Skip to main content

Flashback Friday

Friday Housekeeping:

1.  Why did this blog get 83 hits last Tuesday?  

2.  Don't forget to send in you pics, vids or comments about anything to bfereporter@yahoo.com.  We (that is me and my staff) will post them on Mondays.

3.  I almost bought a 1963 Dodge 880 last week.  Too much money, too many questions about where to store it,  too frightened to pull the trigger.  What a mess I am. 


4.  I have 2 Illinois Millionaire lottery tickets.  If I win, I'll buy the Dodge.

5.  Scroll on down and you'll get a bonus post.  

6.  Just a reminder that if you want Existing In BFE to be sent to your phone just send me your email address and I'll hook you up.

7.  There are no plans to end Existing In BFE.  There is, however, a final blog should anything happen to me unexpectedly. 

Flashback Friday  



This was taken of my folks in 1963 when my mother was 38 and my father was 41.  It's a pretty cool picture - both young with young kids.  Active social life with all kinds of fun things to occupy their time.  They had a boat that they would take down to Keithsburg and take across the river to a sand shoal where other friends would gather.  They played bridge with a circle in Seaton and Herb was golfing and both spent a lot of time at the Country Club.   Herb was soon to buy the grain elevator from his father, and Marj, raising the kids and doing what other housewives were doing:  cooking, talking on the phone exchanging info and planning redecorating projects.  A picture of them young and healthy and vibrant before age starts to take its toll.




Picture that was saved from the Great Flood of BFE, albeit not without some damage.

Fast forward 20 years or more and the kids are raised and these guys are still enjoying each other's company. The boat is gone as are the bridge games, redecorating a passing phase, and now they mark the calendar with visits from the kids and a chance to see the grandkids. In between those 20 years was trial, turmoil and sometimes pain, but love and companionship won out.  March 8th was Marj's birthday and had she not passed away in  at 69 she would have been 88 years old this year.  Happy Birthday and miss you every day.  You did a great job raising us and thanks.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Philippe Park and The Tocobaga Indian Mound

About ten miles or so north of Bedlam is a place called Safety Harbor.  Its the place that has the 300-500 year old oak that the city tried to kill I featured a couple weeks ago on BFE .  They have a pretty nice park that has some interesting history, too.  Count  Philippe landed here and introduced the pineapple and cigar making to the Tampa Bay area. Today, however, I want to mention something else about this area, besides the really nice scenery.  Phillipe Park was also the home of the Tocobaga Indians.  The Tocobaga occupied the Tampa Bay area from around 600 A.D. to the 1600's.   This is a fairly common view of old stately moss-laden oaks down here.   This shot was taken atop the only Tocobaga Indian mound in the area.  This exact spot is home not only to the Tocobaga until they died out, but then to Count Phillipi who settled the area after the Tocobaga died out.   The place is full of oak and ...

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...

Warsaw Brewery

Roadtrip!  That word is like a dog whistle to me.  The Wombie's played coy with me a couple days but finally we loaded into the Chevy (sadly, no Jeep) and headed south to Warsaw, Illinois.  They tried to keep it a secret as to what was down there but loose lips  sink ships but it was good anyway. Warsaw is a small town around Hamilton and to get there you get to travel the Great River Road along the Mississippi. You get to go through Nauvoo, too and get to see the magnificent Mormon Temple overlooking the river. Its a great couple hours of scenery and juicy things to see and then, before you know it, you are trying to find an old closed brewery that has been transformed into a restaurant and bar. There are many overlooks and scenic cut outs along the Great River Road.   There is even a little history if you are into it.  This marker notes the place where a vanished town, Montebello, used to exist.  It was also the...