Random Thoughts While Tropical Storn Oplehlia Rages Through Southern Delaware

 

Tropical Storm Ophelia

As Tropical Storm Ophelia (Thank God it's not Hurricane Ophelia) tracks her way up the Delmarva peninsula and the East Coast, I have occasion to think where I am now in life. Yes folks, there is some heavy thinking going on here.

This morning at about 3 AM I was awoken from a Deep Sleep by the sound of Bill's emergency alarm bell in the electrical outlet next to my bed. Back when Bill first came home from the hospital I put that alarm bell in the outlet so when Bill needed me he only had to push the red button on the bell he had by his recliner chair where he sleeps in the basement. 

Bill hasn't used that emergency alarm for about year now but it does go off with a "BANG!" whenever the power goes off and back on in our house. Early this morning was such an occasion as the outer wind bands of Tropical Storm Ophelioa roared through our home here on the Delmarva Peninsula. 

I get up to reset the clocks. If I don't, the constant blinking of the digital clocks keeps us up. 

I have seven digital clocks that have to be reset every time the power goes on an off here. One good thing about living here on the Delmarva peninsula as opposed to our previous home in Pennsylvania, when the power usually goes off here, it comes back on right away. That's right, it blinks on and off. This morning it blinked on and off SEVEN TIMES! Yes, that is a new record. When we lived in Pennsylvania in the woods, when the power went off, it was off for HOURS if not days. That's one thing I don't miss about living in Pennsylvania in addition to the high taxes, our power always going off. And it did, a lot. Here in Delaware it is a rarity for the power to go off. Of course I was irritated that the power went off at all but then I had to remind myself that at least it came back on. Thousands along Tropical Storm Ophelia's path yesterday and today still don't have power. Which reminds me to be thankful for what I have.

Which also reminds me to be thankful for my health. Yes, I am having problems now. Earlier last week I got a painful crick  in my neck from sleeping the wrong way. God was that painful. Not only am I a hunched over old man now, now I have this situation where I couldn't turn my head. The stiffness was on the right side of my neck. Then a funny thing happened. A few days ago I woke up and the stiffness had moved and now was on the LEFT side of my neck! What's that all doubt? Neck cancer?

Of course being the big baby that I am, every time I have some kind of physical malfunction I think it is the onset of a cancer death sentence. 

I'm having another problem, my partial tooth on the right side of my mouth is digging into my upper gum. How did that come about? It's been working great for years. I avoided getting teeth implants with that partial now I have to rethink that option. Of course I don't want to spend thousands on such an implant. I probably should have had implants ten years ago when I was given the option and was flush with money, what with my part-time job and both of our retirement incomes. Now I'm facing life living on only one retirement income and no part-time job (I'm assuming they won't want an 82 year old stooped over old man at the front desk at the boutique hotel where I worked at). What to do because I really enjoy eating? What I've decided to do is just be very careful with what I eat and not eat anything that I really have to crunch on and chew.

I have a full set of false teeth (cost me over $5,000 years ago when I was given the option of teeth implants). I don't like eating with them though because of all that metal in my mouth I can't taste my food the right way. When I complain about this I think of my Mother who wore false teeth her whole life from the time she was fifteen years old. I guess  you get "used to it" but I don't want to. Eating is one of the few pleasures I have left in addition to reading and my meanderings in my backyard and my fish pond. 

I am so thankful that I can see good though and don't have macular degeneration like my 67 year old friend Howard (he has the wet kind that he needs injections in his eyes) or Bill's dry kind that he only sees shadows. Bill can never look anyone in the eye now can I look into his eyes. I think if I got that way I would make arrangements to Check Out. 

Speaking of which I am way past my Sell By Date anyway. It's all gravy now folks. My father Isaac Tipton

My father Isaac W. Tipton, Sr. 

died when he was eighty in the year 2000. My grandfather Fieldon Tipton died when he was fifty-four years old.

Fieldon Jasob Tipton died at age 54 in 1939

My great grandfather Hiram Tipton

My great grandfather Hiram Tipton - died at age 80 in 1930

died when he was eighty. And my great-great grandfather died when he was only thirty-four years old but then he was shot to death in the Civil War. He lived in North Carolina but he was a Union sympathizer and that's why he was murdered, recruiting his neighbors in his western North Carolina community for the Union Cause. Confederal General Noah Wichter and his Confederate forces heard of John Tipton's "treasonous" action and set out with a calvary of Confederate soldiers to stamp out those Union sympathizers. When He came across my great-great grandfather and his brother-in-law Curtis Bailey, they opened fire and shot them dead and dumped their bodies on the front lawn of the Tipton-Bailey homestead as a "lesson" to any other Union sympathizers. My great-great grandmother Martha "Patty" Bailey Tipton

Martha "Patty" Bailey Tipton Cooper  

was left a widow with eight children

1860 Census for John and Martha Tipton

to raise on her own. She was illiterate. She signed the Widow's Petition for a monthly $8.00 "Widow's Pension" with an "X".

Martha's Civil War Widow's Pension application

And she had to fight years for that modest monthly pension. She survived  by marrying her neighbor Thomas "Doc" Cooper, who was twenty-four younger than she was.

Thomas M. "Doc" Cooper, my great-great grandmother's second husband, 24 years younger than she

Patty in her youth must have really been something because her first husband, my great great grandfather John Tipton was four years younger that she was. 

Thomas "Doc" Cooper was only fourteen years old when Martha became a widow in 1864. Colonel Witcher also tried to murder him by hanging him from a nearby tree. He only survived by feigning death as he was hung and getting himself down in the leaves on the ground below the tree and hiding under the dead leaves. He and Martha married six years later in 1870 when he was twenty years old and she was forty-six years old. 

Martha lived to a ripe old age of ninety-one years of age and died in Asheville, North Carolina in 1915. 

My great-great grandmother Martha "Patty" Bailey Tipton Cooper's final resting place in 

Her second husband, Thomas M. "Doc" Cooper lived another seven years and also died in Asheville, North Carolina in 1922. Several years ago I was very fortunate to find her final resting place in the Berea Baptist Church Cemetery in Ashville, North Carolina cemetery. This was one of the great achievements of my life folks. 

Me at my great great grandmother Martha "Patty" Bailey Tipton Cooper's final resting place. What a wonderful feeling I had when I was able to pay my respects to this wonderful, strong woman who survived the Civil was and raise children. 

I have much research to do on my Tipton line. I've been away from it too long. Some years ago I did find a photo of my great-grandfather Hiram's older brother Baxter Tipton, who also grew up to be a doctor.

Dr. Baxter Tipton

I got this picture from his great-granddaughter. 

Random historical thoughts folks on this rainy Saturday, I never know where I'm going when I get on my blog folks. Today I took a long, winding path down my Ancestry Lane. I hope you found this trip as interesting as I did.

Have a great day!