1968- where does time do?

NORMALVILLE, PA, about 1968. It was a rainy day, cause we all look like we got caught in a downpour. I don't remember who took the picture.
Where are we all now? Jack and Betty are in Collierville TN retired, 82 and 77 respectively. Patsy Vaughn New (top right) is in Collierville TN married to JT- 2 children, 0 grands working in a pediatric doctors office and doing genealogy most of the rest of the hours of the day.
Deborah Vaughn Sandridge is married to Art and is in Rome Georgia, 5 children, 6 grand daughters, Relief Society President and Busy.
Mark R. Vaughn (dad's right shoulder)is married to Kathryn Lowe and has 5 children and 1 grandson, lives in Salisbury PA, has his own business in the lumber business (3rd generation).
Jack L. Vaughn Jr (dad'd right knee) is living in Salisbury PA as well, paramedic and EMT working many hours at the hospital ER and ambulance (2 or more companies), 3 children, 5 grands.
David Vaughn the little guy (dad's left knee)in the picture is married to Kathy Birch, home based in Denver, Colorado with 2 children. But he is currently working on location building a silo in New Orleans LA and going home every other weekend.
We don't get together often- smaller grouping is more common, but we have a great love of family.

1956 retro

This is an article that hit the press in 1956. THe baby is Deborah Anne VAughn Sandridge in the purse of Betty JoAnne Rustemeyer Vaughn visiting Aunt Lula Webb In West Virginia.

Momma Bears protect their CUBS!!!

Once upon a time in the now far away state of Pennsylvania, town of Normalville, I was once a teenager. Hard to believe, but true. And I needed cash. So I babysat. One of the families that hired me frequently had 4 kids and she'd come get me and work me hard..........feed the kids, clean up, laundry and stay ALL day while she went to ?town? for groceries or whatever she had to do. So that summer day it ended up being a 10 hour day babysitting the little devils. *****This was the 1960's so the going rate for babysitting was meager compared to today but....on with the story*** SO I get taken home, dropped off and paid my long awaited for, hard worked for, fill up my closet shopping spree cash........and get a jaw dropping $2 which works out to twenty cents per hours!!!!! Teenage meltdown in progress.....mom to the rescue.......MOMMA BEAR Lesson observation #1. Mom calls up Mrs. Nicholson and tells her in no uncertain terms that her daughter is "WORTH MORE TO ME AT HOME THAN THAT" and 'SHE WOULDN'T BE BACK" TO YOUR HOUSE. You won't exploit my momma's kids!!! So there!! So I did babysit again, but not for them- cheapskates!!
Flash ahead to present day, now I am a mom and great lessons learned from my own momma bear, I find myself in a momma bear dilemma. BUT , I have Government Wage and Hour Laws to help me...called them this morning......Oh, I feel the claws on my paws sharpening up........stay tuned for more.......

NEW MUSEUM IN TOWN

The new Collierville Museum had an open house last night. All the town dignitaries were there of course but the most important to me was my mother, Betty JoAnne Rustemeyer Vaughn, daughter of one of the actual ministers at the church when it was a church. Mom told me about all the little details of the building where what was where, this was there, etc. choir loft was here (when there was a choir), the pews were here and they were crescent shaped with an aisle down the center. The program says th

e bells loft has/had an 800# bell-- the largest bell in Shelby county.

Granddaddy Rustemeyer was the Preacher in Collierville from 1937-1944. During that time he lived in the parsonage next to this building but he had services at 4churches-rotating meetings - Pleasants, Kirks, Bethany and Collierville. None of the four congregations were able to support a full time minister so they shared him- like a circuit rider preacher of sort. During this time he was also finishing his Masters Degree @ Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Mom remembers they would take him to and from the bus (he was only home on the weekend for church work and see the family). Granddaddy kept a little (2x3) notebook that survived all these years where he recorded congregation,date,sermon as well as other little books of his weddings and funerals. He was preaching Sunday morning when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor but they wouldn't know about it for some time later. Next Sunday his message was on the attack. Soon after that his plans were laid out to join some of his soldier boys of Bethany, Kirk and Collierville and Join the Army forces as a Chaplain in WWII and serve in Germany.









In 1937 ish when Mom moved to Collierville with the family she was 4-5 ish and remembers the parsonage as HUGE. The Old parsonage is no longer standing but the lot where it was is the SMALL parking lot area......So the old pictures we have added here are of the church in Granddady's day- 1935-40ish , mom playing in the side yard of the church lot and Graddaddy Rusty "Rusty" as Nanee called him and what she has written on the back near his time to go into the Army as Chaplain.

