The Passing of J. Robert Kreider

Our father passed away this morning at 5:18. He died very peacefully in his sleep with mother, Bruce and Evan at his side and with prayers from us all lifting him up.

"Early remembrances of church"

Dad left us a single-spaced handwritten page of his early recollections of going to church:

Early remembrances of Church

We regularly attended church from my earliest memory, going to S.S., church and Sunday evening meetings, and of course the Evangelistic Meetings every night for 8 to 10 days.

In my earliest years, we alternated Bethel church, 3 miles SW of Wadsworth on Mennonite Hill, with Guilford Church, NE of Seville. Guilford was an old church with no basement, and seating was divided, women on the left and men on the right. There were two aisles, and three seating sections, the center section divided by a wooden division a bit higher than the seat backs. My parents used to sit on opposite sides of the division, to be together and to better handle the children.

[diagram, also showing the 'Amen corners']

Both churches had sheds for parking, originally used for horses and buggies, but later for cars. The sheds have long since been torn down, and Guilford Church is also gone, though the cemetery remains.

Sunday School classes were in the main room for the most part, with no dividers, usually only one empty bench or two between. They did fix up a small space in the furnace room, a partial basement, for a small class of boys that I recall, and also used the coat rooms, or "ante rooms" for classes for small children.

Each Sunday we got a picture card on the lesson, with a brief lesson story on back, and the "Beams of Light" S.S. papers. Our techer had a picture scroll of teaching young children, a larger picture like the one on the card. Bertha Hunsberger, a single lady, quite heavy, was a primary teacher I remember.

"Favorite Songs (for Funeral/Memorial Service?)"

Dad left us the following handwritten notes (the numbers refer to the blue "Hymnal, A Worship Book Prepared by Churches in the Believers Church Tradition [1992]":

Favorite Songs (for Funeral/Memorial Service?)

524 "What mercy and divine compassion" (Really my personal testimony!)

576 "If you but trust in God"
581 "Take Thou my hand, O Father"
497 "Come, ye disconsolate"
506 "I sought the Lord"


Would need others to "lighten" it up a bit, perhaps.

For Worship, Red Book--Eternal Father, when to Thee

75 "Holy, Holy, Holy"
82 "Great God, How infinite art Thou"
62 "Who is so Great a God"--would need a good group of singers
352 "Gentle Shepherd, come and lead us"

I really love hymns!

"Scriptures to Consider for [my] Funeral"

Amongst Dad's recollections of childhood, school, college, family and work, I came across the following page, written in his hand:

Scriptures to Consider for Funeral

I have done a lot of underlining in my Bibles, and one day, in my King James Version, I was struck by two verses nearly side by side (on different pages, of course).

Psalm 17:15b "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."
Psalm 16:11b "In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

In a similar line, are:
II Cor. 3:18 "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
I John 3:2 "Beloved . . . we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."

Of course I Cor 15 is a terrific passage, and includes v. 49, "we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" among its many other wonderful promises; and the timely admonition of v. 58 "be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord".

And Phil. 3:21 speaks of the "change of our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body".

Wonderful prospects! And assurances.

Dad

J. Robert and Virginia Kreider

It now seems almost dream-like that Dad was this healthy as recently as the approach of the July 4th weekend. Married for 68 years, Dad and Mother have been soul mates in life and faith, and arch rivals at Scrabble.

This once-so-vibrant Dad/college administrator/Mennonite minister/pacifist/golfer and follower-of-the-stock-market will soon be receiving hospice care. His mind can no longer add columns of six-figure numbers simultaneously at a glance, without using an adding machine. Never again will he entertain me as he used to, by arriving at the grocery checkout counter--the prices of the cart's contents added up in his mind, including taxes--searching in his pocket for the exact change. Never again will I enjoy anticipating the clerk's expression once s/he announced the total, only to realize that Dad's outstretched hand held that very same amount of cash.

I will be heading to Goshen soon. Thanks to all our dear friends for your prayers for Dad, Mother and the family. Evan

Our Dad

J. Robert Kreider, the father of we five brothers, will begin hospice care this coming Monday. Prayers for Dad and Mom are welcome.

Visiting Grandpa and Grandma in October

Toward the end of October, six of us were able to visit Goshen. Our official reason was celebrating Grandpa's 90th birthday. Obviously, we know that his birthday comes on December 30th, but I fear flying in December, the approach of the promised flu season, and customary snows and delays, so we decided to visit in October rather than December, which was just fine with Grandpa. He was amazed that he is reaching that milestone, for I doubt that many of his ancestors were so fortunate.

