PrunePicker: Remarks to be made at 85th birthday party.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Remarks to be made at 85th birthday party.

Thoughts on my 85^th birthday.

I can not tell you how pleased and excited I am to see all of you here. I want to thank all of you for taking time out of your busy lives to be here for this party. I really appreciate your being here. You and others like you who could not be here today make my life a happy one. I like living in Ruston and you are the reason. I want to express my gratitude to my family for dreaming up this affair and putting it on. My Louisiana family is so good to me. I want to thank my daughter, Kerry. Kerry is my youngest daughter and the only blue eyed child that I have. You know brown eyes are dominant and my wife Jackie had lovely brown eyes. I really had a soft spot in my heart for that lovely blue-eyed blonde little girl. It is hard to believe that little girl is now a grandmother. I want to thank Kerry’s husband, John. John and Kerry have done so much for me. John and Kerry’s daughters have done so much work on this party. Thank you Joy and Katie and David and Justin.

When you are 85 it behooves you to be nice to your family. It is possible they will choose your rest home in the not too distant future.

In 2006 Jackie and I moved our fifth wheel trailer from Chimacum, Washington to Ruston. Chimacum is between Bremerton and Port Angeles, about 8 miles from Port Townsend. Jackie and I had our summer RV home there in a Co-op for 17 years. This is the longest we had ever lived anywhere and we loved it. The area is sort of a mixture of Ruston and the coast of Maine with snow covered mountains.

We moved here to enlist the help of John and Kerry in the care of Jackie. But in six short months Jackie passed away. I am sure that you all realize how much you miss some one who lived with you for 63 years. I knew that I had to stay busy and fill a big void. I turned to Ruston and got involved in many activities and interests. You folks are a big part in filling a void in my life and I cannot tell you how much you have meant to me and mean to me every day.

I joined the Jefferson Corner Liars Club. Club President Tommy Boddie, vice President John Roebuck, and Secretary Lizard Howard welcomed me with open arms. They did look askance at me because of my weird accent and having moved from a tree-hugging environment. However the Treasurer of the Liars Club Rhonda Blakely has always stood up for me. I do not know how to talk her into not hugging me all the time. It gets embarrassing!

I joined the Louisiana Tech Aquatic Seniors. They tolerate me very well. Coach Miss Smiley does a great job and is a good friend. Her class is one of the best things that have happened to me. My lungpower and endurance have increased greatly. I have spent many happy hours in the water class. I have met and enjoyed many in the class.

I started going for lunch at the Senior Center. I have met many wonderful people there. It is a very social place with many activities in addition to lunches. There are very lively people there. Two of them cannot remember their 85^th birthday. If you do not believe me just ask Dan Falon or Margaret Shadow.

I joined the VFW and started going to the monthly lunch and weekly breakfast at the VFW building. What a wonderful group of people. I enjoy the VFW. The current post commander J D Harper does a great job and cooks a great breakfast.

As a member of Smiley’s class I have a Tech University Student Body Card. This card gets me into all home games! I am busy studying how to be a sport fan! I am even learning the rules of baseball and what a power forward is.

I do research on genealogy projects. I attend meetings of the Northwest Genealogical Society in Monroe. I am a history and political junkie. I love trivia and Google is one of my most used tools. I go to bluegrass festivals. Believe it or not with all of the listed activities I still have time to be lonely and to miss Jackie. I am dealing with this aspect of my life better as time goes by. It is true that time is a great healer.

Let me confess, it is I who is always hugging Rhonda and I am not embarrassed at all! I am a serious fan of hugging. Please do not be offended if I hug you. Once again I want to tell you that I love you all very much. Thanks again for being here.

I love Ruston, it is a wonderful place to be until I join Jackie at Arlington. God bless you all!

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My niche in the Blogosphere.

My blog is about me, my family, my interests, my opinions, and my daily activities. My name is Chuck Monson. I am a native born Californian. I worked in the oil exploration and production business and am now retired and living in Ruston, Louisiana. I am a 91 year old widower. I blog because I really enjoy it. Posting gives me a schedule and is a wonderful make work project. I like pictures, both the taking and looking at them. I really like old historic pictures. I enjoy a good photograph. I like putting pictures and text together in a way that is hopefully interesting to others and that will be interesting to me in the future. I like to be silly now and then. It is also putting my memories down on paper. My blog serves as a diary. I have used it for a reference quite a few times.

