PrunePicker: November 2018

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

A blue enameled bowl full of strawberry slurry.

I remember my mom would fill a blue enameled bowl (which stayed in the family for many years), like the one in the picture, with a mixture of sliced strawberries, cream and milk, and a little sugar. The bowl was big and it was full. This slurry plus shortbread was to be the whole supper for a large family.

I was four. It was ninety years ago. My mom passed away when I was five. There were about a dozen of my family at home at that time. It was a tradition of my mom to occasionally have a strawberry supper. Nothing else to eat, just strawberry shortcake, but all you wanted. I can remember how it tasted. The shortbread was not sweet. It was a big fluffy sourdough biscuit. You placed the shortbread in your bowl and then covered it with the strawberry slurry. It was so good! Everyone was happy with their meal.

I can remember my mom standing over the bowl. This is one of the several memories that I have of my mom. If you have read some of my blogs you may have the impression that I really missed my mom and resented losing her at an early age. That is the right impression!

I have recently became acquainted with a genealogical presentation called a timeline. The timeline presents a chronological list of all the events in a person's life. The list can include major events with age, where the person was living, etc. I am thinking of doing a timeline for my mom. She led an eventful life in her 41 years! Eight pregnancies and nine children. It would be like spending time with her. Depending on how detailed my study, it could be a lot of work. Getting or reading eight birth certificates could involve a lot of time, effort and expense.

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Blogger Burnout!

I started the PrunePicker blog on April 11, 2010. As of today I have posted 3,207 blogs. Did you miss one? The PrunePicker blog has been viewed 472,576 times. That is a lot, huh?

I used to post to the blog almost every day, Lately I have posted once or twice a week. This is just the third one this month. I just do not have what it takes (burn out?) to keep up the pace. I have thought about stopping the blog. However I do get around 150 to 200 hits a day so I will keep on going. I will cut way back. Maybe one or two blogs per month. On the right of this blog is an option to be notified by email when I post a blog. You might consider doing that. That would save you some time.

Have a great day!

Saturday, November 10, 2018

My Alzheimer friend came to visit.

Yesterday was so exciting! My maid Rhonda Ray brought her Mom Rosa Lee to visit with me while she vacuumed my old Hitch Hiker RV. This is the first time in a long time that I have seen Rosa out of her home. You could tell that she as excited. I do not understand Rosa too much but we had a great visit,

Their old friend Lizard (from Jefferson Corner days) bought us lunch after Rhonda was done with my RV. Here is a pic of the three. Rosa, Rhonda, and Lizard. We had a great visit.

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Vital Signs for October 2018

No weight loss!!!! Started around 220 and ended up around 220. My weight was down to 217 in the middle of the month. I must have relaxed and went back up. Oh well, I will do better in November. I plan to be 215 the end of the month.

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My niche in the Blogosphere.

My blog is about me, my family, my interests, my opinions, and my daily activities. My name is Chuck Monson. I am a native born Californian. I worked in the oil exploration and production business and am now retired and living in Ruston, Louisiana. I am a 91 year old widower. I blog because I really enjoy it. Posting gives me a schedule and is a wonderful make work project. I like pictures, both the taking and looking at them. I really like old historic pictures. I enjoy a good photograph. I like putting pictures and text together in a way that is hopefully interesting to others and that will be interesting to me in the future. I like to be silly now and then. It is also putting my memories down on paper. My blog serves as a diary. I have used it for a reference quite a few times.

I do mix it up. Some of my blogs are “what I had for breakfast”, some are just pictures, some are items of genealogical nature, and there are items from my family history. I have a history of the Munson/Monsons in America. The study of this history has led me to the discovery of much American history that had previously been unknown by me.

I have had a lifelong interest in history, archeology, philosophy, religion, politics, architecture, technical subjects, music, food, and sports. I spend time every day reading blogs and posting to my blog. I do not pontificate on religion or politics because I do not consider myself wise enough to try to persuade others to my beliefs. My beliefs are quite nebulous anyway.

