Claude Lanners - and some enduring gifts

Thanksgiving 2011 - I'm thinking of many things for which I'm thankful.  Here's one:

Hospitality plus.  Luxembourg.  (1989)

Our family had the good fortune to come into contact with a gentleman by the name of Claude Lanners some 30 years ago. Claude is a relative on my mother's side, resident in our primary ancestor-land, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. 

I've been thinking about Claude lately in relation to a few items: (1) I received a link to a website (on Geneanet) prepared by Claude, with endless amounts of information about the Bormann family; and (2) I received a 57-page pdf file, written by Claude, titled "History of the US Branches of the Bormann Family."

Both are priceless, enduring gifts.

(As if that weren't enough - Claude has been giving us all a life-lesson as he deals with ill health over what has now been an extended time period - continued graciousness; neither anger nor denial at what's happening and what lies ahead; continuing productivity on family history topics that only he can produce; etc.  (Claude's graciousness - to which I deliberately refer repeatedly - was impressive in good health.  It's even more impressive, and enduringly memorable, in these more difficult days.)   But enough on the illness topic for now, it makes me unhappy.)

Three thoughts on Claude's family history work:

1983 - early stage family history work.  (House residence, New Brighton, MN)

1983, our Glenview, IL townhouse (chicken cacciatore courtesy PJ)

1.  Simply put:  no one else - no one - could have done it.  Claude truly was the one-of-a-kind man-on-the-spot.  He has an unmatchable combination of extensive knowledge (both family history and the overall history that gives context to the family situations over the years); genuine interest in people; hospitality to visitors, fluency in the language(s) needed to work through the historical records and converse with the locals; fluency in English that permitted precise communication with we Iowans; the work ethic to track down so much information; and then the hard part:  putting it on paper.  So often information is gathered and just ends up sitting in shoe boxes or the like; so seldom is it reduced to a usable writing.

Paradise Valley, AZ, October 1992

 2.  And we must not underestimate how much time and skill this kind of writing requires.  Thoughtful, concise writing does not occur easily.   Dashing off a letter (or a blog post, for that matter) is one thing.  Putting together the delightful  "History of the US Branches of the Bormann Family" is an entirely different level.  Claude had to make hundreds of editorial decisions at multiple levels, including (at a minimum): (1) selecting the information to be presented out of a huge mass of loosely-connected materials that had been accumulated over many years; (2) selecting the structure of the document (strict chronology? back and forth in time? etc.); (3) making countless presentation decisions about when and how to use original writing, quoted text, conversation notes, photos, drawing, maps, excerpts of historical documents, etc.; and (4) finally - selecting the precise words and images that now grace all of those pages.

Paradise Valley, AZ, October 1992

3.  He succeeded.  The Bormann history is not an exercise in name-date-drudgery, as can so easily occur with family histories.  Instead:  it's lively, readable, informative, wonderful!  I'm going to print the final version, have it bound (self-publishing is easy these days!), and proudly shelved alongside the St. Joe history book (1976), the Altman family history (that Claude so graciously acknowledges in his work), and other family materials.

We had the pleasure of seeing Claude in Illinois in 1983, and in Arizona (along with his son, Michel) in 1992.  I've posted a few photos from those fine days.

Paradise Valley, AZ, October 1992

Also included below is a delightful set of photos (click arrow at bottom right to proceed through slide show) that Claude put together - included to give a sense of the valuable type of work he does, bridging content from the U.S. and Europe.  (I'm not posting the Bormann family history itself here - too many names and dates for privacy purposes, I think - will eventually post it to my secured website as a repository item.)

Claude - thanks for the enduring gift of your family history work.  And thanks - even more - from Patricia, me and all of us here in Arizona - for your friendship over this nigh-30 year span.  


Gales 1983-2011

Test video (Aster)

I previously mentioned how much we enjoyed our November 6th Minneapolis lunch at Aster Cafe.

Neither here nor there . . . but I had taken a short test video (22 seconds) during lunch with our (relatively) new camera (Canon ELPH 500HS).  Have liked the still photos quite a bit; now - with one experiment behind us - I'm optimistic about the video capabilities as well.  For a point-and-shoot, it's pretty rare to be able to zoom while in video mode; plus it's full 1080p.  And look at the nice job it did with very difficult lighting conditions in this short clip.  (Try it full screen.)  I still like the way this quartet sounded . . .



These devices are simply amazing . . . I think back to the video equipment we lugged around (with separate lighting) in the early 80s . . . ridiculous progress.

Midwest tour (Nov 4-9, 2011)

PJ and I have found late autumn to be a congenial time for Midwest travels in recent years (for example, see here, here and here).  So:  we went for it again this year. And had another delightful trip.  Started out the trip moving around steadily (counting getaway day from Arizona, we slept in different states on four consecutive nights.)  (Reminder, click on any photo to start "Lightbox" display.)

PJ looking jaunty in St. Paul.

Plotting our evening . . .

This skeleton doesn't look "too" mean.

The best combination:  mixing sports affiliation and high culture. 

