Here's a link to the competition which started Friday:

www.scied.science.doe.gov/nsb/nationals.htm

I want to identify the photo before I get busy and forget! Nice to see a young version of Uncle Henry and Aunt Lenore and family; Anita and Arlin in back, Walt in the center and Rob and Alvin in front. Alvin looks to be 4 or 5 years old so that would have the picture taken about 1954 or '55. The photo was taken on the front lawn to the west of their house on the farm about four miles south and west of our home place at Grove City. We went to meeting there until they retired from farming and moved to Litchfield in the early 1970's.

Steve Miller
Coral Springs, FL

That is a picture of my sister and her family ... better known as the Henry G. Pfingsten family. Henry, Anita, Arlin, and Lenore and in front is Walter, Alvin and Robert standing in back of the other two boys. Good picture! and I think it was taken at the Dake home.

People that wanted some lumber sawed would bring their logs in during the winter and he'd saw them. I used to go over there and sometimes he'd be sawing on our mud vacations when we didn't go to school. It was always fun to go over there and see the mill work. My dad used to go over there and help him.

My dad had a mill and my Uncle Walter McCorkell had a mill, so I had quite a bit of experience around sawmills, at least when I was young. Uncle Walt had a tie mill. Uncle Walt and I cut jackpine into eight-foot sticks.

Uncle Walt used to shoot mice at night in his shack with a .45. When I stayed in the shack when we sawed lumber, we made sourdough pancakes. I also helped my dad cut pulpwood in the wintertime on Saturdays and vacations. I learned how to cut pulpwood in the woods. That's in the days when they cut it by hand. They didn't have chain saws.

Later that day, I passed hours and hours strolling the streets and simply watching. To give you a better sense of the place, I'll describe some of the images I had recorded in my journal that day.

A lively group of men is playing a board game in the shade of a mango tree near the plaza. Several women are gathered in the doorways of houses, twisting each other's hair into lovely braids while they chatter. A small girl is chasing goats out of a garden. A pair of elderly ladies are gathering firewood into bundles and carrying it the usual way, perfectly balanced on their heads.

Photo © Kjirsten Swenson
Two young girls, sisters maybe, are pumping water at the well. They are singing, dancing, and splashing with pure delight on the wet concrete platform. Watching them made my heart sing, too.

An old woman is crouching on a doorstep, sorting beans and discarding the stones. A barefoot boy is carrying a stringer of sparkling fish.

It's quiet. No modern noise, just the rustle of a strong sea breeze in the banana trees and a rooster crowing in the distance.

It was fun seeing the picture of me and my dad's boys in the last issue of The Bulletin and reading about Patrick's life. I didn't stay in touch with him after my dad's funeral, so I had no idea that he had an extended family. Are the other boys going to write introductions as well? I look forward to hearing how they are doing.

I continue to enjoy and look forward to your weekly saga of life in the 1940's. As I mentioned before, it makes one realize that a shortage of money and "things" doesn't have to mean you are deprived. It sounds like a happy, peaceful time.

Judy McCalla
Salt Spring Island, BC

Editor's comment: Yes, Gert tells us they have all promised to write and send pictures ... and Patrick and Kelly already have. Isn't that great!

Searching an airport bookstore for something to read on a long flight, I saw lots of books. None of them seemed like my cup of tea ... until I spotted a book Mitzi wrote about last week in The Bulletin. Three Cups Of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace, One School At A Time.

Three Cups Of Tea turned out to be a riveting read -- a harrowing adventure story by a mountain climber with Minnesota roots, a huge heart, a wonderful spirit and incredible stamina. His quixotic quest to build a school for one impoverished village in a forgotten corner of Pakistan mushroomed into 78 village schools (so far) in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a bridge, some clean water projects, and much more. I highly recommend the book ... and a better web site than we linked to last week: www.threecupsoftea.com

Jerrianne Lowther
Anchorage, AK

Anyway, that doesn't stop me from telling you how much I loved this issue of The Bulletin with that cute, blue-eyed, pink-bonneted beauty on the first page. That bright-eyed little girl was just a baby in a blanket only a few Bulletins ago. How can time pass so quickly, and babies grow up so fast?

I was very glad to see the memorial for Bob Morgan. Knowing some of the family made it very interesting. I did recognize some family names.

The view from the top of the Slot Canyon hike was breathtaking. How all those spires formed silently and over time is beyond human imagination. Only by pictures will we ever see such wonders -- thanks to Kjirsten, again.

For some reason, when I saw the picture of Mitzi, the thought came to me, "she looks so normal," and yet so many Bulletin stories include her in some unfathomable hikes and projects and now this outing as a school board member. At our dinner table yesterday, one subject was the Three Cups of Tea book she mentioned. So, I was glad for what she mentioned about having heard the author of that book speak. My friend was impressed with that book.

I am dating myself, but her friend Shari Schraw Hwang and her daughter's picture was exciting for me to see as I knew her mother when she was still single. It is so easy to lose track of friends, and such a thrill to hear about them through the years.

Judy McCalla having found our Editor as part of her family has enlarged our Bulletin borders to include her own family. I am glad Patrick would write up the Update for us, and look forward to the others in future issues.

Day to Day with Donna Mae was right in tune with updates about the grandchildren she adores. It would have been wonderful to have had them stop by, being we are right near where they had traveled through the Twin Cities, but side trips with children usually do not work out very well -- I tell myself.

The cardio conversion sounds tempting as I dislike having to take the medicine they prescribe for the irregular heart rhythm. I wonder how long it lasts back in rhythm?

The photo with the cow and calf and lone tree in the rolling hills could win a prize for Donna Mae if just the right people got to see it. A person could meditate a long time on that picture. It is actually calming.

I am always so glad to see the Memory Lane chapter with each Bulletin, and this time we get to see the real life experience of our Editor in her after polio days and the adjustment to a whole new way of life with the after effects. Trying to go on with life as normally as possible, teaching and supporting herself and being so helpful, which is just part of her nature. Good picture of LeRoy at graduation. Can't you just imagine Carol getting such an enjoyment reading about her baby days?

We needed that story Bruce told us about the Logging Days. I wonder who all would have known that was how a sawmill was run? That sleepwalking daughter story was hardly believable, but we know it was true.

The Travelogue by Kjirsten in Mozambique with the colorful, sharp pictures was very educational to us who will never make it over to that shore.

Thanks to Frans de Been for such a beautiful and interesting article about the flowers in Holland at Easter time. Such lovely pictures of Rian, who added something special to flower pictures by being in them. She has her scarf tied just like everyone here is doing now. Kim Johnson had hers that way last time I saw her.

What a dream car Frans got to drive -- thanks to Marloes! I have never seen one like it.

Hunter Holman is pretty busy, it looks like. Susie always gets such cute poses, and Bitzi knows just how to make the perfect CHUCKLES out of them.

Well, next month all things will seem possible, the Quotation for the day says.

I hope Miss Jerrianne will give us lots of details from her time visiting that little 10 year old hiker who has grown up into a wife for Ken, and has those famous three grandkittens.

Thanks again, and let's take advantage of the Minnesota spring. We have waited many months for it.

Betty Droel