| 20 | Summer | 00 |
|---|---|---|
| Linda White Box 311 Cheyenne, OK 73628 | NEW EDITORS
| 6-7-00
| Announcements Elder-Watts News | Oops.... | Greetings from Basalt! News from Amarillo | News from Our Tribe |
Joe Elder 813 SW 63 Oklahoma City, OK 73139 |
| Volume 10 | of the family, by the family, for the family | Issue 1 |
NEW EDITORSAs you know, Roy resigned as Editor or the WATTS NEWSLETTER after several years of exceptional volunteer service. I have no idea why they thought I needed the job. If you want to defend yourself for something you had best be at the cousins’ reunion and don’t be late either. Joe has very graciously agreed to put the news in the computer and take a copy to the print shop for copies. Everyone will get a copy the first time and if you want to continue to receive the newsletter, it will cost $2.00 a year. That should pay the copy price and postage. If you have an e-mail address Joe can send it via e-mail for free. So send him your e-mail address and save money. The news needs to come to Joe or me Linda White. If you have any suggestions let us know. We are going to try a column for Announcements, Births, graduations, BIG birthdays, marriages, deaths, divorces etc.Linda White
Joe Elder We appreciate your vote of confidence and will do the best we can. I, Linda promise no more lost news items. Attention associate Editors and anyone who wants to send an article! We will publish the newsletter four times a year. The deadline for your news to reach either Joe or me will be the 1st day of each new season i.e. June 21, September 22, December 21, March 21. The newsletter should be out a week later, give or take a day or so. We won’t send out reminders, so be sure to mark your calendars now. If we don’t have to send out reminders, we can keep the prices lower. Sorry this one is a little late. Linda White 6-7-00BY the time this newsletter is published, I will have had major surgery (June 15), as there is a mass about half the size of a golf ball in my chest. It was found in a chest x-ray that was part of my annual physical, and then a CT scan and referral to a thoracic surgeon followed. I got a second opinion from another surgeon. He was much more thorough and informative than the first one, and seems more imperative that the mass must come out than did the first surgeon. He doesn’t think it’s anything malignant, though. As the mass is nestled in my aortic arch, they can’t do a needle biopsy ---- too dangerous.We are taking Billy to Six Flags Over Georgia this Saturday. Then Cecil and I are going somewhere (don’t know where) overnight to relax and then celebrate my birthday, before facing the real world again. The Lord is helping me deal with stress and uncertainty, so my nerves are OK. Cecil is doing SUPER in his job. He just found out that he ranked THIRD out of nearly 100 salesmen in total sales for May for the Eastern region of his company. He gets a bonus for that. Commission checks FINALLY start arriving this Friday. God is really blessing him in his job. Mine is really busy, as usual. I hope it doesn’t all stack up on me while I’m out! Mom said that she sure enjoyed the cousin’s reunion at Childress and wishes that more people could have come, but knows that sometimes other things are more of a priority. She said that we’re not getting any younger and understands about health problems. She’s glad that Sharon will be with her when they fly to Greenville (Mom’s first scheduled airline flight!!!). She said that her mind isn’t on flying though, just getting there to be with Cecil and me for one week (June 14-21). Otherwise, Mom will be enjoying a big apple crop and quite a few peaches. Also, she will have lots of pecans. She has a plan to keep the squirrels away from them. She got a vinyl remnant to put around the pecan trees and is going to oil that, so the squirrels can’t get up the trees. (I’d like to watch them play slip & slide trying, would’t you?) We’ve all been enjoying the cool weather, both in Altus and in Greenville. Sharon and Mom will be back home about a week before driving to Missouri to spend several days with Jason and Jeremy in early July. It’s a good thing that Sharon took the summer off from Classes, since other things come up. She has another year to finish her BSN Degree. Sharon has spent some of her time painting a few rooms in her house. Someone gave her a waterbed and she got that set up. I guess there’s nothing like company coming to get us to do some things around the house that we’ve been intending to do. I feel absolutely fine no symptoms, so I’m not limited on what I can do (until recovering from surgery, of course). I’ve got some books lined up to read. We also have four 3-week old kittens in our house with moma kitty mellow. They’re at a really cute age, and we’ll have fun with them. Jeannie Hart AnnouncementsWeddings---Kelly Watts to James Wilham June 23, 2000Births----Vanessa Mink Swanson and husband, a boy, Nov 1999 Graduations---Jessie Elder, Masters Degree | Rhett Patterson, Master Degree Retirements---Nancy Patterson from school secretary BIG BIRTHDAYS-- Richie Watts 50th Birthday April 1, 2000 Divorces: Carol and Robin Mink after 29 years. Anniversary: Nancy and Randal Patterson, 30th Anniversary June 4, 2000 Elder-Watts NewsJoe asked me to write about our family for the newsletter. I said I don’t know anything to write about, he informed me that my grandkids had been promoted to the next higher grade. That was something to write about. I thought surely they were promoted. After all they were my grandkids.Last summer Lloyd took Vicki and Christi on that big semi when he hauled merchandise across country to wherever it was needed. He has started that again this summer. Christi called me a few days back from New York. Those young ladies are