My mother, who was born in Mercer Co., MO, "warshes" also. She also has a daughter, my sis, who lived in "Warshington." My Grandma, Mom's mom, also used to say "pertneer". She, Alice Alley Thomas, was from Mercer Co., and her father, Cass Thomas, was born in Decatur Co., IA. They told me a lot of snow stories, and not all of them were about walking to school uphill both ways in a blizzard. My mom, did have frostbitten legs from walking a mile in very cold weather. One of my snow memories is from Gypsum, Colorado. When I was 6 or 7, and my sister was about 2 or 3, we had a major snow in Gypsum. School was out and playing outside, after the snow quit, was what my sister and I wanted to do. My mom bundled us up very well. My sister could barely move. We would go outside and she would immediately want to go back inside. Mom would unbundle her and then she would want to go out where I was. This happened about three times and mom decided that it was time for us both to come in. A later storm, also in Colorado, happened on Christmas Eve in 1983. It had snowed all day, and Christmas Eve services had to be cancelled. The snow stopped late afternoon. A couple of sets of friends cross country skied over to our house, a distance of a mile or two, for a service of our own (my husband is a pastor). After the service, while we were setting around, we heard stomping on the porch and jingle bells ringing. Remember, that nothing was moving except a few people on skis. We opened the door and, what d ya know, there stood Santa and Mrs. Claus with a bag full of goodies. My one year old grandson called him, "HO HO". One of our sons was home for Christmas from the military and he had brought a friend with him. They were quite impressed as well. Later on, after things returned to normal, we found out that Santa and Mrs. were our neighbors who owned a news stand downtown, and they did this every year. This was our first year in this house, so we didn't know. What a fun memory. Well, enough rambling. Merry Christmas, all. Donna in Wyoming

Donna, I knew your grandparents or greatgrandparents - They lived in Colorado above Rifle, I think - some distance from town, with a creek running down the mountain in front of the house - I thought Alice was Cassie's wife? Or maybe they had a daughter named Alice also? We visited them maybe in 1957 or 58?? - we traveled with the Edwin and Lena Hagan family - I think Lena was Alice's niece. Lena had been a McIntosh but her mother was maybe an Alley from the Mercer area. We kids - three preteen girls - slept in their bunkhouse, had venison steak and eggs for breakfast and rode their horses up to a mine... Great memories you brought back to me! Marilyn Collins Costa in Texarkana ----- Original Message ----- From: "Donna Wood" <didrwood1@netcommander.com> To: <IADECATU-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 11:33 AM Subject: RE: [IADECATU] SNOWY DAY, MISSOURI DATABASE | My mother, who was born in Mercer Co., MO, "warshes" also. She also has a | daughter, my sis, who lived in "Warshington." My Grandma, Mom's mom, also | used to say "pertneer". She, Alice Alley Thomas, was from Mercer Co., and | her father, Cass Thomas, was born in Decatur Co., IA. They told me a lot of | snow stories, and not all of them were about walking to school uphill both | ways in a blizzard. My mom, did have frostbitten legs from walking a mile | in very cold weather. | | One of my snow memories is from Gypsum, Colorado. When I was 6 or 7, and my | sister was about 2 or 3, we had a major snow in Gypsum. School was out and | playing outside, after the snow quit, was what my sister and I wanted to do. | My mom bundled us up very well. My sister could barely move. We would go | outside and she would immediately want to go back inside. Mom would | unbundle her and then she would want to go out where I was. This happened | about three times and mom decided that it was time for us both to come in. | | A later storm, also in Colorado, happened on Christmas Eve in 1983. It had | snowed all day, and Christmas Eve services had to be cancelled. The snow | stopped late afternoon. A couple of sets of friends cross country skied | over to our house, a distance of a mile or two, for a service of our own (my | husband is a pastor). After the service, while we were setting around, we | heard stomping on the porch and jingle bells ringing. Remember, that | nothing was moving except a few people on skis. We opened the door and, | what d ya know, there stood Santa and Mrs. Claus with a bag full of goodies. | My one year old grandson called him, "HO HO". One of our sons was home for | Christmas from the military and he had brought a friend with him. They were | quite impressed as well. Later on, after things returned to normal, we | found out that Santa and Mrs. were our neighbors who owned a news stand | downtown, and they did this every year. This was our first year in this | house, so we didn't know. What a fun memory. | | Well, enough rambling. | | Merry Christmas, all. | | Donna in Wyoming | | | | | | | ==== IADECATU Mailing List ==== | Stacey Dietiker, Momdit@aol.com: Decatur County List Administrator, | Website Coordinator, Decatur County IA Genweb - http://www.rootsweb.com/~iadecatu | | ============================== | Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the | areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. | Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx |