About the little things that matter most : beauty, memory, love, friendships, wonder, awe, taste, travels ... All the things I don't want to forget!
"These moments given are a gift from time. Just let us try to give the moment back to those we love, to those who will survive." --Kate Bush, "Moments of Pleasure"
CL tuned in a Polka show the other day. It must have been am radio. It reminded me of being a kid at Gramma and Grappa's house, learning to polka in their kitchen. I'm sure this is the same show Grappa used to listen to all those years ago. No pictures from those days, but we do have pictures from the Wedding celebrations.
Grappa's Radio
Grappa had a huge old-time radio next to his chair in the kitchen. The kind that had tubes that needed to warm up. He always stayed seated in his chair, but smiled approvingly as Gramma Pickles taught me to dance. Here we're dancing at the Wedding celebration in Pennsylvania. Yes, Gramma made the trip to Pennsylvania!
As I recall, Gramma also taught me to Jitterbug in their kitchen. Gramma used to do a lot of dancing back in the day. And Grappa, who had a truckfor his milk route, gave her rides to town. And the rest is history!
Polkas are happy music. There has never been a sad polka written or played. It just doesn't exist. Some of the polkas are sung in English, some in the languages of the "Old Country:" Bohemian, Polish, German. Grappa could understand some of them, and he'd translate some of the words--always with a smile because the lyrics were usually about courting some young woman.
This picture is from the Wedding celebration in Antigo in June of 1999. Gramma is dancing with Chriatian, and I am dancing with Grappa. Mr. Bare's Dixieland Jazz Band is providing the dance music.
We're planning our biennial trip to France again this year. My husband has family in France and so we go regularly to keep in touch. For us, it is not the trip of a lifetime to France; Just a long way to go to see family and friends. ;-)
Jean Paul and Michelle Debax live in Toulouse, France, in a huge old rambling 400-year old house. I felt at home there as soon as we set foot inside almost 10 years ago. Something in their house is always in a state of remodel or repair--just like the house I grew up in. ;-) Upstairs they had huge rooms filled with books. In their working lives, both Jean-Paul and Michelle were University professors, so they valued their respective studies and built their own professional libraries to support their studies. That makes my Librarian's Heart smile! ;-) Michelle taught Spanish, and Jean Paul taught English classics. He speaks English not like a Frenchman, but like an Englishman. I love talking with them--mostly because I can understand him!
One year, Michelle and Jean Paul hosted a dinner party in their newly remodeled dining room. It had formerly been a garage--and they kept the bird nest in the ceiling corner to prove it! I loved it! It felt like the farm where I grew up in the country of Northern Wisconsin. With an additional elegance.
In the picture above, you can see the nest on the cabinet above dear Francine's head.
The Debax are down-home and unpretentious people. Just a regular kitchen--no granite counter tops, or even a dishwasher--yet wonderful meals come from these simple kitchens.
The last time we visited, we arrived in time for tea in their rustic kitchen--filled with later afternoon sunlight. It's one of my fondest memories of our trips to France. Christian was thinking clearly enough to take some of these pictures. I love this one of Jean Paul : Portrait of a Gentleman!
Jean-Paul has had some health issues in recent years. We know the crew is getting older, dealing with health problems. Christian's mother died a few years ago. Some day, we won't always be able to visit with these dear friends. I just want them to know how much I enjoy their company and hospitality.
Last time we visited, they took us on the usual walk through downtown Toulouse. Michelle and Francine went into a little shop and bought something -- I remember Jean-Paul was just so tickled and pleased with these "2 figures embracing." I guess he thought it was just like me and Christian--a well-matched couple. It was a yin-yang salt-and-pepper shaker set in black and white. Simple. But the look of sheer delight on Jean-Paul's face when he gave it to us was PRICELESS! So yes, the two figures are fondly displayed in our China cabinet where we eat every day.
A few year's ago, the Hospital where I work celebrated Nurse's Week with Hand Portraits. Many people didn't want their pictures taken, but they were perfectly ok with having their hands photographed. Hands do the work; Hands do the caring. It was a very moving display of so many nurse's hands.
