[by Robert Darnell]
We rented this house at Bermuda Beach and came down last Friday. Jerre, Becky, Natalie, and Bob. We have been beach bumming, shell picking, sun bathing, swimming, and walking.
Sunday, Ron, Sylvia and Licia came. Ron tried his luck at fishing and I think he caught three about the size of your little finger. Sylvia and Licia played in the surf and picked up shells. They had a good time and went home that night.
Monday morning David, Jan, David and Jen dropped in. They stayed until Wednesday. Everybody continued to do all the usual things and had a lot of fun with no sun burn.
Tuesday Annie and David Whitlock came so we had a crowd Tuesday night. We went down to the East End of the island to a little seafood place called Tuffy's to eat supper. It was great and we were right by the ship channel where we could see the ships standing in -- standing out -- and laying to. Everybody ate seafood and had a blast. Jennifer put on a show with her two-year-old syndrome.
That morning all the kids and ladies went to the jungle water slide. It was fun for the kids, but not for Jerre, Jan, and Annie standing around waiting.
David and Bob played nine holes of golf. Also, last Saturday Bob played nine holes and Becky and Nat drove the golf cart.
Yesterday the big excitement was Hurricane Bob and Skylab is falling. Bob rose up out of the gulf suddenly and went on in somewhere in Louisiana. We got no effect from Hurricane Bob. Skylab fell today somewhere off in nowhere and no one was effected.
end
Showing posts with label Alicia Hearen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alicia Hearen. Show all posts
Monday, March 23, 2015
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Christmas Eve Letter to Old Mom
By Robert Darnell [Date unknown]
Thought you might like to hear about our Christmas Eve.
Our next door neighbor, Richard and Doris Malliet went to Louisiana for Christmas. They asked us to watch their house. They left their key with us, also their phone number in La.
When it got dark Christmas Eve we picked up Sylvia and Alicia and drove around for a couple of hours looking at decorations and lights.
Then at eleven o'clock we went to candlelight services at the Church. It was very pretty and impressive. Everybody enjoyed it very much and really got the old Christmas Spirit.
We got home about twelve-thirty and it was pretty nippy. As we drove up we noticed a white van in the Malliet's driveway which hadn't been there before and since they weren't home it looked pretty suspicious.
We called our block patrol captain and he said to call the police. While waiting for them we all sneaked around out in the yard trying to see if anyone was in the house.
Jerre called Doris Malliet in Louisiana to see if anyone should be over there with a white van, and she said, "No," and was mighty worried. But we told her we would take care of it and let her know what was going on.
Then we decided to go to the house on the other side of them and see if they knew about the van. Sure enough they had visitors and someone had parked the van there, knowing that the Malliet's were out of town.
So that cleared everything up and when the cops finally came everybody wished everybody a Merry Christmas and went home.
So that's all there is to it, Old Mom, Hunter, not much of a story but better than nothing.
Happy New Years.
Thought you might like to hear about our Christmas Eve.
Our next door neighbor, Richard and Doris Malliet went to Louisiana for Christmas. They asked us to watch their house. They left their key with us, also their phone number in La.
When it got dark Christmas Eve we picked up Sylvia and Alicia and drove around for a couple of hours looking at decorations and lights.
Then at eleven o'clock we went to candlelight services at the Church. It was very pretty and impressive. Everybody enjoyed it very much and really got the old Christmas Spirit.
We got home about twelve-thirty and it was pretty nippy. As we drove up we noticed a white van in the Malliet's driveway which hadn't been there before and since they weren't home it looked pretty suspicious.
We called our block patrol captain and he said to call the police. While waiting for them we all sneaked around out in the yard trying to see if anyone was in the house.
Jerre called Doris Malliet in Louisiana to see if anyone should be over there with a white van, and she said, "No," and was mighty worried. But we told her we would take care of it and let her know what was going on.
Then we decided to go to the house on the other side of them and see if they knew about the van. Sure enough they had visitors and someone had parked the van there, knowing that the Malliet's were out of town.
