Random Images Reflecting on my 2011 Visit to Zhongguo - the Middle Kingdom that is China

 

Photo by Chaoyang "Tony" Zhu, at the Nanjing Presidential Palace, where Dr Sun Yat Sen lived during the time of the Republic.  

 

My guide Tony Zhu, eating a hot pot cooked at our place in Nanjing.  A very welcoming host, I will always remember and honor, introducing me to modern day China.  Xie xie ni, pengyou Chaoyang "Tony" 

Tony supported my using the bullet train from Nanjing to Beijing from the southern capital to the northern capital. 

 
Photo with another tall guy at the colorfully restored Tian Tian, Temple of Heaven in Beijing.  Featured on one of my favorite postage stamps I collected as a kid.

 Chinese Republic Stamps I collected in the 1950's and 60's, that still fascinate me, in historical perspective.
 
Part of the history exhibit at the Temple of Heaven. 

 

Leo Lum at the Polo event featuring Mongolian Horsemen, and four nations, China the UK, Argentina and New Zealand near Yanqing, north of Beijing. 

While staying with my friend Greg, who worked for the Chinese Medicine Publishing house in Beijing, he coached me on how to use the taxi's dadi, in the city. He wrote down the address of a restaurant in NE Beijing where I was to meet my Carleton College Class of 1969, Classmate Leo Lum, who had invited me to travel with him and his friends north of the great wall for the weekend. 

 For more photos and details please check out http://prairielakesjourneystwospirit.blogspot.com/2013/01/minnesota-to-yanqing-china-and-valley.html Here are some flowers, in the Valley of Flowers with the deep blue sky, that is not polluted where our group stopped. 

 

Catherine and Leo Lum, walking up a structure to look over the valley. They have a vision of creating a retirement village here. 

 

Here is where we stopped in a village of have a very satisfying traditional country meal. 

 

View of the Great Wall, where I joined in a celebration dinner after the polo match. 

While on the train back from Yanqing with Liu Jianqiang and his son, Legend, I asked them about places that would recommend as I did not have a complete itinerary.  Jianquiang graciously contacted his travel agent on his cell, and booked a flight from Beijing to Xi'an, where I stayed for 3 days, and then to Kunming and up to Shangri la in the foothills of the Himalaya Mts.

 Xinping is a man I met on line, who was working at a bank, and suggested places to visit.  I choose this restaurant that he fresh fish from Northern China....Here he his smiling at the meal.

While we ordered our food, a tour guide, Daphne from the Netherlands happened in and the staff invited them to talk with me, as I speak German and English, and she did as well.  Fun to be open and spontaneous here in this Xi'an Cafe near the south part of the Old Wall, inside. 

 The ticket I purchased to get onto the old city wall. I then rented a bike (not really for me size) and rode the 45 minute ride on the wall early in the morning before I took the bus to the airport down to Kunming.

 One of the views from the wall overlooking Xi'an City while I rode a rental bike early in the morning.

 And I sign that helped me duck as I walked to the Bell tower from the Drum tower. 

 

Market place near the old Mosque said to be the beginning place in China for the Silk Road. 

 

I took a taxi out to the site of the Excavation of the Terra Cotta Soldiers and then the bus back to town.  Xinping wrote down a list in Chinese, so each taxi driver would know my next stop!  

 This is the temple I noticed when walking the stone paths in this small town, once called Zhongdian, later the tourist name of Shangrila. :-)  (over 9000 ft elevation...

 Leaving Kunming for Hong Kong on Dragon Airways, my last flight in China.

My friend Greg in Beijing lined me up to meet Xiujuan, an engineer who was living near the airport in Kunming. She brought in some of her homemade dumplings (饺子, jiǎo​ zi )
to share at the airport.  She later moved to the Twin Cities to marry a man named Woody. She came over to my apartment and taught me Mah Jong! 

