Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Goodbye, Mr Cook


The serendipitous path

I learned to appreciate nature when in college.
Yesterday on the way home from school,
I crawled under the bridge next to the Penfield gas station
and released two tadpoles into Bennett Branch.
The day before there were over a hundred.
We found them in the Black Moshannon while wading,
then took the hot dogs out of the cooler
and filled it with tadpoles.
The next morning
there were only a handful still swimming;
I must have shocked them when changing their water.
Sadly accepting my tadpole mass murderer status,
I justified it
by thinking that fish would have eaten most of them anyway
and they were fascinating
for my first graders to examine with a hand lens.

Last night for our after-dinner entertainment,
a groundhog scurried to the barn
when Den talked to him,
the first groundhog we've seen in the decades
since the coyotes moved in.
A half hour later
a cheeky red fox
was hopping
and digging
and sniffing the groundhog's trail.

Today after school
Den was out for supper
so there was no reason to hurry home.
My serendipitous path
looked like the dotted lines
that Charles Schulz drew behind Woodstock.
I stopped on the Dubec Road
to pray for Den,
our kids,
my friends,
and the two people that don't like me much.
I zigged down another back road
to look for interesting rocks,
then zagged into the woods
acquiring some "Pennsylvania pinstriping"
by scraping a few branches,
then built a rock stack at the township line.


As I re-entered the jeep I noticed a stand of blue-eyed grass,
Sisyrinchium.
(I have trouble remembering why I entered the room,
but I can remember Latin names learned forty years ago.
Go figure.)
I love plants
and took every botany class Elizabeth Cook offered.
Professor Cook taught me to notice details in flowers,
in foliage,
in seasons,
while her Business Department husband Arnold
drove us on many of our field trips.

Den took a class from Mr Cook,
Educational Media,
and learned to make a colored overhead transparency
when that was the cutting edge of technology.
Mr Cook was perhaps the most patient man on the planet.
He sat with a twinkle in his eye
as the border patrol made us unload
Every Single Thing
en route to a botany class
in Ontario's Bruce Peninsula.
"Plan well
and then be flexible."
We have used the phrase
"I'm being Mr Cook"
many times
when we are struggling to be patient.
He modeled how to persevere with a smile,
hiking trails on painful feet.
He taught us to identify birds
and to find the best restaurants
by checking the parking lots for local license plates.
He went out of his way to take us to Niagara Falls
when he found out we had never been there.
He loved traveling
and sharing destinations with others.
He also could come up with a pun every six seconds.

Upon the Cooks' retirement from Houghton College,
they moved back
to their beloved Cascade Mountains
and continued to travel
as their health allowed.
We visited them a few years ago
in their assisted living apartment
and noticed that,
now in his nineties,
the twinkle was still in Arnold's eye
and puns still sprinkled every topic.

Yesterday we received a letter with a Washington postmark.
"This can't be good,"
I said.
A letter from Mrs Cook confirmed what we had guessed;
Mr Arnold Cook died on May 7.

He will live on when I celebrate our mutual birthday
or when we make a pun,
see a meadowlark,
stub our toes,
find a great breakfast spot,
drive a mountain pass,
remember a Latin name,
...and he also lives on in heaven.

Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 
let us throw off everything that hinders 
and the sin that so easily entangles 
and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Hebrews 12:1 

Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium spp.
 








Saturday, May 23, 2015

Morning. Good.


This morning is a
dip-pretzels-in-the-jelly-jar-breakfast kind of morning,
a coffee-in-the-hot-tub start
uninterrupted by crows discovering a bit of meat in the compost
or by a Siamese alarm clock demanding food.
We watched the shadows shorten,
the frost disappear from the yard,
Twoey waits
a deer venture into the field,
the crazy starling
bring yet another load of sticks
to the downspout.
Shouting didn't deter him.
Twoey the cat
climbed up the twigging
to investigate the possibilities
but soon gave up.
A beautiful-but-frustrated cardinal
Frustrated cardinal
flew from oak to birch
still hoping for a mate.
He has spent the last two weeks
frightening the identical cardinal
who lives in our window reflections.

The Gouger
May is full of good mornings.
Two bent-kneed hours-old fawns
stagger across the dirt road
following their mother.
The rock man we call Gouger
now stands in a fragrant cloud
of wild pinxter.
Nearby,
a red-tailed hawk
glides over the road.
Dubec Road fog
Yesterday
Den squinted at two eagles,
dots in the sky.
Other mornings,
fog obscures all but the closest branches.

Monday morning
was especially good.
We were awakened
Small visitors
by small voices
and then small hugs
as Anna and Lucy spent the night
so that Bop could take them
to see my first grade's performance
of Peter Pan.
Never was Hook so nasty,
Tootles so endearing,
or Pan so enthusiastic!
Before the show,
Velma's bleeding hearts
Peter introduced each classmate
to his hundred-year-old
great great grandmother
who is living proof
that we DO grow up
Heart, bunnies, earrings, ballet shoes, paintbrush
and that life can be a great adventure.

During morning recess yesterday,
Madeline and Lara
ventured into the wetland edges
to gather huge bouquets
of buttercups.
We dissected them for science,
then compared them
to the pink bleeding hearts
in the vase on my desk.
These flowers from along our walk
were transplanted years ago
from Velma Bargerstock's garden.
When Den was a boy,
he'd walk to Velma's for a visit
and a cup of coffee.
She'd pour hot water
through the same grounds all day.
Her bleeding hearts
have been on this mountain
for over a century.
We pull the hearts apart
into bunny slippers,
earrings,
ballet shoes
and a paintbrush.
There is yellow pollen paint
on the paintbrush.
God's creations are amazing.

