'ONCE IN A BLUE MOON....PART II"

Methinks I had better cover one of the aforementioned segments "We Do Restaurants, too!" lest "youthinks" (literary license applied here) we Cranston Women are "licentious," at least not more than necessary! Of course, I was hoping that Title would grab your attention, you would find it just a wee bit clever (coming from the mind and heart of one more a "prude" than a liberal-leaning female), and wanting to put aside the dishes and taking out the garbage and the cat/dog, settling into a comfortable mode and reading a bit more about the madcap adventures of Peggy, Mary and Moi...

If you've read this far, then "I gotcha!" Thanks for hanging around!

"Eating out" was a luxury not often entertained by Cranston family members and, in fact, was not even a thought or desire as we had the best cook in Atlantic on an everyday basis! In fact, and this is the honest-to-goodness truth, I thought that Jim Braman (our Prudential Insurance agent) was a relative of sorts in that he would come calling at our back door, politely enter and sit himself down at the kitchen table most every Monday noon for a lunch of Navy Bean Soup and Hot Rolls Out of the Oven, or Chicken and Dumplings, or Macaroni and Cheese. We kids would run home from school for our lunch, and there he would be. Had to be Monday! Sometimes he would collect the dimes that Mom had saved to pay the premium, sometimes not, those days being in between payment dates. This went on for years, long enough that when Mom told me he was the "insurance man" and not a nephew of hers, I was really disappointed, Jim being a great guy and all that. "Stunned" is another word I could use here, as funny as the situation seems to me today.  Anyway, this is just to indicate to you that Mom was a good cook, loved to see her family (sometimes 15 strong) gather around the large kitchen table and let the "fish stories, whoppers and exaggerations begin!" (As life sometimes happens...Mrs. James Braman later became my Home Economics Teacher during the Seventh and Eighth Grades and even praised my White Sauce to Mom...top that if you can!)

But, in looking back, that was WORK for Mom so when Mary and I were laying down Ground Rules for this trip, we wanted our women folk to be able to sit down with us from the moment we connected for breakfast, lunch or dinner. No cooking allowed!

Eating Out would be the order of the day for the two weeks and what fun and how delicious it turned out to be. Rules were broken just twice and under delightful circumstances. Molly and Alan invited the Trio and my brother Ben's widow (another Mary) to share Sloppy Joe's at their Marne home one evening (and you will definitely hear more about this) and Peggy's son, Mickey, and his wife and daughter, Pat and Cathy, prepared a delicious casserole with all the trimmings while we were in Des Moines. Cheryl and Stephen Stefani (my niece courtesy of my brother, Dutch) brought a salad of immense proportions to the table, and we went home stuffed, happy in the thought that we were able to carry on this time-honored Cranston tradition...gathering of loved ones around a table loaded with vittles that nourished the hearts and the souls of every invitee!

You've heard about our dining at The Machine Shed with the Nielsens and Jane Buck of Des Moines residencies. During that first week in Des Moines, we visited Perkins in Des Moines with Wayne and Norma Knight, nephew courtesy of sister Leona, and his wife; in fact, several times, the first being the Monday evening we arrived, with Kathy Crum (Mark's wife), Peggy, and Tommy showing up after the racing debut of "Jesse" at Prairie Meadows. Perkins became our unofficial meeting place as it was convenient to the Econo-Lodge, the prices were affordable and the food delicious.

A bit of wine-tasting added a elevated note to the foursome-party that Cheryl and Stephen hosted for Mary and me at the exclusive Wakonda Country Club. I, for the most part, watched the ladies sip a little, smack their lips a little, and pretend to be blase....they were adorable! Stephen and I studied the menu, patiently waiting for our wine tasters to decide what wine went well with their chosen Entrees, and encouraged our waitress to regale us with funny tales and one-liners, our own comedienne! Thanks, Cheryl and Stephen, I do believe I could get used to that lifestyle!

Okay...back to reality! Kathy introduced us to our first Mongolian Meal at a neat place called HoHuts. Unusual in that each diner selects the meat, vegetables, sauces she wants to include in her meal...one price covers all. Once the ingredients are selected from individual bars, the diner takes the tray to a central cooking location where the dishes are prepared at that moment. Fun to watch and great to devour. As our good fortune would have it that day, our waitress was the spitting image of Chelsea Clinton but I would say, in all kindness, prettier. You will see her in pictures to be posted later, I promise. It would be a challenge to lunch and sup with everyone in Des Moines but we were definitely up for it!  Kathy and Mark's daughter, Gina, (a 9 to 5 working gal) scheduled work hours to join us at The Red Lobster as it was through her I discovered the Coconut Shrimp taste bud so long dormant and, later at the El Rodeo where the "south of the border" taste came through just fine and dandy...ole! Definitely competition for likewise fare served at Casa del Rey in Temple City and a favorite haunt of the family for over 40 years.

