MPT Epilogue: Riding Along in Style

This is an epilogue for Mommy's Piggy Tales.  Janna has provided a forum for members to write and share stories from their youth.  I have really enjoyed digging through old photos and mostly thinking about things from DECADES ago!  Thanks Janna!

 Riding Along in Style

When I selected the blog theme "Riding Along" I knew this photo would be the perfect ending, taken six years after my HS graduation:

Joe (Age 13), A (10), Karen (24) in 1967

Here we are (in color no less!) on Easter Sunday 1967.    I'm being professional, Joe is Mr. Cool,  and A is so cute.  We are in the driveway of the dream house our parents built in 1966 just a few blocks from the place where I grew up in the same town, of course.  M was married with children and living in another state.  I was in graduate school at the University of Kansas about 2 hours from our Nebraska hometown. I had just completed a key hurdle in a Ph.D. Medicinal Chemistry program which meant that with successful research and much more work, I would earn the degree.  I had driven home in an old Falcon station wagon that Dad "forgot" to trade in when he bought a pick-up about the time I graduated with my B.S. degree!  Often when I went home, Dad took my car to his favorite local mechanic and the tire store for check-ups (and usually he paid for it too!).   However, on this week-end, he came back with a 1967 Mustang!  What?  I couldn't believe my tearful eyes!  He said something about the Falcon not being very reliable, with his usual big smile.  He had also arranged for some reasonable payments within the stipend allowance a graduate student could afford.  Dad always knew what I needed!

Condensing events, soon after this photo was taken, I met my future husband who first noticed me as the "girl with the blue Mustang."  We took the car on our honeymoon.  For years it was our second vehicle, we even fitted it with baby car seats.  As we moved to two different cities, the Mustang was racking up miles.  We kept it longer than any other vehicle we've had, 16 years.

So, thanks for riding along through my youth.   Karen

MPT Part 12: Graduation and Onward

This is the twelfth  in a series of twelve blogs I'm writing for Mommy's Piggy Tales .  Janna has provided a fun forum for members to write and share stories from their youth.   This post focuses on the year 1961 and events for our family.   I have also written a short epilogue separately.

 Graduation and Moving Onward

As I reflect on my junior and senior years in high school, fifty years ago, I realize that what comes to my mind now is probably much different than what I would have written 10, 30, or 49 years ago.  Assuming that I recall those things that are truly most important, I'll continue.

My most useful HS classes were Algebra II, Chemistry, Senior English, and Typing.  Although I was most interested in math and science for my college preparation, my mom insisted that I take a real typing course.   So I learned on a manual machine that had no letters on the keys and I actually enjoyed the daily speed drills.  Thanks, Mom, the skill has been extremely useful to me all these years. 

Karen Senior Photo, 1961

On May 23, 1961,  when the high school band started playing "Pomp and Circumstance" (without me), fifty-eight of us were lined up and ready to march into the auditorium for the last time.  We had gathered there for concerts, plays, National Honor Society induction, and many basketball games because we didn't have a separate gym. The majority of us had attended the local schools for 12 years together and my cousin and I had always been in the same classes.    I was one of the speakers for the evening.  When the time came, I took a deep breath, just as I had practiced at home with my mom, and uttered major words of wisdom, all of which I have now forgotten.  Then the ceremony continued and I knew the best part was to come.  Dad had been serving on the school board for several years and had just been elected its president.  So my dad would be giving out the diplomas for the first time and  I was the first one in the line!   I walked proudly across the stage and saw his twinkling eyes and big smile.   I still remember shaking his hand and feeling his deep love and encouragement.  That's my most precious memory!

But my graduation was just one of the major family events in 1961.  My older sister, M, was graduating from college two days later in a city 12 hours away!  Somehow we all made it there by car in time for her ceremony.  And a few weeks later, she would marry a wonderful guy she met while in school.

From my perspective, M changed for the better while away in college those four years.  Well, maybe, just maybe,  I had changed a bit, too.  Certainly, I began to appreciate having an older sister.  I was truly happy for her to have met someone to join our family.  She had become a beautiful person and indeed my dearest friend.  We still enjoy talking, e-mailing, laughing, crying (mostly me), and sharing what's happening in our lives.

