Andy's family reunion in Iowa

This blog will be a duo effort by Andy and I.  Can you guess who did what?

Last year, cousin Sue and Andy thought it would be great to have a family reunion. A local gallery was planning "a showing" of their grandfather, Fred Bombach's, paintings & sketches, so what a perfect time to have the family get together to celebrate this accolade to their grandfather. Fred & Betty (grandma) had three children, Otto (Andy's dad), Viola and Elsie. They were all in attendance for this momentous occasion!!

Sue planned....everything! Our reunion consisted of 4 days of wonderful activities which she planned, coordinated, and made reservations for.

The plan was...to have several days of activities to choose from, so that the cousins would have plenty of time to spend together and get to know one another.  Andy and Tammy hadn't seen their cousins,  except for Sue in 45 years, Larry, Andy's brother, 30 some years!

A little bit about my grandfather, Fred Bombach.  He was born in Germany and came to the states in 1910 at the age of 22. A couple of years later he moved to Iowa and lived there for the rest of his life. In 1921 he married my grandmother and  decided to raise chickens. He then started a hatchery and raised crops which he did until the age of 65 when he retired.  He always enjoyed writing and as you will see further along here was an extremely gifted artist.  He and my grandma then moved to LaPorte City, where I went to visit as a child.  My grandma died while I was in high school, but Grandpa lived to be 100 years old!!

Fred Bombach

Self Portrait

Sketch of Grandma, Elizabeth (Betty) Bombach

Cousin Dan, had a surprise for us!  When he knew we were planning the reunion he did a little snooping around & found  these pictures hanging in the local American Legion Hall in Blairstown, Iowa, where the Bombach family lived and grew up.  How lucky and amazing it was to find these photo's and history.

His High School Graduation picture

Aunt Vi High School Graduation Picture

Aunt Elsie's High School Graduation picture

Here they are 70 plus years later and still going strong ! Dang they have good genes, hope that carries on to me, lol!

Otto,(front), Viola,(right) and Elsie (Left)

Our first event was the private reception to view Grandpa's art work.

The Whole Family at the art show

The Whole Family having fun at the art show!

My family!

Mom and Dad  with, Ernie, Larry, Tammy & you know those other two on the end

This is Aunt Vi's Family-left to right

 Lori, Bud, Sue, Robin, Ned, Fran and Dan

Aunt Vi & Sue..no doubt they are mother & daughter!

Aunt Elsie's Family;

Grandson Mark, Linda, Terry, and Janet

These are all of the first cousins together.  How amazing it was to get to know them!  Presented here youngest to oldest.

Larry, Tammy, Lori, Me, Ned, Janet, Linda, Dan and Sue

Hanging with my sis, bro's and cuz

Our name it lights...well chalk, lol

Just for our family, how cool is that!

Some of the many, many paintings my grandfather did.  

And sketches

Dad and Grandpa

Day 2 was an all day trip. First stop was Blairstown and then onto the farm where my dad was raised. However, the farm is no longer there.

The tree that is prevalent in many of my grandfathers paintings

The house burnt down many years ago and all that's left is a pile of bricks and rubble.  It was cool though because we could all take a brick, or part of one, to keep as a memento of the house.

Family checking out the sight where the house used to be

Andy and her daddy

The "REAL TROUBLE MAKERS" !

Next stop was the "Amana Colonies" since Andy's Grandmother came from there. There is often a misconception that the people of the Amana Colonies are Amish - this is not the case. The residents of the Colonies live a contemporary lifestyle - you will not see horse-drawn buggies.

The Amana people and the Old Order Amish are two distinct groups with very different historical traditions and religious teachings.  There is, furthermore, no ethnic relationship between the the two groups, nor has there been much interaction over the years.

The history of the Amana Colonies, a National Historic Landmark and one of the longest-lived communal societies, begins in 1714 in the villages of Germany and continues today on the Iowa Prairie.
Persecution and an economic depression in Germany forced the community to begin searching for a new home.  The left Germany in 1843-44 and arrived  in Buffalo, New York. As the community grew they need more farmland so in 1855 they arrived in Iowa.

In the seven villages, residents received housing, medical care, meals, all household necessities and schooling for their children.  Property and resources were shared.  Men and woman were assigned jobs by their village council of brethren.  No one received a wage.  No one needed one.

