"I've Got Some Bad News and Some Worse News!" 11/14 Last chap!

[Dizneydawn]

So for the dip.. what size is a small can of jalapenos and green chiles? ~4oz?

Yes - I think that is what it is...truthfully I just went and bought what I thought sounded good together. It is the smallest can they sell and it was the same size for both the Jalepenos and the Green Chillies... I will look next time I am at the store.

 

[Dizneydawn]

PTR LINK!!!!!!!

Here is the link to the PTR for October guys!!!

 

[YukiPhnx]

Um...I think you forgot to put the link.

 

[mousetravel]

That's right, we had a grill, camping chairs, boogie boards and the like, all strapped down on top of the van. We looked like a rolling ghetto.

Or a yard sale on wheels!!

Outside, Kristi and I found a perfect sign for us.

 

[Dizneydawn]

Um...I think you forgot to put the link.

It's there...PTR LINK!!!

Or a yard sale on wheels!!

Yup...GHETTO R US

 

[gellybean]

I'm all caught up!


Loved the pics of you and Treyner! And the three of them together!

Laughed my butt off at the bad news, worse news story! We've already introduced our 7 yr old to the ways of the plunger. I wish we made it all the way til he was Baylor's age!

Poor Kizzy!! I think my chi's would freak out! So great that you guys were able to take her along with y'all!

Love that you played matchmaker with Leah for Carsyn!

Heading over to the PTR now!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

What a fun dinner! Obviously Carsyn didn't actually mind the matchmaking - she looked pretty happy (he's cute!) and you are still alive!

Great pictures of the gang too!

 

[ddstratton]

Oh, dinner sounded like a BLAST!!!! If I were you, I'd have been sleeping with one eye open for a while though. Poor Carsyn -- how you embarrassed her!

 

[SoccerDogWithEars]

WHAT???? You're leaving me hanging like that??? Did he call her????? I love me some juicy matchmaking gossip. I flirted with a German CM one time at Epcot, until he found out I was, alas, not a summer intern. Or 18. *sigh*

I know what you mean about the pictures with Treyner. My mom's boss and his wife gave me a very nice picture frame for graduation, and I was going to put a family picture in it until I realized that the last family picture we'd had was when I was about 9. So when we went to Indianapolis, I took this

It was at the top of an observation tower, the day before we ran our half marathon. And it made me realize just how short my family is

I wish I could start a PTR. But we don't have a trip to PTR about. And yes, I did just make that into a verb.

 

[YukiPhnx]

It's there...PTR LINK!!!

Oops, guess my computer pulled one over me.

 

[Dizneydawn]

Love that you played matchmaker with Leah for Carsyn!

All I did was ask how old he was. This day and age of cell phones and computer's...it is amazing anyone actually ever meets! Leah's pics really show hwo was super excited about them actually talking!

What a fun dinner!

It was a great time!

Poor Carsyn -- how you embarrassed her!

I think excitement won over her embarrassment in 2.2!

So when we went to Indianapolis, I took this

Yeah!!!! I get to see what you look like...I don't think you guys look short. Unless Dan is standing next to you, then maybe....

Oops, guess my computer pulled one over me.

Mine does that more than I care to admit...but I get to use old age for my excuse!!!

 

[MEK]

Wow - that Jordan is a little hottie! Can I say that being that I am probably older than his mother? So don't make us wait too long before your next update. I am leaving on Saturday you know!

Great pictures of the gang. And a Boogerlicious photo to boot!

 

[SoccerDogWithEars]

Well, let me put it this way, I'm 5'2" (unless I'm having a good day, because then I round up to 5'3"). And both my parents only have a couple of inches on me. The woman who took the picture for us was taller than my dad.

 

[Dizneydawn]

So don't make us wait too long before your next update. I am leaving on Saturday you know!
It is coming...was busy booking AIRLINE RESERVATIONS TODAY!!!!!!

Well, let me put it this way, I'm 5'2" (unless I'm having a good day, because then I round up to 5'3"). And both my parents only have a couple of inches on me. The woman who took the picture for us was taller than my dad.

Okay - you are all short. There is not cutting around it.

Treyner is 6'3 now, Carsyn is 5'5 (1/2 inch taller than me) or maybe I am shrinking and now 5'4? Baylor is 5'9.

Dan is 6'6 or 6'5 if he is shrinking.

You look like your Daddy. Eyes like your Momma.

My kids do not look like me or their Dad.

Lucky for them!

 

[tlenzendorf]

That dip recipe? OMG good!

 

[SoccerDogWithEars]

Everyone at work said I looked like my dad. My friend from middle school said I looked exactly like my mom. I think your description is more accurate. I actually get my coloring, height, and other....physical attributes from my paternal grandmother. But when I was younger, I had blonde hair like my mom, and it was curly too. It still is curly, I just use a flat iron on it to make it manageable.

Curse you and all your tallness.

I swore I saw Treyner on campus today. Which I know is impossible, but this kid had a hat on, was tall, same stubble on the chin, same hair color, and was wearing a soccer shirt. I did a double take. And then wondered if it was a sign of insanity when you see online friends you've never met before.

