Martin's Centennial Celebration - Fourth of July Weekend

The community of Martin was established in 1911, and this year we have been celebrating being 100 years old. Special events planned for July 1, 2, 3, and 4 were well attended and enjoyable. Sam and I have served on the Centennial Committee, and we appreciate the involvement of many and especially the leadership of Joyce Wilson.

We are happy that Scott and Kristine's family and Curtis and Marla's family came to enjoy the Centennial Celebration events with us.

On Friday, July 1st, Rachel and Weston were in the play, On the Way to Bremen Town, as part of the South Dakota Children's Theatre. It was based on the children's story, the Bremen Town Musicians.

Rachel was one of the mice in the play,
On the Way to Bremen Town.
(She is sitting on the floor at the right.)

Weston (sitting at the left) was one of the cute pigs
in On the Way to Bremen Town.

There were activities planned all day long on Saturday. We watched the parade and then visited the Heritage Center before buying sandwiches and pie for a late lunch.

Watching the parade on Main Street.
(Marla, Maggie, Haley, Sam, and Maren)

Maren was designated to be the one to retrieve the
candy thrown out as the parade entrants passed by.
Maren, Sam, Haley, Maggie, Marla, and Grandpa Sam
have a ringside seat.

Martinopoly was Security 1st Bank's parade entry, which
cleverly gave a time line of
businesses and organizations in Martin through the years.


Rachel is in the back row, 2nd from the right,
performing with the Millennium Dancers
as they left their float to do their dance.


After dancing, the Millennium Dancers got back on
their float and continued in the parade.
Rachel is hoping Maren will be able to throw some
of the collected candy to her on the float as they pass.


Don Moore drove a vintage car for the
Class of '56 (my high school class).


The Shriners restored this antique firetruck,
which had served as Martin's first.


After the parade, we visited the Heritage Center.
Standing by Grampa Harold's chaps seemed a good
place for a photo op for his great-grandchildren:
Sam, Trevor, Maggie, Maren, and Haley.
We thought about taking a picture in the
school room, because that was the room Sam and I had
helped organize; but there were too many visiting there.


The Centennial Choir enjoyed presenting
a Century of Music program Saturday evening.
(I am in the middle row, 2nd from the right.)
We had fun practicing for this event, and the choir
has decided to continue as a group using the
new name, Martin Meadowlarks.


The Quilt Show had 210 quilts displayed representing
50 quilters. This one was made by Rita Jacquot.
I love seeing beautiful quilts, and I used to think I would
like to make quilts in my old age; but now that I have
arrived there, other interests have taken priority.
I did make quilts for my daughters when they
got married, and I have made several tied quilts.


We helped with the breakfast at the Heritage Center.
An interesting comment made by one of the
visitors to Martin for the Centennial Celebration was
how surprised she was that in our small community
so many things were available for free and she had not
had to pay yet for any of her meals.
The breakfast was freewill.
Helping with the breakfast:
Vernie Arnold, Joyce Wilson, Roseanna Renaud,
Narene, Sam, and Garnet Audiss.


For breakfast at the Heritage Center, we served
watermelon, Vesta's freshly made glazed donuts,
Friendship bread, orange juice, and coffee and
offered a free Centennial souvenir cup.
Sam is shown at the left setting up the cups.
During the breakfast, Jim Gardiner played piano music
and also had a contest to see whose submitted entry
identified the most tunes by name from a series of 10 songs.
Arliss Moreland won with all ten correctly named.


Sam and I enjoyed the singing of the Potter Family
after the Chuck Wagon Supper. We think they
could make it in Branson; they are that good.

My high school graduating Class of '56 had met at our home five years ago to celebrate our 50th reunion, but I thought it was important to send information to classmates living away to let them know about our community's Centennial Celebration and invite them for another get together on the Fourth of July. It was a much smaller turnout than five years ago, but it was nice to meet for breakfast and bring each other up to date on our lives. Messages were read from classmates who were unable to attend.

Class of '56 mini-reunion
(back: Don Moore, Gary Dickinson, Cheryl Ninas Rageth,
Earl Simmons, LaWanda Ireland Rayhill, Ada Holeman Weimer;
front: Gary Holeman, Francis Fanning, Donna Kuxhaus Harrington,
Narene Nelson Ireland, CeCee Skalinder Bolzer,
Virginia Goodman Coller, and Norman Drobny)

Martin chose to have their community's fireworks and patriotic music Saturday evening, realizing many out-of-town visitors might be needing to travel to their homes on Monday, the Fourth. Our visiting families also had returned home, so the grandchildren did their fireworks the night before and lit a lot of sparklers that I had purchased.

