Wednesday started out as a normal day, the guys were still fishing and I have bowling and volunteer library duties. Eli loved the bowling center, he ran around in big circles: down onto the tile floor where the tables are and then up the ramp onto the carpet where the restaurant and the lockers are, around and around. He wasn’t my lucky charm for bowling, because I was pitiful. Our team lost 3 out of 4 points – 2 games and total pins, and our opponents were missing one bowler! Sue was minding the store so Jay and I could play grandparents. Thanks, Sue! Uncle Teddy joined us for lunch at Rancher’s Roost, inside the bowling center, which was very nice.

We were concerned that Eli might “give out” before I finished shelving at the library, but we gave it a try. We brought out the stroller and Jen tried walking him up and down Main Street to see if he would fall asleep in the stroller. But before he accomplished that, it started to rain. Jen reminded me that my windows were open in the car, so I dashed down the block in the rain and rolled up the windows before it started in earnest. But earnest it was, a good hard rain with thunder. Eli did fall asleep in the stroller and Jen got some time on a library computer. But before I finished shelving (I still had half of the fiction and all of adult nonfiction to go), Eli woke up and we decided it was best to take him home.

As we drove up the driveway, almost to Barbara’s guard rail, we noticed a tree on the left side of the driveway was on fire, with flames!, and smoke rolling down the hill. We immediately assumed lightning strike and called 911 as soon as we walked in the door. We decided to go down to the end of the driveway and direct the firefighters when they arrived. We stopped and took pictures of the fire on the way down, since we knew the trucks came from town and would need at least 25 minutes to get to our house. Two firetrucks arrived, #4 and then #15. They were not big, we only had a small fire, and they came with lights flashing but no sirens. Our firefighters are all volunteer, and are very professional. Our community was recently the incident command central for the firefighters from all over the West, who battled the Medano forest fire, which was started by lightning in the Great Sand Dunes National Park. So fires started by lightning strikes are taken seriously in the West, as I am sure you have seen on national news coverage.

Eli liked watching the bright red fire trucks arrive and we followed #15 up the drive. The firefighters were very happy to hear that the tree in question was on the side of the road and not off road in the middle of the forest . They foamed the tree very well, disturbed all of the ground cover at the base of the tree, mixing the foam in and looking for hot spots, and made sure that the fire was out and the tree cool before leaving. I took video of a lot of the process from a distance, I didn’t want to be in the way. Eli was interested for a while, but it was a slow process, and moved on to his own entertainments… snack & pretend driving the car with the emergency brake on.

I checked with the head guy as they were leaving. He said they felt the tree had been hit at the top and the energy traveled down through the tree to the base. The road side flames were out by the time they arrived, but there were still flames on the hill side of the tree which we could not see. They thanked us for calling them and we thanked them for their excellent work.

Jen and I felt that if we had been at home, we would have known that there was a nearby lightning hit, but we could not see the tree, the flames or even the smoke from the house and we knew where it was. The fire could have progressed dramatically and we would not have known it for a long while until it was very dangerous. So we think it was very good luck that Eli woke when he did and that we did not dawdle but went straight home. It was an adventure that was exciting and had a good outcome, no forest fire!

Eli brought his parents to Colorado last Friday, July 24th. He was a great traveler and patient while Wallace installed his car seat in the Santa Fe. We all went to lunch at Chili’s, then started our 3 hour drive back home. We hoped he would take a good nap in the car, but it was a short one. The long drive between cities and our home is not one of Eli’s favorite things. We drove straight into town and got to see Grandpa’s store and Uncle Teddy, before heading home. Eli has enjoyed the dogs, fortunately they are older now, and calmer, unless Jay pulls into the driveway, when they go ballistic to get him to play ball with them. Eli got to play ball with dogs the first night and likes trying to throw the ball for them. He has gradually worked his way up to petting them, likes to look for them and know where they are all the time, and doesn’t enjoy getting dog kisses, but doesn’t get upset about it either. Day one was a long day and Eli had a hard time settling down to sleep that night.

