Two more reads Pontoon and Overton Window

I always get a laugh out of Garrison Keillor's writings even though  I absolutely disagree with him politically.  He does it again with "Pontoon" published in 2007, which I picked up somewhere and decided it was a good light read for  travels, the trouble is  there are so many funny passages I had to read them out loud to Jerry too as we drove along to southern IL.  "Pontoon"  really hit my giggle buttons because now we live in MN, the site of Lake Wobegon and among Norwegians and Lutherans, the folks in his writings.  "Pontoon"  is vintage Keillor especially the final funeral scene, I laugh out loud recalling it. Sometimes I wonder what he's drinking or smoking when he writes; share that secret please!  Here is a very over all  summary because there is so much that happens to so many characters, that I can't cover it all here. 
When Evelyn dies, her daughter, Barbara discovers  that her wishes are  cremation, to be stuffed into her bowling ball and dropped into Lake Woebegone!  There, you see what I mean about what does he drink while writing.  While Barbara proceeds to carry out these wishes she gives up alcohol which has been a problem for her but a coping mechanism; she enlists her  bedraggled excuse of an adult son to assist; he hooks up with an Elvis impersonator and things really start to gel.  Meantime Deb Detmer, a local girl who went to CA where she made a fortune  specializing in  veterinary aroma therapy returns home for a celebration ceremony (not a wedding) to marry Brent,on the Lake in a pontoon  presided over by Misty Naylor, from the sisterhood of the sacred Spirit.  Enough happens to call the celebration off but not some of the arrangements which collide with the funeral.  Then there are the visiting Danish Lutheran  ministers,  agnostics, shipped  away from Copenhagen to get out of their Bishop's hair and who Fred must escort.  The Danes cannot wait to leave for more exciting Western states, but little can they begin to  imagine what they will encounter as they feast on giant shrimp kabobs at Lake Wobegon and imbibe too freely.  Enough, it makes me laugh just trying to describe it.

 He adequately describes lutefisk which is something I have tasted here only once and cannot fathom anyone eating, but they do.  Pg. 185, " Lutefisk is cod that has been dried in a lye solution.,  It looks like the dessicated cadavers of squirrels run over by trucks, but after it is soaked and reconstituted and lye is washed out and it's cooked, it looks more fish related, though with lutefisk, the window of success is small.  It can be tasty but statistics are not on your side.  It is the hereditary  delicacy of Swedes and Norwegians who serve it around the holidays in memory of ancestors who ate it because they were poor.  Most lutefisk are not edible by normal people." I am vindicated because I finally here in MN found a fish that I cannot eat, lutefisk.  Before I met it I would say that given a choice I'd always opt for fish, but now at these dinners I opt for the Swedish meatballs right away. 

There are references throughout to the statue of the Unknown Norwegian in town, other characters including Evelyn's sister, Flo who want the  traditional church wedding, and Evelyn's secret lover Raoul.  You gotta read it to get it! 


I borrowed "The Overton Window" by Glenn Beck from a friend and wondered  when it would get better.  It is vintage Glenn Beck with lots of far out ranting.  If you ever see Glenn Beck on TV you can hear him reading this novel  about Noah Gardener successful businessman in his father Arthur's PR firm.  Trouble begins when Noah meets Molly Ross, a revolutionary subversive.   I would have waited a long time to read this and not missed a thing.  It is far out, shades of political nonsense such as we are now living and yet beyond that.  I hope this does not forecast our future.  I have a  2nd cousin who is an LDS church member and way more conservative than I am.  I remember hearing her views years ago about this New World Order plot.  Well the Overton Window is just like that, New World order and beyond, where do we run, where do we hide.  Fortunately I'd had a good laugh with Pontoon before reading this.  Typical Beck where at times the writing stimulates  thought, one memorable  part, on page 7 "..people think about age and experience in terms of years but it's really only moments that define us.  We stay mostly the same and then grow suddenly at the turning points." 

Spinning Sepia Saturday Week 31

I share another mystery this week with this photo of a young woman, date unknown sitting  at an empty spinning wheel. Since there is no  wool nor cotton wad (what would they call the stuff in process?) on the wheel to be spun into threads or yarns, I assume this photo was posed.

