When I learned that I did not have a lot of time left on
this earth, I tried to make a list of things I wanted to do. I think I have written about this elsewhere,
but I hope the reader will forgive a little redundancy for the sake of
completeness. First on my list was a
trip to someplace warm, where I could go snorkeling and see some colorful
fish. That is one of my favorite
memories of the many activities I have had the privilege of participating
in. A trip to Alaska was also on the
list, accompanied by a feeling of obligation as explained elsewhere. However, as I really started to think about
what is important, I decided that visiting those folks who have influenced my
life in a significant way would be more important than fish. So in February, we took a trip south to St.
George, and to California to visit with missionaries and friends and family
members. One of the outcomes of our
visit with cousin Loni and her husband Allen in St. George was the Gee Family
Reunion that we held at the Heber Valley Camp in June. All but one of William E. Gee’s grandchildren
were there for that event.
Dayton was next on the list.
I wanted to see some folks from the Englewood ward, and some folks from
the University of Dayton. I called Ron
McAdams, who, with his good wife, agreed to set something up for lunch on
Monday, the 5th of August with those that were still around. That was very nice of them, and as you will
read later, they did a great job getting people together. We also talked to Sherri Bailey, who agreed
to set up an Open House on Friday evening at her house. What great people to go out of their way to
do this for us. The timing was set to coincide
with a Gee Family Reunion in Conneaut, Ohio for the descendants of Zopher
Gee. We had hoped to be able to drive
from Dayton to Conneaut on Saturday. So
with everything planned, I cashed in some frequent flyer miles and got our
tickets.
The flight from Salt Lake to Detroit was interesting; I had
paid a little extra for what they called Economy Comfort, which put us in a row
near the emergency exit that offered some extra leg room. The third person in the row was a hyperactive
lady with a very loud voice who spent a lot of time visiting with the person
across the aisle from her. Moreover the
ladies in the row behind us were also very loud and wanted the whole airplane
to participate in their conversation. Or
so it seemed. Because of my bad hearing,
I really could not make out the words, but we surely could hear them talking,
and they didn’t stop even when there was an announcement over the speaker from
the pilot or the stewardess.
The plane from Detroit to Dayton was very small – only 13
rows with two seats on each side of the aisle.
We were late getting our tickets, so LaRue had 12A and I was in
12D. The guy in 12B was more than happy
to trade with me so everyone was happy.
We had no problem getting the car and finding the
hotel. And we arrived exactly at 7:00 pm
at the McAdams’ just as we had arranged.
On the way there we figured we had a few extra minutes, so we drove past
the old house on Sweet Potato Ridge Road.
Ron’s house is just two minutes from there, so it worked out just fine. They served fried chicken with all the trimmings and we had a very nice visit with them. Ron is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and has a hard time remembering things that just happened. His memory for things of 30-40 years ago is still pretty good. Alberta (“Bert”) took the lead of most of the conversations and it was a pleasant visit.
I had forgotten to take the pens I had made for them, so on
Friday morning as we were driving around looking for the Grange Hall, we
stopped and I gave Ron the pens. I hope
he can remember to give one of them to Bert.
He seemed a little confused about what was happening, but was gracious
as always.
Many apartment buildings were surrounding the place; the
low-income housing project that was started when we lived there had grown
substantially. From there we went
looking for the Fountain Avenue building.
The maps we had were insufficient for our purposes, so we just went
where it felt good. We came to a place
that was a one-way street going the wrong direction, but we couldn’t read the
street sign. It turned out that this was
Fountain Avenue, but we had to go around a few blocks to actually find the
place. Back in the early Seventies, the
Church sold the building to a Black minister, who used it for a church, and I
have no idea how many hands it has passed through until now, but the sign in
front reads that it is a church for the deaf.
From there we had no trouble finding the Mack Memorial
Church of the Brethren, where the old Dayton Ward met before it was divided,
and while the new building was being built.
As we continued on, we passed the Jewish synagogue where the Hunsaker
and Gee boys worked at learning a little Hebrew. We even drove past the hospital where Kim
was born.
The Englewood/Dayton Ward building on Shiloh Springs Road was
a different matter all together. I
remembered driving from our home on Sweet Potato Ridge Road down Salem Avenue
and turning right onto Shiloh Springs Road.
We went that direction, and drove for several miles and never did find
the place. We passed what looked like
the old Hunsaker place, and after turning around and going back, we both agreed
that was the place Hunsakers lived when we first got to Dayton. It has been kept up well, and is a very
impressive place. We drove past Salem
Avenue and eventually came to the building we were looking for. It looks the same, and the cornerstone still
has the typo that I had engraved on it.
(The lettering was all caps, but “LATTER-DAY” still needs a hyphen,
which is not there.) Against my wife’s
better judgment, I have included this confession as a suggestion to the reader:
if what you are doing will be engraved in stone, make sure it is right. It is probably OK to make sure what you do is
right even if it will not be engraved in stone.
