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Sunday, June 7, 2009
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Photo © Sheldon Swenson
Kjirsten Swenson, M.D., admires her diploma.

Updates -


Kjirsten Swenson with parents: Sheldon, left, & Mitzi, right.

UPDATE -- Kjirsten Swenson earns medical degree
by Mitzi Johnson Swenson
Dickinson, ND

Kjirsten graduated from Baylor College of Medicine on May 27. She received an American Medical Women's Association commendation for academic achievement.

She flew home for a few days and is currently traveling in Colombia with Tyler. Kjirsten was there two or three years ago and said it was really beautiful and unspoiled by tourism. Sheldon and I would have liked to go, too, but the timing didn't work for either of our jobs.

Later in June, I'll help her move to Albuquerque, where she will begin a three-year residency in Emergency Medicine.

Sheldon is very proud of her and it's fun to listen to them talking about how she would diagnose and treat various patients he's seen.



Tyler with parents: Sheldon & Mitzi Swenson.

UPDATE -- Tyler Swenson graduates with high honors
by Mitzi Johnson Swenson
Dickinson, ND

Tyler Swenson graduated with high honors from Dickinson High School on May 31. We celebrated with some fun food -- punch cooled with dry ice, homemade ice cream frozen with liquid nitrogen (each person stirred their own in a Styrofoam cup), and the Periodic Table of the Elements created from mini-cupcakes. It was a fitting celebration for the family chemist.

We had fun with the mini-cupcakes -- six flavors and two kinds of frosting -- all made from scratch, of course. The flavor and frosting reflected some logical division of the table. I didn't take time to ask about that because it's a long time since I've had chemistry.

Several of us were busy in the kitchen making three kinds of chicken wings, blue cheese dip, Guacamole, Pico de gallo, veggies, deviled eggs (because he bought five dozen when the grocery list simply said "eggs"), chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas and pineapple, punch and ice cream. We ate well but I was exhausted by Monday night, after getting up at 3:45 a.m. Monday to take the kids to the airport in Bismarck.

Except for the cupcakes, which were baked and frozen a week earlier, everything had to be made on Saturday and Sunday. We didn't get back from Houston until Thursday night.

Tyler plans to finish his research at North Dakota State University this summer before going to the University of Minnesota to study some combination of chemistry, math and physics.

This weekend, I'm taking Aunika to Fargo for six weeks of Governor's School for Science. Next week I'll be home alone. :) Tyler and Kjirsten will still be in Colombia, Aunika will be at NDSU and Sheldon is going fishing in Canada with his brother. This will be a new experience, considering Shane will be 30 years old on Sunday!


Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements in Mini-cupcakes.



Grandma Shari Larson & Alexander Indermark.

UPDATE -- Kristi Indermark celebrates 29 years
by Kristi Larson Indermark
Litchfield Park, AZ

Well, the official countdown starts ... 364 days until I turn 30. Mom threw a wonderful golden birthday party for me. We swam, ate and opened lots of gifts ... 29, to be exact! Thank you to Mom for an unforgettable birthday! Mike and Kelly Seaman, along with Nathan and Devan, were there to help celebrate, along with our friends John and Michele with their two daughters, Brittney and Chloe.


How am I going to blow out all those candles...


iPod docking station ... looks like we are going to get another letter from the homeowners' association.



Photos © Caity Chap
McKenna sniffs Grandma's lilacs in "the most beautiful week of the year."


UPDATE -- hiding out (we thought the sky was falling)
by Miss Kitty
Anchorage, AK

If this Bulletin gets out on schedule, it's gonna be a miracle, Miss Jerrianne said. Well, miracles do happen -- last week's Bulletin got out, didn't it? I'm not giving up on her just yet. She read the Country Scribe column this week and laughed right out loud. He should see Alaska, with 24-hour daylight, she said. Especially this year, when spring came early and summer nearly tripped over spring in its rush to get every leaf and flower -- and dandelion -- deployed at once.

But that wasn't all. We were barely awake when the doorbell rang. The roofers had come to re-shingle the roof, and because of the Memorial Day holiday, there was no notice that Tuesday was the day. Pretty soon there were huge trucks in the driveway, a whole crew on the roof and Miss Jerrianne was scurrying around, taking down pictures and hanging plants and putting them on the furniture, on the floors, wherever it seemed they'd be safe. Mai Tai and I hid under the sleeping bags and didn't come out all day. We thought the sky was falling, for sure!

