Friends

Sunday I saw friends I’ve known since grade school, Sally and Chris.  Besides spending time together in school and at each other’s homes, the three of us were very active in Girl Scouts (thank you, Mrs. Dussel, world’s best Girl Scout leader!) 

Sally was diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis) about 30 years ago. According to the Multiple Sclerosis Society, MS shows up in about 1 in 1,000 people.  Our home town -- a village of 4,500 people -- has well over 30 people with MS, most of them living on or near just a few streets, and Sally has been an activist in trying to find out why there is such a high incidence of the disease.   Her persistence helped determine that contaminants called neurotoxins were released by several now defunct local industries.  Sally said this information probably won’t help those already diagnosed, but it might help our beautiful hometown and the younger people who live there.

As for Chris, in 1969 she went on a first date. Her date -- a man with good instincts -- asked Chris to marry him that very evening.  Chris, a more cautious sort, said no.  Along came date number two; said date asked for Chris’s hand again, and this time Chris said yes.   Her guy, Charlie, happened to be in the Army and within a month of that first date he was also in Vietnam, where he was for 11 months. When Charlie got home he and Chris got married, had three children, and were together until Charlie died unexpectedly two-and-a half-years ago.  

No one story defines a person and that’s certainly true of both Sally and Chris.  Sally, a music lover/musician with a wonderful husband/family/friends, is so much more than her MS.  Chris, who will never get over losing Charlie, is looking for her new normal and planning to move closer to her mom and sisters.  Thank you, Sally and Chris (and your families) for sharing my growing-up years and impacting my life.  Sara, I might not see you this trip, but you know that sentiment is for you, too.

Bev, Sally and Chris on Sally's deck and surrounded by Sally's beautiful yard. The three of us went to grade school, junior high and high school together.

A Tribute in Fabric

When Jim and I were in Lincoln, Nebraska, we visited the International Quilt Museum at the University of Nebraska.   It houses the largest publicly held quilt collection in the world with over 3500 quilts from the early 1700s to present from over 25 countries.  One of the exhibitions featured Nebraska quilts and quilt makers, including engineer and farmer Ernest Height.  When Mr.Height once commented on a quilt’s “lack of exactness,” his wife told him to “keep still” unless he could do better.   He quilted for over 50 years and made over 300 quilts.  

My grandmother was a quilter, too.  Margaret Bring Tran was born in Carlisle Township, Ohio in 1889.  She belonged to a quilting club and may have been making pieces for a future club project of a “flower garden” pattern quilt when she got sick around 1935.  Grandma Tran never finished her quilt because she died in 1937 when my mom was just 17 and my Aunt Helen was 15.  But before she got sick, Grandma Tran hand cut and hand stitched 798 hexagon-shaped quilt pieces from material used to make dresses for my mom and aunt, plus clothing she made for herself.    

My mom said she’s not sure where her mom got the fabric.  There was a store in Grafton, Ohio (where my grandmother, grandfather, mom, aunt and my two uncles lived) that Grandma Tran may have walked to because they did not own a car.  Or, she may have taken the trolley the 12 miles to Elyria.

My mom is not a quilter, but she hung on to those fabric flowers for 60 years.  Encouraged by my brother Don and his wife, Trudy, who live in Lincoln, Mom took the flowers with her when she visited them.  Mom washed each of the flowers by hand, pressed them, and then gave them to Don and Trudy, who in turn asked a Mennonite quilt maker to create a quilt.  From that came a beautiful tribute to my grandmother, Margaret Tran, and her daughters Alice and Helen.

The quilt Margaret Tran never got to finish herself.  Each “flower” of the flower garden consists of one yellow hexagon surrounded by six hexagons of  a complementary solid color.  Circling the solid color are 12 more hexagons made from leftover material from dresses Grandma Tran made from about 1926 to 1933.

My mom with her “Flower Garden” patterned quilt.  The pattern is also known as a hexagon or honey comb quilt, and was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s.  
These two "flowers" are made from similar-patterned dresses worn by my mom and her sister.

These two patterns are from dresses worn by my mom’s mother, Margaret Bring Tran.   Grandma Tran had colon cancer, but it was misdiagnosed and she died in November 1937 at the beginning of my mom’s senior year of high school.

Navigation

$$$$$

Jim says talking about money is unseemly.  Therefore:  Spoiler Alert!  Dollar details follow, so stop right here if information about someone else’s finances makes you squirm. On a more dignified note, there will be no link to our bank account.  

On this first leg of our RV extravaganza, which took us from Salt Lake City, Utah to Wellington, Ohio, we spent a total of $2140 or about $120 per day.  Our biggest expense was gasoline.  No surprise there.  For both our tow car (2004 Honda CRV) and our gas hog of a motor home (2004 Lazy Daze) we spent $1187 or more than half of our  total.  Next was food, at $420.  Camping fees were $252; entertainment (museum fees, a trip to the Omaha Zoo, a state park T-shirt, newspapers, etc) cost $165; repairs, $110;  and then a few dollars for laundry.

$420 for food seems high, but that cost does include the staples I purchased before we left Salt Lake, and we still have most of those.  Gasoline is always a concern; even more concerning is the trend illustrated to us today when we saw a man at a local gas station change his price sign from $3.59 a gallon to $3.75.  One thing that will help with gasoline:  Jim and I decided that we don’t want to travel any more than 150 to 200 miles between stops, and we want to stay at each location at least 3-4 days -- and less time on the road will lower our daily gasoline costs.  On this trip, however, we were in kind of a hurry (if you can call and 18-day drive from Utah to Ohio a “hurry”) because we wanted to get to my mom’s in pretty short order. Other than staying at my brother’s for 3 nights, we didn’t stay anywhere longer than two nights.  

I need a fact checker

We listen to radio news a lot while we drive, and while we were in Iowa the news was All Iowa State Fair All the Time.  (Well, that and the-economy-is-going-to-hell-in-a-hand basket-so-we-hope-you-have-not-just-retired).   I was sure I heard that attendance is about 100,000 annually.

When I got to Ohio, the Lorain County Fair -- held in my hometown of Wellington -- was in full swing.  The fair guide said 131,000 people attended last year.  Now I’m thinking my Iowa State Fair stat must have been off. So I checked the Iowa State Fair web site, and one million people attend each year. So much for my hearing. Maybe I heard 100,000 people ate the new Iowa State Fair taste sensation, fried butter on a stick.  Or that the average fair goer consumes 100,000 calories, which is what I must have had today at the Lorain County Fair.

First, Jim and I shared sweet potato fries. Then I had some of Jim’s elephant ear, which is fried bread dough sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.  Then I had half of a funnel cake, a sweet dough poured through a funnel into hot oil. Then I brought home a true Lorain County Fair specialty:  donuts from the Wellington High School band booth.  In my defense, Jim and I walked six miles today (not including our fairgrounds stroll) but I doubt that counteracted the calories.  

Photo of the Lorain County Fair taken while we were walking at the Wellington Reservoir.  

What's round on the end and high in the middle...

We're in O-H-I-O.  From left to right:  Bev; Bev's brother, Bob; Jim; and Bev's mom.

Bev and her Mom

The farm where Bev grew up.

Our first Lake Erie Perch.  Jim said I can't take any more photos of him.