REMEMBER

Marian's generation

My generation--can't believe Dave and I still sore bib overalls as they were the worst because I never saw Dad with them

Dad's generation--don't know when this was taken but a guess would be in the 40s

My generation--perhaps 1955 or so

Mom's dad, Grandpa Sampson--got to love that radio!  Where is his spittoon?

There are times one can and prehaps should sit back and reflect.  Today is one of those days for me.  I am feeling kind of like a wreck!  That darn rash is just as bad even though I spent hours at the Ungent Care place and then used my credit card to the tune of $150 for meds.  MAYBE it will be better down the road but for now I feel like a total disaster.  I am kind of afraid of an oncoming cold amoung other things.  So here goes about the past.  I would say I have most likely posted these pictures in the past but as I reflect on generations of life they came to mind today!  If one indulges in memories and thoughts think of "us today" and "them of yesterday".

• I am guessing that Grandpa Sampson never had a TV.  How did he pass the time?  Well I would say this picture shows how.  With a newspaper in hand, magazines by his side AND the radio near by he probably spent hours in his chair enjoying the good life. I have to admit I miss the papers on the floor that his spittoon sat on!  I do not know how old Grandpa was when he died but I do know he lived quit a long time after Grandma Sampson died.  She died before I was born but I do not know when.
• I can not think of my generation without reflecting and remembering Wood Lake School.  I am guessing in the picture the teacher has rung the bell to come in and everyone is lined up for a drink.  Of course we have been on the swings, the teeter totter, the merry-go-round and there may even have been a softball game on the north side of the school.  This picture may have been taken at noon when we went out to play after the lunch we brought AND the peaches and cheese that came as government commodities!  I am absoultly positive that nobody had candy bars or twinkes!  I know Joan, Dave and I probably had peanutbutter sandwiches or cheese and then homemade cookies for dessert!  No pop (soda today) but rather water from the crock in the school.  Of course the stories from WoodLake school could make a book I think.
• I have Dad's family as I could not come up with many of Mom's siblings.  Dad was the oldest, I think with Ragna next, then Halvor and last Amanda.  In Mom's family I knew Jim, Arnold, Olaf, Philip, Ansel and Bertie. Most of the generation after Mom are also gone as Mom was so much younger than her siblings.  I have a lot of cousins on Dad's side.  In the picture of the boys there are the 3 Halvor boys,Robert, Jerry and Marvin.  Then my family Ronald, Dave and I and the other is Lee who was the son of Amanda.  Ragna and her husband Bob did not have a family.  
• In the picture of Marian's relatives I only know Marian and her sisters Anne and Rose.  Perhaps I never met most of them.  

At the risk of repeating what I may have shared in weeks, months and years past I will write about some of the memories that often come to mind:

• Lake Tewaukon may hold more memories that almost any other place.  Some are:
• water skiing behind Ronald's and John's boats
• Dave and I skating on the lake in the winter
• walking up by myself and fishing--making a coral for the perch
• Dave and I stealing cookies from a picnic basket left unattended 👎
• biking up to the lake every summer evening for a swim/bath
• being able to bike the entire 1/2 mile with NO hands
• driving the Ford tractor up to get sand for my golf course 😇
• jumpinig off the bridge on the east end of the lake
• gathering fire flies and bringing them home in a jar to show Mom
• picking buckets of chokecherries and then enjoying Mom's work all year long
• being upset with Mom because we had to wait a half hour after eating to go swimming
• having picnics by the lake
• more and more and more
• Of course the highlights always were when older siblings came home
• playing games under the yard light with cousins
• shooting black birds and feeding them to the cats
• playing for hours along the creek
• making wooden guns in the shop so Dave and I could play cops and robbers
• milking the cows and squirting milk to the cats
• shooting baskets by the pole near the barn
• playing ball against the south side of the barn
• picking weeds in the newly planted trees👎
• looking and looking and looking at Dad's slides when people visited😖

getting peaches from the cellar when Mom and Dad were gone for the night

• having to stay in the living room when Dad and Mom were doing pictures
• Joan making Dave and I wipe dishes OFTEN
• riding the big yellow bus MANY MANY miles each school year
• I would say from 1955-1965 I rode the bus about 100,000 miles
• I would say, for the most part, high school days were great for me
• of course there were the dark days of Ronald's death and then 16 months later, when I was in college, Janet's death.  I would say those days formed much of what is inside of me today.
• SO MUCH FOR THE GENERATIONAL THING TODAY.  I MAY GUESSING THAT IF A PERSON SITS WITH A CUP OF COFFEE AND REFLEXS ON YESTERDAY AND TODAY THE DIFFERENECE WOULD BE ALMOST UNBELIEVEABLE.

Okay so I could make a list as long as one's arm and then some.  Maybe I should save some for another book!!!

Enough for today.  I made my FP and then promptly went back to sleep without drinking any.  Now with each cup I have to heat it up but it still is good.  No breakfast today, maybe lunch soon.