I am beginning to think about the end of league tennis. By Wednesday afternoon I am looking at only two weeks left of league. On the 70+ I am playing today and next week which I am sure means I will not play the last week, March 17th. My teams plays a tough team tomorrow, then one of the weaker teams next week and ends up March 18 against one of the better teams.
So I am looking at getting some work done after that. Terry wants the garage floor redone so that comes into play starting March 23rd, Monday. One might say what about after March 18th there are 2 or 3 more possible days I could start! Well my answer is after league I need some time to wind down!!! If one thinks I just say that to procrastinate, no way I THINK!
Over the next 10 days we are looking at low to mid 80s except for a two day spell when it should be high 70s. One can certainly live with that. I also see where it is supposed to get up to 61 in St. Paul Sunday! Other than that day it still is supposed to be in the 40s so it actually looks like spring is coming and winter is going.
Not a lot of news today. I will make a trip to the library to pay $1.50 in fines for late books and then pick up others. Of course the highlight of the day will be the tennis match at 1:30. I am not sure of playing with George whom I have never played with but we will make the best of it and see if we can win. I have not looked at who we are playing so I have no idea if they are good, bad or middle of the road. I THINK I move better than George so I may play deuce and have him play ad.
STAGES OF LIFE--BIRTH OF JOHN UNTIL HE GOES INTO HIGH SCHOOL
As one could guess this part of my life could take up more than a book but I will keep it to points that were either highlights or lowlights!
- Of course the highlights of these years were the births of our children. John in 1969, Travis in 1971, Aaron in 1973 and Cynthia in 1980. Gail thought she had died and gone to heaven when she finally got her little girl! Not that she was in any way disappointed in the 3 boys BUT for mothers girls are special in ways boys can not be!
- To this day I can see John riding the little red bike as he went off to St. Josephs School. He would head down the driveway in the back and then head east before riding north to school. As he left all you could see was his red head. I am guessing this could not happen today, having a first grade boy riding about 3 miles to school. He loved his first grade teacher. One day he came home and asked Mom why she didn't wear pretty dresses like his teacher!
- It is easy to remember that day that Aaron's teacher called us up. I think Aaron might have been in the second or third grade. By this time we had moved to St. Paul. She said Aaron had a special singing voice. We may have missed the boat on encouraging that.
- I coached Travis' summer soccer team when he was going into 2nd grade. I have NO idea how many goals he scored that summer but really he could pretty much dribble the ball around everyone and score. Well I may add that some of the girls, Lisa by name, kind of found the tiny flowers on the field more interesting than the game!!!
- During much of that time we had three girls living with us. Liz, Marcia and Kim were with us for a few years until they married and went off on their own. A few times stand out. We were in North Dakota over Christmas and a call came in from the girls saying LeMond had puppies! Each of the boys got to name a puppy BUT they all had to be given away. On November 1st, 1980 Gail called the girls from the hospital and gave them the news, we had a baby girl! I could hear the screams from them through the phone as I stood across the room. Not sure why they were so excited or surprised as I KNEW we were having a girl. I had purchased a pink piggy bank, pink shoes and a pink dress. No doubt, I knew God was giving Gail her little girl.
- I remember sitting at the head of the dinner table in the spring of John's 6th grade. Up until that point we had limited the boys participation in sports to one school sport and that had been soccer. We pretty much had a family rule, which included the girls, that we would almost at all cost have dinner together each day of the work week. John had just signed up to play baseball and I said something like this. "We have had many dinners together and it has brought us closer together as a family BUT the boys are getting older now. There will come a time when we will look back and treasure these times we had together because they will happen less and less often." Little did I realize HOW profound my words were. In the next few years soccer, basketball and biking became the focus of many many afternoons and evenings.
- I should also write that it was not only the boys schedule but mine as well. I was often spread way too thin as I became a leader in our Christian Community as well as coaching soccer and baseball at school. As I look back it was nothing short of crazy and IF I could take some of those busy times back!!!!!!!!
- This was also a time that Servant Camp started and of course I was into that big time. Sometime in the early 80s Allen/Deb stepped out of Community and out of camp. I sat down with Louie and we decided it was a good thing to keep going and I would head it. Later, maybe 2 or 3 years, I approached Louie and said I depended on summer work (painting) to balance our family budget. Camp and painting just took way way way too much time so I had to get paid for camp so I could drop painting or I had to drop camp so I could paint more. Camp won out and in the end God won as camp became such a wonderful place where children experienced God.
- Of course so many things happened during this time. We got the call while at a Community meeting that Mom and passed away.
- We got the call saying that a fire had swept through the dried creek bottom and burned everything on our farm. I called into the school absent system and headed to North Dakota. I arrived after dark and I stopped at Aunt Bertie and Uncle Obert's where Mom and Dad were. Dad was in their bathroom covered with smoke and soot. Mom was sitting in the kitchen with a face streaked with tears and a face that told a very sad story. There was nothing left of the farm. It all went up in flames and smoke. I had to drive over to the farm even though it was dark. With a tiny bit of moon light the scene was eerie as I stood on the road near where my golf putting surface used to be. I looked out, towards the west, where bins, a home, a barn and several buildings had been and now there was NONE. Only ashes and memories were left. It was a sad day indeed. After many days Mom and Dad decided to move into Veblen where they paid for a house with insurance money. The farm was no more. I stayed a couple of days but what was one to do. I wandered around where my childhood had been spent. Where the house had been was now only a pit in the ground when Mom's piano had burned and fallen into. Where the barn had been was now a row of iron, cement and remains of some things Dave had stored there. The chicken house was gone. The gas pump stood silently on the landscape. The trees north of the shop was charred and crooked as they stood against the night sky. AND in many places old old worn out machinery stood black and cracked. The farm was no more and the scene was one of sadness and grief.
Of course I could do a hundred more bullets but the story is this. Thise years, late 70s to mid 80s were full of life, full of sadness and were so so much a part of our family as we went forward. Our next stage, that of high school days is also full of life and death but then that is what life is about, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment