A Dad Letter

Sometimes I think I sold my Father short.  I really did not give them much time or thought during my 20's and 30's.  This letter was written to me when I was a director of the winter program at Camp Trinity.  The date is Feb. 15, 1963, and is sent from Azusa.  One of the things my father suggests is that during the next summer I come down and stay with him and take one of his 8-unit classes.  He asssures me I could make an "A" with very little effort.  Actually, my second wife, Linda, me and my brother, Larry, all took the class and in fact got "A's."  We all called ourselves by the last name Bruce, so nobody in the class knew were were related to the professor.  On the last day of class, Dad took everybody out to a restuarant where we announced the fact that we were in fact related.  People couldn't believe it.

Yum Yums

Oh my Goodness!  Somebody left us this recipe for Yum Yums.  Take a look at it.  You won't believe it.  It looks absolutely delicious.

Schurz Cook

For one school year, I was the principal, 7th & 8th Grade teacher, and sometime bus driver and custodian on The Walker River Piaute Indian Reservation.  The little town on the reservation was called Schurz, Nevada.  It was a pretty wild year.  I have described some of the goings-on in other posts.  One of the things I learned early on in my educational career was to make friends with the school cooks.  This was particularly true before the districts went to centralized kitchens and the lunches were actually prepared at your school.  (A couple of times I was lucky enough to be principal in a school where the central kitchen was located.  That worked!)  In Schurz, it was particularly good to know this woman. She was the cook at Schurz Elementary School.  On the Reservation, we got extra surplus food and supplies because we were a reservation.  My God, this woman could cook.  One of the surplus items was butter.  We had all the butter we wanted.  This made for cookies you would not believe.  My advice for new-comers, get to know the school cook.

Yosemite

This is a pretty sweet little leaflet about Yosemite.  My Grandmother, Nana, used to take us cousins up to Yosemite and camp out with us.  I remember very little about this.  This phamphlet looks like it would have been published about that time.  Maybe the 1940's or 1950's.

Nana's Funeral

This was the service for Nana's funeral in 1973. We called her Nana. She was my Grandmother. Her real name was Delsie Warnock. Her Maiden name was Hamblen. It was held at Cairns Funeral Home. I notice that my two brothers, the two husbands of my first cousins, Susan & Linda, my first cousing Allyn and I were the Casket Bearers. I'm glad we made it to the cemetary. I think I was pretty drunk. In fact, my uncle Bruce, my Mother's brother and Nana's son, I believe never really forgave me for being drunk at my Grandmother's funeral. I'm not sure I was. It was a long time ago, but, it was at one of the times I was furthest unto my alcoholic disease, so I don't doubt that I was.

Larry

Three nice pictures of my handsome brother, Larry.

Mother's Kindergarten Class

This is a picture of my Mother with an AM Kindergarten class at Teague School.  It was taken in April, 1961.  I'm not sure, but I think Teague School is outside of Fresno, not far.  I'm guessing Mother taught about 20-25 years total, but not sure.  I'm not sure why, but often she had trouble with her Principals or supervisors.  But, haven't we all.  I will also say that I was not aware that Mother taught Kindergarten.  I always thought she was more in the primary grades.

Grandma's Letter

The is a beautiful letter from my Grandma.  It is well written.  Sometimes not so good since she was more comfortable in German.  She signs it "With lots of Love from Grandma Dick which loves you very much."  How's that!  I'm guessing it was written while I was teaching in Hyampom, but I'm not sure.

Letter to Grandpa

Here is a letter addressed to J. B. Dick, my Grandfather.  His full name was John Barkman Dick. (Forgive me if I repeat some of this stuff.  I can't remember what I've said and what I haven't.)  It is post-marked Hillsboro, Kansas, 1951.  I wish I knew when the family moved to California from Kansas.  What I do know it was during the dust bowl and for the same reasons that everybody else moved West.  Hillsboro was a destination point for Mennonite Brethren people.  They were the whole town.  Many of my relatives, and we were probably related to 3/4 of the town, were very wealthy, but not my Grandpa.  They had a small ten acre farm which was not able to sustain the family in any way.  So, one of my Grandma's rich relatives gave them $2,000 for it.  With that money, they made their trip to California.  They bought an old Chevrolet and a trailer and moved all their worldly goods to Reedley, the other mecca for the Mennonites.  What a story.  Anyway, this is a beautiful little letter to my Grandpa.  I have no idea what it says or who it's from, although it is in tact inside.  Interesting, half the letter seems to be in German and the other half in English.

