Are We Hoda and Kathie Lee, or, Isn't it 5:00 in the Middle of the Atlantic Ocean?

First came the tasting, and then came the choice. Cool and I were out to lunch last Friday---I know, two times now!!---and we ordered wine. It was 1:00 in the afternoon, and we ordered wine. That was a first for me. It was all Cool's doing, of course. It occurred to me, with our glasses sitting in front of us, that we had become Hoda and Kathie Lee. They have a 10 A.M. TV show on NBC, and they sit there looking all cute (thanks to plastic surgery I suspect--Hoda is 50, Kathie Lee is 61), glasses of wine in hand. Wine at 10 A.M.? Scandalous! Wine at 1 P.M.? Well, as I said to Cool, "It's 5:00 out in the Atlantic Ocean," and that made it seem acceptable.

Wine in the early afternoon, beer at Oktoberfest............are the BVGs in need of an intervention?

I'm just saying...

Our First Annual BVG Oktoberfest

Last night, at a rare Monday night BVG gathering, we celebrated our first annual BVG Oktoberfest at my house. I boiled brats in beer along with onions and garlic. The best German potato salad was made and brought by j, and Cool wowed us with her fried apples, which were made even yummier by her addition of raisins which had been soaked in some special kind of whiskey.

I was the beer virgin. The whole idea of the night was to get me from "I don't like beer!" to being willing to try several kinds with an open mind. The Coors was used for boiling the brats. We drank the good stuff. I liked Pyramid Oktoberfest the best. I would not describe myself as a true fan of beer, but I can honestly say that I found it to be "not bad." I just had to finish my night off with a glass of "Midnight" which is wine. And it was almost Midnight by the clock.

One observation: I had never seen the BVGs so mellow, to tired out, and I'm afraid it was the beer. Also, we met on a Monday instead of a Wednesday. So many yawns!!! I mentioned that our next gathering, Bring a Friend Night, is just a few weeks away, and we can't all be that drowsy and laid back when we have guests with us.

Guess we better have a coffee tasting...........

Grandkids Say the Darndest Things: Y Not a Ynocerous?

Elletu's five-year-old granddaughter was staying overnight at Grandma's over the weekend along with her older sister. They have a tradition of playing a little game where they think of an animal and give clues to its identity. It was Leah's turn, and she had narrowed it down to an animal with a trunk, and the name of the animal started with 'Y.' Elletu thought and thought, and finally she had to give up because she just couldn't come up with an animal that fit this criteria. Leah's answer to her Grandma was, "It's a Ynocerous!"

Out of the mouths of five-year-olds...

Barktoberfest, a page for our only BVGD: The 'Other Zoe' Story

Yes, this blog is everything BVG....and more! We have also featured the BVGOs (Bethel Valley Girls' Offspring), the BVGOOs (Bethel Valley Girls' Offsprings' Offspring) and even our one and only BVGOOO (Bethel Valley Girls' Offsprings' Offspring's Offspring). A little known fact is that we have one BVGD (Bethel Valley Girls' Dog). Her name is Zoe (but not Zoe McLellan), and Elletu is her Pet Parent. (No, that is not Zoe in the picture above. Elletu will give me a picture of her Zoe when she can figure out how to affix cucumber slices over her eyes.)

It might be too late to throw it together this year, but next year we will plan a Barktoberfest for Zoe. The poster above will give us some ideas for activities for the celebration. I have some questions about the Kissing Booth. I suppose the idea is that Zoe will be in there? Instead of brats we'll be serving hot dogs. Elletu can bring Zoe in her costume, and since she's the only BVGD, she will surely win the Doggy Costume Contest. 

Note to Zoe: Check back next September for details.

Tavern on the Green

                                                Tavern on the Green  *  New York City

We took this picture of New York City's famed Tavern on the Green on a cold December walk we enjoyed through Central Park. I am now three days away from hosting the first ever BVG Oktoberfest, which will feature our first Beer Tasting. Since my house backs up to a golf course and is carpeted in dark green, Monday night it will be transformed from the usual Trankwility Woods to--what else?--Tavern on the Green!

                                                   Tavern on the Green  *   Port Orchard

Franziskaner, Schneider-Weiss, Ayinger Celebrator & Erdinger

It might sound like the name of a German law firm, but actually that is the list of suggested Bavarian beers for the upcoming BVG Oktoberfest celebration. These have been recommended by my older son, whose own experience with beer did not begin until he was studying in Germany. He is not a Bud Light kind of a guy. I haven't the slightest idea what my BVG Sisters are planning to bring to the beer tasting set for Monday night, October 27. This is their opportunity to convince me to quit saying I hate beer. For my part, I will boil the brats in beer (gluten free for j), and instead of just sticking my tongue in to foam, I promise a few swallows of a few beer samples. It is, after all, Oktoberfest.

The brats are safely in the refrigerator, waiting to be boiled and grilled. I'll be careful, because...
       I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE TO SERVE SPOILED BRATS!

This is what Wikipedia has to say about Oktoberfest. I guess we are a little late. It's all over in Munich, home of the original Oktoberfest, after the first weekend of October. Maybe we're late to the game, but we'll bring our game----a fun night awaits us!

Oktoberfest is the world's largest funfair held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is a 16-day festival running from late September to the first weekend in October with more than 6 million people from around the world attending the event every year. Locally, it is often simply called Wiesn, after the colloquial name of the fairgrounds (Theresienwiese) themselves. The Oktoberfest is an important part of Bavarian culture, having been held since 1810. Other cities across the world also hold Oktoberfest celebrations, modeled after the original Munich event.
The Munich Oktoberfest originally took place during the 16 days up to, and including, the first Sunday in October. In 1994, the schedule was modified in response to German reunification so that if the first Sunday in October falls on the 1st or 2nd, then the festival would go on until October 3 (German Unity Day). Thus, the festival is now 17 days when the first Sunday is October 2 and 18 days when it is October 1. In 2010, the festival lasted until the first Monday in October, to mark the anniversary of the event. The festival is held in an area named the Theresienwiese (field, or meadow, of Therese), often called Wiesn for short, located near Munich's center. Large quantities of Oktoberfest Beer are consumed, with almost 7 million litres served during the 16 day festival in 2007. Visitors may also enjoy a mixture of attractions, such as amusement rides, sidestalls and games, as well as a wide variety of traditional food such as Hendl (roast chicken), Schweinebraten (roast pork), Schweinshaxe (grilled ham hock), Steckerlfisch (grilled fish on a stick), Würstl (sausages) along with Brezen (pretzel), Knödel (potato or bread dumplings), Käsespätzle (cheese noodles), Reiberdatschi (potato pancakes), Sauerkraut or Rotkohl/Blaukraut (red cabbage) along with such Bavarian delicacies as Obatzda (a spiced cheese-butter spread) and Weisswurst (a white sausage).

