Memories of Clellie

Age 80. Not bad, eh?

I'm sitting here this afternoon and remembering our older sister,
Clellie. Here I am with my favorite hat. Recognize it? Jack's golf hat.

The first story I thought of was the hot day, when I was a kid, and I mowed her lawn at the little house in St. Ann, Mo. It was h-o-t. I was thirsty and went into the kitchen for some cold water. When I opened the refrigerator door, I spied the "polio jar". That was the jar of cold water that everyone just drank directly from. I chugged down the whole quart of cold water. Clellie asked if I knew I would get sick by doing that and told me I should only drink cool water that fast. So I filled the bottle with tap water and drank that down. And then jumped up and down. Didn't get sick, either.

Then there was the day Al opened the refrigerator to get a glass of milk. He placed his glass on the open door and reached for the milk jug. After he poured milk into his glass, he put the jug back on the shelf. He must have forgotten the glass on the door, because he back-handed the door to close it. And then he remembered the glass of milk. Too late!

Al salted everything before he tasted anything. One day Clellie bought a Virginia ham. When it was on the dinner table, Al sliced it. Then he proceeded to salt it heavily before tasting the first bite. Clellie made him eat the whole slice!

Clellie loved her Jeep, and she went all over U. City and Clayton. Sides off. Top off. (The Jeep's top.) Everybody knew Clel.

Later Clellie had a Ford and took it into the Ford dealership in Clayton one day for service. When she picked it up, she was wearing her office-job clothes and was wearing her white office gloves. The service people did not bring her car up to the front, and she had to go to the back lot and get it. When she drove it up to the front, she had grease from the steering wheel all over her gloves. As I heard the story, she said in a loud voice, she held her hands out and asked, "DID YOU PUT ANY GREASE UNDER THE CAR?"

Al had a '56 T-Bird and was working on the engine. He sent Clellie to the Ford dealership to borrow a cylinder hone. They normally didn't loan tools, but Clellie never took "No" for an answer. The tool was dirty and greasy and they wrapped it up in a dirty shop towel. When she returned it the next morning, it was clean, wrapped in a clean shop towel and in a shoe box. After that, she could borrow any tool at any time!

OK, who else has some Clellie stories?