We are great fans of World Magazine in general and Marvin Olasky in particular. Olasky wrote an article in the most recent issue (January 31, 2009) titled Deeper into sin about what he calls his misguided search for meaning that led him to the Communist party. Kelly almost always wins the fight to be the first person to get her hands on the magazine. When she read through the article, she found that Olasky had spent a stint in the early seventies as a reporter for the Bend Bulletin. He quit his job out of an urge to indulge a misplaced desire to remain pure in his solidarity with the proletariat and not sell out to the bourgeoisie. That was all going on while I was struggling through the last two years of my government high school education. Almost everyone around me seemed to be a hippie or a hippie wannabe. Those of us with conservative leanings were in for a long haul through the seventies, not seeing any real relief until Ronald Regan was elected in the 1980’s.
That, along with our recent trip to Tennessee and a comment made by Ruthie about some of her homeschool trips, got me to thinking about Bend. We have wonderful memories of Bend. They mostly have to do with the trips we made there with our wonderful friends, the Rizos. We got together, ostensibly to ski at Mt. Bachelor, but really that was just an excuse to get together with great homeschool and church friends. We always invited my folks and one year we had Dave and Glad C. come, too. Dave and Glad are contemporaries of Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah. Dad and Dave were in business together for over twenty years–they had the largest doll house kit manufacturing company in the world (Dura-Craft), but that is for another post. We stayed for a week at a time, but only went skiing three or four days of the week. We had bible studies in the morning, visited the High Desert Museum, went to a Gospel meeting on Wednesday night, hung out, and talked, and talked, and ate, and ate, and ate.
I guess there is no real point I wanted to make with this post. It was just a nice memory.
I loved reading your post. Where would we be sometimes without a sweet memory? I believe that sometimes a memory alone can sustain us.
On another note, doll house kits!? Be still my heart. Right now we play at building, but someday a fabulous real scale doll house is going to be built here.
Have a good day,
Lynn
Thanks Lynn. It is good to remember good times with good people. As for the doll houses, Dad and Dave sold the company quite a few years ago. The people that bought it ran it into the ground, so it went out of business about five years after it was sold. That being said, I think there are a bunch of the dollhouse kits around. I am going to talk to Dad to find out about that. They are pretty cool. They had oak, teak, and maple hardwood floors, working windows and doors, real split shake roofs, etc., etc. Kelly was actually a model for one of the houses when she was a little girl. I will take a picture of the one we have put together her at home and put it up on the blog in the next couple of days. They are 1″=1′ scale.
Oh, please do! I want to see the doll house! Too bad the company went out of business. Thanks for sharing more about it.
Lynn
NOTE! You can find many DuraCraft Doll house kits, some even new and unopened, on eBay!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dura-Craft-Dollhouse-Miniature-Newberg-NIB-New_W0QQitemZ270330617007QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDolls?hash=item270330617007&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50
Very cool Bryan! Who would have thought?
I am looking for a Milo Chapman for my father, Jimmy Odom. They were in the Army together at Camp Rucker in Alabama. Please send me infomation you may have if this is the same Milo.
Thank you