Granny's Blog

This entry describes Not Your Ordinary BSA Order of the Arrow ceremony.

 This weekend 09-26-09 some 40 youth and 15 adults gathered at Will Rogers Scout Reservation near Cleveland,Oklahoma for a OA weekend filled with service projects and fellowship.  Saturday evening`s ceremony near the boat pond started out as others do except for the 7 in attendance in street clothes rather than Boy Scout uniform.  It quickly turned into a Memorial for a recently deceased  OA member.  This was to fulfill his last wishes.  Three adults eulogized his days in scouting telling of his love for fishing and teaching boys to fish at this very pond.  He had carved the large Indian totem poles in the background.  Each symbol had it`s own meaning.  Then per his wishes part of his ashes were shot over the pond from a cannon used in ceremonies.  The rest were distributed among those wanting to help scatter them.  I wondered what the younger boys thought of this as most participated.  Thus Richard Gode`s ashes remain for all eternity at the place he loved-Boy Scout Camp.  It was, to say the least, a very unusual but meaningful service!!

This year`s Granny`s Pool Party was graciously hosted by Marty and Maddie and their 3 girls and their families at their home in Quitman, Texas.
We gathered at the Mineola, Texas Best Western Friday Evening.  Maddie had Taco Salads with all the trimmings waiting for us.
Many of the group arose at the ungodly hour of 4:00 am to go on a guided fishing trip.  Funtime had by all and I think a total of 78 fish were landed.  The afternoon was spent eating all sorts of smoked meats compliments of Marty`s cooking skills, celebrating Karen and Sarah`s 29th birthdays AGAIN, nonstop swimming, visiting , and just hanging out catching up.  At dark we were treated to a belated fireworks show that rivaled many a city shows.
Sunday saw some departing early and the rest back to Marty`s for fishfry and cake to celebrate Marty and Maddie`s 35th wedding anniversary.  Their bestman and matron of honor were able to join us.  Interestingly no one could remember the time they married.. They just lined up at the courthouse for their turn.  One last swim before everyone but Josh left for home.  Josh was having a car problem so he stayed over until Monday morning.  Christina and Noah were picked up by some friends that just happened to be visiting in Mineola.  Myra came back to Oklahoma with Kennedy for a visit.  I believe 42 family members gathered in Quitman to carry on Mother`s Pool Party tradition.  She would be so proud.
P.S.  As I wrote this I remembered I did not do a writeup on our great time in Ensign, Kansas with Duce and Becky last year.  Maybe later!!

This is a bit of a sad PS to an earlier post.  Wesley Davis, 80 something, and bride of a year are now divorced.  Not privilege to the whys but he is reportedly looking for a new mate.  Maybe she was looking for fortune after all.

On this Mother`s Day I will write about a Mother of long ago.

I saw a documentary on Ellis Island recently that may explain what happened to Peter Balk`s wife, Theres, upon arrival in America.  Family stories told she was very sick when they arrived.  The documentary was giving a tour of  the buildings on Ellis Island.  The baggage room was on the lower level.  They left belongings there and were sent to the receiving room.  It was a large room that would have been packed with tired, anxious people speaking many languages.  The people were funneled upstairs into interview rooms where it was determined if the immigrants were well physically and mentally.  Doctors stood at the top of the stairs to watch for physical disabilities.  Then they were screened to see if they had enough money (about $20) to make a start in the new world.  They were then directed to a set of 3 parallel stairwells down.  One allowed individuals to get a train ticket West, one allowed those sent to it to stay in the New York area, and the last was to the dreaded hospital where sick ones were tested to see if they had curable or noncurable ailments.  Those with noncurable diseases were sent back to their native land at the cost to the steamship that brought them.  That was only about 2 per cent.  I guess curable ones were allowed to recover in the hospital.  At the bottom of the stairs were doors to a room where people were joyfully united with family members or sadly realized that a family member did not appear healthy enough to join them. Evidently Peter, Joseph, and halfsister Anna Mary Kruezer had the $20 and were given train tickets West for they settled in Nebraska.  I can only speculate on Theres.  She was ill, about 49 years of age, had borne 6 of her 7 children in a bit under 8 years, buried 5 of them death do to typhoid.  We do not know her ailments.  I read from another source that it might be something as simple as body lice that detained them.  Did she have to go back and possibly did not survive the trip or die at Ellis Island.  I can only imagine the sadness of having to leave wife and mother there on the island.  I am sure she as any mother would want them to make a better life for themselves.  It is no wonder they never spoke much of life before.  I have heard Peter went back to Germany several times.  WHY?  Did he not want citizenship early because he could not freely go back and forth?  He would have had to renounce forever fidelity to reigning William II Emporer of Germany at the time.  I know Aunt Margaret, Joseph`s oldest living daughter, was not thrilled at the thought of Ernie going to visit Germany in the last couple decades.  She feared what he might find.

