Last of a Generation

I grew up in Los Angeles. Southern California was filled with Aunts & Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents and a huge group of friends who all were like family. We spent lots of time together: barbeques, picnics, beach trips, camping trips, visiting back and forth in each other's homes. There were weddings and parties and holidays and school performances filled with relatives. Growing up I had no idea how blessed we were to have such a hord of relations. My Aunt Betty (Brenda Elizabeth) and Uncle Bill and Cousin Bob lived directly across the street on our cul-de-sac. We were all not only friends, but family. And if you weren't actually blood relatives it really didn't matter.

Aunt Lulu (Lucianna) and Uncle Paul lived in Lawndale just a stone's throw from our house. Although all of their children had been born in Illinois by the time I knew them they were Southern Californians. They had the very first color TV in the family (years before my folks got one) and I remember watching the Rose Parade one New Year's Day at their house. There must have been 60 people crammed into their living room all oohing and ahhing over this small, nearly circular screened TV and saying that the green faces of the hosts "looked so wonderful." We marveled over that color TV.

On Christmas Day their family would come to our house to see what Santa had brought. Their youngest child was four years older than I so now I can see the humor in it all. Uncle Paul always brought a FIVE pound box of See's Candy. We were in heaven!

Here's a picture of the Clacks: Aunt Lulu, Carolyn (about 6 or 7 in this photo), Uncle Paul, Kenny (16) and Eddy (14). I don't know if Peggy was already in college, but she's not in the photo. They are standing in our driveway in Los Angeles. As you can see the house across the way isn't quite finished yet. I was two and a half when we moved into this house (my very first memory is being entrusted with holding a lamp on the way to moving into the house).

Why are we walking down memory lane? Aunt Lulu, my father's oldest sister passed on last month at age 96. She still drove (and drove well!) up until just a couple of months before she passed on. She had the blackest hair, and when she smiled her eyes sparkled. Her laugh was a tinkling sound. And she laughed liberally throughout her life.

Uncle Paul was a Jack LaLane follower. He took vitamins and supplements and worked out in a gym. He didn't laugh, he chuckled. He was always throwing children up in the air and catching them (except the one time he dropped my brother Pat!). He loved to fake punch people in the stomach and then ask them to hit him hard in return. He was proud that you could never hurt him when you punched. His entire face scrunched up into one big grin when he smiled.

I got a call yesterday that Uncle Paul had passed away. I think he was 98. I last saw them when Dad married Willie in Bement, IL, the old home town. They had moved back many years before. Uncle Paul's dementia was showing some then and just over a year ago he'd moved into a specialize care center. The last time I saw him though, Uncle Paul made a muscle and then asked me to hit him in the stomach! His grin was huge and he hugged me hard.

And so, the last of a generation has passed. My cousins, my brothers and I are the older generation now. I remember how I couldn't wait until I got to sit at the grown-up table on holidays and when I finally got there I realized it was more fun at the kid table. I don't know if I'm ready for to be the older generation....sometimes I'd rather be a kid.

Family

Family---you gotta love family!

My Uncle Walt turned 90 last week. Here's a picture of him taken at his party on Sunday. No, really...this IS Uncle Walt. Does he ride Harley's? I doubt it. Does he usually dress like this? No, I don't think so. He always says to me, "How's my niece doing?" I think it's because he can't remember my name! He loves me, but sometimes he has other things on his mind. Uncle Walt was a teacher and counselor at Redlands High School (from which I graduated in 1970) , a teacher at San Bernardino Valley College (graduation: 1972) and ran the Walt Anderson Swim School teaching hundreds of Southern Californian kids to swim. he also coached swimmers and some of them made it to the Olympics. Congratulations Uncle Walt, Happy 90th Birthday!

Friday evening my Dad and his lovely wife, Willa Mae, arrived for a quickie visit. They had spent a week in Central Oregon on holiday. they took a long lunchtime visit with my brother in Eugene and then made a very quick trip to Eureka. Dinner and an early evening full of catching up.

Saturday we packed a ton of fun into the day. We went to Costco and filled up our carts with giant packs of stuff...TP, paper towels, flats of water & soda, huge bag of vegetable chips, steaks, peppers, lettuce....they have it all at Costco and in mega-quantities only. I caught this picture of Sydney and Great Grandma Willie in the parking lot. I thought it was sweet.

We hit the recycling center and then off to Sequoia Park. This is a city park just down the street from our house. The neatest thing about this park is that it is a little forest in the center of town. The road through the park winds around and down into a ravine with a duck pond at the bottom.

When my girls were smaller we often took a bunch of old bread to feed the ducks in the pond. What great memories......and now we occasionally take Sydney to feed those ducks. On Saturday, Liz, Sydney and I took Dad and Willie. We had a bag of bread and found some buns left by earlier feeders. Currently there are about 9 male mallards and 1 female and one goose. The goose didn't come over from the little island in the center of the pond but the mallards were eager eaters. Willie kept throwing to the female....she felt that the "boys" were eating more than their share.

We had a wonderful barbecue for dinner: fillets, grilled mushrooms & red peppers and green salad. I wish I had taken a picture of the awesome Strawberry Shortcake Liz made for dessert. Yum!

After dinner we played cards....it wouldn't be a visit without a game of Shanghai Rummy.

Great-grandpa had a chance to chat with Jakob & Sadies when we Skyped to Minnesota. They were excited as they hadn't seen him since February.

But the visit was over and on Sunday morning Dad and Willie drove off....hope to see you soon....love you both!