family | dual personalities

July 17, 2015

For he’s a jolly good fellow 2015

by chuckofish

Not a mug shot

Well, the OM turns the Big 6-0 today. Booyah. He probably still has that seersucker suit (above) and it probably still fits him.

His daughters sent him cards.

Inside: And by stud I mean dork

and

As you may infer from the choice of cards, the OM is not a party dude, so we will have a quiet celebration. It will involve eating with the boy and daughter #3 in some restaurant where the OM can order a pork steak, a flyover delicacy (?). Hopefully there will be a margarita for me in the bargain.

There is…this consolation to the most way-worn traveler, upon the dustiest road, that the path his feet describe is so perfectly symbolical of human life,–now climbing the hills, now descending into the vales. From the summits he beholds the heavens and the horizon, from the vales he looks up to the heights again. He is treading his old lessons still, and though he may be very weary and travel-worn, it is yet sincere experience.

Henry David Thoreau, A Walk to Wachusett

6 Comments

July 14, 2015

“I’m a thousand miles from nowhere Time don’t matter to me”*

by chuckofish

Our family has been in this country for nearly 400 years and the genealogy of some branches is quite well documented. We have some holes, however–especially those ancestors who pioneered west of the Alleghenies–and my dual personality and I are continually working on filling in those blanks.

The other day I was messing around on the internet and I found the location of my great-great-great-grandmother’s grave in Westport, MO. I found this by purposefully mis-spelling her husband’s name. Bingo.

SUSAN VOGEL BORN OCT. 1, 1819 DIED FEB. 24, 1853

Find a Grave photo

I also found this “marriage certificate”

which has three (!) spelling errors: Susan Prowers, Louis Vogel and the minister’s name, which is spelled Johnston Lykins. Louis Vogel was Susan’s second husband. She married him after her first husband, John Prowers, died in 1839. She already had two children under the age of two, John Wesley Prowers and Mary A. Prowers (my great-great-grandmother). She subsequently had three more children with Louis Vogel. Frequently all five children are listed on census lists and such under the name Vogel, but both Prowers children kept their father’s name and were proud of it.

Anyway, looking further, a whole new window opened. I found out that Susan’s maiden name was Matney and that her father William hailed from Washington County, Virginia. His father was born in Scotland.

William Matney married Sarah Yoachum from Jefferson County, Tennessee in 1809. (I always knew I had a claim to eastern Tennessee!) She was the daughter of Solomon Yoakum (Note spelling!) and Susannah Adams. Yoachum, by the way, can be spelled Yoakum, Yokum, Yocum, Yoakam, Joachim…zut alors!

They moved on to Arkansas, ultimately settling in Jackson County, MO where they had many children. This really puts a new spin on things. I had always thought that Susan and John Prowers moved together from Virginia to Westport, MO. Thus, when he died suddenly, he left her alone with two very small children. However, this does not seem to be the case. It would appear that she had parents and a large extended family.

Anyway, such break-throughs are very exciting to family historians. I plan to go and check out the Union Cemetery in KC soon.

*Dwight Yoakam–distant cousin

6 Comments

July 6, 2015

Our father’s God to thee, author of liberty, to thee we sing

by chuckofish

Did you have a pleasant 4th of July? The boy and daughter #3 came over for dinner for All-American burgers and hot dogs. I did not attempt anything too advanced in the culinary category–unlike daughter #2 who did just that back in Maryland…

Ahem. After dinner we headed over to the high school to watch the local fireworks show held in the park.

It was clearly the place to be.

Note that the boy is wearing a patriotic red, white and blue ensemble, which has always been the way we roll on the 4th. After the fireworks display we headed home and the OM unearthed his personal fireworks cache in the basement and we indulged in some sparkler fun.

Good times.

On Sunday I fulfilled my lay reading duties–2 Corinthians 12:2-10. It was a great passage, where Paul talks about Satan tormenting him with a thorn in his flesh, and how he appealed to the Lord three times, that it would leave him, but “he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.'”

Good to remember. I wish I had the kind of memory that could pull out appropriate quotes when needed and on the spur of the moment, not an hour later when I am thinking about it.

Meanwhile the constant rain of last week dissipated and the weather for the three-day weekend was pretty darn glorious. I worked in the yard some, but the mosquitoes were also out in full force, so I spent quite a bit of quality time in the Florida room instead. I am re-reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and enjoying it immensely.

I always say–a book worth reading is a book worth re-reading and this is a perfect example. When I first read this book back in 1985 or ’86, I raced through it, because I wanted to know what would happen next. Now I am enjoying the writing and savoring the characters. It is a wise book full of truth. (I may have read it another time during the past 30 years as well, but who’s counting?) I heartily recommend you read or re-read this book. It certainly deserved the Pulitzer Prize it won.

So onward and upward–have a good week!

3 Comments

July 3, 2015

I hear America singing*

by chuckofish

Chris party

Well, tomorrow is my big brother’s birthday. Here are some pictures of him celebrating his birthday in the olden days. Time was when he was usually off fishing somewhere. When he found himself in flyover country we would celebrate in fine fashion.

Last year my dual personality and our better halves visited our bro in Michigan. We couldn’t do it this year. I will miss them.