 

[Dizneydawn]

End of Day 5

So that night as we got ready to sleep, indeed Jordan called/texted Carsyn after he got out of work. He was heading out for a fishing trip with his brother and alas, they might not get a chance to see each other before we left.

This was also Kristi and Marissa's lat night so they were busy packing up their stuff for the morning.

***Warning - this became an emotional expose for me. If you do not want to read my feelings on slavery or some raw testaments, this may be a chapter you should skip.

Day 6

This was the day I was excited for. This was the big kahuna for me.

I love me some Orry Main. Some southern hospitality and some romance of chivalrous days gone by.

I also in all seriousness, am a huge history buff and love all things old. Well most things.

If you have your Mother stuffed because you might miss her too much and keep her like a quilt in the corner of the house and bring her out for Thanksgiving and bingo night....well that's just plain ole creepy.

I think I mentioned this earlier but I was obsessed with the movie "The North and the South," when it came out. Taped it, watched it, read all the books etc. I swore I would marry a black man, named Grady, on the opener of duck hunting here in MN, just to push my Dad over the edge. (For those out here that are novices...Kirstie Alley's plays a white, Northern abolitionist, and she marries a slave named Grady.)

I came from a family where my Dad was openly racist, unless he knew you because knowing you meant you could not just be lump summed into a pot of "others." Not KKK racist, with marches and intent to harm, but enough that comments and derogatory slurs were common in my house growing up.

I am not proud of that and I sure knew I felt and thought different than he did. There was never a big a-ha moment for me in regards to this. Just something I always knew. I also was not quiet about my differing of opinions. I could not fathom why my mother stood by and said nothing, so I would talk.

I also had quite a few punishments that were more than just the typical, get to your room. That did not deter me. It just made me more aware that he was wrong because he could not use his words anymore.

Some people learn to keep the peace and shut their mouth and hide under the radar. I was not one of them.

I was a freedom fighter. I was a peace maker and I was a lobbyist. I said what I thought and spent half my high school life, wondering what the outside world looked like from the advantage point of not being grounded but I refused to sell my soul for a weekend of fun.

I was always respectful. I never swore at him and I never called him names. I just refused to sit by and let him sputter ignorance while my sisters were listening.

If my Mother could not find her voice, I would give them mine.

So with that background, today was a day I had day dreamed about more than the beach and the sun. Today would be a day that my life had the ability to put what was in my head and in my heart, into a visual perspective. Enlighten my sense of sound and touch to the reality that cannot be driven home through paper.

There are just some things that need to be experienced first hand to appreciate. Like exactly what does an actual cotton plant feel like? How hot is the summer sun in a field? What aroma does uncured tobacco have? What does it feel like in your gut when you look upon a grand home and know you are working day and night to help those that live beneath it's eaves prosper, while you will never be able to walk outside the entrance gate without a pass because you are not free?

What must it have felt like in your heart and in your soul to watch your mother, your father or your spouse, be whipped and know you are helpless to stop the agony that runs down their face as equally as the blood down their back?

How much heartache can one person survive through, as they are stripped of the very essential part of human dignity that makes us have the ability to reflect, love and grieve? How does the human psyche move past having the children they have nourished, cherished, adored and nurtured, be ripped from their arms and sold to neighboring towns and states, knowing their shadow, as it lumbers out of sight on the back of a wagon, will be the last memory you will hold onto when sleep cannot come.

How much can you withstand before becoming broken?

Irreparable and simply shattered.

And at the same time, I think of those that owned slaves. I know it was a sign of the times and a part of history and I know that pretending cruelty did not exist will not make things go away. I know people who have families who owned slaves. I know that some look at their personal history with the attitude of disbelief and regret.

Others, no different than if their families owned cattle. It was not them, history is in the past and why talk about it?

To me, it is not a matter of taking ownership of mistakes generations long ago have made. It is about acknowledging the past, deciding you want to help make a change for the future and with insight comes understanding of how the other party might feel.

IMO, you cannot simply say a trauma is over and make it so. Just because a catastrophe or hardship ends, does not mean the devastation left behind will not impact things for generations to come.

Like a wildfire in a forest, once the blaze has died down and the embers are fading it takes hundreds of years to ever get a resemblance of what was. And even longer to what might have been.

I used this day's outing as a learning moment and a talking point for my kids. I wan them to form their own opinions of our countries history. I also want those opinions based on fact and the fact is, living in the land of corn and butter in MN, means the history we know and the cultural relationships we have are based on our experiences. Many of them simply due to location, have been cotton candy coated.

We may all live in the USA but this is a big place with diverse history and I don't think someone form the South can understand what -25 below wind chill temperatures actually feel like on their toes at a bus stop at 7:30 a.m. unless they have actually first hand, witnessed it.

How can my children grasp anything but what they have known to their fullest ability, unless I give them opportunities to do so?

This day...day 6...was the day we would go and visit Boone Hall Plantation.

The oldest, working plantation in the U.S. It is not the original house and it's acres have been reduced greatly but it is as real of a teaching moment as you are going to find. It is like actually walking back into history. Like opening up a book and diving head first into the 1800's.