By the end of the day, we had an entirely new roof. The trucks were barely out of the driveway when our company -- Miss Sharon and her friend, arriving from Idaho, took their place. Our house looked like a bad day during the siege of Beirut. Nothing to do but invite them into the chaos. They hadn't been in the house 15 minutes when we heard thunder. That storm passed us by but it rained for the next three days on our new roof ... while we stayed warm and safe and dry!

Miss Sharon came to stay for a few days. Mai Tai and I eventually left our safe haven and settled down for a visit with her. The pictures are back on the walls now and some of the plants got re-potted and the rest are awaiting their turn ... and then, between cleaning up the mess indoors and planting and mowing and doing battle with the dandelions outdoors, they even took time out for the Anchorage Museum's re-opening to see a fabulous traveling exhibition: the Gold show.


Photo © Jerrianne Lowther
A new roof in a day ... but what a racket they made!


Day to Day R
With Donna Mae
Ashby, MN


Photo © Donna Johnson
Auntie Becky Chap with McKenna & Kierra Ostendorf.

Heading To Phoenix To Babysit

Caity, Jayce and I are heading to Phoenix to babysit Kelly's boys for a week. Will be fun to see their new homes and get some visting in. The kids are looking forward to Shari's pool and getting their fill of swimming! I am not looking forward to the heat, must have been out of my mind to agree to go there in the summer. :-) Plus, just now, when our weather is going to be in the 70's this week. Suppose by the time we get back it will be in the 80's, making it already hotter than I care for. Of course, after the 90's-100's in Phoenix, that might still feel cool.

I am sending pictures that Caity did this past weekend when the Ostendorfs were here.


Photo © Caity Chap
McKenna Ostendorf checking out the cattle.


Photo © Caity Chap
The cattle appear just as interested in checking out the people.


You're Invited to the June 2009 Bulletin Pot Luck

The Bulletin Family and Friends Pot Luck Get Together begins at noon on June 28th at the Beaver Johnson farm near Ashby, Minnesota. Click here for details, what to bring, etc. and to let the hosts know that you're planning to come. (No RSVP required for regrets.)


The Matriarch Speaks W
by Dorothy (Dake) Anderson
Alexandria, MN

What A Difference A Lift Makes!

Don and I went out in my magic carriage to have supper at Culver's tonight and we just came home...

When I came home from the Sister Kenny Hospital system in 1946, I had every hope that I would be fully recovered from my bout with polio in about two years' time. I had regained the use of the nerves leading to the lower muscles of my body, though I did have limitations. I was hoping to work hard and recover the lost power.

Back then, in the 1940s, nobody knew what the long-term results of any course of treatment would be. No one had any real experience with the various polio treatments. So some recommended leg braces and others said hot packs and massage and still others emphasized exercise ... but no one really knew what would help or harm 40 years down the line.

Who was to know that overuse of the muscles would wear out the nerves and neurons ... so that soon they would not be able to work properly, if at all? Who could foresee that someone who was able to get up and walk again would someday have to give that mobility up? And that someone who was finally weaned from an iron lung might someday require a breathing device to keep them breathing?

I did improve slightly for the first two years, seemingly because of my daily exercise and walking, working hard, going places, and doing things. Soon after that final checkup I gave up regular exercising, but for many years I continued various other methods of exercise. It was disappointing to me that I never regained the ability to run, to use a regular bike, to climb steps with both arms at my side (my left leg always needed help), nor could I ever jump up when I fell. It was always embarrassing to me to get up, as I needed to derrick myself up to help the poor leg.

Yet in spite of the lack of total return to normal, I did live a very close to normal life. Don and I married; we had five very normal, nice kids and did most of the normal things that families do together. My life was full and I didn't think much about any serious problems because of the polio. But there were lots of falls, bruises, and then broken bones, and it wasn't so very long until I began to find it far too tiring to exercise.

I remember telling Don that when I got off the stationary bike I was totally exhausted. I also remember that one day I noticed a spot on my leg that was numb. And it did not go away, but spread until my legs were almost totally numb; at about that time, I began to lose my motivation! I remember my doctor telling me that we should be glad they had been able to keep me out of a wheelchair ... and in my mind I was thinking, I wish I had strong enough arms to use a wheelchair -- then I would -- but I do not want to depend on someone to go wherever I need to go!

