After the afternoon program we all assembled at the old home place and since some have asked what the view toward town is like without the old walnut tree, I'm adding this photo. The walnut tree was in the patch of shrubs on the right. The tree in this view is farther away. The walnut was at least 80 years old and perhaps 100. A couple of months after Momma died lightning hit it and killed it. The lightning also knocked out the phones and did some other damage in the house as well as surprising those who were there at the time.

John and Connie have turned the old house into a 'show place.' Termites had done a lot of damage so most of the interior walls and floors had to be torn out and replaced. It is so beautiful! In spite of all the changes it still looks like home to me. The outside is basically unchanged although a metal roof was installed.

I asked them to pose in the northwest corner of the living room which is the same corner we kids were in when our 1959 photograph was made.

Tyler is playing around with his mother who is always in style not matter how casually dressed. The bookshelves in the background were added during the work on the house. Our mother's portrait as a young woman is displayed prominently on an upper shelf. My father built the magazine table in high school shop in the mid-30s.

Briana decided that it wasn't safe to have an open flame in the house so she tried to blow it out. It took so many tries, we finally thought to bring out the cameras. Quincy tried to help, but Aiden finally had to come save the day.

Later in the afternoon we went west to Appleton to spend the night with my sister Brenda and her husband Rex. They live on his family's farm and he raises cattle. He has had a varied career. He taught school a while, was a social services counselor, and then became an expert tile layer and sheet rock worker. Brenda is finishing her career teaching student teachers at Arkansas Technical University. She paid her dues with classroom teaching and being principle and superintendent at various public schools. She also taught early childhood classes at the University of Central Arkansas for a while.