Trish Deflieze
We are approaching the last official meeting for the German Club. It will be held on April 28 at 5:00 p.m. We will be having a potluck dinner on the Patio. At this meeting the officers for the next season will be announced.
Thanks to all our members who brought canned goods for St. Matthew’s Food Bank. As the season ends, just a reminder to our snowbirds – donations of leftover supplies are very welcome at food banks. Bring whatever you have to our meeting April 28 and it will go to a good cause.
At our March meeting we were very pleased to have a wonderful presentation on how to write family memories. Loretta Welk Jung, sister of Dolores Kline, was an inspiration to us all with her heartwarming presentation on how to save, share and write family memories. Loretta started us off with a German song. She told us about her German family history and of life on the farm in North Dakota. Loretta emphasized that it is never too late to start passing down the old family stories and memories.
Loretta brought us many examples of memory collections. These included her grandmother’s blankets, apron, poems and albums. She challenged everyone in our club to go home and write a memory. Loretta ended her presentation with a story written by a young school child. It shows the world through the eyes of a child. Many of our members asked for a copy and I have included it in this newsletter as it is too good to miss.
We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa. They used to live in a big brick house but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Arizona. Now they live in a tin box and have rocks painted green to look like grass. They ride around on their bicycles and wear name tags because they don’t know who they are anymore. They go to a building called the wreck center but they must have got it fixed because it is all okay now. They do exercises there but they don’t do them very well. There is a swimming pool too but they all jump up and down in it with hats on. At their gate, there is a doll house with a little old man sitting in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape. Sometimes they sneak out and go cruising in their golf carts.
Nobody there cooks – they all just eat out. And – they eat the same thing every night – early birds.
Some of the people can’t get past the man in the doll house. The ones that do get out bring food back to the wrecked center for potluck.
My Grandma says that Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and says I should work hard so I can be retarded someday too.
When I earn my retardment, I want to be the man in the doll house. Then I will let people out, so they can visit their grandchildren.
Auf Wiedersehen