Sunday, July 31, 2011

30-Years; Seems Like Yesterday

It’s amazing how things change, or don’t change, over 30-years.  It’s funny how you cannot see some people for three decades and then when you do see them, it’s like you parted ways yesterday.

This past weekend was Scott’s 30-year class reunion.  Before we go any farther, I should tell you that Scott was born and raised in Hawaii.  The summer of 1979 brought the Brainards back to Ontario, Oregon.  “Why?”, most people ask.  Because the area of Ontario and Payette, Idaho is rich in Brainard history.  Some day I will share some of this history with you. 

But I tell you this because it’s important to know that Scott only went to high school in Ontario for two years.  The majority of his graduating class had gone together since preschool.  It’s also important to know that Scott left immediately after graduating to attend college and never went back, except for the occasional holiday family gathering.  This bit of history means that Scott formed friendships with few of his classmates, and (thanks to Facebook) and remained in contact with them over the years.

We drove over on Friday.  Friday night’s gathering was a casual get-together at the local Armory.  Ontario has a beautiful new Armory.  It’s the perfect place to hold an event and the girls who planned the event did a wonderful job decorating the room with school colors.  Friday night was a little awkward for everyone trying to figure out who everyone else was.  They gave each of the alumni a lanyard with their senior picture and name on it.  The guests received a different type of nametag, which was perfect to immediately be able to tell who was alumni and who was a guest.

After getting back to our room on Friday night, we practiced different “lines” to use to break the ice.  You could simply walk up to someone and say “you look so familiar, but I just can’t remember your name.” or “didn’t we have English class together?”  The ideas were endless.

Saturday morning the class was invited to take a tour of the high school and then participate in family style games. 

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Terri, Scott, Yen, and Colleen were so happy to be back in their old FFA classroom.  They were quick to point out that the computers weren’t there when they were students.

Again, the girls that coordinated this whole event did an amazing job!  It was easy to tell that they had put a lot of time and thought into this.  The games in the gym were a great way for everyone to get over the nervousness of reconnecting.

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You might have wondered what these people are trying to do?

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Again, these games where designed to get to know your classmates again.

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It worked!  By the end of the afternoon, everyone was having fun and laughing with each other.

Saturday night was the semi-formal dinner, again at the Armory.  There was a formal photographer, and we took advantage of getting our picture taken.  I will have to wait to share that with you.  Remember I told you that we practiced ice-breaker lines.  When we walked up to get in line for dinner, I could tell that Scott was getting ready to use one.  We got in line and the guy behind him said “You look so familiar, but I can’t remember your name”.  Scott then turned to him and said “Didn’t you date your cousin when we were in high school?”  What, where did that come from?!?!  I am still laughing as I type this.  We will have to keep practicing!

We had such a great time.  We took our time getting home today, stopping a few times along the way.  At one point on the way home, we passed a large amount of bicycle riders.  They had obviously been riding for a while because they were spread out for several miles.  We would pass a few at a time.  They looked pretty competitive.  Then we approached a larger group of 10-12 who didn’t seem to be riding so fast or focused.  As we passed them going 60 miles an hour, we noticed that they were naked.  Did I forget to mention that it was 92 degrees outside today.  These people were riding their bikes naked in hot, hot weather.  How is that not uncomfortable???  At this point we got the camera out, but unfortunately did not find anymore that were naked.  Odds of seeing that again are probably one in a million.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

A Healthy Dose of Competition

This week has been crazy, and I know it’s only going to get crazier!  The weather finally decided to turn warm.  Hot actually.  These past few days have been scorching, just in time for outside activities.  Evenings at the ball field have been nice.  The past couple of nights we haven’t even had to use our sweatshirts.

Today was the annual Traeger cook-off through work.  The rules are simple, the food must be completely cooked on a Traeger Grill.  Not much more to it than that.  This is a healthy competition among co-workers.  It’s also a great place to bring families.

Once again, the Traeger cook-off ended up on a B-shift day, which means that Scott had to work.  Kim’s husband Matt works out at the Air Base, and being that it’s duty weekend, he also had to work.  Kim and I decided to team up and enter the competition together (with a little help from Makenzie).  We weren’t in it to win, just to have fun.

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We also decided that if you can’t guarantee a win, you can at least guarantee the best dressed award.

