I'm Tired of it . . .

Yes, I am tired of it. What is it? Being sick. My sinuses have been running for two plus weeks. I have had a cold gotten over it and yet its effects linger on. Now Judie has it. Steady drainage down the back of my throat. This after getting my Flu shot. I know that the Flu virus is not the cause but sure seems so.

Nothing taste good any more, in fact it all tastes the same. Bland, bland, bland. Tried burning it out with alcohol, no joy. Tried buring it out with hot salsa, but that didn't taste so good and did not do the job either. Tried going to bed early for a good long rest, just resulted in an early wake up.

It all started at Aunt Bobbe's funeral, it has continued through Tattie's funeral. It is time for this to quit. Yes, I go on my medicinal walks, got to keep the heart rate up and a little conditioning going. But my butt is still dragging around, with a blocked ear this AM. Good thing I have the Sierra Hotel nose spray, it works but I must use it limitedly as it is an antihistamine and that stuff raises one blood pressure.

Only thing still tasting correctly is coffee and Diet Coke. The coffee is doctored up with Cremora and synthetic sweetners. The Diet Coke is the same, synthetic sweetners plus no caffeine (though that does not seem to matter, the coffee is full of it).

Maybe this is adverse stock market mental problem? The stock market is through the floor and not gonna go up anytime soon. Sold some losers and bought some interest type stuff but just riding it out. Most advisers seem to say, ride it out. I am selling only to balance losers with winners that I got rid of so I do not have to pay excess capital gains taxes. Good thing we had a lot of stuff in GNMAs and munis, so we have not been hit as hard as others. But we been hit. No to worry, we do not have to rely on income from investments, our retirements are adequate. And we have lots of cash reserves, so . . . May that is not it after all.

Saw where the Saints won in Wimbley. Beat the San Diego Chargers which is a good team. And Dallas won by the skin of their teeth - they did play good defense. LSU did not play good defense, in fact they played "no fense" at all. To top that off the crappy offensive coordinator set up the same score for the opposing team that he had done before for other teams. Some game plan - written by stupid and executed by the naive. Well may be next year. LSU gave away two scores, had they not done that and I blame the offensive coordinator, they could have tied the game. But no, stupid prevailed.

Until next week . . . .

Crawling Back . . .

Yeah, just that crawling back to life. The lingering cold, sinus infection, or allergy reaction turned into a full scale attack by Friday and Saturday was the worst. Saturday I got up, put on a long sleeve turtle neck, long jeans and crawled into a recliner for the day.

I listened to the TV - that's right I did not watch, dosed on and off, finally took a couple of aspirins and that broke my fever. Skipped breakfast and finally ate some chicken soup (well, a cup of soup out of a packet) for lunch at about 3 PM. Judie prepared her delicious chicken soup with rice for dinner. Another couple of aspirins and . . .

I forced myself to watch the LSU - South Carolina game. It did not look well at the end of the first half. Then LSU's stamina and poise came out in the second half. In the third quarter SC had only 42 yards of offense and by the third quarter had amassed a wopping minus seven yards of offense. They had a good quarterback, good arm and good runner ala Teebow but he was not Teebow. While he had poise in the second quarter, he lost it in the third quarter and got pounded in the fourth quarter.

LSU boxed the quarterback in so he could not run and then preceeded to strip him of the ball on his one run. And then they blitzed him and took him dowm for several sacks and big losses. Since SC could not run the ball, then LSU went into zone defense, and sure enough, the SC quarterback threw the interception with four minutes to play. An LSU safety jumped the route and beat the SC guy to the football. For all practical pupposes the game was over and LSU has won again.

And yes, the SC coach threw his headset on the ground and kicked it. That was worth it. He is frustrated but give him time and he will have a powerful team. But then Lou Holtz could not do it either in four years. Me thinks SC needs to return to the AAC where they belong. Even Vandy can beat them.

And yes, after the game I felt better and had a good night's sleep. I even had a aspirin on my bedside just in case I woke and up and needed it. Did not wake up until the alarm went off. And I turned that off, turned over and went back to sleep.

Now I just feel drained. But no fever and I think what ever it was has run its course. Throat is still a little tender but no more drainage. Ate my usual everyday breakfast of Cheerio's and milk. Fixed the coffee and so far am back on course again.

The Road Back . . .

Ah, the road back. We chose to drive up LA 1 through Marksville with intentions of visiting the casino. But we got there far to early to eat and neither one of us wished to play the slots, so we pressed on.

As we turned the corner by the Exxon/McDonald's in New Roads, we saw that the price of gas was $3.49 and 9/10s per gallon. That is expensive compared to other local prices. Further back near the little casino in New Roads, the price of the same brand of fuel was $3.19 and 9/10s per gallon. We did not buy gas in New Roads but pressed on the Marksville.