Grandma gets around beautifully in her power wheelchair, negotiating the hallways nicely. The chair is so obviously crucial if she is to visit Grandpa or go beyond the dining hall in her unit.





On Sunday morning, we met in Grandpa's room for church, which was being broadcast on Grandpa's new HD TV, a little birthday present from "We Five Brothers". We were pleased to see that he could operate it, listen to some football, and of course church.



Paul found the sermon particularly fascinating that morning.


The six of us visitors enjoyed a Sunday morning breakfast together in Dan and Anne's beautiful home. They were doing volunteer work in Woodstock, India but very graciously let us use their home in their absence. Since the brothers enjoy cooking together, this was a treat.








I believe this competitive game took place Thursday evening in Grandma' suite.


The worst draw possible:

The Olympia Candy Kitchen

The Olympia Candy Kitchen has played a role in each of the brothers lives at one point or another and those times are fondly remembered as they normally centered around the girls we were dating that eventually allowed us to marry them. This morning Evan, Paul and I looked back to those days over eggs done easy, bacon, buttered toast and the sweetest fresh squeezed orange juice imaginable, a very nice beginning to a day in Goshen. Paul and Evan will be taking Mother out shopping, I'll be setting up Dad's new birthday TV from the brothers (just in time for the Notre Dame game) and Janice and Kay will spend some time with Dad. We're all looking forward to Frank's arrival later this afternoon and Bruce is here in spirit.

N. Newton Living Room Project

Last week we finally were able to have the gas fireplace in our living room replaced with a more efficient one. We also wanted to make the room seem a bit warmer and more inviting. The photo below shows how we so artfully disguised what had to have been one of the two worst gas fireplaces ever made. The other one unfortunately still resides in all of its glory just off the kitchen.



The whole process took just two days with a crew of three the first day and two the second. Here you see the new gas fireplace has been installed and a new mantel mounted to the wall. At this point new pipe for the stove had been inserted inside the old pipe all the way up the chimney.

Almost done.....

End results. For some strange reason I find myself reading a lot more in the living room.

Amy's Birthday Cake

I'm getting all the milage out of his cake that I can! Amy got the recipe from a friend at work and it is GOOD. The recipe and note below was an email to Amy's siblings.

Ok, you cooks, get baking! Mark made this for me for my birthday and it is scrumpy! Mom, Dad, and Uncle Dave are here visiting; they loved it. Not hard to do, Mark says. It's a single layer, moist and fairly dense, with a simple glaze. A slim slice is plenty. Sooo good. But don't give Kenny a slice.
~Amy

[Regular beaters were just fine. You have to be quick with the glaze before it hardens. I didn’t have crystallized rose petals. I pulsed some pistachios in the coffee grinder and sprinkled those on top, along with some almond slivers and whole pistachios. Great served with orange sherbet.]


Lemon-Frosted Pistachio Cake

For the cake:

8 ounces butter
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup finely ground unsalted pistachios
1 cup finely ground blanched almonds
Juice and finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 teaspoon rosewater
1⁄2 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

For the icing:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Crystallized rose petals and shelled pistachios, for garnish (optional).
Dare you to double the icing recipe!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of an 8-inch nonstick cake pan with parchment paper.

2. In a mixer fitted with a paddle, cream together the butter and superfine sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then add the ground pistachios and almonds. Add the orange juice, orange zest and rosewater, and mix well. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour; do not overmix.

3. Scoop the mixture into the cake pan, and bake until the top is firm and a light golden brown, about 40 minutes. Lightly cover the top of the cake with foil and continue baking until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out dry, about 10 minutes. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for several minutes, then remove and cool on a rack.

4. When the cake is cool, make the icing: mix the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice together in a small bowl, and pour over the cake. If desired, decorate with crystallized rose petals and pistachios. Allow the icing to set for 30 minutes before serving.

