Mother's Day with Perry's family

 Bruce, Elizabeth, and David

 Glenn, Caleb, Ashton, Charity, Carter, Heidi, Julia, and Anderson

 Kyla, Preston, Laura, Andrew, and Ellie

Sarah and Matthew

We enjoyed a delicious supper of ham balls, etc. at the Schieler home.  There were 21 of us since the Emch family couldn't make it.  I felt very blessed!  ---Carol

Gloria's New Home

Gloria has arrived in Texas and is slowly getting settled into Paradise Springs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is definitely a beautiful place and she is very happy with it. Her new address is:

 



Gloria Volk

5600 Cypresswood Dr., Apt. # 337

Spring, TX  77379

 

So happy for Gloria and the years she has ahead to enjoy such a nice place!





Mom's Birthday

Friday morning Mom woke up planning on Mary and Joey arriving later that evening for her birthday. What she didn't know was that Dad had been conspiring with people in four states to make it a very special weekend.

Mike picked me up about noon on Friday. I walked in and surprised her telling her that since I rarely get a card to anyone on time I thought I'd deliver hers in person.

About 5 p.m. just before we were leaving to go out to eat, two couples from AL -- Billy and Shelby Dutton and Jake and Connie Dutton -- were in the kitchen when Mom walked out of her bedroom. They sang Happy Birthday to surprise her.

Everyone including Ann and Mike met at The Galley on Lake Hartwell for dinner.

Joey and Mary came in after dinner.

Mark drove over for lunch on Saturday. Dad had planned (with the help of his daughters!) a bar-b-q lunch with brisket and pulled pork as well as fried chicken.

We had a great time after lunch reminiscing about our families growing up together in Alabama.

Mom was truly surprised, and the weekend was wonderful. The biggest disappointment was that we thought Jeffrey was coming with Mark, but the poor kid got sick Friday night and couldn't make the trip.

Dinner at the Galley.

 

 A picture by the lake

 

 Blowing out the candles

 

 A family picture

 

 Pretty much what life is like anywhere today:  -- everyone on their electronic devices!

OPEN HOUSE for Gloria

      Several came to Gloria's Open House this evening (Thursday) in honor of her move to Texas to  
      be near Jamie and her family.
                                                           We wish her all the best!

 

 

 

They're Doing It!

For several years now my Mom has had a dream of walking the Appalachian Trail. She's read about it, researched it, dreamed it, and now they're finally doing it! They went out this past week-end for a conference and a trial run.

Many of you may already have the link to her trail journal, but just in case you didn't I thought I would share it on here. It's an entertaining read and the pictures are really neat too.

http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=18401

Keith and Ken

By Scott Hilyard
Of the Journal Star
March 05. 2015 6:11PM

Morton twin brothers celebrate 100 years together

PHOTO/ MATT DAYHOFF/JOURNAL STAR

Keith, left, and Ken Stevig pose at the Apostolic Christian Restmor nursing home in Morton. The twin brothers are turning 100 years old. The pair were born in Pulaski, Iowa, but moved to central Illinois to work for Caterpillar Inc.

MORTON — Twin brothers Ken and Keith Stevig sat with their backs to the warming fire in the greeting room of the Apostolic Christian Restmor home this week. Shoulder-to-shoulder — Keith seated in a chair, Ken in a wheelchair — they spun abridged stories summoned from the memories of their long lives.
The family farmstead in Iowa. Buggy rides to church. World War II combat. Hitchhiking to a new life in central Illinois. Steady, successful, unspectacular careers at Caterpillar Inc. Family.
On Friday, March 6, 2015, Ken and Keith Stevig turn 100 years old.
100.
Who gets to spend 100 years with a person they love?
“I was thinking about that one day and I was wondering — I look back on time and I came up with one word: short,” Keith said. “People would think 100 years is a long time. Short, it really was. It just all came together real quick. It was short. It just seemed like from an early age and through my extended life, life was short. Even at 100.”


