December Reads II

Of the four books I managed to read the last half of December, I believe Julia Glass's The Widower's Tale was the one I enjoyed the most.
I had read Three Junes for which Glass won the National Book Award in 2002 and liked her writing style. She writes about everyday objects, places and gestures in a way which hints at the larger dramas in the lives of her characters.

Percy Darling is a recently retired seventy year old librarian living in a small town in Massachusetts - a 'fashionably rural suburb of Boston'.
He and his wife, Poppy, purchased the 250 year old house and barn forty years ago. He raises his two daughters there as a single parent after the drowning death of his wife when the girls were small.
His quiet retirement changes drastically when he agrees to allow his barn to be turned into an expensive, progressive preschool. No longer will he be able to take his daily nude swims in the pond.
One of Percy's best friends is his grandson, Robert, a Harvard premed student aiming to follow in his mother's chosen profession. Percy's relationship with his daughter, Trudy, is less friendly and more complicated. The same is true with his other daughter, Clover. She has recently left her husband and two children in Brooklyn and come home for a sabbatical from her husband and motherhood.
Glass artfully weaves several social issues, including health-care coverage, eco-terrorism, illegal immigration, divorce and gay marriage into the everyday lives of her characters. When Robert's friendship with his roommate leads to one act which will alter his life forever, it is his grandfather who helps him put his life back together as well as his own.


Cain His Brother is Anne Perry's sixth William Monk novel. I continue enjoying these Victorian London psychological mysteries. I was quite please with myself for "solving" a significant part of the plot early on - something I did not know for sure until the very end of the book.
There are at least nine more William Monk books for me to look forward to, then I think I will sample Perry's Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries.


The Spider's Web by Margaret Coel is the first book I have read of her Wind River Mysteries set in the modern day Wyoming Wind River Reservation. This is the fifteenth book in the series. I doubt I will go back to try and read them all. The book is well written and the area is one I have long been interested in. It is probably just that I have been a Tony Hillerman fan too long and am not ready to replace him.



And, finally, we have Michael D'Antonio's A Full Cup - the story of 'Sir Thomas Lipton's Extraordinary Life and His Quest for the America's Cup'. I have to confess I bought this as a Christmas gift for a certain sailor in my life, but decided I had to read it first. I hope he enjoys it as much as I did.

Other that enjoying Lipton tea lo' these many decades, I knew nothing about the man behind the label. This is a fascinating read about a self made man and the global empire he constructed. In addition to learning new facts about Lipton, I also learned more about the people he was friends with - the Astor's, Vanderbilt's, Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt and Prince Edward.

I love history and D'Antonio makes it very enjoyable reading. Our library has his book, Hershey, about the famous chocolatiers. I plan to read it soon.

When Your Youngest Grandchild Becomes A Teenager

We celebrated Christmas with the family on Saturday, December 27, in 1997. Preston & Shalea and their four little ones were there even though their fifth child was due shortly after the New Year.
Neither Mom nor I were surprised when we got a call the next day telling us that we had a new grandson/great-grandson. We were happy the baby was a boy after three girls.
It was a few days before we made it to Des Moines to meet Devin Michael. He was still in the NICU at Mercy Hospital - luckily not as premature as his big brother had been. I didn't have to wait three weeks to hold him.
Devin was the youngest of five children born in a little over six years. That means as of today, my youngest son and his wife are the parents of five teenagers! Somehow they have managed to make it this far. No doubt they will continue to do fine. I'm just waiting for when their grandchildren begin arriving. Instead of downsizing when the kids move out, they may have to get a bigger house!


Devin had just turned one when we celebrated his Great-Grandma Ruth's 80th birthday. We held our family Christmas dinner first that day before sharing Mom's birthday at an open house at the Community Center in Corning.
Devin was so cute as he pushed the cart down the hallway. His blond hair and curls were very much like his Dad's had been at that age.


Before his second birthday, he'd had a hair cut. It made him look so much older.
I was able to get this picture before he got into the cake and frosting.



Even though I didn't get to spend quite as much time with Devin and Dominique when they were little as I did with the older three, there were still lots of memories made at the farm when we moved back to SW Iowa.
Here Devin is with some pieces of wood left over from one of our building projects. I told the boys they could make anything they wanted to.
There were also annual Easter egg hunts and spring yard rakings. Devin was always a willing helper.