Saturday, after a leisurely breakfast, we took a ride into Florence to go to an estate auction. However, the directions were skimpy and there were no signs, so we didn’t find the auction, but ended up in Canon City at their history museum. It was really very nice with a lot of mounted animal heads, a bear rug, a family of 4 full size stuffed mountain buffalo (mom, dad, baby and youth), an antique gun collection and a wonderful antique music box / phonograph / jukebox collection among many other things. It was a docent led tour, just for the 5 of us. It was funny, because there was something in each collection that we could point to and say, “We have/had one of those”, in one of our homes or the store: jukeboxes, Victrola, buffalo and caribou mounts, bear rug, antique gun, but we didn’t want to burst the docent’s bubble or her presentation.  Speaking of Buffalo Bill and Caribou Carl, Eli didn’t notice them on the wall in the living room until this morning. But he can be excused, his line of vision is not that high usually. After lunch, we headed home so everyone could take an afternoon nap before dinner.

Sunday, Wallace and Jay organized all of their fly fishing equipment and took a trip to a nearby creek for a trial run before they headed north for their big fishing retreat. Jen, Eli and I took a trip to town to buy vegetables at the grocery. We found the park with the baby swings and climbing equipment on our way home. Eli had his first experience with beets on Sunday. He liked them, but then he likes most food, especially vegetables. I took some pictures of Eli, hoping to use them in an art quilt project (more about that later), and I will continue to take more so I have a good selection to choose from.

Today was D day for the fishing retreat on the Poudre River. Jay and Wallace left before 7 am to pick up our friend, Steve, our friend Charlie, the fourth fisherman was meeting them there. Jen, Eli and I stayed home all day. We played, ate, napped, worked on a project, ate, played and went in the hot tub. I am getting the feel of Eli’s schedule, so I can be a good babysitter when his parents go to do adult fun things like hike to a gold mine or raft down the river. Eli had a lot of  red foods today, cherries, grapes, watermelon, spaghetti with meat sauce, more beets. He enjoyed dinner in his skivvies, in an effort to protect his clothing! He played peek a boo with Grandma while I was in the kitchen fixing our dinner. Eli enjoyed his first time in the hot tub a lot and learned to blow bubbles in the water for the first time!

Eli is so smart for fifteen months old, we hope to be able to post a video of him naming all of his body parts, making animal noises, and using his baby sign language. It is amazing how well he can communicate with sign language when he doesn’t have the verbal vocabulary, but definitely has the knowledge of what he wants to say.

Tuesday and Wednesday will be visits to town for quilting and bowling. I am looking forward to showing him off to my friends. Daddy and Grandpa get home late on Wednesday and then new adventures will unfold.

Eli will be a busy guy this month. He is spending 9 days in northern California visiting his maternal grandparents, Jerry and Rikki, while his dad was in Japan earlier this month. He will be bringing both of his parents to Colorado next week for 10 days so his dad can go fly-fishing with grandpa Jay. So part one will be pictures from California and part two will be pictures from Colorado… duh!

He went to San Francisco one morning to see his granddad’s office and have lunch in the city.  I am sure he was the big hit of the day and the center of attention. Another morning they went to a toy/teacher’s supply store and the toys selection is similar to Terra Toys in Austin. They were there a lot longer than expected because it was like Disneyland to him. They had a train table set up at his height. He made car, train, and airplane noises and lots of OOOOOOH’s. Of course, there’s a whole store full of cool toys and he LOVED the shopping cart and push broom his size. Just like Terra Toys the toys are good quality, but big $$$ too. Best part of the week was that Eli gave his grandma Rikki a hug at the toy store and again after he got up from his nap. These were hugs that he initiated. I know it made her feel SO good.

Wallace reports that he knows all of his body parts and can make all kind of animal noises (Eli, not Wallace). Julia reports that Eli now has the skill to string more than one “sign” together and is making baby sign language sentences.

Jay and I are really looking forward to having the kids here with Eli. I have collected the child gates from the storage unit, hopefully they will work and keep him from tumbling down our wood stairs. We are anxious to see how he gets along with Amber and Lacey. Jay has several fishing trips planned for Wallace and some hiking and or float trips with Jen later in the week, after Eli gets comfortable being leflt home with Grandma. Part 2 will come later in the month, yeah!