There was a full schedule of things planned each day of the Centennial Celebration, and I have highlighted some of the events we attended. Our daughter Marla went to her class reunion on Saturday, and Scott enjoyed visiting with some of his former classmates who had come for the celebration.

We enjoyed participating in our community's 100th birthday and celebrating our nation's Independence Day. I love to see our flag displayed and to sing the patriotic songs. This is a good place to live. Happy Birthday, Martin! Happy Birthday, America!

More from Branson

It was so wonderful being with our family at our reunion, and I have enjoyed looking through the pictures taken while together and reflecting on our good time.

Since we stayed overnight in Branson on Thursday after going to an evening show with Scott's and Ryan's families, we decided to go to a couple of shows on Friday before starting for home via Mitchell. We have always enjoyed being in Branson. The shows we have seen are family friendly and patriotic, and they have no problem making reference to their Christian faith.

We decided to go to a new show we had not seen before as well as one we had seen several years ago.

Friday morning, we went to see Jeerk,
a rhythm group of five from Sweden, that was
named the best new group of 2010. Their show is a
combination of tap dancing, percussion, singing, and
humor. It was entertaining how they transformed objects
into music percussion instruments, such as plastic barrels,
hockey sticks, bottles, etc. It was a fun show.


Friday afternoon, we went to the Hughes Brothers show.

When we had seen the Hughes Brother show during our first time or two in Branson, the five brothers wore cowboy boots and hats and their music was mainly country as I remembered it. Now they perform a variety of music genres. With the addition of their spouses and children, they advertise their family as being the world's largest performing family. We were really favorably impressed with their show and observed that it would have been a good choice for our family reunion.

The Hughes Brothers
shown here being joined musically on stage by
their spouses and children.


It was a crowd pleaser when the children re-enacted
a scene from The Sound of Music
in the Hughes Brothers tribute to Broadway musicals.


I also liked their rendition from Fiddler on the Roof.


The children's closing song was
I Am a Child of God.

The next time we are in Branson, I would choose to see the Hughes Brothers show again.

We left Branson following the afternoon show and were on our way to Mitchell to attend church with the Smith family and to hear Trevor's talk about his mission in Uruguay. We had to take an alternate route because of the flooding of the Missouri River along I-29. We could not cross the river where we would normally.

On our way to Missouri, we had turned east at Auburn, NE; but Curtis and Marla had come later the next day and that road had been closed. The water was up to the shoulder of I-29 when we crossed the river.

Here are some pictures we took along I-29:

High water on the Missouri River.


A lake where trees used to be on dry land in Iowa.


These irrigation pivots are under four feet of water
and won't be needed for this year's crop.


They are hoping the sandbags will keep the flood
away from their farm buildings, but there won't be
crops to harvest. We saw a lot of sandbagging.


Another picture taken in Iowa of the flooding.

On our return trip, we crossed at St. Joseph, MO and were lucky to get the last room at a motel in Hiawatha, NE. In fact, the lady first told me they had all their rooms reserved; but then because it was already after 9:00 p.m. and they had not shown up to take the room, she let us have it. These small towns along this area are experiencing a lot of traffic they are not used to having because of the Interstate being closed.

Arriving in Mitchell, we had a nice visit with Curtis's mother and his sister and brother-in-law and enjoyed attending church Sunday morning. Trevor gave an excellent talk, and he and his four sisters sang a very nice musical arrangement.

Marla had told us about a lady in Mitchell whose friend from California was coming to visit in Mitchell and would be telling about their mission in Siberia, Russia. I had wondered if it might be the Simmons, and sure enough it was. They had been the office couple in Novosibirsk, and we had met them once in Moscow and had several phone conversations and e-mails with them relative to a humanitarian project. We had them arrange for the printing of special Family Home Evening manuals in the Russian language that were cheaper to have printed in Novosibirsk than in Moscow. We stayed for their slideshow program and enjoyed meeting with them again. She and her husband also spoke in church.

Cindy and Doug Simmons
(photo taken in Russia where they served their mission; currently live in California)
It was a nice coincidence that we were
in Mitchell on the very day they were there
to give a slideshow presentation about their mission
in Novosibirsk and that we had met them
in Moscow. Who would have guessed that
our paths would cross again in South Dakota!

After the Russian program, we left for home. We decided to travel by way of Fort Randall dam, as we had been told it was quite a sight to see all the water being released through the gates. Sam took a video and this photo.

Releasing water from Fort Randall Dam on the
Missouri River in South Dakota.

Lake Francis Case across on the other side from the gates
at Fort Randall Dam.

