Thanks to all who made Dear Mad’m such fun!

12DMSCelebrating the NEW book, Dear Mad’m who was she? at the Reception at Naturegraph October 12, 2012.

:                                                                                                               Saturday Luncheon at Karuk Building

11DMD3134(4)

Rod put more wood on the fire for the marshmallow roast to make Sm’ores!

.

Thank you to all who worked together to make Dear Mad’m Symposium such a fun event for all last weekend! First of all we thank Geneva Johnson who received our Dear Mad’m Award for her wonderful pioneering spirit. Thanks also to Casey Chambers who shared what Geneva “Dear Grandma” has meant to her through the years since she was a newlywed neighbor.

We Thank Barbara Brown, who was our Dear Mad’m last year at the first annual Dear Mad’m Day. She has been the publisher through Naturegraph publishers, both of  “Dear Mad’m” by Stella W. Patterson and the newly published “Dear Mad’m Who Was she?” More recently, we thank her for having the Friday reception at Naturegraph, and the great sweet grapes and homemade apple juice that she made. Besides welcoming so many to her place, she also provided printing tours thanks to Sonny.

Thanks to Abigail Eadie for the beautiful sunflower cupcakes she made for the occasion and Melissa Colbert who helped her decorate ALL those cupcakes.

Bonnie Alvarez was most responsible for the delicious luncheon on Saturday as she shopped and cooked and served the old fashioned meal with fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and all the other delicious food.  Bonnie always serves food with love. I cannot believe the effort and wonderful skill she puts into such a meal, all the while being a volunteer. Thanks to Joe for the help that he gave as they work as a good team.  Audrey Henke, Cheyenne Moore, and Nikki were great working in the kitchen and serving the pies. Thanks to the Happy Seniors for providing wonderful coconut cream, banana cream, pumpkin and apple pies that were so delicious–Especially Pauline “Sis” Attebery, Jeanne Burrer and Anita Wolf!

Thanks to Marilyn Townsend for making the colorful cloth napkins in fall florals and leaves  and the idea of canning jars centerpieces to decorate a dozen tables.

Thank you to Judy Hahn who wrote a great poem about Dear Mad’ m! It was such fun to hear the story put to rhyme!!We can’t wait for the second installment which will tell more about her story.

Karen Tulledo was not only a great help on the committee the last month, but also wrote a story based on the historical about John Jeardeau. the Clear Creek postmaster for many years, and his special sourdough. Next year we hope to have sourdough pancakes with blackberry syrup! Her story really made the life on the Klamath River in Dear Mad’m’s day come alive.

Of course, the main speakers were Peter Lismer who is a great nephew of Stella Walthall Patterson and his wife, Elizabeth! Thank you Pete for sharing your family story! Elizabeth Lismer, was also author of the book and shared how they went about research and tracking down the tale of Stella’s life. Their presence ,having flown from a summer place in France, was just in time for this event. We are very grateful.  Thank you Lismers for having the book there for people to obtain autographed copies too.

Thank you Cindy Trobitz-Thomas for your additional comment about the love that James Patterson showed when hearing that Stella was dying and walking all the way from his ranch in Willow Creek, since the flooding had washed the road out in places in December of 1955.

In addition we are grateful to the Karuk Housing for sharing their wonderful building with us for this event. The beautiful kitchen and dishwasher made serving the meal a joy. Thank you Dorcus, Sara Spence, and Babbie Peterson especially.

Thank you Roberta Everett for bringing Stella’s  rocking chair and Claudia who enjoyed seeing it again after all these years. Thank you to Liz Lismer, Cindy Trobitz-Thomas, Karen Tulledo, Claudia Diridon Wagner and her husband Dick, who brought old photos and mementos to share with all of us.

Thank you to James Buchner, Robert & Sherry of Klamath River Resort Inn for setting up a beautiful camp fire right down on the river where we could enjoy a beautiful fireside evening Saturday evening. The stars were beautiful and hearing fish leap in the water was neat!

A very special “Thank you” to Rod Diridon, Sr. both for your comments and help at the Luncheon and for making a map and providing a guided tour of your memories visiting grandparents John and Alice Covert at their place along the Klamath in your childhood. I especially enjoyed your inspiration of how we are all like the storytellers sitting around the fire sharing the stories. The others around about hear those stories and pass them on and some day they will go to another generation.

Yootva and Thank you to the Happy Camp High School Seniors who served a pancake breakfast Sunday morning. Thanks to Cassidy Little the class president, Brandon Tripp who stirred up pancakes, Shelly Hokinson, and Ray Griffin especially! Also thanks to their Class Advisor Alyssa Garcia and her daughter Emma who colored pictures for us.

Thank you to the Klamath River Writer’s Group and especially Linda Martin who originally had the idea for our first Dear Mad’m Day last year.

Thank you to the Happy Camp Chamber of Commerce: Board President Robert “Javabob” Schmalzbach, Vice President Dolly Elston, Ray and Bobi Arneson, Rosemary Boren, James Buchner, and Judy Bushy. Special Thanks to James Buchner for helping get the basic plans off to a good start and Karen Tulledo who joined the Committee the last month and was such an encouragement. They were enormously helpful in making the event possible! Thank you to all who have offered help next year also.

Thank you to all who came and what a joy it was to visit with all those who came, relatives or not. We have enjoyed getting to know Stella through her writings, and now through Pete and Liz’s biography!

The Klamath Writer’s Group has been working on an Anthology of writings about Happy Camp and one comment mentioned that it would be nice to have a book of the Dear Mad’m and Dear Sir awardees over the years so perhaps that could be added to their project for the future!

Can’t wait until next year, OCTOBER 11-13, 2013 to see you all again!

Sincerely

Dear Mad’m Committee,

Happy Camp, CA 96039-1675

_________________________________________________________

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.