Schweitzer in Spring

 

Our family takes a yearly trip to Schweitzer. When the kids were in high school we would go in February over mid-winter break to ski.  We have also gone in the summer for the mountain biking.  This year our family ski trip landed in March due to college breaks.  The last 3 years we have stayed in a condo up in the ski resort.  It has the right number of bedrooms and configuration to accomodate our entire family plus a few extra teenage boys.  All the males spend their time on the slopes, and the the girls and I cook, eat and take the grandkids to the beach park down the hill in Sandpoint, on beautiful Lake Pend Oreille.

Of course, Grandma has to get out there and sled with the grandkids. Both Evelyn and Douglas really prefer to get in the sled and be pulled along with a tow rope as Mom, Auntie and Grandma go for a walk.






Here, Odie and I are considering my trajectory.

Rachel, Douglas and I with Becca and Evelyn at the Beach Park in Sandpoint.  The kids loved to play on the toys.
Evelyn was particularly fond of the twirly slide.  Douglas was mostly enamored with climbing stairs.  He did come down the twirly slide on his tummy once all by himself.

 

Even though the days were beautiful and sunny, the wind coming off the lake was cold. The kids were active enough they didn't seem to mind the chill.

Here we have Becca the Patriotic.........

Sandpoint has random statues here and there.  This Lady Liberty at the end of a jetty out in the lake, and great little brass carvings on downtown street corners. I love encountering little surprises like this to treasure.

Seasonal Spring Chairs

I know it is passed St. Patrick's Day, but I wanted to share my holiday chairs with you. Even though it has been a mild winter, not too many flowers are blooming in March, so one is pretty well limited to primroses to celebrate the "wearin of the green".

The little green glass totem I made from miscellaneous items I picked up at a thrift store to add some color.  It actually looked better next to the other chair up on the deck next to the front door.

          My Easter Chairs
 

Still limited to primroses, the Easter chairs needed a bit of color, so I added easter eggs and a darling little teapot in spring colors I had on hand.

Sumo Satsuma

A few days ago I was in Whole Foods doing some shopping, when I spied this large wrinkly fruit.  The sign said "Sumo Satsumas".   They looked so unusual I just had to buy one to try it out.  I took it home so my kids could give it a taste. As you can tell they are huge compared to the regular Satsuma in the above picture.  In fact it was so big everyone in the family got a bite.  They are amazingly sweet- even more so than the regular satsumas in side by side comparison.

Love What You Do: Do What You Love

This is me doing what I love- out in the woods, hiking with dogs.  I also love going to lakes and rivers so my dogs can swim and in warm weather I'm out there in the water with them.  I also like to ride my mountain bike on mountain trails with my dogs.  The two goldens in the foreground are Dexter (with the quizzical look on his face) and his big brother Dunn that were mentioned in yesterday's post.  Merlin, a Belgian shepherd is peeking over my shoulder. There is another Belgian shepherd and a springer spaniel just out of camera shot. Just behind me and up to the right is a roaring waterfall that was also out of the shot. Exercise, gorgeous surroundings and great company.... what a cool way to spend the day.

A Walk in the Park

Becca and I took 2 golden retrievers named Dexter and Dunn to Marymoor Park for a walk.  As we were walking next to the Sammamish slough we passed a tree filled with Great Blue Herons and their nests.  We counted at least 12 herons, some actually sitting in their nests. As they would take off to fly away it was an amazing sight.

Leaders of the Pack

 

This is George Albert White, the patriarch of the White family and my mother Ruthe's father (my grandfather).  My mother adored him and talked about him all the time. He was born in Toronto Canada in 1881 the oldest of 4 surviving children. His father, George Charles White owned a string of butcher shops and apparently the result of hard work and hard drinking died at the age of 45 when grandpa was barely 12. Grandpa had to quit school and take a job driving a team of horses pulling a butchers wagon to help his mother Anna support the family. Grandpa eventually turned to the culinary arts and became a chef at a hotel in Toronto where he met his wife Rachel Evelyn Dean Major while she worked there as a waitress. My mother told me the story that Rae's roommates had dared her to go into the kitchen after hours and steal a roasted chicken for them to eat, and George caught her in the act!

This is Rachel Evelyn Dean Major White. I don't have any early pictures of her or information on her childhood. My mother related that Rae's mother Lydia had 13 children, and unable to care for them put all but the baby in a convent orphanage. There is not much information about her early years.   She and George married on October 10, 1905 and settled down in Toronto and had the first child Leola on January 10, 1907 soon to be followed by 4 more children born in Toronto, Fred, Anna Mae, Grayce and George Ernest (known as Ernie).