So that cleared everything up and when the cops finally came everybody wished everybody a Merry Christmas and went home.
So that's all there is to it, Old Mom, Hunter, not much of a story but better than nothing.
Happy New Years.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Labor Day Weekend
by Robert Darnell [date unknown, but note: When Alicia and Jennifer were four]
For Labor Day Weekend Jerre wanted to get a beach house down at Galveston for all the family and everyone else who wanted to come down. Rob was agreeable as he always is so they leased one at Sea Isle on a canal lot. Beck wanted to be on the beach so we changed it and got one on the beach of Jamaica, which is much better.
Jerre, Beck, Alish, and Rob, and David, Jan, David, and Jennifer went down Friday. One of the first things we noticed was how bad the mosquitoes and ants were, so we started swatting, and spraying, and scratching immediately. We stayed down there four days and pretty soon we were used to them and didn't pay them much more attention.
Jerre cooked for a week, enough food for an army, before we went and we really had a car full going down. All four of us rode in the front seat with the back seat loaded to the roof, and trunk piled full of gear and food.
Our house was right on the beach and had a "mountain with trees on it," right off the front deck. The mountain and trees were not what is commonly thought of when you hear those words, but it was four-year-old Alish's description of a big sand dune with driftwood logs in it. Her description was just right.
Friday night Melanie, Fred, Melanie's brother Hot Sam in Lake Jackson, stayed Friday night. Breakfast in the morning with eggs, bacon sizzling in the pan, toast, jelly; it was out of this world.
Several of Becky's friends came down and spent Saturday night: Nat, Lisa, Amy, Sara, Wendy, Chad, Chuck, Chan, Chilly, Chub, Termite, and Micro. They slept on the floor in sleeping bags, blankets, mattresses, and couches. There was a small hassle about separating the boys and girls by it was mild and no problem.
Sylvia didn't come down until Sunday. It was her first time in the sun and she roasted, fried, broiled, baked and basted until she was well-done.
Also, Sunday, some of Jerre's co-workers, Carla, Bitsy, Chuck, Mike, and Dwayne, came and brought a sail boat, catamaran. Dwayne and Mike took everyone sailing who wanted to go. There was a good wind and a great day for sailing. None of them stayed over night, but left late in the evening.
We stuffed our gut all the time we were there. Beer, chicken salad, potato salad, stew, cookies, cake, baked beans ... beer, hamburgers, condiments, beer, dips and chips, and beer.On Monday Joe and Carla Vick came and brought some shrimp. We boiled them and they were just fantastic. There was plenty of booze, beer, and coffee, and cokes for everyone the whole time.
One afternoon we went crabbing back on some old pier, but only caught one crab. Some people were water-skiing just off the jetty's, so we figured they had the crabs jetting. Beck caught the only one and it was a perfect Blue Crab. We were hoping to get about sixteen of those and have a crab boil, but we didn't. We let the lone one go back in the surf. It went dashing off sideways and gave us the claw on the way out.
David and David went down on the seawall to a fishing pier one night to do some pier fishing. Almost 2:30 in the morning, Jennifer woke Jerre up, who woke Bob up and saw that the Daves were not back yet, so off they went looking for them. They looked up and down the seawall and pier for the Davids and then went back to the house. Naturally they were already there and in bed. That's when thirty-year-old David was wondering when he will be old enough to stay out without his Maw and Paw coming to look for him.
Joe Vick in striking up a conversation with Jennifer asked how old she was. "Four." she said.
"What are you going to be when you're grown up?" asked Joe.
"Five," said Jennifer.
All those interested watched the Oilers' game Sunday and they beat Los Angeles so that made everybody happy. Especially with the kick returner's 95 yard kickoff return for the game winning touchdown.
All in all it was a great four days walking on the beach, laying on the beach, surfing, sailing, eating, drinking, fishing, and loafing. Not a bad way, to spend Labor Day, we all say!
end
For Labor Day Weekend Jerre wanted to get a beach house down at Galveston for all the family and everyone else who wanted to come down. Rob was agreeable as he always is so they leased one at Sea Isle on a canal lot. Beck wanted to be on the beach so we changed it and got one on the beach of Jamaica, which is much better.
