OUR JAUNT TO OREGON & IDAHO

Thank you to the readers who actually look to see if I've written - your saying you miss the blog is inspiring and encouraging.

I am not on a specific 'spiritual journey' right now. After the current Jennifer Rothschild Bible Study ends, we'll see what comes next - but for the other recent physical journey - I will write a bit and you may read if you choose!

My eldest brother graduated from Midvale High School, Midvale, Idaho - I think the year was 1956. Earlier this Spring he told me that he was going to an all-school reunion in Midvale - and I decided I wanted to go - even though I had only attended there my 5th, 6th and 7th grade years. But - we lived at the ranch 20 miles out of Midvale for a total of six summers, beginning just after my 2nd grade year - so it was a walk back in time I wanted to explore.

Al said he'd be happy to go if we could combine it with a trip to get some obsidian, so the plan was made....and I made my reservations.

Just getting registered was a joy, because I got to be in touch with one of the Branch twins - Lois, to be specific. She and her sister, Doris, are a couple of years younger than I am, but their ranch was on the way out to ours, and sometimes I rode the bus home with them, then Dad picked me up on his way home. Memories spill over each other and tumble out. Things I had not thought of in years.... The Branch twins were one of the great memories. One time someone asked if Lois and I were the ones who were twins - because we both had light hair - and Doris's was dark. And another time, someone asked if we were triplets. I was thrilled someone thought I might be a 'Branch'. As I told one lady at the reunion, "They were hot stuff back in the day." I didn't have sisters - and I lived vicariously through friends who did...and/or adopted friends with the exuberance of having them be 'like a sister'.

Our trip began Tuesday morning, May 25. We were gone for 8 days, returning the following Tuesday night around 9 p m.

Our first destination was near Glass Butte in Central Oregon. More specifically, Little Glass Butte, where we expected to dig large chunks of obsidian in various colorations. We didn't find much 'fire' obsidian, or any rainbow obsidian, but we did get a lot of plain black obsidian and red and black mixed in various patterns - and much smaller than we had planned. Al concluded that I am my father's daughter. Dad was a rock hound. I never went with him - but I do love colorful rocks. Al was more specific in what he wanted, because his purpose for the obsidian is to do flintknapping - making arrowheads of varying lengths. My intent was purely aesthetic. So - we have some that are garden rocks and some that are specifically his....

Camping at the dig was free, of course.... Thursday we left the digging site and that night we camped up a gravel road toward Beulah at an Oregon State campground. Senior Citizen's rate: $2.50. One of the joys of being a seasoned citizen . . . or in this case, being with one. I have to wait until September to qualify.

While we were in Idaho, I got to see all 3 of my brothers. The eldest came up to the reunion from Brigham City, Utah, and the other two live about 16 miles apart, in Parma and New Plymouth. I also got to see my cousin and his wife - my only first cousin on the Rice side who is still living. (We had only one other.) And, I got to see my dear friends Arlene & LeRoy Grothaus. They always have stories to tell. My eldest brother, Duane, was with me when we stopped, so this time the story was on him....

And - on Saturday when we registered for the Sunday reunion, I got to see the lovely Branch twins and get a picture with them; see my best friend from the ranch - Phyllis Grothaus; and my best friend from in town - Faye Towell. It was such an incredible joy to see friends I treasured whom I had not seen for so many years.... I left Midvale in 1957, and had seen Phyllis just once in between - and that was a long time ago.

The day of the actual reunion dinner I saw a lot more people from my 'olden days' - - and it was all a joy!

I realized for the first time what Midvale had meant to us in terms of healing from the pain of our mother's death. There we were just 'us' - not 'the kid's whose mother committed suicide'. We just got to be. To live and laugh and be embraced by a warm, closely-knit community.

Midvale was a place where everyone waved. There were no strangers - just friends we didn't know yet. I am so grateful for that time in my life. Thank you, Midvale - and all the people who embraced us!

There were two bonus joys of the trip: Al wanted to meet a guy named Emery Coon from Burns, Oregon, who is a highly regarded flintknapper - and a man named Dwight Towell, from Midvale, who is a world-renowned knife maker. There's a story about Emery only Al can tell - - but I bought Al one of his creations for Father's Day: an obsidian knife with a sagebrush handle. It really is beautifully done - and his favorite expression when we complimented his work was, "I just have way too much fun." Emery is young, and has no idea how good he is. His grandfather and father were flintknappers and he started at age 5.

As it turned out, Dwight Towell is related to my friend Faye, and her husband, Bob, tracked Dwight down at the reunion and brought him over so Al could meet him. He had just delivered one of his knives to a man at the reunion - a gift for his retirement, so we got to see one piece of his work. It was unbelievable. I told him I couldn't even imagine how one would go about making such a knife, and his reply was, "You just take a piece of steel and cut away everything that doesn't look like a knife." I laughed and told him that is Al's line about carving ducks: just taking a block of wood and carving away everything that doesn't look like a duck. But this was steel, not wood - and it was a knife with a flip-out blade. It was an absolutely beautiful piece of craftsmanship - and art - and the man was even more impressive to me in light of his fame - modest, down-to-earth - but a legend.

Of course, I live with one of those. A man who is equally nice, down-to-earth and a legend in his own time for various reasons. I've had phonecallers who have asked me, "Is this the house of the Al Cain, the surveyor?" Yep! And when he was working he had a reputation that was pretty phenomenal - people who referred to him as a legend. I get that.

After we left Idaho, we decided on a whim to take off at Durkee to go through the backroads to our next destination - and it just happened to take us to one of the places on my bucket list! My mother was born in Bridgeport, Oregon - and even though my brother told me there is nothing there any more, I wanted to go to Bridgeport to see what wasn't there. I just wanted to know where it was. There is a cemetery in a field just a ways away from where the town was - and a sign that designates the site of historic Bridgeport - which points to another field, where sheep were grazing....but I got to be there, and it was a journey back to time before my time that coursed through me. I am so grateful for that fortuitous happening that made us decide to take that specific road without knowing where it would pass.

It also passed through Hereford - a town with more unseen memories. My mother's eldest sister, Lola, married a man named Frank Warren. They lived in Hereford. His family had the mercantile store and he ran the local garage and repair shop - mostly working on farm equipment back in those days. One day when my mother was a little girl, she was staying with her sister Lola. Lola asked her to run over to her mother-in-law's house to get a recipe for her, but when Nellie (my mother)got there, she couldn't remember what to call the thing she had come for so she stammered, " I came to get a . . . a . . . a piece-a-que! Of course, Mrs.Warren knew why she had come - and that she was there to get a recipe - but everyone thought it was so cute, that in that family, they called recipes 'piece-a-ques' ever after.

I didn't know the story until I was an adult when an older cousin - one of Lola's daughter's - told me. Since my mother died when I was 7, I collect memories as treasures - and I love that story. Now I have a visual for where it happened. I've been to Hereford.

Since coming home, I've realized how much joy there is going to be in heaven when we see people we haven't seen for so long. My reunion reconnections mirrored that on a much smaller scale. I'm torn right now between sadness and joy - sadness for those who do not believe, and joy for the Hope we have as believers.

He's coming soon! It's time to make travel plans!

At the end of our trip we went to visit friends who were camping on acreage they purchased near Kimberly, Oregon, in the John Day area. That, too, was good! We came home tired, grateful for all the adventures, and grateful for the weather we had... and glad to be home again!