Monday, November 24, 2014

Homecoming at Amy and Jesse's - Pot Luck and Relaxed Table Gaming in St Cloud.


St Cloud Weaver Seasonal Homecomings
 The St Cloud Weaver's have evolved our own "Easy Does It" late fall and early winter solstice, gathering, I am choosing to call our "Homecoming", as we have rotating gatherings from the original St Cloud Weaver family of creation home at 520 6th Ave S, now the home to Sue and Nate, and with Amy and Jesse's home just northwest of downtown St Cloud on 14th in the St John Cantius Church historic neighborhood. Jesse purchased the home during the time of the Obama rebates and this is another of a continuing series of our family of creation gatherings.
For more info about the working class neighborhood near the train tracks check out 
http://www.sctimes.com/article/99999999/NEWS0101/303250001/


 I was the first to arrive, greeted by Bellas and Jesse, as Amy was out shopping at Coborns around 10 AM.  I drove up through the fog from St Louis Park, having started the roasts, I had begun in the white portable roaster at 6 AM, "Boeuf a la mode; boufe en daube" in the spirit of my inner Julia Child.   Honoring my spirit given Nature as a Two Spirited Man.  - braised beef pot roast..  Beef roasts with some veggies. Great smells in my apartment, in my van and here along with the new Danish Kringle, made in Racine Wisconsin.  I had no idea how pleasant the pastry tastes, both boys and Amy noticed the almond flavor that is more mild that the marzipan we have had at other homecoming - St Nick's, Thanksgiving, Solstice gatherings in the past. 

Package of Kringle I discoverd  at my neighborhood Trader Joe's on the way up. Enjoyed with Jesse and Amy with coffee as we waited for Sue and Nate of arrive
Amy soon returned and began preparing the brussel sprouts drizzled with olive oil, to add to our progressive informal food sharing.  
One of the gifts I received at the Path to Spirit Weekend, from the Gift Blanket, was this Friendship Candleholder made of kisii stone, from the Kenyan tradition of the elders gathering around a fire to share stories.  When I arrived I shared the story with Amy and Jesse and lit a candle in their home, to honor the spirit of growing friendship and connection.  Interest there are 5 figures and there are 5 of us who gathered this year.  Grateful for a life of continued awaress of  synchronicities on my path.

Sue was the next to arrive, and stepped up and created what she calls a "Fruit Turkey" .  We decided to have roast beef for our main roasted protein this year. In past years, we have had goose, salmon and even an organic turkey.  Fun to have the fruit "turkey" to share this year. 

Jesse and Amy, our homecoming hosts again this year, sharing a hug and the cheese and cracker plate (they texted me early requesting the Cotswold Cheese that I picked up at Tj's along with some cheddar and crackers....

Mutti Sue enjoys sharing he Bananagrams game, where each player makes their own crossword puzzle, Scrabble like word diagram.  Amy, Sue and I started, Amy looking at her work, then Sue, Jess and Nate watching. As the only active photographer in this gathering, I stepped back to capture the scene. 

One of my  goals after attending the Path to Spirit Training Nov 14 - 16 at Camp Caanan formerly Haimowoods, near Kenosha Wisconsin, is to continue model my ongoing amends (think steps 8 and 9 of a 12 step program),  by showing up differently, with Nate, Sue, Jesse and Amy and dropping into my body, with embodied self awareness, without an agenda, expectation or any reason to know "Why?" 
David L, one of the leaders of the PTS Training weekend, read this short short book, The Lesson, A Fable for Our Times, at a meal on the weekend, and gifted each "pilgrim" as we are called on this path, with one of these books. I had read it for my adopted sister Jane Newell, when she came to support my ongoing clearing and cleaning of my apartment this week, and one of my goals for Mastery of the PTS, is to share with my path partner, John M, who lives in Evanston, my goals and then following up. Thanks John.  So, while all 5 of us were gathered around the playing table with our beverages, I read the entire book of lessons.
Here is the introductory page with  Robert's first day of school, with the inside cover. Here is a link
http://myfavbooks.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/the-lesson-a-fable-for-our-times-by-carol-lynn-pearson/
Each of us shared some of our emotional awareness as to how we have and are experiencing the school of life now as adults.  ( I suggest this is a good book to prime the pump for sharing of our emotional, spiritual and relationship journeys in a good way) 

While sharing after the reading, I inquired as to the message of Nate's T shirt. He said it is a reference to the Coen Brother's movie The Big Lebowski. That the bowling pin, relates to a theme in the movie. This is one of the Coen Bros movies I have not yet seen. The Coen brothers  were raised in St Louis Park where I now live, and recall the Rabbi in A Serious Man, was a parody of a Rabbi they knew here! 

