Mom's Turn

Sunday was my Mother's (Betty) turn to celebrate her birthday.  She has always looked young and just turning 76 she's in pretty good shape.  Besides a few chromosomes, we share the experience of open heart surgery, however hers was over 20 years ago.  We both agreed it that time did not make any difference in the pain factor.  After serving his time in the new Air Force, my dad did what many young men did at that time, head to the big city for a job.  In this case it was Milwaukee Wisconsin to work at the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company.  This was the early 1950's and Schlitz was the 2nd largest selling beer in the United States, after Budweiser.  At the brewery my dad met my Uncle Lee Ystad who's wife had a sister........The rest is history.  Moving back to Eleva dad took a job at US Rubber (now Uniroyal) tire factory in Eau Claire.  Mom became a stay at home housewife raising us 5 kids.  Being from Milwaukee I suspect Eleva was quite a culture shock for her.  She was never one to put up with too much and maybe that was her "big city" way of dealing with us screaming kids.  Her favorite weapon of choice was a flyswatter, and knew how to use it.  She also made each one of us participate in the daily chores like dishes or laundry.  Looking back it was probably the best thing she taught us, hard work and responsibility to help around the house.  I can assure you we didn't look at it this way at 10 years of age!  It is always great to see her and I hope we celebrate many more birthdays together.

Mom's step dad and mother would always come and visit for a week each summer.   Because her step dad was not our real grandpa, we always called him by his name, Howard.  Howard was an interesting guy, the likes we only seen a couple times a year.  I remember as a kid we would pick them up at the Eau Claire rail depot.  Eau Claire was the last stop for the Chicago Northwestern 400 train that ran from Chicago to Minneapolis ( the 400 claimed to make the 400 mile journey in 400 minutes).  Usually with a Harvester Cigar in his mouth he never showed much emotion, but loved to fish when he visited.  His favorite thing was to take grandma, their son (my uncle) Dennis, my brother Steve and I fishing in Alma Wisconsin.  This would generally involve shore fishing at the wayside on Beef Sough with 10 foot cane poles and worms we would dig in the garden.  Fishing with cane poles is about the simplest and cheapest way to catch fish.   They generally have about an 8 foot fishing line tied to the end of a 10 - 12 foot bamboo pole, with a hook and a bobber set at around 2 feet.  You would use the length of the pole to get the line our from the shore.  Once the bobber when down you would simply lift the pole up to set the hook and haul them in.  We would always catch a few real nice sunfish this way, enough for Howard to take some back to Milwaukee.  After fishing Howard would drive over to Wabasha, 10 miles up river and on the Minnesota side to have a beer.  At that time the Wabasha Bridge over the Mississippi was quite interesting with a unique turn near the end.  That bridge has been long since replace but was both fun and scary crossing it.  While grandma and Howard would have a beer, we would play shuffleboard or bar bowling for a couple of hours before heading back to Eleva.  Now my dad never, ever would have brought Steve and I into the bar and even as kids, we knew better than to tell dad where we were at.  It was sort of like going to the forbidden city and we were smart enough to assure that the following years trip would include the same side trip!  Certainly one meets a number of characters in their life and Howard was one of them. 

As a final note, I would like to share with you the typical way people back home invite everyone to a party and thank all the guest, through the Ad Delite, a local advertising weekly.  To let every one know how much we appreciated their celebrating Dad and my birthday, he ran a notice in this paper.   As I described in an earlier post, dad's nickname was P.O.D and in true fashion this is how he signed his name.  Eleva is truly a great place to live!  My boat is ready and I am feeling good enough to try and take it out this weekend.  Because of the late Minnesota fishing opener, I am planning on picking up my cousin Paul and fishing with my cousin Greg at his cabin near Bloomer  for the Wisconsin opener, May 1st.  Hopefully I can sneak out next weekend to test out my new HDS5 and livewell timer.