July and August, 2004
Nancy and Bob Murdock, Editors - murmuse@erols.com

---

LINKS Previous issues What's New Who's Who Calendar of events Muse Friends Muse History

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE: UPDATE FROM BALTIMORE (Bob Murdock) Click NOTE FROM MOBILE (Charlie Frost) Click EARTH DAY (Nancy Murdock) Click TORNADOS & SUCH (Gene Murdock) Click AROUND NEBRASKA AND BEYOND (Gene Murdock) Click REACQUAINTANCE (Darrel Murdock) Click HAPPY FATHER'S DAY (Ian Murdock) Click MESSAGE FROM JANE (Jane McCauley) Click HI, GUYS (NaTT Murdock) Click FAMILY REUNION (Cathy Howlett) Click 34TH ANNIVERSARY (Polly Soberg) Click Click here for Part 2. Part 2 HAPPY 5TH (Becky Murdock) Click MOTHER'S DAY (Claudia Lindsey) Click WELL DONE! (Margery Aukstikalnis) Click THE GOOD OLD SHOWS (Mer Murdock) Click THE MUSE (Polly Soberg) Click OUR ANNIVERSARY (Steve Howlett) Click AT THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE (Gene Murdock) Click JASON'S ADDRESS (Dawn Knox) Click GREETINGS FROM HUBBARDSTON (Teddie Doane) Click ALMOST CREDENTIALED (Valerie Davidson) Click NOBLE THOUGHTS FROM MUSE READERS (Bob Murdock) Click INTERESTING LINKS FROM MUSE READERS (Bob Murdock) Click

Muse Editors, 2002 Paula Franklin photo Nan's wall quilt: "Meredith Quilt" Enlarged Picture

UPDATE FROM BALTIMORE Bob Murdock At Muse HQ in Baltimore, 2004 has been an unusual year. The 17-year Cicadas visited, and Nancy went to Seattle on a business trip. Bob was flattened by the Shingles virus, and also is wearing hearing aids for the first time. I wrote about Shingles in the May-June 2004 Muse. Now, on June 27 2004, the virus has pretty well run its course. Impaired vision is the principal ill effect - I can't see well enough (with either eye) to drive a car, and I still have double vision, though it's getting better. I will visit the optometrist July 13, and should have corrective eyeglasses by the end of July. My impaired hearing is a product of old age, not Shingles. It got so bad that I couldn't hear the rector's sermon, and kept saying "What?" to Nancy. So we went to the audiologist and I got fitted for a pair of digital hearing aids, programmed for my audio frequency range. The results are miraculous, but with mixed blessings. I can hear everything - don't have to say "What?" any more. On the other hand.... I used to enjoy leisurely browsing in the super market, but now it's so noisy there that I just want to grab up my crackers and milk and ice cream and vamoose! And tell that cat upstairs to quit stamping its feet. Rarely does Nancy have a chance to travel to an interesting area at government expense, but her project leader was too ill to go to a conference in Seattle, so she made the trip. Her report, "Sleepless in Seattle," is also in the May-June Muse. The Cicadas emerged in 1987, our first year of Nancy's SSA assignment in Baltimore. We saw and heard them as an interesting phenomenon, but no big deal. This year it seems as though ten times as many have appeared. They were active continuously for a month, daytimes. What a life - a big orgy of sex, food, and singing, for one month in 17 years. The local birds couldn't stand it, and apparently all retreated to the pine groves. We have maple and oak trees near by, the preferred quarters for cicadas. I'm glad they were done before I got my hearing aids! NOTE FROM MOBILE Charlie Frost May 31: I am in Mobile after delightful visits with old church friends in Rockville and, of course, with Derek and Roz in Williamsburg. Went to the 8:00 AM Sunday service at All Saints Episcopal Church here, where some members of the Chamberlain family worshipped. Took pictures of the church and the well-shaded streets, using the film that you kindly gave me. Thanks for an appetizing lunch and pleasant visit. Make quilts - not war! [NOTE: Charlie was on an Atlantic coast trip, as reported in the May-June Muse. He was in Mobile on a genealogical mission to interview a distant cousin. --NAM] May 7: Returned to High Ledge Monday evening after a 3,500-mile trip. I had a great reunion with you folks in Balto. Enjoyed the quilt show, too. That was a lovely tribute to Orrel in the Muse. Right from the heart! Thanks. EARTH DAY Nancy Murdock On one day a year In April A few people Pay attention To the Earth Some to celebrate Some to rage Some to mourn, To remember Holes in the sky, Melting ice caps. For many years - Centuries even - Earth rotated In steady rhythm With moon and rain Sun and sand. Trees are going now Where dinosaurs passed. In seventeen years When cicadas call for mates Will they find us all Waiting to trap Their precious protein? TORNADOS & SUCH Gene Murdock June 1: To allay the concerns of my Dear Hearts and Gentle People, Yes we have had a spell of nasty weather, but all of us here in Iowa are OK. Tornados passed a few miles south of me and a few miles north on two occasions, but no damage here. However, as I sat wondering where the safest place to hide would be, it occurred to me that there is no reason in the world for me to just