Merrell, It was a hay and cattle ranch. 210 of the most beautiful acres, I’ve ever seem. However our 25 year old marriage couldn’t survive such close contact. I only lasted 2years 10 months. My ex had been an airline pilot the previous 17 years and hadn’t paid a whole lot of attention to who I was and how I was in the world. Upon close contact he was very embarrassed being married to a woman who thought she mattered in the world. It was a lovely place and if I’d been married to anybody else I would probably still be there. It was purchased because he wanted a ranch but I think I ended up being the one who loved it. So after 26 1/2 years I started over. We even fought over that table. I gave him the bed frame. I told him his next wife wasn’t going to like it. I’m told by my grown children it is in the guest room. I’ve had a few laughs over that one. Imagine explaining to your girlfriend that the bed she is about to crawl into was built by your ex-wife. Aw heck! He is one of the male’s I’ve caught with his nose up against that sculpture. When he”s her for dinner he usually sits at the other end of the table from me and that scupture is just over my right shoulder. It stands 6 ft tall. He has to look at it.

Merrell, I think you are right. This is one of the few pieces I knew exactly where it would go before I bought it. I can’t count the times I found some male with their head wrapped around it like they are trying to figure how it is constructed. The other morning I was looking at it when I woke up, as I can see it in the corner of the dining room through the door. It is not an angle that I usually observe. I was just laying in bed thinking I need to move it to the middle of the room so I can see it from all angles all the time. Thank you for answering my question. If you ever get a website let me know. Hasn’t this thread been fun? I checked out that website with the cat,dog, mouse armor. What delicate wonderful imaginative work. It made me smile.

deber, you have it backwards. The CIA had a problem with the Bush Adm. They wouldn’t listen to the truth. They only heard with they wanted or made it up.

May I suggest to all “Legacy of Ashes” the history of the CIA to have some insight of what any leader of the CIA will have to deal with. It is a good read and eye opening. Bev.

Lee, Touche!

Beth, I wrote that before I realized it was from August. I miss the conversations we used to have that included her. Thank you. Bev.

We had books everywhere as I was raising my children and I don’t recall ever quoting out of books. Of course we were all reading different books. My favorite saying was “The faster I go the behinder I get!” I have no idea where that came from.

Merrell, That wonderful house is gone, was a down payment on a ranch. But the table and benches are in the dining room. I love wood too. Picture this I put down a huge sheet of heavy sheet of plastic on top of the new carpet and built my table there. My kids were teenagers. Can you just imagine what their friends were thinking. Their friends middle age mother was building a table. Heck they even helped and were thrilled to eat on it when I got it done. When I built it I never dreamt I would still be using it 38 years later.

Merrell, Not yet. She is young at this. She was 45 when she just stopped what she was doing and went quiet for 6 months. She’d spent her life in business, marketing and was successful but hated it. She went looking for an instructor in painting. Not the kind most middle aged women want but fine art painting. She found a professor named Dick Goody at Oakland University part of the Michigan system, where her husband was working at the time. This is where fate stepped in, he was classically trained in London. Only living there because he’d married a native of Mi. He taught her what he knew and got out of her way. They didn’t have a fine arts degree available there so she applied at NYU and was accepted but through an accident of life they ended up in Chicago and SAIC pursued her and made room for her in their fall program in-spite of the fact it was early in Sept. Then she went to NYU for her masters. She says she’s working to build a portfolio. When she sent me photos of her first work, I was amazed. My friend artist/collector/professor said I was just a mother. I said I don’t think so, I’d been collecting art since 1960. I could tell good from okay. When he saw the photos he said wow! Now, he says the reason she hit the road running was because she grew up with art all around her. It would be nice to take some credit but I’m not going to. It has been amazing as her mother just watching her develop. When she does get a website I’ll let you know. You said somewhere on this thread that you were a sculptor. What do you do? I’d love to see your work, do you have a website? I purchased my first sculpture about 1973, I went home walking about a foot off the floor, I was so thrilled. The thrill has never passed. I can’t keep my hands off my sculpture. One of the things I’ve noticed through the years is that men are more drawn to sculpture than they are to paintings. The last piece I bought is almost impossible for men to stay away from, it doesn’t matter who they are electricians or plumbers who come here to work as well as friends have to get close to it.

What a lovely thread this has been. Thank you wowowow! Bev.

.Suzanne, I have dial up and can’t watch youtube. You’ll have to tell me what it said. Was I wrong or right? I’ve read so many books about the last twenty years I don’t know where to look to varify what I said. But either read it or heard Clinton say it himself. So tell me what it said please. Bev.

