"Date of birth?" "Seven, twelve, fifty-one." I quoted this phrase so many times throughout the final five years of my husband's life that sometimes I automatically started to say that instead of "Nine, sixteen, fifty-eight" when asked for my own date of birth. I would often be the "spokesperson" when we would be at his …
"Panda!" Foster exclaimed. "How did you get down there?" "Well, I'm not positive," I replied, trying not to sound irritated. "But I think it's safe to say somebody pushed me off the chair." "Aww, I'm sorry buddy," Foster replied sheepishly. "I didn't realize I was taking up the whole chair. Are you okay?" "Umm..." I …
My father was a man of many talents, as well as many interests. Recently, his antique bottle collection has found its way to me. What you are looking at here is a very small sampling of the bottles I now have at my house. When I was little, my dad and my uncles used to …
Newspapers From the Past, Part 2 This is Stengrim and Charlotte Detlie, in a photo I can only guess is from the 1920s. You've seen their wedding photo in "Daddy and Some Babies" and "The Rest is History". Charlotte was my Grandma Edla Johnson's mother, and Stengrim was her stepfather. Edla's father Nels Nelson was …
It has occurred to me since I wrote "Just Add Water", Parts 1, 2, and 3, (which mainly focused on my "garden sphere experiments"), that this title would work just as well for a post about the back yard plants. Yes, I have realized that if you want plants to grow properly, you have to …
"So, Panda, do you mind telling me where you've been all afternoon?" I admit I was a little surprised that Foster would even ask that. I hadn't thought he would notice I was gone. "Well," I began calmly, unruffled by this untoward interrogation. "I was at Fig Garden with Mom and Aunt Gail." "Seriously?" Foster …
So I decided to search "Christmas in Doulaincourt 1918"... At first I was excited to see the name Theodore Lenz in the first result that came up. Hey! Somebody else wrote about Theodore Lenz? This is too cool, I thought. I'm going to learn something more about one of Grandpa Johnson's army buddies. I was …
Grandpa's Book, Part 2 You may remember that at the end of "The Forgotten Bandsmen", I said there were interesting stories about quite a few members of the Augustana Band/123rd Field Artillery. Some of the stories are kind of humorous, like the one about draftee Frank Vasco, who refused to be told when to use …
If you've read "I Found a Tree", you'll recognize this picture. It's the bottlebrush tree that has been in my yard since 1992. It's the same tree, you remember, that was overtaken by volunteer bushes, which turned into trees under our very noses. For more info on this, see "A Bush Grows in Fresno". So …
"Grandpa's Book" Part 1 Most people in my family know that our grandfather, Emil Johnson, was a band corporal during World War 1, and that based on his letters, he was a prolific writer. Perhaps as a result of having been a reporter for the Ludington Daily News as a young man, he most often …