Yay!! Uncle Jim was here!

Uncle Jim arrived about 5 pm on Wednesday, April 30. We were so happy to welcome him into our home! Thankfully, Ken didn't have to work overtime this Wednesday, so he arrived home just a few minutes later.

Uncle Jim wanted to take us out for supper, but we couldn't decide where or what we wanted to eat. In the meantime, we called my brother Tim to sing the birthday ditty and discovered that he was at a Chinese restaurant celebrating his birthday!

In our chat with Tim, he mentioned that Tony & Juanita were working at the restaurant getting ready for opening day, so after we finished talking with him, we located online the Pillow General Store & Restaurant phone number and called it.

Ken wondered, "How will you know if it's the right number?" I answered, "I'll ask for Tony and if it turns out to be the wrong number, I'll just say, 'Oops!'" What's so hard about that?!

But it was the right number: Tony answered the phone! So without any identification of ourselves (we didn't know if the restaurant has caller ID or not), Ken ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and asked if the restaurant delivered to Maryville, TN. When Tony heard the "order" he immediately knew who was calling: Uncle Ken! He was very surprised to hear from us and wondered how we had found the number. We told him that we found it online (although there is no website for it) and that we had made a grand opening announcement here on my blog, and that Belinda had already commented that they will have to check it out when they are in PA in December. We joked that he's already known nationwide--coast to coast, and he hadn't even opened yet! (BTW, no, the restaurant doesn't deliver to Maryville, TN.)

Well, catching Tim eating Chinese food was "the thumb on the scale" that we needed: we decided to go to Mandarin House for supper! Yummy! (I thought of you, Tab, when the cook's helper came out and dished up freshly made Sesame Chicken on the buffet. I ate some for ya too!)

As soon as we came home, before it got too late, Uncle Jim sat down at our piano and played a number of songs that were family favorites. I hurried and grabbed my digital horn (electronic sax) and played along. Music is always a great way to make a "Cooley memory!"

Uncle Jim brought with him a God's Bible School history book he had purchased and also a photo album chock-full of various family photos, so we paged through those finding people we know and learning about some we don't! Uncle Jim had just spent time with his oldest sister, Ruth, in Tulsa, OK. Aunt Ruth attended GBS in 1940 or 41, a year in which they didn't produce an annual yearbook, so her name is listed in that history book, but there is no photo of her in it. He did have several photos of her family in the photo album, however. I enjoyed seeing the pictures, but I am always saddened when I think about Aunt Ruth and her family. I've got first cousins I've met only once in my life! If I met them on the street, I would pass them by as strangers. * sigh *

Thursday Uncle Jim and I had a nice time visiting together, looking at photos and videos of my siblings and their children and grandchildren I have on my hard drive and a DVD. In the evening we browsed through a bagful of photos I inherited from my parents' cache of photos. I probably have seen them all before, but it was still fun looking at them. So I thought I'd share a few of them with you. :)

This is my mom's high school senior photo (1945? 46?). Isn't her smile beautiful? Lots of people remark to me that what they remember most about Mom is her smile. Dad loved her smile!

Much later, of course, Tim dated Ruth, who also had/has a great smile. Dad thought it was very special to hear Tim describe his girlfriend as "the girl with the smile." Like father, like son!

And isn't Mom's hair beautiful?! As her hair thinned with age, she told me many times that she should never have "gretzed" (a good PA Dutch word for "whined") about her hair being too thick and wavy when she was young; about having a difficult time getting a brush through her hair (a comb was impossible); and about getting her hair so tangled in her brush she sat and cried. She thought it ended up a good thing that she had started out with so much hair. How else could she lose so much hair and yet not be bald?!

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No date is indicated on this photo. What is remarkable to me is Mom's poufy but soft and pretty hairstyle (I only remember her with a more severe style, but perhaps it was because her hair was so much thinner later; if you click on the photo, you can see a larger photo) and Dad's "loud" tie! The ties I remember Dad wearing were solid, dark ties or, eventually, solid black. Most of my life, however, based on a personal God-given conviction, he wore no tie.