The day dawned bright with a beautiful blue Colorado sky. We got an early start at 8 am to drive into Cañon City to meet our friends, Tim and Marilyn, at the Fremont Campus of Pueblo Community College. We left our car there and traveled with T&M to Guffey CO for the 25^th Annual Chicken Fly. There were yard sales and craft vendors in abundance and we spent much of our cash at various locations, picking up treasures. Some were free, some were incredibly cheap and some were just so unique. Jay found a coal heated iron (for clothing) and a sheep herders stove, (the size of a hard cover book) with mica windows to see that the fuel was lit. We intend to do some research on those items. We figured out how the chicken fly works and Jay and Tim paid $5 each to fly a chicken in the contest. There were 10 chicken flyers in each heat. They had just finished heat 2 when we signed up, Jay was #10 in heat 5 and Tim was #1 in heat 6 and we were told it would be about 1 pm when their turn would come. So while the band played music from the bandstand, we wandered to more yard sales, the library book sale, the classic car show, the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Foundation booth (rescued wolves), and chicken bowling. Chicken bowling was a short homemade bowling lane (10 ft?) with 3 pins at the end, the wood was warped and rough, and there was a manual ball return. The goal was to knock down all three pins with one ball to win a prize, but you got three chances for a buck. We saw a young man make it on his third try, which was a challenge, because it is very hard to tell how the ball will roll. The prize was a painted bowling pin with Guffey Chicken Fly painted on it.

We were watching the chickens fly when we heard from across the field, “last call for Jay, heat #5.” This was about an hour earlier than we had expected. But no fear, they let Jay start the next heat, he was #-1, heat 6. We still had about 30 minutes before heat 6 took flight, so Tim and Jay picked out their chickens. Tim picked a reddish rooster, Jay picked a greenish hen. Tim kept giving the rooster exercises to prepare him for the contest, Jay’s little hen was feisty at first, but settled down quickly. He gave the hen a pep talk. We were joined by a young lady, about 14, who was on her second flight in heat #9. She actually lived on a poultry farm and regaled us with stories about chickens, how to hold them, and about their habits. It made the time go quickly while we waited. Ok, this is the process, at the top of the turkey launcher, was a mailbox with a door on both ends attached to a rail. Bill Soux, the founder and driving force of the Chicken Fly, announced the contestant and his/her chicken’s name, opened the back door and helped the chicken in, followed by a toilet plunger. Bill opened the front door, and the contestant plunged the chicken out, and the distance the chicken flew was measured with a very long measuring tape in feet and inches. Some chickens flew a decent distance, one flew to the roof of a nearby building, some just settled gently to the ground at the base of the tower. On the ground were several helpers with what looked like fishing nets on long poles to capture the released chickens. Jay went first as contestant -1 and his chicken was named, SPLAT. Splat flew 41 feet and 1 inch to great applause. Tim as the second contestant, #1, was next. His rooster was named FOGHORN LEGHORN. It was surprising (or not) how many adults and none of the children could relate to Foghorn Leghorn. Can you? Poor Foghorn only flew 27 feet 8 inches, but looked magnificent as he did. At the end of the heat, Jay was still the leader with 41′1” and got a first place prize from Bill Soux himself in the City Hall Saloon Museum. The interim event between chicken fly heats was a hula hoop contest, which we decided to miss in favor of lunch, by this time it was after 1 pm. The local restaurants were overcrowded and slow, so we decided to head to Cripple Creek, CO for our next stop, first place prize heat #6, and treasures in tow. It was a great day in Guffey CO for the possibly last Chicken Fly. We hope not, it was great fun.

It was about a half hour drive through gently rolling hills, rocky outcrops, and curvy roads to Cripple Creek, and about 1400 feet rise in elevation. We thought it was quite humorous that the elevation of Cripple Creek was 9,494 feet, the same number as the last four digits in the telephone number for the pawn shop. As we were walking we discovered a big sand sculpture for Cripple Creek Donkey Derby Days, which was last weekend. Cripple Creek also had a band in the park, with a barbecue vendor, and homemade ice cream. They were really making the ice cream right there in these neat ice cream makers. We ended up eating a buffet lunch in the Double Eagle Casino, which was what you would expect from a casino buffet, filling but nothing to write home about. We decided to take the scenic route back to Cañon City, via Phantom Canyon Road. Our goal was the third stop of the day, the community college, where Marilyn is the Academic Advisor and Jay will be a teacher again this fall.

