Family Reunion 1974

Here are a couple pictures that were taken during the 1974 Vrana family reunion. These were taken in Soucek's back yard though we also go out to Branched Oak. I have not attempted to put names with these pictures. Believe the families involved will be able to figure them out. 

I wondered who the little guy may be that Don was holding. MaryBeth was a cute little girl and the boys had long hair. This was the time that Aunt Anna Barth was here to visit. It looks like we had excellent response from the Florence and Tony families.

Polka Jamboree

Franklin Hronik brought his Polka Jamboree to the January Birthday celebration today at Brookdale. They really liven things up with such pieces as the "Saddle Horse" polka, the "Green Meadow" walz and many others. They always concluded their hour-long program with "When we parted". I can just hear Dad playing many of their songs on his accordion over the years. I would love for Jon to have an opportunity to play with them sometime when he's back here. Jean lives in the Brainard area and told of their house cat detecting a Raccoon in their yard. Her husband shot the animal and they threw it in the road ditch the next morning. She looked in that direction the next morning and saw this big bird working on the carcus. After looking with binoculars it was clearly an Eagle. A pair of Eagles have been around their place ever since.

Brookdale Ad

I went through our Seward paper this evening and then decided to look at an 8-page "Open for Business" flyer enclosed. On the first page was this Brookdale ad and the first thing I saw was this picture. My first thought was that "this fellow looks a lot like me". I quickly realized that it was of Elaine and I, taken at one of the "Happy Hours" here at Brookdale. Many of the staff carry I-Pads and are not bashful about taking pictures. I must admit that I to take pictures of people with my cell phone who are not aware of it. I show them anything in the way of "close-ups' but am probably not very polite with some of them. In today's world, many of our privacy's have been invaded and some of us just need to get used to it. I kinda enjoyed this picture and to be able to show and write about it on my Blog Page.

Chicken Taco Salad

This is what my Chicken Taco Salad looked like this noon after I put the cottage cheese on top. The cottage cheese had been served as salad but it worked well over the Taco Salad. The "bol" holding the salad was about 3" high and fully edible. We at our table ate most of the salad but left some of the bowl when finished eating. It was really pretty good but I wouldn't want it too often. I continued to do some work on my HP computer and realize how much Jon helped me yesterday by assuring that I saved items in "this computer". It had a default setting for Jon and I was clicking on the "save" without taking the time to take advantage of the options to save things on the computer. This was a busy day with our Men's coffee this morning and "Flex your Brain" this afternoon. Charlotte was here from the Seward Library and brought a new book up for Elaine which she is reading. We are expecting a light skifting of snow overnight and fog tomorrow morning.

Our Dining Room Table

Here is what our table looks like in the Indipendent Living Dining room here at Brookdale. Marv and Bill have joinee Elaine and I. We eat breakfast in our apt. where we can read the papers in our pj's and get up whenever we wish. Marv is an old friend who we have known for several years through Kiwanis. Bill is new to us during the past year as he moved here from Phonex, AZ. He is the father of Kurt, a well known local Choral Director at Concordia University. Bill grew-up in the Hastings area, attended the UN-L and worked his career for General Motors as a structural engineer in the Chevorlet Division. Marv was a Regional Cargill Hybrid Corn salesment and traveled extensively during his career. He continues to be very active in the Kiwanis Club and to provide leadership to our Seward Flag Display and the marketing of flags. We enjoy their companionship but frequently eat alone at Sunday Dinner when they are involved with Church activity.

Victoria Palms

Here was Elaine and I standing by our '91 Buick La Sabre in front of Vivian and Ed Souceks trailer. We stayed in the trailer and they were next door in a Park Model. Don and Jackie Armstrong were in a Park Model next to them. This was January of 1996 done at Victoria Palms near Donna, Texas. Alan Rutledge and his wife as well as the Harold Hackbarts were also there in the same Camp Ground as we were. We did a lot of fun things including playing golf. Alan is here with us at Brookdale and we talk about "the good old days pretty often".  I made another attempt to use my HP computer  today but to no avail. Jon set it up a couple years ago and it still thinks he is the one operating it. I'm just about ready to shut it down and not even try to use it until he gets here to help me get it straighted out or a new one.

