Ruth and I are heading south on Sunday. We’re going back to our Florida home for the winter. We’ve owned our Michigan condo for almost a year and have adjusted to this new type of living. We’ve made some new friends, kept in touch with old ones, hosted several visitors and overnight guests, and rekindled …
Anniversary Follow-Up
If your an avid reader, you know we held a talent show at our fiftieth anniversary celebration a month ago. As I hoped, everyone participated. My sister, Jackie, did test the waters by asking what would happen if anyone “chickened out”. I simply told her I heard rooms were available in Petoskey, but they were …
Golfing Oddities
I played in a golf tournament this week called the “Outhouse Open”. It was a nine-hole, five person scramble fielding ten teams. It was the final major event in Canadian Lakes. I’d played in other outings with unusual names. “The Hardly Open”, “Unmasters”, “Grunge Tour”, and the “Birdshit Open” were among the most prestigious. When …
So Far, So Good Part Five
On Tuesday morning we returned to Kalamazoo. We went to a jewelry store and purchased two gold wedding bands. Mine cost $40.00 and I expect Ruth’s was about the same. (Another example of memory moments stored deeply in our brains.) Ruth and I had a housing dilemma. Both of us recently signed six month …
So Far, So Good Part Four
It was early evening when we landed and I called our building principal, Burton Cave, to tell him I would need a sub for my classroom the next day. “You need to get one for Ruth VanBruggen too. We eloped over the week-end.” “Sure you did. Is she going to drive truck with you too?” …
So Far, So Good Part Three
We spent the night in a hotel near the airport, checked out in the morning, completed our drive, parked my car, and boarded our plane. Boring but truthful. We landed in Las Vegas, rented a car, and drove down the Vegas strip. The drive took us by big name casinos with what we expected to …
So Far, So Good Part Two
We drove to my apartment in Kalamazoo. During the drive Ruth remembered an old family friend. Perhaps Judge Westra could marry us or at least point us in the right direction. Ruth called him. While sympathetic to our cause, the Judge wasn’t much help. I had heard that you could get married in Indiana without …
So Far, So Good
, Ruth and I are in Las Vegas, Nevada. We made our first trip together on September 11, 1971. I wrote and posted the blog below in the fall of 2017. It’s a recounting of how we met and married. The next few blogs will be an edited version of the original six installments. We’ve …
Faygo 4.0
A couple of weeks after my time as Anson’s helper, he was robbed at gun point, pistol whipped, and ended up in the hospital. The two rolls of nickels in his front right pocket, meant to ward off would be robbers, just angered the men who robbed him. The one thing that never made …
Faygo 3.0
Working as a “helper” for Faygo was memorable. My biggest takeaway from the experience was learning how hard my dad, and those who held similar jobs, worked. It was mostly muscle, and thus, not my strong suit. My first day with Anson, I just hopped in the truck and waited for directions. His route took …