A Modern Castle

There is a magnificent mansion that has recently gone up for sale in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The man who built the mansion about 19 years ago is Dick Freeland, who owned 48 Pizza Huts in Indiana and Ohio, as well as four KFC restaurants.

Dick Freeland set a standard of excellence in his restaurants that I've never seen matched in any Pizza Hut outside of this area. He was a very rich man, and a very generous man, whose philanthropic activities were accomplished without fanfare. 

Mr. Freeland died about two and a half years ago, and the mansion he built has been put on the market. Locally referred to as "The Castle," the mansion has been the source of much curiosity. It's location is very secluded, not visible from outside the property.

With its being listed for sale, however, we have the opportunity to see the magnificence through a virtual tour, posted by the realtor who has listed the property.

Here is the property description on the realtor's website:

"A rare opportunity to own a work of art, this is one of great mansion of the world with over 38,000 GBA SF of museum quality construction. In addition to the main home there is a 8,000 sq. ft. home, a 6,720 sq. ft. stables with guest suite, a 7 acre private lake, 16 fireplaces, 16 bedrooms and 26 baths is for all the buildings on the property. Built by craftsmen equivalent to those employed by the Astors or Vanderbilts, this stone mansion has all the elegance and grandeur of a bygone era. The estate has 10 buildings, elevator to all 3 floors, deluxe stables plus an addition 25 acre world class equestrian property can be purchased for an additional $2,500,000All information is approx. and must be verified"

It's priced at 30 million dollars.

Who Remembers...?

Who remembers Robert F. Kennedy, whose brother, John F. Kennedy, was the 35th President of the United States?

Frequently referred to simply as RFK or Bobby, Robert Kennedy served as Attorney General of the United States in his brother's administration. He was campaigning for President himself, when he was assassinated on June 6, 1968. 

That Presidential campaign brought him to Indiana during the spring of 1968, as he campaigned here prior to the Indiana primary election.These photos were taken during a campaign stop in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

His manner was invariably self-deprecatory. And when he spoke, it was always tentatively, modestly and with deadpan jokes that turned on himself. In Fort Wayne, in the homestretch of the campaign, he asked a sidewalk rally whether the city was going to vote for him. Otherwise, he said he and Ethel and their ten children would have to go on welfare. "It'll be less expensive just to send us to the White House," he went on. "We'll arrange it so that all ten kids won't be there at once, and we won't need to expand the place. I'll send some of them away to school, and I'll make one of them Attorney General."
(Source: http://www.newsweek.com/how-bobby-kennedy-won-68-indiana-primary-207076)

RFK Quotes:

• There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?
• One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time.
• Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.

The photos in this post were taken 47 years ago, in 1968. I don't know where the original prints have gotten to, but I came across the negatives last week and scanned them into the computer. They clearly show their age, with the dust and scratches; but they are still rather special.

Old Sam, War Horse

Doug's brother, Dennis, lives in Coldwater, Michigan, and is a bit of a history buff...especially military history. He has often talked about one of the local heroes in Coldwater, a draft horse named Old Sam, a hero of the Civil War.

Old Sam was one of 200 horses who served in the American Civil War with the Loomis Battery from Coldwater. He was the only one of those 200 horses to come home to Coldwater in 1865, after the war ended.

Old Sam was already 12 years old when he was called into wartime service. A statement on Old Sam's memorial plaque in Loomis Park states that the horse was wounded several times and half-starved most of the time; yet he endured four years of battle fatigue, hunger, and pain, when the average survival rate for war horses was only three to five months.

The Loomis Battery took part in at least twelve major Civil War battles, including Perryville, Stone River, Hoover's Gap, and Chickamauga.

After living out his post-war life in leisure, Old Sam died on November 8, 1876. His old war comrades wanted to bury him in Coldwater's Oak Grove Cemetery, where other members of the Loomis Battery had been buried, but were told that burial of animals was not permitted there.

Determined that the old war horse should be buried with his comrades, those men of the Loomis Battery created a diversion at night and sneaked the body of Old Sam into the cemetery, where they buried him with full military honors, then covered the burial site with autumn leaves to hide it from discovery.

For years, Old Sam's presence in the Oak Grove Cemetery was denied or ignored. But now a tombstone marks the spot.

Surrounded by the graves of other members of the Loomis Battery

A memorial plaque in Loomis Park tells Old Sam's story.

Old Sam's caisson (a chest to hold ammunition), on display in Loomis Park

The back of the caisson, where you can see a trailer hitch

Old Sam's cannon, which would have been pulled behind the caisson

And finally...

Some beautiful flowers, to end this post on a lighter note

A Blast from the Past

Back in 1967, some 12 years before I became a Christian and 20 years before I was married, my best friend and I went to Phoenix on a little vacation. Being young and single, the vacation included participation in the nightclub scene.