In 1915, Woodrow Wilson was in the first of his two terms as president of the United States. “The Birth of a Nation,” the first 12-reel film in America, opened in Los Angeles. Babe Ruth, a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, hit his first major league home run. The Ford Motor Co., under the leadership of Henry Ford, manufactured its 1 millionth Model T automobile. Jacob and Mary Ann Stevig gave the names Keith and Kenneth to their newborn fraternal twins.
The boys grew up on the farm outside Pulaski, Iowa, a tiny farm town in the southeast corner of the state. Their memories of the time involve farm chores, walking a mile to attend their 23-student grade school, chasing rabbits and Sunday morning buggy rides to church.
“It was just second nature to go to church, you didn’t ask questions about it, we just had to go all the time,” Keith said. “We lived on a farm eight miles from our church. Dad had a buggy, a two-seated buggy, and we’d get in that buggy and go to church. On the way to church we would see some friends and they’d be sitting out on the porch and they’d wave and I was embarrassed because we didn’t have a car. We had to ride in a two-seated buggy to church and there wasn’t any question about it. On Sunday we would go to church.”
Keith went to high school and college. Ken went to war.
“I was in the service. I was drafted, trained for almost a year, sent overseas to Germany and was in a combat unit,” Ken said. “ Of course the war was (winding down). We had the Germans on the run. When I walked out of the service permanently I promised myself that I would forget everything that happened, and that’s the worst thing I ever did. I’d like to remember. I was so glad to be free so I just forgot all of this.”
Ken does remember that he took a sniper’s bullet at close range, an injury that earned him the Purple Heart. The medal rests in a glass display case on the wall outside his room at Restmor. A sign reads: “Kenneth Stevig was awarded Purple Heart for bravery in Germany in World War II.” Visitors walk past the medal of bravery every time they enter his room.
“The bullet must have been pretty close range because the first thing I felt was heat. That bullet was HOT,” Ken recalled. “I was very fortunate that I had first aid there. I was the first one in the room right out in the field, a field hospital right out in the field. They got me on that table, put the old needle to me and they had me out in a minute or two.”
He was sent to England to recuperate, then: “Right back to the front line, right back where I came from,” he said.
After the war, Ken moved to Morton to live with relatives and take a job at Caterpillar. Keith soon followed. He hitchhiked to central Illinois carrying all his belongings in a single small suitcase.
Lives eventually settled into comfortable routines and stretched toward unseen horizons, and are stretching still. Keith and Alice Stevig have been married for 56 years, and are the parents of Larry Stevig, who lives in Morton, works at State Farm in Bloomington and has a family, including grandchildren of his own. His parents recently moved from the family home to an independent living town home across the parking lot from Restmor.
Ken never married. He moved into Restmor about six years ago.
“Until about six months ago, Keith would visit Ken every day,” Alice said. “They’d talk and he’d help (Ken) with meals. They were close their whole lives.”
The twins are in good health. Ken has more mobility issues than does Keith, but despite some hearing loss, both men are conversational, clear-eyed and quick to smile.
“There have been a few medical issues,” Larry said. “But for the most part, they’re pretty good.”
The two brothers agreed that over the course of 100 years there had been few instances of discord in their relationship.
“We didn’t fuss, we got along real good,” Keith said. “There were probably some (fights).”
He turned his head toward his brother.
“I don’t know, did we wrestle?” he asked.
“What?” Ken asked, loudly.
“Did we wrestle? I guess we did, didn’t we?” he said.
“Wrestle?”
“Yeah, wrestle.”
“If we did,” Ken said, then paused. “Very little.”
Scott Hilyard can be reached at 686-3244 and shilyard@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @scotthilyard.
 

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150305/NEWS/150309542

Trip to Texas

Feb 12 - 17, Dave and I took a quick, but lovely trip to Texas to visit cousin Rhoda. We had a whopping big Texas time!

Our first adventure was taking the train from Normal to Dallas...a 19 hour trip with a couple hour delay thrown in for good measure. Our leg room was exceptional, with seats that went back and foot rests that came up. It was a good idea, but for some reason you could not get comfortable in these "recliners." I was amazed at how quiet the train ride was...so quiet during the night that I was afraid to even chew on the pretzels I had packed for fear I might wake somebody up!

I had been to the JFK museum before, but I wanted Dave to see it, so we spent a morning in downtown Dallas. The weather was beautiful that day, in the upper 70's.

