Memories From the Third Floor

We made it! This comes to you from the place where Old Danny Boy was once Young Danny Boy, Cedar Falls. 2604 College Street was our first stop. Back when it was YDB’s job to mow the grass, the front lawns were about an acre each. Today, ODB thought they looked rather small. Anyway, we turned the corner from College onto 26^th, pulled into the driveway, then down the sidewalk, and then across the yard to the front door steps of what appeared to now be a vacant house. This, I’m told, was the “posing place” for countless family photos over the years. Today, I had the honor of joining those who have done the front-step pose.

 If you look, you can see the 3^rd floor windows. That was YDB’s bedroom. Though his memory cells are shot from “two much of a good thing," he remembered this: Waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of a street sweeper passing. He gets out of bed and goes to the windows. They are low to the floor, so he kneels down, puts his elbows on the ledge, and looks down. The summer’s night air is warm and humid. The song of the Katydids ebbs and flows in waves. Lighting bugs flash, suspended over vast campus lawn across the streets. It is summer in Cedar Falls.

 When we arrived at Windhaven assisted living apartments, my namesake, THE Mighty Mary Ellen Dreier, 92, was at her computer. She sends a daily e-mail to her family and friends with the news of her day.

 She got up from her computer to give her son a hug and welcome him “home.” It does seem like home to ODB, in some ways. When she moved here, she brought along furniture she purchased before Dad came home from Europe in 1942. These pieces have been part of the home scene for the Bill and Mary Ellen Dreier family ever since.

 Getting here today was a long drive, for sure. All of it was freeway or divided highway, so we made good time. We left the Topper at 3:55 AM and arrived Cedar Falls about the same time in the PM. With sunny warm weather all the way, it was a fine day for a ride across the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Iowa. We did run into a traffic jam in Minneapolis – a sure sign that we’re out of the wide open west.

 I’m parked now and plan to stay this way until Monday when I have a service appointment – it’s been 5000 miles, you know. I could use a rest and an oil change.

 We’ll be back on the road Wednesday, July 18. However, I plan to resume this communiqué on Tuesday, July 17, a very special day.

(Google Map Update)