Polka Jamboree

Franklin Hronik and the Accordion Jamboree entertained at Brookdale this afternoon. In addition to the four accordion players, the drummer, tuba and french horn players are not shown in the picture. They played and Elmer sang many of my favorites. They always seem to have fun playing and it was a very appreciative crowd.   Some of the old Czechs knew all the words to the songs. Jean, the only woman in the group has been with them for a number of years. At one time her Father led the group and her fingers just fly over the buttons of her instrument. We needed something like their music to lighten our spirits after watching the Senator John McCain memorial service from the Capitol this morning.

Construction

A lot of activity today just outside our Patio doors. Two men from Merle's worked all day on the drainage system. They did a lot of shovel work as well as using this Kabota Back Hoe to dig a trench in which to place 5" plastic tile. It leads from a low area to a tile drainage system that involves the whole facility. They also used a small "front loader" to move some of the soil and sand around. I understand they will also install larger eve troughs to help control rain water runoff. The soil is so saturated with water that it's very difficult to handle. As I watched the activity today, I couldn't help but think back to the years when Clarence Schmidt and I did landscaping and yard work many years ago. We would have done a job like this without the benefit of the equipment they have at their disposal. As I write this, they are using survey equipment in obviously checking the grade or slope from the inlet to outlet. I watched them make the same surveys prior to starting any dirt work, so am satisfied that this is just a "final check". It's a little late to make any changes when the tile is in the trench and gravel packed. I anticipate the sod being rolled back over the trench tomorrow. 

Carolyn took us up past their new house this afternoon where we saw windows installed. She had been up earlier and said that even the tub was installed in the master bathroom.

The Folks, Jerry's & Jon

This picture was taken out at the Sandusky farm in the late 1960's when Jerry, Sondra and the boys had driven down from Wisconsin. We were back in Nebraska from the Washington, D.C. area at the same time. I was really impressed with this picture which I came across during my scanning efforts. While it's a good picture (a little dark) of all of them, I thought it was outstanding of Mother, Dad and him holding little Tony. We looked at all the pictures we took back in those days and projected them on a screen at family events, but I don't believe I had seen this picture in 40 years. While we are well entertained here at Brookdale, it's nice to have a project like I'm working on that I enjoy doing and may have some value down the line.

All in One Day

There were nearly 50 people in the Brookdale Dining room this evening for musical entrainment this evening provided by young Ben Meyer and his Dad. Ben is obviously very talented and spoke of being more familiar with playing the organ at Church than the Piano. He played a variety of pieces without the benefit of music. Some of what he played were his own creations and others, recognized renditions.  He and his Dad traded off after a few minutes. Dad confessed that he was just learning to play the Piano Accordion and has a way to go to reach the level expressed by young Ben. We had entertainment of a different nature with surveyors outside our window working on the installation of a drain to capture rain runoff from the building's roof. Larger eve troughs will also be installed. We are pleased to see it being done since our living room floor is only about three inches above the level of the patio. The drainage was one of my concerns as we selected this Unit. After being here now for a year, we are real appreciative of our location. Not only for our close proximity to the Dinning Room but also because of the quality of our Wifi.

We had our Tuesday morning coffee this morning with only Ernie Sabatka and I in attendence. Interestingly, we had an excellent visit. His family background and my Dad's family background were so similar that I'm sure some of our ancestors crossed paths. In addition to family, we also know or knew many of the same people in the Bohemian Alps area of the state. We will get together again for coffee on Thursday morning after alerting some of the folks about it on Wednesday evening. We just need to get a group in the Habit. Residents here have a wealth of stories to tell and it just takes showing a little bit of interest to bring them out.

Kiwanian Marv Taylor Recognized

We were pleased to have a great number (56) Kiwanians at our meeting this noon to hear NE-IA District Governor, Jan Burch speak to us about the Kiwanis Miracle League (Adaptive athletic field) that she and her husband, Bill Mitchell promoted in DesMoines, Iowa. It was featured in the August issue of the Kiwanis Magazine and displayed to attendees of the recent District Meeting. She also brought along a Certificate to be presented to Marv Taylor for having recruited more members to Kiwanis than anyone else in the 2-State District during the current year. Marv is shown here accepting the Certificate who later took the Governor and others down to the Parade of Flags for a personal tour of the site which he has spearheaded. 

