By Doris Schroeder
We had been told that life would be different when we got into the years beginning with two thousand. Two thousand one was no exception…within one year’s time John and I experienced four major things in our life…the big Hutch explosion, our trip to Germany, our 50th wedding anniversary and 9-ll. As my down-sizing continues, I am remembering the celebration of this 50-yr. milestone celebration and next week the story of 9-ll, the time our country experienced something we never thought we would.
After we landed back on U.S. soil after our three weeks in Germany, we hit the ground running as on June the 7th we were going to celebrate our 50th anniversary. Our two children and their spouses plus four of the grandson boys would all be in Hutch to help us commemorate having been married 5o years. Our oldest grandson, John, was still stationed in Germany where we had left him a few weeks earlier.
We were planning to have the celebration at the Countryside Church. It was fun to think of meeting all our old friends and relatives from years gone by and visiting about the old days. We could see how life had changed since 1951…for instance, at our wedding we served cake, punch, lunch meat and zwiebach. Now we had cake and punch. It was a little more streamlined, as life had evolved.
Since our five grandsons hadn’t yet married, we still had no girls in the family. Now, fifteen years later, we have three granddaughters-in-law, plus four great grandchildren…3 boys and a girl. Our, grandsons at that time were still in the “nervous” stage. They were still looking for their profession, their mates, and did not yet have a complete grasp of the English language.
Our youngest grandson Mike, was a young man with a very vivid imagination. He and his friend “Ike” liked to pretend some dreams they had for the future. Mike would run for president of the United States in the year 2020 ( Just think, we are almost there!) Their motto would be “We like Mike and Ike!”
Their campaign would be a bit different than the one going on in our world today. They would garner votes, first of all, by having Grandpa and me making oatmeal-raisin cookies and handing them out to those in the older generation, including my fellow members of the Kansas Authors Club. We would hand a cookie to all the ones who promised to vote for them, even after they had won the election. So that we could live close by, Grandpa and I would move into the Lincoln Room in the White House as soon as they were sworn in. This would be done so we could continue baking the cookies so the president could stay on the good side of the people. Of course, I would continue to have my fellow Kansas writers tell about what a good job the president was doing and so it would be a cinch to win the election again in2024.
There is a problem to that thinking, however, in that they really wouldn’t be old enough to run at that time. Besides, Ike and his family are wanting to become missionaries at this time…I wonder, would that work? It would be wonderful to have a true Christian in power. Besides, Grandpa and I can’t get around as fast as we used to by now.
Guests at our celebration brought back so many memories of our previous years…relatives from John’s family of seven sisters, mine of two sisters. Of course, our parents had gone on to heaven by that time. Writer friends from the Kansas Authors Club, old church friends, friends from the Christian Women’s Club, friends we had worked with in church, at work, from school.
There is, however, a saying that sums my dreams up perfectly: “Too soon old and too late smart!” I wonder…perhaps our oldest great grandson, Maxwell Juhnke, could run for president in another thirty-five years…that’d be the year we would celebrate our 100th wedding anniversary. Maybe I’ll mention it to him!
Doris welcomes your remarks and can be reached at [email protected]