We lost little time in hitting Applebee's with Keith and his sister, Rosalyn Cranston, progeny of my brother, Kenny, and his wife, Betty, the Saturday before we headed for Atlantic. Around that table gathered Mom and Dad's grandchildren, Keith and Rosalyn, great-grandchildren. Krista Stewart Hill, and Kim Stewart Von Ahsen and her husband, Barry, and Krista's son, Matthew (g-g-gr) and his wife, Libby, with their brand new baby daughter, Zoe Jane, the sixth generation (beginning with Mayme and George for purposes of telling this story.) What a blessing! Thanks, Keith, for hosting this "affair of the heart!" And...it was great seeing the "nests" where "you lay your heads down to sleep at night!" Lovely, both...

Not missing a "burp or a belch," during our week in the Capitol City of Ioway, we gathered up calories at The Red Lobster with servings of Coconut Shrimp and a Virgin Strawberry Margharita, the easy-atmosphered El Rodeo for Mexican, Prairie Meadow for Biscuits and Gravy and other all-you-can-eat delicacies, and the Iowa State Fair for a Barbecued Pork Sandwich and Funnel Cake, downing the latter in the rain and on the run for the car! (Who's salivating now?) Along the way, we were given tours of the several areas including the Salisbury House, the Capitol, the heart of downtown, a huge lawn full of modern artwork, past Drake University...all the good stuff the Chamber of Commerce wants visitors to see, and we did! Thanks to our tour guides...Kathy and Mark, Cheryl and Stephen, Tommy and the indefatigable Peggy....just great! Even saw where the Cubbies play! And, remnants of the flooded areas of the previous weeks. Memories flooded back, too, as these old eyes saw, for perhaps the last time, remnants of places and things once seen through the eyes of a country gal so very long ago.

I love the whole concept of the motels across America serving continental breakfasts for their hungry travelers. Hot coffee or tea, Belgium Waffles, juices of every kind, fresh rolls, fruit, cereals and friendly faces from every part of the world seated at the next table....the ambiance made paying off the Credit Card the next month worth while! And we haven't even begun to list all...that small village down the road apiece - Atlantic - holds culinary treasures not there when I was a kid during those days when "Eating Out" was for those with "fat wallets" or for those whose Moms' expertise was "golfing/bowling with the girls!" (That is not a "snide" remark, dear reader, I,too, am guilty as charged ca 2010!)

Just before the rains came down on the Iowa State Fair and before we grabbed our Funnel Cakes and scrammed the fairgrounds, Mark, Peggy, Mary and I walked to where we had made plans to meet up with my niece, Liz Cranston, and her boyfriend, Nick Kern, of whom you will hear more later. Plans were tentative and we did not meet the kids at the Bill Riley Talent Show, but I did meet Bill Riley, Jr., the talented son of a dear Atlantic friend, Helen Anne Hanson Riley, and her radio personality husband, Bill Riley, an original. Both are deceased but, with Bill, Jr. at the helm, the Talent Show goes on each year at the Fair and kids from all over Iowa travel to the Fair to be part of the Talent Show...great talent has come out of there! Every Mom and Dad will tell you that!

As we strolled to the stage area, a handsome young man walked across our path a few feet ahead and Peggy pointed him out as "Bill Riley!" Part of me wanted to hasten up to him and introduce myself as a long ago friend of his Mom's...the more sensible part of me said...don't! Whenever have I heeded that advice? Well, always, really, and missed out on a lot of "adventures"...but not this time. He, by then, had disappeared into his RV "home" and, yes, I did, I asked one of his crew as they exited the RV if Bill would be available to speak with me for just a moment, I was a friend of his Mom's. Bill, bless his heart, stepped out of the RV, listened to my unrehearsed words of what a sweet, gentle and warm young woman his mother was when I knew her, as a secretary at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, in Atlantic, and prior to her marriage to his Dad, an up-and-coming announcer for radio station WHO, yes, where "Dutch" Reagan used to work! This was only my third Iowa State Fair to attend in all my years and how "coincidental" is it that one of the bigger items on my personal Bucket List has now been realized, quite by accident and, yet, "planned" in every sense of the word. My Guardian Angel has a tendency to add "zest" to my rather ordinary and mundane life style, but I am fast learning to take whatever she sends my way and simply say..."Thank you!" What a Dame!