Mark and Dena Sorge

Mark and Dena Sorge knocked on our door at about 2:00pm. We were pleased to see them. They had a delivery with their truck in Lincoln and came on out to Walmart where they unhooked the trailer and drove the Tractor on up to our front parking lot. They had talked to the Walmart manager about leaving the trailer there in the nursery area of the lot for a few hours. They were with us until it was time to go to supper at 4:30. We covered a wide range of subjects in our living room as well as the Brookdale Coffee Room. I even learned where to get distilled water for the coffee maker if it runs out. They get back to visit Janice and Larrry quite often as well as other family in the Merced, CA area from their home in Tomah,WI. We had a lot to talk about including the picture of the old Vrana farm house between them. It is where Mark's Mother Janice was born and where us siblings "grew-up". We confirmed plans for the Vrana family reunion in Syracuse, NE in early August of this year.

Little Carolyn

This was taken during the fall of 1953 and shows Tim and Verlon being proud of their little sister Carolyn. Had they been with me today instead of Columbus, IN and Richmond, VA where they live, they could have had more reasons to be proud of her. Carolyn and Ben live here in our area and are our main source of transportation. Our streets and sidewalks are still slick with ice and snow. Elaine had an appointment for a Hair Cut and shampoo and set so while she was in the Beauty Shop, Carolyn and I did some business that involved Tim and Laura. Carolyn was with me at Cattle Bank and in meeting with John Owens at Edward Jones. After picking Elaine up and on the way home she started questioning me on some of the decisions we made. She helped me realize that I had made a mistake in my figures and helped me get it straightened out. We not only appreciate the rides but the technical oversight even more.

Elaine and Classmates

Here is an attractive picture of Elaine and Seward High School classmates in the spring of 1947. The ladies are: (L-R) Shirley Gerkensmeyer, Jean Dierberger, Midge Gade and Elaine Flowerday. Shirley and Midge have passed on but Elaine and Jean have had a conversation within the past week. We were a mixture of town and farm kids, and got along well. The class of '47 had reunions frequently for a number of years but have dropped off in recent years. Elaine was one of the youngest in the class and she will have her 90th birthday later this year. While we all continue to do what we can in taking care of ourselves as we age, Elaine and I do a lot to help each other in our daily activities. Old pictures like this are always a source of satisfaction as we come across them and are reminded of "The Good Old Days".

Julie on Stilts

Julie was doing real well on the stilts I made for her when she was 10 years old. This picture was taken in November of 1990 in our garage at Seward. This was during the time we were working in Ankey, IA, for the Soil and Water Conservation Society. We went over to the job in September of 1989 and worked till the end of 1991. While it gave us an opportunity to renew relationships with many old friends in the SCS; it also took us out of town during my parents last days on earth. Dad died in December of 1989 and Mother in December of 1990. We did what we thought best at the time but in retrospect, I wonder why we left Seward at that time.

The Twins

It was on this day, January 21, 1937 that siblings Janice and Jerry were born. I visited with Janice a few minutes ago and she is having a very Happy Birthday. Temperatures are in the 60's at their home out in Merced, CA. Jerry is celebrating his birthday with Brother Don and other family members and friends who have gone on ahead. Janice's good friend Betty and I had a birthday conversation about her out in the hall earlier today.  I don't have any idea of how many times I may have written the story of their birth and of this picture. They are dressed in blue material that Mother had sewn into the outfits for appearing at the Better Baby Contest at the Nebraska State Fair. No, they didn't win any Blue Ribbons but have always been our Pride and Joy.

Martin Luther King, jr Day

"I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which he called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States." I stayed home from work on that day with over 200,000. having come in for the demonstration. The boys and I rode our bicycles in Fairlington over to where we could look down of the traffic coming into D.C. on #95.  It was bumper to bumper. I was still writing in a 5-year diary with only 4 short lines/day and didn't mention the speech. However, I have a distinct memory of listening to it and commenting to Elaine of it's appropratness. There is little doubt that it contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1969 which had a direct impact on my job. We in SCS had been a model for bringing minorities into our work force but this accelerated it. We worked with the Black 1890 Land Grant Colleges to bolster their Curriculum to qualify students for our Student Trainee Program and advancement in the service.

