Marco Prep

It's that time again. What I wait for all winter long...Marco Island time! You might think it's because of the fabulous beach and 80 degree weather. Okay...that's a big part of it. But beyond that, I go to reconnect with my roots. I bought a new suitcase! I hate packing...

Marco is the last place I really spent time with my parents. I started going there in 1987 and have been there 20+ times since then. When I vacation there with my sister Cindy, we reminisce about them. We talk about the good times and the bad. We talk about our parents' friends - both from Atlantic and from Marco. Mom and Dad spent a lifetime making good friends and we value that. We laugh about our childhood antics with our sisters.

Next week at this time, my biggest decisions will be which way to walk on the beach (left or right) and where are we eating for supper. My nephew Colby and Paul will go fishing a couple times. I will read five or six books. We'll shop at great outlet mall. With sandals on. I imagine I will laugh until I cry at least once - Cindy and I tend to bring that out in each other.

Here's to you Pat and Dave! You really started something.

Below Average

In one of the many bits of information I read online each day, I came across the fact that the average person lives in 10 places throughout their life. Hmmm. Challenge accepted! I decided to run through the places I've called home to see how I stack up. I'm not counting 6th Floor on Maple Hall at ISU - where I spent 2 part years of my life.

Watercolor of our home designed by my grandfather Herbert Morehead

• The home place in Atlantic. My my grandpa (Mom's dad) designed. It was really cool for its time (built around 1950). Each of the three bedrooms had a built in dresser and there was a built-in bookshelf in the living room. Mom had a wide plank hard wood oak floor installed in the kitchen and family room way before most people considered that type of floor covering. Back then the wood needed upkeep and a couple times a year she and the cleaning lady would apply paste wax and use a machine to polish it. That's when it was really fun to slide down the hall in our socks!

230 Campus Avenue - so modern in 1978!

• My first apartment in Ames where I lived with Sally, Jane and Vicki. It was fully furnished and we were the first people to move into the two bedroom place, owned by Scott Randall brother of Tom who played football at ISU. All the cool kids lived there! Susan Weinheimer, Don McKim (after I was long gone), Paul Goldsmith, Jane Ertl and my roomies. I've talked to lots of other people I've met through the years who also spent time at 230 Campus.  

Bucko with my cactus Rocky in 1980

• apartment Sioux Falls - my first place by myself. It was also furnished with typical 1970's furniture, though it was 1980 by then. Check out the gold shag carpet. Bucko enjoyed climbing the ugly curtains before he was de-clawed.

• Omaha  - apartment way out west. It was a one bedroom with a cathedral ceiling on the third floor. I finally had to buy some furniture from Nebraska Furniture Mart - with the help of Betso who yelled at them to make sure I had a bed to sleep in that first night.
• CB apartment right behind K-Mart. I moved across the river right before Paul and I got married and Betso lived with me that summer - she was a student at Creighton working a summer job at Chucky Cheese. It was another third floor apartment, and by then we had more furniture thanks to my grandparents who moved to Heritage House, the retirement place in Atlantic. Thank goodness for strong friends who carried stuff up 3 flights for beer and pizza!
• The rental house where Paul had his first DC job in Osage. The landlord was a French Canadian named Henry who had rehabbed the place. An older woman lived in the other part of the house. She was hard of hearing so we could hear her TV through the walls. There was no shower so we had to use the sit and spray method in the tub. There were a few nights I heard mice in the ceiling. #sleeplessinOsage

Our first Creston house - Memorial Day party

• Our first home in Creston was great! We loved it and spent many, many hours (and $) working on that place, which was green inside and out, top to bottom when we bought it. We lived there just over 10 years. I have many good and some sad memories from that place. There were some wonderful and a few not so good neighbors.

We loved this home overlooking McKinley Lake

• Our second home on the west side of Creston still holds a dear place in my heart. (and deer because they used to bed down in the back yard) Again, our friends came through in the moving department. We did leave the piano behind, but that heavy fold-out couch was a bear. Again - more living and memories there. I still miss the neighbors, and the deck. It was my happy place.

Our DSM home is among this group of townhomes

• West Des Moines. We love our home here. We chose it after several days of house hunting with Marge, the "veteran" (she must be in her mid 80's) realtor. It's a very livable space that is big enough when visitors come. Paul does miss the yard work a little...except when he doesn't. It's right on the bike path, convenient to shopping and the freeway. It's perfect! If only we could transplant our friends here from other places. I must admit we have been lax in trying to make new ones. It's not as easy when you don't have kids to help pave the way. So if you're in the area - message me and we'll get together.