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Yes, those are provocatively, half-dressed firemen on our aprons.  We have to be politically correct at work, but not at the Traeger cook-off!

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We decided to cook chicken wings.  We figured that it would be fairly easy.  We made three different kinds.  During the test run it took about three hours to smoke them.  Today, it the hot beating down sun, it took about 45 minutes.  This caused a little bit of heartburn, since we had to wait another two hours before the judging began.

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In the end, we had only good compliments on our wings.  I genuinely think that people like them. It was stiff competition, but we lost out to a meatloaf.  The judging was fair and we have nothing to complain about.

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Nothing except I am pretty sure that I gained five pounds today eating all the really good food!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Oregon Women–Matilda Savage

 

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Matilda, wife of Towner Savage, died at Salem, Oregon, on June 1, 1881. Matilda's maiden name was Purdy. Soon after her marriage, they moved to Ohio and later on to Michigan. A family of eleven children had come to bless their home in the intervening years. About this time news of the generous offer the government was making to all those who would immigrate to the Oregon country, in the way of land grants, helped Mr. Savage to make up his mind to try his luck in the far west. Farms upon which his several sons could settle, formed quite an inducement for making the journey.

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April of 1846 finds this family on their way westward, in their covered wagons, with ox teams as motive power. Of this intrepid company were the Edgars, Pollards, Walkers, Fred Geer and others to the number of sixty-five wagons. This party was captained by Oscar Williams and had very little trouble with the Indians. More serious trouble came from this source in the years to follow.

This party, of which Towner Savage was a member, were prepared to trade with the redskins and some tribes followed their train for several days at a time, camping with them at night. The only trouble they had with them was their proclivity for stealing everything in sight or could get their hands on. A close watch had to be kept over all the goods of the train as well as the little children and stock. However, at this time the Indians were comparatively friendly. At one time some tobacco was stolen from Mr. Savage's wagon. He complained to the chief about this and asked that he make the guilty party give it up. After a time the chief brought a young Indian to Captain Williams and said the captain would have to make the culprit go and get it. When the fellow was obdurate and Williams thought he would fail in this regard, he pulled out an old-fashioned pepper box pistol and pointed it at the Indian's face. He only laughed at the captain. This was too much, so Williams, knowing better than to shoot the Indian, reached in his wagon for a stout ramrod and catching the savage by the arm, he gave the fellow an awful "lickin," as they called it then, while the rest of the tribe stood about and danced with fiendish glee to see their own man get a beating. After this the thief went outside of the camp and dug up the treasure he had buried and gave it back to Mr. Savage. 

The Savage family finally arrived at Salem, Oregon, coming down the Columbia river on rafts, as so many others of the early pioneers had done. For ten days this family camped on North Mill creek, at about the location of Winter street, after their arrival on September 11, 1846, and then moved to another camp, at the Rev. J. L. Parrish place, on what is now North Capital street, and stayed here until November 7. At this time Mr. Savage and Rev. Parrish bought a house that was located on the site afterward chosen for the old woolen mill. This house they cut in two and Mr. Savage moved his half to the donation land claim he had already taken up, on the Silverton road, about four miles out from Salem. In moving this building he had to pass by the venerable oak tree that gave to the race track at the state fairgrounds the name Lone Oak Track. As soon as he made the necessary repairs he moved his family there for the winter and this became his permanent home. 

As to politics Mr. Savage was a republican. Part of his family were members of the Methodist Church. Mr. Savage always followed farming. To the union of Towner Savage and his wife Matilda Purdy were born the following children: Lydia, who died as a child. Hannah, who married Samuel Holderness. John, who married Rhoda Pressley, and after her death he married Eleanor Tarrant. Lewis, who married Minerva Connelley. Alfred, who married Lucretia Connelley. Lyman, who married, first, Matilda Stewart; second, Theresa Keene. Surepta, who married, first, Thomas DeHaven; second, Samuel Edwards. Oren G., who married, first, Martha Walk; second, Loretta Johnson. Elizabeth, who married John Crawford. Mortimer R., who married Sarah Murphy." 

From: Steeves, Sarah Hunt, BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE OF MARION COUNTY, OREGON, PIONEERS 1840 - 1860, Portland, Oregon, The Berncliff Press, 1927, (Source: G. O. Savage, Salem, Oregon, 1926), pp 65-67

SOURCES:
IOOF Register of Burials
1880 OR CENSUS (Marion Co., E. Salem Pct. FA #147)
DAR pg 25 
Steeves, BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE, pp 65-67

Sunday, July 17, 2011

What’s Under There??????

