Random

Goodbye 2020!!!

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It goes without saying that this has been one of the most challenging years of our lives. Last year, as I was sitting here in Las Vegas, I was thinking of the promise of a very active year. In 2019, I met some wonderful people and was looking forward to spending more time with them this year. I was also installed as chaplain for Bakersfield Chapter #125 in 2019. I was installed as Senior Deacon in 2019 and was looking forward to my year before becoming Junior Warden this year.

                Work was as unpredictable as ever as I continued to work as a substitute teacher in several school districts in Bakersfield. In March, I had just accepted a long-term assignment in an 8th grade class and had only worked two days before the schools closed for the rest of the 2019-2020 school year due to the CoVid-19 pandemic. When the 2020-2021 school year began, I was receiving calls to work but I did not feel comfortable going to the school sites. In October, I returned to work as an English Language Proficiency Test proctor for Kindergarten students. In November, I was able to attend training for distance learning and became a school site substitute.

The time off gave me time to reflect on my future in education. As much as I love the students, I feel like it was time for me to transition to another career that would allow me to make a difference in society. In November, I began a Master’s in Business Administration with a Public Administration concentration.

I miss my masonic family as all Masonic events were cancelled due to the pandemic. I have been able to stay in touch with many members of Meudell-Oildale Lodge, Bakersfield Chapter, Fremont and Golden Crown Courts. Speaking of Fremont Court, I was elected Associate Patron. I have attended many Golden Crown Zoom gatherings and enjoyed being connected even thought we cannot meet in person.

Zoom also allowed me to stay connected with my friends when one was diagnosed with COVID and when others thought they might have been exposed. Safety came first, but we were still able to laugh and play games online.

I still maintained contact with my mom and was able to call and visit her often this year.

2021 is going to be an amazing year and as Kelly Clarkson says if you don’t like something, just change it. I have many professional and personal goals that I WILL accomplish in 2021.

Love and prayers to those who have lost friends and loved ones this year. Keep shining in the dark. Your actions will help someone, and you may not realize it!

Love, Amaranth Love, Star Love, and Brotherly Love,

Dennis

Random

Some thoughts

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It has been an emotional few days. Saturday, June 11th would have been my dad’s 67th birthday. I miss him every day. Yesterday was a massacre at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida. Even though I am across the country and did not know any of the victims, it has hit me very hard. I am scared, sad, angry and just emotional. There are so many issues that this brings up: LGBT, gun control, politics, and religion. I consider myself to be an educated person and some would say naive, but tragedies like this bring out the best and worst in people, especially in this election year.

One thing that has me horribly upset is people wanting to get rid of a religious group (Muslims). They don’t want their children learning about Islam. They post pictures on Facebook of wanting to play Cowboys and Muslims. Yes, the radicalization of religion is wrong and scary, but wanting to deport someone based on religion is wrong (how quickly we forget the Holocaust, but that is a topic for another blog).

We are all angry and have our own ways of dealing with them. As it has been said an attack against Americans in one place is an attack against all Americans. As a gay man, this is definitely an attack against me and my friends who live here in California.

 

Family, Memories

Brothers

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Tomorrow, April 8, 2016, my brother, Michael Edward Anderson turns 35. I have not seen him since he was around 3 or 4. I have pictures of him at that age, but I often wonder what he looks like now.

My dad married Michael’s mother in Huntington Park, California, around 1980, although I cannot find a record of it in the California Marriage records. I was at the wedding. It was held at Michael’s maternal grandmother’s house. I had to wear a light blue tuxedo shirt or something like that. I know I hated it.

I went to first grade in Cudahy, California, Mrs. Lillywhite’s class. Fast forward to April 7, 1981: Michael’s mother goes into labor, and my dad takes me to my grandparent’s house in Lynwood, and rushes back to be by Michael’s mother’s side. I remember when Michael was a baby and the diaper changes. I will spare the details, let’s just say, I remember things very vividly.

Michael’s mother and my dad later separated. I always say that my dad was an upstanding man and took responsibility for Michael. Michael’s mother had custody of him. My dad paid child support even after we moved to Exeter. His mother sent it back, and we never heard from them again.

Before we moved, Michael and his mother came for a visit. They along with my grandmother picked me up from school. I do not remember the day, but it must have been in the spring. I do not remember the conversation between my grandmother and Michael’s mother, but I do remember Michael running in the bathtub.

Every year on April 8th I think about my brother. I wonder where he is. More importantly, I want him to know that our father loved him and wanted to take care of him. I also want him to know that our father is gone. Our father was an amazing man.

Happy Birthday, Michael, wherever you are! I love you, my brother!

Memories, Random

Loss and moving forward

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On March 25, 2016, my family lost a great friend, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt: Shirley Carpenter Kyle. Shirley was a very special person, and her passing has hit me very hard. It just shows that life is not forever.

