Singing: “Jesus loves me, this I know.”

For several weeks, many Americans have been thinking about the Fourth of July weekend because the numerous patriotic advertisements on television and the various types of media. Other Americans have been anticipating camping, going to parks, picnic’s, concerts, fireworks displays, dinners, and parades. Others of us are thinking how grateful we as are that we live in America, and that our ancestors migrated to this continent. Especially me - I am so thankful that my grandparents came by ships from England and Austria.

Many fun activities happened around Eads last week. Indeed, there were picnics, and some were in the harvest fields. Some families spent time at the lakes and Jackson’s Pond near Eads. This is the first time for many yes that we haven’t had spectacular fireworks at the fairgrounds and the Haswell School yard. However, there was a need for certified personnel to shoot off fireworks and, as I told some of my young friends, there is such a prairie fire hazard this year.

Monday morning, I was so delighted to see the eight bright watermelon pink roses that Jackie Koehler brought to me. Through the years she has planted 49 roses’ bushes around her home. She and her late husband, Bill, enjoyed shopping for them. No wonder Jackie is known as the “rose lady.”

Monday morning, Bill and Linda Trosper came to hang up the patriotic display for the month of July for us to enjoy. She needed Bill’s help with the pretty red, white, and blue flag motif stuffed rooster and hen cushions that he lifted to the high shelf. He helped Linda to position the United States Flag just right. We learned that he was an officer in the Marines before moving from Oklahoma to Eads to be a wheat farmer. We are surely glad he did move here! Then Linda took down the pretty embroidered dish towels from the June display, she reminded me that they were done by Wayne Glover’s mother years ago. Alice has them in her treasure box. Most young girls learned how to embroider. That was part of our culture in those days. They updated us on their son, Ryan, and family, who live on a mountainside near Ruidoso, New Mexico. Their home wasn’t burned, but so many other people’s homes were destroyed. The college that he is the president of is safe from the fire but, Monday morning, we saw photos on national news that there was a flood in their city! That is rather nerve wracking for those parents!

The fire west of Beulah has been growing larger and wider. It started after a lightning strike, as did the fire near Chivington in Kowa County last month. This reinforces the reason for “no fireworks” in Eads.

My friend, Robin Musgrave, brought me a pretty red and white shopping bag that Mandy Adamson sent to me. She has been a wonderful Manager or Director (I’m not sure of her title) of Eads Consumer Supply. I am so proud of her. The recent CO-OP dinner was one of the first, or only, annual dinner meeting I have missed. It was a catered dinner this year. I have heard that people were pleased with the gifts they won in the drawing.

We had an interesting Chamber of Commerce meeting last week at JJ’s Restaurant. The place was packed with many locals and travelers. We were glad to see Mark Kelley there from Nebraska. Liz Hulteen drove me around some of our town and out to my brother, Dwight’s, place, where saw that CO-OP’s Home Town Gas and Grill still had lots of customers, as well as people filling up their gasoline tanks.

When we drove by the north side of the Eads golf course, we astonished to see how packed the pretty pine trees were with Russian thistles. But then with these winds, it is not surprising. Our next thought was, “what a fire hazard.”

We have heard that many or most all the different age groups of summer baseball teams from Eads have won their championship titles this summer. I wish I could tell you more, but I do know that several of my young great great nieces were quite excited by their summer baseball experiences.

We were so surprised and happy to see my former neighbors, Barb Seay and her son, Mike Arth, who came to see us from Colorado Springs. Barb was just as pretty as ever, and it was so good to see Mike, who was such a blessing in fixing things at my home. Barb had called many pharmacies in the Springs, and they were all out of a particular medicine but when she called our local Kiowa Pharmacy, Cameron Crow told her “yes, come on down.” She was eager to visit her friend, Shoni McKnight, also.

Later that afternoon we had another charming and pretty visitor, Tracey Weeks, from Kit Carson. She is a bubbly “Mary Kay Lady,” who had a basket of cosmetic goodies of which she gave each lady resident a choice. I was astonished to hear the price of some of the items when, the lady inquired, “how much does it cost, can I pay?” Tracey said, “oh no, it is a gift.”