TidBit

Abel Russell Blood -And he is ----- Abel is the father of Moses, who is the father of Roscoe, who is the father of Russell, which makes him our great, great grandfather. Just thought you might like to have this in your records.

Ode to Dwight

I know this guy named Dwight,

whose life, so he says, has been quite a plight.

He struggled, he loved, he laughed, he taught,

He desired, among other things to never be caught

Without the newest or "funnest" gadgets his siblings had first,

Or to be last on the list to be told the "latest dirt". (so what does rhyme with first?)

Over the years he has tried,

to be whatever being "big brother" implied.

Setting an example for all to contemplate,

Should I? Or shouldn't I, Oh, I think I'll just wait

To see if he's serious before I take the bait.

Multi-level bargains, wigs and pantyhose, and a calming potion,

Are just some of the adventures he helped put in motion.

But when all is said and done,

What would I change? Not one.

We have shared laughter and tears,

Dreams, frustrations and fears,

And since today is the start of your new year,

My wish for you is quite sincere.

May you continue to find laughter, and see the good in each day,

No matter what challenge may come your way,

Your life is a gift, that makes our lives more complete

So, please, be a good boy, go rub Vicks on your feet.

Enjoy lots of birthday treats, and get a good night's rest,

BYU plays tomorrow, you need to be at your best.

(Ok, dumb attempt, but am out of photos! Happy Birthday, Dwight. It was fun seeing you for a few minutes yesterday. I hope you made it home safe and sound. Love you, Annie)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DWIGHT

It's the best I could do.  Who's the short thing in the middle?  Look how she looks adoringly at her older brother.  If I could only get that kind of respect.

House No. 17 in Pohled

No. 17 today

No. 17 before our time.

How do we begin to describe what is felt by our connection to this picture?  Anna CHLADKOVA lived in this house in 1838 and since she was born in 1820, that would have made her 18 years old.  You ask, who was this Anna....She is the paternal grandmother of our g-grandfather, Frank KRAJICEK, who is the father of our grandmother, Louise Krajicek Blood.

Is Anna in this picture?  One would have to study Cezch photography history to see what the possibilities are.  The original of the picture  was shown to Shannon's researcher by the husband of current owner of the property.  The reseracher was told that several CHALDEK generations lived at the farm.  Whether Anna is in the picture or not, the surroundings, clothing, buildings, etc. would have been nearly the same. 

Just a quick glance at websites concerning photography history in eastern Europe lets us know that taking this picture was a big deal.

This is a current picture where the orginal farm court was and this is the husband of the present owner.  We are indebeted to him for sharing the old photo.

Dresser/Bureau Treasures

Does any of this look familiar? I think Steve had posted the chip carved box that also had a place of prominence on the dresser/bureau. Memories?

Mother's and Grandma's Dresser

A few weeks ago, Dwight asked me to post a photo of The dresser, so here it is. See how compliant I am - in this instance! Remember dusting all the curly cues, that aren't there anymore?

Down in the Valley



The three innocents sitting on the fence. This picture was taken in August of 1955, when we all went with Mother to Valley up the South Fork of the Shoshone River to scope out the possibility of her teaching in this remote area for a year. The picture had faded badly, and my program was not sophisticated enough to recover colors, but you can see the happy faces of Steve, Ann, and (more grown-up) Judy. This picture brings back a lot of memories.

First Day of School, September 1945

In the days when girls were required to wear dresses to school, Louise and I were prepared for the first day of school. Louise wore her store-bought (hand-me-down?) brown and white dress and her brown and white dress shoes with anklets, and I wore a made-over green plaid dress with my favorite penny loafers. Notice that the main road through downtown Penrose was full of ruts - dried for now, but susceptible to exciting times when the rains fell or the snow melted. The first day of school was still very exciting to us. Who knew what adventures were around the corner?

Dear Annie

I am borrowing this picture from Dwight's collection.  The watermelon are gigantic compared with the seedless variety we  buy today.  But the charming picture of Ann, which I can be confident is not her favorite, none the less, tells of her endeavors to be creative.  Ann is cute no matter what! 

On The Way To School

1952?  I believe so.  This is the view from the house, facing east and the sunrise and the old church.  Can anyone name that car?  What does Ann have in her box?  Kittens?

Pages from Grandpa Wasden's Yellowstone National Park Journal

I realized, as Dwight and I were talking about putting together more of our treasures, I probably had never shared with you some of the pages from Grandpa Wasden's Yellowstone N.P journal. I have transcribed the complete journal and will be sending out copies "soon". Just to make this a part of the record, I thought you might enjoy seeing his handwriting. See if it is legible when you click on the pages.

