Mickey, Mike or Michael?

This picture was one that was in
our Grandma Owen's and other relatives'
homes for years.

Whatever you call him-- it is "Happy Birthday to Uncle Mike day." Back in the day (meaning when we were all little), nicknames like Mickey were very common especially in grade school and younger. And although Michael was a very typical name back then, I don't think I knew anyone then who was actually called Michael. Mom said that Michael was a name that she had always liked and Allen sounded good with it. I think "Allen" was also in vogue at the time. Anyway, I can remember "Mickey" coming home from school (I think it was first or second grade) and saying that he was now only going by "Mike" and he was determined about it. It seemed like he would completely ignore us if we called him Mickey and we quickly adjusted to it. Over the years, I think he has been called by any of those three names, but I think to the nieces and nephews he has always been "Uncle Mike".

Mike was the third of the eight children and arrived just two days less than a year after Todd was born (and considering that I was only 27 months old at the time, things were a bit crazy for Grandma and Grandpa Giberson). Grandma Giberson often said that she was not planning to get pregnant so soon so she was grouchy the entire time. Then Mike turned out to be the sweetest and nicest baby (don't know what that implied about Todd and I!). She said she must have scared him so much, he decided just to be nice. And he still is.



Mike is the one perched up on a stool.



Mike and Andrea live in Lubbock, Texas, with Kyle. Will is going to Virginia Tech and Lisa and Paul (Audrey and Owen) and Paul and Randee (Jay and ? and ?) all live in the Mesa area. Mike is an assistant professor of practice in Energy Commerce at Texas Tech which is where Mike got is BS degree. He got his advanced degree from George Mason University. He met Andrea while attending George Mason University. They have been married almost 16 years if my math is correct.

From Giberson Reunion in 2009

Mike likes....economics (big surprise). He puts a lot of links on his face book page to economics articles and media. In talking to Mike, he mentioned that he does that mainly for his students. I was always wishing I had time to read many of the things he posts and was thinking he must have a group of very bright and dedicated friends who did take the time to read that interesting stuff. He also has a blog where he writes about economics. It is http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/. Check it out.

In addition, Mike likes New Orleans music which includes jazz, blues, and rock and roll. A band he likes currently is Bonerama. He enjoys New Orleans so much that he has begun rooting for the Saints in recent years in football even though the Redskins are still their family favorite.

His favorites:

Color- green

Food (home)-- If he is cooking it is usually pasta or an omelet (I actually didn't know Mike cooked.) If Andrea is cooking it is trying whatever new recipe that she has prepared. A recent one that he liked was---"sweet potato stew".

Eating out--(the two places they ate at this weekend for his birthday) Nora’s-- a Mexican restaurant for breakfast and then Triple J's for green chili burgers. Gary and I had Thai food with them once in Virginia which was excellent so I would guess if you were ever in Lubbock you would be happy with the food at these restaurants.

Movie -"Grand Torino" the recent Clint Eastwood movie. And if you are looking for a great economic documentary, he suggests "Power Trip". It sounds very interesting, but I am not sure if you can order it on Net Fix.

TV show- "House"

Professional/college sport teams-- Texas Tech/Virginia tech, Redskins and Saints, George Mason for basketball. (You will have to ask him his favorite sport. I forgot to ask as we moved right into his list of teams.)

Snack food- granola or cereal bars

Vacation spot- banks of the northern Carolina coast (and Mesa grandchildren, too)

Games- depends if you are talking about computer, PS3 games or "real time"- FIna Soccer 2012 and scrabble and card games of many kinds

Something you are planning to do this year (before your next birthday) --Go to Phoenix.

A Giberson memory --Our big vacation to California/AZ/Utah in 1967; growing up in Richland and not really knowing what a unique place it was until he was much older.

Taking a picture of Mike taking a picture
of the nieces and nephews
chasing down rockets.

Apparently Mike and Andrea keep a low profile
when cameras come out because I had trouble finding
one of the two of them together.
This is at "Texas" where I caught them in a conversation.
Maybe they could send me one to replace this one.

Mom was right...Mike is a kind and sweet person. I am sure it was crazy to have three children so close in age (and many more to come) but I always liked having two brothers near my age. We became a foursome with Dad as we attended softball and baseball games, played badmitton in the back yard, or played games.

He reported that he was a good birthday weekend, but if you forgot....call and wish him Happy Birthday, too.

(I actually had the text of this post done and posted on his birthday. However this morning when I went to add pictures, I realized that I had posted it on my hifromsyracuse. blog. So now it is done and in the right spot.)