1952 Faribault Black and White Photos Weaver Family 425 SW 3rd St.

1952 Photos from Peg and Pete Weaver album..

With the passing of my brother John Eicher Weaver, this past year, I am finding it important to label the photos my parents preserved in their family album and share some here. The 3 Weaver brothers where raised in a family environment that valued liberal arts education.  Peg Weaver, Margaret Glessner was a 1932 graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio and Paul Henry Weaver, was a 1938 graduate of Ohio State, with a BS and an MD. He had attended 3 years at Antioch College, Yellow Springs OH, prior to transferring to OSU, where he and Peg met on a blind date.


 1952 Recording session with the reel to reel tape recorder. (see microphone left of me)  Tom with clown nose, Jack as a mountie and Jim, in his flannel shirt, in some sort of acting role.  During this time, our parents, Peg and Pete Weaver, enjoyed role playing "Billy's Buttered Biscuits" episodes, "Try 'em, buy 'em" with their good friends who worked in Faribault's education circles, Marge and Ed Silvis, Faribault Public Schools and Frances and Brad Craig of Shattuck Campus, where they laughed and played.



1952, likely on a Sunday Morning, when we each had to wear a sport coat,  Tom (5), Jack (8) and Jim (12) at the small Weber grand piano in the living room.  Each of us continued to have music in our lives, me with clarinet and vocal. Jack with guitar, electric guitar, Jim with cello and guitar.

Comments by Peg Weaver, mother of 3, in her Rememberings of a 83-Year Old Grandma Memoir
on our interests as younger boys p 68-69


"Jack's second grade teacher, Dena Mueller (whose sister cleaned for me), told us that she thought Jack had worms because he was chewing his pencils! When he was in third grade and having some behavioral problems, his teacher, Jane Herbert, and the elementary supervisor, Madge Paro, suggested that we take him to the University for testing, suspecting that he was an underachiever. Among the tasks that he was asked to perform was drawing a man. Jack's man wore a space suit and the University had no models for evaluating it. Jack told me that this drawing appears in a textbook on student testing. Tom and neighbor Sue Heath had continuous and strenuous competition in weekly spelling tests. On several New Year's Eves, Neila, Ken and Sue Heath joined Pete, Tom and me for snack celebrations, smoked oysters, sardines, cheese and Pepsie. Early on Tom began collecting butterflies and moths, often with Richard Rodewald. Borrowing books from the library, Pete and I became involved in trying to help with identification and preservation of his collections. Eventually our home housed several lepidoptera collections in large picture frames. This was fun for me, too, since nature hobbies were always appealing  When he was in Junior High, Jim's interests revolved around electricity. With a sealed jar containing a small, Christmas-tree-light-bulb plugged into to the house current, a light appear at the top of one of our tall European larch trees and could be seen for quite a distance since our lot's elevation was higher than much of the community. The basement doors were wired to buzz when they were opened and the basement had a tesla coil. Using a pack-ratted electric transformer, munching squirrels were startled at our window box bird feeder, a touch of the switch sending them sailing into the air. The furnace room was loaded with pack-ratted acquisitions stored on jerry-built shelves Jim constructed. Jim was also interested in pulleys, stringing a system between his bedroom and Dick Swain's house next door. "Pulleys save steps," was a phrase we used to tease him. When he took a math course from Ray Budenske, his answer to a problem was correct, but, because he didn't obtain it in the way the teacher had taught, he didn't receive credit. This bothered me --- innovation was penalized.
One of Jim's hobbies was shooting a bow and arrow, setting up a shooting range behind the garage, hauling in bales of straw to hold the bull's eye and catch stray arrows. Unfortunately, the straw was made from quack grass, which invaded our asparagus patch close by. When he was a high school senior, Pat Handy, Jim's very close friend, was killed in an accident on a train trestle near Faribault. This was a difficult time at our house.
Both Jim and Jack went to a Boy Scout Camp at Balsam Lake, Wisconsin, Jack receiving the Order of the Arrow. I remember driving a group to the camp, following the east side of the St. Croix River, seeing Stillwater Prison on the opposite bank.
When Tom played basketball during his sophomore, junior and senior years in high school, Pete and I attended the games in Faribault. The coaches had wanted Tom to join the Varsity when he was a ninth
grader, but Pete and I vetoed that idea, believing it would not be for Tom's benefit. Often a crowd chartered a bus for out-of-town games, especially in snowy weather, leaving the driving to some one else. Standing six feet nine inches, he was an asset to the team, had a good touch and made neat hook shots. In Tom's senior year, 1965, the Faribault team played in the State Tournament and was runner-up for the State Championship! A reception for the returning team was held at the high school with a huge crown attending. Faribault was proud of its team! Although Tom was offered a basketball scholarship by Davidson College he didn't accept, preferring to select a college on a different basis and not wanting to be beholden to basketball for his college education. Very helpful in this decision was the AT&T (American Telegraph and Telephone) stock that my parents had given to each kid for his college education. The Faribault Canning Company provided summer jobs for many Faribault teen-agers, including Jim and Jack. Jim was in the pea-canning department; Jack, in the warehouse, stacking cartons. Another summer, Jim worked at the turkey plant, grabbing turkeys from cold water baths. How his clothes stunk! Tom worked for the Rice County Surveyor, Tom Taylor, helped Larry Knutson with outdoor house-painting, and was a gas station attendant."

