Lately I’ve been going down a few rabbit holes… You know how this works. You start looking for something and something else comes along. The next thing you know, you’re knee-deep (or more) in a rabbit hole.
Case in point: The other day, I was leaving work and there was a giant Olive Garden Salad in the Teacher’s Lunch Room. It was just sitting there on the table, free for the taking. I am currently home alone, so there was really no reason for me to take a giant salad, but I thought… Maybe I’ll take it home and share it with someone. Who? I don’t have any idea. Even if my husband was home (he is in Phoenix again), it would likely go to waste. He doesn’t even eat salads. So, I threw it into a bag and took it home. One of my co-workers teases me about how many bags I take to and from work. Well, add one more!
I had been trying to meet up with my neighbor, Kathie. She and I had been trading texts for the past few days about meeting up for “happy hour.” Well, I reached for my phone to send her a text and she beat me to the punch. She asked me if I was busy and we’d “break open a bottle of Prosecco.” I had been in the process of dishing myself up a plate of salad. I figured I’d take the whole thing over to Kathie’s house so she could have some too. Well, she wasn’t hungry, but told me to go ahead and finish my salad. One thing led to another and pretty soon, after we attempted to solve all the world problems and discussed buying property in Italy (please refer to the first Optimist Post) it was after midnight. I packed up my belongings and walked across the street to my house. What happened to the time? It just buzzed by. It was a little creepy walking into my house, what with the lights all off and Cheddar Bob (my Orange Tabby/Maine Coon mix) opening his eyes, waking from a deep sleep, as if to say, “What are you doing at this late hour?” I tried to explain rabbit holes to my cat and he had a few choice responses for me, but obviously, he didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. His rabbit holes involve multiple naps!
Then…
Last Saturday, after copious amounts of shut-eye, I drank my morning cuppa joe and found I had received an email about DAR, The Daughters of the American Revolution. A few weeks ago, I found that my 7th Great-Grandfather (Thomas Jefferson Whitten) was a sergeant in the American Revolution, thus making me eligible to apply. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal, but I recently became the DAR Assistant at Chemawa Indian School. The DAR Adviser is retiring this year and I will apply for her position when it opens up. The DAR are very supportive of Chemawa. They provide needed items: clothing, toiletries, Christmas gifts, scholarships, and more than I can list on this blog! So, after I was approved as an assistant, I wondered if I was, in fact, a Daughter of the American Revolution. And, after about a five-minute search on my Ancestry, I found Thomas. I had received an email with application materials and a pedigree chart, which I promptly filled out (it only goes back to my grandparents, plus, as an added piece of information, I filled out my grandparents’ parents as well. The next generation goes on another pedigree chart.
I started looking at my Ancestry account and found some interesting information. My dad was one of seven children. He had four sisters and 3 brothers. His parents died in a car accident in 1966 (I was three, almost four; my brother was six months). His mother was one of seven children too. They died in Wapato, Washington and were school teachers in a Seventh-day Adventist school. In that circle, they were relatively famous. Dad was informed by a police officer that he needed to contact an aunt. They did not have a phone in their small apartment, so Dad went down to a mini-mart and called his aunt who told him that his parents had been in an accident. His dad died as a result of the crash and his mother died a few hours later.
It is hard to imagine a world without the means to get a hold of people in “real time” where you picked up a phone to contact your family in case of a death or accident. This was 1966 and Dad’s siblings were spread all over the United States. His sister Ernestine had “disappeared.” There was a thought that she might be living in Arkansas or Texas, but could be anywhere. They contacted radio stations and the police departments looking for Ernestine. They did not find her.
When I got on my Ancestry account, I noticed there were hints. I last saw Ernestine at a family reunion at my parents’ house in Gresham, Oregon sometime in the 1980’s or 1990’s. In the photo, she is third from the left. I noticed there were “hints” on her profile, so I pulled up the information. Someone had created a tree called My Purvis Family. I found that Ernestine was showing as deceased Abt. 1995. Back I went to investigate my Aunt Ernestine. There was no other information. I began to think about the timing of her supposed death. My daughter was born in 1995. I was in touch with Dad’s other surviving siblings in 1995. I went down the Ancestry Rabbit Hole and four hours later, I’d found out exactly NOTHING! Those rabbit holes will get you every time.
Another Rabbit Hole…
Last week was the last week of school. Of course there was the usual stuff — trying to finish up this and that, finals, graduation, etc. The whole year ended up being crazy and here we were at the end. It occurred to me as I was driving home from work on Wednesday that there were some things I’d wanted to do. I got home and pulled out the ingredients for a masterpiece! My masterpiece! I had made Cannoli Cheesecake Cupcakes for a barbecue a couple years before. I created this recipe. I spent the next four and a half hours in the kitchen creating. The next day I brought in my masterpiece to show my appreciation for my fellow teachers. I forgot how good they were. I would attach the recipe, but I’m keeping it close for a while. Sometimes when I cook and create, it’s a rabbit hole. “How can I make this even better?” Here is what the finished product looks like:
Well, that’s all for now. Cheers to more rabbit holes moving into the summer break!
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