One night spot in particular, Magoo's, had been highly recommended to us as having great live entertainment. I believe we went there more than once during our stay. And whoever it was who had steered us there was absolutely right about the great entertainment. Country group Ray Corbin and the Raymen put on an outstanding show.

Ray Corbin and the Raymen at Magoo's in Phoenix

The band granted me their autographs, on request.

Another highly popular club in the Phoenix area was JD's.

You can see on the sign that Ray Corbin was performing at JD's, as were the Everly Brothers.

On the night that we went to JD's, John Davidson and several of his friends were seated at a table near us. Ah, and if you don't remember John Davidson, I've seriously dated myself.

Around that time, I became a huge fan of country singer, Waylon Jennings. Ray Corbin and Waylon were friends and contemporaries. This was before Waylon grew to his ultimate fame in country music's "outlaw movement." Although Waylon performed regularly at JD's, I don't remember seeing him there. Ironically, it was back in my home state that I saw him in concert. It must have been 1968 or so when Waylon Jennings and the Waylors appeared in concert at Buck Lake Ranch in Angola, Indiana.

Waylon Jennings and the Waylors at Buck Lake Ranch, Angola, Indiana

Waylon Jennings and the Waylors at Buck Lake Ranch, Angola, Indiana

I still remain a fan of much of Waylon's music, although I confess that most of what I enjoy is from his earlier career...songs like "Love of the Common People," "The Chokin' Kind," and "Young Widow Brown." Much of the music created during his days in the outlaw movement is outside my comfort zone; but, no matter what he's singing, I never fail to marvel at that amazing voice of his.

Jeff...the Rest of the Story

In recent posts, I've introduced you to Jeff; shared some of his humor; told of the adoption of baby daughter, Darci, by Jeff and Cheri, then of Cheri's death from cancer and of Jeff's subsequently meeting and marrying Beckie. Some of you have noticed and remarked about my use of past tense in talking about Jeff. Now it's time to tell you the rest of the story.

A year and a half after Jeff and Beckie married, four months after Darci's eleventh birthday, and seventeen days before their second Christmas together, Jeff died in an auto accident.

His death obviously hit Beckie and Darci very hard. The radio station, where he served as Operations Manager and on-air personality, reeled. Thousands in the community, who regularly listened to and loved Jeff and his infectious laugh, were stunned and shared in the grief of his family and co-workers.

Sixteen years have passed since then. Beckie is happily remarried. Darci is all grown up, married, and the mother of two. Life goes on.

The Bible says, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

We don't always know, in this life, all the ways that God works things out for good in a given situation; but we can often see some of those ways. Jeff's death was no exception.

A few weeks before Jeff and Beckie married, Jeff was motivated to get his affairs in order when a close friend, a man of Jeff's own age and in apparently excellent health, collapsed and died suddenly while jogging with friends.

God had also been at work in choosing a new mom for Darci and giving them time to bond in their mother-daughter relationship before He called Jeff home. And the new mom that He chose was one whose own father had died in an auto accident when she was a little girl.

God also gave Darci a teacher that year, at the Christian school she attended, who had lost her father when she was young and who was able to minister to Darci through her own experience.

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

God asks us to trust Him, even when we can't understand what He's doing, knowing that He loves us enough to have sent His Son to pay sin's penalty for us. That's faith.

Jeff had that absolute faith in his Savior. Those of us who share that faith have the assurance that we will meet again one day. Meanwhile, it's fun to imagine Jeff entertaining the heavenly hosts by doing impressions of the apostles.

Jeff's personal motto was, "my life from HIM...my laughter for HIM."

I'll leave you with another audio clip of Jeff and Char, as poor Char was trying to give a recipe for Mock Chow Mein.

Jeff and Beckie...and Edna

One of the many characters that Jeff created was Edna. Edna made weekly appearances on the morning radio show in a Friday segment known as "Ask Edna." She also made promotional appearances for the radio station. For these occasions, Jeff would dress up in full Edna garb. I don't have any photographs of Edna, but following is a photo of an Edna coffee mug, featuring an Edna caricature by Bill Frauhiger:

Edna was a rather large woman because Jeff was...well...a rather large man. (In a conversation with a radio co-host, Jeff once said that he wasn't going to tell Beckie that he had a weight problem until after they were married.)

A couple of months after their wedding, Jeff, dressed as Edna, was involved in a promotional photo shoot for the radio station. Afterward, still wearing his full Edna outfit and using his Edna voice, he thought it would be fun to pay Beckie a visit at her place of work, the hair salon where they had met.

Beckie was at the back of the salon, shampooing the hair of an elderly client, when she heard the commotion as Edna entered the shop, calling out "Where is Beckie? Where's that Beckie that married Jeff C.?" When he had worked his way back to the sink where she was working, she found herself in the awkward position of introducing her client to her husband, who was dressed as a woman unlike any other.

