FAMILY UPDATE

Dear Grandchildren, (and whoever else is interested)

I think it is time for us to send you an update. I have not been writing as many letters as I used to -- now that I am the Editor! So it is time to get caught up.

Grandpa is being very faithful at practicing his harmonica playing; he is really enjoying that birthday present! He is able to play lots of hymns. As a matter of fact he and I had a piano-harmonica duet the other evening. I thought it sounded pretty nice.

We had a day of brisk wind last week which shook the last of the old brown leaves down from our little oak tree that is next to our house. That put Grandpa to work with clean-up. First he made himself a long handled thing-a-ma-jig and cleaned out the leaves from the eaves trough. Next he found a stainless steel container among his things and made a stand for it, and set it under the down spout to serve as a little cistern to gather rainwater for his plants. Then to finish off the clean-up he got out the lawn mower and mulched up the old leaves. We are now ready for things to GROW. (That, of course, includes dandelions!!)

Grandpa and I are both keeping track of our health items. He had another pro time this week. We were glad to find that the generic blood thinner he is taking is doing just as good work at keeping his blood thin to the right degree as the higher priced name brand he was taking before. (Blood thinning is necessary to keep the blood from carrying blood clots around -- as they might cause a stroke.) He has an appointment with his heart doctor this week. I have my springtime physical to take soon. I am working on keeping my cholesterol level and blood pressure down. I think things are fine -- will know better after the clinic works me over.

Sorry to report that I now have lost three of my piano students. I continue to have the other five, but no replacements yet. One of the boys "graduated" and the other two decided they had other things that they wanted to do with their time. I wonder if later they won't say, "I wish I had kept on with piano lessons," but it is their decision -- because if a person isn't willing to practice, no real progress can be made!

Grandpa and I share the household duties. Danny, he hasn't been able to hit many "garbage" sales yet -- as there aren't very many just now. He still hits the "thrift store" sales almost every week. His newest purchase (the one I like the most, that is) is an electric broom. It is stored in my computer room between the sofa and the toy shelves. I can use it on carpets or bare floor. It is light weight enough and handy for me to use from the Jazzy.

I am having such fun being the editor. I love the mail!!!! But I had a very rude awakening this week. I have a font I just love to use for effect!! It is called English Vivace and is a beautiful cursive script. I made a beautiful title for the Memory Lane column. Now I find that my XP windows is probably the only home computer that has that font. As a matter of fact it appears that most of my fonts are only used by this edition of Windows. How frustrating! I can't make your copy of the Bulletin as nice as mine!! One of life's small disappointments.

Hope this will help excuse my lack of letter writing!!

Our Love ,
Grandpa and Grandma Anderson


STUDENT UPDATE
by Tami Anderson
Hola de Suchitoto, El Salvador!
Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Hi! I'm in El Salvador right now and am at an internet cafe in Suchitoto. This is where we have stayed for the past three nights. Everything is going great here and we have seen lots of people. The people here are very nice and fun to be with even though I don't know much Spanish! It has made me use it though, which is good.

Just wanted to write a quick message. It's pretty hot, but very unusual things have happened for this time of the year -- like rain!! I guess they have never seen more than one day of rain in the dry season like this before in over 70 years! Two times it has rained since we were here. It's very nice here, though. Poor, but nice. I'll try to e-mail some pics when I get back.

Hope all is going well in the United States!

Love,

Tami


The Family Cookbook
Culinary Heirlooms
by Doug Anderson

       Greetings Bulletin readers, it's time for a change. I have opted to discard Chanticleer: Confidential for a more family-oriented format. (And the Editor has complied.) I am hoping to bring out the best in our family's culinary heritage by inviting all of you, the readers, to submit your recipes and have them printed here for posterity. Don't be shy, I promise I'll be nicer than I was in Chanticleer: Confidential! I also have plans for condensing the entries and having them put together in a hardbound format, but that is only if response is great enough to merit.

       Let's get the ball rolling!

Donna Mae's Bodacious Banana Bread

Measure 1 cup milk with 1 TSP Lemon juice and let sit to sour.
Cream together 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup sugar and add 2 eggs.
Beat in 3 mashed, overripe bananas and sift 2 cups flour.
Sift 1 teaspoon baking soda (making sure there are no lumps, crushing with fingers when necessary.)