 George Albert's younger brother Ernest had moved to San Bernardino, California to work for the Santa Fe Railroad and was killed in a train wreck in 1912 at the age of 30.  When his mother Annie and her two youngest children, Walter and Edna came to Cailfornia for the funeral, they fell in love with the climate and decided to stay.  George and Rae followed two years later with their brood of 5 children.  The sixth child, my mother Ruthe, was born in San Bernardino January 23 1915, the only one to be born in a hospital ( St. Bernardines).

With the whole White clan now settled in San Bernardino, the two brothers with their own hands built three houses for the family in a small compound in the same southwest neighborhood near San Bernardino Valley College. Walter and George each had a house and one for their mother Annie.  Both brothers started working for the Santa Fe, with Grandpa again working as a chef.

Sam's Mission Farewell

 

Sam gave a talk in church today- the last one he will give before he leaves on his mission April 10 to Indiana, where he will spend the next 2 years of his life.  Talking in church in front of a congregation is not his favorite thing to do, but he did a great job. He wasn't sure he could fill the allotted time given, but he did just fine. Sam is such an outgoing personable kid and is quick to engage people.

 

His talk started with an introduction of himself and where he is being sent on his mission.  Then he shared his reason for joining the church.  When he was a small boy in Thailand he didn't know either his mom or dad well.  He was raised by extended family first on his mom's side, then his dad's, and they continued to switch back and forth.  He never felt like he had a close family unit.  He missed having someone he could come to and share that he had gotten a good grade at school, or had done well at sports. There was no one he was close enough to who would be excited with him about his accomplishments. That was what attracted him most about the Mormon church- the emphasis that was placed on families, and all the families that he became acquainted with in the church that seemed to have that closeness that he desired. He made the decision that he wanted that more than anything for his own family that he would someday have.

 

After he was baptized and joined the church, he was sure that he would never go on a mission.  He had finally found a family where he felt like he belonged, and did not want to pack up and leave for 2 years. It was even a hard decision for him to go away to college, rather than attending the local college where he could stay in town and live at home, which is what his brother Jared had decided to do. We strongly encouraged him to give it a try, and he found a friend at our church that agreed to be his room mate at BYU so he took the plunge.  It turned out to be a remarkable semester for him. Most of his room mates were returned missionaries that shared their mission experiences with him, and encouraged him to go, and assured him that he would never regret it.

 

One night at school he was walking back to his apartment from the gym by himself.  It was a beautiful night with the moon shining and the temple lit up against the night sky.  As he was walking he heard a voice tell him that he really needed to serve a mission. He committed to do so.  He has never looked back. Once he made the decision to go, he started working towards his goal while still at college, getting his physical  and immunizations taken care of on his own.  He has studied and prayed and read his scriptures, and made every effort to prepare himself.

 

We are proud of this young man and know that he will touch many lives in Indiana.  Mostly, we know that he will be changed by this experience. He will work hard and lose himself in the service of others for 2 years and come home the better man because of it.

Maltby Cafe

Yesterday was Becca's day off, and she knew I needed to go to Maltby to Flower World ( a fabulous nursery) to pick up some flowers to decorate some pots for a friend. My friend Marie Davidson and I have traded labor, I do her pots for her deck each season and she does sewing and tailoring for me.  We each get to trade something we don't like to do and are not very good at for something we enjoy and have a flair for.

Since I was headed up north Becca suggested we go to the Maltby Cafe for breakfast.  The Malby Cafe is an institution in the Seattle area for scrumptious food and large portions.  It is a little out of the way, and situated in an old school house, with little advertising or signage but draws a crowd every day.

They are famous for their cinnamon buns which are literally the size of a dinner plate. My breakfast favorite is the eggs benedict, which they serve over buttermilk biscuits instead of english muffins, with thick slabs of tender country ham instead of canadian bacon.  The picture above was Becca's breakfast which was the California eggs benedict which included avocado and tomatoes.We both cleaned our plates. It was that good. We were both so stuffed, that we appreciated the opportunity to stroll thru acres of greenhouses at the nursery.

Ruthe Remembered

 Ruthe (mom), Grayce, Leola and Betty Jeanne

Above is a picture of 3 of the 4 White sisters- Anna Mae is missing.  I am not sure what year this photo was taken, so I am not sure if Anna Mae was still alive at this time. Betty Jeanne is Leola's daughter. Betty once commented to me that by age 12 she was 5'8" tall and looked like she was 18, which makes it even harder to determine what year this is.

One of the reasons that I was so excitied to go visit So. Cal. is because Betty had mentioned that she had pictures of mom as a child that I knew I had never seen.

Mom is in the middle of this photo, it looks like Grayce on the right. I am not sure who is on the left, perhaps Anna Mae- I know for sure it's not Leola.