Too many questions.  No answers yet.

There was a phrase coined during the Great Depression or Dirty Thirties that might be relevant today during our current recession.  May I stress I did not live during the 30`s but remember my mother sometimes mentioning the phrase that went like this:

“Use it up. wear it out, make it do, or do without!”

I am optimistic that our current recession will never reach the depths of the Great Depression which was worsened by a lingering drought that made it nearly impossible to live off the land.  But the phrase brought back memories when I ran across it in a magazine.

After I retired from keeping Jett full-time, I found a new hobby.  The first week in March an article ran in our local paper about an organization that sews and donates colorful pillowcases to children`s hospitals across the country.  OKC hospital uses about 350 a month.  Terminally ill children get to choose a pillowcase to use and then take home with them.  The bright colors cheer those white sheets of the hospital.  I thought I can do that.  I pulled out all my cotton remnants and some I had brought home from Mother`s stash.  I threw them out on the table.  It was almost addictive seeing the pretty colors.  They seemed to pair themselves.  I use 2 different fabrics on each case.  The oddest combinations make striking cases.  For example, I paired a blue paisley with a tiny green dot and used orange stitching.  Beautiful!  One donated piece almost wasn`t given to me because the donor thought it too ugly.  I must say it is a kind of ugly pink and green flower.  I paired it with a tiny kelly green check.  The donor couldn`t believe the pleasing results.  I had enough fabric to make a dozen or so.  Becky and Karen brought me enough on Sister`s Date for another dozen.  A huge sack of fabric appeared at church one morning.  I`ve emptied all my and Mother`s spools of thread.  I even convinced Bill to buy me new machine with pretty stitching.  Our consignment shop happened to have a couple bins of new fabric that was not selling so I purchase some fabric from them at a bit of a discount.  I keep saying I won`t buy anymore fabric then the fabric section in Wal-mart lures me back.  I am in a small way stimulating the economy in the current “recession”.

My original goal was 52-one per week.  I have to date  turned in 80, have a dozen more finished to be turned in, and more fabric on the table.  I must say it is a most enjoyable addiction!!!   

On this snowy day I will recall a few of the funny things during my kids` early childhood.  One I remember for Nate was when we were moving from the apartment in the converted nursing home to our house on 1st Ave. I was trying to explain to him about the room in our new house for our car.  He looked at me and replied, “You mean a garage?”  He was not quite 3 and a man of few words.  He was social and busy visiting the neighborhood when we lived in apartments in the summers when Bill attended summer school.
At this same home, Angie a preschooler and a friendly gadabout, proceeded to polish her sandals with white polish while wearing them.  Her feet were as white as her shoes.  She then went across the street to visit LT Case.   He asked if she polished her own shoes.  She replied “You ask too many questions.”  I sometimes helped with school parties.  Angie`s 1st grade teacher was leery to have me chair a party but on party day I just carried and directed the 3 younger ones to a side of the room and sat them in a row while I did my party duties.  She was amazed a 3, 2, and 1 year old could behave so well.
Mother always thought Angie and Nate might be ADHD and need medication until she watched Chad and Chris and their busyness.
Sarah was also a gadabout.  That is one reason we built in the country to keep her home.  She tried jumping rope at 3.  I often walked the 6-7 blocks to get Sarah from morning Kindergarten.  She was always mad when she saw me with the stroller instead of the car.  Neighbor and classmate, Shellie Carroll, was mad because her mother wouldn`t walk her home.
The kids were all out in the garden one day.  I was watching while I folded clothes in the house.  In horror I saw Nate accidentally whack Angie over the head with a hoe.  She had a pretty good gash but only yelled “I`m going to tell Mom.”
Anna was always little and quiet.  She crawled into her highchair every time anyone got a snack.  With the many of us she might eat 6-8 times a day.  For a couple of years she and Josh slept together in the bottom trundle bed.   I had to get her to sleep before Josh because she told me ,” Josh  wiggles too much.”  When I went to enroll her in Kindergarten I remember her measuring herself to other children to see if she was as tall as anyone.
Josh the academic one would quiz me on my math facts after morning Kindergarten just to see if I knew them.  He was a bit bewildered when in 1st grade they tried to make him count things to add them.  He would busily write letters in preschool while I made CCD lesson plans.  When he received a world globe for a gift he replied, ” I always wanted to know (I don`t remember which country) was.”  He enjoyed trucks and army men also.  One day he tied his favorite action figure to a helium balloon and watched dumbfounded as it flew into the wild blue yonder.
One memory I have of all the kids was when I taught CCD,  I was to have a party with all grades.  Refreshments were no problem-cookies and punch.  Games was another story.  I came unprepared.  Not knowing what to expect I divided the kids by birth months into about 4 groups.  They came out about even with a mix of ages and sexes.  Each group rose to the challenge and came up with a game for all to play.  The kids were surprisingly inventive and the group felt the party a great one.  Party saved by a bunch of smart kids.
These were busy times and passed so quickly.

