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09 April 2006 -
Sunday
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Today we awoke around
7:00 am and because our plan was to drive a mere 100 miles today we were glad
for the opportunity to slow down a bit.
We spent time talking with Savannah while she cooked us a nice
breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast.
After eating she pulled out several boxes full of genealogical
information and family photographs.
She agreed with us that the need to organize was quite evident and
absolutely necessary. In an effort to
get her pointed in the right direction Tom went to work on her computer where
he placed links to our website and database as well as downloading our
Moreland family information into her new Family
Tree Maker software program. Both
of us accepted Savannah’s invitation to use her washer and dryer as we had
now been on the road for a week and had run out of things to wear. Eventually all of our clothing was clean,
folded and stowed away in the van.
Shortly before noon we returned to the road and took U.S. Highway 69
out of Tyler heading north for Sherman and the home of our other Texas cousin
Helen Sharp. Little did we know what
awaited us. We arrived in Sherman
around 4:00 pm and as we drove up to Helen’s home we saw a little gray haired
lady standing out in front of her trailer waving to us. After introducing ourselves to Helen and
her son Don we were invited into the house.
We knew that Don was there to check out these two “Yankee Boys” that
his mother had met on the Internet and never seen before. As we sat and talked it was evident that
Helen was delighted we had taken the time from our trip to visit with her. At almost 82 she was a spry wiry woman
with a mind that was a quite nimble and active. After a
Fred, Helen, and Tom short time Don seemed satisfied that we were legitimate and began
to warm up to us, which was a good thing because he is a most likeable fellow
who had the ability to tell good stories that made for some really nice
conversation. Soon Don and Tom were
off looking at the computer while Helen introduced Fred to the many notebooks
in which she maintained her genealogical records. Nothing seemed to escape Helen’s touch. She had placed each page into protective
plastic sleeves. It was quite obvious
that her talent for maintaining paper records made up whatever she lacked in
organizing information electronically. Later Helen treated us
to slices of her apple and cherry-berry pies. Both were greatly appreciated by Tom and Fred, as they hadn’t
tasted a really home baked pie for some time. As we had never heard of a
“cherry-berry” pie before Don eagerly related to us that it was a Sharp
family favorite originally developed by his grandmother. |
According to the story Grandma had planned on baking a cherry pie
for a family gathering so she walked over to the store to purchase the
ingredients. When she returned home she discovered that she had a can each of
cherry and strawberry pie filling.
Not wanting to walk back to the store she mixed them both
together. The pie baked up nicely and
a giggling Grandma served it to the waiting family. As they raved on about the fine job she had done they also
inquired as to why she was laughing hard.
So she related to them what she had put into their cherry pie. From that day on grandma’s “cherry-berry”
pie became a Sharp family favorite that was graciously shared with two
travelers from New Jersey. Soon after Helen’s
son Van arrived. We quickly took to
the youngest of her three sons’ as Van is the offspring who has a taken the
most interest in his mother’s research.
He asked us many question about our trip and what we hoped to
accomplish by it. This led to some
fairly long discourses on our past and future adventures. Soon Don left for
church and promised to call around 7:00 pm so that we could all meet at a
local restaurant for dinner. Upon our arrival at
the restaurant we were introduced to Don’s wife Linda and her sister. In all we were seven. It seemed that everyone except Fred had
decided to order the establishment’s popular burger. In response, Fred
explained that in his historical novel Texas author James Mitchner declared
the State’s favorite meal was chicken fried steak with gravy and as such he
thought it an appropriate dinner for this occasion. It soon arrived accompanied by a glass of iced tea served
unsweetened which can be taken as an indictor that we were no longer in the
South but in the West. We spent
almost two hours at that place eating, talking; and drinking iced tea. It was obvious that this was a family who
loved and appreciated their times together.
Both of us really began to feel their friendship and acceptance. Later that evening
after we had returned to Helen’s home there was more talk and stories.
Van, Don, Linda, Helen, & Tom Eventually Tom moved off into Helen’s office, and the computer to
place links to our website and databases as well as updating her Family Tree
Maker information. The conversation
and good times followed him and soon practically everyone was in that little
room watching his efforts! As our
little gathering finally broke up after 11:00 pm we made plans to have
breakfast with Don, Linda, and Helen at the local IHOP whereupon we crawled
into our sleeping bags with thoughts of another long and fantastic day behind
us. |
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