Aunt Louise Laid To Rest

Tuesday morning was Aunt Louise’s funeral.  It was a very nice service with a luncheon afterwards….Minnesota funeral food; lettuce salad, scalloped potatoes, ham, dill pickles,  crusty bread and all kind of bars.

Aunt Louise was a heck of a bread baker we always enjoyed when she shared a loaf of bread with us.  I recall one day years ago when Far Guy’s Mom was alive Willard and Louise were visiting her in the Nursing Home and someone mentioned fresh bread…a little old lady came over and said “That is one thing I miss…fresh baked bread.”  Well you can guess that planted a seed in a bread bakers mind and a few days later fresh bread was delivered to that little old lady. Years later when Far Guy was at his Mom’s bedside for days…loaves of bread were delivered for him to bring home… comfort food from a special aunt.

After lunch we left town and drove the 15 miles to the cemetery…a number of cars pulled to the side of the road and waited for the procession to pass by.

Funeral procession

She was laid to rest next to her husband.  We have a plot in the same row as does Alaska Guy.  Family has to stick together.

November

One morning it was just frosty.

The little Redpolls that are Niger Thistle Seed eating machines are here.

It snowed one morning.  We put up another Thistle Feeder. As soon as the sun is up Redpolls fill the feeders.

Then it warmed up and now we have green grass again.  It warmed up enough that I got our everyday go to town vehicle all cleaned up on the inside.  Far Guy told Chance no more shedding in the back seat!  Cloth seats act just like a brush for his fur.

Pie Report:  I used the recipe on the back of the Libby’s Pumpkin can. My pumpkin pie was delicious.  I substituted 1/4 cup of maple syrup for 1/4 cup of the white sugar.  Farm fresh eggs also helped to make it taste wonderful.

We had lunch with my parents one day last week and also had lunch with Alaska Guy and his gal. When we go out for lunch our supper is easy…fruit and cheese and crackers or we have a “you are on your own night.”

Only a few more days in November.  We did not partake in any of the crazy shopping stand in line to check out ordeals.

Visitor and an Audio Book

We had company, Alaska Guy was here for a visit and spent an evening with us.  Always good to see him and hear his stories.  He was telling us about scattering ashes out of an airplane and how they improvised a water jug and a tube to disperse it out of the airplane.  He said that many people up in Alaska are choosing cremation.   He and his sister have a plot near ours over at the cemetery.  He and Far Guy compared notes on their hips and other ailments. We also talked about area history…he remembers a man with a popcorn trailer being right across the road from the store in Ponsford.  His parents would never let him get any popcorn because the guy lived in that trailer!  I don’t recall it at all…but he is a year older than I am.

I finished the Audio Book A Man Called Ove.  I got out the afghan I am working on and crocheted while listening.  I give the book at least 5 out of 5 stars.  We both enjoyed it. We don’t usually listen to Audio Books…maybe we should listen to a few more.  Whoever read this one did an excellent job.

Greenery for sale in town

Sit a Spell

How long is a spell anyway?  Half an hour or half a day? 

Red Pelargonium

Ack red is horrible to photograph.

Most of it is best left as an impressionist painting.  All photos are from Bergeson Nursery August 2014.

We had company this week…Alaska Guy spent an afternoon with us. It required sitting for a spell.  Alaska Guy is doing well and will retire in February, it seems the United States won’t allow pilots to fly commercially after their 65th birthday.  He still isn’t married but he has a gal.  I knew him before I knew Far Guy…so I have known him practically forever…since I cannot remember when I didn’t know him. ( We lived near each other growing up) He loves to fly and related to us how his first flight was with his Dad and Neil Chilton with a take off in a nearby field …Neil was an Air Force Pilot with his own small plane.  Alaska Guy said “ When he banked over the lakes it felt as if I might fall out of the plane.” Any normal kid would have been scared to death…not so much Alaska Guy.

Far Guy’s Uncle Archie visited one afternoon too.  He is back living at the farm full time.  He is always busy cutting wood and tending the garden during the summer and helping out his adult children.

I hope you had time this week to sit a spell and visit with some special people in your lives!

 

Four Score and Fifteen

Five more years and he would have been 100.  Born in April of 1917 he was a middle child, the only boy and very spoiled..by his older sister and his Grandmother.

This photo was taken about 1920.  That is Far Guy’s Mom with her baby brother.   The baby brother that told us “ When it was time to come in for supper, Ma would send Evelyn after me, I would run away from her until she finally caught me and sat on top of me until Ma got there.”