  
1952 Tom and Jack reading the colored funnies in the Sunday Paper, prior to going to Sunday School at the Cathedral of our Merciful Savior in Faribault 

 1952 Jim and Tom, in our flannel shirts, using the reel to reel tape recorder.

Rememberings of a 83-Year Old Grandma Memoir reflections by Peg Weaver p 70

"All of us had fun using the tape recorder -- Tom singing "Do you Know the Muffin Man" and "0 Come, All Ye Faithful", Jack telling his stories of "Space Patanies" and "New Orleans Cows", all of us presenting versions of corny "Billy's Butter Biscuits", Ed Silvis having provided the script. When Marge and Ed with Frances and Brad    Craig recorded this with us, we all became hysterical listening to the play-back with Frances' eastern accent for "hoss-cah conductah" (horse-car conductor).
Each boy took piano lessons for a few years, each having the usual problem of not wanting to practice. The high school orchestra and band had Weaver players: Jim on the cello; Jack, bass fiddle; Tom, clarinet. Each sang in the high school choir, Jim also singing in a male octet. Jack played bass fiddle in a Koopman band, where Oscar Teisberg (the sober, public school band director who appeared to walk around with his eyes closed) played clarinet. Jack was enamored with the electric guitar, making his first purchase at Schmitts music store in Minneapolis, later ordering Fender guitars through Eastman's music store in Faribault. For a high school choir concert he played his guitar to accompany "Black, Black, Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair".
Combo rehearsals often took place in our living room. Jim's combo played before Rock and Roll became popular and its music was not loud. Its members: Charlotte Allen (piano), Bob Ericcson (string bass), Curt Herbert (clarinet), Janet McKeeby (drums), Rog Schroeder (cornet), Herb Sellner (trombone), Wally Borgstahl (vocalist), Jim Weaver (home-made guitar and manager). Jack's combo was definitely Rock and Roll AND LOUD with an amplifier for his electric guitar. The members: Jim Hanson (piano), Harold Weatherson (sax and clarinet), Russell Seely (instrument?), Gary Mudge (string bass), Jack Winjum (drums), Jack Weaver (guitar).
For our living room Jim and Jack built a hi-fi system with large cabinets housing speakers and amplifiers. Pete liked to play classical records at high volume on the hi-fi, driving me to another part of the house or outdoors, almost ruining my enjoyment of classical music. However, my singing was inclined to be loud, which probably bothered all of them. When Jack played his guitar in combos, for his amplifier he used the one he had made for the hi-fi system, borrowing the Buick station wagon to transport the bulky cabinet.  "

1952 Tommy Weaver with microphone ,standing up in front of the bound book edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, in the Faribault living room. 

 1952  Tom Jack and Jim Sunday morning with radio console in living room Faribault

 1952 Tommy with colored blocks in the breakfast room. Note radiator where the family dial telephone sat for years.

 1952 Tommy with Hersey Bar.

1952 Yard Circus in Weaver back yard labeled Janice Dahl, Johnny Shea, Ann Heath, Gary Heath, Jack and Tom Weaver. By PHW with white pine tree behind

1981 Pelican Lake Weaver Family Connections - Another privotal year for the family Mobile

As I look back, 1981 is a pivotal year for the Weaver family mobile, at the evolving Pelican Lake Cabins.  Looking back from 2015 - 34 years later, how precious are the images for those who continue to return to the Lakes and Waters of Crow Wing County.  