A Visit from Bruce

I met Bruce at the MacArthur Airport in Islip on Thursday, September 10 in the afternoon. What a welcome sight it was to see him come striding out of the arrivals gate! This airport is likely the easiest to negotiate in the world and within 5 minutes we were in the jeep two parking spaces away from the very best parking spot. Bruce opened the thermos of hot Peet's coffee and we headed east. We'd planned to spend a fair amount of time on the water fishing but wind and waves prevented us until Sunday. In the meantime we did some surf casting on the Long Island Sound and down at the inlet coming up empty but enjoying ourselves. Friday we picked Amy up at the Mattituck LIRR station and went to Legends for dinner and had wonderful fresh seafood, etc., as Bruce's treat.

When Bruce stays with us we always have a meal of mussles and this year was no different. Saturday the three of us downed 4 doz. mussles steamed in white wine, shallots, garlic and butter. The mussels add their own juice to the mix which we mopped up with some crusty baguette. Oh, I shouldn't leave out the 2 doz. steamers washed down with cold Stella Artois or the lobster meal later on.

Sunday we finally got a good weather day, packed a cooler with sandwiches and trimmings and headed to Southold to launch the boat just down Jockey Creek from where Amy and siblings learned to find clams in the creek bottoms with their toes as young children, up to when Amy turned 10 years old when they moved to Florida. The sun popped in and out from behind billowey clounds as we chummed the bay near Jessup Neck coming up with a fish each, three different species but no keepers... that's the way it usually goes. Bruce was doing the driving. He took us over to Shelter Island to a sheltered bay where we beached, put up the Bimini top and had lunch. As the season was already at a close it seemed that everyone who could get on the water did, so there was a lot of traffic whizzing by in the deep water channels making lots of steep wake which Bruce negotiated admirably, nearly as fast as Amy would have! They have a kindred love of speed (note photo below).

I hope this gives you a little idea of his visit. I took very few pictures as it was just the three of us having fun. Did I mention that in the evenings we played a fair amount of poker with the chips first piling up on one side and then going over to the other, back and forth. We had a ball!



Channel Highway




Speeding on the Brine



Shelter Island



I

A Drive Down Memory Lane

We had our usual guests over the holiday weekend and were blessed with very nice weather the entire time. The water seemed a little warmer than the air which made for very satisfying swims. The wind wasn't too high to kayak and different ones of us took advantage of that. Joe brought his new camera so we got up at 6 am to catch a sunrise and see what the morning had to offer. The food we all prepared together was excellent. We ate every meal outside on the deck under the canopy and enjoyed playing games there and lawn bocce out back.

Saturday Tony and I drove to Peconic to see a car show. There may have been a hundred entries to judge. Each car was polished down to the nuts and bolts on the engines with incredible attention to detail. Now I've never been what you'd consider a car nut by any means but when I saw this old Buick I felt weak in the knees. Our 1951 Buick Special four door sedan was very similar to this car. It played a large part in Evan's, Paul's and my youth and Bruce and Frank very likely remember it well. I believe the three oldest of us took our driving tests in it parallel parking without power steering. I remember sleeping on the ledge behind the back seat when I was small enough to fit. I hope Mom will print out one or two of these photos to show Dad. I think he'd enjoy seeing them. Perhaps they'll evoke some good memories, maybe some funny ones too like the winter when (Evan, I think) drove toward the college with a pan of fudge on the front fender placed there to cool. It made it all the way to the big curve on route 15 where it was later found in the snow half way into the Beer's front yard if my memory serves me. Nice driving Evan!

Remember the tissue dispenser?

Visitors From the Great Northwest

Saturday, the 29th, Amy and I went to Laguardia to pick up Vivian and Stephen, then headed straight out to Cutchogue. This was Stephen's first visit so it was a lot of fun showing them around. Among other things we drove to Orient Point and did the circuit hike from the ferry to the point's end along the Bay then back walking along the edge of the Sound. On the way back to the house we picked up vegetables, a Catapano goat cheese, locally made chorizo and fresh seafood, ingredients (not the cheese) for Stephen's first ever paella. We all helped washing and chopping as Stephen browned the meats, added wine, stock, rice, herbs, saffron, mussels, shrimp, clams, I can't remember what all, topped by a nice piece of cod. After a stint in the oven it was ready and we sat down to a very savory paella with salad and some of Amy's garlic bread followed by a fresh peach cobbler. Yum!

Vivian, Stephen and I played two games of Super Deluxe Scrabble over the weekend and I got put in my place losing both by around 150 points. These two are professional Scrabble Sharks, beware! One game Vivian led off with a seven letter word getting the 50 point bonus on her first move, then Stephen showed his prowess laying three seven letter words in the other game. On Monday we went to see Coney Island, sample the foods, see the sights and walk the boardwalk (for Coney Island photos click here). It was all an amazingly good time. We enjoyed their visit so very much!

