Ivan Completes Week 2 Blog Entries

Five photographs that I did not take but wish I did.

1. My mother in Karate class when I was 17 years old. She was a brown belt, 1 step below a black belt in Shudo-Kan. I was in the class with her and it was a lot of fun.

2. The Pizza shop that I worked in during my first round of college in Columbus, Ohio. This place holds a lot of memories for me. Like dough ball fights and going out on deliveries with a two person escort armed with 2 foot long pizza cutting knives.

3. My grandmother riding around in her golf cart with her dog sitting in the seat beside her. This is just so typical grammy. She has a dog that is half Chow and half Border Collie. It is big and fuzzy like a Chow but has the happy personality of a Border Collie. It would hop up in the passenger seat and ride around with her just like it was a person, looking around and enjoying the ride.

4. My father and mother and the neighbors all in front of my house target shooting. This happened once, my mother, father, uncle and I were in the front yard shooting at a gravel pile we had made along the edge of the Chena river. The noise attracted the neighbors who came through the woods next door with half a dozen rifles and various weapons to join in. We had a real good visit and a good time. This was before so many people became afraid of guns and other inanimate objects.

5. My mother digging up old dumps out in the woods. Ever since I was a baby my mom has been going out in the woods “bottle digging” with her buddies, I learned to walk on an old dump. She would have her backpack, a packed lunch, her digging tools (probe, rake and saws) and her 44 pistol on her hip. Oh yes, there would also be a good supply of insect repellent. Those were always defining times for me when I was growing up. I have some pictures but none of good quality, or of her later years. She never gave up until forced too by her health. Her last big dig was an area discovered after somebody found an old old dump while digging a foundation for a house. One of the people working in the construction crew told my sister who told my mother and her bottle digging buddy and they all ended up in a hole for a week. They actually ended up digging unstable tunnels and taking unnecessary chances with caveins. They found several rare bottles and determined the dump had to be from a saloon. I wish I could have gotten some pictures of that. There was a lot more to be found but the crew working on the house had to bury every thing. My mother dreamed about that site up until she died, my sister still dreams of it.