well traveled. One or maybe both have been in all the states west of the Mississippi. John took a course at Metro Tech at the airport this past school year in some phase of aeronautics. He would see Richie occasionally. John was one of a few students selected to attend a conference in Florida not long ago and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He even swam in the Atlantic Ocean. John is now an Eagle Scout. He is working at a scout camp in southern Oklahoma where he worked last summer. Rachel took horseback riding lessons at the Camp Fire Girls Camp northeast of Oklahoma City, two Saturday a month during the school year. It ending with a Showdeo in mid May with each girl putting the horses through their paces beginning with the least experienced girls progressing to the more experienced girls guiding the horses through more difficult routine. Some horses minded the rider fairly well other horses weren’t sure they wanted to do what their rider demanded. Ben is at Idalou has done well in Beginning Band. He plays Basketball and really enjoys swimming. Katie sings and sings and sings!!! The Idalou Choir and the trio Katie sings with took top honor at state competion. Jessie received her Masters degree at OU this spring. I had not been to a ship crew reunion since Warren died. The second ship he was on (Landing Ship Medium) had their final reunion at Vero Beach Florida this spring. There are not many men left only 5 able to attend. I decided to go so I asked Joe’s mother-in-law to go with me. She enjoys people, and never meets a stranger. Joe made plane reservations and we will be forever grateful to him for ordering wheelchairs for both of us. The numbers on our tickets made sense to the wheelchair pushers at the HUGE Atlanta airport where we changed planes. We were at the beach a couple times during the reunion. We ate at the seaside restaurants, visited gift shops but did not swim in the ocean.
OOPS OOPS OOPS ! ! !It has escape to places unknown --- the news that is!!!, except Jeannie’s news which was still in the typewriter. Don’t ask, I don’t know. All that was left to finish was the news from our tribe and update some addresses for Joe. The good Lord hasn’t revealed were it is (and I’ve turned everything inside out the house, the car and at work!!)’ so I’ll wing-it. Nancy said it was for a reason, I said because I needed the typing practice & she said more probably the memory exercise!! She must think I’m getting old!!! She’s not that far behind!! Virginia & Monta, I ask your forgiveness.Linda From Virginia from memory Everyone’s doing okay. TJ is about the same. The spring in Idaho has been much colder than usual so the yards and garden are getting a slow start. We appreciate all the hard work Bill & Mary do in getting the cousins’ reunion together. They did a good job. Heard through the grapevine that attendance was down this year, but those there had a good time. Roger is flying to Germany this month but will be in Chicago next month to work on the United Way Campaign for the airline industry as he did last year, which was very successful. Barbara and Dennis are putting siding on their house and it looks like a professional job. They plan to put in new windows and doors next. Shannon & Kenneth are busy as usual. Little TJ is growing so fast; he won’t be a little boy for much longer. They grow so very fast. Shannon & Kenneth have some building projects going this summer as well. Dale & Frances and Bill & Mary have planned a trip up this way this summer but plans are on hold until Dale has more tests run. He had an abnormal EKG. Enclosed is a book of stamps to help with the postage of the newsletter. Virginia Patterson News from Pete’s family via phone: Pete has been having lots of knee problems and will have surgery, microscopic, June 28 to remove a couple of floaties and whatever else might be in there. He would have liked to attend the cousins’ reunion but said he wouldn’t have been very pleasant to visit with his knee in lots of pain. Kelly is getting married Friday, June 23rd to James Wilham; I think that’s right, at Pottsboro, Tex. Pete said they were all going. Carol, is now a Grandma. Vanessa and husband had a little boy in November. They live in Duncan, Okla. Laura has finished her internship as an architectural engineer in Dallas. Jennifer is getting ready to start P.A. schooling Austin, Tx. Carol is looking for a teaching job. She and Robin have divorced after 29 years. Greetings from Basalt!We are now the new managers at the Aspenwood Lodge in Basalt, Colorado. Basalt is a cute town about 20 miles away from Aspen. We were able to spend some time with Gailia and family in early spring. Justyn, their oldest son, just graduated from high school. Karen has had some major headache problems this year. They seem to be somewhat under control now, but not fully cured. Bruce and family are doing well. Kay, their oldest, is schooling to go into law enforcement. Curtis is working on getting his motorcycle license to ride to and from school. Which speaking of driving, Heather will be 15 at the end of July. Then 9 months after that, comes our parents two most dreaded words, DRIVERS LICENSE, and our four most loved words PEDAL TO THE METAL! We enjoy writing stories together. Meagan writes the stories and Heather illustrates them. We are also going to a 5 day summer camp, we are a little nervous, but very excited. This summer we are going to try to go biking, rafting, tubing, gondola riding and of course swimming. Anyway, we are on a new venture. Heather and Meagan Daniels News from AmarilloMonta has been having lots of back pain. Having MRI to find out exactly the cause. Thinks it is the same area where she had surgery in 1971. When she finds out the problem she has to go back to the