Space Shuttle Discovery

I am down here in Florida for the spring fire season. The fires here have all died down and we have had some slack time. Being only 250 miles from the Kennedy Space Center we took the opportunity to drive up from Homestead, Florida and see the Space Shuttle Discovery off. Five hundred miles round trip and worth every one. Even with gas at $4.00 per gallon.

The shots are a bit long and are taken with a small camera but you'll get the idea. What an impressive sight to see! I may never see this again but I am glad to have been there and am glad to share it with everyone.

--Roger Douglass

Western Paintings

I hope you all love this site as much as I do!

Western Paintings

--Shared by Cal Freehling

MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE

A good number of people turned out for the Haigler Memorial Day Service in spite of the wind and cool temperature Monday morning at 10:00.

Kenny Potthoff was the master of Ceremonies. Gordon Orth played pleasing background music on the guitar. A Wreath was placed on the tomb of the unknown soldier followed by the pledge of allegiance. Prayer was offered by Mildred Stute. The Address was given by Terry Douglass. Althea (Brunswig) Lebow sang Faith of Our Fathers accompanied by Betty Orth on the guitar. The firing squad consisting of the Legionaires and sons of the Legionaires gave the gun salute.

After the service at the cemetery, refreshments were served at the American Legion Building.

A Note - Alumni Open House

The reunion committee worked hard to prepare the Legion Hall for the Haigler alumni to meet and visit at the open house on Saturday.

Some of the people seen were Albert Zuege, Alan Zuege, Mildred Stute, Almeda Norris, Deloris Zuege, Louise Thomsen, Barbara Neville, Russ & Char Hoover, Dallas Adams, Don and Joanne Webster, LeNeta Carlock, Myrna Mulligan, Karen Harford, CD Samler, Rex & Beverly Tracy, Pat Fortkamp, Gwen (Scrivner), Jeanne Wall, Laura Pearl Wall, Duane Wall.

The picture is Leah Brewer, Almeda Norris, Russ & Char Hoover.

Hope you will add a comment to tell about who you saw and visited with at the reunion.

If you have pictures to add to the blog, send them to haiglerblogger@gmail.com

Ahhh!!! Vacation … Renewal of my Soul

I hadn’t had a vacation for a year and a half. During that time period, my son was going through a divorce and all that goes along with that sad and stressful, continuous family upheaval event; I had emergency gallbladder surgery; our secretary’s job was cut from our division causing a heavier work load for all of us. Economic, Emotional, Life Events piled up on me until I was stressed to the point of exhaustion.

When I get to that state of “burnout”, there is nothing better than spending time with my family. They rejuvenate me; encourage me; give my soul a ‘rest’. That is why I returned to my “homebase” last week in Leah’s little “home on the prairie” in St. Francis.

I spent time with my oldest sister, Leah and her husband Dwight. They gave my heart and soul the needed rest I was unaware that I needed. We sat on their patio and counted the birds that lived in their neighborhood and watched their little garden grow. We drove out to 3-Corners and Devil's Gap and around "the neighborhood" where we grew up. As the week progressed, the lines in my face relaxed and I could actually see the stress flee from my inner soul.

What do people do who don’t have a ‘sister” who gives them just what they need; a listening ear; an understanding; a “renewal”??? I have decided that people who don’t have a safe haven must be those who end up in the psychiatrist’s office or the “looney bin”.

I am so thankful for my family, who give me peace and love and understanding whenever I have needed it through the years. THEY, and my belief in God, are why I am reasonably “sane” and have a peace in my soul today and am ready to return to work tomorrow.

Thank you to all my family, but especially my mother and my sister, Leah, for being the best mother and sister a “girl” could ever have.

-- Sherri Gregory

A Mini-Reunion

The Gregory Girls and Fisher Boys got together on Saturday afternoon for the first time in several years. The cousins have always been close because their mothers Alice Gregory and Floy Fisher-Ruggles are sisters and best friends. In fact the kids consider each other to be like brothers and sisters and are also best friends.

The afternoon began with a lunch at Floy & Ray's house and visiting. After Leah, Leone and Sherri stopped by the Legion Hall to check in to see who was there, they all loaded up in cars and drove out to Steve & Tammy Workman's farm where the Gregory's lived while growing up. Some of the group drove by the various places where Alice, Floy and their Crabtree ancestors lived and went to school.

Dick Gregory and Sharna (Fisher) Richardson were the only two missing, but Dick and Sharon, his wife, phoned later in the afternoon to be included in the gathering.

