Back to School

This time of year brings back so many memories. Back to school. It wasn't until I was in my upper forties that I finally quit getting the feeling that I should saddle up and go back to school each fall.  Sixteen years of doing something must ingrain a habit.

Back in the sixties, Back to School meant two shopping trips. One to downtown Atlantic to pick up school supplies and shoes. How exciting to get a new eraser, paste, unused Ticonderoga pencils, notebooks and a big box of Crayolas. A trip to the shoe store would provide new PF Flyer tennies. I just knew I would run faster in those babies!

Kilpatrick's, Omaha

Then there was the big trip to Omaha for clothes. In the early days, we shopped downtown - all dressed up for the big shopping day. I remember the elevator operators in the big department stores. Evidently, the Kilpatrick's downtown was sold to Younkers in the early 1960's. Mom loved to eat at Walgreens. That organization seems to have cut restaurant out of their business model today. The patty melt was her fave. Every time I order one I think of her.

When our children were school age, Back to School was a big deal too. We would go to WalMart armed with our class list. New backpacks, binders, paper, pencils, colored pencils, glue, scissors - you had to get the right stuff. And we provided Kleenex and other classroom supplies. (It's funny but I don't remember how I wiped my nose during my school days. Sleeve?) Our clothes shopping trips were in Des Moines. Jud could have cared less, but Amy was into it. We made a day of it.

Fast forward to today. Our nephew's kids did all of their shopping online. New clothes came in boxes delivered to their front door. They didn't even have to put on their shoes get their new stuff. Just open boxes!

No matter how kids get their school supplies, it's exciting. A new teacher, a whole new year of stuff to learn. Time marches on. Right now the little tykes are already practicing football in the park across the street. Ah, the sounds of fall.

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...

Eagles and Cyclones

I'd always heard the Eagles put on a great concert - and they came through. Another bucket list item checked off. We knew they were going to play in DSM, but got tickets in Omaha months ago - fearing a conflict with the ISU football game.

We headed to Omaha a little later than we would have liked to - Pablo had some work deadlines to finish up. So a nice meal in the Old Market was out. Sonic in Council Bluff - in. Sigh. Good thing I wisely purchased a couple Coors Lites to sip in a brown paper bag (I know...bad me) with my chicken sannie.

We got to the Clink (Century Link Arena) early and purchased 2 drinks - one was a beer for $21. Paul and I spent the time waiting for the band to play considering what we could have purchased with that much money. A case of Coor Lite, a bottle of vodka. Shoes. It was a darn good double vodka tonic with two limes though.

It's the History of the Eagles Tour. There was no warm up band - it was all Eagles. The first set was historical - the band members talked about what was going on during the time each album and song was cut. Don Henley and Glenn Frey started the show and the other members shuffled in. They all told part of the story - but the two headliners were the main men.

View from the cheap seats

The second set was over 30 songs. And the song list was a  familiar one. We could sing along with all of them - and so could the rest of the crowd of mostly 40 plus year-olds around us in the full arena. I think Joe Walsh's - Life's Been Good might have been my favorite song. He's quite a character. They did a James Gang song - Funk #49. It was nearly 11 a.m. when they finished up - we had a couple hour drive ahead. Old Market - I'm coming back when there is more time!


The Mall is in the background - it was built when I worked in the Old Market area

It seemed too early when we got up Saturday a.m. to go to the ISU game. Are we too old to be on the go like this? Naw...

View of the band from the Alumni Center

It was a gorgeous day for a football game. The team showed up for this one and played KSU down to the wire. It was a disappointing finish - we lead until the last few minutes and just couldn't make enough plays to finish the game with a win. So....we did are part at the end of the game, drinking beer in the parking lot with friends.

Kari, Kevin and Diana - shooting the breeze post-game

Later we headed to Whiskey River for burgers. It was a fun day. Funned out, I was in bed before 10 p.m.! Keep this great fall weather coming. We deserve it.

Oh that pie

I decided Bishop's Buffet needed its own blog. When I was a kid, and we'd travel to See the Rabbits (a/k/a Cedar Rapids), to see by Mom's parents, Pops and Grandma, we'd often go to Bishop's Buffet. For me, the highlight came at the end, when I could get the helium filled balloon that came with little feet attached. I'm picturing Grandma in her mink stole...me with my balloon, rubbing it on the stole's tiny lil minky head.

