Category Archives: Memories

The Rock Garden

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My Dad, summer of 1954.

My Dad and Mom created a rock garden the summer I was five years old.They turned a small sloping lawn into a beautiful garden.  I remember going for family drives, looking for rocks. We all loved that! I just recently found this old photo of my dad in front of the rock garden, and it reminded me of that happy time.

I’d already been thinking of creating a small rock garden in what I call our “triangle garden,” the space between our angled driveway and our vegetable garden. Finding the photo of my Dad in front of his rock garden made it seem absolutely right for me to go ahead and build my own.

However, we discovered quickly that rocks are not very accessible around here. When I was little, we lived right next to the mountains, so it was only a quick drive up the canyon to find loads of big and very interesting geological specimens! For some reason, there aren’t many rocks along the roads around here and our really interesting rocks were collected from farther away.  Fortunately, our daughter is in the process of building a big garden at her new home in Washington State. She’s spent the summer digging rocks out of the area they want to garden. We think perhaps all the rocks that should be here in Oregon are in her back yard! All those rocks you see lined up so neatly in the photo on the left came out of that dug up space in the photo on the right. She’s developed strong digging muscles! And each time she visited us this summer, she brought a load of rocks for our rock garden.

Our daughter has dug all of these rocks out of the area they want to put their new garden!
And this is where she found all those rocks!

 

So, I  am not quite finished collecting rocks and planting, but my little rock garden is close to being done. I’ve planted a variety of perennials, some pansies for winter color, and a whole bunch of bulbs for spring color. There is still room for some colorful annuals that I’ll plant next Spring. I’m just loving this autumn gardening project.

The triangle space between driveway and garden.
Rock garden so far…
Still some space to finish…

Fifty Years!

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“We are the sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land.
It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize
each other, to learn to see the other and honor one for what
one is: each the other’s opposite and complement.”

~ Narcissus and Goldmund, by Hermann Hesse

100 is a Big Number

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When my mother turned 90 years old, my four-year-old grandson was quite amazed when she told him her age. His sweet response was, “That’s a Big number!”  Today would have been her 100th birthday. She always said she did NOT want to get to 100 years old, and she missed it by one year and three weeks. But I am thinking of her today and feeling so deeply grateful that she was in my life for so many years.

Reunion

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One year ago, we lost Mom. After we celebrated her life, we decided that, as a family, we would continue to get together at least once each year. So my brothers and their wives, and Byron and I, all met in Salt Lake City once again last week for our first annual get-together. What a wonderful reunion!

It was nice that this first get-together was in Salt Lake City. We were able to visit Red Butte Garden and spend time at our memorial bench — our memorial now for both our parents. They both donated their bodies to the University Medical School, so we don’t have a gravesite to visit. Instead, we have a memorial bench in the rose garden of Red Butte Garden, and it couldn’t be a lovelier, more uplifting place to sit and remember them.

During the week, we also enjoyed time at the Natural History Museum, always a favorite; went on long morning walks; hiked around Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon; went out to eat at all our favorite restaurants; visited The King’s English Bookshop; and spent a lot of time reminiscing.

Books are always part of our discussions when we get together as a family.  We shared about books read and then, of course, some of us bought new books. Here’s a bullet list of books discussed and/or purchased during the week.

  • On Immunity, by Eula Biss
  • Chances Are…, by Richard Russo
  • Dark Money, by Jane Mayer
  • My Beloved World, by Sonia Sotomayor
  • Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer
  • Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer
  • Furious Hours, by Casey Cep
  • Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain
  • Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen
  • Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren
  • The Sadness of Beautiful Things, by Simon Van Booy
  • Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, by Anne Fadiman
  • The Natural World: Portraits of Earth’s Great Ecosystems, by Thomas D. Mangelsen

Such a fun week! Good people, good food, good books, and a beautiful location for a reunion. We also decided that next year we’ll meet on the east coast!

Cherry Ames, Nurse

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Many many years ago, I found the book series Cherry Ames in the library. I read the first one and was hooked. I was determined to read every single one that was published, and I’m pretty sure I did.

During another trip to the library, 60 years later, I found the first one on the shelf and decided it would be fun to re-read it. It was fun! And since the library had a four-books-in-one ebook available for my Kindle, I went ahead and re-read the first 4 books in the series!

I can easily understand why the young me liked this character so much. She was an intelligent, independent, compassionate young woman with a strong sense of purpose. She wanted to be a nurse to help people, and that’s what she did, even if it got her in to trouble. She had a great sense of humor, and also a temper that would flair when she perceived injustice. She was a natural leader, and was not afraid to speak up to authority when she thought it was important. And she was an excellent nurse!

I thought I would describe her as a “woman ahead of her time,” but I actually think that she was vey much a woman of her own time. The first books were written during World War II, a time that called on the strengths of women as well as young men. It was so interesting to see the attitudes toward women at that time, and how doors of opportunity were opened to women because they were so needed during the war. I wonder if I keep re-reading the series if I will see within the stories the closing of many of those doors when the war ends and the men return home?

It was interesting to revisit something that had a powerful influence on me as a young person. Do we have series like this these days that encourage young people to make an impact on the world?

The Compliment of a Lifetime

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There are times when I really miss spending my days with school children. When I first started teaching, one of my wise teammates suggested that I keep a file in my desk drawer to keep the nice notes and cards from students and parents over the years. I took her advice and still have that treasured file, even though I’ve been retired for five years. While I was going through a box of my old teaching materials the other day, looking for something for my grandson, I pulled that file out and reread some of those notes and best wishes. One stood out for me and felt like the “compliment of a lifetime.” It had to do with reading aloud with my students, something that was the anchor of my day with all the different groups of children I worked with over my twenty-seven year career. A mom wrote it to me toward the end of a school year, just a short note on a nice little card, and it still warms my heart.

