Spring Edition 2005 - Volume XXXVI  Number 1 E-mail Number 9, June  2005  

 

              NFTH#9

 

Home Up NFTH#1 NFTH#2 NFTH#3 NFTH#4 NFTH#5 NFTH#6 NFTH#7 NFTH#8 NFTH#9 NFTH #10 NFTH #11 NFTH #12 NFTH #13 NFTH #14

 
 

Letter from the Editor: 

Dear Family and Friends, 

 Here it is SPRING AGAIN!  A lot has happened with our family since the publication of our last Newsletter!  Since August of 2004 we are grieving and celebrating the lives of 3 of our Seniors . . . Arthur Francis in August 2004, Albert William in December 2004 and most recently Adolf Joseph in March 2005.  Art, Albert and Joe joined Adolf and Lucy Fromherz, Josephine, Charlie and other family members who have gone before us, with our Heavenly Father in Heaven to welcome our Holy Father the Pope John Paul II into Heaven.  What a celebration!  We have 4 surviving Seniors, Florence, Mary, Walt and Jim.  All have significant health issues and are very fragile.  This has been a bittersweet year for all of us! 

     Happy Mother’s Day! To all of us that are moms and grandmoms . . . I had the precious opportunity to share my Mother’s Day with our kids and grandkids . . . Pics left “Dammaw Dale”, Mac and Cocoa, Next picture Grandma Gale, Amaya and Tayla. 

         Double click on the thumbnail picture on the left.  I'll try and keep this BRIEF! . . . however, the last I looked this edition of the Newsletter clocked in at over 50 pages  in the  Word version printed for the Seniors!  So much for brief!

     Letters, Letters, Letters!  Thank you to all who sent letters, pictures and money for this issue.  Thank you to all who sent updated address information for those family members who have moved and changed their addresses. Please continue to send me your family updates as things change for you.  I continue to send reminder postcards for those of you that have difficulty accessing the internet.  The only way that I know that someone has moved is when I receive postcards back from the post office or when you let me know of the changes. When you do have a change, this is the golden opportunity include a note for the Newsletter.

I am sure that all of you are busy celebrating life.  Please take a minute and send your news for the newsletter.  This is a tool to share your life with the rest of us who don’t get to see each other very often . . . a way to catch up!  It is a way to connect with your family roots and share yourself, your travels, hopes and dreams . . . life in general, which is special to you!  Snail Mail can be sent to Jim & Connie Gale, 12925 W Greenfield Road, Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026 or e-mail to congale@ispwest.com.  Newsletters are available to you on the web at www.fromherznewsletter.com

Our web page also offers links to our family historians and genealogy experts David Trask (King family) and Daniel Frommherz (Fromherz family).   King Genealogy Contact David Trask, King Family Historian since 1989.  “I am descended from Isaac King, brother of Sol King, and so share common ancestors with the Fromherzs.  I collect obituaries and family trees of the various branches of the Nahum and Serepta (Norton) King family lines.  I have over 1500 obituaries at the present time.  I would appreciate copies of obituaries anyone has of recent family members deaths or of any obituaries people obtain in their research past family members deaths.  Please try to carefully and accurately record the name, date, and town of the newspaper, and the page, section and column number.  This is especially important when one is getting the information from a microfilm.  Enough information should be documented so another person could someday easily find the obituary from the appropriate source, ie newspaper microfilm.  I would also appreciate copies of family members family trees.  These should record family members names, their spouse(s), children, siblings, etc., and the dates and places of birth, marriage and death, and places of burial, if any of this is known.  Copies of death certificates also would be welcomed.  Any information I have on any family member is available for any one.  Just contact me.  Thanks.”   

dltrask@aol.com, David M. Trask, 1533 Nottingham Circle,  Medford, Oregon  97504-7202  Fromherz Genealogy Contact Daniel Frommherz  mckenzie_market@mckenzievalleymarket.com     David’s and Dan’s  links can also be found on our home page.  Just double click on the link and it will take you there! 

If you wish to have your own  .pdf (Adobe Acrobat Reader) copy of this newsletter, please contact me either by snail-mail or e-mail.  I can attach a .pdf file to an e-mail for you, which is free to you.  If you want me to save it to a disc I will need $2 pre-paid to cover postage and handling . . . again please send your requests to me via e-mail or snail-mail.

For those of you that don’t have e-mail or internet access . . . you can go to any library.  You usually have to sign up for a time frame (usually an hour)  . . . and sometimes you can just walk-in . . . it doesn’t cost you anything.  You can view the latest Newsletter.  There is usually a fee per page to print. Ask Rita Reichenbach how to do this!  She is getting pretty handy at accessing the internet thru the library system and even doing some printing!  Good Job, Rita!  Rita and Roy can be reached at Rita Reichenback, 3529 Bevans St., Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001-1704    rjrx2@juno.com .  I just recently heard that Rita and Roy now have their own PC (Personal Computer) at home so I think Rita will be frequenting the libraries less and less, unless they are on the road traveling.                                

Jim & I frequent the libraries (or Internet Café) when we are traveling.  We even pay our bills from the internet access at the library when we are traveling. Really, it is fairly easy!

        This issue of the Newsletter is yours to ENJOY!  Spring Greetings to all of you Fromherz Family and friends everywhere!   Plan for our Fromherz Family Reunion Festivities coming to you the end of this month  June 24 thru June 26, 2005. . . Check out our link  Reunion 2005 for more information and maps. See you all there!  

Jim & Connie Gale

12925 W Greenfield Road

Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

congale@ispwest.com

Dear Newsletter: . . . Letters from you . . .

 HAPPY SPRING!   to all of you Dear Family and A GREAT BIG THANK YOU! to all that sent mail, for it is your mail that becomes the  primary content of NEWSLETTER From The Heart.

Also a GREAT Big THANK YOU to all who sent $$$ to help with the costs associated with publishing this NEWSLETTER FROM THE HEART.  You know who you are!   

Florence & Louis write an Invitation:

April 8, 2005

Dear Family and Other Special People:

This is a note to let you know that you may hear less from us as time goes by - - - reason:  Our old age (91 & 92) is limiting out well worn bodies in all our usual activities.  My writing gets more neglect than anything else - - - Sorry!  I make too many address mistakes, etc.

However, don’t worry about us - - - we continue all our activities but in slow motion.  Dad still works in his berry patch, in the grapes and his tomato plants coming up.  I still play the organ, crochet, work in my flower bed and still use my wonderful machines for lots of things - - - reading and writing hand written material, reading and typing, like I am doing now.  My newest “toy” is a recorder that reads the books and magazines.  I can sit and relax while I am crocheting - - - (Use earphones) Claire got me started on this - - - (all free from the state Library) Thanks, Claire.  Also Thanks to Jerry for the Pansy plants - - - along with daffodils, tulips and primroses we are enjoying our early spring.  Also all the fruit trees and beautiful large pink dogwood tree grace our park-like grounds - - - weather permitting, lots of towers residents and even towns people take their daily walk.  Dad takes a daily walk in and out of the building.  The path is smooth so the ones of us with walkers have a perfect place for our walk, pushing our cart.  Several also take their “fresh air” ride in their motorized carts.

Please telephone, write or come visit us often as you can.  Brunch hours are from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm - - - Dinner 4:00pm to 6:00 pm.  Happy Birthdays, Happy Anniversaries, Happy other occasions, whenever, Love to Each,  Florence and Louis Gross   

March 1, 2005

I am learning right now that I must do some writing more regularly or I will forget how to set up these machines for writing?????  But I think that I finally have it set up OK.

Actually this forgetting things isn’t a bit funny - - - since I can’t see my hair in the mirror.  I might forget if I combed it.  But luckily, I can tell if I need to brush my teeth and can tell if I’m about out of toothpaste!  I still have sense enough to hold onto bars when I move around in the shower.  Yes, I can take my shower all alone and my legs feel strong and don’t falter (but I do take precautions and don’t want to take a fall - - - as seem to happen to someone almost every day here at the Towers).

I just passed my annual “physical” 100% and I feel good about that but I still feel unbalanced when I walk without my walker or cane - - - this is probably due to my eyes that are no better.  I am thankful that I will probably not go completely blind.

Dad is about the same - - - maybe a bit slower, takes more naps, but still takes care of the grapes and his berry patch - - - even took a bunch of plants to Jerry in Corvallis.  Yes, I too, still spend time with my flower bed and try to keep the apartment and patio in good order.  We still go to the functions and meetings like the Knights of Columbus meetings and dinners. - - - usually go to Chinese Restaurants that I love, and we went to the big annual Celebration of the City honoring the “outstanding” men and women of the year.  It was held at the St. Mary’s Center.  We really enjoyed this occasion as many of them were good friends of ours.  Dad sat next to the Abbott of the Abbey and learned all about their big project of cleaning up their forest area by fencing the place and getting 400 goats and sheep (the kind they do not shear) they expect them to keep the brush down.  (They have had some big fires in the past and don’t want any more!!!!)

It looks like “Spring has Sprung” - - - daffodils, pansies and other blooms are coming out in perfusion.  We surely welcome the beautiful weather even tho we need some rain.

For fun with my lady friends I have joined the “Red Hat” Society.  There are about 20 of us.  We dress up with our red hats and purple dress outfits and have a special luncheon once a month.  We even got our picture in the local newspaper.      

Some trips and excursions are planned. (We will probably not go on any cruises this year - - - we haven’t sold the motor home yet so don’t be too surprised if we show up on your doorstep some time??????

Louis is just now reading the mail.  He is reading about a notice from the Rock Hill School Association.  It is announcing the May meeting for the 22nd of May.  We are members and usually go, but I am not sure about this year??????  Also I am wondering how many of us (above 80 & 90) will be able to navigate for the family reunion in June?????  Time will tell - - - You young folks may have to run the show from now on if we “old timers” don’t show up - - - Oh, Oh, that could mean we be candidates for the next year’s Kangaroo Court Trial”  How about that Joe, Mary, Walt Jim and myself - - - we’d better keep in “shape” or take what will be coming for us??????  “Oops, that could be sad”.  I love you all and hope we’ll all be together in June.  FG

PS   Since it is very awkward for me to mail this out in the snail mail I will send it to Connie, maybe she can mail it to you by E-mail????

PS #2   Sorry if this is a disjointed letter - - - I haven’t written anything for several weeks - - - “I’m now what I used to be 6 weeks ago, HA??????)

Connie I have sent this letter to all of my family – my brothers and Mary, sisters-in-laws  and Don Van Etten.  - - - if you want, read it and throw it away or can use some of it or all to the cousins.  FG    

Florence continues:

Dear Connie:  I just had the idea to write some of the cute sayings that our children have made when they were little ones - - - for the Readers Digest????  Then I got  carried away.  If you want to use some or all of it, you are welcome.  I will probably send some of it to the Readers Digest.

Children Speak their mind!

Our 3 year old Grandaughter Kelly was talking with me on a long distance telephone visit when little Kelly said “Grandma, you really make my heart happy”

Kelly also asked me “Are you going to come and see us?”  I told her “We are many hundred miles away from you, we will see you next spring when we come home”.  She answered by saying “But Grandma all you have to do is follow the road!”

Our Grandson Lance when about 3 years old was playing with his double amputee uncle when he first noticed that Leo had no legs.  Leo noticed how ssad this little boy was feeling, so he told him that his feet got sick and legs got sick and the doctor had to take them off.  Little Lance replied:  “Uncle Leo, you are lucky that you have two good arms!”

Another time Lance noticed that we had a pickup truck in our double garage with one door open.  Little Lance put his hands on both his hips and said:  My goodness gracious sakes alive how did you get that pickup in there?”  I told his dad (Jerry), “You better watch your language around your son!”

Another time Lance was talking with himself about his Grandfather.  (He had two grandfathers that were very large men).  His mother asked him, “What about your Grandfather?”  (Her father was a very heavy overweight man).  Lance answered, “I wasn’t talking about him, I was talking about my skinny Grandpa!”

When our youngest daughter Patty was about 3 years old we traveled a lot, went camping etc.  One time we were up in the wild country where there were no electricity or telephone lines.  All at once, our Patty said with much concern:  “Where are the lines for the birds?”

An other time when riding with me Patty asked if I saw something in the yard off to the side - - - I explained that I was driving and I had to watch the road, but that I saw lots of things out of the “corner of my eye”.  After that she would frequently say, “Oh, mamma did you see that out of the corner of your eye?”

Patty was always observing everything along the way when we were traveling - - - one time an RV passed us and one of us said it was a 28 footer - - - “No,” Patty said, “It was this much shorter.” (She held her hands up about 6 inches apart.)

While I am telling stories on Patty, here is one we will never forget!  We were attending an opera where Claire, one of our

older daughters was the lead soloist in an opera.  We sat so Patty could see her sister on the stage.  The orchestra was in the pit below and started with prelude music.  We noticed that Patty we keeping time with her hands.  She stood up and was directing the

orchestra - - - even got out in the aisle and was vigorously directing the orchestra.  Everyone nearby was watching her with smiles, etc. When she realized what she was doing she would sit back down.  But the orchestra kept doing their music.  And believe it or not Patty got lost in directing that orchestra several times more before the stage curtains opened.  (I must add that Patty is now a music major.  Does lots of directing, writes music, teaches and now has 4 very talented girls, along with her music major husband - - - they have an Oktoberfest band that performs every year at the Mt. Angel Oregon Oktoberfest - - - last fall was their 27th year.)

While I am telling stories on my family, I have a few “Grown up tales to tell that I thought was quite interesting?”

One time when our other opera singer daughter, Sharon was home from Switzerland with her husband Josef, we were just ready to travel South with our motorhome for the winter.  They asked to travel with us to Arizona to see how we lived.  We were happy to have them with us.  I was a little concerned that they might be a little nervous when I took my turn driving the motorhome.  (We were also towing our car on a dolly with the motorhome).  Sharon commented, “No Mamma You are a peaceful driver”.  I considered that the best compliment I ever had for my driving.

Only a few days ago my brother Albert (87 years) who has suffered a terminal stroke and surprising rallied enough with his speech returning.  Among other things he said, “Tell John to be sure to feed the cats.”

