My Portfolio

My Mother never went to college, nor had her parents. Her Mom had never worked outside the home and her Dad was a postal worker...a highly read one I believe. My Mother told me on occasion that her parents, who were originally from a Maryland farming community, didn't encourage post high...

Mom grew up with 8 siblings and a loving Mom. Her father provided for the family but on his own terms as an alcoholic. She dreamed to be a singer like Billie and Ella but knew it was near impossible. One day while out on the front porch she heard the...

Mothers “When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.”                                                                        Italian film actress and mother - Sophia...

On the road…again!!! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Giving Up Barbershops Except for the one time he went to a barber in Gainesville, Florida before leaving for the Organization for Tropical Studies study program in Costa Rica in 1970, the Footloose Forester decided to...

I was just four years old when the men from my father's birth family gathered for a four generations photograph.  I'm standing in front of my Great-Grandfather, William May.  My Father, Bob is behind him and to the left. And my Grandfather, Fred is to my Dad's right. A more formal...

  The Reynolds family celebrated their family reunion July 8 – 10, 2011 in Tampa Florida honoring the descendants of Matilda Reynolds originating from Clay County Georgia. The Reynolds family activities aimed at “Bridging the Gap from Generation To Generation” included a Meet and Greet on Friday, a tour of the...

It was the year 2006 and it was a normal day in my life and I was looking forward to a quiet weekend. Joe and  Chantel, my daughter and son-in-law,  were there and we were just enjoying family. It was not uncommon for us to pull a board game out to...

Eons ago, when I was a child, every Australian back garden had a selection of fruit trees growing – a lemon, orange, plum, apricot and peach were the most common. Families with a larger garden also planted nectarines, mulberry, fig, crab apple, quince, pomegranate and other more exotic fruit producing trees...

Over the past couple of years, Diane and her sister had been heavily engaged in caregiving for her parents, but by 2010 both of them had passed on.  My wife, Diane, decided it would be great to have some time with her sister, Colleen, who is the caregiver for her husband,...

Catheriine and I raised eight children. Problems did not escape us. Our seventh child, a young boy (Gerard)  passed away at age fourteen from a Staphylococcal infection which was supposed to be easily cured  with Antibiotics. While the explantions were thin, we could never understand the failure. Some forty years later we received our...

Holiday traditions always include great food. Here are some of our family recipes. Your special meals will be remembered by your children and grandchildren. Remember to ask your parents and grandparents for their special recipes. As you publish your family delicacies try some of the recipes of other members. You may...

Dutch Traditional Christmas - While serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in The Netherlands, 1963-1965, I first became acquainted with the Dutch Christmas Tradition of children anxiously looking forward to St. Nicholas Eve on December 5th.  I was serving in Apeldoorn and had recently been...

My mother had many stories to tell about her mother in-law, my 'Maw-Maw' Wagner.  As I put things in perspective now, I must say my grandmother was brave enough to be her own person.  My mom and dad out of economic necessity lived with his parents for several months after their marriage...

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Carroll E. Adams, the son of Delos and Hannah Peterson Adams wrote this poem and it is descriptive of the generation that was born about 1910-1930.  The anecdote given here shows the humor as well as the wisdom of this generation.  Carroll's father and my grandfather, William Albert Adams were brothers...

The past few years I've tried to start my own tradition of going to visit Shelby & co. in September. It's just about the perfect time to be in New England - at the tail-end of summer, starting to get cool and fall-ish, and time for apples in the orchards.

  When I was in the prime of trying to raise a family, there were days when I wondered if any of my children were learning the values of honesty, integrity, hard work, service, faith in God and everything else that they would need in order be become good honorable people...

The stock from which my family evolved was mostly Southern and most of them had little or no formal schooling.  But imbedded in the gene pool they created were genes that came to the fore in a very pronounced way in my Dad's personality.  Two of those genes could accurately be...

Mum died just 3 weeks after her 60th birthday in 1979, and like all who preceded her, she took the facts about her life with her. Both of her parents had died before her and she was an only child, making it very difficult to find out more than bare facts...

Jimmy was the oldest of 10, I was second and then there was a twin girl and boy, Joan and Johnny. Johnny is and always has been the funniest sibling of the family. Everyone looks forward to reunions with Johnny because of the unexpected hilarity that is bound to take place....