Family Archives

September 29, 2013

Matt’s Birthday Century

Son Matt called Friday to ask if I wanted to do a Birthday Century with him on Saturday.

A “century” is a 100-mile bike ride in a day’s time. I’ve done half a dozen of them, but not in recent history, so I had the good sense to pass. He said his direction was going to be based on which way the wind was blowing. If it was coming from the east, he’d head to Ft. Myers, on Florida’s west coast. If from the south, his destination would be Daytona Beach to the north. As it turned out, Saturday’s winds were light and from the east-northeast, so he headed to Miami. To make the ride more interesting, he was going to do the 100 miles, then have someone pick him up. That way he wouldn’t see the same road twice.

When I did a status check with Sarah, she said she had come down with a cold and would take me up on my offer to pick him up.

He ended up on Key Biscayne, off Miami Beach, with 102.05 miles under his saddle. When I started to take his picture, he said, “Make sure the cyclometer is sharp. It’s OK if I’m fuzzy.”

Wow, that’s gray in his beard

I hadn’t noticed that his beard had picked up some gray recently. Let’s do the math: 2013 – 1975 = 38. That’s getting up there. I guess it’s about time for the gray.

On the way back, I asked him to shoot the Miami skyline when we went over the MacArthur Causeway. He remembers it well, because that’s the bridge he had to ride over four times when he, Son Adam and Wife Lila did the family triathlon in 2010. (Some of the pictures are pretty, so it’s worth following the link.)

Matt said this was the first century he’s done where he felt like he still had another 20 or so miles left in his legs. I offered to let him show me, but he opted to hop in the car.

Frank Stark ride

Frank Stark was an airline pilot who was forced to retire after quadruple bypass surgery and two heart attacks. He took up cycling as rehab and worked up to the point that he would “ride his age” every year on his birthday. One of his friends said he had a nurse riding with him in the early stages of his recovery.

Before long, the Boca Raton Bike Club started looking forward to the birthday rides. When Frank died of heart failure on a bike ride just a month short of his 71st birthday, the members established the Frank Stark Celebration Ride. I shot this one in 2009. Unfortunately, Frank’s birthday was in July, not the best month to be doing distance riding in Florida.

September 13, 2013

What Are You Doing Saturday?

I hardly ever answer the phone at home because the call is never for me. If Wife Lila IS away, when I DO answer it, it’s usually “Jennifer” who wants to talk to me about my credit card, “but there’s no problem with it.” If it’s not Jennifer, its a voice that wants to warn me that the FBI reports there is a break-in every X minutes. THAT’S why I don’t answer the phone.

So, Wife Lila picks up the phone Friday afternoon, then says, “It’s for you.”

Son Adam is on the horn: “What are you doing Saturday morning.”

I have to perform brain surgery

Flummoxed, I couldn’t come up with something like, “I have to perform brain surgery first thing in the morning” or “It’s my weekend to go door-to-door distributing rutabagas.”

“It doesn’t matter, you’re retired. You’re not doing anything. How would you like to go on a canoe ride”

John Prine has a line in his song, Far From Me, , “Well, a question ain’t really a question, if you know the answer too.” It’s right up there with “How would you like to take out the garbage?”

My job: steer around stumps and gators

I guess I’m going on a canoe ride down the Loxahatchee River Saturday morning. Grandson Graham will be in the middle; Adam will be in the bow. The only good thing is that I am going to be in the stern, ostensibly steering with my Boy Scout-learned J-Stroke. That means I can dope off so long as we don’t run into any stumps or alligators.

The picture above was probably the last time I was in a canoe on that river. Son Matt, in the bow, looks like he’s about 10ish. That would put Adam a little older than Graham.

If you don’t see a post Sunday morning, you’ll know the reason why. Send the search team out to look for an alligator with a bulge in his belly and a big smile.

September 6, 2013

Roland G. Busch, Korean POW

I was looking at a copy of my first grade scrapbook when the entry for September 22, 1953, caused me to scratch my head. The last sentence said, “Mother and [I] went to the parade for Roland Bushe POW. They took so long in getting ready that I went to sleep in the car.”