I rescued this lady of the past from my aunt's basement in PA last  year when clearing out her home.  I know it belonged to my Uncle John Irwin and I believe it is the same spinning wheel which we inherited from Uncle John and brought from PA and which sits silently  in the corner of the study today.   Several other places on this  blog I have written some about my Uncle John Irwin and his family, most recently  on March 2, 2010 about our Red Dragon Chair, also inherited from Uncle John Irwin. The following link can take you there or you can look at March, 2010 on the Archive sidebar on the left and click on Our Red Dragon.    http://patonlinenewtime.blogspot.com/2010/03/our-red-dragon.html

This photo is in an old wooden frame, (you can see part  of it in the photo above) covered with glass but not in very good condition, somewhat faded. Removing it from the frame to scan would have been more of a challenge  than I was  prepared to tackle, so rather than scan, I took a picture of it.  The heavy wooden  frame is sealed on the back and  enhanced with old nails bent over into the frame.

I think this  spinner woman is an ancestor of Uncle John's mother,  whose photo I share here,  always known to me as Mrs. Irwin, Jessie Ayers Irwin was quite the grand dame, you can detect  in her photo, that grandness, elegance which frightened me as a youngster who had to behave strictly in her prescence.    Jessie Ayers Irwin whose family traces back to the Revolutionary War, well so do the Irwins, traveled extensively and had many treasures in her home, but she especially liked those from her own heritage.  I recall the spinner photo from Mrs. Irwin's home when I visited her as a  young child; it hung above the spinning wheel which she said was very old and used by her ancestors.   Some day the  photo of the Spinning Lady and the wheel itself will make it's way back to the Irwins,  through Chris, John's grandson, who found me through this blog and the Dragon tale.  We met in PA in May and I was able to give him family mementoes of the grandfather he never knew.  But that is another tale that centers on the wonders of the internet.

It is really is a Sepia print in prime and maybe others have ideas as to the age of the photo.  I took some of the spinning wheel today where it rests quietly, in it's retirement. There have been some repairs to it over the years, but  Jerry who examines all antiques and especially anything made of wood is convinced this wheel must date back to  late 1700's.

 Oh if it could tell the stories of  previous activity!

As always click on the title to this post to go to other Sepia posts from our international community.

4th of July Sepia Saturday Week 30

It took some rummaging through photos  to find  these 4th of July family celebrations.  Growing up I recall we spent most 4ths on family picnics at the old swimming hole but no one took photos of those events so they exist only in our  memories.  However  way back the family used to take photos whenever they gathered and I found  this collection in my Aunt Virginia's albums.  She passed away last July so it seems  fitting to show her on the  fourth.  She, mom, their sister Francie and all their cousins who were  daughters of their Aunts Mary and Veronica (my grandmother's sisters)  spent most holidays together. My grandmother and her sisters were all daughters of Frank Ostrowski of whom I have shared other sepias.  They took more photos in the summer, good weather, outside as likely they did not have very sophisticated cameras;  I remember seeing some of those old "brownie" cameras and the film that had to be developed, waiting a good week or two for photo results, but I digress.

We start out with  July 4th 1942 taken at Aunt Mary  Janosky's home  where  the families gathered.  Here on the porch are Stella Janosky, Josephine Roginsky, my Mom-Helen Konesky who was not yet married to my father though they were dating, my Aunt Virginia Konesky with her back to them returning to the kitchen and  Helen Janosky leaning over the rail.  What I find amusing is that they are all dressed, with aprons  covering their clothes and even wearing  high heels.  It must have been a dress up gathering!  Mom appears to have some one's military hat on and Stella appears to have just removed it from her head and is fixing her hair.  Likely Joe Janosky, one of aunt Mary's son's (cousin  & brother to the girls)  was home on leave  because my aunt  wrote on the back, "Helen with Joe's hat." Maybe they dressed up because one of their own was home over the 4th and they honored him.

Now it's 1943 and  four of the girl cousins have traveled to Lake Erie, PA where it might have been cool because they are wearing coats and jackets, but at last I have a 4th of July photo with flags prominent.   This was titled "near the lake on the  fourth" the cousins are Aunt Mary's girls-- Helen, Stella and Jean Janosky and my Aunt Virginia Konesky.   I have no idea what they were doing nor how they got away and it must have been quite the adventure to travel this 100 miles from home to celebrate.    They are still dressed up heels and all.

