Big, Big Birthday News
October 23, 2009   Elizabeth Victoria Nordstrand
born to Molly and Chris
making Liz and Paul Grandma and Grandpa
and Betty Abbott and me Great-Grandmothers

        My dear daughter-in-law, Liz, and my great-grandson, Skyler share the 13th for their birthdays.

Liz & Libby
(courtesy of Molly's Facebook)

Skyler on his 5th Birthday
(courtesy of Heather's Facebook)

        My Dad was an October guy.

Joe Pfister

from Anne and Dave: (This is from the last few days they spent with Russ and Jana in Flagstaff)

          Today is Thu and Dave, Russ & I are off to the Grand Canyon for hikes (Jana has classes in the middle of the day again). Dave & Russ are going to hike the Grandview Trail to Horseshoe Mesa from Desert View (that's on the east end of the rim area). It is quite a long hike and somewhat strenuous, so I am going to do the Bright Angel Trail that starts right at the village. Dave & I did the East Kaibab trail two years ago, so I'm hopeful that I can do this.

          Friday we all Russ, Jana, Dave & I are toying with the idea of Antelope Canyon and one of the slot canyons, or a trip to Sedona to play on the sliprock in the river...it's much colder in Flag and at the rim of the Grand Canyon than it is in Sedona

          Yesterday after the museum trip we drove up to the Snowbowl ski area on San Francisco Peaks. We took a short 1 hr hike there up thru the pine and aspen woods. It was quite pretty, but cold. San Francisco Peaks is the remnant of an old volcano (dormant, but could become alive again). It had been 16k+ feet high...that's 2k more than Rainier, and what is left is the caldera (kind of like St Helens) and a few peaks around the rim of the caldera. It's pretty interesting to learn about all these geology things!

*****

October 1, 2009  This is a Red Letter Day for me.  Today I did my first ever right click on my mouse!  and it worked!  I sent a picture from the Internet to Nancy all by myself!  Now, if I can just remember exactly what I did, I may be able to do it again, sometime.

*****

          Oct. 3.. Baby shower for Molly, who is expecting a baby girl, already named Libby, in November. Such darling gifts.  Obviously chosen for a little girl.  Liz knit a striped top and leg warmers to match in an unusual combination of brown and green, and is using 4 very fine double ended needles to knit a tiny dress in gray and black.  Libby will surely have an eclectic wardrobe.
           (As we now know, Libby didn’t wait for November, but made her entrance into the world on October 23… as noted above)

            Just had a call from long time friend  Irene Mason... She played 18 holes at Jackson and does not ride a cart.  I believe she is 85 -6, and I am very proud of her

          We are busy collecting estimates for new gutters for the house.  Yesterday’s rain made plain that we are in need of them.  Looking out our dining room window showed tiny streams of water leaking from the current ones, just another reminder that this is an old house…

          I am working on the final editing for the BOOK.  Priscilla tells us the next step will be designing and the whole thing may be ready for publishing in the Spring, if they can get a grant for it.  It’s a good thing I am not holding my breath !

Hi Gma- (This is from my dear granddaughter, Heather, who is deaf)

I wanted to comment about your being named "Special Senior" for your  many stories published.  In addition to it being a life change for  you, it has opened a window for me to see stories about the family  members around you and yourself.  Words are lost on my ears and I  don't catch everything I try to lip-read or Mom is only able to  interpret so fast.  Thank goodness for what you enjoy and take the  time to do!  Not only is it fun for me but once they are in print, we  can re-read your stories, and people out there discover connections to  the people and places you have written about.  It is a permanent gift  to your family and the community.  Thanks, Gma!

Heather...
          Your note really pleased me.  I love the fact that you get a feeling of family closeness from my stories.  My original reason for writing them was because I wanted upcoming generations of my family  to know something about my parents and the families they came from because these people have meant so much to me.
             What I didn't expect was that they would be appreciated  by others outside the family circle.  A lady named Patty Rae Haver who lives near Silverdale on the Olympic Peninsula wrote to thank me for writing the Lauth Family story.  Turns out the Lauths were her grandparents whom she had never met, so she got a little introduction to them.  Then, to make things even better, I got an e-mail from another lady from Alaska... Also a granddaughter of the Lauths... but they didn't know each other.  Now, they do.  I love that.
            I can hardly wait to see what a real book of the stories looks like.  Priscilla, who is the editor at HistoryLink, guesses it will be sometime in the early Spring.