At the White House

This was taken at the White House south lawn on August 7, 1969. Tim had completed his freshman year at UN-L and Laurie had flown back with him. Joanie Wells was from my office and Elaine took the picture. President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger welcomed the new Ambassador from Germany and we were among the "government people" invited to the event to provide an "impressive" crowd. Elaine and I attended several of these events during our DC years. They were always colorful with military bands, etc. Family members of employee's with securing clearance were permitted. It was a rare opportunity for many of us to see the President up close. Laurie spent a couple weeks with us and rode along as we drove back to Nebraska on our summer vacation.

Son Jon at Beltsville PMC in 1970

Here is son Jon taking a picture of things at the SCS Plant Materials Center at Beltsville, MD in May of 1970. The annual SCS picnic was held at that facility that year and Wayne Evertt showed us around the PMC. I had a special interest in the Agencies work with various plants in it's several strategically located centers. It stemmed from working with Arnold Davis who began his SCS career working with us in the Seward field office. He and his family moved to Beltsville in 1962 the same summer we moved to the National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Our families spent a lot of time together during those early years. Dave retired as the Head Plant Materials specialist for the south. During my years with the agency, I visited many of the dozen or so PMC's including the one on the island of Maui in the Hawaiian Islands.

Happy Days

This was taken out at our farm NE of Garlandafter the grass was well established on the conservation reserve land. We were living in Lincoln but met Elaine's parents, Flora and Albert out at the farm. Albert as well as my Dad helped to get the grass established by clipping it along with all the weeds 8-10 inches high, the 2nd year after seeding. My spade handle barely shows at the extreme left edge of the picture. It was along for fire prevention. That same spade is hanging in our garage tonight. While I gave up most of my tools, that spade has been important to me for many years of landscaping work. I have balled and burlapped many shrubs with it.

Both of these pictures were among those that I scanned today, though there are several years between them. This was during the Christmas season of 1969 when we were living back in Arlington, VA. Verlon is holding what appears to be a gift but I don't remember what it was nor can I figure out what it may have been. Give me a call if anyone remembers it. This is not the only picture that I've scanned that raises questions. I went back and checked my 5-year Diary on this one but didn't get any clues. Once I started writing Journals is 1975, I was able to get in a lot more detail. We enjoyed "Happy Hour" this afternoon at Brookdale with drinks and snacks. It took the edge off the Philly Beef Sandwich served for supper. The Texas sheet cake Brownie was excellent.

We Are Adjusting

A Tuesday and Thursday morning Coffee Klatch in the Brookdale Coffee room has been promoted for some time. This morning we got it "pulled-off" for the first time. Shown here (l-r) are Carl, Tony, Marv, Bill and Steve. Adrian came in after the picture was taken. We represent varied backgrounds but have similar perspectives on various subjects discussed. We invited a lady in but she decided to not join us this morning. Hopefully, as time goes on, we can attract anyone who may be interested in joining such open discussion with no prepared agenda nor minutes taken. Marv Taylor finished off the discussion this morning by giving the background of the Seward Parade of Flags.

 This afternoon Melissa led a celebration of "Cuisine of Mexico". She made Questdilla in a cooker, Tacos and served with Margritas. I enjoyed two regular ones with crushed ice and Elaine had the non-alcoholic strawberry one. It was a "festive" event with a good turnout. Several of the staff were involved and we sang Happy Birthday to Carla. After a big salmon Dinner and the afternoon treat, the bacon-potato soup Supper with Ham and Cheese on a Crusant was all I could eat for supper. The dessert cookie was saved to eat with my 9:00pm pill. The entire staff was just great in serving us this afternoon as well as bringing in the Coffee and fresh cookies for our group to enjoy this morning. Our day was "topped-off" with a visit this evening with Ben and Carolyn. We enjoyed the up-date on the days progress of the Hughes house, etc.

Olive Garden Lunch

This was a busy day for us that kept us on the go all day.
Carolyn drove us down to The Olive Garden in Lincoln where we met Don and Gladys for lunch toady. We always like their soup, salad, and bread stick lunch. And, the visit is always the highlight. We have seen pictures on Facebook recently of their 10 grand children and 11 great grandchildren and needed some help in keeping up with all of their interesting activities and educational pursuits. Their oldest Great Granddaughter is a Senior at Wesleyan  this fall. After lunch I picked up a pair of glasses with new lenses from Stanton Optical. Then we visited the new Hughes house when we got back to Seward where a lot was happening.

Several roofers were putting covering and shingles on the roof. A plumber was working inside where he and Carolyn made some decisions. This evening Marv Taylor asked me to ride along to deliver a U.S. flag to a place in the NW corner of Lancaster Co. We drove over the dam at Branched Oak to get there. It was a beautiful evening and an interesting trip. (I had hoped to add a picture of the front of the house and the flag pole but couldn't get them on.)