New Raised Vegetable Beds in Vancouver

Evan constructed three raised beds for vegetables in our back yard from lumber languishing in the basement plus some purchased boards. The two smaller boxes are 4x6 feet, and the larger one is 4x10. The beds were built over the former vegetable plot, so all is still in transition. That is why you see varying soil levels and a zucchini and basil growing in what will eventually be the path. Winter vegetables have been transplanted and seeded, and kale (Evan's bane) is sprouting everywhere due to a recent rain.

Although not in such great focus, here is a close-up photo of the tomatillo jungle.

Amy's Stuffed Striped Bass

For the recipe click here, August 9th.

Nick and Chico

Last Saturday Amy and I drove to the large Borders bookstore in Riverhead to have the pleasure of watching Nick play with jazz great Chico Hamilton and band. To see some of Chico's achievements click here... he truly is a jazz giant. One of Chico's greatest achievements is being able to play well and entertain with a sense of humor at age 88! The melodies flowed smoothly as each musician took solo turns. Nick, with ease, confidence and no wasted motion played difficult progressions without breaking a sweat on his beautiful 1968 hollow body Gibson, one sweet guitar. An appreciative audience eagerly applauded at songs ends and after solos. The hour and more that they played seemed short when it was over. We really enjoyed ourselves at the gig remarking that Kara would have enjoyed it too but she was busy celebrating Alyssa and Bill's wedding at Paul and Kay's home with 60 or so people in attendance.

We had a nice chat after, then I asked Nick what they were up to for the evening. He said they were returning to NYC but first had to stop off at Target to return the jacket the percussionist bought for the gig.

I hope you all get a chance to see Nick play one day.

(handsome, no?)

Chico at rest.

Moving a sidewalk in Hoquiam

Over the July 4th weekend, Janice, Stephen, Vivian and I went to Hoquiam to work on landscaping. I had assumed that this would be somewhat idyllic work, perhaps preparing the odd bed for fall planting under Janice's direction. But Stephen had other ideas.

What's wrong with this picture?

The new porch was designed so that there is now a slight offset between the front door and porch stairs. Consequently, the sidewalk no longer met the stairs. So, rather than install a new sidewalk at considerable time and expense, we decided to move the existing old sidewalk sideways about two feet. Of course, nobody really knew what they were doing, and Janice typically kept her thoughts to herself.
The next morning, we started by removing the sod and soil from where we wanted to shove the walk. The sod was remarkably tough because the area had not had rain for weeks.

Then, laboriously, we freed the walk, slab by slab, and occasionally broken bit by broken bit. Steve used an enormous iron bar to lever the slab sideways, half inch by half inch, while Vivian and I kept our shovels under the slab's front corners to form a kind of sled so that the first corners to bump into the new location did not dig in, but moved relatively smoothly. Just moving the first slab at all was a victory and called for a break.
We soon learned how to position the slab, getting it settled on gravel and sand. Rather than viewing the broken slabs (broken for decades, likely) as disasters, we thought of them as puzzles to reassemble.
The end of the old walk (out by the street) was too broken to be reused, so we broke it up and removed it, leveled the soil, and found enough old bricks to fill the gap.

We used some bags of sand to fill the walk's cracks, old and new, and then let the sand settle.
Steve, Vivian and Janice got a pickup-truck load of top soil to spread around the 'new' walk and get some grass started. While we had been working on the sidewalk, Janice had been preparing a new bed at the front for shrubs which will be planted this fall when the damp weather encourages transplanting. Finishing this bed was a real victory because she had first uprooted all sorts of difficult weeds, then turned the sod over, leveled the bed and dressed it with top soil. Steve laid some gravel and paving stones for easy access to the outside faucet.

While the others were shopping for various things, I decided to see whether Janice's suspicion was correct. When she had been working at the back of the house, she wondered whether she had discovered bits of a sidewalk parallel to the back of the house. Curious, I started digging, pulling heavy sod away, and yes, there was indeed an old cement sidewalk which was totally covered by grass, weeds, stones, broken glass, etc. for years. The walkway was in remarkably good shape, and best of all, it did not need to be moved or leveled.