Eagles Wings

This is a very old photo of my grandpa when he was a young man...probably around the turn of 1900 - 1905 as he and my grandmother were married some time after that in 1908...I have a similar photo of her, but its in the wrong format to post. He had a hard life growing up in Carrollton, Missouri...his father passed away when James was only 3 months old. For some reason, his mother couldn't raise him so he was farmed out to his grandparents....who lived in a one room house and were very poor. He had to sleep in the same bed as his female cousin when he was tiny. He never went to school and went to work as soon as he was old enough. His grandmother taught him the 3 R's, reading, writing and arithmetic ...Grandpa always said, "I went to school, in one door and out the other".
He had a adventurous life, being a cowboy, homesteading in Montana, stayng in a tent for two bitterly cold winters on the homestead with 3 children, the bakery, etc.
I have a cassette tape that my uncle had made with Grandpa telling about his life, family and times...its very interesting listening. Memories are so important and inspiring. Yes, we've been having a hard time financially but as our family has had their share of difficult times and survived, I know we will too with God's help.

We did get several checks on Friday and can get some of our bills caught up...we are finding that the banks are being better about late payments...one bank who called pushed back the due date so that the bill wouldn't appear late...wasn't that nice?
Alan had alot of work yesterday, 4 jobs and one this afternoon too. Some of the banks only want us to rekey the front doors...which they found out to their liability isn't a good idea....Alan had to go back to such a house and finish re keying it. A neighbor came over and said that the previous owner was coming in and wrecking the inside, hoping to buy the house back at a low price...She had taken out cabinets and removed all the granite counter tops, sinks, etc. She also tried to get the lockbox off the front door and damaged the handle set. Thousands of dollars worth of damage because the bank was too cheap to pay an additional $10.00 to have the side garage door re keyed!