My sister, Marge

I am still in shock from the death of my sister, Marge.
The family asked me to talk..her eulogy...her early life
and I've written. I've torn up. And written.
trying to get the facts just right..trying to remember
what made Marge laugh. She picked up all kinds of humor.
She loved facts...could you prove what you said?
She wanted to be a journalist.
Her first book publishing
came when Aunt Nethella gave her the book
she and Aunt ONeta wrote
telling her she could publish...or not.
She made sure the King book was published.
Mother worried her book for years.
Marge talked her into doing the School Teacher's Kids,
then made me help her figure out how to
end the book of Mother's Boulder years.
We got Mother's book about Hawaii
done and decided we needed to do the Clyde King Story.
We asked for people to contribute and fretted over what to say.
We made mistakes...ohhh groan...and more.
So many that we were trying to correct if
anyone decided on a second printing.
Marge thought we hadn't given Clyde enough praise
for his accomplishments in life...how to do that?
We'll just add more information.
What do you want to say.
"Give facts about his selling, his making money."
In the meantime
She was to write her book. Me mine.
We needed to get her facts from the journal.
Get my facts down. FACTS!
We had such a great time deciding what to do.
How to get our own story told.
Marge was going to publish the facts in her story.
She copied a thousand letters. Her story was
told in letters, but where were the onces she wrote?
Oh. I had a few.
Now she is gone...well, I'll just turn her book
over to her kids, Cheryl, Raymond, Dan
Anyone she tried to hire to help,
and mine to my kids. What more can we ask?
Let us hope they get the facts straight!
Especially hers.

Long lost Great Aunt Mary Margaret and John

My Grandpa King's sister was never mentioned that I could remember.
How do you lose a family member?...in the old days, they changed their name.
This one above was my Great-Grandma King, her daughter Mary Margaret and Mary's son Mason with great great grand girls Lois and Laveta who were Mason and Lavorda's kids.
I just love writing down all these names that only cropped up in my life
when Caroll Lester, another great-grand, wrote us for a book on the Kings.
My head is swimming with getting re-acqainted with relatives I never met.
She wasn't even dead when I was born! What is wrong with my relatives??
I know travel wasn't easy and people were very poor (by our standards)
but they seemed to leave and never look back. If left, family didn't stay
connected. There were letters in those days!
I am very interested in finding out that Mary Margaret was married in Green River (Why Green River?), lived in Vernal..her husband also invested in the old Orpheous Theater that I posted earlier. She was the first white woman to live
in Bridge (Myeton) and Dragon, Utah. She ran a cafe, a hotel...they even build and sold a hotel in Rangely, Colorado, was in Creed, Colorado when Bob Ford (killer of Jesse James) was killed, and finally became a nurse. That woman worked! She could have used some help. Her husband worked the mines, hauled Gilsonite to Dragon, and moved to Oregon where he did both mining and worked in sawmills later on. They lived a long, hard life.
I just decided today to write about this relative. I would have liked to meet her too.

Life of Pi

I kept thinking I'd read this book, but seeing it at the library decided to check to see if I actually had as I knew people who loved it. I had not read it and was amazed at the story. I loved the fact that the main character was named after
the best swimming pool in his country, that he became a worshiper of Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam..all at the same time having certain days of the week for
each and worked out in his mind how each one was the religion for him, and was raised in a zoo. But could any of it prepare a sixteen year old boys to cross an ocean in a life boat with a Bengal Tiger? What a marvelous, riveting tale written by Yann Martel.
I recommend it to everyone, especially boys sixteen.

Andrew King and the Orpheus Theater

My great-uncle Andrew King was a major stockholder in the Orpheus Theater
in Vernal, Utah. (Shown above) The floor moved as people danced because
it was built in parts on these huge springs. People sat on chairs put on
solid flooring around the outside of the dance floor, but the floor itself
moved and danced with the people. Dancers came from all over to
try out the spring floor. They said women had to watch it because
gusts of air coming up cold lift their skirts. I guess the old
dancehall still exists as a historical monument in Vernal.
I was fascinated. I would like to dance on the 'spring' floor.
I wnder if Uncle Andrew loved to dance. His sister was in a theater
group that sometimes traveled to Salt Lake City to put on productions.
My grandfather, his brother, loved to recite poetry.
This is one of his favorites.

It was late in last November
I was walking down the stree
My heart was all aflutter
and I fell into a gutter.
A pig came up and lay down by my side.
As I lay there in the gutter
my heart still a-flutter
a lady passing by chanched to say:
You can tell the man that boozes
by the company that he chooses...
and the pig got up and slowly
walked away.

Why this one came to mind I cannot say!

Imagination Heaven

Gerry and Doc inspired my blog today and
as sit-down comics made me laugh.
So, as I look at the rubble in Japan
caused by the tsumani...
and worry about the radiation leaks
spilling from five reactors...
I will try to think of all those
hurricane victims in Imagination Heaven...
returning to their homes and well-ordered lives
for a bit before they fly like non-earth bound ninjas
or reach for an orchid or smell the fish cooking
(I get a kick out of that father that keeps wanting
to eat all the foods he remembered in China on
The Amazing Race.)
As Gerry visits all the great intellectuals
of the ages to see if she can hold her own, I
will check out what kind of lives their kids led.
I want to know how much profound thought filters down
and is valued through the ages.
Is it immediately important?
Is it immediately valued?
Where will I go?
Will my imagination propel me into mysteries I have
never known? Hardly understand?
Into mysteries of Science? Of Space? Of Time? Of Religion.
I just want to open up wide beyond imagining
Into fantasy, into reality, into beyond...
To go where I have never gone (I needed to steal that line.)
I am off to Imagination Heaven.
To be what I am.

Linda, does the tsumani fit your dream?

Linda said she dreamed of the water receding way out from San Francisco.
When I heard of Japan's 8.9 earthquake and the tsunami coming in waves along the coasts, I thought that this must be what your dream was.
I couldn't believe the terrible destruction with the one that rolled in
Japan, taking cars, houses and such in its path. It will leave a long dry
space when it rolls again out to sea...leaving bare watered ground.
An earthquake of that magnitude can cause such destruction.
One reporter on CNN tried to tell how bad it was, that he was still
shaking inside. They asked what he was doing to calm down.
He said, "Drinking gallons of tea...nothing works, actually."
They haven't begun to tally deaths.
When the earth moves, we all pay attention. How can one walk
on a shaking earth? So many lives can be lost.

Recovery

My operation is over.
My blood drain in place.
Just wanted to show you a bit of discomfort.
One can't have an operation...my thyroid was removed
without something to show for it...
except it's gone now.
Removed this very day.
And I am on the mend
looking forward to a new day.
I am waiting to hear the path report.
I am waiting to hear how the body works.
without a thyroid. I hear it works just fine.
If anyone's can, mine will.
It is used to working without parts.
I will expect it to do whatever's necessary.
I have to admire the way it keeps moving.
The way it keeps doing what needs to be done.
And keeps me going...
to enjoy life once again.