Another brother Arthur passed away in August - - - it was sudden and unexpected.  He was joking with his nurse just before he was gone!  I dreamed about him that night.  I saw him at the “Pearly Gates” of Heaven - - - he was joking with the angel for admittance - - - He said< “I didn’t expect to be here today, I haven’t sent an application, will you please let me in?”  Since the angel was smiling I feel certain that Brother Arthur is surely iin Heaven and when Albert arrives he will find his much loved brothers Arthur and Charley, and our Mom and Pop and sister Josephine will also welcome him.  That should be a real heavenly party - - - I guess we would have to “crash” the party to find out?  I am not so sure about my own soul when I arrive at the “Pearly Gates”.  I hope the angel smiles for me too????? Love,   Florence 

Letter from Aunt Margaret In the Spirit of Christmas 2004

December 20, 2004

Dear Family and Friends,

Seasons Greetings!  May the celebration of Christ’s birth bring peace and joy to each of you.  This year has ended on a sad note.  Al suffered a massive stroke on Sunday morning November 21st and died Friday evening December 10th a month shy of his 88th birthday.  He was getting ready for Sunday morning Mass when he collapsed.  We celebrated his nearly 88 years of vibrant life at a Mass of Christian Burial at Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Selah. 

John, Sue and Bill are looking after me at home.  Marylen, Danny and children were here for the funeral from South Bend, Indiana.   Marylen and Sue took turns spending nights at the hospital with their father.  At times we were able to talk with Al in the hospital and he chimed in several times as we said the rosary at his bedside.

Bill’s house is busy with remodeling and the return of his oldest daughter, Amy and her husband.  Ryan and Amy plan to take some classes in Yakima.  Kelly Ann and son Cameron moved into Aunt Inez’s house on Chestnut.  Matthew graduated from high school and cooks for Whistlin’ Jacks.  Adam and Korissa welcomed Caleb into the world Saturday December 11 at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane.

John is doing his best to do all of al’s chores.  John is always here to keep me company.  John prepares most of my meals.

Marylen started working 4 days a week as a visiting nurse.  Marylen and daughter Irene have both been hired as ski instructors on weekends at Swiss Valley in southern Michigan.  Irene is in 9th grade and Teddy is in 7th grade at Trinity school in South Bend, Indiana.  Danny continues as a computer programmer for St. Mary’s College in South Bend.

Sue was in a stage play called “Anything Goes” this spring.  Al and I both attended the play in Toppenish at the Native American Cultural Heritage Center.  Sue and her friends in the play greeted us warmly after the play.  Sue began a job at the Orthopedics Clinic fixing peoples broken bones.

Al was able to attend his brother Jim’s 80th birthday party in Portland, Oregon in May.  He went  with Sue to the Fromherz family picnic in Corvallis, Oregon in June.  And he went with me up near Mt. Hood for the Stupfel family picnic in August.  Al was able to look after me until 3 weeks before his death.  He only bowled a few games this fall as he was quite nervous about falling down.  Al left a couple of his fall chores for us to finish.  He spent hours each winter cracking all the walnuts.  There is also a half bin of apples in the garage that he planned to slowly turn into applesauce throughout the winter.  He was a good husband and father.  We will miss him.  Yours in the spirit of Christmas,  Margaret 

Yakima Herald-Republic (WA)

December 13, 2004

Section: Obituaries/Death Notices

12/13/04 Death Notices

Charlene Koski

Albert W. Fromherz, Sr. Albert W. Fromherz, Sr., 87, of Yakima died Friday at Landmark Care Center in Yakima.

Mr. Fromherz moved to Yakima in 1946. He raised apples for more than 50 years in the Lower Naches area.

Survivors include his wife, Margaret Fromherz of Yakima; two sons, Bill and John Fromherz of Yakima; two daughters, Marylen Robinson of South Bend, Ind., and Suzanne Fromherz of Yakima; two sisters, Florence Gross of Mt. Angel, Ore., and Mary Gerding of Corvallis, Ore.; three brothers, Joe Fromherz of Salem, Ore., Walt Fromherz of Medford, Ore., and Jim Fromherz of St. Paul, Ore.; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Viewing will be noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Langevin-Mussetter Funeral Home. Vigil service will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the same location. Mass of Christian burial will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Selah. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery.
Copyright, 2004, Yakima Herald-Republic. All Rights Reserved.

              

Yakima Herald-Republic (WA) 

Published on Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Albert W. Fromherz, Sr.

Albert Fromherz, Sr.

YAKIMA - Albert W. Fromherz, Sr., 87, of Yakima, passed away Friday, December 10, 2004 at the Landmark Care Center.

He was born January 3, 1917 on Kiger's Island in Corvallis, OR, the son of Adolf and Lucy (King) Fromherz. His family moved to Lebanon, OR in 1925 where he graduated from Lebanon High School in 1937. From 1940-1946, he ran a diversified farm and dairy in Lebanon at Tennessee Bottom with his mother and eldest sister. He moved to Yakima, WA in 1946 where he bought an apple orchard. He married Margaret Stupfel in 1949. They had four children.

Al raised apples for over 50 years in the Lower Naches area of Yakima. He bowled for over 60 years and received many trophies. He also pitched horseshoes. He entered the Washington State Horseshoe tournament in 1950, pitching 50% ringers. For 25 years, Al has been a member of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Selah. He was an active member of the Knights of Columbus and St. Vincent de Paul Society. He was president of the Lower Naches Horticulture Club for one year and served on other committees relating to orchards. He especially loved his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Margaret Fromherz; his children and their spouses, Bill and Lucy Fromherz, John Fromherz, all of Yakima, Marylen and Daniel Robinson of South Bend, IN and Suzanne Fromherz of Yakima; six grandchildren, Amy Moe, Adam Fromherz, Kelly Ann Fromherz, Matthew Fromherz, Irene Robinson and Teddy Robinson; two great-grandchildren, Cameron Fromherz and Caleb Fromherz; also brothers and sisters, Florence Gross of Mt. Angel, OR, Joe Fromherz of Salem, OR, Mary Gerding of Corvallis, OR, Walt Fromherz of Medford, OR and Jim Fromherz of St. Paul, OR.

He was preceded in death by his parents, a sister, Josephine Reed and brothers, Charlie Fromherz and Art Fromherz.

Viewing will be Tuesday, 12 noon until 8:00 p.m. at Langevin-Mussetter Funeral Home.

Vigil services will be Tuesday, December 14, 2004 at 6:00 p.m. at Langevin-Mussetter Funeral Home. Mass of Christian Burial is Wednesday, December 15, 2004 at 11:00 a.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Selah. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to the Our Lady of Lourdes Building Fund, c/o Langevin-Mussetter Funeral Home.

A special thank you to Landmark Nursing Care Center and to the staff of Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital for their special care of our father.   Langevin-Mussetter Funeral Home is entrusted with the arrangements.

November 29, 2004

Dear Family,

Albert Fromherz of Yakima Washington suffered a stroke last week.  He is currently in the hospital.  He had a feeding tube inserted today.  He is talking and comfortable.  It looks like he will be discharged soon to a nursing home.  I haven’t heard all the particulars about when and where.  The family has asked me to notify the rest of family by e-mail.  Prayer and greetings can be called to the family home at 509-966-5049.  You will most likely get a recorder.  Or you can talk to Suzie on her cell phone 509-930-1689.  . . cg

         

From: Daniel David Lewis Frommherz

[mailto:mckenzie_market@mckenzievalleymarket.com]

Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 9:38 PM

To: Connie Gale

Subject: Re: Uncle Albert

I will call Louie and Trish in the morning to let them know.  Picked up

your note at my mail box today (Monday night). Daniel

From: william king [ mailto:wjksmr@earthlink.net ]

Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 10:10 PM

To: Connie Gale

Subject: RE: Uncle Albert

 Dear Connie,

    Thanks for letting me know.  I will add him specifically to my prayer

intentions.

Your in our Lord and Lady,

Bill (J.) King 

From: JenMJack@cs.com [mailto: JenMJack@cs.com]

Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 6:31 AM

Subject: Re: Uncle Albert

 Thank you so much for the info. Will keep him in my prayers.   Jenny

From: michael.e.holt@att.net [mailto:michael.e.holt@att.net]

Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 9:58 AM

Subject: Re: Uncle Albert

 Thank you Connie for the update I have been praying and wondering. Talk with you soon.

Love Mary 

From: Fr. Gerard Gross [mailto:gerard@trappist.net]

Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 5:33 PM

Subject: RE: Uncle Albert

Thank you very much for relaying the news.

God smile upon you too.

Love, Br. Gerard David

From: Karen Raskin [mailto:kmraskin@hotmail.com]

Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 11:44 PM

Subject: RE: Uncle Albert

 Thanks Connie.  We just got back from Las Vegas.  I will be at Mom's Sunday until Tuesday.  Thanks for the update on Uncle Albert.  I do appreciate it.  Thanks again.  Love and Hugs, Karen & Dave

 Since I put this Edition to bed, our Dear Albert William Sr. has passed away on December 10, 2005.  His Rite of Christian Burial was this past week December 15, 2004 in Yakima, Washington.  One of the most touching moments of this celebration of his life was when all of his grandchildren presented Albert’s gifts during the Mass, a basket of apples, Albert’s Apple picking bucket, Albert’s bowling ball and bowling pin, a deck of cards, all symbols of how Albert put balance into his celebration of life.  I am including a copy of the article in the Yakima Herald about our beloved Albert.

Albert continues to celebrate life with the announcement of his newest Grandson Caleb Basil Fromherz born to Adam and Karissa Fromherz of Spokane, Washington on December 11, 2004.  Caleb weighs in at a bouncing 8 pounds 11 ounces and is 19 1/2 inches long.

I am including Albert’s Death Notice and his Obituary as printed in the Yakima Herald December 13 – 15, 2004.  See above.

Margaret can be found at their home address 161 Fromherz Drive, Yakima, WA 98908.  Her Current phone is 509-966-5049.  Margaret also has e-mail MagaretS@aol.com

Bill & Lucy Fromherz reside at 380 Fromherz Drive, Yakima, WA 98908,  509-966-3838,  John resides with his mother Margaret, Marylen and Danny Robinson, 1516 S Sunnymede Avenue, South Bend, IN 46615, 219-233-2568.  Suzanne “Sue” resides across the street from Margaret for which I only have address of 161 Fromherz Drive, Yakima, WA 98908.  Sue carries a cell phone  509-930-1689.

Thank you to Tom & Kathy for taking Mom & Dad (Senior Jim & Mary Fromherz, November 2005) to Daniels in Woodburn for professional pictures . . . Pictures are ALWAYS so precious and as the cliché’ goes “worth a 1000 words”!

As most of you know Dad (Jim) celebrated his 80th in May 2004 with a BIG celebration Party.  In attendance were his brothers Art and Albert as well as his 7 sons and daughters and families, grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces & nephews (including spouses) and friends.  Mom and Dad just celebrated their 58th Wedding Anniversary on May 3, 2005.

Dad has had serious health issues for the past 11 years (Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma) and this year was no exception.  The loss of three of his brothers in the past 6 months has been very hard on him.  Jim was hospitalized for about a week with a bleeding problem in January 2005 shortly after attending Al’s funeral in Yakima last December 2004.  He continues to lead an active life attending daily Mass when he can.  Of course Mom (Mary) is there to keep him in line and does an exceptional job of keeping track of his numerous and complicated medications.  What a BIG JOB!  Please say a special prayer for all of our Seniors with all of their age appropriate illnesses.  Mom & Dad, we Love you!  cg 

Wed 2/2/2005

Roy J Reichenbach [rjrx2@juno.com]  (Joe’s Rita)

Dear Family,

            Haven't been feeling "all that great", lately, but, am feeling better, now.  I'd like to tell you, all, a little about us....

          Roy will have been employed by The State of Wyoming, for seven years, this coming February 17th, '05.  He started out as The Weed & Pest Coordinator for The State of Wyoming, on Feb. 17th, 1998.  He's had the new position of Manager of Technical Services (still, with The State of Wyoming, Department of Agriculture) since May 1st, '04.  He loves his job; the challenge; the responsibility.  He supervises 18 State Employees, who enforce 11 State Laws, all, the laws dealing with agriculture.  Right now, our State Legislature is in session.  The State Capitol Building is just a few blocks from The State Department of Agriculture Office Building.  Roy treads that path, frequently, when his job demands it.  He travels around the state, too (many meetings, presentations, training sessions, etc...some of the employees he supervises are located in various places around the state, and, this state has lots of miles to travel.

          We've had a relatively mild Winter, so far.  We do get some of our "worst" storms, or blizzards, sometimes, starting, about now...with heavy wet snow (we hope!) falling "on the tulips and daffodils", which bloom "late", here, in The Rockies.  Most "seasoned inhabitants", here, don't dare plant their annual flowers or gardens until late into May, or, even, early June.  It's been known to snow every month of the year, "out here"!  I can still "see" the picture Roy sent me, of his little red Datsun, covered with snow, parked at the Ranger Station, up, on Laramie Peak (30 miles South of Douglas...the small, friendly, frontier town we were to make our home in) on July 4th!  Now, Harold, Dick, and Roy, may, all, correct me, if my memory is inaccurate!  They should know...they, all, worked for The Forest Service, up, on Laramie Peak, near Esterbrook Lodge (which has a quaint little log church, with a big picture window, spilling out onto the majesty of the mountain...a fitting backdrop to the altar and cross), together.  Today, here, in Cheyenne, where we make our home, in a 700 sq. ft. up, and, down, house, built in 1955, with a big cyclone fenced yard ("too much" yard...you know, the work!), a big "double-plus" garage (room for Roy's tools and things), some big old "cotton less" cottonwood trees, some juniper trees, we planted (and, they're growing successfully...we have them on a drip irrigation system...trees need all the help they can get, to grow, here!), a cement retaining wall, with a gravel driveway, up and down, beside it, and a couple of "Roy-made" flower planters in the yard (Oh!  And, don't let me forget, our chokecherry "bush" tree...which the red red Robins, just, LOVE to eat, when the cherries are ripe, but, to a human taste-bud, "pithy"...if we could, just, get to them BEFORE the birds, we COULD make some mighty fine tasting jelly or syrup...).  Anyway, today, it is cold, here, but, as it is MOST of the time, even throughout the long Winter months, it's cheerfully sunny (we have very short Springs, exactly three month Summers (HOT), short Falls (Antelope hunting, the best in the world, starts, here, on October 1st), and, well, the rest is Winter!).