A few years ago, I saw a beautiful photography display at Evergreen, a retirement community here in Oshkosh. They had beautiful black and white hand portraits of some of their residents. Often with a moving quote. I loved this display, and wanted to capture some of the hands in my family that I want to remember ... So at Christmas this year, I took a few pictures.
Gramma Pickles - Violet Smitmajer
I love her red fingernail polish, and the sparkles! Her ring-finger is missing a knuckle from when the cow kicked the shovel she was holding in the barn ...
Frank Matucheski - being goofy
Rosita Matucheski's Hands
Ray Matucheski's Hand
These are my hands, full of cranberries!
“Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by.”
-- Carl Sandburg
My own hands again, with currants from the back yard.
Here's another one prompted by Story Corps' National Day of Listening : Debi Thomas skating to George Michael's "One More Try" way back in 1988 at the Calgary Winter Olympics. This was her Thank You to coaches and teachers in the exhibitions after she won a Bronze medal. The expectation back then was that she would win Gold. So this was kind of an apology and a disappointment. Looking back, it was phenomenal, marvelous and heartfelt. Hindsight is 20/20, right?
"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own." -- Benjamin Disraeli
There are several teachers I want to give my heartfelt Thanks to : Mr. Harry Cramer, David Olson (DO), Anne Lundin, Doug Johnson. You, too, Dottie. You all made a difference in my life, and I'm glad you were part of it. Thank you!
Mr. Harry Cramer, my old Latin teacher in Antigo High School. He looked ancient even then in the 1980s, but he always had a smile through the wrinkles. What a great sense of humor he had. You had to have a sense of humor to wear the horrendous ties he wore everyday to school--they were a talking point. He made learning Latin painless with the help of cartoons and where the characters "clamat OW!' and "amat mel." 25 years later, I can even still tell you what that means. (Victor yelled ow! after hitting his thumb with a hammer (or some such). Anna loves honey.) He and his wife, Mrs. Cramer offered me my first regular job as a clerk in the local book store Mrs. Cramer managed : Book World in Antigo, WI. I tended to go there anyway because I was interested in books and song lyrics ... I guess they were looking for a kid who would be interested in the nature of the work. I was.
Mr and Mrs. Cramer organized trips to Greece and Italy regularly for the Latin Clubs. My mom and I got to go on the trip in 1988. What an experience that was for both of us. My mom had never been in a plane or left the county before that time (me either, for that matter).
Mr. Cramer also introduced me to the Holiday Folk Fair in Milwaukee that I love so much. Back in the day, the Language clubs used to take a 5-hour bus trip down to Milwaukee the weekend before Thanksgiving for the Folk Fair -- 3 days of ethnic foods, folk dancing, and crafts from all over the world. It was love at first site for me! With a name like Matucheski, I could never deny that I was Polish, and the Poles were the butt of many Polish jokes in that neck of the woods. Well, the Polish stand at the Folk Fair Bazaar had the most beautiful wooden boxes and painted eggs as Christmas Tree ornaments for sale, crafted in Poland. Here was concrete proof that the Poles made a contribution to the world, and made beautiful things. The Folk Fair is still a fall tradition for my little family. I was saddened to hear that the Language Clubs no longer make the annual trek from Antigo. The Folk Fair was one of many gifts Mr. Cramer gave me.
Mr. C. developed Parkinson's Disease in his later years. Last year when I was home for Christmas, the phone rang. It was Mr. Cramer, who had accidentally and serendipitously dialed the wrong number--ours. It was good to catch up with both him and Mrs. Cramer that day. I'm thinking of you, Mr. C!
In 1993, I spent the summer in Nigeria, West Africa, with a group of college students on a Fullbright Intensive Group Study Project to study the Yoruba language and culture. We were based in Ile-Ife, the cradle of humanity. ;-)
All over the neighborhood where we lived, people had cottage industries selling soap, or bread, or soda pop, or mop strings, or pottery, or any other number of things ...
With a dozen students, we ate a lot of bread that summer. I started collecting labels from loaves of bread. I was intrigued by the names and creativity of each label. It was all home-made white bread--every one of them tastey.
Ok--The Ezekiel Bread is from the Madison, WI, area, but it was so much the same spirit that I kept it with the bread labels.
