Arbor Day

1arbor or chiefly Brit arbour n [ME erber plot of grass, arbor, fr. OF herbier plot of grass, fr. herbe herb, grass]:a bower of vines or branches or of latticework covered with climbing shrubs or vines

2arbor n [L, tree, shaft]

Arbor has always been a romantic word for me. Probably because of definition 1. I suspect my first understanding of the word came from reading fairy tales of princesses in their bowers.

There was an arbor over the entrance to the storage cave at my great-grandparents, Rufe & Kate Ridnour's. I don't remember what plants vined over it - grapes, I think. I just remember it as a cool place to sit in the summer.

Arbor Day - a day set aside for the planting of trees - was a date I first became aware of in grade school. I don't remember ever planting a tree especially on that day while at Jasper #2, but we may have.

What I do remember is learning that Arbor Day was founded in Nebraska City, NE by J. Sterling Morton - the first one being held on April 10, 1872 when an estimated one million trees were planted. The Morton family had an extensive apple orchard on their farm west of Nebraska City which is now included in the Arbor Lodge State Historical Park.

I took Mom and the kids to Nebraska City many years ago to tour the Morton Lodge and park. There had been so much rain that Hwy 2 leading up to the Missouri River bridge was almost under water - the low fields on both sides of the road were all flooded and it was still raining - a little scary. In the early 80's Bud & I went to Nebraska City so he could run the Applejack Road Race as part of the Arbor Day festivities.

Arbor Day is now generally held the last Friday in April. The date varies around the world. For many years Arbor Day was observed on April 22 which was Morton's date of birth and which is now observed as Earth Day.

Over the years I have personally planted or contributed to the planting of many trees. Having a tree planted in Ireland in honor of my brother Ron's 50th birthday has become one of my family's jokes: I ordered the tree planting in March - plenty of time to receive the special certificate before his May birthday. The certificate arrived promptly. I put it where I would know where it was when it came time to enclose it in his birthday card. Yeah, I forgot where I put it. So all I could do was 'tell' him I'd had a tree planted in Ireland for him, thinking I would soon find the proof. That was twenty years ago. I still have not found the certificate (which included directions to 'his' tree in Ireland). Thus, the family joking whenever I purchase something special ahead of time and put it "where I'll know where it is" when the occasion occurs.

One of the ironic similarities Bud and I have discovered in our years together was that as kids we both had wished we had a weeping willow. In celebration of Earth Day in 1999, we planted a weeping willow at Orchard Prairie with the help of Preston, Shalea, Ki, Kathryn, Deise, Dominique and Devin. (Shalea & kids in picture above a few years later.)

As I wrote about in my February 7 blog, I love trees. I won't be planting any here at Quiet Harbor, but I can continue to contribute to plantings in other locations and to observe both Earth Day and Arbor Day each year.

"Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White"

"It's cherry pink and apple blossom white
When your true lover comes your way
It's cherry pink and apple blossom white
The poet's say.......
And so that's why the poets often write
When there's a new moon up above
It's cherry pink and apple blossom white
When you're in love.
(Mack David and Louiegay 1951)
All the beautiful trees in blossom right now reminded me of this song from my youth. The most popular recording was by Perez Prado (The "King of Mambo"). It was on the charts for twenty-six weeks - ten weeks at number one in 1955. (Alan Dale's vocal version went to #14 on the charts.)
The song that knocked it from #1 was "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets. (One of my all-time favourites.)
This picture of Buffy in front of Mom's crab apple tree was taken in 1989. Her tree was always so gorgeous. It was used as a background in many pictures.

Such as this one of Kari, Mom and me circa 1985. The tree was an orna-mental. I don't think Mom ever tried making crab apple jelly from the fruit, but the birds enjoyed it. And while the crab apples from it were sometimes a pain in the fall, they were worth it for the beauty in the spring.

