Thankful P. Harvey
Wednesday, November 3, 2005
(7:01am) In world news, there seemed to be little new reports of any urgency. President Bush had announced the day before that he had proposed a 7.1 billion dollar plug into flu research, stockpiling, and so forth, for whenever the next pandemic hit (bird flu or other), as most experts agreed another pandemic would arise sometime in the future. But such things, as all things, were in God’s hands.
Meanwhile, there were better things going on. Collette spent two hours preparing pumpkin soup that morning. After cutting, chunking, and peeling two pumpkins, the muscle of her right index finger was so numb from bearing down on the knife handle, that she could still hardly feel it the following morning. And as she baked the pumpkin, cooked the onion, cumin, carrot, and celery, stewed them together with the pumpkin and bullion, pureed two batches, and salted and peppered them both, she instructed Joe and Rose in German. And Carrie found a humorous newspaper article while online:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush may be burdened with the world’s problems, but his pockets are pretty light.
It turns out the leader of the free world doesn’t have to worry about carrying all the essentials of the common man.
Bush revealed the contents of his pockets Tuesday to an Argentine newspaper reporter who was interviewing him in advance of a presidential trip to Latin America later this week.
When the reporter from La Nacion asked Bush to show him what he carries, the president stood up, fished in his pockets, then dramatically pulled his hands out holding nothing but a white handkerchief that he waved playfully in the air.
“Es todo,” Bush told the Spanish-speaking reporter, meaning the handkerchief was all. “No dinero, no mas. No wallet.”
He doesn’t need any cash, since his staff takes care of buying anything he might need. He carries no cell phone, either, since he is surrounded by aides who take care of dialing his calls. And why would he need keys since every door is held open for him and his car comes with a driver trained by the Secret Service?
The Argentine reporter, who interviewed Bush at the White House with other journalists from the Latin American media, asked the president if he even had a watch.
“Si, Timex,” Bush said, thrusting out his wrist to show off a timepiece that had his middle initial, W, on the face. “But I’m not supposed to be endorsing products.”
And Carrie was fully enjoying her one week of break before the cram of her five holiday classes. She spent the entire morning, afternoon, and most of the evening, designing a civilization on Age of Empires (a favorite in the Snicketts family).
That afternoon, Collette took Rose to the Antique Mall in hopes of finding another old book to add to their collection. However, as the book collection seemed rather similar to what it had been four months earlier, instead, Rose found a silver bracelet purchased in Hong Kong in the 1960’s, locked inside a glass case, for four dollars. And Collette happened first across several long boxes of foreign postcards. After leafing through a sizable amount, she selected an Egyptian card for 75 cents (for Carrie), and written on the back in shaky blue ink:
“Cairo, Egypt
8th May 1910
Due in Naples
13th May…” (the rest unintelligible)
Her next find was more fantastic – in a bin of old magazines, there lying on the top was a letter penned over one hundred fifty years ago. It read:
Burk March 26th, 1850
Dear Hiram,
I am very much
obliged to you for your kind letter, for it brought
me the heart cheering intelligence (that) I am not forgotten,
you must excuse me for not writing sooner – I have
been down sick for awhile back, am now some better,
you wrote me, that you and Lucia went to schooll
– I hope you will try to learn all you can while you are
young, ever remember that learning is better than riches
– I hope you will not forget to read some every day
when schooll is done so that you need not forget what
you have learned this winter before schooll commen
-ces again, I am glad you have commenced reading
the Bible through, I hope you will read in it every
day and Remember it is the only Book which can teach us
to live right, and to die happy, if it were not for the
Bible we should all be heathens – the Bible has been
the study of good men in all ages, and even our great
Washington was not ashamed to follow its precepts
and I don’t believe he ever would have been so great
a man if he had not studied the Bible
– you must write to me again soon and
tell me how far you have got, I cannot
write much now, but when you have wrote
to me again, I will try to write to you a
longer letter, Ira is going to Springfield (word unintelligible)
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(word unintelligible) days when your Father comes to mill – I wish
he would call here very much and you and Lucia
must come to make me a visit as soon as you
can
I don’t know as you can read what
I have wrote for Sophia is gogling first one
one side and the other and I have to write
as fast as I can to write a word between the goglins,
write to me soon Thankful P Harvey
March 30 before you receive this you will probably have
heard of Elvina Harvey’s death – I have been trying this some
time to feel smart enough to go up and see her, I rode to the
Hollow Thursday hoping to see her once more but when
I asked Mrs. Denison if Elvina was living she informed me
that she died the night before about 11 o-clock, they told me
she died verry happy – she conversed with all that
came in to see her the day before she died – requested
her young friends not to neglect religion, she told them
she was sorry she had neglected it untill she was sick
but in her sickness she sought with a penitent heart a
preperation of heart to meet her God, and with resignation
died trusting in his infinite mercy
and now, my dear Hiram as you are not to young to die
your are not to young to give your heart and affections
to that kind Being who died to save you, I think much
of his kindness in blessing you and preserving you every
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day of your life and I hope you will let no day pass
without asking forgiveness of God for your sins and thanking
him for the daily blessings which surround you,
seek to have a good heart and you will both live and die happy,
If I have not wearied you to much in reading this long
letter you must write to me as soon as you can
conveniently.