Kramer Sisters.

We were entertained at Brokdale this afternoon by the Kramer sisters from Kramer, NE. Janet on the right is the lead singer with Dawn playing the Mandolin, Harmonica and Accordion. Their voices harmonize beautifully. They began singing together several years ago and admired the Andrew sisters. Though they are not sisters and no longer live in Kramer, they chose to perform as the "Kramer Sisters". Dawn is the daughter of Leonard Becwar who lead a Polka Band in the area for a number of years. We even had some of his records at one time.

We were able to bring only a very limited number of our records along when we moved here a year ago but son Jon has many of the Polka ones. When Dawn played "The Saddle Horse" Polka, it really got the toes to tapping. She went on to invite the singing of "Praha" as some voices were heard from the audience. It didn't take long to recognize that it was Leroy Fiala, a long time resident here, who led the Czech singing. There was a good crowd with the Dining room set up in theater style. The "sisters" are scheduled to be back again this fall. We will look forward to their return.

The Early Years of Our Family

Jon was born on November 22, 1954; Verlon in August of 1950 with Tim and Carolyn having been born in between those two. Carolyn shows some of the anguish of no longer being the baby of the family. We stayed out at Elaine's folks when she and Jon came home from the hospital. She enjoyed climbing on the piano bench and sitting down hard on the lower keys. The boys got new cowboy boots for Christmas and were quite proud of them. Even Elaine and I got in the spirit of the season but we often wondered how we did it. We both picked up any opportunity to earn a little extra cash and always enjoyed help from our folks taking care of the kids.

Elaine even carried a Stadia Board and walked around the edges of level wheat fields while pregnant with Jon. I would take the readings with a transit, plot up the fields, then use a plainemeter to run the acreage for farmers in Government programs. Clarence Schmidt and I sawed up Hedge post, dug toilet holes and painted the outhouses  for a rural school before we started doing landscape work. We worked on an evening and weekend basis with Nebraska Nurseries out of Lincoln and used Dad's farm truck to bring out balled and burlaped trees, etc. We now recognize how much help we got from our folks, siblings and others.

Family Joys

Christmas Dinners at the Grandparents were a big event back in the early '50s as families were growing. This was in 1953 and included Tim, Verlon, baby Carolyn, Kathy and Terry Soucek. This group would be the first of my folk's 17 grandchildren. After these 5, we added Jon; Don and Gladys added Laurie, Becky and Mary Beth; Vivian and Eddie Soucek added Sandy; Janice and Larry Sorge added Gary, Julie and Mark; Jerry and Sondra added Jim, Tony, Cindy and Tanya. The Florence & Tony Vrana family has continued to grow with several of their 17 grandchildren now grandparents in their own right. 

These pictures were among the couple hundred that I scanned today. I can't think of anything that I could be doing that would be more pleasurable.

We had a retired rancher from the Imperial area of Nebraska join us and Steve for Supper this evening. He has only been here for three weeks and has a daughter and her family living here is Seward. He is the youngest of 14 children with 6 brothers and 7 sisters. There were 25 years between his oldest sister and himself. He made for a very interesting table mate in Marvin's absence. His family takes him out quite often. We enjoyed Carolyn and Ben's visit this afternoon. It's been a cool, rainy day.

Major League Baseball Parks

 This is the Bulletin Board in the hallway as we enter the Dining Room at Brookdale. It reminded people of my presentation of a VCR tape in the TV room on America's Classic Ballparks. We were pleased that 12 people came for the "show". I spoke for a few minutes ahead of the tape telling of my baseball history and long-time interest in the game.  I told of my playing days, seeing my first games in Chicago in 1948, Tim and my trip in '93 and of Carolyn and I going to New York City in '09 to see Yankee and Mets games in their new stadiums and visit Julie who was working there for Martha Stewart. In 2015 Tim, Tony and I flew to Miami and I was current again on having seen games in all 30 Major League Parks.

 Here is a picture of some of the people who were in the TV room for my presentation.  I should clarify that since Atlanta opened their new park last year, I am again out of date. I have already been to 2 parks in Atlanta and to 3 in St. Louis. I took my 3-ring Baseball Park binder in for some of the early comer's to look at. It tells the story of each park,  the scorecard or box-score of the game along with pictures. When I was able to update a park, I moved the story of it to the back of the book where I have 21 stories. I have been current of seeing all 30 current ones on 3 occasions but I keep loosing that distinction as new parks are built.

