Tim In Uniiform

Here is Tim in the sparing of 1964 after an injury but back in full uniform after our move to the
Ridge Road House. I don't recall the exact dates of his injury but sure it was while we were still living in Fairlington. This seemed to be a very nice picture of Tim in the back yard in the spring of 1964.

Carolyn & Jon

Here is another picture taken in the spring of 1964. I like jon's outfit and you have to look twice to see that Carolyn has her baseball cap on "funny". There must be a story behind Jon's outfit. Dad

Spring of '64

This was taken soon after we moved into our Ridge Road House in the spring of 1964. Elaine took the picture and just about missed the little grill at the base of the picture. This and others are "new to me" and open up a whole new area.

Bee, Nebraska

 

This was taken in Bee, at Lou and MaryAnne's on July 4, 2014. While the Owen's family if featured at the front of the picture, some of the rest of us are in the background.

Welcome to Seward

This is one of Seward's least photographed City Structures. It sets on Highway 34 as you approach Seward from the east . It is just to the east of the "Parade of Flags".  It was put up a couple years ago. Its loeation  between the trailer business and Flag display tends to hide it's appeal.

Conservation Award

 

Here is the Seward County Conservation Award winning farm in the early 1970's. My folks, Tony and Florence Vrana operated the farm that was owned by Mrs. Sandusky. I laidout all the terraces on this farm during the mid-fifties.

Vrana Family 1980

Here are a couple pictures taken down a the park during the summer of 1980. This was our homecoming back to Nebraska from Washington DC. It was a great opportunity to get everyone together for a family picture at that time. Larry (between Janice and Jerry, in the top picture,) is looking down to see Cory Sucek  coming up to set on the top row.

Santa Claus Time

This was taken out at the Owens home on this last Christmas eve. Teacher Carolyn is explaining to Sadie and Jack, the distance that Santa Claus has to cover before getting to Seward later in the evening. I wonder what the big gifts will be for this year.

California trip

This was taken during our 1956 tour to California where we visited Uncle Bob, his wife and Disneyland. Jon stayed home with my folks and I took the Picture. It was really a great trip with our '56 Pontiac Station Wagon. This was the spring of the Flowerday Farm Sale and  of their moving to town,

Flowerday Family

I'm not sure where this picture came from but includes Dale Flowerday, wife Alice and children, Charles, Ken, Stan and Richard. Alice's Mother, Mrs. Boswell, is also included. Any of you have memories of these people at this stage. ??

Grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary

Here is William & Emma Flowerday (Elaines grandparents) taken at the time of their Celebration of their 50th Wedding Anniversary September (September 11, 1895-September 1945). William  4/8/73-6/5/53 ; Emma 5/14/70 - 12/4/60. Note that Emma was 3 years older than William.

Antique Museum

This picture was taken soon  after we moved to Washington, DC and Flowerdays were with us at the the Antique Museum. Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson haven't changed that much.

Happy Birthday Verlon

Here is  picture of Verlon wearing one of the neatest vests of Art Work that he ever created. This may have been on a Birthday but I doubt it but today is one of his Birthdays. Verlon, I hope you have a clearer memory of what became of this vest than what I do. It seemed to me that it may have been on the top shelf of our house on 1st Street with some of your other things. Happy Birthday and Many more.

Another Family Picrure

 

I found out  last night that some if my estimates for age of pictures are not not always very reliable. It seems that the coloring of gray hair last night may have done me in. I found this one with the date stampeded right on it and thought that should make it OK.

Family Picture 2017

This picture was taken during the summer of 2017 when we were all home getting ready to make the move up to Brookdale. This was taken in the bachyard of the house where we had lived for several years.

Elaine and her Canning

This is a classic picture of Elaine that was taken in the basement of our first little house up on East Bradford street. This was to show the amount of canning she was able to do during the early years of our marriage while putting the kids in the back seat of the '52 Chevy and taking off for the Flowerday farm. She played a major role in the picking and canning of  all of these items. We understand that during the years that Grandaughter Julie worked for Martha Stewart in downtown New York City as a Graphic Design Artist, that she was able to show this picture to Martha.