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So Franziskaner, Schneirder-Weiss, Ayinger Celebrator & Erdinger is NOT a law firm. Here's my favorite law firm, as witnessed in Smithfield, VA. Who wouldn't feel confident having this man for your lawyer?

Namesake

I have enjoyed the process of my children picking out names for my grandchildren. When I was pregnant with my own children, I don't recall asking my parents what names they would like me to choose. It was strictly up to my husband and me, and I have remembered that each time baby names have been bantered about between my son and his wife and my daughter and her husband. For the most part I have been happy with their choices. It's not as if I had to try to accept any name I couldn't stand, such as Lloyd, Floyd, Horace, Winnie, Hazel or Imogene, the latter of which I hear is wildly popular this year.

Naming your children is such a personal thing. You either choose a name to honor someone in your life, or you choose a name you look forward to using day in and day out for the rest of your life because you like the sound of it. Or it could be a combination of the two.

I have never regretted the names my husband and I picked for our three children. Our older son's name goes back in my husband's family several generations, including his middle name which is my husband's name. Our younger son was name after a blond haired little two-year-old boy I saw running across the grass at Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon. We were on a camping trip at Fort Canby State Park near Long Beach, WA. I was seven months pregnant at the time, and we hadn't been able to agree on a boy's name. When this little boy's mom called his name, he turned around to look at her, and he looked so much like our older son at that age, it took my breath away (but then everything did at that point, because I was suffering with severe asthma during that pregnancy). I knew then that this was the right name for our baby if he turned out to be a boy.

My daughter was named after a friend I met on a music mission trip with Lutheran Youth Encounter during the summer of 1967. A group of 21 college-age young people, who were selected by audition, trained together for a month on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. At the end of the month the director divided us into three equal teams of seven members each. There were three girls and four guys on our team, and we traveled together in a station wagon for two months, going all through the Midwest and then up into Canada and down into Upstate New York. We put on music programs in cities like Chicago, Detroit, Des Moines, Madison, Milwaukee and Toronto, and we were counselors at Bible camps, sang on radio programs, in prisons, at nursing homes, worked with youth groups, etc. It was a life-changing experience for me to say the least. Saying goodbye at the end of the summer was so hard. That's why there was no question in my mind about flying to Ames, Iowa two summers later for the wedding of my friend and former team member, Angela Asp. Laurie Blomquist, the other girl on our team, flew in from North Dakota, and we stayed together at Angela's parents' house. It was such a beautiful wedding in the church where Angie's father was the pastor. Angie and her three sisters sang a cappella for the ceremony---they were amazing.

As busy as Angie was, she took the time to be with me and Laurie. I lost track of Angie Asp. I don't even remember her married name. I determined clear back then that if I ever had a daughter, I would name her Angela, because Angie was the most beautiful girl, inside and out. Here are some old pictures of Angie (long blond hair), Laurie and me at her house the night before the wedding. Then I will add my daughter's senior picture. Is it my imagination? I kind of think the two Angelas look alike! Angie will never know I honored her by naming my daughter after her. I really doubt she named her daughter Firstelle.


(Angie is on the right, Laurie is on the left, and I, Firstelle, am in the middle in the top photo.)

The Villa People: How the BVGs met the FVGs

                                                                The Forest Villa Girls
                                                              (minus one not pictured)

Back in the days when the Bethel Valley Girls lived on Bethel Valley Lane, the Forest Villa Girls lived on Forest Villa Court. I lived in between, on a non-descript cul-de-sac. The thing we all had in common was that we attended Christian Women's Club together. I was invited to both Bethel Valley Lane and Forest Villa Court. My children were happiest going to Bethel Valley Lane because of their seven friends there--Elletu's three, Cool's two sons and j's two daughters--who were closer in age to them than the children of the Forest Villa Girls (FVGs). And there was that little playground on Bethel Valley Lane.

I mention the FVGs because they recently enjoyed a reunion. Of the four of them, only one has moved away, and she was recently in town from Idaho, hence the photo above at one of the homes on Forest Villa Court. Like the BVGs, the FVGs raised their children together, and now, all these years down the road, they are all still friends. Even one of them moving away did not break the bond that these women enjoy. Their bond is as strong as ours.

So how did the two groups connect? Well, I think it's because of ME! When my husband and I were newly married and looking for a church, we went to Sylvan Way Baptist Church in Bremerton. It was a drive, but this church was in the same Baptist Conference as Dunlap Baptist, my family's church in Seattle. (Have I mentioned that Jimi Hendrix' funeral was held here???) I felt comfortable going there, and we loved the church. We got to know another Port Orchard family there, and they lived on Forest Villa Court. Nice family, four young children, two sons and two daughters. They knew me through my first pregnancy with my daughter. I would often play the piano there. I remember playing on one hot summer Sunday evening late in my pregnancy, and my feet were so swollen I had to wear slippers (you know, thongs?) on stage. The church gave me a wonderful shower after my daughter was born.

This woman from Forest Villa Court was there at my shower, and she was also at my daughter's first birthday party. Somewhere along the way, in the nursery at church, my friend from Forest Villa Court told me their family and two other Port Orchard families attending Sylvan Way Baptist were transferring over to Harper Evangelical Free Church in Port Orchard to cut down on the long drive to church. She invited us to do the same, and since I was a nursing mom, the idea of going to church closer to home made sense. Also somewhere along the way I began going to Christian Women's Club on my own. I mentioned to my husband that I had read about it in the local paper, and I decided to get a babysitter and go. My husband called me from work that morning I was going to the monthly CWC luncheon and said the wife of one of his favorite co-workers was going to the same luncheon. It turned out this woman was a close neighbor of the family we knew on Forest Villa Court. So I looked for my friend when I was there and met the other women from their neighborhood, including the wife of my husband's co-worker. From then on I was invited over to their beautiful neighborhood for many visits. I always enjoyed my time with them.

About this time I had started going to the weekly CWC Friendship Bible Coffee, and one Tuesday a new young mom showed up. It was Cool, and we became friends. She invited me to her son's third birthday party, along with two of her neighbors. This was Elletu and j. The rest is history, only I wonder if they remember history, because I invited the three of them to the church we were attending, Harper Evangelical Free Church. That's how they got to that church. The four of us ended up there together, and we ended up at Christian Women's Club together. The BVGs went to Bible Study Fellowship in Bremerton back in those days. Years later I went to Bible Study Fellowship with two of the Forest Villa Girls in Gig Harbor, at the church that Cool and j ended up joining when they left Harper. Through Christian Women's Club, we four BVGs and our husbands were in a couples Bible study for some time, and also in that couples Bible study was a Forest Villa couple, my husband's co-worker and his wife. To this day that couple is part of our circle of friends, including the BVGs.

Just more of the little twists and turns of life, how lives get intertwined. Some friendships fall apart over time, some drift apart, but if you work at it, good friendships can stay intact over the course of decades, over the course of a lifetime, in spite of moves, just as it has been for the BVGs, and yes, the FVGs. As Michael W. Smith would say and sing: "Friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them."

