In the swing

Here is my grandfather sitting in the front-porch swing.

Snoozing

Here is my grandfather snoozing in his back yard.

Practicing casting

Here is my grandfather practicing his cast. The object is to land the end of the line in the barrel. This photo was taken between 1955 and 1960.

Monday happenings

The day got started with Gail coming over for our weekly piano duets this morning. We had to stop short of our usual two hours due to J needing to be at the hospital at 1 pm for a test. The test did not take long, and we returned home.

I have several more pictures to post. I will stop now and post some.

September calendar

September 2010 Calendar of Activities for Freethinkers

Sat., Sept. 4, 7:00 pm
Movie Night at the Bradleys, 5607 E. 54th St.

Fri., Sept. 10, 7:00 pm
Poetry Group meets at Border’s Bookstore, 2nd floor

Sat. Sept. 11, all day
Road trip to Diamond, MO to visit GWC National Monument

Sun., Sept. 12, 11:00 am
Humanist Sunday at Church of the Restoration, 1314 N. Greenwood Ave.
Speaker: Marilyn Clarke. Meal follows.

Sun., Sept. 12, 1:30 pm
Humanist Discussion Group, Herb’s house, 3414 E. 85 Pl.
Discussion will be based on articles from the current issue of The Humanist magazine.

Wed., Sept. 15, 11:20 am
ALGAE at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan

Sept. ??, TBA
Tulsa Atheists Mid-Month Social, TBA

Sat., Sept. 18., 2:00 pm
HAT Chapter Meeting at Genealogy Center, 2901 S. Harvard.

Sat., Sept. 25, 11:30 am
Food & Fellowship at Rib Crib, 5025 S. Sheridan

Sun., Sept. 26, 1:00 pm
Tulsa Atheists Meetup, at Agora Coffee House in Fontana Center.



Questions? Call Randy (622-6975) or Dan (798-3629)

Weekend Happenings

Today we took a trip to the George Washington Carver National Monument located in Diamond, MO. We gave a ride to Vanessa from the church. It was her announcement in the church bulletin which first called my attention to "Prairie Day" at the site. I was surprised by the number of cars which were parked on the grounds. I drove all the way to the place, but going back, Vanessa drove about 50 miles.

Diamond is about ten miles to the southeast of Joplin. There is a museum on the grounds. Several large tents (40' by 80' I would guess) were set up on the grounds. One tent was dedicated to music. I think I spent more time there than at any other tent. There were several string bands at the event. I did not move around a lot due to the pain I am experiencing when I stand. I took two pills while there which helped a lot, but it also made me sleepy. That is why Vanessa drove from Joplin to Vinita today.

Vanessa is an actress who does one-woman shows. She also works as our church secretary. We saw her portray Rosa Parks in one show, and Lena Baker in another. She lives in the area where Nick lives. She enjoyed the presentations by actors portraying historical figures today.

Instead of eating on the grounds, we went in to Joplin and ate at the Red Lobster there.

The previous night at Poetry Group, Mary gave me two tickets for the Tulsa Symphony. I ended up giving the tickets to Nick and Jennifer. Luke and Ayla spent the evening with us.

There were six of us at Poetry Group. We read poems by Billy Collins, who is now one of my favorite poets. Next month our focus will be on Gerard Manley Hopkins. Collins is a contemporary poet and was formerly Poet Laureate of the U.S.

Gone fishing

One of my grandfather's favorite pasttimes was fishing. Here he is seen sitting at the back of the boat, watching his line.

Uncle Floyd

Here is a picture of Floyd, my uncle. I would guess this picture was taken in Germany in the late 40s or the early 50s.

With Paula, my sister, in the front yard

All decked out in uniform, I am about to leave for Germany.

Final day in the states

Briefcase in hand, I prepare to leave for Germany.

Papa's birthday

In this picture are (L to R) Mike Nerren, George Nerren, Sr., Cecil Nerren, and Sammy Nerren. This picture was taken on February 14, 1971.

Birthday Cake

Photo taken on February 14, 1971.

Grandparents

George Luther and Cecil Lottie Nerren. This photo was taken at Christmas 1973.

George and Cecil Nerren

These are my grandparents.

Close up of Ted Maize

Ted Maize

On the left of this foursome, with legs crossed, is Ted Maize, my grandmother's brother.

Mother Walker holding a cat

Seen above is Mother Walker, a relative on my father's side of the family.

Mother and child

Here I am in an undated photo with Mother.

Opening the back gate

We have a gate in our fence at the back of our property. We have had a padlock on it for some time now. Yesterday, we had need to open the gate but could not find the key. I figured the easiest way to get the gate open was to rent a pair of bolt cutters. I went over to the local rental outfit. They said they have two pairs of bolt cutters: a large pair and a small pair. The large pair was out at the time; I rented the small pair.

I came home and went out back to cut the lock, but the lock did not cut. All we could do was put a small nick in the metal. Meanwhile J got on the Internet and read about padlocks. She read how to open a padlock by filing a key in a certain way. I took the rented cutters back to the store. The large cutters were supposed to be back to the store by 6 pm yesterday. When I called this morning, they had not been brought back.

J kept working on her key, and this morning she was able to open the lock using the filed key.

The house at 933 S. Pickwick Avenue

This is the house we moved into when we left Amory, MS in the summer of 1965 for Springfield, MO. I finished high school at Parkview High in Springfield in 1966. That summer I got a job at Glorieta Baptist Assembly in Glorieta, New Mexico. I worked with the sound equipment there. That fall I enrolled at Southwest Missouri State College (now Missouri State University).

Since the house was only three blocks from the campus, I lived at home and walked to classes. Instead of graduating in 1970, I applied for and received a ROTC extension of one year. There was a war going on at the time (what's new?), and I hoped to avoid being caught up in that. I graduated in 1971. From there I went to Ft Eustis, VA for training in the Transportation Corps for eight weeks or so. I returned home for a few days, and then I flew to Ft. Dix, NJ and from there on to Europe.

I am glad I was sent to Germany instead of Vietnam. I was stationed at Wurzberg, Germany for a couple of years. I applied for and received a "European out," meaning I was discharged in Europe instead of the U.S. Almost every weekend I would take a road trip in my VW bug. I saw many castles and fortresses.

After getting my European out, I traveled to England via train and ferry, and pedeled my way from Dover to Canterbury; Then I went to Winchester, Salisbury, Wales, and back finally to Stratford on Avon. I parked my bike in Stratford and took a train up to Glasgow and Edinburgh (seeing the home of poet Robert Burns) and then going back down along the east coast to Stratford. I then took a train to London. I saw a few plays in London and then returned to Wurzburg. A friend drove me to the Air Base in Frankfort where I caught a flight be to the U.S.

Due to the fog around Ft. Dix, the plane had to land at JFK. To get a flight back to Missouri, I had to go to La Guardia. The flight landed in St. Louis, and I took a bus to Springfield.

In 1973, I returned to the home shown in the picture above and for two years took graduate level courses at the university. In 1975, I accepted a job teaching English and history at Charleston, MO. In January of 1976, I met J W, who had just graduated from Southeast Missouri State College. She was hired to take the place of a retiring math teacher. By the end of the semester we were engaged to get married. Due to budgetary constraints, J could not continue teaching at Charleston. The next year we got jobs in neighboring communities a few miles to the north. I never lived again at 933 S. Pickwick.