Lunch break...back at 1 o'clock!

So began our sentimental journey to Atlantic, Iowa!

Look at any map of Iowa, find Cass County and there you will find my hometown, the one with the "star" in front of its name...the county seat! Not the first choice by the founding fathers but certainly the best. That Whitney guy had his hands in every pot, called the shots as the county and small town grew with the help of some of his friends...I'll name just one: Thomas Meredith, Dad's cousin via the Marsh family, and father of E.T. Meredith, Des Moines magazine publisher and Secretary of Agriculture during World War I. That "E" stands for "Edwin," the middle name of my brother Perle, for Perle's kids who probably haven't a clue why he was named that at birth. Kenneth Owen, another brother, was named for the second Meredith brother, Owen, and that is the history behind his name. That will be news to Kenny's progeny, too! (Legend has it that I was named for the doll that was kinda popular at the time, the "Betty Lou" doll; that I have known a long time but too modest to share until now.)  Modesty is out the window where this Blog is concerned...

Anyway....heading home via Highway 71 on Sunday, August 22, at approximately 1:30 p.m. got us to the Super Eight a bit early...like a day! Someone had forgotten to make the changes that Peggy had called in two months before, but not a problem. While the housekeepers scurried around freshening up two rooms for us, we headed for Kentucky Fried Chicken on west Seventh Street for a quick bite to tide us over until the dinner hour, the mashed potatoes and gravy squelched my hunger pains, momentarily, but a more crispy chicken breast, now that they need to work on! Back to the Motel, settled in and unpacked a bit, and now time to look around for a more substantial meal. Running down the list of possibilities the Motel made available to us, we chose the Chinese Buffet close to the Hy-Vee...truly satisfying. A good selection, nicely seasoned and we ate our money's worth. We would be back.

Later, as I lay down my head on the Motel's recently-fluffed pillows and began mulling over "stuff," I, in my reverie, came to realize and appreciate more fully why it was "ordained" that I leave Atlantic for California as a young bride in 1948, as much as it "played the devil" with my heart and mind to leave Mom, my family, my friends and my great job as (The Boss) Carl N. Kennedy's secretary at Metro Life. Why? In the beginning, it was to support my young husband who was searching for more than what a small town could afford him in the way of employment, a "whither thou goest" sort of thing. In that lovely motel room in the town I love so much, it became crystal clear: I had been "pushed out of the nest" I certainly would not have left on my own to "complete or live-out" MY life in all the challenging days/years ahead, to put into play the life lessons and common-sense wisdom the oh-so-wise people of my beloved village had given me so freely as a kid growing up, assuredly secured/blessed in their belief that Del and I would "have a great future" in that far-west land more "than a little over the rainbow" and just as assuredly, secured/blessed in the on-going invitation to visit for "there is no place like home and that the coffee pot is always perking!" (And, someday, do a bit of Blogging about life in sunny Southern California, where Leonardo DeCaprio may show up any given Thursday at Action Lanes to watch his "surrogate grandfather" hit the lanes alongside my team...)

To be given yet another opportunity in the few days ahead to revisit childhood friends, the clan of nieces and nephews (as 82-year-old Wayne, with that devilish-sly grin of his, said so succinctly over brunch "You do know you are the oldest member of the family now!") that was ready and willing to spend a week with Peggy, Mary and me...be our chauffeurs as we drove around Cass County, being such an important part of the things you will soon read about....it was almost "too good to be true." The only loved one missing was "Sadie" ... my "Toto".

May I suggest a white wine for your next course? Hope you return in time for dessert!

"Friendship, friendship...what a perfect blendship..."

My friends have popped up in my life, sometimes in the most unlikely of circumstances, others have been "there" since early childhood and who are so now established in my life, and those of my three kids, that no visit home is complete until we have made connection once more. I doubt that many females could or would count the cute little gal who married a "beau" a very best friend all those years since high school. I do! Janice Clithero Williams, devoted wife of 60 years of Robert Harry (Bob) Williams is that one for me. Jan, who today suffers from Macular Degeneration, was our Official Sight-See-er as Peggy navigated the streets of Atlantic searching for the homes of the founding fathers and homes of some of our classmates. Right on the button every time! I love Jan in the very same way I care for Bob who today is living in the Atlantic Rehabilitation Center on 29th Street as a result of a stroke and aphasia. A little apprehensive, we were not sure if he would know us. This was one of those good days that Bob sometimes has, he recognized Peggy and me immediately and got reacquainted with Mary whom he last saw as a young girl. He and Jan were together, that very day, on their 60th Wedding Anniversary, shared a kiss as suggested and photographed by Mary. I have never been happier for two more wonderful human beings! I like to think I had a hand in their happiness; and if not that, my heart...