 Aug 1981 Sunset Beach Cabin of Peg and Pete Weaver.  L- R Tom with Camp Superkids T Shirt (Took kids to Camp Widjiwagen BWCA with asthma that summer, Sue holding Nathan, 3 mo, Melanie from MA, Peg whose home this was taken in, Harold Williams from Illinois, Jack who worked for Stor Dor (intermodal shipping), "Pete" Paul H Weaver, who was feeling low energy, and early in 1982 was diagnosed with cancer , Val, Kris, Nellie, Jim holding Ken (15 mo) John. By TGW














1981 Aug, Val, Ken, Melanie Weaver, Brainerd airport, Republic Airlines, flying in from Boston MA, by PHW
 
1981 Front Porch Sunset Beach cottage of P & P.  Harold Williams, Sue Weaver, John Weaver, Pete Weaver, Jim, Melanie, Ken, Kris, Nellie and Jack.   Enjoying a meal on the front porch the traditional summer gathering place at the cottage built in 1947.

 1981, John Eicher Weaver II, on the hooked wool rug that Peg Weaver designed and  hand made in Faribault 1950- 1955.

 Aug 1981, Nellie Jane Williams Weaver, Valerie Brick Weaver, Melanie Brick Weaver sunset Beach cottage.

 1981 Pelican sand beach, Kris, Val and John Weaver 

 1981  Tom with Nathan Blair Weaver, age 3 mo, Jim with Kenneth Glessner Weaver, age 15 mo. PHW in background, photo by SEW.

 1981 Pontoon Boat, at Harold Williams cabin area, Jack, Kristen, Val, Nellie and John head out into the Pelican Lake waters....By PHW

Aug 1981 Sunset Beach cabin, Sue, John, Val, Jim Weaver giving horsy back rides with Ken looking on. 

Genealogy and the mystery of name changes - Looking for clarity about great grandma Rehbein-Rhebein in the Johnson Family Story

GENEALOGY WORK - How Story Telling and Finding the Truth, has been healing to My Family Dysfunction.  

Today, my personal mission includes "Through Spirit I develop trust and safety in relationships through curious listening and reflecting, freeing myself and others to be fully alive! " 

THE LEGACY of Margaret G Weaver, 1910-2007, and her sharing her experiences in writing 

REMEMBERINGS OF A 83-YEAR OLD GRANDMA - Self published Memoir 1994

In an addenda written May 2007 when she agreed to share here writing with local history centers, she wrote "My biography, Rememberings of an Eighty-Three Old Grandma, was written for my children and grandchildren. I wrote it and self-published it from discs of my PC in Brainerd in 1994. Since that time I have become aware of how the printed word captures memories and events from past generations that are valuable for future generations  when they are available through history centers. My son, Torn, has shared with me the satisfaction he has received doing research at history centers throughout the eastern US, which has provided more insight about the Glessner, Chase, Bixby and Chappelear roots on my side, and more recently, the Weaver, Eicher, Brandt, and Paul roots on my husband's family tree. In addition, since 1994, he has connected through the Internet to valuable information that will allow creation of more thorough family legacy genealogy resources. Tom has recently has shared with me the Chappelear Genealogy placed on line by a Chappelear in Alabama, that extends the tree three generations beyond what my Aunt Mary had done, to Virginia, all the way back to Uzes, Languedoc, France in the 1600's in Southern France.
I know what I have written is my truth and my story. It is my hope that my descendants and others will take this work to heart and write their own stories to benefit their families and the planet in a good way."