Jerre, Beck, Alish, and Rob, and David, Jan, David, and Jennifer went down Friday. One of the first things we noticed was how bad the mosquitoes and ants were, so we started swatting, and spraying, and scratching immediately. We stayed down there four days and pretty soon we were used to them and didn't pay them much more attention.
Jerre cooked for a week, enough food for an army, before we went and we really had a car full going down. All four of us rode in the front seat with the back seat loaded to the roof, and trunk piled full of gear and food.
Our house was right on the beach and had a "mountain with trees on it," right off the front deck. The mountain and trees were not what is commonly thought of when you hear those words, but it was four-year-old Alish's description of a big sand dune with driftwood logs in it. Her description was just right.
Friday night Melanie, Fred, Melanie's brother Hot Sam in Lake Jackson, stayed Friday night. Breakfast in the morning with eggs, bacon sizzling in the pan, toast, jelly; it was out of this world.
Several of Becky's friends came down and spent Saturday night: Nat, Lisa, Amy, Sara, Wendy, Chad, Chuck, Chan, Chilly, Chub, Termite, and Micro. They slept on the floor in sleeping bags, blankets, mattresses, and couches. There was a small hassle about separating the boys and girls by it was mild and no problem.
Sylvia didn't come down until Sunday. It was her first time in the sun and she roasted, fried, broiled, baked and basted until she was well-done.
Also, Sunday, some of Jerre's co-workers, Carla, Bitsy, Chuck, Mike, and Dwayne, came and brought a sail boat, catamaran. Dwayne and Mike took everyone sailing who wanted to go. There was a good wind and a great day for sailing. None of them stayed over night, but left late in the evening.
We stuffed our gut all the time we were there. Beer, chicken salad, potato salad, stew, cookies, cake, baked beans ... beer, hamburgers, condiments, beer, dips and chips, and beer.On Monday Joe and Carla Vick came and brought some shrimp. We boiled them and they were just fantastic. There was plenty of booze, beer, and coffee, and cokes for everyone the whole time.
One afternoon we went crabbing back on some old pier, but only caught one crab. Some people were water-skiing just off the jetty's, so we figured they had the crabs jetting. Beck caught the only one and it was a perfect Blue Crab. We were hoping to get about sixteen of those and have a crab boil, but we didn't. We let the lone one go back in the surf. It went dashing off sideways and gave us the claw on the way out.
David and David went down on the seawall to a fishing pier one night to do some pier fishing. Almost 2:30 in the morning, Jennifer woke Jerre up, who woke Bob up and saw that the Daves were not back yet, so off they went looking for them. They looked up and down the seawall and pier for the Davids and then went back to the house. Naturally they were already there and in bed. That's when thirty-year-old David was wondering when he will be old enough to stay out without his Maw and Paw coming to look for him.
Joe Vick in striking up a conversation with Jennifer asked how old she was. "Four." she said.
"What are you going to be when you're grown up?" asked Joe.
"Five," said Jennifer.
All those interested watched the Oilers' game Sunday and they beat Los Angeles so that made everybody happy. Especially with the kick returner's 95 yard kickoff return for the game winning touchdown.
All in all it was a great four days walking on the beach, laying on the beach, surfing, sailing, eating, drinking, fishing, and loafing. Not a bad way, to spend Labor Day, we all say!
end
Hurricane Alicia and the Aftermath
by Robert Darnell, 8/18/83
It rained and it rained and it rained. Wind blew, it thundered, it lightninged, and it rained and the wind blew.
That was Hurricane Alicia, named after our grand daughter, which came in Wednesday night.
We had been watching and listening to reports of the storm for two days as it lay off the coast of Galveston and tried to make up its mind which way to go.
We have watched them so many times here in Houston and most of them go on off to South Texas or Mexico or go back East to Louisiana.
