My First test
I Believe – My Values
Senior Trip
Every school year, the senior class would take a trip after graduation. Every year, the four classes would take turns selling food and drinks at the basketball games and holding raffles to raise money during the four years of high school.
Our class of six took one of the small buses, a driver and a sponsor and headed to the East coast. The first night we stayed at Rockaway Beach, Missouri which is east of Branson – as of that time there wasn’t anything at Branson. We toured Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and on to Virginia to George Washington’s home and slave cabins. From there, on up to Washington D C. We went to all the memorials and museums in the area, as well as to the U.S. Senator’s chamber while they were in session. We had to sit in the balcony, and could not take our cameras in. As I remember, it looked like mass confusion and sixty-three years later it looks the same. We went out to the tomb of the unknown soldier and watched the changing of the guard, what a sobering site.
From DC we went to New York City, more museums, the Empire State Building which we went to the top and looking down all you could see for blocks were yellow cabs. One evening, we went to Times Square which was very crowded, but what I remember was a guy with no legs sitting on a small platform with small rollers and a small round tub tied to his body, begging for money. He had two small wooden paddles used to push himself around. I never forgot him after all these years, I knew he never gave up on life.
We went to Radio City Music Hall one night and saw the Rockettes dance. They entered the stage from below, up through the middle of the stage floor, dancing all the way. I never knew they made elevators for stages. The other act I remember was a man with a peg leg tap dancing.
Next we went to Niagara Falls, what massive volume of water. The guide said Marilyn Monroe had just made a movie there a few weeks earlier. From there, we drove across Canada to Detroit. I remember Canada being clean and the fence rows didn’t have weeds growing in them. In Detroit, we went to the Ford factory and watched them make glass from sand, it was fascinating. Next, on to Chicago to see the Don McNeal Breakfast Club radio show. At that time it was a popular radio show, and Don announced that the Latham, Kansas Seniors had made it there. When we were there the country act of Homer and Jethro was performing, with one wearing a red suit and the other had on a green suit, needless to say they were a comedy singing act and were good. We left Chicago and headed to Kansas City for our last stop before Latham. We were gone fifteen days — what a memory.
Funeral Service for Aunt Essie (Easter Root Gordon)
Volkswagon Bug!
My Grandmother Elizabeth Barrett Root Sutlief
Memories of my Grandmother
We called her Mama
Very important person in my life
Always there for me
Always looked forward to being in her home
She was a stay at home wife, mother, grandmother
Ultimate homemaker
Man’s best friend
While a toddler in Whitewater, KS I was playing in my back yard. Still going through the process of potty training, I wasn’t exactly sure where I was supposed to go. Numerous times I saw my dog, Bogie (man’s best friend), go #2 outside. I thought that would be an interesting thing to try. So I pooped outside. Little did I know that my mother’s ever watchful eye was upon me, she yelled at me to stop. Man
s best friend quickly took care of the evidence (clean version of him eating it) so that I could come off without getting in trouble. That was a lesson a learned that would do me well for later in life, if their’s no evidence, there’s no crime.
Birth
Yale, Michigan
My Ancestors
My grandfather (my father Earl’s father), Robert Allison Woodall was born in Gladstone, Ill. March 16, 1887. His parents were Robert Allison Woodall, who was born in Yorkshire, England in 1830, and Nancy Francis Schull who was born in Kentucky April 3, 1850. My grandfather went by the name of Bob but I think up until the time he got married he went by the name of Allie. Bob’s father Robert came to America from England in 1860.
Two years before this in 1858 Robert’s mother (name unknown), a sister Mary, a sister Jane, and a brother (name unknown) came to America. Robert’s father stayed in England because it is said he was afraid to cross the ocean. Nancy Francis Schull was the daughter of Phillip Schull. Her family moved from Kentucky in 1860 and settled in Henderson County, Illinois. Robert Allison Woodall and Nancy Francis Schull were married in 1869 at Canton, Ill.
To this union were nine children. Robert died in April, 1899 and Nancy died in 1925 and is buried in Olean, Ill. Robert was a teacher and a farmer but not a very good farmer. Nancy was a quarter Sioux Indian. My uncle Fred (Earls brother) told me he remembers his grandmother (Nancy) coming by train to Kansas for a visit when he was about 6 or 7 years old. She raised so much hell with everyone while there that Bob loaded her up after a few days and sent her home by train. Fred didn’t know why she was on the war path.
My grandfather Bob Woodall came to Conway Springs, Kansas working for farmers during wheat harvest and met his future wife Mary Frances Burnett, daughter of Columbus Burnett and Mahala Pope. Mary was born in Milan, Kansas March 19, 1886 and died at Conway Springs, Kansas on Feb 6, 1960. Bob Woodall was born on March 16, 1887 and died on Feb. 1, 1960 in Conway Springs.
Bob and Mary had four children – Earl Lou Woodall born Oct. 15, 1910 died Oct 21, 1956, Fred born July 15, 1913, Mahalia (May) born Oct. 27, 1920 and Robert Merle born Feb. 21, 1924.
Enjoying the Lake of the Ozarks
In 1993, Jim and I purchased our home on the Lake of the Ozarks. We looked at several areas of the lake, and visited with friends who lived there. We knew we wanted a place close to the water, with a great view. Our location on Prestige Drive offered both of these – a home close to the water and a location at the intersection of the Little Niangua and the Big Niangua branches of the Lake of the Ozarks.
The house needed a lot of work. It had been built as more of a fishing cabin. There was no insulation, no central air conditioning. There was a room air conditioner above the front door (now replaced by a hummingbird stained glass window) that didn’t do a very good job of cooling the house. The small windows below the big picture windows in the living room cranked open, and leaked air so we had to cover them with plastic in the winter.
Over time, we have installed central heat and air, added insulation to the ceiling by adding another roof eight inches above the original roof. We’ve replaced all the carpet, repainted and spruced everything up. Then, around 2010 we added an addition to accommodate all the kids and grandkids.
Jim trimmed the trees out front to improve the view – we now get to regularly see deer, raccoons, all kinds of birds including bald eagles. We added a boat house and extended the carport to include another tool shed.
We have most enjoyed all the family and friends who have come to visit. We have some great memories from this place and we are making more. Tori once told me that when we bought the lake house, we gave them another lifestyle. That’s pretty great.
Enjoying the Grandkids – Living in Augusta
In 1985, Jim and I decided to move to Augusta, Kansas. A newer neighborhood was developing on the north end of town. Jim and I found a newer home there, across the street from a park. It had a big basement for family get-togethers and a back yard perfect for a fish pond.
Jim got busy right away and hand dug the fish pond in the back yard. It was three feet deep. We brought in flat rocks to line the outside of the pond, and stocked it with coy and other attractive fish. We both have a love of wildlife, but I don’t think we enjoyed it as much as the grandkids. It was always the first place they would go when they would visit.
We put a pool table, ping pong table and a foosball table in the basement. I think we hosted our and Donna’s extended families every Thanksgiving for eight years. We have some great memories from that time. We would always have pool, ping pong and foosball tournaments going on in addition to a whole lot of food and some great visiting and conversation. Little Alex and Tori sang one year. It was a great time.
I hope everyone has as great memories of that house and those times as we do.