I realize there have been a lot of photos shared as I have reported on our family reunion, but they are special memories for me and hopefully for other family members. It was a wonderful reunion. Doug and Shannon are up now for planning the next one.

Family Reunion in Missouri and Arkansas - Day 5

Thursday morning found us preparing to leave The Legacy home and have our 2011 Ireland Reunion officially ended; however, we were fortunate to be able to continue enjoying being with some family members in a return visit to Branson nearby.

Curtis vacuuming and Marla cleaning out the refrigerator.
Although the owners of the home only requested we
do two loads of towels, the maid was pleased when
she arrived to find we had left everything so nice.
We received an e-mail thanking us for this and
inviting us to come back again.


Kate, Jamon, Austin, Brynlee, and Ethan wish they
had known about the dog before the last day. When the
guys came on Monday to clean the hot tub, the dog
got locked in the garage. He was amazingly quiet and we
didn't know he was there until someone looked through
the garage window that morning and saw him.
Fortunately, the dog seemed okay.

After saying their goodbyes, Brent and Tauna's family left for St. Louis where they went to Six Flags and to a Cardinals baseball game. The rest of us went to Branson where we ate at McFarlain's.

Our group eating at McFarlain's.
I had the same fried green tomato combination plate again.
This is a nice place to eat when you are with a large group, and
the food and service is good. They also have shopping
areas and a large selection of quilts.
Several years ago we bought quilts here for our
children's families for Christmas, but I did not get one
for me then. I really like the one I bought on this visit.


This is the quilt I bought at McFarlain's in Branson.
If you click on the photo, you can better see the detailed
quilting stitched in gold thread.

After eating lunch and before going to see a Branson show, we took a little driving tour around Branson. Todd and Beth's family followed us to the Shoji Tabuchi theater where we took pictures of the famous restrooms.

Megan and Amanda posing for a photo op in the
Shoji Tabuchi women's restroom with the fresh orchids
at each wash basin and the other elaborate decorations.
It is even more spectacular when it is decorated
for the Christmas season, and people often include this on
their list of things to see in Branson.


I sent my camera with Jared to take a picture of the
men's restroom in the Shoji Tabuchi theater, and
he was lucky to arrange to be in the picture.
(Joshua, Ethan, and Jared)


Jared took this picture of the billiards table that is
also in the men's restroom in the Shoji Tabuchi theater.

Scott and Kristine's family and Ryan and Tani's family had tickets to see the show "Six" that afternoon while the rest of us went to see the Kirby VanBurch magician show. Sam and I had seen "Six" the last time we were in Branson and liked this show very much. In previous trips to Branson, we had seen other magicians (the Brett Daniels show and the Hamner Barber Variety Show), but this was the first time we saw Kirby VanBurch.

We were amused by this mime greeter in the
lobby of the Kirby VanBurch theater. He moved as
though a robot and never said a word. His expressions
were fun to watch. Here he is posing with
Joshua, Ethan, Amanda, Megan, and Jared.


The Kirby VanBurch show was a good one for all ages.
Some of us are shown in this picture leaving the theater.
VanBurch was named the "World's Best Illusionist" at
the 2008 World Magic Awards. His performance includes
white tigers, panthers, and a helicopter among his
several props; and he has been performing in Branson
for 20 years.

After the afternoon shows, we met together at the motel where Scott had made reservations for us and his family and Ryan's family. We went to the Tanger Factory Outlet where we looked around and bought root beer floats.

Saying our goodbyes to Doug's and Jeff's families,
as they left for Jeff and Rochelle's home in Centerton.
We stayed overnight in the motel as did
Scott's and Ryan's families, and we went with them
to another show Thursday evening, The Haygoods.

The Haygoods
The seven brothers and one sister put on an entertaining
musical show. They sing well together and between them
they play over 20 instruments. We enjoyed their show.
Sam and I liked their performance when we saw them
at Silver Dollar City on our first visit to Branson,
and they have become even better and more professional.

On Friday, Todd and Beth's family joined Jeff's and Doug's families for a fun visit to the Wild Wilderness Safari near where Jeff and Rochelle live. This is a fun place to visit, but going there would take us a couple of hours in the wrong direction when starting for home on Friday; and we had been there with Jeff's family a couple of times before. Thus, we opted to stay in Branson and ended up going to two more shows there the next day before traveling to Mitchell to go to church with Curtis and Marla's family and hear Trevor's talk.

Yes, there will be yet another blog entry; and I will be posting some of the pictures we took showing the flooding on the Missouri River that we saw as we traveled home.