Oregon and "Owen-ness"

I debated where to put this post as it has both to do with me and also Gibersons in general.  So I decided to start here to share a bit about my (and our) recent trip to Oregon to attend the funeral of our Aunt Lois.

 For the younger generation, Aunt Lois was Grandma Giberson's older and only sister.  They were the two daughters of my grandparents Ves (Robert) and Olevia Owen.  There were also two brothers, Gene Franklin who died soon after his birth and Uncle Bob (the oldest in the family).  It was first Grandpa Owen and Uncle Bob who listened to the Mormon missionaries before Grandma Giberson was even born.  Grandma Owen said that she was too stubborn at first and worried about what the neighbors thought, so she wouldn't allow them in the house or sit on the porch as they taught Grandpa and Uncle Bob.  Over time, she began listening through the door and then sat on the porch with them and was converted to the gospel and joined the Church.




Uncle Bob and Aunt Ruth, Dad and Mom and Grandpa and Grandma Owen
I believe this was the day that Mom and Dad were married.
Mom was sealed to Grandma and Grandpa at this time as well.


Grandma Giberson was born in Oregon and was raised in west central Oregon until she was a teenager and they moved to Portland, Oregon, for Grandpa and Uncle Bob to work in the ship yards.  Both Uncle Bob and Aunt Lois married and raised their families in the Portland area.  As children, we visited once a year and we loved Portland, the Oregon coast, the trees, the zoo, and most of all our cousins.  It was party time when we all got together.  Between the two families were 14 cousins, plus the eight of us.




From left to right (Adults):  Mom (Eileen), Grandma Owen and Aunt Lois
(kids):  Marilois, Uncle Todd, Me (Aunt Judy), Renee, Lura, Beckie, and Margaret on the ground


Over the years, we have not had a lot of actual contact with our cousins although we have had contact from time to time as they traveled to Utah or other places near one of us.  For many years, I had yearly visits from Aunt Zina (Uncle Bob's second wife; Aunt Ruth died in the mid-1970's) as she came to visit her mother in Salt Lake.  Valerie and I made a trip to Oregon over 11 years ago which was an awesome trip. I wished that we could have done it every year since then.  Despite that lack of actual contact, I loved my cousins and my aunts and uncle and felt a tie to them.  My aunt was the person on the earth who was like Mom (Grandma Giberson) and she had many memories of times when we were young and together and about Grandpa and Grandma Owen.   I was always grateful to get her yearly Christmas letter and to hear about my cousins as they grew, became adults, had families....all the things we were doing as well.  I loved her and even though she was not really a part of my daily life, it leaves a small hole in my life that the final person of that generation of my mom's family is gone. 

It was a good experience to return to Oregon with Rick and Valerie.  We wish all of our family could have attended.  You would have loved to see the cousins and to be with them at this special time.  Life is truly about families and funerals are one time that is really brought home.

Valerie and Rick ended up on the same flight from Dallas to Portland (weird I know but it was Valerie's best option to fly from Phoenix to Dallas and then to Portland.  Oddly, my cheapest option was to fly from Salt Lake to Phoenix and then to Portland.  However since Valerie won't have been flying with me anyway, I opted for paying $40 more for a direct flight.)  I arrived about 1 1/2 hours after they did so Rick went and got the rental car while they waited.  Then we headed to the hotel located in Tigard just 7  minutes or so from the Portland Temple.

Wednesday morning, we headed to the Church for the viewing and lots of hugging and greeting of our 10 Gibson and 3 Owen cousins and Uncle Grant (Gibson) and Aunt Zina (Owen).  They brought with them almost all of the 33 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.  That makes for a lot of Owens in one place.  It was a very sweet funeral.....actually very similar to Mom's including the hymn "I Believe in Christ".  Evan and Dan both spoke and did a great job along with their Bishop and Stake President.  Many of our cousins and their children carried some of that Owen musical talent which was noticeable when we sang the hymns during the funeral.

The luncheon was held after the funeral as the cemetery did not allow people to come to the grave site until after 4:00 in the afternoon.  It was such a great thing to go from table to table and talk to our cousins and to express our feelings about them and Aunt Lois.

Margaret, Becky, Renee, Lura, Dan, Uncle Grant, Even, Leith, April, and Michelle
not shown:  Marilois (she didn't come to the cemetery because of her poor health)

Uncle Grant and Aunt Lois's family

Aunt Lois was buried at the National Cemetery in Portland as Uncle Grant is a veteran of World War II.  Grandpa and Grandma Owen are also buried there but not in the same section.

