Reading Between the Lines

 Richard was discharged from the army in early 1967. He enrolled in Chapman College in Orange, CA, for the fall term and spent the summer at home with his folks, which is how I met him. I had just graduated from high school and had my first job working at a branch library near the college where I was enrolled for the fall quarter. His mother worked there, and when he came in the library to see her, she introduced us.

In 1969, Richard and a friend decided to start a weekly newspaper in Orange, so he quit school to do that.

I graduated in 1971, we got married, and I finished the 5th year teaching program in 1972.  There were a glut of new teachers looking for jobs that year, and I knew finding one was going to be difficult, So, I went to work with him at the newspaper and was involved with all aspects of publishing the newspaper, including rewriting press releases, laying out the pages, and writing headlines for the articles, in addition to back shop production and even on occasion catching and tying newspaper bundles when they came off the press.

We sold the newspaper in 1979 and moved to Oregon.

I wrote all that to get to the point that we pay attention to what we see in the newspapers that are available here because we were so actively involved with putting a newspaper together for those years. And sometimes we get an eyeful. I have seen press releases announcing an event that fail to say when the event is taking place or sometimes even where it is taking place. Things like that.

Richard was looking through one of the free weekly newspapers that we get at our post office box, and it is one of the better ones, and he suddenly starts laughing…

They’re going to stash foster children in a storage unit? Really?

Of course not. As the article explains, they’ve contracted for the storage unit to keep safe personal belongings the children have to leave behind when they enter into care.

I have great respect for families that take in foster kids. My niece and her husband began caring for a baby when he was a week old. He came to them straight from the hospital, and he has been with them now for 21 months. The plan for him has always been to reunify with his parents, but there have been twists and turns along the way, and he is still with them.

 

“We truly don’t know what will happen next,” my niece writes. “His next court date is on 11/21… . We truly just cherish each day, because each day is a gift.”

 I just finished reading a novel...

about two girls in foster care who had a few good homes and then a horrific home and have to come to grips as adults with what happened to them.

The little boy might not consciously remember his time with my niece and her husband, but what they have poured into that little boy will have a long-lasting effect on him as he grows.

The Autumn Leaves

Our house is surrounded by trees of varying sizes that drop their leaves in the fall, ranging from smaller dogwoods... 

to a huge cottonwood in the front yard. That tree doesn’t figure too much in the fall leaf drop, however, because it is very drought sensitive, and by the end of July, about half of its leaves are already on the ground.

 There is a large maple tree behind the house and 2 maple trees in the front yard, 

along with a sweet gum

and a redbud. There are also quite a few oak trees farther away from the house, but they tend to hang on to their leaves through most of the winter.

I basically stopped raking the leaves in the front yard several years ago, except where they form a thick carpet on the path we walk around the house on to get to the basement. Wet leaves can be very slippery and dangerous to walk on for older folk who are already somewhat unsteady on their feet.

Every month, the Missouri Department of Conservation sends us a magazine covering a variety of topics – hunting, wildlife, efforts to restore habitats, etc.

In the most recent issue, I was pleased to read that they conclude that the fallen leaves add valuable nutrients to the soil as they break down and suggest not raking leaves unless they are very thick, which could smother the grass. 

We don’t have a proper “lawn”—one of those lovely velvet green manicured show pieces—ours is a mixture of grass and weeds (plantain, dandelion, etc) and

violets and grape hyacinth, early in the spring. 

I haven’t noticed that the leaves have had any negative effect, so I am quite happy to follow the Department of Conservation advice.