On August 2, 2003, ML Conrad turned 90 years old. To celebrate this momentous occasion, his friends and family gathered at his home of close to 60 years in Stevensville, Michigan to help him celebrate.
Here's baby Marcus with his brothers and sister. His sister, Adelaide, always referred to him as her baby brother. Which was pretty funny to hear between a couple of octagenarians.
Papa loves basketball and as you can see from his high school team photo, it started at an early age. He's the handsome one leaning over in the top right next to the coach. When I asked him about this picture, he was able to name nearly every person pictured without blinking an eye.
We think this is Papa's high school graduation photo. He looks so serious.
He must be thinking about heading off to Purdue.
Not so many years later, here's the grown up ML with his son David, and daughters Phyllis and Thelma. Again, why all the long faces? Dave seems to be the only one having any fun here.
Fast forward to 2003. Here are the Conrad's: [front row] Thelma, Dorothy, ML
[back row] Dave and Phyllis. Didn't they all grow up nice?
The celebrations began with a family dinner at Tosi's. Pictured are the dynamic Conrad trio and party hosts Thelma, Phyllis and Dave.
Don and Thelma Ferguson. Also known as my parents. Don, despite being an avid shutter bug and having documented my entire existance on film, doesn't enjoy having his picture taken. Thelma doesn't seem to mind a bit.
My 12 year old niece Ashley Doll Ferguson and her mother, my sister-in-law, Mary Doll Ferguson.
It's a family name. Doll, that is. On my sister-in-law's side.
Ben Batema, my cousin Diana's son with my nephew Marcus enjoying pizza. Marcus is named after my brother Marc and my grandpa Marcus. Ben looks like Harry Potter, doesn't he?
Uncle Dave and Aunt Ann. Although I've transgressed into calling them Ann and Dave. I took this picture right after they told me about one of their sailing trips. They couldn't remember if it was Belize or Tahiti. I seek to mirror their lifestyle!
Cousin Diana and husband Dave Batema whom I sadly hadn't seen since Papa's 80th.
My cousin Laura who was born five days before me. It all started with the baby race. But that's a story for another day. She's talking to my grandmother and wife of the birthday boy, Dodie.
Uncle Tom Beyer, husband of Phyllis, Papa and brother Marc. You can also see the top of my nephew's head poking up. He's got some sticky uppy hair, if I don't say so myself.
My mom, Thelma, watching the Magic Bank. Marcus talked about the Magic Bank for the first two days we were in Michigan. Then his parents surprised him with it. His reply: "Awesome!". He then proceded to make the rounds at dinner, asking for change and then declaring everyone a winner. The winner's prize was the opportunity to watch Marcus put another coin in the bank. He's quite an entrepreneur. He probably made $50 that night.
It began pouring rain in the middle of dinner. We were a little worried that it might rain for the party. But it didn't. Yippee!
Marc raided the garage and decided to try out this cool limb cutting device on a tree in the front yard. I think it actually did need to be trimmed, but that was besides the point.
How many engineers does it take to put up some patriotic bunting? If you guessed two, the you're right! Papa supervised while Marc carried out the work.
In order to weight the bunting down, so it wouldn't blow up on the roof, Marc used twisties to attach random large heavy metal washers to the bottom of the decorations. I think ML and Marc came up with this idea together. They were both pretty pleased with the outcome.
Mom and Aunt Phyl put together a Boilermaker Black and Gold bulletin board to showcase pictures of Papa and to hang some of his cards. As it turned out, we needed a basket to hold them all. You wouldn't believe how many different kinds of 90th birthday cards there are.
Marcus rough housing with Marcus. Who's calling who old?
After much deliberation, I got Papa a Purdue Pete bobble head doll. It was a pretty big hit and fit in with the rest of his Purdue paraphenalia.
The big hit of the day, however, was the lifesize cut out of George W. Bush that Marc and Mary gave him. Papa told me that I had to salute the Commander in Chief every time I entered or exited the house. I told him that I'd be sure to, but my salute might be with only one finger. He chucked at that one.
Here's a shot out onto the patio where most of the party took place.
Everyone seeemed to enjoy visiting with each other.
And a lot of good stories were told.
By everyone.
This is Tony and Lisa. They live next door to my grandparents in an underground house. They are such good neighbors to them. Tony and Lisa couldn't decide what to give Papa for his birthday so they mowed his lawn as a present. My grandparents have something like 5 acres of lawn. And they live on the side of a hill. That lawn has never looked so good. We all thanked Tony and Lisa profusely. They couldn't have given Papa a better gift.
Mr. Spiegel, Papa and Marc. My mom, brother and I lived with my grandparents for about 6 months in 1976 while our house in Illinois was being built. The Spiegel's live two doors down from my grandparents. We became good friends with their children Jason and Julie.
Kate, daughter of my cousin Diana, and my niece Ashley
For his birthday, my grandfather had a white cake with lemon curd filling and white chocolate shavings on top. There's no more of that cake left. Because we ate all the was left over the next day. Yum!
Taking advantage of the huge lawn, my uncle Dave set up a croquet field and badmitton. Here's some of my mom's cousins playing croquet. They're just warming up the course for us.
My cousin Laura at a sticky wicket. Me, my cousins Laura and Diana, Diana's husband Dave, my brother Marc and sister-in-law Mary took over the field later in the afternoon. We attempted to just figure it out, but soon called in Uncle Dave to read off the rules, coach and referee. It was a tight game and many a ball was roqueted, but in the end Dave won, followed by Mary and me.
My brother said that croquet must be a drinking game since the stakes at either end remind you when its your turn [Playing order is determined by the colors on the stakes.] By the end, we needed the reminder.
At one point during the game, I looked back at the party and noticed that George was blending right in with the crowd. He's the one standing behind Mr. Hickey in the green shirt.
In true Michigander fashion, the party included a Cherry Pit Spitting contest. Here's Diana giving it her best go during the kids competition.
And Mary.
And Ashley.
In the end, Laura prevailed as the Cherry Pit Spitting Queen even rivalling Trisha who won the grown-up contest.
No family reunion would be complete without the posed family photos. Here's my grandmother, Dorothy Lange Conrad, with her brothers Harold on the left and Ollie on the right. Papa's taking up the right side as an honorary Lange.
The Conrad cousins with GWB.
They took a second one, this time with MLC..
My brother Marc Ferguson and cousins Diana Beyer Batema and Laura Beyer
From left to right: Marc Ferguson, Mary Ferguson, Jean Ferguson, ML Conrad, Dave Batema, Diana Batema, Laura Beyer
The Beyers and Batemas: Laura Beyer, Tom Beyer, Phyllis Conrad Beyer, Diana Beyer Batema, Ben Batema, Dave Batema, Kate Batema
The Fergusons: Jean Ferguson, Thelma Conrad Ferguson, Don Ferguson, Ashley Ferguson, Mary Ferguson, Marc Ferguson and Marcus Ferguson standing in front
A recreation of the family photo taken 10 years ago with the addition of Marcus and Josie the dog
We ate. We drank. We were merry.
Here's Diana and Dave recovering on the patio. They're thinking about all the leftover sandwiches in the refrigerator. Eventually we ate those along with the cake. We're a ravenous bunch.
Uncle Dave, Uncle Tom and Marc.
The party is over. It seems that summer is coming to a close. Marcus and Ashley start school next week. And Kate, Ben and I in a few more. It was good to see everyone in one place. I look forward to the next reunion. And, of course, a croquet re-match!
