pics, nephews and neices.

Gary Rye is standing behind Grandma Rye.
Dale is to her left. I don't know who is in her lap. The picture was taken in June of 1962 on our first visit home from California. I think that Dan is 3rd from the left, looking at the picture. he would be about 4 years old.I can't find Laurie and for the life of me I can't make out of the rest of them though I think it is Helen Rye holding some cousin or other.

Dan's first Christmas

This picture was taken at our 2nd Californa home at 4029 Jones ave. Dan would have been 6 months old.

Nephews and neices

Gary Rye, my nephew is a grandfather. He and Darva sent a card announcing the arrival of Sara Ann Rye. Her picture is on the Madison, S. D. Community hospital website. She is the daughter of their son Dathan and his wife, Monica.
Back in the 60's he was mowing the lawn for myy Aunt Sophiia in Sioux Falls and work was scarce. I encouraged him to rent out his house and go where there was work. I don't recall where he went first but he ended up in Gillette, Why. where he and Darva own their own drywall business. Needless to say, if you want the quality work that they deliver you have to put your name on their waiting list.
Gary had great interest in photography and when he got out of the army he stopped to visit us in Loveland, Co.
We had a canoe and Gary and I and our sons, Dan and Randy, got own the Platte river at Greeley, Co. and went downstream for 3 or 4 days. We saw all kinds of widlife and if Gary has any of those pictures I would really appreciate receiving some of them. What say you, Gary.?
When Gary and Darva were married they spent part of their honeymoon at our cabin on the Big Thompson river at Drake, Co. On July 31, l976, that cabin and the house on the property were swept away bay a a50 foot wall of water that came down the canyon because of a sudden storm of dropped over 17 inches of rain on the canyon. Greg,Ramona, Donna and I had got home from a movie in Fort Collins at 9pm and recieved a call from the manager of the Pine Motel ,which we owned at the time, the the police were evacuating the motel for fear of flooding. It did not happen but we had 19 motel guests in our basement that night including 2 blind people.
140 people were killed in that flood. I was presidnet of the Loveland Housing Authority and we state and federal
help we were able to put in the Silver Lake elderly housing project which was on a lake, Silver Lake, in under 6 months time. It has 81 units of elderly and is still a showplace for tlhe area. No one believes that it is public housing. Oh, by the way the movie we saw was, The Search for Noah's Ark. I couldn't make that up now ,could I.
Now , for the neice of this posting.
Laurie Rye married Tony Nielson and they spent their honeymoon in our Pine Motel in Loveland, Co. They spent a week there and during that time Tony was able to enroll in the flight school in Greeley. Laurie obtained work at a startup computer operation in Loveland so we were able to have them in our area for over a year.
Tony's story is awesome. He put himself through flight school at his own expense and is now flying wilth a subsiduary of NW out of the twin cities.They have a horse setup at Prior Lake along with their children, Josh and Jasmine. They join Art and Carol Ehde, and Donna and I , in the loss of a child, their beloved, Jessica.
Thanks to Roger and Todd Nelson, I was able to visit them this summer and they remember our dinning at Potato Bumbaugh's in Greeley. He was a Russian farmer featured in the TV special, CENTENNIAL.in the 70's.
He allegedly constructed the irrigation canals the brought the water from the Rockies to enrich his potato fields.

I believe that in the cache of photos that my creative Court,my grandson ,has amassed for me their is a photo of all the Rye cousins that include Laurie and Gary, children of my brother Norris and his wife, Lorraine.
The computer that I am on cannot do pictures so I will go to the Glendale library to finish the job in the next post. Oh, by the way, Roger Nelson , mentioned above is another great newphew, son of my sister, Opal and her busband, Elmer. Roger and Barbara's children are Ryan and Todd. Todd and I have a special relationship and it was by his good grace that I was able to tour Minnesota this summer. We called it the second Motley Crew tour after a town in Mn. called Motley and the fact that the Motley Crew was a favorite group of Todds.
Thanks Todd! Thanks Barbara and Roger!

Bows-Arrows-children-Dan, part 3 continued

Here we have our Dan in the arms of our friend, Caroline Leeland pictured with my Mother, Emma Thompson Rye and Randy Lee and Angela Ann standing at the front door of our new California home at 10010 Hedrick Avenue in Riverside, California.
This picture enlarges the story from an earlier blog. We arranged for Caroline to journey with us from Worthington, Mn. to California and for my Mother to join us later by bus and visit her brother,uncle Tommy who lived in Riverside. Then later on Mother and Caroline took the bus back to Minnesota. This picture was probably taken in late 1958 so Dan would be under six months old.
Again, I can share these photos thanks to
creative Court, my Grandson