The sisters started what I hope is a yearly tradition-Sisters Date.  We met at Texas Roadhouse in Witchita,Kansas Saturday February 28 for 24 hours of nonstop catching up.  It is a fairly central location for everyone.  The guys were invited to help drive.  We did an afternoon of antique shopping.  I found some of my everyday things there.  Later Becky was determined I would get some Sketchers shoes like her and Karen`s.  They are incredibly comfortable but dressy enough to wear lots of places.  I found the right size but not color so will keep looking.  We took hamburgers back to the room.  I got a lesson there when we ordered.  Wendy`s offers a Senior discount.

  Becky reported on her trip to Uncle Ernie Balk`s near San Antonio and brought me copies of family documents.  Most are in German so maybe Josh can translate for me.  Ernie told her a couple comical stories.  One was, Ernie and Mary Ellen have a hot tub with swimsuits optional rule.  When Aunt Margaret visited in recent years she presented herself to the hot tub early one morning in the buff.  She is now 96 years of age.  Dad can`t get past the swim suits optional.  May I clarify it`s couples only not a big party.  He also told of meeting Amelia Earhart when she had plane trouble and landed in the pasture across from their Bison home.  Hope to ask him more about that later.

Think we started something at Big Granny`s funeral by letting the Great Grands tuck her in.  They did the same at Chad`s father-in-law`s funeral.  They actually picked a number to see who could push the button to lower the casket.

Sunday morning we went to a large church in Goddard.  We looked around and missed Phil.  Here he came in vested with the priest.  We didn`t get to hear him give a sermon but saw him in some action.  Afterwards we headed home with thoughts of our Quitman reunion in July and plans forming in our heads for next year.

I actually only have one cradle born Catholic grandparent.  I did not know Grandpa Joesph Balk born September 20, 1874 in Altschneeberg but he as a teen with his parents, Peter and Theres Kreuzer  married January 8, 1874 in Tiefenbach, Bavaria brought the faith to New York on a ship named Hamburg Package Seaman August 28, 1889. He was the only one of  6 siblings to survive to adulthood.  I understand the others died of typhoid.  His siblings included those with very German sounding names of Franziska lived from January 1, 1876-February 8 1876, Magdalena February 9, 1877-May 25,1880, Katharina May 18,1879-June 11, 1879, Michael May 3,1880-May 27,1880 and Ludwig April 1,1882- May 8, 1882.  Interestingly Peter`s parents` names were Michael and Barbara.  Joseph did have a half sister, Anna Mary Kreuzer, that traveled with them.  We do not know if their mother Theres was married to a Mr. Kreuzer or if that was her maiden name.  We also do not know where Theres died and is buried.  She did arrive in New York but was reportedly very ill so possibly died in New York.  We think Joseph, Peter, and Anna Mary took jobs West to Nebraska..  Anna Mary was nearly grown and married in the Lindsay, Nebraska area to a Mr. Hoegerel.  They were parents to a daughter that became a nun.  I`m not sure of other children.  Anna Mary is buried in the Catholic cemetery in Lindsay, Nebraska.
Fast forward to the land run into Oklahoma.  The ever curious men Peter and Joseph made it and settled in Garfield county.  Joseph eventually married Mildred Grace Rudd in a civil ceremony.  She was pregnant with 2nd or 3rd child when the marriage was blessed in the Catholic Church in Bison.  The family after that was pretty active in church affairs.  The children were instructed and received the sacraments, some attended Catholic school part time, and when the church was built a stained glass window was bought in honor of Peter.  When the church was replaced my cousin Tommy Rogers was able to buy that window and had it made into a lovely mantle piece.  Joseph lost 5 baby siblings, his mother at an early age, faced uncertainty in a new world, reared 9 children, received word of his father Peter being killed in Germany by a stray bullet during WWI, endured the tribulations of the Great Depression, buried a son prematurely etc. without losing his faith.  Alto he was fluent in English he reportedly prayed in German.  He attended Holy Day Mass on New year`s Day in about 1940 and came home to suffer a massive heart attack and died. 
All in all I think my own Dad felt his greatest legacy to me was the Catholic faith.  It has carried many family members through many a trying time.  One footnote-Mother and Dad began going to church regularly when Karen at age 9 asked why they didn`t go to Sunday School like her friends.
P.S.  Most of the names and dates were given to me by Uncle Ernie Balk.  He has visited the towns and church in Germany.  The house the Balks lived in Germany still stands and is used for a storage barn.