Polly retold her story about her uncle and newlywed bride who were mauled by a bear when they were hiking in Alaska. Gail related again her story of picking up a couple in Alaska who were mauled by a bear and the man was too tall (long) to fit in the ambulance. We first shared these stories 26 years ago while Polly and I worked for Jamestown College, now the University of Jamestown, as we sat at a Homecoming banquet. The small world connection was that these were the same persons. Polly was director of development those years ago; today she is the university president.
We talked candidly as friends do and she shared that the worst day of life was when she had to decide what to do regarding COVID. She said she knew that if she closed the college staff and facility would have to be laid off. She couldn’t bear that thought and chose to rearrange the college and keep it going. She cited only one case of serious illness. She truly loves her students, faculty and staff.
We had been invited by the assistant development director (she has other titles also) to breakfast that morning at the college cafeteria. In line waiting for an omelet we met a coworker (coach) from those 26-plus years ago. We chatted, exchanged stories and went our ways.
We were a bit early for our meeting with our granddaughter Payton so we stopped at the RV shop to ask a question which they couldn’t resolve. They discovered that the mystery motor was a fan under Gail’s chair but couldn’t find a way to turn it off. I checked the iPad manual and learned there’s a switch which was accidentally bumped on. We switched it off and the purring and draining of the battery quit.
We finished using up the extra hour at my brother George’s where we would spend the night.
We met Payton at the Cracker Barrel where we got an earful from a young lady trying to make her way in life. She surprised us with the news that she was going to buy a one-person nutritional drink shop in downtown Mandan. It’s called Impact Nutrition. We stopped by the next evening, took some pictures and recognized that it was a very neat clean establishment. We wish her well.
After an evening with George and Karen, and a warm overnight in the covered wagon, we shared breakfast with Payton’s sister Deona, whose birthday is today (May 6). We had the same young waitress as the day before and enjoyed some bantering back and forth including the acquired taste for grits which Deona had never tasted. It was unanimous that none of us had acquired the taste for grits. Deona has a new puppy, still works for Starbucks and is looking for an opportunity to move on to another location, possibly with her boyfriend to Virginia. Grandma and grandpa are a bit cautious about this decision, but it’s not ours to make.
The afternoon was spent with a Hebron graduate who is a distant relative and who manages the Hebron Historical Society site on Facebook. It was an informative conversation getting both information about the big picture of the family and specific details. The evening was spent sharing a meal at the Pizza Ranch with George’s son Glendon and family.
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