Since we decided to press on from Marksville, I bought four gallons of gas with the intention of refueling in Natchotoches. As we progressed on up LA 1 we noted gasoline was well under three dollars a gallon. In Fifth Ward, the price was 2.89 and 9/10s per gallon. But since we had already bought gas sufficient to get to Natchotoches, we did not stop.

An hour later we approached Natchotoches, I saw that we had sufficient fuel to make it to Shreveport and it was too early to eat. So again, we pressed on to Shreveport. And we ate at Windy's and drove over to the Raceway station and bought gas. Raceway gives us a 3% discount, so while the gas price was 2.92 and 9/10s our discount would make the price about $2.84 a gallon. We tanked up. And charged out of there for home.

We hit a hard down pour just east of Canton and plowed through that at record speed. There really was no way to slow down or you would have been plowed under by a semi. The semi's were holding steady at just under 75 MPH. I had to turn on the defrost system to keep the windshield clear to keep the visibility up. So we alternated turning on the defroster and the air conditioning. We successfully got through the down pour. We traversed several showers driving under Dallas on I-20.

We elected to jump off at Hulen Mall area and ate at Lubby's in Fort Worth. It was early about four PM but there were a few of us in the geriactic crowd eating away. As we were leaving it was picking up with more customers who chose to eat at normal hours.

We pulled into Weatherford, visited a bit with our neighbor who had picked up the mail for us. It seems with no surprise to us that nothing had happened in the neighborhood since we were gone.

Another week is well underway. . .

Another has Passed On. . .

Judie's Aunt Tattie died at the age of 87 years. She had been living with her daughter, Pattie, over near Corpus Cristie, Texas. She resided by herself in a small cabin surrounded by her flowers and garden. It sounds as though she was happy.

Like Aunt Bobbe, she to had a bad fall, broke a hip and did not recover from the operation. Yes, like Bobbe, she made it through the ordeal of surgery, but recovery was not to be.

He husband, Ford Gremillion, was the youngest of the four brothers. There was an older brother but he died as youth. That was Fred. The remaining brothers were Wilmark (Bill - Judie's father), Roland, Elson (Snub) and Ford. Ford and Bill, the nickname for Wilmark, moved to New Roads after WW-II to open a branch of Gremillion Brothers Tractor business. Snub stayed on the farm and Roland ran the Gremillion Brothers tractor business in Cotton Port, Louisiana.

Bill and Ford worked hard and well together and built up a business in New Roads. That eventually became just plain "Gremillion's." They had become independent of the Cotton Port operation. The business lasted a bit over 50 years and was sold out. It was either sell out or go broke and no one wanted to go broke.

It is ironic that when my exsister-in-law died, Ford too died. So we were in New Roads to attend two funerals. Betty's funeral was in the morning and Ford's was in the afternoon. Betty's visitation was at the church and we were there to see all the family.

Now, Betty, had remarried - remarried my exbrother-in-law, Nickie Neck. So while at the visitation all Betty's children - who are nieces and nephews of mine and all of Nickie's children - who are all nieces and nephews of mine were in attendance. Father Shaztle, the Catholic Priest came out to see us before the rituals. He approached me and asked, "Which side of the family are you with?" A nice question but loaded me up with great ammunition.

I replied, "Father, see all these young people." And of course, he nodded that he did. "They are all my nieces and nephews."

I got a strange look. So I explained the relationships. He was taken aback a bit but understood.

Later that day at the funeral home, Nilands, we met again. He gave me a strange look clearly recognizing me. I said to him, "Ford Gremillion is my wife's uncle." I am sure at that moment, he must have thought I was related to everybody in New Roads.

I chided him saying his homily must be different, I knew as a Catholic, it could not be all new. He replied, "I got to use some of the words over again." We chuckled together. The Padre in my mind was an outstanding priest, pity the Bishop moved him on to another parish.

So we return Monday to New Roads again to say good bye to Tattie. We drive in Monday, the funeral is Tuesday. And we will shuffle off to Weatherford on Wednesday. Being retired it is only a matter getting the energy up to make the trip.

Judie will get to see her high school buddy, best friend and almost cousin, Cherry. Cherry and Milly are daughters of Tattie from a former marriage so are not blood relatives but treat each other as they are indeed cousins. Does it matter, no. It is still family. Two other children of the marriage, Charlie and Pattie are indeed her cousins as they were Ford's children.

We now we close the book on that generation from Avoyelles, from Cotton Port, from that era of expansion after the great war. Little did Bill and Ford realize but that their family roots were from Pointe Coupee and go back to the 1700s. Their family were early settlers of Avoyelles Parish. And they, the Gremillions, have a rich history in Pointe Coupee Parish. So Bill and Ford were really returning to their roots and did not know it until my mother did all the research to get my wife, Judie, into the DAR. Then it all came out.

What's that someone said, we are all separated by six degrees of freedom. When I re-typed my mothers book on early marriages of Pointe Coupee, I realized that due to sparse populations, many families are indeed interrelated by marriage. So most of all the old families of Pointe Coupee are related to each other. I guess the six degrees is correct.

