Unskilled Labor: Dad

Well we had a bit of excitement here in the U.P. after the last posting. I wrote in that post about spring fever and the joy at seeing the snow melting. Well, on April 21st-ish I went to let Delta outside about 5 a.m. and there was about 5 inches of snow covering all that once was brown.... those few inches then proceeded to turn into 2 FEET of snow in the next 47 hours. I had just started to look at my garden seeds. I admit actually shed a little frozen blue tear.

These pictures are in order... each about 2 days apart... and yes the snow is in the middle. The biggest difference is Delta playing one day in that little pondy area near the dock and the snow covering it all the next day. Crazy. But the snow did melt... again... and we are back to where we were.... Again.

May Day is nearing! Yeehoo!
Time to get out the pole and ribbons...

heh heh...

Could you just see me and David dancing round and round out in the yard?
Nah me either.
The neighbors already talk... I think that might put them right over the edge!

In the last couple days the loons have also returned...

So have wood ducks, and other kinda ducks, and eagles (which never really left) etc etc. David got back to building on his dock. The fish must like the our little beach area because we have enjoyed watching a bird show right out in front of our house each morning. The eagles have been hitting the lake pulling out fish, and the other waterfowl who have paired up already are busy looking for places to make their nests. I don't remember it being this active last year. Of course, this time last year we were busy tearing down that old camp that was here... not enjoying the scenery.

If the eagles are not around, the loons try to rule the lake and we have seen the male loon run off pairs of ducks so maybe the loon nest is near here. I hope so. I heard them calling the other day... the first time I heard them this year. It is a wonderful sound in my opinion. As this is a smaller lake we will only have one pair of loons. Apparently they like their privacy.

Having the loons come back again makes me a bit nostalgic as does the apparent return of spring. Lots of thoughts of family and memories of childhood rattling around in my head... and not just because of the loons either. More on that later...

My neice had a project for school about her family tree which put me in the mind of family history. Before I went to college, I worked for awhile on a family tree on one side of the family and I really enjoyed it.

We traced a line back on my father's paternal line from Germany to San Francsico (pre-state) and pre-1906 earthquake) into the gold fields of Virginia City and then into Ukiah. We are still trying to fill in that information more fully. My father's maternal line is harder to follow as they are truly native Californians... Pomo to be a little more accurate... and of course the written records only go back so far and are a bit tangled.

It has been easy gathering information on my father's side of the family because it is all still local to Northern California.

However, on my mother's side...

Her family are California transplants... Okies to be technical... so running down to the local courthouse for records has not been as easy. Below is a picture of my mother Norma May Killion and her sister Gay. Well, Gay's name is really Lawanda Gay Killion but she shortened it.

Yes I said Lawanda.

Anyway.... They came to Northern California from Oklahoma. This is the truck they came in (note the plates) and in this picture it is parked on the bluffs near Westport.

There was a handful of people in that truck with them along with their belongings. Behind them came two more carloads FULL of people and household goods. My mom said they camped along side the road as they made their way from Oklahoma. This other picture is my Grandad Ed Killion, my Uncle Brother (Duane Killion), and my Grandma Vernice Killion. I think that photo might be in Oklahoma.

As far as my own personal history... well I was a 70's Northern California kid for sure. I have great memories of my turquoise wanna-be "Sting-Ray" bike with the flowered banana seat.

I would ride all over our bay area neighborhood with my friends Kelli, John-John, Johnny, and Timmy.... oh yeah and once in awhile twin boys named Tracey and Stacey Francis who could spin on their heads on the asphalt playground like tops AND turn their eyelids inside out.

Quite impressive.

It was a real "Sandlot" suburbs kinda childhood actually.

If you have not seen that movie... watch it. It is a GREAT family show. We also played pick up games, pickle, catch, and we played a lot in the street with a Nerf football. That movie was based a bit earlier than my childhood time but we also had PF FLyers and we knew how they made you run faster and jump higher. I had a pair (mine were actually navy blue).