Digitizing and Preserving Our Family Archives

Watching the flow of information and photos this past year on Penrose Mornings, and looking through the boxes of stuff I have, have prompted me to have an inspiration which would involve putting everyone else to work except me.  We each have photos, papers, documents, journals, bits and pieces, keepsake dishes and pieces of furniture, inlaid pictures, and other memorabilia.  When we pass on, so to speak, no guarantee exists that much or any of this material will be preserved in a way that will mean anything to anyone.  With the opportunity to digitize and make a digital museum and library of what we have, we can give future generations an opportunity to connect with their past.  I've only talked to Liz and Ann about this project thus far. My phone went dead so haven't yet talked to everyone.  Apologies.

What we have come up with is that we need to categorize the stuff we have: letters, journals, writings, artifacts like dishes and pieces of furniture, pictures, and whatever else.  Ann suggest we have several categories: the first category would be the materials of most immediate interest to family.  The second category would be historical material like the writings of Uncle David about the Penrose Canal, Garland, and other such memorabilia.  These writings will vanish when the current generation goes, likely, and yet so much information of historical value is contained in them that we need to save it.  Third category would be other materials such as Grandpa Wasden's journals.

We would need to establish minimal quality control requirements for scanning in terms of dpi resolution and similar standards.  Ann suggests that the minimal output should be CDs of the material each of us has and that these be made available to others.  From there, people could print whatever they wanted to print.  Some material, like Uncle David's writings, should be made available to the Park County Historical Society and the Wyoming State Historical Library.  Liz has volunteered under my direction to contact the Wasden family and see what the proper thing to do is about these valuable writings.

For now, these suggestions are only the beginning.  We need to discuss all of the possibilities open to us.  We earnestly solicit ideas from any of our readers who have undertaken or thought about undertaking compilation of a family historical archive that goes beyond photos and family tree documents.  Now, I am going to rest because it gives me a headache thinking about all of the work that everyone else is going to do.  But I think we could make a contribution to our descendants and to ourselves by systematically preserving our heritage and our legacy.  I think this is what we are supposed to do.

The "Teacherage" Where Mom Stayed at Valley School

Think: Long, lonely, cold nights; Correspondence courses; Lessons.

Farm Journal 1933

My friend lent me her family keepsake: copies of the Farm Journal.  I had a delightful time reading articles (one on how to remove whiteheads, another how to make a mustard plaster, etc.) and finding familiar items in ads that had been in our humble life. 

I'm sure that Dad and Mom would have loved to trade in their old separator......but not necessarily get a new one.

Who cannot remember the rough Lava Soap?  Maybe if I had used it more?????

School Where Mom Taught For a Winter at Valley on South Fork Above Cody

When We Graduated in 1953

Velna and I were married December 22 1953 in the Salt Lake Temple.  Velna had a job and therefore could make payments on her engagement ring.  Plus she saved up enough to pay for the baby she was carrying here to be born in Bozeman MT that November while I took it easy studying for a master's degree in agricultural economics 18 hours a day.  How could we have known on this rare summer day in Laramie Wyoming?

Velna Graduates from the University of Wyoming in 1968

Nineteen Sixty Eight. Fifteen years after I graduated from the University of Wyoming. Velna receives her bachelor's degree in elementary education with honors from the University of Wyoming after taking courses at Penn State, Colorado State, U of Wyoming, and working while I piled up two Master's degrees and a Ph.D. and she accumulated four of her five children.  Talk about perseverance.  Mother received her bachelor's degree in 1957, I think, after years of correspondence courses, summer school, late night study and course completion after the milking was done and while she existed by herself in a lonely teacherage at Valley in South Fork above Cody for a long winter.  We do persevere, don't we?