The Fremont Campus PCC hosts the community on their north lawn each Fourth of July for the past several years to enjoy entertainment and watch the Cañon City fireworks display from Skyline Road.  In the third picture, look for the antennae on the top of bluff, that’s where the fireworks will be shot from. The school offers popcorn and free watermelon donated by City Market (Krogers), water play for the kids, a bounce house, a live band, Applewood, and a grassy area to sit and play. The local 4H club had a food cart serving hot dogs, brats, and other festival type foods. Families brought full picnics, fast food dinners, quilts, camp chairs, etc to enjoy the evening. At 7 pm as I write this, sitting in the shade with a light wind blowing, it feels like the mid 70s, just wonderful. The band played 50s and 60s music which was great for us and the children dancing before the stage could care less, they were having a great time. The college had 3D glasses for sale for $1 each to watch the fireworks. I bought everyone a pair and we wondered what would happen when it got dark, with daylight the view was just slightly fuzzy with hints of color. Well, I am not sure I would want to watch fireworks without the 3D glasses again. The lenses fractured the view into 9 squares (I kept thinking about a nine patch quilt block), the center square was mostly clear and reflected the color of the firework, the other 8 surrounding squares were a reflective image of the firework in colors of red, blue and/or green. It was amazing and so much fun. We had perfect seats and the fireworks were plentiful. There was martial fireworks type of music playing from the bandstand, reminiscent of the Boston Pops Fourth of July programs we have seen on PBS stations over the years.

After helping Marilyn tote in tables and chairs, we rested inside the school for a little bit waiting for the crowd to leave. In addition to the people on the grass on the north lawn, there were hundreds of cars in the parking lot with families just sitting there to watch the fireworks. It was almost 11 pm by the time we got home, a long, yet wonderfully refreshing Fourth of July, a winner all way round. Hope your day was wonderful too.

This was the third wedding of a nephew in August for the Kenningtons.  There was a Kennington nephew wedding the first weekend of August, a Printz wedding the second weekend of August and our Kennington cousin’s wedding this weekend. My sister, Mary Beth is related to all of the weddings, mother of the groom for this weekend, aunt for the first and second. This was a wonderful weekend, so relaxing since I had no responsibilities except to be of service, and it felt like I was truly on vacation.

I was able to fly into Dulles airport and get picked up by Mary Beth. We spent the night at their house in Va and helped her husband, Richard, and son, Dave, pack up the car with all of the goodies for the drive to Virginia Beach the next day. On our drive down to the beach, we accidentally met up with our brother, Joe, his wife, Jane, and their family at a  Chick filet restaurant for a quick lunch. We stopped by the venue for the rehearsal dinner on our way to the Marriott hotel. Most of us had never been to Virginia Beach and really enjoyed seeing the ocean and the beach. Our brother Paul, his wife, Maggie, and daughter, Meredith, were already in Va Beach, staying with friends. We met for dinner at a very nice, casual seafood restaurant. It was quite festive and yummy. We returned to the hotel in a heavy rain, and had a 25th birthday cake for our niece, Jessie. Hurricane Dan was on his way and no one was sure how it would affect the wedding plans at this point, but plans for setting up the rehearsal dinner and picking up incoming guests continued. Several of us went up to Beth’s room to prepare the wedding guest welcome bags after a long day. We all slept well that night!

Friday, many of the family enjoyed the beach and or pool, walked down the boardwalk, etc. I went with Mary Beth, Richard and John, the groom, to pick up alcohol at Sam’s and to set up for the rehearsal dinner. When we got to the party venue, we set up tables, ironed tablecloths, decorated the tables with sand, shells, candles, etc, and set up the photo montage which was to play that night.

After getting back to the hotel, there wasn’t so much to do but relax and get ready for the rehearsal/party. Our sister, Mary Kay, my roommate, arrived on Friday afternoon, picked up at the airport by Joe and Jane, and our family contingent was complete. I got dropped off at the dinner venue to be there while the caterers set up, to meet the security guard, and greet early guests, while the Kennington family attended the rehearsal. One of the groomsman’s car got hit in the rear while waiting to turn into the church for the rehearsal. Fortunately, no one was hurt, although the car was totaled. That was a little excitement for the evening. But the rehearsal dinner was fabulous, the barbque was great, the photo montage was excellently prepared by the groom’s brother, Dave, and much enjoyed by everyone. A totally successful evening.

Saturday morning held a golf game for the guys. The hurricane stayed out to sea and didn’t threaten the wedding, besides some slight bands of rain, which did not fall on the golfers. The rest of the family enjoyed walks on the boardwalk, sitting out on the beach, and relaxing. Mary Beth and I rented beach chairs and an umbrella and sat in the shade and read until time to get ready for the wedding. See photo to prove I was outside on the beach! We then passed the beach chairs on to other family members who did not need as much prep time and didn’t need to get to the wedding early.

