Going Down Memory Lane

This is one of those times when a day is worth remembering and today is one of those days!



June 8th was my parents anniversary...Milt & Jean Henkle (1935)
June 8th was the anniversary of my paternal Grandfather's passing... Ira M. Henkle (1959)
June 8th is my cousin Lleana's daughter, Katie's birthday....Katie Petrovitch (and I won't spill how old Katie is today! : ) But Happy Birthday Katie!


Daddy was my hero~ I was always his shadow and Daddy's little girl! I learned so much from him... honesty, integrity, kindness, caring, gentleness, doing things right...he had the patience of Job and was a wonderful mentor. I remember one time when I was learning to drive the car and he went with me while I practiced. I turned the corner ok but didn't get the wheel straightened out after the turn and you guessed it...I ran into the ditch! Sooo I looked up at Dad and asked him "What do we do now?" (He was the wise one). He said "Well, I guess we'll call a wrecker!" but help came out of the woodwork as neighbors came with chains and their car ready to help. In the meantime I am standing on the street laughing my head off (probably a case of hysteria) trying to tell the people, who had gathered, what happened while Daddy got in the car and just drove it right back out of the ditch!

So we got home and Al Gourley, our next door neighbor, was leaning over the fence and seeing what happened, he was giving me a hard time. Meanwhile Daddy just drove the car into the garage and started pounding out the dented fender while I went inside to tell Mom what had happened, laughing as I was telling her too. You know what was so amazing about them both? Neither one of them yelled at me or scolded me. They didn't say anything at all. (I'm sure they were thinking it, but I am glad they didn't yell at me.) I had learned my lesson. And I have never in my life ever gotten a ticket for anything since that day. If it were me I would of probably been furious and said a few choice things...but I learned what grace and mercy were that day!

And my Grandpa Henkle was also a patient guy. I remember when we were little we would gather around Grandpa and pull his hair up into a "castle" on top of his head. And it fascinated us that it would actually stand straight up. We called it "Grandpas Castle".

He and his brother decided one day that they could make violins better than what the Sears catalog had, so he started making violins from a Stradivarious pattern he got somewhere. He even carved his own pegs for them. He must have made about 15 or 20 violins and gave them to whoever would learn to play them. Oh, and Grandma had to stop him from taking wood from the back of the old pump organ for the inlay on his violins. He used curly maple for the backs of them and they were beautiful. I have one of his violins which is another story. . .

We had moved to Cupertino, California and I had taken Grandpas violin with me. I had seen at Frederick & Nelson department store, a picture with a real violin tilted one way with the bow tilted the opposite direction. I really wanted that picture, but I couldn't afford to buy it. So I took the idea with me to California. I had drawn up a paper plan of what I wanted it to look like.

One day Grandpas' brother, Ernest and his wife Ruth, came by to visit us and I told him what I wanted to do. He looked it over and then said "I think I can make one for you!" So I gave him my plans and off they went. (Grandpa had passed away by then.) Well it was 5 years before Uncle Ernest drove up to our house, (and by now we had moved to Campbell, California) and presented me with the finished frame. So I then proceeded to gild the frame in gold leaf and I had some rosette cones from a Duodor cedar tree that had grown in our front yard on Fremont Ave. while I was growing up and I used those in each of the corners of the frame. I took some of my agates that I had found on the beaches around here and glued them among the rosettes in each corner. I also used some of the agates like Lawrence Welk's Champagne Bubbles on the black velvet background I had glued in. And here is a picture of the finished project with a few more embellishments such as angels on it.

I only played the violin for a short time in elementary school. Sadly an old German teacher kept tapping me on my fingers when I had my fingering wrong and it hurt so I got discouraged and quit. I later played the Hawaiian Steel Guitar and after the tube in the amplifier blew up in blue smoke and scared Brian half to death when he was a little guy I quit that too. I took piano lessons for awhile in Jr. College and privately and we carted that poor piano with us every where we moved from Seattle to California and back. I think it has been moved 12 times over the years and never once been tuned. It is still in good shape, but now it sort of serves as a mantle for my knick knacks. I haven't played for a long time. Every once in while I will play it though just for the fun of it.

Life goes on and memories are what we have as we get older. I am enjoying mine. How about you?