Miss Parsons

My Miss Parsons

As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I had no idea how much my Aunt Marion meant to so many other people until I began work on this project. While I always thought of her as my Aunt Marion, I've come to know her better as everyone's Miss Parsons.

The picture here is my fifth birthday party in the backyard of our house on Parsons Drive, the old family farmhouse where Marion and her sisters grew up. That's me hanging from my swing set; that's Marion standing guard.

Notice her corsage. She took my parties seriously, the hostess to all my neighborhood friends. Marion loved children. She took everything about us seriously, our education, our social life, happiness, and mostly our understanding of what it means to be a good person. How self-centered I was to think she belonged to me alone when she meant so much to so many.

Cherry Road Alums

Ties That Bind~

I recently met up with some Cherry Road School alumni who also live in Oregon. Everyone you see in this picture attended Cherry Road except one. I'm in the black jacket and the others found me through this blog. How amazing is that? They were all in the same fifth grade class and two of them are married and now they are all close, held together by fond old memories and new-found friendships.

Walt Sweyer (middle, red jacket) tells me he was not the best behaved student at Cherry Road. I think he's made up for it since. Everyone agrees there was something so special about their experience at Cherry Road School that it's a strong tie that pulls all the way from Oregon.