Wednesday, February 1, 2012

PASSING TIME WITH OUR COUSINS


 I received a report from downtown Unionville a few nights ago that everything was quiet and peaceful as it normally is these days.  The report came from my cousin Mickey Roberson who is one of the few people still living in the area that was once a thriving farm community.  The picture above shows the four Jones/Roberson male cousins that can claim roots in Unionville.  On the left is Mickey Roberson, next myself followed by Mickey's brother Ernie and my brother Richard.  Richard and I grew up in Unionville and Mickey and Ernie grew up in Shreveport but loved to come to Unionville to visit.  Richard and I moved from Unionville years ago and Mickey and Ernie went on to work in other parts of the country.  Several years ago Mickey decided to move back to Unionville and set down roots there.  I guess you can say that once you experience life in a country community part of it always stays with you.

During the years growing up we enjoyed the times that we spent with each other when the Robersons would come for a visit.  One of the favorite pastime games that we enjoyed was one that we called "counting cars."  We would sit on the front porch of our grandparents house and keep a tally of the makes of the automobiles and trucks that passed by on the main highway in front of their house.  Usually Chevrolet would come in first with Ford following a close second.  This may seem like a simple and silly game to today's society, but remember in those days there was usually no television.  Even if there was a television in the home, you could only pick up one or two channels with limited program selection and a snowy picture.  Also, there were noWii, PSP, Xbox, PS3 video games or Iphones in those days to occupy our time so we had to come up with our own entertainment.  Some advantages that we had over today is that there were very few foreign cars and it was easy to distinguish between the makes of cars.  Can anyone else remember that ways that we passed time and entertained ourselves before the electronic age?

Monday, January 16, 2012

EVEN MORE SNOW PICTURES



SNOW ICE CREAM - HMM HMM!

I received an e-mail from my cousin Lauren Young telling me how my mention of snow ice cream brought to memory how her family, who lived in Dubach, also made snow ice cream when she was young.  This caused me to think more about Mother's snow ice cream and how delicious it was.  I do not know the exact ingredients she used, but I would imagine it would include snow, milk, vanilla, sugar and pet milk or possibly sweetened condensed milk.  I do know that it was the most delicious ice cream that has ever existed.  Mother would always make more than enough for us so that when we had eaten our fill there was always some left over.  She would pour the melted ice cream in metal ice trays and put them in the freezer for another time.  When the ice cream was refrozen the consistency was like ice crystals and not creamy as before.  The rich cream had come to the top and each bite was filled with gooey sweetness that would fill each taste bud in our mouths.  It is sad that youngsters today are not able to enjoy this treat because of the fear of pollution.

The top photo is a picture from the front porch of my grandparents house showing me helping my brother down the icy front steps.  The picture to the left is the "super large snowman" that we built during this snowfall.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

MORE SNOW PICTURES


FAMILY FUN IN THE SNOW

Since the forecast is for a warm winter and it looks like no snow in the near future in Shreveport, it seems like a good time to return to the past and remember one of the big snowfalls in Unionville.  These pictures were made in front of my grandparents' house in Unionville during a big snowfall in the early 1950's.  The picture above is my father Garland Jones pulling my brother, sister and myself on a snow sled that he had made of wood.  Many years later during a snow in Shreveport, I built a very similar sled for my children and was able to relive some of my childhood memories with my own family.

Notice the shadow in the lower part of the picture.  That is the shadow of my photobug mother with her ever present Kodak Brownie box camera.  I will forever thank her for the moments in time that she saved for us.  Also, notice behind us on the sled the road sign.  I am not able to read the sign but am sure one of the towns is Dubach which was two miles North on Highway 167. 

In the picture to the left it seems that we had worn my Father out and he is using his old Chevy pickup to pull us around.  After playing outside and becoming very wet and cold Mother would get us inside, get us out of our wet clothes and we would warm one side and then the other in front of the space heaters in my grandparents' house.  Mother would then give us some hot chocolate to warm our insides and hang out our clothes in front of a heater to dry them.  After getting ourselves warmed up and some dry clothes on we would be back outside to enjoy the snow again.