Grandma Doris Celebrates 90 Years

She couldn’t stand up, but she enjoyed the opportunity to dress up for her 90^th birthday party on September 20, 2013.  Doris Mae Bradford Henion, born September 20, 1923, was the guest-of-honor at a gathering of some of her square dance friends, Yolanda (a volunteer at Crown Pointe), Claudia (Yolanda’s young friend), Ed, Larry and I.  We had the traditional cake and ice cream, balloons and a slide show (Larry has spent a great deal of time digitizing our family photographs) of her from birth through her good years.  She looked at the pictures of her childhood and loudly declared “I never had black hair.  Someone must have colored those pictures wrong!”  We partied until about 9:30 p.m., then when everyone else had left, we went back to her apartment to help her get ready for bed.  She seems to have enjoyed and appreciated our efforts to celebrate her life … although she was very unhappy to have people know her age.  “Don’t tell everyone I’m 90 … they all think I’m only 60!!!”   

A Day on Catalina Island

Our trip to Catalina was also a fun day - and another day to celebrate our Golden Wedding Anniversary. Along with my brother Larry and about 200 others on board the Catalina Expess, we traveled “26-miles across the sea, Santa Catalina was awaiting for we ….” as the old song says.  Our day included a 2-hour inland tour and a walk through the beautiful little community of Avalon, which was welcoming “stars” and would-be stars to the island for the 4^th Annual Catalina Film Festival.  We also enjoyed the small shops and restaurants, the harbor filled with sailboats, and the beautiful blue sky and sunshine and the clear ocean water.  It was a perfect day!

For those who enjoy a little trivia, here are some facts about Catalina we didn’t know:

·         The Wrigley family (famous for their chewing gum, including Black Jack) purchased the entire island in 1919 for the sum of $2 million.

Twelve buffalo were brought to the island for a western movie (“The Vanishing Prairie”) but when the film wrapped, the producer made the naïve decision to leave the animals on the island because “what harm can 12 buffalo do?”  Years later at their highest peak, there were approximately 500 buffalo living on Catalina Island.

·         Goats were also imported for the purpose of keeping the foliage under control.  Years later at their peak, there were 40,000 goats on the island … requiring helicopters and US Army sharp shooters to solve the problem.

·        Mrs. Wrigley hated the Catalina resident and author Zane Grey because he would take Mr. Wrigley out on his boat on the premise of fishing, but they would both come home seriously drunk.  In an attempt to protect her drunken husband as he drove up the mountain to their home, she planted eucalyptus trees – about 10 feet apart - on the canyon side of the road. 

·         Mrs. Wrigley also had a bell tower built on a mountaintop near her home.  It rang out every 15 minutes in the morning so all her employees would know how long they had to get to work … and also to interrupt Zane Grey’s thoughts while writing!!!

·         The Catalina Film Festival is a fundraising event in support of the Conservancy District which protects the island and its environment.

Our Time in SoCal

We recently traveled to SoCal for a variety of reasons, most importantly to celebrate my mother Doris Henion’s 90^th birthday (although she didn’t want anyone to know her age).  While there we (including my brother Larry who flew in from Seattle) began the process of cleaning, sorting and discarding at Mother’s home.  For two days, we went through every cupboard, drawer and closet to completely clean out the laundry room, the hall, the barroom and the sewing room / office.  In the process we filled the neighborhood dumpster to the brim (and overflowing), took two carloads of reusable items to the local Goodwill … and when we were exhausted from the effort, we took two “mystery trips” planned ahead of time to Knott’s Berry Farm and to Catalina Island in celebration of our 50^th wedding anniversary.

Our day at Knott’s was filled with nostalgia as we tried to remember the last time we had been there.  The park was nearly empty, so we spent the day enjoying the old Ghost Town and walking right up to some pretty wild rides in the newer section of the park – several which we rode more than once.   The park was gearing up for Halloween so many of the rides were closed for maintenance or in preparation for a month leading up to All Hallows Eve, but we had adrenalin rushes on the Pony Express, the Mouse, the Mine Train, Log Ride and the Wild Rapids.  It was a fun day .... with some GREAT rides and waaaaaaaaayyyy cheaper than Disneyland!

Our Eldest Comes to Visit

Kelly and Gary were down this weekend to attend her 30-year class reunion (she tried to talk him out of attending, but he would not be dissuaded).  They golfed with classmates (she was the only “girl” who showed up on the links) and had dinner at Staheli Farms, sharing a table with Stacy and Rick (another of her classmates).  On Sunday we drove up to Zion and had lunch together before sending them on their way.  It was a nice weekend with our oldest daughter and her husband.  We hope they will come back again soon.