Memories and Musings

My favorite group is my immediate family - 3 kids, 6 grandkids, 5 great grands and all their spouses. I'll be spending the next several days with this group so I'll hold off writing about that adventure. We're having a family reunion in Myrtle Creek, Oregon where Grandson Zachary lives. I'm excited to be with everyone to catch up and fill by emotional memory bank. Most of all I want to meet Baby Theo and hold my Great grandkids! How lucky am I?! Over the years I've been part of many groups - classmates, cousins, business partners, sororities, choirs, and church groups. I've moved in and out of many groups but the one consistent is THE GIRLS. Linda and I played together as toddlers so I've known her for 80 plus years. Next would be Maryann. Her Mom, along with Linda's and my Mom, formed the first kindergarten in our little town. Lynn and Carla joined us in the middle school years along with Pat C. and by High School we had Pat P. and Peggy. That's 8 o

This seems like a good time to collect some early memories about my husband, James Edward Weise, father to our three children,  grandfather to 6 and great-grandfather to 5. Jim died at age 78 after a long battle with cancer. He was born in 1935 in Chicago, Illinois to Alice Isabelle Leckie Weise and Otto Edward Weise.  Alice and Otto were a May-December marriage when they married in 1933. She was 26 and he was 47. He was a department head in an insurance company and Alice was a bookkeeper in an insurance company....probably the same place. Otto was a widower with a 12 year old son, Robert. They lived in a nice brick bungalow on Warwick Ave. on the northwest side of Chicago. In 1937 Alice gave birth to a second son, Richard.  Jim and Rich were really handsome little boys and were probably a handful for Alice. The  1940 census shows her as not working with 3 boys at home with Otto listed as office manager at the insurance company, Associated Agencies,  making an annual salary of $2400 wh

 I've always been fascinated with bridges and have many pictures of famous and spectacular ones that we crossed in our travels. So when BRIDGE came up as the Generations challenge word my mind's eye immediately went to a few bridges associated with memorable times in my life.  Mackinac Bridge, MI In 1963 we had two babies and I needed a break. We left the kiddos with my Grandma Quist in Wisconsin for a couple of days while we went to Mackinac Island in Michigan and, along the way, cross the Mackinac Bridge. I was pretty much a country girl in 1963. I'd only been in 3 Midwest states, never on a plane. So I didn't know that I would panic at the thought of crossing this 5 mile bridge over the Straits of Mackinac. It was foggy and the bridge looked like it disappeared in midair. I simply could not do it.  Fortunately, my Jim respected my feelings and we went on to explore the island ( on a bicycle built for two that didn't go well either! ) This is as close as I got to