So there. I came up with nine places I've lived. Of course I'm not done yet! Who knows where Pablo and I will end up next? Paul counted up 12 places his laid his head down. Above average!

Homes are important. I had a recent conversation with someone who had gone back to see their childhood home. They wished they wouldn't have since it was much smaller and dumpier (current owner not keeping it up) than they remembered. Just like my old grade school when I went back - those coat racks were down so low...

Not there just for the Barbecue...

What a weekend! I didn't think we could top last year...but this year's Big 12 Tournament was just as good. The games were even more exciting....hard on this old gal! Cyclone fans can thank me for those victories - I found the secret.

Jane, Barb & me

Ask anyone. I'm very superstitious. I watched the first game on the big screen at the Power and Light with my buddies Jane and Barb. The Cyclones struggled the whole game. Scoring was a struggle. The girls and I sat on a wall and became uncomfortable. We were losing! Finally, down 10 points with 4 minutes left, I needed a change. I hit the public restroom - tipping the cheery attendant on my way out.

That did the trick! We were only down 6 when I came out. So I didn't want to return to my "unlucky" spot and jinx us. So I stood by random Cyclone fan strangers as our team proceeded to make 2 3-pointers and tie the game as time dwindled. Texas had the ball but failed to score and we had it with 5 seconds left. I paced in the back - not looking. I knew we won somehow, someway by the crowd noise. Monte had hit a shot as time ran out. Cyclones win by 2! There were several thousand Cyclone fans in the house - all going crazy. I ran to my former spot to hug Jane! Break out Sweet Caroline - the crowd sang along enthusiastically.

A while later Paul, Jud, Kara and my little buddy all growed up Michael Hyde showed up. Michael's gf Erin was there too. How fun is that?!?

Kara, Jud, Michael, Erin

Steve and Jud

Then we ended up at a brew pub for some grub. Our nephew Steve Fox from San Diego looked us up. He was with his buddy from their hometown of Webster City. Our waiter delivered free cinnamon whiskey shots - just because the bottle was nearly empty! It was fun chatting with Steve and Tom - reliving the game.



The next day Jud, Paul and I went with Kara on a tour she had scoped out online. It was of a coffee biz - the Roasterie, in downtown KC. It was started by a Denison, Iowa native and ISU guy. They did a video about how he got interested in coffee and how the beans are selected. It smelled delish there! The beans are roasted in an air system that is like air popping corn.

Then we were off to Joe's Barbecue. So very yummy. It was only an hour wait. Jud bought - can't beat that! I was glad to get a nap in prior to the pep rally. I stopped by the restroom to tip my friend the attendant for good luck. Anything I can do to help the Cyclones!

We saw Dwight and Marilyn Conover at the Pep Rally - wonder how D got those beads?

The Oklahoma game was quite exciting - sitting in the "cheap seats" with my boys. It was another come from behind win. We bonded with the folks around our seats. We all experienced a group sigh of relief when Ryan Spengler of Oklahoma missed a layup that would have tied up the game as time ran out. Jud and Kara partied late into the night at the Power and Light. Paul and I passed on that mob scene - opting for a quiet drink at the motel.

coloring

Saturday a.m. we met the Goldsmiths at the Urban Table near Overland Park. Paul's brother Ken, wife Mary and their daughter Katie Lee with 3 kids. Katie's husband Albert was participating in a run that morning. It was really nice to see them all - such a cute fam! I enjoy seeing their periodic pics on Facebook.

Paul and I got a little shopping in after that. No KC trip is complete without visiting Cabela's. I scored Merrill sandals there. On to Legends Outlet Mall where we ran into the Groth family - Nancy, Kenton and their daughters Karisa and Karlie - with husband Jason Hyde. Plus all the cherubs! It was Karisa's oldest daughter's 10th birthday. I remember when Amy didn't want to turn 10....already lamenting how fast life was spinning by!

We lunched at a Chipotle with Jud and Kara later outside the Power and Light later. ISU Coach Hoiberg's fam lined up behind us - just regular folk. I must say ISU does it right - best band of the four we saw. And our pep rally kicked Kansas butt!

Pre-Kansas game. Fired up!

 I tipped the restroom lady on my way to the arena. The first half of the game was gut wrenching for Jud and me. We were down 17 just after halftime. Ugh! The guy with the "lucky" hair didn't return to his seat - because we began to do better while he stood and watched the game on TV up above. When the game ended - Cyclones win by 4! We watched the cutting of the nets. It was great fun. Our team hasn't won enough for it to be "old hat".

