We spent an extended weekend traveling to and in North Loup, Nebraska, birthplace of various family members and most recently my grandma, Marion Ruth Brannon's final resting place. This tiny town (pop: 291) holds much family history.
Pic: Downtown North Loup. Pump & Pantry is the local evening hang out.
Both of my maternal grandparents were raised there. They were married in the North Loup Seventh Day Baptist Church and started their family on a farm just out of town. The original farm buildings are no longer standing, but we visited "Goat Hill" on which stands the base of the old farm windmill. The motor and blades, as I understand it, are distributed amongst the homes of various Aunts & Uncles across the United States. My mom procured the water pump on a previous visit, which now graces the entryway of my parents house in California. We also visited the farm of my great grandparents, Riley and Marie Brannon. My Benjamin Riley was named after great grandpa Riley and my middle name was taken from great grandma Marie. We waded through weedy grasses reaching nearly to my shoulders to look at the broken down house, wash house, smoke house, and barn.
The rooting of our family history in this tiny town is evidenced by the abundance of familiar names on the headstones of the town cemetery. My grandmother's parents, Fern and George Maxson, along with her brother, George are buried in close proximity to her newly placed headstone. Just a few yards away my grandpa's parents, Riley and Marie Brannon rest side by side, along with my great grandmother Sylvia with whom, I was reminded, I share a birthday. The headstones of other Maxson, Brannon, and Davis relatives are also scattered across the hilltop.
Our journey to North Loup began at nearly midnight after Benj, Talia and I returned home from VBS on Wednesday night. We put the kids to bed for a couple of hours while we finished packing the van and just before midnight transferred them to their car seats. Leila didn't quite catch on to the concept of sleeping in the car and spent most of the next 4 hours awake, finally falling back asleep around 4:30am.
When everyone began to wake up we stopped for breakfast at The World's Largest Truck Stop. Betcha didn't know that particular landmark distinguishes the eastern border of Iowa.
The kids did well in the car all day. Last summer I spent quite a bit of time gathering activity ideas for car trips so we kept them entertained with magnetic letters on a cookie sheet, coloring books (crayons in a cup so they can sit in the cup holder), pipe cleaners to twist and shape, masking tape to stick on themselves (it's amazing how fascinating that can be), Bible story CDs, movies, books, snacks, and more. One rest stop Benj got out of the car and said, "Mommy, my legs are crooked!" After winding through the corn fields in rural Nebraska on highway 22 we finally pulled into town at 6:00pm just as the test tornado siren was blaring.
We had dinner with a friend of my grandma's. We enjoyed a huge, homemade supper and wonderful small-town hospitality. What a respite after our long tiring trip! About an hour and a half another van load of family members arrived from Arizona and California. Not long after they arrived we loaded up in the vehicles again to take the short trip out to Camp Riverview where some of us planned to stay. On our way out to camp Seth was more and more amused as paved road became dirt road, which became "minimum maintenance" dirt road, finally giving way to a dirt path running alongside a corn field, two-thirds along which we had to stop to open (and close) the cow pasture gate. I didn't grow up going to this camp, but it was in many respects very similar to Camp Paul Hummel near Denver, the site of my earliest camp memories. We ultimately decided we would not be able to stay at camp as there was really only one bunk house that was clean enough to use, which would have had to house at least 6 adults, along with our 3 kids. Not to mention my sis-in-law, Erin wasn't thrilled with the horror film-esque flurry of moths that flew out at us when we opened the door. We decided to stay at a more convenient location in town. I would have loved to spend more time out at the camp, though. The setting was gorgeous, situated alongside the beautiful green banks of the North Loup River.
My mom's Uncle Homer was housed at the empty parsonage and graciously allowed us to fill some of the empty rooms with all of our air mattresses, suitcases, pack 'n play and other travel paraphernalia. By the time all of the family arrived we had 11 people of various generations spread all over the house, sharing 1 shower! We did discover that it had central air, although only one vent for the whole upstairs.
The kids were delighted to discover a real bonafide tree house in the yard Friday morning. They spent a happy morning climbing, sliding, and being twisted up on the long-roped swing. Benjamin declared that it was the first real tree house he had ever seen! Talia loved spinning on the untwisting swing. Although she would cry out in half-thrill, half-fear, "I'm scared!" she would always laugh once she stopped turning and yell, "I want to do it again!" Later in the morning and afternoon the kids were able to spend some time with Mima and Auntie Erin while my brother, cousin and I went to the church to rehearse some of the music.
I grew up going to church on Saturday, Sabbath as the Seventh Day Baptists still call it. So at 10:15 Saturday morning we made our way to the nearby church for a service steeped in childhood memories. The kids, not yet used to sitting through a church service, were fairly quiet and well-behaved, although Seth did have to take Leila out part way through the sermon. After church we made our way to the basement where some of the sweet church ladies had prepared a lunch of fried chicken, potato salad, raw veggies, and delicious peach cobbler for our family. Seth and I decided that there was no way Leila was going to make it through the memorial service, scheduled for 2:30 that afternoon so Seth retrieved her pack n play and set it up in a glass-enclosed room on the balcony of the sanctuary. She was technically present for the service, just passed out up on the balcony. :)
The service was a sweet time to remember Grandma's life and even learn some things I had never known about her history. We sang many of Grandma's favorite songs and hymns. On several of the songs it was like I could hear her voice singing right along with us, so interwoven with her memory were the tunes and lyrics. My uncles shared some of her written memoirs on subjects such as her childhood, love of music, and spiritual heritage. I dusted off my rusty piano skills to provide prelude, postlude, and accompaniment for the solos. Although southern gospel is not my personal favorite in terms of musical style, I loved playing the southern gospel-style hymn arrangements because I know Grandma would have loved them.
Our short family gathering ended Sunday morning as we all packed up our various vehicles and headed back to our homes. Cars and planes carried us home to California, Arizona, Kentucky, Georgia, up-state New York, South Dakota, and North Carolina. I'm sure I missed a state or two. Our family arrived home Monday evening after an overnight stay in St. Louis with some good friends. Although it was an exhausting trip, we are thankful for the sweet memories and family togetherness we experienced over 3 short days.
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