After two successes, and one partial success, we still had
some time before we were to be at Sherri’s, for an Open House in our honor, so we
decided to find the Grange Hall. After
the Englewood Ward was created and Ray Goodson sustained as bishop, this was
where we met until the building on Shiloh Springs Road was completed. I remembered the building was on US 40, so we
drove up and down on US 40 well beyond where it could have been located, but no
Grange Hall. We called Sherri, who said
it was on Wenger Road, between Haber and Diamond Mill Roads. We drove that a couple of times without
seeing it. We did see a building that
kind of looked like the old Clayton Elementary School, but it had a different
name, and there was a great big Church on its west side where the Grange Hall
used to be, so that clearly was not the place.
We went to Sherri’s sadly disappointed.
The Open House was a nice affair. Sherri had purchased a lot of food, and while
she and LaRue got it ready, I took a nap.
The first people to arrive were Marty Knox Stanfill and her husband
Lonnie. I remembered them both, and we
had a nice visit. Then Laurie Sylvester
came, as did Lena Edwards, and there were many memories shared amongst the
group. Before long, Henry Hoff showed up
looking fit as a fiddle. He said that
Mary was not feeling well, and could not make it, but sent her regards. The last we had heard about Henry was that he
was overweight and on oxygen. It was quite a surprise for all who were there,
because no one had seen Henry in quite a while.
It turns out that he had a stomach bypass, and had lost 150 pounds. He no longer needs oxygen, and said he feels
great. Ron and Ilona Dever came, as did
Jeff Yantis. Sherri’s son, Matt, came
over also. His son, Jim, is living with
Sherri and is a great help to her. He
helped with the clean-up and proved to be just a great kid. The last folks to arrive were Harold and Ruth
Adkins. They were not really active when
we were there, but in our conversation he told me that he always knew the
Church was true, and he continued to contribute to the building funds, both
chapel and temple, because he knew that he would be active again, and wanted to
feel comfortable in those buildings. He
also went home teaching with Dennis Falk very faithfully during that time. They are now really active in the Greenville
branch.
There were four Church units represented by the small group
that came to the Open House. Some went
to the Greenville Branch, some to the Huber Heights (formerly Dayton) Ward,
some to Englewood, and others to the Eaton Branch. The Greenville and Eaton branches did not
even exist when we were there in the 70s.
We had hoped to see John and Rosemary Neal, and Sherri and Curtis Plank,
but both couples were away on vacation.
By the time we left the party, I had started to hurt badly. My chest hurt, my back hurt, and there was a
sharp pain in my right groin area. I
could hardly breathe, and could not walk without a serious limp. That not withstanding, we wanted to see the
Grange Hall, and got a map that should have taken us there. But we did not see it. Again, disappointed, we went back to the
hotel. I bought some Tylenol from the
little area the hotel has for such things, and tried to get some sleep. The pills seemed to help a little, so I
thought I would help them out with a hot bath.
Both worked somewhat and I was able to sleep a little bit. By morning, the pain in my chest and back had
subsided substantially, but the hip seemed to get worse. So we decided to cancel the trip to Conneaut
to the Gee Reunion there. I was really
looking forward to meeting with that group, since it is the remnant of the
descendants of Zopher Gee that stayed in Ohio, rather than moving west. I had taken an extract from the Big Red Book
that Laurence had made and put it on a USB drive, and added a picture of Zopher
that I also got from Laurence. My intent
was to give that to the president or secretary of the organization for
distribution to anyone else who might be interested. I guess I will have to send that stuff to the
Corresponding Secretary who let us know about the reunion in the first place.
In the afternoon LaRue went out and bought a swimsuit for
me, and I went down to the Spa. It was
quite warm, and seemed to do a little good.
But nothing permanent. Sunday
morning we got ready and went to Church.
We got there a little early, and what do you know? Henry showed up, so we sat with him. It was Fast and Testimony meeting conducted by
Bishop Brazelton. Clearly a person who
had been an educator. He explained
everything in detail, and sought eye contact with various members of the
congregation. Henry got up toward the
end of the meeting and briefly recollected a few stories about the time we were
there and mentioned that he was my counselor.
It was a good meeting. After the
meeting we learned that the Brazeltons joined the Englewood ward just two weeks
before we left, and, sure enough, he just retired from being dean at Sinclair
Community College. They are converts,
having joined the Church in Illinois before moving to Ohio. This is his second term as bishop of the
Englewood ward. We also met a Stucki
family. The husband could not recall all
the details of his ancestry, but did remember the name of Johannes Stucki. Perhaps there is a connection. In addition, there was a young lady from the
Russia Yekaterinburg Mission whom I had released from her mission to the Moscow
mission. Small world.
Henry invited us to his home to visit with Mary, and
promised to take us to the Grange Hall.
After a short visit at their home, they drove us out to the Grange
Hall.