Gradually, it became obvious that, instead of getting stronger, I was getting more tired and accident prone, and my quality of life was disappearing. How can one enjoy doing things if there is a constant need to watch every step to keep from having yet another accident with painful consequences?

After many serious falls, and steady loss of the functions of my various muscles, we began researching the PPS (Post-Polio Syndrome) that we had been hearing and reading about. Don did research through the Web and found a lot of material about it. We both read it and understood that we had found my problem.

After yet another fall, and another broken bone, we, along with our doctor, began thinking about use of an electric wheelchair, and so almost eight years ago I met my Jazzy. It became my most prized possession and I was finally able to do so many things that I had found impossible for many years. Go shopping, work in the gardens along the sidewalks, go on trips and enjoy so many things!

But PPS is caused by the wearing out of overworked neurons ... it is progressive ... and deterioration of my nerves and muscles continues. I am very thankful that I do have locomotion, but I do have many problems that limit my activity. Exhaustion, aches, and poor circulation have caused a more shut in life. But now, with the lift to get my Jazzy in out of the weather, I should be able to keep on going for a while yet.

I am very thankful for all the years that the Sister Kenny treatment gave me and I have decided that, through the help of the Jazzy -- and now the lift -- I can find a continued joy in life!


Who Is This?

Let's Play a Guessing Game: Whenever it is handy to do so, we will run a picture of someone of the subscribers or staff members of our e-magazine. Tell us who you think it is -- we will let you know who was the first to guess it right -- and the correct guess -- in the following week's Bulletin.

(Send us some to run; we will line them up in our staging area to take their turn. The Matriarch supplied last week's mystery photo.


How many can you identify? What's going on?

Answers to last week's mystery pictures (click here to review them):

Editors' Note: Correct guesses appear in bold face type and incorrect guesses in normal type ... generally in the order we receive them, so the first guess received is on top.

The "Who is this?" photo is of my great-grandparents Alonzo and Angie Mellon. I'd be curious to know where it was taken. My memory of them was at a very early age (early 1950's.) It seems to me they were living in Minneapolis or St. Paul. Is that correct?

Dan Mellon
Alta Loma, CA

Editor's comment: You have identified our grandparents (your great-grandparents). That picture was taken in 1946 for their 50th Wedding Anniversary ... at their home in Waverly, Minnesota. I imagine that you are remembering Grandpa and his second bride Lulu (Lent) Mellon. Grandpa and she were married in the early 1950's and they lived in the southern part of Minneapolis.


Cheryl had The Bulletin #363 so I had a chance to read it and want to get my "guess" in for the picture. That is Grandpa and Grandma Mellon! I think it must have been their 50th anniversary.

Tom Miller
Madera, CA


The Grandpa and Grandma that I am proud to say are mine: Alonzo and Angie Mellon. That picture was taken on their 50th wedding anniversary.

I don't remember Grandpa ever saying a bad word about anybody or anything. And Grandma was a person who had a good sense of humor. I remember her telling about Grandpa going to a school board meeting one night, and she decided to rearrange the bedroom. She moved the bed to a different spot in the room. Grandpa came home, he was very quiet and didn't turn the light on, and he jumped into the bed ... but it wasn't there.

Gert Dake Pettit
Howard Lake, MN

Editor's comment: Be careful there how you boast ... they were my grandparents and also LeRoy's and, of course, when Billie and Blanche were here they would have loved to claim them, too. Good grandparents! (Well, so were our other grandparents.)


I did some detective work and looked up "50th anniversary" in the Archives, and found this picture of Grandma Mellon. So, now my guess is Grandpa and Grandma Mellon. How is that for being right once?

Betty Weiland Droel
MoundsView, MN

Photo Editor's Note: Last week's "Guess" picture was the one Dorothy wanted for her story in Bulletin 254, but it only turned up recently ... so we substituted it for the separate pictures of Grandpa and Grandma Mellon archived there.


Memory Lane

A series of recollections, of the five years when Bill and Lois Dake and their family lived in Minnesota, began with the episode in Bulletin 343. It's too soon to tell just how many parts there will be in this series, just after World War II. In Bulletin 349, I told more about polio (once called Infantile Paralysis) via two links, Polio and Sister Kenny, to minimize disruption of the narrative flow about Lois and Bill Dake. Both documents are posted as a series of scanned images. We can't edit them or correct typos and they will not respond to font changes or printer settings as regular Bulletin pages do.