It wasn't always all work. We had play times, too. One of them was a weekend in Council Bluffs. We took the boys to the (Offutt) Strategic Air and Space Museum where they got to sit in the cockpit of one of the planes on display. It's a much different museum than the one I took their Dad to at Offutt Air Base in Bellevue when he was their age.
I think this was the same weekend when a little girl was smiling at Devin at the hotel where we stayed. We started kidding him about being a "chick magnet" which he didn't like at the time.
Now that he is a teenager, he'll probably like the fact that the girls find him attractive.
Devin's career path might mimic his great-uncle, Dick's. He seems most interested in mathematics and sciences. It will be fun to see where his passions take him.

"The Breakfast Club"

Forty-two years ago, December 27, 1968, "The Breakfast Club" signed off ABC Radio for the last time after airing for more than thirty-five years.
Don McNeill hosted the program, which originated from Chicago, the entire thirty five and half years. The show began at 8:00 a.m. It consisted of music, talk, jokes, "a get-together time for all of us who smile before breakfast and then can't break the habit all day long -- a place to come to when a feller needs a friend" and audience participation.

Regular guests were Fran Allison, as Aunt Fanny, pictured here with Don McNeill, Jim and Marion Jordan before they became famous as Fibber McGee and Molly and Johnny
Desmond.

Mom was a loyal KMA morning listener, but we listened to "The Breakfast Club" often enough for me to remember it. And what I mostly remember is the sponsor, Cream of Wheat and the "Call to Breakfast" every quarter hour. That was when we were supposed to "March Around the Breakfast Table".

I think the reason I remember marching around the breakfast table has to do with getting my little brother to do it with us. He was so darn cute. The Cream of Wheat commercials always made me think I wanted Cream of Wheat for breakfast, but I actually preferred the taste of Malt-O-Meal or even regular oatmeal. Cream of Wheat was rather bland.

For one year, February, 1954 to February 1955, The Breakfast Club was simulcast on ABC Radio and Television. During the last few months it was on in 1968, it was known as "The Don McNeill Show".

Iowa born Fran Allison had her own television show, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, which I also remember watching with my little brother.

"I Hear The Train A Comin'....."

December 24, 1960, Christmas Eve - "We won the electric train at McClelland's! Leslie is so happy."

If I hadn't recorded that in my diary fifty years ago, I would have said Santa Claus brought Leslie's train, pictured above. I had forgotten we won it.

Some of the businesses in Corning had special drawings at different times of the year. In addition to McClelland Drugs, I remember registering at Dunham's Drug Store for prizes - the top being a girl's and a boy's bicycle. (Oh, how I wanted to win a bike!)

Perhaps it was because of winning the train that we all opened our Christmas presents Christmas Eve that year. It was unusual for us to do so - we had always opened gifts on Christmas morning before.

I believe my little brother still has this train. He probably even remembers winning it fifty years ago. Perhaps someday he will pass it on to a grandchild, telling him/her of that exciting Christmas Eve when he was six years old.

This photo is from Leslie's first Christmas in 1954. You can see in the bottom left corner where I cut myself out of this picture with Betty and Ron and Les. I don't remember why - whether it was to put into a locket? or just because I didn't like how I looked?

Our Christmas trees were always ones we cut along the road or out in the pasture. They were never 'green' even when we kept them watered and once tried putting green food coloring in the water. They were scratchy and stuck you when tried reaching behind to get gifts out.

Merry Christmas everyone. I wish for you the same joy my little brother experienced on Christmas Eve fifty years ago today.

Lost and Found - Relatives

Mom had a cousin, Gladys Gray Stearns, with whom she exchanged Christmas cards and letters every year. I last heard from Gladys seven years ago when she wrote me after I had sent her a copy of Mom's obituary and funeral program.

Each year since I have thought, "I should write to Gladys and see how she is doing." I also wanted to ask her about her grandmother, Josie Mauderly Gray - how did she end up in Plainville, IL? So a couple days ago I googled 'Gladys Stearns, Dayton, OH' to see if her address was still the same. And what I found was her obituary. Gladys died August 16.

But with the names and city of her children and the aide of the world wide web, I am in touch with her daughter, Debbie. She said she has nine boxes of her Mom's things to go through and that somewhere in there she is sure there is some Gray family history. So maybe I will learn more about Aunt Josie after all.



