COUSINS AND COUSINS OF COUSINS.

Toni Moore is my cousin by marriage. Her husband of 26 years, Commander James Moore of the Sheriff's Department (deceased) is my first cousin. Our fathers were brothers.  But, our relationship goes deeper than that. I attended High School with Toni and introduced her to Jim. While visiting the archive, I discovered she was planning a family reunion and she asked me to join them. The afternoon of the Archive meeting, March 16th, I went with her to Costco to shop. Toni is handicapped and can't drive. On the 17th, it was St. Patrick's Day, she took me out to dinner for corned beef and cabbage. I think we licked the plates clean.

Her oldest son is Kurt Moore. He and my son Ken are close in age. We raised our kids together, often camping since no one had any money in those days. We all lived on tight budgets.

Her middle son, Todd, was closest to my son Doug's age, and the two of them were pals growing up. Toni's youngest son, Barry recently died and everyone is still trying to heal from loss. Todd lives nearby and is indispensable, taking Toni to her appointments, shopping and helping Todd keep up the place. He has one daughter, Briana, and I somehow failed to get a picture of her and her boyfriend.

The relationships get complicated for me to keep straight. Kurt's youngest children Teddy and Alex, with Gramma Toni are the reason for the reunion. They live on the East coast with their mother and visit twice a year. They normally come for Easter vacation and this year came early. So, Toni planned an early Easter.

Always smiling, Leslie Nolan, is Bob Moore's partner, who is a brother to Jim.  He doesn't like having his picture taken and ruins your picture, if he has a chance to.  You have to get one surreptitiously.

Here he is with his nephew, Teddy.

Kurt's oldest daughter, Sandy arrived with her husband Josh.  Kurt's son, John is serving in the Army and couldn't attend.

Now, this is Grandpa Kurt, hauling Sandy's two newest members of the family over his shoulder into the back yard. He knows a little about how to handle young boys. They are Caleb and Jacob ages six and four, recently adopted.

It rained off and on all day, but no one melted. The kids played bean bag toss. Emma, Sandy's daughter teamed with Teddy and Alexandria, Sandy's half-brother and sister, and her father Josh.

Emma gets a big jump closer because she is the shortest and youngest in the game. Cousin works as well as any moniker, and "cousin" Teddy doesn't mind.

As the day went on, the kids turned to hunting for treasure. Caleb is trying to figure out how to get up in the tree holding an egg.

An egg hiding in plain sight, up high, gives the older kids a shot at the eggs. Some contain money, some contain candy or little toys.

Heavy competition comes with a smile as Bob and Josh pair up with...

...Todd and Kurt.

Looks like Josh nailed it. The rules are much like horseshoes.

The kids enjoyed their treasures. Emma, in Easter finery, with a full bag.

Jacob enjoyed a green chick that is special because it has a squeaker inside.

Caleb liked his rubber Easter chick, too.

After dinner, everyone enjoyed dessert. Emma looking sweet 16 instead of 12 with frosting pink lipstick.

Alexandria, kissable in blue, is a freshman in High School.

Emma with her frosting lipstick plants one on cousin Alexandria.

Caleb wanted to try my camera. A quick learner, he took a bunch of pictures and did quite well.

This picture by Caleb is a tad blurry. But, not bad for a six year old's first time with a sizable camera.

This one was my favorite, where he caught his little brother taking pictures with my phone.  Maybe photography in his future, but without a doubt, a good time was had by all. HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE.

NEW AND OLD AMERICANA.

Long distance biking is very North American; In the last twenty years bicycling has grown to mega proportions. This Canadian couple, Ollie Ewing and Anna Szkraba pulled into the little city park at Towner where we stayed and I wondered what their experiences were like.
Because they are on bikes, they stop in towns, ask questions, shop for food and a place to shower; they mingle with more people than we do on the same trajectory. They find that people are friendly and helpful wherever they go. They’ve been invited to stay in people’s homes, five times between Ottawa, Ontario and Towner.  Their destination is Vancouver, B.C. They plan to spend a night with friends in Stanley.  Our goal was a to visit Dakoa Drug Store in Stanley where the only working Whirla-Whip Ice Cream machine is still pouring out a specialty treat.   They do about 68 miles a day, more or less.

In the morning, they pulled up stakes and hit the road. We wished each other well, me with a little ache in my heart as I thought of Essya Naballi and Martha Wright and their unfortunate encounter on Highway 101 Oct. of 2011.
http://marysramblins.blogspot.com/2011/10/black-monday.html
We’ll be following them on F.B. Isn’t that cool?