Rollie

A couple of pictures of me.  I'm guessing the first one is of me early in my student career and the second one early in my teaching career.  And, then a couple of just early!

Jeffrey and Olga

This is a simple little picture of Jeffrey, my brother and Olga, our aunt.  Olga was our Father's sister.  I think Olga was basically a good person, but she certainly was hard on our Mother in terms of judging her housekeeping.  Also, when we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner (I think that's what we called it.  We would call it lunch now.  It was right after church service, usually at noon.) it was Olga, then her husband, Bud later, then later still was Jolene our cousin.  Mother and Dad, Larry and me and later Jeff.  But, in the early days, Granpa and Grandma, Olga and then Bud, would all sit around the table and talk German, totally excluding Mother from the conversations and the social part of the meal.  And, Mother felt it.  Usually Grandma would cook a chicken, (sometimes a duck) and chicken noodle soup with homemade delicious noodles.  Usually mashed potatoes with wonderful gravy.  I don't remember any vegetables, but then I wouldn't.   And, suibachs.  (Somebody help me here.  That spelling is not even close.)  Almost always for desert there was prischcas.  (Spelling not close.)  They were like little self contained pies with crust over the whole thing and fruit inside.  Sometimes we had watermelong with ralcoca.  (Spelling not even close.)  The best I can describe this was Indian bread.  Deep fried bread batter.  This was always, always served with watermelon.  Oh, my God it was good.

Jeff in Jane Eyre

This appears to be a high school in Chico.  Again, my mind is fuzzy about where Jeff went to high school.  However, on the cast list it clearly states that Jeff is playing Mr. Rochester.  It also says that Jeff was a member of the National Thespian Society.  Did not realize Jeff did that much in Theatre.  I'll bet he was good.

Larry's Diploma

This is an interesting item.  It is a diploma for Larry for graduating from Mineral King Union Elementary School District.  I guess we gave diplomas for Elementary School in those days.  There are some things I can tell you about this.  First, this is the district where Dad was Superintendent.  I did not realize Larry attended Elementary school there.  Larry, maybe you could fill us in a little more on that. I assume Larry that you went on into Visalia for Junior high?  Now that I think about it, the year shows that maybe this was graduation from the 8th grade.  Anyway, It's a pretty sweet little diploma.

Mother's Letter

This is a letter from Mother to me while I was in Hyampom.  She was still living on Hilltop Drive in Azusa.  This was a very nice house.  She speaks of Dad and Jeff and Karen and Larry.  Apparently Dad was still there at this time, it is dated Oct. 7, 1963, although this is the house they were living in when he decided to leave her.  It's just a regular newsy kind of letter, although a book could be written about many of the sentences.

Ideal Dairy

This is an advertising brochure for Ideal Dairy in Fresno.  I think it looks pretty old.  On the inside there are recipes.  One is for "Strawberries and Real Cream for the men at your house!"

Grandma's Sugar Cookies

A sweet little item.  I'm sure this is Grandma's recipe for Sugar cookies.  On the bottom there might also be something about saurkraut stew.  This is difinately Grandma's writing.  (Dad's Mother.)  By the way her name was Helena.  I don't know her middle name.  Her maiden name was Weibe.  By the way, at one point in my life I went to Grandma and asked her to give me the recipes for all of her wonderful baked stuff including sweibachs.  (No idea how to spell that.)  Sweibachs were a white roll.  They were made by forming a ball about two inches in diameter.  Putting that on the baking sheet.  Then, making another ball of batter about half that size to put on top of the first ball.  And, that's the way they were bakes and the way they came out.  Oh, my God, they were good.  When they weren't all eaten and maybe were going to go bad, she would put them on a tray and bake them until they were very hard.  They they were used to dunk in their coffee.  Anyway, when I asked Grandma to give me the recipes, I was ready with pencil in hand to write them down.  Well, there was no way.  You see, the measurements all were in terms such as "a pinch of this"  "some of that."