We LOVE it, out here, in "This God -Forsaken Country", as some "forinners" call it!  We have miles of open spaces between our towns (I don't know that we can boast of more than a couple of "cities", and, they're small, compared to the "Big Folks" of other more populated states), and the BEAUTY; when you look and see "nothing" for miles and miles...if only you knew where to look (EVERYWHERE!), what to look for (EVERYTHING!), and what to "look with" (YOUR HEART, MOSTLY, but, also, with YOUR GOD-GIVEN EYES)...you'd see such precious diversity of landscape (trees, bushes, rocks, hills, mountains, lakes, rivers, dry creek beds, Indian Paint Brush, our State Flower, and a myriad of wild flowers, just, everywhere (plus, sagebrush and cactus);Sky, Oh, the beautiful, mysterious sky...)...diversity of fauna (wildlife...Eagles, Hawks, Meadowlarks, our State Bird, Antelope, Buffalo, Elk, Moose, Deer, Wolves(quite controversial), Coyotes, Fox, Prairie Dogs, Jack Rabbits, and little Cottontail Bunny Rabbits, Squirrels, Geese, Ducks, Fish...need I say more? (Oh, I forgot the rattlesnakes...I wonder why?)....Of course, I wouldn't be a "true" Wyominite, unless, I mentioned, with much importance, our Black Angus and Hereford Beef Cattle, and our numerous Sheep herds, and Goats, too (some people fence them in and let them eat the weeds and brambles, where no man would dare to dabble, then, they pick up the fences and move the "mowing machines" to another troublesome spot!).  I, just, KNOW, I'm leaving SOMETHING out, of all we have, here, in Wyoming...OH!  It's the "scarcity" of our very friendly, wholesome, down-to-earth PEOPLE , that I, almost forgot!  We love US, but, it's so nice to NOT see so many of us!!!  SURE, it gets cold, here, and windy...our " Wind" is a fierce gale, our "Breeze" is quite a wind, to anyone else (well, maybe, not, for the folks in Chicago!?!).  It gets Hot, here, too...we're a countryside of extremes...it's hard on, us, humans (but, it makes us a hardy bunch)..it's, also, hard on the wildlife and the tame life, and on nature...yes, "Mother Nature" IS hard on ALL of nature, "out here", in Wyoming, but, WE LOVE IT!!!  We LOVE to "gripe" about how hard it is, living here.  I, actually, look forward to the old, cold, long Winter (even, with the sun shining...the Winters get L-O-N-G...), precisely, because, the harmless little spiders (but, I hate them!) disappear, SOMEWHERE, for the whole Winter, until, just, about, now, when it starts getting daylight longer.  Where they go, I don't know...all I know, is, I feel compelled to turn everything upside-down in this whole basement, and vacuum, vacuum, vacuum...I'll "suck-out" those little "suckers', if I work myself into earlier wrinkles!  Roy says, "They're harmless;  they don't eat much!"...I don't care, I don't like the looks of any one of them!  Hey!  I failed to mention those little "critters" (see, I'm softening-up on them, already...HELP!!!...), when I was going on and on about the attributes of this Wyoming Home we live in (well, about this Wyoming State, we live in this home we live in...if one of those TV shows which "make-over" homes were to come, here, and offer to re-do our home, I wouldn't hesitate for a minute, BUT, I'd INSIST that they keep me, my kitchen window, small, but, it lets in the most beautiful sun, most all of the day long (you see, it faces South...my neighbors built a big brand new house, on their lot, across the street from us, just to the East, BUT, they built it behind their big cement, "old car" restoring building, in it's shadow, is, half of their beautiful, new home.  To change the subject, a bit, have you ever made spaghetti sauce (we use Prego, Traditional, but, use, whatever...), frying a pound of Safeway Select Italian Sausage, and adding a can (or, fresh!) of Green Giant Mushrooms, letting them get "browned", after the sausage has gotten browned, first...mixing the sauce with the sausage and mushrooms, heating it through, and serving it over some cooked Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat Blend Pasta (Spaghetti style)?  Some freshly grated, or, shredded parmesan cheese is sure good, on top, if you like it!  This spaghetti, mixed together, with the noodles, cut up, is even better, reheated (in Microwave, or oven, but, who uses the oven to reheat???), and with a bunch of "decadent" grated medium cheddar cheese melted into it!   Each to his own, I say...just, like, where you choose

and like to live...there's good things (and, not so good) about everything!  Ask me, where I want to live?  I might feel lonely, at times, but, "give me a home, where the buffalo roam;  where the deer and the antelope play...where seldom is heard, a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day!" (usually).  Love, and prayers to each of you and your families, Rita Jo  (This is completely my own doing; don't blame Roy for a word...any of my other E-mails, either...they're "My Own"). "Greetings from Wyoming!"  Love, Rita & Roy

Rita writes more about family to David Trask and sends a copy to the Newsletter:

From: Roy J Reichenbach <rjrx2@juno.com>

To: dltrask@aol.com                                                                        Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005

Subject: About "Joe" (Adolf Joseph) Fromherz..........

David,  We haven't met, yet.  I'm Joe Fromherz's second child;  I'll be 55 this May 20th;  my name is Rita Jo (Fromherz) Reichenbach; Roy Joseph, my husband since November 20th, 1976, and I, live at 3529 Bevans St., Cheyenne, WY 82001-1704; Roy works for The State of Wyoming, Department of Agriculture, as The Technical Services Manager;  he's been working for the State of WY since February 17th, 1998;  first, as The Weed&Pest Coordinator for The State of Wyoming, then, as of May 1st, 2004, Manager of Technical Services;  he works in The Dept. of Ag. Office in downtown Cheyenne.  I could tell you a lot more about him and us (we have one child; Margaret Mary (Reichenbach) Rayda, married, who lives with Ryan, her husband, in Laramie, WY.), but, I might have told you much of that in a previous E-mail???  If not, I'd be happy to write you about us, when things "simmer down" in our lives.......

My dad ("Joe" Fromherz) has been married twice. The first time, to our mother, Margaret Mary "Peggy" (DeRyke) Fromherz, who passed away after giving birth to her eighth child (Louis Martin Fromherz, who is 43, married, with 4 children, and living in Veneta, Oregon, now...).

"Mother" was 35 when she died.  (By the way, dad was born on August 1st, 1918, to Lucy (King) Fromherz and Adolf Fromherz).  Our mother and dad had, first; Allen Joseph, then, me, Rita Jo, Marie Therese, Francis Anthony, Rose Mary, Barbara Ann, Sylvia Jean, and Louis Martin (mother, also, had a miscarriage once).  Louis was born a month early, I believe (?).

          The second marriage of my dad was to Margie Joan Mischel, single, never married before, and 33, when they married on May 13th, 1967.  Together, they had three boys;  John Arthur, Paul James, and Matthew Michael, so, all together, there are 11 of us;  all, married, with at least, one child (or more), except for Marie, John, and Paul.  (My 17th birthday, was on May 20th, 1967; one week, exactly, after "mom" and dad's wedding day!).

Roy and I have an old computer our daughter generously gave to us when she got a newer one for college (she graduated from The University of Wyoming, in Laramie, WY, with a Bachelor's Degree in Weed Science; she is working on her Master's, while working a full time job.  Her husband got his Master's Degree, also, at The U. of WY. in Architectural Engineering.  He and his family grew up in Laramie, WY; He, also, has a full time job for an engineering company in Laramie).  Roy and I subscribe to Juno Mega Mail, and we don't subscribe to The Internet, YET.  If I want to get the Fromherz Family Newsletter, I must go down to the local City Library and print it off of their computers.  It costs 10 cents a sheet in black and white, but, $1.00 for color, so, I opt for B&W! (but, I'd love to get the color, for the photo's, etc.).  We may get a new computer someday and get on The Internet; get a printer/copier/fax machine, also, but, when???

I wrote you "out of the blue", about my dad going into the hospital.  Did I tell you that the doctors found he has terminal cancer, now?  They guessed he has from 3 months to a year to live (but, how can they know???).  Dad's home from the hospital, not in any more pain than "usual", as he claims, except for the bad cough and upper respiratory infection, he, mom, and my sister Marie, still have.  Dad's stomach has been upset for the last three days, too (but, he's not getting radiation or KEMO treatments...doctors decided it would be harder on him and not feasible).  He hasn't been sleeping at night and he's been keeping mom awake, too, not wanting to.  Mom told Hospice and they prescribed something to calm him down and sleep (I might have that story wrong...she could have told dad's personal physician (?)).  I call home and talk to at least one of them almost every night, since last August, after we'd (Roy and I) driven out to Oregon to visit and help dad celebrate his 86th birthday (Roy was 55, the next day...our Margaret Mary ("Marge") Rayda's hubby, Ryan's 25th birthday was August 3rd...our brother Louis Martin Fromherz's 43rd Birthday followed on August 16th, but, Roy and I had driven back, home, to Wyoming before then...we made a quick week trip;

Roy had just hired a replacement for his Weed&Pest Coordinator job, and he needed training, plus, Roy had 18 State Employees to manage, who, themselves, enforce 11 State laws, concerning Agriculture).  But, I've digressed...Mom wants us, "kids" and our families, who can make it, to come see and visit dad, soon, since, she thinks he'd getting less and less "with-it" (that cold hasn't helped his health any either!).  I can tell, lately, since the cold came on, he does get tired faster and slurs his words, sometimes, not really "getting-it", when I say something to him, or ask him a question.  Before that last hospital stay, which was about a week ago (he came home on Tuesday, Feb. 15th), he used to be in pretty good spirits all the time I'd ever talk with him.  He sang songs (little delightful "ditties", which, I'm sure, he'd learned from his mom &/or dad, like: "Froggy Went a-Courtin'", "Way Out West In Kansas", "Be Kind To Your Web-Footed Friend", "Marie, The Dawn Is Breaking", "Whoopie-Ti-Yi-Yo, Get A-Long Little Doggies", "Said The Little Boy To The Little Girl, In An Ecstasy Of Bliss...etc., etc.", and, one of his "signature" songs (of which, he was careful to not sing around someone with the name "Sue"...he didn't want us to, either, for fear of hurting their feelings...he was THAT sensitive to others' feelings...), "Oh, I've Got A Girl Named Cross-Eyed Sue;  Her Eyes Are Red And Her Lips Are Blue;  Dimpled Hair And A Curly Cheek, Her False Teeth Rattle And Her Glass Eye Squeaks.  She "Chaws" Terbacca All The Time, And Her Spittin's Neat;  She Can Hit A Razorback Right In The Eye, At A Hundred And Fifty Feet!" (when he sang the words: "Squeaks" and "Feet", he would fluctuate the tone of his voice, from one note, then, a note a scale above, and, back down to the original note...made it sound like a real "squeak", too!!!;  "Wake Up A-Yawnin', A New Day Is Dawnin', Under A Western Sky...etc., etc", and there were many more!!!  He used to sing and let (encourage) us to sing along while he drove our family around to wherever we had to go, until, he took up the practice of putting a Rosary between his teeth and starting leading us (whoever was in the car with him, no matter who was driving...) in The Most Holy Rosary, 'till we'd get to our destination, then, if we hadn't finished it, he'd lead us on 'till it was done, all the way home.  I sure enjoyed the joyful singing, though!!!

  Well, I just wanted to tell you a little bit about dad, and I could go on and on, but, here, it's 12:47AM, and I'd better "git" to bed, now.

Roy returns from Washington D.C., via Reagan National Airport, Denver International Airport and flies into The Cheyenne (Municipal (?)) Airport, TODAY, already!!!  He had a weekend business trip there.  Most of us, brothers and sisters and our families, live in Oregon, fairly near dad and mom's place at 8680 Windsor Island Rd., Salem, Oregon, 97303-9703 (1-503-393-3970), but, there are some of us in Colorado, Arizona, Washington State, and, "Your's Truly", in Wyoming!  John had been called to active duty in The Army Reserves, and is coming home for a leave, soon.  Dad and mom are really looking forward to his return (he, when he lived at home, was dad and mom's "right-hand-man").  Hopefully, dad and John can go to The Woodburn Auction one more time, while John is home on leave.  Those two always enjoyed that so much, and, dad has kept going, visiting with his "old Cronies", as mom calls them, or/and with his favorite brother Jim Fromherz (and, sometimes, his wife Mary comes along to keep mom company, if mom's the person who takes dad to the auction that time).  John and dad went to The Knights of Columbus meetings together, too.  They were "bosom buddies", those two! 

  "Good Night!!!", or, should I have written, "Good Morning!!!"...I will write more, if you request me to, but, I can't promise exactly when.  Roy and I, or, maybe, just me, may be flying out to Oregon, soon.  Sincerely, Rita Jo 

From: Roy J Reichenbach [mailto:rjrx2@juno.com]

Subject: "Dad"....

My dad died this morning, March 15th, 2005, at about 5:30 or 5:45AM, in Oregon, at home, in bed, and in the arms of our stepmother Margie. I had the blessing to have had a very good telephone conversation with him after 8PM the night before he died. For some reason, I felt compelled to keep telling him he was "going home".  I had to repeat it, over and over, again, because, to each sentence I'd say, he'd say, "What?!".  "Dad, you're going 'home', to Heaven...to The Arms of God, you know,,,Jesus!  And, who knows, you'll most likely see Peg right behind Jesus, when you get there!".  Dad said, "Who?", so, I said, "You know, Peggy, your first wife, our mother!".  His response was positive, happy, and hopeful, but, I don't remember his exact words. "Then", I said, "after you're 'up there' with Jesus and mother, you can work on getting Margie, and all the rest of us 'up there' with you, too!".  Dad hesitated a few seconds, then, he said, "Well, I'm not ready to 'give-up', yet!".  So, I took that as a que to change the subject (remember, I had no idea, on earth, that he was going to pass away the very next morning!!!).  I started telling dad all about Roy's job, in about as much detail as I could (and, detail isn't very hard for me to go into!).  Dad was very interested and responded just enough to let me know he was following my every word, closely.  Then, he said, "What kind of weather are you having in

Picture (left) Newsy News from Wayne & Denise Fromherz' Dana in Salem, Oregon

Wyoming, now?". to which, I answered, "Snow and cold, but, sunny.".  He exclaimed, "We're having flowers!", and he talked a bit about all the kinds of flowers up and blooming in the Willamette Valley, near Salem, Oregon, his home.  I asked him if there were any of "his favorite" Trillium blooming, yet. Dad said he thought there might be, but, he hadn't been out, nor down to the bottom land to see them.  Then, he started calling for my sister Marie, who had "given me" on the phone to dad and gone to bed earlier.  Dad kept calling for Marie!  I tried to tell him, "Dad, she's, probably, asleep...you don't have to wake her..." (you see, I had a sneakin' hunch dad was going to ask her this, and he did, when she came into his room after mom had awoken her to help her get dad ready for bed)..."Rita wants you (Marie) to go get me some Trillium from down in the woods, now!".

Well, by now, it was almost 9PM and dark!  Of course, I didn't mean for her to search for the trillium right then, but, "tomorrow morning, rather."!  I suddenly realized that dad was going to "give me" back to Marie on the phone, so, I, real quick-like, said, one last time, "I love you, dad!"...then, Marie was on the phone.  I'm pretty sure dad heard me, but, he knew I loved him.  I joked with Marie about the trillium and said, "...you're 'off the hook'...you don't have to look for the trillium until tomorrow morning!".  She laughed.  Then, we hung up the phone since mom needed Marie to help her get dad to bed 'one last time' (but, we didn't know that!).  What a blessing that I was able to talk with dad and Marie, to help mom with him the night before he died.  Mom was with him; he was in her arms, when he passed away; when he breathed his last.    (written by Rita Jo (Fromherz)

Reichenbach on April 16th, 2005...I revised my first draft, written on the day dad passed away).

