Mark's Memoirs

Thankful # 22: I’m thankful for Facebook! In 2007 I was in charge of planning a reunion for my church in Grass Valley. I spent one whole year looking for people and their addresses. I sent out hundreds of letters and emails, and spent hours and hours on the phone! I found most of the people I was looking for. It just took hundreds of hours, and it cost me a lot of money in phone calls, paper, envelopes, stamps and ink for the printer. The end of 2008 my daughter and son in law talked me into signing up for Facebook. I started my search for some friends, and in a week I had more than 100 friends. Over the next 7 years I have found old school friends, church friends, Steamer friends, my brother Stan’s friends, my sister Val’s friends and my brother Ralph’s friends! Through my music I have met a lot of new friends, who I really enjoy chatting with on Facebook! It’s been so much fun catching up with old school friends. I have gotten to know a lot of people from my class who I didn’t know very well. My favorite part of Facebook was being able to visit with Judy Pingree who recently passed away. My chats with Hal Vaughn who just passed away. All my wonderful conversions I had with Cathie Robinson who just passed away. Everyone knows that I enjoy posting music on Facebook! If you have time, listen to the song, and if you like it, hit the like button and or leave a short comment. The likes and comments always make my day. When Kim and I moved to Washington in 1990, we lost track of all our friends. Now with Facebook, Kim and I stay in touch with a lot of our friends! Just think of all the time and money I could have saved, if I had Facebook when I was planning that reunion! I’m thankful for all you good people that are friends with me on this thing they call Facebook!

Thankful # 21: I’m thankful for my grandson Noah! He was such a ball of fire when he was young! I was watching TV and I asked the kids how to switch the channel on the TV. Noah flies across the room and starts pressing all the buttons on the TV! After 5 seconds of button pushing, all we had was snow on the screen! He loves to take things apart and put them back together again. One day he took the door knob apart on his sister’s bedroom, and his sister was locked in her bedroom for a long time! He loves to do “Origami” He can take a piece of paper and fold it into anything he wants, and he is really fast at it. He likes to help his Aunt Inez do Tie Dye! Inez says he does beautiful work, and wishes he could work with her all the time! When he sat on Santa’s lap he always tugged on his beard! You could never fool that kid, he always knew they were fake Santa’s! Inez bought them a very large bag of confetti poppers, and hid them throughout their living room. All four kids found them and blew them off, but Noah stashed some of them away. After his mom cleaned the room up, Noah popped one off, making a mess again! In the middle of the night BOOM! And his dad would yell NOAH KNOCK IT OFF. To this day his parents are still mad at his Aunt Inez for buying the poppers! Noah loves to do Science Projects, and is really good in school! He and his mom have won the Chili Cook Off the last two years at the Groundhog Day Celebration in Sunset Utah. The best thing about Noah are the great Hugs he gives his grandpa! Love you Noah, and you keep popping those confetti poppers!

Thankful # 20: I’m thankful that I was raised in Grass Valley, CA! Here are some of the places and people that I have a wonderful memory of, from Grass Valley: Growing up on Dolores Drive with three of my class of 75 mates: Kathleen Brown, Bob Leary and Dwayne Roberts. Bragg Ave with Rick and Dolli Honey. The Alta Hill Store when the Vogt’s owned it, I always got a hug from Karen when I went in there. Alta Oaks Fire Department! Memorial Park and the hundreds of softball games I watched there! Memorial Park Pool! Empire and North Star Mines. North Star Mansion (My grandparents were the caretakers when Foote’s owned it). Nevada Union High School, “Go Miners Class of 75”, Lyman Gilmore School, “Go Bombers Class of 71”, Hennessey School, Bell Hill School. The Del Oro Theatre! Sanders Music! The Mormon Church on Alta Street! Safeway, SPD, and Raleys! Nevada County Fair! The Ernie Purcell Speedway! Oaks Super Market! Sanford’s Ranch! Thrifty Ice Cream, 5 cents a scoop! The Holbrooke! Veterans Memorial Building! Boy Scouts Troop 32! Condon Park! St Patricks Drive (Where Kim and I bought our first home). Crystal Dairy! Grass Valley Elks! Franks Pizza! Nevada County Airport and Tanker Base! Lots of good Grass Valley bands: Summerset, Mellow Moon Blues, Moria, Absalom, Carry Nation, Steamer! LeAndra Urquhart, (who I had a huge crush on, but she moved away when I was in the 7th grade). I’m not saying who I had a crush on in the 8th grade! Grass Valley, a lot of fun memories, and a great town to grow up in!

Thankful # 19: I’m thankful for my grandson Harlan! I call this kid “The Bulldozer” He is so full of energy, I get tired just watching him! He loves to wrestle with his dad, and his dad found out his little boy packs a punch. Harlan head butted him, and broke his dads tooth! He loves to swim with his family! We were at the hot springs last year, and he would sneak up on me, splash me in the face and swim off! He likes to sit on grandpa’s lap, and play angry birds on his iPad. One day I was sitting in their living room, Harlan walks in and sits on my lap. He says Grandpa, I’m going to tell you all about my family! He told me all about his mom and dad, and I could see them poking their heads around the corner and listening in! Then he went on and told me all about his brother, and two sisters! This went on for about 40 minutes, one of the best 40 minutes of my life! Harlan and I were on the Sky Ride at Lagoon. I’m enjoying all the sites and the people below us, then I look over at Harlan, he’s leaning over the side of the ride getting ready to spit on someone’s head! I had to pull him back in, and thump him on the head! I enjoy listening to his parents when they share the adventures of Harlan with me! I love that little bulldozer, he’s my pal, he’s my Harlan!

Thankful # 18: I’m thankful for Guys Music Night! Once every three months me and five of my friends: Joel Sanders, Scott DeAngelo, Steve Sanders, Nathan Terry, Gary Hill and I get together for dinner, visiting and music! Whoever’s house we are at, that person is in charge of dinner! I so enjoy eating good food, (Gary your BBQ Ribs were awesome) and catching up with my old friends! After food and chatting we start the music part! I preassigned each person three categories, like a Blues Song, a Song by a British Band, a Song with a Female singer etc. You pick a song from each of the three categories, you tell a little bit about the song, and why you like it. It’s fun to hear the memories people have when they hear an old song from there past. Then we play the song, and we always have a nice sound system set up. Most of the songs are played from YouTube or our cell phone. I like it when a song is played that you have never heard before! I also like it when you think a person is going to pick a certain song, and they play something totally unexpected! It’s also fun to rock out to the familiar tunes that we know and love. But the best part of the evening is spending time with my great friends!