Dona, I agree, thank you. It is fun to share. I’m sitting here in the middle of the night or early morning watching for the second time the Frontline program about New Orleans, called the Old Man and the Storm. That was the next city I would fall in love with. We lived there in 1963-64. That was my next love affair. I fall in love with cities. About ten years ago my daughter and I went back there. She hadn’t been there since she was a child. We spent the week between Christmas and New Years in the French Quarter. It was fun to show her the city. When we lived there, the kids and I would spend every Saturdays in the Quarter. I didn’t drive at the time so the kids and I went to every museum we could get to on the bus. Unfortunately their Dad just couldn’t appreciate that city. He admits today he never gave it a chance. He says he admits to people that when his kids talk about how much they loved it he has no idea what they are talking about. Anyway, watching the program breaks my heart. I’m so glad I got there one more time before Katrina. It is going to be long after I’m gone before they get it back.

Merrell, Powells is a treasure isn’t it? We show it off like a jewel. We have a bridge ride and walk once a year. That even includes the freeway bridges. The close them one by one so people can walk or ride their bikes back and forth across the river throughout the day. This year they had thousands take part. When I moved back her in 1970 there was one gallery in town and now we have them every where. We have a first Thursday opening every month and I suggest people who are visiting that they work that into their plans. If you prefer something a little more avaunt guard we have a fun and funky last Thursday. My how things have changed.

Dona, You probably would have gone to the Home Ec classroom or the locker room outside the Gym. I had forgotten that when I wrote last. Those were the places that were dominated by the girls. I was crazy to be on the the Air Base. Of course I was still built like a boy. But I did enjoy the attention I did get. Our friends had two daughters much younger than me. So they didn’t know how to treat a 13 year old. They treated me like an adult. Took me to the officers club for dinner dances etc. It was quite lovely. I even got to use the dances I’d learned in Grade School. I started high school thinking I was pretty grown up. I remember that weekend in SF. We had dinner at the Top of the Mark and stayed in that hotel. I remember the busboy just served our table. Keeping our water glasses full and filling the butter dish etc. I was so impressed. He had a white towel over his arm. We had a beautiful breakfast the next morning with same kind of service. Then we toured Chinatown. We had lunch in a Chinese restaurant on the second level so we could look down on the people on the street. I was fascinated by the number of people who were in native clothes. Then finished the day at fisherman’s wharf. I wasn’t impressed by the seafood, growing up eating on the Oregon coast but was mighty impressed by the bread and garlic butter. The last day was spent at that huge zoo, Flyshacker I think. I fell in love with that city. We almost landed in Northern California when we moved back to the coast in 1970. My husband wanted to commute, he was a Delta pilot. But we just couldn’t afford the real estate in the city. I looked at Halfmoon Bay but we decided he couldn’t fight the fog to get to the airport. So we ended up back in Oregon. But I made a decision to treat us that first year which was a trial to see if we could even do it. I rented a log cabin up on Mount Hood in Rhododendron. I was a hoot. We skied our head off that year.

Merrill, It is funny [strange] what people/relatives want when someone dies. When an Aunt and Uncle died and their place was to be sold for development all the nieces swarmed the place to dig up or take starts of all the plants in the yard. Their granddaughter was horrified until I explained that is how we all remember them, their incredible yard and garden. I also took her paring knife which she always had in her hand and his mallet that he had turned on his lath as well as three very old knives he has sharpened until they were barely 1/2 in wide. I also have an eight foot table w benches, I built for a cedar and glass house we built in 1971. My husband and I had a fight about how much we could or couldn’t spend on a table for my new house. Needless I won by taking $100 and buying the lumber to build what I wanted and he didn’t get a vote for being so stingy. Twenty years ago I had to remind my sister-in-law that just because I built it doesn’t mean someone had to figure out how to make room for it. We may have a bonfire. My son has claimed the first sculpture I ever purchased. He was in high school at the time. His wife breathed a sigh of relief because it is only about 12 inches tall. I’m sure my daughter has her eye on at least one piece probably a sculpture since she is a painter and some of my cookbooks, also one of the chairs I bought for the ends of the table. I never learned to build chairs or drawers. At the time I got a little carried away and ended up building end tables, base for a glass coffee table, TV table, bed frame. side tables [no drawers] even an easel and frame, all out of antique pine. It was fun but when I was done, I was done. Necessity or getting your own way is the mother of invention.