Sunday, August 15, 2004
A FEW HIGHLIGHTS OF '71....
Now that I have given the outline for 1971 I will go back and fill in some of the blanks. Some favorite family stories need to be told. Before we moved to Willow Springs in August we decided to drive out to Seattle with mom and dad. John went with us and Becky planned to fly out once we were there. She and DiDi were working at Lake View yet so they wanted to come together. I thought it was a good idea that Becky have someone along with her……so the plans were made. The way it all began, mom and dad drove with their camper and we drove our Plymouth sedan out. John rode with us. We would meet the girls at Sea-Tac once we arrived in Seattle.
I loved going West again. I love the wide open spaces and can readily see why the cowboys couldn’t give up their way of life until they were no longer able to keep up. There is something about the bigness and grandeur that won’t let you go. I was also anxious to get to Seattle because I’d never been to Louis and Gail’s home after they moved from Milwaukee. Mom and dad told me so much about it the only thing left to do was go see for myself. Warren enjoyed travel and didn’t blink an eye about going.
They had a nice bungalow home on Lake Washington. They bought it from the next door neighbor whose parents had built the home during the war years. It used to be their cabin on Lake Washington and when the heat got too bad in Seattle they would spend time there, across from Mercier Island. It was stucco exterior and just a pretty house with a lot of character. Their many windows looked out on the lake and a dock was their front yard. I couldn’t get enough of the view. When it was clear we could see Mt. Rainier from their side yard……absolutely beautiful in her white coat of snow. She glistened like a diamond.
To the West we could see the Olympic Range, to the East were the Cascades. Mt. Rainier was south and east of Renton, where their home was. Warren and I went to pick Becky and DiDi up at the airport and we were finally all together. Some friends of Louis and Gail’s were on vacation and lived nearby so the girls stayed in their home at night. We were all present and accounted for.
Of course the first order of business was to see Mt. Rainier so we set out to do that. The drive to her was as noteworthy as she is. We passed old logging trails, some that weren’t so old with logging trucks zooming past us and witnessed abundant wild-life. There were small waterfalls where the ice was melting above and finding it’s way down to the lower elevations. The lush green of all types of conifers and the abundance of water flowing coaxed ferns and moss to grow everywhere.
We finally made it to the highest point and spent time just enjoying the scene laid out before us. We drove through a cleared wall of snow to arrive at the Visitor Center…..it was odd to see that much snow in July but at that elevation…..not unusual. We took lots of pictures and in seeing them I can almost smell and feel the scene in each one. Louis and Gail had to work part of our visit so they weren’t along this particular day. On the way down we spotted a nice chalet type restaurant so we stopped for pie and coffee. It had been cold on top of Rainier but now it was warming up as we came down her slope.
The next day we were just going to stay around the house so John wanted to go fish on the lake. Dad didn’t think he could handle the dingy Louis had and he didn’t want to get on the lake with such a little boat so Warren and I told him we’d go out with him. Louis gave us explicit directions before leaving for work…..what TO do and what NOT to do. We were not giving the instructions enough of our respect or attention. I had just finished spending an hour washing, drying and fixing my hair (I wore a French Roll in those days) and stepped gingerly into the boat wearing my prettiest pale blue pants suit. I looked more like I was going to an English Tea rather than a fishing expedition but…..hey….what did I know??
Mom, dad and Gail were standing in the yard near the edge of the seawall. John was seated in back where the motor was and Warren was in the bow. When I got in the middle, we were ready to go. John, according to directions, began pulling the rope on the motor without much luck. He was adjusting the carburetor and dad was giving him instructions when Warren reached out to push us away from the seawall. Quicker than you could wink your eye we did a flip and were in the water. Well, I imagine it was a lot funnier watching than it was to be dunked. I came up out of the water with a look on my face that could kill…..my hair was ruined. My suit was all wet!! With most of the weight being in the bow when he reached out and gave a hearty shove the results were predictable.
The three of us splashed enough water to sink a battleship. After all the stories Louis told about hapless fishermen who didn’t know what they were doing and went to the bottom with their boat I was a believer. He and Dad had talked about the depth of the lake and it was too deep to want to disappear in. Finally, we wore ourselves down to the point our feet touched the bottom. One by one we all stood up in the water with our feet on lake bottom and looked around kind of silly. My poor dad was laughing so hard he couldn’t stand up and mom and Gail decided it was safe to laugh along so there they stood with tears running down their faces while we stood in water up to our necks.