Pictured here are Eva and Joe Mauderly, Rufus and Kate (Mauderly) Ridnour and Josie (Mauderly) Gray. Great Aunt Josie was back from Illinois visiting her Iowa kin. The photo was taken at Great Grandpa and Grandma Ridnour's home NE of Nodaway.
Josie's son, Roy Gray, and my grandpa, Joe Ridnour were first cousins. One of my earliest memories is of a trip to Plainville to visit the Grays when I was four years old. We also spent time with Roy's sister, Nellie Anderson, and family in Quincy, IL.


One of the places we went during our time in Illinois was out to the Gray family farm. If my memory is correct, that is where this picture was taken "at the spring east of Plainville, Ill." Ron and I are in back with Dad who had just filled our water jug with cold, clear, spring water. Betty and Mom are in the foreground.

So many times I have wondered if this spring is still there and how to get there from Plainville. I don't think we ever went back after the Gray's sold their farm even though we went to Illinois to visit several more times over the years - including once when my children were little.

As I blogged in my September 18, 2009 "Illinois Connection", I still wonder how that branch of the family ended up back in Illinois. What I didn't ask Gladys about in time, I may still be able to learn from her daughter. And Gladys's obituary poses another question: "Why was she born in Yellowstone Park?"

The Full Cold Moon* and Missed Phenomena

Celebra-ting the Winter Solstice is something I always look forward to - it means the longest night is over and each succeeding day will gain more light.

This year I was also looking forward to a phenomenon that hasn't occurred since 1638 - a total eclipse of the full moon on the winter solstice. It was to be visible throughout North America - if it wasn't cloudy. When I went to bed last night, the sky was overcast. I didn't even try to get up in the middle of the night to see if it had cleared.

Upon arising this morning, I was greeted with a clear sky and the 'Full Cold Moon' pictured here.

And while I was looking forward to observing the full moon-winter solstice-total eclipse with my own eyes, I still have a huge advantage over my ancestors of 372 years ago - I can view the pictures on the Internet and TV.

*Other names for the December full moon are: Full Long Nights Moon, Oak Moon, Bitter Moon, Snow Moon and, fittingly, Christmas Moon.

Christmas at Grandma's - December 18, 1960

Fifty years ago today was our first Christmas dinner at Grandma Ridnour's without Grandpa.
Their little house sat on the north side of the Adams-Taylor county line, slightly uphill from the roadway. At one time the front porch was open, but they enclosed it to add more kitchen/dining space. The front door was hardly ever used - only once in awhile during the warm weather months.




We always used the back door on the northeast corner. There was a small entryway porch where everyone took off their boots before journeying inside directly to the spare (north) bedroom to add our coats to the pile already there.
In this picture, Grandma's beloved Penny is shivering beneath the gateway that in a few months would be covered with heavenly blue morning glories.
This particular Sunday, Mom, Betty and Leslie had gone ahead so Mom could help prepare the huge meal. I waited at home for Kenny to come pick me up. It was his first Christmas with my extended family. We were both a little nervous - knowing the questioning and teasing that would be in store.
Kenny had just returned from his six month National Guard training two days before. I knew he was due back around the 18th. Instead of calling me, he drove in at 10 p.m. and surprised me. I was writing in my diary when he got there. Finished it later to record his visit and write, "I was just a nervous wreck and so happy!"




December had already been a rough month for me. I was involved in the senior class play, working on getting an issue of the school paper out, getting ready for Christmas, etc., etc., when I got a bad cold. I was too busy to take time to stay home and try to get better. On December 3 my temperature was 104. The next day, Sunday, Mom & Dad took me out to the hospital to see Dr. Croxdale while he was there making rounds. Verdict: pneumonia. He ordered me to bed - in the hospital! "Isn't that the dumbest thing you ever heard?", I wrote in my diary.

I was in there a full week. Looking back in my diary, I'm amazed at all the visitors I had while there. I had forgotten all except Bill Arbuckle - that is because he brought his chess set and we played chess. My biggest concern was the school paper. I didn't see how they could possibly get an issue out without me!
These two pictures are from our senior year book. Pictures of the journalism class were pasted onto the background of the Smoke Signal. I'm bottom left in the top picture. Kari & Preston's dad, Denny, is second from left in back.
In the bottom picture, he and I are standing next to each other in back.

After I got out of the hospital, I had to stay home another three days. When I went back to school, I had so much make-up work but they gave me a month to do it all. It took awhile for me to get my strength back. The doctor warned me about not taking care of myself and said I would have to be careful because once you had pneumonia, it was easy to get it again. That scared me; especially after losing my Grandpa to pneumonia the previous February.