sit here and duck. I have now made a checklist and have a plan for quickly packing enough clothes and suplies for a week, along with what valuables I can carry, so I can move out to a safer location if it happens again. If the house is going to be destroyed, I'll plan to be somewhere else. I am only minutes away from major highways heading north, south east and west, and I monitor the severe storms far enough in advance to get packed up to leave. But thanks for asking! AROUND NEBRASKA AND BEYOND Gene Murdock My annual trip around Nebraska went well although not quite as planned. I headed out early to get two hours down the road to Grand Island and the Stuhr Museum where I hoped to watch a Vintage Baseball game. It had rained all morning and when I got there they weren't sure if and when the games would start. It was a big weekend for the museum with a large crowd anticipated, so there was no parking back in the section where the ball fields were. I would have had to park and walk a looong way or wait on shuttle busses. Since the games were iffy, I decided to just view the museum and head on down the road. I picked up state road 2 which is a scenic highway passing through the center of the Sand Hills of central Nebraska where nothing grows but the prairie short grasses which are the best cattle feed there is! I first headed off to Danneborg, the home of the Liar’s Museum, but they too were having a big annual celebration so I couldn’t drive down the streets because of a parade. Oh, well, I got back on route 2 and sailed along through the sand hills with next to no traffic to disturb my reverie as I listened to books on tape. I stayed overnight in the small town of Thedford. I had looked up their motels on the web and found one that I could reserve a room in a new fashion. They listed all the rooms that were available and I was able to select a particular room by type and location! The next day another two hours of cattle ranches brought me to Alliance, Nebraska. I passed up the opportunity to see the “Carhenge” display, an attempt to recreate the image of Stonehenge with junk cars buried vertically in the ground. Instead I visited the site of the old Alliance Army Air Field, now the Alliance Municipal airport. Very little is left of the military use of the base, but I did spot some concrete foundations and footings that once held barracks and classrooms, a sight that us old time base hunters get a silent thrill out of. Route 2 continues on west, and on my map there is a county road that goes further west and connects to state route 29. But after diligent searching I figured out that they had done away with access to the road, so I had to take a 100-mile detour to get over to S29!!! Out along the route I spotted an antelope, ground squirrels and a fox and saw a few tumbleweeds. North on 29 took me to the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument where I oohed and aahed at the display of years long gone past. A little further north I picked up US 20, known in Nebraska as the Cowboy Trail where cattle were driven east to the Missouri River And down to Omaha to be made into hamburgers. At this point I had planned to go north into South Dakota through the Black Hills to An aviation museum at Ellsworth AFB. But the afternoon temperature was up to 103 degrees!! I don’t function well at all in those temperatures, so I decided to leave the Black Hills for another time. I visited one of my favorite museums, the Museum of the Fur trade in Chadron, and stayed over night there. In the morning I headed east on the Cowboy Trail through the quaint town of Valentine and on down to O’Neill where they have a huge used bookstore holding over 50,000 volumes. The only book store I’ve seen larger than this one was Larry McMurtry’s place in Archer City, Texas where his books fill up several buildings around the town. Then down through Johnny Carson’s hometown of Norfolk and back on US 275, which takes me home. When I got home and settled back into my routine I found that I was in a very lazy mood. The antique shops routine didn’t appeal to me, partly because by now I have pretty much stripped them of all the aviation memorabilia and books. I noticed that I was becoming a real couch potato, and like some of the weird stories I have read about of recluses in New York that let newspapers pile up until you can’t move around the house, my living room was beginning to look that way. I wasn’t in any depression, because it felt good to sit back in the recliner and slothfully flip through my hundred TV channels as I did crossword puzzles. Then son Scott came through with an e-mail that was a real wake-up call. He told me about his life-long interest in architecture and how he was pursuing it as he went on his old AF bases searches. He mentioned spotting some Carnegie libraries, interesting courthouses and other architectural wonders. Wow! That woke me up, because I used to do the same thing. In fact when I first got here I started lining up the local counties with all their attractions