For Sam-take 2

When I was in Colorado a week or two ago I visited my Grandson Sam's room.

A young friend had given him a highway sign engraved as the one above. His friend or the sign didn't establish where the sign was.

This one is just below Payson.Arizona and I can assure Sam that there is also one North of Pueblo on I-25. Colorado City and Rye share the same off ramp.

The person standing near the sign is also Wry.

For Sam

Geography lesson for Sam

I was in my grandson Sam's room last week and his friend had shared with him a highway sign with his name on it but he didn't know where it was taken.

Well, Sam, here is one from Rye, Arizona and there is also one South of Pueblo, Colorado on I-25.

THE WAILING HERALD

Let me introduce, Summer, the roving reporter and editor for THE WAILING HERALD- She is the 3rd from the right and was on assignment with her classmates and father in Seattle.

Her newspaper is available from Summer as she is also the person in charge of distribution. I have read the December 18th,2008 edition and am very impressed.

This coresspondent would like to share with her a beloved article from the distant past.

Click here to seethe newspaper clipping
Newsman Francis Pharcellus Church wrote The Sun's response to Virginia.



Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?"VIRGINIA O'HANLON."115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Aleander's ragtime band!

Yes, there is my Grandson, Samuel, in the rear with real time jive and in the foreground his little brother, Benjamin. Sam is 8 and Ben is 4 and they live in Loveland, Colorado and are the children of Lisa and Greg.

So if you want to hear that Swanee river played in ragtime-Loveland is the place.

Ragtime Band
Melody - Melody - and Text: Irving Berlin (Israel Baline), 1911
Oh, ma honey, oh, ma honey,Better hurry and let's meanderAin't you goin', ain't you goin',To the leader man,Ragged meter man?Oh, ma honey, oh, ma honey,Let me take you to alexander'sGrand stand, brass band,Ain't you comin' along?

Oh, ma honey, oh, ma honeyThere's a fiddle with notes that screeches,Like a chicken, like a chickenAnd the clarinetIs a colored pet,Come and listen, come and listen,To a classical band what's peaches,Come now, somehow,Better hurry along.
Refrain:: Come on and hear, : Alexander's Ragtime Band,: Come on and hear, :It's the best band in the land!They can play a bugle callLike you never heard before,So natural that you want to go to warThat's just the bestest band what am,Honey Lamb!
: Come on along, : Let me take you by the hand: Up to the man, :Who's the leader of the band,And if you want to hearThe Swanee River played in ragtime: Come on and hear, : Alexander's Ragtime Band

Wesley James

Ellen, Randy's wife, shares the picture of her daughter-in-law,Lisa, and her new grandson,Wesley James. You can see the love, joy and excitement in her eyes and smile.
She has been up to Larimie twice since Wesley's birth on December 2nd.

Ellen is director of public relations at the Pourde School district in Fort Collins.

Springtime in the Rockies-take 2

December 14, 2008 with Cassia's father, Randy, at Boulder, Co. Need I repeat that it was -17? Randy has special snow tires on his car so we moved right along over the snow packed roads as we journeyed from Ft. Collin to Boulder and back.
Today I braved the inclement weather in Sun City to cover the several blocks from my home to the Fairway computer lab. It had been raining and I was forced to carry my umbrella.
Randy has been with HP since getting his MBA at Cornell some 25 years ago. His son, Court, is the fine young fellow who created this blog for me. Thanks again, Court

Not springtime in the Rockies

December 14,2008 at the UC campus at Boulder, Colorado with my Grandaughter. The" Flatirons" in the background are obscured by the clouds. It was only -17 that morning so that Sun City jacket only got me out of the warm car for a second or so.
Yesterday, she was volunteering at the childrens hospital in Denver and the Dr. invited her to accompany him on his rounds.

Oh!, the places you will go!!!!!!!!!!

Valerie and Ray revisited

This picture didn't appear on the last bog entry. sorry

neice and nephew

The highlight of any trip to Minnesota is to visit Valerie Nerison Saarloss in Luverne. She is pictured her with her cousin, Ray Rye of Eau Claire , Wisconsin.

Ken Burns WW2 documentary

Refer to my blogs of July 26th and 28th for the story of Luverne, Minnesota being chosen as one of the four communities in the United States in which one veteran and community was traced throughout the war. the documetary showed on pbs in two hour segments for several days.

Yes, America is the greatest land on God's green earth.

Art Ehde alerted me to its showing.

Pearl Harbors come and gone-but Rock County remembers

Veteran's memorial-Rock County, Minnesota aka-Luverne-county seat

WW2-Memorial-

Ray Rye's widow, Sandy's,letter.

Get along little Doggie,get along

Roger Nelson, DMV, retired,shared this animal lovers card with me.

I dedicate it to Ramona, Summer, my grand daughter and all the animal lovers in this,the greatest country on God's green earth.

from out of the past came the footbeats of the great horse, SILVER

Roger Nelson, left, and Duane, right, were really great horsemen. Roger still is and we honor the life of Duane and all that he meant to our children.

Daniel is on the horse to the left and Randy is on the horse to the right, The year is 1963 and we we visiting the Elmer and Opal Nelson farm in Hills, Minnesota, visiting from Riverside, California.
Both Roger and Duane had spent time with us in California so the boys looked with anticipation to our first visit back home.

Roger Nelson forwarded this picture to me and to make the circle complete, it was their sister, Carol's husband, Art, who blew this picture up for us.

Midsummers and pleasures
wherever we may roam
be it ever so humble
there's no place like home.

Barbara Nelson aka Hanzel the Watchmaker

Barbara Nelson-Summer-2008

Re: the traditions of masks.

Masks are popular in many groups. The Native American "Masks" had many and varied purposes from entertainment to spiritual and/or medicinal purposes. Many tribes believe/believed that when a person donned certain maks for specified ceremonies or rituals, the actual spirit of the animal entered the individual wearing wearing it and thus the individual was able to share this creatures power to some degee, be it strength, purpose,wisdom, and the like.

Barbara, I'm sure,absorbed the purpose, strength and wisdom of Hanzel the Watchmaker. Barbara is the greatest.

Some years ago we saw a mask presentation at the Denver Historical Center of the Northwest Coast Indians.

For pictures of this tradition google, native american masks or go to:

www.snowwowl.com/naartmasks.html

Hanzel the Watchmaker-nee Barb Nelson

Hanzel the Watchmaker-nee-Barbara Nelson-Summer parade-2008

Hanzel the Watchmaker

Hanzel is a main stay in the New Ulm, Mn.festival

Endeavour returns-11-30-2008

Thanks to the NASA channel,one can now watch the entire footage on the shuttle returning to Edwards Air Force Base in the Lancaster, Palmdale area of California.
In 1957 I was attending a teacher orientation in Riverside, California and we saw the Sputnik race across the evening sky.
It was at Edwards that Chuck Yeager had broken the sound barrier in 1946 or 1946. Alledgedly he had been out having a few drinks at the local watering hole and then mounted a horse for a leisurely ride.He was throwed from the horse and suffered a severe back injury but he still allowed them to shift him down from the mother ship to the cockpit of the test plane. He wasn't about to let them feel his pain or reschedule the flight.I guess they called that the
RIGHT STUFF.

My grand daughter has a special interest in the return for aboard were two experiments from the University lab and some cds from the children's hospital at Baylor's children hopital-aka-Purple Songs.