We then returned to the Gibson's home and spent time with everyone in the same house which still just has one bathroom (how did they do it with 8 girls and 2 boys all of those years?)

Thursday the three of us attended a session at the Portland Temple in the morning and then headed off to the airport for us to take our separate flights home.

And of course in the midst of all that, Rick, Valerie, and I had some good discussions and we got to remember lots of memories with our cousins.  Many of the cousins commented how much they loved Dad and Mom (Grandpa and Grandma Giberson).  They also expressed that they were so glad that Dad and Karla had made a trip to Oregon this spring.

When I was growing up, I thought from time to time that it was weird that we were sealed to generations in the past when it seems like we were really more connected to the people who were alive at the same time (not a practical thought, but I was young then...).  However, at times like this when you are around relatives that you see some of those common things that make us similar even though we weren't together that much.  In some ways things are past from generation to generation--love of music, wildflowers, and beaches; the importance of friendships; storytelling and drama, teaching, writing and journals, poetry and reading; kindness and charity and many other things.  We all didn't get all of them (and somehow I completely missed the whole music gene) but in all of us there is a little bit that can probably be traced back through our "Owen-ness."  Even my children who aren't all "biologically" Owens have bits and pieces of that heritage that will be part of their lives as well.

Mt. Hood
Traveling east in Portland

Mt. St. Helens
View from the cemetery

Trees outside the hotel

Road to the temple

And of course, Oregon is just a magical place to have your relatives live, especially if you live in dry places like Richland, Washington, Texas, Arizona, and Utah.

And being there, I couldn't help think how happy Grandma Owen must be to have all of her four children together for at least a moment on August 10 when Aunt Lois joined them there.  Sadness here, but joy there.  I am glad to have know Lois Leith Owen Gibson and hope to try harder to do a little bit better to follow her example.

Aunt Robin had a birthday...

on August 18th...and for the record I didn't forget, but I couldn't catch her at home on the day of her birthday to ask her our birthday post questions. Tonight we finally connected after playing telephone tags for a few days. So finally, Happy Birthday to Robin.

Now I can't remember anything about Robin's birth as I was still young at the time. I have a couple of brief memories of her as a baby so I think I can say she has been my sister for as long as I can remember.....Robin's complete name is Robin Eileen (after Grandma, of course.) Now as mentioned, my name was Dad's choice from the beginning and while Mom said she grew to love it as I grew, it wasn't on her top ten list...On the other hand, Mom loved the name of Robin (It occurs to me that mom also loved Batman and Robin....I wonder if that was a connection??) I always thought it fit her, even though she didn't like Uncle Bob and Uncle Grant teasing her by singing "Red robin goes bob-bob bobbling a long." when she was little.

Here are the four of us in the living room at our Longfit house. Not sure of the occasion.

I have a darling toddler picture of Robin but it was too big to scan on my scanner. With her dark hair and eyes, she would get attention whereever we went when she was little.

Robin was born in Richland and then moved with our family to Amarillo when she was almost 12. She has lived there most of her life, except for when she served a mission to San Bernardino, California, and in Mansfield/Arlington, Texas, for a couple of years. Both of those experiences she really enjoyed.

She was part of the famous "three little girls" of our family which of course included Valerie and Lynette. I always thought they were all much younger than me since I had two brothers before she arrived even though we were just over 4 years apart. My memories were of the three of them playing together and being friends. Robin and I did share a room off and on as we grew up. I don't remember that ever being much of a problem although I didn't ask her what she remembers about it.

Hobbies and interests

Crochet —granny square, cook, read good books especially mysteries---Agatha Christie, sudoku and word search puzzles, sewing and needle work. She is currently reading "Teachings of James E. Faust".

Favorites:

Color: green

food-home: lasagna and soggy lemon cake

eating out: fast food—Burger King/Taco Bell or Taco Ville, Olive Garden

movie: Sound of Music and Walt Disney movies

TV show: CSI shows, Bones

sport. professional/college sport teams: football—Dallas Cowboy and BYU teams

snack food: dark chocolate and almonds

vacation spot: Levy Landing, beach, Canada, Carlsbad Cavern

Game: Monopoly

Something you are planning to do this year (before your next birthday): To have read five books and to lose 60 lbs.

Current Church calling: Visiting teaching. She commented that she has always enjoyed her callings within the Church, including teaching Primary and serving as a Primary secretary.