to visit them on a regular basis. During my 26 years in the Air Force when we moved an average of every two years, as we got to each new place I would start a study of the history, geology, nature and general mood of the surroundings. I immediately got out my files and maps and started laying out plans to visit each county in about a 100-mile radius, both Iowa and Nebraska. In each county I will visit the courthouse, note the outside architecture and the inside history displays. Check out the local library to see if it was built in the early 1900s with a grant from the Carnegie Foundation, visit all the interesting places that are on the National Register of Historic Places (there is a web site that lists them all); go to the local park to see if there is a walking trail, and to see if they have any airplanes on display; visit the local museums and antique places; visit all the State Parks; look at the churches to see how many still have steeples; and try to eat lunch in the café nearest the court house to really get the feel of the locals. I still remember learning in my freshman high school class the distinction between the classic columns of buildings – the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, and that is about the limit of my ability to classify any architecture. But, like Scott, I was introduced to the wonders of architecture at an early age when I read Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and decided then and there that I would become an architect. When I read about Frank Lloyd Wright I decided that his philosophy of having the buildings blend into the natural environment was the guiding light that I would follow. So now I’ll take another look at architecture, history and culture as I resume my travels with new purpose and motivation. Thanks for the inspiration, Scott; you’re a real chip off the old blockhead! REACQUAINTANCE Darrel Murdock Today I went to Lois Lemke's wedding. I saw my old friend Mark Lemke, who used to jump motorcycles and lots of other fun things in the neighborhood with me 30 years ago. I saw Paul Lemke, who still remembered a joke I told him. And I went as Ellen Lemke's date. She is thee coolest woman in at least this state, the way I see it. She is an artist by birth and a computer geek by regular job. Her art utilizes the techniques of the fine-arts masters, including nearly extinct methods, ones only a king or rich person would have commissioned. I'm not kidding, you should see her stuff- it's mesmorizing and entrancing. She has quite a workshop, and her redecorating of her house is in Victorian Mansion inspired luscious colors and trim, with lots of really cool antiques and esoteric items, including a hand carved upright piano and large colorful masks. Her daughter is the most adorable 5 year old, who greeted me by saying, "Hey Darrel, I love dinosaurs and fairies and tigers and I saw your cool pictures." Then she went online and asked to go to my website again so she could make the dinosaurs roar. Ellen said she had started landscaping recently. When I drove up to her house I was even envious of her front yard. Wow! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY Ian Murdock June 20: Hello! I'm still in California, awaiting a final decision on whether or not I'll be taking the Raleigh trip. Meanwhile, Tim and I went on Thursday evening to the final game of the Dodgers' sweep over the Orioles (too bad, so sad, poor Dad) and sat in the front row exactly at the base of the foul pole, from which unique perspective I gained the somewhat disconcerting knowledge that neither the foul line nor the pole itself were entirely straight. Grumble. From this vantage point, though, we were able to heckle left fielders Larry Bigbie and B.J. Surhoff quite effectively, as did our fellow seatmates in turn. Well, I hope you've been having a supremely sublime time today. Myself, I have been waited on hand and foot, and lack for naught. The rubber game between the Dodgers and Yankees is on ((color) TV) at the moment, and the Dodgers are clinging to a two-run lead. Even if - saints forfend! - they blow that, I've still had a great day, and I look forward to hearing about yourn (sic). [Ian was asked to go to Raleigh NC for a special project for work, but it is now on hold. We had great plans to show him his birthplace, etc.