The Buses are Back on the Road Again!

Our local schools were back in session today, so I had to remind myself NOT to be on Allison Lane at about 2:30 this afternoon when the high school kids get out!
Of course, Eler Beth and I started back two weeks ago, but it has been on a very, very limited basis {grin}. Neither of us has really been in the mood for school to start. After a July of relentlessly constant triple-digit temps and heat indices, our August started out unusually cool. This week we're getting back into more normal temps, however. This is August the way August should be, and I'm glad my girl doesn't have to ride a bus or sit in a classroom on these kinds of day.

Eler Beth is a Sophomore this year!! She'll have her driver's permit soon, and she cannot wait. I'm kind of excited about it myself. When I turned 16 you could take your written exam at any time, and you were allowed to take your driving test 30 days after passing the writen one. But having turned 16 in April I opted to wait until July, so that my best friend (whose birthday was in June) and I could take our driver's tests the same day. Things like that were important back then. :)

Speaking of best friends, I have really been enjoying the Facebook Group "You know you're from Breckinridge County if...." I've been reminded of a lot of things I had forgotten, and I found out a few things I hadn't known in the first place. I've been thinking about writing some posts based on some of the FB posts on this group. I've become reacquainted with some friends from High School, and I was pleased to see a post by my best friend's daughter who is now about 26.
Thomas' truck went down last week, and our favorite mechanic is stumped. They're going to do a bit more digging, but I'm thinking of calling Click and Clack on Saturday. lol I see a purchase of another truck in our very near future. I am, at this time, taking Thomas to work at 4 a.m. every morning. If I could get my system to learn to get to sleep a bit earlier each night, I could handle this very well. But right now it is hard to take him to work, get a bit more sleep, and then get up to so some morning schoolwork with Eler Beth. I want to be on a full lesson schedule next week, though, so I'd better figure something out.

Well, I guess that's it. Watch out for those Yellow Buses!

My Uncle Sam Roberts

I should have posted this last month. One of my mother's younger brothers died in June. It was not unexpected. Back in May the doctors had given him only weeks to live, mostly from complications from diabetes, but also I believe from some heart problems. He was a life-long smoker, but was otherwise in fairly decent health until about a year ago. He died at home, with my mother and their brother Carl there when he breathed his last.

Sam was #6 of my maternal grandparent's 9 children. There was one brother between him and my mother, a brother I never knew because he died when I was just a baby. But Uncle Sam I'd known all my life. He was a newspaper man, an excellent photographer, a Little League coach, and a confirmed bachelor. He could play several instruments very well, wrote lyrics and music, and had a beautiful singing voice that was a bit growly and smoky. He and his brothers used to perform for WAVE-3 radio in Louisville back in the 50s or 60s. My mother has some pictures of them in the sound studio, and I particularly remember one of Uncle Sam in front of one of those old-fashioned microphones. Uncle Sam was born with a missing vertebrate in his neck, so he always looked like he was hunching his shoulders.

I attach here his obituary. Please click to read the write-up that his long-time editor and friend, Donn Wimmer of The Hancock County Clarion, wrote in his honor, and a story written by Sam that The Clarion published back in 1982. There are also a couple more pics of him in the article.