July 2010 Archives

More Early Photos of Lindsay Craig & His Family

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Grandma Koftan dated these two 1949 and spelled "Audrey" rather than the later preferred "Audree."  Mike is alongside in his stocking cap.  They seem to be in front of the Crofton house of cement block, built for them by our grandparents, who later lived in it after Audree and Earl moved.

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The following of Lindsay and his dad is from the same time, clearly in Crofton.  Don't know the dog's name.

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These are two poor photos from a few years later when Dad had torn off our front porch and built this small entry instead.  Audree's drama is turned toward the camera, with Earl and Lindsay on the left, and then it's their turn.

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These two were at our house, between the first three and two just above, as a 1950 date confirms.  The family teased Earl, because he almost always napped at family get-togethers. It became a standing joke, and it looks like Lindsay caught his dad's habit.

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I don't know where this was taken, but it's a cute one of Kristi Weber (much later Dennis Jon's first wife), Lindsay, and his sister, Penny Jeanne.

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And I'll include a funny one of Earl, though it's damaged, taken at Grandma and Grandpa Koftan's, probably at some Christmas.  Aunt Betty Hupp Koftan (I think) is in the right background.

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Lindsay Craig Ellingson's First Birthday

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Lindsay, Earl and Audree Koftan Ellingson's fourth, was born on 29 July 1948 at Bloomfield, NE. This group of photos was on our front steps when we had the big porch in Center, with Audree and Micheal Laurence, born 14 July 1942 at Bloomfield.  I am struck by these and the ones in the next entry how Lindsay has scarcely changed over the decades--amazing.  He's balding, but then he's a few decades older, and he didn't have much hair here either.  And I'd have to say Mike hasn't changed that much either, although he too is bald now.  Lucky men.

The photos also made me nostalgic, beyond the practicality of the newspapers around Lindsay so he could eat his birthday cake however he wanted, because the fat thermos was Dad's favorite kind--we usually had more than one, iced tea and Koolaid in them--and because we had woodbine/Virginia creeper around the western end of the porch at the time for shade. 

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Stockings in Missouri--2001-2002

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More photos from Kay Vanness Sanger from Windsor.  The first is of Larry and Patti Stocking Wright with their son, Lamont, simply dated 2001.

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Another 2001 photo, Gayle Stocking and Nancy Stocking Davis in Vernon and Gayle's kitchen, Thanksgiving time.

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Last 2001 photo, Lamont Wright, Roger and Jesse Stocking.

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From June 2002, Kay and "Gayle, & the pastor ringing the bell at the black church down the street from my house." 

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Also June 2002, "Vern, Greg, Bryan & Roger--they don't 'touch' much!"  Four Stocking brothers, of course, from the two oldest to the two youngest.

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Undated is this photo of "David & Karen Stocking (Vern's son)."

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"Roger & Lura Stocking, 2002."  Vern has a Chicago wife, Roger a Nevadan.  I owe Roger and Lura many thanks for their thoughtful telephone calls with family news, as with the deaths of Patti and Kay.

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I don't know if Kay means the year or the day on the date, but her label is "Here's an extra pict (sic) of Lura & Jesse Clark Stocking--12-03."

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"Greg, Kay & Roger (Jonathon at side)--Where's the beef?  ha  July 2002."

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A family trio, "Greg, Carol & Jonathon--July 2002."

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"left to right:  Vern, Becky, Nancy, Brian, Rog, Patti, Greg & Karen--in Sept 05 at Vern's house.  That is Clark's tractor.  Vern re-finished it.  He is good @ tractors!"  And I can vouch for that, having seen several, including his dad's red Farmall, my childhood favorite because of its color, and also having seen his immaculate shop, the other end of the scale from Dad's and my brother-in-law's shops (NOT immaculate).

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And finally this one on Vern and Gayle's porch, labelled on the photo.

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2001 Thanksgiving with Vernon & Gayle Stocking

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This is another set of photos Kay Vanness Sanger sent me. I thought our widespread Luckert family might enjoy seeing their Missouri kin after so many years.  Vernon and Gayle looked after Kay and took good care of her, as did Roger and Lura.  The first photo is "Vern & Dean & Wade Anderson, Vern's grandson--2001 Thanksgiving--after dinner @ Stocking's."