Here is the link to Nate's reference.  Well, I suppose this needs to be part of my movie literacy goals, to find this film?  :-)  And let Nate know I might "get it, from his perspective "
I did look at a plot summary on wiki, and now I "get" the reference to bowling. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Lebowski

In 1991 Los Angeles, slacker Jeff "the Dude" Lebowski is roughed up by two thugs who demand money that Lebowski's wife owes to a man named Jackie Treehorn. After one of the thugs urinates on his rug, both they and Lebowski realize that they have mistakenly attacked the wrong Jeffrey Lebowski. The Dude meets his bowling friends, the timid Donny and the temperamental Vietnam veteran Walter Sobchak. Encouraged by Walter, the Dude approaches the other Jeffrey Lebowski, a cantankerous elderly millionaire in a wheelchair, to seek compensation for his ruined rug.............



 Nate with his Jeep soon to drive Jesse and Amy to Waite Park and the storage unit, with my utility trailer in tow behind my van. 
To set the stage for this home coming, I had taken an inventory of our various "stuff" in a rental storage unit, I have had over the past 5 years, early in Oct, and Nate, who has stored one of his former money making gaming modules there, along with Jess and Amy, joined in a caravan to clear out the unit Oct 25 last Saturday in October.  I loaded the wagon with cast iron wheels into the back seat of my van and got it ready to take to Ohio  through Chicago, arriving in Chicago Nov 8, and driving to Ohio on Nov 11, Veterans, where I  visiting  with Jerry Allison and family and friends at the West Carrollton Historical Society Museum.....


 Paul Henry Weaver, age 5, with Henry Eicher is maternal grandfather, Christmas 1915 @ 321 E Main St, West Carrollton OH. Photo by Noah Elwood Weaver....

Tom Weaver, yours truly, returning the Overland Wagon, wood with cast iron wheels to the West Carrollton Historical Society on Central t, just one block from 321 E Main Street where my dad, Paul H Weaver received the gift some 99 years ago this season.  Photo by Jerry Allison, President, WCHS...

Pendleton Wool Trading Goods and Cups!
My visit to the Pendleton Store in Michigan City, between Chicago and Ohio.   After visiting my friend Bob Shiel in Chicago Sunday and Monday,  I was committed to returning my fathers wooden wagon, he received for Christmas in 1915. (See above, that I liberated from storage in WaitePark-StCloud this fall) Using 21st Century techology I googled Pendleton Outlet, and found the store in Michigan City and made my way there early Nov 11, leaving Chicago by 6 AM, up and over the Skyway to Indiana to have breakfast in Michigan City by 8:15 or so.


I gifted a Pendleton Wool shirt, Large for Nate, and Large Tall for Jess, as well as another fabric for Amy.  Here are the boys checking out the fit...


Brothers Nate and Jess with their new plaid Pendletons......

And a little hijinx with Amy passing by. 
While continuing to graze on food and drink, Sue, Nate, Amy and Jesse are playing a pick up game of cribbage, one of the St Cloud Weaver traditional activities at our gatherings. 
All in all, a relaxing and satisfying Weaver traditional homecoming to complete our holiday obligations, earlier than usual.  From a place of spirit, it is great to witness, from an ocean of acceptance I free myself and others to be our selves... Next time, I will invite others to add a photo of me :-) 
I am still learning lessons!!!
















Sunday, November 2, 2014

1952 Cub Scouts Garfield Pack 307 and Boy Scouts Troop 303 Congregational Church - Faribault MN

 On pages 80-81 of the Weaver family album, here in 1952 in Jack Weaver at age 8 working with a hammer with Pack 307 in the basement of Garfield School in the Faribault neighborhood. 

 Jack is found at a table with his Cub Scout outfit with hat, while the female den mother is instructing other scouts. 1952.
 1952, Tom Weaver, age 5, too young for Cub Scouts, with his older brother Jack, age 8, holding a hammer

Troop 303, sponsored by the Congregational Church in Faribault. In 1952, Jim Weaver now age 11, is the second boy from the right.  Second from the left, I think is Gary Heath, a neighbor boy.  
 
Troop 303 Racoon Patrol with Carpentry demonstration, at I remember an scout gathering in the old armory near Buckham Library on Central Ave, downtown Faribault. 
 1952 Boy Scout, Jim Weaver doing carpentry with a design of a canoe in the background.




Scouting in the Weaver Family - Garfield School Cub Pack Meeting Spring 1950 -Camp Ajawah in 1950 July trip from Faribault

The oldest of the Weaver boys in Jim Weaver, born Sept 1940, and here in the Spring of 1950, here he is with his dad, (the taller man  to the right, at age 9, in the basement of Garfield Elementary School in Faribault.  This is the first scouting photo in the Peg and Pete Weaver family photo album.
For a history of the BSA, Boy Scouts of America see http://www.scouting.org/About/FactSheets/BSA_History.aspx
 On page 63 of the Peg and Paul H Weaver family photo album, this is labeled Nela Heath and Gary Heath, Mrs Peterson, Tommy Laroux, Mrs Knutson and Mike Knutson, Jim Weaver and Paul H Weaver, Mrs Reineke and a boy Reineke. This is Mr Toregson the Cub Scout Pack Leader.  According to the current 2014 website on Scouting "Cub Scouting is for boys in the first through fifth grades, or 7 to 10 years of age. Boys who are older than 10, or who have completed the fifth grade, can no longer join Cub Scouting, but they may be eligible to join the Boy Scouting or Venturing program."

