I must g o down to the sea again

Dan, my sister, Opal, (Deceased),and Randy on Lake Loveland in the 70's. Yesterday, Brigid, Summer and Dan went through the locks in Seattle and today they will be joined by Krisi, Mike and Jacalyn Wang(age 1) for a few days at sea. Kristi's great grandmother, Mary Thompson Anderson was my Mother's sister. Mary and Elof Anderson had three boys. Keith died at age l8 while having his tonsils out at Sioux Valley hospital in Sioux Falls. Loften died at age 26. Merrit, the father of Keith, died at the age of 46. Keith is Krisi's father, about my 2nd cousin.

Keith was about five when his father died and I remember his Mother, Elsie, with three small children, Keith, Kent and Anita, at Merrit's funeral at the Swedish Lutheran Church outrside of Valley Springs, South Dakota. My contact with Keith was limited until when he was fifteen he was working for Spencer Nelson and I came to do custom baling and there was Keith ready to throw bales on the flatbed.

Keith then got his degree in pharmacy from South Dakota State and worked at a pharmacy on east 1oth street in Sioux Falls. I would stop and see him when I came to town from Hills,Mn.

We moved from Worthington, Mn.,where I taught speech and debate to Riverside, Ca. By 1962, I was in real estate and working at our subdivision in San Bernardino when in walked Keith and his new bride, Lois. They had moved to Whittier, California.

Now here was the finest, most gentle,most idealistic, most devote couple one could hope to find on God's green earth. They were concerned about bringing children into a world that seemed so exposed to the forces of evil. Remember, we were in California after all!

Well, Donna invited them to dinner and they motored to Riverside that Sunday afternoon. Our children loved to put on plays and Keith and Lois were chosen to be the audience on this particular day. I believe that Angela was five, Randy four, and Dan three at that time.Angela lead them into the bedroom and seated them on the bottom bunk bed and Randy and Angela then conducted a church service and a