Dunlap Baptist Church: Star Connections Continued

Dunlap Baptist Church, Seattle, Washington, 8445 Rainier Avenue South, Rainier Beach District, only it's not Dunlap Baptist anymore. Now it is Medhane-Alem Evangelical Church, an Ethiopian congregation. When Dunlap Baptist began, it was a few blocks away in a white wooden traditional church building, complete with a steeple. That is the building where I first attended Sunday School, and where Royal Brougham gave me some change to put in the offering, a move that for some reason stopped me from crying. I was just two when my mother first brought me, my two brothers and my two sisters to Sunday School there. The year was 1950. The new, more modern building was opened in 1952, and there was a big celebration for that event. I was just four years old.

This church building represents so much to me. This is where I asked Jesus into my heart at Vacation Bible School, and this is where I was baptized when I was nine years old. The baptismal was up above the choir loft, as seen in the picture above. That picture is so old, I don't recognize any of the people on stage or out in the congregation. But that is the piano I started playing when I was in junior high school, and in 1967 I started playing the organ as well. I sang for contatas up in that choir loft. When I moved away and left the church, my mother took over playing the piano and did so until her death in 1982. In fact, she suffered a heart attack on a Sunday morning while playing for church, although she survived that and did return as the pianist. This is the church where my children were dedicated, and this is where my mother's funeral was held. I played the piano at her funeral. I would like to add that the Bethel Valley Girls, bless them, came to support me that day.

Aside from Seattle sports journalism icon Royal Brougham, Dunlap Baptist didn't have any star connections until Jimi Hendrix' father started bringing his young adopted daughter, Janie, to Sunday School. They lived a few blocks away from the church, as did my family. I have already written about the fact that Jimi Hendrix' funeral was held at Dunalp. Maybe I didn't mention that my hands played the piano on a Sunday morning, then Miles Davis played the piano at Jimi's funeral on Thursday, and I was back to playing the following Sunday. I think the whole Miles Davis things did impress my children, even though they continue to get nauseated when I mention Jimi Hendrix as if we were old buddies.

It was long-time Pastor Gordon Vance Johnson who baptized me. After his death Pastor Allen arrived, and after him, Pastor Blackburn. He is the one who officiated at Jimi Hendrix' funeral as well as dedicating my children. He was deeply appreciated by us but lambasted in Miles Davis' autobiography for being a 'white' pastor who understood nothing of the black culture. Davis was so vitriolic, I have long wondered if that had anything to do with Pastor Blackburn leaving not only the church but also the ministry.

After Pastor Blackburn left, in came Pastor Collins. He turned out to be the uncle of one of my closest friends, Julie Collins, who sang all of the songs I ever wrote back then. I was her accompanist, and she sang at my mom's funeral, with Pastor Collins officiating. Julie's cousin Dan, Pastor Collins' son, turned out to be a singer with the Maranatha Singers in California and was also a record producer. It was pretty exciting when I heard he was marrying Christian singer Jamie Owens, daughter of Jimmy and Carol Owens who wrote some of the youth musicals that were so popular in Christian music at the time. Jamie was well known as a soloist and was a good friend of Keith Green and all singers/musicians who were part of what was called the Jesus Movement. Dan and Jamie were married in the backyard of Ralph Carmichael, who is known as the 'Father on Contemporary Christian Music," and as noted in previous posts, I had a connection with him. I do wish I could have attended that wedding! I was pretty upset with my old friend Julie for passing up her opportunity to go. I offered to take her place, but I don't think she ever took me seriously.

Jamie Collins became Jamie Owens Collins, and she and Dan would come up to Seattle to vacation with his parents. Every time she would sing at our church, for free, not advertised, even though she traveled around as a singer. This is how I got to know her and Dan, thanks to Julie. Then years later, when we were living in Hawaii, they came to sing there. And where did they stay? With my brother and sister-in-law on the North Shore! We heard Jamie sing at Calvary Chapel in downtown Honolulu first, and then on subsequent trip she sang at our church, New Hope Christian Fellowship. That time my brother and sister-in-law, Jamie and Dan, my niece Jan, and my husband and I went out to dinner at Zippy's after the Saturday night service.. I brought all my old LP's Jamie had autographed when she sang at Dunlap Baptist---and old tapes and old song books, not only for Jamie's music but also her parents' music. It was so fun talking do Dan and Jamie about their careers. Jamie's music can still be purchased through Fairhill Music. This info is from their website:

About

Fairhill Music, Inc began in 1983 as an administrative publishing company for Jimmy & Carol Owens and Jamie Owens Collins‘ songs.
Jimmy and Carol Owens began writing songs for the church in the mid 1960s. In the 70s and 80s Jimmy and Carol inspired and unified Christians around the world with their musicals “Show Me,” “Come Together,” The Witness,” If My People…,” and “Heal Our Land.”
Jamie began writing as a teen and has given us memorable songs such as “The Victor,” “You Have Broken The Chains,” “Seasons Of The Soul,” and her best-known song, “The Battle Belongs To The Lord.” She has traveled extensively throughout the world singing and teaching. For more information about Jamie refer to her page.
Other administrated songs in the Fairhill catalog include songs from Barry McGuire, Terry Talbot and children’s songs from Gospel Light Publications.
Fairhill copyrights are licensed internationally and administrated outside of the United States and Canada worldwide by Coltman International.
For a listing of the songs owned and administrated by Fairhill music please refer to our catalog.

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What are the odds that one simple church in South Seattle would have such diverse star connections? But you know what I think is the most important thing that ever happened there? I MET JESUS!

 

Cool News

On Day 1 Cool's husband, Mr. Cool, entered St. Joseph's Hospital in Tacoma (where their younger son and both of our sons were born) and had his fifth spinal surgery. Yesterday, on Day 9, he finally came home. His projected date of release post-surgery was Day 4, and if not Day 4, then Day 5. My husband, The Duke, and I were poised to be his limo drivers last weekend, and then I was ready to take over solo duty during the week, even spent a day in Tacoma shopping around and staying in touch with Cool via text because we thought he would be able to get out. But alas, a blockage of the internal realm blocked his passage out into the external realm. After calling in Roto Rooter, Mr. Cool was good to go. However, The Duke and I were not--we were on our way to get our grandson for a few days. Thus, Cool had to make the journey alone, and of course she did just fine, as did Mr. Cool.

Perhaps my shout-out to Roto Rooter seems like TMI for this blog, but hey, Cool's Facebook post said much more on the subject, truly getting to the root (or bottom) of the problem.

The real shout-out is to Mr. and Mrs. Cool who have faced way more than their share of major surgeries and disappointments and still manage to keep smiles on their faces. It was hard, I know, but Mr. Cool even managed a 'chuckle' for me when my husband and I visited him in the hospital Friday night. He was clearly in a lot of pain. He might have been thinking some bad words in his semi-drugged state, but he displayed his customary genuine, appreciative smile.