Connie, The attachment is the vanity license plate of our cousin Robert Fromhartz in Florida.  If you remember he wrote the family newsletter about his trip with a daughter to Germany.  I thought that it was really cute so I am forwarding it to you for the newsletter if you choose to use it the next time around. Daniel

 When you see this tag you will be following a <FROM (heart)Z... Terry has # 2 and this one (1) is on my truck. I hope the picture sends this time.....Bob

Spring has Sprung, and, oh boy, do I have Spring Fever!!!  And, YES, I do think it is contagious!

 Obituaries Sunday,                                       March 20, 2005

Adolf Joseph Fromherz 

August 1, 1918 – March 15, 2005

SALEM - Adolf Joseph Fromherz (known as ‘A.J.’ or ‘Joe’) was born August 1, 1918 in Corvallis, Ore. to Adolf and Lucy King Fromherz. Joe grew up in a large family and was always close to his brothers and sisters. Joe had many fond memories of swimming and rafting, particularly on the Santiam River as a youngster.  He worked as a pipefitter and was a member of the Plumbers and Steamfitters Union. He also operated a dairy farm and a second hand store. He was known by many as ‘2X4 Joe’ because of his unique ability to figure out the best way to solve a problem. Joe was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Salem and the Silverton Knights of Columbus. He had a wonderful appetite for watermelon. 

Joe and his first wife, Margaret, who died in 1961, had 8 children: Allen Fromherz of Falls City, Rita Reichenbach of Cheyenne, Wyo., Marie Fromherz of Salem, Frank Fromherz of Yamhill, Rose Lucas of Stevenson, Wash., Barbara Guarracino of Phoenix, Ariz., Sylvia Sharp of Lyons, Colo, and Louis Fromherz of Venita.

In May of 1967, Joe married Margie, who survives him. They have 3 children together: John Fromherz of Ft. Lewis, Wash., Paul Fromherz of Salem, and Matthew Fromherz of Ellensburg, Wash. Also surviving are seventeen  grandchildren and four brothers and sisters.

Vigil and Rosary will be at 7 p.m., Fri., March 18 at Unger Funeral Chapel, 229 Mill St., Silverton. Visiting will be from 8 to 9 a.m., Sat., March 19, and Funeral Mass will be at 9 a.m., Sat., March 19, both at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 721 Chemeketa St., Salem. Interment will be at 12:30 p.m., Sat., March 19 at St. Paul’s Catholic Cemetery, Hobart Rd. at James St., Silverton. Arrangements are by Unger Funeral Chapel, Silverton.  

   Recent Announcements from Buzz & Liz Fromherz (Jim’s Dennis)

             

          

Dear Connie,

Happy birthday to YOU!

Please give my love to all the newly weds and birthday boys.

Shalom

Br. Gerard-David

2hartz@bellsouth.net

Re: Newsletter From The Heart Announcement - Renee's Wedding Invitation

Connie,....Congrats to the soon to be wed couple....When I read this I did a double take.....My Grandmother (married to my Grandfather Harry Fromhartz) was an Anderson.....Her Father and one of her brothers both were named Matthew Anderson.....Pretty wierd huh?..........Bob 

From: Gregory Silbernagel [mailto:gsilbernagel@cocc.edu]

Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 3:47 PM

To: congale@ispwest.com

Subject: Newsletter

      Hi Connie,   Well, I received a little postcard in the mail and this is my new email address so you may update that. Here is a little something for you to put in the newsletter though.

        Hi Everyone,

             I just thought I would update everyone on my whereabouts and such, since I have missed the family reunion a few years in a row now. I have been living in Bend and attending COCC the past two years and will have my Associates of Science degree in Outdoor Recreation and Leadership, where I will take it a step higher at OSU ~ Cascades in the fall. I will miss the family reunion once again this year, as I took a job in Pennsylvania at Camp Lohikan in the Pocono Mountains, where I will be an archery, rifle, and four wheeler instructor for boys and girls ages 8-15. I fly out June 15th, and return August 29th. Its going to be a wonderful summer and I hope to have enough time to travel the east coast while I am there. Once I get back, I will repack my bags and take off for the Eagle Cap Wilderness on a two week long hunting trip for bear, elk and deer. I’ve been over there three years in a row and its beautiful country. Then I’ll be back to school and it will probably be time to write another one of these for the next newsletter. If anyone would like to send me letters at camp, the address there will be

  Camp Lohikan / Greg Silbernagel

   PO Box 217

   Lake Como, PA   18437

 I hope everyone is doing well and god bless.

FROM:  Fromherz Family [rkmfromkofc@juno.com]

RE:  Kevin Coast Guard Cutter

Thu 3/24/2005 3:18 PM

Friends and Family of PO4 Kevin Fromherz;

This is Kevin's Coast Guard Cutter. He joined the crew two weeks ago in Hawaii, for the trip back to Seattle.

Russ Fromherz

*****************************************************

Here is a news story on the boat, enjoy.   Kevin

Subject: FW: POLAR STAR HOMEWARD BOUND

Homeward Bound

by PA1 Amy Thomas & PA2 Brooksann Anderson

U. S. Coast Guard

March 11, 2005

 

Seattle - A journey that started last fall to the sound of bagpipes began its final leg Feb. 12, when the Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star left Antarctica and headed home to Seattle, after a six-month deployment marked by tragedy, frustrating hurdles and historical firsts.

Polar Star, a 399-foot polar icebreaker, and its 160 crewmembers departed Seattle Nov. 4, 2004, for the Coast Guard's 50th Antarctic mission in support of Operation Deep Freeze. Polar Star makes the 28,700-mile journey annually to deliver fuel and food to the National Science Foundation research station in McMurdo, and to break open the channel to allow supply ships to reach the research station.

Supply ships deliver about 40 million pounds of food, vehicles, fuel, linens and other critical items for McMurdo's year round research and support staff, as well as the staff due in for next year's research season. Aircraft bring supplies to McMurdo on a regular basis, but they cannot move the required volume of cargo that the ships can carry.

"Without these supplies, the station would have to be evacuated and placed in caretaker status," said Cmdr. Craig Lloyd of the Coast Guard's Pacific Area Operations division in Alameda, Calif. "Not only do the supplies keep McMurdo operating, they keep [Amundsen -Scott] South Pole Station operating too."

Built in the 1970s, Polar Star's red hull is made of reinforced steel and at varying speeds is capable of breaking ice up to 21-feet thick. Its specially designed bow rides up onto the ice, which then breaks under the ship's weight. It also has a system that allows rapid shifting of ballast to increase the effectiveness of the icebreaking. The breaker can carry up to 400 tons of cargo, and two HH-65 Dolphin helicopters.

          NSF, the U.S. government agency that promotes the progress of science, conducts polar research in Antarctica year round, although its chief season is October through February. According to its Web site, NSF's three primary goals are to "understand the region and its ecosystem; to understand its effects on (and responses to) global processes such as climate; and to use the region as a platform to study the upper atmosphere and space."

On its nearly three-week journey toward Antarctica, Polar Star made stops in Honolulu, and the Australian cities of Sydney and Hobart. The ship's visit to Honolulu ended in tragedy when one of its crewmembers, 34-year-old Petty Officer 1st Class Mark Mueller, died during a recreational dive accident. Mueller, originally from the Chicago area, was diving with other crewmembers near a wrecked vessel when he lost consciousness. Mueller was pulled from the water but efforts to revive him failed.

"We were down [emotionally] for a long time," said Lt.j.g. Collin Bronson, Polar Star's public affairs officer. "Mark was well liked and it was tough to lose him, especially at the beginning of a long deployment."

The Polar Star and its crew continued south toward Antarctica, making stops in Sydney and Hobart to rest and make minor repairs. While in Hobart, which is on the Australian island of Tasmania and is the last stop before heading toward Antarctica, approximately 20 NSF scientists boarded the Polar Star to make the remainder of the journey south. The ship arrived at the ice Dec. 18, and discovered that this year the ice's edge, which in past years extended 30-40 miles from McMurdo Station, extended more than 80 miles from the research center.

The wind normally pushes the ice away from Ross Island, on the tip of which McMurdo is located. This year, though, icebergs that had broken away from the Ross Ice Shelf several years ago gradually migrated west to a point northeast of McMurdo Sound creating a barrier to the fast ice's route to the open ocean. Fast ice is sea ice that is immobile due to its attachment to a landmass.

The significant amount of ice presented challenges for Polar Star. Last year its sister ship, the Polar Sea, made the trip south to help break open the channel into McMurdo. This year, however, the Polar Sea is drydocked for repairs.

Polar Star's crew took a collective deep breath and plunged in. It wasn't long, though, before even the stalwart Polar Star suffered under the harsh ice conditions. The bolts located on the cover of the propellers were jarred loose from the extreme icebreaking, a condition that could cause the system to come apart.

"All that hard work takes its biggest toll on the ship, and extended ice breaking simply beat up an already aging ship," Bronson said.

Seven divers and 6,000 pounds of equipment contracted by Naval Sea Systems Command from a Louisiana-based company were flown into McMurdo on a C-141 airplane. The divers worked in 10-hour shifts and completed repairs to the ship's propeller system about three weeks later.

While the Polar Star was undergoing repairs, NSF chartered the Russian icebreaker Krasin from the Far East Shipping Co., when it became clear that the ice condition was severe enough to require a second icebreaker.

Back in the saddle again, Polar Star resumed breaking the channel into McMurdo for the supply ships. Since Polar Star has greater icebreaking capabilities than Krasin, it focused on the last fourteen miles leading into McMurdo, while the Krasin concentrated its efforts farther out.

Russian or American, because of Polar Star's and Krasin's efforts, the U.S. Navy fuel tanker Paul Buck made it to McMurdo Station's ice pier in late January and unloaded about eight million gallons of fuel, and the cargo vessel American Tern arrived Feb. 3 and unloaded its cargo.

Polar Star had to depart by March 1, a goal that was attainable partly due to the joint effort with the Russians.

"We had Krasin working most of the time that we were down," Bronson said. "Also, we had made so much progress before the [mechanical] casualty, we still finished ahead of schedule."

Polar Star served as an underway research platform for the scientists onboard. During their deployment, the Coast Guard crewmembers aided NSF scientists with several projects, including Inter-annual Variability in the Antarctic Ross Sea, which is a project that measures climactic changes that affect the entire world. They also completed several atmospheric tests on the trip down to Antarctica.

President's Day weekend, in the midst of the cruise back to Seattle, Polar Star got the call that they were needed elsewhere: the Samoan and American Samoan islands had suffered extensive damage from Cyclone Olaf, a category five storm that ripped through the region earlier in the week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency needed thousands of pounds of relief equipment moved, and the as the Polar Star was the only platform in the area with the capacity to move that much cargo.

"We were the perfect asset; we were in the right place and had the capacity to carry the load," said Capt. Richard "Mac" McCullough, Polar Star's commanding officer. "It was a great way to break the monotony of the sail home, and we were going to help those in need. There was no downside."

The cutter altered its course and arrived in Pago Pago Feb. 21. Over the next two days, wearing sunburns and sweaty shirts in the tropical climate, the crew worked from dawn to dusk loading bottled water, tents, tarps and engineering kits onto the ship's decks. Everyone on board, regardless of rank or job title, helped in one way or another to ensure that the 70,600 pounds of life giving supplies got to the people living on the islands of Tau and Ofu.

"Seeing those people's faces as we were pulling up to the dock was a feeling like no other," said Petty Officer 1st Class Joseph D. Shiver, a boatswain's mate assigned to Polar Star. "We never get to do missions such as these, being a polar roller, but it is the reason we all came in [the Coast Guard]; to help others."

Polar Star left American Samoa Feb. 23 and, after a brief port call in Honolulu, the cutter finally took its crew home, ending a trip marked by tragic loss, tough challenges and historical achievements. Upon their return to Seattle, amid the warm embraces of family and friends, the crew will surely feel the satisfaction of closing the chapter on this trip and preparing for the next. They will likely be full of stories to tell their spouses and children of the gigantic icebergs, the Russian ship that came to help, and the tropical islands ravaged by storms. And, beneath all the happiness and celebration at their homecoming, there surely will run an undercurrent of sadness for the one who did not return home.

Recent news articles regarding Frank Fromherz  (Joe’s Frank)

OREGON SHORES WELCOMES FIRST EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR IN THIRTY-FOUR YEAR HISTORY

 http://oregonshores.org/news/executive_director

 “Honoring the thirty-four year legacy of the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, the tenacious and talented work of founders and volunteers, I invite my fellow Oregonians and folks throughout the region to bring our talents and treasure to this worthy cause. In this moment and in the years ahead Oregon Shores can become even more effective— imagining and fostering a coastal future of ecological health and economic justice. I am honored to accept this opportunity to inspire local and regional community empowerment.” – Frank Fromherz

Yamhill, OR (3/1/05) – Meeting in Newport, the Board of Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition hires Dr. Frank Fromherz as OSCC’s first executive director. 

“A SENSE OF PLACE ”

    This Oregon farm boy with advanced degrees from Reed College and Berkeley (Graduate Theological Union, Ph.D. in Religion & Society/Social Ethics) was about to board a plane for China a couple of weeks ago when the Oregon Shores board asked him to consider a dramatic change of plans.   “I had been invited to teach at Tianjin University, but I could not pass up this sudden opportunity with Oregon Shores.  I have a sense of place here and a passion for conservation.  No matter where a family lives in this region—or if you just visit and pay attention to nature—you can’t help but come away with love and respect.   All my life I have been inspired by such power and beauty, from the top of the Coast range as far as the eye can see.”  In the late 1960s Frank milked Jersey cows on the family dairy located along the Big Nestucca near Beaver, just a few miles upriver from Pacific City.  He and his wife now do habitat conservation (in partnership with US Fish and Wildlife and the Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District) on their family farm just west of Yamhill in the Coast range foothills.         Fromherz moves into the leadership role with a nonprofit committed to a conservation ethic.  Since its inception in 1971, Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition has built a reputation for grassroots empowerment and action.  Oregon Shores fights challenges to the Beach Bill, makes use of land use planning and water quality laws in defending coastal resources, advocates for public acquisition of coastal areas and campaigns for the protection of offshore habitats.  The new Pew Oceans Commission report, “America’s Living Oceans,” underscores the Oregon Shores mission and may well help place this nonprofit in the company of a national and global movement for marine reserves.