Ken Baldinger

Ken Baldinger assumed the role of Preacher yesterday and provided the sermon for the Church Service held here at Brookdale yesterday afternoon. I was able to get Carolyn's blog page on with Yesterday being her birthday. I have known Ken for a number of years but this was the first time for hearing him preach a sermon. He really did a very good job and hung tightly to his value system which he is prone to do. Ken is Charlotte's husband who works at the Library. She had the misfortune of suffering a back injury last week and will be off work for some time. We miss her services of bringing books to us here at Brookdale and returning others.  One of my early lessons of life was that if you disagree with someon on a minor matter, you can still agree with them on many other matters. It seems to me that we could make more progress in Congress if we could use this system a bit more

Our Daughter

Today is Daughter Carolyn's Birthday. When Dr. Carr let me know that we had a baby girl, I had no idea of just what all that meant to us. A couple years ago the fact that Elaine and I would both have "pillboxes" and need someone to fill them once a week would not have been very believable, but here we are. She not only fills the boxes every week but also keeps the prescriptions ordered. This is just one of the many things that we have "turned over" to her. While the 3-boys that live a part from us, get in on some of the big decisions, It's those day by day things that really make a difference. I have long recognized that every old man and Mother need to live within close range of a daughter.

Jack and Tony

Smokey Bear's Birthday yesterday crowded out this picture of Jack and I taken yesterday afternoon when he and Carolyn stopped by. Jack usually has an answer for every question and yesterday was no exception. His big story this weekend is that Monday he starts to Kindergarten 5 days a week. He is looking forward to having Miss '' Tina" back as a teacher again this year. I haven't heard of any plans for celebrating his 5th Birthday when it occurs in October but it was my 5th Birthday Party that I remember so well as a kid growing up. In fact it was the only one that I remember having a party for until my 90th. Everyone since then has been a bit of a celebration. After having written blog pages since the fall of 2010 it was necessary for me to go through the process of setting up and using a new password tonight. I'm sure I changed it some time along the way but don't remember of it. I have every reason to believe that this page will come through OK but if it doesn't, this wouldn't be a bad one to sign off on.

Son Jon & Smokey Bear

Today, August 9, 2019, has been acknowledged by the USDA and the Forest Service to be Smokey Bear's 75th Birthday,  This message was sent to me by our youngest son Jon who has been familiar with the USDA Headquarters in Washington, DC. Jon was 7 years old when I was transferred to the DC Office of SCS back in 1962. He was very familiar with the Smokey Bear Story with the fellows who rescued the little Bear officed  across the hall from Elaine and Rudy Wendlin's office nearby. Rudy was the Public Information Officer who promoted Smokey's popularity. Jon has been back to USDA Headquarters in his own right since 1996. Here is what Jon sent to us:

"Today is Smokey’s 75^th birthday. Many years ago, a small bear cub was rescued by USFS firefighters, fighting a major forest fire in New Mexico. He was burned badly but was able to recover after a lot of care.

He became the mascot for the United States Forest Service and the national effort to manage or prevent forest fires. Smokey found a new home, this time in the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

Today the national, and particularly, the USDA, Washington, DC, celebrated Smokey’s 75^th birthday. Smokey was in attendance and I was able to get my picture taken with him. While at the patio where the celebration occurred, I was able to share Smokey stories with others in the Photo Line. My favorite question was “You mean that there was actually a real Smokey?”

Accordion Jamboree

Elaine and I participated in the Pie and Polka Accordion Jamboree this afternoon in the"Brookdale" Dining room. Franklin Hronek led the group of residents from nearby towns in playing accordions and a drummer. They play frequent dates and will even play down at our County Fair later this week. Franklin and Jean go back for several years to a time when the group was led by Jean's late Father. It was announced early that they all play "by ear" and do not read music". We go back some 20 years or so when they played down at the County Fair. At that time we always stood next to Ed Pollak who knew and sang the words to all the Czech songs. Bohumil Nemic also joined in with Ed in the singing. They are both long gone but there is something about hearing the words to the old Czech songs that "refreshes" memories. This is so very true of the songs that Dad would play and sing. This is one of the reasons why I enjoy listening to Jon play Dad's old Accordion. We have a number of Czech people living here who could probably sing the words with a little encouragement.

