POINTS OF INTEREST

We all remember these two points of interest when we were growing up.  First the stories of the bridge that Grandpa worked on in Yellowstone, then the narrow road of the canyon that took us up the North Fork.  We also probably remember how much Father did not like the canyon drive.

Elizabeth and Ron Came to Olympia!

We had so much fun.  Not many somber moments, not even for the camera.

Giving each other advice.......the hands, you've got to watch the hands!

While the ladies watched the new Jane Eyre movie, the men escaped to the shade in the yard to get a little reading (and sleeping) done.

What an event to have the Gages traveling to Washington again! 

New Technology To Watch

"A company in American Fork has announced the release of its M-DISC, which is the first permanent file backup disc technology that will protect your information for up to 1,000 years." This is quoted from an article in Tuesday's Daily Herald. Two BYU professors came up with idea. I have included their web site so you can research this on your own. Can you imagine someone coming across this disc in 1000 years, looking at it and wondering if it was just a shiny frisbee? However, the idea of being able to preserve photos and genealogy and whatever else we have, without the data deteriorating would be wonderful.
The projected cost of the discs in a 20 pack is $26.95. I suspect there would be an additional purchase of the drive to burn the disc. At least that is what I gathered from their web site. Happy learning and let us know what you find out.

http://millenniata.com/

Penrose School: Page from Mom's Black Photo Album

Apologies if this has been posted before.  What is amazing is how many people and children there were in Penrose once upon a time.  The picture on lower right is, if memory serves me, Lucinda Wasden.

Mother's Tatting

Oh, yes and something else that should be included. And do you recognize the scarf?

The Penrose School

This is a very poor photo but I think it is worth adding to our history. This is the Penrose School. The photo was in an old photo album of Uncle Brooks that I was able to borrow from our cousin, David Wasden. There wasn't much of interest in the album, except for this photo. There is one of a young Uncle Brooks that I will post later. Hopefully you can at least get an idea of this little country school that Mother and her siblings attended.

What A Difference a Year Makes

Ok, I know, I need to have my own blog, and I just may surprise you one of these first days. However, it is important to put the next chapter on the blog to follow up on a post dated Wednesday May 12, 2010.

The photo above seems to ask, "who needs a garden gate?". The squash and melons have a mind of their own.
The flowers across the front of the family room windows have been beautiful this year.
One days' harvest. It is time to make catsup and beet soup, maybe even some dilly beans. Work to do, work to do! The tomatoes are a jungle, the squash and melons (including 12 watermelon) are merrily filling in any empty space they can find, and life is good. This has been a great team effort this year, and feels really good.

Russell M. Blood and Friend, Denver

This copy of a picture was in my files - hope someone has the original. It is a picture of Daddy with his friend, Dwight Tabler (whom brother Dwight was named after). Wasn't he the one whose father helped Dad make connections with Elsie and Dewey? Sorry you can't enlarge this picture well - the pixels just break up. Nevertheless, the dress, which was everyday school dress for Denver schools, seems quite formal. If we could see the whole picture, I think these were short pants, with knee socks. This is one of the few pictures we have of Dad in this period of his life.

How We Got Through the Great Depression

During the 1930s our Dad was gone much of the time looking for a day's work here and there leaving Mother alone with first, Louise, then me (Dwight), then Liz, and a bit later in the decade, Judy.  We lived in a two-room uninsulated home that would probably be called a shack today.  Here are the resources Mother had to get us through that troubled decade:

1. Maybe three or four pans and a cast iron skillet.
2. Two coal stoves, one for heating the bedroom, one for cooking and heating the kitchen.
3. An enamel dishpan, which sprouted a hole midway through the decade.
4. Two kerosene lamps.
5. A can of kerosene.
6. A stash of coal and green cottonwood for burning in the stoves.
7. A cellar full of canned peas, beans, tomatoes, corn, peaches, pears, apricots, strawberry jam, plus some potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and a few apples.
8. Mustard for mustard plasters.
9. A water bucket for carrying water into the house from the outside pump.
10. A scrub board.
11. A galvanized metal bathtub for laundry and baths.
12. A big garden and an apple orchard in the summer.
13. Two beds, one of which my two sisters slept on, and the other, a cot, which I slept on, and a sort of couch that Mother slept on in the other room.
14. A rolling pin and bread pans.
15. Irons Mother heated on the stove for ironing clothes.
16. Surely I have left something out.