I was started on blogging by my late son, Christopher David Monson. Chris wrote the blog "snaggletoothie of the Loyal Opposition" There is a link to his blog above. I look at Chris's blog often. I have read most of his posts.

My adult years.

I married Jackie Lois Ireton in 1944 in San Luis Obispo, California. I met her on a blind date when I was taking amphibious training at Moro Bay. We have been blessed with four children, nine grand children, and nine great grandchildren. They are an exceptional group. I love them and I am proud of them.

I was an army combat engineer (infantry with shovels) during World War II. I served in the Pacific. I was wounded on Peleliu Island helping the marines on Bloody Nose Ridge. I was shot in both legs just above the knees. The wound locations indicate that I was not running away.

I received a BSME in 1950 from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. Jackie received a PHT. (pushing husband through.) I retired from oilfield work in 1985. Jackie and I moved into a fifth wheel trailer and enjoyed the RV lifestyle until Jackie's health failed. We traveled across the continent 3 1/2 times. We spent a summer as volunteers at Acadia National Park. For 17 years we helped build an Escapee RV park in Chimacum, Washington. Jackie passed away in 2007. We had been married 63 years. We were married on June 3, 1944. I still live in our fifth wheel trailer. It is parked in the yard of my daughter Kerry's home in Ruston, Louisiana. It is by far the nicest RV park that I have ever lived in.

My teen age years.

I was born in 1925 in Pomona, California. Pomona is on the east edge of Los Angeles County. It is halfway between Los Angeles and San Bernardino and halfway between the mountains and the beach. I thought that it was great to be an hour from snow covered mountains and an hour from the ocean surf.

In my days of growing up, Pomona was completely surrounded by orchards and truck farms. Oranges, lemons, grapefruit, peaches, apricots, olives, persimmons, and walnuts. Watermelons and strawberries. During the depression I had many meals from the orchards.

They say that you cannot go back home. That is true of the Pomona Valley of my youth. Because it is no longer there. Most of it is now covered with asphalt and stucco buildings.

My ancestors.

I am getting more and more into genealogy. I have a trove of information on the Munsons/Monsons. My father is buried in California. His father by adoption (He was an uncle.) is buried in Kansas. His natural father is buried in Kentucky. So I have two grandfathers. I have a grandfather and four great grandfathers buried in Kentucky, one great buried in New Jersey, and three greats buried in Connecticut. I have two greats buried in Rattlesden, Suffolk, England. I have been led to believe that my ancestors before that came from Denmark and Normandy.

Captain Thomas Munson was the first Munson to move to America. He was baptized in Rattlesden, England in 1612. The baptismal font is still in use. He served in the militia in the Pequot Indian Wars in 1637. He served in the militia all his life and reached the status of Captain. His signature is on the founding document for New Haven, Connecticut.

In 2011 I visited New Haven and took pictures of his gravestone. In May 2012 my oldest daughter Nancy Ann escorted me to England and France. We visited Rattlesden and I took some pictures of the Captain's baptismal font.

Why is the old prune picker living in Ruston, Louisiana?

In 2006 my wife Jackie was in poor health. Jackie had kidney failure and was on dialysis. She had heart problems for some time with A-fib. She had fallen and broken her hip. She had broken ribs and vertebra just moving around normally. My family thought that I needed help caring for Jackie. My daughter Kerry and her husband John offered to park our trailer in their backyard in Ruston and help. Jackie and I accepted their kind offer. My daughter Nancy accompanied Jackie in an airplane flight from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington to Ruston. My son Mike took time off to help me pull our trailer for five long days to our new home. We were and are grateful. We enjoyed our new home very much.

Unfortunately and sadly, Jackie passed away in six months. I had sold our truck and was permanently parked. I was ready to give up full time RVing anyway. It is very pleasant in Ruston and I am close to family. So that is why I have been living in Ruston, Louisiana since October 2006.