The Week in Review: May 20-26, 2013

Last week flew by for me.  School went fine, and we packed a lot into our days.  We got a new little boy in our classroom, and he is a sweetie.  One morning, when I only had 3 kids, we tried shaving cream finger painting.  The kids enjoyed it.  I remembered to tell them not to eat it, but didn't even think of telling them to not get it in their eyes.  Apparently it stings! 

I got off work early on Friday, stopped by to say hi to Cary and then drove to Eugene to spend the weekend with my family.  Kari, Casey and I went out to dinner at The Coburg Pizza Company in Springfield (across from the Springfield Elks in the Mohawk District).  That was delicious!

Kari and Casey

These two pictures are from my phone and they are kind of blurry.  I posted them on Facebook and copied them off of there.  I have better ones on my camera, but I can't figure out how to download them to my computer yet.  Any-who, I looked across the room and said, "Hey, those are Audrey's kids!"  They were, and there was my friend Audrey and it was fun to play catch up.  Nigel and I rented their little cottage years ago.  

I also ran into a high school friend, Joe Pishonari, and his wife Mary.  Everybody began looking familiar to me in that pizza parlour after that.

Audrey, Me and Andy (who has recently been cured from his cancer.)   Please  "CLICK HERE "  to see where Andy went on his Make-a-Wish trip.

We went back home and watched Casey shoot hoops.  He is a great basketball player.  He is going to fore-go football for now.  Only 12, he is already 5'6" and is going to be big like his Dad and grandpas.

That night, we watched The Princess Bride and then went to bed.  Saturday morning, we got organized and drove over to Mom's house, where we met up with our cemetery tour group.  There were 16 of us this year, and it was a special treat to have Nigel and my nephew Ethan join us.  I felt like a Mom again, having the car full of my kiddos.

The weather was perfect.  70* and pleasant, we couldn't ask for better.  Usually it rains, and it began raining that night, but we lucked out.  We visited 8 cemeteries in the Drain/Elkton/Yoncalla area that day.

First stop was Cottage Grove:

Kari and Mom get right to work.

Second stop was Anlauf, where we met the other part of our group:

Aunt Sondy, Aunt Mardy and Grandma Jody ... those little girls of Mayfair Lane.

My cousin Sally, cousin Nanci, Nanny (Aunt Sondy), Cousin Jen and Me.

Casey, Ethan and Nigel

Next, we went to the North Drain Cemetery.  Here is Uncle Boyd's grave.  He was the one who was returning home to Oregon from World War I and was hit by a street car in Portland.  You can read more about him by "CLICKING HERE".

After leaving there, we drove to Ray's in Drain and got stuff for lunch.  Then we went to the chocolate shop, which was once Aunt Myra's home.  I wrote about that in the post below, so you can either scroll down or just "CLICK HERE"  to learn more.

After buying stuff and some of us suffering injuries from the porch swing accident, we drove to the Drain Cemetery.

My cousin Kinsey.

We left there after an unsuccessful search for Maxine Sanders, The Queen of May (you can read more about her by "CLICKING HERE "), and drove to the Applegate Pioneer Cemetery in Yoncalla, previously known as the Yoncalla Cemetery.

It is very peaceful there, and also where we break for lunch.  We never think to bring a rake, but Mom had some hand tools and I had a long-handled ice scraper that worked pretty well.  Aunt Mardy and Mom got right to work on the Letsom Plot.

Buried here are Grandpa John Letsom, his children Thomas, Kit, Mary and Martha; Talitha and son-in-law Ben Hedrick.  Mom will be buried nearby when her time comes.

Here are our group shots.  I am in one, and my sister Julie is in the other one.  We were all dressed about the same; lots of blue and back, except for Kinsey and Casey.

Top Row:  Jody, Casey and Nigel.  Middle Row: Mardy, Ethan, Julie and Rachel.  Bottom Row:  Sondy, Jen, Amari, Nancy, Sally, Kari, Kinsey and Brooklyn.

I asked if we could visit the Applegate Cemetery (the small one) because I had never been there before.  Mom had, and it was right on our way, so we did.

Casey and Ethan open the gate.  This one was a family cemetery established in 1861.  I will write more about it in another post.  I was thrilled when we got inside, because there were so many people from Tin Pot Valley buried there.

The setting was intimate and park like.  There were even tables and barbeques placed against the fence, so it must be used as a gathering spot for relatives.  This is on private property and is only open at certain times.

Rachel, Brooklyn, Kinsey, Nigel, Ethan and Casey

One of the first headstones that I noticed belonged to Benton Mires.  I was so excited, you would have thought that I had met Johnny Damon or something.  Here is the Tin Pot Valley post that I recently did on Benton Mires (just "CLICK HERE".)  I have already added the picture below to that post.

Then, there was the father of Tin Pot Valley, Charles Putnam (Horace Greeley Putnam's father), along with Rozelle Applegate Putnam, Horace's mother.

Charles Putnam

Rozelle Applegate Putnam.  Rozelle died suddenly and young, leaving many children behind.  They spent a lot of their childhood with their grandparents, Jessie and Cynthia Applegate.

Grandmother Cynthia Applegate, 1813-1882

You can read more about Jesse Applegate, aka: The Sage of Yoncalla, by "CLICKING HERE".

Grandfather Jesse Applegate, 1811-1888

Leaving there, we headed to our next stop ... the cemetery at Hardscrabble Ranch and tree farm. 

Rachel, Kinsey and Aunt Mardy holler out to the others.

This is a very small cemetery and it is where my pioneer great-great grandparents are buried:  Lousia Jackson Hedrick and John Hedrick.  To go to the post that is all about them, please "CLICK HERE".

Aunt Mardy is standing beside a huge bush of Poison Oak, and there is some of that dreaded Scotch Broom right behind the three girls.

Mardelle, Sondy and Jody

Our last stop was Putnam Valley Cemetery.  Mom and I began talking to the man mowing the lawn and he turned out to be a cousin, Mike Cunningham.  He gave me some good information and gave me some names of people that I should talk to that will help me with my research.  I'm just going to need to go back and spend some time in that area.

After saying goodbye, we headed back to Eugene.  Right ouside of Drain there is an old wigwam burner.  There used to thousands of them in Oregon, but now there are only around 50.  They were used to burn sawdust and debris at sawmills, but were banned from use in the 70's due to air pollution.

After dropping of Nigel and Ethan at Mom's, Kari and Casey and I went out for hamburgers.  That will be another post, but these pictures were sweet.

We went back to their house, watched The Sandlot and Benny and Joon and then Kari and I accidently stayed up until 2:00 in the morning!  I left for a rainy drive home at 8:45.  I spent most of the day developing my 234 pictures and watched part of the Mariners/Ranger game with Cary and Darlene.  She provided yummy snacks for us; then I came home and took a nap.

That is about it.  Today is rainy and yucky out.  I am actually missing everybody at school and though I am happy to have the day off of work, I am glad to having no plans.  I might use my new vacuum cleaner though.

I hope that you all had a nice holiday weekend (if you are in the states) or just a nice weekend period.

It feels so great to be back blogging!  I have missed it so much.  I'll be by to visit you guys soon.

~ Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.