The boys

Mon., March 15, 1937 - Howard cutting wood today.  Tonite we went to Wayne with Raymond & Helen.  The Wayne IOOF had a play & program.
Tues., March 16, 1937 - Baked 2 pies & a cake.  We went to town tonite with Raymond.  The boys had to see about getting a truck to haul wood -- they loaded the wagon too heavy & broke a wheel on the way home.
Wed., March 17, 1937 - Bill Loebsack hauled the wood today.  The boys have to go back tomorrow because his truck wouldn't hold all of it.

I'm guessing Grandma is referring to Grandpa and Uncle Raymond as "the boys".  I've not heard them called that before.

I didn't know before that the Odd Fellows started across the pond, but now I do.  From wikipedia:

"The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political and non-sectarian international secret society and fraternal order of Odd Fellowship. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Evolving from the Order of Odd Fellows founded in England during the 1700s, the IOOF was originally chartered by the Independent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity in England but has operated as an independent organization since 1842, although it maintains an inter-fraternal relationship with the English Order. The order is also known as the Triple Link Fraternity, referring to the order's "Triple Links" symbol, alluding to its motto "Friendship, Love and Truth".

While several unofficial Odd Fellows lodges had existed in New York City circa 1806-1818, because of its charter relationship, the American Odd Fellows is regarded as being founded with Washington Lodge No 1 in Baltimore at the Seven Stars Tavern on April 26, 1819, by Thomas Wildey along with some associates who assembled in response to an advertisement in the New Republic. The following year, the lodge affiliated with the Independent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity and was granted the authority to institute new lodges. Previously, Wildey had joined the Grand United Order of Oddfellows (1798-) in 1804 but followed through with the split of Independent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity (1810-) before immigrating to the United States in 1817.

In 1842, after an elementary dispute on authority, the American Lodges formed a governing system separate from the English Order, and in 1843 assumed the name Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows became the first fraternity in the United States to include both men and women when it adopted the "Beautiful Rebekah Degree" on September 20, 1851, by initiative of Schuyler Colfax, later Vice-President of the United States.

Beyond fraternal and recreational activities, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows promotes the ethic of reciprocity and charity, by implied inspiration of Judeo-Christian ethics. The largest Sovereign Grand Lodge of all fraternal orders of Odd Fellows since the 19th century, it enrolls some 600,000 members divided in approximately 10,000 lodges in 26 countries, inter-fraternally recognised by the second largest, the British-seated Independent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity."

Photo from cheatsheet.com

Visiting and chopping wood

Tues., March 9, 1937 - I baked bread and cinnamon rolls.  Howard was gone this afternoon cutting wood at Hendricksons.  Howard wanted to go to Holtgrews but I didn't because I didn't have a clean dress.
Wed., March 10, 1937 - Howard gone all day cutting wood.  We went to Holtgrews tonite -- they weren't home so we went to Carl Troutmans.  Played Pinochle -- home about 12:00.
Thus., March 11, 1937 - Howard cutting wood again today.  I ironed most of the day.  Crocheted while the irons were heating.  The gas iron wouldn't work.

I find it fascinating that in these days, people just up and went visiting in the hopes that whoever they planned to see was home.  I guess it meant you always had to have your house ready for company and perhaps always had something on hand for a little treat or snack.  And coffee, maybe?

I'm glad Grandpa got to cut lots of wood.  I hoped he enjoyed doing it in 1937 as he did much later in life.

Election Day

"November 1, 1992:  Tom, Merilyn and Greta here for dinner.  Tom loaded up wood.  Merilyn picked out star quilt pattern.  She'll get material.  Started to snow in p.m. 
November 2, 1992:  Snowed most of night.  Not too cold.  Nearly three inches of snow.
November 3, 1992:  Voted today.  Clinton was elected president."

Grandma doesn't comment much on world events, but every now and then she does.  There is another coming up in 1993 that rather surprised me but you, dear reader(s), will have to wait to find out what that is.

Here's a photo of a very small woodpile, at least by Grandpa's standards.  I have to remember to ask Tom about Grandpa measuring logs to make them all the same length . . .

Chopping wood

"February 13, 1990:  Nancy met Tom and Merilyn at airport at 9:30 p.m.  They were late because of snow in Denver.

February 14, 1990:  Tom took me home.  He took a load of wood back to Lincoln for Nancy and him."

Snow in Denver in February?  Sounds familiar as they are getting walloped this February in 2012 and the snow is coming our way.

There was probably always wood to be taken back to Lincoln.  Or to anywhere.  I think Grandpa sold some of it, but I think he gave lots away, too.  He was a wood chopping machine.  I will have to find one of the photos of his wood pile, well actually wall of wood -- neatly stacked in a long, thick wall.  I remember Tom and I watching Grandpa split a log or two one day.  It was well past Grandpa's cancer diagnosis and I recall he was to the point where he didn't look well anymore or at the very least one could tell he didn't feel well.  But we were all roaming around outside and Grandpa put a log on the stump he used for splitting logs and in about three or four whacks, he had it split.  I used to remember Tom's exact words, but it was kinda quiet between he and I and he said something like, "I'll be damned."  It probably took a lot out of Grandpa to do that, but I suppose he maybe felt a need to do something normal since life in general was rather abnormal at that time.

The photo above has nothing to do with anything, really.  I just found it and liked it.  It was taken in Fremont when a bunch of us went to ride on the train to Hooper.  Taken between 1987 and 1990.

Here we go!

From 1989: "Howard fell Dec. 23 and hurt his back.  He finally went to the doctor Dec. 28 -- muscles bruised and strained, but no cracked ribs.  He took some powerful pain pills."

No date on this entry, but at the top of this page was "1990" so I am inferring the 1989 since she is writing about December.  My grandfather (Howard) would have just turned 82 when she wrote this.  He was very fit for a man his age and it is not outside the realm of possibility that he fell either chopping wood or going to and from the Honda House to crack black walnuts.  Of course, he could have just slipped and fell. 

The "Honda House" was a small outbuilding on my grandparents' place where my uncle used to keep his motorcycle....a Honda -- bet you saw that coming.  I don't know what that half of the building was previously used for, but everyone called the other half the cob shed.  There were plenty of kid-attractive treasures in the cob shed, but more in the Honda House.  Over time, and long after the Honda was gone, the Honda House was essentially Grandpa's mancave, long before the word was coined.  It eventually came to hold a radio, refrigerator, wood burning stove, an intercom so Grandma wouldn't have to holler at him to come in for meals, and an adopted stray cat.  More on the Honda House and the fun I had as a kid there later.