It took a little while to track the story down because the Korean prisoner of war was actually Lt. Roland G. Busch.

You can read the whole Missourian story here (some of the microfilm didn’t copy cleanly). In part, it said, “An estimated 3,000 persons gave Roland G. Busch, Jr., a hero’s welcome Tuesday night as the young Navy flyer returned home after 16 months in a Communist prisoner of war camp in Korea. Busch, three times decorated, presumed dead, and newly promoted to lieutenant junior grade, told a crowd in Courthouse Park he just wanted to see some State College Indian football games.

The photo caption said that Lt. Busch was greeted by Mayor Manning P. Greer and the flyer’s family: his mother; Mrs. R.G. Busch, his sisters, Mrs. Gene Olson and Miss Della Lee Busch; his brother, Elwin, and his father, R.G. Busch.The family stopped in Columbia to visit the veteran’s youngest sister, Miss Jacqueline Busch, a student at University of Missouri.

Pilot dies in crash

A February 18, 1961, Missourian article added details about the flyer’s Korean saga, but also carried the sad news that he had been killed in a plane crash off the coast of California. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. R.G. Busch, 309 South Spanish, were told that his plane collided with the water and neither it nor his body were recovered.

Subject of wartime mystery

“During the Korean Wat, Lt. Busch was the object of one of wartime’s mysteries that was not cleared up until he was finally released from a P.O.W. camp.

“His parents, on May 28, 1952, were notified by the Navy he had lost his life the previous day when his plane crashed into a Korean mountainside. Yet they talked with him only a few days before in a Tokyo hospital and he said he would not be going back into combat because of burns suffered when an anti-aircraft incendiary burst in his plane’s cockpit. It subsequently developed that Lt. Busch had been dismissed from the Tokyo Hospital and returned to his carrier, The Valley Forge, but not on combat flight duty. The ship was to have returned to the States in just a few days on rotation and he was to have come back.

“But in the meantime, his shipboard roommate, now Lt. Cmdr. H..E. Sterrett, Jr., who married one of Lt. Busch’s sisters, was shot down. Lt. Busch asked for flight assignment to join search parties. It was while he was on this mission that his plane was shot down.

“He remained a prisoner of war for 17 months.”

Here’s my “sailer hat”

Since it was mentioned above, I guess I should include a photo of me sporting my “sailer hat.”

Side note: Mother has been out in Austin visiting her Granddaughter Kim’s family. She called me from the airport in Austin. “I was sitting here waiting for my flight to be called when a man walked up and asked if I was Mrs. Steinhoff. When I said I was, he said he recognized my photo from the blog.”

She didn’t get his name. They should quit hanging photos of the Most Wanted on post office walls. I think we can do better publishing them here.

September 2, 2013

Grandmother’s Report Card

This morning’s Facebook page for the Advance Hornet Alumni carried a bunch of photos of the 2013 Alumni Banquet. Mother is down in Austin floating around in Niece Kim’s pool, so she didn’t attend.

I was looking through some old Advance scans when I ran across my Grandmother Elsie Adkins (Welch)’s 4th grade report card. Looks like she showed steady improvement every month in everything but spelling. Maybe the words got longer as the year went on.

How do you like that 100% rating in deportment? She was a feisty thing, so I’m surprised she got those perfect scores. Who would have thought the teacher’s photo would be on the report card?

My great-grandfather’s signature changed

Pupils were rated monthly and parents had to sign the card. My great-grandfather’s signature was consistent the first five months, but changed in months six through eight. If her grades had dropped, I might accuse my grandmother of forging his signature.

Elsie Adkins was born September 24, 1892. If kids started school when they were around 6, then this report card would be close to 111 years old. Could that be right? (1892 + 6 + 4 = 1902. 2013 – 1902 = 111. Yep, it all calculates out.)

Elsie Adkins Welch was an extraordinary woman for her time. It’s worth a read.