"Home is Where the Recliner Is," Mr. Cool has been thinking, so welcome home, Mr. C. Welcome to your Sleep Number Bed, welcome to your recliner, drink up the Snapple Peach Tea, but sadly no wine for you.

We want to continue to be of service to Cool, the Nursemaid. When I asked what we could do further for her, she said, "I might need someone to come over and drink wine with me after a full day of taking care of my husband." This is when my selflessness really kicked in. "I'm there for you!" I said, with complete sincerity. I'm a BVG, and this is how we are.

As my husband would say, "It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it."

Dead Man Not Walking

When my husband and I got married it was a case of country boy marrying city girl. Prior to our wedding we each took the time to write out a list of places we wanted to take the other. It was almost comical when we compared our lists. Mine had places like the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of History and Industry and the Space Needle on it. His listed places like High Rock Lookout, Bald Hills and the Hoh Rain Forest as priorities. Wisely, we combined our lists and did it all. As we raised our three children we tried to expose them to a wide variety of activities, from camping in the wilderness to experiencing big city life in places such as Seattle, San Francisco, Reno, Denver, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., New York City and our family favorite, Honolulu.

Camping in the wilderness wasn't my idea of fun. I did a lot of tenting in my childhood, and I wasn't anxious to repeat those experiences. While I was willing to camp in a tent at 9,000 feet in the Rockies for my husband's family reunion, deep in my heart I knew I was a five-star hotel kind of a girl. We compromised with an old trailer complete with a bathroom---that was a must. Later we traded up to a much nicer and bigger trailer with a queen size bed and bunks, even a small tub. We made a lot of happy memories in those trailers, and I cried when we had to sell our trailer before moving to Hawaii.

While I had hoped to only camp in state parks, my husband convinced me to go with friends and my parents to the wilderness. It was opening weekend of fishing, and the guys found a big spot on a logging road above Eatonville where we could put all three rigs. My husband told me I was going to love the peace and quiet. He said, "You'll never see another living human being," and those were prophetic words. Looking back, they were pathetic words.

At the time our daughter was two and our older son was a nursing baby. We were there five days, and it poured down rain the whole time. The streams were so high, fishing wasn't so good. We could hardly sit outside to enjoy a campfire. Our daughter did find something she could do:

 On Saturday we three ladies and my two little ones drove down into Eatonville for a much-needed change of scenery. When we came back we were met on the road by my friend's husband, who said, "We have some trouble back at camp." My mother's immediate question was, "Is the dog okay?" I wonder why she didn't ask about my father first, which I was ready to do. Actually, my parents' dog had run off, and in looking for her the guys came across a dead body! Note: This was NOT "another living human being." This was a dead man NOT walking.

To make a long story short, in short order they had the police on their way up to our camp spot, and then here came the coroner, photographers and reporters. We women and my children spent hours holed up in my friend's trailer. She made coffee for our 'visitors,' while I watched men carry bags by my window, with the victim's clothes, hair, false teeth, boots...all too close for comfort. When their work was done, the yellow tape with 'Crime Scene/Keep Out' cards attached to it was strung clear across behind our three rigs.

To this day my friend and I wonder why we continued to stay there, why we didn't just pack up and leave. We continue to refer to that place as Dead Man's Curve.

It was a creepy experience to be sure, but with the passage of time it has become a story worthy of a blog post.

Before the Blog: My Start in Journalism (With a Future Star)

Back in high school I was the Feature Editor of our school newspaper, The Shield. This is where I got my start in journalism. As you can see, we were an energetic bunch of writers. I put this on my page for some reason. It was a joke about something. There I am, in the middle, white blouse, head in my hand. But wait, there is someone much more important in this photo. To the left, her hand in her hair, that is Vivian Greene, one of my 'connections.' We also sang together in the select girls ensemble and were on Executive Council together. You can read about Vivian elsewhere in the blog, but remember this quote of hers:

    "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass....It's about learning to dance in the rain."

Sounds to me like the way the BVGs have chosen to live!

Which Came First, the BVGs or the Wine?

The year was 1974, and here is the young me (26) on the right with my friend Ruth (still my friend) as we toast each other with WINE at my house in Kent. Previously, Ruth and I had apartments just a few blocks from each other. We met in high school, then we ended up working together at the Department of Social and Health Services, Kent Office, after she graduated from Central Washington University. She showed up at work one day and already had her apartment near mine. She and I had a lot of fun in our young, single years. She and her husband got married six months before my husband and I got married, and I played for their wedding. They came to visit us when we lived in Hawaii and again when we lived in Virginia. When they came to Virginia it was for my 60th birthday and her husband's 70th. We drank wine then too, and again when we recently celebrated his 76th birthday and my 66th. This was just a few months after he retired as a ski instructor after a 'mere' 45 years!

I did not meet the BVGs until 1981, so here is proof of the answer to the question above: "The wine, of course!"

It's Not What You Know But Who You Know: Elletu's Star Story

The last one to check in with her star connections is Elletu, and she defines hers as a 'friend of a friend' kind of thing, but most are closer than that. This will do.

To begin, she says she has a friend who was friends with and went to high school with actor Josh Lucas, now co-starring with Debra Messing in "The Mysteries of Laura." When I wrote about Josh Lucas recently I had no idea that Elletu had a friend who has a friend who was friends with and went to high school with him. See how this works? It is amazing what we find out about each other through this latest theme of this blog.

She has a friend who 'went steady' with Gary Puckett, he of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap fame. Hearing this, I had to do my research on Gary. He was raised in Yakima---j's daughter lives near Yakima!!--which is close to the town of--get this--Union Gap! He went to college in San Diego, then quit college to play in several local bands before joining the Outcasts, a local hard rock band that ended up touring the Pacific Northwest. The band was renamed the Union Gap in 1967, just one year after j and I graduated from high school. Soon came their big hits, such as "Woman Woman," "Young Girl" and "Lady Willpower." Although they never had a #1 hit song in the U.S., "Young Girl" did become #1 in the UK. The band was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1969 but lost out to Jose Feliciano. I still have some Feliciano LP's. Love him. But I digress. On June 20, 2010, Gary Puckett performed for the first time in Union Gap, WA, the namesake of his former band. He married Lorrie, not Elletu's friend.

Elletu has a friend who was once a body guard for William Shatner. Another friend used to work at KOMO-TV and knows everyone there. He has an Emmy for camera/photography work. Elletu has a friend who has an Emmy!

Another friend of Elletu's considers himself an 'Indy director' and collects pictures and autographs of the famous. Elletu has no idea what autographs he has in his possession. (I have Mary Pickford's, but that's a whole other story.)

