Well, the old coot made it. Dad turned 94 on Thursday. Mom cooked a birthday dinner for the family - mom, dad, my sister Linda, aunt Emilie, cousin Sandra and yours truly plus dad's best pal Ron Leithead and Ron's best pal Brenda. Dad seemed to really enjoy it. He had a couple of cocktails and was regaling the masses with stories from his time in Dutch Harbor during the Second World War. There were even a couple of stories I had not heard before.
The old boy also received congratulatory calls from a number of friends and family including my buddy, Martha Stewart, who is very busy helping Congress stimulate us back in D.C. The folks were most appreciative of the calls.
My sole contribution to the festivities was a carrot cake...which is one of dad's favourite breakfast foods. He was munching away on it yesterday morning when I was over to do the chores.
Yesterday was a double-ugly in the weather department. About five inches or so of fresh snow in the morning followed by serious rain. I woke up several times last night to the sound of large clumps of wet snow falling from the trees and hitting the roof. Which of course is better than TREES hitting the roof - but startling nonetheless. I was contemplating going to a high school basketball game last evening; but my driveway was so slippery and the weather so nasty I chickened-out.
And speaking of weather, mom just called and told me not to come over to do chores this morning. Their parking area is solid ice with a couple inches of water on top. She just saw the teenage neighbor boy fall down. (What self-respecting teenager is up at 9 AM on Saturday morning?) I cut lots of wood yesterday so they have plenty on the porch for another day. Good enough for me. A rare day off!
In other news, I offer the pic below from CNN under the headline "Scabby the Rat Comes Out Winner in Free Speech Battle." The gist of the story being that union organizers may display their 10-foot-tall rat-shaped balloon outside of establishments with which they have a dispute notwithstanding the local ordinance relating to maintenance of an "aesthetic environment."
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/05/scabby.rat.free.speech/index.html
The old boy also received congratulatory calls from a number of friends and family including my buddy, Martha Stewart, who is very busy helping Congress stimulate us back in D.C. The folks were most appreciative of the calls.
My sole contribution to the festivities was a carrot cake...which is one of dad's favourite breakfast foods. He was munching away on it yesterday morning when I was over to do the chores.
Yesterday was a double-ugly in the weather department. About five inches or so of fresh snow in the morning followed by serious rain. I woke up several times last night to the sound of large clumps of wet snow falling from the trees and hitting the roof. Which of course is better than TREES hitting the roof - but startling nonetheless. I was contemplating going to a high school basketball game last evening; but my driveway was so slippery and the weather so nasty I chickened-out.
And speaking of weather, mom just called and told me not to come over to do chores this morning. Their parking area is solid ice with a couple inches of water on top. She just saw the teenage neighbor boy fall down. (What self-respecting teenager is up at 9 AM on Saturday morning?) I cut lots of wood yesterday so they have plenty on the porch for another day. Good enough for me. A rare day off!
In other news, I offer the pic below from CNN under the headline "Scabby the Rat Comes Out Winner in Free Speech Battle." The gist of the story being that union organizers may display their 10-foot-tall rat-shaped balloon outside of establishments with which they have a dispute notwithstanding the local ordinance relating to maintenance of an "aesthetic environment."
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/05/scabby.rat.free.speech/index.html
Scabby the Rat. I want one of these...
Finally, from the archives, my first grade class picture.
Front row left to right: Adrian Birch, Max Nix, Pam Jones, Jim Trucano, Danny Thomas, Cyd Dwyer, Gaby Rampkee, Terry Cook, Nancy Pagenkoph, Gilbert Knutson.
Middle Row: Sandy Stichler, Dick Thomas, Wayne Coogan (?), Beni Norvell, Carol Berryhill(?), Bob Chapman, Elmer Lindstrom, , Patrick Mitchell, Susan Fuller (?), Linda Douglas (?).
Back Row: Milo Davis, Carl Mielke, Lamar Riddle, Joe Johnson, Lauren Cutler, Sandra Riddell, Chuck Nygaard, Mitch Hogan, Larry Jurgeleit, Danny Graves, Linda Modean, Mrs. Crites.
Boy, not doing too good. Although a couple of names are right on the tip of my tongue. HELP!!!
First grade was fine...but can't say I have a lot of specific memories. Although I did like Mrs. Crites. We got to have recess in the big back-of-the-school playground instead of the wimpy kindergarten playground. Each grade would take recess at the same time...so we could play with the first graders from the other class (I'm pretty sure there were only two classes for each grade every year I was at Harborview). We had two recesses each day - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I THINK they were only 15 minutes long.
The classes were pretty big - looks like 32 present the day of the picture. I THINK it was in second grade when we were separated from all the Mendenhall Valley kids who transferred to the first elementary school in the valley. Classes got smaller for a year or two.
Recess was fun. I was particularly fond of the monkey bars on which we would play tag. I'm sure monkey bars have long since been banned from school playgrounds.
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