Now, Bill Auerbach is something else! A character we make certain we have breakfast with at Hy-Vee each and every trip. Bill and I began Kindergarten together at Grant School; and as Bill explained it all to Peggy and Mary, he ended up two years behind me and even volunteered the reason why....(Now, I had heard this story many times before from my Mom and Bill's Mom when younger but, for the most part, pooh-hooed it) it seems that Bill missed a couple of lessons in Reading and Writing and Arithmetic because he "stared at the back of Betty's curly blonde locks way too much" in class, and, for his own edification, the wise teachers deigned it best to have Billy re-do Kindergarten! (I know, unbelievable, huh? but was this my first attempt at "if you have it, flaunt it even it you don't have a clue as to what you are flaunting?") Teacher Pearl Dahlberg smiled about that incident for many years to come, I hear, but, nevertheless, thought it best that this was the proper action to take. (I know I was responsible for one year, but who was the beauty that caught Bill's eye the second year he was detained?) I will take full responsibility if you say so, Bill! And, yes, Bill is married to his lovely Martha who may or may not know of his shady past!

As Mary was taking pictures of Bill and me "snuggling on the booth at Hy-Vee in front of ten or twenty onlookers" I realized that, once again, what a "perfect blendship" Bill and I have shared all these years. How very lucky can one girl be...Bill and Bob and when I hear "were there others besotted with my curly blonde locks?," I will certainly let you know.

During those formative years when I hastened out the back door of 210 Birch to join a roomful of classmates at Grant and Jackson Schools, I had not a clue there was a really handsome young lad by the name of Delbert "Sonny" Derry living near the outskirts of Atlantic in the "wannabe town of Grove City, Iowa." (And, as my good fortune would have it..."the really handsome father of Dennis Dwight, Mary Elizabeth and Dana Jo" in their hometown of Arcadia, California.) As he often proudly told our kids, it was through more than one snowstorm, rain or hailstorm, that he rode his faithful pony one country mile to attend his one-room country school to join his classmates, among them one Clifford Berry who remained "Sonny's" best friend until the day he passed, even though separated in 1996 by nearly 2,000 miles. Cliff and his so-lovely wife, Leah Mae, became my fast friends just prior to our marriage in 1946; it was with them that we spent our last evening in Atlantic prior to our moving to California in 1948. And gave into their safekeeping all of our vinyl records as a memento of our love and affection. If there had been more room in the trunk of our 1938 Chevy Coupe, they would have been transported along with a few treasured wedding gifts; I like to think that as Cliff and Leah Mae listened to the 1940's music of that young Italian heartthrob Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and the Big Band sounds of Kay Kyser, Glenn Miller (an Iowa boy), Henry Busse, Lawrence Welk, Les Brown...so many more... they remembered the precious moments we shared as young newlyweds.

Johnie Ruhr, I do believe the most joyful man I have ever met outside of my own immediate family, was also a lifelong friend of Del's and became my friend when he began to date, and married, one of my dearest friends ever, Nelda, a co-worker at Metropolitan Life. Sharing meals, riding around the small town and countryside in summertime and winter, and all the stuff (the movies, Maid-Rites, the county fairs, the auctions, shoveling snow) that goes into the making of good times in a small town, cemented our friendship with nary a "crack" in its foundation at ANY time.

Serious health problems prevented The Trio from spending as much time as we wanted with Cliff and Leah Mae but we did meet for lunch at the Farmers' Kitchen and again later to say our goodbyes before heading back to Des Moines. At a soul-satisfying dinner for ten at Pizza Ranch with Nelda and daughter, Lori (with our looking forward to meeting up later with Nelda and Johnie at the Class Reunion), Nelda mentioned that Johnie was at the Auction in an off-hand manner and Mary immediately pounced on that word: Auction! Off that party of eight went (we lost Nelda and Lori at that point because this was old stuff to them) and in walking through the crowd to find a seat, guess who stood directly in front of me...of course, Johnie! ... smiling broadly for he saw us coming toward him, waiting with outstretched arms into which I happily went, letting the crowd wonder about "that woman" in that 92-year-old man's arms! It turned out to be a lovely evening...Mary won the bid on those Norman Rockwell plates I was telling you about earlier, with help from Niece Sherry who knows a thing or two about Auctions, too. And I basked in the knowledge that "old friendships" just get sweeter and more precious as the years roll by and that God has, indeed, blessed "Sonny," me and our three kids in the most abundant of ways with Cliff and Leah Mae and Johnie and Nelda as "forever" friends...