I have heard first-hand from Elletu's close friend Sandy about her connection to KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer. Sandy's sister won a wine tasting with him at an auction, and Sandy went along--for the wine tasting, not the auction. I remember something about a limo, and it was a pretty impressive story. Of course I had to do my research on Tommy Thayer before writing about him, and lo and behold, I have a connection! Tommy Thayer graduated from Sunset High School in Beaverton, OR. When I read that it rang a bell. My niece Dayna, who lives in California, was a cheerleader and Homecoming Queen at Sunset High School.. I checked with her, and Tommy Thayer was a senior when she was a sophomore, but his brother Mike was in her class and was her friend. After high school hey both went to the University of Oregon, and he lived in a fraternity across the street from her sorority. Dayna said they are both great guys. She added, "I have seen Mike from time to time over the years, and I hear about Tommy too." As she said, "Small world."

And as I mentioned before, Elletu has a connection to actor James Caviezel. We like to refer to him as Jesus, but that's because he portrayed Jesus in the 2004 movie "The Passion of the Christ." Elletu's boss at the time (and friend) is his cousin! Caviezel now co-stars in the TV show "Person of Interest," leading me to say, "Jesus is a Person of Interest" which could be taken two ways. Like Josh Lucas and Gary Puckett--and let's not forget Jimi Hendrix--Jim Caviezel was born in the state of Washington. In fact, he was born in Mount Vernon and raised in the small community of Conway, not far from where my father and stepmom lived as children and later as a married couple. He attended Mount Vernon High School for two years before moving to Seattle to live with family friends in order to play basketball at O'Dea, a Catholic High School (he was an is a devout Catholic). Then he transferred to John F. Kennedy Memorial High School in Burien--near where my sister and two nieces live--where he was a basketball star. He went on to play basketball at Bellevue Community College, but an injury ended his dream of having an NBA career. He transferred to the University of Washington and turned his focus to acting, and the rest is history. He moved to Los Angeles, where he has his successful career and a successful marriage.

Elletu's children have their own star connections. Her son talked to both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett when he worked at Microsoft. Her younger daughter met the guy who played Tumnus in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" at ComicCon in San Diego. And let's not forget that Elletu's older daughter was in Acting Ensemble at South Kitsap High School with Zoe McLellan of the new hit TV show "NCIS New Orleans."

Elletu, you are the one who ties all of these connections together. You thought you had nothing to give me, but you were wrong, proving it's not what you know but who you know that counts.

What does it mean to be the first BVGOOO?

Beautiful, beautiful girl, our first BVGOOO, growing so fast, unaware of the BVG heritage passed down to her. Will she be the keeper of the BVG history? Will she someday write a blog about what it means to be a BVGOOO? We can only speculate at this point, but oh, those sparkling eyes and happy smile--we love her! Elletu, your family has a winner here, that's for sure.

Not a Mystery Picture: Viognier, San Mateo, CA

An exquisite wine bar in a lovely downtown, San Mateo, California. If the Bethel Valley Girls were to open their dream-of Empourium, I would like it to be just like Viognier in San Mateo.

Mystery Picture

I love this picture. I just can't remember where we took it. It is obviously in a mall somewhere, but where? Perhaps in Hawaii? It looks like the most beautiful metal art in the world. I wish I had this in my house.

This is not a mystery. I took this picture from the front porch of our house in Kailua. We had the nicest, most inviting entry courtyard. Off to the right from here there was a little side plant-lined courtyard, and that was the entry to my piano studio. (I had the best commute in the whole world, that's for sure.) To the left, behind the wooden wall, was another courtyard, which was the view from our living room. My husband planted the garden in there with gorgeous, colorful Hawaiian vegetation. It was so spa-inspiring. There was even another small, plant-filled courtyard beyond the sliding glass doors in my piano studio.

Now imagine if instead of the wooden gate in this picture there had been one made from the green metal in the top picture. How spectacular that would have been!

Why we never had a Bethel Valley Girl retreat there during our nine years living in Hawaii is completely beyond me. How ridiculous of us! Our spa days would have been epic and would have been finished off with time spent in our pool:

I'm fantasizing about outdoor massages. Oh, and here's something we had fun doing for visitors. We would have them swim in the pool at night, with the pool lights on and tiki torches lining the backyard. Our guests would swim up to the edge of the pool and we would serve them Mai Tais, complete with fresh pineapple spears and little drink umbrellas while they were waiting for the fresh fish to be done on the barbecue. This would definitely have been a BVG treat for a BVG retreat.

Oh, if only we could go back in time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Secret Ingredient in Coke?

Unique church signs delight me. I have a book full of pictures of them. We saw this one on a country church in Virginia, near where we used to live.

He is definitely the 'secret ingredient' in a changed life. We need to share the recipe!

The Autograph of a Star!

I forgot I had this, JP Patches' autograph, signed to my son when he was a toddler. As previously stated, JP and his sidekick, Gertrude, came to Port Orchard one day when our kids were little, before I had my youngest so it had to be around 1981 or 1982. They were, of all places, on the west side of Bethel Avenue. I just blogged about Bethel Avenues Hahas. On this particular day, you could say that JP and Gertrude were a couple of Bethel Avenue Hahas. JP Patches was a Seattle icon such as was Stan Boreson. The PJ Patches Show ran from 1958 to 1981, so it spanned from when I was ten years old until my daughter was four and my son was two. JP's full name was Julius Pierpont Patches. He's gone now, but he brought a lot of joy to girls and boys over the years.

More BVG Star Connections: j's Story

 

Thank you, j, for this contribution as we continue to explore the BVG star connections. It's fun to know we each have Stan Boreson stories. I'm anxious to know if that Bainbridge Island actor you met is Chris Soldevilla because I know all about him. While I had not ever heard of Lanny Rees, I was fascinated by his story (article to follow your contribution---thanks for sharing), and here he is a relative of yours! Cool! I mean, Neat! Neat compares with cool, not Cool, although our Cool is neat, but I digress, and besides, I think you know what I mean.

So here they are, j's star connections, including being a shirt-tail relative to actor Lanny Rees (pictured at left, when he was a child actor). This is her story...his story follows:




"Hi!
Just checking in after reading the blog. One claim to fame is having a picture taken with Stan Boreson at a fall festival in our small town of Everson.
On a family vacation in California, we went to a small Episcopal Church and in walked Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and their children.
I was six years old, and looking for movie stars. I thought I had found Betty Crocker on a billboard but it was really a politician!! Ha!
I met Governor Albert Rosellini at my Dad's tavern.
I met a retired BI actor who came for Jury duty but I don't remember his name.(not helpful)
I was back fence neighbors to the Mom who went off to war. I prayed for them faithfully. I remember how that broke my heart.
I know Jan Angel. I know Dave Peterson. I know, I'm getting desperate to find notable people. I just did not run in circles where famous people popped out.

But I am a shirt-tail relative to Lanny Rees, a golden age child actor who is married to my sister-in-law's sister, Natalie. Lanny played Junior in The Life of Riley among other parts in movies. Junior was probably his biggest role. He had a part with Roy and Dale also.

 

My favorite and best celebrity is the King of Glory.
Can't wait to share how He showed up in my bathroom a few nights ago."