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"Vern's daughter & grand daughter, Kathy & Sarah."

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"Kathy, Sara, Debby & Nancy (back of head) [Davis, Vern's sister]"--Kathy and Debby being Vern's daughters, Sara (with or without the h) his grand daughter.  And, hey, they're Gayle's, too.  I'm just going by Kay's labeling.

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"Nancy Davis, Debby Anderson, & Kathy ?"

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"Destiny Anderson--Bill & Debby's girl, Vern's grand daughter."

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The Clark Stocking Family, Past & Present

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The oldest child and only son of Vern Venever and Elizabeth Mae/Lizzie Luckert Stocking was Clark Owen Stocking, b. 5 April 1915-d. 4 February 1983.  Clark and Dorothy Lucille Jones (b. 22 July 1918-d. 14 March 1977) had nine children:  Patricia Ann, b. 20 September 1936, Crofton, NE; Vernon Duane, b. 4 November 1937, Bloomfield, NE; Sally Lea, b. 17 April 1939, Bloomfield, NE; Karen Sue, b. 21 September 1941, Bloomfield, NE; Roger Clark, b. 24 October 1946, Anthon, IA; Nancy Lou, b. 23 June 1950, Mapleton, IA; Gregory Allen, b. 22 December 1953, Mapleton, IA; Becky Jo, b. 5 August 1956, Sioux City, IA; Bryan David, b. 17 December 1959, Sioux City, IA.  That means the the photo below--and I depend on the family to correct any errors--has in the back row, L-R:  Vernon, Karen, Nancy, Sally, Patti, and Roger; front row, L-R: Becky, Dorothy holding Bryan, Clark, and Greg.

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 All the photos in this and the next entries were sent by Kay Vanness Sanger, who moved from Oxnard, California, to Windsor, Missouri, to nestle in among several of her second cousins (who have always been simply "cousins" to her and me). 

Next are childhood photos of Vernon and his Chicago wife, Gayle, followed by a photo of them in the Eighties at their handsome acreage west of Windsor.  (I enjoyed seeing it and other sights when I once visited Kay and the Stocking relatives.)

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Here are Roger Stocking and Nancy Stocking Davis in 2000.  I'm not sure whether they were intending an American Gothic parody (sitting version) or not.

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Now that the World Cup's over, listening to Jango.com, I can return to business (baseball in there too, including Travis Woods' nearly perfect game).  Ran across these assorted photos of family interest.  I put a baby photo of Bradley Scott McShannon in the entry with his and his parents' graves.  First here is Alton Lincoln Luckert, Uncle Rich's oldest, b. 12 February 1923, whose mother, Ella Clements, was the sister to Uncle Chet's first wife, Sarah/Sally.  This happens to be the way I best remember him, in his Army uniform in the Forties in our living room.

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Next is a Polaroid of his half brother, Richard Earl Luckert, Uncle Rich's fourth child, Aunt Gertrude/Billie Rel's mother, "Christmas '86, Oak Glen Camp."

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Here's a photo of Harold and Anne (Anna Etta) Stocking Alexander, Aunt Lizzie's oldest daughter.  From their clothes, I'd guess this is early Forties.

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And a photo of Aunt Lizzie's second daughter, third child,  Evelyn Elizabeth Stocking Davids, better known as "Bubbs," with her son, Owen Frederick, at Aunt Lizzie's farm.  Owen was born in 1945, so this is a year or so later.

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The photo on our front step in Center is from the late Fifties.  In the back row are cousin Judy Bruhn, Aunt Lizzie Luckert Stocking, and second cousin Barbara Kramer (Walter and Joyce Bruhn Kramer's daughter raised by Aunt Evelyn).  The front row has my sisters, Sue Ellyn and JaVee Ann, with Aunt Evelyn Luckert Bruhn.  Aunt Lizzie was nearby, farming between Center and Bloomfield.  Uncle Joe and Aunt Evelyn lived near Newman Grove with their girls, and Aunt Evelyn usually visited once or twice a summer.

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I didn't think I had many photos of Kay Vanness Sanger's older son, the one she was deprived of for many years, Ronald Montgomery (b. 1954, the same year as my sister, JaVee), but Kay obviously sent me these two.  The first is of Ron and his then wife Alice (now divorced).  The second is of Kay and her son:  "Ron looks very Vanness, huh?"