Perhaps, that's how that greeting endearment found in Louisiana got started. That greeting is "Hello, Cus." Maybe we are truly all cousins.

End of an Era. . . .

Aunt Bobbe's passing is an end of an era in my family. She was the last of her generation and so it now falls to my generation to be the matriarchs and patriarchs. The corner stone today of our family remains Angeles Plantation, or Morrison Farm, Inc.

We, the family, the heirs, are the owners of the corporation, run by a board of relatives. Our inheritance for the most part are shares. There is the infamous Usufructs Agreement regarding the areas on the front of the farm to be used by the various family branches. It all seems for naught now, as we are all settled in here and there across the nation. But then, maybe one our children will wish to make use of the agreement. Perhaps they will even keep it going, who knows.

Some years ago, in the early 1980s when all the original heirs were still living, they had a corporation named the W. C. Morrison Farm, Inc. But they disbanded the corporation to escape double taxation. It returned to a partnership owned by the original four heirs of Walter Christian Morrison, Sr. Those heirs were John, Edna, Walter and Farnham, bothers and sister. They sold I believe one sixth of one eighth of their royalties. The Wilbert well, now abandoned, was in production and thus they could not release the land but they could sell part or all of their royalties. And that's what they did and all of them got a nice chunk of money.

Then nothing happened. Gas exploration stopped. The Morrison's were left high and dry. There were wells to east, to the west and to the south but none on the Morrison holdings. It was released later but for only a short while.

So time past and members of that original group began dieing off. Then in the late 1980s only Aunt Bobbe and Daddy (John) remained alive out of all of the heirs. I became concerned that the place would be left in fractions of ownership like 13/16s etcetera. We needed to reincorporate the plantation but Daddy was loathe to bring up the subject with Aunt Bobbe.

Aunt Bobbe, right or wrong, always wanted to live out on the plantation. That was not to happen, Walter who diligently farmed the place raised his family there while Aunt Bobbe and Uncle Ham resided in Baton Rouge. So Daddy decided incorporation was too tough an issue to raise with Aunt Bobbe. I said I would do it.

So I went to see Aunt Bobbe in Baton Rouge on Clematis Drive. Into the infamous den I went as we all did when visiting with Aunt Bobbe. We chatted about for awhile and I raised the topic of what we should do with the plantation. Aunt Bobbe said, "I don't see why we have not reincorporated the place." I did not press the subject as to why or why not but did say I would talk to Daddy and we could get the place back under an umbrella of a family corporation.

Daddy was both relieved and pleased. We approached Catherine Morrison Townsend to get her husband to draw up the articles of incorporation. Townsend consulted with both Daddy and Aunt Bobbe and in a fairly short time we had a new corporation, now known as Morrison Farm, Inc. There was a hundred shares and each family branch got 25shares.

When Daddy died I inherited 8.33 shares. Herrise did the same but John Jr's children had proportionately different but equal amounts. Some years later, at a family meeting I offered that we should split the stock to 10,000 shares so that we would not end up dealing with an heir that had 2/3's of a share or some outrageous fractional holding. At first it was of concern that it would cost a lot of money to do a split but consultation with "Bubba," Walter's son who was a lawyer too, it was determined that it cost perhaps $50.00 to make the change. So we did so and reissued stock certificates accordingly. Now, I know that my children will split up 833 shares of stock instead of 8.33 shares of stock. It is just easier to do the math.

There remains an ownership problem or potential problem. When the farm was re-incorporated, the minerals were left out. We did not know how much they were worth if anything. The could be worth millions of dollars or nothing of great value at all. History tells us that there probably are significant minerals rights, so those are inherited and owned directly. That will indeed lead to fractional ownership but until developed, the shares of mineral ownership remain a great unknown.

Little things come along, like most recently the cell phone tower was erected on the back of the place. It generates about $600.00 per month rent. That goes into the corporations coffers for later family distribution. A number of years ago, the pipeline paid the family for a 99 year lease for an acre of so of land to construct a pipeline clean out point. And the rail road built a passing track and wished to get a right of way to a few more feet of land across the back of the plantation. This is land that can not be farmed as it is to close to the existing railroad, so it was of no great consequence to the family or farm. We granted the right of way and collected a little bit of money for it. Our neighbors, the Thibauts did not and consequently got nothing out of the deal as the rail road determined it has sufficient right of way to construct the passing track anyway. And they bought borrow pit dirt from us too. That is how the Morrison family has always approached it civic duties.

We said goodbye to Aunt Bobbe last Friday, October 3, 2008, with interment in the St. Mary's Cemetery Mausoleum. The funeral Mass was held in Baton Rouge at St. Aloysius Church, she being a charter member of that congregation. Nice church, nice service and nice final grave side prayers.

As I said, it is the passing of the torch, it is ours now to do with. May be do as well as our ancestors.