But now it's 1944 and this is my favorite 4th  photo because these gals mean business! I find it striking because here again the girl cousins of the Ostrowski clan are together again, all the men are off to war. The girls are hanging tough!  I also have always found this photo sad,  because  as you can notice some one's leg sticking out the back on the right, that was my Mom, pregnant with me having just lost her husband June 20th.  I guess she did not want to celebrate climbing the flag pole with the girls, at least that's what I surmise.  My aunt said they  surrounded her anyway and dragged her along to all the family events.  It was a good support system for a young widow. I wish she had at least  gotten in the front for the photo shoot to see me in progress but  back in that day it didn't happen.  Mom appears to still be dressed up but notice than now all the  cousins are wearing trousers and all appear to be the same pattern.  By this time most of them were working in the plate glass factory, doing their Rosie the Riveter like jobs.  At the bottom of the flag pole, Jean Janosky, then  Loretta Roginski (hand in the air), my Aunt Francie Konesky who would leave after this and join the army herself, and  Helen Roginsky with my Mom, Helen behind her, now up the  pole from the bottom,  Helen Janosky, my aunt Virginia again, and Stella Janosky on top.  Note that within the family  all three sisters had a daughter named Helen, I don't know how they kept things straight.  My grandmother said she named Mom after her stepmother, Helen, who was Frank O's 3rd wife and I do not know if Aunt Mary and Vernie did the same with their daughters.  The name Helen goes back to Poland in our genealogy.

I am now part of the Sepia's as in November I had arrived on this planet and here in July 4 1945 I'm in  my Kewpie  doll baby pose ready to become the subject of many photos.  This 4th finds me with my Uncle Carl who is about ready to ship  out to Europe and  got to come home for a day on his way to Europe.  You recall my uncle Carl for a couple weeks of Sepias.  He was USArmy  809th Tank Destroyers, a sniper and  such a good shot that he became an instructor but he was now to go to the front himself. The skills with the gun likely came from growing up hunting with his father. 




July 4th 1948 and in this photo I am ready for the festivities, squinting into the sunshine as has been mentioned before,  hair combed up  and back and bows holding it.  In other photos my hair is all over my head and I'm not so neat and clean.  My grandmother Rose stands behind me in the door way.

Happy 4th everyone, those are the only Sepia 4th photos I could find.

As always to read other great posts by this international community click on the title above to get to the Sepia mainpage..

Back North out of this heat

It has been a lot of fun here in DuQuoin, IL at the Fleetwood Motor Home Association Rally and reuniting with friends made last year in WY at the first rally of this group, BUT, this heat and humidity is absolutely not for me....no way no how, not now, not then!  When we chose to relocate out of CA I drew the line at humidity with self awareness that it was not something I could tolerate.  I do not like heat either but then so many use that excuse, "well it's dry heat.."  Forget it, I lived in 100 degree Sacramento sweltering  while being dressed daily in suits and panty hose and it's just as hot! 

I appreciate  four seasons  so would not want  a perpetual summer.  You may remind me of that when it gets frigid this winter and if we are immobile in MN.  But this heat and humidity would find me inside like a mole in the air conditioner which makes my throat tingle after a while, and without gardens.  So places south were out of the question  for retirement relocation although I love TN.  This week in southern IL has confirmed wisdom.  We get that white fluffy stuff that has to be shoveled in MN in the winters but it is not oppressively hot so I will be happy to journey back north!.

But another comment  has arrived, on my blog from my 2nd cousin's grand daughter who found my blog looking for information on her ancestry and her great grandmother in particular. I wrote about my Great Aunt Frances Mroz back several Sepia Saturdays ago  and my Great Aunt Francie is  Amber's great grandmother.  Trouble is Amber did not leave a way for me to reply to her request and her astonishment about finding family information on my Sepia Saturday posts.  I have had such success with these hits and expanding our family base. 

So I am taking time to post to the blog in hopes that Amber will return and send me her email address to establish contact.  Odd that she found the blog and commented but did not leave a way to reply.  I hope she follows up and reads this so I can pass along information to her some of which she can glean from my blog.   

