REUNITED!

Thankful that we didn't have a snowy Thanksgiving
like this one a few years ago!

Last weekend I had a friend request on Facebook from a Judy Shell.   That name didn't ring a bell with me so I thought I better find out more about her on her Facebook page.  To my surprise she was Judy Toevs, my grade six classmate when our family spent the fall of 1953 and winter of 1954 in Salem Oregon. 

 After my mother had polio in 1952 she was unable to walk and the muscles in her legs were shrinking from not being used.  My Aunt Edna suggested Mom come down to Oregon for massage treatments from her as that was her profession.  Dad drove Mom, Sandra and me to Salem in August, then went home to harvest.  After harvest he brought Mervin and Alan down and we spent the winter there at 1535 Church Street.  We actually rented two apartments there as one was two small for six of us.

  Mervin and I attended Garfield School and loved it there.  I had started there when we lived with my aunt.  When we moved to the apartments we were in another district and should changed schools.  But I guess they bent the rules a bit and we were allowed to attend Garfield.  I still have the Oregon silk scarf that the class gave me on my 12th birthday.  I kept in touch with our teacher, Mrs. Mazac, for many years and she sent a pair of myrtlewood candle holders as a wedding gift in 1966.  

Judy and I exchanged letters for a few years and we got together once when our family vacationed in Oregon but had since lost touch.  It was so exciting to connect again!  She still lives in Oregon and had even lived in Glendive, Montana in the 80's when her husband was manager of the JC Penney store there.  We talked for over an hour, thanks to Sask Tel's bundle and will be doing that again soon!  That was the highlight of the week for me.

We also got to watch granddaughter Lindsay compete in cross country districts in Weyburn on Wednesday.  There were sixty-five grade six girls competing and Lindsay came in second, just seconds behind first place.  The Blue Jays were playing that afternoon at two, the same time as the races started!  Clare and Kirk both brought transistor radios so we could listen while waiting for Lindsay's race to begin.  After the race Alan and I went to Clare and Jodi's to watch the rest of the four hour game.  The guys got pretty noisy when the home run that won the game for the Jays was hit by Bautista.  Jodi ordered Chinese food from the Club Cafe so we had a celebration supper. We were also celebrating our 8th (months) wedding anniversary!  

Shauna, Lindsay with her blue ribbon, and Kirk

Saturday was a special day for the other Alan in my life. My brother Alan Morris Erickson arrived on Oct. 17, 1948.  Here's a picture taken when we were a family of five.  

Laurel sent such a cute picture of Ashley with the seven new kittens.  I don't know how they all stayed in one place long enough 

to take the picture.  Momma cat was on alert close by!

On Friday our accordion group known as Homespun Harmonies entertained at two seniors homes in Estevan.  Vi and I got to Hillview Manor about the same time and waited for the rest of the group to show up.  Two o'clock came and no one joined us.  The lounge area wasn't set up for visitors either so something was wrong!  The staff called a couple care homes but no accordions were playing at either one.  My cell phone had gone dead so we couldn't text them either.  Vi headed for Valleyview and sure enough, we could hear accordion music as we drove up - two accordions with no piano player!  We joined in and the first song we played was "Hail, Hail the Gangs All Here".  It turns out that although Vi and I hadn't discussed the programs at all we both had it wrong.  We read Valleyview on the text we'd gotten but got Hillview in our heads as it looks over the valley.  We won't hear the end of that for a while! 

Our group enjoyed supper together at the Beefeater before playing at Midtown Manor at 6:30.  Alan opted to watch the Blue Jays versus Kansas City ballgame at Wes and Linda Hanson's.  They were along on the bus that took us to Minneapolis in May for three games against the Twins.  Sadly the Jays lost both games in Kansas but we hope they will back on the winning side in Toronto tomorrow.  

Today was a warm sunny day, probably the warmest we'll have now until spring.  We cleaned up the garden and gathered in the last of the potatoes and carrots.  Alan did some rototilling.  Rain is forecast for tomorrow night so we'll be out there again tomorrow.

No ball game tonight so we'll see what we can find on Netflix.  Have a good week!