Happy Birthday Verlon

It is interesting that my "slide scanning" today  included these pictures of a family trip to Colorado about this time of year when Verlon just had his 2nd birthday. This picture was taken in front of the state capitol. Verlon looks like he was enjoying his setting on the old canon. I don't know what catches your eye first, Elaine's bright colored dress or her youthful appearance. We had planned to camp out on this weekend trip but when we got to our reserved spot, there was a tent set up on the adjoining spot with a couple revolvers in a holster hanging by the tents opening. It appeared that we would be the only other campers in this isolated area up in the mountains, so we didn't even stop and just drove to a motel. Driving up Pike's Peak wasn't as easy in those days  so we settled for driving up to the Red Rock theater and Will Roger's Memorial.

Will Rogers was a very popular personality in his day and most adults at this time had been fans of his. It is up on the mountain high enough .to have a beautiful view of Denver and to the east. I doubt that Verlon has any memory of this trip but may remember having seen the pictures. Showing slides of our family was always part of the entertainment when the kids were growing up. We even had a very few, like the one to the left,  scanned and printed which we came across more often than the others. I don't believe we've seen these other two for at least 30 years. I really enjoy this new scanner. 

Paul Siefert for August Birthdays

Paul Siebert was back at Brookdale this afternoon for the August birthday party. He not only played the 5 musical instruments that he brings with him but took us on a "trip", told us stories and led singing of appropriate songs along the way. We traveled to Branson, Mo, Texas, New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, West Virginia; then flew to England, Germany, Italy and flew back to NEBRASKA. Even though it was out of the way, we got to Hawaii to sing "Tiny bubbles" with Don Ho. We did "Waltz Across Texas" and a few years ago, Elaine and I would have gotten up and danced. He played some polka music on the button accordion while in Germany for the Octoberfest as well as Back's, "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring". Then we sang "There is No Place like Nebraska" as we flew home.

Stacking Alfalfa in 1951

It is seldom that a double-exposure picture is used on a blog page but when I scanned it this morning, it brought back many memories. Brother Don is driving the Model A John  Deere tractor with a mounted hay buck on its front. While it doesn't show, Dad was on the little Ford tractor pulling up the "over-shot stacker" tow rope after Don had "bucked" a load onto it. I got off the alfalfa stack and took the picture. My ladder is up for me to get back up there and move that new load of hay into position to build a nice round stack. I would tramp the hay down in the process of moving it. Dad would give me some guidance in keeping the stack uniform between his pulling them up and getting the stacker back down. (It had springs to do this as the tow rope was released) There are few young farmers today that ever put up alfalfa hay in this manner but it was pretty efficient. Nothing beat the smell of that hay the next winter as it was loaded onto a hayrack and hauled to the cattle.

Our Big Boy

I continue to scan slides and this one comes out of our first box. Our first child was a pride and joy and one of the reason for buying a 35mm camera to record scenes such as this. Elaine and I both grew up on farms and his grandparents were still farming at this time. We think my Mother may have made the little black donkey and believe that his overalls came from Flowerdays. I had a little "boy" doll as a youngster and may have had something to do with the "cowboy" doll. I'm sure the hat on Verlon's head would have been as much too big for the doll as it is too small for him. It was a few months later when he got an electric train for Christmas like I always wanted.

60 Years ago on 5th Street

This picture is one of over 200 that I scanned today from the 1956 to '61 era. It is from the Christmas of 1957. I can't think of any thing I could be doing that would give me more pleasure than working with these old pictures. While we had some of the slides printed over the years at Sam's Store, etc. over the years, this is the first time in many, many years that I have seen most of them. While we have "happy memories" of these years, the pictures help me realize the extent of changing economic conditions. We were able to maintain a pretty high standard of living with a nice home and new 1956 Pontiac station wagon. I worked with Nursery stock in addition to my job with SCS. Elaine also did some "outside" work in addition to a lot of sewing and working with hand-me-downs. We also got more help from Grandparents than we even recognized, at the time. 

 Our 5-bedroom house had a full, unfinished basement but that didn't keep the kids from spending a lot of time down there. (Note the little basketball basket mounted on the old headboard). We even provided housing for several Concordia College boys in upstairs bed rooms. We had a coal stoker in the furnace in the basement that heated the house. While it worked with a thermostat, we cut a lot of dry oak wood to supplement the coal. We just hand-fed the blocks of wood over the stoker burner. Elaine's folks helped us cut the wood with a buzz saw and we used my folks truck to haul it into town. I hope that young parents today will be able to look back  with as much pleasure as mine.