Thank you, j, for reminding all four of us that we have the ultimate 'Star Connection' in our relationship with Jesus Christ!

****************************

I am including this article about Lanny Rees (misspelled in title below) on the blog because it is so interesting. Personally, I think it should be amended to read:
     "Lanny Rees is a shirt-tail relative to j of the famed Bethel Valley Girls."
I can dream, can't I?

 

Lanny Reese: All-American Boy of the ‘40s
By Ken DennisOften Clad in blue jeans and T-shirt, possessing a wide face with large round eyes, and dimples, Lanny Rees epitomized the all-American boy in films of the mid and late 1940s. Equally at home in comedies, dramas, and westerns, he appeared with such screen icons as James Cagney and Roy Rogers. If his film career was not very long, it was, nevertheless, busy and eventful. Rees recently shared memories of his remarkable life and career, providing fresh insight into the life of a child actor in the Golden Age.
Born Lanny Eliot Rees on December 14, 1933, in Veradale, Washington, Rees was the youngest of Arthur Edward and Mildred (Hooper) Rees’s eight children. His mother soon had Lanny taking tap dancing lessons, and with America’s entry into World War II, he began his career by entertaining troops stationed in the Spokane area. Not only did he tap dance, but also served as a junior emcee at camp shows. In 1944, with most of the Rees sons serving in the military, Lanny’s father, a heavy duty mechanic, sold their home and moved his family to Van Nuys, near Los Angeles. Lanny recalls, “I guess this was so they could put me in the movies.” It might be assumed that Rees had pushy stage parents, but he says this was not the case. “My mother was not pushy except in making me practice tap dancing,” which, ironically, he was never to do in a film.
Rees was enrolled in Maurie Reubens’ talent school, and it was while appearing in the school’s annual talent show at the Wilshire Ebelle auditorium that he was spotted by a talent scout from RKO and asked to do a screen test. Lanny also remembers that, “Jane Withers came back to see me after the show. I was really impressed by that. She was quite a young lady.” Shortly thereafter, twelve-year-old Rees took his test with actor Lee Bonnell and was hired to appear in A Likely Story (1947), a comedy directed by H.C. Potter and starring Barbara Hale, Bill Williams, and Sam Levene.
Although A Likely Story was Rees’s first film, it would be his fourth in order of release. Shooting began on the picture in 1946, but some cast members were called back in early 1947 to reshoot the ending. Lanny would make three more movies in 1946 which would be released before A Likely Story. Playing Barbara Hale’s little brother, he was paid $250 a week for eight weeks. “Barbara was a smart actress and was extra friendly to me,” Rees recalls. “She made a pencil sketch of me on the set, and I still have it today. She and my mother really got along great, too.
“Mr. Potter was awfully nice to me, very friendly. My emotional scene at the end really surprised him. After explaining the scene to me, I just began crying. I’ve always been a good crier. That really impressed him. Sam Levene presented me with a cap pistol during the shoot. Everybody on that picture was great. I was in awe, and on top of the world.”
After the completion of A Likely Story, Rees was signed by RKO to a seven-year contract. His salary was $100 a week, whether he was working or not. He attended the RKO school which was located near the studio’s back gate. At that time the school consisted of one teacher and two students—Lanny and young Sharyn Moffett.
Lanny’s next work, however, was as a loan-out to Republic Pictures for the film Home in Oklahoma (1946). Republic paid RKO $1,500 a week for Lanny’s services, while the boy actor continued to receive only $100. This, of course, was a common practice among the studios.
Home in Oklahoma was a good western flick, filled with action. Directed by William Witney, the movie starred Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and the always memorable George "Gabby" Hayes. Lanny worked on the film for two weeks, one of which was spent on location at the Flying L Ranch in Davis, Oklahoma. This was the same ranch Rogers and Evans would return to two years later to be married. “Roy and Dale were wonderful people, that was obvious to everybody,” Rees remembers. “And Gabby Hayes was fun . . . a fine actor.”
The picture did have more than its share of trouble, though. Roy’s stunt double was nearly killed in the train chase sequence while doing a horseback-to-train transfer on the run. Then, after it was publicized that Dale Evans’ double (who was doubling for Lanny) successfully took a fall over Rainbow Falls on location, a local teenager stole onto the property one night and was killed trying to repeat the stunt.
To top it all off, Lanny got really sick. “I got blood poisoning shooting that picture . . . On location, we were staying at a sort of campground with an outdoor roller rink, the biggest in Oklahoma. I got a blister on my foot from skating without socks, and back in L.A. it developed into blood poisoning with dark lines running up my leg. I was taken by the studio to a doctor at the Sunset Towers Hotel on Sunset Blvd. where I received three massive shots of penicillin . . . I was then taken back to Republic to make one more close-up for the picture.” Clearly, the child actor of the Golden Age was not pampered.
Little Iodine (1946), based on the syndicated two-panel comic strip by Jimmy Hatlo, was Lanny’s next film on loan-out. Starring Jo Ann Marlowe in the title role, the cast also included the venerable Hobart Cavanaugh and Irene Ryan, later to gain fame as Granny in television’s The Beverly Hillbillies. Made by Comet Productions, the picture was shot in an old cartoon studio in West Hollywood where some of the cartoonists were still at work. Charles "Buddy" Rogers produced the ten-day shoot using money invested by his wife, silent screen star Mary Pickford. Lanny recollects, “In one scene I had to eat a Fig Newton, which I really didn’t like. Jo Ann Marlowe saw me making a face as I was chewing the cookie . . . and different cookies were immediately ordered. I had no more contact with Jo Ann for several years until she called to ask me to take her to her senior prom. Little Iodine was a fun picture.”
My Dog Shep (1946) is one of Lanny Rees’s most well-remembered movies. A drama directed by Ford Beebe, it was shot in nine days, mostly on location at Warner’s Ranch, Iverson Ranch, and Corriganville in the San Fernando Valley. Lanny was the star in a cast that included former silent film great William Farnum as Carter J. Latham, an unwanted old man; Russell Simpson as nasty Uncle Matt Hodgkins; and former Keystone Kop Al St. John for comic relief. Flame appeared as the German shepherd of the title. Lanny, as Danny Baker, is extremely effective in this Golden Gate Pictures production which was highly successful at the box office.
While Lanny got along famously with virtually everyone during his years of filming, Fred Chapman, the boy who played his despicable cousin, Arthur, proved to be an exception. “Whether it was an extension of his character or what, he didn’t seem to like me . . . we just didn’t get along.”
William Farnum, however, was something entirely different. “He was the nicest man you could possibly imagine . . . a very considerate and wonderful man to me.” Although up in years and nearing the end of his long career, Farnum was still a very effective actor. Playing a cast-aside old man who forms a bond with a lonely boy (Rees) and his dog, Farnum finds himself once again unwanted and unneeded toward the film’s end. As he walks alone down the dusty road into the distance, Rees recalls that “the most hard-bitten members of the crew were in tears . . . the tears were just streaming.”
Another memory Lanny has of My Dog Shep involves Flame’s trainer, Frank Barnes, with whom he developed a close friendship. Flame, it seems, was quite a docile animal, so he had a much more aggressive double who was brought in when attack scenes were shot. Lanny was afraid of the aggressive double. “Frank used to sneak up behind me, growling, and grab at me with a claw-like hand.” It was all in fun, though, and just the sort of good fright that kids enjoy.
Returning to his home studio at RKO, Lanny had a much smaller role in Banjo (1947) starring his schoolmate Sharyn Moffett and directed by Richard Fleischer, who was just beginning his long Hollywood career. Banjo is the story of a girl and her dog, and Lanny’s few days of filming were spent largely on location in an area adjacent to Santa Anita Racetrack. He was glad to be back with his friend Frank Barnes, who was in charge of the canine title character, but there was little else to be glad about concerning Banjo since it was such a flop.