I, of course, knew of their superhuman abilities... that was why I wanted them after all. I tested them out as soon as I got them home... running and jumping around the yard. It was almost like taking steroids. A-Rod, Bonds, and all those other goofy guys missed out... they should have just got themselves of pair of those sneakers. Problems solved and no asterisks necessary.

One of the many things I loved in "Sandlot" was how the story of the dog grew and grew as the dog did throughout the movie. I can remember all the neighborhood kids sharing tales like that about legendary houses and people in our own neighborhood. For instance, the man across the street from us was building an ark... honest... he was really building a big wooden boat in his backyard and it was very ark looking. It kinda of made you nervous thinking maybe he knew something we didn't.

Then there also the house by the back fence of the school. All of us kids just KNEW that there were dead bodies hanging in the shed! If you peeked just right through a knothole in the fence, through the grimy window, and if the light was just right, you could see the bodies all just hanging there! Any kid who dared to be skeptical was shown the proof. That proof consisted of being shown the thumbs of the victims that were hanging in the tree near the house. (Um.... they were Ponderosa pine cones on the end of the boughs but bloody thumbs were much more interesting.)

You can see how kids might mix up pine cones and bloody thumbs.
Sorta.

Anyway, I also remember the REAL herbal essence shampoo... the groovy kind not that freaky weird shampoo they have now. I hate those commercials.

Man I loved that stuff... sorry it is gone.

I also recall Joe Namath with his furs and panty hose...

and O.J. before he started killing folks and stealing things... when he was just 'the Juice' and seemed to be late to the airport a lot.

I also recall thinking this was the coolest car on earth...
before the Datsun (translation Nissan) Z cars started showing up on the scene.
Actually, I still preferred the bugs.

Later in life when I started driving at the ripe old age of 16, I eventually had a '72 green bug as well as a '69-ish purple/bondo one later on. I kept having to replace them because my boyfriend at the time... and his friends.. kept wrecking them. Anyhoo...

We did a lot together as a family and did not even fight too much. Here is me and Dad.

and I dunno who these devil children are but they keep showing up in family pictures:

oh dear! I just noticed something.... just look at the similarities!

Just kidding...

That was Bethy sporting her new snoopy lunchbox and Brooke in her strawberry dress. I think Bethy was starting school that day. A big day for both of them.

Dad, Beth, and Brooke again at the beach. Hmm... Look at Dad. Now I can see where us girls get our eyebrows and mustaches. Just kidding Brooke geez... don't be so sensitive.

Sniffle. Buffy.

Actually, I don't recall EVER hearing my parents even raise their voices at eachother and while I am sure my sisters and I were not the easiest children... especially them of course. All I remember are fun and even funnier times. We seemed to take a lot of pictures. I remember not liking it but I am so glad we did. We took a lot of threesome pictures. I kinda thought... um.. this is so dorky! But now I love to do it. Ignore the various hair-dos please.

We also come by it honestly... here is my mother and her sisters... except for that whole bathtub thing... it is the same photo style.

I get a kick out of this next one... you see my sisters and I used to love to drink Rondo soda... I don't know if you remember the commercials but it seemed like it had to do with getting super strength or something if you drank it. That is how we took it anyway. So here is my sister Brooke as a child wearing one of Dad's toolbelts building a fort out of construction materials Dad had lying around. She had just drank yet another can of Rondo and apparently was feeling productive. Really quite sad actually. Obviously it remained in her system for years because the other child in the photo is her daughter showing the same Rondo-type symptoms and facial expression.

You see... one of the family secrets is that Ella is a Rondo baby.
Try not to despair Ella. The effects eventually wear off over the years.

Speaking the of the next generation, we took lots of photos of them as well. I particularly love the teenage years pictures because you can see they think it is just such a drag. First came my daughter Amber....

and then Ave

and then Ella.