Unknown Bride for Sepia Sat Week 29 (Click Here to See Others Posts)

This beautiful bride is one of three identical  sepia photos  I found among my family--one at Mom's when she died, one at my aunt Virginia's house that we cleared out last year after she died and one at my Uncle Carl's among a folder labeled only "some cousins."  That all three (sisters and brother)  had this photo leads me to believe they knew her and that perhaps she married into the family and became a cousin. But then because they all had an identical photo of only the bride, perhaps she is the cousin.  It is odd that there is no photo of a complete wedding party, nor of bride and groom. Mom had penciled  1942 on her photo.   I believe I have seen  this same woman  in other snapshots somewhere in my family archives.  We are on the road in our RV and I have little time to post but have a few scanned  photos on my traveling thumb drive, so I offer this mystery bride from sometime in the  1940's. She is posed grandly by this arch and the sides appear to have palm fronds, unusual for PA.  I have never seen another similar photo of a wedding pose in the family collections... Also the month of June is nearly done, and known as the month of weddings, so this mystery bride seemed appropriate for my Sepia posts for June. 

PS... After Nancy's comment and others echoing same, I do believe she is not a bride at all but some sort of pageant winner!  Why  couldn't I think of that?  That explains lack of wedding party photos, no groom, etc.  Still the mystery of her is to be solved, perhaps revealed as I continue to dig through old photos....With this determination, I can point out the benefit of working with all the Sepia posters, world wide, together we can share and help each other solve some mysteries in our photos.!


To see other posts by our international Sepia bloggers click on the title above or here ignore error messages that seem to be appearing when I click the link and just click on the Sepia Saturday, I can't explain what's happening.....
http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2010/06/sepia-saturday-week-29

From Nordstroms to Dollar Stores and WalMart

It  has  just occurred to me again, as several times here in retirement land, how different things have become from my frantic  career professional days.  Today I have joined the ever increasing numbers of folks who browse the Dollar Stores searching for unknown bargains.   I shun most trinkets  in the Dollar Stores, made in China, but finding brand names like  Kleenex, Scrubbing Bubbles,  even Suave for $1 encourages me.  I notice locally the stores are filled with the college kids and many others as well, a far cry from CA where the yuppies wouldn't look twice.  Here in the Midwest where the economy seems far ahead of the left coast, people  are more cognizant of getting the most out of the dollar.

Jerry said years ago that I had become the queen of Walmart on our RV travels.  Well sometimes we do pull our   motor home into  a WM parking lot for a quick and free overnight stay and then it is very convenient to go inside and pick up a few items.  I have learned that merchandise can vary across the country, for example in New Mexico the attire was  bright and ornamental, appealing to the Hispanic populations. 

How different my world is today!  Back in my career days I had a personal shopper at  Nordstroms who would call me for the best sales, newest suits, wardrobe updates.  And I usually always bought something from the attire she had ready for my trying on.  Today J C Penney's and good old Wal Mart carry most of what I buy with an occasional trip to Herberger's or Macy's.  But today knit tops,  tank tops, shorts, jeans, capris and utmost casual attire  are my preferred garb.  It's way cheaper!  Even then I sometimes ponder, "I could sew this  for less"

Heck today I even get to Curves, bike around town for errands or take off in our motor home as right now without a drop of any makeup, lipstick, mascara or eyeliner, just my trusty lip balm.  Used to be at least I swabbed on the  mascara and eyebrow pencil, now, I feel perfect freedom to go as I am.  I never would have done this before in CA when I always  made sure I applied  mascara, liner and shadow to run to the grocery store!

Before we moved I donated so many women's clothes and shoes  to the women's shelter in Auburn for which  our church held an annual clothing drive event.  After we moved and more of the same attire sat in my closet I donated even more to a local similar place where clothing is free to women needing a hand and entering the job market.  I have not bought a suit since 2003!  I retired in 2004.  I have retained one  black and one  navy suit and a few of the fabulous knit ones that I became fond of, Weekender brand which was washable, saving lots of $$  on my weekly drycleaning.  Actually most of my working attire is all gone, but then I lost weight and trimmed down too so much no longer fit well. 

These thoughts just came meandering by at how my life has changed in retirement.  From Nordstroms to the Walmart and  $Dollar store!  I have become fascinated by the Dollar Stores across the country as there are  variations in offerings depending on region, too.       Another  find and favorite is my  local Aldi grocery stores with limited selection, but very good prices; when we travel we frequent an Aldi's when we can as well.  To think I shunned it for a long time because they charge 25 cents for the cart, refundable when the cart is returned to it's place, saving them loss of carts in parking lots.  Besides Aldi's has the very best European dark chocolate candy bar!  Finding bargains was not always on my mind but now I have become almost in an obsessive  contest with myself  in how much I can save!  Things change in retirement for sure.

