Family... "One of nature's masterpieces." - Geo. Santayana

Our beginnings....

Elexander & Georgiabelle

Great Grandpa & Great Grandma

Elex & Georgiabelle's Oldest Daughter
Esebelle With Her Four Children

Grandpa (Arnold) & Grandma's (Esebelle)

With Their Oldest Son Harold's Daughter, ME!

We are unique unto ourselves. But we are shaped by the things most important in our lives, our family.

We have our memories... our triumphs... our sorrows... our absolute belief that brown cows gave chocolate milk 'cuz Grampa said so.

Laughing and running... the summers seemed to last for years...

"Auntie Rena you're my prettiest Aunt!"

"Grandma can you tie this blanket so I can have a cape too?" "Ow-Owie! Timmy pushed me down!" "But she kicked me first!" "Okay... I'm sorry." "Me too. Wanna go look for night crawlers?" "Heck yeah!"

Pine pitch... tall grass... Dolly has the softest ears of any dog ever.

Skinned knees, bruises, skeeter bites, "My God you've got potatoes growing in those ears!"

"How in the heck did you get it to do that!?" "You did WHAT!!?!"

"Who gave her gum!?" "Get the scissors... I'm going to have to cut this out!"

"Gramma, can I have a cookie? Gramma? Can we build a fort?" Grampa can we go fishin'?" "Grampa, Hughie said he was gonna eat a worm!" "I got one Grampa! I GOT ONE!" It's a BIG one isn't it Grampa?" Get the camera because she got her first two-inch sunfish!

Sunburns, camp fires... tents that leaked and who cares 'cause we get to play out in the rain at the 40 anyway. "Mom! I gotta wood tick!"

Spending hours playing in the woods, there wasn't an inch of the woods we didn't know. Listening to our parents reminisce about their childhood antics... and learning the really good stuff too!

"Mom? Can we jump off the tree? Dad!? Mom said ask you if we can jump off the tree? No... into the water... we won't get hurt! Honest...!"

"Oh... okay. He said no. Hey... where's Gramma?"

SSSSsnnnnnAAAAkkkkkEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"That's where Tommy shot his deer!"

"Dad! Can we ride on the hood?" All right!!!" Hang on! Here comes the hill!!"

"Mom! Johnny dropped his hot dog on the ground. Can he still ea... nevermind."

"Gramma can I sleep in your camper with you tonight?"

"ALL RIGHT!! I GOT UP! I GOT UP ON THE SKIS!!!" (Couldn't have done it without you Tim!)

A few grandchildren added to the ranks.... hehehe... don't ya' just love little brothers?

"No really! It lives in the bay! Can't you hear it?!"

"Uh-uh... Carmen told him that!"

Calling the owls over from across the lake... "Oh Daddy... what makes it foxfire?" "Dad? Do these kinda bugs bite?" "ow."

"Mom... is that a mou...?" "Dad! There's a mouse in the camper!" "No... she went down by Birdie." "Whoa.... it was in there a minute ago... Oh there it is!" "Hey look! There's two!"

"Hey! How come Mom says she's goin' home?!"

"Now don't forget... yes, Dad got the mouse out and don't say anything about the bat in the outhouse."

Today... we gathered. It wasn't anybody's funeral... nor a wedding. Just a niece, one of my cousins saying, "It shouldn't be like this! Why do we have to wait until those events?"

Of sixteen grandchildren... the baby of us all just turned 40! Some have children and grandchildren now... kids in college, kids with kids and some with one on it's way!

How did that happen?

Today we gathered... watching the little boys and girls running around in the sunshine on a perfectly beautiful Indian Summer day... Our cousin's children... their grandchildren... watching the sun shining on their hair... the laughter, the shrieks of play. Did we sound like that?

Life in slow motion as a memory slides into the front of your thoughts... "My God he looks just like his Dad did at that age!".

Watching them chase one another... laughing, throwing Nerf balls...

"Oh gees! Remember that time that one got thrown in the fire!?" "Oh yeah... they could see the fire across the lake!"

