Exclusive! Elvis...

And now for another blog exclusive (it's a week of new blog characters) Elvis is now in the older you will get house courtesy of cousin Mary Ann who owns this unpublished photo.  She has quite a story to go with it. 

Mary Ann remembers this as happening in the year 1958. Possible as a quick check of history shows Elvis in the Army (He was inducted at Camp Chaffee Arkansas, my Dad discharged from that camp 1946) starting in March of that year with a couple of leave trips home that summer. I bet Elvis got lots of leave. 

Mary Ann worked for the FBI in Memphis. Elvis got a death threat letter. Bet he got lots of those to go with lots of love letters. Two FBI agents were sent to Graceland to investigate. From their reports Elvis was humble and welcoming. He posed for this photo. The agents returned to the office and knowing that Mary Ann was a huge Elvis fan they developed the photo. If you look close between Elvis's legs you can see an autograph. It's faked by one of the agents who wished to pull a fast one on my star struck cousin. Speaking of cousins the guy in the background is Elvis's cousin. I don't know his name. 

Here's cousin Mary Ann on her recent visit to my Mom's house. She has a camera but it's only to make photos of the relatives.  No Elvis appearance on this evening. 

As for exclusive unexpected appearances I guess you have heard of that FBI computer software that looks around out there on the internet to see who is talking about them. The already know I wrote this. They know you read it. Heck for all I know Mary Ann may still work for the FBI. Elvis might still be somewhere getting his photo made. As big as this blog is I would not be surprised by death threats.  

Hope you liked the photo. Guess I'll go to bed. It's all starting to look too connected. 

He's Up, He's Looking Around...

In a grainy cell phone picture sent by Cathy who is still with Rose, Juan and kids Warren says:

" Who's this Pop-Pop guy I have heard so much about?" 

"By the way, where's my fishing pole?"

Warren Says...

"looks like things might get busy around here, I better take a nap."

Mom and son resting, doing well.

He's Here...

 Meet new blog character Warren Xavier Ramirez. 
Born about 930 or so this morning he weights 8lb 9oz. 


















The hair check. Cathy wants a black haired grandchild, too soon to tell but looks like Juan's buzz cut.



















Big sister gets a look. She's not the baby
 now. 

Waiting for Warren...

 We are at the hospital in Houston. Rose's water broke at 1030pm. We drove down to get ready for the birth of grandson Warren. C section scheduled at 9am.



















Juan is working on the blood in one eye poo in the other look. Whoops doc here, keep you posted.

Thanksgiving...

 Sunlit fall colors mark a fine Thanksgiving weekend for our gang. We had some great fun at our house on Friday as we were joined by the Zamoras  Suzi and Charlie, a pleasant surprise drop in by cousin Dave and most of the usual suspects for the celebration. Saturday night was another gathering at the Zamora house for more food and fun. 

Of course there was music. Coraline watches close as Mary the no pants guitarist serenades the group with the blessings of her mom who is wishing she did not have on pants either. 








   Morgan brought grand dog Curly. Him and Miguel look on as Coraline does the training necessary to get Curly ready for duck season duty. 

Ali, Cathy and Mary set a brisk tempo of food prep. That's the only way to explain why a metronome is sitting on the kitchen table. Maybe it has some to do with appropriate number of beats to rub or roll all foods in bacon. 

I Ate So Much....

 ...on Thanksgiving My Pants Won't Stay Up!

Happy Anniversary to Rose and Juan...

Happy wedding Anniversary to Rose and Juan. They have been married 9 years. Here they are with daughter Coraline who got them a small possum for a present. 

Stay tuned their second child is due on Dec 3rd. The blog will be busy.     

Another History Lesson...

 Time for another older you will get history lesson. We made a recent visit to the LBJ Ranch. LBJ liked to get visitors (he's dead so I did not have to do this) to write their name in wet concrete. There are a bunch of names and I did not take pictures of them all but I liked names here written by the astronauts. You can make out Shepard, Schirra, Sladyon, Glenn and Grisson pretty easy. A photo with this exhibit shows Johnson's big Texas ass towering over the tiny space jockeys as they wrote.

JFK we hardly knew you. Rest in peace.

The ranch house itself. U.S. Parks service offers a nice tour of the down stairs with the upstairs open soon. Very impressive but no inside photos allowed. Photos show that much of LBJs business was conducted under this 400 year old tree. A photo history shows everything from Texas sized BBQs for foreign heads of states to strategic planning with McNamara, Westmoreland and other cabinet and joint chiefs of staff members all sitting in 1960s webbed lawn furniture   

Now I have sat here also. No big plans made by me. I'm  just thankful for what we have now and how hard all these famous men tried to do the right things. Hope I can do my best also. 

More Signs...

 Not like end of the world signs or anything like that even though some expected those after the recent elections and some still expect something next month which would highly surprise me but not in an unpleasant way but these are simply signs I saw and photographed. 

This first one. Nothing makes me mad like a chain link fence. Hurt feelings or embarrassed to be kept out, a long sweaty walk around or torn trousers climbing over they are good for nothing except the neighbors dog. Somehow this sign makes me think a monkey was involved. 

A longhorn has been dangerous to me before and that's enough said about that.

 For crying out loud what kind of place is this? "Oh sorry officer, I did not know you couldn't fish for trots here." 

Always Do What the Girls Want...

Here is another old photo that belonged to my Dad. That;s not my Dad. I don't know who it is. Maybe some family members will see this and comment. 

On the back of the picture is written:
"A girl was over the other Sunday and wanted a picture of me and my horse so here is the results (signed) K.

Long years have pasted since this was taken. No one knows who K is. The horse is a pile of bones. The shadow girl is a mystery. Somewhere there is a box with a lot of pictures of horses she took. Hope her loved ones, family, who ever knows why.   

Obama Took My Gun...

 Oh, wait a minute, every one is going to take a gun from a two year old.

I can still squirrel hunt if I want to and the season is open. 

But Mom...

 "...Dad has arrested me three times today already!"

The Back Porch Band at The VFW...

 This is the they went that away boys photo.











Mudbelly, Earl and Mary on bass drums and electric guitar. That shirt I am wearing is my latest thrift store western shirt find. I bought other shirts on my recent pilgrimage to the super Austin thrift stores but I'll have to wear those in another band. 










The VFW people were happy with our gig. They said it "drew well." Thanks to all who came out and supported live music. Here you see band member Grif doing it "gangnam style" with audience members.     

Some More of Dad's WW2 Photos...

In honor of Veteran's day I publish some more of my Dad's WW2 photos. As you may have read we really have little to go on about his military service. I know he had a combat infantry badge but ended his service before discharge in the 398th MP Battalion. In this photo that's my Dad on the right. 








This looks to be his handwriting on the back of the photo. 





Some of the mementos in his collection are post cards of famous places in France. Interesting to a vintage postcard collector but I prefer these that seem to be his own personal photos. This is one of the Arch de Triomphe. The Arc is where France's unknown soldier lies. Dating from the 1830s various Armies including the\ German's first time in 1871 and the Allies in 1944 and 45 have had their victory parades through the Arc. After the interment of the unknown all parades split and flow around the Arc out of respect for the dead. 

I cropped the photo to show the unknown couple a little closer.  Apparently U.S. personal  in uniform on a cold winter day they stroll through ages of history.      

Lake Nac Fishing...

For all you guys that did not go fishing with us today no loss. We caught nothing. It was a beatiful day on the lake and now I do have a better sun tan.