In 1932 during America's Depression, Amana set aside its communal way of life. The communal way of life was seen as a barrier to achieving individual goals, so rather than leave or watch their  children leave, they changed.

Evocation of another age, the streets of the Amana Colonies with their historic brick, stone and clapboard homes, their flower and vegetable gardens, their lanterns and walkways recall a Amana of yesterday.

Today the seven villages represent an American Dream come true.  Thousands of visitors annually come to see and enjoy a place where the past is cherished and where hospitality is a way of life.

Of course she "HAD' to go in there. That meant me too !

Yes you guessed it...there too !

I call this, the wool weaving factory...lol

Hail Hail..The Queen has arrived ! Forgive me   "me Lord"  !

Barbara is one tough lady... that's for sure !

and at his age...hard to find !

What the heck is he doing here ? Dang she looks good !

My mom and dad's best friends of 60 years came from Illinois just for the occasion!

Lifelong Best Friends. .. Real  BFF's ...Barbara & Beth .   Honey, I got ya ! 

Best friends for most of their lives, Otto & Ruoff

Day 3, since Preston didn't go, there are virtually no pictures except this one.  We spent a couple of hours at the local Veteran's museum, so interesting.  Robin, my cousin Ned's wife, works there so we got the VIP tour!  Lunch followed at the local art museum.

Otto's "Silver Star" earned in WWII displayed in the Veteran's Museum

What a wonderful place to call home. Sue's and Buds home along the Cedar River.  What a gorgeous place! Can't thank you guys enough !!

Oh, is that our RV?  Yes it is.  Our home now too!  Seriously who gets to lives like this??

Our daily jaunt!

We are wild and crazy.  Oh yes..we like wine too ! 

Otto and his little girl Tammy

Very rare picture...very rare!  He has an empty Wine Glass !

Sisters...need I say more !

I am sure she is thinking...thank goodness they are gone ! !  I need a drink !

The last day we had a family BBQ at Bud and Sue's home.  I guess Preston was getting really tired of picture taking as there are none! ( Hey now..doesn't anyone else no how to snap a picture).

Twenty-eight (28) family members were here. Four generations of Bombach's! ( Preston here; it was exhausting)  The reunion was perfect. After much reflection, we decided there literally was nothing else that could have made it any better. All of the cousins are SO NICE and easy to hang with. I will be forever grateful that everyone that could attend was here to celebrate our family and heritage.


A HUGE thank you to Sue for pulling all of this together and to both her and Bud for the amazing hospitality they have shown us for the past week we've been parked in there driveway.

Preston here; Sue wasn't all the nice but was just a little bit nicer than that grumpy Bud !  All he could do was grump around and complain.  Complain ...complain...complain.  Preston get me a beer....Preston cut the grass...Preston you need to BBQ the steaks first before the chicken...etc...way bossy !  Of course I am kidding...thank you guys you are truly amazing people whom I call a friend.

Love you both!!!!

Tomorrow we head southeast to Keith and Bert's place in the Chicago area for a day and then Andy will head home to Portland for a bit and I will head to Michigan to see my family and fish with my brother.

Good times just keep on rolling  !

Andy's memories of home !

It has been nearly 2 months since we left Key West, Florida and we are finally at Andy's cousins home, Sue and Bud in Cedar Falls, Iowa,  Today, Andy's brother and sister, as well as her parents are flying in for the family reunion. No, I didn't forget you Ernie !   It's going to be crazy around here for a few days.  THE WINE AND THE FOOD WILL BE FLOWING. I guess there are worse things in life !

Looking back at our adventure, we have traveled over 10,000 miles and covered 42 states.  What a journey it has been and we still aren't done !  We have met some wonderful people and seen some amazing sights.

Last weekend  we stopped, in the Chicago area, and visited one of those wonderful couples, Keith and Bert. It was only for a few hours each day but we will be back in about a week to spend more time with them. Sorry guys I just have to do this....

This is what I found when I get there !

I wonder who these people are !

Just look at that dapper mustache

This what we had to go through to get there to visit them !

Really..it's late may !

We haven't seen these type of temp's for over two years !

After leaving Illinois we headed north to Wisconsin and the Minnesota Boarder. We were planing on staying at a campground right on the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

When we arrived at the RV Resort...something was wrong !  Where are the RV's ?  Where are the people ? The office is closed !  What the hell !