Nana & Aunt Maude Letters

There are two letters here.   One is from my Grandmother, Nana, and one is from her sister, my Aunt Maude.  (By the way we did call her Aunt Maude.)  For the life of me I don't know who the Nana letter is to.  The other letter is from Aunt Maude to me.  I'll just bet you there are not many Aunt Maude letters around.  OK, Aunt Maude's letter is pretty fokesy, but there are two items I will mention.  First, "They tell me you are a hard working man.  I say that's good for work never killed anybody, but laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon ovdertakes him.  That's me."   I think she was saying that the last part of that quote was made up by her.  The second item of note:  "I think your dad and Jeffrey were going to Bass Lake for a rest this week.  I hope they got off.  Then need a rest from work and Brian.  (Gee is he a queer one.)  I think if he could be around you, you could straighten him out.  Delsie asked Phyllis to put up the cash to send him up there, but she can't afford to." Somewhere in this blog I will tell you about Brian, but for now let me say I think I dodged a bullet on that one!                                                                                                                            

Olga's Letter

This is a letter from Olga to me.  Not sure where I was, probably in Hyampom.  She mentions that Larry and Karen were at her house with their 3 week old baby.  That would have been Kevin and he is now 50 years old so maybe this was written in 1964.  She mentions that Nana was very sick.  Anyway, an old letter from Olga.

Mennonite Business

This document is not in as bad a shape as it looks.  Dad's family were members of the Mennonite Brethren Church.  This "sect" was a little more liberal than the "old" Mennonites, but not much.  My Grandfather's name was John Barkman Dick.  He was known as J.B. Dick.  (His name is written on the front of the report.)  Grandpa was a minister of the gospel in the church.  He never had a church of his own, I think, but rather was an evangalist that they brought in for crusades.  I understand he was an Elmer Gantry type with fire and brimstone in his words.  The problem for Grandpa was that he only preached in German.  This means that when they migrated to California, there were still a few German services, but now mostly everything was in English.  This means that Grandpa was out of the preaching line.  He had nother other skills, probably finished the 4th grade so he became a farm laborer.  However, he was able to develop enough skills at his job that there was basically work for him most of the year so he did not have to follow the crops.  They landed in Reedley and that's where they stayed.  Grandpa did, however, I think, stay pretty involved with the inner-workings of the MB Church in Reedley which was a huge church and would probably have attended these Annual Business Meetings.  This one was from 1957.  It is about 50 pages long.

Rollie's Picture to Nana

In the corner of this picture I have written "To Nana, Rollie."  Nothing else to say.  What about the 4th grade?  Who knows.

Raul's Note

First, do you notice little specks on this page?  These are from the Baby Book which is literatlly crumbling.  Hopefully I have protected it enough so we will have it for years to come.  But, I had better clean the printer's glass.
Anyway, one of my schools in Salinas was Sherwood School.  It was a large school in East Salinas and was 98% latino.  Raul Herrera was a young hispanic teacher on my staff the I adored.  He was about as good as they come, with great compassion for his clients.  I guess he wrote this to me when I left that school.

Random Pictures

Upper Left:  A picture of my cousin Linda Everett at her wedding to Dennis Parish in 1965.  I've kind of lost track of them.  The last I heard I think they were living in Fresno.  Linda was the sister is Allyn Everett.
Upper Right:  On the side the picture is dated July, 1968.  I played the part of the Rainmaker, one of my favorite plays and favorite roles.  It was in a very, very tiny little theatre, maybe in, not sure where.  In total, maybe 50 people came to the play.  Now that I think about it, I think maybe the theater was in San Gabriel.
Middle Left:  I taught school in Hympom, California, I think for 2 or 3 years.  When I was there, it was a thriving lumber town with two operating mills.  This is a scene from those days.  It is actually a postcard.  After I left, the mills burned down and were never rebuilt.  Hyampom reverted to a very sleepy little village.
Middle Right:  Probably my high school picture.
Bottom:  Now this is an interesting picture.  It says Christmas, 1951.  It was in Nana's house.  Looking at the house now, it was a very tiny house, but then I thought it was a mansion.  My Father never really fit in with my Mother's family.  He was from the other side of town, but Mennonite side. Mother's family had come from Colorado where they were mostly Mormons.  Anyway, in this picture you see, Aunt Ethel, Nana's sister, Aunt Maude with her back to us, a large imposing woman.  She never married and I think she lived with Nana almost all her life.  Sitting at the table are my Mother and Father.  In the background, you can barely see a figure in the other room on the left.  This was Nana I'm sure working over the sink on Christmas dinner.  I can't even tell you how Nana scared me. Once, I went into the bathroom to wash my hands as instructed.  After I left, Nana found the bar of soap I had used and I had left dirty without cleaning the dirt of the soap.  You would have thought I had shot somebody the trouble I got into for that one.  Speaking of Christmas at Nana's, the gifts I got were books.  Books for God's sake!  Who wanted books!  I wanted toys, but at this house I got books.  The only books I remember were the Jungle Books by Kipling I think.  I think I still have that two-book set.  I never read it and I'm afraid it will not happen before I leave.  Books!  The other gift I remember at these Christmas times at Nana's, came from Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Glenn.  (Aunt Phyllis another sister of Nana's.)  They were the rich ones of this family.  When they came from Colorado, the bought a 60 acre farm and made a killing during the was in Turkeys, oranges and Olives.  Anyway, they were the ones who bought a beautiful home in Pebble Beach on the 17 Mile drive.  Their gift was always the same.  The gave each family a box of shelled walnuts.  Every farm in that area had a few walnut trees and they shelled them themselves I'm sure.  Rich people have funny, but effective ways of not spending their money so they can get richer.  But, they were nice people.  Aunt Phyllis was a pianist and taught Mother in her early years.  That is where Mother got her start on the piano.  Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Glenn's rance was in a small town near Reedley called Orange Cove.  I could go on, but I think I'll end it here.