We drove to Stanley and the terrain is changing;  more hills and mining, some oil wells but we aren’t deep into fracking country yet. Stanley is just on the edge of it all.

Beautiful colors of green and gold; a field of winter wheat just threshed.

It seems a strange mix, farming and oil. We and the biking couple have been warned away from Williston where the oil boom is most evident. A city that went from 14,000 to 40,000 almost immediately. High crime and danger is what we are repeatedly told as the reason to avoid the place.  In fact, Stanley City Park where we had planned to stay has been taken over by permanent renters from the oil boom. They hold a few sites open for travelers but we decided to find another place to park.

Welcome to Stanley where the street lights have speakers on every pole. Music is piped out to the street wherever you walk, just like elevator music in a grocery store. We thought it was strange.

The Dakota Drug Store fountain to see the only Whirla-Whip machine in the world beckoned.

Terry, the very helpful pharmacist took time from his busy day to take us into the basement where there were probably thirty of the 100 pound machines. The last working model needs rewiring and it will be up and running, soon, he promises.
At the fountain are the new light weight Whirla-Whip machines invented by Claude Reed, who once owned 40 ice cream parlors.  But it was  Bruce Rodenhizer, at this drug store who made them famous. Terry called Bruce Rodenhizer and asked him to come meet us, the former owner now in his 80′s and retired.

While we waited for Bruce, we chose our flavors. The fountain boy told me one guy orders dill pickle, bacon bits and brickle. Hmm. I decided on dill pickle, blueberry and brickle. It was delicious. What Claude Reed realized is you don’t have to have 50 different flavors of ice cream in a great big refrigerated counter, you only need two. Vanilla or chocolate. Then you add the flavors.

Bruce Rodenhizer told us his story. He came here fresh out of NDU at Fargo with a wife, a degree and no money. He worked for two years in Williston, and went into partners in the Drug Store with a lawyer. He was the pharmacist and eventually bought his partner out. The partner wanted to get rid of the fountain and his wife said NO! The fountain stays. When the original Whirla-Whip machines began to need parts, he would  buy every one he could get his hands on to keep them running.

These machines were invented before Dairy Queen and other soft ice cream machines came out.  This machine takes hard ice cream and turns it into a smooth concoction with flavors added. Bruce and his wife and son ran the drug store for 50 years. People still come in and say, “I want a peanut butter on chocolate,” and the fountain person knows exactly what they mean. They bring their kids from miles around to taste an authentic Whirla-Whip delight. Bruce was interviewed by PBS in 1989 during N.Dakota’s Centennial Celebration. His fountain was considered “old Americana”.
The Whirla-Whip inventor, Claude Reed visited the Dakota Drug Store and met Bruce and his Wife after CBS did a program on he and the machine he billed as the only Whirla-Whip machine in the world still running.
Bruce is a friendly, nice guy who was mayor of Stanley at age 31-33. “They practically ran me out-of-town because I spent too much money,”  he said. “Now they thank me for being farsighted enough to improve our infrastructure.”  He is now an ambassador for both fracking and wheat, North Dakota’s two biggest enterprises.

HALLOWEEN-A PHOTO OP

Having young children can inspire a person to celebrate Halloween with great fanfare. Thus, my daughter carving the cannibal pumpkin---

 

 ---dressing up as a ghoulish, green witch, filling the cauldron with candy,  and in general, enjoying the fun as much as the kids. The whole courtyard was decked out with a graveyard scene complete with fogger and sound affects.

Even Mother-in-law, Olga, got into the spirit of things wearing a witch hat while preparing dinner for all of us. Who can resist the "witchy mother-in-law" cliche, except anyone would be delighted to have Olga as a mother-in-law.

The kids picked their costumes with extra care and examined and adored them for days before.

  They practiced their super hero moves with flare.

Encouraging trick-or-treaters to come to YOUR house was fun. Trick-or-treating was gobs of fun.  But, the best part, the very best part, is counting your booty and hoarding it for the days to come.

 Yum, Yum.

 As adults we remembered the things we didn't like in our sack. Anything good for you, like apples, walnuts and bananas. The worst was a penny. And a tooth brush from the dentist. Oh, no!
From the look of things, it was a very exciting Halloween. And for me, a new recipe, I'll share tomorrow.