REVENGE

Before you read this blog you should read the previous blog by ZoAnn. Otherwise there is no reason for me to write this.



I owed Zoe big time! I had forced her at gun point to ride all over eastern Iowa and learn all about corn and corn starch and alcohol and pigs and breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches and cows and soy beans and all that Iowa stuff.

Now it was her turn! We were in Saginaw, MI, along with Lefty Frizzell and Paul Simon. This is Zoe's Early Years! Ground Zero - St. Luke's Hospital. I was born in St. Luke's Hospital - in Cedar Rapids, IA. Cepda Saginaw St. Luke's is now owned by anudder big hospital chain, but it "yustabee".

We went by her houses - the one she came home to after leaving what yustabee St. Luke's, and the one she really spent her pre-adult life in and sold after her parents were gone, and, I think, most proudly, the first house she ever owned. In all 3 cases, the thing that seemed to get noticed most was the foliage. "I yustabee able to jump over that 40-ft. tall catalpa tree. There yustabee a pickle patch in that corner of the yard. Remember? That's the photo of my dad and me when I was maybe 2.

We went by her schools, grade, junior and senior high "GO BEARCATS". They were still there - it seems that we last throw on the refuse pile the places we learned something.

We went by the plant her dad yusta work at. A few cars in the parking lot. It's a gigantic factory stretching for blocks. "What do they make here?" At the north entrance was a small sign that stated that this is a "power train" assembly plant for GM. The largest sign on the whole plant was a very large UAW banner hanging from the roof of the main building. I got this chill up my spine. Maybe the convicts ARE running the prison!!

I have to give her credit because she gave me a whole day of her life sitting in a VA Medical Center waiting for the system to catch up. But that's another blog - soon.

In short, we had a wonderful time seeing the bowling alley in which her Senior Prom was held; Frankenmuth, a wonderful little German tourist trap, just like the Amanas that I drug her through in Iowa; the "new" village library where one of her best friends now works as the feared and respected "Librarian" and even invited us to her home for a wonderful lasagna dinner and great "remembers". I wanted to go to the library to see if they had a yearbook from 19??, Zoe's HS graduation year. I have only seen photos of her when she was a baby, and I wanted to see something a little further down the line. The library had a copy of her class yearbook with all the pics and activities and old boyfriends and all those memories. Wow!!

I just flat gotta quit now. I'm gettin' all teary-eyed thinking about what a great time we had exploring the past. In the end, we decided that we grew up in the same place in different states.