Last night the resident's association for my apartment building had a murder mystery dinner. I did go to it but it was very poorly planned out!!!

It is so very sad that some people's idea of "research" is so slipshod that they accept errors as "facts" and refuse to see where they are wrong!!!

1. The Mayflower sailed in 1620 and NOT 1492 -- that was Columbus and his ships Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria!!!

2. Crazy Horse was NOT even REMOTELY associated with the Pilgrims!!!

3.The knowledge of DNA and photographs did not exist in 1620!!!

It was also offensive that some of the people at the dinner were pretending to be Indians and doing old stereotypical things such as saying "How" and the like!!!

It reminds me of when my American History professor at the University of Memphis was teaching that Paul McCartney and Elton John were members of Britain's House of Lords!!! It is even sadder that people think these people know what they are talking about and swallow these historical FALLACIES!!!

There is also a Thanksgiving meal for the residents today but I am not going to that as I really am not to interacting with my neighbours today and I made fried chicken as per my usual tradition!!! 

I caught a couple of my neighbours lying to me last night as to why they blocked me on Facebook -- they said it was "accidental"!!! Yeah right. I tend to NOT believe that because blocking someone on Facebook requires more than just pressing the block button, one also has to confirm that they want to block that person. So anyway, I sent them a tersely written private message from my other account about it and they come darkening my door last night and all huffy and mad about the message and they try to make me feel like a bad person for calling them out on being two-faced and pretending to be my friend. Apparently they think I am stupid that I cannot figure out they are trying to manipulate me!!! Well, my Christmas card list is very short this year and grew even shorter when I marked their names off!!! Is it any wonder I have contempt and animosity for most of my neighbours???

The resident's association for my apartment building is holding a couple of events. Tonight they are holding what they are calling a murder mystery dinner although it seems more like a role-playing exercise to me. And tomorrow Pastor David is bring a Thanksgiving meal for the residents. I am not sure whether to go score the free meal or make friend chicken and fixings for myself. I really do not enjoy the holidays especially now that I am completely alone, having lost the only family I have!!! I have loads of relatives but no real family!!! The only gifts I will be getting are the ones I get for myself since no one else will arse themselves to get me anything!!! I really dislike the holiday season now more than ever!!!

A certain someone, Linda Sexton, posted very wrong information about my mother and her parents on ancestry and not only refused to take it down but also made the HUGE mistake of blocking me. However, I did get some joy in that department after I hunted her down and wrote her a letter about it. She had to be taught that I meant business when it comes to my mum and her parents and she removed my mother from her pedigree instead of merely correcting the wrong information.

Accuracy is extremely important when it comes to doing genealogy!!! Recently I have had to debunk several erroneous lineages that people meekly and sheeplike copied onto their own pedigrees without doing any research whatsoever.

My grandmother, Babe Ruth Mount, died 19 November 1979, when I was 9 years old. I cannot believe it has been 40 years -- I have been without her a lot longer than I was with her. I was her only grandchild from the only child she ever had -- my mum.

She was born in Jackson, Tennessee in 1925 to Luke Mount and Virginia Mae Newsom. She had an older sister named Doris.

In 1930, the Mounts moved to Union, Arkansas -- a small township near Newport in Jackson, County, where Luke supported his family by working as a collector in a general store.

By 1940 the Mounts were living in West Helena, Arkansas where Luke worked as a machinist at an auto body plant and Virginia was a general merchandise clerk.

In 1943 Ruth met and married a young Sergeant in the Army Air Corps whose name was Calvin Alexander Hastings II. In 1945 the only child that Ruth was ever to have was born -- my mum Janice LaRayne Hastings.

Ruth was a long time employee of The Beall Company in Helena, Arkansas. I can remember going to her place of work when I was very young. Sadly though, she had to resign when she developed cancer. She did not deserve the treatment that Calvin meted out to her after she became ill. Even though my mother did her best to shield me from seeing most of the abuse, I still witnessed some of it which is partially the reason why I really do not have too many memories from that time -- grandma was not the only person who was abused by Calvin!!!

It is extremely difficult to write this but I am the only one left who can -- the truth must finally come out!!!

Before grandma got sick I had such good times with my grandparents -- going on trips, my grandad taking me to games and flying in his plane and we all watched Hee Haw and The Waltons together. But after my grandma got sick the good times ended as Calvin became very cruel and cold. He became very sadistic especially after grandma became bedridden -- he ripped up her clothes, threw water in her face and sold her car. He would also get her father drunk in vain attempts to acquire the lake house -- I remember stopping at liquor stores to get beer.

It was a relief when grandma died on 19 November 1979 as she was finally away from Calvin's sadistic abuse.

I remember right before she died -- when she was comatose in the hospital -- I was told that I was too young to go back to her room to see her but grandad took me back there anyway. I think she died that night. I was staying with some family friends, the Helzers, because my mum was at the hospital with grandma. I called the hospital and a nurse told me that my grandma had died. The days leading up to the funeral were difficult -- grandad got drunk and ran my mum's car into a ditch on the way to the funeral home for the viewing. I also remember during the funeral seeing grandad crying, but I have never been sure if they were genuine tears of grief or not. I also remember him bending down and kissing grandma in her casket as we went past.

She was buried at Sunset Memorial Park near Barton, Arkansas where her grave is still unmarked while Calvin is buried in another part of the same cemetery with a very nice headstone!!!