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I like this last one of her very much and what she wrote on the back, when she was still living in Oxnard, California.  "3 blks from my house.  I was saying, 'Hi, Uncle Jack.'  I remember when he & the uncles took me fishing.  I go every chance I get.  Cheap entertainment for me-- ha.  My diet seems to be working. I weighed 327 last year this time.  Still fat!!! Wow!"

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More Zoo Photos--Madagascar 2, so to Speak

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I wasn't done with Doorly and wanted to share a few more.  I am very happy with this photo of the flamingos in the huge aviary.

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Below, left, three ibises with their distinctive downward-curving bills (we also have the scarlet ibises), holy birds to ancient Egypt, and a stork out of childbirth myths.  At right two of our many rare ducks.

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At left below is a spectacular golden pheasant, at right an eye-to-eye crane in the Hubbard Gorilla Valley.



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Our biggest and shy primate cousins in Hubbard Gorilla Valley.  As with most wild animals, gorillas hate to be directly stared at, confrontational, which zoo visitors blithely don't know--or care.  (The earlier Madagascar lemurs are also primates of a different branch, though not the smallest.)

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I always like the highly intelligent bears and tigers.  Here's a good one of the fascinating polar bear with its black skin and transparent, prismatic, tubular hairs that only appear white from reflecting all wave lengths.  One of Nature's supreme camouflage jobs.  As I've probably said before, in the Asian/Chinese zodiac of animals, my sign is the tiger, as opposed to the Latin zodiac's ram.  So I especially like tigers.  In the zoo's future are complete changes to geographical habitats, and the tigers will be relocated in an outdoor setting (Asian highlands), like the gorillas, the cages gone.  The white tiger below doesn't have the polar bear's transparent hair but is albino.
 
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 In the Madagascar entry, I said the fossa was one of my favorite animals.  So is the secretive okapi, found only in the dense tropical forests of central Africa, primarily Zaire (the old Congo).  So Doorly has now parked it right outside the entrance to the Lied Jungle.  Its closest relative is the giraffe.

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Peyton Michael Rohrer

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Since I was 12 holding week-old cousin Linda Koftan in the preceding entry, here I am 60 years later, for those without Facebook, holding great nephew, Peyton Michael Rohrer, born 11 June 2010.  He's nephew Justin and Michelle Rohrer's fourth, duplicating Justin's own family, sister Sue's three boys and one girl.

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 Below, left, with his mother, Michelle; right, with his aunt, Chessie.


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Peyton is an excellent baby, sleeping through all the noise of his three siblings--except when he's hungry, his only fussy time, as Grandma Sue knows.

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Linda Jean Koftan in Babyhood

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These first two of me holding Linda on our couch in Center say that she is less than a week old (b. 5 June 1950).  

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The next three apparently Aunt Betty sent to us, from the remark on the back of one (and all three are a bit blurry).











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                             "Linda Jean Bath Time--Br-r-r-.  No clothes."

Here are two on our front porch in Center, "Fall 1950."

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And again on our couch, this time by herself.

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David Larry Koftan in His First Years

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Grandma Koftan wrote, "David Larry 1947" on the one above.  David was born 2 January 1946.  The next two look like they were taken about then in the yard of the Bloomfield farm.

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I left one of this trio complete with its white frame and Grandma Koftan's writing for the date.

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Early 1949 Blizzard on Koftan Bloomfield Farm

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Sorry there's been another time gap.  Still have photos I want to show and tell, but after two weekends up at Center I fell under athletic overload:  College World Series, World Cup, Wimbledon, major league baseball.  In that time I discovered some more caches of old photos from the end of the Forties, start of the Fifties.  I'll begin with these photos, companions to my earlier ones about the 1949 winter, but all involving a very young David Larry Koftan and his parents, Larry and Betty, on Grandma and Grandpa Koftan's farm just west of Bloomfield.  The dog is Salty.

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The last three are not on the farm place but on what was then the main road between Center and Bloomfield on what we called Fisk's Hill, a quarter or half mile west of the Koftan farm.  The farm is in the background of the photo with David in the middle of the road, with Gerhard Clausen's to the right up on the hill east.  The last photo looks west.




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