It looked like a scene from Snow Falling on Cedars. This was a whirlwind (and snowy) trip. Dick Gordon asked Aunty Kate and I to come up because he was ready to go through some of Fran's things and needed help identifying family heirlooms so that David would know what they were someday when he became interested in them.
We left Wednesday morning with relatively nice weather, but by about Burley encountered quite a bit of rain. We reached my usual stopping point on these Seattle jaunts, Baker city Oregon, but it was only 5 pm so we decided to go on for a while. After we drove past La Grande and were emotionally and vehicularly committed to Pendleton, we encountered a blizzard in the Blue Mountains and it was especially treacherous in Deadman Pass. Yes, Deadman. Kathleen did a great job driving through this. We finally got to Vashon on Thursday and we got right to work.
I went through the boxes of patterns, sewing equipment, sewing machines (4) -- I brought one home for Sarah -- and books. We cleaned up the guest room, had Mexican food, and bedded down for the night.
On Friday, we went through Fran's clothes and jewelry. I was hoping to find pieces of Mom's costume jewelry of which I have such fond memories. Unfortunately, I came up empty handed. We did find Grandpa Dibble's 20 and 25 year commerative pins from Salt Lake Hardware and Charlie's 25 and 30 year pins from his work with USAF. We also found Mom's bracelet with a pendant with the Minute Man Missle on it. That is a strange piece of jewelry to be sure, but Mom worked as a secretary to one of the engineering crews that worked on the missle at Hill AFB in the 60's. She really liked it. I hope David will appreciate those little items. I think he has a bit of a pack rat nature like his mom, I just hope he developes her love of family heritage. After the clothes and jewelry, we tackled the camera equipment. The only thing I recognized that was a real blast from the past was Polaroid camera that we bought Mom in the early 1970's. We were so sneaky and she was so surprised. We still have some very good looking pictures that were taken with that camera. All the camera equipment went to the Jr. High School. Fran would have liked that. She was always involved in the schools.
We went to dinner at the Backbay Inn on Vashon where Dick was playing with his blue grass band. I have eaten way too much on this trip.
Saturday we decided that we needed to get on the road quickly because the weather looked threatening. However, there was time to look at one more box. We found the lovely colored pencil sketch of my grandmother. I must have looked like I was going to cry because Dick told my I could have it. Fran probably would have slapped him if she were able. This is truly a family prize.
On the way home, the girls wanted to stop at the best Nordstrom Rack in the world so we did. That put us behind about 2 hours but Kathleen found an adorable pair of Betsey Johnson shoes for only $47 dollars. It was worth it. We got to Pendleton again about 930 pm.
Sunday we woke to snow. Please reference the paragraph above about Deadman Pass. We decided to go to church in La Grand and drove through the pass in white out conditions. I figured we would be blessed for making the effort to get to Sacrament meeting under such awful conditions. We were. It was a wonderful ward, with a great spirit. We split fast, though, hoping to get ahead of the weather, and only getting in the middle of another white out. I thought this was spring.
We did get home safely. The doggies and Bob missed us. The house was in great shape.
Aunty Kate, you missed an eventful trip. Hope you can come next time.
2 comments:
You brought me a sewing Machine! I am so lucky! Thanks Aunt Fran!
Sarah, I expect some sewing miracles now. Giddy up. You may make me my Halloween costume. I want to be Snow White again. You have like 6 months.
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