                               *          *          *          *          *

          On the way home from Flagstaff, Dave experienced a stroke which put him into hospital in Fresno for several days.  Anne, bless her, kept us informed of his condition, and her sister Betsey flew down to help with the drive home when he was released. These were very anxious times.
          Now, near the end of October, he is home in Bellevue and is doing very well.  I was delighted to have him spend some time with me a few days ago, and he is making a good comeback.  Liz, who is a speech therapist dropped by and was able to give us much encouragement. 
          Dave is basically a very strong person and I think that will stand him well in the upcoming time of healing

*          *          *          *          *

          The foot that has been hurting me for so long is now pain free!  I found something on the Internet, a claim that foot manipulation can take away pain. When I further discovered the chiropractor who promised that was in an office within a few short blocks of where I live, I had to give it a try.  At this time, it has been about 10 days, and his promise is holding up.  Since any day without pain  is welcome, I say, “So far, so good!” with gratitude.

          Hildy and Nan both brought little starts of ground cover plants for the edges along the Gnome Creek that is developing under the dogwood tree in my side yard.  It will showcase the Bitty Bridge and Dinky Door yard art that Nan designed.  The Bitty Bridge will arch over a  “stream bed”  made of river rocks.  The Dinky Door will be set  so it looks like an entrance into the tree trunk. The newly set plants are fast growing, so it should look great in the Spring. One variety has bright yellow blooms and the other, blue.
          Bless their hearts… they never quit doing nice things for me.

          History House hosted a unique thing, a play about the experiences of two young men who bicycled from California to Seattle at the time of the Alaska-Yukon Exposition  Instead of actors playing the various roles, the parts are simply read aloud to the audience.

Two Wheels North
Actors and director at History House performance

          (later)
          Having just returned home from the amazing presentation of the bicycle trip made by the two young men in 1909, I have to laugh at what I had written… that the “parts are simply read”…. That is so WRONG!  I have never been so moved by anything staged.  I have no idea how to describe what went on…. no stage, no special costuming, 2 young men, 2 old fashioned bikes (in racks) 1 young man with a guitar, 1 young woman with a big voice…..a total of four people made up the whole cast. Costume changes were made by putting on (or removing) a hat, a tie, an apron…It was indescribable and completely, excitingly  wonderful!
          It is “Two Wheels North” and a true story of 2 just-out-of-high school boys who pedaled their way from S. California to the Alaska Yukon Exposition (1909) on the very simple bicycles of the day... a 54 day adventure... for a purse of $25.00, and the privilege of writing up their adventure for a newspaper.

          I hadn’t realized how quiet my house has become over time until the men who are replacing my worn out gutters began the process of removing the old and adding the new. Skibby and I are used to curling up “whenever” and taking naps.  Let’s just say that just isn’t happening now.  We are both looking forward to getting those odd minutes back into our schedule…

When I posed this question in my previous column:
          Why isn’t the number 11 pronounced “onety one”?
I received this thoughtful answer from the Gordon Pfisters… I don’t know which one.  It was sent generically…)
  Wouldn't 11 be "tenty one"???????

 What do you think? e-mail me or sign in on the Guest Book..

            Halloween   Each year I look forward to seeing the little group of neighborhood children in their costumes.  We are down to just a few youngsters in the area now.. quite different from when our kids were growing up here.
            Halloween has become more sophisticated, too.  Most of the children wear very theatrical-looking outfits.  Ours made themselves up with whatever they could find around the house.  A bandana tied around his head and a contrived black patch over one eye made Dave a pirate.  Two long paper ears held by a circle of thin elastic on her head, plus a powder puff safety-pinned to the back of her Dr. Denton sleepers turned daughter Hildy into an enchanting bunny. At least once, John simply wore his Little League baseball uniform. I remember Paul with a wide band around his head holding a few seagull feathers.  He was Hiawatha.  Since our cat, Tiger, always accompanied the kids on these rounds, I dressed him in one of Paul’s outgrown baby T shirts.
            I remember one year when he was in his teens, Dave and his friend Tom Grinolds wired up a huge tree near the Grinold’s house so that it made scary noises when kids walked up 2nd Avenue trick-or-treating.
            I wish I had taken pictures, but we never seemed to have film in our camera when we should have. Black and white “snapshots”  were almost always from some special occasion  We took just one roll of movie film a year, and that only on Christmas morning.  The $5.00 price tag for the film just didn’t fit into our budget for more than that. Some years ago, Vern and I had these movies made into videos as gifts to our family.

        Heather sent me a few pictures of my great-grandchildren with faces she had painted… her first try at face painting, she says.

