BMAC comes to visit the founding father of the club

"Band of Brothers," "Brothers of the Wheel" "Brothers of the Road", what ever you call them, today was a day of celebration at University Park Care Center here in Pueblo, Colorado.  Long known as being one of the better places in the state for long and short term care, they have now gone a step above and beyond that.  Imagine, if you can, that you are no longer in complete control of your life and are completely at the mercy of a staff that takes charge of every aspect of your every day care.  Wouldn't you like to be in a place that actually cares?

Today the staff welcomed the arrival of the British Motorcycle Association of Colorado as they made a road trip down to see one of the founding fathers of the group.  Sherman Schroeder and two of his friends founded the group in Denver, Colorado in 1983.  It was with great pride and a lump in my throat that I watched the riders coming up Desert Flower and parking along the road.  And then the bikers all came inside for a final rally with the leader.  Chocolate frosting on a white cake decorated with two motorcycles followed by a toast to Sherman, visiting and then the finale.  Sherman made his way to the front of the building along with his two brothers. The bikers then slowly rode past one by one and saluted.  And then they were gone.

There are some things that are just to hard to talk about.  Suffice it to say it was a day filled with a great deal of sadness, but also an outpouring of love that makes me know that life is indeed worth living.


https://plus.google.com/photos/107798779496091974859/albums/5762601598937944929#photos/107798779496091974859/albums/5762601598937944929

I have unleashed a monster on the world!

First I should tell you that the SWM of long ago who broke my heart and left me disillusioned is now operating under my umbrella in a far different capacity than he was last summer.  We are now friends.  As such we do not discuss politics, race, religion, Fox News, rearing of children, the welfare state, immigration, Sarah Palin, cooking, tattoos, Harley Davidson, the price of silver, and a myriad of subjects which are dealt with on a need to deal basis.  We spend a lot of time in quiet meditation.  I see him a couple times a week and I am helping him get his life organized.  Can not get mine on track, but doing pretty good getting him lined out. 

As friends we have a lot more in common and seem to have developed a mutual respect that was missing before.  I have found that he is interested in gardening.  Small draw back here is that he now realizes he is old and does not have time to wait for this stuff to get big.  So he has planted two  6 foot evergreens.  When he wanted Pampas grass he assumed he could buy it 6 feet tall and was crushed to be presented with 6 inch starts.  Of course the 4 inch tomato plants were a real blow to his expectations.  But like a true city farmer he went along with the game.  Four tomato plants and 2 peppers along with 2 hills of Zucchini soon graced his back yard.  He recalled his mother building a tent with three sticks for the tomatoes and was a little disappointed to find that the tomatoes needed to be 3 feet taller to reach the sticks.  That and the walk ways he built between the plants proved a little too much for me.  I had to take a break.

Next I taught him the benefit of making a list of things that need to be done and told him how gratifying it is to complete a task and then check it off or draw a line through it.  He is very good at making the list.  Very, very good.  I taught him on Tuesday about the list and Wednesday he called to read me his list.  It is now up to 38 items.  Nothing is checked off because he does not have time to do anything since he has to water his garden and make his list!  I am worried he may starve to death since I did not see anything about food on the list.

Now, lest you think I am completely heartless, I do have a long range plan for the little fellow.  Next week he and I are going to venture off to the the Senior Center and he will be enrolling in computer classes and I think he may play Chess.  I  will have to put this plan in place as I go.  See I noticed when I had lunch with Phyllis that there seemed to be a plethora of women in the lunch room.  Now I know the drill here.  If I were to be so inclined as to actively seek male companionship I would put me on a pretty little frock and kind of sashay along the boulevard there and sort of smile with my eyes a little down cast and some big strong boy would fall in step.  So, I know the game the girls are playing, I just need to make him aware of the part he should be playing.  How the boy survived this long in the world of women unscathed is beyond me.

