Bit of a downer - then smile

 Sunday  SUNDAY!  S U N D A Y !!!

It is Sunday.  You'd never know it to look about my back porch.  The dogs are napping - the wife is looking at her phone or that I-whatever tablet thing is called - and I am back here looking at the computer screen.  This is no different from Monday - Tuesday  -        (I could recite all the days of the week just to impress you.) The stupid virus still takes its toll.  Not only does it toll with life and death and sickness; but, it tolls in lifestyle (and death style).  This is getting a little dark even for me.

Speaking of my wife's iPhone stuff,  I saw an advertisement for the Android Note 20 phone.   I am going to have to have one of those.   Hey!  it's only money.

A friend - acquaintance of mine - Donnie Owens, 83, had his bout with the virus and lost.  He was the band director in Durant when I was stationed (taught) in Ardmore.  A most pleasant guy with a great laugh and knowledge, Donnie moved to Texas and took the Dickinson H.S. Band as the Texas Honor Band to the TMEA convention a few years later.  Terrific person and great musician.  I believe after he retired, he moved to Waxahachie and taught elementary band for several years, which could explain one of the reasons why the Wax-a-hachet band was/is so good.

But we move on - more happy thoughts:

Today, I am missing the King family reunion in Kansas.  Sure, I have missed it for the last 68 years; but, I had intended on making it this year.  When I was in late elementary or early Jr. High, we went to the reunion - then held at Kinsley, Kansas.  We had a long drive from Levelland, Texas to Kinsley - nobody had car air conditioning back then.  The reunion was an outdoor affair - full of people young and old - held under a pavilion in a park.  Scads of unknown relatives abounded.   I left knowing few of them any better.

One of the things they did was have a variety show put on by different relatives.    Naturally, we Metzes pulled out the horns and accordions and filled the air with amateur music.  I seem to remember the Smith family doing a sing-song thing.  Singing was a favorite pasttime with my uncles and aunts.   Our music was either greatly loved or the audience was extremely polite.  I remember that we stayed a couple nights in one of my mothers uncle's house out in the country - a farm, if you will.   Today, here in my house we have a painting by my Uncle Jr. (James K. Smith) of that farm house.

In the living room was a pump organ which we abused through most of the night.  My mother loved the visit, and I suppose we all had a really good time, laughing, singing, telling stories, eating - all the good things in life.

Recently, the reunion was moved over to nearby town that has an air conditioned building.  I understand that the number of participants has dwindled over the years.  My cousin Earl Smith of Tennessee has made the reunion recently.  I really had hoped to go and meet some of the old folks...new relatives.

Just for the FYI Record in case a historian even passes this way.

My grandmother was Olive King.  She married James M Smith in Kansas.  They moved to northern Oklahoma and had several children, one of which was my mother Sara LeAnna Smith.  Mom, of course, married my father Clyde Marshall Metze.  They had 4 boys of which I was #3, a middle child.  We all know that middle children are abused.  I was the baby for 9 years until Pat Metze was born in 1949.  My oldest brother was Marshall Metze, III  and next came Jim Metze.

My mom's brothers and sisters were:   Opal (she died about 1918 or so),  Percy,  Sara, James K. (Jr.),  Esther (Sally) and Jack Smith (s)....not in any particular order.

I have spent time and money on Ancestry.com creating a family tree which extends back several centuries.  Curiously, nobody in my family wants to view my results.  I guess they figure they'll study it sometime in the future when they have time.  I know now in my elderly years, they never will find the time.  All will be lost.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:  My wife just shared with me a Facebook notice from my cousin Earl Smith that the King Family Reunion (in Pratt, Kansas) has been cancelled for this year.   I didn't miss it.  Hopefully, I will make it next year in my 80th year of life.  You are invited to join us next August.

Man-alive - this edition of my bluggy has been anything except entertaining.  I have to find something to leave you with that might bring a smile.  A friend sent this email forward to me.  I believe it is Crusoe the Celebrity Dachshund.   If you have never visited Crusoe's website - look it up.   fun stuff.  Crusoe's family live somewhere in Canada and have really given him great publicity.   By-the-Way,  Crusoe has a new sister Daphne - she is gorgeous.