The wedding was wonderful, everyone looked beautiful, especially the family members. I loved Mary Beth’s dress, it was so beautiful and she just glowed. Everyone was so photogenic. This is the video montage of the wedding from Knox Studios by Laura’s dad.

The after wedding socialization took place in the lobby of the hotel. At sometime during the later evening, John’s cousins went out onto the beach and stamped a design in the sand in the dark. It could not be seen from our rooms which faced the Atlantic and the beach at night. But I got up early on Sunday, sat out on the patio of our room, read my book while I waited for the sun to rise. I took a series of photos, which included the beach zamboni grooming the sand and eventually obliterating the design. Anyone who was not an early riser would have missed the beautiful message of love from John’s talented cousins (Meredith, Jessie, Jenny, John D, Victoria. and brother Dave). I am pleased to post the photos here for the first time for everyone to enjoy.

We had an uneventful drive back to Fairfax after loading up Richard’s and John’s cars with gifts, clothes, and leftover wedding miscellaneous and hugging family members good-bye. After a relaxing evening remembering the lovely weekend, Mary Beth took me back to the airport for my flights home on Monday morning. It was a wonderful weekend, enjoying my family, being of service, yet with no responsibility. I thank Mary Beth and Richard for being wonderful hosts, Mary Kay for being a great roommate, and Jay for giving me the time to spend with my family guilt free.

We had a wonderful Father’s Day. It started at 7:30 am when we left the house to meet our friends, Tim and Marilyn, at the foot of our driveway. Tim works part time in the pawn shop and fishes with Jay, Marilyn is an Assistant Dean at Pueblo Community College Fremont Campus, where Jay taught last spring. Our first target was Salida CO for the annual FIBArk Whitewater Festival. We got to see the freestyle kayak finals, wandered through the park and vendors, then had lunch at the Boathouse Cantina restaurant, right on the Arkansas river, where we had seating at an open window, with a view of the river antics. Watching the dogs enjoy the water was especially entertaining. After delicious fish tacos, chips and salsa, we left lovely Salida and headed out for stop 2.

Our second target was Elevenmile Canyon, through which the South Platte River runs. This was where Jay, Tim, and Charlie fished last Thursday. The river was running briskly, the water was high and the banks were littered with fisherpersons of both sexes, campers and their families enjoying the brisk water, and plenty of dogs! We saw several groups of people with climbing gear, attempting to climb the vertical cliffs. Without fishing equipment, we took only pictures, and although the guys caught trout on Thursday, we did not see any of them for dinner, since this is a catch and release area primarily. We took a rough dirt forest service road out of the park, heading to Guffey, CO. This forest road was bumpy, lumpy, and rough, but not the worst we have been on. Thank goodness for high clearance in the Tahoe. On the way to our third stop, we visited Spinney  Mountain reservoir, which feeds the part of  South Platte River that runs through Elevenmile canyon. You can use fishing boats on this reservoir, and I think Jay was totally scoping out boat launches for his 16′ bass boat that is sitting in our garage.

Our next stop was Guffey CO, to have a snack on the way home. Guffey is a small rustic mountain town, which the guys visited on Thursday as well. The Guffey garage was open, but looked like no garage we had ever seen. It seemed like a museum, which in effect it was. It was very eclectic, with lots of animal skulls and skeletons around. Bill, the proprietor, owned all of the historic buildings in town and sent us on to explore the City Hall Saloon and Museum on our own, giving Marilyn the key since she seemed reliable! LOL, which she is. Along side the closed antique store were a row of claw foot bathtubs. Marilyn insisted that we take a picture in the tubs, apparently not a unique idea in this town. Bill invited us to come to his 25th Annual Fourth of July Chicken Fly.  At first I thought this might be like a pumpkin chunk-in, but it isn’t. Apparently chickens like to fly, so they take them up a short tower, and release them somehow to see how far they can fly. The record was 138 feet, if memory serves. Bill says he has about 150 chickens on his property available to rent for the chicken fly or you can bring your won chicken. There will also be an antique car show, 3 bands, food, etc. We all agreed that this would be our 4th of July activity this year. One of the more bizarre displays Bill had in the yard, was a prison wagon, driven by a pretend human skeleton, pulled by the actual real skeletons of two horses. I asked Bill if he knew the horses and he gave us their names, and offered that they had been shot, but no further details. He said he had two more horse skeletons to put together, but the animals kept dragging the bones away and he didn’t think he had enough to put them together anymore. The local bar was quaint and cool, and fun. We all shared an appetizer plate of nachos, with a beverage of choice, before heading home to Westcliffe. We look forward to additional visits to Guffey CO, especially on the 4th of July this year. Guffey may become one of the regular tourist stops for our guests, it was that unique.

