Gerald Ford Museum

We visited the life and times of President Gerald Ford while we were in Grand Rapids, Michigan. According to information at the museum, “Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. … Shortly after the birth of her son, Dorothy Gardner King left her physically abusive husband and moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan – described by one historian as ‘America at it’s best, a community of great expectations.’ Settled by thrifty Dutch and Eastern European immigrants, the town boasted 70 furniture factories, 134 churches and the second highest rate of home ownership in the nation.”

I was born in Grand Rapids and spent the first fourteen years of my life near there.

The documents and photos show the presidency from 1974-1977. These were the times of the hippies, the Beatles, Vietnamese refugees, the energy crisis, the bicentennial, the Nixon pardon and the invention of the Polaroid camera.

I was impressed with the replica of the oval office, as it appeared when Gerald Ford was president.

Another plaque reads “ On December 26, 2006, Gerald Ford passed away. . . At sunset on January 3, 2007, his body was laid to rest on the grounds of his museum, in the city of his youth.”

Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park

Terry and I took each other's photo on June 9, as we strolled in the botanical center, which holds live butterflies in the spring. Now there were magnificent tropical flowers here. Another indoor conservatory was filled with desert foliage.

Our favorite outdoor flowers were at the beautiful waterfalls. The replica of Lena Meijer’s childhood home had the typical flowers found at her old farmstead.

We didn’t spend much time in the sensory rich children’s area. Since we decided that to walk the 132 acres of flowers and sculpture was too much, we hurried to catch the tram. The docent onboard the tram didn’t consult any notes as she explained each sculpture and named the artist and their feelings about each piece during the forty-minute ride. My favorite was the horse designed by Leonardo De Vinci. The only other copy of this sculpture is in Italy.

Michigan Aunts and Uncles

One of my goals for this year is to see my aunts and uncles. My father is of a family of ten children who survived to become adults. All but Ella are alive. The Michigan group met at the Country Kitchen near Byron Center for a mini- reunion. We laughed and joked and had a great time.

Bill and Donna, in the second picture, left before the outdoor pictures were taken. In the picture of me with Dad’s three sisters, l to r are Etta, Jean and Anne. Ray and Bern are in the foreground and cousin Martin is in the background of the men’s picture. I spoke with Aunt Bernice, from Montana, when she phoned Aunt Jean. Bernice walked five miles with her friends last week and then the group went out for ice cream. She is eighty years young. Aren’t I lucky to have such relatives?

Down Memory Lane

Iwent on a trip down memory lane to the place where I spent my childhood in Michigan. The school was painted white when I attended this one room country grammar school. The house I lived in has been torn down and another one built in it’s place but the red brick octagon house that my grandparents lived in, is still a home. It was three stories when my grandparents lived there but my Uncle Sierd and Aunt Mae bought it, removed the top story and replaced the roof. I remember my Great Grandmother Maggie sitting in her rocking chair in this house. She was served tea at precisely three o’clock everyday. Us children were only allowed tea, which was half milk and half tea, when we drank it with her.

Terry and I went to my Aunt Margie’s house and drank tea with her.

We returned to our RV where we are parked by Aunt Jean and Uncle Bern’s house. Aunt Jean taught me to sew so I could make skirts, when I reached the gangly age of 13 and had problems fitting into the dresses I owned. When I moved back to Michigan after my marriage, I made Barbie doll clothes for Jean’s daughter Laura. Laura visited with us and showed me the doll clothes that I made forty + years ago.

1929 Ford Tri-Motor

We spent the first week of June in Illinois visiting Terry’s friend Wayne, Pat and their son Tim. (The men have known each other since grammar school.) It’s great to be able to be able to park in their yard and visit, yet have our own living space.

On Thursday, June 4, Tim decided that he wanted to go for a ride in the 1929 Ford Tri-Motor promotion sponsored by the EAA Aviation Foundation. This plane has seen active service barnstorming, crop dusting and as a borate bomber in aerial fire fighting. It was in the Jerry Lewis movie called “The Family Jewels” and will be in the upcoming Johnny Depp/Christian Bale movie called “Public Enemies.”

Tim’s comment on the ride was that it was “too short.”

Solar Panels and Fun with Emily

Terry has been busy creating a contraption that will raise the solar panels on our RV roof and put them down by pushing a toggle switch. The problem has been that it has rained and we have had some strong winds. Several times he found that he needed another bolt or part and had to drive 100 miles round trip to Des Moines to get them.

My eleven-year-old granddaughter, Emily spent a couple of days with me. We went to the Tulip Tea Room in Pella where she got to look at a whole box of tea bags to choose her tea. She says she is a tomboy but she liked the girly luncheon too.

My daughter, Karol, decided to give her niece the flute she played in high school band. Emily practiced on it most of the two days she was with me.

Mom fell on Thursday so Dad asked me to stay with mom while he went fishing with Terry on Friday, May 29. Emily won most of the games of Skipbo that we played with Mom.

Yes, the fishing was successful. Terry caught bass while dad caught blue gills.

Hoven Work Day

The sky was dark and the forecast was rain on Tuesday, May 26, when we went to my Mom and Dad Hoven's house for a workday. They had a roof over a porch or patio area that leaked. My husband, brothers, brothers-in-law, a nephew and my niece climbed the roof to tear it up and rebuild it with 2 x 4's, OSB board, and rolled roofing. My sisters and I cleaned indoors and prepared sloppy joes, baked beans, potato salad and fruit salad for lunch. Clara also brought a rhubarb cake and I brought my leftover Birthday Cake. The repair work was finished five minutes before a cloudburst of rain fell on us.