Caution: This blog post contains graphic nudity.  Continue reading at your own risk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmm, so your curiosity is peaked.  I see you are still here.

There comes a time when you come to the end of your rope and have to go to the extreme in order to get something done.  Mack, my precious Mack, is one of the hairiest dogs you will ever find.  We know his mother was a border collie, but his dad was just a ship that passed in the night.  Mack has personality traits of various other breeds of dogs.  He loves the water.  In fact, he will spend time playing in the backyard pool even when no one else is out there with him.  He loves to fetch.  Here’s a side note: never throw a ball for Mack unless you have at least an hour to commit to this game of fetch.  I promise you that he won’t give up first. 

But back to that hair:

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It grows in all different directions, in several different colors.  It picks up anything and everything that Mack gets into.  It gets rolled up into these dreadlock looking things behind his ears and on his tail.

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Mack is not a calm dog.  He doesn’t still for very long.  Sometimes this is a good trait, like when he goes running long distances with Scott.  Other times this is not such a good trait, like when it comes time to brush him.  Trying to brush Mack is like trying to hold down tornado.  We gave up a long time ago.

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So this is what Mack looked like at the beginning of the week.  The dreadlocks had reached a point where they were pulling the skin behind his ears.  Something had to be done.  Drastic times call for drastic measures:

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At first, I wasn’t even sure that this was my dog.  We had no idea how big Mack really was under all that hair.  Before the shave, he weighed in at about half the weight of Daisy, but he looked just as big as she is.  After the shave, we can truly see how lean and in shape he is.

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To me, he looks like he has a spring his step and I swear he can run faster.  But he also looks like he has a gigantic head.

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This might just be the new summer cut from now on.  I think he is loving it by the way he struts around.  I also think that Daisy is sweating that she is next!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Oregon Women - Cynthia Strang

Cynthia (Lorton) Strang

Born: 30 Apr 1809 – Nashville, Tennessee

Died: 2 Jun 1884 – Salem, Oregon

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OBITUARY:
Died suddenly, on the 2d inst., Mrs. Cynthia Strang, relict of Daniel Strang, and mother of Ben. Strang and Mrs. Reily, of this city. Capt. J. Strang, of Portland, Mrs. Gillespie, of Ellensburg, and Mrs. McAlpine, of Assotin, W. T., aged 75 years, 1 month and 2 days. Funeral from the residence of Mrs. Reily, Tuesday 3d inst., at 2 p. m.
Daily Oregon Statesman 3 June 1884, 2:2

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From the Biography of Daniel Strang (husband):
The year 1862 was a trying one in the annals of Oregon history. It was known as the cholera year and immigration was heavy at that time. Thousands died of that dread disease and were buried along the road, few even having headboards to mark their graves and they were lost to surviving friends for all time. 

Indians were very treacherous and easily set on the war path, so that a return along the trail to the east was a very dangerous undertaking, as but few were going that way and there was always safety in numbers. 

Among the more fortunate of those coming in 1852 was the train made up of Daniel Strang, the Stewarts, Parkers, Ogles, Stevens and the George families, with Mr. George as the captain. There were sixty wagons in the company and much loose stock to be driven along to Oregon. 

Solomon Strang, with his wife Sarah, were the first of the family to come to America. They came from London, England, about. 1807, and settled for a time at Baltimore, Md. Four children, two sons and two daughters, accompanied their parents to America and after a short time the subject of this sketch, Daniel Strang, was born, in 1808. 

In the course of time this family moved to the "west" (Illinois), where Daniel grew to young manhood and was wed to Cynthia Lorton. She was born at Nashville, Tennessee, and had gone out to Illinois with the family of her uncle. 

Cynthia was a true southerner and carried her head high. She was very attractive, bright and witty; a capable housewife and a good manager in her own home and able to make the most of her surroundings, an excellent endowment for pioneer life. 

After the marriage of Daniel Strang they moved still farther west, to Burlington, Iowa, where they settled just three miles out of this little town and kept an inn, called the Three Mile House. 