Add the flour mixture to banana mixture, alternately, with the soured milk.
Pour this mixture into well-greased pans. (Donna suggests Pam.)
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, do the toothpick test and act accordingly.
(If using glass pan, decrease oven temperature by 25 degrees.)


       Donna sends along with this recipe a tip that is very ingenious; Freeze your overripe bananas three to a bag and use at your convenience! Thanks Donna, you are a credit to our family's culinary heritage!

       See, that wasn't very painful, was it? Now come on, all you aspiring chefs, let's see what you got! (Sorry about the grammar, Chief!)


Memory Lane

We will start the Memory Lane trip and hope you come along!

My Grandparents
by Wyatt Johnson

Obviously I don't have memories of Grandma and Grandpa Anderson from when I was growing up, but it made me think back, so I'm going to share memories of my grandparents.

I remember Grandma Twila the most, because she lived the longest. Grandma Twila loved her lawn, garden, and trees, and Weston, Benny, and I got to help her take care of all of them. Even though I'm pretty sure we complained about it at the time, looking back, it was a real treat to mow grandma's lawn.

Out at the farm, we had to mow around trees, hills, driveway, fences, sheds, dogs (and the dogs' ahem! bombs), cats, rhubarb patches, the sandbox, toys -- I think you get the picture. At Grandma Twila's, we only had her many trees to mow around. I'm pretty sure her Plastic Lawn Boy was 50 pounds lighter than our Steel Hardware Hank, too.

Invariably, Grandma would come out and follow us around, pulling weeds in the garden, cleaning out the tree line behind the house, anything to keep busy. By the time we were done, Grandma was red in the face and sweaty, but still looking like a million bucks. The best part was afterwards. To this day, I can't drink Cranberry Juice without thinking of Grandma Twila. Two ice cubes, half Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice, and half 7-up. Many times, we'd stay around and play some games of Rummicube, Yahtzee, Rack-o, or Skip-bo. (Whew, I'm getting a little choked up here!).

I'll never forget the last thing she said to me; it was not too long after Jolene and I started dating, and Grandma had just heard about it. She said, "Now you be good to her!"

The only memory I have of my Grandpa Donald was sitting in the dining room, looking out on the front lawn at the birds on the bird feeder. I remember the little piece of cardboard in the window with a little hole in it, so he could stick a gun out to scare all the big bully birds away.

Grandpa Olaf had a lot of fun with us grandkids. My main memory of him was "Grandpa Olaf" kisses, where he'd put his mouth on our bellies, and blow air to make a lot of (gassy) noises.

Grandma Corinne died shortly after I was born, but we do have a couple of pictures of her holding me, so I at least got to meet her.

I can't tell you how much it means to us to have a new Grandma and Grandpa who love us as only a true Grandma and Grandpa can. I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the Anderson family past, and look forward to hearing a lot more. It really makes me feel like I live a pretty boring life, sometimes!

Thanks for giving me a chance to go back for a little bit.
Wyatt


Grandma Cleo
by Janie Anderson

Grandma Cleo was one of the most fair people I have ever known. She treated everyone alike -- especially her kids, in-laws, and grandchildren.

And her giving was certainly without hope of praise. She used to go to garage sales when the kids were little and buy baby and little kid clothes, just because she thought they were so cute. She'd give us the whole bag and totally forget about it. If I commented about the dress she got for Brenda, for example, she'd say, "I got that for her? I didn't remember!" She certainly wasn't looking for profuse thanks or praise for helping out.

And, of course, we couldn't forget all the good food she always had. Once a year she would fix lutefisk and invite us because she knew Dwight would NEVER get it at home! And she was always so kind -- she'd fix meatballs, too, because she knew I didn't eat lutefisk.


Grandpa and Grandma Anderson
by Rachel Henderson

One memory I have of Grandpa is the times when I would sit on his lap as a little girl. I was fascinated by the big veins on his hands and forearms, and I insisted on pushing them around while sitting there. Today I'm amazed at his patience and tolerance of me! One time I asked Grandpa how to get big veins, thinking it was something I wanted, too. His response: a lot of hard work. That gave me second thoughts.

