In the post I mentioned that on her obituary it listed a deceased sister named Alba.  You just never know what kind of things you find out about your own family...

My Great-Grandfather, Jesse Randle Earls, was born in 1891 and my Great-Grandmother, Mary Effie (Riddle) Earls, was born in 1890.  I could not find their marriage date but evidently it was before 1910.

Jesse Randle (Poppa) and Mary Effie (Riddle) (Mam-Ma) Earls

 I always understood that Jesse and Effie had three children; Jesse Ray Earls (1912), Ether Alma Riggs (1913) and Mildred Pauline Willard Capshaw(1919).  Effie passed away in 1956 from injuries she received in a car wreck at Brandsville, Missouri.  In 1959, Jesse married Ruby (Montgomery) VonAllmen whose husband, Estil VonAlllmen had also passed away in a car wreck.  In 1961, Bonnie Edith was born to Jesse and Ruby.

When I read my Grandma Riggs' obituary, I was extremely puzzled by the deceased sister, Alba.  Everyone I could ask had passed away (I thought) so I searched the internet for any mention of an Alba Earls.  I became "Friends" with Bonnie (Earls) Matlock and out of the clear blue she messaged me some information.  It was in the form of a question asking me if I knew that Alma had a sister named Albie.  This really floored me because it never crossed my mind to ask my "Aunt" Bonnie about it.  Bonnie informed me that Albie was buried in Moten Cemetery, southwest of Mammoth Spring, Arkansas.  It was no wonder I hadn't found any information since I was only searching in Missouri!  I searched findagrave.com with no results but on arkansasgravestones.org, I found a picture of Albie's gravestone! 

Used with permission of mjkane7 - Source: arkansasgravestones.org

The stone reads:
ALBIE DAU (Daughter) OF
J.R.& M.E. EARLS
BORN OCT 5 1910
DIED FEB 15 1913
(Her epitaph is really sweet)
BUDDED ON EARTH
TO BLOOM IN HEAVEN

I do not remember my GGrandfather, Poppa Earls, but I have been told by scores of people that he was a prince of a man.  He was a Holiness Pentecostal Preacher and Pastor and directed the Fifth-Sunday Meeting in our local fellowship of churches.  He was known to the family as Poppa but I've heard Brother Jess, Brother Jesse, Brother Earls and Uncle Jess used interchangeably.  Below are a couple more pictures I found in some of my stuff.

I decided to attach a picture of my Grandma, Alma (Earls) Riggs...known to anyone that really knew her as "Momo".  I was shocked at how much she resembled her Mom and Dad!