Happy Birthday Mom!

Some of us handle the passing of the years better than others. Mom is one who has done quite well. After all these decades she still keeps as active as she can, taking care of every day chores around the house and getting out for short walks. She is nimble enough to touch her hands to the floor with ease (without bending her legs). She can even fit in her wedding suit and army jacket. She likes to keep her mind a-going too with word puzzles, computer games and a jigsaw puzzle now and then. She generally does pretty good with keeping up on Indians and Browns games, too. I'd say she's faring pretty well compared to many other women her age.

I heard her tell a story recently dating back to her return home from a stint in the army (stationed in Topeka). Dad had returned home from the service before her and she found out he already had been to see her Dad. She said she figured that meant he still wanted her. All these decades later he still describes her as a "nice looking woman."

Here's an army portrait taken in Topeka, and on the right she models her jacket (adapted for civilian use.) Way to go Mom!

Home deliveries and other recollections

As I noted in my Labor Day blog post (dated Sept 5th) Dad had driven a rural delivery route for Lehman's Bakery for several years. Since I put up that post he sent me an e-mail with the recollection that those were long 12 hour work days, 6 days a week and that he only saw New London in daylight on Sundays. Seems like that could wear a person down pretty fast. Later Dad got in to truck driving.

For quite a few years we had both bread and milk delivered to our house. With Dad out on the road in the truck and Mom and at home with us kids, it was a great convenience for her. One delivery guy's name was Wolfe, the other Fox. And the tag line that Dad always adds to that is "And all that while I was out in the truck!"

There was an insulated container on the front step for the milk. Mom wrote her order on a piece of note paper and clipped it to the top of the milk carrier with a clothes pin. I will date myself by recalling that we often played a game of dropping clothes pins in a quart milk bottle. You kneel on a straight back chair facing the back and aim the clothes pins at the bottle sitting on the floor behind the chair. I've seen milk being sold in bottles again and the sight of them brings back the memories. And I will date myself even further in recalling that it was 4 cents that we took to school to buy a half pint of milk to go with our lunch.

100th Anniversary of my home town festival

Labor Day, 2008. It started at 3 a.m. I heard a rumble outside and looked out to see a truck pulling a long trailer with two tractors on it. Nearly everyone that goes to the Festival passes our house there on the corner of Grove and South Main. The parade of tractors continued throughout the morning. I heard someone say there were 48 pulling teams this year, more than ever before, coming probably coming from all over northwest Ohio.

The first frame on the roll of film for the day (yes, I still shoot film) was of Dor-Lo Pizza and the midway. I thought I remembered that Dor-Lo represented the names of the founders, Doris and Lowell Lehman and Dad confirmed that is correct.

Lowell Lehman worked in his family’s bakery business on East Main Street in New London after serving as a baker in the Army in the European Theatre. http://www.newlondonohio.com/know/lehmans.htm.

Dad drove a rural route for Lehman’s Bakery for several years. Sometimes when we’re out driving the country roads Dad will recall some of his bakery customers and what they usually ordered. Dor-Lo Pizza has been in business for 50 years in a small college town of Ashland, about 20 miles from New London. Anyway, with a history like that it feels like a name you can trust.

After scoping out the situation I came back to the bleachers to find Dad talking with Mike Crabbs, sitting there with his John Deere cap on eating ice cream, watching the tractor pull. Mike works at a farm implement place in Ashland and does lawn care work on the side.

Across the track I spotted these kids climbing up into the back of a pick up via ladder.

Sitting on hard bleachers in the hot sun was starting to wear on us so Mom and I went looking for a place to sit in the shade. We found a picnic table next to the concession stand run by the Girl Scouts and I went and got some fresh squeezed lemonade, benefiting the high school band/show choir’s trip to Disneyworld. We were sitting there watching the goings-on when these three guys joined us at our table. They came to the festival with matching hats and had bought some trinkets which they were attempting to affix to their hats.
On to the flower and garden show in the Hileman Building where we found these gladiola prize winners nicely displayed in old milk bottles. I recall that Grandma Phillips had a gladiola garden in front of the fence enclosing the chicken yard (yes, free range, but we didn’t know it was anything special at the time).
Mom and I joined up with Dad again to watch some more of the tractor pull and munch on a pile of deep fried onion rings. In the interim Dad said he ran into his cousin Phil Schneiter, who at 71 considers himself a “semi-retired” farmer and is running for office of Trustee for the Lorain Medina Rural Electric Cooperative. He has his pick up backed up against the track in a shady spot, a great vantage point to watch the tractor pull.

These kids were standing near the track waiting for the next class of tractors to begin pulling. They saw me approaching with a camera and without a word they struck this pose. I had earlier seen some of them lying on their bellies so I suggested they try that again and they quickly complied.