CONTINUING THE LEGACY of FUN Story Telling

I see myself, Building on the Work of Grandma Peg Weaver - Building Family Trust to share stories over the generations. And to name some of the family shadows (addictions) that may not just be alchohol and drugs., also co-dependency.  One of the jokes that has been useful for me in this work Q"What happens to a non-recovering co dependent when we die? A  Other peoples lives, flash before my eyes!  " :-)

 Sharing ancestral stories for the health and happiness of the next 7 generations in a good way.   It has  been 32 years since my father Paul H Weaver MD died of bowel cancer  (alcohol and nicotine addiction) in January 1982, at age 72 at St Joseph's Hospital in Brainerd MN.  I am committed to sharing stories of health and recovery in my biological family and beyond, as a long term beneficiary of 12 step recovery, in Al Anon since 1981, after Susan and I attended counseling sessions with an ex priest Geno Beniek, MSW. We began to  look at family patterns and emotional sharing, as we stepped into becoming new parents.  Nathan Blair Weaver, our first born son,  was born June 18 1981, just 6 months prior to his grandfather's death. 

 Our last family photo taken Aug 1981, prior to the death of Paul H Weaver.  L to R  Tom, Sue, Nate, Melanie, Peg, Harold Williams, Jack, "Pete" Paul Henry, Val, Kris, Nellie, Jim, Ken and John, at Sunset Beach Cottage of Peg and Pete Weaver. Some visionaries, like the late Virginia Satir - She believed that a healthy family life involved an open and reciprocal sharing of affection, feelings, and love. Satir made enormous contributions to family therapy in her clinical practice and training "

Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible - the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.

Virginia Satir

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/v/virginia_satir.html#9EjrJzZbEIw9bZ0y.99

From  Peg Weaver's Rememberings of an 83- year old Grandma, published 1994 :
"PETE'S HEALTH PROBLEMS AND DEATH Looking back, it was most fortunate that Jim, Jack and Tom and their families were all here in the summer of 1981 for a sort of family reunion, since Pete died the following January. I am thankful for the wonderful pictures that Tom took of the happy group (See 1981 picture, p. 14,.): Jim, Melanie, Valerie (seven years old) and Kenneth (one year); Jack, Nellie, Kristin (seven) and John (five); Tom, Sue, and Nathan (two months); Pete and me; Harold Williams (Nellie's father)."p104

 In 1984, Sue Weaver left (taking this photo likely Jo Eicher), here are me, with beard shaven, Nate age 3 with Bill Eicher, my cousin born in 1927, the last surviving of my fathers generation greeting us in Kettering OH, where we shared stories of the Weaver-Eicher family lineage.  He informed me of so much my fathers view, had hidden from me, living in Minnesota, some 600 miles from the family homestead. 

Clarity has been very helpful in being open to listening and reflecting on others experiences. Bill is the one, that when I was coming out as a gay father and son, here in 1984 said to me without judgement "It must be genetic, as my sister Betty was in a lesbian relationship for 40 years!"  What I sense of relief to be heard and acknowledged by my flesh and blood cousin and then having him work with me to deepen our family genealogy understanding. Always working to know, who to take a risk with, and face my fears of rejection, and nothing ventured, nothing gained. Now, more fearless. :-)

  Here is Betty Eicher (b 1913), Grandpa Henry Eicher and my father Paul Henry  Weaver (b 1910), CA 1915 in a photo taken by Noah Elwood Weaver looks like the stairs to his place of employment, the Friend Paper Company in West Carrollton OHIO.

OPEN TO SUPPORT from other Cousins and family - To discover more about the Johnson Family from Wisconsin

Being Free of old judgements, resentments and fears (From doing many 4th and 5th steps in Al Anon and Debtors Anonymous, as opened me up to new ways of occurring in the world in the 21st Century.

The promises of AA -Al Anon,  have come true in my life, one day at a time. "We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and selfpity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them."