Here Dave is having a Texan chat with some real cowboys down at the Ft. Worth Stockade. He had heard us talking about the stockade for a couple of days. When we got there and entered the first little shop, the first shop of about 3 blocks of shops, he looked at me like, "Oh no, this is SHOPPING!" 

But it wasn't long until he got intrigued with the architectural details and the anbiance of the place. Again, the weather was perfect, and we had a great time. These cowboys made sure to invite us to the "shoot-out" they were staging after the longhorn cattle drive. We hustled into position to watch Dave's new "friends" put on their show. It was the one joke of the entire trip. If you are ever at the stockade, don't bother with the Legends of Texas street show shoot out. It was a real snoozer.

The last day we took a tour of the AT&T Stadium. I'm not into football, but even I appreciated the beauty of that classy building, done up in real style. They were getting ready for a Motorcross dirt event, so we couldn't go onto the field, but the tour was interesting and well worth the time and money.

The train ride home was another long night in the chairs, with long delays due to the ice storms in the Midwest. But we used the extra time to rest up from the good time we were treated to by Rhoda and friend, Renae. Besides the events pictured above, we had some fabulous eating out and eating in, some good soaking in their hot spa tub, a visit to their church, and a tour of Rhoda's workplace.

If you ever get a chance...a trip to Dallas is a good idea!

ANOTHER TEST

It's a gorgeous day outside today. Well, the sun was shining brightly an hour ago, but it is hiding behind the clouds now. The beautiful white snow is everywhere. Sorry those of you from the south can't have some of it. Not a lot of news from here, but I will try to give you a little of what's been going on in our lives. Way back in December, we went to Jacksonville and spent Christmas week at the Jerry and Angela's house. Drake and Jason and their families were there for the Holiday also. We had a wonderful time; it had been a few years since we were all together. Heather Celis couldn't give up work time from Hardees, and we all missed her. From Jacksonville we went to our winter place in Indian Rocks Beach. Dave and Judy came to visit us for almost a week, and Kelsie drove over from Jacksonville and spent the weekend with us old fogies. We had some really fun times while all five of us were together - walking on the beach, laying in the sun, playing skippo, and eating out, and putting puzzles together. I think Kelsie saw us from a different perspective than she's used to. She kept asking us about things we did when we were young (like we're not "young" now??). Hope we didn't give her too much information!?!? We actually left our condo a couple days early. Jerry had a bad cough and I developed one also on the drive home. So we came home and collapsed for several days, but we're both going strong again. Now to see if this shows up on your computers!!

Ryan George Dillon Sayre

Thursday afternoon, Retta and I became Grandparents! Ryan George Dillon Sayre was delivered via unplanned C-Section at 9 lbs 14 ozs and 19.5" long. Both Mother and Baby are doing fine. They were released to go home today. We are very excited to have Ryan with us!

New Born Ryan

Ryan George Dillon Sayre

Grampa & Ryan

Adrian, George & Ryan

Aunt Amber & Ryan

Uncle Christian & Ryan

Home Sweet Home

Indian Rocks Beach

We had a quick trip to Florida to visit Jerry and Ada at their usual location at Indian Rocks Beach.

 

We had some relaxation sitting on the deck by the beach. You can see Jerry near the water feeding the birds some Cheerios. The temp was a little cool that day, as you can tell by the empty beach. Sitting on the deck, out of the wind, was delightful though.

 

 

Kelsie drove over from Jacksonville for the weekend and we really enjoyed spending time with her. She graciously allowed us to have the bedroom and she slept on the couch without one complaint. We spent the evening playing Uno and eating jelly beans. Kelsie was a good sport and got a lot of laughs and stories to tell about us older folks!

 

It was a short trip, but we had a very good time!

Some Oldies

Been working on a project and found a few oldies that may not have been put on here.

This first one is at my wedding.

Nice picture of a couple of our elder statesmen!

I thought this was nice.  Wonder why the brothers are shaking hands?!

A few pictures for the Blog.....

Here's a photo of Gov. John Connally with mom as Connally was running for President.  Not sure what year the pic was taken.  Apparently 1984, running against Ronald Reagan in the Primary.  The flip side is an inscription of the event in Dad's handwriting. 