But this one decided to pop right on in over Galveston and on in to Houston Proper. It was blowing pretty steadily and raining lightly on Wednesday night about bed time. No one was home except Jerre and Robert. Becky had gone to Aggie Fish Camp up at Palestine, for Aggie freshmen.
Robert went for a walk before bed time and it was nice and fresh. Very comfortable. Jerre stayed up till 1 o'clock washing clothes in case the water went off during the hurricane.
During the night it really got to popping. You could hear the limbs snapping and falling. We had a steady rain of pine cones on our roof. Rufus barked at the thunder.
The electricity went off about four and actually we got very little sleep all night.
We got up about six and checked things out. We had a good flashlight and lit some candles. The water pressure was low so we took a shower in case the water went off completely and so we would be clean during the storm.
The wind and rain were really coming on. The trees were bending from one side to the other and looked like they would all snap. The yards and streets were waist deep in tree limbs and branches, and it just kept raining and blowing.
Jerre got out some food warmers with candles and cooking alcohol. She cooked us up a good breakfast of eggs, sausage, rolls, jelly and coffee. We ate out on the patio and watched things blow and fall.
About eight thirty the wind quit blowing and everything got pretty still. We were right in the eye of the hurricane. Robert went outside and took some pictures of the litter.
Then in about an hour the wind started blowing again from the Southwest. The eye had passed on and was headed out toward Katy.
Wade called from Possum Kingdom and said it was bright sunshine, hot and dry and one hundred degrees.
Hope they get some of this rain.
We spent most of the day after it quit raining cleaning up fallen trees and limbs. Many big trees fell in the neighborhood. One huge oak tree two houses down fell on the electric line. It'll probably be several days before we get the lights back on.
It's night now and raining again. We're cooking some meat out on the gas cooker on the patio.
All we got is candles. No TV, no air conditioning, woe is us -- alas -- alas ...
Oh well, tomorrow we'll get it started again.
The Aftermath, by Robert Darnell
"Oh well, tomorrow we'll get it started again."
When I wrote that, little did I know what it's like to clean up after a hurricane.
The electricity was off two days and the weather got sticky hot. It was just too hot to move and no place to go to get cool.
Jerre and Bob both went to work Friday morning. Everything was on at Jerre's office and she worked all day. Nothing was on at Bob's office, so it was mostly shut down.
He went down to the health club to try to get started and it was all shut down until Monday. Bob took an iron out to the repair shop to get it fixed for Becky to use at College Station. On the way he stopped at twelve stores looking for ice to go in the cooler where we have all our food.
He finally found two bags at a small remote corner grocery.
Most of the neighbors were out raking, cutting, and stacking lumber. The whole neighborhood looked and sounded like a lumber camp. Bob worked for a while and got so hot he thought he would bust.
When Jerre got home they decided to go down to Clear Lake to check on the boat and to ride in the car to stay cool.
The Clear Lake, Kemah area was a battleground of trash and rubble. The water had been up in the whole area about eight feet.
The boat made it out okay and was still tethered in its stall with no damage.
That night they went to bed and thought it would cool off, but it just got hotter and stickier. They spent a miserable night and got up exhausted.
All day Saturday they tried to get things going. they washed some clothes at the washeteria to keep cool. They ate at a restaurant to keep cool, they went shopping to keep cool.
Finally, at five o'clock the electricity came back on and they got the air conditioner and refrigerator to running.
They were feeling quite good about things. The house started cooling down. They washed dishes, and ate supper. Becky came home. She had a great time and was in good spirits from the Fish Camp. She was excited about the hurricane damage.
Then at ten o'clock -- POW -- the lights out again; a transformer had blown. Remembering how hot it was the night before they decided not to stay home and found a room over at the Westchase Hilton. Checked in there about mid-night and got a good night's sleep.
Sunday morning about eleven o'clock the electricity came back on and the house started cooling down again.
It rained and it rained and it rained. Wind blew, it thundered, it lightninged, and it rained and the wind blew.
That was Hurricane Alicia, named after our grand daughter, which came in Wednesday night.
We had been watching and listening to reports of the storm for two days as it lay off the coast of Galveston and tried to make up its mind which way to go.