THE JOYS OF LEARNING FROM FAMILY HISTORY - Health and Illness, Embodied Self Awareness.  More life in my body....As my elders say "The only thing the Creator gave us, is our body, and it is important to take good care of it"

ROOTS and SHOOTs . Leaving a legacy of understanding about Risk Taking and Being Open to New Technology and Learning -

I have been working on my family genealogy since the death of my grandfather Noah Elwood Weaver in 1973.  I inherited his extensive photograph collection from a century ago, and have sought out relatives to help label the photos, soon after my fathers death, as he only helped label a few of the photos.  Like recovery, no one researches their family by ourselves, it takes research, communication and endurance with a vision and mission to keep going.  Thanks for those who have supported this in the past, and those emerging from our growing and thriving family tree. As we say in D/Lakota "we are all related and connected"

My dad, Paul Henry Weaver, in 1922 (age 12) on a sled in rural Ohio, Montgomery County, pulled on his sled by by the family 1918 Oldsmobile. (NEW Album)

JOHNSON FAMILY HISTORY QUEST

Over the past year, I have begun a deeper search into the history of the Gust and Christina Johnson, Swedish Lineage of Susan E Johnson's family in Wisconsin.  I have found considerable information on line, regarding Gust and Christina's location in the south side of Chicago in the 1900 Census and that Edward Johnson was born in Chicago

 22 Aug 1893. Interesting his wife, Geneveive M “Jennie” Babino Cook, was also born in 1893, Bear Creek and that all the family members I have contacted remember that grandma Jennie Cook Johnson was likely born out of wedlock and the actual history is hard to discern.  Ron Sedo from The Jane Dolores Johnson side, talked of "Grandma Rehbein", just like Sue always described her, without a first name, and that she was the mother of Jennie, with another man.  The story thickens as many call her Jennie Cook, as she was adopted and taken in by a lumberman Henry F Cook, which is documented in the city directory I have recently found on Ancestry.com .  Also a Jenna Babino, age 6,  is listed on the 1900 Census for a Babino family in Deer Creek in  Outagamie County and in 1905 and then by 1910, a Jennie Babino was living with the Henry Cook Family of Black Creek.  Finally by 1920, Edward Johnson and Jennie Cook -Babino were married and the Census of 1920 has them living on Klein St in Kaukauna, with three children, Lucille b 1914, Clifford b 1915, and Ralph b 1918. 
This photo from 1918, Susan found with her parents things. It was labeled Ellen Geneva, ____?, Lucille, Jennie and Ralph. 

 This is a photo of Lucille Johnson I scanned from Ron Sedo's album Jan 15, 2015. Likely a high school portrait taken around 1930, at age 16, a year or so before her fatal car crash
 30 May 1931,  Sherwood, Wisconsin.  I am not finding photos of Clifford Johnson, the second born here.  
 
CA 1938  Ralph Johnson and mom, Jenny Babino Cook Johnson.  From Susan E Johnson Weaver files 

 Grandma Rehbein, labeled 1943, age 73 in Ron Sedo's album scanned Jan 14, 2015. Since then, I have discovered that Grandma Rehbein, most surely the mother of Jennie Babino Cook Johnson, lived with the Lehman's as a young girl in Sect 20-29 of Deer Creek Township, Outagamie County Wisconsin.  A near neighbor was A.L. Babino to the Lehman's.

Scanned at Ron Sedo's home Jan 2015, Ronny Sedo with dad Norbert Sedo,  Louis Jankowski, grandma Rehbein's husband taken at King Veteran's Home Waupaca, WI.

Photo from Ron Sedo's album labeled Uncle Herman Cook.

1950's Grandma Rehbein, Edward and Jennie Johnson at Veterans Home -King Home Waupaca, scanned at Ron Sedo's home Jan 2015 by Tom Weaver

Oct 5, 1920 Baptism Certificate for  Jane Delores Johnson child of Edward Johnson and Jennie (nee) Cook New London Ev Lutheran with Sponsors Herman and Mrs Herman Rhebein (same handwriting)

April 1, 1920 Birth Certificate for Jane Delores Johnson, Kaukauna Wi, Father Ed Johnson, Mother Jennie Babinau (?) 

1952 Louie Jankowski, Dick and Ron Sedo, Jane Johnson Sedo, Grandma Rehbein Waupaca Kings Vets Home, scanned at Ron Sedo's home, Jan 2014 by Tom Weaver.

1950's from Ron Sedo album,  Grandma Rehbein at home with family photos. Scanned Jan 14, 2015.

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