What we did not have:

1. A car.
2. A telephone.
3. Electricity--until 1939.
4. Inside plumbing and bath rooms.
5. Washing machine.
6. Many toys.
7. Many clothes.
8. Store bought groceries of any kind except for a few staples.

But what we did have that got us through the Great Depression:

1. Love in great abundance.
2. Warmth.
3. Great imaginations for inventing things do do.
4. Mother's indomitable will, perseverance, mustard plasters, and lonely days and nights.
5. Dad's sacrifice in looking for a day's work anywhere and everywhere and showing up some Saturday nights with the Denver Post with its "funny papers" and making a kite for us that flew and pulling us around in our red wagon and playing his harmonica for us and giving us hugs.  And then he was gone again.

That is how we learned to get by on our own throughout our lives, to tough out the bad times, and to stay close to one another.  So we really came out ahead, didn't we?

For Sale: Roncoe Rotisserie, Pressure Cooker, Bread Maker. Make an Offer

My sisters are just like sheep.  If one of them says, "buy this!", they all march out and buy it.  Except Ann is usually the one who propagates this mania and gets everyone else to buy some worthless piece of merchandise, and by the time everyone else has all gone out and bought it, Ann has decided she doesn't want to buy it after all.

Let us take the Roncoe Rotisserie of Set it and Forget it fame for example.  For a brief period, chicken rotisserie mania set in.  I remember when Velna and I went up to Preston to see Liz and Ron and they proudly presided over two properly trussed birds as they rotated themselves into splended states of rotisseriness.  Judy dissembled for years claiming she had one when everyone knew she didn't.  Some where she will pay for this dissemblement.  I suckered into this epidemic and bought one, with splendid visions of perfectly rotiserried chicken, steaks, salmon, kabobs, etc., etc.  As far as I remember, we may have rotisseried three fowls.  It took half an hour to truss them up properly, haul the monster machine out of the pantry, and turn it on, watching the spit turn round and round and round.  The chicken itself was fine but then it took two hours to scrub up the rotisserie.  I figure my three Roncoe rotisseried birds cost a mere 75 bucks apiece or some such amount.  The solution? Pay 5 bucks at Costco for a perfectly wonderful rotisseried chicken and put the rotisserie in the store room.  For five bucks, two people can eat for weeks.  First, you pick a little chicken off for a couple of sandwiches.  Then you chew on the thighs, drumsticks, and wings.  Then you make some other dish like chicken enchiladas.  Then you berl up the carcass for broth, chuck in some frozen noodles, and eat chicken and noodles for approximately two weeks.  All for five bucks and you don't have to clean up the stupid rotisserie.  But if you are enamored with the Music Man con man who peddles these things with his adoring audience chanting "set it and forget it," I will sell you mine cheap.  As far as I know, all of my sisters' rotisseries have met a tragic fate.  But maybe we have all been too dumb to see the potential here.

Now my sisters didn't connive to get me to buy a pressure cooker and a bread machine.  I did those deeds myself.  I pressure cooked one roast and one batch of pea soup.  My wife kept saying, "What is the advantage to that?"  "You can roast a roast in a short time and berl some pea soup in a jiffy anyway, and besides, what else do you have to do that is so important that you need your roast or your pea soup in a few minutes instead of an hour or two?  I just took my pressure cooker down to the store room.

We did use our bread machine quite a bit when we had more family at home.  Bread machine bread is wonderful when it is first baked.  But after three or four fresh slices, the loaf sits around and turns to stone and no one ever eats the rest of it.  So the bread machine is now headed for the store room.  Maybe I'll try one more loaf first.

I know Ann has been like Eve and the apple on several other occasions of sending her sisters scurrying to the stores or to Amazon.com or to DI to get something she has had a current inspiration about, but my brain has fogged in these regards.  Perhaps others can fill us in on these multitudinous details.  Why is it we have never learned, however?  Irregardless [sic] of how many times we have listened to Ann peddle something to us, we still go out and buy whatever her current fascination is?  Why is that?

