Picnic

Here are a couple of photos of little Gracie and brother Bradley on a picnic with AK and Angelyn and some friends. The infamous Bluppy the Puppy is enjoying the day in the park too. Anyone know who the mystery couple is?

Happy Birthday Brad!

Angelyn gives baby Brad a squeeze in 1927. Here's a big virtual hug to Uncle Brad on his 81st birthday. The shot below is from 1928. (Click to enlarge)

Roottown School

Chris asks in comments to this post if the building visible in the third picture is the same as the school A.K. and the other Stevens children attended near Fremont, Michigan and which Chris and I, with Mom and Mary, visited in 1996. Below is a picture of the school around 1913 with various Stevens children in the assembly. This photo is also in One of Ten (p. 40). In addition, the Newaygo County Historical Society has a collection of Roottown School pictures which can be found here (enter search word 'roottown'). By the way, in case you don't keep your copy of One of Ten with you at all times as I do, the Newaygo folks have scanned a few of its chapters, including the one describing the school building, for your online reading pleasure. (And did you know you can even buy an extra copy from Amazon!) I do wish the NCHA had given better attribution to the document.


Click to enlarge. The key below will help you find the Stevens children.


Here is a slideshow of our field trip to the Stevens farm. Photos of the school appear near the end.



Browse here. Slideshow on Flickr here.

Bottom line. The building has changed over the years, but it does look like the same one.

Happy Halloween!

This somewhat surreal sequence of photos (numbers on the back) made spooky
by a camera with a light leak, appear to be from our first Halloween in
River Falls in 1965 when the neighborhood was alfalfa fields and constructions sites.
They star Bridget who was still really a pup at that time.
Perhaps they were taken by Chris?

The end of Sunset Lane.

Our house is on the left in the picture above.

Dad at Work

Dad's Office

(Trying to date this photo... looking at the shiny doorknob,
I'm thinking this was taken just as the department moved into the Fine Arts Building - 1972-3 - to 'celebrate' the move, but before Dad rated a window office?)

Gink-gone!

The day after I captured our glorious golden ginkgo at its peak
we had a freeze and...

Charlie Brown tree!
If there was indeed a single moment when this happened we missed it.

Cousins

Little Gracie with cousins Elinor and Gretchen Bouwsma and Uncle Oets.

Great Expectations

We were culling books for various donation piles
and came across this book, a 1910 edition of Great Expectations.

The book belonged to Edward Bouwsma, a gift from Oscar (an uncle?).
Alas, we only have Volume I. I hope no one was left expecting more...

Gink-go!

I know you've all been waiting for a ginkgo tree update (you can see last year's pictures here). I've been waiting for this moment when I could record our little tree in its autumn golden glory.

I haven't experienced a midwestern fall in many years, so I am impressed at how many humble little trees are just sorta there 360-odd days of the year and then for about 48 hours they decide to be stars. Of course our little ginkgo is kinda sparkly all the time but in the picture below you can really see it holding its own amongst all the sugar maples. Those of you who were around for email exchanges about ginkgo lore may recall that the tree is rumored to drop all its leaves at once. So what we need now is a gingko-cam...

Wystan and the Whale

I hope there is a whale of a tale behind this charming picture.
How about it Wystan?

Perhaps David knows?

Brat Fry

This is a little collection of portraits from a brat fry (though no brats are actually featured-- but really, what else would we have been eating?) in Sheboygan summer of 1979. Jim and Jayne appear to be newly engaged? married? Everyone is looking quite jolly.



You can click on the symbol with four arrows to make the slideshow fill the screen or you can browse the set by clicking here or view the slideshow on flickr here

Schoolmates

This photo is from "Aunt Tena's collection" and the note on the back suggests that these might have been her students. In the photo below, Mom thinks the woman in the back on the right smiling proudly may be Tena [Stevens]. The other ragamuffin photos provide no clues to their origin, but perhaps they belonged to the same collection? Additional insights appreciated! (Remember to click to enlarge!)

With Bob at 4 Marshall Court

Mom, Robert Haan and little Christopher at 4 Marshall Court.

Bailout Nostalgia

Here's a snap I took of a distressed taxpayer in front of the
Lincoln Savings and Loan in my
Alhambra neighborhood shortly after the 1990 bailout.
(Looking through all the photos of Pete's LA visit,
he sure was one for the goofy poses.)

Headed South

A heron stalks its supper on the Kinnickinnnic. This solitary figure in the wilderness is a little deceptive. We are in "downtown" River Falls and traffic is heavy: to the right of the picture there were a few hundred very noisy geese.

Raking Leaves

A little seasonal fun: Chris and I raking leaves in 1963.

Deer Lake 1967

So I figured out how to embed these little slideshows in the blog! Just click below to see a set of pictures from Deer Lake, summer of 1967. Lots of fish and fisherpersons, but also visits from AK & Angelyn and Robert Haan.



Note that if you roll your mouse over the picture so you can see a little symbol with four arrows and you can click on it, it will expand the slideshow to fill your screen. Or you can view the slideshow here or browse the set here.

Hunting Season

I showed this picture of Grandpa TerMaat to Dad and he was quite surprised. "Never shot a gun in his life!" We speculate, given his formal looking attire that he is posing in front of someone else's prize, possibly his employer's.

Debate!

With debates in the news, I thought I would share these pictures of Connie TerMaat, high school debater.


From the Sheboygan North 1947 yearbook page above, we learn that his senior year he debated for the affirmative- Resolved: That the federal government should provide a system of medical care available to all citizens at public expense. They tied for third place at the Wisconsin Forensic League District Tournament and for fifth place at the National Forensic District Conference.

Below we see Connie TerMaat, debate coach in 1953 at Grand Rapids Christian High.


His debaters are listed as D. Monsma, A. Bos, L. Plantinga and B. Jeltema with S. Monsma and R. Baker in the back. They debated - Resolved: that the Atlantic Pact Nations Should Form a Federal Union. They had a 10-18 record but the yearbook explains that they debated against more experienced teams in state competition.

Here's a picture from the Grand Rapids Christian High 1953 yearbook of Dad as high school teacher. Or some bad imposter as it looks nothing like him. I'm sure the "Use your hands" quote is a reference to debating.

The Chimes

I decided to do a little musty archival research into the box of old Calvin Chimes newspapers that is in our basement. This article with photo from spring 1950 announces Robert Haan's appointment as editor of the Chimes. It details his grandfather and father's history with the paper. Click on the photos to enlarge.

Here is Robert's first editorial, a peptalk for returning students in the fall of 1950. I find his opening paragraph about not knowing how to stay busy over summer vacation very amusing considering the post below about his ability to make my vacations very memorable. Again click on the photo to enlarge and read.

(This bit just lets you see the part I couldn't capture in the first scan.)

Dad was on the staff of the Chimes too, as a member of the 'Policy Committee'. (Mom says that's another word for 'crony'.) Here's an editorial by Dad which stood out because the references at the beginning to the newly formed United Nations and the Korean war give it a little more historical context outside church and school matters than do many of the others I've skimmed.