Blackie's Grand Adventure


News from Lahoma, Oklahoma!

Dear Linda,

Blackie just arrived today at Cimarron Public School Library in Lahoma, Oklahoma!

Since today is Friday, Blackie' shipment to his next person will be on Monday afternoon if that is ok. We are busy wrapping up our last 8 days of school here, so Blackie will not be bored. He arrived dressed in denim overalls with a purple, gold, and green beaded necklace. His overalls are adorned with pins from Tacoma, Washington and from Michigan. He sports a red WWJD bracelet about his waist. He also has a pair of yellow flannel jammies. Two books: your journal and one called Wheedle on the Needle by Stephen Cosgrove.

Thank you!

Charlotte Nance, Librarian

Cimarron Schools


... and as the day progressed...

Dear Linda and Children

Blackie arrived safely on Friday morning. He had a full stay with us! He was very happy to see his best friend, Cubbie, at our house. They had a lot of fun together. We took him to Oakwood Mall on Friday night. On Saturday he went to K-Mart and Fantastic Sam's.

On Sunday, he traveled with us to western Oklahoma, Reydon, to visit for Mother's Day. He spends today with the children. They all brought their favorite Beanie Babies, and each class is going to share something special about this area and school with Blackie.

The historical details of the area will be contained in Blackie's journal. I'm sorry that he was with us so long. It was my fault because he arrived five minutes before I had to leave to attend a meeting in Enid, and so the children only got to see a glimpse of Blackie on Friday. Our gifts to Blackie include a pin of the Seal of the Great State of Oklahoma and a set of yellow plastic beads. These beads were the ones I wore when our girls basketball team made it to the state basketball semi-finals in Oklahoma City at the fairgrounds. This was the first time that our girls had made it to state. In Oklahoma, that's a big thing! I am taking pictures of Blackie with all of his new friends at Cimarron, and I will be forwarding those to you, Linda, when they are developed.
I have one question, though. Where is Lucky? He was not in the box with Blackie.

We enjoyed hosting Blackie.

Love,

Charlotte, Johnny, Laura Marie, and John Nance
and the children of Cimarron School in Lahoma, Oklahoma!


Blackie's Visit to Sycamore, IL

I arrived in Sycamore, Illinois, very late in the afternoon and was very tired. After all, Peanuts and I traveled all the way from Indiana where we had just celebrated a large Easter. That first night, Peanuts and I were so tired we simply visited with our hostess, Ruth, ate some dinner and prepared for bed.

Wow, the next morning we all woke very well rested and ready to go. Sadly, it was a very cold and rainy day so Ruth decided that we should go to a nearby city, Rockford, where Ruth took us to visit the Time Museum. Boy Peanuts and I have not seen that many antiquated, along with several new, clocks in one place ever that I can remember.

After visiting the Museum, Ruth, Peanuts and I returned to Sycamore, where Peanuts and I went with Ruth's neighbor, Cassie, to eat lunch in the lunchroom with Cassie's daughter, Scottie, and the fourth grade class at North School in Sycamore. We spent the afternoon visiting with Cassie and then we got to go with Cassie on her bus route to pick up our friend, Scottie, and the other children and take all the children on the bus home. All the children were so funny because they all wanted to sit by us. It was such fun.

After that Ruth took us to visit her friend, Sharon, and Sharon had lots and lots of our Ty pals so we got to see Ally, Baldy and all the gang. That was really a pleasant surprise to get to see our old friends. It was still verycold and rainy so Sharon gave both me and Peanuts a sweater to wear home. It was wonderful and really kept us warm.

The next morning when we woke up we went to visit Ruth's daughter, Kim, and her girls in Monroe Center. We got to attend the Kindergarten Class with Ruth's granddaughter, Ashley. We helped all the kindergarten children learn the alphabet and we even helped them work on their numbers for that day. Then it was time for all of us to color and we also helped the children learn some of the colors. That was really fun. We had such a great time visiting the school.

With such a busy couple of days, our visit with Ruth was nearing an end and it was time for us to continue on our trip. Ruth tells us that we are now going to visit a very nice family in Western Springs, Illinois. Although we were sorry to leave Ruth, we knew we had to continue on our trip so we waved good-bye and started on our way. Gosh, I wonder what we will be doing next.

Hope all is well with you and your family and that the weather is much more pleasant. It is even starting to get warm in this part of the country.

Take Care and May God Hold You In The Palms Of His Hands,

Ruth in IL


Blackies visit with the James family: "the hippies in the woods." and goes shopping in Missouri

Hi Linda and Kids,

Blackie left for his next destination today. we, the james family, enjoyed having Blackie with us. we hope he learned a lot from us while he was here, as we did from him.

When Blackie arrived thursday he was surprised to see we all had long hair, even the guys, and that we were all grown up. the kids, nick and holly, are 19 and 17 years old.
We told Blackie that we were just some hippies in the woods because, we do live in the woods, they are all around us, this made Blackie feel right at home.

On Blackie's first night here we had strawberry shortcake made from the last package of strawberries from last years crop. Blackie was surprised to learn we grew the berries ourselves. after we finished we took Blackie out to the berry patch and showed him the strawberry plants. they were in full bloom. Blackie couldn't believe that strawberries would grow from the flowers on the plants, but they do!

We let Blackie decorate one from last years crop. he made a shekerie, it is a gourd decorated with beads and used as a musical instrument. people in africa use them. Blackie learned how gourds were used by many different cultures throughout the world.

On this day we also went shopping in missouri. we live in such a rural, in the country, area that we have to travel far to shop. on the way we showed Blackie the Thebes Illinois courthouse. This is where Abraham Lincoln practiced law before he was president. It is next to the mississippi river and we saw some bald eagles flying around over the river.

The next day was extra special, Blackie got to go to prom with holly. the day was spent getting ready. holly had to put curlers in her hair. this took along time because she has a lot of hair, but we played music and talked. when she was done they went to decorate the place where the prom was going to be. then they went home to get ready, holly wore a black dress and told Blackie he already had a black coat so all i needed was a tie. they looked great when john, holly's boyfriend, came to get us. we had fun dancing the night away. everyone wanted to meet me and i told the about you and the kids down in florida. they said it was cool what we were doing and to say hi. we stayed out late like grown-ups.

The next day we slept till 10:00, we had brunch on the deck and saw some deer eating some grass. then we made some soap. mama james knows how to make soap and showed Blackie how. It has to set up for 3 weeks so Blackie gets to take some that is already made. It is made from oatmeal but you can't eat it. One time the dogs ate some apple kiwi soap. Yhey didn't feel very good after that.

Blackie spent the evening talking about his adventures, meeting cousins-amy, pam &gina (the twins), mike, michele, justin and cory. they were all teenagers except cory.

Blackie and nick played on the computer and visited linda ray's web site. the day was over all to quickly as was Blackie's visit. Tomorrow, Blackie leaves to go to his next family. We hope that Blackie had a good time with "the hippies in the woods."

The James family