Father’s Day calls from the kids topped off the day, they found us in various and sundry places throughout the day, sending their good wishes for a nice Father’s Day to Jay.

Ok, this post was timely (kind of), watch for another post from 2009 coming soon.

More old stories never published, but which should have been:

We had a great time at Matt and Molly’s wedding. Everything went off smoothly and it was a lot of fun. We love Molly and we have known her and her parents for years. It is so nice to have in-laws that you already know and can be comfortable with right away.

It was great to meet Molly’s extended family and for her family to meet ours, including Jen’s parents, Rikki and Jerry who came from San Francisco to join us. On Saturday morning we scheduled a 2 hour driving tour of Austin, which included a stop at Mayfield Park, the wedding site. The bus was exclusively family, Molly’s and Matt’s. So the aunts and uncles got to meet each other socially in a relaxed setting before the wedding and the Welcome to Austin dinner party that evening. I even agreed to wear a Birthday Hat in honor of my birthday for the whole tour and while walking to the restaurant for lunch afterwards. People driving down the street would honk at me and those walking, smiled and waived.

Our Welcome to Austin event was a Tex Mex buffet at the Iron Cactus Restaurant in downtown Austin on 6^th street, within walking distance to the hotel. Everything went very well, the food was great and plentiful. We even had enough leftovers for dinner the next night. We had name tags with a picture of either a groom or a bride, so we could identify how the family and friends were connected to Matt and to Molly. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Some guests left early to try to catch the nightly flight of the bats under the bridge adjacent to the wedding hotel. Apparently my siblings had ordered a birthday cake for my brother Paul and me, our birthdays are 3 days apart. But I never got the message and headed back to our lodgings after the party. But they bravely carried on without me, wishing me happy birthday in absentia.

Austin is a great city, I appreciate it more each time that I visit. M&M had selected Mayfield Park for the outdoor ceremony at 10:30 am on Sunday. It is a beautiful park with lush foliage and many peacocks wandering around. The Rabbi was great, the weddin itself was short, and the ceremony very moving. Molly and Matt have 4 siblings in total, just enough to hold the 4 corners of the chuppah. The reception was indoors at a synagogue about 3 miles away. Molly and her mom, Cathy, did a great job of organizing the reception. There were vegan and kosher options on the brunch buffet catered by Whole Foods Market, something for everyone. It was nice to be indoors away from the August heat. Even though the wedding was early in the day, the outdoor setting was a tad warm and everyone was glad to get inside where they could take off their suit coats. Matt and Molly bravely smiled through the familial toasts, numerous photographers’ efforts, including the professional photographer. Matt and Molly left for their honeymoon night at the famous Driscoll Hotel, and their parents saw the wedding guests off on their way safely home.

Sunday night those of us left in town met down at the hotel to catch the bats nightly swarm from under the bridge. We missed the beginning of the flight, but there are so many bats, that we still had time to see many streams of bats leaving for their search for flying insects. We had a great time in Austin and look forward to many future visits to see our two Printz families now living there.

I received a lovely email from my sister-in-law, Maggie, about her family’s Memorial Day traditions and stories of her family’s military service. I learned so much and I felt it was worth publishing here. After all, Maggie’s family is our family too, in a related sort of way. Maggie agreed to let me share her story. Thank you, Maggie. Enjoy!

Dear Barb,

So glad you enjoyed the day. Memorial Day was always a big deal in my house growing up. Both my parents had served in WWII.

My dad was active duty prior to the war and was, in fact, stationed in Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. He was getting ready to be discharged; his enlistment was up but instead spent the next 4 years fighting battles in the South Pacific. He had three ships sunk while he was serving, one of which when he was the commander. He received the Bronze Star as a result of his actions that day. His first Commanding Officer after Pearl had been stationed in the Phillipines.  The CO’s wife remained there and was eventually taken prisoner of war for the duration of the war. The war profoundly affected my dad.

