Family Trip #5--A Trip to Indiana

 In the summer of 1992, our family members came to visit us. First my family came out from Utah in June. Everyone except Neil and Bruce came. They all crowded into our tiny apartment of 600 sq. ft., covering essentially every inch of extra floor space to sleep. They stayed just a few days before we took off with them to visit Indiana where my family lived in the 1970's. 

I didn't take nearly enough pictures. I'll blame it on the expense of buying film and getting it developed and feeling pretty poverty-stricken in graduate school. Not to mention the problem with having no idea how your pictures turned out until you got them developed. But here's what I have.

In Madison, we went to the small Madison zoo. Then the boys in the family went to a Milwaukee Brewers game. Scott helped make sandwiches for that event and tells a funny story. Kurt was being a little obnoxious. Scott was asking people what they wanted and Kurt asked for a peanut butter sandwich. So Scott made it but put some mustard on one corner. When Kurt got to the mustard he was pretty surprised and they had a good laugh.

After a few days in Wisconsin, we took off for Indiana. First we stopped at Indiana Dunes State Park and camped for a night and played on the beach of Lake Michigan.

Brian, David, Heidi, Tyler, Liesl

David

Heidi, Liesl, Tyler, Kent, Brian or Kurt

Then we went to see our old house near Indianapolis where we lived from 1975-1981 and my old elementary school--Southport Elementary. I still remember our address:  3434 Bren Lee Court. Check out the matching dresses I made for Heidi and me.

Kurt, Brian, Susan, Craig, Gary, JoEllen, Heidi, Paula. Front: David, Tyler, Liesl, Kent.

We drove down to Bloomington where we lived from 1970-74 while my father attended graduate school and visited a woman my parents knew named Ruby Bumzahem.

Here is a story my dad tells about Ruby:

"Back in the 70's when we lived in Bloomington I was teaching the gospel essentials class as part of my ward missionary calling. It was a wonderful experience, and we got to see lots of people come into the Church during that time. One Sunday morning an elderly lady in her 70's came into the class accompanied by two missionaries. She simply said her name was "Ruby." Here's her story.

She immigrated from Panama as a teenager. She married, had one son, and lived the rest of her married life in Chicago. When her husband passed away, she moved to Bloomington to be close to her son. She didn't have a church, but she loved to listen to the Sunday morning Tabernacle Choir broadcast on the radio. She said that was her church. 

While visiting a friend in Michigan she went for a walk and saw a man in his front yard. I believe he was listening to the Choir broadcast, and he was a member of the Church. They talked, and she said how much she loved the Choir. He got her address and sent it in as a referral. Eventually, the Bloomington missionaries visited her and invited her to Church. When she came, as she walked into the church building that Sunday in Bloomington, she said to herself, "Now, I'm home."

And she was. She was baptized not long after that and remained faithful the rest of her life. She became good friends with many members of the ward, including us. We loved Ruby and visited her from time to time, even after we moved to Indianapolis."

We visited other people and stopped by Nauvoo on our way back to Madison but I have no pictures of that time, sadly. It was a fun trip though.

Our second visitor  of the summer was Scott's mother. She came out for a week and we spent part of that time in Nauvoo and saw the old pageant while we were there. She also helped Scott refinish the piano that we had purchased from a day care for $50 which was in pretty lousy shape. I can't believe I don't have any pictures of that trip but I don't. I'll blame it on being pregnant with Jan and having a huge garden and feeling a little overwhelmed.