Milestone Moments

There are moments in my life that stick in my head so fresh I can't help but recall them like they happened yesterday... like walking into my friend Melissa's house 20 years ago and marveling over her baby, Kaisha, and thinking how minuscule my adult-like endeavors seemed next to this enormous experience of having a child.

Melissa and I met when we were seven, in the second grade. Her folks moved into house a mile north of ours. We sometimes met in the middle of the field between our two houses, always careful to avoid the pasture that had the bull. More memorable was when we were both old enough to drive, which happens for country kids a bit earlier than kids who live in town. Stick to the dirt roads and you could usually convince the parents to let you visit a neighbor.

Melissa and I suffered long hours together on the yellow school bus. I watched out my window in the early morning hours for the bus to turn at her corner. That's how I kept the time I spent waiting at the end of the drive in the dark at a minimum.

We grew up side by side, like sisters, only we didn't actually live together, and we probably didn't take the time, often enough, to appreciate the gift of friendship we gave to one another. We made our way, sometimes independently, but often together, through junior high and high school. Then I moved away and Melissa got married and baby Kaisha came along. I stopped in every holiday or visit home to take a peek, to marvel at her beauty and how much she had grown.

Last weekend, I held Kaisha's baby in my arms. My friend Melissa is a grandma now, which means somehow, in this mysterious passing of time and age, I am entering yet another stage of adulthood. Kaisha is the first baby I held in my arms--from the perspective of something more than a child myself--that now has a baby of her own.

I have younger cousins whom I remember as babies who now have children, but they are really just slightly younger people from my generation. I was just an awkward babysitter when they were little, but when I met Kaisha I was really began to understand that I had a place in this world outside of childhood. She was a possibility made real.

Now that baby has grown up and is a momma, too, and I am an honorary aunt to the second degree. Meeting baby Roo (her nickname from Grandma Melissa) is another one of those sticking moments. Something I know I will recall and dwell on for years to come.

Kaisha and Roo.

Tracy and Melissa ~ Granny types?

Melissa, Tracy and Carol (Melissa's Mom)  in 1978

Timeless Tuesday ~ My Friend Nat

I got a note from my good friend Nat this morning. She writes, "Today I have been teaching for 60 years, some form of exercise and dance. I am 72 years old and married to the same man 52 years. It kinda sounds like I don't give up easily."

I like to think of myself as the kind of person who doesn't give up easily either. I adopted her long ago as one of my personal heroes.


I think of Nat as a teacher of, or maybe more of an inspirer for the movement arts - ballet and other dance forms - and she's taken up yoga in more recent years. That's one of the most inspiring things about Nat -- she's never afraid to try something new. When you spend time with Nat, you just want to move, move, move. She makes you unafraid to tap your toes, wiggle your hips, stretch your arms out wide and up high.

I miss living close enough to hang out with her in person, but she continues to inspire me from afar.

“You’re never going to learn it all, and you’re never going to be as good as you want to be. So you just keep trying. That’s what dance is all about.”
~Nat S.

from an article I wrote about Nat in Dance Teacher Magazine in 2003

It's probably a pretty apt description for life in general, as well.

Reunited and it feels so good.

Dear Class of 1988,

Except for the part where I poured my Cuba Libre down the front of Michelle Ellis Reiman’s shirt, the twenty-year reunion of DCSH ‘88 went off smoothly and without incident. Okay, so there may have been a few other incidents, but the reports being returned seem to be unanimous that a lot of fun was had by all. At the very least, a bit of reminiscing was accomplished...



You can find the rest here. Photos. Awards. A bit of a recap. The big event is over. I've passed the baton to other planners. Whew! But it was a darned good time.

Dodge City, Western Kansas

Cheryl has been posting photos of western Kansas at Flyoverpeople.net. It got me to thinking of when I lived in Houston. I had one co-worker (born and raised) in Houston who was always asking me questions about Kansas. She couldn't fathom what it was like to grow up in a town of 18,000. (I think that's about how big Dodge City was when I graduated from high school.)

So on a trip home to visit (circa 1993), I took the following pictures. These are all photos of photos as my scanner isn't working and these were taken well before the days of digital photograhy. This was kind of my visual... what Dodge City was to me.


The Santa Fe Depot has been remodeled since this photo. The community theater now puts on productions there. Unfortunately, I have not visited since the work was completed.

The Stan Herd mural on the Fidelity State Bank. According to Cheryl's photo, it looks like it's Bank of America now.

This area has also been redone since 1993, but El Capitan is still there. I remember when they put him up. This is at the intersection of 2nd Street and Wyatt Earp Blvd.

