Friday, December 25, 2015

2016; Em Helt; Grandma's button box


The New Year Ahead


An inspiration came from daughter Laurie Dix Kari
from Alaska a few days ago.

It is applicable to where we are now at the threshold
of a new year:

We want to make something new

We are raccoonists at the shore of the Fox River

in our current location

Further evidenced by our custodianship

of a taxidermed fox namaed Festoon

and we do not to absent ourselves from those 

no. no. not at all

yet wanting to do something new for 2016

it comes down to viewing our screen here as a fresh pallette

and a site for carrying on and innovating

upon our old stuff

as we go.

So see  wny Laurie's video was so perfect for right now:




^,^


Emerson Helt, grandson of our friends the Helts
views the prospects of a new year,  a very fresh one for him,
in the manner of his grandfather John
who reads the news 
thoughtfully

his dog Sweet Pea
looks on, suggesting the years-earlier RCA Victor logo:



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Closing this issue of SRN early,
the wind-up inspiration of our Grandmother's button box
on a shelf behind me always at the ready

 says "PRESENT!"

This button box was played with
by me as a kid, and four children after me,
the last two, Erin and Lee, deigned  to scratch
their initials in the lid - E.L.D. -

STAY TUNED


As adults, thest two sit below me playing board games as I type.



















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Saturday, December 19, 2015

To bat or not to bat; As it is Christmas; Our greeting; Raccoonery

To bat or not to bat?
That is the... 
question



^,^
AS IT IS CHRISTMAS...
 the Raccoon went to church
last Sunday.

 We went to the Vernon WI Reformed Conventor Pesbytyerian church
to meet up with Bro. Walt Lohman and visit this 1854 edifice.
Had never been there; do not remember it at all.

Walt, a ghost of Christmas past,
thought we would like to see a simple church at Big Bend Rd and Hy ES
that has not been used for regular services since 1920.

The members' living relatives do have one Sunday service per year
to meet insurance and/or existence rrquirements
when things are really dusted off
for old time's sake and the kerosene lamps are lit, if required.

The occasion to which we were invited last Sunday
was the interrment of Walt's mother's ashes
- Marjorie Jean Lohman -
in the adjacent cemetery at the Reformed Covenentor Presbyterian church.

Last Sunday was the anniversary of her 100th birthday,
the time chosen to bury her ashes in the Lohman plot.

Getting to the old church building early we got a tour of the
preserved rusticity as it is today.
In its original day, the mid 1850's,  the Reformed Covenentor
was nice and plainly serviceable as a house of worship.
with a kerosene central sanctuary chandelier that could be lowered 
from the ceiling by rope for lighting and extinguishing.

A balcony was reached via a steep, narrow-staired
flight of steps.  Hewn benches provided the seating there.









(In summer: photo courtesy of LANDMARK - John Schoenknecht/Libby Nolan)



ibid








Walt, in his barn boots
for it had rained hard in the night
and the cemetery was expected to be muddy.

Miraculously, it wasn't. See lower photo
of our two cars in the gravel lot
and hard rain still on the church window pane.








The church was heataed by two wood stoves,
one on each side.  The stove pipes traversed through the balcony
giving off their heat before passing through the roof.






The Lohman burial grounds.
Walt dug the grave for his mother's ashes
some days ago and covered it for protection
with the green tub.

In a little but time unforgotten cemetery like this
such personal handling is allowed.


This is the lane that became Big Bend Road.  
Above pictured, a painting in the vestry, a sleigh is driven to church.
They would park the horse in he open shed to the right of the edifice for the animals to wait
tlll the service was over and people departed.

That structure too is still standing.








 



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Our Christmas wish this year
is for a secure line through your piton.
(And all the meanings and pertinences thereof.)


^,^




The raccoonery at 7 AM Friday 12-18-15
as we walked over to meet the Rev. Leroy for breakfast at Dave's.
Our tree shines tall on the 3rd floor, right.



Saturday, December 12, 2015

Juxtapose; Rough, rugged AK; Love affair, with trains







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Idyllic family Chistmas assembly, will live forever
Kari's, Wasilla AK



It says:  COULD ANYONE HAVE DREAMED IT WOULD BE LIKE THIS?
A 1/2-gourd diarama, painted inside as though a shell

"Could anyone have dreamed it would be like this?"



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A 2015 pre-Christmas scene. Gramps and Emerson Helt


(from Childcraft set, Book 1, 1937)

(Enlarge)









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Saturday, December 5, 2015

Glorious gift from the Rev; Dog, driving, receives friendly repartee from cop; Fox's shadow at OF; Silence; Shawl; Christmas at St. Matthews



A most glorious Christmas gift

is this cake dish presented to us by Rev. Leroy Napieralski.
He knew I'd admired it when I looked over some things Leroy
was going to sell now that his mother has passed.

Dee made the red cloth for it to sit upon in a corner of
our dining room, in a place of honor.

Nastrowie!





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Candle
11-30-15

made by Justin Schoepke
in his studio by the mulberry tree
on Colton St.
from a fireplace andiron.



Andiron candle lower center
fox on loft ledge casts shadow






^,^

Silence



http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-silence.html





Shawl still with me, now at the Odd fellows since 2010
hangs from the loft ledge with a piece of an old flag,
above our prayer gong. 

I am thankful for that shawl (or lap-warmer) presented to me
at a Xmas gift exchange made by an unknown elderly resident.  Is she with us, I wonder?
Her work hangs just on the other side of this screen.






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 Cartoons today from current New Yorker mag.


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http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcardm.asp?code=5767549409318&ob=1&cont=1


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The below,

a Paul Manz composition will close out the annual choir concert
at St. Matthew's Church in Wauwatosa WI
tomorrow 12-6.

Our friend Rev. Dr. John Helt ret'd will again
sing with this group
and again gifted us with tickets.