Ladies!

"February 1, 1995:  Frank Fleer died last Thursday -- January 26 and was buried at Winside Cemetery today.  Howard was an honorary pallbearer but didn't go the funeral -- he explained why to Sharon and Shanda.  I didn't go either -- afraid of ice.
February 4, 1995:  Bill, Jenny, Patty, Mary, Rick, Mitch and Greta here for dinner.  After dinner the ladies went to Norfolk to shop.  Bill and Rick washed the dishes.  In p.m. Rick, Bill and I played Yahtzee while Howard slept."

I like that Grandma called us ladies.  Of course, it was easier than putting down all the names but she could have said gals or something.  Ladies is better.  I thought she had gone, too until I read the part about her playing Yahtzee.  Not because I remember the event so much but because I considered her a lady, too.

Great game, Yahtzee -- easy for kids to learn but still fun for the adults.  I must admit it is also fun to play on the computer.  No chance of dunking the dice in drinks like Anna did that one time.  She was 8 or so and she and Grandma and Mitch were playing at Grandma's place at Pioneer House.  Anna had a class of juice about the same height as the Yahtzee tumbler.  She put the dice in a container to shake them and have her turn, but dumped them in her drink by mistake.  Grandma laughed and laughed. 

Appropriately, here's a photo of Anna and Grandma at the Pioneer House.  Oh, and there's Maude to the left.

Ouch!

"January 29, 1995:  Tom, Merilyn and Nancy came about 8:00.  We played Hearts until 11:30.  Tom and Merilyn stayed at Helen's.
January 29, 1995:  Tom, Merilyn, Nancy, Greta, John, Helen and Dorothy Jo here for dinner.  Howard fell on the ice -- bumped his head -- his shoulders and neck are sore.
January 30, 1995:  Howard feeling better.  John and Helen left on a trip to Florida to visit John's twin brother and other relatives."

I seem to remember Grandpa falling and that he was rather bruised up.  Hopefully I am thinking of the same episode which would mean he didn't fall and get hurt often enough for me to mix them up.

The photo is very likely not from January of 1995 or any year for that matter, but I decided Grandpa is making a face similar to what he may have had after he fell -- kinda perturbed.  Looks like he needed to mow after he finished the fish.

Storm at Sea

"January 19, 1995:  Sunny and thawing a little.  Much better than the foggy weather we had last week.  Lois and Linda went to Fremont to see Dora -- she took a turn for the better -- knew them and visited with them.  Started Jayme's Storm at Sea quilt.  Greta cut all the pieces for me.
January 22, 1995:  Too much ice for me to go to church.  Spent the week working on Jayme's quilt and doing some cleaning.

By my count this is the third Storm at Sea quilt Grandma made.  Well, the third in the journal I am working from right now.  I do not recall what colors were in Jayme's, but I imagine I would have seen it at some time.  It is a wonderful pattern in my opinion.  It looks like you need to be concentrating pretty well to get it all pieced properly but to a pro like Grandma it was probably a pretty tame project -- alliteration, anyone?  An internet search will bring up quite a few different variations, but the photo above is I believe close or the same as what Grandma used, although she used more monochromatic themes.  It's neat how the lines look curved when in fact they are all straight.

Cream pies!

"January 16, 1995:  Baked two cream pies -- one a birthday present for Lester.  Ted Wallingford called tonight that Dora was very sick.
January 17, 1995:  Tom called tonight.  They plan to come the 28th and 29th for my birthday.
January 18, 1995:  Went to Busy Bees Club at Ella Mae C.'s.

Every family has certain recipes that are "musts" for certain occasions.  I think cream pies would rank right up there near the top of the list with our family -- somewhere close to Omaha Potatoes.  I was an adult before I tasted cream pie, I believe.  Not that they doesn't look tasty, I just hadn't figured out what all the fuss was about and just left them for the obvious fanatics.

I had this post all ready to go yesterday, but thought I should delay until I could scan a photo of the known originator of the cream pie tradition, Maggie "Little Grandma" Iversen.  So, here she is.  I wish I could have known her. 

Yay, January!

"January 13, 1995:  Arlene R. took me to Pinochle Club at Elsie J.'s.
January 14, 1995:  Finished piecing baby quilt for Jayson and Lora this past week and started putting the 9-patch sampler quilt together.
January 15, 1995:  Greta, Howard and I left at 7:15 for Lincoln -- trees, wires, everything covered with frost until we got close to Lincoln.  Foggy most of the way.  Went to Nancy's.  Mary, Rick, Mitch, Bill, Jenny, Jayson, Lora, Dale, Lynn, Dane, Kyleah were there.  They brought the dinner -- soup. sandwiches, salad and dessert.  Celebrating Mary's, Kyleah's and Jayson's birthdays."

All right!!  I remember gathering during more than one July to celebrate those birthdays, but here we did January's people.  We skipped several months, ten if memory serves, since July and January are the only multi-birthday get-togethers I remember.  Of course, it was due to a preponderance of birthdays in those months.  I imagine we didn't do December because of Christmas, but we had Grandpa, Lora, Mitch and Gavin all in December -- I hope I am not missing anyone.  And we have more Julys since 1995, too.  Maybe we should resurrect that idea.

No disrespect to two in the photo (my ancestors) and the man with the cake, but I hope we had more fun on 1/15/95 than these folks appear to have been having when this photo was taken.

Normal things and serious things

"January 9, 1995:  Lois K. came for Merilyn's quilt.
January 10, 1995:  Called Marie P. for her birthday.
January 11, 1995:  John came just as Howard was ready to take me to WELCA -- so he gave me a ride to the church.  Mary Ann S. took Helen and me home.  Gas man put a new belt on the furnace.
January 12, 1995:  TOPS meeting tonight."

Grandma has something for four days in a row here, but it's pretty ho-hum stuff, not that I am not grateful that she put this stuff down.

Grandma had other things in this little journal that were not day-to-day things.  I posted long ago the list of people that got black walnuts once.  I don't think I've used what she had on the inside cover of the journal before.  I have no idea why this information was put to paper, but here it is:

"Korean Conflict
June 1950 - July 27, 1953

Vietnam War
1964 - 1975
April 1970 - Nixon sent troops to Cambodia
Fall of Saigon - April 30, 1974
Beginning of Johnson's administration
1963 -- 17,000 American troops in Vietnam
5 years later over 500,000 troops there

1958 -- Alaska admitted to Union"

I didn't fact-check any of this, but toss it out there just because.  I imagine most reading this know, but just for the record, all of the KIAs from Wayne County during the Vietnam War were from Winside, and if I have them correct from my internet search they were Sgt Robert Lee Dangberg, Sgt Robert Alfred Wagner, and Pfc Mark Steven Witt.

(I had to make the photo smaller than usual due to its resolution.)

Same song, second verse

"January 4, 1995:  -10 degrees this morning.  Mick T. and Lila H. came this evening to audit the church books.
January 5, 1995:  Still cold.  Howard took me to Wilva's to have hair washed, etc. 
January 6, 1995:  Cold and windy -- no Pinochle Club today.
January 7, 1995:  -10 degrees this morning.
January 8, 1995:  Still cold."

In the last post I said I liked reading about the Huskers beating Miami.  For this post, I will state unequivocally that I don't like reading about -10 degree temps.  Brrr!

Appropriately, here's a photo of Grandpa with the bird bath and heater making sure the birds don't suffer when it's so cold.  I wonder if it was good enough for -10 degrees . . .