Here is a photo taken shortly before M's wedding, almost fifty years ago.  I had this on my desk throughout college.   It captures us at a time when M and I were moving onward to new places and Mom and Dad were ready to continue riding along in their parenthood roles with Joe and A.  

Karen (18), Joe (7), M (21), A (4) on June 24, 1961

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A, M, Karen and Joe on June 19, 2004

As a brief follow-up, here we are in 2004. We now live in New York, Ohio, Indiana, and California and keep in touch by all the electronic media.   Dad died at age 78 in 1993 and Mom at age 83 in 2001.  They are still very much a part of all of us. We are deeply thankful to have been so blessed by our Heavenly Father with such loving parents and each other.

MPT Part 11: HS Algebra, Band, Giggles

This is the eleventh in a series of twelve blogs I'm writing for Mommy's Piggy Tales .  Janna has provided a forum for members to write and share stories from their youth.   This post gives a glimpse of my first two years of high school 1957 to 1959.

Algebra, Band, and Giggles 

Karen 9th Grade

In the fall of 1957, I was ready to walk to the local high school, two blocks south of our house.  My sister had gone off to college which thrilled me beyond words!   I was as eager for her to leave as she was to go!  The time had come for her to move on.  And I wanted to be my own person in high school.  Later we became very close for the rest of our lives.  We were simply at different stages then.


Our high school had an enrollment of about 240 students, 60 in a class.  I was most excited to have the iconic math teacher, Mr. H,  for algebra.   I'm guessing that every student who attended our school between 1950 and 2005 has told a funny story about the mannerisms and uniqueness of Mr. H!  Love him or hate him, many students had a "life-changing experience" in his classes.  For me,  he was a super teacher and provided me with a firm foundation for my college work.  Some people were petrified of him, possibly with reason.  Everything had to be done his way, or else.   Nevertheless, he was my favorite teacher for four years.

All-School Dance 1958

I honestly cannot remember much of the day-to-day high school activities but the photo at the right reminded me of the drama, phone calls and plotting associated with the dances.  Here I am in the 9th Grade with the brother of a friend of mine.  She worked out all the arrangements, as the girls often did!   Many of my friends were much more into dating and boys than I was.  I spent a lot of time dreaming about going to college... far, far, away!


When I am asked "What did you do in High School?" my first response is "Band!"  Marching in parades, football games, bus rides, pep band,  concert band, small groups, music contests, and especially being with friends.  Band was a year round activity that was very important to me.

Concert Band 1959

Of all the band activities, Nebraska Band Day at the university was special.  Since the 1920s, bands had been invited to participate from across the state.  In my time, schools were scheduled on an alternate year basis for a parade and the half-time show at the football game.  Incredibly, I found a short video with ME in it!!  Really!   Check out the lower left leg of the letter "A" for a band in red uniforms.  I'm the 3rd person from the sideline playing a saxophone.  This was from my senior year, Fall 1960.  Apparently we weren't playing loud enough for any audio.

Girls Sextet

Vocal music was also part of my schedule, including the glee club, mixed chorus, and small groups.  We had a sextet for three years with the girls pictured.  I'm second from the left and my cousin is third from the left.  Don't we look spiffy with our matching outfits and gloves?  We certainly thought so!   We would often get the giggles during vocal music, sometimes spontaneous and sometimes plotted.  We'd plan something like  "At the top of page 3, look at the ceiling."  The director (Mr. W) would fall for it every time and look at the ceiling too.  And then we'd laugh even more!


One of the worst cases of giggles I remember having was actually in our church choir, directed by my mother.  We were preparing for Christmas and practicing an old German hymn in the St. Basil's Hymnal.  I think it lost something in the translation because the opening line was "Hark, An Awful Voice is Sounding!"   Even though my mom made an attempt to explain what "awful" meant in this context, it was futile.  We simply could not sing it without laughing.......   and she scratched that hymn from the list.  After all these years, I still think it is funny. He he.