Our fourth of July at home will definitely be low-key. We’ll toast our forefathers and listen to some Sousa marches. Perhaps we will light some sparklers. Yes, it will be pretty lame.

But don’t feel too sorry for me. I plan to binge-watch John Ford’s cavalry trilogy: For Apache (1948 ), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950).

You could do worse, but hardly much better.

And here’s good news: Shirley Temple is Star of the Month on TCM! Here’s a list of the movies they’re showing. Time to set your DVR.

Have a great weekend!

*The first edition of Walt Whitman’s book of poems, Leaves of Grass, is published in Brooklyn, New York on July 4, 1855.

4 Comments

July 2, 2015

“I just want to be your firecracker”*

by chuckofish

The OM used to belong to a fraternal organization that was responsible for putting on the annual flyover 4th of July parade here in town. He was involved for years in the float department and so our daughters were shanghaied into dressing up in embarrassing costumes and riding on the floats.

One year daughter #1 was Tinkerbell on the Peter Pan float.

In comparison, daughter #2 got away easy dressing up as a hillbilly gal. I have pictures**, but in typical fashion, I am unable to put my hands on them.

I never went to the parade. There is nothing I hate more than getting up in the pre-dawn hours to park God-knows-where to secure a place amidst a large crowd of strangers to watch a parade downtown.

Since it was the OM’s thing, I let him go with it and have father-daughter bonding time. (I did go down to the “den” with respective daughters to get them fitted in their costumes.)

Anyway, the point is, this year for the first time (in a long time) the parade will be televised. Back in the day, I would have really appreciated this.

This year I will be watching the parade in my pajamas. Mimosas, anyone?

*Ryan Adams

**This is not a conspiracy of not having pictures of the neglected 3rd child. Really. I searched high and low.

9 Comments

June 29, 2015

Postcards from Gasparilla

by chuckofish

From our first night to our last,

we had the best time!

Our week in Boca Grande was filled with good food (thank you, daughter #2)

good drink (thank you, daughter #1)

and ice cream,

hair braiding,

beach time,

and pool time,

and lots of gab, gab, gabbing.

We pretty much did everything we did on our previous visit, but with just the three of us girls, we simplified the formula to basically: floating in the pool, walking on the beach, eating, drinking, and watching movies/Freaks and Geeks and various other Netflix offerings. Although daughter #2 did some online grading, I never looked at a computer or even my iphone. It was great.

On Saturday we headed to the airport, bid adieu to each other and flew off to our separate homes in three states.

Sigh.

7 Comments

June 18, 2015

“Whereon it is enough for me, Not to be doing, but to be!”*

by chuckofish

What heed I of the dusty land
And noisy town?
I see the mighty deep expand
From its white line of glimmering sand
To where the blue of heaven on bluer waves shuts down!

In listless quietude of mind,
I yield to all
The change of cloud and wave and wind
And passive on the flood reclined,
I wander with the waves, and with them rise and fall.

–from “Hampton Beach” by John Greenleaf Whittier

Tomorrow I am off to Florida to meet up with daughters #1 and #2 for a week on the beach. The OM has flaked on us due to work commitments, so we will eat and drink what we please and binge watch “Freaks and Geeks” if we so desire.

Although daughter #2 will have her laptop, I will not be online. So I’ll see you in a week or so. Keep us travelers in your prayers.

*From “A Day of Sunshine” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

5 Comments

June 4, 2015

O Pioneers!

by chuckofish

The Sign of the Arrow called Tuesday to say that daughter #1’s ornament–which she had dropped off in April when she was home–was ready to pick up and so I stopped by after work.

Isn’t it great? The Pioneer is the mascot of our local high school. He is a manly pioneer with a coonskin cap. For me he always evokes Walt Whitman and his:

COME, my tan-faced children,

Follow well in order, get your weapons ready;

Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes? Pioneers! O Pioneers!

Anyway, I had to share.

6 Comments

May 25, 2015

Stand ye steady

by chuckofish

ANC III who served in WWII and Korea and lived to not talk about it.

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead; We give thee thanks for all those thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence, that the good work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen

–the BCP, 1928

“It don’t matter where a man dies, as long as he dies for freedom.” –Sgt. Dane in Bataan (1943)

5 Comments

May 11, 2015

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”*

by chuckofish

On Mother’s Day I went to church by myself per usual. Afterwards I stopped by Dunkin’ Donuts for a Mother’s Day treat which I shared with the OM.

I picked some peonies from the garden.

I enjoyed opening the cards and treats which my daughters sent.

On Friday I had gone to the Art Museum and picked up some tickets for the Bingham show which closes next weekend, so I dragged the OM along on Sunday afternoon.

Good times on the old Missouri River.

I had reminded the boy that Sunday was Mother’s Day and it might be nice if he had his mother over for dinner. So we went to his house for dinner with lovely daughter #3.

I was home in time for the finale of Wolf Hall.

The lesson of this tale is that sometimes you have to do things alone or for yourself. And sometimes you just have to get the ball rolling. The trick is not minding and being grateful that you can. I had a lovely day.

And I thought this Oscar compilation was great.