UPDATE -- Brock Dewey checks out the pumpkin patch
by Heather Dewey
Ashby, MN

All for now, around here if you don't snooze you can't keep up! :)

Nathan Hill
Dwight, ND

Just a little update on our family. I really do not have a lot of news, but we have thoroughly enjoyed all of the news from your family. We so wish we could be closer to enjoy some of the festivities that go on up there.

I know you are not supposed to be envious, but there are two of your children that tend to bring out a little of that in us! HA! Donnie and Patty's place is just gorgeous! I hope to see it one day. It looks like it should belong in a Country or Farm & Ranch magazine. Those two seem to just complement each other. Of course we know dear old cousin Donnie, and have only met Patty once, but she seems to just fit in. They look great with their mission to lose weight. Oh! my goodness, the picture of Donnie by the grill looks so much like James. It is evident they are related.

I have been on that loss of weight mission for over a year, due to health issues, and it is a day-in, day-out battle, but it has to become a way of life, if you want to grow old and see your great-grandkids, etc. God willing. I still would like to lose 60-70 more pounds. My eating habits I have adjusted due to being pre-diabetic. But I have the issue of exercise as I have a bad knee and my hours at work are usually 12-hour days. So, I need to figure out a time for that and something for my knee.

The other child we really envy is Marlene and family. I told Earl the other day that we need to just head that way and maybe Rich could give him some kind of a gopher job. The City of Temple has changed their retirement policy and Earl has in his 20+ years so he is eligible to retire. He has not made the decision yet, but at least it is now an option. There have been a lot of changes the past year and not all for the good, so at least now if it gets too bad he has that choice. He still would need to work at least three days a week, as we have a lot of those things called bills to pay off, due to a lot of things from past years.

Anyway, back to Marlene -- their adventures take us back to the ranch days at the bottom of the Sangre De Cristos mountain range and waking up to that beauty each morning. Life was simple then, but the memories that we have of those days we will never forget. Before I leave the subject of Marlene's family, Rich really has a wonderful way of writing and words. Angela writes poetry, too, but has not had a lot of time for it these days.

We all keep busy. Carol came and spent a few weeks not long ago. Enjoyed seeing her, although we did not get to see her as much as we would have liked. As she stated previously in a note to you, it was a working trip. As she explained, Mother is starting to realize that she needs something smaller, etc. as far as her place, so there are a lot of things that need to be done in order to place the house on the market. Carol and Stanley worked hard and got a lot done in those two weeks, but there are still things to do.

Earl was able to help some. They have changed his work week from four 10-hour days to five eight-hour days, so he no longer has Fridays off. That throws a hitch in a lot of things as far as getting extra work done.

Our kids are all busy, too. Little Sully got his body cast off on September 7th. He is really doing well with the walking again. He is still supposed to keep things kind of calm as far as jumping off stuff, etc. for another month. Of course he is a BOY -- so that gets interesting.

Photo © Adriana Brown
Sully Michael Brown -- out of his body cast and rarin' to go!

Adriana now works at Cook's Children's Hospital in Fort Worth. She really likes it so far, but it is a drive, so that is not too fun. Their new baby is due the first part of April. They do not know yet what it is supposed to be.

Angela keeps very busy with the four children. The two older boys are back in school, but, she keeps busy running to soccer, etc. with them and anything else that needs to be taken care of. Scott is on the road a lot. She then helps out Adriana with Sully, as Adriana works nights two or three nights a week and has to get rest, which is hard to do with a 2-year-old. Most of the time, she has the days a few days apart, but right now she is still in orientation. So, there are some days that fall too close together to get caught up on her rest.

To say the least, Angela's job right now is CHILDREN. Trinidy is three months old now. She is so cute and very laid back. She just takes it all in stride most of the time. Sully and his Aunt Angie are great buddies. The girls live about 35 miles apart.

Aaron is a senior. His life right now is full throttle ahead. He is looking into colleges. He has not decided yet on a major but is leaning toward teaching and coaching. They have started their football season and they are doing pretty well. Aaron is a tackle on the offensive line. The girls make most all of his games that are at home. De (Tricia's husband) and the girls came last night to watch them.

Photo © Adriana Brown
Aaron Stahlecker, Trinidy, Tracer, Trenton & Trevor Roberson & Sully Brown.