A Giberson memory: Being able to go to Oregon and to visit all of our cousins. She liked it when she got to stay at Gibsons by herself without mom and dad (and I think she meant without the rest of her siblings as well.

Robin is always willing to help her friends and others that she associates with. She keeps connected with the many friends of our family in Amarillo and lets us know as things happen in their lives as well. She loves all of her nieces and nephews and would often bring candy and treats for them to family reunion or when we visited with her.

We are glad to have you in our family. Happy Birthday, Robin........

Giberson / Ollie -- Are we related?

The obvious answer is "of course!" We all know we are related to Adam, and down a few generations to Noah, and even further Abraham, Issac, Jacob and through Joseph to Ephraim. But I may have found a closer connection. Going back through the Ackley side of the Giberson/Ackley connection you will find, born in 1725 a William Hicks, Sr. Now this William was born in NY, but died in NC, in 1799. You may recall that Harry Ollie's mother was a Hicks, and going back in her line you find a William Hicks born in NC! I am not saying they are the same William, in fact I would say most definetly not, however the Ollie -- William could be a son or perhaps grandson (making him a Jr. or a III) to the Ackley -- William. I hope next week I can find more information that may tie them together!

HIDE & SEEK - Part Two

So fishing as it were for something to "find" having been temporarily thwarted with Giberson and Ollie I decided to look at how far back Ackley was. Well Scoby Ackley is the man, born in 1798 in NJ. No luck there, but his son, Richard (love that name) was married to Emily Hamon. Also an "end point" in my pedigree -- till now. I do believe I have found her parents: James Hammon and Nancy. James b. 1822 in Kentucky and Nancy b. 1826 in Ohio. Further info revealed a Marriage Certificate on 10 Aug 1845 in Hamilton Ohio, between a James Hammon and a Nancy Lynn.

We pray always for our children as I'm sure you do, and extended to our grandchildren, some of you are joining me in that area and now I have some greats to pray over. Descendants rightly take the largest focus of our consideration as well they should. But now and then let's turn our thoughts to our ancestors, perhaps especially with a little silent prayer on Fridays from 11:30 - 2:30 p.m. Utah time knowing that I'm down at the Family History Center playing Hide and Seek.

HIDE & SEEK

This ancient childrens game has taken on a new meaning at my age. The "hiders" in this case are those elusive ancestors that can be very hard to find. The "seekers" of course are people like myself who are trying to find them, for their own benefit I might add. Remembering my Harry - Chester - (don't laugh) - Clinton Ollie search, I am thinking that Clinton's parents are even more lost than he, and then there is Kate (no last name) talk about difficult! In the later case I do have the approximate year of her birth and New Jersey as the state. Would you believe I spent some time with a NJ census closest after her birth year for the name "Kate"? How many can there be? Perhaps more than you think. I need to look at that again, but I've digressed.

Considering how I came to know about the Church, and further the circumstances surrounding my birth and adoption (re: Three Mothers) I've always felt an obligation to both the Giberson/Ackley and Ollie/Morgan ancestral lines. To be continued . . .

Thirty years is a long time . . .

If Karla and I had chosen this month to make our trip to Oregon it would have been a full 30 years. Last May was close enough. It was August of 1981 when your mother and I, along with Lynette, Rick and Scott set out to visit Lois in Hillsboro, Oregon.

I've been wanting to post at least one more message relative (double meaning there) to our trip so that I could include a few of the pictures. First I had to wait for Michele to send me some pictures, they arrived in two different batches in June, and then I had to wait for Lois to give me some names to the faces (30 years IS a long time . . .). Actually Michele sent me two more batches in July, but I haven't asked Lois to ID those yet. Have plenty enough for now.

As you can tell, I still don't know how to PUT images WHERE I want them on the page. So you may have to look back and forth from my ID's to the pictures wherever they end up.

Obviously, the middle one is Grant and Lois again with Michele (Rushing), youngest daughter and source of these pictures. The picture to the right is Ethan, Tiffany and Kimberly Bell. (Ethan is Margaret's son). The one on the left is of Renee (Baker) and Margaret (Bell) with Lewis Gray(???).

Well I'm tired of these pictures just popping up at the top so I guess I will quit trying this.

Did I say in my earlier post on the trip that there were 43 of us there at the Gibson's on that Saturday. Same house they lived in the 30 years ago!

(If anyone would like the pictures just email me and I could forward the first two sets with Lois' ID's via email.)