Well, being the competitive person she is, Beckie determined to get even with her practical joker of a husband. So she conspired with Jeff's boss, Char, to call in during an on-air call-in program; but Beckie would pretend that she didn't realize she was on the air.

Following is the audio clip of Beckie's revenge:

Jeff...Flowbees Are Good for More Than Haircuts

Jeff was a lover of every new gadget that came out on the market. Home shopping networks and as-seen-on-TV ads proved irresistible to him. So it came as no surprise to anyone who knew him when he purchased a Flowbee Vacuum Haircut System.

If you're not familiar with that product, here is a video clip that I found on YouTube of the Flowbee in action:

Jeff reasoned that he could save money on grooming for Raggs and even on haircuts for himself. Thankfully, I don't think he ever used it on Darci.

After using the Flowbee on his own hair for awhile, Jeff was finally convinced by his co-workers at the radio station that he really should get a professional cut.

There was a small shopping plaza near Jeff's home; and, one day he noticed a hair salon just down from the grocery store he patronized. So he walked in and told the receptionist that he'd like to get a haircut.

As it happened, my niece, Beckie, was a stylist at that particular salon and was the first one with an opening in her schedule for Jeff. Well, he apparently liked that haircut because he came back for more and even began having Beckie cut nine-year-old Darci’s hair. It wasn’t long before it became apparent that Jeff liked more than his haircuts.

Soon Jeff's radio audience was listening to stories of the new love in his life. And the joy that bubbled up from within him was again flowing freely.

Jeff and Beckie were married several months later.

That was one Flowbee that delivered more than a haircut.

Jeff...The Research Team and Louise

I mentioned in the last post that Jeff used a number of different voices in the course of his radio career. He did recognizable impressions of real people, as well as voices and characters created from his imagination; and his imagination knew no bounds. Following is an audio clip of the radio station's "Research Team" wishing a Merry Christmas to all the listeners. (The Research Team was totally a figment of Jeff's imagination, and the voices are all his.)

And there's one more clip I'd like to share today. This was another example of a recipe gone wrong on the noontime cooking show. I hope you enjoy it.

Jeff

Jeff was an on-air personality at a Christian radio station in our area. And he exemplified the word “personality.”

His was the morning show which aired weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and included a variety of Christian music interspersed with weather updates (in which beautiful days were always declared to be “screamers”), reminders of the correct time (usually accompanied by a reminder to “simonize your watches”), school closings, bantering with Jim in the newsroom, a myriad of voices that seemed to come as naturally to Jeff as his own, and lots of highly infectious laughter.

Jeff was also the station’s sound engineer, so he served in that capacity for the talk show which was hosted by the station manager, Char, and aired during the next hour. That show often involved interviews with Christian authors or speakers or other folks of interest to the listeners; but, just as often, it was a time for the on-air personalities to chat and share stories of their families and maybe take some calls from listeners.

When Jeff participated in those chats, no one ever knew where his nimble mind might take the conversation, least of all Char. It was never clear what would set him off and send him into the telling of a hilarious story, often using one of the many character voices he had developed. He loved it when he could get Char laughing so hard that she couldn’t even breathe, let alone talk. And that happened often. 

In addition to the morning show and the mid-morning talk show, Jeff also participated with Char in a noontime cooking show, in which Char would give a recipe which would then be repeated by Jeff as he wrote it down, giving listeners time to do the same. During the giving of those recipes, Jeff's mind would often take off down a rabbit trail, with the result that listeners were encouraged to write in for a copy of the recipe that Char was unable to get through that day.

Over the course of his many years at the radio station, Jeff shared his life with the listening audience. Most listeners felt as if he was a personal friend, even if they’d never met him. They rejoiced with him and his wife, Cheri, when they announced the adoption of their baby daughter, Darci.  They laughed with him as he told about getting a puppy for Darci, a wire-haired fox terrier named Raggs. They looked forward to stories about Darci and Raggs growing up together, stories of Darci dressing Raggs up in little girl clothes and referring to the dog as her sister.

And they grieved with Jeff when he told of his wife’s cancer, the terrible progression of the disease, and her ultimate passing from this life. The joy that bubbled up from within Jeff was tempered with sorrow.

In the aftermath of Cheri’s death, there were poignant but funny stories from Jeff about how he and Darci and Raggs were learning to cope without her.

One such story occurred during the noontime cooking show, triggered by Char's mention of ground beef to be used in the recipe she was giving that day. Following is an audio clip of Jeff derailing yet another recipe.

A Legend on the Trail

Most people who regularly visit the Smokies have heard of Margaret Stevenson. To those who hike the trails of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, that name is spoken with some awe. When we first heard of her, she was described to us as a woman who, in her seventies, hiked up to Mount LeConte several times a week.