Currently we have the Vintage Sewing Book Saga.  A sad story beyond all human imagination.  Ann finds this book about how to sew 100 year old underwear and convinces her sisters to all buy the book.  Then someone paid for them and mailed them out and now nobody is smart enough to figure out how the heck much anyone owes anyone else or who mailed what to whom or who paid postage.  Meanwhile we have burned up 41 comments on what is supposed to be a dignified family history blog with total, utter nonsense.  No wonder Congress is so screwed up if we highly educated Blood family members have no idea how to do addition, subtraction, and long division.  Why would anyone want a vintage sewing book?  What if I suggested we all buy an economic analysis book so we could correct all of our mistaken notions and understand Supply and Demand?  How many would buy it?  Besides, there is an element of gender discrimination here in spending so much time, energy, computer space, and continual click click clicks to see if some robot has added the next comment to an inane list of previous comments about a book about old ladies underwear.  What a sad commentary.  Mother would be appalled that her children do not have anything better to do, that they do not know how to do arithmetic, and that they don't buy a treadle sewing machine to make real stuff with.  I have worn myself totally out with the effort required to write this epic piece.  I hope I have shed light and inspiration on these important subjects.

Siblings of Russell Blood

Kathryn Blood - a half sister

Paul Blood - a half brother.

Birthday Party

The special entertainment was a bagpiper. I was so caught by surprise and loving bagpipe music the second I heard the sound from the hall I broke down and cried. It was so amazing what my kids thought of for me.

As you can tell, I enjoyed it immensely.

Kevan's group, Lattigo, entertained throughout the evening. Here they are playing Happy Birthday.

Kevan getting into Orange Blossom Express. He is amazing. (Does my motherly pride show?)

Here's Whatcha Do

Dear Louise, This is the whole story about your book on vintage sewing. I found the book on line right before Judy's birthday. Called Ann, and asked her if she thought it would be good for Judy and for your birthday. We looked at some of the pages on Amazon (I think), and then decided that all four of us should have the same book. So, Ann was already putting in a book order at Amazon, so she said she would order her own birthday present (why wait until December 1st?). I proceeded to put in an order (I thought) for the other three books. A couple of weeks went by, and I realized that no books had come. Back to Amazon, My Account, and there was no evidence of an order - what hadn't I done? So, naturally, the thing to do was to place another order, which I thought I did. (Note: I order books from Amazon all the time, and never had any problem. In fact, two other orders came from them in the same time I thought this order should come.) Again, no books, and Ann had had hers for some time. Soooo - the third time is the charm, right? The books finally came - in time for my birthday, two months after the intended first order should come. The upshot was that now we had to figure out who owed who what for what book. Your book, Louise, was to be your birthday present from the three of us. Judy was gang-pressed into paying her fair share for the three gifts. How do you figure this out? Ann finally came up with the following solution, which is pretty darned good, I think. However, Judy had to mess the whole thing up by sending me too much money, so now I owe her something like $3.64. Sigh. We're just sorry that you couldn't have been laughing with us while all of this nonsense was going on. The one thing I'm struck by is how simplified the sewing and fashions were in the late 1920s. Love, Elizabeth




Ann came to the rescue with the following solution.

Begin forwarded message:



 From: Ann Tanner

> Date: June 1, 2011 11:30:35 AM MDT

> To: Bob and Judy Petersen , Gage

> Subject: Here's Whatcha Do Maybe

> This is a story book problem at its best.


> Major accounting issue:


> 1. Louise's book $20.00 divided by 3 = 6.35 paid by E. J. A.


> 2. Judy's book $20.00 divided by 2 = 10.00 paid by E. A.

> 3. Elizabeth's book $20.00 divided by 2 = 10.00 paid by J. A.


> 4. Ann's book $20.00 divided by 2 = 10.00 paid by E. J.

> So, now, who owes what to whom, you ask.


> Well - here's whatcha do.

> Elizabeth bought three books, Ann bought one book.

>

> Elizabeth, Judy and Ann send Elizabeth 6.35 each for Louise's book.

>

> Elizabeth and Ann pay 10.00 each for Judy's book.

>

> Judy and Ann pay 10.00 each for Elizabeth's book.

>

> Elizabeth and Judy pay 10.00 each for Ann's book.

>

> So each one of us owes $26.35 somewhere, somehow.

>

> Now, this is where it gets tricky.

>

> Judy sends Elizabeth $16.35 for Louise's book and Elizabeth's book. She sends 10.00 to Ann for her book (that she bought for herself, so does this qualify? If so, I can see a small business with potential. Shall I let you know when I buy more books?).