We have watched them so many times here in Houston and most of them go on off to South Texas or Mexico or go back East to Louisiana.
But this one decided to pop right on in over Galveston and on in to Houston Proper. It was blowing pretty steadily and raining lightly on Wednesday night about bed time. No one was home except Jerre and Robert. Becky had gone to Aggie Fish Camp up at Palestine, for Aggie freshmen.
Robert went for a walk before bed time and it was nice and fresh. Very comfortable. Jerre stayed up till 1 o'clock washing clothes in case the water went off during the hurricane.
During the night it really got to popping. You could hear the limbs snapping and falling. We had a steady rain of pine cones on our roof. Rufus barked at the thunder.
The electricity went off about four and actually we got very little sleep all night.
We got up about six and checked things out. We had a good flashlight and lit some candles. The water pressure was low so we took a shower in case the water went off completely and so we would be clean during the storm.
The wind and rain were really coming on. The trees were bending from one side to the other and looked like they would all snap. The yards and streets were waist deep in tree limbs and branches, and it just kept raining and blowing.
Jerre got out some food warmers with candles and cooking alcohol. She cooked us up a good breakfast of eggs, sausage, rolls, jelly and coffee. We ate out on the patio and watched things blow and fall.
About eight thirty the wind quit blowing and everything got pretty still. We were right in the eye of the hurricane. Robert went outside and took some pictures of the litter.
Then in about an hour the wind started blowing again from the Southwest. The eye had passed on and was headed out toward Katy.
Wade called from Possum Kingdom and said it was bright sunshine, hot and dry and one hundred degrees.
Hope they get some of this rain.
We spent most of the day after it quit raining cleaning up fallen trees and limbs. Many big trees fell in the neighborhood. One huge oak tree two houses down fell on the electric line. It'll probably be several days before we get the lights back on.
It's night now and raining again. We're cooking some meat out on the gas cooker on the patio.
All we got is candles. No TV, no air conditioning, woe is us -- alas -- alas ...
Oh well, tomorrow we'll get it started again.
***
The Aftermath, by Robert Darnell
"Oh well, tomorrow we'll get it started again."
When I wrote that, little did I know what it's like to clean up after a hurricane.
The electricity was off two days and the weather got sticky hot. It was just too hot to move and no place to go to get cool.
Jerre and Bob both went to work Friday morning. Everything was on at Jerre's office and she worked all day. Nothing was on at Bob's office, so it was mostly shut down.
He went down to the health club to try to get started and it was all shut down until Monday. Bob took an iron out to the repair shop to get it fixed for Becky to use at College Station. On the way he stopped at twelve stores looking for ice to go in the cooler where we have all our food.
He finally found two bags at a small remote corner grocery.
Most of the neighbors were out raking, cutting, and stacking lumber. The whole neighborhood looked and sounded like a lumber camp. Bob worked for a while and got so hot he thought he would bust.
When Jerre got home they decided to go down to Clear Lake to check on the boat and to ride in the car to stay cool.
The Clear Lake, Kemah area was a battleground of trash and rubble. The water had been up in the whole area about eight feet.
The boat made it out okay and was still tethered in its stall with no damage.
That night they went to bed and thought it would cool off, but it just got hotter and stickier. They spent a miserable night and got up exhausted.
All day Saturday they tried to get things going. they washed some clothes at the washeteria to keep cool. They ate at a restaurant to keep cool, they went shopping to keep cool.
Finally, at five o'clock the electricity came back on and they got the air conditioner and refrigerator to running.
They were feeling quite good about things. The house started cooling down. They washed dishes, and ate supper. Becky came home. She had a great time and was in good spirits from the Fish Camp. She was excited about the hurricane damage.
Then at ten o'clock -- POW -- the lights out again; a transformer had blown. Remembering how hot it was the night before they decided not to stay home and found a room over at the Westchase Hilton. Checked in there about mid-night and got a good night's sleep.
Sunday morning about eleven o'clock the electricity came back on and the house started cooling down again.
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