            My Halloween was SO different from today’s.  In the '20s, (my time), we raided Mom's thread box for empty wooden spools (she saved them for us to play with)... We cut notches into the edges and mounted them loosely  on sticks so we could "run" them along the neighbor's windows.... scary sounds.  We were forbidden to use wax on windows, but no ban was put on soap and lots of that got spread around.  Of course, we jerry-rigged ourselves costumes... and a paper sack with a face drawn on it and with holes for eyes were our masks....We didn’t go “trick-or-treating”… we just did mischief… most of it pretty innocent.

            The little kids who came calling here last night were all in costumes that would have looked at home on a stage.  The kids were all just kids, though, my little neighborhood friends who call me "Doro THEEEEA" when they see me in my garden. 

And so we come to the end of October!

Dixie, Dorothea, Senior Editor

         A lot of September was taken up by the worst cold I have had in years. I sincerely hope I don’t get another one like that for a very long time.

        My choice for Birthday baby of September is my grandson, Ryan. He is Dave’s second son, and a very caring young man. I love him dearly.

Ryan, on his September trip to Paris
(photo courtesy of Ryan's Facebook)

        Other September birthdays I have on my list are:

Jeff and Tammy Hills, daughter and son-in-law to Gordon and Alice (Bunny) Pfister

Gordon Pfister (Jack’s son)

Mark Pfister (Gordon’s son)

Kurt Kapasuzoglu (Suzie’s grandson)

I hope you all had  HAPPY BIRTHDAYS    

Note from Bill Vivatson

“There is much discussion and news regarding ‘the swine flu’. Our dinner table was no exception. I could not pass up the opportunity to say, with tongue-in-cheek, that the ‘shot’ may not be needed; an oink-ment has been developed to control it.”

(Since this little vignette, I have received a note from Bill saying he had suffered a stroke, but that he was making good recovery.  I am so glad.)

From Hildy -

Throughout Heather and the kids' visit, there seemed to always be a problem locating Tasia's complete two-piece bathing suit.  She'd either go in the hot tub (made cool on those hot days) with the top part or the bottom part. No matter what we did, we could never find both parts at the same time.  One afternoon, Tasia announced to Dan that she wanted to play in the water.  Dan said, "OK, but we have to find your swimming suit".  They looked all over the place and couldn't find any swimsuit.  Dan said, "I don't know what you're going to swim in".  Undetered, Tasia announced, "I'm going to swim in my body".

Dave shared this note he received from Russ, who now lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, but who seems to be fascinated by The Grand Canyon.

“Hey Dad,
          Well we drove four hours to the North Rim on thursday before my GrandCanyon run. Stopped at Lees Ferry (where you drive across the grandcanyon on that bridge) and saw a Ringtail cat in the bathroom! Ate dinner at Jacob Lake then hiked into the Aspen Groves near the North Kaibab trail and camped out  with Marley in the Park in our new Mountain Hardware tent we got for $50.
          I started the run just before 5:00am and made it to Phantom Ranch by 8:00am - took a break, ate some food and the sun had just barelypenetrated the Canyon. The North Rim trail is incredible - two waterfalls come down the walls and there are several large swimmingholes both under the falls and along Bright Angel Creek (which is barelysmaller than the Virgin River through Zion). Once you get past Cottonwood Camp it is very similiar to the Zion Narrows as you are in a tight twisting Canyon for about 10 miles - but there is a nice wide trail so you are not in the river. No pictures this round as I was going for speed - but I'll get plenty next week. I'm leading a four day backpacking tour across the same route.
          Took me eight hours exactly and I ran about 18 of the 24 miles. Basically I was able to run almost to Indian Gardens up the Bright Angeltrail (minus the steep sections) then my legs quit working and I had to hike the rest of the way uphill - luckily there was some shade and a thunderstorm moving in to block the sun. You wouldn't believe how effective powerbars are when your body is running on nothing! Those newpower goos (quick glucose and salt) are fantastic energy boosters aswell.
          I think I'm going to start getting into Adventure Racing after this...it was an amazing experience! Enough for now - write me back and start using facebook!
Russ”

          Nancy and John had a surprise “drop in” visit from a couple of her “Evans” relatives who are visiting here from their home in Wales. She kindly shared this note with me.