The river is flooded and so are the RV Resorts and Parks. Most, if not all, of the RV Parks are on the river. So we decided to stay in the campgrounds parking lot.

Sir, could I have spot 301...yea right !

Must have happened before..Electric is way up high

Here we are in the parking lot...had to rough it for the night.  NOT !  If you notice, my jacks are down...the slides are out...I even have my Satellite out for television.  So Andy cooked us a very nice meal...took a shower..and watch TV that night.  In the morning we had our coffee and off we were !  Hell, we should do this more often and save a few bucks !  lol

So here we are in the Parking lot.

Little Miss Andy is from Illinois. Her parents moved to Southern California when she was just 11 years old, Dang honey...that was a very long time ago...hell your old !  lol

She has been waiting a long time to visit the town she grew up in and to check out the house her dad and mom built. She was very excited when we got there.

Illinois

I allotted her the honor of putting the sticker on!

The rest of the blog I will bow out !  I think Andy should and she wanted to... take it from here !

Hi there, Andy here.  As Preston said I've waited 45 years to come back and see my home town.  I have a lot of incredible memories of my child hood here, in fact it was idyllic. The only down side was that this is something my sister Tammy and I had wanted to do together for a very long time, but you have to take opportunities when they present themselves!

I'm back!!!

Tammy and I used to walk from the house to town. At that time there was a population of 1500

View of Oswego from the new bridge they've built across the Fox River

I was so surprised at how little Main Street had changed.  A little sprucing up of course has happened but the barber shop, restaurant, old fire station, library where all exactly how I remembered them.

Main St

Old bridge, over the river, they kept it as a walking bridge.  

The river was to high to see Turtle Rock :(

Where I went to school through 5th grade

Spent a lot of time here

Decided to go into the diner for breakfast...wow slap of deja vu when I walked through the door! The waitress said nothing has changed in 70 years, lol

Great food 

After breakfast, we walked across the old bridge, now a walking bridge, to check out my old neighbor hood.  Tammy's and my best friend lived across the highway from us.  Everyone knew where that was because:

Only house I've ever seen with a grass roof!!!

The house:  My mom and dad built it themselves, with some help from friends, in I believe 1954??  I had heard previously that the house had been vacated a number of years and then put up for auction.  Didn't really know what we would find.

Looks exactly the same as I remembered.  Just a bit over grown now

The trees we used to climb are quite a bit larger now.

We could tell that no one was living there, so since I felt at home, we just went right on around to the back yard.

Me snooping!!

Outside kitchen, dad was way ahead of his time on this thought

If you look real close,  it's the old bridge!  We used that bridge to cross the ditch on the way to the school bus stop.

Except for that one new bay window, all of the others were to high for me to peek through, so Preston had an amazing idea....let's try the door, lol..  Breezeway...unlocked....back door....unlocked.   OMG, we are in!!!  I had so many detailed memories of this house, lets see what we will find???

All these cut outs are new, the area to the left used to be the dining room..hey where is the telephone alcove??  They covered it up???  WTH??

See the door to the right of the front door??  Tammy and I used it to hide in there to scare dad when he would come home from work. He would  hang up his coat...LOL we got him every time !

Old doorbell...ahhh

Built ins at the end of the hall

Tammy and my bedroom

Heading straight to...you know sis !

Nope they aren't there any longer..he he..

So many of the original features are still there.  We honestly believe that literally someone was in there doing the remodel and walked out and hasn't been back in a very long time.

Time to move on to the basement

Dad's workshop with the cellar door to the back yard

Some walls and flooring added.  Mom had an extra oven down here, a ping pong table, old upright piano and floor to ceiling book shelves that used to be in this area

Our old playroom

They've upgraded the bathroom some, but the same tile

They were in the middle of turning the basement into a completely separate apartment so it had changed a bit.  Amazing how the house seemed so much smaller than I remembered it.

As I was leaving, the breezeway, all of the original doors are in there.

It was such an incredible moment in my life to be able to go back and see the house and the area where I was a kid.  I was so excited, but later that night, I was so sad.  The house my parents put their blood, sweat and tears into has just been abandoned.  I want to buy it and have a family come live in it.  I would love for someone else to have the same amazing childhood memories that I have.