His Grandma Martha Abbott was afraid of thunderstorms, they had a stone well house, she would take the kids there during a thunderstorm because she knew it would not blow down.  His Grandma Abbott lived with them.  He told me" “My Grandma was a fierce protector, I could do no wrong in her eyes.  She saved me from lots of whippings.”  He also told me the day and the year that she died…I didn’t write it down but I believe he was 16 years old when she died.  His Grandpa William Abbott died before he was born. 

He was the son of a farmer.  They had Jersey cows and 18 to 20 ewes.  Bill Blourt had a sheep shearing crew.  They had a gasoline engine that turned the clippers.  They would pack the wool in a box and took it to the wool buyer in Park Rapids.  There is a special way to butcher a lamb not touching the wool.  Ed Klarer knew how, he used clean cloths like dish towels to hold the wool away and then you cut down through the skin.  You always cut the tallow out of sheep meat..if you don’t when you cook it that tallow will stick to the inside of your mouth.

They had 24 milk cows in the barn and room for young stock and calf pens in the barn.  Then the war started.  Before he left for Omaha he got a milking machine for his Dad and a well in the barn, he also saw to it that Alvin Wicks was hired to help at the farm.

He moved to Omaha.  He moved in with his sister and her husband ( Far Guy’s parents) They lived near Spring Lake Park Golf Course. He and Far Guy’s Dad worked at Fort Cook Military Reservation for the duration of the war.

He worked on the B-26 Marauder in the Martin Plant. The “A” model B 26 all went to Russia.  Hitler was pounding the hell out of Russia.  The “B” model all went to the Army Air Corps.  The modification center moved more planes through than the factory. The first big modification job was a B 25 they were missile bombers made in Burbank California.  The planes were stacked up outside sometimes there would be 40 acres of planes just setting there ready to run through modifications.  We put more guns on them..50 caliber and a 75 mm cannon out the nose of the airplane.  These were used in the Pacific and Western Europe..they would wreck a railroad..they blew up Hitler’s trains.  They would fly right down a track and hit a locomotive.  They would take the 50 caliber and shoot right into the railroad cars..they blew up!

Willard was a story teller. He used to call me up and talk for hours about the old days.

He drew the plans for his parents new house on the farm.  The window that jutted out to the east was a place for his mother to grow her flowers and a cold storage room for canned goods in the basement. 

He married Louise and they had seven children.  A few months ago he said “Do I know you?”  She replied “Well you better we had seven children together!”

The past few months his health and memory were failing.  The last few days he has been out cutting wood.  On Thursday morning he said “I am too tired to cut wood today.”

Willard, Marie and Evelyn photo taken around 1921

He joins his sisters in heaven.

Uncle Willard and his oldest son “Alaska Guy”..one day last winter when his old tractor was driven around and around the parking lot.  He had a really good time that day!

It is the end of an era, but the celebration of a life well lived.  Four score and fifteen…:)

Restored

Last Sunday we celebrated my Aunt Lila’s 80th Birthday with a whole bunch of wonderful cakes and ice cream at the Nursing Home.  There were so many people there..like I have said before I have lots of cousins..and they all like cake and Aunt Lila!  Even though Aunt Lila has crippling  Rheumatoid Arthritis..she is still sharp as a tack and loved by many!

When we left we heard a tractor.  Far Guys relatives were in the parking lot. We had heard that there would be a reunion of sorts..but we were not sure what time it would unfold.

Alaska Guy and his Dad (Uncle Willard) with the newly restored John Deere tractor.

They had worked on this tractor project together several years ago. The tractor had a few problems that they could not resolve.

Uncle Willard is now in the “Memory Unit”  I am not quite sure why they call it that..he has few memories.  He was having a pretty good day Sunday and remembered his son, the tractor and his wife.

The day before Uncle Willard was going to town with his parents…and working in the fields.  He will be 95 in April. Before his memories left him he would call me up and talk about the olden days,  I took old photographs into town so he could tell me about the people in them.  We had some wonderful visits.  He had quite a sense of humor..that seems to have left him also.

Alaska Guy saw to it that the tractor was completely restored and running, his Dad got to see it go round and round in the parking lot.  He is a little too old to drive it..but you could tell that he wanted to.

Some things can be restored..it works fine for tractors..not so much for people.  My Aunt Lila struggles with arthritis..but she has all her marbles.  Far Guys’ Uncle Willard can’t remember much, but his body is in pretty good shape.  Then there is my Cousin Rosemarie whose funeral is today because her body failed her at age 41.

Two weeks ago my best friend from High School buried her husband.  He had barely turned 60 when Cancer claimed him. I did not know him, but I know her well.  Ever thirty years she is widowed..she has been down the widow road before. I cannot even begin to imagine her heartache.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the how and why of things. I cannot make sense of it all. I must remember that God is in charge.

