The Terrible Catsafterme

Both before and after Christmas, my Dad’s family kept busy with not one, but two birthday celebrations in the month of December. My cousin Lora’s birthday is on December 9, so she was celebrating her 9th special day. My guess would be that the little party took place after church on the 8th at her parents’ – Bill and Dottie’s – house. I only have one photo from this gathering and as you can see below, I once again was at the ready with my assistance in blowing out the birthday candles. Read the rest of this entry »

All through the Summer of 1974, my parents had been working on a couple of projects in our back yard. The first was a barn to store our lawnmowers, garden tools, and other items that wouldn’t fit in our (then) single-car garage. He enlisted the aid of his cousin Irene’s husband Virgil Davidson to assist in the construction, with my Uncle Ed helping to put in the flooring. Dad an Virgil worked on this during the day before heading off to work at Brown and Kroger in the evening. No telling how much assistance I lent to the project. When it was done, we had a nice looking white barn that still sits on the property today. Read the rest of this entry »

As far as my memory is concerned, Laddy was my first cat. Although we had a fleeting association with another feline, who remained nameless, at our home on John Glenn Road, I have no memory of any cat before Laddy. We’re not quite sure who named Laddy, but I suspect it was my Dad. He was a stray cat that initially hung out across the street at the Ferrenberg’s house, but one he started roaming over to our neck of the woods, we offered him some food, and Brenda Ferrenberg offered him to us. Read the rest of this entry »

It is interesting for me to look at the dozen slides that my Dad took during our Summer weekend retreat at Woodland Altars in 1974. I’m not exactly sure what the retreat was for or when it took place, but my guess is that it was around the Fourth of July holiday. Also I am not sure if this was a retreat of the Bear Creek or the Beavercreek Church of the Brethren. When we moved to Beavercreek the year before, we had switched from Bear Creek to Beavercreek, obviously due to the closer proximity. Read the rest of this entry »

In the early Summer of 1974, my Mom and Dad took me on what was probably a weekend getaway to the National Recreation Area known as the Land Between the Lakes – the lakes in question being Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. This area extends across two states, from Kentucky into Tennessee. We would have undoubtedly stayed on the Kentucky side. Unfortunately, neither Mom or Dad have a great deal of recollection of this early vacation, so all information must be inferred from the nice batch of photos below. There were certainly quite a few of them for such a short trip. Read the rest of this entry »