A large farm surrounded this old brick hostelry and Mr. Strang followed farming as well. There was no market for produce; for instance, eggs were only 3 cents a dozen; hens were $1 a dozen; butter 6 cents a pound, while good oak wood, cut and hauled the three miles to Burlington, only brought $1 per cord. It was not very encouraging to farm under such conditions. 

Mr. Strang became discouraged, saying he wanted to leave a country where the winters were so severe; that all he could raise in the summer he had to feed out during the winter. He had heard of the wonderful Willamette Valley, with its mild climate, and decided to try his luck in that far western country. 

He sold his land, part of it for $40 per acre, while a good share of it only brought $2 per acre. Two years later a railroad came to Burlington and this same land sold for $150 an acre. Besides selling his land so cheaply, they left several hundred chickens on the farm that they could not sell. 

Mrs. Strang never fully sanctioned this move. She loved Iowa and was not entirely satisfied in Oregon. She said, "They always seemed to move just ahead of railroads and peach orchards." They had heretofore just lived in a place long enough to set out an orchard and move on again before it began bearing. 

Mr. Strang, however, was very happy in the Oregon valley of Willamette, wherein he made his permanent home. 

Before they started on the long trek across the plains, Mr. Strang fitted out four covered wagons with false bottoms, under which he stored an ample supply of provisions for the long journey. They emptied two feather beds in each bed-tick, to save space and to get them across. On these they made their beds. 

Mrs. Strang also tucked in among the stuff many little household articles that none but she knew were on board, until near the end of the trip. 

Mr. and Mrs. Strang were devout members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church and it was customary, in this train, to hold religious worship regularly all along the way.  As to politics, Mr. Strang was first a Whig and later on an ardent republican. 

This caravan, that started out early in the spring of 1852, was not troubled much with cholera. Just one young man, a helper, died of this dread disease. 

Mr. Strang believed he saved many lives in his company and others they met along the way with the gallon jug of brandy and the loaf sugar he carried in his wagon. The treatment he used was this:  A few tablespoonfuls of brandy were poured into a dish on some of the precious sugar. This was set on fire and when all the alcohol was burned up the residue was put with a little water and given to the patient.  The writer remembers that this remedy was very extensively used among the pioneers for bowel disorders, with good results, even to the time she was grown and has not forgotten the strong, hot taste of this potion. 

The Indians, however, were very troublesome to the company of which the Strang family were members. Whenever they camped for the night the savages flocked around the train as it corralled for safety, with wagon tongues to the center. They sat about the campfire, peered into the covered wagons, lifted the lids of utensils and otherwise made themselves a nuisance.

They were so meddlesome that the immigrants had to watch everything they possessed, or the Indians would steal from them. They were known to be very treacherous and many tales of massacres by these dusky redmen were rife about camp and caused the white folk to use great caution as to their treatment of the trouble-makers. The least show of hostility upon the part of the travelers would likely mean the extermination of the whole train. 

It was Mrs. Strang's custom to set her salt-rising bread in the morning before the wagons started on and tuck this down under the warm covers to rise. When they camped at night she would bake these savory loaves in her big Dutch oven. 

One night, as she had her baking about ready, she told her little daughter Sarah to stir up the buffalo chip fire, so as to hurry matters. As she complied, she accidentally let a big red-hot chip fall against the foot of an old squaw who sat crowded in about the camp fire so closely as to be in the way. 

This Indian woman set up a raucous wail and from that on, all during the night, kept up her screaming, until a great horde of savages, numbering several hundred, gathered about the train camped on that inhospitable plain. 

At daybreak most of the Indians stole away, but to return to the company again that night, as they were camped a little farther on. This time they came all decked out with war paint and feathers, with many more added to their number. They at once demanded the "pappoose" that had spilled the coals and the innocent cause of all this uproar. All this time the little girl was kept hidden in the wagons. 

Mr. Strang offered the Indians food, money and almost anything, but they harassed the immigrants for two days and nights, until they finally tired of the game and slunk off in small bands, not again to return, much to the peace of mind of our pioneers. After this they had no further trouble, until nearing the Oregon country, one of the little Strang boys, Benjamin, was taken ill of camp fever. He could not eat the coarse camp fare and the problem of a proper diet for the lad was a serious thing, as their milk cows had gone dry because of the lack of feed. 