Dinosaur Park

This is an indication that our having 4 children with the oldest being just 7, didn't keep us from traveling. This would have been a fall trip to Rapid City, SD in 1957 to the Black Hills and everything else of interest including riding a ski tram. I hope the traveling that we did with the kids during their "growing up" years contributed to their education. It certainly provided me with a collection of pictures of things I can write about now on my blog pages. Our high temperature here is Seward today was 11 with a gusty wind. Not fit for man nor beast to be out in and yet the Stadium was filled as the Chiefs beat the TN Titans 35-24 and are on their way to the Super Bowl.

Jack and Grandpa Ben

This was taken last June when we had gone up to Hughes for an Anniversary dessert with them and Owenses. Elaine and I are continuing to work of the 2019 narrative and this was one of the events that we came across today. Elaine gets kinda disgusted with the hp computer when it seems to be doing things "on its own".  I had her read an article in the January 17, 2020 "The Week" Magazine on "Learning to accept your decline". Unfortunately, it's not only us that have had that decline but the computer seems to also suffer some of it. Our fingers aren't as nimble as they once were to say nothing about what has happened to our brain. After watching the Duke basketball team get beat by Clemson the other night, I looked forward to their playing Louisville in Cameron tonight. They have trailed throughout the game and were down as much as 23-9 and with 11:16 to go, it's 56-47. I will hold off on closing this for the final score and will keep my hopes up. They  did tie it up with about 5 minutes to go. Another loss would certainly affect their #3 ranking. Louisville Won 79-73.

Jigsaw Puzzle Table

I went down and rode the Nu-Step bike this afternoon after going to "Happy Hour" where I had a "Bud Lite" and Elaine had some white wine. The 3 Nu-Step bikes are in the same room as the Jig-saw Puzzle table. Geraldine  is one of the main persons putting the puzzles together. She has another lady that often helps her. We have known Geraldine for a number of years and have long admired her ability with flowers and flowering shrubs. Their yard was always an attraction, She uses a walker to get around and I recently saw her with a pitcher of water putting it on some of the house plants in the building. My guess is that she averages about 2 puzzles / week in getting them together.

Wagon Wheel Bench

This was taken in the backyard of our Hartley Street house in Lincoln. It is of Jon, Carolyn and I believe Gary Sorge in the fall of 1959. We had been in Lincoln a bit over 1 year. This Wagon Wheels came from Elaine's folks who had used it as part of the chassis for a farm wagon and I made it into a bench. We enjoyed it during our 4 years in Lincoln but didn't even consider taking it to the Washington, D.C. area when we moved there a couple years later. It came back out to Albert and Flora's  Locust Street house here in Seward and was out in the front yard for a number of years. In our younger years we were always able to bring in some things to help make our house, our home. Carolyn and Julie did a lot of decorating of our present unit before we moved in, to help make this our home.

Jim doing Renovation

Residents here at Brookdale had been alerted to some changes being planned to take place in the facility. The Corner Store has been relocated into the front office. Jim is shown here laying new floor tile in preparation for the Ice Cream Machine into this space. We are especially pleased to see this change since it is just around the corner from our front door. The nook where the Ice Cream Machine was will become a "Hydration Station" that will provide drinks and light treats. Jim is doing all the "remodeling" to make these changes a reality. He continues to impress us with his breadth and depth of knowledge in doing the maintenance work in this facility.You just don't find anyone with his abilities every day. He is a real jewel.

Brookdale Men's Coffee

We had our Brookdale Men's Coffee again this morning at 10:30 with 8 of us there (Larry left before the picture was taken), The group consisted of (L-R) Bill, Wes, Alan, Tony, Marv, Carl and John. It is always interesting how much we have to talk about. John brought several post cards that featured "oversized" potatoes. We talked about Concordia University adding an Agriculture element in their curriculum. Funds for housing the facility were donated and the building and professor are in place. I expressed my appreciation for this addition and told of how in my career with the Soil Conservation Service we recognized Soil  Stewardship Sunday with special Church Services. Many of us thought of our employment as a "calling" rather than a job.We went on from there for a good variety of subjects. And, concluded by agreeing to take advantage of Wes's invitation to visit he and his wife's unit after lunch to view what he is able to get on his TV.