I'm sure it wasn't easy for Mom track of what we each were getting - four girls and all. At Bishop's, you'd pick up your tray and select items as you pushed the tray along the metal ramp. They always had fancy schmancy looking jello - cubes with whipped cream in a parfait glass. But no - I was not allowed to select that! Bishop's had helpers at the end of the line to carry trays to your table. Those were the days.

When I got older, we kept up the Bishop's tradition at Westroads, the new (it was the late '60's) "upscale" shopping mall in Omaha. My fave meal consisted of their french dip with au jus (a man in a tall chef's hat prepared it!), fat french fries, and Bishop's Chocolate Pie for dessert. I could get all that in the "short line" (they also had a full service line where you could select from many more entrees).  But I would get so full that sometimes I couldn't eat all of the delightful pie - and its crumbly graham cracker crust.

What a waste! The picture above doesn't do it justice. Oh those chocolate curlie cues. Good memories of my childhood often seem to include food.

Mom Nature 1, Kayakers 0

My girls Pam Nelson Jepperson and Chris Watson and I talked about kayaking at our class reunion get-together this summer. Summer slipped away, but we forged ahead with our plan to go - but this weekend. We were going to go on the West Nishnabotna - starting at an outfitter's - Rubber Ducky, in Hancock. My buddy Deb was going along.

The weather didn't look the best - but rain was supposed to hold off until later in the day. So I put the kayak rack on the Subaru. I packed all the gear in the car, and put the stuff my bag that I needed. Planning on being chilly afterward - so I put sweats in, and socks. Then I watched the Cyclones eek out a victory over UConn in football - but they were underdogs, and a win is big. 3-0 baby! Deb stopped by to help me load my boat onto my car.

Saturday morning, it was in the low 50's and misting. Yuck! I headed to Deb's and we loaded up her kayak - then off we went. After we were on the road for a half hour, Chris called to say the Rubber Duckie (dorkie name) folks cancelled their kayak rental for the day. So kayaking was out - the heavy mist refused to quit.

Deb and I pow-wowed about our plans for the day. We decided to drop our kayaks off at a friend of hers in Villisca and head to Omaha. We made plans to meet Chris and Pam at the Upstream Brewing Company in the Old Market at 12:30. That gave us time to shop a bit. Good thing, as I need to find something besides kayak clothes to wear.

I picked up some gray chinos on sale at Kohl's, and had the clerk scan them on me on my way out. Deb bought some jeans and we both purchased a bit of makeup at Target. We were good to go!

Deb got along swimmingly with my high school homies, like I knew she would. Chris and Pam are single ladies, Pam is a Grandma and Chris still has a high schooler. They're fun to talk to. We decided we're still going to plan to kayak together some day.

Even the gum is funny...

Shopping in the Old Market is such fun. I love the store with magnets and greeting cards.


We ended the day by driving to the Bob Kerrey Footbridge

and walking over to Iowa and back. A bit chilly but enjoyable - especially with friends like that.

Mary Poppins

Can't wait to attend Mary Poppins - the play at the Civic Center tomorrow night. Amy and Jud got me the ticket for my bday. Those darn kids are getting good at this present thing!

I remember attending MP back when I was a kid - though I'm not sure where we went to see it. Probably Omaha, where our fam did most everything back then. We used drive to Omaha to shop. When we were little Mom would dress us up for the big shopping extravaganzas. Little dresses and patent leather shoes - walking around downtown Omaha.

Then came the malls - first Crossroads and then Westroads. By then we could wear jeans to shop. We loved to eat at Bishops Buffet - first in downtown but there was one in Westroads too. They had a delectable roast beef sannie, with thick fries and their signature Bishops chocolate pie - with the chocolate curlie cues on top. Of course I would get full and not be able to eat the whole piece!

Mom had a couple "go-to" shops she liked to take us too when we kids. First Lollipop Lane - for the youngsters, and for the pre-teen, Gadabout. We had good luck there. We shop before school and come home with tons of clothes (or so it seemed!). When I got older, I liked the department stores - Brandeis and Younkers too.

Of course I loved seeing Mary Poppins the movie - Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke were in it. Two of my fave actors. Plus there were cartoons in it and great songs. What's not to like? Can't wait to see the show tomorrow - even though it's in DM instead of the Big O