Andrew Schrauben

Saturday my parents drove here from Ann Arbor to take Amanda out for her birthday dinner. We did far more than that, however! A little after 9am we meet them at Grandma's pasture to go hiking. Dad brought along Uncle Bob while Amanda and I brought along the dogs. There wasn't any real purpose to the hike - we just started walking and whenever we thought of something interesting to check out, we headed in that direction.



First was passed through Tarzan's Jungle (named by all the grandkids when we were very young), a dark, tree-lined stretch of two-track with a mucky stream beside it. As we exited the "jungle" Beacon spotted three deer about 200 yards away and he took off like a Navy jet catapulted off an aircraft carrier! Haven didn't notice and by the time I got her attention pointed in the right direction, she was 100 yards behind.



Those three deer saw Beacon coming and bounded away easily, but out of sight to the right were five more deer that neither saw Beacon, nor did Beacon see them until he was right upon them! The deer bolted in the direction of their herd-mates and Beacon was right in the middle, getting within five feet of one deer with two more behind Beacon! Alas, poor Beaks, the deer were too fast. Haven got there just in time to make a show of giving chase. After making sure no more deer were hiding nearby, Haven and Beacon returned to us - very tired and very happy.



We hiked past our woodpiles from last week's lumberjacking then maneuvered among the long rows of pine trees, following the many highways paved by deer hooves. There were plenty of turkey tracks to be found as well, and finally we caught up to them after about 90 minutes. Haven and Beacon ran in pursuit as we watched the clumsy birds crash among the tree branches trying to fly away. The dogs were so tired by now that their chase only lasted about a minute!



Lastly we trekked through a marshy area of the property that we usually don't venture into because it's usually rather wet and ill-suited for vehicles. It's a nice setting back there with occasional clearings and stands of thornapple trees - quite different than other parts of the pasture. After chatting briefly with Bob and Therese (and Gabe) we headed over to Grandma's (dad's mom) house to go over some WWII information about Grandpa.

Dad and Mom are compiling some info about Grandpa's military service for a local historical group and they wanted to let Grandma check it over for accuracy, etc. They also wrote up stories for Grandma's four brothers, each of whom served in WWII with a different branch of the military: one each in the Army (Air Corps), the Marines, the Navy, and the Coast Guard. Grandpa himself was in the Navy as a mechanic, and Grandma worked at a factory building ailerons for aircraft. As Grandma put it: "After Pearl Harbor, everybody supported the war effort. You didn't worry much about how it affected your life. We just did what needed to be done."

We continued to discuss life during a war, then and now. Mom asked how 9/11 compared to Pearl Harbor. Grandma explained that they were similar, but noted that "nothing really changed" in our quality of life after 9/11. During WWII there were gas rations; for example if Grandma and her friends wanted to go hang out, they had to find someone with enough extra gas rations and pile into her car. There were collections of surplus metal, war bonds to purchase, and everyone's job converted to supporting the war. Grandma's factory where she worked stopped making springs and started making ailerons. Grandpa joined the Navy.

Speaking of which, Grandma noted that her parents were unable to attend ANY of their five children's weddings! She took the train to San Diego to marry Grandpa while he was stationed out there. Her four brothers also married far from home; the closest was a few hundred miles away and her parents didn't have the gas rations available to attend "so they just couldn't go - that's the way it was" says Grandma.

As we found out later, that's the way it was for my other grandma, Grammy. Spur of the moment we decided to pay a visit to my mom's mom following lunch at a deli in Ada. It didn't take long to start looking through old photos and we soon found a wedding photo of Grammy and Grampy. She also traveled west, to Los Angeles, to marry my grandfather while he was on duty out there. Ironically, both sets of my grandparents got married in California despite living in Michigan all their lives! That was life during WWII. They also directly supported the war - Grampy taught navigation using Link Trainers while Grammy installed hydraulic lines in bomber cockpits. Was anyone not involved with WWII during that era?

Grammy also showed us a photo of her grandparents and other relatives of similar age. I don't remember when it was taken but those people were probably all born between 1850 and 1875! One of them is related to Commodore Matthew Perry, but I forget exactly the relation; I do know that I'm not a direct descendant of him, but he's somewhere in my family tree.

I forgot to mention that on the way to Grammy's house we took a little tour of Grand Rapids, driving by: a house that Amanda and I almost bought; the first house I lived in, also the first house my parents bought together; the first house my dad lived in after college, right on the Grand River; and a few other curiosities.

Finally we made it back home where we played a few rounds of a board game called Compatibility, where each player has a deck of cards with photos on them. A word is read (e.g. "retirement") and then you have to select, in secret, 2-5 photos that you feel best represent that word. You play with a partner, so the object is to pick the same photos as they do. So for "retirement" do you pick the photo of the old man, or the dollar sign, or the sunset, or the card that simply contains the word "happy"? A very fun game. Amanda and I managed to win both rounds by just one space on the game board!