Family members who attended the mini-reunion were Alice Gregory, Ray & Floy Ruggles, Dwight & Leah (Gregory) Brewer, Kenny & Leone (Gregory) Carlson, Sherri Gregory, Eunice (Gregory) Richard and friend David Hernandez, Melvin Fisher, Garry Fisher, Shelley (Beeson) Parker and Abbey Rose, David & Kelly (Beeson) Barger, Kevin Richard Beeson, Lauren (Crabtree) Rohn.

Other visitors at the Ruggles home included Almeda (Bier) Norris from Loveland, CO, Delores (Bier) Zuege of Haigler, Louise (Zuege) Thomsen, of Watts, OK, Pat (Smith) Fortkamp and Dallas Adams.

If you had a family gathering, too, we would love to hear about it. Write to either Floy or Sherri at ffisher@bwtelcom.net or haiglerblogger@gmail.com

Ancestor Search

May 25, 2008

Today Mamma and I stopped at the Woodruff, Kansas cemetery, located a few miles northeast of Long Island, Kansas where we know the Gregory family lived at one time and where I believed our great-grandparents, Gabriel Richard and Anna Belle (Thrasher) Gregory are buried. It is the third time I have stopped there to look for their graves. Three or four years ago, I stopped in Phillipsburg, Kansas and found Lucille Gregory, the wife of Earl Gregory, son of Richard Belle Gregory, who our daddy called “Uncle Richey”. She informed me that they were plain to see and on the west side of the little cemetery.

Mamma and I looked again today, but they were not to be found. Before leaving the cemetery, I stopped and talked to a lady who happened to have purchased a “Phillips County Cemetery List” at an auction and she looked at the Woodruff Cemetery list and they were not listed. She was kind enough to search through the book until we found their names listed in the “Goode Cemetery” which is located 5 miles south and 3 miles west of the Woodruff cemetery.

Even though there were huge black clouds to the south and east of us, Mamma and I bravely took off on some country roads that seemed to be pretty well traveled, even though there had been some recent hard rain ruts cut out of the low spots. After a couple of attempts, we came upon a small, very well kept cemetery at the top of a hill overlooking a beautiful tree lined creek. The cemetery gate was open, so we entered and walked to the west row of graves and there they were!!! After several years of trying to find them, they were exactly where they were supposed to be. Someone had placed flowers in picturebox containers made from tin trays with a glass covers. It was hard to tell how long these containers had been at the graves, but each of the Gregory family stones had one propped against it as if someone had just placed them there recently. The graves we found were Gabriel, Anna Belle (Thrasher), and three of their children; Richard Belle “Richey”, Cora A., and Matilda “Tilly”:

G. R. Gregory born Jan. 7, 1860 DIED Aug. 29, 1909
Anna B. Gregory born Feb. 7, 1860 DIED Sept. 15, 1907
Richard B. Gregory June 29, 1889 Aug. 8, 1917
Matilda B. “Tilly” Gregory Jan. 22, 1894 – May 22, 1917 “Daughter of Gabriel & Anna”
Cora A. Gregory Born Jun 25, 1892 DIED Nov. 21, 1892

Jim Haigler's Book "Around the Water Tank"

Autographed copies of Jim Haigler's book will be available for sale at the Haigler open house Saturday and also at the pot luck on Sunday.
--Linda j

Here is a description of the book:

In Around the Water Tank, author Jim Haigler molds his words to create visual images of various aspects of life in the nineteen forties and fifties. He paints these pictures in the context of twenty-four humorous and touching stories of a young boy growing up in a mill village at a time when the country was adjusting to post war prosperity and the emerging threat of the cold war. This quaint semi-autobiographical collection will stir the memories of the writer's generation and is certain to charm and entertain while capturing the imagination of all ages. "One main purpose in writing this book was to try and capture the essence of an era that is rapidly vanishing from our collective memory. My intent was to document and pass on the spirit of the times through a series of stories. Each is based on actual events and is as accurate as memory allows. A few have been enhanced to include some things that almost happened, and other things that we talked about doing but were chicken." The obvious target audience is comprised of those who remember the times and will have their memory nudged toward pleasant recollections of their own. It can also encourage a younger market, particularly pre-teen boys, to read more by presenting adventures on the playground, bikes, skates, fishing and snake hunting in humorous short reads that will capture their imagination and hold their attention.