A little while before they reached The Dalles, Mr. Strang bought three potatoes of an Indian - all he could get. These potatoes they roasted in hot ashes and the little fellow relished them but he begged his mother not to let the other children stand around his bed with their mouths watering for these toothsome tubers, or he could not eat them, since they could not share them with him. 

At The Dalles this company, like many others, took their household goods and human freight down the Columbia River on rafts, while their stock were driven over the mountain trails. 

At Portland, where they landed, Mr. Strang was offered two full "city" blocks in that embryo city in exchange for two yoke of oxen. Mr. Strang did not have much faith in the town and as his oxen were in good order, he would not make a deal. 

The family came on up the Willamette river and camped a while at the Samuel Brown place, near Gervais, Marion county. Because of the continued illness of the little lad, Mrs. Brown invited Mrs. Strang to take the little boy into her house and she assisted the mother in his care, furnishing from her own larder suitable food for the sick child. 

As soon as he was able to travel again, they came on to the little settlement at Salem and camped on the river bank at the location of the present Spaulding mill. Their neighbors at this place (also campers) were the I. R. Moores family, destined, with the Strangs, to become "first citizens" of the city of Salem. 

The little sick boy still needed much nursing and one night during his illness, four old squaws set up a mournful cry, very near their camp. They kept up this wailing for three days and nights, for the burial of an Indian baby, in a near-by tree top, as was their custom. At the end of their journey this family still had some dried apples, dried beef and drier hardtack and a few other articles of food left from their original stock of provisions laid in for the trip, enough to sustain life a little longer. 

A pint of the precious brandy was also left in the bottom of the jug, showing this liquor had not been used except for medicinal purposes or it would have long since been drained to the dregs. 

Our party found Dr. Belt, a pioneer doctor, already ministering to the needs of the immigrants to the best of his ability at the village of Salem. 

Mr. Strang was a brick-mason by trade, but after arriving at Salem, and for many years afterward, kept a hotel in a building owned by a Mr. Ford. In after years he followed farming to good advantage. 

The children of Daniel Strang and his wife Cynthia were all born near Burlington, Iowa, and were:
James, who married Lydia Warner.
Thomas, who married Amelia Schwatka.
Elizabeth, who married William Paddocks.
Benjamin, who married Jeanette Taylor.
Sarah E., who married, first, A. J. Riely; second, E. C. Small.
Mary, who married George Anderson.
Ellen, who married David McAlpin.
One child died in Iowa. 

Sarah Hunt, BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE OF MARION COUNTY, OREGON, PIONEERS 1840 - 1860, Portland, Oregon, The Berncliff Press, 1927, (Source: Mrs. E. H. Small, Salem, Oregon 1926), pp 240-243

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Oregon Women–Emily Boise

Emily A. (Pratt) Boise

Born: 8 Jan 1828 - Oxford, Massachusetts

Died: 26 Mar 1919 - Salem, Marion Co., Oregon

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OBITUARY:
NOTABLE LIFE CLOSES WITH PASSING OF MRS. BOISE, BELOVED PIONEER OF SALEM.

Mrs. R. P. Boise, whose passing at two o’clock a.m. on Wednesday March 26, 1919 was very briefly announced yesterday morning, was one of Salem’s oldest and most prominent residents. Her maiden name was Emily Pratt, born January 8, 1828, at Oxford Mass. The family shortly removed to Webster, Mass., where she grew up, receiving a splendid education. In 1860, she came to Oregon by way of the Isthmus of Panama and Hawaii to Oregon. When she arrived here she took up her residence with her brother; Captain L. W. Pratt, at the Island House, then standing just north of North Mill creek, on Liberty street, which hotel was conducted in connection with the old Willamette Woolen mills, of which Captain Pratt was then superintendent. The woolen mill was some years later destroyed by fire. The Island House was afterwards moved a few hundred feet north and stood there until a dozen or more years ago, when it was burned.

Miss Pratt taught in the Salem public schools until she was married on December 27, 1866, to the late Judge R. P. Boise, for many years honorable and ably connected with the Judicial history and life of Oregon, as circuit judge and justice of the supreme court. Judge Boise passed into the great beyond in Salem on April 10, 1907. After their marriage, they made their home for many years in the historic Jason Lee house, on North Liberty Street, the first house built in Salem. The mills of which Jason Lee himself helped to hew. The house was opposite the missionary saw and grist mills, built soon after.