U of Wyo Graduation 1953

May 1953.  Four years of struggle. I was 20 years old, acquired a wife and a college degree.  I cleaned every building on the UW campus during my four years, some times holding down three or four part-time jobs.  Went to work at the Half-Acre gym at 11:00 p.m. after intramurals, then 12 blocks down town to the phone company and then back to my room on 12th st. by 2:00 a.m., then up for class.  I was chewed out many times for nodding off in class.  Notwithstanding, it didn't seem like a big deal.  I received no help, but always felt I could survive another week, another month.  I loved school.  Mother wrote to me every week for four years. Sometimes her pen drifted off the page when she fell asleep when writing.  She earned the degree every bit as much as I did. It was always sad that Dad had to stay home with the cows. Velna made my accomplishment possible in many ways.  She was 16 when I went to Laramie, 19 when we married.  She was the bright light that saved me. Along with her mother's cooking.  We never really worried whether we could make it.  We left for the University of Michigan three years later with a three year old, a two-week old, no job, no money, no place to stay.  And we were bold enough to think we could make it.  So we finished nearly eight years of college without borrowing a cent.  I just think it was the Wasden and Blood family mettle, absorbed in the genes and never mentioned openly.  You just did what you had to do and then figured out the next step.  And then you did it.  Now I am just simply lazy.  But I really find it hard to believe that Velna and I were so naive that we thought we could do what we did. We had many guardian angels along the way.  I don't know how I got so distracted posting this photo, taken by the west door of the LDS Institute, our home away from home for dozens of poor Mormon kids just like me who figured out how to get through college and went on to become physicians, dentists, professors, teachers, scientists, ranchers, and mothers.  We were a mutual support group, finding each other jobs, bolstering each other up when needed, and we became a tightly knit family. We all survived.  I never intended to be so wordy, but I might as well go ahead and post it. 

Graduation from the University of Wyoming Janitor Crew 1953

Beehive Girls Camp 1953

These pictures are backwards in sequence....on the way home from camp, Leona Banks, Deanna Sedwick and I posed on the sandrock outside of Cowley, Wyoming.  Church friends were rare, but oh so valued.

Nola Christopherson and LuRue Stevens took us Girls Camp the summer of 1953.  Whitey Hopkin drove us and our gear to this camp at Tensleep.  It was a sacrifice for all of them, just so we could have a week together in the wild.  The other girl on the right is Donna Roper.  The walk to our dorm was steep.  I have so many memories of this, the first time I was ever away from home.

The Next Generation

I know, if I had my own blog I would post this there, but since I don't, and since I have been encouraged to post this on Penrose Morning, here it is.

This is a link to an article that features Nate and a piece of his world. To be featured in this particular magazine is quite and honor, and to have the cover photo is another honor. Nate works hard and deals with some very difficult health challenges, so this is nice recognition for what he is doing.  I did forward this to brothers and sisters, so this is just in case other family members want to check out the article.


http://www.hotelfandb.com/biol/jul-aug2010-larkspur-tiburon-grill-local-surveys.asp

What Time of Day Was This Taken?

Check out the shadow - Again, my focus is horribly off, but this shows the burn barrell, and a little more of the Penrose scenery.

More Photos in the Penrose House

Love the haircut and the shorts. The haircut was a "Judy dare". The shorts and tops we made that summer out of pink and white checks. If I recall correctly, we could wear them around home, but not to town. Some fun things in this photo - the bread bowl, the cast iron frying pan (which I have and use constantly), the electric stove - what else do you see?

Steve, the great Chevrolet and The Truck

I love this photo of Steve. Does he look confident? Or does he look like he is off to conquer the world? Or does he look like "if Mom only knew"? I think we were headed to church the day this was taken. This was not Steve's normal attire. That car was amazing. Steve, remember when we were being followed on the cemetary road and we took off on a side road (who says that was a smart move?). The Chevie could go reallllllly fast. I think I was actually the one driving.

Steve

I apologize for feeding the blog so much this morning. Recovering from the flu bug that was generously shared while we were together last week (thankfully it is about a 24 hour bug), has given time to just sit and start on the photo scanning again. I ran across this photo of handsome Steve and one of our many cute kittens. This does show a little more of the "guys" bedroom.

Legs and the Repainted Bed

The pictures on the wall have changed. I wonder what they were? Judy is busy with something and now you can see the stencil on the end of the now blue bed. Books in the bookcase still remain a mystery. This negative is on the same negative strip as the one of Judy at the sewing machine and Steve crawling under the truck.

More Judy

Judy played the cello during high school. The focus on this photo is not great, but it does give a little bit of a look at the added on room in the Penrose house. By the way, Judy was reallly good on the cello. She even mastered vibrato.

The Rest of the Story

This photo of Judy is on the same negative strip as the one with Steve under the truck. Note the baseball glove on her left hand. Did she miss the ball and it went under the truck?

A Real Truck

What do you think that Steve is looking for????  Name this truck....year and model.  Remember when Mother laid the bricks so she could have a clean walk way?  I think I see a branch of the red roses I planted on the right edge of the picture.  Ann probably took this one too.

Treadle Sewing Machine

How did I ever get Ann to take all of these pictures?  I'm sure happy that she did as I think this is the only picture of the old sewing machine.  When did Mother get it?  And at what expense?  Most of our clothes were created with the foot power of this machine, including the shirt I am wearing.  Make a list!