Happy New Year!

Photo illustration © Virginia McCorkell

Update -- a visit with Edith Anderson
by Betty Weiland Droel
MoundsView, MN

As with all things precious and rare and loved, they fade with time, but the memory of them lingers to cheer and warm the heart. So it is with Edith Anderson (Verlaine Weiland's mother).

Photo © Betty Droel
Edith Anderson, almost 100 years old.

Update -- Tyler takes flight...
by Mitzi Swenson
Dickinson, ND

Remember that song ... He flies through the air with the greatest of ease, that daring young man ... on the flying trapeze?

 
Photos © Sheldon Swenson
Airborne Tyler takes charge of the puck ... but where did it go?

Family Update -- The Wrights
by Sue Anderson Wright
Fountain Valley, CA

Photo illustration © Virginia McCorkell; photo by Sarah Steinhauer
Cousins Tristan Lane and Jade Anderson with Kira Steinhauer.

Update -- new baby will be here soon
by Kristi Larson Indermark
Phoenix, AZ

We are approaching the end of my pregnancy. About six weeks to go, and the longest six weeks ever! We are having a boy and we have choosen the name Alexander James. We had a 3D ultrasound done last week. He was very sleepy so we got so see a lot of his face. He looks a lot like Tyler, but we think he has Jordan's nose.

Photo © Donna Johnson
Marlene, Wyatt, Ben, Ashley, Caity & Whitney playing our gift game.

Christmas, 2007, at the Ashby Farm

We all picked presents, then each pulled an instruction (trade to the left three, really messed up the gifts!), which made the gifts travel in many different directions. The final step was, if you liked your gift, you could keep it. If you wanted to try for another, put yours back in the middle. To get a gift, each person had to meet a challenge, choosing from the list. The Matriarch spelled "Merry Christmas" backwards ... literally, turning her chair so she had her back to us and proceeded to spell the words. She got a laugh and the large basket of lotions and potions she wanted! (Shawn did spell it backwards a couple people later.) Others shot baskets, sang verses to Christmas songs and various other challenges. I think I can speak for all: we had a good time.

Photos © Donna Johnson
"Birthday boy" Beaver, opening his Fleet Farm gift card and some movies, left. He was happy! Weston, waiting his turn, right.

Photos © Donna Johnson
Dorothy, Wyatt, Marlene & Ben J. watch the fun, left; McKenna Ostendorf, enjoying Grandma's chair after the party was over, right.

K3 Smartboard
www.juliethompson.com/SMART.html

Let's Play a Guessing Game: Whenever it is handy to do so, we will run a picture of someone of the subscribers or staff members of our e-magazine. Tell us who you think it is -- we will let you know who was the first to guess it right -- and the correct guess -- in the following week's Bulletin.

(Send us some to run; we will line them up in our staging area to take their turn. The photo editor supplied last week's mystery pictures.

Answers to last week's mystery pictures (click here to review them):

Editors' Note: Correct guesses appear in bold face type and incorrect guesses in normal type.

Editor's Note: Larry Dake is taking a break to organize the next section of his story series about sheep herding. Find all the LTD stories via the Stories link.

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Travelogue t

Photo © Frans de Been
This is what we saw this morning -- winter's season in Oosterhout.

Greetings from the Netherlands
by Frans de Been
Oosterhout, The Netherlands

Hallo, people in the USA and the rest of the world reading this message. Hallo, Dorothy. Yes it is a long time ago since I wrote you a letter. Work and family matters last months kept us busy.

Lots at work and with family. My mother in law was very ill; she had breast cancer for more than five years. She had medication but it became intense last months. She is passed away last December 10. The cremation was last Saturday. She was 88 years old. We will miss her very much.

But life must go on! And I think she had the words like, "YOU must go on."

