HB to The Commander, double-8
I’ll post a pic later. Okay, it’s later and here’s an undated photo of The Commander snowshoeing in the Great White North way back in the day, sometime B.K. She got married to Grandroobly during WWII and that story will have to wait for another entry sometime. They moved around the southwest while Grandroobly served as an Army Air Corps flight instructor and engineer. He was preparing for deployment to the South Pacific when the A-bomb was dropped. That ended the war for Grandroobly and so they made their way back to the Great Lake State. By train, I think. The plan was to move into the old Lathers-MacMullan farmhouse in Garden City with The Commander’s family, at least temporarily. The Commander returned to her career as a buyer at the old downtown Dee-troit Hudson’s store. Grandroobly got a job with Chrysler (or one of the Dee-troit motor vee-hickle companies) and was going to finish the college education that got interrupted by WWII. Problem. He had a *terrible* time with the “hay fever” that went along with living in the southeast Michigan climate. He decided he needed to go home to Da Yoop and The Commander dropped her career and went with him. They went on to have interesting and successful careers in the frozen north and built the cabin on Fin Family Moominbeach that we all know and love. Oh, and eventually they had a couple of kids, namely yer fav-o-rite blahgger and The Engineer, who could even be reading this with Grandroobly from the other side somewhere. You never know. If so, hi you guys! Anyway, The Commander has lived up there in the Great White North for about umpty-nine gazillion years now and, as hard as life can be up there at this time of the year when the snow virtually never stops, I am not sure she would ever want to move back down to these parts. At least every time I ask her if she wants to move in with me, her answer is an emphatic “NO!!!”
So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MRS. COMMANDER! May you have many more! And I KNOW you will feel free to correct any details I may have wrong in this little story about some of the parts of your life that happened long before a johnny-come-lately like me came along.
January 9th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Happy Birthday Fran!!! Do you remember that picture? Is that at the cabin?
January 9th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Happy Birthday, Fran! I do love the picture. Thanks, Anne, for including it.
Ray walked to the Doelle-Armstrong beach today, and found an 8- ft. wind row of piled ice bergs! I am hoping he gets a photo tomorrow.
January 10th, 2009 at 7:43 am
YAY! HB, Fran! Great talking with you last night (thanks, Nook, for initiating the call 😉 ). All 3 of us got to speak with you, and I’m sure The Engineer made “contact” in some form or another – he sure wouldn’t forget (I’ll bet he and Grandroobly took turns hefting ‘Hattans and rattling ice cubes in your honor!).
January 10th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Happy Birthday, Fran! Slightly belated, like many things in our house at this time of year. We hope you are feeling as young as the picture.
January 13th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Friday was my birthday and I wanted to make a comment about my daughters blog but it was a very busy day and it was late when I got to the computer I read the blog and started to write the comment when the telephone rang. 25 minutes later I tried to resume the comment but couldn’t because I had been cut off from the internet. So I started over. The same thing happened four more times and my awkward use of the computer and the time spent in talking on the telephone put me into the evening so late I finally gave up and went to bed.
My comment was that the time that we spent at my home I did not go back to work at Hudson’s but Jack did work at Chryslers until the following August when we moved to the Upper Peninsula. We spent the fall on the beach – a very beautiful fall in the old family cabin. A four month vacation during which we enjoyed the cabin, the beach, and the whole UP. On the first of December we woke in the morning to liberal sup[lies of snow on the indoor window sills and the comment was “I think we better head for town before we get snowed in for the winter.” (Access in winter is often very bad on the access road). So back to Jobs and other responsibilities.
Many thanks for all the GREAT birthday calls ! Fran