Memories of my father

Father's Day, 2012

Although I don't need a reason, Father's Day provided an opportunity for some reflections on my father, Tom Blaine.

I can remember that as a very young kid and I'd ask him what he was doing, his answer was "Flying a Kite".


My youth impression of dad was he was a humorless man; maybe that's why I can remember the first time I heard him tell a "joke'.  We were at a church potluck and I heard dad say to someone  "Pass the Moo juice".


As a young kid, I was never really aware of family finances; now I realize that raising three children on a postal worker's salary was probably a challenge, which is why he had different part time jobs.   For a while he worked at a postal sub-station that was located at Brady's pharmacy on the corner of Cherry St. and Simmons St.  He mainly worked in the evenings.  He was working the night the Galesburg Post Office burned down (1958), and he called home shortly after the first started. Even though it was night,  Mom took the three of us kids downtown, and we watched the library building consumed by fire while sitting on the front steps of the Central Congregational Church.

A summer job that dad always worked during one of his vacation weeks was at the the Knox County Fair.  One summer when I was maybe 12,  he took me to the fair for the whole day that he worked selling parking lot tickets.  While he worked, I had free reign to wander the fair grounds and the displays.  I just had to stop in and see him periodically.  At night we went to the stock car races.  It was certainly took  a lot of glitter out of going to any fair in the future.

Another part time job that he had was that he would go up to Chicago and drive back new cars for a dealership in town.  This again provided me a special experience when I accompanied on one trip.  We rode the train up, took a cab over to the downtown car dealership  and drove the car back.  The train trip up was special, and I had never ridden in a cab before and then the drive back to Galesburg.

Dad was a reader.  But his favorite read was the Condensed Books put out by Reader's Digest.  He subscribed to the Reader's Digest magazine, and we also got the monthly condensed books.  He was the speller in the family; if any of us kids needed to know how to spell anything, we'd ask dad.  Clearly the spelling gene was one that I didn't inherit.

He's been gone 10 plus years now, but a parent's influence never dies.

Meet me in St Louis

We couldn't get together for a family gathering over the holidays, so with  school schedules, work schedules and personal  schedules, the best time was the first week-end in June. We decided on St. Louis as a gathering place since it was centrally located and most of us could drive there.

I got to meet the newest addition to the family, George.  The siblings and the cousins had a chance to spend some time together; and Alice and I got to spend time with them all.

Blaine helping to prepare the bread for spaghetti
 one evening dinner

A trip to the St. Louis Zoo

I hung out with George by the pool

Blaine, Jensen and Drake slowing down for Popsicles 

At the Arch
Theresa, George, Allison, Dave, Blaine, Erin, Drake, Marshall, Alice, Jensen, Tom 

The Grandboys
Drake(6), Blaine (8), George (5 months), Jensen (2 1/2)

It's so great to get all together, but it's always too short of time.   Maybe Nashville in December and Maui in March 2013?

Spring Road Trip 2012

For our spring road trip we decided to squeeze in a few days between week-ends in Nashville for a quick trip to the Florida panhandle. We had never been in that area; it looked like a doable road trip for the limited time we had, and I was anxious to see some sand and surf. But knowing that we were heading to Florida during a traditional spring break week, I was anxious to find a spot that wasn't going to be full of college students-being college students. The destination we chose was Apalachicola, FL; on the Florida panhandle coast, east of Panama City and south/west of Tallahassee. A small town, known more for its fishing and oysters than casinos and night life. Alice got busy and found a bed and breakfast (http://www.coombshouseinn.com/) available for a couple of nights and we were set.

On our trip town we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in which is in far southern Alabama. A classic, Victorian home; high ceilings, old wood floors, a bed that you had to climb into and a sinful breakfast.

 As advertised, we found Apalachicola a small, pleasant town. A small area of shops and restaurants, lots of sea food available, although neither Alice or I are fond of oysters, the seafood the area is known for.

We spent two different days exploring the area with a day trip to St Joseph Peninsula State Park and a day trip to St. George Island.

We even saw an alligator along side the road as we drove along.

The water was cool, the sand was white and fine, a strong on shore breeze blew most of the time we were there.



Overall, a good quick road trip to begin our travels for the 2012 year.