           His large family (Frank has ten siblings) lived on a small berry farm in Marion County in the 1960s and moved to the dairy in Tillamook County when Frank finished elementary school in 1967.  But his oldest memories stem from the Central Oregon coastal town of Yachats where his maternal grandparents retired in the early 1950s.  Frank’s family often visited them in those years, and on the way to the coast the car brimmed with the lyrics and melody of “over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go….”  His grandparents loved art and music, and Fromherz today believes that the work of ecological sustainability can be infused with a poet’s sense of imagination and play.  “Otherwise,” he says, “activism could become too rigid, exhausting and unsustainable.  A conservation ethic must include care for our own internal habitat—our body and spirit.”  When they were very young he introduced his two sons to the ebb and flow of the tides at Yachats, so that they could appreciate the power and insight found in a sense of place across the generations.  Fromherz has written about this in a book chapter, “A Sense of Place,” in an anthology All Creation Is Groaning, a University of Portland multi-faculty project.

            In the 1990s and until mid-2003 he directed the Archdiocese of Portland’s Office of Justice and Peace and also taught as a University of Portland professor of social ethics/religion and society.   Awarded the National Campaign for Human Development director of the year in 2003 for his empowerment model of leadership, Fromherz has long been an Oregon voice in peace and economic justice work.  In the 1990s he became a principal catalyst for the international Columbia River Pastoral Letter Project, which in 2001 was recognized as a “Sacred Gift” at a ceremony in Katmandu, Nepal, in an award made by the World Wildlife Fund and the Alliance for Religion and Conservation.  Fromherz worked with the National Religious Partnership for the Environment and served on the national advisory committee for the Environmental Justice program of the US Catholic Bishops.

      Now back after a 2004 sabbatical adventure in China, where he learned basic Mandarin and witnessed the wounded Yangtze River (e.g. the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest) and Shanghai (e.g. sprawl into the estuary), he has just begun his new management responsibilities on this side of the Pacific.  In partnership with the Board, Fromherz will lead the organization, building region-wide participation and capacity while supporting Oregon Shores’ action programs—including Land Use, Ocean, Legislative, and CoastWatch.  Long-time Oregon Shores participant Phillip Johnson has been hired to direct the CW program that he and others initiated several years ago as volunteers.  CoastWatch is an “adopt a mile” effort that monitors environmental conditions along the entire Oregon coast.  Over one thousand Oregonians currently participate in this aspect of Oregon Shores.  Mr. Johnson worked closely with the OSCC planning and development committee to seek foundation support and donor contributions.  Together with grassroots (several hundred members currently) annual membership fees, these supports have made possible this moment of Oregon Shores capacity building.

             Fromherz also speaks fluent Spanish and loves to learn languages.  “I am inspired by the voice lessons my mother taught me before she died giving birth to my little brother.  We were all very young when that tragedy hit, and though I cannot sing worth a darn I can offer my voice in honor of my mother and try to make persuasive arguments with all who care for the sacred commons and the music of the ocean.  Together, as we take up the legacy of many visionaries,” says Fromherz, “Oregonians in our best spirits want a coastal future of livability for all native flora and fauna, for the sustained joy of our grandchildren and for their grandkids.  As the marine ecologist Rachel Carson (Silent Spring) through science and poetry would gently remind us, we have so much to learn and remember, to treasure and preserve, at the place where land and sea embrace.”

Contact:  Frank Fromherz  (503) 662-4210    or    Doug Terra, OSCC Board President, Email at email4terra@yahoo.com, or write to us at Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, PO Box 1344, Depoe Bay, OR  97341-1344, and Email to fromherz@easystreet.com or go to our website, http://oregonshores.org

April 4, 2005

Dear Connie, Peace be with you.  Happy Birthday!!!   

We have a lot going on: the Pope died, Br. Placid is very near his end, and the old monastery (that now houses our very large carpenter shop, stain Glass department and sand casting equipment and many other things I’m less aware of) burned to the ground last week. We have a couple of Observers and several promising candidates that have been in the retreat house in the past few weeks. Our Abbot is away in Venezuela visiting our Daughter houses at La Loma and the sisters at Homocaro. Please give my love to all the Aunts and uncles and cousins in their time of grief loosing already three Uncles in about six months with the others are in great need of love and prayer support being in danger of following on the heels of the others!!!  We know not the day nor the hour, but God awaits us with love beyond all telling for those who long for nothing but to love totally and live in love forever!

Shalom, Br. Gerard-David

Roy J Reichenbach [rjrx2@juno.com]

April 16, 2005

Re: A little story,

Once, when dad and Marie, and I, were late for church, dad trailing behind us, noticed he didn't have a tie on.  He called out, "Why didn't you girls let me know I didn't have a tie on?".  We responded with something like, "We didn't notice.", and kept on truckin' towards the church. Dad, a bit exasperated, retorted, "Well, "neck time", if you notice, let me know!". (respectfully submitted by me, Rita Jo, in memory of our dad Joe Fromherz...and, I must add:  our brother Frank Fromherz has, definitely, inherited dad's ability to make a play on words;  his boys Chris and Nick, following in their grandpa and dad's footsteps!  I have always nicknamed Frank "The King of The Puns",,,he's THAT good!  And so, our dad lives on in us!). 

Charlie Fromherz [charlesf@verizon.net]

April 4, 2005

I was the front pole car. The house is 16-9 high by 16-0 wide & 65-0 long. I had my pole set @17-0 , 3 inch above the house. Checking for low wire, bridges, etc. We took it from Ehrenburg AZ to San Diego CA. the long way to bypass the low bridges. Our route was set by State permits. also city & county permits. Yes I found a lot of low wires along the way.

 Charlie

Short and sweet Snail-Mail from the desk of Mary Gerding~ April 25, 2005

Thanks for all the prayers!  Dear Connie and Newsletter:  Just a short note about my recent health.  I have had a bad case of Polymyalgia Rheumatica (a form of arthritis) completely over my entire body for over 6 months.  With all the pain and loss of appetite, I have lost 25 lbs.  My family doctor transferred me to a specialist on arthritis.  Due to his care, I am now in no pain and am getting my appetite back.

I won’t be able to drive my car until I can get my strength back.  My car has been in my garage for over seven months covered over with dist and full of cheep gas!

I am doing much better and hope to see you all at the family reunion! My love, Mary

A Note From: Marie Fromherz (Joe’s Marie)

Dear Connie,  For the Newsletter:                                                                     April 23, 2005 About a week before Dad died I brought him Holy Communion.  He was asleep in bed.  I said Dad, just say “Jesus I Love You” and go back to sleep.  That’s just what he did.  I gave him Communion and he said “Jesus I Love You” and closed his eyes to go back to sleep.

Dad received Communion everyday during the last month of his life.  I brought it to him at home.  Anyone can do it.  Love Marie

Thank you Marie for you Gift From The Heart. . . and for Mother Teresa’s I Thirst For You.cg

News from Winnie~                                                                               April 27, 2005

Dear Family,  Just under the line for May 1.  Today Scott is 18 years old.  Another Marine; Goes in for basic training 11 days after he graduates from Cascade.  Graduation is June 05.  Ryan is in Okinawa.  Dad retired from Marines and now two sons are Marines.

This has been a weird year.  I came home from Sacramento in February.  Had so much to do here then, so had to draw a time line.  Beautiful weather in February.  Now for awhile did not have to worry about filling the bird bathes!

Art Jr. did so much while I was gone.  He let me know I would be surprised!  No Kidding!  He pruned all the trees & burned the brush.  The large wood all cut up and picked up by neighbors.  They were more than glad to have it.

Now he is keeping things up here as much as he can.  Mows the lawn, etc.  Besides working at Phillips Industries in Stayton sometimes 11 hours a day.  He has things he is doing at his home besides ours.  Teri is so patient and been so good to me.  Teri is one of a kind & Art is so lucky he has her.

Many of the kids call to see how I am doing.  Thanks to my kitty we are holding down the fort.  I am at the house until they start the downstairs.

Art & Teri know they will have me there again.

I have had so many compliments on how wonderful the house looks.  New siding, new roof & dormer windows.  It is a gorgeous place now.  Art Jr. keeps the lawn mowed and it is hands on.  He set up the irrigation last week and I am sure we will need it.  He put it away last fall & nothing frozen was any problem this year.  A year ago we lost a pump because it was not put away like it should have.  We had to buy a new one.

I don’t have to worry much about berries this year.  They will always trim & train new ones up on wires.   I found out pretty fast I was not that good.  So cut them all back as always did the black berries, they will be fine. 

Hope you can read this really bad scratchin’.  Love, Winnie

From: Roy J Reichenbach [mailto:rjrx2@juno.com]

Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 8:50 AM

Subject: Some rambling memories of Rita's.........................

Memories

Our mother liked us to call her “Mother” out of respect, I think, but, to us, it was just as endearing as “Mom”.  She was definitely the disciplinarian of the two.  Dad was gone a lot of the time, working as a plumber and steam fitter, helping do repairs and maintenance, etc. while the paper mill had a “shut down,” usually during the Christmas Holidays or some other such “un- opportune time of the year”.  I remember he had to spend weeks at a time away from home.  It must have been hard on the both of them, Mother and dad.  Dad also helped to build many of The Holiday Inn's in The Northwest, especially the Salem area.  

My aunt Mary, uncle Jim's wife, once told me a story of my mother baking a loaf of bread which turned out very hard.  She buried it, so dad wouldn't have to know.  Dad had taken a camp cooking school, I believe, during his army days, before they were married., and, if he was anything like he was later on, after Mother passed away, HIS WAY of cooking was THE ONLY WAY.  I liked to experiment with new recipes, make tuna fish casserole and things like that.   Chop suey, which my aunt Winnie, uncle Art's wife taught me to make and other new things,  dad didn't always appreciate.  But, back to the hard loaf of bread.  When dad returned home from work that evening, there was the family dog, on the porch, enjoying every bite of that treasured find of his, Mother's loaf of bread, which the dog had dug up.  Now, since I don't remember this story personally, we can just imagine what my parents must have gone through.  They probably ended up laughing about the whole thing!

I was talking about Mother being the disciplinarian, because of dad being away so often working.  She was firm, yet gentle.  I do remember getting a few spankings, though, and Mother would say, “This hurts me more than it hurts you!”

She taught Allen, myself, Marie, and was starting to teach little Frank to play the piano.  We were required to practice for half an hour every day after school before we were allowed to go out and play.  It was excruciating.  Half an hour might as well have been two hours for a kid in grade school!  It paid off, though, Mother organized recitals, a BIG DEAL, with all kinds of folding chairs in the spotless front room.  Parents and friends of all of her piano and voice students would sit in the audience, including she and my dad, and us kids, dressed in our very best, would play our recital pieces we'd memorized.  She always told me, “When you make a mistake, just go on like nothing has happened, and no one will notice.”  Well, that was a hard thing for me to do.  I'd want to start over, if not from the beginning, at least from the nearest jumping off point.  You see, when you memorize a piano piece, you just about have to get it right or a cog gets thrown in there and you come to a halt.  Mother was patiently trying to teach us, her children, and the other children she taught, to get over that!

She would line us up, Allen, Rita, Marie, and Frank, and have us harmonize songs like “Frara Jocka, Frara Jocka.”  Allen would start out with the first line, then, each one of us would chime in succession.  Allen was going on with the song, “deaf” to our singing.  That was the only way you could do this and keep sane.  Mother always was after us to smile while we sang.  We must have looked cute?! 

Lawrence Welk was a must see on our TV every Sunday night.  We watched it as a family and thoroughly loved it.  There might have been varying opinions, however.

When dad would come home from work, it was another BIG DEAL!  We'd all greet him with hugs and show him all our most recent sprained ankles, scraped knees and bee stings, but mostly mosquito bites.  Mother had to deal with all these little emergencies while he was away.  Once dad built me a pair of crutches, so I could limp to school anyway, after I'd jumped down off of somewhere too hard and sprained my ankle.  Dad, himself, once sprained his ankle on the job, bad enough for him to stay home and be off work for a time, that was fun (for us!).  I'm not sure, exactly, but, dad has broken his ankle, arm and leg at different times.  And, once, when he was older, he fell backwards off a cherry ladder and had a concussion to the back of his head.  Mom (Margie) and Marie had quite a time getting him in to the doctor.  Dad was singing something about already being halfway in the grave, kind of a funny song, but, Marie and Mom weren't in a funny mood as you can imagine!  Dad was OK, after a few stitches and an X-ray or two.  Mom and Marie might remember this story differently, so believe their version first!

One time, when Mother was taking little baby Rose to the doctor for her shots and a check up, Allen accidently slammed the car door on her tiny big toe, nearly severing it.  Mother quickly scooped her up (there were no seat belts nor baby car seats at that time in the 50's) and took Rose back in to the doctor who stitched the soft toe back together, and I think everything was fine after it healed quickly.  Babies seem to heal much quicker than older people.  When I had to hand over our two week old baby girl to the anesthesiologist to have surgery, it was like I might not see her again alive, it was awful.  Good thing Roy was by my side and comforted me "till she woke after surgery, then she let out a scream that could be heard throughout the hospital halls. After the doctor gave her some Tylenol, she slept all the way home, a one hour drive to Douglas, Wyoming.  She woke up the next morning just as happy as could be.  It was like she was already as good as new!

         Dad tried other things to “bring home the bacon,” feed and support his growing family.  He sold Forney Arc Welders for a time.  I can remember going out to the old garage, where we lived on Cherry and Pine Streets in Salem, Oregon, and he'd be welding something, maybe demonstrating a welder to some prospective buyer.  He was always a very careful dad.  He'd immediately have us put on the shields and look at the sparks flying, through the safety of the special smokey glass.  We were to stay far away from the sparks, too, so as not to get burnt.  Our Mother was also very careful with us kids, warning us to never accept candy from strangers, or go anywhere with them, but, scream for help and run.  That reminds me of another story which I'll tell in a bit.

Some of dad's welder patrons couldn't afford to pay dollars for the welders, so dad would take something in trade, like a steer, or a heifer, or a couple of nanny goats and a Billy goat.  We'd be delighted when the nanny goats had twin baby goats in the Spring.  We got to help milk the nannies and feed the babies their milk in glass ketchup bottles with black rubber nipples.  We had to hold on to the bottles very tightly, since the "kids" would butt at the nipples so hard.  Those baby goats were so darn cute.  As they grew, though, they could stretch up further and further on to the fruit trees that my dad would plant at each place we lived at.  They loved to strip the trees of their leaves, so, dad would construct chicken wire fences, very high ones, all around the little fruit trees or they'd have never made it!  I can remember hearing our heifer (or was it a steer?) bellowing in the back yard where it was staked near the grape vine, right in the middle of the city, on occasional mornings.  Next, I remember enjoying roasts and hamburgers from that critter.