Hello Nancy and John
  How lovely it was to see you last Sunday.  Thank you so much for your hospitality. I hope the good weather holds up for you to finish the roof.  I have told Haulwen and Eira all about you,and the wonderful welcome you gave us.
   We caught the ferry ok and managed to go to the Suquamish Museum and we also went to see Chief Seattle's grave.  We had a great time, but the icing on the cake was to meet you both.  Hope you can come to Wales sometime so that we can extend the same welcome to you.
     Best wishes, Carol and Malcolm

Published in September issue of Northwest Prime Time: (my story)

                                     Sign Language

When  my baby granddaughter was found to be profoundly deaf, I joined a class to learn sign language.  It soon became clear that my arthritically deformed fingers were not going to be able to form the signs even close to perfectly.  I was devastated.
My daughter, who understood my disappointment, patted me on the shoulder and said,  “Never mind, Mom, Heather will just have to learn that her grandmother speaks with an accent”.

September 17, I received the final manuscript from Priscilla.  Now, I get one last chance to make any corrections or changes.  From now until the book is actually ready for the market is usually 4 - 5 months.  It’s going to be a long winter!

        What a treat!  Jack showed up on my doorstep just in time for me to invite him to dinner with me.  I had been enjoying the wonderful smell of corned beef simmering most of the afternoon.  Corned beef and cabbage, carrots and yellow potatoes tasted mighty good and I had the pleasure of introducing Jack to horseradish.
        He was a very welcome guest and good company.

September 10
        I was very honored to be one of seven seniors to be selected as Special Senior.  Our being selected was for a wide variety of reasons, the one constant being we were all at an advanced age when we started something new in our lives.  One lady makes hundreds of sandwiches every week for people who are hungry.  Another bakes many dozens of cookies for the same reason.
        I am still surprised, but very pleased, that the writing that I find so enjoyable is looked on by others as a  volunteer effort to add something to history.

        On September 12, my niece, Suzie Burke, was honored at a “toast” or “roast” by Washington News Council.  I am still pouting that I wasn’t able to attend, having caught a very bad cold.  I’m sure I missed a very fun evening.
        As told me by my family, who all were there, it was more toast than roast, since the main thrust seemed to be an accounting of all the things Suzie has been responsible for in revitalizing Fremont.  On the list are things like the wonderful new J. P.Patches and Gertrude statue, “Late for the Interurban” which is visible from North 34 street, almost opposite History House, another of Suzie’s “inventions”.  There are many more.
        Son Paul has promised to bring me a Suzie bobble-head, which were raffle tickets.  I will love having it.

From daughter-in-law Nancy -

Here's a picture of the Traveling Buddha original sculpture in soft clay, just before I delivered him to Nichols Bros. They have completed the molds and are now casting 12" high concrete statues, which they finish with patinas in a few very nice colors - they said he's been very popular with their customers.
He's a jolly little guy, isn't he? He sure was fun to sculpt.

Sept. 28, I received the following e-mail from Hildy and Dan:

“We arrived at Yellowstone yesterday.  Wow!  It's beautiful.  Unfortunately, there's a forest fire in the park caused by a lightening strike on Saturday which is keeping one road closed right now.  The weather's expected to cool though to perhaps squash the fire and maybe the road will open up in a day or two.  There's "stuff" I want to see beyond it.    Today we're checking out all the geysers and touring with a park ranger later this afternoon.

Hildy”

from Anne and Dave:28th

“After sitting for two long days we arrived it to Flagstaff last eveningabout 5:30p. Sunday we drove for 10 hours and got to Tremonton, UT. We had  wonderful weather and stopped just inside Idaho at a rest stop for lunch. We sat under a tree and had a great view of the Snake River...looking quite placid....considering we were quite near the Hells Canyon area where there  are many river rapids and canyons.”

I had an appointment with Dr. Lylja because my right foot is causing me so much pain.  His assessment was that there is really not much to be done, except to provide cushioning for a couple of feet that have just been “worn out”. He suggested I get something made to go into my shoes to try to make my feet more comfortable. 

          Dan called while I was out to say they have snow falling in Yellowstone.  They are hoping enough snow will fall to quench the forest fire, so they can get to the parts of the park that have been cut off. I’m sure Dan is happy.  He loves snow.

from Anne and Dave 30th

“Today, Jana, Dave & I went to the Museum of Northern Arizona. It is nestled among the ponderosa pine trees and is of 'rock' construction and quite cool inside. There are several rooms to explore inlcuding geology, pottery, baskets and pots, textiles and cultures. It is a fastinating place and Dave & I would have stayed longer, but we had to get Jana off to a class at the university.”

Russ & Dave
(photos courtesy of Anne's blog)

Thought for the day:
          Why isn’t the number 11 pronounced “onety one”?
                 -The Red-necked Hippy column in the Selkirk Sun
                   newspaper

I wish I knew the answer to the Thought for the day.

Dixie/Dorothea, Senior Editor

Home Page: Dixie-Press.com

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