The Plan of the Master Weaver

My life is but a weaving between the Lord and me,
I may not choose the colors,
He knows what they should be
for He can view the pattern upon the upper side,
while I can see it only on this, the under side…

Sometimes He weaveth sorrow, which seemeth strange to me,
but I will trust His judgement, and work on faithfully,
‘tis He who fills the shuttle, and He knows what is best,
so I shall weave in earnest, leaving to Him the rest…

Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly
shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why –
the dark threads are as needed in the Weaver’s skillful hand
as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.

Author Unknown

When I am feeling a bit down and doing much wondering about “the stuff of life”  I find that the poem above helps me get through the rough spots:)

Wistful Wednesday : Christmas 1969

This is a photo of Far Guys Maternal Grandparents.  This was taken in December of 1969.  The year that Far Guy and I got married.  

I am not quite sure why these two got married?  Opposites must attract. 

Curt was kind and gentle, small things delighted him..just visiting brought out the best in him..he loved to read..mainly westerns.  He always sat in an old oak rocker.  He was tall, he walked bent over..his hips and knees had seen better days and he walked with a cane. He died in 1973 four years after this photo was taken.

Meade was ornery.  Of course we have to cut her a little slack, she almost died from Tuberculosis.  She was in the sanitarium for many years. The TB destroyed her hearing, she was deaf and refused to learn to read lips or sign.   Everyone used the “Magic Slate” to communicate with her.   She would talk to herself..of course she could not hear herself..she often cussed under her breath, or so she thought.   She did beautiful handiwork, embroidery and crocheting with fine thread and a very small hook..until she lost her eyesight.  I have many of her works of art.  She lived a good long time. She spent 17 years as a widow.

Curt liked a “nip” occasionally and kept a bottle hidden in the barn.  All the Grand boys knew where it was hidden.  If he went to town with Walt the next door neighbor, Meade would be sure to send Alaska Guy along..thinking that they wouldn’t stop at the liquor store for a drink if they had a child with them…she was wrong.  Alaska Guy enjoyed a soda at the bar almost every trip to town…and he was sworn to secrecy.

For a wedding gift we got a full set of embroidered tea towels.  I still have them in the same box with the same tissue paper covering them.  The box was decorated in an odd way.  I wish I had kept it.  Tied to the bow was a large plastic spoon, tied to small holes on the outer edge of the spoon were many blue and pink bows that held about a dozen tiny babies..Meade wrote on the spoon..a little poem..about “spooning” and the result which would be lots of babies!

Our  girls called her “the scary grandma”..because she couldn’t hear she spoke loudly and made lots of extra noises that she didn’t know she was making. Her voice was high pitched and squeaky.  We took them to visit late on Sunday afternoons for years…when she became blind..often she would grab at people..searching for a friendly hand.

One day before Meade went totally blind.  She looked at Far Guys Mom and then at Far Guys Dad and said “ You sure have been bringing that man with you for a long time.” :)

Wistful Wednesday: Relatives

This is an old photo from years ago.  I found it among the hunting and fishing photos in my Father In Laws album.   I finished that scanning project and made a CD of the photos and packed it all away in the trunk.  One more project completed! All the photos were marked with who, when and where with a photo safe marking pencil.

Uncle Willard, Lola, Evelyn, Don and Aunt Louise

This was taken sometime in the early 1950’s.  That is Far Guys Mom at the end of the table.   The photo is taken from Far Guys Dads spot at the table.  So I can safely say he took the photo.  It was taken in the formal dining room at their home in Park Rapids Minnesota.

I think this photo has a spring feel to it, the ladies are in short sleeves, the linen tablecloth is the one with the green leaf pattern.   They have just finished a platter  of sweets of some sort and the silver creamer and sugar set is on the table. I bet it was taken on a Sunday afternoon.  Years ago Sunday afternoon was a time for relatives and visiting.

Uncle Willard is not in the best health.   Most of his children were here for Thanksgiving.  On Sunday afternoon they converged at our house along with other cousins from Detroit Lakes Minnesota..there was no linen table cloth..and no one showed up in a suit…but there was much laughter and lots of reminiscing and coffee and a plate of goodies. Alaska Guy and his brother from Washington DC were very impressed with this photo..it was one that they had never seen before.  I made them both copies. ( Lola and their Mother Louise are sisters.) It was a fun afternoon..almost like old times visiting with the relatives on a Sunday afternoon:)

Wistful Wednesday : 1952 or 1953

Alaska Guy is Far Guys cousin.  He spends a third of his life in Alaska, a third in Arizona and a third in Hawaii.  He is not married at the moment.  Although he has a “gal” and we have met her( she is a doll.)  He flew in and out to see his Dad ( Far Guys Uncle).  Alaska Guy is a pilot…so he comes and goes at will.  He is footloose and fancy free..no kids..no dogs or cats..