 
 On the same page in 1950 this is labeled by my mom "Jim got his Cub Wolf Badge". Mr Torgeson with 5 boys, ____?, Jim Weaver, Mike Knutson, ____/, _____? Garfield Elementary School Basement.
Cub Scout, Jim Weaver getting ready to be taken to Camp Ajawah, age 9 Faribault driveway.  With brothers Jack, age 6 and Tommy age 3.   

1949 Buick in 1950 with Jim Cub Scout age 9 . Jack age 6 and Tommy age 3 with Raggity Andy.

http://www.ajawah.org/About.html

Ajawah History

Since 1922, boys and girls from Minnesota and throughout the world have come to experience two weeks of summer fun at Ajawah. After its founding by Westminster Boy Scout Troop 33, Camp Ajawah held its first sessions on Phelps Island on Lake Minnetonka. In 1929, the camp was moved to its permanent home on Linwood Lake.

Today, Ajawah holds four summer sessions, two for girls and two for boys. Ajawah becomes the temporary home of more than 300 campers each summer, about 80 campers per session. The boys' sessions still enjoy a vibrant scouting program, and Ajawah serves as a home base for BSA troops 33 and 100.
For 80 years, Ajawah has operated under the guidence of Westminster Presbyterian Church.

 Cub Scouts and neighbors in Faribault, Jim Weaver and Gary Heath.  ca 1950

 Platform tent at Camp Ajawah.
 Cub Scout Jim Weaver in 1950 at Camp Ajawah. Looking pensive.


Jim Weaver looking more upbeat in the platform tent at Camp Ajawah.
1950 view of swimming dock at Camp Ajawah on Linwood Lake, near Wyoming MN Photo by PHW

Saturday, November 1, 2014

First Cathedral in Faribault Sept 21, 2014 Cloister Naming Ceremony with Canonization of Rev James Zolatis and Paula Zotalis


 On the first day of Autumn, Sunday Sept 21, 2014, I attended a ceremony at the Cathedral in Faribault to honor Rev James Zotalis and his deceased wife Paula Zolatis, who beginning, in October of 2002 supported the congregation in raising $400,000 to build a cloister connecting the two buildings, the Cathedral completed in 1869 and the Guild House in 1894.  When I visited with Jim during my Faribault Class of 1965 40th Reunion planning, he announced that the estate of our old family neighbor, Helen Gipson with whom my mom sang, had bequeathed $400,000. along with another estate gift from a local benefactor for $100,000. Then the construction of the Cloister and the surrounding gardens became a reality in 2006!

 
View of the Guild House, with descriptions of the interior spaces, as I arrived on the Cathedral Grounds prior to the 10 AM Communion Service in the Cathedral followed by the Naming Ceremony within the Cloister.
 Red Bud Tree on the right, planted in the spring of 2007, and dedicated to the memory of my father Paul H Weaver MD, who loved this tree and its spring lavender flowers from his youth in the south of Ohio.  My mom, and family of choice friends, Jane Newell and Byron Aldrich support me and my mom, Margaret "Peg" Glessner Weaver during that dedication in the spring of 2006
Peg Weaver, age 96 looking at the red bud tree, as we envisioned a gift for the new Cloister Garden in Faribault as a living memorial to Paul H Weaver MD (1910 = 1982) and his love of the natural world. 
Planting crew Jim Langevin, Faribault, Dan Gorbanow, St Paul, Tom Weaver, Twin Cities, Mark Mueller-Dahl, Northfield, who planted the redbud tree in April 2007, after we picked it up at the Bachman's Nursery on Cedar Ave north of Northfield.
Peg looking at the heart shaped leaves in May after the tree bloomed, 2007   

Jane Newell and Peg Weaver May 2007 after dedication ceremony at the Cathedral for the Red Bud tree in the Cloister Garden 
Jane Newell, Amy Brown and Jesse Weaver visiting the garden after the ashes ceremony in the Cathedral Columbarium in 2009. 


 Cloister Entrance to the Cathedral and Guild House with garden, Sept 21, 2014, on my way into the service.

Rev Jim Zolatis in red sweater with his family on the right, with Bishop Brian Prior in the colorful garb, with Rev Henry Doyle and other church supported during the Canonization and Cloister dedication ceremony follow by a meal in the cloister common space.