....every 7 years......

Somewhere it is written that every 7 years something happens. Well, we have now proved the theory correct. We have had the fire department @ our house now just a few weeks shy of the 7 year anniversary of the last time.
Here's the story.....let me paint the set-up for you.
Memphis ice storm- not as bad we have had in our bank of experiences. Power stayed on for us to get home from work and have dinner and watch a little TV, had a nice fire in the fire place. The about 10 ish the power goes out. The drill begins of finding the flashlights, then the spare batteries for the flashlights and the candles and JT remembers the kerosene lamps which set off fire detector #1. I have a monster headache and try to go to bed minus my electric blankey but still warm enough. Not quiet enough- you could hear tree limbs cracking and falling outside.
The boys- JT and Jacob decide to go out around town to see what the roads are like and what is open, so near midnight the go outside and before the back out of the driveway the see fire coming from the chimney. OOH, so cancel going out. they come back in and smoke detector #2 goes off which gets me up to see their frantic scramble for water that they pitch into the woodstove causing steam to be everywhere. smoke is filling up living room, which gets my feathers ruffled. I offer to call 911 and am told to not yet it's under control. Fire drill class from grade school comes back to mind--- "leave the fire and call the professionals" before it gets too big.
So on my second offer to call 911, I am told go ahead. 911 boss tells me to get all the people out of the house. I am folding to this authority figure and start determining what to take with me as i abandon the house. They only thing I think to take is my genealogy on jump drive and head outside to our predetermined meeting place. I never even thought about my purse, car keys or medication until it was all over and I came back inside....go figure.
So @ Midnight-ish here comes 3 fire trucks with lights and sirens, 2 police who barricade the street off, fire chief car and firemen and one fire lady with gear and O2 tanks into my house. They check the roof, look up the chimney, check out the attic and find all is well. All clear and after 20 minutes they were gone again to fix their computer problem back at the station house. They had power or generator I guess.
well that's how our night was. Woke up the neighborhood, but everybody and everything is fine. Just to note, we were watched over and protected. Why did the boys want to leave a warm dark house in the middle of an ice storm @ midnight only to discover a chimney fire. ??? Had they not gone out, we would have been unable to act promptly and save the house. And thanks to the fire crew for checking out everything.

Lights and power came back about 3:15 and found us warm and toasty, only mildly inconvenienced.

New Cousin found

I have been doing "in depth" genealogy research for many years now and it is always a special time when new relatives are connected to the tree. Well this past week, one of those few great times happened. Since fall I have had my "tree" on ancestry.com and have been connecting a twig here and a twig there. Well finally connected to a cousin on the Tatum line.
Once upon a time Susie Tatum had a baby sister Jeannette Tatum. Around 1917 their respective families got together and had this picture taken.



Susie is my Great-grandmother. (Her daughter Thelma Bell Rustemeyer- her daughter Betty Rustemeyer Vaughn- her daughter me... ??got it?)

So Jeannette Tatum married Ernest Delk and had one son Ernest. Ernest had a few marriages and children and Jeannette Delk Brighton, named for her grandmother is in contact with me and shared the following pictures in her e-mail today....
I hope to learn more about her and her side of the family and share stories soon.

oh, I am having trouble copying and attaching her pictures......may have to add later. anyway, that's what's new here. Stay warm family.

remember when.........

1964 St. Joseph Missouri--- I seem to remember it this way... we only moved there for us to "pick up" David (he was born in July) and me to get glasses. But I guess a few more things happened there....we only stayed a few months and moved back to Rock Island to the SAME house....deja veux.....




David's sweet little picture as a 3 year old, 1967, Normalville PA. Not many people can say they grew up in Normalville....ask around.....
Oh, by the way, there is a Dollar Tree Store where Bigham's house used to be across from our old house.... That is where we started hunting bottles and going "dumping", we made LOTS of apple cider and homemade vinegar. The barn burned down. A bomb went off, spontaneously. Lots of memories......










The summer of 1991, 3 of us 5 Vaughn kids had sons. This is a picture of them @ Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary, collierville TN. 2001 and they would have been 10.


Had lunch with Mom and Pop today and Dad was checking out the pecan crop as we drove by his best places to pick up nuts...... (check out previous blog about last years' adventure. Well that's all for now.