Every year he took us to the Memorial Day program where he was always asked to sing the opening Star Spangled Banner. Then we would march in the parade carrying flowers mom had cut from our garden. (usually purple irises). Dad would meet us at the cemetery and show me the graves of his friends where we would put the flowers. It was always very emotional. After he died I was always a little sad on that day hoping some little girl was putting flowers on his grave.

Mom joined the WAC after Pearl Harbor and was in the first group of women in the country to become officers in the WAC. Her stories were much different but she reached the rank of Major and by the end of the war was serving at the Pentagon. Later after my brother, Bill, was born, she was selected by the Governor of the State of Connecticut to serve, as the first woman in the state on the Governor’s Board and as part of his Honor Guard. At the parade on Memorial Day the American Legion Auxiliary always marched. As a little girl I asked my mom why she did not join. She just smiled and told me she did not qualify. When she died she was honored by the Orange, CT  American Legion Post as a member of the American Legion. Bill told me that was why she did not “qualify” for the Legion Auxiliary. She couldn’t march with my dad as part of the Legion because in the 50’s, the women were not invited to march with the men. I think not marching with the Auxiliary was her own quiet protest.

Then Bill joined the Marines during Viet Nam. He served as a Marine Recon officer. They were the guys they dropped out of a helicopter in the jungle and came back 3 weeks later to pick up whoever was left. He experienced a lot of pretty awful things. His life was also profoundly impacted by his experiences. Every year he takes his family to the Veteran’s Day Parade and the Memorial Day Celebrations in Denver. He attends annual reunions with his unit and has made a video of his photographs to the music of the 1960s. Someday if you visit I will show it to you. Watching it is an experience. The guys in the pictures look sooo young.

So, I guess you see why it was so important to Becky to be able serve. When my mom lived with us, Becky would sit and listen to her stories.

At one point during WWII, my grandparents were told my father’s ship had sunk and he had died. They had a Gold Star in their window. A few weeks went by and the dust settled. As soon as my father had the chance, he called them and told them a handful of men had survived and had been rescued. My grandparents changed the colored star in their window back to blue. They said it was the happiest day of their lives.

Enough rambling, glad you enjoyed the day. It means a lot.

Maggie

Any wonder that Maggie married a Navy officer, my brother, Paul?

Note to Matt: I just started reading Cryptonomicon after many years of encouragement from you. Interesting that it is partly set in WWII in the Pacific Ocean theater. Coincidence…. ? there is no such things as coincidence.

Memorial Day 2010. I have attended every Memorial Day service in Westcliffe since we moved here, which makes 3 times. I am embarrassed to say that I did not give Memorial Day adequate attention in my pre-Colorado life. This is such a close knit community, many veterans are my friends, and the town has parades and activities on the Saturday before Memorial Day, it has become a meaningful day to me. Additionally, my dad died in early August 2007, the first year we were here. I think that first attendance was in honor of him, as much as anything.

This year was meaningful because my nephew, Jeff, has been serving in Afghanistan this past year and will be returning to Fort Lewis, WA in a few weeks. I thought of him alot. The day was gorgeous, blue skies, light clouds, snow dusted mountains as a back drop. I forgot the sun screen that I reminded myself to use as I was dressing, so I got a little too much sun on my neck and arms, but it was worth it.

I was particularly moved by two of the speakers. The representative of the American Legion Auxiliary is a mother of a young Marine, currently serving in Iraq a “blue star” mom. She talked about how the American Legion Auxiliary Red Poppy got its name, and about her concerns for and her pride in her son. She has a young dog that she takes to visit wounded veterans for therapy, schools, and other programs to talk about not forgetting our veterans. She is collecting donations for our soldiers and sending boxes to Iraq and Afghanistan each month. She made a comment that I thought I would remember so I could post it here, but I didn’t, so I can’t, but take my word for it, I liked it and it brought a tear to my eye. Should have brought a notebook!

The second speaker was Dave Roever. He is a wounded veteran of the Viet Nam war and has created Eagles Summit Ranch here in the beautiful Westcliffe valley. He has been bringing wounded soldiers to his ranch for healing and therapy for three years. I have not been to one of their graduation ceremonies,  but I understand it is an amazing experience as the soldiers talk about their journey and what this experience meant to them. Dave is a minister, motivational speaker, and a genuine mover and shaker in the efforts to help our returning soldiers. I understand that a Texas ranch is in the works as well. Here is an article from Fort Carson about this program.  I had heard a lot about Dave from my friends, and it was great to hear him in person.