Dorothy Dake, 20, hand tinted portrait, 1946.
(I tinted my portrait at Photo North in 1948.)

I meet some new friends in Bemidji!
by Dorothy Dake
Howard Lake, MN

I have become a true Bemidji citizen. At first, I had a bit of a problem figuring out where addresses were located, but Harold assured me that a teacher should not have much trouble with the four main avenues that go straight north to south. The one nearest Lake Bemidji, the avenue that we are located on, is named for the city -- Bemidji Avenue; to the west of us runs one named for the county -- Beltrami Avenue; the next one is named for the state -- Minnesota Avenue; and the last main avenue is named for our country -- America Avenue.

The streets are numbered, starting with numbers that start with 1 and going to those numbered with 18 -- which is about as far as the streets travel through all of the avenues.

Not only have I become more acquainted with the city, I have also learned to know lots of its citizens. There are Louella and the girls in her nurses' dorm (an old fashioned white house). I am especially fond of Junie ... the very outspoken one I met the first week I moved here. And, of course, there is the housekeeper who keeps house for them, Marie Lark. I am welcome to come over for a cup of coffee as long as I bring the rolls once in a while.

And right across the street, in a really nice old house with an open stairway leading up to a nice, large sleeping room, lives my landlady, Mrs. Walters. She inhabits the whole downstairs ... which is very beautiful, even if a bit dated.

Down the hall from me lives a nice older widow woman who has a housekeeping apartment. She asked me to call her Bertha and her last name is White. I have very strict orders not to do any cooking in my room. And I learned, when I bought an automatic coffee pot, (I think Bertha tattled on me) that my sweet-looking landlady meant no coffee in my room, either. So you see why it was especially nice that Marie allows me to take coffee with them. She even has me over for a sandwich and soup now and then. Love that Marie!

There are the part owners in the Sport Shop ... the ones who have made it a point to make friends are Elaine and Ed. They have two girls about my age. (I have not met them as they go to college in the East.) I also met their partner -- his name is Frank but I do not know much more about him. He greets me when I come through but that is about all that I know of him. Elaine comes over and visits a little most every day -- probably a little more than I would prefer. But it is nice to have someone to care about my welfare.

Then there are my two bosses. They are brothers; they have been in the service and now are trying to make use of some of what they learned there to start a new photo shop. It is a real challenge as there is another shop called Schirling Studio and they have been operating in Bemidji forever (almost). The Foley boys are trying hard and have built up a rather nice business.

There is Harold, who does a bit of portrait work but who is the main boss and spends lots of his time selling brochure pictures to some of the new resorts springing up in this area. I do not know a lot about it or about him. He does spend time teaching me how to do some of the tasks and though he does not say much he did tell me that the reason he picked me is that I seemed more sensible and serious minded and he was looking for someone he could trust to do as instructed. And he added that he was not disappointed.

They tell me he is engaged to be married to someone his folks don't like. (I imagine you can guess where I heard that bit of gossip!) I watched him do some tinting of a portrait he is doing and he asked if I wanted to try one out. I asked him if I could bring a portrait of myself that I had with me to practice on. He said that was a great idea.

He is now giving me pointers on the work I am doing on it. The first time it came out too dolled up looking to suit me -- so he showed me how to use formaldehyde to clean the oil off very carefully and then start over -- and how to tone it down. Today he and I were both satisfied with the way it came out. And he is going to let me do some of the tinting for the shop. That is a thrill!

Then there is the younger brother (well, he is kind of old, too, but younger than Harold). He does the production work. We develop and print black and white photos. The colored ones we send to the Kodak company to develop.

Scherlings do not do the black and whites, either. So in town we have two drug stores that gather the film rolls for us ... and in two towns, Blackduck and Guthrie, their drug stores also gather and mail the rolls to us. So then we have to develop the rolls of film in the black room, then into the red light room.

Ken copies them onto photo paper; then the negatives are clipped and the paper positive is developed in developing chemical; the picture is set or fixed in place with another chemical bath, then it is washed and carried -- still wet -- to the large drum where they are dried. It is a lot easier for Ken if I use the tongs and watch the developing and then dry and sort. He has also showed me how to enlarge the pictures that people want done from their negatives. I do not do all of these jobs all of the time as I have my office work to do, too.

