Reddick Family Web

Nobility, Humility, Loyalty

Reserved parking

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Early in December the red oak trees finally let go of their foliage, and after some morning rain, the late afternoon sun ducked under the clouds. And the boys took advantage of the moment to drive and ride around Grandma’s garage and driveway.

Boys on riding toys
Jude and Cole race around Grandma’s driveway

Seizing the moment, Jude and Cole turned the driveway into a speedway and filled the neighborhood with energy. Grandpa grabbed his camera and alternated between chasing the boys and shooting pictures. Just before the sun dropped below the trees, Cole calmly claimed a reserved parking spot – in grandma’s garage. It made a perfect ending to a golden moment in late fall.

boy parking car
Cole finds his own parking place

Time warp

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Anachronism at Paso Robles: Horse-drawn carriage at a stop

The timing of our occasional visit to Paso Robles coincided with the date of our 50th wedding anniversary. We stayed in a hotel, visited with Don and Dianne, had one dinner with Roger and Betty, drove by the Riverside Property, and visited with Jaime and Melissa. On one of the days, Katie, Madeline, and Gavin came up and we drove out to Morro Bay. We had a few moments with Ron and Nancy Johnson, who live next door to Don and Dianne.

But one unique thing about the trip that was unique brought a smile to us all. Late in the afternoon we were saying our goodbyes to Don and Dianne when a horse-drawn carriage stops at the sign where Merry Hill Road / Fresno Street intersects with 12th Street. We all smiled and waved … and then reflected on the moment. Most wonderful was that it didn’t even seem that far out of place.

Larger family blesses all

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Piper Paul Dunn plays while family gather: Jim, Doug, Randy, and Carleigh
Piper Paul Dunn plays while family gather: Jim Jr., Doug, Randy, and Carleigh

Once again, we are indebted to friends and to our larger church family for brightening a moment of grief, for lightening the burden of the hour. Thank you Betty and Roger and Carol and Jessica and Kevin and Bob and anyone else who helped to make the funeral happen. Thank you Dianne and Don for your usual, generous hospitality. Thanks to all who came to honor our brother’s memory.

Brother Richard checked out of this life before we arrived for an official farewell. At our request, the Oxborrow family stepped in and reserved the Creston Road chapel, made arrangements for food and music, printed the program, and helped spread the word of Richard’s passing. It greatly lightened the rest of the burden. Thank you, wonderful friends.

We had a nice gathering of family, mixed with friends who are almost family that helped feed awareness that ultimately we are all family.

Broken main equals opportunity

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Jake builds a dam
Jake builds a dam at our driveway to capture water flow from broken main on our street

When do you encourage floodwaters to swamp your property? Ask Jake.

water_deptIt must be the Scottish blood. We’re in one of the most severe and prolonged droughts in West Texas history. So when a broken main at the end of the block turned our street into a pair of respectable rivers, Jake saw  an opportunity.

“Get some buckets,” he shouted. “We can’t let this water go to waste.” We started rounding up buckets, and he got the wagon out of the side yard. We scooped water into buckets and tubs and emptied them onto the lawn and various parts of the yard. That wasn’t efficient enough.

Soon Jake had another idea. He rounded up bricks and sheets of plywood, and anything else he thought would help him – to make a dam. And so there it was, a diversion dam that backed water up at our driveway with the intent of sending it down the sidewalk and into our yard.

Thank goodness that didn’t work. If there were a real flood (in this deseret?), we’d like to have that buffer of elevation between us and the street. So the dam served to give us a pretty healthy pool from which to scoop water into tubs and then transport to the lawn and garden.

Broken water main
Water surges up through break in pavement on 42nd Street

Most patriotic costume

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Baby Monroe
Monroe Grim, 4 Jul 2013

And the prize goes to …

Monroe.

The most patriotic costume prize, that is. It all started Tuesday night with a series of group text messages among the Lubbock clan. Such things as who’s buying what fireworks, when is who gathering to go to the parade? Where are we going to eat?

A few puns were kicked around. Somewhere in the middle of all this fun, somebody had the temerity to ask “Why is everyone up at this hour?” Eventually Jake suggest Ben should silence his phone so he could go to sleep, Jenni said “nighty-night,” and the messages stopped coming. I think the only consensus was that we would have lunch at Grandma’s and anyone who wanted to go swimming could.

All that happened according to schedule, except nobody went swimming. Instead, we sat on the back porch and watch Jake practice his golf swing.

And we talked about the nice job Aiden had done on the lawn and about fireworks and just exactly where the city limits are in which part of town.

Rufus and Abel (Jenni’s dogs) ran around the yard, and generally it was a good start to Independence Day.

Ladies with mud-spattered pants
Heather (right) and Sister Thompson after winning the tug-of-war

It got better. We got a text from Heather. She won a series of first places at the church Independence Day festivities. First in the ladies watermelon eating contest. First place in the bake-off with her chocolate chip cookies. She was second in the three-legged race, and won the MVP award in co-ed tug-of-war. Dressed in white pants and white heels that once belonged to Grandma, she said she just dug those heels right in. Then the other team let go, and Heather and the bishop’s wife landed in the mud.

But the incontrovertible prize for best costume came in a photo sent from northern California. Monroe Grim, the youngest member of the family at 31 days, was all red white and blue … naturally.