I do mix it up. Some of my blogs are “what I had for breakfast”, some are just pictures, some are items of genealogical nature, and there are items from my family history. I have a history of the Munson/Monsons in America. The study of this history has led me to the discovery of much American history that had previously been unknown by me.

I have had a lifelong interest in history, archeology, philosophy, religion, politics, architecture, technical subjects, music, food, and sports. I spend time every day reading blogs and posting to my blog. I do not pontificate on religion or politics because I do not consider myself wise enough to try to persuade others to my beliefs. My beliefs are quite nebulous anyway.

I was started on blogging by my late son, Christopher David Monson. Chris wrote the blog "snaggletoothie of the Loyal Opposition" There is a link to his blog above. I look at Chris's blog often. I have read most of his posts.

My adult years.

I married Jackie Lois Ireton in 1944 in San Luis Obispo, California. I met her on a blind date when I was taking amphibious training at Moro Bay. We have been blessed with four children, nine grand children, and nine great grandchildren. They are an exceptional group. I love them and I am proud of them.

I was an army combat engineer (infantry with shovels) during World War II. I served in the Pacific. I was wounded on Peleliu Island helping the marines on Bloody Nose Ridge. I was shot in both legs just above the knees. The wound locations indicate that I was not running away.

I received a BSME in 1950 from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. Jackie received a PHT. (pushing husband through.) I retired from oilfield work in 1985. Jackie and I moved into a fifth wheel trailer and enjoyed the RV lifestyle until Jackie's health failed. We traveled across the continent 3 1/2 times. We spent a summer as volunteers at Acadia National Park. For 17 years we helped build an Escapee RV park in Chimacum, Washington. Jackie passed away in 2007. We had been married 63 years. We were married on June 3, 1944. I still live in our fifth wheel trailer. It is parked in the yard of my daughter Kerry's home in Ruston, Louisiana. It is by far the nicest RV park that I have ever lived in.

My teen age years.

I was born in 1925 in Pomona, California. Pomona is on the east edge of Los Angeles County. It is halfway between Los Angeles and San Bernardino and halfway between the mountains and the beach. I thought that it was great to be an hour from snow covered mountains and an hour from the ocean surf.

In my days of growing up, Pomona was completely surrounded by orchards and truck farms. Oranges, lemons, grapefruit, peaches, apricots, olives, persimmons, and walnuts. Watermelons and strawberries. During the depression I had many meals from the orchards.

They say that you cannot go back home. That is true of the Pomona Valley of my youth. Because it is no longer there. Most of it is now covered with asphalt and stucco buildings.

My ancestors.

I am getting more and more into genealogy. I have a trove of information on the Munsons/Monsons. My father is buried in California. His father by adoption (He was an uncle.) is buried in Kansas. His natural father is buried in Kentucky. So I have two grandfathers. I have a grandfather and four great grandfathers buried in Kentucky, one great buried in New Jersey, and three greats buried in Connecticut. I have two greats buried in Rattlesden, Suffolk, England. I have been led to believe that my ancestors before that came from Denmark and Normandy.

Captain Thomas Munson was the first Munson to move to America. He was baptized in Rattlesden, England in 1612. The baptismal font is still in use. He served in the militia in the Pequot Indian Wars in 1637. He served in the militia all his life and reached the status of Captain. His signature is on the founding document for New Haven, Connecticut.

In 2011 I visited New Haven and took pictures of his gravestone. In May 2012 my oldest daughter Nancy Ann escorted me to England and France. We visited Rattlesden and I took some pictures of the Captain's baptismal font.

Why is the old prune picker living in Ruston, Louisiana?

In 2006 my wife Jackie was in poor health. Jackie had kidney failure and was on dialysis. She had heart problems for some time with A-fib. She had fallen and broken her hip. She had broken ribs and vertebra just moving around normally. My family thought that I needed help caring for Jackie. My daughter Kerry and her husband John offered to park our trailer in their backyard in Ruston and help. Jackie and I accepted their kind offer. My daughter Nancy accompanied Jackie in an airplane flight from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington to Ruston. My son Mike took time off to help me pull our trailer for five long days to our new home. We were and are grateful. We enjoyed our new home very much.

Unfortunately and sadly, Jackie passed away in six months. I had sold our truck and was permanently parked. I was ready to give up full time RVing anyway. It is very pleasant in Ruston and I am close to family. So that is why I have been living in Ruston, Louisiana since October 2006.

prune picker

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Remarks to be made at 85th birthday party.

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