Badlands of South Dakota

This was taken when we still lived in Seward before moving to Lincoln in 1958. It was one of our favorite trips to go through the Badlands of South Dakota on our way to the Black Hills. Wall Drugstore in western SD was also a regular stop. Though the 3 boys live away from here now, we still maintain close contact. I've had telephone or email contact with all 3 of them within the past 2-3 days. We see Carolyn on nearly a daily basis. I had a good telephone conversation with Verlon today and suggested he make a point of calling us once a week. It maintains a family closeness. I write this blog on nearly a daily basis to keep family involved. Elaine and I worked together this afternoon on our 2019 Narrative. She typed with the WORD program on the HP computer and I dictated from my Daily Journal. As I noted on my blog page last night, our old computers are showing some of the same ageing that we do.

Declining Capability

This is one of 3 pictures that I've included in beginning to write the Narrative for the 2019 year. Placing a few "Key" pictures right in the Narrative will probably replace the collages and captions that have been included for the past several years. I did it this way a few years ago with a PC computer without any problem with "wrapping" the narrative around the picture. I worked for several hours trying to do the same with the HP computer and just couldn't get it to work. I switched over to this MacBook and found that it can be done (though not as well). I expect to continue this process for the balance of 2019 but make no commitment for further times. It is pretty evident to me that both my computers and I don't  always do things like we were once able.

Cousins Reunion

This picture was taken last June 7th when our kids  were all here to help us celebrate our 70th Wedding Anniversary. As they have done before, the Cousins enjoy getting together since they were in the same age range while growing up back in this area in the 1950's. This year they ate down at Lazlow's in Lincoln. Pictured here are: (l-r) Mary Vrana, Jon Vrana, Tim Vrana, Sandy (Soucek) Vercellino, Verlon Vrana, Carolyn (Vrana) Hughes, Kathy (Vrana) Bruns, Mary Beth (Vrana) McWilliams,  Becky (Vrana) Antes, and Laurie (Vrana) Deseck. Sandy's brother, Terry Soucek was unable to be there. They report the recollection of many interesting stories.

Julie's Birthday

Today is Julie's Birthday. I pulled my old Journal off the shelf and read about what I had written. "Carolyn called about 5:45pm to say that she had an 8 pound, 9 1/2 oz, 22"baby girl born at 3:30 pm. She had gone to the Hospital at 5:30am. We left early on the 18rh to drive down from Arlington, VA to Boone, NC. We got there at 4:00pm.  "Julie Noelle is real well filled out and a pretty little baby. Vic and Carolyn are real proud of her. She woke up soon after we got there and is real alert. While she was on her stomach, she lifted up her head and turned it from one side to the other." I baby set the next day while Carolyn and Elaine went shopping and Vic was working on a car at Blowing Rock. I commented that "I got along real well with her. She is really a very sweet little baby. I changed her wet diaper just as the ladies got home". And this was just the beginning of one of God's greatest gifts to us.

"Jus Us" Drones

The "Just Us" trio performed here in Brookdale at 3:30 pm. This is the first time we saw the fellow on the left. We hear that he is a replacement for the one who played guitar before him. The lead guy (Middle) sang old songs for some 45-50 minutes with one song right after the other. My most

enjoyment of this group is when the fellow to the right picks up his banjo and plays it.

 Ben took me down to "Bob's" for a hair cut this morning and told of having seen a Drone last evening in Seward's northern skies. Elaine heard the story of several Drones being spotted here last evening while at the "Sheer Reflection" Beauty Shop this afternoon. This seems most unusual that this has been going on for some time and officials don't seem to know of any positive identification.

Don's Story

Busy Tuesday at Brookdale

This was a busy day here at  Brookdale. Our men's coffee was at 10:00am this morning with the above in attendance. We helped Larry celebrate his 90th birthday (in the blue sweater) with Allen, Wes, Tony, Marv, John, Carl and Tom on around the table. 