Connie the Juvenile Dancer

I wish I could scan more of this than I can.  This is an old photograph album.  It is is pretty bad shape.  (Did you know I have most of these things either in a ziplock bag or plastic sheets to protect them at least a little bit?)  Anyway, this is a "baby book" for Connie.  Yep.  I assume her mother made the book.  There are only about five pages, but how precious is this!  There is an announcemnet of her birth.  It was on a Sunday.  She was 7 3/4 lbs, and 19".  There are several pictures of her here including one of her at 15 months.
There is a "Records of Interest" sheet.  For example; eyes blue,  first stand alone at 13 months, first walk on October 31, 1921.    There is a picture of her first dance teacher, Miss Ruth Schnittger of Clifton.  A picture of Connie with the caption "Juvenile Solo Dancer.  Corinne Claire Stollmaier, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Stollmaier, East Walnut Hill, City."  Then, in her Mother's writing is a description of the recital where Connie danced.  "Her performance was very successful and she was greatly applauded and. . . Her brother Arthur  was an usher.  Connie was presented with flowers.  Her daddy was the proudest man in the audience."  How wonderful is this!  There are more pictures and some other writing by her Mother.

Baby Joshua

This did not come out so well.  The picture itself is much better.  Our Joshua was a pretty cute little boy alright!

Olympic Pens

Souviner  (This was spelled so badly my spell check had no idea.)  pens from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

A Young Al (?)

I was sure this was a picture of a young Al.  And, when I showed it to Jeanne she was sure too.  The problem we both had was the "different" look he had in this picture.  The hair was interesting to Jeanne.  The last thing I heard from Jeanne on the picture was, "I'm pretty sure it's my Dad."  There you have it.

Fighting The Conservatorship

These are some notes I took I presume after her conservator hearing.  She was very angry and says in the note she is going to fight this to the end.  There is a new twist in the note I did know about or just did not remember and that is her fear of Arabs.  I didn't remember that.  Again, I think it is an interesting look into mental illness.  Don't forget, you can make it larger to read by clicking right on the picture.

Mother's Surveillance Letter

This is a most interesting item.  First you see a stamped envelop with Mother's address on it and the return address is Dad's.  Under the envelop is a letter from my Aunt Olga to me.  (For some reason we never called her "aunt."  It was just Olga.)  It was a very simple letter, How are you?  etc.  Under that letter was a letter to her from my Mother.  Now, Mother did not like Olga very much.  I think she sent the letter to Olga because she did not know Dad's address.  What she was asking of Olga was to certify that she had been under surveillance for four years.  This was part of her paranoia. (Don't know how to speall that.)  The third page on this posting is what she asked Olga and Dad to fill out, have notarized and sent back to her.  This was probably during the time she was either under a conservator or it was being considered for her.  She wanted to prove that she actually was under surveillance and she was not "crazy."  Sometimes when I think of her I get very sad.

The La Jara Gazette

 I'm not sure why we have this newspaper, but we do.  I have read the entire copy and can find no reason for us to have it.  No name is in it that I recognize.  Here's what I think happened.  It is a newspaper from the area from which my Mother's family came.  The name of the actual town was Sanford Colorado.  There is news of Sanford on the inside.  If you ask anybody from Colorado today, where is Sanford, they look at you with blank looks.  Anyway, I'll bet my Grandmother, Nana, or Aunt Maude had the paper sent to them to get news from the home front.  That's my best guess.  I have to tell you, it is a little treasure, though, this newspaper.  I don't have time to go into it, but it is really special.

