POSSIBLE ANSWERS AND SOME COMMENTS

Good Morning! It is time to honor those who have called or written. I am very grateful and really appreciate hearing from you. I do hope this is not inappropriate to offer your statement to the readers without your permission. Lilly used to say, "It's often easier to get forgiveness than permission." So I am asking your sincere forgiveness, if I offend you by using your direct or indirect quote.

Comments from the 1st story: HOME.
Pallie: "...love reading and remembering."
Dori: "...such detail from ... 18 months old."
Karla: -- just "Ramblin" --
Rachel: -- on a "Romantic Porch" --

Comments on the 2nd story: BIRTH DAY.
Karla: "Love the prose!"

Comments on the 3rd story: THE COUNTRY TWO-ROOMER.
Karla: ...had not heard the 4 cent story.
Rachel: spoke about the different memories we lived with the same parents. (In case you didn't know, Rachel is my youngest sister. I am her eldest brother. Either she is 26 years younger or I am 26 years older.)

Commenting on the 4th story: STILL IN TWO ROOMS.
Dori was very concerned: "Poor pig ... did she die? How can you leave it like this?"

I responded in the 5th story: POOR PIG. POOR DADDY.
...by trying to explain the thermal outter wear the pig was wearing. Thanks Dori!
Sherri: ...knew Daddy had been lost in a snow storm but didn't know all the story.
I bet there's way more to the story than I ever knew, too. Can you imagine such misery? How cold must he have been?

Four Comments on the 5th story: A FEW QUESTIONS.
Pallie: "...when the ground got so dry it began cracking open..."Mother Shumaker always said, 'It will rain before it is too late. It always does.' " "What faith! What a promise!'"
Donnie asked if they were on the sheep range one winter or two. The answer is that their first home was in the old house one mile south of Shumaker's. There they shepherded 200 sheep on 80 acres of oats that did not have a fence around it, only wheat fields. So they had to stay with the sheep all day to keep them out of the wheat. (The wheat people required that.) They put the sheep in a carral at night. They were married December 19, 1936. I don't know if the sheep were there right then, but it would have been, at least, the early weeks of 1937.
So then Donnie remembers Mother telling her that they were at the sheep range the winter of 1939-1940. [But that has me being two years old in December 1939. I alway remember being told I was 18 months old. All the pictures show us in winter clothing. Daddy tells about the snow pilling up against the side of the tent so deep that he put the bed against that side to keep the drift from caving in the tent. Age 18 months would have put us there in June 1939.]
Donnie says, "I'm thankful for being taught, 'to stick to it, Trust in God, He is in control'."
Paul: "I guess we've all heard the stories from Daddy but it's great to hear them from your 'knee high' point of view'." Thanks, Paul. That really does put everything in perspective.
Karla: Grand Daddy was at her house for about a week in the 1980's. She had him tell stories into her recorder. So she says, "...will transcribe them and maybe clear up some of the 'mystery' dates."

I want to thank you each for your interest, encouragement, comments and support. We've barely started and have such a long way to go.

Later today, Joanna and the boys (Sebastian and Leo. Elizza will be in school.) will drop me off at Van Gelder Bus Terminal in Rockford. I'll ride to Ohare Airport in Chicago. My plane for Italy leaves about 5:30 pm. By Air France, I should arrive in Paris around 8:30 am. tomorrow. At 1:00 pm (also tomorrow) we'll fly out to arrive in Torino, Italy at 2:40 pm. I hope you pray kind and benifical prayers for me as I go. I will think of you in your dry and dusty, wet and cold or whatever condition you may be in, as I look down at the snow cover glaciers of the Alp mountains. It will be beautiful beyond discription. I'd be delighted for you to come along.

Thanks to you all for who you are and for all you mean to me. God bless us every one!

Love and Prayers, Carlton!