Today's high winds will play havoc with many of the cherry pink and apple blossom white blooms which reminds me of some lines from a Shakespeare sonnet:

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate;

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date......."

It isn't quite May yet. Not all cherry blossoms are pink nor are all apple blossoms white. The moon last night was full, not new, but I hope you are able to enjoy the beauty of spring and are at least a little in love.

The Bridges of Madison County (BW&O*)

(*Before Waller & Oprah)

Roseman Bridge

Every once in awhile our family Sunday afternoon drives went beyond Adams County.
Ten years before Madison County began celebrating with their annual Covered Bridge Festival every October (1970) we set off to find the covered bridges ourselves.
Before they became famous thanks to Robert Waller's book and Oprah's live broadcast from Cedar Bridge, the bridges were old, unmarked and hard to find. The day we went looking for them in the autumn of my senior year, we only found Cedar and Roseman (pictured). Out of the nineteen original covered bridges in Madison County, only six remain. All have been renovated except Cedar which has been rebuilt after an arsonist destroyed it. As nice as they are now, there was a certain dilapidated charm to them before.
That same day we drove through Harmon Tunnel (above) in order to drive around Pammel State Park, one of Iowa's earliest state parks and, I think, one of the most beautiful.


This picture of me was taken that day as I walked across the ford over the Middle River. It always seemed so exciting to me to drive through the water.
Several years earlier we Jasper #2 schoolers took a trip to Pammel. It may have been an end-of-the-school-year picnic or a science field trip. The thing I remember most about it was finding snail shells. There were so many of them and they were so pretty. I had a pocket full of them before I smelled my hands. E-w-w-w-w-w! It took me awhile to realize the awful smell was from the snails. I emptied my pockets and wished I had some soap with which to wash off the smell. The best I could do was dip my hands in the river and wipe them on my jeans.
The Middle River through Pammel played another memorable part in my life the summer before I turned 40. A chance remark at a Tupperware party resulted in an invitation to go canoeing. (I had stated canoeing down a river before I turned 40 was an ambition of mine.) Eight people in four canoes put in along a gravel road above Pammel. It was one of the most fun afternoons. When we got to the ford, all the canoes except one put out above the ford and then put back in. Two guys thought they could make it over. Of course the canoe capsized and they ended up in the water. Hilarious.
We made one more stop on the way home that fall day in 1960 - at the Mormon Cemetery at Mt. Pisgah. That was another unmarked place you had to know how to find. Somehow Dad knew how to get there. There are directions to the cemetery along Hwy 169 now. The way we went was along a winding dirt road off Hwy 34. That road is closed now. Somehow following it made the drive more romantic to a teenager. Just as romantic as walking through the old Roseman Bridge. It just took Robert Waller to let the world know just how romantic.