>

> Ann would normally (Is any of this normal????) send Elizabeth $26.35 for Judy's and Elizabeth's and Louise's books, but since she got in a hurry and bought her own book (yes, some of us remember to click on "place order" on Amazon so it doesn't take forever for an order to arrive), and paid for it herself, she really complicated matters. Elizabeth would owe Ann $10.00 for her (Ann's) book, however since Ann paid for it herself, but owes Elizabeth money, then this will balance (?) out. Ann will owe Elizabeth $16.35 - just wait - it will work out, maybe.

>

> Elizabeth would normally (? ?) send Ann 10.00 for her book and pay $16.35 for Louise's and Judy's books, but since she already paid for the books, that is Louise's and Judy's books, Elizabeth won't send anything to Ann, which will, in turn pay for part of Ann's portion.

>

> Now, the question is, does this balance out?

> Judy will pay $26.35. (She owes Ann $10.00 and Elizabeth $16.35)

> Elizabeth will pay $26.35, which she has already paid (she owes Ann $10.00, Ann owes her $26.35, so subtracting the $10.00, Ann now owes Elizabeth $16.35)

> Ann will pay $26.35, however see note directly above. So Ann owes $16.35.

>

> So - the total ins and outs should/will come to $79.05.

>

> Now, if Judy sends Elizabeth $26.35, then Ann will need to send Elizabeth only 6.35, because instead of Judy sending money to me (Ann) that I would then send to Elizabeth, it would definitely simplify ??????? the situation.

>

> And that's whatcha do. Whew, I am going to play in the flowers.

Birthday Party

Yes, there really were 80 candles, but we were outside and there was a breeze so they didn't all get lit at once, even with the connecting trail. It did make quite a flare-up for a second.

There were some trick candles that wouldn't go out so I was getting some help.

Louise Blood Celebrates 80th Birthday

This beautiful formal portrait of our sister Louise, must be part of our blog record.  Her birthday party was held on Saturday, July 16 with her children honoring her in meaningful detail.  We hope to bribe those who had cameras to share their photos for all to see on the blog.....

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER ?

Hotter than the shades of Haiti's so I helped Mary Lynn get her hammock up.  Lily recognized at once that this was the place to be.  (It's really to early to call them the "dog days of summer'" but it just made a good title.

Happy Birthday to our Dear Louise: Big Sister, Loyal Friend, and Companion Through Our Shared Adventures

Frosty Tree in Penrose Winter

STEVE BLOOD FAMILY GATHERING

Mark and Debbie's three

Ryan, Mike's oldest

Mike, (my oldest)

Mark

Shannon and her son Nathan

Mary Lynn and Mark's wife Debby

(word has it that Mary Lynn shaved strokes off the girls team)

Cindy, Mike's wife

Erika,  Mike's youngest

Lane, Mark's oldest

This is a very quick add, It was a marvelous 4th, one we will never forget.

MATURITY

If you could just get Ann to have a serious conversation.....

SIBLINGS IN THE WEST

THREE VERY CLASSY LADIES

IF HE DOESN'T GET HIS HAND OFF MY LEG I'M GOING TO SMACK HIM

COLOR COORDINATION IS ESSENTIAL

HONESTLY RON, I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU'D GROW BRUSSELS SPROUTS.

YA ALL COME BACK AND SEE US YA HEAR

Would Mother Think This Job Was Good Enough?

One time while I was assigned to mop the kitchen floor on my hands and knees I thought I was finished after working on it.  Big mistake.  Mother, the eagle-eyed inspector, thought I had done an awful job and told me to do it over again.  Ever since then, I have had a subliminal prompting when doing similar jobs that asks me to ponder: "Would Mother think this job is good enough?" 