Now, we had hiked to Mount LeConte on our first trip to the Smokies. We thought it was going to kill us. And we were in our forties!

Margaret Stevenson may not have been widely known outside of the area of the Smoky Mountains, but she was a bit of a legend among those who enjoy hiking the trails of the national park.

She is reported to be the the first woman to hike all 900 miles of trails in the national park, which she completed in 1976. It is also said that she logged 3,000 miles a year during her 40 years of hiking in the Smokies...more miles than she put on her car.

Margaret hiked to Mount LeConte a total of 718 times. Most often, she hiked to LeConte using the Alum Cave Bluff trail which, although the shortest route, is also the steepest, gaining about 2500 feet of elevation in the five and a half miles to the summit. Most of her trips to Mount LeConte were day hikes, making an 11-mile round trip for her on a single day. Sometimes, though, she did stay overnight at LeConte Lodge, hiking back down the next day.

Doug and I were privileged to meet Margaret Stevenson on the Alum Cave Bluff trail on September 5, 1994. As we were panting and struggling on our way up to Mount LeConte, Margaret, having hiked up that morning, was already on her way back down.

Other hikers that we had met on the trail had told us that Margaret was on her way down, so Doug had the video camera ready when she came into view. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the video but hope that you can see a little of the amazing individual that was Margaret Stevenson.

Her first words to us were to identify her walking partner as her "Indian guide." We didn't catch that on this video clip, but I wanted to mention it because she refers to it again later in the clip.

As she began to walk away, she pooh-poohed her accomplishment of (then) 644 trips to Mount LeConte, implying that it was no big deal since she had started when she was a young woman of 48. I was 49 at the time and not feeling so young.

Margaret's 718th and last trip to Mount LeConte was on May 21, 1997, when she was just shy of her 85th birthday. Deciding that the downhill portion of the Alum Cave Bluff trail had become too risky for her, she opted to limit her future hikes to more level ground, continuing to walk six to eight miles a day.

Margaret Stevenson died in 2006, at the age of 94. She is missed, not only by her friends and family, but by all who ever met her on the trails of the Smoky Mountains.

Thanks to Hilary at The Smitten Image for including this post as a Post of the Week.



John and the Peanut Butter

My former boss, John, the one mentioned in the previous post, was an unwilling transfer to our fair state. Having been given the choice between unemployment or relocation, he had moved here from Minneapolis and lived for the day when he could return to that city. He was always quick to express his dislike of our city and his longing for his former place of residence, which didn't really enhance our relationship, since it was my hometown he was criticizing. He would even complain that our winters were colder than those he had known in Minneapolis.

Looking back, though, I kind of wish I'd made the effort to get to know him better. He had a dry wit, an example of which is reflected in Friday's post. And then there was this story that he told me once, after a business trip to another company location.

John's daughter, son-in-law, and two-year-old granddaughter lived near enough to the company location that John was visiting that he could stay overnight with them. He had to be downtown early that next morning, so he had gotten up and fixed himself a cup of coffee and some toast with peanut butter on it.

His little granddaughter, still in the diaper she had worn overnight, had apparently heard her grandpa out in the kitchen and had come out to see him. He held her and played with her a little bit before tucking her back into her bed and leaving for his meeting.

As he was getting into his car, he noticed a little peanut butter on the back of his hand. He didn't want to take the time to go back in and wash it off, so he licked it off. That's when he realized that it wasn't peanut butter.

To this day, it amazes me that John told that story on himself.

He eventually was able to retire and move back to his beloved Minneapolis. I'll bet he's never licked a foreign substance off his hand again.

Boss Quip

I'm not proud of the fact that I used to be chronically tardy at work. I always put in my full eight hours; I just had trouble arriving on time. One day, when I managed to show up right on time, my boss looked at me, then at the clock, then back at me, and said: "What's the matter? Couldn't you sleep?"

RM, A Quirky Co-worker

I've worked with a number of interesting people during the course of my working life, including some that were downright quirky. RM was one of the more quirky individuals from those days.

My workspace was a cubicle, one wall of which consisted of file cabinets. The other walls were movable panels, approximately five feet in height, with an open space for an entrance.

RM was in management, and I was an accounting clerk. I don't even remember how this got started; but, when RM would come to my cubicle, whether with a question about his expense report or just to chat, he would stop at the cubicle entrance and knock on an imaginary door.

One time, after I had granted him admission, he was sitting in the chair next to my desk, with his leg stretched out at an awkward angle. I asked him why he was sitting like that, and he replied that he was holding the door closed so that we could talk privately.

On another occasion, he knocked on the imaginary door; and I mouthed the words, "We're closed."

In reply, he mouthed the words, "Then you should turn the sign around."

Thanks to Hilary at The Smitten Image for including this post as a Post of the Week.