Elgin, the Casino, Barbies and Cacti

We had a great time visiting our Elgin family, including Aunt Marlene, Aunt Audrey, Uncle Ole and all of my many cousins. Aunt Marlene took us on a tour of South Elgin to see the house that my family lived in before we moved from Illinois to California in 1960. We saw many places that were a big part of our family history, including the house that Dad's parents lived in for so many years. We also went to the cemetery to lay some flowers on the graves of our family members, including Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Monica, Aunt Virgene and Uncle George. That was sad, but Dad and I were very glad that we had the opportunity to pay our respects.

I've included a couple of family photos and will put more on later. One is Dad with his 2 sisters, my Aunt Marlene and Aunt Audrey. There's also a picture of Aunt Audrey and Uncle Ole and a picture of Uncle Ole with his sons Brian and Keith.

All of our family has really fond memories of Grandma & Grandpa Reinert's house where we had so many family gatherings over the years. When we were in front of our Prarie St house in South Elgin, the current owner drove up and offered to let us take a look inside. I took a picture of the outside of the house and also a picture looking down the stairs...do you remember how it looked, Doug, Mike & Jo???? The house has changed quite a bit over the years. There was a large family room added onto the side of the house where the screened-in porch used to be. Above the family room is now a large master bedroom. The yard is still quite large, even with the additions, but the grape vine is no longer there and the outdoor fireplace is gone as well. The attached garage burned down several years ago and there is a free standing garage now. The current owners did not know about the fire. Dad told them that the house fire started when the then-owner tried to thaw out frozen pipes with a blow torch. Dad also told them that he had thawed out pipes the same way himself, but fortunately, there were no fires when we lived there. I peeked into the bedroom that Jo and I shared way back when and also looked at the upstairs bathtub where we used to have our baths when we were young. Hard to believe that was 50 years ago. (Note to my brothers and sister...Remember the Dairy Prince, where Aunt Marlene used to take us for ice cream treats (thank you Aunt Marlene), well, it is now a Wee Dee's, with some very gaudy paint on the building, I might add.)

My cousin, Brian and his wife Robin, invited all of us for a cookout at their house in Elgin. We saw their 2 dalmations, Blue and Chase. Blue has one brown eye and one blue eye....hence the name. Robin and Brian have a couple of interesting collections in their home. Robin has over 500 Barbie dolls. I would never have guessed that there were that many, but according to Robin, there are lots more than that. They also have a few cactus plants. None of us has ever seen such large cacti in any home. You'll see in the picture just how tall they are!! I think Robin said that she's had them for 20 years....and, they have just kept getting bigger and bigger. Pretty soon they will need to cut a hole in the living room ceiling to allow the plants to continue to get taller!!

Aunt Marlene, Dad, Mom and I took an overnight trip up to the Ho-Chunk Casino in Wisconsin. En route to the casino, we met up with my cousin, Kathe, who lives in Madison, WI. We had a nice lunch and visit. Kathe is so much fun to be with. I was glad that Mom W had the chance to meet her and Aunt Marlene hasn't seen Kathe since she was a very young girl. I'm glad that our lunch worked out. At the casino, we had very nice and comfortable rooms. The casino had an indoor waterfall, which was fun to look at. As for gaming, none of us won any money, but we had fun. Dad tried to hitchhike home, but had no success in getting a ride. I wonder why?? Outside the casino were some "rocks". I suggested that Mom try rock climbing, but she thought I'd have better luck! We had fun, but missed little Cubby.....Cubby spent the night with Aunt Audrey, Uncle Ole and Snickers....a beautiful cocker spaniel with the longest eye lashes I've ever seen. He's a sweet dog and the two "cousins" seemed to have a good tail-wagging time. Cubby slept right near Aunt Audrey....he knows a dog lover when he sees one. Uncle Ole said that he was a very good guest.... Thanks for dog sitting, Aunt Audrey & Uncle Ole.