Dad also picked cherries to make money between his construction jobs, his plumbing and steam fitting jobs were not steady.  Sometimes Marie and I would go along with him.  We'd play in the yards of the older ladies he'd pick the cherries for while he kept a watchful eye on us.  I was pretty good at climbing cherry trees to enjoy the fruit, especially, at home in our black cherry tree out front.  I could put away a lot of those little cherries in one sitting!  My Mother always wanted me to be a “Lady,” but, I preferred being a “Tom Boy”, which seemed to me to please my dad more.  Once, while Mother was preparing a salad, I commented that I could eat a whole head of lettuce, I liked it so much, and she gave me a worried look. 

Allen got way up in a big Bing Cherry tree in our back yard, went out on a limb, and got scared. His knee started shaking and he couldn't come down, so, dad climbed up and rescued him.  Maybe dad used a cherry ladder to rescue him, I don't remember for sure, but, I do remember that incident because it was a BIG DEAL, too!

Back to where I talked about our Mother warning us to never accept candy from strangers.  Once, she took Allen, me, Marie, and Frank downtown.  We were in the old panel wagon, an old van with no windows except in the front, sides and very back.  It was completely closed in.  She had something to do in a beauty shop which just happened to be right next to a bar.  She had instructed Allen, who was the oldest, 8 or 9, to baby sit us until she came right back.  She told him not to open the doors for anyone, but her.  Well, some of the littler ones started fussing and crying and guess who pulled up next to our panel wagon but a policeman.  Somehow, after quizzing Allen from behind the closed windows, he surmised that our mother had gone into the bar, rather than the beauty shop.  That is where Allen was pointing.  Now, I don't know if he went into the bar or the beauty shop to look for Mother, but, we wound up down at the police station.  All of us kids were scared, and the nice policemen were trying to make us comfortable by offering us CANDY!  Of course we stoutly refused as we had been taught.  Soon Mother appeared at the door crying, the first time I can remember seeing my mother cry real tears, using Kleenex and more Kleenex.  She was so relieved that we hadn't been kidnaped, but I know it must have worried her sick until she found us.  I still don't know HOW she found us.  The policemen told her how we'd refused any candy from them and she praised us for that.  I'm glad that story was over!

Dad took the Real Estate test and got his license to sell Real Estate!  He promptly found the place on Scissim Road about 5 miles West of Silverton, Oregon.  After convincing Mother that we'd get a water softener and would not be living “in the wild,” he bought that 13 acre farm and we moved in the Spring.  Quickly, dad, Allen, Frank, and even, us girls got busy building an addition off the back porch.  It had a large family room and two pretty good sized bedrooms for Frank and Allen.  Us, girls, all slept upstairs together (Rita, Marie, Rose, Barbara, and little one year old Sylvia).  Dad also built on a nice two-car car port, covered with corrugated aluminum, some of it was “see through”.  It sloped towards the gravel driveway.  Lots of rain, especially, in the Wintertime, made that a good idea. 

We joined the 4-H Club and I raised two Poland/China pigs.  Marie had Rhode Island Red chickens.  They sure got big!  Allen went China Rooster Pheasant hunting in the corn field stubble where they, plus Quail, were abundant.

Dad was a farmer at heart, so he was delighted with the 13 acres of berries (Blackcaps, Elderberries, thornless Blackberries, Boysenberries, Chahalem's, Marion berries, and some Raspberries).  He took out some of the berries, like the blackcaps, and we planted corn.  He put in a nice big vegetable garden in the rich Willamette Valley soil on that farm near the house. I'll always remember how good his cooked Swiss Chard tasted with salt and butter on it!

Marie's chickens were delicious, too, after she'd shown them at the State Fair.  She may have won a blue or purple ribbon!  I'd never seen, nor tasted such luscious and huge pieces of fried chicken in my short life.  Of course, dad showed us how to chop off their heads, put them in gunny sacks by their feet until they quit thrashing.  We’d then dip them in boiling water, pluck their feathers off, singe the hair off of them over some open flame, cut them open, gut them, properly, so as not to contaminate the meat, then cut the pieces up in grand style.  We'd cut the back with ribs piece apart from the back with tail piece.  He even showed us how to carefully cut out the oil gland located on top of the tail.  Roy always calls the tail piece on a chicken or a turkey, the “Pope's Nose”, because his grandma Gertrude Jensen always did.  Roy's my husband.  We learned how to avoid cutting the bile, and how to take all the rocks and grit out of the gizzard, oh, yes, and to save the liver and heart, so they'd all be edible.

Dad cured his own bacon and ham.  He had a mixture of brown sugar, pepper, and salt.  He cured them in bins in the old chicken house.  Then, I remember he hung them up and smoked them for a long time.  They were pretty good, but, I, personally, would have preferred milder bacon, because his burnt too fast when you fried it (all that sugar cure, probably).  Dad butchered goats, pigs and an occasional beef critter, and kept it in our big deep freeze with all the frozen berries and corn, etc.

We were out on the first hill, picking blackberries one August afternoon, August 15th.  Our aunt Marty, visiting us on her way from Hawaii to New York City, called for dad to come up to the house, so he left us kids picking.  Mother was having difficulty with her eighth child and had passed a lot of blood, so dad took her right in to the Silverton Hospital.  Aunt Marty stayed at home to care for us 7 children.  Sometime during the early hours of the next morning, Mother had given birth to a baby boy, her eighth child, whom she and dad named Louis Martin.  He had come a month prematurely and needed to be incubated for some time, but, he was otherwise healthy.  Mother passed away from loss of blood, sometime that August 16th, 1961.  There wasn't anything anyone could do after it was discovered she had been bleeding, and the key had broken in the lock of the blood supply room.  An ambulance with blood and supplies was sent  from Salem, but, it arrived too late.  Dad never did talk very much about that night, but, I do remember him saying something about using an axe to try and chop open that door in which the key had broken off in the lock, but, to no avail. 

My sister Marie told me that a good priest friend of Mother's wept like a baby at her bedside when she died.  When dad came home and the light of day shown in the windows of our upstairs bedroom, Marie and I awoke to him coming up the stairs.  I could see that he had

been through “Hell”.  Pardon my expression, but, that's how I'd describe it, today.  His right eye was completely bloodshot.  I'll never forget that.  It stayed that way for a long time afterwards, too.  He gently asked Marie and I to come sit on the side of our bed and told us quietly that our Mother had passed away that night.  We immediately started to cry, but, he told us, not to cry, that she was in Heaven because she gave her life for her child, and we had a new baby brother Louie.  He said we should be happy for her since she was, now, in Heaven, but, somehow, that didn't console us very much...we wanted our Mother back!

Frank was about 7, and I was 11, Marie 9, Allen 13, Rose 4, Barb 3, Sylvia 1, Mother was 35 years old, and dad was about 45 or 46 years old.   I remember that Frank and I sat in the driveway and prayed very fervently, three “Hail Mary's,” asking God to bring our Mother back home to us.  We just knew He would grant our request.  I was sure disappointed with God.  Our Mother had told us that God would give us anything we asked Him for as long as it would not harm us.  We asked, “Like a knife, or a gun would?”  “Yes,” said Mother.  “And, does that mean God would even bring us a red wagon, if we asked for it, if it wouldn't hurt us?” we asked.  “Yes,” she said, “Anything.”  Well, we never got our Mother back and life sure changed drastically after that day.

          Let me tell you a little more about life BEFORE Mother died.  She used to love to make us homemade French Fries, but was always concerned about the hot grease starting on fire or one of us getting burnt, so was very careful.  She loved to make Angel Food cakes from “scratch” with 12 egg whites and everything;  I watched her.  I loved the smell of the almond flavoring, or maybe it was cherry/almond flavoring she'd put in the cake batter at the right time.  She liked to use Jergens lotion for her hands, and I, still, to this day, love the smell of the cherry/almond scent in original scent Jergens Lotion!  Mother would painstakingly give Marie and I home permanents, which we hated, but, she'd say, “Beauty must suffer.”  She liked to let us grow our hair long, then brush it 100 times, or teach us to do that.  Dad liked to cut everyone's hair in the family, including us girls's, and, when Mother would relent, he did.  He did a pretty good job of our hair, too...made it look like a “Bob” cut. 

Before Mother died, us older girls used to help give baths and help dress the “little kids”, (Rose, Barb, and Sylvia), when we could, so, after she died it was just natural for us to continue to take care of them, with an added little brother.  He went into the bath tub right along with the girls, no matter.  Mother was a good seamstress.  She loved to, but, now, I'm amazed at how she found the time to, sew us clothes;  matching outfits, like white dress's with red velvet polka dots and red velvet sashes and bows around the waist, matching green dusters with red velvet lining in the cuffs and a green beanie that was reversible into red velvet on one side.  Then, she made the same exact outfit for herself, looked beautiful in it and even made little tiny dress's for Rose and Barb and Sylvia!  She made us many things, including sun outfits, with shorts on the bottom and tie tops with our initials sewn on the front.  She also made checkered green and black shirt coats with black skirts and matching pants, which were nice and warm for the cold rainy Winters.

Mother found time to paint a daisy and a rose (two separate oil paintings), I know, 'cause I saw them.  Her dad, my “Gramp's”, Al DeRyke, was a sign painter by trade, and when he retired he painted oil pictures of the ocean where he and Grandmother lived, right next to the ocean in Yachats, Oregon.  He also collected rocks and agates and cut and polished them. 

When Mother came back from going to her dad's funeral, my sister Marie reminds me

that us kids had gone around and picked every flower in her gardens to give her when she returned.  She was so grateful, she just cried and hugged us.  She loved to work in her roses.  We had Rhododendrons, Camellia's, Tulips, Daffodils, every kind of Crocus, and, oh yes!, Iris's.  Lots of Iris's and Hyacinths.  We had Hawthorne tree's at the Silverton Farm and Marie claims we had a patch of St. John's Wart in front of the kitchen window, there, too.  We also had Dandelions, lots of Dandelions, that we used to hold one under our chins to see if we liked butter.  Our Grandmother DeRyke's favorite flowers were purple Lilacs, Pansies, and African Violets.  She raised wonderful African Violets and colorful Pansies.

Now, dad had a different kind of flower to work with, Tanzy Wragwort, a noxious weed which grew profusely out in the Willamette Valley, then, even, later out at the dairy on the coast near Beaver, Oregon.  Us brothers and sisters would go out daily on work detail, chopping them down, collecting them, and burning them before they went to seed.

Dad always saw to it that the boys would milk the cow and slop the hogs at the Silverton place and the girls would do the cooking and wash the dishes, do laundry, and clean house.  After dad married "mom" on May 13th, 1967, Frank, Marie and I milked the cows, carried in the newborn calves, and fed the cows their hay. “The Little Kids,” Rose, Barb, Sylvia, and Louie, made sure the cows got their feed with bloat guard in it if they looked like they were bloated from the alfalfa and grass in the Spring and Summer, or else the cow could die.  Mom took care of the cooking and she has always been an excellent cook!  We all helped do other dairying work, too, including cleaning the gutters behind the cows, carrying in the buckets of milk and dumping them into the milk tank (we had a Grade B Dairy; for cheese).  Dad fought like the dickens to keep the cows healthy and free of infection, but it was a losing battle.  He finally ended up selling the cows. 

He had traded the Silverton place for the dairy to an old couple who had worked on that dairy for years and years, seven days a week, milking twice a day, like clockwork, year around.  They didn't like it much when they saw dad wasn't doing everything exactly as they did it, so came and criticized him a time or two.  I remember, my dad wasn't too happy with them for that.  He just stated, matter of factly, that they had no right to come back and tell him how to run his own dairy, after all, he didn't try to tell them what to do with the Silverton place! 

Dad liked the wild mustard plant, which grew in a field across from us at the Silverton place.  Once, we all went harvesting the tender new tops, bringing them home and steaming them, eating them with butter, salt and pepper...ummm, GOOD!  Once the owners of that field planted strawberries and the first year they produced just tiny red berries, few and far between.  After school, I'd go out and pick them, bringing quite a few home to freeze for us to eat later.  They were quite tasty, even though they were small in size.  No one ever said for me to quit doing it, so I just kept picking.  Of course, when those same strawberries got big and bushy enough to really pick for the cannery, us, kids would help pick them.

Seems like we used to get 25 cents a carrier, which held six "hallicks", or six, one pound boxes of picked strawberries.  A "crate" was two carriers and we got 50 cents for one of those.  Strawberry picking was hard  work out in the cold rain and hot sun, early in the mornings to start and early in the afternoons to quit when the sun got unbearable.  Early in June for Strawberries,  Boysenberries, beans, then thornless Blackberries.  We had to train them up on to the wires, cut out the "thorney" ones, and pin back the new shoots growing down below.  Dad would plow, then disc the rows between, and before the berries would

start to ripen, he'd have someone come spray them for worms and bugs, or, he'd have a crop duster do the job, depending on how big a field he had.  We'd always have to go and hoe out the weeds that came up in with the berry vines, careful not to damage the new shoots growing below, nor the "old" ones trained up on the wires and ready to produce the berries.  Dad would have to irrigate the berries occasionally, too, then, they'd get big, fat, and juicy!

When we first arrived at the Silverton berry farm, dad found an old empty oil barrel, cleaned it out real good, cut it into pieces, all around, so there were scoops, to which he fastened some sky diving harness's, to hold the scoops up when we put them on and walked down the berry rows with the scoops under the berries, which we just picked and let drop into the scoops, then come time to empty them, we'd walk down to the end of the berry row and bend over and dump the berries out into the crates waiting there.  It was a really nifty way to pick berries...better than the old bucket-tied-around-the-waist.

Once, during a lightening storm, I got so scared I was going to be a target for lightening with my scoop on, I flung it up over my face and shoulders, as the thunder and lightning' crashed and flashed, cutting my lip quite badly.  Of course, unless it was a real emergency, we didn't go in to see a doctor, so, therefore, I, still, to this day, have a scar on my right side of my lip from the cut.

I, once, was running barefoot (Oh, who can remember running barefoot all Summer long when we were kids?) through the yard, and stepped on a bee of some sort, which stung me between my big toe and the second toe.  My whole leg swelled up to my knee, like an elephants foot.  I was continually putting a poultice of baking soda and water on it, but it took it's own sweet time to go down, a week or two, I think?

Uncle Art used to bring his kids over in the back of an old truck from Shaw, Oregon, to our berry farm to help us pick berries.  They were a lot of help and fun to work with.

The Yellow jackets (bees) were always thick around the crates of berries and they were drunk on the fermented berry juice they drank, too.  They'd leave you alone unless you put your hand or finger down on one of them, hiding underneath the crate when you went to pick it up, so, you had to BE CAREFUL!  Some people who are deathly allergic to bee stings just can't do that kind of work.