We stopped by the Marriott where the team was staying and mixed with fans there. We ran into our lucky hair friend. He and his ISU grad wife are from Toledo, Ohio. He gave her this trip for Christmas. He's grown to love Cyclone fans so much - and has adopted ISU as his team too. We need more fans like him!

This was an expensive weekend $10 beer - but spending time like this with my family. Priceless.




Wayward children

At a meeting I attended this week, Chris, someone I've known through work and Facebook, asked me a question. "How do you do it?" she ask. She was talking about letting my children go - to move away.  She told me her daughter has an opportunity to move to the west coast. She mentioned that she knows that my kids don't live near here.

Wow! That was a deep question put to me 10 minutes before a meeting that I was a little nervous about. But Chris was reaching out, trying to get some support for something that obviously was weighing on her. Concentrate I told myself.

How should I answer? Chris is sad because she doesn't want her daughter to move away from her. When we like our kids - and vice-versa - it's nice to have them around. But it's selfish, really. Of course I didn't say that. That would be mean.

Would I like to have Amy and Jud live nearby? Certainly. It would be fun to have them over and to go shopping together and see them more than a few times a year.

But even more than that - I want what's best for them. And that might not be here.

I asked Chris the reason for her daughter's proposed move. It's a job opportunity that she and her husband won't have here in Iowa. It sounds like a move they should make. "How exciting!," I said, "it will be hard for you if they go - but you'll be so happy to see them succeed." Chris might even need to be prepared to give her daughter pep talks when she is homesick. Plus they'll need have a cool place to visit!

I don't know if I convinced her. We're all different and I don't know how intertwined her life is with her daughter's right now. Our ten minute discussion didn't allow time for that.

In my case, even if our children lived here, I can't picture us being besties. They lead very independent lives as do Paul and I. Other fams are different. Some probably thrive when they don't live by each other. #disfunctionalfam

Bless Chris and her fam. And kudos to me for not whipping out the corny poem, "If you love something, let it go".

The meeting went great!



If the kids lived nearby we could do this every game...NOT

Iowa Girl revisited

Disclaimer - some of this Blog came from a 2012 edition. This time of year just deserves blog space dedicated to the "Iowa Girl".

from website below

It is Iowa Girl's State Basketball Tournament week in Des Moines. I haven't paid too much attention - as usual. Not like back in the day (I'm thinking of the mid-70's - my high school years) when the six-on-six game was king. Or should I say queen. And there was only one class - so there was one overall winner for the whole state. The small schools dominated because they had been playing girl's ball for years (sometimes in uniforms that looked like skirts). The big schools were playing catch-up, as they had just figured out that we girls were "robust" enough to play such sports.

To set the stage, when I was in high school when Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendments into law. Of course I was oblivious - but that signature changed everything! Until then, boys got had nearly all the sports fun in Atlantic, Iowa. Oh sure, girls were already playing golf and tennis. They might have even started softball. But the ultimate team sport - basketball, didn't start until my sophomore year 1973/74.

I was a sophomore, and had never had formal coaching on shooting technique - nothing. A real project for Coach Dale Allen - just like most of the 60 or so girls who went out for basketball that year. I was in seventh heaven when I made the junior varsity squad. Of course our team was a project - like me. The J.V. team played hard and cheered on the varsity. We even won a game or two over other teams just starting up. We had a blast along the way - breaking new ground for girl athletes.

The Atlantic Trojanns (yes - a dumb team name - but we decided it was better than Lady Trojans...or WAS it?) were one and done when it came to playoffs of course. That year Mom offered to take Sally Rodgers, Jennifer Deter and me to watch state games during the school day at Vet's Auditorium.  Frosty Malt anyone?! The traditional Girl's State blizzard slammed Des Moines so we were forced to secure a room at the Howard Johnson's on Merle Hay for the night - no luggage. Mom was a trouper.

A tradition in Atlantic was to take in the Championship game with the Girls Recreation Association (GRA). Yep - that's the group we had before we were allowed to play real sports. Boys - you get all these sports with uniforms and fans. Girls - you get GRA. Maybe you can pretend to play some stuff. And then the school will provide buses to transport GRA girls to the girl's state tourney.

At least 40 girls headed to the big city for a whole day of big city downtown shopping followed by the pageantry of the semi-final and final games. Girls' Hoops finals day was like a holiday to me. I worshipped the basketball stars like rock stars! Some of them scored as many as 75 points a game. How I would have loved to be them.

