Trick or Treat

We had some famous people come trick or treating to our house today:

The Hulk

A Wall Street Tycoon (?)

Tiger Lilly

Spiderman

Dorothy, complete with

braids and ruby slippers.

If I could remember how to put the captions under the pictures it would be nice, but you can probably figure out who's who.

My brother's car

Our daughter, Barbara, is right; I have always loved cars. But the real car lover in the family was my oldest brother, Jack. He never bought a used car, always a new one, and after the 1930's, they were all Chrysler products (Plymouth, Dodge, Desoto, Chrysler).

These pictures are of the last car he ever bought, a 1962 Chrysler 300 which he drove until he was no longer physically able to drive. It is still in the family, having been left to his grandson, Brian Shaw. Brian owns a body shop in La Grande and keeps this car under careful wraps. This model is a classic.

The two in the first picture are my brother Jack and his son, Doug. They may also be seen in the front seat in the second picture.

These pictures were taken in 1964. Jack died in 1992, one month short of his 86th birthday.

Doug, 19 when these pictures were taken, is alive and well at the age of 64.

This blog is designed for older eyes, hence the big print.

Stay tuned.

"Gee our old LaSalle ran great...."

Feast your eyes on this beauty. It's a 1936 Ford Coupe, with a stainless steel body. Its 85 hp engine runs like a sewing maching after 200,000 miles on it. It's the sole survivor of only four that were made. Insured for $1,500,000.

This car's lines bring back fond memories of my childhood, when all cars looked pretty much like that. (No stainless steel ones, though.) Maybe that's why I like this picture.

This Blog is rated PG

Having read Andrea's latest blog, I thought you might like to see some "potty humor" from a former time. Comments are welcome.

Stay tuned.

Mary Jane and 11000 South

Every time I come to the intersection of 11000th south and 10th east I think about Mary Jane Loso. It's your loss that most of you never knew her. She was a colleague of mine at Eastern for many, many years. A true scholar, with a Ph.D. in l Elizabethan Literature. My Riverside Shakespeare is a gift from her.

A small, bird-like woman, she joined the faculty shortly after I did. She was just a year or two older than I but because she had prematurely white hair, she always seemed much older and wiser. Mary Jane never married. She never owned a home, choosing to rent an apartment at the Sacajawea Annex all the many years she lived in La Grande. She never owned a car and never learned to drive. She was a talented pianist (almost majored in music), an excellent cook (one of our recipes for chicken came from her) and a devoted Catholic. Since we lived across from the Catholic church for all our years at 1005 L, we often saw Mary Jane faithfully attending mass. When I was in the throes of getting through Ph.D. orals at the University of Iowa in the 1960s, Mary Jane was the only one of my colleagues I heard from. She wrote and said she knew what I was going through and would light a candle for me.

She was deeply involved in all things cultural, giving financial and moral support to such things as the Grande Ronde Symphony and even baking cookies for their rehearsal nights. She was instrumental in having the local AAUW (American Association of University Women) sponser a children's theatre program, which got me involved in directing several shows aimed at young audiences and travelling with them to various schools.

One of my most interesting and challenging experiences was when she and I team-taught a course in Shakespeare. She concentrated on the literary aspects of the plays while I focused on the various theories of how they might have been staged. She really kept me on my toes.

We retired around the same time (1986) and a few years later she moved to be closer to her favorite neice. Some time after that I learned that she was in a rest home in the Portland area. We went to see her and she had no idea who we were. On a table by her bed was a picture of the new Humanities Building at Eastern, named Loso Hall in her honor. I picked it up and showed it to her. She didn't recognize it.....her memory was gone....all that knowledge....all that brilliance...all that talent...I wonder to this day whether anyone has been teaching her the gospel since she died.

So what does all of this have to do with 11000 South?

As I mentioned, Mary Jane never owned a car or learned to drive. On rare, very rare occasions, she would ask me to drive her someplace if she had something heavy to deliver. One day we were approaching the three-way stop signs where Washington, N Avenue and 10th street come together. About the same time we stopped, two other cars arrived and the drivers also stopped. There was a small moment of hesitation, then I started through the intersection. Mary Jane turned to me and said "How do you know when it's your turn to go?" I told her that it was sort of a "gentlemen's agreement" that whoever arrived at the intersection first had the right of way. She thought for a moment, then, in all earnestness, asked "What if they aren't all gentlemen?"

