good memories

These are salts from Ba-Ba's collection.She had hundreds(or it seemed) on glass shelves in her dining room.




On the rt. is Ba-Ba Israels thimble,I remember watching her use it.



The picture above is my mom
on the front row with Ba-Ba and
Granddad. This file was in Granddads office This table sat in Ba-Ba's sitting room and is now in my living room.
This is Ezra C. Israels arithmatic book when he was a boy, you can see where he
wrote his name and on the other page is the date 1887. I stuck the picture of him
in it. I LOVE this book, its so neat. He was quite messy and doddled in it alot.

I love this back page. it says " Don't steal this book for fear of your life for here you see the butcher knife." Sounds like a boy!

Growing up Ba-Ba Israel was part of my world. She was my mothers grandmother. She lived in a small town in Eastern Washington about 30miles from Walla-Walla.Her little town was Dayton. Her and her husband built a huge house that will always be part of my memories. It was victorian and the thing we loved was her big front porch with a swing on it. Ba-Ba lived there til she was in her 90's when she died. I was in my senior yr. of high school. Its hard to remember specifics that long ago, especially if you were a child when they were happening.I'v decided that if you don't have "bad" memories associated with that person then the times were good. We went to family gatherings there, I remember chasing cousins around, looking at her roses, chewing wheat kernals from the wheat fields behind her house. My great-grandfather who I have no memories of (he had died)was a grain grower and had an office downtown. I am privledged to have a file that was in his office.I treasure the things I have that belonged to them. Truly treasure them. The road to Dayton from Walla-Walla is like a rollar coaster and we'd all scream as the car sped up over the hills taking our stomachs with it. And the endless fields of wheat, oh, what a beautiful sight.Dayton is known for the Green Giant factory in town. It canned peas and my mom worked there in the summers and my brother even went there a summer and worked. I wonder if its still open? I need to make a trip. The cemetary is to die for! Wow, I said that before I realized it was a pun. I have great and great-great grandparents buried there and numerous aunt, uncles and I'm sure cousins. It rolling hills with tall pine trees, oh, so many memories.

Once not long before she died my friend and I stayed with her a few weeks one summer while her lady that boarded there was on vacation. We laughed SO much (course we were girls and giggly) .But, she still drove and my what an adventure! She'd go through stop signs, fortunatly it was a small town and we'd just sit with our hands over our mouths trying not to scream or laugh! They say the older you get the more you live in the past? Is that what they say? it is nice to think back once in a while......well, thanks for letting me share some of my memories.