Jeannine, I love that story, my mother would have been right in there with your aunt if not for macular degeneration, so she didn't get to join the bingo games etc, and didn't want to do it with someone "helping", she did get the greatest satisfaction from winning two of the games during the Olympics. It was during the same time as the real ones in Korea? or someplace. She was 96 and had just gotten her first wheelchair, not an automatic one and won the obstacle course game. Next sitting in their wheelchairs they kicked soccer balls down the hall. She won that one. She said "If they had let me stand up, I could have kicked that ball clear down the hall. She was Soo Proud of her "gold" medals on the red,white and blue striped ribbons. I told my sister that it was great because you don't get gold medals for being the best cook, housekeeper, mother and grandmother but I think they all should!!! After that when one of my cousins and her husband who had sort of adopted Mom, would write her address on their cards and letters to Olympic Winner Hattie Palmertree and that is how the aide would read out her name when she delivered the mail. Mom really got a kick out of that. Mom was so much a part of my family history story writing, I think I've had writer's block since she passed away but it's slowly coming back. I'm thinking of things again that would maybe make a good story. Sometimes I can't believe this little girl from Wynnewood, OK. has been so many places and known so many interesting people, I guess marrying into the Air Force and living in so many different places helped with that. When we were at our last base before retiring, we lived in the High Desert above San Bernadino in Adelanto, Ca. I went to work at the Adelanto Elementary School. Loved the teachers there and became life long friends with some of them. But this week a short article about the Hell's Angels and The Vagos shootout somewhere out there reminded me that I was on a first name basis with some of the Hell's Angels there, because their kids went to school there and I would see these guys in their vests at the local store buying the long list of school supplies etc, once, they stopped at a rest stop the town had set up on Labor Day and when a bunch of bikers came roaring in, my co-volunteers were less alarmed after a couple of them greeted me with "Hey, Mrs. Hornback, how ya doin"?" and after getting drinks of ice water and looking at the brochures, they thanked us and rode off. I was sort of laughing when I typed San Bernadino above because the newspaper article reminded me that the Hells Angels just call it San Berdoo I always wanted to believe that the ones I knew from school were the wanta be's and not the ones doing all the stuff you heard about, but they did have the correct vests etc. But you also heard about The Vagos. In fact, one little girl's sharing during Show & Tell was that her sister was pregnant by one of the Vagos. Bet that turned into the Hatfields and McCoys! One little boy from a supposedly normal family, shared one morning that his father had died. We made a call to his house because his Mom was like one of the school founders and volunteered etc, well, it was not true. They just said they guessed he didn't have anything interesting to tell?? Even in Kindergarten I would have been worried if one of our kids had shared that little story. Well, either of those stories. ha. Good to hear from you Jeannine. Nova In a message dated 9/28/2011 8:53:48 A.M. Central Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Nova, I had a great-aunt that died at age 99 in a nursing home. She did take part in all the activities and her mind was sharper than mine. You comment about bingo made me laugh. This aunt was a vicious bingo player in the nursing home. They would pay something like 10 cents for each completed card and she was determined to get that money! My sister and mother visited her every Saturday and would take her a six pack of the small Dr. Pepper for the coming week. My aunt used her bingo money to 'pay' for the Dr. Pepper each Saturday as she refused to owe anyone anything. I don't think I'll ever hear the word 'bingo' again without thinking of that little 99 year old woman, sitting in her wheelchair trying to beat all the other residents. Jeannine Jeannine Kirkpatrick Smith ------------------------------- Visit the Palmertree Family History website at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~palmrtre/index.htm ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message