Jon's Re-Run

 

Son Jon's Story

Things are Looking Up.

The location of the Carolyn and Ben Hughes' house under construction, makes for a unique setting. The depth of the lot is deep enough for a nice backyard and the next 70 acres to the west, are a new section of the City of Seward's North Cemetery. This view from Waverly Road shows the roof construction and house from that back side. The framers don't work over the weekend so this is where it will be for Carolyn's birthday tomorrow.

Here's a closer view of the backside of the house. Jon and I made progress on our picture project. We have filled our 1st, 32gb Flash Drive with 29 chapters of my "Life Story", "My Career in the Soil Conservation Service",  "Pictures and some Narrative from 1980 to 2017", selected "printed pictures from 1950-2018", and, "35mm slides from 1959-'61. We have already scanned 8gb of slides that will go on the next Flash Drive. I will continue to work on the project at my leisure. Jon continues to also research programs for being able to retrieve items from the data base.

Family Activities

Jon and I continued to use our new little slide scanner to transfer images to the HP computer and on to a Flash Drive. We picked up some new techniques in the process and I was able to move a box of 22 slides through in about 10 minutes. Jon is doing some additional research to see how we need to identify each individual slide to be able to "pull-up" the number of pictures in the data base that meets the search criteria. It would be similar to the system that Google makes available on my blog pages. For example, I can enter "son Jon"in the "search block" and 7-8 blog pages will pop-up from the data base of several thousand pages. We are working on a data base now, that may someday, make it all possible.

 We took a break mid-afternoon and drove up past the Hughes house construction. While the progress wasn't as impressive as yesterday, the fiber board was put on the garage and end-tresses. There was more bracing going on inside and a covering has been put over the outside wall fiber board. While the weather has been in the mid-90's, it has aided the construction. Hopefully, they will be able to get it closed in prior to any storms of lengthy rainy stretches. Ben's birthday is today and Carolyn's will be this Saturday, so the progress this week on their house has been a nice present.

A Big Day

A lot of progress has been made on the Hughes house during the past 3 days. The subfloor was down by the weekend but everything you see has been done this week. We got up there this evening to see the last 6 trusses put up over the garage. The teamwork of the small crew is just amazing to watch. Having the large machine to lift the trusses to where they can be swung into place and anchored down makes short work of a major job. I believe the plan is to put the weatherboard over the trusses tomorrow  and get the place closed in. A lot of bracing has already taken place. I know that a lot of time will be spent on the details of finish work, but it's great to see that equipment and skilled workers can make such great progress on this phase.

Jon and I continue to work on computer project when he is not involved with office communication. They decided that since Elaine's birthday was less than 3 weeks away, that they would fix a birthday supper and cake for her this evening. They kept her out of the kitchen as things were finalized. It was a coincidence that Carolyn and Ben sopped by in time to join us in singing Happy Birthday. After Elaine got the candles blown out, Jon brought out the gifts. They included a set of Spatulas, 2-fly swatters and an automatic electric kettle that shuts off automatically.

We all took part in the Brookdale fire drill this afternoon where all residents were moved outdoors. They were directed to go in all directions and we had a short walk to the Front Door. We were only out a few minutes before returning to our units. Then Jon and I went to the community song fest led by Eli Stark with some 20 participants. Jon and I have always enjoyed singing together. We closed with "How Great Thou Art". It was inspirational.

Scanning Through Time

Son Jon has written the blog page this evening. It speaks for itself.

They say that time is relative. 

When you are young and waiting for Santa, the days and weeks and months drag on. The older you get, the faster time flies to where it seems like one birthday happens just about the time you got through the last one.

Time for me is relative, but relative, as in father and son.

My dad and I are having an enjoyable time, scanning slides that date back to the 1950s. His collection has thousands of slides, but with a new slide scanner, he and I have gotten into a pretty smooth rhythm of scanning, uploading, and viewing on the computer.

We have a long ways to go, but to date, I’ve seen scenes of family and friends in the snow and in the Rockies, old cars and military airplanes, siblings and cousins, parents and grandparents. My dad has done a better job of documenting my life than I have.

While it is a great thing to digitize all of these pictures for posterity, it’s an even greater excuse to sit next to my dad, scanning and viewing the photographs and talking about the people and places and events that they portray. No better way of sharing family history and its heritage than face to face.

If you have photographs or slides, take time to preserve them, but, more importantly, take time with your family to share them and learn from each other about what they show. You may be surprised about the interesting stories that you aren’t yet familiar about.