The buses would arrive and park at Vets - then hoards of girls would head east to the downtown Younkers and other area stores and restaurants. I remember seeing girls from other towns in their letter jackets. That was about the time the "petless"leashes were all the rage. People had these starchy leashes with a little collar at the end. The leash would stick out in front of them like they were really walking a dog - but here's the funny thing. There was only air there. haha. I'm glad I didn't invest in one of those!

One year, some of the girls (not me) chose to attend the movie "The Exorcist" before the basketball game. Those chicks freaked out all the way home on the bus. Oh the drama of talking them down - "Oh no...I don't think that really happened....it's just a movie!"

When it was time for the game, we were seated in the cheap seats on a number on plywood in the end zone. Above us was the Iowa map showing lights for the towns that were still playing. You had to make sure to sit by your pals and to purchase all the good stuff - frosty malts, peanuts, soda. The consolation game was played first. I recall the thrill of seeing Adel star Julie Goodrich in the crowd awaiting the final game - signing autographs. I'd read the program cover to cover - as if I could absorb basketball skills by reading about the girls and staring at their pictures.

Title IX opened up a whole new world for me an millions of other girls. A world I didn't have to fight for. But I know the difference between before and after. Many people did fight the tough battles in order to get that legislation passed. And now it seems women are still fighting for our rights - and slipping back in some cases. So when I'm feeling all nostalgic about how great things were back in the day - I can't forget that.

The six-on-six game went by the wayside in the early 1990's. The Iowa Girl's HS Athletic Union has been using a class system for girls sports since the 1980's. I thought they went for a money grab - splitting into five classes. Really?

Times change. Chicks rule! I haven't seen anyone with a petless leash lately but you never know, they'll probably make a comeback with pet rocks.

I found a cool website with  6 on 6 records from Iowa Girls hoops and photos. I had Googled a player I remembered - Julie Mingo. This site popped up. She was from Glenwood and scored a bunch in one game.
Iowa Girl hoops

Hair

When my sister Susi went off to Temple Buell college, she went through what I remember as a bit of a "hippie" period. Remember, I was a twelve year-old in Atlantic, Iowa. She was a groovy coed in Denver - arriving home from college with wire frame glasses and fringed jeans. She also had a stack of record albums.

I'd grown up listening to my sister's music and still feel fortunate today that I was exposed to that "crazy rock" music as a kid in the 1960's. The summer after Susi's freshman year of college she came home and set up a bedroom in the basement. Evidently she and Cindy could no longer co-exist in the small bedrooms we sisters grew up in. Susi slept on the fold-out couch that summer. That had to be comfy!

Besides the black and white television in that room - the thing that attracted me was Susi's stereo. I loved to listen to her tunes. I don't know if I had permission or not - but it made me feel so cool! Susi was a lifeguard over at Lake Anita that summer - back in the days when state parks provided amenities like that.

We had great fun with the Kool sailboat

That was around the same time that Mom saved up a bunch of Salem cigarette cartons to get a sailboat for some ridiculous price. It was basically made out of Styrofoam...so she then purchased an epoxy kit with fiberglass fabric and we helped her glue it onto the bottom of the boat - that was named "Bullfrog".

Cindy and Susi were veteran sailors from their years at Camp Lake Hubert in Minnesota. They were shipped off to that camp for a few weeks each summer for a few years. That's where Susi learned to play the guitar too. Cindy only figured out the ukulele....

I'm not sure how Mom knew how to sail. Dad pretended to know how to sail. That's how his wallet ended up on the bottom of Lake Anita. They always joked that they should have put the name Bullfrog on upside down - because that's how they often sailed it! Don and Jane Deter used to head over to the lake with Mom and Dad too. I think cocktails were involved.

One of the albums I learned to love the summer Susi was a Lake Anita lifeguard was "Hair".

Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen
Give me down to there, hair, shoulder length or longer
Here baby, there, momma, everywhere, daddy, daddy

I've been thinking of that lately - as my hair falls. Thinning hair is a side-effect of Graves Disease and the drug Methimazole (yes, I'm on Meth) I take to block the hormones my thyroid was pumping out.

I've blogged before about how I don't have the hair gene. That's true...but I am a girl! I don't like seeing my hair change like this. Even the texture of it is different. Ugh. I do what I can - but hope I can get off this drug soon. Maybe then my hair will start perking up. I didn't always like my waves - but now I'm thinking they weren't so bad...

Until then, I'll keep humming "gimmee a head with hair!"