April Reads I

W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear have authored many notable books about native peoples of early North America. Now they have turned pens to their first book in their 'Contact - the Battle for America' series - as the native inhabitants come into contact with the "discoverers" of the Americas.
"Coming of the Storm" tells the story of one of the first cultural clashes when Hernando DeSoto lands in what is now Florida in 1539. Up until that time various tribes warred with one another. Now they must band together to try to defeat a common enemy - an enemy which does not recognize the rules of ethics the tribes honor even in war.
The Gear's backgrounds in anthropology and journalism along with their desire to tell it as it was, makes reading their novels very interesting to one who loves history. I always learn a lot when I read one of their books.
The second Anne Perry "Inspector Monk" mystery, "A Dangerous Mourning" was my next April read. Monk is slowly regaining his memory when he is assigned the case of who murdered Sir Basil Moidore's beautiful daughter - stabbed to death in her own bed. Sergeant Evan is again by his side as they work to solve the case. Nurse Hester Latterly extends her intelligent help once again after losing her position in one London's Victorian hospitals. Monk also loses his livelihood as a member of the Metropolitan Police for refusing to arrest one of the young footmen in Sir Basil's employ. Runcorn at last has an excuse and gleefully fires Monk. Ms. Latterly surreptitiously makes a suggestion to a wealthy friend and Monk is set up in business as a private detective.
I'm anticipating Nurse Latterly and Inspector Monk in business together in book three. Perhaps Evans will even join them?
Anna Quindlen won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for her NY Times column "Public and Private". At the time "Rise and Shine" was published in 2006, she was a columnist for Newsweek. I have read her four other novels: "Object Lessons", "One True Thing", "Black and Blue" and "Blessings" and enjoyed them all. Likewise "Rise and Shine" - the story of two sisters and their relationship to one another and others in their lives in New York City.
Another of Kristina's recommendations when we were in Tucson was Tony Earley's "Jim The Boy". Our library does not have it, nor did Half-Price Bookstore. Half-Price did have Earley's follow-up to it, "The Blue Star", however. 'Blue Star' is a coming of age book which follows Jim through his senior year in high school up to when he catches the train for basic training at the beginning of WWII.
Earley's spare and perfect prose captures the simplicity of the way we (of a certain age) used to live. That may be why I am so entranced by this book. It is set in North Carolina in 1941-42, but could have as easily been placed anywhere in the United States during the '40's.
Earley is purportedly thinking about a third "Jim" novel. I'm hoping he does write it and sooner than the eight years between the first two. In the meantime, I still have "Jim The Boy" to look forward to.
Elizabeth Berg is my adopted author at Gibson Memorial Library. Her latest, "The Last Time I Saw You" was released April 6. The library called me Monday to say it was in. I picked it up yesterday and finished reading it today.
"Last Time" is the story of a 40th class reunion. Five class members' stories are told leading up to, during and after their reunion weekend. The five, two men and three women, range from the hero quarterback, the class beauty, the nerds and the 'unseen'.
For me, Berg is one of the best authors in terms of getting inside her characters and making them real. When I finish one of her books, I say, "Oh, my gosh. How does she do it?" I follow her blog. One of her readers told her she always feels like trying to be a better person after she has read one of Berg's books. Maybe that is her appeal for me. It just feels like she knows me - like I know her - and we are friends. She is uplifting.
When I suggested one of Berg's books for a book club I once attended, some of the others felt the novel we read was pretty lame and unreal. I've thought about that a great deal. One of my realizations was that I was the only uneducated person in that book club. So, maybe Berg appeals more to the common masses? I don't know. I just know I love her writing and will continue reading her books as long as she keeps writing them.

Oh My Aching Back

It is estimated between 85 and 90 percent of us have problems with our backs sometime during our lives. I have had back pain of one sort or another all my life. I started going to a chiropractor when I was ten years old. One of the worst times was when I dove into the swimming pool the wrong way. Another was when I was moving a chest of drawers and my back "went out". Now I have some arthritis in my lower back and a place under my right shoulder blade that feels like someone is sticking me with hot pokers. It is the same location I once had severe muscle spasms.
Still, I feel lucky. Especially after talking with one of our fellow YMCA walkers this morning. His wife is having back surgery tomorrow. First they will scrape the vertebra where it is pinching a nerve. Then they will put two rods in to try and align the spine. Ouch. She won't be able to do anything for four months. I can't even imagine going through something like that.
I know some (probably most) of my pain is from poor posture and not doing back strengthening exercises - which are actually abdominal muscle strengthening exercises. Losing some weight would help, too, I'm sure. All things I could do for myself. Must do if I don't want to have surgery someday.
Dad always had back pain. Part of it was occupational - farming is hard work. Part of it was being overweight. The week before my wedding in 1961, he was carrying a bushel and half basket of corn across the barnyard from the corn crib to the hog house. His back went out. When I left for the church to get ready for the wedding, I didn't know if he was going to be there to give me away or not. When he did show up just in time to walk me down the aisle I was more concerned about him collapsing than I was about anything else.
Drs. told him he had a slipped disc. He could have back surgery. But that was one thing he wouldn't do. Someone he knew back in the 40's had back surgery and ended up being paralyzed. No way was he going to chance that even though medical procedures had become safer in the twenty some years since then.
Then he decided he had multiple sclerosis or even Lou Gehrig's disease. If someone he knew had MS or ALS, he went to visit with them to compare symptoms. Dad died in 1978 of a heart attack without ever being diagnosed with a degenerative nerve disease or having back surgery. I had forgotten until I recently re-read his obituary that we had suggested memorials be made to the Multiple Sclerosis Association.
Generally after I've been up and moving around for awhile my back quits hurting. I just need to follow my own advice to stay away from any kind of surgery as long as I can.