It was also special to have soldiers from a Fort Carson Medical Unit, recently returned from a tour of duty in the middle east on hand. They had set up one of their portable medical units for people to tour and learn about their jobs. They got a standing ovation when introduced. There was also a mounted Honor Guard, there is probably a name for this, but I don’t know it. There were 2 soldiers with swords on either side of soldiers carrying the American and Colorado state flags. The four horses to my eyes, were perfectly matched in color and size and were well trained. The soldiers were dressed in what looked like historic cavalry officers uniforms. They were a very nice addition to the program. And finally, we had a fly over by two jets from the Colorado National Guard. Last year the weather was too overcast and the fly over had to be canceled.

I wonder at these events, if I could qualify as a member of the American Legion Auxilliary because I have a neice and nephew currently serving in the Coast Guard and Army, respectively, or as the daughter of a veteran of WWII? Maybe one of these days, I will ask. There were quite a few families / individuals who stood when prompted as “Blue Star Families”, and unfortunately, there was one lady who stood at the prompt for “Gold Star Families”, which meant a family member had died in service to their country during a war or military action. The original “Blue, Silver or Gold Stars” displayeed in the window of a family’s home started in 1917 during WWI.  There is now a revived movement for Blue Star Families, using all of cybertechnology to enhance support for the families and their soldiers.

In conclusion, I would like to honor our family members who have or are currently serving in our military: Army, Navy, Coast Guard.   William Barber – WWI, OP Doyle Sr, Andy O’Connell, Marty O’Connell, WWII, OP Doyle Jr, Mike Means, Spc. Jeffrey Doyle, Lt. Rebecca Doyle. I thank you for your service.

I only have one picture from the Memorial Day Program presented by our American Legion Post 170. It shows the mounted Honor Guard, the riderless or caparisoned horse – honoring a fallen leader, and a few of our American Legion motorcycle Honor Guard, and of course, the mountains.

It has been so long since I have posted anything on my blog… I admit, I have been seduced by Facebook. I think that I am staying caught up with what the family and friends are doing and that they likewise look at my posts and know what is up. Unfortunately, that is not true, many people with FB pages, rarely visit them to see what is up, and I don’t say as much as I did when I was blogging. I have had several requests to reactivate my attention to my blog. It hasn’t gone anywhere, I had moved away from it. So I am making that commitment to you, that I will make a concerted effort to write more frequently and perhaps shorter blogs, which will take less time to complete. I know you can’t imagine  it, but I write and re-read, and edit, and re-read several times before I publish… hence my head telling me I don’t have enough time to write a post, do it later and later kept getting further and further away.

So my first story will be about Jay. He hurt his wrist while fishing in the Arkansas river on May 7th. It was a slip and fall on the wet rocks and resulted in a slight fracture of a bone in his left wrist. The orthopedist gave him a cloth splint to wear and it is healing. He can do everything at the shop,  and even fish in it. It is still sore, but much better than in the beginning.  On Sunday, May 16th, Jay took me with him fishing. We went to Grape Creek, not too far out of town, and after an 8 or 9 mile ride on kidney pounding rough road, we hiked along a stream to the flowing creek. It was beautiful… rushing water, boulders in the creek, sun shining, and I learned one thing about fishing for trout in Colorado. No one stays put. It is cast out three or four times, move on, cast, move on, repeat as necessary. This was ok, as I was out for the exercise and fresh air and didn’t know what to expect. Perhaps next time I’ll bring a folding chair, find a scenic view in the shade, and relax and read my book. After all, he’d have to pass my way to get to the car and I couldn’t get lost. We’ll see if I ever get invited out again.

On his second stop, first cast, Jay caught a really nice rainbow trout. He is all catch and release, so the fish got to have the chance to try, try again. Jay said it was about three quarter pound. He had some other nibbles but they were much smaller and didn’t take his lure. But as in quilting sometimes, it is the process, not the product that matters. Being outside in the fresh air, enjoying the scenery and the day, and performing the motions of fishing was what mattered.

Jay takes every opportunity that he can to fish. One of the perks of living here in the mountains is the abundance of locations with beautiful scenery to enjoy nature, whether fishing, hiking, skiing, or looking for gold. Come and check it out for yourself.

I will be posting stories from the past in random order, bear with me… eventually I will get caught up.  Thanks Matt for making it easier to add the pictures, that will help me too. Until next time….. have a great day!