Peace,
Sue and Denny





Saturday, May 16, 2015

A Peter Pan Quiz



For you adults
that sometimes feel like kids inside,
try to complete these ten quotes from Peter Pan:

1. Boy, why are you _________?

2. You see, Wendy, 
when the very first baby laughed for the very first time, 
its _______ broke into a thousand pieces, 
and that was the beginning of fairies.

3. Mr Darling's response to Wendy 
when she says she doesn't want to leave the nursery 
is "Oh ____________!"

4. Second star to the right, and straight on 'til __________!

5. When in doubt, ______!

6. I'm Nibs. I plan the _______.

7. If you believe in ___________, clap your hands.

8. To _____  will be an awfully big adventure.  

9. Welcome to the ____________, boys!

10. All children grow up, except _______.

Why the interest in Peter Pan?
My first graders are performing it this week.
They have been singing their guts out for weeks.
Pan just lost a tooth
and doesn't really perform,
he pretends.
He becomes Pan,
to the point he has his back to the audience,
whispering to Tinkerbell.
(I use my grandmother's clicker
to remind him
and a few others
that Grandma is sitting in the back
and needs to hear.)
Mr and Mrs Darling
are loving parents
even though Mr D does drag the dog Nana out by her leg.
Their children,
Wendy, John and Michael,
are played by sure-footed children
unafraid to jump from the bench to the radiator
to simulate flight.
The lost boys
and girl
are wild
and charming
and may steal the show.
"I'm Tootles!"
is even better with a lisp.
Princess Tiger Lily is serious
and creative with her dancing.
The pirates are wickedly goofy
and Captain Hook growls out every line.
He is keeping his plastic hook under control backstage--
the threat to make him use a curved finger
seems to be working.
The dramatic battle between Crocodile and Hook
is a fitting finale to Neverland.

The good news is
the play will be wonderful
despite,
or perhaps because of,
whatever mistakes occur.
The bad news is
these performers may never be this cute again.
They will grow adult teeth.
They will become self conscious.
They will grow up.

My advice to you
and you've heard it before:
Treasure.
Each.
Moment.
Well, most of them.

Time flies.

Oh,
and the answers?

1. "Boy, why are you crying?" said Wendy.

2. You see, Wendy,
when the very first baby laughed for the very first time,
its  laugh broke into a  thousand pieces,
and that was the beginning of fairies.

 3. Oh poppycock!

4. Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning!

5. "When in doubt, run!" said Tiger Lily.  

6. I'm Nibs. I plan the battles.

7. If you believe in fairies, clap your hands.

8. To die will be an awfully big adventure.

9. "Welcome to the family, boys!" said Mr Darling.

10. All children grow up,  except one.


...and one last bit of Peter Pan trivia.
Did you know that the name "Wendy"
did not exist before Peter Pan?













Friday, May 8, 2015

Alexander to Zenas: A Clearfield County ABC Celebration of the New Genealogical Center



May 3,  2015
was the grand opening
of the Clearfield County Historical Society's
William B. Alexander V Research Center.
 It was a wonderful day!
After two years of fund-raising
with generous people,
the new building is now available
for genealogical research
on Thursdays
and Sundays
from 1:30-4:30.

If you were not able to attend the grand opening
you may enjoy perusing the following pictures arranged
in ABC order.
If you were able to attend,
perhaps you will see yourself in a picture.

A is for the generous Alexander family. William B. Alexander VI, left, requested that the new facility be named for his father, William B. Alexander V.

A is also for advice.  Trained genealogists are available to offer advice.
B is for books. Many local books are available for purchase.

C is for Clearfield County Historical Society.

C is also for cemeteries, catalogued,

and conversations

and the crazy coconut that reminds us not to accept every donation.
D is for dirt which appears during construction projects.

E is for empty. The room is empty....

F is for full. Now the room is fullFull is better!

F is also for family files

and food

and free magnets and pens

and friends who are like family.

F is also for flags. Turn left to get to the research center.

G is for gravestone. This Aux grave marker was the first in the county.
H is for historical humor.
I is for Indians of Clearfield County

and Italian Immigrants, both books available for sale at the research center.

J is for jobs. Teamwork makes all things easier.

K is for kitchen

...and the wonderful Kurtz family.  Robert Kurtz was the honorary chairman of the capital campaign.

L is for looking. Many people came to look at the new facilities and peruse the desserts.
M is for microfilm machines
and many marvelous sources of family history available in the Kurtz Room.
N is for nine pictures of neighbors and friends. One...
2

3

4
5

6

7

8

...nine!
O is for obituaries.

P is for press and The Progress, a source of great articles.

P is also for pies.

Q is for Quarries...

...and Quehanna, more books available at the research center.


R is for ribbon cutting to officially open the Alexander Research Center.

S is for scissors, huge scissors used in the ribbon cutting.

S is also for storage. There are many books in storage.

T is for tables.

U is for unearthed carriage stone, discovered under the old sidewalk the week that the research center opened.

V is for Van Valzah Avenue, named for the Van Valzah family who lived in the area. The Van Valzahs at one time held the national record for the family with the most physicians.

W is for Woodmobile. The Woodmobile helped celebrate the opening of the research center.

X is for Xerox, though this machine is actually a Sharp. Researchers often make many copies of their findings.

Y is for young visitors.

Z is for Zenas Leonard, a Clearfielder who left for a grand adventure in the west.

Zenas had grand adventures
and an interesting life.
If you are interested in learning about your ancestors' interesting lives,
perhaps some answers are waiting for you
at the Clearfield County Historical Society's
William B. Alexander V Research Center.

PS. Interested in a memory challenge?
How many terms from this ABC presentation can you remember?