Category: family

rDay Twelve-Hundred-Fifty, Part I

On this first full day of Ivi’s quick visit from Seattle, we head out for some local travel, starting with Madam Dorian Park and Lake near Wallula Junction.

[Action: 8/26/18; Posting: 9/19/18]

rDay Twelve-Hundred-Forty-Nine

Ivi flies in from Seattle this morning.  And we pick her up!

Later on, a walk around the house and around the neighborhood:

According to Will Rogers

One of my memories of my paternal grandfather, Del (you met him earlier here), was that he was fond of quoting Will Rogers (as well as Mark Twain).  Here are some musings attributed to the man:

Will Rogers:

    • “Things will get better, despite our efforts to improve them.”
    • “The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.”

“Ten men in our country could buy the whole world and ten million can’t buy enough to eat.”

“You can’t say that civilization don’t advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.”

“If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of Congress?”

“There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by readin’. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”

“An economist’s guess is liable to be as good as anybody else’s.”

“Try to live your life so that you wouldn’t be afraid to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.”

“If all politicians fished instead of spoke publicly, we would be at peace with the world.”

And…

“A fool and his money are soon elected”

The Taste of Flesh

Just wanted to alert readers that brother Dennis has just released a new book of poetry. Here’s a link to BookShout for more info. (Is this nepotistic?)

And to quote BookShout:

These poems by award-winning author Dennis Hathaway are meditations on life and death through a variety of perspectives. In the title poem, a man reading about shipwrecked sailors driven to cannabilism is led to reflect on a particularly intense time of his youth. In The Promised Land, the boundless optimism of youth is captured in the observations of a young man escaping the Midwest for California, while Southern California (Revised) paints a disturbing picture of that iconic place’s future. In Documents of War and The Harrying of the North, official documents and a famous tapestry are used to illustrate the distance most of us maintain from the grim realities of war. The spectacles of natural worlds both large and small are lyrically evoked in River of Wind and Fauna, while the abiding love between a man and his wife is the subject of The Path, The Philosophy of Love and several other poems that combine sharp observation of the everyday details of life with flights of imagination. But despite the seriousness of subject matter, many of the 25 poems in this collection have an ample seasoning of humor, from the overt in Money and Queen of Spades” to the more subtle in Memory and Santa Inez.

 

 

rDay Twelve-Hundred-Thirty

Nik’s here, visiting from Seattle.  So we are talking and sightseeing and exploring.  Unfortunately, in one of those Old Man Things (OMT), I destroyed my main camera and a lens a day ago, so my documentation is limited.  However, for a three-mile hike around Bennington Lake, I managed to find a years-old P&S that worked long enough to get this:

Kim and Nik at Bennington
Kim and Nik at Bennington II

Just Randomly Scanning About …

Today, deviating from the course of pursuing the Dreaded Boxes Project, I blundered upon some other random stuff that has been long-lost in storage.

First, a wonderful photo taken by Ivi at about age seven, during a memorable “S Day” trip by father and daughter to Joseph and the Wallowas.  Had to scan this from a plain (non-photo) paper printout that was tucked away in some old office supplies (no idea where the original might be).

Next, I found this image on a very old self-portrait print tucked away under some expired photo paper and darkroom supplies.  It was originally taken with my 4×5 view camera using some then-expired Polaroid film, hence the discoloration, fogging and other effects.  This was when I shared living in a cat-filled Santa Monica apartment around 1977.  I recall that about every 15 years or so I try another take on the always- but gradually-changing Polaroid original print, so there are other versions around, probably on my photo blog.

Finally, returning to the Dreaded, I find a copy that my mother had of a print that I long ago misplaced.  And it happens to be one of my favorites, historically.  This is myself and my younger brother, Dennis, probably about six and four, respectively, taken by an anonymous photographer (a parent?) on my grandfather’s farm near Turin, Iowa, circa 1947.  Some documented details appear to include my uncle in the distant background, my grandfather’s ’40 Ford (which was brand new and driven by my father when he was courting my mother) and my father’s ’37 or ’38 Chevy.  (Remember when Kodak film always came with a little illustrated piece of paper that advised you to shoot with the sun at your back?  Even if it blinded the subjects, apparently.)