Mother always expected no less than our best.  When I was in the fifth grade, I missed school from December 1 until late March with mysterious after effects of chicken pox and mumps.  Louise brought my assignments, lessons, and materials home for classes.  Mother, who had taught elementary school before her marriage, was my teacher.  I can guarantee that I got straight A's (we were graded 1's, 2, 3, 4, 5) in every subject.  I wonder what I might have learned if Mom had home schooled me all the way through school, much of which was a waste of time.  I could have learned more in two hours a day than I did all day in school.  The main thing I learned in sixth grade, for example, was to draw and color a map of France.  I have disliked France ever since and, especially, when I had to pass a reading knowledge of French for my Ph.D. at the University of Michigan.  I thought then of that map of France I spent so much time on in the sixth grade in between pestering the girl who sat in front of me.  We learned to color inside the lines in the first grade and, besides, Louise taught me to read before I went to school so there wasn't much to do but piddle around.  I got expelled (promoted?) out of the second grade.  By Junior High, I discovered I had a "bad attitude" which kept me out of the National Junior Honor Society even though I had one of the highest grade averages in the class.  Problem was, I had no idea I had a bad attitude until I got my report card.

I still wonder as I mop the tile on the kitchen floor if Mother would think I had done a good enough job, or if she would tell me to do it over.  "Any job worth doing, etc., etc., etc., is worth doing well."  It wasn't worth trying to put anything over on her again.  Another teaching ingrained for life.

Views of Heart Mountain

These grain storage elevators were built a few years ago just a short distance from where the Blood family lived just west of Ralston about a mile during the years 1941-1944.  Heart mountain was the ever-present icon of the landscape.

Mystery Picture: Who Can Identify this Little Log Building?

Who can identify this building?  (Hint:  Only the older, more mature siblings will stand a chance of remembering what this is).  You must write a 100 word essay on a new post rather than a comment on this one if you know what it is.  First prize:  50 cents.

Visitors from the East

The discussion began.
Everything resolved! (Perhaps?) After a riotous afternoon at Louise's house, with Ann, Paul, Cheryl and Lynn, Steve and Mary Lynn came our way to stay the night. Steve and Mary Lynn are great examples of sense (Remember Sense and Sensibility?) There doesn't seem to be any room for hurt feelings in their relationship - just an airing of both sides that takes care of differences. (Do any of us have those?). It was wonderful to see these two after a 4-year gaposis. Thank goodness for the phone and this blog that keeps us in touch over the many miles that separate us. Sorry that the six of us can't manage to be together all at once. Now, that would be an occasion.

What I Learned on Wednesday

Wednesday was one of those days when I learned how much I didn't/don't know and how good it is to keep working on "stuff". The day started with a load of bark/mulch being dumped in the middle of our driveway. Thankfully we had the cars already parked on the street so we avoided one major challenge there. Lesson no. 1 - try to stay ahead of the "what if's".
Then there was the quick trip to Costco to finish buying stuff for Steve and Mary Lynn's Jackson adventure. While there I saw the red velvet cake, which seemed to be the perfect way to finish off lunch at Louise's - who could resist? Evidently not me. Lesson no. 2 - do not look in the dessert cases at Costco. It is way to easy to justify buying something yummy - at least I didn't buy the pineapple upside down cake!
I had called Dwight's house on Tuesday evening and then again on Wednesday morning trying to see if we could talk with him in the afternoon while Steve, Louise and I, along with Cheryl and Lynn Styler, Paul and Mary Lynn were together, but there was no answer. I was honestly concerned. And then Dwight called me and said I had been leaving messages on Velna's cell phone for the past little while, and they don't use that phone very often, and therefore didn't know I had been calling. Lesson no. 3 - when reprogramming phone nos. into a new phone system, do not confuse cell phone nos. with home phone nos., otherwise you may start to think sad thoughts when you don't get a return phone call. Problem corrected!
When we got to Louise's, Steve and Mary Lynn were already there, having driven up from the SLC airport, with their flight arriving at 12:30. I was concerned that we had kept everyone waiting (we had a lot of the food with us), and Steve told me they had been there about an hour. Lesson no. 4 - Do not believe Steve, check with Mary Lynn.
And then, as things started to wind down, after a lot of chatting, Steve talking with Dwight on the phone, all of us talking about everyone who wasn't there, it was time to get out the cameras. Lesson no. 5 - always check the setting on your digital camera. Taking photos as though the setting is on Automatic exposure, when it is not, gives the above results (blurry photos) - and I can't go back and have a do over.
And then my almost final lesson for the day needs a little background. When Patsy Sorensen and I were visiting the first part of June (she is cousin Julian's wife), she talked about how Cindy hated to have her picture taken, and I believe she was referring to Cindy in her later years. After I looked at the photos of me from yesterday, there came Lesson no. 6 - I'm tempted to join Cindy in my lack of enthusiasm for having my photo taken. If my hair cut looks like a stack of loosely stacked gray straw, I have to either learn to accept it or change the hair cut - this lesson remains to find a conclusion, other than to say "Oh, well!".
However, the final lesson of the day came as I crawled into bed, and this is the best lesson of all. The six of us have our own families to focus on, worry about, cheer on and above all to love. And along with that, we have been blessed with a relationship that just picks up when we get together as though time and distance is non existent. Penrose Mornings has been such a great connector - we have shared memories and every now and again we have shared our struggles, as well as our joys. So my very final lesson for the day was a reminder of good things and blessings in my life that help to make it all complete. Whew! It must be nap time.

