STL DPB ON THE ROAD - GENE POOL

 

Another marginal phone pic, but that what’s we got. All three grandchildren in our hotel room with wet hair after the pool. Ellie, 11, the one from St. Louis, with her cousins Josie, 5, below center, and Ellie’s bestie, Audrey, 9, upper right. These kids have so much fun together that Ellie doesn’t want to leave but we have to go home today.                    

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Dad and the kids at the Hare Krishna chariot parade. They were on the stage with the people chanting, drumming and playing simple melodies. I think the girl has small finger cymbals and the boy is a bit bemused.

It's a travel day for my family, in the air and on the road to see my son and his family in Michigan. No Detroit. They recently moved from a small town to Midland, a town of about 42.000 and headquarters of Dow Chemical near the head of Saginaw Bay. You can tell it's prosperous. Don't know whether or if I'll have something to post. Maybe I'll see something while we change planes in Chicago. 

And happy birthday to Mrs. C. I won't mention the number but she's looking very, very good.           

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - HANGING OUT WITH THE FAMILY

Not a great photo but there isn't much going on. We were thinking of making a long day trip to sand dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan but got scared off by snow in the forecast. So we hung out and entertained kids. 

In the air again later today. Thanks to a big schedule change by the *&$@# airline we would have had a forty minute connection in Chicago, the most direct way, and I ain't taking that chance. So we are going home through Washington, DC, the very long way around, but it works.                

 

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - I'M RELATED TO ALL THESE PEOPLE, SORT OF

This is far from my usual kind of post but it has its charms (plus I still don't have new material). The reason for the trip to Kansas was the bi-annual get together of my wife's extended family. They are descended from Jürgen Kruse, who emigrated from Bremerhaven, Germany (where there is a superb museum of German emigration, https://www.dah-bremerhaven.de/en), and earned his U.S. citizenship by serving in the Union army during the Civil War. This is Mrs. C's branch; there are others. She is in there, as are my daughter and granddaughter.

 

Years from now, if someone looks at this family's records (if there is someone to look at them), my presence may be unnoticed. As the family photographer, I'm always on the other side of the lens.

                    

THE AUDIENCE

Artica is a family affair. Anyone who wanted to hear some music, see some visual art and hang around beneath the colorful ruins of the Cotton Belt Railroad freight terminal came along. Bring the kids.               

SOCIALIZE? SURE!

Not specific to St. Louis but anyway...

Families don't get to spend time together these days. My family is spread across the country anyway. One of my intelligent relations organized a family get-together on Zoom yesterday. Three months ago I had never heard of Zoom. We got people on there from Manhattan to San Francisco. By the time we had finished yakking the meeting had devolved into cocktail hour. Oh, and everyone is well.       

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas from the Crowe household in St. Louis to all our friends and colleagues around the world. May all your images in the new year be brilliant.

                 

Happy 98th, Elvira

My wife's mother, Elvira Kruse, will be 98 years old on Tuesday. It's the reason we come out here every Thanksgiving. She's rather frail physically but her mind is perfectly sharp. She remembers many things that her children do not.

Here she is surrounded by two of her grandchildren, my daughter Emily on the left and niece Tricia upper left, and great grandchildren too numerous to name. (And there are many others.) Only my Madeleine is out of sorts.              

My Strange Family

Weird Crowe family tradition: this ornament has hung over the Christmas dinner table for 40 years, first at my father's house and now my sister's. Someone spins and spins the string, then lets go. When the ornament stops turning, whoever Santa faces will have bad luck in the new year. Everyone calls him Evil Santa. Did I say we go through a lot of wine in this family?

Below, quality family time - a niece, spouse and brother sucked into their iPhones.

Every family has ups and downs but this one has had less than its share of bad luck. I am the oldest of four siblings. We are all still alive. We are all still on our first marriages. Everyone graduated from college, and there is a Ph.D., an M.B.A. and a J.D. sprinkled around the group. We all still like each other and make an effort to get together a couple of times a year. We turned out okay.

Thanksgiving In Marysville

Thanksgiving in Marysville, Kansas, at the home of my mother-in-law, Elvira Kruse. She lives on Keating Street, above, on the edge of the prairie. Elvira will be 96 on Saturday.                      

Thanks to the marvels of modern technology, all us Apple people brought in daughter Emily and Madeleine after dinner on Face Time. Son Andy and his wife, Claire, drove in from Chicago and made a fabulous meal. Below, Andy, sister-in-law Mary Lee, Mrs. C, Claire and Elvira gather around the TV and Andy's MacBook, sending greetings back to The Lou.

And, at the bottom, Madeleine takes her first steps! A day to remember.                     

 

Madeleine Monday: Halloween

We went to the home of our daughter, Emily, her husband, Brian, and Madeleine on Halloween night. There are lots of kids in their city neighborhood and few in ours in the suburbs. The weather had turned suddenly cold and there were not many callers. Father and daughter sat on the front steps, waiting to hand out the sugar.

Some people in this country go crazy at Halloween. I don't remember anything like this when I was growing up in New York. We put on some minimal disguise, then went from door to door in the local apartment buildings and demanded sweets. It's so elaborate now and so fixed on pretending terror is entertainment. I totally don't get it.                    

