Backtracking a bit...

In 1982, Wilma and her neighbor, Elizabeth Jakeways, took a bus trip to the East coast, for visits to some of the historical and interesting places there. Here are some photos of that bus trip. Considering that both of these ladies were in their 80's, they were pretty spunky to take a trip like this! It reminds me of a framed saying that I got when David's mother's apartment was cleaned out after her death. This is how it goes...

Important!

There is still time to

watch more sunsets...

Eat more ice cream...

Take more chances...

go barefoot...

Sing more...

Smile more...

Wish on more stars...

Pick more flowers...

Give more...

Live more! 

Wise words to live by, as attested by the 94 years lived well by Ann Rueber!

  This is the group of hearty senior citizens who traveled by bus through the New England states and New York in the fall of 1982. I think my mother, Wilma, is partially hidden behind the man in a beige shirt on the far left. Elizabeth is standing in the front row, wearing a black sweater and slacks and carrying a tan purse...about 5th from the left.

This is the monument the group is standing in front of...dedicated to 'They That Go Down To The Sea In Ships...1623 - 1923' This monument stands in the harbor at Gloucester, Massachusetts, and commemorates all the seamen who have been lost at sea.

This was a view of the ocean and some of the many boats at harbor as the bus drove along near the coast. I think this was probably the only time my mother was ever on the East coast.

This was taken at the U.S.S. Constitution, and the young man with the striped uniform was one of the guides as the group toured this ship.

A 'fellow traveler' examines elements on the U.S.S. Constitution.

Here are Wilma and Elizabeth standing near the sign at Plymouth Rock, 'landing place of the Pilgrims, 1620' - posted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

According to what Wilma had written on the back of this photo, this was the bridge that 'arched the flood' where the farmers held back the British at Concord (Massachusetts).

The tour group enjoyed fall leaves on the trees as well as this historic site - a statue commemorating 'the Minutemen' who fought against the British at Concord.

(When my mother took photos, sometimes she got her thumb in the picture, and sometimes people had their heads cut off!) This is a statue of Paul Revere, with his head outside of the range of her photo....  'The British are coming! The British are coming!' (The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere)

Here is one of the beautiful sights the bus tour group was able to enjoy as they toured this part of the country in autumn. Simply gorgeous!

The group also visited Salem, Massachusetts, where the horrible 'witch trials' were held. This is a museum which holds objects and information about that awful time of persecution of older women by religious zealots (ignorant people who thought those women were 'witches'...)

This is Elizabeth, also standing in front of the huge door to the Witches Museum at Salem. How many of these older, white-haired women (especially if they had some form of dementia, and seemed to be muttering to themselves...) might have been murdered because they were thought to possess evil powers, but in reality were only old women...mothers, grandmothers, aunts... Religion may have its place, but too often it is used as a club to persecute people who don't agree with those beliefs.

Of course, no trip to the East coast would be complete without a visit to Niagara Falls. Here is an aerial view of the falls.

The Falls, as seen through a guard fence. 

This is a photo of the bus tour group in front of the beautiful floral clock at Niagara Falls (oops...I see I have mispelled Niagara on this photo...will have to fix that in my mother's scrapbook...I made the book, and I want it to be correct!) I think that is Wilma holding her purse up to her chest about 5th from the left, standing up. That must be Elizabeth standing next to her slightly behind to the left.

Here's a view of the floral clock without so many people in front of it!

Wilma and Elizabeth at the floral gardens at Niagara Falls, N.Y.

This shot was taken at 'The Breakers,' the Vanderbilt mansion. 

Here are mother (Wilma) and her friend Elizabeth Jakeways (....and neighbor who lived in the apartment above her apartment on Dalewood Avenue in Cedar Rapids.)

Here is a view of the tops of the umbrellas above tables in Rockefeller Center in New York, where Wilma and Elizabeth spent the last couple of days of their tour. While they were in New York, Scott Brown - Wilma's grandson, and my nephew - met the two ladies and spent some time with them.

Here is Wilma and Elizabeth at Rockefeller Center. Scott (Wilma's grandson) took this photo.

I think my mother was finding New York a bit of a change from the Midwest. In the photo above, a mime with 'white face' make-up was following a lady on the sidewalk, and doing exactly what she was doing. This guy tried to kiss Elizabeth, and I think my mother was a bit shocked by that... (another spelling 'mishap!'...I need to put a 'k' in mimicking!)

This was taken at a Buddhist shrine in New York City. 

I'm sure this trip was wonderful for Wilma. She had spent a lot of her life, helping others, including my father in his later years. She had always been very careful with her money, cutting corners all the time to spare a few cents. I was glad she was able to do a little traveling. She had one time expressed an interest in taking me to Europe with her. But, then came the end to the savings and loan 'bubble.' Wilma lost $65,000 in investments in that fiasco, and even though letters were written to our Congressman of the time - Charles Grassley - apparently nothing could be done to recover her money. (A little aside here...even though 17% interest sounds wonderful, there is a serious downside...it can't last, and your money might disappear when it is all over! Never put a large amount of funds in anything that sounds too good to be true, because it probably is...)

This photo was taken in about 1982 (there is another shot taken the same day that appears earlier in this blog...with our daughter and her brother Dave playing at this playground). In this shot, Wilma is seated on one of the swings, and left to right are Janey, Dave, me, with our daughter next to my mother.

This is a photo of my mother at the home of a couple of older ladies whom she had befriended. She is having tea at their house, and looks very nice in this aqua blouse. Looking at this dear face brings back so many memories of my mother...sometimes I forget that she's been gone for 15 years now...

While this is not the most flattering shot of my sisters, it does show how much help they gave my mom as she grew older. In this picture, Merry (left) and Jean (right) are putting up some pretty 'strawberry' wallpaper in Wilma's kitchen on Mound Avenue, before she moved to her apartment on Dalewood. I will say this...my sisters were all really good at decorating their homes, and some of them were excellent carpenters as well, not to mention seamstresses...

Here is the completed kitchen...very nice! Those oak bentwood ice cream chairs were some that Jack Brown discovered and got for us. Mother used some of them at her house, and I still have two of them (now refinished and back to their oak surface) at my own kitchen table!

Mother, seated on one of those painted kitchen bentwood chairs, in her living room on Mound Avenue. I don't remember too many times in my life when I saw an angry look on my mother's face, except - of course - when I was doing something she didn't approve of... Most of the time, she just had a very pleasant look and eyes full of laughter and fun. She was a wonderful role model...took care of her mother and of my dad's mother, and housed various family members at various times over the years, when some of them needed her help. She trained for a time to be a nurse, and she was always a 'nurse' to the rest of us...

Here is Wilma with her granddaughter, at Jean and Jack's condo in about 1980. It was probably Thanksgiving or some holiday... out little girl was two years old.

Another shot of that same time...my mom had a great lap!

So, that's it for today. Come on back...I will post a few more photos of the mid-1980's and then I'll be putting up some of our next family reunion at Potato Lake, which took place in 1987, and was - as usual - a fun time!