Sadie Owens Birthday

Julie brought Sadie, the Birthday girl, up to visit on her 7th birthday. Jack came along but realized the Birthday Girl was the "star of the show".  They had plans to go up and visit the Hughes with Dinner out this evening. A "Princess Party" is in the planning stage for this Saturday which will be Sadie's first. This was a bit of a confusing day for me with having ridden down to a Welcoming Dinner for the Scoular Pet Food Plant bringing a facility to Seward, NE. It seems that employment my be increased by 60-70 employees with the new plant. The firm dates back to just over 100 years of doing business in the State. Governor Pete Rickett's was out for the event along with Company Officials and Board Members.  While August 6, will always remain Sadie's Birthday, it will be nice to remember that this 7th Birthday was also a special day for Seward, NE.

Bingo in the Dining Room.

I walked by the Dining Room this afternoon on my way to the recreation room and found it filled with people playing Bingo. The Seward Kiwanis Club sends up a couple people each week to call the Numbers and it's widely played. Virginia Cattle is shown at the left end of the table, Gloria Brigham is seated across the table with Violet, (The lady that plays the polka music on the piano), I would guess that there were close to 50 people playing Bingo. So far we have found something to do with a bit higher priority. I was on my way down to ride the Nu-Step Bike for the 2nd time today. I only had time to ride for 9 minutes this morning so got in my 15 minutes for a daily total of 24. That is my target for these days. I had been out to the garage earlier since the dashboard signal indicated a need to check the tires. It still checks out at 33psi so seems to be OK. It is timely that I need to get down to the Bank this  week to buy a CD or two, with the Stock Market down as it was today.

Czech Music by Ear

The Recreation Room at Brookdale is located across the hall from the large TV room which also has this Piano. I have been hitting the NU-Step bikes pretty hard in the Rec room,  and on several occasions have heard this lady from the "Assisted Living" side at Brookdale play the Piano. She apparently plays it "by ear" and will go back to make a correction if she hits the wrong key. She goes directly from one Czech Polka to the next and seems to play whatever comes up in her mind. I have told her of my enjoyment of her playing and when back for my 2nd round this evening she was playing "Yanas konedlekey". This is an old Czech polka that goes back to the time our Twins, Jerry and Janice were born to my folks. I was 11 years old at the time and we hired Bessie Hain, a   neighbor girl to move in with us and help Mother and Vivian with all the extra work of having twins. Bessie was about 17 to 18 years old and considered it a challenge to teach Vivian, Don and I some Czech songs while taking care of us. One of these old songs was "Yanas konedlekey" and I went ahead and sang the next line which was, "Yat dem thine aloney" which surprised the lady.  She played for a few more minutes while I rode the Nu-Step and when she left, I told her how much I enjoyed her playing.

Our Regular Meal Table

I had a 3:00pm Exercise class here at Brookdale this afternoon and planned to get a picture of Marie, our instructor at that time. However, it was not to be. She kept us so busy going from one exercise to the next, that I never got the picture taken. This group meets regularly at 9:15 am on weekday mornings which I should attend but haven't gotten into the habit. Instead, I ended up with this picture of our regular meal table. I am on the left, then Marv Taylor, Bill VonKampen, and Elaine. We are a very compatible group and get along just fine. Marv Taylor is a long time Kiwanis friend and Bill is the father of Kurt VonKampen, David is his Grandson both of Concordia University musical fame. Our weather continues to be cool with occasional rain. We are watching the Minnesota Twins opening their game in Minneapolis by giving up a run to the Royals in the top of the first inning. But the Twins got a HR in the bottom of the 1st inning to lead 2-1.