He does not have an inquiring mind at all.  I know this because he wanted me to help him clean his stove.  So the first step was to do the self cleaning oven thing.  We disconnected the smoke alarm and opened all the windows and I went home and he went to his garage.  The next day I returned.  The boy almost had a stroke when I pulled the oven door off the hinges.  Then when I pulled the drawer on the bottom of the stove out he was astounded.  He had used the stove for 7 years and did not know either of those things could happen.  But he now has a very clean stove with the skillets neatly tucked away.  So I am grooming him for the candlelight dinners that await him and some lucky lady in the not to distant future.  I know he can cook so that is an advantage.

So next week I will throw him to the wolves, so to speak.  He has very high morals and a naivete that I find rather amusing.  Course we know how many times I have been around the block and I do not try to sugar coat any of it.  He will make some woman a very good companion and we are both acutely aware that it is not me.  The boy plays Classical music in his garage and his venture on the wild side is a little light jazz.  And he reads books with big words and tiny print by people I have never heard of before.  Way out of my comfort zone, but that does not make him a bad person. 

Ah, but for every  Jack there is a Jill.  We know that.  We just have to find the right Jill.  It is an undertaking that he has not yet put on his list, but he will! Just  click on this to see what I have planned!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR2FvrU-NIM



 

Take me home, country roads!

Oh, I thought  I had already done this blog!  When I had taken Sister Mary to meet her kids, we met at the Garden City Truck Plaza.  As luck would have it there was a display of old restored Triumph motorcycles.  Oh, I was so happy that I had the trusty camera!
 
Oh, there is just something about a Triumph, or an Indian that just brings back old memories.  Harley Davidson has that wonderful rumble that they have tried to patent, but Triumph's always bring back my gully jumping days.  Do not think I did this a lot and at no time was I ever the driver when the bike left the ground, but I did have a husband at one time who thought that he was Evil Knievel.  Remember him?  I mean Evil Knievel, not my husband.    The man was actually very good at the art of jumping and landing on the other side still upright.  I was damn good at hanging on, too!

At that point in my life I rode a Honda, as I recall.  I loved that bike.  I was waiting tables at the Red Rooster Restaurant in Hutchinson, Kansas along with my mother.  My good friend Gibby was the cook.....but that brings up a whole 'nother subject.  I rode my bike every day that it was not raining or the wind blowing at 40 knots.  We did not have to wear helmets at that time, and I tell you there is just something about the wind in my hair  and the road blurred beneath  the bike that makes this girl want to strap a guitar on her back and hit the open road and not look back! But, alas, I was a mother and mother's do not do that.  They go to work and come home.  Take the kiddies for short bike rides and instill in them the thrill of the open road. 

But what does all this have to do with a Triumph and gully jumping?  Who knows.  I did have a wonderful outing in Colorado Springs not long ago with a fellow who took me to a meeting of the British Motorcycle Group up there.  I met a really nice bunch of guys.  Upon finding myself the only female in the group, I had a brief moment of panic.  But then I seen the difference between the group and the gang mentality.  These guys were perfect gentlemen!  There was not even the slightest hint that I would need to rear back on the "bitch seat" and pull my tee shirt up for the whole world to see.  These were just a bunch of guys who really enjoyed talking about their prize possessions which just happened to be motorcycles.  One guy rides a Kawasaki!  I think one might have a Harley.  Guy I was with has a whole garage full of them, but the one I am looking forward to a day trip on is the BMW.  I am not sure he remembers he has it, but I think I can remind him!

I will make that my mission for this summer.  That will be just great to pack a little lunch, crawl on the back of that big machine and head up the mountain for the day.  I will get to sight see while he has to watch the road.  Oh, high altitude, pace maker, high blood pressure....maybe not.  Well, it was a thought!

High School at Plevna, Kansas with Grandma and Great Grandma!

Well, there is nothing more scary in the whole world of young people than the day they leave the secure little nest of Elementary School and venture onto the high school campus.  True it is only 7 blocks away and it is the same kids you have gone to school with all your life, but none-the-less, it was a real heart stopper for me.