And here are my nephews Grant and Garret along with little Grandpa.

This picture of them is taken with my Dad who... by the way is around 6'1". All three of the nephews are taller than Grandpa now I think... especially Grant and Garret, last I heard one is nearing 6'7" and is not quite done growing yet.

Amber and Ave cruisin' the parking lot.

Ella and me.

The Pacific ocean and Ella.

The "kids" at easter.

The family eating the dilly beans they all helped can.

Well, that is quite a few pictures I admit. There is one more I will be adding and it explains the other reason I am feeling so nostalgic and family oriented lately. It is not just because of the family tree research, or Ella's school project. You see we have a new member who is going to be joining the family in August and we are all just so very excited!

Amber and Kevin are going to have a son in August!
Congratulations!

At least the ultrasound says a son and the nurse wrote "tallywacker" on the screen so she seemed pretty sure. And without further ado:

Ladies and gentlemen for the first time in a public appearance anywhere:

My grandson

What a profile he has!

I hear that phrase every now and then after David has completed yet another task he has never done before and once finished it turns out he has done it quite well. He is not really talking to anyone in particular, just kind of mumbling to himself while he is working. When I overhear him... no matter where he is in the house or yard I tell him, "I thought it... I knew you could". I am not just being a cheerleader, I am serious when praise him. He should be very proud of the home he built for the two... I mean four... of us.

My Dad is a builder, a very good one, and a renaissance man as well. One of the people he built a house for had a dinner when the job was completed for everyone who was involved in the project. The owner stood and praised my father saying that my Dad had his hand in everything having to do with that beautiful home. Basically, his touch could be found on every inch of the house.

It is the same with our home... David has left an imprint on everything you see when you look around our home. In just gazing around the house memories flood my mind about drywall, plumbing, framing, siding etc., and I remember conversations with him about what occurred during every step of the construction. I remember helping dig out the footings and having to find a spot where Delta and Cosmo could dig too without kicking sand into the foundation holes. I recall David's excitement about starting the framing with my Dad and him telling me how much he was learning from him, and then his heartbreak when he broke his ankle and could not be on the job for several days to continue working with Dad. His pride in his father's masonry work and in his ability to join in and pour the cement, and lay the blocks and bricks right along with him. I smile when I remember him showing me the 'new' placement of the doorbell ringer and how David would smile to himself while listening to me and Kaye the electrician try to talk to each other from one room to the next while pulling wires through the wall. David's persistence and insistence on doing the drywall and texturing himself when most people would not have even attempted it. Even now, while doing the trim work around the house I see him smile to himself whenever he pulls his friend Phillip's nail set out of his pocket to use. Phillip always carried that darn thing around with him when he was doing construction stuff, and (I must say) quite bossily insisted on using it... now David understands why.

You know, the difference between building your own home and moving into one already constructed by someone else is that when you build your own home you move into a house that is already filled with memories... instead of moving into a house that is a complete stranger to you. Don't get me wrong, having a new home either way is a wonderful thing. However, given the choice I prefer the lingering echoes of the voices, the laughter, and the cursing from the construction process of a self built home.

David has done a wonderful job, I hope he is proud of himself. I know I am very proud of him. On a daily basis, he adds to the list of things he has accomplished... and the bonus for me is that he has one hell of a smile and his mad scientist glasses make me blush! ;)

Rapscallion

er.. uh..
I mean promising young man

Probably a good thing we did not meet at that time in our lives.

That could have been trouble. Both of us had some living to do. By the way, for those of you who do not know, David's friend Phillip was married to my friend Lynette. Phillip and Lynette dated in High School and later married... in fact David married them. I was a bridesmaid and my daughter Amber was a flower girl. I don't even know if David and I were introduced then. We knew about each other because our friends were married. (I heard the stories anyway) However, we had never really officially met until a few years ago when David moved to join with Phillip in a new business venture. Which brings me back to the list...

Business