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Life in the Loony Lane

~ Getting through life one chuckle at a time.

Life in the Loony Lane

Category Archives: Events

Set Another Place

17 Friday Feb 2023

Posted by June in Blog, Events, Food, Love, Nostalgia, nostalgia, Places, SAunrise, Senior Citizens, Wyoming

≈ 2 Comments

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dinner, family, friends, guests, tradition

We built our first new home in 1968 at Milford Lake in Kansas.  Some new pieces of furniture were needed and a dining table was the first order of business.  We entertained a lot and wanted a table and chairs big enough to do the job and sturdy enough to last.  We had no idea “sturdy enough to last” would mean until the end.  We bought a maple Tell City set, which was a big deal at the time.

When I started to write this I decided to do a quick check on the company and found a fun bit of trivia.  Jacqueline Kennedy saw some of their chairs at Saks Fifth Avenue in NY City, liked them, and ordered 425 for the ballroom at the White House. Hers were fancy, so different from our Early American-style maple Continue reading →

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Goodbye, Beautiful Fall

29 Saturday Oct 2022

Posted by June in Blog, Events, Nature, nostalgia, Places, Wyoming

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We were gifted with an absolutely gorgeous fall this year – and it didn’t seem to want to go away, which was fine with us.  The pumpkin patches were beautiful, combined with an array of colorful and oddly shaped squash, delicious apples, corn shocks, and fields of bailed hay – always very photogenic.  I am a sucker for old wooden wagons, antique tractors, and hayrides to complete the picture. 

But it is winter now, 14 degrees last night with snow on the ground.  We have everything as ready as it can be for the four feet (or more) of snow that comes our way and keeps us company until July.  Well, maybe not quite that long.

For those of you that love playing in the snow, this may be a good winter for it, if the predictions I’ve read are accurate.  I’ll just take pictures of it.

TELL YOUR FRIENDS – JOG WITH MY BLOG!

© Copyright 2013 Life in the Loony Lane | June Johnston. All Rights Reserved
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It’ll Be Easy, They Said

22 Saturday Oct 2022

Posted by June in Blog, Events, Humor, Places, technology

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Change your cell service, they said.  It’ll be easy, they said.  

I didn’t want to change cell service, but I had no choice.  Old people like me prefer not to change much of anything!  I have a natural aversion to big companies, but I wound up with one!  We all thought everything was just ducky since it was all working.  Then I got an email telling me to get my service changed.

I told them I already had, two weeks ago. Upon checking they determined that my number had not been ported- out, or not ported- out properly – I was never sure which.  So – they did it and that’s when everything became not so easy!

Nothing would work!!  Nothing. 

All kinds of things were going on behind the scenes between three entities and I kept checking with them.  Nothing was getting any better.  More weeks passed with the email messages continuing,  telling me I needed to get it changed. Everyone was trying, but nothing was working.  Two more port-out attempts were made before they said, “You are completely out of our system now.”   Two days later I got another email telling me to git-r-dun.  Sigh. Still – nothing was working.

Continue reading →

Ghosts of Eldo Past

03 Wednesday Feb 2021

Posted by June in events, history, nostalgia, Places, Senior Citizens

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bandstand, carnival, classmates, diner, growing up, high school, home town, Memories, Missouri, Nostalgia, Park, picnic, rock wall, romance, spring water, weddding

I was a skinny 11-year-old girl going from store to store in downtown El Dorado Springs looking for work. Being tall, I could pass for thirteen but they had a way of asking my age first thing, so I had to admit to being only eleven.  I was usually told they’d had kids thirteen years old but never eleven.  No employment was found.  Not even at the drugstore I loved so much with its amazing smells,  paddle fans, ice cream, and comic books.

Later, when I was old enough, I did find employment at the 4-Corner Diner.  Then I could buy the black and white saddle oxfords, can-cans for underneath my dresses, even those hideous hoops that were in style.  How on earth did we manage to sit down!  I seem to remember that they went out of style pretty quickly.

The three-story school building that we attended had concrete steps and I don’t recall ever using a handrail – or even if we had any.  I just zipped up and down them, no problem, and never stumbled.  Now I would have a hard time with them even with a handrail.

Continue reading →

Lloyd Baker, Centenarian Surveyor and Singer

28 Saturday Jul 2018

Posted by June in Blog, Events, History, Humor, Places, Senior Citizens, Wyoming

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Born in Afton, Wyoming in 1911, he was raised on a farm south of Etna and graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1940 with a degree in civil engineering.

With very primitive tools, Lloyd performed his first survey in Cokeville, Wyoming, about 75 miles down the road from Etna, the town he settled in when he “came home.” The loop within those few miles took him from coast to coast working as a surveyor.IMG_9727 Lloyd Baker age 106

Wyoming was calling him home, however, and he returned to Etna in 1974.  After obtaining his license, he established Lloyd B. Baker and Associates which continues to this day, now with  Astech GPS, Traverse PC, and Visual Cadd software.  He told me he could find any point he needs to on his 4-wheeler with tracks, under the four feet of snow we usually get during the winters. Lloyd continued working until past the age of 106.  He said he didn’t see any reason not to!

Baker loved to dance and especially loved to sing.  He entertained at two rest homes in the valley on Sunday evenings. He could still mostly remember fifty songs.  One of those, “A Nest, The West, and You, Dear,” he sang for me, which was a delight. 

