This old photo from the Summer of 1969 was among the ones that I scanned.
My sister and my baby brother on the Yamaha 50 that our Dad brought home for us so we could drive faster to the back fields versus our bicycles. My sister was 3 and my baby brother was 15 in the photo. Note Far Guy's 1959 Desoto in the background.
That was a fun little motorcycle to drive.
Far Side
I found some photos of roses on my Mom's old Flash Drive.
Monday evening was my sisters last night at dog obedience training with Lolli. It was a nice evening for the last session to take place outside. They had a rally type course set up. It was fun to see all the dogs and Lolli did real well.
Lolli is not like my sisters other Boston Terriers...but then each dog has it's own unique personality!
She needs to work...as soon as her brain was engaged she did great.
She has the basics down and with continued practice she will do great, the last pass was with the leash dragging...and she did not run off! Lolli graduated and got a certificate!
Far Side
Our oldest daughter Trica is 53 today.
Here she is in 1972 at my baby brothers graduation (age18), that is my other baby brother holding her (age 11) and my sister (age 5 almost 6) looking on. Photo taken at my parents home on the farm.
Happy Birthday Trica, we all love you very much!
Far Side
I searched my really old photos looking for a wintery photo.
1962 photo of my brothers. A football to throw and a wagon to push. Country kids had to make their own fun.
Far Side
This week I made it to the bottom of a crate filled with photographs. My Mom always liked displaying our baby photos, first on the table in the living room, then in a knick knack shelf that was built in at the farm. Later she put them up on the wall. They have been on display in some room or another for over 72 years. One after another she added to the collection; 1951,1954, 1960 and 1966.
Here we all are. We are all about six months old in the photos...just sitting up by ourselves...some better than others.
I took my other baby brothers to him last night. I will take my baby brothers to him today. My Mom also displayed our High School Graduation photos and our Wedding photos. My sister's photo will be added to the ongoing pile of things I have for her.
Far Side
March 26 1961 my baby brother was seven years old, my other baby brother was five months old and I was 9 1/2.
It must have been close to Easter that year as my baby brother has a bunny amongst his seven candles.
Not sure who the hair dresser was most likely my Mom...those bangs of mine will take a long time to grow out..those curls were made with those spongy pink hair rollers.
Happy Birthday to my baby brother! Welcome to your 70's.
Far Side
My sister is older today. She is still pretty young...as I was almost 15 when she was born.
My Dad and my sister were deer hunting together a number of years ago.
Happy Birthday Julie!
Far Side
There were some fresh tracks out by the sauna.
Never mind the tubes by my garage...I use them to hold glass flowers during garage sales and I leave them in the ground.
It was a frosty grey day.
My other baby brother stopped by in the late afternoon with his new set of wheels.
She who sees robins first and my other baby brother. This fancy new buggy has heat....they just picked it up on Friday.
I got to see all my siblings yesterday. My baby brother dropped Baxter off for a visit and my sister hiked over and sat outside while we visited with her through the window.
We are having really nice weather for Minnesota in the winter! It was 27 F or -3 C eh! for a high yesterday!
Far Side
On Wednesday my parents will celebrate 70 years of marriage. My baby brother hosted a get together for their anniversary and for their upcoming birthdays on Sunday afternoon at his home on the lake. The weather was sunny but cool.
When he called to ask what I thought about a get together I told him to "Plan whatever you want...I will be there." It was a potluck picnic at his lake home. He was kind enough to set up a table for Far Guy and I way over in the grass away from everyone else.
My baby brother cooking Steelhead Trout on the cowboy grill. His other grill was cooking chicken.
Social Distancing
Aunt Anna was an attendant at the wedding 70 years ago. She is my Dads only living sibling.
Everyone brought a dish to share...there was a hotdish, cheezy potatoes, broccoli salad, pasta salad, fruit salad and brownies.
Ice Cream Cake
Their Anniversary is on Wednesday. Dad's birthday is on Friday he will be 94 and Mom's birthday is next week she will be 91. They still live in their own home. They watched three different church services on television that morning. Dad likes to watch ball games on TV and Mother sews. They miss going places during Covid 19....church and bible study were two outings they really enjoyed. I asked them what they were going to do this week...the answer... stay at home just like last week and the week before...
View of the lake.
People in attendance; Carey (my baby brother), Beth, Jody ( my other baby brother), Cindy, Josh (nephew), Missy, Anna, Stacey (niece), Justin, Aunt Anna, Mom and Dad and Far Guy and I. My sister and her husband were unable to attend as they are in quarantine for exposure to Covid.
Far Side
My other baby brother who lives next door is older today.
I recall very clearly the day he was born. I was nine years old. My baby brother ( who was six years old) and I wanted a brother and we got one! ( We even named him…imagine my Mother’s surprise when the neighbor ladies went to the hospital to see the new baby who had such a perfect name…we told everyone what his name was…except our Mother and Father.) He was the best baby ever…and as he grew older he spent a lot of time with me. He listened to me without question …and I endured his “why” stage that seemed to last forever… he could talk to anyone about anything and still has that gift of gab that has served him well in his business.
My Dad and my other baby brother…he wanted to move dirt just like Dad…and he still does.
He also likes to fish and enjoys evenings out on the lake.
I am blessed to have him live next door…he moves our snow and helps me gas up the lawnmowers etc…and if I should need some help he is just a phone call away.
Happy Birthday Jody! 58 years seem to have gone by just like that. I think Mom wanted to name you Drew or Allan…but you sure didn’t look like a Drew or an Allan.
This is a photo that my mother took on the first day of school.
I was a Junior that year, my other baby brother would have been almost 7 years old and in 1st Grade and my baby brother would have been in 8th grade that year.
