Bye Bye Miss American Pie

 

After decades of insisting he would only leave his house "feet first" my Dad suddenly decided to sell. I'm sure we will never completely know the true reasons but the siblings rallied to get it cleaned out and on the market. The siblings sprung into action on the herculean feat. Dad was never good at cleaning his things out and he was big on accumulating- there were always deliveries from Amazon. Mom was the cleaner of the two but with Alzheimer's setting in she began hoarding in her own way- probably because she just didn't know what else to do with stuff. The yard had minimal maintenance- just a mowing now and again. Our childhood home was in a sorry state and we needed to turn it around fast. Logan put a realtor and movers into place while Whitney (with Madeleine) and Katrina (with Benjamin) flew out and rolled up their sleeves. 

Things didn't always go smoothly. Like when Whitney listed the old patio chairs. They aren't nice, they aren't worth anything. Moving them where they will likely not be used just didn't make any sense. But Dad is a possessive man and those crappy patio chairs were his. Sigh and a face palm.

Not that there wasn't a lot of humor mixed in the mess. If ever there is a hallmark of my siblings, it is how we can find a way to laugh even in incredibly sad, tense situations. As a baby, Whitney fell down the stairs- often. Someone would forget to shut the door to the downstairs and then everyone would hear the sickening thud, thud, thud of her little body falling and then the worse sound of all- silence. The house would hold it's breath and wonder if she had been knocked unconscious or broken her neck. Then gratefully there would be a wailing cry and we could all breathe a sigh of relief. To this day I have no idea how Whitney turned out so brilliant because man, she fell down those stairs a lot.

The big pack up and move was the same weekend as the girl's dance recital. Even Brent is in that recital and there's no way I could miss it. I offered to come after the fact and help tie up loose ends. In the meantime, I had the best contacts with Mom and Dad's ward so I communicated with the RS president who offered some help. I asked if they could tackle the yardwork. WOW did they come through!

Let's get a closer look at the before and after. The bushes were grossly overgrown and had to be ripped out. New, modest plants took their place. They weeded and cleared and mowed and planted flowers until it didn't look so sad and neglected. The strength of the ward also helped the flagging spirits of my siblings who were in the thick of wading through so much garbage. And I mean literally, piles of garbage.

It's common and perhaps healthy for the elderly to develop a little paranoia. They are a vulnerable demographic after all. The longer my dad was able to take in what was going on around him, the stronger his opinions were on all his "stuff." Far away, an unhelpful voice was giving him more reason to put up a fight as Dad was told the siblings were secretly dividing his assets among them. "But you didn't hear it from me." Well, Dad is mostly deaf and has to listen to everything on full blast to catch even a fraction of what people were saying and others heard who said it. This threw Dad into a tizzy which needless to say was the last thing we needed. We were all drowning and someone just turned a hose on full-blast.

I made it to the house a couple of weeks later with Ireland and Brigitta. Per Dad's request, we cleaned out the safe deposit box and then headed to the house. Some touch up work was needed and we were happy to help with that. Really, it was the least we could do. 

Before

After

Walking around the house one last time, I wasn't full of nostalgia, I was full of sadness. It didn't have to be like this. Different choices could have been made. Either to keep it up or just sell it before it was too cumbersome to keep it. Everyone had worked so hard and the house did look incredible compared to what it looked like before. It still looked like an old, worn house though. We hung out with Logan that night and talked and cried and maybe healed a little bit over it all. We made sure to treat members of the ward who helped with the landscaping- either taking them to lunch or dropping a little something off at their houses.

Moving on! While we made it through Ireland's appointment, her specialist was really concerned. She was right in the middle of an asthma attack and her pulse-ox was a low 90's. He didn't want her going to camp. Luckily there's a pharmacy on site and we got her started on a course of corticosteroids right away. In a way I hate that she was sick. In another, it's good for her specialist to see this is an active concern for her health. It's not a little, annoying flare up now and again.

We planned to go to the highest floor possible and take in the view of the stadium but we were pulled to the top floor, which is usually off limits. A group of people were getting on and I swiftly stepped off like it's where we were scheduled to appear. Ireland and Gita were worried we'd get in trouble and I gave them some advice my mother gave me, "Just act like you belong there." No one bothered us and we saw that amazing view of Hawkeye stadium.

We had to stop by Scheels which is the best place for Hawkeye gear.

Grabbed some goodies at Stringtown Grocer

We tried out new treats which made for lovely snacks on the drive to Minnesota. I've never seen chocolate-covered animal crackers before!

As we headed north, I realized we were nearing Clear Lake, Iowa. Since Iowa isn't famous for a lot, it sticks in my brain when there actually is something notable (ha-PUN!). This is where a plane carrying Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens went down. It became known as the day the music died and was further memorialized in Don MacLean's song Bye Bye Miss American Pie. We blasted that along with La Bamba, Chantilly Lace and That'll Be the Day. Now there are these huge Buddy Holly glasses on the edge of the field. Apparently his wife was pregnant and she found out through the media her husband had died, which led to a miscarriage. Nowadays there is a policy of making every attempt to notify family first in a tragedy- and it stemmed from this accident in Clear Lake, Iowa. 

On the ground were lots of sunglasses. I'm not sure about the clock- their plane went down around 1 AM and it's not set to that time.

The street signs are covered in stickers and it has a very cool rock and roll vibe to it. 

You can get a courtesy guitar pick near the parking lot.

We were right between summer storms and it was literally helter skelter in a summer swelter. Gita was done and headed back to the car but Ireland paused for a selfie. 

We crossed the border into Minnesota, ready for new adventures!