One memory I have of my grandma is we all went to Memphis -- me, mum, and my grandparents -- and dropped my grandma off at the Memphis International Airport because she went somewhere, but I cannot remember where she went. But I do remember that my grandad was in a total rage about something and took it out on me when we were going back to West Helena. He was a very angry, abusive man but he hid it very well. So much so that I wanted to vomit whenever anyone would tell me what a great man he was!!! He also cheated on my grandma when she was bedridden before she died!!!

A while back I had a really bizarre memory -- so bizarre that I did not think it could possibly be a true memory. I was remembering a place that my grandad took me to and there were giant musical instruments that were walking around.

Well it turned out that I was remembering Opryland. In 1974 my grandparents took me on a road trip through Tennessee and up to Kentucky. I also found a video of Opryland in 1975 that opened up a couple of other memories I did not know I had. For example, I had only remembered my grandad being there but the video made me remember that my grandma and someone else was also there with us but as of yet I cannot remember who the other person was.

Whilst making my morning coffee this morning I had a memory of being in the kitchen with my grandma and we were making coffee. I helped her by putting the sugar cubes and saccharine tablets into the coffee cups. I would love to have more memories like that one!!!

So far I have almost 20 handwritten pages of things I have remembered and hopefully there will be more. There are a couple of other really bizarre memories I have that I would absolutely love to find out more about!!!

Next Tuesday, 19 November, it will have been 40 years since my grandma, Ruth Mount, died. I honestly cannot believe that I have been without her a lot longer than she was with me. I plan to write a longer piece about her next Tuesday as there are several things which need to be made public and I am the only one who can do it as I was her only grandchild.

A formal education is not for everyone and I am a good example of that!!! When I was in school I felt as if they were trying to force me into their mold and that did not work out too well given my Scottish personality!!! I prefer to study and learn about things on my own and I have a wonderful collection of books on many different subjects. I quite enjoy reading about history and science as well as classic literature such as the works of Alexander Dumas and Tranter. Another fiction series I like are the books written by Tony Hillerman and lately his daughter Anne Hillerman. I prefer to own my books rather than borrow them from the library but sometimes I will borrow a book from the library.

The apartment building I live in is classed as a 6 story high-rise. I live on the second floor. I am not overly fond of most of my neighbours as they can be right jerks at times. But there are others I have had positive interactions with. I would not really call them friends because I do not do the friends thing -- tried it and got stabbed in the back, besides the fact that when I was growing up I was not allowed to have friends. The maintenance staff here is first-rate and work very hard to keep the building in good condition. We also have a social service coordinator who is a good person. A grocery truck comes here every week and is well stocked with fresh goods.

It is totally unethical for someone to use time when they are supposed to be working to be trying to convert people to her cult. But then again this person no longer has a job with the agency she was a home health aide for. I also personally heard this woman trash her clients and use an extreme amount of profanity in her conversations. She is allegedly a Jehovah's Witness. And to think she wants to study with me??? I do not think so, especially not from her because of her liberal use of profanity as well as I caught her lying to me. When I was growing up I never heard a Jehovah's Witness use profanity!!!

I had a nice 2 and a half day vacation from interacting with my neighbours. I quite enjoy my quiet solitude because I can study and do my research without interruptions. But it also gives me copious amounts of time to miss my mother, which is something I do greatly and every day. I really do not enjoy being around people because I have learned that they only pretend to be one's friend and then turn around and stab one in the back!!! I also want to sleep because my dreams enable me to be with the ones I love, my family -- including my dogs and other animals. I am alone here yet I am not lonely as long as I have my books!!!

A large portion of my time doing genealogy is removing notes and correcting errors made by people who really should know better instead of putting ridiculous dates with people!!! Some people post dates which are after their alleged child has been born or dates which are too close for them to be the parents and others copy these dates as "fact"!!!

I also want to scan my mother's birth and death certificates because there is a total idiot who has posted very wrong information about my mother's parents and blocked me when I corrected her about it. This person, Linda Sexton, still is non-compliant in correcting her WRONG information but I have hunted down and obtained her address and phone number!!!

It is very cold and rainy here today -- the perfect weather to stay indoors and do genealogy!!! On another note -- it is also Veteran's Day so if there is someone in your life who has been in the armed forces thank them for their service!!!

I have been doing my genealogy as a way to connect myself to my past. It is a fascinating journey and I have absolutely NO idea what I am going to find because when I was growing up I was not encouraged to know much about my mother's family and was absolutely forbidden to know my dad or his family after I got to a certain age. I did my DNA for Ancestry.com and am finding cousins I never knew I had. I also found out that my dad had siblings on his father's side.

I had searched for my dad's maternal grandfather for many years and came up empty because certain of his brother's descendants lied to me and threatened me -- even ordering me to stop pursuing the search. But I did not give up and finally used census records and found descendants of another of his brothers who were quite willing to answer my questions and even sent me photos of him and his family!!! I also found his grandparents through DNA matches in Oklahoma. I got to visit his grandmother's grave in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. That was the highlight for me in 2018.

Of course the lowest point in my life also happened in 2018 when my mother died. I stopped doing my genealogy for quite a while because none of it just seemed to be worth it without her there sharing in my joy in my discoveries. But I started up again and making discoveries and contacts.