Dad got his composure enough to yell at John to get the boat up out of the water….the boat nor the motor had ever been in the water before. They were brand new and he began to think about Louis coming home and seeing his equipment ruined. Between John and Warren, with dad giving advice from above, they managed to upright the dingy and get it over to the dock. Dad and Warren did what they could to redeem the motor and John and I dried off. It was one of those “I Love Lucy” moments that was a little too real…..but what the heck……it made for a lot of mileage to tell and re-tell over the years. Anytime the subject came up dad would have to go into it all again…….and laugh just as hard………
More about ‘71 tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
I loved going West again. I love the wide open spaces and can readily see why the cowboys couldn’t give up their way of life until they were no longer able to keep up. There is something about the bigness and grandeur that won’t let you go. I was also anxious to get to Seattle because I’d never been to Louis and Gail’s home after they moved from Milwaukee. Mom and dad told me so much about it the only thing left to do was go see for myself. Warren enjoyed travel and didn’t blink an eye about going.
They had a nice bungalow home on Lake Washington. They bought it from the next door neighbor whose parents had built the home during the war years. It used to be their cabin on Lake Washington and when the heat got too bad in Seattle they would spend time there, across from Mercier Island. It was stucco exterior and just a pretty house with a lot of character. Their many windows looked out on the lake and a dock was their front yard. I couldn’t get enough of the view. When it was clear we could see Mt. Rainier from their side yard……absolutely beautiful in her white coat of snow. She glistened like a diamond.
To the West we could see the Olympic Range, to the East were the Cascades. Mt. Rainier was south and east of Renton, where their home was. Warren and I went to pick Becky and DiDi up at the airport and we were finally all together. Some friends of Louis and Gail’s were on vacation and lived nearby so the girls stayed in their home at night. We were all present and accounted for.
Of course the first order of business was to see Mt. Rainier so we set out to do that. The drive to her was as noteworthy as she is. We passed old logging trails, some that weren’t so old with logging trucks zooming past us and witnessed abundant wild-life. There were small waterfalls where the ice was melting above and finding it’s way down to the lower elevations. The lush green of all types of conifers and the abundance of water flowing coaxed ferns and moss to grow everywhere.
We finally made it to the highest point and spent time just enjoying the scene laid out before us. We drove through a cleared wall of snow to arrive at the Visitor Center…..it was odd to see that much snow in July but at that elevation…..not unusual. We took lots of pictures and in seeing them I can almost smell and feel the scene in each one. Louis and Gail had to work part of our visit so they weren’t along this particular day. On the way down we spotted a nice chalet type restaurant so we stopped for pie and coffee. It had been cold on top of Rainier but now it was warming up as we came down her slope.
The next day we were just going to stay around the house so John wanted to go fish on the lake. Dad didn’t think he could handle the dingy Louis had and he didn’t want to get on the lake with such a little boat so Warren and I told him we’d go out with him. Louis gave us explicit directions before leaving for work…..what TO do and what NOT to do. We were not giving the instructions enough of our respect or attention. I had just finished spending an hour washing, drying and fixing my hair (I wore a French Roll in those days) and stepped gingerly into the boat wearing my prettiest pale blue pants suit. I looked more like I was going to an English Tea rather than a fishing expedition but…..hey….what did I know??
Mom, dad and Gail were standing in the yard near the edge of the seawall. John was seated in back where the motor was and Warren was in the bow. When I got in the middle, we were ready to go. John, according to directions, began pulling the rope on the motor without much luck. He was adjusting the carburetor and dad was giving him instructions when Warren reached out to push us away from the seawall. Quicker than you could wink your eye we did a flip and were in the water. Well, I imagine it was a lot funnier watching than it was to be dunked. I came up out of the water with a look on my face that could kill…..my hair was ruined. My suit was all wet!! With most of the weight being in the bow when he reached out and gave a hearty shove the results were predictable.
The three of us splashed enough water to sink a battleship. After all the stories Louis told about hapless fishermen who didn’t know what they were doing and went to the bottom with their boat I was a believer. He and Dad had talked about the depth of the lake and it was too deep to want to disappear in. Finally, we wore ourselves down to the point our feet touched the bottom. One by one we all stood up in the water with our feet on lake bottom and looked around kind of silly. My poor dad was laughing so hard he couldn’t stand up and mom and Gail decided it was safe to laugh along so there they stood with tears running down their faces while we stood in water up to our necks.
Dad got his composure enough to yell at John to get the boat up out of the water….the boat nor the motor had ever been in the water before. They were brand new and he began to think about Louis coming home and seeing his equipment ruined. Between John and Warren, with dad giving advice from above, they managed to upright the dingy and get it over to the dock. Dad and Warren did what they could to redeem the motor and John and I dried off. It was one of those “I Love Lucy” moments that was a little too real…..but what the heck……it made for a lot of mileage to tell and re-tell over the years. Anytime the subject came up dad would have to go into it all again…….and laugh just as hard………
More about ‘71 tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