Now that we are entering Chrismas season, I have a novelty for you people. No, a question. Where is the largest X-mas tree? Yes, in the Netherlands. See this link below:

http://www.degrootstekerstboom.nl/cms/node/184

Photo Editor's Note: Only the linked page is in English, but click on links on the left side of the page for a poster and photo gallery with stunning pictures of a Christmas "tree" more than 1,200 feet tall ... and the pictures need no translation.

So I give you lots of enjoyment for the X-mas season and lots of snow. Give all the peaple I know over there my best wishes for the year 2008 and the best from us in Oosterhout.

Take care. Your friend in Oosterhout,

Frans

Photos © Frans de Been
Winter streets in Oosterhout.

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by Ary Ommert, Jr.
Maassluis, The Netherlands

Sorry I could not answer you sooner; trouble with the computer again. Still only able to write and receive mails now. Hope to be able to send pictures next week.

Went to my sister's the first day of Christmas and the other to friends'. Had a great time and will go to my sister's on New Year's Evening, too.

Last week we had frost and we could skate for two days; now all the ice is gone. At work, a colleague hit my car when she parked next to me; it cost 1750 Euros to get it repaired.

Hope to be able to make an article for The Bulletin next week.

Greetings from the Netherlands,

Ary

Photo © Frans de Been
Not so much snow, but it is wintertime here, in Holland.

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$  A Long Time Ago   !

Photo by Donald B. Johnson, January 1945
Jerry Ann & Bobby Johnson with toy train made by Donald B. Johnson for his son Bobby, Christmas 1944. Our mother, Twila Johnson, made our snowsuits.

Christmas in 1944 was a very big deal to the two little sprouts in the picture. World War II was raging and though the Sears and Montgomery-Ward "wish books" showed pretty pictures, many of the goods were stamped "not available." Steel, rubber and other strategic materials were needed for the war effort and consumer goods of all kinds were in short supply.

Model railroads were the "in" thing, but even if money had been plentiful, which isn't likely, toy trains were not easy to come by. So our father made a train for Bobby from materials on hand, using simple tools, while our mother put in long hours on her treadle sewing machine, making winter clothes for our family.

A train needs an engine -- carved scraps of wood, a Spam can and a couple of bottle tops. Two wooden thread spools on axles made of nails became wheels. For rolling stock, he made a flat car with wooden dowels to hold a cargo of "Lincoln Logs." A tank car was a tin can in a cradle of corner molding. (He must have cut a hole in the side to liberate the contents, as both ends are still intact.) A boxcar probably contained cheese or salted codfish, originally. The caboose was simply blocks of wood with painted "windows" and two thread spool wheels, like the other cars.

Staples and bent wire allowed the cars to be hooked and unhooked so they could be arranged in any order ... though the caboose was always the last. Red, white, blue, yellow, orange and black paint supplied the finishing touches. A screw eye in the engine's nose allowed the train to be pulled with a string.

Cameras and film in 1944 weren't geared for indoor picture taking, so in January, when the ornaments were removed from the Christmas tree, it was set up in the snow-covered front yard and the train was set in front of it on a board. Bobby, going on 2, and I, not yet 4, stood by in our winter outfits to have our pictures taken with the train, a few weeks before Kathy was born.

The picture I found was dated January 1945 in our mother's handwriting, with a note: "Don made the train and I made the snowsuits." I'm not certain if that included the coats, though it could have. I think the hats and mittens, the little purse and the muff I was holding were all purchased.

Though our father and mother and brother Bobby have all passed on, the train is a family treasure, jointly owned by all the surviving siblings, and currently residing with me. It has a place of honor on my fireplace's hearth. The little toy train shows signs of wear from 63 years of loving use, but it still rolls right along on its thread spool wheels.

Jerrianne Johnson Lowther
Anchorage, AK

Photo © Jerrianne Lowther
Toy train still runs on thread spool wheels, 2007.

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Observations
By Don Anderson
Alexandria, MN

I would like to add my two cents regarding in buying a safe automobile. Seems today the traffic is very heavy and people are rushing about with no regard for the safety of their own lives or lives of others. We must think of being protected. A heavier car is my advice to you.