And then there are all the friends I have made when I go to meeting at the Holmans'. They have two daughters ... Ruth and Evelyn, both so very nice but they are quite a bit older than Louella and me. We have been spending some weekends where there are some younger friends. I especially like a young couple, Keith and Dolly Marshall.

I have bought some fishing equipment and Keith has promised to take Dolly and me fishing. We shall have to see how this compares to Howard Lake and Cokato fishing. I have never used a rod and reel before so I would say it may be a daunting experience for Keith.


Harold & Kendall Foley, my bosses at Photo North.


Travelogue t


Photo © Kjirsten Swenson
Traditional medicine shop in Johannesburg. Hanging from the ceiling were all sorts of dried animal parts, including heads, antlers, bones & tails. These would be used in ritual healing ceremonies.

Johannesburg
by Kjirsten Swenson
Houston, TX

A few lazy days in Tofo turned out to be the perfect finale to seven weeks of adventuring in Africa. From Tofo, I caught a short flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, in anticipation of my flight back to the States. Slightly concerned about Johannesburg's reputation as a city with rampant violent crime and little charm, I decided to stay in nearby Pretoria instead.

Pretoria is South Africa's capital city [one of three] and has a dignified air, with grand mansions and wide boulevards. There, I was surprised to find the streets lined with magnificent blooming jacaranda trees. Never have I seen such an explosion of purple; every street in the downtown area was carpeted in lavender from fallen blossoms. It was beautiful and pleasant, a perfectly acceptable place to relax for two nights before the long series of flights back to the States.

On my last day in Africa, I took a fascinating tour of Johannesburg that had been organized by the hostel in Pretoria. We visited the city's downtown area and saw both new buildings that indicated promising signs of revival and abandoned buildings that had been taken over by squatters, sometimes within the same block.

The highlight of the morning was a visit to a traditional healer's shop. A colorful assortment of herbs and elixirs lined the shelves. Hanging from the ceiling were various dried animal parts. We ducked to avoid the twisted antlers of all shapes and sizes, tails chopped from Africa's great diversity of mammals, and various unidentifiable skulls with bits of dried flesh and fur that hung precariously above our heads. These animal ingredients were never discussed in my pharmacology courses, but would be used in traditional healing ceremonies.


Photos © Kjirsten Swenson
Traditional medicine shop in Johannesburg.

Later we visited the Apartheid Museum, where South Africa's history of enforced racial segregation was powerfully illustrated through a series of displays. As I passed through this space, I found myself appalled and disturbed to realize how ignorant I was concerning these aspects of South African history. I was also rather shocked by the recency and severity of the violence that occurred as apartheid was dismantled.

After the museum, we visited the neighborhood of Soweto, where many of the black citizens relocated during the decades of apartheid. I appreciated the insight shared by our African guide, who had survived several tumultuous decades in Johannesburg and so graciously shared his perspectives with us. It was a sober day, but we were inspired by his hopeful outlook.

My flight back to the States took off that evening just as the light began to fade. Seven weeks had provided only a glimpse of the continent's striking landscapes, peoples, and traditions. I left with a strong desire to return to this place that had previously seemed so very distant and exotic.


Photo © Kjirsten Swenson
Traditional medicine shop in Johannesburg.


Celebrations & Observances
From the Files of
5
Hetty Hooper

This Week's Birthdays
June 7---Shane Swenson
June 8---Ashley Huseby (6 years old)
June 11---George John Larson
June 11---McKenna Christine Ostendorf (2 years old)
June 12---Andrea Dake Mendez
Happy Birthday!

This Week's Anniversaries
June 7---Clark and Susan Miller Smith (18 years)
June 8---Jeff and Jessica Myron Gauderman (2 years)
June 10---Jim and Kristi Larson Indermark (9 years)
Congratulations!