Letter To Liz

June 28 2011

Dear Liz:

I recorded the movie "Lili" with Leslie Caron and Velna and I entertained ourselves by watching it last night.  Do you remember when you went with us to see Lili at the Wyo Theater in Laramie a week before we all went to Penrose together in August 1953 when Velna and I were on our way to Bozeman where I would start my master's degree studies in agricultural economics?  I hadn't seen that movie for 58 years if my arithmetic is approximate, yet it brought back so many memories of that summer with flashbacks of scenes I still remembered from the movie.  And who can forget the lyrics to the lilting "Hi Lili"?

That was the summer I rescued you from hoeing beets with your siblings so you could move to the big city and tend the wonderful children at this home, which I took a photo of when I went back to Laramie for my 50th college graduation reunion.

You may even have wished for a return to the previous summer when I celebrated my high school graduation and my past tenure as state president of the Future Farmers of America by hoeing beets with you for weeks in the hot sun, swatting deerflies, horseflies, and gnats.  What did we talk about all that summer, up and down those rows, waiting for the water jug by the ditch at the end of the row?

You remember the trip to Penrose from Laramie.  We had our 1948 black 2-dr. Chevy we bought with a down payment from Velna's savings.  Velna was very pregnant, the day was hot.  We had a flat tire about 15 miles south of Lovell on the Greybull highway.  I hitchhiked into Lovell and got my brother in law Phil Reasch, who married Velna's sister Joyce, to come rescue us while you and Velna suffered by the side of the road for an eternity.  Finally, we made it home to Penrose.  Velna and I stayed for a week since I was supposed to be the substitute teacher in vocational agriculture at Powell High School while the two regular ag teachers went to the state fair in Douglas.  I had completed all of the courses necessary for a life certificate in vocational ag teaching at the University, but I had forgotten what ag students were like.  They put someone's arm in the power hack saw to see how close to the skin they could get without breaking it.  I passed out rope for knot tying, a skill which I had demonstrated in high school by making the most outstanding knot board in the history of the Wyoming State Fair.  After about 10 years of winning the blue ribbon at the fair, my teachers were told it was illegal to keep entering it.  I never did get the knot board back. And the rotten kids had lost track of what they did with the rope pieces to practice tying knots.  So after a week of treading water with juvenile delinquents, we were happy to be on our way to Bozeman to begin an unknown future to get a master's degre in ag econ.  I was 20, soon to turn 21, when we started that year.  We were expecting our first baby in November.  My assistantship paid about $70 per month.  Rent was about $17.  Velna worked part time.  We covered our new baby with Velna's coat when she came home from work since we couldn't afford a blanket.

So, Liz, how did you get back to Laramie?  I never thought I would ever go back there, but go back there I did, for another nine years of teaching.  The University Stock Farm sheep barn, where I lived the first year I was at Wyoming while working there as a student, and Old Main remain icons of my life.  Whatever happened after that, you and I had an opportunity siblings rarely have, even if we were spending our time in forced slave labor, to get well enough acquainted to stand us in good stead for the rest of our lives.  I find it difficult to insult you or make you angry, since you always agree with all of my insults.  But all of these memories came flowing back while watching sweet little Leslie Caron sing "The song of love is a sad song. . ."

My home was in a room fixed for student workers in the second floor of this sheep barn.  If you are wondering what you smell like after your clothes, your hair, everything you have is reeking with sheep lanolin, I can refresh your memory.

Old Main where, among all the other buildings on the UW campus, I was student janitor one summer.



So that about sums it up for this letter.  Love, Dwight.  (sorry you never understood the word ditto, or you could have learned to read even sooner than you did).