June the 6th

What happened this day 63 years ago in Normandy, France? D Day!

I had two uncles, my mother’s brother Roy and my father’s brother Stanley that risked their life that day. Roy talked about it a lot and had been on various news shows talking about that fateful day. Stanley, on the other hand, preferred not to talk about it.

What happened this day 89 years ago in Gillette, Wyoming? Ethel America “Janie” Petty (my mother) was born.


Mama as a baby on the Wyoming Prairie


Speaking of Mama: Yesterday I took my sister to my cardiologist for a nuclear stress test, the same as I had a few weeks ago. She could have drover herself but I was not sure how her body would react to a stress test and maybe not be able to drive afterwards, so I carried her.

There for the same test was an old family friend who also lives down the street from my sister. His name is Reed B.

Reed used to be my Sunday School teacher when I was preschool and was my younger sister’s grammar school principal and now, retired, he works part time at the funeral home, so I see him a lot there. We always enjoy talking to one another.

Today I enjoyed talking to him about old Marietta natives off and on for about three hours. Reed had to do the same thing my sister was doing, have two MRIs in a rotating chair, and a treadmill stress thing. I did the same thing a few weeks ago. So, in between bouts with whatever they were doing all three of us would talk about old native Mariettans and old buildings.

Also, on their street they have just signed a petition to get speed bumpers for the street. Not long ago, cars were counted electronically, that travel the two-block-length street, and in the morning during rush hour about 450 cars take a short cut down the street at a fast speed. So, with the petition they are getting speed bumps.

At one point my sister walked over to get water and Reed told me my sister was getting to look more and more like my other. Then he laughed, and said my mother was a character.

I said she loved a good fight.

When my sister came back from the water cooler she asked what we were laughing about and I told her. She laughed and said that was true, she loved a good fight. She said this speed bump business for the street, Mama would probably want it, but would sign against if she knew everybody else were signing for it.

That’s my Mama!