When Rose was a little girl, like 2 or 3 years old, dad built a rocking horse, we called it a “Hobby Horse”.  He painted it white with a black saddle, good sturdy handles for Rose to hold on to and wooden stirrups for her feet.  Rose loved the TV show Zorro, so she'd tie on a cape wearing a mask we’d made, like the real Zorro, and she'd rock on that horse, like the dickens, singing, “Zorro-da-man-a-dee-o!” or something like that! 

Dad was always making us things to have fun on.  He made us wooden stilts and added strips of inner tube to keep our feet from slipping off.  We learned we could run, kick, and jump in those stilts, showing off to the traffic on Cherry and Pine Streets in Salem, of course, and then, go up to a wall or a fence, let the stilts fall forward and step right out of them, safely.  We thought we were Hot Stuff, yeah!

We got Pogo Sticks one Christmas and bounced our pounds off with those. Then, another Christmas we got Hula-Hoops and you know how much effort they take to keep up!  Etch-a-Sketch's were “in”, so we got those, Oh, yes!, and paddle balls, those wooden paddles with rubber balls attached with a rubber string.  They always broke, but, they were cheap and they were fun!  Dad made us homemade blackboards, huge ones,  which he mounted on the wall in the living room, where we'd draw with colored or white chalk to our hearts content.

Dad brought home bits and pieces of scrap lumber for us kids to play with and we sure had fun with building all sorts of imaginary things with them.  He also brought home empty appliance boxes, which we made into pretend African Huts and houses.  Later, at the Silverton place, I used to draw on those boxes and make windows, with flower boxes, doors, appliances tables and chairs, pictures on the walls, doors, etc., etc. and the Little Kids  would have lots of fun playing in them.  Shhhhh...don't tell anyone, but, I, also, drew that kind of stuff on the sheet rock in the small closet of our bedroom upstairs.  It had a little door and a light bulb in it, so it was perfect for a rainy day hideout home! 

Once, when we were a little bigger, Frank and I got into one of those huge appliance boxes and starting at the top of the hill by the barn, we rolled, like the tread of a “CAT,” down the hill, 'till we suddenly hit water.  We had gone into the Little Pudding River, which ran through our bottom land!  We should have known, however, that we were getting close, as we had smashed a lot of cattail's along the way.  We laughed and laughed, though we were soaking wet!

Dad made tire swings every place we lived at. At the Salem place, there were two long ropes holding a wide board.  That was a very popular swing for the kids in the whole neighborhood.  We’d get to invite whole class grades over for our birthday parties, for which Mother would bake a birthday cake and have hats, party favors, nuts, mints and everything.

Birthdays were always a Big Deal around our family.  We tried to get Mother to tell us how old she was, but, she'd only say, “Twenty one-plus!,” and say no more.  Maybe Allen figured that out before the rest of us dummies, but, she meant she was married when she was twenty one-plus however many years had passed since that date.  Sneaky, huh?  Mother always had a way of making you feel good about yourself, if you deserved it.  We ALWAYS knew she loved us, even when she'd say, “No!” so many times.  That used to really bug me, though, at times.  Dad, however, was more of the fun one, coming home with the goodies.

Once, Mother told Allen to leave the door ajar, so, Allen, promptly, went and got a canning jar and left it next to the door.  Mother laughed and we all did.

Mother loved to sing.  Dad loved to sing.  Sing, sing, sing.  When we'd go on road trips, both, dad and Mother would lead us in song, so many songs that I couldn't begin to name all of them  here.

Mother played the piano, usually, at night, after us kids had gone to bed, with dad reading the paper, or whatever, and us kids falling asleep to the beautiful piano music.  It was pure bliss. 

We knew Mother and dad loved each other.  Mother would hug and kiss dad, a peck on the cheek in front of us, and often, too, she, being the instigator of the affection most of the time.  Dad seemed to just need to “soak it up.”  Once, when they were hugging, at the Silverton place,  I nestled in-between the two of them, looking up and remember feeling more secure than I ever had in my whole life.  I was almost 11.  I knew my parents loved each other and that's all that mattered.

Dad took an old oil tank, or some kind of sturdy steel tank, welded legs on to it, painted it, and filled it with water for us kids to swim in.  Of course, after a few weeks in the hot Summer sun, water bugs grew in there and we'd swim anyway, screaming when one wiggled between our legs or brushed past our backs.

We used to play croquet and dad would love to play horse shoes, practicing up for the

annual Fromherz Family Reunions held at Avery Park in Corvallis, Oregon.  Dad loved all his brothers and sisters and each one of their children, and later on, their children’s children.   Dad made it no secret that he loved each one of us, his own kids, too, and our children, as well.  Mom is a mother to each one of us and a good Gramma to each one of our children. 

Mom and dad had three big, strapping boys, who have grown up into very fine gentlemen.  One, Matthew, the youngest is married.  He and Karen have a four month old darling baby girl.  John is in the Army Reserves.  Paul has had a steady job, first, with the Smuckers Cannery Company, now, with the same company that bought out Smuckers.  Mom is a person with the GREENEST THUMB of anyone I've ever known, no kidding.  My brothers Allen, Frank, and Louis, plus their wives and children, I am very proud and fond of, too.  My sisters, Marie, Rose, Barbara, and Sylvia, and their husbands, and children...well, just, DITTO!  I am so thankful, to God, for my parents Peggy and Joe and for my mom, Margie.  Last, but, not least, I am ever so thankful for my sweet, kind, thoughtful, and loyal husband Roy, and for our precious daughter Margaret Mary “Marge” Rayda, and her husband, Ryan.   Love, Rita Jo (Fromherz) Reichenbach, May, 2005.   

Connie,  Our cousin Eileen who now lives in or near Atlanta, Georgia and is connected to us on the King side her second great grandfather Ulysses Grant King and Abraham Lincoln King (Lucy Adelia King's father) were first cousins sent me the following just in case you happen to find your self back in Tennessee!

Things I've learned about Tennessee and being a Tennessean...(or from Georgia)

1. Possums sleep in the middle of the road with their feet in the air.

2. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 live in Tennessee.

3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in Tennessee plus a couple no one's seen before. (P.S. They left out the 1,000,000 cockroaches.)

4. Squirrels will eat anything.

5. Unknown critters love to dig holes under tomato plants.

6. Raccoons will test your crop of melons and let you know when they are ripe.

7. If it grows, it sticks; if it crawls, it bites.

8. Onced and twiced are words.

9. It is not a shopping cart; it is a buggy.

10. Fire ants consider your flesh as a picnic.

11. People actually grow and eat okra.

12. Fixinto is one word.

13. There is no such thing as "lunch". There is only dinner and then there is supper.

14. Ice tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar!

15. Backards and forwards means "I know everything about you."

16. Jeet? is actually a phrase meaning "Did you eat?"

17. You don't have to wear a watch because it doesn't matter what time it is. You work until you' re done or it's too dark to see.

Tennessee part 2:

You know you're from Tennessee if:

1. You measure distance in minutes.

2. You've ever had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

3. You use "fix" as a verb. Example: "I'm fixing to go to the store "

4. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal.

5. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

6. You know what a "VOL" is. (So, what is it?)

7. You carry jumper cables in your car...for your OWN car.

9. You only own four spices: salt, pepper, Tabasco and catsup.

10.  The local papers cover national and international news on one page but require 6 pages for local gossip and sports.

11. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.

12. You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit "a little warm".

13. You know all four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, still Summer and Christmas.

14. You know whether another Tennessean is from east, west or middle Tennessee as soon as they open their mouth.

15. Going to Wal-mart is a favorite past time known as"goin' Wal-martin" or off to "Wally World".

16. You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good pinto-bean weather.

17. A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola or pop...it's a Coke, regardless of brand or flavor.  Example: "What kinda coke you want?"

18. Fried catfish is the other white meat.

19. You understand these jokes and forward them to your friends from Tennessee or Georgia (and those who just wish they were). Not EVERYONE can be a Tennessean, it's an art form and a gift from God! Or send them to Non-Southerners to "make fun". 

     

Doctor and  Mrs. Roberto Dominguez

 have the honor of announcing

 the marriage of their daughter

 Maria Cristina

 To

 Doctor Scott Douglas Fromherz

 Friday the twenty-fifth of March

 Two thousand and five

 Maui, Hawaii

 

From: Pat Zollner [mailto:patzollner@msn.com]

Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 8:38 AM

Hi, Connie~

Thanks for your note.  Yes, we're working on relocating.  We've been in transition this past year, with Paul starting a new job last November in Wilsonville.  Chris is our last one at home and has been finishing out her 8th grade year while I've continued working here in Eugene.  As the school year draws to a close, we're trying to firm up our plans for relocation.  Other than hopes and intentions, we haven't had much solid to report, but gradually things are taking shape.

We've been looking to move to Mt. Angel--a 20-minute commute for Paul's work.  I'd like to be closer to Mom and Dad so that I can be more helpful to them in the years ahead.  And, of course, we already feel like Mt. Angel's home, so it'll be more like a homecoming than moving into a new community.  We're in the process of purchasing a place there, and will probably be moving in mid June.  I'll get our new address and phone # to you in due time.  I don't know what internet service we'll have there, so we may end up having a new e-mail address, as well.

Just a quick update on the kids:  Katie & Jim are still here in Eugene--Jim completed his Bachelor's last December and works for a CPA firm and Katie's nearing the completion of her Master's degree this June.  They still plan to take a Peace Corps assignment this fall and are just waiting to hear where that's going to be.

Monica had a wonderful fall term at Lancaster University in England.  She's been finishing out the year at OSU and applying to Nursing Schools.  She'll be working in a rural health clinic this summer and perhaps next year, if she has to wait to get into a program.

Tecie's been up at Portland State this year--loving being in the big city.  She has a part-time job at Forever 21.  Sadly, we don't see her as much as we'd like--it's difficult for her to get weekends off. 

Chris has had a great 8th grade year--went on a fun school trip to Florida.  She and a couple of friends put out a bi-weekly newspaper all year, which may evolve into a student-run school newspaper in the future.  Currently she's in the middle of track season and having fun with that.

Well, best wishes to you and the clan.  If our moving schedule doesn't mess up, we'll hope to see you at the reunion in June~  Pat, Paul & family 

From: Fromherz, Judy MAJ 104DIVIT                     Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 8:05 AM                                    Subject: FW: Letter from General Schoomaker    

To all, Thought you might like to see what I got in the mail the other day.   Love ya,     Judy 

 

Louie & Tricia have e-mail!

From: Patty Fromherz [mailto:patty@opusnet.com]

Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 3:27 PM

To: Connie Gale      Dear Jim & Connie,    Thank you for coming to Grandpa A. Joseph's funeral.  Happy Easter to you both. Love Louis & Tricia & family.

Here is my e-mail address. Patty@opusnet.com

From: Norma Vogt [mailto:normalv@netins.net]

Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2005 7:21 PM

Subject: Re: Fromherz Newsletter From The Heart News Items due by May 1, 2005

Hi Connie---  First-- Thank you for inviting me to your reunion....Daniel has certainly been a jewel helping me with the Hasley genealogy.  I wish I could come out for that affair but I have had such health problems I am sure I can't make it.   I certainly do enjoy  receiving the newsletter.  I read every word.  I am looking forward to hearing about the fun you have with all who come.   Thank you again...   Norma Vogt   Apt.59

800 W. Miller St. 

Marengo, Iowa   52301

normalv@netins.net               

Ps.  My Mother is still living and is 94 yrs. old. 

Lives in Ca. where my 3 sisters live.......... She was a Hasley.

                  

From: Wayne & Denise Fromherz Family [mailto:jkcssns@verizon.net]
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 12:10 PM
Subject: Fromherz News

Dear Family,

   Just returned from Whaler’s Rest Resort which is 5 miles south of Newport, Oregon. Kids liked the indoor heated pool and the parents liked the hot tub. The club house had a scavenger hunt on Saturday for the kids. We went to Lincoln City outlet stores to find Wayne some boots. He chose police boots so now we can call him sergeant Fromherz, ha, ha, ha!!! Stephen & Gabe got new pants at the Children’s Palace. Dana shopped at Claire’s & Old Navy. Liz got a new outfit & a pair of pants. Mary Jo purchased a writing journal. Poor Lucas being the baby didn’t get one little thing. Better luck next trip. The family searched the beach for glass floats but no luck because Aunt Karen wasn’t there to make them hunt 9 hours plus. Only hunted for one hour. Went to the 5:30 p.m. mass in Newport, Oregon. Mary Jo’s dog Angel loved the camping experience. People at the mall we’re laughing at Angel who was barking at her reflection in the glass window. Weather was good, no rain until Saturday night. Kids enjoyed some treats at Dairy Queen. This Saturday is Dana’s 15th birthday so we’re off to the Seaside campground to celebrate the big event. The kids want school to be done, their getting spring fever. Mary Jo signed up for a one week band class in the summer. She plays the bass clarinet. Mary Jo is moving on up to middle school at Parrish with Lizzy. Wayne had his ear & nose surgery on May 2nd. The doctor was very happy with the success of the ear tubes he put in during surgery. He was off 2 weeks to recover from surgery & went back to work today 5/16/05. Wayne caught up on outdoor work around the yard during his time off. For the 4th of July we’re heading back to the Whaler’s Resort to enjoy the fireworks. Dana has a lawn mowing job around the corner for a neighbor which she does every week & a half. Catching up on laundry today, a never ending job. I’m a tops member & I enjoy our weekly Tuesday meetings. Lost 15 ½ lbs already. Dana is taking a cooking class & baking for the family. Elizabeth put in for next years cooking class, she can hardly wait… Lucas likes to read books & play with cars. Loves to ride the scooter just like the big kids do. Mom was teasing Gabe as he kept asking if they were lost. Mom said yes were lost on the way to the beach.  Then Gabe got Lucas to ask the same thing. Finally he gave up & said just tell me when we’re a mile from the campsite, o.k. Mom. Mother’s day the kids took me out to the Blue Willow Chinese Restaurant for dinner. Wayne is thinking about Father’s day & what he’d like to do. It probably will involve his mini motorcycle. Love, Denise, Wayne & Family…………………………………..

Click Link for

Reunion 2005 Calendar



        Adolf Joseph Fromherz

     August 1, 1918 - March 15, 2005

Reunion

Reunion 2005

Save This Date!

June 24 thru 26, 2005!