One of Richard Fleischer’s memories of the film ran like this: “I took a trip to New York when the picture was finished shooting and the editor was working on the first assembly of the film. To cheer me up, he took a scene from the picture, cut it [the film footage] up into dozens of celluloid banjo picks, and mailed them to me in an envelope with a note, ‘This is the best I could do with this scene.’ It made me feel really good.”
Upon completion of Banjo, Lanny’s six-month option was not picked up by RKO, and the thirteen-year-old was now a free-lance actor attending Van Nuys Jr. and Sr. High School. His agent, Jack Pomeroy, soon found him work in a Monogram western, Law Comes to Gunsight (1947), shot on location at the Melody Ranch in Newhall. The film features Johnny Mack Brown and perennial old-timer Raymond Hatton. Lanny remembers little of Brown, but says Hatton became a good friend. “I didn’t ride very well, just bouncing around holding on to the saddle horn, but Raymond Hatton taught me how to ride fairly decently.”
Of his next film, Reaching from Heaven (1948), Rees has only a vague recollection. He played the part of Edgar, a newsboy, and was uncredited for the first time in his career. This was followed by Republic’s California Firebrand (1948) with Monte Hale and Adrian Booth. A six-day shoot at Iverson’s Ranch in Chatsworth, this was a remake of Roy Rogers’ 1941 Sheriff of Tombstone. (It would be remade again in 1957 as Thunder Over Arizona with Skip Homeier.) While Lanny’s last several pictures were of small importance, much more meaningful and memorable work was just around the corner.
Based on William Saroyan’s 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Time of Your Life (1948) boasted an impressive cast that included James Cagney, William Bendix, Broderick Crawford, James Barton, and Jeanne Cagney. A William Cagney Production filmed at General Services Studios, the picture was directed by H.C. Potter, who remembered Lanny from A Likely Story and specifically requested him for the part of the newsboy. Although the role only involved a few days of shooting, Lanny received a run-of-the-picture contract at $100 a day for thirteen weeks. This was due to his getting a closely-cropped "butch" haircut for the part and the belief that this could limit his being hired for other roles until his hair grew back.
Rees remembers James Cagney with great fondness. “What you saw was what you got [with Cagney] . . . A straight-ahead guy who gave me the only acting lesson I ever got. I had made several takes of a scene, and I’m not sure the director even then had gotten what he wanted. Cagney took me to one side and said, ‘If you believe what you’re saying, the audience will believe it.’ And this has held true for me.”
An interesting footnote to Lanny’s performance concerns his character’s singing of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.” While Lanny’s singing was found perfectly acceptable by the director, his voice was dubbed by a young singer whose rendition had been recorded prior to filming.
The Time of Your Life was a critical success but did poorly at the box office, losing half a million dollars. James Cagney blamed Potter and cameraman James Wong Howe for the loss, declaring that the film was neither well-paced nor appropriately shot. Rees, on the other hand, believes that the characters were too off-beat to be accepted by audiences.
Lanny’s next notable picture was Universal’s The Life of Riley (1949), directed, written, and produced by Irving Brecher. Lanny played Junior Riley in the film which starred William Bendix in the title role as his father and Rosemary DeCamp as his mother. Good support was provided by veterans James Gleason and Beulah Bondi. Life of Riley was successful and became a television series the same year as its theatrical release. Rees and DeCamp were retained from the film cast, but Bendix, who had also played Riley on radio, had to be replaced due to previous film commitments. Tryouts for the part included Jackie Gleason and Lon Chaney, Jr., both of whom took their screen tests with Lanny. Sixteen-year-old Lanny would become very good friends with Chaney, and remembers, “He was just funny and nice. He invited me to his house in Toluca Lake to swim and later told me I could bring along friends, which I did. He rented out the big house on the property, and he and his wife lived in the pool house or cabana.”
Gleason got the part because, Lanny believes, Chaney was too closely associated with his role as the Wolfman. In Lanny’s opinion, Chaney’s screen test was better than Gleason’s. The series, which ran for one season, was made by Filmtone Productions in a little studio on Santa Monica Blvd. just east of Highland. Lanny received $125 per episode for twenty-four or twenty-five episodes, each one being rehearsed and filmed in one and a half days—“Sometimes long days,” Lanny recalls. The series won an Emmy for "Best Film Made for and Viewed on Television in 1949." The Life of Riley would return to television in 1953 with William Bendix and a new cast and would run for five seasons.
By 1950, Rees had reached that awkward age for child actors, and parts became smaller and more sporadic. He had a small one-day uncredited part in M-G-M’s Kim, directed by Victor Saville and starring Errol Flynn and Dean Stockwell. In 1952, he appeared in an episode of television’s The Lone Ranger with John Hart as the masked man and Jay Silverheels as Tonto. Lanny played the role of a chemistry-loving boy who helps the Lone Ranger trick map-stealing outlaws. He received about $250 for two or three days work and has very positive memories of Hart and Silverheels, the latter of whom was quite articulate and, he remembers, had something of a reputation as a ladies man. He continued with uncredited roles in Don Siegel’s Count the Hours (1953) with Teresa Wright and Macdonald Carey and in Dragonfly Squadron (1954) with John Hodiak and Barbara Britton. That would be his last Hollywood film. Rees would not be seen on screen again for 36 years.
In November of 1954, Rees began a two-year hitch in the US Army. A few years earlier, he had done some stage work at the Pasadena Playhouse among other venues, and while stationed at Ft. Ord near Santa Barbara, he took to the stage once again in a production of Golden Boy with former child actor and fellow soldier Darryl Hickman in the lead.
Upon leaving the service, Rees returned to Hollywood in an unsuccessful effort to find movie work. Married by then and with a family to support, steady work was a necessity. He found employment testing component parts for North American Rocketdyne, a manufacturer of liquid propellant rocket engines. Several years later, Reese went to work for General Dynamics Astronautics Division installing Atlas missiles. It was during this time that he and five other men prevented an Atlas missile from exploding in its silo and received the Exceptional Service Medal from the U.S. Air Force for the deed.
Following the end of the Atlas installation program, Rees undertook various other positions including one at the Spokane Civic Theatre where he met performer and band vocalist, Natalie Monte. Divorced from his first wife, he initiated an on-and-off courtship with Natalie which led to their marriage in 1972.
For most of the next 30 years, Lanny worked as a heavy duty mechanic and shop foreman. In 1990, however, he made a return to the big screen playing a police desk sergeant in Lightning Pictures’ Class of 1999, a story about robot teachers placed in a riotous school. Shot in Seattle and directed by Mark L. Lester, the picture’s cast included Malcolm McDowell, Stacy Keach, and Pam Grier. In Lanny’s words, “It was a disaster . . . I started with three pages of dialogue and don’t think I ended up with five seconds on the screen. I couldn’t get my check and get out of there fast enough!”
Lanny Rees retired in 2003 and lives with his wife in Washington where he spends his days landscaping his lawn, visiting his son’s farm, and putting old tractors back in running order. He has four sons and a daughter by his first wife, two stepsons with Natalie, a total of thirteen grandchildren, and two (at last count) great grandchildren.
In June of 2008, Rees debuted on the film fest circuit, appearing at the Memphis Film Festival held in Olive Branch, Mississippi. He enjoyed the experience thoroughly and looks forward to more opportunities of that kind.
Reflecting on his film career, Lanny remembers his many professional associations: “I never worked with anyone who wasn’t nice except for one assistant director whose name I don’t even remember. My special favorites have to be William Farnum, James Cagney, and Lon Chaney, Jr.” And his favorite film? “A Likely Story . . . a Cinderella beginning [for me] . . . third billing, a new experience, and did I like it!” How does it feel seeing himself on screen today? “I really liked making movies. I was impressed by them, but I never liked watching myself on the screen . . . Then several years ago, I guess I gained some objectivity and began to like seeing my movies and that little guy up there that I once was.”
 

