Fifty years ago this week, the family pictured at left made the big move from Maxwell, Nebraska to Central City, Nebraska. The quality of the photo is not very good as it was copied from the 1961 yearbook of Nebraska Christian High School. I don't know about the rest of the family, but this move seemed especially significant as most of my memories of childhood are from this point forward. It is amazing to think that half a century has passed. The picture is taken in front of Hord Hall which was our home for the first 1 1/2 years. I would be interested to hear some comments from my sisters of this time in our lives.
The other memory I have of this move was all of the snow, especially when we drove onto the campus of Nebraska Christian High School. I don't know of any pictures of those days but the scenes near Lincoln this year remind me of what the roads were like in January 1960. The walls of snow seemed to tower over our car. It was awesome! It would have been a year or two later, but do you remember Mr. Ruybalid pulling us on the hood of a car as a sled behind his Jeep pickup? Those were the days!
My memories will never be as clear as Judy and Tom(I think Rachel was too young to remember much)I can't believe we actually made that move in the middle of winter!! My only vivid memory is that of the chinchilla cages under our feet in the back seat of the car. I don't think we were all crammed into that one vehicle. Did we have a truck with all our worldly belongings that went with us?? That sled much have been fun but I surely don't remember it. Thanks for the memories, Tom.
ReplyDeleteI was just telling Mark about that first year going to District 8 and how we had to walk over a big hill of frozen snow in the schoolyard to get to the door of the school. We never saw the ground for many weeks after our arrival in January.
ReplyDeleteUmmmm... I'm thinking we all were indeed crammed into that one vehicle, Marj... except maybe Steve rode in the truck with the farmers, who literally dumped our boxes and furniture into the kitchen and living room of our apartment in Hord Hall. I remember that we arrived in the early morning hours on a Sunday and Dad had a preaching engagement that morning. Mr. Ediger came and got us for Sunday School and church... Woah! What family of 7 (or any size!) nowadays would dream of doing all of that so soon after all that they'd just come through a few short hours before! I took so much for granted then... I can still picture the hodgepodge of stuff in that living area and it certainly took awhile to disseminate everything, when our parents were expected to plunge right into their new positions. What a job it must have been just to locate our clothes those first few days! I remember thinking our new home was so nice with such big rooms and the bedroom was so handy, you just had to walk through the bathroom from the kitchen to get to it. The door to the hallway from the master bedroom was off-limits to us from day one, I recall.
... The only other time I remember those corridors of snow like that was the first year we lived in the Chadron area, when I was expected to drive my little "Huggy Bear" '76 Mustang to the little rural school about 20 miles up on the table over very poorly-graveled roads. In addition to many snow days when I absolutely could not make it, I counted 13 times when I tried to make it and got stuck to the point where I had to get out and walk for help or wait for someone to come along... a couple times when I got out there, then couldn't get home, I stayed with an elderly lady nearby. I remember assuming that was just how winters were around here and my work/travel situation was like stepping back in time... This year is probably one of the few winters we've come even close to that since, but it was enough to convince us that it wasn't worth my signing a contract for another year out there. Besides, the wear and tear on a vehicle when there wasn't snow on the road, could not be overlooked. I think I also had about a dozen flat tires before the year was over.
Thanks for another opportunity for a trip down memory lane, Tom!
This comment relates to the "fifty years ago" move to Hord Hall... more memories...
ReplyDeleteWow! So many memories from only a year and a half there in Hord Hall... The interaction with the guys in the dorm -- providing ice cubes for them, selling caramel (Baltensberger) apples, being told to be quiet because "sound travels up" (where the dorm rooms were located) per our mom... Sawyers' baby dying soon after birth... the hikes to our havens in the shelter belt, with the one pair of slacks/jeans we girls each owned carefully concealed under our jackets or blanket (Hard to believe we were expected to wear dresses all of the time, and I was only 7 or 8 years old!)... Learning to ride Ricky Ruybalid's bike, since he wasn't quite big enough for it yet (when they lived in the basement of the Ad Building)... Rachel's broken arm and ten days in the hospital having to be in traction (and I felt guilty cause I was the one who gave her an extra sisterly push off the lawn chair from which she was jumping)... Marj falling down those huge stairs and worrying more about breaking her glasses than her very serious-looking bumps and bruises... Cooking on weekends for the dorm kids... Tom breaking or seriously hurting his arm in the huge freezer lid (that opened and closed with a weighted pulley system?) over at the dining hall...Hoffmans' unique adopted family and their chicken business... Sharyn's bedtime serial story about "Pahka and Carmen" (they were two lost or orphaned children in a communist country, who did a lot of running and hiding from the bad gestapo-type guys!) that gave me horrible dreams and nightmares, but we were always ready to hear the next chapter... Walking to school together, and Sharyn's 8th-grade graduation from District 8, which was quite a memorable place itself... Helping mow the lawns at NC with a power push mower... Entering the Ad Building through the Home Ec Room windows as necessary...
Overall, I thought we were pretty special and privileged kids!
Judy