As you may know, the intersection of 11000th south and 10th east is a four way stop. To complicate matters, 11000th is a four lane street, with lanes for left and right turns. We go through that area fairly often and almost every time there are two or three and sometimes more cars arriving at approximately the same time. There is often a pause while the various drivers make a quick assessment: "Who goes first?" Every time I start through the intersection, I think of Mary Jane Loso and silently say "I hope we're all gentlemen."

Ten for Andrea

This is to make up for not including any pictures of the "special guest" on my last blog.
G-U-R-A-Q-T

All smiles and all ears.

Wait until you get home, young man!

The speed demon of Cilma Drive

Known in the Hiatt family as "The Hat Picture"

Girls, eat your heart out !

Should have had a wide-angle lense for this shot

He's better than "Ukelele Ike" (And a lot taller)

The tallest man in Chile?

You can take it from here, Andrea.

Stay tuned.

Reagan's baptism

This beautiful little girl has a big smile on her face because today she was baptized by her father and then confirmed by him with the assistance of about nine or ten others, including a couple of grandfathers, lots of uncles, and a great-grandfather.

It was a very nice service. There little girls were baptized and confirmed. The speakers, the witnesses, and all others involved were all family members or very close friends. Reagan's grandmother, Barbara Sweat, provided the music and her Aunt Angele Hallstrom conducted the singing.

After the service about 60 of us converged on Dennis' and Barb's house for some great food, provided by Cindy's family. When the Sweats and the Bohmans get together, you reallyhave a house full. It was a lot of fun watching all the little cousins running around, being very careful not to step on the adorable Vivian Mae, who seemed both amused and bemused by it all.

Tony and Cindy provided a laptop slide show of Reagan at various times and places in her young life. By special request, the football game was on the HD big screen TV upstairs, and showing on the humongeous projection TV downstairs was "Narnia", complete with surround sound.

A special "guest" was Reagn's uncle Andrew. He had flown in from North Carolina to do three days of interviewing at BYU for Avery-Denison and was able to extend his stay for a few days to visit family. Great seeing you, Andrew.


Our love and congratulations to Reagan and our thanks for posing for this picture for her great-grand parents.

Stay tuned.

Two more pictures of our new missionary

Elder H. with Lauren, Jane, Reagan and Eli.

This is the picture I meant to send earlier.

(Hey, I'm getting the hang of this ---sort of.)

Stat tuned.

Elder Russell Hiatt Higgins

Others of you have mentioned the send off we gave Russell as he entered the MTC on October 1 for two months of gospel and language training before leaving on December 1 for the Philippines Naga mission, where he will be speaking Tagalog. Thought you might like a few more details and pictures.

He flew into SLC on Sept.3, was met at the plane by his uncle Dennis who brought him to our condo in Sandy. The first thing he did was call home and had a good chat with his mom and dad. Later we took him to Barb's and Dennis' home, where he was surrounded by more family and enjoyed a delicious feast, (Including two kinds of potato chips!!) While there, Elder H. got another chance to talk to his mom and dad, this time in the comfort of a great reclining couch.


On Wednesday morning Barb took Russell and us to Provo, where we met Denise and the five of us attended the one hour meeting for new missionaries. At one point all the new missionaries were asked to stand up. We can attest to the fact that Elder Higgins was by far the best looking one. Then came "the moment": Family exited one side, missionaries the other. We hugged, we shook hands, and we waved goodbye. It was great!! So glad we were able to be part of this wonderful moment in his life.

Give me a few more weeks (months?) and I'll get the hang of inserting pictures where I really want them, and writing captions under them.

Meanwhile, you are all still invited to join us in reading all of the Book of Mormon during the month of October. (And you can do it in English, not Spanish or French or Danish or even Tagalog.) If you started when some of us did you should be into Second Nephi by now; if you haven's started yet, there's still time.

Stay tuned.

Ben and Jax

In addition to three more great-grandchildren to our family in recent months we have had the pleasure of attending the marriage of Ben and Jax in a beautiful outdoor setting in Everett, Washington, in August. Many friends and members of both families were there to give the new couple a good send off. There was a sit down meal (delicious) served by the groomsmen with impeccable attire and style, followed by dancing, where even some of us "older" ones got in on some of the action. Ben and Jax were sent on their way amidst a shower of bubbles as they headed for a week in Cancun. Congratulations to them both. Here are a few pictures. (I still need to learn more about inserting pictures so they all come out the same size.)