Earl and I both keep way too busy, and our bodies are starting to tell us we are over the 50 mark. Gets really upsetting when you can not do what you once could do. But I guess that is inevitable so might as well deal with it. Just wish we could reach the point that we could have just some "MY" time for a few days without knowing that there are things that should be taken care of.

My job is VERY demanding, so as long as I am working for "Head Start," that is something I will have to deal with. The children are not the problem; it is the parents and employees and then, of course, the paperwork. I teach and am also Director, so when the kids and employees go home, my job just starts on the administrative end of things on a lot of days. I know if I had little ones at home I probably could not do what I do. A lot of days I am to work by 8 a.m. and do not get home until 8 p.m. or later.

I'd better run. Just wanted to check in with you and tell you we enjoy hearing from everyone through The Bulletin.

Photos © Frans de Been

You take ice cube forms (trays) and you put the coins in the forms and add water and freeze in the freezer, left photo; then you buy a bucket or washing-up bowl and start with a few centimeters (1 or 2 inches) of water and make a start. After that you start to fill up the bucket or bowl with ice cubes with coins in them, middle photo; then you must not forget to make, from a coat hanger, a structure to form a strong connection to the rope in the bucket (as I have done), right photo.

After a long time of hard and cold work (a few days) you get this, left photo. You take three broomsticks and make a tripod, middle photo; then you make at the top of the three poles a connection and below use a small rope to tie the bottom ends of the legs together so the poles cannot fall apart. Then you have a splendid gift, right photo.

When you arrive at the party or occasion you must put the gift in a corner and let the temperature do the rest. It depends on how large is your ice lump before they can enjoy the coins (normally, two days).

Try it for yourself ... maybe THEY like it to get this gift. It is something else than an envelope or candy...

o In Service To Our Nation j
Gert Dake Pettit is compiling information on family members and friends of the Dake family who served in the armed forces during and after World War II.

After high school, I spent a year at a local junior college, with no real idea what I wanted to learn. Well, that is, I didn't have any interest in the classroom learning. During that year, my name came to the top of the waiting list, and I enlisted after the school year ended. Due to my stellar performance in school, the draft board was looming very large in my future.

On July 6th of 1969, I flew to warm, sunny San Antonio, Texas, for basic training at Lackland Air Force Base. Basic training was not terribly difficult, mostly consisting of getting us into decent physical shape and accustomed to military discipline.

After six weeks, we were shipped by bus to Biloxi, Mississippi, where I was to enroll in Aircraft Radio Repair School at Keesler Air Force Base. Only a few hours after our arrival, Hurricane Camille roared in, and we spent the next week cleaning up and doing relief work for hurricane victims.

I must have lifted something too heavy during the cleanup, because I was dogged by back problems through the rest of my active duty, and for years afterward. The only consolation was that, after months of suffering, I got a duty excuse that prohibited marching and prolonged standing. So I walked to school and back on my own, instead of marching like everybody else, and I got to sit out all formations and inspections. That duty excuse was the envy of my buddies, but I would have traded it for a healthy spine in a heartbeat.

After a week of hurricane relief duty, I started school, in the Basic Electronics course. The class moved at a snail's pace, so out of sheer boredom I switched to a self-pacing class, which was all self-study. The class was intended for people who had prior electronics training, but anyone who thought he could make it through was allowed to try. There was a catch -- self-pacing students had to move through the curriculum in half the time the regular class took to do it, or be set back to the beginning. The biggest incentive was that if I succeeded, I would be going home about six weeks earlier than my planned separation. I made it through, with a couple of narrow escapes on test days.

Aircraft Radio Repair school followed, and didn't offer a self-pacing option. It was interesting because it was mostly hands-on, working with actual aircraft radios. This was still in the days of vacuum tube radios, so the sets were as large as vacuum cleaners, and just as noisy, with all their cooling fans running.

I graduated from Aircraft Radio Repair School early in 1970, and reported to the 119th Fighter Group at Fargo, North Dakota, where I would serve one weekend each month and 14 days of field training each year. During the time I was on active duty, they had made a transition from F102 airplanes to F101's, a newer model of fighter. We took a lot of pride in getting our "new" airplanes in top condition. (Here's a link with some nice pictures of F101's, along with more information than you ever wanted to know:)

Each radio that we removed from an airplane had every vacuum tube checked before it was returned to service. Because we were meticulous when repairing radios, we had a failure rate that was the envy of many aircraft radio shops.