Jim & Connie Gale

12925 W Greenfield Road

Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

509 467-1370

congale@ispwest.com 

 

 

 

Cousins Dinner

Who:

 

 

Fromherz Family Adults, spouses & significant others

When:

 

Friday, June 24, 2005

Time:

 

6pm social hour followed by dinner

Where:

 

Mount Angel Brewing Co

210 Monroe Street

Mt. Angel OR 97362

 

Cost:

 

No Host

RSVP:

 

Mary Holt (503) 393-2207

michael.e.holt@att.net

 

 

FROG

Who:

 

Family & Friends

When:

 

Saturday June 25, 2005

Time:

 

 10:00 Tee Time

8:00 am Breakfast @ Denney's @ Tualatin I-5 exit 

Where:

 

Lake Oswego

Cost:

 

Green fees & dontations for prizes

RSVP:

 

Buzz & Liz Fromherz

Buzzmech@hotmail.com 503-655-0182

Directions www.mapquest.com

 

·        Double click on Links to NewsletterFromTheHeart #8   Holiday Edition 2004

Special Genealogy Project

Mexico Journal

 

Fromherz Bowl

 

Who:

 

Adults and Children

 

When:

 

Saturday June 25, 2005

 

Time:

 

Afternoon after FROG about 3 pm

 

Where:

 

Oregon City Elks Club

610 McLoughlin Blvd

Oregon City, OR 97045

 

 

Cost:

 

$12 per per bowler (includes food & games)

 

RSVP:

 

Ken Gerding

(503) 246-5228

krgerding@comcast.net

 

 

Directions www.mapquest.com

 

King-Chambers

What:

 

King Family Potluck Picnic

Who:

 

Everyone

When:

 

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Time:

 

9 am - 4 pm

Where:

 

Kings Valley School Gym

39088 Kings Valley Hwy

Kings Valley, OR

 

Cost:

 

Main Dish, either salad or dessert, and utensils & plates for your family.  Coffee and tea provided

RSVP:

 

Mimi Stang, President

(503) 364-8427

MStang5165@aol.com

 

Directions King -Chambers

         

 

 

Fromherz Picnic

Who:

 

All Fromherz Family and Friends

When:

 

Sunday June 26, 2005

Time:

 

1:00 - 5:00 pm Come early to help set up

Where:

 

Avery Park, Thompson Kitchen Corvallis, OR

What:

 

Potluck, Bring your favorite picnic dish enough to share, eating utensils and beverage

Cost:

 

Donation at picnic for park reservations, coffee and newsletter

Directions  Avery Park

·        NEWS for the newsletter. . . Spring Edition 2005 due by May 1, 2005.   congale@ispwest.com

Jim & Connie Gale

12925 W Greenfield Road

Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

509 467-1370

 

·        Fromherz Genealogy Contact Daniel Fromherz

mckenzie_market@mckenzievalleymarket.com

·          King Genealogy Contact David Trask, King Family Historian since 1989    dltrask@aol.com, David M. Trask, 1533 Nottingham Circle,  Medford, Oregon  97504-7202 

 

 

  

 

 

bullet Save This Date!  2005  Reunion Picnic June 26     

 

·        Family Reunion 2005 is scheduled!

  Avery Park, Thompson Kitchen, 1-5 pm Corvallis, OR  Save This Date! June 24 - 26, 2005   Fromherz Family Reunion Festivities. 

 

Sunday, June 26   1pm-5pm Avery Park - Thompson Kitchen Corvallis, OR

*      Bring main dish and a salad or dessert, beverage, and utensils & plates for your family.  Coffee provided.

*       Contact:  Mary Gerding (541)745-5544

·         NEWSLETTER News for Spring Edition 2005 due by May 1, 2005.

congale@ispwest.com

Jim & Connie Gale

12925 W Greenfield Road Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

509 467-1370

 

Cousins Dinner

Friday, June 24  

*   6 pm social hour followed by dinner

*   Mt. Angel Brewing Co, 210 Monroe Street, Mt. Angel, OR 97362

*   RSVP Mary Holt

       michael.e.holt@att.net  (503) 393-2207

Save This Date!

Fromherz Family Reunion Festivities

June 24 thru 26, 2005!

Jim & Connie Gale  

12925 W Greenfield Road

Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

509 467-1370

congale@ispwest.com

 

 

       FROG (Golf) Scramble

*      Saturday, June 25

*   8am Breakfast at Denny’s

*  Lake Oswego Golf Course                             Tee-time around 10 am

*   Cost:  Greens Fees + $$ for Prizes

*      RSVP Buzz & Liz Fromherz  (503) 655-0182  buzzmech@hotmail.com 

Let Chris Holt inspire you to Run the

 Relay for Life

·        American Cancer Society Relay for Life, Salem Chapter

·        Father's Day Weekend 2005

·        Contact Mike & Mary Holt for details.michael.e.holt@att.net             (503) 393-2207     

 

King Chambers Reunion

bullet Saturday  June 26

·       Picnic Potluck  9am – 4pm                  

bullet Kings Valley School Gym  (behind the school) 39088 Kings Valley Hwy, Kings Valley, OR

*    Bring main dish, either a salad or dessert, and utensils & plates for your family.  Coffee & Ice Tea provided

*    Contact:  Mimi Stang  (503) 364-8427  mstang5165@aol.com

 

 

DIRECTIONS

From: Jim Gale [mailto:jelag@ispwest.com]  

Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 8:16 AM

Subject: Directions

King Chambers Reunion

Driving Instructions to Kings Valley School

 

From I-5

Take Exit 228 and drive East.  This is State Hwy 34

Drive Hwy 34 through Corvallis (NW Monroe Ave) on through Philomath

Some where between Corvallis and Philomath it changes from State Hwy 34 to US Hwy 20…. So the road could be marked with either or both numbers.

A few miles out of Philomath look for State Hwy 223 and turn right.

State Hwy 223 is also know as Kings Valley Hwy.  About 7-9 miles down the Kings Valley Hwy you’ll find the school……

  Avery Park, Corvallis (Thompson's Kitchen)

Driving Instructions to Avery Park

 

From I-5

Take Exit 228 and drive East.  This is State Hwy 34

As you enter Corvallis follow signs to Pacific Hwy and/or 99W and turn south.

As you head south out of Corvallis on Hwy 99W you’ll pass and interchange that will take you to the coast….. don’t take this turn but follow 99W south..  about 2 miles south of this interchange at one of the stop lights will be Avery Park Ave.

Avery Park Ave. is a narrow street and is easy to miss, but it is at one of the stop lights….  At Avery Park Ave. turn right and cross the tracks… as you cross the tracks you’ll got straight ahead and enter the park…..   Thompson's Kitchen is a covered area 1/3 to a ½ mile into the park on the right hand side…

Cousins Dinner

Mt Angel Brewing Company

210 Monroe St

Mt. Angel OR 97362

 

The name of the Restaurant Mt Angel Brewing Company has changed and is under new management but we’re still in the same building…

 

From Salem OR take Hwy 213 off of I-5 and head North East into the country following signs to Mt. Angel.

 

From Woodburn OR take Hwy 214 South East into the country following the signs to Mt. Angel

 

     

Adolf Joseph Fromherz Pictorial

 

Froggie went a-courtin'

1. Froggie went a-courtin', and he did ride, Uh-huh,
Froggie went a-courtin', and he did ride, Uh-huh,
Froggie went a-courtin', and he did ride.
With a sword and a pistol by his side, Uh-huh.

2. Well he rode up to Miss Mousey's door, Uh-huh,
Well he rode up to Miss Mousey's door, Uh-huh,
Well he rode up to Miss Mousey's door.
Gave three loud raps and a very big roar, Uh-huh.

3. Said, "Miss Mouse, are you within?" Uh-huh,
Said he, "Miss Mouse, are you within?" Uh-huh,
Said, "Miss Mouse, are you within?"
"Yes, kind sir, I sit and spin," Uh-huh.

4. He took Miss Mousey on his knee, Uh-huh,
Took Miss Mousey on his knee, Uh-huh,
Took Miss Mousey on his knee.
Said, "Miss Mousey, will you marry me?" Uh-huh.

5. "Without my uncle Rat's consent, Uh-huh
"Without my uncle Rat's consent, Uh-huh
"Without my uncle Rat's consent.
I wouldn't marry the president, Uh-huh

6. Uncle Rat laughed and he shook his fat sides, Uh-huh,
Uncle Rat laughed and he shook his fat sides, Uh-huh,
Uncle Rat laughed and he shook his fat sides,.
To think his niece would be a bride, Uh-huh.

7. Uncle Rat went runnin' downtown, Uh-huh,
Uncle Rat went runnin' downtown, Uh-huh,
Uncle Rat went runnin' downtown.
To buy his niece a wedding gown, Uh-huh

8. Where shall the wedding supper be? Uh-huh,
Where shall the wedding supper be? Uh-huh,
Where shall the wedding supper be?
Way down yonder in a hollow tree, Uh-huh

9. What should the wedding supper be? Uh-huh,
What should the wedding supper be? Uh-huh,
What should the wedding supper be?
Fried mosquito in a black-eye pea, Uh-huh.

10. Well, first to come in was a flyin' moth, Uh-huh,
First to come in was a flyin' moth, Uh-huh,
First to come in was a flyin' moth.
She laid out the table cloth, Uh-huh.

11. Next to come in was a juney bug, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a juney bug, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a juney bug.
She brought the water jug, Uh-huh.

12. Next to come in was a bumbley bee, Uh-huh
Next to come in was a bumbley bee, Uh-huh
Next to come in was a bumbley bee.
Sat mosquito on his knee, Uh-huh.

13. Next to come in was a broken black flea, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a broken black flea, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a broken black flea.
Danced a jig with the bumbley bee, Uh-huh.

14. Next to come in was Mrs. Cow, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was Mrs. Cow, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was Mrs. Cow.
She tried to dance but she didn't know how, Uh-huh.

15. Next to come in was a little black tick, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a little black tick, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a little black tick.
She ate so much she made us sick, Uh-huh.

16. Next to come in was a big black snake, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a big black snake, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a big black snake.
Ate up all of the wedding cake, Uh-huh.

17. Next to come was the old gray cat, Uh-huh,
Next to come was the old gray cat, Uh-huh,
Next to come was the old gray cat.
Swallowed the mouse and ate up the rat, Uh-huh.

18. Mr. Froggie went a-hoppin' up over the brook, Uh-huh,
Mr. Froggie went a-hoppin' up over the brook, Uh-huh,
Mr. Froggie went a-hoppin' up over the brook.
A lily-white duck come and swallowed him up, Uh-huh.

19. A little piece of cornbread layin' on a shelf, Uh-huh,
A little piece of cornbread layin' on a shelf, Uh-huh,
A little piece of cornbread layin' on a shelf.
If you want anymore, you can sing it yourself,
Uh-huh.

 

 This is a pic I believe you already have, but in case not...once upon a time I knew who each of the kids were, but alas, if you don't know, we'll have to run it past one of the few remaining Seniors at the reunion. Syl

Christmas 1918. L to R Florence Agnes, “Pop”, Adolf Joseph Sr., Clara Josephine, Albert William, Charles Aloysious,  Adolf Joseph Jr. is in his mother’s lap Lucy Adelia (King) Fromherz.

 

Dad & Barb at her wedding. The wedding was 1998, Dad wrote:  Barb with 'Father of the Bride' on the back of the picture.  It helps if I send this to you, not just to me!! Syl

   
 

Dad & Barb with Bryn eating watermelon.  The water-melon pic was days before Dad passed away.  . Syl

Cropped picture for Dad’s Birthday 

   
 

The other pic of dad I love -- he signed it, 'the baron'...guess he knew he was handsome, eh?!

Dad named the soldier in the pic with him, but don't know that such detail is needed.  I believe, from other photos, it is 1945, near Marseilles, France (did I spell that right?!) 

   
 

One thing that is not a file, but which I think is fitting to include, is the poem my daughter, Bryn Deana, wrote (I edited) about "Papa Joe" (the name she knew him by) -- I read it at the funeral, and I know it touched several of us pretty strongly:

"Sing in the springtime, sing in the spring; Butterflies flitter, songbirds ring.

Sing in the springtime, your world is peace; Sing in the springtime, give me one last kiss."

She saw Dad the night before he passed away, and as we said goodnight and he wanted to give her a goodnight kiss (and did), this was the first time in her life that she had not said, "no kisses!" to the prospect of being kissed :)  She wrote this in the days following his death (she had just turned 8 herself).

  

   
    Dad at Frank & Briget’s wedding  

  Dad with Louis and family  

   
    Dad eating watermelon This watermelon shot with Frank in the background was taken days before dad passed away.  

  Dad with sons Don't know what the event with Dad and the boys was, but it sure looks like fun!  You could check with mom      . . .  25th Wedding Anniversary  

   
 

Rock Hill school you will know as the school where several of the 'seniors' attended grade school.

L to R    Syl, Dad, Andrew 1996  

  Marty, Joe, Peggy and Jim  

   
 

   
 

TYING APPLES ON A LILAC TREE

A little boy and a little girl
In an ecstasy of bliss
Said the little boy to the little girl Pray give me just one kiss

The girl drew back in great surprise
Your a stranger sir said she
And I will give you just one kiss
When the apples grow on a lilac tree

The boy was very sad at heart
She was the only one
The girl was quite remorseful
at the terrible thing she had done

So bright and early on the very next morn

He was quite surprised to see

His little sweetheart standing in the garden
Tying apples on the lilac tree.

 

   Grandpa Joe Fromherz and Holly Rose Fromherz February 20, 2005

   
    Dad with Mom and sons . . . 25th Wedding Anniversary 
  Dad with Frank and Marie 
  Memorial Day 1954 . . . R to L  Jim, Art, Walt, Joe, Albert, Charlie . . .
  Dad & Mom at Syl’s wedding
  Dad with Marie and Gina Rose   
    Dad & Mom at Matt’s wedding  

 

The fire was way back when we lived on the farm near Silverton (early '60's)  Check out Frank!

   
 

The segment of the letter is a fascinating insight.  However, the letter itself is rather personal.  It could be left as "notable quote from Adolf" . . .  written in his later years. . .  and somehow seeing Dad's handwriting makes it more personal than if it were strictly retyped.    Syl    

   
 

That's all the pics I have to send.   Well, there are many more, but I have run out of gumption to deal with scanning them in at this time.   Have to get the house in order and car readied for our trip to the midwest next week.

I realize I've sent pics, but very little text. That reflects, in part, how burnt out I am just now.   But I think the pics are fun to look at, and too much text not necessarily the best thing anyway. I have had several sibs suggest that the words to "Froggie went a courtin" be included, along with, perhaps, the words to tying apples -- those were two songs dad often sang.  Many more, some arguably even more dear to his heart.  But I think we all remember him leading our singing in the car, and I especially remember these two.  I wish we could make the reunion this year -- but the kids and I will make a short visit to Oregon later in the summer, and I'll try to visit with some of the gang at that time (never enough time, though) take good care, and again, sorry it took FOREVER!  Syl  

   
   

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