Bethel Avenue Hahas

While driving down Bethel Avenue in Port Orchard yesterday I saw two reader boards that caught my attention:


     BARK NOW, OR FOREVER HOE YOUR WEEDS

and,

     BIRTHING CLASSES - by the Dalai Mama


I love creativity! Here are a few more of my favorite signs:

     WE CURL UP AND DYE FOR YOU    
     (on a beauty shop in Missoula, Montana)

     PLANT PARENTHOOD
     (the name of a plant nursery, also in Missoula)

Then there is the Bremerton ale house:
     THE POUR HOUSE

And if the BVGs ever opened a wine bar:
     EMPOURIUM

I have always loved the art of a 'play on words.' One of my all-time favorites is also incredibly politically incorrect. I didn't write this, I'm just quoting it, from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from decades ago: "Rosa Parks Bust Unveiled." That was done in poor taste.

But then Elltu might say the same thing about a picture I took of her in the hospital and put it on the blog. At least I didn't entitle the post: "Elletu's Bust Unveiled"!
    

Men Seldom Make Passes at Dogs Wearing Glasses

I have been experimenting, wearing my glasses instead of my contact lenses. I first wore glasses in my early 40's. They were large and kind of purplish burgundy. When I look at pictures of me in them I cringe, but believe it or not, various people, including a teacher or two at my children's elementary school, would say things like, "I wish I needed glasses so I could wear some like yours." But by my late 40's I discovered the joy of contacts. Once I started wearing them, glasses seemed like a nuisance.

That's why I couldn't understand the dog above in Virginia wearing them. This was not a joke. This dog was in the car next to ours at the gas station.

But wait---that was not an isolated experience! We went on an Alaskan cruise a few years ago, and this is what I saw in the window at a house in Ketchikan:

Well, they say it's a dog's world, and I'm back to wearing glasses too. One plus at my advanced age is that the glasses deflect attention away from my age-related droopy eyelids, and this way I don't have to clean my contacts every night. The vote's not in yet, but Elletu did tell me she thinks my glasses make me look younger, which sounds ludicrous to me.

As for BVG demographics, 100% of the BVGs need and have glasses, although some are just for reading. I think I am the only one of us who can say that 33 and 1/3% of my children wear glasses. At a BVGO reunion, would he make a SPECTACLE of himself???

Klepto Cool

Today I went out to lunch with just Cool. I have gone out to lunch with just Elletu many, many times, and since j retired it's been especially fun to go on field trips with her and out to lunch. I love Cool, and she is so fun to be with. It only takes me ten minutes to get where I can pick her up from work, and a restaurant we both enjoy is just a few blocks down the hill. How have we missed out on this?

We had a delightful time, and things were going great until we got back in my car after lunch. There it was discovered that Cool had walked out with the beautiful chair cover from where she had been sitting. Cool is a kleptomaniac!

I sent her back up the stairs to the restaurant. I'm going to have to watch her more carefully in the future.

But Cool, let's do lunch again....................soon.

Good For What Ales You

I saw this on the reader board outside a local establishment:

     "I read about the evils of beer, so I had to give up reading."

I mention this because this is October, and the theme of our next BVG Night (October 27) will be Oktoberfest. I don't drink beer, I don't like beer, but just like my three BVG Sisters think I should join Facebook, they think I need to be educated about good beer. (Isn't that an oxymoron?) I'm fixing the brats, j is making German potato salad, and Cool is making fried apples. Elletu is bringing beer, and my son is going to send her his list of favorite German ones. He's been wanting me to come over to what I call the 'dark side' ever since he went to study in Germany. He left a non-beer-drinker and came home a devotee of 'good German beer' (it is not an oxymoron when I am quoting someone). He is depending on my Sisters to change my mindset. I'll be a good sport, at least I will try to be. So this is my 'positive affirmation' for the month:

     "I can't wait to see what's 'on tap' for the evening!"

BVGOOs: It's Another Girl!

We already knew Elletu's son and his wife are going to welcome another daughter in a few months. Today I received the exciting news that my son and his wife are also going to have a baby girl, their first daughter, and they are ecstatic. Their two-year-old son is staying with us for a few days, and when they called with the good news today I put him on the phone so they could tell him he is going to have a little sister. He smiled, said "Oh," and walked away to get back to playing with the fun toys strewn across my family room floor. I'm on Cloud 9, not necessarily for me because we have two grandsons and a granddaughter. Boy or girl, whatever, we would be thrilled. But I am especially happy for my daughter-in-law who so wanted to have a daughter. She is a fabulous wife and mother and a very special person. I could not love her more if I had given birth to her myself. She is a fun sister for my daughter who only had brothers, and how awesome is it that her due date for her baby girl is just one year and one day past the birth date of my daughter's baby girl? They previously had boys three months apart, and being pregnant at the same time solidified their bond. I love the fact that my daughter-in-law's identical twin sister also had a girl and a boy. What a blessing this news is today.

So what is the tally of BVGOOs now?

12 girls
 7  boys
_______________

19 BVGOOs!!!!

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow...
And I'm pretty sure we have more BVGOOs to go!