A bonding moment for father and sons…

I’m guessing they call themselves the Red Team, 4 nice shiny red pick-ups and everyone wearing a red t-shirt. They found a nice shady spot to convene.

Tractors lined up like this all day, waiting for their turn to pull. However we had had enough by about 1 p.m. and went home for snack and a nap.

The tractor pull was still going on when we slipped into the back of the cemetery at 8:30 to watch the fireworks, along with Teddy and Norma, and Bass and Judy, some Baptist friends of Mom and Dad.

Local fireworks expert Terry Granneman put on a spectacular show, I must say the best I’ve ever seen, and accompanied by music. I didn’t have a tripod so I didn’t get photos, but by the time you fuss with the camera positions and settings you can miss a good part of the show anyway so it’s just as well. The show started out with little boxes of light gently lifting to the sky, accompanied by the song Take Your Candle by Chris Rice.
http://www.christianlyricsonline.com/artists/kathy-troccoli/go-light-your-world.html

Here’s an excerpt:
We are a family whose hearts are blazing

So let's raise our candles and light up the sky

Praying to our Father, in the name of Jesus

Make us a beacon in darkest times

Carry your candle, run to the darkness

Seek out the helpless, deceived and poor

Hold out your candle for all to see it

Take your candle, and go light your world ....

Indulgences

Raspberries. That's on the top of my list of (summer) indulgences. They always remind me of a time when I picked raspberries with my Grandma Phillips in her back yard. It was necessary to wear long sleeves for protection against prickers and the swarms of mosquitoes hiding in the bushes. Next on the list of indulgences, sweet cherries then blueberries and Ohio-grown strawberries. Call me crazy, but sometimes after rinsing them off I put them in a bowl and just look at them awhile. I find them to be a delight to the eyes as well as the mouth.

I admit I overdid it a bit today on my weekly trip to the produce market/deli that is two blocks from my house. I went in for some of my favorite Holmes county cheese, veggies for salad and whatever fruit looked good and was reasonably priced. Sweet cherries were $2 a pound. Couldn't pass that up. Neither could I pass up the blueberries or raspberries since I'm thinking they won't be around much longer, at least not at a reasonable price. A few green pears. A small chunk of watermelon (half of which I shared with my neighbor who loves melon). One pink grapefruit.

I'm also finishing up what's leftover from last week, some blackberries, red grapes, a nectarine and peach (left over from making a peach cobbler to share with Mom and Dad this past weekend--so yummy sweet and juicy). There certainly are worse indulgences. And besides... think of all those wonderful antioxidants~

Okay, so this blog post was mostly "fluff" without much substantive thought, but just indulge me for now. Oh yes, and go get your own raspberries, I only have enough for me!

September 2, 1945

This item was in today's edition of Writers' Almanac...

It was on this day in 1945 that Japan formally surrendered to the United States , marking the end of World War II. It was a gray, overcast day. The surrender took place on the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay , and witnesses later said that from the ship they could see the sunken wrecks of Japanese ships all around the harbor, left over from American bombings.

Read the rest of the article here:
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
Click on the "listen" tab to hear it read by Garrison Keillor.

Faith on fire

As I write this my friends Joanie and Will are en route back to the Philippines after a 4 month furlough in the states. Its about a 20 hour journey by plane not counting layovers. As missionaries they have served the poor there for several years. Read more about their work here: http://www.actionintl.org/index.php?page=missionaries&item=1451

At about the age that most folks are contemplating retirement they took off on this wild adventure. They still do not have any plans to retire. I had a couple of opportunities this summer to spend some time with them. Their enthusiasm and passion for their work just continues to grow.

The way they are living out their passion reminds me of a line from a song called Little Boy Heart Alive, a spin-off from the Narnia adventures (song written by Andrew Peterson):

Fighting Goliath/Better choose your weapons right/Five little stones and a faith on fire/In a little boy heart alive...

Small town

There's a cool story about Labor Day and my home town on my April 5 blog post here:
http://firstlightofdawn.blogspot.com/2008/04/labor-day-2006-sitting-on-enclosed-back.html

This year is the 100th Anniversary of New London's Labor Day festival so it promises to be a blow-out with extra special fireworks at the end. I'll post something about that some time next week.

I was surprised to find a wikidpedia entry about New London and here is an excerpt:
The village was founded by settlers from Connecticut (and to a lesser extent other parts of the Northeast) along with neighboring communities in the Firelands in the early nineteenth century. The village's New England heritage is most evident in its architecture, the names of local families, and the presence of a village green (a common characteristic of many cities and towns in Northern Ohio).

I was talking with a couple last week at church who are scouting for a small town to retire to, and out of the snow belt. I told them a bit about my growing up years and how this little town still provides a very different and welcome reprieve to the life in the city.