This is a picture of grandma Rae with four of her kids.  Mom (Ruthe) is in the front, Ernie in the back, and I am guessing Grayce behind Mom.  I am not sure if the last child is Leola or Anna Mae.

 

This is Rae with her mother and 5 of her 6 kids- Fred is missing. Mom is standing on the left in the plaid dress. Anna Mae is seated in the chair, then Ernie, Grayce and Leola standing next to Rae.

 

This is Oliver Krug with mom (on left) and Vivian Morite (Childress), who was mom's cousin. Oliver cuts quite the dashing figure- that's some coat with interesting chest pockets.

 

 

 This is Mom as a young teen with Leola and others I can't identify.

 

These old photos are such a treasure! I am so grateful that Betty has held onto all these photo albums so that I can share these pictures with my children and grand-children.

 

The House That Built Me

This is the house that my parents bought brand new in 1950 for $9000. It was the only home I knew until I grew up and married.  I drove by it when I was back in San Bernardino two weeks ago revisiting old stomping grounds.  Not much has changed other than different paint, a new light fixture by the front porch, and a new cinder block wall, with a new wooden gate over the driveway, that they moved a little closer to the street than where we had the old chain link fence/gate.  They have painted the brick on the front of the house a darker color.  My mom always kept that brick painted white, no matter the color the rest of the house was painted. That color change is the one thing that stands out to me the most and makes our old house look the least familiar.  I could tell that the patio awning was still attached to the garage, and I assume the swimming pool is still there- after all that was the best part of that house. Amazingly, even the old swamp cooler is still hanging out of the dining room window. Hopefully they have painted over the grafitti that my friends painted all over the inside of the garage.

All my childhood memories are associated with that house.  The 3 bedroom/1 bath house was about 1100 sq feet and built in a circular floor plan.  That circle of rooms was a constant source of amusement for my brothers and myself.  We used to race around the house being followed by any assortment of dogs and siblings.  There was a gas floor furnace in the living room that had a vent through the wall into the hallway.  If I got down on the floor in the hallway, I could look through that vent and watch the TV in the living room for hours after I had been sent to bed by my parents. I remember lying in bed in the front bedroom on a hot summer night with all the windows open and being frightened by hearing footsteps of someone walking through the ivy right outside my bedroom window, until I got old enough to realize it was just a resident frog jumping through the ivy looking for a meal.

Speaking of scary experiences, I remember one night when my parents were gone and I was being tended by my two older brothers and someone had the bright idea to get sleeping bags and sleep in my wooden playhouse outside in the back yard.  Sounded like a fun sibling bonding time, until my brother Rick said he had to go to the bathroom in the house, but in reality put on a wolf mask and came back and growled at me through the little glass window and scared me to death.

I certainly remember all the dogs, cats, birds, ducks and rabbits that we had through the years that are buried in that back yard.  Also "Mommy's Play Pen", which was a sign that my dad had made to hang on the gate to mom's garden. I remember the large Chinese Elm in the back yard where dad would hang the rabbits he got hunting to skin them. Then there was mom's orchid tree in the front yard (still there) that split in two during a wind storm, but Rick was able to save it by wiring it back together.

I remember all the slumber parties, pool parties, summer barbeques, and Christmas baking days with extended family.  I remember a whole lot of card playing on the dining room table.  I remember my brother Mike always annoying one of my cats that would sleep on top of the refrigerator where it was warm.  He couldn't walk by that cat without pulling its tail. Truly, it was the house that built me.

The neighborhood still looks much the same as it did when I lived there.  The block has been nicely maintained by the owners, yards well-kept, etc, but surprisingly no major remodels or rebuilds of surrounding houses, no second stories added on, etc., so it is all very familiar. The junior high school at the end of the block and the elementary school close by are unchanged.  I watched a gym class run around the track at Golden Valley Junior High still wearing shorts & tshirts in the gold & black of the "Knights".

 I guess I shouldn't be surprised that those schools have had no recent upgrades to those 50+ year old schools as San Bernardino is one of the California cities that has gone bankrupt. It appears that unless some bailout magically appears the city will soon unincorporate and go back to county governance. No police department, no fire department, no mayor or city council. The downtown core of "E" street that held all the department stores (Harris', Montgomery Wards, Sears, JC Penney's)before malls were invented are long gone.When I was in high school we used to "cruise" E street up and down in front of the original McDonalds with the golden arches (San Bernardino's only claim to fame).  That original McDonalds is still there, however it is now a McDonalds museum, no longer the first fast food restaraunt known to man. A lot of my time was spent at that place while I was in high school- it was a major hangout after football games and a place to meet friends. I still remember my standard order: a fish sandwich, fries and a strawberry shake.

It is so interesting how a place can be such a part of one's life. No matter how old I get, or how much I travel, San Bernardino and that house will always be home.