Julie stopped in after picking Jack up from preschool.        Carolyn brought in some things after Dinner and I rode the NU-Step bike. At 3:30 the Flex  your Brain group met. Both lessons were most difficult this time and many items were not responded to. Rosellen

who led the discussion announced that she baked 66 Cherry filled Kolaches this afternoon and they were all gone. I got a couple of them and will eat mine as soon as I get done with this.

70th Wedding Anniversary Pictures

2019 was the first year that I used my cell phone exclusively for our family pictures. In other years the pictures were identified and dated with each roll of film. Without such info, I've spent a considerable amount of time going back through 121 pics confirming the dates and writing the captions. I can now make a couple collages and captions to add to the Highlights, Narrative, pictures, etc for an annual file called "Pictures and Activities". These two pictures were taken out at the cabin on Saturday, June 8th. The top one is of everyone who answered the call for a group picture. The lower one is of Elaine and I with our four children and with brother Don and Gladys Vrana of Syracuse, NE

Good old Days

This is among my favorites of early family pictures. Carolyn was only a few months old, Verlon would have been 3, and Tim wasn't yet 2, and Jon was still a year away from joining us All 4 of them were with us before Verlon's 5th birthday. What we didn't know  at the time, was how great those early years really were. The boys have all been very important to our well being at various times in our lives and now Carolyn is our major caretaker. She was a major influence in out moving here to Brookdale over 2 years ago and seldom misses a day of doing something for us. She was here today to fill out pill boxes and keeps all the prescriptions up-to-date. Elaine continues to do our clothes laundry and other household chores. We are both involved in our financial management and are still getting organized in living with limited storage space. I try to ride the Nu-Step bikes in the recreation room every day and continue to build social relationships with our fellow residents.

Global Forest

We were all very favorably impressed with Diana Beresford-Kroeger's book 'To Speak for the Trees" and Carolyn purchased this book "Global Forrest".  It contains 40 chapters in it's 166 pages and was published by Penguin Books in 2011. Carolyn knew how much I enjoyed the earlier book and left this one for me to read. I got through the Introduction and first 2 chapters but find it a much more a technical document. I may read more of it but doubt that I will finish it. I have read 3 small books within the past month which is well above average for me. My eyes do not seem to be as good as they were when I visited the Optometrist during the past summer.

New Entryway

Carolyn was here this PM and took down all the Christmas decorations. That included the tree with lights, Nativity Scene, and the entry way decoration. This is the new one. She also continued the task of getting boxes of pictures in the closet and helping me sort some of the stuff in the west room. Not only that but she carried it out to the garage for storage.  I'm doing some sorting for recycling, discarding, and keeping. We were pleased to here from Jack Duensing today that the Seward Magazine Club meeting in February will be held up here at Brookdale. We dropped out of the Club after enjoying it for many years. They are meeting here to give up an opportunity to be with old friends.

Martha Dowding

I got into a bag of books that we moved up here and didn't have room for on the book shelves. Among which was this one of "Martha" which is a companion to the "Joe Dowding" book "A few Survived". In fact they were husband and wife.  Julie Liska helped each of them in writing the books. I read part of it today and expect to finish it in the next few days. We not only lived next door to the Dowdings as our children were growing up but have remained friends over the years. Martha is quoted in the book as saying that some of their most enjoyable events occured in their elder years and list their 50th Wedding Anniversary as an example. She says that over 400 people attended the event at the Ag Pavillion in Seward. (Elaine and I were among them.) One of Martha's neices, Betty Tomes is a resident here at Brookdale whom we visit with every day. They are and were Great People.

Traveling Buddies

With WWII over in 1946, some of us young fellows decided to do some traveling. We borrowed Vivian's Model A Ford. Don Armstrong, Brother Don, Bub Wilkens and I set out for Yellowstone National Park. We went through the Bad Lands of SD, the Black Hills and on to Yellowstone. We had a tent and camping equipment along but it was used very little. Old Faithfull erupted on close to 60 minute intervals. The dozen or so cars that were there to see it just parked up-wind but near by the geyser. We had some car trouble on the way home but it got us started. We added Ed Pollack to our group and went to southern Missouri the next year and then to see the Cubs play the Cardinal and the White Sox play the Yankees all in Chicago. We were great friends over the years.