"No joke... who needs gasoline for a fire when you can burn a Nerf ball?"

"Cripes... it's amazing that any of us lived through our childhoods!"

A day designed to truly enjoy 'one of nature's masterpieces'...

And dear God, what a masterpiece it was.....

Halloweens of long ago and Grandpa's oil can...

Fall has begun in earnest, the Indian Summer days probably won’t be back and it’ll most likely be another Halloween where the kids have coats on beneath their costumes!

Wow… what nostalgia! On two levels… one, I clearly remember standing in whatever room Mom’s sewing machine was in, sweating like mad, because I had my winter coat on and Mom was sewing the costume to fit over my coat.

It was a given in The-Not-So-Great-White-North that it was necessary to trick or treat in comfort, thus the coat/costume fitting ordeal, but what is really nostalgic, is a home-made costume!

Not some paper towel thickness nylon, $25 Hannah Montana or some dopey character from a boy’s video game… The closest we got to ‘costume du-jour’ was Superman or Batman and my brother refused to wear them because of the tights. (At the time I thought he was just being a weenie but in retrospect, it was probably a good call)

Equally annoying was that I was more than willing to wear either of them but was told I couldn’t because I was a girl. No surprise there for me… being a girl sucked. I usually demanded to go as a Cowgirl, a Hobo or some other “kind-of-out-there-for-a-girl” costume. You can rest assured even at an age where Princesses were cool, I never gave in.

Which is not to say I do not like girlish things. (My ‘personal persuasion’ has always been for manly men and not manly women!) But as a tried and true tomboy… I never wore a Princess outfit. Probably the closest I came was the year my Mom’s bright idea consisted of my donning green tights, and green sweatshirt lavishly coated with glued on glitter… (that I was wearing over my coat) and some green, also glitter encrusted hat. I was supposed to be a woodland nymph or a leprechaun or something like that.

I told everybody I was the Jolly Green Giant.

Mom was not happy when neighbors complemented her on her choice to make light of my “great height” at that age, so I ‘fit in’ Yeah… that one backfired big time! Next year I went as a Hobo.

Probably the costume I liked the best, was the year I got to go as the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz! It was coordinated with a couple next door neighbors to make the whole Oz group… Thankfully I had no interest in Dorothy, because believe me…the neighbor girl was all about being Dorothy! (Oddly enough, she herself, now prefers manly women! Who knew!?)

We all ignored the fact that our beagle Mitzi played “Toto” because she was the smallest dog anyone had. Remember, this was the era of hunting dogs and the occasional poodle in the house as a pet. Way before “designer, so-small-they-live-in-your-purse dogs!"

I got wrapped in tin foil, had this cool pair of shoes Mom got at a thrift store, Dad spray painted them and a funnel silver. (that I wore on my head!) Then they smeared some kind of 'something silver' on my face. (It was so cool!)

I even got to carry my Grandpa’s oil can, which caused some fuss during the night’s activities when some got accidentally squirted on the back of ‘Dorothy’s” dress… I swear, it was an accident.

(Hey! Everybody kept fawning over her pretty red shoes and I was getting squeaky! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!)

As I sit here writing this, it has occurred to me that this is Monday. I now remember this as the garbage truck is making it’s way up my street. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here in my jammies, my garbage can is on my back porch and it’s raining. Yeah, I’m thinking I’ll put it out next week. At least it’s not hot, so it won’t even be smelly! See… there’s always an upside, eh?!

Well… time to stop procrastinating and get some housework taken care of. Either that or follow the cat’s lead and snuggle back under the down comforter! On a ‘raw’ day like today… (cold, windy, rainy…) I’m definitely leaning towards the comforter… I’m hoping to hold out another week before turning my furnace on.

Ask anyone that knows me… it’s got to get to around 55 before I give in and even then the cost of heating this winter is scarier than any Halloween costume could ever be.

Maybe I could answer the door in a costume that represents foreign oil companies. Hmm… better not. The kids probably wouldn’t get it and the parents may stumble away in fright, and if they fall down they’ll sue.

Ooooo… wait! Maybe I’ll dress up like a bank!