Looks like we have all the school supplies we need. This was way before book bags or backpacks. My mother must have thought my other baby brother was going to grow some and those pants could be rolled down as needed.
I think that plant was called Gold Drops. It was an old plant that almost everyone had in their flower gardens.
One morning my other baby brother opened the large doors to his shop. A bunch of bats flew out and one hit him in the nose and scratched him.
My other baby brother
After some discussion he was started on a series of rabies shots. He has one more shot to go in the series. The shots are given in the upper arm. He will be glad when he can put the shots behind him.
Years ago my parents had a fireplace without a screen on the chimney, the bats would come down and hang on the window of the fireplace…my brothers would get out the badminton rackets and slowly open the fireplace door to release the bats and they would swing at the bats flying around. A great after church activity.
At our resort we watched the bats, they flew out at dusk and back in at sunrise, I would sit on the edge of the bed and watch them…they lived behind the chimney. One year they decided to live between pieces of plastic that covered the door to nowhere…Far Guy collected a couple of bats in a peanut butter jar so the bats could go to school with one of our daughters. As I recall…I startled them with a long handled tool and Far Guy captured a couple as they fell. (The door to nowhere was a door and a screen door about 10 feet off the ground with no steps outside the master bathroom…I put a nightstand in front of the door so it couldn’t be opened.)
When you are out on the lake at night the bats fly right over your heads. Some tourists are unnerved with that activity. ( especially women who think that the bats will get tangled up in their hair)
We have a house that is made for bats because they eat so many bugs…skeeters are a delicacy for them.
Nowadays they say most all bats carry rabies…years ago we didn’t worry about it.
This is a photo my Mom took at the farm right by the picture tree in the Fall of 1966.
Connie 15, Carey 12, Jody 6th birthday.
Our sister Julie was born in the summer and was only a few months old so she was not in the photo. From all the leaves on the trees it was probably a photo taken before October 26, plus the boys have almost new looking jeans.
I am holding my other baby brothers hand, we were buds, he spent a lot of time with me. He was a talkative kid (he is still talkative) and inquisitive…Why? Why this? Why that? I always tried to answer his questions the best I could.
Happy Birthday Jody!
Potatoes, baton…gallbladder?
I was convinced my other baby brother had no gallbladder. My parents, my baby brother, my sister, my two daughters, my niece and I all had surgery to remove our gallbladders. For years my other baby brother has been the oldest with a gallbladder…now he passes the gallbladder to his son Josh the next in line.
My other baby brother got real sick on Thursday night and will have gallbladder removal surgery this morning. The surgeons were all too busy to do his surgery on Friday so he awaits his turn in the hospital…feeling very little pain with a bit of a sleepy look in his eyes…the pain meds are working nicely to keep the edge off the pain.
Years ago in 1926 before my father was born my grandmother had a severe gallbladder attack while she was pregnant with him. She had surgery to remove her gallbladder, they didn’t know at the time if the baby (my Dad) would survive…well he did and he must have passed on the “sick” gallbladder part.
I had my surgery back in 1995 or 1996, I could eat plain toast and drink 7-up that was it….anything else would bring on an attack. I was so happy to finally be diagnosed, I had to have a HIDA Scan to make a definitive diagnosis. My surgeon advised me to go out and eat pizza as soon as I could to find out if the surgery worked! The only problem I have noticed over the years is that you never want to over eat.
My other baby brother and “she who sees robins first.”
She had surgery on her hand on Wednesday and my brother was supposed to be “the nurse”…the best laid plans sometimes don’t work out. We sent over some chili for them on Thursday and I thought for a bit that it might have been my cooking that pushed his gallbladder over the edge but luckily he got too sick to eat it.
Over the weekend we had several family gatherings with my folks. Supper out on Saturday night and a coffee and goodies get together between church services on Sunday to celebrate their 65th Wedding Anniversary.
My baby brother and sister in law from far away were able to attend. My sister came from a ways away…that left us locals….me and my other baby brother.
Baby brother, me, Dad, Mom, my sister and my other baby brother.
I am the oldest, followed by my baby brother when I was three, then my other baby brother when I was nine and I was almost sixteen when my sister was born.
At breakfast Dad said “If I had been killed in Korea you would have been an only child…instead look how we were all blessed with your brothers and sister.”
Dad and Mom 65 years and 4 days and counting.
My baby brother is sixty today! Happy Birthday Carey!
This is Carey and I in 1954, see how supportive I am of him, making sure he doesn’t fall over in the grass.
I don’t have many pictures of him on his birthday but I have just a few on my own birthday! Here I am holding the cupcakes and he holds my doll…probably what makes him such a good Dad and Grandpa. In 1957 I would have been six and he was three.
I am not sure when this one was taken, maybe about 1959. Our Mother sewed our clothing, and I can tell that she sewed that shirt…I am trying to remember what color it was…I think my Dad had one that matched. I think green…
I was might have been a bossy big sister. I tried keeping him out of trouble. Most of the time we got along pretty good, there was that one time when I stabbed him in the foot with a pitch fork…not sure why I felt compelled to do that…I think he was going to tattle on me … and a pitchfork to the foot will stop you in your tracks and make you forget lots of stuff. I guess he must have recovered. I might have waited on him hand and foot like the time he stepped on the bullhead at Shell Lake and got blood poisoning…he laid on the couch for days that time with a towel and a plastic bag around his leg, Dreft soap soaks helped to draw out the poison. I thought for sure he was going to be a goner that time…but he survived that too. ( He stepped on that bullhead all by himself, I didn’t push him or nothin’, I even let him use my shoulder for a crutch as he hobbled back to Uncle Hugo’s house.)
I am possibly the best older sister he has!