Cheyenne Frontier Days was a highlight for him this past summer.  It was the first time he had attended and had the delightful privilege of being photographed with ten beautiful Rodeo Queens! 

Lloyd had always been an advocate of taking care of your body.  He believed our bodies were meant to last a thousand years and if we give it what it needs for nourishment and don’t give it junk that is not nourishing, we’ll be fine.  He relayed to me that he had arthritis once but it was interfering with his work, so he quit drinking milk, starting using real butter instead of margarine (which he feels is plastic) and stopped taking his vitamins.  It wasn’t long before he felt fine.  Lloyd ate a little meat, had a bit of “sweets” after each meal – always carried Peanut M & M’s in his pocket,  consumed no chlorinated or fluoridated water, no bleached flour in anything, and was a believer that proper elimination is a must.  He also used no soap.

Lloyd had five children,  17 grandchildren, over 40 great grandchildren, a couple of great, great,-grandchildren. 

The last time I saw him I asked, “ What are some of the benefits of being a 107?” He quickly replied, “Everyone treats you better.  After 100 you get treated a lot better.”

Lloyd left us on July 9th, 2018.  He’s probably already surveying the heavenly clouds!

TELL YOUR FRIENDS – JOG WITH MY BLOG!

© Copyright 2013 Life in the Loony Lane | June Johnston. All Rights Reserved
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Speaking of Love

08 Thursday Feb 2018

Posted by June in Blog, Events, flowers, Food, Humor, Love, Places, Valentine's Day

≈ 2 Comments

IMG_1319

February is the month when you will find the florist’s shops overflowing with roses.  Floriography was a method used by Victorians to send messages to others without uttering a word – thus the roses became symbolic of love, especially for Valentine’s Day.

There are several other flowers or plants that suggest love as well.  Lovegrass is a very beautiful perennial with ornamental, wispy plumes. Its Greek name is eragrostis:  eros meaning love and agrostis meaning grass.   It’s also used as fodder for livestock. Continue reading →

Fly, Turkey, Fly!

22 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by June in Blog, Events, Food, Humor, Places, Thanksgiving Day, Wyoming

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The first Thanksgiving in this country has many variations including what was for dinner. (Hint: it wasn’t beef.) They had whatever they could get their hands on which included different kinds of birds, deer, and crops they had grown. The cornucopia, also called the horn-of-plenty, is a symbol of those crops.
The origin of the turkey as the preferred bird for the meal is also debatable but the story I like best is that in the 1950’s the Saturday Evening Post ran a Thanksgiving cover (painted by Norman Rockwell) of a family around the dinner table with a scrumptious turkey as the main dish. It caught on like wildfire!
We all strive for the perfect
Continue reading →

Sunday Morning Breakfast

27 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by June in Blog, Events, Food, Places, Restaurants, Wyoming

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Sunday Morning Breakfast.

I love small towns!  It’s just that simple.

We have been blessed to go to breakfast with some very special friends on Sunday mornings at Tootsie’s in Thayne, Wyoming for several years now and I am ever more aware of just what a gift that is.   They are wonderful people.

I also enjoy the camaraderie of the other breakfast guests in the restaurant.  Friends may wave at each other across the room, call out a greeting, or just smile – but it’s special.  Some may stop for a minute Continue reading →

Crazy Woman Creek – The Story of a Heartbroken Woman

20 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by June in Blog, Events, History, Nature, Places, Wyoming

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Twelve miles from Buffalo, Wyoming, you can step back in time and feel the presence of a woman gone mad.  Wyoming has never been an easy place to live – you have to really want to be here, but at the beginning – when this wonderful chunk of real estate was not yet a territory – things were much more difficult. 

There are a number of stories as to how the name Crazy Woman Creek, Crazy Woman Canyon, and Crazy Woman Battlefield, came to be – the name alone conjures up visions of horror

One of the most valid stories seems to be that during the era when whites traded Indians for their furs, a misunderstanding led to some Indians scalping a white man right in front of his bride (also white). Her blood-curdling cry was so horrifying that the Indians were afraid of harming her.

She, no doubt, had the same dream most of us have – a future- with her husband, children, a warm, loving home, only to have it shattered right in front of her eyes.  In a split-second, all of that was taken from her.

She wandered the hills alone the rest of her life, never finding her sanity again.  Often she was sighted and fed by various mountain men, only to disappear once more.  One kindly gentleman built her a cabin and she was eventually found dead there, apparently of starvation, years later. 

If you listen carefully, while winding your way through that hauntingly beautiful canyon, you may hear the maniacal cry of a distraught, heart-broken woman.  The wind gently whispers its sad secrets as the creek ripples through the canyon, leaving history in its droplets. Such tragedy in the shadow of the beautiful Big Horn Mountains is beyond sad.

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The Magic of A Wyoming Morning

30 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by June in Animals, Birds, Blog, Dawn, Events, Nature, Places, Poetry, SAunrise

≈ 1 Comment

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Poetry

 Warmth of the coffee mug clutched tightly in my hands

Contrasts sharply with the chill of the early morning.

Three deer meander through our yard, munching, carefree.

They look my way and go on about their business.

My love joins me.

Together we look across this beloved part of our world Continue reading →

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