The trip Ardis and I made to the eastern states this summer was great. We flew into Albany, New York, then Ardis rented a car and our fun began. The first thing we did was go into the Canadian side to see the great Niagara Falls. Grand! I call it!

I do not know what information in reference to Lois Dake has been posted in The Bulletin so I will start back a ways. Lois has shared living residence with the Patricia (Dake) Meyer and the Kathleen (Dake) Stahlecker families the past several months.

This continued until July 17, 2008, when it was determined by herself (Lois) and the rest of the family that she would need to enter a nursing home, because she would not be able to take care of all her needs when everyone went back to work after school vacation and personal vacations.

She will receive mail at: Westview Manor, 414 Johnson Dr, Room 521, McGregor, TX 76657. Lois's general health has deteriorated fairly rapidly over the past few months and more so the last eight or 10 weeks. Her muscles have become really weak in all her limbs. She can walk with the aid of a person on each side of her.

She spends most of her time in bed, wheelchair, or a rocking chair. She requires help in eating because of the weakness and arthritis in her wrists. She has not had a very good appetite for quite a while. It is a battle to get her to eat sufficiently. Stanley and Janice live very close by and see her and help with her almost daily. Patricia and Kathleen stop to see and help her three or four days a week.

E-mail can be sent to us at ekstahlecker@embarqmail.com and we will get it to her. We help her by reading the mail to her, as her thoughts cannot keep up to her reading. She enjoys very much hearing from all of you.

They first dropped off things at her locker, went for breakfast in the lunchroom, and then came back to her classroom where she started her first assignment and got to use her new crayons! Jazmine came home very tired but excited to go back again tomorrow.

I went along with Beaver when he went to march in the Vining parade, so had to take a snap of their town sign as we walked by at an abnormally fast clip for me. We were running late and it was 10 minutes to parade time. I finally told Beaver to just take off ahead of me; I was starting to hurt from trying to walk that quickly.

Photos © Donna Johnson
Fred Hanson & Beaver Johnson, riding in style in Vining parade.

I made it to a shady location, set up my chair and sat back to enjoy the beginning of the parade. I ended up sitting between former owners of the Battle Lake bowling alley and an author (of one book printed thus far). We had lively, animated conversations and enjoyed our time together, as well as the parade.

Beaver decided to not only march with the color guard, but to ride in one of the old cars, along with another legion member. I almost missed getting their picture as they went by. So, that would be Beaver and Fred Hanson in the convertible.

I was surprised at what a wide assortment of entries they had, as I found it a much better parade than the Elbow Lake parade. I enjoyed the boys and girls doing basketball tricks, the old fire wagon, the water park entry (no picture) and many others, including the astronaut!

Even though I couldn't convince Caity and Jayce to come along, I enjoyed myself -- even got a couple pieces of candy from the author's daughter! What's a summer parade without a little candy?

I just wish we were able to attend the Alaska State Fair with Jerrianne. We've done that once and it was so memorable; it was like stepping back in time. Very enjoyable!

And, now summer is drawing to a close. We'll miss the Minnesota State Fair, by the sounds of it, so look forward to a report by someone, hopefully? And, school, right around the corner! The school clothes have been purchased and the bank broken getting school supplies ... ouch!

Lori said, "When McKenna gets to school, we'll probably have to rent the desk!" She could be right ... we are "renting" Caity's fancy calculator from the school for $40!

In order to survive during those depression days, people would just have a little of everything. You had a few chickens. You had a couple of cows. There was always somebody in the community somewhere that had a litter of pigs. They had a sow or two and so they had pigs for sale. If this old pig had a litter of eight or 10 little pigs, after they got about six weeks old or two months, then my dad would go and buy a pig. Old Frank Storest would buy a pig. Oscar Jensen would buy a pig or two.

Mitzi's Journal

"Kyra became quite a hit among the many hikers we met. A youngster -- a girl! -- with full pack was curiosity enough, but one that had walked from Georgia proved more than many could resist. We would sometimes find her surrounded by young and old alike, fielding questions with relative ease and telling of things that to her had become second nature.

"'How long have you been walking?' asked a man one day, his two young daughters in tow.

"'Since March,' Kyra answered.

"'Where do you get food?' a lady wanted to know. 'I've heard some hikers bury it along the trail.'

"'We don't do that. We go to town every couple hundred miles and pack supply boxes and mail them ahead.'

"'My, how clever.'

"'Don't you meet bears and things?' asked a girl, whose pack was a plastic wastebasket strapped to her back.

"'Sure. And skunks and raccoons and porcupines. They come through our camp while we're sleeping sometimes.'

"'Aren't you afraid?'

"'They don't bother us much,' Kyra answered, nonchalant.

"'What about snakes?' asked a lad hiking in sneakers, T-shirt, and shorts.

"'I don't like snakes....'

"'Does it ever rain?' a young girl asked.

"'Does it ever!'

"'What do you do then?'

"'We just keep going.'

"'Isn't your pack heavy?' asked another girl.

"'It's twenty pounds, twenty-five sometimes.'

"'Mine's less than that and it hurts!'