It was right by the school which we had passed several
times, but it seemed much smaller than either of us remembered, and some church
had built a great big building in between the Grange Hall and the school, so
the place was not familiar to either LaRue or myself. That is why we missed the place so many
times. But I was able to get a picture
or two, and then we said goodbye to Henry and Mary. It was really good to see them. And they seemed genuinely pleased to see us.
After returning to the hotel, I took a little nap, but my
hip was still hurting, so I went down to do the Spa thing again. It felt good, but has not had any permanent
effect. I tried to change our seats on
the flight tomorrow to First Class, but they would not allow it. If you buy a seat with sky miles, the upgrade
must be paid with sky miles. They missed
the chance to get at least $300 more from me by their stupid bureaucratic
rules. They have empty seats in first
class, and someone wants to pay extra to use them . . . but the rules won’t
allow that to happen. Bureaucracy always
gets in the way of entrepreneurship. Sad
state of affairs. They can take money
for upgrade from economy to comfort economy, but not for first class. Go figure.
Norman called and wanted to Skype. We have Skype on LaRue’s iPad, so we tried
that while lying in the bed. I am sure
that was bad for the folks on the other end because I was trying to hold the
thing still while LaRue was gesturing and wiggling all over the place. We finally moved to the table where at least
the camera was still. With all the naps, and easy life, LaRue challenged me to
a Sudoku contest. We both started a
puzzle at the same time, and the winner was the person who finished first. I won the Simple stuff, so she wanted
something harder. We went to the
difficult section, and she beat me. We
stopped with the score 3-3. It was still
hard to get to sleep, so we turned to Rex Campbell. That did the trick. At least for a while. However, at 4:00 am LaRue was wide awake and
started the TV. What a pain it is to
watch TV without a DVR. Can’t pause the
thing, and have to sit through all the commercials.
We were able to nap a little, but by 7:00 am we were both
awake, so we got up and leisurely prepared for the day. I have been a little nervous about the
meeting that we had planned, so we got our boarding passes, LaRue brought the
car around, and we took off even before 10:00 am. We took our time filling up the car, but
still had about an hour, so we went to Walmart and I rode around in the little
electric cart because my hip was still hurting, and I wanted to be at my best
at the meeting. There were two others
using the electric carts, and I challenged them to a race, but they, with good
humor, declined. We had to buy
something, and I have had a hard time getting my fingers in the right place on
my iPhone, so we bought a stylus. It
works pretty well if I push hard enough.
I am trying to learn how to meet its expectations.
By the time we got to the Olive Garden, Ron and Bert were
already there, as were Al and Amy Roemer with a granddaughter. It was easy to recognize Al, even though he
had grayed considerable and gained probably 30 pounds. He still golfs, but has not hit another
hole-in-one. He was a little surprised
that I remembered that even back so long ago, but admitted that he has never
been shy about mentioning the feat. Bill
and Linda Honingford came next, followed by John Drerup and his wife Pauline and
a grandson. In each case, I was able to
recognize them on sight. We were all
outside waiting for the place to open up.
When they did open the doors for business, they took us to a place with
a large table in the middle of one of their rooms . . . it was not a private
opportunity as we had expected, but at 11:00 no one else was there. Dick and
Lynn Dresher showed up, completing the group just about the time I had decided
that I should start my little speech. I
explained my cancer and said that it had driven me to get this meeting on my
bucket list several months ago, and that we had a reprieve to some extent
because the cancer is now stabilized.
Also that there is a guy named Dick Dresher that I see almost weekly
whose presence reminds me that I wanted to get back to Dayton, so here we
are. I wanted them to know that I really
appreciated them and their professionalism in the work we did together; that
one of the reasons I got the job at Utah State University was because there was
a team of qualified people who could run the place without me and not miss a
step. I mentioned in particular Ron as
the leader, but wanted the wives to know that at least one guy appreciates the
men they live with.
The place started to fill up, and it got noisy by the time
the food was served, so it was good I took the opportunity to speak when I
did. After dinner I had a chance to
visit with Dick and Al in particular, because LaRue and Linda Honingford
offered to trade places with those guys.
That was very thoughtful on their part.
In all, I feel the gathering met my expectations, and I accomplished
what I wanted to. It would be fun to be
a fly on the wall and hear the conversation between them after we left, but
that is not to be. We gave each couple
an Aldi’s Rahm Mandel (known in this country as “Choceur”) chocolate bar, and
LaRue explained why we like them so much.
There were twelve adults, and 2 grandchildren; the bill for the lunch
came to $200.00.
We had plenty of time to get to the airport and I was able
to walk to the gate. My hip is feeling
somewhat better; now there is not a lot of pain, more a feeling of weakness,
and I fear that it might give out on me, so I try to be very careful. I don’t want to fall and break something.
As I write this, we are on the plane from Minneapolis to
Salt Lake City. We again paid a little
extra for Economy Comfort, and this time it really does offer more leg room,
and is much more pleasant. There is even
enough room to open up my laptop all the way, and still not hit the seat in
front of me. I think I will do this on
the flight to Atlanta if I can. That
will be in two weeks. I hope my hip is
all healed up by then.
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