Lost and Found

Found -- one well-traveled Nikon Coolpix camera.  Contact Rita at

rrshaefer@comcast.net

to claim.

Sample of camera ---------->






I can't speak for anyone but myself -- I had a great time at the reunion,

Photographer will contact me in about 10 days with a web address where the proofs can be found. 

Last Minute Details

What was promised?

When I read the brochure that invited Gaylords to the family reunion I saw that the compiling of a booklet commemorating the event will be made and available at a later date.

Somehow, that promise slipped my memory as the months passed.  Let us know on August 3rd if you are interested in such a document -- I'll follow through if anyone wants me to.  However, I suspect we (the planning committee) were being overly ambitious when we suggested it.




Please Note:  Our plans to have an award winning photographer onsite had to be abandoned.

HOWEVER -- we hired a local professional photographer to document our event.

He will be at the park at 1:30 to take a group photo as well as individual family sittings.  He will post his work on a website for us to select the ones we want to purchase directly from him.

Personally, I'm looking forward to having photos of all three of our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren taken.  We've never all been in one place at one time before so it's a special occasion for the Shaefer twig of the family tree.

I hope that this will be a fun opportunity for you, too.


Exchanging of who is who

I've been looking through the collection of photos and data that my mother had and have found lots of empty spaces where dates of the birth of cousins should be.  I'm looking forward to filling in those spaces with the information you provide.

Two ways to share your information:

1)  Type up a page (or two or three) to share

2)  Wait until August 3rd and fill out a questionnaire on the spot

If you're like me, coming up with the exact dates and full names of people can be taxing for my brain.  I'd rather have it already at hand -- created in my leisure and where I can cheat and look up the information from a reliable source.

WHAT SHOULD I WRITE???

1)  Who are you?  Who are your parents and your siblings? Who are the significant others in your life?  Who are your offspring?  People are always interested in birth dates and places.

2)  Where have you been?  Have you traveled?  Have an interesting occupation?  Hobbies?  Awards? A cause that you are passionate about?  Has something unusual happened to you?

Write as much or as little as you want. 

Don't forget ---

I apologize for repeating myself here but if any of you have photos that were taken during the road trip Shirley, Warren and Stan took back to their home in Otter Tail County Minnesota I would love to see them. 

Any other photos of your family that you want to bring will be greatly welcomed.

See past post for more information -- click here.

Fun, food, games and auction

The caterer has been bringing over samples of the food and we can promise it will be good.


Pack those bags, load up the kids and we'll see you very soon.

If time allows . . .

If you have the time to explore the Olympia area here are some fun things to do.  The Farmer's Market offers local produce, music and crafts.  Plus all the great food vendors that sell a variety of meals to eat on-site as well.

If getting close to Mother Nature is something that interests you the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge offers beautiful scenery, great walking paths and wild birds galore to see.

Of course, there is always the capitol building and the surrounding gardens.

 

Busy, Busy, Busy

Your planning committee is firming up the details for our gathering -- only 2 months away.



As it was stated in the invitation -- one of the activities being planned is an auction of items provided by you -- the attendee.

This will not only be a fun activity but it will give us an opportunity to take away another souvenir of the day. 

Money collected from the auction will help offset the expenses of food, drink, tableware, prizes, photographer's session fee and park rental.  Any funds collected not needed for the expenses will be donated to the local food bank.

Are you stumped about what to bring?

Here's an idea for those of us who are all thumbs when it comes to building bird houses or gluing dried macaroni pieces onto paper to create a picture. 

 

Re-gifting may be frowned upon in some social circles but in this case we embrace the idea.

Perhaps you have an item in your closet that is very nice but just not your style or your taste.

You are welcomed to bring it and place it on the auction table.

FYI -- I got to see a small section of a fantastic quilt that is being made for the auction by an accomplished quilter.  It is spectacular.

 

Say Cheese

In an earlier post I told you about the blue ribbon award winning caterer we have lined up to fed us.  (click here to see post)






Now I'm excited to announce that we have engaged an award winning photographer to document the reunion.

She has been published in National Geographic during their series on National Parks. 

Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, her work is amazing.

She will join us at 1:00 and stay until 3:00.  During that time we hope to have all of us in attendance so that we can have a group photo taken.

Anyone wanting a sitting with their more immediate family members are welcomed to take advantage of her services.

Those of you who are routinely late for everything please be there by 1:30 Thanks

Fair Warning

I love reading biographies of dead people. They are almost always written by someone who never met the person and I'm fascinated by the writer's ability to glean from public and private papers enough insight to make bold statements about the person's thinking and the motivations for their decisions and actions.

I have written two blog entries on this site about people I never met. My opinions about them and their motives are purely out of my imagination based on the few public papers left behind.

This brings me to this warning --

What will they say about you 100 years from now?

We no longer write long insightful letters to our loved ones for posterity to read. Instead are short cryptic notes on Facebook, Twitter and text messages.

At best there may be an email or two worthy of saving but for the most part our communication is quick, poorly written (and our spelling atrocious) making us look uneducated, brash and self-centered. 

But we are reasonably safe from scrutiny because it is usually deleted shortly after it is read.







Photographs used to be precious and few.  Before the 1900's they were primarily taken by professionals in studios and our family members are staged in unsmiling poses giving us the impression that their lives were painfully difficult and humorless.








Today we snap pictures with all sorts of electronic devices as well as cameras.  Many young people believe that the entire world (or at least the 7,000 people on their 'friends' list) want to see every detail of their lives.  These posts could live forever.

If you are lucky enough to have a scrapbook enthusiast in your family you may have the very best of your photos glamourized and decorated in large or small albums.

So, what do YOU want your great great grandchildren to know about you 100 years from now? 

What plans have you made, if any, to project the real you into the future?  Are you willing to take a chance on having some knot-headed relative make huge assumptions about you based on a handful of data?

Do you journal?  Do you have a box of favorite photos?  Do you write stories about 'the good old days' even if they happened just yesterday?

Personally, I'm leaving nothing to chance.  To be totally honest, I don't trust my future knot-headed relatives.  I still can't be sure that misjudgments won't happen but I'm doing my best to leave a paper trail.


And here's the best part.  If you do the writing, you can put whatever slant or spin on the stories you want!  And Photoshop is your best friend!

rita

Family History 102

Clara Bell Davis Gaylord was my father's mother.

Information about what she was doing before she became John's wife is not available to this writer. But what we do know is that she and her sister, Cora, were the youngest siblings in their large family and that they were close all her life.

Their father had been a pioneer in the Otter Tail Minnesota area settling there after his service in the Army during the Civil War and was an interesting character.










Clara age 22

She married the 45 year-old John Augustus eight days after her 20th birthday becoming step-mother to Garner who was almost 13 years old at the time of his father's second marriage.












Stan and Clara

She was made a widow at the age of 38 with 4 children to raise.  My father remembered pushing his brother, Warren, in a stroller and walking with his mother while on her meter reading route.




Her death was a shock to everyone. She had traveled with her brother-in-law, John Bixby, (Cora's husband) to a doctor's office to have her tonsils removed. It was a routine surgery in the early 1920's.  She and  her family expected her to return home later that day.  All went as expected until it was time to revive her from the anesthesia.

She took her last breath was the doctor was cleaning up. She apparently gave no sign before hand of being in distress. Her brother-in-law, John, was in the room with her at the time.

It's difficult for us to know much about Clara today.  There are no letters or personal affects remaining in the family.  But, if the integrity and character of her children can be a testimony of her strength and loving kindness, then we, the children of her children can know that she was a special woman and that her love continues to live.