heart doc to get his ok to do the surgery to correct the problem. She says when that gets fixed she should be almost like new. She has tried a couple of times to get a garage sale together but rain or threat of rain has discouraged her. Says it doesn’t take a lot to discourage her these days.Seems as if all the stray cats in the area find their way to their house. They thought the last one was a little boy till his tummy got so large, now they are hunting new homes for the new litter. They get them fixed so they won’t have these problems but weren’t quick enough this time. Marm had a slight heart attack a few weeks ago but is improved now. Stayed in bed a day or two; Monta had to stay there with him as he thinks he is her shadow, till he was feeling better. Gretchen is improving from a back injury she got flying out of the bed. She missed her landing pad. Monta says Virginia decided that the older kids got all the good stuff from Grandma, as they didn’t have neonatal care back then to help replenish the deleted supply nutrients in her body. That explains all the problems the younger ones are having these days. Has nothing to do with age. I want to know what causes all the aches and pains if you happen to be the oldest? Monta Holderman News from Our TribeEveryone in our family is doing fine as far as I know. Richie is still a schoolboy. Should finish in mid August and is looking forward to finishing. Judy says she is past ready for him to finished. Cameron and Richie are expecting their 3rd child in late July. Cameron doesn’t know how she will take care of 3 because it takes all her time with the 2 she has now. Candy and Derek are doing fine.Some of us surprised Richie with a 50th birthday get together the 1st of April. Randal is next in line. Think everyone is looking forward to that as he always deals everyone misery, always in fun. Nancy retired from being the school secretary. Her last day was May 31st. She and Randal celebrated her retirement, Rhett finishing his Master degree and their anniversary with a four day trip with no destination in mind. Just go wherever their finder landed on the map. Said they had a real good time. Nancy is traveling to Tulsa to help a cousin on the other side of our family get ready for a sale for our great aunt as she has sold her home and moved to a retirement apartment. She turned 88 in April and decided she could no longer care for her yard and garden. Jerry says all they are doing is work, but when I talked to him last they were practicing to be grandparents; they were keeping Teresa’ 8 week old niece overnight. Wonder is they passed? And no, they aren’t expecting any grandkids. Evan has been to church camp this summer and is running, lifting weights and swimming getting ready for football season. The better shape you are in the better your chances are for the team. Chandler is living with a friend in Carter, Ok and working in Elk City. Haven’t talked to Amy in a while but she was doing pretty well last time we visited. She is living in Hereford, Texas and was job hunting at last report. Randy lives in Wheeler and is Assistant Manager at the grocery store there. He’s worked there since he was in high school. Saw him in mid May and he was doing good. Nancy reports that Heather is doing pretty well these days. She attended a Greek wedding a couple of weeks ago with friends had no idea what was being said, as it was Greek. She did find out that she really didn’t care for stuffed grape leaves. All of our kids are doing okay. Curt and I went to Tulsa in early April to see Steph, Herb and Connor. We really enjoyed it. We got to take Connor to the zoo. Steph and Connor came out the weekend of the cousins’ reunion. She and I were to meet Curt, Connor and Tess in Shamrock and to on to Childress. They weren’t there so I assumed they went on, as we were about 45 minutes behind them. We got to Childress and they were no where to be found. It really upset Steph as she could imagine all kinds of things going wrong so we drove almost back to Shamrock before we met them. They had waited on us and finally decided to go on. I learned to never assume, check to see if they had been at the meeting place before going on. We were late but enjoyed the time we were there. We appreciate all the hard work Bill and Mary do for the reunion. It is no easy task to be in charge of getting the food prepared and not knowing how many will be there. About 50 attended this year. Donna, Curt's daughter, has remarried and will move to Tampa, Florida. Her husband is a pilot in the Air Force. The kids will live with their Dad and stepmom and go to school. Curt and I are happy with the arrangement as the kids will be closer and we know they will be will cared for. Dona will come home when Sammy is on long training missions. Tess is still working at the prison and also bowling on a summer league with a couple of co-workers. Curt and I went to his Alumni this spring. Was the first time he had been. He enjoyed it but said he could go to Wal-Mart and see fewer strangers. Father’s Day weekend we went to Ben and Janna’s garage sale in the rain on Saturday and went to Oklahoma City National Memorial that night. It is very nice. Well worth the time spent to see it, especially after dark. Sunday we went to the ballpark to watch the Redhawks play ball. A boy from Hammon was playing on the opposing team. Didn’t stay for the last game as we had the truck full of supplies gotten at Sam’s for our church. Ben, Janna and Genna are doing fine. We’ve been enjoying all the rain but is beginning to feel like the monsoon season. Yard beginning to look like a jungle, too wet to mow. We’ll take what we get though. Till next time, take good care and God Bless. Linda White |
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