Reddick Family Web

Nobility, Humility, Loyalty

An emotional sendoff

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On April 28, we caught up with Lt. Heather Lane by Skype. She was in Kuwait packing to leave for Afghanistan. Among the things she communicated was an emotional account (and she is generally pretty skilled at managing her emotions) of the send off the good people of South Carolina extended to her unit as they left Camp McCrady, Fort Jackson, near Columbia.

Sailors at sendoff
Veterans and volunteers greet sailors at sendoff in South Carolina

On reflection, it was one of those times you wish you had a recorder going; no gift of words can adequately convey the gratitude in her voice and expression as she told of trainees being taken to a hangar and greeted there by a line of appreciative people, some veterans some not, waving flags, voicing their own gratitude, and sometimes giving hugs.

Heather sent the photos shown here after our call, and in her e-mail with the photos described her unit as “U.S. Narmy Saildiers: Army trained, Navy true.”  She wrote of walking “to the plane through an aisle lined with volunteers holding flags. Among them, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Blue Star Mothers, VFW, American Legion, and other patrols.

volunteers applaud soldiers
Trainees leaving Ft. Jackson, SC for Afghanistan, receive applause from volunteers and veterans.

Birthday service

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Happy Birthday, Grandma! Ben, Connor, Emily, Jenni, Lily, Aiden, Jake and Ani all came by Saturday morning to help clean up and fix up around the house. Rufus and Abel came to play with Daxter. When they were done, great transformations had taken place.

Ben and Jake
Ben and Jake wrestle with remnants of the ancient clothes line upright.

In the west sideyard, Ben and Jake accomplished what Grandpa has not been able to do:  They removed the last vestige of the clothesline that had been there perhaps since the house was built, more than 50 years ago. Like some lone, forgotten goal post, the rusted standard had stood, broken and forlorn in the yard since we bought the house from the family of the original owners.

Preparations for the birthday work party started a few days earlier, with a list of projects that had been piling up around the house – inside and out. Then Grandpa began gathering tools and materials Friday afternoon and early Saturday morning. The birthday well-wishers reported for duty at 8 a.m. Grandpa mowed and edged the front yards and spread a biological agent throughout designed to fend off grubs and other crawly things. Lily swept up the walks. Jenni mowed the back yard. Ben and Jake built a raised bed for the east sideyard.

Grandma directed traffic, and with Aiden did some watering and spring clean-up. There was lots of clean-up to go around. Ani tackled the chaos of limbs and branches that were all askew and akimbo in the west sideyard. Before long, she had help from most of the rest of the crew. Grandma went and rounded up some lunch material. Grandpa left for an 11 o’clock temple session where Josh Alberts was getting ready to go out on a mission to upstate New York.

The day it happened was actually Will Shakespeare’s birthday, but it was a nice present for Nancy – and for Grandpa. Thank you, beautiful family.

A glorious celebration

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JJ just looked great. I spent almost all of Friday, March 25 with her (it was flurrying Friday, not spring at all). I spent much of Saturday with her, Peter and Yvonne, Mike and Lynette, Sister Faith Margaret, and a few close friends before the 2 p.m. party.

Julia Jane Nehls at birthday cake with Sister Faith Margaret
Julia Jane Nehls at birthday cake with Sister Faith Margaret

During our visit, JJ gave me some photos, and I recorded almost two hours of her talking about them and the people in them. She remembers our great grandma (her “Grandma Daly”) well. She confirmed for the record Mom’s account of the 1933 trip to the World’s Fair. On that occasion, Ed and Goldie drove a ’32 Ford coupe. They picked up cousin Ruth before leaving Ohio. The girls rode in the rumble seat all the way to California where they picked up Dottie, then 15. Ruth would have been about 13, and Julia 12 in the summer of ’33.

The five of them then drove from California to Chicago, the girls in the rumble seat the entire way. Julia said, “we had a lot of fun.” When she was alive, Mom described with great relish this adventure. The morning they got to the World’s Fair, Ed lined the girls up and gave each one of them a twenty dollar bill, and said “we’ll see you right here at three this afternoon.” Then Ed and Goldie went their way, and the girls went theirs. Chicago. Three girls off on their own.

After the fair, they all went back to Ohio where many people in South Charleston remarked how much Dottie looked like Goldie. Some even mistook Mom for her aunt.

It was great to hear Julia confirm the story. She also gave me about 20-30 pages of Daly family history stuff that I hope to work on this summer.

Julia still has one dog (named “Cats”) and an assortment of feline companions.

At the end of the party Saturday, I bid my farewells, and drove back to Columbus joyous I had had time to spend with cousin Julia.

Cheers from London

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Our good friend Milverton Wallace in London shared  a link last night to a BBC “programme” that will soon disappear from the Internet. It is a great piece of radio journalism about the personal challenges of a monarch (George VI), the uncertainties of war (World War II), the fears of a nation, and a simple poem written a century ago.

Milverton set this little piece against the backdrop of a depressed people. Here are his words of introduction: “It’s the eve of the Winter Solstice and  I’ve never known people in this country to be so depressed. The airports are closed, many motorways are grid-locked or snowbound and retailers are taking a beating as customers cannot get to the shops. Talk about a ‘bleak mid-winter!'”

Milverton Wallace
Milverton Wallace

The radio broadcast may be found for a few more days at http://bbc.in/gBoImr

The poem around which this piece of radio magic was woven was written by Marie Louise Haskins originally under the title of “God Knows” and later disseminated under the title of “The Gate of the Year.”

The Gate of the Year (aka God Knows)

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown!”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So, I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night
And He led me toward the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

Life cycle of a balloon

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Where is Art Linkletter when you need him? We had an episode worthy of the former TV and radio host. It has to do with the science of birthday parties.

The foundation for this episode is that we are playing host to Jenna and Riley Lane, two of the cutest granddaughters on the planet (just ask us), fulfilling our mission as grandparents. In the middle of their stay with us, we hosted a birthday party for another granddaughter, Emily Lincoln.

So the birthday party ran its course on Saturday. Guests arrived, the kids went swimming, we all had pizza, cake and ice cream – you know the drill. So when all the people left, some of the decorations remained. Among the decorations was a cluster of balloons, on ribbons, that had ascended above the table upon which their anchor rested.

Saturday evening the balloon cluster found its way into a corner of the bedroom in which the girls slept.

Sunday morning, as the girls awakened and began talking, Riley discovered the balloons now in a cluster on the floor, still partially inflated.  Observing Riley’s discovery that the balloons were on the floor, Grandpa whined and made a comment about how sad the occasion was.

“Don’t be sad, Grandpa,” Riley comforted. “Let’s discuss the life cycle of a balloon.”