Two things I remember about Dad's conviction about ties:

1) It was an absolutely personal conviction, which being interpreted meant that his sons were expected to continue wearing ties even though he did not. One of my brothers (I won't tell you which one, but if you know them, you can probably guess correctly! lol) decided to attend church one Sunday without a tie "since Dad wasn't wearing one." Dad asked him, "Did God tell you not to wear a tie?" When Son answered, "No," Dad sent him right back into the house to get his tie!

2) Everything that happened reminded Dad of a "story." He loved to tell this one--as much, I think, for the laugh as for the point it makes about personal convictions.

A man and his wife were driving to church one Sunday and had a flat tire. He pulled to the side of the road to change tires but discovered the spare was flat too. Spotting a farm house across the field, he decided to see if the farmer could help him out. As he crawled through the barbed-wire fence, his tie caught on a barb and nearly choked him before it tore free.

When he returned to the car not wearing his tie, his wife inquired as to its whereabouts. "Oh," he responded solemnly, "God showed me that I shouldn't wear a tie."

Curious, she asked, "How did He do that?"

"Why, when I crawled through the fence," he explained, "my tie caught on it and nearly choked me to death! I just know that was God telling me I shouldn't wear one."

"Whew," she breathed. "It's a good thing it wasn't your pants!"

No date on this photo either, but I assume the baby is Tim, so it would be 1952-53. Check out Dad's tie again and Mom's fancy hat--what are those things hanging off the side?! But, I love it!! (I enjoy wearing a hat sometimes, but I don't enjoy being the only one wearing a hat. I'm sure Mom wasn't the only one at that time.)

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Keep scrollin'! :) Only two more photos.

Uncle Jim told me this group was dubbed "The Cooley Trio." They ministered in various meetings for several years. Dad played all of the instruments shown as well as piano (heh, as well as a bunch not pictured!); Mom played trombone and mandolin (I think it is standing in front of the accordion; only the neck is visible); Uncle Jim played trombone and piano.

Uncle Jim proclaims that he does smile, in spite of this picture! Who knows why he was so sober in this picture? He was only about 17, so perhaps he was more nervous than dour.

Look how thin Mom was. Wow! She looks so tiny standing between Dad and Uncle Jim.

The second instrument from the right is a saw. It was used to cut wood by day and play music by night! Dad eventually made a wooden case for it, but one night he dashed off to service, and when he opened the case, no saw! Providentially, after the service that night, a man in the congregation gave Dad a musical saw (a blade longer but not as thick, providing greater musical range and flexibility, and ... umm, I can't think how else to describe them: false teeth! [Okay, maybe "fake teeth" would sound better!] The teeth appeared normal and could snag your clothes with amazing aggression, but they were not sharpened to cut wood.) The longer saw blade of the musical saw meant that 4-6 inches of the blade stuck out the end of the case, thus the aggression with clothes, but Dad always joked that he could check to be sure the saw was in its case without ever opening the case!

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A note about Mom's trombone: She simply could not "get it" about transposing, so Dad, being a professional welder, cut off part of the tubing and welded the instrument back together as a "C-Melody" trombone instead of the usual B-flat Tenor trombone so Mom could read the music straight from the hymnbook!

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I think the sax in the photo is the "C-Melody" on which I learned to play!

Here are Dad & Mom with their little family: Tim, Becky, Andy. Aren't they, like, classic?! Mom is still so pencil thin. Wow. (Her outfit appears to be the same as the one in the picture of Dad, her and Uncle Jim.)

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And then the kids! Even at such a tender age, Tim was already a big brother watching over us to keep us out of trouble. Becky has a sweet expression on her face that I think says, "This is my daddy!", and Mom's got a firm grip on Andy! (Mom used to call him "Double Trouble" because he was more trouble by himself than Tim and Becky put together.)

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I don't know what church this was, only that it was not one that my dad pastored. He must have been here for music, preaching, or both.

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Okay, I'm finished for now! Thanks for your interest. :)