Her laugh. I loved her laugh: Husky and full of life. I know that she loved my grandmother Pearl. She knew how to give back Mama’s orneryness. I also know that she loved my dad, in fact, she married him for a brief period of time. It became the joke in the family. Sharla, her oldest daughter, still considers me to be her brother. At almost 42, I think I can accept that and look at it as an honor.

Shirley was there when my family moved to Exeter in 1985. She helped with the first business we opened: Doughnutty Donut House on E Street. She was always there, not only during funerals, but just to check in on us.

Random thought: I have the newspaper clipping of when she built her house in Farmersville on Cottonwood. I will have to get that to her daughters, Sharla and Harlene.

Shirley was one of a kind and I miss her. I know that she is having a reunion in heaven with her dad and the men in her life.

Family

Vacation and Genealogy

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I love vacations! I have so many things planned, namely relaxation. Relaxation is at the bottom of the list, this vacation. I am captain of my Relay for Life Team, Too Inspired to Be Tired. I am the ceremonies/activities/entertainment chair for the Relay committee. On top of that my day job is a Second grade teacher. Whew! I am tired just typing all of that.

One of my favorite things to do when I have free time and my thoughts are not centered around lesson plans and students is to research my family tree.

Last night I logged on to Ancestry.com and started using their “Hints” feature and found some information on a branch of the family tree I have been researching for a while.

My Great-great grandfather, Gustaf Eliason (1846-1928), had 13 full and half-siblings. Several of his half-siblings settled in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Well last night, I found two of his half siblings, Elias Oscar Eliason and Ulrika Eliason Johnson. I was also able to find Elias Oscar’s wife and children through his naturalization papers. I also found the obituary and death certificates for him, and his son Carl.

I am excited to see what I find next!

Family

On This Date

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On this date in 1940, my grandmother, Nettie Pearl Stites, married her first husband, Roy Lee Fogle.

Some families hide their secrets or would rather not think about the past. Mama and Roy were married for about 7 years. They never had any children and divorced in 1947.

My grandmother related this story, which I need to find the manuscript of the story in her own words: Roy was abusive. I am not sure if it was continual or a one time thing, but Mama was hit on the side of the head. She later developed blackouts, which was later diagnosed as Petite Mal Epilepsy. She had surgery in November of 1963. She told the story that she awoke to the news of President Kennedy’s assassination.

Mama was a very outspoken woman. I miss her bluntness. She never hid anything about her marriage to Roy. In fact, she has many pictures of her with him, his brother J. C., and my grandfather Hiram.

I treasure every story and picture I see, and every memory. They explain a lot of who my grandparents were and what led them to be the people they were when I came into the world.

Roy died of cancer in 1975. He had remarried and had a son, I believe, with his wife, Frankie.

My grandmother passed away on October 23, 2007, at the age of 83 in Visalia, California.

 

 

Family

Today’s Birthday

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Happy 99th Birthday to Clarence Horton! Hope you are having a party in heaven!

Clarence was the son of William Thomas and Minnie Stites Horton. He was born in Arkansas. He married Pauline Gibson and had 8 children.

I never met Clarence or Pauline, but my grandmother Pearl knew Pauline aka “Sissy.” I think my Aunt Hazel also knew him.

Clarence passed away April 22, 1999 in Van Buren, Crawford, Arkansas at the age of 82.

Family

Aunt Alema

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Alema0001

This is my Great-Aunt, Alema Otelia Anderson Minghetti. She was my grandfather, Hiram’s, sister. She was born on this day in 1928. Her parents were John Frederick and Alice Mathilda Eliason Anderson. John was 51 and Alice was 44 when Alema was born. She joined Hiram Eugene (5) and Kermeth (4) when she was born in Shafter, California.

My grandfather, Hiram, would call her every year on her birthday. I remember that my grandmother, Pearl, would remind him to call his sister.

She was an amazing artist, who would send us handmade cards. I think I still have all of them. She also painted many pictures. I have one displayed in my home.

She was a deaconess in the Lutheran Church for many years. She met Charles Church “Chuck” Minghetti and was married in August of 1969. They did not have any children. They took care of her mom, Alice, from the time they married until my great-grandmother’s death on December 26, 1979.

Chuck and Alema lived in San Luis Obispo, California, not far from the Mission. It was a Spanish style home. One memory that stands out is a trip that my dad and I made to visit them in the early 1990’s. I think it must have been about 1993 or 1994. I know that it was before my dad got sick (story for another entry).

I have been interested in my family history since around 1992. Anyway, back to my memory: Chuck and Alema loved to travel and meet new people from all parts of the world. On one trip they traveled to the Seattle area to visit some Anderson cousins. She had a tape of one of her grandmother’s sister’s (Christine Johnson Anderson) grandchildren telling about her life and journey to America. To me it was a priceless family heirloom. How I wish I had that tape. I am not sure what happened to the tape after the deaths of Chuck and Alema.

Alema passed away on August 1, 2009 at the age of 81. I miss her and Chuck a lot.