Take the A Train

"Hurry get on now it's coming

Listen to those rails a'thrumming (all aboard)

Get on the A train

Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem....."

'Take the A Train' was the signature tune for the Duke Ellington orchestra. The A train I'm thinking of is Amtrak. Taking a trip by train is one of the to do's on my bucket list. At some point I need to start crossing things off that list. Maybe Kari's visit is the time to do that.

When Kari and Ken first started talking about coming back for a week this spring, they talked of taking the train back. That plan gave way to the less time traveling, more time there, practicality of flying. But it got me thinking of a trip on the train to Chicago while they are here. The more I think about it, the more it sounds like fun. It could just be an overnight stay in Chicago which would be enough time for a museum or two, a nice dinner, shopping on the magnificent mile - a small taste of the city, not a feast - enough of an experience to decide if we'd want to expand upon it.

I still have faint impressions of taking the train and visiting Chicago when I was in 7th grade - it was 54 years ago, April 27-28, 1956. Mrs. Kimball took the sixth, seventh and eighth graders on a school tour. I think the cost was $25.00. We boarded the train in Corning at 11:55 p.m., got very little sleep and got into Chi-town at 9:10 a.m. I still remember breakfast on the train - the scrambled eggs weren't fully cooked.

We went to the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Science & Industry, the Shedd Aquarium and the Lincoln Park Zoo. We were on such a tight schedule. Dinner was at Fred Harvey's. We left Chicago at 6:30 p.m. and didn't get back to Corning until 6:30 a.m. There was some problem and we spent three hours stuck in Burlington. I would not want to try to crowd all that into one day again! I remember having $5.00 spending money - alot in those days. I also would not want to try to only spend $5.00 in Chicago now.

The more I think about this, the better it sounds........

Learning to Handle Disappointment

Most of my "words to live by" came from my Mom. But there is one thing my Dad said to me that I have never forgotten.

It happened two or three years before this picture of us was taken in the fall of 1960 - my senior year in highschool - a couple months before my 17th birthday.

There was a movie showing in town that I was just 'dying' to see. I had to see that movie. I begged first Mom and then Dad to take me to town so I could see that movie!

Neither of them relented. I went into a major whining, moping, crying fit. Dad said to me: "If not going to that show is the biggest disappointment you ever have in your life, you'll be lucky."

I didn't appreciate it at the time but he was trying to teach me to put things into perspective.

Kids need to learn how to deal with small frustrations in order to cope with larger disappointments later in life. Over my lifetime my way of dealing has been the development of the philosophy that 'it wasn't meant to be' or 'everything happens for a reason' even when I don't understand the reason at the time.

For the past week I have been looking forward to seeing my grandson Brock for the first time in more than two years and seeing his son, Ridge, for the first time ever. Ridge is my first great grandchild, born four months and two days before Rodney. And while I looked forward to seeing them both, I did not let myself believe that it would actually happen. A good thing, because they did not come down. There have been a lot of disappointments where Brock has been concerned. I was protecting my heart from yet another.

Because of the circumstances, I know I'll never get to be the grandma to Ridge that I will be to Rodney, but I do believe I'll see both Brock and Ridge before too long. I won't be disappointed.