 

I knew Alaska Guy before I knew Far Guy.  You see Alaska Guy lived kitty corner from our farm.  He lived in a little house behind his grandparents house. He was a year older than me and his sister was a year younger.  We played together all the time.

In 1954 or 1955 it was their house that I was running off to for an afternoon adventure. Knowing I was not supposed to walk anywhere near the highway,I took off into the pasture where I promptly got my britches stuck in the barbed wire and could not get loose. There I hung by the britches, until my Mother noticed my red scarf bobbing up and down. My feet would not touch the ground, I couldn’t get unstuck no matter what I tried. Barbed wire and having short legs ruined my afternoon adventure.

Alaska Guy had his hip done two years ago..he would call and talk for hours.  He must have had good drugs because he doesn’t remember calling us.

When he was here on Sunday he and Far Guy talked about hips, old classmates, when they were little, cars and planes.  It is good to spend an afternoon just talking to one of your cousins.

If you ever fly from Phoenix to Honolulu this may be your pilot

This n That

It was a rainy day yesterday..we went south of Detroit Lakes to give Jen a hug for her birthday and enjoy breakfast with her. She was at her annual Fall Scrapbook Retreat.  Last year I attended with both of my daughters, this year I had to work.

We had lunch at the park in Osage with members of the Fire Department.  The food was great, it rained the entire time we were there. After all that food I needed a nap!  So nap I did. What else do you do on a rainy Sunday afternoon anyway?

Far Guy visited with his cousin Alaska Guy..I heard them talking but I can sleep through just about anything. We have not seen Alaska Guy for quite some time.  His Father’s health is failing, he is sleeping most all of the time, when he is awake he is  forgetful..one day he asked his wife who she was..she replied “ I am your wife.”  He said “Really?”  She replied “We had seven children together..I should know if I am your wife or not.”  The other day he escaped from the apartment building..someone found him wandering outdoors and brought him back home.  He is 94 years old.

We skipped supper..and went for a drive because the rain stopped.

We watched the sun disappear under the clouds up on the prairie.

We stopped by the neighbors and got some onions. Barb shared her onions with Far Guy.   They have a very pretty Border Collie named Maggie.

She is shy around people she doesn’t know.  The opposite of Chance, who thinks everyone is his long lost friend.  I never did get to pet her, even after I threw the ball for her and  a ball crazy Boston Terrier.    Maggie is about the same size as Chance.  He barked at her from inside the car and drooled on my seat.

Far Guy came home and cleaned  his onions, chopped them all up and put them in freezer containers to use all winter. He only had to stop a few times to wipe his eyes:)

A Promise

The last couple of days we have been enjoying the company of Far Guy's cousin from Alaska. He had hip replacement surgery and is recuperating quite well..he is only a little gimpy. Since he grew up at the farm kitty corner from where I grew up, we have lots in common. We took an area tour, talking, reminiscing about people and places. It was great fun!

We did have a mission ..to visit another cousin of Far Guys and Alaska Guys. For the purposes of this blog I will call him Street Rod. A long time ago Street Rod allowed his friends to cover his arm in catsup, then he crawled into the trunk of his friends car, with one hand holding the trunk shut and the other catsup covered arm very visible to the unsuspecting people of Detroit Lakes. Needless to say Street Rod was without wheels for several weeks.

Street Rod is one year older than Far Guy and Alaska Guy. Street Rod is in the Nursing Home. He has multiple health issues, diabetes, failing eye sight, dialysis and he is an amputee with a flashy red metallic flake wheelchair/ scooter. He may have lost the use of his legs but his sense of humor is still intact. The guys had a good visit. Street Rod was having some indigestion and had to go get his Rolaids. I offered to get them from his room, He said "Nope, around here you have to have a Doctors orders for Rolaids." He scooted out and returned saying "I am too old for this shit." His mood deteriorated after that, he was tired and needed to lay down before going to dialysis, so we left.

After leaving "the home" we all talked about our unwillingness to be residents of such a facility. We know they are necessary we just don't want to go there ..ever.

Later after we got home, I told Far Guy that I would try to do whatever was necessary to keep him out of the home for as long as I could. He said "No need to worry I will be in the pen." I said "WHAT?" He replied "Well Alaska Guy was feeling so bad about having to go to the home someday, he made me promise to kill him first." Now let me tell ya I just left them behind for three minutes while I walked to get the car in the rain, and during that time they must have had time to REALLY talk. Next time the gimpy one and one who hurts when wind hits his face can get the car for me:)