 

From Google: 
On November 22, 1963, Connally was sitting in the jump seat of Kennedy's open-topped limo as the president visited Dallas. When shots were fired, Connally was hit by a bullet that passed through Kennedy. The governor was wounded on his back, chest, wrist and thigh, and drifted in and out of consciousness for days. He finally became alert as he watched television coverage of Kennedy's funeral.
For a time, Connally was convinced that Kennedy's alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, had intended to kill him instead. The reason, he said, was that Oswald had once petitioned Connally, when he was Secretary of the Navy, to upgrade his discharge from the Marines. Connally had never responded to the request.
The last two decades of Connally's life were a bit of a roller coaster. In 1974, he was indicted for accepting a $10,000 bribe (he was acquitted of the charges). A few years later, he spent a considerable amount of money in an attempt to secure the Republican presidential nomination, but lost to Ronald Reagan. Connally was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1988 after falling $93 million into debt as a result of poor real estate and oil investments.

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And here is a picture that I'm almost positive I put on the Blog several years ago but am re-posting in honor of Uncle Lynn's 85th birthday.  Congrats Uncle Lynn!  It seems to me that Grandma's kitchen was about the busiest room of the house in those days.  Everybody hung out there!
But I've never been able to figure out the identity or meaning of those weird floor tile markings.

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It's a Party for Dad!

On January 24 we will be celebrating Dad's 85th birthday with lunch in Birmingham and then singing at their church in north AL. While we know the distance is great for most family, we want you to know you are invited and we would love for anyone to come.

If you are interested, you can email or facebook message Mary, Ann or me for more details.

ISU Ties

Watching the game today made me wonder how many in the EJK family have attended or graduated from ISU?

I know Jerry, Ada and Angela and are alums. Ann attended for a year.

Who else has ISU ties?

Success in SC

Mary Lee has been hunting hard all year, getting her dad to take her any possible opportunity since the season opened in October.  No luck at all - until tonight, the last day of the season.  She killed TWO bucks - a six-pointer, and this large eight-pointer with a huge spread (22 1/2") between the main beams.   I think Mike is happier for her than he would be if he had gotten them himself.  And she is very happy herself!

Somebody Told His Mom a Lie!!

Somebody told his mom that he couldn't get home until January (and originally, he wasn't going to be able to).  But look what Santa Claus brought!!  Andrew has known that this was going to work out for a month or more.  He had his sister in on the surprise, as well as several of his good friends.  So yesterday I was washing my hair in the kitchen sink, of all things, when his good friend comes by to say hello, which he usually does at Christmas, and that he has a Christmas present for us in the garage.  So we walked outside, and there stood Andrew!  What a Christmas surprise!!

Merry Christmas

I haven't checked the blog in several weeks and I'm bummed that I missed the giveaways! I have been trying to get this video loaded for the past few days but our internet has been very slow. I finally got it accomplished and thought it would be an appropriate time to share it. This is a monologue that Grandpa did at our Christmas celebration in 1992. It's always been a favorite memory of mine. The picture and sound are definitely not the best, so please overlook that and enjoy the content.

Merry Christmas!

DAP (Day at Perry's) 2014 Klop Christmas gathering

In keeping with tradition, a lovely afternoon was spent at 212 W. Sixth at the homeplace with host P & C on this Saturday, the 20th.   Bountiful portions of delicious turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, salads, corn, candy etc. etc. were served, once again, with grace and precision by host Carol.  Much good discussion, singing, and fellowship continued long into the afternoon.......

                              Aunt Alice brought the Heavenly Hash, once again.

                      The kids had lots of fun in the basement following the meal.

     A nice picture of the "boys" eating in the living room was too blurry to put on the Blog  ): 
    

              Several songs were enjoyed with Charity and Ashton on piano and guitar....

   Forgive the slightly out-of-order of the photos.  We missed those K's who were unable to be with us on this day, but we were thinking of you all.  Many thanks to Uncle Perry's.
             ...Merry Christmas to you all !!!     Cleve K. reporting....

Klopfenstein Porch 1956

Perry had this picture and thought it would be fun to post. ---Carol

Linda

David's wife Linda passed away this morning at their home in Petersburg. Her obituary will be in the Pantagraph in a couple of days. She was strong and courageous in her fight against her cancer, but David said they are relieved for her that her battle is over.