T P Harvey
It was selling for $2.00, and although Collette could only read the first page, as the rest was sealed in plastic, she added it to the postcard and Mom opened it to read the other side upon their return that evening. It was a beautiful piece of history and Godly advice. And the last piece was a certificate of appointment to the Corps of Engineers – Captain Chester Joseph White – issued by the President of the United States of America on March 23rd, 1946, and still hung it what appeared to be its original frame. For $2.25 she added it to her list of purchases, and would wrap it up for Frances for Christmas. A substantial amount of history for $5.00, she mused.
[Thursday]
At work, Thursday, Ivy read through the mail as usual. She scanned an O’Fallon magazine for any events possibly effecting church activities, and came across several new businesses and restaurants opening in the area, including Applebees and a dance studio. Meanwhile, Collette pulled printed sheets from the printer and happened to see across the street what she thought was the flag of Monaco flying in the brisk winds at the side of a house.
The evening before, as they learned from Jimmy and from OLeif, the junior high youth had spent their hour together decorating pumpkins with glitter and glues and such, making a royal mess (including spilling a 2-liter of soda), bobbing for (not apples) but gourds, and smashing every last pumpkin outside (a mess which Jimmy and OLeif scraped up that evening (Jimmy stayed till 11:00pm) and which he also finished cleaning the next morning at 6:25).
Meanwhile, Ivy recounted her Sunday. While her brother stayed over at her house with his three kiddos, just to hang out together, Ivy and Mo had enjoyed fish at Captain D’s, had selected material for the curtains in their living room (which Rosemary would sew for them), and had taken a drive. The stresses a church secretary was put under! It did her good to take such a break, Collette thought. And she was to have her hair permed that evening at five, and so she hurried off at 4:30 while Collette waited for OLeif to come by and pick her up. If they did not use their gift card for the Italian restaurant (given to OLeif by the youth and their parents), she would fix rice and sausage.
It was a most glorious windy evening as Collette waited there. She had typed up the new Sunday School list for the winter term, and noted that one class would study course material written by a guy named Crabb, and another would go through Martin Luther’s The Bondage of the Will.
And indeed, they did try out the Italian restaurant, which was quite good. Collette saved the lentil and sausage soup for her lunch next day, and would also save the huge cut of lasagna for Judah (should he once again forget to bring his lunch, or bring a small Tupperware of thin soup, which was not uncommon). And OLeif told her about his friend at work (in his 30’s or so, and went to a church in Saint Louis), about his friend who was excavating a cave, discovered by construction workers on the highway. It turned out to be a huge cavern where had been discovered: bear prints of a mammoth grizzly perhaps six feet high on all fours, and ten feet long, human hair, and woolly mammoth teeth in the cavern walls, evidence of possible ice age remains… Of all places – in Southern Missouri, just about the biggest find of the present age, according to National Geographic! And then over his coffee they discussed God’s grace and how He orchestrated such grace even through infants who died at birth or in the womb, and through Native Americans who had not heard the Gospel. Great discussions – Collette was always amazed to see how much wisdom God had blessed to OLeif. And the wind howled around the little apartment as they snuggled down for the evening.