The Saga Continues....
I know of very few people of my "ilk and age" who have come to consider the mighty computer a worthwhile piece of equipment, whether it be to play Solitaire, buy stuff on EBay or exchange personal picadillos with complete strangers on a somewhat daily basis. The telephone, the typewriter, the talk over the fence filled the needs of My Suspicious Generation quite well until I was "forced" to learn the intricasies of the computer for my position at my place of employment when I was all of 68 years of age. Unsure of just how correct this contraption might be, I kept two sets of bookkeeping books, just in case. I was "sold" on its merits when at the end of the year, the computer's "magic" and my "hardwork" tallied.  (Please...I know what you are thinking!)

Upon retirement and with my own personal computer set up in our Den, it was a new discovery everyday; and with the help of my own young computer genius, Jeff Gladu, to guide me in how to download, cut and paste and then, Blog, I was ready to enter the Facebook phase of my life. My family's history (the Cranston side and the Derry side) has been neatly categorized and documented for the benefit of generations to come...my real work is done, for the moment. 

Enter Facebook: I thought what a neat way to communicate with family and friends though I had been warned by others of my "ilk and age" that certain dangers lurked and to be careful, meaning that the Lonnie McAlister that I had traveled all the way in 1948 to California to possibly meet, heaven forbid, might not be the same Lonnie McAlister of possible Facebook membership. I would take my chances and ask for references. (Lonnie McAlister is the young actor who starred in that World War II epic "Stage Door Canteen." and has yet to "Friend" me at this point in time.)

Those I did find, besides the nieces, nephews, cousins, etc., were men and women of much later generations but all of whom had Iowa and/or Atlantic connections. Pure bliss! Talking and comparing notes about Atlantic, the people who played such an important in all of our lives growing up....whether it be in the 1930's or the 1980's...it doesn't get much better than that when television viewing is "sex, gore and mayhem" and it is much too early to turn back the covers for a pre-winter-night's sleep.

This trip, in which I am in the middle of telling you about, was an occasion to meet up with three or four Facebook Friends, one of whom was Jennie Schwartz of Atlantic. In the rush of last minute detailing, I neglected to get a telephone number to finalize our tentative breakfast meeting at Hy-Vee while we were in Atlantic. And, in the rush of going hither and yon, we ate unscheduled times at the Hy-Vee...so there was no foreseeable way Jennie and I would have our face-to-face meeting. Enter the Guardian Angels contingent, bent on seeing that no one goes home disappointed or hungry...

On the last Saturday of our Atlantic phase, we had packages to ship home (Norman Rockwell plates, Dorothy Lynch dressing, rocks..) so wandered over to the Post Office in Hy-Vee. Timing is everything. We chatted with the Post Office clerks, sent our packages on their way, looked over the fresh supply of donuts and breakfast rolls, and soon exited as we were to pick up Jan for lunch at the Downtowner at noon sharp. Talking on the cell phone to Jan, bootscooting along to keep up with Mary and Peggy I looked up and around to see that I was not going to bring down a shelf of foodstuffs along the way, and saw this cute and spritely-looking redhead coming towards me. This stranger got my complete attention when she called out "Are you Betty?" My heart and head went into overdrive..."Are you Jennie?" "Yes, I thought that might be you because of your hair style!" Lawdy, lawdy, lawdy...first it's my short stature and rounded figure and now it's my hair style. What ever happened to that birthmark on my chin that is usually my distinguishing feature? I know...Cover Girl Cover Up. Ending my call to Jan, plans were made right then and there for Jennie to join us at the Downtowner for lunch, chicken salad for me, and more pictures for Facebook Albums. This persistent young lady told us later that she had gone to Hy-Vee's every day scouting the place for the likes of me, and I love knowing that! Jennie is typical of the men and women I now call friends with whom I chat on a regular basis ... for my kids' and neighbors' benefit, I will continue to measure my thoughts and "curb" my words with my new friends as time and my new "compulsive disorder" permit. Facebook conversations are addictive...witty, satirical, impudent, crass, brash, maddening, challenging, mind-changing, opinionated, parochial, provocative, provincial and, for the most part, smack of superior intelligence. May I add I have learned a few new curse words, too? Or, am I merely "re-learning" shocking words from the assorted schoolgrounds of so long ago....? Add "educational" to the above list! *+#X@$@%^&*!

More to follow! Charles Smith of Newcastle, Wyoming, and a classmate, in an e-mail, wonders where did all those calories go that we collected in Des Moines...cute, Chas! The Waistland, Chas!