Since my daughter is going to miss reading books with you more than anything else in her school life so far — would you have any recommendations for summer reading, books you wish you would have had more time to read with the class?

Emmie gave her Dad a copy of “Danny Champion of the World” for his birthday, because it was so good she wanted to read it with him!!

Books Can Change Your Life

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My library posted this wonderful quote by David McCullough on Facebook the other day and I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea. It is true that books can change our lives and characters can have tremendous impact on us. In my own experience, I think the book and character of Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, read (the first time) when I was in the 7th Grade, had a lifetime impact on me. I read many of the books my older brother read, and I remember that after he finished Jane Eyre he told me he thought I would like that book. I most certainly did!  I have vivid memories of scenes and impressions from the book. The strength and resilience of the character, Jane, made a large imprint on my both my heart and my psyche.

Since then, I have found many influential characters and more favorite books. But that first encounter with a character that I admired deeply, and was so influenced by, was a life-expanding experience for me. And for that, it will always be my “favorite book.”

Which is your special book and life-changing character?

 

Japanese Literature Challenge 12

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Another reading challenge for 2019 has caught my eye. Meredith (@Dolce Bellezza) is hosting her 12th  Japanese LIterature Challenge this year. I’ve participated in her challenges numerous times before and enjoyed each of them. I already have some Japanese literature on my Classics Club list, and two new books on my Kindle that would qualify for this challenge, so I decided to join…again.

This time, I am also going to add a few films to watch. Long ago, when my kids were little, I took a continuing education class at the University. It was called the “Art of Japanese Film” and I absolutely loved the class! And then, a few years ago, my husband and I bought a boxed set of DVDs of movies by the brilliant Japanese filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa, so Hubby and I are going to have our own Japanese Film Festival during this Challenge.

Books to Read:

  1. The Book of Tea, Kazuko Okakura
  2. Kokoro, Natsume Soseki
  3. Absolutely on Music, Haruki Murakami
  4. Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa

Films of Akira Kurosawa to Watch:

  1. Stray Dog
  2. Ikiru
  3. Seven Samurai
  4. The Hidden Fortress
  5. Yojimbo

Other Japanese Films to Watch:

  1. Miss Hokusai  (we watched it on January 2, 2019)  This is a film based on the life of the daughter of the great painter, Hokusai. It was adapted from a Manga series written and illustrated by Hinako Sugiura.  It was directed by Keiichi Hara, and won numerous awards.
  2. Ugetsu (based on the book, Tales of Moonlight and Rain, by Akinari Udea)
  3. Spirited Away
  4. Our Little Sister
  5. My Neighbor Totoro

Click on the titles below to read my reviews of books I read for Dolce Bellezza’s previous Japanese LIterature Challenges.

One more thing…

My husband’s grandmother was a “picture bride” brought from Japan to Hawaii in the early 1900s as a bride for one of the Japanese plantation workers. If you are interested in that fascinating part of history, you can read my review of the book, Picture Bride, by Yoshiko Ushida.  If you can find it, there is a beautiful little film called “Picture Bride,” that is well worth seeing.  There are many stories of the 20,000 or so women who were the picture brides. They didn’t know their husbands-to-be before they were brought to Hawaii, and some to California. Each was chosen as a bride by their photo.

My husband’s grandmother and aunt are in this photo of plantation workers in Hawaii.

An Old Book

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While looking through the books on my grandson’s bookshelf, I found an old family treasure–a book that brought back memories from a Christmas long ago. I remember the Christmas I was five years old…I got a nurse costume (which I wore until it didn’t fit any more), and a baby doll (still in a box downstairs). My younger brother, a toddler, burned his finger on a Christmas light (they got hot in those days), and my oldest brother got a chemistry set. I remember him reading some big words and sounding very grown up. Along with the chemistry set, he got a book to go along with it. That’s the book I found on my grandson’s bookshelf. (I think it came to me instead of my oldest brother because our son was the first grandchild in the family.) It brought back tons of memories to look through it. And yes, the grandson has tried some of the experiments in it. They are timeless even though the world has changed drastically since it was published.

Six Books

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Me on the Argentine pampas in 1967.

Although this has been a difficult year for me in many ways, a year of loss, it has also been a year of reading. Since July, reading has been my solace and a way to honor the memory of my special reading mother.  I have read 91 books so far this year, unlike in1967 when I only read six books!

1967 was the year I was accepted into the American Field Service (now known as AFS Intercultural Programs) as an exchange student to Argentina. I spent a year there, which was an absolutely incredible life-defining experience. It was not an easy year, especially in those days before computers, cell phones, and instant world-wide communication with everyone you know!  Letters often took two weeks. Phone calls home were wildly expensive so I only made one call home during the entire year. I was far away from home and relatively isolated as I went through the inevitable culture shock and adjustments to my new language and my new family. But after four months, I could speak fairly well, began to dream in Spanish, worked hard to begin reading in Spanish, and became more and more fluent in the language over the year. It was an amazing experience, to state it simply.

But one of the most difficult things for me that year, as an avid/obsessed reader, was that I had little access to books (in English), and, of course, my reading focus needed to be on learning and reading in Spanish. So over that year, I only read 6 books in English. Those six books are seared into my memory because each one was like a little oasis in the desert of my reading that year. It was very hard for me NOT to be able to read much that year, and it made me appreciate deeply the freedom of my yearly reading experience ever since. However, giving up reading-like-crazy for a year in order to have the experience of a lifetime…was so worth it!

Here are those six books: