Steve's Correspondence circa 1953-54

The date for this letter is a little uncertain.  Please enlarge it so that you can read (deciper?) it.  Steve, it is amazing to me that you wrote letters to me in college.  I recall one that you wrote in a spiral, beginning in the middle and branching out.  Your heart was in the right place, and word from home was very precious.  You'll notice that I did not spend the penny - saved for future needs or wants.  (The penny covers up the word "circus".)

Another Look at Grandpa Working in the Beet Field

I don't have time to try and play with this photo, but thought it would be worthwhile posting the companion photo to the one Elizabeth just posted. Does it look as though Steve and I were driving Mother crazy and so she sent us out to "help" Grandpa in the beet field? Or maybe Dwight wanted us to pose for this photo op. Hopefully you can enlarge the photo and see the facial expressions on these "angelic" looking children. I suspect once Grandpa got bent over it was really difficult for him to stand up straight - at least as straight as his frail body could stand.

Happy Birthday, Steve!

These two pictures of Steve were taken a few years ago during the only visit we ever made to their upstate New York home and shop. I like them, because I think they reflect his great attitude toward life. I'm sure that he has perhaps aged a teeny bit since these pictures were taken, but it couldn't be too much, right, Steve? Steve was always the pesky little brother who had so much fun in life. The one grumpy time I remember was when he was nine, and Dad lowered the weight of the hay bales to 25 pounds each, so that Steve and I could build the piles. He did grumble a bit, and I suspect that the work was hard for him. It was for me, and I'm just a girl. I remember the day he was born. Mother was wearing the bright flowered smock (one of my favorite tops), and Aunt Sofe and Aunt Cindy came by the house with flowers, trying to talk Mother into going to the Penrose cemetery with them to put flowers on Uncle Orville's and cousin Lois Johnson's graves. Mother refused them, and later, in a practical manner, said that after all, they weren't really there. Later in the afternoon, things began to stir, as Mother sent Daddy to Grandma's house to call Dr. Coulston, and instead of asking us girls to make her bed, she was busy doing that. (I had been unaware that another baby was on its way - I just loved the prettier tops she wore.) As Mother was getting the sheets down from her closet, Dwight told her that the baby had to be a boy, as he was tired of so many sisters. He certainly wasn't thinking - there was 11 years difference, and he didn't really get to know Steve until in later years. All of us but Louise trekked across the field to Grandma and Grandpa Wasden's house. Louise stayed behind to bake the bread that had been rising, and then came, also. I don't remember what time Dad came across the field to announce Steve's birth, but it was almost dark when we got home. Steve was lying on a pillow, and I can still visualize him filing the length of the pillow with his lanky body. Mother later said that he weighed a little over 12 pounds at birth - quite a feat for such a tiny woman.

I always think of Steve and Ann together, getting into all sorts of mischief. Later, Steve was a buddy - someone interested in art and drawing, as I was. Then there were the difficult years, the years of not being available to each other, etc. But we've been back on track for a long time, and are so thankful that Mother and Dad had six children to make our family complete. You may be the last, but you're certainly not the least. Love you, and hope your day is a good one.

ENJOYING A GIFT

Feel free to delete this without hurting my feelings, I just wanted to share this for a brief moment.  Last year I was given a gift, a miricle if you will.  In my enthusiasium for this gift I abused it.  I blossomed to the point that I couldn't use the bathroom scales anymore but I had to wiegh myself on the frieght scales at the shop to get any accuracy.

In February I decided that I was at a turning point that I didn't like and went on a diet.  For the first week I cut out bread, potatoes, pasta and milk.  I also cut out all snacks except for an orange quarter or an apple quarter. Then I set my limits.  I went from about 6 slices of bread a day to one slice of sour dough, ( sour dough is great for diets,) I went from 4 glasses of milk a day to a cup, I eat yams for the most part instead of regular potatoes, I eat a good variety of meats and fish, lots of vegetables and northern beans.

This is kind of a brief account of the change in my diet but the upshot is I have lost 40 pounds and 5 inches off my waist so far.  The benefits are enormous, my ankles no longer hurt when I walk, I haven't had heartburn in months, I can bend over and pick things up off the shop floor, my energy level is sky high, my noon nap is back to five minute instead of forty five, I don't get winded when I look at a set of stairs.  In short I am enjoying my gift more than ever now.

I think that I had to tell you this so that I will continue with the program.