The children from this marriage were Ellen S. Boise, drowned at Sea View, Wash. In August 1891, and Maria “May”, wife of John H. Lauterman, with whom the deceased had lived for a long time, and whose home at 475 North Summer street she passed quietly and peacefully to rest, as stated, yesterday morning at two, after a very short illness brought on by a severe cold.

Whitney L. Boise of Portland and R. P. Boise of Salem are foster children of the good woman who has gone to her rest. Of the Captain L. E. Pratt children there are: Mrs. May Haas and Mrs. Ida Babcock of Salem, and William E. Pratt of Oregon City. Mrs. C. M. Parmenter, long of Salem, deceased a few years ago, was a sister, and the Parmenter children are Misses Nellie and Anna B. Parmenter and Mrs. H. A. Cornell of Portland, and Charles Parmenter of Salem. A brother of the deceased, Dr. William E. Pratt, was a well-known Boston physician until his death a few years ago.

The good woman gone before was prominent in all things uplifting in this vicinity for a long term of years. She was a member of the First Congregational church. She was a good wife, mother, neighbor, and a true friend. She lived a life of usefulness and faithfulness long beyond the scripturally allotted time, being active for one of her years even up to a day before her passing. The funeral will be from the home at two o’clock tomorrow, under the direction of Rev. W. C. Kantner, pastor of the First Congregational church, and the interment will be in the family plot at the I.O.O.F. cemetery.

Taken from the Chapman Scrapbook:

BOISE--Passing of Mrs. Boise Takes Loved Woman from Community -- The funeral of Mrs. Emily Pratt Boise, who passed to the great beyond March 26, 1919, was held at the home where she lived at 475 North Summer Street, with her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. And Mrs. J. H. Lauterman, on Friday afternoon, March 29. The services were under the direction of Rev. W. C. Kantner, pastor of the First Congregational church, who paid a beautiful tribute to the pioneer woman so loved and honored who had been for so long interested in all good works in Salem and who so peacefully passed to her rest in her ninety-second year. Mrs. Durdall sang beautifully "The Perfect Day." The pall bearers were Supreme Judge T. A. McBride, Charles Weller, J. A. Baker, F. K. Lovell, H. C. Fletcher, and R. J. Hendricks. The floral offerings were many and beautiful. The interment was in Rural cemetery, by the side of her late husband, Judge R. P. Boise, who was so long and so prominently connected with the judicial history of Oregon, serving on the circuit and supreme court benches. Oregon Statesman, April 6, 1919, 5:3-4.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy 4th of July

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No, it’s not Sunday, but it is Fourth of July.  It’s technically my second Sunday of the weekend, considering that today is Monday and a national holiday.

We plan on going into town to partake in the annual Fourth of July parade downtown.  There is nothing better than a hometown parade to make you feel patriotic.  After the parade, we are heading over to the baseball game.  Now if I could just find a piece of apple pie, the day would be complete.

Last night we went up to Lake of the Woods for their annual fireworks show.  Scott’s old college friend Greg has a cabin up there.

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It’s funny to watch the generations change.  It used to be that Scott and Greg were from the “young” generation at the lake.  Now they all have kids that make up the “young” generation.  The kids are old enough that they don’t need an adult to drive the boat.  They don’t need their parents to dish up their plates when the food is ready.  They definitely don’t need their parents when the night gets dark and the fireworks start.

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About an hour before the fireworks, the traditional parade of boats goes around the lake, passing by each cabins boat dock.  The parade is led by an old steamer that has a whistle that can be heard anywhere on the lake.

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The parade of boats is not only for those in the boats, but also for those on the docks.  Some docks spend all day blowing up water balloons to throw at the passing boats.

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Other docks just take the easy route to soak the boats.

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The fireworks did not disappoint.  Even though we did not know very many of the people, we had a great time.

For other news around our house, we have a new member to our family.  It’s always bothered me that the cat goes for long periods of time locked in the house with no company.  There are many days that we leave early in the morning and don’t get back until late.  I feel bad that she doesn’t have a friend around.  Scott and I had an idea, but we weren’t sure how she would react, or if she would even care.  I’ll let the pictures explain:

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30 minutes later:

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Two hours later:

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The next day:

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She actually paid more attention to her fish than I thought she would.  I am sure that the newness will wear off, but for now, she seems entertained.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Fourth of July!