Golden-Viv & Don's family-1981

The Helgeson girls once scattered are now all living in the Blackduck area near their parents. They farmed for a fews years on Grandma Rye's farm near Hill and then moved to the Blackduck area and ran the Cedar Lake Lodge for years. It was a family operation and each hand was outstretched to help make it a glowing success. Don has probably cleaned more fish than you can shake a stick at and Viv and the girls have probably cleaned more cabins then they care to remember.
On a lighter note, Viv was the baby of our family and was the only child born in the hospital. Opal was in high school and the only vehicle that we had was a 1932 Model B Ford stake truck. Opal and Dad were in the cab and the rest of us rode in the back of the truck to Luverne hospital. I'm sure we were waving and shoutin at people as we drove through town. I'm sure that Opal ducked down in the cab if she saw any of her friends.
When Viv was five years old, mother askd her to fetch a pail of cobs to start the fire in the cook stove. Viv told her Mother, "I have to do all the work around here." we have never let her forget it and it's usuallly one of our first forms of greetings to Viv.
Thanks to Randy's son, my Grandson, I am able to share these pictures with you.

GOLDEN-VIVIAN-DON HELGESON

On Sunday my sister my sister, Vivian and Don celebrate their 50th wedding anniverary. They are blessed indeed and have blessed everyone they 'have touched.

They are shown here as the Godparemts of our Angela Ann

LOVE OF COUNTRY

Dan memorized and gave this dramatic reading when he was a 6th grader at Arizona School in Riverside, California.

DEFENSE OF HOFER, THE TYROLESE PATRIOT- Andreas Hofer

Hofer, a Tyrolese patriot, was captured and executed by Napoleon. At his trial he spoke as follows:

You ask what I have to say in my defense? --You, who glory in the name of France, who wander through the world to exalt the land of your birth. You demand how I could dare to arm myself against the invaders of my native rocks! Do y;ou confine the love of home to yourselves? The stars which glitter on your breasts, are they the recompense of servitude?
I see the smile of comptempt which curls your lips. You say : "This brute! He is a ruffian, a beggar!" " That patched jacket! That ragged cap! That rusty belt! Shall barbarians such as he close the pass against us, shower rocks on our heads, and single out our leader with unfailing aim? We must subdue these groveling mountaineers, who know not the joys and brilliance of life, creeping amidst eternal snows, and snatching with greedy hand thier stinted ear of corn."
Yet, poor as we are, we never envies our neighbors their with their smiling sun, their gilded palaces. We never strayed from ouar peaceful huts to blast the happiness of thos who hand not injured us. The travelers who visited our valleys met every hand outstretched to welcome him. For him every hearth blazed.To happy for ambition, we were not jealous of his wealth, and listened with delight to his tale of distant lands.
Frenchmen, you have wives and children. When your return to your beautiful cities, amidst the roar of trumpets, the smiles of the lovely and the shouts of mutitudes, they will ask; "Where have you roamed? What have you achieved? What have you brought back to us?"
When laughing children climb your knees, will you tell them:
We have pearced the barren crags; we have entered the naked cottage and leveled it to the ground; We found no treasures but honest hearts, and we broke them because they trobbed with love for their wild homes. Clasp this old firelock in you little hands. It was snatched from a peasant of Tyrol, who died in a vain attempt to stem the tide of our invasion!"
Oh Frendmen, seated by your firesides, will you boast to generous and happy wives that you extinguished the last ember that lighted our gloom?
What is death to me? I have not reveled in pleasures wrung from the innocent or want. Rough and discolored as these hands are, they are pure. We have rushed to the sacrifice, and the offering has been if vain for us. But our childred will burst these fetteres. The blood of virture was never shed in vain, and freedom can NEVER die. I have heard that you killed your king once because he enslaved you; yet now you crouch before a single man who bids you trample on all who abjure his yoke; and who shoots you if you have the courage to disobey. Do you think that, when I am dead, no other Hofer shall breath?
Dream you that, if today you prostate Hofer in the dust, tomorrow Hofer is no more?In the distance I see liberty which I shall not taste. Behind, I see my slaughtered country me, my orphans, my desolate fieldsl. But a star rises befpre my aching sight. which points to JUSTICE that shall come

YOU ARE THE BOWS FROM WHICH YOUR CHILDREN AS LIVING ARROWS ARE SENT FORTH,part 3 Dan Rye

On my Wednesday, July 13th post I recorded Dan's 46th birthday. I mentioned that Caroline Leeland, a friend of my Mother, Emma Thompson Rye, journeyed with us to California to care for Angela and Randy as Donna gave birth to Daniel Gene Rye.

Now, thanks to my generous Grandson, Court Rye, I am able to share one of the first photos of Donna, Caroline, Angela Ann And Randy standing before the first semi-permanent rental in Riverside, California.
I was, at the time, teaching at Sierra Junior High School.

Court has arranged upward of 300 pictures on a website for me which I can transfer to the text as I go along.You can view them by going to my website on the link entitled Rye Memory Lane Photo Album. I am deeply greatful to Court for all of his devotion to this effort and according to Randy , Court stayed up most of the night to complete the job before returning to CU at Boulder, where by the way, his sister, My Granddaughter is also enrolled in an honors program. Randy has been and continues to be on great father, as great as his is a great son.We thank him for giving such devotion to his beautiful children. Are we proud or what?
We went to California in 1958 and we did not lose track of or forget the gift that Caorline Leeland gave to us, the gift of herself. In 1965 we had purchased a29' Terry travel trailer and would make trips each summer to see our relatives in Minnesota. That year we returned by going up to Fargo, N.D. and visited Caroline.I can't remember much of the visit except that we were glad to see one another again. After that we sort of lost contact. We continued on from Fargo into Canada and across Canada to Vancouver, British Columbia where within a day or two, Dan, Bridgid and Summer will anchor their boat "SUNSHINE" and return to Phoenix on the 22nd after a five week cruise in the Inland Passage. When we lived on
Gramercy Place and Dan was about 8 years old he built a boat in the garage that never saw water. In high school or college, he tried to get a job on a boat during the summer break.It didn't work out but it has worked out for him now. Sail on oh ship of state , sail on,oh family strong and great!

On Sunday morning,Francis Bakk, sister of my deceased brother in law,Orville Bakk, called her cousin Margaret Bakk Thornton in Madison, S.Dak. Margaret in turn called me in Sun City,Arizona. A paacemaker company called Guidant seemed to has suppressed reports on device failures in the past. The story goes on for four pages plus a picture and the story ends like this.

The bottom line

The seemingly esoteric stastics have real life repercussions for patients.

Raymond Rye, 73, who suffers from coronary atery disease, is now on his third
defibrillator, after Guidant Ventnak Prizm device was replaced Thursday at United
Hospital's John Nassiff Heart Hospital in St. Paul.
Left on its own, Rye's heart beats about 30 times per minute--compared with a normal heart rate of 70.
"Because he's dependent on the pacemaker part of his defribillator, he can't afford to have it fail," said Dr.Greg Granrud. So the decision to replace Rye's device was fairly straight forward, and Rye was more than happy to place his trust in his doctors.
The Eau Claire, Wis., resident said that he doesn't need more information,
from his device ccompanies regarding his ICD> "If I got all the information, I wouldn't understand it anyway," he said.
After Graanrud slid the Prizm defibrillator out of Rye's chest in a procedure that lasted a little over an hour, it was set aside so it could be sent back to the company for testing.
The story included a picture of Ray on the front page.Ray is my younger brother and I also have a younger sister, vivian Rye Helgeson in Minnesota.
I visted both of them in June in the company of my grandnephew,
Todd Nelson, son of Barara and Dr. Roger Nelson.
Incidentally, Don Hegeson, my brother in law had his Guidant pacemaker replaced the 2nd of July this year. Two out of two is not bad.
After receiving the call I called Ray in Wis.and he was sitting in his recliner resting nicely and said he was doing okay.

Red flages easy to miss to miss heart devices-Mpls Star story-08/07/05

On Sunday morning,Francis Bakk, sister of my deceased brother in law,Orville Bakk called her cousin Margaret Thornton in Madison, S.Dak. Margaret in turn called me in Sun City,Arizona. A paacemaker company called Guidant seemed to has suppressed reports on device failures in the past. The story goes on for four pages plus a picture and the story ends like this.

The bottom line

The seemingly esoteric stastics have real life repercussions for patients.

Raymond Rye, 73, who suffers from coronary atery disease, is now on his third
defibrillator, after Guidant Ventnak Prizm device was replaced Thursday at United
Hospital's John Nassiff Heart Hospital in St. Paul.
Left on its own, Rye's heart beats about 30 times per minute--compared with a normal heart rate of 70.
"Because he's dependent on the pacemaker part of his defribillator, he can't afford to have it fail," said

HAPPY BIRTHDAY,BRIGID

Dream Maker has a birthday
And we cherish her each day
May the waves be all of beauty
As she sails along life's way.

Dream Maker shares a world of joy and splendor
in a moment it is gone
But Dream Maker's cherished gifts
Circle on and on and on.

Happy Moon and Dan are indeed blessed
as are all others in her midst
that circles on and on and on!

MSN Family Name Tracer Tool

Hello Papa!

I was reading online this evening when I learned about a new tool by MSN that allows a person to enter the last name of their family or relatives and learn about it's history. I entered the name "Rye" and got some results about which states had the most Rye's (including California) and it also listed these top five historical meanings for the name:

1. English: topographic name for someone who lived on an island or patch of firm ground surrounded by fens, from a misdivision of the Middle English phrase atter ye ‘at the island’ (from Old English ēg, īeg ‘island’).

2. English: topographic name for someone who lived near a river or stream, from a misdivision of the Middle English phrase atter eye ‘at the river’ (from Old English ēa ‘river’).

3. English: topographic name for someone living at a place where rye (Old English ryge) was grown, or perhaps a metonymic occupational name for someone who grew or sold it.

4. Norwegian: habitational name from a farmstead so named, most of them from Old Norse rjóðr ‘clearing in a forest’, but others from ry ‘dry place with stones’.

5. Danish: habitational name from a place called Rye.

Keep in touch, I look forward to more of your blog posts (and especially the pictures and stories!)

Love ya, Court