I did not start High School in my Beloved Nickerson, I started in Plevna, Kansas.  The entire city population was 112.  There were outlying farms, but I lived in the city proper with Grandma Haas, age 71 and Great Grandma Hatfield, age 98.  Grandma was rather crippled up from a stroke and Great Grandma took care of her.  My job was to help.

Now, I don't know if you ever lived with 2 very old ladies when you were a delicate flower of 15, but there is a lot of adjusting that needs to be done and guess who is going to do it!  First was the sleeping arrangements.  They had a bedroom with a big bed. That was theirs.  Upstairs were 2 bedrooms with beds and all, but I could not sleep up there because I would be too far away and something might happen and what if some one came in and kidnapped me?  So I slept in the downstairs living room on the couch right by the front door, which was never locked.  Ok, Grandma's!

Next I must learn to crochet.  They had a radio, a big wooden thing with a round top.  That was for listening to the stock market and futures reports at noon.  For no other reason was it ever turned on.  It goes without saying that there was no television, so crochet it should be.  With my little hook and size 10 crochet thread I very quickly learned to make a "chain".  That was good enough for me, but not the grandma's. 

After my first chain was about 10 feet long I say the wisdom of learning other stitches.  I was taught the sc (single crochet, dc (double crochet), hdc (half double crochet), tr (treble crochet), dtr (double treble crochet), and then I was on my way.  Soon I had a round crocheted thingy to which I added chains and made loops.  At the end I crocheted around the outside with green thread and that was it.  I had made my first Pineapple Doily! Great Grandma then boiled sugar and water and put the doily in there.  It was then set to dry and the ruffle shaped.  It was a work of art and my first endeavor in the fine art of needlework.

Plevna had a bank, filling station, phone company, post office, mechanic, the school, and a General Store.  Hinshaw's General Store  was the hub of the metropolis, needless to say.  When Grandma sent me to the store she sent me with a handkerchief with the money tied in the corner.  After all it was almost a full block! It was always just the right amount.  I would walk in, tell Mr. or Mrs. Hinshaw that Grandma Hatfield had sent me, hand him the hanky and wait.  He would retrieve what ever it was, untie the hanky, take the money and had me the hanky and the item.  I was then trusted to walk home with both.

There was lots of stuff in that store. Light farm  equipment like rakes, shovels, towels, a few pairs of overalls, socks, beans and crackers in a barrel, and of course groceries.  I went one time with Aunt Mabel and she bought a towel for me to do textile painting on for momma for Christmas.  It had laid on the shelf so long it had lines that never came out, but it was new and it was for momma.  As I recall Aunt Mabel helped me paint a beautiful Iris.  Another form of needlework or crafts or something.

The most important part about the Hinshaws was their grandsons!  They were my age and they were twins and I would go to school with them when school started.  Dale was very light complected, with red hair and freckles and a little on the pudgy side.  Dean was  small and wiry, and darker complected with dark brown hair, very thin.  If you met them you would never dream they were related in any way.  First lesson on twins.  Also my first childhood crush, but I won't tell you which one it was! It actually lasted way over a week into the school year.

The highlight of the summer was when momma sent 2 friends of the family to pick me up and take me back to Nickerson for a few days before school started.  They roared into town on their Triumph Motorcycles and I was in Heaven!  I loved those bikes and the thought of the 20 mile trip to Nickerson was enough to make me walk on cloud 9 for weeks after.  There is just nothing like a Triumph.  Harley's are great and I love the rumble of the motor, which I understand is patented, and I own Harley stock today, but a Triumph was the sign of the times.  It symbolized youth, and freedom, and the open road.  Ah, I digress.

Next week I could start school!  And that will be tomorrow, so see you then. Be sure that my short time at Plevna High School is not at all what one would expect.  So see you then cause you are going to learn about my roots.