Now I know you are thinking economy ... gas prices. Well, what is a few extra dollars for gas then to risk your life, or lives of others, in a lighter and smaller car.

There are times I feel my trusty old Lincoln is risky in today's heavy traffic. I strongly urge folks who are considering a newer model to think of safety before saving a few bucks on gasoline. You at least stand a better chance of surviving in case of an accident.

Life is short at best, why chance it? It is scary enough to drive on the streets and highways today. Look for safety, and protection, wear your seatbelt, drive safely. 'nuf said!

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Dear Miss Hetty,

I scrolled down, not knowing just what to expect. I was thrilled to see such a festive, beautiful, colorful picture, so attuned to the season -- and I recognized it as another of Bitzi's creative and lovely photo illustrations. Her work is unique and of such simplicity that it is always outstanding. I am sure it must take hours and hours to prepare some of the illustrations. I loved the artistic balance this first picture had. No wonder the photo editor chose that picture to open our Bulletin #288.

It is uncanny how many times we have an announcement of a new arrival in the Updates. This time it is welcoming another great granddaughter for Gert: Makaila Belle Gordon. That huge crowd of Gert's family in a past Bulletin is going to be even bigger and bigger and bigger.

We are having a snowstorm as I write this. So glad we have no plans to drive anywhere this afternoon as it is an ideal day to be inside writing the LTTE. Ryan and Heidi in New Mexico had their share of snow, nearly burying their car. Snow tires and all-wheel drive would be the only sensible way to travel there. It sounds like the skiing trip was only enhanced by all that snow, and they are young.

I highly recommend clicking on the link for The New Adventures of Shane and Jayna. I couldn't quit reading, as they write it so vividly with many pictures. Thanks, Photo Editor, for directing us to their stories.

Another amazing add-on to The Bulletin through a web site was the blogspot site for McKenna. I have so much fun clicking on the links, but I need plenty of time to read them as they are so interesting that I can't click back to The Bulletin easily. This one included a clever way to show a lot of family pictures in the Smilebox. Bib overalls, yet. She is growing just too fast to be 6 months old already.

I clicked on the link for the International Book Library, and found new and different about books available -- this time from Mongolia. Wouldn't it be great to have a teacher like Kellie Thayer that would do projects like the batik T-shirts? Her students must feel that's their favorite class. I was very impressed with the colorful T-shirts shown on a background of brown with black slash lines. Very impressive, and drew your eyes and attention right to the shirts.

Shalana and Krista Weiland have programs in their school and I have learned to be interested in seeing the ones Donna Mae includes of her Jayce and Caity. I was thinking Larry McCorkell would love running his train around in the village Jayce had gotten set up.

Matriarch, I hope you have good response asking for New Year's thoughts from your subscribers. I'm finding it hard to sift it down to only a few events, but I will try to respond with something eventually.

If we click on Larry's story links, we will never leave the computer. They are all in the Archives, which is priceless, and each one is as captivating as the next.

After reading about Richard Johnson's manual labors up in no man's land there on the Butte, I just groaned. How could they ever tackle the project of the track coming off? Only one thing that could keep them motivated to work that hard was necessity and absolutely no other alternative at that point. That was totally amazing that they had progressive photos of it all, right up to having it all back "on the track," and ready to roll again. I took a magnifying glass to see if I could see the face better on the one picture, but he must wear a mask.

Jerrianne, just the fact you would move Miss Kitty off the keyboard long enough for you to write something yourself is to be appreciated. The sentiment and story behind the Eskimo doll ornament is unbelievable. The white fur parka doesn't look any worse for having been around since 1941. So I am 11 years older than you are, Jerrianne. I have a suggestion. Go through your treasure box and enlarge on each item for the next many Bulletins. I am sure that would be quite an adventure. Thanks for sharing your ornament story. Again, we had to click on links about Dave Ring and Edward Miller for more information than I had time to read or research, but hope to sometime later.

Brandon