The early 1970s were the time of the first energy crisis and we felt the effects. It took a lot of fuel to heat the hangar after opening the big door to bring an airplane in or out, so we were required to replace radios out on the flight line, rather than having the airplane brought inside. It took less than a half-hour to change a radio and check it, but the flight line at the Fargo Airport has got to be one of the coldest, windiest places on the planet.

It was fun to replace a radio if the weather was nice. After climbing a ladder, removing a door on the side of the airplane, replacing the radio with a repaired one, and replacing the door, we were required to check the newly installed radio. The first step was to start the gasoline engine on the remote power unit and power up the airplane. Next step was to climb up the ladder and crawl into the cockpit. I always worried about doing something dumb, like pulling the ejection seat lever, but all things that a dumb radio repairman could activate were supposed to be pinned and safe.

Checking the radio was pretty simple. The radio was set to the proper frequency and a call made to our own shop, the com-nav shop. Next call was to the Fargo Tower, then Ground Control. If they all could hear me and I could hear them, the radio was OK. If there was time, a person might linger in the cockpit for a couple of minutes, imagining what it would be like to soar into the wild blue yonder in such a machine.

The years of my enlistment saw a great expansion of the National Guard, as the Vietnam War ended and the regular military was downsized. In my shop, we went from eight men to well over 20 men. All the new guys had prior service time in the regulars, so all of them were ahead of me for promotion. There was not enough work for all of us, so out of boredom, and seeing little chance of ever attaining more than buck sergeant, I got out of the Air Guard in 1975, when my six year commitment was over.

For more "By Beaver" stories about military life, check out the "Beaver Tales" menu.

October 1---Keith Mason and Lori Anderson (1 year)
October 4---Don and Patty Bratten Anderson (9 years)
October 5---Tom and Lou Miller (33 years)

October 27---Don and Gert Dake Pettit (16 years)

October Special Days
October 9---Columbus Day (observed)
October 29---Daylight Saving Time Ends
October 31---Halloween

I want to tell you about a special thing that happened last Saturday evening.

I was in a building with 850 people, and I sat in the second from the back row in this huge crowd of people at Eagle Bend, Minnesota.

Right in the chair directly in front of me was a little boy. I looked more closely, and decided that he was one of the cutest little boys I had seen for a long time. I looked at his mother sitting next to him, and then at his dad sitting next to her -- and it dawned on me like a bolt of lightning ... I KNOW WHO THAT IS. That is -- wait, I had better ask first. So I tapped the mother on the shoulder and asked her what his name was.

She said, "Levi."

Keith and I had a fun time celebrating our first anniversary. We can't believe how fast the past year has gone by. On Friday, Steven took us to Angel Stadium. Keith is a big Angels fan, and he was excited the team won the game, even though they didn't make the playoffs this season.

I love having the opportunity to see pictures from our relatives and to be able to share our own with them, as well!

They live in Hawaii and Cathy lives in Chicago so it is extremely difficult, depending only on pictures. Cathy's only child is Amy and this is the first grandchild, so you know how dear he is to all of us.

Being you get all this kind of news, I had to send you ours.

Great Aunt Betty Weiland Droel
MoundsView, MN

Mason Riley Karas

I had a scare with my right eye Saturday morning. It dilated to twice its normal size, and the doctor sent me to the ER. Well, as it turns out, I accidentally rubbed some medication that was on my hands into it, causing the problem, so everything is fine with it now. I am so careful about hand washing, so was really surprised at how that happened, but stuff happens.

Both Maralee and I are fighting colds, and I've developed a sore spot on my lower back just below the ribs, so am keeping an eye on that. I'll mention it at Chemo on Thursday to see what they think.

Well, it sounds like winter is upon us. Mentally, I'm not at all ready. It's always so difficult to get around in. I can handle the cold, but the ice and snow is my problem. Well, I guess I need to stop whining, and just be grateful that I'm here to see it!

I hope you all are doing well. Love to all......Diana

Diana Mellon Martin
Coon Rapids, MN

EDITOR'S POLICY: If you wish to subscribe to The Bulletin, simply send me a statement of that fact. If you wish to keep receiving it I hope you will contribute to one of the columns that are running in this family epistle (at least occasionally!). My e-mail address is dma49261@juno.com

This Bulletin is copyright Dorothy M. Anderson; the contents are also copyrighted by the authors and photographers and used with their permission, and the contents are not to be used for any commercial purposes without the explicit consent of the creators.