Schuyler

I am happy to report that Gerald was dismissed from BryanLGH today.  There were no complications from his surgery to unblock the iliac artery.  (OK . . . I’m just guessing.  I looked at a diagram of arteries on Wikipedia, and it’s either the iliac or femoral artery, but you get the idea.)  Anyhow, the blood pressure in both legs was good, so they let him go home.  Yay! 

I offered to drive Gerald to Schuyler, since my time has become quite flexible lately.  =)  We had an absolutely gorgeous drive to Schuyler going north out of Lincoln on 14th street and then over to Valpraiso, through David City and on to Schuyler.  The corn stalks are turning brown and the soybean fields are bright yellow, but there are still a few bright green fields.  Maybe it was some special effect caused by my new driving sunglasses, but I thought the colors were positively vibrant, especially around the Bohemian Alps. But then the rolling hills leveled out and soon we were in the flatlands crossing the Platte River going into Schuyler. Gerald was happy to be home, and anxious to just sit around and recuperate, so I left him there and drove out to the farm to see Mom for a while.

Mom has been sorting through old photos, and I mean OLD.  Absolutely priceless photos of her parents and grandparents, some from the early 1900s.  And also some family photos from the 60s and 70s.  She gave me a stack of photos of me from my high school years, including the ever-popular Schuyler Czech Queen photos.  To be honest, they are actually quite nice.  I have a beautiful costume which was sent to me by relatives in the Czech Republic back in 1966. I wore this costume when I was Schuyler Czech Queen in 1966 and 1967.  The amazing story behind this photo is that when I visited my father’s cousin, Jarmila, in Moravia in 2003 she had a very faded copy of this photo displayed in her china cabinet.  When you realize that I never met her in person until 2001 and never visited her apartment in Zlin until 2003, it is touching to know that she probably had that photo in her china cabinet for 37 years.

I still remember sitting down with Jarmila and going through her little shoebox of family photos.  When we came to a photo of her son, Jarda, standing on the Charles Bridge in his army uniform in 1969, I told her I would give her any amount of money for that photo.  She gave it to me as a gift, and I have it framed in my office to this day. As you can imagine, being in the army in Czechoslovakia in 1969 is a story in and of itself, but I’ll save that for another day.  Jarda and I have been penpals since 1962, and we lost touch with each other when he was in the army in the late 60s.  He obviously would not have been allowed to correspond with an American at that time.

Jarda, Jarmila, Jarda’s wife, Helena, and I met in person for the first time in 2001 in Prague.  I visited them in Moravia in 2003, and then again in 2005-06 while I was on sabbatical.

Long story short . . . going through old photos conjures up all kinds of memories.  I could go on, but I’ll stop here . . . for now.

Jeannette