PONOGRAMS

 

Ponograms:

1-24  The First Twenty-Four
25-48  The Second Twenty-Four
49-72  The Third Twenty-Four
73-96  The Fourth Twenty-Four
97-120  The Fifth Twenty-Four
121-144  The Sixth Twenty-Four
145-168  The Seventh Twenty-Four
169-on  The Eighth Twenty-Four


73  Wunderkammer II
74  Wunderkammer III
75  Wunderkammer IV
76  Wunderkammer V
77  Wunderkammer VI
78  What Is Teaching?
79  A Gathering
80  Wunderkammer VII
81  Wunderkammer VIII
82  My Gluten-Free Test
83  Grandpa and FDR
84  Atomic Energy by a 12yo
85  Genealogy Quilts
86  Per Nilsson Västgöte
87  Hawaiiana 7
88  Wunderkammer IX
89  Maui First Class
90  Genealogy Kicks
91  Glass Art
92  Hawaiiana 8
93  Outlines of Paradise
94  Wunderkammer X
95  Aunt Rubie
96  A Family Visit, part 1

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WUNDERKAMMER VI

The beat goes on.  Let’s see if anything we dug up this month is worthy of your interest.

 

K-12 report cards

You won’t be able to read these unless you zoom in on the pic, but there are report cards from 13 of the 15 different towns in Michigan where I went to school from kindergarten through 12th.  One town didn’t give me anything because we 

 Teacher comments

were there so briefly.  Another school just gave me a letter of introduction for presentation to the next school.

The text on the right is from the card received from South Haven.  Obviously that teacher didn’t have much experience with me, or else was not a very good judge of character.

Mom gathered these cards over the years and the file really came in handy.  When I first applied for a security clearance, it was necessary for me to provide places of residence from BIRTH and this was the source!

The order was Anvil Location (Bessemer), Gladstone (no card), Watersmeet, Iron River, Marquette, St. Ignace, Wakefield, Crystal Falls (letter only), West Branch, South Haven, Ypsilanti, Dearborn, Kalamazoo, Jackson, and finally Perry from 8 through 12.

 

High School sweater 1951   Valedictorian medal

My jock jacket from Perry High School has holes in it and is so stiff I was afraid to try it on, but here it is in all its glory.  I played a little football and a little basketball, mostly as a benchwarmer and fodder for the real jocks during practice.  It was enough to letter two years.

The valedictorian medal is actually about the size of my thumbnail, but at that size you wouldn’t be able to read it, so here it is blown up a bit.  I didn’t feel the need to enlarge the letter P for Perry.

 

 Shiawassee County Journals   Norm Sandin by-lines

I found about three months of copies of the weekly Shiawassee County Journal, the local newspaper published by the company I worked for in Perry, MI on and off from 1948 to 1962.  Since I had kept them I guessed that I had a reason.  I looked through them and found one article about my father’s retirement, but nothing else that seemed to warrant my interest.  The second time through I found the reason.  During this period in 1962, I helped with all sorts of things surrounding the business, and one duty was photography.  I apparently wanted to keep issues with pics I had taken and my by-lines – here are a couple of examples.

 

 Thai brass tableware   B-focal glasses

One of the treasures acquired in our stay in Thailand was a set of brass table ware.  It is service for 12 with more different forks, spoons and knives than I know how to use.  The “dinner” fork, spoon and knife is what I know how to use and the other “versions” (e.g., salad forks, dessert spoons, butter knives) are out of my league and remain in the case.  Over the years, one by one, the dinner forks have lost a tine or two and been retired.  I’ve tried to find a source to replace them but have been unsuccessful.  However, I still have three and how many can I need?  Company can use salad forks (or whatever those smaller ones are).

I wore bifocals for almost 40 years until I had cataract surgery.  The prescription changed over the years and lenses and sometimes frames got replaced.  I always kept one pair back for emergencies, and didn’t intend to collect them, but they got tucked away here and there and finally got gathered together in the process of the digging around I’ve been doing.  Here is a going away picture.  They are being donated to the Lions Club and hopefully, at least the frames can be recycled.  (I do like the snap cases but can’t think of a use for them.)

 

 Keys and Lake Superior rock   Glass fishnet floats

The contents of my right pants pocket – now and for many years gone by.  The key ring came with my 1987 Olds.  Although the keys have changed, the ring has been very comfortable.  I picked up the rock from the shore of Lake Superior at the mouth of the Black River in Upper Michigan in 1992.  I don’t know why it appealed to me, but it did.  It had been smoothed by eons of rolling back and forth in the sand and has a depression for my thumb so I can use it like a worry stone.  I have ceremoniously washed it in countless bodies of water including oceans, Great Lakes, lakes, ponds, rivers and streams.

I was sitting in a meeting once and someone said “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”.  I reached in my pocket and pitched it across the table, to the enjoyment of all attendees.

The glass fishnet floats are of indeterminate age, but are a relatively new acquisition to me.  They show up on beaches everywhere and I’ve always wanted one so when I saw them in a pawn shop, I pounced.  Why?  Why not!

 

 Army insignias and patches   Monica, the waitress

Army paraphernalia stripped from my discharge uniforms included name tags, rank, medals, unit id and brass items to keep me busy polishing nights and weekends.  I was a Specialist 5, E-5 at the end but I wore the three stripes of an Acting Sargent.  We were in the 3rd Armored Division (Spearhead), which was affectionately called the 3rd Herd.  I was awarded the Good Conduct medal as well, but I gave it to Monica, the waitress in my favorite Gasthaus.  She deserved it more than I did.