After flying into Minneapolis on Friday (11/4), we went over to Eau Claire - our second trip to the Haag homelands.  We all chit-chatted awhile, Dan got back from work, we chit-chatted even more, then were on our way to dinner at Mona Lisa's restaurant.  An excellent choice, the locals seem to know the territory.  Back home for Barb's apple crisp and more conversation.  Couldn't be more pleasant; Champ (the pooch) was also entertaining (though wearing his Halloween seemed to calm him).  Allison made a creepy skeleton for our bedroom door, but we weren't scared (well, not much).  Emily has added the flute to her repertoire, which is quite nice indeed.

Barb made scones for breakfast on Saturday (11/5) - these were a big hit.  We played a board game - forgot the name, you pick cards with things you think other players like.  I had good cards and won, going away.  Speaking of which, we eventually gathered up and headed to the twin cities.  Nicole and POC called to chat while we were enroute, mentioning (among other things) an unfolding scandal at Penn State (which has dominated the airwaves for days now - Sandusky).

Lunch with Mark and Therese in St. Paul - Brasa - yum, nice.  Up to New Brighton - Steve & Cecilia, Margaret, Steve & Liz, Jenna, Nick; also Therese.  Much enjoyed spending the evening together; Cecilia had put together a delightful pork dinner.  The young 'uns left after awhile, I assume reluctantly, but they conceded that the >50/<60 sleepover would best proceed without those pesky kids.  Watched ASU blow a road game to UCLA despite the presence of CPG, EPG and other ASU loyalists (strangely enough, while tapping out this post, I see that ASU is blowing a road game to WSU right now, ugh).  Back in New Brighton, we chatted away the evening.

Pedal Pub depot in Minneapolis.  Neat old building!

Breakfast with the sleepover crew on Sunday (11/6); the morning flew by; Steve & Liz eventually headed out; later we went down to Aster Cafe in Minneapolis for lunch (after touring the "Pedal Pub" depot, which is right in the same neighborhood).  Therese & Mark joined us for lunch.  Lunch turned out to be delightful (we only were wishing Steve & Liz could have attended) - the restaurant featured a very fine quartet playing music from '30s and '40s (I think, mostly), folks dancing away up by the band, very nice food (I had a quite wondrous flatbread pizza ("pear & chevre roasted onion, spinach with prosciutto")).  Plus they were serving Surley Darkness, apparently a mythical beer ($18 for a (large) bottle?); Steve and I had to give it a try - nice.  ("This massive Russian Imperial Stout brings waves of flavors; chocolate, cherries, raisins, coffee, and toffee.") (?)

Aster in Minneapolis.  Surly Darkness in foreground (not to be missed).

After that:  onto Iowa.  Arrived in St. Joe for the tail-end of a dinner at the school gymnasium - a dedication or observance of the completion of the new garage at the rectory.  Got to see some folks, it was nice.  Back to the house, chatted away the rest of the evening with my folks.

A view of the Aster dancers, with the combo . . .

Monday (11/7) - this was our light-duty day.  Went to 7:30a Mass (and ensuing chatter outside church); breakfast; rounds of phone conversations; then dinner.  Grandma had the usual assortment of baked goods around - if not better than usual - variety, quantity, quality.  Went over by Clarence and Caroline around 1:30p - delightful visiting, plus an unusual occurrence:  Clarence and I won three of four games.  The evidence of our triumph (in the form of a scorecard) was compromised by timely intervention of the vanquished, though one can still make out from the photo the glorious comeback in the final game - a 1200 point turn-around launched by a rare nello bid by Clarence.  (He also did a great job with the bourbon beverages, by the way.) 

After another fun round of "500"

Back to St. Joe for supper.  We looked over the posters from the recent Luxemburg event in Wisconsin, and just enjoyed an evening with the parents - a fine thing.

Evidence blurred by a PJ-provoked Caroline-snatch.

Tuesday (11/8) - our usual delightful, slow-unfolding morning in St.  Joe house.  Fr. Kollasch took a test-drive on our rental car (Altima) (he wasn't impressed).  Some packed up cookies for us to take back to AZ - yes.  Turns out that Bev Ramker's prolonged cancer battle had ended (back on Friday), so we were going over to Osage on this date for the wake (or "visitation", as it is called nowadays).  Dolores came over from Storm Lake to join us, so it was nice to have time with her.  Easy travels in both directions; we were gone from around 2p until 8:15p or so.  Had intended to meet up with Steve & Liz in Osage, but that didn't quite work out.  Did enjoy talking to the Laubenthals, also caught up with Mike & Mary Bormann and Merrill and Brenda Bormann (who were in the very long lines).  Late supper and chatting back in St.Joe.

Wednesday (11/9) - hectic start to the day - Grandpa & Grandma had to leave pretty early for Bev's funeral, and I was stuck on a conference call for awhile.  But PJ and I did have a chance to have breakfast and chit-chat with Dolores, which was quite nice.  Then onto Minneapolis and back to Phoenix, where PJr completed his round-trip airport taxi service.

Dad, Mom, me

Nice trip - pretty fast-paced but how can you beat this:  I get to see my parents, five siblings (and their spouses), four nieces, one nephew, two aunts, one uncle, several cousins, three states, nice meals at restaurants and in homes, on and on over six days, all with a fine traveling companion who now has 33+ years of Iowa travels on her resume - I'm lucky, how many folks get to tour like this?

House is missing on the hill, but the view remains a delight.

10 ones

no reason for this post except I much like the notion that I could queue it up for 11:11 on 11/11/11