"700 Sundays" by Billy Crystal

I picked  this little book up  at the Dollar Store and thoroughly enjoyed all only 182 pages of it reading  most of it in only one evening.   I have long been a Billy Crystal fan so  his  memoir, "700 Sundays" was a no brainer to  add to my basket.  His father dies suddenly  when Billy is only 15 and he calculates they had only 700 Sundays together , thus the title.  Billy describes his grief in a way that touched me and rang so true, he says it's like being given a heavy boulder/rock  to carry the rest of your life!  And the haunting feeling of not being all here but having the "otherness" as he calls it.   He reminds us that after JFK's assassination the entire country has the "otherness."  The chapter about his Aunt Sheila in Boca Raton, FL had me laughing so hard, that I snorted my cup of tea which I sip with an evening read!  He's that kind of a guy, Billy Crystal, the  ultimate comedian. His childhood is not typical but in ways the family memories are.   I don't know how I missed this book when it first was published in 2005, but I thank the Dollar Store, besides the entertaining and  heart warming writing about his family, there are endearing photos.  Pick it up at a Dollar Store near you.  The best buy around about "heroes...laughter...family"! 

Sepia Saturday Post Week 28 My Father Lewis S Ball

This weekend marks a holiday created to honor fathers, a day I seldom appreciated and a day that has morphed into commercialism marked by sales of Hallmark cards, ties, fishing paraphernalia, bar-b-que accoutrement's, or other mementos of male hobbies. I will share some photos of my father Lewis S Ball and some photos from his collection; he was an avid photographer until he entered pilot training and then must have become too busy to take many snapshots.

I wrote about my father on Sepia Week 19 and if you have read my blog that I never knew him because his plane and crew disappeared somewhere in the Atlantic returning to Charleston, SC from the Bahamas on June 20, 1944 enrolling me as one in the nearly 185,000 American children designated by our government as war orphans. I belong to an organization, American World War II War Orphans Network source of immeasurable resources and unbelievable support among those of us who shared similar stories growing up not knowing, and not even knowing anyone like ourselves. Tomorrow, June 20 designated father’s day summons my need to remember the man I never knew, continue to grieve his loss after and still 65+ years, ponder how different my life might have been, and share more photos and stories about his journey.

He and Mom married June 12, 1943 at Maxwell Field, AL. I think Mom figured she best travel there  from PA and hook up with this young guy who had courted her at home after they met at a Polish wedding. His  mother was furious and I wish I could  know how he told her about it, Anna Ball said that the eldest son was supposed to marry first and Lou was the middle son, also her favorite, so she did not want to let him go.  My aunt told me a few years ago that  Louie was always coming around to the house and Mom was smitten because he had a car.  Besides that he had dreams.  But they were to be set aside as he enlisted into the Army despite the vehement protest of his mother who felt that having the oldest son, Eddie, off to war was enough.  But not for my dad.  He wanted to go and help.  He and so many other young men.  Later he would admit to his baby brother Henry that he wondered what lay ahead and if he'd been so smart after all.  He had some fear, but then it was too late, he was a pilot in the Army Air Corps,  soon  to fly to England in the War effort, likely he'd been briefed about the D Day invasion,  with only 86 hours training and yet on  the complex B-24.  By the time he was fated for his final flight from Charleston to the Bahamas and back, he knew the Air Crew members odds were not great, when a plane went down that was the end of most of the crew, few survivors.  Still Dad had dreams, he went into pilot school because he was quick and he really wanted to make a difference, he wanted to fly the fighter planes, the P-38's.  Ahh but they needed the B-24 guys on the fronts.  He had been briefed about what lay ahead.  The odds were not good.   This is one of the few photos my mother gave me when I was  in my teens, she called it "that damn plane!"

Here is the Maxwell Field Chapel where Helen and Lou  married June 12, 1943,  which upset both their families as they  both came from avid devoted Roman Catholics.  How could they go to a chapel?  Followed by photos from my dad’s collection of Maxwell Field with different labels all photos in the scrap book which I’ve now scanned. I’ve not been to Maxwell but they immediately responded to my inquiry for copies of the investigation of the plan accident and couldn’t have been more gracious. I am grateful to them.