East of Eden Program

This is one of the most precious items in the collection.  I have to tell you a little about it.  I think this was the first of three productions and maybe the best.  I recognize many of the actors and know they are wonderful.  But, now that I study the program, the part of Abra was not done as well as it was in one of the other productions when it was played by Jodi.  Jodi was not in this particular production.  And, you know what, thinking about it now, this just may not have been as good as the others because Jodi wasn't in it.  I mean that.  Jodi was part of the "band" as well as dancing and in one production playing Abra.  Now, about the production itself.  Naw, it would take too long.  Naw, I can do it.  The Western Stage wanted to do East of Eden as a play, but they knew there was no script written for this.  So, they went to the Steinbeck Estate to get permission to write the play and produce it.  Elaine Steinbeck, John's widow was the Steinbeck Estate and gave her permission with one condition, that they do the whole book.  The Western Stage brought in a playwright, Alan Cook.  He was in residence for two or three years writing the play and helping with the productions.  It was workshopped many times, written, rewritten, revised.  Finally, as the curtain was about to go up for the first time it was ready.  In the end, it was a nine-hour play.  Tom Humphrey directed.  Genius is the only way to describe his direction.  It was a life-changing event for all of us involved.  I think all of us were involved with all three productions except for Jodi who missed one.  (Now that we think about it, we're not sure if Josh was in all three productions.)  At the end of the nine-hour marathons, the audience stood and cheered for more.  That's enough for now.  A book could be written about this event.  That's enough for now.

1984 Olympics

I think this is a sticker commemorating the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The Big Fish

Don't know what this is all about.  Obviously that is Connie and Al, but don't know who the third guy is.  However, in the lower right hand corner is some writing like it was a greeting from someone.  Here is what I think it says:  "We'll get a sail next year.  Captain Harold Al Alford.  Good luck Jeannette."  Anybody know what that means?  I just talked to Jeanne.  The man in the middle is Connie's Father, Arthur Stollmaier.  Jeanne says she was there when this all went down.  She also told me that Connie and her Father were very close and he meant a lot to her.

Bruce Warnock

This is my Uncle Bruce.  He is Mother's younger brother.  Bruce Warnock.  I think I've talked about him before, but I'm going to go check and if not, I will come back here and add some to this about Bruce.

Connie

I think the picture speaks for itself.

Winning the Election

The date on this California edition is November 6, 1991.  I spent 8 years on the Board of the Salinas Union High School District.  I don't think I got anything done at all.  I was too abrasive.  I needed to learn the art of negotiation.  Not me.  Lock and load.  I really was about the only liberal ever to serve on that board, so it was not an easy go.  At the moment, and I could come up with lots of stories, the three issues that come to mind, and those that perhaps I am most proud of are;  1) They were getting ready to tear down Salinas High School.  I think I was somewhat instrumental in saving the front building from destruction.  (One of my platform issues was that this is where John Steinbeck went to school.  How could we tear it down.  John Steinbeck did graduate from Salinas High School, just before this building was completed.  His school was over on Alisal Street across from the Post office.)   I knew this, but who cares.  It worked.  2) I think I was instrumental in hiring the first Latino Superintendent and we had the audacity to make it a woman.  I cannot even tell you what "they" did to her.  It was very much like what the republicans in the House have done to Obama.  3) I think I was somewhat instrumental in getting "district elections" for the board.  This expanded the board from five members to seven, and cut out districts which might be called Latino districts.  What this did was to make the board overnight a Latino majority and this was after no Latino had ever been elected to that board.

Something Wicked

This is a mailer the Western Stage sent out in the mail inviting people to their 1991 season.  I thought this was the year of East of Eden, but it is not listed so I guess I was wrong.  It was the season of "Something Wicked This Way Comes," an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's novel.  I think the theater actually wrote the adaptation and Ray Bradbury came to see it and was very complementary about the production and Joshua's role in the play.  If you look sideways at this post, you see two young men.  The one above the other is Joshua.  After Bradbury came to see the play, there was a party at our house to which Bradbury came.  We heard he drank Heinekens so we had a case of Heinekens in our garage refrigerator all ready.  However, the men staying at our house, Jon & David(?) polished it off well before he came.  So, Ray was left to drink Jeanne's scotch which I kept filled all night.  I then was responsible for getting him back to the Laurel Inn where he was staying.  All-in-all a pretty terrific night.

Eden Poem

For closing one of the years we did East of Eden, I wrote this poem to give to the cast.