Family Reunion in Missouri and Arkansas - Ireland Olympics and Talent Show - Day 4

Jeff and Rochelle and Doug and Shannon were in charge of the Ireland Olympics held at our family reunion on Wednesday morning, June 22nd. All ages and abilities could enjoy what was planned, and it was a fun activity. A video would have better recorded the action, but here are a few pictures showing some of the competition.

One point earned each time the tennis ball goes in the bucket.
The disc closest to the bucket marks the spot where
the youngest ones stood while throwing the ball.
At age 9, Zack is further back. Grandpa Sam and Brent
are helping with this event.

Brent is holding the pie tin target, and Haley's ball
appears to be headed for a hit.

Some of the events were held inside. This one was
quite a challenge to bounce the pencil on its eraser
and have it land in the cup. Marla's try was successful.
Each person had three tries, and the younger kids
had a larger dish.


There was an art to trimming the time off of
stacking the cups in a pyramid followed by returning
them to a single stack. It's Doug's turn to show how
fast he can be, and Shannon has the stop watch to
add his time to his team's. There were younger children
on each team, and they had fewer cups to stack.


Back outside again for the next event, which was a
relay starting with a runner to first base. The next
leg of the race was a crab crawl. Here is Weston doing
the crab crawl as fast as he can, and Sam is ready to
do the bear crawl as soon as Weston reaches him.


Sam ready to go.


Joshua does a good bear crawl for his team.


Zack has the bear crawl perfected and now it is up to
Rachel to cartwheel to home base.


Tree climbing wasn't part of the competition, but the younger
grandkids enjoyed this activity when they were finished.
In the tree: Zack, Jacob, Jared, Austin, Jamon.
On the bench: Isaac and Amanda.


Rebecca was content to be a spectator.


Curtis stood at the finish line for the races which
were divided into age groups.
Isaac thought it was fun to join the runners age six and under.
Shown here are Austin, Isaac, Brynlee, and Jacob.
Even Grandpa Sam and Grandma Narene raced with the adults.


What's the matter, Isaac? Didn't you win?


The last event was a water balloon toss.
Brent is waiting for Kate to toss him her water balloon.


No awards were given, but maybe there were some
bragging rights claimed. Regardless, everyone had a
good time and won a happy memory.


After the Ireland Olympics, we celebrated
Joshua's birthday (6 years old).


Waiting for the talent show:
Maggie, Marisa, Weston, and Ethan


Grandpa Sam was the first entry in the
talent show doing his Donald Duck impersonation
by popular demand.


Jenna on the guitar and singing with
Maren, Amanda, Shannon, Megan, and Rachel.


Demonstrating some wrestling moves:
Ethan, Jacob, and Jamon.


Todd's unique talent is a little hard to explain. He
can do a pattern of three with one arm while doing
a pattern of four with the other arm. It is much harder
to do than rubbing your head and patting your tummy.


Shannon in costume doing her dance routine.


Enjoying the talent show.


Trevor and Maggie singing a duet.


Curtis and Haley juggling.


Joshua reciting the 13th Article of Faith.
That's pretty good for a boy who is
turning six years old the next day.


Zack showing his origami creations.


A dance routine
by Megan, Shannon, Maren, Jenna, Rachel, and Amanda


These girls are good about coming up with some sort
of entertainment whenever they get together.
They are quite the performers.


Rebecca does a cute little dance
spontaneously when she hears the catchy music.


Jared is trying to get Rebecca to show us how she
responds by whispering using her own unique language when
someone whispers to her, but she became shy and would not do it.


An interested audience for Sam's card trick.


A humorous skit by Ethan, Zack, and Weston.


Austin doing a head stand.
I am sorry my pictures of Jacob's back bend
and Brynlee's cartwheel did not turn out,
and I may have missed getting some others
photographed; but we appreciated all who
volunteered to share a talent.


Jeff, Zack, Austin, Rochelle, and Jamon singing
an action song. (Kate was taking a nap.)


I gave each family member a card with their name written
in Gregg shorthand, a subject I used to teach in high school
years ago. The grandchildren seemed to think it was
cool to have their name written in "code."


After supper it was hanging out time until the light
got right for taking our group pictures outdoors.
(Brady, Trevor, Haley, Ethan, Jared, and Sam)


Amanda and Maren take a turn at foosball.


Trevor and Brynlee are buddies.


Maggie and Marisa, two pretty cousins.


Trevor giving Joshua a ride.

We are fortunate to have Beth be our family photographer for family pictures, which we had taken outside later that evening; but I will save those photos for another blog entry.

Ending the day watching a movie in Grandma and Grandpa's bedroom:
Maren, Jenna, Amanda, Shannon, Rachel, and Megan.