A Preflight 1943  book from my father's training says, "This is Maxwell Field, red earth covered by green splotches of grass, yellow stucco barracks reflecting the bright sunlight and shimmering heat of an Alabama day.  ...Cadets, pilots, engineers, mechanics, instructors, tactical officers  along the flight line throwing off silver streaks of lights in the mid afternoon.  The roar of motors overhead and a thousand craned necks taking a quick look at the future..."   I like this photo of the band marching and the flag being foisted. 
Maxwell Field  was one  of the oldest of the  Army Air Corps flying fields in 1943 named after William C Maxwell, who died in an airplane accident in the Philippines.   This was headquarters for Southeast Army Air Corps training and the Preflight  school where men like my father were first inducted into flight training.





 The photo of the flight line below of planes is one my dad had titled on the back, Maxwell, on the line.  It is a treasure to me. 

As is this one of the men, I think the guy with his  arm folded, leaning on the wing is my dad, but not sure because he only wrote  "line talk" on this one...  All these photos are in a scrapbook I have assembled about him and most of these I found after Mom died in 2004.    The following are the fighter planes that Dad coveted, and on the back of this photo he wrote, "1943 on the line Maxwell"

When I first heard the Biblical story of Jonah and the whale and knew that my father disappeared in the ocean somewhere, I began to think that perhaps he too was in the belly of a whale somewhere and might return someday. I never talked about this with my mother who’d remarried and put it all behind her, or so I thought until so many years later after her divorce from the evil abusive man she married, when she would tell me what a wonderful man my father had been. She said when 9/11 happened here that it took her back so long ago to my dad and the end of hope. She prayed that others would not see all their dreams and hopes end. I don’t know why, maybe I had my mind on who knows what but I did not question her more, then again after growing up where no one talked about him, maybe it was deep seated in me to not ask anymore.

Here is my dad’s mother, mother Anna Kudzia Ball, in 1958, the grandmother with whom I had little contact, but who would look at me and cry, “The picture of Louie.” I suppose my mother felt this would upset me and it did, what child wanted to be greeted by grief and tears when they saw their grandmother? There was unresolved bitterness between my mother and Anna because Anna received my father’s life insurance policy. I never really believed this until I saw all the papers documenting this when Mom died, I guess I could not believe my grandmother could be so selfish, but she was.   Anna  came to the hospital when I was born and  wanted my mother to give me to her because she had lost her Louie, her son.  Mom and my mother's mother ran her out of there !  But having lost an adult  son now I can more appreciate the heartache she carried to her grave, always believing that someday Louie would come home, no trace ever being found of the crew or the plane.   I learned through AWON that this happened to many other women and sometime the mother did the right thing by the widow and as in my case sometime not, the soldiers just did not remember to change beneficiaries on  those policies when they married. 

Here is his father, Frank Ball  in 1944 with the dog they called Pooch.  Frank  died when I was only 7 years old. I barely can remember, but I remember a very big funeral. I was told that he was a wonderful person too, and the funeral was huge because everyone liked Frank.  Besides being a miner and a part time farmer he tended bar at the Polish American Club in Harwick.  He was very generous and let many run a tab, believing that a man should not ever be denied a drink.   I wonder to this day if he knew that Anna took the money from the insurance policy.  As you can tell I have so many unanswered questions.

This picture of the  3 boys is of my father and his two brothers, Eddie, the oldest,Henry the  baby,my dad Lou taken in PA on the family homestead in about 1936.  I just received this by  email  last year from my cousin Carol, Uncle Eddie's daughter.  The youngest brother, Henry lived in CA and I had a relationship with he and his wife and family.  Henry died in 2008, but I am still in contact with my cousins and Aunt Pearl, his wife.  Eddie died suddenly from a heart attack in the 1970's.  Anna lived until 1980. 

Something that I enjoy doing is gong to places  today and taking photos where my Dad took photos so long ago.  It is a twinge of following in his footsteps.  This is the Belmont Hotel in Madison Wisconsin, Dad took the black and white photo in February 1943 when he was at Truax Field in Wisconsin.  It was built in 1924 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990, it still stands but today is a YWCA home for homeless women.  Its height  of 140 feet instigated legislation limiting the size of future buildings in Madison to not exceed the height of the Capitol building just  down the street.  This legislation is still in effect today. 
I took the color photos in 2007. 

So to my father, ever  2 Lt. Lewis S Ball, pilot of fatal flight June 20, 1944, that never returned from Nassau, the Bahamas Morris Field, with Combat Crew 193,    I'll be seeing you.....I close with one of my favorite photos of him  taken May, 1944; who knew, who would have dreamed.....here he looks out to sea....what is he thinking what is he seeing........














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