The 70th Wedding Anniversary

At Sister’s House in Citrus Heights, CA

There they are…all dressed up like they were seventy years ago on June 5th, way back when the Decoration of Independence still had wet ink…when the smell of gun powder was still in the air at Gettysburg…when smoke still billowed up along the shores of Pearl Harbor!   Yesterday we gathered together for the celebration of seventy years of marriage of Dorothy and Al Burdick.  Ok, so we were three days too early…so be it.

   

The event was held at Sandy and Arny’s house, mostly outside of our motorhome.  Weather was a bit hot, topping off in the mid-90’s around 4 pm.  In the upper left picture there is a sign on the fence which says “Happy 70th Anniversary”.  Table cloths had “70” all over them, as did the center pieces.  In the bottom right picture we were all taking it easy, around 11:30 am, awaiting the 1:00 pm start time.  My cousin Donald and wife Sherri came around 10 am from the Salinas area, and needed to head out before 3 to be back for another engagement of their own, so we had a chance to visit.

Donald and Sherri just bought a 25’ motorhome two months ago, and are going to try and meet up with us in southwest Oregon next month when we are up there.  I suggested they try for the week after the 4th of July, and that is what they are shooting for.  Donald is the son of my mom’s brother Harold, a true Pearl Harbor survivor who visited Pearl Harbor shortly before he died.

   

We figured around 40 people would be able to attend, and if I counted right, we had 35 there, plus Skruffy and Bubba.  Two of my brother’s were unable to attend, but we did all get together at Christmas.  Only one grandchild made it, and he brought his son so a great-grandchild was there too.  A few friends, many nephews and nieces, great nieces and nephews (even some great-greats in there), a sister-in-law, a son-in-law, daughter-in-law, former daughter-in-law, and…

Fern who is 96 (far right) and Euleda 95 (being helped down the step in a wheelchair by Sandy with Patti making sure everyone is doing well too).  Eudeda is Arny’s mother, Fern is Aunt Florence’s mother (Aunt Flo was married to my dad’s brother.)

 

Mom and Dad did not want any gifts…but their children, who never listened to them when we were younger, didn’t listen to that command either.  Mom enjoyed the heart shaped etched glass heart with their wedding day inscribed on it.  They both are going to enjoy “Lyft” much more now since we pooled our resources and got them $500 worth of Lyft Rides.  The hardest part of living in the Assisted Living place is that they also gave up their car…and thank goodness for Lyft and Uber, but they seem to like Lyft much more than Uber.  We gave them a $50 Lyft Gift Card, and the other $450 is being sent as email gift cards…

   

   

If you hold your mouse over the pictures, you can see the names of these folks above and below…

  

And the day ended with the presentation of the cake, which was gobbled up and by 3:15 nearly everyone was gone, forced away by the heat of the day.  Poor Arny was cooking up burgers and hot dogs over that hot fire of his BBQ…he was glad to be able to sit down and rest, that’s for sure.

On Tuesday, dad intends to take mom out to dinner at a fancy Steak and Seafood place in Roseville…their first trip by Lyft via the gift card! 

Look at what Dad gets to take off later!

(Won’t be the first time!)

Yes, Back in Citrus Heights—Folsom Lake is FULL!

At sister’s hours in Citrus Heights, CA

Folsom Lake, above, from Granite Bay…which is where, in my day, everyone went for Senior Cut Day.  When I was in High School, I only had ONE unexcused absence.  That was for Senior Cut Day, but not for ‘my’ school, for a neighboring school where I kinda of had a thing for one of their cheerleaders.  For ‘my own’ school’s senior cut day, I did not go to school, I had to work instead.  But the school always gave everyone a pass for senior cut day, “IF” it was senior cut day for that school…not a neighboring school.  $12 gets you in at the State Parks around Folsom Lake…but I explained to the nice young lady that all we wanted to do was get a few pictures, and she gave us 15 minutes to do so…so we did.

After being back home at my sister’s for 1 1/2 days, getting setup, doing laundry yesterday along with shopping and getting the car washed, today we went by to visit mom and dad.  Afterwards, we drove to Folsom, the town, and then on to Folsom Lake.  This is the picture when one crossed Rainbow Bridge over the American River in Folsom, a bridge that is around a hundred years old.  The bridge in the picture is only twenty or thirty years old…but I love Rainbow Bridge, swam down in that water a number of times, fresh water coming right out of Folsom Lake.

Last year the City of Folsom opened phase one of the Johnny Cash Trail, a 1.2-mile segment of Class I bike trail that connects the Folsom Lake Trail by way of a new bike/pedestrian over-crossing, beautifully inspired by the architecture of nearby Folsom Prison.  Eventually they will have large art works displaying the life of Johnny Cash and his connection to the nearby Folsom Prison, along with a 3 acre park…a nice tribute to the man who made Folsom famous. 

Marcia got a nice picture of the newly improved Folsom Dam, which just last year was completed and added some 15 feet to the height of the dam.  When I was young we use to drive across the dam, and every school kid took a tour inside the dam…oh, how times have changed.

      

Give it another few weeks and these beaches along Granite Bay will be packed each and every day.  The lake is full with a height of 464 feet, and nearly 954 thousand acre feet of water behind the dam.  Capacity is 977,000 acre feet.  Just a month ago, the lake was only 58% full, and dropping.  They have to have room for the spring runoff from the Sierra Nevada mountains, and in May, the runoff was real good.  It was only a few years ago that the lake was half full at the beginning of June…yes, the drought is over in Northern California.

The lake is very popular for swimming, fishing, and for boating.  today there were just a few boats out there…

…just imagine how many will be out there Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  However, the weather is really playing games around here.  High in the upper 70’s today, but only low 60’s tomorrow (Friday), just to bounce back to low 70’s Saturday, mid-80’s Sunday, and low 90’s on Monday.  Up in the mountains it will be at FREEZING during the night…welcome to the opening of Summer!

We thought about driving all around the lake, but after getting into Granite Bay, figured I had enough memories to deal with.  They use to let you drive right out to the shoreline…not anymore.  I have had many a sunburn in my life, a few of the worse ones right here at Granite Bay.  Do you know how hard it is to cook in a restaurant’s hot kitchen with a bad sunburn???  I do, it is very, very tough.

Sister Sandy and Sister Patti (no, not nuns) are headed up to Reno tonight for a three night vacation away from work and work.  Arny’s mom will still need to be taken care of, and I willingly offered my assistance to help Arny take care of his mother Euleda.