There was a nice lady, a minister's widow, who was a little old fashioned. She was planning a week's vacation in California at Skylake Yosemite campground (Bass Lake, to the uninitiated), but she wanted to make sure of the accommodations first. Uppermost in her mind were bathroom facilities, but she couldn't bring herself to write "toilet" in a letter. After considerable deliberation, she settled on "bathroom commode," but when she wrote that down, it still sounded too forward, so, after the first page of her letter, she referred to the bathroom commode as "BC." "Does the cabin where I will be staying have its own 'BC'? If not, where is the 'BC' located?" is what she actually wrote. The campground owner took the first page of the letter and the lady's check and gave it to his secretary. He put the remainder of the letter on the desk of the senior member of his staff without noticing that the staffer would have no way of knowing what "BC" meant. Then the owner went off to town to run some errands. The staff member came in after lunch, found the letter, and was baffled by the euphemism, so he showed the letter around to several counselors, but they couldn't decipher it either. The staff member's wife, who knew that the lady was the widow of a famous Baptist preacher, was sure that it must be a question about the local Baptist Church. "Of course," the first staffer exclaimed, "'BC' stands for 'Baptist Church.' " And he sat down and wrote: Dear Madam, I regret very much the delay in answering your letter, but I now take the pleasure in informing you that the BC is located nine miles north of the campground and is capable of seating 250 people at one time. I admit it is quite a distance away if you are in the habit of going regularly, but no doubt you will be pleased to know that a great number of people take their lunches along and make a day of it. They usually arrive early and stay late. The last time my wife and I went was six years ago, and it was so crowded we had to stand up the whole time we were there. It may interest you to know that right now there is a supper planned to raise money to buy more seats. They are going to hold it in the basement of the 'BC.' I would like to say that it pains me very much not to be able to go more regularly, but it is surely no lack of desire on my part. As we grow older, it seems to be more of an effort, particularly in cold weather. If you decide to come down to our campground, perhaps I could go with you the first time, sit with you, and introduce you to all the folks. Remember, this is a friendly community."

O.K., we had a brown awiss milk cow named Bess. If a cow can be called pretty or good looking , she was. Big soft brown eyes, long eyelashes and she had a good disposition. Placid and easy to milk. Never any problems with her behavior as compared to a Jersey that whose main purpose in life was to do just opposite what we wanted her to do. Bess was also an escape artist. Guess no one told her she was a herd animal. She always managed to get in the horsae pasture that shared a fence line with Vrbiskas, near their house. Little Betty, Bitsy, Lizzie or what ver her name was, probably Elizabeth wandered down tthe road between us almost a quarter mile. The road was seldom used, wasn't very good. When we went out we went south and they went north. When my step-mother saw Betty she wanted to let Vrbiskas know Betty was here. They had no phone. She sent sis bareback on her horse to tell them we would bring her home. The main purpose of the visit was tha Betty wanted to see Beth. Step-mother told her nobody here was named Beth. Betty lisped a little bit and finally one of us decided she wanted to see Bess. Step-mother sent sis out to the pasture to drive Bess up to the barn, well, all the rest of the cows came along too guess just to see what Bess was wanted for this time of day. Betty hugged Bess around the face, she wasn't tall enough to hug her around the neck and told her Beth, you are so pretty. Bess seemed to like the attention and at least twice more Betty came to see Beth. Dad thought that name was alright so we started calling the cow Beth. Betty always wore bib overalls and afte the session with the cow always had cow slobber on the bib. Sis would put her in front of her on her horse and take Betty, Bitsy, Lizzie home. A real tragedy occured with that family at a later time. May or may not post about that.

Glad you and Harry enjoyed. It's my favorite of all banana loaf recipes.

Hi, thanks for missing me. I have just been pretty busy. It was a beautiful day out yesterday. I wasn't out much but when the sun shines it makes you want and try to get more done. I did check on the koi pond when I went to take some pork to the freezer out back. I saw the heater was working so that is a good thing. I didn't have the time to wander around with Izzi and see what else was going on, but had to get back to the house. I think it has been the maid's day off again, or more likely she's had a year off :) I am hoping to try and get a lot done today. Sue