Half Happy Baby

A couple of yoga enthusiasts told me that's the name of the pose in the top picture. Madeleine's birthday party, part 1, was held the day after her birthday, due to family comings and goings. There's another today, when her other grandparents come up from Houston. I wish I had joints that moved like that.

Below, Ms. M has had enough yogic activity and decided to become the guest  conductor.              

Christmas In The Lou

Christmas Day on the South Side at Emily, Brian and Madeleine's home. Brian's parents and brother were here, along with our son Andy and his fiancee Claire.

Madeleine, of course, made out like a bandit. Above, Aunt Claire helps her inspect a new toy.

It is a good thing to have a professional chef in the family and Brian lays out quite a spread. He is doing something with duck as I write this.

Below, Grandma Carolyn tries to keep our star amused. Even Killian, the family dog, was dressed for the day. And it wouldn't be Christmas without a new lens for the author of this blog (picture taken with the gift itself).

We'll be in New York by late this morning, over to New Jersey in the afternoon. Sure to be a photo safari in the big city.        

The Night Before Christmas

Christmas Eve at Emily, Brian and Madeleine's home. Her other grandparents and uncle were up from Houston. Uncle Andy and aunt-to-be Claire were down from Chicago. The menu was Polish - my first exposure to pirogies.

A rare appearance by me on the blog (iPhone shot by Andy). Madeleine had lots of entertainment but for some reason every time she was passed to me she started bawling. Never did that before. Mrs. C thinks she has taken a dislike to my glasses.

Yesterday was a bittersweet day at work. Our little firm is moving at the end of the week. We've been in the same building for more than half of my career. I've been in the same room for 12 or 13 years, with its gorgeous views of the Arch, sunsets, fog over the Mississippi and once, even, a tornado. The new place is nice and makes business sense but nothing like the old one. I had to break down my computer and received a final message. My law partner, Julie, says we are starting Act III of our careers but it made me feel melancholy.     

Aglow

The night at the Botanical Garden wasn't too cold. Emily and Brian bundled up Madeleine and took her out in her stroller, which seemed like a Ferrari compared to what we put Emily in. (The thought brought visions of tots doing four wheel drifts in their perambulators, screeching through crowded streets in a Fast & Furious movie.)

There were a few places obviously set up for portraits and we took advantage of them. A young man proposed to his girlfriend in the bottom location just before E, B and M stepped in (with a photographer at the ready, of course. Not me.)                     

Shy Children

I'm about out of local material so I have to draw on Kansas a bit more. I've lost track of all the kids on the Kruse side of the family. (The Crowes have been less prolific.) These are a couple of them who are on the shy side. 

Above is Brody, grandson of my wife's sister, at Grandma Kruse's 95th birthday party. He was not engaging the rest of the crowd but his eyes met the camera. The little girl below is Sidney (I think that's how it's spelled), one of the many grandchildren of my wife's brother. She is being held by Dr. Kristin Kruse, the wife of my wife's brother's son . . . it all gets so complicated. At one point we were trying to figure out the relationship of my granddaughter Madeleine to these moppets. The calculus is too difficult.

         

My First Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving dinner at Elvira Kruse's Home in Marysville, Kansas. First, the star of our show, who has not decided it's time to wake up and smell the turkey.

Below, the family around the dinner table. From left to right, son-in-law Brian, daughter Emily, son Andy, prospective daughter-in-law Claire and Mrs. C (wearing her Calgary Stampede shirt). Bottom, sister-in-law Mary Lee and the birthday girl, my mother-in-law, 95 today and looking pretty good.         

Detour, But It's OK

I was going to run some pictures of the Calgary chuckwagon races but I didn't have any time to edit yesterday. Had to go to work for a while. In the late afternoon and evening there was a baby shower for our daughter Emily, who is soon to have our first grandchild. So voila, la famille Crowe. Me, Em, Carolyn and Andy. All very happy.   

There will be a feature about this venue in a week or so.                                 

Family

Pix of my side of the family:

My nieces Kelly WIlson, Lauren Wilson and Stephanie Crowe.

Stephanie entering the chapel.

My sister Sue WIlson with her daughters Kelly and Lauren.

My son Andy with his fiancee Claire.

Andy draining a mojito.

My daughter Emily and son Andy, who refuses to play it straight. Baby to be Madeleine is somewhere off the bottom of the frame.

My brother John, the family's French connection. 

My sister Mary Beth, her daughter Catey and husband Mel. 

Greg, Stephanie's boyfriend.

Stephanie and her brother, Steven Crowe.         

 

Quiet Anticipation

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Downtown has gotten very quiet over the last few days. The hoards are all in the suburban shopping centers where I, though no angel, fear to tread. What little shopping we do is online and we don't buy much. We'd rather have each other than more useless stuff.

Christmas Eve will be quiet in our home. Our two children are off with their S.O.s visiting their families in Texas and Michigan. I'm happy just to have Carolyn, peace and health. Oh, and that news about the grandchild is okay.