[Magdalen] Little Michael visited by The Past.

[Lynn Ronkainen]

Connections like this are wonderful aren't they?

L

website: www.ichthysdesigns.com

When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I have not a 
single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything You gave me." 
attributed to Erma Bombeck
 "Either Freedom for all or stop talking about Freedom at all" from a talk 
by Richard Rohr

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From: "Jay Weigel" <jay.weigel at gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2015 4:19 PM
To: <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Little Michael visited by The Past.

> Blasts from the past are frequently great. I recently located and 
> contacted
> my college roommate. I kind of didn't expect to hear back from her, as at
> the time we were roomies I was pretty difficult and not terribly likeable,
> being very unhappy at the small college we were attending. But I got a 
> nice
> letter back from her. She did indeed become a music teacher, but her music
> took her many places in addition (she had a wonderful pure soprano voice)
> and she has sung in St. Peter's in Rome and St. Mark's in Venice. Her life
> has taken fewer twists and turns than mine, but she seems happy with it.
> She reminded me of a time when she was at my house in Madison and 
> mentioned
> to my mom that she was rolling out  piecrust with a beer bottle and mom
> gave her a rolling pin, her extra one; she still has and uses it. That
> quite delighted me as I had completely forgotten about it.
>
> On Sun, Sep 6, 2015 at 4:52 PM, M J [Mike] Logsdon <mjl at ix.netcom.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I was piddling about the laundry room today when I saw a woman walking
>> around carrying and studying a clipboard.  I didn't even bother to 
>> remember
>> that a local school board election is upon us in November, so all I could
>> think was Religious Freak.  But she was wearing ordinary weekend clothes,
>> not the Mormon-JW-Holy-Roller attire.  As I pass her and walk toward my
>> apartment, I was about to turn around and say "Yes?", when she beat me to
>> it and asked if I was related to Kenny Logsdon the retired fireman.  I 
>> said
>> "And who's asking?"  "Janet Barnes."  She didn't need to say more.  "Yes,
>> Janet, I'm Little Michael.  You once gave a nine-year-old me a huge box 
>> of
>> used stamps for my stamp collection."  The conversation blossomed from
>> there.  She's running for elementary school board re-election (a
>> contentious race; she survived a near-recall a couple years ago), but the
>> joy was about how she is the daughter of the man who is the reason I live
>> in Salinas.  In 1950, David Hamilton (her dad), Salinas painting
>> contractor, hired my pop out of El Centro to come work for him, and work
>> for him he did till 1969 when Dave died of lung cancer at 52 years of 
>> age.
>> So devoted was Pop, that he did for Dave what he did just a few years 
>> later
>> for his own brother, that being coming home from work each day, taking a
>> bath, getting dressed in his Sunday best (which was always in optimal
>> condition because he never went to church), and heading down to the
>> hospital to sit by Dave's bedside till visiting hours were over.  Though
>> only four years old, I still remember clearly one night Pop opening my
>> bedroom door and saying "Dave died."  Though not family, Dave Hamilton 
>> was
>> my first taste of death.
>>
>> Anyway, me and Janet had a grand ol' time sort of reminiscing (I was a
>> toddler and she was a high schooler, after all), but she got a kick out 
>> of
>> how I remembered visiting their home as a little kid and remembering the
>> high school girl in her bedroom listening to her 45s (some of which I 
>> still
>> own, believe it or don't), and especially remembering how her mother 
>> would
>> throughout the ages periodically visit our home unannounced with her
>> cats-eye glasses and holding her purse on her lap the whole time.  (The 
>> Old
>> Lady only checked out a few years ago at 97.)
>>
>> Two children of modestly well-known Salinas families meeting up outside 
>> an
>> apartment complex laundry room.  And yes, I always vote for her.
>>