--NAM] MESSAGE FROM JANE Jane McCauley Enjoyed the newsletter. Sorry to hear that Bob has the shingles. I had them on my chest area last August, and I know what he is going through. Evelyn Clark Johnson has them on her eye and forehead area now and was bothered with her eyes. My mother, Elizabeth Norberg, had them on her eye area also. Enjoyed the remembrances of Douglas Howlett in Hubbardston. Fun to read. I also remember when Walter had his accident. Everyone was so sad. Having a nice spring...in the 80's today. Ken is fishing at Comet tonight. Nancy, my friend Bev and I went to a nice quilt show this early spring in Sutton. Took a lot of pictures. Working on a wallhanging with a lot of appliqued flowers right now. Have you done any of the appliqued flowers that they put two layers with iron-on in between and bend them and make the petals three dimension? Saw quite a few at the show and want to try it sometime. Thanks for the newsletter. Sorry to hear Lois passed away. HI, GUYS NaTT Murdock It's me, Natalie. I hope everything is going ok for you guys. Well, first, I wanted to tell you guys a little about what's been up with me. I've been working a lot, trying to get some money to pay off my seemfully unendless amount of bills, while maintaining my social life, which seems to have calmed down like 50% since the start of this year ( I would assume it's due to working so much). Anyway, I took a year off from College, and I'm due to start in August. I still want to study business and Political Science, but we'll see what happens. I could change my mind again. For sure though, I will be in a journalism class. FAMILY REUNION Cathy Howlett June 23: Good Morning! We were wondering if you did in fact receive our email earlier this month regarding the family reunion? When the Muse appeared we realized we had missed the deadline ONCE AGAIN (the scene one bright April day: nudge, nudge, elbow in the ribs, Cathy says to Johnny:"Hey, John, be sure you drop Nan and Bob a line about the date for the Fourth of July get together", The scene a couple weeks later: Cathy says to Johny: "Hey, John, there's a new Muse on line and I don't see anything about the reunion. Did you ..."). Anyway, as soon as I saw there wasn't anything in the Muse about it, I shot off a quick note; since it has been a while now, and you're always much more prompt at responding to mail than we are, we thought perhaps you didn't receive the info. Here it is again, and please pass it on to all the Musers: **We will be pleased to host the family get together again; Saturday, July 3rd. The tent, tables and chairs will be set up and the grills heated by noon time. Bring your beverage of choice if you prefer something other than coffee, iced tea, soda, or water; and an appetizer, salad or dessert if you feel the need to contribute to the table. Bring photographs and anecdotes to share, and be ready to laugh and relax with family and friends. RSVP by June 25th to cathyjohnhowlett@cs.com or to (603) 796-7031.** Lori and the kids will be coming up to stay with us. I've scheduled myself off from work the 5th through the 9th, but Johnny has to work since he has been using up his vacation time as fast as he has been accruing it. He is still recuperating from a hip injury, and has been taking an extra day off whenever possible. The extra rest and the pain treatments seem to be working; he can get through a shift without being exhausted by the pain now. If you come up, it's safe to say you will be startled by the renovations. We had hardwood floors installed in kitchen, den, hall, and living room, and the kitchen completely remodeled. No more funky smell from the cabinets on damp days!!!! The renovations were scheduled to begin March 15th; 11:00 PM on the 14th found Johnny and me at the hospital ER with violent symtoms of food poisoning or stomach flu. After four hours of IV's with morphine and anti-emetics we were able to come home, and we actualy slept through most of the kitchen demolition. Quite an experience! We hope the delay in broadcasting the details doesn't made it difficult for folks to come visit. 34th ANNIVERSARY Polly Soberg June 16: Thank you for the wonderful anniversary remembrance. We had a very nice day, as Carl served coffee in bed to start the day. Then I finished planting flowers in the flower boxes, the rest of the tomato plants, and two pots of impatiens for the stairs to the deck and one hanging pot on the deck. I had planted all the earth boxes with peppers, tomatoes, and cukes the weekend before. So, let the sun shine and we should have a nice crop! After finishing the planting, we showered and headed for Newick's seafood restaurant. All three of us enjoyed the overgenerous portions of food. Clyde had enough for lunch on Mon. On Sat. Shannon & I had gone shopping for summer clothes for her month at St Paul's school this summer. She will be taking advanced math and a writing course. We are very proud of her for doing so well in school and being accepted at St Paul's for advanced summer courses. She will be applying to MIT and Worcester Polytec next year. Her senior year.... she hopes to get into MIT as her first choice. Getting back to our anniversary weekend.....the weather couldn't have been nicer, and this made my "finish planting project" much more enjoyable. On Monday I had surgery on my shoulder to repair a tear in the roto cuff and remove a spur, all in my left shoulder. I am currently out on workman's comp and expect to be out until after the July 4th holiday. Well, will close for now. My left arm is immobilized in a sling, so typing with one hand is a challenge. Click here for more articles Any comments? Contact the Muse editors at murmuse@erols.com

What's New / Who's Who / Muse Home