More June Birthdays
' 
June 1---Jeremiah Dake
June 4---Merna Hellevang
June 4---Kyra Carson
June 5---Rian de Been van Gageldonk
June 6---Jettison Quaid Freesemann (4 years old)

June 16---Gina Henderson
June 17---Louise Cloyd
June 18---Caitlynn Mae Chap
June 19---Doris Anderson
June 19---Ashley Meyer
June 20---Spencer Aydelotte
June 20---Roy Droel
June 20---Julian Montford
June 21---Ary Ommert, Jr.
June 24---Aiden Montford (6 years old)
June 25---Ben Henderson
June 26---Greg Wm. Dake
June 26---De Myer
June 27---Sam Mellon
June 29---Tim Huseby
June 29---Trinidy Creede Roberson (3 years old)

More June Anniversaries
Z
June 3---Larry and Ginny Dake McCorkell (37 years)
June 6---Wyatt and Jolene Johnson (11 years)

June 18---Jason and Tami Anderson Hunt (5 years)
June 19---Curt and Patty Anderson Henderson (27 years)
June 20---Rich and Marlene Anderson Johnson (28 years)
June 20---Steve and Marian Miller (39 years)

June Special Days
O
June 6---D Day
June 14---Flag Day
June 21---Father's Day
June 21---First Day of Summer

Miss Hetty's Mailbox:

Dear Miss Hetty,

Thanks for the card.

And I am glad Don finally made it through college!

Brenda hasn't made it out kindergarten yet! Now we have at least some hope.

Nathan and Brenda Hill
Dwight, ND


To Miss Hetty and the rest of the Bulletin Staff,

We want to send a word of thanks for the lovely and fun Anniversary card you sent for our 52nd anniversary. Very kind and thoughtful of you. We had a wonderful day on Sunday.

I also want to say thank you for the cute and entertaining birthday card you all sent to me. I just hope the flower garden I planted will grow like the one on the pictures. With a little more warm weather and the sunshine my garden will grow into a beautiful, fun to view, garden plot.

Tom and Mavis Anderson Morgan
Hope, ND


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


+ LETTERS TO THE EDITORS?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click here to review last week's Bulletin

Another great issue of The Bulletin! Really cool wheels! Congratulations to Don and his team of fabricators!

Dan Mellon
Alta Loma, CA


Greetings and I hope this works! I'm at Cheryl's home in Aloha, Oregon, and I have never tried to send e-mail on her machine before.

Well, you can tell I am traveling again! Finished up the house deal last week and now trying to get Celina settled in. She has most of her things moved but need some of the many "other things" to make a house a home ... kitchen ... bath ... my room and you can just keep on going! But it is doing nicely. I'll be going back to California this week (maybe Friday) as I have several things waiting for me there.

I need to take care of a farming operation -- 1,120 acres -- and we had a well go down. That is bad at this time of year and most of the crops can't be let run out of water. Supposed to be back on line this next Tuesday.

I LIKE YOUR NEW CARRIAGE! Tell Don thanks from me for getting your wheels "inside." Should stay a lot cleaner.

Tom Miller
Aloha, OR (for the present)


Thanks! And thanks again for all your work. Such beautiful creations.

Sorry to see the Bruce McCorkell series is done; that was interesting. I really am enjoying Mom's; it opens her life up in a much more real way to me. I think you should write one of your younger years, too, Photo Editor; I'd really enjoy that a lot.

Donna Anderson Johnson
Ashby, MN


Last Week's Bulletin Review JKL
by Betty Droel
MoundsView, MN

I feel like a kid with the excited anticipation of a special surprise every Saturday morning about the time The Bulletin faithfully appears in our e-mail.

I always scroll very cautiously and slowly down to see the first picture appear until it's in full view. This time I tried my best to guess who that little girl was with the beautiful petunias, but I never would have guessed it was Rylie. She has grown and lost her little girl look. It was so sweet, and I wish I knew what she was soberly thinking about.

Oh, my! Mitzi and Sheldon have one honor after another to celebrate as their children grow up and become successful, ambitious adults. Sounds like Derek won't have a moment to spare with his planned schedule. Jamie Loda looks like a fellow student graduate. Do we know her family or are they (very) good friends?

Probably next week or soon we will have the pictures and story of their Kjirsten's graduation from the Baylor College of Medicine. We Bulletin family have followed along closely with all her accounts of school and travels so will be anxious to see the graduation now.

We need an update on Shane and Jayna also. We have lost track of them.

Talk about bright eyes and happy faces! Brandon and Mikaela, Rachel and Damon. Does Damon have a very former relative by the name of Irene? I knew Irene Olson well. She lived in North Dakota.