"'The straps are loose,' Kyra said. 'Tighten them like this....'

"We also noticed her wide-eyed looks at the hut boys. One, packing supplies up the mountain, carried boxes and crates of food lashed high on a wooden pack frame that towered above his head. I asked what the load weighed. Ninety-six pounds,' he replied. Tall, muscular, wearing shorts and no shirt, sun-tanned shoulders held rigid in the pack straps, he moved steadily forward under that load -- and passed us by." --from Walking North, by Mic Lowther.

Miss Hetty's Mailbox:

The phone rang, and an unfamiliar voice invited us for dinner today. I was so totally surprised. It was Marci Glidden Olsen, who was one of Bill and Carol Glidden's little girls that we knew so many years ago. She was just wanting to invite us because of the years that have passed, and we were thrilled to go.

Photo illustration © Virginia McCorkell; photo by Sarah Steinhauer
Kira Steinhauer kicks up her heels in the car.

Keep Us Posted!

Please drop Miss Hetty a line and tell us who, and what, we've missed. And how about a report (photos welcome) of YOUR special celebration?

'Many Thankse
Everyone!

Miss Hetty

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We just had too much stuff going on this week, so I didn't get part three of the New York trip done. I'll get it in next week, hopefully!

The trip to Duluth area would have been so meaningful, being that Eric and Leona were reliving their wedding trip of five years ago. Things change so soon, as they were finding out. Sounded like it was disappointing to find some of their special stops not quite up to their expectations. As Eric said, in another five years, if they do make the trip back again, it will still be almost unrecognizable. Just being together and away from it all would be a great getaway trip to commemorate that special day of August 16th. We wish them a happy year ahead, although it will be varied experiences, as is the usual.

I was so happy for the beautiful flower pictures through out The Bulletin. For one, the fireweed in all its color and beauty, nearly hidden at Gooseberry Falls.

That was a very nice memorial for Herb Douvier, Shawn's grandpa, relating such lifelong memories; it was touching to read. The time comes when we have to part with even the dearest ones, but as Shawn mentioned, we can benefit by the example and influence they leave behind.

Another Wyatt and Weston story. I was wondering whatever the end of that shopping tour would be, going into the spooky purse store, and even being invited further into the unknown. I can about imagine they were glad to get out alive. I'm glad they actually felt it was a fun experience.

I am bewildered at the picture of that building. It looks paper thin on the picture, but there must be some supports for it to be so tall. That was some excellent photography to have taken that picture.

Sounds like they had a great time, mostly enjoying the food stops, and sounds like they had time with Sindy again..

Somehow, it's hard to picture Anchorage, Alaska, being a place where flowers are so abundant. I know Miss Jerrianne does her part to make them flourish and bloom cheering the short summer season. I gave up trying to figure out how splash plates are molded from rhubarb leaves. The flower carpet slide show was a wonder, also the Begonia Festival link. The Bulletin is always full of educational, fun and unusual links.

Thank you Donna Mae, for always having some interesting picture to share of your family and the kids and the dads and uncles and aunts.

I thought the Homesteading Days was pretty true to life with the cat running around with flour flying off of it in all directions. What a mess! I remember going to my aunt and uncle's farm and watching them "separate," and the sound of the whirring centrifuge and the clink clank of the individual discs that all had to be washed perfectly clean. I can smell the warm milk as it separated right now when I write this. A teakettle of boiling water was needed to rinse off the many, many parts.

The Peru trek is getting too wild for my city bred imagination. I can't imagine hiking in that vast length and breadth of miles and miles of nothing. The pictures of them looked like it was a great experience, and they were enjoying it. Glad for all the pictures of it they took and are sharing with us. It seems unbelievable they would find their way out of that maze of mountains. So people and animals actually live there?

Then A Long Time Ago came next. Another unbelievable, but actually happened, hike. I read in Walking North about the long way they had to hike on the rocks, but didn't realize what it really looked like until I see the pictures of it now. The challenge that Kyra had outrunning those boys on the slippery, steep rocks probably was just plain adrenalin. Something different than just seeing Mom and Dad ahead and more rocks. As I read it and see the pictures they took, it seems like it could have happened not too long ago. Surely not back in 1973. Such events would remain vivid for a lifetime. As I was mulling how to word some of this LTTE, the expression "gifted literarian" came to mind. A brand new word, but fits Jerrianne.

Fun to see a picture of Ken and Amy. We haven't heard much about them since the wedding coverage. Are they near LeRoy and Vonnie? [Yes, in Crookston, Minnesota. --Ed.]

I couldn't quit looking at that darling little girl (Carrie Horne). She is getting so big, but still has her sweet cuteness. Such a perfect caption trying to get this straight that Great Grandpa is her Mommy's Daddy's Daddy. Very unbelievable to a little girl, I'm sure.

I loved the Quotation for the day. "To see a flower takes time." There are so many details in the most simple blossom. That unusual sunflower looks like a dandelion at first, but Ethan says it's not.

Time to quit trying to tell all the things we enjoyed and noticed on Bulletin #323 this time. I am sure we missed a lot, but once again we want to thank you for the untiring dedication to develop each issue.

Betty Droel