When you first enter the drive of Boone, you are greeted by the open arms of Spanish moss and oaks that were planted in 1743 by Major John Boone. 2 centuries later, they meet overhead and you have to wonder in his mind's eye did he envision this grand drive? To me it is all the more curious because the original owners would have had most of the visitors come to them via the waterway, Wampacheeoone Creek, behind the home as the island it sits on was not connected to the mainland yet. To want this huge tree procession to be planted and not the most utilized route really says something about his insight to the future.

Truly, the sight of this is a heart stopping moment. So much beauty surrounding so much pain. It almost is not fair that your brain has to distinguish and separate those emotions in order to appreciate the wonder of these majestic trees. Almost a mile long, this avenue of Oaks is something not to be missed.

As you drive further, the home opens up in front of you and to know you are really seeing this grand home who has been featured in so many iconic movies, is a little bit of a reality check. This is not some sound stage, this really exists.

Unfortunately, again, the reason it really exists is at the same moment being slapped in your face. To your left, a row of slave quarters and after slavery ended, sharecropping homes, still stand.

A sign of money and prosper in times gone by. A prestige not to be hidden or ashamed up but to flaunt for your distinguished guests and family. These were built from 1790 -1810. 9 remain standing.

We parked our car and went into the ticket house. Originally a church and school house on the grounds. We decided we should do the carriage tour while it was still morning, then the house and last the grounds. It was going to be a hot one and we knew the grounds were the quickest to get through.

We were the first ones to load onto the carriage. Our driver had worked there on the farms for many years. He was beyond knowledgeable and really had a great understanding of the current workings of the plantation as well as the past conditions, size and overwhelming responsibility it had once had at 470 acres.

To our right was one of the oldest buildings on the property. Built in 1853 It is needing major renovation. Originally a Cotton Gin, then made into apartments and a store.

The grounds themselves are just beautiful.

Leah & Carsyn

Back side of the Plantation and where we went when we took a wrong turn leaving to get out!

The carriage ride was almost 30 minutes and really took us through the diverse current working areas and also what used to be.

We saw a ton of birds and even baby alligators. Snakes too.

When the mini series Queen was filmed with Halle Berry, the studios erected this as the mercantile and it still stands on the grounds.

They have some of the most advanced farming techniques now used to still make this a producing plantation. 320 years after it started with pecans and cotton, now the farm produces pumpkins, tomatoes, strawberries and other fruits and vegetables.

Honey Bee Condo's

At one point of the tour, we saw these magnificent homes that butt up to the current plantation acreage.

I know that progress happens and I understand that keeping the original acres was not practical for the new families that owned or inherited the properties. Obviously what you can develop with free labor and what you can cultivate when you actually have to pay a living wage, makes it not one and the same.

But I have to say, I don't know if I could have bought those homes that when you are sitting in your backyard, see the remains of an era gone by. That is the emotional part of me of course. I am well aware that I live in an area that had Dakota Indians on it for generations of time before we ever came to the United States. I live within 20 minutes or so of several reservations where people were forced to live, under others rules.

It just struck me as strange to again, have this juncture of past and present and one, seeming to move on without regard to what literally is a stone's throw away. I thought about the slaves who would have lived in that area, because if they had been field hands, they would not have had the nice quarters by the main house. They would have been in shanty's in the woods near where they worked.

I wondered what those men, women and children would think of as they lie down at night. I highly doubt they could have fathomed a trampoline and old children's yard toys, no longer useful to the owners, just strewn about, not appreciated. Funny how where once people ate who would cherish a used pair of shoes, a day off or extra scraps of meat, now sat million dollar mansions where we throw away more in one day than they may have in a lifetime.

Appreciation is truly a lesson in perspective.

Soon our ride came to an end and it was time to go into the main house.

 

[fairestoneofall]

boone hall is one of my favorite places to visit. i just love everything about it. i'm glad you were able to explore it and really get the time to digest everything about it. of all the plantations here in the charleston area, it is the richest. the others are beautiful, yes. but there is something about boone hall.

 

[Dizneydawn]

boone hall is one of my favorite places to visit. i just love everything about it. i'm glad you were able to explore it and really get the time to digest everything about it. of all the plantations here in the charleston area, it is the richest. the others are beautiful, yes. but there is something about boone hall.

I hope we can make some time in Oct. to go back. I hear the activities then are just amazing!

 

[SoccerDogWithEars]

I remember one day in 4th grade, my mom and her coworker were talking about having Southern pride. On the way home, in the van with my mom, I looked at her and told her I wasn't proud of being Southern. She asked why, a little shocked. I told her I didn't like that we had slaves and that I wish I was Northern instead.

She proceeded to explain to me that being proud of being a Southerner didn't mean I supported slavery. She said that it was a good thing I felt ashamed of that part of the past, but that it didn't mean I couldn't enjoy being a Southern girl, because nowadays it meant something different.

That conversation has stayed with me, obviously. I am proud of being a good ole Southern Belle, who says y'all and serves iced tea (though personally I hate the stuff). But I'm with you Dawn, on the whole slavery issue, and I think you couldn't have said it any better. You have a true gift of words.