A few years ago, I was looking for these and couldn't find them anywhere. LOST. This week, a small box toppled down and there they were : FOUND!
These will now be properly scrap-booked with my pictures and writings from that summer.
Mmmmh-Mmmmh-Mmmhh! This was my introduction to John Hiatt, before I knew who John Hiatt was.
I love that this video is recorded in an empty practice rink. It goes to show how much practice time and effort "real" skaters put in. Kurt Browning makes it look so easy. That footwork sequence is really difficult. And those beautiful deep edges don't happen without a lot of practice, and some magic skates!
Kurt Browning is one of my all-time favorite skaters. He's like Gene Kelly on ice! Makes me want to get up in the early morning dark to go and skate tomorrow morning.
And what a great song! This one always makes me smile. ;-)
We celebrated Saturday-After-Thanksgiving at our house in Oshkosh with family and friends--lots of food, my "new" $5 rummage sale China (Thank you, La Voisine), and these glorious cranberries.
Wanna know what we DO with these cranberries? Try this recipe.
Unca "Rainbow" Ray, My Mom and Dad, Seth, Rosita, The Family Jage, and Rieko the exchange student from Japan. We had a houseful with a cheery fire and a full table. CL even got up early to put the turkey in the oven by 7 am. My Mom and Dad experienced round-abouts for the first time. I guess we should have warned them about the changes to the area roadways ... Oops!
Unca "Rainbow" Ray
My Dad with a Beer and a Broccoli (What a goofball!).
Professor Emeritus, Doug Johnson. Photo from here in 2008.
Prompted by the Story Corps National Day of Listening where you Thank a Teacher, I am honoring Doug Johnson, Professor Emeritus in Art from UW-River Falls.
I have to give this guy credit. I took two classes with him while I was in my early college years at UW-River Falls around 1990. His Art 100 was not just the usual art appreciation class where you look at lots of slides of great art and discuss. He actually had us all purchase Craypas and good paper so we could MAKE some art of our own in all the styles we were studying. Each week, we had to show our stuff, too, for a critique. I had no idea how liberating that would be! In high school, I had creative and talented friends who were in all the Art classes, but I was on the college prep track, so no time for art classes. Sigh! Thank goodness Art 100 was REQUIRED in college. And thank goodness, I took Doug Johnson's class that pushed us beyond merely appreciating art.
Dog in the style of Nabi (circa 1990). This is the only piece I kept from those days. One of our dogs laying on a hunting jacket.
Doug Johnson encouraged us to really press the color into our paper. None of that wishy-washy pastel stuff. We had to be "committed" to the piece. He didn't want to see any of the white paper showing through. ;-)
My last spring semester in River Falls, I took a sculpture class (I had learned the year before that it was impossible to take heavy and serious classes in spring--Try writing a paper on nuclear war while the apple trees are blooming, and you're in love! The two are not compatible!) Anyway, the creative classes took an investment of time, but not memorization--it was a different kind of learning where we really got INSIDE of the lessons-- for which I am grateful. I still have the sketchbook from that class, though none of the sculptures.
I don't know that he ever made it big with his art. He was the kind of guy who--if he dropped a pottery sculpture on the way in to the gallery, and if he liked the way it broke apart on the floor, he'd fence it off and make it a display. Now that's rolling with the punches! I think for him, it was more about creative expression than making a lot of money.
Doug Johnson made me promise I would take more art classes, even if it wasn't my major. He saw some potential in me. Now, it's 20 years later. I doubt he'd even remember me. I would like to say "Thank you for the encouragement in those early years." I have taken more classes and made more art since then. "Making stuff" has become an important part of my life. Some of it is tracked and recorded on my Sweet Leaf Notebook Blog.
You made a difference in my creative life, Professor Johnson. Thank you! Happy Thanksgiving!
This man's passing really moves me, as I write this on my MacBook Air (The first computer we ever had at home in the 1980s was an Apple IIc. The first computer I ever bought myself was an Apple, after I graduated from college.)
Steve Jobs learned some valuable lessons in living with a life-threatening illness. Deep down, I think he knew this stuff before the illness.
Steve Jobs, you changed the world for the better. Thank you. Rest in peace.
