Ron and Peggy Roloff

Our next stop was

Ron and Peg at Adele's

Adele and Ron in kitchen

our winters in PV. Adele isn’t young in years (87) but very spry and on top of the news and what’s going on in life. We have the love of Jesus in common as well as growing up in the Bay Area with a love of The City. (SF)
We traveled from Appleton to Silver Lake in Marion, Wautoma county. Our dear little Bertha, the gps gal who can be sooo very irritating at times, directed us right to the front door of Adele’s beautiful lakeside cottage. Since Bob has died she lives there alone and loves it! “it’s just perfect for Bob and me.” She often referred to Bob in the present tense which was sweet but strange. I felt like he would be coming into the room any minute. Guess that’s because of their long time together.
Tall pine and fir trees surrounding the lake and the homes tucked along the shore make it a paradise. We had the choice to stay in the bunk house up next to her one bedroom home or down the steps to the lake’s edge in the cabin with waves slapping against the shore. She was so gracious with dinner in the oven and a cool drink welcoming us.
We were all happy to see each other that our time was spent chatting and enjoying each other’s conversation. We reminiscenced over our meeting in PV at the little church there and how we didn’t stop talking until the preacher had to call the service to order with a prayer! Then we each gave reports on our other friends from there who we knew something of.
We watched the sunset over the lake after a delicious dinner, basking in the cool of the evening under the trees. Poor Adele stayed up till eleven which was much later than her usual time for bed.
She prepared a scrumptious baked egg casserole for breakfast with o.j. , coffee and a croissant with her homemake strawberry/rhubarb jam… talk about being spoiled. We continued to talk as we all ‘went back’ to San Francisco. She lived across the bay but spent time with her aunt and cousins whereas we were both born and raised in the City. She was a generation before us but still the memories of places as well as the beauty and excitement were the same.
One of Adele’s cousins was the mayor of SF from 1948-1956, Elmer Robinson. We both were pretty young but well remember him. His goal as mayor was to clean up the slums and make San Francisco ‘a city of good homes.’ “A city is a strong as it’s home life.” Her father helped Elmer attend law school. Another aunt lived on Elizabeth st. in the mission as did my own aunt Bonnie and Uncle Bingham!
She graduated from Cal Berkeley. In the 30’s she went to a conference in Minnesota of the Lutheran church. Since she was half way across the country she took a train to Atlanta to visit her brother. When she got off in the station there she went into the waiting room. Shortly a man came to her and explained that she was in the wrong waiting room. She had no idea, as most of us from the west, and had not experienced the segregation of blacks and whites. She was appalled at the ‘colored and white’ drinking fountains. What a revelation. On the train going on to North Carolina she was sickened how the seating was on benches along the sides for blacks and seats facing forward for the whites. She returned to SF a wiser and more informed young woman.
We’re off to stay the night with Ron’s old Marine buddy Jim and his wife Gloria who we haven’t seen for over 40 years. La Crosse here we come.

Filed under: Uncategorized on July 30th, 2009