The Arkansas River... bed.

And no Kansas town is complete without a grain elevator. The Sonic you see in front is one of the best in the state, as well. At least, it used to be. Of course, it occurs to me that fast food, in general, doesn't taste as good as it did when I was sixteen, so maybe it's a sign of my age rather than the Sonic establishements actually getting poorer.

Note about the photo group at the top. The brick streets are considered historical landmarks in Dodge City. I've seen them pulled up brick by brick to be cleaned and leveled, but they won't be replaced by standard asphalt anytime in the near future.

School Bus Races

I wouldn't typically consider myself a race fan, but I found myself, none-the-less, at the race track in Dodge City this weekend. My sister and my oldest daughter, especially, had talked up the school bus races quite a bit. I had never seen such a thing and I'm almost always willing to try anything at least once.

First, these guys went all out with their school buses. There was Miss Piggy and some take-off on a UPS truck. Budweiser had a bus all prettied up and red. A classy green and purple bus was called, The Joker. My favorite bus was entirely green and had, "She thinks my bus is sexxxxy," written down the side.

I knew it was going to be especially entertaining when one bus caught fire (seriously -- BIG fire under the bus) before lap one was even completed.

It took them a while to get the show on the road, but we never lacked for excitement. The race was a figure-eight, switching from the outer dirt track to the inner concrete track on each loop. There were no stop lights for switching lanes -- it was pedal to the metal and all out tires squealing to get where they wanted to go.

After 8 figure-eight laps, I can't even remember who was declared the winner, but it was worth every minute of seeing pieces of bus flying everywhere and watching them swing those big old lumbering things around those corners.

Who knew school bus driving could be so much fun?

The Dodge City Days website.

Scenes from the Dodge City Days Parade

Marking the end of the annual 4-H fair and the beginning of a full week or so of true west activities, the Dodge City Days Parade has long been a highlight of my summers. Judging by the crowds we saw lining the streets a full hour before the parade was to begin this year, I’d say there are many folks who feel the same.

I’m not as hard-core as my sister, who makes a point of being in Dodge City for the parade every year, but I would say in the course of my entire life I’ve probably only missed the parade a handful of times.

I was thinking of the various ways I have participated in the parade myself. I know I completed the route on horseback at least a couple of times. A number of years I remember participating with the gymnastics team. We’d flip-flop our way down the street and cartwheel our way around the horse plops. It seems I rode a float a time or two, as well.

What I remember most about the parade in more recent years is the gathering of friends and family. Our location for watching has changed, but it seems there have always been a number of us, gathering in the same spot and making plans to watch the parade together. Even though we are no longer living there, I enjoyed making my way to a shady spot with my folding chair and being surrounded by familiar faces. My kids had a curb-side seat and a bag for collecting candy. I imagine there was a time when my cousins and I anticipated the parade in much the same way, dreaming up ways we’d be in the parade ourselves one day.

The parade was led this year by the Patriot Riders, a large group of motorcycle riders who have become well known in this part of the world for placing themselves between some rather distasteful Kansans who have been known to protest funerals and the funerals themselves. So steeped in tradition are the folks that attend the parade, initially there was a collective gasp of disbelief. The parade has always been led by people on horseback! What? Where are the horses?

But pride and patriotism soon won over as the crowd began to whoop and applaud. Bikers with American flags and a whole lot of good in their hearts – sure, we’d let them lead our parade.

We were then treated to an hour of quite a variety of machines and floats on display. There was a little something for everyone; horse and buggy, big CAT tractors, antique cars, clowns in fire trucks, a number of politicians hoping a little face time would help them out in the coming elections…

I can’t say that I am an expert on parades or that I’ve even been to many other than Dodge City’s big production. But even as a native Dodge Citian (and isn’t it true that it’s always hardest to impress the natives?), I’m impressed with the time and energy that goes into this parade each year. It’s a class act and it kicks off a great week of fun in Dodge City, Kansas.

Some highlights from this year’s parade:

If you can help...

This is our friend Levi. He's my daughter's age and his mom was one of my "Mom's Night Out" buddies back when we were living in western Kansas. Levi (and yes, he always smiles like this) has been diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease. I think they believe it possibly originated with some kind of virus. There's no family history of this sort of problem, they simply had a wonderfully healthy little boy who started getting sick and after months and months of puzzling doctor's visits, they finally began to realize that this was long-term.

Anyway, my friends back in Dodge City are organizing a fundraiser to help Levi's family with the cost of a transplant. You can help by donating or help spread the word; all would be appreciated.

Levi Bertholf at Children's Organ Transplant Association.