The update by Mark Johnson was on a happy note, too, with the announcement of his girlfriend from Boise. Related to the Smiley's in Canada? We haven't seen Mark in The Bulletin for a while, and he has gotten so tall and slim. Between the driver's license and Kayla, that was news.

Amy Dake Harrison's update was timely as I was just commenting about a week ago that we hadn't had updated pictures of Carrie and Ethan Horne. Now, here they were, and I would never have recognized Ernie or Carolyn from that angle. Thanks for keeping us up to date.

Now, that is one nice looking van, and who deserves it more than our Editor and her husband? They have used much less convenient means of transportation which were dependent on weather and times. I am sure everyone who helped to make it complete and usable was very happy to do it for Don and Dorothy. It looks like new. You were very fortunate to have located it. So convenient to have controls for most operations.

We are just thrilled to think our Matriarch has such an accommodating coach to travel in. All the years they had other ways to transport the chair was fine as long as Don was able, but now that the time has come for a more simple way to travel it looks like this is the answer. Rain or shine, snow or ice, they can still go, if they choose. They are so deserving, and it sounded like there were several to thank for making it possible.

What a nice writeup about Rylie and the blind cat and the Johnson girls's visit to the grandparents! That play hot dog looks so real.

Those two dogs must be the same except for size. Their shiny coats look like they are well cared for.

OH, DONNA MAE. What a temptation. Your invitation to the June pot luck sounds so "inviting," and what a happiness to actually be there, but I know it would never work for us except to dream and imagine and wish. I know you will take lots of pictures, and please eat an extra huge plateful of that wonderful pot luck for me!

I really laughed at Weston's GUESS on last week's baby: Caity. He said all babies had the same attributes, etc. I, myself, would never ever have guessed Caity.

I'm sure about now Marloes de Been is thrilled to have seen herself in the GUESS.

I just loved the Memory Lane this time with the history of Louella and Dorothy being in Bemidji and the exciting result of her job hunt. That sweet, honest face was appealing to an employer, and they didn't make a mistake in hiring you, Dorothy. With only three of you working there, you would have to be compatible, which would not be easy to sense with the variety of applicants they must have interviewed. What an opportunity to work the front desk and learn the ins and outs of a city job!

I felt a little empty feeling to think that HARVEST was the last chapter of Bruce's Homesteading Days memories. It has been very interesting to follow along with the lives of those hard-working poor, dedicated farmers. We have no idea what it would have been like to make a living and provide for a family in the Effie area, which I remember is pretty remote and almost a wilderness. Thinking back to his previous chapters, I can't think of any one I enjoyed more than another as they were all so homespun and honest, telling it like it was.

The folks from that time element are passing away and taking all their memories. We thank Larry for sharing these of Bruce's with us.

Mozambique by Kjirsten is to be continued, for which we are very glad. I can't imagine the color of the water near Tofo. The natural beauty of the area would be breathtaking, and she did well to photograph all her destinations. It may be awhile before she will walk on that beach again with her new career about to begin.

I'm thinking of Mavis and Tom Morgan's 52nd anniversary today, also Mavis's birthday. Nice to have the list of occasions for us to follow. Also, Larry and Ginny will have 37 years. I remember her a girl at home. Time goes quickly.

I have to compliment and exclaim about our Photo Editor's expertise. The picture I had sent of Jim and Lyn Sorenson was so dark that the features were hardly recognizable, Jim surely does not look 65 years old. The wall of the house looked like it could use some stain, and you couldn't recognize who was walking in the door. When I see this picture here, it is totally different. How could you lighten it just enough to see all the details, and do a paint job on the house and have it show that it was Roy walking in the back door of our home? You can almost count the buds on the hanging geranium.

What a cute picture of Hunter and his dad! He won't even need a Band-Aid if he falls with all that protective gear on.

Thank you for the hours and hours we never know about that goes into perfecting The Bulletin. It always turns out another successful production.

Betty Droel


CHUCKLES


Photo illustration © Virginia McCorkell; photo by Jennie Horne
Carrie and Ethan Horne bring the ocean to their sandbox.


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Quotation for the day: This is probably the most beautiful week of the year. The petals of the flowering crab blooms have started to drop while the lilacs are just opening for one sensual, scented week of bloom. --Eric Bergeson, Country Scribe

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.


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