One thing that can't be forgotten about Grandma is her no-bake chocolate cookies. I remember "helping" her scoop the cookies onto plates, but I was probably more of a hindrance than a help, as she always had a couple plates done by the time I had barely finished one. When they were done, they were always the best cookies in the world to us!

Those are a few of my memories -- I could probably keep going! Thanks for doing this!

Rachel


This is a continuation of the project suggested by Lori: First a note of explanation from Donna -- I asked Aunt Lois to share anything she'd like about Uncle Bill, including how they'd met and some of her history. Her answer follows:

Bill and Lois

Bill came to Camp Barkeley, Texas, located near Abilene, Texas, in September l942. He had been drafted in to the Army at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. My parents and I and my sister Coy Nell lived near Abilene and a Sunday morning meeting was in my folks' home. Every Sunday morning my Dad went in to Abilene with a stock trailer and met our soldier friends and brought them out to our home for the day, so that is how Bill and I met. Over 200 of our friends passed through that army camp during World II. Bill use to say that I chose him out of 200 soldiers! As if all 200 boys had proposed to me!

He smiled so much and had a sense of humor -- today our Stanley reminds me so much of Bill in that way. We were married May 1, l943, in my parents' home with about 30 soldiers there. Bill's cousin Roland Mellon (who was in another camp in Texas) was best man and Coy Nell was bridesmaid.

He was sent to Louisiana for maneuvers and then sent to Camp Maxey, Texas, in EAST Texas, and was shipped out to England in September 1943. He was in the D-day invasion landing on Omaha Beach and I have a notation that he got to Germany September 16, 1944. He got back to the States December l945 and we went to Howard Lake to live.

He was a wonderful husband and father to our children. Allll the little old ladies loved him because he teased them and always talked to them and he had a way with all the babies and little kids, too. He would have enjoyed the grandkids so much, had he gotten to know them, but a two year battle with cancer denied that.

I was born in Waco, Texas, but grew up in Abilene, Texas, and with the exception of the five years we spent in Minnesota, all my life has been spent in Texas, and now in Waco, Texas, where I will likely end my days. Now, Donna, if you think of any more things you might like to know about Bill just let me know.

Love, Aunt Lois

I asked about his hobbies and what he enjoyed doing, too ... so this is her answer to that:

Donna -- it is fine with me if you want to put the information on Bill in The Bulletin. Patricia has information on him that Dorothy and Gertrude supplied her with, too. Which is good coming from his sisters! I got a good laugh over theirs.

If Bill got his head set about something being a certain way, you could hardly change his mind on it. This was good in some instances, but not always! He did love to sing -- but not exactly in complete harmony every time! He had an old guitar, too, that he loved to plunk on -- Ha! He liked to fish, too. After the war, in Minnesota, he and I and Jim and Blanche would go fishing --think Dorothy and LeRoy some, too. In our Valley Mills years, he did some leather work, too, as a hobby.

I should have said, too, that he loved God's Way and it was his faith and confidence in that that sustained him to the end through his long illness.

Love, Aunt Lois


+ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR?
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Fan Mail

From Jim Miller
I enjoyed reading The Bulletin, even though I don't know all your grandbabies mentioned, I do know the one, Whitney, who is 11 and taller than the teacher, also know Kimberly and I know Heidi. Bet you are having a whale of a good time editing and sending back to each one. Sure is a wonderful way to keep in contact. and this way you do keep up with some that otherwise you wouldn't.

JIM


From Doug Anderson

I think something I kind of missed with the first read was the simple, touching eloquence of Patty's piece about Grandpa Dake. I can just see a little Patty Dee in that old work shed, and when I was reading her essay I could actually smell that old work shed!


Our Present Staff:
EDITORS: Mom, Grandma, Dorothy, etc.
COLUMNISTS:
Beaver------Ashby Correspondent
Doug -------St. Cloud Correspondent
Rich---------Mr. In-A-Jam(b) &
Kim------and his assistant
Research by Donna------MEMORY LANE

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